It's all quiet now...

My in-laws and my mum have been staying with us since one month ago. My in-laws went back earlier by cutting short their 2 weeks vacation into 10 days, and my mum decided to go back earlier by shortening her 2 months holiday into 3 weeks.... ALL due to the cold weather!!

After all the hoo haa, coo and angooo with baby Kayden, the house is left with just 3 of us and 2 bunnies now. It suddenly feels a bit lonely and quiet. So, we might decide to find a city closeby to visit, or we might just stay at home.

Kayden has grown a lot! He puts on approximately 1kg since one and a half month ago and now he has passed his 4kg mark! Of course he is getting heavier and I can feel the extra weight when I nurse him! He is such a wonderful darling to have. Thank God for bringing such a joy into our lives. I can't believe that he is already 2-month old by now!

2009 is definitely a year to look forward to!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Dear friends and family!

2008 has been an eventful and wonderful journey for us!

Thank you for being part of our lives!

We wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy 2009!

From: Chee, Sally & Kayden

For those who missed Kayden's photos, here you go!

Welcome baby!

As some of you might have guessed... the long silence means something must have delivered :)

Welcome baby Kayden into this world!

He arrives surprisingly early on the 21 Oct 2008!

Doesn't he look like a king?

We are blessed with a small little gem who is calm and easy to care for. The kraamzorg helps tremendously for the first week and hubby has been busy taking care of me by buying last minute supplies, shopping for groceries and cooking food, not to mention taking care of the 2 rabbits. What else can I ask for from a man?

Japanese Garden, Clingendael

The Japanese Garden in The Hague was reopened for only 2 days last week, and we managed to visit it. It is the oldest Japanese garden in Europe and it only opens for 6 months every year, spring and summer. However, this 2 days was special because there was an Ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement) exhibition on display.

The Japanese garden itself is situated within the Clingendael park. It is so close to our place that we decided to just cycled over. The garden is very beautifully designed. You can immediately detect its uniqueness through the use of bamboos, bridge, tea house and small walking path. It's a calm and serene garden, definitely worth a visit next year for those who have never been there before.

You can see more of the Japanese Garden photos by clicking here

Don't forget the Clingendael park. This park is a very popular park in The Hague. It's extremely huge and a very comfortable hang out spot. You will see dog owners, cyclists, book lovers, couples, families in the park, enjoying good sunlight (when there is) and each other's company. I'll definitely bring my baby there for a walk every week!

Oven

Oven is not a common kitchen appliance in most Asian kitchens. I didn't discover how much fun it is to use an oven until I moved over to the Netherlands.

The oven at our place has recently come alive because we managed to find time to clean it up and started using it more often. It is a very old model and I have to specially request its user manual from the manufacturer and then translate the manual from Dutch to English using Google translator to understand what it is all about.

I know you'll laugh: but the truth is, it is only by now I discovered that there are many pre-made pastry and frozen food packages available in the supermarket that I can just buy and bake it, and the food can be ready in a very short period of time! I especially like those croissants, they are so delicious to eat with my favourite strawberry jam and butter!

What a life saver discovery especially when the little one is coming! Plus, there are so many food baking recipes available and as long as I can marinate the ingredients before hand, I'll be able to have dinner/lunch ready in a very short time.

PL introduced me to Nigella Lawson, and oh boy, it is the first time I actually studied western cookbook and try those recipes! I never really enjoy pasta or steak as part of my daily meals, but after seeing how easy these recipes are, I am willing to give it a go, and they do turned out well :D

Now, one mission that I've after the whole pregnancy thing is to learn to cook Japanese food... I think that is a good goal to aim for since recently hubby has developed this liking of Japanese dragon sushi roll :P

Oh great....

Today is the 36th week and we had our midwife appointment at night. Bronovo hospital started night-time appointment service, which is great because now hubby can join me for the checkup.

The midwife checked the baby's heart rate... fine. She also went through a checklist about when we need to call the hospital and what to watch out for when labour starts. Basically, bits and pieces of what we have all learned from the childbirth class. Both of us were just nodding our head. After awhile, I sensed that she thinks she doesn't need to explain any further... Thank God we took the class together!

However, after she did a position check, she suspects that the baby's head has not turned yet! So, I'll be off for another round of ultrasound (ouch) within the next 2 days so that they can decide whether to continue to take me under the midwife department or send me off to a gynae's care. I guess I'll be spending some time reading up on c-section tonight, just... in.... case... the baby decides to have some fun.

I have one last jewelry-making workshop to run and that's it, I'll be sitting at home not going anywhere. Weather is not good either, I hope hubby do not need to push me to the hospital with a wheelchair under a heavy rain. He is starting to feel anxious. I'm showing him around the hospital (like where to buy food and drink, where is the emergency entrance, how to get to the hospital from our place etc...), and also typing out instructions on what number to call and when to call, especially for the kraamzorg service.

One good news is that I've put on another 2kg! Finally, I'm approaching the normal weight gain range. Trust me, this is the one and only time that a woman will feel happy putting on weight than not.

Superb weather! Sigh...

One great topic in this Dutchy land is the weather.

And well, the weather suddenly dipped from 18 celsius to 10 in just 2 days. We are all hit by this cold, lousy, windy, cloudy, no-sun weather. My winter jacket is out, after putting it in the cupboard for more than half a year!

Leaves are turning yellow, more rains and less people on the street. I'm not so sure that I welcome autumn that much now, eventhough I like to see golden hue parks and beautiful yellow leaves dropping from the sky.

In any case, I'm under the weather too, juggling between running nose and sore throat. The only place I want to be is under the blanket.

Baby stroller

Woohoo!! Our baby stroller has finally arrived!

It took us great faith to buy this model, without even touching it! We bought it based on the reviews that we read and video that we watched. Considered silly or dumb, I don't know, but it is really a great buy, knowing that it will last us through the next 3 years! Hubby's colleagues help us to bring it over from US. We really appreciate their help!!!

The first thing that I tried out is the collapsing mechanism of the stroller. Man, I've to give it 10 thumbs up! It is SUPERB easy! By applying a bit of pressure and a little twist, the stroller just collapsed into one unit, not to mention that it's lighter than any other standard strollers that were on our shopping list. Surprisingly, opening up the stroller is amazingly easy too. Basically, the collapsing and opening of the stroller can be done with one-hand.

I still remember the time when we spent trying out different strollers at Baby Park in Gouda and it was frustrating because most of the big brands out there promised the sky, but it took us dozen of trials and errors to open and close the stroller, not to mention that they hurt my fingers!! On top of that, they are bulky and heavy (even without a baby sitting on it), which I couldn't handle it at all due to my size. Considering how many times we need to take tram or bus, or maybe later have a car, to unload and load a stroller in and out is going to be a major part of our lives, and we want that part to be stress-free and enjoyable, for us and the baby!

