of stems and decisions to be made... part 2

BTW, just a quick update. We have decided and registered with Stemlife for the cord blood thingy. The sales lady came over last Saturday and did all the paper work. She seem a bit kan cheong though and unable to answer some of our queries though. I think probably because she’s new.

of getting a room and fake accent...

Have you even encountered people that you simply want to tell them to go and get a room?
Well, there is this family (mother + daughters) that stays in my apartment block that in my opinion deserves this comment.
One of the teenage daughters is dating a Caucasian guy (she is Chinese btw). Not that it really matters to me, but everytime she brings the guy back to the house, it will seem that she will get frisky in the elevator. I am not really deliberately singling her out, but it really seem to me that she is the one who will speak in that cinabeng-ish + faux pas English-american slang in the midst of the groping and loud smooching sounds. I think the guy is also pretty conscious of this and in the few incidents, he was like trying to sush her down. I personally have no problem with general display of affection, but sometimes people have to give a little bit of respect to those around them. I guess it’s a fine line between public display of affection and decency.
Anyway, it happened again last Sunday and of all people, I have to share the same elevator with them. Worse, this time, it’s just me and the couple. On cue, the girl started to get frisky the moment the elevator door closed. I tried not to be bothered but the smooching (not to forget the groping) were getting louder and louder. It was as if they were going to get on it in the elevator itself.
As desperate times calls for desperate measures, I did what any self respecting person will do. I took out my phone (it’s a camera phone, btw) and sort of pointed it at them. It was as if both of them had a virtual cold shower and both of them stopped the hoolabaloo right there and then. The only unfortunate thing is that I did not manage to get any shots…

of haze and pseudo chinese kopitiam...

I am not sure if this is a common thing or if there are any prove to it, but according to wifey, pregnant women should try to avoid iced drinks as much as possible. According to general wisdom, drinking iced drinks will cause to baby to have weak respiratory system when she grows up. So wifey have been avoiding iced drinks during her pregnancy*. According to wifey, her hair dresser drank a lot of iced drinks during her pregnancy and now her boy gets sick easily.

*note to baby: Girl Girl, please make special note on this especially when you get your first, second and subsequent paychecks.

And yeah, did I mention the haze thingy? This haze thingy is really making everything difficult. I am not sure if it is something psychological or physiological, but it really makes wifey and I feel a bit mang chang (moody). Not to forget the heat, the afternoons will seem to be a bit heaty and just a few minutes out in the sun will really affect us. So anyway, we had rather hot and heaty (weather , not food) lunch yesterday. We went to that pseudo-Chinese kopitiam (because I wanna try the nasi lemak) place next to e-gate starbuck. The waitress missed out order and wifey was getting agitated. Nasi lemak was so so by my standard but wifey complained that it was too oily (As you can see, wifey have a very high standard, which of course dumbfounded everyone when she decided to get married with me.)

After lunch, I decided to give wifey a treat, so we went to that baskin robin ice cream place. Wifey was like a little kid in there, picking this pointing that with a silly smile on her face. She had a strawberry sundae and I has a scoop of some lime-y sticky icy thingy (which evidently tasted really good).
Total cost of the detour to that basking thingy place:
One strawberry sundae and a scoop of lime-y sticky thing served by an over enthusiastic guy (plus 10% discount) -> RM 20 plus
The look on wifey’s face as she tucks into the strawberry sundae -> priceless!

of bumper holidays and slippery things on the bathroom floor...

It’s Thursday today and I’m back at the office after the long Deepavali and Hari Raya bumper celebration. Good thing is that most of the folks in the office took today and Friday off which leaves the office relatively quiet.

Anyway, Wifey and I didn’t get to do much throughout the long break. I guess the continuing haze pretty much limited any outdoor activities. I have been planning to go out hiking or at least a walk or two around youth park but the weather (haze) does not seem to agree with that plan.
Wifey and I managed to catch a movie though. It’s been ages since we went out for a movie and I couldn’t even remember what was the last movie that we watched. We went for the morning show (Open Season) at Gurney. The show was just so so. I mean, it’s good but nothing to really shout about.
Other than that, most of the weekend was spent walking around the house (as wifey calls it), naps and occasional TV shows on astro.

I read somewhere that during pregnancy, a woman will get the nesting instinct and will be inclined to do things around the house. I wonder if this is also true for the father to be. I never really thought much about it. I guess it’s one of those things that you don’t consciously think about it until it hits you. I am not sure if it is a subconscious act of the instinct itself but I think I had that moment. It started with me on the throne (as most great things do) and I noticed that the bathroom floor is getting a bit slippery (probably due to soap and those bathroom-slippery-things). So, that started the bathroom floor scouring. After that is done and bathroom floor is clean, it’s the bedroom fan’s turn. (actually it is not so much of a bedroom fan that needs cleaning, but more to needing to cool down a bit after the bathroom episode and it seems a bit dusty). So I dismantled the fan, took them out to the balcony and got the vacumn out. After vacuuming, I thought that I might as well clean the filter bag now that I have the vacuum out. Then I thought that since I have been walking in and of the balcony thru the living room, I misght as well take the living room carpet out for a whack or two. So out goes the carpet for some whacking and airing. Then I thought (again!) that since I have gotten dust all over I might as well clean the balcony door, windows and glass panel. So out comes the old newspaper and the glass cleaning solution thingy. (I think I should just close my eyes the next time I’m on the throne, else one thing will lead to another again.) Anyway, by the time the windows were done, wifey woke up (She went to sleep in the middle of all the hoolabaloo). And noticed that I have hung up the carpet.

