The One About Names of First Pets.....

A couple of weeks ago M & I were watching All Star Mr & Mrs with Fern and Philip.  You know the one with famous couples that have to answer questions about each other.  Well one of the questions was 'what was the name of your partners first pet?' And this sparked off a whole conversation that lasted all evening.

Well I remembered that M's cats were called Frank & Toby, but M couldn't remember what my cats were called that we had when I was younger.  He was able to name the ones that are still at my mum's now, but then thats easy because we see them every couple of weeks, and anyway they weren't the first pet.  My sister and I got a kitten each when I was about 6 and she was 4.

So then we started a guessing game.  M likes guessing games, particularly if you give clues.  So after a few clues, he got the names of my sisters kitten, 'Poppy.'  But the name of my kitten was far more tricky, there weren't actually many clues you could give.  So this is where the story came out about how we came up with the names for our kittens.  My sister named hers after a character on the Playbus.  So then I decided to name my kitten after a TV character too.  Mine was a boy kitten, which may have helped give you a clue with guessing the name, and bearing in mind I was 6 in 1987/88, that would give you an idea of what TV programmes we would have been watching.  Then, then name started with an 'M', and he was named after a dragon..... in Puddle Lane.

Well needless to say M never guessed the name of the kitten because after doing a search on the internet it turned out that the dragon in Puddle Lane is called Toby! (How weird is that, as that was the name of M's cat), so the name of my kitten was 'Muffin' - gold star if you got it.  And since that evening, I now have no idea where the name came from?

This story was written as part os Sian's storytelling Sunday, (a day late, sorry) so make sure you pop over to read all the other stories!

The One About Baby Bump Week 20...

My belly has expanded some more, and so I thought I'd share another bump photo:

Last weekend I went to the Trafford Centre with my friend N to buy some maternity clothes.  Fantastic though the belly belt expander was, it just wasn't working for me any more, so I took the plunge and went shopping for some maternity trousers.  Unfortunately, not many shops do a maternity range, and if they do its not always that great.  I've found Dorothy Perkins & Next to be the best so far.  And I've learnt that you can't just buy a pair of trousers, you have to try them first, and really you should try sitting down in them too.  Which was my mistake.  I bought a lovely pair of jeans, but found that when I got them home and sat down in them, they actually dug into my belly, so they are going back to the shop.  And for now I have to live with wearing M's jeans that are too short for him!  I have found some lovely clothes on a site called Jojo Maman Bebe, but it's quite expensive, so it might just be a few one off's that I get from there.  I've already spotted a lovely dress that I could wear for the Christmas Do!

Since this photo was taken it feels as though my belly has risen some more, and I'm sure I look bigger!  We'll have to try to take pictures on a more weekly basis to keep a better record of the changes!

The One About Ladies Circle...

Before I moved in with M, I was a member of my local Ladies Circle.  This is a national organisation for women aged between (I think) 18 and 44, to get together fortnightly to try new things and to generally meet like minded people without men!  Their website will explain it all far better than I do, although I cannot seem to get on their website at the moment, but I promise they do have one!

Well, last year we would meet on the first Monday of the month for an arranged outing of some sort, like a spa treatment, evening with a handwriting expert or a meal, then on the third Monday of the month whoever was free would go to the pub for a drink.  It was always the same pub at the same time, although it was never guaranteed that anyone else would be there!  Well when I moved in with M, it was too far to drive on a week night, and I decided it would be best to switch to a more local one.  Unfortunately the local Circle met on a Thursday night which clashed with salsa class.

