BBQ

Its been a long time, really miss those good old school days where BBQ at chalets is a norm. I am still all excited about BBQ but not Johnny. He thinks its so much hassle, its troublesome and hot and tiring...

We had a lot of fun last week at Aloha Changi chalet with some friends. The chalet was a bit old. It has 4 bedrooms but our friends all decided to squeeze inside 2 rooms. Mmm... those were the days where we used to find some chalets "spooky" and love to tell ghost stories when we stayed overnight. Anyway, good thing that we booked that chalet which is away from the rest of the chalets, we are a bunch of very noisy people. We made so much noise at night but need not worry about disturbing the neighbours.

There was too much food for the BBQ as usual. But the food was good. Johnny even went all out to go Geylang to buy durians for all to eat. The kids (Ernest & Kyrene) went around shooting the adults with water guns. LT, too bad you can't join us, I think it was a lot of fun.

Stay positive

Its really good to know that there are lots of caring people people out there.

Just last week, I shared with friends and people I've been talking to in an online forum for mummies/mummies- to-be about some uncertainties about my pregnancy, well wishes started to pour in and many have prayed for me and the baby. With all the support, how can I be not strong and stay positive? I really really really appreciate it.

I know I should be getting as much rest as I could but there's so much to do this month. This weekend we got a BBQ at the chalet, next week is last week of school for Kyrene (she got a Fancy Dress Party on Thu), then I thought of bringing Kyrene to watch Disney Magic & Scrooge, then its another weekend at the chalet where brother-in-law will celebrate the daughter's 1 year old birthday, and it clashes with my cousin's wedding. Then there is some shopping to do for baby stuff and Christmas presents. By early Dec, I should slow things down and probably sit at home to wait for the arrival of the baby.

Oh, we are still working on the name for the baby. By the way, its a girl.

Ups and downs

This blog is more like my own blog rather than a family blog at times ;P

Just last week, I made it "public" on this blog to tell people I'm pregnant. In fact, for the last few weeks, I have been going round "informing" friends about my pregnancy. Not sure if its not meant to be this way. Just when I thought everything is going well for this pregnancy, a check up yesterday didn't bring good news. Gynae found that baby is a little small for her gestational age. I am to follow up with another scan to determine to check if my placenta is not able to offer adequate nutrition to the baby and whether the blood flow between placenta and baby is ok. Now I am stress out, super worried and at loss. What have I done wrong again?

For the last few years, been through a lot trying for another kid. Sometimes, I thought maybe its because of my work stress. Now that I quit and stay at home, things are not that smooth either. Maybe it is really age is catching up... Maybe it is true that older women have more problems with pregnancy. Maybe this... maybe that...

Pls pray for the baby, me and my family (I know Johnny is worried too but he tried not to show it so that I won't be even more worried). I really hope baby will grow over the next month and come into this world normal and healthy.

Tummy getting bigger...

8 more weeks to go... yes, 8 more weeks before the little one is going to pop out. My tummy is showing now and most people realised that I'm pregnant. See my latest photo taken when in SHA.

For my past pregnancy, I didn't take any photo of myself with a big tummy. The only pic that I can remember is the photo I took with friends during Sandra's wedding (nobody knew I was pregnant then, I only looked like I put on a lot of weight). I still remember telling DY, Clee & Jess on that very day and they were all surprised. All along, I feel that I don't look good on camera, so all the more I wouldn't have any pic taken when I'm pregnant, cos I probably looked super ugly.

Not sure if baby is going to be like Kyrene at birth, a whopping 3.395kg. Suspect it may be smaller. Then again, weight is not important, most important is healthy & normal. I'm going to attempt for a normal delivery without epidural, please pray for me. Haahaa...

Am getting clumsy with the tummy bulging out. At night, it is hard to sleep properly. Glad that this time round, I'm able to feel the baby moving inside. Johnny & Kyrene got a chance to see & feel my tummy moved. Johnny is soooooo happy cos with Kyrene, we didn't get to at all. We were so worried back then. Like before, the pregnancy symptoms were mainly experienced by Johnny. This time round, he seems to have a lot of craving and eats a lot. Now he complains that he is so fat that he failed his IPPT. Yeah, yeah, yeah, blame it on me lor.

Shanghai

We were in Shanghai from 28Sep to 7Oct. It was Johnny's first trip to China and glad that he "survived". When my mum was there a week ago, her trip was affected by the typhoon. When we arrived, the weather was quite warm, not like the usual autumn weather.

