A special song

A special song was played for Oisín and his American brother/friend/playmate to be just now. I was meant to be getting ready to go to Ikea and while I was waiting to go, I re-read my older posts. I thought I'd cringe, but I didn't. I smiled and laughed. Guess my dreams were trying to tell me something. Also I'm proud of the writing here. I'd stand over this writing. (As opposed to some other writing where I just want to cringe.)

Anyway, Oisín and baby Z just had a special song played for them and I'm going to listen to it over and over. Oisín's 1st song "outside" the womb (he got a lot of Paul Simon's Graceland album and Leonard Cohen inside). Hooray for life, let's dance.

This blog should now read New Mama and New Dada in the world...

Our baby boy arrived! Thanks be to God. 6 weeks and 3 days it has taken me to post something announcing his arrival. And we thought (or I thought), we were having a girl. How wrong I was :) Oisín is so precious and now I'm SO excited about getting on with the job of being a Mama. On that note, I'm out of here, there is plenty of time for writing when baby O rests but right now the Mc Dermott/Nolan family is all awake at the same time and we've places to go, songs to sing, music to dance to and fun to have. xxx

New Mama to be is feeling free...

Hi blog. I realise the purpose or intent in writing this was for sharing but I've only told a few people I have a blog. Maybe I'll jazz it up a bit more and send it out to a small circle of friends. I'm sure mind you that people have better things to be doing than reading my blog. Anyway that aside, now that the creative and academic parts of my brain have been freed up from study (YES I FINISHED Tuesday and YES I'm feeling quite confident I did what I needed to do to pass - just touched wood), I'm getting excited about writing again. I've a serious case of nesting starting. There is so much I want to do in the next 8 weeks before baby gets here. I have great plans in my head for this fabulous house of ours.

On a baby related note, I am happy to report that my stay in hospital was a success. My blood sugar levels are really good and I do not need to go on insulin. I'm being monitored again the week after next so an incentive for me to stay good. the diet is paying off. Plus I have not gained any weight which is good. It means that even though the baby will have grown in the last 3 weeks I've actually lost weight myself. Delighted as it means there'll be less of a mountain to climb down from when bambino gets here.

I'm LOVING my swims. I went up tonight at 9 to my local pool and it was lovely and quiet. I just blitzed through the water. I want to keep it up when baby gets here. It might not be that easy at the beginning but my swims are rapidly becoming my salvation. It's my time out time.

Right I'm off to bed with a book and a magazine. The novelty - no more plays to read - hooray!

So I kidded myself...

Those potted lilies and roses are bought were not really a gift for Chris. I used the excuse of his birthday to buy them but really I think they were for me. Good job I also brought him out for dinner to our favourite restaurant and also got him some gardening books he wanted. I'm a semi-good wifey.

THIRTY ONE WEEKS TODAY! I've been working towards a few key milestones. The 1st one is Tuesday = exams over. The 2nd one is August 2nd = I FINISH WORK! I'm so excited about both. But once the exams are out of the way it's going to be time to start working our way through the shopping list for baba. We picked out paint for his/her room today. It's a lovely yellow whose name I can't remember right now.

I've an overnight, possibly 2 night trip to the hospital coming up this week straight after my exams to get my blood sugar levels monitored and hopefully not have to go on insulin. Fingers crossed on that one. It's getting easier to be honest, even for a sweet-toothed little minx like myself. Hopefully this diet will stop anymore excessive weight gain and I sure will be glad of that once baby is born and I'm trying to lose weight again.

Right its time to stop procrastinating getting back into the study. Speech theory and revision of written questions done during the year coming right up!!!

