12 Week Scan

We had our 12-week scan today and it was such a relief to see a healthy little baby (and just one!) jumping around!
It's easier to understand the images when you see it in person, but I'll try to explain them. They're all profile shots with head on the right and feet on the left and the view is zooming out as you go from the top image down the the bottom image. In the top image, the baby had its arm up by its face. The legs are a little bit more stretched out in the middle image, but more scrunched up in the other two images.
When we got home from the appointment, we posted our announcement on Facebook (and I got cracking on the blog, too). It's so great to finally be able to share the news with everybody!

12 Weeks Pregnant

Today's scan was such a great experience, and my symptoms are definitely starting to get better. I'm still tired (taking 1-2 hour naps and sleeping 8-9 hours a night), but my nausea is mostly gone now. This week, my cravings have been reflecting my anticipation for my upcoming trip to the States--I really want eggnog and comfort food. Starbucks' eggnog latte is my only source of eggnog here (normally I'd make it myself, but I can't have raw eggs, and I might as well wait 2 more weeks until I can get the pasturized stuff in the States). Thanksgiving was great--I made my usual green bean casserole, yams and pecan pie, which helped satisfy my Southern food cravings.
Definitely feeling more pregnant now, not just vaguely ill and chubby...

10 Weeks Pregnant

Definitely starting to feel bigger, even though the scale says I haven't gained anything yet. I can't suck in my stomach anymore, and my lower abdomen feels hard, so I know it's not just bloat or fat now---it's baby.

Also, I look tired...There must be a lot of growth happening between weeks 9-12, because I have been even more exhausted. I thought this was supposed to ease up by now? I'm ready for the 2nd trimester glow!

A combination of the holidays and pregnancy hormones has made me cry at the drop of a hat. It happens very quickly and is over very quickly (basically, I sob for 30 seconds and then laugh at myself). My worst moment was at Cottage Road Cinema, when they showed a trailer for their Christmas Day screening of "It's a Wonderful Life". I cried through the whole thing--so embarrassing!

8 Weeks Pregnant

Things are trucking along--I'm still exhausted and taking 1-2 hour naps every day. I'm trying to stick to healthy cravings, like fruit, but I get nauseated when I'm hungry, so I pretty much take what I can get. I carry Belvita Breakfast Biscuits and water in my bag everywhere I go.
I had my first midwife appointment on Bonfire Night (5 November). It felt good to get "in the system", although they don't take blood or anything at the 'booking in' appointment over here, so I still felt like things were a bit up in the air. I had a lot of worries and bad dreams, and just relied on my exhaustion and sore boobs to reassure me that things were going ok.

6 Weeks Pregnant

Let's consider this one my "Before" shot...As you can see, my stomach was not completely flat to begin with, despite my best attempts to suck it in (and you can't blame it on the pea-sized baby yet...). The Duchess of Cambridge is due two months before I am, but I started out with more of a "bump" than she has in her second trimester. Alas, we can't all be Kate...

Fatigue really was one of the first things I noticed--even before taking a test, I had already started taking naps. During the first couple of weeks, I made two big batches of applesauce from the Pioneer Woman Cookbook. I store it in canning jars and when hunger strikes (and it strikes very suddenly & makes me nauseated), I can just take the lid off and pop it in the microwave for a quick, hot, fairly nutritious snack. Not interested in pickles & ice cream, but I did really enjoy French Toast with peanut butter and applesauce for breakfast a few times in the early weeks...

Our darling Biscuit has been much more affectionate, too, and often joins me on the couch for my afternoon nap. She used to prefer Richard, so that's been a nice side effect! (She still likes him, too, of course)

Announcing Baby Bettie!

Now that we're married, we own a flat, and I'm done with grad school, Richard and I are excited to take on the next adventure: starting a family! We decided that we're getting far too much sleep and we have too much disposable income. On October 9th, I took a test and got a faint positive, then confirmed it with the digital test. When I brought it out to show Richard, I told him, "We did it!" and he said "Blimey! Really?"

Since I'd been charting, I found out at 4 weeks--in some ways, finding out so early made it worse because we had a long wait before sharing the news! We didn't want to tell anyone until the first appointment (8 weeks), and didn't want to make it "Facebook official" until the first ultrasound (12 weeks). It's been really hard to wait! On the other hand, we planned to go to a real ale festival at 6 weeks and a Halloween party at 7 weeks, so it was good to know early just to ensure that I wouldn't be drinking!

According to my chart dates, Baby Bettie is due around 17 June 2015. The midwife initially put my due date at 7 June (using LMP), but the first scan changed it to 16 June. My dates were spot-on! I'm hoping for 18 June, as that's Paul McCartney's birthday (I share my birthday with Donny Osmond, so I'd like my kid to have a cooler birthday twin than mine!). At any rate, since it's perfectly normal for babies to arrive 2 weeks early or 2 weeks late, we're thinking of it as June (a 'due month' rather than due date, just like the Duchess of Cambridge, due in April). We're so excited to meet Baby Bettie!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! It's my 8th year of celebrating it in the UK. Some years have been really low-key (i.e. just having a turkey-cranberry pasty!), but this year we celebrated in my favorite way, by having friends over for a big traditional dinner. We were too busy cooking and eating to take many pictures, but here are a few:

Caitlin, Adrian, Jemma and Nada--Biscuit was friendly and loved being the centre of attention

Me and Jace on the left and Yang on the far right

I made my traditional Paula Deen Ol' No. 7 Yams and Green Bean Casserole, my mom's awesome rolls and her cornbread stuffing recipe, and the usual pumpkin and pecan pies. This year I tried brining my turkey crown, modifying Nigella's instructions to suit a much smaller bird (and I left out the anise--ewww). It came out so juicy and delicious! I wish I'd taken a picture before I carved it, but I was just too busy running around setting up at that point. At any rate, it was amazing and I'll definitely do it next year, too!

