When do you start feeling kicks with an Anterior Placenta?

So as per usual, my body has decided to be a little bit difficult and has given me an anterior placenta. An anterior placenta is nothing to worry about, all it means is your placenta is located at the front of your abdomen, where as most people's are slightly at the side, or at the back - anywhere but the front. Having the placenta at the front in pregnancy means you won't feel your baby move as much as the next person. I remember finding this out at my 12 week scan, so I haven't been worried about it but it is disappointing having to wait so long to feel your baby move while others are documenting their movements with excitement.

I read that if you do not feel your baby move by 25 weeks, anterior placenta or not, you should tell your midwife. So in my mind I always thought, if I don't feel anything by then, that's when i'll worry.

I remember feeling twinges in my first trimester and second trimester which I thought could be kicks. But they were painful, like sharp stitch like pains and kicks are not supposed to be painful. Whenever I asked other mums what the kicks felt like, they would say they feel like butterflies or bubbles bursting. My twinges definitely felt nothing like that so I put those down to growing pains and patiently waited for the 'butterflies' to kick in. Every time I went to see my midwife or spoke to other pregnant women, they would ask me if I feel the baby move and I would always feel so negative about it because I felt NOTHING. My midwife would always tell me that the baby is too small to kick with force, and because the placenta is at the front, they are kicking the placenta before it reaches my stomach.

Finally at 21 weeks - during my 22nd week, I felt a kick! Because at this stage the baby was bigger and stronger, my kicks were not subtle. They did not feel like butterflies at all, more like big bubbles bursting/ little pokes. It's funny how one day it all just changed, and from then on I felt movement everyday. Sometimes I only felt her once a day which worried me but it's normal to not have a pattern that early on in pregnancy. Now at 25 weeks I can actually see the movement from the outside, it's amazing and feeling my baby move comforts me so much. I have been told to not start kick counting until 28 weeks as that's when the NHS care about movement/ decreased movement. Before that its too early on and less movement is considered normal.

Apart from the inconvenience of not feeling my bubs kick as soon as others felt theirs, anterior placentas are completely fine in pregnancy. Panic over!

When did you start feeling your baby kick?

-Robyn x

Second Trimester Hormones!

I am a very sensitive person, any kind of emotion - especially anger, tips me over the edge. If i'm angry - I'll cry, if i'm frustrated - I'll cry, if i'm overwhelmed with empathy - i'll cry. It doesn't take much to make me cry and i'm talking pre pregnancy!
Since being pregnant I have cried most days. If I see something cute on TV i'm crying, if I feel frustrated i'm crying, if I google pregnancy scares - i'm crying. There came a point where I honestly worried about my mental health and googled 'Is it safe to cry every day when pregnant'. How ridiculous am I! If I hadn't been like this before I would actually worry that I have some kind of post natal depression but I think it's just my personality. As my mum always says 'you were born anxious'.
I'm not worried because these emotions never last and when I'm happy I wonder why I was ever sad in the first place. But that's pregnancy for you isn't it, we have to suffer these comical highs and lows.

One emotion that is definitely taking centre stage this pregnancy is anger. I get soooo angry at every little thing that offends me, I am having NONE OF IT! Let me give you a few examples of what has been WINDING me UP!:

-Road rage. Arrogant drivers on the road. I haven't beeped so much in my life. People cutting me up = BEEP. People who beep me out of impatience = they get the middle finger. I had a middle finger war with a couple of vans the other day, oh and a big lorry (while in my Fiat 500 haha)! WHO AM I?! I just have this overwhelming need to defend myself, I will not be disrespected!

- Being patronised. So this morning I had to ring my mum at 8am and cry on the phone because I was overcome by an immense wave of pure anger and frustration. We are in the process of selling our flat and I am also working from home so juggling surveyors and viewers around my clients has been hard. I had a shoot booked in at midday and my partners mum text me the day before to let me know that the estate agent had booked an appointment at my flat from 11-1pm. It doesn't help that this estate agent is the stereotype patronising male who comes across so rude via text. I felt utterly disrespected that he hadn't thought to tell me AT ALL!, so I had a text battle with him and said things like 'I have to work, if I mess my clients around, I lose work meaning we won't be able to afford to move anyway!' I'm sorry do you think my work is a joke? So your job is important but mine can be sacrificed? SO yeah I cried, because all that anger had to come out some how. Arrogant males literally bring out the warrior in me.

-Not feeling in control. Whatever I eat I google 'Is *** safe to eat in pregnancy' and find out that 70% of food is basically considered dangerous. This morning I googled 'Is raw cacoa safe in pregnancy?' The answer was Yes and NOOOO, but I had to draw the line there because I love my daily chocolate smoothies and if you really look into everything, nothing is technically safe. Also, I can never get a hold of my midwife, so I find myself googling everything that concerns me which has wrecked my mind frame. So I often find myself worrying about things that I don't know if I should be worrying about? It's tiring.

