Well, after a year of commuting to the Isle of Man, we have finally moved over and are having the baby here in January. This means I can now walk to work, instead of having to fly over and also means I should be able to get some more family time in. Here's some photos of our new abode:

 

Yesterday was quite an eventful day, which was unexpected as Sundays are usually quite quiet at Casa Cutajar. The first big thing was that we have stopped taking orders from The Joke Shop. We've been running the site for a number of years now; and it had grown from a germ of an idea to a full-fledged multi-channel retail project with an outlet in Staines and sales online through it's website and eBay. But since we've had Hope on the way and the pending move to the Isle of Man, we needed to focus on our home-life once again and closing down The Joke Shop was part of that. We're hoping to sell the website and corresponding stock if we can; so if you know anyone who fancies running an online business, just give me a shout.

Yesterday I also had an amazing experience. Camille's been telling me that she's been feeling the baby move for quite a few weeks now, but as the baby's getting older, it's movements have been more and more pronounced. Yesterday I actually felt the baby kick which is astonishing as Camille is still in her 2nd trimester. It was only one of the many movements and kicks she felt while we were feeling for the baby, but it was very significant to me. After all the difficulty in getting pregnant, the pregnancy has been great so far, let's hope it stays that way!

This is just a short note to let Owen know that Hope and I both Love him very dearly and simply could not be without him. We miss you when you are in the Isle of Man. We will be with you there very shortly. Promise.

 
“ Daddy,

We Love You 5!

X X X X X ”

Today we had our first Midwife appointment. Her name is Pam and she seems really nice. Most of this appointment was filling in paper work and giving blood samples! I had to give some blood to test my Thyroid just before the appointment with the midwife; needless to say this went far from smoothly. One arm refused to give any blood and the other thankfully did. I did ask the nurse if the midwife would need any further blood tests but she did not know and did not seem inclined to even ask the midwife! This meant that when Pam needed to take some blood, she had to go to the same vein again. This left my arm rather bruised and damaged! Never mind, been through worse with IVF. It is all worth it. Obviously this was not the only incident that happened, after all I was involved! I had to produce a urine specimen in a really narrow container, not sure why they cannot use a container that is short and fat rather than thin and tall, which is obviously not the easiest thing to do. Needless to say, I kept missing and as I tried to adjust the container I dropped it into the water closet. I did not have much choice but to dry and try to reuse the container. Let’s hope that nothing nasty results in the tests, or I may have to embarrass myself with the true explanation of what happened!

We were able to hear the baby using the midwife’s Doppler. It was a change to our looking for the baby. Apparently, when we lose the baby’s sound, it is because the baby keeps moving. We do have a very energetic little one who seems to always be moving. She said that I would be feeling the baby shortly, and when I told her that I thought that I have been feeling the baby move for a while and described the feeling, she agreed with me that it was the baby. I have a feeling I am going to have a very naughty hyper little baby, Bless the Baby’s Little Heart!

Pam explained that my uterus is currently about an inch under my belly button. I cannot believe how big the baby already is. Mind you, I should have realised as none of my clothes fit, not even the clothes I used to wear before I lost weight! I am rapidly becoming more dependant on maternity clothes and seem to show more each day. This must be the first time that I am glad to look BIG! Having said that, I was also assured that my weight gain so far is good. So over all, I think we are doing well.

This weekend we went away for our anniversary to Cornwall. Baby came too of course! We spent Friday with Pierre and Desiree in Weston Super Mare. This meant that we could visit them and cut our journey into half. We went out to eat with them at an Italian restaurant called the Mask of Venice. I thought it was so appropriate after our anniversary retreat last year! The food was excellent, but the baby must have thought I over ate because all of 5 minutes after having left the restaurant I felt really queezy. Let’s just say, I competed with the victim in the exorcist, and probably won! I threw up in courses too! Opps, what a waste of a meal. Still I had enjoyed it.

The next day we stayed in Bude at The Fairway Guesthouse. I thought I would eat lightly and early to avoid being sick. Sadly to say, it did not work. I had a jacket potato, and on the way back I invented a new quick step, which went something like this “Step Step Puke, Step Step Puke etc” Let’s just say, I marked out a whole golf course. I was so embarrassed, I just could not hold it in.:-(

So today, I tried a full meal, we went to eat at Loch Fyne. I had a tomato salad for starters, then a couple of salmon fish cakes for main course, and even finished off with a chocolate cake. We have established that the baby loves tomatoes. I think baby likes fish too. The baby also seems to like chocolate. So I did well, and kept it all in. Thankfully all the portions were small. So I only felt a little queezy, but kept it all in. Owen has now put us on a mini portion healthy food frequent diet. Yet he is feeding me all the time. Isn’t he just a darling!

Today we went for a 4D scan. We seemed to have been warned a million times over that it would not be a pretty sight as it was far too early to have a 4D scan. They said the baby would be too thin and transparent. We were told rumours about being told of possible deformities to get you to keep doing scans. Needless to say, we did begin to have very minor slight doubts about doing the scan this early, but of course we could not resist. The baby’s grandmama came with us too.

Dr Josie Muscat did our scan. He must have spent a good 15 – 20 minutes with us. The machine started on a 2D and he switched it to the 4D. The difference was huge! After all those scares and rumours, we were glad we stuck to our guns and went for the scan. Dr Muscat filmed the Baby and even gave us a photo. The baby is absolutely gorgeous. I think we all had tears in our eyes. The pregnancy never felt more real than at that moment in time.

And YES, we do know what our baby is, and NO we are not telling till the baby is born! So please do not ask as we do not want to offend you but not saying whether our baby is a girl or a boy. But if you were listening, I was right all along!

Yesterday we had our first NHS antenatal scan. And we got a few picture which you can see here. Baby is 100% fine, all limbs and major organs account for, so we're delighted. Here's one of the photos:

Today we heard the baby's heart beat! It was amazing. We have one of these Fetal Dopplers at home; and have been trying to find the heart beat for the last few days. Baby's heart is running at around 166 beats per minute; but that's normal for a fetus