On 27th August 2014, we welcomed our new baby girl to the world. 

Unfortunately I can't take her home just yet and have awful signal in hospital so will update more when we are allowed home.

This time round I have known all along that I would be having a c-section. This made it much easier to pack exactly what I need. My aim this time was not to overpack like I did the last two times. So what have I packed in my hospital bag? You can see here;

• The smell of your once favourite foods are enough to leave your head in the toilet bowl.

• Your handbag now consists of a big book of maternity notes, enough vitamins to set up a pharmacy and an empty wee sample pot at all times.

• You can't help crying at just about EVERYTHING!

• Painting your toe nails or attempting any kind of hair removal from your lady parts or legs suddenly becomes impossible.

• You have to resort to doing up your favourite jeans with a hair bobble, IF you can get them around your new found thunder thighs that is.

• At least once you have a terrified stranger ask 'You are pregnant aren't you?'.

• The best use of any 'Me time' becomes having a nap (this doesn't go away once baby arrives).

• Family members suddenly think it is ok to tell you what forms of contraception you can use once baby arrives (as if you do not know this already) (worse third time round when they all tell you about the miracle they call sterilisation).

• You can no longer sleep without the need to wrap your legs around a bunch of pillows or the duvet (much to your partners dissatisfaction).

• You have at least once woken up horrified to have had inappropriate dreams about a friend or acquaintance. OR

• You have woken up gutted to find you didn't in fact get lucky with Chris Hemsworth that night. Damn it!

• Just a laugh or sneeze leaves you at great risk of peeing yourself.

• You find yourself actually WANTING to bleach every surface in the house for fun.

Whilst at Britmums Live I got to chat with the lovely Parragon Books team again, who we have worked closely with as book buddies for the past 12 months. They showed me their Gold Star workbooks for children and sent me home with the 'Ready for School Big Workbook' recommended for Pre-school children aged 3-5 years. This was perfectly timed for us with Gracie being so excited to start school soon and so eager to do anything concerning school and learning.

The idea of the workbooks is to encourage children between the ages of 3-11 years old to take part in the 'Summer with Gold Stars' challenge. Keeping them active and engaged over the summer holidays. The idea of the challenge is to complete a page a day in the book for 30 days of the summer holidays. Every child that successfully completes 30 pages of their gold stars book will receive a congratulatory letter and personalised certificate via email.

Although we haven't done a page every day, we have been doing 2-3 pages at a time and have tried to do it once or twice a week. I've found this suits Gracie much more at the moment as I think going from no school type work straight into doing it everyday would have been too much. She gets very excited as soon as she sees the workbook and pencil come out and in the short amount of time we've been doing it I've noticed a huge difference in her concentration levels. She doesn't get as distracted now as she did the first few times and she gets very proud of herself at the end of each page when it's time for the gold star! 

I think these workbooks are brilliant! I have said I'm going to buy more to do at home with her over the next few months to help with the bits she struggles most with so we can keep practising until she's happy and confident with them. 

Today I am 38 weeks pregnant! I didn't write an update as I had a last minute week off. Andy had the week off work so I thought it was a great opportunity for us to enjoy some time as a family of four. We managed to fit in a cinema trip, a couple of meals out, a family movie night and lots of fun and games. It was really lovely and we still managed to get a load of work done in the house. It looks like our room should be decorated just in time for baby's arrival very soon! You can see all the latest updates on our renovations on www.theforeverhousecharm.com that's if you would like to of course!

I've been feeling really nervous the last few days, knowing that our op date is coming so quick, I can't stop thinking about the operation itself and the waiting for our turn. It's a strange nervous excitement more than anything. Health wise I've been a bit all over the place. Last week I was sent to hospital after babies heartbeat was abnormally fast luckily all is fine and it turned out it was only going up while she was being really active. This week I've been having waves of nausea again and my heartburn has been horrendous. Mostly though I'm feeling ok and have been trying to keep busy with housework and the kids to pass the time. 

I packed my hospital bag! I'll write up a post this week actually showing what I've packed. I struggled to decide what was necessary and what wasn't as I always overpack! 

It's crazy to think that in a week or so I will be posting a birth announcement rather than my usual bump update. Let's see if I can fit a last one in next week!

