Z is 21 months old!

Here are two latest pictures of Z taken last weekend. My baby is growing so fast!

5 months just went past so quickly; not easy to juggle a full time work, family and 'ME' time.

I was just looking back at Z's older pictures, selecting them to be posted in this journal. Am amazed how different Z is now compared to just few months ago and how much he has grown (physically, mentally and emotionally). 

November 2013:

We went to Langkawi for a short family holiday and the weather there was awesome! Z's favourite thing to do was going to the pool. He would point to the door the first thing he woke up; in the morning & from his naps. I think he likes the idea of staying near the pool because we visited the pool up to three times in a day.

                                       

We stayed at The Westin Langkawi as we wanted to pick a hotel that is baby friendly and could order Z's food separately. Z was 16 months old then and we were trying to delay in introducing salt and sugar to him until maybe about 2 years old. I was nursing Z by the pool with a fantastic weather and the feeling was so special :) 

We went up to the Langkawi Cable Car, a must go when you're in Langkawi. The queue management was horrible as we had to queue by standing in a line for almost 2 hours even though we were given numbers. The ride up was quite scary as it was really high up. The views were breath-taking even though the sky bridge was closed for maintenance. Heard that it was closed for quite a long time; almost two years. I would recommend every visitor to Langkawi to go up the cable car but try to avoid public holidays or weekends and try to go in the afternoon, at about 2pm. We were surprised to see there were no queue when we were leaving the cable car centre at about 2pm. 

December 2013:

Christmas 2013. Z's 2nd Christmas :)

We were at Jungle Gym, Bangsar Shopping Centre on the last day of 2013

January 2014:

Z's Calendars 2014!!!!! 

Z's first Chinese New Year shoes!

The moment Z saw these shoes, he was pointing & touching them while saying 'ar! ar!', that's his version of 'car'. His not-so-nice haircut was by his mommy :( I think I got better in cutting his hair after this haircut.

February 2014:

Z started imitating the adults by holding a phone to his year by saying 'arloo' and 'bye'. He would also use both hands to pretend to press on the phone as if he was texting. 

Chinese New Year 2014

Z the drummer boy!

Z simply loved the lion dance performances. He liked the drummer boys and would stared at them the whole performance but not at the lions. He would prefer to approach & try to hit the drums than reaching to touch the lions. Z never cease to amaze us on the things and details that he would get fixated on. He is so sharp that he would notice almost everything and would quickly point out on things that he likes.

March 2014:

We celebrated Z's Suk Suk (Uncle in Chinese) birthday!

April 2014: 

It was Grandpa Yong & Gandpa Chong's birthday month!

April was a very special month because two of Z's favourite persons had their birthday celebrations! Z was the centre of attention because he got to sit on the birthday boys' lap to sing the birthday song and blow the candles. He could hum many songs and sometimes would sing to himself. He has his daddy's trait because SJ would do that sometimes in the car when the radio was not turned on. It was quite fun to watch ;) 

Compared to 5 months ago, my baby:

Has more hair now.

He could run very fast now.

He could reach the door knob and turns it.

He could reach many things on the table.

He understands very well what we were saying.

He could follow instructions.

He could imitate the words that we speak and the words that he uttered would surprised us.

He can negotiates.

He knows what is a quiet corner. I introduced the quiet corner to him sometime in April after I realised that hitting his hands and legs did not make good sense. I would usually threaten to hit his hands if he did something that we didn't approve. There was once he was jokingly hitting his great-grandmother (Tai Poh) and I told him that he shouldn't hit Tai Poh because it hurts and wasn't nice. The moment I said: 'If you hit Tai Poh again, I am going to hit you', this entire sentence felt so wrong. How could I possibly educate my child not to hit anyone if I continuously hit him? It was there and then that I have decided to stop hitting him because he understands what I am saying now. 

He could hums the entire song of a few nursery rhymes. His favourites are Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and London Bridge is Falling Down.

He could recite A, B, C, maybe for the first 5 to 6 alphabets and hum the rest of the ABC song. 

He could count 1, 2, 3 and to 10 but missed a few numbers in between.

My baby is growing so fast and looking more like the man that I fell in love with, his daddy. I love my little family :)

Now I need to make it a point to update this journal at least once a month! 

The day Zachary was born..

This happened exactly 7 months ago, on the 20th of July but it feels like it happened very recently. Can't believe that 7 months have passed! Was just looking at his photos which were taken when he was born and he has changed so much!

