Little one: 15 weeks.. pregnancy progess!

It feels strange to be blogging these so early as when I started my blog/these with Rio I was well into my third trimester. I always regretted that, and this time I hope to remember and cherish every week as this may well be my last pregnancy. Hmmm ;)

Sickness:
90% of the time I feel fine, which compared to hyperemesis with Rio feels amazing! Other days I find myself exhausted and everything makes me feel sick/gip/occasionally be sick.

Bump:
I feel like i'm showing so much earlier this time around, as a lot of people say you do with your second. I've already outgrown my work trousers and I'm finding jeans un comfy, though my maternity jeans are still too big (See picture). When I wake up for the toilet in the night my hand is always on my stomach now too..strange how the mind works, but nice!

Stretchmarks:
I obviously still have the faded white stretchmarks from Rio as he is only 1 year old but so far they have not come back into colour, stretched or have I got any more.

Sleep:
When i'm not waking to go to the toilet, my sleep is full with crazy dreams. I've finally stopped waking at silly oclock in the morning so hopefully that was just a phase.

Movement:
Little ones movement is so unpredictable, sometime I can feel them roll over under my skin, others I feel real little kicks, or just bubbles popping. I know its a lot early than most so when I have days of not feeling much/anything at all...I don't worry :)

Other:
My screening blood came back low risk :) and so far, unlike with Rio, I have no feeling to what the sex is this time. Though i'm guessing another little boy :) My boobs are also really painful so i'm hoping I might get to give breastfeeding a go this time too! Oh and i'm considering homebirth!

Rio: 21 months update!

Rio is well and truly a little boy now. He's got such a little personality and is so clever! Every month I struggle to know what to put in these updates but here's a taster of Rio 21 months...

Scenario:
Mummy & Rio are sat at the window watching the birds feeding in the garden, suddenly our dog scares them all away.

Rio: Naughty Jessie!!
Rio: Flew away mummy
Mummy: Yes darling, they have!
Rio: Gone to seaside.....I think!

He loves doing ring-a-roses and knows the words, as he does with head shoulders knees and toes.
He can count to ten,when he wants to, but most days will only go to 6. He knows the colours for orange, purple, brown, blue, green and red. But will only do orange and purple 100% of the time...other than that he will shout red for everything!! I slyly watch him colouring/playing play dough though and he will name all the listed colours above. No luck with him trying to dress himself, he's all fingers and thumbs with that. "Mummy do it"

And seems as though he can do a line and a circle on command, id say he's 75% there to writing his own name ;) RIO

His appetite has finally improved! He is now in NEXT 12-18 tops and 9-12 pants. It so great to see him being enthusiastic about food and he has cut milk out totally (if you don't include the bowl full he makes me tip on his wheetabix). He now prefers juice from his peppa pig "big boy cup".

He's obsessed with peppa pig, going to feed the horses and astrabound (soft play hell).

He knows there's a baby in my belly :)

I found out i was pregnant, then fell down the stairs: A diary

-- Im shaking writing this, just when id prematurely given up hope, I take a test to confirm my disappointment. My period is due tomorrow. But as I turn the test over, everything is different. This time theres a little +. Im pregnant. Were pregnant. I hold my hands out in front of me..still shaking! I'm trying to act normal..get through tea, find the perfect time to tell Craig. But im nervous? Its what we both want, but now its happened..im scared! This changes things dramatically. Seeing Rio with Annalise this weekend, although troublesome at times, has confirmed that I want him to be a big brother more than anything. He's going to be such a good one, you can see it. That's providing I get past twelve weeks..theres always that.


--I whispered the word 'pregnant' to Rio, told him to tell Daddy. Craig said "We did it!"..we did, we actually did.


--I feel sicky in the night, I hardly sleep, pregnancy gives you the craziest dreams. I've remembered I need more Folic Acid. My skins horrible too.

--Today the worst thing happened. I fell down the stairs. Broke my foot in two places but all I could think sat at the bottom was "but im pregnant!". There's been no cramping, no bleeding. Hopefully we will be okay. They couldn't/wouldn't xray me. Instead I got examined and re examined. Half potted up and full potted up the next day after the genius fracture specialist felt my foot, prodded the centre and generally hurt me until I felt sick to confirm that yes I had broke my 4th and 5th metatarsals.

--The nausea is all day now, sometimes it is manageable, others it just creeps up and devours me. Everything is making me feel sick. Apparently chicken pie and mash is a no no!

--The tiredness has started, by 12.30 im exhausted and willing Rio to nap. At first he did but he seems to have grown out of them abit, and some days we both do without. On these days an 8pm bedtime is imminent.

--On top of the previous I am now full of cold. Great!

--FYI frequent urination is bad enough without having a pot and having to bum shuffle up and down stairs.