Overall, we are very impressed with the smoothness of the mechanism and how user-friendly the design is.

Of course, there are other reasons why we wanted this stroller :D
The stroller is high, so baby can be sitting at the same level as adult. Yes, we are cheated by 'the higher is better' concept from Stokke. The stroller is light, the stroller is ergonomically designed, big wheels so that baby can sleep and sit comfortably, the stroller's seat can turn 360 degree, comfortable padding, it gives higher value with the price that we paid than buying those that we tried and didn't like them etc...

Ok enough... the company isn't paying me anything to do the marketing for them. We are very happy that we made a good choice :D Now we are just waiting for the baby to test run it.

Yuki is a big girl now...

Yuki is getting more used to us nowadays. When she first arrived, she will always avoid us getting close to her. Instinctively, she will hop away and hide behind her husbun. She will only allow us to pet her, unless we first pet Kenji.

However, things have changed.

I managed to play with her on my lap for quite a long time last night. She easily settled on my lap and while I petted her with one hand, she was busy eating her favourite food from the other hand. After that I gave her a nose rub and body massage. She enjoyed it thoroughly!

She has definitely grown so much bigger! She is almost the size of Kenji now. And boy, she is fat!

Ultrasound Updates

My ultrasound result turned out to be normal. Obviously they compared my size to the Dutch's average baby size and because of that, my baby's growth is 3 weeks behind their average growth, but still falls within the normal range on the chart. Most Asian mothers faced the same problem here. So I'm not surprised to find myself doing this episode to REALLY make sure that everything is alright.

However, the baby has not turned yet. According to books, the baby is supposed to turn to the head-down position by week 33th for the first pregnancy. I'm in week 33th now, and his buttock is still at the bottom. So, now I'm sleeping on my left most of the time to give him the optimal position for him to turn. Other tips that I read that can encourage the baby to turn is to sit upright with the knee position always lower than the hip.

I've also bought my kraampakket and now going through the final checklist to make sure everything is in place. I also need to start packing my hospital bag...

The baby's Chinese name seems to be progressing well, with more idea coming through, at least, we have got names that both of us like and happy with, and now we just need to decide on which one.

Back to Dutchy land

The London trip was FANTASTIC! We enjoyed such wonderful time with PL and her hubby, and with little baby Matt. It also gives me a brief overview on how having a five-month old baby feels like after the first 3 months of hoo-haa, fire fighting situation. As what our childbirth class teacher said in our class last night, it's a 24/7 job, at least for the first few months... It didn't really scare me though, I'm looking forward towards this brand new experience more than anything else.

I'm entering my week 33th now. My checkup with midwife this morning brought her to think that it is necessary to send me for another ultrasound scan just to make sure that everything is alright. Baby is small (compared to Dutch's size, and I don't know about Asian size), and the midwife can't feel the head either (hmm... I wonder where did it go?). It seems that baby has not turned yet. It is not bothering me yet since there is still a few more weeks to go for him to make the turn. He is kicking vigorously throughout the night and my belly is growing. I felt my skin is so stretched now that I just want to sit at home and watch Animal Planet.

And autumn is here. This makes me feel lazy.

Off to London

You will not hear from me for the next couple of days because I'm off to London to catch up with a dear friend and at the same time, to do some last minute shopping for baby items!

Enjoy your weekend!

Happy Birthday Kenji!

I adopted him when he was only 7-month old from the adoption centre. That was in March 2007. I have no clue which day is his birthday, so I make September his birthday month.

Kenji is now 2-year old! I can't believe it, time flies!
He loves doing this dance episode when he is very happy. I have no idea what triggers it, but he seems to enjoy himself. This time, Yuki joined him in the last moment to end his dance with a thump thinking that the box opening sound (by my husband) is something scary.

Black Glutinous Rice dessert 黑糯米

I've tried making this dessert about 3 weeks ago and it turned out to be unsatisfactory. Not giving up, I gave it a go last week and hooray! It tasted sooo much better. I have to confess that I'm getting lazier in preparing good food for my hubby, so he started 'complaining' last week... oops. :D So I decided to do something special.


I can't believe that this dessert is so easy to prepare. Getting a pack of black glutinous rice is extremely easy in Den Hague. I've also added red dates and longan into the dessert. These are optional. If you want to try this recipe out (enough for 2 person to have 2 big bowls), here is what I've done:


1) Soak a bowl full of black glutinous rice to soften it (size of a normal rice bowl will do). I soaked it for about 20 hours.

2) Wash the rice and pour the soaked rice into my cooking pot, together with approx 3 bowls of water

3) Then cook the ingredients with high heat till it boils and then switch to low heat.

4) I add in red dates, longan, and rock sugars (add and taste. Adjust the amount to your liking)

5) Continue to cook them for about 1 hour.

6) After 1 hour, switch off your cooker and leave the pot for another 1 hour. Do not open the cover of the pot. You want the heat of the pot to continue to warm the ingredient to get a smokey taste. In mandarin we call it 焗.

7) Impatiently, I waited for 1 hour and tada! It turned out so much better than my first attempt. The rice is thick and have the texture that I wanted for the dessert.

8) I did add a bit of coconut milk. Yum yum, I love it!

Sunflowers!

Sunflower is my favourite flower. Now you can see them everywhere in the florists. It is a happy flower for me. So hubby bought me a few of them last weekend while we went out shopping. I was smiling back home all the way! 5 for Eur 3.50 only!!!!! I remember I paid a lot more back in KL!

Just a tip: To make sure that the flowers last longer, the easiest way of doing it is to squeeze 2 slices of lemon juice into the water (approx 1 litre) so that it kills off the bacteria. I did that for my daisies and they lasted for 2 weeks (changed water once a week)! If it's not because I went off to Colmar over the weekend, they should be able to last for another week, if I had remembered to change the water...

Artistic signboards

When I was in Colmar, I did a collection of photos on various little shops signboards. I find them so beautifully created, very unlike the signboards that we see in KL. Most signboards can be seen from the side and each one is unique and special in its own way, representing the shop itself. Just signboards alone bring superb characteristics to the environment.

I have included some of my favourite signs:

A bakery shop:

A lady sipping her coffee - sign for a cafe obviously :)

One look at it you know that it's a shop that sells fabrics:



A gift shop:

Lastly, our hotel's sign:

30th Week!

Wow, time flies isn't it?

The baby can decide to meet the world, ANYTIME, after another 6 more weeks. I have definitely grew bigger, which I am very happy about. The midwife assistant weighed me a few days back and I have put on 6kg since the last 2 checkups (I missed one because the weigh was broken). The belly is now bigger. Sometimes one side of the belly is clearly larger than the other side, especially when I am laying on my side. I wonder whether is it the baby's head or his bottom.

