... is on the way!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Baby C - Off to the doc's!
I had no idea which gynae to go to, so I turned to the internet.
All Ewan and I decided was that we would rather have a female gynae, preferably located at either Thomson Medical Centre or Mount Alvernia, because of the proximity to our workplace.
I gave Mount Alvernia a call, and a really helpful lady emailed me some links and contacts of doctors.
Mount Alvernia only had a couple of female doctors based there, so I turned my attention to the docs at Thomson Medical.
Thus began my journey of calling several clinics.
Alot of the docs I called were really popular, with waiting lists of three to four weeks.
Of course, this being our first baby, we didn't want to wait so long to confirm the pregnancy!
Each clinic I called would say the same things - 'Congratulations! When was your last period and did you take a home test?'
- which made me feel a little awkward, since the whole purpose of me seeing the doc was to confirm the pregnancy. I wasn't even sure if congratulations were in order yet! (Yes, despite taking eight tests)
I guess, it was still strange getting used to the idea of being pregnant. I felt the same as before, had no signs of morning sickness, no baby bump yet, etc. I wasn't even sure how I was supposed to feel! I carried on with my usual activities, played tennis and ate everything and anything I wanted to.
I finally managed to get an appointment with Dr Caroline Khi at Thomson Medical Centre. Dr Khi had pretty good reviews online, most of them saying she was a sweet, soft spoken lady, which we confirmed later :)
Had to wait about a week before we finally visited her on the 14th of September.
The minute we stepped into her office, she greeted us with a huge "Congratulations!"
"Urm thanks?" I said.
Don't they get it?!! I'm still not sure if I'm pregnant!
Right on cue, Dr Khi said, "ok let's see how far along you are", and she led me to the ultrasound machine.
This is what we saw.
Our first photographs of Baby C!
I thought it (now we know "it" is a "he") looked like a grain of rice, floating in a kind of space bubble.
"Yup", she chuckled, " you definitely are pregnant."
She showed me where my uterus was, my bladder, where Baby C was and the tiny yolk sak that would provide him nourishment till the placenta develops and he starts to take food from me.
Baby C was a mere 0.33cm in length and I was 5 weeks and 3 days pregnant!
I still couldn't believe what was on the ultrasound screen, and my sweet husband later told me that he was so moved when he saw the image that he had to stop himself from crying in the clinic :)
That evening, I met some of my NUS friends for supper and they kept ribbing us about when we would have a baby.
I had to stop from secretly smiling to myself as Ewan and I shrugged and brushed them off.
We wanted our families to be the first to hear the good news!
All Ewan and I decided was that we would rather have a female gynae, preferably located at either Thomson Medical Centre or Mount Alvernia, because of the proximity to our workplace.
I gave Mount Alvernia a call, and a really helpful lady emailed me some links and contacts of doctors.
Mount Alvernia only had a couple of female doctors based there, so I turned my attention to the docs at Thomson Medical.
Thus began my journey of calling several clinics.
Alot of the docs I called were really popular, with waiting lists of three to four weeks.
Of course, this being our first baby, we didn't want to wait so long to confirm the pregnancy!
Each clinic I called would say the same things - 'Congratulations! When was your last period and did you take a home test?'
- which made me feel a little awkward, since the whole purpose of me seeing the doc was to confirm the pregnancy. I wasn't even sure if congratulations were in order yet! (Yes, despite taking eight tests)
I guess, it was still strange getting used to the idea of being pregnant. I felt the same as before, had no signs of morning sickness, no baby bump yet, etc. I wasn't even sure how I was supposed to feel! I carried on with my usual activities, played tennis and ate everything and anything I wanted to.
I finally managed to get an appointment with Dr Caroline Khi at Thomson Medical Centre. Dr Khi had pretty good reviews online, most of them saying she was a sweet, soft spoken lady, which we confirmed later :)
Had to wait about a week before we finally visited her on the 14th of September.
The minute we stepped into her office, she greeted us with a huge "Congratulations!"
"Urm thanks?" I said.
Don't they get it?!! I'm still not sure if I'm pregnant!
Right on cue, Dr Khi said, "ok let's see how far along you are", and she led me to the ultrasound machine.
This is what we saw.
Our first photographs of Baby C!
I thought it (now we know "it" is a "he") looked like a grain of rice, floating in a kind of space bubble.
"Yup", she chuckled, " you definitely are pregnant."
She showed me where my uterus was, my bladder, where Baby C was and the tiny yolk sak that would provide him nourishment till the placenta develops and he starts to take food from me.
