Exciting news :)

14 June 2012

I don't know if you realise how difficult it has been to keep this quiet ;o) but today I am finally able to let you know that I'm going to be a Grandma again!!!


Today Claire went for her 12 week scan. Everything seems to be going well and baby was extremely active - he/she was kicking, waving, possibly sucking their thumb and doing little somersaults! Alice was with us and was quite fascinated that the little blob on the screen was a baby. She kept looking at it and saying "Baby!" over and over.  Now Alice loves her baby dolls - I just hope she loves this little one as much :).

Baby's due date is 29 December 2012 (his/her Aunty Michelle's birthday!).

I've a feeling you may hear a bit more about this in future posts ;o)

xx

37 weeks

Being Monday (yesterday) it had to mean it was time for the weekly pregnancy photo update ;o)

 Claire is now 37 weeks pregnant and her due date is only 20 days from today. Claire has such a compact "little" bump but it is certainly solid and getting heavy and a bit uncomfortable now.

 On Sunday night she was very restless, popping up to unstack and restack the dishwasher while we were watching X Factor, and just didn't seem to be settling properly. I wondered if it was a sign that something was about to happen but she's still here ;o).  Yesterday was a hormonal day emotionally and in the afternoon Claire took herself off to bed for a nap while Emily and I went to Alyssa's little birthday tea. She felt much better when she woke up so obviously needed the rest.

And because Craig was laughing at Claire having to go outside in the cold for me to take photos, I  made him come out and have his photo taken with her :o)   He'll learn ;o)

xx
PS> Don't forget, there's still time to leave a comment on this post if you'd like your name to go in the draw for the Book Pass. I'll be drawing a name on Thursday and hope to post the lucky recipient's name on Thursday afternoon/evening.

32 Weeks

Today being the 20th of the month, it was time to take Claire's baby bump photos. She is 32 weeks today - only 8 weeks to go, can't believe it! xx

28 Weeks Today

Claire is 28 weeks pregnant today. We normally take a couple of photos on the 20th of each month (I can't remember why we started on the 20th, but we did). This morning we were back at the Princess Royal for Claire blood tests to be taken.

She had the morning off but was back in work this afternoon. Craig was working late tonight so, when we remembered we hadn't taken proper photos on Friday, we decided to take a few this evening :o)

Claire says there is no way any of you can say she hasn't got a bump now ;o). It's certainly getting bigger and growing week by week. Less than 3 months now till baby is due!

xx

A little late

Claire's photo on the 20th is a little late this month though it was actually taken on the 20th, I just haven't got round to posting it until today. As you can see, baby is getting bigger and there's not really much doubt that Claire's pregnant now ;). Lots of movement from baby and lots of shopping from Mummy at the moment. I'll have to post a photo of latest baby buys soon. And to end off, just a few photos from our garden. The one above was taken late one evening, I liked the way the glow from the kitchen windows helped to light the flowers. And a couple more shots of our sunflowers. They are opening slowly but surely and are beautiful. These remind me of dahlias with all their petals but I'm sure one we can see the sunflower seeds that'll change :) Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy your families.

xx

20 week scan

My granddaughter - Alice Rose :)

xx

Baby update :)

Baby things are starting to be bought and a few have made it home already. Claire and I went in to Mothercare just before Norma got here and she's opened up a Baby Plan to start putting aside the bigger items she'll need for the baby.

First to be added was this pram. Claire had originally been going to get a red and black one but this green one is pretty funky and she changed her mind ;). The seat part changes into a carrycot that lies flat and she has now added the car seat that can clip straight onto the pram frame making it a 3 in 1. It really is lovely. Last week Norma, Mum and I went to The Craft Barn in Lingfield and then into Best Wishes for coffee where I spotted this little giraffe :) It was so sweet (and neutral in colour) that I had to buy it for Baby. When we got home another package was waiting for Claire, so Giraffe sat on top waiting for her too. Great excitement when Claire got home, she knew what was inside so the package was ripped open straight away ....

