Detailed Scan

Sunshine went for her detailed scan today at Camden Medical Centre. Definitely a boy. Everything is diagnosed to be normal, though I can hardly make out some of the features that the doctor labelled. I mean, how do you see the eyes in this scan?



Why is it normal for the mouth to be so far from the lips and nose?


Seriously, when I know as little as what I do, I wouldn't know if the doctor is smoking me. But you have to take his word for it when he has as many qualifications on his name card. And we are thankful that the chance of getting Downs Syndrome is rated to be as low as 0.009% since no defects were found at this time, and the risk of developing chromosomal abnormality at age 29 is as low as 0.021%. Not that I have even considered the possibility of such defects.

Sunshine also got quite a lecture from him on how caring for the baby must be taken seriously, that bonding with him during the first 6 years is essential to keeping him out of trouble later in life. Yup, that we appreciate, but quiting her job so she can spend the next 6 years with him? This is a luxury few can afford in Singapore. All in all, I respect his qualifications, experience and professionalism. But it feels like we're talking to an IT consultant. Telling us of risks that we did not consider, then telling us to make unfeasible changes and collecting a high fee for doing a service that essentially changes nothing. How are we going to pay doctors their fees if one of us quits his or her job for 6 years?

Kicks

Finally, I can feel sunshine kitten kicking me. I was waiting for this day to come. This is so amazing. Initially I thought it was my stomach that move itself, so I told kopicat about it. He tried to feel my belly and said "Nothing leh, don't bluff me!". One day, both of us were in front of our laptop doing our own stuff. Kopicat somehow decided to put his hands on my belly. All of sudden, he also feel something moving. :-) But the feeling is very mild. So he is still very skeptical till now if sunshine kitten is the one kicking or it is myself. :-P

The very first time that I feel that sunshine kitten is kicking is when he was about 19th week. As the days passed, I can feel his kick more frequent. :-) These days, almost every morning and night, kopicat will put his hands to feel if sunshine kitten is moving. :-)

Global Warming

Today I felt exceptionally hot even though it is quite windy at home. Tonight Kopicat just came back from his in-camp training and realized that my belly has grown bigger. I told him I'm experiencing global warming and the cause is due to the sunshine kitten inside my body :-)

Gender?

Recently, we went to visit the gynane for our third time. On our way there, I rubbed my belly and ask sunshine kitten to open up his/her legs so that mummy can see the gender.

This time round, the doctor use some machine to let us hear the baby's heartbeat and the womb sound. After checking up, the doctor told us that the baby is fine and healthy and asked if want to know the gender of my baby. Immediately, both of us nodded our heads. So he did another scan and tried to see if there is anything "sticking" out. To our surprise, we actually saw that "thing. I was a bit disappointed because my six sense told me that it may be a girl. But anyway, both of us were very glad. We couldn't contain our excitement and immediately called our parents and told them about the news.

When I called my dad, my eldest nephew was beside him and heard the news too. He said "Why another little brother I don't want. Ask the policeman to catch him and sent him to Egypt". I burst into laughter.

免死金牌

In the olden days when emperors ruled China, they give out tokens of protection to their agents. These tokens, known as 免死金牌, are given to those who are undertaking important missions, or to reward great services rendered. The holder of such a token is immune from death threats from other nobles and cannot be executed no matter how great his crime is. Thus such a person can go around interfering in the affairs of the nobles and make a great nuisance of himself, and be assured that he is safe from persecution. At least until the emperor recalls the token.

Sunshine had always been a naughty girl. I used to call her Little Miss Naughty, until she became the Sunshine of my life, but she is still as mischievous as ever. She delights in making a nuisance of herself, teasing and provoking a reaction out of me. Now that she has the 3-month old foetus as the token of protection, she will rub her growing belly and say to it, "SunshineKitten, see your daddy wants to beat me!"

More recently, she just rubs her belly furiously when she sees me coming after her for revenge. The last time she did that, I whispered maliciously into her ear that her token will expire 6 months from now, and I will have my revenge then.

