It’s been a while since I have posted a pregnancy update. I’m now 27+3 days pregnant (yes I count days…and hours!). Its been a fairly slow 3 weeks since I last posted. I had hoped after 24 weeks and particularly after 24+5 days time would move a little quicker and I could breath a sigh of relief. Unfortunately that hasn’t been the case but it has been comforting to know I am getting closer and closer to a ‘safer’ gestation period.

I found myself wanting to do very little after I hit 24 weeks so I don’t have a huge amount to report. However, I have been pushing on with my french, reading lots, doing a bit of sewing, attending weddings by Skype, eating and being very pampered.

I have also just finished off some bow tie onesies I wanted to have a go at making. My mum sent me some much needed press studs from home (I couldn’t find them anywhere in Dubai!) and so I have sewn these onto the onesies so I can interchange the bow ties.

Press on bow tie onesies for the more discerning baby!

I can’t tell you how much I like my longer nails (a benefit of pregnancy!) and having manicures and pedicures really make me feel a bit more bling which is much needed since I’ve been living in baggy pants for quite a while now. Perfect toes are essential in Dubai too, I can’t remember the last time I wore socks.

My lovely husband treated me to a great back and neck massage and paraffin wax pedicure (my first!) today. Two lovely ladies from Strawberry Nails Dubai (who are based in Business Bay) came to our flat to pamper me. They were exactly on time (rare in Dubai) and found our flat without having to call me (even rarer in Dubai). They got right down to it, lighting one of their candles and setting out all of their nail varnishes, mainly from the KoKo brand, out for me to chose which colour I preferred.

Parrafin wax pedicure (my feet are like a newborn baby’s now!)

Pretty toes

They sat me down and got to work. They were definitely well practiced and the timings seemed to work perfectly as one massaged my back neck and shoulders whilst the other got to work on my feet. Then when the massage was finished they both turned their attention to my feet, dipping them in the paraffin wax and buffing them to an inch of their lives. We then waited a few minutes for the wax to work it’s magic and so sat and watched This Morning which I had playing in the background! All in all, a fab experience which I can definitely see myself rebooking. They are very well priced and from their Facebook page they look to accept Emirates Platinum discount, always a bonus.

I’ve had quite a pampered week actually as I also went to Cleopatra’s Spa at the Pyramids next to Wafi Mall for a facial which was so relaxing. I have been there before and I think they are very reasonably priced for Dubai (and also give a 20% discount with an Emirates Platinum card). The staff are always great and the relaxation area is perfect and me and my two pregnant friends enjoyed a good few hours in there drinking herbal tea and eating fruit whilst chatting about all things pregnancy related.

We also attended my sister’s wedding via Skype. We managed to see most of the ceremony and thanks to Whatasapp, Facebook and Instagram we saw lots of pictures. Not being able to attend my sister’s wedding was really hard and pretty emotional for lots of reasons but I just had to keep reminding myself of the reason I couldn’t go and bubs kicked constantly that day to help remind me.

Finally, we got to see bubs again yesterday,  probably the only sight advantage of being a high risk pregnancy is that you get scanned constantly and so get to see your little one a lot.  In Dubai, all pregnant ladies do a 3 hour glucose test which involves fasting for 12 hours (including no water and yes, it is 45 degrees outside!) and then drinking a horrible extremely sugary drink. I was warned that baby will go crazy but my little fella seemed to go into a sugar coma and slept for a long time. I think he must like savoury as he soon perked up when I treated myself to some salty popcorn that evening!

Super sugar glucose drink, someone really needs to invent a cake version, this drink is a total waste of calories!

P.S I’ve also just added mum-blings to instagram (mum_blings), twitter (somanymumblings) and Facebook (Mum-blings) … so feel free to follow me on any of these!