you TRY to do the right thing.......

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to order a pack of 3 bump bands. Lest you are unaware of what a bump band is, they are basically designed for you to wear around the top of your trousers when you're pregnant and they're just a bit too tight to do up.
                                                              

                                                                                                                     Note: this is not me, I am barely showing!

They are meant to hide the fact that you are in fact walking around with your trousers undone, but are still too small for maternity clothes. So I thought it would be a good idea to get some! I checked the online tracking thing that they provide and saw that apparently they had been delivered to our house and that the package had been left inside the front porch. We don't have a front porch. Hmmmm. I called the customer help line and explained the situation to them. They explained to me that they must have been delivered because that's what the couriers have reported. I went on to explain that yes, they may well have delivered them, but not to my house. So they refunded me and told me that if I wanted them to go into the store and get them. Fair enough. I didn't really need them at that point anyway and thought I would be able to go a couple more weeks without needing them.

A week later.....which is today.....

My trousers were feeling a little snug today. They felt a bit tight this morning but I thought to myself, I'm sure I'll be fine, I'll just hold myself in. All well and good, if you're holding in a stomach that doesn't have a baby inside. So my plan didn't quite work. Today, I had a fun day of walking around with my trousers undone. Luckily my top was long enough to cover it, otherwise it seriously would not have been a pretty sight!

This evening when I got home from work, lo and behold, there was a parcel on the doorstep. The bump bands had arrived. I'm guessing that they had in fact been delivered to the wrong house and they brought it to my door. As pleased as I was that I finally had bump bands which had arrived in my hour of need, I had been refunded for them and now, I had them. So the first thing I did was to call the customer service line again to let them know the situation and to try and sort it out. This is how it went:

Me: Hi, I ordered some bump bands a couple of weeks ago but they never showed up. Your tracking system said that they had been delivered but I never got them so you refunded me. They must have gone to a neighbour's house or something because today when I got home from work, they were on my doorstep. Can I pay for them over the phone?
Person: So you have them now then?
Me: Yes, I do.
Person: Obviously, I can't make you take them back to the shop, that IS your decision. But that's what we would advise.
Me: Well, the thing is, I actually do need them and want to keep them, so can I pay for it over the phone?
Person: We would advise that you take them back to the shop, but we can't make you, and it is your decision. Then they will refund you
Me: I'm not trying to steal them, I just want to pay for them. So if I take them back to the shop and they refund me, then I will have two refunds. I just want to pay for them.
Person: If you take them back to the shop, then they will refund you, then you can buy them back again.
Me: Then I still haven't paid for them because it will be the same situation that I am in now.
Person: Look, I can't make you take them back to the shop. But that's what we would advise that you do.
Me: Here is the situation. I need them now. Today I was walking around with my trousers undone, so they are very much a need. So, can I keep these ones then when I am able to, go into the store, have them put another lot of them through the till so that I can pay for them and then I won't take the other ones away, so I will have just paid for what I have.
Person: ...........sorry?
Me: (I explained it all again)
Person: Well, you can do that if you want, I can't tell you what to do, I can't make you pay for them, but we would advise that you go into the store.
Me: Thank you very much, goodbye.

Was I not speaking English? did I just not explain myself that well? Surely it shouldn't be that hard? So the upshot of it is, I am not stealing the bump bands. I never had any intention of doing that anyway. I will go into the shop on Saturday, pay for them and all will be merry and bright. I'm hoping that I will have more luck in the shop!

Singing for Sarcoma

A couple of weekends ago, Mum and Laura came down to stay with us. It's always lovely to have them with us but there was a specific reason for them coming - on Saturday night, Laura and I were singing in a concert to raise money for sarcoma. There is a lovely lady in my branch at church, Pat, who is suffering from sarcoma and she tries to do everything she can to raise awareness and money for the charity.

She really is one of the nicest people you will ever meet and so when we were asked to sing, we were only too happy to oblige.

