Mini watermelon baby.

Baby is staying put it seems. heehee.
Perhaps Nugget already understood the importance of keeping time, having flight attendants as parents.. bahahahha!
I'm getting a little anxious since Nugget's due date is just a week away. eeep!
I've been asked if I am ready..
Am I ready?

I'll be ready,
that's what I've been saying.
I've wrapped my head around the idea of PAIN. Absolutely no idea of how much pain, but I know there will be pain involved -- and honestly, talking or reading about them hasn't been helping much.
Every pregnancy is different. Every labour is different. You can read up on thousands of stories and yours may not be the same as any of them.
So, I'll be ready.
Whenever the baby is ready.. I'll be ready. Hopefully. hahahha!

Check-up in Hospital Umra since Week 37 had involved fifteen minutes session of cardiotocography (CTG). Basically the technician attached two circular thingamajig on my abdomen where one detects the baby's heartbeat while the other monitors my contraction -- which there had been none. hahahha!

The doctor had suggested that I take more walks and do some half squats since Nugget hasn't engaged into position. Not that it's crucial, some babies engages into the pelvis just before labour. So I'm not particularly worried.
But she did mention about the possibility of having my labour induced if Nugget refuses to come out even a couple of days post due date. sigh. I hope we wouldn't come to that.

I am really hoping for a delivery that is as natural as possible.
Honestly, some days I feel so zen about this whole thing.
Everything has been written, after all. Physically, there isn't much that I can do, right?

Really looking forward to meeting Nugget!
We are actually counting days, now.
..but my hospital bag is not even ready yet! HAHAHHA!

Swiss chard baby.

What is in Nugget's hospital bag?

So I got around to put together the hospital bag specifically for the baby. I decided to do a separate bag so no one had to rummage around one big bag to find one particular thing. Plus, I haven't bought everything that I wanted to bring for myself so I'll just sort Nugget's first.
It's nice to at least check one of the tasks off the list.

As previously discussed, since we bought the Doona carseat/stroller, we ended up getting the All Day Bag in Storm (Grey) as the diaper bag for Nugget.

The bag itself is actually quite roomy. I'd say it's like a small duffle bag that comes with a detachable insulated bottle case and a changing mat. There are two zippered compartment on the sides big enough to fit in a bottle. The zip in front and the top gives access to the main compartment. Then there's another zippered compartment on the back, wide enough to fit in a standard paperback.

So the first thing I packed were baby's changing necessities;
Changing mat -- which came with the bag
Newborn diapers -- it's probably too much, but I packed ten!
Wet wipes
Nappy sacks -- because I'm just extra.

I don't necessarily have a particular preference to Mothercare's products; I've never actually used any of them but I liked the look of the pack's closure, so that's why I got them in the first place. (Also, they were on sale when I got them!)

As for the diapers, there were two school of thought, if I may call it that. Some told me to just get any cheap brands as the baby will need to be changed every so often, while some told me to get a good brand to prevent leakage -- and having to change them every so often. hahahha!

So I got the ones by Mamy Poko. Naturally.
🙄

Moving on to textiles(?);
A receiving blanket -- soft enough, light enough to keep baby in a nice temperature (hopefully) where it won't be too warm or too cold.
Muslin swaddle -- to keep Nugget snug and tight! I have two here in case one got soiled, or I could use one as a nursing cover or to cover the carseat from the sun while in the car.
Washcloth -- a couple of them to wipe any possible mess.

As I've washed these prior to packing them, I've gotta say that IKEA's brand does NOT wash well. At all. I didn't mind much on the washcloths but the blanket came in a pack of three and they all shrunk into different sizes! hahahaha!
It was annoying and amusing at the same time..

And this is the part where I got SUPER extra, can't help myself;
Baby's clothes -- five pairs of them, because.. options!

Of course I'm hoping that we won't be in the hospital for too long that we'll need to use all five outfits.

