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Re-opening!

A Little Throwback Catch-Up!

As I mentioned in my last post I said that I'd be back to give you a little round-up of some of our going's on around here, from towards the end of last year to now as I've been away for so long! So here we go! Starting back at the end of October last year with our little girl's Christening. Which took place on what turned out to be a good day weather wise in the end considering the amount of rain that we'd had up to, and then after the day!

The organisation for the day itself started with her dress, which took me a while to find but that I fell in love with as soon as I saw! It was a traditional looking cream Christening dress with vintage affect lace, and was just stunning!

Thankfully I'd bought it in a bigger size in advance though not wanting to miss out, because as it turned out it took us quite a long time to get a date for the Christening. Then I matched it with a pretty white lace cardigan that she already had, and white lace shoes. 

Obviously we had a "Peter Rabbit" theme for the day too! With a "Peter Rabbit" cake which I designed with the help of a bit of inspiration from Pinterest, that was made by a local cake maker. We also had cupcakes courtesy of Sainsbury's that I then decorated with "Flopsie" bunny cake toppers that I'd made, and a lovely "Peter Rabbit" banner and balloons from Etsy sellers "Loved By Jacob," and "Emily Rose Ribbons."

It was all a bit of a mad rush on the morning of the Christening with me going to the venue to set up, and then rushing back to get ready and to the church on time. But thankfully it all went pretty smoothly, plus our little one thankfully settled for a nap with Daddy whilst I was out and so was all refreshed for her big day!

I wasn't sure what she'd be like for the Baptism itself as she can be a bit clingy, but she was actually very good, and then proceeded to sleep for most of the reception afterwards. So all in all it was a lovely day, she was very spoilt, and it was nice to get together with family and friends that we don't always see often.

Below you can see some pics of all of the bits from the day.

 

Not long after the Christening then came our daughter's 1st birthday, which I have to say came around so very quickly! It may not have felt it during those early months, but looking back the time really did fly by! I found myself feeling a bit emotional and reflective as it drew closer though, thinking about to how far we'd all come in a year, how life had changed, and how much our little one had developed in that time. From the clingy little monkey that I couldn't put down anywhere for months, to the cheeky, headstrong, clued up little character that we have today.

I had to work part of her 1st birthday as I couldn't get the time off, so we didn't do much on the actual day. But my mum popped around in the morning with a present and a balloon for her, and it turned out that seeing the balloon would lead her taking her first steps that afternoon. Plus the "Kiddy Moon" ball pit that we'd bought her from us also turned up, which she very much enjoyed playing in! 

Then on the Sat after her birthday we took her to the Sea life center for the first time along with my parents, which she absolutely loved! She enjoyed looking at all of the "fshhhhh" which she said for the first time, and looking at all of the lights and colors. We all had a lovely time watching her enjoy herself too, but did get rather drenched on the way home in the rather dyer weather that had developed at the day went on. 

Below you can see some pics from the day, and our little one enjoying herself.

The celebrations then continued into the Sunday, when my sister came around and we did her cake and some more presents. Once again she was a very lucky girl and was thoroughly spoilt by our loved ones. 

Fast forward a month and I kicked off the festive season by taking our little one to see Santa for the first time along with my parents and my Nan. It was a very spur of the moment thing that we decided to do whilst visiting our local garden center, as there wasn't a long waiting list. But of all the places to take her to see Santa for the first time I'm so glad that we took her there as it was so well organized, everyone was lovely, and it was a very magical experience. 

It started off by us being greeted by one of Santa's helper's, who was so lovely with our little one and more than happy to spend time talking to her. From here we were taken to a real mock-up steam train which  had TV's for windows showing snowy scenes, making it seem like you were traveling on a train to see Santa. Then once you "arrived" you were taken by another of Santa's helpers to meet the man himself, who once again was more than happy to spend the time with us. We also weren't made to rush, and they were happy for us to take, and to pose for photos. 

A bit like the Christening I wasn't sure how our little one would be with Santa. But having been well used to present opening by this point with both her Christening and birthday having been so recently, she was very interested in the little present that she was given by the elf, and even sat on Santa's lap too. Plus come Christmas Day we opened the present to find that of all things it was a little cuddly bunny! Santa's Elf's must have know we were coming! 

Below you can see a few pics from the day.

  

A little later in the month we then took her to see the Christmas light show in town, which we ended up going to see a couple of times in the end as she loved it so much! Again it was a magical experience, and she loved all of the colours and music, and was even quite happy to toddle off away from us. She did however enjoy it so much that she threw a massive wobbly when it was time to go! 

Below you can see a couple of pics from the evening.

We also had a bit of a "Peter Rabbit" Christmas this year, as I managed to find more Christmas paraphernalia of the famous little rabbit than I ever have done before including: My Charbonnel Et Walker Advent calendar, which I fell in love with and struggled to get, but thoroughly enjoyed devouring. "Peter Rabbit" Christmas paper, which again was gorgeous, and a "Peter Rabbit" Snow Globe and ornament. Both of which will be treasured and bought out each Christmas for us and our little one to enjoy for years to come.

Below you can see all of my "Peter Rabbit" Christmas finds!

Then just before Christmas we had our annual Christmas family meal. Whereas last year our little one was only six weeks old and in the baby sling, this year she was eating the food, toddling around, and trying to attack and take the decorations off of the Christmas tree.

Below you can see me putting the decorations back on the tree that our little one had been attacking, and her in her Christmas outfit. Plus her examining our Christmas tree in her Christmas pj's too. 

Then the big day itself finally arrived, for which our little one was up bright and early for! So much so that she ended up conking out around mid morning before she even got around to opening any presents! 

She did eventually wake in time to open the wooden pram from us though, before we then headed off to my parents for lunch.

She took her pram with her and looked so grown up pushing it around at my parents, even though she hadn't quite got the hang of steering and would get quite frustrated when she crashed into things! She also enjoyed eating Christmas dinner, opening more presents, and joking around at the dinner table with my Dad.

So all in all we had a lovely and special Christmas, which is what I wanted both our little one and us, as last Christmas went in such a blur with her being only six weeks old that we couldn't enjoy it as much. So this year was lovely, and even though not her first Christmas, it was her first proper Christmas. But it's true what they say the magic of Christmas is definitely there more when you have children. 

Below you can see Flo posing by the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve, and our little one giving "Flo Flo" as she call her, her presents on Christmas morning. 

New Year was then a bit of a novelty for me because I actually had my first proper night out since our little one's been born, and went into town to watch a rock tribute act with my best friend and her family, which were fab! Our little one behaved herself for Daddy too, which was also good! 

We had road tested it a few times earlier in Dec just to see how things went and she was good then too, so hopefully it means that I can now start having the odd Mummy's night out now and again!

It took me longer than most to be able to leave our little one of her of a evening though, as even though she's growing up fast and is nowhere near a clingy as she was, she is still very much a baby at bed time. She still feeds from me at night, and still co-sleeps with me too, which is something that I never thought that I'd do. I do get criticised for it, but at the end of the day it's not forever, it works for us, and I know how willful our child has been from the word go, that the cot is just not an option at the moment. But all the time that it works for all of us we'll carry on as we are. 

The main difference now though is that she's trusting Daddy a lot more, so if I get her to sleep and then give her to Daddy for the evening she'll generally stay asleep on him, or if she does wake up now she will rock back to sleep for him, which she'd never do before. Then to be on the safe side I'll also express some milk if I'm going out too, just in case he can't settle her back easily.

I have to say apart from wanting to get my illustration back on track, I do feel that I'm getting a better balance back between spending time with our little one, working, and gradually getting a little more time to get a bit of me back. Plus our cheeky monkey is at such a lovely age at the moment.

Then finally we had Valentine's last week. Which generally we don't make a big thing about, especially when it comes to presents. But since we don't get as much time together as a couple these days, we though that we'd make a bit of an effort this year. 

I was very spoilt with my hubby buying me a gorgeous "Lady and the Tramp" Pandora charm that I'd been eyeing up, as well as some "Hotel Chocolat" mint hot chocolate pouches for my "Velvetiser," and a "Hotel Chocolat" heart lolly. Then I bought him a sandwich toaster so that he doesn't have to keep using the toasty bags, and our usual M&S meal deal, which this year consisted of: Cheese and leek souflee's for starters, a pulled beef parcel with rosemary potato's and veggies for main's, and "Nut's About You" cheesecakes for dessert, with heart chocolates and of course Prossecco.

