… has finally ended on Chap Goh May 

- no more peaceful hiding in the air-cond room for milk-pumping

- no more peaceful afternoon nap alone in the air-cond room

- no more ignoring baby’s loud cries day or nite

- no more long hiding in the bathroom for a slow & calm bathing/hair-wash

- no more breakfast, lunch & dinner served on the dining table like for a queen

- no more peaceful midnight sleep

which simply signify the beginning of the ‘REAL FUN’ !!

I’m kinda nervous yet excited of what to anticipate accepting this challenge again. Obviously the skills that i may have mastered many years ago handling my infant twins would have vanished by now so i’m doubting myself if i could easily pick them up again. For sure i know practice made perfect….so….wish me luck !! Anyway like the old chinese saying :

“ jue dou mai lei chao sik lar “

This CL’s cooking wasn’t as creative & yummy as my previous CL. But thank god i’m such an easy eater. I just whacked anything that she cooked but kept reminding her to reduce the rice portion….for obvious reason la. Out of the 16 bottles of rice & ginger wines, i actually finished 10 bottles….. boy, isn’t that rediculous? But some were used to cook for others who like tasting confinement food during their visit like my siblings, family & friends.

Here are some of my confinement dishes that i managed to snap during the month:

drunken chicken (cooked with rice wine, ginger & ‘muk yee’)

 

drunken pork soup, veggies & pork patties

 

no-rice-day, mee sua fish & mixed veggies

 

Apart from her daily cooking, the CL also double boiled various type of soup/drinks/essence for the queen.

Here is the Hennessy liquor chicken essence

 

Since i don’t have the special type of double-boil pot, the CL used the conventional method to do it. Small bowl in big bowl simmer in a big pot with a whole kampung chicken for the essence…. both my mom & I learnt a good lesson this time

 

This is the fish soup that i personally requested to increase the milk production. Cooked with lots of ginger & tomatoes, the hot & sour taste was superb

 Overall, i reckon that i am truly blessed with a hassle-free confinement month & an angel sent confinement lady. Words had it that she’s very patient & good in baby handling and it has been proven now. She’s such a good-hearted person & gets along well with people esp my mom. Apart from certain ‘taboos’ & practices that i might not like to adopt, generally i have no major complaint about her service. If you could just ‘close one eye’ like me on those practices that u might not like, believe me….your baby is still gonna be absolutely fine :)  

During the 1st week of CNY, my parents went for vacation & she cooked dinners for all of us (hub, twins & maid). Having the grandmotherly nature, she even cares to mind my 2 monkeys when they were around at home….. like kept advising them not to fight, dont eat too much of heaty cookies, eat their dinner etc etc. She even boiled herbal tea n barley for them.

 Here’s a photo of her with my 3s on her last day

 On a side note, since the kor-kor were in their uniform i’ll do a quick update on them too. The boys had started their taekwando lesson few weeks before Stuart’s arrival. It was such a bliss to get them up on the early Sunday morning for the lesson bcoz they looked forward to it so much. Since it was lesson conducted at their school, they had their buddies to minggle around. Like to see them in these uniform…..so gaya, haha

The only complaint was….haiya, say no complaint but still….hehe

She started on 4/2 so her last day supposingly should be around 3/3 but she requested to go off on Chap Goh May 28/2 which was way shorter than her 1 month service. Since she said it was still CNY & she could go back to celebrate with her family & etc……i don’t have a heart to reject her (me being such a nice person) Hence, my initial plan of giving her a bigger angpow was cancelled…i’ve no choice but to chop down on my angpow to her lor. I ‘rugi’ besar u know. Lesson learnt, agreed on the last day of work & don’t give birth on February, LOL !!!

Being the final birthing experience, i believe this record would serve as a very good read for myself in 20 years time.

Having experienced a nightmarish c-sect previously with my twins, I was quite adamant to try natural birth this time. Still why the c-sect many asked?

Well putting other subjective factors aside, I would say it was all due to timing. If my due date wasn’t so close to CNY, I would’ve just chosen to WAIT….wait till the baby is due for delivery. But after knowing that my ob-gyn would go for leave days before my due date & will not return until a week after CNY, I changed my mind. Having another gynae to attend to my birth is the last thing that I wish to happen…given that he has been taking good care of me & my baby for the past 9 months.

We planned to do an early labour induce but a day prior to the scheduled date, a check on my cervix revealed that it was NOT READY yet. Baby’s head despite down facing was still very much above the cervix door hence the success rate for labour-induce will be very low. My ob-gyn did gave me option to proceed if I’m keen on trying but wanted us to agree that should the induce fails, we must agree to proceed with an emergency c-sect to ensure the safety delivery of the baby. He said he can’t let me go back if the induce failed. And if an emergency happens, it also means much higher COST comparing to a scheduled c-sect.

It was very frustrating when things don’t go along with plan esp. when I’m all READY to admit the next day. A thorough discussion went on with huby & after weighing all factors affecting our situation coupled with our strong desire to fulfil our dreamt baby’s DOB which is on 2/2, we eventually succumbed to the choice of an elective c-sect !!

