Weeks 27 + 28

Week 27 bump pic (taken in Melbourne):

 And week 28:

 It's been a busy couple of weeks.  A couple of work trips, a Roxette concert, the closing of one of our favourite restaurants, Drew and Liam visiting for the weekend, a two day birth course, and a night at the outdoor cinema at Mrs Macquire's Point.  The outdoor cinema is really one of the best things you can do in Sydney (if you are organised enough to get a ticket - the entire season sells out in half an hour usually).  We bought two sets of tickets for this season, and bailed on the first movie because of rain.  We were seriously contemplating bailing on this one because of rain too, but it stopped raining, and was a lovely night.  We saw The Run Diaries, which we all enjoyed.  Not as much as the salted pecan and caramel ice cream sandwiches though.  arghmmmmm.  This was the view sitting in our chairs.  The screen isn't up yet, but once it is, you have the bridge and O-House on one side, and the city on the other.  It's pretty spesh.

On a sader note, Bird Cow Fish, one of our favoutie local restaurants closed down!  They announced it on the week they were shutting the doors, and luckily I read about it and got us a table on the second last night they were open.  One last serve of prawn gnocchi with butter and sage, and one last serve of hangar steak with shoestring fries.  A sad night.  We used to go a lot, and it was one of the more consistently good and pleasant places to go in Surry Hills.  I'm glad they didn't go broke, just decided they had enough.  I remember we had breakfast there on the day we went to the first home open for our old house... sniff sniff.
I've got four weeks left of work after this week ends.  After this birth course we did a couple of weeks ago I've been feeling the need to get organised a bit more, and this weekend I'll start packing my hospital bag, and we'll hit up the shops again for more baby essentials.
I got a the cutest box full of things from my mum for the baby last week too.  His first teddy!  And the softest blanket ever, with a bunny embroidered on it!  Adorable.
We are now going to the obstetrician fortnightly, and yesterday he pointed out that you can see fuzz on top of his head - HAIR!  The dragon baby has hair!  And the fortnight before, we could see him opening and closing his mouth, drinking lots of tasty anmiotic fluid.  Amazing.
He's in the right position for birth now, and should stay that way.  That also means his feet are up on my ribs, and he's running out of room, so I've been getting a few strong kicks lately.  It's hard not to be distracted by it all, especially when in meetings and being serious with clients.
Baby has notched up a fair few frequent flyer points already, but I think that will have to come to an end soon.
I'm feeling increasingly excited about meeting him - but also a little apprehensive about it all.  I know there is no way to really prepare for this, and things are going to be so different for me.  For both of us.  But we'll have this little guy who will amaze and overwhelm and fill us with love every day.  And that will make it all so worthwhile.
I think I'll miss being pregnant though.  I quite like it - except for the times that I don't... but it's nice to carry him around and feel him moving like our own little secret all day long, and I like wearing tight things to show off the bump, and I feel pretty great.  But it will be great to run again, not see the scales going up every time I step on them, wear normal clothes, etc.  Oh, and of course, to meet our baby!

Week 27 - arts edition

This week the second trimester came to an end!  Wow.  We are this far already.  Right now I'm really enjoying being pregnant, even though walking up hills (pant pant pant), tying my shoelaces (I can't reeeeeach), and getting up off the ground (groan, grunt, moan) have never been harder.  I find complete strangers smiling at me and the bump, and it's really kind of nice.

This week we got a dose of culture.  We went on a VIP tour of Picasso's exhibition at the NSW Art Gallery during the week, which was pretty amazing (says she casually about 200 pieces of art valued at multi millions per item), and also to the opera on Saturday night (Turandot).  I thought he'd kick and be quite active during the opera (because he can hear), but he was really quiet.  Hope the little guy wasn't scared by all that yelling.  Here's me just before we headed out:

And me at the Opera House.  I think this is my favourite preggie pic so far.  The dress I'm wearing was the bridesmaids dress I wore for Emma's wedding, and it was pretty boobtacular, but that's never stopped me before.  Going to the opera is so much fun.  Where else do you see people in tuxedos and people in crocs at the same event?  We tried to go to Jamie Oliver's Italian joint in the city for dinner beforehand, but the line was out the door at 6.10, so our backup plan was burgers at Rockpool.  And as far as backup plans go, it wasn't a bad one...

