144.

It's school holiday, so that means one thing; Neighbour kid upstairs is running about all day on the wooden floor, not letting us sleep. Sigh.
Anyways, at least we got out of the flat, walked all the way to Lou's, helped her doing some shopping and was chilling at hers for a bit.
Haven't seen my nephew Alfie for ages! He looks much happier since he had his operation. He also seems to be remembering me, and knowing who I am, finally. Didn't even cry on me but gave me flirty little giggles.
He is definitely a boobie man, I had him on my lap and he went straight for them, doing the 'Honk honk!' and pulling my top off, giving me cheeky grins! Swear Lee got a bit jealous haha!

We got a couple of baby seats too, both can be used as car seats, so that's sorted as well. Also, they will come handy when we want to put her down a little, I mean it's better for her to sit and rock away in one of them, instead of laying in the travel cot, staring at the ceiling.

143.

Just hit me the other night that I haven't even had a proper look into the nationality question. For some reason I thought our baby would automatically be registered both as British and Hungarian. Well...
Since Lee is British and she'll born here, I assume she's going to class as British, straight away?! I very much hope so though, can't find many references, Google ain't my friend.
- So first of all have to have her birth certificate sorted in the Town Hall with official proofs (Hospital papers I reckon?!) of who she is. Hope it goes easy and quick, and won't have trouble of proving who her father is and shit like that. (I know Lou had problems with this and Alfie's last name, cause she was in hospital and couldn't sign the official papers.) I think the registration and what not is about £10-20 so can get away with this one.
- Then we have to apply for her British passport, which wouldn't yet be 100% necessary if we didn't want to travel back home within a few months or years. But we do. So that's another £50 which is O.K. but apparently a full British birth certificate doesn't always count as a proof, so they might need Lee's passport and/or certificate with a written proof of him being the father.
- To get her Hungarian nationality we need to sort out a Hungarian birth certificate for her, which takes about 3 months. The translation and checks which needs to be done on the original costs about £65.
- She's only able to get a Hungarian passport if she has a Hungarian birth certificate, and the passport costs about £40.
It's all a massive madness, lots of running about and paper work, ridiculous! Not to mention that most institutes (For example when we apply for benefits straight after her birth, for a passport, the council, the embassy and so.) doesn't approve a copy of her birth certificate, but only the original document to be sent by post... Now what if it got lost?! Is she not going to exist until I pay hundreds to get a copy (!) of the original from the Town Hall?! Jokes.
Thought it'd be something like going to the Town Hall with the hospital papers, Lee's and my ID, and that's that, she has a joint nationality. So naive.
Anyways, what I'm going to do is register her as British, get her passport sorted and within time I get her Hungarian certificate done too. From then on we might as well apply for Hungarian passports and IDs for her if we could. Not cause it's cool or would really matter, but cause it's cheaper, if I'm right.
To be perfectly honest, I wouldn't even care about her nationality, I mean just think about it... I'm here for years now, not very much bonded with my country and actually curse myself for not sorting my Home Office papers out cause if I did I could already have applied for becoming a British citizen.
I mainly want to do this for her. I don't want to be the reason of not giving her a chance if she wanted to go and fuck off to Hungary for a while or for good.

142.

Halloween is coming!
Done bit of a face paint rehearsal yesterday, and today me and Lee done our first ever pumpkin in our lives! Obviously it has a cheeky baby face, and had to add a cheap dummy too!
Now we can say for sure, we both are absolutely ready for parenthood and all it's tricks. Mummy is responsible for face paints, daddy is responsible for the pumpkins. Simples.

141.

