Just a little something...

New ticker added to the side bar, in case you didn't notice....

Looks like Charlotte's days of being the solo blog-star are numbered.

Charlotte - pics!

As promised here are a few pics (click on them to enlarge):

This was taken just moments after the birth:

Caught Matt napping with Charlotte after a long night:

Charlotte showcasing one of her new outfits. Look at those long toes:

Face close up:

She was born with a full head of hair:


The midwife came by today to check on us all, and brought us a slew of goodies - seems we had the first Christmas baby of 2007 here in the greater Stevenage area, so we received presents from various sources (hospital, midwives, even the mayor's office). The goodies included a sack of nappies, a little pink cardigan, and a picture frame.

As for us, we are doing well for being 15 hours past birth, just taking it easy at home and spending an inordinate amount of time staring at Charlotte. In that respect, homebirth was an amazing decision - to be here at home with our little one, to have been able to shower and get in my own bed last night and cuddle our little chubby baby was just perfect! It was a long, hard day yesterday though - 21 hours of labor, and nearly all of it back labor. But I managed with nothing more than some Tylenol I took at the start to fend off a headache I was getting. Being able to move around the house, in and out of the shower, and of course Matt never letting me give up is probably what made it all possible. When the midwives showed up at 8pm and told me I was at 7cm, that was a big boost, too. We tried to have a Christmas Eve baby, but just missed it! I don't think she'll mind sharing a birthday with her grandpa Steve though.

Merry Christmas everyone, from our new little family!

She's Here!

Leslie and I welcomed Charlotte Louise Miling today, December 25th, 2007, at 12:21am GMT right here at our apartment in Stevenage. She weighed in at 8 lbs 12.5 oz and was 20 inches long. The midwives that helped out with the birth were absolutely brilliant. Leslie was a champ through the whole process by staying up nearly 22 straight hours and struggling through back labor the entire time. We will put up pictures in the ensuing days.

London at Christmas

We spent a good five hours walking around London today. Not as splashed out for Christmas as we thought it would be, in fact the tree in Trafalgar Square was almost laughable. Covent Garden was pretty well done though, and had lots of booths set up with specialty foods so Matt picked up some olives and cheeses. But all that walking and a fat lot of good it did me - the only thing it seems to have accomplished baby-wise is I thought I was going to pee my pants a couple times. Oh, and it was fun to tell everyone who asked when I was due: "today!" And total strangers seem to have some hidden insight into my pregnancy all of a sudden - I was told that (1) I'm having a boy (!!), (2) I've got a good 8 pounder in there, and (3) the baby is still too high to come out within the next 2 days.

We did a bit of shopping, although I think Charlotte made out the best in that endeavor. I have a feeling that might be the case for quite some time now.

Jinxed! So, forget December...

Everyone can thank Dana for just ensuring we have a 2008 baby! She sent us the cutest little ornament that says "Matt, Leslie, Charlotte, 2007." So I guess I will just get comfy being preggers for a couple more weeks and wait for 2008....

Daily Updates??

Ok, so I just happened to see Julie's request soon after she posted it - actually I get an email whenever someone comments - but anyway....a daily update, so everyone can share in my impatience? Hey, I'm open to suggestions, so I added a Baby Forecast to the top of the page. Enjoy.

Weekend Update (and recap of pics!)

Yesterday was my brother's birthday, and no baby, so there goes our first possible "cool" December birthdate - so that leaves the 18th (lots of 18s in our family), the 25th (my dad's b'day), the 26th (my g'ma Lynch's b'day), and the 29th (my uncle Gary's and g'pa DuBois' b'days). So we'll see....maybe this kid wants her "own" day though...

Has it really been another two weeks since I posted a belly pic??? With any luck, this will be the last one. And, just for fun, here's the progression, with the newest pic at the end:
2 months:
4 months:
6 months:
7.5 months:
9 months:

Otherwise, the weekend has been pretty low-key. Matt played golf in 35 degree weather yesterday, and I baked way tooooo many cookies (house was clean - so it seemed like the next logical nesting activity). Today Matt is studying for his UK driving theory test (which he booked for Tuesday - figuring the day he has something planned will be the day we have a baby). Now just gotta get our walk in before it gets dark at 4pm.

