CharlieBeth's "My Life As Mumma Walker"

I can't help thinking back to the conversation I had with the consultant on Wednesday, when she asked if I had experienced any signs of labour yet. I'd said that my braxton hicks had got a bit meatier but that's all they were. I also think about the 2 hours I spent stuck in traffic the day after coming home from work. 2 hours in 26 degree C heat with no air con. Oh, and the 2.5 hours I spent at soft play with the kids on Friday, also without air con. And how sick I was after. How I had blamed it on heat stroke. Saturday had been braxton hicks central, but I carried on as normal, even taking the 3 lads to the cinema. By the time the kids were in bed I was inclined to admit they were probably contractions. Early labour. But given I was 3 weeks till due date it was likely to be a false start, like I had with Georgie. People suggested it was the real deal (you know who you are) but I brushed it aside. 3 weeks early was too early. Even with a slight gush of wetness around 8p

Baby is now considered TERM! Friday evening was scary! I'd taken the kids out for the morning, we were all tired when we got back and all slept all afternoon. Then in the early evening me and my eldest started being sick. We couldn't eat or drink without being sick. By bedtime I was in agony! My belly and back we're cramping. Baby has dropped quite low now so when I was sick and made my belly tense up, baby was upset and kicked me in the belly and what felt like my coccyx area. Pain beyond words! I couldn't stand, lie down, curl up, or squat. Hubby was worried the baby coming, but it didn't feel like early labour.  I was in tears from the pain and on the verge of calling the midwives at the hospital when I remembered the Tens machine we'd recently been given - I've never had one before so it wasn't the first thing I'd thought of. Hubby set it up and I was able to cope again. Amazing thing! Now all I had to concentrate on was

Oooh yeah! I got my induction date! Mark it in your diary folks, I'm booked in for August 5th 2014! Today went really well all round really. I had been dreading it since I had the kids last day at school & nursery to deal with, Tom to take to the Clinic with me, and the prospect of no nearby parking and awful heat to contend with. But Tom behaved, we found a good parking space, and escaped the GD Clinic in time to collect Jack & Georgie. Tom liked seeing the Baby on the "TV", although Bean looks nothing like a baby on the scan at this stage, far too big for a good profile shot etc. But he understood that what we was seeing was bits of baby's body, heart beat etc. Just for the record, the estimated weight of baby is currently 4333g or 9 1/2 lb. so I'm now saying Bean will be a shade over 10lb at birth! Any one else fancy taking a guess?? So... Assuming that I don't spontaneously go into labour BEFORE the 5th, I'll be taking the kids do

Jack has joined the Scouts. Well, as he's 6 he has joined the Beavers, but it's all the same thing. He's only been to a couple of meetings, with it being the end of the season, but he's really taken to it. This weekend he wanted to go on he Scout Camp. It's only an over-nighter, nothing major. Not like he's away for a week or anything. But it's the first time he's been away from home overnight without being with family. And it's made me nervous. Very nervous! I know he's perfectly safe, and I know he has loads of friends already, and that he will make a load more with every meeting and trip away. But he's my baby! My first baby! And he ran off to join his mates without a hug or a proper good bye. I wanted to cry all the way home, and I don't think it's just the pregnancy hormones. I was pretty quiet all evening in truth. Tom & George were a bit "where's Jack?" But it was nothing new to them for him not be a

Where is the time going? I am torn between feeling like time is dragging - like when I'm hot and swollen and can't sleep - and wondering where the heck time is going! I'm back at the GD Clinic this Wednesday and this time..... Please let it be this time.... This time SURELY she will give me my actual induction date! She said 38 weeks. That's just two weeks away! Things on my countdown list are passing. Jack has been on his first overnight with the Beavers (over emotional post to follow), the kids all finish school & nursery half way through this week, this time next week I'll be considered "term". I only have a maximum of 4 days left at work too, which is more likely to be 2 1/2.  It's all getting quite real! Eek! Here's what Fertility Friend says about baby this week: Your baby is now considered full term. He weighs approximately 6.5 lbs (2950g) and his total length is about 21 inches (47cm). Your baby's

Time is marching! It's one month to my due date! Three weeks OR LESS until my (probable) induction! Two weeks from today I'll have finished work. And it's just under one week until the kids finish school & nursery for the summer. We're pretty much sorted for baby. I have washed all my neutral coloured baby clothes, and they are in baby's drawers ready to be used. Tomorrow I'm planning to wash either the coloured stuff or the cloth nappies.  I printed off my birth plan today while I was at work and it is now safely tucked away with my Green Notes. I'm getting loads of Braxton Hicks now. I've had them a lot this pregnancy, and now they are getting that bit more intense. It's definitely just BH though - as I have to keep pointing out to Hubby who gets twitchy when I mention them. I think I have the swollen feet sussed! Oh, don't get me wrong, they are still swelling up, but not as badly. It seems it's the way I've been si

Mmmm.... I seem to have got myself "hooked" on a new hobby.  I admit it's the fact that they have been MASSIVE at Jack's school, to the point where they have been banned because (as Jack tells it) kids were selling bracelets "just for money" which caught my interest. And then I've seen some of the Mum's making / mending loom band creations.... and then they started turning up on my Facebook feed with people making Minions and other cute characters.... And in the end I just HAD to give it a go! The kids are loving the things I'm making. I'm still only a beginner, mostly making "fishtail" pattern bracelets but I'm working up to the bigger stuff (thanks to YouTube tutorials). They keep coming to me with requests for colours and designs. Jack has asked for a whole load of Super Hero inspired designs, Tom wants Lego Movie ones. Georgie is a bit young really as everything still goes in his mouth, but he likes to try them on.

