Clearly, I am very behind with blogging. Clearly, this is because we have a new baby in the house A lot of things have taken a back seat in the last week or so, and I’m okay with that.

I dropped off the blogging over the Thanksgiving weekend, mainly because I was actually in varying stages of labour for the entire long weekend. Thursday wasn’t too bad overall, and I was pretty good for most of Friday, but Friday night was when things started to really heat up, and from that point on there’s really been no time to tend to the blog. So yeah. Sorry

I’ve spent my spare moments over the past week napping or spending time with Kev, or sorting and editing photos of baby Quinn. Any time I’ve had to write on the laptop I’ve actually spent documenting my labour & delivery story. I want to be able to remember the details and document them before they fade. It was an amazing few days, and as crazy as it may sound, I’m actually a little sad that it’s all over and I don’t get to do it again. So I want to remember everything.

Little Quinn remains the most wonderful part of our lives. She amazes us constantly, and we’re already being surprised by her changes and progress in the few days since she was born. Already we can see the first glimpses of increased neck strength, and her hilarious facial expressions are a reminder that she’s a little person who will soon develop an entire personality of her own.

We had a second checkup at the pediatrician’s office yesterday to monitor her growth and ensure she’s getting enough nutrition from my milk. The good news is that she has regained and passed her birth weight. At birth she weighed 6lbx 11oz which then dropped to 6lbs 4oz by the time she was discharged (entirely normal). By her first checkup last Thursday she was weighing in at 6lbs 8oz, and today she tipped the scales at a hefty 7lbs 2oz. So the doctor is happy with her growth and progress with feeding, and we don’t need to go back again until she’s 5 weeks old.

This makes me very happy, as it’s definitely a bit of a high pressure feeling to know that your baby’s health, wellbeing and nutrition depends entirely on your milk supply. It’s a relief to know that nature is taking care of things properly.

Anyway, as I said, I’m attempting to edit photos when I have the time, so I’ll keep up with that as much as I can. In the meantime, rest assured I’m busy giving baby Quinn lots of hugs and kisses!!

We had another early start today, this time to get to my 38 week OB check up on the UES by 8.15am. As it turned out, they were running late (how can you be running late for the first appointments?), so we didn’t end up being seen until after 9am. Ah well.

Everything is still going just fine though. I’m definitely making progress, though there’s still no telling when the baby will actually arrive. I have an appointment for my next check up in a week’s time, and the doctor is pretty confident that I’ll be there for that check up Though she did caveat this statement with the comment that she has been wrong before, so we’ll see I guess

Back home, I was feeling a bit worse for wear after the trip uptown and the checkup, so I took it fairly easy for the rest of the morning. I had yoga in the afternoon and sadly it was my non-fave teacher (the regular teacher also works as a labour doula, and she was attending a birth today) Sad panda! I’ll be super sad if it ends up being my last class!

In the late afternoon we were expecting Time Warner out to finally fix our cable problem once and for all, and happily, this time they turned up. And as we had hoped, they were able to feed the line through the wall now that Kev had managed to pull out the existing (broken) cable. So after a month without television, we can finally enjoy the simple pleasure of being able to sit down and just put the TV on, without having to actually choose something specific from Netflix or the DVD collection. And just in time for the holiday weekend! Hurrah! Now to get our credit for the lost month …

Today we had to be ready for an early start for our 8am ultrasound appointment at the hospital. We made the walk to Beth Isreal in good time and were there a few minutes early. And the best thing about having the first appointment of the day is that it’s pretty hard for them to be running late! (Which they invariably are by the afternoon – last time we were waiting nearly 1.5 hours)

I got called in at 8am on the dot and was hooked up to the fetal monitor. Unfortunately poor Kev had to wait out in the waiting area because the monitoring room is apparently “where the females go”. Despite the fact that it was 8am and I was the ONLY person in there. But hey, whatever. So I sat on my own and listened to the baby’s heart beating for nearly half an hour. It was funny to hear how it sped up when she squirmed around and then slowed down again while she was quiet.

