Happy Halloween!

Seeing as I am NOT having a baby this today my Mum and Dad were rallied to enjoy some Halloween fun! They brought bags of food, a pumpkin and whilst my Mum wore a suitable sympathetic smile understanding the plight of the overdue pregnant woman... My Dad came with fat jokes... *sigh* No changing him now (not that I would) but it's a good job he makes a mean pumpkin! ;) 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

A November baby you will be then little one...

Autumnal Toddler Craft: Leaf Collages

Husband/Daddy lawn-mowing moral support turns craft activity... First collect leaves...

Then stick them down with PVA!

 Tada!!

BUMPSTAGRAM!!!

To celebrate reaching due date today here is a little run down of my fav bump Instas... Follow me here!

39 Weeks

Dear Baby,

I don't want to write another one of these. I don't want to spend another week not knowing you. I don't even want to spend another day not knowing you. You will be the (joint) biggest love of my life and I don't want a second more of my time spent without you. You are so welcome, so anticipated and so loved. You should be here with us now. Your life is waiting, come live it Baby!

I know I'm so blessed for this pregnancy and if you must linger on in there I will be grateful for every moment of it... But still Baby... There's so much for you here. There's air and colour and people and growing and learning and everything wonderful in life starts from there.

We can't promise much but we can promise love. Bucket loads of love, hurled at you from all directions until you get fed up with it, grow up and tell us it's embarrassing... And beyond. ;)

Come safely. Come quickly. 

Come on Baby! 

Love Mummy xxx

Spider Webs in the AM

Some macro and Autumn morning light play... No babies, no toddlers, no bumps... A rare small-person-less post!

38 Weeks

There's little to say about 38 weeks pregnant.

Everything's done. The nursery is finished. Everything is in place for the birth. The house is in a reasonably stable state awaiting the chaos of newborn-ness. We took a final date night out. I've taken pre-emptive hairdressing. (All hail the 5 Pre-Baby Pledges.)

All fronts are quiet. We wait. We speculate. We make guesses and do a lot of imagining. 

Labour could potentially be too far away to allow ourselves too much excitement. Need to taper that because excitement is too quickly followed by impatience. 

I feel a large part of my mind is buried deep down inside my body... Feeling, thinking about feelings, looking for signs, trying in vain make timescales for labour. Is this it? Is this it? Do I remember this from last time? Is this it?

Toddler-Ninja! Just crept up on us...

And all the while we're so focused on my belly... This toddler has appeared out of nowhere! Don't get me wrong, we're so present for her and everyday I'm trying to make special time with her and make memories. It 's like we're so focused on the here and now we've not realised where she's come from... Babyhood! And so all of a sudden I've realised... She's a toddler! A little girl! 

I'll be honest before becoming a Mum I kinda thought of the toddler years as the phase just to be tolerated. I didn't think I'd enjoy it one bit. Toddlers are loud and wild and snotty and they dawdle and they go to everything they shouldn't and they cover everything in sticky jam-fingers and they strop over dumb stuff. I thought I'd spend the entire with my head between my knees trying desperately not to hit to wine before midday. I just thought I'd grit my teeth, attempt to limit my screaming to once an hour or so and wait for the sweet embrace of childhood when she can listen, talk and mostly importantly... Be bribed.

Turns out... there's gold here in Toddlerdom...

There's gold when she brings me a book and snuggles in for me to read it. 

There's gold on page 6 of stickman when looks at me with "DO THE DOG VOICE!" eyes and shrieks. 

There's gold in her waddle-bottomed-run through the hallway whilst I chase her (on all fours these days). 

There's gold when she pulls up my top and declares, as if claiming the summit for her own, "BAAAAABY!" 

There's gold every time she surprises me with something new and I can't fathom where it came from so I just put it down to her being a genius... Obviously. 

There's friggin' golden fairy dust raining down when she kisses me for no reason, most of all when I don't see the moment coming and nothing else matters because I have a little person who loves me so much she just had to take a minute to show me. 

Most surprisingly, I find a lot of gold when she those toddler tantrums rear up and I can't help think "Yeah go on! Show me you're gonna be ok in life because you know what you want and you know how to shout for it!"

I think I might be loving it... So here she is... Toddlering on...

With my niece...

The Nursery!

Here it is! Baby bump's own room, if you detect a sense of pride well I have to be honest... I do feel quite proud. It's been a real labour of love and it's such a great space to chill in whilst we wait for baby. I can't help but drop in after Euna is in bed... Sit in the chair. Think about another little one's babyhood. Think about nursing. Think about little clothes and swaddling blankets. Touch the fabrics and the painted woods. Imagine a little girl. Then imagine a little boy.

Wondering... Anticipating... Waiting...

Here, take a nose!

The cot, my cot, now baby's cot, a big piece of family history for baby to sleep in...

Ikea armchair, Ikea rainbow cushion and Widgey nursing pillow (old design, bought 2 years ago for feeding Euna, total non-essential)...

From the door, one day soon I'll walk in and see this but with a baby in there...

Euna's canvas crafting with apples...

Made with love...

Aqua chevron fabric from Plush Addict...

Nursery canvas crafting...

Walls are Dulux "Wellbeing"...

Matching handmade bunting using fabric bundles from Ebay...

Emile et Rose moses basket, a total luxury splurge from last time and I am so excited to wake up with this next to my bed again...

Jojo Maman Bebe rainbow blanket (beautiful gift), rabbit comforter from our French holidays and a Sophie Giraffe Teether (an essential so I hear)...

I saw one of these on a blog I love last year and promised myself we would 

Introducing Pink Cheeks Studios, the home of Nichol Brinkman's innovative and beautiful handmade and personalised soft toys, pillows and baby mobiles...

Every piece is a one off and this is her very own Family Us design... 

Euna looking over her little baby sibling as he/she sleeps...

Baby A and guess who...?

There is nothing better than a handmade gift and we couldn't be more in love with this very special hand-crocheted blanket from my wonderful friend over at Thursday's Child Friday's Thoughts...

Insert baby toes here...

Old wardrobes upcycled with love by my very skilled Uncle at The Blue Goose...

Mismatched handles from ebay and Ikea...

Bespoke baby change unit from my Mum, also from The Blue Goose and Drona storage baskets from Ikea...

Next ceiling light...

Baby we love you and we wait for you... You are so so welcome xxx

Check out my Pinterest Nursery board to see what inspired me!