The Word is Out! The Journey So Far......

So.......ever since the little white stick showed two lines I've been BUSTING to tell the world....then not wanting anyone to know 'in case something went wrong'.......then wanting to tell everyone again.....that I'm pregnant and me and the Englishman are expecting a baby!

Yep - 2 lines means 'pregnant'. :-)

I'll try not to go on too much but I guess I want to blog about the journey so far, so I can remember it and so I can tell the 'monkey monkey' about it one day.

Having a baby is something I have wanted for a very long time, but it had never been the 'Right Time' before. By the 'Right Time' I mean a few things - the right time in my life, the right time in my relationship with the right person, and the right time for my 'right person' as well.
After I turned 30 in December last year, and knowing that me and my right person had been talking about starting a family soon anyway, I decided enough was enough and I was going off the pill. In a fit of "I'm a grown up and I can do what I want to" feelings, I declared this decision to my Englishman, stating, "If you dont want a baby yet, YOU can sort that out." My Englishman, bless his heart, turned around and said, "well, I was going to suggest we start trying in the New Year so I guess this is ok".

I was already December 20. Not very long to wait anyway!

Thus ensued the excitement and apprehension of waiting, trying, thinking, trying some more and waiting again. I made an appointment to see my GP, told a few close friends what was happening and the Englishman and I got 'busy'. Getting busy is fun! ;-)

In February, the Englishman's parents came to stay and I thought that I might have been preggers. No such luck but it dominated a lot of our short holiday with them - lots of testing and thinking and second guessing, until it turned out that after 10 or so years on the pill, my body was just having some trouble readjusting to 'normal cycles'.

Around the middle of March, I had a couple of dizzy spells and was a little late, so thought I better do a test. Lo and behold - 2 pink lines!! We were both thrilled and very excited - happy dances and tears galore!

My GP suggested an early scan and I was more than happy to oblige - I was feeling very normal, no morning sickness and other than a bit of tiredness and the dizzy spells, I felt fine. We went for a scan on the 8 week mark and it was lovely - so good to see the little bean (or 'monkey monkey') growing away with a sweet little heartbeat we could see but not hear yet.

From 8 weeks onwards I have had some nausea but no vomiting (thank goodness!) I had a good month of tiredness but that seems to have abated now. As long as I make sure to eat regularly, I feel ok and as long as I don't rush around too much things stay pretty ok.

We have slowly told friends and family since we found out at 5 weeks and everyone has been so excited for us! My favourite reaction was my Mum - who screamed and ran around from the kitchen to give me a massive hug - she swears she was putting it on because I was 'expecting' a big reaction but I know she's been waiting for a grandchild for a long time (probably as long as I have been waiting to give her one!).

Our other favourite was tricking the Englishman's family and friends, as we happened to call them on April Fool's Day to tell them and as the Englishman is notorious for playing jokes (did you know Bruce Forsyth died?), they didnt know whether to believe him. His best mate, Davin, waited until after midday UK time before he even replied to the message!

It has also been lovely to find out along the way about a few gorgeous friends who are also expecting. The day of my 8 week scan I was sitting at work, wanting to tell a good friend but not knowing how (the difficulties of open plan offices!) when she came around to my desk to tell me she had just found out she was expecting! It was just perfect timing and so I have a lovely friend to share my journey with at work.

There are also a few close friends and family who are expecting in the coming months, and after 'facebook announcing', another friend messaged to let me know she is also expecting, and her due date is the day before mine!

Today, we went for our 12 week scan and it was magical. Unfortunately, my Englishman has been ill with the flu for 6 days so wasn't feeling the best, but he made it to the scan and I"m so glad he did. We heard the heartbeat, got to see the arms, legs, brain, stomach, bladder, and cute little nose. It's amazing to think that it's growing away inside me!

So that is the journey so far, in a nutshell. There is so much more to come and now that the gag is off, I might feel more motivated to blog more often. It's all very exciting!

Inspiration...

After spending all day at home immobilised today, I discovered a great little blog by Lady Daa Doo which inspired me to get back on here and do some more blogging.

Her Lord Daa Doo sounds suspiciously like my Englishman, she grew up in a country town like me (I have to face it, Newcastle is a country town!) and from the blog posts I've read so far, she loves a laugh, a glass of wine and getting creative now and then.

