28 weeks: Beginning of the Final Trimester

I am starting to enter the Final trimester of my pregnancy. How amazingly fast when I looked back and that 6 months have just passed like that, and in front of me, just 3 more months to head towards.

Waited for more than 2 hours for our gynae appt yesterday (my gynae had a lot of walk-in patients so all the scheduled appointments got pushed back), yet only managed to see baby for around 10 mins or less. Hmmm..

Baby Yam is now 950g, still 50g short of the 1kg target weight at this stage. Well, not so bad la. At least her head and legs are at the correct weight range, only the tummy still slim. Poor Mummy has already gained 11kg from pre-pregnancy till now. On average the mother's weight gain should be about 8kg. Bleh! The extra kilos must be on me liao. Anyway, I still can't go on "diet" since baby is considered slim. Everything else is all fine. Relieved to know that.

Before the time to go in for the scan, I kept telling baby to only kick kick when its our turn. But probably she had waited for too long, and had kicked long enough while waiting, she became quite quiet when we finally got to see her. Occasionally she will then move her hands and legs a bit, but I can't feel them. We also got to see her side profile - the eyes, the round nose. Dear said she's so cute when she's moving her hands Now the scan pics are not as clear as before, I can't really make out what is what without the gynae's explanation. Will upload pictures of the scan once I got a nice one.

Next appointment will be end of this month, so very soon we can see her again!

Our Babymoon Getaway

1 May 09: Dear participated in the May Day Rally as the Income’s Flag Bearer – A picture of him with the Income flag. I am so proud of him that he was the only one chosen to represent his company to be the Flag Bearer at the rally.


We checked in at the Treasure Resort @ Sentosa around 3+pm



The room is pretty spacious, neat & clean. Other than the symbolic Merlion just right outside our balcony reminding us that we are STILL in Singapore, we just have to pretend that we are somewhere in another part of the world whenever we nuah inside the room.


Started our 1st afternoon with a DVD movie while snacking on handmade egg mayo sandwiches and smoked BBQ tortilla chips, on the bed. Shiok! Then it's about time to start preparing for Wanling’s wedding dinner.

Took some couple pics at the balcony before heading off to the wedding dinner.

Congrats to Sunhui & Wanling! They have a very nice and sweet wedding ceremony at Furama Riverfront Hotel. Quite like their animated video of how they met, got steady, and how Sunhui proposed to Wanling after 10 and 1/2 years of dating.
(Amazing ya! Its more than a decade leh!)
Wish them forever bliss in their marriage.

By the time we reached the resort, its already 12 midnight and since there’s no more car park lots available outside the resort, we’ve to park at the Beach car park which is a station away. And there’s no more bus and tram services, we’ve to walk back to the resort. Oh well, thou it was slightly tiring for me, but it was good opportunity for me to take a walk to aid digestion after the heavy dinner and by chance, we happened to see this nicely-lit place beside the beach station.


After a long day, it’s time to go into dreamland liao… Sleep tight!

2 May 09: We woke up at 9+am for our complimentary breakfast at the resort restaurant – Treasure Bistro. Quite surprised to see there’s no one at the entrance of the restaurant to take our coupon and showed us to a table. Were even surprised to see there’s only one side of the buffet spread consisting of toast bread, beverages, fruits, salad and cereals! Oh No! Were we too late for breakfast? I dun think so leh… “???” formed in my head. Upon seeing a restaurant staff, then we realized that the American style breakfast is prepared upon ordering – 1 set per person. It was actually semi-buffet breakfast style lah. Haha… Despite that, we’d our fill.


Upon returning to our room, I started to feel lazy and sleepy…That was when I started to doze off for my early afternoon nap while Dear kept himself busy with another DVD movie.

Around 2pm plus, we packed our things and made our way to our 1st outdoor activity – Swimming! As the resort is currently under renovation, we’ve to go to another resort’s swimming pool.  At the Siloso Beach Resort’s swimming, it was not crowded and had quite a scenic view of nature. Nice! Just what I was looking forward to!


