33 Week Update. Feeling positive.

You will be happy to know that this is a positive blog post about pregnancy.

I’m 33 weeks. It’s getting closer to the big day. I’m really starting to get excited. I’m not worried about actually giving birth at all. This may change but at the moment I’m just looking forward to the experience. I know it’s going to hurt like hell. It did last time and its far from easy but there are two huge bonuses at the end:

1. I will have my baby in my arms.

2. Pregnancy will be over. Forever. Yay.

Weight:

I have gained enough weight for this stage in my pregnancy ( smack bang in the middle of the average weight gain range) yet I actually don’t feel fat. I may look it but I don’t feel it. My belly is of course huge but the rest of me seems ok ..ish at the moment. In fact I somehow managed to accidentally wear size 10 non maternity leggings the other day.. Oops. They felt rather uncomfortable by the end of the day.

Lovely dress I bought from Seraphine for a wedding:

Sleep:

Sleep is elusive. I want to sleep but I can’t. Between the crazy dreams, toilet trips and general niggles and pains I rarely get more than about 4 hours. I am getting used to the tiredness but it is frustrating when I know I need my energy for when baby arrives. I am starting to reintroduce my daily nap which I stopped for the past fortnight as felt I didn’t need it.

Baby:

We saw the baby again on Monday. We had a scan followed by a consultant appointment. All seems well at the moment which is just fabulous news and feeling less stressed about how she is doing is definitely contributing to my current positive mood. The scan was incredible. My last scan with Izzy was at 20 weeks so seeing my baby looking well like a proper baby is a bit mad. We had a 30minute scan as they asked us if we minded also being scanned by a trainee student after the sonographer had finished. To thank us they gave us 4 photos and I thought I would share one with you as it’s so clear:

She is head down and has had a growth spurt since our last scan which is great. I just can’t wait to meet her now.

Strep B:

As I already know I have Strep B we have been told that we have to get to hospital as soon as contractions become in any way regular or if my waters break I need to go in immediately in order for the antibiotics to start working and to stop the baby getting the infection. This does make me panic slightly and I predict there may be some false alarm hospital visits in a few weeks. Better to be safe though and I am lucky that I know that I have it. You can read more about Strep B here

Cravings:

These haven’t changed much since last week really but my ice craving has increased massively. It turns out my iron levels are low which could explain that. I am now on an iron liquid supplement twice a day which is pleasant.. Hmmm. Anyway back to the ice. The staff in my local Asda think I’m crazy after a recent ice craving conversation and I have discovered I can recreate a slush puppy using my Vitamix to crush the ice and them adding soda stream cola syrup afterwards. Far from healthy but oh so good. Apples are still popular with me but I don’t feel the need to eat more than 1 a day anymore.

Cooking:

I am loving being back in the kitchen more. I have a new pantry – which I love and today my brilliant Dad is painting the whole room for me so it means I can’t spend anytime in there cooking but I will have a lovely fresh looking kitchen soon enough. In the past week I have made:

Slow cooker beef stew, brownies, tiffin, lazy pasta and Butter chicken curry. Yum.

Later on I plan to make bread and if I continue to feel well next week I plan to make lasagne, curry,stew and pies for the freezer ready for those first crazy weeks.

Izzy:

Izzy is bonding more and more with my bump and loves to look at the scan photos. My bump gets kisses all the time and she will dance with my bump too. I can’t wait to see them together. I know there will be some jealousy and resentment at times but I do hope they are close. She had her 2 year assessment with the health visitor last week and passed with flying colours. She continues to surprise us with her funny sentences and the things she seems to know without us telling her. She still has the occasional tantrum but they are mostly short lived…for now.

Work:

I am officially on annual leave now followed immediately by my maternity leave commencing and it feels really good to know that I don’t have to worry about being well enough to go to work. Kinda crazy to know I will be off work until next October! Thoroughly enjoying the extra time I get to spend with my girl before baby two arrives.

Names

We finally have 1 or 2 names that we like. Still not sure if they are the right ones but we are getting somewhere at last.

Anyway that is enough rambling from me. Thanks for reading 🙂