Wifey: wah! You hang up the carpet ah?
Me : Ya Loh.
Wifey: you got close your nose when you whack it or not? Afterwards you’ll sneeze again.
Me : No wor. But did you notice anything about the windows or not?
Wifey: Notice what?
Me : I clean the windows and glass panels. Haiyoh, like this also dun notice ah…
Wifey: aiyah, I didn’t wear spec mah, and just woke up only mah….
Me: hehe good save….

of photochopping and an elephant...

got some time to play around with photoshop elements today...

of a baby's gender and hubby's size...

I was having a conversation with a couple of ladies from my department and our department admin the other day and the subject of my baby’s gender came into the topic. They were telling me all these oldwives tales about signs on the baby’s gender.

Then remembered those conversations that I have with those older operators. I used to work as the equipment engineer in the factory production area where most of the operators were ladies. As one would guess, due to my charms *ahem* I get along with most of the operators fairly well. History have taught us well most, if not all wisdoms in the world comes out from the mouths of old ladies in between their free time. Therefore, due to my time spent with this age group of demography, was inevitably schooled on these old wives wisdoms.

From what I know there are various ways of determining the gender of the baby by evaluating a few conditions:

1. the tummy shape method: according to the method, the shape of the mommy’s tummy can be tell if the baby will be a boy or a girl. If the shape is round, then this age old wisdom states that the baby will be a girl, but if the shape is slightly pointed to the front (cone shaped), then the baby will be boy.

2. the face method: then there is this other method that suggest that if the mother’s face is obnoxiously ugly breaks out a lot and all puffed up, then the baby will most probably be a boy but if the mother’s face did not change (still look the same as before pregnant), then the odds are that the baby will be a girl.

3. the look from behind method: there is this other method that says that if you look at the mother from behind, you can basically figure out if she is carrying a boy or a girl. The method states that if the shape of her body does not look like she is pregnant i.e., still curvy etc., then most probably she is carrying a boy and if the from a quick glance, the shape does tells you that she is pregnant, then she might be carrying a girl.

4. then there are those other methods that are a bit more vague, like the baby’s kicking style etc.

Having said all those, I remembered this one conversation I had during lunch with a few female ex-colleagues quite a while ago (before wifey got pregnant). According to one of them, the gender of the baby can be influenced by the husband’s pee pee. The basis of the theory is that the little swimmers that carry the female gene can swim longer distance but is slower while the male swimmers can swim faster but are lazier (therefore don’t swim as far). So the deduction from this is that if the hubby got a long peepee, then the male swimmers will win as they are faster, but if the hubby got a short peepee, then the female swimmers will win because they can swim longer distance.
But I guess I have proven this theory wrong by having a baby girl right? ;)

but all in all I think these are all based on the individual’s experiences and there is no real conclusive evidence to prove if the methods are true or not. For us I think, it really does not matter much, as we do not have a strong preferance for either boy or girl as long as she grows up to be a successful multi trillionaire and lavish her parents with all her riches healthy and happy.

of some extra kilos and a confirmation...

We went for out monthly checkup last night. Our appointment were actually supposed to be on Saturday (21st) but since it will be deepavali and coupled with the long break, we decided to go early. So wifey and I went for the evening session.

On the weighing scale, wifey had put on 3+ kgs since the last visit. When wifey inform this to me, I just thought that probably baby is growing.

Anyway, during the doc’s consultation, the doctor noted that wifey had gain a lot of weight. (In fact, wifey told me later that the nurse asked her to take her weight again before seeing the doctor. Probably to make sure that the first reading was not a mistake.) According to the doctor, baby has now turned and her head is pointing slightly downward, which is an indication that baby is on track. Her hands and feet are very distinct now. We can also clearly see her little heart beating and at one point we even caught a glimpse of something that we think might be her intestine. The good doctor also did another scan around the pelvic region and to confirm that we will be having a mei mei. Can’t see any extra appendage there, so he confirmed that we will be having a girl.

That was a good relief to me as it just so happen that I was reading an entry in this forum. In one of the threads, some women shared of their experience where the initial scan indicate the baby as girl and later to find out in the subsequent scan that the baby is actually a boy. Even though our gynea have been known to be very accurate, there was always that small inkling worrying feeling. But I guess with this confirmation put all those worries to rest.

