430am

and i have been awake almost 2 hours liao. after 2 hours tossing and turning in bed, checking the clock every half hour or so, i finally decide to give up and wake up. but now dunno what to do. too early to prepare breakfast and for work, so come online idle a while. how to tahan like this for the next half of the pregnancy?? later go work sure zombie-fied again 8|

Bach and Beethoven Lullabye

Yesterday night, I put on some Bach, mainly for the baby, before I went to bed. I really don't know if its true, that we should play music for the unborn child, and I'm not sure if its meant for me to hear (and the child will also hear?) or am I supposed to place the player near my belly? Anyway, even I was soothed into slumber by the gentle piping music =) Tonight, I'll try the Beethoven for babies ;)

Today when I got to work, I walked into the pantry and caught a whiff of the lingering aroma of coffee someone had mixed before me. I realise how much I miss a good cup of coffee, even though surviving 5 months without coffee shows I'm really not an addict. I just enjoy it =)

The Big 3

Over the weekend, we finally managed time to celebrate my birthday proper. Unfortunately, that meant giving up the chance to pop by the Motherhood fair again. So we missed out on all the buys that I wanted to get!!! :( But but but!! Heard from Shan that there'll be another fair at Marina Square on 27th-29th June, this time round by Young Parents! Doesn't seem like much from the web page but hope it has as many deals too! Janice Tang, my JC tutor is the editor for some Young Parents magazine. Maybe she'll be there? ;P Anyway looking forward to that then.

We had a lazy Saturday breakfast at Borders Cafe. It was really nice lazing around in the cafe, Ming sipping his tea, flipping the papers, while I had to make do with OJ, as the rain pattered away outside. Borders serves a decent range of breakfast but only 2 types of sets. Food was overall pretty good. Somehow the ambiance was perfect, and I couldn't help but wonder how many more times we can enjoy such peace before the baby comes along, although I'm sure we'll be too busy to miss it ;P.

After that, we went shopping for my birthday present. Ming had wanted to buy it first but when I heard how much he wanted to spend, I certainly thought I should be there to choose the present lest I didn't like it! We browsed several designer boutiques like LV, TODs, Dior, Gucci, Ferragamo, Burberry etc but I really couldn't find a bag I liked. I guess I'm not really into the branded look. What irks me is the long queues people had to tolerate in order to enter the boutiques! Gucci and TODs fair enough, I guess since they were having like some mega-sale or something, looking at the crowd. But LV? No sale, still got to queue wor... Singaporeans must be getting richer. And many weren't just window shopping I gathered, from the number of paper bags floating around the stores. Given up on bags, we scoured stores for Tag Heuers, Omegas, Longines and Rolexes. While i do feel a pretty penny is better spent on watches, and many did catch our eyes, but I guess I really didn't want to fork out a couple of thousand bucks for a watch either. Hee, penny-pincher me, guess I would rather spend the money on a nice piece of jewelry, although honestly, there isn't much chance to wear them. I'm seldom required to go for formal functions afterall. I mean this was unlike the lasik or the braces I did; which although those cost much more, but they are always with me. A bag or a watch, and I feel obligated to carry it, restricted from changing around as and when I like. Well, I guess its just me ;)

Later, we had dinner, after a brief rest stop at home, at a very nice little joint called Absolute Haven. I didn't know of this restaurant before but apparently, it had good reviews online. We placed our orders based on online reviews and weren't dissappointed. I ordered the Chicken Roulade: Bacon-spinach rolled in slice of chicken thigh, served with champagne cream sauce and avocado salad, while Ming had the Ribeye Steak with Port Wine Sauce: Ribeye steak grilled to your liking with port wine sauce, served with potato gratin and sugar peas.

Overall, a pretty enjoyable day; a good way to celebrate what's probably our last chance to enjoy a guilt-free romantic night out just the two of us. Once the baby is here, surely it would be much harder for us to slip out and enjoy private time alone, without cares or worries about the child right?

June Visit and the Motherhood exhibition

Its 4+am Saturday morning, and as you can guess at this unearthly time that I'm suffering from one of those cursed pregnancy sleepless nights again. What else can I do at this time but blog ya?

Yesterday, I turn 30, I guess some consider this a milestone in life ba? Spent my 30th birthday visiting Dolly so I get a free day from work =) after being assured all was fine with my little princess-to-be, I headed down to the motherhood fair at expo, just for a look, I thought. I really hadn't intend to get anything much because I would need to lug stuff home myself, and also, we already had most stuff we needed I'd thought. Btw, food at expo sucks big time! I should have stuck with fast food! So i consoled my miserable lunch with some strawberry drink from Orange Julius... yumz.