During the day on Saturday, Mum, Laura and I went out for a little while. Our time pretty much consisted of sitting in the krispy kreme cafe, eating doughnuts, drinking hot chocolate and chatting. We always seem to find loads to talk about! I had the chocolate dreamcake doughnut. It has to be done, it is truly divine! Later on in the day, we went to Pizza Hut which Seth joined us for, then we headed to the concert. We had to be there early to have a sound check and we'd never been to the church building where the concert was being held before. That was really bad English wasn't it? It doesn't really read that well, but never mind, you get the point of what I am saying :). We managed to find the building just in time, only there were loads of roadworks in front of it and we missed the turning for the car park. Laura and I got out of the car at this point and, with the guitar, we walked back to the chapel while Mum and Seth tried to find a way to get back in. The front gate of the church building was locked and when Laura saw that, she suggested that we jump the fence, at which point, I exclaimed, "I'm pregnant!" The man in front of us found that pretty amusing and agreed that it might not be the best idea! We managed to get into the building without too much drama though. No, I didn't jump the fence, we went through the car park entrance.

                                                                       
The concert was a big success. All sorts of music was performed and the building was full. Laura and I had fun singing our songs!

 

It's not that we love performing, we just enjoy singing and playing together, so it's nice that we were able to do it for a good cause. A lot of money was raised which was fantastic, Pat was thrilled. It was a really enjoyable evening and I'm glad that we were able to be a part of that.

Ramblings

Seth and I were laying in bed talking the other night about us having a baby. He commented on how quickly the time had gone by from when we first found out I was pregnant to now and how it only seemed like yesterday that we found out. I thought completely the opposite, if feels like it was months ago we found out! I thought about it and my thoughts on the matter were that although Seth is excited about it, he's not carrying the baby so he probably doesn't think about it as much as I do, and so the time thus far has passed quickly for him. But for me, I probably think about it at least 100 times a day and so it feels like I've been pregnant for a while already. That's not a bad thing in any way. I'm looking forward to all of the firsts - seeing the bump emerge, feeling the baby move, etc.

I was looking in the mirror this morning and there isn't really any sign of a bump, which I wouldn't overly expect just yet anyway! My stomach is looking a little bigger than normal but you wouldn't think I was pregnant. This made me think ahead to maternity clothes. It'll probably be a little while yet before I actually need to get any, but I don't think that there's anything wrong with looking at the websites to see what's out there! I have come to this conclusion - if you want nice maternity clothes, go to America. That's not to say that all of our clothes are horrible, or maybe I just don't know where to look yet but they are pretty expensive and some of the clothes, well, they are quite horrible! I was looking on the Old Navy website which, for us English people, is a cheaper sister company of Gap and they have so many nice tops on there! I could see my pregant self wearing some of those. So I have decided that because shipping costs so much, there is only one solution - I shall simply have to fly out to the States myself and go maternity clothes shopping. I quite like my plan, but I have yet to let Seth in on it. I think he might disagree with me, although I can't imagine why.

I find myself noticing pregnant people more when I'm out and about now and I often wonder how far along they are. Some look like they are ready to burst, whereas I know some other people who, even at 9 months, still didn't really look pregnant. It makes me wonder how big I am going to get! It's not something I'm worried about or anything because I have no control over it anyway (I may well worry about giving birth if I'm massive, however!). Seth likes to remind me that babies in his family are big. I always then remind him that I was only 3lb. Yes, I was also 2 months premature but that's not the point. I guess in a few months time we will see how big I get!

On another note, has anyone ever watched One Born Every Minute? It pretty much shows people giving birth. The day after it has been on TV, there are always quite a few facebook comments about how much people love the show. So last week I decided to watch it to see what all the fuss was about. I thought that as an expectant mother I might find it quite interesting. I watched it for ten minutes. How can people watch that??! I was seriously traumatised, it was awful! Maybe it's entertaining for people who have already had children or something but really? I thought it was horrible and I really don't see what all the fuss is about. So I just flicked over to another channel and watched Mamma Mia instead. Much better!

Two little lines........

.....Can only mean one thing. Well I don't know, maybe it means a lot of things, but for us, when I saw those little lines, it meant that I'm pregnant!We're both so excited about it.

