Sleep-Deprived Mumbles

2.5 Months More

2007-11-03T17:16:00.000+08:00

As I mentioned before, as my wife’s pregnancy reached its third trimester, we more or less are used to it already and just follow and enjoy the development.

And suddenly it hits us, we are going to bring a life to this world in two and half months. It’s only 2.5 months more.

Are we ready? Have we grown enough? What should we do when the baby is hungry? What are we going to do if the baby cries? What are we going to do if WE cry?

We cannot remember how our parents brought us up. I cannot remember how my mom changed my diaper. I cannot remember whether I actually wore a diaper. We cannot remember what our parents did when we refused to eat, or, more likely, when we cried for more food, every time.

We cannot remember how our parents were so patient when we cried late at night and wake them up. What did they do when they did not know what caused our cries? Well I bet it’s mostly food, but still…

What did our parents gave us when we had fever? Did they panic? Did we panic?

How should we prepare? How could we know whether we are prepared? What will happen when the nurse passes the baby to us?
In just 2.5 months more.

27 Week And Dreaming

2007-11-03T17:04:00.000+08:00

Our baby reaches its 27^th week and this is what happens according to babycentre:

The baby now weighs nearly 2 pounds/ 875 grams and measures 14.5 inches/ 36.6 centimetres from head to toe. Her eyes open and close, she sleeps and wakes at regular intervals and she may suck a finger or thumb.

Sweet dreams, little baby! Some experts believe that babies begin to dream by the 28th week. What do they dream about? No one knows for certain but the brain is active this week as well. The characteristic grooves on the brain's surface start to appear and more brain tissue develops.

The baby is dreaming! Wow! I cannot understand what she’s dreaming as her experience now is basically only playing tug o war using my wife’s cord. Does she dream about us? And how is that possible? She never saw us. She might not even understand what a grown man looks like. Or does she dream about us being the same baby as her? Dreaming that the mom and dad are surrounded by liquid outside her placenta?

Does she dream about how the parents are so happy and filled with joy waiting for her coming into this world? Hope she does. Because it’s not a dream. It’s what happen here outside your world, baby.

26 Weeks and Seeing

2007-10-28T20:47:00.001+08:00

My baby is entering her 26 week and this is what happens according to Baby Center

She is about 14 inches/35.6 centimetres and weighs a little more than 1.6 pounds/ 760 grams. Your baby's eyes begin to open around now. Response to sound grows more consistent toward the end of the seventh month, when the network of nerves to the ear is complete. She also continues to take small breaths and although she's only breathing in water and not air, it's still good practice for when he's born.

She starts opening her eyes. I don’t know whether she can see anything. I don’t know whether she can see beyond the skin of her mom’s tummy. Don’t know whether she can respond to light. But it’s exciting to know that her vision is functioning. Boy do I have a lot of things that I want to show her.

Rude Ride

2007-10-28T20:38:00.000+08:00

When you are riding the MRT during the rush hour, you are in for surprises.

I saw my pregnant wife standing for the whole 45-minute ride.

I saw a small boy standing and looking tired that he needed to lean to her mom.

I saw an old lady standing and carrying walking stick while leaning to the wall

And most of all, I saw many many young working healthy-looking men and women sitting and pretending to sleep, did not care for the others.

Oh man.

Color Me Bad

2007-10-21T13:35:00.000+08:00

If you are wondering how my blog text comes with different shade of green lately, I must tell you that as an experienced blog writer who has written hundreds of posts, I really do not have any idea why.
I just wrote and change the color as usual but somehow the blogger website shows my text in different colors. So I just let it be at this moment and try to make some changes soon. That is if I can remenber.

Talk To You Baby

2007-10-21T13:33:00.000+08:00

Knowing that your baby can now hear you makes a lot of changes. I can now speak to her, although it feels kinda weird talking to my wife’s belly button. I do not know whether I should talk to her from different direction that might have more acoustic advantages, so I just direct my voice at the belly button. I just think of it as a microphone for the baby, for me to communicate my love for the baby, except that the baby does not understand anything that I said.

I heard that it’s good to have a conversation early so that we can create bond even before she’s born. So that’s what I did. I talked to her every night before bed. Some even said that I should read a story book to her at this point. But since I don’t have any children story book, and at this point I cannot remember any fairy tales, except Superman vs Doomsday, I just talk to her the same thing over and over again every night, like about how’s my day, about our plan for her, and about how painful my back is because of the position that I need to take for speaking to my wife’s tummy.

23, 24, 25 Weeks And Being Late

2007-10-21T13:21:00.001+08:00

I now that I have not written any blog lately, due to a very good and valid reason, I am lazy. That's why I am late in informing what's happening in my wife's tummy according to Baby Center. So here they are:

23 Weeks

Your baby now weighs a little over one pound/ 500 grams and measures about 11.4 inches/ 29 centimetres from crown to heel. Her hearing is well established and she can make out a distorted version of your voice, the beating of your heart and your stomach rumblings. Loud noises often heard in utero, such as the barking of a dog next door or the roar of a vacuum cleaner, probably won't bother your child when she hears them outside the womb.

24 Weeks

Your fetus weighs more than 1.3 pounds/ 600 grams. Though she still has little body fat and her skin is thin and fragile, she's now well-proportioned. Her brain is growing rapidly, and she is starting to fill the space in your uterus. From crown to heel she could measure 11.8 inches / 30 centimetres. He may also be developing a weakness for sweets. Taste buds are now forming, and, believe it or not, acquiring a sweet tooth is all part of it.

25 Weeks

The baby now weighs nearly 1.5 pounds / 660 grams and is approximately 13.5 inches/ 35 centimetres long from crown to heel. He makes breathing movements but has no air in his lungs yet. If you shine a light on your abdomen, your baby will turn his head, which according to researchers, means his optic nerve is working.

Cook Me Down

2007-10-21T13:10:00.001+08:00

You might wonder as this moment what is happening in our expecting days. What beautiful maternal things that happen in our life. What new experience that we share together. What kind of home appliances that my wife throws at me because of the mood swing.

Well sorry, my wife does not do that. At least not now, when her tummy size still doesn't carry her down. So we are happy everyday.

What my wife is busy with at the moment is learning to cook. She diligently search the Internet for Indonesian food recipes and try them on the weekend.

She tries new recipes every week, from chicken noodle to Indonesian snacks, happily and eagerly experimenting new ingredients. It's like a hunter trying to catch a new prey, except that in hunting, the animal can be thrown away after being shot, whereas in my case I need to finish the food no matter what.

But fortunately my wife learnt fast and her cooking is more than edible. I enjoyed eating them, especially the deep fried and all the unhealthy food. And when she showed me the cost of the ingredients, I decided that it must be the correct way to eat.

Let's just hope that my wife doesn't suddenly want to eat healthy.

Blog Lazy

2007-10-21T13:05:00.000+08:00

I really do want to write blog more often, but unfortunately the work that I have now is taking the time that I usually take to write my blog. And on the weekend I usually am too lazy to face my computer because I have been looking at the monitor for the whole week and I don't want my eyes to look more and more like Garfield. So I watch TV instead.

Furthermore, usually I write my blog on my bus/MRT trip. But since now my workplace is only 10-minute-ride away, I don't have enough time to write a descent blog, not that all my blogs are decent, but still...

I am not so sure how other blog writers of my caliber can keep up with writing as often during their busy schedule, mostly of attending their kindergarten classes, but I surely would like to find out.

So I apologize to all the readers for not being able to write as often. Hope you can still have other entertainment source for your free time.

22 Weeks And Biting

2007-10-03T19:33:00.000+08:00

This is what happens to my baby on her 22th week on my wife’s tummy:

The first signs of teeth are now appearing in the form of tooth buds beneath the gum line. Babies' first teeth usually come through by six months. The baby now weighs almost one pound / 430 grams, measures nearly 11 inches/ just over 27 centimetres long from crown to heel, and is proportioned like a newborn, albeit a thinner version since her baby fat hasn't yet developed. Although she's getting heavier every day, her skin still appears wrinkled because she needs to gain more weight. The lips are distinct and the eyes are formed.

Now my baby has teeth. Now my baby can bite. Now my baby is starting to turn into what her father and mother are. Big Eaters.

Gynae Trip - 20 Week

2007-09-30T20:06:00.001+08:00

My last trip to the Gynae was fun, very fun.

We started the visit by going through a series of USG scan on my wife’s tummy, which was conducted by a very nice nurse.

Yes she was very nice, because she tried to scan the baby many many times, but to no avail, because, just as she said, the baby was very active. Our baby just kept moving inside and refused to stay still. So cute.

Well at least for me and my wife the baby was cute. We could look at the monitor how the baby kept kicking and moving her hands. But for the nurse I think it’s as frustrating as it could be. She said the baby moved so fast. Too fast for her to scan. But she kept smiling all the time, clicking and moving her device to catch a proper scan. And failing, And moving again. And she kept smiling all the time, although I thought I saw her grasping the device tighter and tighter.

But at the end she managed to get all the pictures needed to make an examination for the Gynae. And she was nice enough to capture a picture of her only for us (see below) although the pose is not needed by the Gynae. But the happy thing is that the nurse said that although the baby moved very fast, but she gave a nice position for her to capture the picture. If the baby moved the other way, it would take a long time for her to catch the picture of the heart. In fact, at one time she wanted to scan the face of the baby, and suddenly our baby just tilted her face toward the scan, to show her face to us. A show off like a father, I said.

So, although the nurse was trying so hard to do the scanning, we were very happy inside, to see how active the baby was. We saw her moving her hands in front of her face and her legs kicking up and down. A hyperactive like her mother, I said.

Then we went up to see the Gynae to see him examine the results. It was a short one, because everything was normal and all the measurements are okay. And we were happy again. The Gynae also confirmed that the baby’s a female. And we were happy again and again.

Thank God for all of those, for all the experience, for all the happiness.

Back To Normal, Sort Of

2007-09-30T20:04:00.000+08:00

Every pregnant woman would think that the fifth month is an important month because she has reached half of the journey to welcome a new life into the family. And every expecting father, at the week 20, usually forgets that the wife is pregnant, because at this week, the wife has mostly been back to the normal self.

There’s no more nauseous, no more throwing up, no more hitting the husband with ironing board because of the mood swing. Luckily there’s a bump on the wife’s tummy that reminds the husband that the wife is creating a life inside her. Or that the wife has been enjoying her jelly donuts too much.

So, most of things are back to normal. That also means that my wife is now very active again, refusing to sit down and wanting to do housework, because she really enjoys making the house clean. And because she thinks that me doing the housework more or less brings the same result as a lemur doing a calculus.

But I keep asking her to just sit down and let me do the work for her. And she then sits down for five minutes, then she does another housework. So we just make an agreement where my wife does several houseworks like cooking and ironing, whereas I do several others like doing the laundry and sweeping. So that means if you happen to visit our house, expect to see the floor covered by newspaper to hide the dirt.

Blurred Mind

2007-09-24T20:34:00.000+08:00

Now let me tell you the story of my visit to the Gynae, on the week 20 of my wife’s pregnancy. It happened more than a week ago. It just so happens that I did not have the time to write about it. Well, actually I did. The correct sentence should be I did not have the energy to do it.

I have not gotten used to the working lifestyle of waking up at 6 a.m. in the morning to brush my teeth, take a bath, eat my breakfast and go to the office, and not always in that order, because I usually have not had my coffee that early.

So usually I cannot focus my mind the whole day. Sometimes the two gallons of coffee that I consume helps, but sometimes my mind just wandering around without clear pattern. Mmm, just like now, I wanted to write about my visit to the Gynae, but ended up talking about,… hmm, I cannot even remember what I was talking about.

I guess that means I need to postpone writing about the Gynae trip. Also, I have not scanned the ultrasound photo of my baby. I wanted to scan it but I always ended up turning on my microwave oven. That’s how unfocused my mind is these days.