-Seeing unreasonable behaviour online General ignorant views. I'm talking about people who share photos of animals and can't see the cruelty behind the 'funny video' or 'cute dog (bred to mutation)'. People who disrespect and mock vegetarians and vegans because we actually care about the planet and the animals who share it with us. Small minded comments which deeply offend me personally. I am commenting on everything. So I apologise if I offend you along the way. I just get a spell of dizzy rage posses me and all of a sudden my keyboard warrior hands are posting a defensive rant.


But on the flip side for the past few nights I have woken myself up from laughing in my dreams. Hysterically laughing. I am actually mental.

Is anyone else as mad as me? Or were you as mad as me when you were pregnant?

Follow me at:
www.instagram.com/robynJane_x
www.twitter.com/robynjaneblog - I post tweet rants which may be comical to some !

- Robyn x

How to predict your baby's gender at 12 weeks

If you want to find out the gender of your baby, you probably will hate waiting for the 20 week scan. I found myself googling Mayan gender prediction charts, Chinese calender's, symptoms of carrying boys & girls, I loved trying to guess (they were all wrong by the way). The best way, and most medically accurate way of predicting a baby's sex is via your 12 week scan photo (which worked for me!)

Half way through my epic google trail, I came across forums where people were saying they were told their baby's gender at their 12 week scan!?  -And that's when I came across the 'Nub theory'.

'Between 11-13 weeks, all babies are said to have a 'nub' between their legs called the genital tubercle, and according to this theory the angle of the nub will indicate whether it's a boy or girl. It's said that if the nub is over 30 degrees up from the spine, it's a boy - but if it's under that then it's a girl.' - Source

By this point, my 12 week scan had come and gone but I did have a photo. So I googled examples of girl nubs vs boy nubs and compared them to my own. The nub prediction did end up being correct, even though my baby's nub was unclear in the image. Some scan photos do not really show any kind of nub, but some are there, loud and clear. I now see people's 12 week scan photos and KNOW if they're having a boy or girl. Boy nubs are pretty obvious, girls are harder because you could argue there is no nub in the image.

Examples below including my own scan image:

My Scan Photo:

Have fun predicting your baby's gender! Or if you're like me - predicting other people's baby's genders too! But remember to keep your opinions to yourself, some people would rather not know.

Follow me at:

www.instagram.com/robynjane_x 

Robyn x

Second Trimester Update & Gender Reveal!

So currently I am 22 weeks + 1 day! - is that 5 months? I lose track! All I know is I have March, April, May and June before i'm due beginning of July! I'm kind of preparing myself for the end of June, just in case baby is early.

So much has happened in the space of a few weeks. We had our 20 week scan and I had a couple of other tests which have put me under the high risk umbrella. One of them being a thyroid problem. I have been on thyroid medication since I was 18, so I always knew that they would have to keep an eye on that during pregnancy. Having a dysfunctional thyroid can lead to a small baby, which would mean they would deliver the baby earlier than planned. So they have booked me in for an extra scan to measure the growth of bubs. My midwife is so good, she explained how although I am classed as high risk now, it doesn't mean I will be high risk when it comes to delivering the baby. They just need extra checks in place during my pregnancy to make sure baby is growing OK. So I'm not worried at all, if anything I am happy I am getting the extra checks. There is another complication which I want to talk about in a separate post. It's something that took me by surprise and has completely messed up my ideal birth plan. I want to talk to my midwife first and get more information before I go writing about it. But I do plan to be very open about everything because I feel like it could help others who are in the same position.

Gender Reveal
Before we had the 20 week scan, we had a 16 week private gender scan. I just could NOT wait! I wanted to be able to connect with the little soul growing inside my body. Without knowing the gender, we kept calling the baby IT and THEY. I wanted to be able to say he or she and even give them a name, to make them a real person. Up until knowing the gender, none of it felt real.
At the 16 week scan, they had trouble getting baby to be in the right position so I had to go for a walk and come back after 20 minutes. After a lot of jumping up and down, the lady managed to get a look at 'the parts' and told us we were having a girl. I was absolutely over the moon because I always thought I would have a girl, and I kept dreaming/ seeing a little girl in my meditations yet everyone around me, even spiritual people were telling me I was having a boy so I was feeling a bit disconnected with the baby, like I didn't know them, so the news instantly made me feel at one with my mini me.  I have a you tube video up which talks about how I psychically knew I was having a girl which I will link below if anyone is interested in that paranormal stuff.

We waited until the 20 week scan confirmation before we 100% believed we were having a girl. But the doctor did confirm the sex and said the scans are very rarely wrong. The fact that we had two separate scans at different stages, saying the same thing gave me a lot of confidence. So now we call our baby SHE and we actually have named her. But i'm keeping the name a secret until she's born, just in case we change it ! But it's so lovely being able to buy girly things, and to be able to plan her nursery and visualise what she will look like when she's a real person. If it were up to just me, I would find out the gender for my next pregnancy too.

