The Boy who cried, "Wolf!"

Awaiting the arrival of our first baby is accompanied by feelings of anticipation, excitement, curiosity, nervousness, apprehension, and impatience...

There were several occasions of "false alarms" when I thought the severe tummy pains I was experiencing was from the contractions of labour, but they turned out to be "Braxton Hicks" contractions, which went off after a while.

The first time we had a "false alarm" was last Wednesday night, on the way home after having dinner and watching channel-8 9pm Chinese series at my mum's house. Darling saw that I was in great pain and tried to drive fast yet steadily (to avoid humpy ride) so that we could rush home for my shower (probably the last one before labour till the one-month confinement period is over!) and to grab our "baby delivery bag" before making our way to Mount Alvernia. However, the crescendo came to a plunge when my pain went away after my shower and didn't return while I rested on my bed!

Subsequently, whenever I told Darling that I'm experiencing contraction pains, he would give that "unbelieving smile" and said, "Darling, it's not time yet! You are just like the boy who cried, 'Wolf!'" ...

Pregnancy ... An Amazingly Awesome Experience!

Going through a pregnancy is an amazingly awesome experience that is beyond words...

At each visit to my gynae for my antenatal check-up, there's bound to be new discoveries of our baby which surprise us or make us laugh!!!

The 1st time (24 March 08) we saw her on the ultrasound scan monitor, she was just a "bean"-like dot!

The 2nd time (5 April 08), she had progressed to resemble the shape of a "tadpole", and there was a flicking black dot which was her heart beating!

The 3rd time (3 May 08), she was standing upright, with arms outstretched, and legs bouncing, as if she was dancing! When we tried to have a close-up look at her, she used both hands to cover her eyes!

The 4th time (6 June 08), she had grown taller and could no longer be in a standing position due to space constraint in mummy's womb. She was in a sitting position with legs stretched out straight like she was going to do "sit & reach"! She would also kicked her legs as if swimming "frog-style" or waving her hands as if knowing that we were watching her!

The 5th time (5 July 08) was our scheduled detailed scan of her at the 5th month. This time, the scan was longer, about 40 minutes, and we zoomed in to see her little parts - head, spinal cord, arms, hands, fingers, tighs, legs, feet, heart ... etc. Her mass could be detected for the first time - she was 600g!

The 6th time (2 August 08), her gender was confirmed - GIRL!

The 7th time (30 August 08), her mass soared to 1.358kg!

The 8th time (20 September 08), she was growing steadily and had put on more than 600g to a mass of 1.989kg! She was no longer sitting in mummy's tummy in her upright position, instead she had secretly rotated herself to a "head-stand" position!

The 9th time (10 October 08), our gynae called her a "big baby" relative to mummy's size, she was growing fast to a mass of 2.471kg! Despite being in the 34th week, her head had dropped to a low position, indicating that she wants to arrive earlier than her expected due date of 19 November 2008!

The 10th time (24 October 08), mummy's weight dropped by 0.1kg but baby's mass increased by another 500g to a proud mass of 3.091kg! This chubby girl really knows how to absorb nutrients from mummy for her healthy growth! Her head was even lower this time that it couldn't be detected by ultrasound scan on mummy's tummy. The gynae did an internal examination and announced that he could touch her head ... she will be arriving very very soon!

Wow!!! This is really exciting!!! Darling and I can't wait to welcome her to our RS Family! =D

Preparing for the Arrival of our Baby R!

We are very blessed to receive a lot of "hand-me-down" from friends who have been very helpful in gathering their children's stuff, packing them and passing them to us!

I must have been a bad mum-to-be, as my kind friends have to keep reminding me to set a date to get the stuff from them, or for them to pass to me ... they reminded me to better get things ready when I can still move around with my growing tummy!

Daddy-to-be Raymond, just like mummy-to-be Shannon, is a Great Procrastinator! It was only a couple of weeks ago that he removed all his "junk" from the designated children's room (since day 1 when we got our house, the purple room is meant to be for our kids one day, however, it has since been a doggy's room, guests' room, entertainment room from time to time, & finally resigned to its fate as a store room after last Christmas!). With the "junk" relocated to Richards Avenue where our Baby R's grandma stays, and a new coat of paint, we are ready to bring in the babies' stuff (which had been sitting in all the empty corners of our living room) kindly passed to us by Aunties Hwee San, Sharon, Janet & Serene (mummy's friends) and Uncles Michael (daddy's cousin), Rusty and Calvin (daddy's friends).

Since last week when Dr Kenneth Lee announced that Baby R is going to arrive early at the end of this month (or anytime now!) instead of mid-November, we have been frantically trying to get ready Baby R's room, at the same time roping in help from Maternal Grandma to do shopping for mattress, bed sheets, towels, etc.

