::BABY:: Seeing the Boss' Face

Part of the deal that comes with serving a boss - Seeing his face (看脸色). Only, mine is a cute face.

This usually happens during latch feeds. See food, suckle food, doze off, smile at food, awaken before food, cry for food. On repeat mode. -_-" 

And sometimes, I get a suspicious face!

::BABY:: Precious Moments

This is not my most flattering photo. It is almost unflattering but a very precious moment I will always remember.

The wet, squirmy and wailing baby thrown onto my chest the moment they got him out. All previous fears I had of carrying a soft and fragile being were instantly gone! All I remembered was the warmth of his body against mine.

Mummy instincts, they call it.

Here's a better photo with my little darling. 

Happy 7 weeks old baby!

And Happy Birthday papa N!

::BABY:: Do You DIY?

So we have the nation laughing at the defense statement from the woman involved in the sex scandal. But since I have labelled this post under a BABY category, the DIY I am talking about is DIY in its purest form. We have yet to upgrade ourselves to handymen from HomeFix store. ;p

I spent one whole afternoon doing these.

These cute little cartoons are all made from color papers I bought from Daiso (the amazing $2 shop!). They went onto the banner on his first month's shower.

::BABY:: The Suckling Talent

Apparently the ability to suckle and hold on to the du du (aka pacifier) is an acquired skill post birth. Because some of the crowd that came to celebrate his 1st month of birth made quite a big deal out of his 'talent' when he appeared at his party like a boss, with a du du in his mouth. LOL!

They claim the talent is acquired from latching.

Here is my baby boy showing off his talent on the 3rd day of his life. *proudmummylook*

Back then, Mummy didn't know this was a talent because I thought all babies develop the suckling instincts in the womb!

And here's how I make use of my son's talent:

Good for stealing a couple of minutes off the 24-7 job to answer nature's calls.

::BABY:: Little Koala

The little fella seems to have found a favorite sleeping position recently - that of a koala.

As the sole care giver to this little person during the weekday, I get to enjoy most of this cute koala baby-ing. It is quite enjoyable to have a little person hugging on to you and so dependent on you even when sleeping. That is, if I m not already tied down by the 2-hourly feeding that sometimes lasts up to an hour, thereafter trying to put the well-fed baby to sleep, which also takes a while. And the cycle repeats a good half hour to an hour later, leaving absolutely no time for me to pee, poop, drink and eat.  

>.<"

 

"I want to koala on mummeeeee! I don't want to koala on the bed!!! Onggnehhhh!!!"

Adult vs Little Man = 0 vs 1

::BABY:: My Bean's Face!

Hello little bean!

Now I see your face!

I have been wondering how you look like since the day you were clinging on to the walls of your little home!

But we've never seen your face in any of my prenatal scans.

Now we get to see you!

::BABY:: Blue for Boy!

Some parents want to keep the gender a surprise till they birth.

For N&I, we chose to see his gender during one of the prenatal scans so we could buy the blue or pink stuffs for our baby. So the moment the gender was confirmed, we stocked up many blue apparels for our boy! :D

How cute are the little socks!! <3 p="p">

::BABY:: Bath Time

Little man post shower and still showing his displeasure at being put to a bath.

Repeat that 235642374274 times. Once a day. I have more photo evidence.

So swimming during pregnancy doesn't correlate to giving birth to a baby who loves to shower.

Google says to sing a lullaby to the baby during shower time so they associate a lovely experience with showering. But he probably couldn't hear my lullaby amidst his own screams. So the lullaby tip failed. But a crying baby during shower time is not of my concern right now because we still have a CL to manage him ;p So every day, I just stop by the changing station and laugh at his displeasure and marvel at the instant silence the moment he gets changed and swaddled up. 

::BABY:: Confinement Food

Yeah. I have done many things against the chinese confinement taboo, to the disapproval of the mother and the mother-in-law. Lucky they don't stay with me during these 28 days ;p

I've bathed (sometimes twice a day), sat in front of the fan and had KFC for dinner.

My confinement lady is cool with all these and even said fried chicken is nutritious too!

All thanks to the hubs who whatsapped me a picture of his dinner at one of the best places to have KFC fried chicken, I asked for permission to have one set taken away for me that night. 

:D

::BABY:: Milk Face

His milk face was too hilarious!

I couldn't stop laughing and stopping to snap a pic!

::PREGNANCY:: Desires

OH moon cake! 

How I wish I could eat you.

All of you! you! you and you!

Durian, ice cream, truffled, lotus paste with yolk! 

But because somebaby has been eating very well, I have got to control my diet so that I can still push him out naturally.

Gynae says to eat you after birth. 

She must have a modern mother/confinement lady/mother in law. 

