YIONEUNOICHIEIN1

Yah, the title may look gibberish but the super observant can quickly discipher the meaning behind it all.
Cutie Charlotte is 1 year old!!
A year ago, Cutie was torturing Darling inside her tummy. She refused to come out on her calculated 9 June birthday and decided to stay 2 days more. It happens that Charlotte’s birthday is the sum of Darling’s and my birthday.. Darling’s birthday is 6 Dec while mine is 5 May, so Charlotte decides to come out on the 11th. Lolz. Darling had to go in and out of the delivery suite a few times, undergo a few rounds of the uncomfortable cervix assessment and the anxiety of childbirth before Cutie decided to make a grand entrance. And what a REAL GRAND entrance involving almost everyone on call that night at the delivery suite! She wants everyone to be present on her birthday, so decided to make it a CODE GREEN emergency caesarian entrance, getting nurses, gynaes, neonatologies and paediatricians all around to receive her! A year on…. she is still as attention seeking as the start! Haha. She grabs the attention of everyone with her presence, be it in a good or bad way. She can amaze you with her motor skills (suddenly standing up when you least expected her to, and then walk towards you unaided!), she can suddenly utter gibberish and start clapping when she sees something interesting, she can dash towards a corner of the room only to pick up a strand of hair to lick, she can cover her mouth with her little hands and break out in a howling cry that can make you think she was trained by a Korean drama actress. Yup, that’s Our Cutie Charlotte and she turns 1 year old!!!

We decided to have a celebration for Cutie a few days before her actual birthday as her birthday is on a Thursday. Darling has been planning for her birthday party in March and April, spending hours browsing through numerous websites and images of 1-year-old birthday parties happening in Singapore for ideas of theme and venue. She shortlisted this cafe which fits the bill of being in a central location and “specialises in birthday parties for babies and kids” and it won awards being a child-friendly restaurant. EatPlayLove Cafe is a cosy cafe situated in Kampung Glam area, near to Bugis, located in the Aliwal Arts Center. It’s a Thai-fusion cafe with vintage decorations and dedicated areas of the cafe for kids to do craftwork while parents dine. We didn’t personally visit the cafe and the FB pics were all we had to decide this IS the cafe we want to hold Cutie’s important milestone birthday party.

Cafe settled, next up is the theme. “Sesame Street” was the initial plan since Cutie loves her Big Bird and Elmo hand puppets so much and there were so many kids party photos with the Sesame Street Theme. So we spent a few weeks browsing through google images, getting ideas on decorations etc before we felt that Sesame Street may be too “common” as a theme. We wanted something more personal, more special, more Charlotte. So I decided to put a search on Disney princesses. I wrote down a list of Disney princesses and decided to analyse each princess’s characteristics and see which one will fit our Cutie Baby the most. It is a very interesting research I must say, haha as I realize that each Disney Princess does indeed has 1-2 unique characteristics. There’s a few comparisons online done by other like-minded people which I can look through and it makes my job in searching for a fitting theme easier. Alice emerged as the leader with many characteristics similar to our Cutie Baby! Alice is a curious little girl who loves to explore the world, sometimes not realizing the dangers involved. She has no fear of the unknown and the unknown made her more curious to explore and experiment. She is rebellious of sorts, going against public opinion, wanting to do things differently. She can be feisty, going against authority, even speaks back at the Queen! Alice dares to try weird concoctions and food, resulting in her growing and shrinking, while Cutie will dash towards scraps of paper, strands of hair and never hesistate to put them into her small mouth and shutting it tight. There were elements of Alice in Wonderland that we find coincidental to Cutie as well, such as cats and 10/6 on the Mad Hatter’s Hat. Alice loves Cats and there’s also a Chesire Cat that she talks to a lot in the story. Charlotte, likewise, will get all excited when she sees the stray cats at the void decks. The price of the Mad Hatter’s Green hat is 10/6 (ten shillings and sixpence) while Cutie’s birthday is 11/6, the 11th of June. The Alice in Wonderland theme fitted Charlotte almost too perfectly we feel, so decided on this theme!

Theme settled, the next important thing is the cake! Again, Darling is the one with the connections to this wonderful artisan baker whom her friend engaged. She was impressed by her friend’s child’s birthday cake and wanted something as amazing, if not MORE spectacular! The cake has a moving component, something we though we will only see on Food Network’s Amazing Cake challenge. Well, this friend of hers managed to get her child a moving cake. How can Charlotte get something inferior?? Cutie deserves the best! So we decided to engage Jill Patiss to be our Cake designer. This will be her first Alice in Wonderland themed cake as well, so it’s equally exciting for her. We had to come up with important elements of the story to be incorporated into the cake. Darling searched the web, finding similar designs to show Jill Patiss, hoping to inspire her creativity. We never saw the cake’s design blueprint and the first time we saw the cake was at the actual birthday party itself!

