2 days late + Harriers' sweeptstake

So I have officially joined the 70% of folk who have their baby post due date and as I am incredibly crap at waiting (you should see me at a bus stop waiting on a bus!) I think poor Al is in for a tough few days /weeks. See that is the problem, it could be tonight, it could be another 12 days and I'm not very good at that. I must try to see it as an opportunity to practise the art of patience, but when your back is aching and your belly is so low it is practically down to your toes, it proves quite difficult indeed, so to keep e from grumping too much, I thought I'd sit bouncing on my birthing ball and write a blog post!

On Friday I did 40 mins Pilates and then used the opportunity to get all my staff''s holiday pay and payslips all sorted out as well as paying any outstanding bills for the centre and recording the accounts, so I guess at least that is all sorted out and I don't need to worry about that post baby! Al and I then went out for dinner and generally I did a good job of keeping my mind busy.

Yesterday I was absolutely exhausted for some reason, so chilled out as much as poss. Al and I went to Auchterarder for lunch and then up to Crieff to put some stuff to the charity shops and generally pootle around the shops so that gravity could get to work. I got 4 books in one of the charity shops for £6! Bargain! So that should help to keep me busy. My mate had a really good idea of getting out all my photos that need to be put into albums and start to organise them. Great idea, but I don't have any empty albums and so hoped to buy some yesterday, but to no avail!

The harriers now have a sweepstake on when baby will arrive, it's weight and sex which is really quite funny. The thing I find really strange is the weights people are guessing. There is only 1 above 7lbs! I am a bit concerned about their opticians because my stomach is quite clearly enormous! I know I'm teeny, but my belly ain't!

When we were in Crieff my mates Wendy and Lawrence went past in their camper-van as they set off on hol and waved hello. I got a text from her later that said that she didn't want to peep the horn in case she made the baby come and lost her guess on the sweepstake! LOL!

Today I have felt pretty fed up, but doing my pilates (40mins) has cheered me up as did watching the village gala parade! There were loads of mums accompanying their children as there is a fancy dress contest and I thought, gosh that could be me soon! Actually it was a bit of a shame as we have had absolutely no rain for about 2 weeks solid and although it was dry for the parade, it then rained after while the fair etc was on! Typical! poor old Muthill!

Right, I will do my best to 'enjoy the quiet while I still have it' - yup, you guessed it, I've heard that quite a lot recently!

Due Day Tomorrow!

Last day of 39 weeks today and I thought I'd do a post just on the off chance I am one of the very few people who are actually on time, although I really don't see that happening.

Exercise

Exercise is still going well:

Mon: 1.8km swim (90 lengths) ~ 4.5 miles

Wed: 4 mile walk/hike

Thurs: 50 minute gym session - 5min walk teadmill, 20 min XTrainer, 10 min arm bike, 10 min XT, 5 minwalk treadmill ~ equiv to about 4 ish miles

I think tomorrow I'll just do Pilates (if I'm not getting a much harder workout in the labour ward!) and if baby is still happy in my belly I'll hop on the bike on sat.

Hike + Midwife

I had a lovely hike with my mate Wendy on Wed. I had to laugh at the end as she said: "Well thanks for that pootle, Luke" (her dog who is quite slow) "really enjoyed that." to which I replied: "It might have been a pootle for you; that was a full on workout for me!" and it really was as there is a lot of uphill on that circuit which I simply have to plod up. LOL!

Before I met Wendy I had a midwife appointment to check everything was Ok. All was well with baby and a good strong heart beat. It is always so reassuring to hear that. I had been a bit worried on Mon as baby was quite quiet, but it seems to have woken up again. Despite that though the movements are definitely different - much more pushing rather then whizzing about, so it's obviously getting a bit more cramped in there - let's hope that encourages it OUT!

Fatigue

I have felt a lot more tired than I have done the past few days and have found myself being very lazy in the afternoons - taking advantage of being able to sit on my butt and reading a book before all craziness breaks loose. Definitely want to have enough energy for labour!

Crossing my fingers for tomorrow as I'm getting very fed up of painful Braxton hicks with nothing to show for them!

4 Days to Due Date

Yesterday I got up and joined mum at her club for a swim I nearly gave the life guard a heart attack when he overheard that I am due on Friday. I promised him to be sensible and that mum was with me if I had any problems! Hee hee! He definitely looked more than a bit concerned!

As it was all was uneventful. I managed 90 lengths (1.8km as oppossed to 100 (2km) so I have slowed down a bit, but not bad I reckon!

It was another gorgeous day so mum and I had coffee sitting outside in the sun before we thought we'd better get on with something a bit more productive! Dish washing, hoovering, online shopping etc done I headed outside to sit in the back garden and finish book number 3. It was called Twilight and as some of the main characters are vampires I probably wouldn't have have even looked twice at it, but a friend recommended it, explaining it was more of a love story, and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is part of a series so I may try and get hold of the next one.