--draft dated 19 Sept continued post birth--

OH FUCK!

I birthed. Right next day.

And I hadn't a chance to savor the lotus with single yolk mini moon cake that I grabbed on sight on Monday while out having dinner with the girls. It was a real random purchase from a random bakery. I told them I wanted to eat a moon cake before I birth. And then the snow skinned ones arrived for collection on Tuesday. They sat happily in the fridge while I contemplated the gynae's advice before eventually turning in for the night. 

Temptations vs Determination

0 vs 1

:)

Before we could see how long this battle could hold up, we decided to birth. On Wednesday.

It was a rather impromptu decision that left me with no time to head home for That Shower and to grab that moon cake that had been luring me since Monday. 

And hence, here I am with this post.

Papa N has been really helpful by finishing up all the moon cakes in the fridge, without of course, tempting me first. :S

So son, you owe mummy many moon cakes in the years to come!

::BABY:: Hello World!!!

Baby Daymian

20 Sept 2012

Murphy's Diary: An Entertainer

I think my very existence serves to humor my mummy sometimes, because I often become the subject of her entertainment.

I blame that on my cute face.

Sometimes when I sense something 'not quite right', I ll dash to the nearest dog hole - somewhere that she can't reach and catch me. Yet sometimes, I am not so lucky. 

Like on this day...when she found out she had photo booth on her new toy... And papa had already done his share of entertaining her...

And so unfortunate of me to be lying around, minding my own business and looking my usual cute self when she sprang an attack on me and manhandled me up to her very high bed, where I had no means of escape.

And she manhandled me some more..

Trapped under her arms.

This is my o_o" face. But I think it amuses her even more.

And so I tried to escape when those heavy arms got out of the way.

She attempted to use the floating hearts icons on both of us.

So I gave her my butt instead.

Woofz.. The things I have to do as her dog.. 

I should have known the day she squealed the word CUTE into my face at the pet shop..

Who else can I blame for my predicament?

-WOOFZ- 

-Murphy-

::PREGNANCY::Little Penguin

US at our 13th week with a proud mama/papa penguin!

How time flies!

Anticipating our little one to arrive soon!!

I am beginning to feel mummy instincts this week ;)

Cant wait to cradle you in my arms, D.

::PREGNANCY:: Thoughts

Right after my pee break in the wee hours one night, I was having trouble getting back to sleep and amidst the tosses and turns and feeling a slight crampishy ache in the tummy, I thought it would be a good date to birth that day. 6.9.2012. These days, I have gotten used to the crappy aches/tugs/pulls of sorts I have all over the belly/groin/pelvic area, which acts up if there is any sudden change body movements, that if the real contractions do come, I think I might just put it off as just another ache. Even build-up of poops causes an ache in the rectum. 

After visiting the delivery suite and seeing how 'ergonomically' designed the birthing chair was, I decided I had to do some thigh stretches to prepare the thighs for some *er hemz* 'spreading 'when the day comes for them to do their job. Hence I have been feeling some sort of aches in the pelvic-thigh area and I groaned to the hubby that my pelvic joints were loosening and they hurt. He reminded me that it was probably muscle aches from the butterfly stretches. And guess what? I still cant tell for sure. This week, I also feel an extra pressure on the groin area which I suspect is D nesting his head comfortably against his new-found pillow (that's one more ache somewhere inside there).

With all the extra weight pulling me down and the added discomforts going on inside me, it would really be a great relief to pop! But as eager as I am to get him out of his comfortable nest, I really just have one problem.  

I cant seem to get this image out of my mind

I am secretly glad that I will be on the other side of the view, but I can't help but feel very conscious about the anatomy that's going to happen there. I wonder if N would still like to participate actively in the birth of his son, OR do the other job of a scratch/pinch/grab pole. ;p

But we have already come this far and all that's left to do is to birth him out.

It's between the image above + a cut in the natural birthing part or a cut through the many layers of the belly. 

Not much of a choice, right?

.

That aside, I really do wish somebody can tell me now what my labour sign will be like. Because anticipation of the unknown is killing me. Every time I go take a pee, I try to look out for that mucus plug or that bloody show. Every night when I get jolted up from sleep, I feel the bed for signs of water bag bursting. And every other sudden ache or false contraction in my body makes me pause and think if that was it.

So everyday I pray that Someone up there give me an obvious sign so I know when to send myself to the hospital. 

::MARRIAGE:: Journey

A while ago, I caught N looking through our wedding photos. 

For a man with almost zilch sentimental value and who bought us a storage bed to store our wedding album, I thought that was quite odd. So I asked him what he was looking at.

The story of this picture is of Our Journey.

It captures our footprints right to where we were standing at.

MARRIAGE

N said he was looking at how slim he was just about a year ago.