This weekend me and Jack had some fun with collage! The Art & Design part of Jack's creative homework was to make a 3D model of a bug in the style of Eric Carle (American designer, illustrator, and writer most famous for The Very Hungry Caterpillar). We used egg boxes, tissue paper, and pipe cleaners to create two caterpillars - one in the same colours as the infamous Very Hungry Caterpillar, and one in Jack's favourite colours - and a spider inspired by The Very Busy Spider which Jack LOVES. Jack had a great time shredding the tissue paper and gluing it to his critter creations. Today we took all the Beasties & Bugs projects into school. Jack got two Smiley Faces straight away (he can only earn 5 in a week so this is a big deal) and also got to take it to show the Headmistress (who Jack adores) and came away with a very shiny sticker award. He is a very proud and pleased young man today! Facebook has changed it’s policy for posts to Facebook pages

One of  "those" weeks! Firstly I am sorry for the technical problems with the linky last week. My account with linky tools expired, automatically renewed, but they didn't make the connection between my payment and my account. They did fix it fairly quickly though. So... all posts with likes got shared! The swelling is back in my feet. It's not fun. There's only so much time you can spend in a day with your feet higher than your heart when you have a job, 3 kids, and a house to run. All I can say is thank you to my Hubby for keeping everything running relatively smoothly while I have been less than useless! Nesting is in full swing again! I have been unpacking all our 0-3 month baby clothes and washing them in preparation for Baby Bean's arrival! I only have a handful of new things, but two full boxes of stuff saved from my 3 boys! All the things I've loved best! Slightly sad that this is the last time I will unpack it all (and

Brace yourself for a moaning post. I'm a bit that way out today. Highlights: Cankles, Demanding Kids, and Sleep Deprivation. I have not been able to sleep the last few nights. A combination of being way too hot, and way too big is making getting comfortable pretty much impossible. I'm going to bed at a sensible time and sleep until about 1ish. Then I'm tossing and turning until up to 3.30 before I finally conk out again, only to be woken by the kids at any time from 5.30 onwards. So you can imagine I'm not feeling my best. I've tried to nap in the day but as I'm generally either at work or I have the kids it's not very do-able. And when I do manage to nap, I sleep even worse at night. My feet and legs are the main cause of my unhappiness at the moment though. I'm used to swelling up in the last few weeks of my pregnancy, but I've never suffered like this before. Then again, I've never had a summer baby before. My feet, ankles and calves

There's nothing quite like getting a knock on the door just before breakfast, and being handed a massive box with not one, but THREE different cereals to choose from! Especially when one of them is CHOCOLATE flavour!  I have signed up for the 5 Day Challenge to see if All-Bran really can make me feel better in under a week. And I'm really hoping it will because I'm only a matter of weeks away from having this baby (next month, OMG!) and my digestive tract probably isn't as happy as it could be! I am grateful for any help I can get in that department, especially if it is likely to give me a bit more energy too. It's important to remember that the All-Bran is only PART of what I need to be consuming to improve my digestion. I also need to increase the amount of water I drink or it will have the opposite to the desired effect, and include soft fruit in my diet too. So along with the cereal I will also be making sure I drink at least two litres of WATER a day

I just HAD to share that huge grin! Georgie has been showing an interest in his potty for ages. We had no plans to start him potty training just yet because he's only 2 1/4, but if he's keen we're not about to stop him either. He has been fighting nappies for ages, much preferring the "pull up pants" that Tom wears for bed. Sometimes we oblige him, sometimes we don't. Mainly because they are much more expensive than his nappies... But if he really wants to use them and try to use his potty more I guess we should go with the flow! This evening Hubby was changing Georgie's nappy and George was fighting him as usual. He got up and wondered off asking for the potty. We've had it out for a while because he likes to play at using it, but we've not put any pressure on him. So I showed him where it was and off he toddled. He sat down, as he often does, and we thought nothing of it. Only this time when he got up, he DIDN'T wave it around like

I really didn't mean to frighten him. I was only thinking out loud about how I expect this baby to be big, at least as big as Jack. And that I know it's going to hurt! I tore with all three of my boys, even with an episiotomy. I fully expect it to happen again, I am mentally prepared for it. Or at least as much as I can be. It is, in my opinion, the worst part of child birth - the crowning and tearing. I warned him I would probably swear and be a bit nasty at that point, but only because people tend to lash out at the ones they love the most in those circumstances. My belly seems so much bigger this time round. My belly button does pop out now by evening. It might be because baby lies differently. It might be because baby IS that much bigger. I know I'm struggling to breathe if I do anything strenuous because my innards are pushing into my lungs to make room for baby. I have wondered how I'll get on in labour this time if I can't breath well! This baby is going

