How I beat morning sickness!

Morning sickness playing you up?

Don't you think it's weird how they call it morning sickness when it can happen any time of day? I know mine was worse in the afternoon and early evening, when I would hit my tired points. I also suffered really badly in the middle of the night.

The last thing I wanted to do then, when I got home from work was cook dinner. If I did manage it, more than likely it would be somthing less than substantial like porridge, or an egg on toast as I wasn't prepared for it! I also started to grab at sugary quick fix snacks that would give me a temporary sugar rush then leave me feeling exhausted, moody and even more nauseated. To add to all this, more than a few times I found myself skipping dinner altogether and feeling 10 times worse later on in the night and the next morning.

Thankfully I soon realised that these bad habits were by large causing a lot of the nausea and sickness I was feeling. My blood sugar was all over the place what with bouts of starving myself followed by huge hits of sugar, sending my insulin into huge spikes and troughs. I also realised that I was just asking for trouble with my erratic eating as I was doing all the right things to create an insulin resistance in myself as well as putting my baby's development at risk.

It was time for a major change and quick style! For years I had implemented the Elimination plan with all my clients, both prenatal and postnatal and had amazing results, now I got to experience it in pregnancy myself.

Elimination is all about eating from only whole and natural food sources and eliminating all foods that are toxic or denatured by processing and manufacture. There is no counting calories or cutting out food groups so there's no need to worry about whether you'll be getting a balance of nutrients - as long as you eat from a wide variety of all natural wholefood sources, you'll be supplying your body and your baby with foods that are jam-packed with high quality nutrients. Not only that but eating the Elimination way and avoiding all toxins means that your body will get rid of any excess water and surplus fat that it is holding onto, (that is non-essential to your pregnancy). What more could you ask for from a pregnancy nutrition plan?

Well within days my sickness and fatigue had stabilised and within one week, it had disappeared altogether. I believe this was largely due to cutting out all added and refined sugars as when I finished the 30 day Elimination plan and introduced sugar back into my diet, the sickness returned with a vengeance. Needless to say, I didn't make this mistake again!

OK so I know you're gonna be asking what the nutrition plan entails. In order to clean out your system and get ot working at peak performance you need to cut out all denatured, manufactured and artificial foods. These are:

Alcohol

Wheat Products (including soups, sauces and other products that use wheat as a thickener)

Processed dairy (milk and cheese - you CAN still have eggs, live yoghurt and real butter)

Processed foods - anything with non-natural ingredients (i.e. something you can't pronounce on the label or ingredients with numbers in)

Sugar - in all forms including honey

Microwaves (as they alter the structure of food cells)

Caffeine

That's it. So all you should be left with are foods that are whole, unaltered and natural in source, i.e. your food should either come from the ground, swim in a river or sea, walk on land or fly in the sky!

In my Complete Pregnancy Support System, I take you through a complete 30 day nutrition plan to help you detox your diet and free your body from toxins safely and gradually. It is important to note that if you attempt to detox your diet too quickly you will suffer with detox symptoms which include headaches, nausea and flu-like symptoms.

As with any change in your diet you should always check with your physician and pregnancy care team first. This post is for information purposes only and is not intended to replace advice given by your medical practitioner, registered dietician or nutritionist.

Third Trimester - Heartburn and Tiredness

Ugh! It's making me feel sick - ALL THE TIME!!

I literally can't eat a thing at least 2 hours before bed - and that includes water!

It is definitely sugar that makes it worse though as I only really get it on weekends when I'm having a cheat day (i.e. eating rubbish). The weeks are mostly fine, although I did have a bowl of tomato soup at 7pm last Wednesday then had to leave my swim class halfway through at 930pm because it just wouldn't stay down!

This is definitley not an enjoyable part of pregnancy!

I'm also finding that I'm starting to feel a little more tired these days. It's only been the last 2 weeks that I've noticed it, but it's definitely there. The lack of energy at the end of the day and the staying in bed till 8am instead of getting up at 7am as I had been doing previously.

Still, my workouts are still going well and this last month I've been training harder than ever as I feel more energised when I'm exercising.