I was only supposed to be on the monitor for 20 minutes but I had a contraction a minute or so before they came in to unhook me, so they had to leave it on for a few more minutes to wait for everything to go back to the baseline or whatever.

Once I was off the monitor it was time for the ultrasound, which Kev was allowed to come in for. The scan was pretty quick this time. They measured her dimensions and the fluid levels, and then the doctor came in to double check everything. She reported that the fetal monitor trace looked just fine, and also told us that the baby’s estimated weight based on the scan was 7 lbs 3 oz – a good healthy weight! Third trimester scans aren’t the most accurate measures of the baby’s size, but today’s result definitely tells us that she won’t be a small baby in spite of my small measurements.

The doctor even printed us off a picture, which we didn’t expect. The third trimester scans are so hard to make out details on because the baby is so big. But she got this shot that is apparently a super cute, super chubby cheek, so we have a pic this time

So yeah, we were pretty excited and happy with today’s news. Afterwards, Kev headed off to work and I strolled home to take it easy for the rest of the day.

I was pretty tired so I didn’t do too much with the day. I finished off a sewing project (doing my best to finish works in progress and not start new things!), and also started work on the October photobook pages. Can’t believe we’re nearly at the end of November already. I have no idea where this year has gone!

In the evening we ended up going out for dinner to Grano Trattoria. I was tired and dropped the ball on dinner by failing to go out to the supermarket. So we happily went out and enjoyed the simplicity of going to a restaurant without having to worry about a baby!

Tomorrow is a busy-ish day. Off to the Upper East Side in the morning for my 38 week OB check up, then yoga in the early afternoon, and finally Time Warner are (in theory) coming out to fix our broken cable service. Which is well overdue – it’s been out for nearly a month!

This week is a three day work week for Kev, which is clearly awesome. Thanksgiving is this Thursday, so it’s a four day holiday weekend in the US. We’re obviously not really going to be celebrating the holiday, and I certainly have no plans for producing a big turkey feast in my current state, so we’ll just be taking it easy. Kev still has high hopes that the baby will make an appearance sometime over the long weekend, so we’ll see. Tomorrow’s appointment with the OB should shed at least a little light on whether we’re making progress towards his goal!

Here I am at 38 weeks. Not too many of these photos left to go!

After yesterday, I was SO ready to take things easy today. Luckily so was Kev! That said, we still had a few bits & pieces we wanted to do, but they were mostly within a couple of blocks of home, so it felt pretty manageable.

One of the things we wanted to do was pick up a few children’s books so that we’ve at least got something to start reading to the baby when she arrives. So the plan was to go to Barnes & Noble at Union Square, but on the way we passed the cutest little children’s bookstore on 18th St that we’ve never actually noticed before. We popped in for a quick peek but most of the prices seemed to be full RRP, so we decided to just pop over to B&N and do a price comparison.

As it turned out, B&N were selling everything at full RRP as well, so we decided we’d rather support the quaint little independent store rather than the big chain, so we headed back to the original shop, only to discover on closer inspection that they didn’t seem to have many of the books we were interested in buying! They had a lot of more unusual, quirky and local to NYC selections, which will no doubt be great later on, but to start with I really wanted to build a collection starting with a few of the classics. So in the end we decided to just come home and buy online. Why did we ever doubt that online shopping would be the way to go??

Otherwise, I was feeling pretty exhausted so we just pottered around the house. I think we’re pretty much ready for the baby, everything’s all set up and ready to go! Tomorrow we’ve got an appointment at the hospital for a growth scan, and then Tuesday is my regular weekly checkup. Not much longer to go …

Edited to add photo: This is the line at the Bulgari sale. That’s the across the road part. Nice, right?