Today I had a coffee morning organised via the NCT classes. After the lessons, the first 3 coffee mornings are organised for us by our host and then we take over organising them at our own houses which I think is a great idea! I was a bit concerned as I had to drive down to Stirling for it (30mins) which is the longest I've driven for in quite some time and I'm definitely starting to feel like I don't want to go to far from home. None the less there were no emergency calls required en route in either direction so I'm glad I went as it was nice to see Claire and Katherine. Fe didn't make it and as she is due on Thursday, we were wondering if maybe her D-day has come around!

I had plans to do my Pilates this afternoon, but I feel really tired (2 pretty bad nights in a row) so I think I'll just rest instead.

I have a midwife appointment tomorrow and hopefully I'm meeting my mate Wendy at some point in the next few days to go for a walk (really think I need to have company now).

It is a really weird time; you make plans, but you don't know if you'll be able to do them or not. Definitely odd.

39 Weeks!

39 weeks today - 7 days to due date! OMG!

I was really hyped up to deliver during my first 2 weeks of maternity leave, but now I just feel - whatever - it'll happen. I'm very glad I didn't go straight away actually as I feel really quite relaxed now and feel like I have the energy to 'enjoy' the whole experience.

It helps when you have a great day like today - coffee in the morning with a my mate Liz, lunch in the back garden with Al while he was on his lunch break; an unexpected visit from my mate Ali while she was out on a wee bike ride, so more sitting out in the back garden (perfect temp today); 40 minutes Pilates and then before I knew it Al's finished work for the week and it is a gorgeous Friday evening.

The only fly in the ointment - the dishwasher seems to playing up, but Al's going to have a really good look at it over the weekend and hopefully he can fix it.

GOOD LUCK to all those running the West Highland Way this weekend. I hope the weather stays nice for you and the midges are kept at bay.

Baking and Lunching!

Baking

Yesterday I whiled away the afternoon doing some baking. I made some yummy muffins and cookies.

Raspberry, Blueberry and Almond Muffins (9 nice sized Muffins).

250g Rice flour

170g Whole Rye flour

225g Frozen blueberries and raspberries

50g Caster Sugar

1 large egg

170g Silken tofu whizzed to make paste plus splash of soya milk to thin to a more yoghurt consistency

Juice of 1 lemon + rind grated

half a cup of Pineapple juice

2 teaspoons Baking Powder

1 teaspoon Bicarbonate of soda

80g Flaked Almonds

1 teaspoon Vanilla essence

Sift flour, baking powder and bicarb of soda. Add fruit and lemon rind and mix.

Mix tofu (could use yoghurt), sugar, pineapple juice, vanilla and lemon juice in another bowl.

Add wet to dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Beat 1 egg and add to mixture and mix through.

Spoon into muffin trays.

Bake (200degreesC/400degreesF/Gas Mark 6) for 15 mins (Fan oven 15 mins is plenty!)

These are so good and as a bonus really healthy too as loads of fruit + nuts and low fat! I was really pleased how these came out as I had adjusted and combined a few recipes. They are fab for all times of day especially breakfast with a little jam!

Peanut Butter Cookies (25 cookies)

I don't know if theses could be described as low fat or dead healthy, but yummy; yes! The best thing is I made 15 cookies and put the rest of the mix in the freezer so I can easily bake some more (10) at a later date.

130g rice flour

100g rye flour

1/2 teaspoon Bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

100g Dairy free margarine

130g Crunchy Peanut butter

170g soft brown sugar

1 teaspoon Madagascan vanilla essence

1 teaspoon water

100g dry roasted Peanuts (I used 50g plain whole Almonds cut into three chunks as I didn't have any peanuts and 50g seemed plenty!)

The marg, PB and sugar were creamed in a bowl and then half the dry ingredients and half the eggs, water and vanilla mixture were added and stirred in to make smooth consistency. The second half of dry and eggs were finally added and re stirred to smooth texture. Finally the nuts and stirred through.

Balls of dough were put into greased baking trays and flattened down with floured fork.

In oven (180degreesC/350degreesF/gas mark 4) for 15 mins. I have a fan oven and they possibly could have been taken out a little earlier, but they seem pretty perfect to me.

Lunching

Had a great lazy lunch with the girls from my NHS classes. We met at 11.30am, had lunch and after gabbing away for quite some time decided it was time for some pudding! We eventually decided we should get on with something a little less indulgent at 2.30pm! We haven't arranged anything for next week as Claire is due on Monday, Fe and I are due on Friday and Lyndsey the following Tuesday. I wonder if we'll go in the correct order or if in 3 weeks time I'll finally be begging to be induced!