I ended up carrying 3 bags of stuff from the exhibition home; my huge VS pink tote (yes i thought my buys could actually fit in there), a really cute bag from Huggies filled with diapers and a paper bag of freebies. Loot included Huggies and SoftLove diapers (wah din know diapers so heavy and sure is bulky), Palmers Organic Stretchmark Cream, Frisomum milk powder, baby milk powder dispenser, a set of pink baby mittens, coloured pencil set, multi-coloured pen, notebook, a ton of brochures... and i guess that's about it. Doesn't seem like a lot, does it? Thats what I thought to, but lugging them home sure seemed heavy. Think was mainly from the diapers and milk but the Motherhood magazine seemed kinda heavy too. I would have bought more too, if I felt I could have carried more, but the paper bag was digging into my poor arm so I decided to leave other buys for the weekend when CM might accompany me.

Personally, I felt the 5th had better special buys including digital thermometer that had a mute option (very tempting even at non-promo exhibition prices) and a very funky looking pram ($100 bucks off + free diaper changing kit!) by bon bebe. Other things to check out from the fair over the weekend I listed (in my freebie notebook, with my freebie pen), aside from the 5th buys included the Pupsik Changing Mat (wow you really should feel the soft padded cushion! Changing mat deluxe style!), Pampers Active Baby diapers (but the very attractive promo price only starts at 7pm and unfortunately :( they were quite strict on that otherwise I would have lugged the packs home too, heck care achy arms), Sealer diapers (good reviews and comes with cutie hat hahaha but deal not good enough for me to load another set of diapers), Palmers Nursing Cream and Bottom Butter, more NeuroGain pills (although I already have 2 bottles), a cute flower baby monitor ($199), maternity pads, a baby photography package, baby toothbrushes, baby tableware set, some baby wash, detergent and wipes. Strangely, there were no car seats for sale at the exhibition, or maybe I missed it? Oh yes, did I mention I got a set of adorable bibs from Carters? =D waiting for them to be delivered as we "speak".

After the fruitful visit at the fair, I headed to my mum's place via mrt. Fortunately, a very kid soul gave up her seat for me, else I cannot imagine the long ride with all those bags. Entertained by the NDS, the trip was a jiffy and I rested at my mum's place before feasting on shepherd's pie and curry delights for dinner, and not to mention yummy chocolate cake Ming lugged from office. I especially recommend the shepherd's pie coz that's the first time we tried it. I LOVED it, but family felt it was more suited for bigger crowd to share. We had no choice but to cab back with my many shopping bags, leftovers and might as well lug home the playpen from my sis too. Come to think of it, was a really tiring day. How come I still cannot sleep leh?

Long Hiatus

Wow realised upon visiting my blog after such a long time that I haven't blogged in a full month. Thinking back its really no wonder. I've been so bloody busy at work, its really driving me nuts. First semester of the acad year had always been more busy with all the admin work like goal setting and budget planning etc. But this time round...I realy don't know why everything must happen at the same time. Suddenly there's a new option to be launched and I need to work the curriculum; suddenly there is a course review and I need to not only work out the survey for graduates but to send them out and consolidate the replies from hundreds of graduates ( better be that many else I will need to call them one by one to get their replies... can u imagine? ); suddenly there's this stupid new module I need to be in charge of (aside from my existing modules) that I need to coordinate with another member of the team. I can feel the stress building up as I lament why couldn't all this happen next semester instead (when I'm on maternity). Aside from the workload, I'm struggling with the heavy heat that has set in since April. It is most annoying trudging around campus ladden with a laptop, in very warm maternity wear balancing with my new baby bulge.

Speaking of which, met up with some of my friends over lunch yesterday. One of them was commenting her sister, who is about the same stage as me, wasn't showing half as big as mine. Indeed, I had similar comment from my colleague. So be warned those who havent met me in a while. Maybe you wouldn't recognise me with my big baby bulge now =) Also, to keep you posted, Dolly determined in the previous visit that we're expecting a baby girl come October. So guess it will be pinks in the wardrobe then ;P

We celebrated my first mother's day celebration, where i'm a mother (to be) that is; at Taste Paradise. The food was pretty exquisite I would say, although I'm not normally a fan of fusion. Tastebuds also made the expensive food like abalone unappetising, but simple foods like the fried rice was really good. My first self declared mother's day present was a metallic rose ds lite. Its barely into its opening ceremony and its already my most utilised gadget (yes, more so than my mobile phone or PC even). There is this game called Harvest Moon DS I'm absolutely addicted to. I'm sure I spend at least 5-8 hours a day on it on average. I love the way the time flies by during the morning and evening commute. I suspect there is a touch of escapism there. I always get most addicted to silly things when I'm stressed. I recall once when I spent my eves of exams folding paper cranes.