Doc also said that baby’s size is normal and concluded that probably the extra weight gained is probably gained by wifey rather than baby. So I guess wifey must be in a way, enjoying this pregnancy by indulging on her favorite preoccupation, Food!.
Doc advices to cut down a bit on rice, bread and carbo stuff. So, I guess, it will be more vege from now on.

of getting poofy and wedding ring...

The latest update from babycenter is that we are now 22 weeks pregnant.

Your baby now looks like a miniature newborn, checking in at 10.9 inches and almost 1 pound. Her skin will continue to appear wrinkled until she gains enough weight to fill it out, and the fine hair (lanugo) that covers her head and body is now visible. Her lips are becoming more distinct, and the first signs of teeth are appearing as buds beneath her gum line. Her eyes are developed, though the iris (the colored part of the eye) still lacks pigment. Eyelids and eyebrows are in place, and her pancreas, essential for hormone production, is developing steadily.

From the size of wifey’s tummy, it seems like we are pretty much on track.

But an interesting bit of info that we found out is this:

This Week's Activity:
Take off your rings. You'd be surprised how many pregnant women need to have their rings cut off by a professional jeweler because their fingers have swollen up around them. If yours are feeling the least bit snug, do yourself a favor and take them off now before it's too late. If you can't bear to be separated from your wedding band or another important ring, loop it on a chain and wear it close to your heart.

Wifey have been mentioning that she have felt that she have been getting poofy already. While we have anticipated this, we were pleasantly intrigued by it. During church a few weeks ago:

Wifey: see, I can’t even get my thumb and ring finger to touch when I put it around my wrist”
Me: ya loh. Poofy oredi. *walking a very thin line between agreeing with her and give her any impression that I am saying fat*
Wifey: *Looks at me and whispers* Michelin Girl!
Wifey and me: hehehe…

Her feet have also been growing and filling up her shoes too. Just this week she mentioned that one of her shoes (the brown one) cannot fit anymore. Hmmmmm… could this be her subliminally trying to influence me that she needs to go shoe shopping?

Anyway, back to the ring thing. During church last Sunday, wifey took out her ring and showed me her ring finger. Wah lau, there is a big indentation because the ring was squeezing into her finger. She only wears her ring when she goes out and from my guess she must have been wearing the ring for a few hours tops. And now it is making a big mark on the skin. Wifey mentioned that better not to wear it already and i agreed.

Wifey have always teased me that I am single and wanna make myself available in the dating market whenever I forget to wear my ring when we go out. So with her not wearing her ring now, I will be having a good time getting back at her already! ;)












but then, could it be that wifey is already sick and tired of me? and she is doing this to get herself back into the dating market!!!! OMG!!

of being pregnant and a bowl of tomyam...

I’m not sure about the rest of you but I think we have at one time or another come across these people who likes to ask the obvious. You know, those people who asks;
‘wah, having lunch ah?’ when they see you chucking spoonfuls of chap fan into your mouth.
‘wah, taking a leak ah?’ when they see you at the toilet while putting out that small fire in the urinal.
‘wah, shopping ah?’ when they see you at the supermarket, pushing a trolley loaded with foodstuff to air them out.
‘aiyo, you are crying ah?’ when they see a little girl coaxing her tear glands to release some liquid for her to clean up her dirty fingers.

Wifey had a similar experience yesterday while we were having dinner at the food court.

Wifey and I : * talk talk talk*
Lady serving me my tom yam: wah, you are pregnant is it?
Wifey: no lah, it’s just my sai toh (pot belly – in hokkien)

Woah hahahaha….

Actually wifey didn’t say that last one la.
The lady was just being helpful and ask if we needed a babysitter to take care of baby when she comes out. In a way we think we were pretty blessed because there are people from out of no where who are concerned and helpful thoroughout our pregnancy period.

of Sir-Mix-A-Lot and you know ah... talking to baby ah.....

On our way back from tim sum after church this morning,

My mom*: the other day ah….. i mah read the Chinese paper loh…
Wifey: ok
My mom*: I mah read the Chinese paper loh…..
Wifey: ok
My mom*: the chinese paper ah….
Wifey:….
My Mom*: the Chinese paper ah …. Got this story about this chinese woman loh.
Me: *look at wifey*
Wifey: *looks at me and smile*
My mom*: I read the Chinese paper loh, got this woman ah…
My mom*:This pregnant woman say she always talk to her baby. She talks to her all the time.
My mom*:She talks to her baby all the time one ah…
Wifey: Ya loh, I also read that baby can hear oredi one mah.
My mom*:She go to market want to buy dress for the baby also got ask baby like or not. And the baby got kick back.
Wifey: ya loh, must talk to baby so that they can recognize your voice one.
Me: But how you know if the baby is kicking because she might be saying “cilaka lu, wa mau tidur, lu cakap manyak saja, kasi saya susah mau tidur saja”

Woah hahahahaha......

Actually, i do really think that baby is absorbing her surroundings these days. Like when we were in the car on our way to my in laws' house, some rap music was on the radio. According to wifey, baby woke up and started kicking. Hmmmmm..... absorbing eh... I'll have to remind myself to stop listening to Sir-Mix-A-Lot's Baby's got back....



