32 Weeks: Maternity Photoshoot at D'Enfant

I am pretty excited this week because we are officially on the 8th month mark. 

26 Sep: Went to see Dr Ang and most probably this would be the last visit there as we had decided to deliver baby under Dr Tan at KKH. Baby was very cooperative and faced up and Dr Ang managed to get a 3D scan for her. According to baby's position on that day, Dr Ang said that about 90% chance, I am able to deliver baby vaginally. Dr Ang said baby's weight should be between 1.5 kg and 2 kg at 32 weeks. Baby's weight was good! She was approximately 2.14 kg. I felt kind of sad that this would be our last visit to Dr Ang. He had actually helped us quite a bit. I wanted to have a proper closure with him but I just didn't have the courage to do so.

Had a nice dinner and catch up session with my primary school classmates at Westgate. 

27 Sep: Scheduled maternity photoshoot at D'Enfant at Johor Bahru, Malaysia. I was very excited about it. We left our house at 9.30 am as the photoshoot was scheduled to be at 10.30 am. But sometimes things in life are so unpredictable. We met with a massive jam at the Singapore custom and were stuck in the jam for about 2 hours. The jam was due to a malfunction of the system. Yeah talk about efficiency huh. 

We finally reached D'Enfant at 12.30 pm. We were very sorry that we were this late as they had another scheduled photoshoot at 2 pm. However, they were very professional about it and upon our arrival, the makeup artist immediately started putting on my makeup and they had also made arrangement for the other party to come at a later time. 

The makeup artist also helped us mix and match the outfits that we brought along. The photoshoot went on smoothly. To my little surprise, the makeup artist actually changed my hairdo thrice for the 3 different outfits. I thought it was indicated in the package that it was only 1 hairdo. 

Had to wait for 2 weeks to select the photographs.

31 Weeks: Slowing Down and More Relaxation

This week we kind of slowed down on our purchases for baby darling as there will be big scale mummy's fair in October. We are waiting for the fair to get good deals for baby darling.

Went for my regular swim again and I improved by swimming a few more laps than my previous swim. After my swim, we went back to my mum's place and had a nutritious dinner. My mum is a real iron chef! :)

My cough was very persistent and I just kept coughing away when I was at work. Almost cough my lungs out whenever I cough. Too much phlegm and I'm someone who doesn't know how to spit out the phlegm. :(

Finally I couldn't take it and decided to take a day's leave on Thursday to give myself some rest and to go to see a TCM doctor for my persistent cough.

I wouldn't say the food is fantastic, given the price. Among the food that we ordered, I think only the beef tenderloin and creme brulee were good. My aglio olio was such a disappointment! The cheesecake was a little hard.

30 Weeks: Collection of Old Clothes for Baby Darling

According to some Chinese belief, people say newborns need to wear some hands-me-down clothes so that they will grow up and it will be easier to raise them up and handle them. Due to this belief, we decided to collect some old clothes for baby darling though we had bought quite a number of new clothes for her. We went to B's cousin's house to inherit her daughter's old clothes. At the same time, we also took a look at their baby cot which they claimed to be as good as new. However, after seeing the baby cot, I had my reservation to inherit the baby cot. First of all, it wasn't as good as new according to my expectation. Secondly, her daughter suddenly just jumped up onto the cot's side grilled bar and I got a shock. No doubt she had done her "quality check" for us but I'm still pretty concerned with the wear and tear issue. So I told B that we should get a brand new cot for baby darling as anything pertaining to her safety, I do not wish to compromise at all. 

We also went to Ikea to look for cabinets to store baby darling's stuff. But we couldn't find anything that was nice so in the end we bought these plastic storage boxes from Citylife Trend at Giant Supermarket. 

I fell sick again and went to see a GP. He prescribed me the same medicine that I took when I fell sick at 20 weeks. 

But I was not recovering. :( Cough was getting worse. Thanks to 2 chocolate chips cookies that I ate! 