I must confess I cannot really blame it all on work though. As I move into my 5th month carrying my baby, the buzz of the conception is more or less settled and in its wake, stress is starting to build up. I'm fairly pragmatic I would say, and never thought that having a baby will be a breeze. But now the reality is starting to sink in, in all that we'll need to sacrifice once my baby girl is born. My feelings starting to become more ambivalent. I hope this is a passing phase though...

Disappointing Visit

I've been sitting on the post since my visit on Monday. I've been plagued at work, and at home, hardly ever seem to get enough sleep. I get nightmares some nights and wake up, heart beating so fast. Gynae says I'm stressed...? Maybe lor.

Anyway back to the posting, I finally went to see Dolly, again with mum and Ming, hoping to finally know the gender. But baby very shy leh. When scanning, baby closed the legs. Dolly try to poke the baby a few times, but all we managed to coax was for baby to turn the head towards us. Legs still closed leh. Mum later say, maybe girl more shy, lol. dun wanna open legs ;P Anyway, Dolly harboured a guess, that it was 60% chance a girl. LOL... i remember mocking 60% guesses, since any tom dick or harry, without aid of an ultrasound scan, also can make a 50% guess liao. 60% doesn't mean anything leh. So, despite the 2nd time my mum freed up her time to come to the visit with me, we were unable to get any conclusive results. Dad called again, only to hear the bad news again. lol. Hopefully, next visit, can confirm gender lor. Anyway, I already got many new neutral rompers. Promised myself, no more liao. haha... hope i can keep to it once I find out the gender, especially if its a girl, coz there's just so many pretty girl clothes out there! That night, Ming announced to my in-laws that its a girl. He has gut feel is girl leh. Haha, maybe the source is from him, he got better gut feel ba?

Aside from the visit, I also managed to buy my first pair of Clarks. I had always had an aversion for Clarks for its relatively high price given the lack of asthetics. My mum had always been a huge fan, especially after she had feet problems and needed specially made insoles. But thanks to that, I learnt the importance of shoes, and heeded her advice to blow some money on a pair of shoes I would otherwise not have looked twice. For that price, of course I would have preferred another pair of Birkens, but realistically speaking, I couldn't wear Birkens to work lah. Another limitation of my anal workplace. But nevermind lor, for the sake of the child, and the future of my feet, I just hope the Clarks are worth it. Well at least I don't have to wear sports shoes to work everyday like I'm doing now ;P

2nd trim

Technically, 2nd trim is somewhere between 12-14 weeks. I've been delaying this post, not really knowing when my 2nd trim is, and also waiting formy 1st trim symptoms to abate (as they are supposed to). Fortunately, appetite seems slightly improved, but the fatigue is still there. It supposed to abate, but I've stopped holding my breath. I wonder if its due to the start of school year. Maybe I'm less fatigued but due to work and stress, I still feel tired? I guess I should be thankful that school only started after 2nd trim, where pregnancy is supposed to be more stable.

Next week I visit Dolly again. XXXXX all fingers hoping this time round, I can know whether is girl or boy. haha... not that it really matters. Nowadays, I feel too tired to shop already. The initial excitement of havign a baby has settled down, and work has taken over in urgency since school started. In fact delayed my gynae visit by a week so my more anxious than me mother could make it too =) We did play around with the idea of keeping ourselves in suspense. But guess no point also lor. Knowing gender does help us prepare for baby stuff. This time round, my weight gain is surely more than triple my previous gain. haha... lets see if she chides me again. Fortunately, Sis had already warned me she was particular about weight ;P

Last saturday attended Jeff and Trish's baby Maryam's 1st month birthday. Maryam was very peacefully sleeping, seemingly oblivious of the many people around her. We didn't get much time with her as anxious relatives wanted their time with her too =) Caught up with Darrel and Geraldine who went to Tokyo Disneyland. So we exchanged stories about Disneyland in HK vs Tokyo. Jeff entertained us with detailed description of his witnessing baby Mayam's birth process, including crowning and when her face popped out blue. He even commented "Smurf!" haha amazing lah he. I don't think Ming (nor I really) will want to witness. As long as he stays by my side, I'm happy.

This saturday I'll be attending Audrey's girl Arelyn's 1st year birthday party. Suddenly all around me seem to be babies, from Rylee, to Michael, Maryam, Kathleen's baby boy whose name is unknown to me yet. I think mine should be the next in line?