I'll start by saying I'm aware that the title is a tad melodramatic and firmly tongue in cheek, I know there are a lot of women out there having a much worse time of it than I am and I know how fortunate I am that despite me feeling like a wreck, the baby is thriving.

But this morning was such a drag to get out of bed so I'm going to indulge in a moan and then shake off the "woe is me" feeling!

I've stopped throwing up on a regular basis and some days I'm not even nauseated so that's a win. But as the vomiting eased up I started getting sharp shooting pains in my abdomen. I've had trouble with fimbrial and ovarian cysts before so I recognised the pains and carried on as I knew there was a cyst on my ovary that had been spotted at my scans.

But they got to the stage where I was woken up by them and I resent anything causing me lack of sleep (other than Sam but even then I'm still likely to kick Euan out of bed to deal with night time wakings) so I planned to bring it up at my next check up. Before I could get an appointment though, I had a horrifying moment one morning where the pains got suddenly worse and I had some bleeding.

I don't feel this baby as much due to the placenta being at the front so I coupled that with the pains and blood and had a good old fashioned freak out. I phoned the antenatal clinic, shoved Sam in the car seat with a chocolatey bribe and hightailed it for a check up without even stopping for concealer or the magic pore stuff that makes me look less terrifying.

Sam loves the clinic (Granny and her snacks work there and he's been the cloth nappy demo baby since he was ten months old) so he was content to make himself at home while I was reassured first by hearing the baby's heartbeat and then by a pelvic exam. The bleeding was coming from a polyp and although they couldn't say for sure what was going on with the cyst, they were confident that it was the source of the pain.

I got sent home with some strong-ish painkillers and told to go to the maternity assessment unit if they didn't subside. My lovely in-laws came over to entertain Hurricane Sam until nap time and then Euan came home in time for the afternoon shift. Just as well, because the co-codamol knocked me on my ass completely. I'm such a lightweight on painkillers, the diamorphine they gave me when Sam was on his way had me sleeping between contractions!

Eventually, after another hospital trip (there's more to that story but it features a raging hormonal tear fest which deserves it's own blog) and a couple of weeks the pains have gradually settled down. Just in time for the pelvic pain to start.

This time I've invested in a super dooper Boppy pregnancy pillow. It's fantastic but I'm glad we have a big bed because it takes up as much room as me! I'll need to dig out my trusty gym ball for sitting on soon but I think I'll probably limit using it until Sam is in bed, otherwise he'll be using it as a giant bouncy ball. Which probably falls into the "funny but wrong" category of toddler parenting. 

So there you have it, my Tuesday moan. Out of a grand total of two pregnancies, this is the worst one ever. I'll get on with shaking the "woe is me" off now!

My wise friend Caroline was telling me that she'd installed sliding baskets with toddler snacks that her son could reach and put a big fruit bowl on the dining table so he could get himself snacks when his new baby sister was breastfeeding.

With this in mind, I was quite pleased to see that Sam had mastered the clamber onto the chair beside the sideboard and can reach the apple bowl. I've been remembering to wash them before I put them out so I was happy enough about him helping himself when I was grilling the (totally awesome homemade but I don't like to brag) beefburgers last night.

I looked round a few times and he was contentedly sitting on a chair, nibbling an apple and shouting along to our dinner making 80s synth pop selection.

However, this morning I realised he had nibbled all the apples before making his selection. Hmmm, solutions on a postcard please my wise mummy friends!

I've fallen off the regular blogging wagon again! But here is this week's Dunfermline Press Column with bonus pictures and I promise I will divert some of the pregnant manic energy away from the garden and toddler birthday season and put it into regular writing.

We celebrated Valentine's Day with an Foetal Anomaly scan. My morning sickness has now reduced to the level of just mild nausea if I remember to take my tablets, beforehand the tablets meant that I was only throwing up once a day rather than three or four times a day. I've managed to gain back the ten lbs I lost during my first trimester plus a couple more and I'm at the stage where I have a recognisable baby bump rather than people thinking I must have overdone the Christmas chocolate munching.

Everything is looking good with Wee Green Baby v.2 and the fact that I was worrying about a lack of kicking was explained during the scan by where my placenta is lying. The lack of feeling the movement is because there's a cushion in the way, this baby is as just as much of a kung fu fighter as Sam was in utero, so much so that it took a while to get all the measurements done.

To celebrate the reduction in puking, the healthy baby and Sam's impending big brother status, we decided the following day would be a day trip to somewhere none of us had been before. The Falkirk Wheel is one of those things it seems silly not to have visited because it's so close but it's also too nearby to spring immediately to mind when we're planning outings.

Sam loves any car trip that involves the motorway because of the van and lorry watching opportunities. His vehicle spotting happiness continued to grow when we arrived and found the car park was next to a railway line, the kid loves nothing more than trains! He was also completely delighted by the narrow boats on the canal so maybe he'll avoid his granny's legendary seasickness.

The boy was suitably impressed by the scale models of the water horse sculptures we'd passed on the drive through and obligingly said cheese while his dad and I took photos of him. He also said it for a random passing tourist who happened by with a camera!

The visitor centre is big and bright and airy with lots of accessible information on the history of the Wheel. All a bit advanced for Sam just now, but we'll keep it in mind for when he's a bit older too. We weren't up for a boat trip as we weren't sure our active toddler would appreciate being constrained from jumping out of the boat at will but we went out to have a look at the Wheel and had a bracing walk in the February sunshine to see all the boats. Sam was most interested in the gate mechanism for the lock.

He only got interested in the Wheel itself when we stopped in the café for a snack. The cafe has a wide selection of tasty food with plenty of healthy options for children as well as a recycling station for your trays but it's main attraction is the big glass ceiling. Sam was thrilled to be able to watch the Wheel turn as he ate his snack and when he saw the boats being lifted he renamed the attraction as the Falkirk Wheeeeeee!