Corsica!!

As I'm sure I mentioned in one of my recent bump updates we recently went on a weeks holiday to Corsica.

Now I don't know about you but I had no clue where Corsica was (and that's embarrassing to admit as an air hostess!) but it's a teeny little island off the coast of southern France & north western Italy with Sardinia and Sicily, but unlike the other two islands Corsica is owned by France rather than Italy - which all confused me a LOT.

I actually flew out to Corsica 28 weeks pregnant which is the last week you are able to fly without a doctor note for most UK airlines. So as I was going to be 29 weeks when we flew back I had to make sure I had a letter from my midwife confirming that in her opinion both me & bubba were fit & healthy to fly. 

Luckily I actually found the flight both ways absolutely fine and no different to anytime I've flown before I was pregnant. I had read to expect extra swelling but thankfully this didn't seem to happen, I did make sure to drink lots & lots of water, get up to walk around a bit and it probably helped that the flight was only 1hr 50 so over pretty quickly really.

Overall I actually found a hot holiday while pregnant absolutely fine. The temperature was 30+ degrees everyday but to be honest I didn't struggle like I expected to. There were a couple of occasions where I felt fine in the heat and like I could lay out & sunbathe like normal but I was conscious that bump was getting a bit too hot so made sure I went to sit in the shade. I also usually burn super super easy (damn ginger skin!!) so I made double, triple sure that I wore my spf 30 & 50 like a good girl and kept my bump in particular out of direct sunlight wherever possible. Luckily the whole villa had really good air conditioning and each bedroom had a blackout shutter that came down electronically across the windows which kept our rooms lovely & cool throughout the day!

I'm not going to lie it was quite nice having a "get out of jail free" card being pregnant. If my family all went out for the day & I didn't feel up to it we didn't hesitate to say so and had a few quiet days staying in round the pool. Walking around in the heat all day would have been too much, especially up and down the gorgeous mountains we were staying in.

The whole purpose of the trip was to celebrate my Uncle's 50th birthday coming up soon so we were lucky enough to be staying in this gorgeous 6-bedroom villa. There were 13 of us in total, all my family plus G and my cousin's girlfriend Chloe. 

The villa was so pretty and modern, in fact we were the first people to stay in it so everything was literally brand new! We had every amenity you could possibly think of, all 6 bedrooms had en suite bathrooms (one in fact was its own separate little studio with its own kitchen & living space), a laundry room, BBQ, a gym, table tennis table, a huge plasma TV, iPod docking it really was amazing.

It would have been so so easy to just lock ourselves away in the gorgeous villa for the entire we but we did try to venture out a few times. We had a couple of meals out in the evenings, including a very scrummy Michelin starred meal that my nan & grandad treated us all to one night.

On our last day G and I actually just spent a bit of time in our own. It was the anniversary of the day that G's dad died 8 years ago so it's always a sad time of year for us and spending the day with a houseful of people would have been a bit much. We went out to this lovely sandy beach for the day and had some lunch. g finally got to try his "Moules Frites" which he had been dying to all week and I played it safe with a big fat burger!

All in all we had a great time and were so grateful to be able to get one last holiday in before Squishy arrives. Realistically we wouldn't have been able to afford to go away on our own this year otherwise so that made us even more grateful of the sunshine.

Don't get me wrong it's definitely testing at times being cooped up with 13 members of your family but I think the holiday went pretty well considering, nobody got on anybody's nerves too much and my Uncle enjoyed himself which was the main thing after all!

Did you have a last minute holiday whilst pregnant? Have you been away yet this year? Or do you have any holidays coming up? I'd love to hear all about them.

If you're enjoying our pregnancy updates I'd love you to follow our story either here or on Bloglovin'

XOXO

Bump update - 28 & 29 weeks

Bump

The bump seems to be forever growing these days. I definitely feel like in some outfits I look quite neat and have a cute, round, definite baby bump and then in others I just feel like a porker who has put on weight.

