seasidemum1 - Tumblr blog

[seasidemum1]

My Sweep 🙈

At 40 weeks and 5 days it was fair to say I was fed up and ready for the arrival of our baby! Wednesday afternoon and our midwife’s last appointment of the day meant it was finally time for my sweep!

I was really nervous but also excited because there’s a chance my labour could start soon after. Me and brad arrived at the doctors and we went in to the room with our lovely midwife Caroline I remember her saying to me are you nervous? I just had to be honest I’m really excited but more worried that I’ve got to get everything out and you will see it all 😂 she was so good she said Kelly I see them everyday do you really think I’m going to remember it the next day 🙈

Soooo.... everyone is different and before my sweep people who I spoke to said don’t worry it doesn’t hurt it’s just uncomfortable however 🙈 for me it was a different story I found it really painful I don’t want to scare anyone but it really was but like I said everyone is different so if you are booked to have one you may have a different experience and to the people who are not sure what it is! It’s basically the midwife sweeping round your cervix with her fingers 🙈 not nice but sometimes these things have to happen.

So they say the sweep may bring on labour, and I was over my due date which is why I had one as soon as the sweep was done I was absolutely fine didn’t feel any different and had no pain. Sometimes they do not work!

That night we went home and just chilled and I just remember thinking imagine if I go in to labour, this is so exciting!! That night I got in to bed and left Brad chilling downstairs it had just gone midnight and I remember waking up and turning over and then it just felt like I was weeing myself but it didn’t stop. I knew instantly my waters had broken 🥰 I slowly climbed out of bed and as soon as I stood up straight .... gush my waters we’re fully broken. I called Brad downstairs and I remember him shouting what?? I shouted my waters have broke 😂 Brad thought I was playing a practical joke so I told him to come look. I remember him saying so what do we do 😂 I knew I had to call the delivery suite. so I did that they said I need to go in so they could test my waters. As soon as I put the phone down I started to get my bits together pretty calm at this point. Brad jumped in the shower and I jumped in afterwards - how did I know when my next shower would be?! I called my mum and soon as she answered I think she knew! She said she will drive over straight away so she could look after our dog Darcie.

We drove to the hospital and on the way I said to Brad I think I’m starting to get contractions they were really mild but I could definitely feel something different and also my waters were still leaking. so remember to put a towel down in the car ladies as I was so glad I did this because my car would of been horrendous. We arrived at the hospital about 1 o’clock! We walked in a made our way to the delivery suite. They tested my waters to make sure everything was ok which it was. When the midwife walked away to get something my contractions started to come on really strong she came back and suggested we went home and then came back when my contractions were coming more regular. I explained we lived in Reydon which was 40 minutes away and I was worried to go home and then not have time to come back she asked me to go for a walk to see if it helps bring it on.

Me and Brad went for a walk and by this point my contractions were coming on strong and every 2 minutes I said to Brad we need to go back! I remember holding on the railing in the hallway!

We went back and the lady still said i should go home and I’m sure she didn’t believe me 🙈 she then said she would hook me up to the machine so we could see my contractions and I remember her saying corrrr you are getting contractions aren’t you and said she would take me to the dolphin suite so I could get In to the bath!

This is when every thing really started ..... ☺

All about the labour next!!!!

[seasidemum1]

Baby shower 🤰🤰🤰

Hey guys,

Sorry my blogs have been very few and far between I’m busy juggling life, being a mum and working, a spare few minutes doesn’t happen very often 😂🙈

Baby Shower 🤰🤰🤰

So the hot summer was over! I can actually say I felt really good over the summer like I said I wasn’t that big so I wasn’t uncomfortable! I basically wore the same dress all summer because it was the only dress I felt good in 🙈😂 My lovely friends would say I had the pregnancy glow 😂 but I never felt like I had🙈

The baby shower was finally here! I was very lucky to have my mum family and friends plan my baby shower I just said who I would love to come and a few ideas of what bits I like and pinned loads of stuff on my Pinterest so my mum and friends could see it 😉

My baby shower was at the end of October at the Randolph Hotel near where I live, it was a pretty chilly day and I was getting big. I was 30 weeks exactly on the day. 🥰

I was really unorganised with my outfit which isn’t anything new really. I was waiting for things to be delivered and trying them on with a hour to go, and surprise surprise I didn’t anything I’d ordered. I ended up wearing a midi leopard print skirt with a long sleeved black top with black boots and just thought that would do! I had my hair cut and blow dried in the morning which I never do but I thought I needed to treat myself!

