Life without dreams = dull!

Hi folks, another short-ish blog this week as not much to report.

Still lacking in the sleep department, although did have about 5 hours on Tuesday night and my legs weren't too bad last night after a bit of dancing around the house, leg stretches as instructed by the hubby and a soak in the bath before bed. I didn't sleep much for a different reason last night though and that's this rash that I have had the past few days - it seems to come and go but last night was rife, which led to crazy scratching for a majority of the night! I thought it may have been some kind of heat rash, although despite this fab humid weather I haven't felt too hot so not really sure. I've seen the doctor about it to be on the safe side and it's pregnancy related apparently so I've got some cream and antihistamine to take and also have got to go back for further blood tests for my liver etc as my haemoglobin levels are a bit low, although I'm sure nothing to worry about. I think I've passed the stage where I notice much bump growth now, so am replying on other peoples comments (yes even after last weeks rant!) and looking back at the weekly photos to check on the progress. She is certainly super active as usual, which always makes me smile. It just brings it home that there's a little person in there and all this suffering is microscopic in terms of how amazing it will be once she's here with us. As every Mum always says, it will be worth it and I'm totally with them on that. Can't wait!

Work has been pretty fun this week, getting to grips with working for our new creative client who is already super impressed with what we've achieved for him. Plus the work phone has been ringing off the hook over the last few days with enquiries for social media campaign management, proof reading and copywriting work as well as other businesses wanting to link up in some way. There has been a massive boost of followers on my business Twitter account @visionodyssey and lots of contact from people and companies on LinkedIn and Facebook too, so it's all certainly heading in the right direction. I believe that keeping positive and confident about what we're doing will bring us success and it's certainly not failing me yet! Who ever is listening to my wishes and dreams please keep it coming, as I'm ever so grateful! ;-)

Do you have dreams / goals / wishes?? I really hope so and if you do, do you write them down? For almost the last ten years I've been writing down my goals and I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that every single one of them so far has been achieved, not always by the target dates but not usually far off. So, it's fair to say that I'm someone who gets what I want! I don't mean to sound arrogant by that, I just know what I want out of life and that only I am the one responsible to get it, whether it be material things or happiness it's all down to me. I also want you to know that YOU can have whatever you want too if you put your mind to it. If you haven't written goals down before, give it a go . . . just grab a bit of paper and a pen and list 10 things that you want (this can be absolutely anything, however big or small for example a new TV, a qualification of some kind or something as simple as to make someone smile everyday) and then beside each goal write down a date that you want to achieve this thing by or how often you want to achieve it. If you don't make goals measurable in some way like this then you will probably find that it's something you'll always aim for 'tomorrow' and we all know that 'tomorrow never comes' in this scenario, don't we! If any of you want help with your goals just let me know and I'll be happy to be a sounding ear for you. Equally if any of you want to share some of your goals with me and my readers then please do, as you'll be even more likely to achieve them if you tell people what it is you're aiming to do!

That's it for this week folks, as I've got a busy weekend planned (which starts today - Friday) with our friends Melissa and Kevs wedding in Reading, my Dad's birthday BBQ on Saturday in Herts and then after heading home that evening the next day we're off to Suffolk on our holiday for a week, which we're really looking forward to! I'll be doing a bit of work whilst I'm there but am going to try and force myself to chill a bit too, after all it might be a while until we get to do that again soon!! ;-)

Have a lovely weekend and look forward to hearing from you about your goals . . .

30 weeks down, 10 to go!

I can't believe I'm into my 31st week of pregnancy already! Time has really flown - it doesn't seem like yesterday when we first found out in December and here we are thinking about things like packing a hospital bag!! I've been told by a few people that we should be doing this now but as much as I think about it I can't seem to get my head around this just yet, let alone consider actually doing it. I suppose I can see the sense in it, as it's one less thing to worry about when the time does come and I guess it could be quite stressful if I suddenly had to go to hospital and hadn't sorted it, plus being out in the sticks it's not a two minute drive to the hospital so if James had to come back and do it, who knows what he might miss?! Maybe we'll think about it more next week then . . . by the looks of the lists I've been given and emailed it'll take a month to get all the stuff together! For some reason getting things like breast pads, nappies and sanitary pads is just not as a exciting as all the clothes and nursery things.

