As yet unnamed!

Thank you & major delivery day!

First I wanted to say thank you to those who left me responses to my questions as well as those who emailed me with a list of things! I am going to start with the aptimul baby formula (am not even remotely interested in breast feeding) and pampers new born nappies and also will invest in some sudocrem (and vaseline). Won't worry about bath soaps and stuff to begin with though I might buy some for myself as I love how some of it smells!

I had a bunch of stuff arrive this morning. My white baskets with pink fabric lining came along with waterproof mattress covers for baby. My nappy disposal system, baby bath, bottle cooler/warmer, the Baby Bjorn active carrier which actually looks so complicated I've put it aside so Kirk can figure out how the contraption works, more baby hangers and then those cute pink sunglasses which are so tiny in real life but looked huge in the pictures. All that's left now is the furniture, and then today I ordered the Bugaboo (ended up with the grey base and tan accent colours but then wanted some red so went for the red footmuff and sun canopy). I also got a baby seat and seat base for the car. Isn't the car seat really cute? It's a Maxi Cosi Cabrio which works with the Bugaboo and is also a pretty well rated car seat. Originally we were going to get a black one but then decided that was too boring so I opted for the loud pink one. Considering we didn't get the pink Bugaboo I felt it was ok to have a pink car seat. She's only in it for the first year or so anyway! I heard lots of great reviews for the Symphony in Motion baby mobiles so ordered the remote control version today. I'm hoping that if it entertains baby for 15 minutes each day I can get a shower in during that time. Last but not least I ordered a baby monitor which looks like a hi tech walkie talkie so Kirk and I can use it to communicate when one of us is upstairs and the other downstairs. Oh, and of course it will be useful for baby's room.

All we have left to buy now is the moses basket, sheets for the basket, towels and then of course nappies, etc. Otherwise I'm all set! I know I won't relax until everything has arrived and has a home though. I love how organised I'm being, it's so unusual for me but a great feeling!

Question for any Moms reading this!

I've asked this on a mommy forum I belong to and have had some great answers but wanted to ask here as well and get as much advice as possible from Moms rather than from reading books. I'm sure I'll learn stuff in my ante natal classes as well which start next week! Can't believe how it's nearly February already, I feel like I just booked my place in the class but that was back in early September.

Anyway, the last bits of my shopping are for the sorts of things I would be getting at Boots.

Nappies... what's a good brand? So far I've read online and had confirmed that Huggies newborn nappies are not good as they leak a lot. I don't want to have to change baby from head to toe each time she pees, 10+ nappies is bad enough in a day. I want to use disposables as there is no way I am going to be washing cloth ones. I've heard Pampers newborn is good.

Baby wipes. I've heard it's fine to use them from the beginning rather than cotton balls dunked in cooled sterilised water sort of thing. Frankly I think wipes would be easier anyway. Any brand that is better than others? I know so far to look for unscented. And Toni Ann in the past has told me to use vaseline as a barrier to stop the initial tar poo from smearing all over the place. (ick ick ick by the way, I guess I won't be eating dinner tonight after this post).

Bath stuff. Is it a bad idea to use shampoo (assuming baby has hair) and bath soaps? How often do you bathe a newborn? Some have said not more than once a week but that strikes me as not frequent enough. I can't see myself having the patience to wipe baby down with dampened cotton wool each day. Is baby lotion necessary?

Newborn formula. I've heard positive things about Aptimul though I realise that not all babies are the same and it may be a case of trial and error. Have heard less than good stuff about SMA products especially for newborns as it's too rich or something?

Anything I should get for c-section recovery? I've heard arnica and then to take all the pain meds they will dish out at the hospital. And I know about the big granny pants.

I think that's it but if anyone has other products that I need to consider please tell me. Thank you :)

Part two of spending frenzy

Seriously, how much stuff does a baby need?!? I am sure I am buying stuff that is really not required but I like convenience so am a sucker for things that may make my life easier. I ordered these baskets today but got the ones with the pink gingham fabric (of course, like I would buy blue!). I figured they would work well on the shelves under the changing table. I made a huge dent in my list of things to buy and have now got all the sheets, waterproof mattress covers, room thermometer (got one of those grobad egg shaped ones that change colour as they look cute) and then basic stuff like bibs and flannels.