21 Weeks And Hearing

2007-09-23T19:47:00.000+08:00

Our baby is now 21 weeks old and this is what’s happening to her, according to BabyCenter:

Your baby can now hear your conversations, although in a distorted way. Your baby has also become a thumb-sucker. If you talk, read, or sing to your baby, expect her to hear you. Some studies have found that newborns will suck more vigorously when read to from a book they heard frequently in utero. If you want to try, pick a book now and read it out loud. Make sure you won't mind reading it over and over once the baby is here. It may be your baby's favourite bedtime story for a long time after birth

Ok, now the baby can hear. That means I’m no longer able to play Linkin Park when my wife is around, no longer free to gossip with my wife, and no longer allowed to sing in the bathroom.

The last one was already been asked by my wife a long time ago, but I always ignored her. But since now the baby can also hear my singing and therefore risk ruining her musical ability and taste for the rest of her life, I’d better stop my humming and singing in the house. The world might be a better place after all.

Touched By An Angel

2007-09-17T20:32:00.001+08:00

The major development that happened to my wife’s pregnancy was that we could feel the baby moved. I read that some mothers could only feel the movement after the sixth month and some could only feel butterflies in her stomach. But it turned out that our baby decided that she wanted to move early and wildly.

So one day, my wife told me that she felt like someone touched the inside of her tummy. And upon hearing the extraordinary news, I immediately said to her,”Oh” and continued watching TV, because after the amount of food that we consumed together, even I felt like having an overactive hamster in my tummy. But then she said it was different, it really felt like the baby knocking on the tummy. Then I turned excited.

I then touched my wife tummy on the location that she pointed. Of course at first I could not feel anything. But after a few minutes of patience and love, I could feel on my hand… nothing.

Unfortunately the baby decided to only let the mother felt her at that time.

But on the next few days, I could really felt her. It was like a bump from inside my wife’s tummy. I put my hand on a certain area of my wife’s tummy, then suddenly it went “bump” from the inside. And it really felt amazing.

It’s not different from any simple knock on your hand, but knowing that it was made by the baby just change the whole thing, gives an entirely different meaning to it. The baby moves, along with our hearts.

20 Weeks And Halfway There

2007-09-17T20:31:00.001+08:00

Our baby is now 20 weeks old in my wife’s tummy and this is what’s happening to her, according to BabyCenter:

Your baby is swallowing and processing more amniotic fluid this week. Even before birth, if babies taste sweetness, they will swallow more quickly!.

The baby's swallowing more this week, good practice for the digestive system. Your baby measures about 6.5 inches/ 16.5 centimetres from crown to rump and is steadily gaining weight.

The baby has started to learn how to swallow. Knowing how the father and the mother are, I guess she will have no problem in swallowing and eating.

Wow, it’s the 20^th week, we are halfway there. Gosh, how the time flies. 20 more weeks before the baby is arriving. 20 weeks left for us to learn to be a parent. We don’t know whether we are going to be ready and well-learnt for her. I guess there is no such thing as “ready” in this case. Just one thing for sure, we are going to do our best.

Hope that’s enough.

Working Hours

2007-09-16T07:58:00.000+08:00

Ok, I am working the normal working hour, which, using Singapore standard, means from 8 am to 2 am everyday. But fortunately, since I am still new at the job, I still can go home quite early. But still, I cannot write the blog as often as I wish I could. So I am sorry to say that the frequency of this blog is going to reduce significantly.

It’s a sad thing because there are some important things going on in my wife’s pregnancy, like baby’s move, the next trip to gynae (again) and the usual growth of the baby. So I hope I can have more time soon to update this blog. In the mean time, why don’t you pay me, uhm, sorry I meant pray for me, to have more free time then.

19 Weeks And Growing

2007-09-10T20:23:00.001+08:00

This is what I read from Baby Center about my baby:

Your baby's head is buzzing with activity. The nerve cells for each of the senses - taste, smell, hearing, seeing, touch - are now developing in specialised areas of the brain.
The fetus measures around 6 inches/ 15 centimetres long from crown to rump and weighs about 9 ounces/ 240 grams.

My baby's brain is starting to functioning and she started to feel. Wow.
On the same subject, my baby is more active now. My wife can feel her movement inside. Sometimes she feels the baby is touching her from the inside.
You might have heard about it from your pregnant friend. But you really need to experience it yourself to be amazed. Just like I did.

Pregnancy Tips & Tricks 5

2007-09-10T19:10:00.000+08:00

A pregnant woman should not take over-the-counter medicine because the formula might harm the baby. It's like telling Michael Jackson to keep a distance from children.

Because pregnant women tend to have runny and stuffy nose more often. In my wife's case, it's every morning. She always wakes up with a tsunami inside her nose and it sometimes starts from the night before. So, I really want to give her more medicine to make her recover. But it's really not advisable. When the nose is really in a bad shape, she usually takes a sick leave. But the nose just keeps flooding the next day, and somehow my wife has gotten used to it. It's just me that still worried all the time.

The best way to handle this problem, as I read on the Internet, is to have a hot water in a bowl and to have her inhale the hot vapor. So we tried it last night. And it actually helped. At least for me. My stuffy nose felt better. My wife, on the other hand, although she said her nose felt a little better, I could still hear her trying to hold the flooding inside. Poor her. Hope I can find a better way on the Internet. But for now, sniffing hot water is the only small remedy, as small as giving a tiny umbrella in a tsunami victim.

Maternal Attractions

2007-09-10T19:03:00.000+08:00

Now that both of us are going to be a parent, suddenly the attraction towards babies around us is increasing. Both ways. Now I keep looking at baby and play faces with her when there is one around when I take MRT. And babies are somehow more attracted to me and easily laugh to me. This was rarely happen in the past, Babies only laughed at me when I was mistaken as her Panda doll.

It also happens to my wife. Small children now somehow just approach her and sometime hug her without any reason whatsoever. Maybe because the children can sense maternal instinct in her, maybe they can sense a little sister in her and wants to play, or maybe because she's holding a pack of candy at that time. But the point is that we now really become child conscious. And it’s not a bad thing. I just love children these days. The way they smile, the way they move, and the way they scream at MRT and make other passengers look violently at the parents.

Hope that our baby will like us the way we will like her.

Pregnancy Tips & Facts 4

2007-09-04T22:20:00.000+08:00

A pregnant woman should not wear high heels. Well, I don't know why women want to wear such painful torturing shoes in the first place. And now when a woman is pregnant, high heel is definitely a no-no.

The most problematic body area in a pregnant lady now is the lower back, along with the tummy, eyes, nose, legs, arms, breasts, and so on. So wearing high heels might give your lower back a pressure. I don't know how it can happen because I never wear high heels before, except when a lot of vodka involved.

Then, as it's always hard being pregnant, my wife heard that wearing a flat shoe was also bad for the lower back. So at that time we were confused of what shoes to wear. So again, I surfed the Internet. Then I found out that low heels and flat shoes were find. It depends on my wife. If she finds low heels are more comfortable then it's okay. Just try and see the result. So my wife is now taking low heels and flat shoes, and put all the high heels behind. She put it in a locked door with my vodka.

Work Start

2007-09-04T22:19:00.000+08:00

I usually write my blog on my bus/MRT ride. But now I am working in an office that's only 5 minutes ride-away from my home. So I might not be able to write as often. Except if quit my job and become a professional blog writer. Yeap, I think I can do that. I only need a little push to motivate me. And thousands of readers every day. Ah well…

Pregnancy Tips & Facts 3

2007-08-31T18:05:00.000+08:00

One thing that a husband is afraid of from his pregnant wife is the mood swing. And trust me, he has every reason to be afraid, because I don't know how to handle it. Even after reading several pregnancy books, the safest reaction to a wife's mood swing is to collapse to the floor from lethal disease. It might be painful and tragic, but it's much less painful than to deal with the monstrous episodes.

The mood swings can come and go just like a storm, except that people can predict when the storm comes whereas no one can tell when the next mood swing will hit. The pregnant wife can look cheerful and happy at one time, and suddenly BAM! she cries her eyes out. It could be caused by a very simple thing like running out of salt or the fact that today is Thursday.

One author of the book that I read suggested that the husband needs to be supportive and he also needs to just be there, listen to her and hug her compassionately. That author should root in hell.

Because most of the time the cause of the mood swing is the husband. So hugging her at that episode would be as risky as playing tag with a bear. But you might want to try being supportive. It might work sometimes. But the main key to this symptom is just to keep your cool. Understand the she is having a mood swing, so be patience and don't escalate the situation by shouting back at her. Then you can collapse.

Pregnancy Tips & Facts 2

2007-08-30T11:24:00.000+08:00

Another fact that I want to share is regarding the morning sickness. My wife fortunately did not experience too much of it and only threw up three times. But still, I read a lot of books about it until I myself got my share of the nauseous.

The wife needs to fill her stomach constantly. Never leave the tummy empty as it will trigger the nauseous feeling. So keep a lot of snack within reach, remember to fill yourself from time to time so that your weight will increase tremendously and the nauseous may be subdued. Or may be not.

Sometimes the sickness will still hit you even when you are full. So try can try to eat something with ginger. My wife enjoys hot traditional meal that is called ahboleng in Singapore, or onde in Indonesia. You can also make the soup by boiling water with a lot of ginger and brown sugar. Sleeping pills would be a nice addition to the soup but she cannot take medicine.

You also need to fill your tummy even before you get up from your bed. You can prepare a pack of ginger biscuit near your bed so that when you wake up you can easily reach for it from your bed and find out that you fat husband ate the whole pack last night.

Pregnancy Tips & Facts

2007-08-30T11:06:00.000+08:00

One of the facts that I learn about pregnancy is that a pregnant wife needs to avoid sleeping flat on her back. I tried to find the reason from the one source that is dependable, reliable, and always trying to sell me Viagra: the Internet.

I later found out that sleeping flat on her back might hinder the flow of nutrients and blood to the placenta. It’s still okay to lay on her back with several pillow supports, but avoid lying flat.

So what you, the husband, need to do is to tell your wife,”Don’t sleep on your back because it might harm the baby” several times every night until she gets annoyed and hit you with her bedside lamp. So it might not be a good idea.

Another way to do this is to put a pillow behind her when she sleeps on her side. That way the pillow will prevent her from rolling over to her back. You might want to put harder pillow, or if all fails, some durians.

Then if later she still rolls to her back, you need to push her to roll again, which will probably wake her up and throw you out of the bedroom. So you need to discuss first whether it’s okay to wake her up if that happens. She, the happy and loving mother, will surely say it’s okay. But still, move all sharp objects from the bedroom

Pregnancy Help

2007-08-30T10:48:00.000+08:00

As there are some blog readers that have no experience in dealing with pregnancy before, or in dealing with being smacked on the head by a pregnant wife before, this blog is trying to give as many tips and facts as possible so that when in the future you are pregnant, you can easily go back to this blog and see that the pregnancy tips and facts that I give are totally useless.

It’s because there are so many thing that we do but we do not understand why. But we still do it anyway, because we are an expecting couple, and thus we have the right to behave irrationally.

We can do tons of stuffs that we don’t understand, just because somewhere there are some other expecting couples who do those things. And we don’t want our child to be lacking behind because she does not have the same crazy treatment experienced by other fetus. So we end up doing a lot of stuff that might sound ridiculous when you first start doing them, but after a while, you will find that those things are actually just plain old stupid.

But that’s what’s done for the baby by us, the parents-to-be. So God help us.

Back To Life, Office Life

2007-08-29T15:02:00.000+08:00

I have not talked too much about what happens in my life except for my marriage life and wife’s pregnancy. Part of it because I am a shy and introvert person who does not like people poking around my private life, but mostly it’s because my life is kind of boring.

But something new is happening next week. I am going to start a new job. I have this old job where my income was based mostly on commission and I worked mostly from home. But now that I have a baby coming, I decided that it’s better for me to work at an office all day, than to stay at home and hear the baby cry all day while I work.