I arrived at my baby shower with my Auntie and my friend Jess! I was so nervous I don’t know why! Just walking in the room with everyone there 😂

I walked in and all my close friends and family were there! And the room looked amazing the first thing I saw was my amazing cake! It was exactly what I wanted!

As the afternoon went on we played lots of games guess what’s in the nappy, questions about me, measure the bump, baby charades and ate loads of food 😋

I then started to open all the beautiful gifts and we were truly spoilt by all of our friends and family!

I’ll post loads of pictures of the day so you can see ☺

Christmas then came round really quickly he could come at any time!! Everyone was like imagine if he’s born on Christmas Day!! 😂 I was so big at this point I could hardly walk and felt like he was going to fall out any moment 🙈

At this stage in pregnancy everyone you see are like “wow you’ve got really big or not long to go” - in the nicest possible way I knew how big I was and I knew how long I had left I really didn’t need the constant reminders

Every twinge I had I thought this might be labour but no nothing he was very comfy in my belly! It then got to my due date and I was trying everything all the wives tails eating pineapple, walking, scrub the floor, my mums probably reading this so I won’t say one of them but if you know you know, herbal tea everything and none of it worked! 🤭 I then had my midwife appointment and she said right I think we will have to book you in for the sweep for the following week! I was so excited and nervous! Probably not the normal reaction excited to have the sweep 🙈 but it might mean I’ll meet my baby very soon!

[seasidemum1]

12 Week, 16 Week, 20 Week and 26 Week Scans 🥰

Hi everyone,

Firstly I’d like to say a big thank you for all the lovely comments on my first blog, it has certainly given me the encouragement to continue. 🥰

The next stage of our journey was our 12 week scan, the first time we got to see our little baby!! You might want to grab a cuppa ☕️ So here goes...

For me the first 12 weeks felt like it went quite slow! I think it’s because I was just so excited to see our baby for the first time and to put myself at ease that everything was ok. It also meant that we would be able to speak about everything in public and not have to worry about anyone slipping up. I remember the day of our 12 week scan like it was yesterday. We had a late afternoon appointment so we had to wait all day - I felt impatient! 🙈

On the way to the hospital we stopped off at Morrison for some money for parking - being organised for once! 😂 I went into the garage to get some Haribo and water. I wanted the baby to be active when we got there, I was also told to have a full bladder. I was craving Haribo at this stage - well any kind of jelly sweet really!

We arrived at the hospital and tried to find the particular car park that was explained on our letter. I’m still not sure if we ended up at the correct one! 😂🙈 Anyway, we got to the waiting room and wasn’t really sure what we needed to do as this was still so new to us. There wasn’t anyone at the welcome desk but we continued to wait just in case, no one came back so we just had a seat in the waiting room. The waiting room was quite full, there was football on the tv as it was the World Cup - Brad was happy! It was also really hot so I kept refilling my water bottle desperately needing a wee but kept remembering ‘I must have a full bladder’ they called me through and the lady asked if I had a full bladder and I said yes. She kindly asked me to go to the toilet. I was thinking ‘what?! Are you serious?! I’ve been desperate for a wee for so long’.

We went through into a little room where the lady asked me to lift my dress up, I know this is totally normal but for me it made me nervous because I had to get my belly out and I’m body conscious - this was only the start I had so much more to come!! I just kept saying to myself ‘Kelly you are pregnant this is normal’

She squirted some cold gel on her little stick thing and started to glide it over my belly! Everyone is different but she was really pushing hard on my belly which was a little uncomfortable and I remember thinking is that going to hurt my baby? Then she turned the screen around and there was our baby!! I didn’t actually think we would see it so clearly at this stage but it really was he was kicking and moving round the womb! Thank god for the Haribo they worked!! 😂 I remember Brad laughing saying the baby is like me - hyper!