Anyway, the most important is that baby arrived safely J

Since our decision was pretty last minute, we were told to admit hospital in less than 12 hours. So a quick last minute preparation was done & we left home around 9pm on 1st Feb during a heavy downpour. Everyone in the car was quiet. The boys followed suit but were obviously running out of battery late at such hour. Both huby & I were anxious, excited yet worry. Got our admission registered pretty fast. Customer service officer brought us to our room. The boys got excited checking out the room & start exploring the TV channels while I was hooked up to the heartbeat monitor. Not long after, huby has to bring the boys back as they still need to attend school the next day. That’s the different of having elder kids & that’s also when it hit me hard…..i couldn’t contained my sadness as they left me. Cried like a baby…. so darn “ng seh tak” L  

The c-sect was scheduled at 9a.m. the next day. After dropping the boys at school, it was only 7’ish so huby arrived very early. I have already cleaned myself up & changed into my surgery suit. We chit chat a bit & off huby went for a quick bite at the hospital café. Sharp at 8:30 the operation team in duty came & announced:

“WS, it’s time to move now ”

Saw the Stemlife guy following us to the OT room to collect my cord blood, must commend their punctuality J

That miserable & gloomy feeling drown me again during the journey I was wheeled from my room to the Operating Theatre (OT)….passing by many people with curious glares esp in the elevator. It made me feel so sick, so vulnerable & helpless. But the good thing is huby was accompanying me in the OT room thru out the surgery this time so it was a whole new experience to him too.

Once inside the OT room, huby was also asked to put on the surgical suit…he was sanitised all over and we were left at the waiting area. At least I have him to talk to while waiting anxiously. The anaesthetist & assistant surgeon came to do brief interview while waiting for my ob-gyn who had a last minute natural labour to attend to…….haiya, so my operation was postponed for an hour.

About 45mins later, our Dato lee-chong-wei-look-alike ob-gyn greeted us very briefly & shouted to all :

“lets ‘hoi-kung’ / start work”

I was transferred from the stretcher to the CHOPPING BOARD. The spinal epidural administration was a new experience to me & it was freaking scary. Painful yes but bearable. Within a minute, I already felt the numbness on my bottom half. They started blocking my view. I was so worried & nervous that I could still ‘feel’ when the knife was laid on my skin. As I was so alert, I tried so hard to bend my toes, shake my feet to check that the epidural was already effective but I couldn’t move at all. As the ob-gyn did not signify to me when he would start his job, it kept me wondering. And why hasn’t they allow my huby to come in yet???

Well, very soon, I felt huby’s hand holding on to mine & that scaredy cat ‘old man’ sat so far away behind my head. He already said he would not witness the operation. In less than 2 min (I think), I could hear the little sound of baby crying ‘ngek ngek ngek’.

I was like omg….i turned my head up to huby & asked him : out already ahh?? That old man was so elated that he didn’t answer me right away but all I could hear was his giggles (heh heh heh). So I squeezed his hand for answer & he said:

“yes out edi….wuah lots of hair”.

Then ob-gyn said :

“Wuah, yr son so fast ‘cham char’ / served tea already” ….

Everyone laughed including the dady. And since I was still blurred, I asked huby what he meant?

He said “or-liu jor” i.e. peed already, LOL !! That put a little smile on me. Yet I had so many queries in my mind. Is he normal, does he looked ok, is he healthy…???? Yet I kept mum & could only wait. But sensing the dady’s happy reactions, I guess he should be ok. The nurse cleaned baby up while the ob-gyn continued with the remaining of the surgery on me. Before baby was wheeled out to the nursery room, the nurse carried him to me to show me his gender & for me to plant a kiss on him. BOY….no words could explained how happy & relief I was seeing him. And as I kissed him on his cheek, I was amazed at his tender soft skin. He looked so purple & plumped then.

Huby then asked my permission if he should follow baby to the nursery room & without hesitation I shooed him off to check & ensure that baby was all OK.

Ob-gyn took another 30-45 mins to finish of the remaining of the surgery. This time, once everything was done, he did come up to me & informed me that it was all over. I’m glad that I decided to numb only my bottom half body instead of going for GA as during my previous experience I could remember I suffered terrible dizziness & coughing as a result of the side effect of GA.

Overall, the c-sect was fast & successful. Finally I’m done with my pregnancy, I could breathed a strong sigh of relief. Yet the pain & torture for the first 2 weeks after the surgery were so awful & horrendous. Many mothers said that they would forget about the pain once they see their little bundle of joy but I begged to differ. I will never forget about the pain I went thru (the entire pregnancy as well as the post-surgery recovery) instead I would say it was well WORTH the pain seeing a healthy little bundle of joy in my arm all over again after 7 years!

On a side note, I’m hereby declaring that I would try to enjoy bringing up this little miracle as much as I could & put behind the pain since this would be my final experience, bcoz I have already performed the “STERILISATION PROCEDURE”

‘Sterilisation’ means preventing the woman from becoming pregnant by means of various different operations in which her Fallopian tubes are blocked or cut through – thus making it very difficult for her eggs to reach her womb.’