No sorry, I am joking. Of course I want to stay at home and work next to my baby all day. I will miss her if I go out working. But now I can no longer afford to have up-and-down income from the commission and profit sharing. So I need a steady income to buy the diapers, milk, clothes, strollers, rattlers, soft toys, sleeping pills, etc. I also need to find a new and bigger house to cater the baby and her grandparents who are going to visit the baby a lot.

So luckily, I could find a job relatively quick and will start work next Monday. So I sadly say that I might not be able to blog as often as I do now. But I will try to write it on my way home everyday and upload it often. Might be often as now though. So your understanding and patience and, more importantly, cash donation, are needed.

18 Weeks And Kicking

2007-08-29T11:18:00.000+08:00

The baby is entering its 18 weeks now. And as usual, this is what’s happening inside my wife’s tummy:

Your baby is approximately 6 inches/ 14.2 centimeters long from crown to rump and she weighs about 7 ounces/ 190 grams.

Although things may seem calm on the surface, your little one is kicking, flexing, reaching, rolling and even thumb-sucking now

Well, wow, cannot imagine what she is doing now. Can’t wait to see her rolling and sucking her thumb. We are going to have a full scan on the week 20. Maybe by then we can see her in different poses, although all of which might make no different, as they will only look like a milk spills on the screen to me. Must learn how to squint at the screen properly.

Customer's Rights and Thief's Rights

2007-08-28T11:13:00.001+08:00

I know some criminals are desperate. But are they also this desperate? Or should they be any IQ test before somebody commits any crime?

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli police arrested a woman who stole a pair of Crocs shoes when she returned to the store hours later to exchange them because they did not fit her son, a police spokesman said Friday.

"The store clerk identified her from security camera footage and called us," said Amos Shimoni, police spokesman in the northern town of Safed.

(From Reuters)

Shared Feeling, And Zit

2007-08-28T08:55:00.000+08:00

Another fact that you need to know about a pregnant woman is about the glowing skin. Because of the hormone that she releases and the more oil the her skin produces, a pregnant lady can have her skin looks like glowing and more radiant. That just drives us crazy.

It’s because that doesn't apply to all pregnant ladies. Some women might instead have a series of pimples on her face. Sadly, my wife is in this category. So now she has a few small pimples on her face. And that is not the bad news.

What is worse is that I, the innocent husband, also grow pimples. I don't know how and I couldn't find any explanation in the Internet or books, but now I have several pimples on my face.

I understand that a husband needs to be involved and share the beautiful experience, but is it really the way? My tummy grows just as my wife's, I am easily tired just like her, I eat what my wife is craving for, but should I also grow pimples just like her? All these without having the benefit of people offering their seats for me on MRT.

Jokes

2007-08-27T16:15:00.000+08:00

The kindergarten class had a homework assignment to find out about something exciting and relate it to the class the next day. When the time came for the little kids to give their reports, the teacher was calling Johnnie.
Little Johnnie walked up to the front of the class, and with a piece of chalk, made a small white dot on the blackboard, then sat back down. Well the teacher couldn't figure out what Johnnie had in mind for his report on something exciting, so she asked him just what that was.
"It's a period" reported Johnnie.
"Well I can see that" she said. "but what is so exciting about a period."
"Damned if I know" said Johnnie, "but this morning my sister said she missed one. Then Daddy had a heart attack, Mommy fainted and the man next door shot himself."

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

The room was full of pregnant women and their partners, and the Lamaze class was in full swing. The instructor was teaching the women how to breathe properly, along with informing the men how to give the necessary assurances at this stage of the plan.

The teacher then announced, "Ladies, exercise is good for you. Walking is especially beneficial. And, gentlemen, it wouldn't hurt you to take the time to go walking with your partner!"

The room really got quiet. Finally, a man in the middle of the group raised his hand.

"Yes?" replied the teacher.

"Is it alright if she carries a golf bag while we walk?"

Concern Unlimited

2007-08-25T16:02:00.001+08:00

As a parents-to-be, sometimes we think and imagine how becoming parents is going to be. Sometimes we ended up very happy and excited, and some other times we ended up looking at each other with face expression that says "Gosh, whose idea is it to have a baby?"

We certainly do not know how to take care of a baby. We would not know what we should do if the baby cries. Should we change the diaper? Should we feed her? What if she keeps on crying? Should we feed her more? What food should we give? Pizza usually works for me, but will it work for her? Or does it mean that she wants to play, should we give her Barbie? Would she end up eating the Barbie’s head instead?

There are so many things to worry about when we are thinking about the baby, although the many happy things are also come to mind. So, maybe we should read books about pregnancy less and read more about baby care. We should think more about how to raise the baby. We have had several discussions about this though, and so far, we have come up with some solutions, the best of which of course the simplest, which is to let our parents take care of the baby. Yay

Ouch

2007-08-24T16:06:00.000+08:00

For all the men in the world, I say, "OOUUUWWW!"

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A woman set fire to her ex-husband's penis as he sat naked watching television and drinking vodka, Moscow police said Wednesday.

Asked if the man would make a full recovery, a police spokeswoman said it was "difficult to predict."

The attack climaxed three years of acrimonious enforced co-habitation. The couple divorced three years ago but continued to share a small flat, something common in Russia where property costs are very high.

"It was monstrously painful," the wounded ex-husband told Tvoi Den newspaper. "I was burning like a torch. I don't know what I did to deserve this."

17 Weeks And Beating

2007-08-23T23:55:00.000+08:00

My baby-to-be is entering her 17th week yesterday. And this is what's happening according to Babycenter.com:

Your baby is now nearly 5.5 inches/ 13 centimeters long from crown to rump and weighs approximately 5 ounces/ 140 grams... With the help of a special stethoscope, you can now hear your baby's heartbeat.

I actually forgot to tell you that yes, we heard the baby's heartbeat. The Gynae put a strange-looking mic on my wife's tummy and suddenly we could hear...... nothing.
It's because he still needed to find where the heart was. So after he tried several times, we finally could hear it.

Remember the time when you tried to hear your heart beat for the first time and you were amazed that your heart could produce a hard bee-dub, bee-dub sound? Well, it was totally not like that.
What we heard instead was a fast swooshing sound. The baby's heart beats almost twice as fast as the mommy's, so the sound that we heard was not as we expected. But it was amazing anyway. It's great to know that the heart was working and it was amazing to feel and hear the life inside.

Discount? Yeah... Right

2007-08-23T17:13:00.000+08:00

A few months back a cinema chain in Singapore just celebrated its birthday. So it ran a win & scratch promo so that, after years of enjoying the loyalty of its customers, it can reap more money from them.

I, the naive customers, was interested in this promo and got several $2 vouchers for movie tickets.

Unfortunately, the voucher could not be used on the peak hour, which I found out the hard way, in front of ticket counter when I was about to buy tickets for Harry Potter two weeks ago. So today I was planning to use the voucher to watch The Bourne Ultimatum, on weekdays, at 1 pm. I was sure that I would be able to use the voucher at that hour, which proved that I had a peanut for a brain.

Of course I still could not use it. To my surprise, when I was near the counter, I saw an A4-size sign that said the voucher could only be used for 4 films only, and surprisingly, 3 of them were no longer played or shown there (really). And I pointed that out to the staff, so later when I walked pass the counter, the sign was no longer there (again, really).

The staff said that the voucher could only be used to watch old movie. So at the end I still ended up paying the full price at this cinema, which for courtesy reason, I won't mention in this blog, except that its initial is GV and it’s name sounds like Volden Gillage.

Well maybe it's my fault, thinking that this promo was for the benefit of the customers, whereas I should have known better that it's for making money. But unfortunately I could not do anything about it. As a wise and mature adult, I could not scream there and make demand. No, so I will just avoid this cinema from now on. And maybe pee on its seats.

Baby Scan

2007-08-22T13:06:00.001+08:00

As promised in my blog yesterday, these are the pictures of the baby scan.

These two pictures were taken on 30 July. There were 6 more pictures like this.
As you can see, the pictures look nicer because it used more sophisticated (and darn expensive) machine. So, as a result, the pictures show more details.
You could more or less see the shape of the head, with the mouth and the nose, the tummy, and, if you cross your eyes, the map of California.

And the picture below is the scan taken on 18 August. It used different machine so it's more blurred. But as you can see, the baby's growing, especially the body.
Some said you could see the little fingers, near the head, whichever one the head is. My wife told me that the head was the round shape on the right side of the screen. But I am still figuring out whether the machine did not accidentally capture the picture of my wife's shirts buttons instead.

Nice Nice Baby

2007-08-21T14:04:00.000+08:00

Remember the last time we went to the gynae we found out that the baby was very nice to us, helping in the examination by positioning herself accordingly? Well, of course from there we thought that the baby was obedient, nice, smart and sweet. But some of you might think that it’s only a coincidence, you party poopers!

But when on Saturday we went to see the gynae again, it happened again. The gynae told us that he wanted to scan my wife’s tummy to check the sex of the baby. In order to do that, the baby must be open her legs wide in a certain position, such as the baby sitting and pointing its finger at its groin, because that’s the only way I could figure out something from the screen full of dots.

And when the gynae started scanning, we could see that the baby had opened its legs wide. When I said “we”, I meant the gynae and my wife. I was still figuring out which part of the screen that I should look into.

“Oh look the baby shows me”, the gynae said, when he saw the baby just sat there opening her legs right away.

Then he moved the mouse pointer to an area on the screen. “See anything sticking out?” he asked. My wife was so excited to see the image, and said, ”No”. “Me neither”, said the gynae, ”Then it’s probably a girl”. And my wife smiled.

And I also smiled, although I was still trying to figure out which parts of that image were the legs. I only saw a figure like a “C” on the screen, which my wife later told me were the image of the legs, taken from the bottom. That still confused me.

Then the gynae, as usual, took my baby’s measurement and scan its head and body, which I will post later. But for now, I am just so glad that the baby was so nice, putting herself in the right position for the scan, and that she was fine. Thank God.

Hope she continues to be nice and fine, and next time she could point her finger at the point that I should look into on the screen, and hold a sign “This is my leg”.

100 Children

2007-08-21T10:33:00.000+08:00

Birth control kit must be very expensive there.

DUBAI (Reuters) - A one-legged Emirati father of 78 is lining up his next two wives in a bid to reach his target of 100 children by 2015, Emirates Today reported on Monday.

Daad Mohammed Murad Abdul Rahman, 60, has already had 15 brides although he has to divorce them as he goes along to remain within the legal limit of four wives at a time.

"In 2015 I will be 68 years old and will have 100 children," the local tabloid quoted Abdul Rahman as saying. "After that I will stop marrying. I have to have at least three more marriages to hit the century."

Abdul Rahman said his large family lived in 15 houses. He supports them with his military pension and the help of the government of Ajman, one of seven emirates that comprise the UAE.

(from Reuters)

Gynae Trip, The Third

2007-08-20T10:40:00.000+08:00

We finally went to see the gynecologist again on Saturday. This was the third gynae visit for me and so I thought I was getting good at this and had known the drill, since what I did were basically standing around and looking for free stuff.

So my wife was the one who did most of the job. She again went through some tests. Urine test, blood pressure test etc, while I, the supporting husband, caringly and considerately guarded her seats, because the waiting room was so crowded. So I just sat there and buried my head into a women’s magazine to avoid people staring at me for taking two spaces. But finally, after I read one or two tricks about mascara from the magazine, the nurse called us and brought us to see the Doctor.

We were only inside for about ten minutes, but we found out that the baby was fine and growing, which basically just made our day.

We were so happy that we did not even care that it was raining outside. We just walked around the building happily enjoying our time. Plus we got a chicken puff on our hands, so everything was nice and we were happy the whole day J

More on the doctor’s scan result later.

Independence Day

2007-08-17T12:52:00.000+08:00

Today is Indonesian’s Independence Day. The day when the Indonesians commemorate the struggle and spirits of our national heroes by pretending to be sick to avoid standing under the sun during the flag ceremony.

Today is surely a big event in Indonesia, where there are a lot of celebrations, festivities, games held in many areas. But what about the Indonesians who live abroad? What does 17 August mean to them. Well, some might say not much. There is no flag ceremony here, except in the Embassy, and there is no festivities happening. Some even forget that today is the Independence Day.

