The Alice

I had to share a photograph of my packed hospital bags after seeing this post by the lovely Notes To Self, Plus Two who was 40 weeks on Friday.

(Baby’s birth calls for posh luggage, I feel. Though there is too much stuff in the weekend bag and I can’t get the damned zip to close)

I’ve been having an almost-break from the internet to lie around the house in my underwear crunching on ice and clean like a madwoman (I don’t think it’s nesting – it’s just me enjoying my cleaning). Sky have been worse than dire at getting our broadband up and running in our new house and as we now rely on the income that comes from Will’s online activities he gets dibs on our mobile dongle. I don’t think it’s fair, either.

I’ve also been moonlighting for another blog in my precious internet time. Mum Plus One, the website that accompanies the magazine you can pick up in all good hospital waiting rooms among other places, asked me to become their pregnancy and first time mum columnist and I was only too happy to oblige. I’ve written two blogs for them so far, one where I discussed how weird it is that someone will soon be calling me ‘Mum’ and another where I wondered if moving across the country at 36 weeks pregnant was really the worst idea ever (answer: yes and never again). So go and check them out immediately!

In other news: I AM HOT.

Baby is still breech, despite my lame attempt at acupuncture and my hours of bouncy ball fun. She’s a footling breech, which means her feet are in my cervix (explaining the painful kicks…) and unfortunately because of this and the way her cord is they won’t attempt an ECV. I am an automatic C section at 39 weeks, or earlier should she decide to get labour going before then.

Needless to say I was absolutely gutted to hear the news – I’m sure nobody wants to go through a C section unless absolutely necessary, but I’m pleased we’re doing the safest thing for baby and the safest thing for me. It feels very strange indeed to know that by a certain date we will DEFINITELY have a baby, if not before.

My hospital has been absolutely brilliant and I’ve been so impressed with the level of care I’ve received at Nottingham City over UCLH. UCLH I believe is the number one ranking maternity hospital in the whole of the UK but everything there always felt so sterile and robotic – in contrast each midwife I’ve met over the last week has made me feel so cared for and important. I had an overnight stay last Thursday (my Braxton Hicks have been insane and they want me at the hospital as soon as I start in established labour) and everyone was fantastic.

Air conditioning would be a bonus, though!

- I’ve been looking at my dates more closely over the last couple of weeks – my original due date was 14th July and it got put backwards to 21st. Working from the day we DID IT, I am adamant that the due date should remain at the 14th (give or take a couple of days). Belly was measuring consistantly with this last week at my midwife’s appointment – a massive 36cm. If I AM 37 weeks tomorrow, then woohooh, full term!

- Baby is still breech, so last week I went for an acupuncture session to see if this would help encourage her to turn. Unfortunately the needles were in a mere 3 minutes before I passed out… according tot he acupuncturist my low ‘chi’ was to blame for this. I was amazed the acupuncture had such an effect on my body, I felt tingles from the tiny needles and then boom – gone. I don’t want to attempt the acupuncture again while still pregnant as I definitely felt there was an effect on the baby when I was feeling so poorly but I’d definitely look at it after baby’s born.

- I’ve met my new local midwife in Nottingham (lovely lady) and have my booking in appointment at the hospital tomorrow. Fingers crossed we’ll be able to find out more tomorrow about the possibility of an ECV.

- I’m on maternity leave! It still feels a little like I’m on holiday and today was the first day I started feeling a little bored. I’ve been filling my days with getting things ready for the baby, buying last minute bits and pieces and making sure the house is spotless but I really need to take it down a notch because I’m starting to feel it.

- I’m knackered – sleeping loads (2 naps a day? Yes please…), my pelvis is aching more and more, I’m starving, I’m having braxton hicks and period-pain type cramps, achey lower back and bump has definitely dropped. I’m hoping all these things are signs baby’s arrival is imminent.

- My nipples are leaking!!! Weirdest thing ever, I described it last night as like squeezing a gigantic zit.

- Baby has hiccups all the time now – a really weird feeling.

- I miss work… something I thought I’d never say. I miss the mental stimulation and the people, I haven’t yet resorted to daytime TV to fill the gap but this might be the next step…

(No photo today as I can’t find my camera cable!)

…but am utterly exhausted with the excitement of The Big Move.

It happened last Sunday, we were totally unpacked by Thursday and this weekend has been a whirlwind of building work as we’re having new decking constructed in the back garden (project managed by my Dad, Happy Father’s Day!). It looks fabulous but I completely underestimated the amount of dust the work would generate and have therefore spent a large amount of time running round with the Dyson and a duster.

Back soon, once I’ve slept off my DIY dust fatigue.

Photo: Dad yesterday, getting stuck into the old concrete steps by the back door (they are no more!)

Huggies contacted me a little while ago to ask me to be a Huggies Mummy Blogger. I was really excited to say yes, because I will be needing a lot of nappies in the not so distant future and I know next to nothing about them, and so far Huggies have been a brilliant brand to work with. I unfortunately missed out on the inaugral Huggies Mummy Blogger meetup due to a hectic work schedule, but their lovely reps posted a goodie bag out to me which I received this week, which almost made up for not having the day of pampering. Huggies have also kindly offered to sponsor my attendance at CyberMummy, so I am looking forward to meeting all the other mums then.

Huggies have set Mummy bloggers everywhere a challenge and I’d like to invite you to take party: MESSY PLAY! They want to see photographs of your little ones making a mess of themselves and there are prizes for the best entries.