This morning we had arranged to meet Tara at the Bulgari sample sale at 9am. In hindsight, a little earlier would probably have made a big difference, but hey, live & learn. The sale started at 9am so when we arrived the first crowd was just about to be let inside. Unfortunately, the queue stretched the length of the building, then continued across the street and down the block. Eek! Fortunately they had security controlling the queue, so there wasn’t too much craziness with people on the road, and they were also helpful when a group of 5 people turned up a couple of hours later and attempted to just join their friends in the line. Let’s just say the people behind them weren’t too thrilled. I’m not sure what happened in the end, but the security guy was definitely overheard telling them at one point that they could stay in the line but that they wouldn’t be let inside

Anyway, so obviously we were in that line for a long time. I think had Kev and I been there alone, we wouldn’t have stayed. And if Tara had been there alone, she wouldn’t have stayed. But we were all there, so we just stayed in the line. And then after a while we kind of felt like we had committed all that time to the line so it would be a waste to leave. Haha!

Eventually we made it across the street and finally INSIDE THE BUILDING. Where there was another line. OMG! A line stretching up and up and up and up this huge flight of stairs. OMG! Luckily the guy managing the line was really nice and offered to let me sit down on this bench in the lobby, and then once Tara & Kev got to the top I could just go up and join them. But in the end I sat there only a minute or two before he gathered the three of us up, handed us a slip of paper stating ‘OK for 3′ and popped us all straight in the elevator to the head of the line! YAY! SO nice of him to do that, I really wasn’t hoping for any kind of special treatment at all. I mean, at the DMV was one thing – that’s kind of an essential place that you go because you have to. But a sample sale? That’s definitely attendance optional! LOL!

So yeah, we were pretty (okay, super) happy that we got to skip the huge stair line. I’d say that saved us a good 45-60 mins!

Inside the sale we were glad to see that it was worth the wait. Not that I think there was any danger of us NOT buying anything, after committing to that line for so long! Haha! It was busy busy busy inside, and the queue for check out was crazy long, but they had some really nice stuff. We all came away with some bits & pieces. My favourite piece? A beautiful gold leather handbag discounted by 70%. Guess what I’m getting for Christmas this year?

Once we emerged from Bulgari (somewhat later in the day than we had imagined …) we were STARVING, so we went to a little place nearby called Burgers & Cupakes. Awesome, no?  Let me tell you, those burgers and cupcakes went down SO WELL after a busy morning of sample sale shopping!

After we had eaten we decided to brave the nearby Vivienne Westwood sale as well, which had been open for a few days already, so we were confident there wouldn’t be any lines, and that there could possibly be some additional deductions. It turned out to be a winner. I would have had more fun with the clothes if I hadn’t been pregnant (sigh), but Tara for sure did AWESOME. Plus there was this simply GORGEOUS coat that I adored, but it wasn’t in my (non-baby) size. But fortunately it fit Tara, so I was super happy it didn’t go to waste!

Kev also scored big, picking up some really AWESOME jackets on big markdowns (as hoped, the reductions had been increased from 60% to 80%). But I didn’t walk away empty handed. I got myself some really awesome Vivienne Westwood rainboots, so I’ll be looking super stylish in the winter weather this year

Kev worked from home today (love those days!) so that once he finished his meetings for the day we could go to the Department of Motor Vehicles and finally get some local ID. So that we don’t have to remember to cart around our passports for those occasions when we need to provide evidence of who we are (and our foreign drivers licences aren’t sufficient). We were kind of dreading it, because let’s face it, going to the RTA or VicRoads in Australia isn’t exactly what you’d call ‘fun’.

But we decided that with the baby just around the corner, it was high time we got our act together and sorted it out. Doing stuff like this is only going to get harder once we have the baby to bring along, and I wasn’t super keen on the idea of having to bring my passport to the hospital with me for proof of ID when I get admitted.

