We have now entered our first Two Week Wait.

A period of 14 days, between a woman ovulating and the earliest a pregnancy test can come back positive.

So just in case we are lucky, I am not drinking beer or caffeine and avoiding foods like blue cheese and pate etc. Better safe than sorry, especially where beer is involved, as the recent health report out recently that stated any alcoholic drinks could damage a developing baby.

The other interesting thing about the Two Week Wait is the numerous pregnancy symptoms which seem to jump out at you.

I do understand that even if I was pregnant, I am far too early to have any real symptoms and being in the first month of trying to conceive I am not likely to be.

However I feel I am pregnant, I just know it.

So in order to laugh soundly at myself next month I am writing down all my symptoms on this post. If nothing else it will give me a list of symptoms for a normal month

Ovulation - 22nd November
Felt queasy today and was up twice last night going to the loo.

1DPO - 23rd November
Slight cramping and feeling of fullness in my abdomen and was up to the loo twice last night.

2DPO - 24th November
I feel full and have twinges in my abdomen. Very tired and fell asleep twice during the day.

3DPO - 25th November
Still bloated, the new projector screens smells horrible and strong but DH didn't notice. My nipples are sticking out (and no I am not cold) and are very sensitive. Very tired and went to bed at 10pm after falling asleep on the sofa.

4DPO - 26th November
Bloated and nipples are still sensitive and sticking out. Dizzy after getting up too fast at the cinema. Felt sick later on and mouth of throw up at bedtime.

5DPO - 27th November
Bloated and nipples are still sensitive and are throbbing now. (If I am not pregnant I will be very cross that I am creating this particular symptom..it really hurts) Again a little sickly but I had a takeaway and that might account for this. Slight spotting (implantation or a bit early?) Up at night to wee.

6DPO - 28th November
Still bloated with tender nipples, more very faint spotting and another mouth of throwup ...yuck Up at night to wee.

7DPO - 29th November
Bloated, tender nipples, up again last night. Headache today and a little sick. Did a HPT - negative as I tested way too early Temperature dropped today which is a bad sign.

8DPO - 30th November
Ditto 7DPO symptoms but temp did raise slightly, though the BBT is making funny sounds I don't think it likes the new battery. Also noticed watery CM I think I have this all along this two week wait...very similar to when I was on the BCP. The last few cycles off BCP I get very dry before AF

9DPO - 1st December
Ditto 8DPO symptoms...plus cramps...I think AF is around the corner...Two negative tests. Which is daft as my official test day is Monday 4th December...if I got to that date without AF showing up. Two weeks waits are so slow, I wish I could fast forward to Monday.

10DPO - 2nd December
Ditto 7DPO symptoms plus hip cramps, lower back ache and I am so cold. DH was laughing at me in dressing gown and requesting the heating to be turned up, until he touched me I was ice cold. Thinking about it, I was wearing a jumper with the heater on in the office yesterday when the other staff were not cold, maybe I'm getting sick. Another two BFN.

11DPO - 3rd December
Still crampy with AF around the corner. Breast Nips still sensitive. Backache in the evening. Tested with a First Response and got an impossible faint pink line..a possible cautious BFP but a Clearblue Digital was a 'not pregnant' thought this needs more HCG to show a positive 50 to 15. I only have a Clear Blue Digital and an internet cheapy left to use. I might save my FMU in my collection box and nip to Hillsborough to buy another First Response..I think I am addicted to POAS...LOL

12DPO - 4th December
Still crampy, with sore nips etc, backache and headache and... Oh my a BFP!!!
Two positive Clear Blue Tests !!!

What a wonderful Christmas present we have been given, we are very happy and very lucky people

Grandma's Funeral at Winick church, Warrington.

Beautiful service.

The Church Choir sang beautifully

Thowing the flower and dirt into Grandma's grave was a moment I'll never forget for the rest of my life.

I don't want to go into the ground, I have told my DH when my time coming I want to be cremated, after any useful organs have been taken for the living.

With everything that had happened recently I cancelled going out for my birthday with friends, I just wasn't in the mood.

Unknown to me our good friend TigerFeet had arranged with Deckchair to visit with her impossibly cute baby girl Little'un(She is going to be our flower girl in our wedding in November 05)

Bearing in mind this is the first weekend in months where I have had not had to be running around like a headless chicken sorting out wedding plans. So I had got up very late and was watching TV in my dressing gown.

