Week 27 - Hiccups at home

November 7, 2005 · Posted in Pregnancy, gathering · 6 Comments 

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We had a nice start to the long break ahead by having some visitors in our almost-there organized apartment on Saturday morning.

They are a couple with 3 lovely daughters, around 9, 7 and 2 (if I’m not wrong) and we got a glimpse into the future of how our home would be with a kid in it.

The first thing our friends said was how clean and neat (HA, HA, HA!!!!) our apartment was and I was debating about showing them the before photos. Oh well, we can redeem our dirty reputations later… I wanted to be a good host and thought of what to prepare to receive our young visitors. We had lots of chocolates, cookies and chips at hand but their Mum may not want to encourage that, right? So, I decided to play it safe with just Ribena, PowerPuff Girls plastic cups and raisins and dried apricots.

First, I decided to tune myself into kiddy world by watching some kiddy programs. We don’t subscribe to Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon etc but thankfully TV3 had Care Bears and then Barney on. The no. and frequency of junk food ads that came on during those shows were enough to make me stay off that channel forever!

When they arrived, these kids immediately asked me if I had the very channels I didn’t have. “Aiyah, auntie, why you don’t have Cartoon Network one???” they wailed. “I don’t watch them mah but I got ice-cold Ribena in the fridge?” I had three satisfied customers again and my points went up when they saw the PowerPuff Girls cups. Phew!

Of course, the 2 little girls chose the IKEA stools to sit on but the baby was smart to conquer the comfy sofa. What was fascinating though was that the things we didn’t dream kids would play with ended up being the very items they latched on: footstools, our letter holder and the box the remote controls rested in!

They were angels during the first half hour they were there since the TV, Ribena and cookies kept their attention. After that, they wanted to sit on the couch but the baby wanted to hold on to her personal space and so we had some determined girls hanging on to a miserable corner and the baby stretching out her feet to keep them off and screaming for her Daddy loudly…in other words, PANDEMONIUM.

Then, the baby spilled some Ribena on the couch (aaagghhh!) and her horrified Mum panically wiped it off. It wasn’t too bad and the covers were due for a wash anyway but I’m flabbergasted by the frenzied activity and din that broke out after a peaceful half and hour. We sure have a lot of getting-used to once the baby is here…

This week, I’ve been feeling a lot of baby hiccups in my belly - a strange but true phenomenon. It feels as if there’s a rapid heartbeat in your stomach that lasts for a few minutes but some mothers don’t experience it at all. Our baby gets it at least three times a day! I think someone is enjoying his beverages a bit too much inside there!!!

BABY NOTES: Your baby’s growing steadily as he prepares for her grand entrance. This week he weighs almost 2 pounds and measures about 14.4 inches from the top of her head to the bottom of his feet. He’s acting more like a newborn now, opening and closing his eyes, sleeping and waking at regular intervals, and maybe sucking a finger. He may also be hiccupping, which you’ll notice as little rhythmic sensations in your belly. You may start to get leg cramps, especially when you’re lying in bed at night. Stretching your calf and flexing your foot should bring some relief. Your baby now weighs about 2 pounds and measures around 13.5 inches from head to toe. You know how your skin looks after you have been in water for 30 minutes, think about your baby’s wrinkled skin! Your baby is fortunately protected from exposure to amniotic fluid by vernix. This white, fatty substance coats the body and protects the skin from long exposure to this fluid. Without vernix, 40 weeks would make your baby a very wrinkled little prune indeed!

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Week 22 - Hectic weekend and week

October 3, 2005 · Posted in Pregnancy, family · Comment 


It was a real hectic week for Papa and me and to quote the familiar line from run-of-the-mill sekolah menengah (high school) English essays, “…we were tired but happy.”

THE FAMILY
For the record, I do not belong to the Mafia but this was meeting up with my maternal Ahma (grandma), aunties and uncles. I’ve not seen them for more than a year so it was great catching up over delicious Chinese food.

I find it kind of weird to be the one going on to be a Mum coz I’m so used to being the kid everyone would ask, “So, how’s your studies? Or so you’re working now? And then, wah, got boyfriend already? To oh, now you’re married, can give angpow to these jokerslah!”

I miss my Grandma a lot as this gentle, kind, easygoing lady who’s going on 90 took care of me as a baby and later as a gangly pre-teen. I remember those times she’d holler and holler for me to stop running around, stop counting the rice grains and just get on with lunch. Looking at my size now, she must be thinking,

“Haiya…waste my breathe running after this kid only! Should have just sit and relax - she’s not skinny and undernourished anymore!”

