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second child

Being Mum Lifestyle Parenting

Beautiful six months

Posted on 22nd July 2018

I wanted to talk about our little bright light Sebastian, he has spent the last six months being slightly under shadowed to his sister. With his first trip being to register his birth and his second back to hospital for his sister, in the months since frequenting the hospital as a main event. Despite this he is the most happy, wonderful little guy ever; he genuinely is a joy to be around and parent. He is the very easiest companion, fitting that he spends so much time in my sling so my hands can be free for his sister. This month he learnt to sit independently, cut his first tooth, say what I think sounds like “Mama” and started to wean his first foods. It’s been absolutely wonderful watching both children together, I remember being quite worried about expanding into a family of four and in the early weeks trying to imagine where he would fit in. Now I cannot imagine him not being part of our family and his sister has really flourished around him.

After realising that he doesn’t feature as much as I’d like on the blog, I wanted to share his last six months here with you in mostly photo’s that I love. Marking that behind the scenes there is a little guy that has been chugging away, developing and growing into a little person too.

June 2018 – Five Months

This photo isn’t the best photo I have but I love it, in June Sebastian was being rather social! We had lots of smiles, lots of laughter and practice at sitting although still very wobbly. Sebastian rolled for the first time too.

June’s hospital stay

May 2018 – Four Months

May hospital stay

April 2018 – Three Months

March 2018 – Two months

February 2018 – One Month

January/February Hospital

January 2018 – Zero Months

January 2018 – Zero Days Old, his own hospital stay

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Bump to Baby Lifestyle

Bump to Baby #2 – Twenty One Weeks

Posted on 30th September 2017
21 week pregnant

I don’t have a photo this week, I kept telling myself to get up and take one but I didn’t! In fact I keep telling myself to do many things and I swear they are slipping out of my mind like water. I’m going to have to start writing things down again, one good thing about this is I don’t feel bad at all that I’ve forgotten to do something because I don’t remember I have. Ignorance really is bliss, not that I would normally not do something I was intending to do.

There isn’t much to report this week, sorry second baby but you are being sidelined a little. My head is full of all the things I need to put in place for Ariella, next week you’ll be dragged around to all her therapies blissfully unaware bumping around in there. Sorry!

I did manage to get to my GP to get all the medications that the consultant wants me on in order, this time around I’ve been allocated the full whammy dose of Folic Acid – for the duration of pregnancy. I feel so lucky, I’ll just add that to my collection and soon enough the medication cupboard will look more like the back of a pharmacy. Actually I’m sure the back of a pharmacy is probably more tidy than my very disorganised medicine cupboard. For a start it has to share its space with the baking supplies, don’t get those mixed up!

Top moment the week? – Getting my prescriptions all sorted out and booking my Whooping cough vaccination with the combined flu vaccine. My arm is going to look like a pin cushion but it did feel rather productive. I’d love to say we did some shopping, bought some baby items but I’m still floating around in space when it comes to actually organising anything this time.

Stretch marks – No but I feel pretty sorry for my skin, first time around it doesn’t really know what’s happening this time it probably remembers.

Sleep – Tired, anyone else tired? I am. It’s dark too so it’s really hard not to fall back asleep in the mornings.

Maternity Clothes – Progression from last weeks work, I have started… to put things in baskets. I have to thank ASOS for its handy ability to save items, but I do have a better idea of what I want to buy I just need to actually buy them.

Food Cravings – The worst thing that happened to me this week was I found my local Subway has closed down, I had a craving for a Subway and couldn’t fulfil it. I mean I’d have to take a drive to get one and realistically that’s a bit too much. In fact you can’t get a decent sandwich around here anymore, recessions.

What do you miss – Champagne again.

Movement – He spends most of his time kicking me, you can see it constantly from the outside and it feels a lot like being on a ship at sea. It will make it very easy to notice when he isn’t kicking as much as normal, seems to really enjoy music and food – the same as Ariella did.

Symptoms – I’m in that beautiful stage where you aren’t too big and you aren’t feeling sick, I feel pretty good. Apart from being tired and it’s getting harder to get up off the floor I could probably stay like this forever If I had to.

What are you looking forward to – Viability, 6th of October at which point there is a better chance of survival. Even better 28 weeks when the chance of survival is really good. It seemed a long way off before but is looking closer every day.

These posts are retrospective, if you’d like to check out other weeks please click below

Week 20< – > Week 21

Bump to Baby Lifestyle

Bump to Baby #2 – Nineteen Weeks

Posted on 27th September 2017

This week I had my first consultant appointment at the hospital, last pregnancy I was midwife led so I was intrigued to find out what consultant led care would be like. I felt quite underwhelmed actually, my consultant was a man of few words whom seemed to generally cut you off mid sentence. I can only hope that he has read my notes because I had no chance to ask or even lead him into various areas. My confidence in people is not that great if I’m honest, I much prefer to highlight certain areas to check that they know what they are doing – last pregnancy it all went a bit, rubbish towards the end. Things were certainly missed and perhaps I was naive to just believe that someone had things in hand, not something I’m keen to repeat.

