New blog.

Hello everyone,

It’s been a long time. We now have a wonderful, active, determined toddler. We have also just moved from the south coast to Merseyside (about 300 miles) and are living with my parents after 10 years away.

I have a new blog. Please take a look.

twomamasinanoaktree.wordpress.com

A

Introducing…

It has been a very on time since we last posted. The last few months of pregnancy went fairly smoothly, and I was able to do lots of walking still.

Our baby, however, had other ideas. I was induced at 13 days post due date, and she arrived at 7.29am on 26th April 2016, after a 28 hour labour and emergency c-section. She was 17 days late!

She has been here 2 and a half weeks, and we are completely in love. She is very chilled out and relaxed (unless she’s hungry) and she seems to be growing and changing already.

So, we are very proud to introduce baby A.

 

No Tech Tuesday

So, it’s February already- how did that happen? We have one more week of school before half term, then only 5 weeks before the start of my maternity leave. So exciting! 

Anyway, we’ve been thinking a lot about our dependence of technology (which has been discussed on a few other people’s blogs in recent past), and so our only real New Year’s Resolution for 2016 was  ‘No Tech Tuesday.’ As the title suggests, every Tuesday we switch off our phones (except for occasional, necessary phone calls), iPad, TV, etc and spend the evening just us. 

When we first started, we were unsure whether it would work out- whether we would stick it out, or whether we would just get out of the habit after a couple of weeks. But, I’m pleased to say, the opposite has happened. Tuesdays have become the day we look forward to – there are no distractions, we get to sit and chat, or go out for a walk, or sort something out for the nursery, or even just get an early night! We hope that this is something that will continue, especially once baby is born, and that we can spend more and more time not dependant on technology. 

So, my question, lovely blogger friends, is this- what kinds if things do you do, either with or without babies, to entertain yourself, that don’t involve technology? I completely recognise that there will be some days where all I want to do is sit and watch box sets, but there will be days where I don’t want to as well. 

Thanks everyone! xx

An all sorts update

So it’s been a while since we’ve done a post. We’ve been keeping up to date with how you are all getting on, tries, bumps and babies ☺.

We are now 26 weeks along, it seems to be going quite quickly. When people ask ‘Are you all sorted?’ we were quite happy to answer with ..’we’ll think about it after Christmas.’ Now Christmas has been and gone it’s all hands on deck and no more excuses! We’re getting the nursery decorated in a couple of weeks and have already picked up a few bits and pieces for the room. We’ve also bought some things clothes wise although it is a little tricky trying to keep with neutral colours as there are so many lovely outfits out there! A while ago I had a go at some crocheting, the blanket is a one of a kind shall we say, in other words wonky! I’d like to have a go at making some other items like mittens or some little booties. Not sure about the hats (one is tiny!) I enjoyed learning something new and liked the fact it kept me away from various technological devices.

A is doing amazingly, such a star! She’s enjoying this trimester a lot more as fatigue and nausea featured quite a bit in the first 12 weeks.

Bump photo 😀 26 weeks

Baby is moving quite a bit and we both get the chance to feel it which is lovely. Sounds a bit sad but I like reading to bump, we’ve got the Julia Donaldson collection and were given the Beatrix Potter collection for Christmas. Looking forward to reading them, I loved them when I was little.

So, now is starting to feel like ‘countdown to baby’- lots to do and organise, but it’s so exciting because it’s all getting real. Next job is to find a pram that we like…

X

20 week scan

So on Wednesday we got to meet our little one again at the 20 week scan. Everything was fine, with measurements being what they should.  The sonographer did ask how tall A was and at 5ft she said it made sense that baby’s legs were slightly shorter, not by anything to worry about though which was good! It was so exciting,  baby was moving round lots and at one pointing even waved at us! A is doing really well, she still can feel quite tired but is coping great with everything 😀. 
       
 
We went into London yesterday, it was lovely we went on a bus tour (thought it was about time we used some unspent Tesco vouchers!) which included a Thames river tour.  We sat on the top deck, being wrapped up warm we thought we’d make the most of it! We treated ourselves to a meal at Planet Hollywood, and continued on our tour. We do love London. Around 5ish we went on the river cruise, Tower  Bridge looked amazing all lit up. We then went to Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park, treated ourselves to a donut, wandered round and got lost in all things sparkly and wintery!

I’ve bought quite a few books from the Book People and have been reading to bump. A has been feeling lots of wiggles, I’m looking forward to feeling baby move too 😃

Enjoying keeping up with you all, lots of love and smiles sent to everyone x

Getting to see our lil baby

So a couple of Wednesdays ago we had our 12 week scan and saw our baby for the first time. It was amazing! We didn’t really know what to expect. We got to the hospital in plenty of time and were called into the ultrasound room. The sonographer was very nice and put us at ease. She found baby easily and told us what she could see and checked everything was ok. Baby wasn’t quite in the right position for photos so we were told to go for a walk, have a drink and come back 20 minutes later. We did that and went back, it still wasn’t in an ideal position according to the sonographer but we think she did an amazing job 😀

  
 

     

Sandown Park Baby and Toddler Show

   

 So today we went to the Baby and Toddler Show at Sandown park. We received complementary tickets from ‘Emma’s Diary’ which was fantastic as we were thinking of going anyway. Strange how it came about really. I am doing a surprise a month for A, so far month one was getting a cleaner (very much appreciated!) and month two was tickets to The Baby Show in London, which will be in October. We’re going to make a weekend of it and go and see a Matilda and book into a hotel. Anyway the complimentary tickets came through the the post, neither of us knew about it so I whipped them away thinking they were the London ones, nope free 😀 bonus! So I gave her those and the ones for London. 