Last week:

Resistance workout A - Monday
Resistance workout B - Tuesday
Swimming - Wednesday
Thursday - rest
Friday - Photo shoot for 9month club support system
Saturday - teaching Balance
Sunday - teaching Pilates

I keep getting asked when I'm going to stop teaching but I'm still managing fine so I'm hoping to go right through to November when I'm ready to drop!

Working your transverse for an easy labour

Now we've all heard about Kegels, the pelvic floor exercises designed by Dr Arnold Kegel, to support the pelvic structures and prevent urinary incontinence. But how many prenatal care professionals will tell you about the importance of working your transverse abdominus?

My guess is I could probably count the number on one hand...without the thumb. The importance of the transverse abdominus in labour is massively overlooked by care professionals but it is one of the major muscles you will need to use to ensure an easy labour.



As you can see from the diagram the TA is a deep seated abdominal muscle that attaches to the bottm six ribs at the front and the pelvis in back. It runs across our sides and inserts into the linea alba at the front (the middle of your abdomen). It is also connected to the diaphragm which helps us breathe.

It looks like and acts like a corset, pulling you in and helps stabilise your torso and pelvis. This little beauty is the muscle that, if trained correctly will give you a flat stomach.

It is also the muscle that will help you push your baby out during labour.

Transverse Exercises

1. Now to work the transverse you need to breathe. Start by taking a big belly breath into the pit of your stomach. If you put your hands on your belly the in breath should expand your belly making it rise and grow outwards. As you exhale imagine pulling your bElly button right back to your spine. Now hold it there for a count of 10 second before releasing with another belly breath. Repeat this exercise for a minimum of 10 holds.

As you get stronger you can increase the hold count to 30. Always count out loud so that you are not holding your breath as this is a dangerous movement called the valsava manoeuver which can send your blood pressure sky high.

2. Next imagine your belly button is like an elevator. When you take in a belly breath this is ground floor, as you exhale and draw the belly button back to the spine, imagine you are passing through 5 floors.

Pull all the way back to floor 5 on the first exhale.
Then as you inhale release your belly button to floor 4.
Exhale and pull back to floor 5.
Release to floor 3.
Pull back to floor 5
Exhale to floor 2
Pull back to floor 5
Exhale to floor 3
Pull back to floor 5
Exhale to floor 2
Pull back to floor 5
Exhale to floor 4
Pull back to floor 5
Inhale with a big belly breath to floor 1
Pull back to floor 5
Inhale all the way to ground floor

Do 3 sets of these exercises 5 times a day. You can do your Kegels in between sets as your rest.

Now when it comes to the big day your TA is going to act like squeezing toothpaste out of a tube to push your baby out. However, YOU MUST BREATHE! Unfortunately the majority of delivery room staff will try and get you to hold your breath whilst pushing. Not only is this ineffective, it's also dangerous.

*When you hold your breath and work a muscle (or push) your blood pressure will go mental, first rocketing upwards, then going down rapidly before shooting up to an even higher level than before. Many women have burst blood vessels in their eyes and increase their risk of stroke after labour because of this.

*Your transverse muscle will move forwards instead of back and push against your weakened rectus abdominus, (the six pack), pushing the muscle apart and giving you a diastasis - leaving your back weakened an unsupported.

*You will fatigue quickly - research shows that holding your breath whilst bearing down for more than 5 seconds is uneccessarily tiring. Labour requires stamina so you don't want to be tiring yourself out before you've finished the race!

So instruct your birthing partner to be firm with the delivery room staff. Keep breathing as your contractions come. Take a big belly breath in at the start and then exhale long and hard as you pull your transverse back to squeeze your baby out.

So long as you have been practising your transverse exercises daily throughout your pregnancy you will find you have great stamina and strength and labour should become a much easier process.

Top 5 Nutrition Tips for a Perfect Pregnancy Profile!