Yes I ‘sudah ikat’…. Yippee, no more pregnancy !!

Dearest Little Stuart,

I’m pretty sure that you will be another spoilt brat in the family as you are so LOVED & treasured by all in the family. After nearly 4 years without an infant in the Lai family, everyone (grannies, your aunts, cousins & of course your beloved parents & twin elder brothers) was pouring their infinite love on you. Every other day since we brought you home, your grannies & aunts took every chance to pop by just to see, kiss, caress & cuddle you. Most of all, your beloved dady would spoil you just like how he has spoilt your 2 elder kor-kors. What a lucky little fella.

We look forward to having you to enjoy our life journey together & I’m sure you’ll find this world exciting.

Welcoming you with Lots of love,

Mummy, Daddy, Sean & Scot

02/Feb/2010

10:17am

Here’s wishing everyone GONG XI FA CAI with abundance of Good Health, Happiness & Prosperities !!

Sorry for the late announcement here. But FB friends got a much earlier update *grin*…coz it’s so much easier updating in FB, hehe……so be my friend & add me :) 

Btw, I don’t have a labour story to tell since i had elected for a C-section on 2/2/2010 to crown our little baby boy which we have finally named him :

Stuart Heng Hozhe

weight : 3.68kg

lenght : 51cm

But there’ll be surely a lengthy BIRTH story to tell ….. again it’ll take some time lar

So hopefully the photos are a pleasure to view !!

1st week of birth photos at the hospital

and

2nd week of birth photos taken on CNY day 1

** photography by your beloved mummy using our cheaplak canon camera only **

(since dady was against the idea of a prof photoshoot at this age ….not bad ya, LOL !! )

 Lots of LOVE from baby stuart & his mumy

I have started to work from home since this past Wed (27/1) as my obgyn gave me 3 days MC prior to my planned induce-labour early next week. Will still need to see him coming Sun to have a final check on me to confirm the best course of action to proceed with things. Thought this 3 days (Wed-Fri) would be a good time to catch up on sleep.. rest..other final preparations. But out of sudden Scot started coughing & fever soon developed too. He had a fall in school the other day & got his knee quite badly injured. And i think it must have been the infection on the knee that caused the fever. Anyway, it wasn’t a very bad episode. All he needed was some rest at home as he looked weak & tired. So we kept him away from school for 2 days. And it means instead of resting, i’m babysitting him at home…. bleah !! Thank god, Sean kor-kor did not put up any resistance going to school himself on the first day. But guess i breathed my sigh of relief too early as he was already whining & refused to change into his uniform the next morning…. am surprised that my 8 years old BIG boys still displayed separation anxiety between themselves ….i mean despite fighting a lot But after failing with all the sweet talk & persuasion, i ended up having to tempt him with his favourite INSTANT NOODLE for his breakfast……..adoi !! So there i rushed down to the kitchen to cook that bowl of ‘poison’ noodle for him & in few minutes time, this little monster actually ran down happily with wide smiles & ate his bowl of noodles…..off he went to school…..pheww. Since i kinda pity him & knew that he missed his di-di, i convinced dady to pick him up right after school & spared him from going to the tuition centre  for all 3 days i was at home. All in all I think it was the guilt feeling in me that i should spend more time with the boys for the remaining these few days before the baby greets us!!

Here’s the sick big baby scot

Anyway, with the boys around i still managed to finish a few tasks on my minds like:  washed the basic feeding bottles & the pumping accessories, read the manual & operated my sterilizer, sterilized all the feeding tools (for testing) ….just to name a few.

Anyway, as promised here is the Avent sterilizer given to me by these bunch of wonderful

…   L A D I E S …

love it so much….thks

thks elaine for this fan (i’ve started using it myself since i sweat a lot, haha) & the baby suit has goes into my hospital bag, thanks

Finally I think my mama must have been as excited as me too. Here are what she has got for me in welcoming my confinement months.

3 bottles of DOM

1 bottle of Henessy Liquor

15 bottles of RICE Wine

i just can’t believe i’m expected to swallow all these alcohol during my 2 months confinement…. scary ehh

2 bottles of SESAME OIL

1 bottle of BLACK VINEGAR

that big bottle (i’ve no idea what was it)

big bag of GINGERS

RED & BLACK DATES

some ginseng-family HERBS (i think)

Herbal BATHs for baby & I

Isn’t our mama the most wonderful lady on earth? I certainly believe confinement will never be the same for myself without mama around

Last weekend, my MIL was here to attend her brother’s son wedding. And again my boys were needed for the service as the page boy & ring bearer at the wedding mass…. haha (an uncle even said i can set up a bis for their service, LOL)

geeee….. see the little girl holding my Sean’s arm…..hahaha, the silly mummy was beaming in smile inside

Congrats Keat & his wonderful wife, May you have a Love & Beautiful Marriage!

Actually, i DID NOT attend any of the events to this wedding (pre-wed dinner, matrimonial service at the church, wed reception) as i believe it would be very tiring for me…. plus due to the withdrawal symptoms too lar. So i felt extremely bad as i got along quite well with this aunty of huby….simply bcoz we r both chatty & the fact that she speaks my dialect added to the spark, haha….. I must pay her a visit one day after my confinement as the last i spoke to her, she was tremendously elated over this wedding !! Anyway, my parents were also invited to the wedding reception so i guess at least i had a good representation there!!

