Baby weight...

So I weighed myself and from my pre-pregnancy weight to now, I have only gained 7lbs which I personally find thrilling, especially as I feel like a heffalump right now. In fact, I weighed myself twice because I couldn't quite believe it!

I am putting this down to not picking inbetween meals and to eating lady-size portions rather than man-size, as I can't even manage to eat a lady-size portion at once, I have halve it. I'm also a bit rubbish with portion sizes (what's a suitable size and what's not!) which you will know if you have been over for dinner.

Anyway, here's to just gaining baby weight!

25 weeks....

In two weeks time, we will be in the third trimester! How jolly exciting.

Baby is about 34.6cm long from crown to heel (to be exact!). They make breathing movements but have no air in the lungs yet. At 26 weeks, fetal brain scans show response to touch! If you shine a light on my tummy, our little one will turn their head, which means theoptic nerve is working/eyes are fully functional, and they may blink as a reflex reaction to a loud or sudden noise. Flump's sense of smell is developing, too – one study showed that babies whose mums ate lots of garlic responded more strongly to the smell after the birth. Plus it's good for the heart too. Tiny blood vessels called capillaries are now developing beneath the surface of baby's skin, which will give the skin its pink colour.

Flump is kicking quite deliciously and it's so reassuring and such an incredible feeling. The baby is so active right now, kicking about 12 hours a day on and off. They have a day off every now and then to sleep and rest but we still have the doppler which is getting more fun now as the baby gets bigger.

My uterus is now the size of a football apparently with a pint of amniotic fluid inside! What's your party trick?

Baby kicks...

So while daddy was fast asleep, mummy was up at 04:50 this morning being ever-so-slightly bruised inside! Even though the time was a bit gross, it was a beautiful feeling and we both love the fact that our little one is so active. In fact, now the baby has more of a routine going, we're quite pleased that they're fairly quiet in the evenings and bright and alert in the mornings. This morning was the only morning so far where I've felt the baby kick solidly for about ten minutes. When John & I had our hands on my tummy at a bit more of an earthly hour, the baby decided they weren't going to perform and only gave one or two boots just to humour us.

What a cheeky monkey!

Our 24 week scan!

We had a little extra scan today which was just wonderful! (Photo's to follow.)

The reason was due to our baby's position at the 20 week scan (breech) and the ultrasound technician couldn't see the heart valves properly, so we had to go back. Oh well, what a shame! We couldn't wait to see our gorgeous little blessing and we weren't disappointed.

The great news is that the baby is now lying head down, in fact, the perfect position apparently! We saw the heart in incredible detail and the sonographer said the heart looked 'textbook', which is just great news. We saw all four chambers pumping away and later used the doppler to hear it, which was easier now we know where to search. We even saw the brain which was quite weird, in a very lovely way, obviously and looks like a knowledgable sort of brain. Anyway, the most amazing thing was that we saw the mouth open and close constantly as the baby swallowed and saw the body arching every now and then (clearly a bit of show-off already) and the little arms and hands moving around. The great thing about that was we saw the spine in action which was a bit awe-inspiring.

In fact, right at the end our little blessing kicked with both feet and we saw the toes in perfect detail!

God blessed us with a fabulous sonographer who was so kind and was genuinely excited for us - she even gave us three pictures for free! And also, she said our baby looked very cute (notice the emphasis on the 'very'). Which we knew anyway. Tee hee!

24 weeks...

We are powering through!

Our little one is growing steadily, almost a foot long! We had our scan today (more about that in our next post) and we found out that at our 20 week scan, baby weighed about 345g...in the space of four weeks, they've grown to 743g which is great news. The body is filling out proportionally and will soon start to plump up. The brain is also growing quickly now, and taste buds are continuing to develop - in fact, babies now apparently develop a sweet tooth from now on. The lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree" as well as cells that produce surfactant, a substance that will help the air sacs inflate once our little one hits the outside world. Although the skin is still thin and translucent, that will start to change soon. Even more of a minature newborn and even closer to arriving! (Not too soon though!)

Tears on my pillow...