Ever wonder how some mums to be have a perfect neat bump without piling on pregnancy poundage anywhere else? You know the ones, you see them from behind in the supermarket and you wouldn’t even know they were pregnant, then they turn around and, hey presto, there’s a perfect neat bump!
Is it to do with their body type? Well in some cases yes. We’ve all got a friend who can eat whatever she likes, never exercise, (apart from on the dance floor), and not put on an ounce, whilst we struggle to maintain our figures on high protein, low GI diets and an exercise regime that would scare the marines, but thankfully these skinny minnies are in the minority. Most of us fall into the category of watch what you eat and exercise regularly and your body will obey. Indulge one too many times and you’ll pay the price in those skinny jeans!
The same applies in pregnancy. It’s amazing just how many women will use pregnancy as an excuse to “take a break” from their healthy lifestyle, just because they know they’re going to get bigger anyway. In fact someone close to me said to me in the early stages of my pregnancy, “this is the only time you get to eat whatever you like and not worry about it!”. I was amazed as she had just had a baby herself and was struggling to lose her pregnancy weight a year on. Didn’t she realise that the more you put on in pregnancy the more you have to lose after?
So here are my top 5 tips to make sure you keep your sexy mama figure through pregnancy and pop back into shape quickly afterwards:
1. Eat small meals little and often – yes I know you’ve heard this one a million times before, but it’s important. For one it’s even more important in pregnancy to keep your blood sugar stable to avoid feeling exhausted, faint or sick. Two; small meals mean you won’t feel bloated and uncomfortable or suffer with indigestion and heartburn. Three; if your blood sugar is stable you won’t go rushing for the chocolate in a desperate bid to get your sugar levels back up quickly. Stable blood sugar = No sugar cravings.
2. Avoid processed food – all those chemicals, preservatives and stabilisers just aren’t any good for you or baby, not to mention all the hidden sugar and salt. Processing denatures food and kills off the nutrients so that the nutritional value of a processed food versus a natural product is virtually nil. What that means to you is that you will have to eat a lot more processed food to provide your baby, and your body, with the nutrients it needs to function properly and feed the growing life inside you. Eat all natural and you won’t feel the need to eat nearly as much food to satisfy your body’s nutritional needs.
3. Eat lots of fibrous fruit and veg – pregnancy brings with it the joys of constipation so make sure it doesn’t become a pain in the proverbial by including a big variety of fruit and vegetables in your diet. Aim to eat fruit and vegetables of all colours in the spectrum to provide you with a balance of vitamins and minerals and try to include more of the high fibre fruit and veg, such as apples, pears, berries, clemetines, broccoli, cauliflower, leafy greens etc.
4. Avoid all sugar – Sugar, dextrose, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, maple syrup, beet sugar, it all does the same thing. Creates an aggressive insulin response. Insulin is your fat storing hormone. The higher the insulin response the more fat you’ll store. So eat added sugar = store more fat. All food contains sugar so there’s no need to add it to anything.
5. Eat protein with every meal – protein is essential for the cellular growth and development of your baby. It is also necessary for the placenta, amniotic and maternal tissues and the 50% increase in blood volume that accompanies pregnancy. Not only that but protein also makes you feel fuller for longer, and doesn’t create an aggressive insulin response, meaning that you won’t be craving a sugar fix an hour after eating.
If you follow these simple rules you should find that you only put on what’s necessary during your pregnancy in order to support you and your growing baby. A healthy weight gain is between 24 – 34 lbs over the course of your pregnancy. That’s roughly just over ½ pound / week. You’ll also find it a lot easier to return to your pre-pregnancy size afterwards if you’re already eating a healthy and balanced diet.

Bump bands, ab supports and why you should avoid them

At first I thought my abs were splitting as the linea negre has made a recent appearance, but I did the test and I'm pretty sure they're ok for now. However, they are bl*ody sore! I think coming back into a full weeks training after a week of doing nothing was a bit ambitious.

Now normally, I'd get away with it. Saying that, I don't think I've ever been away on holiday and not trained at least a couple of times whilst I've been away, but Ibiza was a complete break for me. I felt a lot worse because of it and I was dying to get back in the gym before I'd even boarded the plane!