And here are what my MIL got me:

SO HUP pills (to remove wind)

Some oil & pearl powder for baby

I end this post with some interesting photos for you

Have you seen of ” CHUE GEOK ” / pig feet before ?????

“Chue Geok vinegar” is very delicious isn’t it??

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here u go

Not enough of CHUE GEOK??

Nah, one more look of the Chue Geok

Aren’t they BAD….i don’t even want to take a 2nd look at my elephant feet. And I really hope that it’s a sign of something coz i really couldn’t tolerate all these nonsense anymore

Till then, we shall catch up again

So….School started yesterday & that marks the end of the year-end long holiday!! What has my boys achieved during the month? There were many to-do-things (eg. express swimming lesson & other enhancement classes) in the plan initially but again we eventually put them aside due to various excuses. If you would remember, we were either on the move travelling or occupied with events for most of the weekends which meant a distruption to their classes if we ever committed to any. Anyway, I don’t really feel bad about it as the boys had been without failure attending to their tuition centre daily. The list of activities lined up for them in the centre wasn’t really the stressful type. There were max probably about 4 hours spent for revision & school works with breaks for games, TV, play, snack, lunch & shower session in between. And there wasn’t a day where the boys showed any reluctancy to attend their tuition+daycare centre….. so what else can I complain?? Apart from not neglecting their books & studies, I bet the boys had hell of a FUN TIME during those short vacations we had during the school holiday. They experienced many many FIRST times during this holiday. And you know what….i had wanted to upload those videos & photos so desperately but one of the monkeys/boys actually DELETED the entire contents of my camera’s memory card….a total of 4GB @#%&* ….i tell you i nearly strangled them :(  Luckily huby managed to find the memory card recovery software & hopefully he’ll be able to revive my valuables asap.

Anyway, the boys were excited knowing that they will be promoted to standard 2 when school reopen. And we had also got them new uniforms, new school shoes & new bags so their excitements were oblivious. I think they kinda missed their classmates too.

We had banned SWAN school bag….despite paying more than RM200 for each bag last year, they couldn’t last more than a year. When the boys were approaching the end of the year, the condition of the bag was already very worned out. What has become of today’s production, seriously? After much sourcing around, we found that there aren’t really many good ones out there. I’m pretty much admire IMPACT’s bag but since the design of the bag is a little bland (without any interesting cartoon character), the boys rejected the bag no matter how we explained to them. We ended up getting the below bags which supposingly comes with spine-protection & super light. They were carried by Impact too but not as commonly found. We sternly warned the boys to take care of their bag this time as they came no cheap at all !!

 Next rant is on shoes….i especially hated the stupid idea of the ministry in enforcing the WHITE shoes in school going children. After so many years, things are not improving. White shoes is certainly difficult to care for so why wana made the parents’ life more stressful. Due to excessive washing & applying of those white polish, the fabric of the shoes got torn easily. So this year, i chose the type that comes with the most LESS fabric but PVC leather instead so that the dirt can be easily wiped with cloth….will see how it turns out !!

 With the beginning of school again, it means i would have 1 hour less of sleep. I need to get up at 6a.m. to prepare their light & quick breakfast. For a start, i made it real simple……a fried egg, a hotdog & a small bowl of their favourite chocolate pop rice cereal with freshmilk

 Finally right before we left, Scot acceded to my request for a photo but Sean was forced into it, hence the grumpy look :(

Putting Academic as a secondary thought, i really wish that the boys continue to enjoy going to school as i believe “happiness” is the key to learning. And it is the right VALUES & PRINCIPLES in life that i’m more looking forward to out of their journey of knowledge-seeking !!

Happy Schooling to all

Luv fr your beloved mummy

Had my monthly visit to ob-gyn yesterday & left with much worries & anticipation :(  …..felt so much to pen them down.

I was told of the 33 weeks gestational age. I told him about the severity of my back pain but he didn’t think it was a big issue but instead just summoned me to use those backache plaster from any pharmacy, LOL !! Then i bragged about how a lot of people commented that my stomach is very low….would there be a possibility that i had very low placenta & cause any concern? To which he said he’ll check later but he also commented that since i had a twin pregnancy previously i would have a ” very badly stretched ” skin, hence it’s normal that the stomach would dropped a little lower……oh no, does that sounds like it’ll be very difficult to ” firm ” back my belly after delivery this time, ooOHH ???

Blood pressure taken & was normal….much to my relief. We proceeded with the usual scan on my tummy & I’m quite surprise that since 1st check-up up till now, i was not check at the cervix/down under even once?? Not sure if it was a good thing that baby head has already faced down but the check revealed that my placenta was not low….ok!! Then after heartbeat was reportedly normal & ensured that the cord was not doing any harm, ob-gyn started to make measurement.

First comment: Be ready, this will not be a small baby. A little big for his age in fact. Measurement showed that he’s at 36 weeks i.e. 3 weeks ahead….adoi !! 2.5kg at 33 weeks & the weight gain will be at its’ peak in the next month.

