Wordless Wednesday

Pregnancy update 29-31 weeks

The last few weeks have been so busy for appointments - I've had one every week and it looks like it's going to stay that way for the rest of my pregnancy.

I had my GTT test on the 12th along with the normal blood tests you have during pregnancy to check iron levels etc. It was such a long day as they couldn't get me in for my first set of bloods until 10, meaning I wouldn't be eating until past 12 by the time they had taken the second lot. It was such a long day and I was glad for it to be over, although I'm glad I had it done because my mum suffers with diabetes and it's something I've been really worried about.

The week after I went to see my midwife to get the results and have a check up. Everything came back fine which I'm so pleased about. Even my iron levels were okay which was a surprise as they were low throughout my pregnancy with Teddy and they had to keep upping my doses of iron tablets. 

She then checked baby's heartbeat, and again it was really slow. This time it was only 100BPM, 2 weeks before it was 120. She was worried as I was so sent me straight up the hospital for a heart rate trace. 

When they first put me on the machine they were adamant that it was my heartbeat they were hearing, until they put me on a monitor too and realised it actually was baby's. They kept me on it for an hour and the alarm kept going off as it would often drop below 100, sometimes even to 80BPM. The midwife checked it and also seemed worried so took the trace to show the doctor. She came back a minute later - the doctor said it's fine you can go home. I couldn't believe it, how could it be fine if you just said it was slow?

Her reply - if she was a 'normal' baby we would be worried, but as she has a heart defect that's obviously why it's slow. 

I do understand what they are saying, but in another way I was so angry - my baby being referred to as 'not normal' and how can they just put it down to her heart condition without checking properly. After all we've already been told by GOSH that my normal hospital won't know anything about her heart condition because it's so rare.

I asked to see my consultant and was told he's not here and we don't know when he's back. They really are so helpful! I'm actually dreading having her there they seem like they don't care at all.

Anyway I called GOSH when I got home and spoke to my nurse, they have recommended I see my midwife more often to keep an eye on it and I have a scan there on the 21st May. She has reassured me that 100BPM is still good for a heart baby so not to worry for now.

This week I had my whooping cough jab, I didn't have one with Teddy because it came out the week before I needed to have it and no one could give me much information. I knew I'd have it done this time though, we know baby will have a low immune system and will defiantly need all these jabs. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, although it's still aching 2 days later!

Next week I have a physio appointment at the hospital, I've been told I have SPD. I'm dealing with it okay at the moment but there are some nights it's really painful especially if I've done a lot that day. Hopefully physio will help and they can give me some more information as I don't know much about it at the minute, other than it hurts!

Because I now have weekly appointments I think I'll start doing weekly pregnancy updates so the posts aren't so long. 

We are also in the middle of decorating Teddy & baby's bedroom, as they will be sharing we've found it hard to come up with a theme that's not plain and boring. But we finally have some idea's and are starting this weekend, I'll post once it's finished :)

XxX

Wordless Wednesday

100 Happy Days Challenge

I started taking part in the 100 Happy Days Challenge nearly 3 weeks ago and thought I'd share so others can get involved too.

All you need to do is post a picture each day of something that made you happy for 100 days. You can post to Instagram, Facebook or Twitter with the hashtag #100HappyDays or directly to their website if you'd like to keep your picture's private.

It's been lovely to pick out something each day that's made me happy & I know they are going to be lovely to look back on once the challenge is over.

Here are some of my favourites so far:

Baby's wardrobe all organised

Teddy's face when we brought him Woody 

Wagamamas Katsu Curry, my favourite!

Teddy loving his new playhouse

I've been posting mine to my Instagram but also sharing them on Twitter. You can follow my challenge on either MissCharLouise on Instagram or @ourheartbaby on Twitter.

