Pregnancy Blog: Week 37

Good morning! And hello to the end of week 37!!! First of all, I feel I should apologise for the heavily edited photograph.  I took it on my way out to meet friends last night, and all I can say is that in colour, my face resembles that of an orange.  I tried a new foundation just before leaving, and either I looked quite frankly luminous last night, or the foundation does not photograph well, I'm hoping it's the latter.  Either way, the only way the photograph was getting on this post was in black and white, and I thought that was better than no photograph at all!!!!

Weirdly, when soooo many people kept saying how huge I looked earlier in my pregnancy, now people are saying how neat of a bump I have!! This week one woman even asked me if my dates were right as my bump was 'too' small!!!!  I think that really shows not to listen to a single comment about your bump size during pregnancy.  Maybe the bump is like an optical illusion and some people see an elephant and some people see a mouse.  Or something like that.  Anyway, the moral of this blog is don't listen to a word, unless it's complimentary of course!  

On the whole I've felt really well this last week, but I'm definitely feeling more tired and I like to be in bed by the very late hour of 9pm. Lie-in's and naps in the day are out of the question with my three year old daughter, so I'm getting my sleep in wherever I can.  

I do have some days where I know I have done way too much, and by the time my husband gets home in the evening, I will be exhausted. I then, on occasion, have burst into tears wailing that if I go into labour at that precise moment there is no way I can push the baby out!!! I'm not quite sure what the right answer is for my husband to say at this point, but he smiles sympathetically and tells me to take it easy, probably whilst thinking where has the sane girl gone whom he married!

As well as wailing about being too tired, I've also felt a little bit emotional that my pregnancy is coming to an end.  I actually like being pregnant, which, when I told my friend this, she spat her drink out.  I know, I know.  I probably spent the first 20 or so weeks crying into the toilet, but even at my worst worst moments, somewhere in my head, I knew this was our little miracle. 

I know the pain of not knowing if you will ever hold your own baby in your arms.  I have sat and cried with friends who have gone through IVF and fertility treatments.  I have consoled friends who have lost babies.  To carry and give birth to a healthy baby is truly a miracle.  And now my time is nearly up.  Obviously I know that once baby is born I get to experience that amazing first cry, that first cuddle, those first heady days of utter exhaustion and utter love.   

But as I feel baby wiggle and kick, part of me thinks, is this the last time I will ever feel this?  For me, the end of pregnancy is almost bitter-sweet.  And whilst I cannot wait to meet baby, I am in no rush for this pregnancy to end.  I plan on savouring every second of my last two weeks. 

Re-discovering The Body Shop

I haven't stepped foot inside a Body Shop store for a very, very long time.  In fact, I think it may have been about 10 years ago. The truth be told is that I actually used to work in a Body Shop whilst I was at college.  I really enjoyed working there as I used to get lots of free samples to try the products so I could (hopefully) be knowledgeable about them and recommend them to customers.  Every week I had a new hair mask or cream to try.   

Whilst I liked the job, it unfortunately coincided with me just discovering nights out and alcohol.  I had many a hangover on a Saturday morning, and I can vaguely remember the store manger marching me into the back when I had attempted to do a gift basket for someone that looked like my dog had done it.  No, it looked far far worse than that.  I was never very good with cellophane and bows.  

Anyway, I completely digress.  Last week, I thought I would have a wander in and see what was new and if any products caught my eye.  I left half an hour later with a bag full of goodies and lots of freebies which always signifies a good shopping trip to me!!!

The first thing I picked up was two mini tubs of the coconut body scrub and body butter. These are the original body butters in my opinion, and they smelt as good as ever.  I thought the small body butter would be a perfect size for my labour bag. 

The next thing that caught my eye was the Spa of the World section, which looked like a new range from the Body Shop aimed at being luxurious and bringing spa treatments to home. I picked up this Polynesian Monoi Radiance Oil which you apply to clean skin and you can also apply to hair too. 

This oil feels really luxurious and smells delicious.  It sinks into the skin really quickly and after using, my skin felt really soft and actually looks healthy with a 'glow'.  I haven't applied it to my hair yet, but I would say a little goes a long way as after applying to my body, some of my hair rubbed into it and then became quite greasy looking, so just make sure you tie your hair up!!! 

I also really loved the smell of the Hawaiian Kukui Cream, which unfortunately they had sold out of.  It smelt absolutely delicious and was a really thick whipped moisturising cream. I will definitely be going back to pick that up. 

