Birth place of a surfer

Here's a little video that Dwayne made of Mona Vale hospital where the Blob will be born in June. Can you think of a better place to be born for a little individual who is destined to beat its father at surfing by the age of five?

Little body parts

These days when Blob is up to something, as Blob often is, I can feel specific body parts poking through my belly. If I get a kick and I press my hand to it, I get very distinct little feet kicking back in response. Or like the other day, I got something that must have been either the top of a little head or a bony little bottom (if Blob is anything like me, it will have a bony bottom).

Exercise? Really? But...

How do people have the time and the energy to exercise, pregnant or not? I haven't run a step since the 9k Bridge Run in September. I made a couple of feeble attempts to start taking long walks, but it really didn't lead anywhere. I am paying for a gym membership, but I can barely remember where the gym is anymore as I haven't set foot there for many moons.

Between working long hours and being rather uninspired in the evenings, I don't know how to do it.

But I am going to start going to prenatal aqua classes at the hospital (I am, I really am!), because they are really cheap and I can go there straight from work. Just need to buy myself a swimsuit that I can actually get into.

Then maybe I can get a routine going and start those walks again. Dee Why is not a bad place for long walks, you can choose between looking at the ocean, the bush, or the pretty mansions where the OTHER people live. That is if I can get Dwayne to stop taking me too seriously when I tell him I'm tired. As soon as he says "you don't have to do it, you're pregnant!" I instantly feel very weak and tired and in need of couch-lounging. Suddenly it's not laziness, it's pregnancy.

And perhaps if I can get my work-life balance to balance itself a bit more reasonably, that might help.

Any day now.

Pregnancy glow, my way

All the books tell me to expect bad skin during pregnancy. Outbreaks and grease and stuff. But I (apparently) decided to go a different way. My skin hasn't been this clear since... well, forever, and there is no grease to be found anywhere. My hair, which usually has to be washed every other day at least or else it turns into dangling bits of grease, doesn't produce grease at all any more. I find myself trying to remember when I last washed it - was it three days ago, four perhaps? Makes no difference, because it doesn't get dirty. Lack of grease is my version of that famous pregnancy glow, I suppose.

Blob in lounge attire

Week 27 and a half.

Blob in work attire

26 weeks.

Blob in Tokyo

Blob likes Tokyo. It bounces and boxes and kicks and is generally doing its best to distract me at all hours of the day. It never sleeps, it seems. It even infiltrates my dreams at night with vigorous exercises.

Perhaps it's the local food that's inspiring the Blob. I have eaten nearly everything expecting mothers aren't supposed to eat, including pâté and sashimi.

And speaking of eating, they don't seem to do butter in this country. At breakfast, I am presented with "whipped butter" which is a bright white semi-fluffy substace which I suspect is compacted whipped cream. So I start my day with surprisingly good bread rolls smeared with whipped cream and orange marmelade. Blob doesn't mind.

Tokyo

Blob and I are on the train which will take us to the airport where we're getting on a plane to Tokyo. I'm terribly ill prepared and possibly in for more of an adventure than I bargained for, but I'm sure somehow I'll get to where I'm going. (Wherever that was, I keep forgetting...)

First adventure will be to see how sleeping on a plane when six months pregnant goes. I'm flying overnight and going straight from the airport to the office in the morning. Next will be to see if my coat, on which I can only button the first two buttons, will handle the early Japanese spring chill.

I'm going to TOKYO!

24 weeks!