17 weeks

Why can't weekends be longer?  I feel like I'm majorly on the countdown to Christmas and so looking forward to hanging out at home/ at a beach house for a while.  I just want some down time to relax and catch my breath a bit.

Another week has flown by.  The bump isn't getting noticeably more prominent, but it's rounding out, and I've also noticed that my upper torso is thickening up a bit.

This week we have an obstetrician's appointment, and if bebe is in the right position, we will be able to find out the sex!  People seem surprised we are finding out, and also that we aren't keeping it a secret.  It seems seems so faux dramatic to find out but then keep it a secret.  No one is going to be more interested than the mother and father, and it seems ridiculous to make everyone wait with faux bated breath to find out.  So, as soon as we know, we'll be telling people.

I'm kind of hating all my clothes right now.  I still think I look borderline between pregnant and too many pies.  I am starting to notice that it's harder to get up and down and haul myself around.  I can only imagine how difficult this is going to get if I'm already demanding Jamie give me a hand to get up off the floor.  And the bump keeps getting in the way unexpectedly when I'm leaning over and reaching for things, and it also touches my desk in front of me at work.  How am I supposed to sit at a desk when I'm big if the bump already touches the desk??  

Not your typical love story

So this isn't your typical love story, but it's pretty amazing.  Their "common ground was the decade and a half each had served on death row before their convictions were overturned for the murders that they steadfastly maintained they did not commit".  The things that bring people together are amazing.  I'm glad they are happy, and that Brooke Shields came to their wedding.

How to deep fry a whole turkey

I was nevr going to not watch a video on The Guardian website with a header like that...  It's actually totally fascinating, and I would like someone I know to immediately try doing it.  Shame Dodd is in London.  I know he'd be up for this sort of craziness.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/video/2011/nov/23/how-to-deep-fry-turkey

Mantic wedding proposal

I just love these sorts of videos - a romantic proposal gets me every time, and this one is just so sweet.  A pilot and his now bride to be took pictures of themselves all over the world, spelling out "We always knew" over six years.  On the last letter, he got some people to unfurl a sign behind her saying "ill you marry me", and then showed her the pic.  Too cute.  I cried.
p.s. I would have chosen a different song to base my romantic video clip to, but a small detraction to an otherwise beautiful video.

Crazy Frenchmen

Just for something non baby related, watch this clip.  My heart was in my throat just looking at the video.  These guys are crazy.

Rainy Wednesday

It's pouring down with rain outside and it's quite chilly (for nearly being summer in Sydney anyway).  The weather is making me think of what it will be like when this baby is born.  It's due in May (it's talking all my concentration not to call it a she yet - I'm totally convinced it's a girl), at the end of Autumn, so it is likely to be cold and rainy.  I think it will be nice to nestle and be cozy with our new baby while the weather whips around outside.  The world can be as cold and miserable as it likes, we'll be warm inside and looking at the rain fall down outside the big glass doors on our new back deck.  I can definitely see us in the new house, on the couch, playing on the floor, feeding in the baby's room, hauling myself from bed multiple times a night woken up by cries.  But I also know it will be nothing like I expect and that nothing can prepare me.
I feel in a strange sort of limbo right now.  I don't think I look fully pregnant yet - I know the last bump pic made me look quite prego, but when I'm in work clothes, it just looks like I have a gut.  The initial excitement of finding out I am pregnant and the bombardment of new information has died down a bit, and I can almost have moments where I forget that I am pregnant.  I almost question if I dreamed it all when I remember.  My urges to tell the entire world about it have died down a bit, and I feel a bit more private and protective about it.
I've had the last day and a half off work, home sick with this tummy bug, and I think I really needed the rest.  I'm still worried that something has happened to the baby, but logically, I know things will be fine.  I have an obstetrician's appointment next week, and Jamie is going to be away for work, so last night I got a bit fretty that if something was wrong, I'd be there on my own.  Again, I logically know everything is fine, but the emotional side is overriding it all.  I think when I start to feel the baby move it will be a lot more comforting and real feeling.  And we find out the sex in mid-December, which will be awesome.  People are so divided on this issue, and feel very strongly about it.  It's their way or you are an idiot.  I personally think that it's a lovely surprise whenever you find out, and nothing will take away from the tsunami of surprise and excitement on the day the baby is born.  I'd rather picture a gender specific future for my baby.

Tables

What was I talking about in my last post?  Nothing to write about - pfft, how about dining room tables?  Hold on to your seats readers.
I saw two tables I like this weekend, completely different looks, and I just can't decide.  The first (**NOTE: these chairs are NOT being considered, so try to look beyond them) is this weathered looking one.

The second is this Danish looking one, which is a bit fancier (Orson and Blake), but also more likely to get trashed.  I love the chair on the left here to go with this table... but I just can't decide which table I like better.

Bump watch - week 16 edition

So here we are again.  Another week down, and nothing interesting to write about other than my bump.  And a minor case of food poisoning, which has sent me into fits of paranoia and anxiousness.  The irony being that we were at a Japanese restaurant and I didn't even touch any sashimi or sushi.  Everything I ate was cooked, and I ordered separately from the banquet that the other people we were with all had.  And I still got sick.