So after a days rest, (I was exhausted after flying back in), I got back on it with vigour. I started swimming lessons on Wednesday night, gym on Thursday and Friday, taught my class on Saturday and had a rest day Sunday. Monday I was in the gym again. By Tuesday morning I was finding it difficult to walk at a normal pace because my lower abs were so sore, so I just did some gentle tai-chi and yoga at home.

On top of all this I was learning the choreography for the new Body Balance release and the core abs and back tracks are killers. Actually, I forgot about that till now! Now that I think of it, it was probably the balance that pushed my abs too hard! Today my lower abs still hurt!

Anyway, as I was in Mamas and Papas the other day I did, for the first time, have a look at the bump bands. I've always been totally anti-support bands for a very good reason. Most people are severly lacking in core strength as it is. By providing even more external support in the form of a bump band, (or in bodybuilding and powerlifting - a weight belt), you are reducing the capacity that your own muscles have to work, in order to support your own postural structure. By relying on an external crutch to do the work for you, you are telling your muscles that it's OK to switch off and stop working as there's always something else to rely on. It makes far more sense then to train your own muscles to do their job properly through core strengthening exercises, rather than rely on a crutch which won't be there in a few months time. By that time your muscles will have weakened so much that it will be a real uphill struggle to get them back into shape.

Regardless, I was in pain and I wanted something light to help me until my abs healed, so that I could carry on training in the meantime. I had no intention of using a band for long term use, just for the next couple of days and ONLY when running, as that was when I needed the extra support.

The bump bands which are marketed as a support band for your belly were nothing more than a thin layer of jersey to wear around your bump. There was no more support in them than if I were to tie a cotton scarf round my belly...

(What they were very good for is wearing over the top of low rise jeans so that when you sit down you don't flash your bottom to the world! I swear that Pepe are the only jeans brand that know how to do low rise properly, so they're low at the front but high on the bits that matter! Unfortunately they don't do maternity - I've looked fanatically!)

... So I wound up doing what I should have done in the first place. Taking a days rest to give my abs time to heal. It's what I would advise a client to do and I know that, what with learning the new choreography for my class on top of my normal training programme, I was pushing it a little bit. Unfortunatley work is work amd if I'm not doing it, I'm not getting paid.

So hopefully by tommorow my abs will be feeling somewhat normal again and it'll be back to the gym.

Antenatal / Prenatal class

I don't know whether it's me or the NHS but I have to say that the information I've been given by my midwife during my pregnancy is minimal or next to nothing. It is only thanks to the wonders of the net, magazines, articles and the library of books I've collected that I know as much as I do. Fortunately I'm a bookworm, and seeing as I'm passionate about my field of work and the science of the human body, it has been a rather pleasant and relatively easy learning experience.

So very recently, (like last week when I returned from holiday and realised that, at 23 weeks, I was already over halfway through), it dawned on me that I was suppposed to enrol in antenatal classes in the not too distant future. Now I had thought that this was something the midwife informed you about when the time came and assumed I didn't need to worry about it yet.

Not so.

In my scan of antenatal classes in Bristol I was alarmed to see the first class listing on Google was already full up. I carried on to the National Childbirth Trust. The course that was the most suitable for my due date was also full up. I filled in the online enquiry form for it anyway but to be on the safe side I also emailed the local course administrator directly to see what my options were. She emailed me back almost straight away with a place on a course that was located a little further away but still had places and urged me to respond as quickly as possible as the places were filling up fast. I emailed back immediately to book my place.

So my advice to those of you who haven't booked your classes yet and are already around 22/23 weeks, like me, is get on to your clinic/hospital/childbirth agency and get your place reserved! Otherwise you may have to settle for a course that is not the most convenient for you!

Sun, sand and surf! Holiday tips for pregnancy

I've just returned from a very relaxing week on holiday with Carl. During your second trimester it's a good idea to book a holiday. You are safe to fly up until 28 weeks, at which time you'll need a doctor's note. As the second trimester should see you feeling more vibrant, healthy and energetic, it's the perfect time to take a break and really enjoy it without the drag of fatigue or morning sickness. Also you're not too big at this stage so you should still feel quite comfortable in the heat.

