Smelly feet and dirty faces

Ben's, anyway - I'm clean and fresh as a daisy as ever ;0) ha!

Ben has had his shoes on all day and when I took them off this afternoon the smell was awful, I could hardly bear to sit next to him! I had to go and get water and a flannel and give them a wash they were that smelly.

As for his face - well it was obvious to Steve what we'd had for breakfast this morning when he picked us up to take us to the hospital ;0) Chocolate spread on toast. In fact chocolate seems to have been today's theme for food for Ben: chocolate spread on toast at breakfast, some of a chocolate muffin a hot chocolate at lunchtime, chocolate with mint for afternoonses. Dinner will be soup and bread though with no hint of chocolate hopefully.

We went to see baby bean today, for the first of my growth scans. Can hardly believe I'm 28 weeks gone already. 11 more weeks and baby will be here. Baby is measuring spot on for dates (well, 2 days ahead, but I'm not going to worry about that - it just makes me think that my own reckoning of my EDD was more accurate than the midwife or the hospital! Also means baby will be a couple more days developed before they insist on inducing me, if we get that far) and now I know where his head is, it makes more sense as to the amount of kicking and punching that I'm feeling in various places. Me on the other hand - well I asked to be weighed (they don't do it every time you go now) and I weigh what I would expect to weigh if I wasn't pregnant. Perhaps a little less. I don't think that's entirely a good thing. So I have been permitted to have more meals a day, as long as I dose properly for them, to try and up my general calorie intake. I am always so HUNGRY so this is no bad thing! I celebrated by having a cream tea for lunch and finishing off Ben's chocolate muffin (he ate the top of it and said I could eat the rest). And my afternoon snack was my lunch of sandwiches and dark chocolate with mint and a bowl of strawberries! I like this. I just need to try and get my overall sugar level down if I'm going to be eating this frequently. That'll mean extra insulin with meals, and making sure I don't skip a meal. More work, but hopefully worth it.

Ben has been fab today. Even when we discovered that the first swimming lesson of term was cancelled an hour before the class was due to start due to "poor quality water" in the pool, he simply announced he was very sad now. And half an hour later announced that he was very tired, and so he is now fast asleep in bed much to my relief. I've been worried about leaving him with anyone after he went through a phase of crying even when being left with best friends last month, but this morning he was happy to leave me at the hospital (for my antenatal appointment) and go off with Daddy to be left at Hayley's house. And said goodbye to Daddy with a cuddle and a kiss and skipped off merrily once there as well. This is good. This shows my Ben is back on form!! We think that the transition from nappies to pants is exhausting him a bit though, he is nursing a LOT more at night, and wants a LOT more physical contact with mummy and daddy at the moment. I woke up one time last night to find him cuddling Daddy, poor Steve was pushed right up against the wall and said in the morning that every time he tried to push Ben away to get comfy Ben would push right back up against him! I love that he wanted to cuddle his daddy as well. I guess him nursing with me though is his comfort blanket type thing, the cure-all for transition periods. I don't mind really. If he keeps going I won't have to suffer so much with the initial pain of starting breastfeeding again with a new squishy! I did kind of hope that with my milk changing to colostrum he might actually finally self-wean but no such luck. He says it just tastes like milk still.... Hey ho. We're still on the "see what happens" journey with that whole side of things. He's still undecided as to whether he's a Big Boy or a Little Boy but he's not yet three years old so he can take as long as he wants to make up his mind about that!!



Where did I get up to yesterday, now? Oh yes, we hadn't gone out to the bike shop had we....

I loaded the car and came back in to find Ben freshly awake and wobbling about like a newborn calf, and after a quick cuddle he was excited to get into the car to go and see Daddy at the bike shop. Got there, he did a wee in the carpark (in the potty which I remembered this time), went to the bike shop and he then spent on hour riding round on the pink pedal bike with stabilisers! He managed to get quite a bit of speed up this time, and was happy to go off riding round the shop by himself while I took my new bike out for a spin ;0) Yes that's right - my NEW BIKE!!!! My birthday presents have arrived early :0) and are beautiful. The whole thing, including the accessories, also came to less than Steve's bike cost without any of the extras!! It's quite possibly (well it is) the nicest bike I've ever owned. It ought to last a good few years as well. I don't think I'll be riding it for a while yet but I'm SO looking forward to taking baby bean out for a ride once he's old enough to sit up properly!