Quick! An update!!! Time is just whizzing by so fast, and before I know it another couple of weeks (or more!) keep disappearing since I last updated! So, it's late and I should be going to bed instead of starting to blog, but I know I just HAVE to grab the time to update when I think of it, otherwise it won't happen!
I am sadder than sad because I didn't get a 20-week belly picture :( That photo is particularly special because it's the only one in my whole pregnancy where I wear the same outfit as all the previous pregnancies at the same stage, and stand in the same place at the same angle, and have a real comparison photo taken. Samuel has no comparison photo to go with all his brothers' ones :( I feel so sad about that! I also haven't got a 22-week belly pic yet, which I'm ALSO sad about!!! Tsk! I just have to sort it out! Each pregnancy times slips away faster and faster, and this time it's like trying to grasp extremely fine sand. Impossible!
So, I will jot down what I can and hopefully get a photo tomorrow and call it 22 weeks (though I'll be 23 weeks the next day). Then at least I am not continuing to miss recording my pregnancy on top of everything else!
I finally started doing my prenatal exercises from the DVD!!!! Yaaaaaay! The bad news is that I've only done it once! But it went fine. I thought I would only be able to attempt the warm up and then be knackered, but it's a gentler routine than I thought, and I just kept assessing how I felt and then starting the next section and the next, and before I knew it, I had done the whole hour-long routine!! :) It includes warm-up, stretching, toning, aerobic exercise, warm-down, and some relaxation at the end. It was great! I didn't feel like it was doing much, and wasn't sore at all over the next couple of days, but I really did feel more "zingy" and like I'd done something good with my body for the rest of the day after doing the exercises, so I must do it again! I had to do the exercises in the kitchen with very little space (I was practically under the kitchen table for some of the floor exercises, haha!) and crumbs on the floor (which reappear mysteriously just moments after I sweep them away?!?! How do they do that?!) so it wasn't at ALL a nice environment to exercise in, and that puts me off to be honest. It's the only place where I can play a DVD though, so I will have to work with it.
I have decided I am gaining NO weight at all this pregnancy, in huge contrast to all my other ones!! Yay! The method I have for achieving this is to never NEVER EVER step on the scales to see. That way, I gain no lbs. Possibly? ;) In other words, I have not checked my weight at all, and am not in any hurry to! I don't want to gain as much as I have the other times, but I feel pretty sure I'm likely gaining at the same rate as the other times, so I would rather not know for now! I AM eating better though, I think. Very little in the way of sweet food pig-outs (which summed up my pregnancies up to this point, hehe!). I am just not buying any, so there is no choice for me! I am buying loads of strawberry bio yoghurt instead and eating that up with a digestive biscuit when I feel the pull for a load of sugar or pudding! I do MAKE puddings sometimes though - rice pudding is something I have wanted a lot lately, but I only made one once. And ate the WHOLE thing!! A family-sized rice pudding! I would say it was a craving at the time though. I had to have rice pudding, and couldn't get enough of it once it was made! It is sweet but basically really good for me, since it's all milk and rice otherwise. Oh and a spoonful of jam! Mmmmm.... Shame it takes a couple of hours at the least to bake, otherwise I would soooo be putting another one on right now....
Anyway so I am eating better. I did beg Neil to buy me a little Battenburg cake when he nipped to Tesco for milk this week though! That's another thing I keep wanting. I should look up a recipe and make my own - they're lovely but homemade would probably be nicer anyway. I also REALLY want my veg at the moment, which has been the case for my whole pregnancy so far. I sit watching them cook, never mind the meat or rice or whatever is cooking next to them, and just can't wait to eat them, hehe! I love lots of variety on one plate - 4 or 5 different veg on a plate is just EXCITING to me right now! ;) Also I do like a big portion - ideally half the plate with veggies on it and the rest of the meal on the other half. I have been really taken with courgette (which I know is NOT what you call it in the States - zucchini???) this pregnancy and eat that whenever I can. But otherwise, green beans, broccoli, carrots, anything really. Green is the most yummy though...
I am beginning to feel really properly pregnant in the bump department now. I have to walk differently and I just feel big and out of breath a lot. I'm NOT big, in that I'm only 22 weeks pregnant - long way to go yet! ;) But I still feel big. I don't see the midwife now till 28 weeks, but I am pretty sure my bump is the right size for dates so far. The top of my womb is 2 fingerwidths above my tummy button, which is probably spot on for 22 weeks, I think.