I would advise getting to check in as early as possible so you can ask for a seat near the toilet and with extra legroom. If you're peeing often, (who isn't at this stage!), it might be an idea to get an aisle seat so you don't have to disturb anyone if you're getting up frequently.

Carl and I were in Ibiza for a friends wedding which was beautiful. Yours truly was bridesmaid and the ceremony, setting, food and company was amazing. The bride cried and my bottom lip started to tremble but I managed to hold it in!

Now Ibiza is probably the last place you would associate with a quiet relaxing holiday but I booked us into a resort called Santa Eulalia. No clubs, just a gorgeouus marina with million pound yachts moored up, lots of nice restaurants and a beach. We hired a car for the week and made the most of it, visiting a different beach on the island every day. My favourite beach was Ses Aigues Blancos, literal translation, clear waters. It was a local beach with all spanish and a couple of nudists on it, (no that is not why it was my favourite!). The water was amazingly clear and as I love the sea I spent most of the day happily splashing around in the sea while Carl sunbathed.

We also visited the famous hippy market which is one of my favourite places on the island. It was just as good as I remembered it and I bought a beautiful silk dress for the bargain price of 33 Euros.

We spent our last night having tapas at a Spanish street cafe in Ibiza town. We wandered round the shops and night stalls, (the best time to go shopping in Ibiza is around 8pm when everything comes alive), and all too soon it was over. I was particularly sad as I knew this was the last holiday we would have as a couple. Not that I'm not excited to be having my little boy - on the contrary, I can't wait, but still, it was the end of an era of doing exactly as we pleased, without having to put someone elses needs above our own constantly.

We flew back into a grey Bristol on Monday afternoon and spent the evening doing washing ready for Carl to go back to work at 530am on Tuesday morning.

After a wonderful week in the sun and eating ice-creams every day, it's now time to get back on my healthy eating plan and back in the gym! Goodbye indulgence, hello sexy pregnant mama. Luckily I didn't gain a thing on holiday - must've been all the swimming and walking we did. Plus it was so hot I didn't want to eat much anyway. The first day back I was so tired I mostly slept but then it was back to routine. Wednesday night I went for my first swimming lesson, Thursday was legs day at the gym and today, Friday was upper body. Tommorow I'm teaching classes and Sunday I plan to go practise my swimming. My body feels better for it and I know I was feeling a little out of synch on holiday for the lack of structured exercise. So I guess in a way it's good to be back. Just a shame I couldn't bring the beaches and the sunshine with me!

I hate bad customer service!!!

For the past 7 weeks or so I have been trying to book adult swimming lessons at my local leisure centre. Now this is a brand new complex who should be doing everything they can to bring in new business, but after 5 phone calls and two visits in person, I am STILL waiting for someone to call me back. Apparently the problem is that ONLY the swim co-ordinator can book you in for lessons. This seems ludicrous, seeing as she manages several different pools in the area and is never in one place long enough for you to contact her or for her to get back to. After leaving 7 or so messages, I finally got through to her yesterday. She was completely unhelpful and gave no apology whatsoever for the lack of communication or the difficulty I had experienced in trying to book a place on one of her courses.

I'm so frustrated but the only pools near me, (there's 3), are all under the same swim co-ordinator, otherwise I would have gone somewhere else a long time ago!

The thing is, I'm doing my resistance workouts at the gym but find the cardio machines so very boring. It's great if it's sunny outside as I can just do my interval training outdoors, but unfortunately, this is England! It doesn't always work like that. Plus as I'm getting bigger I think swimming is going to be a much more comfortable option for me.

Anyway at this point I'm getting nowhere but frustrated! It's such a shame as I'm on holiday next week and would have loved to do my intervals in the pool or the sea. I guess that's still feasible as I can swim, just means that there'll be a lot of splashing going on! Ibiza, you have been warned!

Pregnant does not mean getting fat!