We were loaned a preeeeetty bassinet by the lovely Blake and Roz (and Juno!), which I'm really excited about.  This is what he'll sleep in when he's brand new for the first few months.  It comes with a tripod, or you can hook it off the roof.  I think we'll use the tripod, and he'll just be next to my side of the bed, within arms reach for the first little while.  Cuuuute.  And let's be honest, everyone should start off life in Danish made furniture.

This week my favourite yoga place in Surry Hills also started doing prenatal yoga, which I am over the moon about, as I was driving to Bondi to go to another prenatal class which I wasn't really loving, but I LOVED my first Body Mind Life prenatal class on Saturday morning.  And they have a brand spanking new studio, which is really lovely and light and open and totally within walking distance from home.  I remember going to my first prenatal class when I was about seven weeks pregnant i.e. really, really early on, and realising I so wasn't needing to be in a prenatal yoga class yet, either physically or mentally.  I so wasn't ready to visualise a baby and any mentions of things like birth made me feel a bit uncomfortable.  I was also totally embarrassed to say I was so early along, and felt like a total fraud for not even looking pregnant when everyone there was at least visibly pregnant.  I went back to normal yoga after that for a while, but since the bump has become a lot bigger, I'm going to the baby lady classes.  And now I'm definitely ready for them and it's a lovely chance to just chill out and bond with the dragon bump.  Plus it feels so good to stretch out after being in an office chair all week.  I also love looking at the other people in the class, and of course, comparing myself to them.  Usually they start out these classes where you have to say your name and how far along you are, so you can perfectly gauge how you compare to other women (because we all know this is a competitive sport) and how your bump compares.  But it really is amazing how many different shapes and sizes preggie women come in.  It's also amazing to see women who are right at the end of their pregnancies and think what that might be like.  From the look of things, mainly uncomfortable, but I'll just enjoy this nice phase while it lasts. 

Week 26 - Qualia edition

We are back from five lovely days at Qualia, doing nothing but putting time in the sleeping, reading, lying around by the pool and watching TV vaults.  I think we are going to draw on the resources of those vaults in the near future, if the threats of people that we will NEVER sleep again or EVER be able to do ANYTHING enjoyable ever again are true.  Qualia itself was lovely, so beautiful.  I did yoga every day, and padded around showing off my belly in a bikini.  Which sounds glamorous, but it was usually accompanied by rivulets of sweat streaming off me.  One night we went out for dinner, and the waitress was so concerned about how hot I was she put me in the (large walk in) wine fridge while Jamie paid the bill, which was hilarious, because it was a glass encased wine fridge, located by the entrance of the restaurant, intended to look all fancy and classy, not to be a goldfish bowl for an extremely hot pregnant lady sticking her face in front of the fans.

I  Became obsessed with Downton Abbey, but since there is only one season on iTunes, and it's only eight episodes long, the obsession was short lived.  But I'm excited for season 2.

Just in the last couple of weeks the general public has been feeling free to comment on my belly and ask questions about it.  I think I'm a fully fledged pregnant lady in the eyes of the rest of the world now.  I'm really quite enjoying this stage of things - I'm still pretty comfortable, and the little dragon spends his days and nights squirming away.  It feels a bit more like I've surrendered myself over to being pregnant and it's now totally intertwined with who I am.  Which isn't a negative thing at all, it's lovely.  I could lie on the couch for hours and watch my belly move.  I got in trouble last night for poking and prodding the baby to feel him kick back - I'm sure it wasn't hurting him though, he's got a little swimming pool in there to keep things cushioned.

Much cooler than my own belly snaps is this series of belly snaps, which the dad has compiled into a video, which is also awesome.
My public transport trials continue - the other day someone FELL on me as I was sitting down when the bus lurched away from the stop, and his apology was "sorry, I'm not used to catching buses".  I really didn't know what to say to that.  But you know I THOUGHT lots of rude things at him.
We've got a fun weekend coming up - the opera on Saturday night, and then Jamie is doing The Cole classic swim on Sunday at Manly.  We've both done it the last two years, but I'm just cheer squad this year.  It's a nice atmosphere down at Manly, and I'm looking forward to it.
I think I'm also one of the few people in Sydney right now that's not complaining about the weather!  Suits me just fine.