My pelvis has been giving me trouble on and off. I do have some pubic bone pain, but it's mild and just nags at me painfully if I move unwisely (!) or do something silly like attempt to push a heavy box sideways along the floor with my foot (d'oh! You'd think I'd have learnt by now!). It's nothing like it was with Arthur's pregnancy. THANKFULLY his was the worst it got, though it has come back to varying degrees with subsequent pregnancies. I read that it gets worse with each pregnancy so I had worried after Arthur was born, about future pregnancies! But it's been better so that is good! I need to take care not to hurt myself there though, by being careful how I move and turn and so on. I am noticing my joints are very loose now, which means that good old Relaxin hormone must be at nice high levels now! My pelvis hurts fairly constantly at the back, and I can't lie on my back for any length of time, especially on the floor, without it becoming unbearable to lie there any more, because my pelvis just feels loose and painful.
My stretch marks at the very front of my bump (around my tummy button) are really starting to be noticable now. Matthew saw them today and gasped! He said, "What's happened to your tummy?!" and I explained to him and Arthur (who came running to see the terrible sight that Matthew was shocked at, haha!) that my skin had just stretched when they were in my tummy, and it's easy to see the stretch marks when my tummy stretches again with a new baby inside, that's all. They touched them carefully and asked if it hurt, and I reassured them that stretch marks don't hurt, and that I don't mind them at all. Those particularly front-of-bump ones are from Matthew :) I only got ones at the sides and at my hips with Arthur. I happen to be really happy with my stretch marks. I don't think I know anybody else who feels this way! I just see them and feel all "fond" in my heart at the sight of them, because they remind me of carrying my babies, which is a treasure more than gold. Also they feel like silk to the touch and that's not a bad thing! At least they're not rough or knobbly! ;)
The boys comment often on how my tummy is getting bigger. They are very excited about it! Arthur was so thrilled today because he wrapped his arms around my tummy (giving me a bear-hug around the waist) and could onnnly just hold his hands around me at the back! He thought that was very exciting! :) He still keeps asking how big the baby is now. On that note - Samuel is now over 11 inches long!!! And he has passed the 1lb mark this week, yay! I can't believe he's big enough to be weighed in pounds instead of just ounces now!
He is wiggly and bumpy and active, and every second of it is delightful to me! His kicks are so much stronger now, but they are still so little compared with how they will be a couple more months down the line. He is often most active during the evening, but not always. This evening he has been quite quiet. He doesn't really have any predictable quiet patches, and seems to wake up whenever I lay myself down to rest my body during the day (usually for a brief moment on the living room floor! Or to breastfeed Benjamin - I love it when Samuel kicks while I'm nursing Benjamin! I have always LOVED being aware of nourishing my two tiniest ones in different ways at the same time - so precious!). Benjamin is having some MAJOR sleep issues at night at the moment (waking most nights at some random time like midnight or 2.30am, and staying awake for a couple of hours, no matter what we try! Very exhausting!!) and I have noticed that Samuel is really vigorously active during the night - one night between 2 and 4.30am (with Benjamin), he barely stopped wiggling and kicking the whole time! It was nice and reassuring, and I adore feeling him bumpling around in there!
The boys do not know his name. So far they haven't really mentioned it. Arthur did ask in passing one time, "What shall we call him?" but they were just heading out of the door to the park so he distracted himself before I could even answer, thankfully! I know the question will come up properly, and I DON'T want to tell them any untruth, but I also can't really tell them Samuel's name in case they tell friends who we don't want to know yet! I DO really really reeeeally want the boys to know his name though...