She looked round the womb and then said so there’s only one in there! We listened to the heartbeat and me and Brad got teary - it’s was such an amazing thing! A baby growing inside me. She then took measurements, checked the spine etc which she explained everything seemed really good. She then took pictures and we got to choose which one we wanted. It was no longer than 15 minutes but it felt like 5 minutes it went so quick! I then had to go and have my bloods taken for Down's, Edwards' and Patau's syndrome. It never bothered me having my blood test taken. However, this time the lady was very happy with her hands and I remember her putting the needle in and then blood squirting out! I was more worried about the white dress I was wearing to be honest!!😂 We then went to the little machine to pay for our scan pictures and collected them from reception. We got 5 pictures so we could give them to the grandparents-to-be!

After the hospital we then went and bought our first outfit! It was plain white with a hat to match. I then remember sending the picture to all of our close family and close friends and calling my mum to explain every single detail of what happened!

Our test results were posted to us saying our baby was low risk of having Down's, Edwards' and Patau's syndrome. We were ready to tell the world - I continued to search through pintrest for ‘baby announcement ideas’ we both knew that we wanted to involved Darcie. Our announcement was Darcie sitting next to our scan picture and the baby grow we brought. The amount of love and best wishes we got was really overwhelming - Everyone was really happy for us both!

So once it was all out in the open I said to Brad I couldn’t wait until the 20 week scan to see our baby again and I really wanted to find out if we was having a baby boy or girl - I wanted to get organised too!!

I then booked a private scan in Norwich for when I was 16 weeks with a lady called Pam my friend recommended her. It came round pretty quickly, again it was a late afternoon appointment! We drove to Norwich and arrived at the place! It didn’t look special it was just a old building and when we walked in it didn’t feel like a place where you would have a scan to be honest! Again, there was no one to be seen so we just sat down in the waiting area! Pam then came out to get us! She was so nice and friendly and made us feel so comfortable! We walked in the room and again sat on the bed! She confirmed we was there for a gender scan which we was and then we got started. She showed us everything of the baby in detail 4 chambers of the heart, spine and basically explained what everything was at that stage. At this point Brad was asking her a million of questions 😂 but she was very happy to answer them she seemed just excited as we was which was really lovely! The last thing she showed …. she zoomed in and then she revealed sooo….. your having a BABY BOY!!! On the screen was his willy 😂 I remember saying oh my god and just staring at the screen and my eyes filling up with water! The instant feeling I had was just nothing you could imagine! I instantly felt a lot more attached and just thinking he’s going to be my little boy and felt a lot more protective. I was so shocked because I honestly thought we was having a girl!

The appointment finished and the first thing I did was call my mum and dad to let them know the news and everyone else! Everyone was so happy for us! So me and Brad then headed into Chapelfield shopping centre! The first thing we did was went in to Kids Schuh we bought some baby Air Force 1s because Brad is obsessed with them 😂 I’m not really in to that but they were super cute! I think they cost us like £45 😮😮😮 silly for baby trainers but we just couldn’t resist! It was our first baby 🥰 We didn’t really have time to look round other shops because it was getting late! We headed back home and I remember me and Brad going through baby boy names! We had a few which was Reggie, Teddy, Ezra, Tommy and Ralph. There was also other names we mentioned but they never made the list 😂 I remember people asking me and then obviously they have there opinions so it would put me off some of them! Brad really liked the name Reggie but I was just not 100% so for a while we kept referring bump to Reggie 😊 By the time our 20 weeks scan was here we basically had everything for the nursery, clothes, blankets, nappies basically everything! We were very lucky because my mum and family bought us loads and my mum, Auntie and my mums best friend were buying things all the time and I was getting pictures everyday 😂 we bought all of our nursery furniture from ikea which was super cheap but really nice just plain white which I thought would go with anything! I went for a grey a white theme throughout.

20 weeks scan….the time was flying by I was half way 😮 and I had a proper bump which I loved and considering I am body conscious I felt amazing and my normal clothes still fitted me! We got to the hospital and went in to our appointment she asked us if we wanted to find out the sex which we said we already know ☺ we are having a boy! This appointment was a little longer as they check the babies organs and make sure everything is growing nicely! Again everything was fine 😊

I remember my friend saying now over half way the time will go super quick and it really did! I did have a new business I had taken on so that took up a lot of time which made it go very quick!