We went furniture shopping for our new house on the weekend.  We bought a new couch, which is totally exciting.  Since we have had an L shaped couch in this house, I cannot sing the praises of an L shaped couch enough.  They are the best.  So, now we have a bigger space to fill, that just meant a bigger L shaped couch as far as I was concerned.  We ended up buying this couch from King Furniture.  It's the Jasper, and it's modular, so can be configured a bunch of differnet ways, which Jamie says we'll never do, but I remain optimisitc.  It's going to take 10 weeks to make and deliver, so we'll have it mid January.  Exciiiting.  And most importantly - it was half price!  Got to love that.
 

Bump watch - 15 weeks

Another week down.  I'm loving the dress I'm wearing in this picture.  All of my maternity wear so far has come from ASOS, and it's cheap and not ugly, so tick, and tick.  I've also apparently become obsessed with stripes.  Can't get enough.  Does that count as a craving?  Because I'm certainly not craving anything else.  I am having crazy intense dreams though, which I think is a normal preggo thing.

Pretty much all of the pregnancy books I have read I find totally irritating, so I'm kind of ignoring them - not what they say, just the fact they exist.

I bought myself a maternity pillow the other day (belly bean), which is awesome and super comfortable, but because I'm a really restless sleeper, I quite often wake up in the middle of the night with the pillow tucked under the small of my back, which I'm reasonably certain undoes any of the good done by having it support my bump and back for the one hour before I roll on to it, but it's still pretty comfy.

We haven't bought any baby stuff yet, but are aiming to do so after Christmas when we are in the new house.  I think that will be fun.  So will having a new house!!!

I was in Melbourne again this week for work, back home in Syders now. 
I bought some peonies on the weekend which are just beautiful.  They only have such a short season, and I adore them, they are totally my favourite flowers.
Nothing much else to report - I didn't want this to just transform into a baby blog, but whatevs.

14 weeks pregnant

So 14 weeks is now behind us.  But the tiredness isn't.  I thought it would go after 12 weeks, but it turns out it would rather stay.  This weekend I went to yoga on Saturday morning for the first time in a couple of weeks, and I don't know if it was the yoga or something else that wore me out, but I was TIRED AND CRANKY for pretty much the rest of the day.  Even napping during the day made me cranky.  We did have a lovely picnic with two sets of fabulous friends and their babies in Centennial Park, and my lunch basically consisted of three kinds of cake, so it wasn't all downside.  Sunday I just gave in to the tired and lay around all day - finished a book, finished season three of Breaking Bad, made a yummy salad for dinner with the hubby and painted my toenails.
This is week 14.  Stretchy waist clothes - where have you been all my life?  How will I ever go back?

This week I'm off to Melbourne for work for a couple of days.  After this trip, I'll be a gold frequent flier.  Awesome.  I've been a *little* bit obsessed with it lately, checking my status credits after each flight to see how close I am.  But this trip will tip me over into gold.  So I'll be able to use my complimentary Qantas club access for about four more months, and then it will go to waste for the next year while I can't fly (too pregnant) or don't want to fly (with a newborn).  Sigh.  And then I'll have to start all over again.  Having said that, I told a very nice Qantas man I was pregnant the other day and therefore needed an aisle seat... and he upgraded me to business!  Yes!!!  So I spent the whole flight from Melbourne to Sydney (and when I say the "whole" flight, it was an hour and 20 minutes) eating a very nice cheese plate.
As a total aside, and something not pregnancy related, we went and saw Paul Keating being interviewed by Kerry O'Brien last weekend for the release of his new book.  The Sydney Writers' Festival taped it and put it up on their website.  I'm not a massive political nerd, or even a non massive one, but I really loved it.  PK is just really funny and sharp, and if you have a spare hour or so, it's worth watching.
http://www.swf.org.au/
http://www.swf.org.au/

NYT eulogy

This is a very moving and beautifully written eulogy by Steve Job's sister.  I'm not an Apple geek or anything, but it's worth a read.

2 + 1 = 3

My blogging efforts have somewhat waned lately, but there is a good excuse for a resurgence - I'm pregnant!  It feels like I've had to keep it a secret for so long, and I'm terrible with secrets, so I'm so glad to be out in the open about it.  We have passed the first trimester, and my little bump is growing nicely.  I haven't been sick at all, which is fantastic, but I have been feeling tired like never in my life.  That does seem to have passed now too, so I guess I'm really lucky.
The baby is due on May 5, which is also my mum's 60th birthday!  Cute!  So I'll be pretty pregnant through a Sydney summer, but at least when I'm really big at the end it will be cooler.
It took a few weeks to actually get used to the idea that I was pregnant - what a surreal feeling, even if you are expecting it.  It was almost like I couldn't believe it.  Everything else was the same - we were sitting on our couch, watching Crownies, drinking a glass of red wine (ahem, that stopped after the pregnancy test), in our house, with all our stuff around us, but I AM PREGNANT.  That just blew me away.
Now, I am feeling very smug and content about it.  The rest of the world has just dropped away.  I have a baby inside me.  It's probably the most major life change a couple can undertake, and it's so lovely to have a partner who is supportive and really, really wants this.  We bought a new house a couple of weeks ago, and the idea of getting a baby's room ready turns me to mush, let alone thinking about the baby.  So, we are enjoying this time, while it's just the two of us, and we are beyond excited to have this baby.
Enough sap about the miracle of life.  This is me at 12 weeks.

And 13 weeks:

I'll try and take a weekly picture.
Anything with a waist band stopped fitting me at about nine weeks, but I've bought up massively on ASOS maternity wear, which is actually nice (and cheap!), and not nauseating infantile rubbish.
So, feeling good, feeling very happy, and really glad to be able to share the news with everyone. x