Sea Monster

The past few months have been pretty quiet. Not a lot has changed with the pregnancy, except that Claire's been getting steadily bigger and bigger :) Now we're 3 weeks away from the due date, and there are regular sightings of a sea monster inside Claire's tummy. It's amazing :D

We had the third scan a few weeks ago, to check if the placenta is in the right place, and it is - everything is perfect! Unfortunately we didn't get a scan picture this time, which was a little disappointing, but I guess we're only a few weeks away from meeting the little one now anyway.

So we're pretty much finished with the preparations. We just need to get some new curtains in the nursery, and pick up the travel system from The Baby Store (Our friends Karl and Laurie have kindly offered to keep hold of it for us until the baby arrives, as superstition insists), but I'll get the child seat installed in my car asap. Really don't want to have to figure out how to do that on the day!

We're reading books fairly regularly, learning about crying and feeding and bathing, etc. All the things we have no idea about! We're also finally narrowing down the list of names into two very short lists. No hints though!

We also just found out that my brother and his wife are expecting a little boy in July, so congratulations to them! :D

I reckon I'll get in one more blog post before the baby arrives, and after that this blog will transform into a record of probably-not-so-interesting things the baby gets up to over the course of its early years.

Ta ta for now!

"A Word of Advice...

... don't tell your pregnant wife she's 'really ballooning this week'."

Sage advice there from my mate Ben, who will become a father about 2 weeks before I will. And as such, his wife is about 2 weeks ahead of Claire in terms of development. That was about 2 weeks ago :)

This is now...

I honestly don't think Claire's ever looked more beautiful :D I am TOTALLY into the bump, like I always knew I would be!

As I look above my monitors on my desk at work, I see the print-out of the 20 week scan stuck to the wall. It's hard to believe that was only 6 weeks ago - the baby is so much bigger now. I can't wait to see how much it's grown at the next scan! The tummy is growing bigger and bigger every week, and as you can see is very noticeable now! Not surprising really, considering the baby is now about 14 inches long! I have no idea how it fits in there, but it seems to be enjoying itself despite the lack of headroom - it seems to be kicking more often than it's not now, and I can clearly see the tummy move when it happens! Once or twice I've been listening for the heartbeat (which you can do if you're lucky), and I've been kicked in the face!

I never thought pregnancy would be like this. Until now I never thought of a baby as being alive until it's born, but that's just not the case. It's been alive since day 1, and the fact that it's moving around, responding to external stimuli like bright lights and the touch of my hand on Claire's tummy, or music, or our voices, just proves it all the more. My baby is alive in there, growing rapidly, and already having experiences that are completely its own. And in just 3 short months, the Wriggler will be with us, and we can start sharing those experiences as a family.

My God, I can't wait!

One Productive Week

Claire and I had a week off work last week to decorate the nursery. Claire's mum found some brilliant wallpaper online and we ordered it at the start of the week, and it arrived on the Wednesday. By that point we'd already stripped all the old paper off the walls and bought everything we needed, so the morning the paper arrived we could get stuck in.

We got most of the work done in the one day, and I must admit we struggled with the corners. At one point I wanted to redo one of them from scratch but once it was all dry it looked fine. By noon on Thursday we were completely done, leaving us enough time for a celebratory lunch and a trip to the local baby store to look at cotbeds...

So we got cracking on that too! After an hour and a half we'd put the whole thing together lengthways, but we really wanted the cot in widthways as the measurements were perfect for a snug fit at the far end of the room, but there wasn't enough space to put it together that way.

So we then attempted to turn it - lifting it up, flipping it over, squeezing it through the door - we even took an end off to get it to fit, which worked, but then there wasn't enough space to get the tools between the bed and the wall to put it back together again! So in the end we relented, and put it back the way it had been an hour before.

The next day we put the chest of draws together, and now all we have left to do is put up a new set of curtains and find a nice comfy chair for Claire, and it's done. Then all we need is the baby!

Which, by the way, I finally felt kicking this week (poor Claire - she must be black and blue on her insides now!) - last night especially. It was a moment on-par with the first time I saw its picture on the screen during the first scan. I am AMAZINGLY excited, can't wait to meet the little Wrigger :D

Half Way There!