I'm busy packing my hospital bag and checking a list to make sure that all baby items are in placed, all baby clothes are washed and I have my post-labour items all ready. But hubby still hasn't fix up the changing table and cot yet... that is a big to-do that he needs to tick off; and I haven't go out to buy the kraampakket. Kraampakket is a box that is full of all the maternity stuff that a kraamzorg needs when she is at home to take care of the baby. It includes items like alcohol, digital thermometer, maternity pads etc... So, still lots of things to do to get everything ready. But I'm sure we will get there.

It hurts...

It hurts... really.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/31/nation/22213085&sec=nation

She is now my favourite!

Hiromi Uehara, a young Japanese jazz pianist!
You have to see her in action with Chick Corea. It was such an excellent performance with such intimate connection with their instruments. Of course, I am absolutely mesmerized by her talent and her composition in her albums.

Can't leave them out!

You might now have noticed that I've slowly moving my rabbit blog entry into this blog. Both me and hubby have been bun lovers since 2 years ago. I find it difficult to maintain another blog when both of them are so close to us.

[give them drum rolls]

Introducing our elder bun, Kenji and...



his newly wed, Yuki!

Both of them are our sweetest companions! We can't imagine not having them around. Your heart just melt especially when they give you the food begging look...

A short break to Colmar, France

During the last week of August, we took a trip off to Colmar in France. We tagged along with our friends and we drove down from The Hague, passed by Germany and then entered the Alsace province. The first time I heard about Colmar is the Colmar Tropicale tourist destination in KL at Bukit Tinggi. I haven't been there before but I heard that tourists have to buy ticket (approx RM 16 per person) to visit Colmar Tropicale in Bkt Tinggi.

But this time, we get to visit the REAL Colmar in France! I read up Colmar entry in Wikipedia and looked at some photos. It is such a beautiful place, so off we went last weekend! Oh boy, I haven't taken so many photos in my life! The views were scenic, compliments with charming French style architecture and bright beautiful flowers dropping off the balconies. The air is fresh, vineyards are full of grapes and what's more, a bright sunny sun! Perfect weather to visit Colmar!

I'm amazed by how much originality of the environment is kept after so many years. The clock seems to have stopped in this place. I can still feel the original lifestyle, the original building and environment that has been there for so many years. Generations might have done the same thing after generations and the villagers can probably trace back their roots and talk about their great great great grandfathers whom were there few centuries ago.

Alsace is a wine production area. I'm no wine drinker. It is such a waste and I can't take any alcohol now. But I wanted to shop for a 2008 production wine to keep it for my boy. However, the grapes are not ripe yet and I can only get the 2008 bottles in 2009. Geez... I'm too eager isn't it?

You can see more photos that I have taken in Colmar by following this link

Confinement food 坐月餐

Hubby volunteered to cook confinement food for me... haha! So I promised him that we can do some trial run before that. Start with something easy like ginger chicken 姜葱鸡.

One of the confinement food that I look forward to is the Pig trotters with vinegar 猪脚醋! Some people like it some people don't. My dad cooked it once long time ago, and I loved it! However, the correct one, according to him, is with lots of gravy. The one that he cooked was dry. So he said it was a failure. But I thought it was a nice mistake.

The only problem now is, where can I find pig trotters in The Hague? I haven't seen one yet...

Lo Mai Kai 糯米鸡

I have this craving of wanting to eat Lo Mai Kai 糯米鸡 these few days. If you like dim sum, you will probably know what I am talking about. It is a dim sum that has soy sauce marinated chicken/pork with sausage and chinese mushrooms all compacted into a bowl of glutinous rice and steamed. In KL, you will get them in a metal bowl. We turned the bowl upside down to loosen the rice and eat it with chili sauce. It is a very popular dim sum that you can buy from any coffee shop that sells pau (steamed buns). I remembered my dad and I used to share one big lo mai kai early morning with coffee as breakfast.

Lo Mai Kai sold in the HK restaurant in The Hague is different from what we have in KL. Here they wrapped them up in pandan leaves and there isn't much ingredients inside.

So I decided to look up on the net and found a long and detailed lo mai kai recipe which I am very tempted to try. It seems that it takes lots of effort to make one. I have all the ingredients, except the glutinous rice... so that goes into my Chinatown shopping list next round.

After years of no TV

People always look at us weird when we told them that we don't watch TV programmes.
It was a habit that was formed for years. In fact, we seldom watch movies nowadays. Yeah, we are probably one of those bunch who don't subscribe to the idea that you need to gain general knowledge by keeping ourselves updated with what is happening around the world. I feel that those news channels have too much of negativity going on that I feel happier by not listening to them.

However, hubby now thinks that it is a good idea to have one TV back in our house because we have guests later this year and we don't want them to feel bored. And, he is afraid that I'll get too bored after giving birth. One thing that I like most, if I have TV at home, is that I get to watch Animal Planet, Discovery and National Geographic again! Plus these channels are in English. This is the good practice that the Dutch has about foreign TV programmes because they leave them as it is and add in Dutch subtitles, so I get to listen to the original audio and learn Dutch along the way!

So we went around looking for a second-hand TV and bought ourselves one! A 10-year old Sony Trinitron 26". We love it!

Childbirth Class

Finally, the childbirth class is here.
I've been looking forward to attend this class. Not only because I get to learn more about childbirth through a teacher (not books), it's also because it is time to get hubby to learn more!
Err... it is not true that he is not learning. He did read up books like Bloke's Guide to Pregnancy, Happiest Baby on the Block etc... It's just that there are not many books that are catered for father-to-be and he has been asking me to teach him more. But I don't know what to teach. So, a childbirth class is perfect to fill in the necessary gaps.

Initially I thought it will be conducted in a classroom environment. But to my surprise, when we arrived, it is a living hall environment! There are nice couch and comfortable pillows everywhere! Perfect for expecting mothers! Plus, coffee and tea free flow with delicious chocholate cookies! Yum yum.... :)

The first session kicked off well. There are about 8 couples in the room. All of them are either foreigners staying in The Hague, or they have a partner who is not Dutch. This first session is an overview session. We introduced ourselves, and raised our concerns and worries (if there is any) through group discussion.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. And I can see that hubby enjoyed himself too!

More Photos...

This is our kitchen. I can't remember, but I think I took it on the day before we officially moved in. Noticed the sandwiches that I packed in the paper bag and the Nescafe bottle? It was also the day when the Ikea guys came and moved our purchases to the first floor.

Ikea charged extra for moving the stuff to the first floor. The most basic delivery charge is the one where they come and leave everything next to the street, and we have to carry them up. Since we ordered so many and we won't be able to carry them all upstairs, we decided to pay them to do the job.

