The Alice

I got tagged a little while ago by MetMum to reveal ‘What’s in my bag’ and I thought it would be a great idea to do my first Vlog. I initially filmed this on Thursday night but used the wrong setting on my camera and ended up with a 10 minute video that was 1.3GB long – oops! I re-did it last night and now have a much more sensible sized file that is here for your enjoyment.

Isn’t it weird seeing yourself on camera? In my head I speak totally different to this, and I have to apologise for my rain, stress and wind-swept hair (it looked better in the original Thursday filming!!). Work was manically busy on Friday and we had a broken boiler like Young & Younger so I rushed home for that to be fixed , luckily it was a quick 10 minute job and we didn’t have to go overnight without heating or water. Oh and I say in the video that I hope you are watching this on Friday night, thought I know you are watching it afterwards now…

I’m not going to tag anyone on this because I reckon I’m one of the last to do it… so I will say if anyone else wants to have a go – go for it!

Would bump like some champagne with that? Enjoying a special treat glass of bubbles at the weekend. Mmmmm.

NB: I may be pregnant but I can still wear Paul Smith and Sequins

One thing that has been a big shock to the system recently: PREGNANCY IS EXPENSIVE. In an ideal world, we’d planned to have been married 2-3 years and have saved up a nice little wad of cash before we became pregnant, but due to my supposed fertility issues (apparently not such an issue anymore, but that’s a whole other post) and our ‘what will be will be’ attitude, this wasn’t to be for us.

So far, we have spent a fair bit of money on:
- Ante-natal vitamins – Pregnacare, whilst they were the most expensive brand, seemed to be the best
- Maternity clothing – I have been LIVING in maternity leggings, nothing else will do at the moment. And I bought my first maternity bra at the Baby Show… that was expensive, nearly as much as my Rigby and Peller birthday undies
- Travel to and from the hospital – I’m going on average twice a month
- Furniture for the nursery – I’ve been lucky and found some bargains on eBay, but there are some things (cot mattress etc) that you really do need as new
- Baby clothes – why are so many baby items the same price as adult items when they’re a tenth of the size? One of life’s great mysteries I guess
- Pregnancy books – I like reading, I like to be informed, I do not like how expensive pregnancy books are!
- Food – I’m hungry, need the good stuff, enough said

… and I’m not even a quarter of the way into my ‘baby essentials’ purchasing list.

Factor in a trip in May to see the in-laws in Greece so they can see the baby bump for themselves before my July due date, a house move and all the fun money-spending things that come with living in London, and you’ve got yourself a couple of expectant parents with empty pockets. Plus we want to save up for a car as we sold ours when we moved down to London two years ago, and the situation isn’t helped by my expensive tastes…

It’s come to the time to decide what ante-natal classes we want to take. Throughout this pregnancy (and before, if I’m honest) I’ve always considered myself to be fairly well-read on the subject of pregnancy, birth and beyond; I don’t like surprises and I’m adamant that there won’t be any when I’m in labour so I’ve educated myself on every single outcome and possibility during this process. I’ve devoured pregnancy books, magazines, TV shows, YouTube clips…

At 7 weeks pregnant I pre-registered myself with my local NCT and selected to attend their standard ante-natal class, however when I received information on the course I felt I knew it all, and there was nothing new there for me. The problem is, every mum I know has cited NCT classes as essential for getting to know new mums – even Jools Oliver waxes lyrical about it in her 0-9 months baby book (hormones drove me to make some bad book choices…). If I choose not to go to classes will I be massively missing out? I know as a younger mum in a new area I’m going to find it challenging to make new friends, but what if I do choose to go to the classes and make no friends at all? Then I’m out of £280 and no better off. Mellow Mummy discusses this more eloquently than I do at her post ‘NCT: An Expensive Introductions Agency?‘

One thing I am certain on is that I want to use the hypnobirthing method during my labour and delivery. And hey, guess what? More money. I looked into doing a course but all local to me were around £350-400 so I’ve decided to do a home study course instead. And here’s somewhere I can save money! I’m going to buy the book off Amazon (along with Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth which I have heard brilliant things about), and couple that with Dany Griffiths’s Tums2Mums Hypnotherapy MP3s. She’s running a competition on her blog at the moment where you can win one of her Home Study courses – go here to enter as I have done.