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On the 19th of July, Thursday:

So, SY was right! We told baby that we would induce him and force him to come into this world if he didn't give us any signs that he wants to be out naturally before 20th July. Contractions happened on the 19th July and he was not induced! Read this post on the date we picked for induction.

I woke up at about 9am and show appeared (bleeding). I told SJ that but we didn't have any big reaction; that was a sign that baby could be coming anytime soon. When a show appears, the contraction could take from hours to days to occur. We went to Antipodean, Bangsar for our huge breakfast. It was yummy! I was about to enter the confinement period for one whole month right after delivery, I just had to make sure I get to eat my favourite foods on the day before I deliver.

After our yummy big brunch, we drove to Amcorp mall in PJ because we decided to get a good camera on that day. I have been telling SJ that I always wanted to get a better camera because the current one that we have does not take good clear photos in low light. Told him I 'needed' a good camera to take baby photos :)) and he said, ok! He started to search for the camera model the night before. He even posted that question in Facebook and many suggested Canon G12 and we decided to get that! Found out from the internet that the shop in Amcorp mall gives one of the best prices for cameras. 

I was so happy and in good spirit because we have a new toy! :) Spoke to Dr Choong briefly while I was at the camera shop to explain to him about my condition. I was supposed to go into the labour ward in preparation to induce labour that very Thursday night after dinner. Since the show appeared that morning, we thought maybe we should wait for another few days because natural would be better for both mommy and baby. Asked Dr Choong for his opinion but he said it was entirely up to me. Dr Choong voiced that he preferred me to wait for baby to come out naturally. 

After that, we did some errands; stopped by at the lighting shop to confirm the lights for our new home. At about 2.30pm, I felt a regular rhythm of hardening and releasing of my tummy. It felt like baby was stretching really hard in my womb, which I initially thought it was baby kicks but realized that it was contractions because it occurred on a regular pattern. The contractions were 20 mins apart. I quickly messaged my friends and family members with this new update. My mom was asking me to quickly rush to the hospital because she was afraid baby could be popping out anytime.

We went home to rest. I had a nap but was woken up by the pain whenever the a contraction happens. Had my shower, washed and dried my hair. The Chinese's confinement observes that new mothers are not allowed to wash hair during the one month confinement period because it could cause rheumatism. We packed 4 bags of things to bring to the hospital. It was like we were going on a holiday because we had so many things. We had a bag of food; bicsuits, instant cup noodles and even isotonic drinks which we barely touched when we were in the hospital. I read that we won't be given any food when we were in the labour room and I should eat a little so that I would have energy to deliver the baby. So, the kiasu me packed a lot!

My mom-in-law was so anxious that she advised us to bring our dinner to the hospital instead of having it at home. At about 7pm, my contractions were about 15 mins apart, we had dinner at home and we watched an episode of CSI before we decided it was time to leave to the hospital at 9pm. The antenatal class instructor advised us to only leave to the hospital when the contractions were 8 mins apart.

Reached Pantai Bangsar at about 9.30pm and I was ushered to the labour room. 

Wires were being stuck on my belly to monitor baby's heartbeat and contractions, as shown on the machine located on the right side of the above photo. The nurse or midwife confirmed that I was already dilating and there was no need to induce anymore. Yay!

Just the two of us. Third member of the family would be joining us soon!!!

 In front of my bed was a small little bassinet where my baby would be placed inside when he was born into this world.

After the initial 30 mins of monitoring, I thought I would be transferred to a nicer room with an extra bed. During my tour when I was about 5 months pregnant, we were shown different rooms with an extra single bed for daddies to rest and there were tv in the rooms. I thought those rooms were great because SJ could rest and I could probably distract myself with the tv but I was told that I had to stay in this labour-delivery room until the baby arrives. I was shocked and feeling a little sorry for SJ because he had to sleep on the plastic chair. Tried to negotiate with the nurse that I wanted a better room but was unsuccessful because she said I would had to move back to this room when I deliver which could happen anytime soon.

My plan was to walk a lot while waiting for baby's arrival. I was walking around the room for a bit, stopped in between when the contractions comes and practicing my breathing but when the water bag breaks at about 10.30pm, it was almost impossible to move. Water was trickling continuously and it was so uncomfortable to even move a little. I was advised to just sit or lie down :(

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On the 20th July, Friday: 

At about 2am, when I was at about 5cm dilated, the pain was rather unbearable and I was not able to get any rest with the contractions that I decided to get the epidural. The epidural took about an hour to arrive and the anesthetist told me that I would still feel the pressure of the contraction but the epidural will take the pain away. A catheter was inserted to my back to numb the bottom half of my body and I would not be able to leave the bed at all because the epidural solution would continuously flow into the body. Babycentre explains epidural very clearly: http://www.babycenter.com.my/a542571/epidural

The epidural effectively removed the pain and I could sleep for a good few hours. SJ was sitting beside me the whole time observing the contractions and baby's heartbeat monitor. I was in so much pain without the epidural when the contraction number went to 60 but with the epidural, I could still sleep soundly even when the number went above 100. 

