Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Mummy Chan's Pregnancy Mythbusters..

You may or may not have heard of pregnancy myths before, but once you are expecting a baby, you will hear them all!!


Some of my personal experiences to share:
1. Mummies expecting baby girls have rounded belly whereas mummies with baby boys have sharp belly.
== Quite true, one day I was trying to get out of bed and I saw my belly so sharp that I really screamed out..

2. First pregnancy does not "show" early.
== Yes my belly started to really "show" from 5 months+ I think. Heard it is normal to start showing from even 7 months for first pregnancy, but for the second it might start showing from 2 months onwards.

3. Pregnant women have very bad memory.
== Absolutely true!!! I left my pouch at friends' place a few times, this had never ever happened in the past (tsk.. strange that I've never forgotten my LV bag so far, maybe it's time to get an LV pouch??). And Win must have a lot more funny stories to tell on this..

4. Mummies expecting baby boys have ugly big nose, pigmentation and serious pimple breakout
== Yes and no. My nose gets a lot bigger, look at my photos.. =(.. My freckles darkened a bit and think that is really due to hormonal change. But I did not have any pimples at all. I guess good daily skincare regime does help.

5. Pregnant women cannot sleep well especially during last trimester (having problem with breathing and positioning when baby gets bigger and bigger).
== Not at all!! Being a piggy, "out of breath problem" experienced by most pregnant women only caused me to snore (Sorry Win if that causes you insomnia, *blush*). I am still holding the record of getting back to sleep within 3 seconds despite frequent urination.

6. Pregnant women experience frequent calf cramps so hubby should help with massaging the legs.
== No I did not experience that and Win has never massaged my legs. I believe what actually helps, is to stretch your calves frequently during the day.

7. Pregnant women get very emotional and bad-tempered.
== I believe that really depends on individual. For me I am always a very rational and optimistic person, so I think Win didn't really suffer so far(correct me if I am wrong Win, haha..)

8. Pregnant women have serious constipation problem.
== No I think if you do not have this problem before pregnancy, most likely you won't face it during pregnancy. Just keep your healthy diet routine as usual. For those who suffer from constipation, try Marigold Yogurt Drink (the one with vegetables), I have to go toilet one more time after I drink that, really healthy stuff with lots of fibers..

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Renzo's brithday will be coming real soon !

Finally we have reached week 36. From today on, our visit to Tow Yung Clinic will be a weekly one. From the initial monthly visit, to the twice a month... we have entered the final stages where we will have Dr Lim Teck Chye assess little Renzo's growth every Saturday.

Our 08:30 appointments usually have us waking up early and taking the 07:14 bus... and like so many times before, we ended up reaching there before all of their staffs. How'd we know? Well... I sat at a bench just in front of the lift of the 5 storey Tanglin Shopping Centre while Feli went to the ladies. And during my wait, each time the lift doors opened, a familiar Tow Yung Staff emerged. A few whom recognised me waved in friendly fashion, while those who don't (or didn't noticed me) just simply rushed in the direction of the clinic. Anyway, that aside, the morning procedures are no different from our previous visits. Again, we were the first vistors for the day and first to see Dr Lim when he arrived (many many many minutes later).

OMG... Dr Lim actually noticed that Feli is wearing this dress to his clinic for the first time and this is actually the second time he noticed Feli in a new dress. "I notice what you wear more than I notice your husband," Dr Lim replied to our amazed expressions. I know Doctors are supposed to be observant but this?... mehhh... perhaps that's why i'm not a doc i guess..=P

Time for the ultrasound scan... Renzo's head is 9.7cm already, heartbeat is strong and steady and Dr Lim drew our attention to the placenta and the white particles lined along and around it. "Calcium deposits on the placenta means the baby is maturing," said Dr Lim with a smile on his face (further research on the web suggests that Placenta Calcification happens towards the end of pregnancy, when the placenta ages).

Dr Lim then had to do an internal check on Feli with a nurse while I sat partitioned away by the drawn cloth. This is not a compulsory test done by all gynaes but seems that Dr Lim has to do it for all his patients around 36-37 week. Feli hates it as it is not just uncomfortable, but indeed very PAINFUL this time. The pain lasted for more than an hour. But Feli is right, if she can't take such a pain, how to endure actual labour pain which might last for 10-12 hours or even longer. The check was supposedly to see if Feli's pelvis is of the right size to give birth to Renzo naturally. And great! It is positive, despite Renzo's 9.7cm head... LoL... Dr Lim did advise Feli that she may experience bleeding after and that she should not be too shocked (thankfully Feli didn't though...=P ).

The Q&A session with Dr Lim was again a funny one. We had 3 questions on our minds this time.
1) Feli was feeling menstrual cramps recently but Dr Lim says that it is only normal and told us not to worry too much.(Renzo's head has not engaged yet so maybe while he's trying to move downwards, it causes the pain..)

