Snippets of news

Nelson has been rehomed! I called the RSPCA on Tuesday last week for an update on how he was doing, and was told the good news. I got off the phone to an odd feeling of being happy and sad at the same time! Happy that he now has a new family and it didn't take nearly as long as what they thought (christmas time at the earliest was what they told us due to the huge number of cats and kittens they had for rehoming at the moment). Still, sad feelings that he's 'moved on' and we won't see him again.


On Tuesday I also called Taprobar in London, a tea shop that sells our favourite tea - Mackwoods. It's the only place in the UK that sells it. We first tasted the tea on our honeymoon in Sri Lanka, when we visited the Labookelie Tea Estate. We've been fans ever since, and ordering our tea is one of our little indulgences in life! The order arrived the next day, and included was a complimentary pretty wooden gift box for storing our tea bags in. A nice surprise.


We actually had lots of parcels arrive last week, as we've done most our christmas shopping online now to get it out of the way before the baby arrives. Much as it's always exciting to have a parcel arrive, the other particularly exciting parcel (well.. exciting for me, not sure Luke shares my enthusiasm!) was the arrival of the custom-made cloth nappy that I ordered from Weenotions. It's a beautiful design and I cant wait to try it out on the baby!


I think beautiful cloth nappies may become another one of our little indulgences in time....

Mat leave update

Can't believe I finished work 4 weeks ago tomorrow! The time has just flown by so quickly! I know I've been busy, and haven't had a single bored moment, but even so, I'm not sure where the weeks have gone!

I guess most days there's something specifically planned that I have to do, and then the rest of the time is spent pottering, walking, cooking, reading, sleeping etc. For example, last week;
Monday was a quiet day, but Sally popped over for a cup of tea in the afternoon.
Tuesday was a busy day; it was my birthday, after dropping Luke at the train station, I popped into town, got home and postie arrived with more birthday cards and lots of exciting parcels, then I did a big shop in Tesco, then Katty came over as she'd locked herself out, then I picked Luke up from the station and we went out for a meal. Then I got home and went straight to bed!
Wednesday I went out for a meal in the evening with folks from work.
Thursday we had to collect my home birth box from the hospital, and had a worship evening at church.
Friday I went over to Rosie's in the afternoon and popped to the shops and bought some new boots.

Today I'm 38 weeks and 5 days pregnant. Really hoping this baby is ready to arrive soon!! Any day now would be nice...

The nursery is complete (minus baby)

Baby Shower

On Saturday, Joy and Ann organised a Baby Shower for Luke and I. About 35-40 people came along, and we felt very loved and blessed. We had a ploughmans supper and mini cakes, and they had organised some games to play. I really enjoyed the 'guess the baby' game (matching who was who as a baby, the easiest was Ian Browse, who still has the same mouth!) We also played guess my waist circumference, taste the baby food (which I really couldn't face doing), guess the number of sweets in the baby bottle and afew others. We gave Joy and Ann a list of A-Z of names for boys and girls, one of which we'd already picked, so everyone guessed the name, which'll be announced when the baby's born.

We had a huge pile of presents to open, and just opened one each at the baby shower. Graham, Di and Mandy really wanted us to open theirs. It was a giant baby bottle money box filled with feeding teats that they got from Uganda. Funny thing was though, that both Luke and I initially thought that the bottle was filled with something else, that look very similiar to teats and would be useful for birth control.... I didn't quite know what to think when Di exclaimed: 'They're from Africa, so might not fit' !!

In some ways, this week feels like my first 'proper' week of maternity leave as up until now I haven't been at home on my own. So I'm trying to get into a routine of a leisurely wake up in the morning, followed by a walk and general 'nesting' chores. Then in the afternoon relaxing, having a quiet time and practising my breathing and relaxation.

36 weeks pregnant today

Well I'm 36 weeks pregnant today and have been on maternity leave for a week now. The week has just flown by! My colleagues gave me a lovely send-off at work with a surprise picnic lunch in the office last Tuesday, and some beautiful pink Roses (still doing well at home) and some little bits and pieces for the baby.

Last Wednesday I drove up to Halesowen to spend a couple of days with the family. Jo, Jess and I went for a dress fitting, which is a little complicated for me at the moment not knowing if the wedding will be before or after I've given birth! But the style of the dress should mean not too much alteration is required. Jess and I popped over to Grandad's for a cup of tea and chat to Murray the budgie on Wednesday afternoon. Then on Thursday I did abit of shopping in Merry Hill (for nursing bras), went for a walk up Clent (see previous blog) and went to Pizza Hut with Dad, Ste and Jo. I got back Friday lunch time, but by Friday evening was starting to feel really ill with a sore throat and general tiredness, so gave the half night of prayer at church a miss.

I'm still fighting the cold off now, and really miss not being able to take Echinacea at the moment, which I've found is fantastic for preventing colds developing when you first get symptoms!

Luke's off work this week and it's been really nice relaxing at home. We went to Ikea on Monday and enjoyed a free drink with our family card. My general plan for maternity leave is to get a walk or swim in everyday and to spend the rest of the time relaxing and doing all the things I want to do before the little one arrives.

On Monday we had another antenatal class - this time the topic was relaxation and breathing. Picked up some really useful tips, although the actual class turned into a bit of a comedy!

So far this week, I've been for a brisk walk everyday, and we've done quite a lot of washing. I've pre-washed all the nappies 3 times to optimise the absorbancy. When we start using them I'm going to switch to soap flakes and white vinegar (with maybe a drop of tea tree) for washing and conditioning, which according to the forums makes the nappies lovely and soft, removes stains, and smell lovely.

The baby is kicking away nicely, and regularly gets hiccups.

Just waiting in for my birth pool to arrive today....