I don't feel like I've grown much more since I last blogged, but the comments I've had from people this week has been a different reaction. Some people going as far as saying I'm 'huge' and even 'fat' - thanks guys! In actual fact according to the experts I'm quite small and luckily those that have had children themselves appear to notice that and kindly describe me as 'compact' and say that I have a 'lovely, perfect bump' - that's better! ;-) For the record I do only weigh just a fraction over 9 stone and am three-quarters of the way through my pregnancy (*smug grin on my face*). I never thought I'd be bothered but for some reason I do feel a little sensitive about the whole size thing (can you tell?), stupid I know as after all it would be virtually impossible to not grow when pregnant and it's not like it's a long term arrangement - perhaps I do actually have some sensitive pregnancy hormones kicking around . . . 

There has been lots of movement from the little one this week and I've grown to enjoy this action, where I wasn't so keen initially when it became this obvious. It's quite enjoyable watching my stomach contort into all kinds of weird shapes as she rolls around and kicks inside - she definitely seems to be awake heaps more nowadays making it all seem so much more real and exciting. Talking of exciting, this week the nursery furniture arrived so her room is coming together now - I keep peeping in there, still finding it hard to imagine an actual baby being in there too though, the furniture is one thing but our baby . . . SURREAL!!

 I've had a lovely social week seeing so many people, it's really taken my mind off of the whole restless legs and sleeping issues, which are still going on but I'm residing to the fact that I'm just going to have to get used to it so am not stressing about it anymore. I will probably have a chat to the doctors this week to see if they can suggest anything (they're not as cautious as the midwives) just in case though so fingers crossed. 

Monday, my friend Jody (who lives in Australia), her Mum and our other friend Jodie and her lovely daughter all came to visit on Monday, staying Monday night and spending half the day Tuesday here too. It was great to see them all and as they were here another good friend of mine, Sally and two of her children, popped over for a drink on the Tuesday to see us all, which was lovely too as I haven't seen her for ages.

Thursday morning my friend Kerry and her son popped over and later that afternoon me and my Sister went on a road trip to Suffolk to visit our Brother until Friday. We had a lovely relaxing time there and I checked out the holiday cottage that James and I have booked starting next Sunday, which looks lovely so I'm really excited for that break now. Plus I spied countless places offering cream teas, so I'll be in heaven!

Saturday, was pretty action packed as I met my friends Hanna, Frances, Lisa, Clair and Kerry for a few drinks in Norwich early afternoon and then headed straight from there to the supermarket to pick up a big birthday cake for my friend Anna and then went to get changed at Morris' house before 10 of us headed for a night out at Jongleurs comedy club for Anna's 30th birthday. There were four comedians and it was good fun, despite no air-conditioning and my legs going crazy with the heat. I made the mistake of taking my shoes off for a bit and then struggled to get them back on again, school girl error!!

Today (Sunday) James and I are chilling out, I've been doing a bit of studying in the garden but came into the cool to write this blog as it's boiling out there today. Then we've got a roast dinner at my Mums this evening so no cooking to worry about, plus I think I'm in for a reflexology treatment and hair cut - what a great Mum I've got!! How I'm going to live up to that as a Mum myself I really don't know!!

In addition to all of this fabulous socialising I managed to get heaps of work done too and am getting more and more excited about how my business is progressing. With a new client under my belt and quite a few businesses requesting more info and quotes it looks like I'll be able to meet my aim of the amount of clients that I wanted before the baby arrives. James is particularly excited about this as he's pretty keen on being a house husband - believe me, he'd make an awesome one too and it would be lovely for him to be more involved in the business so that we can continue to grow it together. Sharing this and lots of time with the baby everything would be just perfect - you know more forever working for the dream and I won't stop trying until we've succeeded. The dream, to remind you, by the way is having plenty of quality time as a family, to be able to travel the world together and have a steady business bringing in enough income for us to do all this, nothing extravagant required just enough to mean we don't have to be dictated to by the rat race and if we can help family out where needed to that would top it off nicely. The thing to remember though, is to make sure I spend as much time with James and our new addition whilst working towards this as I plan to after, as otherwise what's the point - I know people who have been working so hard for something for most of their lives but make the mistake of missing out in the meantime - fatal mistake, as life is for living and without being negative you never know how much time you've got so keep working towards your goals but live for the moment in the meantime too as otherwise it might be too late by the time you look back. I think if you master this you've got it sorted!

