Happy Caturday

The cats are getting on quite well with our little girl but sometimes they just want to be left to sleep. Here is Leeloo trying to hide in plain sight.

Baby's first Christmas

Had another go on the seamless paper today. She looks so cute in her 'Babys first Christmas' suit that I was trying her for size. The one below was just a snapshot where she'd seen the cat come past, she really loves Leeloo & Dallas.

The Snot Rocket

Ewwww... when you have no frame of reference for having a baby its easy to be grossed out by many things about pregnancy and birth but it seems that the fun just doesn't stop coming once the Little One is here. It never occurred to me that a baby's nose couldn't be wiped like a normal person (not something I'd even considered) until Mike announced we had to get a 'snot rocket'. Nice. So we bought this one from Amazon:
They nicely call it a nasal aspirator. Suffice it to say it's more gross than imagined, and if you get icked out easily I'd stop reading now. Its essentially a little tube where you put one end into the babies nose and the other end in your mouth to suck out the contents ... blerg! There is a little filter in the middle so nothing gets transferred but still. It takes a lot of puff and still makes you feel rather ill.





After a few goes of this we knew there must be something else. We searched out and bought this one...

the Vital Baby Nurture Nasal Decongester. So much better, it just sucks out the contents when you squeeze the bottom and its easy to clean. I was speaking to some of the ladies in a baby group the other day and they were still using the sucky one above hence the reason for this post :) And to all the people without children out there - be glad you don't need a snot rocket!

DIY Blackout Curtains

So it turns out that babies need a lot of sleep! Even on an overcast sort of day like today our dark blue curtains prove woefully inadequate to the task of a dark room during the day, early evening or early morning. Since I'm on maternity leave and super skint I decided that proper blackout blinds were going to be too expensive for just the 3 or 4 months that our little one is in our room (her windows are a different size so we'll think about those later). Cue the DIY project :) So, with some blackout material, some sew & stick velcro and some yellow satin ribbon and we fashioned ourselves some child safe blackout blinds. Below are some before and after pictures, on a sunny day the difference would be even more marked.

What they looked like rolled up...

Nan very kindly sewed the soft side of the velcro to the blackout material at the sewing machine.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

We left a lip of material at the top and bottom to prevent light leak so the only place it gets in are where the velcro is stitched in. If we had bigger borders on our windows (more space to stick the velcro higher up) there would have been no leak at all.


The ribbon is purposefully not stitched on so we can change colour or position if we fancy it.
   

So what do you think?

Introducing Little L

How time flies. It seems like only yesterday that I was bored out of my brain and laying around like a bloated whale waiting to give birth. At 10 days late little L had grown to a hefty 3.87kg (8.5lb)! We're 3 months later and I've finally got around to using my laptop for more than the occasional bill payment. I'd have been much more regular with the blogposts if the blogger app for my phone wasn't so abjectly awful. Here she is in all her tiny glory and we love her more and more with each passing day.

     

thanks to Mike, who took most, if not all of the photos.

Whats in my hospital bag?

All this exciting news about the Royal Baby, I wonder what she had in her hospital bag? Here's what I've packed. Please let me know in the comments if you think I've missed anything??

Just seems sensible:

• Lip balm
• water & snacks
• drinking straws
• bikini top for birthing pool?
• waterproof headphones?
• phone & charger
• Tens machine
• camera
• change for the car park

In case I need to stay in:

• dressing gown
• PJs (nursing friendly)
• clean clothes to leave in
• spare undies
• flipflops
• toohbrush & paste
• Dry shampoo & comb
• Deodorant
• face wipes & face cloth 

For the baby:

• baby wipes
• cotton wool
• nappies (approx 10)
• baby body suits x2
• baby sleep suits x2
• little hat & tiny socks
• baby blanket
• muslin squares x3
• changing mat
• car seat installed

Recommended by the Midwife:

• Medical notes - most important ;)
• Jelly Babies (to keep up energy during labour)
• lucozade sport (non-fizzy)
• Maternity pads & disposable undies
• Breastpads, cream & nursing bras

Other lists:

This seems like a useful resource from mother care


Added to the following Linkies:

Things that surprised me about the third trimester

Everyone seemed to love my previous post, 6 things that surprised me about being pregnant, so I thought I'd do a follow up for the final stages of my pregnancy, all the lovely new symptoms the third trimester held in store (in vaguely chronological order).

Hurting Ribs

An unexpected side effect of having everything squished up inside to make room for the baby is apparently rib pain, especially on the right side for some reason. This article on rib pain during pregnancy explains it quite well. Still sucks though.