EatPlayLove Cafe is also doing the Alice in Wonderland themed party design for the very first time as well! So we had to come up with the colour theme we wanted to show the cafe as a sample. We brainstormed some designs by looking at similar parties done elsewhere and consolidated the ideas to give to the cafe. Gayle was the person in charge of coming up with the designs of our ideas and she did not disappoint. She tried to incorporate everything we asked for. The colours, the food labels, drink labels, banner designs, quote cards etc, hoping to make this party a success as well. We paid for the dessert table and decoration package and everything will be set up for us before the TEA PARTY started. This saves us a lot of stress, because I wanted us to enjoy the party together with Cutie and not to get stressed over unnecessary things. The final design was amazing!

Pictures speak a thousand words… …
The birthday dress was bought during one of the EXPO baby fairs and is very well matched with the headband and ribbon! Lucky Darling is good with matching colours… … if I was the head designer, it will be fashion disaster!

Birthday Girl getting ready for the Party!

The cafe has done many birthday parties over the years and Tristan is very fast in setting up the macarons, cupcakes, stands and arrow banners. They even have colour matched table decorations and balloons. The next picture will showcase the details of the decorations, matching the Charlotte’s ONE-derland Theme.
“DRINK ME”, “EAT ME” are classics from the story and we loved how the colours combined to give a cheerful vibrant atmosphere.

Gummies Tier. Personalized Birthday card. Water with the “Drink Me” labels. Cupcakes with the “Eat Me” labels. Giant flasks to hold mashmallows and Cookies.

No Disney cartoon has as many memorable quotes as Alice in Wonderland, so I selected these few quotes, 1 from each character of the story, to make the themed decoration more complete. Darling was very satisfied with the end result.

Memorable Cute Quotes

The centerpiece of the dessert table is Cutie’s Birthday Cake. It makes a superb dessert table decoration PERFECT. The cake is an amazing piece of art! The detailed elements of the Story can all be seen on the cake. The cake is such a joy to watch! Every part of the cake is filled with details that it’s almost IMPOSSIBLE not to have a Jawdrop reaction when you look at it. The girl on the cake was supposed to be Alice but we decided to let Charlotte own the cake by having her own figurine on the cake! Notice the dress of the girl’s figurine?? YES!!! It’s modelled after Cutie’s dress. Darling has sent a pic of Cutie’s dress to Jill Patiss so that she can create an almost perfect replica of the dress. We replaced the 10/6 on the Mad Hatter’s hat to 11/6, to reflect on Cutie’s actual Birthday. There is a revolving Tea party table as a cake topper with miniature cakes, teacups as well as a teapot. We were told that the entire cake is edible, except the battery operated revolving tea party topper. Lolz. We absolutely love this cake. Darling is absolutely delighted that this shall be the best cake amongst all the 1-year-old birthday parties she attended, and it will stay number 1 for a very long time we feel.

Mr Rabbit, Mad Hatter’s Hat, Caterpillar, Chesire Cat, Charlotte, directional signs, complete with a revolving tea party table cake topper.

Wonder how it all looks when pieced together?

The final setup of Charlotte’s ONE-derland Tea Party

The Tea Party is a success! Kids were entertained with the crafts corner. Adults have ample tables and seats to have a chit chat, catching up over yummy food. They can even have an eyefeast on the POWER cake. Almost everyone has a group photo together with Cutie Charlotte and brought home some cakes and cookies. Darling looks very very very happy and satisfied with the ONE-derland party and we get to keep all the decorations. Next time when Cutie is old enough to have her own room, we can use them to decorate the room.

On Cutie’s actual day birthday, we ordered a cake for the infant class to celebrate with the other classmates and her teachers. A pity we could not take leave to join her but teachers were kind enough to give us soft copies of the photos taken during the birthday celebrations.

Josiah celebrations

Cutie even had a birthday gift from the school!

Birthday Gifts from School and her favorite teacher Ms Angie

We also held another sing-song cake-cutting ceremony together with Darling’s family. The tart is super yummy!! It’s supposed to be a “snickers” Tart and it tastes exactly like a Snickers Bar! Lolz, super delicious. The cupcakes are Mint-Chocolate, which tastes like the “After-Eight” Mint chocolate.

Mini Birthday celebration on 11 June

She drank from a bottle called “DRINK ME”
And up she grew so tall.
Grow Curiouser and Curiouser everyday our Cutie Charlotte.