I had a fever at about 4am and I was shaking uncontrollably. I was feeling so cold and my teeth were chattering but it stopped after I had some paracetamol. At about 6am, Dr Choong came in and told me that my baby's heartbeat was beating faster than usual. Baby was in distress and it could due to my fever. At that time, I was 8cm dilated and if I did not reach 10 cm in another 2 hours, Dr Choong suggestted caesarean. 

9am came and Dr Choong examined me and I was still only 8cm dilated. He said he would let me wait and take my time if my baby's heartbeat was not beating so fast but because my baby was in distress, he strongly advised us to have caesarean to get the baby out fast. We agreed and preparation for surgery started immediately.

I was pushed with my bed to the operation theater  This was my 2nd time being in the OT, the first when I had my thyroid surgery in April 2010 but this 2nd time was quite an exciting and happy moment because I was nearing to meeting baby! The hospital staffs were fussing over me, preparing for the surgery that they almost forgotten about SJ. They left him standing outside of the OT. Dr. Choong was about to start when I reminded him to bring my husband in. 

Operation started at about 9.30am and baby came out at 9.49am! I could see the digital clock clearly in the OT and I could see a little from the reflection of the lights above me when Dr Choong pulled the baby out. The moment baby gave a really loud cry, we were relieved because baby was ok! SJ immediately took out the camera and followed the nurses. Our first born, Zachary was born! He was weighed 4.15kg and 51cm tall. I was so thankful that Zachary was a healthy baby.

The nurse brought Zachary to me so I could kiss him before they took him away

Our new precious!

It was love at first sight!

Yay! All good! 

That was 7 months ago! This past 7 months was probably the most special 7 months in our lives. It's really amazing that this tiny little human being could bring so much joy to our families and it such a blessing to have him. I hope I am doing alright as a Zach's mommy. SJ was amazing and very supportive throughout the labour and delivery. He is such a hands-on daddy and he is my pillar of support. I am really lucky to have him! :) I hope Zach would grow up to be like his Daddy. 

I'm 40 weeks pregnant today!

A photo of me taken yesterday, 11th July; a day before I'm 40 weeks pregnant. 

SJ and I were sharing a Baskin Robbin's Brownie Ala Mode ice-cream :)))) 

Yes, TODAY is the date of my estimated due date (EDD) of baby's arrival but there's no sign of baby coming tonight! Can't believe that 40 weeks have gone by so fast and we're anticipating baby's arrival anytime now! Dr Choong told us that baby most likely will be late based on his 30 plus years experience because it's our first baby. In my last antenatal visit, which was last Monday, 9th July, as usual, we (or rather just me) have many questions to ask him. Questions that we've asked were: 

1. How long should we wait before we induce labour? Dr. Choong said that the EDD is just an estimate and usually it's not accurate. We should not use this date as the last date for baby to be born. He is willing to wait for another 14 days but he is up for negotiation to induce earlier depending on how I feel as many new expectant parents would be pressured from the grandparents and friends. Dr doesn't suggest induce because it puts a lot of stress on the mother and baby, which could cause a difficult labour and delivery; unless both mother and baby have medical risks such as gestational diabetes, high blood pressure, low amniotic fluid etc. Dr. thinks my pregnancy been good so far, so it's good to wait. SJ and myself agree with him too.

 2. I was concerned about baby swallowing feces at birth because I was told by my colleagues that this is very possible if the baby is overdue. SJ has no idea what was this about when I mentioned it to Dr. Choong. Dr. Choong explained and clarified further that baby could be ingesting his own poo (meconium aspiration) starting from week 38 onwards. This means that it could be happening way earlier and before baby is due and I should not be worried about it because there is nothing I can do to prevent this. Of course I had to find out more about this from the internet and I found this site to be very informative in this area: 

Meconium (the first stool that passed out by baby) aspiration is a potentially serious birthing complication that could result in severe respiratory complications in affected newborns. This condition occurs when a baby breathes in meconium, the black, sticky waste product that has been present in their digestive tracts since the 10th week of pregnancy. Factors that might increase your baby’s chances of suffering from meconium aspiration include an extended or difficult labor, a history of gestational diabetes and a prolapsed cord. 


 Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/530644-signs-symptoms-of-meconium-aspiration-in-newborns/

3. Is SJ going to cut baby's umbilical cord? Throughout this pregnancy, Dr. Choong never mentioned about cutting baby's umbilical cord. We have friends telling us that their doctor would ask the dads to decide whether they want to cut the umbilical cord on the birth-day or not and I was wondering why Dr. Choong never asked us this. When I brought up this question, he said that it has been his standard operating procedure for the past 20 years that the fathers were the ones that been cutting the umbilical cords. He has not been cutting umbilical cords for many many years. He said that if the dads are not going to cut the cord, he would offer it to the grandmother and if the granny doesn't want to do it, he would offer to the new mommy to cut it herself. I thought it was pretty cool and I was happy with his reply.

I'm liking Dr. Choong more and more as this pregnancy proceeds. He is experienced and he never fails to give me comforting and positive replies. Most importantly, he is always patient and answers all my questions. Both SJ and I like his standard operating procedure and we know that he will respect and will work together with us on how we want our baby to be delivered ;)))

I am off from work since beginning of this week! FINALLY! It was so difficult to tear myself away from work and finally able to do so this week. I guess I just love my work too much :D Been wanting to stop work for the past 3 weeks! Will try to update this journal as much as possible on my experience in this pregnancy while waiting for baby to 'decide' to come out. :P

Babymoon Part 2 (Day 3, 4 & 5 on 6-8th April 2012)

Day 3: We were dressed in RED (coincidentally!)! Heading out to Taipa Village for breakfast before we catch the ferry to Hong Kong. 

We checked out from Venetian Hotel early that morning & kept our luggage at the concierge. There were a massive amount people in the hotel that day because it was a Good Friday public holiday. So many tour groups were visiting Macau that weekend. Glad that we were heading out of Macau.

Here's a pic of me with our breakfast spread at a random shop at Taipa Village. We just picked this shop because it was filled with localsl; thinking that their buns and instant noodles were something special but turned out not.

A quick dessert fix before we leave Macau! Ice-cream pudding is extremely popular in Macau because we keep seeing them everywhere. We think it's a portugese dessert and the brand 'Serrdura' is a chain store selling puddings. I had an original flavour from Serrdura but I think the saw-dust pudding I had the day before tasted better.

Walked for a bit in the shopping area of Venetian Hotel before we headed off to the ferry jetty. They have so many big brands in this hotel and it is massive! There's a canal running around with people sitting in the gondola and gondolier was singing so loudly that his/her voice was echoing loudly in the mall. It was way better than the 'real' gondoliers in Venice! You would have to pay a huge amount of money to sit in a gondola in Venice & the gondoliers don't even sing for you in Venice. 

We took a ferry to Hong Kong and thankfully, the ride was not choppy. It was quite a comfortable ride even though the weather was cloudy. The first thing we encountered when we reached Hong Kong jetty was a grumpy and naggy but with good intentions taxi driver. He was lecturing us about the bad timing we took for coming to Hong Kong because it was a long public holiday weekend and the weather was horrible. He also advised us to check the calendar and weather in the future because the cable car ride to Victoria Peak would be surely close for maintenance or bad weather. What we didn't told him that this 'bad timing' is not new to us because we had it in almost all our holidays! Must really do more 'homework' before we plan our next holiday!

Had dinner with my Form 6 friend, Hui Yee with her hubby, Louise and son, Caleb. Caleb is so adorable; sitting in his car seat quietly. He was so attached to his face towel that the moment he started whining or crying, all I had to do was to cover his face with the towel and he would be soothed. That was both funny and amazing!

A picture with Hui Yee and family at Mikichi restaurant

We walked around AEON and a huge baby products shop in that mall, comparing prices and items that they have there with Malaysia. We found that baby items were not cheaper but they have many interesting and cute products in Hong Kong! It was quite fun just walking around and looking at these baby stuffs.

Hui Yee and Louise brought us to this amazing location to view Hong Kong's beautiful night line. 

It was cold because of the strong wind and we saw a couple standing in a dark near the pier taking their wedding photos!

