35+5

God, they aren't joking when they say the last bit drags...

My body is exhausted! Still having constant Braxton Hicks, they're not always painful but I feel like I'm doing hundreds of sit ups and my tummy muscles are sore and tired.
I'm also getting pre-menstrual type cramps in my back and my tummy, and am unable to sleep properly because my baby's big head keeps nestling into my bladder.

Scared myself this morning, after waking up at 6.30am for no particular reason, I had breakfast and sat on my gym ball because my poor pelvis was falling apart... bouncing away comfortably for a while before I felt wet. I waddled off to the loo and sure enough my pants were fairly wet and I had a 2x3 inch wet patch on my pajamas... and it wasn't pee!! I showered, put on a pad and went about my business. Am damp but no longer wet so I'm guessing it was just a tease...

I can't do four more weeks or am I aren't I, it will drive me insane. So I'm voting that there should be no labour type signs until you are going to have your baby within 24 hours... And I think most pregnant women would agree with me.

Impatiently awaiting the arrival of our little Baby Bear
xxx

35+3

UPDATE:

So far nothing has happened, the contractions pick up for a few hours and can be really quite painful, but they drop off again before they make anything of themselves!!
Baby Bear is still very very low, and the pressure on my bladder means I am going to the toilet up to six times a night... it's fun, you should try it...
I've also woken up the last two nights with period like cramps in my back and the bottom of my bump and the front of my bump, all down the front is so sore to touch - I think little one has been beating me up in my sleep and my tummy is tired from the constant contractions :(

So all in all, I think my body is preparing for imminent labour, and I am really convinced I won't make 40 weeks. Daddy Bear is getting twitchy now, and has asked me every time I phone to say it hurts if I think baby is coming tonight - it's quite funny! However, I could be really wrong and will be moaning at 41+3 that I am desperate to get baby out.

We shall see...

Eagerly awaiting our little Baby Bear.

35+1

So Daddy Bear and I walked to the shop yesterday (i get bored and restless easily) and I started getting pains in my back, on and off all the way home. Daddy Bear made me lunch but I had them all night, despite taking paracetomol and having a bath. They did slow down and I managed to get to sleep around midnight.

But low and behold I wake up this morning in pain yet again, at 7am. It's now almost ten and they are so persistant!! But sneaky... they'll pick up to every four minutes, and I start thinking something is happening, and then they'll drop to every ten minutes, so I think it's over... but no, no now they're six minutes apart, now four, still four, no, no, now six minutes...

I'm tired!!my tummy muscles are exhausted and I'm so restless but I don't want to call labor and delivery and be told to man up...

I'm going to keep and eye on them, watch this space...

Eagerly awaiting the arrival of our Baby Bear
xxx

34+6

I am officially a sausage.

I woke up on Friday, had my a lovely shower, got dressed and sat in front of my mirror to dry my hair. That was when I noticed my hands and feet had blown up like balloons and I looked ridiculous. Hoping it was the heat of the shower I got up and carried on with my day, went into town to do some shopping - finally ordered the Cocoon for my pram and bought a new mattress for my Moses basket. Not to mention some sleepsuits, vests, bedding for moses basket, blankets etc. Met Daddy Bear in the restaurant where he works, and he agreed that I was looking a bit sausage-y, and he would take me home. It was almost the end of his shift, I should wait for him. He didn't mention that because he was Mr Boss Man he still had to cash up and unpack the delivery and various other things, but that's neither here nor there.

In the end I phoned the Maternity Unit - the swelling in my feet was getting worse, not better. The midwife was quite happy for me to stay home as long as I didn't have a headache or visual disturbances, which I didn't, but to still go in the next morning for a blood pressure check.

So off I waddled the next morning, still looking like a sausage, to a lovely midwife who checked my blood pressure (higher than mine usually is but still fine) and my urine (clear) measuring my belly (35cm at 34+4) and listened to Baby Bear, who was still head down and engaged nicely in my pelvis. Happy neither me or baby were in any danger, she let me go home.

My hands aren't looking so sausage-y anymore, but my feet are. I have no creases in my fat little toes - and refuse to accept that this is part and parcel of late pregnancy. None of my shoes fit!

So, Baby Bear, as soon as you are healthy and ready to come out, please save me from my sausage-ness and come meet us...

