34 weeks preggy, 6 more weeks to go!

Baby's 34 weeks old today! 6 more weeks to go before I get to hold my little one! :)

I'm sooo thankful to have made it this far.

Firstly, I have officially started on my maternity leave. In Germany, its mandatory for women to go for their maternity leave from 34 weeks onwards.

That's such a blessing, because I have been having disturbed sleep for the past few weeks. I've never known fatigue like what I had!

I would wake up 4-5 times at night to empty my bladder and sometimes I'm unable to fall asleep immediately, so I toss and turn for the next hour until I have to wake up to go to the toilet again.

And I realized that intermittent sleep just doesn't cut it like one full-stretch of 7-8 hours of sleep!

The amazing thing is that since I stoppped working, I have been sleeping oh-so-much better! Its incredible.

I think the subtle stress of having to go to work is gone - which really helps me to relax better! The weather has also taken a turn for the cooler, with temperatures hovering in the low-twenties rather than the high-twenties. As a result, I've been able to snuggle between my nursing pillows without having to perspire like crazy and this translates to more dreamland for me and baby.

Being able to have quality sleep (again) is like such a priceless blessing!!!! I feel like a new person and am actually able to focus on things without having to zombify through the motions.

To commemorate my last day at work, I baked some white-choc-raspberry-muffins, which everybody raved about! :) Can't believe that 3.5 years at this company just flew by like that! This is also the longest period that I've stayed at one company. My previous one in Singapore being 1.5 years.

I've taken 2 years of maternity leave but only the first year would be paid. So thankful that I can have this opportunity to bring up my baby by myself. Its not a common thing in Singapore for a woman to be a stay-at-home-Mom but this is relatively more common in Germany.

You know how some people always knew that they wanted to be a doctor / lawyer / pilot etc? I always knew that I wanted to be a stay-at-home-Mom. I could never bear the idea of having my children raised by someone else other than myself. I could picture myself working part-time, helping hubby in his job (if possible) and working from home. But ultimately I would want to be there for my kids and witness first-hand all their milestones of growth and development.

Children are a gift from God and I want to be responsible for that gift by giving them the one most precious commodity in this day and age - my time. Of course we'll have to make do with less, but I think the last 3.5 years of working in Germany, when I've had to take a huge pay-cut with what I did, has helped me to realize that money isn't everything.

And God has been faithful. We've still been able to go on our holidays, eat out whenever we want to and live a comfortable life.

So here's saying CHEERS to the next 6 weeks of me-time! I've got lots of books to read, things on my to-do list to tick off and ultimately to spend more time with our dear Lord Jesus - extended God and me time.