Note*: ya, my mom ah… you know my mom ah…. She sometimes speaks like this one loh. She sometimes likes this one when she want to tell a story one...

of Ah Heng and electrons...

Managed to get back in touch with Ah Heng today. He was my roommate back when we were two virile strapping young stallions lazy bums in varsity. As our varsity was located light years away from civilization, we stayed in one of the hostels within the varsity compound where you get a bed, cupboard and a desk and a roommate to boot. In a way, you can say that I slept in the same bedroom with him for a couple of years in my life.

Ah Heng is the kind of guy that, every parent would wish for. Speaks softly and politely, says his thank yous and pleases, and will never ever get caught beating the crap out you anyone (or any being for that matter). But as with all engineering students, he (and unfortunately me too) has that pre requisite nerdy look complete with the side parting hairstyle and faux gold plated big rimmed glasses.

We were roommates in our 3rd and 4th year of our studies and when we completed our time in the varsity, we went our own ways. He went to KL to pursue a sinful life of cheap booze, loose women and debauchery a career in computer and those thing-a-magij. And I, being a good son, went back to Penang to sell the rest of my working life slaving for a factory making chips. Due to a potent mix of my finely tuned art of postponing things and his laziness, we sort of have lost contact. Actually not really lost contact, just that we know that each other is still alive but just never got the time* to email each other.
(* we are very busy people trying to solve world hunger you know)

I think the last time I saw him was more than 4 years ago when another of our mutual friend got hitched. At that time his first daughter was only about a few months old (and now she is 5) so you can imagine how long ago it was. Just out of the blue I thought of sms’ing him on the news that someone is going to be a daddy soon and that got back the communication going. I guess it’s one of those things that guys do. When girls leave school they will cry and cry and be sappy all over promising themselves to keep in touch and call and this and that, but for guys, I guess it’s more like a business transaction. We shake hands, wish good luck and exchange in audible grunts and go our own way.
If we don’t happen to work in the same place or bump into each other often enough, I guess it will be like Ah Heng and me.

It’s an interesting friendship (or rather brotherhood) that we enjoyed.

p/s: in case any of the ladies were wondering, Ah Heng is now happily married with 2 adorable daughters and running a company selling electrons**. so no chance already la.
(**don’t ask me to explain, I am quite blur myself)

of farts, burps and hiccups...

Wifey and I had an interesting conversation of sorts when she picked me up today.
Me: Have girl girl been good today?
Wifey: girl girl today very active today. I think she pang phui (fart) quite a lot today.
Me: Eh?! Where got fart one? Inside all water mah. If fart mah come out all bubbles.
Wifey: Or maybe she burp lah. Got feeling like burb like that.
Me: Like that also can meh?
Wifey: I think hiccup lah.
Me: ya ya. I think can hiccup one lah.
Wifey: *malu*

Anyway, like wifey said, our girl girl have been very active lately. According to wifey, girl girl is constantly kicking throughout the day but not as much during the night. Probably sleep already.
Good, let's hope that girl girl maintain this sleep pattern after she comes out.
Tonight, I got to hear girl girl's movement for the first time. While relaxing at home this evening, wifey suddenly called me over to the sofa. "Baby is awake!" i quickly went over and cupped my ear on her tummy and there it was. Initially it does really sound like small burping sounds, then there is the very distinitive soft thumping sounds. It went on for a while and then stopped. Girl girl must have thought that should be enough for one night and gone back to sleep.
Sweet dreams little princess.

of stems and decisions to be made...

It’s Monday and I’m back at the office.

Last weekend was a relatively a busy one. As you can read, I got this blog up, we registered to the confinement house, and yesterday we met with the sales person from Stemlife. We had originally planned to meet on Saturday and have tentatively made an appointment about a couple of weeks ago, but I could not give the exact time as an ex-colleague is also interested to hear about. Anyway, no response from the ex-colleague and I totally forgot about the appointment (or was it my highly tuned skill of postponing things again) until the day itself. So I called the sales person at the very last minute and made the appointment. But unfortunately the appointment had to be cancelled at the last minute as she had to attend to an emergency. So, I rescheduled it to the next day. It was only then that I realized that the appointment will happen on a Sunday, a rest day. So, ms. Stemlife sales person, if you are reading this, “Sorry to make you work on a Sunday.”

StemLife is one of those companies that stores cord blood in Malaysia. Cord blood is the blood in the baby’s umbilical cord which is supposed to be full of stem cells. Since I was sleeping throughout most of my biology classes in secondary school (except those few times when the teacher told the girls to not to giggle when he was explaining that chapter about reproduction), having me explain about cord blood storage and stemcells will be like having the blind leading the blind. SO please bear with me.

Anyway, since I have read up quite a bit, I will try to explain what I know about what I know on the subject. Mind you that this is based on my current understanding on the subject and if you were to make major decisions, I would suggest that you do further research and not to rely solely on the information from me.