Alice: “This is impossible!”
Mad Hatter: “Only if you believe in it.”

Believe in yourself Cutie Baby and You can achieve Great Things.
This is a land full of Wonder, Mystery and Danger our dear Cutie Charlotte, but Mama and PaPa will be with you every step of the way.

Happy Birthday Our Cutie Baby

Well, since my darling took a while to decipher the title…I shall provide the answer. Haha
YIONEUNOICHIEIN1
It’s the way to say “1” in different languages…
YI = mandarin
ONE = English
UNO = Spanish / Italian… coincidentally UN = French
ICHI = Japanese
EIN = German

Well, even more coincidentally, they all happen to be from the countries we have travelled to before!

Celebrating 6 weeks of Pure Cuteness

It was a slow slow wait for the arrival of our Cutie Baby. As the EDD draws nearer, there’s no sign of our Cutie Baby wanting to come out to meet this world, yet she’s growing very fast inside Mummy’s Tummy! As of Week 39, she’s already about 3Kg according to the scan estimate, with the addition of lots of liquor within the womb, Cutie is getting very heavy for mummy to carry around. We decided to induce labour on her expected EDD 9 June 2014. We admitted ourselves on 9 June, then started on our long wait for Cutie.

Delivery Suite KKH

Darling had 2 prostins inserted on the first day but the progression was slow and cervix only opened till 2.5cm. Poor darling have to undergo long hours of cramps due to the medications, even having to resort to a I/M pethidine shot.
The next day was a long long day, the third prostin was inserted in the morning, and there was spontaneous rupture of membrane with clear liquor. Good sign to come we pray? Darling was given the Epidural and started on a I/V oxytocin drip. She was 3 cm dilated. It was to be a long arduous waiting game from then on. Darling was told to be fasted since the morning and we are patiently waiting for the cervix to be dilated. 2 of us in the delivery suite, with Cutie Baby under constant CTG monitoring, we thought it will be coming soon. We waited eagerly for every check by the doctors doing ward rounds, to see the progression of the labour only to be disappointed each time. The delivery suite nurses changed shifts several times during our stay in the labour ward but the cervix does not want to barge. Cutie Baby is happily inside the tummy, refusing to make any move to come out! She is not in distress even when our I/V oxytocin is at the highest rate of infusion. It seems that Cutie Baby wants to have a say in her own birthday! It seems as though she is saying in her sweet little voice, “It’s not going to be 9 June or 10 June Daddy Mummy, I want to choose my own favorite date!” Last check on 10 June at 10.20pm, Darling is only 5 cm dilated, but she is in labour since 10am (when her water bag burst). It’s too long, Darling is exhausted, poor poor darling. Cutie Baby Cutie Baby, Daddy Mummy waiting for u.
The clock strikes 12Mn, 11 June 2014, Cutie Baby finally shows some signs of wanting to come out, BUT she CANNOT WAIT!!! The CTG shows a sudden Fetal Heart rate drop, causing several midwives and the on-call team of doctors to rush in. It was a mad rush, and suddenly, we were told that we needed an emergency caesarian section in view of prolonged labour and fetal distress. SHIT it’s happening, everything we wanted to avoid is happening and it’s happening at a crazy speed. CODE GREEN it was announced on the PA system and Darling was pushed directly into the OT for the surgery under GA.

Poor Poor darling had gone through so much during this pregnancy….from injections, to drips, to epidural, to GA, to surgery… …

Are all these worth it? Well, the pictures say it all… …

Birth of Charlotte

**********************fast forward 6 weeks later*****************

Cutie Baby is 6 weeks old! The last few weeks has been a very trying period for us, especially for my Darling, who is working full time 24 hours a day. VS me who is only working part time… …
Cutie Baby has a lovely smile and chubby cheeks, but behind the smiles, there lies an impatient princess!! When her demands are met (be it changing diapers, feeling hot, feeling hungry or just wanting a hug), she can be an angel. She will wink at you, crack up a big smile just to reward you for a job well done, meeting her demands. But if you were a bit slower in responding to her requests or fail to understand what she’s tying to imply… her cries will shoot through the roof, escalating to a shriek and screech and ultimate hysteria with limbs kicking and head turning and body arching! Being new parents, we are defintely at a loss aometimes when Cutie Baby kicks up a massive fuss. It makes it even more stressful when in-laws are around to attempt to teach you what to do or show off their knowledge about baby caring. We are both medical professionals so we “sort-of” know what to do but still we needed time to explore our Cutie Baby and understand her.
Cutie’s jaundice level dropped to safe numbers within the first 2 weeks, for which we are grateful for and she is feeding very well on breast milk. The only problem is she refuses to latch onto mummy and refuse to drink direct from the source! Cutie was introduced to bottle feeding on Day 1 of life as she needs to be separated from mummy for observation, thus we miss the golden opportunity to train her to like breast feeding. As a result, she discovered the magic of the milk bottles…a steady flow of milk with every suck she takes, mimimal effort, MAXIMUM SHIOKNESS!!!!! She never looked back since, refusing to drink direct from breast, maybe thinking it was too much of an hassle to meet her angry emoty tiny tummy each time. She may have inherited this from me….eatinking…. constantly looking for good food to fill up my tummy.
For the benefit of Cutie Baby, we have to cede to her request, mummy diligently expressing milk around the clock while we feed Cutie breast milk through the bottle.