But there are still many Indonesians who show a heartfelt reaction toward their Independence Day, mostly in the form of,” Gosh, how come we do not get a day off today!” (as today is a public holiday back home).

Some Indonesians actually did go to the Embassy to participate in the flag ceremony, and some Indonesian’s religious groups had a get together to pray for the country. So, it’s a relieve to know that the Indonesians here still remember where they are from.

And me? I am of course working. Gosh, how come we do not get a day off today?

Electrified

2007-08-16T15:31:00.000+08:00

Electricity in India. I am selling candles.

Med Exam Shame

2007-08-16T12:48:00.000+08:00

I went through a medical examination yesterday. It’s a routine check that many people have gone through many many times. But still, any trip to a clinic always scares me, as I am afraid that for whatever reason, the doctor might pull a syringe and give a shot.
“Now, you need to fill this registration form, but first, we need to give you a jab to ensure you don’t get plastmizteryxmezia from the pen. Give me your hands.”

Fortunately no injection took place, because I don’t remember passing out from the fear of needle. But I wish I had, because what happened was more humiliating.
The clinic that I went to was a small clinic with limited facilities. Sure it had X-ray machines, weight scale and eye test equipments, and my examination went fine. But it lacked one important facility that must be had by all clinics. A toilet.

Yes, this clinic did not have a toilet. So when the clerk there asked me to fill up a cup, I did not where to do it. I could do it right there, but it would not be a fun experience, especially when I need to wait for court’s sentence after that. So I went to the toilet at the MRT station, a place where even a cockroach refused to visit because it’s too nasty.
So I needed to fill a cup but the toilets were awful. So I used the urinal instead, which made other people in that toilet stared at me strangely, as I would if I saw a man contain his urine in a cup. So I just held my head low and walked away as fast as I could, carrying a cup of my urine. It was probably one of the strangest moments of my life.

16th Week

2007-08-14T20:45:00.000+08:00

Our baby-to-be is entering its 16th week today. And this is how it develops this week, from babycenter uk.

Your baby is now about the size of an avocado. In or out of the womb, babies are playful creatures. Yours may already have discovered his first toy -- the umbilical cord -- which he'll enjoy pulling and grabbing.

The baby clearly does not do very much week after week. But still, any changes that happen to her just make my wife goes, “Sooooooo cute!”
..Well, okay, I also went like that sometimes, but very rarely. ... Okay, okay, not rarely, it happened sometimes. ....mmm, quite often in fact..... okay, darn it! My wife and I said together,”Sooo cute!” Happy now?

I am losing my masculine gene (which was not that many to start with) every time I read about the baby. I should go and do more masculine thing after that, like watching Monster Truck show while scratching myself and burping.

Last Wed Help For The Year

2007-08-13T14:50:00.000+08:00

Have you ever experienced the great feeling of starting your week on Monday morning? Feeling energized instead of lazy? Ready to tackle the workload at the office instead of missing the pillow on your bed? Have you ever experienced that great thrill to welcome your week?

Yeap, me neither.

I woke up sleepy, groggy and with muscle ache all over my body because I worked them hard last Saturday when I helping my friend’s church wedding.

Yes I was involved in another wedding. But this one is kind of special because:
1. This is the last wedding that I would be involved in for this year.
2. A lot of people helped willingly
3. The wedding venue looked like it’s just been hit by a meteor

The church was under renovation and there were a lot of spots that needed to be touched up. So the committee started early to apply some decorations to the church. We decided to sweep and mop the floor first because of the dust from the construction. Of course by “we” I meant the women. The guys just looked right and left and asked,” What dust?” But we then mopped the floor anyway, because we wanted the wedding to go as beautifully as it could. Plus the women had scissors in their hands when they told us to mop.

Then we needed to cover some spoilt tiles and walls, moved a lot of tables and chairs, prepared sound system, oversaw decorations and caterers, placed logistic items, and other things that I might have missed because I think I passed out several times.
No, sorry, I was fine. Tired but fine and had fun. And it was not that bad at the end, because all the committee worked wonders. Nobody was waiting for instructions and they just moved when they saw something to take care of. So everything went smoothly and well.

And congratulations to B & Y, enjoy your blissful new life. May your marriage blessed with happiness, laughter and many many children .

Girls Girls Girls

2007-08-10T12:56:00.000+08:00

When I told people about the sex of my baby, they usually reply by asking me another question,”How come your tummy is now bigger than your wife’s?”

No, sorry, not that. Although it happened a few times. The next thing that people usually ask me is which that I prefer, a baby girl or a baby boy. I usually answer it does not matter. I am totally okay with both, because no matter what the sex is, it’s still going to cry at night, have its diapers changed, and try to put its feet to its mouth all the time. So it rea;;y does not make so much of a difference to me.

But once I answered that, people usually asked me again as if they were not sure that I was happy with the sex. Well, it might be because the way I answered it nonchalantly, or might be because a baby boy was usually more preferable among the Chinese. But not for me actually. I am really really okay with having a baby girl, or a boy (since the result was not 100% sure).
And in this modern world, having a baby girl is also fine as now females are getting more and more dominant (If you don’t believe that, you should see my wife in the kitchen). So you can ask people who only have baby girls whether they are happy with that.
They will say that they are.
Really? … Are they sure? … With baby girl?

Sick Sick Sick

2007-08-09T19:45:00.000+08:00

I could not write my blog yesterday and most of the day today, because I am sick. I have a flu.
It was not a very bad one. I still can do my work and stuff, but I just cannot think straight and write. So please forgive me if my blog suddenly babbling about irrelevant things, like about the revolving stationery on my work desk that somehow keep turning so that the back of it always facing...err, never mind, just the babble I was talking about.

But that sounds alright to me, maybe because I've been mixing my medication. I have a box full of over-the-counter medicine that I brought from Indonesia. And since I want to recover as soon as possible, I tried several Chinese and modern medicine, which I believe work fine, except that I can no longer speak a full sentence.
No, just kidding. It’s getting better a little bit actually. I just now feel bloated and a little dizzy. But I am sure I would be fine tomorrow as I am going to sleep early tonight on my bed and bed sheet, which has a strange pattern that if I look at it slowly it might turns... wait, sorry, the medication just takes effect.

My Son, Superman

2007-08-09T19:41:00.001+08:00

Boy, I cannot believe the high school years that this boy is going to have.

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A New Zealand couple is looking to call their newborn son Superman -- but only because their chosen name of 4Real has been rejected by the government registry.
Pat and Sheena Wheaton say they will get around the decision by the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages by officially naming their son Superman but referring to him as 4Real, the New Zealand Herald newspaper has reported.
The Wheatons decided on the name after seeing the baby for the first time in an ultrasound scan and realising their baby was "for real".
They decided 4Real was the best way to write it, but the name was rejected because the registrar said a name had to be a sequence of characters.
Pat Wheaton said he was considering appealing against the decision through the courts, but whatever happens he won't be budged on his choice.
"No matter what its going to stay 4Real," Wheaton told the Herald, "I'm certainly not a quitter".
A spokesman for the Department of Internal Affairs, which operates the registry told the Herald discussions with the Wheatons about their son's name were continuing.
(For Reuters & Yahoo News)

15 And Counting

2007-08-07T16:45:00.000+08:00

Our baby just reached its 15th week today, or sort of. Some sources say that it should be 14th week. But it does not matter, as long as it’s growing.
So I want to share with you the development of the baby that we take from babycentre:

You may not know it when it happens, but your tiny baby frequently gets the hiccups, which babies master before breathing.... What you may first think is a rumbling stomach may be your baby doing some back flips.

At 15th week she learnt how to do back flips and master hiccups? Even I don’t do that. What will she learn after this? Riding a jet?
So fun. :)

Birthday Surprise.. Sort Of

2007-08-07T10:26:00.001+08:00

Today is a very special day for us. Today is the first birthday in our marriage life. My wife’s birthday.
So I planned to surprise her. But of course you might have known when a guy, or me, prepare a surprise, it would only materialize in the form of either:
- Beer and chips, or
- Another Chernobyl disaster
Well, ok, it was not that bad actually. But it was a disaster indeed.

Ok, my plan was to surprise her in the morning with a big cake that I bought yesterday, complete with small candles etc. I planned to wake up earlier, sneaked to the kitchen and brought the cake to the bedroom and woke her.
But then she woke up at midnight, and I needed to say happy birthday to her. Then I rushed to the fridge to get the cake, with my eyes half-closed and my mind in screensaver mode.
And when I opened the box, she suddenly appeared from the bedroom. “Cakeee!” she said, surprising me.

Of course she was happy with the cake, especially when I told her to be ready to blow up the candles. But then of course I was not that lucky. I couldn’t find a lighter. I don’t think we have one in my place. So the candles just sat there without any flame. On second thought, maybe it was better to surprise her in the morning, at least I could try to light the candles using magnifying glass facing the sun. Yes, we have magnifying glass in our house but no lighter. Don’t ask me how.
So no surprise, no blowing the candle. But we did eat a small piece of cake, a nice one.
Happy Birthday My Love!!!

Blind Man Driving

2007-08-06T21:36:00.001+08:00

No information given on whether his friend was also blind, or drunk, or just incredibly stupid.

TALLINN (Reuters) - Police in the Baltic state of Estonia stopped a man who was driving erratically at the weekend, only to find he was blind.
The 20-year-old was driving in the southern city of Tartu early Sunday -- helped by instructions from his 16-year-old passenger.
"At first they thought he was just drunk, but the man kept missing the tube for the breath test, then they realized he was blind" and arrested him, Tartu Police spokeswoman Marge Kohtla said Monday.

It's A Bird. It's A Plane, .. It's A....??

2007-08-05T22:05:00.001+08:00

Ok as there are a lot of our friends who asked us about the sex of the baby, I will put it in this blog so that everybody in this world, except the 6 billion something people who do not read this blog, can know about the baby.
And I have to say that Yes, you guessed it correctly, it was ... (drum roll) ... too early to determine. We could only get more confirmed information in about two weeks. That’s what the gynae told us.
But when my wife had her tummy scanned, we asked the nurse to see whether there was a sign about it’s sex. And she informed us that it was probably, perhaps, possibly, most likely, might be A GIRL..... Although she’s not 100% sure yet.

There you have it. Of course we would get more confirmation in a few weeks (our next appointment is on the 18th Aug), but I am quite certain with the nurse’s prediction, because she showed it to us. She pointed to the screen during the scan and showed us that it was a girl, although as usual I was not clear what she was pointing at.
So the sex of the baby is revealed now. Yay.

Settling

2007-08-03T13:17:00.001+08:00

Now my wife's pregnancy has entered its second trimester, which means now her initial symptoms of pregnancy have reduced substantially. She no longer feels nauseous, she does not throw up anymore, she's more energetic, and the most important thing, now she eats.

Now she is able to gobble down a lot of food, even the ones that a month ago tasted like floor disinfectant to her. She starts eating meats again without having her face turns purple, although she still has a little bit of problems with chicken. But KFC seems fine for her.
That's a good thing since now the baby needs more nutrients such as calcium and protein. So having my wife eat more food works just fine for the growing baby. And for her growing tummy as well.
I can now happily see the development from the outside. Seeing the tummy growing just makes me sure that the baby is growing, although I still don't know what's growing inside my tummy since mine's growing faster than hers.

BTW, I read in the books that at this week the baby can already suck its thumb and make facial expression. If only we could see it. Looking forward to frown at each other :).

Allow My Allowance Mom!

2007-08-03T09:10:00.000+08:00

Everything looks like a normal family dispute, until you look at their ages.