First of all, stem cells. From my understanding, us, human beings (as with all living beings), are made up of cells and each type are different depending on its function. So there are brain cells, liver cells, blood cells, bone cells and even the egg and the boy’s little swimmers are cells. If you take a clock and reverse it back in time (to when you are still a small being in your mommy’s womb before any of your organs are developed), all these different type of cells are at one time the same type of cell (which are stem cells). So in a way, stem cells are the basic construction block of the human body. What makes it so special is that it has the ability do be develop into any particular type of cell (e.g., blood cells, nerve cells, liver cells etc.). So you can say that they are probably like the joker card where it can represent any cards in the deck. Or the * keystroke (wildcard) when you are doing a file search in your computer but dunno what the exact filename is. Or imagine that you are trying to make a mr gumby with play dough. Then stem cells will be the playdough that you use to make mr. gumby’s hands, legs, head and pee pee if you wish so. Therefore with this understanding, I think it is pretty clear of the purpose of stemcells and why it is important to store it in case something happens in the future.

From the info that I read in the brochure, the 3 sources of stemcells are from bone marrow, cord blood and embryo. The first 2 sources are being used clinically. This means that people do make use of technology to ‘harvest’ and use them. The third one (embryonic) is not being used clinically. I guess it is mainly due to the controversies about the ethics of using it, but that is a separate discussion in which I am not even going to attempt to discuss it here. For this company, they offer the service of getting the baby’s cord blood during delivery and store it for you for any needs in the future.

In the true nature of ”There’s no such things as a free lunch”, this service do come at a cost.

Generally speaking, the cost itself is reasonable for the service that they provide, but we had to put brain cells to work here because the one time cost of the procedure is a significant sum. Compound it together with the hospital bills, confinement house cost, and the odds and ends, its cost will lighten the wallet quite a bit.

Anyway, personally, my thought process is summed up in an im conversation with Ah Web (another ex colleague) some time ago. As long as I can afford it, it is really not a decision to make for myself, I am making decisions for another human being who will be entrusted to me, so I had better spend more calories thinking about it.

Btw, for those (like me) who went searching for info from stemlife in here and needed more info, the CEO of the company also writes a blog which is posted here.

Also, so that I do not sound like I am bias and moonlighting as a sales person for this company, there is also another Malaysian company called cryocord. I have not done much research on it yet, and if any of you have any info, do share so that we can make a balanced judgement.

Before I forget, I would also like to add that I am not affiliated to the said companies nor being paid or received kickbacks, discounts or gifts (although I don’t mind a free back rub from time to time) for writing this blog entry.

Crap! my bi-weekly report is due today. Better get back to work.

edited to include note to isaac's mommy:
note to Isaac's mommy: No i did not ask them if we can save money by storing the cord blood ourselves in our home fridge. I'm afraid that the sales person will think that i'm a doofus if i ask so, but from my partly-educated guess, i think we can't store in our home fridge as we might run into the risk getting to answer questions in the nature of "Honey, why does this tomato ketchup taste funky?"

of confinement house and tau kua...

OK. We just got back and Wifey is now fast asleep in the bedroom, carpet is vacuumed, laundry is in the washer. A bit of time for me to write down a few things.
We went to register and put down our deposit for the confinement house. According to the lady at the CH, we were pretty fortunate because they will be full for February, but she managed to reserved a place for us since we did showed interest during our last visit.
According to her that our due date (15th Feb) is near Valentines day and some couples like to have their child born on that day.
Anyway, the reason we chose this CH is because we were really impressed with their facilities. (Actually our judgement were a bit biased as we never really did visited other CHs. It is just that those other CHs that we went to, seem a bit quiet and a bit unkept from the outside. Wifey said that she didn’t get a good feeling from them.)
But like they say, the proof is in the pudding, so we’ll really see if they are really good when wifey stays there.

As with the last visit, the CH also gave us some samples. Some reading materials (unfortunately in Chinese), disposable panties, diapers and a small bottle of those *ahem* cleaning fluid. The lady also explained to us what we need to bring when we check in. I find it funny when she try to mention sanitary pad to wifey. She seem to stutter and did not manage to mention it. I think she’s a bit shy as I was there but wifey tired to help her by agreeing and nodding. Hehe.. for a person who deals in this business, I find it a bit funny that she had problem saying sanitary pad. Maybe next time she should have just use the code word : Tau Kua.

for those who are interested to check out this place ther are here*

* and no, i do not get any incentive, kickback, discounts nor comission from the said business to link their website in this page. (although i don't mind if the offer me)

and we have lift off....

OK. it is now 10.19pm. I have managed to finally get the counter and haloscan thingy right.
Reset the counter to zero. Put all my earlier writings up so the next step is to get the traffic in. let's see maybe i'll send to leader, isaac's mommy, mh, icy and whom so ever who got the misfortune to come across my path in the next few days.