Eagerly awaiting our little Baby Bear
xxx

34+1

Haven't posted in what feels like forever, but it's been a busy few days!! I've moved house and am 'settling' - it's like nesting in the extreme right now I love it. The restless feeling I got in my old perfect flat isn't there as much now - this new place has so much to do but my body doesn't want to play and decides that 1 hr of work = a well needed nap...

On the upside I have a nursery. I have a room to put my beautiful baby in - and I'm so excited!! Okay, so I might not have unpacked my own bedroom and I may be running out of clean underwear... But I unpacked the baby's things, did my first load of baby washing which is now drying and looking adorable on my drier!! rearranged the furniture (well what I have anyway) and got very excited and broody.

May have had a slight pregnant hissy fit today... my mum phoned to say she was going to Ikea - which is where I happen to want all my nursery stuff from... at 1pm. I had a midwife appointment at 3.15pm and Ikea is a 45 minute drive away. She tried to make me feel better by saying she'd buy what I wanted if I gave her a lift OBVIOUSLY not understanding that I wanted to wander around the whole baby section aimlessly picking things up. Not happy. No I don't care that she'd take me next week - I wanted to go NOW. Pregnancy hormones = acting like a spoilt five year old apparently. Daddy Bear was sleeping and therefore not all that bothered so I was left to strop on my own! Jeez!

On the plus side - midwife is perfectly happy with Baby Bear. Growth is back on track - I'm measuring 34cms at 34 weeks which is perfect so now more worrying that baby is going to be enormous - phew!! Also, the little fidget has finally settled head down - and is 3/5 engaged! which is a big change from my last appointment where she couldn't tell where baby was sat because of how active it was... things are looking good.

So 6 weeks to go, and I'll have a beautiful baby boy or girl to put in my pretty nursery

Eagerly awaiting the arrival of our beautiful Baby Bear
xxx

33 weeks

I'd just like to send out thoughts and love to Amanda Holden, who sadly lost her baby this week. To lose a baby early on is devastating, but a late loss is unimaginable. It's so easy to put someone in a celebrity position into a box - we tend to think they lead these sparkly lives but in reality, awful things like this do happen, and it doesn't matter how much money you have or what you do. Kim Marsh and Lily Allen were two other who so sadly lost their babies - I can't imagine losing our Baby Bear but to have your devastation out there in the public must be unbearable.

Pregnancy is such a worrying time, it's so uncertain and every woman worries every day that something will go wrong. I hate not having control over it, not being able to know for definate that my gorgeous baby will be born safe and healthy. I panic if Baby Bear doesn't move for 10 minutes, or at the slightest twinge!! I'm convinced it's just to prepare us for the lifetime of worry that comes with being a parent. I like to trick myself into thinking that once Baby Bear is born then I can stop panicking but it's not really the case is it? Oh dear. Looks like I'm in for a life of anti-anxiety meds and a glass of wine before bed :s

Eagerly awaiting the arrival of our little Baby Bear
xxx

32+3

I thought I'd gotten away with it.
But I walked past the mirror this morning and there they were. Purple stretchmarks...

A few years back I tried the implanon, and within two months I'd gone from a trim 8 stone 2 to a podgy 10 stone 6. Cheers. Anyway, I lost the weight and gained a few stretchmarks over my love handles, which never really bothered me that much as they were silvery and faint.

These newbies are a whole different story. About five on each side appeared at about 28 weeks, but it's difficult for me to see that far round so I don't really pay much attention to them. But waddling into the bathroom today in my pajama top (which is now a crop top) I noticed they'd doubled! I've got two small scars beside my hipbone from an old piercing which have also turned into stretchmarks, and there are blurry patches through my tattoo. I'm not a happy Bear - I honestly thought I'd gotten away with it!!

Daddy Bear has always and will always tell me not to be so silly, that I'm beautiful and that stretchmarks are part and parcel of pregnancy, I'm just hoping they don't sprout up anywhere else!! I love my bump and don't want it covered in the dreaded stretchies.
Daddy Bear needs to bear in mind that I'm only young and want a future of holidays in bikinis!!


Baby Bear, what are you doing to mummy's tummy?!?!

Eagerly awaiting the arrival of our little Baby Bear
xxx