... and a happy new year! (22w;6d)

"My bones are hardening more and more!"

I honestly cannot begin to describe the absolute joy that overcomes me when I feel the baby moving around inside of me. I have sat here for ages trying to figure out a way of putting what I feel into words, but absolutely nothing I think of can do it justice.

Every time I feel the baby move, I have to stop and savour the moment. This pregnancy is going all too fast, and before I know it, the baby will be here, and we'll start a whole new chapter in our lives. I therefore want to try and remember every part of this pregnancy stage that I can - and I must say that these movements have to be the most wonderful feeling in the entire world.

The entire range of human emotions run through your body - you laugh, you cry, you worry, you smile, you jump - I wish I could capture it all in a bottle!

I'm back to being quite tired and rundown again, so I'm trying to take it as easy as I can. I've been back at work since the 2nd of January, although last week was quiet so it allowed me to (most of the time) easy my way back into things again. Thankfully, the stress that was the lead up to Christmas last year has passed for the iterim, and I can catch up with things that I had fallen behind on. I'm now only 3 months away until I finish work and start maternity leave which blows my mind.

We didn't do anything special for NYE, even though this will be our last one before the baby arrives. Last year, as one of our dogs ran away due to the fireworks we thought it might be best to stay home and make sure they didn't make another great escape this year. All went well though, and it was nice to be able to fall into bed just after midnight and not having to worry about travelling from anywhere!

We've also started our new budget for 2007 where we will be living off the bare minimum that we possibly can in order that we save enough for me to be able to stay home for the full 12 months worth of maternity leave. That is the goal at least anyhow. This first period before the baby is born, and while I am still bringing in full pay means that we can get used to it and do a trial run before it becomes absolutely necessary to do so. I hope it all works out for the best.

We've now started to think about how to get the nursery done as well. I'd like to repaint the walls a stone/brown colour (still neutral) as we have bought white furniture so it would look quite nice, and quite cheap to do. I'm starting to organise how everything will come together. We still need to finalise wardrobes (no doubt, Ikea will come in very handy!) and then we will start putting things together over the next month or two. I'd like to try and have it all done by the time I'm 30 weeks (oh my... that's only 7 weeks away!)