My milk (having dried up almost completely for a few weeks now) has started to come back in as colostrum, yay! I love seeing colostrum! It's a bit like seeing newborn clothes and nappies in drawers - a sure sign that a new baby is beginning to be imminent, and that's SOOOOOOO exciting!!!!! Benjamin is still breastfeeding as before, though for the last few weeks he has only had very short "feeds". My breasts have been really sore lately and yesterday evening I was leaning over the cot side patting his little bottom, and my right breast was kind of pressed on the cot which was really uncomfortable. When I stood up, I noticed a LEAK on my T-shirt!!! Gold-coloured too, so I was really excited to notice colostrum for the first time! Benjamin is taking longer at the breast these last few days, and seems a bit more interested than before. When he pulls away I do notice a little white liquid, but it's definitely changing/mostly changed to colostrum now. I tried to hand express a little about a week or two ago, and did get a TINY bead which was white, but when I wiped it away, it was sticky and thick, so I knew it was changing to colostrum. I love making colostrum!! It's such special stuff! :)
Hmmm, what else? I'm continuing to feel really tired a lot of the time, but I am definitely getting bursts of "productive" energy too! I am nesting like crazy, which is great news for our very cluttered household, haha! I think keeping on having babies is the only way my poor home will ever see some really deep cleaning! ;) I am not really cleaning as such, more decluttering and clearing with a ruthless mindset! I painted the porch to cover up all the crayon the boys had covered the walls with in there. Soooo fed up of seeing crayon all over my walls!!!! Those are now under lock and key in the school cupboard, thankfully! I have sorted and bagged (with food bags - labelled!) all sorts of things - jigsaw puzzles with broken boxes, crayons, pencils, coloured pencils (I sharpened nearly 200 pencils of all sorts one evening and gave myself a HUGE blister on my thumb, lol!), crafty bits and pieces, etc. I have cleared out the financial paperwork and spent a whole evening shredding (oh that was so much fun. /sarcasm), and made labelled folders for every category of what remained. I have cleared out two drawers in our merchant's chest (the one with many drawers!) and put toys in them (thus clearing floor space, yippeeee!). I have painted samples in my bedroom to see if I might change the colour in there before the boys move in. I think I will paint it to match their bedding and curtains. I may have to get Neil to do some of it (much as I want to do it all myself! I love this kind of thing!!) because I don't want the paint fumes to be too much for me or my little one. We only buy low odour/toxicity paint but even using that for the porch I felt it was too much after a while and had to come away from it. I want to paint the woodwork too but I will have to get someone else to do that :( It's too stinky. That will frustrate me so much because I LOVE decorating!!!! Oh well.
I bought a white blanket box/chest thingy at eBay for very little money, and Neil went to collect it. It was only about an hour's drive away which was good. It's basic, but big capacity, and that's exactly what I wanted! I have now transferred all the arts and crafts stuff out of the school cupboard and put it into the new chest. The house is heaving with arts and crafts things, because I LOVE arts and crafts and keep getting new bits and pieces (or collecting them) to use with my little ones! We don't actually DO stuff often enough, but I have a ton of stuff to store all the same. Now it's allllll stored in the new chest, which is now called the "Arts and Crafts Chest" - it's absolutely FULL of paints, collage stuff, messy mats, aprons, glue, various papers, painting accessories, fabric off-cuts, stickers, kits, and "look and see" items like pine cones, sea shells, etc. I can't believe it's full with ONLY arts and crafts stuff! I had planned to use half of it for that, and the other half for games and puzzles (the boxes for which are cluttering the stairs, ugh). But it's full! The chest will double as something to sit on in the living room, and will take the place of our battered armchair, which is going to the tip to clear space. Can't wait to get rid of the broken 2-seater sofa and replace it with a bright-coloured futon mattress and some cheery floor cushions. We NEED more space in this 600sq ft, 2-bedroom house with just the 2 rooms downstairs, and FIVE energetic boys from the end of the year!!! Neil has no job and we are completely out of money, so we can't possibly move. That is fine though, I am okay with that. I am now just working like crazy to minimise the clutter and maximise the space!
Well that should have probably been in my main blog, but oh well! I got carried away! ;) Just an illustration of how I have been nesting recently. I do some decluttering or clearing out every evening and look forward to it all day long! If Neil takes the boys out to the park (pretty much every afternoon), I eagerly get stuck in to something then too. I painted the porch one of the afternoons they were at the park, which I didn't want to do when they were sleeping upstairs in the evening, because of the paint smell. I am getting the urge to bake lately too, but obviously not strong enough to do much about it yet, haha! I have been wanting to bake brownies or cookies for a while, but just haven't got around to it. Probably for the best! ;) I also feel like making apple crumble and fruity things that are cosy and yummy!
Well there's probably loads more, and I can't actually remember what I HAVE written this post because it has all been so random, but at least I have written stuff down at last! Samuel has just woken up and started sweeping a little foot or something behind my tummy button, so I am going to go and brush my teeth and go to bed and enjoy his sweet little movements for a while. Hopefully Benjamin won't do his 2-hour awake thingy tonight! :S
I'll try to update again soon! Thanks SO much for all the lovely congrats after my post about the scan! I'm glad everyone seems to like his name - I LOVE it, but I'm biased, hehe! Thanks for being happy that I am having my 5th boy. It's a nice antidote to all the "Oh no!", "Oh dear!" or "Oh I'm sorry!" type of responses that I get from real-life friends and acquaintances. *sigh* I have already had a "Are you going to keep trying for your girl?", which is an annoying one! I do understand that one, but I have to explain that we are never trying for a girl, just a BABY, and actually it's great news that it's a boy and I'm very very happy with just boys so far! But it was lovely to read everyone's happy comments! Thank you! :) B, thanks for your email too - I will reply, I am just behind on emails! xx
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