Of course we had to end the night with DESSERT! Haha! Since we missed the steam egg/milk in Macau, we found a rather popular shop via blogs near our hotel, Novotel Hotel at Jordan. We went to Yee Shun Milk Company which was only a few minutes walk from our hotel. The menu was all in Chinese and we couldn't read any of them. We asked an uncle in the shop what is good? His reply was everything is good! Our next question was what's the top three best sellers & he pointed on the menu that the first three on the list are the best sellers, which didn't help us to order at all! :S Later we told him that we couldn't read chinese, so please read them out to us. He was puzzled, probably wondering why we can speak cantonese but cannot read. I get this puzzled looks quite often. He finally read out the top three bestsellers: ginger steam-milk and double layer steam milk which were what we ordered. I must really send my kids to chinese school! He later came back & advised SJ that he must not stir the egg because that was not the right way to appreciate this steam egg :S 

Left: Ginger steam milk (mine!) and SJ's double layer steam milk on the right.

We went to bed happy that night because we had our steam-milk desserts! :)

Day 4: Exciting day ahead because we were planning to have dim sums at this place that has Michelin one star rating! The last time we had was last year, June 2011 at Mong Kok & this time, we went to another branch at Shum Shui Po because this branch is bigger, hence, less waiting time. We waited for 2 hours plus in Mong Kok & only about 30 mins in Shum Sui Po.

The massive amount of people waiting outside of this restaurant. 

Good thing they have the menu in English. 

Thanks Kok Hoong & Yu Ling for bringing us to this yummy dim sum place

FOOODDDSSSSSssss!! The 'char siew chan pau' (BBQ buns) on the bottom left in this picture is super yummylicious! I think both SJ & I can have these buns every single day! Haha!

I don't think we will ever say 'NO' to egg tarts in Hong Kong. We bought these from a popular chain egg tarts store in Hong Kong. Just had to grab these while we were on our way to the MTR station. 

 Then, I saw these! Chinese Pudding or 'put chai kou' in Cantonese. 

Had to buy one and try because I've never tried before. Yes! I can eat really a lot as you can see my huge belly in this pic :P

Later that evening, we had dinner with my uni friend, Rockie & her hubby, Ocean in a chinese restaurant. Forgot to take photo of the main dishes. Only had a photo of dessert. Haha! Really dessert junkie! Here's a picture of coffee pudding (it was similar to our Malaysian many layer kuih but it was in coffee flavour), sesame seed roll (interesting! and apparently it's very rare nowadays as not many people make this dessert anymore) and finally my favourite glutinous rice in ginger soup (YUMMSSSS!). 

 Even though we had desserts after dinner at the restaurant, Rockie still suggest that we go to another dessert place to have more dessert and chat! We went to Hui Lau Shan and they served many desserts with mango and other varieties of fruits. 

Day 5 (Final day!): Last day to eat before we head back to Kuala Lumpur! 

Morning picture at the hotel before we go eat ;)

Read about this 'Australian Dairy Co.' from a blog and it was near our hotel! We went the day before our dim sums lunch but the queue was too long, so we've decided to go on our final day in Hong Kong and we had to make sure we were up early to start queuing. Here's a picture of SJ, standing about two shops away from the restaurant. We waited for about 20 minutes before we were shown to a table. 

The efficiency level in Hong Kong is really superb! The waiters really tried their very best to make sure every table is full. If there was a table of 3, they would sit another single person in that table. We being the 'foreigners' and cannot read chinese (they did not have an english menu) plus not knowing what to order; we were looking around & told the rather impatient waiter that we wanted breakfast sets, not knowing what are the breakfast sets. The only thing we understood were how to order our drinks and a rough guess of how we wanted our eggs. Then, suddenly came two bowls of macaroni with bacon, SJ had scramble eggs with toast and I had fried eggs with toast. Even though this restaurant has a very english name but the food served were so chinese! Quite misleading.

 Many bottles of milk, which I believe were imported from Australia. They served steam-milk desserts too. 

Then, it's time to leave to catch a ferry back to Macau and then to catch a flight back to Kuala Lumpur. 

We were planning in the ferry what we should do and eat before we get to the airport. We really wanted to try the famous pork chop bun with its original buns again and we also wanted to buy the famous Macau's almond biscuits and almost pastries. So, we split the tasks as we had very limited time: me to queue for the pork chop buns and SJ to run over to buy the biscuits.

This is the long queue to get the buns. 

SJ with almond biscuits/pastries and me with the pork chop buns. 

A photo to end this post of our Babymoon: Daddy SJ sitting happily on a bench by the street eating his pork chop bun! 

That's the end of our Babymoon! I saw my doctor the following week & I gained 3 kilograms but I am a happy mommy! :)))