BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

In the month of March, there were 3 birthday celebrations.

1) Celebrated my brother in law's birthday last Sunday @ Le Meridien. Ambience was good, food was even better. :)

The "birthday boy"

Baby Gwen with Grandpa and Grandma

The "Lims"

Baby Gwen posing with daddy

2) Celebrated my sis-in-law's & niece's bithdays as well somewhere in Sri Damansara, couldn't remember the restaurant's name

Getting ready to go to the restaurant

The "birthday girl" aka as my niece

And another "birthday girl" aka my SIL with my newphew

Papa and Mama

GROWING DAY BY DAY...

Baby Gwen is growing bigger and chubbier each day. And heavier too! And shes so cheeky these days... :)

Baby Gwen in her first jeans

FREEDOM at last....

Today baby Gwen is exactly 1 month old. And YES...my confinement is over. Well, I sort of broke the rule earlier, had the full moon party for Gwen on 17th, 2 days earlier than her supposedly 1 month old birthday. So, Jon and myself together with my mom brought Gwen out for the first time yesterday. As I was craving for my "pan mee" at my favourite food stall in Tmn Megah for like a month, we went there for lunch. And as usual I ordered my "teh si peng" as well. Mom nagged me for having cold drink too early during my maternity and I just have to reassure her that I just need one teh si peng only for that day. :) My MIL joined us for lunch as well, and she was very skeptical of us bringing out the baby so soon. Well, parents will always be the "parents", and I know they meant well even with all the "pantang" and "advices"

Right after lunch, we headed to 1 Utama to look for bottle warmer and also to buy a rice cooker. The one that we have at home spoilt again(for like umpteenth times)...and we are sick of bringing the cooker back and forth to the service centre for repair. Never ever I'm gonna buy anything from Pensonic again. The quality of their products is bad!

We had a great experience of bringing out the baby and yes it was not easy. From feeding her in the car, and bringing out the stroller and etc...making sure everything is there in case she needs anything, it was an eye opener for us. No longer about us shopping as long as we want in the mall rather than to have what in mind and just go straight and purchase it because baby Gwen will cries when she feels tired or hungry. But it was a fun 1st day trip to the mall for us with the baby even for a short time and we are looking forward to bringing her out more often when shes slightly bigger.:)

Baby Gwen's "fusion" full moon boxes prepared by our dearest friend Juen (http://ribbonsandcakes.blogspot.com/....we love it!

OUCH OUCH...

I've been through last 3 sessions of traditional massage aka as traditional Malay "urut" for the past 2 weeks to get rid of the "wind" after the delivery. It was excruciating initially but it does makes me feels good later on. It was worth it. I was not too keen at first because of the pain but I decided to go for it anyway after so much persuasion and recommendation from others who did it before. I could feel my muscles and joints are lighter and not so tight anymore. I have backache on and off these past few weeks, most probably due to breastfeeding but the massages really makes me feels better. Baby Gwen so far has been breastfeeding well and has increased her appetite these few days and I need to breastfeed her more often. We did have rough nights when she just did not want to sleep but kept sucking. Sometimes she will just suck a few times and fall asleep. But when we tried to put her to sleep in her cot, she will cry. Probably she loves to suck for comfort. My sleeping pattern has changed tremendously as well, no more sleep in late on weekends. Trust me...Baby cries are far better off than having an alarm clock. ;)

Ahhh....I'M SO CLEAN!

(Just after a quick shower)

I'd poo-ed, I'll rest while mummy and daddy clean me up... ;)

Ahh...Now I'm clean, I'm off to bed everyone. Nite nite!

PICTURES OF GWENDOLYN......

Just after birth, on mummy's chest

Sleeping so soundly....

Fresh and clean after the delivery

Looking at mummy for milk so innocently... :)

Hmm....Satisfied...

Smiling at daddy who was behind the camera

Resting....