That's all from me folks, apart from to say that I'm not going to publish the challenges anymore as didn't really get as much support for it as I'd hoped but if enough of you request me to start it up again of course I'll spend time on putting some more together . . . after all it's for you guys, so if you want it I'll do it! ;-)

Until next time . . . keep smiling lovely people x

Record amount of sleep in one week!

Hi folks, hope you've all had a good week so far . . .

This is probably going to be the shortest blog I've written so far (I can hear the relief for some of you already! ;-)) as it's been a pretty average week so far in terms of what I've done due to severe lack of sleep. I've worked out that since last Saturday night I've probably had a maximum of 10 hours sleep in total thanks to these restless legs of mine. However, I am determined not to write another whinging blog as you all know about it and I'm fed up with the sounding like a broken record going on about it. Also, it looks like I might be on the up as last night I was treated to between 4 and 5 hours. This was no doubt aided by a fantastic NLP treatment by the lovely James Muir, who came to our house last night after working in Lincolnshire to see if he could help. What a sweetheart! He doesn't even live near us, as him and Karl live in Suffolk, about an hour and a half away! You don't find people like James very easily in life, so when you do make sure you hang on to them!! Thank you James, you are an absolute sweetie! Well done Karl for finding him! Now, can I please borrow him for two months?? ;-)

I had the midwife on Monday for the Anti-D injection that they didn't have last week and some blood tests. When she went to give me the Anti-D she apologised, saying that she was sorry but it's a really painful one. I'm not really sure that's the best way to get your patient to relax but I put on a brave face, remembering I'm not afraid of needles anymore and surprisingly I didn't think it hurt at all! It took a little while to do it as they have to administer it slowly but it wasn't painful - wow, I really am getting tough! ;-) We had a little listen to the babies heartbeat again, which was pretty fast and she made some comment about her getting a bit excited when she's prodded - I'm not sure excited is the right expression, more like p****d off when the poor thing gets prodded, bless her! Anyway, everything seemed fine and I don't have another midwife appointment for a month now. In the meantime there are some ante-natal classes, although we're on holiday for some of them and I'm not really sure whether they're worth going to or not? If anyone's got any experience of them please let me know as I'd love to hear what you think . . .

Technically I'm exactly 30wks on this
photo although for the blog it should
be 29 weeks, confused?!

30 weeks from the side - 3/4 the way!

I didn't get as much work done this week as I had planned due to feeling so knackered and didn't do my shifts at the council either as would have probably done more harm than good helping the old folk out in my state! Today has been pretty productive though, as I had a meeting with a business advisor who has given me some really useful information that I needed regarding the legalities of my business, plus I finished all of my contracts so now have them all in place for the people I have working for me and the clients we take on. Also, the best news is that I secured a new client today, a professional photography business, which is a bonus as me and the person who will be helping manage the campaign for us are both big photography lovers which makes the job even more enjoyable. We've also had quite a few recommendations and our business development manager has some meetings set up with some more prospective clients, so looks like we'll be well on the way to my target amount of new clients before I give birth - all very exciting!

The only social things that I have done this week is a lovely lunch at The Ship in Brancaster followed by a quick walk at Burnham-Overy-Staithe with my Mum and Sister and then I took my sister for lunch yesterday afternoon and we popped to see our cousin Amy, her husband Andy and little Oscar, as couldn't focus on work, plus needed to get out of the house. I'll be making up for the lack of socialising this week over the weekend though, as am off to Maidstone tomorrow for my friend Melissa's hen night and then am driving home that night afterwards as have got to pick some friends up Sunday morning in Norwich to go to Wroxham for a boating adventure on the Norfolk Broads for my friend Harriets 30th - really looking forward to seeing so many friends packed into just two days, yay!!

