Woo .... only 4 more weeks left as I have just reached my end of 36 weeks of this pregnancy .

I am starting to go into panic mode more now as the days pass even quicker than the pregnancy feels it has already.

After finding out baby is head down last week , I felt so much more at ease this week which has helped me sleep easier and even ventured out for a long day walking around Sunderland to celebrate our sons 12th birthday as well as the The Metro centre trying to keep up the walking to help gravity along, if it really does work, I do not know but I am hoping and so I keep doing as much as I can.

I do feel as if things are hurrying up a little now, I feel heavier each day and towards the end of this week it feels as though he is in a comfortable position and he moves around a lot so I know I still have a fair way to go yet although the worry it could happen anytime is still there.

How is baby?
Baby is meant to be now around 6lb at this stage although my last born was only 5lb born two weeks late so I am not sure how this would measure up against this little boy . I do feel my boys are going to be smaller than the girls .
They are meant to be growing and gaining around 1 ounce each day from this week until birth.

I still feel that our boy feels rather small , I can feel him moving and I even have other people including my partner telling me my bump looks tiny compared to how it did at the beginning .
I definitely think I grew quickly at the start and slowed down towards the end and I am definitely not complaining .

Baby feels like he has taken over the tummy now and I am sure there is not so much room in that tummy now , I actually think it feels as though it is all baby .

Baby is still without a name , I need help with choosing one as I have gone through so many books and names that I can not find one I like, unusual but cute too.

How am I feeling ?
Well considering this week is the last week where if I had him early he would be considered premature and us finally getting to the end of it , I am over the moon that from now on our baby is classed as full time if he does ever decide to come a little early , although I do feel with experiences of my past pregnancy's he could be just as stubborn as they were and arrive as late as possible .
I am honestly in no hurry , in fact I know there has been now 24 weeks for me to adjust to the whole surprise pregnancy, I still feel in shock and not no where near ready , emotionally.

I was pounded upon this week from the unwelcome visitor of heart burn and indigestion again. This is something I never really had much throughout, just a little at the beginning but when I do get it it seems mean and nasty and always at the point I am ready to go to sleep and beyond shattered which is quite inconsiderate in my opinion.

Luckily it has only been for a few days and I am hoping it is gone forever now.

I am not feeling able to eat as much as I would normally but do feel rather thirsty so making up with plenty of orange juice which I know will be good for us .

No signs of braxtons , back ache is uncomfortable as is walking but the braxton hicks never did come to me until I was in labour with previous anyway so I am not sure if it will be the same for me this time .

The nesting instinct has not appeared , in fact It did last week and then I gave up again this week so it seems to be coming in phases so I have no idea whether it will be part of the process for me .
I literally just want to sleep and chill .

I bought a adult colouring book this week to help me relax a little so it has been nice to sit in peace on an evening . This is the time when baby usually does his flips and kicks and sometimes sends me into worry as it feels almost like he is corkscrewing his head into place . It really is not  nice feeling but as long as that head stays down , I am happy.

Next week it will be our midwife check so I will let you know if he has moved from 4/5ths (only his forehead down and engaged into the pelvis) or (fingers crossed) he has moved further down and ready .
Plans for this week upcoming is to have lots of walks and try to help the cervix soften as much as we can. I've heard sex is good for that so I promised hubby that when I reached 37 weeks we will try help it along as well. Not only is this is a good time to help soften the cervix but help stretch the perineal before birthing to help reduce the need for cutting or tearing during crowning in birth. I have practiced this with all past pregnancy's and not had any problems as of yet so I am sticking with my routine as it works for me.
I have no sex drive what so ever but now is the time to buck up my ideas and do what I must to help out . Did it help any of you I wonder?

Anyway , I was late posting this so no doubt after my visit on the 22nd sep with midwife I will post an instant update regarding if there is any changes in baby moving around or down or even out , you just never know what can happen at this stage .
Hope to see you here.

So I have just reached the end of my 35th week of pregnancy making me now 36 weeks 
and I have to say it is getting very nerve wrecking now.

The kids went back to school this week and I have been saying to myself from the start that I have this fear I am going to go into labour on the way to school and with my oldest daughter no longer joining us on the walk and now getting the bus to her new big school, I feel a little vulnerable with 4 little ones in tow walking to the school along our countryside roads at this crucial stage of the pregnancy.

I can not say I am pleased in any way that the kids are back now , especially with an extra two hours walking to and from school added onto my days but I have to admit that the piece I am sure is going to be very welcomed in the up coming weeks.