Child psychologist Janine Spencer says, “Giving children the freedom to play messily helps them develop their imagination and social skills. It boosts their confidence and helps them understand the world around them. That’s a small price to pay for a bit of mess.”

So, here’s the brief: post the messiest photos of your little one to your blog anytime between now and July 14th, any type of photo will do – your baby getting messy in dirt, paint, food, whatever. Huggies will then create a list of links to all the blog posts of babies getting messy on mum blogs around the web.

Some rules:
1. The messier your baby is in the photo the better (the challenge is cleaning up!)
2. Post the photo to your blog with The Messy Play by Huggies Wipes challenge. (It can be an old photo or a previous post).
3. Send a link of your blog post featuring your Messy Play photo to @Huggies_UK on Twitter or online.team@Huggies.com to participate.
4. Check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/messyplaybyhuggieswipes/ to see all the blogger submissions and links to their blogs. Submissions will also be shouted out by @Huggies_UK on Twitter.
5. The top 3 messiest entries will receive Huggies gift packs of Huggies merchandise.

I would recommend checking out the Messy Play link to Flickr – there are some really messy entries on there already.

As a Huggies mummy blogger I was really keen to enter, though of course I have no baby to get messy! So my first thought was to snap my husband after a particularly messy cookery session, or mowing the lawn… nope, turns out he’s pretty well behaved at the moment.

So my entry is the mess of clothes that was in our spare room until they got packed away a couple of weeks ago ready for our move (thanks, Mum!). Baby H is going to have an insane amount of outfits:

Whilst you’re getting messy, why not visit my fabulous fellow Huggies Mummy Bloggers?:

- Me, The Man and The Baby
- Baby Genie
- Glowstars
- Young and Younger
- A Place Of My Own
- A Mothers Ramblings
- Perfectly Happy Mum
- WAHM-BAM

PACKING! One week to go…

I’m leaving work a week today.

I’m looking forward to leaving for all the practical reasons; the commute, the mental energy I’d rather use on packing the house up for our move, the option to lie in if I’m awake all night with Braxton Hicks. Otherwise I’m pretty scared.

Mostly I will miss the people I work with, we have a lot of fun together and I genuinely like coming into the office every day. But I’ll also really miss the cool stuff we get sent on a daily basis.

I’ve worked on projects with G -shock for two years and was always kind of sore that I was never able to get my hands on of their watches: I went through two Baby G’s (remember them?) between the ages of 14 and 18 – you were a nobody at my school unless you wore one of those bad boys on your wrist.

Imagine my delight when a box full of grown-up G-Shock watches arrived at the office; in all colours of the rainbow, I managed to get my hands on a bright red one.

I felt sixteen again. I really love chunky watches – perhaps because they make my swollen hands look smaller? Dainty timepieces are lost on me and this watch really stands out. It’s brilliant.

It’s waterproof so will be great during labour…

There will be a Casio G-Shock watch shop/underground hub of creativity opening on 24th June at the Old Truman Brewery, hosting installations from emerging artists and designers as well as displaying their product offerings. Very East London. Having attended their artistic endeavors previously I can highly recommend a visit, though of course I will be in Nottingham resting my cankles so won’t be there myself.

You can find out more on their website.

I MISS BOOZE.

There, I said it.

I didn’t drink at all in the first four months of pregnancy and I have been indulging in the odd beer or glass of wine since, but apart from that I’ve been teetotal. No cocktails, no spirits, no fun.

I have a 2000 vintage bottle of Dom Perignon that will get necked as soon as baby is born (best wedding gift ever), and in addition to that I am thoroughly looking forward to drinking a massive amount of Pimms this summer.

Kopparberg cider was served at a work party I went to recently. As a rule I don’t really drink cider (maybe the odd Magners) because it makes me cry, but Kopparberg is gorgeous. It tastes like a cross between fruit juice and cider and comes in five flavours, my favourite being Strawberry and Lime. There’s even an alcohol-free version for boring pregnant people like me.

I’ve been working on a Kopparberg campaign recently, The Kopparberg Klash, discovering the next wave of young people before the mainstream beckons and the commercial world takes over. Looking for the next biggest thing in Film, Fashion, Music and Photography, the competition is the ideal opportunity for the best new bands, stylists, photographers and filmmakers to show their skills to a group of like-minded people and win some fabulous prizes. You can see a slightly more eloquent blog post my colleague wrote about this here – but it’s been great to work with such a great initiative (and drink!). I can’t wait for the time when I can drink more than half a pint of it.

I am about as creative as something… ummm, really uncreative… so I will be sitting back and watching the entries roll in rather than partaking. Somehow I don’t think a photo of my pregnant belly will be winning any prizes soon.

Photo credit: Kopparberg

This week’s Gallery theme is ‘Still Life’ which was a tricky one for me: I don’t tend to take many photographs of inanimate objects as I prefer to shoot people (with the exception of food…) so I dug into my Flickr archive to see what I could find.

Cupcakes!!!

This photo is very representative of the changes our lives are going through at the moment: shot at my very first London Fashion Week, it is the cupcake breakfast that was served at Rani Jones’s S/S010 Presentation. It was a great day – I remember drinking three glasses of champagne before 11am. My very talented friend LouLou had teamed up with Rani to accessorize the collection and I was so excited to be around all that gorgeous clothing.

Of course, there is no LFW up in the Midlands so it’s an occasion I will have to sadly say goodbye to for now, but I wouldn’t give up our new house, baby and business for a million fashion weeks (even Paris or Milan).