Nesting at 37 Weeks

No, the baby's not out yet. I've just been busy around the house and there's been a lot of changes happening in our lives. Last Friday was my last day at work. I started my maternity leave at week 37. Over here, they normally leave work 4-6 weeks before the baby's due. I have to get a Dr's letter to show the company that I am ok to work 3 weeks before the due date. I know a lot of people back in Malaysia work up till their due date. Most of them still driving to work!

So yeah, i've been doing a lot of stuff around the house. Last weekend, we finally got around to getting our wardrobes for our room! After almost a year, we finally have wardrobes, yippee!! We've been taking our time looking around for the perfect wardrobe. In the end, we finally went to IKEA, went straight to the wardrobe section, wrote down the codes of stuff that we knew we wanted, straight down to pick up what we needed and we're out of there in 1 1/2 hour - SO not right. :p I think it's the first time we didn't have to pay parking there cos we're out in less than 3 hours. hehe.

I think right about the moment we sorted through our clothes to fill our new wardrobe is when i started to nest. What followed was the need to pay more attention to the baby room. Especially after my Baby Shower few weeks ago (which i'll talk about later), where i was pampered with LOTS of baby presents it's just unbelievable!

Toys, baby bath stuff, wipes, nappy sacks etc

Lots of nappies to help us get started!

The lil bodysuits & booties & beanies and soft cuddly onesies are just THE cutest. There's a few 00000 size vests & bodysuits that we got, they're so tiny! I've finally finished unpacking all the gifts and I was ooh'ing and aah'ing whilst showing them to Michael and that got him excited cos he said Im definitely showing signs of nesting.

Can't believe how tiny these are!

TOO cute!

I've washed most of the baby clothes. I didn't know i was supposed to. But a lot of people here said that i should. And whilst unpacking the gifts, a lot of them came with 'WASH BEFORE USE' tag. I felt guilty, so i went & wash them.

Can't resist...i've never washed baby clothes before, and it's the first time they're hanging in our backyard!

I've finally packed my hospital bag - after a lot of people panicking when they found out i haven't packed the bag yet. I've finished writing my TQ cards for the baby shower. I've dusted, vacuumed & mopped. So now i feel like i deserve some internet time.

I wrote a long list of things that i wanted to do from the start of my maternity leave til the baby comes. If the lil'un arrives close to the due date, i have about 2 weeks to do them all. One main thing is to work on the guest room. My parents are coming in 1 1/2 weeks! Woohooo! My sister Wa is coming for the baby as well so we need to get their sleeping arrangements sorted out. I can't wait to have them all here. But im also freaking out a lil cos it also means i will soon be getting the baby out of me.

I also wanted to update this blog more frequently with pics of my pregnant self before the baby comes cos i suddenly realize i didn't have many of my tummy pics. So we took a whole bunch the other day, at every angle. My tummy's really big now and just keeps getting bigger n bigger.

Week 36 - tummy's officially bigger than the top part of my body!

Getting active on Facebook & replying all my emails are also on the list. I've left Facebook unattended for so long now. I've missed so much on friends updates & pictures all over the world. We'll see how we go with this one :p

So far, Im really enjoying my time off work - especially the not having to get up early part and catching the train in this oh so cold winter days! I was extremely busy at work leading to my leave as well. So i was more than ready to go. I did get a farewell cake and wonderful gifts from my colleagues. That was nice :)

Now that i've stopped catching the train for work, Michael started and continued my routine. He's got a temporary job offer for a project in the city that started this week. Great opportunity and exciting work but longer hours and so different from where he was before. It was not an easy decision for us especially with the baby coming and all. But it's only a temporary thingy and he will get time off from his new job when the baby comes, so im sure it'll all be ok.

My Baby Shower Story

We don't have Baby Showers back home. Well, even if we do, i've never been invited to one back in Malaysia. So when i first got here, i was thrilled to get invited, even tho i didnt really know what it's all about. All i know is that we'll be bringing gifts to the mother-to-be before the baby's even born. I first thought that was a bit weird. But so far, i've enjoyed every Baby Shower that i've been to. I had SO much fun in each and every one of them. Great excuse to hang out with the girls, lots of fun games, amazing yummy food and it's just wonderful seeing the mum-to-be getting pampered with lots of different kinds of baby gifts.

It's actually not all about the presents. More than anything, it's just overwhelming to see the ma-to-be being surrounded by all the good friends and family giving their love and support and making such a big fuss over someone who's not even born yet. I thought that was pretty amazing. I always leave with such a warm fuzzy feeling inside, excited for the arrival of the baby, extremely happy for the mother-to be and a satisfied tummy of course, from all the overflowing food.

I think the first few showers that i went to were organised by my SIL, Vicki. Vicki being Vicki, organised them REALLY well starting with the invitations up till the party gifts for the guests with baby themes all around. I think at that point i was secretly hoping that she would throw me a Baby Shower when i get pregnant one day. And lucky for me, she mentioned pretty early on that she would wanna throw me a baby shower when i do get pregnant.

So on Sunday 2 weeks ago, i had mine :) It was the best ever! (of course la, it was about me! :p) About 30+ great friends and family came and i was just so blown away with it all. Wa came and surprised me - she said she wasnt going to cos she's coming when the baby's born. But i was so HAPPY that she's here for the shower as well!

Imelda & Vicki organised almost all the food themselves, they're all so yumm! We had great fun playing the new games with lots n lots of gifts for the winners. I was just so happy and overwhelmed to see everyone that came. :) I felt so special. Not just for myself but especially for our lil'un. We're so blessed to have lots of beautiful, thoughtful people around and it's amazing to know that they're as excited about the baby as we are. As it is, we've already had quite a lot of baby stuff being passed on to us or for us to borrow. With the shower, the gifts were plentiful and all so very much needed, not to mention all the well wishes & prayers. We're so grateful for them all. Thank you to all that came and being a part of it all and especially to Vicki & Imelda, for making it such a special one!

Presents even before the party started!

Lotsa desserts - jz how i like it!

Cuppacakes with lil bottles and pins and diapers etc..

With the lovelies, Noreen, Aida and Lina

With Imelda

Chah, Noreen, Yuz, Imelda & Vicki

With Cindy & cutesy Bella

Guess the Baby Food game

Thank you all!