I would love to hear from mums who have been through all this and can give me some advice on a) how to save a bit of money, and b) how to stop worrying about it. Help!

NB: please come back in 9 months time for the inevitable ‘Boy, aren’t babies expensive?!’ post, and if anyone needs a soon-to-be-mummy friend in the N10/N22 area, I’m on the market!

Picture credit: me, from back when I worked in the corporate world and could afford to flash my cash on frivolities such as work roulette nights…

I had such high hopes about my Sunday night post! I was going to write about the great weekend we’d had, despite my sinusitis we’d managed to see some good friends, eat some lovely food and enjoy some live music. We spent time with my parents, went to the baby show, decided on a pram and had a lovely lunch to celebrate my brother’s 23rd birthday.

However, come Sunday evening Norovirus hit the H household. It’s been a really horrid couple of days for both me and Will – I have lost 6lbs in less than 2 days – but today we’re both feeling a lot brighter. We’re under strict doctors orders to remain at home for 48 hours after our symptoms have gone as we’re so contagious, and despite my worries baby will be absolutely fine.

So my weekend round-up will follow a little later than expected, along with a ‘what’s in your bag’ post after being tagged for the first time by MetMum (yay!).

When Will got asked to interview for a job down in London, I didn’t think anything would changed He’d been asked to do the same a couple of times before and nothing had come of it so I was happy for him to give it a go. We were happy in our lives in Nottingham – we’d bought a lovely house 2 years earlier, had good jobs and lovely friends and in my heart of hearts I really didn’t expect that to change.

When he got the job it was brilliant – the best thing that could ever happened for his career. I was so proud of him, yet the stress of organizing a move across the country in 4 weeks was pretty full on. Naively, not knowing London’s housing market, we allocated one day to house hunting two weeks before our moving date and managed to see three flats. We took the second one we found in Kentish Town, a beautiful 2 bed garden flat, though rent was more than twice our Nottingham mortgage payments at almost £1,600 a month (OUCH).

We quickly learned about London and the different areas we were spending most time and subsequently lived in Shoreditch and Islington, where we were the longest.

When we found out we were having a baby, one of the first things I wanted to do was organise where we’d be living. Our flat in Islington was lovely, but only had one bedroom and no garden. Perfect for that time in our lives, as we spent most of our time in restaurants and pubs! But I knew that when baby came I would want a garden and extra room for a nursery. So we moved out to Muswell Hill, Zone 3, in January. A big move – moving away from our friends, work and the bars we were in so often really cemented the change we were about to make in our lifestyles. But we 100% made the right decision.

This place is going to be our baby’s first home so it’s really important that the it’s as homely as possible. I’m a real homebody and love being here – pottering round the house, cleaning, doing laundry… so I’ve got a huuuuuge list of DIY things that need to be done before the baby arrives.

We’re getting there, though; the area is lovely, there are tons of kids on our street and we really feel at home in this house:

The lovely interior glass paned doors were one of the things that sold me on this house.

Hallway table.

My favourite room… the bedroom! Faux fur blanket a gift from my parents.

Sun streaming in through the garden into the lounge – I can’t wait for summer…

* My sinusitis alongside a cold has been giving me real pain the last couple of days so I’ve been hanging out at home working from my sickbed. Urgh! Hoping to get out the house for dinner with Will at some point this weekend – and of course to The Baby Show on Sunday with him and my parents. I’m sure photos of the baby-overload will follow.

This morning, for some reason I woke up feeling very tired and grouchy. I got ready for work and started my day. I couldn’t shake the bad mood – work certainly didn’t help – and I came home still feeling tired and grouchy.

My husband got home early tonight, and did the washing up I’d neglected last night because he knew how tired I was. He called me at work to ask if I wanted him to start on dinner – I said no, because I’d promised pancakes for dinner (and I am the master of pancakes, I have a secret recipe and everything).