Whilst these products are a bit more expensive than my usual brands, I think they feel really luxurious and are a really nice treat to use.  I've really enjoyed using them during some 'me' time before baby comes.  

Whilst I was in store, I also signed up to the free Love Your Body Club, which is a reward-points scheme, similar to other in-store points cards.  As I had spent over £25, I automatically got a voucher for £5 off my next purchase and I got a full sized honey body butter and bath melt! 

I have tried both of these products and they smell delicious and probably all the nicer as they were free!!! 

If you fancy a few special body treats, then I would definitely recommend popping into your local Body Shop and it's also worth asking about what offers are currently on if you sign up for their points card too!!! 

Now not to say the 'C' word, but I now have my eye on the Body Shop's advent calendar and I shall be emailing the link to my husband! I am a sucker for beauty advent calendars, and I was so impressed with these products, I think a little Body Shop treat every day in December would be perfect! 

Thanks for reading,  

Our Nursery

Our nursery for baby number two is finally complete and I am so excited to share it with you all! I love Pinterest as much as the next person, so during my second trimester I became I tad obsessed trawling through hundreds of images for nursery decor and inspiration.  It's always a bit too easy to get carried away, and as usual I had some pretty wild ideas, which luckily, we didn't end up going with!   

As we don't know if we are having a little boy or little girl, the theme and colour had to be quite neutral and hopefully fit with the furnishings we already had in the room from my daughter who now has her own room across the hallway. 

I really liked the idea of having plain walls with one feature wall by the cot, and then we came up with the idea of little white stars 'hanging' from the ceiling.  

After lots of research, I found some self-adhesive stars that we liked, but the price was about £100-£150 to re-create the pattern and style we wanted, so, we decided to do a spot of DIY and make the feature wall ourselves for much less money. 

The colour we picked for the main wall is actually colour matched to the wallpaper that was on the wall previously.  It's a lovely creamy beige colour, and it's not only neutral, but also matches the curtains and light shade that are already in the room. 

After we had painted the feature wall, the tricky part was painting very thin lines that the stars would 'hang' from. Luckily, my husband has a much better eye for straight lines than me, and he used two lines of masking tape to create a very thin line inbetween that we could then paint.  

We painted 19 of these very thin lines, and we did them of varying lengths and also varying spaces, just so it didn't look too uniform. We applied three very thin coats of white paint and once dry, we removed the masking tape to reveal the lines which the stars would 'hang' from. 

We then carefully applied different sized self-adhesive stars to the bottom of each of the lines.  Again, there was no pattern or order, we just applied the stars randomly.  We used three different size of stars. 

I am so pleased with the end result, and love the effect of the stars almost 'falling' down to the ground. 

As the lines are so so thin, you really can't tell that they are painted and the stars are stuck on, it actually looks like the stars and lines are attached to one another.  We bought the stars really cheaply from Ebay, and I think they only cost about £5 in total. 

The rest of the room is quite plain really, but I think because of the feature wall, it all comes together nicely. 

Our nursery furniture is from Mothercare. 

I know baby won't be in the nursery for some time yet, but I have really enjoyed getting a space ready for him or her. 

I love to sit in the nursery and it's a really relaxing and calm space. I have very fond memories of sitting in this room and feeding my daughter from the very same comfy settee.  

We can't wait to meet you Baby Bee! x

For more nursery inspiration, you might like to take a look at our DIY safari themed room we recently completed too. 

Thanks for reading, 

Falling out of love with social media

I have been very quiet on my social media pages just recently (audible gasp), and, if I'm honest, I've just really fallen a little bit out of love with it all.  As a blogger, you are meant to have your finger on all of your social media pulses, but my enthusiasm to do this has been pretty dead of late.   

I actually haven't even looked at my Instagram for a week now, and Twitter I've glanced at once.  But I can honestly say, I haven't really missed looking them.  Before, without really knowing I was doing it I would be checking my news feeds and before I knew it, I would be looking at some random person's outfit of the day. 

Twitter really annoyed me recently, and whilst I follow some lovely people, I was getting really fed up of people following me only for me to follow them back back and then they would un-follow me.  It really feels like to some people it's just a process to try and get as many followers as possible rather than actually wanting to engage and interact with others. 

And then I'm fretting about what I'm actually tweeting.  Does anyone actually want to know that I'm on my third (ok, fourth) biscuit? (Ok, ok, fifth). 

And its the same on Instagram.  Looking at other people's beautiful snaps is lovely, but then as I'm sat in my pjs' with toothpaste round my mouth and my hair resembling that of a birds nest, I don't always want to be reminded of other people's luscious locks and adventures in a fairytale forest whilst they ride upon pink unicorns.  Or something like that. 

