Pregnancy update

I realised that I haven't really mentioned that much about being pregnant this time around here on the blog so I thought that I would do it now!

As of today, I am 35 weeks and 5 days pregnant, which should mean that I have around 5 weeks left but who knows? My due date is the 17th January, so less than a month now. I think I was around 6 days overdue with Caleb. I kind of think that I might be early this time around, not really based on anything other than the fact that my bump is so low it feels like it's down at my knees right now! I have been keeping fairly well, other than the usual pregnancy tiredness and general aches and pains. I don't think that my SPD has been as bad this time as it was with Caleb although there have been some days when I have practically fallen out of bed in the mornings because of the pain in my pelvis, fun and games! The skin on my stomach is really sensitive and it hurts to even touch it which isn't the most fun in the world but in the grand scheme of things, it could be much worse! I think the most annoying thing for me has been the fact that I have had a cold since the beginning of October and it is still hanging around. It's frustrating that I can't really take anything to get rid of it. Every time I think it's starting to go away it comes back with a vengeance. I'm now fairly certain that I will just have this cold until the baby is born.

I can't remember if I have mentioned it before or not, but we did find out what we are having at the 20 week scan. (Does anyone remember when I blogged about how I would never find out what we are having? Yeah, I went back on that but I had my reasons and I am glad that we found out). We (I) didn't want anyone else to know and I think I have done pretty well in keeping it a secret, I have grown so used to calling the baby "it". People have tried to get me to spill the beans by asking if Caleb is excited to have a brother / sister. The other day at church, someone said to Caleb, "are you going to have a little brother or a sister?" to which he responded, "sister!". I then asked him, "are you going to have a little sister or a brother?" to which he responded, "brother!". He pretty much just says whichever one he hears the last, ha ha! Maybe it would help to prepare him more if we told him what we are having but I don't really feel like it will make that much difference either way for him, plus, I still don't 100% trust scans and so I don't want to tell him one thing only for it to then end up being the other, if that were to happen!

Caleb has been very sweet with regards to the whole pregnancy thing. He knows that Mummy has a baby in her tummy, although I'm not sure if he really grasps what that means. He will come up to me, rub my tummy and then hold his hands up and say, "finished!" (he has helped me moisturise the bump a few times and I think he picked it up from that, ha!). He will also ask to kiss the baby and kiss my bump or just lay his head on it. The other day, I was putting him into his highchair so his head was level with the bump when he sat down. He spoke to my tummy and said, "would you like a kiss? One kiss...two...three....four" and kissed my bump four times, which was so cute. He's going to get the shock of his life when there is an actual baby living in the house! I have tried to get him used to babies as much as possible by always pointing them out to him. He is always very gentle with them and always wants to touch their hands / stroke their hair. My nephew and his wife have recently had a baby boy and it was so lovely to see Caleb with him. Sometimes he would just go up and kneel down next to him. I really hope that Caleb adjusts well to having a baby here full time!

As for any pregnancy concerns that I may have, my main one is just how Caleb will adjust, and also how I will adjust to having two children! I have been so spoilt with Caleb in that he has always been a good sleeper so it will be interesting to see how well this baby sleeps. I am not too worried about the labour because I know I don't really have much control over what happens and I am happy to just go with it and take everything as it comes. Caleb was a back to back baby with a dipping heartrate which required him to be delivered by forceps so I am hoping that doesn't happen again, but if it does, it does, I just want the baby to be safe and well.

As for baby names, we have a couple in the running - I want one and Seth wants another so we will see who wins on that one! While I am really excited for the baby to be here, I'm not wishing the time away. I love our little family of three and I am just enjoying the time I have with Caleb before we become a family of 4.

Here's a little timeline of some of my bump photos - I like to keep track of how I am growing :)

                         19 weeks                             21 weeks                                       24 weeks

                  26 weeks                                          30 weeks                                      31 weeks

                                                32 weeks                                    35 weeks

My favourite bump picture of all has to be the one where Seth decorated it. When I was pregnant with Caleb he decided that it would be a great idea to facepaint my bump and being as though the olympics were coming up, Team GB's logo was the chosen design for the bump:

This time around, being as though it is Christmas time, Seth decided to be all festive and the result it here for you to behold in all its glory!

Yep, my husband has skills!

I get by with a little help from... ahem... Pinterest

For ages, I have wanted to make Caleb's room more HIS room. For quite some time it had seemed almost like a spare room that he just slept in as there was so much other stuff in there. When we got his bed, we relocated a lot of the other stuff so it began to look more like a bedroom (the cot is still in there too, no sense in taking that down when we will be needing it again in a few months!). I wanted to get some sort of a canvas or picture for his room that would make it look nice but I didn't overly want to go with any particular theme. And of course, all of the pictures and canvases out there have some kind of a boyish theme to it. So, I actually decided to make my own! Check me out, ha ha! I don't think I've really tried to do anything creative for years so I really had no idea where to start.

Pinterest is a wonderful thing. I had never really used it before but it gave me a lot of ideas. I had already decided that I wanted the canvas to be bright with Caleb's name on it in wooden letters but I couldn't decide on the background for the canvas. I was originally going to paint it in plain yellow and stick the painted letters on it but I thought I would try something different and do multi-directional stripes for the background (yep, a pinterest idea that I saw and loved!) So there was still no theme but made it look a bit more interesting than just a plain background. I used frog tape for the stripes and then just painted the gaps with yellow paint.

I quite liked the look of it with just the frog tape on! I used frog tape instead of masking tape as there is supposed to be less chance of the paint bleeding. That's how it's meant to work for decorating anyway so I thought I would give it a shot anyway!

The paint did bleed a little bit in a couple of places but I don't think it is too noticeable. If I did it again I would try to make sure that I didn't paint too thickly too close to the tape as there are also some slightly chunky edges.

I should have probably primed the letters first.... you live, you learn! This was taken after one coat of paint, I ended up doing three coats to get a decent coverage.

The canvas in place on Caleb's bedroom wall. I put it up in the afternoon without him knowing, then I went into the lounge to get him and told him I had something to show him in his bedroom. He followed me in there and noticed it straight away. He gasped, smiled and said, "beautiful new picture for Caleb! Thank you Mummy!", then proceeded to read out the letters. For any artsy people out there, you may think that my attempt is pretty lame but Caleb's opinion was the one that mattered most to me and so I was thrilled with the fact that he loved it.

And the next morning, he was still loving it! I must say, I am actually quite pleased with my efforts. Thanks, Pinterest!