Essentials

So I am feeling much better. Way better!

It’s amazing how much a cold can knock you down and being pregnant made it ten times worse, but thank you all for your prayers, I am now back to ‘normal’*.

The past few weeks, we have been doing a lot of planning for the future, budgets and such like. With maternity leave on the horizon we thought it would good to see what the world would look like post baby. Alongside that we’re moving house next month {flat to house}, which I am really excited about, so have been planning for that as well. Having a flat has been fun and is definitely cosy but there is not enough storage space. One year on, we still have wedding gifts in boxes as there is nowhere to put them. In addition we don’t currently have space for a dining table, so I’m looking forward to getting one, lots of family meals around the table!

Day to day, I’m finding pregnancy rather interesting. On one hand I am completely in awe of how a human being can grow inside another. Each week we read our pregnancy updates and are amazed at what baby is doing that week {for those of you interested our baby can now squint, frown, grimace, pee, and possibly suck his thumb!}. The constant nausea like feeling is always there now and tiredness has become a way of life.

I am enjoying my new body shape as it changes with each week. No longer do I have to worry about holding in my stomach lol! I have decided to embrace my shape and no longer worry about the scales. I also used to have a sweet tooth in a very big way, but now sweet things give me a really horrible aftertaste, so I avoid at all costs. My favourite things now are savoury and spicy and the hotter the better! Oh and I LOVE water. I liked it before but now I crave it all the time and pop in a couple of ice cubes = heaven!

We’ve starting to think about what things we will need for baby and boy is there a lot out there. Planning for a baby is very much like planning for a wedding. There are things you need to have and then there are things which are nice to have, but if you don’t have them you would still get married and have a good wedding. It’s the same when looking at baby things. There are masses of baby gear out there, half of which are targeted at the parent rather than baby and the baby companies are very good at telling you what things you must have, otherwise you’re deemed a bad parent for not wanting the best for your child!

We’re very much have the school of thought that we want the best for our child/ren, but will they really know the difference between a crib from John Lewis or a crib from Argos or even Gumtree! For some things we will go brand new, others we won’t.

Those of you who have had children, what approach did you take and what things did you deem essential for baby?

*still dealing with nausea, tiredness and a permanent weird taste in my mouth

Milestones

This week is a milestone.

We reached the second trimester and I am so grateful to God for bringing me through the last three months.

This week has also been tough, because I have been sicker than I have ever been. I wake up in the morning and despite a full night’s sleep, I haven’t got the energy to move, let alone shower and go to work.  I have also caught a cold and I’m not feeling great!

However, with every symptom, feeling or discomfort, I thank God because it is all for a good cause. In less than 6 months time we will meet the little human who has been taking over my body and we can’t wait!

Thanks for the advice on my first pregnancy post, I completely agree with the words of N.I.L. (Congrats on your blog award btw! ‘Best Parenting Blog’). There is so much information out there, internet or otherwise and you have to be wise as to what you will follow. I have deliberately tried to avoid certain sites because I don’t want to freak myself out unnecessarily. Other places I have learnt lots. One just has to use wisdom.

Here is this week’s video update. Let me know if the sound is okay, as I was experimenting with my microphone.  Often I wear it underneath my top, but today I decided to place it in a different location. If you think the sound quality is poor, I will go back to the old way.

p.s. we don’t know our baby is a ‘he’ but it’s easier than saying ‘it’!

Have a good weekend!

Need a pick me up?

Here are a couple of great worship songs, I’m loving right now…

 

 

Great encouragement for the soul and a reminder of God’s greatness in our lives.

Two Lines

So on May 18th our lives changed forever when we got our two lines.

Many women often say that they knew they were pregnant before doing their test, I on the other hand was not one of those women. My body likes to play tricks, so I wanted evidence before I could believe anything. Since getting married we decided that we were going to let God decide when to expand our family and so when it was the right time, it would happen. But for anyone who is trying to conceive, the monthly cycles of waiting and then disappointment when nothing happened, can be quite trying.

Having taken pregnancy tests before which have come back negative I was terrified about getting another negative. You don’t realise how much you want something, until you think you have it and then realise you don’t. {Think Rachel from Friends when Phoebe tricked her into thinking she wasn’t pregnant, when she actually was and she found herself really upset}.  There were signs that I could be pregnant but I didn’t want to jinx anything and I told Afam that we should wait at least a week after my period was due, before we take a test and then and only then would I entertain pregnancy thoughts.

