X-mas Lunch

I haven't had the opportunity to mention about my recent cooking adventures here yet; but getting prepared for the xmas lunch was mostly due to my new enthusiasm for trying new recipes (recipes are not new, they are just new to me:)).
We did not have any guests, so I was quite relaxed for the menu. I decided to go with a turkey leg. I know there's nothing fancy about roasting a turkey leg; but as it was my first attempt to cook turkey it was exciting for both of us. Maybe, one day we'll have the whole family together and I'll be cooking a whole turkey:)
Anyway, here comes the menu (not quite a festive food but it's healthy and yummy:)):
- Roasted Turkey Leg
- Rice with Pine nuts & Currants (Ic Pilav without the chicken liver as it's not good for me at the moment)
- Celeriac cooked in olive oil
- Stuffed vine leaves (OK, I won't be lying to you, this was readily made and frozen by my mum and all I had to do was cooking it)
-Chocolate soufflé (Here comes another confession it was readily made by Gu:) You do not expect me to cook every single item from scratch, right!)
At least, I have some evidence within the pictures.

Simple Joys of Pregnancy

Although you get bigger and bigger everyday after this many weeks (it's around 27th now), you don't always feel or think that everybody looking at you sees a pregnant woman. Maybe at some point, you get used to the feeling so much that the pregnant you becomes the normal and you do not feel any different. Anyway, despite my bump, I still try to squeeze in between the cars and realise all of a sudden that cannot fit in anymore or still try to keep my pace on the stairs and feel dizzy when I get to my desk (which is just on the first floor!)

I might well extend the below instances later on, but as you will notice it's all about people's courtesy and I am the lucky one:)

- Being let into the toilets whilst cleaning is in progress and everbody else is being diverted to toilets on another floor.

- Shopping and not carrying any bags (special thanks to my hubby)

- Moving offices but not carrying a single leverarch yourself (special thanks to my colleagues)

- Travelling with four luggages and carrying only your purse (special thanks to my hubby)

-Being offered a table at coffee shops when it was actually packed. (thanks to the nice couple)

Winter Fest Glasgow

December became one of my favourite months in this country. Although it's cold and miserable most of the time, the spirit of the season warms you. Christmas decorations, late night shoppings, colourful gift sets and people hurrying for shopping... It must be difficult for people, who live in places where the normal closing time of the shops is 10pm, to grasp the joy of late night shopping (extended shopping hours from 6pm to 8pm). It's not that I'm a shopaholic looking forward to longer hours of shopping, but more like enjoying and sharing the excitement.

In addition to the Christmas decorations, George Square of Glasgow had another attraction: Winter Fest!

It's either the child in me or simply me loving funfairs and colourful lights, I can still get excited and be happy. I can hear some of you saying "soon you'll have enough of places like this". Maybe it's true, but this time it was fun for just the two of us with some warm mulled wine (mine was non-alcoholic).

Anyway, you can join the joyride with the video below.

Room for the Baby

During the first months of my pregnancy, I was wondering why I was not into baby stuff, yet. Now, I definitely know.
First of all, you do not know how far you will be going (you try not to think of the evil but you never know). Secondly, you are mostly interested in yourself, your mood, early transformation etc. Finally, you do not know what to buy exactly. I think there is a learning curve and like every other miraculous event there is a reason for the nine months spent during pregnancy.
Anyway, now we are into baby stuff without doubt. Less than 14 weeks are left and taking into consideration that I would not be able to move as comfortably as I do currently, say only 10 weeks are left. So, it's high time to take some action.
As it's not possible to fill a place that is already full, we decided to start with some decluttering Being able throw away things (either charity or thrash) is really an art. I can't say I'm very skilled at it but at least we have enough space now:)
It's Sunday and I'm already looking forward to the next weekend to have some rest!

Week 25

Right at this point of my pregnancy, 62.5% of the "works" is completed:) Our baby is presumably weighing around 700 gr. He is almost triple his weight since his last scan in Turkey on the 3rd of October. It is not yet enough to explain the recent 5 (five) kilos I gained since this day though, but at least it's a partial cover:)

During the first four months, it really did not occur to me that I would have gained this much weight within such a short period. How could I be this naive?

It's not that I make a big fuss about it, but I really cannot comprehend how it all happened to me. Although it's pretty normal, it still feels amazing to see your body transforming. I think as you do not see major external changes within your body during the early weeks of your pregnancy (mostly the first trimester) but being still very excited about the news you start exaggerating every small change. However, with the sudden acceleration on the pace of progress during the second trimester, you simply panic.

