20 WEEKS DOWN, 20 WEEKS TO GO

Today, Christian and I have been for my 20 week scan. I am very pleased to announce that all appears to be well inside my very large tum. We saw almost everything in quite good detail, fingers, toes, arms, legs, brain, heart and a spine covered with skin! I say almost everything because the first thing I said to the sonographer was "we don't want to know the sex!" - you have to leave some surprise for the day.

It was wonderful to see my little baby wriggling away. As she was lying on her tummy for quite a while, we were sent out to have a walk around for 15 mins to see if she would turn over so they could check her heart- she did and it was OK - ahh!

This evening she hasn't stopped moving, which is typical - this week I was worrying there was a problem as I didn't feel her move. Now we've seen everything is fine, she doesn't stop fidgeting!

I keep saying "she" - but I'm not 100% sure anymore, maybe Picard is on his way after all!

HOW DOLLS HAVE CHANGED

Today I have bought Alice her first Barbie doll. I'm not sure what to make of her. She is very tall and skinny and to be honest she looks like a bit of a slag! - she hasn't even got any knickers on! I don't remember Sindy being like that at all when I was little, she always seemed to be quite respectable, the kind of girl you would want to grow up like! Alice loves her though. So maybe I have too much time to think about the morals of cheap doll (£1.99 Tesco clearance line!). But lets hope Alice doesn't want to grow up to be a knickerless lap dancing whore in pink plastic stilettos!

A QUICK BABY UPDATE

I am now 18 weeks pregnant and time is flying by, as I saw the midwife yesterday I thought it was time for a quick update.

My ever expanding waistline has now reached 40 inches - it's officially bigger than Christian's!
I have put on 8 pounds and still can't get my head round this being a good thing.
I can quite happily stay up until 10pm.
I can drink tea again.
I have started to feel a few little movements, which feels like someone running a feather across my tummy (mind you the other night it felt like she was looking for something in there!).
And the best thing so far, was hearing her heartbeat at the midwife's yesterday - I told Christian there was nothing to worry about and that she was ok!

That's it for now, we have the 20 week scan 2 weeks today so there will be another picture of her then.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALISON

Today is my sister, Alison's 37th birthday. Unfortunately as she died 10 years ago from breast cancer, she isn't here to celebrate so Mum, Christian, Alice and I have just been to the Dore Grill for lunch in honour of her day.

We always go to the Dore Grill as it was one of Alison's favourite restaurants, it's owned by a Spanish family that our family has known for years and the food is very lovely (& very filling) home cooking. It was also where Alison had her last proper meal before she went into Western Park Hospital.

Happy Birthday Alison, miss you loads.

OUR NEW CLEANER

As I'm a bit out of action this week (pulled back & now a funny tummy - ain't pregnancy grand!), my housework has gone to the bottom of my list, until yesterday when I enlisted some help in the form of Alice. She has an abundance of energy and is more than happy to do things for you, so I put a clean duster on the Swiffer mop and set her on her way! She did a great job! All of our downstairs is open plan and all the floors are laminate, so I sat watching the tv giving her the occasional pointer and of course lots of encouragement and praise!

Today, the first thing she asked was "What can I dust now Mummy?", fantastic - so I have given her a hand duster and she's off again! Child labour is the way to go! If only we had an open chimney....