Baby whirlwind

Well, he's here! He's actually been here for four months now so there's lots to catch up on. I'm sure anyone reading this has seen it all on Facebook or got my email already so I apologise for broadcasting old news but I'm going to have to play the new mum card as my excuse.

Our baby son arrived three days overdue on a snowy December night, December 18th 2009. He had a little bit of a tough time coming into the world but arrived safe and healthy, announcing himself with a ferocious cry! Dad and I were overjoyed. If you want to know the details of my birth story shoot me an email and we'll have a coffee!

First family picture - proud dad, exhausted mum, and cute little bundle

Happy and healthy mother and baby

Proud daddy

Poor little guy, didn't have a name for about two weeks and was just known as Baby, but we finally decided on Alexander - Alex.

Baby Alex, one day old

Getting ready to go home from the hospital

It was all pretty overwhelming. Birth was, not surprisingly, the most un-fun thing ever and I felt like I'd been run over by a train for a good while after! Tiny newborn babies are wonderful but strange little creatures and the first month was pretty tough, especially as Alex was colicky which meant sleepless nights. And I don't mean constantly waking up to feed him which is what's expected, I mean he cried all night most nights and we didn't sleep at all. But the colic went away very suddenly sometime within the second month and things got so much easier after that.

We were snowed in for most of the first month, due to the most severe winter I can remember in London. But no complaints there. I was lucky not to have to struggle to work in the snow and ice, and instead stayed inside in the warmth snuggling with my sweet little bundle. Jon was lucky enough to have an extended paternity leave so he was with us for about a month and thank goodness for that. I don't know what I would have done without him. The first week Jon went back to work was chaotic. I didn't know what I was doing and when I was supposed to do it, but I soon found my rhythm and since then I've enjoyed being a mum much more than I'd expected I would. It felt very surreal most of the time and still does. I can hardly believe I'm a mum and I still do a double take sometimes when I catch sight of myself pushing a pram in a shop window. I hadn't actually expected to enjoy it this much though, and I haven't looked back.

Alex and I are now having a great time and getting to know each other. He is a pretty good baby and gets cuter by the day so he's a joy to be around. We're busy though, my work schedule never looked this full! We are out every day doing lots of fun things and making the most of our time together. There'll be more on those things later. There's a fair bit to catch up on, four months worth!

The bun is cooked!

But it's still in the oven, browning a little more. Today is my official due date and I'm getting impatient now. Things seem to be happening so hopefully it won't be too long. I'm doing all I can to move Baby along and nudge him towards the exit. Curry for dinner tonight!

Watch this space...

We have a nursery!

This weekend we finished making our little second bedroom into a nursery for the new arrival. I was so excited, there was a little bit of squealing but generally just big smiles and aaaaahs.

Jon, ever the diligent and handy dad-to-be, got to work putting the new cot together.

I did the decorative bits. And voila! We have a nursery.

There are just one or two tiny touches left to take care of. (Jon may think his work is done but there is a trip to Ikea in our future for a rug and a chair.)

We have absolutely everything ready now. I'm 38 weeks today which means I'm within the normal delivery time. Which means... any day now!

Lady and bump of leisure

I am finally on maternity leave. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I was ready about 2 months ago, I must admit. It was getting increasingly hard to focus, everything was such an effort and so tiring, and the commute was really getting to me. Oxford Circus was of course getting increasingly busy every day on the run up to Christmas, so it was a good time to get out.

The first day of leave was my birthday, which was pretty uneventful this year. A part of me wished I had organised a good old knees up as I realised it will be the last one I have before I become a mother and may not have the chance to do it again for many years, but then again I struggle to stay alert past 8pm these days and there are only so many orange juices a girl can drink in one night out! In the end I was happy to have a relaxing day just enjoying not being at work, and a lovely dinner at Yauatcha with my darling husband.

Of course, it wouldn't have been at all like me to start maternity leave without some drama! I'll spare you the details but the first few days were spent at A&E with suspected Deep Vein Thrombosis (all fine, there was no clot in the end so it was a false alarm but pretty worrying at the time), as well as at the hospital with my dad who was having heart bypass surgery. Seriously, what else can happen this year?

Now that things are settling down I'm enjoying being a lady who lunches for just a short time. I've been meeting up with the other women from my NCT class too. We're all on maternity leave now and 3 have had their babies already, so we started doing the lunch thing last week. It was great, I felt stupidly happy to be off work for a while. We also met at a place that was crawling with yummy mummies and babies so it felt a little like the start of things to come!

