39 weeks!

Mum and Nic are coming tonight so I can't write too much but I just wanted to add the latest bump picture and a photo of the pool. The pool isn't completely set up - as you can see from thte picture it over lapping and not a full circle, but this gives you an idea of what it looks like. It's waiting for the 'right time'!!

38 Weeks!! Nothing yet!!

Well hello again! Not much time left now!! This pic was taken at 37 weeks. I seem always to be a week behind myself!

We've had a pretty good few weeks. There has been a few bank holidays here so J has had some extra days off which has been fab!! His Spring cleaning and preparations haven't stopped. we've now pretty much finished the entire clean of the whole apartment and it's looking loverly!!

At one point this is what the lounge looked like!We had everything from the bedroom in the lounge, so you could hardly see the floor!

On the day that I was 37 weeks (full term) Thursday, all the baby furniture we were waiting for arrived. Then on the Friday the pool arrived (I forgot to take a pic. when we set it up as a practice, maybe later!). It was a little overwhelming for me and I had a bit of a freak out. Suddenly it was real and was happening! I feel very much like the expectation of a new mother is that you should know everything; know what you should need - sizes, amounts etc, be in control and aware of what you want in the labour and after.... basically that you are sposed to be this strong creature that is expected to deal with all these changes. Well I have to say that I haven't felt that at all. I have no idea what I'm doing. Every question that I have about having a baby takes me into about 10 other questions! Even when others tell me that it'll all come naturally when the baby is born, I'm still able to freak out! Don't get me wrong I'm not falling apart and I am truly excited about this whole process, I just don't like the feeling that crying over not knowing what a baby is sposed to wear to bed, shows that I'm weak. Anyway.. for all you soon to be mums that freak out about all this sometimes I say CRY! and cry as much as you need! God will help us through this whole thing but it's not wrong to cry and to feel overwhelmed sometimes!!

Back on the subject again. As I said all the furniture arrived and we spent ages putting it together. So now we've eventually got the nursery end of our bedroom sorted and everything in the drawers so now there's nothing out at all really! Here's a pic of J building and the new 'nursery'! Unfortunately we can't fit in the Moses basket that we borrowed so we've decided to either use the pram or put the baby straight in the cot.

We also went to the 'Thuiszorg' (Home care) shop on the weekend. This is the place you go to borrow things like crutches or anything that you need to be able to function at home when you're ill. In our case we went there to pick up the stilts for the bed. When the 'Kraamzorg' (after care helper) comes after the birth you have to have the bed 70cm or above so that the nurse isn't always stooping over you over the bed. So you have to hire (free) these stilt things to lift the bed higher. It's like sleeping on a throne! Here's a pic:

So there you go. Nothing happening yet.. Pj is still moving nicely and kicking me in the ribs. My b.p. is still low - no change there. I'm having weekly checks now at the midwife so hopefully I'll get to see a few different ladies. There are 5 there in all. One speaks very good English (I'm praying she's on duty on 'the day', 2 speak pretty good English and 2 speak very little or at least don't communicate very much with me. I can't expect people to speak English (I'm in their country after all) but I find some appointments very frustrating as I seem to get only the answers to my questions - no more info. I'm sure it'll all be fine but I can't help pray that I get one of the good English speakers if only for reassurance!

Here is the link again as usual:

http://www.babycentre.co.uk/pregnancy/fetaldevelopment/38weeks/

See you at 39 weeks!!???

36 weeks!!! Are we ready????

This is the bump at 35 weeks

Hmmmmm well I can safely say that we're kind of ready but not really! Can you ever be ready! We feel like we're in the midst of the calm before the storm! We now just want to get on with this and learn how to be parents. It feel like we've been waiting for ever.

Here is a pic of the baby's nursery!

As you can see it's not in the least ready! We borrowed a moses basket from a friend just in case pj comes early, so that it actually has somewhere to sleep! Hopefully the furniture should arrive this week. I'll have another picture when that's all finished!

We said before how we were having some issues trying to find a pushchair that we remotely liked here. Well below is a pic of the one that we finally chose.

When the baby finishes with the bed part of the pram we won't need to store a huge great bed thing somewhere which is something I really didn't want. Instead on this one you take the material off the frame and use the same frame for the seat part. All we need to store is the material which takes up soooo much less space. It's good too because the car seat attaches to the main structure of the pram................. very exciting hey! I'm sure you wanted to know all about all that!!!

Here's a pic of J modeling it very nicely! He's also modelling the baby carrier that his Sis (Christianne) gave us. Very fetching don't you think!

Last week we had a really nice visit from J's mum and sis for the day! Yes the day! That's the benefit of living so close to the airport! It was really really nice to see them and to share the experience with them. The down side of being abroad through the pregnancy is that our parents haven't been able to enjoy the feeling of feeling their grandchild moving around and kicking like the karate kid! It makes me sad that they haven't been able to go through this pregnancy with us. But at the same time we have flights booked for after the birth so they'll have an intense baby time then!

Everything is still going well with pj. We seem to have had a pretty good pregnancy - I know though that that isn't an indication that the birth will be too! Thank you to those people that have emailed me with encouraging messages. You hear so much information about the things that can go wrong and, as important as it is to be prepared for any eventuality, it's good to also know that sometimes things don't go wrong. I'm feeling more excited about the birth than I had ever imagined I could be (I could never understand these women that said they were excited when they went into labour). I don't look forward to the pain thing but I know it's for a reason I'm hoping that that will help me get through. J has been awesome and helped me out sooooo much around the house. I think he's the one nesting now! We've been 'spring cleaning' and had half the flat out on the balcony to clean properly. We have just a little more to go but now we feel like we're living in cleanliness again!

My blood pressure remains low which has brought some comical times... the other day at 2 am I woke up really dizzy, so while j made me some food I lay with my feet up again the wall trying to get more blood circulating! I wish I had a camera on me!!! At today's midwife appointment it was 80 / 45! but the baby's loving it so I shouldn't complain. I've been amazed that all that happens at my appointments is that I have my blood pressure taken and they feel the bump. I had blood taken at the very beginning and not since and I've had my iron level taken once or twice but other than that, nothing!

Anyway this has become long again! Here's this weeks link: Enjoy and maybe read the stuff about water birth if your not sure what I'm getting myself into!!

http://www.babycentre.co.uk/pregnancy/fetaldevelopment/36weeks/

http://www.babycentre.co.uk/pregnancy/labourandbirth/waterbirth/howtousebirthingpool/

Koningendag - April 30th

Happy Koningendag!

This day is a national holiday here...... more important than Christmas to alot of people! It's basically one big national party and one huge great car boot sale!

It actually celebrates the old Queens birthday but the current Queens birthday is in January so it's too cold to do much (I should know!). So she decided to keep it on the traditional day at the end of April. All the shops are closed and from early in the morning people take their spots on the pavement along high streets to sell the 'stuff' they've been collecting all year! I have never seen anything like it! So many stalls and SO many people.

Here are some pics of Amersfoort. Quite a small scale thing compared to Amsterdam and The Hague. There were bands playing in town the night before that went on till the early hours. Then like I said all day Monday were the stands and more bands playing through the town. This would be the same throughout Holland.