It wasn’t as relaxing this time around, if you can call a trip to the hospital antenatal department relaxing at any point in life. But with my first-born in hand alongside me, it was very hard to concentrate on anything else. They are quite extended sessions too, I arrived at the reception desk and handed my maternity notes over. They ended up in a little box alongside others before me, first was to see the midwife whom took my blood pressure and the usual checks, then another wait for the consultant after which I could wait for my blood to be taken. Next time I have a scan as well, hopefully not more blood tests! That does seem to be one benefit, more scans and the hope that someone is keeping an eye on the overall picture. Fingers crossed!

Top moment the week? – Knowing I am almost half way there now, feeling better, being able to start planning for January a lot more? I’m not sure I have one specific moment but it feels a lot easier these days (before you get heavy and round, then putting on socks is quite a feat).

Stretch marks – No changes still, in fact I guess because it’s not the first time my skin has stretched I haven’t noticed as much tightness as last time.

Sleep – The body pillow has been taken out of storage this week, I was finding waking that my hips were sore. The body pillow has immediately sorted this, it received pressure and I really recommend getting one if you are expecting. I invested in a reasonable one last pregnancy so it hadn’t gone flat which is good.

Maternity Clothes – Yes, very much round now. I still fit some of my other clothes, but jeans are maternity ones and I can’t wait for Winter jumpers!

Food Cravings –  Salty food is top of my favourite at the moment, I try not to eat too many snacks but find myself hungry between meals. I adore the sea salt and balsamic Kettle chips, left to it a whole pack will disappear before my eyes.

What do you miss – Champagne, why break a habit of a life time? I miss celebrating great days where something lovely happens by opening a bottle, popping it into a buffed ice bucket and the tender stem that only a Champagne glass can provide. For me it’s really not all about the alcohol, but I love beautiful things and so many beautiful glasses are made for alcoholic beverages. How many times have you ever sat with friends, drinking wine? Twiddling the wine glass stem in your hand, or swirling the liquid around without thought? With the days getting darker I will miss my mulled wine too!

Movement – All the time, proper kicks and lots of them. I think I am starting to get a bit of a pattern to them already too. He is still quiet for long periods but my placenta is actually posterior this time so I can really feel every movement and much earlier than before.

Symptoms – Hungry, back aches, round ligament pain, feeling very bloated after meals, occasionally feeling like I might be sick? Not sure why that’s returned.

What are you looking forward to – Reaching the twenty week mark, half way – then having our next scan! I’d like to know for sure everything has developed okay and I believe if they can they are going to try to check the corpus callosum too for this one.

These posts are retrospective, if you’d like to check out other weeks please click below

Week 17 < – > Week 20

 

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Bump to Baby Lifestyle

Bump to Baby #2 – Five weeks!

Posted on 29th May 2017

Another week down, I’m currently changing weeks on a Tuesday but that might change at my scan although I’m going on ovulation. This week has brought with it nausea, I knew it would and I could feel it slowly coming. Starting with a lump in my throat and slowly but surely working into full sea sick waves of horrid nausea. Eating frequently seems to be helping but I don’t know how long that’s going to last for, fingers crossed! This week I visited my GP to get my preconception blood test results, mostly fine although I need some investigation into celiac but I’ve decided post pregnancy would be best.

I’m going to be obstetrician led on this occasional due to all the complications I had in my last pregnancy, foetal distress, Polyhydramnios (too much fluid), Obstetric Cholestasis (liver issue) I think that’s everything – I guess extreme morning sickness too! I don’t really know much about the obstetrician led process so that will be all new to me. I really don’t feel like taking a bump picture this week, I’m SO bloated and feel so rubbish – definitely doing you a favour.

Top moment the week? – Nausea which also is my bottom moment of the week but I always appreciate that nausea means high levels of HCG and that’s always a good thing.

Stretch marks – No changes here!

Sleep – I’m so tired, Ariella is waking up earlier now and I’m going to have to start going to sleep earlier to meet the demand. I’m absolutely knackered, I forgot how tiring this process is and i’m sure it will only get worse. T.I.R.E.D

Maternity Clothes – I keep thinking about ordering some more maternity clothes but I’m not sure when I’ll need them and what season I’ll be in by then. All my old maternity clothes are washed and put away, luckily we went on a baby moon last time so I have plenty of summery things to wear if I need to now.

Food Cravings –  Just thinking about food or how to answer this makes me feel queasy, my cravings or no more like the things I think seem appetising and everything else is dirt change each day. I don’t bother trying to preempt them and just go with the flow. Someone bring me some nachos with dips and lots of guacamole please. As the week has moved on I feel like I’m almost at the point of being sick but manage to claw it back.

What do you miss – I miss being sure of my stomach, I miss feeling awake and I miss Champagne.

Movement – Nope!

Symptoms – Extreme tiredness, sometimes I just want to close my eyes and never open them again. Nausea, comes and goes – luckily so far it seems that if I eat and drink at intervals throughout the day I can keep the nausea away. The morning is difficult as I just don’t want to eat but once I force myself to I immediately start feeling better. PLEASE let this pregnancy not have severe morning sickness. Migraine aura’s have been popping up this week which will be all the hormones. Bloating is annoying, I look more pregnant this time around and I know it’s due to bloated and my abs not being what they were but I was hoping to keep things quiet until the twelve week mark!

What are you looking forward to – I’m still very much looking forward to my eight week scan, I’m also looking forward to my booking in appointment as it feels like the start of the journey. A positive pregnancy test being the true start but booking in definitely puts you on the system.

These posts are retrospective, if you’d like to check out other weeks please click below

Week 4 < – > Week 6