Yippee, yippee! We're going on holiday on Monday! Just 4 days before we'll be jetting off to sunny Ibiza for my friends wedding!

We had a bit of a palava with the bridesmaid dress as my friend bought it at Christmas before I'd fallen pregnant. I tried telling her that it wouldn't fit, even though it was a bit big when she bought it, but she seemed to think her friends mum, a seamstress, would be able to make it bigger somehow??

Anyway went to try it on a couple of weeks ago and guesss what - it wouldn't do up! So Becky promptly got on the internet and ordered a maternity bridesmaid dress - in a size large! DOH! I didn't realise what she'd done until I got a text saying she'd ordered a large and could I come try it on - with one week to go. Not wanting to burst her bubble on the text I dutifully drove round and tried the dress on.

Now Becky's husband is a body builder and is ripped and huge. He could have got the dress on and done it up it was that big! I gently told her that although you get a bump and bigger boobs, you don't get bigger all over and thanks to my training and nutrition plan I was still a size 8 (UK, not sure what that is in US). After all, it's not like your shoulders get bigger, or your arms or back, imagine! So with one week to go, back the dress went and a small was ordered. Fingers crossed!

Thankfully the small arrived and was a perfect fit. So I won't look like a pink beach ball walking down the aisle after all!

Emotional highs and lows

These last few weeks have been great. Being at home, free from housing issues, landladies and awkward housemates is a whole other world! On top of that I can structure my day as I see fit, meaning that I get to train every single day. I did take Monday off as I realised I'd trained 6 days last week and probably could do with giving my body a rest.

All in all, life was good but every now and then, I'd see an advert on TV for baby products and I'd be struck by an overwhelming urge to sob. In fact a couple of times I did have a little cry and then wondered where on earth it had come from?

Then I realised. I hadn't really seen Carl for a couple of weeks and wouldn't see him for another week on top of that! It was a particularly long spell away for him, working for 15 days in a row and then he was off to Glastonbury Festival for a week. I managed to grab a few hours with him last night before he left at 7am this morning to meet his mates and go off to be a hippy for a week. It dawned on me that although I had friends and family around me, it was, (subconciously), getting me down that he wasn't around to watch my belly grow, or feel our baby's first kicks.

The second trimester is always a heightened time for emotions and dependency on your partner or loved ones is increased at this time, so at least I knew I wasn't being a wimp, or neurotic.

Once I'd realised what the problem was, I started to think that I'd actually had quite an easy time of it, emotionally, if this was the only thing that brought on my tearfulness. Thinking back on what I'd been doing for the past few weeks, since returning home at the beggining of June, I understood that all the good nutrition and daily exercise had really kept my mood buoyant and had it not been for that, then I probably would have been feelin a lot more lonely and a bit sad that Carl and I were seperated by unfortunate circumstances.

I loved the daily buzz I'd get from spending 20 mins on my body and it was definitely showing. My friend, also a trainer, commented on the fact that you could see definition and tone in my arms and legs and that I wasn't holding any water. My Auntie mentioned what a nice neat bump I had, especially for 5 months. And, to top it all off, when I was out with my single girlfriends at the weekend, the guys they were chatting to all commented on how trim I looked!

So, my point is, not to blow my own trumpet, but to tell you firsthand that following an all natural, clean, whole foods diet, plus regular short exercise sessions works. I'm looking well, feeling better and more motivated to keep it up!

Maybe I shouldn't say this, but you're pretty hot!

Last night I went out for a few drinks with my newly single friend and her friend - a single mother of two. My friend S has been through a major traumatic time recently. After trying desperately for a baby for three years, her husband of 5 years told her he never wanted kids anyway. As if that wasn't enough she then answered a call from a mystery woman on his phone, then found a hotel bill, itemised with drinks etc. Anyway to cut avery long complicated story short, he did the unthinkable and was cheating on her, with a woman who has 3 kids!! What a scumbag!