2) From our previous visit, Dr Lim suggested that Renzo should move at least 10 times a day... Fact is, Renzo have been moving way way way way more... Dr Lim answered with a big smile on his face, "The more he moves, the happier I am." haha... that's a relief...=P

3) Because we are planning on a japanese buffet at Ritz Carlton(again..=P), we just had to doubly confirm that Feli could eat Sashimi...
Feli: "So Dr Lim, just to confirm again, can I eat sashimi?"
Dr Lim: (unhesitantly) "DEFINITELY~!"
haha... He then went on to explain that the doctors had a series of discussions before and some USA guy once came down to Singapore and graded Singaporean sashimi as second only to Japanese sashimi in terms of quality and freshness (WooT~!)

The last question we had was actually a question from Feli's sister... on the ways and methods to improve the chances of having a baby boy.. and to my amazement, Dr Lim immediately reached up to the top shelf of his bookcase and draw out a slip of papers and said to pass it to Feli's sis. LoL... apparantly, different sexual position actually DOES make a difference... o_O?
*note: please dun start emailing me or commenting on this post for this, i'm not telling..=P

This time we collected the hospital admission letter and when we left the building, it was raining already. And me being someone who really really hates rain, decided to simply take a cab back home. We returned home early... before 10. So we slept through the afternoon, and woke up past midday to test out the Sterilizer and Breastpump. And boy am I glad that products nowadays are designed so well that in fact, the instructional manual is not really needed. Assembly and disassembly just seem to come naturally. Already we feel the excitement as we hold the empty milk bottles in our hands... ^_^ ... just one more month..WHEE~!

Monday, July 20, 2009

Hospital bag packed..


The hospital bag is ready now, it is not too early anyway because we never know when our little Renzo will decide to make a “surprise” entrance!!
Just a reference for other first time mothers...

For Admission Purpose:
1. Identity card of myself and Win
2. Hospital admission letter(the nurse at Tow Yung Clinic asked if I would like to take it during my week 34 checkup, or she can pass it to me on this coming Sat, and I chose to let her keep for me first as I was afraid that I might misplace it, it is a small yellow color envelop from Thomson Medical Center..)
3. Marriage Certificate (for little Renzo's birth registration, it can be done at hospital or ICA. But come on, who wants to travel all the way down and queue up at ICA if this can be done at the hospital with an administrative charge of around $10)
4. Bank statement (haha We do not have a bank book nowadays. This is for submission of baby bonus form, and opening of CDA account. Yeah Renzo will get his first 1k bonus within 3 weeks after the form is received and processed. For his CDA account, we plan to deposit 1k for him on a yearly basis, and get the matching contribution from Government till he turns 7, rather than put 6k into that account in one shot.. Thanks to our government for the enhanced baby bonus scheme..)
5. Letter from gynae (err, I do not have this and knowing Dr Lim a little bit by now, I do not think I should ask him about it, he will issue me the letter if he deems that's necessary)
6. Written birth plan (again, Dr Lim does not seem to be interested in that, I am sure he has his own plan in mind for me, all I know is that I am praying for a smooth natural delivery without epidural, and I want to do total breastfeeding for Renzo..)

For Mummy Chan:
1. Nursing night gown(TMC does not provide this, they only have operation gown)
2. Warm socks (labor room is pretty cold I heard)
3. One pack of maternity pads (TMC provides one pack and if you need more, they will charge you)
4. Disposable underwear (hehe no point packing in my finest lace underwear as labor and delivery is messy process)
5. A pair of slippers
6. Nursing bra and breast pads
7. Skincare products & personal toiletries
8. A plastic bag (for soiled clothing)
9. Boppy pillow (to ease episiotomy wound pain)
10.MP3 player (don't think I will have time for it, but Win also can use it since he will be staying overnight)
11.Camera (Win is allowed to take pictures and videos of Renzo only, but not me during labor.. Haha..)

For Little Renzo:
1. Newborn clothing for going home, with a pair of mittens (think TMC provides this, but just in case)
2. One receiving blanket(I am sure TMC has this, but still packed one set as it is pretty light anyway)
3. Extra diapers (just in case hospital does not provide enough of them)

Lastly, here's the "Human Pufferfish" at 36th week, haha...



The next time I upload the photo of my big belly, most probably I will be at labor room in my operation gown... *scared*

One side note: My office will have 6 newborns(2 from our ex-staffs though) in Year 2009, and all of them are BOYS (amazing isn't it??).. So you know that apparently our goverment is doing a fantastic job in promoting this new baby bonus scheme...

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Rainy Tow Yung Clinic visit... -__-'

I turned down a Mahjong session with my mahjong kakis and went home after a tiresome afternoon of work. So I met up with Feli on my way back with my colleague/friend-of-more-than-10-years... Jun Jun is one of the closest friend of Feli's (read.. friend of mine, best friend of Feli... my friends are abandoning me... LoL)... We were happily chatting on the MRT train ride home when suddenly, Renzo perked up and gave a signature Renzo KICK ! Jun Jun had the privilege to be amongst one of the first few to have actually felt a Renzo Kick, and the first friend to have experienced it (others being Feli (duh~ -__-'), me (woot !), and Feli's sis Kelly)... And the reaction from her was priceless, her first interaction with our little Renzo ! ^_^... Too bad we arrived at her station and she had to alight, thus ending the session.