Fast forward a year, where I'm pregnant and unable to do any sort of spinning! and so I looked up the Thursday night circle again and decided to give it a try.  The first meeting was a little daunting, driving to a pub for a quiz which seemed as though it was in the middle of nowhere, and meeting people that you didn't have a clue what they looked like!  Luckily I had one of the ladies mobile numbers and they met me at the door, especially as the pub was so packed I would never have found them!  We did quite well with our quiz, getting 41 out of 50, and I was invited along to the next evening, two weeks later, which was a short walk near one of the ladies homes followed by a chinese take away.  It's nice that being part of Ladies Circle, you're instantly made to feel welcome.  Up till then I hadn't really done any exercise since about week 5,  but was told it would be a gentle walk, and with one of the other ladies being pregnant too I figures it would be ok.  How wrong was I?!!!  The others literally frog marched their way along, and there was lots of hills & cobbles to contend with!  I was very shortly out of breath!  Despite all this I had a lovely chinese and got to know the ladies a bit better.

Hoever, the next day I got home from work, and shortly after getting into my comfy slobbing on the sofa clothes I noticed that my ankles had swollen up, a lot!

And actually they were quite painful.  On advice from the internet I laid on the sofa all evening with my feet propped up on cushions, and M gave them a rub for me, which helped.  So that lovely walk that I did gave me swollen feet.  I didn't think I would be getting swollen ankles yet this early in the pregnancy, at week 19, so any advice would be great!  Unfortunately its happened again today - which is what prompted me to write this post, and I might give the midwife a call tomorrow.  Luckily I have got tomorrow booked off, so if I have to I can spend the day with my feet up!

The One About Whether we have a Pink One or a Blue One.....

So yesterday afternoon we went for our second scan.  Just like any other first time mum's to be I was feeling incredibly excited, but apprehensive too, just in case there was something wrong.  But I was worrying over nothing (as per normal) and baby passed all the checks, and all the measurements were ok, and we got to have a good look.  And wow has baby grown since the last scan!  We could see all the bones, and the spine in particular, we could see the little heart beating away, and the lady was even able to get a close-up of the heart to see all four chambers.  Just so you can get a sense of how big baby is, the thigh bone measured at 3cm!  The lady said at the moment baby is about the size of my hand!  And the most astonishing thing of all.... baby actually yawned twice whilst the scan was being done and we got to see!  Oh and baby's arms are both up near their face, which is why you can't see them in the picture below.

So we (I really) were desperate to find out the sex of the baby, and it was fairly clear that we're having a girl!  Which is what I've said all along, and there was a lot of family history in that girls are always born first, on both sides of the family, so we're really excited and grandparents to be are knitting away in pinks & purples!  The next thing to do is to get the baby's room ready, we have furniture coming at the end of November, now the question is, will we be ready??? Electrics need doing, ceiling & walls need plastering, then the room needs painting, and all the current furniture needs moving out! (Slight problem with that - the room its going into also needs a sort out) can you tell I'm panicking slightly?? Well we're only just coming up to 20 weeks, so it means we've still got half the time again to get the house ready!

The One About 10 Pregnancy related facts.....

So this month I've actually remembered about the 10th for Shimelle's ten on the 10th, and thought I might just take part.  Last month the 10th just whizzed straight by!

So I thought I'd share some pregnancy related information :)

1. We're currently at 19 weeks

2. On Monday we have our next scan and we're hoping to find out what we're having

3. We went to the Baby Show at the G-mex last Saturday and ordered our pram and all the nursery furniture

4. I was measured by an m&s lady who said I was obviously going to get very big, when asked how she could know that she replied 'because you bump has risen already' so now I'm worrying as I thin we'll be having a big baby.  It runs in M's family, M, his sister, his dad were all 9lbs or more!

5. I felt the first flutterings of baby inside me at week 16, then a week later M could feel her too with her hand!

6. We have bought a machine that lets you listen to baby's heartbeat, which we had a go on the other night, baby's heartbeat is really fast compared to ours!

7. I've managed to come off the anti-sickness tablets, and haven't felt as bad.  Having to drink lots of water, and eat plenty to keep the sickness away though.  Cake for dessert after dinner (thats the evening meal to any of you northerners out there - ongoing argument, which probably deserves it's own blog post!) and two packs of crisps every day!