The short trip didn’t give me a chance to meet up with any of my cousins so hopefully we’d be able to do that on our next visit. We had another spanking good weekend with my fav uncle coz we went to church, IKEA and also KLCC together, gabbing and laughing all the way.

One of the fun meals was at California Kitchen where we split a large Caesar salad, he had Kong Po spaghetti, regular spaghetti bolognaise for me and carne asado (barbecued beef) pizza for Raph. The helpings were huge so we couldn’t manage dessert this time.

I was here the last time with this uncle and because he’s a young, dashing looking chap (ahem, ahem! if YOU are reading this), the waiters thought we were on a date and kepoh kepoh (nosily helpful??) brought us our ice-cream sundaes in a combined bowl with 2 spoons!

We felt sorry for them as the girl literally glowed with Cupid’s brilliance when she brought the bowl to us only to hear instant cackling laughter from this ‘lovely couple’ and,

“He’s not my boyfriend!!! He’s my uncle!!!”

I think it did not help her either that these two cruel beings continued laughing as she backed off bashfully and the ice cream melted. All in all, it was still a delicious sundae with butterscotch topping! MMMMMM

THE WEDDING
With specific instructions and guidance, we managed to get to Tropicana Club in time. We immediately laughed when we saw the groom dressed in traditional Hong Kong attire, complete with the skull cap!

The only thing missing was the red bobble on his chest but he maintained this suave look through the company of his two henchmen cum bodyguard, both in the Chinese kung fu shirts also.

These guys looked like they’d jumped off ‘The Bund’ movie set and I expected to hear Frances Yip belting out, “Loooooong pan!!!” in a while…

The bride was beautiful in her kua (pic on the right from ChinaSprout) matching shoes and styled hair. She looked really elegant in the kua, which is quite hard to come by, especially with the Phoenix crown - this weighs a ton and a fake one made of styrofoam just would not do (!).

Even though I’ve been to scores of weddings, the beautiful brides always makes me stand in awe as they are really resplendent with their glowing faces, shining eyes and happy smiles.

Being in the room with her was also a reunion among the four of us, and I can’t even remember how the four of us from different majors flocked together in our first year in-campus residency.

Maybe our antennas were all tuned into to the wavelength frequency of food/supper, chit-chat and boys then ;-) I’ve been through some really GREAT times with these three wonderful girls and *hopefully* we’ll have many more memories to cherish together as we move on to our next stages. PY - will your wedding be our next reunion??

THE SHOPPING
We were confident that in the hallowed halls of IKEA we would find everything that would fit our house and budget. And since we had managed to make a quick stroll through it on Sat night, we thought we could just come by on Sun afternoon or Mon morning and just grabbed all we needed. Of course, this was not meant to be although we were pleased to find the furniture we saw in the catalogues available.

We also enjoyed a nice snack of the Svedish meatballs and went about the aisles with our shopping list. We managed to grab the kitchen shelf I wanted, marked the aisle nos. of the TV cabinet until we reached the end of the store where you pick up the big items.

Shipping itself costs over RM500 while the set we chose is about RM1,000 (worth of compressed wood by the way) so we found it ridiculous that the freight is 50% of the furniture cost.

After some contemplation, we decided to squash the IKEA idea into the RECYCLED paper bin and went to enjoy a soft ice-cream cone instead. With some luck, I’m sure we’ll be able to find a decent TV cabinet set of solid Malaysian wood that’s equal to the IKEA set + transport charges.

When we got back and rushed to Tesco for our weekly groceries, I spotted a nice set of curtains for the baby’s room. Although it says not to open the wrapper, this naughty Mummy couldn’t resist but I’m glad I did because it’s PERFECT - air balloons float on a bright blue sky, pretty daisies scatter the ground, a farmhouse in the background and some cute little sheep dotting the grass. In the case that our baby turns out to be a girl and not a boy, it’s still neutral enough to go both ways! Hee hee!
To recap our modified to-do list:
a. baby’s room
- install an air cond.
- paint room
- get curtains (DONE)
- get crib, bath tub, pram, car seat (maybe later?), supplies and other little bits.
b. make new curtains & cushion covers
c. paint the hall, rooms and doors
d. get more shelves for the kitchen - got a metal shelf for kitchen (DONE)
e. get more storage for the hall and study
f. finish revisions on thesis
g. organize and develop trip photos - make notes before our memories fail us

So, to report on our progress: we’ve only managed to get the kitchen shelf and the baby’s room curtains. PANT, PANT, PANT…only 4 months to go and the clock is ticking fast!!!

