Wow we're parents!

What a week! We now have a beautiful baby daughter, Philippa Jane Evans, who was born on 28th June 2007 at 10.48pm weighing 3.52kg (7lb 12oz). She is feeding and sleeping like a dream and currently seems to be a very relaxed baby. We love to just sit and look at the funny facial expressions that she pulls, and we are loving learning to be parents.

We have received some lovely gifts and flowers, pictures of the flowers are below...I love being surrounded by fresh flowers!

I've recovered pretty well and was out and about yesterday shopping and meeting people for lunch. I went to high tea at the Shangri La hotel for a friend's leaving do. Philippa had her first public nappy change in the rather posh marble-clad bathroom at the shangri la and her first public breastfeed in the dining room (discreetly hidden in a sling, as they're not too keen on breastfeeding over here).

I've included my favourite photos from the first couple of days, obviously we've taken hundreds...but most of those will appear on our website http://www.paulandcaillie.com/ , so keep watching that space.

The final countdown - two and a half weeks to go

We picked up a new 'point and shoot' camera for me yesterday - the old one gave up the ghost. So here are the first shots from it.

Our Phil and Teds buggy...very cool.

The Moses basket complete with hand-sewn white liner. The cot doesn't come until the end of June so baby will be sleeping in this for a while to start with.
A beautiful hand quilted and appliqued playmat lovingly made by my stepmum (Thanks Jan, it's gorgeous!)
Red, black and white mobile (made by me) - apparently these are the colours and shapes that babies find easiest to focus on when they are newborn.
A small selection of the clothes that baby has already been given...many thanks to Mum, Mark and Nikki, Julia and Marianne for their kind gifts. Baby now has around 40 outfits...that's much more than I have!
Wow, I can't believe it's been two weeks since I last posted. Time is flying, I thought the last few weeks before baby came would drag...but it's certainly not.

I've been really living the 'lady of leisure' life while I still can. I've made friends with a lovely group of pregnant ladies who are all due within a week or two of me. We've been having lots of long relaxed lunches and it's been great to get to know them. Here's a shot of a few of the girls at Gemma's baby shower.

The nesting instinct definitely kicked in - I have hand sewn a moses basket lining (see photo) for the moses basket that a friend lent us. I've never sewn anything in my life. I also handmade the red, black and white mobile...not to mention cleaning out and reorganising every cupboard in the house!

Midsummer Nights dream

Feeling quite cultural today as we went to see an outdoor performance of Midsummer nights dream on Saturday night at Fort Canning park. It was fantastic, we took a picnic and set up our mats (and cushions) on the grass. The whole play was done on boardwalks in and around the audience and it was very 'Shakespeare' with it's bawdiness, lewdness and audience involvement. It was awesome sitting under the warm Singapore night watching the stars, moon and bats in the sky. The play incorporated lots of modern stuff; hairdrier, popcorn, a rendition of 'I will survive' and football shirts - but I think they did it pretty well. Only Bottom and Titania's rendition of 'I will survive' complete with flashing disco lights would have had Shakespeare turning in his grave, the rest was pretty fun.

The pregnancy is progressing well, only 5 weeks to go! We are all set and I'm just glad that we don't have to move house...

Where we currently live - Jervois Grove, Singapore

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Jervois Grove

House hunting

The property market has gone mad. In four days, I will have only seen four properties (compare that to 26 properties in 5 days a year ago!). Looks like we might have to stay put and pay the rent increase.

They have an odd agent system over here. Both the tenant and the landlord have an agent, these are often two different people, both of whom expect their cut of the fees. This means that when taking out a year's rental agreement (the standard is two years), the tenant must pay half a month's rent in fees, this is as well as the landlord paying at least that if not more to their tenant. Being a property agent in this country is lucrative, and it seems they don't have to be all that good, and they certainly don't have to speak clear English...

Facebook

I've recently discovered the Facebook phenomenon. It's kind of addictive and a great place to keep in contact with friends old and new. It's also an easy place to upload photos, so for those of you who are looking for somewhere to put photos this might be your answer. Only people who you decide are 'friends' can see your profile and communicate with you, so none of this dodgy web stuff. Here's the link www.facebook.com , I hope to see some of you on there soon. Look me up and send me a message. Below is my facebook piccie.

Names

Lots of people have been asking us about names for the baby, and we aren't telling anyone until baby arrives. To satisfy that name curiosity that we all have, Paul found this cool website showing the popularity of names since the 1880's, I think it's just for America, but it's pretty darned cool anyway. Just type your name in the top left above the pink and blue box and it gives you a graph showing the popularity of your name. http://babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html

Awake

Sleeping like a baby

Well, it's 4.18am on Sunday morning and I'm awake again. This time the rain woke me up and the thunder and lightning has kept me awake for more than an hour. I really am 'sleeping like a baby' at the moment - that is to say that I wake up at the slightest noise and then can't go back to sleep, I also take about 3 hours of 'naps' during the day. I'm also eating like a baby, little and often. I guess this is all good preparation for when the little one arrives.

Forgetfulness

I've noticed over the last few months that I've become increasingly forgetful. I forget words, whole sentences, people's birthdays, lunch dates. Apparently this is all pregnancy related and 'will only get worse' (a favourite catchphrase of experienced mums when I mention any pregnancy-related woes). Here's a shot of an elephant we took at Addo Elephant park when we were in South Africa a couple of weeks ago... now I bet they never forget things when they're pregnant!

Greed

Our landlord is trying to put the rent up by one third - yikes! So it looks like we'll have to move house within the next month, I'll start the grand house hunt (the third since we arrive in Singapore in September 2005) on Monday. I can't believe the greed here, it beggars belief.

Unleashing the tree-hugger in me

I got a bit irate yesterday with the workers who had been sent to cut down my favourite tree. This may sound odd, but greenery is a big thing over here where so much of the island is covered in concrete and tar. This particular tree can be seen from the back of our condo and is one that I walk past most days, it's gorgeous, really high with all sorts of colourful parasitic plants hosted on it. In fact, just this week I noticed some new fruit on it when I was walking past with Julia. Anyway, I heard the chainsaws revving up and when I realised that they were cutting it down I leaned over the balcony in an irate-pregnant-woman kind of way and shouted at them to stop - there was a brief pause in the chainsaw massacre- but needless to say, they continued, so there is now a not-very-attractive stump where a once gorgeous tree stood. But, that's unfortunately the nature of Singapore - away with the old to make room for the new!

I think I've waffled on enough now, I'm still not tired, maybe I'll go read one of those chapters on giving birth -that's normally enough to make me want to escape to the land of nod...

Back from South Africa

Ok, I know it's been a while, but I've had a fantastic month. First Mum and Luci came over to Singapore for two weeks, then Paul and I flew off to South Africa for two weeks to celebrate Paul's brother's wedding and spend time with his folks. Tomorrow my step-sister and her boyfriend arrive - so it's all go. I now feel very relaxed and am very excited about the arrival of the little one(only 12 weeks to go!).

Picture of us at Mark and Nikki's wedding.

I'm currently spending my time researching buggies/strollers/prams, cots and nappies...all good fun. To those of you who've just had babies, any tips or recommendations would be gratefully appreciated.

The flute playing is going well, baby definitely responds to the sound - I guess we'll only find out whether it's a positive or negative response once it's born! It's wierd to see little lumps moving and sliding across my tummy, and it's fun to guess the body part!