As you can see, I've put each outfit into individual ziploc bags and took the time to draw on the bags to indicate what's in it. Yes. Totally extra.
But I figured that I won't be dressing Nugget for the first few times. Most probably it's going to be the nurses or Monkey or my mom, so I wouldn't want them to make a mess of things or get frustrated trying to find the right pair of top and bottom.

Since my sister in law gave birth a few weeks ago, I found out that nurses would prefer to dress babies in buttoned tops as they are just easier to get into. So I got a couple of basic white tops from Mothercare that are fastened with velcro! Sounds like a breeze, eh?

Seriously, I'm glad that I didn't start shopping for baby's clothes so early during the pregnancy..
Now that I've start, I don't think I can stop!!

Some random bits;
A pack of face tissues, because my mom said to just chuck one in.
A couple of ziploc bags -- to chuck soiled washcloths.. or something. It's not like they take much space anyway.
A hand sanitizer -- I reckon it'll be useful in some way or another.

I'd like to think I've got it all covered -- baby bag wise.
I've gone through a couple of checklists on the internet and the one Nina shared with me and I'm pretty sure it's all set. I've cross-checked with my mom and shown her what I have in the bag and apart from the facial tissues, she too can't think of anything else to add.

So yeah, I think baby bag is ready! Woop woop!

I'm not a Hoarder.

..or at least I try to not be one!

Here's a sad story.. my sisters and I see our mom as one. She really likes to keep things in case one day she'll needs it. That includes the free t-shirts she got from her company back in 2007. My parents live in a two-bedroom flat. I've stayed there for the most of my life, but I never had friends come over or visit me during celebrations because there really isn't much space with my mom's things lying around.

I mean, we joke about it a lot.. it's not like it tainted my childhood or anything. But some days I do wonder why she's holding on so hard to her things. I would've understood it better had she actually bought all of those things. I find it hard to let go of the things that I had bought with my own money.. or things that has some sentimental value in it.
My mom hold on to things for the sake of holding on to them, it seems.

Aaanyway, why am I telling you this?
Because as I've mentioned in my quick entry some time last month, I had spent one morning sorting through my make up collection and posted it on my Instagram Stories. Managed to trash a hefty amount. I was glad and proud albeit a little sad to be parting ways with a bunch of my favourite things..
So my mom saw that story and texted me; "don't throw out those makeup, keep it in one place and I'll play around with it when I'm there.."
*smacks forehead*
I threw them all out anyway. Despite my mom trying to convince me that the powders stuff should still be good -- as if I'm letting her keep my four-year old blushes! She would never throw them out and just add them to the mound of makeup that she already own.

That was a lot of makeup. It was brutal but it had to be done. I had to.

The first ones to go were the palettes. I realise that they don't look too battered and manky to get thrown out but the most recent I have here is the Urban Decay Naked 3 palette and I got that in 2013! ..and that palette was meant to be used within a year.
It was hard letting go of the two limited edition Nars palette. Remembering vividly that I ordered the Guy Bourdin One Night Stand palette off of the Sephora US site, and the Voulez-vous Coucher Avec Moi, Ce Soir? palette on a rainy day in Taipei. All before any news of Nars ever coming into Malaysia..
Then there were the three Sleek Makeup i-Divine palettes in Oh So Special, Vintage Romance and Ultra Matts V2. I truly loved them. They were really pigmented and still blendable. They were affordable too, and I wouldn't mind getting them again if I'm not so smitten by other brands at the time being.

On to the face stuff. I threw out the Farmasi highlighter that I rarely ever use as it was really chunky. Bourjois Healthy Balance powder that I bought in Hong Kong's Watsons yeaarsss before they came into Malaysia, and Tarte Amazonian Clay blush in Mirage that came in some sort of a set. If you look closely, the blush actually had some sort of life form on it.. yikes!

