We're Back!

Well, I've finally decided to get back on here and start posting about baby Aidan! :D  I've always heard that a baby is a full time job, but now I realized just how much of a full time job - but a fun job all the way!  But I think things are at a point now where I can slowly begin blogging again - my craft blog has been neglected for a full year!  But I'm excited to be back! :D

My intent was to blog about everything related to raising baby Aidan, but since I've been slacking, I'm going to go back a little and do a separate post for each month since I started recording his developments and milestones in my little note book.

So, see you in my next post where I talk about Aidan's 5th month!

6 & 1/2 Months Old

It's so cute how he's learning new things all the time. :D  Today he's exactly 6 1/2 month old.

He's now holding his milk bottle all by himself, he's started to sit by himself too, he's still a little unstable and falls over easily sometimes, but he sits well! :)  I let him sit as often as I can so that he can learn to get balanced.  He hasn't rolled over yet so that's one of the next goals - there are a few times when he's almost rolled, but then he doesn't go all the way - not sure if it's maybe cause he doesn't lay on his tum often - in the beginning he didn't like to be put on his tum so we didn't do it much, but he's ok with it now because he's neck and arms are stronger and he can play for a short time while on his tum, but then he starts getting irritated.

We bought him a walking ring a few weeks ago and at first he didn't move around with it, then he figured out he can move backward, and then later he learned he can move forward with it too, so cute. :D  It also helps him to stand, so he's getting strong leg muscles, hehe.

It also seems he's figured out he can make more use of his tongue when he makes sounds and tries to talk, so today (or yesterday?!) he's started to make "L" sounds.  I've been trying to teach him the word "hello" months ago, so let's see, maybe that's the first word he says.

I think he has also begun throwing little tantrums when he's irritated, hehe.  I'm sure those he'll outgrow.

Aaaand he now munches solids! :D  I tried solids just before he turned 6 months old, and I started off with rice cereal but he didn't really take to it, so I thought I'd move onto pureed baby food, but he liked those even less!  So I though ish, are we going to struggle to get this little one to begin eating food . . . Until one day when I was adding some avocado to our salad and I mushed up a small piece and put it in his mouth with my finger - WOW, he loved that, hehe, and he wanted more.  It was sooo cute seeing him eating, and he went "mmm mmm" while he munched - he still does that - too cute for words. :D

I also then tried some steamed butternut and banana and he loved those too.  Next on the list is sweet potato.  I tried giving him some rice cereal again after he got used to the solids and he seems to like it now too.  Oh yes, i trird giving him peas too but he didn't really seem to be crazy about those, so we'll try them again later down the road.

I also tried giving him rooibos tea a few times, but he only seemed to like it the first time and then not again for some reason - maybe I'll try it once more and see.  It's a very healthy tea and good for babies too. :)

I only give him organic foods as far as I can, including formula, cereals, pureed baby foods and fresh produce when I can find it - I'll write some more on baby food choices HERE soon. :)

That's all I can think of for now!  Just the other day I decided to start writing down when Sweetie Bum reaches new milestones and learns new things - I totally forgot to do that since the beginning, boooo!  Better late than never I suppose.

Baby Aidan at 5 Months & 11 Days

So Aidan is 5 months 11 days old today. :D  It went by so quick and I have to look back at photos to remember how teeeeny he was in the beginning. :)  He was toooo cute . . . still is of course! :D

And since he was born I've enjoyed watching him learn new things all the time.  :D  Reaching all the little baby milestones.  It feels like he learns something new every week or 2. :)  From looking you in the eyes, to looking at toys, to batting at them, to grasping them, to holding them, and now everything goes straight into the mouth, hehe.  And he now takes his milk bottle and brings it to his mouth, so cute. :D  (although he can't hold it up by himself yet).  And he tries to grab at words on a page or pictures on your T-shirt.  Cute cute. :D

And when he started making sounds was exciting too, and so is how his little sounds are advancing - how he tries to talk, all the little sounds he makes are soooo CUTE! And then the first smile, and then first giggle, all too cute. :D And now he likes squealing and high-pitched shouting a lot. :)

And then there are the personality straights that start showing too - like he'd sometimes get r-e-a-l-l-y annoyed when I wiped his face with a wet cotton ball, or put moisturizer on his face (little boogie has eczema), and he'd shout at me - toooo CUTE! :)

Somewhere along the way he realized he has hands, and now they're often to be found in his mouth too. 