I found a site that has a discount on the car seat we want if bought in conjuction with the stroller/pram we want so that will save another chunk of cash and the monitor we want is more than 10% cheaper there than anywhere else I've seen. I will order that tomorrow and it should come in about 2 weeks time. Just need to hop onto the Boots site and do the final bits of things like nail clippers, bottles and stuff like that. I will be done with most of the shopping this week and then on Saturday Kirk and I can go pick out a moses basket and maybe a bouncey chair type thing. I can't wait until everything arrives and we're completely organised. I've never been such a planner so this is totally weird for me to be this obsessive about having things sorted early. Hope it's not a bad sign that baby is going to arrive super early...

More baby stuff ordered

Kirk had to go to work this afternoon so I was tidying up the bedroom and when folding his jeans, his credit card fell out of the pocket. So what did I do? I decided to go online and order some more stuff for baby! I got the chest of drawers with the baskets as I think they would be a cute way to organise socks, hats and smaller items. I may even invest in a Making Memories tag maker so I can make some cute tags. I then ordered some boring things like a nappy disposal system (one that doesn't require special bags so I can use regular small trash bags), a Baby Bjorn baby carrier, some more of those cute gingham hangers, a baby bath and then a bottle cooler and warmer all in one system for night time feeds. Will save Kirk the trouble of going down 2 floors to get a bottle out of the kitchen in the middle of the night! Oh, and then I got some cute sunglasses. No idea if baby will ever wear them but they were cute and inexpensive so I ordered them.I was feeling all smug thinking I had ordered almost everything needed so I did a little list and I guess we have quite a bit more to do. So, this week I'll try and get more done and then Kirk and I can finish things off next weekend. I know we still have 10 weeks to go but you never know if baby will come early and I want to be totally ready. None of this running around at the last minute... well I wouldn't be running, I would be waddling and Kirk would be laughing at me. He seems to find it amusing that I wobble around lately. Nice.

SO glad we're having a girl!!!

Can I just say again how happy I am that we're having a girl? Of course, a little boy would've been just as loved but the girl clothes are by far so much cuter than boy clothes! Sure, part of it is that I don't really like boy colours and I adore pink, but also, girl stuff has cute flowers and polka dots and such whereas boys stuff tends to have more trucks and bugs and stuff. Totally not my thing. I'm so happy to be in a world of pink :) I had my 2 packages of baby clothes arrive today. I counted 14 sleep suits, 5 long sleeve day time suits, 6 pairs of cotton trousers with elastic waists, 3 cotton nappy covers, and then 2 outfits. One of them I just had to take a picture of as it's so cute! It's not from anywhere special, in fact it's from Next. The size says 3-6 months so she should get a few wears out of it though it will be summertime here. With how cold and crappy it is in general this will be nice and cosy for baby :) I think Mimi thought it was kind of cute as well as she was fascinated by it. Either that or she really wanted to try it on for herself. Gotta love kitty, she is always around and I hope she stays ever present once baby arrives as well. I want them to be the best of friends :)

I painted the wooden letters last night that spell out baby's name. I used my Making Memories paints as they seemed to be a pretty good match with the colours in the bedding I showed yesterday. Not sure if I will decorate the letters any further though I initially considered adding some blossoms and ribbons. I want to see how they look on the wall combined with everything else in her room so it all doesn't look OTT.

Otherwise, nothing else to report! Next shopping trip is this weekend to pick up a few more things. So glad Kirk is involved and interested in going with me. Makes it that much more fun!

Nursery Stuff

I borrowed this pictures from the manufacturer's website as I don't want to open up the packaging just yet as Mimi will then put her hair all over it! It's a range called "Ashley Girl" and over Xmas Kirk had bought a quilt cover in this range and I really like the colours so yesterday I went out and bought most of the other bits that I could find to match. The only place so far I've found in Central London that carries it is Harrods and then Daisy and Tom so may go check Daisy and Tom over the weekend to see if we are missing anything. I figure these colours will work well with white furniture and the yellow walls in baby's room and they are girlie but not overwhelmingly pink.