Hope I recover soon! :)

給寶寶的日記第二十八篇

親愛的寶寶，

昨天爸爸吃你的醋了。他說我愛你比愛他還多。可是寶寶，你們兩個我都一樣愛！手心、手背都是肉啊！

寶寶，其實我希望你愛爸爸多一點。我也希望爸爸愛你多一點。

再多幾個星期，我們就能夠看到你了！你也可以看到我們了。你興奮嗎？我們很期待你的到來喔！

寶寶，你的表現很好喲！要繼續努力、加油！要和媽媽一起合作喔！我們一起撐到至少三十八周才讓媽媽分娩，好不好？媽媽在分娩的時候，要和媽媽一起努力、一起加油喔！這樣才能順順利利、平平安安地把你生下來呀，讓你好好的看看這個世界！：）

寶寶，媽媽非常愛你！

29 Weeks: More Items for Baby Darling

This week, we went shopping for baby darling's stuff again. We heard that Baby Hyperstore would be having sales over the weekends. We made a trip down and the objective was to get a car seat and stroller for baby darling. 

We asked the staff for recommendations and she recommended 2 brands: Maxi Cosi and Inglesina. Initially we wanted to save costs and that was to buy a car seat that could accommodate baby from 0 to 4 years old. Then I saw a Maxi Cosi bassinet and stroller set and thought it looked very compact and convenient. After enquiring the price which was $800, it was way too expensive in our opinion. Then I started asking the staff if they have similar combination but at a lower price. She told us that currently they were having this sale and that was if we buy a stroller, we can buy a bassinet at $200. 

B loves the Quinny strollers. He always has. So we asked if there is any Quinny stroller that allows front and back facing and the staff recommended Quinny Zapp Xtra. It is a very light weight stroller and for the first time, I thought it looks nice. Before this, I have always loved Capella strollers. What's more, the price of this Quinny stroller is only at $399. Definitely a steal! As long as we don't choose a design/colour that is this year's collection, we do not need to pay a premium for it. :) We chose rocking black colour (last year's collection) as this is the nicest colour out of the available colours.

As for the bassinet, I personally prefer the Maxi Cosi ones. According to the staff, Maxi Cosi and Quinny are actually from the same company. So any Maxi Cosi bassinet can be attached to any Quinny stroller as long as there is adapter. Well, Quinny Zapp Xtra comes with the adapter so we need not buy separately. As the name suggests, a bassinet generally can only accommodate baby from 0 to 9 months or 12 months (maximum), depending how fast our baby darling grows. By then, we will need to scout for another car seat for her. I asked B if it's too troublesome and we have to spend again for another car seat. His reply came as a surprise. He said actually for those car seats that can accommodate from 0 to 4 years old, the design itself has been compromised. So he thinks that by buying car seat that accommodates to the different stages of baby darling, it's safer and design wise is not compromised. So we chose a red coloured (last year's collections) bassinet for baby darling and I think it matches the rocking black coloured Quinny stroller perfectly. 

Very proud of myself for finding such a good deal. This whole ala carte mix & match combination only costs us $599.

Also we bought 2 bed linen sets for baby darling at $99 each. Each set comes with 2 pillows, 2 bolsters, 1 blanket, 1 bedsheet and 1 bumper. 

I started swimming as I got heavier. Swimming really does help to relieve some of the weight gained. They say regular exercising can help to have a smooth delivery and keep my weight in check.

We also had our routine check up with Dr Tan at KKH on 9th September 2014. We always feel at ease with Dr Tan each time we see him. He always makes us feel very comfortable. On that day, he awarded B to be the most well dressed husband among all his patients' husbands. He's so funny, right? 

After our routine check up, we went to IMM at Jurong East just to shop around. Guess what? Gelare is having 50% off on any waffle every Tuesday! 

We also bought a few story books for baby darling. :)

Praying hard everyday to God that He will give us His blessings for me to carry baby darling to full term at least 38 weeks before I deliver her. Praying for the whole delivery process to be the most natural, most safe, most smooth and most painless one for us. Thank you, Lord! Hallelujah!

28 Weeks: Eventful Week

We went to see Dr Ang for our routine check up on 29th August 2014. Baby was weighing 1.285 kg. According to Dr Ang, baby should weigh around 1 to 1.3 kg at week 28. I seemed to lose 1 kg from my last measurement. 

Dr Ang also briefed us on the costings for the various methods of delivery. We haven't really decided where to deliver.

On 30th August, I met up with 2 BFFs at Marche at Somerset 313. We had a nice catch-up with one another and enjoyed the delicious food offered there. 