He's also now showing a lot of interest in things around him - it's so cute how he studies his toys or his bib, or the washing instruction tags on them.  And he'll crane his neck to check out a cell phone lying nearby - not sure what's so interesting about that, but he finds them amusing! :)  He'll also make a cute little sounds and smile when coming face to face with kitty and when he sees himself (or us) in the mirror.

He loves to sit up, and it's so cute, when he's lying down, sometimes it looks like he's doing stomach crunches or something 'cause I suppose he's trying to sit up by himself, but he still needs help with that one, so at the mo I'm trying to let him sit up assisted as much as possible so that he can build up those muscles and sit up by himself soon.

 Oh, and he loves to sit outside!

Anyway, so many new things have happened, I've probably forgot a few of them already!  But everything he does is too cute, and all his little expressions, we just never get bored of it, even the little sad facies when grammies or grampa hold him after not seeing him for a few weeks and he's probably wondering "who are these strange people??!!" hehe. :D

But I'm soooo glad to be a stay at home mommy, I'd never be able to leave him with any sort of baby sitter, other than with Noob Dad if I go shopping, or maybe a grammy if we absolutely HAVE to (sorry grammies, hehe. :)  So I'm grateful for this privilege! :D

And oh, I love shopping for him!  I'd go buy him new clothes and toys every week if I could. :D

Another Reason Why Baby Might Be Crying

Our little Sweetie Bum doesn't ever seriously cry for no apparent reason, so a while back when he was really crying while feeding, I tried figuring out what the problem was since he never cries like that at feeding time.

And I found out what the problem was, and as soon as I fixed the it he quit crying and happily carried on with his meal.  :)

Turns out all I needed to do was un-tie the buttons around his nappy area because it seems things were too tight down there!  I didn't realize it of course, I just thought it was a snug fit, but when the nappy got wet and it puffed up, it made things too tight and he didn't like it.  It was time to get some new clothes as he was definitely starting to outgrow his first set of clothes!  :)

Since that was the first time it happened, I wasn't sure if it was what I did that made him feel better or if he just stopped crying at the same time by coincidence, so I didn't think much of it afterwards, but when the same thing happened again the other day (with a different outfit!) I was convinced I did actually solve the problem.

So next time your baby cries and you dunno why, remember this!  :)

How We Soothe a Crying Baby

Little Aidan is almost 2 months old . . . how did time go so fast?!?!  Anyway, I'm glad to say that we've figured out this soothing thing pretty good.  :)  It's seldom that he cries for more than a few minutes because we always manage to fix the "problem".  Here's how we do it!

• First we check if he's hungry.  Usually we know more or less if the crying is because of hunger because we know he eats about every 2 - 3 hours on average, but to make sure we pat a finger on the area between his mouth and nose and he'll open his mouth as if to grab a teat.  You can also touch his cheek on either side of his mouth and he'll move to that side and open his mouth also as if to take a teat - it's called a rooting reflex.  Usually before he starts crying for food he'll also show us he's hungry by making a cute little fist and swooshing it past his nose or making a cute little pouting thing with his mouth - yes, EVERYTHING he does is cute!  I don't know if these last 2 things are something all babies do or if it's just Aidan that does it, but we've recognized them as his way of saying "I'm hungry!".

• If we don't see any sign that he's hungry, and he's just recently finished feeding, then we'll try to burp him.  We put him on our knee and gently bounce him quickly for a little while and then pat his back for a bit while he leans a little forward and then go back to bouncing etc until we get a burp. Sometimes when we just sit him up after a feeding he'll burp on his own, but mostly we have to work a bit to get that burp.

Trying to get rid of that burpie:

 

• If it's neither of the above things, then we change his nappy (provided he hasn't *just* had a nappy change).

