My quirks!
The woes of a sleep deprived mom at 3am.
Just as you celebrate the moment of liberation, when the baby has fallen asleep. As you lower him gingerly onto his cot, to the horrors of horrors, he gives a sudden hiccup.
*%!$@!!!><#@&!!
The light at the end of the tunnel extinguishes.
No wonder there's such a thing called post natal depression.
I’m practically glued to 小小宝贝. Even toilet breaks are chop chop affairs. Sigh.
Here’s a short post. Spring cleaning for Chinese New Year!!
Something I’ll do next year. I’m 5kg away from pre-pregnancy weight. There’s still a chance I can fit into those clothes I wore one year back!!
It’s housekeeping time for my photos. I’m terrible at it. That’s why I needed to get this iPhone 5 with 64gb because I ran out of space on my iPhone 4S 32gb. I just couldn’t bear to delete photos. Yes yes I know. I’ve already backed them up. But I do run through my old photos once in a while and it’s really handy to have them all in one place.
This was an old photo strip that we took at the photo booth. We had one strip each. I lost mine when someone broke into my car and stole my bag which had my diary in it and the strip was in it. That was a really sad day. This strip belongs to Seow (as you can see, she’s in all 4 screens). She’s saved it in digital form so that age doesn’t fade the images.
That was us 2 decades ago. Wow!! 20 years!! That’s more than half my life!!! It was another lifetime away when things were so much simpler. I was all dark from my almost every day training under the sun with short cropped hair out of convenience. That was Edna getting ready for her studies in the UK. And Seow who looks just the same 20 years from then!!
Life was just about studies, having fun, gossiping, puppy love.
We can never turn back the clock. But I’m ever grateful that friends with shared memories are still with me. Once in a long while, when we are able to escape from the mundane responsibilities, we reminisce about our youthful foolish exploits once upon a time.
Friends for life, Darlings!!
I just replaced my maimed SIM card. And it’s free!!! I love M1!! Brownie points for you!!!
As promised, this is appearing in my post. I’ve just upgraded to my iPhone 5. I’ve 2 lines, which means that now I can use my iPhone 4S for my second line!! Yay! My 3GS is nearing the end of its life span, the home button has gone totally kaputt. I’m getting by, using the touch assisted button. And the screen has been flickering.
But this means that I’ve to pay another $26 to get a new SIM card!! Sigh.
Ernest : No need to buy lar. Can cut wan.
Me : Cut?! Even from micro to nano?!
Ernest : Yes! I did it all on my own! Haven’t bought a single SIM card since I upgraded from iPhone 3.
Me : Ok… Help me cut!!
He printed out a template from the Internet, stuck the SIM card carefully on it, did the measurements and markings on the card and trimmed it neatly.
Ernest : There! (Feeling very proud of himself)
Me : (I took the card gingerly and scrutinised it) Why does it look so tiny?!
Ernest : Tiny? Correct what! Nano Sim, of course small!!
Me : Nano?! I don’t want nano!! I only want micro!!!
Ernest : you need nano for iPhone 5!!
Me : Noooooo! It’s for my 4s!!! My iPhone 5 already has a nano!!
T.T
Ernest : ok ok. Let me try to fix it.
Me : How!!
He whipped out the adhesive tape.
Me : (looks at him dubiously) Are you sure this is going to work?!
He was attempting to stick the trimmed edges back and trim it into a micro Sim. The end product was a Frankenstein Sim. He stuck it into the phone. We waited for it to detect. “No Sim detected”. Sigh. Sim pronounced dead…
It’s back to M1 for a new micro Sim. I’m destined to spend this $26….
All this waiting for the sync… in time to dash off a quick post. I know that I shouldn’t even be complaining about this. All that amount of information to be transferred from one phone to another phone is no mean feat. 20 years ago, no one can even imagine, walking around with a device that has 64Gb storage space, but it’s everywhere now. And to transfer 32Gb of information… wow!
It’s my 3rd sync already!! Everything is nicely in, except for my whatsapp messages. Sigh.. Whatsapp keeps giving me grief and yet I can’t do without it. 90% of my contacts have migrated to whatsapp, saving lots of sms cost… It’s like the loss of an arm and a leg when my whatsapp is empty!!