We’ve been looking forward to it but didn’t really know what to expect. We have our first scan on Wednesday, so it was a bit weird doing it this way round but still very exciting! We treated ourselves to a McDonald’s breakfast ( a rarity!) and headed to Sandown Park. It was very busy as you can imagine but there were lots of fab stalls. Once we got over the fact it was a bit overwhelming we got into our stride. We watched various demonstrations on many products from prams which were great as they compacted down for storage, some thing that we’ve been wondering about as we live in a first floor flat and couldn’t bear the idea of having to lug a mahusive cumbersome contraption up and down the stairs; snugglbundls, a fantastic wrap for lifting a baby; cuddledrys, car seats, swimming clubs, cheeky chompers and so much more. 

Two of the stalls really made us think more about who/ how we want to be as parents, the ‘gNappies’ stall and the ‘cheeky rascals’ stall. Having looked a little bit into cloth nappies vs disposable we know there are pros and cons of both. There was a lady doing a talk which we happened to catch, it wasn’t on the programme but we’re in the right place at the right time. I know the whole point of the talks are to sell a product, kinda figures! But after hearing what she said my mind was made up, as was A’s. We would much rather use cloth nappies instead of disposable for various reasons,  it seems like quite a new-age thing as disposable nappies are the norm shall we say? We haven’t got any friends or family who use them so will be shooting s little in the dark. It certainly gave us something to think about so if any of you have any experience, recommendations or general advice with the alternatives we would love to hear about them. 

The other stall was a stall that had baby carriers, again something we have been looking into and know that quite a few of you use them. When the lady at the stall asked if I fancied trying one one I jumped at the chance! It’s not quite the same looking at them online! There were various different designs and I tried on the ‘original baby carrier’ by BYKAY, a big long piece of stretchy material! She talked me through how to put it on correctly complete with a doll baby, all the while a crowd had gathered 😦 no pressure! I was surprised at how comfortable and secure it felt, a definite winner! Amy then tried it on and was equally as impressed. We very much like the idea of having wraps and slings. Again if any of you have experience, dos, don’ts, recomendations we would be very happy to hear about them!

So yeah, it was a great day, gave us lot to talk about and things to ponder. We decided we might buy some of the bits and pieces at the next show after doing a bit more research. 

It’s all starting to feel more real 😃 

N x

Disclaimer: These tickets were complimentary as result of a prize draw and not for the purpose of this review. All opinions of the show and any products are our own.

Some news from us

Sorry for being a bit quiet lately. We are still keeping track of all of your journeys… The pregnancies, babies, toddlers and the struggles… We are thinking of you all.

Anyway, on 3rd August, just after our lovely weekend at Brighton Pride, we got a little surprise… 

 
Which was pretty awesome. So I’m now 9 weeks pregnant, and excited about our first scan at the end of the month. 

Symptoms wise, I’ve been doing okay. Main symptoms have been tiredness, nausea, needing the loo a lot and being quite gassy (apologies for the TMI!) 

We had a fun and busy summer holidays, and we’re getting back in the swing of being back at school. It’s all exciting stuff 😄

11 dpo- wanting to know the outcome!

So I am on CD30 and 11dpo, so the next few days will let us know for sure whether this month has been successful for us or not. Strangely, at the moment I’m still feeling positive. It could be that we’ve been on holiday so I haven’t been charting my temperatures so thoroughly. I feel like this is the first time I have felt like I have a chance. That’s regardless of the fact that we did HPT that came out negative before. We still have hope I think.

This week ahead is promising to be busy. Brighton Pride tomorrow, then a barbecue on Sunday and our lovely friends get married on Tuesday, for which N and I are best women- which means we have to do a speech 😁 We are trying to write it at the moment, but my mind tends to wander…

So in reality, I just want to know either way. I would like to be able to drink and have fun with my friends if it is a negative result, or feel that I am sacrificing that for the best reason ever, because we know. We shall see what the next few days brings.

I am trying to be patient!

A x

It begins again

So we are over a year into this crazy journey, had 6 attempts (3 with the clinic, 3 with our lovely known donor) and we are now embarking on attempt number 7. G arrived last night and is staying with us until Monday, so we will try as many attempts as we can before he goes. 

The funny thing is, this time feels a bit different. I got up early this morning thinking I need to get a long overdue project finished so that I can relax more when this actually happens for us. It could just be positive thinking or that it’ll be the summer holidays next week, but I’m taking it as a good sign.

The weather is glorious, so we are off for a walk in the South Downs and a picnic. 

A x