Next is our laundry area. Huge! Compared to what we used to have in the serviced apartment. So I decided to put the iron board here as well. As usual the washer and dryer are all in Dutch and the user manuals have most languages except English. The models are so old that I couldn't find any downloaded manual on Siemens's website. The door in this laundry area is opened to our third balcony. Yes, we have three balconies in this apartment.

So as you can see all the Ikea stuff are everywhere in the apartment. This is our dining area.
After hubby started disassembling the chairs and table, we got something more proper to sit and put things around.



Not bad for a 2 hour work :)

Home under construction

We moved to a new place recently and I promised to share some photos. We are still in the process to setting it up although most parts of the apartment are done, there are still some little tweaks here and there that I would like to do.

So I'm putting up some photos which show the apartment's surrounding and when it was in its original state.

This is the view from the living hall. It is summer, so the trees and grasses are very green. This is considered a very good day because you get very bright sunshine and cooling breeze at the same time.

Just below the windows outside of the living hall, is this patch of garden which belongs to my neighbours. The occupants downstairs own the front and the back garden. The Dutch just loooovvveeeeee gardens! Their houses have very big garden but little living space. It is so different from our culture because we would rather want more living space and less garden. We will even go to the extend of cementing the garden into a concrete floor so that it is easier to maintain!


This is the backyard view from our dining hall.




Since it's 2 apartments combined into one. One of the living halls (now our bedroom) has a fireplace. I don't know whether it's still functional. But I personally love fireplace and chimney! However, nowadays there are digital fireplace (electronic), so you don't really need a real fireplace to keep yourself warm.

More photos in the process... stay tune!

Leg cramp...

Geez... it was painful! It has happened twice this week in the middle of the night.

As I said, I am not big size for a 7th month. But I can really feel the stress on the leg lately, and I'm sure I haven't really put on much weight yet. I can't imagine how uncomfortable it is when the belly is so big until I can't see my feet!

So my solution is: While I sleep, I put a pillow to lift my legs up and put another pillow behind my back so that it supports my back. I'm sleeping on my side, since that is the recommended way. I also bought a footstool from Ikea so when I am working in front of my computer, I put my legs up on the footstool. While I stand, I distribute my weight on my feet instead of relying on one side or the other. Hopefully it will help a bit.

Baby name

Thinking of a suitable baby name with my hubby's surname/last name is quite challenging, in mandarin.

No matter what I suffix it with, it sounds odd. Plus, you need to pronounce the name in mandarin, cantonese, hokkien, hakka or whatever other dialects that you can think of, because trust me, it can sound so normal in one language, but it can means something else in these dialects. These dialects: cantonese, hokkien and hakka are pretty common dialects that most Chinese can understand. If you give a name that carries funny meaning in these dialects, that poor child will suffer for life.

So I have call upon help from my parents and in-laws.

This is one to do that I personally felt more challenging than buying baby carrier.

Baby packmule society

Hubby's colleagues from US are visiting in October and due to the lower US exchange rate, buying baby stuff from US makes more sense than buying them here. Most pricing in Holland is priced at the same rate (just different currency symbol in front). So you can imagine, how much more extra we need to pay for a same item if we buy locally, plus some, we can't find them locally either. There is only one word to describe the pricing here, ridiculous.

One of the colleagues jokingly said that they are the baby packmule society for us :)
And I really appreciate their help because it's not easy to find colleagues who are willing to help us carry so many things (like baby carrier, stroller etc...) especially when these are 'baby' items, not some cool electronics gadgets. Each of them have to work out how to spread the load. Some lighter items have already been offloaded to colleagues who return to Holland earlier. We are expecting to receive our baby stroller in October, and I can't wait to see it!!

Usual checkup

3 days after we moved into our new place, I have my monthly midwife visit. I took approximately 5 minutes to walk to the hospital under a cold cold weather. It started drizzling since early morning.

The checkup is short and sweet. As usual, the weight, blood pressure, fundal height and the remaining time is for me to ask questions. I was particularly concerned about the size of my tummy. I'm in the middle of 6th months now, and I'm still not really showing. I'm concerned whether I'm not eating right, or the baby is too small. The midwife told me that for my size, everything is normal (they all said that don't they...), but she said, she does expect me to grow bigger when I hit my last trimester.

She also asked me to do a glucose test. All in all, the whole checkup and the visit to the lab took about 1 hour.

Oh, and by the way, I forgot to let you all know, it's a boy :)

I'm back!

I have not been online for the past 1 week, due to our move :)

Finally, the technician came and installed the internet service yesterday! You can't imagine how happy I was!

We have finally settled down in our new apartment after one full day of crazy move. 2 of our friends volunteered to help! Thank God, or else we won't have made it within the the limited time! They commanded me to stay at home so I was basically stationed in the apartment, busy cleaning and vacuuming.

The new place is so close to hubby's office, cycling is only 2m away. Plus, my hospital is within walking distance! Hubby plans to rent a wheelchair and he can literally push me to the hospital in case anything happen during these last few months. It's an amazingly quiet and peaceful area and it's only about 15m away from the city centre, 1 street away from the main street. Lots of senior citizens I would say... most probably because that it is a very old neighbourhood. All houses here were built around 1930's. The apartment is simple, and yet has beautiful characteristics. I will describe it as charming! I'll post some photos later.

The sweetest thing that happened during the move was a friendly gesture from our neighbour downstairs. She picked her flowers from her garden and gave me a stalk of them to welcome us into the apartment. It was soooo heart warming because that is exactly what you need when you're new in a place!

6th Month

I'm officially in my 6th Month now.

I finally outgrew my jean today. No matter how I tried, I can only zip it up half way. So I went searching for the pregnancy pants that my mom-in-law bought for me from Jusco, and they do fit nicely and comfortably!

But still, no one is able to tell that I'm expecting, especially when I put on my jacket.

I guess I'm one of those who will just balloon up when I hit the 7th month.

Hubby said,"Warn me first just in case I'm next to you at that time."
Well, hopefully it doesn't happen while I sleep. He might just get bumped onto the floor.

Cleaning kettle

My kettle has lime scale built up after using it for awhile. This is because the water is hard here. A problem, which I don't face back home.

So I've been researching on how to clean these nasty brown lines. Most people suggested vinegar. But I do not want the kettle to smell vinegar since this kettle belongs to the serviced apartment. So I decided to try lemons.

Following instructions, I cut a lemon into 4 slices. Fill up the kettle to max and squeeze all the lemon juices into the kettle and dump the 4 slices of lemon into the kettle. Brought it to boil.

After it boiled, I left it for an hour while I continue working on other things.

After that, I boiled the water again.

Wahlau! It's as clean as it can gets!

Midwife Visit

Did I tell you what my midwife commented on my progress?

"Boring..." she said.

