Find out or not, that is the question.

Do we find out the sex of the baby?

This is the question that we have been asking ourselves since we found out that Gemma was pregnant. It is now getting close to the time where we need to make a decision about whether we want to know or not. We’ve still got just over 3 weeks to make the decision, as our next ultrasound scan is at the beginning of February.

Gemma is quite keen to know this time around. We didn’t find out the first time around with Ellie, and had the surprise when she was born.

Me though, I’m not too sure. At the moment I am still sitting on the fence. Part of me wants to keep it a surprise, but part of me would like to find out.

The main reason for not knowing is that it would be nice to keep it a surprise until that moment when the baby pops out into the world, having that suspense throughout the pregnancy.

But there are some good reasons to find out.

The first one is that we can get organised in getting the relevant things, like clothes and wall decorations for the bedroom.

We can also get Ellie used to the idea of the baby being her little brother or sister with names, rather than just calling it “the baby”. This could help with integrating the baby into our family, making sure that Ellie doesn’t feel left out of anything. We’ve already asked her if she would like to help when the baby is born, and she seems keen, which is a good sign.

If we do make the decision to find out the sex of the baby, it’ll be sod’s law that the baby turns over so the sonographer cannot see the vital area! Typical!

Please come back soon to see what we’ve decided.

Gemma’s Pregnancy - Week 12

Gemma’s pregnancy has reached the 12-week stage, nearly the end of the first trimester.

I took Gemma to her first proper appointment with the midwife last Wednesday. This went fairly well, the only issue Gemma had was that she had to have some blood taken. Gemma’s not too good with needles. Oh, and the fact that the midwife couldn’t get her weight right! The midwife read the scales wrong, assuming that the figure was kilograms rather than pounds that was actually shown.

We have had our first ultrasound scan this week, as revealed yesterday. Everything is looking good at this stage, there is a strong heartbeat, and only one thankfully! Don’t know how we would cope if we were expecting twins.

It is a huge relief to the both of us to know that everything is alright. Things will be easier when we can feel the baby kicking. It will be easier for calming the nerves and stop any fretting.

Our next scan is not until the beginning of February, which will be a much more thorough event. Before that though, Gemma will need to go back to the midwife to have more blood taken, for more tests. I can hear the groans now, and feel her blood pressure rising.

Gemma’s “morning” sickness has not eased as of yet. If anything it has probably got worse. I feel so sorry for her, I can’t really imagine how bad she feels. We can’t quite see the light at the end of the tunnel yet. If it carries on too much longer, Gemma will have to go back to the doctors. Something will have to ease the nausea.

I don’t envy Gemma feeling sick over the Christmas holidays.

Until the next update………..

Gemma’s Pregnant - The Official Announcement

As you might guess from the headline Gemma and I are over the moon. We are expecting our second baby in July 2008.

We are both so very, very happy.

We’ve kept it quiet up until now, only telling family, as we wanted to get to the end of the important first trimester. We have had our first scan today, and all is well.

Good news is that there is only one baby! There is a history of twins in Gemma’s family, so we were anticipating the sonographer saying that there were two heartbeats.

I have been writing about the pregnancy privately up until now, but as the news is now out in the open I’ve made these posts public now.

Baby Number 2 is on the way

Gemma’s Pregnancy - Week 9

Gemma’s Pregnancy - Week10

I hope that you’ll come back and see how the pregnancy is progressing from time to time. Until next time….

Insulating our house, Part 2

Over the weekend my Dad and I finished off the little project that we started two weeks ago. Two weeks ago we had managed to get about half of the area insulated and covered with floorboards.

Having practised two weeks ago, the process of laying the insulation and floorboards was a whole lot quicker. By the end of the Saturday we had completed the outer part of the loft. Even after having to negotiate over our water pipes.

On Sunday, we began the day by moving the light switch to the rafter just above the hatch. This was a pretty simple job. The trickiest part of the job was getting the wires back into their respective places in the switch and the junction box.

Once the lights were back on we pressed on with laying the insulation and putting down more floorboards. We had saved the trickiest part till last, boarding around the loft hatch. The problem that we had was how to board over the water pipes that had been routed near to the hatch.

After some thought my Dad and I decided that stepping the floor up in this area would be the best thing, as we needed to make it strong enough to mount the loft ladder. We measured hatch and then my Dad cut the floorboards to size while I fixed the batons around the water pipes to create the step. Once the batons were in place we fitted the floorboards to them, and it all fitted together, which was a relief.

After installing the floorboards we fitted the loft ladder which would give us easier access to the loft. This was a fairly straightforward job, the only problem was that there were not enough screws in the pack. That’s always the way though isn’t it? After a couple of minutes trying to find suitable replacements the ladder was installed.

The loft is now finished, with the exception of modifying the loft hatch, which we’ll try to do before Christmas. We need to attach some hinges so that we can open it from the landing, instead of having to use the step-ladder.

Thanks again to my Dad for all his help. I’m sure it would have taken me ten times as long without it.

Gemma’s Pregnancy - Week 9

Gemma is now in the 9th week of the pregnancy.

Saying she is having a bad time with “morning” sickness is an understatement . Every day is a struggle at the moment. The problem is that most of the time she is not actually being sick, it is a feeling of severe nausea.

It is so hard on her, she feels so down. I am doing my best to support her and try to keep her spirits up. She cannot wait for this part of the pregnancy to be over. As long as the sickness doesn’t carry on as long as it did when she was pregnant with Ellie. It was around the 15-week mark when Gemma began to feel better.

We went to see the midwife for the first time last week, and she told us that the sickness was a good sign. Apparently it means that the placenta is working really well. Not really a consolation to Gemma though. It was only a brief meeting this time. We’ll have to go back in 2 weeks for a more thorough appointment.

At this stage of the pregnancy we are both very happy, but in the back of our minds we are worrying whether anything will go wrong. When Gemma was pregnant with Ellie, we had a couple of big scares. Both times Gemma had some bleeding and was admitted into the hospital for observations. This was really hard on the both of us, Gemma especially. The doctors told us to prepare for the worst, as they had discovered a small haemorrhage above the foetal sack. Thankfully though, the haemorrhage closed itself and the pregnancy continued.

Until we get past that magic 12/13-week hurdle, we are still going to be on tenterhooks. We are due to have a scan between weeks 11 - 14. This will remove some of the worry in our minds.

We’ve told Ellie that Mum is pregnant and is going to have a little baby. When we first asked her if she would like a little brother or sister, she replied with a very definite “No!” Since then she has been really happy about it. She points at Gemma’s stomach and says “Ellie’s baby”, it is so cute. Gemma and I can’t wait to see how she gets on with the baby. I think she’ll be great.

Baby Number 2 is on the way

Gemma and I are so excited.

In early July 2008 we are expecting our second child. We found out that Gemma was pregnant on 23rd October. We were really pleased as this was only our second month of trying. As you can imagine we were thrilled to see a positive pregnancy test.

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