What also made it even more lovely was that we were actually able to chill out and eat our meal as a couple, which pretty much never happens these days! As our little one had settled to sleep in her pram for the evening, after having been worn out at Nanna's while I was at work, and had then fallen asleep on the way home.  

Below you can see the lovely bits that my hubby got me, and our Valentine's meal.  

So that pretty much rounds up all of the big events that have happened around here over the past four months or so! I hope that you're all having a good week so far, and thank you for dropping by as always! I'm currently aiming to have my illustration back up and running, and my cards on sale again for the beginning of March. Hopefully it will actually happen this time, so please pop by again soon! x    

Not the Best Start To the New Year!

Hello everyone, I hope that you’re well! Sorry that I've been rather distant for some time again lately! Once again I was hoping to have had my illustration back up and running by now, but due to demands of having a small child, a part-time job, and life just generally flying by, I haven’t really had the opportunity of late! Plus we also had our little ones Christening and 1^st Birthday to organise towards the end of last year, which then led us into the Christmas celebrations.

On top of that we haven’t had the best start to 2020, as I spent most of Jan quite ill with a horrible cough and chest infection which all stemmed from a Christmas cold, but ended up getting so bad that I literally had no energy to even pick up our little one, was wheezing, and couldn’t walk anywhere without having a massive coughing fit. It got very wearing, especially when I ended up setting off issues that I’ve had with my sciatic nerve for years. However thankfully it has now finally all passed! I’m just hoping that I can stay healthy for a bit now; as I think that I’ve gone about two weeks without a cough or cold since the end of Oct. Most of which I think is down to our little one still feeding and taking a lot of my immunity, as I’ve definitely been more susceptible to coughs especially since being pregnant with her, but on the plus side though she’s been absolutely the fine.

Unfortunately the same cannot be said for our little Florrie bunny though, as just over three weeks ago she stopped eating and drinking one evening. Now this does happen occasionally as I’ve mentioned in the past, and it does usually co-inside with a moult cycle (which she was heavily doing at the time.) We’ve never been sure why and neither are the vets, but we have definitely noticed a pattern there though. Normally at this point I give her tummy rubs etc to help kick-start her eating again, but this time when I got her out I could feel a big hard plum like lump behind her right front leg, which had literally appeared from nowhere! I had thought when I put her out for her run a few days earlier that I had perhaps felt something different, but on investigation I couldn’t feel anything so didn’t really think much of it at the time. Obviously this time though I freaked out, not only because of the lump and not knowing what it was or where it had come from, but also because I didn’t know if she wasn’t eating because of one of her moult “off days” or because of the lump. My instinct said that it was probably because of the moult and at that point the priority was to get her eating again, rather than stressing her and making her worse by taking her to the vets.

Thankfully this was the right decision and after a very worrying night I managed to get her to start drinking again after 12 hours, and eating a few bits of fresh food after 16. Then by the end of the next day she was fully back to herself, and eating, drinking, pooping and peeing as normal. I did however find another smaller and less smooth bump on her just above the last one and more towards the top of her leg/towards the side of her neck on this day. So again I panicked, and as she was now eating and drinking the emphasis was now on finding out what these lumps may be. I was worried sick and took her for an emergency appointment at the vets the day after. Obviously I was goggling away in the meantime to see what it could be, but in my heart of hearts I knew that it probably wasn’t going to be great news.

The vet confirmed that they did indeed feel odd, that they weren’t that uniform, and that the rate that they had come up was not good. He also said that on the positive that they felt like they weren’t in deep tissue, but he thought that he could feel another tiny lump behind her front leg on the other side too. However he couldn’t definitively say what they may be one way or another without doing a Fine Needle Aspiration, which involved taking three samples of the cells to be sent off for testing.

Florrie was so very good for this and barely flinched as they did it, but after having discussions with the vet as to the potential outcomes I understandably came away from the appointment pretty upset. We decided that if it was bad news that we wouldn’t go down the route of surgery as not only would the antithetic risks be high, and the removal of three lumps be too much for her. But at least one of the lumps was also around her lymph node area, meaning the chances are that would be that it would already be in her system, or that the lumps would re-occur. So instead we decided that if it was bad all the time that she was happy and eating we would go down the route of palliative care, and then pain management when it got to that point. Then again if it was good news then we would still leave the lumps alone all the time that she was happy and they weren’t appearing to bother her.

After an agonizing weeks wait, (during which time Florrie was back to her happy hyper self) I got a call with the results. Basically they came back showing fatty cell division, which in itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing as fatty lumps she can live with, but it doesn’t mean that the lumps aren’t covering an underlying problem. There is also a possibility that they could be sarcomas, which as much as I don’t want them to be I would say that from my research since would be more likely. Then the third theory of the vet is that it could be A-typical Myxomatosis, (which is a rare strain of Myxomatosis that vaccinated bunnies can get.) Where they present with lumps from the disease, but it isn’t life threatening, and the lumps recede in time. Which although would be the better of the two latter possibilities right now, I am thinking is less likely.

Ultimately though we wouldn’t know for sure unless they biopsied and fully removed all of the lumps, which as I explained before with all things weighed up, isn’t a route that we would want to risk putting her through, and the vet is also in agreement with too. Plus the idea of losing her under anaesthetic, in a stressful environment that she doesn’t know, and without us, isn’t how I would want her to go if the worst was to happen. So for now the course of action is just to monitor her and the lumps, see how she goes. The vet is also very interested in her case as it’s out of the ordinary so is going to keep monitoring her too, and will re-check her soon when her jabs are due.

It’s now been three and a half weeks since I found the lumps and took Flo to the vets and touch-wood so far she’s been completely herself, eating, drinking, and pooing fine, and even though it’s hard to tell when I’m checking them so often there doesn’t seem to be any change in the lumps, or anymore. She also doesn’t appear to be any pain or discomfort, which I know is classically something that bunnies hide, but I like to think that I know her well enough that I know when she’s not right. But like I say as it is she’s fine in herself, and  if I didn’t know that the lumps were there I wouldn’t know that there was potentially anything wrong. All I can do is hope that we stay on this track for as long as possible, hope and pray that it’s nothing bad, and cherish every moment that we have with her.

It’s all happened so out of the blue and so fast that it feels quite surreal, but I’d be devastated to lose her so young. She’s not even quite three and a half yet, and is such a lovely soul with so much life in her. I was also hoping that our one year old would be able to grow-up with her too, as she already loves her, feeds her, and says hello to “Flo,Flo, so she’s definitely notice if she was gone too. But we’re not going to give up on her, and will continue to give her the best life that we can.

Below you can see our happy little Flo and I in a pic that I caught of us on the off-chance last week, and as you can see she's still happy to give kisses! I don't usually post pics of myself, but these moments of use together seem even more precious to capture now.

Sorry that this hasn’t been a happier post, but as you’ve all followed Flo’s journey with us from the beginning I wanted to keep you updated. I hope that you have all had a better start to the New Year than us though, and as always thank you for popping by! I am planning on popping by with a few throwback posts of photos from Christmas and before over the next few weeks, and am also working on getting my illustration back up and running as we speak! X

Long Time No See!

Hello everyone, and as the title says long time no see! I hope that you are all well! I can't believe that it's been just over a year since I last blogged, and boy what a year it's been! So much has happened and changed in that time, way more than I could possibly ever put in a blog post, but I'll try to summarize, and it's good to be back!

I was never planning on having such a long break from blogging, but with the pregnancy, and then having our flat flooded (this time by our boiler) for the second time in July last year, life kind of took over! Most of my time from then on was taken up by me trying to get the baby's room sorted, as not only did I need to change it from a studio space to a functional nursery, but from where our boiler had flooded our long and packed cupboard all of the stuff that was in there had to go into what would be the nursery.

At it's worst the room was pretty much piled to the ceiling from my years worth of hoarding, all of which needed to be sorted through before the baby's arrival! That paired along with the fact that nothing could go back into the cupboard before months worth of the floor drying, led to many anxious nights of me worrying that I was never going to get everything sorted before the baby was born! Hence why I ended up having to stop blogging for a bit and put my Etsy shop on holiday for the foreseeable future!

Thankfully though I still had a fair amount of holiday to be used at work, which meant that I was able to add it on to the beginning of my maternity leave and finish work at 32 weeks, which was a godsend otherwise I would never have got everything done! I was also fortunate enough to have a pretty good pregnancy and was still feeling well and active right up until I gave birth, and because I had so much to do I never hit that I've had enough stage of being pregnant! It was more like please stay in there for as long as possible as I'm not ready for you yet!