Events -
There is only 4 more weeks, I honestly can not believe this time has come around so quickly once more for us and the fears have been more than ever since my last midwifery visit.
Three weeks ago we visited the midwife for a routine check to be told baby was in breech position and although I know it was still too soon to worry , I worried even more .
I have in fact done nothing but worry for the past three weeks since then and having another checkup now has had me on tender hooks to say the least.

How is baby?
Well my husband and I layed on the bed this week begging our little bump to turn around in hope he was listening and understanding us. 
To me the thought of having to have him turned or my worse fear a c-section  was at its peak of anxiety and when the Midwife told me he was in fact head down and engaged , I felt over the moon and so relieved .

On Saturday , I spent my whole day literally on a cleaning mission, some may say ''Nesting'' and on the evening as I got myself ready for bed , absolutely shattered from being so active , I found that my toilet visit was a little different .
I have done and seem to be doing every single toilet visit, checking each wipe and on this occasion I found a very large looking slug like gloop , clear but lots of it.
I found out that this was in fact my mucus plug , well some of it and nothing to worry about.
It does not mean I am about to go into labour but it is a sign that things are working as they should be at this time in my pregnancy and to be fair I was a little shocked by it as I never actually experienced it with any of my other pregnancy's so it does not always happen .

I think the fact I was up and active all day helped this happen and so because I do not want to chance any early birthing just yet, I am going to slow my butt down for sure.
Water sample passed all the tests and was clear and our baby had a wonderful strong heart beat so this time my visit was a happy one although I still have a different midwife to what I am used to . Least this time though it did not seem so rushed.

I am still in shock that our boy is around the size of a watermelon now , pretty much the size of my last born son .

How am I doing ?
I think the worry of him being breech made my week feel a little slower until I found out all was ok but now the worry is over I can sit back and relax , well kind of.

Woo hoo he is now head down and engaged!

I have terrible back ache now , mainly on my right hand side more towards the top of my back though not so much the bottom .
I find walking to the doctors or school is rather painful to. It seems like it happened over night and who is to say it did not but I can only describe the discomfort as scratching inside my pelvis from where his head is turning and trying to get comfortable.
Now I know he is head engaged I now know this is what it is as I had to ask midwife.

I have also found that this past week , sleep is becoming more interrupted.
I am finding myself waking at midnight , then again around the 4-5am time frame . I am wondering if this is the time I will wake in labour or just baby telling me when his to be feeding times may occur.

I have bought a new set of drawers to fit his things into although I need to buy another when I realised that I filled the drawers only with vests and baby grows and had no room for any of his outfits or anything else .
I would not really care but I have already put 4 huge cases full away for the bigger sizes that has been bought for him and so space is now a little tighter than before already.
Least I know he has plenty but wow I forgot how much space little people take up.
I also noticed that when I bought little man some crib sheets, I had bought the wrong ones and in fact I had bought some lovely blue fitted moses sheets which was disapointing as I now have to go look again for some more and I can not seem to find any , anywhere.
Whatever happened to all the baby shops in the North East ?
I really do not want to be ordering from online , I like to go out and come home with something to hold and see and this next weekend I want to go shopping .

It was our 3rd wedding anniversary through the week and we did not exactly get a chance to celebrate it with hubby working and then ending up having really bad toothache resulting in no sleep and visiting the dentist so I want to treat myself , well baby,by doing a little retail therapy at the weekend .

Last year we went on a lovely night away , no children , just me and him away from everything and enjoying each others company and so this time around with bump in tow it seemed impossible to even organise anything so we decided not to.
I was surprised with a gorgeous bunch of roses though which made me smile .

I feel this is the time now that things are starting to happen. I feel very pregnant, bump has dropped, his head is now down and engaged and pains are beginning .

I think though that after all the worrying , I may be ready. Although still find the whole birthing experience scary , I do actually feel like I am ready for him to come and so for the next 4 weeks I am going to try and enjoy the last month of the pregnancy and hope he comes on time and safely instead of worrying like I have done through out this whole time.

I think having the excuse to sit with a comfy fleece and enjoy early nights with movies and chocolate are a fabulous time for us pregnant ladies and I also know I won't be able to use that excuse for much longer also so I may as well enjoy it .

Not long left to go so keep your eyes peeled as you never know when things may start to happen or when little man arrives and I want to share it all with you.

I have just finished the 34th week of my pregnancy and it has just dawned on me that in just 1 months time I could be holding our precious little surprise bundle of joy .

There has been no visits to see the midwife or hospital visits this week and in fact I have been feeling rather great considering I am struggling to get comfortable at sleep time as well as having that interesting Saturday last week.

How am I feeling?