Our baby girl Gwendolyn.....

was born on 19 January 2008 @ 12:07pm, 2 weeks earlier from the EDD. Praise God that everything went smoothly and she had no problem coming out with no complications. It was all seem still surreal to me and Jon coz' never have we expexted that she will come out so soon. Ironic part was, we went to see the gynae the day before she was born and neither of us was informed by the gynae that I will have early delivery. In fact, the gynae was mentioning about his absence on 7 & 8 of February due to CNY celebration and if we wants him to deliver our baby which means I have to be induced earlier which means early labour. But the next morning which was on the delivery date itself, I felt I have mild stomachache and was complaining to Jon who was half asleep. Well, nothing much he can do at that point of time, so I continued sleeping. But later at about 5:30am, I felt like going to the toilet but nothing came out. Strangely...I thought so to myself. Then without realising anything peculiar, I decided to continue sleeping after complaining to Jon for another time. He was of coz' convinving me that I might have Braxton Hicks which is very common to pregnant women. I couldn't sleep well and I starter to look at my clock everytime the pain comes. And the interval for each painw as about 5-6 minutes. The pain was still bearable so never did I thought to myself that the pain that I was having was basically the contractions. But about 9am plus...I have the blood spotting and I calmly told Jon that maybe I was having contractions. His ears perked up when he heard me saying I had spotting. He quickly got up from his bed and started reading a chapter abnout contractions and called our Godma as well.

Lo and behold, yes it was confirmed these were the signs of contractions. Jon encouraged me to go to Pantai immediately. I was contemplating at first coz' I read a lot about false labour and I wouldn't want to go to the hospital and then were asked to go back if it is for sure false labour. We took our own sweet time to pack some of the unfinished hospital bag which we should have done much earlier. I tool a nice shower and hairwash. It was then about 11am when we left our house to Pantai. My dear hubby even suggested to go for a nice breakfast before checking into the hospital and I agreed becoz' I knew mosy doctors discouraged those in labour to check-in early as the labour for first child will usually take about 12-14 hours. We decided in the end to go to McD in Bangsar as it was nearer to Pantai. Thank God we couldn't find a single parking and at that time suddenly I felt the urge to do "big job". We decided to skip breakfast and went to Pantai straight.

While I was waiting at the lobby waiting for Jon to enquire the receptionist as to where we should be headed to for emergency purposes, I just can't stand up and I just need to sit badly. I was wheeled to the labour ward immediately. At that point of time it was bout 11:40am. Once in the labour ward, I felt the strong urge to push badly. The nurse asked about my birth plan and I just couldn't answered her. Jon told her that as we have discussed ealier, we want natural birth with no epidural, painkillers whatsoever. The nurse did a check on my vagina and I was informed that I might be giving birth in an hour time. With shock on both of our faces, Jon got to rush out to register and my gynae was called immediately for duty. Thank God my gynae was in the hospital itself coz usually he doesn't come in on weekends and that day was Saturday. When he came in to see me about 11:50am, he did another check on me and with confidence he informed me that I will give birth in 15 minutes time. He just sat at the corner and tried to make some jokes to ease me but all I could think was the pain and I just want to PUSH badly. After 4 pushes (thats what I have been told by Jon coz each time I pushed i will squeezed his hands badly), baby Gwendolyn came out. The last push was pretty funny coz the nurse attending to me actually told me not to push anymore but just imagine you were having a really bad stomachache, we just can't stand not to push rite'? When our baby came out, water gushed out and blood everywhere. And then the gynae clamped and Jon cut her umbilical cord. Waited for about 2 minutes before the placenta came out. I felt so blessed that had a short labour without any anaesthatic or episiotomy and baby weight was alrite @ 2.56kg. But my butt still feel a bit sore now and hopefully it will go away in a few days time.

Baby's Weight

On our last gynae visit, we were both informed that our baby was underweight and if her weight does not increase to about 600 grams in 2 weeks, I have to be induced, which means early labour. Current baby weight is only 1989 grams. Our gynae told us that an average baby's weight is above 2.5kgs and for baby to put on extra 600grams in 2 weeks, oh well it does sounds impossible. Been eating lots of meat these few days as with much anticipation and anxious that baby is eating and growing well. I have problem in sleeping as well these past few days as my back is aching terribly especially my right hip. Will see the gynae again this week and Jon and myself are praying really hard that baby is growing well.:)

Make a postcard - it's easy!

4 weeks and counting....

I'm expected to give birth in exactly a months' time..*gasp. Pretty anxious about it. A lot of advices and concerns poured out to me lately like "Have I packed my hospital bag?", "what to expect during contractions?", "false labour vs real labour" and etc...It seems having a baby is definately a whole new experience to both of us as first time parents when everything seems to cost a lot of money from choosing the baby cot to breast pumps and the list seems to be endless each time we walk into a mall or a baby shop.

But the thought of holding and cuddling our baby girl for the first time is something both myself and Jon are really looking forward to. In fact, we have started assembled the baby cot and baby changing table and arranged them in our room. Yup, our bedroom kinda a bit small now with these two in our room but the idea of placing the baby in another room is not something we want to coz as much as we need much sleep, both of us agreed that we would prefer to bond with our baby girl as much as possible in her first few months before I'm back to work again after my 2 months maternity leave.

Praise God that we have found our much needed babysitter at last. Been searching for the right one for a long long time and it is a blessing knowing our babysitter is known to Jon personally and most importantly the babysitter is a believer herself and we pray that she'll be able to teach more and more about Jesus to her and she'll grow up to be a godly child.

After 5 months...

I have yet to know my baby gender....Well,maybe we will by our next gynae visit next week and thats if our baby is not shy enough to show us a peek! :) My pregnancy so far has been quite a relief with no morning sickness and etc...Praise God for giving me such a smooth 5 mths pregnancy...Although I have been putting lots of weight ever since and my legs are a bit of swollen and I'm now wearing shoe size "6" rather than my usual "5", I found myself pretty clumsy all the time and my short term memory is getting bad each day :( But nevertheless, I'm really looking forward for my first baby movement which I have yet to experience. Hubby has been very supportive in helping out with the chores at home. From doing the laundry and picking me up to and fro from the office, I knew that he is also excited about being a dad for the first time. Sometimes, we came across young parents with screaming kids and we both can't help but wonder, are we really ready for all these? But we pray that the Lord will always grant us wisdom in bringing up our baby and enjoying every moment seeing our baby grow each day.

"We're" Pregnant!
by: The Hubby

It started off as what I thought was my darling wife putting on lots of weight, which then escalated to her being a week plus late on her period. Since we were already "planning" ; ) for the past 2 weeks on starting a family, against my better judgment, while we were strolling past Watsons on a Friday night prior to cell group we purchased a home pregnancy test. Time at cell seemed to crawl as we were waiting to get home to take it. When we got home and got into our room, brimming with anticipation, we took the test. Having just taken this test for the very first time, neither my darling wife or I knew how to "interpret" the result. So after a minute or so, only one line remained which prompted me to respond with a huge sigh "We're not pregnant" which caused us much disappointment as we were expecting it to be positive. Since I wasn't thoroughly convinced, I continued "dunking" the test into the "test pan" convinced that we took it wrong. Lo and behold a 2nd line appeared, be it very "blurry". Naturally, I then put my arm around PS and said "We're Pregnant". PS was skeptical at first as we had a negative result moments before however, after reading the instruction manual, it brought to my attention that regardless of how "blur" the 2nd line was it meant she was pregnant and finally after showing her the manual, it finally dawned on both of us... "We're Pregnant" :)
We the phoned up our parents (at this point it was around midnight) who although were half asleep were ecstatic as were PS's parents. We went to bed elated but were still doubting the result as it was conceivable it was taken wrong so we decided to go to the doctor’s the next day to reconfirm.

The next day, when we got to the Dr’s office and after what seemed to be an eternity, the nurse brought PS into the next room as I waited with the doctor. Moments later, the nurse emerged from the next room and in a puzzled tone blurted out “Dr, I ingat dia tak pregnant lah” to which the doctor retorted “You tahu buat tak itu pregnancy test” and then instructed her. Again, in a rather “déjà vu”(shades of the night before) manner, the doctor then announced that PS was expecting as the 2nd “blur” line appeared. Naturally, we were delighted but again with a touch of apprehension, we shared the news with some of our closest friends and our pastor (who’s also our godfather) who prayed for PS. At this point, we were still a touch “skeptical” so thereafter, I did heaps of research on via the internet and did something that seems quite cliché’ these days when I made a beeline to pick up a copy of “What to expect when you’re expecting” as after 2 dramatic “could be” pregnancy confirmations, both PS and I really wanted to know absolutely everything about pregnancy and the 1st trimester.

A week later, still a little skeptical, we made an appointment with a gynecologist to “triple confirm” the pregnancy. After an unbelievable 4 hour wait for them to get through just 20 patients, we were ushered in to see the gynecologist who unfortunately for us, just adjourned from the OT. Conceivably tired from the scores of patients he’s seen or examined coupled with the emergency in the OT he seemed to be reluctant to answer most of our answers as he seemed to be in a hurry to be done with us. He did with the help of the ultrasound however, confirm the pregnancy much to our relief. Whilst we were gazing at the little white dot on the ultrasound and it began to dawn on us that we were going to be parents he interrupted us by informing us that there was absolutely nothing he could tell us about the pregnancy as there was yet to be a “heartbeat” as it was still early days. Now after all the drama we’ve encountered in the past week this understandably; left a tinge of anxiety on us… More drama… :) After the examination, we finally felt more confident in spreading our "good news" and so when we got to children's church our fellow children leaders laid hands and prayed for us which is very assuring that we aren't in this "journey" alone. Praise the Lord for fellow brothers and sisters in Christ!

We are to go back for an examination 2 weeks from now, so without taking anything for granted, do continue to pray with us.

So finally, with much confidence... "We're pregnant"

Stay tuned! :)

OH NO....!!

What an eventful weekend I had last week. Last Saturday, I tripped and fell in the middle of the pathway at the flea market in Curve and I was of coz pretty embarassed about it. What confounded it was as I was falling down, instintively I grabbed whatever that is within reach, unfortunately what I grabbed on to was a woman who was right in front of me, which in turn startled her as she yelled on the top of her voice possibly because she thought that someone was trying to snatch her handbag. There I was left in the middle of the bazaar pathway with a bruised right shin and my damaged ego as it caused quite a commotion with passerbys looking on and in no doubt judging me in their heads.

On Sunday, I experienced a little bit of Malaysian "mannerism". I was thoroughly enjoying the Spiderman 3 movie when this selfish guy at the back of me kept tapping his feet and pushed his legs onto the back of my seat. It was so irritating that I was on the verge of just turning my back and looked at him. Unfortunately me being my usual cultured and tame self, it was just an evil thought that came to me but something I would never do it but my body language showed that I was very uneasy with my seat but did he look a bit apologetic after the movie? Na-ah....

Perfect Eyes

Had a dinner with one my closest friend recently and we touched on the subject of having so-called perfect eyes. For someone like me who has been having bad vision since secondary school, the thought of having perfect eyes always comes to my mind. No more those geeky-looking glasses or even the need to wear those contact lenses just to avoid wearing those glasses. But for now, I can't live without my lenses particularly when I'm out. I just hate to wear glasses because I find, it makes my face really greasy and oily when I wear it and the idea of pushing it up now and then really irritates me. My friend is going for a surgical procedure soon for eye correction for perfect eyes and the surgery is intended to reduce her dependency on glasses or contact lenses. Well, the idea sounds good, but her explanation on how it is really done really scares me. The procedure is quite simple from what she said and its basically a surgery that permanently changes the shape of the cornea, the clear covering of the front of the eye, using an excimer laser. And all this can be done in within 5 minutes. GASP! Talked about technology. But from what I heard, the cost of the surgery is so expensive for a just 5 minutes surgery.

Having perfect eyes sounds really good to me and I'm tempted to do it, but having to think that I'm still awake and aware of what is happening during that laser surgery, really troubles me. Well....should I?*in deep thoughts.....maybe later or err...never!

Car Accident!

Was involved in an accident today, involving 3 cars. What a horrible day to start just after the CNY. :( My car was severely damaged and will be in the workshop for at least 2 weeks and looking at my car after the wreck, the cost of the damage will probably cost a bomb. I feel so handicapped without the car. Praise God, noone was injured, just a little bit traumatised by the incident. Sigh...

Got my mudpie fix!

I have craving for TGIF's mudpie since a couple of weeks ago. Jon brought me to TGIF today and oh YES....yummy! I sort of ate the whole cake myself, Jon just took a couple of spoons. But now, I feel really bloated. Gonna stop eating mudpie for a while.

Gong Hee Fatt Choy!

This time around was a bit different. Being a married woman, this is the first time I had 2 celebrations with both families and the *ahem...the joy of giving out angpows and yes..we still received angpows. I always look forward to seeing all my family members gathered together, having a great bonding time with one another. This year, went back a couple of days earlier back to my hometown, SP for a pre-CNY celebration. And we have the newest addition to the family this year, baby Isabelle Ann, little bundle of joy of my 3rd bro, Wan Kian and my sis-in-law, May! What a great joy to see all my nieces and nephew again. They were such a bunch of mischievious and playful kids.