I told her that everything seems to be normal. I'm happy, happily eating, happily walking, happily sleeping. I didn't feel any discomfort, any back pain yet, any muscle cramp or whatever. Touch wood... truly the 2nd trimester is such a wonderful time. In fact, I asked her back, "Is this normal?"

She took my weight and blood pressure, and did an examination on the belly, checking the baby's size and measuring my fundal height. Then she said, "Your case is so normal that it is boring..." I laughed. But she is very very pleased with the progress.

I walked so much during our Berlin and Prague trip that I feel so energized. Yes, my feet were tired, but I don't feel exhausted from our walking. We tried the Czech's famous cuisine (can't remember the name), ate unagi in Japanese restaurant (I still skip my favourite sashimi), occasionally share magnum mini with hubby etc... I need to enjoy while I can!

So my next appointment is one month ahead.

Baby Vision Trip

Just when you want to be punctual and not late for appointment... you missed the bus.
This happened when both of us went for our Baby Vision appointment last Saturday.

The timing was just not right that once we came out of the train station, the bus just left the bus station. Of course, we waited for another half an hour under the rain for the next bus. It is a new bus station, so it doesn't even has a bus stop cover!

The technician can only spare us 15m for our session because another customer is waiting to do her scan too.

But it is all worth it!

It is such an experience for me and hubby that we feel that paying EUR 55 for a 15 minutes DVD session recording the baby's movement with narration from the technician, plus us asking stupid questions, laughing throughout the 15 minutes is soooo worth it. Not only we get the DVD, we also have 2 printed ultrasound captures in colour (yellow) and another 4 black and white prints of the baby. This is no normal 2D captures. These are the 3D captures which you can see the baby face clearly. We feel that 15 minutes is just right, not too long, not too short. Enough to keep the viewers entertained.

Initially the baby was sleeping, all cuddled up like a small ball, with baby's arm on top of his forehead, and one foot under the chin. We tried to wake the baby up by pressing my tummy and making noise. Our baby usually sleeps in the morning. After all these commotion, the baby started to move.

We managed to see the baby sucking thumb, stretching, smiling, pulling umbilical cord as if pulling away a curtain, open mouth (drink water), eyes, nose, mouth, ears, feet, arms, opening fingers and all sort of other small movements. The technician commented that the baby is very happy inside. I think so too!

For those who are planning to do a 3D or 4D scan, please note that you need to do it before week 25 so that your baby will not be too big to fit into the screen. I have a friend who did it too late so the pictures didn't come out clear (either you miss the head or miss the feet, you don't see the either body).

But yeah, do it if you can... it's fun!

Could you please...

I know you are reading this... please... I WANT comments!

I feel so lonely sharing my news but no one is sharing me theirs... can you just click on the Comments link and write to me. It's very easy. Just tell me how are you doing recently, tell me what is it like after you read my updates. Talk to me!

I don't want to write to a piece of wall.

I want comments! Make me feel loved and encourage me to continue updating. Geez, I feel like I'm an attention seeker now... Ha! But no harm asking for more attention! :P

Baby Carrier

Hubby said, it is important to choose a good baby carrier. He briefed me with a list of criteria and he has been researching on a good baby carrier for a long long time. It's THAT difficult to make a right choice. Among the criteria that I can still remember are:

• How secure is the carrier? There are incidents where the baby dropped off the carrier due to poor holder designs
• How comfortable is the baby when when he/she is sitting in the carrier? Some carriers have badly designed edges that cuts the baby's skin
• How good is the support? Some carriers have poor back support for the baby.

At the end, he finally made up his mind and asked me to take a look at this BECO Butterfly Baby Carrier. This doesn't mean that we endorse this product, but it means that we like this baby carrier more than any other carriers in the market.

The design blew me away. As a person who likes beautiful things, I immediately say yes! See, it's easy for me to decide. He he...

Picture from Beco Baby Carrier website

Butter Cake

By looking at how the cake sinks in the middle, you know that I'm still a novice in baking. This is my 2nd attempt in baking cake.

My first, banana cake, didn't turn out well. I forgot to pre-heat the oven, I open the oven door to check when it was baking, put too high a temperature and plus all the beginner mistakes... my cake turned out overbaked and I have to throw it away. The only thing left is the sweet vanilla aroma in the air that chased away my stir fry smell from my previous night's cooking.

This time I found this butter cake recipe and I'm tempted to try. I patiently mixed the ingredients and leave it baked till the timer rang. It turned out better than I thought, crispy to bite, just a bit too sweet. But I need to find out why it sank in the middle. So I did a search. It turned out that it can be many reasons why a cake sinks in the middle... it can be too much flour, too much moisture, expired baking powder (which is not in my case), eggs too big, too much sugar etc...

Who says baking is easy?

Bak Chang 粽子

When my hubby came back from KL 2 weeks ago, I specially reminded him to buy me bak chang. Bak chang - the hokkien saying of glutinous rice wrapped in the bamboo leaves, a must-have food when the Chinese celebrates the Dragon Boat festival in June. Yes, it's my craving, and I wanted it bad because I couldn't find a good one here.

Thanks to my mother-in-law, she went to the pasar to buy me 5 big bak changs from a famous aunty who has been selling there for, don't know how many years. She carefully wrapped them with layer and layer of newspapers and put them into plastic bag and hid them under the clothes. Hubby checked it in through his checked-in luggage. When he arrived home, I grabbed the luggage and dug them out!

The first bite was sooo delicious that I can now forever remember the taste. I am no pork fat lover, but just this once, that bite is heavenly to me!

So I guess I have to learn to make bak chang myself since getting a good one is almost impossible here. I can't ask my mother in law to courier them to me. So I found this good, well-written bak chang recipe here!

No sun, no sun!

Goodness, what kind of weather is this?
Did you see the rain clouds forecasted for the next 4 days!

Butter Prawn 奶油虾

I wanted to try this dish out because I miss it very much. So I went about in the market to look for all the ingredients. I can find all, except curry leaves. I should have get it when I was in the Grote Markt few days ago. But, I'll do without it. Yes I'm desperate...

I always wonder what are the granules in the dish. They are actually garlic. When the garlic is cooked together with evaporated milk long enough, they dried up and became the granules which are very crunchy. I personally think that it is the main ingredient that makes or breaks the dish.

So I attempted.

Hubby likes it! Hooray!!

If you would like to try this dish out, point your browser to My Kitchen's Snippet - Butter Prawn.

It's the fingers, it's the toes, no... it's a...

NO, I can't tell you yet.

Because we haven't got a chance to inform my parent-in-law yet! And yes, we know the gender now, and we are both very very happy!

Now it's summer sales period, so I'm off to shop for baby clothes! The baby is coming during winter time, I need thicker clothes instead of those that we can find in KL. I'm still going to stick to neutral colours so that the next child will still be able to wear.

