Diary of a housewife

Wow, only 10 days left! How fast has time passed. It felt like only yesterday when we found out I was pregnant and now baby is itching to get out.

I remember seeing that fateful stripe come up on the pregnancy test and it felt kinda surreal. I don't think it had hit either of us at that stage what it really meant – that in less than 40 weeks we were going to have another person in our lives, one who was created by us no less.

Ok, enough sentimental talk for today! So what have I been doing? As most of you know, I finished work last week. My lovely work friends, Corina and Suzanne, were so kind to organise a surprise party for my last day. I've had some inkling that they were planning something, maybe a nice lunch. But when Friday lunchtime came and went and nothing special happened, I didn't think about it again. By about 1.30pm, my manager, Michael, very seriously took me aside and said that he needed to discuss my future with the company. As he hadn't had lunch, he took me to a Korean restaurant across the street so we could talk while he ate. And that was the slowest I've seen anyone eat a bibimbap (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibimbap)! So after an hour of serious discussions, Michael got a sms from the managing director to return work at once. Naturally, I thought he was in trouble for something until I walked into an empty office only to be greeted by everyone I've worked with for the past 2 years in the kitchen screaming 'SURPRISE'! And what a surprise it was – table full of food and the whole kitchen (and my desk) decked out in pink and blue balloons and ribbons. It was so great to feel so loved at your work place and when it was my turn to thank everyone I had to keep it very short to stop from bursting into tears (I blame my hormones, I'm usually a great public speaker!). So to everyone from work who might be reading this, I thank you for your friendship and I look forward to returning to work in 12 months' time! Feel free to raid my stationary :)

I think this is the first time since I turned 16 that I haven't been in active employment of some form so it takes some getting use to. I have been getting up at the same time as Dave – not because I don't enjoy a sleep-in, but after a whole night of sleeping on my side, I'm usually sore and wanting to get some circulation happening. I then start the day with breakfast and a bit of light reading (thanks to my buddy April, I'm getting into Pride and Prejudice and Zombies – yes, zombies, it's the original Jane Austen text with added zombie scenes, very interesting indeed!). I then get straight into more murdering mayhem with an episode or two of Dexter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexter_%28TV_series%29). I seriously hope that all this reading and viewing of bloodiness doesn't affect the psyche of my unborn child! After lunch and a couple of emails to-and-fro with Dave (awwww...yes, we live together but we email/phone each other everyday, how lovely :) it's usually nap time. I don't know if it's the body getting lethargic from digesting food or it's baby or I need no excuse for a nap, but around 1.30 – 2pm each day I just can't keep my eyes opened. After, at times disturbingly long, 2-hour nap I'm up and ready to start planning dinner. While all this must sound very lazy and involves very little body movement, I do try to get off my butt as much as possible with my many trips to the bathroom, answering telemarketing calls from India and a light walk around the block. Last night I even pumped up the music so I can shake my hips a bit while cooking, until Dave came home and joined me in the silliness – it must be amusing for our neighbours to see a heavily pregnant woman and a fully grown man do all those silly moves – if you ever get the chance, ask Dave to show you his signature move: the Siren :)

As this might be the last entry before baby's arrival, I hope you've enjoyed travelling down this new road with us and we hope to have great news for you all VERY SOON!!!

Love,

Vivian + Baby

I’m ready mummy!

At last week’s antenatal appointment we finally got the confirmation that baby is facing the right way for birth. And it took 3 different midwives, no less, to figure this out! It was a bit of a concern when the first midwife told us that baby could be breech (see explanation of breech birth here). She then brought in her colleague who couldn’t tell for sure and they were going to give me a scan. Just as we were getting excited to see our baby again, we were told that the scanner is broken and this more experienced midwife was going to have a feel. So after being prodded and poked by 3 people and feeling like the latest medical experiment, we were finally told that “yes, definitely head down”. Phew!

Another exciting purchase this week was our custom made Crumpler baby nappy bag (see picture). We’ve been big fans of the Crumpler bags for ages and we already have a couple of them. So when we couldn’t find a decent nappy bag we thought a custom made Crumpler would be the perfect way to go. We selected a laptop bag from the range (they don’t exactly specialise in baby products) as it has all the compartments suitable for nappies, wipes, bottles etc. For the design, we turned to our good friend Laura, who is a great graphic designer. She had already designed our baby shower invite so we simply tweaked it for the nappy bag. The design of the cow is inspired by our baby’s birth year – the year of the Ox. We took the design into the store and spoke with their designer, Chabi, who was great help. It only took her 2 days to complete sewing. When we arrived to pick it up we were the envy of everyone there, as our bag had been on display on the front window. So the first piece of art for our baby, he/she is already so spoilt!

During the week I watched a show about parenting and was given an interesting piece of advice that I’d like to share with you all. It’s not a good idea to praise your child by saying ‘you’re very clever’ when they achieve good marks at school or show you one of their drawings. That actually teaches them that ‘cleverness’ instead of ‘hard work’ is your measure of success. Instead, you should say ‘you must’ve worked very hard’ or ‘I like your use of colours’ which shows that the process leading to the achievement is what you value. As the realisation of becoming a parent dawns, there are always concerns about your abilities – what’s the right thing to do/say, how will your choices influence your children, what is the best way to bring up your child? Whilst I don’t believe there is one set of ‘rules’ that you should follow or that there is such a thing as being the ‘perfect’ parent, I hope that we’re equipped with enough life experience and dare I say, wisdom, to be at least ‘ok’ parents.

So we’re now down to the last 4 weeks – 2 more weeks of work, and hopefully 2 weeks at home. I’m less than 4kg lighter than David (yes, all those sweet treats are turning into bits of me) but feeling good in general. I’m starting to have more and more strangers (guy at the convenience store, mailroom guy, people in the lift) ask me questions like ‘how much longer now’ or ‘boy or girl’. Sometimes I’m tempted to reply with ‘what do you mean?’ or ‘I’m just a bit bloated today’ just to see how they’d react, but I’d feel bad to deny our baby’s existence. So I just smile and nod and answer the same question for the 10th time that day. I guess that during late pregnancy is the only time strangers are allowed to openly ask you questions about what's under your clothes.

It's now the final count down - 24 days to go!