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?