Disappointment at the GD Clinic I guess it was too much to hope for.... I didn't get my induction date. They want me to go back AGAIN in another 3 weeks for yet another scan and clinic at 36 weeks. I'm still looking at a 38 week induction, but nothing more concrete than that. On the plus side, baby is doing well. Still off the chart for growth, but head down and looking like getting ready to go. Nice and healthy. And now I can reduce the number of days a week I check my blood sugars from all 7 days to 2-3 days a week. That's good news for my poor sore fingertips. The cooler and damper weather this week means I've not been a swollen in my hands and feet as I have been too. So not all bad.... Here's what Fertility Friend says about baby this week: Your baby now measures about 20.25 inches (45cm) in total length and weighs around 5.5 lbs (2550g). Crown to rump measurement is about 13.2 inches (33cm). He continues to grow and fatte

With no more babies planned (EVER!) I am starting to think that now is the time to take a bit more care of myself and get my figure back. I was a size 12-14 before I got married in 2007 and then went on to have 4 kids in 6 years without much serious thought to my weight or figure in between - just some slight weight loss which usually resulted in me getting pregnant again! The biggest I have been (without a Bump) is a size 20. Right now there is still a month to go before I have my 4th & final baby. Because I have been under the threat of gestational diabetes I have tried to watch what I eat in this pregnancy. I was 14 stone 3lb (199lb) and a size 18 the day I found out I was pregnant.  I would like get to 10 and a half stone (147lb). I'm not a massive fan of exercise, but I do like to swim. I'm not great at controlling what I eat unless I am signed up with something like Weight Watchers so I will likely do that again too. I have always lacked motivation to get fit and slim

The Bug Hotel! This week we have been working on Jack's Bug Hotel. We've got a lot of inspiration from Pinterest, and had a good rummage through all the bit n bobs we save for projects like this. We've used the insert from an old advent calendar as a base, and filled each pocket with the inner from a toilet roll, packed in with shredded newspaper to keep them steady. Jack has been collecting all sorts of things to go in the tubes. Twigs and sticks, bits of cardboard, shredded egg box, and taken great care to make sure there is room for bugs and beasties to climb inside! I have some spare washing line which we can hang it up with, or tie it to one of the trees. But I think we might leave that until AFTER it's been to school... I doubt they would be happy with the classroom being over run with critters! Facebook has changed it’s policy for posts to Facebook pages like mine. They are only showing posts to a few likers unless I pay to boost the views. Sin

Ooo! An underwear shot! You won't find many of those of me floating about.  Excuse the baby's crib in the back ground packed full of stuff like the baby bath, cloth nappies, slings etc. And the only part-made bed! This is my 33 week bump. Tight as a flipping drum! Massive. My belly button is threatening to pop. If I've had a big dinner it does peek out! Much to my Hubby's delight. He's always wanted my belly button to pop out in pregnancy!  My feet keep swelling up. My legs too. Nothing alarming, it's just so flipping hot. So long as I keep drinking plenty of water and spend the evening with my feet elevated it's not so bad.  I was back at the GD clinic yesterday....  It wasn't great. Baby is now approx 2943g (6.5lb) This is my rant on the forum when I got home: Well that's 3+ hrs of my life I'll never get back :( Today's entire hospital visit was gastly, starting with a total inability to get a parking space. Over half

It wasn't the scorching hot day we had for spots day last year, but that may not be such a bad thing. It had forecast rain so frankly I'm just glad it stayed fine! This year my Mum came to watch too, and help me wrestle Tom & George into submission so we could actually watch Jack take part! I am ever so proud of him! This year he came joint first in the sprint, and clear first in the sack race! Facebook has changed it’s policy for posts to Facebook pages like mine. They are only showing posts to a few likers unless I pay to boost the views. Since I don't earn money from my blog (or at least not much, not even enough to buy one posh a coffee a week) I wont be doing that. The best way to make sure you will see my blog posts is to subscribe by email up there on the right. I usually only email once a week and include an invitation to my blog hop so you can share your posts too.   You can also go to my page, hover over the “liked” button a

Today was the second settling in session for Tom at School. He had his first one last week. An hour in the afternoon, with his future class mate, and parents, getting used to the new Reception Class environment. Last week Georgie came too (because Hubby was working and I had no one to leave him with). This week it was just me and Tom for an hour in the morning, and parents were encouraged NOT to stay in the classroom with the kids. For me it was nice to go and have a coffee with the other mums I will be seeing on a near daily basis come September. For Tom it was a great opportunity to play freely in his future classroom and get to know some of the kids. He knows some of them already because they go to the same nursery, but his best friend will be going to a different school. I guess he's going to have to get used to playing with other kids, just like Jack did. It's going to be a smaller class this September. Jack's year was fully subscribed at 30 kids, and almost al