I’m not surprise at all actually coz both his parents had big structure. And it was only bcoz i carried 2 babies the last time around that each of my twins was a little small (2.65kg & 2.3kg respectively).

We then discussed about the success rate of delivering a big baby NATURALLY for an OLD first timer. The ob-gyn couldn’t assured anything….all he said was it all really depends if your cervix is cooperating, a thing which was too early to even check !! But he said he wasn’t too worry looking at my size…. unless if the mother is very petite & short, the chance for natural birth is always there! Yet he said the size of the baby does matter & will see how  things progress towards the end of next month !!

My dilemma now is should i just schedule a cesarean session so that i don’t have to worry about suffering the pain of trying for a natural birth yet not successful & ended up being cut-up too?? My mom’s & sisters’ worries on these are making me so doubtful now. But i really hate c-sect so much

I think god will decide later ….

Next i conveyed my plan of inducing the birth on 8Feb if nothing happens by end of 7Feb as i didn’t want things to happen too near CNY. To my surprise, in that case ob-gyn actually gave his greenlight that i can go ahead anytime after Jan’2010 as he said bb is in good shape to be out & he’s worry any prolong will means bb  might becomes too large for me. He further commented that it’s not surprise that labour might even start in late Jan itself. And for that, he has issued me the official admission letter (for just in case) …… ooh no, things seemed to proceed pretty fast now, am I ready for all these yet?? Next visit will be in 2 weeks time & by then hopefully we shall decide on the date more firmly.

Let me zoom into the remarks column :

see what’s stated on point (1)

” BIGGISH Baby “

never knew of such term, LOL

Still can’t believe how much i’ve been travelling throughout this pregnancy comparing to my past…thou it wasn’t to any far destination…. penang, haadyai, PD, bukit tinggi & now ipoh

Just last week, we returned from a short stay at the super boring, french village of Bukit Tinggi. Yet we were left with many many first time memorable experiences of the boys….promised to upload the video soon !!

Both huby & I have been like wanting to getaway during the weekend (even an ordinary weekend) just to avoid & put aside the feeling of boredom esp with my current heavy state of pregnancy. It can be tired, hectic yet fun & enjoyable by getting away….the most important is you’ll get busy & by that means, time passes by very quickly…yippee i like it !!

And not sure if you ever notice from today onwards, every coming Friday is a public holiday. Though it’s only a public holiday for S’gor today, i’m already on holiday mood coz the boys’ tuition centre is closed. So dady is babysitting them & they had just sent me to work this morning & spent some quality time breakfast’ing together. This weekend, we’ll be heading to Ipoh in a ‘rombongan’ (big group) again. Mom, dad & my 2 younger sisters would be tagging along the trip.

Huby wana bring his boys to see ‘CAVES’ & Kelly Castles.

Will put up a night at Heritage Hotel. All of us wana eat ’siu yoke’ & dimsum in Ipoh.

Huby found from the Net a nice spot (hopefully) to eat…..around Bercham, so will see how it turns out.

Need to pay a visit to my very elderly ’suk poh’ (my grandpa’s SIL) at Menglembu (my place of birth :D)

And the ultimate objective of this trip is to eat the FRESH WATER PRAWN & other seafood at a renowned place for seafood called TANJUNG TUALANG….. cham mou (my eating spree has not slow down)!

After this trip, mom has already warned us….better stay at home quietly (kuai-kuai tei chor dai, no more larn kai) & recuperate before the big day, ooOOHH !!

Next Friday=Awal Muharam (we’ll be celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary which is on 15/12, i already ordered my fine premium steak, ngek ngek ngek)

Following Friday=Christmas (where we’ll be having our annual thanks giving dinner)

Subsequent Friday=2010 New Year

Wish everyone will enjoy the extra long weekends ahead

This is probably the last post before I call out a long BLOG BREAK until I deliver. Or there may be post with more photos & videos but less words. I know there seems to be still a long way to go ….about 1 & 1/2 months at least but these 2 months being the year-end are critical months for me at work (wrapping up figures as the calendar ends, handover, training my temp replacement, preparation for office relocation & etc) …and boy….not until the arrival of this month that I notice how things can be out of control. But thankfully my replacement came in early this month & he’s quite helpful in clearing up many areas of back-logs as well as helping up ahead with some anticipated tasks during my absence.

I’ve been brainwashing myself to finish up this post before the new addition comes to life. I felt extremely guilty for this LONG-POSTPONED post about my pregnancy update…what a big boo-hoo !! Life has been tremendously busy the past quarter with memorable events that needed an update here:

The boys’ year-end results

The boys’ sport day & achievements

The boys’ 7^th birthday party

The boys’ Speech & Drama year-end production

Year-end School Holiday and many more …….

Unfortunately, between blogging in front of the PC & lazying around the sofa in front of the TV with snacks during weekend, i always ended up choosing the latter.

Arghhh….anyway those pending posts can wait but I didn’t wana post my pregnancy update after the arrival of the little fella, LOL !!