•  Sometimes he still cries and then it seems all he wants is to be held and then he calms down or falls asleep.  If he also seems to be crying for no reason that we can tell, or he's crying while he's waiting for his food to be prepared, then we put him up over our shoulder and that seems to keep him happy and cry-free for quite a while.

•  If he's laying down and there's no obvious problem like hunger or burp or dirty nappy and we're trying to get him to stop crying and get to sleep, we turn him on his side and rub his back - this usually works pretty well if there's none of the above issues!  Soon he'll calm down and fall asleep.  Patting his bum also seems to do the same trick while laying on his side.  Sometimes we'll also make a loud "ssshhh" sound to calm him down and that has worked really well too!  Apparently they find it soothing because it sounds similar to what he hears inside the womb.  What Noob Dad has done is download sounds like white noise or rain etc and we'll play that to him to help soothe him to sleep as well.

• Another thing that really works to calm him down is swaddling - to snugly wrap him up in a blankie.  This is to make him feel secure so that he doesn't get disturbed by the little jerks babies make (called the startle reflex), or to comfort him so that he calms down or falls asleep, because he's all snug like he used to be in the womb and that makes him feel secure.  You should use a light blankie, not a thick one so that he doesn't overheat (swaddling should in any case not be used as a way to keep baby warm, and you shouldn't wrap him too tightly so that his circulation is cut off, or that his legs are pinned straight out as this may cause hip problems - his legs should be bent up as he naturally lies and he should be allowed to move his legs slightly.  Some babies don't like to have their arms tucked in, so you can swaddle him under his arms, and some babies don't like to be swaddled at all.  And one needs to make sure that his face isn't covered up so that he can breathe freely!  Swaddling should also be discontinued once he reaches about 1 month of age as it may interfere with his movement and development.  Here's how it's done:

Cute little bundle!

• On the odd occasion when he's a little whiny we'll give him a dummy (pacifier) and that'll keep him quiet and sometimes he'll soon fall asleep too.

•  And if there's nothing really big bothering him, holding him and swaying with him calms him down too.

All in all his a pretty good baby and doing the above things have always helped to quieten him and calm him down!  :)

The Cutest Baby is Born! :)

On 4 December this little cute boogie came along . . .  :D  Little Aidan René on the day he was delivered:

Here's his info:

Day 2 - so tiny compared to daddy's hand:

Day 7 - getting burped:

Day 11 - my other baby JellyBean comes to say hello:

Day 12 - relaxing with mummy on the couch:

So ya, the pregnancy is over!  In fact, it went by so fast that I've already forgotten what it feels like to be pregnant, haha.  Here's a post-pregnancy summary:

The Good

• Little Aidan is here!  :)

• I can do my toenails again - bye bye big belly, hehe

• No more trips to the loo in the middle of the night (ok, so I only had 1 each night just before sunrise, but still!)

• I can eat spaghetti bolognaise again!  It doesn't make me queazy anymore, yay.

• The acid reflux is GONE

•  I can lie on my back again and be comfy!

• I'm developing my doing-things-with-one-hand-while-holding-baby-in-the-other-hand skills 

• No more leg cramps when I have a good stretch in bed!

The Bad

• We don't get to snooze through the night anymore or stay in bed late - but it's ok, we'll get used to it!
• After a practically spot-free pregnancy, they've wasted no time in coming back already  :/

& The Ugly

• In the last week of pregnancy I got a bit of stretchmarks on my belly, and on my thighs for some reason, but after he was delivered I got even more stretchmarks on my belly! Boo.

The first few days were a bit hectic since all of this was all new to us and we got somewhat overwhelmed with all the crying and we didn't know what to do, but I think we've got the hang of it now!  Before he was born we read up about how to soothe a crying baby, and the techniques have actually worked!  So I'll post about them a bit later.

Anyhoo . . . . . . .

Did we make a CUTE baby or what?!?!?  :D

ONE DAY TO GO!!!

day to go until we're officially Noob Mum & Noob Dad!  :O

Can't believe the time has come already!  :) 

Things to look forward to - besides the obvious of finally having baby here:

• no more HUGE belly getting in the way!
• no more acid reflux, double yay!!
• I can snooze on my back again (which incidentally means I don't have to have achy hips most of the night anymore)!
• no more braxton hicks!
• hopefully no more trips to the loo just before sunrise

These should hopefully be all the IMMEDIATE improvements.

