2.5 Months More

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

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.

26 Weeks and Seeing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Electricity in India. I am selling candles.

Med Exam Shame

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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....??

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)