39 weeks

Officially one more week to go.

Weekly check-up with doctor confirmed that tadpole engaged. The good thing about this is that it means we are close to the end. My belly is clearly lower so I can breathe more easily and my stomach has more space. The downside of it is that I have to go to the bathroom even more often and I feel both lower belly and lower back pain whenever I move. It's time to get this baby out :)

Tadpole is a bit more than 3.3kg this week. 

All lights are green for delivering.

Just need the process to start. I'll be walking and squatting regularly to help gravity and nature. 

Sometimes Asia puzzles me

Every now and then I pass by a shop with a name that is supposed to be French. I guess it must inspire people in Asia but sadly for them it rarely is French. At most, I wonder what they tried to say. But in most cases it simply does not mean anything at all. Like this one.

Not to mention such clothing would never be sold in France, or Europe actually.

Last week at work

Today I'm starting my last week in the office before the maternity leave.
It feels weird to think that as of next week I will not go to work for four months. Although I've been told I won't have time to get bored.

A few degrees less

This week it's been raining a lot. Instead of the usual daily thunderstorm, we've been experiencing rain two or three times a day. However it is not yet the rainy season in Singapore (only starting in November). So what is this?
Apparently it's to some extent a bit of monsoon. Normally Singapore is not really impacted by monsoon, but this year it seems different.
What doe sit mean for us?
We clearly should not forget our umbrella because when it rains it rains hard.
On the positive note, instead of a constant sauna, temperature is maximum 30-31C which is very pleasant. No more sweating in the morning as soon as you get out of the house. Less sweating during the day as it's not as hot. Nutella is less liquid. True the frequent rain is limiting the access to terraces and the pool, but overall it's pleasant to have a few degrees less.
Even more when you have to carry around tadpole for another week (or two).

La Traviata

A little while ago I had convinced Wolfram to get tickets for La Traviata, to be performed at the Esplanade theater in Singapore. This theater is famous as it looks like a durian. Now, why people would want to build a theater looking like a stinking fruit remains a mystery to me. Yet, it's the biggest theater in Singapore and hosts many concerts, operas and other shows.

We were both positively surprised by the concert hall. It looked much better than expected, and perfectly suited for an opera. On top the seats we had selected in the first balcony were pretty good, I.e. good visibility and almost in the center.

The opera itself was good, at least to the inexpert that I am. It was weird to see Asian people on the stage. I guess I'm not used to it. And to be fair given they are overall smaller people, it is quite impressive that they manage to get so much voice out of them.

What was totally disturbing was the set up and the decor. While La Traviata is a classic, the performers were wearing modern clothes and so was the decor. Having someone on stage singing about Violetta leaving in a horse carriage while playing on a laptop is disturbing. For some reason I couldn't get my mind to accept this mix between time periods.

Putting the anachronisms aside, we had a good time and the three hours passed pretty quickly. Conclusion we should do that more often.

Weekly visit to the doctor

Lamia: I'm tired, haven't slept a whole night since weeks. When I sleep 3h in a row I'm lucky.

Doctor: it's normal.

Lamia: My back is killing me. Belly is heavier and heavier. I'm having a hard time moving sometimes.

Doctor: Yes, that's normal at this stage.

Lamia: I get a lot of pain in the belly. It comes and goes but it's more and more painful.

Doctor: This is false labour. Your body is training for the big day. It's all normal and will increase as we get closer to the delivery date. 

Conclusion of this visit:

- Everything is "normal". Tadpole is growing. He is now 3.1kg, quite a big jump vs. last week. Still some time to go as he will most likely be somewhere around 3.4-3.5kg as his parents at birth. 

- Future mummy is fine as well... Let's say she is feeling all the right symptoms for that point of time of pregnancy. And make up is a huge savior when it comes to hide dark marks under the eyes.

- We've completed 37 weeks so tadpole is now considered at terms. He will stay in for at least another week, so the doctor said. Request from grandparents is that he stays inside another 2 weeks. Let's see what happens.

Net, all we have to do now is wait. Wait and some squatting for me to help tadpole going down. That's going to be fun.

PS: yesterday Raphael passed by and brought us all the things we ordered from Europe. The stroller is assembled and we've trained on opening and closing it. The car seat is ready too. Same here we've practiced to get it in and out the stroller. I guess we will gain speed as we practice more. Pampers and wipes are nicely stored under our changing table. We still need to figure out how to use the baby monitor. Apart from that and the bathtub, we have in theory all the minimum to get started.

Not saying that we are ready, but we are as good as we can get.

French TV

The offering in terms of TV channels in Singapore is pretty limited and when it comes to French channels it's basically none. For the past year I've been watching either France 24 via their app or some shows available via YouTube. 

This week, on one French forum that I follow I discovered a new app: French TV pro.

What does it do?

It allows me to watch A selection of French TV channels. Not all of them but a range wide enough to entertain me a bit more in French.

I've tried it quite a bit this week and it works well. I could watch France 2, France 3, MTV France, Arte, Euronews and more.

The only negative is that it's live streaming. Meaning I can only watch the shows that are being broadcasting at that point of time. Being 6 hours ahead, it means night shows in the morning and afternoon shows in the evening my time.

It's not perfect but it's better than nothing. When you are abroad anything that helps you keep in touch with your home country is always welcome.

And with the maternity leave coming soon, I feel I will have time to occupy.