Random Updates...

Matt had his first "competitive" game of badminton Friday night - our neighbor Richard ("Rich-id") asked Matt to be the 4th for their weekly match (maybe he thought Matt would be a ringer with his height?). Anyway, Matt's assessment of how it went: "Good, well, actually I pretty much sucked, we rotated teams and my team always lost." Now he's been hobbling around the house this weekend complaining his butt muscles are sore from playing...

Matt has also been diligently trying to learn more Croatian, doing lessons on his computer whenever he has time - he wants to be able to speak it to Charlotte. Which means I better start trying to learn, too - otherwise I'll be sitting there smiling and oblivious while they talk about me.

It's been two weeks - so here are the latest belly pics, from 37 weeks, 1 day - I think the ultrasound lied, and there is a really a sumo wrestler in there:

My mom asked me if I finished the quilt, and indeed I have, so here is the finished product:
Draped over the little crib in our room:

Spread out on our bed - the quilt ended up being pretty big, bigger than I expected:
With a corner flipped over - for the backing I actually used a pink flannel sheet:

And now it looks like the rain let up, so gotta get out and walk!!

36 Week Appt

Tracy, my midwife, came to the house yesterday for my 36 week appt and our official home birth booking appointment. It was the first time Matt has met her or observed the little routine of my antenatal appointments - basically it goes like this: "baby moving regularly?" (answer: "yes"), "any swelling?" (answer: "just a little"), check the urine, take my blood pressure (110/60 every time except once), measure the belly (35cm top to bottom now), listen to baby's heart, feel for baby's position (head down, partially dropped into pelvis). And that's that. **On a side note, I love her since she has not made me step on a scale since I was 12 weeks along!**

Then, we had the home birth discussion - including: reasons I might transfer to hospital (most common reason for first time mothers: long labor and long pushing phase = too tired and need IV drip to finish birth); what the midwives bring and how they handle things like bleeding, stitches, resuscitation, etc; and of course what supplies we need to have here at the house. So as of Saturday, when I hit 37 weeks, I am officially eligible and booked for a home birth! But I have been forewarned that they cut funding for homebirth midwives for Christmas and Boxing Day, so if Charlotte decides her birthday is the 25th or 26th, we have to go to hospital. (If you notice, they always say "to hospital" or "in hospital" here, never "the hospital")

Matt asked, "where do most women end up giving birth when they are at home?" Tracy said, "the lounge (English for living room) or bedroom usually, but we had a women give birth on the kitchen floor the other day." She said the home births are usually pretty relaxed, the women move around as much as they want, eat and drink when they want, and usually just settle somewhere they feel comfortable. (But the kitchen floor??)

A few of you might find this interesting, and for a few of you it will mean absolutely nothing haha, but here they do not do across-the-board testing of expecting mothers for gestational diabetes (only if you show several symptoms of it) or for Group-B Strep. Also, none of that "eye goop" for baby after the birth, and no Vitamin K injection unless requested.

So anyway, that's the (long) update for 36+ weeks.

Another Guessing Game...

Why not, what else do I have to do while I wait on this squirming, kicking kid to make her appearance...and since I don't know if anyone besides our parents and Dana even really reads this anymore, let's see who all is out there....

So, if you read this, go to this link:

http://www.expectnet.com/games/BabyMiling

And make a guess! We'll even send something to the winner!!

And now I am going to go pee again, for the 100th time this hour.........

EDITED on Tuesday to add: No, I'm not really that bored, I've just had this cold/sinus thing since last Thursday that's got me feeling a little off, not sleeping well, that kind of thing - I have all this great cold/flu medicine upstairs and I can't take any of it! Argh!! So I guess I've been a little touchy...so what, you wanna make something of it? Just kidding. Oh, but if Puppy "wins" this contest, with "her" guess of 15+ lbs, the only thing I am sending her is a euthanasia kit! 15 lbs....perish the thought....

Our Faux Maternity Shoot...

First, check out the ticker...35 weeks down, 35 days to go....

