Pregnancy Diary: 11 Weeks

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I am 11 weeks pregnant today.  It has not been a good day, mainly because of lack of sleep and poorly children.  I’m glad I’ve started this pregnancy diary, even though it feels like a bit of pressure to write a post instead of falling into bed exhausted at the end of a long day.  It’s good to set aside some time to pay attention to this baby who might otherwise not get a look in, and remember that I’ve got something to feel positive about even on the worst days.  It’s also nice to have a moan about pregnancy symptoms too!

11 weeks

Baby is: the size of a lime, and can now smile and suck his (or her) thumb.

I am: a little disappointed that I am feeling more sick again, and the dizziness is worse too.  Having very little sleep last night may have something to do with that, so I hope I will feel better tomorrow if I manage to sleep tonight.  I had my first antenatal appointment yesterday, which felt like an achievement after having to reschedule several other appointments and wondering if I was ever going to manage to fit them in to my crazy life.  I had to wait two hours to be seen which was annoying, but it was weirdly nice to be back in the very familiar territory of the hospital antenatal department.  So I shall try and take nostalgic pleasure in the reassuring sameness of it all, instead of being annoyed at the inefficiency of certain aspects of the system.  I do love the NHS with all its imperfections.

I am going to try and spend some time at the end of each day focussing on and connecting with this baby.  I hope it will reduce my stress levels and help me to put things into perspective.  The unpleasantness of the first trimester feels like an eternity when you are in it, but it’s not much in the context of a lifetime.  I have been here before, I have come out the other side and the view is amazing.

 

Butlins Bognor Regis: Some Highlights

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We’ve been back from our Butlins break for a few days now, and there’s so much to write about that I’m having trouble knowing where to begin.  So I thought I’d start with some highlights of our holiday.

butlins highlights 1

The highlight of Monday was definitely checking into the beautiful Wave hotel after a tiring day.  We liked the decor, our interconnecting rooms were large, clean and comfortable and the children loved their mini ocean-themed rooms with bunk beds and TVs.  They wanted to watch a DVD straight away which gave me time to test our bed.  It was so comfortable that I nearly didn’t get up again, and when I finally went to bed that night I had the best sleep I’ve had in ages.

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On Tuesday we decided to explore the local area, and we had a brilliant day out at Fishbourne Roman Palace which is only a 20 minute drive from Butlins.  This was the highlight of the holiday for me and we will definitely be going back there soon.

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Wednesday was a difficult day as Rabbit wasn’t well, so we (Paul, mum and I) took turns looking after her while the others entertained the boys.  Luckily there is plenty to do on site, so the boys had a good day.  The combination of soft play, shows, the fairground, swimming and the games port at the hotel kept them very busy and happy.  Our highlight of the day was a fantastic evening meal at Turner’s restaurant, which Paul and I were able to enjoy with the boys as mum kindly offered to look after Rabbit.  I will review all the restaurants we tried in a separate post, but we were really impressed by Turner’s in particular.

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On Thursday we spent the morning on the beach which is right outside the day entrance to Butlins, and we had a lovely time.  It was nice to see Rabbit enjoying herself – though still unwell, she was a bit better than she had been the day before, and was able to have some fun in the sea before getting tired and needing to rest again.

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On Friday, the children were sad to be leaving Butlins but we had planned a detour on the way home to cheer them up.  We met with our friends from 3 Kids and a Gluestick and had a brilliant afternoon at Littlehampton beach, which is also only 20 minutes away from Butlins by car.  Rabbit was quite a lot better by then, so she was able to enjoy herself with her friends and swim in the sea which helped to make up for having missed the chance to go swimming at Butlins.  We had a really good holiday and we have promised the children we will be going back to Bognor Regis as soon as we can.  I never thought we would persuade them that another Butlins could be as good as Minehead, but now it looks like they are expecting to go to both every year.  Perhaps we’d better not let them discover Skegness just yet!

We were invited to stay on a 4 night break at Butlins Bognor Regis as part of my role as a Butlins Ambassador.  All opinions are my own.

 

Pregnancy Diary: 10 Weeks

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I am 10 weeks pregnant today and this will have to be a quick post as it is rather late but I am determined to do it on time even though we are on holiday.

Week 10

Baby is: the size of a prune.