There is something interesting on at 8TV, a lady was dancing ballet to some hot rock music. I think's it's one of those reality show and this one is about dancing or something like that. That got me thinking. Why don't folks get taller dancers instead of making those poor ballet dancers stand on their toes?

anyway, back to the blog. Wifey and I will be going to register and put down the deposit for the confinement house tomorrow. Yup, we finally decided on a confinement house instead of a cofinement lady. I guess it's more our of convenience and also when comparing the cost, it seem more viable to go for the confinement option. Nett cost for the confinement house is slightly higher but if you throw in the extra costs that comes along with the confinement lady, we figured that the CH option is more viable.

We visited the confinement house last week and was pretty impressed with it but maybe that will be another blog entry.

of a developing fart and a magical moment...

Date 5 Oct

For some time, I have been trying to feel baby’s movement in wifey’s tummy. Sometimes while watching TV during the evening, I would put my palm on wifey’s tummy to see if I can feel anything, but so far no result. There are also times when I will cup my ear on her tummy hoping to hear something but all I hear is gurgling sound. Wifey said those sounds could be either baby moving around or just wifey’s stomach digesting food and building up a big stinking fart.
Today after dinner at my parent’s place, wifey told me that she is beginning to feel baby moving, throughout the day especially in the afternoon. I commented that probably this is a good sign as it indicated that baby will be active in the morning and hopefully will sleep soundly at night. And with a little bit of luck, hopefully baby will follow the same routine when she comes out.
This evening, while watching TV, I tried to cup my ears on wifey’s tummy and try to see if I can hear baby’s movement. Nothing. Just some faint gurgling… another big fart forming? I decided to call it a day and went over to the pc to do a bit of surfing.
But suddenly, wifey called me over to the sofa and asked me to put my palm over her tummy. She said that she felt something, but just as if on cue, everything stopped. Probably baby is playing hard to get with me. Feeling a tad disappointed, I slithered back to the comfort of my websurfing. Seeing my disappointment, wifey came over and sat next to me and put my hand on her tummy so that the next time she feel a movement, I will be able to feel it immediately.
And then it happened, at first I didn’t know it that was it, it felt like a small vibration on the surface of the skin. Then after a while I felt it again and wifey confirmed that it was indeed a small movement on the same spot. I am not sure how to describe it. It just felt like a warm fuzzy feeling that engulf you for the moment. It’s like a mixture of amazement and awe. On one hand, the logical side of me felt the amazement of feeling another independent living being in wifey’s body. The emotional side of me felt a huge sense of awe at this very first moment that I have physical contact with my daughter…

lend me your ears....

As I mentioned in the last few post, I signed up to babycenter and recently I got a notification from them.

This is an important time for your baby's sensory development, too. Her brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. Some research suggests that she can even hear you talk, so read out loud, talk to her, or sing a happy tune.

So wifey have started to tell me to talk to baby. I have to admit that at first it seems odd to talk to a lump on wifey’s stomach. I mean, men are programmed to naturally to talk to the boobs when they are having a conversation, so this needs a bit of adjustment. Anyway, I blurted out the normal lame dumbass words like “hello” “how are you?” that sort of thing. But as I go along, I find that it will become natural once you think and acknowledge that there is a little person in there. So now, when we are relaxing at home , I will go to wifey’s tummy and whisper to baby. “Girl Girl, you don’t need to go and buy overly expensive branded clothes to look pretty and nice. Pasar malam and sale items are just as good if not better” “Pasar malam – good. Branded expensive clothes – bad”

of oysters and sea cucumbers...

We went for our regular checkup the other day. For this round, we were pretty excited because we might get to know if baby will be a little sweet seductress of a chick or a hunk of a stud (I would like to say like his father but I cannot lie). We were told that if we were lucky we should be able to find out by the last visit, but that did not materialize as the doctor were not able to see. So, it’s pretty obvious that we are damn excited about this visit.

One of my colleague told me that she did not know the gender of her son until the eight month because he was tightly crossing his legs and that got me a bit worried too. But she did suggest that if baby is crossing his/her legs, probably I should give a slap on wifey’s tummy to wake him up. Hmmmm sounds interesting…
Then there was this one time that I was having lunch with another colleague and came up with the idea that maybe I should get wifey to watch a bit of porn before the good doctor scans her. You know, just to get the little guy of the little guy excited so that we can see it.

In any case both wifey and I don’t really have a strong preference for a boy or a girl as long as it is not half and half. Wifey said that maybe a girl will be good because then, she can dress her up. Me, I am not really sure. Boy also good, can whack him if he is naughty. Girl also good, because then she’ll be daddy’s girl.
Mom in law says that probably a boy, but I think probably a girl from the way wifey’s face looks.

So anyway, back to the doc’s appointment, doc scanned wifey’s stomach and by now we can see baby’s legs and arms. Then doc scanned from another angle and can see baby’s spine and ribs. At the back of my mind I was amazed and was also thankful. ”hmmm a clear and distinct spine. Baby is definitely not going to grow up into a spineless chickensh*t of a coward. Baby’s got spine”. And of course wifey and I blurted the customary oohsss and aaahhs as we go view the image. What I find amazing is that everything seem so clear and obvious and in place. Baby seem so real to us.