Since I had trouble falling asleep on the sofa last night, and kitty was all over me again, craving cuddles, I did a little research on the how and whys on animal's behaviour around pregnant people.
Turns out I was right, they do sense that their owner is pregnant, well, mainly the changes in their mood caused by the hormones and of course changes in the movements cause of the weight gain.
Apparently it's more obvious with dogs, they not just become more careful around you, like not doing the silly jumping thing on you and so, but become more protective as well. I can't obviously know this cause we don't yet have a dog, but sooner or later...
About cats, they usually just become friendlier and following you around. Which happens with PuddyKat as well. When I'm with Lee, she usually just fucks off, does her own thing, but when alone, comes and snuggles up to or next to me, lays on my side or by my feet (Never on the bump! Just stares at it.) and watches both the room and me, making sure I'm safe to go asleep. Aww, wish she stayed like this after too.
I reckon her behaviour would've been more conspicuous if she was an older cat or we got her earlier, before I got pregnant.

140.

We officially can't sleep together with Lee anymore.
I'm getting too big, and love my space anyway, and he's either snoring or can't sleep and fidgets, waking my light sleeper bum up.
Yesterday it was his turn on the sofa, after snoring in my ears for about half an hour or so, today it was mine since he was twisting and turning around awake too much and I got pissed off. Also, he's going to an airsoft war today, so I had to let him sleep in the bed. I'm a good girlfriend, I like to think haha!
Even though falling asleep on the sofa wasn't the easiest and took me about 2 hours, and only snoozed for about 5 hours, I have to tell, I had the sleep of my lifetime. Slept better down here than upstairs in the bed lately. (Shouldn't really mention it out loud though, otherwise Lee will take advantage on it, hah!)

And this dream! I was on our sofa at the first stage of my labour with my nan next to me whom had to go to work around past 02pm, just when I managed to figure a way with my oils and a squatting weird position to make my contractions stronger. Since I knew now how to control them (Inhaling oils made me push, otherwise I was calm and cool as a cucumber.) I told her to go, while I was waiting for Lee to arrive.
Change of scene; I was in a birthing pool in the middle of a double decker, where usually the prams are, surrounded by my friends. Kept trying to hold the baby in but by then she really wanted to pop out. Lucky that Lee arrived this point, I made all my mates to get off of the bus so it was only the two of us and that's that, I woke up. And again, the labour bit and pushing pains weren't at all bad, more likely just a little uncomfortable and exciting.
I'm thinking and reading of giving birth lately pretty much every night before bed, so this must be the reason behind it. Not complaining though, especially not after a good dream like this.
I'm way too excited, and can't wait to go in to labour finally!

139.

We had a nice baby chat this morning when Lee got in from work. I like these little talks and planning with him, good to know that he's just as excited as I am, and we are mostly on the same opinion. About pretty much everything, but especially when it comes to our daughter.
I for example mentioned of reading about how unhealthy is carrying the baby outwards.
It apparently fucks her spine up, having too much pressure (All her weight basically.) on her bum and down bits, and of course she wouldn't be able to snuggle up to us if she got scared by a noise or a view. Until reading the above, wasn't quite sure the Manduca we got was a right choice, cause it's only for carrying the baby inwards (Least it holds her in the right M shape aka frog position.), but knowing these, I'm absolutely happy. At the beginning she probably will be sleeping most of times when we are out, on my front, between the gazoongas. Later on, when she gets heavier, I'm going to carry her on my back, and this will give her the opportunity to peek out from above my shoulders, but still giving her a chance to rest her head and fall asleep if she had enough of the world.
Lee said, he has a feeling that we won't really be using the pram, unless we are taking her out in the park, or for longer journeys, when going to see friends for example, so she can sleep in it's travel cot.
He actually said, he's looking forward of carrying her around, and that they are going to look bad ass together, haha! One sexy bloke, with one sexy baby girl attached to him. What else could I wish for?!
When I told him about sleeping with our girl and to spend as much time with her as I could, he told me about his friend's little one whom has ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.) which basically means the kid is attention seeker. He said people's children who are likely just to leave them in the cot all day long, even when they're awake, grow to have ADHD.
People still tend to do it, cause have a -'Why to cuddle the bubba when she's not crying?' mentality. Now imagine the beginning of your life, just staring at the ceiling all day long, wanting to see something else and you can only achieve it/your pops to pick you up if you started to cry. It's just wrong! I mean, why to have a baby, if you don't want to spend time with her?! (Post 29.)
Discussed, that probably even though if we were just to watch telly or sit around in the living room, will have the lady on or around us. We agreed on not wanting her next to us, but with us. And that's how it supposed to be.

