A Time to be Grateful

Actually, I've discovered that there are many things I should be thankful for or be appreciative of about pregnancy. In my 1st trimester and the better part of the 2nd trimester, I've been grappling about lots of things. On reflection and especially since I've returned back to work after the 2-month break in the US, I've come to realised that indeed, there are quite a number of priviledges associated with pregnancy. Other than some of the physical discomforts from a bigger stomach, really, there's a lot to be grateful about.

Most people that I've met tend to be extremely friendly and considerate towards pregnancy mom-to-bes. Like I was once queuing at the Ikea Alexandra toilet and the woman ahead of me actually offered for me to preceed her to use the next available cubicle. And a couple of times, hawkers would strike up conversations starting with "so, is it a boy or girl that you're expecting?" or "so, you how many months pregnant?". Seemingly, it doesn't sound like a big deal, but when you put together many such nice encounters, it makes you realise that really, the ugly Singaporeans that many people make disparaging remarks do have a good side to them.

Definitely, pregnant moms get priority when it comes to food. Once, I was at the reception level of my office having a meeting and both our office receptionists had some "kuehs" from another colleague. They offered to share their food with me even though I was about to start my meeting and insisted that they would keep a portion for me until my meeting ends. And what great timing it was. Becos I was a little hungry after my meeting and that served as my tea time snack.

While housework becomes daunting with pregnancy, I am externally grateful to my mom and aunt for coming over to my house on a weekly basis to help clean my house and mop the floors. In fact, they have even wiped all the windows and window grills in the house that I don't even have to do any spring cleaning for the coming Chinese New Year!!

Although my small stomach has been a source of concern to me as to whether Baby is growing at the recommended weight range, I'm grateful that I do not have any "love-handles" when seen from the back nor do I waddle much at all. In fact, a number of colleagues have remarked that I've carried my pregnancy pretty well for someone in her last trimester and in fact, there's that glow on my face. Now that certainly is a morale booster, especially when my own vanity gets the better of me at times and I dispair about my pregnant form and the limited [read dowdy] maternaty clothes that I now wear to office.

In the whole scheme of things, and now that I've got another 8 more weeks to go before Baby is supposedly due, I thought that I should show gratitude to the many people who have in one way or another shown me the better side of human nature. So, to all my family, friends, colleagues, bosses and strangers that I have encountered, here's a big "THANK YOU" for the kindness, consideration and support that you've shown :)

Finally...a decent posting!

Its been many days since I've last blog and I felt as if something's missing now that I don't blog daily, as part of the routine that I've established during my 2 months hiatus from work. Wonder if that qualifies me as a avid blogger :)

Having Louis back home is a wonderful thing, albeit I still pick on him at times for some of his little endearing [read annoying on days when I'm being a grumpy grouch]habits of leaving trails of clothes and what-nots around the house. But then, as he is oft to remind me, I should be more appreciative him since he is fastidious about washing the laundry twice or thrice a week, fold the dried clothes, irons the clothes or basically making himself useful in the house. And indeed I do! My bark is just worst than my bite *grins*

We spent Fri night catching up with our close-knit group of friends, having dinner in a nice Japanese place along Quayside, call Bon Gout (which means good taste in French). And what a difference a couple of months had made to the Quayside area. We were all surprised at the number of new cafes and restaurants that sprouted out, some of which were restaurants that were recently reviewed by The Straits Times e.g. Brussel Sprouts. Dessert was at this Les Amis group chain called Canele, complete with a great tart au citron, mocha mousse, macaroons etc. Louis and I would like to bring the family here for dinner one day.

Weekends were spent catching up on grocery shoppings and other errands, in between catching up with different groups of friends. Having gotten use to the vast space and wide roads in the US, Louis felt a little claustrapobic in the narrow aisles of the new NTUC Xtra at AMK Hub.


Yoonmi, our Insead Korean friend, is in town for 3 weeks for training. Hence, we spent Sunday afternoon having a leisurely lunch and catching up on old times and of course, the latest updates on everyone else's life/work et al. And knowing that I do like a number of Korean dishes, Yoonmi hauled along some items from Korea like the pancake flour, bibimbap sauce, bulgogi meat wrap sauce and quintessential of Korean cuisine...kimchi. Lotsa lotsa kimchi. With my new goodies, I believe that I am now ready to kick-start my own little Korean Kitchen and whip out some [hopefully] sumptous Korean dishes.

An interesting bit of trivial for nursing moms is that in Korea, women during their confinement would drink a soup of beef with seaweed. Seaweed is touted to cleanse the blood and also increases milk flow for the breastfeeding mom. Now that sounds waaay better than the vinegar and ginger pig trotters soup that everyone has been telling me that I ABSOLUTELY MUST ingest to get rid of wind in the stomach post delivery.

