mmmmmm look what I baked today!!

I'm feeling quite proud of myself for my baking efforts this afternoon!!:



Click on the image to see a bigger pic of it!

Melting Moments:
250g softened butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
80g icing sugar
125g custard powder
150g plain flour
1 tblsp icing sugar - extra

1. preheat oven: 160 C (140C for fan assisted). Grease oven trays, line with greaseproof paper
2. beat butter, extract, sifted icing sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy
3. stir in custard powder and flour in 2 batches
4. with floured hands, roll rounded teaspoons of mixture into balls. Place about 5cm apart on the baking trays: flatten slightly with a floured fork
5. bake for approx 15 minutes
6. Stand for 5 minutes
7. Cool on wire racks
8. Sandwich with butter icing (see below)

Butter Icing:
60g softened butter
120g icing sugar
1 tblsp milk

1. beat butter in small bowl with electric mixer until as white as possible
2. Gradually beat in half the sifted icing sugar and the tblsp milk
3. beat in remaining icing sugar

31 weeks!

Yup, 31 weeks! Still doing fabby! Getting heartburn as usual, but it's nothing too horrid really. Considering what I could be going through compared to other women's pregnancies. Baby is moving lots and lots, and appear to love lying in such a position whereby their head or butt is under my right hand side rib cage, and the opposite end of their body or limbs perhaps, are at my left hip. I constantly feel a little rubbing inside just above my left hip. It's quite comforting, like he/she is letting me know they are ok and loving growing inside me Although the body part under my ribs makes me feel very achy in that area, it's comforting to know I'm growing a precius little soul.

7 more weeks to work! I'm looking forward to finishing work. I'm beginning to get the physical tiredness - it's odd, it's not a sleepy tired but a tiredness where my body is telling me I need to stop and rest. I'm still sleeping well, have stated using a small cushion to rest my knee on - I'm a left side sleeper, so I'm finding now i need something to rest my knee on so my leg doesn't put weight on my bumpy.

How about JellyBaby!!

Your not-so-little-one is just a bit closer to their birth weight and height at around 4 pounds and 17 inches. With each added layer of baby fat, your baby's skin starts to look more and more like it will when they finally get to see the light of day. The heavy news: you can expect your miracle-gro muffin to gain about a half a pound of weight per week from now until about two weeks before birth. Great. That's just what you needed. Even more weight to carry around!

Your baby's still-developing immune system has gained substantial strength over the past few weeks getting them in full gear to face our disease-ridden world o’ wonders. Obviously, a large majority of your child’s immune strength will be derived from exposure to breast milk as well as the outside elements. Their cute little noggin’ (which could already be covered with luscious locks or just purty peach fuzz), is still soft because the skull bones have not yet fused together. As much as that sounds a little too vulnerable, their “skull softness” allows for a much smoother passage through the birth canal during labor—something both you and your little swimmer will appreciate when it’s finally time to “go!” Also, some babies will have that “soft spot” on their head for up to one year after birth.

30 weeks!

So this is it, we're into single digits for our countdown to birth... It's coming round so fast!! Baby has been a lot more active yet again this week. This morning, he/she seems to be feeling very comfy with their butt under my ribs... Glad baby is comfy, cos mummy sure isn't

We had a flutter of snow through the night, not enough to brag about and it's probably gone by now, but oooh!! Our first snow!! Hopefully it wont last as I'd planned my trip to my parents next Saturday - if it snows, I wont be going!

JellyBaby time!

The light is visible at the end of the tunnel! Your oversized self and amazing growing baby have finally reached the single digits (in terms of weeks till birth)! The fine lanugo hair that has been growing all over their little monkey-like body is going to start falling off this week in preparation for the big day. But don’t be shocked if they’re hairier than you’d anticipated, some babies keep their lanugo until after birth. Still, it’s not any cause to be concerned as it will fall off eventually. No surprises here: your little porker is getting even cuter with increasingly pudgy arms and legs this week thanks to the ever-growing layers of subcutaneous fat. In terms of numbers, your baby should be weighing in at around 3 pounds 12 ounces (or more!) and be nearly 16 inches long.

29 weeks

Almost into the 30-odd weeks Where is time going?? This week I have really felt baby has had a major growth spurt. I can tell the top of my bump has grown, and is making my ribs ache a little. So how is baby's movement? NON-STOP!!! We certainly have a littl gymnast in there. Making full body movements for hours at a time, I'm surprised he/she has the energy what with having the hiccups so frequently as well!!!

I can no longer sit on a chair which has no back support, it's just way too uncomfy for me. I suppose it's not a bad thing though, having one's back supported is always a good thing!

So how about lil Jellybaby!