ROME (Reuters) - A Sicilian mother took away her 61-year-old son's house keys, cut off his allowance and hauled him to the police station because he stayed out late.
Tired of her son's misbehavior, the retiree in the central Sicilian city of Caltagirone turned to the police to "convince this blockhead" to behave properly, La Sicilia, one of Sicily's leading newspapers, reported on Thursday.
The son responded by saying his mother did not give him a big enough weekly allowance and did not know how to cook.
"My son does not respect me, he doesn't tell me where he's going in the evenings and returns home late," the woman was quoted as saying. "He is never happy with the food I make and always complains. This can't go on."
Police helped the squabbling duo make up and the two returned home together, with the son's house keys and daily allowance restored.
(From Reuters)

Kidnapping For Dummies

2007-08-03T09:05:00.000+08:00

Thinking of a new easy-money career.

Colombia, long one of the world's kidnapping capitals, has seen a rash of cases in which mobile phone customers receive messages telling them to turn off their handsets for two hours because their telephones have been cloned, police say.

The criminals then contact family members of the phone user to say that he or she has been taken hostage. Families who have no way of contacting their relative are directed where to drop off ransom money before the two hours are up.
(from Reuters)

Bad Minton

2007-08-03T09:01:00.000+08:00

I played badminton last night. I have not been playing for a long time. So you might guess that I played worse than usual.
Well, you guessed wrong. Saying that now I played worse means that I once played a better game in the first place. But since I always play in the worst form known to ever exist, there is simply no way for me to go worse.
But I kept playing anyway, since I don't know any other way to reduce my tummy size. Sure everybody says take a diet, but the only diet that works for me is the eat-less diet, which I cannot do since, well, I love eating. So I exercise more (the word “more” should be interpreted very loosely)

So I kept playing badminton, which for me was divided into three parts, get ready on the courts, pretending to hit the shuttlecock, and waiting for the next game. Unfortunately those three parts basically consist of the same thing, standing around doing nothing.
But luckily I played double, so once a while my partner hectically ran to get the ball and we sometimes won, after which I continue standing outside the courts and do nothing.

Eat less now sounds better.

Contactable Again

2007-08-02T13:36:00.000+08:00

I finally get my hand phone number back. I went to the customer service center and the staff there just simply gave me a new SIM card for my phone at no charge at all, because they believed customer service was the key of their business. And they also believed that without my SiIM card I wouldn't be able to use their services and give them money.

I can now sms and call my friends anytime. Just imagine how it felt a few days back when I didn't have my number with me. My friends couldn't contact me, my colleagues couldn't inform me about what happened in the office, and I couldn't sms my wife where I was. Can you imagine how it felt?
Yes, it felt great!

Everything was so calm. My partner couldn't bug me with office problems and my friends couldn't sms me and asked for my help. That's one period of peace that had.
But of course I couldn't stand it for too long. After a while I missed sms-ing my wife and got worried if there's something urgent that I needed to tackle. At that time, I couldn't imagine and remember how I could survive ten years ago.
I vaguely remembered that there was pager and payphone, but I couldn't recall how we lived without a mobile phone, uncontactable the whole time. Spending a lot of time waiting and waiting without knowing what happened to the people that we supposed to meet. Such a waste of time.
How if our wives wanted to tell us to go home early? How if our boss wanted to inform us there's urgent thing at the office. Hmmm, well, imagine that.

Looking At You Babe

2007-07-31T21:13:00.000+08:00

When we were visiting the Gynae, my wife’s tummy was once again scanned, so that we could squint our eyes at the screen again to find out that there’s no way we could differentiate our baby from the other random white dots.
We had a problem seeing the baby on the screen during our first visit last month, because the image was so blurry. So when the gynae told us which part the baby was, we could only nod and nod, although we actually were not very sure what we were looking at.
But we were afraid to admit that we could not see it, because it was our child. How could we not recognize it?
We could only see the baby after a while, after the gynae pointed to us many times which part was the head, and which part was the mouse pointer, because we were that blurred.

But this time, it was much different. The baby had grown and was easier to spot. I instantly recognized the shape once it’s shown on the screen. But at that time I paid more attention to my wife as she could not see the screen clearly and I have seen similar picture many times on many books.

And then the baby moved.

And my eyes could never leave the screen again. It was unbelievable seeing how that magnificent creature was developing inside my wife’s body. So amazed by it. And it did not stop there.

The nurse told us to wait for the baby to stretch its body (because it was slightly curled) so she could measure its length. And suddenly, just like it could hear us, the baby straighten its body. The nurse told us that the baby had been very kind. Positioning itself to be measured and checked easily by the nurse the whole time, so that it only took several minutes to finish the process.

Then suddenly the baby moved again, and this time it’s more obvious. We could see the legs kicking inside. Then the nurse pointed us to see the hand, “See those fingers on one hand”. And, just like the baby could hear her, she raised the other hand. “Oh two hands now,” the nurse said, smiling.

We wanted to see more but unfortunately the process was done. So we went out after that. We could not stop smiling on the way home.

Next Gynae Trip

2007-07-31T09:05:00.000+08:00

I finally went to see a gynecologist to check my wife’s pregnancy for the second time. But this gynae was different from the first time. And after we visited this second gynae, we decided to stick with him because we had a better healthy experience, such as it’s only 30 minutes away from our home so the ride did not cause my wife to be tired and grumpy, which meant it was good for my health.

The first thing that impressed us was that the consultation started on time, It’s actually common to start seeing the gynae late, and we were usually stuck in the waiting room, reading magazines from the ages when The Bee Gees was still in Top 40. So we were just so happy to see the gynae on time.

The visit took longer than expected though, because we went through several tests, which I could say were necessary, as long as my wife was the one who took them, because some of the tests involved needles.
So we ended up spending around 1.5 hours there as we needed to queue for the lab process. We are only able to get the result tomorrow, but of course everything is fine and normal. And I don’t have any injection mark on my hand.

Phone Light

2007-07-31T09:02:00.001+08:00

Something that is more important than the camera, the music player and the ring tones. So you know what you should bring the next time your relatives are in the operating room.

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - The light from the cell phone screens allowed surgeons to complete an emergency appendix operation during a blackout in a city in central Argentina, reports said on Saturday.
Leonardo Molina, 29, was on the operating table on July 21, when the power went out in the Policlinico Juan D. Peron, the main hospital in Villa Mercedes,"The generator, which should have been working correctly, didn't work," a hospital spokesman, whose name was not given.
"The surgeons and anesthetists were in the dark... A family member got some cell phones together from people in the hallway and took them in to provide light," he said.
(from Reuters)

Lost Contact

2007-07-30T09:43:00.001+08:00

Every time I went to Indonesia I always switch my SIM card to Indonesian phone number because of many practical reasons. So it's just a matter of time before I lost my SIM card.

I just realized it yesterday when I wanted to check if I got any sms on my Singapore number. Then I couldn't find the SIM card. I usually kept the card in my wallet but now somehow I couldn't find it. So I did what other adults usually do in this situation. I panicked.

I did not know when I lost my number and at the moment this blog is written, I still don't know whether somebody used it, which because of the roaming charges, might cause me to sell my kidney to cover the bills. That’s why I panicked. I really hope that it's safe.

Then I tried to block the phone to prevent other people from using it. Luckily I could get the number that I should contact in Singapore from the Internet. So, by calling this number, I no longer have to worry about being broke from paying big bills. I only need to worry about being broke from paying the IDD calls to Singapore.
It's because I was put on hold for quite a while. So after some moments I finally managed to block my phone number. I will try to take care of this number on Monday and I will be out of reach until Monday, assuming that I don't need to sell my mobile to pay phone bill.

Trip Back and Tripped

2007-07-24T20:46:00.000+08:00

I was traveling home again for a few days to Indonesia, which was why my blog was left untouched for a while. It's kind of a hassle going back to Jakarta these days. I remember people kept telling me, "Ooh Singapore is so near, only one and a half hour away". I hope those people could borrow me their magical flying carpet before they went back to Never Neverland.

Because for me of course it's not just the flight.
I need to go through the one-hour MRT ride, one-hour waiting time at the airport, ninety-minutes of flight, thirty minutes of immigration and baggage claim, then finally two-hour bus ride to Bogor. And that's only when everything is so smooth, such as when I were the only one who fly on that day.
So it usually takes me at least six hours to reach my home. Just like when I left, I woke up at 4.30 am and only arrive home at 12.00 noon.
And it's tiring. I usually take MRT in Singapore and bus in Jakarta, while carrying my big luggage and my computer bag. So losing my luggage is never really my concern as it was quite big enough to spot. But getting a hernia is.
I want a flying carpet for my birthday.

Blog Break Again

2007-07-24T18:40:00.000+08:00

I am in Indonesia now, experiencing the slow internet connection that will make either my head or my internet bill explodes. This time I am bringing my computer back, so I might still be able to blog when I can find a connection. I will be back this weekend to Singapore and blog more regularly, if I still have my head intact.

Sleep Still

2007-07-23T15:52:00.000+08:00

My wife changed her sleeping habit recently. Yes she still sleeps 8 hours a day or more, and yes she still sleeps like she just had four bottles of morphine. But now she sleeps with a lot of pillows. She needs at least one more pillow to support her back. It was suggested in every pregnancy book that she'd better sleep on her side. And if you want to know why, the answer is simple, I cannot remember.
There are so many tips in the books that I can no longer remember the logics behind them. But I still follow them anyway. Because otherwise it might cause any harmful consequences, such as mood swings or craving craze, that I don't want to face.

So she needs more pillows, at least one bolster for her to hug and one pillow to hold her back. I don't have any problem with those pillows, except that our bed is only queen size, and with my body expanding at the rate of 1 kg per month, I don't have enough space to do my routine sleep maneuver, such as turning from left to right, and back again, and roll over and 360°sommersault. No, sorry, of course I don't do that. But the point is that now I have less space on the bed. And I am surprisingly okay with that. Just as my wife is getting used to sleep on her side, I also am getting used to sleep without much movement. So I am fine and can sleep well. But of course I still need my extra coffee everyday.

Crave Attack 4

2007-07-23T13:10:00.000+08:00

My wife's craving took a drastic change for the past few days. No, past few weeks actually. She's been craving for sotomie, a noodle soup with a lot of things inside including intestines and other stuff that I could barely recognize.
The problem was, there’s no Indonesian food stall that sold this type of food and my wife demanded to have sotomie that was similar to the one sold in Jakarta. So that's one big task for me. And I didn't even know whether it was really a crave or my wife was just bored with the food in Singapore, which happened a lot and could be triggered by anything these days, such by diner time.

My friend suggested making my own sotomie. Well I guess I could try that, except that it's possibly going to give us another problem, such as food poisoning or my wife's throwing plates at me, because my approach to stove and other kitchen appliances was the same as my approach to nuclear bombs. Avoid at all cost to avoid any major tragedy.

But luckily, thanks to the Internet, I managed to find an Indonesian food stall that sometimes sold sotomie. So I went there a week ago and asked the owner to sms me when she made her sotomie. and, bless her, this morning she did. So I rushed there on lunch time and finally got the sotomie. Fiuh. I am saved. At least until my wife can think of other rare Indonesian food that is unavailable in Singapore. I think I'd cook.

Note: it was stall Kedai Ibu at Tanjung Pagar Complex on Keppel Road.

11-year-old and drinking and driving

2007-07-20T13:05:00.000+08:00

And this made me feel like an underachiever.

MIAMI (Reuters) - An 11-year-old girl was charged with drunken driving after leading police on a chase at speeds of up to 100 mph that ended when she flipped the car in an Alabama beach town.
A video camera in the police car captured the look of surprise on the officer's face when he approached the wrecked car and got a look at the motorist.
The Mobile Press-Register newspaper said the patrolman saw the Chevrolet Monte Carlo speeding and flashed his lights to signal the driver to stop. Instead, the car sped faster, traveling at up to 100 mph (160 kph) before sideswiping another vehicle and flipping over in the Gulf Coast town of Orange Beach, Alabama, on Tuesday night.
The young driver, who lived nearby in Perdido Key, Florida, was treated at a hospital for scrapes and bruises and released to relatives. Police also charged her with speeding, leaving the scene of an accident and reckless endangerment.
The car belonged to a relative and police were still trying to find out where she got the alcohol. There was none in the vehicle but her blood alcohol level was over the limit for adult motorists, police told the newspaper.

