#12 - 31 Weeks

Just want to say a special thank you to the ladies at babyandbump.momtastic.com for your comments on this thread.
And all the other advice we've both been given over the last few months.

Katie is now 31 weeks along as of yesterday. My new shift is going well, 10am - 6pm suits me much better. Katie said she is much happier with me getting home at this time.

She is getting quite snappy lately, annoyed at me for the slightest things. Taking up too much space in bed, (More than 1/3 of the bed is too much.) and other stupid stuff. Everyone keeps saying it's just the hormones and I know it is so I just deal with it and try my best to never argue back. It's difficult because I'm quite argumentative and stubborn... I've just learned to do whatever I'm told right now, it's just easier than arguing with a pregnant woman!

Just 6 weeks until she is full term and 9 weeks until her due date. The baby could come anytime from 6 weeks though!

We pretty much got everything bought now, Katie just wants to get a new mattress for the Moses Basket but other than that we pretty much have everything.

Katie's mum bought us a new TV recently, a 40'' 1080p HDTV for the living room. It's awesome!!

That along with our new phones & the computer will probably be the last things we get ourselves for quite some time.

DayZ

For you gamers out there, check out this game: - http://dayzmod.com/

It's a Horror Survival/Sandbox/First Person Shooter and it's AMAZING.

The general idea is that you need to scavenge supplies to survive, on a massive map that takes a long time to navigate and traverse on foot.  http://dayzmap.info/ 

You need to eat, drink and stay warm to survive. Doing so takes a combination of making food by fires, drinking water or canned drinks that can be found in houses, tents or barns.

But the loot spawning points are also hot spots for Zombies. They patrol through houses, fields and gardens around cities and villages. Making noise, or being too visible allows zombies to detect and chase you. They run about the same pace as you do, and when they run they alert other zombies to your presence too. Shooting also alerts zombies to your presence, so being trigger happy on this game is the last thing you should be.

Another threat to you on this game is coming into contact with other players. They are potentially more dangerous than the zombies because they can (and will) kill you for your supplies. I've died this way numerous times. Players often shoot me and take whatever I've been carrying.

The best, and worst thing about this game is the fact that upon death you lose everything and spawn at the coast with nothing but a torch, a bandage & a box of painkillers. To die in this game is considered game over, 'permadeath' has given this game a spin away from regular FPS shooters. You have no rank to achieve, no perks to unlock, just one mission: Survive.

It is inevitable that one day you will die and lose everything. It creates a tense, decision making experience that has made DayZ one of the most important things to happen to First Person Shooters in recent history.

Games developers will be watching closely to see how the community respond to DayZ, because for what is essentially a mod to a pretty poor game, DayZ has (for me) been the BEST game of 2012 by far, Perhaps even this decade.

Crossbow!

Me, Gav, Garry & Rob on DayZ

Rob, Mel & Garry on DayZ

#11 - 28 Weeks

I was offered a new shift at work yesterday and I snapped it up! I will be working 10am - 6pm instead of 1pm - 9pm, on a new team instead of Level 3, which is going to give me so much more time to see Katie and our little baby when she's born.I can't get over how happy I am about that. My life just took a massive turn towards drastic improvement. I did have to push managers to get it in the end, but what's done is done and I've secured something I certainly needed.


We have most of the essentials for our baby now, Car seat, Pram, Cot, Moses Basket.. And SO many baby clothes! (Granted 80% of which are pink, which is something I wanted to avoid.. What if they were wrong and she's a BOY?! ><;)


I'm getting excited and scared at the same time. I can't believe how close I am to holding our first born child for the first time. Baby will be here in just a couple of months! Eep!


There are many things I'm looking forward to in the next few months. Watching England play football has been good, they're still in the Euro's at this point and play Italy on Sunday! Good luck England!!


I think my message got through to everyone because now, Katie has been spending more time with my family, Sarah, My mum, My cousins and grandparents and auntie. I think it's been a massive lift for her really, being able to feel part of the family. 


Katie does far too much round this house and when I tell her I'll do something she just says "No cause you'll do it wrong" ...Blah ¬_¬. She has started to do less, which is good, but she doesn't listen when I tell her she's doing too much. Now that I've got my new shift I plan on doing a lot more house work when I get home.


My life is panning out pretty awesome. I know Katie is feeling low sometimes so I kinda feel bad for saying I've never been as happy as I feel right now. I'm on a roll! I just hope I'm the one to keep Katie smiling too. I don't really understand women's feelings and hormones and all that... Of course I don't! But... I'll always try to cheer her up where I can.


WE'RE HAVING A BABY!!!

#10 - Hot Weather!

The weather these past few days has been absoloutely amazing. Shame Katie doesn't enjoy it, especially with her being pregnant it's just made her uncomfortable in this heat.

We ordered the pram. So yes, the last big buy is done. Oh, there's plenty of other things to buy yet, but we have about 3 months until the baby is here.

Katie is 25 weeks exactly, tomorrow. Will post a picture up soon!

We went to see the movie "What to expect when you're expecting." this weekend, it wasn't bad but it was definately aimed at pregnant women and fathers to be so I guess I fit into that category. Eek.

I've been enjoying the hot weather though, but it's gonna disappear tomorrow.
No doubt Katie will be happy at that, hehe.

