Saturday 24th Oct - 55 days to go!

A bit slack on the blogging front I'm afraid. The days and weeks are going faster and faster, I can't believe that since I started this blog 45 days have gone and there are only 55 left to go. Although we are pretty organised, with my bag packed and all the stuff we need for the arrival of Master Thomas (god, I have even done my Christmas shopping), there suddenly seems so little time to gather all the information I need, especially for the birth. I am trying to catch up on all the yoga practice I was so eager but too lazy to do in the past few months. I also have started a university (albeit a distance learning one) in Creative Writing and so have got 6 months of that to do as well.

I did, however, manage to fit in a trip to The Baby Show, which turned out to be a pretty good day out actually. We watched with interest a presentation on getting your baby to read, at aged 7 months really??!!!!), more about this can be found here. Now, I'm not entirely sure I believe it entirely, but I have already made my own flashcards to teach our baby his first 50 words (maybe??), so we'll see in about September.

I also had some photos done to preserve me in my pregnant state, when I can't lose the wait and am just plain fat they may remind me of the great reason I got so fat in the first place! The photos haven't arrived yet, but they are up online here. We also managed to spend a lot of money, on various stuff we never knew we wanted, as well as getting a free gift of a complete set of Tommee Tippee bottles free with a reduced subscription to Prima Baby magazine, which turned out to be a proper bargain.

I have also discovered the most delicious and healthy breakfast, making the most of seasonal fruit and a limited edition coconut yogurt from Onken. Simply pour yogurt into a bowl and stir in two handfuls of blackberries - delicious. So today's thing to do is: Check out the masses of seasonal fruit on offer - even better if you can get it at a PYO farm.

So today's pregnancy outfit, again not actual maternity, but just a grey flower print tunic in a size above my usual size, worn (of course) with the ever trusty American Apparel leggings (over 7 months and still holding out, and these were pre-pregnancy wardrobe too!). The tunic was discovered in Sainsbury's, which I never go to, least of all food, for the bargain sale price of £9!

Wednesday 14th October 2009

I have spent much of my pregnancy trying to gain information about our baby and how to give him the best start in life. We were lucky enough to find a local bookshop which was selling off its stock which meant that I got a lot of books for just a third of their usual price. I wanted to share the books I have read and the ones I am still to read. Not all of them I own, some of them are thanks to a great local library, visits to which I intend to make a regular feature of our baby's life too.

Hypnobirthing - The Mongan Method, this comes with a CD of relaxation techniques and is a very detailed book about how to manage a natural birth. The book is brilliant, but the CD is not as good as I expected and in fact the visualisation exercise on the Tara Lee Pregnancy Health Yoga DVD is far better for the birthing process, in my view.

Teach Yourself Green Parenting (Lynoa Cattanach), a guide from pregnancy through the early years as how to bring your child up in an environmentally friendly way. Very good and informative.

From the same series I also have another book: Teach Yourself Yoga for Pregnancy and Birth, which also comes with a CD, the book is very thorough and the CD can be used both during pregnancy, during labour and post-natal, so a really good buy.

What to expect when you're expecting (Heidi E Murkoff) - this has been my handbook and bible from the moment that I knew I was pregnant and has answered every possible question that I have had and has kept me in touch with my own and my baby's growth. We also have the next step - What to expect the first year.

Birth and Beyond - from minus 9 to plus 9 months (Yehudi Gordon) - another very comprehensive guide to everything you need to know, from a more natural birhting perspective than the one above.

Labour Pain - Discover the Secrets of an Easier Labour (Nicky Wesson). - I only picked up this book by chance in the library and it was brilliant, a very detailed account of labour and how to cope with it. A bit scary in places, but very practical and it had some great chapters for birthing partners too.

Other books I have to read, but have not yet read include:

Birth Skills (Juju Sundin)

Life after Birth (Kate Figes)

The best friend's guide to surviving Motherhood ( Vicki Iovine)

So, today's tip: Enrol at your local library and USE it. There are many great books there that will give you perspective on everything you want to know and getting into the habit of using a library now will be brilliant for your baby.