Waiting a week would have taken us to Sunday but by Wednesday morning I couldn’t take it anymore and caved and went to Boots and bought a pack of two tests. I was tempted to just do it at work to get it out of the way so that I would know, but we had agreed that we would do pregnancy tests together, so I took the tests home and let Afam know that we had two pregnancy tests available IF we wanted to do a test today.

Wednesday evening we had gone to Life group at church and all through the meeting I was thinking, “we should do a test, I mean I could be pregnant and not even know it, Yeh we should do a test. But I’m scared. What if I’m not pregnant. Let’s wait. No let’s do a test.”  So on the way home, I convinced Afam that we should do a test that night.

As we had two tests if it came back negative we could always do another one in the morning.

Let me tell you it was the longest 3 minutes of our lives and when it was time I couldn’t even look. We got up together to go to the bathroom and Afam was in front of me. I had my eyes closed and then I heard ‘You’re pregnant!!’. What! ‘You’re pregnant!!’ he shouted again. I opened my eyes looked at the test and there were two lines.

I burst into tears. We hugged. We prayed and thanked God for this miracle of life. I couldn’t believe it was finally happening.

Did we sleep that night..not really lol! But it didn’t matter!

The following morning I did the second test just to ‘make sure’ and sat and watched how quickly it turned positive. It was quick. Two strong lines in less than a minute! We were having a baby!

*****

The following weekend we went away for a few days to visit some friends and decided to buy a clearblue digital test so that we could see the 'Pregnant’ on the test and how far along we were.

 

I tell you it’s a lot less stressful taking a pregnancy test when you know it will be positive!

So now the journey begins…

We started recording weekly pregnancy diaries at week 7, so that we can remember and document the experience.  If you fancy following the journey in vlog form, check out our channel on Youtube.  I’m a bit nervous doing belly shots, but maybe from next week I will post one up here.

This week we enter the last week of the first trimester {where has the time gone!} and thankfully I haven’t been too ill. During the past three months I have dealt mainly with tiredness, nausea and bloating. I haven’t lost my appetite, which is good because I am enjoying this whole ‘eating for two’ thing and my hair and nails are growing like crazy. There have been some weird happenings during the first trimester, mainly weird dreams and smells, but all in all it hasn’t been too bad.

This week is a busy baby week as we meet our midwife on Wednesday for a check up and have our 12 week scan on Thursday.

Looking forward to seeing how Jnr is doing! He better have his house in order, as we’re paying a visit!

Survival Tips for the First Year

The first year of marriage can be one of the most challenging and there are few things we have identified some survival tips to help you through. It’s not a definitive list, but they are things which have and continue to help us.

1. Keep God at the center. of your marriage. Pray together, but also ensure your own personal relationship with God is intact.

2. Communicate about anything and everything. Make time to talk to each about your marriage, what is working, what is not. Talk about your future, your hopes, dreams and desires. Nothing is too insignificant.

3. Build intimacy. This is not just about sex but about oneness and togetherness. It also does not end at the altar but is something that is worked out throughout your marriage. You need to invest the time.

4. Expectations… Don’t be surprised if they are not met. Even the most basic of expectations you might have, may not get met initially and you need to be prepared for that. Discuss with your spouse at the beginning of marriage what expectations you both have about marriage. Agree to compromise or accept things as they are. This is a great video on expectations.

5. Be ready (and expect) to face challenges. Face them together.

6. Conflict will happen, fact. You are two different people, with two viewpoints and perspectives. The key is to listen to each other and learn to resolve it in a way where both sides feel heard. Agree together the way forward.

7. Don’t try and change your spouse. Be the change and most often they will follow. Not always, but most times.

8. It’s not about you. Spend time focusing on your spouse and how you can bless/serve them. Pray for them daily.

9. Protect your new family from outsiders. People mean well, your family may mean well, but when push comes to shove, it’s the two of you who have to live your life together.

10. When the going gets tough, remember why you married each other and the foundation of your love!

Do you have any other tips for surviving the first year?

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