BABY NOTES: The baby is probably close to a pound and very thin but very developed. The eyelids and eyebrows are now formed, and the brain begins rapid growth. If your baby is a boy, his testes have begun their descent from the pelvis to the scrotum.

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Week 18 - Old friends, new ties

September 5, 2005 · Posted in Pregnancy · 2 Comments 

For the past few months, we’ve had the fun of bumping/reconnecting with old friends and catching up on the latest gossip about each other.

The Koreans
First was meeting with this wonderful Korean family twice while shopping for groceries at Cold Storage. It’s amazing how this came about as I had lost touch with them for the past 3-4 years due to busy lives and when I couldn’t find their phone number, I’d tried ways and means to track them down without success. Guess we got a little help from above…

I’d met them during my uni days when I wanted to earn some pocket money giving English tuition. Somehow, the agency matched me with them and it blossomed into a close friendship, and we were spoiled many times by Ms Han’s delicious Korean dishes. My favorites are kimchi (white cabbage pickle-photo at top right), chap jae (fried cellophane noodles-photo at left) and bulgogi (BBQ beef wrapped with lettuce and sauces) are some of my favorites. Anyone who has not tried Korean food should check these, pa joen (omelette) and their Korean ginseng chicken soup (sam gye tang). Mmm…

Her little toddler has now blossomed into a pretty young girl and she is also joined by her 2 sisters. It’s amazing how fast people’s lives change over time can - no wonder people snap their fingers all the time!

The Indonesians
Another group is my cute former Indonesian students. This little group is one of the most vivacious, friendlist and nicest students I’ve ever had in my class. It’s also amazing how they’ve kept in touch with each other over the years because they’d formed a group as part of the class assignment in 1999. I’d only met up with one but the others have been good with letters, emails, photos and also chats.

To me, they feel like my kids grown up because they were 14-16 year old munchkins back then, blossoming into pretty young ladies when they graduated. Now, they are mostly back in Indonesia where one of them is married and pregnant, some are in relationships with marriage plans in the works and some are still swinging singles enjoying life.

The Malaysians
Sometimes, you’re surprised more often than not at how small the world is, esp Penang. Last year, one of my uni friends married one of my high school friends. Then, when I changed jobs, I got in touch again with some of my former high school friends. ANYWAY, this happy couple told me that one of my three friends in uni had announced she was getting married soon. Incidentally, she (KL) is marrying the friend (Penang) of a friend of ours (Melaka)!

While they were in town to distribute their wedding invitations, we got together for dinner and again caught up with whatever each of us has been up to the past few years. That was quite a walk down memory lane and their upcoming wedding will be another occasion to continue and also catch up with the other group…wow! We sure are looking forward to that…

The other Malaysians
This refers to my previous post on the farewell gathering with Shilla and Adele. I haven’t seen them for more than 6 months though we’ve kept somewhat in touch in between. As mentioned, although the farewell was slightly tinged with sadness at the move of a friend, it was a nice opportunity to get updates on each other’s life and goings-on. Hopefully, we’ll meet up again in the near future.

The Malaysians-turned-Singaporeans
This is my best friend in high school who married another friend and then moved on to Singapore. The only times we’ve managed to see each other is either online or at Christmas or her son’s birthday party. This time around, she was asked by her little boy to celebrate his 4th birthday (!!!) and so it turned out to be a good opportunity for us to get together.

Again, I’m blown over by how fast kids grow up though we seem to remain the same (of course we grow older and often times wider!). Lots of gabbing going on and we had fun watching my friend’s acting debut on Singapore TV….it was quite a decent role with speaking lines. Watch out, Hollywood!

Yesterday, we bumped into another old friend and there are plans now brewing for a meeting, with hopefully a happy and fruitful consequence! Mua ha ha… ;-)

BABY NOTES: As for size, your baby is about 7 ounces, and is almost 8inches from head to toe. 5 1/2 inches long if your measure is crown to rump - about the size of a pickle. If you notice your belly making jerky movements in syncdon’t panic, your baby has the hiccups! The hiccups areharmless for baby but can get annoying for mom if they lastfor a long period of time.Your baby’s digestive system is starting to produce meconiumyour baby’s first fecal matter. Some new moms get scared at the sight of it, thinking something must be wrong with their baby.

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