The One About Bump Week 38 . . .

I'm a little late in posting this because tomorrow we'll be exactly 39 weeks!  I've put the 36 week photo up too, so that you can see the difference that two weeks has made.  Bump did drop a bit on Tuesday after Baby did much wriggling, but unfortunately you can't see it as clearly as I'd hoped in the photographs.  She hasn't dropped nearly enough for my liking either!  I would be quite happy if Baby decided to put in an appearance now as I've had enough.  The main problem is my feet, everything else I could live with, but my feet are now constantly swollen so I can't be up and about as much I'd like or even in a seated position at my desk as that causes them to swell even more too.  So, I'm now trying anything possible to bring labour on!  That's how fed up I am!  I'm drinking Raspberry Leaf tea, eating fresh pineapple, and rocking about on the exercise ball.

At 37 weeks if anyone suggested we go anywhere I would say 'oh it's too close and my waters might break', now, I'm saying yes to outings in the hope that it does bring things on!  I'm past caring now if my waters go in public!  I just keep a spare set of clothes and my hospital notes with me in the car whenever we go out.  So last night we went for dinner at Pizza Hut and the cinema with our friends, and today I have been out for lunch with M's sister.  Both were nice outings, but still no sign of Baby!

So if anyone has any other tips please do let me know!

The One About the New Blog Header . . .

So I finally decided it was time to update my blog, and with lots of time on my hands what with having to sit with my feet up, I had no excuse.  So I looked back over the class materials that Shimelle had sent out when I did Beyond Blogging for Scrapbookers, and started to have a play in Photoshop.  Well I'm not much good in Photoshop, and M could tell that I was struggling, so he offered to help.  Luckily he is a whizz in Photoshop what with being a graphic designer and using it every day.  All I had to do was explain my ideas and he put it all together for me.

The design for the rest of the blog is still a work in progress, I've had a play with some of the fonts, and even had to delve into the world of html code to get the font of the post title to change.  I was very proud of myself when I got it to work!

So please let me know what you think?  Any comments would be appreciated :)

The One About the Nursery...

So I thought it was time to share some photos of the new nursery furniture.  We had a bit of a to do with the furniture company about it, which was really quite stressful at the time.  We ordered the furniture at the start of September when we went to the Baby Show in the G-Mex in Manchester.  We arranged for the furniture to be delivered and assembled at the end of November so that it would give us time to clear the room, and decorate.  

My friend at work was expecting delivery of a new sofa suite, and hers didn't arrive when it was supposed to.  This set alarm bells ringing for me, so I decided to ring the furniture company to check everything was on track.  Imagine my surprise to find out that with a week to go before delivery they didn't have any of the furniture in stock, and weren't expecting it until January, and no one had rung us to confirm.  As we couldn't wait until January on the off chance that they might get it back in stock, the furniture company offered us a choice of a couple of other sets that were more expensive than we had paid, but they would foot the cost of the upgrade.  Well, the furniture we had originally ordered was pine, and the upgrade choices were either black or white.  So I rang them back, furious that they had our money and we weren't going to get the set that we wanted.  There was however another set listed that was pine wood, good quality that would fit far better with the style of our house.  So I rang up and insisted that as it was their problem, we wanted the more expensive wooden suite, and we wanted it on the same delivery date (as I had booked the day off).  Well after more haggling between me and the company they finally gave in and said we could have the suite we wanted, but we would have to pay an additional fee.  Considering that the furniture was worth about £700 more than what we had paid, and the wood is better quality than the original purchase, we actually did quite well out of it all.  I was furious at the time though, especially as if I hadn't called they wouldn't have told me the problem, and I would have wasted my one last day off before Christmas!

The collection is a set of cot, wardrobe, changing table, shelf, toy box and sliding (rocking) chair.  I've started putting everything away, with all the baby clothes being washed and put in the wardrobe, and all the nappies, wet wipes etc in the changing table unit.  We've even got the hospital bags packed!  Well considering I'm now 37 weeks plus 6 days it was about time!  I'm just waiting for Baby to arrive now, and I wish she would hurry up!

PS Thank you to Sian for pointing me in the direction of the following blog where I downloaded the template to arrange the photos in this way.

The One About Getting my Creativity Back...

Yesterday, I actually used my craft space!  I got two more pages done for my Christmas Journal, and I am determined to get it finished even if I'm still doing it in the Spring!

The only problem is, after about an hour and a half, despite having my feet propped up on a stool under the desk my ankles and feet (and even my toes) balloon completely out of proportion.  So I'm having to scrap in short stints, then come downstairs and put ice on my feet!

But anyway, here are the pages:

One about the wrapping paper that we used this year:

Then one about a surprise card I got from one of the customers that I deal with at work:

The Inside of the card:

The hidden journalling:

The One About the Bump Update...

So I have been a very bad blogger for the last month, but I just wanted to provide an update to say Baby has not yet arrived, I've just been having a rest!

The last three weeks of work before Christmas were majorly stressful, trying to get everything up to date, and training my maternity cover ready for the handover.  I did really long hours, then was just shattered when I got home.  Then of course there was Christmas.  I've got loads of photos but I think its a bit late to be sharing them now in the middle of January!  And my Christmas Journal... hasn't got any further forward than when I last updated!  Christmas was great and it was nice to finally be able to take a breath.  M was off the week between Christmas & New Year and it was lovely to have that time together not doing very much at all.  We did go to the cinema with my Mum & brother to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie, and it was fab!  M told me afterwards that he was worried all the way through that my waters might go!  Thankfully they didn't and we had a lovely day out.

I'm now officially on maternity leave, and I'm not doing much at all!  Watching daytime TV, or movies.  And although my intention was to catch up on scrapping whilst on maternity leave, as I know I won't have much time when Baby comes along, I just haven't felt like it.  So there we go.

We've been taking photos every two weeks of me and the Bump to keep a record of how I've grown, using an idea that M got from another blog (although I can't remember which it was now), me wearing the same white top & having a different coloured sticker with the number of weeks on it.

We now seem to be ready, and with only three weeks till due date I'm quite glad!  We had our ante natal class at the weekend and are more prepared for the birth, and what we want.  We went to visit the hospital last night so we know exactly where to go on the day.  Then when we got back we packed the hospital bags, and apart from a few little bits that will need packing closer to the time, I think we have everything.

We took the 36 week photos yesterday evening, and I know you can't really tell from the photos but Bump has definitely dropped!  Only slightly, but Bump feels different and Baby's bum is lower down now!  She's been head down for a couple of weeks now, and doesn't sit in the middle, she always tends to stay on my right.  She kicks a lot, and she sometimes kicks to a regular beat, although I think she's doing it with her hand as it's always in my pelvis.  We think she's doing it in time to my heart beat, but we've got nothing to prove it!

Anyway thats all for now, I might even pop back with pictures of the nursery soon :)