Me, a scary lady?!

To put you in the picture of my situation as I write this weeks blog . . . I'm currently sitting back in one of our oversized comfy brown leather sofas in the lounge with my Macbook on my lap and a hot cup of tea and pregnant ladies portion of homemade victoria sponge (well my take on a victoria sponge anyway - jam substituted for thick vanilla buttercream!) on the coffee table in front of me - hello Saturday!! I've been to Tesco this morning, marinated some meat, sliced a heap of onions to fry, prepared some pasta, made a homemade potato salad and a fresh salad all ready for 12 of James' family to join us for a BBQ this afternoon. So with a couple of hours to chill before they all arrived I thought I'd grab this opportunity to write my blog . . .

Last weekend we had a fantastic time at our friends wedding, it was a stunning ceremony and lovely reception and was great catching up with our friends from Australia and comparing bump sizes with my friend Kelly, who is due two days after me! 12 hours in heels began to take it's toll as the disco was drawing to an end at midnight though so we said our goodbyes and headed off to our room, where I ran a cold water bath to soothe my aching feet before bed. It's a lot harder carrying the two of us around in high heels than it was just me 7 months ago!

28 weeks

Pregnancy wise this week hasn't been all that fun. I hate saying that, as I feel so lucky to be pregnant but at the same time I do want to be honest and explain how I've been feeling each week rather than making out it's always a bed of roses. I promise I'm not whinging though as wouldn't wish any of it away if it meant not being fortunate enough to be expecting a child, so please bare with me for the next few minutes as I'm just going to tell it how it is . . . The restless legs is still a pain and has been causing more and more sleep loss, some nights not sleeping at all. Not so good when I've got an early shift for the council as I have to get up at 5.30! I'll be finished there at the end of this month though, so I won't have full days of no sleep to try and deal with for hopefully a full two months before the little one arrives. The other thing that has been pretty horrible this last week is cramp in my legs and feet. I'd never had cramp before I was pregnant and in my head I thought it was just like pins and needles, how wrong could I be?! It usually happens when I'm in bed and has lasted over five minutes a couple of times in the last few days, which is not nice and there seems to be nothing I can do to get rid of it any quicker. Let's hope this is another thing that will simply become a distant memory after the little one is born! I also had a bit of a scare last weekend as went from feeling her moving pretty regularly everyday to absolutely nothing after Friday night to Sunday afternoon, at which point I borrowed my cousins baby heartbeat monitor and as soon as I strapped it on she gave one hell of a kick, perhaps to show us she was ok! Since then she hasn't stopped moving and kicking and appears to have moved into a different position as I'm feeling her in different places to where I was a week ago, I can even see what is probably her head and bottom sticking prominently out of my bump - cute in some ways but if I'm honest at times still all a but alien to me! My back has started to ache again lately too, similar to how it was in the first trimester, which I guess this time around is due to the extra weight and strain it's dealing with as well as the fairly rapid growth that's happening.

28 weeks

Talking of rapid growth, apparently it's not as rapid as it seems as according to the midwife I'm a little smaller than I should be at this stage - still plenty of time for growth though and I feel like a whale so as long as she's ok I'm happy with 'a little smaller' ;-) My midwife appointment was pretty much a waste of time this week as I was meant to have an Anti-D injection, due to my rare blood group, but despite ordering it weeks ago they didn't have any in stock so I've got to back Monday for this, another measure up and some more blood tests - joy!

Something happened when I was in the waiting room for this midwife appointment that I guarantee will make you all smile (something to lighten the tone after my whinging in that last paragraph!) . . . I was sitting quietly, head in a magazine when another pregnant lady and little boy in his push-chair joined me in the waiting room. Despite feeling like a complete zombie, after yet another sleepless night, I turned and smiled at the lady and boy (probably about 18 months to a year old at a guess) and then went back to my magazine (miserable as that seems now, I just wasn't in the mood for small talk). At this point I heard the little boy say 'scary', followed by his mum asking 'what's scary?' at which point of course I looked up and as he said it again he was pointing (you guessed it!) right at ME!! If I hadn't been in such a state of exhaustion I probably would have been more embarrassed but as it was I felt more for his Mum, who was clearly mortified by what he'd just said. I laughed to make her feel at ease and then made a conscious effort to try and not look so frightening to this child - what on earth is lack of sleep making me look like?!!