I also ordered loads of sleepsuits and play suits as well as other little outfits today. I figure I can try a range of brands and see which one is nicest once washed and dried. My MIL is getting some stuff together from the US as well so baby won't have any shortage of things to wear :) The goods from the shops will arrive on Thursday so I'm looking forward to playing with tiny clothes!

3d scan pics

I may well have my rose tinted glasses on but baby looked pretty cute to me (and Kirk!) when we saw her on the monitor during the scan this morning. She seemed a bit shy and kept covering her face with her arms and hands but a few nudges by me and she showed her face a bit more. She got the hiccups during the scan so we got to watch that as well. Toward the end she was getting fed up I think as she yawned and then frowned when I kept nudging her. She's lucky I didn't get up and jump up and down. I would've done just about anything to get some good pics. She needs to realise her Mom is a scrapbooker and photos and posing will be a big part of her life.

Everything checked out fine and as we already knew, she is growing more than 1 week ahead and the Dr today estimated her birth weight would be 8-1/2lbs. She is already 3lbs with 12 weeks left to go. Good job I want a c-section then as there is no way I would even consider giving birth naturally to a baby of that size. Anyway, here are some photos of her and I've put more in an album here. Once I figure out how to transfer parts from the DVD we got, I will load that up here as well. Don't hold your breath though as I have no idea at this point how to do it.

1.The first image we had of her. By the way, she is really a she, we saw the confirmation today.
2.Covering her face, kinda like she was saying "doh!"
3.I like this one as you can see her little nose! Looks more like mine than Kirks but she has Kirk's full lips :)
4. This is her frowning when I kept nudging her.
5.Her yawning to signify she was bored of us watching her!

Sorry if the images don't all line up, can't use the html edit option on the Mac template for some reason. Widen your browswer as much as possible and that should help, at least it does on my screen! Anyway, after the scan I went to Harrods and bought some bedding for her. It's really cute so I will take a photo of it all later and upload it, perhaps tomorrow. Going to kick back and do some housework later this afternoon. Can't believe it's already nearly 2:30!

Tummy Progress

Finally managed a tummy progress photo tonight! I think I've filled out a little bit, at least it sure feels like it today. It's a slightly large photo so may take a bit longer than normal to download. I hate how the belly button starts to look when it's getting ready to pop out. Good job it's mid winter and my tummy is covered up at all times! I still don't see any stretch marks on my belly so fingers crossed they never appear. I don't think I'm that large compared to how large I know some people get and I'm hoping not to get too huge toward the end as I'm not sure my back would hold out. Remembering what my Dr said though about my tummy doubling in size is not reasuring. Kirk will have to push me up the stairs if I wobble much more!

Slacking on the updates

I had meant to get a tummy pic taken this weekend but we forget and now Kirk has been at work non stop so it hasn't happened. Hopefully he will have a spare moment sometime this week. It's been an uneventful few days which is good I guess. I am aching a bit and my belly button is being stretched beyond belief, so much so that I feel like it may rip open. I'm kinda dreading how uncomfortable I'll be in the weeks to come, just have to remind myself it will all be worth it.

I've officially entered the 3rd trimester as of yesterday. The baby will arrive in 12 weeks from today at the latest. I need to look into ordering the Bugaboo and other stuff in the next few weeks just in case she arrives even sooner than the plan. The nursery furniture should arrive in the next 3 weeks as well so that will be nice to get the room set up. Feel a bit at loose ends at the moment as stuff is in motion but nothing is really done.

Looking good

Had my glucose test this morning and it will be a few days before I get my blood test results. Would be surprised if anything was wrong though so not going to worry about it. Dr measured my fundal height which said 27 weeks so I'm on track and as he said "you have a good sized baby in there!" Blood pressure was normal as well and he said I didn't look to have gained much weight at all other than my tummy so he wasn't going to bother to weigh me. I asked how much bigger I would get and he said to expect my tummy to double in size by the end. Listened to babys' heartbeat on the doppler and she has a good strong beat so all is looking good.

Next appointment is Feb 9th for routine blood pressure and stuff and then to go over my birth plan. We pretty much just need to agree what we will do if I go into labour before my elective c-section date of April 10. Gives me something to think about for a month!