We celebrated Cutie’s baby shower when she was about 3 weeks old at Loyang Aloha chalet as we do not want to dirty our place. Hahaha. Thanks to everyone who made time to come down. Cutie Baby makes some appearances intermittently to take photos with our friends and family as we do not want to leave her in an open area when she’s still less than a month’s old.

Charlotte’s Baby Shower

Charlotte baby shower

Darling with the simple deco

Babies of 24th OAC

Thanks for all your gifts!

************LIFE AFTER CUTIE BABY WILL NEVER BE THE SAME***************

The final stretch (39 weeks)

Well Oh Well, our cutie baby is enjoying Mama’s tummy environment too much! We have gone for 3 weekly gynae checks and everytime she told us that baby is not coming out anytime the next week…
The anxious mama is getting more and more tired of carrying the extra load hanging down on her tummy. Every now and then, my darling will comment on how poor thing her tummy is, being stretched beyond recognition, how she is no longer able to see her feet, how she is unable to see her own underwear; how naughty our cutie baby is, refusing to listen to our pleads for her to come out soon!
It’s been a physically and mentally tough 39 weeks so far, seeing how our cutie grew 500+ grams every week during the last 1 month and how much walking my darling has to walk daily, making her rounds around the hospital. She can’t sit down for long, having to be on the move maybe 80% of the time. It’s tough on her, my poor darling.

There were moments of anxiety, from the bleeding episodes in the first as well as the second trimesters, to some lazy cutie baby days when she will have so little movements that made Mama think something is wrong with baby.

Cutie baby of course has her cutie moments in between to alleviate our anxieties =)
It’s truly an amazing journey so far… seeing how our cutie is a white speck on the ultrasound, to a fully formed being, to someone who can do somersaults and boxing right underneath our noses! We can see how a physical entity is growing inside darling’s tummy, having a heartbeat of her own, being able to hiccup and being able to make the tummy go “out of shape” with her constant little kicks and punches, creating small bulges maciam inviting us to give her mini high-fives.

I have been telling my darling… …
I will gladly take over the job of carrying our cutie baby in my tummy in our next lives together! Let me have the tough walks, let me have the 3.1 kg burden (which is our cutie’s weight as of last week), let me have the feeling of tired legs and sore feet and plantar fasciitis, let me have all the varicose veins! Also, let me have those feelings of Cutie interacting with me, right inside my tummy! Let me feel her kicks from within, let me shake my tummy and play with our cutie. Let cutie share my daily life for 40 weeks. Hahaha, that will be some great experience!

This week is the FINAL stretch, cutie is growing to a size that made darling worried about natural delivery. Darling has had enough of the tiring days after work. It’s time for her to rest and recuperate a few days before we admit ourselves to the delivery suite. So Darling has decided to start her maternity leave after this week. It will be EDD next week, so that’s the day we are going to receive our bundle of joy, who is growing inside Darling’s tummy. Darling plans to rest the last few days, preparing her strength to push cutie out. I am sure Cutie is also practicing hard everyday, training her legs so she can assist Mummy in pushing herself out! Mummy and Cutie working hand in hand!

Of course we are also spending some quality time together in these final 2 weeks, the last 2 weeks of being just by ourselves. Come next week, we will have a new member to our family, with new adventures waiting to be discovered.