I'll be back . . . sometime soon!

ONE WEEK TO GO!!

days to go!

And we're ready . . . I think . . . well at least his room is ready! :)  And I'm still not looking forward to the op, so can't wait until THAT'S over and done with. 
And I discovered a small stretch mark on my belly the other day!  :O  Just about an inch or so, but still.  Hopefully none more come during this last week.
I hope I'll finally be rid of this reflux next week - so there's another thing to look forward to hopefully.  :D

Anyway, this is going to be a relatively "busy" week for me, since I want to get all my work done so that I can take the next 2 weeks off completely.  :)

35 Weeks 4 Days

This was taken yesterday.  From the last pic I took about 5 weeks ago, he's really packed on some extra weight or size during this time. :) 

days to go!!!  :O

I have no idea what his estimated weight is now because we haven't had a scan done at our last 2 doc visits, but according to the baby size chart he could be about 2 1/2 kg's.

He's no longer in breach though, but I'm now having a c-section done because of hypertension.  I'm now really getting more nervous about the op!  :S  Send some good and positive vibes my way that the op will go GOOOOOOOD and perfect and without any problems, will ya??  :)

2 Weeks to Go!

Days to go! :D

And I'm sure these 2 weeks are gonna fly by . . . as usual!  Noob Dad says he's a little nervous about Aidan's arrival, but I'm ok!  If there's anything I'm nervous about then it's the c-section.  :S  Not looking forward to that, but it beats the whole labour thing IMO. :)

I think we have EVERYTHING we need now for baby, and our hospital bags are packed (ie 2 big gym bags and a nappy changing bag full of stuff - nappies take up a lot of space! And had to make sure Aidan's got enough clothes for warm and cold weather just in case, hehe). 

I've picked up some weight during this last month or so, more than I've picked up throughout the whole rest of the pregnancy!  I think it's all Aidan though, not fat haha.  From the way he's really pushing out against my belly all the time now, I think he's got no space to stretch out anymore, hehe.  I can feel I've become bigger judging from the mission it is to get up from the floor or out of bed, it must look somewhat comical, because that's what it feels like hehehe. I must say I'm not really uncomfy in bed at all, so I'm glad about that because many seem to complain that they don't snooze well.

We've been having a heat wave here these last few days so of course I've been complaining my ass off because I hate the heat and have never been able to tolerate it well at all - especially not when I have to do stuff . . . anything at all really, lol . . . but ESPECIALLY blow wave my hair with a hot hairdrier  :S.  But thank goodness I haven't been getting extra hot due to the pregnancy - everyone thinks I'm complaining about the heat just because I'm pregnant, but ummmmm, we're in a heat wave, THAT'S why I'm hot lol.  Ish.  I complain EVERY year that I'm hot anyway.  Speaking of which, I hope my hospital room is gonna have a GOOD aircon!

I'm still having braxton hicks contractions regularly and it's a tad uncomfy to walk while having one of those, but nothing serious.  They have become stronger during this last week especially and I now get a weird tightness in my chest everytime I get them, but after googling it, it seems I'm not the only one so I suppose it's normal.

Anyhoo, I have my last doc appointment on the 26th for our final check up - can't believe that time has come!  Which reminds me that I must still take another belly pic or 2 before Aidan comes!

23 Day to Go!

days to go until we're Noob Mum & Noob Dad! :D

Dunno where the time went, this pregnancy went soooo fast.  Aidan's hiccuping everyday now.  My belly is also feeling quite weighty when I lay on my side, so I've started putting a small pillow under my belly and it's more comfy now because it doesn't feel like it's "pulling" down anymore.  And the acid reflux hasn't improved yet but I don't expect it to during these last few weeks I suppose - boo - can't wait to be rid of that!  Otherwise no other new discomforts. :)

We had what I think was a little false alarm on Friday when I went for a normal check up - he had to check the cervix and of course I hate those exams haha. But before he did the exam he checked my blood pressure and it was about 160 / 110 and I told him it could be because of the exam he's about to do, but he wasn't convinced (just for safety's sake) that that's all it was, so he ended up admitting me to hospital immediately after the exam and said he's going to give me cortisone injections to develop baby's lungs just in case I had to have an emergency c-section done.