Other than those, this week I also bought quite a number of things for baby darling online via Qoo10, especially scarf bibs. I bought a total of 27 scarf bibs for baby. I love scarf bibs as I think it can double up as an accessory. Hope baby darling likes it too! :)

Baby darling, daddy and mummy are really prepping ourselves to welcome your arrival! :) Everything that we had bought for you is always bought with lots of ♡.  We hope you will love every little gift that we had bought for you. God bless and love you! :)

27 Weeks: Maternity & Newborn Photoshoot Booked

I've been scouting for maternity and newborn photoshoot packages as I want to capture these beautiful moments of my pregnancy and baby's newborn look and expressions. I had enquired a few and finally I signed up the maternity and newborn photoshoot packages with D'Enfant in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. This studio was first introduced to me back in 2012 when my ex boss brought his family members over there and the quality of work was fantastic! I love the studio setup and the photography style, mainly using natural lighting.

However, after signing up the packages, it kind of dawned on me that how I am going to get baby darling's passport done within 2 weeks after her birth and whether it is safe to bring her over to Johor Bahru since she's still so young and her immune system may not be that strong yet as they were saying for newborn looks, it's best to capture them within the first 2 weeks. But I'd signed the package and placed the deposit. If I were to cancel the package, I'll have to forfeit the deposit. 

Over the weekends, there was a Super Mom Bazaar at Suntec City Mall. As we were walking around, I chanced upon this Korean photography studio called BabyU. I took a look at their works and I love it a lot. Again I'm in love with the natural settings, lighting and soft touch of the photos. They were having promotion and the package cost $130 $99 upon signing up at the booth. For more details of the packages, please go to: Baby U International Photo Studio

I signed this up as a backup plan. But in the end, I realised I made the right choice to sign because at least this studio is based in Singapore and its location is very near to where I am staying. I believe bringing baby out for a short while within a short distance, it should be fine. 

At the bazaar, we also bought a play mat and a carrier with hipster seat for baby darling. It turned out that the carrier's brand is from Korea. Looks like I'm a Korean infatuated mama! Haha!

We were deciding between Ergo Baby carrier and this I-Angel carrier. We had decided to go for this hipster seat carrier as it is more ergonomic for baby darling and us. At least some of baby's weight will be transferred to the hipster seat and it won't be that strenuous on our shoulders and back when we carry her around. 

At the same time, I'd also booked a postnatal massage package done by a Malay masseur. Her charges are quite cheap as compared to others. 7 sessions at $450. She will be using lemongrass oil to massage from head to toe and then apply Jamu paste or ginger lotion on the tummy and use a binding cloth to wrap my tummy for at least 6 hours. The purpose of doing this postnatal massage is to help to push the uterus back in place after giving birth and also to aid in slimming down. 

Baby darling, we are all so excited about you! Love you lots! :)

26 Weeks: Tracking Baby's Movement

Ever since that Friday where I felt less of baby's movement, I began to track her movements everyday since the beginning of week 26. 

Nurse told me that as long as baby moves 8 to 10 times within 12 hours, she is fine. As troublesome as it might seem to be, I actually enjoy tracking her movements. I can actually see a pattern forming like when she's very active and when she's sleeping.

Baby darling, words are not able to describe how much love I have for you! I just want you to be well, to be healthy, to be normal, to be strong, to be safe and to be happy everyday. I hope I am able to raise you to be a useful person, someone who is of high integrity, perseverance, disciplined and passionate in whatever things that you do. I love you, darling! :)

25 Weeks: Our First National Day with You

Dearest baby darling,

9th August is Singapore's 49th birthday! This is the first time we are celebrating this special occasion with you. Though you are still growing inside mama, we can feel your excitement that this is our country's big day!

Papa and mama hope that you will be a good citizen and do your part to contribute to society in every way you can. 

On a side note, on 8th August, mama had a scare as I didn't feel you much throughout the day. So after our antenatal class at KKH, we decided to check you out. We went to the delivery suite and the nurse asked mama to go into a room where they monitored your heartbeat. It is always such a relief to hear your galloping heartbeat. We were in the room for about half an hour. After that, a doctor came to us and did a scan for you. There you were kicking mama, but somehow I did not feel anything. After much assurance from the doctor that you are doing well, I got discharged. 

Baby darling, please continue to stay strong and mama has been praying to God to watch over you and protect you from any harm. 