So what better way to commemorate this pregnancy than a maternity shoot!
We have been talking about having a maternity shoot since second trimester but that was the time when Mummy is constantly thinking, “Oh I am in the ugliest state of my life and why would I want to remember that?” So the plan was shelved. Somehow the interest is re-kindled when she attended a baby shower of her friend who recently delivered. She saw how pretty those pictures can be and she was psycho-ed by her friend to leave photo memories of this special moment in her life (the first time being a mummy). Thank you Darling’s friend!!! You have succeeded in doing something which I failed, ie get darling to have a maternity shoot, ie to get darling to realize how sexy a pregnant woman’s silhouette can be!
All these realizations when Darling is in her 37-38 weeks… … Hahaha. So we have to act fast lo! Usually shoots are done with mummy in 32-36 weeks and good studios get booked fast. We are lucky that 1 of the few we short-listed is able to give us a time slot after our 38 weeks gynae antenatal check. Haha, heng ah!
We happily prepared props, clothes and Darling seems excited about this shoot! GREAT!
We chose White Room Studios as some of their shots are creative and not just your usual poses that we see showcased by studios having booths in babyfairs. Of course it comes at a slightly higher charge but I totally think it’s worth every cent! Finally, we can have some intimate shots and some artistic shots of us and cutie baby!

Let me share some shots here but those invited to our baby shower will be able to see more! Hahaha.
We started with a pastel colour dress shoot by the balcony with Fort Canning as the backdrop, then we have shots of darling in a flowy white dress. I love how the light shines through Darling’s dress, showing her Cutie Bump underneath.

Sharing a quiet moment together

There’s some cute shots of us as well. It looks candid but I really am trying hard to hear my Cutie’s heart beat!

What’s that inside your tummy?

Maybe I can hear you better with this?

Finally there’s the intimate shots where Darling is covered by a translucent flowy sash, super artistic feel, just like those famous Italian paintings. (of course cannot show here lah! You will get to see it if you happen to come to our baby shower or drop by our love-nest for tea. Haha) Darling can finally have the shots of her dress flying, which she had been lamenting being missing from our wedding photo-shoot. This time it will her sash flying!

Lastly to end this post, a quick sneak peak at how I may look like when I am pregnant? Lolz

Fatty tummy vs Cutie tummy

We are all ready for you Our Cutie Baby! The Cot is ready, your baby rockers are already assembled, your CUTE DUCKIE bath tub is ready, your play-mat / changing mat is ready, your feeding bottles are ready, your diapers are well stocked, your clothes all ironed nicely! Your newborn photo-shoot is already arranged!
Mama and Papa may think we are ready but we can never be sure until you come out! Hahaha.
We have booked the venue for your baby shower and looking into the caterer now. Your confinement auntie is already booked and we are ready to learn from her on how to care for you.

Come-on Cutie Baby! Come out to this world, it’s definitely bigger than Mummy’s Tummy and we will guide you along in your growing journey. We are FAMILY.

We love you Cutie Baby

Growth scan 31 weeks / Baby Market 2014

It’s the final stretch, the final dash, the final countdown! We are very close to meeting our Cutie Baby soon!
Today will be her 31 weeks Growth scan and we will see where she compares with peers of the same age.
We went to a different ultrasound room for her growth scan today so I do not have the luxury of facing the large LCD TV. Darling will be able to watch the movie of Cutie baby unfold during the scanning while I have to be contented with the screen of the ultrasound machine. The sonographer seems quite happy with her job, keeps giggling when she sees cutie baby move, keeps saying “So cute! Hahaha..” Well, it’s good to love your job and we are grateful to have her scan our Cutie. Turns out Cutie is growing well, size is at 50th percentile while her limb lengths are at the 75th percentile. We even got to catch a glimpse of Cutie’s side profile. Hmm… I think she has nice lips like Darling. Hahahaha. Good for her!

Cutie Baby side profile

After the growth scan, we saw Dr Goh at the TPS. She is pregnant too! Lucky her EDD is end of June so still in time to deliver Cutie for us, hehehe, if not Darling will be so disappointed!
We attended a breastfeeding talk held at the O & G clinic and got ourselves some free samples of sebamed for Cutie’s shampoo and shower, NICE! Very informative session conducted by the midwife, there’s so much to learn! She also showed us the expected transformation of Cutie’s PooPoo from green to yellow as the time goes by. Well, we are expecting some explosive sessions when Cutie Poos! Hahaha, hope we are not in the firing line for the PooPoo Bomb.

We did some window shopping at the Mothercare outlet at KKH, took down some prices as comparison, preparing for the upcoming Baby’s Market in EXPO!

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Baby’s Market EXPO Hall 8 from 18-20 April 2014

This is the event we have been waiting for since Feb 2014! Darling has listed down ALL the things we should get from the Market. Throughout the last 2 months, Darling had been conscientiously following the FB updates on Baby Market 2014. The organiser will upload pics of “Star Buys”a few days a week, enticing us buyers to drool at the massive savings. Darling will then research online to see if the Starbuys are truly worth the buy. Thank you Darling for doing shopping for Cutie!
We have a shortlist of things to buy, the booths they can be found at, and I marked them all out on the floorplan. Maciam like battle plan! So exciting!