Actually I had wanted to do an update when I was around 4mths (sorry i don’t count the weeks ~ coz i’m lazy) i.e. the approximate gestational age I received the news of the bb’s gender. But thank god I didn’t, as I knew how unstable my state of mind was then, knowing that it’s another boy on the way. YES, you heard me right. Both the ob-gyn & huby claimed that they saw the birdie during the scan but I didn’t….so I protested against their claim deep beneath myself. Both the 2 kor-kor were present during the scan & they were happy for another di-di surprisingly!!

I even told myself that it could be a mistake & chose to wait till another month to confirm the fact. Though I do not concur to the findings then, I had a feeling that I would lose the battle. And so my disappointment could not be contained after the visit. Huby understand my feeling so much coz he knew how badly I long for a girl. It took me 7 years to consider doing it all over again just  wanting to fulfil this wish. When it was done with an objective, it’s only normal to expect disappointment when the objective was not met….coz I’m only a human & I beg for forgiveness on what happened on that fateful day!!

I promised this is going to be my last rant….but note it was also my first

My eyes actually went teary (despite trying so hard to contain it), that I turned my face away from huby in the car during the entire journey home. He kept checking my reaction & remained quiet but occasionally pats on my thigh & wanted to hold my hands. Soon after I managed to control myself, I burst out….i hurled a lot of negative, nasty & sarcastic words to huby as a way to venge my disappointment. I even pushed the blame to him, so bad….Being a lot wiser than I am, he bears with me for the first 15 mins. During the outburst & the consolation session, even Scot sensed my disappointment as he stroked my cheek….an act of imitating dady actually. And when I didn’t stop my nonsense despite a lot of reasoning by huby, he finally got so angry & mad at me. He turned around  giving me a hard cold lecture …. which eventually put the flame on me to rest. How could I be so upset when i was so so happy with the news of this pregnancy? And it was so unfair to ‘blame’ as it was both our mutual consensus on giving this another try. Yet it was partly our own mistake for the none-adherence to the so-called gender treatment after failing for the first 3 months.

Anyway, it didn’t took me long to put those unpleasant feelings & thoughts behind me…time heals, yes! I began to accept the fact when ob-gyn confirmed the gender again in the next visit & from then onwards, I never asked about the gender anymore.

Besides myself, the 2^nd person that was equally disappointed with the news was mom. Mom has been telling how worry she was that I have to do a natural birth for the first time at my current age (had cesarean the last time) …boy… she said I was very  old for a first timer as she anticipates the risks involve. And when the supposing good news that she has been expecting did not turned out to be one, she was tremendously disappointed….i could vividly remembered her reaction, LOL.

Mom said she even dreamt of babysitting my “fei mui chai” / fat little girl….awwww, how sad ehh?? But then, very soon mom changed her thoughts & poured us some comforting words:

“ Aiya…so long as the baby is healthy, it’s good enough…..3 heng-dai tar tin har next time is also good ” something like that, hahaha

Of course I reckon how significant it is to have good health. Lately I’ve been reading & hearing a lot about those unfortunate ones…..

mother who didn’t made it during birth, ppl who tried so hard just to get baby, ppl who couldn’t even carry the baby to full term, ppl who has bb with special needs & etc etc. Safe to say, all I’m praying now is to have a little healthy boy

I love baby (but not all kids lar…baby & kids different wan) so i know it will take me no time to love this baby of mine the moment i have him on my arm!! Now i can’t wait to hold an infant…

p/s: wana say sorry to bb & hubs

This pregnancy didn’t gave much of a hiccup to me. I’ve gained my first 10kg when I almost reached 7 months. God knows how much more I would be piling on towards the end of the 3^rd trimester given my good appetite.

I had been told that the baby was a tad big in size i.e. he weighs about 1.4kg at 28weeks when the expected max weight should only be around 1.2kg but I had friends that said it’s not considered big…..i don’t know who to believe. Anyway, I was getting huge mainly due to the unsuccessful weight shed after my past delivery. That was what making me hates pregnancy, i was clumsy & felt ugly all the time….i just don’t seemed to enjoy my pregnancy…thou I know this would definitely be my last. And the break-out on my face that was not slowing down added on to bother me. I don’t mind those small red dots appearing all over my face now but I would be grateful if I would be spared of those big & red acne that attacked me during my past pregnancy….am praying hard! So apart from the licence to eat, I don’t enjoy any of my pregnancy. All I wanted now is to get it done & over with & to be able to hip, jump & hop actively as before.

By 3^rd week of Dec-09, I’ll be around 32 weeks. And once I’m done with my Jan’2010 month-end closing at work, I’m ready to go off.

Due to the intolerable weight gain at barely 7 months, I started to have back pain if I walk too much.  Hence, I started to do a lot of online shopping for baby stuffs. Thanks for the blogs that I visited, I was recommended to many excellent & reliable online stores. Parcels had been coming in to my office very often that my colleagues also noticed I bought a lot of stuffs……hahaha

Mostly were cloth diapers. I got a shock at the end of my shopping that i ended up having a total of 15 diapers as a start, hahaha!