I hope I don't sound bitter.  Hmmm, maybe I do and we'll blame it on the pregnancy hormones.  But sometimes, it's nice to take a step back and disconnect from that social world.  

I realise I won't be doing myself any favours with gaining new followers with this post! This really isn't an advert to follow me on my social media!! But, it's the truth and this week, it's how I feel. 

Of course, I will be back on said social media accounts, and of course I will always love a little look at what other people are doing / up to.  But it's nice to remember that life is happening right now and we don't need to tweet or instagram it to enjoy it. Sometimes it's great to just be in that very moment and not tell a single other person about that beautiful sunrise you saw or delicious cake you just ate, because, well, it's your secret. Just seeing it with your own eyes and experiencing is sometimes just enough. 

Pregnancy Blog: Week 35 & 36

Hello there!  I'm so sorry that there has been a complete lack of blog posts in the last week, and I actually missed my week 35 update to!!! So here I am now 36 weeks pregnant!!! It's been such a hectic few weeks and I have to say, I have turned into somewhat of a crazy lady.  You know how I said that my husband had been away and I was frantically cleaning?  Well, that all seemed to step up a gear last week as I developed an unhealthy relationship with bleaching my kitchen floor.  I know, weird.  It got to the point that I was actually thinking about it at night because I had missed an area and obviously this needed rectifying ASAP!!!

After I had scrubbed the floor to within a inch of its little tiled life, my cleaning obsession now knows no limits, and we have a weeded front garden, recently changed around lounge (which the husband doesn't like) and gleaming mirrors.  The only problem is we have to live in the house.  I think if we could move out to maintain its immaculateness then I would be quite happy with that.  I know, I know, I've lost it.  Because let's face it, in a few weeks the house is going to be the furthest thing from my mind. 

Apart from obsessive cleaning, I have finally packed my labour bag, expect a post about all my essentials soon! 

My number one worry now is we still haven't decided on a name. There are a few names we like but they are way too similar to friends children's names, and if we used them I would be fretting too much about it.  So, on a list at the moment is about 5 that we keep debating over, and I keep going off them and then re-liking them. I'm such fun to live with at the moment.  If my poor husband isn't getting followed by me brandishing my steam mop, I'm following him whining about baby names.  Looks like Halloween has come early for him.  He's so lucky! :-)

I feel quite well in myself, but I can definitely feel that I am nearing the end now as I feel really heavy and when I've done a cleaning session I am exhausted.  Baby remains very active and I often just stare at my stomach which does the strangest contortions as baby wiggles and jiggles.  

Some nights I manage to get a good nights sleep, others I wake in the early hours then I just can't drift back.  I don't know if that's because my mind suddenly springs into action and starts thinking about baby, or it's just a pregnancy hormone thing.  

Oh yes, and most days I have a moment where I think I'm in labour.  I only have to have a bit of wind, and I glance nervously at my hospital bag.  In all honesty, I think I'm going to go all the way to my due date, but its that anticipation and excitement of never quite knowing when baby is going to make an appearance.  

I had my whooping cough and flu vaccination last week, and I was a bit disappointed that I had been left off the recall list for some reason, so I only found out about it by chance after I had Googled something else (!).  Deciding to have vaccinations is a bit of a minefield when you are pregnant, and my advice would be not to read 99% of what's written on the internet.  From horror stories of people who had the jabs, to horror stories of those who hadn't, I decided to stick with the NHS advice and get the jabs and I feel all the better for having them now.   

As I head into week 37, and everyone keeps telling me 'any day now', I honestly feel a little nervous, but very excited of the new little person we will meet very soon, I don't think I can quite believe it, though there is no way I can go into labour yet, whilst my bag is packed, we need to get that name picked!!!   

Thanks for reading,  

Halloween Party Inspiration

It's that time of year again, where you can't move in your local supermarket without fear of knocking the giant pumpkin display over (oh, that's just me then) and there's more costumes and candy than you can shake a witches broom at.  Our Halloween's have always been pretty low key, but now my daughter is that little bit older, (she has already eyed up a werewolf costume she has taken a fancy to), I thought I'd put a bit more thought into this year's celebrations.  

The lovely people at Zazzle kindly let me loose on their website to choose my picks for Halloween, so without further ado, here's what I chose for a spooky Halloween themed party.  Oh, and before I begin, I should really say it took me hours to pick.  Zazzle has so much choice that I really could have spent a good week debating the various merits of their Halloween stock! 

