Friday, January 30, 2009

Last Check Up

Went for our last check up before the delivery this morning. Gained another 800g, but my blood pressure and glucose level was perfect, so, no problems! Was waiting to see the doctor when the nurses said that I had to be put on the cardiotocography (CTG) to monitor the baby's heartbeat and also to check my contractions. So I went into the room and they strapped 2 monitors onto my belly. One of them was like a super sensitive microphone, and the moment they flip the switch, I can hear baby's heartbeat! It's SO AMAZING!!!

I knew I had to record it down somehow, so when the nurses left the room, I used my handphone and took a little recording. OK the footage not very flattering cause I had to video myself while lying down so don't laugh ok... I later realised that I spoke too softly because I didn't want the nurses outside the room to know that I'm video recording myself! But I didn't have the chance to re-shoot cause shortly after that the nurse came in and the session was over.


Basically, what I was mumbling was that, I'm strapped to the CTG, the "dups-dups-dups" sound in the background was baby's heartbeat and I had to be strapped there and monitored for half-an-hour. I also mentioned that it's very cute cause baby would keep moving around in my belly and sometimes she'll move to the back and the heartbeat sound would become very faint, then she'll change position and suddenly her heartbeat would become very loud cause her chest is very near the 'microphone'. Haha... So it's quite fun to hear her moving around.

During the Doctor's checkup we just did a final scan, clarified some questions about the operation and that's it! The nurses bid us goodluck as we left and the next time we're back would be to welcome Princess Jolie into the world!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

CNY Round Up

23 January - $00.80
26 January - $10.00
27 January - $100.00

Total mahjong winnings so far = $110.80

Not bad... Not bad... :)

I Love...
- Mahjong
- Mahjong WInnings!
- Festive snacks! :D

I Hate...
- Swelled up ankles after sitting long hours for mahjong
- Ridiculous old wives tales / tips on pregnancy, birth, childcare, etc. (DUH... but cannot say anything but smile)
- Steamboat dinners (enough already..!)
- Doing nothing but eat while Cobby plays cards (7 WHOLE HOURS!)

I hope I didn't gain too much weight, we'll know by this Friday on my last check up with Dr Kee. But overall, it has been a pretty fun but short Chinese New Year.

CHEERS!

Reunion Dinner at Tung Lok Signatures

For this year's reunion dinner, Brother suggested that we slurge a little more and have dinner at Tung Lok Signatures restaurant at Central.

What a treat! When we arrived, we found out that we were given the true VIP treatment! Our table was at a private open air balcony facing the Singapore River. The weather was so beautiful that evening, nice and windy, perfect day to sit outdoors for our dinner!



OMG... I look huge...


Bro and Sis-in-law


Brother knows the Captain personally, so we gave her a budget and let them design a dinner menu for us.

Our menu...


Once we had settled in, the food started to arrive!

Of course, "YuSheng" platter was a must during reunion dinner. I LOVE the chopped walnuts they added in. It tasted great!

We all went "Waaaaaaah..." when they brought in this dish. So fancy-spancy! Got smoke some more... Haha...

They served the dish out for us and instructed us to enjoy the items from right to left.
From right:
Chilled Lobster in Italy Style Served in Green Apple
Deep Fried Scallop with Yam Paste
Baked Crab Meat In Frence Style
Pan Fried Foie Gras Served On Beancurd Sheet

Next up was my utmost favourite - Shark's fin! I've had many shark's fin soup before, but this, Double Boiled Shark's Fin Soup with Shark's Cartilage, Bamboo Fungus and Cabage, has to be THE BEST SHARK'S FIN SOUP I'VE EVER HAD!!! They were SO confident of the flavour of their soup, (which they have every right to be) that they didn't even provide any pepper or vinegar. Wah Kao~ Lagi Best!!!!!

Next was the steamed giant garoupa with glutinous rice. These giant garoupas are huge fishes that usually grow up to a few hundred kgs, so their meat is a little more firm than your usual steamed fish. Also, the sauce was a little too salty. So... feedback to the captain liao...