It all worked out in the end though and I did get the nursery pretty much sorted in time, and the few bits that weren't just had to get shoved back in the cupboard for the foreseeable! Which is where they have remained ever since due to the demands of my small person!

It was also about this time last year that that we had our 20 week scan, and found out to our surprise that we were having a girl! In fact we were so surprised that I had to ask the Sonographer if she was sure, to which she replied that "unless it was hiding something I'm pretty sure it's a girl." To be honest though even then I still wasn't completely convinced until our little on one's arrival, as I had such an outward neat bump that we and everyone else were so convinced that it was a boy! Plus we kept hearing about stories about where the Sonographer's had got the sex wrong, and also there were so many boys in my hubby family! Not that we minded either way, but we were delighted to be having a girl! Below you can see our 20 week scan pic which I find so surreal to look at now that our little girl is here, as it's weird to connect that she was the bubba in the picture!

Our little one was then born at the beginning of Nov, three days before her due date, and weighing a healthy 7lb 9oz. Everything went pretty smoothly starting with my waters breaking at 7am, just as my hubby's alarm went off for work! My contractions then started an hour later and progressed well, with us being asked to go into hospital for a check-up at 3pm. By 4pm my contractions were really ramping up, but as I was only 2cm dilated and being that it was my first baby I was told that I'd be better at home as thing's could take hours. I really didn't feel comfortable going home though as I could feel that the contractions were getting stronger and closer together, was worried about misjudging coming back as the hospital wasn't particularly nearby, plus the weather had also turned for the worse that evening. I couldn't however have got out of the room even if I tried at that point though, and this was probably the point that I felt most out of control, but I managed to regain my composure and got out of there eventually! Leaving with a lollypop, like a child as my blood sugars were feeling low!

It did however take us an hour to get from the labour ward back to the car park as I was contracting so frequently, to the point that we had a nurse come up to us at one point with a wheelchair thinking that we were going up to the labour ward! We got there in the end though, but by this point I had decided that I wasn't going anywhere and that I didn't feel comfortable going home. So from there I proceeded to labour in the back of the car for four and a half hours until 9:30pm, at which point I thought that I might be 4cm dilated and that they'd take me in! Thankfully the wheelchair that the nurse had got us was still at the entrance to the hospital when we went to go back, so we managed to get up to the ward pretty quickly this time! Which was just as well because it turned out that to my, and I think the midwives surprise too I was fully dilated!

From here things should have been quite simple and baby should have been out in a few pushes, but no not our little one! Instead she decided to be stubborn and didn't want to come out! After two hours of pushing I was still feeling ok so the doctor let me go a little longer and gave me a drip to try and ramp up the contractions, but it did no good and if anything appeared slowed them down! The midwife said that baby wasn't stuck, that her head was there the whole time from when we went back up, and that she would pull her out by her ears if she could! But baby then started getting in distress which is when everything got taken out of my hands, and I was told that it would either have to be a suction cup, or forcep delivery, and that I'd have to have a spinal block. At this point I felt so disappointed as I'd gone so far on just a couple of paracetamol, and hadn't even used the gas and air, plus I still felt like I could go on, but the main thing was to get baby out safely.

Our little girl was then finally born via forcep delivery at 1:01am, eighteen hours after my labor started. But unfortunately as I lost quite a lot of blood afterwards and was very weak, I was unable to even hold our baby girl for the first few hours, so Daddy had to take over. Our little one was also battered and bruised after the delivery too with a blood shot eye, line down her face, and bruised eyes. The doctors were concerned about both her blood sugar and blood gas levels as well, which to start with they said was quite normal after a traumatic birth. But as time went on and they continued to raise and drop without them knowing why they became more concerned, so our poor little girl was up and down from special care whilst they investigated and prodded and poked her. All the while I was still very weak and not even able to get down to special care in a wheelchair to see her and find out what was happening, so I was quite a mess worrying about our baby girl over those first days. Eventually though they ruled everything out that could be causing it apart from an infection, so she was put on antibiotics through a canula 24 hours after she was born, which she stayed on for two and a half days until the cultures came back showing that it wasn't bacterial. Even now we still don't know what caused it, and probably never will, but the main thing was that they did the trick!

In all we were in hospital for four days before coming home, and in that time the ward went from being full to empty as other people took their babies home whist we remained. But we were later moved to a side room as we'd been there for a while. Luckily though I had packed everything bar the kitchen sink into my maternity bag, obviously not knowing at the time that we wouldn't just be in and out. But as lovely and amazing as the staff and midwives were I so longed to go home, not only so that we could start settling into life as a family, but also because I so missed my little Florrie bunny so much!

We got there in the end though and now nearly nine months on we have a beautiful thriving little girl who is just starting to crawl! I have no idea where the time has gone it's really just flown by, and in some ways I do miss those newborn days, as I feel like at the time you're in so much of a daze of sleep deprivation, adjusting and getting to know your newborn, and getting through the days, that you don't get to enjoy it as much as once they are that bit older and interacting with you. Plus they are so tiny and cute! But equally I wouldn't go back, as man those first couple of months especially were every bit as hard as I thought that they'd be, and even though I've helped out with a lot of babies and children over the years I don't think that anything could have prepared us parenthood!

Having said that from the word go we never had the most chilled baby! She's always been a little headstrong force of nature, and even from the beginning had so much character, a very strong neck and quite focused eyes for a newborn, and was a very clingy Mummy's girl from the off too! I don't know if this in part was due to her being separated from me quite a bit for the first few days where she was up and down from special care, but she's always known what she want's, and that's Mummy!

In the early months she constantly wanted to feed, and if she wasn't feeding she was either sleeping or crying with very few settled spells in-between, and at that point only vigorous physical rocking or the boob would sooth her! I couldn't put her down anywhere, or rarely give her to someone else without her screaming for Mummy! She also hated the pram base and the car, so for the first three months every car journey was a battle, with us always having to have someone in the back to try and sooth her. This generally involved trying to give her a dummy that you'd have to tap to try and get her to take, which she never did, but it was the only thing at the time that would sometimes marginally pacify her. But generally every journey from start to finish would involve her be inconsolable, the poor little thing!

This was until eventually one day when she was around three months old I went on a 20 min journey with my best friend to another friend's house, and I was dreading it as I knew that no one would be in the back with her as I didn't want to put my friend in that position. She was however amazing and we didn't hear a peep from her on the way there or back, and it was like she was a different child! I don't know if it was just an age thing or because we'd put the rear view car mirror in the back that day, but either way we'd cracked it! She's now been brilliant in the car pretty much ever since, and will generally fall asleep on most journey's, with a mixture of the movement and a bit of rock music!

With the way that she was during those few month's though, I honestly don't think that I could have got through without my trusty baby sling, which turned out to be one of my best purchases! It was one that I made before she was born thinking that I probably wouldn't make use of, but as it turned out it was invaluable! I first tried her in it on the off chance one day when she was around three weeks old as I was getting fed up of not being able to get off of the sofa in order to get the simplest of things done, and it was an instant hit both soothing and lulling her to sleep practically instantly every time! Like I say she never liked the carrycot but she'd sleep for hours in the sling if I went out for a walk, which was also nice as not only could I get a few bits done, but it was the only time that I got a bit of a break too! I think that it was a combination of the closeness and the motion that soothed her, perhaps in part because I walked a lot when I was pregnant. But either way it worked, and was a tool that I used for a good three or so months and still use in emergencies now too.

I do think that the breastfeeding definitely further added to our little one's clinginess towards me too though, and even now our little monkey is still a booby monster! But I am fortunate enough not to have had any problems with it, even though it didn't half hurt for the first month or so! It seems to have done her good though as up until we started to wean a couple of months ago she'd only ever been breastfed on demand, (as I was told that this was better for her and her blood sugar levels.) In-fact she fed so much in those early days that she'd only lost 1 percent of her birth weight at her ten day check, and is now a thriving little chunky bubba weighing in at 21lb 5oz!

Now nearly nine months down the line we are finally starting to make progress with her independence! Like I say she will happily fall asleep in the car or pram now, and is much better going to other people during the day as she feeds much less. Plus she will take an expressed bottle well in the day if she needs too. She will also go in her bouncy chair for a bit if she's not tired without her screaming now too, and I can even walk out of the room without her crying sometimes as well! Especially if I have our go to song "Baby Shark" on repeat on YouTube for her! Being on the move has also definitely helped too, as she will play with her toys and cause havoc now!