Nanny Dials 911

2007-07-19T17:37:00.000+08:00

I know that my wife’s pregnancy is only at its week 12th, and it’s still long until the due date, but I have started wondering how I am going to take care of the baby. I mean, I never have a proper training in raising a child. Heck, the only way I know how is from how my parents raised me, which, judging by the result, might not be the best way.
So I tried to find tips and tricks from the most comfortable source of information, the TV.

I watched the show Nanny 911 last week. And after a few minutes I was terrified by how the children on the show were behaving. It was like the children were put there on TV just for the show before they were returned to their real parents, the Wolverines.
But the show gave a lot of tips and tricks about how to discipline a child, which I might share with you if I could remember any. I ended up not paying any attention to how the Nanny disciplined them because I was too busy waiting for the children to create chaos and bite their parents’ ankle, because those what good TV were.
So, except the nightmare about baby wolves, I did not learn anything from that show. Stupid me.
That’s why I am planning to watch this show again tonight. I hope that I could get some tips and tricks on raising children. And I hope the children bite.

Puppy Love

2007-07-18T10:51:00.000+08:00

Another oooh sooo cute award nominee:

Heart-Shaped Puppy Born in Japan
A baby chihuahua (puppy) born in Japan with a heart-shaped pattern on his coat becomes a national idol - almost like the Japanese version of Knut.
A puppy named "Heart-kun" was born with a heart-shaped pattern on his coat.
Born at a Dog shop in Japan, no make-up or modification has been added to the one-and-a-half-month old dog.
The shop owner Emiko Sakurada said this is for the first time a puppy with these marks has been born out of over a 1,000 she has bred.
She says the unusual feature in the puppy has brought good luck to her and anyone who sees him.
Though many people have enquired about buying the dog from around the country after local television aired pictures of it, the owner says she has no plans to sell it. -
(foxnews.com)

Bleeding Nose

2007-07-18T09:31:00.001+08:00

My wife’s pregnancy has entered its 12th week. The week when the risk of miscarriage reduces significantly. Fiuh! That’s great to know. Because this pregnancy has been everything; fun, joyful, exciting, and down right scary.

As my experience in pregnancy is not more than my experience in climbing Mount Everest, I’ve been jumpy and worried quite a bit. Everything that my wife does out of her habit, such as throwing up or watching sports on TV, is considered alarming and makes me run to the phone and ready to call an ambulance.
So yesterday morning, when my wife had a slight nose bleed, you cannot imagine how panic I was. Should I call a Doctor? Is it normal? Would the Doctor laugh at me for being so panicky? Would I push his phone down his throat when he laughs at me? But of course I did not show this outside. I just looked cool and calm on the outside, although in the inside I was about to wet my pants anytime.

So after my wife left, I did what every responsible adult did in a situation where a serious medical action is required. I checked the Internet.
Luckily, there were so many Internet sites that covered pregnancy. Since I have already subscribed to one, I checked that page and it turned out that nose bleeding was quite normal for pregnant ladies. It’s because her body was producing more blood (for the baby) at this stage.
So everything is back to normal again now.

Brain Damaged

2007-07-17T08:40:00.001+08:00

I thought it was just me. Phew!

LONDON (Reuters) - Can't remember life before mobiles? Chances are you'll also struggle to recall your home phone number and family birthdays.
According to a survey released Friday, the boom in mobiles and portable devices that store reams of personal information has created a generation incapable of memorizing simple things.
A quarter of those polled said they couldn't remember their landline number, while two-thirds couldn't recall the birthdays of more than three friends or family members.
The tech-savvy young fared worse than older people. The under-30s could remember fewer birthdays and numbers than the over-50s, according to the survey.
Two-thirds said they relied on their phone or electronic organizer to remember key dates.
"People have more to remember these days and they are relying on technology more for their memory," said Ian Robertson, professor of psychology at Trinity College, Dublin.
Researchers polled 3,000 people over the last two weeks in the survey for Puzzler Brain Trainer magazine.

Baby Beats

2007-07-16T17:10:00.000+08:00

The first thing that my friend asked me when I told her that my wife went through pregnancy scanning was how the heart beats like.
I was of course happily answered,” What heart beat?".

I really didn't know that I could see the heart beat. Heck, I didn't even know that I could see the inside of my wife’s womb before I got there. And the Gynae did not show and tell us about this. So we did not have the chance to see or hear the baby’s heartbeats.
That’s why last night I try to do something that I never did before in our five years of relationship that I believe every loving couple need to try at least once in their life. I tried to hear my wife’s stomach.
In a desperate attempt to find the baby’s heartbeats, I tried to hear it using the simplest method, putting my ear on top of my wife’s tummy and listen.
So that’s what I did, I asked my wife to lay down and I put my ear on her tummy. And then I heard something amazing. I heard a lot of gas.
That’s because my wife was constantly bloating because of the pregnancy. Then I told my wife and, as a result, she knocked my head with TV remote, I tried to listen again.

Then this time I heard a lot of water movement, which was normal because that’s what the baby’s home consisted of. And then, after the movement sound a little bit lowered, I heard the regular “bap bap” sound. I could not believe it. I shushed my wife again and I could hear it more clearly. It was definitely the heartbeats sound.
I was so excited. I kept listening to it as if it was more melodious than the whole top 40s’ songs combined. And I didn’t want to stop, except that my wife could not listen to it and might decide to give me a knock on the head.

Gynae Search

2007-07-16T12:59:00.000+08:00

We decided to no longer go to the first Gynae that we went to because of one medical and rational concern: the fee is very expensive.
So we decided to go to a Gynae that one of my friend has experienced before. We asked around and compared notes with our friends, until we finally we heard about one Gynae that had a quality that we were looking for: the gynae that offers discount

But we also found out from the many Internet forum that thus Gynae is very skilled and good in every aspect, including in stitching.
My wife heard that most male Gynaes were less skilled in stitching than the female Gynaes, which I definitely agree, because, based on my experience in elementary school, If I were asked to stitch my wife's opening after she gives birth, she probably ends up having both of her feet stitched together from thigh to toes. So I am just glad that this Gynae is good.
We will visit this Gynae on the 30th, on my wife's week 14. Let's see how it turns out. Hope that my wife likes him, and hope that my wallet likes him even more.

Jokes

2007-07-13T09:24:00.001+08:00

A mother passing by her daughter's bedroom was astonished to see the bed was nicely made and everything was picked up. Then she saw an envelope propped up prominently on the center of the bed. It was addressed, "Mom." With the worst premonition, she opened the envelope and read the letter with trembling hands:

Dear Mom: It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm writing you. I had to elope with my new boyfriend because I wanted to avoid a scene with Dad and you. I've been finding real passion with Ahmed and he is so nice-even with all his piercings, tattoos, beard, and his motorcycle clothes. But it's not only the passion Mom, I'm pregnant and Ahmed said that we will be very happy. He already owns a trailer in the woods and has a stack of firewood for the whole winter. He wants to have many more children with me and that's now one of my dreams too. Ahmed taught me that marijuana doesn't really hurt anyone and we'll be growing it for us and trading it with his friends for all the cocaine and ecstasy we want. In the meantime, we'll pray that science will find a cure for AIDS so Ahmed can get better; he sure deserves it!! Don't worry Mom, I'm 15 years old now and I know how to take care of myself. Someday I'm sure we'll be back to visit so you can get to know your grand children.
Your daughter,
Judith

PS: Mom, none of the above is true. I'm over at the neighbor's house. I just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than my report card that's in my desk center drawer. I love you! Call when it is safe for me to come home.

Passport Update 5

2007-07-12T16:48:00.000+08:00

I arrived at the Embassy quite early, at 2pm. But since passport collection only started at 3, I wasn't allowed to go in. So I waited outside the gate with other visitors. Finally I could get my entry pass at 2.30pm so that I could get inside and wait again.

Finally at 3pm a staff asked us to form a queue in front of the counter. No queue number was needed. Then when the counter opened, we just needed to show our receipt and got our passport. As simple as that. I walked out of there by 3.10pm. Couldn't remember the last time I finished government-related administrative task so fast. Great.

Passport Update 4

2007-07-12T16:47:00.000+08:00

Today I'm supposed to pick up my passport at the Embassy, And I was excited about it, because after I got the document, I would be able to go to any country in the world! Except to the countries that are located outside Singapore, because I can't afford the air ticket as I am saving for my baby.
Unfortunately along time ago some geographic experts decided to put Europe on the other side of the world, so I still cannot have European honeymoon, even with my new passport. But I still can go to Malaysia and Indonesia though. Yiipeee! Ah well J

Another thing that made me excited about getting my passport was that I would need to go to Indonesian Embassy. Being in a place where there were a lot of Indonesian, speaking with Indonesian language, and seeing familiar face features just reminded me of one thing, there should be a good Indonesian food there.
So I went early and planned to have a late lunch there. I heard that the cafeteria served a good beef rendang and I planned to try it.
So I did. But unfortunately since I arrived quite late, there were not so much food left. So I only ate one chicken and a tempe. And I must say that the food had the same characteristic as other Indonesian food in Singapore: they were not cheap.
At least compared to the price of other food in Singapore. But the taste was not bad after all. I enjoyed the food and would eat at that place again the next time I visit the Embassy. Probably five years from now.

Crave Attack 3

2007-07-11T14:20:00.000+08:00

My wife hasn't had her craving for a long time. Well, at least not that I know of. She actually asked for many types of food, but I don't know which ones were the craving and which ones were her saying to me "This is for making me nauseous every morning!"

And yesterday she's craving for (I think) a soto mie, noodle served with yellow coconut milk gravy. She wasn't really a fan of that food. In fact I cannot remember the last time she had that food. She just had a crave for anything soupy these days and it's just a matter of time before she included soto mie on her list. So she tried to get the food yesterday, which might be a problem because I didn't recall seeing any stall selling sotomie near our place.
But everything turned out fine, mainly because I had a meeting during diner time and that meant I couldn't help her finding the food. But guess what, it turned out that there was a small stall in a corner that served sotomie. So she enjoyed and satisfied her craving then.

That was an easy one to find. I guess she's saving the hard ones for the time when I am available. Because she's still having her nausea.

MRT Ride For Three 2

2007-07-10T10:51:00.000+08:00

If you take a ride in an MRT, it is easy to find a sign that said “Please give the seat to someone who needs it more than you”. It serves as a nice decorative sign that nobody actually read.
Just yesterday morning I took MRT ride during the rush hour and I could see that there were two pregnant ladies who stood in the crowd while the seats were filled with young men, educated office workers, who apparently did not see the pregnant ladies because he was very busy doing his own stuff, such as pretending to sleep or looking the other way.
But finally a young man alighted and everybody just asked the pregnant lady to sit. Phew.

And my wife was also able to find a seat after that. Then it dawned to me, my wife is sitting, but I was still standing. Nobody offered a seat for an expecting man, although the bulge on my tummy was bigger than my wife’s. So she just sat there nicely, while I was still standing in the crowded MRT car and got shoved further inside. I could not have a conversation with her because I stood quite far, and I was stuck between men whose idea of morning bath, based on the smell, consisted of only wiping out their morning drool.

But at the end it paid off to see my wife resting on her seat, knowing that the baby was also resting and helped it grow. Now, would you excuse me? I need to rest and lie down, because I am also growing.

MRT Ride For Three

2007-07-09T18:57:00.000+08:00

If there is one good thing from the pregnancy that we can enjoy right away is having people offer seats to you when you are in an MRT.
It happened to us last week. A young lady, probably only 13 years old, told her mother that there was a pregnant woman on the MRT and she’s offering her seat to my wife.
It was a pleasant surprise for me. You can imagine how my wife reacted after she received such a kind and compassionate gesture.
“Am I getting bigger already?” She said.

