Happy Easter!

Just a very quick post to wish you all a very Happy Easter! I hope you are all having a lovely weekend! Hopefully you're all enjoying some well earned time with your family and eating lots and lots of choccie! I know I am!

I will be spending my weekend very much munching on this yummy chocolate heavenliness:

And spending some quality time with my gorgeous Husband: 

 Oh and look what arrived for me {or rather baby Gladwin} yesterday morning from my lovely friend and colleague: 

How nice was it for her to send me this?! 

Happy Easter everyone!!

xo
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37 Weeks: Full Term Baby!

How far along?: 37 Weeks.. 5 Days. FULL TERM!

Maternity clothes: No new maternity clothes.

Stretch marks: I have got some stretchies on my stomach now around my belly button but they're small and so I won't complain because they're really not that bad. I have some on my sides above my hips as mentioned last week and then the usual ones on my boobs!

Sleep: I've been waking a lot more this week to use the toilet. I'm thinking this is because you are now even lower and more engaged.

Best moment this week: Starting my Maternity Leave!! I blogged about it {here}.

Miss anything?: It would be nice to have some alcohol and some mushroom pate! Also I miss being able to do my teeth and wash-up without my scoliosis back pains going into spasm. And my gosh eating dinner is a problem now as the bump is getting in the way, so I miss being able to eat dinner comfortably. 

Maternity Leave

Dear Baby, 

So that is it! Today I finished my last day of work before I become your Mummy. I am now officially on my Maternity Leave and honestly I can't believe how quickly it has come around! It feels like just yesterday when your Dad and I found out that Mummy was pregnant and that we were having you, and here we are nearly 9 months later! 

You're full term now which basically means you could come any day and you'll never ever fully know just how exciting that is for us! We can't stop talking about you, we can't stop thinking about you, we can't stop staring at my belly {which is still growing!} and wondering who you are going to look most like. We are completely in love with you already. The more you kick me, the more I think about your tiny little feet and how I can't wait to see them and study them for the very first time, and try and work out how possibly they could have just moments before have been inside of my stomach high up in my ribs! 

So many people have wished us good luck for your safe arrival and for our future as a family of 3. My work colleagues spoilt me today and of course you got some things too:

A {Very} Simple Pasta Salad

I adore pasta. I seriously love it, and I probably eat way too much of it, in fact I know I do.

My Husband and I will often make ourselves this very simple pasta lunch and we think it tastes absolutely gorgeous, especially so during the Summer on a nice hot day {yeah, we can dream!}. It's a perfect lunch snack for family days out or picnics so I thought I would share it with you:

Shopping List

• Pasta - whatever kind you like and however much you'd like.
• Mayonnaise - I use Hellmann's light, because 1. It's healthier, and 2. Because it contains free range eggs. 
• Cucumber - I buy half of a cucumber and it's enough.
• Cherry tomatoes - I use the whole punnet.
• Cheese - I buy Tesco's Organic Mature Cheddar but you can use whatever you like.
• Spinach - I use spinach for the iron {great when pregnant}.
• 1 Apple - Any you like.

{You can pretty much choose to add whatever you like in to your pasta salad, but for the sake of this post I've chosen the above as this is what I prefer.}

Preparation

1. Pour however much pasta as you would like into a saucepan cover with water, and bring this to the boil. (Use maybe the whole bag of pasta so that you have spare pasta salad for the next day or for family).
2. Whilst waiting for this, you will need to start chopping up your salad, you can start with whatever you like. Chop the cherry tomatoes into four, half then half again. Everything else chop into little squares including the cheese (I'd use maybe 3/4 of a cheese block). You don't need to chop the spinach leaves - you can add these on afterwards.
3. Once the pasta has boiled and is ready, drain it and leave it to cool off. You'll be eating it cold, so don't worry about it getting too cool. 
4. By the time the pasta has cooled off you should of hopefully have finished chopping the salad. You can now pour the pasta and the chopped salad all together into a large mixing bowl. 
5. Once you have poured everything in together, get a large wooden spoon and mix it in a little bit. 
6. Now you want to add your mayonnaise, this will act as your sauce, so put enough in to cover the pasta but not too much as you don't want it smothered, a thin layer will do. 
7. Mix the chopped salad, pasta and mayonnaise in together. Add your spinach leaves to the top if desired.
8. You'll need to store your pasta salad in the fridge, so either place your mixing bowl in the fridge with cling film over the top or if you are planning on taking the pasta salad to work/school then find lunch box type containers or even the tubs you get from Chinese take-aways will do, as long as they have lids. 
9. The pasta salad tastes best cold, so allow for it to get cold, for best results wait until the next day, serve for lunch, and enjoy! 