18 April, we went out in full force at 8.30am, arriving at EXPO at 9am. Man, there’s already a queue forming!!! And we thought we were early!
Well, 2 hours of queueing then… Went to DaBao MacDonald’s for breakfast. Sausage McMuffin with egg, changed to Wholegrains Muffin! A healthier start!

At 10 am, the queue has already snaked and looped. Well, Singaporeans being Singaporeans…somebody will inevitably try to fake-ishly cut queue. Then the person brought about a few more cutting queue and eventually a whole group of them started to merge into the queue of the early birds…
They started to push their prams closer and closer to the entrance, inching closer and closer to us, trying to merge into our queue. HEY we came at 9am leh! Give us some respect Yo!!! Lucky they didn’t manage to cut in front of us lo! at 10.30am, the main doors open and we are able to step inside the Hall, only to be in front of a barricade. This time, the queue has totally become non-existant. Every man, every woman, every PRAM for himself! Everyone trying to get the spot as close to the barricade as possible. Bryan (brother-in-law) described the prams as Battle tanks ready for war. The baby placed inside the pram act as extra firepower to pry through the human horde, trying to inch closer to the barricades. The tentalising offers are all in front! The barricade is the only line of defence! We can break through them!!!

11am, Barricades open!!!

Almost 80% rushed to the Diapers section! OMG, the scene was breath-taking. Goods started flying off the shelves, cashier queues start to form. Suddenly, everyone has something in their hands… the prized reward for coming to the fair early!

There are several good buys though, we got ourselves an Air Purifier with HEPA filter and Silver technology for $320, supposed to be meant for 40m2 area (living room). Original price was $400-500. We got a $199 baby carrier (i-angel 3-in-1 hipseat) which is a new product in Korea, launched at the Baby Market today! Some other star buys include the $49 BabyMoov steriliser which is selling for $129.90 at mothercare, Inglesia Marco Polo car seat @ $299, baby bibs, organic baby wipes, Bosomi diapers, Bamboo towels, Warmze instant bottle warmer, BabyMoov unlimited rechargable bottle warmer, organic baby shower and shampoo, Pureen large changing mat at $9.90, Nursing tea, nursing bra and milk storage bags. It’s really a shopping paradise! The only thing that’s spoiling the shopping mood is the poor crowd control. It’s super croweded…Poor darling almost felt like fainting while queueing up at the Pureen booth.

We went out for lunch at about 1pm, after our first round, depositing our loot into our Pink Rush. Boy, we are so glad to finally sit down inside Ajisen Ramen to rest our tired legs and butts.

We decided to go back for round 2 after a well deserved rest and Boy-Oh-Boy another shock awaits us! There is a queue outside Hall 8! Apparently the security has started to close the entrance and left with only 1 door open. They are actively letting people out and controlling the people going in. Whoa Lao eh, have to queue up again! Me and Darling decided to move to the front of the pack to monitor the situation. Hmm… and then we see an opening, an opportunity! We see a group of aunties and some mummies with prams trying to use their battle-prams to force their way in…So….we followed through lo! Hahahaha and we are back into the Hall 8 in no time! Hahahaha, sneaky trick but I don’t care as long as it benefits us. We have to be ruthless in these type of fairs.

Round 2 we went for nursing bras and nursing pads and we bought a cotton sateen baby sling too. Sofie the giraffe teether costs $31.90 at this baby fair so we decided to order from Amazon. We got some $3.90 Tomee Tippee bottles and her toy holder. The round 2 shopping was so much more pleasurable with the controlled crowd but some deals have long gone.

We ended our day of fruitful shopping with a dinner at Punggol Ah Dong.

Baby Market Loot

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Baby Market Round 2!!!
Yeah! We went for round 2 of baby market shopping on 20 april, the last day of the fair!
There is no queue, minimal crowd and we can slowly stroll through the booths. We got the Large Paklon playmat @ $205, Pumpkin Patch rompers @ $8 each, buckwheat husks pillow @ $14 and Carter’s face towels @ $1.50 per piece. Can’t remember what else we got but the shopping is such a breeze, cashier queues are not scary as well.

Baby Market ROCKS! Hope they can improve the crowd control and bring in more starbuys in the next fair in Sept/Oct!