But you know what? The DMV actually turned out to be okay! I mean, yeah, it was your typical dreary looking government office, and it was super busy. But it worked out just fine. We immediately found ourselves in a huge (slow) queue just to get a service ticket directing us to the proper place. Fortunately there was a roaming staff member chatting to people in the line, and in the case of people who had all their documentation and forms ready to go, was pulling them out of the preliminary line and directing them immediately to the proper section of the office.

When he spoke to us, he noticed that I was pregnant and immediately took me straight to the VERY FRONT of the photo line so I didn’t even have to wait at all! Unfortunately poor Kev didn’t get to share my VIP treatment, but at least it meant that I got the standing portion of the waiting done super quickly. The next stage involved waiting for my number to be called but there was lots of seating, so i was kind of loving the DMV at that point

Surprisingly, the entire process went very smoothly, and unlike what used to happen to us every time we went to the RTA office, we didn’t get told we were missing some crucial document, so we are now happy holders of temporary NY State non-driver ID cards. Yay! Our real cards will be here within a couple of weeks. Wonder if they’ll beat the baby here …

Today was a fairly uneventful day. Yoga in the afternoon (and the good teacher was back – yay!), and then in the evening I had an appointment to meet with the pediatricians that will be the baby’s regular doctors once she arrives.

Kev really wanted to come along to this meeting, for obvious reasons, but unfortunately it was really difficult to get the appointment and the only night available before my due date happened to be the same night as a work conference dinner that he really couldn’t get out of. But it was really no big deal that he couldn’t make it. He’ll meet the doctors soon enough anyway. And I was there to get all our questions answered, so overall the clash was no big deal.

And I was really impressed by the practice, so I think it will all be fine. The main issue for me with doctors is always availability, and their policy is to see sick children on the same day you call. No ‘I’m sorry, the next appointment is in a week’s time’ type stuff here. Plus they seem to share a lot of my values and philosophies around health care, so overall I’m really happy to start off with them and see how we go. Plus they have privileges at Beth Israel Hospital, so the hospital will automatically advise them of the baby’s birth, and then they’ll see the baby each day that we’re in the hospital after delivery and arrange our first office appointment before we’re discharged. Convenient!

Well in theory, Time Warner Cable were supposed to come out to see us and fix our cable problems this morning between 8am and 11am. Consequently I was frustrated and cranky, but not particularly surprised, when they failed to turn up at all. Sigh. I rang the last technician that came out, who had made us the appointment and advised us of the time/date, but his phone was off and he never returned my call, so I can only assume he wasn’t working today. I’ll give him until tomorrow and if he doesn’t call I’ll have to ring the central TWC number. Lame! It’s been weeks we’ve been without service now – pretty ordinary really.

After lunch it was time to head uptown and meet Kev for our 37 week check up at the obstetrician. It was, once again, quick and routine. I haven’t gained much weight since last week, but apparently that’s pretty typical at this stage with the baby taking up most of the room where my stomach should be. When they said that, suddenly all the meals I haven’t been able to finish lately started to make sense

But overall the doctor is happy with how things are going, and the mild contractions I’ve been having are apparently moving things in the right direction – yay! Poor Kev was a little disappointed to hear that she thinks this baby will most likely be coming after my due date – he was hoping for a slightly early arrival My next check up is next Tuesday morning. Oh and on Monday we’ve got the final growth scan.

In the evening I once again caught the subway uptown and met Kev at the office, and we went for dinner at Rare Bar & Grill with Mark (who’s in town until tomorrow), Tara & Tanima. The food was good (now wise to my compressed stomach capacity, Kev and I split a burger), and we were home nice and early – a pleasant change after so many busy evenings in a row!

Here I am today at 37 weeks

We took a pretty easy approach to today, sticking fairly close to home after yesterday’s big walking adventures. Being Sunday, nothing really opens early so we lazed out of bed and squeezed in another game of Settlers before the shops opened (Oh yeah, that took my winning streak to three in a row!).

