Over half way through already.

On Monday I was 20 weeks pregnant, marking the half way point. It's come round so quickly and I'm sure the second half will pass just as fast, what with moving house, my 30th, Christmas, two weddings and New Year - after which Baby Chamberlain will be just 6 weeks away!

We had another ultra sound scan on Monday morning. Like the first it was truely incredible and breath taking to see our little baby so clearly on the screen in front of our eyes! S/he's grown so much in 8 weeks. The sonographer checked all the baby's organs and bones, and showed us a close up of the heart (you could even see the different chambers). Our baby's too big now to take an accurate measurment of its lenght, but the diameter of its head is 4.6cm (almost the same as its full length 8 weeks ago!) Everything is fine, and she told us that the next time we see our baby will be in the flesh!

It's in the bag!

Yep, we exchanged contracts on our new house yesterday - just three weeks to the day from our offer being accepted! It's so exciting and a huge relief to know that it's now securely ours. The completion date is set for 26th October (as Andy's away in Ethiopia with James, who we're living with at the moment, working on a project with The CRED Foundation - a charity that James works for - setting up a children's play scheme and sexual health clinic in Addis Ababa. He'll be there for a week over half term) So we'll actually move in on Monday 30th October. Then begins the "nesting" in ernest!

Kick

I just felt my baby move for the very first time. Literally 10 minutes ago! (And after calling Andy and letting him know - I'm away in Paris with work at the mo) I thought, seeing as I'm sitting at my computer, I'd let the world know!
I've got a great big smile across my face, I've been waiting for this for the past month, trying not to get my hopes up and telling myself it's quite normal for a first time Mum not to feel her baby move until as late as 22 weeks. But at 19-&-a-half weeks stupid little doubts were beginning to pop into my head... some mothers feel their baby kick from 16 weeks, why can't I...
I just felt it again! I can only describe it as like little twitches (like when your eyes are tired) but coming from inside my tummy, and sporadically timed and in different places. Still can’t quite believe it is actually my baby (“is it just wind?”) but I’m sure over the coming days as it gets stronger I’ll be more certain.
Can’t wait for Monday and our twenty week scan, so excited about seeing the little bambino again!

Amazing pictures

I've been searching the internet for pictures of babies at 18 weeks gestation, and I can't quite believe that this is how our little baby (who is only just showing to the outside world as a bump) actually looks. It's incredible, and makes Psalm 139 seem even more real.
The first image is taken by "embryoscopy" with an actual microscopic camera. The second is a 3D ultrasound.

Our baby is approx 6 inches (15cm) long from crown to rump and he weighs about 7 ounces (190g). Although things seem calm on the surface, our little one is kicking, flexing, reaching, rolling, and even sucking his thumb. His hearing is now functioning and he will be listening to my heartbeat.

We've bought a house!

I'm now at that awkward in-between stage where my 'normal' clothes don't really fit anymore, but the maternity clothes that I have are still ridiculously too big. I feel like I look really pregnant (well very different to 5 months ago anyway) but most people who know I'm 17 weeks pregnant can't believe how little I'm showing.
Anyway, as the baby becomes more physically evident, so too does my 'nesting' instinct. And this morning we got the great news that our offer has been accepted on a lovely little three bedroom house at 10 Sunningdale Crescent.
We're so excited! It's been wonderful living with the Sharps and will continue to be (as I'm sure we'll be there for a least another 2 months) but the security of knowing that we've got our own home, and will be moved in well before the baby comes brings a great sense of peace. Plus James and Andi will be our nearest neighbours, just a 15 minute walk away.
The house is great. It's got a huge garden, garage, three bedrooms, and the most wonderful bathroom with double shower and massive corner bath. We got plans to move the kitchen / dinning room around to enable French doors to be added, opening into the garden.
Can't wait to invite you all to come and stay with us there!

And the icing on the cake is that we've just got a cheque refund of the full deposit for our old flat (after waiting over 3 weeks we'd convinced ourselves we'd be lucky to get 1/2 back).