Mustela UK has specialised in skincare products for babies for more than 60 years, carrying out new research in an ongoing effort to better understand the needs of the delicate skin of babies. Mustela knows that there is nothing more precious than your baby and so are committed to safety first and foremost. Developed in collaboration with healthcare professionals, all of Mustela's products are hypoallergenic, high-tolerance and do not contain any parabens, phenoxyethanol, phtalates or alcohol. Before being marketed they are systematically put through the strictest possible tests to confirm that they are the safest quality.

• Mustela 123 Vitamin barrier cream 100ml
• Mustela Soothing comfort balm  40ml
• Mustela Dermo cleanser 100ml
• Mustela PhysiObebe (water free cleanser) 100ml
• Mustela Stelatopia Emollient cream 10ml
• 5 Sample sachets of various Mustela products

We love books in our house and it's even better if they are personalised for the little ones. Both Gracie and Zach were very lucky to each receive a personalised book from 'lost my name'. Each book is unique to the child it belongs to as the adventure follows the child desperately searching for their missing name, with different characters helping them along the way by presenting them with one of the missing letters from their name. 

We received ' The little girl who lost her name' for Gracie in which the little girl turns out to be Called Gracie when she puts all her collected letters together. Then in 'The little boy who lost his name' the little boy turns out to be Zachary of course!

I think one of my favourite things about these books is it highlights the individual letters used to spell the child's name so if you have a young child it is great for teaching them to recognise the letters in their name. I also like how you can input your child's name into the website so you can view the entire book online before buying. I know sometimes I get put off buying personalised items online when I'm not sure how they are going to look. 

Not only is it a lovely story book to read together, but I think it would make a great keepsake or gift for a child. 

The lost my name books retail at £18.99 each. This might sound a lot for a book but I definitely think it is worth it. In fact I will most definitely be buying a copy for the new baby once she is here too!

You can view or buy the Lost my name story books from the website http://www.lostmy.name/

You can also find their social media pages below
Lost My Name Book Official Facebook Page
Lost My Name Book Twitter Page

Disclaimer
We were sent the items featured free of charge for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own.

36 weeks pregnant! How did that come so quick?! By the end of this week my baby will be classed as 'Full Term' although I am hoping not to go into labour before my Csection date. Yes that's right, we have a date! I've decided to keep the date quiet so we can announce for ourselves when we are ready that she has arrived. This includes family, I don't want any Facebook slips so they will also have to wait and see. Of course I now have the matter of deciding what to do with Gracie and Zach on the big day. Not an easy decision when you haven't really got people to leave them with. 

I have had a strange week. I was suffering awful nausea for a whole week starting early last week but thankfully that has eased the last few days. Although I have been having lots of tightenings! I think it's just Braxton Hicks for now but eek it's scary! I'm also feeling huge bump-wise but by the looks of Twitter all my fellow bump bloggers are feeling it too. Must be one of those weeks.

I've been nesting majorly! I have done so much cleaning, sorting and decluttering this week it feels great but I keep getting the urge to just throw out, sell or give away everything I see. Might have to have a word with myself before we have nothing left. Unfortunately my decorating isn't going quite as well and I'm almost certain me and baby will spend the first few weeks sleeping in the living room unless we fix it quick!

I'm feeling a bit more organised with baby's stuff. Clothes are all washed, folded and in size order in the wardrobe. I still haven't packed my hospital bag BUT have most things ready to throw in it. I have a lovely new car seat sorted to bring her home in just need to wait for it to be delivered along with her bedside cot. 

I know one thing I struggle with whilst pregnant is looking and feeling glamorous. No matter what I wear I feel...well whale-like! Thankfully, though there are now companies that think about pregnant ladies when it comes to occasion wear. I was sent a beautiful dress by the lovely people at Tiffany Rose especially to wear at Britmums Live last month. I chose the Amber dress in Midnight Blue as I wanted something suitable for both day wear and evening wear that would make me feel more confident about the way I looked on a day that was nerve racking enough.

The first time I tried it on back in April

Ready to go to Britmums Live!

July- 34 Weeks Pregnant

July- 34 Weeks Pregnant

A Brand new business dedicated to cute, fun clothing for children, Toogiez are a range of stylish T-shirts that come with specially designed and adorable plushy toys which can be attached to the child's T-shirt and accompany them anywhere. Kids are attracted to cute characters and Toogiez have a range of different characters to choose from so your child can choose which one they identify with most. We received a prototype Toogiez T-shirt for Gracie to try out along with one Toogy Character.