I'd love to follow anyone else who is taking part, please leave me a comment below with your usernames. For more information on the 100 Happy Days Challenge visit http://100happydays.com

XxX

Wordless Wednesday

Teddy's holiday

I've mentioned before that Teddy has never really been away from us & I'm a stay at home mum so he's with me everyday. We have to start letting him spend time away from us though as we have been told that baby will be in hospital for at least 10 days when she has her operation and Teddy won't be allowed up there while she's in intensive care, so he will be staying with my mum for a few days and then Joe's mum until we come home.

So on Saturday we agreed to let Joe's mum & dad have him for the weekend at their chalet in Kent. I knew that he would love it down there, he'd have a huge field to run around on and lots of other children to play with. 

All packed and ready to go, I wonder if he took enough!

He couldn't wait to go out and play and didn't even realise we had left, Joe's mum sent me lots of pictures so I knew he was enjoying himself...although that didn't stop me crying myself to sleep Saturday night! As we co sleep I think it hit me once I'd gone to bed and really noticed he wasn't there with me. 

On Sunday I made sure I spent the day doing things to take my mind off it. I done lots of housework & washed, ironed & packed baby's clothes ready for hospital. I haven't started packing my hospital bag yet but there's still a few bits I need to get. 

I had my GTT appointment booked for Monday so decided to leave Teddy with Joe's mum for another night and pick him up after my test. I spent Sunday night crying again, I'm hoping I can try and get used to it a bit or I'm going to be a wreck when the baby goes in hospital.

I couldn't wait for the 2 hours to be up and finally once my GTT was finished I was on my way to pick up my little man. I wondered what he would be like when he saw us..Joe thought he'd get really excited, I thought he'd get upset & realise that we had left him for 2 days. What did he do? Ignore us! He took one look & carried on playing. I'm so glad because it was obvious that he's been having far too much fun to care that we wasn't there. 

Joe has booked the week off so we are planning on taking Ted on some days out, possibly London Zoo or Legoland. I'd love some suggestions though so if anyone can recommend some good family days out in either London, Essex or Kent please let me know.

Teddy & Grandad walking to town

Messy play with bubbles 

XxX

28 week scan update

I had my 2nd scan with the consultant at Royal London Hospital yesterday and I'm over the moon that we didn't get any bad news.

I wasn't looking forward to this scan as the last time I saw the consultant he seemed to rush through the scan, wouldn't answer my questions and wouldn't even let me have a picture of baby. Completely different to the consultant and nurses at Great Ormond Street who are very caring! This time though it was like I saw a different person, maybe I just caught him on a bad day last time.

He checked her over and measured her, although she is still on the smaller side she is within the normal range and weighing about 2lb 6ozs. He told us that there is no evidence of heart block which is our biggest worry right now so that was a relief!

We are also worried about her possible bowel obstruction but right now that's looking okay too although they can't tell us for definite until she's born. 

We then got a little surprise, he let us see baby in 4D! He was even nice enough to let us have two 3D pictures which I wasn't expecting at all. She is the double of Teddy, especially comparing both their 3D scan pictures.

Top - Teddy, Bottom - Baby

Towards the end of the scan I asked if he knew whether I would need to be induced, he has said that I defiantly won't be going past my due date but he hasn't decided how soon before that he would like her to be born. He has arranged another scan for the 4th June, I'll be 36 weeks and then a date for induction will be decided.

It's strange to think that the next time I'll be scanned there I'll only be a week away from being full term. This pregnancy seems to be going so fast. I'm planning on washing all of baby's clothes this weekend and making a start on packing my hospital bag as Teddy is going away with Joe's Mum and Dad for the weekend. I mentioned in a previous post that Teddy has never really stayed away from me, especially not for a whole weekend so I'm going to find it really tough, but I know it's going to be better in the long run because he's going to need to get used to staying with them especially as he will be with them for at least 10 days when the baby has her operation. 

I'm hoping sorting through all the baby's bits helps me get through the weekend. The house is going to be so quiet and boring without him!