Deckchair wandered into the kitchen to brew a cup of tea and TigerFeet and Little'un walked out !!!!

I was gobsmacked...what a wonderful surprise.

Not only did TigerFeet bring her daughter and herself, she bought a lunch for everyone, and a bottle of champayne for our engagment and a wonderful card and tipsy glasses and jug as our wedding gift (which I opened straight away bad me)

Little'un was as cute as ever and can now walk on her own !!! Last time we saw her six months ago she was just sitting up on her own...what a sweetie.

Little'un loved our cats and spent a fair amount of time chasing after them, one at a time. With only one exception our cats watched Little'un with round eyes and flat ears. They disliked the excited screams Little'un was making and they walked around her in wide cycles to avoid any personal attention.

The exception was our big ginger cat Sandy !!! This is surprising as this is the cat that was described by his shelter as the 'monster biting' cat, has calmed down alot with us, but supposely only lived with an older lady.

Sandy was so enchanted with Little'un he had his straight in the air 'happy tail' and he would run up to her but the moment she reached out to him, his fear got the better of him and he would slink off, to return moments later

Deckchair found a stuffed dog toy which played 'My girl' when you pushed a button on the dogs paw. Little'un loved it and so she took it home, whether TigerFeet felt the same after the drive home with Little'un and the toy dog, I don't know.

It was a lovely surprise visit and I thank TigerFeet and Little'un for visiting us

Bitter sweet day...great to pick up my wedding dress but sad that mum could not come with us, as she was arranging our Grandma's funeral.

Despite the circumstances, my sister made the day a happy occassion, we had a lovely pub lunch with wine (as she was driving)...yum yum.

Oh, by the way the dress fitted wonderfully, though she had forgotten to add the ribbon loops on the botton of the train, which she did quickly whilst my sister was getting changed.

Only 8 days as a unmarried lady

Feeling distictly unbirthday like...I'm missing my DH-to-be and feeling sad about Grandma and worrying about mum.

My sister made sure we had a lovely birthday pub meal in Manchester when we picked up our dresses for my wedding.

Another year.

My wonderful grandma passed away at her nursing home this morning.

She had suffered with a cold recently and was recovering well from this illness, then she just passed on in her sleep in her own bed with her carer with her at the very end.

She went so fast that there was no time for her children to get there.

My parents knew my sister and I were coming down tonight anyway and so waited until we arrived in Wigan to tell us. We ran into the house with flowers for mum and real ale beer for dad, bubbling with energy and smiles...then we found out what had happened to our gran.

I'm in two minds about my grandma.

The first part of me is very sad.

As I won't ever eat her special teas like rolled white bread, with the edges trimmed off ham in the centre and rolled into sausages, held together with cocktail sticks. Tinned salmon with vinager, white bread rolls spread thinkly with butter and the shop bought cakes and if we were lucky a cake or cheesecake she had made herself. I especially craved the unhealthy white bread with butter instead of the healthy option on wholemeal bread with marg we got at home.

My sister and I will never again sit on the floor next to my grandma as she shows us how to embroidary flowers onto mats, make peg dolls out of dolly pegs and give them wool hair, felt tip faces and clothes carefully folded and glued around pipecleaner arms, how to make 3D decoupe cards out of wrapping paper and the other crafty things my grandma taught us.

No more sorting though her costume jewelery for her into colours, she had drawers of the stuff and we begged to play with it.

No more grandma visits as children when my sister and I, stayed at grandma's house for a week and wore dresses every day, went to church several times on Sunday, as grandma was a wonderful singer and in the church choir. We met the women at mothers union and the women's insitute and we were introduced where ever we went as Barbara's children.

Grandma visits also meant early mornings even on a weekend, where we three would sit around the kitchen table, the gas fire on and the clock tick tocking in the quiet. If we were lucky we would get to sit on the top decker of the bus to Warrington and have McDonalds for lunch.

The second part of me is happy that she died at home in bed with a caring person by her side. I am also pleased that my sister and I had visited her only two weeks earlier so I did say goodbye to her then.

Even the fact that she was in the new nursing home was a blessing in disguise as she could stay in her own bed as the trained nurses knew nothing more could be done for her elsewhere, if she had been at the carehome she would of almost certainly been taken to hospital to die. She has the dubious honor of being the first person from the nursing home to pass on there, it was a wonderful place brand new with very caring staff.

God bless you grandma, I'm glad you are back with grandad...I know you missed him a lot.