Baby's Moses basket

As Craig is a carpenter making up the rocking stand, for the Moses basket to go on, was his job.

It certainly didn't take him long

Isn't it cute!

Jon was called in to have a look

Giraffe got to sit in it first

And, it won't be that long before Claire and Craig have their baby in there. Claire was 20 weeks on Monday and is going for her scan on Friday, when she's hoping to find out what she's having. Exciting times!

xx

20th of June = 22 years old and 19 weeks - 1 day

Today is Hugh's 22nd birthday. I think he got the things he was hoping for and that he's had a good day. We've just got back from having dinner at Frankie and Benny's (most enjoyable) and I have a lot more photos to go through but thought I'd put this one up for now.

Happy Birthday Hugh!

Love you :)

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As we started taking photos of Claire on the 20th of each month, today was also the day to take her next photo. Tomorrow she will be 19 weeks pregnant and a week on Friday she goes for her 20 week scan where she's hoping to find out the sex of the baby :)

Claire's hoping that you'll be able to see she does have a bump now. It's not that clear at this angle but is more noticeable when she does this ;)

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I know the blog is long overdue it's next post but life is quite busy at the moment. Norma eventually got here last Sunday (a story for another day) and although we thought we'd be having some quiet days this week, that hasn't happened. I promise to try and do some catch up posts during the week.

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I also apologise for not being up to date with everyone's blogs - I hope to get a chance to do some catching up soon and promise to leave some comments when I do :)

xx

Bank Holiday Monday

This is a quick photo recap of the past few days.

Chrissie and Helen

My niece, Helen and her girlfriend, Chrissie are over from Chicago at the moment. They arrived in East Grinstead on Saturday at lunch time so after picking them up from the station, we went to The Broadway for lunch (this seems to be becoming a habit with visitors here!). On Sunday we popped into town in the morning and then had a braai (bbq) in the afternoon. Although the sun was out there was quite a strong wind but we were brave and toughed it out outside while we ate before hurrying back inside ;o) Today the girls went to Arundel Castle with Deb and Dave and this evening we all met up for a Thai meal at Mae Ping. The food was wonderful and quite filling. Thanks Dave and Deb for a lovely meal.

Deb and Dave

Emily and Hugh

Jon and myself.

Unfortunately, Claire and Craig didn't make it to the meal as Craig ended up in Minor Injuries at the Queen Victoria Hospital about an hour before we were due to leave. He had been playing football with friends, landed awkwardly and hurt his ankle. They ended up being at the hospital until about 9pm and I went and picked them up after getting home from the meal. Fortunately it doesn't look like anything has been broken and is just a severe strain. Craig will be off work for the week and has been told to put ice on it at regular intervals. I was a bit surprised they hadn't bandaged it up but perhaps that's in case of more swelling?? He's taken some ibuprofen and they've headed off to bed now.

But to end on a happier note, I thought I'd show you the photo I took for my tag book a few days ago. It shows the little baby things Claire has started buying. So exciting!! She's now 16 weeks and looking forward to her 20 week scan.

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I hope you've had a good weekend too :o). Emily is on half term this week so not quite as much rushing around and I'll try and post a bit more regularly.

xx

One month on ...

It's a month since we took Claire's first pregnancy photos - where she only had a little slope, not quite a bump. Well, yesterday it was time to take the second ones and there is more of a bump ;)

Claire is now 14.5 weeks pregnant and her next midwife's appointment is mid June. She's now thinking that she might find out what she's having at her 20 week scan at the beginning of July. I can understand why but it wouldn't have been for me, part of the "fun" of the birth was finding out whether the baby was a boy or a girl. There's still another 5 and a bit weeks before the scan, still time to change her mind again (perhaps a couple of times ;) ).

xx

It's been a few days ...

The past few days have whizzed by and I've hardly been going on my computer.

