'Modelling' for Evie

Evie Winter, a lovely friend of mine and a passionate photographer, wanted some practice on maternity photography. So taking the advantage of my maternity leave and the beautifully sunny weather last week, I went back to my old hood (Finsbury Park) and caught up with her over a shooting session.

And here are the results =)
PS - Sorry that this is yet another photo website, but that's what she uses and I'm too lazy to re-upload them via Picasa...

Shower timer!

A bunch of lovely girlfriends came over on Sunday to help me get ready for the impeding motherhood. We had a lovely time catching up, eating and playing games - although, I have to admit that I'm not sure whether some of the games were designed to 'help' me or to 'gross me out'! ;-)

The most gross looking game was to guess the content of the chocolate poo - some crushed chocolate were spread (and maybe also melted??) on a nappy and the unfortunate chosen person has to figure out which chocolate it was crushed from! It certainly puts you off eating those chocolates afterwards!

The most gross tasting game was to blind taste and guess the baby food... tried 3 different ones and to be honest, they look, smell and taste as horrible as each other - you can probably tell that from the look on my face! And they are from a good organic brand! Think I'll be sourcing good baby food recipes to make my own - I feel too bad to subject Bud to those pre-made things!!

For those interested, here are some more photos from the day (also uploaded on FB).

Thank you girls for coming and thank you especially to Shirley for organising it!

First week of maternity leave

Hands & feet 'beautified', ready for birth

My first week of maternity leave has turned out to be quite a productive one, much to my surprise! Managed to get myself looking roughly presentable for the impending birth, got a few more bits and bobs for Bud, caught up with some friends back in the old hood (aka, Tollington/ Finsbury Park), did 'maternity modelling' for the lovely Evie, picked up mum and got an update on Bud's positioning (and probably met the last midwife in the Purple Team, since I havent met her before and surely there can't be that many midwives in one team!). Even sent off a few work emails!

Cutest moment:
Had lunch with Shirley and her 11 month son, Joshie. Straight after food, both Joshie and Bud started hiccuping! Only that Joshie's hiccups are audible ;-)

Highlight of the week:
Spending the day with Mr Husband on Thursday - he managed to get a well-deserved day off after a few weeks of super late nights working on a competition (yes, familiar story, I know!). We went to a lovely cafe, Nordic Bakery in Marylebone, and had way too much sugar, then tried to burn them off with baby stuff shopping. It wasn't a very successful shopping expedition, I have to admit, but was nice to spend some time together before 'the arrival' =)

Thursday Awesomeness is completed with us picking up my mum from the airport. Trust the Chinese efficiency - the China Eastern flight was almost half an hour early! We got there at the time when the plane is supposed to land and not only has the plane landed, even the luggages have arrived! We got mum within 20 minutes, then hit the London traffic which took an hour to get us home...

Goodies from down under!

In typical grandma-to-be fashion, mum got a suitcase full of stuff for Bud - and it's not a carry-on size suitcase! Bud receive play gym, play mats, MILLIONS of clothes in all different sizes (some of them were worn by Hamish & Catriona when they were little!), etc, etc. The cutest are those tiny mini knitted socks/ booties. Look forward to Bud wearing them!


Finally, and most importantly, Bud stats update:
Position: Still 3/5 engaged, hasn't wriggled down any further. Still in a very good position for birth - don't think there's enough room for her to move into a different position now!
Heartbeat: Fast & strong as per usual
New favourite activity: starting the day with hiccups!

Start of something new

Well, it really should be 'start of some/many things new'...

This is the start of my maternity leave - the lack of work and deadline is certainly new!
This is the start of 'the wait' - finally there's nothing else much to do except waiting for Bud to pop out... (maybe that's why I feel bored enough to start a blog??)
This is the start of a blog - a new (to us) attempt to keep those far away updated on us, well, on Bud really (we know our place, dont worry!).

So, here's the current status update on Bud:
Nick name: Bud
Real name: there'll be something Scottish and something Chinese
EDD: 27th February 2013 (aka, 10 days from today!)
Gender: Female (at least according to the scans)
Size: Slightly on the small side, but nothing to worry. The calculated weight at last scan (at 38 weeks) is 6lb 3, which is about 2.8kg.
Position: Head down (3/5 engaged as of 10 days ago), back in the right side of my belly, arms & legs in the left side of my belly, kinda curved around
Favourite activities: Hiccuping (at least twice a day) and sticking her feet/knee right up mummy's ribs!

Update on Daddy: working on a Sunday... Nuf said?
Update on Mummy: still in bed, trying to think of something else to say, and procrastinating...

Latest bump shot - yesterday at Kensington Gardens. It was a nice mild winter's day, sun's finally poking out a bit, so we made a very impromptu decision to go for a walk in Hyde Park.