My first time pregnancy story
I am pregnant for the first time and I live on a small remote island. This is my story.
Blog Chapters
Pregnancy blog: front page
Chapter 1: I'm pregnant! The initial emotions
Chapter 2: Sharing our good news
Chapter 3: The unwelcomed symptoms of pregnancy
Chapter 4: Initial midwifery appointment
Chapter 5: Hello baby!
Chapter 6: A healthy growing baby
Chapter 7: The happy second trimester
Chapter 8: Gifts & preparations
Chapter 9: Our plans for home birth
Chapter 10: The start of the third trimester
Chapter 11: Birthing options - a decision finally made
Chapter 12: An unplanned trip to the hospital
Chapter 13: Newest third trimester sensations
> Chapter 14: Last minute preparations & more gifts
Chapter 15: A scare! Has the baby moved today?
Chapter 16: We are ready for the home birth
Chapter 17: The woes of late stage pregnancy
Chapter 18: The excruciating waiting stage!
Chapter 19: Scanning & sweeping
Chapter 20: Trapped in town (an indefinite hospital stay)
Chapter 21: Baby's birthday! My delivery & birth story
Chapter 22: A quick recovery
Chapter 23: Final thoughts. . .
Chapter 1: I'm pregnant! The initial emotions
Chapter 2: Sharing our good news
Chapter 3: The unwelcomed symptoms of pregnancy
Chapter 4: Initial midwifery appointment
Chapter 5: Hello baby!
Chapter 6: A healthy growing baby
Chapter 7: The happy second trimester
Chapter 8: Gifts & preparations
Chapter 9: Our plans for home birth
Chapter 10: The start of the third trimester
Chapter 11: Birthing options - a decision finally made
Chapter 12: An unplanned trip to the hospital
Chapter 13: Newest third trimester sensations
> Chapter 14: Last minute preparations & more gifts
Chapter 15: A scare! Has the baby moved today?
Chapter 16: We are ready for the home birth
Chapter 17: The woes of late stage pregnancy
Chapter 18: The excruciating waiting stage!
Chapter 19: Scanning & sweeping
Chapter 20: Trapped in town (an indefinite hospital stay)
Chapter 21: Baby's birthday! My delivery & birth story
Chapter 22: A quick recovery
Chapter 23: Final thoughts. . .
Chapter 14: Last minute preparations & more gifts
The time until we meet our little baby is drawing nearer and nearer, so James and I embarked on a nesting exercise. We have purchased all the essentials way back in the day but now we are focusing on the last-minute provisions for the home birth and the little baby.
James has turned to the internet again, just as he has done when we first had our exciting news, just to double check if we had missed anything! No, we really have no need for a pram up here on Eday as the farm tracks are bumpy and the fields are full of grass clumps - we instead have a baby sling and a baby carry backpack. What else. . . ? Wait. . . What?! You say we need a special sock to measure baby’s heartbeat? A new kind of mattress to tell us the baby’s growth rate percentage? A bottle that indicates calories of breast milk inside of it? It seems that James has travelled down a deep dark rabbit hole of new baby high-tech gadget marketing propaganda, only to emerge confused and flustered. Here is his response to the whole thing:
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That same week we received a Scotland Baby Box, a gift from the Scottish Government sent to all new babies in the country containing various baby goodies. It has added a lot of the finishing touches to our baby supply stockpile and we are ever so grateful for it! The contents are ever changing, so if you’re in Scotland and are thinking of applying for it, make sure you take a look at what’s currently included. Here is what we found in our box in August 2018:
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Following advice from the midwives and good reviews on various Mummy forums online, we also ordered a ball… a big ball… a big blue ball… a big blue bouncy birthing ball that is meant to help a lot with contractions and with settling the baby into correct position ready for birth. Charlie, our little puppy, loves balls but he finds this big blue ball a little scary and keeps telling us that bouncing on top of a ball is not how the game is meant to be played! Bless, I can’t wait for the puppies to meet the baby, they are ever so gentle with us and the baby chickens, so they should be very adorable with the new baby!
