Leaving Cambodia for Bangkok (Week 38)
2 ½ weeks to go, less in fact. Both of us have managed to get free from work (well Fiona has), move house, get the new house 'baby' ready and move to Bangkok. The start of August saw us missing out on weddings at home, Sinead and Ken, Mick and Alex's, sorry lads but we have been busy!
On our finish up in Phnom Penh we had an 'open house' to celebrate the house move, Niall's birthday, our last weekend of just the two of us and our leaving Phnom Penh (albeit for a few weeks). Thanks to all the lads and lassies that came. A special thanks to Fiona for clearing out all the riff-raff at the end of the afternoon, with 'Have you no homes to go to'. This works exceptionally well when it comes out of the mouth of a heavily pregnant woman who is tired and not allowed to drink! I can see pubs all over the west of Ireland hiring pregnant women to clear their bars at night in much the same way. No more will the bar man hear, 'ah gowan, shur one more for the road' Nope, not a chance; its down glasses and out of there, before the oestrogen takes over and nobody is safe! Not pretty.
We have arrived in Bangkok and started to ready ourselves for the big day. So far we have shopped and managed to fill a baby bag, with nail clippers, nappies and the essential stuffed cow, we also have Fiona's hospital bag at the ready. We have managed not to go too crazy in our purchasing partly because the prices, especially in the fancy stores, are really rather steep, but largely because shopping for an unborn child is terrifying. Such questions as to what type of nappies, clothes, toys, monitors and devices to you have to buy when you have no idea yet how to actually look after a baby is a deep and disturbing mystery. So we have adopted the approach that we will figure most of it out as we go along. It is a matter of ensuring that we buy those things that we cannot get in Cambodia. Thankfully Cambodia's baby (products not babies themselves) shopping
situation has improved significantly.
In between shopping we have managed to catch up on quite a bit of sleep. And Fiona's mind is less on work (somewhat anyway). We are settling in nicely and enjoying doing not too much.
Yesterday we ventured out for a big Irish brunch and trip to the cinema. Maternity/paternity leave can be hard work! 'Land of the Dead', is definitely the best movie you can bring your almost full term missus to. I thought that a zombie movie like that may be a prompt way of inducing labour, alas to no avail.
The woman is looking mighty as usual, even though it looks like she has a turkey bag with a live turkey attached to her, and its trying to escape 'Alien' style, so all normal there. Yesterday we also had a scan on our second visit to the hospital and it was fun pointing out the bits of the child that have been sticking into Fiona's ribs, kidneys etc. The baby is up to 3.2 KG now and I was able to count fingers. 10! 8 on one hand and 2!. Ok got one hand only and there was 5, so that can't be bad. The doc said 'see you next week or maybe sooner if labour starts'. There was no call for that, making this all real. It was not the zombie movie that scared me yesterday; it was that one comment from the doc.
We are currently staying in the Din Daeng district of Bangkok. A friend has rented us his apartment for the next 6 weeks for an unbelievably low price. We were expecting to pay for a hotel for the 6 weeks or so and had budgeted about $50 per night for it. The place we got works out at about 15% of that. Over the 6 weeks, that is a mighty fine saving. Also, due to the American's making the world safer for us by blowing up every country in the world with oil, or at least threatening to, the price of the hospital for the birth is going to cost us less in Euros. So there is actually an advantage to having that dimwit running the States, could you believe it!
Well that's all the news for now. It is really all about waiting from here on in, with weekly trips to the fancy hospital to make sure all is well. We can only hope that something else other than the latest Herbie film comes on at the cinema as we will be desperate soon for entertainment if the little turkey does not appear in the near future. Will keep everyone updated.
You can email Fiona or Niall, send a text or chat over messenger using the contact information page.
Aoife's main page!
Leaving Cambodia, in week 38. Waiting around Bangkok in the 39th Week. Is it ever going to happen? Week 40 takes its toll! At last, the arrival of Aoife