I also threw out my tube of Nars Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturizer in Groenland. It had a little left in the tube but it exploded in my make-up bag a while back and never been the same since. I also threw out a deluxe sample of Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer that I tried to love but after years of holding on to it, it just never sit quite right on my skin. Another item that I don't think I've used ten times since I got it probably two years ago was the Bobbi Brown Corrector in of the Peach shades. Despite being matched in the store, that thing was just TOO orange on my skin and creased SO BAD under my eyes! It just refused to work for me, and I refused to hold on to it any longer.

As for the eyes, I threw out three mascaras; Benefit Roller Lash, which I loved and has dried up, Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes, which did nothing for my lashes at all! Would NOT repurchase. And Urban Decay Perversion which performed pretty well on my lashes.

Then there were three brow products; Benefit Gimme Brow in Medium, which I didn't love, smelled like old make up ever since I first got it, and was just not worth the money in my opinion. Then there was the Mary Kay clear brow gel that my mom gave me which was like glue.. literally. (Not what I prefer for my brows..) Lastly was an old favourite, In-2-It waterproof brow pencil that I'd recently took out from my "backup stash" and gave me a nice pimple on my left brow when I used it. Clearly I've kept it for far too long. hahahha!

Then I have some primers (that I rarely ever use) that I finally got rid of. I really can't review on any of them since I really didn't notice if they did anything for me on the rare occasions that I used them. Except for the eye primers. Both the Urban Decay Primer Potion in Original and Nars Pro-Prime Eyeshadow Base helped my eyeshadows to stay looking good on my eyelids for longer, but personally between the two I'd prefer Nars because it felt so light whereas I could feel the one by UD on my lids.

Two random things I threw out; Duo eyelash glue that I probably use less than five times (hahaha!) and a random tester of Hydraluron serum(?) which I liked but never gotten the full size because it's damn expensive!! This had a teeny tiny bit left but not enough for me to use on my full face and I don't know why I kept it for so long.
The eyelash glue worked well, by the way. Didn't feel funny on my eyes or anything. I'm just not a fake eyelash wearer and the cap was glued shut so I just didn't bother to salvage the rest of the tube's content. (If it hadn't actually dried up.)

Finally we have lippies and liners which was the hardest to let go. Notice that I didn't part ways with ANY of my Nars lipstick? I just refuse to throw them out until they start giving me a bad reaction! hahahha!

EOS lip balm that I bought when it was all the rave on YouTube some years ago. Kept it for far too long. It wasn't even that good. Didn't really help with my constantly dry lips.
Then there's Origins and MAC lipgloss that I didn't care for. Just not into glosses. And these two were really thick and kinda made my lips stuck together. I loved Too Faced Melted Liquid Lipsticks but I've had them for far too long, I believe. Used to REALLY love Clinique Chubby Stick Intense but I've accepted the fact that they weren't very moisturising for my lips, for what it's supposed to do. Loved the colours though. The final lip balm was the Tarte Energy Noir that transforms from clear to a berry shade. Didn't love it as much as the original Energy lip balm somehow. Same as the rest of the lip products, I threw it out because I've had it for way too long.

Finally we're at the lip liners and eye liners. Loved the lip liners by Sleek Makeup and NYX. They were both smooth and didn't tug on the lips. Then we have the eyeliners by Nars, NYX and Urban Decay which were all good. Although I probably prefer the ones by UD best. Depends on the kind of day I'm having, I think. The ones by UD were softer and easier to put on, but they didn't stay as well as the ones by Nars, but those are a little harder and tugs the eye a little sometimes. The one by NYX was soft too but as you can see, I had it in a shade of green so I never really use it and I honestly cannot remember the last time I actually did.

So that's it!
You've survived an entire post of me rambling about the makeup I've put in the trash last month. Thanks for staying put. Hope you've somehow enjoyed this entry.
I probably won't have anything fun to write apart from my pregnancy now that I'm so close to the end of it. I'll try to write as much of it (or anything) as I can.

'Til next time!