And Now We Wait...

The nursery is finished, the car seat installed, and our bags packed.  My mom will be arriving Tuesday morning and we hope the baby will follow soon after.  I have started working from home to make sure that when I do go into labor, it isn't at my desk.  All we can do now is wait.

Baby and I are both still doing great and we just can't wait to start life as a family of three.  I promised to share a few photos of what I look like these days.  Thanks to our friend, Mary, for braving a very hot day in the Botanical Gardens to take a few pictures.

Dragon Boat

One of the biggest employee events that the company recreation club hosts every year is the Dragon Boat Carnival.  All the groups and divisions are encouraged to enter teams into the race to compete for prizes and of course pride.  There were over 1,000 employees there competing in 72 boats.  Dragon Boat is quite a popular sport throughout Asia and we were really excited to try it out at the carnival.  Last year we were in Vietnam so we missed it and I was determined not to miss it again this year.  Unfortunately they weren't going to let a 36 week pregnant employee row a boat so Derek would have to do it for me.  He of course came down with a stomach virus a few days before the race so he wasn't able to compete but we still went out to see it and cheer on my group.

Dragon boat is like crew rowing but with rafting paddles and instead of a coxswain there is a drummer.  It looked like a lot of fun and if we are still here next year, then we are definitely going to participate!  Our group didn't win but they certainly had a good time!

My group!  We had just enough for two boats.

Not a bad backdrop for the competition.

One of our groups competing in boat 2.  Notice the drummer in the front and someone to steer in the back.

Life with a Helper

Back when I shared how we will manage to have a baby in Singapore, I mentioned that we would have to get a live-in helper.  We started our search before Christmas as we wanted someone to start around the first of the year so we could get settled in with them before the baby arrives in March.  We found a sweet Filipino woman who was working with a German family and taking care of their two-year-old.  This family was leaving Singapore and so she was happy to come work for us.  While we were in the US for the holidays, Fedelynn moved into our apartment and has been taking care of us ever since.

Derek was uneasy with having someone we don't know live with us but after a month he has gotten pretty accustomed to it.  I am not sure who enjoys having a helper more, me or the dog!  Maddie has fallen in love with Fedelynn and enjoys having her home all day.  I love having my breakfast ready when I walk out of the bedroom in the morning, snacks for me and lunch for Derek packed, and the dog on the way out the door for a walk.  Our helper does all the grocery shopping and errand running so when we get home from work, we get to spend our time together.  I think for the first time in our marriage, we sit down at the table and have breakfast and dinner together almost every single day.  This makes me excited to have the baby come because of all the quality time we will get to spend with her instead of worrying about cooking and cleaning.

I enjoy cooking and baking again because I have an extra set of eager hands in the kitchen.  Our helper is actually a pretty good cook and I admit is better than me at cooking many things.  Our clothes are always washed and put away, the bed is made, and the dishes done.  I know that she is really going to make the transition to life with the baby so much easier! 

I will share a funny "helper problems" issue we have had.  Derek and I realized that we have been wearing the same three pairs of underwear over and over again because our helper is so on top of the laundry and it is getting washed as soon as there is a full load which is about every three days instead of waiting two weeks to do 6 loads like we got in the habit of doing.  I guess it is time to start rotating the underwear (which is now folded and perfectly stacked for the first time ever). We are beyond spoiled!

Nursery Reveal

Most parents get to plan for months about how they want their nursery to look.  They buy a blanket here, decoration there, maybe paint, buy a crib and then a month later the changing table.  We quickly realized after visiting all the baby stores in Singapore that we were not going to have that luxury.  None of the furniture we could find was at all what I was hoping for and it was twice as expensive.  We knew that our company would provide an air shipment so I immediately began planning down to the inch and pound what I could get to fit in that box.  Since we would be home for Christmas, we asked them to pick up all of our things from Derek's parents house right before we left so we could make sure everything fit and if need be, decide what didn't make the cut.  Fortunately every thing fit and then some!

Three weeks after we flew back in Singapore, our air shipment arrived.  It was like Christmas all over again!  We could not wait to open up the boxes and get all the furniture put together.  Our helper was also excited and quickly got to work washing and folding all the new clothes and bedding.  In one weekend, we finished the nursery.  It is a little plain as we haven't painted (and won't since this is a rental) or put anything on the walls.  I have a few ideas to jazz up the walls but we will see if I get to it before the baby is born.

I am really happy with the way it turned out and cannot wait to bring little Caroline home to it!

Christmas, Baby Showers, and Family Fun

After three weeks I think I have finally recovered from our two week trip to the US!   Traveling that far at the end of the second trimester was certainly exhausting and it didn't help that I came down with a sinus/respiratory infection from the second I got on the plane and couldn't make it go away until I got back to Singapore.  I just wish I had felt better so I could have fully enjoyed all the exciting stuff we had planned for our trip.

We spent the first week of our trip in Atlanta with Derek's parents.  We shopped for the baby, celebrated Christmas, had a family photo shoot, and ended it with a baby shower.  I regret that I didn't take more pictures but I was really under the weather and kept forgetting.