Well well well

Here I am 29 weeks today. I'm WILLING the weeks to go by. 5 weeks since I last posted. So what has New Mama been up to. Hmm. Watching my belly GROW. I might even post a picture to illustrate it. That's a job for later. Right now I'm meant to be studying and do you think I'm doing a tap?! Nada. So I honestly have grown quite a bit. Since my pregnancy started I've put on 2 stone. That's quite a bit above the average incidentally. I keep telling myself it's water retention (well my feet, ankles and hands ARE all quite swollen). I saw the dietician in the Rotunda on Thursday as I'm at risk of gestational diabetes. I'm on quite a restricted diet for the remainder of my pregnancy. I'm looking forward to that 6 week window between giving birth and being allowed go back to WeightWatchers when I can indulge in SOME sweet treats (right now they are ALL OUT), like carrot cake and Mam's apple tart. Imagine telling a pregnant lady who is studying to be boot that chocolate, cake and sweets are all OUT! Tragedy. I tell you. Anyway, call it nesting or whatever but you know the way I'm meant to be studying...well Lidl opens in 9 minutes and guess who has decided she can't possibly study until she has gone there to see if they have any of their special offer roses and potted lilies left from their Specials they were advertising last week. It's Chris's birthday today - wouldn't it be nice to surprise him with them when he wakes up? Wish me luck - I think I'm going to be disappointed if they are not there. THEN I'll start studying. I promise!

Hearing baby's heartbeat for the 1st time :)

So today during a routine check-up my doctor put the monitor up to my stomach and I could hear the baby's heart beat. Boy do they beat fast at this stage - you're looking at min. 120 beats per minute! I was so relieved! I haven't felt much movement so was starting to get nervous. It's funny the things that freak you out. I was worried that I'd had too hot a bath last week and the baby could've died from the high temperature. Seriously! I was honestly worried. I think sub-consiously I had absorbed a "nugget" I'd read in a book, that your baby can't regulate their own temperature up until a certain point in the pregnancy. Deep down, since that hot bath, which in reality I probably only sat in for 5 minutes, I was allowing a niggly worry to eat at me that I could've hurt the baby with my action. Sometimes reading books is bad for you!

In other news, I've PILED on the weight since my last visit to the doctor six weeks ago. Try like ALMOST a STONE!!! Through urine samples and a detection of sugar, I'm also at risk of gestational diabetes so I've been told to stay away from ALL SUGARY foods. Completely. Oh dear. All I can say is anything to stop this accelerated weight gain. The less I put on now, the lower the mountain I've to climb down from weight loss wise, when this baby arrives into the world. Everything that I currently define as a treat is vanished from my diet with immediate effect. I'm going to have to find new treats that excite me. Damm, damm and treble damm. This WILL be good for me in the long run, RIGHT?! Oh and in case I needed motivation, my doctor issued those convincing words "You don't want your baby to have excess weight.". No, you're right, I don't. And every time I even think about allowing anything sugary to pass my lips, I just need to think about this precious being inside me and go, this is for you kiddo, I'm doing this for you as well as for my figure at the end of all this. The thought's just struck me that from now on, I'll have to get used to think for more than myself. Chris and I will have a little baby to depend on us for all sensible decision-making soon.

23 weeks and almost 6 days! To be precise. Here's to a slower and steadier weight gain from hereonin. What's a good substitute for sugar anyone??!

Maybe I'm "nesting" already!

21 weeks and counting...after this week I've 15 weeks left in work before maternity leave - and I'm not really counting??? Yeah right! I think I can feel the baby move these days especially at night time but sometimes unsure if it's just my digestive system in action - then again I never noticed my digestive system making movements like that before I got pregnant so I guess I should put it down to baby movement. I've heard of the "nesting" syndrome whereby you just start getting all domestic and wanting to make your home all cosy. Well I think that's kicking in for me. I just LOVE our new home. Particularly with the fresh paint on the walls and pictures starting to go up. We had 10 visitors for dinner yesterday and I LOVED having them over. There was so much space for everyone (bar at the dining table) and the kids were out in the garden most of the afternoon playing. I'm already starting to think of having both our families for the christening! It'll have to be buffet style and eat it on your lap as between both immediate families and partners there will be 26 people and 2 babies!!! Now I really am thinking ahead. Oh roll on July 27th when I plan to start maternity leave (you can tell work no longer excites me can't you?!). In the meantime I'll enjoy "nesting" in my spare time.