So there you have it - A very simple pasta salad!

xo
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36 Weeks: Dealing With Crazy Hormones!

How far along?: 36 Weeks.. 6 Days. {Yep, I'm a little late with this post yet again!}.

Maternity clothes: Nothing new - still squeezing myself into what I have. My previously baggier clothes are now tight fitting around my stomach.

Stretch marks: Found some new stretch marks this week! On both sides of my stomach just above my hips are matching stretch marks, they're not really visible from the front and I'm not particularly that bothered by them. I'm guessing if I'm going to get them, it'll be around now, as my belly is stretching like it never has before.

Sleep: Yeah I wake up for the toilet a couple of times a night but to be honest I can't complain about sleep as It's pretty smooth.

Best moment this week: Having a sort out of the living room and making a few new purchases for it {More here}. 

Miss anything?: Having energy is still sorely missed.

Home Decor: Living Room

I mentioned in my weekly bump update under 'Also this week' that Adam and I took a trip to IKEA last Saturday afternoon to get a few pieces of new furniture for our living room.
Our living room has had quite a few changes made to it in the last 8 months in preparation for our impending arrival. We've had to empty out our second bedroom which we were using as a study, it  held our 2 gaming PC's along with a heck of a lot of the usual office type furniture generally found within a home study. The second bedroom is quite large and so as you can imagine it held a whole lot of random items which all needed to be found new places within our home as it is now our little babys nursery. :)
This is what one half of our living room currently looks like...

Most of the furniture in this picture is actually IKEA, the table being our latest addition. Honestly this table is just such amazing value, it cost around £25 which just seems like such an unbeatable price to me and even with the amazing price the quality is fantastic. I am so pleased with it, it's a great size and I love the shelf underneath - which is fab for extra storage.
The sofa, TV cabinet, light (which you can kind of see), book case, shelves above the TV, rug and large city picture with light are also all from IKEA. I didn't actually realise until writing this post just how many items we have in not only our living room but all over our home that are from IKEA. I'd be a little scared to find out just how much money we have spent in there in total over the years!
The other half of our living room consists of our dining room table, side window, my Husbands storage unit for his eBay side business which is nicely organised and very well hidden behind the living room door thanks to me and our trusty friend IKEA, and it is also home to his ever expanding LEGO collection and Warhammer display cabinets pictured below. 

You'd think that I would probably mind this, but I actually don't.. I love the LED lights that he's put inside of the cabinet, it's made the room feel rather cosy especially in the evenings. We love lights, and use them to create ambience all around our home.
Not pictured is our computer {we went down to just the 1 - didn't have enough room for the 2!} and desk which is behind our corner sofa next to our back door and 2 other windows. The computer desk fits in the corner of the room quite nicely although to be honest we're rarely using it at the moment as we're loving our iMac and new iPad mini. But if we do ever go back to gaming, {that is - if we ever have time to with having a baby} then it will definitely serve a purpose again. 
So that's it -  our living room as it is at the moment. It will almost definetly be changed about some more in the near future, mostly to accommodate our little ones bits and bobs when he's born and then as he gets a little older - all of his toys. And we're not naive enough to not realise that all of our more fragile items will need to in time get placed higher and higher out of reach of tiny grabbing hands when our little one starts to crawl and toddle about the place!

Is It Just Me Or Is Time Flying?

     

It's Friday again and is it just me or are these weeks just completely flying by?! I suppose the fact that I've been spending most of my days half a sleep lately may be why I feel like this but either way -  I seriously cannot believe that today I worked my last Friday before becoming a Mummy and that my once little and now huge baby bump is 37 weeks {full term!!} on Monday! Where has the time gone?! I know that he's going to be here before I know it and I'm so excited and can't wait to meet him but I'm getting a little {okay, a lot} nervous now. The last few weeks of pregnancy are overwhelming and especially so for a soon-to-be brand new Mum! 

Today I've spent most of my day in bed completely bunged with a horrible cold which to be honest totally sucks since I already felt pretty rough with 1. my back which has been in a lot of pain lately and 2. the general end-of-pregnancy all consuming exhaustion. So really I could of done without this cold as well but hey I guess it's better to have it now and hopefully be rid of it by the time baby decides to make his apperance.

I finally had my hair done last Monday.. I got it re-layered with more blonde highlights and I feel so much better for it! It's nice to have at least my hair looking they way that I like it!

35 Weeks: 3/5th's Engaged!

I'm a little late with this one I'm afraid, I'm blaming it entirely on my complete and utter lack of energy {I'm not sure I actually know what that word means anymore}. I turn 36 weeks {can you believe it?!} tomorrow but here is my 35 week update:

How far along?: 35 Weeks.. 6 Days.

Maternity clothes: Nothing new since last week.

Stretch marks: Still just on my boobs.

