Triple test…

One of the most scary things for pregnant women to go through, besides the actual labour process (needless to say), is all the prenatal tests, or rather say is the tough time while waiting for test result..

The blood test carried out around my 16th week (about 4 weeks before the full scan blogged by Win below..), is the so called "Triple Test" (we nearly forgot to blog about this for some reason). Basically the result of this test will show if a mother is at either high-risk or low-risk for having a baby with a birth defect (such as Down Syndrome, Edward Syndrome, etc). It is only about 70% accurate, normally high-risk patients are then referred for other tests like an amniocentesis to receive a more accurate diagnosis.

We visited Dr Lim on a Sat morning as usual. After the routine checkup in his room, I was asked to review and sign on a consent form for the triple test, the details of it, I could not recall at all. After which, Winson followed me to another laboratory right outside the clinic. A lady (not sure a nurse or doctor anyway) brought up a tray with tourniquet(the rubber strap to be secured above the vein), needle and tubes. Without knowing much about what's going on exactly, the needle was already inserted into my vein and she started collecting my blood sample.

Win was standing right in front of me and I guess either his tolerance level for pain is really low, or he simply cannot stand it when seeing blood being drawn out from my vein, his face just changed and looked so tortured while at the same time, I did not really feel a thing.. I immediately decided that he is only allowed to stand behind my head during my labour. I am 100% sure that he cannot "tahan" the whole process.. The lady was not surprised at his reaction at all, she must have seen many husbands reacting like this before.. Haha.. She just carried on the casual talk with me and even explained to me how the "vacuum blood tube" works. Looks quite interesting, haha it stops drawing the blood automatically once the tube is full. (Err.. or maybe I am just too outdated to find this interesting??).. After the blood draw, I was advised to hold and press the cotton ball placed on the puncture site but not to rub it, or else it will cause bruise. That is really new to me.. Haha…

Then, here comes.. the long wait…
I was told to wait for the result which will be posted to me in a week's time (provided the result is all good). And they will give me a buzz if there's anything wrong with the test result. Throughout the week I had to look at my hp every few seconds and pray for not being called up.. Okay that sounds a bit exaggerated but seriously, I bet I've never realized that my hp can be so important to me at any point of my life time. So you can imagine how excited I was on the 5th day, when I found the Tow Yung Clinic envelop in my letter box. I am so grateful that they printed the clinic name and logo on their envelop itself..

And here's the final result:
With all the scientific jargons that we could never understand, but the graphic is really self-explanatory and basically shows that I do not belong to the high risk group..

But still.. more tests to come..
And what I realized is, for parents-to-be, no need to worry too much about your foetus because no matter how, there's nothing you can do about the result and worrying is not going to make things any better.. SO… BE POSITIVE!!!

p/s: saying is easy, but I am still feeling super anxious everytime before the checkup appointment.. and that feeling can really last for a few days.. -_-!! Luckily Win is always there for me.. *sob sob*.. so touched..

Baby Chan in full...=P

*Note: Sorry about the late post... Just came back from reservist and having writer's block... lol

It was April Fool's Day when we were scheduled for a full scan for Baby Chan. On the full scan day, things are slightly different. After checking in, we had to make our way to another part of the building for the full scan. So out the exit of the usual Tow Yung Clinic we went and just ahead and left... into another unit, owned by Tow Yung too.

We were greeted by a nurse who usherd us into the room where she nested Feli into the seat while I hovered around the room, scruntinzing the different instruments that were lying on the doctor's desk. Before long, Dr Lim. appeared... but not the usual one who examined Baby Chan, this was Dr Lim Lean Soon (mmehhh... do all doctors go by the same family name?). Dr Lim Lean Soon looked a decade younger than our usual Dr Lim Teck Chye, but spoke in the same gentle tone. So he started the scan with the usual generous supply of gel on Feli's belly and carefully placed the scanner on her and magically, Baby Chan was on the monitor. haha... the active little baby is kicking around in Feli's womb, Dr Lim asked if Feli could feel it and when she said no she couldn't, Dr Lim simply laughed and murmured that probably those kicking were still too small and gentle.