Anyway, Matt and I played around with the camera today to do our own maternity shoot - and I thought we got some good results. So I'll share a few - the ones that won't turn this blog into a soft porn site, haha....

Two Things:

First - Dana is running the Jingle Bell Run to benefit Arthritis Research, check out her race page here: http://Jinglebellrunsyracuse2007.kintera.org/danacorcoran

Second - we had our first antenatal class last night. They will be every Monday night from now until December 17th (wonder if we'll get through them all before baby arrives?). It was actually a pretty good time - our class has 7 couples, including us, and we're all about the same age and due with our first baby between Dec 21 and mid-January. On tap for last night: first, setting goals for the class (on the list made by the guys: "how not to panic" and "how to be less annoying"), and then some lessons in anatomy (good thing, as one guy labeled the bladder as the vagina...) and the physical effects of pregnancy in the last trimester. Half way through we stopped for a "tea and biscuits" break - gotta love the English.

Off to Iceland tomorrow - hope to have some pictures up Sunday when we get back!

Belly Pics, 33 weeks 2 days

Ok, it's been two weeks, here are some new shots of the big ol' belly (and my mom said I have to put my head in some of them so people know it's really me, so I did, but trust me, if I was using someone else's pregnancy shots as my own, I would have picked someone with a smaller butt, or at least cuter pajama pants!):

Serious face! It's hard to hold the camera and press the button with my left hand!

Blurry - darn auto-focus isn't working: My Dad asked me if I was sure I wasn't having twins - haha, funny guy.

Random Updates

Guess who is joining us in Iceland and then back in England for awhile? Andrej!

And in Daddy-to-be news: Matt said a few nights ago, "I'm bored with feeling the baby move." I was like, "whaaatttt??" He says, "yeah, I just want her to be here, to see her. This 40-week thing is way too long." Careful what you wish for - she is quiet and highly portable at the moment, not to mention no poopy diapers....

This weekend we purchased the carseat - the last big item left on our list, so we are pretty much set now.

This carrot came with our veggies last week, and Matt was so fascinated by it, he took a picture:

And I continue to plug away on my quilt for the baby - this is what is done so far: This is the what I am still working on and then have to attach to the above part:
And this is a close-up of some of the fabrics, they're all flannels:

See, that was pretty random...

New Belly Photos for Y'All...

Here's the latest, from today, 31 weeks 2 days:

Belly button is still holding in there, but Matt can't get over how visible my veins are (don't know if the picture does them justice):

Tried to wear one of Matt's t-shirts - didn't work too well:

Saw the midwife this morning, and baby Charlotte is being good and is head down now, so let's hope she stays that way! She did get the hiccups while the midwife was trying to listen to her heart though, goofball.

Baby stuff, belly, etc etc

Matt and I have been working our way through our list of baby "stuff" - picking up a Tummy Tub (have these caught on in the States like they have in the UK?), changing mat, play mat, bottles (yes, Tom, we made sure they are bisphenol-A free!), and other assorted items, and yesterday we got a vibrating bouncer that Matt immediately put together to "test out"...


And here are some 29 week belly photos - Doesn't look like much from the front:

But turn to the side, and it's a different story! Matt, always a master of the compliment, said to me this week, "you're doing a good job of not getting fat while pregnant." Hmmm, thanks I think. He's got a real way with words, my husband.

Her movements have gotten so big and almost to the point of hurting sometimes, especially since her little feet love my ribs on the right side. And, the strangest thing is, when she's moving around a lot, it sometimes makes this clicking or snapping noise...I can't find any explanation for it, a few internet sites about it (mainly those webmd-type question forums), but no answers.

"She's Breakdancing..."

I always said I would never be one of those parents that plays Mozart to their baby in the womb. Then last night, Matt was trying to get Charlotte to move around for her usual nightly aerobic session, but his normal tactics of talking to her and singing goofy songs wasn't working, so he goes and gets his laptop and headphones. He starts by playing Mozart, and maybe got a squirm out of her. Then switched to some piano piece, and got a few kicks. So he puts on some techno thing, and she went nuts! I swear my belly was jerking all over the place. He says, "she's breakdancing in there!" Yeah, or she just hates techno. It was funny though.

