Hi! My name is Sapna, I’m a first-time mum-to-be (28 weeks and counting...).I’m 39, work in advertising and have always lived a manic life – lots of parties and socialising, (trying to eat well and exercise for balance!).  The last 15 months though, have been particularly turbulent, even for me. At the end of 2008, my best friend died (I tried to deal with this - uncharacteristically - by deciding to run a half-marathon for a cancer charity). Then in 2009, I found out my mum needed major heart surgery, I got made redundant AND started a new job.You’ll forgive me for putting my missed period down to stress...Andy & I hadn’t even been trying that long. These two reforming party-animals feared they’d left it a bit late (at 38) to start a family, so we agreed to not stress, ‘let nature take its course’ and if it didn’t happen, we'd enjoy our lives together (and maybe look at adoption).So of course, it happened almost immediately - which whilst amazing, was a HUGE shock. We knew other couples, younger mates who had taken 15 and 18 months to conceive. In hindsight, I guess all that running had meant I was healthier than ever – I’d quit smoking a year previously, was eating well, and cut down the booze. As a friend said, I’d been preparing my body for pregnancy anyway!It would be a huge blow to my career – and my new employers – plus I wouldn’t get full maternity pay (although I had my redundancy) - but we knewwe had to have this baby.And apart from my manager behaving like I'd somehow tricked him into employing me, thankfully, I’ve had a really good pregnancy so far.No sickness or cravings – in fact, I didn’t really believe I was pregnant till the dating scan (when we also realised bubs had been conceived, typically, at a music festival, in a tent!)The marathon-training served as my cover for not drinking, but I stopped running at 10 weeks. The tiredness (and the fact my boobs had ballooned to 32FFs) made it very difficult to continue – even “double-bagged” with 2 sports bras on! I continued with some low impact gym work and weights until about 20 weeks but then admitted defeat – I felt exhausted and heavy all the time.I even tried pregnancy yoga, but the chanting, general smugness and talk of chakras meant I’d leave the class more stressed than ever! In the end, I skipped classes and snuggled on the sofa with Andy. Far more relaxing...By 25 weeks, I’d given up the 4 flights of stairs at work, my bum felt huge and doughy (yuk - although Andy assured me he’d never fancied me more, bless!), I was having physio for a misaligned pelvis and backache started to niggle. When my friend recommended one of the UK’s leading practitioners, Mari Ryalen (www.mariryalen.com), for her amazing pregnancy massages, I thought “Ooh...something I can do that will help my stress levels, aid my wellbeing and circulation and I get to lie down...? Where do I sign up...?!”So join me as I blog about my third trimester, and Mari’s antenatal and post-natal massages and self-treatment tips, including her amazing Benkung Wrap (which helps you get your pre-pregnancy figure back) and the benefits of baby massage...See you next week!Mari Ryalen: www.mariryalen.com 07949 399 657My baby's blogging too! http://www.littleldiary.blogspot.com/ View less

This week's gurgle member interview is with Vicci, mum of little Lucas... Gurgle: How was your pregnancy? Vicci: I had a miscarriage last August with what was an ectopic pregnancy so I was very nervous for the first few weeks and didnt even tell my hubby... even though I knew I was pregnant within about 4 days of concieving!The pregnancy went well and I had scans every week for the first 10 weeks... one of these was a 3d scan, which was bizarre as baby just looked like a jelly bean with legs! We went on holiday to Mallorca when I was 31 weeks which was hard work with the heat and everything. I felt absolutley fine and breezed though it all until I got home when suddenly everything seemed so much harder and I really started to struggle with swollen hands feet etc! I was tested for gestational diabetes as I was measuring big for dates. Everything seemed fine and they scanned me again at 34 weeks which was really nice as you can see the baby's features really clearly and people have asked if it was 3d but it was a normal one! I have been a bit of a mentor too as my sister-in-law was pregnant and was due just 8 weeks after me, many a time she has ring me in the middle of the night to check if the feelings she had were normal or to check what she could eat!How was the birth? I had a normal check-up at my doctors with the midwife at 38 weeks and was given an appointment at the hospital with a consultant for the following week as my blood pressure was too high. The day of the appointment was due to my last day at work before starting maternity leave. I never got to work that day. The consultant saw me and admitted me immediatley. they were worried about my blood pressure being too high and swelling, even though I had no other symptoms of pre-eclampsia. After 3 days of monitoring me I begged them to do something as I was huge, fed up and cooped up in hospital! Just to make matters worse, at one point I was on the post natal ward so saw people coming and going with babies while I just sat there getting larger! The doctors decided to induce me with a drug called prostin which was horrible. The first time they did it nothing happened. The second time (24 hrs later) I had contractions for 25 minutes which then went. The third time (another 24 hours later) nothing happened again. They