So I ended up staying in hospital over night where they monitored my blood pressure - which had already dropped by then and was close to normal the whole time I was admitted - and they monitored baby's heart beat a few times and gave me cortisone and put me on a low dose blood pressure pill for a few days.  The doc was satisfied that it did seem to be a false alarm so I was released the next morning. :)  The tests didn't show anything wrong and I didn't have pre-eclampsia or anything else and baby was doing perfectly too.  So that was the end of that. :)

While they were monitoring baby's heart beat, the machine also picked up that I was having braxton hicks contractions, and I was like HUH?  I had no idea I'd been having them.  Sometimes I'd feel my belly go hard, but I always assumed it was just because of baby moving around putting pressure around there, but the nurse said nope, it's BH, so it turns out I've been having them for a few weeks already but I didn't realize it - I thought I'd feel muscles contracting or something, but it's nothing like that at all.  Oh well, it's all normal for BH to begin long before baby's due, it's just the body "practicing" for labour.

The baby shower was also held the afternoon I was released, so I'm glad I was released earlier so that we didn't have to cancel the party! :)  Aidan got soooo many things that we have just about nothing left that we need to get for him, so that helped out a lot. :D  Will post some pics next time after I've got the photos ready. :D

Well I still have lots of baby clothes and blankies and stuff to wash, so let me get back to that!

35 Days to Go - The Countdown Begins!

35 days until we're officially a Noob Mum and Noob Dad! (well, noobs to human babies anyway).  :D  We still can't imagine being parents, so it's weird.  Unless it's one of those things that you imagine is gonna be weird but when it actually happens you just kinda go with the flow and it ends up not feeling weird.  Know what I mean? Hehe.  But we can't wait.

DAYS to go!

Pregnancy and Snoring

Who'd have thought these two things have anything to do with the other, but as it turns out, they do!

I never had any sort of snoring before in my life, but these last few weeks or so I've had it every night.  So the other day I thought, I've had a few other weird things happen to me during this pregnancy and when I googled their relation to pregnancy I found out they were caused by pregnancy!  So I googled snoring and whadda ya know . . . another weird pregnancy symptom.

If you developed snoring during pregnancy, you probably noticed that it started during the 3rd trimester - this is when it usually happens.  And there are a few things that could be causing it, and one of them could be a serious condition, so here goes:

• swollen nasal passages - higher levels of estrogen during pregnancy contribute to swelling in the mucous membranes lining the nose
• increased blood in your system - the blood volume in your body increases when you're pregnant and your blood vessels expand, which can lead to swollen nasal membranes
• weight gain - if you were already overweight since before pregnancy or you've gained a lot of weight during pregnancy, the extra fat tissue in your neck and throat can cause snoring too
• high blood pressure - it could be linked to gestational hypertension (aka pre-eclampsia) which is a very serious condition dangerous and even fatal for the mum and baby, the only "cure" of which is early labour induction or c-section.  Here's a quick bit of info about this condition from Wikipedia

So if you've suddenly developed snoring during pregnancy you should mention it to you doc because they don't automatically ask you about it, and it's REALLY important that if you have pre-eclampsia, it be diagnosed before baby's due so that steps can be taken to make delivery safer for you and baby.

But you can improve your snoring by not lying on your back, since you usually don't snore when on your side.  This late in pregnancy you should in any case be lying mostly on your left side if you can (for these reasons).