Lets just say , sex is not at the top of the agenda for me anymore after I spent the rest of the weekend feeling as if baby was going to come early. My sex drive has been at its lowest through out this pregnancy anyway but with hubby feeling neglected lately and me not wanting to go over as I have done with previous pregnancy's I have been advised that some gentle sexy time will help things along naturally and so I gave it a try and well , not going there again, I was in constant pain with tightenings and felt like our baby had dropped really low.

My body is feeling pregnant , I feel pregnant and I am now racing towards the finish line with no control over what my body does . I hate not being in control, I really do. Not knowing when things are going to take a turn and not being able to decide when I feel ready to do what I know is going to have to be done .
I still fear child birth , I am not going to lie .

I feel my home is in need of a good sorting out, decorating has started and I know this feeling happened just before the birth of my 1st child , I was half way through decorating my sitting room and the labour started , within 24 hours , my daughter had been born and so decorating is one of my ''Nesting'' rituals before baby comes I am sure of that.

Lightening pains in my back and lower tummy have started happening to the point I am stunned and jerking with them now and more often I am feeling uncomfortable in any position I lay, sit or stand.

I have packed my bag after the weekend pains panicked me a little , I now feel very nervous but kind of ready to do this now and so it seemed the right time to get everything finally finalised.

How Is Baby?

I know I said this last time and baby was breech but I am hoping he has turned around now as I feel like he is laying so low down .
My tummy feels very solid , I honestly think there is more baby than amniotic fluids now and every movement he makes , I feel and see .
Apparently our baby is now the size of a pineapple and I am in no way going to argue with their predictions with all of the big round hardness I feel in front of me.
He feels heavier for sure so I know he is growing although I still eel he is going to be a small baby like our other son so no more than 6lb I reckon.

I get my 35 weeks midwife visit next week so I will be able to let you know how we are doing size and engagement wise so please keep an eye out for that . I think I may cry if she tells me I am not engaged or he is breech still.
 I know you all say that he has plenty of time yet to still turn but everything is still going so very fast for me I feel time is running out fast.

Fingers crossed ,I will be back soon with an update!

Is it just me or does my bump look like it may have dropped a little?
It certainly looks and feels like it to me but maybe that is just me hoping for little man to have got into place now.

How am I feeling?
The weeks seem to be getting quicker each time now , I am sure it always felt like it dragged the last few weeks , but for me it just keeps speeding up and I actually feel I am losing track of the weeks now.
I know it not just me, I have everyone telling me it seemed like only yesterday that I announced we were expecting and I totally agree.

I feel great this week, so much in fact I spent the whole weekend out and walking around Sundown on Saturday and Whitby on Sunday .
Don't think I have spent as much time on my feet through this whole pregnancy as I have this weekend but I had great fun and really enjoyed myself and the sunshine and fresh air .

I do not feel overly huge at the moment, in fact I think I am kinda getting used to it so much that I sometimes forget its there until baby moves, kicks or I try to get up of the sofa or bed.
Getting out of bed has never felt so hard , rolling out or slowly falling out is the new style for me and I am sure my husband has had a few hurting shoulders lately as I try to use him as a lean post getting up of the sofa.

My husband is the type of person who always says I am not heavy even if he does turn a shade of purple sometimes, but I seem to have put on that extra weight pretty quickly over the last couple of weeks and see him quincing now as I try to sit on his knee for a cuddle .
He so deserves every piece of the pain , after all he helped me get this heavy and I have no sympathy for his minor pain.

So the belly is feeling lower , my bump feels heavier, and I feel great and full of energy the only thing I can say that I am not enjoying this week are those tightenings.
My oh my, they bring it all back instantly don't they?. 
As soon as I feel my tummy tightening , I stop instantly in sheer panic , it is usually at a time where I have the dogs playing on my bed or my son bouncing next to me all over his dad so I just literally freeze in wonder of what is going to happen next.
Withing a minute or two it slowly passes and I relax a little, hubby looks and sees me holding my tummy with a sheer gazing daze in my eye and asks if I am ok and I nod to give the heads up we all ok and defintiely are not ready yet .

I definitely need to pick up breast pads this week, I have put it off for the past few months and been ok with padded bras but now I feel I need them more as the supply is building up and waking up with sticky patches of that breast milk allover my top or bed is not exactly the feeling I wish to have everyday . May as well get used to it though, especially if I am hoping to breastfeed this time around .

How is baby?
Well our little boy is obviously enjoying his time in there , I feel he is wriggling about and enjoying being able to move at the moment before the space in there runs out for him .
I can not wait until I get to hear his heart beat on the 8th , it is always those visits that I feel I need for reassurance all is ok.  
Considering he is about the size of a pineapple , he feels a lot heavier . He seems to be pressing downwards more this week , making walking a little faster  a little harder than before.