decied to leave me 48 hours and try again. When the consultant came to see me he said that they would examine me the next morning and if there had been no change they would consider a c section. If there was any change though, they would try the induction again. Iwas nil by mouth from midnight just in case... I had convinced myself that the last lot of drugs would have had some effect and I wouldnt need to go to theatre! The next day the consultant came in and asked if I was all ready to meet my baby. He had forgot about the examination (phew, he had big hands ha ha!). I was taken to theatre and given a c section which was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. I would still give anything to have a natural birth though.What’s the best thing about being a mum? Everything (how cheesy am I?) I especially love it when he gives me big smiles just for saying hello to him.What’s the most important thing you’ve learnt since becoming a mum? That baby poo can squirt across a room. And that my son has a very good aim!Tell us about the photo of Lucas with headphones on... I have been a majorette (baton twirler) since i was about 3. I now judge at competitions across the country and had already been booked to judge at a weekend long event in october long before I got pregnant. Lucas was 4 weeks old by the time I was due to go there and I was worried about hurting his ear or damaging them in some way with the noise of the music and stuff. I looked online for these for ages before I found them. i havent been able to find one baby shop that stocks them which i think is pretty bad really when you think about how sensitive babies can be to noise and stuff. no shops I contacted even knew where I would be able to get them.Tell us about your wedding...We got married 20.3.2008 which was the day before Good Friday which went down well with most people as it made their long weekend off work for easter even longer! We were planning to go abroad to get married but knew that not all of our family's would be able to afford to come so we tried to do it on the cheap in this country. Thursdays at the venue we picked were half price and my dress was bought from a lady who sold designer dresses at a fraction of their original price as they werent complete until she bought them. the bridesmaid dresses were on sale in coast, Neil went to france for the wine, i hand made all the invitations, favours, place settings and table plan. We used an easter theme for the day and really based it around the children who would be there, the children (about 20 in total) were all given bags with things to do in them that I had made. Things like puzzles, colouring sheets, crayons, toys, fruit and sweets were in the bags and everyone was really impressed with them as the kids were good as gold all day! We had an easter egg hunt planned for after the ceremony for the kids to get involved in but as it happened, the rain was torrential and we couldnt let them outside! I took my blue wellies with me for the outdoor shots but we didnt get many of those as it was just too wet! The day was fabulous and we couldnt have hoped for more! We had loads of wedding cake left so invited everyone to our house the next night for another party to finish it and the wine off before we went on our honeymoon to thailand.Tell us about your dogs... Our dogs are Penelope (pencil) and Jesse. both are working cocker spaniels and are a real handful! Jesse was a rescue dog, (we had to drive to south wales for her) so we dont really know what her background is. I was slightly woirried about them with the baby but i neednt have bothered. They ignore the baby for the most part and are not left alone with him anyway. How did you first find gurgle? I was looking for advice on the likelihood of consecutive miscarriages and also wanted to tell someone I was preggers! I think for a while I used to just read the articles and the chat but didnt get involved.What’s the best thing about gurgle? Being to pick someone else brains about things, like things where you already know the answer but just want someone else to back you up or say "yeah that's what I do too" or "I feel like that too". It was like having a older sister or a pregnant friend you could contact at any time of the day.How would you sum up gurgle in three words? My pregnant friend.If you had to nominate one other gurgle user as someone who has really helped you, who would you choose and why?I would really have to say two, Rozibee and heleng01. I met up with Roz at the baby show which gurgle kindly supplied me with the tickets for (thanks by the way) and she has given me advice with her baby being older than mine. Helen has been really supportive, even down to texting me before I was going to theatre to say good luck. She ws also on the list of people to send a pic of the baby to as soon as he was born! Myself, Roz and a few others from gurgle have been invited to sheffield to Helen's little girl's christening in January!If you'd like to be interviewed for this series, email community@gurgle.com. You can read previous gurgle user interviews here.If you'd like to join the gurgle family you can register an account here. It's quick, easy and free! View less