Papa and mama love you a lot! :)

24 Weeks: Routine Check Ups

Officially on the 6 months mark. Happy! On the first day of this week, we had an appointment with Dr Lawrence Ang and we had decided to sign up his antenatal package, which only costs about $550 and this amount can be offset from all the previous amounts that I had paid for the impromptu visits. Dr Ang delivers at either Thomson Medical Centre or Mount Alvernia Hospital. On the other hand, we have our primary gynae, Dr Tan Heng Hao at KKH. Kind of in a dilemma which hospital to deliver our baby darling and also under which gynae's hands.

At Dr Ang's clinic on 1 Aug 2014, baby darling was good and he offered to do  a 3D scan for us but too bad, baby darling was in the bridge position which he couldn't do the 3D scan. He said he would try again on the next visit. Baby weighed about 872g on that day.

On 5 Aug 2014, we had another appointment with our primary gynae, Dr Tan at KKH. Baby was good too and according to Dr Tan, baby weighed about 800 plus grams. However, Dr Tan looked kind of tired and restless on that day and he wasn't as chatty as he used to be. My urine tested that my glucose level was slightly on the high side but maybe due to I had just drunk a cup of hot honey lemon prior to testing my urine. Time to keep my glucose level in check.

Nonetheless, I am very happy that everything is good. Looking forward to seeing you, baby darling in November! Daddy and mummy love you lots and God loves you lots too! :)

23 Weeks: Baby Darling's Move Simply Mesmerise Me

23 weeks here we come! The feeling of having a life growing inside me is simply AMAZING! I guess this is something that the husband will never ever get to experience unless God has decided to design for men to be pregnant one day instead. 

As baby darling is growing bigger each day, I can feel her movements more and one of the nights, I managed to capture her in action! I'm definitely so thrilled to see her in action. :)

Baby darling, I love you so so so much! :)

22 Weeks: New Clothes for Baby Darling

I am getting more and more tired easily. We also have started buying some new clothes for baby. Most of them are 0-3 months sleep suits and rompers. We have scouted for a stroller but Grandma M dissuades us to buy now because she feels that we should only get the stroller after baby is delivered. I can feel her movements more this week.

Baby darling, daddy and mummy love you lots! :)

Letter #27 to Baby Darling

Dearest Baby Darling, 

Daddy and mummy can really feel you move now! We are just so excited and happy! It's so amazing! 

You are a strong baby and daddy also praises you that you are a no nonsense baby. 

We have also decided on your name! Aren't you just as excited as we are? 

Yesterday, we went to buy a few clothes for you and you were kicking so excitedly! We are going to have more things for you! :) 

Baby, we love you a lot and we are so so looking forward to your arrival in November! :)

21 Weeks: Baby is moving moving!

This week I am feeling baby's movement more. I am so thrilled and happy to feel her. Papa B is very excited too! He touches my tummy and starts talking to baby darling. :) It's just so touching to see B engaging with baby darling. He told me he can feel the presence of baby darling now. 

We have also started buying stuffs to prepare for our darling's arrival. Breast pump, warmer, portable warmer, steriliser and milk bottles bought. More stuff to be bought soon. 

We are also attending prenatal classes to equip ourselves the skills to take good care of baby and our first lesson will start tomorrow! Yeah! :)

An observation made when we were buying stuffs for baby. I kind of get turn off when I see pinky stuffs. Haha! 

Baby darling, please continue to grow well, healthily, normally, strongly, steadily and safely everyday. 

God, please continue to watch over our baby darling, protect her from any harm and bless her to grow well, healthily, normally, strongly, steadily and safely everyday! Amen!

20 Weeks: White Discharge is Infection

On Saturday, KKH called and informed me that the white discharge was some fungus infection. It wasn't anything serious and will not harm our baby. We went to KKH to take the prescription. The medicine is some kind of pressaries to be inserted into the vagina.

I really hope there is no such pain episode anymore till I deliver our baby darling. It really scared the hell out of me. I pray to God to protect our baby darling from any harm. We love you lots baby darling! Please stay strong for yourself and us okie?

We can really feel baby's movement this week. She is relatively active in the night. :)

20 Weeks: What Happened?

Yes I am now midway through my whole journey and yesterday marked the beginning of my 20 weeks. 

I woke up, took my weekly bump photo and went to work as usual. I felt a sudden, sharp and acute pain at my lower abdomen in office and it was contant and lasted for an hour plus. I even had difficulty walking. I tried walking to the toilet to check. There was no bleeding and I urinated as per normal. I cried in my office and my colleagues were very concerned. I called B to come and fetch me. My colleagues even wheeled me to B who took my car. 