His chin was so sharp then. And he was also slimmer then.

And me??

I was also reminded that I had a waist then. 

And how snugly I fit into my denim shorts on our honeymoon right after the banquet.

Now that we have progressed on in Our Journey, and this is what has become of the waist...

Now. Who s the poor thing?

The one with an extra chin? Or the one with no more waist? ;p

::PREGNANCY:: Baby M, Baby D!

Here's our Baby Murphy hanging out with Baby D!

Yawnz

Daydream

What's a didi? Is it yummy??

Listening to me

YAY! to a name!

There ll no longer be an identity confusion around in the house!

::PREGNANCY:: 35 weeks

 Decided to get some workout in this weekend!

Been 2 months since I last hit the pool and I almost forgot the fabulous feeling of a post-swim!

SUPER SHIOK YO!

And here's a bump shot of my 35-week old belly

We are almost there now.

::PREGNANCY:: Fashionidisastar

DON'T judge a waddling woman with a shoe misfit. 

These days, I found feet solace in the most comfortable shoe I have had all along.

My Adi fluid trainers.

The feet has grown from size 36 to size 38 in prettyfit and gripz - the only 2 places I found decently padded undersoles in a pretty pair of flats. 

The first 2 pairs were covered and soon gave me a bad toenail crack.

Just as I have given up searching for a good shoe, I found my 3rd pair which fit all criteria - pretty with a blingz ribbon, decent rubber soles, comfy pig skin and peep toe. 

I have been wearing it for 3 months now and I thought it would last me till the end of this whale-ling journey. Sadly, it started to give me a swollen feet lately due to the restriction of blood flow from the snug fit. 

It wouldn't make sense to start the whole shoe hunt again since I know how hard it is to find something decent plus I technically only have 3 more weeks to go till full term. PLUS the feet really don't fancy WALKING now as it aches and tires easily. Shopping is definitely out of the question. Potentially fruitless shopping is definitely not going to happen. 

I sadly thought I was going to turn up on the streets in my crocs.

I actually weighed this decision very carefully - the cons of going on a shoe shopping trip on my tired feet that is going to be potentially fruitless vs the cons of being seen in non-casual wear and in the CBD in the big head purple crocs till I birth. Neither appealed more than the other. 

I thought of just putting up with the daily swell since it actually de-swells if you give it a good rub during the night. 

But last week, since we had an exercise session at the antenatal class, which got me really excited about getting pumped up again, I started to put together the gears for my first 'gym' session in monthssss. Sadly, the gym tops I used to wear now ride high on my belly.

Something like this

Hmm.. the 'beauty' of pregnancy is a bit misleading here, maybe something like this is more reflective of the reality. heh!

Although the cuteness is overstated here too...

I resorted to wearing the man's shapeless Tshirt and my maternity shorts for the workout.

How sexy.

For the shoes, I was just being hopeful that I could still fit into my only pair of trainers. 

I dug it out from the shoe cabinet and VIOLA! Despite the 2 size upgrade in my pretty shoes, the trainers still fit!!! :D:D

So here I am, a happy trotter in my Adi trainers!

DO NOT JUDGE ME AH.

::PREGNANCY:: Keeping Active!

The 2km walks to the Singapore Expo used to be such a breeze. We would take a leisurely stroll there and back if we had no intention of bringing back any major purchases. 

After being a lazy ass for several weeks - I haven't been swimming, we decided to take a walk to Expo on Sunday for Murphy to meet some furry friends. He has also been bumming around the house  during the weekend. So it was time for our lazy asses to get some adrenalin kicking in!

Passing Sunbird

And we made it in one piece!! 

-At 34 weeks-

Lugging around all that extra weight for the 'workout' gave my poor feet an ache the next morning! And Murphy started snoring really loudly at 9ish that night. 

How unfit are we!

Luckily all those previous bodypump and cycling sessions have been really useful in prepping the body for pregnancy. N&I attended our 2nd antenatal class (exercise class) last week and realised more than half the ladies in class suffer from backaches. 

Through these 34 weeks, I gathered there are 2 important areas to workout on pre-preg:

Abdominal Muscles

During pregnancy, the belly stretches outwards. The abdominal muscles are connected to the spine so together, they form the support over the growing uterus. While the abs stretch outwards, the spine also curves in in the same direction. If the abs are not strong, there will be additional stress on the spine to support the growing uterus and that's when you get backaches. So train up your abs!

