My life story so far...

I'm Heather, I'm 29 years old, born in London, UK.
I'm married to an American guy called Shane, we met on yahoo chat in 1999 as both had similar sign in names and discovered we had the same fav band, I had a huge crush on his profile pic lol but figured ahh he's all the way over in America, I'll never even get to meet this guy, that wasn't even our intension anyway.
5 years passed, I broke up with my ex, he broke up with his and we started emailing every day, and chatting on yahoo every day. Within days to weeks, it turned to phone calls. Major butterflies in our tummies with every phone call & email. Then 6 months later we took the plunge and he flew to England for a 3 month visit to see how we'd work out. When he flew back home to America in October 2004 that's when we knew we were definitely in love and couldn't stand a long distance relationship anymore, so in Feb 2005 he flew back over for 2 weeks for my birthday, proposed to me, and in July 2005 I flew out there and we got married in Indiana where he lived. We went straight to Chicago and got his Spouse visa and flew back to England a week later.

I went straight back to work after getting married, I used to work for a Property Management Company in 2005. THREE MONTHS later I found out I was pregnant (not planned!), I actually took the test in my lunch break assuming I'll get my period the next day and the whole thing would be a waste of money (as I had cramps), but sure enough that positive line came up right before the other line did - I had a panic attack! lol

I must've conceived the weekend we spent in Scotland 3 weeks prior for my nan's 80th birthday. All I could think about was being pregnant, but I was terrified - I can't give birth, I freak out over a paper cut!!
To my surprise when the big day came, I was REAL trooper! I spent the whole 9 months guaranteeing on an epidural, but when B day came, there was no time! I was in hard fast labour! BUT the midwife didn't believe I was even in real labour and offered me a paracetamol!
I had to push before Shane and my mum even arrived!! (I was already in hospital due to a terrible headache) I asked the midwife for an Epi and after she was about to check how dilated I was she said "it's too late, there's the head, BIG PUSH!". So much for not being in REAL labour!!!
My active labour lasted 1 hour and 4 minutes and I pushed for 14 minutes of it - VERY quick for a 1st baby!!! Luckilly Shane and my mum arrived just in time and were there for 9 minutes of the pushing!
At 2:34am 17th July 2006, Draven Robert Conway was born, 7lbs 7.5oz - he's PERFECT!

Although the labour was quick, I was actually quite traumatized by the whole thing, I wanted my husband there for my labour, not 9 minutes of pushing, if the stupid midwife had believed me when I told her I was in labour, then maybe she'd have called him, but she didn't believe me until she saw my son's head!
I swore I'd never have another baby again!

I was the type of girl who would never have kids unless I could pick one up from a store! And now, I'm all about pregnancy and motherhood, I love the whole thing! I'm pregnant again now with my second, this time we planned it, and what a wonderful (although very quick!) experience it was trying to get pregnant!

We decided at the end of May to start trying (yeah I know, I swore I wouldn't do it!), May 31st to be exact, and the very next day I felt myself ovulate (I can physically feel it) and I just knew our baby was being made right then and there!
The next week or so my tummy felt very tender, I just knew I was pregnant. I did maybe 5 tests (all before the 14 days of course!) and they all turned out negative, so on the 15th June, exactly 14 days after I ovulated (and Father's day), I did the test again, and there it was - my BFP!
I'm still pretty stunned that it happened so fast, and as happy as I am that it did happen at all, I was kind of expecting to be "trying" for a few months, so again it came as quite a shock haha!

ADDED: Brandon Ash Conway was born at Princess Alexandra Harlow Hospital in Essex, England at 00:04am on Saturday, 14th February 2009 7lbs 7oz

My whole life story :)

28 week check up

I just got back from seeing the midwife. She said baby's head is laying down, he has a nice strong and fast heartbeat of 167bpm. I'm measuring 33cm now (from top to bottom of my uterus) whatever that means? lol

I'm getting checked again for Cholestitis (that's so not spelled right but i'm not about to check it) due to my severe itching. My friend also has that condition, she is 5 weeks ahead of me and is in hospital as we speak being induced!!!! Puts it into perspective! Although I was expecting to be induced early becasue of that anyway.

Shannon if you read this, have you had any signs yet?

I told her I'm starting to fear the birth now as the last one was only an hour long, so she's put repetative notes to say that my labour is expected to be very quick (she used a medical term but I forgot it), I'm sure it'll be hours long after saying that though lol

I have to have a blood test tomorrow to check for Cholestasis or however you spell it????

My attempt at a Christmas Card

My 1st Digital Scrapbook page

I learned how to do it a forum called http://www.unmommy.com/ (which is now http://bellamena.com/) following a tutorial set up by Beth. You can follow her blog at http://decemberdaydream.blogspot.com/
This is the 1st page I ever did and it took me HOURS!! lol

Kit: Express Yourself
By: A Scrapadelic Design

Draven's last 3 Halloween's!

