Baby Chua the First: Month Six (March 2015)

Dear baby girl,

Let me tell you about the babymoon. I had been adamant that I wanted to do something different, unique, adventurous - no lying by the beach and no large city stays. What I really wanted was a repeat of our honeymoon (which we'd already repeated once). Cape Town, Garden Route road trip, then into Kruger for safari.

Oh how I pleaded and begged for weeks! But there was an ebola scare on, plus the risk of an emergency while on safari...there was no budging on the 'NO'. 

Watching safari videos on YouTube led us to consider whale watching somewhere else, then eventually I found out that blue whales were in season in Sri Lanka - we had never been, so it was heavily considered until further researched showed that there were no guidelines to protection of the whales, AND the boats seemed to crowd them rather than respect. Considering they grow up to 30m long, I wouldnt want to be around an upset blue whale.

Something finally led us to a crowd-funded research cum whale expedition being launched 2015 in south western Australia - orcas! Animals that we were obsessed with. The crew were welcoming of this pregnant woman, so we booked and planned a roadtrip around it, Margaret River, Denmark, Albany, Bremer Bay (whale watching lift off), Perth.

What a great trip it was! If there's anything we love, its road trips and we had a fabulous time hanging out with Aly, Cam and Michael in Margaret River, exploring roads and tourist attractions, eating, going to the beaches, markets and fitting in as many movies under the stars as we could, then ending in Perth for a few days with Jonno (Aly and Cam made the weekend trip too).

First of many movies under the stars

With aunty Aly at Cape Lodge - she's going to balance out my anal-OCD side and expose you to doggy kisses and the like

Freezing one evening at Cape Naturaliste

His first shortrib EVER

I had the best almond croissant in the world here, custard filled (from the Margaret River town square markets)

Stealing apples in Manjimup

An afternoon at Green's Pool- this was a perfect day. We saw the forest giant walk, lunch at a vineyard then beach time

As we drove, we stopped at these farm stands with honesty systems, stocking up on fresh fruit and veg to cook

I made a stone fruit cobbler because we had so many peaches and plums, when it was ready, your dad announced that he doesn't like hot desserts -__-

Seasick at the back of the boat, serves him right after the cobbler comment

We saw about 50 or more orcas in a 2-hour span

You made my belly go all sorts of weird shapes during the second trimester

He's very good at chilling (I am not so)

I had a bit of a freak out the first night we arrived in Bremer Bay, we had booked an Air B & B cabin promising spectacular views and access to the beach, but driving in, we were the ones doing the mapping on google maps, it was that isolated. A further 250m down a dirt road and we came to this container cabin - a bedroom at either end and a kitchen and living room in the centre. It was casual, obviously a well loved holiday home, with little in the way of security. 

That night I didn't sleep, my nerves shot over the impending 1.5 hour boat ride in less favourable water out to Bremer Canyon(it had rained that night) and the fact that no one knew where we were (the cabin)  nor could anyone rescue us quickly if we were attacked by a crazy person. Add to that the warnings of electricity going off and there being no main water supply (don't waste water!) AND I was pregnant and going on a whale watching expedition - was I mad?!?!

Luckily, the next day went alright, I lay on my side on the choppy journey out to the nderwater canyon, Pa got very badly seasick, but we saw countless orcas and eventhough the boat broke down on the way back and we had to be towed for about an hour..all was good. Except for the carpet python living in the ceiling of the cabin, but thats a story for another time.

Back in KL, more renovation management and frustration, I knuckled down with some freelance projects.

We went to Singapore on the third weekend, where I hung out with aunties May and Nina for a bit, Pa went to the wake of uncle Jeremy's (one of his bestfriends from school) dad. Then we celebrated Pa's birthday dinner with Ama, chik-chik, aunty May and Uncle Jack. We also saw uncle Robert and aunty Shan for lunch before we left and fit in one Mee Pok for dinner!

This is you on your father's birthday, the doctor had to turn me every which way to get a decent scan of your face which I then framed 

Pa turns 41, dinner with aunty Fi and uncle U-Ming at Sassorosso

Aunty May and aunty Nina looking so fresh for brunch after their wild night out

And finally, the last weekend of the month, we flew to Penang to visit the Penang family. Grandaunt Nat and Ainon had just opened a cafe so we went to show our support, and we also hung out with grandpa, your uncles Brendon and Sean and grammie Becks.

Old cars are party of the story of our lives

It was sweltering down there, not helped by being pregnant and Pa's mini's battery and aircond dying. One day, we were stuck in a jam on the way to Market Lane cafe and I wanted to cancel plans to go, but Pa insisted. Irritable and dripping with sweat, I was so FURIOUS I nearly stepped out of the car right there and then but he convinced me to stay - turns out my lovely friends had planned a surprise baby shower (thanks aunty Celyn!). Sweetness.

Aunty Celyn made this :D

Surprise baby shower in Penang

And that, was our very busy March 2015.