The full scan took quite a while... about half and hour or so. During which he projected Baby Chan on the monitor in every angle conceivable. Fortunately, Baby Chan was cooperative enough to make the scan as fast as possible by moving into the correct positions for Dr Lim to take a quick camera shot and slowly explain each snapshot to us. "This is the left ventricle of the heart, this is the aoeta... " reminds me of my biology class back in secondary school... so much so that I started mumbling the terms to myself, and a curious Dr Lim paused midway through just to ask me what profession I was in... heh... I sure wish I was a doctor...=P... well, at least the pay is good I presume...


So snapshot after snapshot, biological terms after biological terms, we were going through a mundane process of listening to his macro-like explanations, until suddenly, Dr Lim, zoomed in on one particular snapshot and congratulated us. Puzzled, we took a longer stare at the image and then realised... Baby Chan is MR. Baby Chan ~!... wheeeee~...took us quite a while to realised it was his privates that we were looking at. Okay... at least now we know the baby's gender, something that everyone have been asking but we were answerless due to his shyness all this while...=P

The next image that mesmerised us was that of Baby Chan's beautiful spine. The long line of proportionally shaped bone cartilages, evenly spaced out and arched so prettily that I believe that no man can ever piece out such an art. As the knowledge that all this 'architecture' was happening in Feli's womb just makes me think that she is simply the most amazing.

At the end of the scan. Dr Lim sat down with his nurse and wrote down a whole bunch of notes in the classic doctor's handwriting and then passed us a CD with the recordings of the entire scanning process (!!... apparantly they are the only ones who provide such a service)

And the report came back to us... well... was too wordy for me to wanna read through in details. Only need to look at the "Comments" part to see the interesting stuff...=P


Oh.. and after the full scan, we did go back to Dr Lim Teck Chye to schedule the next appointment and also to answer more of Feli's questions.

Q1) It is safe to paint the house during pregnancy?
A1) Yesh it is~

Q2) Can Feli go to Manicure and Pedicure and Perm/Rebond her hair?
A2.1) Dr Lim: "Yes she can..."
A2.2) Daddy Chan: *checks bank account*..."Yes she can..."

*Note: The above Q&A is just comments from our memories. Please consult your personal Gynae for advices... (excluding the financial advices..=P )

Mummy Chan's Nightmare

On Feb 23rd, 4am in the morning, I woke up as usual(pregnant lady needs to wake up a few times at night due to frequent urination..), then something disastrous happened -- I found myself BLEEDING!!

It was not the pinkish or brownish kind of color, but the fresh red color of blood! I was totally freaked out!!!

Earlier that evening, we were having a food tasting session with the family for Wilson and Lucretia(Winson's brother and sis-in-law)'s upcoming wedding banquet. During the dinner, I drank a glass of red wine and a bit of white wine also. I am fully aware that I should stay away from alcohol, but Lu's sister who is a nurse and a mother of two told me that red wine is good for baby and I could just drink a little bit. So the first thing I could think of was, is that because of the red wine?? I couldn't think more but started talking to my poor little baby: "dear are you okie? did mummy do anything wrong? Mummy promise you that I will not do that again but can you promise mummy that you will be strong and healthy??..."

I heard about a mother-to-be lost her child when she was in her 8th month. I suddently felt the pinch. I remember during our Australia trip, I even told my mother that if a miscarriage happened to me, I think I can take it, because maybe it means that me and my baby just have no "yuan fen".. But at that very moment, I was 100% sure that I could not take it at all, and I do not want to lose my baby, he's been inside me for 3 months already and he's a true life. Just a week ago, we were assured by Dr Lim that our baby is perfectly fine, and I have passed my 1st trimester so now everything should be stablised. But why? Why I experienced bleeding out of sudden then? I woke up Win (for a moment I was wondering if I should do that since I might scare him and make things even worse), he kept telling me not to worry and things will be fine. He even turned on the computer and started reading on topics about "bleeding during pregnancy".. We finanlly decided to wait for another 2 hours as we thought it might be too early to wake up Dr Lim. We tried to grab a nap and woke up at 6am to give Dr Lim a buzz. His nurse picked up the hotline and told me that Dr Lim will get back to me in a while. 20 minutes later, my phone rang and Dr Lim called me with his cellphone. He told me to go down to hospital if my bleeding continues badly, or else just see him at his clinic at 9:40am.