Insomnia 

I kind of expected to have a tiny bladder again once the baby was pressing on it (this went came and then went again in the first trimester) so getting up in the night was not unexpected. What I didn't expect was not being about to go back to sleep. I've never had problems sleeping so this was especially weird and annoying. No wonder pregnant women are always tired if they are always up since 2am! This didn't seem to last more than a couple of weeks though and I was soon sleeping again (except mandatory loo breaks). I'm thankful for that small mercy!

Night cramps

As if staying asleep wasn't already difficult enough, my feet or calfs decided to get in on the wake-Suzy-up action and start cramping for no reason. This NHS guide explains cramps are normal but gives no real reasons why. The internet (how did we survive without it?) suggested lack of either calcium, magnesium or potassium. I was pretty sure my calcium was covered (with chocolate milk & the small one sucking the white colour from my teeth), but the other two not so much. Bananas. So unpleasant, so full of potassium, a necessary evil once a day then. I found some spray on magnesium which is supposedly helpful. After using it a few weeks Mike seemed to think it was making my skin (where I was applying it on the backs of my calves) a different texture so I stopped using it every day just use it as needed. The cramps have lessened but if I stop having my banana for more than 3 or so days they come back.

Antenatal classes (NHS)

I had no idea what to expect. I figured it'd be some sort of breathing techniques lessons or something. The first one was a large group, all sat in a circle listening to the midwife explain about pain relief methods (gas & air, some injections, epidural etc). She showed us the epidural needle and explained the risks and I went right off that idea! Maybe as a backup if the pain is too great but certainly not as a first choice going in.

The second was after birth care. I think I had a distinct nausea look all meeting for this one, they should make people come to this class as a form of birth control. Breast feeding (with an incredibly dull video) and associated unpleasantness such as Mastitis, how to wash the baby (and the fact that they don't in the hospital and you shouldn't really for 5 days) and something called cord care, where the babys umbilical cord is left to rot off on its own (and can start to smell or get infected).... Ewww. I now have visions of the cord dropping off someone in the living room and the cats eating it - blerg!

The third was supposed to be a speaker (rather than a midwife like the first two) but they didn't book anyone so the midwife brought along a friend who'd given birth locally as a water birth 10 months ago for a q&a session which was actually quite interesting. Also 10mins from the lady who runs baby massage sessions which sound good but I bet they get booked up quickly.

Overall I was surprised there was no huffing & puffing & audience participation but I think that's on the NCT classes (there's about 6 or so I think but no one really told us about those early enough). Everyone said that it was a networking experience for new mums but, although friendly, no one seemed to be networking, maybe that was nct too.

Swollen Feet & Ankles 

Can be a sign of pre-ecplampsia but not in my case. Just excess water pooling in my feet from sitting or standing too long. Nice. This got much worse in the last week & I started sleeping with my feet slightly raised (by stuffing a huge duvet under the end of the mattress) which seemed to help.

In the last week or so... 

I'm now at 38 weeks (tomorrow), in the last week it's been a bit of a struggle to walk any distance. I was working last week (today is my first day of maternity leave) and I was alright once I got there but the usually 15 min walk had turned into about 35mins and was really tough on me. The baby had felt like she'd grown on Sunday (I'm blaming all the chocolate birthday cake), she was much heavier so I had a few more general aches & pains. Also the rib pain mentioned above turned into 3 distinct pains in that area (cue furious googling), 1: the rib pain of a tiny bottom wiggling around as mentioned, 2: a more in the middle of my sternum, burning pain which I concluded was food & drink related and 3: just below the sternum in the middle a pain which I concluded was my stomach muscles splitting & separating (which the midwife had warned about) - ouch! I started being a LOT more careful of not using them after that.


So now I have two weeks off to... err.. tidy the house I suppose. They call it nesting, I'm suspecting its just boredom combined with the discomfit of sitting too long in one place & the foreknowledge that I'll be too zombie-tired to do anything useful once the baby arrives. Feel free to comment below what things surprised you about pregnancy.

Added to the following linkies...

4D Growth & Bonding Baby Scan

So at 32 weeks (I'm now 34wks) we went for a private 'bonding' scan to see what all the fuss was about with 3D pictures. For some bizarre reason (that we never did find out) they call it a 4D scan. Weird. Anyway, its just like a normal scan but the machine has the function to be able to select an area and show it as 3D at 90 degrees (so the normal looking scan is profile where the same area of the baby is from the front in 3D). Below are a couple of the photos that I liked. Of course the baby was moving around constantly and not being very helpful. Little hands and feet in front of her face. We did get to learn that she's going to be bigger than we'd hoped (Asian babies are often around 6lbs but she's already albs and a bit so looking likely she'll be around the 8lb mark when she comes out - eek). As you see from the top of the scan they managed to spell my name wrong - doh!

