Road trips and baby showers

Had a lovely relaxing first few days off work. Then a busy weekend. We went up to Scunthorpe to see B's family 170ish miles. We've always gone the same way but decided to go a different way this time, straight up the A1. So glad we did. It was so much quicker. On the sat nav it's only 20 mins quicker but in reality it was about an hour. I think it's because the old way has quite a lot of single carriageway roads so we would always get stuck behind lorries.  But the way we went this time is all dual carriageway. It's a bit boring but much quicker.  

I took my hospital bag and the car seat with us, just in case but luckily didn't need them. 

It was great seeing them again and came home with a car full of stuff for Dot. Including a lovely cot which we an use when she grows out of the "space saver cot" we got free on Gumtree. 

We left at 8am Sunday and arrived home at 11.30. Had a quick nap then went to my surprise baby shower! It was a joint baby shower with R. Had a lovely afternoon eating, opening lots of lovely presents and playing games. I'm so oglad my sister, nephew, and sister-in-law-to-be made it. "Such a surprise," it wasn't, I knew, but it was a great afternoon all the same. R didn't have a clue thankfully. 

Really grateful to our friend Mol for organising it. (She does throw a fab party.) and to everyone who came and brought us lots of lovely presents! And to V for making a yummy cake.
See you Wednesday for my 37 week update. Scary!
A xx

Mol, R and V

My Sis, Nephew, Sis-in-law, S, Me and the cake :)

Everyone :)

Yummy food

R and Me with our Becks Blue

K saying Hi to Dot!

Afternoon at the Beach

As there was no one testing this afternoon at work I thought I'd have the afternoon off as it seems to be the only nice day of the bank holiday weekend (surprise surprise!) With B at Reading festival (I didn't fancy a weekend with 4 drunk lads) I took myself off in our lovely new car to mum and dads beach hut in Felixstowe. I did plan on going for a swim but it was so nice just sitting in the sun with the cool sea breeze I didn't bother. I was only there for a couple of hours as the dog needed walking but it was a thoroughly relaxing afternoon. I can't wait to take Dot there in years to come. When they bought it it was kitted out with everything you'd need for a day on the beach. Buckets, spades, dingy, boogie boards and even a camping hob for a cup of tea. I must remember to take sugar when I go next time as tea with no sugar is disgusting. That's the only thing the hut is missing so can't be bad.

Just heard from B he has managed to find a stall that sells phone charging packs that you can swap as many times as you like which means he'll be able to get lots of videos of all the bands I'm missing. He's lost 2 of his friends but him and M were having a brilliant time this afternoon "skanking out to some awesome grime" which I'm glad I'm missing. That's one music genre we definitely don't share a love of.
After I got home I went to visit my pregnant friend R at the fish and chip shop to get my tea. Don't know how she copes with the heat. Makes me very thankful for the air conditioning at my work!
A xx

32 Week Scan With A Camera Shy Baby

I had my 32 week scan and antenatal appointment today. Dot looks healthy and a good size at approximately 3lb 15oz. My consultant wasn't entirely sure why I was there and I was with him a whole 3 minutes. He said I should have had a scan at 28 weeks and that's it. But he said we would stick with the other consultants advice and have another at 36 weeks. At least it's another opportunity to check she's healthy and get a good scan picture. The sonographer today couldn't get a good view. Dot is definitely going to be an awkward little miss! At 2 of my previous scans I've either had to go for a walk or come back for another appointment for them to get all the measurements they need. She obviously doesn't like having her picture taken like her dad! I keep saying she, but the sonographer still couldn't say for definite that she is a she! I hope so or HE will be in a lot of pink until I can get anything else.
Even though I didn't get a scan picture this time I'll add my other 2 onto the end of the blog if I can get it to work today.
While I was at the hospital I popped in to see my dad. He's not feeling great and struggling to find anything that doesn't taste odd, which I remember being a real problem when I had my chemo. (I'll tell that story tomorrow.)
They're keeping a close eye on him and hopefully he'll start feeling better in the next few days.
I'm sure he'll be glad to go home when they do eventually let him out.
Our friend also dropped off our new car today so we went for a little drive. Lovely car. So glad i'll be able to go somewhere while B is at Reading festival this weekend. I'm not jealous at all, honestly!
A xx

12 week scan

20 week scan

Busy weekend doing not very much.