XxX

Wordless Wednesday

Pregnancy update 25-27 weeks

I haven't had much going on in the last few weeks in terms of scans or midwife appointments except being called in to see student midwives last week. 

They were all lovely and managed to answer a few questions I had, the main one being why I'm in so much pain all the time! Turns out I have SPD, I don't really know much about it yet but I've been referred to physio for it so I should find out more then. I've been told to rest as much as I can too..which is pretty much impossible when you have a toddler!

They were also sure I have an anterior placenta, everytime they tried to hear baby's heartbeat all they could hear was mine but with hers in the background. This would explain a lot as I've had a couple of occasions where midwives have panicked thinking her heart rate was slow, but then seemed to speed up. Looks like they've been picking up mine everytime! I had wondered why it kept happening at midwife appointments but never on the ECHOs at Great Ormond Street.

They also measured me, which I haven't had done as of yet and I'm bang on 27cms. I'm really pleased as I was told at a previous scan that she's measuring small. 

I'm still fitting in normal clothes and have put on 10lbs so far but I brought my first maternity wear item this week - some skinny jeans from Next, they are so comfortable!

I have my next scan this Wednesday at my normal hospital - The Royal London. I'm hoping they can tell me whether they will be inducing me before my due date and the plans for her birth as I like to be as prepared as I can be. 

XxX

Baby shopping part 1

With all the worrying about our little girls heart condition we've been putting off doing any baby shopping. We wasn't sure when she would need to go into hospital so didn't want to go out buying clothes if she wasn't going to get to wear them. But after the good news we got at the last scan we have decided it's about time we started.

The first thing we ordered was our new pram - the iCandy Peach 3 Blossom in the colour Azure. We have the Special Edition iCandy Cherry for Teddy and had always planned on sticking with this brand as we have been really happy with ours - I'll be sad to see it go when we come to sell it.

Because we had the Special Edition pram last time I didn't get the chance to choose my own changing bag as it came as a package. This time I had my heart set on getting a Pink Lining bag so as soon as we'd ordered the pram I picked one out. I chose the Yummy Mummy Grey Bows bag and also got baby a bag for her clothes too. It will come in handy when packing for the hospital and we spend quite a lot of time away visiting family too.

Little Lady' overnight bag 

So far I've got 1 pack of nappies and 12 packs of wipes, both Pampers sensitive. I defiantly need to get some more before our baby is here. We picked up some Dr Browns bottles too, Teddy really suffered with silent reflux and after trying nearly every bottle there is we found these to be the best. I got 2 starter kits and 2 sets of the pink bottles.

Finally we went a bit mad and brought quite a lot of clothes mainly from Next but also picked up some spanish dresses - I just love their clothes! Here are just a few..

We still have quite a bit to get but I think we are doing okay for now , there's 10 weeks until I'm full term so if I can get the rest in the next 2 months, I'll be happy. If you have any suggestions of baby products that you can't live without I'd love to hear from you, please leave a comment below.



XxX

*DISCLAIMER*

All products mentioned were brought by myself, this is not a sponsored post.

I have linked this post to this weeks #BinkyLinky

My little man

I've mentioned in a previous post that I have a 17 month old little boy, I thought I should introduce him properly.

This is Teddy, he was born on the 7th November 2012 after a 33 hour labour! It took us a long time to conceive & I still look at him sometimes & can't quite believe that he's mine.

It's going to be really hard for us to have to leave him when our baby has to go into hospital as he never stays away from us. One of the main reasons was that he suffered really badly with silent reflux and wouldn't feed for anyone but me, so I wasn't able to let him stay with anyone else. 

As he got bigger the reflux had eventually gone and he is quite a good eater now - although there are times when his dinner ends up on the floor!

We are going to start having him stay at his Nan & Grandad's for a night over the weekends to get him used to being away before the baby's here. I don't know what I'll do with myself when he's not with me!

XxX
<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/11990179/?claim=d5j6fjm2edp">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>