James Titcumb

We’ve had the suggestion from many different people that we should enter Freyja into competitions and model her for companies and so on. Hannah and I have discussed this a few times when the suggestion comes up, and we just can’t justify it.

The lure of prizes and money is the, and when our budget is so tight and doesn’t give us any spending money for ourselves, it can be quite tempting.

However, being a model isn’t easy on the baby. Sure they try and make it as easy as possible, give them breaks, pamper them, let them play and so on, but there is so much travelling to locations or studios and it can be tiring for the little ones. I may have a total misconception of the whole thing, as – to be honest – I’ve not seen how much a baby model does.

However, The risk of stress and losing her sparkle that makes her such a happy little baby is too much for me and Hannah. Freyja means more to me than anything, and I want her to have the best upbringing I can. I want her to make great choices with what she wants to do with her life, and I want her to become proud of what she has achieved. She can’t do that if she’s already born into a life of modelling.

Sure I’d love to see my daughters face on billboards or baby products, and I’d love to have a bit of extra cash, but she is worth so much more than any of that. She’s my little girl, and you can call it being selfish (and it probably is), and I don’t want to share her with anyone but those who love her.

Mine… my precious…

Freyja laughed today for the first time (at 5 weeks, 4 days old), which was exciting, and this video pretty much says it all!

It’s been just 10 days since I last posted about the pregnancy, and we’re both already getting increasingly impatient I think. Every pained expression I see on Hannah’s face makes me think “is that a real contraction?” until she assures me it’s not. We’re still over 2 weeks before the estimated due date and we’re starting to get impatient!

Pregnancy would be so much easier if we knew exactly when baby was coming… we still wait!

I can hardly believe it! Today, Hannah is 36 weeks and 1 day through her pregnancy, and comparing to this, it’s amazing how much she’s grown! We’re all prepared, we’ve got all the baby gubbinz sat in the nursery, and the labour bag is packed.

Just 6 more days and we’ll be full term, which basically means I will become Daddy James very soon. We are both going to her antenatal appointment (nice and early, 8:45am) tomorrow morning, and Sunday we’ll be checking out Blakes Birthing Centre in Gosport, hopefully where the birth will take place.

So… it is just a matter of time… more news as it comes!

Another week is nearly over, which means that tomorrow is week 32 of pregnancy. Hannah has a nice concise bump now, as pictured left. Everyone has commented on how little weight she’s put on elsewhere, and she’s really lucky to not have it spread out. As from tomorrow, she’s also lucky enough to be able to start working from home, meaning that we are both still earning and not losing out on increasingly valuable money!

We’ve had a really nice weekend; Friday evening was spent at Casson’s Restaurant in Tangmere near Chichester, and Saturday night was a yummy dinner with Tom & Sophia. Between Hannah and me, we managed to cook a pesto salmon en croûte and a very messy but sweet strawberry cheesecake; both courtesy of Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food book, which I highly recommend to anyone wanting to begin cooking. I warn you, the recipes do have slightly more expensive ingredients, but it’s well worth the extra pennies!

So here’s to the final 8 weeks!