The rest of the week has been about work really, lots achieved and ready to rock and roll with getting more new clients for Vision Odyssey - the new team members all really enthusiastic about what they're working on and what lies ahead for us all, so lots to be excited about. Now I just need the website to be finished, as having passed many planned launch dates my patience is starting to wear thin, although being a perfectionist doesn't help as I will probably continually see things that I want to change, however am definitely going to be biting the bullet sooner rather than later so we can get this show fully on the road! Once again I tell you all, please watch this space . . .

Now onto my challenge for this week and it's going to be one that everyone of you can get involved in so I'm expecting more comments than I've ever had before because it's easy folks!!

'A week of music therapy'


Inspired by the lovely James Muir's Blog this week I want you all to grab your iPods (or any other MP3 or CD players will do) and listen to your favourite music every day this week. Scientists have found that music encourages the release of the feel-good chemical dopamine, which may help us feel more positive and motivated. Sing along too and you will definitely get an even bigger happiness hit! Studies have also shown that singing reduces stress and lowers blood pressure so even more reason to give it a go! Now I want to know what song makes you want to jump up and dance or grab the nearest hairbrush for a good old sing-a-long session . . .


Here's one of my favourites:

Life in 4D!

It's Saturday morning as I write this weeks blog and I'm in bed at the De Vere: Theobalds Park hotel in Hertfordshire, as we've got our friends Shannon and James' wedding down here today. With the weather so stunning it really feels like we're on holiday and with our Australia based friends Jody and Kon joining us in a few hours it will definitely feel like it as the last three times we've seen them it was at their UK wedding celebration (in Feb), which followed their actual wedding in Australia (last September) and before that Jody's sister, Kelly's, in Mexico (last May), so weddings abroad have become a bit of a habit! We may only be in the UK this time but the setting of this Georgian mansion house is stunning within 55 acres of parkland and with the sun shining as it is we could be anywhere! Thank you UK weather for being so fabulous over the last two months!

The past week has been very social and I feel like I've caught up with lots of people, which is always good! It started last Friday with the night out I mentioned for my friends Kerry and Hanna's birthdays. We went to Pinocchios restaurant in Norwich for a bite to eat, followed by drinks in Revolution, where I eagerly studied the cocktail and shot menu (whilst drinking a lime and soda, I must add!) deciding which I would treat myself to post birth of baby! ;-) Hanna has been away travelling in South-East Asia, Australia and New Zealand for the past three months so it was especially lovely to catch up with her. Now she's in Ghana then Italy for a total of 6 weeks, living the dream!! Good on her, after all life is for living so we've got to remember to jump at any life changing opportunities like these. West Africa will be an eye opening experience, I'd love to go sometime so can't wait to hear all about it!

On Saturday I met up with a group of my old school friends (Laura, Amy, Harriet, Ailish, Morris and Anna) in Norwich for lunch, followed by coffee and cake. It's always lovely seeing these girls and having known each other since we were kids there's always guaranteed giggles and plenty of stories, whether remembering the past or chatting about what we're up to now. I'm so glad that we're still close, as so many people lose touch with their school friends as they get older but we're a group that I know will always stay in touch and I feel lucky to be part of such a close knit friendship.

Sunday was a pretty special day for us, as we had our private 4D scan. This was amazing! My brother, Karl, drove over from Suffolk to join us as I really wanted him to be a part of it and he's such an enthusiastic Uncle to be that he was over the moon to be there, in fact I'm not sure who was more excited, him or us! Having a scan is always re-assuring that everything is ok and it's lovely to see what's happening when you can feel it all going on but are never sure quite what you are feeling. It was a weird sensation to see and feel her kicks at the same time. I feel so lucky that we can make the most of modern technology in this way and have an extra opportunity to get even more thrilled about our little one. We should after all take advantage of this high-tech stuff if it makes us happy and the feelings we felt whilst having the scan were certainly that! We got a DVD as well as a CD of photos which will an amazing thing for our daughter to watch when she's a bit older, for that reason alone it was worth having it done. As a treat for my avid readers, I thought I'd put a few sneaky pics on here so that you can see what we were so excited about!