106 days to go. *gulp*

#9 - Note

Got myself that new phone I previously mentioned. It's pretty freaking awesome I wont lie!! I love it.
Katie is ok after her fall the other day but she's doing so much round the house she's making herself ill.
Shes gotta start taking it easy!

Will add more later. Much Super Mario World to be played on my phone.

#8 - Tumbler

Katie had a fall this morning, I was at work and she was rushing around at home trying to get ready for work when she fell down the last half of stairs and landed on her side. Ouch. She was having pains so I told her to contact the midwife and sent my mum round.

Apparently she's okay, she went to see the midwife who checked the babies heartbeat and everything is okay, but she was abit worried. She took the day off work today, I told her to rest and apparently so did the midwife. She keeps apologising and saying we're "losing money" when she's has days off...

But she's WORKING, and most pregnant women I've known didn't or aren't... I don't expect her to work or anything, the fact that she does just makes things easier. I feel like I've guilted her into having to work or something.

Just glad she's okay, she needs to be more careful and stop running up & down those stairs!!

Figured I should write about it here.

Rest Katie. - Mike

#7 - 22 Weeks. 18 to go!

We're over half way there, infact, in 15 weeks she'll be classed as full-term and she could pop at any time. Just so you know, 15 weeks might sound like alot, IT REALLY IS NOT.
I'd just like to add that Katie is working 37.5 hours a week, (more hours than me) full time in a very stressful call centre environment. Aswell as doing washing, tidying and all that stuff that I'm rubbish at but I keep trying. I have no idea how she manages it, she has to be superwoman. Her belly has grown a fair bit in the past couple of weeks, here's a picture taken just last night.

We've had fun over the last few weeks, we went to see the used, we had a house party, spent some time friends with Chris & Claire, went to see Marvel's Avengers Assemble movie, (as pictured above- It's absoloutely awesome by the way) got Katie a new phone and we went to see my friends John & Cindy at their snake shop in sheffield(shameless advertisment) - who I know actively read this blog! Don't forget to comment guys!

Sony Xperia S - Katie's new phone

Samsung Galaxy Note

Katie got herself a new phone, Sony Xperia S, and she hasn't really put it down since she got it. It's a nice phone, the screen is pretty good quality HD and all that jazz. It uses the Android OS which is something I really like about it. Blogger.com (yes, this website) has it's own android app which allows blogging on the go! Heh heh... I'm looking at getting the Samsung Galaxy Note, it's pretty big but it looks very good. It also runs the android OS. I'll be updating this thing directly from my phone, Hurrah!

I know over the next few months... (or years) (...or decades even...) everything is going to be ...baby, baby, baby... (not the justin beiber song) ...so we've got new phones and we've got a new PC to treat ourselves before the plunge into parenthood.

At work today I've been looking at websites that give tips for men taking the leap into parenthood, I've been looking at products and reviews on Amazon and I'm considering buying a few things next month towards the baby. To name just one of the things I'll definately consider getting, the Baby Bjorn carrier... Because pushing a pram isn't always necessarily worth doing if I'm just nipping out for a few minutes to the shop.

Baby Bjorn Original Baby Carrier



All this forward planning is NOT MY STYLE but I guess I better get used to it.Also, for now we've decided not to get another dog. We will look at getting one when the baby is grown up abit, that way I will have more time to train it and get Misa used to it.

Also, I did get that new gaming PC. We got it on finance so I'll be paying it off over the next 2 years. Diablo 3 is out next week, what a coincidence! I will be documenting my gameplay in a similar blog, the link is at the bottom of this page.

On a final note, I recently heard some terrible news at work. A collegue of mine was involved in an Motorbike collision and has been paralyzed from the waist down, her back was broken and she is very lucky to be alive. I just wanted to take a moment to tell Kirsty Grainger that everyone at work misses her lots, we all hope you recover as best you can Kirsty and everyone is thinking about you. Everyone keeps asking around to find out how you are! We all say it's not the same without you here.

'til next time people! - Mike

Don't forget to check out my New Diablo 3 Blog - miked3.blogspot.com

#6 - 20 Weeks. Ultrasound Scan. It's a girl!!

We went to the hospital today for Katie's 20 week ultrasound scan.

 

Our very healthy baby Girl, 20 weeks today! - 24/04/12 - Click for full size!

I am pleased to say that there is a big and healthy baby girl resting inside of Katie as we speak. I am so happy I can't even begin to explain. We even saw the baby yawn while it was on the screen and it made me yawn too! How odd is that? The woman who did the scan told us that it's never 100% and we can't be completely sure that she's a girl, but the odds are in her favour.

We had an excellent time in London over the weekend, I even got to see the Dinosaur bones in the National History Museum, which is something I've always wanted to do. It was awesome.

I met lots of katie's family and apparently they all liked me, which was great. We're just feeling better about everything after having a little break. As we were talking about getting another dog, I've had words with a friend about making the back yard husky proof to see how much it would cost.

Misa was so excited to see katie, they just don't leave eachothers side for long! It was abit hard on them both.

But anyway: I don't want to steal our baby's thunder, so I'll say it here again just to make sure you got it:

It's a girl!!