We were a little hestitant when this "Signatures Test Tube Juice" arrived. The captain explained that it was a blend of fruits and vegetables, but assured us that it wouldn't taste like blended vegetables. True enough, it taste great! It tasted like a refreshing guava juice actually, and they explain that it was also to cleanse our palate and aid in digestion after all heavy dishes.

Cheers!


For dessert, we had Double Boiled Hashima and Egg White Served in Young Coconut. On the side was a deep fried custard sesame ball. I ate the sesame ball first - Yummy! It was crispy on the outside, nice and chewy skin and filled with sesame paste.

I have never had Hashima, and given the choice, I would never order it. In case you don't know it, Hashima is supposed to be some frog fat or something, which is like, super gross. But since it's already in front of us, probably super expensive, and Dad swore that it doesn't taste gross, I decided to give it a try. Hey! Actually it doesn't have any particular taste, so it's like a tasteless jelly.

Actually this dish quite amazing. We thought that they used coconut cream for the dish, so we were feeling a little sinful. But the captain said it's ONLY Hashima and egg white, but because it was double boiled in a young coconut for so long, it tasted like sweet coconut cream with jelly! Mom thought it was a little sweet, (and didn't believe that they didn't use coconut cream) but I absolutely loved it. It was a perfect dish to end this fabulous meal!

In the end, we exceeded the budget a little, but what a night! People were looking through the window, probably wondering what kind of VIPs we were. The menu specially designed for us was worth every single penny. But the best of all, we had a great night chatting, laughing and just enjoying the time spent together. I guess that's the whole idea of a reunion dinner. Imagine, at next year's dinner, our little baby girl would be joining us! Happy Reunion Dinner 2009!

Monday, January 26, 2009

Check up update!

Well, it's decided. Went for checkup on Friday (23 Jan) and our little princess was still sitting comfortably inside me. Dr Kee announced that baby is strong and healthy, but it's unlikely that she would turn upside down as she was running out of space to do so as she grows bigger. With that, we fixed a date for me to have my Cesarean operation. So our little Princess Jolie would be welcomed to this world on the 5 February 2009!

Well, we didn't really take the news very well, especially Cobby. On the way home and for the rest of the day, his face was like... (o_o) He didn't have to say it, but I can tell that he was super worried for me. I talked to him later that day and he confessed that having an operation do carry more risk, so he was worried for me. He's so sweet right? He informed his mom after the clinic appointment and she immediately headed to the temple to pray for my safety. She's very sweet too... :)

On my side, I was more disappointed than worried actually. To me, a natural birth was the only option that I've ever expected to have, so I NEVER considered the possibility of having any other birth option. I guess you can say that I feel kind of 'cheated' out of a natural birth.

I'm not worried about the actual operation actually, I even opt for a half body anesthesia. This way, Cobby can be beside me throughout the process and we can see baby the moment she comes out! Even though Cesarean does carry more risk, I believe in the medical expertise of the doctors. After all, Cesareans are so common nowadays right?

I was more concern about the recovery period of the operation actually, I've never had an operation before, and now I have to care for a baby after a major abdominal operation? I better do some homework on this. So I've been flooding my brain with information on Cesarean operation process, recovery care and tips, everything!

Armed with the knowledge of the pros and cons to having a Cesarean, I hope I can better prepare myself mentally and emotionally to welcome Princess Jolie into our lives!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Ready or not...

Only left with 2-3 weeks to go. 2 weeks if I'm having Cesarean, and 3 if baby decides to cooperate and I get to have a natural birth... Phew~ nervous... I'm worried, are we well prepared? I think we got everything that we need, but did we miss out anything?

I fear that we'll get the classic, "Oops! We ran out of ...." or "Oh no! We forgot to buy ..." when we bring baby home. Then poor Cobby would have to scramble to buy because I would have been confined to my home for the whole month liao... I think we need to get Mom, a.k.a. The Consultant, over to our place and take a look at everything we've bought and see if we've missed out anything.

