Now that I have finished work for maternity leave it means I get to spend lots of time with Trent. One of our favourite activities is to meet up with his best friend Jayden. The boys are really close in age – Jayden was born just eight weeks earlier than Trent so his mum and I went through the ups and downs of pregnancy together.

Last week we visited a local café – it has a large garden with a play area and lots of animals for the children to look at, including rabbits, ducks, birds and chipmunks. Jayden can now walk so Trent gets a bit frustrated that he can’t keep up on foot… but like a dutiful friend he does follow him around on his hands and knees.

On this particular day Jayden wasn’t in the best of moods and seemed to be a bit under the weather, Trent on the other hand was ultra-excited. He ate everything in sight and managed to tip himself head first off one of the park toys. Luckily, as there were child friendly chippings on the ground, he only ended up with a face full of scratches – I dread to think what might have happened if it had been concrete!

It’s funny to think that these two have been friends for almost a year now (I can’t believe how much they’ve grown!). I love to watch them playing together because you can really see how different their personalities are. Trent is quiet, chilled out and laid back, whereas Jayden is quite loud and has a very dominant nature – he always seems to be the boss when they are together.

Trent desperately trying to keep up with a fully mobile Jayden

Trent and Jayden shortly before Trent’s accident

Haven’t they grown?

After finally finishing my university exams (though I’m yet to find out if I have passed), it was time for me to finish work and concentrate on getting ready for the arrival of the new baby. Needless to say I’m nowhere near as organised as I was last time around, but this time I’ve been so busy with Trent, the pregnancy just seems to have flown by.

With eight weeks to go I had to return to hospital for another scan because my placenta had been lying very low. The scan revealed that it was still lying low, and so I was told to come back a fortnight later when they would have one last look and decide whether or not I needed to have a caesarean. I had assumed that this birth would be similar to Trent’s, but now I was hit by the realisation that I might not have this baby naturally, and I went in to overdrive panicking. I was worried about how long I would need to be in hospital, whether I would need a longer recovery period, and if so how Trent and dad would cope. I also wasn’t sure if I would be awake or asleep during the labour, and if it would hurt afterwards. The questions were endless!

I returned to the hospital at 34 weeks, but this time saw a different nurse. After taking a look she asked why I had need another scan. I explained and she said that the baby’s head was engaged and ready to go, and that my placenta was as it should be! I couldn’t believe it, and in a way I’m still a bit sceptical, but I’ve stop panicking and have calmed down. Whatever will be will be – if the baby doesn’t want to enter the world naturally that’s just life and I will deal with it.

Trent has been trying, unsuccessfully, to crawl for months. So much so that Dad and I thought he wasn’t going to be a crawler – neither of us were. How wrong were we! Crawling accomplished, our house is now chaos from the minute Trent gets up, right up until he goes to bed. Luckily I get a lot of help from my family, being so heavily pregnant I don’t think I could cope otherwise. I haven’t got the energy to run around and follow him all day and it’s as if Trent know that when mammy’s on her own he can do as he pleases. He loves his freedom and is so fast that you literally can’t take your eyes of him for more than a second or he will be at the opposite end of the room. I’ve taken to dressing him in tracksuit bottoms every day, even when it’s hot and sunny, because otherwise his knees are red raw. I sit and watch him and am so proud of him entertaining himself, scooting up and down carrying his toys, or going to the bathroom and getting his rubber duck and bringing it back with him.

The down side to this is that he no longer needs me to carry him around or play with him. Crawling is new and exciting so he doesn’t want to be picked up and screams the house down if I try to give him a cuddle when he could be on the floor investigating. He has also started climbing up things and standing up. Although he isn’t strong enough to support himself for long, he is very stubborn and won’t let you help him, so he often lands on his bum!