Christmas will never be the same!

Baby shower!  Matches our nursery theme: purple, teal, and gray. 

Thanks to Janet, Pat, Roxanne, Judy, and Raelene for throwing a great shower!

We rushed out of Atlanta after the baby shower because I had another one the next day in Aiken with my family.  We were certainly spoiled by our friends and family over this trip!

Beth, Katie, Brett, and Layne also did a wonderful job! Thanks ladies!

As always, my mom did an amazing job on the cake!  It was cute and delicious!  Chocolate with Nutella buttercream!

After the shower we headed up to North Carolina with my family to spend the New Year together in the mountains.  We were just outside of Asheville so we had to make a trip over to the Biltmore.  Derek had never been and I have always wanted to do the candlelight tour.  It was gorgeous but of course they don't allow pictures.

To finish off the trip, we headed back to Atlanta to meet the movers to pack our air shipment.  We packed an entire nursery including furniture, bedding, and clothes into a 5'x5'x5' container.  I did a lot of planning and strategic shopping which paid off because despite Derek's skepticism, it all fit!  The shipment has since arrived and I will do a nursery reveal soon.

The following day we had to head back to Singapore and with all the winter storms, the trip was far from uneventful.  We were supposed to fly through Newark and found out two days in advance that our flight from Atlanta to Newark was canceled.  I got us rebooked on a flight through Dulles instead and that seemed to be promising until our flight from Dulles was delayed two hours and we missed our connection in Tokyo.  We then had to collect our bags, clear customs, and take a bus to the other Tokyo airport to catch a partner flight the airline had rebooked us on.  Thirty-six hours later, we finally landed in Singapore.  Having to do all that sick, pregnant, and sitting in coach was about as awful of a trip as I have ever had.  I'm hoping our baby doesn't make me regret this statement during our two planned trips home next year.

Despite the drawbacks, we really did have a wonderful time and were so thankful we could make the trip to spend Christmas at home this year.  Hoping all of you had a wonderful Christmas, too!

Confinement: Local Post-Birth Practice

One of the questions I often get from locals about giving birth is who will be helping me during my confinement.  I had heard of confinement before I got pregnant and knew it was something I never wanted to do.  It is a fairly common practice here for Singaporean Chinese, Malay, and Indians and they don't always realize that this is almost unheard of in the US.

So what is confinement?  After giving birth and returning home, the mother is to observe confinement for 30 - 44 days to recover.  During this period she must not shower, use air conditioning, or leave the home.  There is also a special diet to avoid 'cold' foods like apples, pineapple, cucumbers and to avoid 'windy' foods like onions and jackfruit.  There are lots of recipes that are special for confinement and the objective is to 'warm' the body and increase circulation to speed recovery.

In order to do confinement, a relative or confinement nanny is required.  This person will prepare all the food per confinement practices and also cares for the baby, night and day.  The mother is only supposed to feed the baby if she is breastfeeding.  Otherwise she is to stay in bed and recuperate.  I think spending 30 days in bed is much easier when you have 16 weeks of government mandated paid maternity leave like they do instead of the 6-8 weeks that we get.

Most of the Singaporeans I know that have done confinement do it because their mother or mother-in-law insists and are either there the whole time or often come to check up on them.  I know many will hop in the shower as soon as they get a moment alone and I certainly can't blame them for that.  I can't go 30 hours without a shower, less 30 days.

One of the things I like that they do is at the end of the 30 days, they have a full-moon party which is to celebrate the baby being 1-month old and the end of confinement.  This is when friends and relatives all come to meet the baby and give red packets.  Red packets always contain money and are given at various celebrations.  This is what they do instead of baby showers prior to the birth of the baby.  My coworkers have asked if we are going to do a full-moon party and that may be one local practice we decide to follow, minus the red packets.

So would you ever do confinement?

2013 Summary and Plans for 2014

At the beginning of 2013, Derek and I decided it would be our year to travel.  We wanted to make the absolute most of one of our last years without children and made some pretty big plans.  We made some changes along the way and had some additional business trips that added to the country count.  So how did we do?

Together we visited:
Phuket, Thailand
New Zealand
Hanoi and Halong Bay, Vietnam
Bangkok, Thailand
Johor Bahru, Malaysia
Shanghai, China
The Maldives
Bagan and Yangon, Myanmar
Siem Reap, Cambodia
In addition we made two trips to the US to see family

Derek:
Beijing, China

Holly:
Pattaya, Thailand
Melbourne, Australia
Three business trips to Houston

My current travel map, 20 countries and counting

2013 really was one of the most enriching years of our lives.  I know we will never regret all the time and money we put into travel this past year because the experiences were truly priceless.  Looking onto 2014 we know that the year will not involve as much travel but will be even better as we get to enjoy it as a family of three.

So what do we have planned for 2014 besides having a baby half way across the world?  Derek and I both have brothers that are getting married this year and we will probably be moving to somewhere else as our assignment ends in August.  We hope to stay abroad and cannot wait to find out where the company will send our little family next.  Its going to be great year!