My wife, being a woman, of course concerned about how her body was changing because of the pregnancy. And because she’s quite lean before the pregnancy, any small thing insider her tummy, such as the growing baby, will create a cute bump. So that’s why now my wife’s tummy is quite visible although she’s only on her 10th week. This is a great sign for me as it really shows that the baby is developing. My wife is also excited about this, well, except for the part where the one who needs to have her tummy enlarged is her, not me.
Apparently she forgets that I somehow gain more weight than she does. And that after 7 months she will get the baby out from her tummy, naturally, while there’s nothing inside my tummy that’s going to be removed.

Passport Update 3

2007-07-09T11:08:00.000+08:00

I finally take my time to renew my passport after I postpone it a few times because the information at embassy's website said that my passport's expiry date must be less than 6 months away. And I was too lazy to copy my documents.
So I woke up very early today to go to the Embassy. It opens at 9am but I decided to go there very early, at 7.40 a.m., so that I could be among first ones who found out that I was completely lost.
That's because the Embassy was located in a housing complex that was similar to a maze but longer and more tiring. But I managed to finally arrive at the place after several gallons of sweat from walking in a big circle.

I arrived at 8.50am, 10 minutes before opening time, and there had been a lot of people gathering at the gate. There was a line for people to queue to get their visitor's pass. So naturally most of the Indonesians just ignore it and approached the counter in a way that looked like a terror scene in Godzilla movies.

But I managed to get in quite early and got queue ticket number 009.
I got the application form first from counter 1 before I took the queue ticket. I was planning to fill the form during the waiting time, because I figured, based on my past experience, the waiting time could last longer than the time needed to turn a tree into a coffee table.
But I was wrong surprisingly, in a good way. My number was called right when I just finished filling out the form. So I rushed to the counter and gave all the necessary documents, which included:
- 4 photo (see my previous blog)
- a copy of birth certificate
- a copy of Singapore IC, or work permit
- a copy of marriage certificate

Then I was asked to pay $40 at the cashier and then gave the receipt to the counter.
The officer then asked me to wait for a while until my name was called. So I just waited for around 15 minutes and she called me to take my signature and finger print. And she gave me the slip for me to collect the passport in 4 days.

And that's it. All were done in less than 45 minutes, which, using Indonesians usual service standard, was considered a miracle. So, I don’t know whether mine was a special case. I don’t know whether it’s because I arrived early. But being able to finish the process in less than an hour is definitely a great improvement. Kudos to the staff there. Hope there will be more and more improvement. Such as moving the building to a more populated area.

Jokes

2007-07-06T15:47:00.000+08:00

A man speaks frantically into the phone, "My wife is pregnant, and her contractions are only two minutes apart!"
"Is this her first child?" the doctor queries.
"No, you idiot!" the man shouts. "This is her husband!"

----------------------------------
Billy Bob and Luther were talking one afternoon when Billy Bob tells Luther, "Ya know, I reckon I'm 'bout ready for a vacation. Only this year I'm gonna do it a little different!
The last few years, I took your advice about where to go. Three years ago you said to go to Hawaii. I went to Hawaii and Earline got pregnant.
Then two years ago, you told me to go to the Bahamas, and Earline got pregnant again.
Last year you suggested Tahiti and Earline got pregnant again"
Luther asks Billy Bob, "So, what you gonna do this year that's different?"
Billy Bob says, "This year I'm taking Earline with me."

Day By Day

2007-07-06T10:34:00.000+08:00

Now my wife’s pregnancy just enters its tenth week. That means it ... Mmm, err, umm..., I actually don’t know. I just realized that I haven’t read the pregnancy book or email newsletter. So I am pretty much in the dark about what happens. Am planning to read about it on the weekend though, except if I suddenly feel more interested in watching Heroes DVD instead.

It’s funny how I become interested in this. It’s like my work and social life are taking a step back and my wife’s pregnancy is the priority now. I am interested to know every detail about what happens inside her tummy. It’s a strange thing. I was never interested in anything inside her body. Heck, I was never interested to find out about what’s happening inside MY body.

But I guess that’s what happens when you become an expecting dad. Your life suddenly revolves around the pregnancy, which also includes your wife’s craving, mood swings, sudden tiredness, and so on. But those all are okay for me. Because when those happen, I just have to remember one precious thing, that I won’t be the one lying on the doctor’s bed, delivering a 3-kg baby through a hole as big as a bottle’s mouth. Am so happy I am a man.

BTW, there’s not much happening on the pregnancy life. So we just take it day by day as it is.

Gynae Trip 2

2007-07-05T09:07:00.001+08:00

Ok, this is what happened when I visited the gynae.
We got there, and then we waited for sometime before we were called in. But it’s not the gynae’s room. It’s a small room where the nurses take tests. But before the test, my wife is asked to fill a form for administration. Then we waited some more. Then my wife took urine test, blood pressure test, etc., while I waited alone. And after a while, my wife joined me to wait further.
Then we were called again. This time a nurse asked us lots of questions about our lifestyle. After that, the nurse more or less got the idea about our pregnancy, so that she asked us to go outside to, well, wait again.
Probably it’s a lesson that they want to teach us, that a baby must be waited with patient and care, while giving every nurse an angry look for keep us waiting.
Then finally the moment arrived. We were asked to meet the gynae. He looked like a nice old man. And he’s an elder in a Presbyterian church in Singapore it turned out. He’s very patient and looked glad about our pregnancy. He told us that the due date was around 24 January next year.
Then he asked my wife to go to the patient bed and the nurse did some checking, while I , uhmm, waited alone, again.

Then finally I was asked to come in, so that I could see the scan of the baby.
I’ve been told many times that having a baby was a wonderful and amazing experience. People just ran out of word trying to describe how great the experience was. And I more or less got the idea how incredible it’s going to be.
But it did not prepare me a bit for when I saw the TV screen, showing the small baby-to-be. With its small head and body inside my wife. I could see it moved a lot when the gynae tried to capture the picture. And it was just amazing and miraculous. Every words that my friends told me about the experience just disappeared and were replaced with a mind filled with awe.
No wonder my friends could not explain the experience in words. You just need to experience it yourself to understand the miracle that happens. It was so real yet still unbelievable.

Then we got the pictures and left the gynae’s office. Then we went through another unbelievable experience. Paying the gynae’s bill that is.

(These are the pictures taken during the scan. They do not say much and are not very clear. But you just need to see it when the baby moves. That’s really something.)

Gynae Trip

2007-07-04T08:49:00.000+08:00

I never like going to a Doctor. I am afraid of needles and all the doctors that I visited in my childhood always managed to come up with a reason to give me a shot, even if I only went there for my pimples.
So, when I visited a Gynecologist on Monday, I was glad that my wife would be the one who took most of his attention, while I also kept my eyes on any syringes insight, in case he somehow found reason to give me a shot right then.

I've been to many doctors before and I could say that I have more or less understood the drill. First they ask you what's wrong ("I am sick. That's what's wrong. Duh”). Then the doctors use the stereoscope and listen to every part of my body.
I never understand what they try to hear there. Some conversations that the viruses have in my body, so that they can analyze the sickness and, using their sophisticated medical education and experience, they then ask me to take Panadol, drink a lot of water, and come back if it's getting worse.
So I was in the dark about what the doctors try to hear. But I bet it must be very important, because they sometimes mumble "hhmmmm" and put a very serious look and wrinkle their eyebrows, which at some doctors look more like they had a terrible case of diarrhea.
And then they take out the needle and I can't remember anything because I either pass out or too busy hiding the pee stains on .my pants.

But when I went to the gynae, I was lost. I did not know what to do. I basically just stood there and read newspaper, while my wife was busy answering questions, filling forms, taking urine test, taking blood pressure test, taking USG and so on. I was just lost. I tried to be involved, mainly by looking attentively at everything, including my own finger nails, but I still think I was very passive there.
But at the end I was finally able to give my support. At the cashier that is.

Price-Slashed Machetes

2007-07-03T12:49:00.000+08:00

Machetes, the next hot investment item for the next Nigerian's general elections.
(from Reuters)

ABUJA (Reuters) - The price of machetes has halved in parts of Nigeria since the end of general elections in April because demand from thugs sponsored by politicians has subsided, the state-owned News Agency of Nigeria reported.
NAN surveyed prices in the northeastern state of Gombe and found that a good quality machete was now selling for 400 naira ($3) compared with 800 naira before the elections, which were marred by politically motivated violence in many states.
"A price survey on machetes, which served as a popular weapon among political thugs in the state, indicated ... a drop in the price of the implement," NAN reported over the weekend.
Machetes are primarily used as a tool for farming in Nigeria but they are also popular among political gangsters.
"Before the conduct of the general elections, I was selling a minimum of seven machetes daily but can hardly sell one a day now," said Usman Masi, a trader quoted by NAN.

Going Home 4

2007-07-02T18:16:00.000+08:00

Thursday
My days in Indonesia are just the same as usual. I chatted with my family, I did my work, I ate a lot. But now there is one thing new, I have two new members in my big family. My brother just had a daughter last January and my sister had a son last February. So this time I had a chance to see them.

I met Annabelle and Owen (pics below) who were quite different from each other, except for the fact that they both drool.
I had fun and play with them (play them, to be exact) for quite a while. I even held and carried them around, which was the first time for me. It's quite fun and such a wonderful experience that I felt deeply, in the form of numbness on my hands.
They are 6 and 8 kgs and I held them for quite too long. So my hands were sore and tired.
But I had fun and would do it again. I need the exercise, and who knows, I would do it again with my own baby soon. I need dumbbell.

Owen:

Abel:

Going Home 3

2007-07-02T09:05:00.000+08:00

I have been going back to Jakarta almost every month this year. And I have used to the feeling of being back home.
So when I arrived in Jakarta this time, I felt the same way that I usually feel when I arrive at my home country. I felt sweats pouring down my body.
It was so hot in Jakarta. I instantly have my body covered with sweat. But that's how I remembered Jakarta.

And there's another thing that I remembered about Jakarta, there were crimes all over. Right after I bought a local mobile phone number, I just realized that it's been rigged. It was a second hand SIM card and the amount was reduced by $1. But that's how I remembered Jakarta.

Then I went home and ate and ate. And I got diarrhea.
I ate nasi padang with a lot of coconut milk and chilly, which caused my tummy to feel like I ate shredded glasses. That also reminded me of Jakarta. So I wake up at night to go to the bathroom several times and in the morning I didn't dare to pour coffee into my upset tummy. So I went to work without caffeine in my bloodstream, which made me only slightly more alive than a cauliflower. Then I took a medicine and it calms down. That's how I remember my home country. Well, of course there are also a lot of good things in Indonesia that I remember, but I probably only be able to remember them when my tummy is fully recovered.

Going Home 2

2007-07-01T16:56:00.000+08:00

This is the first time I left my wife when she's pregnant. and of course I miss her and am worried at the same time. But fortunately she's going to stay with her mom. The in-laws are still here. And just like any other wives, she listens to her mom more than she listens to the husband. So, I actually should be less worried. But still, I am a first-time expecting husband. That means I have the right to be slightly worried.

So, I was planning to sms my wife very often, in a frequency that made my wife's phone's battery go flat in 2 minutes. But then my wife assured me that she would take a good care of her pregnancy. I believed she would. If she doesn't, then I, as a responsible husband, will take a stern action. I will ask her mom to scold her.

Going Home

2007-07-01T16:55:00.000+08:00

As mentioned in the previous blog, I am traveling to Indonesia and will only be back on Saturday. So this blog is taking its off days. But I am going to write about my trip, because
- Some of you might want to hear about it (my mom does)
- I don't have any friends in real life to share this with.

Wednesday
This is the first day of the trip and I am taking the earliest flight. So I woke up to a glorious morning and I stretched out all my muscle, I inhaled the nice fresh morning air and I felt wonderful at this 7.00 in the morning, and... WHAT?!... What time?...Gosh what happened to my alarm? My flight was at 8.20am and I woke up at 7.00am.
I couldn't remember what happened next because it happened so fast and I hadn't had my coffee. Thank God I still remembered to take shower and brush my teeth. I took a cab and managed to get to the airport on time. phew.
Now I am sitting on my flight and able to write this blog, after having an airplane coffee, which is probably filtered using a sweat sock, because the taste was terrible. But I finished it anyway because I needed the caffeine to help me remember how to take off my seat belt.

