Things this weekend

What have I been up to? I have been so busy this weekend. Taking a seminar in church "Experiencing God through pregnancy!" and taking a Doughnut making class. Pictures below.....

{10 types of doughnut}

Amidst all these, I still have to move to my new place. Yeah.......cos my sis and nephew is in town and they need a room to stay. Hehehehe. Well, it is a good chance for me to arrange my stuff. Cos I had no time or enerygy to sort out the stuff in the new place before baby comes. Also, 90% of my curtains are finally up. Thank goodness.......really, it feels more liveable now and I dun have to worry about our neighbours looking in to see what we are doing. That is the problem with living on the 2nd storey and there is another block of apartment in front of your condo.

I also cooked breakfast on Saturday. Kept wanting to make baked rice like the ones sold in HK Cafe. It is so expensive too. Imagine, being able to make it myself. Hehehe. Anyways, I made a Yin Yang Baked Rice, seafood with white sauce and pork chop with tomato sauce. I am glad to say that it tastes nice so no more HK Cafe for me when I have a craving.

{HK Yinyang Baked Rice}

Had my third leg cramp last night. Dear me, so painful. It is probably my fault too. With the whirlwind of activities, I have been waking up real early and sleeping real late at night. It is fatigue plus dehydration and lack of exercise. Yeah, I have not been practising my antenaetal exercises these few days.

I learnt them in antenaetal class and I find that the exercises help to relief some of the aches and pains you get during pregnancy and also help with fatigue. The teacher Mrs. Wong also teaches you how to communicate with the baby. Not quite sure if it works but well, its fun anyways.

Last week, we saw many actual births on TV of ang moh women, of course. I think Asian women are more reserved thus more unlikely to volunteer to have their births shown to the masses. It is indeed quite scary and intimidating to watch the births. Women who undergo labour seems to be quite out of their usual minds and tend to be really unsightly. I hope that I do not look so unsightly during labour. Imgine how your sexy meter drops a huge notch when your husband watches you during labour. I shudder to imagine.

Whie we were attending the pregnancy seminar in church, we actually met a fellow Alpha Course facilitator who was there with his wife. No one knew that they were expecting and that was because they really did not want people to know, even their family members. Why? Well, because they were not planning for this baby and when his wife was in her early pregnancy, she took some medication which were supposedly really harmful for baby and might cause serious mental or physical birth defects. They must be so strong to be able to withstand this kinda news and continue with the pregnancy. Reason why they did not tell their families is that they are waiting for the 5th month detailed scan to confirm whether their babies have any pysical defect even though they can never be 100% of any mental defect until their baby is born.

This is really sad news and I have been praying for them these couple of days. I just pray that their faith will be strong enough to pull them through and that God will give them guidance and a sign to continue with the pregnancy. It is true that we can do all things through His strength but we do need the right amount of faith to pull through.

30 weeks and counting

I am 30 weeks already.......10 more weeks to go. Time really flies. Luckily, most of baby stuff are complete, save for some disposable items, pillow and bolster for baby.

Was so disappointed to know that our gynae will not be giving us anymore printed ultrasound scans from 6 months onwards. It totally ruined my motivation to continue with the pregnancy journal. I guess, I can only show you my belly pics and no more baby pics till he is born.

{Me @ 29 weeks}

RH finally relented and now my baby's name will be Caleb Gregory Halim, well at least until RH gets a sudden burst of inspiration and decides to change the name again. I need to find a good pediatrician in Thomson before baby is born. Need to browse the forums, I guess.

Have not been sleeping well lately. I can get up to pee 3 times in a night and its really frustrating cos I need to wake up in the dark, make my way to the toilet and back again. It really disrupts my sleep. Luckily, RH is a sound sleeper so all my coming and goings did not disturb him at all. However, it just makes going back to sleep after each toilet visit kinda hard cos by that time baby is just kicking and tickling my tummy. Hehehe. Yes, he is a night baby, coming out to play when everyone is sleeping and everything is silent.

And I got a glimpse of my first time swelling feet. Throughout the 2nd trimester, I have been blessed with no swelling whatsoever, feet, face, arms, legs, body......zip, nothing at all and I was quite optimistic that it would continue that way through the 3rd trimester. I guess I am wrong. My feet are so swollen, I do not have an ankle anymore.

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Baked some Coffee cupcakes for a friend's daughter's first month celebration. We only made 12 as the butterflies were really tedious to make. However, I am quite pleased with our first try. It is a first time for us to be handling royal icing so don't expect much. :P

{Butterfly Cupcakes}

{Butterfly Cupcakes}

We are seriously thinking about going into business and now are experimenting and calculating costs for the cupcakes and all. I hope that they are good enough to sell so please give us your comments.

Hot and Bothered

It has been sweltering hot in Singapore lately with alternate heavy rain storms. When it is extremely hot, I get really irritated because I would then be sweating my head off. RH, who does not understand usually lowers the aircon cos he says that he is too cold while I am sweating all over. It really is not pleasant sweating under your armpits.