She's also getting better at going to Daddy in the evenings whilst I make dinner as well, or she'll sit in her highchair and watch me. Whereas up until about a month or so ago she would just scream from start to finish if she was with Daddy or anyone else whilst I was cooking, even if she could see me, just purely because it was coming into that witching hour where all she wanted was Mummy! It was all pure rage with very little tears, but it made dinner times pretty stressful! We did try and let her cry it out for a while with Daddy, but she was just so persistent that it just made everything more stressful for everyone!

We are also in a better routine now, so everyday tasks are getting a little easier to do! Although getting to have a shower, or being able to get myself ready properly are still luxury's, as well as getting any time to myself! Especially since she still generally feeds to sleep and naps on me during the day, plus sleeps with me at night too! Which was never meant to be part of the plan! But where she used to feed continuously through the night and only usually slept for very short periods in her cot, I used to take her into the front room to feed with the lights down. From there I used to try and stay awake, but as much as I tried I eventually gradually ended up falling asleep with her. So as we all got more sleep and she was more settled we ended up co-sleeping, and still do now! Many people criticize me for it, but she's slept through the night that way for months, and it works best for us at the moment so I'm happy to do it. But does mean that I can't leave her of an evening yet, and that I'm not getting to share a bed with the hubby, but for now it's a small price to pay! We will get her in her cot eventually, but there's plenty of time for that, and I'll do it when we're all ready!

So we do still have some progress to make, and she is still very much a Mummy's girl! But like I say things are definitely getting much easier now! Which is good, because I'm due to go back to work tomorrow for three half days a week at my little gift shop job! I can't believe that it's come around so quickly and I am looking forward to going back as I enjoy it, but I'm also torn about leaving her, as I haven't been away for her for more than four hours since the day that she was born! I think that it will do her good to have a bit of distance from me though, and for me to see if my brain still works for other things besides caring for babies! Plus she's going to be with my mum too who she know well, which makes me feel better about the whole thing! If anything I'm more worried about her playing up for my mum than leaving her, but hopefully it will all be fine!

Despite how hard it's been at times though, and how much life has changed, I do love being a Mummy, and it's so worth it! But it still seems surreal sometimes, and even now and I often sit looking at her in amazement thinking how lucky I am to have and to have grown such a gorgeous, cheeky, headstrong little girl! Obviously I am biased but my hubby and I do feel incredibly lucky to have her, and love watching her grow and evolve! Especially at the moment as she's at the lovely interactive stage where she's saying a few words, babbling, trying to get on the move, generally being cheeky, causing mischief, and making us laugh! She is also a very loved and adored Grandchild, Great-Grandchild and Niece, especially as she's the first on my side!

On the Flo front she is all good and has adjusted to life with a baby too! She got a bit scared when we first bought her home, especially when bubba cried, as I knew that she would! But she actually adjusted to her much quicker than I expected, and within a few days she wasn't even bothered about the crying. At first it was hard to fit in time for both baby and Flo, but I made sure that it happened and now we are in a good routine where Flo will come out for a run in the morning just as our little one needs a nap, so that way I can still spend time with her too! When our little one is awake and out with Flo on the sofa though it's so cute watching them together. We first introduced Flo to our bubba at three weeks old, and she's always been so good with her, sniffing at her but not going to close and being mindful to jump around her. In fact even when I was pregnant Flo who isn't the most graceful of bunnies when it comes to jumping all over you was so gentle if she did jump on my bump when I was pregnant, and often avoided it all together. It may just be me, but I 'm sure that even bunnies have a sixth sense when it comes to knowing these things too! Our little one on the other hand has now got to the age where Flo is very exciting to look and and touch, but she's not as gentle as Flo is with her so needs close supervision when stroking so that she doesn't grab at her! Below you can see the first pic that I took of the two of them together when our little one was just three weeks old!

In terms of my illustration work things have very much come to a standstill since the flood and our our little one coming along, and as I mentioned earlier my Etsy shop has been on holiday ever since. But now things are starting to get a tad easier, and as I'm starting to get little snippets of time here and there I am planning on re-opening my shop in the near future, and also have plans in motion for some new product lines too so stay tuned!

I hope that you're all having a good start to the week wherever you are and thank you as always for popping by and bearing with the long post! Especially those of you that have continued to stick by me during my long break, it really does mean the world to me! I am going to try and resume blogging more often again now, but it will probably be less frequently and more illustration based, and likewise with my Instagram and Facebook pages too! But thank you for your support as always!  

What A Difference A Few Months Makes!

Wow it's been four months since I last blogged, and what a four month they have been! So much has changed, and I have so much to share with you all! 

The last time that I blogged spring was nowhere to be seen, but is now in full flow, I was happy that I'd finally got up to speed with things, and I was planning on blogging more. However that all went out of the window a bit when on the 16th March, a week after I last blogged the hubby and I had the surprise of finding out that we were expecting our first baby! It was all a bit of a shock at first as even though we'd planning on trying this year the idea was to wait until July, by which time my 30th birthday celebrations and Download Festival would have taken place. But even so it was a happy surprise and was clearly meant to be!

So it turns out that I was actually pregnant at both the hen afternoon tea and Morrisey gig that I mentioned in my last post, at my second cousins wedding reception which was the day after I last blogged, and that Sunday which was Mother's Day.

Thankfully minus one small glass of prosecco I hadn't drunk at any of these events, or had any big nights out during that time! I also didn't really have a clue about it either! With my only inkling besides, being late (which sometimes happens anyway,) being the fact that I'd felt so awful for pretty much that whole week before, which I'd had off on holiday from work. As from the day I was due until about four to five days later I had horrible cramping, which was unusual to go on for so long with nothing happening. Then it seemed to pass just leaving me feeling bloated and not fully myself, which is how I felt for both my second cousins wedding reception, and Mother's Day. I did however still enjoy both events.

Below you can see some pics from my second cousins wedding which took place relatively locally at a gorgeous country house. A lovely evening was had by all, and it was also nice to catch-up with family that we don't see that often. Plus whist there we also got to meet my second cousins sister's little baby boy, who was born just ten days before the wedding and was just gorgeous! His mum also did very well to make it to the wedding and be a bridesmaid for her sister, considering how recently that she had had a baby, and considering that he was born by c-section!

 

Then below you can see some pics from Mother's Day too! For which we went to my sisters flat, were she cooked a lovely roast and I made some butterfly muffins for the first time, which turned out pretty well considering!

 

So like I say as nice a time as I had at both my second cousins wedding reception and on Mother's Day, I did feel pretty bloated and horrible! However I didn't actually do the test until the following Friday, by which time I was ten days late. As even though I'd never been that late before I still wasn't convinced that I was pregnant, mainly due to the fact that I'd done other tests in the past that hadn't come to anything, but where I'd been much more convinced that I was. So more than anything else I did the test just to rule things out! But low and behold there I was standing in the kitchen as the horizontal line came quickly followed by a vertical one that just got darker and darker, and as it did so I just remember thinking oh, oh, oh, as it got darker and darker and as I became more and more surprised! There was no doubting the result as it couldn't have been a more positive if it tried! 

I then proceeded to break the new to my hubby who was ironing his shirt ready for work at the time, which went something along the lines of;  Me: "I've done the test!" Hubby: "and you're not pregnant?" Me: "Umm no actually, it couldn't be more positive if it tried!" Hubby: Surprised laughter followed by "Well you'll have to take me to work now, I can't go and get the train after that!" Followed by more laughter. There were then a few brief tears from me as I showed him the test which were partly happy, partly shock, and partly sad knowing that I wouldn't be able to go to Download Festival or celebrate my 30th as I had planned. 

Since then everything has been a bit of a whirlwind and roller coaster ride all in one! We told my parents from day one as they knew that I was late anyway, and were over the moon as it will be their first grandchild, plus they'd been longing for us to have a baby for quite some time! They also said that my hubby looked so happy like the cat that had got the cream, which was pretty ironic considering that I was originally the one persuading him to try for a baby this year!

Below you can see our very positive pregnancy test, and the flowers that both my parents and hubby bought for me/us.  

 

In terms of how I felt in those early days I would say that from the five and a half weeks at which we found out, until we had our twelve week scan were the times that I have found the hardest so far, not only physically but more mentally. I found that my mind was all over the place from day to day, and even though I'd a test telling me that I was pregnant I didn't want to get too into the idea until I knew that everything was ok. Which was mainly due to my awareness of friend's experiences of just how many things can go wrong. 