We are in the midst buying baby stroller from US, and we are looking for people who can help us to bring them over!

I'm also very proud about myself because really, we managed to save lots of money through a second hand market place that was recommended to me by C. People here take good care of their items, and all the items that we managed to buy are in good conditions! The only thing that I need to do is to scan through the marketplace very very often so that I don't lose out on the good deals! Trust me, when you see good deals, you can recognise it! It's woman instinct!

My tummy still not that big yet. Most people whom I met still can't tell that I'm expecting except those who are closer to me. I'm enjoying this fun and lovely 2nd trimester to the max!

Geez... I can feel it now

I've been wondering how does it feel like when the baby moves. According to the books and lots of experiences that I read from, it is always being described like gas, or like butterfly fluttering.

When I became aware of it, it started with a simple thought thinking that, "hmm... it can't be so much gas in the tummy now...". As the weeks went by, now that I'm at week 21st, I can differentiate between gas and baby turning. Aww... it's an awesome experience!

There were times when the baby turns like crazy (or somersault or kick, I don't know) and occasionally I feel like saying ouch. Normally it happens in the late afternoon and late evening. The baby tends to be quiet in the morning.

Hubby listened with unbelief and commented that, does the baby has any muscle to be able to kick at this stage? I read in my Pregnancy bible book that says, yes, the muscle system develops normally in the week of 20th! His jaw drops. On top of that, baby at this stage knows how to play with the umbilical cord, suck his thumbs and hold his fist. Amazing isn't it?

Lazy cook

I've slowed down a lot in my cooking. I'm just lazy.
Most Chinese dishes require lots of stir frying and I personally prefer to steam more than stir fry.

One of the reasons is because the kitchen here is not designed for stir frying. Imagine a white background wallpaper just next to the gas stove? How dumb can a designer be? I am always on my toes when I need to fry stuffs and I have to make sure I wipe clean every single bit of oil stains on the wall so that the management doesn't fine me when we move out.

Another reason is because I don't have a steamer. The only steamer that I have comes together with my rice cooker. Not big enough for anything except steaming frozen pau or herbal drumsticks wrapped in aluminum foil.

Nah... I'm just lazy. My hubby agrees.

Start the ball rolling...

I had my first midwife appointment few days ago at the Bronovo Hospital.
2 weeks ago when I was there to register myself, I already noticed that this hospital is so much more organised compared to the previous one that I visited. This time, I'm impressed.

I spent about half an hour for this first session. The midwife went through a list of questions, just like what the gynae did to me. He recorded the medical history, the due date and also my weight. Unlike other health professionals that I met previously, he particularly asked whether I take any form of health supplements. He recommended me to consider some pregnancy supplements and folic acid, and he also explained to me what are the benefits.

Not that I didn't know, my daily colostrum intake has basically covered my daily required vitamins. But I guess no harm taking another one. I highlighted this because, when I asked my GP what additional vitamins or food that I should particularly take more or avoid, he replied saying that nothing, just normal food will do. The gynae that I met didn't mention anything about health supplements. So, I'm a bit surprised to find that a midwife, whom many foreigners do not consider them qualified, is telling me what I have read in lots of pregnancy resources.

He was also kind enough to let me listen to my baby's heart beat. This time, he used a simple machine (not ultrasound) that, I figured, it is something similar to an amplifier. He rubbed some gel on my tummy and proceeded finding out where is the baby. Of course he had to scan a few rounds on my tummy to find out where exactly is the baby's heart. I'm again amazed at the wonders of "how do you know...", because, as he scanned through the tummy, he was telling me "no, this is the umbilical cord... not here... this is also the umbilical cord..." I was like, how do you know that is the umbilical cord and not something else? And finally he found the heart beat right above the panty.

It was a very secured feeling to be able to listen to the heart beat again.

He also helped me to arrange for my next ultrasound appointment... hehe... this is the 20th week ultrasound which we will be able to know the gender of the baby! I'm excited!!

Oh, by the way, the midwife that I met is a male!

Surprise? Well, I knew that there is a male midwife in Bronovo, but I didn't know that I'm so lucky to meet him in my first appointment. However, it's a Dutch's practice to let the mothers meet with all the midwives in the department before delivery so that we get to know them all. This is because anyone of them can be on duty during that lucky night when your baby decides to meet the world.

So before I left, I asked him, "So, do I call you midhusband?" He said, "No no no... I'm and 'mid' and you're the 'wife', so you still call me midwife." And then he laughed and commented, "I've asked so many English people about a term for male midwife, but they couldn't give me an answer..."

I've also arranged an appointment with Baby Vision in Delft that helps parents to scan their baby in the form of 3D or 4D visuals. The usual ultrasound screen projects a 2D visual of the baby but the machine that Baby Vision has is super high-tech, they can record the 3D and 4D visuals into a DVD. We figured it will be a nice gift for the baby when he/she grows up later to watch himself/herself in the womb. Something which we don't have and technology unable to achieve during our time.

Baby Transport!

Last Saturday, we decided to visit Babypark, a one-stop baby products outlet in Gouda, 20m away from Den Haag by train, 5m by bus and then 10m on foot.

Hubby is getting on with his father instinct, and he has started researching baby gadgets, including pram and buggy. I started with some basic findings, passed the data to him, and he took it on from there. In Holland or particularly Europe, parents spent lots of money to invest in a good buggy. Most named brands like Bugaboo (Dutch), Mutsy (Dutch), Peg-Perego (Italy) originated from Europe. In KL, the most buggy that we see is McClaren type of strollers, light-weight, and usually parents only start using them from 6 months onwards when babies can start to sit up or wanting to crawl out from bassinet.

In Europe, this is totally different. Most type of baby transport systems start with a pram (comes with bassinet) and then it can be converted into a stroller, and depends on the brands, some systems also come with an infant car seat. If you purchase a system, the baby will live through it from birth till around 4 years of age.

We listed down a few systems that we like after checking them out on the internet, and we headed straight to their booths. We couldn't decide between Bugaboo Cameleon, Mutsy 4Rider and Stokke Xplory because they all looked so nice and cool and comfortable. So we decided to play around with the systems. One of our criteria in choosing the system is how easy it is to collapse it within the shortest time. This is because we use public transports often. And guess what, all three of them failed.

They are clumsy and not user friendly at all. Yes they have nice flashy, comfortable seater and useful features like bigger wheels with good suspension (good for all kinds of terrains and baby won't keep waking up during the journey), adjustable seat height (so that the baby seat can actually be at the same level as adults - good when you are dining with them, gone were the days where the baby just watch your feet when you eat in the restaurant), no brake bar at the back (so you won't keep kicking the bar when you push the stroller), big shopping bags, good materials to support the baby body and excellent ergonomics design for parents etc...