I got to 26 weeks and me and my partner was gifted a voucher to use at window to the womb in Norwich from our lovely friends it’s where you can have normal and 4D scans! We booked in to have a 4D scan! I asked my mum if she would like to come which she was very happy to! So the 3 of us went along! We went in to the appointment and they then started… all we could see was the side of him because he was facing my back slightly she asked me to go for a walk and drink a sugary drink to get him to move! So off we went again we found a little pub down the road I ordered a full fat coke which I never have but I knew that would get him moving. After 30 minutes we headed back they tried again and there he was, his little nose! Brads was worried about this scan because he said the 4D looks really strange he described it looked like candle wax melting 😂 which I know what he means but it was unbelievable! I knew straight away he had my nose and brads lips! 🥰 I would recommend this to anyone who can do it! The whole experience from start to finish was brilliant! After the appointment you then get to choose 4 different pictures to be printed and then your given a code which you can download the app and see all of the pictures at home and then print yourself if you like. I will upload one of them so you can see 😊

At this stage pregnancy was flying for me and I was lucky I wasn’t too big throughout the heatwave we had!!

Stay tuned, next stop is my baby shower! 💙

Love

Kelly & Ralph 🐢

xxxxxx

[seasidemum1]

Finding out I was expecting!

Was it planned? Was it an accident?

Well it was planned but it wasn’t but that probably doesn’t make sense. Let me explain...

Me and Brad have been together for 6 years, engaged and have lived together for a few years. We have always spoke about having a family together. We then seriously started to think about it and decided to start trying after about 3 months we both spoke again and said shall we wait until after the wedding as we had already started booking things and it was getting closer and we both agreed! There was also other things that we wanted to do like go back to Australia to visit family. It then came round to the 4th month and my period was delayed ! I knew instantly because my periods have always been like clockwork and I knew exactly when I would come on. So .... no period! At this moment I was a little scared, I remember telling Brad I haven’t come on and that I needed to get a test. Silly me, I was even nervous to go and get a test because the town I live in, everyone knows everyone and I thought knowing me I would be served by someone who knows me or Brad and soon the whole town is talking about it 🙈😂. Anyway, I plucked up the courage and went down to the pharmacy and bought a test it was one of the clear blue digital ones because I wanted to know for definite and how many weeks! When I got home I went straight upstairs and took the test! I remember reading the instructions in the box thinking I need to do this properly it said wee and then leave it laying flat on the side, 😂! So I patiently waited which felt like a good 5 minutes..... and there it was PREGNANT 2-3 weeks 😲😲😲. I shouted Brad and said I am he said what? I nervously said pregnant it honestly felt so strange saying I was pregnant! We were both really shocked and neither of us could believe it was really happening! The thoughts and emotions were running high, mainly what were people going to say? I knew I needed to tell my mum and I wasn’t sure what she was going to say. I had just started my own business how was I going to run that? How would everyone react? I’ll be honest I was really scared and couldn’t help but think have we done the right thing? Was we really ready for this? I will say I always thought when I found out I was pregnant I was going to be so happy and it be the best thing in the world. Obviously deep down I was happy but the initial shock took over and I was scared. I look back now and realise that no one is ever fully ready and my feelings were completely normal, but I did feel guilty for the way I was feeling because I was comparing myself to others and the way they reacted. We must remember that everyone is different and that’s ok! 😊

I’m really rubbish at keeping things in and 12 weeks to keep a secret was way too long for me! The first person I needed to tell was my mum.. for those of you that know my mum will understand the reaction we got is completely normal. For those of you that don’t .... my mum doesn’t show her emotions and is very much a traditionalist. I knew I would get ‘Kelly I thought you were going to get married first?’ So here goes, I pick my phone up, dial her number and as I wait for her to answer I was tearing up! She answered and I told her I had something to tell her. Deep down she knew the news I was about to share, so I said ‘I’m pregnant’ her reaction was just as it played out in my head and I remember mum saying ‘oh gosh really? Are you happy about it?’ Mums reaction was so predictable but I wouldn’t have changed it that is just mum! I told her I was scared but we are happy! Mum asked the question ‘what about the wedding?’ I explained we would still get married but it would be smaller than I originally thought we would have. I’m really close to my dad he’s like my best friend and I share everything with him so I knew that he was the next person that I needed to tell. Ideally I wanted to wait but with my parents living in Norfolk and my dad usually working away it wasn’t ideal. A phone call would have to do. So I called him again I felt nervous, dad answered like he always does, ‘hello lovely you ok?’ I said yeah fine thank you, I have something to tell you. He asked what’s that? So I told him I’m pregnant, there was a few moments of silence, then he was like no way, bloody hell, are you really? I honestly think he was speechless and didn’t know how to react - his first grandchild was on its way!! 🥰