I would find that depending on how I felt on the day that I would go from convincing myself that I was pregnant, to I wasn't, to thinking that there was something wrong with me. As I had read about causes of false positive pregnancy results, and missed miscarriages etc. But I think that I just didn't want to get my or anyone else's hopes up until I knew where we stood. So I found it very odd when we had first appointment at around seven weeks that they just took my word for it that I was pregnant, and just really wanted to know what hospital we wanted to have the baby at! Which is a pretty big decision to make when you're still getting your head around everything and don't even know that all is ok!  

The same went for the booking-in appointment too, (which I had to go with my mum as my hubby annoyingly couldn't get the time off of work.) Again I still didn't know anything at this stage but we spent a good few hours with the midwife filling out pregnancy notes and giving family histories, urine tests, and having my first ever blood test. Whist all the while I 'm thinking all of this could be for nothing as we still don't know if everything is ok yet! I kept saying to my mum that everyone tells you how rubbish you are going to feel in the first trimester (which they aren't wrong about,) but no-one tells you how much those first weeks drag and how in limo you feel!

On the physical front I found that how I felt would vary from day to day. I found the bloating and cramping of both my back and stomach difficult at the beginning. I even remember saying to the hubby after picking him up from work one day when I was around seven weeks pregnant that I'd decided that I'd had enough of being pregnant already lol! To which he replied that I still had a long way to go yet! 

In terms of sickness nothing really kicked in until a round week nine, but when it did I found that it would mainly come on in the evenings and would co-in-side with a coughing fit. Which was due to lingering cough that I'd been left with after having had a cold just before I was pregnant, and where my immunity was lowered I just couldn't shift it! I certainly didn't have as bad a sickness as some though! Aside from this I was just very tired and had no energy most of the time, finding that I'd go to work and just want to come home and sleep after! So I'm glad that I'm now working part-time at my little gift shop job rather than at my old retail job, as I think that I would have really struggled with the physicality and the hours there! So I have been listening to my body and taking it easy where needed, hence why even though plenty of orders have been going out, my blog, other social media outlets, and my Bobby Bunny and Friends work has suffered of late! 

I also noticed a lot of other symptoms in the first trimester including feeling the cold more, which apparently is due to your blood pressure dropping at the beginning. Shortness of breath when walking, which apparently is due to your body getting used to the increase in blood flow. Good or bad smells making me feel nauseous, especially over-ripe bananas, and the yeasty smell of bread. Loss of appetite especially in the evenings, finding that I would have to graze rather than have big meals. I have also tried to eat healthy-ish, but have found that that's easier said than done when you feel rubbish! So I've mainly just listened to what my body wants, and have not been eating for two, as I don't want to get any bigger than I have too! One positive change that I've noticed though is that my nails are a lot stronger and shinier than before.

Aside from that the main physical change has been how quickly my bump has grown! As at six weeks I couldn't do up my trousers, and at eight weeks I had to go shopping with my mum for trousers altogether! So needless to say it got hard to hide until the twelve week mark too!

 

We told my hubby's mum and step-dad our news on Good Friday, when I was seven and a half weeks pregnant and after they'd come down to take us out to lunch. As you can imagine like my parents were very happy too, and there were even a few tears from my mother-in-law! As despite the fact that she has a number of grandchildren already she's wanted one from her eldest son for a long time! They're exact reaction was that they were getting a bit worried that we would ever have children lol!

My hubby then told his dad and step-mum at their Easter celebrations on the Saturday whilst I was at work, and we then told my sister and her boyfriend on Easter Sunday at my parents. We weren't planning on telling them until after scan but my parents didn't like lying to her as she had guessed a few times, and both they and I had to put her off the scent!

Again they were very happy to be becoming and auntie and uncle for the first time, and we decided to announced it to them via Easter egg as you can see below, along with the lovely roast lamb that mum cooked us.    

  

 

On the Friday following Easter Sunday we had the hubby step-brothers 40th birthday fancy dress party, which was the first party that I'd had to attend since finding out I was pregnant. I wasn't sure how I would feel or how long that I would last being how tired I was at the time, and the fact that we would have to rush to be ready and get there after work. However we had a lovely time, and I actually managed to last the night and didn't feel too bad at all. The main issue that I had was trying to find fancy dress outfit that I could wear that would cover up my eight and a half week bump! The theme was things from has past, so as he was born in the 80's I dressed up as an 80's wild-child and just puffed/covered bump with a tutu. Then the hubby wore a very florescent green shell suit, which weirdly rather suited him!      

The Saturday after we then actually had our first proper spring weekend after all of the snow and rain of late, the last of which we had on 17th March the day after we found out that I was pregnant! So since I actually felt more like myself for the first time in weeks and had a bit more energy, the hubby and I decided to make the most of it by going for a nice little walk and some lunch. 

Below you can see pics of our last snow flurry of the year, as well as a few pics from our walk; including the daffodils that were finally in flower, our pub lunch, and the church where we got married. At this point you can see that the trees were still to gain their leaves!  



On the way back from our walk we bumped into my best friend and her husband and ended up telling them about the baby. The plan wasn't to tell her until my 30th birthday celebrations which were to take place a couple of weeks after, and where I was going to tell all of the girls together. But as we don't often see her and her hubby together when my hubby and I are together too it seemed like a good time to tell them! They were both so happy for us, if not a little shocked as they knew about my 30th celebrations and Download so didn't really see it coming!

By the following week I was now ten weeks pregnant, the weather was still on the up, and spring was finally looking like it was here to stay! I was hoping that all of the sunshine would help get rid of the hacking cough that I was still struggling to shift, but that didn't happen, and still that hasn't up until now!

Below you can see me enjoying the sunshine with my warm honey and lemon! 

On the following Saturday I went down to my Nan's with my mum to tell her the good news too! Again I wasn't planning on telling her until after our twelve weeks scan, but we had such a busy few weekend coming up that I knew that I wouldn't be able to get down and see her again anytime soon otherwise. She was so happy when I told her though and nearly jumped out of her chair she was so excited, as again she has been waiting sometime for her first great grandchild!  

After telling her the news we went into Chichester for brunch in our usual cafe, followed be a spot of shopping. Then as it was another nice weekend with the leaves finally beginning to appear on the trees, and the blossom in flow. We went back to chill in my Nan's garden for tea and cake, which was just delicious as you can see below, along with the pretty blossom tree that lies outside of our bedroom window. 

The Sunday then bought the first of my 30th birthday celebrations! Which consisted of a lovely meal with the family at a local country pub followed by cake back at my parents, where we spent the afternoon chilling in the garden as it was another lovely sunny spring day. But as nice as the weather was it did prove a little tricky for me to find summery clothes in my wardrobe that would hide my more and more noticeable bump! So in the end I settled with a floaty floral maxi dress with a cardi over it. But all in all I had a lovely day, was thoroughly spoilt, and even had a tear bought to my eye by my sister who'd got me a card which she had put lots of photos in from when we were younger and then annotated. 

Below you can see a few pics of my birthday roast, yummy fondou dessert, and macaroon cake.

  

The day after was then officially my 30th birthday, and what a special day it was for both the hubby and I! As after weeks of waiting we finally gave in and decided to go and have a private early scan. Partly so that we could finally find out what was going on, and partly because we had a lot of people that we needed to tell that weekend and so wanted to make sure that everything was ok first. I wasn't sure whether it was a good idea to do it on my birthday or not in-case there was something wrong, but as it was the only day that we both had off that week it seemed like a good time to do it. It did mean however that we ended up having to travel a little way by train for it, as the lady that I had booked it with only came to our local surgery on a Wednesday. It was a nice little adventure for us though, and so worth the time and money!

Once we were there and had eventually found the place we waited briefly for our appointment filled with anxiety, excitement, and anticipation. To be honest I was half expecting her not to find anything despite my growing waistline, but as soon as she put the ultra-sound on my stomach she instantly found our baby!

It was both an amazing and surreal experience seeing bubba for the first time and how well formed and active it was at only ten weeks and six days! But also weird how it could be so active when I couldn't feel anything! Whilst there we also got to hear baby's heartbeat too, which again was amazing and so clear! I was meant to be staying still during this part, but I was so taken aback by hearing it that it made me chuckle, which made it look like the heat had stopped beating on the machine! We also got loads of photos to take home which was lovely as we wouldn't have got so many at our twelve week scan, and we also got a couple of amazing videos too, which again we wouldn't have had the opportunity to have otherwise. They are amazing to watch as in the first video you can see bubba hiccupping and waving, and in the second you can see it wiggling around from behind.

After the scan we then let our parents know that all was ok, before making our way to the pub for a non-alcoholic drink to celebrate, look more closely at out photos, and relax and let it all sink in! I did find that I got a few cramps after though from the pressure of the ultra-sound, but they soon passed thankfully.