On Tuesday Mum and I went to Sevenoaks to a quilt shop I hadn't been to before (I'd never been to Sevenoaks before either!) to look for some material for the next quilt I'm making. I found these materials and the border material (the patterned fabric underneath the others) and a couple of others are from the Basic Grey "Eva" range by Moda. I'd never seen scrapbook papers as fabric before so this was quite cool! This morning Hugh, Claire, Mum, Dad and I went and voted first thing. We had to go to our local community centre and were in and out quite quickly. I'm interested to see what's going to happen with these elections, it's certainly the closest the parties have been in a long time!

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It was then time for us to head down to the hospital for Claire's 12 week scan. Claire and Craig both had the day off work for the scan so Craig came with us. It was the first time Craig had seen a scan and baby played to the audience. It raised it's arm and we could see the little hand and all the fingers and at one point it looked like it was sticking it's tongue out ;o)

It's amazing what a difference three weeks makes - from the little shrimp like blob to this little baby who is now 6cm long. So sweet!

Today

This morning Claire had her first midwife appointment. Her midwife, Jenny, seems really nice and confirmed Claire is now 10 weeks pregnant. She went through all the paperwork and chats and rearranged the scan date for 06 May (as 24 May would make her nearly 16 weeks, not 12). It brought back lots of memories, doesn't seem that long ago that I was going through my pregnancy with Emily - amazing how 13 years seems like yesterday! Nowadays you have to go to the hospital for blood tests so, once we'd finished the midwife appointment, we headed down to Haywards Heath for Claire to get the blood tests out the way seeing as she had the day off work. We thought seeing as 10 weeks is quarter of the way through the pregnancy we'd take a bump photo ;o)

Can we really call this a bump??? ;o)

Unfortunately, the ironing hadn't disappeared while I was out so I made a start on it when we got home. The basket on the right has been emptied and put away and the one on the left is about half done but I've since brought in the washing that was on the line today so it's crept up a bit again. It never ends!

I think Emily was glad to get home after her first day back at school. She thought it was extremely unfair that they started athletics in PE today and she had to do a lot of running! I'm afraid Emily is very like her mother and not terribly sporty - sorry Emily!

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They're predicting more nice weather for tomorrow so I think I'll be taking Mum and Dad out to a garden centre. I know Dad wants to get some compost and Jon's asked me to pick some up for him too. I imagine a stop at the coffee shop will be in order too ;o)

xx

Thank you, Amy

A big Thank You to Amy (and her lovely little assistant) for the template I was lucky enough to win. I liked it when Amy first showed it and when I got my email telling me I'd won I couldn't wait to use it myself. After the scan this morning I knew what my first layout would be and this afternoon I completed it. The template was easy to use and I'm so pleased with the way the layout came together. I hope I've done your template justice Amy - I know I'm going to get lots of use out of it! Thanks once again and enjoy your weekend. xx

Claire

Claire and I spent most of this morning sitting at the hospital waiting for her to have a scan. She's had a couple of hiccups during the past week and the Doctor wanted to see that everything was ok. I'm glad to say that it's all fine, they measured the baby at 26mm which makes her about 9 weeks and 3 days and the baby should be due around the 17 November. It was a huge relief to see the little heart beating and know that all is well. First scan photo and for those of you who are as good as me at making out these photos, the head is on the left hand side.

I don't think Claire and I stopped smiling all the way back! We picked up Emily and took Claire out to get some lunch before she headed back to work.

xx

I can now reveal ....

Claire

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= I'm going to be a grandma

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Remember the unexpected news I mentioned a couple of weeks ago - this was what it was :o). Claire found out that she was pregnant, which hadn't been part of her plan at this stage but these things happen. It took her a little while to get used to the idea but she is now excited, happy and looking forward to being a Mummy! We'll have a baby in the house this Christmas :o). We're not sure of her due date yet but think it'll be towards the end of November.

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Thank you to those of you who contacted me and said they hoped everything was well. Everything is fine and we're all excited about the new addition. As you can imagine, there's a lot of baby talk in our household these days. Claire's first midwife appointment is on 20/04/10 and her first scan will be organised then. After the scan we'll have a better idea of when the baby will be due.

xx