If you’ve been feeling butterflies moving around in your belly, it’s not just your run-of-the-mill pre-birth performance anxiety. No, it’s your amazing baby with a case of the hiccups: a fairly common occurrence at this point resulting from practicing breathing for their big birthday. In addition, to getting a round of butterfly-like hiccups, your little swimmer has arduously managed to accumulate enough baby fat to account for nearly 3.5% of their overall body weight. Yeah, compared to we adults, it’s not a lot, but when they’re little like that—it’s certainly a healthy (and warming) accomplishment in its way. Another fantastic accomplishment: your baby's spleen is now in charge of hematopoiesis—the 10 dollar name for the process involved in building up certain important blood components. Another fantastic-accomplishment: your little monkey has been peeing into their amniotic sac for a little while now (this is why potty training takes a while) and if you didn’t know, actually swallows it along with the rest of the amniotic fluid. Although the concept is nasty, their urine is sterile and as part of the amniotic fluid base, is replaced several times throughout the day. So if you didn’t know before, now you can tell people, that yes, you drank your own urine—you were still in the womb, but nonetheless, you’ve been there.

Happy Birthday to me!!

LOL Happy 30th birthday to me!!

28 weeks - welcome to the 3rd trimester!

Gosh, we're into the final trimester! How scary but oh how exciting! I'm feeling much stronger kicks and rolls the last week or so, and it's VERY visual on the outside now Such a clever baby growing so big!! According to baby-gaga.com, he/she is currently 15 inches tall! How does that fit inside my tummy?! LOL!!

So this is my last day in my 20s... yup... tmor I turn 30 years old! So 30 years ago just now, I was inside my mum's tumtum, and now here I am with a babba inside my tumtum. How sweet!!

Jellybaby update!!

You know how you’ve been feeling a bit like a barn with legs? Well, that feeling won’t subside before… well, you know, when you finally give birth. For the time being, you’ve got yourself a baby in the business of collecting fat and lots of it! In spite of the dubious joys of being a human-barn, this baby fat business is very serious and you’ve got to put up with it because it’s going to keep your little porker warm and healthy after birth. Other good stuff from inside: their eyes are doing lots of blinking this week because they’re now able to respond to light and dark. Also, their industrious little bone marrow is now a major construction site for developing red blood cells, while their super-cute adrenal glands are actually producing androgen and estrogen—which will stimulate your hormones to begin milk production. Can you say, “Moo?”

And we get a picture this week!! I'm not too sure what this is! Some type of melon perhaps?!

28 week midwife appointment today

All is well

She took my bloods, to test for iron, antibodies and something else which I can't remember. Then she wanted to check bump and baby, so I hopped up on the bed, and she said "oooh you have a very very neat bump"... way to scare a girl...

She had a good prod and figured baby is head down, after her poking of baby's head, baby gave a HUGE kick, the m/w got a shock "ooh you didn't like me touching your head, did you!!" laugh.gif She said despite bump being little, it's all baby so she was completely happy. Heartbeat is perfect.

She asked if I am getting at least 10 movements in a 24hr period... I said, umm yeah try 10 in 1 hour

Back in 4 weeks, then it's every 2 weeks thereafter.

Upgrade & Winter Theme

I've just done a software upgrade (hate when they are released! but it's always for good reason!), and I've uploaded the new winter theme to get us in the winter season mood! Have to say I love the theme (courtesy of The Faery Tale)

Leave a comment to let me know what you think of the theme!!

27 weeks!

Wow!! Another week passed?? How scary! Not too much to report this week. Still feeling really good, baby is moving about just fine, right at this precise moment I have a craving for tea and biscuit... you know what I'm off to make when I finish posting this?!

We have a midwife appointment this Friday (7th). Bloods will be taken, I assume this will be for iron level checking etc. Also, she said from this week onwards they'd start measuring my bump - how exciting!! I guess we'll find out if baby's growth is on track or not. I still feel quite neat, so I'm interested to see what the outcome of that is.

JellyBaby:

Your not-so-tiny-anymore brilliant baby (about 2 pounds and 14.5 inches long!) is slowly rotating in preparation to “head out.” Obviously, this doesn’t happen overnight, but when you start to feel an unfamiliar pressure on your cervix, you’ll know you’ve got a fully flipped baby locked and loaded for the countdown to their birthday! Even now, at the beginning of the third trimester, their little lungs are already capable of breathing air while the pulmonary vascular system can provide sufficient gas exchange and the central nervous system can generally regulate rhythmic breathing as well as their basal body temperature. For what it’s worth, at this point in a healthy pregnancy a premature child (with intensive care) could easily win on the show: “Survivor: The Early Years.”