battling the nursery bugs

Nate has been in nursery for 3 weeks but has already had 3 days off sick with conjunctivitis  and an inner ear infection. He has been prescribed 2 courses of oral antibiotics and 2 different types of eye drops!

It hasn't been easy juggling work with a sick child, but luckily my husband has been able to take some time off to look after Nate when he was too unwell to go to nursery. 

Nate has been such a trooper; throughout his worst days he just kept on smiling through his horribly swollen eyes. He even started crawling for the first time in the midst of all this. 

He still needs to take his medication for another week but he is definitely on the mend and feeling much better. 

first week at nursery

This week was a big transition week for us. It was my last week on maternity leave before officially returning to work and it was also Nate's first week at nursery. He was there for 3 full days. 

Although I am technically still on maternity leave until next week, I have been working 2 days a week for a while, so Nate has slowly gotten used to being away from me for the day. Despite this, I was still nervous about him starting nursery because until this week, he had only been with his dad or his grandparents so the move to a group setting was a big change!

The whole morning of his first day, I was worried sick about him. I had trouble concentrating at work wondering if he was eating well, napping, and adjusting to his new environment. I was especially nervous about his naps. Nate gets so upset and cranky when he gets tired and he generally only naps in the car, in the stroller or on me after nursing. I just couldn't for the life of me see how he would nap in a bustling room filled with children. I held off as long as I possibly could and then called to check on him on my lunch break. 

I could not believe it when they told me he had slept for 45 minutes earlier that morning and was currently enjoying his lunch of cottage pie and swede!  I was so relieved. From that moment, I knew everything was going to be fine. I am so proud at how well my little man has adapted to his new environment. And after all my worry about Nate's naps, can you believe that this is how my husband found him when he went to pick him up at 4pm? 

Nate's first day went as smoothly as I could have hoped. And the next 2 days went fairly smoothly too despite a new tooth coming though and multiple doses of pain reliever being administered. 

There have been a few negative consequences of starting nursery  Nate has had a runny nose and cough ever since his first day, and it doesn't seem to be clearing. He is also very tired in the evenings so we have had to put him to bed earlier than normal. 

On the positive side, he has been sleeping well at night and I have noticed Nate's gross motor skills have improved. At the start of the week he was pulling himself up to standing slowly, Now he pulls himself up super quick and does squats, lunges, and all sorts of funny contortions. It's amazing to watch him pick up these skills so quickly!

And to top off this week of firsts, Nate made his very first school art project, which I was given to take home. It is now being displayed in prime position on our dining room table and will no doubt end up on the fridge for months and then stored away for posterity's sake. 

the nursery

We have finally completed putting the nursery together and hopefully everything is in place ready for baby's arrival.  Here is a before and after photo:

before

after

I am quite pleased with the results and think we used the space pretty well. The chair in the corner is the EKTORP Armchair from ikea.  The bookshelf in the left is also from ikea. Most of the rest of the furniture and decorations are from Mamas & Papas or from various places online. 

The swinging small crib next to the large crib in the centre will be moved into our bedroom and baby will sleep in this next to our bed for the first few months before moving into his big crib. 

The dresser in the back wall of the room holds all of baby's clothes and will also be the area where I change him. 

I feel very relaxed when I go into the nursery so I really hope it's a nice and relaxing environment for the baby to feed, play and sleep. 

thirty-seven weeks pregnant

Pregnancy day 259...21 days to go!

Baby is now 19.25 inches long and weighs about 6.3 pounds. 

So I am now officially full term! This means all of baby's organs are fully developed and prepared for his entrance into the world. It also means that the baby will not be considered premature, even if he is born today (hopefully that doesn't happen though, I'm not ready yet). But this is such a huge milestone and I can't believe I've made it this far!

I can tell that baby is getting ready to make his arrival. My bump seems to have dropped and I keep getting sharp stabbing pains in my pelvis area. During the week there were a few moments when I was standing or walking and felt a pain so sharp down below that I had to sit on the floor or bend over to get it to stop. Luckily the pain goes away as soon as it starts but it's pretty terrifying. 