Sleep: I'm still waking around 2-3 times a night. Tired all of the time! Zzz.

Best moment this week: Finding out that you are 3/5th's engaged! I feel like everything's going as it should be so far *touch wood*. 

Sammy says Hi!

10 Things You Really Shouldn't Say To A Pregnant Woman

34 Weeks: I Can't Stop Thinking About You

How far along?: 34 Weeks.. 5 Days.

Maternity clothes: I picked up an amazing top that I am quite a bit in love with {pictured below}. I love the colour and the cat picture. It's actually 'age 16' can you believe?! Love that an age 16 top fits me at 34 weeks pregnant!! I also picked up some more leggings and some other tops from Primark. Nothing from a maternity range just bigger sizes!

Stretch marks: Still exactly the same as previous weeks.

Sleep: I've been waking up around 2-3 times a night to empty my bladder. Sleep has been okay, just wish I could have more of it as my energy levels are still very very low. 

Best moment this week: Visiting the labour ward was pretty awesome, you can read more about what I thought of it {here}. Our first antenatal class was also really exciting, it makes me realise how close I am to meeting you! 

Yes, Weekend.

Happy Friday everyone!

Ahh.. knowing I can sleep in tomorrow and the next day and in fact the next day is pretty sweet! 3 Day weekend's are awesome! Works done, I've cleaned the house and am off to the in-laws in a few hours for dinner. Saturday will more than likely be spent having a general potter about. Sunday's Mothers Day so I will be visiting my mum and then we'll be going out for dinner with my Husbands mum and his Granny and Monday will be an extra highly appreciated day off work with my Husband with the morning spent at our second antenatal class. I'll also be trying to squeeze some time in there to make a start on packing my hospital bag. 

Right now I've got my feet up with a cup of tea, a couple of cheeky chocolate biscuits, catching up on writing blog posts and reading others and am listening to some of my very guilty pleasure - Drake! 

Whatever you're up to this weekend, I hope you have a great one! 

xo
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My Thoughts: Labour Ward Tour

Last night Adam and I went along to Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire for a tour of the labour ward where I will hopefully be giving birth to our baby boy next month. The tour started at 7:30pm and lasted around an hour or so. Before it had even began I was feeling rather tired so on getting home around 9pm it's fair to say that I was pretty darn exhausted!

There were around 10 other couples on the tour with us, so quite a big group, which kind of made it more difficult to ask questions as we squeezed ourselves in and out of rooms. 

Birth Centre Rooms

We were shown a birth centre room first, which to be honest actually was not what I had expected - It was better. The room was incredibly spacious and it had a large blow up pool inside as well as an en suite bathroom, a labour ball and adjustable lighting and heating. The room and bed looked very clean and rather modern. I was very impressed as was my Husband, the room instantly made me feel very relaxed and in a strange way - in control. We didn't get to see the actual birthing pool room as it was in use but I felt happy enough with the blow up pools of which we were told they had several. 

Perfect For A Pregnancy Treat: Alcohol-Free 'Mocktail'

It hasn't been particularly hard, but equally it hasn't been particularly much fun not being able to sip on my all time favourite drink: "WKD Blue" during pregnancy. 

It's probably quite laughable that WKD is my favourite drink, as it's pretty much 'Panda Pop' but with alcohol {and only the tiniest slightest amount of alcohol at that!}. But though it does only contain such a small amount of alcohol I gave it up as soon as I found out I was pregnant and being the supportive Husband he is, Adam's been very good to me and he too hasn't been drinking it as not to make me feel that I'm missing out.

For a short while I went through that rather annoying stage of wondering what exactly I could have as a sort of 'treat' drink throughout the nine months and then I found this:

It's alcohol-free obviously and is what is known as a "mock-tail".

I'm not sure about the caffeine content to be honest so I will only ever have one a day just in case it's high in caffeine. There's another flavour which I believe is strawberry, but this one is my personal favourite. I find it really refreshing and the pricing isn't bad either at only 59p per can! Personally I love them, so I thought I would share my find on my blog for those that are also looking for a non alcoholic treat. If you do want to try them then they're sold at Tesco along with the J20's and energy drinks.

Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

xo
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33 Weeks: Running Out Of Room + Running On Empty

How far along?: 33 Weeks.. 4 Days.

Maternity clothes: Nope, nothing new.

Stretch marks: Still the same as last week.

Sleep: Oh.. I am so tired. Week 33 is the week that has seen my toilet trips go through the roof and this does not stop at night. I wake up an incredible amount of times during the night with a full and very squished bladder.

Best moment this week: On Saturday your Dad and I spent the day off together and had a little play around with your car seat - putting it on the pram and learning how to use it. It's so tiny, I can already imagine you in there with a little blue blanket over you.