The black bits are where the sphere of view of the scanner are making shadows so not thick black hair or anything. And the fuzzy shape obscuring her face a little on the left of the picture is the placenta.

Originally we went for the Babybond 4D Growth Scan (basically the cheapest level) but the next level up had a dvd included so we upgraded to...

Babybond 4D Bonding Scan Option II 

Primary purpose of the scan: 

Babybond well–being check of fetal heartbeat and movement, bonding, reassurance and fetal growth report, ideally between 24 – 32 weeks gestation (20 – 26 weeks for multiple pregnancy). Includes: 

• 30 minute extended diagnostic appointment
• Babybond well-being checklist
• Growth report with fetal weight estimation
• Complimentary sexing of your baby if requested
• 2D and 3D b/w prints taken throughout your scan in sleeve
• 1 x colour gloss 3D scan print
• DVD recording of scan in sleeve with your choice of white, blue or pink Babybond bag, to take home.

The dvd was around 9mins long, basically a film of the screen we were looking at when we were there. I re-edited it (took off the music for a start) so now its down to just under 3mins. I might stick it up on vimeo when I figure out why my final cut pro isn't exporting.

The one colour print seemed a bit dark to me. The black and white little ones seemed brighter. We also forked out for a USB stick with the photos (about 17 or so which was nice), they were remarkably small (only 800px wide, as you see above). It was not possible to have the DVD on a USB stick because their sticks weren't big enough. Luckily we still have a dvd drive in an old laptop we were able to convert it ourselves.

One of the best things about it was that we could arrange it for close by to where I work in London and I didn't have to have yet another day working from home. All in all I thought it was expensive (well, the extras were expensive for what they were) but worth it to have the record of the little one waving around.

Who Else Wants £15 off Amazon baby stuff?

Expecting a baby is an expensive time so imagine my delight at getting £15 off something I was already going to buy for the baby! 

I've discovered Amazon Family, you can get 20% off nappies too! Its a free service but you have to sign up to amazon prime for it if you're not a member (which is £79 per year). I've just started my free 30 day trial (and got my £15 off with the promo code BABYFMLY15), click here you're interested in getting started with Amazon family too (disclaimer, thats my referral code so if you sign up too I'd get some extra credit).


Here is the blurb:

Amazon Family is aimed at making it easier for parents, families and caregivers to find everything they need on Amazon.co.uk. By giving us some information about your family, we can ensure you have access to the right products, offers and information at the right time. Amazon Family members get 20% off nappy subscriptions with Subscribe & Save, as well as other benefits such as offers, discounts and a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime.

We want to ensure that our exclusive offers and product recommendations are relevant to you and your family. This means we can ensure our Amazon Family homepage highlights the products and information you're interested in, and that our e-mails to you are full of the things you want and need. Any information you provide to us through the Amazon Family membership programme, will be collected, used and stored in accordance with our Privacy Notice and you can update it any time through Your Account. We'll never share your information with third parties.

Amazon Family members receive benefits such as:

• 20% off nappy subscriptions with Amazon Family and Subscribe & Save
• Free 30-day trial of Amazon Prime (including unlimited One-Day Delivery on millions of eligible purchases across Amazon.co.uk)
• Up to GBP 50.00 worth of offers every month

Note: Current Amazon Prime members can also join the programme and receive all Amazon Family benefits on top of your Amazon Prime benefits. If you cancel your Prime membership, you will no longer be eligible to receive the additional Amazon Family benefits.

Week #31 - The Bump

So friends and family who've not seen me recently have been asking to see the belly... so here is is. My bump as of this morning (photo courtesy of Mike). Seems like its getting bigger by the minute though.

6 Things that surprised me about being pregnant

So it’s been 30 weeks, I thought I’d write a post about my pregnancy misconceptions. I’m a first time mum and my own mother isn’t around to tell me what to expect so it’s been an interesting experience to compare what my layperson expectations of pregnancy were to experiencing the real thing.

Banned Food & Drink list

Everyone knows you can’t drink alcohol or caffeine when you’re pregnant so that didn’t come as a great surprise. However, freshly squeezed juice that’s more than a couple of hours old? Large fishes? Soft cheeses? Beansprouts and other veg that have been stored in a plastic package where water may have condensed? These were all news to me. It didn’t cause too much bother to me though as I’m not a great cheese eater (thankfully mozzarella is ok which is pretty much the only cheese I like) and I don’t eat any of my friends from the sea. I’m just missing my daily cappuccino and the occasional mojito or glass of wine.

