12th!

January 2011/Manila, Philippines

Happy 12th Anniversary, my dear husband!

Our gift is still baking in the oven. We'll see him in about 16 weeks. I can hardly wait. You're going to be such a wonderful Dad to Jacob. :)

Thank you and I love you. ♥

Goodies from Manila

The care package from Manila which my mum and sister sent last Wednesday was delivered this morning! I am so happy with all the goodies and clothes they sent me. Now I have more clothes to wear since my pre-pregnancy clothes are now too tight on me. Haha!

Here are some pictures:

the cute box

yay! a box full of goodies and clothes

Jacob's

Jacob's

Jacob's

Jacob's shirts are from when my mum and sister went to Singapore last May. We just found out that time that I'm pregnant. Good thing Jacob is a boy because all the shirts they bought are for boys. :)

I will give baby wearing a go. :)

Jacob's vitamins & cotton buds

for the hubby :D

for mum

for mum, again

Jacob's & mum's clothes

Jacob's & mum's clothes

 Yay! I am excited to wear all my new clothes. :)

The Chronicles of a Pregnant Vera - Part 3

I am 23 weeks pregnant today!!! How awesome is that?! ONLY 17 more weeks and we'll get to meet the love of our lives, Jacob. Now onto some of my musings:

• It's true what the books and other women who have given birth say, 2nd trimester is awesome! Although I still sometimes feel sick, I generally feel awesome nowadays. My eating habits are slowly going back to normal. Hopefully I gain weight soon.
• Jacob is kicking up a storm. Gone are the flutters and soft nudges. Now even his Daddy can feel him move. More exciting for my husband is the fact that he can now see my tummy move when Jacob moves. Precious! I am loving all of Jacob's 'kicks and punches'. :D
• We've been shopping for Jacob for a few weeks now, mostly clothes. We've shopped for different sizes though especially for when he is about 6 months old and it'll be Winter here. We've also bought a few toys for him. His nappy stash is not yet complete. I still need to buy a few lots.
• I have booked for our babymoon on the 2nd week of October. I'm excited to go and explore a new place but I'm more excited to be with my husband and do nothing! :)
• My Aqua Natal classes are due to start next month. I am so looking forward to it. I haven't had much exercise at all since falling pregnant (well actually since forever! haha!). But I think the classes will help me heaps with these aches and pains I'm feeling as my tummy and Jacob grows. I already have a couple of maternity board shorts. I'm still waiting for the delivery of the maternity halter tops that I ordered online.
• My husband and I want to 'see' Jacob again, soon. So we will be scheduling a 3D/4D ultrasound for when I am 29 weeks. That's what the ultrasound place recommends so all of bub's features are already defined. We can't wait! :)
• In a few days my husband and I will be celebrating our 12th anniversary. Of those 12 years, we've been married for 6. Twelve years of togetherness -- lovely. I love my husband. I AM IN LOVE WITH HIM! Love, love, love! <3

That's it for now folks. Be back soon! :)

Maternity Clothes Shopping

I have been having difficulties shopping for maternity clothes here in Sydney. There are no (actual) shops specializing in maternity wear that I know of. Some shops like Target, Big W and Kmart carry maternity clothes but the choices are very, very limited. I don't like the styles they have and the sizing is too big for my petite frame -- I'm tiny, as one sales associate told me over the weekend while my husband and I were looking for maternity swimwear. :D

As such, I've resorted to online shopping. My favourite site is Asos. Their prices are pretty reasonable (especially the clearance items) compared to the prices of clothes here, plus they offer free shipping to Australia. How awesome is that?! So far I have bought from them a couple of pairs of jeans, a pair of cropped trousers, a dress, a shirt and two halter bikini tops for my Aqua Natal classes which will start next month. Speaking of Aqua Natal classes, I also had to order my maternity board shorts online from Angel Maternity. They were delivered this morning and it's a good thing they have accurate sizing charts because the extra small ones fit me just right.

There's this one shop that I always go to whenever we're out, Pumpkin Patch. They carry babies', children's and maternity clothes. Admittedly, their prices are more expensive but the quality is really good. I was able to buy one pair of cargo pants from them (on sale, mind you).

Oh, my sister just texted me that they have sent me a care package from Manila mostly containing maternity clothes. They have bought some clothes from Gingersnaps, some from good old SM department store and of course some from the ever reliable palengke (market). I.AM.SO.EXCITED!!! I can't wait to receive the package and open it and be surprised. It should be here in 4-5 days. :)

Floriade 2011

Last Saturday my husband and I went on a long drive to Canberra, Australia's capital. It's about 3 hours drive from where we live. We went there to visit my husband's friend and his family, and at the same time to go to Floriade. We have been to Floriade in 2008, when we just arrived in Australia. Back then we still didn't have a car so we took the bus with some friends to go there.

I always enjoy going on a long drive with my husband because we get to talk about heaps of things, everything and anything! Although I sometimes fall asleep while he's talking. Haha!

Here are some of the pictures we took:

 

Alva Baby Update

In my previous entry I talked about Alva Baby making a mistake with my order and sending me a pink nappy. I said yesterday that I sent them an email complaining and that I didn't expect anything would come out of it. I take it all back. They have excellent customer service. My email was replied to immediately and I was asked whether I wanted them to send me my original order or get a refund. I told them I wanted my original order sent to me. Unfortunately they misread my reply and thought I wanted a refund. A refund to my paypal account was processed immediately. Anyway, it's all good. I can just order from them again since they offer free shipping anyway. :)

MCNs Lot 4 - Alva Baby

My husband and I picked up Jacob's 4th lot of MCNs from the post office yesterday. I ordered these nappies off Alva Baby, a nappy factory in China. These nappies are by far the cheapest in our stash (about $5 apiece). And as they say, you get what you pay for. The quality is not so great plus they stuffed up my order and sent me a PINK nappy!!! I cannot, for the life of me, fathom how they think I'd want a pink nappy when everything I ordered are obviously for a baby boy. I already sent them an email complaining about it but to be honest, I don't expect them to do anything about it. You may be asking why I even ordered from them. Well, I just wanted to check if I would like the quality since (almost) everything is made in China anyway. Now I know! Haha! I probably won't be using these nappies often, just as back ups in case I run out of nappies.