The weather is just right, and not too sweltering hot for outdoor activity! We had a great time swimming, waddling, “super-manning” (Dear lifted me in the water and I streamed through the waters like a superman lor! Haha), picture-taking etc. I hope Baby Yam enjoys the swimming session as much as the mummy does! Duno if there’s any more of such opportunities of a private and leisure swim after today…

Close-up pic of Yammy Mummy's tummy!

After the swim, our hungry stomachs led us to the nearest Coffee Bean outlet to indulge in a Iced Cappuccino and a big slice of Oreo cheese cake!!! Yummie!


Dear had the impromptu idea of cycling so since I can’t do that activity with him, we decided to go our separate ways and have our own ME-time!! I headed back to the resort by myself and had a nice time washing up, putting on the mask, reading magazine, watching tv and snacking on potato chips! How nice…

Dinner was complimentary steamboat dinner at the Treasure Bistro. It was a steamboat dinner set for 2 (again, not buffet style). We were worried that this is not going to fill us up, surprisingly, after we finished the whole plate of food, we were feelin' just right! Of cuz, expecting to snacks later part of the nite la..hee hee..


Completed another DVD-watching session, then off to bed. So fast, tmr is check-out day. But well, I've enjoyed myself very much for the short and simple weekend getaway. Thanks for the treat, Dear! I feel so much relaxed, happier and looking forward to our arrival of our baby in July!

A Happy Yammy Mummy!

Regular Mum (Not up-sized)

I think... I will just be a Regular Mum in the future. Not up-sized.

Up-sized as in "Super Mum" - one who can juggle high-level of management work in office, and come home to juggle diapers, milk bottles, tantrums throwing kids (more than 1 kid), cooking, and household chores. And not someone who can drive her own kids to and fro (have been very out of touch in driving. Confidence level real low). Someone who has super duper abilities to cope with all sorts of stress in life, without crumbling down emotionally, mentally & physically.

I am just a regular 9-to-5 working woman, forsee myself not climbing up the corporate ladder, and not earning big bucks. Haiz. How to provide my kids with those good and expensive extra circular classes leh? Like piano, ballet, enrichment classes. Can't earn enuf to even treat my own family to holidays, or going for good meals..

I am just a regular and normal woman, who's not really strong & independent, mostly dependent on hubby.

I am just a regular person, who do not have good knowledge/IQ/EQ....whatever you can name.

So, I think, I guess... I might just be a Regular Mum(?)

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Caregiver: Which one to choose?

After managing to resolve the hiring of confinement nanny issue after compromising, we're now facing another important issue - Caregiver.

Initial scenario:
As my mother-in-law will still be working in the afternoons, she can't possibly help to take care of my baby full-time. My father-in-law is also working part-time in the morning, and will also be busy taking care of my niece, Dawn. My mother is both working and taking care of my ailing grandmother, so I can't leave my baby with her too.

So we've decided to look for a babysitter. As we do not have a recommended babysitter, we have to rely on nanny agencies. I can't say I will be 100% reassured to put my baby with a babysitter who is not recommended by own circle of friends/colleagues/relatives, but do we have a choice? I can't possibly stop working and be SAHM.

Recent Happenings:
My friend happens to have a friend whose mother is a babysitter, who's living at the block next to ours (surprise surprise) and she's currently taking care of a Jap boy who's learning-to- walk-age. I am very excited when I knew about this and asked my friend to help me ask if her friend's mother is keen to take up this assignment.

Was really hoping the babysitter will agree to take care another kid. It turned out that she was contemplating to take in another assignment, but have to check with the Jap mother to see if she's comfortable to allow her.

In the end, she finds it reluctant to speak with the Jap mother, so hoping that we put her as "last option". Anyway we got to know that the Jap mother paid her above the market rate, so it will be quite an expensive option to us as well.

Other than the babysitter option, there's another proposal of idea from my in-laws. They were suggesting that I can actually hire a maid at their place, so that the maid can take care of the baby while my in-laws can supervise her. My sis-in-law actually volunteered to co-share the costs of hiring the maid.