Quads 

Imagine all the extra weight you are carrying and having to stand up from squat positions or the floor, which become increasingly difficult as the weeks progress. The last thing you want is to wail for help after picking up the dog's poop in public. ;p

Muscle Isolation

 This isn't a particular area to work out on but knowing how to isolate muscles helps especially if you have a heavy dog like mine (10kg) or a #1 toddler to pick up every once in a while - I try not to carry Murphy from the floor if I can help it but when I do, I make sure I put him close to my body and am not using abdominal muscles just in case it squeezes the uterus - Have u heard of uterus collapse?! o.O! It's nice to have people fuss around and make sure you don't carry the 'heavy' stuffs once in a while but seriously, we are not handicap! It's really for us to pick up that sack of rice or that pack of dog food if we use the correct muscles! Then again, try not to be too gungho if help is available la. 

So to my friends who are preparing to start a family, start training up for it! And thank me again for your smooth pregnancy! ;p

::PREGNANCY:: Early Labor

::NEWS FLASH LAST WEEK::

The arrival of SS and YN's baby girl at 33 weeks.

JH and Reb's 1yo baby girl was also born at the 32 weeks. 

Since we were all in a group chat on whatsapp sharing conversations about baby stuffs, the announcement and the shocking reveal by JH made N&I panic a little about the arrival of our precious little prince. 

We are at the 33-week mark now. 

And have only attended ONE pre-natal course so far - about nutrition (which is most beneficial to those in their 1st trimester of preg, not ppl like me who is in the last tri ;p)

The classes for contractions, labor pains, childbirth, breastfeeding and bathing are all scheduled in the next 5 weeks!

Will we be graced with enough time to finish all basic labor identification, delivery, lactation and baby-handling skills before the arrival of our little prince?

So just last night, I experienced some recurring contractions at 230AM. 

I finally understood what my gynae meant by "Stomach hardening". Previously when she warned me to track any "stomach hardening" during my 24th week, I didnt quite understand her, because my stomach is as hard as it is every moment now. Hey! I am carrying a baby inside my pouch, not a muffin belly ok! So my stomach is quite hard and it gets harder after a meal because of all the organs bursting for a space inside. So we left the clinic that day with the take-away word for the day - "Stomach hardening", without really knowing what it meant. 

And last night, I finally experienced "stomach hardening". Recurring "stomach hardening".

So I whipped out my iPhone and frantically googled for help, at 230AM, while the world was in slumber. The husband was also in a DEEP slumber but I didnt want to wake him up in case of false alarm. And I needed him to wake up fresh so he could get us both three to the hospital if it was really a true labor. 

I used the Contractions app to monitor the duration and frequency of my contractions.

After 1/2 hour of monitoring and getting some non-conclusive results (based on what I learnt from Google), I got up and packed my hospital bag. Just in case.

I went back to bed at 3ish and found little fella hicupping frantically inside. 

He gave some kicks and judging from the position of his legs, I think he has shifted during the contractions. So I continued monitoring his movements and got ready to monitor the rest of the contractions while thinking to myself that I will have to take leave in the morning.

But my contractions went away. 

And I drifted back to sleep.

All these while, thanks to our wonderful Serta bed that can absorb all bed movements, my dear husband did not even realise that I jumped in and out of bed at least 3 times and tossed and turned and flipped and kicked my pillows/blankets/bolster while trying to have a better feel of the contraction cycles.  

But he did dream that we were both on leave this morning because of the baby. 

Scary how my thoughts could translate into his dreams!

By the way, this story doesn't have a dramatic ending. YET.

I woke up this morning, as pregnant as ever!

But I am going to get everything ready by this week!

Just in case!!!

Coastal Settlement

The July Babies get together at Coastal Settlement.

Brownie is definitely to-die-for

N&I later on had some first hand experience dining with 4-month-old parents and we learned to appreciate eating our dinner in peace while said parents took turns snuggling a fussing kiddo and eating with one hand. 

Like what the 'adults' say - Enjoy your FREEDOM! 

But I am sure the fuss s going to be just as awesome! Right?

::PREGNANCY:: Cropped!

Ivy asked if this was going to be The Cut. 

I told her to go ahead. 

She was one of those whom I told The Big Secret to before The Official Reveal simply cos she has been caring for my tresses since preps of our wedding. So she was excited that I could finally curl and color my hair after the wedding but I had to tell her about my chemical abstain for the time being.. ;p

Ivy has also once cared for the tresses of Murphy! :D

::PREGNANCY:: Doing the Laundry

We have been buying little clothes from everywhere that we travel to and stashed them in the wardrobe.

Last Sat was spent doing the laundry for our little one. 

We hung them on a laundry string that stretches over the whole 4.24m of our balcony (yes! his stash of little clothes alone took up 4.24m of space!) and brought out the little pegs that we have stocked up for his laundry. 

There was no more space for mittens and booties. So these were separately sunned.

Halfway through, N & I decided to get some TWOsome stuff done at the movies and we returned home to find that it had rained o.O"

And there we go again.....