Then the doctor turned the direction of the scan and seem to be taking some time maneuvering around. I think he is trying to determine the gender, but he is like taking forever. I almost felt like saying ”enough with the messing around already, oyster or sea cucumber?” but of course I didn’t. Anyway, doc finally stopped maneuvering and pointed and say, “here you can see the tighs and in between you can see and determine if boy or a girl’”. “Do you want to know?”. Wifey and I almost simultaneously said yes. And doc said 95% is a girl. Why 95%? Will baby have a 5% of a birdie dangling about? Which 95% of baby will be girl and which 5% will be boy? Anyway, I guess doc is just saying this 95% because things are never certain and he do not wanna to be liable for all the girlie stuff wifey is going to buy and only to find out that he made a mistake. So looks like I’m going to have a girl. Phew! Wifey will be the one who have to talk to her about the birds and bees when she grows up ;)

Note: now that I think about it, baby’s thighs really do look like a couple of sea cucumbers.

that feeling thing...

Lately, I have been having a strange feeling. I thought that after all the excitement of knowing about baby, things will be back to a slightly more normal state, but that was not really the case for me. Lately, I have been getting this feeling that I just wants to be close to wifey. It’s not like the having baby happyish giddyness or anything, but just a need be close to wifey. Not really sure how to explain that, but I do sense that I will distinctively miss her the moment she drops me off from work (note to wifey: I do always miss you when you are not around silly! It’s just that I think now I am feeling that it is so real and physical). Can’t really put a finger to it but it is almost like a feeling in your mouth as if you are biting it. Could it be because I wanna be close to baby? Or could it be because of the glow thing that they say about pregnant women? Or could it be plain and pure laziness to go to work and substituting this with the feeling of missing her?
Then there is also the times that she comes to pick me up in the evenings, somehow I will have this dumbass silly smile when I see her coming. Even with bad days in the office, I sometimes find that I will have this dumbass smile. I think probably it’s a natural reaction when I see her as I realize that this pregnancy thing is not easy on her and the least I can do is to give her a dumbass smile to greet her. Anyway, with my record of bad dental health, she had better enjoy these moments coz I don’t really know for sure how long these teeth are going to last.

something to keep us busy...

Now that the fact and excitement of having another new person in our life have sunk in, wifey and I are beginning to go through the motions of getting ourselves ready.
After some discussions with some female colleagues and friends, I opened up an account in babycenter.com. for those not in the know, this is a fantastic site that helps you track your pregnancy. It gives you info of your baby’s growth and discussions on issues with regards to pregnancy. Definitely much better than just thinking that pregnancy is about a growing lump in your wife’s stomach. My only gripe is that it seems to be more catered for female coz the newsletter that I got is something like ” your pregnancy is now so and so weeks and your body is now blab la”. If there is one improvement I think maybe have an alternate account for expectant dads.

We were also starting to look for confinement homes and asking around for confinement ladies. Since baby’s due will be near Chinese New Year, we were naturally a bit concerned about the cost and availability of confinement ladies. An ex-colleague told me that she went to a confinement house and enjoyed the experience as she get to talk to other mothers and on top of that she can focus on resting while someone takes care of the baby. Sounds cool, but we really need to weigh in the pros and cons.

We have also cleaned up the 3rd bedroom and moved all the stuff into the second bedroom to make way for baby. I took a few days off from work to work on the baby’s room. Wifey wanted to have the room painted and since we are not sure baby will be boy or girl yet at this time we decided to go for a neutral color. So baby’s room’s gonna be yellow. Bright and cheerful. At first I was a bit hesitant about the color but I must say that after painted the room and looking at it, I must say that I do hope that baby will inherit the color sense from wifey.

Probably next will be baby’s name…. (but not until we find out it’s it’s gonna be banana or papaya)

Meet the parents!

Somehow, it seems like an omen or something that the news of baby came the way it did. Seems like that july weekend was just made for this. The initial news came on Friday, lab test on Saturday and lo and behold, Monday is a replacement holiday for the Penang Governor’s birthday. So timing is just right for our first visit to the Gyne.
The gynae that we went to was recommended by my SIL. Really interesting guy. Some how his commanding voice and the way he speaks puts us on ease. Anyway, on to the exam table and ultrasound. And that’s when it happened, the very first meeting with the little person that will be my kid. The little person that I will pour all my love to (and then if there are any left, I will distribute it evenly amongst you all). That very person who will grow up and kick whoever’s ass who has the gonads to try to mess with me. The very little person who I will hold up high in front of all my possessions (my camera, 2 bikes and a few books) and proclaim “one day, all these will be yours” *cue to that scene in the lion king*
But in all those mindless thoughts, that very moment that I saw baby, a sense of awe engulfed me. Seeing the little tiny figure surrounded by that round thing that is suppose to protect her*. Seeing the tiny heat beat bub, bub ,bub….. The feeling is just pure awe. It is as though some mad scientist working in their tiny back alley ramshackle hut somewhere have managed to filtered and distilled all the joyous human emotions into some magical potion and IV’ed it into my bloodstream. That happyish giddy joyful unexplainable feeling. That feeling that Forrest Gump must have felt when he saw that girl's boobs in that scene in the room. I’m in la la land….
Then, the doctor (like all good doctors do) goes on to explain about the round thing surrounding baby, size and this and that. For a souvenir (in which the cost will be included into the bill later) the good doctor also printed a photo of the scan. Baby’s very first Portrait!