I will be doing a separate post just to record down the details of each diaper with the cost & brand …. just in case it can fetch a 2nd value when i’m done using them later, LOL !!

Apart from diaper, i also got myself some dry shampoo, ginger shower gel, nipple cream & bottom spray online. Then some jumper suits, body suits, nursing bra, disposable panties, disposable bra pads from mothercare & isetan during their recent sale.

Also I had been passing my shopping list to my younger sister whenever she has flight overseas esp. UK. Check out what i’ve got my sis to purchase:

Avent single electric breast pump kit (as i plan to breastfeed exclusively this time…hopefully with success)

Avent BPA bottles & storage cups

Avent extra teats & pacifier….btw, i didn’t asked her to buy so many but she said buy 1 free 1 wor….so the little boy can suck for such a long time, LOL !!

Btw, learning to use all these gadgets again is such a challenge to me. So i had to read all the manuals ahead & check out how the 2 busy body kor-kor were with my new tools

Coincidently, a colleague & my boss who came up from Spore to visit presented me with a gift that surprises me a lot making my Avent essentials nearly complete…it was a bottle warmer, i was so happy! The only thing outstanding now it the steriliser.

My sis who happened to be a shopaholic also got me lots of cute-cute baby suit which was extremely cheap. She got me 2 packs of the 7pcs boys’ body suit below.

Guess what, each pack only cost 4 pound….how to resist?? And comparing to the pack that i got from mothercare was about RM100 less 10-20% discount though i must agree that mothercare’s quality was a little better lar !!

I even cleared half of the below cabinet that used to house the boys’ toys to make way for the baby stuffs

Here’s wishing everyone a blessing & blasting year-end.

Till then, I shall catch up again with you guys

Sometimes i’m pretty amazed at myself for the effort, sweats & every little things incurred just for their b’day…hey, it’s a yearly affair, wonder how long can i sustain it?? Many of you would have seen the photos of the party celebration we had for the boys during the weekend (14/11/2009) at Traders Hotel, KLCC over at my Facebook a/c (stories a little later ya in the next post). We had the party a little late this year to accomodate to my cabin crew sister’s schedule but their actual b’day was on a Wednesday, 11/11. So as custom calls for it (after experiencing what the rest of their friends did on their birthdays), the boys demanded that they want a cake to be shared with their tuition mates at the daycare centre after school that afternoon. And the call even demanded for party packs to go along with. Any busy mom could have just brushed aside the demand esp. knowing that there’ll be a special party for them over the weekend. But without any hesitation, my heart just swung by to fulfill their demands…it was an obligation full of willingness as their ‘bestest’ daddy gave his 100% support too (except that he only pays & doesn’t need to do anythg).

And so weeks ahead i started the task of sourcing party packs for the two groups of little peoples:

- his tuition mates on the brief cake cutting session on 11/11.

- his cousins on the party at Traders Hotel which only invites immediate family members.

Boy….as I was tremendously fussy & particular on the contents of both sets of goodies….in terms of cost, quality & healthiness, i ended up tiring myself so much as i walked arounds unnecessarily Not forgeting cakes sourcing for both events, organising & corodinating tasks with the hotel, with the guests, gifts, presents & etc etc

Anyway, things were over now & of course with the success of everything & the joys that i anticipated, all the hardworks were forgotten

Here are the goodies for their tuition mates.

As we won’t be around to mann the cake cutting session (sorry….it was handed over to their teachers, haha), i thought it would be less hassle to have a cake without the messy CREAM, so jelly cake it was. This simple car jelly cake costs me RM150 as the smallest size was 2.5kg……regretted it big time, paid so much to eat colours

The contended birthday boys. Sean was especially touched that afternoon that he ran over to hug my big tummy while calling out ‘maaameee’ in a sweet tone (that was so unusual of him lor)

Sean, a buddy & Scot

cake-cutting ceremony

We let them have fun without our presence & only returned to pick them up around 6pm for our little family dinner at TGIF.

Below were our meals of pasta, steak & some kiddie meals. Everything tasted very good. I am not a beef person but somehow this preg’cy really brought about strange changes in me. I yearn to eat beef at every opportunity that i’m capable of despite my huby & MIL’s objections. I don’t understand the logic behind their objections. Anyway, the steak we ordered were exceptionally delicious…even my fussy foodie hubs also gave his high compliment. So we decided to let the boys try it. It was their first time as my whole family has been a non-beef taker all this while. I was surprise that SCOT loves it so much that i could see him munching slowly while appreciating the juicy taste of it. Then he can’t stop & kept asking for more, hahaha

On a side note, we had a very hillarious conversation that night. I thought since it was their 1st time eating beef, i might as well asked them what animal’s meat was beef belongs? To my horrondous surprise:

Sean (as usual without using his brain) answered ” LION ” ….. i got so angry at the stupid answer yet couldn’t confined my laughs, then i turned to his little brother.

Scot answered ” DOG ” …… oh my god, at that moment i was forced to put down my cutleries so that i could cover my hysterical laughing mouth with both my hands.