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Last minute bits and bobs that we ordered online are on the way to us, namely a breast pump with matching bottles, couple of maternity bras, a couple more muslin cloths and a bucket and spade beach set - because you’re never too young (or too old) to build sand castles on the beach!
We have ordered two boxes full of treats from Amazon Prime, to keep me motivated and energised throughout the birthing experience - a lot of dried fruit, cereal bars and yes, chocolate too! James is also excitedly planning various platters of sandwiches and some other nibbles for the labour and birth.
We put up a cot for the baby to sleep in, but the midwives suggested that the Scotland Baby Box is a good start for the first few days as it prevents any draughts and helps the baby to get adjusted to the outside-world temperatures. James isn’t overly keen on the baby sleeping in a “Government-provided Cardboard Box” but I see the point of it and so we have it placed inside the cot and ready for the baby to use, at least for the first couple of days.
Next to the cot we have set up a table with a colourful vinyl PVC cover (for easy cleaning) and a baby changing station. This is where I have been spending the last couple of weeks, mainly preparing and folding the reusable cotton terry towel and muslin cloth baby nappies, learning to safely use the baby sling wraps and sorting out baby clothes into different age and size categories. I think that this is how I am expressing the nesting instinct. Instead of “nesting” James affectionately calls it “folding” as that is the only thing I am up to these days. . . I fold!
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I really love the idea of cloth nappies and I just love learning various nappy folding techniques by watching fantastic videos by The Nappy Lady. My favourite, albeit the most complicated fold, is the bat fold, but I also like the Jo fold and, for when the baby is a little bigger, the kite fold. The Jo fold, especially when using the thin muslin cloths, is fantastic for the first week or two as I can easily fold it back at the front and avoid covering up the healing belly button. Afterwards, I will start using the folded terry towels as we have purchased a lot of these which, together with the reusable fleece liners, should meet all of our needs.
Prior to my “folding” days I had a couple of “knitting” days when I managed to knit two blankets for the baby. The yellow and red blanket is super wide which would make a lovely swaddling blanket if the baby wants to be all cosy and cwtched (Welsh for a cosy hug) and a white one which fits the cot perfectly. The baby is arriving at the colder part of the year so these will come in handy, I am sure.
I also crochet a pair of mittens. I haven’t picked up crochet hook since I was about 10 years old learning it in school, but I managed to follow beautiful instructions in this awesome video and make a pair of lovely yellow and red mittens, which might just fit a baby in winter - they did turn out to be much larger than I expected. Unfortunately, one is also slightly bigger than the other, but I feel no more energy or inclination to re-crochet another pair to try to match them up just yet. I still have some time, but if I don’t get ‘round to it, I am sure the little baby will forgive me for a minor mismatch of their mittens!
James has been nesting in his own way - a very manly and daddish way. He has been busy restocking the pantry shelves with delicious food and ordering winter supplies to keep the house nice and warm in the autumn and winter. He has also been brewing various delicious homemade beers for me to enjoy when the baby arrives - I have ginger beer, lemonade, rosehip beer and rhubarb beer to look forward to. He is putting these into tiny little bottles as I don’t drink much, but I have to say that 9 months tea total is a long time indeed and I can’t wait to have a little glass.
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We also received further unexpected GIFTS from friends and family. James’s sister has sent us the most adorable Mummy-Baby jumper from Australia, allowing me to cuddle the baby and stay warm at the same time. It is not something I would have ever thought of purchasing for myself and, to be honest, I didn’t even know such designs existed so I am very excited about it. Now I am really looking forward to the cosy warm cwtches with the baby, Aussie kangaroo style!
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Mrs G, a good friend from Twitter has sent us an adorable Welsh onesie so that the little one has an appropriate outfit to celebrate the upcoming Six Nations Rugby games that will start in February in. We were so happy and James even wiped a little patriotic nostalgic tear from his eye.
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We are ever so grateful for all the gifts received, thank you all so much!
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