8. I've been buying maternity clothes!  Jogging trousers for lounging round the house, and a T-shirt that says 'I love my bump' with a picture of Mr Bump from the Mr men on, as well as other things too

9. Apparently its really easy to strain a muscle.  A hormone is released during pregnancy that relaxes your muscles so they can stretch as the rest of you stretch.  What did I do?  Stretch a muscle just from carrying a basket of dirty washing down two flights of stairs!

10. So far I have put on 12lbs since getting pregnant!

The One About Bump Week 17...

So we've finally taken a couple of pictures with me and the mini-bump, I can't believe that we're already 17 weeks along!

We went to visit our friends S & R in their new flat on the way back from London, and they took our pictures:

The One About our Weekend at Wembley...

At the start of August M & his dad went to watch their rugby team in the semi-final.  I had been told that if they won that match the final was being held in Wembley on the Saturday of the bank holiday weekend.  When they came back that evening they were incredibly happy, as they had indeed won the match and were set to play in the final.  So they got straight onto ordering tickets for the final, and a hotel nearby.  I told them that I was coming too, I wasn't going to miss a trip out!

So the weekend finally came round, we set off at 7am in the car (on account of me still suffering from the sickness, and needing the loo fairly regularly!), and even saw a rainbow not far from home.

Which really wasn't a good sign as it meant we were heading into torrential rain!  But we came through it, and remembered to count the Eddie's that we saw along the way (only 18 on the way down).  We had to stop practically every hour on the way down, so we saw a good few service stations!  The first one was really quiet, but the second one was packed with all the Wigan Warrior fans that were travelling down in coaches, and we had passed a fair few coaches up till then.  But this service station was really crowded and noisy, and the queue for the loo's was out the door!  Needless to say we didn't stay too long!

We got to the hotel about 11:30am which, given all the toilet breaks wasn't too bad going.  Only problem was they wouldn't let us in our rooms until 1pm as they hadn't been cleaned yet.  So instead we had our packed lunch in the car park round the back of the hotel.  (This hotel was picked based on the fact that it had free parking for its customers).  Anyway at 1pm, we were allowed up into one of the rooms so that we could get changed and leave the bags before heading off to Wembley.  The room wasn't great, the toilet seat had a chunk missing out of it, the curtains were smaller than the windows, and the room just smelt stale.  But we weren't going to be put off and we set off to find the tube stop.  It was only at this point that I realised that I should have got myself one of those special badges that tells people you're pregnant, and then they (hopefully) give up their seat for you.  But it didn't matter as there was lots of choice.

Quarter of an hour later and we, and hundreds of other fans arrived at Wembley.  It was busy but not too crowded.  And we saw all sorts of things on our walk tot he stadium, people were dressed up as all sorts of different characters, priest, scooby doo, super heroes.  It was mad!  Anyway there wasn't a queue to get in and we were able to get some drinks and go straight to our seats.  Shortly afterwards, the two teams came out, and the game started.

Wigan Warriors scored quite early on, then towards the end of the first half Leeds went on to score.  They scored a try at one point which we thought really didn't deserve to be a try as they hadn't properly put the ball down over the line, but as we came to see throughout the match the ref seemed to be biased.

Leeds then scored twice in quick succession in the second half, and we were all quite tense until our team scored again.  There was one try in the second half that was obviously a proper try, but the ref watched the video play back about 5 times before he awarded it.  We were all getting really very cross with him!  Anyway this try brought our team well into the lead, which meant they went on to win the match!  It was all so exciting!  They let fireworks off at the end, and the team did a lap of the field.

I would go on to give details about our hotel room (which was just as bad as the first room) or the meal out that we had at Weatherspoons (which was just awful), but that would just spoil the experience of Wembley!

This was brought to you as part of Sian's Storytelling Sunday, albeit a few days late!