Bump Watch - Week 27

Proving that you can be pregnant and stylish, here's a LBD I picked up from Top Shop's maternity range. A snip at $130 (bearing in mind I saw a posh maternity frock in another shop for nearly $400!). The occasion? A VIP party with the dreaded dress code (well, at least when you're pregnant): Black Tie. See the main blog for all the gory details...

http://rachanddom.blogspot.com/2010/05/heineken-vip-party.html

Baby Shower

At the weekend we had a surprise baby shower with lots of fun games. See the post on our main blog for details of all the antics: http://rachanddom.blogspot.com/2010/05/baby-shower.html

Here's some pictures of all the lovely gifts we received. As you can see, the nursery will be taking on a farm theme!

Daisy has already been commissioned to paint a series of pictures of babies.

Here's our very own personalised one - see how the details match the nursery set,

and don't you think this baby looks just like Dom, complete with his beer!

See Daisy's other baby pics: http://buddinghearts.blogspot.com/2010/01/my-babies.html

Wooden wall plaques

Nappy stacker

Cot blanket

Cot sheets in green

Small blanket for pram/bassinet

Change of sheets - in blue this time

Cot bumper set

What the finished nursery should look like!

Cute teddies

Baby clothes - nice & neutral!

A bib for every day of the week...

And very essential - portable changing mat

cunningly disguised as a small laptop bag. No excuses, Dom!

The incredible world of baby products

They say that having a child is the most expensive thing you can do. It costs an estimated GBP180,000 to raise a child from birth to age 21, and my guess is that it's even more in Singapore where basic baby equipment seems to be twice the price of that in the UK. Bearing in mind this is mostly stuff which the baby grows out of quickly, I'm trying to stick to the essentials and avoid being sucked in by all the marketing hype. And thanks to the generosity of friends and family we have bagged most of the major equipment like the cot and pram (sorry, stroller - as they say in Singapore!).

I'm now down to a list of middling stuff (travel cot, baby gym/play mat) and smaller stuff like changing mats, nappies, baby gros and muslin cloths. Oh, and one minor concession to the marketing gurus - I want some of those cute hooded towels for baby bath time. The choice of products is still incredible though. Take nappies as one small example. These days you can get everything from bog standard disposable nappies to reusable ones in funky pastel shades woven from bamboo. (I swear I'm not making this up!). You can even go to www.thenappylady.co.uk and fill in a questionnaire to discover which type would best suit your lifestyle. (Anything which self-changes and then spontaneously combusts gets my vote.)

Old hat? Disposables

Bumgenius - organic cotton for your baby's derriere

Or how about a bit of bamboo?

It's a pity I couldn't find a similar service to help me decide on other equipment. I'm still weighing up the merits of different strollers. Does it really collapse at the click of a finger, or will it be like doing battle with a gigantic Meccano set at the bus stop? Is it necessary to have wheels bigger than those on a Land Rover? If I buy a Maclaren can I give Jenson Button a run for his money? Does Singapore terrain really demand a hydraulic suspension system? And am I less of a yummy mummy without cup holders and a matching sun shade? Honestly, anyone would think we were buying a car, not a simple pram!

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a Micralite

Jenson was not convinced by the latest modifications from the Maclaren engineers...

All about baby poo

"Coochie coochie...poo!"

This has got to be the funniest thing I have seen in a long time: 3 dads at our hypnobirthing class learning how to change a nappy, bath and swaddle a baby. Under the watchful eye of the mums, the dads opened up the nappies to find a little surprise inside each one - chocolate sauce (to imitate the baby's first poo which is tarry black meconium); pesto (apparently the next phase of poo is green) and finally Dijon mustard (a fair approximation of breast-fed baby poo).

The main learning points were:

• Have everything you need within reach (which could be a challenge for Mr "can you just get me the..." Dom).
• It helps to have four pairs of hands (or ideally, be an octopus).
• Wipe front to back for girls.
  
• You only need to fill the bath a couple of inches high (although I did like one guy's confident answer: "lower than the head". Yeah, definitely).
• Do not leave your baby sitting in the bath. (I think this will become a bit more obvious when the baby is a real live wriggly thing rather than an inanimate plastic doll!)
• When you go on holiday, expect to take 2 suitcases (half of one will contain stuff for husband and wife - the rest is nappies and baby paraphernalia). Actually we didn't learn this one in the class - I have to thank our friend Andrew for passing on this piece of friendly advice...
  

Bump Watch: Week 24

Week 24 and two things are obvious. First: oh my god, I'm suddenly enormous! And second: I've got Wayne Rooney in my belly. Well, no offence Wayne - I hope our child will be a bit more blessed in the looks department - but when it comes to kicking, little Pob is right up there. The first kicks, which I felt around week 20, were not very obvious. More like flutters in the stomach, they could have easily passed for indigestion. These days however, there's no doubt that the quivers in my belly are well timed punches and kicks.

The kicking usually starts after a good meal or when I'm resting. However as the baby's senses are developing and its little ears are now picking up sounds, there can be other causes, as my very naughty husband found out the other day. We had an electrician round to help sort out some dodgy plugs and extend the internet wiring to our computer's new home. As Dom pulled the computer cabinet out from the wall, he suddenly exclaimed "Look! There's a cockroach!" With that, a small dark shape shot across the floor and I leapt about three feet into the air, screaming like a banshee.

And after all that, the "roach" was not a roach at all, but an almond which my lovely husband had kicked in my direction. But if you think it's funny to terrorise me with dried snacks, think again! All that leaping around, screaming and the huge adrenaline rush woke Pob, who pounded my insides, stamping on my bladder for over an hour.

Apparently as the baby gets bigger it starts to run out of room to do quite so many gymnastics, and my guess is that space is already starting to get tight. The skin on my bump feels as taut as a drum skin, and as my belly button gets shallower by the day, it looks like my "innie" is soon to become an "outie". Although I look much bigger I have only put on 7 pounds so far, even though I'm always eating. And amazingly, I have no stretch marks yet. (Whether this is down to luck, genetics or Clarins stretch mark cream, who knows?) But I do find it incredible to think I've still got four months to go and I can't even begin to imagine how much bigger the bump will get!