Beautiful Bruges and some amazing news...

We just had a wonderful wedding anniversary weekend, staying in Liege, then Brussels, and ending up in Bruges, all in Belgium.

Alex was working in Germany, so I caught the Eurostar over (first time I ever went through the tunnel!), and we met up in Leuven. Actually, that sounds planned. In reality, I caught a hopelessly slow train in a moment of panic from Brussels to Liege, and realised too late it would take forever to get there - so clambered off at Leuven and eventually Alex found me!

First night was a castle in the middle of nowhere! It was fantastic!



Then off to the bright lights of Brussels via a fascinating Japanese Garden with the most amazing Koi Carp!


(and a meal in the evening only memorable by the fact that a. it was the most expensive of the trip and b. it was absolutely foul!! Vegetarianism has not hit Brussels!!

Saturday we drove to Bruges, one of our very favourite cities, and spent two days of total relaxation here...

It was wonderful, and we had a fabulous time! I saw on a website today someone referring to a holiday they had taken whilst pregnant as a "babymoon" as opposed to a "honeymoon". This was definitely what we did! A chance for time together before a certain little person arrives in a few months time!!

Speaking of the certain little person, one more piece of news...




We are over the moon! It is more than I ever dreamt of! Although of course, I did dream of her.

I wrote this back in January, right at the start of my IVF:

<em>I just FEEL this baby, you know? Sometimes, lying in the dark, I think I feel a baby move - silly I know. I wake up some mornings and wonder where my baby is - and then remember she isn't even here (yet?). I almost feel her, almost smell her, ALMOST touch her... But you can't be almost pregnant, can you? Then I tell myself "in three weeks time you might be pregnant" - so maybe I "almost" am...

There's nothing missing from my life in terms of what I already have. I am more deeply and intensely in love than I could ever have imagined possible. I have a wonderful son and step children, and a home I love, and job... I am so lucky. It is not that I am trying to complete my life, or fill a gap exactly. It's just that I want Alex's baby so much, and I feel this child so close to me but just out of reach, and I can't give up on her.

It makes me feel very humbled to read this. SHE is now real, she is growing inside me, and in around 25 weeks, we will finally get to meet our daughter... and, yes - of course I have tears in my eyes as I type this!!