This week we moved past the half way point and celebrated with a brand new scan :D


Since my last post Claire has completely stopped being sick, has started to develop a very respectable bump, and she can now feel the baby moving around a lot. As such, I have begun referring to the baby as "The Wriggler". Yes, it sounds like a Batman villain, but that just makes it even more awesome.

So yeah, the scan. We had the opportunity to find out the sex... did we?

I wonder :)

Anyway, we had the scan and the baby yawned for us and then started opening and closing its mouth quickly like it was chatting away :) It was adorable :D It also had its legs up in the air and was playing with its feet, before picking its nose. Seeing it alive and moving around in there is breathtaking - to think, everything's fully formed and working in there, it's just really really tiny.

Unfortunately there is a tiny complication. Claire has a low-lying placenta, which could cause a serious problem if it doesn't correct itself before the birth, but a serious problem is extremely rare. The likelihood is that if it doesn't correct itself Claire will have to have a C-Section, which in some ways is preferable to a natural birth.

Claire now knows the date she'll be finishing work - December 21st. She's excited, but focused on doing the best job she can right up to the last minute.

We've also moved the small bed out of the little room and into the cellar, wrapped in heavy-duty plastic. So now I can start stripping the wallpaper and get on with turning it into a nursery! That's my plan for next week, as Claire and I are both off work for the week. This weekend we'll be popping down to Suffolk to catch up with friends and family, so we're looking forward to that :)

I think we've almost decided on names now too, though we haven't had an actual conversation about it in a couple of weeks. Something to talk about on the trip down south :)

That's it for now!

Vomit Free Zone!

It's been 3 days since the last incident. And while I may be tempting fate by saying this, I believe the war is over.

CLAIRE HAS NOT BEEN SICK IN 3 DAYS!

Side Note: Claire just saw the midwife and heard the baby's heart beat for the first time! :D

UPDATE: Claire was sick on the 4th day that week, and then once a week for the next two weeks. Since then it's been very rare that she feels so bad she's sick, so while I may have been a little premature in writing this original post, we are now in a vomit free zone :) Mostly!

Three Truths

If there are three truths I have learned from having a pregnant wife, they are these:

1. You will see more vomit in 12 weeks than you have seen in the last 12 years.

2. You will spend more time in the kitchen than you have in the last... ever.

3. You will be happier than you've ever felt in your entire life. Especially on a day like today.

Because this is what we did today...

I have never had a more powerful, emotional experience as I did the moment that picture appeared on the screen. At first there was just a black space, and then a grainy, twitchy amazing little blob with a face. That's our baby. Look how he's got his arms behind his head! Must be pretty relaxing in there!

I won't go on about how it felt, nobody wants to see me get all gushy, but... wow. I felt like I was hyperventilating, but I was breathing normally. I think I went into shock - it was indescribable.

I saw my baby today.

Week 10

The last month or so has followed a fairly regular schedule of wake up, hold Claire's hair while she throws up, make Claire breakfast, hold her hair again, get dressed, hold her hair, go to work, get home, hold her hair, make dinner, hold her hair, watch TV, hold her hair, bed. And occasionally one more "hold her hair" before morning.

On Friday though, things changed. Claire was so violently ill, so many times, that there was blood mixed in with all the other stuff, to make this thick brown goo. Not pleasant. So we thought if would be a good idea to take her to hospital. She was actually seen very quickly, within 15 minutes of our arrival, but once the nurse examined her she was satisfied that there was no risk to her or the baby, we went out and waited to be seen by a doctor. They took blood, etc and made us wait around for a few hours before telling us we could go home. A simple infection caused the problem, and is very likely the reason Claire's been having such a difficult time of it.

And tonight we had our first 1-on1 appointment with the midwife. It was mainly paperwork, but now that's out of the way we can look forward to our scan in a few weeks - we're just waiting for the appointment to come through now :)

BTW the little one is now the size of a bottle cap :) And that makes me fancy a beer!

Location:King's Ct,Runcorn,United Kingdom