Despite searching through many internet sites, guidance books etc and being told by friends, I kind of had a resistance to understand what's gonna happen. I hope I won't have the same lethargic response when the baby is born as well!

Week 14: Me acting as if I have a bump:)

Week 25: No need to emphasize!

Saturday Night Fever

As you can see, things (i.e. my tummy:)) started to change pretty quickly. I now feel obliged to update my blog more frequently.

Anyway, my brother in law came over with his brand new BMW last weekend (unfortunately don't have a photo) and we have been to Mother India Cafe (it's more like a small curry restaurant) to find out about our boy's response to curry. Oh, btw this is me before the curry, not after!! He must have liked it as his mum slept really tight that night.

Eda-Orhan Wedding

The major event of our holiday was my cousin's wedding in Istanbul. Despite being a bit nervous about my inflated tummy, skin like feta cheese and me missing the heavenly hands of a beautician, it all went well. Actually, it could not have been better!

Sure it's not all about the positive feedback about my pictures from the wedding:) It's been a while since we have a wedding within the family. As we could not make it to the two engagement parties last year, it was almost the first big family gathering since our wedding. And as my hubby said all through the night, the best wedding is the one which you are not getting married!! It's not that we did not enjoy our wedding (it was the most fun btw:)) but you just go, relax and entertain yourself. No to-do lists, no worries for the cake or the music, you simply enjoy the moment and share the happiness of the newly weds.

As most of the family members are not living in Istanbul, we all stayed in a hotel in Taksim which made it very convenient to move around and get together easily. By all means of chance the weather was gorgeous mostly above 25 C with the sun shining most of the time. If you think that it's early October and the city was flooded just a couple of weeks ago, you will really call it a good luck. Although our hotel was less than 10 minutes away from the wedding venue, we had to leave about an hour earlier to get there. Thanks God it's Friday(!?)

The wedding was at Ciragan Palace, a 5 star hotel converted from a real Ottoman Palace. As we were led to the wrong section of the palace (thanks to my dear cousin), we were guided to the correct location by a bellboy all through the way. It took us only 2-3 minutes to get there, but we were not just given the directions, we were given a personal assistant! This was only the first sign about the style and the level of care throughout the night.

We were met by my uncle and their in-laws at the gate and was led to outside to join the coctail party. Going down the stairs, stunned by the spectacular Bosphorus, I was glad that I did not have very high heels and a long dress! Grabbing a juice (rewards of pregnancy), we mingled with the crowd. Exchanging compliments (mine mostly about the little bunny), posing and smiling; finally came the bride and the groom. Greeting the guests from the top of the stairs with the charm of a prince and a princess, they took their place for the official ceremony.

It's not traditional to make a speech during the wedding ceremonies in Turkey. You simply confirm your identity and say yes or no unless the wedding officer is a good presenter and adds some fancy talk mostly a cliche. This one was no exception. The only remarkable incident was my cousin's sound check before saying Yes:)

Immediately after tying the knot, fireworks went off. Cool, huh?

It's all in little details: Service napkins, carpets and many other things I can't remember now embroidered with the first letters of the couple, laser show of the couple's name, exquisite dinner (perfecto!), celebrity singer (Ferhat Gocer) with a band, belly dancers, an after party provided with amusing accessories (colourful wigs, feathery scarves and false moustaches etc.)

Oh, it is taking longer than I expected! So you must have realised I'm stopping at this point.

Wishing the best of all to Eda and Orhan!

It's a Boy!!

It has been so long since my last post and so much has happened that it will take some time to catch up with you. Anyway, we have been on holiday in Turkey for three weeks and it's my excuse.

We had our doctor's appointment on Oct 3. As my pregnancy was diagnosed as low risk, I have not been to an obstetrician until that time here in the UK. It was just the dating scan by the 13th week, blood and urine tests and midwife's examination. So, decided to see my obstetrician during the holiday.

Despite feeling all right, you become nervous and start thinking of all the bad things can happen right before the scan. This time, we were all quite excited as we were going to find out about the gender of the baby. I did not have any kind of instinct or guestimations or such whether it'd be a boy or a girl. Some mum-2bs say so. Almost everybody except my dear hubby wished it to be a girl. I don't know why maybe they think baby girls are prettier, you can buy various accessories etc.