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Bless my husband.......this morning as I was driving to work, I realised that I left my mobile phone on my bedroom floor. Why? Cos I was charging the battery yesterday and forgot to unplug it before sleeping.

But when I looked into my handbag after reaching the office, my mobile phone was sitting in there with the rest of my junk. Hehehe, RH must have unplugged it before he slept and tossed it into my handbag.

Yep, bless his soul. I have been feeling much like a scatterbrain eversince I was pregnant and has never remembered to bring my laptop or mobile phone to work the next day when I am charging their batteries. This does not happen pre pregnancy.

Anyways, just wanna Thank You Lao Gong, cos he has indeed been treating me better after I am pregnant. Picking things up for me, carrying heavy stuff (even my handbag sometimes), driving me around, reaching up high places and just generally looking out for me in case clumsy pregnant woman falls.........

He even made time to attend a 6 weeks antaenatel class with me. Muah Muah......

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My cousin, W, is a seamstress in Indonesia. We usually make all our formal evening gowns with her. She is a great seamstress really and comes up with like Miss Hong Kong type of evening gowns for us. So, last week, she made me a maternity outfit. I got SY to take pictures of it. Here it is.

{Front View}

{Top}

{Back View, I think I don't look pregnant from behind}

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We have officially launched our baking blog, The Baking Room. Please visit the link for our baking escapades.

Cramps

I had my first leg cramp last night. Actually my third but I was not able to recognize the first 2 as leg cramps. Luckily all my leg cramps manage to subside after a few minutes. That is great. I had it on my right leg and after a couple of massages, managed to even doze back to sleep. Hehehe, nothing can take away my beauty sleep. I hope Bakong is like me.

Anyways, after much urging from me to choose a name for Bakong, he decided to go to Babycentre and print out the top 100 names in USA and even highlighted a few ones he liked. I just hope that I like them too.........sigh.

And this was right after he agreed to the name "Caleb" after declaring that he gave up trying to find a nice name for Bakong. Yes, I have the ficklest husband ever and if you ever told him that, he will deny it to his death.

Arrggghhhhhh!!!

I am sooo clumsy. I actually manage to stain 2 white tops in in two consecutive days. How clumsy is that? Blame the pregnancy hormones for this. Pregnant women are more clumsy because the body actually relaxes the ligaments and muscles to prepare for birth through the birth canal. Arrrrgggghhhhhhhh......

Blogs and More

I bought the latest issue of Mother and Baby just because I wanted to see other mother's blogs and this issue had an article on blogging moms. Anyways, there are plenty of blogging moms now a days. It is definitely catching on in Singapore. Even my friend JT has started a blog for her own darling daughter which she updates with more pictures than words. The other day, RH, my husband asked me whether I would create a separate blog for Bakong when he is born or would i just continue to update his progress on my blog. It got me wondering.

My own blog is only visited by my sister and husband and I like to keep it that way actually because then I do not have to worry about what to put down in my blog. Imagine having hundreds of people viewing your blog. They will know all about you and your boo boos. I guess I am still a scaredy cat and introvert at heart. (I hope Bakong will be more of an extrovert than me)

Maintaining a blog is not as easy as it seems. Many people start blogs because they are excited about a certain event in their life and so they want to write in down in a "diary" and show it to people. But what people do not realize is that there are far less "interesting" things happening in our lives than we actually think we do. This results in abandoned blogs where the author just writes a few times and do not bother updating it ever again. Even some really disciplined bloggers have to take a hiatus to rest and get more inspiration, I suspect. Even I have fallen into the trap. When I started my first blog, it went flat. I only had a post in there for the longest time. Now, I try to blog more often, even if I do not have interesting pictures to show.

That is another thing about blogging. A blog without pictures are kinda boring (unless you are an absolutely humourous writer). A blog with no specific topic, just updates on your life in boring. A blog which is not informative is boring and a blog that does not have good writing is boring. So you see, it is rather difficult to maintain a blog unless you do not care whether you have any readers. Fortunately for me, my two precious readers read my blog because of the updates on OUR family. :-)

Anyways, I saw a blog in the "Mother and Baby" magazine of a SAHM (Stay at home mom) who does a wonderful job of making her children's meal appetizing. She really takes an effort to decorate her kids' meals. Man, I am soooo inspired by her and will strive to decorate Bakong's future meals in interesting Japnaese Bento style. Only thing about her food is that she uses a lot of fried stuff, hams, sausages, imitation crab meats which I feel are not healthy foods for kids. Will try to substitute with something else if I can. You can visit her blog here.

http://wokkingmum.blogspot.com/

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We went to our first antaenatal class yesterday. There were I think 25 couples with 2 poor ladies who had to come wthout their husbands due to some reason or another. RH and me brought comfortable clothes to change into after being advised by the nurse when we signed up for the class but there were many people who came in their work clothes. It was so interesting to see so many pregnant ladies in a room (I was busy looking around the room comparing tummies):P. Yes, many people who walked past the room could not help but take a peek into the roomful of pregnant couples doing exercises. Hahahaha, it was a funny sight.