The Baby Show - London Excel - My Experience

On Friday, me, my boyfriend James, my mum and James's mum braved the icy road and travelled to the Baby Show in London Excel, and my god was it worth it. First of all the journey was an absolute breeze, living in Essex, it's an easy journey to the outskirts of London and because of the weather paired with the fact that we went on a week day, the Excel underground car park was pretty much empty. All of the exhibitors had set up a few days before the show so the weather didn't effect that part of the event.

The show started at 9:30am and we arrived at 10:30am. My first impressions were that it seemed fairly small and fairly quiet, but oh boy the event was definitely not small. As we walked around the stalls, taking in all the information given from pretty much every stand, I soon realised that getting around the show would take hours - all day in fact. We used all the time we were given, giving ourselves a very snappy lunch break. We ended up leaving at closing time, with my last purchase bought in the knick of time.

As a first time mum and somebody who just hasn't been brought up around babies (my brother is only 2 years younger than me), I have absolutely no idea about what babies NEED and what I as a mum will need, so I went to the show with a basic list and an open mind. I hadn't even decided on a specific brand of pram - which made the shopping experience that much funner.

The Show Set up
The show had over a hundred stalls, an almost overwhelming amount. They also had a stage which had talks/ displays etc which personally I didn't have time for - I was too busy shopping! I did want to catch the first aid talk as I'd like to comfort my mind by being aware of those things, but unfortunately I missed the time slot. I couldn't help but laugh at one show - the maternity show - where models with bumps (pretty sure they were fake) were modelling maternity wear, prams and baby wear with their model (real) babies. It felt like I was in a spoof for a moment and James (boyfriend) definitely had a 'Oh god where am I' moment.

The Brands, The DEALS!
Every brand which was on my list were there such as Tomee Tipee, MAM, Silver Cross, Mothercare, Chicco, Joie, Sleepyhead, waterwipes and every brand of pram you could imagine plus more!
Almost every stand offered a freebie, we left with about 6 free newborn bottles worth £6 each, dummies, a couple of baby grows and lots of small product samples.
I'll give you a brief summary of what I bought at the show and the savings we made, perhaps not everything because I would be here all day:
- Chicco Next2Me Dream Crib 2 with mattress and two mattress covers, Chicco Next2 Stars projector, Chicco Feeding Pillow bundle - RRP £269 we paid £229 
-Sleepyhead Pillow 0+ months - RRP £130 we paid £105 via mothercare
- Tommee Tippee Digital Video Movement and Sound Monitor, Tommee Tipee no touch forehead thermometer & Tomee Tipee Nursery Bin RRP £277 all together - we paid £155!
-  Tutti 3 Piece Nursery with a mattress and changing mat add on - £900
- MAM Anti Colic microwave steriliser set RRP £29.99 we paid £15
We also bought plastic backed bibs, big muslin cloths, a fabulous changing bag and the big one - A PRAM! 

The pram we chose is from a fairly new and VERY underrated brand called Mee-Go. Mee-go is a British brand and we were able to meet the designer at the show who had a quick chat with us and explained how he had previously worked as an engineer at Norton motorbikes. I personally love that it's a very personal brand and I know that if we have any problems, they will be a phone call away. We went for the Milano model because we were looking for a pram with good suspension so we're able to walk off road if we wanted to. We were originally looking at the Silver Cross Pioneer but compared to Mee-Go, it was extremely overpriced for what it offered. What I like about Mee-Go Milano is that the bottom tray is covered up and washable, the suspension is adjustable - we can turn it on and off, the fabric was very similar to the Pioneer Brompton look, the carrycot had adjustable lie modes so the baby could be at a slight angle if needed, it was very easy to take apart and fold down and the base even has a handle so that it's easy to carry and they offered a travel bundle which included the car seat, buggy attachment and an isofix base. All in all it came to £649 - WAY cheaper than the Silver Cross Pioneer and in my opinion, a better design. I'm not one to go for looks, obviously I want a decent looking pram(and the Milano is lovely) but trends do not bother me at all. I wanted a pram which was high off of the ground and practical as well as comfortable and safe for bubs. I hate prams like Egg, Bugaboo and the current trends because they are such small frames and  very low prams in comparison to the Silver Cross and Mee-go models. Mee-Go is definitely worth checking out! (https://www.mee-go.co.uk)

So that just about sums up my Baby Show Experience. I am SO glad we went, the savings we made are absolutely insane. I loved the whole experience and will definitely be back when I need a high chair etc! TOP TIP: If you are going tomorrow or plan to go to the next show, be aware that you can haggle with the sellers and ask them to throw in freebies! 

- Robyn x