New house pics!

On Friday Mark and I signed all of our contracts and made it official, we move March 7th to our new house in Chislehurst. We took the morning off work and met the landlord at the house to go through and make sure everything was ready for us to move in and then went to lunch with Mark's brother and sister in law and the kids. Chislehurst is a tiny little town about 15 miles from London which has one main street lined with boutiques, restaurants and pubs and is a complete 360 from where we live now in London. It's going to be a perfect place to have a baby, to take walks and spend the summer-there is even a big duck pond in the middle of town!

Saturday we went back to the house to show Mark's Mum and to take measurements-a lot of the stuff we have for our city flat is too big or not right for the new place. One thing lead to another and we ended up going out and buying a new couch and chair for our second "reception room" (AKA living room) and if Mark has his way by next weekend we will be the owners of a new 63 inch flat screen t.v. to go along with our two others! I just can't wait to move in, we've lived here over two and a half years now which is the longest I've ever lived in one place in my life and I'm eager to move into a real house and get things ready for baby.

I'm off today to get my hair done-about the only thing I can do at the moment to make myself feel a little bit normal and then we're going to have Sunday lunch at the pub. The weather has been sunny and in the mid-50s this weekend which has made me anxious for summer. I also did an inventory on all of the beautiful clothes we got at our surprise baby shower at Christmas and started to visualise the baby wearing all of his cute little onesies out in the back "garden" this summer. Time is just ticking by now!

Hope you enjoy the pics below, we'll definitely have to post more after we've moved in. x

Front of the house

Kitchen-check out the stove, I can't wait to put it to use! Also love all the light that comes in from the skylights above. To the left is the "American" fridge and another kitchen window.

Dining room off the kitchen with doors to the back garden and one of the reception rooms. We're going to put a t.v. on the right wall and our new couch to the left-I would imagine we will spend lots of time in this room since it's just off the kitchen, especially when we have friends & family over.

The front reception room. We're going to have another t.v. in here (hence Mark trying to "sell" me on the 63 inch t.v. and BluRay surround sound!) and a big L-shaped couch.

The baby's room, faces the back garden. Still debating as to whether we're going to paint it or not.

Our bedroom-faces the street. Mark & Paul taking measurements to see how things will fit...

View from our bedroom onto the street

View of the back garden which will need some attention this spring-perfect to keep me busy before baby is born! And yes, that massive reflection in the window is my belly!

Stay off the roads!

It's official, I passed my theory test today which means I can take my practical test now booked for March 19th. If all goes well, I will have my UK driver's license in hand on that day, 7 weeks shy of baby's due date.

Tomorrow Mark & I head down to the new house to meet the landlord and do a walk through to make sure all of the renovation work has been completed and then we sign the papers and exchange the keys. I'm going to bring the camera (nerdy, I know!) so keep an eye out for pictures soon-I can't wait!

Not a lot more to report, I have to be honest in saying the last week or two have been tough ones being pregnant. There is a noticeable change in how long it takes me to get around, I just feel uncomfortable all of the time and am now getting little bouts of hot flashes and things which isn't great in the office. Instead of my hormones making me cry, I seem to fly off the handle at any excuse and am really volatile sometimes! Mark has been joking with me saying he can't see how I get myself to work in the morning because I'm so absent minded which is really frustrating because I know that I'm being absent minded and can't do anything to change it. My hands and feet are starting to swell and as my Mom put it, I just don't feel like myself. Don't get me wrong, I couldn't be more excited about the upcoming arrival of our little baby, but I'm really and truly counting down the weeks and even days now until I can go back to not having a baby strapped to the front of me and can start being more active to get rid of this weight I've gained!

Have a great weekend! x

28 weeks and my brush with royalty....

On Wednesday I had my 28-week appointment with the midwife at the hospital and my first run-in with real life British royalty! The appointment was pretty routine, they checked glucose levels in my blood (but I didn't have to drink that sweet stuff), did some other blood tests, listened to baby's heart and then kindly informed me that I would have to have a shot right then and there! It took me weeks to prepare myself for my flu shot so needless to say I wasn't too happy hearing that not only would I have to have a shot at this appointment, but probably two or three more in the weeks leading up to and after the birth!

Apparently my blood type is O Negative which something like 7% of the world's population has so it's kind of rare. Because I've got RhD negative blood there is a chance that if my baby has a RhD positive blood type (which is more common then negative blood types), that my body could develop antibodies if our bloods mix (i.e. in birth) that would cause a miscarriage in my next pregnancy (someday we're going to have to try for a girl!). It's actually pretty amazing that they have figured all of this stuff out, apparently up until the 60s or 70s they still hadn't figured out that a simple round of shots could prevent these unnecessary miscarriages so we're pretty lucky even if we do have to get shots in our bums (which is where they kindly administered mine).