Anniversary Post

18 March 2006 — the day My darling held my hand to cross the road. The first day we became “officially” in a relationship.
17 March 2012 — the day my KungFu gang and I raided Darling’s house and grabbed her as my wife, the day we walked and danced down the aisle of Grand Shanghai, along to the Tune of “cha-cham-bo”.

17-18 March 2014 — Today… I shall announce to the rest of my friends, I will be celebrating Father’s Day and Darling will be celebrating Mother’s day. Yup!!! We are going to be parents soon! Very Soon in actual fact. Haha. 9 June 2014.
I shall release the rest of my pregnancy-related posts today.

Darling wanted to keep it a secret, so I have to quietly write the posts and patiently wait for the chance to release all the juicy insider news to all our friends who read our blog! Tagged under “Cutie Baby”…go check them out!

A special mention goes out to my ex-colleague Poi Chin. She is actually the FIRST friend to find out the news! Hahaha, really amazing, just by looking at Darling’s face from a picture I posted on FB! Apparently she noticed a “pregnancy glow” in Darling. Sorry Chin, I have to bluff you that she is not pregnant then coz it’s supposed to be a secret. But I salute you Chin!!! May you have good luck in your quest for a Little one too!!! Don’t keep it from me too long ok!

We had to bring forward our gynae appointment with Dr Goh from next week to today due to some unforeseen circumstances…some spotting for the last few days, but no pain. Cutie Baby is still kicking hard and strong too! But we decided to just let Dr Goh have a look for reassurance.

Well we have another chance to see our Cutie Baby! Today is her 28 weeks and she weighs a healthy 1.45 Kg. The bleeding is likely from Darling straining too much at work (poor darling been walking around too much), Her placenta is low lying but should be moving higher soon by the next visit. So reassuring to hear that!

Cutie Baby is growing well. She really loves being “sayang-ed”. Everytime I rub rub Darling’s tummy, Darling will feel Cutie Baby “swimming” over to the side I am rubbing and huddle there. We can really feel a hard ball curled up on the side of Darling’s tummy being rubbed! This only started during 26-27 weeks I think. Haha, We are both very amused by our Cutie swimming to and fro inside Darling’s tummy. Nowadays when she kicks, we can literally see Darling’s tummy vibrate! What a strong kicker or boxer or header…whatever. Haha, CUTE!!!

Shopping for Cutie Baby has began since the last Expo fair in Feb and the Taka fair in March. We ordered a lot of bibs, jumpers, hairbands from Qoo10 as well. Exciting! Darling can’t wait to doll up Cutie baby! She is even starting to look out for Cutie baby’s 1 month celebration clothes!

Now we are looking to get a cheap and good baby carrier as well as a cheap and good Diaper Bag. I just ordered from Taobao, hopefully it will arrive in 1 piece.

I love you My Sexy Darling! You do not look fat at all! I think you are really Sexy with your pregnant curves!

Ok, I will be the pregnant wife in our next life, carrying our baby! We will take turns ok!

I love you my dear! Thank you for being there for me all these years. Let us look forward to many happy days to come, together with our Cutie. She will be coming out to this world in 83 days time!

Combined screening scan (Week 12+1day)

Today is Cutie Baby’s appointment for combined screening test at KKH. Combined screening is a combination of tests to determine the risk of Cutie Baby having trisomy 21 (Down), 18 (Edward) or 13 (Patau). It consists of an ultrasound scan to determine the Foetal Nuchal Translucency, and blood tests to check the PAPP-A (pregnancy associated plasma protein-A) level and the B-HCG levels. This is usually done between the 11-13 weeks of pregnancy.
Darling has done the blood tests last week so this week will be the scan.
Another scan = Another chance to see our Cutie Baby!!!

The Antenatal Diagnostic Center (ADC) of KKH is located on Level 2 Woman’s Tower. The morning started with a small incident… I forgot to look at the time and left the house only at 11.10am, oh dear… when the instruction was to arrive 10 minutes earlier for registration or risk having to postpone the appointment. Lucky Cutie Baby brought luck and the taxi company answered our call for a cab! So we rushed down and reached KKH at 11.40am and I have to dash straight to the ADC from the taxi stand at B1 to place Darling’s card for registration. Lucky the earlier patient was delayed as well so we didn’t have to shift our appt! HENG AH!

Within 15 minutes, Darling was called and her weight taken, then we were brought to a new area within ADC. This area has 3 scan rooms and very cosy with sofas. Our ultra-sonographer appears very experienced while doing the scan, identifying the various parts of Cutie Baby at ease! Every position of her probe will reveal information on Cutie Baby’s development.
Darling, as usual, will be lying down while the ultrasonographer goes about the scanning. The interesting thing is that there’s a big TV mounted on the ceiling for Darling and me to see exactly what she’s scanning! No need to strain at the tiny machine screen! This part I like!!!
And she showed me Cutie Baby’s face, small hands with the cutie fingers! Cutie is only 59.9mm crown-rump length! Haha and so many things happening to him/her! So So exciting!