We went to KKH O&G. The female doctor who saw me was very young. She didn't do an ultrasound. She only used a doppler to hear baby's heartbeat. She took quite a while before she could capture baby's heartbeat as baby was moving and turning a lot. She also checked my cervix. There was no bleeding, no water leaking but there were quite a lot of white discharge according to the doctor. She took a specimen of the white discharge for further examination as she was worried that there might be infection. She also prescribed me utrogestan to support the pregnancy and paracetamol for pain. She gave me 4 days of mc to rest. She commented sometimes it could be due to uterus expanding that caused the pain. She termed my case as a threatened miscarriage.

However I need a reassurance from someone experienced. I requested to see Dr Tan but for KKH, it is always difficult to see him if we do not have prior appointment. So we went to Dr Ang. He did an ultrasound for me and baby was fine. He commented that baby's position is a bit low but the placenta is not. The pain could also be due to muscles stretching. He did not check my cervix since KKH had done it for me. However from the ultrasound, he could see that the cervix is closed. Water bag is good. Womb is soft which is good because if it's hardened, contraction will kick in. What he doesn't want is the intermittent pain. He asked me to rest and monitor. If the pain doesn't come back after resting for a few days, then I can resume my normal activities. 

Lord, please continue to watch over our baby darling and protect her from any harm. Please continue to bless her to grow well, healthily, normally, strongly, steadily and safely everyday. In your most precious name, Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen!

19 Weeks: Detailed Scan

Baby is amazing today! The sonographer could scan everything except baby's spine as baby needs to be in the facing down position. My baby always like to lie on her back which is good for the sonographer to scan most of her parts. Then the sonographer said if she cannot scan baby's spine today, we will have to come back next week to scan the spine as she can't let us walk around and scan again as we have an appointment with Dr Tan and we will miss it. Upon hearing that, baby turned and face downwards and let the sonographer scan her spine. So we told the sonographer that baby must have heard us and she doesn't want us to waste one more trip down. We also told the sonographer that baby has been a very obedient and cooperative baby. I didn't really have much morning sickness. Today the sonographer said 80% baby is a girl. She said cannot see 小弟弟. If that's the case, why is it not 100% sure? Haha! Anyway in my detailed scan report, it is reported that gender of baby is female. Dr Tan said baby is very healthy and everything is normal. DH and I are very happy to hear that! :) Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!

To have a baby girl is God's will for us. We will gladly accept it. I thank God everyday for bringing baby darling into our life. It's amazing everyday to have a little life growing inside me! :) 

Baby darling, we love you lots lots lots to infinity! :) 

18 Weeks: Still No Sign of Recovery

After taking medicine for two days, I was paranoid and worried about baby darling. I decided to just walk in to my backup gynae and have a check on baby.

Baby was fine and gynae could see that I was pretty sick and gave me another 3 days of MC. 

My sickness got worse when I woke up the next day and I decided to visit the GP again. This time round, he changed my medication and prescribed me antibiotics. 

My nose was very congested and I kept blowing it until my nose bled. 

I really prayed that my sickness will recover soon as I do not wish my sickness to drag any longer to avoid affecting baby. 

17 Weeks: Falling Sick

I had been sick since 18 June and I am not recovering. On Sunday, 22 June when my mother-in-law saw me, she commented that I looked quite sick and asked me to see a doctor and off I went to see the doctor. GP prescribed me Piriton, Dhasedyl and Trachisan and gave me 2 days MC. I wanted to fight the bugs and recover by myself without taking any medication as i was worried the medication might affect baby's health but I failed to recover by myself.

Basically the next two days, I was just sleeping and sleeping and only waking up to eat and take medicine. 

16 Weeks: Baby's Growth

On 10 Jun, we went to see Dr Tan at KKH for our routine scan. It was one of the most funny consultation that we had. All because it started from DH's wearing a coat and thinking how to go about asking Dr Tan the embarrassing question, "is having sex safe during pregnancy?"

During the scan, Dr Tan commented that baby was measuring at about 10 cm. I was actually a bit worried because at 15 weeks, we went to see Dr Ang and baby was measuring at 9.59 cm. In another words, baby only grew 0.5 cm in a week which I thought it was a bit slow. Baby should be about 11 cm according to the baby's growth chart at 16 weeks. 

God, I really pray that baby will continue to grow healthily, normally, strongly, steadily and safely everyday.