I checked that my bleeding seemed to stop at that time, so we waited patiently for another few hours, then there we were, at Dr Lim's clinic on a Monday morning. On our way to clinic, we kept talking to each other and telling each other that it will not be too serious and our baby is definitely able to pull through this. I told Win that I was not nervous, not scared.. But my high blood pressure of 148 clearly showed how bad my feeling was.. Dr Lim looked very concerned but he still greeted me calmly with his friendly smile.. This time he immediately did a physical check on my cervix (I only did this during my first 2 visits, thereafter he has been using transducer to scan my abdomen area which is known as the usual ultrasound, I thought I will never need a physical check like this as it really causes slight discomfort).. But it all worth the pain as he straight away pointed out that the bleeding was caused by my "cervical polyp" - a small tumor in my cervix. Some pregnant women have that and usually it disappears by itself after delivery. I guess mine just gets bigger and Dr Lim said he will do a small operation to pull it out if my bleeding continues after 2 weeks. After that he did a normal ultrasound scan, and I felt a total relief when he pointed to me that there was no blood in my womb at all..

My blood pressure dropped right away to 120, and I told myself, as long as our baby is healthy, be it that I have to suffer from frequent bleeding, or an operation to remove the polyp, I am all fine with it..

So here we have the scan from that day, probably my fave scan of all those taken thus far.

Valentine's Day Surprise to AiYaH!

Coincidentally, it was valentine's day on our next visit to Dr Lim's clinic. As usual, it was a 30 minute wait for a 5 minute consultation. But, this visit was special because Feli's first trimester is over..^_^... and Dr Lim happily announced to us that Baby Chan is well and healthy and from experience, predicts that Baby Chan is Mr. Baby Chan... LoL...

Immediately all my talks with Feli on how to raise a boy (as opposed to raising a girl) starts to flood my mind. Basketball vs Soccer? Guitar vs Piano? Army before tertiary education vs Army after tertiary education? etc etc... then realisation hit me... Damn... I'll be having a competitor for my PS3 and PC... (LoL)... but nonsense aside, I was damn happy to know that Baby Chan is happy and healthy and on his(as predicted by Dr Lim) merry way to making a grand entrance into the lives of Feli and mine.

The clinic visit ended quite early so we decided to walk over to East Ocean Restaurant for a simple Dim Sum breakfast. And it was during this breakfast that we finally broadcasted this joyful news to the rest of our friends.

Why wait till now and not tell others earlier? Well, lets just say I pan dang (superstitious) lah... lol... The elder generation keep reminding us that we should not be telling other about baby until at least after the first 3 months (aside from direct family members). We know of a few couples around us who defied this superstition and ended up having unfortunate miscarriages... *shudder*... That coupled with the fact that it isn't that hard to keep shut about it for 3 months, we decided to follow along with the advice given.

A total of 17 sms (hmm... i need to have more friends) was sent out to 17 of my best friends (Zai, Yong, Shifu, Yeo, Zhao Xue, Jian, Huiting, H.B., Nicole, Joe, Alicia, Liang, Celine, Zheng, Jun Jun, Beishan, Siew Ern,... hope i counted correctly and didn't leave out anyone). We received so many well-wishes that our breakfast was interrupted between each mouthful...

*memo to self: send out sms only after finishing breakfast in the future*

So Yeah~! to us and Yeah~! to a happy baby

When Daddy Chan meets Dr Lim...

It was 17th Jan 2009 and my first visit to the Gynae (wow.. it has been 3 months now already), naturally I was curious just how the experience was like. Thankfully from my place, I could take an express bus to Orchard and take a leisurely stroll down to Tanglin Shopping Centre.

The place was not too bad, comfy with lotsa seats strewn against every wall in sight, except for one which houses a fish tank full of parrot fish (I swear they smile at you when looking straight at you in the face... lol).

It wasn't Feli's first visit. So she knows the rules. Placing her appointment booklet in a little slot just at the counter, she proceeded with her weight checkups and some other checkups (which I have no idea cos it happens in another room). But with that done, she came around and sat be me as I browse through the daily papers and the outdated magazines.