Baby C was a mere 0.33cm in length and I was 5 weeks and 3 days pregnant!
I still couldn't believe what was on the ultrasound screen, and my sweet husband later told me that he was so moved when he saw the image that he had to stop himself from crying in the clinic :)
That evening, I met some of my NUS friends for supper and they kept ribbing us about when we would have a baby.
I had to stop from secretly smiling to myself as Ewan and I shrugged and brushed them off.
We wanted our families to be the first to hear the good news!
Friday, March 4, 2011
Baby C - the first signs
It was barely a month after our wedding one early Saturday morning, and Ewan was leaving for work from my parent's place. Our place wasn't ready yet so we were still in between either my parent's place or Ewan's mom's place.
I got up to give him a morning hug and the world suddenly swirled around me... WHOA. DIZZY.
Little did I know that that was probably the first sign of little C's existence.
On the 31st of August, I realised I had missed my period for about a week.
That day, I bought a home test kit and told Ewan about it. Excited, we waited till we got off work, and I did the test at his mom's place in Bedok.
The results were far from clear.
I thought I saw a faint line, but it looked like some kind of watermark or something. Ewan wasn't sure either.
Oh well, we thought. The test kit said that sometimes, if its too early in the pregnancy, the hormone levels wouldn't be high enough, so the line might be very faint. Take another test in a few days, it said.
Of course, I was a little impatient and took another test the following night, on the 1st of September, heheh.
AARGGGH. Still faint. More tests please!!
Ok I kind of went nuts and kept testing the next few days. Plus the pharmacies were having some promotions where you could buy two test kits and get another free, so I happily bought... several.
2nd September morning:
3rd September morning:
3rd September night:
4th September night:
5th September morning:
And finally, 9th September afternoon:
While most people do one or maybe two tests, I actually did a total of eight.
Looking back, the results of the tests were pretty clear eh?
But I was still so unsure even after I made an appointment with the doc.
I mean, we'd only been married a month or so... were we really that blessed??? :)
After a couple of minutes I felt alright again, got back into bed and Ewan left for work.
On the 31st of August, I realised I had missed my period for about a week.
That day, I bought a home test kit and told Ewan about it. Excited, we waited till we got off work, and I did the test at his mom's place in Bedok.
The results were far from clear.
I thought I saw a faint line, but it looked like some kind of watermark or something. Ewan wasn't sure either.
Oh well, we thought. The test kit said that sometimes, if its too early in the pregnancy, the hormone levels wouldn't be high enough, so the line might be very faint. Take another test in a few days, it said.
Of course, I was a little impatient and took another test the following night, on the 1st of September, heheh.
AARGGGH. Still faint. More tests please!!
Ok I kind of went nuts and kept testing the next few days. Plus the pharmacies were having some promotions where you could buy two test kits and get another free, so I happily bought... several.
2nd September morning:
3rd September morning:
3rd September night:
4th September night:
5th September morning:
And finally, 9th September afternoon:
While most people do one or maybe two tests, I actually did a total of eight.
Looking back, the results of the tests were pretty clear eh?
But I was still so unsure even after I made an appointment with the doc.
I mean, we'd only been married a month or so... were we really that blessed??? :)
Our Honeymoon in New Zealand's South Island - Part I
The recent Christchurch Earthquake hit close to home for us, because we were there barely a month ago, and Ewan's mom lives just two hours away from Christchurch.
But rather than drone on about how sad the situation is, this post is going to be about the immense beauty of the country, and the wonderful, relaxing time Ewan and I had there.
We decided to go to New Zealand for our Honeymoon for several reasons. First, we wanted somewhere that was peaceful, quiet, just somewhere to chill. Also, because of the time of year, locations like the US (we had initially wanted to go to New York) and Europe were far too cold. And with Christian coming along soon, the 10 hour flight wasn't quite as daunting as the 24+hour flight to the US. Plus Ewan's mom lives there, so it would be great to visit her.
My parents sent us to the airport on the 2nd of January. Because I was 5 months pregnant, I had to prepare flight socks and a letter from the doc stating I was fit to fly.
The weather was great when we arrived. Blue skies, sun shining, temperature around 17-21 degrees... it was just perfect and comfortable. After a quick look around Christchurch, we went straight to Dez's place. Here's the gorgeous view from the guest bedroom.
We could see big dogs and sheep lazing around the neighbours' backyards. The neighbours also had donkeys and cows... but more on that later.
