It's Already June?
Hi everyone. It's been awhile since I last wrote so I thought I'd give an update. A lot has been going on since April. I've had 2 baby showers, we had visitors for 2 weeks straight, I've still been working full time, my belly has grown a lot, I've been to the midwife twice (with another appointment this Wednesday), received a couple unexpected Mother's Day cards and phone calls, the baby kicks all the time and so on......
So, I was thinking to myself that I probably wouldn't get to have any baby showers because people over here don't do that. Plus, it's not the same as being at home where you have family and best friends to throw them for you (thankfully I had one in January when we were home...you've already read about that). I was a little disappointed thinking about it but it was fine. Then, my friend Kelli offered to throw me a baby shower over here. It was on May 5th and there were about 11 women there (
all but 1 was American). It was nice and we got really practical gifts like nappies (diapers to all you North American folk), wipes, baby shampoo and lotion as well as a giftcard to Mothercare, a couple wee sweaters and some onesies (they call those baby grows over here) and other odds and ends.
Then, on May 15th Jeff and Sarah flew into the Aberdeen airport to stay with us for 12 days. Of course that went by way too fast as well. We can't believe they've already come and gone. We did a similar weekend tour with them where we went to Edinburgh, Stirling and St. Andrews but we added on to that Inverness as well. Even though Andy and I had just been to most of those places the weekend before we still loved it. These are all our favorite main places to see in Scotland. Also, we are fortunate enough to have a good friend, Marty (pictured with us just below), that lives in Edinburgh so we always have a place to stay when we head down there. I also forgot to mention that I had that first week Jeff and Sarah were here off from work which was so nice. The second week, however, I had to work every day. Most of the days I was working Andy took them around 
Aberdeen and one or two of the days they went off and explored on their own. Most nights we had different friends over for dinner so Jeff and Sarah could meet the people we hang out with most. We also took them to eat at our favorite pub, talked about being pregnant and becoming parents (Sarah's pregnant too), ate fish 'n' chips from the chippie around the corner, took them to our church both Sundays they were here and Sarah and I got pedicures. It was just fun to hang out together again. We miss living so close to such good friends.
The last appointment with the midwife was a couple of weeks ago at 31 weeks (the picture to the right is of me is at 33 weeks).We heard the heartbeat again and she was able to feel the position of the baby. It was head down then but apparently still has quite a bit of room to move. At 36 weeks is when the baby's position stabilizes so that's when we hope it's head down. I'll keep you posted. Everything was fine at that appointment. I'm healthy, baby's healthy and my stomach measurement is spot on where it should be. At that point I had gained a total of 20 pounds. At 22 weeks I had only gained 4 pounds which means that in 9 weeks I gained 16 pounds! I'm not getting any smaller, I can tell you that much. I know the baby's not either because it's kicks are much more forceful now and I can feel it move more often. We have our 34 week appointment this Wednesday, June 6th. I will be getting a "fit to fly" certificate in order to fly to Ireland on Thursday where we'll be spending a week seeing the country with our friend Liam who's from there. If I don't have this "fit to fly" certificate, which has to be issued by your doctor or midwife, with me then I won't be allowed on the plane. This Monday we start some classes which the hospital puts on. It'll be over the course of the next few weeks and covers birthing, pain relief, a tour of the hospital, parenthood, breastfeeding and I'm not sure what else. I'm looking forward to learning some things because at the moment I'm getting a bit nervous about all that stuff. Although I'm feeling uncomfortable at times now, especially when the baby decides to bounce on my bladder or kick my ribs, I'm still not quite ready for this baby to come. I'm sure I will be in 6 weeks time but for now I can wait.
So, I was thinking to myself that I probably wouldn't get to have any baby showers because people over here don't do that. Plus, it's not the same as being at home where you have family and best friends to throw them for you (thankfully I had one in January when we were home...you've already read about that). I was a little disappointed thinking about it but it was fine. Then, my friend Kelli offered to throw me a baby shower over here. It was on May 5th and there were about 11 women there (
all but 1 was American). It was nice and we got really practical gifts like nappies (diapers to all you North American folk), wipes, baby shampoo and lotion as well as a giftcard to Mothercare, a couple wee sweaters and some onesies (they call those baby grows over here) and other odds and ends. On May 11th our friends Mike and Meghan came to visit us. They were actually doing a mini European tour and made sure that we were included in that tour. They stayed until the 14th so during those couple days we showed them around Aberdeen and took them to Edinburgh, Stirling and St. Andrews.
It was fun taking them all 3 places but we loved taking them to St. Andrews because Mike is a huge golf fan and was most excited about seeing the Old Course. I think the only thing that could have made it better was if he got to actually play a round while he was there. Andy and I have been to St. Andrews several times but there has always been people playing so we've only looked at the course from the sidelines. But, we found out this time that the course is 
closed on Sundays and since that's when we were there we were able to walk on the course and, the highlight, get our pictures taken on the famous bridge leading to the 18th green. The weekend went by fast but it was really fun hanging out with Meg again (we lived together in college for 3 years) and getting to know Mike better.
