Bedrest for a bit

For those who know about the finer points of baby-growing, the obstetrician here has said I have a low-lying placenta that has grown over the scar from my c-section with Emily. Consequently, I've been put on partial bedrest. This means I need to be in bed from 7pm until 10am. I can then get up for 3 hours (to do gentle sitting/reclining-type stuff) and then back to bed for another 3 hours before being back up for a second 3 hours. So I still have 6 hours out of bed, which is great. And it has worked out quite well because my 'out of bed' time coincides pretty much with about 2/3rds of Emily's waketimes. It has its frustrations, but so far I'm doing ok with it. We don't know what it means for travel dates back to Australia but we'll wait until our follow-up visit next Monday to find out where we go from here.

In Emmy news, she has started to put her toys away in the evening, saying 'Awaaaar' with each deposit in the toybox, in a kind of Australian-asian accent. Very cute. In Jon news - HE IS HOME! Jet-lagged just a bit. Being Mr Wonderful Family Man, especially so with me being so out of action. In Mrs Hien news: she's just marvellous. We couldn't do this without her.

In the Big Apple

Jon has been in New York City for work this week. Mrs Hien and Ms Lanh have been working overtime to help out on the homefront, as the OB has told me not to lift or carry Emily anymore (too much pressure on cervix). We've had a great 'girls' time while he's been gone but have missed the man of the house a LOT. He will be back late on Monday night, so Tuesday morning will be very joyous for all of us!! Jon has had a really good trip, and is now looking forward to coming home. We had the absolute pleasure of having Phil & Lindy visit us last week. Emily was a particular fan of our visitors! We enjoyed some walks and great chats over meals. It was so good to pick Lindy's brain on some issues to do with being a Mum.

We plan to be back in Perth on/by the 5th July, and all going well we will depart Perth around the 24th August. The OB in Perth has given us a date for the baby to be delivered: August 3rd (it feels so strange knowing the date this far in advance!). At the end of this week we will have the 20 week scan (3D) and hopefully find out the gender of our newest little treasure :-)

Happy Birthday Week, Jon!

Now that I'm in recovery from a yucky cold and pretty much through the morning sickness, energy and motivation for things other than survival are slowly returning to me :-) We are in the midst of celebrating Jon's birthday week. I am loving getting some family traditions established... I haven't given traditions much thought in the past but was quite inspired last year by Noel Piper's book: Treasuring God in our Traditions. It has been so much fun this week putting up our 'family heirloom' birthday banners ("Happy Birthday Dad") and also starting our new tradition of a string of balloons - one per year for each year of a family member's life. Along with the age for that year, we write the city that birthday was celebrated in. (Thanks to my friend Jennie for this idea!) Seeing 35 balloons strung along the wall with the various cities Jon has celebrated in was quite special. He thought so too :-) Unfortunately, we had to raincheck having guests over on Jon's actual birthday as I was not well enough and didn't want to spread my germs to others, but we enjoyed a lovely night together anyway. This Saturday night we will have some friends over for a bit of a belated celebration. And now an Emmi story: As she was playing happily this morning we got her attention and told her it was time to sit on the potty. She held her breath and did her 'straining' face and even made a little grunt... and then smiled widely, just in case we had missed the joke :-)

The Ministry of the Very Healthy

So today Jon was at a work lunch at the Ministry of Health and came home smelling like cigarettes on account of 'most of the group smoking like chimneys and being rip-roaringly drunk'. Hm.



Meanwhile, Emily and I embarked on the first day of a two-week assault on our ears as the apartment above us is renovated. Again. Masonry drilling and the smashing up of tiles, to be specific. Thankfully, they are pretty good about sticking to the 9-5 rule, but for a baby who still naps twice a day its just not ideal....



Co and I made a Raspberry & Banana Loaf, adapted (for a tad more nutrition) from an Aussie recipe website I like. It turned out beautifully, Emily being its biggest fan :-) Em and I also went for a walk down food street. We attempted to pop into a local expat cafe but the bottom (only pram-accessible) floor was all smoky from... yes.... more cigarettes.

Trying to play the piano

I am really missing playing the piano. Whenever I try, Emily comes sliding in on her bottom at astonishing speed from wherever she was, nearly hyperventilating with excitement. Her arms flap up and down WAY faster than we could ever hope to move and her face lights up with ecstasy and the SQUEALS of joy are deafening. As soon as she arrives at the keyboard and realises that I am not stopping to lift her onto my lap so she can entertain us with her own concerto, her joy turns to confusion then quickly to being utterly perplexed. Her face kind of crumples and the wailing begins. I lift her onto my lap and the tears are instantly gone. The hyperventilating excitement is back and the keyboard once again braces for the full force of her enthusiasm. So, I'm missing playing the piano.

OOooooooh its cold!

Something has happened even to Jon! This cold just gets right into your bones. Although apparently 5 degrees here today, for some reason the cold is much harder to cope with than the minus 10's of Beijing. No more shorts for Jon!

We've been into the warm 'comfort' foods. Roasts, hot custards, porridge and... pavlova! Not at all warm, but quite comforting :-)

A Bit of a Bingle

Newsflash: Jon-and-Rachel's-romantic-Saturday-morning-brekky-date-via-motorbike ended in tragedy for Jon's left shin when a drunk fellow motorist in the opposite direction drifted from the middle of the right (correct) lane, over into the left (our!) lane -- apparently deciding he didn't need to watch the road either. Jon's left shin took the impact. Somehow, the full weight of Jon - via his other foot - landed on Rachel's tender foot. Both were a little shaken and bruised, tho very thankful it was but a bingle.

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This afternoon our little family walked through the Old Quarter to a charming little decaying French villa wherein we partook of very fine chocolate crepes, mulled wine and passionfruit juice. Emily also partook of the crepes and juice with much arm flapping and delighted squeals. (Chocolate crepes at $2 a plate... wow!)