More Nursery Stuff

We've added a few more thingies to the nursery.  :D

Here's the cute bug mobile that I wanted:

And I found a cute flower to wrap around the bed side-bar for Aidan to look at - too cute :D

I was busy making cute thingies to hang on my home-made mobile, but then I found the one I wanted anyway and just bought it - now this wormy is gonna hang around elsewhere in the room:

Long ago I bought a spice rack at the craft store, except I never really needed a spice rack 'cause I had one already, but I wanted to decorate it and use it for storage space in my craft room, but that never happened . . . so I painted it to match the nursery and so far it's being used as a storage thingy for nappy changing things:

And he's got a bath too:

And a cute little rocker chair thingie:

And that's it!  The next big item I'm just waiting for now is the curtains and bed stuff to be ready! :)

31 Week 4D Scan

Had this done yesterday.  We got a few good pics before he decided to turn around and only give us the back of his head. :P

This one looks so cute with the puffy cheeks:  :D

And this one looks like a little smile. :)

The scans put him at around 32 weeks on average and a natural due date of 15 Dec, with a weight of about 1 850 grams, so he picked up about 400 grams since our last scan about 2 weeks ago.  And so far his head, abdomen and femur measurements are still all good. :D

At our last scan he was upside down but yesterday he's turned around again which means my bladder is no longer being punched but kicked - lovely. :P  Because he's now in breech the doc is recommending a c-section (which is what I wanted anyway), so now I have to update the info with the medical aid.  So his b'day is going to be 4 December. :)  At least it's a decent while before Xmas. :D

My mum and sis are arranging a baby shower for 10 Nov so I can't wait to see if Aidan's gonna get something cute (I know my mum's apparently got a bunch of clothes which are no doubt cute, hehe).  He loves getting gifts.  :D  And THEN we'll probably have our last baby-stuff shopping spree if we still need anything.  I hope his nursery curtains and bed stuff is gonna be ready in time!  Although we want to keep him in our room in the beginning which means I'd like to get him a smaller portable bed of some sort because his cot is too big to stand next to our bed because it's gonna feel really cramped in the room and that's gonna bug me. :O  So not sure what to get yet that's not gonna work out too expensive.  I wanted this, but at R2 200 it's a bit too pricey for a temporary second bed:

It's cool because it has a little bed that you attach to the top of the campcot and so you can see baby while you're in bed.  So we'll see what's second best!

Small Red Dots on Belly During Pregnancy

Yip, I found yet ANOTHER weird and generally un-mentioned pregnancy symptom, lol.  Mine started somewhere in the 2nd trimester . . . can't quite remember when, but I started getting little red dots on my lower belly shortly after I started using an anti-stretch mark cream on my belly.  They didn't bug me or anything, they were just there.

It looks like it's something you get sometimes during pregnancy because your skin is more sensitive to products that you apply to it, during pregnancy - most probably because of hormone changes.  If they're not irritating you it's probably nothing to worry about (although any kind of rash could be a sign of an actual problem, so get yours checked out just in case).  I suspected it was the cream that was causing the dots, so I stopped using it and switched to bio-oil but still didn't see 100% improvement, so now I'm using aqueous cream and I think the dots are going away . . .

It's weird because I use bio-oil on my boobs and there's no problem there, but I suppose it's different for everyone.

Anyway, they say the dots can appear anywhere on your belly and even thighs, legs, arms etc.  And there are other conditions caused by pregnancy that can cause red dots, such as heat rash on parts of your body that usually stay warm and moist.  Other causes are something known as PUPPP which is itchy red dots and most common during the 3rd trimester, and prurigo of pregnancy which usually appear on your legs, feet, arms and hands and is itchy as well.

I've read that it could also be that one is allergic to the placenta (well not so much the placenta actually but that's how some refer to it . . . but it's because the placenta produces progesterone during pregnancy and progesterone can cause an increase in allergies, eg skin rashes). 

Usually these symptoms seem to disappear within about a month after birth.

Cute Mobile

I saw this cute mobile at a really good price at Reggies online!  Some of them are ridiculously pricy, but this one is only R129 . . . . So I'll be hunting this one down and hopefully I find it in stock. :)

It's perfect for my bug theme and sooooo cute.  :D  It's even musical, but if it's an annoying tune we'll just have to forget that it has that feature. :P

Update: YAY! Found it and got it! :D

29 Weeks

So we had another GP visit on Friday the 5th and according to the scan everything is still good.  The little goober was upside down though and facing backward so we couldn't see his face this time, boo.  But it looks like he's plumped up so he's getting all squishy now. :D

We've booked the delivery with the hospital and got the authorization number from the medical aid, so everything's just about set! This hospital is giving us a free 4D scan which we have to do on 22 Oct, so we're looking forward to that - I hope he's turned a bit so that we can see his face this time! Hehe.