I can't believe I'm 37 weeks already and in theory only a couple of weeks away from the new arrival. Jon and I are both nervous but excited. Aside from some final touches to the new nursery we are totally ready. All of the baby stuff has been bought and delivered, clothes and bedding washed and put away, hospital bags packed and ready, and parents-to-be delirious with anticipation and excitement! Last weekend the dutiful dad-to-be built the baby's new crib and pram/stroller.

The crib now lives at the end of our bed so I can practice walking around it before its occupant arrives. So far I have only stubbed my toe on it twice and thankfully nobody except me screamed or wailed when it happened, so I'm glad I'm getting the practice in.

I love the buggy but so far not so much that I've taken it out for walks empty! For now it lives in the hallway where I grin at it on passing. I know, there's no end to the madness of a first time expectant mother who loves new stuff!

Jon also got in a bit of practice trying on his baby carrier, but hopefully the baby won't be of quite the same shape, stature or furriness of the practice teddy!

It's just a matter of playing the waiting game now. I keep thinking Junior will arrive early but I may be wrong. I'd just like him to be here before Christmas. Place your bets now!

Baby pictures

In the past few months I have been scanned and prodded on a regular basis, or rather baby has. Thought I should share some of baby's first pictures with you.

These are from the first scan at 12 weeks. This was amazing, it was when it all started to feel very real. Up until that point I didn't really believe I was pregnant, not really.

It was a great experience though, to see it on screen and see the little heart beating. It is definitely a landmark moment for a couple expecting their first child. It was also a relief to see and hear that everything looked normal and healthy, up until then I naturally felt a lot of anxiety about it all. But the tests at that stage all came back with good results and everything looked healthy - 2 arms, 2 legs, brain, spine, heart and other vital organs - check!

I had a second scan at 22 weeks but the pictures from that were not great. Baby was not that cooperative, when he first appeared on screen he was sucking his thumb and clearly wanted to be left alone to sleep. Oh, but we did find out it's a boy at that scan.

We splashed out and went for a private 4D scan just for fun a couple of weeks ago too. (It's weird, I'm not sure where they found the fourth dimension from, but whatever!) We debated it but thought it would be fun to get a video and some 3D pictures, for the first baby.

We had a real job getting these pictures, he was just not cooperative. I get the feeling he hates being scanned and I do feel a pang of guilt about doing it to him so many times. Who knew he would be so shy! He had his arms and hands up around his face most of the time and would turn away, he clearly just wanted to sleep and we were ruining his Saturday morning lie in! We were there for about two hours. The clinic were fantastic and had infinite patience. After a few pictures and videos they gave me a sweet hot chocolate and told me to walk around for a little while, that tends to get babies moving. He moved his arms but still had his hands around his face so after a couple more attempts we went to lunch and came back for another go but he still hadn't moved enough. We got a few good shots we were happy with though, so we thought it best to leave the stubborn little thing alone after that. And here he is!

Watching the moving pictures on screen was pretty amusing, he is quite a comedy baby so far. For one thing he seemed to be lying in there folded in half! He had his legs right up by his face and was touching his head with his foot. We also him yawn and suck in fluid, and smile too.

This is my favourite - fast asleep resting on his arms

Yes, that is his foot that he's rubbing against his head!!

Rubbing his sleepy eyes with his fist

I can't wait to meet him and see what he really looks like. I hope he really does have those chubby cheeks, I have a pinch and bite compulsion I need to satisfy!

First family picture

This was taken at the end of September.
I am about 28 weeks in this picture. Bump is well formed!

Shopping for two

All of you who know me well and have ever shopped with me before can surely imagine how much fun I am having baby shopping. This is all the newborn stuff which I occasionally lay out and stroke and coo at, much to Jon's amusement. It will also not surprise you to hear that there are carefully bundled piles of baby clothing in three month increments up to 12 month sizes, all put away for later too.

Aside from the clothing we are about half way there with all the baby purchases. If you need me I'll be at John Lewis/Mothercare/Babies R Us. So much fun!

Honeymoon

No ambiguity in the title of this entry! Jon and I had a brief, low key honeymoon in Cornwall the weekend following our little wedding. It was a trip that had already been planned for Jon's birthday which was 3 days after the wedding. It was a nice relaxing long weekend. I love that part of the country and don't go as often as I'd like and wanted Jon to see it. We stayed at a gorgeous B&B in Penzance called the Summer House and drove around some of the sights in the area.

