The Eccentric American Mama in Cumbria

How far along?  39 weeks Total weight gain/loss?  33 pounds, yikes! I'm not entirely surprised considering I downed an entire bag of cadbury mini eggs today without realising. I thought Josh helped me eat them but he said he didn't have a single one, which means I had 450 calories worth of chocolate for lunch! My lack of cravings in the first 36 weeks of pregnancy have been quickly made up these past couple weeks with the amount of chocolate I've been consuming, especially cadbury creme eggs! Maternity clothes?  Yes but these days, as you can see from this photo, I just lounge around in stretch pants, my longest and most stretchy maternity shirt I own and no bra, pretty attractive right? However, as you can also see from my overstretched shirt I decided it was a good idea to put a bra on for the photo :) I now find my maternity jeans completely uncomfortable and half of my other maternity shirts, that fit a few weeks ago, no longer cover the bump! Fortunately, ...

How far along?  38 weeks, 1 day Total weight gain/loss?  29.8+ pounds, I haven't weighed myself this week but I've been eating like it's going out of style so I'm sure it will be higher than that! Maternity clothes?  Yes, I've been living in stretch pants and this new nursing dress that I bought from Frugi , it's 100% organic, adorable in my opinion, and super comfortable! I also couldn't resist buying Cyril a couple outfits. My favourite are these Owl Dungarees . Stretch Marks?  No, and I just found out that my mom never had stretch marks with any of her 5 children, and I weighed 10 pounds 12 ounces, so perhaps it is genetic and we fall into the lucky 10%. I've also been slathering on shea buttter because my stomach is constantly itchy these days! Sleep?  It depends. Early Saturday Cyril gave me a kick to the ribs at 530am that woke me up and had me doubled over in pain, it felt like I'd been punched in the stomach. This morning, I h...

Whenever Josh and I have our photos taken the weather never seems to cooperate. However, I do love the way photos look when the sky is overcast and you can see raindrops. Just like our wedding day, the weather cooperated just enough, and I mean barely enough! It was a typical cold and rainy day in the Lake District but we weren't about to let that stop us. Once the photo shoot was complete we went to the nearest coffee shop for some hot soup and tea, I was chilled to the bone, but the scenery captured in these pictures is breathtaking. I won't bore you all with uploading all 90 photos so I've selected a few of our favourites to share. As usual Hobson is the standout model in these photos! For those of you who aren't technologically savvy, aka mom, click on the photo to see a larger image :) I love the sheep grazing in the background. I just love the massive trees and green forest in this photo. Initially I was meant to have my vans on too but there was ...

How far along?  37 weeks 3 days Total weight gain/loss?  29.8 pounds Maternity clothes?  Yes, but it's a bad sign when your maternity clothes no longer fit you, in fact I'm going to change out of these jeans and shirt in a minute and put on my stretch pants and a stretchy dress! Stretch Marks?  No, thank goodness. I'm beginning to wonder if I might be part of the lucky 10% of women that don't actually get stretch marks, if that proves to be true I will rejoice, especially since I feel the odds were stacked heavily against me since everyone else in my family had stretch marks while pregnant, and my bump is quite large at this point, OK it's MASSIVE! Sleep?  Eh, some nights it's stupendous, other nights I'm awake at 3am and usually have to go downstairs for a snack and some light reading before trying to get back to sleep. I haven't been able to lie on my back for weeks because it makes me dizzy and lightheaded so I am officially forced to sl...

How far along?  36 weeks Total weight gain/loss?  29 pounds, although I find it really difficult to weigh myself in our rental property because none of the floors are even and the only room without carpeting is the kitchen! Maternity clothes?  Yes, and even some of these are too small to go over the bump. I still can zip up my puffy but unfortunately a little bit of my belly is left uncovered :) Stretch Marks?  No. I had a major itch attack in Paris though, my whole body was itching and I broke out in a rash on my face and chest, I told the midwife, and she's ordered a blood test to be on the safe side and make sure that it's not something to do with my liver, especially since I'm on blood thinners. She's pretty confident that all is fine and it's just pregnancy hormones but it will be a relief when this itchiness stops and my face no longer feels like I've been skiing everyday in the cold wind!  To top it all off I went into a panic last night when...

I've been in a bit of a panic over preparing meals in advance and freezing them because I know I will not feel like preparing food once Cyril arrives on our doorstep :) While expressing these concerns several people have suggested a food delivery service. I was sceptical for two main reasons, first, we live in the middle of nowhere, and when I say the middle of nowhere I mean Domino's doesn't even deliver to our postcode. Second, if we could get a food delivery to our house I didn't think it would be very healthy, and let's be honest I have some pounds to shed after this pregnancy so I wasn't about to succumb to fast food every night. Then Josh's sister told me that she was pretty sure the healthy ready meals I buy, when Josh is away for work, offer delivery service to new mums. I decided to search the Internet, and viola, after a mere 2 minutes I found 3 sources that have healthy food deliveries to our postcode for new mums! They also offer deliveri...

How far along?  35 weeks and 2 days Total weight gain/loss?  28 pounds but some days it feels like 50! Maternity clothes?  Yes, but I wish they made shoes specifically for pregnant women because my feet and legs have been aching from all the walking and standing I've done the past 4 days at the trade show in Paris. Stretch Marks?  No, I still put on Shea butter after showering but that's more to relieve the itchiness than anything else because I've heard that you can't really prevent stretch marks, some people get them and others don't, I've been fortunate thus far :) Sleep?  Surprisingly I've been sleeping really well in Paris, in fact, it's the best sleep I've had throughout my entire pregnancy. I think it's because I'm so exhausted when I get back to the flat that nothing could possibly interrupt my slumber, not even a full bladder and strengthening karate kicks! Josh keeps saying I'm overdoing it, which is why I'm work...