NOPPIES - SUPER MATERNITY CLOTHES

Noppies was established in 1991 and are a leading player in the maternity clothes and baby clothing market.

At Global Maternity we stock 39 different maternity clothes items supplied to us directly from Noppies. Our customers enjoy wearing Noppies maternity clothes. They are incredibly stylish, extremely comfortable, a perfect fit and of superior quality to what is often found in the high street stores.

We like our customers to look and feel attractive when they are pregnant. That's why Noppies maternity clothes are the perfect choice. Maternity clothes from Noppies can be worn from the moment your baby bump shows until well into your pregnancy and beyond.

There is currently 20% off all Noppies maternity clothes at Global Maternity.

Pregnant and eating for 2!

The first thing that springs into my mind now is SPINACH and GUINNESS. I ate so much spinach when I was pregnant that it should have been coming out of every orifice...so why the bloody hell was I still anaemic! The doctor told me that I would have had to eat my body weight in spinach every day so it's no wonder that my one bag didn't cut it!

I know students are supposed to live off beans and whatever else is stuck to the back of the fridge but I ate like a queen for 9 months. I had the best of everything. Every week I scoured the supermarket shelves for whatever grabbed my fancy. My flatmates also took a shine to the food I was buying as they would go grazing at night and the 'oops I thought it was mine' would pop out of their mouths in the morning! Hmmm...!

My bedroom in the student flat turned into the best fruit and vegetable shop in Stirling. I was mad for it. I remember polishing my pieces of fruit and lining them up on the long shelf next to my bed. God, I must have been bored! But, I could lay back and sexily drop grapes into my mouth whenever I fancied. How decadent is that?! And no, it wasn't very sexy either!

I don't think I ate for two. That's another phrase which makes me giggle. Is it just an excuse to pig out? Do you really need to eat more when you're pregnant? Or, do you just have to eat the right types of food? My eating habits didn't change. Ok, I cut out the foods that you should avoid like blue cheese and pate, but on the whole ate the same things and the same quantities that I always had.

To me, exercise is absolutely vital when you are pregnant - if you are able. There is such a variety of classes for pregnant women out there now. I don't remember anywhere near the choice when I was carrying Bethany. So, I stuck to swimming and used to go every day and swim between 20 and 40 lenghts. Some days, Bethany objected and kicked me in the water until I got out. It's funny how as soon as I was dried and fully clothed again she would stop! The little tinker!

Oh, and GUINNESS...I drank it for the iron content you understand! I had a weekly ritual with my one bottle of Guinness Original. On a Friday night, about 8-9pm - whenever ER was starting on our pathetic excuse for a TV in the student flat, I would pour myself a glass of Guinness and enjoy every mouthful as it slid down. And I tell you, my flatmates knew that if they touched that they would have been in serious trouble!

I would love to hear what you likes and dislikes with regards to food have been whilst pregnant...

Telling others I was pregnant

I was a student; living in student digs...How could I not tell them! It would have been pretty hard to keep up the healthy eating and drinking fetish for a further 6 months without them looking at me in a 'you're a weirdo' kind of way. Have you noticed the bemused and shell shocked look from fellow students when you turn down the opportunity to go on a bender! Not that I've been a student for what seems like an eternity! I'm 41, I don't do 'benders' anymore...

Well, it was coming up to my 12 or 16 week scan. I can't remember now as I'm sure I had a scan at 12 weeks. Perhaps they do it differently in Scotland? The morning sickness had gone - woo hoo!! It was time to tell the world, shout it from the rooftops, write a press release, and put an advert on national television! Ok, calm down. It was not nearly so dramatic. I phoned Mum and Dad from the rather grubby university telephone! We didn't have mobiles then! Was that the night I got pulled off the grubby telephone by some Scottish Billy Goat Gruff who had obviously been tasked with setting time limits for everyone else's phone calls but his. Hmmm...I'm not sure, but if it was he hurt me and I am still angry about it! I was pregnant for heaven's sake and needed to be handled with care!

Mum and Dad had known that I was 'trying for a baby'. I don't know what it is about that phrase 'trying for a baby'. It all sounds so prescriptive and it makes me sort of giggle! But, I understand why people use it - what else would you say? Just before writing this blog I asked Mum how she felt about the whole baby thing back then because she and Dad never really voiced their opinions. She told me that she didn't really approve as she was not that keen on the father. She resigned herself to the fact and told me she had no other option but to accept it.

Is that what we do as parents? Take things in our stride in a bid to demonstrate that we are not surprised or indeed in disagreement with what our children do. I was an adult, what could they have done about it if that was what I wanted. My father would never have said anything. He was a fantastic man who supported me no matter what sticky patches I got into. And there were a few!

I quickly worked through the list of who we needed to tell and I have to say there were a couple of 'pregnant pauses'! One question that a few asked me was 'So when are you giving up University?'

Leaving university had never even crossed my mind. In my first blog 'Having a baby - planned or unplanned, I described myself as very matter of fact. Why would it have crossed my mind to leave? I was the sort of girl who 'once started, would finish'! Should it have crossed my mind? Should I have left?

I can answer that...NO, NO, and NO!

I would like to believe that perceptions have changed considerably and that it is generally accepted that women can still have a life if they have children. I have met and talked to many people who have regretfully given up very good careers because they have had children, believing in some way that they need to adopt a full time homemaker role and that partners where they existed would provide. Maybe that is one reason I feel very inspired by all the individuals I have met at Newcastle Business Mums and indeed on Twitter!

Have things changed? I wonder where I would be and what I would be doing now if I had followed someone else's path and not my own.

PREGNANCY - FINDING OUT

I'll skip the part about getting pregnant...let's just say in our shabby little 'studio' flat in Newcastle - bedsit to others, it was fun and whiled away the hours...ok, minutes!! I loved that bedsit; it was one of the best places I have lived. So close to St. James Park football stadium you could hear the crowds roar when the 'toon' scored.

I returned to Scotland. Did I feel different? No, not really. Was I pregnant? Well, it turned out I was. I can't remember now if I used one of those pregnancy testing kits, but it was confirmed by the University Campus Medical Centre. And so, that was that. I was going to have a baby. I could tick it off my 'to do' list. Is that how I was going to look at childbirth, another task to get on with. How clinical!

Simon and I always arranged at the start of the week when we were going to call each other. I had to queue at one of the University telephones and could sometimes wait what seemed like an eternity. I rang the day I found out and he was pleased. I didn't get the impression during the long distance call that he was doing cartwheels around the bedsit. I don't actually think it would be possible. In what way do women want their partner to react?

We launched into a conversation about the future and how having a baby wasn't going to change anything. I was going to continue my studies but would transfer to the University of Northumbria and Simon, who was 'looking for work' would stay at home and look after our baby. Easy! Oh, how wrong I was! At 27 years old, I was naive.

It was too early to tell friends and family that I was pregnant but we were looking forward to sharing our secret. It didn't really cross my mind how they would react. Did it really bother me?

I went back to my room in the student flat I shared with 5 other 'mature' students. There was studying to be done.

I'm reading this back and one may think that I am quite an unemotional person. I wouldn't say that, I just hide emotions well and have always been the listener, not the talker.

I told you this would be theraputic!