Tuesday 24 January 2012

Making Progress

I feel like I am finally getting somewhere with getting ready for Squirt.

I made a start on her nursery this week and already I feel so much more organised.
The wood is all sanded and the white base coat is all done.
Now all I have left to do is to paint the walls lilac and paint the woodwork.

Then we can put the coat up, buy some shelves and have it looking like a proper little nursery!

We, or should I say I, am also making a dent in our 'to buy' list for Squirt.
Online shopping is so easy and then I get the excitement of getting a parcel in the post!

Its not just P and I that are making progress this week.
Squirt is getting stronger by the day.
Partly I know this because of the daily updates that I read about her ( her lungs get more mature all the time, and her brain is starting to function at a higher level)
But mainly I know this because I feel it in her kicks!

Yesterday she kicked P right in the head, no mean feat seeing as he was lying on top of his pillow and the duvet!
And as Im sitting here typing she is having a dance in my belly. Feeling her kicks and punches are my most favourite feelings in the world!

It brings me alot of comfort to know that each day that passes brings her closer to being strong enough to survive without any medical help if she were to be born.
I know that right now if she was born she would need ALOT of help and still may not survive, but the odds are hugely in her favour and increase everyday.

I went to an Aqua aerobics class yesterday with V.
We initially thought it would be far too easy for us when we saw all these grannies there, but we couldnt have been more wrong.
It was exhausting, but in a good way.
It felt great to be doing something positive for Squirt, and something that may make her birth slightly easier to bear!

I obviously look unmistakably pregnant now (I dont know why this surprises me but it still does) as the instructor looked at me and then asked V if she was pregnant too.
Clearly she didnt need to ask me!

Going along with looking pregnant and no longer just looking fat, my belly button is popping out even more this week.
Thankfully its still not a real sticky outie, but its definately out there, I saw it through my top today!

Saturday 14 January 2012

Into her own.......

Squirt is 24 weeks today.
Capable of surviving outside of my belly with a hell of alot of support if she had to.
That fact completely blows my mind.

That inside of me is a separate little life, still needing me to get bigger and stronger, but if forced to capable of fighting it out on her own.
While I was thinking about that today something else dawned on me.

That sometime in the next 16 weeks, hopefully later rather than sooner, I will get to meet her!
I know that seems a pretty strange realisation for someone who is pregnant.
But I have been so focused on being pregnant and staying pregnant its almost like Id forgotten that the end result of pregnancy is a baby outside of me.
A baby with her own unique personality and looks.

I guess all the kicks Im feeling are already that sign that she is an individual.
She decides when she moves and kicks, not me.

Mostly she has a pattern to her kicks.
At first I thought her pattern had changed but in the last few days Ive realised that actually I am probably feeling her smaller movements more often now, making me think that her pattern had changed.
If I think back to a few weeks aog, that makes sense.
Because before Christmas I didnt used to feel her much during the day, only really late in the evening.

Now I feel her gently on and off during the day, pretty much starting the minute I get up and eat, usually around 0800.
Then late evening time, sometime between 2100 and 2300 she seems to wake up and really go for it.
Obviously after that I normally go to bed so dont know how active she is during the night.
Except for last night.
I woke up around 0200 and at first was wondering if she was asleep or why I wasnt feeling her.
Then I cuddled up to P and she was pressed up against her Daddies arm.
She obviously liked being close to her Daddy cos she started kicking like crazy.
So that answered my question as to whether she slept at night.
She clearly doesnt!

A couple of times she has kicked me so hard I have been sure she is trying to break free.
But mostly the kicks are just strong enough to be felt by someone on the outside.
Strong enough to make my belly move but not strong enough to hurt me.
Judging from the freaky one or two that were super strong Im betting it wont be long until she manages to catch me a good one!

Now that Christmas is out of the way we are able to to focus on getting the house ready for her, plus buying everything she will need!
I have begun the process of preparing her nursery for painting.
I hope to get it completely finished by the end of January, we will see if I have been over optimistic with that or not!

We have now ordered and recieved her cot, which to me is very exciting as it was the main thing we needed to buy for her, seeing as we already had the travel system from when I was pregnant with Lumpy.
We also got her bedding set in the sale and I caved in online the other day as I have no will power against sales and cute pink baby things!

To finish this week a look at what Squirt is doing to me and my belly! :)