24 & 25 Weeks update

Eeeek time is flying by and April will be officially over when the sun goes down tonight. We've had some lovely spring weather here in London which I LOVE. This means lots of lunching on the river in Kingston Upon Thames and lots of day dreaming about summer with our baby in tow! My Mum is flying over from Australia when baby Paicey is born to meet her first grandchild and to help us settle in at home. We are very lucky that Mr P's parents are also coming, so I keep mentally taking notes on where we can all take the baby for walks and which cafes and restaurants look the most pram friendly.

Im 25 Weeks, 4 days pregnant so I'm just a few days off being pregnant for half a year! I am missing  a few things at this point. The first being soft poached eggs! Oh how I miss these delights. Then I'll be honest and say I'm missing drinking alcohol! I really miss the social factor of getting together with friends and having a glass of wine or just having a drink with my husband at our local. And I'm seriously missing sleeping on my stomach and back. Just over 3 months to go until I get to sample these delights and drool into my pillow again (in between broken sleep).

We had our regular 24 week GP appointment last week where I had my blood pressure taken and we listened to baby Paicey's heartbeat on the doppler, which was such a wonderful sound.
From the  24 week point they start measuring the bump from the top of the pubic bone to the top of the uterus in centimetres. The measurement should be on or near to your babies gestational age in weeks, give or take 3 centimetres. My bump was measuring 24 centimetres so it was pretty accurate and all was good!

25 Weeks bump.

Baby Paicey is growing and moving a lot now. The movement is so strong and it literally puts a smile on my face every time. I can feel the baby turning over and kicking in both of my sides. Last night was the first night I have been woken up from the strong movement and my uterus was hardening at various points in the day which was uncomfortable but not painful at all.

I am so hungry! I could eat for days. Last night for dinner we made a chicken and mushroom pie (very yummy!) and after my giant man-sized portion I was still so hungry, whereas Mr P said he was so full. This growing a baby business is hard work!

My little 'bowling ball'.

I started to clear out a chest of drawers to make way for babies clothing and bits and pieces and it was great to see what we have and what we still need. I realised we have more 0 - 3 month pieces and not much newborn so we will have some fun picking out a few more things. I've been really restrained with buying things as I would rather wait until we know if its a baby boy or girl so we can go crazy on the cute gender specific outfits instead of neutrals. We have received some gorgeous gifts from our friends and family. People love buying little things!

Baby Paicey's growing clothing collection.

I'd love to hear your comments, so please let me know if your planning on washing all your babies clothing before the little one wears it, or if you've done this is the past.

Wish lists

I've started to think about decorating the babies nursery and I am so obsessed with grey and yellow at the moment. Im loving chevrons which are all over Pinterest but actually quite hard to track down in the UK. Mamas and Papas have some pink chevron patterned pieces in at the moment but not knowing baby Paicey's gender, we are sticking to neutral colours.

1.  I love these onesies! So cute and bold which is what I like so much about them. I definitely have enough white! They are on sale at Mamas and Papas for £16. Find these here. 

2.  Grey and white chevron curtains from Pottery Barn Kids in the US. I adore these. I was originally thinking of doing a feature wallpaper in this style but curtains will be super easy and give the same look to the room. The longest length are £55. Find these here.

3.  I've been told you can never have enough baby blankets and this little knitted blanket matches my current obsession perfectly. Its part of the Patternology range at Mamas and Papas for £21 on sale. Find this here.

4. Set of 4, 8 x 10 prints for baby Paiceys nursery! These are just what Ive been looking for. Im loving elephants and I already have the white frames ready to put these in. Available on Etsy for around £30.  Find these here.

My Maybe Baby Wishlist consists of a few products that I love by Stokke that I would love to have but are certainly not essentials. One of my favourite baby bloggers, Hannah Maggs has got me hooked on their products after her recent review of the Stokke Sleepi cot. See Hannah's review here. 

Stokke Sleepi Mini.  

Mr P and I drove to Chiswick this weekend so we could check out the Sleepi Mini and cot in person and we both love it. It is however, more pricey than a regular moses basket but it is oh so beautiful. Stokke have designed this so that it extends into a full size cot and cot bed so it grows as your baby does. You do have to buy additional conversion kits and mattresses for the extended versions. It is quite narrow which we love as we have a small space to put this in our bedroom which is where baby Paicey will be sleeping when he or she arrives. 

Find this here.

Stokke Steps and Baby Bouncer.

This is two products, one being a baby bouncer and the other a high chair. The beauty of the two products is that they combine together so that your baby can be up high with you. I can imagine when we are eating our dinner or cooking dinner it would be lovely to have our baby at our height and great for interacting. The high chair becomes an adjustable height kids dining chair, so it sees your child through the ages which is one of the beautiful things about Stokke products. Again, both are more pricey than other products on the market so we are undecided. Find these here.

23 Weeks Pregnant

How far along:  23 weeks, 2 days

38 Inches around my belly button

Symptoms:  My lower back. Its killing me! For the last couple of weeks I've had such a sore lower back. To bend down, stand up, move in bed or walk up stairs or a hill it hurts a lot. I've been wearing only flat converse shoes for the past week and my hubby brought me a pregnancy pillow from JoJo Maman Bebe to try to relieve the pain so I'm hoping it subsides before I get any bigger. Other than that, I feel great. Loving this stage of the pregnancy with my bump growing nicely and people starting to notice I'm not just putting on weight. I feel really motivated to get things done around the house and doing my usual share of washing, cooking, tidying, organising etc whereas in the first trimester my husband was picking up all the slack as I was like a sloth on the sofa.