So here I am, writing a blog on the plane, wondering what my days in Indonesia are going to be like. It's probably going to be like a lot of food.

Blog Break

2007-06-26T16:54:00.001+08:00

Am going back to Indonesia and will only be back on the weekend.
And since where I live the Internet connection is more painful than inserting a cork into your eyes, I probably won't touch this blog during my trip.
So, in the mean time, enjoy your week.

Gynaeaouiologist

2007-06-26T16:53:00.001+08:00

My wife's pregnancy have entered it 8th week, we think. We are not too sure about it because we haven't seen our gynecologist.
It might be a little late but still tolerable as I read that the first pre-natal check/visit should be done in week 8-10.
We actually wanted to go as early as possible, but somehow it kept getting postponed, because of these following reasons/events:
- We were to stunned to hear that we were going to be parents
- We then took some time to learn and read books
- We were stunned again. We? Parents?
- We asked around to find a good gynae
- Every gynae seems to be too expensive
- We were stunned again
- We decided on the hospital
- The hospital seems expensive
- We decided on a gynae
- I need to go back to Indonesia
So we probably only go to a gynae next week, after I am back.

We actually do not know the criteria of a good gynae. We only want someone that we are comfortable with. So we asked around and got several inputs. Then we sought for more info from the Internet, and compare with other inputs and we finally we made our decision. We go for the cheapest one.

No, of course that is not the only criteria. We also want one who is gentle, understanding, calming and good. So, let’s see how it turns out, next week.

Baby Email

2007-06-26T16:14:00.000+08:00

It's nice to have Internet and emails these days, where I can get a lot of newsletters about many topics that I am interested in, as well as other topics, such as the recent price of Viagra, because the spam that I receive is just unbelievable.
But one newsletter service that I subscribe to is very helpful during our expecting times. This newsletter offers a week-by-week development of our baby. We just need to register and input the expected due date and then every week the site will send a newsletter that encouragingly tell us that the baby is still smaller than a ping pong ball.

But it also tells us a lot of different and useful things. For instance, the latest email that I received, told me that the baby is now starting to grow its eyelids. Isn’t that wonderful? But unfortunately, there is no way for us to check and see the development, or whether it was true. The newsletter can just say that it grows wings and we still have no idea how to check.

Anyway, the newsletter also shows the picture of the baby at this point in time, to which my wife shouted,” Look how the position of the arms, so cute. Look how it grows". Whereas I cannot see any difference between this picture and the picture from the previous week.

So, the newsletter provides us a lot of other info, regarding the health, nutrition, tips and tricks.
I later found out that actually there are many website that offered such service. But now I am using the one from BabyCentre, because of some valid reasons: it was the first site that I found and I am too lazy to change it.

Foot Shoes

2007-06-26T11:40:00.000+08:00

I've seen a shirt that has a picture of man's torso, and pants that shows picture of a behind. But this is new.
Got it from an email

Eat Free or Blaarrgghhh

2007-06-25T18:39:00.000+08:00

Serving meal for my wife is never a light affair after she gets pregnant. For instance, my wife used to love ayam gulai (chicken in thick coconut gravy) and was able to finish two plates of rice with it without even looked like slightly full.

So I innocently thought that it was a good idea to prepare (or what many French chefs called le heat au de microwaves) the ayam gulai and a lot of rice. But when I told my wife about this favorite food of hers, she just said “uuuggghhh” in the same tone that Fear Factor contestants often use when they finds out that they need to eat live eels in Tarantula’s droppings.

Unfortunately, she cannot stand chicken, as well as other meat. Just the sight of any type of chicken would make her feel sick. And that makes me feel confused, because I do not know what my wife should eat. She needs protein, but she cannot eat meats. She wants unhealthy foods with a lot of MSG, but her husband says no because it’s bad for the baby (and then he eats the unhealthy food for her). So everyday is diner nightmare for me, between the healthy choices and the “Uuuggghh” from my wife. I still cannot believe that now I am the one who promotes healthy food.

Signs To Expect

2007-06-23T13:44:00.000+08:00

When you are ready to become a parent, sometimes you have already had your parental instinct early and know when your wife is pregnant, even before any testing. That's what happened to me. I knew that my wife was expecting around 3 days before the test, because my instinct was sharp, and my wife told me,” I’m late, I think I'm pregnant".

But besides that subtle signs, my wife had shown more obvious symptoms. She suddenly couldn't stand the smell of coffee. She used to drink one or two coffee everyday, and suddenly she looked at coffee the same way she looked at laundry detergent waste.
So she hasn't been able to drink any coffee. I don't know how she's still able to do her office work. Heck, without coffee, I don't even know how she's able to remember where her office was. But apparently she managed just fine.
And it was a good thing, since a pregnant woman needs to cut down her caffeine intake, and my wife haven’t had coffee ever since.

So, that sudden sensitivity to coffee was my first sign that she might be pregnant. Then it was continued with my wife’s constant sleepiness, every time and everywhere, even in the shower. But since she stopped taking coffee, it was not very obvious for me, although I was still aware of it.

But then again, when she told me that the test was positive, how come I was still heard it like an earth-shattering news?

Doogie Howser, Delhi's Style

2007-06-22T16:22:00.000+08:00

Ok,
Me, 15 years old, trying to impress people by impersonating Donald Duck and Popeye.
This boy, 15 years old, trying to impress people by cutting a woman open.
No wonder I did not have a girlfriend back then.

From Reuters:
NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) - An India couple have been accused of trying to get their 15-year-son into the Guinness Book of World Records by allowing him to perform a caesarean operation, local newspapers reported on Thursday.
The parents, both doctors from the southern state of Tamil Nadu, screened a video recording of the operation on a 20-year-old woman to other doctors in the hope of attaining the record as the world's youngest surgeon, newspapers reported.
Family members said the boy was only helping out in the operation, handing his father's medical instruments. Indian medical authorities are investigating the case and could revoke the couple's medical licenses.

Jokes

2007-06-22T14:10:00.000+08:00

A woman went to the doctor's office. She was seen by one of the new doctors, but after about four minutes in the examination room, she burst out, screaming as she ran down the hall.

An older doctor stopped and asked her what the problem was, and she explained. He had her sit down and relax in another room.The older doctor marched back to the first and demanded, "What's the matter with you? Mrs. Terry is 63 years old, she has four grown children and seven grandchildren, and you told her she was PREGNANT?"

The new doctor smiled smugly as he continued to write on his clipboard. "Cured her hiccups though, didn't it?"

------------
A pregnant lady was in an accident and she woke up in the hospital. She noticed she was not pregnant anymore and asked the nurse what happened to her baby.The nurse said, "You have two healthy babies, a boy and a girl!" The lady said, "Oh, I must name them," but the nurse said, "You were unconscious, so we called your brother, and he named them!"

The lady said, "But he's as dumb as a box of rocks! So what are their names?"

The nurse said, "The girl is called "Denise."

The woman replied, "Well that is a pretty name, so what did he name my boy?"

The nurse replied, "Denephew!"

Crave Attack 2

2007-06-22T10:22:00.000+08:00

21 June: Soto Betawi (Indonesian soup with a lot of coconut milk)
The craving is slowly moving towards Indonesian food, which is not very encouraging for me. Although there are quite a number of Indonesian food stall in Singapore, all of them are located in Orchard area, which I might say is not a very good location for a food place, because, from business and economic perspective, it’s very far from my place.
She managed to go there by herself and bought the stuff, and the effort was rewarded with the rich and hot soto, which she only finished half of, because she had the nausea. Poor her.

22 June: Sayur Asem (Indonesia sour soup)
Yes, it’s confirmed. The craving is settling down in Indonesia. So will go to Orchard tonight to find the best sayur asem. Just hoping that she can finish all of the food. Because otherwise, I will be the one who is going to finish them, … hmm, wait now, it doesn’t sound so bad, isn’t it?

Blood Matters

2007-06-21T09:41:00.000+08:00

Blood donation is one activity where a person, doing his part as a human being and putting others before himself, can compassionately and caringly measure his weight using digitalized weight scale.

I believe that type of weight scale is more accurate than the last scale that I used, due to one simple reason, I weight less there.
I weighted 75 kg only, which means I have loosen 1.5 kg since the last time I weighted. So I believe that my work out routine, which now consists of sweeping the floor and ironing my shirt since my wife is pregnant, is working fine.
So I was happy for the whole 1.5 hours that I was there. And the rest just went as usual: pale face, scared of needle, fainting, all the normal stuff.

Well, except that there were a lot of army reservists there. I don’t know what they were doing. They just stood there, looking at the donors, and discussed many important army stuff, such as where to have a good lunch nearby, how to look active while they were actually did not know what to do there (really).

They were probably instructed to learn the process. So they just looked around and commented on the process. But it just made the donors like me feel awkward. I mean, how if I peed in my pants after seeing the needle inserted into my skin? I would surely be a joke to the whole battalion. Hmm, maybe, while they were watching, they should also feel the pain of having a needle injected into their body, through their eyes.

Baby Watch

2007-06-20T16:49:00.000+08:00

Do you notice that when you take MRT ride, there are a lot of toddlers inside?
Well, neither did I.
My reactions toward babies on MRT were usually like these: If the baby is crying,” Stop crying pleaseeee, headache". If the baby is not crying, “What baby? Where?"

But recently, as my wife is expecting, I am constantly attracted to babies and toddlers. If there is a baby 2 MRT cars away, I would know and observe it. Now I look at babies with more awe, although I know that what they can do is basically only trying to put their feet into their mouth.
So now my reactions to babies are more in the line of
"Aaaaa, so cute"
"Here here. Look at me. Look at me"
"WHAT kind of hair is that?"
because some David Beckham's fans just think that his hairdo suits everybody, including a baby girl.

Now I observe babies' behaviors, their words, their facial expression, and so on. And the most important thing, how they behave towards their parents. Some rebellious toddlers just run around the MRT although the parents are screaming at them. Some toddlers are sitting quietly the whole trip like they are sedated. That makes me decided to start thinking about how to teach a child. What approach used, what punishments are the best, what drugs applied, and so on. But then again, guess I got carried away. It’s still too far.

Crave Attact

2007-06-19T14:36:00.000+08:00

16 June : Indomie Soto (instant noodles with enough MSG to make a heavy metal rocker lose all of his hair).

18 June: Tau suan (hot dessert that the last she ate was around 6 months ago and she was not too crazy about it, but somehow one cell in her pregnant body decided to have one now, knowing that there is no dessert stall within a mile radius of our home).

19 June: Empek-Empek (Indonesian snack, fried fish cake alike, with sour sauce. Not a good sign for me, now that she starts asking for Indonesian food).

Crave Crazy

2007-06-19T14:34:00.000+08:00

Pregnant women need to cope with increasing weight, morning sickness, enlarging abdominal, and so on, whereas men have to deal with… nothing.
But don’t ever think that the women will let the men get away without paying any price. They give men the craving.

I read that craving during pregnancy might be caused by the changing hormone or by nutritional deficiency. But the thing is, when a woman says that she wants to eat Orecchiette con Cima Zucchini at 3 am., you cannot know for sure whether it is the pregnancy body telling her that it needs the nutrition from the food, or your wife simply saying, ”You put this into my body! Now you go out and pay the price! You ungrateful *#*&^@!”, because pregnant woman’s craving is usually accompanied by the mood swing.

So, I believe that my wife is starting to have her craving. She started to ask for a lot of food that are tasty but not healthy. I say it must be the craving (although if such thing happens to me, it’s called “lunch”), because she has been trying to eat healthily, in between her nausea and bloating.
But I’ve been trying to accommodate that anyway, because if I don’t, then the baby will surely have an appetite of a Godzilla, unless it won’t. Well, actually I am not so sure about the effect of unsatisfied craving (somebody should look this up).

Anyway, I am going to put a list of everything that my wife is craving for during the nine months, and see how I can provide her with all the food.