It was fun taking them all 3 places but we loved taking them to St. Andrews because Mike is a huge golf fan and was most excited about seeing the Old Course. I think the only thing that could have made it better was if he got to actually play a round while he was there. Andy and I have been to St. Andrews several times but there has always been people playing so we've only looked at the course from the sidelines. But, we found out this time that the course is 
closed on Sundays and since that's when we were there we were able to walk on the course and, the highlight, get our pictures taken on the famous bridge leading to the 18th green. The weekend went by fast but it was really fun hanging out with Meg again (we lived together in college for 3 years) and getting to know Mike better. 
Then, on May 15th Jeff and Sarah flew into the Aberdeen airport to stay with us for 12 days. Of course that went by way too fast as well. We can't believe they've already come and gone. We did a similar weekend tour with them where we went to Edinburgh, Stirling and St. Andrews but we added on to that Inverness as well. Even though Andy and I had just been to most of those places the weekend before we still loved it. These are all our favorite main places to see in Scotland. Also, we are fortunate enough to have a good friend, Marty (pictured with us just below), that lives in Edinburgh so we always have a place to stay when we head down there. I also forgot to mention that I had that first week Jeff and Sarah were here off from work which was so nice. The second week, however, I had to work every day. Most of the days I was working Andy took them around 
Aberdeen and one or two of the days they went off and explored on their own. Most nights we had different friends over for dinner so Jeff and Sarah could meet the people we hang out with most. We also took them to eat at our favorite pub, talked about being pregnant and becoming parents (Sarah's pregnant too), ate fish 'n' chips from the chippie around the corner, took them to our church both Sundays they were here and Sarah and I got pedicures. It was just fun to hang out together again. We miss living so close to such good friends.One of the nights when Jeff and Sarah were here I had a store meeting I had to go to (or so I thought). I don't have any pictures from that one though. Andy, Jeff and Sarah walked with me down to the store and were going to eat somewhere while I was there. So, I went in and was sitting there with everyone when a couple of the people I work with came around the corner with gifts in their hands saying, "well, we were going to have a store meeting but we decided to have a baby shower instead". Then they went and opened the front door so Andy, Jeff and Sarah could all come in and join us too. They all knew the whole time that it wasn't a store meeting! Now, I'm not sure if you caught this a couple paragraphs ago when I said it but, they don't do baby showers over here. A lot of people don't even know what that is. So, you can guess I was pretty shocked. It was so thoughtful and really meant a lot to me. Of course I cried. I opened the gifts and then we all ate pizza and hung out for a little bit. My co-workers got us a basket which was full of a 13-piece set of onesies, outfits, a blanket, stuffed animal, booties, hats, etc. Also, a Disney cosy play gym which I'm sure the baby will love. And something I love...a gift certificate to a spa here in town for me to get a "Mum-to-be treat". It's like an hour and a half of pampering for expectant women. I can't wait! Also, they had a bunch of customers sign a card for us and two of the regular customers even gave us some money! I was blown away with how kind that was. What a great surprise!
The last appointment with the midwife was a couple of weeks ago at 31 weeks (the picture to the right is of me is at 33 weeks).We heard the heartbeat again and she was able to feel the position of the baby. It was head down then but apparently still has quite a bit of room to move. At 36 weeks is when the baby's position stabilizes so that's when we hope it's head down. I'll keep you posted. Everything was fine at that appointment. I'm healthy, baby's healthy and my stomach measurement is spot on where it should be. At that point I had gained a total of 20 pounds. At 22 weeks I had only gained 4 pounds which means that in 9 weeks I gained 16 pounds! I'm not getting any smaller, I can tell you that much. I know the baby's not either because it's kicks are much more forceful now and I can feel it move more often. We have our 34 week appointment this Wednesday, June 6th. I will be getting a "fit to fly" certificate in order to fly to Ireland on Thursday where we'll be spending a week seeing the country with our friend Liam who's from there. If I don't have this "fit to fly" certificate, which has to be issued by your doctor or midwife, with me then I won't be allowed on the plane. This Monday we start some classes which the hospital puts on. It'll be over the course of the next few weeks and covers birthing, pain relief, a tour of the hospital, parenthood, breastfeeding and I'm not sure what else. I'm looking forward to learning some things because at the moment I'm getting a bit nervous about all that stuff. Although I'm feeling uncomfortable at times now, especially when the baby decides to bounce on my bladder or kick my ribs, I'm still not quite ready for this baby to come. I'm sure I will be in 6 weeks time but for now I can wait. Well, I'm hungry. What's new? So, I'm off to eat dinner (Andy put in a pizza...yummy) but will write again soon.
posted by Amy, Andy and Ainsley Odle | 11:06 AM
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