The photos below were taken the only 2 days apart! In the green dress I have a clear bump but round the pool I'm sure I didn't look much different in my holiday pictures this time last year....just a little podgier now!!

At my 28 week checkup Squishy was still measuring dead on 28cm so my midwife is happy with how she is doing.

What have we been up to?

This update is actually a little more exciting than usual as we jetted off on holiday to the lovely island of Corsica for a week. I'm going to do a separate blog post on our holiday & include lots of snaps for you but it was lovely to get away and get some sunshine late on in my pregnancy as we probably won't be able to afford to go away again for a while. When we got back G had a few extra days off work which was nice. We got to spend some quality time together, mostly just lazing around & catching up with housework (don't you just hate post- holiday washing!) but still I always appreciate having company as I'm getting so unbelievably bored not being able to work now! 

It was my dads birthday on the 10th so we popped over to Maidstone to buy him a couple of birthday presents and have a look around the shops.

Weight/Cravings

I'm part relieved and part depressed to say I'm back weighing in at 204lbs today (although technically I'm nearly 31 weeks now I'm finally getting round to posting this update!) meaning I've put on a total of 11lbs since my initial checking in appointment.

I think our scales must have just been having a funny 5 minutes when they were telling me I'd lost all my weight a couple of weeks ago but then I did eat a lot of ice creams on holiday and touch would the gallstone pain and sickness has stopped so maybe I have just piled on the pounds in the last couple of weeks?

I've been craving a lot of white chocolate which is something I never normally eat and I'm loving cheese sandwiches with LOADS of pickle!

Symptoms/Movement

Heartburn is still pretty frequent, at least every other day but is getting more bearable. 

I'm starting to get more aches and pains in my lower back and down below now, I guess where everything is stretching and getting me prepared for labour. Never mind Squishy rapidly running out of room.

Movements are on a whole new level of weird and strong. I've written a whole other blog post all about "Our little Alien" which you can read here.

Mood

Pretty relaxed on a whole these last two weeks. Being on holiday was a lovely break from reality and all my usual worries. Since we've been back it's definitely sinking in that Squishy will be here pretty soon..and starting to scare me a little.

Gender

GIRL!!!

Appointments

At 28 weeks I had to go to the hospital to have my glucose tolerance test to determine whether I am developing gestational diabetes due to my high BMI pre-pregnancy. Basically bloods and my sugar level were taken, I was given a pure sugar/glucose drink to down in one and then had to wait 2 hours before having my bloods taken again. I had heard absolute horror stories about the nasty sugar drink they make you drink but it really wasn't that bad at all. All the waiting around for 2 hours was abit of a pain but not the end of the world. I was told if I didn't hear anything then my results were fine and that a midwife would only contact me if my results came back positive and I haven't heard anything so I'm assuming all is okay. Although I was away when they would have been due to ring with the results so I will double check next time I see Karen.

I also had a 28 week checkup with Karen straight after just to make sure I would be okay to fly to Corsica. As I was over 28 weeks by this point our airline needed a "fit to fly" letter from a midwife or doctor confirming that I had not been experiencing any problems in my pregnancy so far. This is pretty normal procedure for most airlines and as it turned out no one was even fussed or wanted to see it but I felt happier having a letter anyway. 

Shopping 

Not technically shopping I guess but before we went away I met up with a lovely lady I used to work with who so so kindly donated SO many baby bits to us!

We now have a pink bumbo seat, a rainforest baby bouncer, a Winnie the Pooh baby bath, a door bouncer and so so many bags of baby girl clothes.

I honestly have been so overwhelmed with everybody's generosity since we announced we were having a baby. I really never expected to receive so many amazing items both new and hand me downs which have been an absolute god send to us and are really really appreciated.

Are you around the 28/29 week pregnant mark? I'd love to hear from other August mummy-to-be's.

If you're enjoying our pregnancy updates I'd love you to follow our story either here or on Bloglovin'

XOXO