--I seem to be able to control my sickness by eating every few hours, which is great.. apart from the fact that i'm probably going to gain 10 stone! *slight..okay huge, exaggeration*. Cheese and turkey jumbo sandwiches from Cooplands are my current love.

--Today I am 8 weeks pregnant, the midwife finally rang me back and arranged my booking appointment for the first week in December. Hoping I can get my scan in time..it falls so close to Christmas you never know. And by rang I mean left a message on my voicemail, for my dad to hear while he was looking after Rio and me and Craig we're shopping. The Christmas surprise is no longer a Christmas surprise for my side of the family now. Which annoys me, getting to 12 weeks was always my goal first, especially all things considered.

--My mum said she knew I was pregnant. I had a glow about me when we went over for tea weeks ago. Just as me and Craig had found out. She thought we'd let slip when I fell down the stairs but as we didn't she played along with my "xray" story.

-- 12 weeks, still no scan, having to wait until the 3rd January because of Christmas. Everyone important knows now regardless.

--Feeling lots better :)

-- Scrap that, got a sickness bug and spent the last 24 hours in bed. Attempted sale shopping in Leeds today. Big mistake! Swear i can feel the baby sometimes on a night?

-- Had my scan today :) I'm 14 weeks tomorrow. Second trimester, the first one went by so quickly this time. Little one was sat up so I had to drink more and wait to be scanned again. Only to roll upside down giving us the worst scan picture ever but who cares? They was kicking off the walls, landing on their bum over and over again :) before curling up with a hand next to their face! Too cute. Rio wasn't that entertained. Instead he took the opportunity of quietness to chant "bugger bugger bugger". God help us ;)

New years eve..a fishy outing!

As much as time as a couple is important in the world of Parenting, I cannot understand the need to go out and waste lots of money on new years eve only to have a hangover to show for it the next day.  So instead, this year we've opted to use a fraction of that cost and go for a day out at THE DEEP!

We told Rio the night before and getting into bed, and up the next morning, was a constant chant of 'fishes'. Rio was also convinced he'd see a penguin. Highly unlikely little man!

See the middle photo? That's his cheeky little reaction to seeing penguins, okay...not real penguins..but I had told him repeatedly there'd be NO penguins!

He spent the rest of the time running around and sitting at various tanks in awe!

As for when 12 oclock comes? We'll all be tucked up in bed waiting for the fireworks and text messages to wake us up again. We're so rock and roll! ;)

Christmas Craft: Lightbulb edition!

I've been working non stop up to Christmas, so getting in the festive spirit this year has been harder than usual. I use every minute I get with Rio getting him to be excited for Santa, crafting and singing away. So when I was asked if I wanted to enter a Christmas craft competition I thought why not? I'm not really good but every little helps ;)

The task? To decorate a lightbulb!

My first attempt, a reindeer, kind of 'melted' when I dried him with the hairdryer. Oopsie!

So I raided the cupboards for another bulb, the last one, remind me to buy another, and started again with a more 'simple' design.

- First I covered the metal with red tape then added red ribbon.

- I then let Rio splodge some gold glitter glue on and added little pom poms to those areas.

- I then finished off by putting little dots of silver glitter glue to the bulb. And although it doesn't look in the pictures, in real life the clear glass with the little dots actually does like quite pretty.

If like me, you'd like to do some Christmas crafts, or even enter to win £100 John Lewis vouchers last minute. You can read all the details here.

Christmas crafts with Hobbycraft

I hear "want to draw", countless times a day. Rio loves drawing. He'll get out his crayons and his paper and will happily sit and draw circles ("snowmen") endlessly. Recently we've been venturing out into crafts.. leaf art, footprints, painting and what not. So when asked if we'd like to try out Christmas crafts I thought, why not?

Annalise is craft crazy so of course we invited her over to join the fun.

The candy canes, glitter gingerbread men etc given to decorate the tree were so creative and easy to use but the star was a little fiddly to keep balanced.

If you've ever been to Hobbycraft you will know that the list of things to do/create is endless, so there is something for everyone, quite literally! If tree's aren't your thing why not have a go at creating your own wreath?

This kit retails at £5 and is currently included in hobbycrafts 3for2 offer!

Overall they were lots of fun to do, even at Rio's age, and made great personal decorations for the Grandparents!!

This product was sent to me free of charge for review. The content and opinions however are all truthful and my own!

Rio's first advent experience

Other than buttons, Rio wasn't really much of a chocolate eater last year so we didn't get him an advent calendar. This year he's a bit more interested in Christmas, and chocolate, so when Craigs mum offered to quilt him one we was like "yes please grandma". Its filled with a mixture of things, mainly Christmas themed chocolates and kinder. And although he doesn't know how to find the right number, he has pretty good fun guessing :)