It's been a while... (again)

OK, so a few months ago I posted that I was back after a lengthy absence, only to disappear once again from the bloggy world.

I can't explain why, I have no excuses - other than the fact that I'm just a bit rubbish!

In the time in between I've been cooking a gorgeous and squirmy Muffin in my tummy and have reached the 35.5 week point. That means that I have just 4.5 weeks until my due date and I'm still a very happy pregnant lady!

Tiredness is starting to take over, but as I finish work officially tomorrow I'm fully looking forward to having some time to myself before said Muffin makes an appearance.

I promise I'll do my best in the 4.5 weeks I have left, to try and post a little more regularly. I can't make any promises after that date but I'll do my utmost... in the meantime, here's a bump photo taken about two weeks ago... (please excuse the chatty PJs!!)

I'm baaaaack!

I know. It's been such a long time since I posted on here.

Pregnancy is new to me and I've learnt a few lessons over the past few weeks.

Mainly, that being pregnant is incredibly tiring! I've been so tired. I've had no energy. I've felt nauseous to the point of wanting the world to open up and swallow me... and yet, I feel like the luckiest woman alive!

I'm feeling much more like my usual self now and I'm beginning to get my energy back - a great reason to celebrate!

Anyway, while I was away, wedged somewhere between my ample sofa cushions, I've been touched and heartened by several messages from some lovely ladies who I've 'met' in the cyber-inter-global-hyper-mega-web world, letting me know that they've noticed my absence and wishing me well. You know who you are and I thank you from my heart's bottom.

OK, so I'll leave this post for the time being... But I just wanted to give a big wave hello and step, tentatively, back into the world of blogging, gently!

I'll be back for more!

Soon-to-be-Mummy B

Pushing my imagination...

I have to laugh at myself sometimes.

Yesterday, while venturing upstairs to climb out of my (becoming way too) tight work trousers and into my (so deliciously, slouchily) comfy tracky bottoms, I found myself standing sideways looking at my profile in the full length mirror.

Without even thinking about it, I'd pushed out my stomach as far as I could (without risking some kind of toilet-related accident) to see what I'm going to look like in just a few short months, sporting a baby-bump.

And aside from being slightly dismayed that my current midriff is large enough to make that image look alarmingly real, I was really rather pleased (not to mentioned amused by my own antics) with what I saw!

I stopped short of padding out my hubster's jumper with a pillow and plodding downstairs, hand in the small of my back, to show hubs what he has to look forward to... but only just.

I know it's wishing time away, which I really do try not to do because time moves too frighteningly quickly on its own, but I am so excited about seeing my bump take shape and displaying it proudly in months to come...

Oh come on! Surely I'm not alone!?

A constant state of sleep

Why does sleep insist on consuming me completely at the moment?

Everything in my life (and yes, I mean everything) is suffering due to my lack of energy and my constant need to sleep.

I can't find the motivation to work properly, tidy up, wash up, hang out the washing (let alone put another load on... this one's been hanging around in the machine for approximately 36.5 hours!), make the bed (what's the point, I'll only be back in it in 37 minutes), read the blogs I follow (and this I feel terrible about), write a blog (again, terrible...), have a shower (I think the neighbours will begin to complain shortly about the musty smell and the slightly greasy residue left everywhere from my hair) or cook the tea (oh for that to mean I'd lose some weight - yeah right!).

And as a direct result, my brain appears to be turning to mush. I'm forgetting the most obvious things and failing at the easiest of household chores - all due to this constant need for sleep.

But then, when I do manage to clamber into bed looking my most attractive ever (honest!) I manage to wake myself up everytime I turn over (due to the massively sore boobs I'm currently sporting like some overinflated bouys upfront!).

What can a woman do!?

Will I even manage to finish this poszzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Wha? Sorry! Right, I'm awake... Best go make hay while the sun shines (she says, staring at the p*ssing rain out of the window).

Help! How did you cope with the constant need to sleep during early pregnancy? (Or, for the men out there, what coping strategies did your partner adopt?

Sore body parts

Ouch!

I know it's seriously early in my pregnancy (I'm five weeks today!) but some of the symptoms of early pregnancy are already setting in with a vengeance!

I'm feeling slightly bloated and have begun to lose my appetite around 4pm every day (no sign of the dreaded nausea yet *touches wood and whistles*) but the one thing that has really set me on edge this week has been the soreness of a certain part of my anatomy... my, erm... well, my *coughs uncomfortably*... my... OK, OK, my boobs!

I have the sorest boobs in the whole world!

According to the amazing pregancy book I'm reading at the moment - What to expect when you're expecting - I should be experiencing some breast pain... In fact, and I quote:

"Tender breasts and nipples. You know that tender, achy feeling you get in your breasts before you period arrives? That's nothing compared to the breast tenderness you might be feeling post-conception." What to expect when you're expecting, Heidi Murkoff, p14.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - ouch! This is definitely no ordinary soreness. I'm having problems doing ordinary, everyday things, purely due to the soreness of my pups.

It hurts to walk... so it would definitely hurt to run (not that I'm a runner, but this is just one more excuse not to take it up now!)
It hurts to turn over in bed.
It hurts to walk up the stairs any slower than at snail's pace.
It hurts to walk down the stairs full stop.
It hurts to lift anything.
It hurts to clap (who knew!)
Flippin' heck, it even hurts to laugh sometimes!

How can two such innocuous items cause so much pain!? I have to say, this is one aspect of pregnancy I definitely wasn't expecting! (I'm sure there will be many more that I'll find out about over the next eight months or so!).

But, by way of making me feel better, Ms Murkoff adds:

"...and as your pregnancy progresses, it could get even more pronounced. Make that a lot more pronounced."

GREAT!

