The Alice

A photo of me and my lovely Mum, in our hotel in Cheltenham this weekend. We were drinking virgin Mojitos and eating olives whilst waiting for our table to be ready. I hope I look as good as her when I’m in my 50’s!

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

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.

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…

The date January 4th had been in our minds for the last 6 weeks; once Christmas and New Year were done with it was a short countdown to this day and our 12 week safety-point scan. Not as significant as it might have been following our 10 week scan at the EPU (I just HAD to tell the whole world once we had a photo), but it was still magnificent.

The staff at UCLH have really impressed me so far – everyone has been so caring, sympathetic and professional. With the exception of the the phlebotomist who I thought was scary and mean at first, but after she sang Duffy at me throughout my last blood test I realise she’s just pleasantly nuts. Plus, if I can’t feel her taking my blood, she must be good. So every trip to the hospital right now feels to me like a holiday to EuroDisney, including the waiting (though I make this worse myself by insisting on being half an hour early to every appointment).

It’s mandatory to have two doctors present at your ‘milestone’ ultrasounds at UCH (is this what happens in other hospitals?) both confirming the health of baby, and my pair of doctors yesterday were great. According to them our baby is beautiful and perfect, music to our ears. They really took their time showing us different parts of baby, and we saw 10 fingers, 10 toes, a brain, eyes with lenses, lips, nose, ears, spine, legs, arms, the heart (157 bpm), a bladder and stomach… in short, everything is where it should be.

Our due date has been slightly adjusted to 21st July, making it pretty much guaranteed that baby will make an appearance on my 25th birthday (25th July), because I’m not good at sharing and Karma hates me like that.

Surprisingly they were able to take a guess at the sex of baby… it’s a GIRL! At least they are 60-70% sure, not enough for me to be calling baby ’she’ or buying pink stuff, but good to know. Of course I would be happy either way but I was sure I could feel girl vibes from my uterus. And everyone knows mum’n'daughter matching outfits are cute

Roll on 21st July… I can’t wait to meet our baby.

I was wrong when I thought I would be totally laid back about this pregnancy. Every twinge, every waning symptom has me running to Google and re-testing with my pee sticks, or calling NHS direct in a state of panic.

Our booking in appointment at UCH was fantastic. We were allocated a student midwife, which I was dubious of at first, but she was just lovely and able to answer our questions well. I mentioned to her the dropping off of my painful boobs (I’m able to lie on my stomach again, total revelation) as well as a faint pregnancy test (why? Why? Why? have I still been testing at 10 weeks pregnant? All credit to the midwives at UCH who they didn’t ask this question, I sure as hell would have). Still, the fact that the line was a lot weaker than my earlier tests worried me horribly.

They took my worries seriously and marched me down to the Early Pregnancy Unit for a scan. Internet, we have a baby:

It has arms and legs that were moving! A head! An umbilical cord! And what looks like a football, but is apparently a yolk.

I would like to write about how the tiredness that has taken over my life is still… well, taking over my life, but the happiness is overriding that.