The sky at SHA is very different from SIN. The place is hazy most of the time, the traffic is very messy, the pavements not all done properly, people can be pretty loud. What is interesting is that the buildings come in all shapes and sizes. The architecture can be very diversified. Some are much more modern than SIN.

Shopping wise, we didn't buy much. As usual, mainly spent on Kyrene's things. There is a place called Raffles City, they got all the brands/shops that you find here in SIN. But prices are a bit on the high side.

In general, the food in SHA is more salty than SIN. Personally, I find that its a bit like Taiwan food, eg. cold dishes like bamboo shoots, seaweeds. We tried the Da Niang jiao zi, I like it very much.

David and Stephanie have been great hosts. We made a short trip to Suzhou and Hangzhou to visit some of the places of interests there. As it was public holidays week in China, the places of interests were crowded and entrance fee went up. For some of the places, we decided to give it a miss, just not worth it to go join the crowd.

We had a nice dinner with a fantastic view on the day before we left. David's friends joined us for the dinner. They were telling us that typhoon is coming. I jokingly said that maybe we can't go back the next day. That night, no typhoon but our flight was delayed the next day. At arrival at the airport, upon check in, we were told that our flight would be delayed for 1.5hrs. Sigh, we spent 2hrs hanging out at the airport, nothing much we could do except to use the food vouchers to eat all we can.

The next day, read in the news that typhoon strike in SHA. Stephanie said it rained very heavily and gusty wind on the night we left. Whew... probably God is protecting us, let us come back to SIN before typhoon strike.

Achievements

A group of my friends just came back from their Mt Kota Kinabalu expedition. Congratulations! It does not matter whether they made it to the top, bravo for their interest, determination, endurance, freedom to go where they want, do what they want.

What about us?

Well, for me, I survived one year of being a stay-at-home mum. No income, no social life, but develop more patience, learn to slow things down, deepen the bond with Kyrene.

As for Johnny, can't think of much, except he managed to keep sane in his work and survived a year of being the sole breadwinner for the family.

A challenging year for Kyrene but she learns. Probably I am giving her too much stress in schoolwork???

Lucky for us, we still managed a few overseas holidays as a family. Quite a number of short trips to Malaysia, a trip to Hong Kong, and coming up next, Shanghai.

The most joyous event for us is probably we are getting a new addition to the family at the end of the year :)

Is it the environment or our human body?

Sometime ago, Kyrene developed some rashes over her body. We brought her to the doctor, as usual, was unable to deduce if its a case of food or dust or skin allergy. Or it could be just a case of what we used to call when we were younger, "feng mo" in Chinese. We suspected that it could be dust or dirt. These days, we make sure the surroundings are clean for the kids, very particular about their personal hygiene, etc. I somehow felt that they are too "pampered" that when come into contact with little contamination, they fall sick. For Kyrene, the rashes went away after 2 days. It strike again during National Day eve when she had a mini sport day in school. That really confirm that it was dust/dirt that she was allergic to cos she developed rashes on her legs after sitting on the floor. When we were at Port Dickson, the swimming pool water must have been dirty cos her rashes came back again. The only cure was to give her anti-itch medicine and apply calamine lotion.

Just last weekend, it was my turn. I woke up on Fri morning to find some red spots. It went away after I applied some anti bacteria powder. But that very night, the rashes got really bad and I couldn't sleep the whole day cos of the itch. I suffered real bad cos I could not take any medicine just like that. To be on the safe side, I went to KKH 24Hr Clinic to have it checked. I was sent to the Delivery Suite for observation for half an hour, then the duty doctor asked me for my medical history, then he said the rashes don't look serious, and sent me home with some anti itch medication. The rashes went away the next day. In the end, just like Kyrene's case, no conclusion if I was suffering from food or dust allergy.

Years back, I had similar attack. I recalled I went to SGH A&E at midnight. After 3 hrs of waiting, took blood test, and the doctor just said, they can't find what is the cause of the rash. They said if I am really need to know what I am allergic to, then to take the allergy test which cost a few hundred dollars. I didn't of course. My only deduction is that I may be sensitive to protein. That time, I ate too much egg whites and seafood and that could have triggered the rashes.

The rashes episode really set me thinking... why are we getting it so easily these days? Is it our environment more polluted? Or is it our body immune systems are weaker?