One of the worst starts to a Gynae visiting Saturday is to have freezing cold weather from heavy rains, when a good 50% of the population are still in lala-land, tucked cosily under a warm blanket in bed. And luck has it that on our 11-07-09 visit, it rained quite a fair bit. I ain't one of those brolly-carrying people, so rains usually leave me wet and this time, it was no exception. Despite Feli passing me her small umbrella, each of us have either sides wet because the little thing was so small that I believe it wouldn't even shelter one man. Thankfully the rain subsided before long and made the rest of the Journey to Tow Yung Clinic drier than we expected.

Like the recent visits, Dr Lim Teck Chye gave a thumbs up after doing the ultrasound scan. The recent ultrasound are a quick scan to see the baby's head (with a simple diameter measurement), one at the spine/torso (complete with an audio heartbeat projection) and also a glimpse of his legs. When Dr Lim measured Renzo's head, he exclaimed, "Wah, 9.1cm... Head is big, like mummy's" . LOL... It was also Feli's first question during the Q&A session after Dr Lim settled down into his chair. It was quite comical, really. The conversation went like this:

Feli: "Oh yah Dr Lim, you mentioned his head was big..."
Dr Lim: "(interrupts) Your head~... like your head... not like Daddy's head, a bit more narrow"
Feli: "Will it affect the delivery?"
Dr Lim: "Well, let's put it this way. There are only 2 exits, either downstairs or upstairs. Either way it is very safe."
Feli: "yup but I was praying for downstairs mah.."
Dr Lim: "Then you pray hard and God will hear that.. Nowadays both ways are very safe, not like last time, upstairs exit can be quite risky. And your baby's head is already big, how to make it smaller? You can't tell baby to stop growing or stop eating or anything like that right?"

Ooookay... haha... Doc's got a point there... And Feli did her research and estimated that Renzo's head shouldn't be bigger than 9.24cm at week 34... So all seems well (true that Renzo's head is quite big indeed)... ^_^... Things are getting more and more exciting, because after our next visit to the Tow Yung Clinic on the 25/07, it will be a weekly visit instead of semimonthly and we can start expecting Renzo live-in-person anytime from then on... WOOT ~!

Monday, July 6, 2009

Kicking or Somersaulting? Nope, little Renzo is hiccupping..

Renzo has not been actively moving during last weekend. Normally I can feel him kicking around hard or turn somersaults many times a day (especially after food, or I should say after having western food, haha..).. Dr Lim said that he should be moving 10 times a day at least, thus I was really worried last night that even my father-in-law can tell that I couldn't concentrate myself while we were having dinner together.


So this morning I attempted to "feed" him with yogurt drink, multi-grain bread (my routine breakfast) and he did kick a little bit. Finally while I was having my fish porridge during lunch, he moved actively again as usual. Apparently Renzo also likes fish and soupy stuff besides western food. (I did considered "waking him up" with western food at first, but decided not to do so due to health factor. And luckily fish porridge helps in the end..)

Partially satisfied with the fact that Renzo starts to move again (although I wish his kicks can be stronger, haha), I went back to office and had a 30 minutes quick nap, the moment I woke up, I started to feel this short, jerky, rhythmical movement around my pelvis area, then moved up to my upper belly right below my chest.. I think Renzo is having HICCUPS!! The feeling was weird and cute, and it only disappeared after about 5 minutes. After some research I found out that it is very common and normal to feel baby hiccups during pregnancy. Some people speculate that it could be caused by the fetus breathes/drinks in amniotic fluid, while others are saying that it is a good sign that baby is a strong breather. Whatever it is, as long as I am double assured, triple assured that baby Renzo is all healthy.. Haha...

Being a first time mother, every new thing is absolutely an amazing thrill ^_^

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Daddy Chan is a great cook!

I smelled nice food while walking down my corridor, yeah yeah!! Win was cooking dinner!!!

These were what we had, ribeye steak + lots of vegetables + mushroom soup + red wine (2 sip for me though)..
Wow the steak... BRAVO!!!
The meat was pink with no blood oozing out, the natural juices that gushed out with each chew was really a mouth watering experience. And I couldn't believe that the knockout flavor of the steak is a simple mixture of olive oil + garlic + rosemary leaves ONLY, no blackpepper sauce at all (Win forgot to add that in..haha)..


Okie I am not here to write a review for hungrygowhere.com. I am just overjoyed that the food taste great, at the same time, the nutrition value of this meal is really high (in calcium, iron and magnesium) to my knowledge at least.. Great stuff for our little Renzo.. Daddy Chan rulez!!
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