So there is not much to say this week except I feel like he may have moved into place and I have had a lovely week walking but our little boy is still happy in there and I hope he stays there for a few more weeks as I am still not ready for the pain that is to come. I know these tightenings are going to keep me on my toes in the meantime .

One of the most memorable moments of your entire life is the birth of your children and just like any other event, be that your wedding day , milestone birthday, christening or even funeral, you wish for everything to go as smoothly and as organised as possible.

In most cases everything works out as you planned it to but the one thing that is unpredictable is giving birth and no matter how much you plan for that big moment , there is always that chance that something may change or go the total opposite way to what you planned it to be like.

Making a birth plan helps you decide and communicate alongside your doctors and midwives on how to get the best out of your birthing experience , before, during and after .

There are many different options to consider when in labour and giving birth and having a birthing plan at hand is the easiest and most convenient for both mother and midwife.

We all have the perfect dream of how we would hope our experience of what labour and birth would be like. 
If only we could all just pop to the hospital in our break time , have a quick, pain free delivery and be sent on our way within minutes then I am sure we would all have a plan for it to be like that but fact of the matter is sometimes , ok most times, it takes a lot of time, pain relief , constant monitoring and waiting around, moaning , grunting and sometimes screaming for that moment to happen.

My First borns labour and birth was going smoothly , I had spent a few hours in labour in the comfort of the home from home care at my local hospital and we delivered her with no worry at all . That was up until I got our of the water to be transferred to the bed to dry of and I bled out . I ended up being separated from my baby instantly to be taken to a near by hospital where they could see to me and the bleeding. Luckily I was fine and baby was reunited within an hour and a half but the whole experience scared me and upset me . I did not want any separation from my daughter so soon after the birth but what happened was unpredictable and these things happen .

My last born however seemed to be the most easiest of them all. I seemed to spend my whole labour and birth laughing while high as a kite on Gas and air with my husband behind me in the pool being burned on the running hot water . It was fast and pretty much pain free and I could not have asked for it to be any easier to be honest.

For some strange reason , although I have had the experience before, I feel like this time around may just be a little different and although I am hoping for it to be easy like the last I thought it best to write a birthing plan to make it easier for the people who will be caring for me and baby to know exactly what my wishes are and what I do not want to happen unless absolutely necessary. 

My Birthing Plan-


Labour Companion - Husband
I want my husband there at all times and even in the pool with me during the delivery.
I am happy for students to be present at the birth but no intermittence is preferred .


Monitoring The baby's Heartbeat - Not unless absolute necessary
I do not wish for any electronic monitoring to occur unless absolute needed. 


Pain relief - Gas And Air
I wish to have only the least pain relief needed. Relaxation and breathing techniques along with using the birthing ball and free movement at first then moving to the birthing pool where gas and air will be used as the pain progresses. I want to deliver in the pool.
I am actually petrified of needles so no to epidurals as they are a huge fear for me.


Assistance / Induction / Slow Progress - None preferred
I would like not to be induced or have waters broken unless absolute necessary.
I also do not wish for assisted delivery and unless necessary I do not wish for a c-section.


Options for labour and delivery - 
I would like to have as least interference as possible , being able to move and walk freely . I would like baby to be delivered onto my stomach and have a picture taken of that moment, I would then like my husband to cut the cord.
Please try to give me the injection of syntocinon if available asap without me knowing to stop heavy bleeding after birth.


After delivery - 
I would like baby to be checked over and wrapped up and handed to his dad asap while I am being seen to . As soon as I have been checked and cleaned up , I wish for baby to be handed back to me skin to skin and try to allow bonding and breastfeeding to happen as soon as possible. Please give my baby Vitamin K .
As soon as me and baby are checked to be fit and well , I wish to go home as soon as possible.
In the unlikely event that I or baby need to be transferred to another hospital please keep separation of baby and I to a minimum.

Making a quick poster like above which can be printed of and placed in with your maternity notes to be easily seen is perfect .

Some people may prefer to add some quick notes on any complications or necessary information to their plan but by the time your all settled into the hospital and ready for that moment, the hospital already have all the information they need in your notes or on file.

I hope that my plan works out and with only 6 more weeks to go I still have more preparations to go through such as packing that hospital bag , Preparing my body for birth and of course all the little bits that still need to be bought for baby .

I understand that not all of the time , births go to plan and there may be some unpredictable actions needed but with the best interest for you and baby coming first sometimes we have to let them do what they know is best .

I will come back to let you know if it all went to plan.

What changes would you make to your plan, anything you would add ?