I also want to be out with her as much as I can. Laura mentioned the idea of taking her to Winter Wonderland. Bang tidy! I haven't either been yet, so it's going to be a new experience for both of us. I would want to wait around 5-6 weeks after birth though, cause around this time is when babies start to be able to see things, not just a big mess of colors. Even though she'll be tiny, I know she'd enjoy it, the smells, the excitement and the entire Christmas vibe.
That doesn't mean I don't want to go out with her in the first weeks; I probably will take her to the shop with me, or over the park, just to do little introduction journeys to the outside world.
Oh, this made me remember what I read the other day about newborns...
I have a feeling that our girl is going to have blonde hair, but regardless what colour she's born with, it can change within the years. So as her eye colour! Apparently most babies born with blue eyes, which usually changes in the first 6 weeks. Lee said it probably has something to do with pigmentation and that babies are basically in the pitch dark for 9 months, so they and their systems need to get used to the daylight, it's effects and what not.
So true, still it's something I didn't really think about before. Either way, Lileeva will have nice big blue eyes, just as her mummy and daddy.

138.

Finally been discharged from the hospital! For a while, from it's antenatal clinic...
No more seeing horrible obstetricians after today though! She measured my belly and checked her heart and said all is fine, so only a thyroid test to be done on her after the birth, but that's a different department's job.
The heart check was a bit freaky this time, cause she couldn't hear it at first, she tried to listen with two different machines and at the end had to get the tiny monitor scan thing to have a look at it. My little girl was back to back that's why we couldn't hear it, but was clearly visible that her little drum was beating, so I calmed down.
She didn't order an induction but agreed on going into labour naturally, and told me even though my lazy pea is head down, she isn't yet engaged. I kind of knew that already, cause she's pushing my lungs big times and I don't feel those sharp ish pains down there lately, but I've written about these already.
The thyroid doctor said to continue my dose of medication after birth too, and go back in 8 weeks time, to see what's going on in my system, after the lady is out. Luckily it's on a different, endocrinology part of the hospital not on the antenatal anymore, so no more crazy screaming kids to be listened to. Yay!

I've been thinking and reading about sleeping in the same bed with the baby lately. And basically, about sleeping habits of mums and babies.
A note of pride; The past two nights I slept without my earplugs, only put them in around 08am. That's when the upstairs neighbours wake up and start to walk about, banging their elephant bodies to the floor with each step. Anyways...
We obviously have a Moses basket, right next to my side of the bed, but I still have decided to make Lileeva sleep in the bed with me, if she wanted to. I don't really want her to get too used to sleeping with us, and knowing that both me and Lee are starfishes when it comes to sleep (Meaning; The double bed is small for us. No lies.) I'm only going to have her next to me 4 nights a week, when Lee is at work. He usually gets home around 08am, and have a feeling we'll be awake by then anyway, so it should be alright. Even if not, I'm sure daddy will find a way to snuggle up next to us.
The rest of the nights I'm going to put her in the cot, which is going to be next to me, so can look at her and touch her whenever she needs me.
People and midwives say the baby shouldn't sleep in the same bed with it's parents, since they can roll over and suffocate her... Bullshit much?!
Here are the benefits:
- Parents (Especially mums.) have a special bond with their babies, so not just impossible that they don't wake up when roll over 'onto' their bubbas (Which pretty much never happens.) but they usually wake up during the night a few seconds before their babies do.
- Babies wake up throughout the night cause they are either hungry or scared/uncomfortable. They usually don't start to cry straight away, just reach out to feel the mum and/or the boobie, pretty much the only things they know and are comfortable with. These things make them calm down and fall back asleep straight away. They mostly start to cry if they woke up in the cot, lonely in the dark, scared, wanting the parents attention. You can't blame them, can you?!
- In their first year apparently their little brain don't realise how big the world is around them either, so for them only that exist what they see and feel around them. I'd be screwed if all I saw all the time was the white ceiling... This can cause ADD as well, but that's another story.
- All the above means, even though the baby wakes up at stupid o'clock, wanting boobie, the mum most likely to be awake a minute or two earlier anyway, so can help the baby onto the jug and both of them can fall back asleep after the baby has finished yumming away, or even during! This let's mama rest properly, which can't happen when she's woken up and jumped out of the bed by loud crying. Then so have to go and get the baby from a different room, feed her and make her fall back asleep... This progress takes ages and while it's done, the mum wakes up properly, so no surprise she turns into a zombie daytimes.
- Also, after 9 months of closeness and physical support, apparently babies' systems and organs need about 6 months to start and work properly by themselves. Makes sense really. That's why some newborns 'just die' when asleep; They forget to breathe, and since their systems don't work like ours, don't know how to 'restart'. As weird as it may sound, sleeping next to the parents and hearing them breathe, make babies breathe too... Kind of like an unconscious support, they need.
- It also makes them calmer, and better sleepers in future, they don't think of going to bed as a bad or scary experience, like it happens with other people. I was clearly a cot baby, waking up all the time and not being able to sleep in the dark cause being scared of the shadows. (I'm almost 25, and not afraid to admit it. Then what?!)
Nature again, and it's beautiful ways. Pretty fucking awesome I think.