Tad annoying. The car broke down on a test drive so we ended up selling it to the bloke for £50 as we would have only got about £40 if the scrap yard would have come and picked it up. He's coming back for it with a trailer at some point this week. Just glad to see the back of it now.
The Tesco beef ribs yesterday were disappointing and I have gone off wine. So only had a few sips of my 1 glass. I hope it's just because I'm pregnant but it wasn't nice!
On the upside the chocolate torte was amazing.

On a happier note, my dad is starting to feel a bit better(just a little) after his last lot of chemo and stem sell transplant. He's just finished his treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. So hopefully in a few days after some antibiotics and a lot of rest he will be over the worst.
My nephew Baby J has just had a successful op to correct his pyloric stenosis, which, if you didn't know (why would you?) is when the passage between the stomach and small bowel becomes narrower. This stops milk passing into the bowel to be digested.
Yes I copied that from google.
Poor little man was puking lots after every feed and wasn't putting on weight.
He's eating better now which is a major relief for H & J (my sister and brother in-law)

Other than that it was a pretty uneventful weekend. We watched the fireworks on the park opposite after the "cinema in the park" which were quite impressive. Which of course completely freaked the dog out for a good half hour afterwards.
We got up too late to go to the local car boot sale as planned. Im making the most of what few lay-ins I have left before Dot arrives.
I guess it's bed time for me before another week of work.
Night
Xx

Pretty fireworks

Not a happy chappie! :(

Meal Planning, Gumtree and Free Stuff

So, in a bid to be more organised before Dot arrives, I've been doing a Tesco order every week. I used to do one every few weeks (or few months) and just go to the local co-op every other day to get things for meals and stuff we'd run out of. That was getting quite expensive and I found I was spending around £20+ every couple of days. I was also struggling to lug it all back after popping in after work. For the last 3 weeks I've made a meal plan and done it online.
Meal plan for this week is:
Breakfast - cereal or scrambled eggs.
Bacon sandwiches on Sunday
Snacks - Tesco value cereal bars and yoghurts
Lunches - cheese or ham and coleslaw and crisps, yoghurt
Saturday - Tesco finest beef ribs in ale and chunky chips and chocolate torte dessert (2 dine for £10 offer)
Sunday - roast chicken and chorizo roasted potatoes
Monday - chicken pie and mash
Tuesday - spaghetti bolognese
Wednesday - sausages (to be bought from the butchers later in the week)
Thursday - fish cakes and bean salad
Friday - undecided!

2 dine in for £10. Going to treat myself to 1 glass of wine.

We have someone coming to look at (and hopefully buy) our old car later today. It's been off the road for months due to various problems that we have been reluctant to sort out, not knowing if any of them would actually solve the main problem, the battery dying when left for more than a day. I put it on Gumtree with a list of all its problems and hopefully someone who knows a bit about cars can make it into a lovely car again.
We'll be buying a friends car in the next couple of weeks so won't be without for much longer. Which is a nice relief considering I'll only have 8 weeks left on Tuesday!

While replying to a few silly offers for the car on Gumtree (one person offered us a rather ridiculous £100.) I had a look so see who was selling anything nearby. I noticed a space saving cot on for £0! I obviously sent them a message and they're dropping it off shortly! We're still in a 1 bed flat so need something small and I think it's the same size as the one id seen online for £60.
So far the things I've been given or bought cheap from eBay/car boot sales are:
Moses basket £0
Cot £0
Moses basket sheets £0
Hooded towels £0
Disposable newborn nappies £0
Assorted baby clothes various sizes £0
Changing mat £1
Pre-loved cloth nappies approx £50
Baby bath £5

Steriliser, bottles, dummies and Breast pump £20

Pre-loved nappies, washed and ready.

Bargain changing mat

Apologies if there is a random N somewhere on this blog. The first time I added the photos, the photo of the nappies wouldn't go where I wanted it. After deleting I was left with a random N that will not go away.

I'll get the hang of this eventually.

N

Bye bye!

A x