:(

Aside from the nappies, I also ordered leggings/leg warmers off Alva Baby. I'm satisfied with them, they're so cute. Yay! :)

panda leggings

Cars leggings

frog leggings

Jacob won't probably be able to wear these leggings because the size range says 0-12 months. Hopefully he can fit into them by winter next year when he'll be about 6 months.

Jacob's nappy count as at 14 September: 18 >> including the pink one. :(

Babymoon Booked!

I bought this Scoopon voucher for a two night getaway for two people at the beautiful Australis Retreat at Wisemans on the stunning Hawkesbury River in early January. Back then my husband and I didn't know that I would fall pregnant in April. I convinced him to let me buy this voucher just so we could go on a mini holiday this year knowing that we will not be able to go on a holiday out of Australia (permanent residency to citizenship conditions). Now that I'm pregnant, we've decided to book this mini holiday for our babymoon!!! :)

I will be a little over 26 weeks when we take this trip. It's just over an hour drive from Sydney. It's going to be a very laid back holiday because we just want to relax and enjoy each other before we welcome Jacob into our family. This holiday will also be a belated celebration for our 12th/6th anniversary this end of September. I feel blessed that I have been with my husband for more than a third of my life.

I'm still in the process of researching about things to do in the area. Otherwise, my husband will probably be swimming most of the time while I watch him do so. Haha. I must remember to bring some reading materials then. =)

MCNs Lot 3 - GroVia

I just came back from the post office. I picked up Jacob's third lot of MCNs -- GroVia. I bought these 2 brand new nappies off eBay because it's cheaper that way. Haha. Too bad the seller was only selling these two. I would have wanted to buy more but I guess 2 is enough to try if Jacob will like this brand.

GroVia AIO One-Size Cloth Diaper, Vanilla

Jacob's nappy count as at 13 September: 14 >> according to what I've read I need at least 24 nappies for full time use. We're getting there! :)

MCNs Lot 2 - Cushie Tushies

The second lot of Jacob's MCNs was delivered this morning. This time the nappies are from Cushie Tushies. No, I didn't buy directly from their website. On Monday night while I was trawling through eBay for modern cloth nappies (in bed beside my sleeping husband!!!), I found out that Cushie Tushies has an eBay account and that's where they sell their seconds for half the retail price. This is the note they put on each nappy's description : The Cushie Tushies currently listed on eBay are seconds. This means that there is an flaw with the Nappy and we do not wish to sell it at full retail price. We can not list the specific fault with each item we list however the faults are usually a smudge in the printing, some messy or missed stitching in the sewing process or slightly out of shape variations. The Fault should not affect the use of the Item however. They may also be in Perfect condition but are an older version that needs clearing.

I asked my husband's opinion first if it's ok for us to buy nappies that are seconds. At first he was apprehensive but after a little convincing from me, he gave in. That's how persuasive I can be. Haha! Also shows you how cheap I am. :)

I bought 9 nappies in total (5 couture or printed ones and 4 basix or plain ones) and 1 waterproof cloth nappy bag. Here are the pictures:

Dude cloth nappy bag

basix sunflower, couture snow fall & couture lady bird

couture candy cane, basix tangerine & basix ruby red

basix denim, couture giraffe & couture bumble bee

All the nappies are in great brand new condition despite the seller's disclaimer. There's just some smudges on the the bumble bee's print. I hope they'll all come off once I wash the nappies. Of this lot, my favourite is the bumble bee for Bee!!! :)

Jacob's nappy count as at 9 September: 12 >> stash is slowly but surely getting bigger. 

Shopping for Jacob

Shopping is fun but shopping for Jacob is way, way more fun! We have been buying bits and pieces for Jacob these past few weeks. Nothing major yet, except for his pram. I saw this pram on sale while I was browsing through Baby Kingdom's website. I then showed it to my husband who said it looked fine and I could order it online if I wanted to. I had apprehensions about ordering the pram online though so I didn't. First, there is a delivery fee of $70 which of course I didn't want to pay since there is a Baby Kingdom about 20 minutes away from our house. I also wanted to see the pram and be able to test it as well. So a couple of weeks after I saw the pram online, my husband and I decided to go to Baby Kingdom in Penrith. We saw the pram and had the sales assistant demonstrate its features. My husband was satisfied so we bought the pram. Catch is the pram was only available in one color -- electric blue. Keep in mind that this happened way before we found out that we're having a boy. My husband 'convinced' me that the pram's color is more purple than blue. I, being a sucker for anything purple, heartily agreed. Haha! And so, we took home Jacob's pram that day, a Quinny Buzz 4. We got a great bargain because we also got the matching Quinny Dreami Carrycot, all for $440.

Daddy  with Jacob's pram

My husband assembled the pram just so we can check if there is any defect and if all the accessories are complete. I took the picture above before he dismantled and put the pram and dreami cot back into their boxes.

Meanwhile, Jacob got his first gift over the weekend -- Dr Seuss Alphabet Frieze and Mobile. Auntie Jeana's children, Kuya Liam & Ate Sam gave it to him. Liam even wrote the note himself. How sweet is that?! :)