A very tender Potential Mummy B

The happy side of me!

I was recently tagged in a fab Meme by Josie from Sleep is for the Weak and BNM from BareNakedMummy - thank you so much for that, I love being tagged, it doesn't happen very often!!

Anyway, for regular readers of my blog, I'd very much like to point out that I'm really quite a happy little being in 'real life'... although I am aware that a fair few of my recent posts have been a little sad in nature. So that's why I'm so glad to get this tag - a chance to write about good stuff.

After much deliberation, I deliver to you, ten things that make me happy...

1) Scented candles

I love to walk into a room and smell a yummy, fresh smelling candle - whether lit or not. To me, a home should smell of something lovely and my favourite of the moment is vanilla.

2) The smell of clean bed linen
There is not much lovelier than slipping into a freshly washed and ironed bed next to my gorgeous hubs. If I had a maid, that would be her main task - changing my bed every day so I could enjoy that feeling every time bedtime came around... heaven!

3) Singing at the top of my lungs
I L.O.V.E. to sing. I sing in the shower, in the kitchen, in the car, while I'm walking places with my iPod... I love to sing just about anything. I find it lifts my spirits. I know I'm really unhappy when I don't feel the desperate pull to sing along to whatever CD I have in my car stereo... What makes me happiest at the moment is singing along to Wicked the Musical - I adore it, and have for a few years now. I know it inside out and it's just tough if you're with me and you've never heard it before - you won't hear it above me... Mwa ha ha!

4) Bacon and egg sarnies
This delicious invention of culinary yumminess has to be right at the very top of my 'favourite sandwiches' list. Whatever the day, whatever the hour, I could always readily get myself on the outside of one of these beauties! And I like mine naked! (Not me, the sandwich!) No sauces, no butter, just pure, unadulterated bacon and runny egg... *dribbles slightly at the thought*

5) Birthdays
This may have something to do with yesterday being my birthday, but in general, as long as it's someone who I love's birthday, I just love it! It's a special day and the birthday boy or girl should be made to feel loved and special. I was. And I loved it!

6) Being pregnant
An obvious one perhaps, after Saturday's post but it makes me happy. This is my list, so I'm including it. I feel so serene and content with my life and I'm exactly where I want to be. I couldn't be happier! That is all.

7) Finishing a piece of writing
No matter how much of a mountain to climb a piece of writing may seem when one sets out to start, when the summit is reached and a re-read is done, there is not much that beats the feeling of having completed a good bit of writing. It's a great feeling - I just wish it would happen more often! ;o)

8) The sea
I adore living so close to the sea. Even as I type I can see a tiny peek of the sea from my office window. I'm not much of a fan of being on the sea, but I love to be next to it. When I remove my shoes and walk bare-foot on the sand, as cold as the North Sea is, I still love to have a good old 'plodge'. When I've needed to think, clear my thoughts and really work something out, I've headed to my local beach to stomp and splash my way along the shoreline. Nothing cleanses the soul like a refreshing paddle in the sea...

9) A good cup of tea
Call me quintessentially English, but there are not many things that go with almost everything, as does a cup of tea. It goes with lunch, with cake, with biscuits, with chocolate, with a chat, with a good read, with a telephone call to an old friend, with a shoulder to cry on and a box of tissues... Tea holds the secret to so many things. A good cup of tea can make troubles disappear... at least for a few minutes.

10) Being home
I lived away from my family and my home in the North East of England for a lot of years following University. I always knew I wanted to move back home at some point but it took the break down of my first marriage to make that happen. And I am so glad it did! My life has changed beyond recognition since I moved back up here and I am the happiest I've ever been. I love home and everything that means for me.

So, now it's time for me to tag some lovely bloggy peeps to take part in this happiness meme... I'm really sorry if any of you have already done this one, I've done my best to find out if you have but if I haven't looked beyond the end of my nose (as my Mum would say) I apologise profusely!

Here goes:

Single Mummy

Rosie Scribble

Are we nearly there yet mummy?

New Day New Lesson

Tears for Cheryl...

So nobody warned me, so early in my pregnancy, that my hormones would start going haywire and I'd be all over the place! Thanks everyone! No, really!

Just yesterday, when hubs had gone out to 'do secret stuff' ('tis my birthday today!) I was all snuggled up on the sofa after a hard day at work, flicking through the channels looking for something to watch. I settled on an old episode of 'How clean is your house?' as this always makes me feel good and superior, even while I sit amidst this morning's tea cups, last week's washing and last year's dust.

Just as I started to watch, the adverts came on. I'm not a fan of adverts - mostly I refuse to watch them, which is why I record everything, then I can merely 'timeslip' through them - one of the wonders of modern technology in my eyes! But today I couldn't. So I found myself sitting through countless insurance adverts (I'm fully insured thanks), adverts for dog food (I don't have any pets) and annoying ditties about banks (I've had it up to here *signals the sky* with financial institutions).

Finally, and worst of all in my opinion, came a L'Oreal advert featuring Cheryl Cole... Now I'm not a Ms Cole fan. I am, as near as damn it, a geordie girl myself and yet I feel no affinity to her at all. Having said that, I don't think this is THE WORST advert in the world. Sure Chez is too cheesy for words and hams up her already over the top accent (we don't all speak like that, I promise, most of us prefer a gentle, lilting intonation of geordie), but I ask you, is it enough to make me burst into tears at the very sight of her for no apparent reason?

I would say, probably not. But no-one told my hormones that! There I was, at 5pm, broad daylight, full-on blabbing at an advert for hair shampoo - will someone please tell me what is going on!?

Hormones - gotta love 'em. And I guess I'm just going to have to get used to it for the next few months... *sigh*

A very hormonal (but secretly stupidly happy about the whole situation),

Potential Mummy B