One of the first places we visited was Lake Tekapo. It was along the way, on our drive to Mt Cook and the colour of the lake was incredible - a bright turquoise colour, caused by glacial waters.
There was also a cute chapel by the lake, which is a photo opportunity for tourists.
While skipping flat stones into the lake, we met a Jack Russell called Jack. The minute his owner stopped his truck, Jack leapt into the water (which was really cold!) and swam to a shallow spot where he looked out at everyone else on the shore.
He must have known the lake so well, to know the exact spot to stand! It's hard to believe he's the same breed as Cleo. He must have been twice her size! His owner then started throwing large sticks and logs into the water - and Jack went for every single piece. He also leapt in when other visitors like us threw logs in as well.
A short 10 min drive from the lake is the St John Observatory, that overlooks the lake.
The view from the top was amazing.
We finally got to Mt Cook, at about lunch time. Had quiches, sandwiches and pies (a typical NZ lunch) at the cafe, which looked out to the mountain range. The clouds were a bit low so we didn't manage to see Mt Cook that clearly. But no matter, we were all still in awe of the grandeur of the mountain range - something that's just so different from what we're used to in Singapore.
Obligatory picture with a bronze Statue of Sir Edmund Hillary.
We took a half hour hike around the foot of the Mountain range...
... crossed a bridge suspended over a gushing river...
... saw sights that came straight out of the Lord of the Rings Movies.
... and saw a Paradise duck, her mate and her ducklings. We only found out that this native duck was very rare and endangered after we visited some museums in Christchurch! Good thing Ewan snapped a shot of her!
Took a long drive back to Timaru in the evening, where we had dinner at Robbies, bar/restaurant kind of place. Kudos to Dez who kindly drove us the whole way!
But rather than drone on about how sad the situation is, this post is going to be about the immense beauty of the country, and the wonderful, relaxing time Ewan and I had there.
We decided to go to New Zealand for our Honeymoon for several reasons. First, we wanted somewhere that was peaceful, quiet, just somewhere to chill. Also, because of the time of year, locations like the US (we had initially wanted to go to New York) and Europe were far too cold. And with Christian coming along soon, the 10 hour flight wasn't quite as daunting as the 24+hour flight to the US. Plus Ewan's mom lives there, so it would be great to visit her.
My parents sent us to the airport on the 2nd of January. Because I was 5 months pregnant, I had to prepare flight socks and a letter from the doc stating I was fit to fly.
The weather was great when we arrived. Blue skies, sun shining, temperature around 17-21 degrees... it was just perfect and comfortable. After a quick look around Christchurch, we went straight to Dez's place. Here's the gorgeous view from the guest bedroom.
We could see big dogs and sheep lazing around the neighbours' backyards. The neighbours also had donkeys and cows... but more on that later.
One of the first places we visited was Lake Tekapo. It was along the way, on our drive to Mt Cook and the colour of the lake was incredible - a bright turquoise colour, caused by glacial waters.
There was also a cute chapel by the lake, which is a photo opportunity for tourists.
While skipping flat stones into the lake, we met a Jack Russell called Jack. The minute his owner stopped his truck, Jack leapt into the water (which was really cold!) and swam to a shallow spot where he looked out at everyone else on the shore.
He must have known the lake so well, to know the exact spot to stand! It's hard to believe he's the same breed as Cleo. He must have been twice her size! His owner then started throwing large sticks and logs into the water - and Jack went for every single piece. He also leapt in when other visitors like us threw logs in as well.
A short 10 min drive from the lake is the St John Observatory, that overlooks the lake.
The view from the top was amazing.
We finally got to Mt Cook, at about lunch time. Had quiches, sandwiches and pies (a typical NZ lunch) at the cafe, which looked out to the mountain range. The clouds were a bit low so we didn't manage to see Mt Cook that clearly. But no matter, we were all still in awe of the grandeur of the mountain range - something that's just so different from what we're used to in Singapore.
Obligatory picture with a bronze Statue of Sir Edmund Hillary.
We took a half hour hike around the foot of the Mountain range...
... crossed a bridge suspended over a gushing river...
... saw sights that came straight out of the Lord of the Rings Movies.
... and saw a Paradise duck, her mate and her ducklings. We only found out that this native duck was very rare and endangered after we visited some museums in Christchurch! Good thing Ewan snapped a shot of her!
Took a long drive back to Timaru in the evening, where we had dinner at Robbies, bar/restaurant kind of place. Kudos to Dez who kindly drove us the whole way!
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