On arrival at the hotel the Lady of the House greeted us with congratulations which I thought was a bit strange as I didn't remember telling her it was a honeymoon but figured I must have and my baby brain had deleted that bit of information. But when she showed us to our room I realised how she knew. There was a beautiful basket of flowers from my colleagues and a bottle of Champagne from my boss waiting for us there. I was pretty touched and then laughed as I recalled how curious my office friends had been about where we were staying! They had given me a big surprise send off at the office complete with confetti, bubbly, cake and John Lewis vouchers so I hadn't expected anything like this. What lovely people they are.

We had a great time and I started having pipe dreams about moving to the seaside and spending warm summer evenings on the beach with the kids and a dog, but then I slapped myself until I saw sense!

Another pregnancy landmark

As we were walking to lunch today Jon said to me, "Oh, you're starting to waddle a little bit."

Great!

Tying the knot

We did it! I made an honest man of Jon on 2nd July. As I'd mentioned in my last update we did things on very short notice, barely giving ourselves time to give our notices at the town hall. (Archaic procedure for getting permission to marry, don't ask.) We married at Chelsea Registry Office (which is where Jon's parents got married 30-something years ago) with just 4 guests - 2 witnesses and 2 understudies (because I always carry a spare!) and then had a lovely lunch at Gordon Ramsay's.

It was the hottest day of the year so far and just beautiful. We had a bit of a drama getting there, the cab driver we got was a bit rubbish and only got us there in the nick of time and only because I couldn't take it any longer and started barking orders at him. My vow to avoid turning into Bridezilla at any time well and truly went up in smoke in that cab! To complicate things we'd had a problem with Jon's wedding ring in that we didn't get it in time due to massive cock ups by the jewellers (Tip: If your husband to be wants a titanium/platinum wedding ring made, make sure you have more than 2 weeks to do it and call the jewellers a few days beforehand to make sure they have sent it to the correct place, and then when they resend it make sure they read out the exact address to you to ensure they haven't made a big mess of it) so we had to stop at the jewellers in Knightsbridge en route to the registry office to pick up a stand-in ring. It looked pretty hairy for a while and our guests all arrived promptly and when we weren't there by 10 minutes before our ceremony was due to start, sat in the waiting room taking bets on which one of us had got cold feet and done a runner! But we made it... just.

The ceremony only took 15 minutes and I vaguely recall uttering the words "Right! Down the pub then?" afterwards as we had some time to kill before lunch. Lunch was indulgent and fantastic. And Junior decided to make his/her presence felt for the occasion too. I had a horrendous bout of morning (afternoon) sickness during lunch and threw up spectacularly in the ladies room. Cue massive cleanup by the extremely efficient and sympathetic staff. I kind of wanted ol' Gordon to come in and shout at me though, would have made for a fantastic wedding story.

After a sumptuous meal and overpriced Champagne we went back to our (new) flat and sat on the sparse furniture enjoying some less pricey Champagne and delicious cake. By that time the pregnant bride was more than ready to slip into comfy clothes and I did actually fight the urge to throw on my pajamas!

A lovely day was had by all, and thanks to our wonderful friends, Vivien, Sophie, Nik and David for taking part. (And didn't we all scrub up well!) We are toying with the idea of having a bigger do after the little one is here, probably in California but we'll see if we get around to that before our silver anniversary.

Update avalanche

So many good intentions, so little time! There's a lot of huge stuff happening that I haven't been keeping you up to date on, although I think most of you do know the big stuff by now.

In a nutshell, since the last post, we have moved, got married, and are expecting a baby. It didn't totally happen in that order but it all happened. I'll give you the highlights here and endeavour to post each event in separate, more detailed installments later.

Back in April I discovered I was pregnant. To say it was a surprise would be the understatement of the century! It wasn't exactly planned and shock and disbelief were the dominant feelings for a while, but we quickly decided it was a good thing. You know me, quick to adapt to a situation!

We moved into our new flat at the end of June. The place was in good condition when we bought it but we spent a week or so making it our own with a lick of paint and a few new fixtures and some new bits of furniture. It looks pretty good, if we do say so ourselves. So far we love it. It's great having our own little place and we've been settling in there very nicely.