I got home from work and slouched on the sofa and had a crumpet and a cup of tea brought to me by my husband as a reward for my hard day. I watched what I wanted on TV, whilst peeling and chopping the apples for the filling of my pancakes. It turned out I was too tired to drag myself to the kitchen to make the actual pancakes so my husband did it, following the instructions I had written down for him. He painstakingly made and served my pancakes but let me put the filling in myself (knowing what a control freak I am, I like things done a certain way!).

He watched the Brits with me for the full 2 hours, and even engaged in meaningless conversations with me about the clothes, performances, the stage sets and who would win.

After that he went back to the kitchen and did all the washing up (though this could have also been an avoidance tactic as I wanted to watch One Born Every Minute). The kitchen is now pretty clean.

He is currently in the lounge at 11.30pm doing all the work he should have done this evening when he was looking after me.

This post is to remind me what a wonderful man Will is; I must stop letting my hormones get the better of me, stop being so grouchy and start remembering how very lucky I am to have him. When I get tired I have a habit of taking it out on him, especially now I’m pregnant, and I really dislike it. I will be a more understanding wife from now on.

* I must also remember last night, when Will escorted me to the toilet at my request. You see, getting up at 1am the night before I was sure there was a ghost in the bathroom and I was scared of going on my own again. I don’t even really believe in ghosts. Poor man.

My journey to work in the morning isn’t very exciting. My train goes directly into Moorgate (I get off for my office at Old Street) and carts hundreds of Lawyers, Accountants and Bankers in to their day jobs. What strikes me every morning is how miserable they all look. Black suits, black faces. I just want to shake them and tell them to CHEER UP!

I wonder what they think of me; I like to dress to express myself and would consider myself pretty feminine. I like dresses, colours, heels. I like trends, fashion magazines and style blogs. What I wear can make (or break) my confidence as it’s such an integral part of who I am – working for a magazine myself means we are all fairly style-concious and there is an non-spoken but implied work dress code (I can’t describe it, but if I had to I would probably just say ‘trendy’. It’s weird).

I notice people that stand out on the train in their appearance – as I imagine I do against the sea of corporate black and grey. Yesterday there was a woman opposite me, I would guess in her 40s, with a big bouffant hairdo and a full-length sequin trenchcoat. My first reaction was to pick my jaw up off the floor, but then I got to thinking about personal style, and how it reflects who we are and makes an impression on others. This woman had tight shiny leggings on that I initially thought were perhaps not quite right for a woman of her age, and her sequinned coat was definitely ‘out there’ – but then I realised that I am no-one to judge.

The woman looked confident. She looked happy. And isn’t that the most important thing? I’ve already said how what I wear really reflects my attitude and state of mind – as I’m sure is the case with millions of other women out there. If I think I look good, I feel a million dollars, and this woman looked like she felt a million dollars. In that instant of realisation my mindset switched from disliking what the woman was wearing – judging her, even – to having a massive respect for her.

Coincidentally, one of my favourite fashion bloggers Mademoiselle Robot wrote a post yesterday (“What is age appropriate?”) after receiving some comments about the way she dresses in relation to her age, and I was pleased to see the consensus is: as long as you’re happy, fuck em. I’ve been having some struggles with this lately as I want to keep my own style during pregnancy and into motherhood, but I don’t want people to look at me and my style differently now I’m pregnant. I like my miniskirts, I like my tight clothes; as long as I can hang on to my size 10 labels why can’t I wear them? Pleasingly Laetitia agrees. As a mum of a 2 year old herself she wore her miniskirts right to the bitter end, and as I said to her, by then I will be used to people looking at my crotch.

(Nothing like a bit of crotch smut on a Monday Morning, huh?)

Fashion week is coming up, and although I won’t be at as many shows as I can fit into one day this time – it’s amazing the stamina a champagne and cupcake breakfast can give you – I have some meetings to attend and will sneak along to the press area for the free Toni & Guy haircut and MAC goody bag. And you know what I will be wearing? My heels, miniskirt and million dollar confidence.

(Top photo snapped by me at last season’s Fashion Week. Man in skirt, heels and beard? Why not. Bottom photo is me and 2 crazy Canadian models/dancers at a party from the same Fashion Week.)

