The Eccentric American Mama in Cumbria

Preparing for Guy Fawkes night early. It's finally obvious that I'm pregnant. How far along?  22 weeks and 1 day Total weight gain/loss?   12 pounds, I gained 4 pounds last week, yikes!  I suppose I hadn't gained anything the past 2 weeks so it's my body's way of catching up. Maternity clothes?   Maternity sweater  and  full panel jeans  both from Gap Maternity Stretch Marks?   They still haven't appeared yet, but I've read that if you're going to get stretch marks they usually start to appear between 22 and 24 weeks and since they're genetic I think it's only a matter of time before they attack my belly. Sleep?   Horrendous, I haven't slept well since I became pregnant.  I think it's my body's cruel way of preparing me for what's to come when Baby Soper arrives. Best Moments this Week?   I'd have to say carving pumpkins and roasting marshmallows over the wood stove.  I also had a relaxing morning at the s

                                   VS             This Rad Hat                                These Bodysuits                          I think the decision is obvious                               While perusing several "baby friendly" websites to get an idea of what the little guy might need once he is born I came to the conclusion that cute  bad ass boys clothes are few and far between.  I would call Josh over to have a look at a few potentials, and his response was always "Eh, not really bad ass enough for our child, don't they have any surfy stuff."  I always commented about how many adorable and stylish options there were for girls but how the boys department never stacked up, I mean grown up men wear fashionable clothes and they're not all baby blue with donkeys and giraffes all over the place.  I know it's a baby, but come on people, no child of mine is going to be caught dead in this  I'm Cute Dinosaur Romper .  So I continued my search,

How far along?  21 weeks and 1 day Total weight gain/loss?   8.4 pounds Maternity clothes?   I'm wearing my favourite pair of maternity jeans in this photo, love! Stretch Marks?   Not yet, I use my Mami mio stretch mark cream every time I shower and pray that the stretch marks never show, but secretly I know it's genetic and no amount of butter, cream, or otherwise will fend them off. Sleep?   This week was pretty rough, I was very busy at work, and not sleeping well in the evening, which made me exhausted at work, and when I'm exhausted I start to get nauseous   Which in turn meant that I couldn't stomach much for dinner and would wake up starving and the cycle went on repeat for a few days. I did manage to catch up on sleep this weekend, thank goodness :) Best Moments this Week?   My neighbor telling Josh and I that we can live in her house, rent free, if our house is still a construction zone.  She is away from work the beginning of April until October o

How far along?  20  weeks and 2 days Total weight gain/loss?   8+ pounds, haven't weighed myself yet this week. Maternity clothes?   Both, but my maternity jeans are way more comfortable than regular jeans with the bella band, especially when doing upholstery. Stretch Marks?   Not yet, Al Payne suggested shea butter but I'm not sure why he is the expert in this subject. Sleep?   Well it was getting better with my maternity body pillow until Josh decided to get sick.  Now he keeps me awake coughing, ugh.  I still get up in the night to go to the bathroom as well but it's funny because I go with my eyes closed and I now find myself going with my eyes closed even during the day, haha! Best Moments this Week?   Finding out we're having a little boy :)  Also, finding out that we did in fact have hot water.  The builders forgot to tell us that they hooked up an electric immersion heater so we've had hot water for 3 weeks and haven't known about it so we&

So many memories come flooding to my mind when I think of Autumn, or as they say in America, Fall. One of my favourite things about moving to England was the return of seasons, I absolutely love when it starts to get cold. 1. Carving Pumpkins! This year Josh and I grew our own pumpkins out in our garden.  Pumpkin patches sadly aren't as popular in England as they are in the USA so we had to create our own! 2. Walks with Hobson I love it when the weather starts to turn cold, the leaves change colour, and the farmers start to bail their hay.  It makes it so much easier to walk Hobson and we just love the gorgeous scenery right on our doorstep!  Hobson of course loves the open land, making it easier for him to chase the rabbits back into their holes, and the deer back into the woods, he's like the guardian of the field for the farmer :) 3. SQUASH ROLLS! No autumn festivities, or Thanksgiving, would be complete with out this tasty addition to your meal. Perf

Well life just seems to be getting ahead of us at the moment.  I swear I need another full day every week just to get caught up on the growing list of things I need/want to do before Baby Soper arrives. Technically I was 19 weeks last Friday but Josh and I have been far too busy, and with the nights closing in on us we had to move the chalkboard photography indoors, otherwise I would have taken my 19 weeks photo this weekend, outdoors, but then I would have already been 20 weeks! ABOUT ME How far along? 19 weeks and 6 days Total weight gain/loss? From 133 (pre-pregnancy) to 141 for a total of 8 pounds! Maternity clothes? Yes and no.  Maternity clothes are more comfortable but I still fit into some of my pre-pregnancy outfits. The skinny pink  corduroys  are a definite no no however, and so is my itty bitty bikini, which means I'll be wearing a maternity bikini in Tenerife and looking like a beached whale! Stretch Marks? Thankfully those haven't appea

Below is my last outdated post and then I'll get things updated :) Josh and I had our first scan on August 27th.  As it turns out, and Sally suggested, I dated the baby's age incorrectly.  Baby Soper was actually 13 weeks and 2 days old at the scan and not 12 weeks which explained why my little bump came earlier than expected.  This moved the due date to March 1st.  Also, we were relieved to find out that we were NOT having twins :) Baby Soper is quite the gymnast, in fact he/she did not sit still during the entire scan and enjoyed doing back flips, twists, and turns for our entertainment.  The midwife said that he/she was making her exhausted and that she didn't usually see such active babies.  Everything went well with the scan.  After she completed it I asked her if the baby had a heartbeat.  Her response, "Of course it does, you don't see babies doing back flips like that without one!"  At one point the baby put both feet squarely on the wall

After 6 months of trying I discovered that we were finally pregnant on June 29, 2013!  Which means the baby was conceived on our second anniversary in Devon.  I had my suspicions when I was long-boarding, and began to feel nauseous, that something besides the ocean might be causing me to feel ill. On the first day I possibly could, I woke up and took the only pregnancy test I had left, the cheap one from the co-op pharmacy.  When I first looked down I only saw one line and thought, "Not pregnant, again, ugh." However, after reading through the instructions for the test, I realised that you were supposed to wait 3 minutes to read the result.  I ran back into the bathroom to find 2 lines!  I was ecstatic but had to come up with a cute way to tell Josh before he woke up for work.  Fortunately, it was 4:30 in the morning so I had an hour and a half to come up with something and clearly I was too excited to go back to sleep! On my walk with Hobson I came up with t