137.

Yes, I sorted every bits of baby stuffs out. And I do mean everything.
Again; She has so many clothes! Me and Lee are sharing two corners together, for let's say 3 years worth of clothes each. She has her own two corners, for only 3 months of clothes haha!
But I'm done, and finally everything seems to be on it's 'right' place. Upstairs there are her little grows and rompers and a couple of bibs next to the Moses basket. These pretty much take over all the place, so all her 'going out' outfits (Like skirts, tees, jeans, socks and hats.) are downstairs with the bibs and most of the baby blankets, after all this is going to be the place we're spending most of our times. Also sorted a space for changing, and the bottles and sterilizer. Not sure I'll be using them though, I mainly plan to breastfeed.
It all sounds pretty easy, but isn't really... Have to think like she was already here and what where would come the handiest. Pretty mindfucking really, especially cause I still don't feel she's ready to come.
On another note; I've been out and about today, walking quite a lot.
Went to the hospital first, to get my blood taken, then to do some shopping.
Bought a couple of oils first of all, only jasmine and rose though, cause the rest smelt like hell. Bit disappointed though, they didn't have neroli which I was looking forward too smell wise... Imagined orangey?!
Then went to do the Christmas shopping for Lee. I know it's ridiculously early but my due date is getting closer and wanted to get over with it, before the bubba gets here. Not quite sure I would want to do mad shopping trips with my newborn in December's peek time. Alone, as well, cause Lee wouldn't be able to come with me, would he?! Hah, so smart!
Anyways, it didn't turn out as good as I hoped it would. Simply seems like whatever he wanted is not on sale... Anywhere! So after 4 hours of traveling and walking about I came home and ordered everything online. I did make the effort though.
I also have plans of going for a little walk over the park with Laura tomorrow, then the hospital trip on Wednesday gets me out of the house too.
Trying to keep myself busy and mobile until I can. As well as sick of not being able to sleep til late so just sitting around bored in the flat all day, when the weather is finally nice and cold.

Oh, that's another thing! I made it hard for myself, massive issue; I became addicted to sleeping with earplugs. Even though it's quiet, I can't fall asleep without them, which I will suffer when our girl is here. I mean, I do wake up for pretty much everything even though I have them in, I still don't trust in myself. I know I'll be awake pretty much all the time, regardless our baby is asleep cause I'll be too worried, so if I do pass out I don't want to have earplugs in, in case I wouldn't wake up for her crying or something.
Still have a few weeks to work on the freestyle free-ear sleep, but so far no luck.
By the way raspberry leaf tea seems to be working, maybe? Every time I have a cup I feel bit of a period pain thing going on, just further up, in my 'belly' where the contractions will appear. Hmm, let's wait and see what is this all about.

