(Week 35 – 35 days to go) – Let me outta here!

Now that we can count down in days, we know it’s really about to happen. I am fairly calm and very excited, and cannot wait to meet Little Lara. Lara is extremely nervous now, I think because she has got her driving test out of the way (Lara passed her driving test. While she was very pregnant. What a woman! Wahoo), she now has just the due date to aim for, and so all her thoughts and worries are about that.

We’ve started making the final purchases and plans ready for when Little Lara arrives, and I think, I hope, I pray, that we have everything we need and everything ready for her. I’m sure we’ll find out if we haven’t. Not only have we had to get all the things she will need ready, but we have had to start thinking about her Christmas presents, and Christmas outfits. At one stage she was set to have about 20 different outfits on Christmas day, but I think we’ve now got her down to a more sensible 3… for now.

We welcomed a beautiful little girl to our family this week, my cousin Stefan and his girlfriend Stef (yes, Stefan and Stef) finally got to meet their little girl, Isabella, after she was about 2 weeks over due. And talking to Stefan about how he’s feeling has just made me even more excited about meeting Little Lara. I struggle to concentrate sometime, just because I’m so excited.

Lara has said she is now ready to ‘get this thing out of her’ – she means that in the nicest possible way I’m sure. But she really is starting to get quite limited as to what she can do. Traveling, sleeping, sitting, standing, eating are all becoming pretty awkward, so I can see her point. Pretty sure Little Lara is ready to come out now too, she has been punching around in there, trying to force her way out so that she can properly hang out with everyone, instead of just being stuck inside Mommy’s tummy listening to everyone talking about her. How rude we are!

Lara had another Midwife appointment last week, and was told everything is still good, and going to plan – which is the exact news we wanted.

(Week 34 – 6 weeks to go) Our journey

6 Weeks to go, wow the time has flown by! I can still remember, vividly, the moment me and Lara found out we were going to be parents, and seeing that little blue line on that little plastic stick. The feelings that flooded my head, the excitement, the fear, the utter confusion of how we were going to do it.

I still have all those feelings now, but I also have been able to find a lot of answers to the questions I was asking myself. Either by asking other people, reading books, or just working it out in my own mind. I still have hundreds of questions going through my head, but I’ve pretty much accepted that’s how it will be for some time to come.

To think that this journey will be ending soon, is crazy. The fact we’ve almost made it through our full 40 weeks, is so incredible, and we really could not have made it without the love and support of all the friends and family around us. It reassures me so much, knowing that we have so many people close to us that are happy and more than able to help us. This little girl will have such a huge extended, loving family as well as her own amazing family, just like me and Lara both had when we were growing up, and it worked pretty well for us!

Obviously when this journey ends, a whole new more incredible journey will begin, Little Lara’s life! And that is going to be one hell of a journey I’m sure, and the responsibilities that come with that are huge, but they are responsibilities I cannot wait to take on. I am 100% convinced that I am as ready as I will ever be, to take on this exciting challenge. I can’t wait to meet my new best fried, and to introduce her to all her family and friends and to show her all the new things that she will get to discover for the first time. I even had a chat with Hugo and Dusty (Hugo is Mum and Dads dog, Dusty is my Cat that still lives with Mum and Dad) and got them prepared for the new arrival, and warned them not to get too jealous. They didn’t seem too interested, Hugo was more worried about wiping his dirty wet mouth on my jeans, but at least now he can’t say I didn’t warn him!

I was talking with my Mum today about plans for when Little Lara arrives, and about Christmas, and it just got me so excited. Not only can I not wait to meet my little girl, but I can’t wait for everyone else to meet her. I can’t wait to see her Uncle, my Brother Nick to be holding her, or for my Dad to be playing with her on Christmas morning. It’s going to be great!

Lara’s Dad has also booked his flights to come over and visit his first Grandchild at the end of January, which is so exciting. I can’t wait for those guys to meet. I have no doubt he’ll be telling her lots of his amazing stories, even when she is only a couple of months old. It will also mean that we’ll have another pair of hands around the house for 10 days or so, which I am imagine will be incredibly helpful at that point, as I will be well and truly back to work by then, so Lara will be more than happy for the help.

All is well with Lara and baby. Little Lara has stopped pushing up behind Lara’s ribs now, and just seems to be wandering around and exploring her first home. I guess she wants to make the most of the nice warm stomach while she is still in there. The braxton hicks contractions have calmed down a lot in the last few weeks, but Lara did have some nasty ones on Friday that made her feel a bit rubbish, but you would never really tell. Lara has been fantastic through this pregnancy. I have no real idea how it all feels, but from what I’ve read, it is very uncomfortable for a lot of the time. But Lara has very rarely complained, and has just got on with it and looked after herself and Little Lar perfectly. She is going to an incredible Mom, I will have the most amazing family!