But i needed to calm myself down very quickly coz my huby’s eyes were getting fierce looking at my over-reaction……LOL LOL LOL, sei for lor………sei for lor………. Anyway, i hope from now onwards, they remember beef is from COW (blushing)

After dinner, on our way home both the boys were seen knocked off in the car. That’s how tired they were on an ordinary school day, poor boys but bet they had a lot of fun that day

Be good boys !!

To start of with, here’s a boring picture of my old man who visited Chengdu, China in the midst of the boys’ busy exam week His traveling ‘kaki’ grabbed the cheap fare offered by AirAsia again & this time with only RM350 each pax, they flew to Chengdu…..thks to Datuk Tony (he made their traveling dreams achieved easier) !!

I esp hate to go out when hub’s not around, what’s more now with the clumsiness in me, i wouldn’t wana stress myself minding the 2 monkeys all by myself. So, confining them at home with the excuse of doing revision for exam came so prompt. And staying at home also means lots of cooking to fill the tummies!! I dragged myself with the boys to the market in the morning for our quick breakfast & got them to involve with marketing for the dishes to be cooked for both LUNCH & DINNER. It was a sweaty yet fun experience choosing & buying seafoods (clams & squids) together.

Here u go…..our 3 dishes lunch.

All 3 dishes were a hit with the boys & i had no problem getting them to polish the food off the plates. The boys looked excited seeing how the raw clams transformed into cooked yummy food and out of the excitement, all they could remember was to ask me to “KEEP SOME FOR DADDY”…….grrrr “sai ng sai ahh” ??

Back to their exam, i must admit that it somehow landed us parents quite stressful with the pressure of at least achieving a satisfactory performance either by teachers, other parents, relatives or fellow peers!! Who wouldn’t want their kids to do well in exam? I won’t deny the fact that if their results came back ‘good’, it’ll be very comforting to us , being the parents

But seeing my boys’ attitude, i’d learnt to lower my expectation (not that i can otherwise lor) and learn to accept different individual has different capabilities It was such a tough challenge getting them to do revision, lots of reminders, naggings, scoldings, bribes & threats involved in the process Yet the longest that i could get them focus in their revision was a miserable 1/2 an hour max, after which their mind would be floating again & their body posture would starts to divert away and i was forced to let them break / ‘play’ instead…… shaking head !! After spending a whole afternoon at tuition centre, i shouldn’t be forcing them to study at night but i could not resist the guilt of not spending enough time doing revision with them, thus i insisted to do last bit of revision after dinner before they retire. And this was what happened in less than 1/2 an hour………poor boy !!

Anyway, i knew we did our best & hopefully they’ve tried their best too. Both huby & I were so much relief after the boys declared the end of the exam last Thursday

After exam, it was Children’s Day on Friday. All the students were obligated to bring some food from home. In fact, each of them was given a dish to prepare, even the quantity was specified….oooOHH, can i say no ahh?? So my boys were responsible to bring NUGGETS, specifically each boy 25pcs making a total 50pcs for the whole class (including teacher of course). I was smiling with the easy task……haha, i thought luckily it was only nuggets & not fried noodle/fried rice. As we needed to leave the house before 7 in the morning, i figured it would be too rush to fry them in the morning, allowing sufficient cooling time, then finally assembling & packing, so i rather frying them late night before. So here was I soaking myself in oil late at night with the fryer. Being the generous me, of course i wasn’t just frying nuggets for them. I also fried a pack of ayamas drummets to be included in the bento pack. After finished frying, I wrapped them up with aluminium foil & kept them in the oven. The next morning, i woke up at 5:30 am to re-heat the food for 10mins, allowing them to cool down a bit before assembling & packing them.

Frying chicken drummets

frying nuggets

The boys had been reminding me of the task list days ahead, that goes to show how excited they were…..hence, i can’t shooed them away to sleep that night. They were playing with themselves at the kitchen while i finished my duty.

Ooh ya, i even got my mom to get some quill eggs the day before to decorate the nuggets pack. And my great mama offered to cook & peel the quill eggs for us…..great heh. At night, i only needed to ” COLOR ” the eggs to brighten up the nuggets pack. Here’s how it looks like …………

Got 2 deep round foil to fill the nuggets, drummets & decorated with colorful quill eggs…..look like tong yuen hor, haha !! Finally, secured them up with glad wrap before putting into a plastic bag for each of the boy.

I don’t know how true but the boys came back reporting that all their friends love & fancy the quill eggs very much & finished them all….. awwww, ok ok, i chose to trust them

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Last but not least, what’s coming to my blog without a food photo to drool over……ngek, ngek, ngek

Yesterday night, my family (with a rombongan of 3 cars) drove more than an hour to Klang for seafood. It was at the Hai Lam village, taking the direction towards Tanjung Harapan. An extremely ‘kampung’ place i called it but worth a visit at least once in your life lar…..to sumptuous a real fresh seafood at relatively cheap price. Here’s the highlight of the dish

…… C R A B S ……

It was served in whole piece (no chopping) & plain bbq for the original sweetness.

We were given a few chopping board to play with

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And finally the least here is a belated wish of :

Happy Halloween to everyone, cheers !!

Have a great SUNDAY today !!