I am: very tired, and still feeling sick, but tentatively hopeful that I can detect a slight improvement.  Maybe it’s being on holiday that’s making me feel a bit better, but I think that I might be over the worst phase if my previous pregnancies are anything to go by.  The dizziness has definitely reduced over the last few days.  It’s still happening some of the time, but at least it’s not every time I stand up now.  Emotionally I am all over the place, and tiredness has a lot to do with it.  So I think I’d better go and get some sleep now and I hope I will feel a bit more positive in the morning.  Like parenting in general, pregnancy is hard work but definitely worth it.  I just need to keep reminding myself of that!

Baby Tilda Barn Dance

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A week ago today we travelled to Kent for a very special occasion.  A beautiful setting, a perfect late Spring day, so many friends gathered to remember Matilda Mae and to raise money for the Lullaby Trust.

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The children had a lovely time, playing outside, dressing up in silly hats and helping themselves to a selection of their favourite snacks – Tiddler couldn’t believe his luck!

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Then we moved indoors for the dancing.  Owl was pleased to be allowed to join in with the band and Rabbit danced every dance.  Monkey and Tiddler preferred to watch, but they all had a good time.

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Rabbit made the most of the craft table, and had her face painted too.  All the children enjoyed the play area, and of course the ice cream.  There were bubbles for Tilda, big ones and little ones, a reminder of why we were there.

Rabbit has asked to help write this post, so over to her!

I liked playing with the ducks and I liked the snacks and smoothies.  I liked dancing and having my face painted.  I had an ice cream.  I liked playing with my friends.  I made new friends.  It was fun playing in the playground.  My brother played the violin.

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Later there was more dancing inside, and then beautiful music by Classical Babies outside.  The afternoon ended with the three raffles being drawn, and we were very lucky to win some amazing prizes, including vouchers for Livie and Luca shoes and a Princess and the Frock dress.  Thank you Jennie for having us, and for all the hard work you put into it.  We had a wonderful day!

 

Country Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall

Lego Maths with Twinkl

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Maths that involves Lego is always popular in our house, so I was very pleased to see these Lego Addition worksheets available on Twinkl.  I printed out a selection of them, and though I was mainly aiming the activity at the younger children I guessed that the big boys would want a go too.

lego maths 1

Rabbit worked through two sheets very quickly and easily, so even for her I will need to devise a harder version.  The big boys did a sheet each for fun, and I have suggested they might like to make some more up, so perhaps they can do some for Rabbit.  I wasn’t sure if Tiddler would want to do it, but in fact he was very keen and it was perfect for him.  He was very happy sitting on my knee, matching real Lego bricks with the ones on the sheets and carefully counting the bumps.  I was very impressed by his counting, as he did them all with only one or two mistakes.  I had to help him with the writing – he is very confident writing one and zero, so he loved it when the answer was 10!  I wrote the other numbers for him and he traced over them.

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I had also printed off some multiplication worksheets for the big boys, as we have been working on times tables recently, and they did those as well.

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It was a very successful afternoon, with all four children working happily alongside each other.  Even though I was feeling really unwell at the time, I had one of those moments when I felt like I was looking from outside and realising how lucky I am.  People often ask me how I manage with so little time for myself, and it can certainly be hard to get anything (other than education) done.  But really I know it’s the best way for us.  I wouldn’t miss this for the world.

Birthday Interview with Owl 2014

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Owl is ten today.  This is his birthday interview.

Owl birthday

What would you like to be when you grow up?

A Lego designer, a computer programmer or a detective.

What’s your favourite colour?

Green, shiny blue and shiny gold.

What’s your favourite book?

I can’t decide, but two of my favourites are the Minecraft Construction Handbook and the Jungle Book.

What are your favourite toys?

Pilot teddy, Dockyard teddy, normal teddy, bunny, doggy and Lego.

What is your favourite food?

Pasta with pesto, pizza and full English breakfast.

What is your favourite thing to wear?

Comfy trousers, T-shirts with nice designs on them and comfy pyjamas.

What do you like doing with mummy?

Talking, investigating things and watching Minecraft tutorials.

What do you like doing with daddy?

Doing things with computers, technical kits and reading Narnia.

What makes you happy?

Being with mummy and daddy, having a new baby in mummy’s tummy and doing things that I like.

Tell me a joke

Where does a frog with bad eyesight go?  To the hoptician.

Pregnancy Diary: 9 weeks

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Today I am 9 weeks pregnant and I am going to start a weekly pregnancy diary.  I know that by planning to write a post on a particular day each week I am setting myself up to fail, particularly as Wednesdays are my busiest days, but I am going to try anyway!  Before I get up to week 9, I need to backtrack a bit.

week 5

I took these photos on the day I did the pregnancy test, which was at 5 weeks and 2 days.  I shared the first one on Twitter, with the caption “Lovely afternoon with a friend and treated myself to a new scarf 🙂 #happy” and that was quite true, but also I really wanted a record of that day.  I resisted the temptation to share a photo of the pregnancy test though it did cross my mind!