I haven't been overly emotional during my pregnancy at all (aside from a few times when I blame tiredness - I burst into tears when John did the washing up and cleaned the kitchen at one point) which I'm really surprised at, but I have found the past few days that I have found the smallest thing brings a tear to my eye and a lump to my throat!

While I fully admit I'm not the thickest-skinned person, I have found that even books have upset me and pregnancy books at that. A colleague gave me a book by an author who had fairly wacky pregnancy/parenting ideas and she was so harsh, it made me cry! I actually felt like she was having a go at me for my views on parenting! Which is ridiculous but it's not a good read.

Don't buy it.

I've also had to learn to stick with what I say about what I eat - this same colleague assumed I was doing this totally organic, low carb, low everything pregnancy regime and was shocked when I said I'm just eating less sugar (most of the time!). John has been helping out loads dinner wise and we've been solid in our very healthy lunches and dinners. I admit to some snacking in between but the sickness thing has disappeared now so I usually just drink loads of water, which I wouldn't do if there wasn't a water machine right by my desk! Plenty of fish, poultry and meat along with pulses, beans and veg. Yum! I totally went off tea and coffee initally but the desire returned a few weeks ago thank goodness. I did miss my tea.

A Father Writes About ... Kicks!

So I have been definitely feeling our little one kick in the past few days. I wasn't really sure the first few times, but then on Friday, I felt a definite kick to the bottom of the hand, with more fairly hard kicks last night and Monday. I have felt so proud to feel our little one being so active, it's been another way to connect with them, adding to the scans and the doppler.

Hopefully our little one's kicking is heralding a career as a footballer. Mummy and Daddy will enjoy leaching off our own little millionaire superstar!

17 weeks to go!

It doesn't sound too long to go now. Although we were talking at Nathaniel's first birthday party yesterday (which was bags of fun and made us very proud of him, and very proud of Sarah after seeing his first birthday cake! Wow.) about how close Christmas is really - a mere 15 weeks. Eeeks!

This weekend, we will be buying the paint for the nursery. Woot! What excitements. We will probably order the carpet too, as that takes a few weeks to arrive.

So, 23 weeks down. I have been experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions recently, which I only found out about today! I thought it was the baby or something...bit ignorant there. Anyway, it's the weirdest feeling, but you can feel my tummy turn rock solid seconds afterwards. The best way I can describe it is it feels like there's a tiny wave in the tummy that gets tighter and tighter and then disappears. Funny feeling but still amazing!

So little one now weighs a little more than 500g and measures about 28.9cm from crown to heel, as that is now how they are measured. The hearing is well established and they can make out a distorted version of voices, the beating of my heart and my stomach rumblings! Loud noises baby has often heard in the womb, such as a vacuum cleaner, probably won't bother the baby when they're is born. In addition to advances in our baby's hearing, the lungs are developing to prepare for breathing.

The really incredible thing is how much our baby is growing! If Flump were to be born right now, they would have a small chance of survival (about 16 per cent) with the right care. Every day in the uterus makes a difference at this stage. If Flump was born at 24 weeks the chance of survival would rise to 44 per cent - you just marvel at the way they're being knitted together literally minute by minute!

Ivan Itchifoot....

Our new Russian friend (left is what we imagine such a person would look like). It's unbearable and it only happens in the evenings - only the last few days! I have resorted to scratching the top of my feet with a hairbrush as it's the only thing that hits the spot/s!! Also dragging it across the sofa ('cos it's fabric.)

Pretty gross but there's something quite satisfying about itching a bad itch. Hopefully it'll pass as things do. Anyway. Just to let everyone know. Ha ha!

A Father Writes ... about cute photos (SCHMALTZ WARNING)

For more pics like this ridiculously cute one above, and our new banner photo, go and visit Tracy Raver's website, who takes great pictures of adorable newborns, babies, toddlers and families. Based in North America though.

Pictures like this just make us more keen to see our precious bundle of joy in 4 months time: we know that they are going to be even more beautiful than these other great, cute babies.

Dizzy pregnancy thing of the week...

Ok, so you don't have to be pregnant to do this but you probably do to notice then forget about it: I walked from my front door to my desk with my top very visibly inside-out. I noticed en-route and was mortified, doing my best to try and hide the fact but I forgot about until I sat down at my desk and my colleague mentioned it to me on the quiet!