Today is my first working day on maternity leave and it's strange. I have been trying to keep occupied by tidying and organising the house and things are coming together slowly. The nursery is nearly complete, but not quite yet. I promised my sister (Hi D!) that I would do a nursery post with the final photos; I haven't forgotten! I just want to wait until it's completed, probably next week once we go to IKEA. 

On Thursday we are leaving to go to Cornwall for my brother-in-law's wedding. I'm looking forward to having a break away from home but am nervous about how I will be feeling. I get annoyed when I can't walk for very long without getting pelvic pain so think I will find it frustrating to not be able to explore Cornwall as much as I want to. 

I think that's all to report at the moment. I might not be able to post again for over a week as once we are away at the wedding I doubt we will have internet. Fingers crossed baby will stay put until we are back home on the 26th June! 

thirty-five weeks pregnant

Pregnancy day 245...35 days to go!

Baby is now 18 inches long and weighs about 5.25 pounds. 

Another week has flown by and I have spent most of it in bed trying to get rid of my nasty cold. Luckily today and tomorrow are bank holidays here so by the time I go back to work on Wednesday I should be more or less back to full health. I can't believe how much I have missed my usual cold medicine!

There isn't a whole lot to write about regarding medical appointments this week because I already posted about my Ultrasound last Monday and my 34-week midwife appointment here. Have a look at that post if you want to know how those appointments went.  

Over the weekend we went to Mamas & Papas to pick up our full-size crib. My husband's parents bought this for the baby, so a big thank you to them for this lovely item! We also bought a couple cute canvases that were on sale to go on the walls.  Mr M assembled the crib while I packed my hospital bags and after only an hour or two our nursery started to come together! 

There is still a lot more work to do on it though. We need to get the chair from IKEA, a bookshelf, and to sort out some toy storage, but it looks much more like a nursery than it did a few days ago!

This weekend my husband and I also watched an interesting documentary called The Business of Being Born. It's an American documentary which looks at the current state of childbirth in the United States, particularly the medicalisation of normal birth. I highly recommend it to anyone in the USA who is pregnant or is planning a family in the near future. 

thirty-three weeks pregnant

Pregnancy day 231...49 days to go!

Baby is now 17 inches long and weighs about 4.25 pounds. 

Can you believe that the baby now weighs over 4 pounds? That's a lot! And over the next 4 weeks he will put on 2 more pounds, so my bump is literally going to grow by the day. I have already gained 27.6 pounds so far this pregnancy, so it's likely I will gain at least 35 pounds overall...I'm not happy about gaining so much, but there isn't much I can do about it now. I suppose it will just mean working harder after baby is here to lose it all.  

I am feeling very large now and sleep is getting more difficult, partly because I'm waking up through the night to go to the bathroom and partly because I'm uncomfortable lying in one position so have been tossing and turning throughout the night. This has of course made me more tired during the day and therefore much more irritable at work. 

On top of general stress and insanity at work, this past week was super busy in the evenings too. Monday evening I had a committee meeting for a charity I volunteer for; Tuesday evening I had a breastfeeding class; and Wednesday evening I had my last NCT antenatal class. At the end of the class the instructor stated "Okay ladies, the next step is to go and have your babies!" I suddenly felt very unprepared!

The nursery progress is going well. My father-in-law has just finished painting and putting in some new power points and we have cleared the room ready for the cot to be assembled. The only problem is that our cot and crib are currently on back order at Mamas & Papas. I'm hoping they get delivered soon, otherwise we might have to think of other options. 

I am planning on getting the Ektorp armchair from IKEA for the nursery too. It looks really comfortable for breastfeeding and you can also get a ton of different covers for it from a company called Bemz; so the chair should theoretically last forever as we can get different covers in the future if we want to redecorate or move the chair to another room. Once everything has been set up I will put up some pictures of the nursery to show what it looks like. 

thirty-one weeks pregnant

Pregnancy day 217...63 days to go!

Baby is now 16.25 inches long and weighs about 3.3 pounds. 