Once it hit 11am we wandered out and did a bit of shopping in the nearby 5th Ave shops, and eventually ended up at Lillies for a bite of lunch before heading home to the apartment for one last game of Settlers before Alison had to leave to catch her bus (This last game proved to be a mistake, bringing the end of my winning streak and leaving Kev and I tied on three victories apiece for the weekend …).

Once we had seen Al off to her bus, it was time to look ahead to our next guest – Kev’s former boss Mark who is in town for some meetings over the next day or two. He’s been living out of a hotel for a huge chunk of this year since he took his new role, so we figured a home cooked meal might be more appealing to him than yet another restaurant. Hopefully my cooking was okay for him! After dinner, he and Kev went out to a nearby bar for a drink or two so they could chat some more about work without having to worry about me – and so that I could enjoy some much-needed downtime after such a busy weekend!

Mark was pretty tired, so Kev was home fairly early which was nice, and we got to spend a little time chilling on the couch together before bedtime.

Tomorrow is a pretty busy day too. Time Warner are meant to be coming back to finally fix our broken cable service. I’m hoping it won’t be too much drama. Part of the problem was that the cable running through the living room/bedroom wall is totally cactus, but it was lodged really firmly into place, so they were needing to drill an entirely new hole through the wall in order to feed through a working cable. Tonight, Kev managed to pull the old cable out of the wall – yay! It turns out that part of the problem is that the hole through the wall doesn’t line up with the hole in the baseboard, so the cable had to  do this weird left-right turn to make it through. Consequently, we’re hoping they can just drill a more appropriately placed hole in the baseboard and feed the new cable through the existing hole …

And yet, at the same time, somehow these appointments with TWC never seem to go how I imagine they will go, so I’m sure it won’t be that simple AT ALL.

Assuming I survive the cable service repair, I’ll be meeting Kev at my OB’s office just after lunch for my weekly checkup. I’m confident it will be another routine and straightforward visit. I certainly don’t feel like there’s going to be any action anytime soon. Though perhaps it’s not a good idea to have them measuring my BP on the same day as the cable repair …

This week should be a reasonably full one. I have a few projects and loose ends I’d like to tie up before the baby comes, so I guess I should really get onto those sooner rather than later! But I’m also looking forward to some downtime when I need it. November so far has proven to be a lot busier than I ever planned!

Today Alison arrived from Baltimore around lunchtime, and we decided to head down to Chinatown to grab some yum cha for lunch (or dim sum, as it appears to be called here …). We could have walked, but I didn’t want to wear myself out right at the start of our outing, so we decided to jump on the subway.

Down in Chinatown, we wandered around and eventually found ourselves in a little restaurant that had some good reviews online. It seemed busy, the food that was going around looked pretty good, and they had prawn dumplings – sold!

It was sooo good Kev and I haven’t been for yum cha since we arrived in the US, so it went down a treat! Mmmm, dumplings … ! The only downside was that because we were there towards the end of the lunch period, we only managed to snag one plate of the little egg tarts before they were all gone. Sad panda Fortunately we were, of course, in Chinatown, where Chinese bakeries are as common as the dim sum restaurants. So we ducked into a little bakery down the street and picked up some EVEN MORE DELICIOUS egg tarts to munch on our way home. Or at least Al and I did. Kev doesn’t like them. I know, right?! Who doesn’t like egg tarts?

We spent the rest of the afternoon winding our way back towards home through SoHo, checking out the odd shop along the way. It gets dark so early here now that daylight savings is over, it’s pretty much nighttime by 5pm We stopped in a cafe on W Houston Street to grab a hot chocolate and rest our legs before making the rest of the trip home, and by the time we left it was dark. Boooo. Al and I went straight home while Kev made a quick detour over to the English grocery in the West Village to grab some supplies for our planned evening of board games.

We took it easy for a bit, then got stuck into a Settlers of Catan extravaganza. Al won a game, then Kev won a couple, and even I managed to hold my own against the (much) more experienced players and take out the final two games in an epic fashion. Awesome times