We're back and we survived Center Parcs (which I have now learnt how to spell correctly 
).
Is it weird that you girls feel like family to me now? I have loved sitting here and reading through 4 pages pf posts to catch up. Loving the bump pics, they are all gorgeous and we all look pregnant now which (although terrifying) is great, and so much better than that looking podgy stage.
Angelico, thanks for thinking of me - we didn't even have a mobile phone signal and deliberately left the laptop at home so that we had a proper break, but it was nice to see my name checks when I read all the posts just now 
. And that's the cot we have! Worth having a look on eBay (you too, huffle), as they go for about £100 second hand, that's how we got ours.
Well, the holiday was better than expected (that should be my mantra: it will be better than I think!). The first 2 evenings were the worst, 2 barbecues, sitting outside surrounded by smoke, I excused myself on the pretext of being tired at about 9:30pm and went and read in bed, just to get away from the smoke. But after that. DH and I did our own thing more and it was better. These were the highlights:
- going off site to see bison and waipiti (like elk) at the {{http://www.bisonfarm.co.uk/ Bush Farm Bison Centre]] which was quirky but cool, and we bought bison fillet steak which we cooked for tea, it was lush! (and I had it medium rare, shhh!)
- flying owls - gorgeous
- lots of cycling around the nice site
- watching woodpeckers in the bird hide
There were some pretty emotional moments though. On the first afternoon, DH and I went for a cycle and my gears jammed, resulting in me being thrown forwards and landing on the handlebar stem with it stuck right in my belly, low down, exactly where the baby?s head was at my last antenatal check up. It hurt but not too badly, but the baby's movements seemed to be very reduced that evening and the next morning too, and I was really worried, so we went to Salisbury hospital to get checked out (quote from MIL: "no more cycling for you, Yomping, when you get back" - reply from me, in my mind: "right, but it's fine for me to be constantly breathing in your fucking cigarette smoke and passing that on to the baby???
".
Anyway, they were lovely at the hospital - quietest A&E I have ever seen. Straight into triage, sent to maternity Day Assessment Unit, doppler straight out, gel on tummy, which prompted a massive kick from baby 
. They put me on a monitor for 30 mins and said baby seemed fine, the midwife also had a good feel around and said that it had moved to lying across me which is why movements would feel different. DH said that it I had biffed him in the head, he would probably have moved too 
. She said that cycling should be fine, just be careful, and I smugly passed that on the MIL when we got back. Very glad we went in, they were very lovely and reassuring and we would have spent the whole week worrying otherwise.
Second emotional moment- DH went for an epic 19k cycle on Wednesday morning (he's training for a triathlon) and I was stood outside talking to him afterwards as he stretched. I had a T-shirt on but no bra and felt damp - looked down to see a small wet circle at about left nipple height. OMFG. Is this meant to happen at only 30 weeks? 
I did a lot of squealing along the lines of DH having achieved a 19km cycle and my main achievement of the day being leaking from a breast 
. Then we went into the bedroom to investigate further, in a kind of horrified fascination. I squeezed and a bit more came out . DH offered to suck some, and nearly got himself a slap but then when he had gone to have a shower I got some on my finger to see what it tasted like. (can't believe I confessed to that!).
Third emotional moment was when we went out to dinner last night, just the two of us, and DH said that he is over the moon to be starting a family, it has all been quite quick but it just feels right (we moved in 4 months after meeting, having both been married before, were engaged within a year, married within 2 and here we are, having only been together 3 yrs 3 months, 9 weeks away from having a real live baby, eek) - but his only fear is losing me if something goes wrong, and then he asked me if something bad happens and he has to choose between saving me or the baby, who should he choose? We were both in floods of tears, and that conversation (along with the hospital visit) made us realise how much this little baby means to us. I said to him that I have had 37 years and they haven't all been great, but now that I have met him and we are together, I feel that I am complete - and I would like our baby to have a chance to feel that too, so he should choose the baby. That was he would keep a bit of me too. But god, it was an emotional conversation . Think the waiters wondered what on earth he had said to me as I couldn't stop crying
So, yeah, the week was eventful but good on the whole. And tomorrow we are off to eat snail porridge and all sorts of weird food at the Fat Duck courtesy of Heston Blumenthal. It is going to be amazing but we are pretty scared!
Yomping, 37, 31 weeks today!