Name for the Boy

Here's some names which I've shortlisted for our boy. As you can see I'm more inclined to choose names starting with J or T, dunno why but think it goes well with Phang. The only name starting with H I could think of was Hayden... now I'll leave it to Hubby to make the choice.

• Blake
• Hayden
• Jake
• Jesper
• Jett
• Jerel
• Julian
• Lloyd
• Tyler
• Tristan
• Toby

Bird's Nest and Coconut

One of my favourites during pregnancy is being able to indulge in birds nest almost every week after the 1st trimester and it's not the bottled ones I'm talking about but the one's we get from the medical shop that we need to double boil. Not sure why I like it but its refreshing for the throat.  I have taken it for my last pregnancy as I heard it's good for the baby's complexion - baby will have a beautiful and glowing complexion, which I think is quite true as no. 1 was very fair at birth and still has very rosy complexion! And of cos it's good for my complexion and aids in digestion.

As for drinking coconut during the last trimester, it's meant to cleanse the baby of the greasy white substance that protects his skin from the amniotic fluid -- well that's what the old folks tell me. No harm trying this since the drink is so refreshing and cooling for the body -- pregnant mums will appreciate this since our body temperature tend to be higher than normal! So far have started drinking twice last week, and will need to get them at the supermarket weekly. Haiz... once confinement starts can't drink anything cooling /cold etc.. so must enjoy now!

Maternity Leave

Ok I have finalised my work arrangements and maternity leave (ML) period.  I will officially be on leave from 23 Aug 2010 - 2 Jan 2011!! Part of it will be my 16 weeks ML and the rest will come from my 2010 leave. Anyway I will be 39 weeks pregnant when the leave starts, hopefully the boy chooses to allow mummy dearest to have some "me" time before arriving, cos Jie Jie dearest arrived at 37 weeks.

Baby @ Week 35

Today I went for our routine checkup at the Gynae.  The boy is 35 weeks and all looks good, he's growing well and in a head down position- keep it up son! He's gain about 700g while I put on another 1 kg over the past 2 wks.  Oh and today no trace of protein in my urine - yippee! Think drinking lots of water really helps!

Gynae also did a swab for Strep B test today and results will be out in 2 weeks time. Hopefully it will be negative, unlike when I had No.1. I was diagnose as positive and was suppose to be given antibiotics during labour, but because my labour was so fast the nurses didn't administer the antibiotics.  Luckily Hazel was born healthy and with no infection what so ever. However I did read that infection in babies is very rare even if we're diagnosed positive - but of cos it would be better if result is negative so we have one less thing to worry about.

Anyway from now onwards it will be weekly visits to the clinic to check on his development! See you again next week babe!

His Vital Stats @ 35 wks:

BPD: 87mm

AC: 302mm

HC: 306mm

Weight: 2582 grams

Here's today's scan of his heartbeat

Thinking about Baby's Full Month Party

Ha 35 weeks into pregnancy and I'm already thinking about No. 2's 1st month celebration! Anyway, base on our last experience, we actually had very little time to prepare and book the venue for No. 1's 1st month. So I have kind of listed some of the items we would need to look into:

1. Venue: SIL's condo - BBQ area/function room (must get SIL to help us book).

2. Baby Man Yue Cake: Stick to Sweetest Moments (they have a new petit version). This round we'll probably get for colleagues only.

3. Was thinking if we should get this for our guests - Baby Shower Cookies http://bakedwithlove.wordpress.com/baby-shower-cookies/

or a cake/cupcakes http://www.cottoncandybakeshop.blogspot.com/ or http://www.mylittlegems4u.com/mini_cuppies since we're not giving relatives man yue cakes this round.

5. Caterer: Will Look into it during confinement

6. Decorations: Minimal - have ordered some cute new baby boy decorations/items from spree.

7. Photo taking - must assign someone to take as I realise the last round we didn't take many shots.

That's about it I suppose, although it's our 2nd child must give equal importance to the occasion. I'm actually quite excited and happy planning for this - ha ha ha...

Movie before Delivery

Had a Dinner cum Movie date with Hubby  last Thursday. Think this would probably be the last movie we can catch alone at the cinema before no. 2 arrives - not that we do this very often but we do occasionally go for late night movie dates if there's any good movies. Thereafter begins our laborious journey of looking after the kiddo and his needs.

I remembered for no.1 my last show before delivering her was Bourne Ultimatum, lots of action and shooting / explosions and each time she would move with the loud booms!! This time we caught Inception, the show was interesting and it didn't feel like a 2.5hr movie - though my bladder probably felt it and no.2 also moved quite a bit, I suspect he was enjoying the popcorn!

Oh oh oh.. remember I was not suppose to take sweet stuff??!! Anyway the next morning when I took my urine test surprisingly the strip showed very little colour change, I'm crossing my fingers that the protein is slowly diminishing.

Good Buys for Baby Diapers and Food Supplies

Just found some good buys for diapers and baby products via luvbabies.weebly.com. The Jul promotion for Mamy Poko and Drypers is too good to give it a miss, as it's definately cheaper than any of the supermarket's discounted prices. Also found the Delrosa and Gripe Water to be as cheap as the medical shop, so included that in my order to stock up for No. 2 as well.