The process of collapsing these buggies is so cumbersome that it hurts the fingers and hands. If my hubby have to try a few times to get the collapsing mechanism kicks in, you can imagine how frustrating it is for me to try to make it works.

We literally spent the whole day in Gouda. Both of us were so tired, have backache and sore feet. After we went back to Den Haag, we decided to indulge ourselves for Korean BBQ, which I have been craving for awhile now. It was hard work, but it was fun! We enjoyed every bit of it!

Kraamzorg

I am doing my research on hiring a kraamzorg. A kraamzorg is a trained maternity nurse.

Their role is like a confinement lady in our culture. But instead of one month, she comes for only 8 days, each day for about 5 hours. She will help check the mother's health, and baby health, keep track of all these statistics and report to the midwife. She also helps to take care of older children (if you have one), cook meals, serve visiting guests, help you out with laundry and most importantly, the hygiene level around the house. She also teaches you basic baby care like how to handle newborn, how to bath them, how to breastfeed them etc... (Definitely a great help for first timer like me!)

Basically, she is there so that the mother can rest as much as possible and have time to bond with her baby. Plus, it's covered by insurance. This is one of the best features that you can get when you deliver in the Netherlands. I know we have confinement lady service in KL, but I have yet hear that the payment is covered by insurance.

In fact, Dutch puts higher priority in post-natal care than pre-natal care. From what I read, the pre-natal care conducted by midwives are very simple. They stay with the idea that everything is normal, pregnancy is normal. They don't do unnecessary checks or tests. What I heard is, they normally measure your weight and check the baby, and this won't take more than 15minutes. No blood test, or urine test. No ultrasound scan after week 20th, unless it's necessary (normally when they suspect baby breech, or baby too small), or the mother feels very uncomfortable or stressed because can't feel the baby etc... so nothing to shout about, I would say.

But, the post-natal care is excellent. Mothers basically do not need to leave the house for any checkups after giving birth. All the helps and cares come to you, right at home. You might think that it is cruel to send a mother and newborn back hours after delivery in the hospital, but Dutch believes that you recover the best while you're at home. Of course if you did a c-sect, they will keep you in the hospital. Plus, insurance doesn't cover hospital stay after birth. Unlike in KL, you still get to stay in the hospital for 2-3 days after birth.

So, I'm still researching on which agency to book from because one: I need an English-speaking nurse; two: non-smoker; three: support breastfeeding.

Of course I also hear horror stories about kraamzorg being lazy, watch TV, didn't do the necessary check up for the mother and baby etc... well... there are confinement ladies who are like this back home isn't it?

Right decision!

Thank God it was a right decision to switch to Bronovo Hospital in the city.

I was having a quick chat with my apartment caretaker this morning and I told him our plan of moving into the city due to hubby's work is currently located in the city centre, and I want to be closer to Bronovo Hospital for regular checkup and delivery. He immediately commented that Bronovo Hospital is the best hospital in The Hague, everyone wants to deliver their baby in Bronovo.

I was relieved because I personally didn't know how good Bronovo reputation is. But my logic tells me, since Princess Maxima delivered all her 3 children there, and they handle expats community more, I feel more comfortable with Bronovo than the current hospital that I visit.

So as soon as I received the call from the hospital department saying that all my tests are normal and I double confirmed with her whether I can straight away book an appointment with a midwife, she said yes.

I called up Bronovo's midwife department to schedule my checkup with them. 4th June is the next upcoming one. The midwives in Bronovo work within the walls of the hospital, meaning, they don't do home delivery.

Yes, I finally decided to deliver with a midwife, in a hospital, and if anything happens, I'm still in a hospital. Best of both worlds! I've also decided not to sign up for pain relief. Yes you need to sign up for pain relief. Not all hospitals in the Netherlands provide pain relief, some only provide from 8am-8pm, some don't even give it to you if you didn't sign up for it. It does sound really scary when you compared to the usual experience in KL.

I want it to be as natural as possible. You can say that I'm crazy or silly but I feel that since I'm in this environment at this time, I would want to experience it to the fullest.

My mum asked me why I don't want to deliver back in KL.
Mum, after hearing so many stories about 'whatever also c-sect' kind of experiences even though some have reached 9cm (10cm is the goal for the baby to come out), going through pregnancy in KL sounded so scientific and such a money making opportunity to certain people than having the focus just on you and your baby at that time. On top of that, after I understand how the c-sect surgery is performed, I find it very eerie. I would rather go through it once and for all than to suffer from the after effect of c-sect a few days more. It of course, doesn't mean that if I deliver here, I won't have a c-sect, it really depends on how crucial it is. But I know that in Holland, the chances of going through that is a lot lesser.

Plus, if I were to deliver in KL, I will have to go back by the 6th month because I can't travel from 7th month onwards. My hubby won't be with me until closer to the due date. He will miss the experience of the last few months, which both of us don't agree that it should be the case.

I initially did contemplate whether to do home delivery as well. But it just doesn't feel right to deliver in a service apartment. I don't mind if it is our own place. If we are still staying in Holland, and I have another child, I will definitely opt for home delivery. Of course some people condemn how backward the Dutch's mentality is when it comes to still using home delivery, and the attitude of purposely denying women to have pain relief so that they suffer during delivery is inhuman (applicable to traditional thinking doctors/midwives, just hope that you don't bump into them).

Well, I personally disagree that home delivery is backward, since women have been delivering in toilet, in garden, in taxi, in whatever other places that you can think of, and women have been doing this for God knows how many years. It's just normal, instinct.

But I don't support the attitude where giving pain relief is unnatural. Since the olden days, midwives have been using methods like massaging, aromatherapy candles and oils to help relieve delivery pain for women. Making women suffer purposely just doesn't make sense. So why should pain relief in a form of big needle make any difference for these bunch of doctors/midwives?

Anyway, I'm really looking forward for this brand new experience.

Oh... baby is getting bigger

Today, both of us went for another round of ultrasound. The purpose of this ultrasound is to measure the length of the baby's neck to check whether the baby is a down-syndrome child or not. It is also the first time my hubby sees the little one 'in action'.

Well, the baby is not really in action. He/she is totally curled up like a ball, sleeping!

The obstetrician who did the scan is superbly friendly and motherly. She has such a sweet voice and man... she is fast in interpreting the grayish image on the screen! She quickly measured the size of the baby (normal), showed us the fingers (10, she said) and toes, the beating heart, perfect skull, spine is good... and she also let us listened to the baby's heartbeat. It was like thousand of horses galloping, strong and fast.

While she was doing the scan, I asked, "How do you find the neck?" She turned the scanner on my belly in a few directions, and stopped, pointed out to me using the scanner pointer on the screen and said, "There, you see..."

It was jaw dropping... I mean, how? The black and white screen is totally meaningless to untrained eyes because we can only read the general outline of the baby.