First up, if you are throwing a little Halloween gathering, you need invitations.  These immediately caught my eye as they were spooky, without being frightening for little ones. The design of these is the design that is on the Zazzle website, but you can completely personalise the invites and play around the design to your heart's content.  The invites are printed on really high quality paper and have a very luxurious feel to them! 

I adored these little pumpkin favor boxes and thought these would be the perfect size for sending guests home with cake and Halloween goodies. Again, you can completely personalise the boxes with your own message on each box. 

No Halloween party is complete without some paper plates! I loved the design of these and they are the perfect size for Halloween treats. 

And in a similar design to the plates, I thought this poster was also really great and would go wonderfully hanging above the cake table!  Again, the poster is really high quality and something that will definitely last. 

With the help of my daughter, we picked a few treats out for her. She choose this very cute Halloween apron, which she hasn't wanted to take off since it arrived.  It's lovely thick material and the perfect size for her to make some yummy Halloween cupcakes in. 

We also picked out this very soft cotton dress, with a little Halloween motif on the front.  Again, the quality is fantastic and its Halloweeny without being too in your face. (For some reason she was dancing like a crazy lady when I was trying to take her picture in it). I ordered size 4/5T which fitted my daughter perfectly, she is 3 years old and normally wears aged 3-4 clothes. 

Lastly, we picked up this canvas bag which is the perfect size to hoard all of our Halloween goodies in.  

All of the above products can be found at Zazzle, and I cannot recommend the site enough. The range and quality is amazing and the ability to personalise almost anything on their site is fantastic. This is the first time I've used Zazzle, but I will definitely be returning.  At the moment, you can use code: SHOPXMASCARDS on the Zazzle website for 35% off invitations, greeting cards and photo cards. 

Right, I'm off to find my witches broom and double check my daughter does want to be a werewolf! :-) 

Thanks for reading and wishing you all a happy Halloween! 

Zazzle kindly sent me the above items for review.  All opinions are completely honest and my own.

Pregnancy Blog: Week 34

So, its finally happened...I've gone nesting mad! This week has seen me going a little crazy trying to get the nursery sorted.  I've lost count of the number of baby gro's I've washed and I think the neighbours must think I have already had the baby, as every day there is a new outfit hanging on the washing line.  I am exhausted, but somehow I'm still going.  I shall not be defeated.  I don't think it helps that my husband is currently away as nobody is here to reign me in, but, I feel better for getting everything sorted.  It's nearly, nearly done!

Today, I popped into town and bought all the things I need for my hospital bag.  I say 'need', and use that term quite loosely. Anyone would think I am going away to the Bahamas for two weeks as I perused the aisles and contemplated how I want my hair to smell post labour, whilst sniffing a copious amount of miniature shampoo and conditioners. Again, I know some would think I'm crazy, but sorting these little things just makes me feel better.  Obviously, I have bought baby essentials too. Which leads me on to a going home outfit. 

I admit, I live in my own little dream world, and in my little dream world, me, my husband, our new arrival and daughter will leave the hospital, and it will be wonderful. Our new little bundle of joy will be immaculate in his or her's gorgeous little outfit and we will make our way home for the first time as a foursome.  

The reality of this scenario is that I will probably be waddling out, with possible sick down my top, and our newborn may or may not be wailing as he or she will need a feed.  A nice baby outfit will be the least of my worries.  However, this doesn't stop me.  And can I find a nice plain suit anywhere? No. I feel like I am the only person in England who has opted for a surprise knowing the gender.  All I can find is pink or blue outfits.  Or ones with words emblazoned across the front.  I will let you know how my search goes.  I did end up on the Selfridges website, but after seeing a Gucci snow-suit for £500 I decided I was definitely in the wrong place! 

I'm feeling OK in myself this week.  Baby's movements feel huge now when he or she moves. Possibly verging on uncomfortable as my whole belly wobbles from side to side.  I have some belly button news too...well sort of.  If I've eaten alot in the day, my belly button then  pops out in the evening.  It does return to its usual innie self the next morning, but I think its only a matter of time before it makes the transition to being an outtie full-time.  

My 34 week midwife check went well, and baby is now head down which is good news.  She did say the position could change, but baby's little legs were tucked under my ribs with his or her arms to my left.  Personally I think her or she is still doing somersaults in there, or at least trying their best to. 

I will definitely have my hospital bag packed for next week.  I know I've said this on nearly every blog post, but definitely by next week.  Definitely. :-) 

Thanks for reading,