Right now we still need to get:
1. Bottle steriliser (getting this week)
2. Car seat (don't know to get now or later - probably next week?)
3. Quilt cover and toiletries for my Mom when she stay over (can get this week together with steriliser)

We shouldn't have discussed this before we sleep last night. I think it caused my nightmare... I dreamt that I was in my bathroom, about to take a shower when suddenly, I started to lactate! Then I started to to bleed - like when I'm having menses! I was naturally shocked as bleeding, also known as 'show' is one of the signs that I'm ready to have my baby! In my dream I quickly shouted for Cobby and he was just as shocked as I was as we were SO not ready. I haven't even packed my hospital bag!

Anyway, the dream ended there and I was so freaked out by it that it prompted me to pack my hospital a few minutes ago. But I still need to buy some stuff, so the shopping list above have to include my hospital bag stuff too. Sigh~ Can we have more time..?

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Europe Trip Photo Albums

Zinc did a photobook of her honeymoon trip last year and the result was very satisfactory, so I was tempted to make one for my honeymoon trip to Europe too. Unfortunately I gave up after 4 months. Haha... We took SO MANY photos, and the process of choosing which one to add to the photobook was so painful!

I really enjoyed looking at the photos, but the idea of having to power up my laptop to look at them is so cumbersome... so we're left with only one option - develop ALL the photos and put them in a nice album!

This little project has broke our record of the highest amount of money spend on developing photos! There was 625 pieces of photos, which cost $187.50, and we also bought 2 nice, good quality albums from Popular, which costs $37.00. So in total we spent $224.50. :P It took me 2 days to arrange the photos properly, write short notes and slot them all into the albums. The final result was quite nice actually!



The albums also fit nicely into our shelf in the living room... Now we can have easy access to our photos! Happy... :)

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Ang Pao Goldfish

With the Chinese New Year coming, I remembered that last year, Sis taught us how to make origami Goldfish using ang paos, or red packets. I looked at my archived blogs, hoping to find some instructions, but I only found pictures of the finished pieces. After searching the net for instructions, I decided to blog it down so that I can easily refer to this next year.

In Chinese culture, the goldfish means having an abundance of gold, so it's great to make some to decorate your surroundings during this festive season to welcome in wealth, prosperity and Harmony! Besides, they look SO CUTE!


1. Fold the paper in half downwards to make a triangle. Next, fold in half again horizontally, and unfold right away

2 & 3. Fold the corners down to meet at the bottom tip.

4. Fold the two tips up to meet at the top.



5. Fold the two corners outward just a bit.

6. Fold the front of the bottom corner up, down and up again to form an extra strip at the center of the figure.

7. Fold the bottom of the paper back behind the figure and unfold again to form a crease line

8. Now insert your fingers into the "helmet" and fold it so the two side corners meet. (see insert figure) Cut an opening along the bottom right of the figure. (see yellow lines) Don't cut all the way to the side corner! Cut two small triangles to make the tail flaps.



9. Open up the fish and push the tail inward slightly.

10. Close the fish up and press between the tail and body of the fish to secure the fold. DONE!

String the goldfishes with a red thread and you can decorate your pussy willow...



Hang them around the house...



Or just place them around the table for that festive feel!



UPDATE:
Don't understand the instructions above? I've made a instruction video! Check it out!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

No good news... YET

Just came back from our check up and... no good news. Not only did we found out that our dear little Princess is still sitting happily inside my tummy in a breech position, today we also found out that I have put on 3kg within 2 weeks! FAINT~

Thankfully my vital signs are still ok, no diabetes, no high blood pressure, so, I'm still OK. By now, I have more or less accepted the fact that I may have to go through Cesarean if I really have to. But I believe that there's always chance that she'll turn before we're due! So I'm not giving up!

About my weight gain, well, obviously there's something wrong with the weighing machine. Or... it could be the vast amount of food and snacks I've been stuffing myself silly with. Hmm... let's see, the hawker food, pineapple tarts, bak kwa, ice creams, chocolates and not forgetting, I've been taking 2 bowls of rice each time I eat dinner at mom's place!

OK FINE! I have been eating too much!