So came our turn to met the doc. The nurse ushered us into the room and assisted Feli onto a seat in preparation for her scan. As the process was done behind curtains, I was free to survey the Dr Lim's room. There was this eeriely realistic model of a foetus encased in a glass block that served as a giant paperweight on his shelf, but the pleasantries of baby photos everywhere else eased things. What drew my attention most was a pin board where there were plentiful photos and thank you cards, all in the name of Dr Lim from his previous patients. Some boys, some girls, some asians, some not... but one common experience that all these beautiful children have was that the very first contact that their delicate skin had was with the hands of this wonderful man...

Before long, Dr Lim came rolling in on his armchair from the other room, made some courtesy small talks and then began doing the scan. Well Baby Chan is fine and well, except for the slightly oversized yolk sac (as mentioned by Feli in the previous post).

From head to toe (figuratively) Baby Chan is 2.5cm in length. Take this length and add the magic constant of 6.5 and voila~, the estimated age of Baby Chan is 9 weeks. And with a simple circulation charting tools in one hand and his scribbled maths in the other, Dr Lim predicted that Baby Chan will be due on 22nd August 2009... and guess what... that's MY birthday as well~!

So the checking was done and Feli began asking her questions that kinda bothered her for a while now.

Q1) Can she go for the planned Australia trip, considering we will be boarding a plane? (as posted in Feli's previous post)

A1) As long as she is comfortable.

Q2) Is there anything wrong with her crave for fruit and yakult?

A2) There is no such thing as too much fruits and yakult is perfectly fine.

Q3) What are the foods that she should be avoiding?

A3) Scientifically, almost all foods are okay, but personally suggests that preggy woman stay away from smoked salmon and soft cheese.

Q4) Can she go for manicure/pedicure and hair saloons? (mmehhh... women...=P)

A4) There has been no cases where baby's skin relates to the colour of mummy's latest nail colour. So green light approval given.

*Note: The above Q&A is just comments from our memories. Please consult your personal Gynae for advices.

Baby Chan's first overseas trip

First post from Mummy Chan.. haha..

2 weeks before we got to know the big news, we just paid for a deposit of our family trip to Australia in early Feb. That became the biggest worry to me as I knew that it is not advisable for pregnant lady to travel during first trimester. And if I was to call off the trip because of that, my parents will be really disappointed as this is the first time we are going for a holiday together as a family. After a 2 hours discussion, we decided to leave the final decision to the expert - Dr Lim.

During my checkup prior to the trip, Dr Lim advised me that I was having this oversized "yolk sac" (don't ask me what is that exactly, after much reading on the net, I was still confused about the cause and implication of it).. All I heard from Dr Lim was that a normal yolk sac should be 5mm and mine was already 7mm, which might cause early miscarriage. What a shocking news? How about our Australia trip then?? Fortunately, Dr Lim is a super calm and open-minded gynae, he asked me to go ahead and enjoy my holiday. And, as long as I am not going for the roller coaster in Gold Coast, I should be perfectly fine... (Gosh, who cares about the roller coaster, I will never try that even if I am not pregnant)...

Just as what he predicted, I had plenty of fun with my beloved Winson and parents, of course not forgetting the presence of our baby Chan.. haha.. It was quite a short trip but we had a total of 15 hours flight (including a domestic flight from Sydney to Melbourne). Luckily our little fetus did not let me suffer from any morning sickness at all, I could still eat and sleep well on the flight.. And we covered quite a long distance by foot daily (my parents simply enjoy walking..). Somehow I think not just me, but maybe the rest 3 have also forgotten that I was almost 3 months preggy at that time, haha.. I only had a bit of cramps like normal menstrual cramp at night, that was quickly eased off with our relaxing and interesting itinerary.. Win is a true great partner, he was taking care of every tiny miny details while I just enjoy.. comfy hotel room, nice scenery with good food and friendly people around.. all great memories that we can share with our baby in the years to come..

One week after our trip, we headed down to Dr Lim's clinic on Valentine's day. Dr Lim said my yolk sac disappeared and baby is doing all good (I am sure he had forgotten all about the yolk sac thingy until I asked him). Till now I still keep thinking back, how amazing it is that we brought baby Chan along for his first overseas trip, when he was just about 12 weeks old growing happily inside me!!!!

