Our super-mummy blogger Fran embarked on her pregnancy journey via sperm donor and is now busy nesting before her gorgeous little chick arrives in just a few weeks. She also has a big birthday celebration fast approaching. Read her latest news …

I am now 35 weeks pregnant and just thought I would do a general round up of where I’m at.
This week is my last week at work, I’m so excited to finish but it still just feels like I’m going off for a holiday at the moment. I’m starting to struggle now with insomnia (coupled with needing a pee every hour) so this is making me extremely tired throughout the day. Everything is starting to ache and my feet are permanently swollen, so not sure that I could have carried on working much longer to be honest. When I first decided to finish four weeks before my due date it felt a bit lazy as I have an office job so sit at a desk all day, and although its mentally demanding physically it’s fine. My first week off is actually using my holiday entitlement anyway. My maternity leave officially starts from 37 weeks.
Big birthday!
It’s also my 40th birthday at the end of this week so I’m looking forward to celebrating with a meal out with friends and family. I’m also having some maternity photos taken on that day too. I wasn’t really bothered initially, but a friend persuaded me that I should as I may regret it later on if I didn’t have them to look back on as part of my journey. It’s weird, I hated turning 30 and booked a holiday abroad for it but turning 40 really doesn’t bother me at all. I guess I have my life a bit more together now and more of a direction than I did 10 years ago.
I had a growth scan last week and the baby’s growth has tailed off slightly, although it’s still within the ‘normal’ range so they aren’t too concerned at this stage. My consultant was so blasé about it though, he mentioned that it could just be because different sonographers measure differently. Well, how can this possibly happen? Why aren’t all sonographers trained to measure exactly the same way; or we should at least see the same one each time to ensure consistency!
I have to have another scan next week by which time I’ll be 36 weeks and if the growth hasn’t improved, they will look to induce me the week after. So, I might not get to enjoy too much maternity leave before baby arrives after all! Baby was also breech, so praying it turns by the next scan, so I don’t have to have a c-section.
Packed and ready - almost!
I now have hospital bags almost ready. I need to add more clothes for myself to my case but that’s tricky when I’m still wearing a lot of my very limited wardrobe. I also need to look at getting some PJ’s with buttons down the front but otherwise I think I have everything. I’m also now wondering if baby is measuring small should I rush out and by smaller clothes? The smallest I have at the moment is newborn.
My friend has very kindly arranged a baby shower for me on 1st September so I’m just hoping baby hangs on in there until then and they don’t want to induce me before that, I’d also like some time to give the house a deep clean, I think nesting may have finally kicked in - Ha Ha.