136.

We got another couple of bags, full of baby clothes. I've been trying to sort and fit them to the 'baby corner' but it's impossible.
We are running out of space, we have too much stuff for her to be worn in the first 3 months and none for after, we have a drawer of premature gear which I'm not sure whether to bag and put aside (Hello week 37.) or just leave in case she turns out to be tiny. Lee doesn't really help either, why would he?! He doesn't even fold and put his own clothes away...
I got pissed off way too easy with the situation, which gave me a massive headache, so it's time for bed I reckon. It's one of those things, which you feel inappropriate to take out on or to even mention to others, but bugs you to hell, so rather just walk away from everyone and curl up on your own, with your huffs and puffs.
Maybe tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow I'll get them sorted somehow. (Hah, course I will.)

135.

I'm feeling like an angry little dragon. This heartburn is getting ridiculous, simply drinking water boosts my acid on some enormous levels. Not to mention some of the foods; I had a tiny (Ehrm...) slice of lemon cake this morning and couldn't even have half a cup of my tea after, cause I was spitting fire... Instead I'm having my second glass of milk. Not fun.
O.K. I probably should be more careful of what I'm eating, but I've never been too worried about crazy cravings, after all my body and system knows what it's lacking off, right?! That's what it is all about; The baby takes so much of certain vitamins or as it happens sugar, that I need to increase the intake. Simples. Now how am I suppose to do it, if everything I ate leaves me in agony?! Moan.

Been sorting my music for labour. It's harder than I thought! Don't want anything too fast, nor too slow, so I went on selecting house, minimal tech and progressive psy mixes. These still are pumping a little, but can be listened as background music, just as be focused on and to get lost in if I wanted to.
Just to make it even harder, I know of myself and that I won't be bearing high pitch in music (It does sometimes annoy me yes, I'm a bass girl.) so it doesn't leave me with many choices. Of course I have to be prepared what if I changed my mind and rather listened to chill or ambient music. So those shall be on the list too. Decisions!

Been looking into how to use essential oils during labour as well. Not quite sure about the method yet though.
The easiest way is to put a few drops on a tissue which can be thrown away if not anymore needed or if I got annoyed by the smell.
Also can be used as massage oils, a few drops to be mixed with a base oil; Which I assume can be fragrance free baby oil too? These articles only mention almond oil as base for some reason.
And of course the burner, which I don't have and wouldn't even be able to use in the hospital (Cause of the tealight.)
Oils:
- Clary Sage: Relieves tension, brings on labour, helps with expelling afterbirth. Also known as the 'natural gas-and-air'.
- Geranium Rose: Enhances circulation and is good for labour management techniques which focus on breathing .
- Jasmine: Dulls uterine pain, strengthens contractions, promotes birth and increases milk supply. Excellent when mixed with lavender and a carrier oil of Evening Primrose and Vitamin E for perinial and cervical massage.
- Lavender: Dulls and eases uterine pain but also increases the strength of contractions while calming the mother. Great for reducing stretch marks.
- Myrrh: Speeds labor, opens cervix.
- Neroli: Reduces fear, tension, insomnia, apprehension and anxiety.
- Rose: Cleansing effect on the uterus, antidepressant, softens ligaments; Easier to open pelvis to push for larger babies and smaller mamas.
- Chamomile: Proven to reduce the need for anaesthesia.
- Ylang Ylang: Reduces anxiety, shooting and calming. Helps lower the blood pressure.
- Geranium: Great for the circulation and helps breathing. It helps to balance the mind and emotions, while stimulating the adrenal cortex and balancing the hormonal system. Also known for its healing effects on the skin.
I most probably going to go and smell them all, see which ones I prefer, and will be choosing those I'm able to use after labour too.
As of labour; Since I will spend the beginning at home with Lee, I'll mix some and ask him to massage me (Here's a little information how to. Hint hint.) and will bring a little bowl to the hospital to mix them there with boiling water, cause not sure if they'd let me to put the drops in the pool.