Little Damien Is Out Here!

5 Things You Don't Learn From Pregnancy Books

Contractions - it does not always happen like how the books or even experienced mothers have described it - that contractions are intermittent. Mine started like a pinch at the belly button and I didn't sense that as contractions. Not even when I was woken at 3.30am by the continuous, acute pain at the tummy.

I parked myself in the toilet and scared myself a bit as imageries of people labour in the toilet flashed to mind... refrained from "pushing" too hard as I scared my son may smash into the toilet bowl.

Reaching at the hospital, nurses and midwives asked if I were having contractions as if I know exactly how contractions are like... "I don't know-lah nurse!" . Contraction monitor showed it actually happened by minute - wow, that's the frequency of official labour. But my cervix hadn't dilate, so I had some time to decide if I want to go for C-section or wait for the nature's call.

Caesarean hurts - all the old mummies will tell you that it hurts - you couldn't get down the bed, it is painful when you cough or laugh, the wound heals very slow. But there are at least 3 mothers (including me) to testify that the wound doesn't hurt, AT ALL. Maybe our gyneas are very skillful, the wound was stitched up so perfectly nice that it doesn't hurt at all, from day one till it heals. I should have bet on this and earn some money for milk powder :-)

Delivery thru C-section - all this while I thot baby will be pulled and scooped out from the tummy thru the incision. That's what I learn from YouTube. Apparently, the gynea will press hard on your stomach and ooze the baby out thru the incision. And that was extremely painful on the stomach!! - I guess because epidural numbs your bottom half but not the upper half! Or maybe mine is a special case - anyway, it is not peculiar that people do SCREAM during C-section. I did :p

Brief your husband properly! - I really regret I didn't brief my husband properly on what to do in the operating theater. He should have snapped some precious photos while the baby is lifted from my tummy or while he is naked and layered with traces of blood. He did nothing except turning his head away! He said he was scared!

Engorged breasts - for those who are blessed with abundant of breast milk, unfortunately, it doesn't happen once and go away. As long as you continue to breastfeed, your breasts will engorge as they fill itself with milk. They swell like hell! They don't feel like yours, they are just 2 hard rocks sticking on your chest and they hurt like hell! The stinging pain endures and you couldn't even sleep. They also look so fake that as if you have had a boob job! :-(

A future impact in my tummy

The beauty about pregnancy is that I realized I have created something out of nothing.

And that "something" is going to impact someone... somewhere... sometime...








What's inside stretching my tummy?














A little cutie...

A sweet pea in a pod

All the time we wondered and wondered, who is this person coming, growing, turning, floating, swimming deep, deep inside...

Shel with her baby in the tummy

More photos for my dear friends who couldn't see me in person... :-)
I'm 6 to 8 months pregnant from left to right.

Pregnancy does WONDERS

Little Damien has been in my tummy for 8 months. Not only he practices kung fu and acrobatics in his little world, he brought a lot of changes to his mummy too...

His mummy looks fat...




















And more fat... + HORRIBLE view from the top!















Probably the back view is the only consolation... I still look ok ;-)

Coconut ball

I saw this in Jusco, Mid Valley. Selling at RM3.50 each, rather expensive, but very interesting!
See how skillful the "coconut man" slitted in a soft blade between the flesh and the shell.
It's a ball of coconut juice wrapped in coconut flesh! Yummy... :-)

Preview of My Little Damien

Damien was 4.5 months old when the 4D scanning was done.

He slept peacefully and moved occasionally inside my womb.

Already got him some nappies :-)

WINE

居家綠意

綠化浴室

浴室看起來其實是沒什麽有興趣停留的地方。
除了乏味，有個馬桶，好像怎麽清潔都有那個味道的。

加棵植物來清新一下！感覺真的清香很多！

耐蔭和好潮濕的黃金葛可以在浴室活的很茂盛。黃金葛可以土栽，也可以水耕。浴室水耕很方便，又清潔。　

馬桶上方是擺設的好地方。
參雜兩种不同品種的黃金葛，顔色相映沒那麽單調。

有些小擺設放在室内好積塵，如果是防水的話，移到浴室其實是個蠻聰明的懶人主意。積塵了用水沖沖就可以了！

兩只貓咪在綠蔭下歇息，別有一番風景。







黃金葛長長了往下垂，點綴了拉拉雜雜的浴室用品，連牙膏牙刷也變得可愛起來。







廢物利用

家婆煮菜買的冬菜吃完了，留了個罐子，其實很漂亮。
可惜沒有孔，种花排水不佳。但很適合水耕植物。

塞點銅錢草，圓圓的青葉子襯著肥肥的深色罐子，很有味道。作室内盆栽非常好看。

但銅錢草不耐蔭，在日曬下生長會長得很濃密，葉子也很大。室内放久了會變黃，枯死。需要不常移到室外幾天給它補些陽光營養，有點麻煩！如是懶人种花的話，建議你种黃金葛好了。

I received these interesting letters. I think we should write one to the husbands...

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear IT Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a slowdown in the overall performance, particularly in the flower, gifts and jewellery applications that had operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 un-installed many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, but installed undesirable programssuch as Weekend Golf 6.5, Formula One 5.0, NBA 3.0 and World Cup 2.0. And now Conversation 8.0 no longer runs and House Cleaning 2.6 simplycrashes the system.

I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail. What can I do?