On the way to the pub we also passed a little gift shop, where in the window they had some gorgeous wooden Peter Rabbit bookends which we just had to buy for bubba! It was a little early to be buying anything really, and I wasn't planning on it, but they were just too gorgeous to miss!

After the pub we then made our way back on the train to our neck of the woods and went for a little celebratory meal! So all in all I had a lovely 30th birthday, even though now being both 30 and pregnant does make me feel rather old!      

Below you can see bubba in our first scan, followed by the videos of bubba, and the starter from our celebratory meal after! Hopefully you can see them, but if not you may need to enable/download Flash Player.

During the week we then phoned up the hubby's brothers and sister to let them know about the baby, to which their reactions were quite amusing. With two not believing the hubby and needing confirmation from me as he can be a bit of a joker, and two saying that he would have to grow up now lol! They were all very happy for us though if not a little surprised!

That weekend was then a pretty busy one for us, with not only our nephews 10th science party, but also both my 30th birthday celebrations with the girls, and another friend's 30th birthday BBQ!

Our nephews birthday took place on the Saturday afternoon, so I spent the morning getting the flat ready for when the girls came around that evening. At our nephews birthday party itself it was lovely to see and catch-up with the hubby's family and brothers and sister, as it was the first time that we had seen them all since breaking the baby news. Plus it was nice to have the cat out of the bag, and also meant that I didn't have to try and cover my bump as much!

After we rushed back so that we would be home in time for the girls to arrive for my birthday celebrations, which had been organised way back before I was pregnant! The original plan was that I'd booked a limo to take us all down to Brighton so that we could party the night away at a rock club that we'd previously been to for another friend's birthday. But obviously once I found out that I was pregnant I wasn't sure how I'd be feeling so I did consider cancelling, but I knew that the girls were all so looking forward to it that I didn't want to disappoint them. So in the end the plan stayed the same minus the fact that I wouldn't be drinking.

Once all of the girls arrived I announced the baby news to them all (minus my best friend who already knew,) by explaining that there had been a slight change of plan for the evening, and that everything would be staying the same accept the fact that I wouldn't be drinking, before then presenting them with the baby scan photo. Again they were all pretty surprised but so happy for us and luckily none of them had guessed either, as the dress that I wore showed off my bump a little more than I was hoping! One of the girls was also a bit late so it meant that I was running about trying to busy myself and cover it until she arrived too! In the end was glad that I didn't cancel though as we all had a fab night, being sober wasn't so bad, and surprisingly enough I lasted until the limo came and picked us up at 1:30am, and didn't feel too bad at all!

Below you can see my birthday cards along with our baby scan photo that I left out for the girls to see!



The next day I could have done with a bit more of a lie in, but we had one of my close friends 30th birthday BBQ celebrations. Plus we wanted to tell him and our other friends there about our baby news in person, as I mentioned in my previous post that they had told us about their baby news earlier in the year. Plus another couple of friends to be there had also told us about theirs the year before.

Again they were all very pleased for us, and one of our friends even said that they'd been discussing with their hubby the day before that they had suspicions that I may be pregnant! Their little girl will be one in July already, and my friend whose birthday it was has a wife who is due in July. As well as  this my hubby's best friend's wife's baby is also due in July too, so it will be nice to have other babies around for ours to grow up with. As well as friends going through the same thing, plus we have a number of other friends that already have children too.

So we all had a lovely time at the BBQ catching up, but I was knackered by the time that we left!

Luckily though even though we were busy, the hubby and I had from the Thursday of the following week off up until the Bank Holiday Monday which was lovely!

Firstly on the Thursday we finally had our official twelve week scan! This time I felt a little more relaxed being that we had already had once scan, even though I do always get a bit apprehensive before hand in-case anything's changed. Thankfully though all went well, despite the fact that bubba was being and awkward little monkey for the measurements. As firstly it was too active, then it was lying too close to the bottom of the uterus for the measurement of the fluid on the neck, and then whilst they were trying to get this measurement it fell asleep in this position, as well as leaning in slightly when they needed it profile. So they had me shaking my hips about trying to get bubba to wake up, were rocking the ultrasound about on my belly to encourage it to move too, and then just as they were going to get me to go for a walk bubba decided to play ball!

The fact that baby was being awkward did mean that we were able to see it on screen for a good half an hour this time though which was nice. We could also clearly see all of its limbs and organs, its little 1cm foot, and it's little heart beating away this time too, even though we didn't hear it. But it was quite reassuring to see it beating away, and know that all was still OK, especially when it went to sleep! Bubba had also grown another 2cm in the ten day since our previous scan, meaning that it now measured 6.6cm! It's no surprise really though as both my hubby and I are quite tall, plus my dad's 6ft 4! 

Getting past the twelve week scan hurdle also meant that we could finally tell the world about the baby rather than just close friends and family, which my parents were happy about as both my parents, but my dad especially was desperate to tell everyone! Plus it also meant that I didn't have to hide my bump anymore, which meant that I had a bit more variation back in my wardrobe again!

Below you can see our twelve week scan pic, and just how much bubba grew and changed in the ten days from the last scan!



After the scan the hubby and I then went off to the cinema to watch the new Avengers movie, but just prior to this we got a call from one of the hubby's brother's asking us how the scan went. We told him that it went well, and he said that that was funny as him and his wife were at theirs too! So it turns out that they are due with their second the 9th November, just a day before us! What are the chances! We'd only seen them the week before at our nephew's birthday party as well, and you would never have know that his wife was pregnant, and there I was all wale like already lol! It just goes to show how different pregnancy can be for each person's body though! But it will be nice for our bubba to have another little playmate to grow up with! I did tell my mother-in-law that she should be careful what she wishes for though, as she wanted more grandchildren and is now going to end up with three in one year after the hubby's sister had hers at the beginning of the year!

On the Friday the hubby and I then went to see his favourite band "The Manic Street Preachers" again. This time it was at Wembley Area, a venue that we hadn't been to before. Again the tickets were bought before I found out that I was pregnant so I wasn't sure how I would feel and get on, especially when it came to travelling back on train when tired, which is something that I'm not always great with regardless of pregnancy! However it was the journey there that I felt worse after, as I think that I'd got a bit tired on the train and was a bit hungry. We ate once we got there though which helped wake me up a bit, but then I think that I ended up eating a bit too much which made me feel just as awful! So I didn't feel great at all when waiting for the tube, to the point that my hubby noticed an offered to turn back, but I pushed through as I knew that it would pass and it did. So by the time that we got into the venue I felt fine, and we both had a lovely evening. We even managed to get the last train back as the gig didn't finish too late which was good, plus I was kept entertained by some people singing on the train which stopped me from getting tired and travel sick!

Below you can see a few photos from the gig!



 

After having a bit of a lie in on the Sunday we met up with some of the hubby's friends for a catch-up and bite to eat at their favourite pub, which was lovely as I hadn't seen them since finding out that I was pregnant. It was also at this point when I noticed how much my second blood test had bruised my arm. I usually bruise like a peach anyway, but the first didn't so I didn't think much of it. The second hurt no more that the first either, in-fact probably less, and apparently I have good veins, but as you can see below it definitely bruised!
 

The day after was then first of the May Bank holiday's, and what a scorcher of a weekend it was! We also had my sister's birthday meal, for which we went to a local steak house, before again going back to my parents to chill in the garden and have cake. It was a lovely relaxed day, and below you can see a few pics, including my gorgeous pork belly main.

  

The Tuesday then involved more food when I went for afternoon tea at our local tea room with my mum, sister, aunty, cousin, and mister's friend and her little girl. We had such a lovely time as we don't all meet up together often, and it was another scorcher of a day too. Below you can see a few pics, and the unicorn theme that they gave us this time!

On the Monday of the week after next I unexpectedly had our pram turn up, which wasn't due to arrive for another good month! Luckily I was in, as it turned up in different parts at different times during that day. We weren't planning on getting it so early on but I fell in love with it, and as it was a limited edition, plus was on promotion at the time we didn't want to miss out on getting it or saving money!

I was so desperate to get it all out and put it up when it arrived, but I resisted the temptation as I didn't want it getting dusty or dirty, plus I knew that the hubby wouldn't be very happy if I put it up myself! So instead I just got it out to make sure that all of the bits were there, and then put it all back in the box again. Even now I have still resisted the temptation to get it out so its currently still sitting in it's box in our front room.    