I hope that this last sync will solve the problem.. I’m already late for an appointment… Sigh… The lengths I would go to, just for this upgrading process… When you are watching the clock, every second feels like an hour…
Yes… I get eyebrows raised and incredulous facical expressions when they asked, “You mean, you are still driving in your condition?!”
“Huh?! Pregnant cannot drive meh?”
“You should take a cab!”
“Why? Cab drivers drive more recklessly than I do and I get motion sickness from their tapdancing on brakes.”
“Won’t your bump hit the steering wheel?”
“No…” (I have only put on like 6kg, even during the peak of my 1st pregnancy, the bump was still far far away from the steering wheel)
“Can you still reach the brakes?”
“Erm.. Yes…” (Strange, do legs shorten during pregnancy?? I hope not, I’m already very vertically challenged. I would hate that to happen to me.)
“Can you reach the steering wheel?”
“No problem with that.” (Oh my goodness, now they are telling me that all my 4 limbs are growing shorter?!)
“You still shouldn’t drive!”
Huh…?! What’s the logic?! And put myself in the mercy of the cab drivers? I have tried taking the MRT. Usually people would give up their seats to me, provided that I wasn’t jam packed at the entrance… I couldn’t even reach the seats for someone to give up his seat when I was squashed like a sardine at the door.
So being an internet person, I googled.. Driving, pregnant. There is no scientific proof that pregnant women shouldn’t be driving. Well, unless, you have grown to such a distorted size that the diameter of your bump exceeds the length of your arms and legs. Then of course, you can’t drive, because you can’t reach the wheel and the pedals! But that doesn’t usually happen. For people who need to commute long hours like more than 1 hour to reach their destinations, they are advised to stretch their legs every hour to prevent blood clotting. This doesn’t apply just to pregnant ladies, in fact, it’s applicable to everyone. In Singapore, you hardly need to drive more than one hour, even taking into consideration the traffic jams.
So the good news is… Pregnant women can drive. I have even googled the right way to wear the seat belt… which is the normal way… Just make sure that the bottom strap lies below the bump so that it stabilises your body during an accident, without exerting pressure on the baby.
So there! I CAN DRIVE!!! Stop raising your eyebrows at me! Bah!
I really pitied the little baby. He was yawning and his eyelids were fluttering shut. But every time his eyelids shut, his grandmother would poke him on his chin to wake him up.
“Erm.. I think he’s very tired and wants to sleep..”
“No lar! He doesn’t want to sleep! See! He’s wide awake! I shook him in the sarong and he eh eh eh!” his Ah Ma negated my remark.
The sarong she was referring to was a cloth cradle that hung beneath a spring suspended to the ceiling. Personally I am totally against letting an infant sleep in such a contraption. Firstly, because of the up and down movement. The adults and children tend to be over exuberant in the shaking and it does no good for brain development. The infant tends to get used to the movement and can’t sleep otherwise. Sleeping in such a condition doesn’t give quality sleep, another reason on the hampering of brain development. Besides, it is hung in the living room, where everyone congregates, with the television switched on. How could the poor baby sleep in such a condition??!!
“Why don’t you bring him into the room so that it’s quieter and he can sleep better?” I ventured again, out of pity for the poor little thing.
“He wants to play!” Ah Ma happily continued to poke him on his chin, waking him up whenever his eyelids fluttered shut.
I swear that if I were the baby, I would go nuts. Whenever I was about to nod off to sleep, someone would wake me up by poking me on my chin?! I can’t imagine such a thing happening to him. But then again, I’m an adult, he’s just a wee thing who still can’t express himself.
Oh well… he’s not my child. I’d better keep my mouth shut before I receive complaints on my behaviour. His caregivers should know better. But if I were his mother, I would have snatched him out of her hands, barricaded myself in the room and put him to bed. Who cares if I’m branded as an insensitive daughter-in-law, preventing my mother-in-law from showing off my baby.
To stop a baby from sleeping is a BIG SIN!!
A very pleasant surprise was in store for me this very morning. My barren plant blossomed!! I’ve had it for a year. When I bought it from the nursery, it was flowering (as usual). The salesperson assured me that it would bloom all round the year in Singapore. Ya right… So I bought 3 little pots.
After their initial blooms, it was literally greenery all the way. Zzz. I did as I was instructed. I trimmed them after the flowers wilted and added fertilizer. And nothing happened.