The doctor began the scan identifiying the number of fingers on his hands and feet and came to a pause at some point. He told us that there was something which was not desired to be there. Everybody in the room became curious and worried and asked what it was.

Oh, it was my little boy's willy:)

Until that time I always believed that it was good and practical to learn about the gender before the baby is born. It is really difficult to translate my feelings into words. But I felt as if something magical has been disturbed. I think I would do the same if I were to have another baby just for practicality (being able to decide on the colours is really nice).

Finding out about the gender, everybody is asking about the name. Human nature:) We decided to not to tell anybody until the baby is born even if we were to decide on the name. It will be a surprise:)

My First Scan

Hello everybody!!

Let me introduce myself, I'm baby Yakici. I'm 13 wks+4 in this picture. These are my first pictures. I think I will love posing like my mum:) Look, I'm already waving my hand, hellooo can you see meee? At the moment, I enjoy moving all around my mum's tummy, there's loads of space, yahoo! My heart beats like a drum, maybe it's beacause I am very excited to meet all of you..

It's enough of you little bunny, we'll listen to you much more later on let's leave some time for your mummy.

Oh, finally:)

Yes, as you can see I finally had my first scan (first and the last according to NHS Glasgow). I tried to not to think much about the scan before it but at some point I was imagining some figures when I closed my eyes at night. I can call the scan as a surreal experience. Despite the test and all of the confirming symptoms, you are not 100% sure that you have a baby inside. When I first saw my baby on the screen I had to check if the midwife had the ultrasound on my tummy. Tears were just there to roll over but realising that they wouldn't wait for me to stop crying and have a clear vision I rolled them back:)

It was a relief to see that there were one head, two legs and two hands. Though you see them, you still don't know if everything is normal or not. Despite knowing that she wouldn't tell a yes or no, I felt obliged to ask if everything was normal. She was quite prepared possibly after a zillion similar questions and told us that she had seen all she was supposed to see. She should go for politics!

The scan lasted for about 15 minutes which was longer than I expected. After the scan started the boring and painful stages. Boring is to fill in your medical history any previous operations, any severe illnesses in the family etc.. Painful is the blood samples. My arm has never hurt that much before. I tried to calm myself down by saying "come on didem, how on earth are you supposed to resist labour pain, if you start complaining just for a needle pain". Anyway, my arm had a 5-6 cm bruise although I pressed on it really long and hard.

Before the scan I was thinking of working from home but with all the excitement, me and my hubby decided to celebrate this event with a lunch out. We went to Wagamama at Silverburn and spent the rest of the day analysing the baby's pictures and checking the new stuff (a bunch of promotional material baby cream, nappy and some more books to read) we were given.

Oh oh, I was just about to forget it. This scan is also called as the dating scan. They say ultrasound scan is much more accurate than your calculation mainly based on LMD. And my due date has changed to 8th of March. So, it moved forward by 2 days. We'll see which one is more accurate:)

Month 3

Time almost flies. When did I learn that I was pregnant?
"The first three month period is the most risky period of your pregnancy. You should take care of yourself pay utmost attention to what you eat and what you do. As you do not feel very pregnant physically, you have to remind yourself."
Phew, the first bit is finally over. Now, some other concerns supersedes the early worries:)
We have been keeping a weekly book for my weight and size. It seems that I have gained only 900 grams (thanks to the digital scale) which is pretty normal. Anyway, they say baby and I will be both growing much faster from now on.
I'm looking forward to hearing the heart beats and feeling the first movements of the baby..
After next week's first scan, I will be telling my friends. Actually I have been dying to tell them right from the start. But when you realise that the chances that everything that can go wrong during the early days of your pregnancy is very high, you think twice and find your feet on the ground again.