With the 2 above options placed in front of me, I had a lot of questions, doubts, advantages, and disadvantages flashing through my mind. I was really unsure which to choose due to the following reasons:

1. I never like to hire a maid as I like to have our own family's privacy and space. So I do not like to have another person staying with us. Even when we go out, I also like to handle our own kids ourselves, and not throw to the maid to handle.
   
2. I've heard many cases whereby the maid is so difficult to be taught (slow, unable to understand and remember instructions) and the maid mishandling the baby due to different cultural practices. (I'm not a very patient person if she keeps getting everything wrong all the time)
3. We've to teach the maid from scratch, despite her having experience or not, as we want to make sure she's able to meet our expectations of hygiene standard. In comparison, I do not need to teach the babysitter what to do as she would already know how. Except that I am not sure if her hygiene standards can meet ours too.
4. On the good side, hiring a maid is relatively cheaper, and she can help to do housework at my in-law's place, and my in-laws can foster closer grandparents-and-grandchild kinship when they spend more time together.

After discussion with hubby, he is more keen on hiring the maid because of the costs, and there are his parents also rotating to look after our baby with the help of the maid. I agree with him after discussing all my uncertainties with him.

Shall start going to apply for one when we are both more free next month.. Hope we will get a good and reliable maid in time. May Baby Yam be blessed

Antenatal Lesson 5 & 6: Feeding & Doctor's Talk

Lesson 5
Feeding	• Breastfeeding • Bottle Feeding • Sterilization of Feeding Equipment • Weaning (introducing solid food) • Learning to Enhance your Child’s Physical & Mental Development • Q & A

Lesson 6
(Doctor’s Talk)*	• Husband’s Role during Childbirth • Problems Associated with a Newborn • The Process of Labour • Living with the In-laws • How to Raise a Brighter Child • Post-natal Depression

Finally finally we've reached the last 2 lessons of the antenatal class. Has been both enriching & tiring to attend the classes every weekend. Most importantly we have to remember & apply what have been taught to us after 2-3 months down the road.

There is really so much to learn especially the cleanliness and sterilisation of the equipments for the baby's use. Other than both of us learning and doing it correctly, we hope our future caregiver will also adhere to the same standards as what we expected.

At the doctor's talk, the speaker who happens to by my gynae, talked to us about "Labour". I am more aware of how to detect when contractions set in, what to do before admission to hospital, and what to expect after the baby is born.

The 2nd speaker who is a psychiatrist, talked to us about how to cope from being "2" to "3", and how to look out for symptoms for Maternity Blues, and Depression (these 2 are actually different). So I have told my hubby (who can't attend the doctor's talk with me) about all these so he can observe and see if any of these symptoms appear after pregnancy (I hope not!)

A tai-tai Sunday

I spent a tai-tai Sunday today...

Was chauffeured to Tanglin Mall for my yoga class in the morning...

After a relaxing yoga class, I took a cab to Sheraton Towers to meet my sisters for weekend hi-tea buffet.


How tai-tai isn't it?

We spent a total of close to 4 hours (buffet starts from 12noon - 4pm) at the buffet!! Can you imagine how much I have ate? Well, in the end, I suffered.. Got a bad stomachache argh.

Review of the weekend hi-tea buffet: We went there because of the credit card '1 dine-free-for-every-4-diners' promotion. Each person pays $29 instead of usual price $32.80. I was a little disappointed cuz I was expecting to see an array of nice sandwiches but I din get to see much choices or anything nice at all. I also thought there will be some dim-sum as per their website, but there isn't any too. Hmm.. 2 disappointments liao. As I can't eat those cold meat, fresh seafood, and sashimi, so I am missing quite a bit from the buffet. I would think it would be a more worthy buffet IF I din have that 2 disappointments. Oh,some of the cooked food aren't really hot and steaming. So, it can be better if its hotter. Well, I quite like their thick mushroom soup, chichken wings, spicy drumsticks & some of their cake desserts thou. Overall their service is quite prompt and polite. We'd an enjoyable time chatting, and admiring the waterfall scenery, but had to suffer some pretty hot rays that shone through the glass window. In the end, we asked to change a table as it was getting too hot and glaring.

My verdict: 3/5 (Room for improvement)