Then, the little one turned (just like how we turn to our side when we sleep), and kicked his/her legs a bit, and then continued sleeping. My hubby was so amazed and he pulled his chair even nearer to the screen.

The baby has grown to about 6+ cm now, still very little.

Expected due date is 11 Nov, exactly 1 week before the baby father's birthday.
Well, we never know when the baby decides to come out, but it will be very interesting to wait during that period.

Now I know...

I finally found out why I couldn't drink milk or soya milk for the past few weeks. Apparently it has something to do with hormones in my body at this time. As usual, I can't remember which hormone is that (I read a lot and I don't have a habit of remembering special terms, so I always go back to my bookmarks to double check when it is necessary). This culprit slows down the body's digestion process, making it takes longer to digest the milk, 'creating' gas along the way... hence my bloated stomach.

I guess I will take next 6 months to slowly discover about what food to take and which food to avoid to prevent these uncomfortable feeling, though before this I have no problem taking them at all!

I'm busy researching on various baby items, drafting out a budget and a list of necessary items to buy either new, or second hand. I also did up a check list of baby items that both of us need to go through so that when he goes back to KL in June, he will be able to buy some of them over. I have to admit that buying things in KL is still much cheaper especially when it comes to baby items. Luckily, the 2nd hand market in NL is quite huge. I can find many pre-owned baby items on sale, online, and I just ordered some belly bands to prepare for my growing belly.

Belly bands are very popular here because I can use them to sort of "extend" my pre-pregnancy clothes because these elastic bands can be worn around the hip, and helps to hide the unbutton part of my jean (well, I only have 1 pair of jeans here), thus extending the life time of my jeans. When the belly grows bigger, I can wear the band up till slightly above my belly to show off the, arhem, BIG belly. I find it more amusing to mix and match clothes than to purchase any maternity wear. I find it totally unnecessary to spend a huge sum on maternity clothes because I will only wear them for a certain period of time, plus, these prenatal wear in NL are just way TOOOOO big for me. Imagine their normal size, is already double of my size, what happened when they get pregnant?

First Gynae Visit

Yesterday was 23 April, my first gynae visit in the hospital.

The gynae whom I met up with was a tall and handsome Dutch doctor who speaks very fluent English. He asked for my medical history, explained to me how the Dutch delivery system works and did a simple short ultrasound scan with me just to verify everything is normal.

It was the first time I see the little one.

Merely 5.7cm from head to toe, 11 weeks and 4 days! The gynae showed me the head, the mouth, the heart and a little part of the toes poking out at the bottom. The baby made a turn while the gynae was doing the scan. It was soooo cute!

I was asked to do a blood test, which is a normal procedure to check for abnormalities and he also helped me to arrange the next ultrasound scan with a radiologist to further examine the fetus growth on 8 May.

After all these, if everything deems normal, he said, I still have a choice to choose to deliver with a midwife at home or in the hospital, or I can continue to go under a gynae's care and deliver in the hospital. It was then that I was told that this particular hospital near our place do not handle delivery. All baby deliveries are done in another hospital in town, which is about 10 minutes away by car.

Morning sickness is almost gone. I sleep lesser too. My appetite has improved a lot over the past 1 week. But I craved for Malaysian food. So I collected many recipes and cook differently almost every day now. Few days ago was fish ball noodles, cha kuey tiow (didn't turned out well) yesterday was sambal petai prawn and steam tofu with fried onions. Plus I used my slow cooker to cook lotus root soup, it tasted so good that I regretted to exchange my Citibank points for such a small slow cooker! Now I wish I have a bigger one, 2 liter or 3 liter. Today, I think I will try porridge... the lucky one is my hubby. He said my cooking improved already wor... hehe...

Much Better

The symptoms have reduced. I feel more comfortable. The nausea and fatigue is almost gone now. However, I have trouble with milk. Milk makes my stomach bloated, which I don't know why. My friends recommended me to eat crackers, they said it helps to reduce the gas in the stomach.

I used to be a heavy coffee drinker. Since March, my body has automatically stopped drinking it. At that time, I didn't understand the reason because Dutch coffee smells good and taste awesome! I have one and a half packet still unfinished, so I think my hubby will be the one who will finish them all!

I still insist on taking nap. I tried one day that I didn't, I was so tired by 7pm. That night, I slept like a pig.

Our First Visit to the Doctor

Within the last one week, I have been visiting our family doctor for 3, including this time.

The first one was because I was there to find out what is happening to me (being fatigue, having nausea, bloated, no appetite). The next one was to collect my blood test result. Finally, is to ask him, what shall we do next, since I'm pregnant now!

He only collected my current weight and my blood pressure, and then recorded the first day of my last period. But he couldn't confirm the due date yet because of my irregular period cycle.

Being in Holland itself, it is normal for a doctor to refer you to a midwife because it's a standard practice here. However, due to my past record with my thyroid, he decided to refer me to a gynae in the hospital. I hope I can see the gynae and get my ultrasound arranged as soon as possible.

Both of us are very excited and can't wait to see a glimpse of how the baby looks like. Well... it won't be clear on the screen, but at least, it is a preview.

Cheers!

The Moment of Truth

I gave up interpreting the thin faint line on the pregnancy test kits that I bought. I mean, I want a complete yes or no answer, not a thin faint line which I need to tilt up and down against a sunlight to check whether there is a line or not!

So, I decided to get myself a Clearblue Digital Test kit from a website. To my surprise, the package arrived the next day. And this morning, I did my test.

Both me and my hubby were starring at the display screen, and the word 'Zwanger' popped up.

"What is this?"

"It's POSITIVE!"

"Oh really??"

"Yes it is!!"

"Well, now, I can call my parents!!!!!!"

That was how the conversation went between both of us after we managed to get a positive result.

I've tried a few pregnancy tests and none, except one (Predictor) and this Clearblue gave me clear results. Even though I was unwell, miss my period, sleep like a piggy, experiencing nausea, I was still not convinced that I am pregnant, until the last 2 results confirmed it. I mean, there are many reasons why a woman can experience nausea and fatigue, and my period is always irregular anyway. I suspected, but I can't confirm.

One of the reasons is because I always get a thin faint line from my results. Even though I was told that a line is a line. I realize that I didn't calculate the timing right and sometimes I read the test result long after the recommended timing (which can be an evaporated line). Blame it on the all the Dutch description that come with the kit. I thought pregnancy test is easy to use, but it turns out that it only works well, if I read the manual!! (Just like any dumb computer user, and I have become one ...)

So for the final 2 results, I used Google Translator to translate all the instructions into English just to make sure that I follow them orderly and correctly, plus I used my phone to time the timing. Say that I'm paranoid, whatever. I don't want to raise a false alarm to our parents.

So yes, a baby is on his/her way!!