See lah, the parents-to-be are still big children themselves, how to take care of the little kitten?

Second trip to gynae

Pleased to hear the doc say that our baby is doing well. Not very impactful, since I was not exactly expecting any hiccups and she had been getting enough rest. Am I taking things too lightly?

Before the appointment, Sunshine was asking me what I expect to see in today's ultrasound scan. We would not be able to tell the gender until the next appointment 1 week later, so what was there to see? I placed 2 fingers at my head, in the classic sign to depict horns. Horns, she asked. Nope, cat's ears! This is a kitten you're bearing, my dear! :p

No leh, cannot see any ears yet. Maybe have to wait longer! Uploaded the scans of the photos.

11th week of pregnancy

I'm coming towards the 11th week of my first trimester. Surprisingly, I'm still feeling very tired. I can practically sleep for the whole day! Although, I don't have morning sickness and didn't vomiting, the tiredness that I felt actually wore me out. I couldn't accomplish anything at all. In the office. I always feel very weak and tired. Things are done at a slower pace. I'm looking forward to my 12th week of pregnancy and hopefully the tiredness will slowly fade away.

Today I went to take my weight at carefour and realize that I'm almost 1 kg heavier as compared to 1 month ago when I went to visit my doctor. I can't believe that I put on 1 kg because I don't think I snack a lot. But I usually feel hungry around 5+ to 6+ and I need to find some food. Moreover, I took my breakfast regularly now everyday. Maybe that's explain for my 1kg of "fat" :-)

Maternity Clothes

Currently, the Great Singapore Sales(GSS) is going on, so we decided that this will be the best time to buy maternity clothes because they should be on sale. So yesterday we went to shop around and at one go we bought about 10 pieces of clothing! I can't believe with my own eyes. This is the first time that I bought so many clothes. They are relatively expensive An average top can easily cost between $40 to $55. The bottom are even more expensive, it ranges $59.90 and above. This shopping trip cost us about $400++ in total even after discounts. Can you imagine how much does it cost if it is not sales period! I really cannot believe that we really did that. However, we consoled ourselves that this spending is necessary.

Surprising, some of the maternity clothes that I bought are even nicer than my normal office wear :-P. Till now, I still feel heart pain with the amount that was spend. I think I still need to buy some more piece because it doesn't seem to be able to last me for 2 weeks of my clothings.

Today we pass by a shop called "Maternity Exchange". This is an interesting shop. They actually do renting of the clothes. If we like it, we could even buy it. Eg: A piece of top,it's rental cost is about $43. However, the rental period is only 4 weeks. I think this is a bit expensive. However, they do have a rental package that for 8 pieces of clothes at $33 per pieces. This price seem more reasonable. This is worth considering if you like the clothes range that they carry instead of owning one.

Ouch...

Oh no... I'm feeling a sharp pain at my stomach on Friday evening. This pain did not go off even on Saturday but it got worse. The moment I stand up to walk I can feel the pain and something it is unbearable. This really make me worried. So I immediately called my doctor to find out if there is any problem with me. The doctor told me I may have over-stretch myself and it will go off over the weekend . As a result , I was bed-ridden over the weekend and I feel miserable because I can't do anything at all!

I was wondering what could have caused the pain. Suddenly something struck me. I remember that I ran after the bus while going to work and walk very fast because I was late for work.
This really taught me a lesson to take things slowly and that I cannot rush around like before anymore. Everything that I do has to be half the pace. Even since that incident, I realize I have to take things easy. :-)