Good news is, Cobby has started school again, which means light dinner on weekdays from now on. Hopefully the following check ups would have more good news!

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Awww...



It took us 2 days and 4 loads, but we finally finished washing all of baby's clothes, towels, bedsheets, everything! When I was hanging up the 1st load of laundry, I can't help but make irritating "Awww..." noises to myself. Her clothes are sooo... small and sweet! I imagined her wearing them and I started to make "awww..." noises again.

The laundry made the whole house smell like there's a baby in the house and it reminded us of how life would be different soon, having an additional person in our usually quiet and peaceful home.

I thought it would be funny to blog this down because, while one side of me was going "awww..." at everything and anything, the rational side was finding it all so silly! Hello! I'm actually finding it SWEET and ADORABLE doing laundry!?

Fast forward a few months, no wait, maybe only few weeks, when I'm buried under piles of dirty laundry, and I look back on the day when I was making "awww..." noises while doing laundry. Yah, that would probably make me burst out into a cynical, hysterical laughter.

But meanwhile, let me enjoy it a while more... "Awww..."

Monday, January 5, 2009

More Gifts from Auntie Jolene

Sis: I bought you some baby's hair and body wash, body cream, diaper rash cream and stuff for your baby, so you don't need to buy ok?

Me: Oh thanks! But I've already bought baby's shower gel, but I guess it's ok, these stuff can be kept in the store room for later use.

Sis: Mine stuff is branded one ok? "Pediatrician Tested"! So use mine first, keep yours in the store room.

Me: OK loh... Thanks again!

So I've been wondering what kind of mysterious potions has she bought for baby, so precious! Last Sunday I met up with Bro, who just came back from Hong Kong, and he passed me Sis's gift.

When someone say that they bought you things like body wash and diaper rash cream, I would have expected the bottles to come in a plastic bag from some departmental store or something... So imagine my surprise when Bro passed me this beautiful red box with a pretty ribbon on it!



Pretty!


Wah got potpourri somemore...




If you're interested, the brand is Kiehl's

Mahjong Craving Satisfied

Went over to Winsome's place on Saturday evening to look at her wedding photos and video. It was my first time visiting her new home, so had the opportunity to kapoh kapoh around! Haha...

After a good laugh watching the videos, Charles tapao dinner for us. It was yummy! Especially the chicken, yum... But abit paiseh, cause Charles didn't get to eat. He said that he had a late lunch, but by the rate we were munching down the food, I think there wasn't enough even if he wanted to! Haha...oops. After dinner, Winsome, Charles, Witty and I played mahjong while Char and KJ watched VCD.

I loved WInsome's mahjong set! SO PRETTY!

Look like pink jelly!

Oh my gosh look at my double chin...

It has been so long since I've played, so I had a really good time. I won $5! We only played one round, but since we started late, it ended around 11pm. But it was a right decision to leave because I realised that my legs had actually swelled up due to sitting upright for too long! Cobby had to help me massage my legs before I sleep that night to help ease the swelling.

The mahjong game was really fun, but I kept having this nagging sensation after I left, and it kept bugging me even till the next day. Why? Not enough. It's like teasing a person dying of thirst with just a teaspoon of water. It's sweet, but I want some more! So the next day, after dinner at my Mom's place, I suggested that Cobby and I played a round with my parents! Haha...

It was super fun too, it has been SO LONG since I've played with my parents, so we had alot of laughs. Wasn't so lucky this time, lost $12 and I ended up with swollen legs again last night, but it was worth it. Now I felt that my craving has been satisfied.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays! If you are looking for stories of crazy parties, sumptuous feasts, piles of presents and spectacular fireworks to end the year, you would be disappointed. Haha... December 2008 had quietly passed us by without much fanfare, but I'm ok with it, seriously.

Christmas Eve

We bought some pre-marinated rack of lamb from the supermarket and cooked a fancy dinner, just for the two of us. There was oven grilled lamb with roast potatoes, stir fried shitake mushrooms and pumpkin soup with buttered toast. For dessert, we had strawberry yogurt. Oh yah, how can we have Christmas eve feast without a bubbly drink right? So we popped opened the sparkling grape juice I bought for char's Christmas party and it was delicious! So fancy..! Haha...