Sleep:  This week I've started using my new maternity body support pillow and it is comfortable and supportive, but I do feel I have to move it around when I wake up in the night to adjust it so its just taking a while to get used too. Its quite bulky so it disturbs Mr P's sleep but we will both get used to it and anything to help my back and support my belly is welcome in our bed. At this point in the pregnancy it is advised that you try not to sleep on your back due to the weight of the uterus laying on an artery which can cause dizziness. Getting used to side sleeping is also tricky so hugging the pillow helps me stay on my side.

Weight Gain:  I've put on 7kg now which is just over a stone in weight. I've downloaded an average weight gain chart for pregnancy and I am at the heavier end of average.

Food:  I am an eating machine. Always willing and eager to eat. I try to eat healthy but theres always room for dessert these days. If you can't do it when you are pregnant, then when can you? I did say the other night that I do look forward to trying to look my best post pregnancy and exercising and eating healthy.

Movement:  Lots and lots of movement and kicking, which I love. Its so reassuring to feel your baby move. I always tell Mr P when his babe is having a little moving session. He has felt kicks a few times when we have been in bed laying flat and still, as thats when the little one usually kicks about more or when I can notice it more. The scan showed I have a high anterior placenta which means its on the front wall of my uterus so the kicks are probably felt less hard than other people can feel them at this stage.

Belly Button:  Still an Innie! But its half and half at times with the top part going flat.

Stretch Marks:   None to date but I had a little scare this week. I must have scratched my belly as I had 2 red lines side by side. My heart sank as I couldn't help but think that if I had them this early then they would be everywhere when I get big. A couple of hours later and the marks had disappeared thankfully. Im lathering on my Mamamio tummy rub each night and it smells so good.

Looking forward too:  Starting pregnancy yoga. The classes are on Saturday mornings and are sold in bundles of 7 classes for £84

Bump:  Growing and growing. Im getting too big for lots of my tops now. I've got some maternity tops on order at Asos which I hope are nice as I've struggled to find ones I like for a reasonable price.

THE Pram/Stroller/Travel system

UPPAbaby Vista

We brought our pram! As any mum or new mum to be knows, this is an exceptionally exciting (expensive) pregnancy purchase. We have spent months looking online and visiting shops to look at prams. It really is or feels like such an important purchase, considering we walk everywhere in Kingston and I really plan to get out and about a lot when the baby arrives.

Looks wise, my absolute favourite travel system is the Bugaboo Chameleon. We heavily leaned towards this pram. It is however very expensive and cannot be converted into a double pram once baby number 2 comes along further down the track. I know I would be terribly disappointed to spend £1000 plus on a pram and for it to be unusable once I had 2 children. Bugaboo do make a double pram, the Donkey, however from my days as a nanny, I never liked manoeuvring the side by side double prams especially in shops and through doors it felt very bulky.

The UPPAbaby Vista is an american travel system that has great reviews on usability and durability and comes in 8 colours to choose from. We went to an UPPAbaby demonstration in a baby warehouse not far from where we live and got to play around with the pram. Both Mr P and I loved it and found it really easy to manoeuvre and to fold down. Plus it is really cute too. We went for the Lindsey which is a cream colour on a silver frame. I was in love with the navy and teal green colours too but without knowing the gender we decided to stick to neutral.

 

One of the things we loved about the UPPAbaby Vista was the rumble seat which for £99 attaches as a second seat if you have another child. We also loved that the folded pram stands up and takes minimal space once folded down and the wheels come off for further space saving, which is important to us in our limited space home. Now we just need to test it out with our baby in it in August! We cant wait to use our new wheels. Find this here.

Rumble seat converts to a double

20 Week Scan

                           PINK or BLUE.. We didn't find out!

Our 20 week scan was booked for the day after I landed back in the UK, when I was 22 weeks. The midwife and doctors said this was not a problem when I discussed booking the scan 2 weeks later than the usual 20 week appointment.

We decided not to find out the gender of baby Paicey and we held strong when the sonographer asked if we wanted to find out. Mr P basically yelled 'No' at her when she asked, probably thinking I would change my mind. We had to close our eyes at one point as she scanned over 'that' area. So we will get the most amazing surprise of our lives come birth day when we get to meet our little one and see if its a lil rugby player or ballerina in the making!

We were both so excited to see our little baby on the big screen again and we weren't disappointed! The 20 week scan or Anomaly scan is very in-depth as they check over the whole baby paying great attention to the 4 chambers or the heart and the 2 sides of the brain as well as the spine and complete anatomy. Our tech at Kingston Hospital was really great and explained everything to us as she went along. Some things we could make out and others not so much. The babies spine and rib cage were very easy to see and the technology is so great, they can highlight the blood flowing through the baby so it shows up in red and blue on the screen.

Baby Paicey was not playing ball and was hiding, facing down so we couldn't see his or her little face and its legs were all tucked up. After I jumped up and down on the spot, turned from side to side and went to the toilet, baby Paicey would still not move so we were asked to go for a walk and come back to get the rest of the measurements. Second attempt and the little one had rolled over so we could see its lovely profile and snap a pic (see below), but the little ones legs were still curled up, so we were asked to rebook for the following week.

Four days later and back in to finish the scan measurements and baby Paicey was in the weirdest position like a little yogi, legs bent at the hips with both feet touching its forehead! Babies have such soft bones and are so flexible but it looked so uncomfortable being basically bent in half. After viewing the lower limbs and feet, we got the all OK that all the measurements looked fab so we are very happy!