Seth and I had always agreed that when I took a pregnancy test, we would both be there together so that we would find out the results at the same time. I had always planned on sticking to this plan. Even as I was walking up the steps to our house on the evening I took the pregnancy test, I was still planning on sticking to it. It was a different issue when I walked into the house though :). I'd had a couple of dreams that I was pregnant, and although I really wanted to be, I didn't think I was. I'm not one who thinks that if I dream about something it will happen, but I couldn't seem to get it out of my head. So, when I got in from work that day, I thought, you know what, I'm just going to take a test because to prove that I'm not pregnant (such positivity! I didn't want to get my hopes up though) and then I'll know that the dreams were just dreams and nothing more. I didn't wait the full three minutes or however long you have to wait to find out, so imagine my surprise when I saw the two little lines! I was thrilled and I cried and then I thought to myself, "oh no, Seth is going to kill me", which clearly he wouldn't, but still! Amidst my elation I also felt terribly guilty for not waiting to take the test with him. The worst thing was waiting for him to get home from work. I get in at around 6pm and that evening he didn't get in until almost 8. Waiting for him felt like an eternity! When he got in, the first thing I said to him was, "you're going to be angry with me", at which point he just grinned at me and said, "you took a pregnancy test, didn't you?". He knows me so well! When I told him the news, he was as thrilled as I was. Now, I'm one of these people who always like to make sure things are right. This also runs to pregnancy tests apparently, so at around 9pm that night, I sent Seth out to get me another pregnancy test. The one I used was a cheapo one and even though it had given me a positive result, I thought that getting a better one would be good, you know, just to make sure. I needn't have bothered as the next morning when I took it, it was the same result. You would have thought that this was the first test that I had taken as I was every bit as happy! Seth laughed at me because for him, the first test was enough, the second one was definitely for my benefit.

I am now 13 weeks pregnant and I have to say, I have been feeling okay. I've been tired but I quite often am anyway. I haven't had any morning sickness which is great, but I have had quite a bit of nausea just in the last few weeks. No cravings yet. There are things that I want, but I don't necessarily attribute that to the fact that I am pregnant. Just before Christmas, I went off savoury food and didn't like the taste of it as it made me feel sick, which is never a good thing! Not the feeling sick part (although that's not great either!) but going off savoury food. Man cannot live on chocolate alone! Luckily that didn't last too long.

We told our families the news at Christmas time. Ideally we would have liked to wait until the 12 week scan (even though I'd had one at 9 weeks) but we wanted to be able to tell them in person. When we told Mum and Laura, I showed them the bruise on my arm from the blood test that week. When they saw it, I casually told them that it was from my blood test at the midwife's appointment that week. They started to say how I always bruise when I have blood taken and then at around the same time, they both paused as Laura said, "wait a minute....midwife?". They were so happy, lots of hugs and Mum cried, as I knew she probably would. Laura has decided that if we have a boy we should call him Megatron and if we have a girl we should call her Nike. I am not in favour of this, although because of her, it seems that now we often refer to the baby as Megatron. Never a good thing.

When we went to Lin and Steve's house to tell them and the girls, I told them in the same way I'd told Mum and Laura. I'm not very imaginative when it comes to thinking up ways to tell people! They all screamed. Steve didn't, needless to say, although that I would have loved to have seen! We were over at Deb's for Christmas dinner when we told her family. Again, I told them the same way. Jamie was busy looking at my arm and tapping it when Deb realised what I had said. It was only when everyone reacted that Jamie cottoned on. His reaction was great when he finally realised, it was a cross between utter shock and sheer joy as he hugged me and commented on how I'm now all grown up. He's only three years younger than me, so we've pretty much all grown up together.

Telling Seth's family the news was just as fun. We had a picture of the 9 week scan on my phone. Myself, Seth, his parents and his brother Luke were all in the kitchen when Seth showed Kay (his Mum) the picture. She looked at it and said, "ooh, it's a baby....... (turning to me) your baby?!" When I nodded my head, she shrieked with happiness, which caused one of Seth's sisters and our sister in law to come running in from the lounge. They had guessed what the news was. It is so much fun telling people and seeing their reaction. It's a bit weird because I was so excited about telling our families the news but I was fully prepared for them to maybe not be all that excited as it's us having the baby, not them. But our families are all so excited and happy for us, it's lovely to see.

Today we went for our scan. It was pretty funny, the baby was wriggling around so much and the sonographer couldn't get the measurements she needed so she kept poking the baby. She then tipped the bed so that my head was low down and my feet were in the air, I actually thought I was going to slide right off, thank goodness for the wall in the way! In the end she sent us off, told us to go and get a drink and a chocolate bar or something and come back an hour later. When we did that, the baby had calmed down a lot so she was able to take the measurements she needs. All seems to be well, so we are pleased about that! It was so amazing seeing our baby move around. Next scan - the 20 week one! With regards to finding out the sex of the baby...... Seth wants to know, I don't. So we shall see what happens with that one!

Hanging with the Mannings

See what I did there? Trying to go for the whole rhyming thing. It doesn't really work very well but if we can just overlook that then I shall crack on!