Christmas Day

Cobby and I exchanged our presents in bed like we always do. I got a very pretty snowflake necklace, very appropriate for Xmas! Cobby got a new shaver, cause his old one is dying. :) In the evening we headed over to Mom's place for dinner. She had invited Yee Mei and family over too and we had a good time playing with Damien and Brandon.

Boxing Day

We went for our checkup. After that we finally decided to buy the baby stroller, so we went down to the baby products wholesaler at Kaki Bukit and bought our Maclaren Techno XT stroller.



Retail price was $500+, but we got it for only $482. Happy!

Then we headed to Metro at Causeway Shopping Centre and bought a breast pump set. They were having their Xmas sale, so we saved another 15%! I happily told Cobby that we SAVED so much money today, but then he said, "don't you mean we SPENT so much money?" Hmm... I like to see my cup as half full. Thank you.

That wasn't the end of our spending, after shopping around for a few days, we decided on a 2 seater sofa for our study room and put in our order on 27 Dec. They were a furniture wholesaler located at the logistic hub at Sembawang, so it was super cheap. $360, including changing the colour of the sofa and delivery! :D

Cobby's Birthday - 28 December 2008

No plans for his birthday, so I just decided that we do the things that he like that day. Gave him his present in the morning, it was a very expensive Oakley sunglasses. (Vomit blood)I made him act surprised eventhough he chose the design himself. FUN~!



Went to his favourite Bak Chor Mee store at Toa Payoh for breakfast, read his precious newspapers, munch on his favourite indulgence, kuey ji (sunflower seeds) and surfing the web till afternoon.

I suggested that we visit the Carrista Jamboree. I heard it on the radio but we can't find ANY details online at all, but we just headed there anyway. I mean, how expensive can a car show be right? So after driving like forever to the super ulu Changi Exhibition Centre and paying $5 for the parking. We found out that the ticket was a crazy $20 per person. WAH~ DAYLIGHT ROBBERY!!! So instead of paying $45 for a stupid car show, we left, just $5 poorer, feeling like kanna cheated. SIGH~ But we compensated the loss with a super yummy dinner at our favourite Japanese restaurant, Waraku.

New Year Eve

Went to Tao Payoh for a dim sum breakfast, went home and made my second batch of pineapple tarts the whole afternoon, and in the evening, we went over to Cobby's Mom place for dinner. Given that I'm so heavily pregnant, we didn't think it was such a good idea to go watch fireworks this year. With the crowds, noise, no proper place to sit, etc, hmm... yah, maybe not. So we did our countdown at our living room and slept shortly after that. Haha...

Happy New Year!

We spent almost the whole day out, but we didn't really plan for it. On the way to a nearby coffeeshop for lunch, I suddenly suggest that we go watch a movie after lunch. Then we thought, since we want to catch a movie at Great World City, why don't we have our lunch there? So we drove there and had Subway sandwich for lunch. Unfortunately we couldn't find a movie timing we liked, so we abandoned the movies and went to hunt for a TV at Liang Court shopping centre instead. We saw some good deals, but decided to sleep on it 1st. By then it's already 4plus, so might as well go hang somewhere till dinner!

We went to Borders at Orchard Road and read some magazines. Hmmm it was so crowded that I couldn't find any seats! So this poor pregnant woman had to stand for an hour plus till dinner time. :( We walked to The Coffee Club at Taka for dinner, it was a nice dinner, but baby gave me such a hard time because she was kicking and pushing against my tummy like mad! CRAZY OUCH!!! I think it's because she don't like it that the restaurant was SO NOISY... dunno lah...

So ends my festive season... nothing fancy, but I couldn't do anything crazy even if I want to anyway. Anyway, this year I got to visit Taiwan, London, Paris, Rome and Hong Kong, and even stepped into another exciting phase of my life with a little life growing inside of me! So I've already enjoyed a VERY EVENTFUL year, so I'm contented. 2009 would be another exciting year, and I'm super looking forward to it!