Visit to the Gynae

As recommended by Kelly, Felicia's twin sister, we made our appointment with our Gynae, Dr. Lim Teck Chye of The Tow Yung Clinic at Tanglin Shopping Centre. One of the primary reasons contributing to me being in favour of going to him was that Cherry, our baby niece, was delivered by the expert hands of Dr Lim on 3rd December 2006.

The initial appointment was scheduled to be on 27/12/08 (Saturday), but strange enough, Feli received a call from the nurse at the clinic to ask if she was able to make it if they brought it forward to the 26th. Thankfully, Feli was able to make last minute arrangements at work and happily skipped off work that very morning. But being a Friday that the 26th of Dec was, I was unable to accompany Feli on her first Gynae visit. Unfortunately, as I wasn't present, I can't pen down what happened and what the procedures were like. All I remember is that during my lunch break that day, Feli texted me with a bombardment of information of Baby Chan. Filtering through the seas of words, I picked out the one sentence that put our hearts at ease... She confirmed with Dr Lim that X-rays ain't quite capable enough to harm the development of the foetus unless the mother is taking X-rays like a trigger-happy 16-year-old with a new digicam (well okay... Dr Lim didn't quite exactly say that... but you get my point..=P )...


And the loveliest memento that we received from this first Gynae trip... Our first look at our baby...

Okay okay... I know it ain't much of a looker at this point... but hey, you can't be expecting facial features and limbs from an embryo a few weeks old eh?


At least now we know that despite the unusually high occurence of twins in Feli's family tree (Feli and her sis Kelly being one of the many pairs), our's ain't going to be contributing to that statistics as Baby Chan is a happy single embryo, happily growing in the warmth and comfort of Mummy Chan~ ^_^

How he all began

Okay... If you have been following my blog thus far (just 2 posts before this, so I'm pretty sure it ain't that hard...=P) you would have known that Felicia and i tied the knot on 30th Dec 2007.

1 year later, again in December... Feli kinda started having this feeling that her body is reacting differently. She got a couple of pregnancy test kits and hey presto~!... Positive... I'm pretty sure that her emotions at that point was kinda mixed. I mean, true that baby planning was actively part of our routine, but when we first planned to have a child, we understood that it isn't like one of those things that when you tell yourself 'I want it' and the next day you get it. We know of friends who plan to have kids for years but are still having their 'Er Ren Shi Jie'... (And of course we know of people who didn't plan for kids and are now having bundle(s) of joy...lol). But like all couples, usually all this testing and stuff goes unnoticed by the hubby until wifey is confident of the result... So there i was... a usual workday in my office when she sms-ed me to go back home early cos she had 'things to dicuss' with me.

So home i headed after work, unknowing of the big news that was about to reach my ears... When i entered our bedroom, there she was on bed as usual, channel-hopping through TV network but never settling on a programme for more than 10 seconds. But when she looked at me, she gave an uncertain look and small voiced, "i think i'm preganant."

"WOOT ~!" went the buzzer in my head, of course i was happy. But I guess she didn't expect me to have THAT positive a response. Relieved with my reaction, she continued about her worries about her x-ray during a recent body checkup and that her colleagues told her that pregnancy x-ray can be harmful and stuff. I hushed her and assured that all will be fine... ^_^... and that the next thing will be to schedule an appointment with a doctor.

The fruit of a blissful marriage

Every baby is the fruit of a blissful marriage (well, almost every... i'll leave the otherwises to other authors..=P).

For those of you who don't know my wifey nor me, you may like to read up about us from our wedding website that trace our wedding planning almost from scratch to a wonderful memory (at least in feli and me memories..=P ).

It provides lotsa useful tips for young couples planning their very own wedding.

First post~

Well, this is the very first post on this blog... not much prep work done prior to this. Earlier today, I was taking an evening stroll with my dear Felicia back from her sis' place and who would have thought that the conversation during this stroll would inspire me to start this blog...

Hopefully this blog will give insightful views on paternal the side of parenting as i will try my best to document down the ongoing events from the birth of my baby... all the way through to adulthood (i hope).