The worst thing? Realising this afternoon that while getting dress this morning, I had turned it inside out thinking it was inside out originally...

22 weeks now...

With eighteen weeks to go, we counting down!

The first of the five pregnant ladies, Corne, is due on the 29th of this month so we pray for a really blessed, successful labour and birth for the arrival of their first bundle of joy.

Currently, our child is an albino. Although baby has hair, eyebrows and eyelashes, they don't contain any pigment yet – they're pure white! Little one now has the proportions of a newborn, although theyve still got a lot of weight to gain before the birth. The skin still looks wrinkled because they have only 1% body fat. The's baby eyes have now formed, too, although the iris isn't coloured yet. The pancreas is under development, too along with the brain which is developing super fast and the brainwave patterns are now similar to a newborn's.

The great thing at this point? Baby Stevens can already distinguish between John's voice and mine!

First baby purchase...

We made our first purchase for the nursery (and eventually baby Stevo!) last weekend. The lovely Jamestown cotbed from Mothercare seen above, which we prudently bought in the sale (and then found we could have got a further £29.99 off) has now arrived and is waiting to be put up by Daddy John once the nursery has been decorated.

On Saturday, we went to the carpet store and found the perfect carpet for the room. It's a cream, soft, squidgy carpet and just perfect for a baby's room - as soft as a baby's bottom! We thankfully have a whole squirty thing of 1001 spray (which, may I add, is marvellous) so that can always be on hand should our child eventually use the carpet to deposit their insides at inopportune moments. It's not a box room but it's small enough to not have dark colours inside so we have gone for yellow and cream. A nice unisex colour without giving too much away!

Ha ha.

Weird pregnancy thing of the week...

Above is a picture of a chimp scratching itself. I have the itch-iest feet ever created. It's so bizarre, it only started a few days ago but nothing helps it. In fact, scratching them makes it even worse! It's the top of my toes and so irritating at night but last night, I just smothered them in moisturising cream and tried to get to sleep. Then just as I was about to doze off, little one decided it was play time! Oh what larks.

Morning sickness has returned a little bit. Mostly when I get hungry in the afternoon so I've been nibbling again. Mornings are still a bit funny, the smell of the bathroom still gets me so I occasionally have to rush my shower and eat something sooner rather than later!

Pregnancy brain reigns supreme - it's actually really unnerving but people are very understanding!

21 weeks - over half way there now!

Bless God for our wonderful experience on Friday. We had so much fun over the weekend, telling the grandparents, siblings and great-grandparents about the scan and revealing whether our little one was a boy or a girl. Almost, the best bit was hearing and seeing their reactions - it really was marvellous!

We took the doppler over to both sets of parents this weekend so they could hear the heartbeat of their grandchild. However, when Daddy John first found the heartbeat of Flump at Hardcourts Close (chez Stevens Snr), the baby gave the doppler a very large boot which made a very funny squeaky sound. Apparently, the baby felt we were disturbing his evening. Some people!

We've been blessed with lots of baby bits, including the brilliant Bumbo, which have been forwarded from John's sister, Sarah and an Ikea bag full of clothes which we had a look through, and put into piles of clothes we fancied and clothes that could be passed around. Grandma Judy was rooting through my old books (John was delighted when he found Peter & Jane books and started to read all fifty pages of Peter & Jane Went to the Park, just for the baby! EDIT: apparently it was Peter & Jane Went to The Farm - apologies there) and Auntie TJ also read some nursery stories to Flump - some of which are actually really scary!

This week, Flump is about 26cm, about 10ins. Up until now baby has been measured from crown to rump but from this point on the measurement will be from crown to heel. Flumps' eyebrows and eyelids are fully developed, and they can now blink. The baby can now hear our conversations which means we probably need to watch what we say! We are purposely singing and reading to the baby though. The amazing thing is, some studies have found that newborns will suck more vigorously when read to from a book they heard frequently in the womb.

Getting more and more impatient in the residence at Glanville Road. But we are making the most of our time together and having plenty of laughs, watching Titanic and blubbing together, eating Mexican and helping my mum cook her first curry tonight for dad's birthday!