Hopefully I'll be able to keep up the inspiration and blog a little more.........

Sprained ankles hurt!

I sprained my ankle on the weekend.

Thankfully, luckily, I didn't sprain it until halfway through Sunday. So I still got to enjoy my weekend.

On Saturday the Englishman and I had a sleep in and once we got moving, we both had very different ideas of what we wanted to do. I wanted to 'explore our local area' while the Englishman wanted to 'go shopping in the city'. BOR-ING! I've been shopping in the city before and besides....I'm broke.......

Instead, we ended up just walking up to our local shops and getting a pizza for lunch, renting some movies and having eggs on toast for dinner. Simple, easy, and cheap.

Sunday, I finally got my way and the Englishman agreed to go on a 'bushwalk' in close by Hunters Hill. There was a reserve with nice boardwalks and some off road terrain as well. It sounded pretty and to be honest, I wanted to just get outside and do something that felt a little like exercise.

The walk was fine, and pretty, and peaceful (although you could see houses above some of the trees and the main road was humming away in the distance) and as we headed back to the start, the thunder rolled and the raindrops started falling, so we decided to run back to the car along the road.....then we veered off the road and onto uneven ground and about 3 steps in, I went down.

The Englishman has never heard me in pain and now says I am not allowed to have babies if I make that much noise when I sprain my ankle!

Mind you, I didn't cry, I actually laughed and also swore A LOT and then wanted to just get up and go home....seeing as it was also raining and I was getting wet and cold!

I forgot how painful, and how much of a hassle having a sprained ankle is!

I made it home and up the 3 flights of stairs to our flat (pulling myself up the banister, fun!) and it took most of the afternoon for the pain to die down. Still, I thought I'd be right to get to work today, that somehow with all my following the RICE rules it would be miraculously much much better and I would be able to just limp a little.

No such luck. It wasnt really feeling any better this morning and although I think the swelling has gone down now, I think thats mostly due to the compression stocking I've been wearing for the last few hours.

Here's a few photos for graphic effect:

Looking much better than yesterday but definitely still swollen!!

This is an illustration of my current range of movement - my ballerina pointy toes ain't working so good.....

A close up - I only realised when I took this that it has started to bruise already.....

My Englishman has been pretty good at looking after me but it has been partly out of guilt - he felt like it was his fault for not agreeing to go bushwalking on Saturday (although I've told him it's definitely NOT his fault!). He's been good at cooking and fetching, but he does have a low tolerance for small requests so I've tried to keep them to a minimum, and I've also done my best to get up and 'try to do it myself' which helps with the sympathy factor ;-)

Things my Englishman have taught me #1 - Cooking

My Englishman and I have been together for, oh, just over 2 years now....it started as a bit of a whirlwind romance, things moved pretty fast to start with, but then they settled down and we're happily plodding along, living together and learning each other's quirks (even when we thought we knew them all, they keep appearing!)

One thing my Englishman has taught me from the start is how to cook a really nice meal.

Now, I liked to think of myself as a pretty good cook. I could whip up a stirfry and even make my own marinade, I knew how to cook spaghetti bol and I was happy to have a go at my Mum's old favourites.......then I got invited round to the Englishman's house for a dinner cooked by him about a week after we met...

Now, I know he set out to impress me and made some serious effort that evening (mushroom soup, balsamic salmon with cucumber ribbons and soba noodles, and choc brownie and ice cream), but I've also since discovered that this wasnt a one - off .......he loves to cook and knows some serious rules about cooking....so this is what I've learnt....

1. Stick to a few vegies, a few flavours, a couple of elements, and it'll be much nicer and easier to enjoy. I have a tendency to put every vegie I can think of in my stirfries or on my plate because I love them all.....now I try to stick to 4 or 5.....

2 . You dont always need a starter, or bread, or salad. Sometimes dinner is enough (though I'm a sucker for dessert...)

3. How to cook a good curry, risotto, pasta sauce, lasagne, chicken and leek pie........the pasta sauce I can do, and at times it gets praised as being better than the Englishman's (by him!), but the other ones I'm still getting the hang of. He can do them without a recipe, it's really quite cool.

Oh and one last thing the Englishman has taught me about food that's important to note - you can NEVER have too many cups of tea....speaking of which, I better drink mine before it goes cold.....