Of course, I am sure she will more than repay us for all these times we think it is so funny to wake her up now.

We have a milkman! (and new belly pic)

I don't know why this excites me quite so much.... But I do wish I had realized this was possible months ago, I think it's so cool. I just signed us up with the Crest Dairy milk delivery service, so twice a week we will have organic milk and OJ delivered to our door in glass bottles - which is great considering we go through about 10 pints of milk and 3 liters of OJ each week, so that's a lot of plastic and cardboard we won't be using anymore!

In other news, it's been a beautiful autumn weekend here, sunny and rather warm. We explored a little town called Hitchin that is only about 10 miles from us. Hitchin has a really nice town centre with lots of great shops and an open market in the town square with various vendors. So we poked around there both yesterday and today, and we found a Starbucks (the closest one we've found to date). Now, we're off for our daily walk at the nearby "park" - more of a green space that is used for multiple soccer (sorry, football) games. Walking is definately becoming the more common exercise for me these days, as I have had to scale back my step aerobics and other cardio routines, but I guess that's to be expected with the ever-growing belly! Speaking of which, here is the 27 week picture:

(27+1)

Getting Organized

We picked up some shelves and a dresser from IKEA this week to store all of Charlotte's things and the diapers and whatnot. The shelves are cool as they have an additional changing area that can fasten onto the middle shelf when we want it. So the spare bedroom, which is the only bedroom with closets and has Matt's dresser in it, has now also managed to become the baby's room. She'll sleep in our room to start with, but eventually, we'll have to move out Matt's dresser and possibly the daybed so we can fit a crib (or cot, as they are called here) in that room as well.

Here are some pics, the 2 new pieces are the white ones:

Cloth Nappies (Diapers)

Some of you think I have lost the plot (and haven't been afraid to tell me so), what with my plans to cloth diaper...but I think maybe that is partly based on an idea that cloth diapering means pins and rubber pants...not so!! In fact, cloth diapers are about as cute as can be these days, and there are many alternatives to pins and NO rubber pants, and no more sloshy diaper pails of "poop soup" either. And as for having to wash them, what's an extra load of laundry every 2 days when you're already washing baby stuff all the time anyway? See, maybe I'm not so crazy, but to further my cause, here are some pics (from my own stash and from the internet):

So these are the three types of diapers I decided to go with: a fitted diaper, which has snaps; a semi-fitted, which is cut and sewn into shape but with no snaps or velcro; and a plain prefold diaper, which has extra absorbent layers in the middle, but no shape or fastenings.

Like I said, no more pins necessary. The prefold diaper can be fitted onto baby using Snappis, or Nappy Nippas as they are called here in the UK:
Or, a prefold can simply be folded and placed in a wrap (more on wraps in a second):

This is the fitted diaper from above, shown on an infant:
These are a few of the "one-size diapers" I also ordered - they have adjustable snaps to allow the diaper to "grow" with your child, conceivably lasting from infancy to potty training:
Now, wraps. Wraps can go over diapers, especially if away from home or during naps or nighttime, to contain leaks and keep in moisture.
These are some types of wraps I bought - cute colors and patterns, right? And this is an example of the froggy patterned wrap on a baby:
These are some fleece wraps that I bought:
And these are some of my wool wraps - one is a pull-on style and the other is a popper-style (it's blue and green plaid, but the color didn't really show up in the pic, sorry). Wool is supposed to be the ultimate wrap material, as it is breathable and water resistant, and totally natural.
The pull-on wool cover on a baby:
They also make other types of diapers that have the diaper and wrap all in one, in fact they are called All-In-Ones. So you just put it on the same as a disposable but then it is washable. Or there are pocket diapers, which generally don't require a wrap and have a "pocket" that you can stuff with your choice of absorbent materials. I did not choose these two types of diapers because they take longer to dry, and I don't have a dryer!

So I figured if I can do something positive for the environment, save money over the long run, and know I am putting mostly natural materials next to baby's bum, then I should do this and try to really stick with it. Also, with all the great materials (cotton, hemp, bamboo, wool, fleece, etc) and patterns to choose from, it's kind of fun!