Christmas Light Switch-On!

Last night was the Leeds Christmas Light Switch-On in the city centre

They had a few musical acts, as well as this Harry Potter sequence with Santa which was fun (the guy really did look like a slightly older Daniel Radcliffe--very well done!)

Santa wasn't quite old enough for my taste, though--I want to see wrinkles!

They also had Anna & Elsa doing songs from Frozen, and the little girls (and grown women...) in the audience were freaking out and singing along. 

Harry Potter, Santa, Elsa, Anna and Professor McGonagall...fair enough...

The big moment of the Christmas lights coming on :)

Only 40 days until Christmas! I'm done with my shopping now (mostly finished in early October!) and my iPod has exclusively Christmas music on it. I'm always adding to my YouTube playlist, too!

Bonfire Night

Remember, Remember the Fifth of November! 

We went to the Woodhouse Moor bonfire again this year

The bonfire was huge--you can see the people standing at the base for comparison

The fireworks display was really good and lasted quite awhile

They don't play any music during the display, like a 4th of July fireworks show does in the States

When we went to the York Dungeon recently, they had a bit about Guy Fawkes (because he was from York), and they really did kill him in such a gruesome way...I thought burning him in effigy was a grim tradition, but it's not nearly as bad as what actually happened to him! At any rate, the modern celebration has nothing to do with the Catholic vs. Protestant debate, and much more to do with parkin and toffee apples...

The Leeds City Museum has an exhibition on the Roman Empire at the moment, with pieces from the British Museum and the York Museums Trust. It was really good! There were lots of artifacts that had been found locally, like coins, pottery and carved bone combs.

Halloween 2014

We went to York a couple of weekends ago--this shot shows just how mild it's been, as I'm carrying my coat! It's been the warmest October on record. I'm ready for cooler temps and a change of wardrobe!

I love York...Definitely one of my favorite places in the world!

My bat jack-o-lantern :) I carved it while watching Ichabod & Mr. Toad, as is tradition!

Biscuit was fascinated! She didn't try to stick her paw in and go for the candle, but she was sniffing the pumpkin itself for awhile.

On Halloween night, we went to my friend Carly's house party. I hadn't dressed up in years--we got our costumes at Asda a few weeks back, and it was so fun! I tried Monster Munch for the first time at the party, too, and it was great--very strong pickled onion flavor but surprisingly good!

Biscuit wasn't very cooperative with the hat, but my costume came with a silly little pirate hat on a headband (I upgraded to the men's pirate hat) and we just had to try it on the cat.

Happy Birthday Biscuit!

October 23rd was Biscuit's first birthday!

She liked her wet food treat, but didn't seem to understand why we were taking pictures and why she was eating in the living room...

It's hard to believe it's been almost a year since we got little Biscuit. We're so happy with her--she's very affectionate and cuddly, friendly with strangers and only occasionally naughty. She doesn't get up on the table or the counters, but she does still try to chew on power cables and buttons (not completely grown out of the kitten stage yet!). In the mornings, she's underfoot and thrilled to see us. She gets cuddly around 9:30, so it's nice to have her on my lap while I work at the desk. If I watch a movie or take a nap on the couch, she usually cuddles with me then, too. She's still fascinated by laundry--I throw clothes from the bedroom into the hallway and she tries to catch them in mid-air, and she still likes to look in the washing machine door when it's filling up with water. When she hears Richard coming up the stairs at 5:30, she always goes to the door. She's always underfoot when we're in the kitchen, and she'll play with anything we drop--a potato peel, a bit of onion, etc. Richard gave her a piece of asparagus once and she carried it around for three days (I threw it out when it started to look manky, or else she probably would've kept right on playing). 

It's definitely been an adjustment to go from having an 18-year-old very sedate cat to having a kitten again. Biscuit has so much energy and needs dedicated playtime. I can't even remember when Cookie was like that, it was so long ago! I still miss Cookie, as she was part of my life for so long and we were so close. Biscuit is a very different cat, in both looks and personality, and I think that's been good for me. It's also been nice for Richard, even though he loved Cookie, too--she was alright with him and would sit near him, but never really cuddled with him the way Biscuit does. 

She's been sitting on the dining chairs lately--I love how her fluff spills over the sides!

It's amazing the difference 10 months makes--she's grown up so fast!

Keighley and Worth Valley Railway Beer and Music Festival

Last weekend we went on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway for the first time and it was brilliant! 

Everything is very authentic, from the platform advertisements to the garbage cans

Ingrow Station

The steam train was named The Copper Dragon, a local brewery based in Skipton

The main festival area was in the Oxenhope station's shed

Another local brewery makes Bronte Bitter--I love the name & logo!

The other steam train on the line was the Ossett Brewery, based in Wakefield

Haworth Station

Haworth Station

We had a nice little walk around Haworth and had tea & cake

The parish church has always been closed for refurbishment when I've been here in the past (2+ years ago!), so it was great to pop in and see the inside for the first time