Once I told my parents we then went on to telling Brads they only live round the corner from us. As expected they were also very shocked and speechless but really happy for us both! At this point everyone was just speechless and super shocked!! We went back to Norfolk the following weekend and saw my brothers and their girlfriends, one of which had her suspicions that I could be so when she asked I couldn’t lie, I think she was probably one of the only people that wasn’t speechless but she was over the moon for us! So then I told my other brothers girlfriend and I honestly wish now I had videoed her reaction! To say she was speechless would be an understatement she couldn’t stop crying - happy tears of course!! I knew I had to tell my brothers. They are a bit like mum so don’t show their emotions, and the oldest one made the same comment ‘I thought you were getting married next year? (Sensible Simon he is) 😂’ They were all really happy for us. We then decided that we couldn’t wait till 12 weeks to tell our close friends they were next, again there was more tears and a lot of excitement! I will say that I did feel a lot of pressure on who to tell first because we both hate upsetting people and obviously didn’t want to do that - I will say though don’t do what others want you to do, it’s your special moment and your news to share so unfortunately you won’t be able to please everyone.. don’t feel guilty 💕

Once the news was out in the open with our family and close friends we booked our first appointment which I didn’t realise at the time but you don’t need to see a doctor you can just book straight in with a midwife.

It did take ages for everything to sink in and I didn’t actually feel like I was pregnant until our 12 week scan. I did feel like I had a fairly straight forward pregnancy, I had a bit of morning sickness which at the time I thought was awful but believe me it’s easy compared to what you have to come!! People told me to eat ginger biscuits but this personally didn’t work for me. I found that just snacking throughout the day was the best thing! It was worse in the evenings for me which resulted in me going to bed early just to block it all out!

By the time our first midwife appointment came through I was really excited! Brad on the other hand looked like he may need some nurse assistance in the waiting room - I thought he was going to faint! 😂Brad kept asking what’s this appointment about then? I had no idea it was all new to us both. They called my name and we went through to a little room with our midwife who we were lucky to have throughout our pregnancy - she was amazing we couldn’t have wished for anyone better! She was even keen for Ralph to be born on Christmas Day as she was on shift. The first appointment was all a blur to be honest, they did a lot of tests, asked a lot of questions. We got the choice of hospital which were Norwich, Ipswich or Gorleston. We didn’t need to think about it - our baby would be born at Gorleston. Brad is a Ipswich supporter so there’s no way he would have picked Norwich and I personally don’t like Ipswich. We had also been given positive feedback from friends who had their babies at Gorleston. Our midwife sent off for our first scan - things really were starting to feel real! We received our letter within about a week so didn’t have long to be impatient.

The build up to the scan was really difficult to keep a secret, I kept thinking about how we would reveal it to the world. We knew that we wanted to involve Darcie our bulldog! So after searching ‘baby reveal with dog’ on pintrest a thousand times I then started searching for baby shower ideas, nursery ideas, baby clothes, when does the baby move, what should a women at 12 weeks look like - I know everyone looks different I was just intrigued. I become a little obsessed with Pinterest and searching the internet but I was just so excited!

We had our letter for our 12 week scan come through! Secretly we were hoping it would be sooner as we had a family wedding so I couldn’t drink. Not that this was a problem I’ve never been a massive drinker so I didn’t mind. The morning of the wedding was probably the start of my stress, my outfit was being delivered at 1pm, the wedding was at 2pm but for those of you that know me this is pretty standard - I do love a last minute outfit change! I had 3 outfits all on and off because I didn’t want to look pregnant or fat or people asking questions. The winning outfit was a loose fitted jumpsuit and you couldn’t tell which made me think people wouldn’t notice that I’m not drinking but there was a few questions like ‘why isn’t Kelly drinking?’ Luckily I had a good cover up with the typical ‘I’m driving’ which isn’t out of the ordinary so no one else really mentioned anything, also the limelight was on my cousin and his new wife the whole day was beautiful so looking back now I’m not sure why I worried but that’s just me!

To be Continued....

I didn’t expect this to be so long but I have a lot to share! ..... Next part of my journey “12 week scan, private scan and 20 week scan”

Love

Kelly & Ralph 🐢 xxx