Some bump progress

From the previous post's photos where there was not yet much to see, baby has grown quite a bit all of a sudden! I found the most change so far between 18 and 20 weeks. That was also the two weeks while we were on holiday on the boat with our parents and I think all that relaxation, good food and sunshine helped!

(Click on the photo to enlarge)

Compared to others I know who are at the same stage of their pregnancy as I am I'm still pretty small which I'm now thankful for as I'm sure the bigger I get the more challenging work is going to get. I thought there's not been that much change in my bump size but this evening I tried zipping up a particular jumper and it was pretty tight... I will have to wear it with the zip down now!

While Andre's parents were visiting us here in England after our lovely holiday in the British Virgin Islands with my dad and Colleen on the boat (more about that soon), we visited Ikea as we like to do. Mainly to look at cots. But we ended up buying some other bits and had to leave the cot for another trip as we didn't have enough space in the car. We might try to go back there next weekend for the cot. Instead we bought some great storage units for baby's room. Marietjie and I built the boxes to go in the unit while Andre and his dad built the bigger stuff. 

We also got a lovely wicker basket/ chest with lid to store toys in the lounge in and so hoping to avoid our lounge looking like a day care!

We've started getting baby's room ready. I just completed the painting this evening. The whole room, including the ceiling was magnolia, which is the colour you see in the lounge in the photo above. It was a bit much. So we've now painted two walls and the ceiling white and the other two a light grey. I'll post pictures of that soon. Tomorrow morning I'll check if the grey I did today need any touching up and then I can clean the room and move furniture back in.

Oh and something I've decided not yet to announce on Facebook... It's a girl! Here in England as I've probably mentioned before, you only get to go for two scans. Two on the NHS anyway, in other words free. Any more you can go for privately and will have to pay for. So we went for our 20 week scan on a Friday afternoon. Baby was not showing any interest in saying hi to us and was fast asleep throughout the scan. The sonographer had me jumping up and down, tilted the bed so my head was lower than my feet and sent me on a walk, but nothing could wake her up. Due to that she couldn't check everything that needed checking and also not tell us whether it's a boy or girl. Luckily as more check needed to be seen, e.g. checking baby's stomach which wasn't visible due to her position, I was booked for another scan the following Monday morning. Again she was asleep but a few jumping jacks this time woke her up. The sonographer was able to tell us that she thinks it's a girl but that it's not very clear. That didn't help us much as we can't exactly go out buying pink if we think it might be a girl. I booked a private scan then for the Saturday and this time it was very clear! A girl! So many people like the surprise of not knowing, but we both just preferred to be able to prepare the room nicely and buy a few nice things too.

Second 20 week scan

We've been for our first ante-natal class too. I think it might be called pre-natal in the US, not sure about SA? We decided to go for hypnobirthing classes which is all about relaxation and relaxed breathing and Andre helping me to basically go into a state of self-hypnosis to calmly and naturally birth our baby. Anything to help me through what has been a bit of a scary thought to me having to do it naturally here unless complications arise. Many people also say that babies birthed through hypnobirthing are calmer and happier and will more easily go to other people which will be great to have. Not that we want to hand our baby over to others, but it will help to give us a break when needed if she'll be happy to be with family or friends for a bit.

So anyway, that's enough for now. I'll try to again get more into regular blogging, but we do have a lot to do around here in the next 4 weeks before going on our last holiday before becoming parents. Some serious gardening to do and on rainy days I'll be trying to completely edit all the video footage of our last holiday before starting on the next one.