Last week was rather busy - Andy was dealing with some contractors who'd flown in to Seattle, which meant a lot of meetings and several late nights during the week. Isobel seems to know when one of us is away - she doesn't play around quite as much during bathtime or bedtime when there's only one person doing the baby-wrangling! Makes things much easier.

Pete and Libby invited us around to their place for lunch on Saturday, along with Darren and Cathy and their two kids. Isobel had a good feed of sausages and meatballs for lunch, and then she and Luke kept everyone amused for the afternoon with their antics - Luke's about a year older than Isobel, but they still get along pretty well. Isobel did really well for not getting her afternoon sleep ... which worries me a little in a way, I really don't need her to give up her one remaining sleep just yet!! Early next year would be just fine, thankyou very much ;-)

We popped into Bellevue Square on the way home in an attempt to find me a frock for the Ball in a couple of weeks - we sorted Andy out on Friday by getting him a tux, but guys are always easy to organise in that regard! I had a very naive idea that I'd be able to wander into the maternity shop, walk up to section with evening gowns and pick something off the rack ... er, apparently not. Apparently April is not "evening gown season", so apart from the clearance rack (which was all cocktail length, not full length dresses) there was not much in the shop. Oh dear. We had a quick look through Macys and I tried a couple of dresses on there - no maternity sizes, and I couldn't even size up a couple of dress sizes because they didn't zip up over the Bumb. Crap!! Still, they at least recommended a bridal shop not far from home that might be able to help out.

So on Sunday I drove over to the bridal shop, and was directed to the 'special occasion' dresses. I found a couple of nice styles, that would have suited if they'd actually had maternity sizes ... to my horror, the shop assistants said special orders were a minimum 3 months and then tailoring would be additional time again. We leave for DC in two weeks - not helpful!

I had one last shot before throwing myself at the mercy of online shopping and hoping for the best. We bundled Isobel into the car and headed down to Southcenter, after calling ahead to see if they actually had anything that would work for me. Again, we were directed towards the 'special occasion' dresses, which were on sale and in no particular order - trying to find nice styles from the catalog and then locate them in the racks was a challenge all its own. Finally I wandered around a different corner and spotted ... maternity gowns!! OK, so there were only four dresses to pick from, but beggars can't be choosers ... two were near enough to my size, and after my experiences shopping for this dress so far I wasn't going to quibble! I tried them both on and settled on one - a periwinkle-blue colour, not one I'd have normally picked but it didn't look too bad considering how stressed I looked at that point! I made an appointment for Tuesday to come back for the fitting - only about six inches of fabric to take up on the hems, but that's normal for me - and was surprised to see the price that came up on the register, the dress was marked down about 70% ... so I can afford to get matching shoes and a bag now!!

I also had my 28wk appointment with the OBGYN last week - I'm at the point where they do the test for gestational diabetes, so I had to drink that horrid sugary stuff and then have more blood taken. I'll get the results in a couple of weeks. I'm still progressing well, bub's heartrate is good and strong and I can't believe I'm in the third trimester already ... where has the time gone?! Reminds me I'd better make a few phone calls this week - have to organise the "blue book" (Australian immunisation schedule) for the baby, plus find out what's happening with the new nursery furniture we're supposed to be getting soon ...