Praise Lord for our teamwork! Here's our proud list of chores completed:

• Assembling the baby cot


• Buying Toyogo Drawer Chest Set


• Sorting out bags of baby clothes for 0-3mths clothes (those 3-mths onwards ones can still be hidden somewhere..hee)


• Washing, drying and folding baby clothes including mittens, booties, beanies


• Learning to operate the stroller, baby's car seat and rocker bed


• Washing the covers of stroller, baby's car seat & rocker bed


• Categorising the 5 Toyogo Drawers for the baby stuff to go in


• Packing my Baby Bag for admission to hospital for delivery

Gosh... Baby R hasn't arrived... & I'm already exhausted! =P

"Babies" ... Mixed feelings

Teaching two PSLE classes for Chinese this year has inevitably added certain pressure on me, not just in terms of work but on my personal life too. I have this “fanatic motherly” sense of great responsibilities towards my P6 boys. Hence last December, after much consideration; reflection on my own lifestyle; and careful planning of this year’s schedule, I decided to resign from two major church ministries (RCIA & Little Rock Scripture Team) which took place on weekday nights in the church. I was very actively involved in these two ministries previously, such that I was in the church almost every other night and the weekends. However with my new “P6 babies” in mind, I did not dare to take the risk this year to spend so much time elsewhere when I should sleep early to perk myself with lots of energy and “good mood” to take up each day’s challenge with the “P6 babies”. I prayed and discerned that though I felt bad to leave my ministries, I was not out of God’s service, I could still serve the Lord in the area of my vocation as a teacher! Hence I decided to dedicate this year of mine to work doubly hard, not just work for a salary, but work with a purpose to serve the Lord and to help the boys! I was confident that with my commitment and determination to adjust my lifestyle, I would be in top form to be a dedicated and committed P6 teacher.

In term 1, I was very pleased with my own work performance and even change of lifestyle (sleeping early before 11pm and even incorporating 3 days of exercise weekly). Then in March, after one term of bliss, God decided to assign me another vocation - MOTHERHOOD!!

My reaction when I found out that I’m pregnant, was to dig out my only book on pregnancy (a wedding gift from one of my dear colleagues a year ago) and flipped to the page on “Estimated Due Date” to try and calculate whether my baby would be due before or after PSLE period. Phew… what a sign of relief when I saw that my estimated due date would most likely be in November, a month after PSLE, which means that I could still see through my P6 boys’ academic year. Though people around me commented that I’m very “lu-gi” because my maternity leave would fall during the school holidays, I thank God that He’s only sending me the baby after PSLE, so at least I could still deliver my commitment to my P6 boys.

At my first visit to my gynaecologist, I asked him if I could still raise my voice in class and whether it would affect my baby, he gave me the “go ahead”! I was overjoyed! However my joy didn’t last long. One Friday, my pregnancy symptoms decided to sneak in during the seventh week of my pregnancy, I experienced horrible heartburns, poor appetite, vomiting of sourish gastric juice and giddiness … I was on medical leave the following Monday. As much as I wished I could get out of bed and come to school, I couldn’t. At 5.45am, I had to inform via sms, the teacher in charge of planning relief teachers to arrange for relief teacher; colleague Vincent to get assignments from my P6 classroom cupboards for the relief teacher; and colleague Yuriiki to clear up my messy table (I'm one who can work in mess unacceptable by the social standard) to make space for the relief teacher. The following days, though I managed to come to school (surviving through medication), was not a pleasant one as I continued to have those nasty pregnancy symptoms (especially heartburns) while having to put up a strong front in front of my P6 boys.

Since that day when I was on medical leave, I decided to accept the fact that those nasty pregnancy symptoms may be here to stay, what I could do instead, was to be more prepared and organised. I did my readings and followed tips from “experienced mums” on how to lessen morning sickness, such as eating dry salted crackers before getting out of bed (by my bedside then was a box of Meji plain crackers) every morning, so that I won’t feel sick and could get out of bed every morning to come to school. In order to take care of my “P6 babies”, I have also learnt to take better care of myself by making sure that I didn’t overeat (my previous indulgence before my pregnancy) and yet ate smaller meals (like a munch of bread or biscuits every now and then) to prevent heartburns problems.

Next, I had learnt to be more tidy and organised. I used to be very confident that I would be in school everyday and would leave chores like packing the day’s work on the actual day itself. But since then, I’ve decided to clear my desk (to create at least a small space for someone, maybe the relief teacher, to use) each day before I left and packed the stuff for the next day’s lessons into a trolley which my dear husband had gotten for me to use in school. All these were my contingency plans in case I felt or got sick again at the last minute.

I began to learn to accept my dual-vocations as teacher and mother. Thank God my discomfort was not here to stay ... I got much better two weeks later. I learnt too, to continue to be fervent in my prayers each day, asking God to keep me strong and be with me. I’m sure God will have His way, since it is He who gives me my two classes P6 babies and my own baby.

Maternal Instinct...

In late February this year, I got this "maternal instinct" that God may be sending something wonderful to our RS family ... but after 2 "sticks of tests" on 10 March, I wasn't sure if God's gift was on the way... the other line (the pregnancy test window line) seemed too faint to be a true signal ...



The awesome "maternal instinct" grew stronger as the days went by ... though I wasn't sure, that "maternal instinct" urged me to be more careful and I even refrained from savoring a single drop of my favourite alcohol (red wine!) since that "maternal instinct" developed in me...

I simply couldn't contain my curiosity... I prayed to God to give me a distinct answer ... YES or NO? I went ahead to buy another brand of pregnancy test kit ... this time, one which was triple the price of the previous brand I bought but with a reputation of "telling the Truth instantly & accurately"!

On 16 March, a day before Darling's birthday,

God answered, "YES!"

Darling rejoiced!

I pondered...