I wish I was told....

The blog legend that is Natural Belle is pregnant (Congratulations Belle), and she asked everyone on twitter this week to let her know the good, the bad and the ugly of pregnancy and child birth. Well I jumped at the chance of giving my two pence worth. 

Of course each woman has a completely different take on this amazing and life changing experience. But her request really got me thinking about what I wish I was told before becoming pregnant and giving birth to my precious babies.

So here's my top ten wish list.

I should have read a manual.
Image from tnj.com

1) I wish I was told that contrary to popular belief I would not stop experiencing all day sickness at the 12 or 20 week stages, no siiireee. I would feel as sick as dog from around 8 weeks pregnant until up to a day or so after I'd given birth IN ALL THREE of my pregnancies. Yuk!!


2) I wish I was told that my all day sickness would be accompanied by the worst taste in my mouth EVER, it's simply indescribable. This awful taste will never go away (again until after birth) regardless of how many mints, boiled sweets, jalapeño peppers, olives, ice cubes, lemons I'd shove into my gob.


3) Crunching on copious amounts of ice will be the most satisfying thing EVER. It will also help to numb the yucky taste buds for a little while (yep I'm referring to that nasty taste in the mouth again)


4) You will be so tearful and tired at times you'll feel like you have a split personality.


5) Once your waters break you will not have several hours to potter about and get yourself together. Birth is imminent and by that I mean baby is coming in the next 20 minutes.


6) Gas and air is your best friend of all time.


7) Your births will be so quick you will not have time to blink.


8) When your milk comes in, your boobs will resemble two over inflated balloons. They will be as hard as rocks and so painful you'll not even be able to brush a feather past them without crying, screaming or wincing in pain. Or all three.


9) The first few weeks of sleepless nights are not too bad. Adrenalin gets you through. After that it is torture as you cling onto your sanity whilst trying to survive on only three hours of constantly interrupted sleep a night.


10) If you're on your second, third....etc, etc baby after pains will knock you for six and have you wishing you were in labour again. Well at least that pain produces a beautiful baby at the end of it. Although let's face it, you can't knock the uterus for just doing it's job and I guess the flattish tummy afterwards makes it all worthwhile. Well just about.....


So that's it, that's my take on my pregnancy and childbirth experience and the things that took me by surprise.

How does your experience compare and what things took you by surprise?

My bloggers dozen

Image from www.cupoftea.uk.com

I've been tagged by not one, but two fab bloggers - The Crumby Mummy and Jennifer's Little world to take part in my first ever meme!
A meme is when a blogger writes a post on a certain theme.  They then tag others to do the same.  


Since I've been tagged twice simultaneously, I've decided to combine questions from both taggers, so as not to overwhelm myself on my first time!!!!

The rules:

1. You must post the rules

2. Post 12 fun facts about yourself in the blog post

3. Answer the questions the tagger has set for you in their post and then create 12 new questions for the fellow bloggers you plan to tag

4. Tag 12 people and link to them on your blog

5. Let them know you tagged them

OK - Let's do this...

2) 12 fun facts about me:

1. I love the number 3.
2. Purple is one of my favourite colours.
3. My mum thinks I'm hilarious - I have her in stitches often.
4. I don't enjoy being pregnant (super sick and super moody - how I got through three, God only knows).
5. My labours are super quick - all have been under 3 hours (repayment for the horrendous pregnancies).
6. I love gas and air (can you say giggle biz?? Lol).
7. Mangoes are my favourite fruit.
8. Thanks to my daughters I am a huge fan of Peppa pig and Ben and Holly's little kingdom.
9. Bobby Brown was my schoolgirl crush.
10. I believe what goes around comes around, so I always strive to do the right thing.
11. I am scared of heights.
12. I love watching cookery programmes, especially ones with that cheeky Essex boy Jamie Oliver.

3) Questions - first six from The Crumby Mummy and the last six from Jennifer's Little World:

1) Who would you invite to a fantasy dinner party?  You can pick 5 people as your table only seats 6. Oprah Winfrey, David Beckham, Jamie Oliver, Penelope Cruz, Bishop TD Jakes

2) Chocolate. Milk, Dark or White? I want to say dark because it is better for you. But the reality is milk.

3) Which football team do you support?  Arsenal I'm sad to say. They are having a really bad run at the moment. 

4) What was the first record that you owned? Paula Abdul - Opposites Attract. 

5) If you won the lottery what would be the first thing that you would buy? A massive house for my mum and dad, and another massive sprawling estate for me, my fiance and children.

6) Blackberry or iPhone? iPhone all day long.

7) Marmite - love it or hate it? Hate, hate, hate. Although oddly I do like twiglets.

8) Disney or Dreamworks? Not sure. I guess Disney because of the classics.

9) What is your favourite holiday destination? Barbados baby.

10) What is your earliest memory? Being driven to my mum and dad's wedding reception in South London. I was two and a half I think. It is a very vague memory, but a memory all the same. I think that's quite impressive.

11) Would you wear your pyjamas to the supermarket? Err...No!

12) What would you say to your 16 year old self? Bad boys are not what they're cracked up to be.

My 12 questions:

1) What is your star sign?

2) Who was your first crush?

3) What was the name of your first pet?

4) What one word would describe you?

5) Who is your favourite spice girl?

6) What do you love about yourself?

7) What do you wish you'd known then, that you know now?

8) The London Olympics. Yay or Nay?

9) What is your favourite girl's name?

10) What is your favourite boy's name?

11) Sweet or savoury?

12) Who/what makes you smile?

4) And so I'm tagging the following lovely bloggers (please only take part if you want to!):

Belle noir bride 
Mummy's little monkey 
Makeshift mummy
MummaG 
Slugs on the refrigerator
Adventures of a middle-aged matron 
Circus mum
Mum of three boys
Feisty tapas 
Cheeky pink tulip
Very bored in Catalunya
Bailey Ana 


5) I will tweet the lovelies now..... 

Otherwise engaged

I love these rings, especially the fingerprints
on the inside. I know what we'll be getting.

The better half and I have been engaged for four years. Come to think of it, it's four years to the day today. O.M.Goodness!

I really thought we would be married by now, I definitely did not think we would have THREE children and not be married.

The better half proposed in glorious style a few weeks after our eldest daughter was born and  I vowed there would be no more children until we had made our union official. What is that saying about best laid plans?

Just before I found out I was pregnant with our third child I had it planned (hypothetically) that we would go to Barbados and have a simple wedding in paradise. How amazing would that have been? An amazing holiday with the girls and a wedding all wrapped into one.

Now we are in a situation where all of our money goes on the children and providing the best life possible for them. There is absolutely no money in the pot for a wedding.

Many have suggested to do something small, get family to make and bring food. The thing is we both come from very big families and I don't see how either of these suggestions could work. Admittedly I was never one of those girls who dreamt of the fairy tale wedding to her prince charming. I never had visions of the dress and the cake from the age of seven, so I'm not precious and I don't have high expectations but I would like the experience to be romantic and memorable for all the right reasons. 

Now my new target is for us to be married by 2013 the absolute latest. I'm getting concerned that the longer we leave it, the more we'll feel like just not bothering. I sense that the better half has lost complete interest in the idea, it's never a topic of conversation, it just exists silently until our daughter sees a bridal magazine or hears the mention of a wedding and asks when mummy and daddy will be getting married.

The honest answer is I don't know, our lives are so crammed with other stuff that we'll just carry on as things are. That is until 2013.......