Seeing little Raychelle grow each day...

Raychelle at Day 1 (6 Nov 08)

1 week-old Raychelle (13 Nov 08)

2 week-old Raychelle (20 Nov 08)

3 week-old Raychelle (28 Nov 08)

4 week-old Raychelle (4 Dec 08)

5 week-old Raychelle (11 Dec 08)

6 week-old Raychelle (18 Dec 08)

7 week-old Raychelle (25 Dec 08)

8 week-old Raychelle (2 Jan 09)

9 week-old Raychelle (9 Jan 09)

10 week-old Raychelle (16 Jan 09)

Dear God, please continue to bless my little darling to grow each day into a healthy, strong, happy & beautiful child of God who will do wonderous & victorious deeds for the love of God...Amen.

Amazing Gift of Motherhood..

Before Raychelle was born, I was never a fan of babies, in fact they scare me! ..hee

Hence my confinement month was indeed a challenging period when I had to adapt to my new role as a mum.. a clueless one, a "gan-cheong spider" one, a "scary-cat" one... yet I managed to rise to the occasion! I bet all mothers do! =D

Now 10 weeks in motherhood, I simply can't describe the incredible emotion felt whenever I hold my baby in my arms & we both gaze into each others' eyes .. I can only say, "Thank you, Lord, for blessing me with this gift of motherhood..."

Parenthood

Our first baby - Raychelle Gerardine Lim (weight 3040 g, length 49cm) has finally arrived on Thursday, 6 November 2008 at 10.28am at Mount Alvernia Hospital.

Life for darling & I has really changed ... ... for the merrier!

10 Things I Miss Most during Pregnancy...

In no order of preference,

1) Gulping ICE COLD BEER with every munch of sinnful deep-fried food
[Consupmtion of alcohol is not advisable during pregnancy as heavy drinking can cause "fetal alcohol syndrome" which may result in a small baby, and often cause defects.]

2) Sipping Red/White WINE with friends around the RS-kopitiam table set amidst the relaxed ambience of the humble-RS-abode
[Same reason as above. It has been a long while since darling and I host any wine chill-out at our place!]

3) Dipping my roti into dark soysauce-&-pepper-flavoured runny HALF BOILED EGGS for breakfast
[Undercooked eggs increase the risk of contracting Salmonella. Contamination with Salmonella bacterium can cause baterial food poisoning which may cause a miscarriage or preterm labour.]

4) Savouring Salmon/Tuna SASHIMI in Japanese Restaurants
[Best to avoid any uncooked food during pregnancy for fear of contracting any bacterial infection.]

5) Slipping my feet into my size-35 HIGH HEELS ranging from 1-to-3-inches tall
[I've stopped wearing high heels during my early pregnancy, as high heels will be difficult to stand and walk well in especially when the feet and back are going to take quite a strain as pregnant me get heavier. Furthermore, due to water retention starting at the beginning of my 3rd trimester, my feet have swelled to size-38! I have passed all my high heels (except my 2 pairs of wedding heels) to my two sisters. Whenever I try to slip a foot into one of my wedding heels, I feel like I'm Cinderella's Step-sister!]

6) Wearing my WEDDING BAND on the fourth finger of my left hand 24hrs-7days a week
[Once again, thanks to water retention that my palms have turned chubby and my fingers look like fat sausages! My wedding band has failed to slide down my finger and gets stuck at the knuckle since August! Maybe even after childbirth, my finger will not "shrink" back to its original size and I will never get to wear my wedding band again!]

7) Falling into a cosy slumber in any POSITIONS (eg. left, right, chest-down, curled...) freely
[A good night's rest can seem an impossible quest, especially during this period of late pregnancy when the bump is enormous!]

8) JUMPING out of bed every morning
[The moment I lie down on bed, it's almost impossible for me to shift any part of my heavy body, what's more to have the agility to leap and jump out of bed! Almost every morning, I will need darling's help to turn my body to one side and gently lift me up into a sitting position, before I can drop my legs down the bed to slowly get down... sigh...]

9) Having the power to delay trips to the lavatory by HOLDING my BLADDER
[As my womb expands and presses on my bladder, the need to urinate frequently becomes a routine, and I simply have no say on delaying any toilet trips not even for a minute once I feel the urge, unless I want to risk peeing into my undies should an unexpected sneeze or laughter explodes!]

10) For me to know ... For you to guess... hee

Newly-arrived October Babies!

Though the expected due date of our Baby R is 19 November 2008, our gynae had informed us during one of my antenatal check-up in the beginning of October that Baby R is expected to arrive earlier in end October due to her low head position. The news really got Darling and I excited and we frantically got ready Baby R's room in an amazingly short period of time (an applausible feat considering that both Darling & I are Great Proscratinator ... even some of our wedding preparations close to two years ago were still undone on the eve of our Big Day!)!

Well, October is over! Here comes November ... Baby R is still happily doing her "head-stand" in mummy's womb, growing chubbier each day! Seems like Baby R truly understands her parents' nature, thus deliberately gave us the wrong signal last month so that history of the Great Proscratinators would not repeat itself and we would not end up doing things last minute or even not have her room and stuff ready when she really arrives!

Anyway, arriving ahead of Baby R in October are two adorable babies - Baby Gal Fang En & Baby Boy Wei Jun! Congratulations to our good friends who are the proud parents of these two lovely bundles of joy!

Congrats to Daddy Jit Kai, Mummy Clarin & GorGor Fang Zhe on the arrival of Baby/Meimei Fang En on 17 October 2008!

Congrats to Daddy Jieqiang & Mummy Peiling on the arrival of their first-born, Baby Wei Jun on 31 October 2008!
May God bless these two lovable babies with healthy growth filled with abundance of love, joy & laughter!

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