Spinning

Mum was shattered this morning so I 'hopped' on the spinning bike and did a great 45 min workout - 21km so equiv of 4 mile run - before meeting the girls for lunch.

Heat + Books

It was so hot today. I made the mistake of shooting up to Crieff to get my glasses fixed while still wearing my jeans - ugggh! As soon as I got home it was summery frock on and relaxing in the garden - well the shade with book number 2. I must say, it is rather nice to be getting a chance to read - completely guilt free!

38 Week Midwife Appointment

I had my 38 week midwife appointment which went well. Tummy has grown another 1cm. A lot slower growth (1cm in 2 weeks as opposed to 3cm in 2 weeks) but still growing none the less. Head down, butt out and legs still flailing around. In fact it was moving about so much this morning that it took a while to get the heart beat. It finally calmed down and let us hear it's wee heart beating away.

I was wondering when I would have my next appointment as they are still meant to be every 2 weeks, but because we live so rurally I can only get appointments on a Mon and Wed so my next appointment would have been after my due date which I thought was a bit strange. Anyway I was told I should come in next Wed as that was 2 days before my due date and check that everything is OK and then if I still haven't gone into labour, the following Wed and they will check me out and see if there is anything that can be done to get things moving along.

Exercise

I took the decision to not bother doing any exercise yesterday and I think it was a good choice as I feel a lot more energetic today and went for a lovely 4 mile hike/walk today around the Knock and Wishing well. I did it in the reverse direction to last week as I figured if I was tired after the circuit of the Knock I could bail out and head home, but although I was quite tired I knew I was fine to add in the extra mile. I must admit though, I'm getting a bit twitchy about heading out on my own now. I knew there would be other people walking around there at that time of day but even still I phoned Al just as I was about to head off and when I got back. It was really muggy today and so I had to take it really steady up the hill as it was just so warm. As I came down the other side I was looking out to Loch Turret and the hills that guard the water below and was thinking 'did I really used to run over them on a regular basis?' It seems hard to imagine at the moment, but I'm sure I'll get back to it soon enough!

Tomorrow I am meeting the girls from my NHS classes for coffee/lunch, but if I feel OK I will try to get some exercise in before we meet. If mum is up to it I''l go to the gym with her, but if not I will either spin at home. If I can't face it in the morning I'll do it in the afternoon, but morning is usually better for doing cardio for me.

Friday I am meeting Liz for coffee in the morning so I'll probably do some Pilates later on - we'll see.

Sat - if Al wants to go to the speed session (shin splints flared up a little after last week's session) I'll tag along and go for a walk like last week.

That's the plan, but I'll definitely play it by how I feel each day as I really don't want to feel like I did on Monday.

Nesting

I'm feeling quite chuffed with myself as yesterday I finished my 'spring cleaning' and so the house is fully nested! Well I could always start painting the hallway (I know I wanted to get it done in the Easter Hols) but I don't think it is a good idea to start as I can't go up any ladders at the mo'. Hopefully it will stay dry today and Al can mow the grass as we seriously have the Serengetti Plane for a back garden. No joke - the grass has gone to seed and is waist height - hilarious! I reckon the next door neighbour is astounded as he cuts his grass after a cm growth! Thank god it can't be seen from the front or we would be seriously letting the village down on it's quest to place in Britain in Bloom (we qualified last year from doing so well in Scotland in Bloom).

So now it is on to baking! I'm feeling like some muffins need to be baked! Oh and better water those hanging baskets too! Mustn' t let the village down! Ha ha!

12 days to go or is it more?

Monday 14th June

Got up this morning to meet mum for a swim. Had had a bit of a dodgy night with feet in diaphragm and sore tum and it was quite a struggle to get up and going.

Thought I would just do 30mins or something but managed 50 mins in the end (74 lengths).Not my usual 100 but that was honestly enough as my tummy just wasn't happy and I had hideous heartburn too which I haven't had for a while.

I thought I would feel much better today after resting all day yesterday on the sofa - honestly it was a truly a mega lazy day and it felt great - but no I still feel a bit odd so I think I'll be taking it easy this afternoon too.

Exercise

At this point I don't even want to make any exercise plans for the week as I'm really uncomfortable, but when I'm feeling a bit more chipper I'm sure I'll be out walking, on the spinning bike and doing my pilates in an attempt to get this baby out!

Crazy Baby!

The shapes my belly makes now is quite phenomenal depending on the position of the baby. Then it moves and it really freaks me out, because it is insane. I know people who have said that they would rest a tea cup on their bump and the baby moving would make the tea cup move - well I wouldn't dare rest anything on my belly as it would half way across the room in the blink of an eye, contents splattered over the walls!

Right, back to my trashy novel to ensure I rest and not overdo things!