The only thing is that I needed to spend up to $200 and above to qualify for free delivery, so found my cousin to share the order. Service is really fast, placed my order and payment on Monday and I recieved the goods the next day! Looking forward to more good deals in future...

Baby @ 33 weeks

Arrived at the clinic this afternoon and was surprise that it was empty, so I didn't have to wait long. Prior to that did my usual urine test, but this time there was faint traces of protein,  my blood pressure was fine though.  Dr did the scan and baby's head has turned so the boy's now head down (phew, good boy!). So far he is growing well for the past 2 weeks and I'm happy that he's gained about 500g, Dr commented that he's in good size.

As for mummy here, I need to avoid sweet stuff and drink more water to reduce any risk of pre-eclampsia- due to the faint traces of protein in the urine. Was given the urine strips to test myself every alternate morning to monitor the protein level in my urine till my next checkup in 2 weeks time @ wk 35. And oh I piled on 3 kg- seesh in my eagerness to make sure baby puts on weight I seem to have eaten too much?? Hiaz dun eat also scared, eat also scared, really dunno what to do. Oh well just eat in moderation, will be discipline and eat more healthy stuff for the rest of the weeks - no more fried, oily and unhealthy food!!

His Vital Stats @ 33 wks:

BPD: 83mm

AC: 263mm

HC: 284mm

Weight: 1821 grams

Confinement Food

To make things easier and hassle free, will be catering food for confinement this round.  Now I'm pondering over which confinement caterer to go with... It will be 1 month long so must at least choose a caterer with menu which has what I like best.

The Asian Parent has a short write up and a list of confinement caterers : http://sg.theasianparent.com/articles/confinement-meals-the-tingkat-way
I'm shortlisting natal essentials and ihost food. Most likely will check some comments on forum before deciding.

Entering into 3rd trimester

Some updates on this pregnancy. So far I have gained another 1kg just this week alone.  I'm really crossing my fingers that it's going to my boy. I'm quite concerned with his weight gain since he seems quite small for 31 weeks. I've been taking some durians and trying to increase my protein intake, so hopefully by next visit to the gynae which is next week baby will gain 500g at least!  Tummy has been expericing more tightening during the day and I can still feel his movements daily. I also do feel the pressure on my groin area, especially when I get up from sitting.  Fortunately the ache on my left butt has seem to disappear and I'm not suffering from backaches. And ya he has not turned yet, the boy is still lying horizontally, must remind him to start turning!

As for water retention, swollen legs and cramps- it's not too bad this round. In fact I can still wear my shoes, and my feet only started swelling and feeling tight occasionally at night during start of 3rd trimester. Unlike the last pregnancy where at 2nd trimester I had such swollen feet that I could only wear my Birkenstock and my feet would get so tight that I would feel uncomfortable walking.  My face also looked puffier the last round due to water retention.  And as for cramps I'll get slight leg cramps only when I sleep with the air condition. 

Oh ya this time I don't need to take the Glucose Test since there isn't any family history and my urine test each time has no traces of sugar. So the next & final test will be the Strep B test around 35 - 37 weeks, crosss fingers this will be fine.
Yesterday when I was at a course someone even complimented that I look good for a pregnant lady and I look too young to be a mother of 2 ... mua ha ha ha *blush blush*

Pregnancy Bonus!

Woo Hoo! My loot from Kate Spade has arrived.  Decided to reward myself for this pregnancy with a new bag and wallet during their sample sale. Ha ha call it a pregnancy bonus since got baby bonus :P. I must say the items are good as new though they did warn that there may be some stains etc... and the whole damage was only less than $300(incld shipping). Think it would have cost me much much more if I bought at KS S'pore shop.

Thanks babe for making Mummy indulge in such purchases to cheer myself, maybe we should get Daddy to pay for Mummy :P

See my new classic noel daisy shopper - STUCCO! Pretty??

And a bright and cheerie new wallet in Basil/Turquoise.

Making space for no.2

Yesterday we headed for Ikea to shop for some new furniture. Since we've decided to place no.2's cot in our room (unfortunately no extra room for no.2), we've decided to rearrange the furniture in our room and clear some space in the living room so that we can have a working table and shelves fitted in the living room.  After shopping around for sometime and having our yummy lunch, we ended up with a comfy 1-seater armchair (for feeding baby), 1 new working desk and a shelf for Hazel's books. Delivery is scheduled for this friday afternoon, but we'll probably be shifting and fixing up the furniture only sometime in early Aug.  And than we're all set for his arrival! :)

Online Shopping Deals for Baby Stuff

Decided to get a Baby Ergo carrier and a playpen for Baby no.2. Actually I wanted to get the Ergo for no. 1 the last round but found it rather expensive and ended up with the Bjorn Air instead. So this round I thought maybe I'll just sell my Bjorn and get a secondhand Ergo.  As for playpen, we actually have a cot for baby but thought might as well get a playpen to place it in the living room area so that it's more conv. for my mum during the day time.   

I had previously sold several stuff on SMH forum and find it a very useful platform.  This round I manage to get some great 2nd hand deals from 2 nice mummies.  Have collected my stuff and they are in good condition and at a budget price! Thumbs Up for SMH WTB forum.

Our new carrier! It can carry up to 20kg, so we can use for No.1 also.

Graco Pack n Play Playyard- ours is in blue. 

The Bassinet can convert to a playpen later on.