Happy #Caturday - Peaceful

Little do they know their peace & quite about about to be abolished when the new baby arrives. Make the most of it little ones.

Happy #Caturday

Birthday Cake!!

Sugar coma! This is the super delicious choccy cake that Mike baked me today for my birthday. For those of you who like your cake EXTREMELY chocolatey here is the recipe:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/extreme-chocolate-cake/?scale=12&ismetric=1

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter break and didn't OD on the chocolate eggs. I myself feel like a giant egg! Not long now.

Happy #Caturday - Squashed

This is a photo of Leeloo & Dallas - can you spot Dallas?

Currently.... vol12

Linking up with Jenna and Anne for what I am "Currently..." doing. This is vol 12 (April), only the 2nd one for me though.

Currently I'm....

{exploring} my options when it comes to making a little money on the side. Its surprisingly difficult to make money with no effort required! Although TheMoneyShed is a good place to start.

{wish listing} my upcoming birthday presents ;) Although my list only consists of a cake from my Husband so far. I look forward to his choccy cake all year :-p

{wearing} massive maternity clothes and awesome new sneakers that my husband chose for me.

{sipping} chocolate milk - what else?? I like Morrisons own brand because its tasty without being too rich (so I can drink a lot and get all the calcium goodness).

{writing} blog posts. I've been a bit slack actually I'm supposed to be writing up my study visit to Guy Bourdin's 'Image Maker' Exhibition over on my OCA blog



What are you currently doing?

Happy #Caturday - Lap cats

This is one that Mike took recently of the twins sitting on my 'lap'. They both rake at my leg until I move it so they can sit in-between. Dallas on the left, Leeloo on the right.

4D Growth & Bonding Baby Scan

So at 32 weeks (I'm now 34wks) we went for a private 'bonding' scan to see what all the fuss was about with 3D pictures. For some bizarre reason (that we never did find out) they call it a 4D scan. Weird. Anyway, its just like a normal scan but the machine has the function to be able to select an area and show it as 3D at 90 degrees (so the normal looking scan is profile where the same area of the baby is from the front in 3D). Below are a couple of the photos that I liked. Of course the baby was moving around constantly and not being very helpful. Little hands and feet in front of her face. We did get to learn that she's going to be bigger than we'd hoped (Asian babies are often around 6lbs but she's already albs and a bit so looking likely she'll be around the 8lb mark when she comes out - eek). As you see from the top of the scan they managed to spell my name wrong - doh!

The black bits are where the sphere of view of the scanner are making shadows so not thick black hair or anything. And the fuzzy shape obscuring her face a little on the left of the picture is the placenta.

Originally we went for the Babybond 4D Growth Scan (basically the cheapest level) but the next level up had a dvd included so we upgraded to...

Babybond 4D Bonding Scan Option II 

Primary purpose of the scan: 

Babybond well–being check of fetal heartbeat and movement, bonding, reassurance and fetal growth report, ideally between 24 – 32 weeks gestation (20 – 26 weeks for multiple pregnancy). Includes: 

• 30 minute extended diagnostic appointment
• Babybond well-being checklist
• Growth report with fetal weight estimation
• Complimentary sexing of your baby if requested
• 2D and 3D b/w prints taken throughout your scan in sleeve
• 1 x colour gloss 3D scan print
• DVD recording of scan in sleeve with your choice of white, blue or pink Babybond bag, to take home.

The dvd was around 9mins long, basically a film of the screen we were looking at when we were there. I re-edited it (took off the music for a start) so now its down to just under 3mins. I might stick it up on vimeo when I figure out why my final cut pro isn't exporting.

The one colour print seemed a bit dark to me. The black and white little ones seemed brighter. We also forked out for a USB stick with the photos (about 17 or so which was nice), they were remarkably small (only 800px wide, as you see above). It was not possible to have the DVD on a USB stick because their sticks weren't big enough. Luckily we still have a dvd drive in an old laptop we were able to convert it ourselves.

One of the best things about it was that we could arrange it for close by to where I work in London and I didn't have to have yet another day working from home. All in all I thought it was expensive (well, the extras were expensive for what they were) but worth it to have the record of the little one waving around.

Who Else Wants £15 off Amazon baby stuff?

Expecting a baby is an expensive time so imagine my delight at getting £15 off something I was already going to buy for the baby! 

I've discovered Amazon Family, you can get 20% off nappies too! Its a free service but you have to sign up to amazon prime for it if you're not a member (which is £79 per year). I've just started my free 30 day trial (and got my £15 off with the promo code BABYFMLY15), click here you're interested in getting started with Amazon family too (disclaimer, thats my referral code so if you sign up too I'd get some extra credit).


Here is the blurb:

Amazon Family is aimed at making it easier for parents, families and caregivers to find everything they need on Amazon.co.uk. By giving us some information about your family, we can ensure you have access to the right products, offers and information at the right time. Amazon Family members get 20% off nappy subscriptions with Subscribe & Save, as well as other benefits such as offers, discounts and a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime.

We want to ensure that our exclusive offers and product recommendations are relevant to you and your family. This means we can ensure our Amazon Family homepage highlights the products and information you're interested in, and that our e-mails to you are full of the things you want and need. Any information you provide to us through the Amazon Family membership programme, will be collected, used and stored in accordance with our Privacy Notice and you can update it any time through Your Account. We'll never share your information with third parties.

Amazon Family members receive benefits such as:

• 20% off nappy subscriptions with Amazon Family and Subscribe & Save
• Free 30-day trial of Amazon Prime (including unlimited One-Day Delivery on millions of eligible purchases across Amazon.co.uk)
• Up to GBP 50.00 worth of offers every month

Note: Current Amazon Prime members can also join the programme and receive all Amazon Family benefits on top of your Amazon Prime benefits. If you cancel your Prime membership, you will no longer be eligible to receive the additional Amazon Family benefits.

Sunday Surprise Photos

Today Mike surprised me with a couple of framed prints of my pictures for our bare walls :)
Please excuse the Dallas shape lump at the bottom of the picture.