The Saturday of that week then bought the Royal Wedding, and another friends 30th birthday celebrations. So I went around to my parents in the morning to watch the wedding with my mum and sister, as I knew that the hubby would just moan through it! Plus mum put on a little tea party of snacky bits for us including; egg mayo and salad sandwiches, cheese balls, and strawberries and marshmallows! I also got to enjoy my non-alcoholic wine that I'd been saving after I got from my sister-in-law for my 30th birthday.

Below you can see a few pics from our little tea party.

After the wedding I then dashed off to catch the train to Brighton for my friends 30th, where we enjoyed a lovely meal in cool and really quirkily decorated restaurant, before then working our way around numerous bars in Brighton and ending up at our usual rock bar. It was such a lovely afternoon/night, especially we don't get to all meet up and go out that often anymore now that the birthday boy has three children. It was also nice as by this point I was fourteen and a half weeks pregnant, and in the couple of days leading up to the night out I finally started to get this regained energy that everyone kept telling me that you are meant to have in the second trimester! So much so that I was still full of energy when we got the last train back whilst the others were flagging, and since then I am pleased to say that I have had no sickness and have felt pretty much back to my normal self. So much so that I don't really feel like I'm pregnant despite my growing bump, and still regularly wake up thinking that it's pretty surreal than I'm pregnant!

Below you can see a few pics from our afternoon/evening in Brighton including the yummy food, and pretty sunset that we had. 

  

The weekend after was then the second of the May Bank holiday's, and once again it was a scorcher of a weekend! Much better than forecast too, with us narrowly missing out on the heavy thundery showers that many had! I was working on both the Saturday and the Monday of that weekend as I was needed for cover, but on the Sunday we went to the hubby's dad's and enjoyed a family BBQ. Which was lovely if not dare I say it a little too hot for me, as I'm not a massive sun lover as I've mentioned on here in the past!

Below you can see the gorgeous sunset out of our  bedroom window that night. 

On the Friday of that week the hubby and I then went around his brother's for a last minute curry and catch-up after work. Which again was lovely as we don't often meet up as just the four of us, although I was pretty knackered!  

Since then bump has continued to grow at a rapid rate, but has thankfully slowed down over the last couple of weeks! Which I'm kind of glad about as I've still got a long way to go and I'm going to be huge otherwise!

Below you can see some pics of my bump progression from eight to sixteen weeks!

Then on the first weekend of June we had one of my illustration uni friends wedding reception, which was held at a gorgeous manor house in Eastbourne on the most glorious day! It was a lovely relaxed affair with children running around in the gardens and playing with giant garden games, a lovely hog roast later in the evening, and an amazing rock band for everyone to dance the night away too! We all had such a lovely time, and it was so good to meet up with the illustration girls, as we don't get to see each other much now as we are all dotted around the country. In fact the last time that I saw them was nearly exactly a year ago to the day of the wedding, which was for another of the girls wedding's.

As it turns out she is now also pregnant with her first baby too, and is due three weeks after me! So there is definitely something in the water at the moment! Again though you wouldn't have even known that she was pregnant unlike me, but she is pretty tiny! Whereas I was there with a noticeable bump, and struggled to find something to wear! In the end though I took a risk though by ordering a dress that I'd my on for a while, which I just had to get as it had bunnies on it and it was now in the sale too! I did have to go up a couple of sizes so it was a bit big in places, but it fit well enough, was comfy, and at least gives me growing room to wear it again!

Below you can see a few pic from the gorgeous day, as well as some pics of my bunny dress!  

On the night of the wedding the hubby and I then stayed along with the illustration girls in a lovely guest house, which was just a stone's throw from Eastbourne seafront. So the next day after breakfast the hubby and I went for a little walk along the seafront, which was lovely as I haven't been to Eastbourne since I was tiny and the hubby had never been! It was also another glorious day weather-wise, in-fact so much so that you could have been mistaken for thinking that we were abroad from the photos!

Below you can see a selection of the photos including a bunny that we found that someone had drawn in the sand, plus a few pics of some of the features from around the guest house including; the Alice In wonderland prints that we had in our room, a bunny doorstop, and some of the cute animal ornaments that they had outside of the guest house.

The hubby and I then had the following week off of work together, which was lovely as we don't often get time off together. In fact the only reason that we both had that week off was because I should've been going to Download Festival with my friends as usual, and the hubby had taken the week off to look after Flo! Thankfully I found out that I was pregnant before I bought my ticket though, but as happy as I am that I'm pregnant I was pretty gutted not to be going. This was especially so as even though I go every year, the line-up was typically the strongest in years this year, plus they typically had amazing weather for a change too which I knew would happen! My main disappointment was missing out on seeing Gun's N Roses headline on Saturday as I know that I would have been able to see them much closer than I did last year, but at least I have seen them. Then the other disappointment was not getting to meet up with all of the Download family, many of which we only get to see once a year there, but never mind it wasn't meant to be!     

Instead we had a mixed week of both busy and quiet days. We were meant to be starting to get things sorted with the baby room as it's currently my craft room and is going to need a lot of clearing out, but we didn't really far with that. Instead we ended up doing odd jobs, going to visit my mother-in-law and had lunch out with her, had a 17 week baby check-up appointment, which all went well and for which we got to hear the baby's heartbeat again, went out for a meal together, and had some girly time with my mum and sister, as well as some down time, and time to catch-up with some illustration bits. So all in all it was lovely but all went by very quickly as always!  

Below you can see a couple of photos of both one of our main meals out, and one of the yummy desserts!

The following week the hubby and I were then back at work again and then that weekend was another busy one for us, with one of our nephew's birthday's and my hubby's best friends wife's Baby Shower on the Sat, and then Father's Day on the Sunday. So after whizzing around town in the morning I dropped my hubby off at our nephew's party, before making my way to the Baby Shower and then went back to the party again later. 

The Baby Shower was a lovely chilled affair, with a pink theme as the baby is going to be a girl. It was all arranged, organized, and held at the house of the mum-to-be's sister, and she did such an amazing job of hosting. Everything looked so pretty with organza bows on the windows and doors, a beautiful cake, and lots of yummy pink themed food, as well as a few games! A lovely time was had by all and it was nice to catch-up with not only the mum-to-be as I hadn't seen her since she'd been pregnant, but also the wives and girlfriends of some of the hubby's other friends, and to chat with new people too. Below you can see a few pics from the day. 

Father's Day was then a pretty chilled affair as my dad had recently had an eye operation, so we just chilled in my parents garden eating posh dogs out in their new summer house. Then retired to the front room where we spent the rest of the afternoon watching Finding Dory.

Last week was also another busy one as we currently don't have a supervisor at work, so I'm having to pick up more hours than I would like in my little gift shop job at the moment. Which I don't mind as I do enjoy it but I'm finding it more tiring currently, especially if I'm on my feet all-day. Plus it does mean that I end up falling behind a bit with my illustration work. 

Exciting things also happened last week too though! The first being that I now know for sure that the little flutterings that I'd thought I'd been feeling for the past few weeks are def baby! I first had an inkling that I'd felt something a few weekends ago, but wasn't sure. Since then though I have been feeling the sensation more and more every day, and after a bit of googling too it definitely sounds like it baby! It started off with me mainly feeling an air bubble like sensation, but too low down for it to have been air bubbles when I was lying down in the morning or evening. It also started of mainly being in the same place, whereas now I will feel it still quite low down but at different points across my stomach and now during the day too. It's a very strange feeling but reassuring too! I thought it may freak me out a bit a first, but I as the movements are only subtle so far it's not been too bad or alien like!

Then secondly we found out that my brother and sister-in-law are having another little girl, which my hubby and I guessed would be the case!

This weekend just gone was another scorcher filled with both a busy as quite day. Saturday was pretty chilled as I was knackered after working all-week, plus it was so humid that I just felt the most tired and ratty that I had done in a long time! We did venture out in the afternoon to pick up a new bathroom storage unit though, which is all part of our preparing for baby preparations!

Yesterday was then filled with both a BBQ and another Baby Shower! So I dropped the hubby off at his friends for the BBQ and to watch the football, before I made my way to the baby shower. This time it was for my friend's wife, the couple who I had mentioned earlier that had told us that they were pregnant towards the beginning of this year. Again it was a lovely chilled affair held at my friend's parents house, on another scorcher of a day. Thankfully it wasn't half as muggy as the day before though, so it was lovely sitting out in the shade of their patio for the afternoon playing games, catching up with friends, and chatting to new people. I even won one of the games which was the baby in the ice cube game, the idea of which was to see who could get the little plastic baby out of the ice cube first using any means accept for crunching it. So I just massaged it in my hand until the baby popped out! I wasn't however so good at the pin the dummy on the baby game, which I failed miserably at as usual! Again fun was had by all, and below you can see a few pics from the day! Unlike the previous Baby Shower though this one had quite a neutral theme as they don't know what they are having, but I have an inkling that it's a girl.     

 

On the Flo front our little monkey has generally been both her usual mischievous and lazy self! We also have seemed to have finally turned a corner with the pearly poo's issue since changing her food and getting the Furminator brush which is a relief! I haven't found any for months now so hopefully we have nailed that one on the head and it will stay that way! Likewise touch wood we haven't had any more funny turns from her since the last couple that I mentioned which again is a relief and likewise will hopefully stay that way!   

Aside from this we had one trip to the vets back in mid April for her VHD2 jab and nail clipping, which always get nervous about regardless of the reason for taking her as I never know how she's going to react and worry about her getting stressed. In fact I think that it probably stresses me out just as much if not more than it does her, but this time being that I was ten weeks pregnant this time I did try not to get too worked up!

As usual she was a little angel when it came to the jab but the nail clipping was a drama as usual, and by the time that we had got home she was dribbling and huffing and puffing as usual! She was however much better than some of the previous occasions that we have been, which I think had a lot to do with the vet we saw. We had seen him once in the past and she was much better with him than the female vets and nurses that we have seen. I think that she likes that he's quite confident and calm with her; either that or she just likes a male vet! Either way I think that we will try and ask for him each time we go; especially now if it makes it a less stressful experience for her and it turn me too!

The vet also said that she is a tad on the podgy side now weighing 2.36kg, when ideally she should be 2.2kg. I'm glad that he told me though because it's so hard to tell with her as she is so slender and skinny on her ribs, but has always carried more weight on her tummy. I had noticed that she was struggling more to eat her  caecotrophes more though, and hadn't been the best when it came to keeping her bum clean either. I also know it's probably due to the fact that I'd been slipping her a few more treats than usual after her previous funny turns, as she looks so skinny when they happen. But no more treats for Flo, she's on a bunny diet! 

Aside from this we have of course had a couple of bunny dramas though, with the first being with her food!

It all started last time I took her to the vets I picked up two bags of the new adult Burgess food that she's been on for a good few months now, and which I have been mixing in with her Burgess baby bunny pellets. On opening the first I did think that it smelt stronger than usual, but just thought that maybe they had changed the recipe or something. But after using the bag for a couple of weeks I noticed that Flo's appetite for pellets having dropped somewhat, with her taking most of the day to eat her morning pellets rather than them being gone in five minutes as usual. I didn't really think much of it at first as the vet did say that she was a tad on the podgy side last time we went, so I thought that her reduction in appetite maybe just down to her needing less food where she's now fully grown, or just where the weather had been warmer. Plus she hadn't gone off any of the rest of her food. But on going to feed her one evening I spotted a triangular pellet in with her food that both looked and smelt like a cat pellet! Thankfully I noticed it before I put the bowl in the hutch, but who knows what damage it may have caused if she had eaten it. So needless to say I was none best pleased and discontinued the use of the pretty much full bag of food, moving onto the other bag that I had. 

Again I used this one for a few weeks but her appetite didn't seem to return, and then once again when I went to feed her one evening and found yet another, this time square pellet in her food! So again I was pretty horrified to find that this had now happened with not only one, but two bags veterinary recommended and market leading food! Thankfully I had noticed before putting the bowl in again, and had also kept the previous bag of food. Which on checking the back of both bags it would appear were both from the same batch. So off I went to our local pet shop this time to find a bag from a different batch, which this time was clearly better as Flo's appetite for pellets came back fully instantly, so she could obviously sense that something was wrong with the other bags!

After a bit of research I found that Burgess produce a number of feeds for all sorts of animals including meat containing products, which they clearly use the same production line for. I also found other instances on bunny forums going back all the way to 2009 of people finding contaminated pellets within their rabbit food, which makes me wonder why it is still happening all these years on! So I did write an email to the company but didn't end up sending it in the end, as when I took the bags and the offending pellets back to the vets that I had got them from they said that they were going to get in touch with the company directly for me. So hopefully we won't have any further incidences, but I have to say that I have lost my faith in Burgess a bit. But equally it wouldn't do Flo any good to suddenly change her to a different brand either, not that there are many other options these days. Hopefully no other bunnies were harmed by eating them either as it was obviously the batch that was dodgy, and as the vet said not all owners may have noticed.             

Below you can see a couple of pics of the offending pellets next to the normal ones. 

 

Aside from this the other bunny drama that we had was about a month ago after Flo had been out on the sofa for her run as usual, but it was as I went to put her back that I noticed that she'd had little peeing accident on the sofa which she does very occasionally. However this time it looked much redder that usual, so naturally I freaked out thinking that there was blood in it. But I checked her bum and it looked fine, I cleaned it up and it didn't look as red on the kitchen roll, plus I have kept an eye on her pee in the hutch over the last few weeks and touch wood it seems fine. So I'm hoping that it was just a particularly potent orange pee, as it can make bunny pee look quite red sometimes. It did give me a scare though as had it been blood that would probably have signalled something awful, especially since she isn't spayed yet. Which is something that we were planning on doing once the weather warmed up, but now I 'm pregnant I don't think that I could take the stress right now!    

In other Flo news we also had to take her log tube out of the hutch and it's now only allowed under adult supervision. This is due to the fact that despite having had it in there for a good year now causing no harm at all, she decided that the day that we were going away to Eastbourne would be the day that she would learn some new tricks with it! As up until this point she'd always liked going inside it and lifting and moving it with her nose to where she wanted it, but more recently she's been lifting it higher with her nose and dropping it on her back feet. Then on this particular day she somehow managed to partially push it on its side so that it was leaning against the hutch. Luckily I noticed before it fell back on top her because it's not the lightest, and would have caused some damage if it had fallen on her head! So I put it back where it should have been, but then she decided to try and push it down the ladder and then tried and go down the ladder with it stuck there! Silly bunny! So we decided that it was safer all round to take it out when we weren't going to be there, and whilst nanny was looking after her! 

Below you can see when Flo tried to put her log tube down the ladder, but it wasn't safe enough for me to get a pic of it partially on it's side. Plus you can also see some other pics of Flo from over the last few months!

 

 Flo watching "This Morning's" bunny feature over Easter

 

Many photos of Flo being her usual lazy self!

 

Flo being so lazy that she can't even be bothered to get up for food, and looking very proud of herself after lining up her toys in her litter spot!

  

Flo enjoying the sunshine!

 

Flo enjoying basil from daddy!

Flo sticking her bum out of the bars, and Flo with bedhead!

In other animal related news I seem to have made friends with some ducks over the past few months, who now regularly come quacking under our kitchen window to be fed. There's generally one female and usually three males, although sometimes there are two and once there were four! So she's one popular lady! One of the ducks I have named little outcast duck, as one of the other males doesn't like him and will peck and chase him if he tries to eat with the others. So he always holds back until the others are done and then has his share of the food. Then yesterday the hubby actually ended up having to go outside to try and break them us, as bully duck had little outcast duck in a full-on head lock! So I do feel a bit sorry for outcast duck, but I suppose its just nature's hierarchy and he seems to like hanging around with them. 

Below you can see my little ducky friends including little outcast duck on the right, and then holding back from the others on the left.

 

On the Bobby Bunny and Friends front I have had plenty of orders steadily going out lately, plus a month or so ago I completed a new piece. This time it was a commission for a nursery wall art frame. The brief that I was given was that they would like a Mummy bunny and a Daddy bunny holding a baby bunny. I ummed and erred a bit to start with as to how I would get both the Mummy and Daddy bunny into the composition with the baby bunny, but I got there in the end and you can see the results below.

So that finally pretty much brings you up to date with the many goings on around here! As for this week coming we excitingly have our 20 week scan, so hopefully all will be well and we'll be able to find out the sex of bubba! I'm not fussy either way but I've been convinced from very early on that we're having a boy, and most others seem to agree with me, but we shall see! I can't believe that we are at the half-way point already though as it seems to have gone so quickly since the 12 week scan!

Thank you so much if you have kept with this post as I know it's ridiculously long! I know that I keep saying that I will blog more often and I will, I just haven't had the mindset or energy to blog until recently with all of this pregnancy malarkey going on! It really does means a lot to me that you all still drop into read my little blog though, and I hope that you are all keeping well! x