Just a week after moving in, we got married. Hey, I like efficiency! We had talked about getting married and there was a little parental encouragement on both sides, but weren't sure if we were going to do it until after the baby arrived. If I'm honest I wasn't that bothered about doing it at all and figured there would be time later, but in the end we decided it was best to do it before the birth to make things easier for Junior's dual citizenship. Things are far more complicated if it is the father that is the US citizen and the child is born overseas to an "alien mother", which I love being called, by the way!! Once the decision was made I characteristically went guns blazing into it, not wanting to wait too long and waddle down the aisle with a huge belly. In the end we barely had time to give our notices at the town hall, things happened so fast. I think it was a little less than 3 weeks from start to finish. Which I totally recommend by the way. It is the easiest, least stressful way to plan a wedding, in my opinion.

We also sold my family home finally. After a long time on the market I switched to a different agency who managed to sell it for us. We got a lot less than I would have liked for it of course but the timing was right so I took the offer. My dad agreed, wanting things to be done and settled in good time before the new arrival. It's quite weird, the end of an era, but a good move I think. Now we are in the process of buying my dad a new flat and hopefully we can get him settled in soon, so I can have some chillout time before my third trimester and then the arrival of the baby tornado.

I think that's all the major stuff. More detail later.

Property update

If this blog were a child I would most certainly be guilty of neglect! I really need to update more often.

To update on the previous post about being gazumped on a flat, we did find another flat shortly after that and the sale completes this week. Yay! We had a bit of a panic after we lost the last one as there really wasn't anything available in our price range in the area and a shortage of new properties coming onto the market, and we had a mortgage offer that was ticking away. With the interest rates continuing to come down I really wanted to avoid letting the offer expire and having to reapply as a) it was unlikely we would be offered the same low rate again, and b) who loves doing all that mortgage application paperwork?! I spotted a place in the next neighbourhood along (Kilburn, to those in the know) and we considered making the compromise of moving down the road to a not bad but not quite as swanky neighbourhood. The flat is bigger, a 2 bed, and 10 years old so in good shape, with gated private parking and very close to the tube and buses on a nice street. It was priced above our budget but worth a look so we checked it out and decided it would be the right move if we could get them down to our price. It took a few days of negotiations but luckily we managed to knock them down quite a bit to reach our price range. Bless them! Things moved quickly, thankfully, and we exchanged contracts within a few weeks. Such a relief!

We move in next week. We're dreading the packing and the moving but are really looking forward to being there and settling into our new home. It's a nice little flat and as it's so new it doesn't need much work. The owner we are buying from bought the flat new when it was built and is therefore the only owner it has had, and she has kept it in great condition so it really doesn't need much doing to it. Apart from a little paint and cosmetic changes to make it ours, it needs nothing. Hurrah to that!

I'm sure there will be photo and possibly even video documentation of the moving process so watch this space. We have hired movers to do this move though, so hopefully there will be no more falling down the stairs carrying a big box incidents this time!

Property crash chez Poon

It's been an interesting rollercoaster ride into 2009 so far. Some of you may know that Jon and I have been looking at properties to buy recently, with the prices coming down enough that West Hampstead where we live now and love, has actually become just about affordable. We've looked at a few places in the area and things got very real in the beginning of January when we made offers on 2 places we really liked. One we lost to another buyer, the other we haggled on and ended up agreeing a sale on, in the middle of January. We were excited about this flat. Although a small place it had some nice features and was in a lovely character building just 2 streets from where we are now, in prime South Hampstead. So we have been making plans to move and looking forward to owning our first home together.

The sale moved slowly, as in not at all, for a few weeks. After much chasing from our lawyer and the agent, we found out the seller was in the middle of an ugly split from his wife and she hadn't signed the agreement to sell and it was all being held up. The agent then spoke to the soon-to-be-ex-wife last week and she agreed to sign the papers and everything seemed to be on the move again. Except nothing happened and someone was clearly lying somewhere along the line. The agent finally told me a couple of days ago, he sensed something fishy was going on and he intended to get to the bottom of it but gave us the go-ahead to look at other properties so we could have a back up plan just in case it went wrong. The next day, he found out the seller had decided to sell to a private buyer for more money instead. Needless to say we were really disappointed as well as being annoyed at being messed around. The agent is furious too. And we are all anxious because despite what everyone says about it being such a buyers' market, there is nothing out there right now. All the one beds in this area have been sold in the last month or so. Crazy!

So it's a case of waiting and hoping for something else to come up. But wait, if you are angry with the seller for us, there's more. We popped into another of the estate agents for the area yesterday to re-register with them. On explaining our situation, they were really helpful and although they didn't have anything suitable right now they would let us know if something new came up. Then he asked where we were buying before and when we said the name of the street he immediately asked if it was Mr P's flat. After that followed a long conversation with some history on the flat and the seller. It transpires that this guy had been selling the same flat through this agent many months ago and turned down much higher offers than the price we had agreed, and had also let someone else down in the same way. They weren't dealing with him anymore and didn't have much nice to say about him. The agent even pulled out a log book and showed us the written entries. We were stunned, we had not expected to hear this at all and it's left us a bit baffled. What on earth could this guy be gaining from this? Was he trying to get us to up our offer? It's all very bizarre.