Here is a video update from a very pregnant Lara:

(Week 33 – 7 weeks to go) I have to be quick

Sorry, it’s going to be a very quick update, I had to go to work this morning, help my auntie move out her house this afternoon and I’m now cooking dinner. Phew!

It’s been a good week for all three of us, little Lara has been kicking away at her Mom all week, we even think she was having a disco at some point, the amount she was moving!

Sleeping is now very uncomfortable for Lara, she just cannot get comfortable. And if she does, it doesn’t stay that way for very long.

I hit an odd stage this week, I shall call it the unbelievable stage. I suddenly found myself thinking about me being a dad, and I just couldn’t picture it, I could not imagine me being a dad and having that responsibility. I think it’s because I just don’t know how it will feel and how I will feel. Hopefully it will all go relatively smoothly!

I have no video for you this week im afraid, but I’ll do my best to get the bump back in front of the camera before next week!

(Week 32 – 8 weeks to go) Shower time

Nerves, excitement, fear, joy, worry are just some of the feelings I’ve had this week. 2 months does not seem like a long time to me, as my brother said, 2 months is the kind of time frame we used to count down to our summer holiday as kids, and that went pretty fast. He isn’t wrong, we did used to count down from about 2 months, and it did go pretty fast. But something tells me these 2 months won’t go as fast.

We’re very close to reaching the point where Lara will have some sort of appointment/check-up every week, and I think that’s going to make t really slow down for me, because instead of having this one major goal to aim for, we will have all these little ones to get too first. I guess I’m just being impatient, I just want to meet this little girl now. I had started to believe that she would be early, as that is what everyone was saying, but now I’ve changed my mind, and I think she will be a lot like her Uncle Nick, she will come whenever she is ready, and nobody will be rushing her!

It’s so funny that this little person, inside Lara’s tummy, is causing so much excitement for so many people, she already gets so much attention, and none of us have met her yet! She really is going to be so well loved when she arrives, not just by her parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, but by all of our friends, family and beyond!She’s one lucky little lady!

Lara had her baby shower this week, which was organised by my Mum and by Auntie Fern, and it was hosted at my Auntie Caggy’s house. It sounds like Lara had a really good day, and so many amazing gifts were given to Little Lara, she’s already way more fashionable than her parents! We can’t think everyone enough, for all their presents, we are just so so grateful!

Speaking of presents, Little Lara got another one from Amy, Matt and Levi, which you can see me put together in the video below. Thanks for the bouncing chair Amy, Matt and Levi, we love it, and we know Little Lara will too!

(Week 31 – 9 weeks to go) “Stop talking about me!”

So Little Lara can now hear pretty well, so well in fact that whenever we talk about her, she gives Lara a nice big kick to let us know she can hear. She even did it last night when we were talking with Lara’s Mom on Skype. It’s so funny. She also responds if you poke the bump, which is a lot more fun for me than it is for Lara. The other time she likes to kick a lot is when Lara gets in to bed and go to sleep. This is apparently because in the day when Lara is walking around, the movement slowly rocks Little Lara to sleep, so when Lara finally starts to rest, Little Lara is wide awake and starts her exercise. A lot of the time this make Lara jump, which in turn makes me jump, which keeps everyone awake. I guess it makes good practice!

We got more gifts sent over from Lara’s best friend Amy, her husband Matt and their little boy Levi this week. They have been so generous, I think it’s mainly because Lara having a baby has given Amy a nice excuse to shop for girls things. But one of the gifts she sent over were some socks for Little Lara, which are probably, the softest, cutest, BESTEST socks in the world. Ever! I am getting me a grown up pair!

We also got another surprise present from Lara’s Mom, this time she sent us a rocking crib, which is absolutely perfect. It’s much smaller than her cot bed, so it means we can fit it in our room for the first few weeks, so we can help settle her in to her new non-womb life. I had a little practice yesterday of taking her out of the crib and passing her to Lara, so she can feed her. I pretty much nailed it, this parenting lark is easy! Well it would be if babies acted like teddy bears, I’m not sure they do though.

I have another video for you all, of the lovely, beautifully pregnant Lara. How gorgeous is she looking? She’s my Yummy Mummy!