The day after this, I woke with tummy cramps and lower back pain which got worse later in the day when I lifted a heavy box.  I had a weekend of paranoia, because in January I had a miscarriage at five and a half weeks and it felt very similar.  However it was probably just normal early pregnancy symptoms that I had forgotten about, and by the middle of the next week I felt better, though my back has not been quite right since then.

week 6

Week 6

Baby is: the size of a poppy seed.

I am: feeling sick already.  Still at the stage where I can just about keep it at bay by eating, so I am eating rather a lot.  That is not helping with the general bloated feeling though.  Most of my clothes are uncomfortably tight which makes me feel more sick.

week 7

Week 7

Baby is: the size of a blueberry.  And growing new brain cells at the rate of 100 per minute.  I find that fact quite fascinating!

I am: really very sick now.  Loads of other symptoms too, but the sickness is bothering me the most.  I also have very sharp pains in my sides when I turn over in bed.

week 8

Week 8

Baby is: the size of a large raspberry and growing about a millimetre a day.

I am: in agony.  I made my back pain much worse by bending to put away the Le Creuset.  Yes, I know, first world problems…  But really quite worrying, especially as I ended up in hospital with very severe lower back pain during my second pregnancy and this feels similar.  I am also feeling even more sick, and increasingly dizzy too.  And I have had more than enough of trying to hide it, so I decided it was time to announce our news.

 

Week 9week 9

Baby is: the size of a green olive.

I am: very very sick of feeling sick.  And dizzy.  Standing up is hard, even sitting up is too.  The world is spinning and as well as being unpleasant it is making reality quite confusing.  So if I seem a bit spaced out when I am talking to you, that is why.

 

 

Mother's Always Right

Spring Harvest 2014

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I know it’s not Spring anymore and this post is so overdue, but I have been looking back over the past few months and there are a few things that I really wish I had recorded on here.  I can’t catch up with all of them, but our annual trip to Butlins in Minehead for Spring Harvest is an important part of our year, and it would be strange to have nothing written about it.

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After a long journey down the children were very excited to catch a glimpse of the Skyline as we approached Minehead, and as soon as we arrived they headed straight for the Soft Play.  We had lunch and then registered for the children’s groups, and after that it was time to settle in to our chalet.  That was the bit I was excited about, and I managed to get one photo of our bedroom looking lovely, but the children left a trail of destruction everywhere else before I could record how nice it looked when we entered!

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One of the highlights of our holiday was the All Age Worship led by Big Ministries who are brilliant, and the children had a lot of fun.  It was a great combination of singing, stories, puppets, messy crafts and dancing with ribbons!  Somehow that makes it sound really busy, but in fact it was a very restful and relaxing end to the day.

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My favourite afternoon of the holiday was when Rabbit and I went in to Minehead with our lovely friend Sarah.  You can see from the pictures that Rabbit loved all the attention and had a really wonderful time, so that made me very happy.

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There are not many things that Rabbit likes more than ice-cream, but cuddles would probably come just a little bit higher on the list!  Or maybe not… but anyway, having both is definitely her idea of happiness.

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On the way back, when Rabbit realised that I was taking pictures of her from behind she insisted on leaning her head backwards so I could take a picture of her face upside down.  Funny girl!

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On the last afternoon of the holiday, we managed to fit in a bit of time at the beach.

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It was a little stressful getting everyone together and down to the beach, but once we were there all the children were happily occupied and I was able to have a moment to myself to remember Freddie and Matilda Mae who were very much on my mind that week.

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Playing with sand is so relaxing and we would all like to have stayed longer, but we had booked a table at the Firehouse Grill restaurant in Butlins to celebrate Tiddler’s birthday with our friends.  It’s a really good restaurant and we have eaten there every time we have been to Butlins in recent years.

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We ate early and the food was served quickly so we were able to make it just in time for the All Age Worship again in the evening.

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After that, while the older children were at their evening activities and Tiddler was getting ready for bed, I spent a bit of time with Rabbit in one of the outdoor play areas.

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We had a really good time and on the last day the children really didn’t want to leave.  While the older ones were in their final group sessions, Tiddler sat and waited patiently for the soft play area to open!  He spent the rest of the morning there, and when the older ones came back they had to have one last go too.  We all left with some very happy memories and are already planning our next visit in 2015!

Country Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall