5 Frequently Asked Questions!

Here are frequently asked questions people ask me when they heard of my 2nd pregnancy. Thought I’ll share! :)

1) Was this planned? ***Awkward smile***

ANSWER (A): ***Mock horror*** Of course!

THE TRUTH (T): Sad to say you are not gonna get a shocking Exposé here! We believe in the good old maxim of “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail!” Jared was busy counting the days in the calendar like a good old Biology A levels student! Julien came about after 10 months of trying to conceive….. so we were naturally surprised that no.2 came about so fast especially since I have only stopped breastfeeding for about 2 months. So baby J Junior was no random mistake, we are absolutely grateful to God for a 2^nd child!

2) Are you excited?

A: Absolutely! Can’t wait to see how he/she looks like!

T: Of course we are! It’s like asking how excited Julien is when he sees a full bottle of milk at dinnertime! But please don’t ask me this question on days when I look pale with nausea and feel like “Merlion-ing” every now and then! Or speculate that it might be twin boys! ***FAINT*** No, I categorically state that I have no interest nor stamina to form a basketball team of 5 boys!

3) Is it a boy or a girl?

A: Dunno yet!

T: I wish I have an ultrasound machine at home to scan myself daily to see if it is a boy OR girl! Then I can embark on a shopping spree in the right color WITHOUT Jared always all out to restrain me from shopping with the reason/EXCUSE that I do not know the gender yet! ***keke***

4) Wow, you look so slim and pretty, you don’t look you are pregnant? What’s your secret?

A: Haha thanks…. Nothing special, it’s all in the genes :D

T: Sob sob, no one has actually said that I am still slim and pretty during this period! In fact, it seems that my tummy looks bigger now than when I was carrying Julien at the same stage! I blame the already stretched uterus! I blame Jared for all the durians and heavy dinners! To avoid scaring myself with all that weight gain, I try to “cheat a little” by minimising food intake before every weigh-in at my gynae’s clinic! Thankfully, I am currently just below 50kg at 16 weeks of pregnancy. Anything goes to make me feel better about myself!

5) Wow, you were aiming for a Year of the DRAGON baby?

A: Nah…. Not intentional.

T: No!!!! We wanted to avoid a Dragon baby by all means! To us, Year of Dragon = more competition for childcare centers, primary school registration (!!) and lesser chance of getting my child into local varsity = costly tuition fees = lesser $$$ for retirement enjoyment?! Seriously, we hate to queue! And we certainly don’t fancy having to grapple with fellow parents of an extra 10% of the cohort (usually Year of Dragon sees a 10% hike or 3000 - 4000 in the no. of live births in Singapore). We already have a Tiger in Julien..... the idea of a pair of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon might sound romantically cute but it is too FIERCE for a pair of Monkey parents. ;)

10 month-old’s teeth

At 10 months old, I am proud to announce that my dear son… has TWO AND A HALF teeth.

The two bottom middle teeth first and now the top one is sprouting out.

My son is not an early bloomer who starts growing teeth at 3 months, and I am glad he is not a late bloomer too, one who starts having teeth only after one year.

And at this stage, my son LURVES food. His food and our food.

He cries for more after finishing his feeds.

He stares at us or rather our food longingly when we are eating.

And we can tell, he would want a piece of what we are having anytime.

I can’t wait for the rest of his pearlies to sprout out!

A pregnant-woman-with-a-baby drama

It was a peaceful afternoon, a Monday afternoon that I kinda looked forward to because instead of staying at home alone with Julien, I had fixed a lunch time appointment with a long-time friend to do some catching up.

And because my MIL was going out, I had to bring Julien along as well.

We met up at a cafe at Bedok Point. I did not feel like eating then, yet I could not imagine eating anything healthy and bland and so I ordered a flavorful steak and coke light.

After a couple of mouthfuls of the steak and some fries, I felt I could not stomach anything else. I took out Julien’s cereal mix and prepared to feed him.

All was peaceful until then.

I suddenly felt excessive saliva in my mouth. Never had I felt this way before. After feeding Julien for awhile, I felt a sudden great urge to puke and grabbed a plastic bag nearby and vomited… alot of air.

I excused myself to go to the Ladies and my friend took over to feed Julien.

When I went back to the cafe, Julien was wailing and his hands dirty with cereal. My friend and a waitress were trying to pacify my little one. Gosh, I felt so sorry!

I ‘rescued’ my friend and carried my crying son who then fell asleep on my shoulders. He had missed his morning nap and was very tired… No wonder he was cranky!

I sat down with Julien asleep against my chest. Then I tried to bring things back to normal once again by conversing with my friend again…

I could not eat anymore and just drank a cup of water. Then behold, I felt like vomiting AGAIN! God help me…..

My friend saw tears welling up in my eyes and asked the waitress for a plastic bag. The bag came in time cos I straightaway vomited part of the pathetic portion of food that I had ate.

I quickly called for my FIL to come and fetch me. And so my friend and I left the cafe.

The worst part of this drama had not happened yet until NOW….

While carrying Julien out of the cafe, I felt like vomiting again! OMG!!!

I covered my mouth… and (sorry for the gross details) the puke came out. I headed for the Ladies. During the short distance to the Ladies, I puked 3 times into my hand! A passerby even noticed and asked me if I needed help….

In the Ladies, with Julien in my arms, I puked and puked and puked….

DRAMA RAMA 

I felt so bad towards my friend, the waiters from the cafe and the toilet aunty who had to clean my mess….

I am wondering if it was food poisoning? Cos I do have morning sickness and felt nauseous but I had never vomited like this before!

I messaged my hubby about this and he told me pregnant me should not be going out with Julien ALONE.

No buts, no excuses, I gladly agreed.

What an afternoon!

The difference between Baby #1 and Baby #2

I am at 14+ weeks now. And I almost lost track….

Well, I noticed there are some differences between me having Baby #1 and Baby #2…

Besides the pregnancy symptoms like:

1. My bump is much more obvious now at an earlier stage.

Many already guessed I was pregnant at 2 months! (Most of them were afraid to ask me cos they were wondering if I grown a tummy!)

Look at the difference in the Week 14 photos below…

Baby #1

Baby #2 (taken today)

I’ve heard that subsequent pregnancies tend to show up bigger and faster than the first. But I am really hoping that I don’t become SO big and clumsy during the last few weeks of my pregnancy! *Fingers crossed*!

2. I suffer slight morning sickness for my two pregnancies. However, for Julien, nausea and loss of appetite ceased at week 9.

For this one, I am STILL wondering when the nausea and loss of appetite will go away… :(

There were also differences in the way I treat both pregnancies…

1. For Julien, I tracked my pregnancy on my What To Expect app by the day. I got so excited that I sometimes read forward…  and backwards a few times.

For J Junior, I track my pregnancy every 1-1.5 weeks.

2. For Julien, I read books on pregnancy. Thress books at one time…

For J Junior, let’s say… It’s been internalized and memorized so I don’t need to read anymore? :p

3. For Julien, we visited MANY sales and went into a shopping frenzy….

For J Junior, he/she shall enjoy the hand-me-downs.

4. During my 1st pregnancy, I was VERY, ULTRA careful not to do anything vigorous especially during my 1st trimester…

But guess what I did when I was 1 month pregnant this time round?

Play ATV in Phuket!!!

Read more about my adventure here!

I had since promised myself to ‘repent’ and behave myself after my Phuket trip!

Honestly, I think I tend to be more relaxed this time round since I have already experienced pregnancy and childbirth so recently. I am trying not to come to a place of complacency though!

I also feel this pregnancy is not as easy for me as compared to my first and so I need to take better care of myself really!

To all the mums with more than one kids out there, do you all feel more relaxed with each additional pregancy(s) too?

Baby milestones: 8-10 months old

In a twinkling of an eye again, Julien is about 1.5 months away from his 1st year birthday!

The last 3 months had been so amazing for us as first time parents. Julien has become such a fun little boy to play with!

Take a look at his many cheeky expressions!

(This is his and our current favorite!)

I thank God that He remembered my prayers – that Julien be a happy and smiley boy. He absolutely loves being tickled, and for us to play ‘shocking’ games with him, eg: peek-a-boo, with you shouting his name loudly when you reveal yourself.

But about 2-3 months ago, I was getting abit worried as my dear boy could not really sit properly and all his peers around him were already sitting independently.

The kiasu parents in us sent him for a free development assessment at the nearest polyclinic!

(Here’s our boy doing his warm-ups before he meets the nurse…)

The nurse conducted a few simple tests… and thank God he passed ALL with flying colors! Phew! :0)

At 73 cm long, he was at the 50th percentile for his height and at 9.4 kg, he was at the 75th percentile for his weight.

The nurse also commented that his footing was very stable and he might start walking very soon!

But i guess babies all grow at their own pace, somehow. It suddenly happened that almost everything happened at the same time for Julien. The sitting and even standing!

I am really treasuring every single day as I watch my little boy grow up… If I ever do miss the infant stage, I always remind myself, IT’S COMING AGAIN… SOOON!

Bao Today

My family and I decided to finally try this dim sum place with a catchy name – Bao Today (包今天).

We were deciding whether to go for a dim sum buffet or just settle with ala carte and we eventually chose the latter option.

We heard that the outlet at Raffles Place is the most spacious but closed on weekends and so we went to the one at Marina Square. Don’t expect a comfortable setting here… instead of cushioned chairs, they offered stools. Well, we came here for the food and nothing else!

Now are the pics of the many food we ordered! Looks so good that the little one wanted to grab some too!

First up the mains…

Beef brisket noodles

Century egg porridge

I thought the porridge was a tad bland… Maybe we are supposed to add our own soya sauce.

Chicken curry with the option of noodle/rice or buns… This is not the typical Chinese curry. It had a slight taste of Indian spice… 

Maggi mee?

The hubby calls this his ‘comfort food’. This set came with a custard pudding…

Now for the rest of the dim sum!

Mushroom dumpling

Banana red bean pancake

Pan-fried carrot cake

The healthier version – steamed carrot cake

 

Our favorite HK style chee cheong fun!

With char siew…

And with prawns…I prefer this one…

My all-time favorite dim sum… a must-have… Chicken claws!

*Yums!*

 

Strange-looking green buns…

It’s actually custard bun… You can taste the salted egg yolk inside too!

The custard filling that day was a tad dry. The hubby said the Raffles Place buns he tried the day before were heavenly as the custard were oozing out!

Paper wrapped chicken. The restaurant’s recommendation but I was too full to try…

Prawn mango fritters

Juicy siew mai

And a large cup of yuan yang to wash down all the food!

All in all, the 5 of us spent $122. Here’s our verdict:

1. We finished up about 25 plates of food and were VERY full.

2.  The mains were rather disappointing.

3. The dim sum was above average.

4. Don’t bother about ambience.

5. This place is much cheaper than going for a buffet!

We’ll definitely go back there for the dim sum!

Raffles Place Branch

55 Market street, #01-01
Tel: 6438 8800

Marina Square Branch

6 Raffles Boulevard,
#02-234/ 235/ 236
Tel: 6336 2237

Julien at Polliwogs

Brought our niece and nephew to the famous Polliwogs. While they were going gaga over the slides and tunnels, we adults were thankful for the cafe area that overlooks the play area….

And of course Julien followed us too because 1. He can’t stand or walk and so would not be able to enjoy the facilities…. and more importantly 2. Daddy and Mummy just want to… sit down and chill.

And at the cafe area, we discovered a couple of kids’ sofa and couldn’t resist ‘arranging’ Julien on the sofas to pose for photos!

Well, Mama sure hopes by the time we visit Polliwogs again, Julien will be able to run around and play IN the play area! :)

Julien is going to have a sibling!

Hi all! Sorry for the lack of updates last week as I was not feeling well and very busy with work.

I will start this new week with a revelation for some of you.

Yes, you did not read the title of this blog post wrongly….

I AM PREGNANT…. AGAIN!

I was pregnant at this time of the year last year and now I am pregnant again! As of today, I am 13 + weeks pregnant!

Here are some photos of Baby J Junior….

@ 8 weeks

Baby J Junior saying ‘Hi!’ to Mummy and Daddy @ 12 weeks

And even though I am already past my first trimester, the yucky pregnancy symptoms namely nausea and a lack of appetite had not yet disappeared. :( This led the hubby and MIL to guess that J Junior would be a … girl? (Have you heard of this old wife tale before? ;))

Stay tuned to this blog for more of Baby J junior and have a great new week ahead! :)