- I need to wee – very often during the day but nighttime is the worst. Will and I have swapped sides of the bed so I’m by the bedroom door and can get out to the bathroom quicker. This is making me feel weird right now, almost like we’re living in a hotel, or like we’ve re-decorated our bedroom or something…

- I need to wee so much because I’m so bloody thirsty all the time. I’ve noticed that when I’m thirsty I get very headachey and tired; there’s definitely a correlation between this and dehydration.

- I have definitely started feeling the baby, I can now tell the difference between my stomach gurgling and baby movements! Daddy got to feel a kick today, too. I’m really looking forward to the movements becoming more obvious – baby seems to be asleep a lot of the time at the moment (like her mummy) and I’m eager for her to be more wriggly!

- My sleeping pattern has never been so sensible and settled as it is at the moment. I go to bed around 10.30 and am asleep just before midnight, and then up again around 8. I still find mornings difficult, but then I did before the pregnancy so I don’t think this is a baby thing. I just don’t like getting up…

- My appetite is back! Aside from the roast potatoes and mayo craving, I’m also eating a packet of salt and vinegar squares every day and I’ve gone from hating the sight of crumpets to not being able to get enough of them.

- I’m happy! So happy, compared with my mood two to three weeks ago. I know this has a lot to do with getting so much more satisfying sleep but I feel like a cloud has been lifted. I’m no longer worrying and am able to happily get on at work a lot more. I feel so contented, and it’s a wonderful feeling.

We don’t really get into Valentine’s day in the H household; as much as I love the idea of a whole day dedicated to romances of the heart, Will is not so into the idea of “paying inflated prices to sit in a crowded restaurant full of other couples pretending to enjoy Valentine’s day” (his words). I usually get a couple of small gifts – I believe last year was a bottle of wine and some tulips – but this time I thought we should perhaps make more of an effort as this would be our last 14th Feb as a twosome.

Will took my jokey request of “a tacky teddybear holding a massive heart saying ‘ I love you’” (which was actually my first ever Valentine’s gift from my very first boyfriend age 10) a bit too literally. Guess what my present was?

Yup, a tacky teddybear holding a massive heart saying ‘ I love you’. And 2 cards!

In return, I got him the Godminster vintage organic heart-shaped cheddar:

I had bought him a great Valentine’s card that I was really pleased with, but can’t for the life of me remember what I’ve done with it, so had to improvise with a Mother’s Day card that was hanging round from last year:

I would blame baby brain, but apparently I can’t anymore…

It’s been a funny couple of days. The blocked up nose I’ve been enjoying ever since I got pregnant has been made unbearable by a cold; I’ve been tired, headachy, grouchy, and did I mention TIRED? I worked from home yesterday, thanks again to the wonderful motion that is HAVING THE INTERNET AT HOME. Wonderful .

Thursday was my second appointment at the hypertension clinic, which was just as relaxing as the first. An hour of relaxing on a couch and a being gently prodded by pulse monitors followed by a view of Baby H – Baby GIRL H! They are now 99% positive that our baby is a girl, and I am 100% happy. I had felt Girly feelings right from the beginning (natural, I guess; Will has three sisters, as does my Dad), and for some reason I just never imagined having a boy.

Anyway, Baby girl H is looking very well, her measurements are on the large side which I expected as I reckon they moved my dates forward by a few too many days at my 12 week scan. My blood pressure is perfect (106/60), and my bloods all came back normal. So we’re right on track and at 17 weeks 4 days, nearly half way there. I’m thinking that people will be able to see I’m pregnant now, rather than just a bit porky:

(Please excuse everything in this photo besides the bump, Saturdays at home mean no bra, makeup and glasses)

We have decided on a name, but I think for now I will try and keep it a secret from the internet. I can say however, that both first name and middle names come from our grandmothers.

Next up in Alice’s baby tales: The Baby Show next Sunday with husband and parents (I’m hoping I don’t freak out as much as I did in the baby department of John Lewis as there is no remedial Topshop nearby), find a good maternity bra, sign up to my local Aqua Ante-Natal class and eBay all the junk that is currently cluttering up the nursery. The fun never ends…