Now we’re at the halfway point, we’ve actually managed to gather a good amount of baby stuff that I thought it might be a good idea to start mentioning. I’ve been a little bit wary of doing so as many people are superstitious or think you’re a bit silly to start buying so far in advance, but we’ve actually been making purchases, small and big, slowly over the past 3 months.
The first one sounds a bit ridiculous as it wasn’t necessarily for the baby, but that was kind of our goal: a bigger car. My previous car wasn’t exactly small, but it was lower to the ground and was, as everyone told me, a “granny car”. My family had been begging me to buy a 4×4 for months as my route to work is pretty treacherous in some weather conditions, and the push we really needed for this was the baby coming along. One big thing I’ve read in a lot of books, in the Baby Box University course I’ve done (I’ll talk more about this in future!) and on blogs is to ensure you’ve got a safe and reliable car. My old car wasn’t old by any means – in fact, I’d thought it would last me another few years when I got it! – but it did have its fair share of issues, including multiple slow punctures (I’m blaming the business park I work on for this!) and occasional engine troubles. This last one was pretty awkward as the car put itself into a weird limp mode when we were buying Ben’s new car a couple of years ago!! Imagine how ridiculous we looked calling our breakdown cover while sat negotiating on Ben’s new car – they definitely threw a few hints our way about getting one of theirs. Anyway, point in case, making sure your car is safe with the regular MOT test, checking your tyres, making sure seatbelts are working correctly, keeping up to date with any recalls – the list goes on, these are just a few that were featured in the books and courses I’ve done! – is SO important anyway, but especially when baby factors into the equation.
See more of my pregnancy diary posts here or check out the whole thing:
As such, our other first big purchase – aside from the car, which doesn’t really count – was our car seat. Again, living rurally as we do, we spend a lot of time in the car, and as a result, baby will spend a lot of time in her car seat. We knew not to buy secondhand as you never know what accidents or bumps that car seat could have been through to compromise its safety, but we also wanted to make sure we had one that wasn’t too expensive or too basic. We went for a middle of the range Maxi Cosi one that was on offer for Amazon Prime Day – yes, that’s how long ago we started buying for baby!
Along with these purchases, we’ve actually gathered quite a bit of other “big” stuff for baby, including all the nursery furniture, a pushchair (which fits the car seat), the bedside cot for our room and more. I’ll probably do a whole post summing these up at some point in the near future, with some focus on some specific items.
Anyway, on with the week! My week 20 started with a flu jab – yay! All pregnant women are recommended to have one, and luckily my work offers these as a perk (nice perk!) so I didn’t need to battle to the doctors or take any time off to sort it out. That same day, I finished my pregnancy books from the library and returned them. Sadly I think I’ve already exhausted the supply our library has in terms of pregnancy that align with my thoughts, so I’ll be taking recommendations to order in. This was the day I took the “from where I stand” bump photo while walking through Ripon Cathedral – look at the bump popping that day! Then that evening, I took the 12 week to 20 week comparison bump photo – it’s crazy how much difference there is, but it doesn’t feel all that different yet.
Saturday was a super exciting day – scan number 3! I mentioned that we’d booked one last week after the NHS one said they couldn’t be sure of the gender, and I’m SO glad we did. The only private scans I knew about near us before were Mothercare at York but they shut down basically as soon as I got pregnant – typical, right?! It had been there literally as long as I remember, and as soon as we need it…anyway! A bit of Googling and I came across Bumpkins York which was just a handy 30 minute drive from us and offered private scan packages starting at £55. We picked the gender scan one at £60. This allowed you 15 minutes to see the baby in 2D, hear the heartbeat, get a good look at the gender, get a sneak 4D preview, and even go away with a little goody bag!
They were super lovely and the experience was so different from the NHS scans. I’d fully recommend booking a private scan if you’re able to in a place like this as it was such a different feel. We waited on comfortable sofas in a light, airy room, then headed into the scan room (all my family in tow – they allow up to 10 people) which was carpeted with a big TV screen, as opposed to the teeny ones you see in NHS hospitals.
And we had confirmation – it’s a girl! (As you probably already know!) The sonographer did give us a moment of hesitation where she said “So they told you it’s a girl, did they?”, then “Well, they were right!” It was pretty obvious from her splayed legs – basically she was doing splits – that she was a girl, but she wasn’t feeling all that active at this point – she loves driving apparently and must have worn herself out kicking around on the journey! As a result, she was all tucked up with her head facing into my back meaning we couldn’t see her face, either in 2D or 3D. Fortunately, the people were super lovely and booked us in for another scan to come back and see her again so we could hopefully get a face shot! This is something they offer if the scan isn’t clear or they can’t tell the gender. We came away with a little goody bag of treats specific to the little girl prediction – see the photo above.
Afterwards we grabbed some lunch at a local cafe with my parents, then we had Ben’s family over for a meal we cooked in the evening to celebrate Ben’s and his dad’s birthdays – a big steak pie and board games were in order! So a very lovely and chilled Saturday really.
On Sunday, Ben and I went to Morrisons twice and Aldi once – because that’s what we tend to do with our weekends, despite them both being a 30 minute drive away! – built our nursery drawers (just the wardrobe to make now!), took blog photos, discovered a pumpkin patch that was opening up nearby. I’m prepping for the future a bit by getting ahead with blogging when and where I can – snapping lots of photos that can be usable for the future and planning posts in advance. Who knows what my life will look like soon?! I’ve also started using Todoist this week – it’s basically a to do list app that I have on our Mac, my work computer and my phone and I feel like I’m totally on top of everything right now…or at least for a little while! Honestly though, my productivity this week has completely soared thanks to using it.
Monday evening was not great as I slipped on the shiny surface of our Mac laptop and fell over. Yep. Luckily the Mac was okay, but my back wasn’t. I didn’t hit my tummy or anything, it was more of a slide and twist, so I wasn’t too worried about causing baby girl any problems – plus she was kicking away at the time anyway – but it meant a sore back and hip (that were already achy anyway) for a few days.
Wednesday marked Ben’s birthday, but we already knew he would be working late so my parents came over to celebrate on Tuesday instead with gifts. On his birthday itself, I ended up missing Brownies as I hadn’t felt great all day and my back was killing thanks to the laptop incident. My little cousins called over after Mollie had finished Brownies though with Ben’s gift too, so it was lovely to see then.
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