Surprise!

Not many girls can say they have had a surprise baby shower before, and even fewer can say they have had two! I'm not sure why everyone feels they need to surprise me but this past Saturday my sister in law Rachel threw a surprise baby shower at her house. All week Mark had been telling me we were going to dinner at Jamie Oliver's restaurant in London called Fifteen so I was super excited and not at all suspicious. Whilst I will still hold him to dinner at Fifteen, Saturday was so special and I really appreciate all of the effort everyone went to for us.

Rachel had ordered cupcakes (called fairy cakes here and not nearly as common as in America) in baby boy colours, arranged games to play and even had special chocolates made. A couple of our friends turned up and needless to say, Baby Verghese got even more spoiled. In fact, there is absolutely not a thing left for me to buy him which leaves me wondering what I'm going to do with my time on maternity since I thought I would be out buying last minute bits.

We spent all of Sunday putting away the gifts we received and finishing the nursery which is officially complete from the washed sheets on the bed to the border being put up on the walls-pictures to come once we've put the last couple of finishing touches on.

Otherwise this week just seems to be flying by. Tonight I've got my pregnancy yoga class. This will be my 3rd time going and it's been a great way of meeting local Mums. Each class a former student comes at the end with her newborn to share her birthing story which has also taught me a lot. I don't think the class is doing much towards toning and firming up (which I could really use!) but it is great for learning breathing excercises and stretching out sore limbs.

With a week ahead of temperatures in the 60s, spring has finally sprung in London. Let's hope it lasts!

x Jen

34 week pic and appointment

I think I can finally say that things are starting to feel like they are moving a little quicker and we are getting closer to meeting this little baby of ours! On Wednesday I had my 34-week appointment at the hospital. I was really looking forward to this appointment as I was hoping they could shed some light on how the baby was laying now. Turns out this midwife seemed to think he's head down, with his back on my right side and his limbs bending over to the left. At least he's been nice and kept his little feet away from my ribs! She seems to think we're in the clear and won't need a C-section but we will confirm again at our 36 week appointment on April 7th.

We went through the usual at this appointment and when it came time for her to check my blood pressure it was pretty high-141/90 and the midwife found a trace of protein in my urine, two factors which can indicate pre-eclampsia. After I had my blood work done and my second round of "anti-D" shots I was sent to the maternal and fetal monitoring unit of the hospital where they strapped a heart monitor for the baby around my belly and listened in for an hour whilst periodically checking my blood pressure. Eventually it went down to 113/70 and the midwife was happy with baby's heart rate so I was sent to have a second round of blood work done (which was taken from the same spot!) and that was that. I called today and it seems they are happy with the blood results and for now we don't need to worry about pre-eclampsia which is great news.

Now that it's Friday I can finally relax and look forward to the weekend ahead. Mark and I plan on finally completing the nursery and are having some gardeners come around on Saturday to see about planting some flowers out back so we can enjoy the garden (AKA back yard in American speak!) this summer. Sunday is our nephew Max's early 6th birthday party so we're going to go paint some pottery with him to celebrate since he's off to Las Vegas and San Diego with Paul, Rachel and Holly for his actual birthday on April 2nd.

Hope you have a great weekend and enjoy laughing at how massive I've gotten in this latest pic. The funny look on my face and pose is because just before this was taken Mark instructed me to lift my chin, the picture before this was less then complimentary in that area! x

New arrivals

Yay! We're back online and things at the new house in Chislehurst are starting to feel like home.

This past week has also seen some exciting new arrivals. The biggest one of course was Westyn Marie Haigh, born to Ashley & Troy on March 18th. It was super hard being so far away and not getting the latest updates when Ash was in labor and it's even harder not being able to meet little Westyn, but it will be all that much sweeter when I come home in the fall with our little one and get to see her in person. Congrats!

The second arrival was Mark's baby.... The ridiculously big 58 inch t.v. which was delivered at 6.37 a.m. on Sunday morning weighing in at about 200 lbs. I had to include a picture below so you could see the smile on Mark's face and how stupidly big it is.

Whilst it's not my thing, Mark works really hard and we don't go out and blow our money on frivolous things so in my mind (and after 3 months of him trying to convince me), he's earned it.

Lastly, I have to thank Tara for sending the sweetest package ever which really made my Monday. Those that know her know how thoughtful she is and in the 10 and a half years I've known her it never ceases to amaze me how she can put such an amazing touch to anything that makes it distinctly her. Anyway, she's started little Baby Verghese's book collection in true teacher fashion with some of the classics that he and I will treasure forever. She also found what I've not been able to-a super cute wrap around gown for the hospital that even came with a little matching diaper. As she said in the card, let's hope I can manage to look halfway decent when I go in there so I can share pics. Thanks so much, Tara-you brought my to tears with your thoughtfulness.

Hope the rest of this week is as good as it's started and that yours is the same x

Sideways....

No, I didn't spend the weekend watching the movie and dreaming about vineyards in Napa-it's in fact the position in which Baby Verghese is in the womb at the moment. Last Thursday I went to our local doctor for my 31-week appointment with the intent of also getting a note from her allowing me to fly to Ireland for the weekend as we were going to surprise Mark's Mum for her birthday. All checked out fine, the iron levels in my blood are "fantastic" and despite my massive size, I'm still fine on the blood sugar side. When it came time to listen to baby's heart beat it was loud and strong but when I asked the doctor if she could tell how the baby was sitting she said that he is is the "transverse lie" position which means he is literally sideways in the womb (see: http://www.pennhealth.com/health_info/pregnancy/graphics/images/en/19162.jpg). By now (today marks the start of week 32) he should be pointing head down and the concern is that as the days go on and he gets bigger, it becomes less comfortable for him to move into the "ready position" and more and more we face the reality of looking at having a C-section which is my biggest fear.