First Look at the Baby

Last week, we made our first appointment with the Gynaecologist. Both of us were very excited and nervous at the same time because this is our first time and didn't know what to expect. Surprisingly, the nurses were quite friendly and explain to us the available package and the pricing. The doctor asked me quite a number of question regarding my family medical background and how am I feeling. He just took up a chart and could just tell me the due date of the baby. It was so amazing! Thereafter, I will ask to lie down on the bed because the doctor wanted to take a scan of the foetus. I was quite worried and nervous because this is my first time. He press hard to my tummy and we saw the foetus's heart beating and the shape of it. The doctor could even tell us the number of weeks of the baby just by the length of it. The first look at the baby on the screen really sank into my mind that I'm really pregnant for 8 weeks and this is not a false alarm! This is for real! It is really amazing to know there is something that is growing inside my body and the first look at the baby make me excited too. I still can remember the facial expression of kopicat. He was too very shocked and dazed. Now I'm excited about the next visit to the Gynae; wondering how would the baby look like on his/her 3rd month and the health of the baby :-P

updated by Kopicat: ultrasound photo of the offspring

She wants her body back already

It's only 9 weeks (almost) and she is already telling the offspring that she wants her body back! It started when a friend was joking about telling her own baby to quickly come out so that she can get back her body. It sounded like something to look forward to!

We were at Suntec City today looking at maternity clothes on sale. We guess the pregnancy came at a good time, considering that the annual Great Singapore Sale is on now and we can buy some stuff at discounted prices before we actually need them. She did try on and was satisfied with some items that were at 20% discount, just that we had to rush home for dinner with my parents and did not want to commit to the purchase today. At just over 2 months, she can still fit into her old clothing. If she was already 6 months pregnant by the time of the sale, we would not be able to wait so long.

Trying out the stretchable clothing and be told how they allow for expansion, it struck us that she will get bloated up as the due date draws nearer. Her body will change and it is a little scary. Just a little, we already knew it will happen and we tell ourselves that this is part of life. We knew that getting married will change us and we have to sacrifice individual freedom but we still went ahead with it. We knew that getting a job will change us and mean we have to sacrifice the free and easy life of studenthood, but we still went ahead with it. Not that we had any choice. We did not have any choice either when we had to study for exams during student days, we just sacrificed TV and play time. In a lot of things, we just went ahead and did what had to be done.

Making plans for where we will do the confinement, maternity leave and whether to stay with my parents since they will be helping to care for our offspring, that is another hurdle we will have to cross eventually. One at a time please. As Sunshine says, just try to "enjoy" the pregnancy.

Tired

Sunshine was excited when I suggested that we start a blog so that we will have memories of this period archived down. SunshineKitten was the name she picked over KopiKitten. She was supposed to write a few posts every now and then, but she is just too exhausted to do anything much at the moment.

Apparently the first trimester is very tiring due to the body having to adapt to the changes. Going out of the house for a while wears her out and she hits the bed the moment she gets home. She hardly has the energy to surf and learn about what is growing inside her, though she is excited by what she does find. I had never seen her so weak, except for those times when she is very sick and more dead than alive. She is definitely not dead, it is just that growing the foetus is taking too much out of her at the moment. She is so looking forward to the next trimester when she can get some of her life back.

It's a family affair

Both families took the news with joy. Her sister brought down bags of maternity stuff for her and lots of traditional beliefs on what food to avoid, what acts are taboo and likely to cause problems to the foetus. Not that we believe all of it but it is good to know that people are concerned for us.

My mum asked older relatives for similar advise, not having had the chance to do so when it was my sister’s turn. My sis is a doctor by profession and would not refer to such folklore. This is my parents’ first grandchild to take our surname and naturally they would be more excited. It was also heartening for me to hear my mum speak of how my sister’s family can move back to their own home in Marine Parade to make space for us. Having had my room unceremoniously plundered by my parents and occupied by my sister when I got married and moved out, I’m actually relieved to know that my parents still intend to help me take care of my child when it comes.

And Kopicat begets.... SunshineKitten

We are still waiting for the impact of the news to hit us, and it probably will when we start telling people and they start getting excited for us. Why not set up a blog while waiting? There will be lots of reading to do and stuff to learn about. At the very least this can be a place for us to consolidate them. And perhaps someone else may find it useful.