It's a bit of a shitty time at the moment - Mike is going away to Sri Lanka tomorrow for 2 long weeks, then I've got money worries, house renovations and I have to decide the colour of the baby's room right NOW. And to add insult injury I woke up yesterday crying my eyes out after a very vivid dream that my little brother had thrown himself off a balcony in front of me. So I'd say that all in all I'm feeling a wee bit stressed!

In a bid to keep it light today, I'm going to talk about Calcium instead! When in doubt think about food (I also tried the exercise circuit (by Abigail Kluttz that I told you about on Monday), which was hard and made me feel a bit better).

So, calcium. Why is it so important in your pregnancy diet? Well, it primarily makes junior's teeth and bones. It

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I turned 33 weeks pregnant on Thursday and I'm feeling better than I have done at earlier points in my pregnancy. Despite this I didn't get much chance to workout with various other things getting in the way. So on Saturday I was well up for a good gym session. Here's what I did:

20 mins on the bike (I did about 140 cals)

> 10 x squat to shoulder press (with 5kg weights)

> 20 x slow sumo squats

Just a quick update on pregnancy stretch marks...I'm 33 weeks pregnant tomorrow and so far, amazingly, I've not got any stretch marks. On the other hand my other, pre pregnancy stretch marks (probably from growing too quickly as a teenager) that I'd never really noticed before, are more obvious. What's the opposite saying to 'every cloud has a silver lining'?

I'm applying moisturising cream every time I pass the bottle (the massaging of your belly is supposed to be effective for women who got stretch marks during adolescence) and am battling on with my anti-stretch mark diet. The other day I was walking down the cereal aisle and was (sadly) delighted when I came across some ground flax seeds!

Ground flaxseeds from Linwoods

"Wahoo," I hear you cry! Or probably more likely, what's so exciting about this?

Well, I'll tell you. Flax seeds are the best source of Essential Fatty Acids (according to WHFoods.org and

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Following on from my Prenatal Vitamins post and the decision to eat my vitamins rather than trying to gag down those massive tables, I thought I'd continue what I started ages ago about how to get all the vitamins you need from your pregnancy diet. I've hunted through various advice websites to get a good overall picture of what specifically you need to make sure you have covered by your diet.

The main culprits are Folic Acid and Vitamin D, and nearly always cited as being the most important vitamins in pregnancy.

However, these vitamins and minerals are also very important:

Calcium

Vitamin K

Vitamin C

Omega 3

I've already covered Vitamin K and Vitamin D, and through the anti-stretchmark post and the prevent-stretch-mark shopping list post, that has covered Vitamin A, Omega 3 and Vitamin C, to a certain extent. So, I thought I'd go back to basics with Folic Acid.

I think it's pretty common knowledge that the

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This is your PREVENT STRETCH MARKS Shopping List! I was meant to post this yesterday but I was in such a shitty mood! I’m telling you, staying up late on a Saturday night when you're this pregnant is not worth it.

I’d spent yesterday worrying about work, feeling emotional about the birth (a.k.a. pushing the baby out of that tiny hole and where I should do said pushing) and other such things. So, when I discovered O2 had taken £300 out of my account (when they shouldn’t have, I’d already spent 45 minutes on the phone with them to make sure they didn’t take any money and was assured they wouldn’t) it felt like the end of the world. And, the final icing on the cake? I dropped something on my hand and it hurt so I cried and that put paid to any attempt I was going to make to

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I really admire what The Shape of a Mother's creator is trying to achieve - namely giving mothers a place to show off their mum badges of honour and talk about how they feel about them. The idea being this is liberating and shows people what women really look like when they aren't busy being air brushed.

HOWEVER, since I've not yet had my first child it has scared the shit out of me. I don't want a bum on my belly and loads of horrible stretch marks but it seems that this is the only possible outcome (unless you are my lovely friend Ania who has no stretch marks and has gone back to the size she was before having 2 kids, if not smaller - please, dear god, let me have her genes too!!).

So, aside from panic about the fact that I've put on another 4 lbs over the

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I am ashamed of myself.

I went out last night and had a brilliant time at The Stand comedy club (a sort of nod to my Birthday organised by best bud Alex) - a delicious, three course meal, lots of cranberry and soda, followed by fantastic comedy (if you ever get chance to see Tom Allan I would highly recommend him, I was on that verge of hysterical laughter turning into sobbing by the end of it. Make up was a mess). Then, despite it being 90's hiphop night, I left Alex and Len to go clubbing and drove a rather drunk (he denigns it) Mike home.

What did we do on the way home? Got a dirty kebab with chilli sauce and settled down to watch some Geordie Shore. It was the most Geordie thing I've ever done. And, my gut certainly isn't proud. I should think that given the wriggling

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I had a conversation with Mike yesterday which went something along the lines of:

me: 'thankfully I only put on 4lbs on holiday and since I have to put on weight anyway, that's fine'

Mike: 'You don't have to put on weight it's just that women tend to as a result of being pregnant'

Let me clear this up for you ladies...yes we do have to put on weight because our babies need us to... If you don't put on enough weight, it can have an adverse effect on you and shorty! Follow the top 2 links in resources below for a good explanation as to why you should put on weight (oh and while you're at it, why it's bad to put on too much - it's a bleeding minefield!!)

Courtesy of precisionnutrition.com and babycenter, these are the weight gain guidelines to follow:

If you were underweight before conception, you should aim to put on

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We're back! I had such a lovely time relaxing and reading in the sun - it's amazing how you can fill your time doing relatively little (except eat, relax and get into strange positions in order to get an even tan). I'm sure I've put on quite a bit of weight and baby seems to have popped as I am definitely looking pregnant now. I'm wearing mama jeans (topshop's Baxter jeans bought for £10 in the sale), that didn't fit 10 days ago, as we speak.

 Just quickly, here are the things I forgot and recommend you don't:

Bring your pregnancy tablets, I forgot mine and I've had to make do with one from the airport that I'm not keen on.

If you suffer from heat rash bring something for it

Bring something for heartburn - with all this luscious food and drink, Mike started to suffer. I didn't have any trouble but it's

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So far during my pregnancy, I've not had any illnesses. Even after both Mike and Gabriella were poorly for over a week with various flu/chest infections, I still managed to sail on through, like a nurse from the second-world war, unharmed. Thankfully. I put it down to no longer drinking (and therefore battering my poor immune system, which is stripped every time you drink too much) and generally trying to eat more healthily.

Well, I've now woken up with a sore throat and I certainly can't put it down to stress, because I can't say I'm under any! To keep the impending cold at bay, I've been trying to find as many natural, safe cold remedies during pregnancy as possible that will soothe the soreness and fill me with a bug fighting army. Someone told me it could be hay fever but either way it annoying so here's a few fixes

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