After 9 months of building up to a due date.. waiting for baby to appear, knowing that you are booking in to be induced is sure a weird feeling? Has anyone else experienced this? Can you relate? 

When your waiting for baby to arrive on their own, everything you do, you wonder if it will be the last time... the last time you get a full nights sleep, the last night you go out just the 2 of you. 

Knowing today is the day everything is going to happen is strange! 

As part of our present from my baby shower at the weekend, my Nanna gave us an envelope with strict instructions that it was for me and Adam not baby and told us to treat ourselves. So last night, knowing it was our last night as a couple we went for a lovely meal at chiquitos - we drank mocktails (well.. I did), chatted and had a really lovely evening! 

When we got home.. Adam said to me.. well it’s weird to think the next time I drive the car will be to pick little Miss up from the hospital (my dad is driving us today to save us taking our car) which was a bizarre thought! 

I got up this morning, knowing that the empty crib next to our bed would have a baby in it next time I slept in our bed and took an extra couple of minutes in the shower this morning knowing it was probably the last time in a while I would enjoy a shower rather than it just being a quick get clean and get out! 😂

So yes.. all in all... I feel strange! I’m so excited for today! And a little nervous too! I know I can do this, I guess it’s just the unknown! Keep your fingers crossed for me anyway! 

Oh hey!

Don't worry, my disappearing act for a week wasn't because I gave birth.. I am still very much pregnant... What with easter and everything this past week has just flown by! Who can believe I am now technically classed as full term.. wasn't it just 2 minutes ago we saw the words on the stick??

So where are we up to? Quite a bit has happened since my last update at 32 weeks. Ive officially finished work now (I finished the day before Good Friday) so I have been settling into the routine of being at home and getting everything ready for baby to arrive including cleaning the house like a crazy person.

This week we had another scan up at the hospital which was booked after we went for one at 35 weeks (one of the joys of a high BMI has definitely been closer monitoring and more scans). They booked me in for another scan because little miss was measuring on the larger side, around 7 pounds 5oz at 35 weeks they thought! They booked me in for Wednesday and said they would make a plan because they would be likely to induce me should she continue to grow above this line. Don't worry the midwife said, it can be a pound either way.. thanks love.. reassuring to know the baby could actually be around 8 and a half pounds with 5 weeks to go.. queue thoughts of birthing the worlds largest baby!
Anyway we went on Wednesday for our scan and the tables have now turned. They measured baby at 6 pounds 15oz meaning in 2 weeks she has dropped around 6oz. I won't lie, its not nice when you are sitting in that maternity waiting room for a midwife to "review" your notes! Especially in one of those situations. Luckily for us, one of the consultants who knows my mum through work (she is the clinic sister where she does one of her clinics) spotted mum with me and Adam in the waiting area and decided to take a look at my notes. I'm not normally one for pulling favours and being all not what you know its who you know but lemmi tell you, at that moment, knowing she was looking at my notes felt great.
Anyway she decided to see me as an extra on her clinic and just like that booked me in for an induction next week! She said because I'm full term (i.e. past 37 weeks) there really is no point in hanging around any longer. She wasn't too worried about the scan and the drop in weight - she seemed to think it could be an inaccurate scan when we came at 35 weeks and that if it wasn't clear the measurements could have been off. But yep... looks like this time next week little miss Barlow will have arrived.

Ive been having little niggles for the past couple of days, I actually have thought a couple of times I was going into labour but nothing has developed.

Last Saturday we went up to Sheffield to visit Adams family and had a baby shower up there which was lovely and tomorrow I have one with all my friends and family here.

Had my final weigh in at Slimming World last night and was amazed to discover  I had lost 4 and a half pounds which means my total gain throughout my pregnancy has been 8 pounds. I am so happy that I decided to continue with Slimming World during my pregnancy. I know that out of everything I have done during this pregnancy, sticking with it during the good and bad weeks has all been worth it and I have given miss the best possible start! I'm also determined that I am not going to go mad after she is born too and my batch cooking will come in handy to keep me on track after she arrives as I don't want to suddenly start putting lots of weight after working so hard to keep it under control during my pregnancy.

Just time to sort all the last minute bits and enjoy our last week as just the 2 of us! Looks like things are about to get hectic!!!

Since very early on in my pregnancy (since I started pinning things on Pinterest) - come on don't lie we all do it, Ive been collecting ideas of what to pack in my hospital bag! There are SO many different ideas out there, swiftly helped by the number of bloggers and you tubers out there who have become mummies recently! I love watching and reading these videos for different ideas so it only seemed right that when the time came to pack mine I add my own ideas into the blogging world.

Theres so many different things online about hospital bags and one of the main ideas was that of packing 2 different bags, one for mum and one for baby. I loved the idea of not having everything mixed up together because i can't think of anything worse than having everything mixed where you can't find it.

Today I'm just going to talk about my hospital bag - keep an eye out next week for the baby edition.
I decided to pack my trusty purple Tripp suitcase which i use for all my overnight stays. What I love about this suitcase is that it splits into 2 halves rather than opening up into one. I've had this one for quite a few years however similar style are still available on the Tripp website here

Opening up the suitcase I packed all of the clothe items on the right hand side and everything else on the left. If you didn't see my What I got for my birthday post here it shows you a couple of the items in closer detail that Ive packed.

The only other thing to add to it is a change of clothes for me. However this will depend on the time of day I go into labour etc and what I'm wearing as we go to the hospital etc. Its always something I can grab. 

In the flowery Ted Baker bag I have packed all my toiletry type items to have to hand. I decided to go for the option of packing things in case I need an overnight stay - just in case as I would rather have things with me which I will need rather than having to get Adam or mum to scrape round and bring things to me.. 

I need to add a hairbrush (which is currently sitting on the top of the bag) and some sort of lip balm. As I say, I have packed things like Shampoo and Conditioner in case we need to stay in for a couple of days. I also packed a like an exfoliator and the liz earle spritz so I can give myself a bit of a freshen up after the birth if I want to. 

And thats it! My bag has been packed for a couple of weeks now which I know is super early however I had been collecting bits for weeks and was sick of it all lying around in bags. That and the fact I like to be organised anyway! Just in case... 

Are there any must haves you had during labour in your hospital bag?? What would you do without?