Next steps will be to wait until my 34-week appointment on March 25th at the hospital to see if he's moved yet and if he hasn't then they will likely want to do another ultra sound to see what's going on. We can opt to have a doctor try to manually move him from the outside which has a 50% success rate, apparently it involves him guiding the baby into a sort of reverse somersault which sounds really... comfortable (hardly!). If by 36-weeks he still hasn't moved then we will have to book ourselves in for the C-section. Luckily his positioning isn't of harm to him but it has made me quite uncomfortable!

So in the end Mark & I didn't get to join the rest of the family in Ireland to surprise Pat for her birthday which is on St. Patrick's Day. Quite disappointing as I love going back to Tralee to see Mark's extended family (his Mum is 1 of 12 and in true Catholic fashion they all have at least 3 kids each so Mark has something like 40 cousins living in Tralee who now have kids of their own!) but we will go again late this summer or early fall to have the baby blessed at the church there. We did spend a lot of time in the nursery though and it's almost there-can't wait to post pictures when our Internet at home is working.

Hope you all had a great weekend, enjoy your week x

Home Sweet Home

Tonight marks the fifth glorious night that I get to spend in our new house, since moving in on Saturday I've had to pinch myself when walking in the front door at night and remind myself that this is our new home. This morning I actually woke up to birds chirping rather then the sound of sirens and buses going by! We did a marathon move on Saturday, Mark's family and a few friends showed up to the flat in London at 9 a.m. and by 9 p.m. Saturday night we were completely unpacked and moved in.

It's taken a few days to get settled in and we're still waiting for our new furniture to be delivered but it's still such a lovely home, very homey feeling and just the kind of place I can imagine raising our baby in (at least until we outgrow it ;)). Mark and I get to commute into work together again which is something I love because we get to spend that extra bit of time together which is a real treat since we're both flat out with work during the week.

Unfortunately we won't have the Internet hooked up for another couple of weeks so I'm going to have to post from work which means no pictures :(. I will have lots to share when we do get our Internet though-today the nursery furniture is being delivered and set up so in the next week or two we can decide if we want to paint the nursery and start setting it up, something I've been dying to do since we found out we were having a baby!

Baby names.... Your help needed!

Almost as often as I get asked if I'm having twins (seriously) I get asked what name we've given our baby boy. A couple of months ago it wasn't such a big deal that we didn't know but as we're getting closer and closer we're having a harder time deciding one one of the three names we've shortlisted and we were hoping you could help. I would love to hear your thoughts/comments/votes on the names below. Mark and I have been "trialing" these names-each week we pick one and instead of calling the baby "baby" we call him by one of the names. This still hasn't helped. Can't wait to hear your thoughts x

Aiden. Irish name meaning "little fire" which seems appropriate as I think our little boy will inherit this from his parents. Have loved this name ever since Aiden of Sex in the City fame as he was her best boyfriend ever in my opinion. Apparently Aiden was the most popular name for boys in the U.S. in 2006.

Callum. Irish name, meaning "dove". Callum was the 13th most popular boy's name in the UK in 2006, but is extremely rare in the US (according to one website). Negative to this name is it being shortened to "Cal" when we come to America.

Sam (not Samuel). Meaning is "God heard". Can't be shortened and cute for a boy, but is this an adult's name? Does anyone know a grown up named Sam?

3/4s of the way there!

Today marks week 30 of being pregnant and I'm elated to say I hopefully only have 10 weeks to go. 10 weeks doesn't seem so bad, after all 10 weeks ago was Christmas, right? And that doesn't seem so long ago so hopefully the time will pass just as quickly and the baby will be here before we know it. The baby kicks a lot now and his kicks and punches are big enough to be noticed from the outside-as in you can see my tummy moving which is really weird. He seems to LOVE chocolate and gets really active when I have it which is fairly often I hate to say... On the whole my attitude has been improved, I was going through some early postpartum for awhile there but am feeling a lot more positive and looking forward to the changes coming in our lives.

This Saturday we move house and as of today I also have just 6 weeks of work left. I couldn't have been pregnant at a better time, the recession has hit hard in the U.K. and being a recruiter has turned into a somewhat depressing job, especially in the design industry which is viewed as a luxury by many companies here in London. In 2 weeks we (hopefully) leave for Ireland to celebrate Mark's Mum's birthday (how's your luck-Irish and born on St. Patrick's Day, hence the name Patricia!). I say hopefully because I'm really hoping the GP let's me take the short flight there (I will be 32 weeks pregnant); my midwife mentioned something about being in a plane can cause your water to break early and whilst I love going to Ireland, I really don't want our baby to be born there so early!

Still no luck on renting our flat which is becoming a little stressful. This weekend Mark and I did more furniture shopping-he managed to sell almost all of the "bachelor pad" style stuff (picture red glossy t.v. units, black suede couches, etc.) we had to someone at work so we got a gorgeous new linen couch and are on the search now for a few more pieces to complete the new house. We started packing on Saturday and I have to say that it's a whole different experience when you're pregnant-I feel frustrated that I can't do as much as I would like and know Saturday will be tough when the guys are moving and I'm stuck with cleaning duties and not able to do much else!

Wish us luck and have a great week x