Confirmed!

Anyway, in the car, wifey told me that she have called her good friend who have already had 2 kids. As usual, she got tons of information (good + bad) on this pregnancy concept which is fairly new to me. Her friend advised her to confirm the pregnancy a lab test. According to her, home test can sometimes give wrong results especially if taken in the morning. Afternoon tests are more accurate. Something to do with the hormone levels at different time of the day.
So anyway, the next day, we went to BP lab for a pregnancy test and the results came back as positive. So, this is the real deal, no second guessing if it is real or not. No wondering if the home kit could have given wrong results because of what she took for lunch. Not to say that mickey Ds have any direct impact, but sometimes their food do look a bit dodgy.

Anyway, I still cannot explain the happyish giddiness feeling. Is it something that people feel when they take drugs? But whatever it is, it sure feels good.
So boys, go out and save money, don’t waste those hard earned cash by buying drugs just to get high. Go and make your wife pregnant and you can get the same effect.

giddy giddy...

When I saw those words, just went on a 5 million thoughts per minute frenzy. Happy? Yes obviously then in between the blank thoughts there are also thoughts like oh shite, what am I going to do, how will my life change, will I have enough money to sustain the baby oh shite! Am I going to make it, this will really disrupt my routine!! When everything settled a bit after 10 mins or so there is one thought that came to mind, what ever the problem is, people have been doing this since the beginning of life and it will take a big buffoon to really mess it up. Besides God will provide. That I am sure. But amongst all that turmoil, there is this happy-ish giddiness feeling that lingers on.
Anyway, you know how they say about things change when you have your baby? For me, I realized that change that afternoon when wifey came to pick me up from work. I doubt that there are any physical changes in her appearance since the discovery, but I can bet that she really does look different in my eyes from that first moment when she arrived in the car. I really cannot put in words what the difference is but there is this happyish giddiness that I felt.

it's all in the pee...

So here goes the first post (of sorts).
Date: 7th July
It was a Friday afternoon and being a Friday, my lunchtime is longer than usual. Since there’s not much in the office to catch up with, I decided to go out for a date with wifey. Wifey have been feeling unwell lately, heaty la, stomach problem la, headache la. Being true *ahem* Chinese we were fully bought in to the idea of heaty and cooling food which in effect limited the food choices for wifey to koay tiau theng, wantan mee and various soupy bland food.
After weeks of non-heaty food, wifey is beginning to get the feeling that her taste buds have all died out of lack of use. Compound to this is wifey’s culinary rule of not having 2 same food on consecutive days, we are pretty much run out of options and combinations. Something drastic actions had to be done.
So us being the reckless-daredevils-without-a-care-that-we are we decided to screw the Chinese wisdom (that have been passed through generations over thousands of years) of no heaty food for the sake of tickling our tastebuds. Therefore Mickey Ds at Sg Dua it is. Since fast food have been known to help with my bowel movement anyway, I did not raise any objections.
BTW, where am I going with all this??

OK, so the story goes that after lunch, wifey noticed that there is a pharmacy on the same row as Mickey Ds and I suggested for her to get something for her headache (or was is stomachache?). Wifey being the shopper that she is got the something something for her headache (or was it stomachache?) and also a pregnancy test kit. ‘Oh it’s cheap only 9 ringgit only not like the rm30-40 that you see is watsons one. can test and see ma. just in case’
Well! haven’t we all heard of that before.

Bla blab la… back in office… bla blab bla … later I im’ed wifey and she asked me if I wanna know about the pregnancy test result. Duh! Of course I do and her answer was ‘penguin wishes papa congratulations’!

Here we go...

Well , how should I start this…..
I have been toying with this idea of writing a journal about my adventures on becoming a daddy for some time now. Lack of time (also read as laziness) was the main culprit of me putting off this idea into action.
Ever since I found out about wifey's pregnancy and baby’s existence, I have thought of writing down my thoughts, experiences, and feelings (dan sebagainya).
Probably something that I can come back when I am wrinkled like a prune and read back on how silly or clueless I was. Probably something to entertain me when it is raining ourside and i need something to amuse me.
Most importantly I want baby to know and learn a bit about me and her mommy when she grows up. Hopefully in her angsty teenage years, she will be able to know a little bit about us and how we have loved her even before she was born.

note: due to my highly tuned skill of postponing things, i have actually wrote a few entries prior to setting up the account. so, do expect multiple posts that i might have got the dates wrong.