I was awarded the ONE LOVELY BLOG AWARD!

I have been absent lately, my little lady has been keeping me all to herself! I am immersed in her little world and havent had time for anything!!! So today I checked my emails which I havent touched for a few days now and there it was...

Wahey! I have been awarded the One Lovely Blog Award!

Awarded to me by The Crystal Lady !!!

Now the rules...
1. Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.
2. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that love and/or have newly discovered.
3. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.
4. Use the One Lovely Blog award picture from my blog, on your blog to let everyone know that you have one lovely Blog!

Now here I go on the search of 15 blogs....oh dear...let me see now....

Labour inducing Acupuncture & Reflexology

As you already know I was overdue with my pregnancy and tried all the old wives tales to try and make labour come...sadly nothing worked.

I was desperate, really desperate, so I went online to research some more and came across some comments suggesting acupuncture and reflexology, as I am much into natural therapies I started researching into these more in depth. I read in many websites and blogs about positive experiences and it seemed to work for some people so I went in search of nearby practices.

I enquired about peoples experience and also the prices, I was still reluctant though as I am terrified of needles and also my pockets were nearby empty due to the moving and getting stuff for the baby etc. I came across a "clinic" (amongst many others) which I already knew about and they told me that it generally works and that I should bring my hospital bag and notes just in case... They told me I could have a treatment of just acupuncture or I could have reflexology too, which seemed to be more effective and quicker at bringing on labour.

The place is in Lakeside Shopping Centre, Thurrock, Essex (England) and I think it is called "Acupunture & Herbs", lady was really friendly and made an appointment for the next day for me. The acupunture was £25 and the reflexology was £50, it was actually the cheapest I had come across and since it was a place that I was familiar with as I have gonne passed it many times, I stuck with it!

I went on the 15/06/09 at around 2pm (an hour early) and they said it was fine that they could see me. I was a little aprehensive because of the needles but everyone was so friendly and made me feel very at ease...the needles were very thin (came in sterile packet which was opened in front of me) and barely felt them going in, I did read on the internet that you can fit 5 acupunture needles in 1 normal hospital needle, I only felt anything when the doctor tweeked them and even then I didn't really feel them, I felt more my muscles being tickled! The baby certainly felt something cause she started moving around a lot, they said this was normal and a good sign.

They then left me to relax in the room with the needles in for about 30 mins, after that the doctor came to take them out, easy peasy!

I then had the reflexology and this was really great, I would definately have this again even just to destress!

Reflexology is a special foot massage, basically every area of your foot corresponds to a part of your body. They put my feet in a special herbal foot bath to stimulate my circulation and then I had a wonderfully long foot massage done by the doctor. I got out of there super relaxed.

After I finished we went for late lunch and a walk around the shops... got home and while making late dinner (Spaghetti Bolognese @ 9.15pm) for the family and parents in law (on hols over from South Africa) MY WATERS BROKE!

So long story short...I am a believer in Chinese natural medicine and recommend it to anyone!

The story of the birth for those now curious is coming soon! Now difficult to write too much at a time with the baby, hubby looking after baby Mylie and Stefan for me to write this...now have to go and put my Stefan to bed!

Monica xxx

Give aways coming back soon!

Our give aways are coming back soon!

These have been put on hold due to us moving and having a baby at the same time!
Hectic times for me at the moment.

We will have a mega give away soon though! ;) Keep an eye out!

Monica xxx

40+ Weeks Baby now overdue!!!

It has been a while since I posted... which is highly unusual for me.

As you noticed I announced we found a house and were moving and we managed to do it approx 2 weeks ago... yep, I moved at 38 weeks pregnant... it was a nightmare and I would NOT recommend it to anyone!

Fortunately for us baby Miley did not come out while we were moving but she is just as stubborn as mummy and is driving us nuts because now she doesn't want to come out!

We have managed to get rid of a lot of boxes and the kids room is sorted out nicely, everything ready for the baby...now, its just waiting for her!

I have tried lots of old wives tales to get labour induced... spicy food, plenty of walking, massage, nookee nookee ;), Rasperry Leaf Tea / Capsules, praying and nothing has worked so far.

She keeps on threatening with plenty of contractions etc but no sign of her yet!

I apologise for putting everything else on hold but its been hectic and stressful around here... I will let you all know when she decides to make an appearance!

Enjoy the weather!

Monica xx

35 weeks pregnant...Packing & Moving!

I finally found a place to move!

Yes, after much looking and looking and looking...

I wanted to initially move before the baby came but nothing was right with all the things we were looking for combined.

Some of our requirements were that we preferred a private landlord, a 3 bedroom allowing pets with garden and parking!

So we kept on searching but found very little we liked within our budget, so needless to say that with the baby due shortly we gave up the search and swapped bedrooms around giving my son the biggest bedroom so that he would get used to the idea of sharing it with his baby sister before she was born... ease him into the idea before she was even here.

But we still wanted to move before winter because the house we are in has a few problems.

The radiators don't work properly, therefore in winter it costs me about £10 for 3 days if I want to have the heating on and even then the house still feels cold! The double glazing is the very first that came out, so needless to say that coupled with bad isolation its absolutely useless!

In my kitchen there are holes in the walls behind the cupboards so the kitchen is freezing cold and if you open the cupboards you can even feel a "breeze"! The wallpaper is coming off around the house because the just painted over it instead of taking it off.

I love animals but its a bit much going to the toilet in the morning and having slugs visiting you! I really can't find the hole where they come in, it looks like they are coming from behind the wallpaper somewhere but I am not gonna rip off the paper to find out because they will charge it off my deposit! The whole top floor creaks like a haunted house...and the garden is small and on a slope!

On top of that I have a horrid neighbour that keeps on blocking our shared drain in the garden, with 5 dogs and a cat, nothing against pets as I have 2 dogs, 3 fish and a bunny, but these are big dogs trapped in a small house with a small garden, and not taken out for walks or anything...they all wake up at around 4.30am start with the barking and the neighbour starts with the screaming...waking us and my son up all the time!

I am not very superstitious but since we moved to this house my oldest dog (Yorkie) didn't like it very much and has turned into a very nervous dog...like she is on guard most of the time (dogs have more heightened senses than people).

Moan over....pregnant lady with hormones here!



So finally... we found a lovely house, it actually found me! I was fed up of looking, finding something we liked then calling and the people telling me "Sorry no pets" or something else was missing so I placed a free ad on The Gum Tree website saying exactly what we needed and who we were with a pic of my doggies.

I told my husband that I would give it up to God to give us something adequate..."Let them find us", I wasn't expecting it to work so quickly! God works in mysterious ways :)

So a lady emailed me and told me the specifications of the house, the house is hers bought 5 yrs ago and she has been living in it since, she wants to relocate to be close to her family and wants to do so before June! Everything was exactly what we wanted and she was fine with my dogs.

I thought this was too good to be true, I asked her to send some pics but didn't know what to expect...but when I got them... the house was lovely. We made an appointment to o and see the house that evening and it was great! There are a few things that are not perfect but its things we can do ourselves or that they have said they are gonna deal with.

The pic on top is of the open plan kitchen...which by the way I love! It is a little bit over our original monthly budget but I think its worth it. I am really happy about finding the house but everything is rush, rush... I am due about a week and a half after we move...

I have about 17 days to pack and being 35 weeks pregnant I find it very hard to get things done as fast as I want to!

Oh well...I just hope this baby doesn't decide to come out earlier on me!!!!

Thanks for reading! Had to get my stress thoughts out!!!!

Monica xxx

Don't forget to enter our giveaway this month by clicking on the moving image on the top right!