Our instructor, Mrs Wong, from TMC has all the credentials needed to be the most sought after antaenatal care expert in Singapore. First thing she did was to brief us on her credentials and how she is often featured in tv programmes and radios. At first, she did seem kinda fierce or even haughty but later on, we found her to be quite humourous and REALLY REALLY knowledgable. Another plus point is that she makes all the husbands do all the menial tasks while wives were suppose to just relax, listen and follow the exercises.

Yes, our first lesson, she taught us about nutrition and exercise during pregnancy. What to eat and not eat, what is safe and she also touches on the local Asian myths about pineapples and birds nest which was really useful cos you would not find it in any other baby books. Who would have though sweet potatoes aided digestion. Hahaha.

We did exercises to strengthen our backs, how to get out of bed and lift objects from the floor without hurting yourself. How husbands can massage their wives (I loved this part best). She also taught husbands how to communicate with baby in the womb by tapping on teh mother's tummy and talking gently to the baby. Loads and loads of information. Looking forward to the next class........

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Just been to the gynae.......hurray, Bakong is 1.23kg. He is finally getting bigger. So happy, especially since I only gained 2 kg from my last gynae appt. So it means that 1/4 of teh weight gain belongs to Bakong. He is getting bigger now and is already in a head down position for delivery which is good news. I hope he stays that way as babies can still turn and turn at 7 months. Gotta continue my natal vitamins and drink more calcium because Bakong is apparently growing and stregthening all his skeletal bones. We saw babyribs (human not pork)today during the scan.

Also, I need to drink some Red Raspberry Tea Leaf.....to prepare for delivery. I read somewhere that it helps to reduce lochia (bloody discharge after delivery)

Bakong's Baby Stash

This baby is sooooo lucky to have a full wardrobe 3 months before he is even born. Thanks to his grandmas and aunt. Yes, this lucky boy has 3 grandma. My mom, RH's mom and my Godmom.

Indeed, look at all the clothes that he has amasses up to date. Its definitely more than enough and indeed does not even give his parents a chance to buy anything for him.

{Top portion: given by my mom, Middle portion: by Godmom, Bottom portion: by Duayi}

I feel so blessed to be surrounded by family. Thanks to those who have contributed to Bakong's stash. I think we have already obtained 80 of Bakong's needs without even buying anything. All that is left to buy is sterilizer, stroller, baby pillow, bolster and everyday needs like milk powder and diapers. Also wanna thank God for all the blessings he has showered onto us.

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{Cheesecake Brownie}

Did some baking over the weekend but the end result was not so good. I think the cheese portion was too mushy. I think I will stick to good old fashion brownie next time.

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{Me @ 27 weeks}

Attended a University friend's wedding on Saturday. Dear me, all my friends are getting married. This really shows are old I am already.

GOODBYE FEET!!!!!!

{View of my "non-existant" feet when I look down}

{View of my tiny feet when I bend slightly forward}

Happy "Belated" Birthday!!! Oops....

Yesterday was XD, my youngest brother's birthday. Seventeen years old is almost an adult. Anyways, SY baked him a cake and we celebrated at home yesterday. Will have a second round of dinner out on Friday, I think.

I think this is only the second home made cake we ever had in the family. First one was when I baked for RH. Hmm, it seems that all the cakes that were prebaked turned out rather dry.....probably cos we baked it two days earlier and left it in the fridge. Wonder what is the best way of storing cakes. Anyone knows? Please just drop me an email. Thanks. Here are the pictures:

{Birthday Cake baked by SY}

{XD}

{Family Picture}

Animal Mini Cupcakes

It is NH's birthday, FS's son of course. He is three years old today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Anyways, FS needed to bring some bakeries to NS's school today and so SY, my sis made some animal cupcakes. You can view it below. I think she is taking orders for cupcakes.

{Animal Cupcakes: All in a row}

{Close Up for Frog Cupcake}

{Close Up of Pig Cupcake}

{Close Up of Dog Cupcake}

{Picture of the Birthday Boy}

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Remember the scrapbook class I was gonna take last week, well, we learnt how to make a standing display album and I absolutely loved it. This is what I ended up making. Rushing through the weekend to get it done.

{Page 1}

{Page 2}

{Page 3}

{Cover}

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Went to Palate Sensations Open House last wednesday. It is located at a very quiet but cozy place near Bueno Vista. The owner, Lynette, is a friendly Asian with a strong Australian Accent. We learnt how to make CHicken Risolles, an Indonesian Snack. Its quite entertaining and I would definitely attend a class there but perhaps after Bakong is born.

{Palate Sensation Kitchen}

PS: I am quited pissed at RH that we are still calling the baby Bakong. Most people would have names for the baby now.

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Last Update: This is me @ 27 weeks...........

{Me @ 27 weeks}