Oh, did I forget to say that Louis ordered me a watering can pot of flowers to perk me up on the day that I returned to Singapore from Houston? Well... admittedly, Louis and I are not the most romantic of couples, but my hubby does surprises me occassionally, especially with lovely gestures like this. Like most females, I do love being on the receiving end of flowers. Thank you, darling.

No time to blog!

This is my 2nd week at work and already, I'm wishing that I had taken a leave of absence for 2 years instead of coming back to work until my delivery.

I've been wanting to blog but yet have been so busy at work and tired after to even think of logging on.

So, today's posting is going to be tres court i.e. I'm going to end it here. I just needed to tell the people who might be reading the blog that I'm too busy to be able to blog.

Anyways, Louis will be back in Singapore on Thursday. Can't wait. My pillar of support is coming back and all will be right with the world again. Hahaha...

Baby Notes & Fatherhood

Yesterday, I've heard over the Morning Express show on Class95 (a morning segment show on Singapore's #1 English Radio Station) that people who spend 15 minutes daily penning down something in their diaries would have better health. Since blogging is the new-age form of writing a diary, isn't it great that active bloggers now have one additional reason to rejoice :)

Unfortunately, now that I've started working, it takes more effort to post regularly on the blog since I would like some R&R time after work. Inevitably, R&R means that I become a couch potato or am in bed reading a book rather than to log onto the Internet.

As I enter into my 3rd trimester, I've noted that there are further changes to the body. Where I once was able to brisk walk everywhere, I now am walking a little slower simply becos I feel the weight of the stomach. Further, after prolong periods of standing or sitting, the stomach seems to weigh heavily and I feel that I need to hold my belly when I walk [which I resist and succumb only in the confines of my own house]. I'm hoping that this is an indication that Baby is growing well inside and that the strain I'm feeling is due to the weight of Baby. However, given the rate of growth, I think I will soon be waddling *cringe*

On the other hand, Baby is definitely more active in the stomach. Where I used to feel Baby's kicks mostly during periods when I'm resting, these days, I just seem to feel Baby move about in the stomach throughout the day. I've read that fetal movements would be more pronounced during the 20-28 weeks, after which, fetal's movements would be impeded by the amount of free space left within the uterus due to its growth.

Apart from a number of office colleagues who were suprised to note the size of my 7-mth pregnant belly (they didn't even know that I was 4 months along as I wasn't really showing when I left 2 months ago), I've had a few more encounters with strangers or vendors who were similarly amazed that I was so compact [read small] at 7 months. So far, those who have seen my belly have predicted that Baby would be a boy. Is Baby really a boy? I guess only time would tell :)

Thanks once again to technology, Louis is still able to croon to Baby nightly through the handsfree mode on my cellphone. In addition to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars", Louis has expanded the repetoir to include a French nursury rhyme called "Frere Jacques". Of course, being the ever "gan cheong" and protective father-to-be, he's asked that I do not put the cell phone too near to the belly in case there is radiation through to Baby.

According to my MIL and a few other sources, its not uncommon that most women would deliver 1-2 weeks earlier than their EDD. If that's the case, then, I might be due sometime in end Mar or early Apr.

In a way, I'm looking forward to Baby's arrival. Apart from the open fact that I would be stopping work after delivery, its that I've seen facets and glimpses of Louis effortlessly slipping into the role of a father figure. His eagerness to embrace fatherhood in the face of my own residual fears of motherhood's responsibilities both touched and humbled me.

To me, seeing Louis rejoice in his new role as a father and Baby's actual arrival would be my best present for the year of 2007.

Jetlag & Hacking Cough

I passed my 1st day at work in a semi-comatose state due to jet-lag and a fair amount of exhaustion from all the hacking cough wracking through my body. Unfortunately, I didn’t even make any sort of dent in clearing my 2-months worth of office emails as there were a number of people who dropped by or whom I met along the office corridor to chat on all that’s happened while I was away.

A number of my colleagues were surprised to see my pregnancy bump as I wasn’t really showing at my 4th month when I left for the US. Most were actually surprised when I told them that I was at the start of my 7th month of pregnancy and commented that I was quite compact for my time. A few speculated that Baby could be a boy since I was carrying with a narrow and sharp belly. Hmmm… only time will tell if their predictions are right.

At 5.45 pm, I decided to call it a day at work and go home earlier to get some rest since my chest was aching from all the coughing that started in the afternoon. The good news is that my gynae had prescribed me with antibiotics and medication for my cough that I could ingest knowing that was safe for pregnant women. The flip side was that the antibiotics didn’t seem to work its usual magic and I was still wracked with coughs and tossing and turning in my bed on my 2nd night back in Singapore.