Having been with my family for a few days over Christmas, we then went up to see Seth's family. They only live an hour away from my family so it's not too far to travel. Seth is one of 7 children so it's always fun when the family is together over Christmas. Seth's eldest brother and his wife were not there as they live in California (lucky for some!), but we got to speak with them on skype which was nice.

On one of the evenings we played games together - a killer game of uno (I couldn't keep up and just tried to pretend that I know what was happening, but they are seriously fierce! It's a case of survival of the fittest. Sadly that does not include me, although having said that, I didn't lose so that's something at least!) and an after dinner game which was just random general knowledge questions about music, literature, etc. We played boys vs girls, which always gets pretty competitive :). I think we lost by one point, but we glossed over that very quickly!

Sarah mutli-tasking - taking pictures, doing her assignment and playing games.

Shuffling a big fat pack of uno cards isn't as easy at it looks!

Look at April's face - see? I told you playing games with the Mannings is fierce!

Too many goodlooking boys in one family. The one in the middle of the picture is the best :)

The next day, Seth's sister, her husband Michael and their children all came over. They arrived when Seth and I were still getting ready and although we could hear them, they weren't running wild or anything, they were just playing and having fun. Then Uncle Seth arrives and that all changes!

He just had the three of them on him at this point, all four were wrestling with him later. He gets them completely hyped up and they can't get enough of it! I worry for when we have children, I know Seth will be an amazing Dad but our kids are going to be crazy!

We were only with the family for a few days and most of them had left in the time that we were there but it was a lot of fun being with them all. Seth's family is pretty spread out and most of them live in different parts of the country so it was lovely being able to spend time with them all in one place. I feel very blessed to have married into such a great family.

Family playtime

The lovely Sam and Caitlin got remote control cars for Christmas and Steve got a remote control helicopter (which my brothers-in-law Luke and Mark also got - not from me, I hasten to add!). They were eager to play with their new toys in a space bigger than the living room so on the Tuesday after Christmas, we headed down to our church building to play in the hall. We also played other games while we were all there such as rounders, dodgeball and bulldog. Sadly, Seth was ill at stayed in bed at Mum's but the rest of us had fun playing together. Here are a few pictures.

Jess and Cait having some down time

Lining up for bulldog. It was very intense.

Laura trying on Cait's t-shirt.

I'll be home for Christmas

Seth and I have been married for nearly two and a half years. Having spoken with some of my married friends, they were really looking forward to spending Christmas together, just the two of them. Seth and I do love spending time together, of course, but for us a huge part of Christmas is getting to share it with our families. We went home on Friday morning, leaving pretty early so that we arrived at my house in good time. It was lovely to see Mum and Laura again. We only saw them a couple of weeks ago when we came home for Mum's Birthday but it was lovely to see them anyway!

Christmas Day was wonderful. We got up at around 7.00am to open presents. I did take photos of it and no, they're not going on here because who really wants to see photos of us with messy hair, no make up and in our pjs? Not a pretty sight to behold! We then went to church. I was wondering if many people would be there or if they would have stayed home today but it was lovely to see how many people were there. There were a lot of friends who we have not seen for years. I love how everyone comes home for Christmas, it's so nice to see the familiar faces again!

We went to my eldest sister, Deb's house for Christmas dinner. There were quite a few of us there, which always adds to the fun of it all. Deb made quite a feast which was delicious.
 After dinner, we had fun watching everyone opening their presents. The funniest person to watch would have to be my nephew, Jamie, who is three years younger than me. To look at him, he dresses very well, he's pretty trendy and he gets on really well with everyone. But when you look at him, you wouldn't think that he is also a huge Michael Buble fan and has read every Jane Austen book! His recent love is antiques. It was great to see his reaction when he unwrapped his silver candelabra and his silver bonbon dish. The rest of us were looking on and just laughing to see how excited he was with those two presents, it was hilarious!

After the presents, we played, "who am I?". Deb had to ask questions to find out who she was and the person she had to guess actually ended up being her. It was pretty amusing seeing her try to figure it out.

When we left Deb's, we all headed over to Lin and Steve's to see them and the kids. I love having all of the family together. Caitlin was overjoyed that Seth was there and was playing with him for a while. There were about 5 different conversations going on at once, as there always is when we all get together, it's just fun listening to it all and taking it all in.

It has been a really fun Christmas, and I maintain that Christmas spent with the family is definitely the best.