Cutie baby face!

Yup, we got back the result of the screening and our Cutie Baby is considered low low risk.

YEAH! Can’t wait for the next appointment to see Our Cutie Baby!!

Experience at TPS (11 weeks)

The Private Suite at KKH seems so private…literally, coz I cannot seem to get any information of it on the KKH website! I have been reading about this on mummysg.com and other forums but just on the “Official” KKH website.

Nonetheless, being the kiasu me, I went down personally to check out this place and made an appointment for my darling.

TPS waiting area

Yup, for those who have been reading, We have forsaken SGH for KKH. SGH O&G did not give us the desired service we expected, despite us paying private rates so decide to try he famous and popular Dr Goh Sheng Li at KKH. Hehehe. Darling says she looks pretty so the experience will be enjoyable.

Ok, the appointment is made for the 18 Nov 2013 and this shall be the second “first visit”. TPS location is great! Hidden in a corner behind Cheers, it gives the exclusive feeling. The staff are so friendly! And darling even got a “welcome” pack consisting of free samples of milk powder, diapers and magazines. Darling seems happy. Great!
The whole clinic gives us the welcome feeling, and there is even free flow apples and a coffee machine!

TPS interior

Our appointment was delayed as Dr Goh SL have to attend to a delivery for a patient. So we kept ourselves busy having Macdonald’s breakfast and reading the free magazines.

Our turn came and Dr Goh was all smiles to welcome us. Her tone and body gesture were unhurried and made us feel important. She listened to what our complaints were (Darling was having abdominal bloatedness and nausea) and offered solutions to our problems, so unlike our SGH experience.
The scan was done in Dr Goh’s room and the whole process was comfortable.

The most exciting part of the consult is being able to see our Cutie Baby!!!!!
Cutie baby is so so cute! Tiny hands and legs with a big head. The hands seems like pushing away the probe, as though the scanning probe is disturbing his/her rest! Haha, so cute! I couldn’t keep my smiles from showing!

Cutie Baby!!!

Darling had her antenatal bloods done today and we fixed the appointment next week for the Nuclear Translucency scan for trisomy 21 screening.

See you again next week Cutie Baby!

First Antenatal Check

Darling also a bit Geh Geh don’t like the idea of being pregnant. I think it’s more of unsure of what’s going to happen, that anxiety… She say,” Why so heng one, 1 try then ganna liao?” Aiyah, it’s fated lay my dear!

Well, of course I’m doing my exam preparations at that time, exams in Nov 2013, 1 more month to go… …
Darling suggested on 1 occasion to visit the Chinatown library one day, so I thought it’s for me to study while she go book browsing. Surprise Surprise, Darling came back with a Chinese book on Naming your child (Latest edition)! NICE!!
Darling became a book reader after so long! Haha, I like! We spent a few sessions at Starbucks, browsing the book, searching the internet etc for suitable names, haha feel so like parents now! So exciting to give our cutie baby a name! Of course my suggestions were stupid, such as “Hero”….but that’s all for fun lah, I am sure darling knows right?

These were some of the drafted names and I think they are all so nice and meaningful and unique!

Name draft 1

Name draft 2

And of course, we searched the net for recommended female gynaes, I became members of several websites such as mummysg.com. Initally we wanted to book the gynae from SGH seeing that darling could benefit from being a staff there…Man, such a wrong choice. We had wanted to have a private patient experience since we already paid for “A” class rates. SGH did not give us that “feeling”. Being a full paying class patient, we were made to wait for an hour for the appt, then while in the consult room, we felt rushed…. gynae even mentioned that “she has a long queue outside”…. Definitely not the experience we want for the rest of our 9 months. SGH Gynae clinics doctors has a mixed list of patients of both Private and Subsidized so the gynae will not be able to tell which is private class, which is subsidised class….so not a good experience overall.

The only happy thing we could bring away is the sight of a fluttering shadow on the ultrasound machine…
My cutie baby HAS A HEARTBEAT! Even though darling didn’t manage to quite see it, I am very sure the heart is beating nice and strong!

First Sight of Cutie Baby

We scoured the internet again, decided to go for KKH The Private Suite instead, since it is still an affiliated hospital, darling could still claim some staff benefits.

Hope the KKH TPS experience will be better. on 18 Nov 2013! (1 day after the end of my exams!)