Summer Time

Weekends come and go and another "summer(!)" is almost finished. This was the first summer we spent in the UK since I started living here.
In 2007 we were in Turkey for two weeks in July, travelling all around the country with the joy and enthusiasm of meeting our families for the first time after I moved into the UK. Almost 5 major destinations in 14 days.. It was quite exhausting and neither us nor our families enjoyed it fully as we had to plan about our next destination and did not have the time to chillax. (my new favourite combo chill + relax=chillax)
Last year we were away for two weeks in June in Ankara and in southern France (Cote de Azur) for 10 days in August. And I presume these 10 days in France made it possible for us to bear Scottish summer. To tell the truth I was not totally aware that it was a highly memorable holiday.
Towards the end of winter we decided to go somewhere warmer and also make use of the bank holidays. So ended up in Barcelona during the Easter break. Our holiday was enhanced by the existence of our mums travelled all the way up to here.
When you enjoy doing something, you want to do it again and again! That's how we ended up in Paris by the end of May. Oh, it was really fun!.. Paris is a great city (I can say it's my number one currently) but what made our getaway this fun was actually our friends. (Need to plan another one soon!)
So, that's how we managed to survive until now despite "summer". I need to stop checking the weather forecast and be prepared for rain everyday. I need to stop expecting temperatures above 18 C degrees. I need to stop imagining wearing my sandals, shorts and t-shirts at all..
Anyway, although I may sound like I am complaining about the weather, that's not true:p
What if I had to be at 30 somethings with my everyday inflating tummy?!

WEEK 8

"Week Eight: Baby is about 8-11 mm now. "
Felt like the Big Brother prensenter! I should be getting really dull then:(
Four weeks ago when I first found out that I was pregnant, I went through all the 40 weeks at once trying to grasp what's gonna happen next. So now each week all I can do is reading about the week I am in and I can almost read the same thing over and over again:)
As I do not have the opportunity to see a doctor whenever I want unless there is a problem, all I can do is to read about what's normally going on inside there.
As an optimist, I feel lucky to have the opportunity to have access to this enormous size of information. It is kind of an industry: Pregnancy, Birth and Parenting. Numerous forums, images and videos. Sometimes you feel like you can learn everthing online! Sometimes I feel that doctors are not comfortable with this since not every bit of information is correct or how it applies to you. This is how I felt when I see a doctor in Turkey. I wonder if they see medical web pages, online consulting as a competitor?
As far as I can see, in the UK they almost encourage people to do everything online. Check NHS web page, call NHS Direct etc. Well, it's a no brainer, they just want to cut the costs and let doctors to deal with serious stuff as much as possible.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to having my first antenatal visit on 4th of September just by the end of 13th week. Phew, not so much is left:)

Before and After

Our life is about to change irreversibly and irrevocably!

Being married for slightly more than 2 years and at the edge of turning 35 within less than a year's time, it was something we were planning and looking forward to. However, maybe it was me who started to think we would not be among the 66% of people who has a baby within the first three months; I was kind of getting worried about not being able to have a baby for some time. Despite all the positive health checks for both of us, no failed trials, I've started to grow a weird feeling that there was something wrong with us.
Now with all the excitement and joy of pregnancy, I presume those feelings were there just to prevent severe frustration in case of failure. Although I call it failure, I do not call the opposite as "success". Unfortunately, there is not so much you can do to call it a success except the healthy diet and trying for it at the right times obviously!
I'm not hit by all the pregnancy symptoms yet so still not resenting what we have done:p

surprise surprise

Two weeks ago, as a very keen blogger-to-be, I started my very first blog "Didem in Wonderland". Enthusiastic to write the first piece, I realised that I needed to find an attractive title for my blog.

Being married to a software engineer (I think this is just one dimension to the things he does, but it is safer for me to use this title within my limited computer science intelligency!), among the hard core science books, there are some popular books such as "Blogging Heroes" which I had once turned some pages. Although not intended to do something professional, I just wanted to have a title reflecting the concept of the blog and me. The difficult part was that there was no specific concept!!

After spending about almost an hour (not just simple thinking, people have been blogging for so long and more generic ones were not available), I ended up with "Didem in Wonderland". It's not that my life is all exciting and wonderful, but there are things I want to share and want to draw attention and it gives you some kind of hope that there really could be nice and interesting instances in your life.

I remember last time when I started writing, I thought about my friends' blogs, what they were writing about. They are mostly about themselves and their babies!! Having no babies at all, I was a little bit worried if I would ever have the chance of blogging about my little one.

To my worry, as if I just created this blog, something miraculous happened: I realised that I was expecting a baby!

All of a sudden I found myself in brand new feelings mostly wonderful, so I'm pretty pleased with my blog's title and where it's taking me so far:)

Better late than never

I finally managed to open my very own blog "Didem in Wonderland".
Hurrah!!
Why on earth it has taken me so long??
No brainer, I've turned into a couch potato.
Hopefully I will beat myself and be able to write regularly!
Yes, I can :p