I'm confused though, because according to the scans, since the first scan at 9 weeks even, the baby's age has always been set at about a week or 2 older than he really is (according to my date of ovulation), so apparently he's now at about 31 1/2 weeks or so and expected date of (normal) delivery is 16 Dec instead of 24 Dec that my online pregnancy tracker gives me.  But oh well, I hope the 16 Dec one is accurate, because I wasn't too chuffed about the prospect of having a baby the day before Xmas. :P

Either way, I've opted for a c-section so at the mo, expected date of delivery is 4 Dec. :D

Me and Noob Dad have thought that I should get my hospital bag ready already, so I think I'll get that done soon too.

I also finally gave in and got some Gaviscon for in case I get heartburn at night again - what horrid stuff, all thick and icky.  :(

Also, lately I can say that now I actually FEEL pregnant, in the sense that this belly is big enough to now really make simple tasks more difficult (eg getting up off soft couch or off the floor, painting my toes etc, hehe), and I can feel my belly is heavy and sometimes it feels like my stomach muscles are being strained from the weight or size and almost feel bruised . . . weird . . . and I can feel some pressure in my belly too when he moves a certain way.   Maybe I should get me one of those belly bands . . . I wonder if that'll help, 'cause if I left up my belly a bit it seems to feel a bit better I think.  All in all I think I had a good (mostly) symptom-free pregnancy stint up until now. :)

28 Weeks 4 Days

I think I felt the little goober hiccup for the first time last night - or was it really early this morning . . . I dunno!  :)  I just happened to read about it the other day and wondered when I'll start noticing it.  Well it feels sort of like a heart beat, rhythmic and evenly paced and it's really slight so it's easy to distinguish from kicking or squirming.  So I assume those were hiccups. :D

Anyway, that's all I wanted to say!  We have another dr appointment today, so we'll see if there's any new developments, and I have to register my delivery with the hospital today so hopefully that all goes smoothly.

28 Weeks 2 Days & Nursery Update

Definitely bigger than last week!
Aidan's 71% complete and he's also getting much more active. :D  Besides the usual kicks and squirming, last night it felt like he was jumping up and down, hehe.  We really can't wait until he gets here already. :D

I saw a cute growth chart sticker and of course I had to get it.  We stuck it on the cupboard door - it came with some extra animals so I just stuck them on the other door.  Cute! :D

 

You can only start measuring once he's at least 60cm tall though, so in the mean time it just has to make the nursery look cute! :D

Me and my mum went fabric shopping for the curtains and bedding and FINALLY found something cute and affordable and in the colour scheme and animal theme that I wanted - this is what the curtains and duvet cover are going to be made from:

On Friday I'm going to give my mum-in-law the measurements, so hopefully I can get the end products SOOOOOON - I'm gonna be really impatient, hehe.  Once the curtains and bedding is up and on, it's really going to look much more like a real nursery. :D

And I also knitted a blankie.  I can't knit but I bought a loom knitter 'cause it looked like fun to use (and it is!) and so I had to make something with it, so why not a fluffy blankie?!  You can only make things of limited size though, so I had to knit 4 squares and then "sew" them together, so you can see one of the joins going through the blankie, but oh well:

It's REALLY soft though, and it's quite big for a little baby so when you fold it in half you won't even notice the join. :)

We still have to wash the carpet of the nursery because a certain yoghurt-eating DeeDee . . .

. . . has been using it as her bedroom for the last 2 years, so not looking forward to that, because a) we've never washed a carpet before and we've borrowed an oooold carpet washer (looks sort of like a vacuum cleaner thingy) from one of our parents, so hopefully it actually works properly, b) we have to empty out the nursery furniture which also means we have to take the cot apart again because it can't fit through the door whole, and c) well it's a schleppy job and we probably have to wait a few days for the carpet to dry thoroughly before we move everything back in again.

At the mo I'm working on a (hopefully cute) mobile for either above the cot or above the changing station, we'll see.  So I'll post that when it's done! :D