And so, to today's outfit (below). One I am particularly proud of for it thrift and fashionista qualities:

The dress I am wearing has a slash / boat neck and came from Primark for a mere £14. Now, I know this isn't the most ethical place to buy, but as long as you accept what you are buying and do something to offset your guilt (charitable donation?) and don't make a habit of it, there a few (very few) things worth buying in here. This tunic dress screamed out Scandinavian cool to me and I have used the included belt to belt the area above my bump (i.e. I haven't used the belt loops) to stop the whole thing looking like a tent. I am wearing this with thick wooly grey Mothercare tights. Primark clothes tend to come up a little on the large size so, whilst they don't do maternity wear, I just bought this dress in the size above my usual one. Brilliant. And the lady in the building society called her friend over for a look at it too, as they couldn't believe it wasn't designer!

Tuesday 13th October 2009

NCT started yesterday, it was good to actually meet other mums to be (and dads) and also extremely funny to hear some of the things that dads to be believe or didn't know about. All of them have based their knowledge of childbirth on what they have seen in films, i.e. they all thought that your water will break out of the blue, straight onto your shoes and then you have to rush to hospital. None of them realised that actually contractions start way before that! None of them had heard of "a show" and were all pretty much unanimously repulsed by the idea of it! Christopher rather enjoyed being the only dad who had survived the viciousness of an NCT sale and regaled the other dads with his survival tips and stories of the horror of a room full of hormonal women desperate for a bargain. Although when we went, we did actually get some mega bargains and now have just about everything that we want / need! We managed to get about 100 quids worth of stuff for £24.

Rubbish blood test results came back yesterday, after 3 months of dutifully gobbling up iron supplements, no change whatsoever, madness. Doctors on Thursday, I'm sure he'll have a solution (yeah right!).

So today we have two top tips:

1. Have a chat to your man, check he knows what to expect! And enjoy freaking him out!

2. Check out the NCT website to see when your local NCT group has a Nearly New Sale coming up, they are well worth it, but be prepared to work hard for your stuff!

So for today's outfit: As you may have guessed by now, the trousers are my favourite Isabella Oliver jersey maternity trousers. And the top is one I have had for about 4 years, a cowl scoop-neck black jumper from Warehouse; so cosy, a bit sexy and looks great stretched over bump. Remember, be imaginative with what you already have, try stuff on from your existing wardrobe, if it doesn't look good put it away for now,but if it works weave it into your maternity 'drobe!

Off to BabyShow on Friday, will report back at the weekend.

October already!

Wow, already October, but already feeling so so tired. Have been getting quite stressed about the baby coming and have decide to look into the Natural Birth Centre at West Middlesex Hospital, it might just be first-timer nerves but I really don't want to be in a hospital environment where I feel I may be put under pressure to take on medical intervention that I really don't want. One of the main things that attracted me to the centre at West Middlesex is that they have a Midwife led unit in the garden of the actual hospital and that a third of births take place in water. Also their top priority is to base their care on what women actually want and their research has shown that most women do not want an episiotomy. So they have drop in tours on Sundays which we will go to in the next couple of weeks, which is already so much more reassuring than St Peters who don't let you look around the wards.

So today's tip of the day is: make sure you explore all your options to make yourself feel as relaxed and happy as possible. Decide what you want and then find the place that offers the closet fit to that.

So, to the clothes - one fab place to check out is the wonderful Mamissima in Brighton's Mamissima in the North Laine area of Brighton. This shop alone makes me want to move to Brighton and walk around the boutiques with baby in his sling, stopping for herbal tea and carrot cake. Mamissima is where I found the BellyButton dress, which I fell in love with immediately and which was given more purchasing power by it's reduction from £75 to £25. It reminds a little of a 1950s house coat and despite the Bellybutton brand being Australian had a kind of loose Scandinavian feel to it.

Secondly, in today's picture I am wearing my usual favourite American Apparel black leggings with a non-maternity empire line vest top from Hennes (H&M). I don't think much of Hennes maternity range, but some of their regular clothes in a size above your usual size are great if you pick carefully. Finally I have accesorised (to lift the all black base) with a fuchsia pink pashmina from Accessorize.