Signed,

Desperate Housewife

Reply:

Dear Desperate Housewife,

First keep in mind:Boyfriend 5.0 is an entertainment package, while Husband 1.0 is anoperating system.

Try entering the command C:\ I THOUGHT YOU LOVED ME and download Tears 6.2 to install Guilt 3.0. If all works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewellery 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.

But remember, overuse can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence2.5, Happy Hour 7.0 or Late Night Teh Tarik 6.1. Late Night 6.1 is a very bad program that will create SnoringLoudly.wavfiles.

Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-in-Law 1.0 or reinstall another Boyfriend program. These are not supported applications and will crashHusband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have a limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider additional software to improve memory and performance.

I personally recommend Hot Tasty Food 3.0 and Tongkat Ali 6.9.

Good Luck,

IT Support

Why Che Det bombarded Dollah...

And He called Samy's a Folly...

Wedding Photos

My long over due studio wedding photos...

大頭相

I always think it is important to keep a recent nice passport photo (or sort) for the family in case of "emergency". I'm just worried that my family couldn't find a nice photo for my tomb stone and that it will stuck there for more than 100 years.

First impression is important, of course I want my descendants to remember the best (look) of me. Kakaka...

Although that is not the reason why I have kept a record of such photos. It's actually interesting to see our changes over time (better or worse).

Chromosome Y Won The Life Race

Dr Guna did an ultra sound and highlighted to me the little penis on the screen... "Maybe it's a boy!".

Ahh!.... chromosome Y won the battle.

Technical way to increase the chance of getting a boy / girl
My former boss, Sharon is a bio-chemical expert, you may really want to refer to her theory to enhance your chance of having a baby boy or girl.

• Men produce 2 types of sperms, one carries chromosome Y i.e. the gene of male & the other X, i.e. the gene of female.
• Y sperm is lighter, stronger, can swim faster but has a shorter life span - 3 days (Probably energy is exhausted during the life race).
  
• X sperm is genetically "fatter", a slow swimmer but has a longer life span - 5 days.
  

Knowing such characteristics, you can count your ovulation day and "do business" accordingly. Ovulation normally happens around 12th day of your period (but you can buy test kit to monitor), so make love 4-5 days earlier will enhance the chance of X sperms meeting the egg. Vice versa, having sex close to your ovulation will likely to help Y sperms to win the battle.

(I'm in my 2nd trimester, 16 weeks)

紅玫瑰與白玫瑰

女人都有兩種：红玫瑰與白玫瑰。
但是到了男人的手，其實也沒有什麽分別。

张爱玲說的還真是一針見血：

要是男人娶了红玫瑰，
久而久之，红的变了墙上的一抹蚊子血，
白的还是"床前明月光"；

要是男人娶了白玫瑰，白的便是衣服上沾的一粒饭黏子，
红的却是心口上一颗朱砂痣。

Blackie Lim

Hello - the pity kitten adopted by my mother-in-law, has now grown up & renamed as Blackie Lim.

Mana pergi Kitty?
Blackie's brother, Kitty is not as lucky as him. Kitty died a horrible death a week before Cheng Beng - run over by my in-law's car! Well, accident, accident...

Ever since the death of the younger brother, Blackie enjoys our full attention and luxury indulgence - cat treats, nice crib, scratching posts, regular medical care - vaccination of all kinds including leukemia...??? (never heard before! Thanks to my bro-in-law, a genuine cat lover. Honestly, I think I need that more than a cat).

Blackie is no ordinary cat, according to the vet, he is a mixed breed of domestic & Persian. Yoo... don't play play... but obviously he inherited only the tail from a Persian.



Kacau King
Blackie is damn good at buat kacau - jumping up & down, scratching, biting computer cables, toppling vases & pots, sleeping on the pot plants... I guess he just wanted to attract attention like any other lonely kids do. But luckily he has found a new mate lately - Mimi, my neighbour's cat. So now he has got a mate to play with, causes us less headaches.

I like cat but still far to be called a cat lover. I consider treatments that Blackie enjoys way too luxury. Probably this is the best way to redeem our guilt of negligence that causes his brother's death.

R.I.P Kitty.

The Beauty of Travel

No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel, until he comes home & rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. Well say.

A broke fellow like me would not have chance to set foot on the Africa Continent, if not of the company trip.

South Africa's Wildlife - From The Eyes To The Mouth

Holiday in South Africa end last month, and what's best to share if it is not the WILDLIFE?

Spending 2 hours driving thru the wild in the early morning, we wrapped ourselves up like Osama bin Laddin to bear with the extremely cold weather (which was likely to be under 10c). We have not seen many of the animals though - rhino, giraffe, elephant, zebra, hippo, antelope... That's it. Nothing much to shout about. Probably because we went to a mini safari, so wild animals like lion is no where to be seen.









Ever seen & used a zebra crossing? - here's the real one - classic!






Wildlife is best apreciated with taste buds!
While it seemed hard to catch the animals in the wild, it was actually easy to have them on our dinner plates!

Observing how the meats were served is really eye-opening!




















Crocodile meat tastes just like fish, some said it has the texture of chicken.
Ostrich is good, as sweet & tender as beef.
Antelope is venison, but has a much stronger gamy smell.
Zebra is the very dry and hard version of beef... no good no good...
Many more which I did not have them on my plate, what a waste!

Oh yeah...