Baby brains and all I also learned that our EDD (estimated due date) is May 11th and not 13th! They way I've been feeling (huge, fat, massive, slow, uncomfortable...), this is news to my ears!

Whilst with the midwife she mentioned that the maternity wing was a buzz because Princess Anne was coming that day. Not knowing who Princess Anne was, I asked if she was a patient... I guess the reason the midwife looked at me strangely is because she's like 70 years old-she's the Queen's sister and obviously not having babies anymore! On my way out I just happened to cross paths with her as she was entering the wing... Shame it wasn't Prince Harry ;).

Have a great weekend and Happy Valentine's Day!

8 Greenway....

Is officially going to be our new address as of the 7th of March! Okay, well I say officially although it's not 100% official yet as we're still waiting for our background checks and etc. to come back but other then that, it's totally ours! Mark & I went out to look at 4 places on Saturday and started at 8 Greenway which was the wild card of the group. To start, it doesn't look amazing from the outside but here in the U.K that doesn't really mean much-I've learned there is no way to predict what a house will look like inside based on the outside. It's not that it's so bad outside, it's just in this pebble-dash style which I'm not a big fan of but which is really common here since all houses are made from brick rather then wood like at home. It's also not very close to a train station which is important since when baby comes I might not be able to drive Mark there in the mornings (we're moving to a suburb southeast of London in the county of Kent called Chislehurst so instead of taking the tube or bus we will have to take a high speed over ground train to get into London which only takes about 15 minutes). It is really close however to Mark's Mum's-she's half a mile away which is just close enough and will be great for those times when I need some help watching the baby. It's also in the cutest little town ever with great restaurants and bars and cute little shops as well as a grocery store within walking distance (which might be important if I don't pass my next theory test on the 19th!).

Anyway, the house is "semi-detached" meaning it shares one wall (again, super common in the U.K. where houses are closer together and we're a bit more limited on space) and is two stories with 3 bedrooms upstairs. Downstairs we have a "sitting room" (AKA living room) which has a door to it and is a bit more private with bay windows to the front. The kitchen is probably the best thing about the house-it's completely brand new and has an "American fridge" (which means it's the same size as those I'm used to in America rather then this mini fridge I've been living with for the past 2.5 years!), an American oven (two separate ovens and 6 beautiful gas burners) and a separate washer and dryer (which is a huge improvement on the combo units that are more typical). I know it sounds pretty standard but these are huge luxuries here in London! The kitchen/dining room is open plan and super huge-so large that we will probably use that area as a family room and will have a couch and t.v. there as well as our dining table which will be perfect as baby gets older.

Oh, another highlight is that we've got 2 bathrooms! I know this sounds silly but seriously, this isn't something you find in every house here since 100 or more years ago when most of these places were built this just wasn't necessary. One is downstairs so when we have guests baby can sleep soundly upstairs. We also have a "garden" AKA back yard which is a big treat, too. I just can't wait! Will post pics when the renovation work is done-they are about 90% there and will be completed just in time for us to move in the first weekend of March. Can't wait!

P.S. Our new house will have plenty of space for guests so no excuses for not coming to visit, especially when baby is born!

Safari Friends

It's been a long week! Monday morning we woke up to almost a foot of snow in London-the most they have seen in two decades. It was so bad that most of the tube lines were down and none of the buses were running so the whole of London pretty much shut down which meant we got to have a snow day. We spent the day ordering baby stuff online-our rocker, monitor, breast pump and sterilizer, all the necessities (see a few pics below). Tuesday I managed to make it to my theory driving test but failed. I was so disappointed! I got 47/50 on the multiple choice questions but didn't pass on the hazard perception part of the test where you watch videos and click a mouse when you see upcoming hazards. The next available test isn't until Feb. 19th so the pressure is really on now as I can't take the "real" driving test until I've passed this theory test.

Wednesday after work Mark & I went to pick up the baby bedding we picked called "Safari Friends". It was such a fun trip, I'm really starting to be able to visualise the nursery and it was really sweet to see Mark enjoying picking things out and trying to make the trip last as long as possible. Above is a pic of the bedding-we went a bit nuts and got everything in the set from the curtains to the rug so Baby Verghese's room will probably look a lot like this.

Until we find a new place to live all the baby's things will be at Mark's Mum's. We're off today to view four properties so fingers crossed we see something we like. We've already had one offer on our place which wasn't quite what we were looking for so we're getting closer to having the living situation sorted and are still planning a move for early-mid March. Have a great weekend!

Baby's new swing

Cuddle towel for after bath

Nursing chair-the most comfortable chair ever!