Aversions instead of cravings

Talking of food, I was expecting crazy cravings at 2am. Thankfully that didn’t happen. What I wasn’t expecting was for things I already loved to start making me feel ill and not want to eat them. Nutella and Coffee (decafe naturally), but why!? I had to shake up my whole breakfast routine.

16 Week scan results

Its common knowledge that you can have an Abortion up to 24 weeks (in the UK anyway). So I wasn’t expecting much ‘baby’ in the 16 week scan, actually a grey slush of a few blobby cells was what I was expecting. Amazing there she was, fully baby shaped, chilling with her little legs crossed and waving her arms about. Eek! It all became real in that moment. Actually, those scan photos (seemy previous post for the photo) were the best ones so far because since then she’s been in an uncooperative position for scan photos.

Anti-cat hormones

For the first month or so my little Leeloo would have nothing to do with me :( I’m pretty sure she still thinks I smell funny but she’s got used to it by now and lowers her standards enough to sit on me (when Daddy isn’t around of course).

Maternity trousers

I wasn’t a skinny girl before I got pregnant, not massively overweight either but large enough not to want to wear skinny jeans. My personal opinion on skinny jeans (and generally any trousers that taper thinly at the ankle) is that you end up looking like a large arse on a stick. Even a skinny pregnant girl is going to look like a python who ate too much at once. So why-o-why makers-of-maternity-clothes are skinny trousers all I can seem to find in the shops?? I'm in need to get some bigger clothes again and hope to have a more successful shopping trip this time (fingers crossed).

Morning Sickness

Well, where do I start with this one, this one topic was full of surprises.

• It's not just restricted to the morning! At first there was no actual sickness just horrendous nausea from about 3 in the afternoon onwards. I could hardly see straight and was terrified there would be a *keyboard incident* (but thankfully not).

• Brushing my teeth related. What the hey? When the sickness did finally kick in, it was in the mornings but only as a result of brushing my teeth. Very odd. I got myself a new electric toothbrush which helped a bit but not for long.

• A change in breakfast routine was required, I needed something in my stomach so I started having coco pops (something that might have made me ill at 6am previously anyway).

• Morning sickness gives you red freckles. I had to google this one! They go within a few days or so but it’s really strange. Something about the blood vessels in your face breaking – eewwww.

• It seems to go on forever, its supposed to stop around 14-16 weeks but mine went on for weeks after that. It was around week 23 or 24 that I worked out if I switched the coco pops to chocolate milk I’d be ok again. Phew! (and my blog site name was born).

So there you go, I'd be interested to hear what other mums-to-be found strange or unexpected so please comment below.

Why Mums Get Nothing Done

I had to laugh at this. It's going to be a while before mine is this age but I'm quietly pleased I'll be at work when this shenanigans is going on - just add two curious cats to the mix and its going to be utter chaos. Good Luck Mike!



Video by Esther Anderson. See it directly on YouTube here.
See more of Story of This Life's videos at http://www.storyofthislife.com/

Happy Chinese New Year

Year of the Sheep

So my little baby girl is going to be born in the year of the sheep like her mum was! :) What does that mean? Well, according to Chinese Astrology the personality of sheep people is as follows...

People born in the Year of Sheep are tender, polite, filial, clever, and kind-hearted. They have special sensitivity to art and beauty and a special fondness for quiet living. They are wise, gentle and compassionate and can cope with business cautiously and circumspectly. In their daily life, they try to be economical. They are willing to take good care of others, but they should avoid pessimism and hesitation.

Apparently this is about right according to my Husband the Rooster, who we should all believe because he is known to be very honest :)

Welcome to my new blog

Introduction

Hi. I'm Suzy. Scuba_Suzy on twitter.

For those of you who follow my underwater photography blog, you may know that I'm now expecting a baby. 28 weeks now. I figured I'd need a little extra space on the internet for my baby and cat photos which don't really fit on the other blog! So here it is... my new space. I hope you like it. I'm hoping this blog will be more 'lifestyle'. I'll probably post more random stuff here, reviews (and not just about camera & underwater gear but baby related and other gadgets), personal photos, links to cool things I find interesting on the net, money making tips (I'm going to be so stint during maternity leave).  I expect that even my lovely husband will make an appearance now and then with his two-penith.

Why Chocolate Milk for Breakfast?

Well, its the only thing the stopped the morning sickness! Besides, who wouldn't want chocolate milk for breakfast :)