I faithfully followed the ritual once every few weeks and still nothing happened. Gardening doesn’t seem like my cup of tea.
Finally it’s just down to the bare minimum of watering them to keep them alive…
One year later, with just water as their staple, one of them flowered!!
Some people must be thinking… Waaa so *Bo liao… One little flower also blog. Well it’s one of the little things we don’t take note of in life. Smell the flowers that grow at the side of the roads, marvel at the beautiful blue sky (after days of haze), appreciate the little things in life.
It’s a beautiful day, a wonderful life. :)
*bo Liao = nothing better to do
I swear if I hear these words uttered to me again, “You will just experienced a mild discomfort.”, I may turn violent on that person!!
I had to choose between 2 procedures – Amniocentesis and Chorionic Villus Sampling (CVS), to dispel all doubts of chromosomal disorder of the foetus (well up to 98%, they always like to leave a disclaimer behind). All part and parcel of being an overaged Mom. It was quite a no-brainer. The Amniocentesis requires the use of a really thin needle, the procedure takes only 1 minute whereas the CVS requires a much thicker needle and the procedure takes 15 mins?! The difference is that you get to do the CVS and of course, know the truth earlier. I’d rather be kept in the dark for a few more weeks and opted for the thinner needle and shorter procedure time.
This Amniocentesis was quite a bother. The first time just before I went, I developed a high fever. We called up the center and they assured us that we could go ahead with it and so of course, being the non-experts in the field, we went down to the hospital. We spent a good 1 hour doing the prescan, typical waiting for the doctor’s grand arrival before the doctor told us that it’s best not to go through it as fever indicated an infection. There’s no point taking a risk as there’s 0.3% chance of miscarriage. Ok fine… we trudged home…
It was rescheduled for 2 weeks, to allow the fever and whatever infection to pass out of my system before we attempt it again. So yesterday was THE day. There were 1 nurse and 2 doctors in the room. One doctor was responsible for monitoring the position of the foetus so that he wouldn’t get in the way of the needle. “You will just experience a mild discomfort.” Uh huh… ok. Mild right?! Easy Peasy! Although I couldn’t imagine how a needle that could go through all the layers of fats, right into the womb with just a mild discomfort, but I just had to trust the expert right??
The main doctor was still on the phone when I was on the couch. Hmm.. must be really a piece of cake to him.. The nurse said “relax, relax..” when she noticed me clenching my fists and my legs were pointing in an awkward position. I read from the net that they could take really long to find the right position. My baby must have been really coorperative… it took them a mere 3 mins! The doctor poked my tummy with his finger (I could see it on the screen), made a mark, swabbed it with iodine etc.
Then i saw the needle…. for just a few mere seconds before it was plunged into my tummy… OWWWwww!!!!! WTF!! What kind of mild discomfort was that?! Just when I thought that’s it, he pushed it in and I felt it go through another barrier and OWWWwww!! Then another time! I could see it sticking into the liquid through the monitor and then I heard, “the fluid is not coming through”, then I felt a twist (I swear my eyes must have rolled behind my head!). I was busy counting seconds in my mind to take the attention off the pain. The monitoring doctor said in a reassuring voice, “mild discomfort only.. ok?” At that point, I felt like jumping up from the examining table, flung him onto it and pierce the needle into him, twist it a few times and say in an evil voice, “Don’t worry.. it’s just a MILD DISCOMFORT!!”
Anyway, they said it was for only 1 minute right?! Well! They were lying!!! It was at least 3 minutes!!! And minus the time taken to overcome the initial shock at the pain that I forgot to start counting. I saw them fill a huge tube with amniotic fluid taken from me, while feeling the foreign object inside me… Finally I saw the nurse nodding her head, indicating that it was enough. They pulled the needle out and stuck a plaster on me and I was advised to rest for 30-45 mins so that the blood would clot. Bedrest was prescribed for 2 days… and monitoring for 2 weeks.
When I described the whole thing to my hub, including my fantasy, he said, the doctor would probably not survive that. Afterall, men had lower pain tolerance than women. That’s why if men were the ones who had to go through giving birth, Earth’s population would have dwindled to none. Too painful lar… Hmm.. ok that made me feel better…
But still.. if I hear the words “Mild Discomfort” from anyone, in whatever context, I swear I will plunge a needle into him/her!!