So anyway, we are registered with the 2 most prominent agents in the area (and I'll be signing up with a couple more this week) who are making us something of a priority given the situation and knowing we are serious buyers who are ready to roll for a quick sale. We can only hope something right comes along. Cross your fingers for us.

*sigh*

Merry Christmas 2008!!

Gosh, how long has it been since I updated? Shockingly long, is the answer you're looking for!

Not that much to report really. Been settling into the new place, working, taken a couple of trips to the States, including one for Thanksgiving. All good but apparently not worth writing much about!

This was just a quick one to say Merry Christmas to you all. I hope you had a good one. In the Poon household we enjoyed the time off work - with a lot of Guitar Hero, a fair amount of karaoke and shedloads of food, and that about sums it up! Christmas day was a nice quiet one here at the flat with my dad. There might be more details and some retrospective posts later, but I wouldn't want to a) jinx it, or b) get anyone's hopes up (neither yours nor mine!) by making big promises!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Another surreal office moment

Someday I might have enough of these bizarre office moments to publish a book of them! Today my boss said to me, "Could you remind me tomorrow I need to get some fake blood?"

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Feeling connected

Finally! After weeks of struggles with BT we finally have a phone at the new flat. I had to fight the urge to randomly call everyone in my phone book, such was the need to celebrate. Soon we might even have internet service and fully rejoin the 21st century!

I'll send out an email with the new number shortly, and also post pictures of the flat as promised.

Happy Turnerversary

Today is my one year anniversary of working at Turner. I wonder if my boss will take me out to lunch? Hmmmm...

The opposite of nesting

My life seems to be all about change right now, and it's all go. My dad and I are putting the family home up for sale and it's all very surreal. I am spending my weekends at the house packing up my stuff and purging these days. It is amazing how much crap you can accumulate when you have space to spread out in and never really move out of a place for years and years. Some of it is nice, a real trip down memory lane. Some of it is just mind-boggling. All of it is very tiring! There is a lot of work to be done.

Tomorrow the agent comes to take photos and measure for the floorplans and after that it is officially on the market. He is optimistic and thinks it will sell fast, so let's hope he's right. It is really crazy and trippy to think about, and the sentimental part of me is having real trouble with the thought of leaving the house, but it's the right thing to do.

Wish us luck.

Goodbye to an old friend

How many of you have met my little car Oyf? How many of you have enjoyed a ride in the little fella? He is such a dear old friend to me - and yes, he is a he, I know all cars are supposed to be girls but he always was a boy to me! I have had to part ways with him and I must confess my heart is a little broken.

I sold him to a friend though, one who really wanted him, so I know he has gone to a good home and once in a while she'll send me updates and maybe even put him on the phone to me. Truth is he'll probably like being with her much better, she'll actually drive him regularly and not neglect him like I did, leaving him for so many lonely days on the driveway untouched. I barely drove him and now that we've moved somewhere with much better public transport connections and expensive and restricted parking, it had to be done. Pouring money down the drain is one of my better talents but even I could see how crazy this was!

So, goodbye dear little blue car, I miss you.

Something to look forward to

Our next Stateside trip is confirmed, we're over again in mid-May. I'm looking forward to getting away again. This trip was dictated by a business trip Jon has to make and I'm tagging along. He has to be in Milwaukee for a week and we figured it would make sense to take some extra days for a California jaunt so it'll be 10 days in SoCal and then a week in Milwaukee.

I'm looking forward to Cali and seeing everyone as always. It wouldn't kill us to get some decent warmth and sunshine either, after the miserable weather we've been enduring here lately. As for Milwaukee, I deliberated for a while as to whether or not I would go and decided after a little research it might not be so bad. I was surprised to discover that there is stuff to do there and I figured it might be nice to have some down time for myself there. As much as I love our Cali and other trips they are always really hectic, rushing around trying to see everyone and everything. The week in Milwaukee Jon will be working so I will get a chance to hang out and have a relaxing time. I plan to check out some museums, do some shopping, a spa day or two, walk and bike some of the trails around the lake shores etc. I think I can keep myself entertained. Plus, I bet the burgers are great!!