On my supposedly 2nd day of work, I had to call in for MC and head to my GP in the hope of alternative medication and some bed rest. My GP told me that the medication prescribed by my gynae was top of the line and were highly effective to treat cough. He deduced that my cough could be a viral infection that could not be treated by antibiotics. Nonetheless, he gave me 2 other medication that I could interchange, one of which could cause drowsiness. I had requested for that in the hope that it could result in some drug-induced sleep to combat my other problem – jetlag.

Certainly, pregnancy does exert its toll on the body and its not what it once used to be. Pre-pregnancy, jetlag would typically mean that I culd sleep but end up waking early in the morning. Now, I had no problems going to sleep at night, but I would wake up after 2-3 hours and then spent the remaining time staring up at the ceiling only to fall asleep only at dawn. From the flying experiences over the last 2 months, I know it would take me some 1 week or so before the body adjusts.

That wouldn’t have been a problem apart from the fact that I needed to get to work in the morning. This means that I only catch about 5 hours of sleep each night till the body adjusts to the time difference.

I guess that means that I would be staggering to work, blurry-eye for the next 1 week. Geez, I hope my bosses and colleagues would be patient till I get back into the swing of things *fingers crossed*.

Lost in Transit

After a 2-month hiatus, I’ve finally touched down early morning in Singapore after a total flight time of nearly 21 hours. I’ve asked for a meeting service to help me offload my 3 pieces of luggage from the carousel since it wasn’t possible for me in my current stage to lift the 29kg bag on my own.

I was really eager to unload all the goodies, household items, clothes and bags that I’ve shopped and bought in the last 2 months. So, there I was, waiting and searching for the grey luggage and the 2 white Crate & Barrel boxes to slowly make its way to me.

Perhaps its divine intervention or bad luck, but after 15 minutes of waiting, it dawned on me that my luggage did not make their way through from Houston to Singapore after all. Verifying with the ground handling staff on hand, he confirmed that all luggage from SQ37 has been unloaded onto the carousel.

All that I had to bring home was what were in my tote bag, which comprises of a box of petite dejeuner biscuits and Fauchon pain d’epices. I was guided to the Lost & Found department to file a report so that the airline could help me track and trace where my luggage was. The service staff told me that they weren’t able to verify exactly where my luggage was but they would query both IAH and LAX to track it down and to call me within 24 hours to notify me of the status.

I was supposed to turn up for work the next day but I had all of 2 maternity pieces in the wardrobe at home as I had brought my nicer pieces to the US and they were now in the luggage that was lost, along with all the new maternity clothes that I had bought while in the US.

Some emergency shopping was in order for me to replenish the more critical items like my contact lenses, cosmetics, facial products and clothes. Dragging my jetlag body, I had to skittle all over town to get the items and also to make it in time for my gynae check up.

Thankfully, Baby has been doing well for the last 2 months, even though my weight gain has been on the lower end of the recommended scale. The gynae said that Baby should weight about 1 kg now and current size and proportions were in the normal range of a end of 6-month fetus.

I was kinda worried about my luggage, wondering if they would be able to track it at all and bring it back to me. Louis, ever the optimist, told me that it would arrived in due time and to look upon it as a blessing… perhaps neither my MIL nor I were supposed to manage all the luggage on our own and thus, some higher order up there decided that some intervention was needed.

Finally, at 10 pm that night, the Baggage section called me to inform that they have tracked down my luggage. Somehow, it was directed to Bangalore and they have tagged it to return to Singapore by the next day. What a relief!

Eve on her way home

Eve is enroute to Singapore as I am writing this.

It was with mixed feelings today that Eve went back to Singapore. Because of project delays, we weren't able to go back together. In addition, she had already taken two months of leave and we both felt bad about her extending it any further. And as importantly, we wanted to make sure that Eve and Baby got a thorough check-up after being away for two months.

Still, it is strange to come back to an empty hotel room. It seems a long while that we've been here in Houston and a long while since I've been alone here. As an optimist however, there is a positive side to things. Not only does Eve's going home mean that we are soon into the third tri-mester; it also means that I'd be soon on my way back to Singapore to reunite with everyone. Both are things which we've been eagerly looking forward to.

As if reading my moods, the weather has turned dark and it has been a little rainy this weekend. There are a number of people who checked into the hotel today because of a marathon tomorrow. Hope all goes well for them. As for me, I'd be waiting to hear from Eve as she touches down to Singapore. At the very least, she is on an SQ flight, so I'm quite reassured that she will be well taken care of.