Just a quick update this week...Firstly, in response to several requests for a chat section for those in the second trimester of pregnancy, we have now launched a Second Trimester forum. There's already some really interesting discussions going on in there and we're delighted it's proven so popular already.Several of you have also been asking about improvements to Baby of the Month galleries over the last couple of months. We are well aware of some of the problems with this, most notably the difficulties navigating through the gallery, the problems many of you have finding your own entries and the rogue photos of adults that keep showing up in the wrong gallery. All I can say is that change and improvements are on the horizon. Watch this space and in the meantime, thanks for your patience.The good news is that despite the technical difficulties, Baby of the Month continues to be an extremely popular area of gurgle - we had 306 entries (albeit including a few rogues) in November. You can check out the winner here and enter December's comp here (thanks in advance for bearing in mind that it's still not working perfectly). We hope this demonstrates how valuable your feedback is to us as we strive to make gurgle even better for you. If you have any other ideas for improving the site, feel free to post in the comments below, in our gurgle forum here or to me via email - community@gurgle.com. To get involved with all these exciting developments on gurgle you'll need to register a free account here View less

This week's gurgle member interview is with KatyJane83...G.How did you feel when you got pregnant?K.I tested on August bank holiday last year and got a very very faint line! I couldn't decided if it was a BFP or not, but was due to go out for my boss's birthday so I didn't have time to get a digital one. I had to wait until Monday for a digital one, but I spent ages hanging around the chemist, it seemed everyone I knew was going in and out of there. The shop staff probably thought I was a shop lifter! Anyway, once I saw those words I knew it was for real, and I was so, so happy. We had been settling ourselves in for the long haul and expected to take far longer to conceive. G. How was the pregnancy overall? Any complications or particular difficulties?K. The pregnancy was fine, apart from the usual morning sickness, swollen ankles and general uncomfortableness. And the fact that I looked about 8 months pregnant when I was only 4 months!G.What kind of birth did you have? How was it overall?K. Awful!!! Jake was back to back which meant  a 36 hour labour and a 3rd degree tear.  Jake ended up being born with the aid of forceps, but unfortunately not breathing. I was convinced he was dead and couldn't stop crying. They managed to get him breathing in the delivery room, but he still wasn't crying so he was taken to special care. I never got to see him or hold him. My husband went with him and came back an hour later with a photo he had taken on his phone, up until then I thought that the staff just hadn't wanted to tell me he was dead. He was in special care for 24 hours before I got to have him on the ward with me and he's showing no long term side affects whatsoever, but it was the most horrible moment in my life.G.What’s the best thing about being a mum?K. The best thing about being a mum is first thing in the morning when you peek your head over the baby's cot, he looks up at you, recognises you and breaks out into a massive beaming smile! G.What’s been the biggest challenge?K. I think the biggest challenge will come when I go back to work and have to look after a husband, a baby, a house, 2 dogs and work 4 days a week. eeek!G. Were you nervous holding Jake for the first time, having only held one other baby?K. I honestly wasn't, by the time I got to hold him he was about 8 hours old, and I was just so desperate to hold him and protect him. He snuggled right into me, and I'm sure he knew somehow that I was his mummy. G. What advice would you give to other first time mums?K. RELAX! The worst thing in the world is when you stress, because baby will pick up on it. You wll always struggle to settle a baby if you're getting worked up, so chill out! I like to think that Jake and I are a team and we tackle things together, each new experience, and if you don't get something right first time, so what? Take a deep breath and try again, the pair of you will get there in the end.G. Tell us about your dogs...K. I have two white german shepherds, Vinnie is 7 and is just a grumpy old man! He doesn't really have anything to do with Jake, at first he left the room if he cried, now he just sleeps through it! Poppy is a different story though, and is fast becoming Jake's dog. She's just turned 3 and I consider her to be a work in progess, we still go to weekly training classes! She adores Jake, if he cries upstairs in his cot she's like a little monitor and rushes to get me. If we have visitors and they're holding Jake, she lays at their feet so she can make sure that they're looking after him. She lets Jake do absolutely anything to her and never flinches, he's poked her in the eye, grabbed her tongue, twisted her ear and pulled handfulls of hair off her. She's also learn a new trick this week, and lies underneath Jake's highchair so she snaffles the food he drops! As much as I love my dogs though, I never leave them alone in a room with Jake, and they're not allowed upstairs anymore. We have baby gates everywhere so I can keep them separate whenever I want.G. How did you first find gurgle?K. Through an advert in the mothercare catalogue.G. How would you sum up gurgle in three words?K. chummy mummy chatIf you'd like to be interviewed for this series, email community@gurgle.com. You can read previous gurgle user interviews here.If you'd like to join the gurgle family you can register an account here. It's quick, easy and free! View less