Pregnancy wise this week I have to be honest and tell you it's not been the bed of roses I've been spoilt with over the past three months. As I enter the third trimester getting sleep has been somewhat difficult. My restless legs have been causing me a fair amount of stress and I've probably only been having about 3 hours sleep most nights. It's lucky we've got quite a bit of space in our house as it's been like musical bedrooms this week with me not wanting to disturb James, after all what's the use of neither of us getting any sleep! At times it has been so awful that I've spent hours crying through the night. If you've never suffered with restless legs this probably sounds dramatic but believe me it's horrible! I've tried everything to help it, including cycling for miles on my exercise bike at 3am in the morning, meditation and relaxation techniques but none of these worked. What did though (and please don't judge me) was a pint of Guinness on Thursday night when we went out for a curry with our friends Lisa and Scott. I had read that lack of iron can make restless legs worse so Guinness seemed the obvious choice! Looks like my shopping this week will consist of a crate of Guinness, spinach and apricots!! To put a positive spin on the sleepless nights, a friend on Facebook (who suffered with the same thing) mentioned that being kept awake with restless legs is a lot worse that sleepless nights with the baby. Whilst not being able to sleep, despite feeling absolutely exhausted, I had thought about this as at least it will be a case of not sleeping because someone needs you, rather than not being able to go off because you feel the need to run miles or kick everything in site! Plus, if this continues I'll be used to not having much sleep so bring on the baby I say!! 

27 weeks

27 weeks

On the baby front, aside from the leg issue there has been more bump growth, lots of kicks and movement and a possible fist or foot sitting in what feels like my ribs, weird sensation but having seen how cramped up she is inside me who can blame her for spreading out as much as she can!

Back to my social week . . . Sunday night we had James' parents over for a roast dinner, which James cooked very well and then Monday was bank holiday so after a bit of dress shopping we met some of my family for dinner. A lovely evening, entertained by my cousin Amy's lovely two year old son Oscar - a little chap sure to make anyone broody! Tuesday I worked an early shift at the Council followed by a meeting with one of my friends about her working with me as a Business Development Manager for Vision Odyssey. She is super keen and I am stoked that she's getting involved as just know she will be a huge asset to my continually growing team! Wednesday I worked on my business in the morning and then a late shift at the Council until midnight, followed by no sleep until 6.30am due to the nasty restless legs! This was the point I decided some nights I'll just have to be nocturnal and luckily enough with the nature of my business this would probably work ok, not that I really want to make it a habit but if needs must . . .

Thursday was a super productive day for Vision Odyssey, followed by dinner with friends on a particularly summery evening, which really felt like we were on holiday! Did I mention how much I'm so grateful for this beautiful weather?!! Friday, I got up early to get some last minute work done and then went to the hairdressers for a much needed blonde top-up! After this James and I drove down to Hertfordshire to this lovely hotel, where my Dad came to meet us for dinner, as he only lives about half an hour away. It was great to see him and it's been almost a month since we last saw each other so he could really notice the growth of the bump! 

Now it's 9am Saturday and our friends Jody and Kon will be here in about three hours so we're going to grab breakfast and leisurely get ready for what looks to be a fabulous day - congratulations in advance to Shannon and James! Nothing like a good wedding!

Just before I go . . . I'm not going to add another challenge this week as think last weeks 'Do something for Charity' deserves another week. Poor show you lot (apart from James Muir and Debs Warren), come on let us know what you're going to do for charity!! I signed James and I up for the Waterwalk and James has been training for the run since - I'm only doing the walk so luckily no training for me, thank goodness, being as it's hard enough to walk nowadays!! ;-)

Keep smiling lovely people and I'll be back in a week . . . xx

p.s. Bump photos to be added to blog once were back in Norfolk