It's been a very busy and productive week both inside my uterus and out. Baby is growing rapidly; he has put on over 1/2 pound this past week and will continue to grow at this rate until he arrives! I expect my bump will start to get huge soon, even though it's already rather large.

His movements are now very strong and every once in a while a forceful kick under the ribs really hurts! Luckily it's only once in a while and  and the pain is bearable. 

Work this week was hectic again, but I feel like I am starting to get to a point where all the hard work and long hours are paying off.  My replacement starts on Tuesday and I have a full 6 week training period with her, which is nice because I feel like there is a lot to hand over. During the next 6 weeks, my boss decided that he would temporarily move into another office (the 2 of us usually share a room), I would take his desk and my replacement would set herself up at my old desk/her new desk. I feel very posh and important sitting at his desk. It's such a change from my old shabby desk tucked into the corner that I find it really odd. 

I am attending a family wedding this summer when I will 38 weeks pregnant and have been putting off buying a dress.  A few days ago I finally decided to order this dress from Seraphine. I thought it might be too casual but as it's a day-time wedding and is taking place outside I'm hoping I can get away with it. The dress fits well but is too long on me, so I am going to try and take up the hem an inch or two.  

This weekend we picked up our pushchair from Mamas and Papas, but it is still sitting in it's huge box in the garage for now. It will probably stay there until I'm off work at the end of June and have the time and motivation to put it together.

We also made great progress on getting all the hospital bag stuff purchased. I think we pretty much have everything now except for a nice baby blanket. I can't decide if I should buy an expensive hand-made crochet blanket (like this) or a cheaper knit one from the local baby shop (like this). Decisions, decisions... 

thirty weeks pregnant

Pregnancy day 210...70 days to go!

Baby is now 15.7 inches long and weighs about 2.75 pounds. 

I feel like I am growing by the day - doesn't my bump look big?! It's hard to believe that there are still 10 weeks to go until baby arrives, it doesn't feel possible for my bump to get any bigger.

And I'm now 30 weeks, thirty, that is so crazy! I feel like 30 weeks is such a huge milestone; I'm 75% of the way through my pregnancy. And the countdown until I leave work is down to 7 weeks (only 32 working days), it's all beginning to feel more real. 

Physically I'm still coping fairly well. My back had been aching a lot when I was lying on my side at night, but I figured out over the weekend that this was due to by big belly pulling on my back ligaments, so I have been wedging a throw cushion under my bump at night and the pain has subsided. Heartburn has been bothering me more and more; I chew on anti-acids during the day, but sometimes nothing seems to help. 

Things are still very busy at work and last week I did a couple of 10+ hour days which left me absolutely exhausted for the weekend. I was so tired this weekend I even had to turn down a trip to the cinema because I didn't want to spend £10 on a ticket just to end up sleeping through the movie - frustrating! 

My weight gain stabilised this week and I stayed the same weight as last week. I was happy about this because I think my overall gain of 22lbs is still above average. 

Next week  we pick up our crib, cot and our pram system from Mamas & Papas, so we can finally start to put the nursery together and we will have gotten all of the large purchases done with! We still need to get a ton of the smaller practical things and I would like to get a nice baby blanket if I have some money left, but we are getting there, slowly but surely.

nursery update

I'm apparently supposed to be "nesting" at the moment. You know - doing things like getting the house all ready for baby's arrival, sorting out the odds and ends that need to be done, cleaning loads, being all motherly and that. 

Well...I think I'm running a little behind on the nesting thing really. Here is our nursery at the moment.

And, believe it or not, this is after a massive clear out! 

I guess we are taking our time to sort stuff. Maybe it's because we went a tad-bit crazy the last couple months buying baby stuff (see all the stuff piled on the bed? that's the stuff we bought in February & March).  And now we need a break, so are relaxing a little and putting off all the organising until we have a little more time.  I mean, the baby's bed isn't being delivered until early May so we have time...plenty of time. 

We have been doing small amounts of D.I.Y. though and I'm very proud of Mr M for putting down boarding in the attic loft this week so that we can have more storage.  Look at him hard at work - such a good daddy-to-be!