Anyway so I met the girls at one of our favourite bars and by the time I got there they were already sat at a table surrounded by kiwi guys who were over for the NZ vs England 20:20 cricket match that was on here at the weekend. I took an inward sigh, as I walked over, preparing myself for an evening of chatting to the leftover guys, stone cold sober, while my friends flirted away and got drunk. Oh the joys of pregnancy - I couldn't even drink to take away the pain!

Before I got to the table they spotted me and started shouting and calling me over, asking me who'd eaten all the pies! (UK slang for you're looking fat). S hasn't seen me for a couple of weeks as she's been on holiday and couldn't believe how much my bump had grown! I jokingly replied that I'd been living on lard for the past few weeks, and did it show?

Anyway, the guys were very gentlemenly, pulled up a seat for me under the awning so I didn't get soaked by the rain and I'd barely sat down before a bottle of sparkling water was brought to me. They were all very sweet and interested asking me how I was feeling and when it was due..blah,blahblah...

I was feeling quite grateful for this polite show of interest when the one who had been chatting up my friend S, suddenly was showering me with interest and then commented, "You know, you're looking pretty hot though". I explained I was a trainer but that I was still working out 6 days a week. The guys all looked very surprised at that and after all the, "is it safe though", and "when will you stop?", were very impressed with the fact that I wasn't one of those women who choose to use pregnancy as an excuse to stop everything and stuff their faces with junk.

Needless to say I left pretty early and left the girls to it after a couple of drinks but I left on a high, knowing that I wasn't looking too bad after all. So next time I look in the mirror in despair at my growing tree trunk thighs, I can at least think back to the compliments I got and know that I'm not looking so bad after all!

20 week scan!

Finally, the day arrived! I was so excited that I woke up super early and then had to fill my morning to keep me from boredom. Today I would find out the sex of my little tadpole!

Carl managed to get the day off of work and I was really pleased as this would be his first hospital appointment. i just knew once he saw his little baby on the monitor it woiuld all hit home for him and become real!

Now when I wake up in the mornings I'm generally quite dehydrated as I try not to drink too much at night so I can get a good night's sleep without running for the loo every two minutes, so as usual I woke up and downed a couple of pints of water. At around 11am I remembered that I wouldn't be able to pee from midday as I needed a full bladder for the scan and hastily stopped drinking and went to the loo.

We got in the car and all was fine till we reached the hospital. I was DYING! I was desperate to pee but knew I had to wait. Well isn't it just typical that when they have you waiting, tell you to come with a full bladder and tell you not to pee, that they're running late!! I just had to cross my legs and hope for the best!

The scan went well and Carl was really chuffed to find out he wwas having the boy he'd hoped for! It was so great to hear him say that it almost brought a tear to his eye, seeing him for the 1st time, (for Carl this is a miracle and he's not the most emotional of people - I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't cry at the birth!)

I swear the little monkey knew we'd seen him as the very next morning he started kicking!

Thai Beef Salad Recipe

I love thai food. I find the flavours and ingredients so fragrant and healthy. I recently went out for dinner with my family to my favourite thai restaurant in Bristol and had Yam Nua, a spicy salad with wonderfully hot, fresh and sour flavours. I'd forgotten about this dish but it's something I lived on when I was in Thailand travelling a few years back and it inspired me to make my own version.

Now traditionally you are supposed to use sugar in it to balance the hot and sour flavours but I wanted to keep mine as healthy as possible.

Salad:

Sirloin / Rib Eye Steak (400g )
2 medium tomatoes diced/ 12 cherry tomatoes quatered
1/2 a large cucumber peeled and diced
4 shallots diced / 4 spring onion
Handful of chopped mint (fresh)
Handful of chopped coriander (fresh)

Dressing:

1 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
2 1/2tbspn lime juice
2 bird's eye chillies
1 red chilli
2 cloves garlic
1tsp lemongrass paste (optional)
1tspn agave syrup

To Serve:

Salad leaves

Grill or griddle the steak and remove from pan. Leave to rest for 5 mins then slice thinly.

Pound the garlic with the chillies and mix with the rest of the dressing ingredients.

Mix the salad ingredients in a bowl and toss well with the dressing. Spoon onto plate lined with a bed of salad leaves and serve.