From Bumps to Babes

Time really passes so quickly. 1 year ago around this time, I found out I was pregnant and was so sick that I was almost bed-ridden every day. Fast forward to now, I feel like so much has changed with a baby and one of it is the joy of motherhood.

It is a beautiful coincidence that in this group of gal pals, the 3 of us were pregnant at the same time and had our babies in the same year.




Our little ones were projected to be about 2 months apart -- due in Feb, April and June. However in the end, bestie Cyn delivered slightly earlier than her due date in February. I delivered 1 day before my due date in April. Char delivered at week 37 in the month of May, way before her due date which was supposed to be June. Hence, our babies are no longer 2 months apart from one another.




Another coincidence was that we were all having baby girls. And the last coincidence was that we were all Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) sufferers, or should I say survivors!

While we were suffering during our 1st and 2nd trimester, our WhatsApp group chat became our support group. We ranted and we whined and we "reported" our daily suffering on that thread. Most importantly, we encouraged one another to hang in there.




When we realised we were all pregnant, we made a pact to take a bump shot together or it would never happen again. LOL! Why never happen again? Cyn has 4 kids, Char has 2 kids and they decided they would stop at that.

As we were all so sick during the same phase of our pregnancy, it meant that by the time Char was well, Cyn might have popped. It was such an opportune time to meet up a few days before Cyn popped and sealed memories of our bump shots with so many photos.




Our photographer for that day was my Godson Jase. At 14 years old this year, Jase has grown from a sensible and well-behaved boy into a fine young man. When he was a pre-teen, I kept telling him that no matter how old he is, I would still want to hug him like always. I hope he won't be embarrassed by such a Godma. >_<




I said to him, "Why are you growing taller every day? The last time I saw you during H's baby shower, you were my height and suddenly you are so much taller today!"

So proud of Jase to have gotten into a good school after having missed quite a bit of the Singapore education system when he was over in the UK. I pray that he would do as well academically as he does in other areas of life.




Cyn is so fortunate to have such a filial son. I wish that Baby Ash would grow up to be a filial daughter too. For those who have been reading my blog since Charmaine's (my goddaughter) cancer days, you would know what a sensible boy Jase has always been!




Jase was so patient with us, having to take so many photos till we (more like I) were satisfied. And of course we 3 bimbotic ladies simply had to take a picture WITH him before we let him off to meet his friends.




Cyn said Jase is "trained" well by me coz he has such an eye for detail. After this photo, I told him to change his position to capture us at the right angle. He caught onto the flow and was a natural at instructing us to pose.




For example, could you tell the difference between the next 2 photos?




It was Char's left leg! Jase instructed Char to place her left leg out at a similar angle as what Cyn and I were doing. And that resulted in our favourite picture and the best one to feature on my Instagram.




Our personal favourite was this (even if Cyn's hubz remarked that we looked like we had stiff necks) as we were trying to recreate the pose we did about 8 years ago when we were in NYC.




Not this...




This! Coz we look cuter here.




If Cyn's hubz were to caption this collage, it would be "Still having stiff necks from 2009 to 2018."
-_-|||





~*~*~*~


After our bump shots and after we were more settled down with life, we agreed we should recreate one holding our babies in place of our bumps.




It was so difficult to recreate the exact same pose with the exact same slightly angled position with fidgety babies. Check out how many shots we took in the anigif below! Spot the photobomber while you're at it.




Mums and babes.





In the series of non full length shots, I really couldn't decide which to feature. The adults all had the same expression while the babes looked so comical! I really love the process of how Baby K went from sleeping to frowning with a cute pout and how Baby H was figuring out what Baby K was doing.




The 3 babes all affecting each other to cry.




And then Mia wanted a shot with the babes and she won everyone hands down in posing.




I'm always thankful for being blessed with so many supportive and true girl friends in my life. Also how blessed to have friends sharing the ups and downs of pregnancy, knowledge of motherhood and parenting.




Other than this group of gal pals, I have a couple of people around me (families and good friends) who also became parents all within months of one another which strongly makes me feel that everything happened for a reason and at the right time.