We were back home on Saturday, just in time for a reunion dinner at Jon's side. Didn't take long for us to drive back to KL. No jam at all but for obvious reason coz' we were at the other side of the road heading to KL whilst those going down south, pheww.....the jam started in Sg Buloh itself up to the Slim River toll. Unbelievable, most probably everyone was rushing back just in time for reunion. Reststops along the highway was packed with cars and people. We both hardly drank to avoid the urge of going to the loo. Haha! But anyway, here are the brief summary of what we did for the past few days:

CNY - Day 1

Makan time at Jon's place and thereafter headed to his uncle's place for more makan time and of coz' the thrill of "gambling session" with relatives.(I was hopeless in it, probably just break-even the capital, Jon did win big this time around!" :)

CNY - Day 2

More makan time, went to Ming Palace for a reunion dinner(Mom-in-law's side) and more "gambling session" again after that.

CNY - Day 3

Again, another round of makan time.

BUT tomorrow, I'm BACK TO WORK.....Oh bummer! Took a couple of photos during CNY but was too lazy to upload them. Probably later. The idea of getting up early tomorrow for work...:( *sniff sniff

So people, heres to a Blessed Chinese New Year and have a great PIGGY year.

THERE GOES MY WEEKENDS....

Working non-stop for 2 consecutive weeks has left me without weekends. These days, I lose my temper quite easily...early signs of stress and not having enough sleep. Hubby pointed out that I have been a real nagger these past few days. Sort of finding fault with him in every little thing he does. Thank God for a wonderful session in CG last week whereby our icebreaker was to have everyone repenting a thing or two if there is any. Repented on my repetitious nagging...felt much better after that. But..sigh...have been working my socks off and I am SO looking forward to the coming long hols. I need that long overdue well-deserved break this time around...I'm for sure on a very strict diet for this coming CNY, which is to whack anything I feel like eating. No cutting on carbo and "jaga badan" this time around. :)

"Law Abiding Officer"?

Was on route home, passing through Kota Damansara and to our horror, there was this guy in the police car and he was on the phone while driving. My oh my, so much of abiding the road rules. The most depressing part was if we were to do the same thing as what he did, for sure we will be summoned whilst he can get away with it just because he was a policeman. So hypocritical! Hmmphh.... We felt disgusted of his behavior so much so that we thought of taking a picture of him with my phone camera to be sent to The Star but we were a bit too slow, he drove past us and he was seen tailgating another car. Sigh...what was that?!??!!

LIFT-PHOBIA!

One of my biggest fear has been realised today.What I considered to be a mundane Wednesday morning turned out to be anything but! As I alighted from my car and headed for the lift to take me up to the 2nd floor, my mind was racing through all the tasks I had for the day. As I reached to press the button, suddenly the lift jerked and descended rapidly and suddenly stopped from what I later discovered was between the ground and first floor!

I was stuck in the lift for half an hour before being rescued. Still in a state of shock & panic, I quickly pressed the emergency button to get the attention of my need for assistance. Two of the guys (one of them was my boss!) tried to open the door lift using their bare hands but they were only able to open it like 5 cms wide which fortunately, enabled some air to enter the lift.

Being down with flu and running nose, it was pretty hard for me to breathe using my mouth. The other unsung heroes in my little incident were my collegues who were very supportive, so much so that some of them even accompanied me all the way till I was rescued. Whilst I was in the lift, I was perspiring profusely, struggling for breath and was praying really hard all the while recalling the feeling of the lift descending suddenly. Phew.....that was scary. After half an hour of nerve-wrecking minutes, I was rescued! Once the door lift opened, I felt just like a star. Colleagues cheered and consoled me. I of course, pretended to be so cool about it but I tell you that from that incident onwards, I would never take the offce lift again. I rather take the stairs than be in that dreadful situation again.Hah!

SWEATING BUCKETS!

My car air-cond ran out of gas, so was practically driving around, sweating profusely so much so that I had to wind down my window once in a while because I really couldn't stand the heat! My hair flapped around like the "shampoo girl" in Pantene advertisement :) minus the convertible.:(