Here he is for his 1st Halloween in 2006, 3 months old

Resized to 87% (was 800 x 600) - Click image to enlarge

And last year in 2007, his 2nd Halloween, 1 year and 3 months old


And finally his 3rd Halloween - 2008, 2 years and 3 months old




Here he is sulking haha

And here's the little boy all worn out for nap time, with his trusty pillow, of course! haha

Bad pregnant day

We decided to get on the train to a couple of town's away to do some Christmas shopping. I didn't have FAR to walk so I figured all would be ok.

But from me walkting to the Train station from our house (NOT far at all), onto the train, then off again, apparently decided to kill my feel and back!

Once we got off the train, I couldn't believe how much pain I was in already, I joked about getting a cab to the market (again, not far from the station) but by the time I got to the market I was walking like a snail and in the shittiest mood EVER!!

I kept snapping at Shane, until I said "I'm going home, you do what you like" (try storming off though when you look 15 months pregnant and can barely walk as it is!! HAHA)

So anyway, (stupidly) walking back towards the station, I get to a road where it's either change your stubborn mind, or actually go home after doing NOTHING since arriving.

So Shane starts to hold me and he explains how he doesn't know how much pain I'm literally in, only what I can tell him etc, and then he said "I can do the Christmas shopping if you like, you get a cab home, and me and Draven can look for some things, it's no sweat for me"

That's when I burst into tears in the street and whined like a little girl "BUT I WANTED TO DO THE CHRISTMAS SHOPPING!!! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!"

OMG there were passers by staring and I knew I looked a fool but I couldn't stop! I really felt like a 5 year old trying to explain to my mum how much I wanted that doll or something!?

So Shane hugged me and wiped my tears, suggesting we go and sit in Starbucks for a while and then see how I feel, lukilly I did feel better and managed to last another 4 hours - whew!

Draven, my genius!

Draven turned two in July (17th) and he can count to 26 all by himself. He can do the whole entire alphabet by himself (but misses the letter K ) he has learned to do sign language from a website www.starfall.com by my sister sitting with him.

I took him to the doctors the other day to see if there was anything wrong with him (yes the doctor laughed at me) because he's so clever! And while we were in the waiting room there's a table there for kids that says "Finger Fun" on it, so Draven spells the whole thing out... F.I.N.G... right through to the N in Fun!!

I'm sure other mum's don't believe me, but I swear he can!!

I was amazed that by the age of two he could count to 20 by himself, and he's gradually increasing the amount. However, at 18 months he only knew 4 words let alone do any counting, so God only knows what happened to him this year, but I'm loving it!!

My funny little Draven

I just took these a couple of days ago, I thought they were so funny I uploaded them to photobucket straight away lol

He was starting to get tired so I went over and pestered him with the camera. Excuse how dirty his chair is!





This one is HILLARIOUS!!

We met Kristie in London (from our July 2006 birth board)

She sent me a PM on our old birth board telling me she'll be in London over the weekend and asked if I wanted to meet up. Of course I jumped at the chance as we've all known each other for about 3 years now and so many of them in the states have met up over time, it's not very often anyone comes to London!

So anyway here are some pics from the weekend, I didn't take many as I was too busy chatting lol


Just got on the train waiting for it to leave:


The snacking begins!


Is he giving me the finger?


Kristie at their Hotel room window (Draven pointed and said "mummy!" lol)


Some fun after lunch in the pub


Draven gets restless


Back at the station ready to go back home


What a busy day for such a little boy

It pisses me off!

If they're not telling you what you can eat & drink, or telling you how big or small you look - then they're telling you how you'll never know what 8 hours of sleep is again and that you'll be elbow deep in nappies (diapers).

What BULL!

Maybe I'm one of the lucky ones in the minority, but I'm pretty sure I'm part of the majority that can honestly say that motherhood is NOT about sleepless nights and poopy diapers. Motherhood to me, is enjoying watching my baby grow into a wonderfully enjoyable happy little boy! It's EXTREMELY rewarding!

I've NEVER smiled so much as I have since having Draven. On a daily basis he literally cracks me up! He's such a funny little guy, he's really at an age now where he can interact and I'm so proud of him! He can count straight to 26 all by himself, he can do sign language, he can do the whole alphabet (with a little help) and he can spell things out (like when I was at the docs last week there was a toy that said "finger fun" and Draven stood their pointing to the letters... F I N G E... right to then N at the end of fun! And why were we at the doctors? Because I thought he could be Autistic due to his (IMO) extreme cleverness! Thank God he's not, he really is just a clever little boy

I just can't stand it when people generalise about motherhood and assume you'll be a tired wreck for the rest of your life because you had a baby...!?! It's just not true!

Belly difference

25 weeks pregnant with Draven in 2006



25 weeks pregnant with this little baby boy, taken today


I'm so much bigger this time!!!