My bundle of joy arrives....(7 Jan 2008)

I started to have the symptoms of labour on 6 Jan 08 with the start of menstral cramp-like feelings, plus a bit of brown discharge that was the 'show'. It got really bad towards the night and I had to call my gynae for his advise. At first, he mentioned that since there was not bleeding, I could wait to see him the next morning, but if I really could not take it or anything else happened, I should admit myself in hospital right away. Indeed, the pain got so frequent and intense that I had to tell Dear to send me to hospital. So off we went at 1plus am in the morning. I got admitted and was monitored right away for my contractions and baby's heartbeat. I guess that was the right move after all as my water bag subsequently burst at around 3plus am while I was in the delivery suite. I took the epidural jab a bit later on as I could no longer bear with the pain. By 7.29am on 7 Jan 2008, my little bundle of joy was delivered and the rest is history....

This is me while I could still rely on the laughing gas for pain relief

This is me after the epidural jab....what relief!

Finally...us with baby Kendrick Tan

Jermaine and Renee's birthday dinner (6 Jan 08)

On this particular Sunday evening, my 2 cousins had a combined birthday celebration dinner. Interestingly, this turned out to be my last 'wonderful' meal before giving birth...Haha... In fact, my contractions already started on this Sunday but it was still bearable. During the dinner itself the pain did get a little bit more intense, but I was still able to go through with it. However, I did not really enjoy the food as much as I normally would have due to the nagging pain. Nevertheless, it was indeed quite a significant evening as I was telling the whole family about my contractions and pain. My aunt was even telling me that I could very well deliver by the next day!

Meeting up with Christina & Phil (1 Jan 2008)

I have not been updating this blog for a while as I'm really busy with my little one! Anyway, more of that later. Just want to backdate this a bit to the beginning of 2008. Indeed, looking back, 2007 seemed like just yesterday and the most significant thing to ever happen to me in that year was getting pregnant and 'surviving' through the 9 months of pregnancy!

To start of the new year, Dear and I were glad to meet up with my cousin and cousin-in-law who came back from UK for a holiday. We met up on 1 Jan for dim sum lunch and had a good time chatting, along with my parents. Christina and Phil then popped by our home to have a look and chit chat further. For Phil, it's his first time at our place. At this point, we were still saying that by any chance, I might just deliver while they were still in town till 10 Jan. So if they are fortunate, they could catch a glimpse of their little cousin-nephew before going back to UK!

Counting down to 2008

This week went by quite quickly with the Christmas holiday and also the leave that Dear and I took on Friday. At this time of the year, it feels as if there are so many people who are also on leave especially when we go out shopping on weekdays. With some post Christmas going on, I guess I could not resist shopping again! But most of the stuff we bought this time was more of Dear Dear's. Haha.. guess I will have to wait a while more before I start looking for new clothes again!!

Anyway, we managed to get a haircut this weekend too, so that's me with a shorter hairdo now. All in preparation for confinement time! Oh yeh, when we went to see my gynae on Saturday, our baby is still not engaged yet, though his head is lower down already. Guess it's still a waiting game now! Trying to prepare myself mentally too. In the meantime, while I still can, I'm trying to keep active and move about. That's where we also took time to catch a movie - National Treasure 2. Nowadays whenever I catch a movie in the cinema, I keep wondering if that will be the last cinema outing in a long while! Haha...

Finally, we also managed to meet up with my cousin Christina who came back from UK again to visit and attend her relative's wedding dinner in early Jan 08. Happy to see her again and we will be arranging to meet up again later this week.

Time flies ya...the next time I blog, it will be 2008 already! Happy New Year to all of you, from the Tan family!

Merry Christmas!

This year I feel rather blessed again during Christmas and would really like to Thank God for everything. On Christmas eve, it was a half day at work. Other than checking 1 report, the rest of the time was spent chatting and eating. Each section in my department brought a bit of food so that everyone can go round trying out each other's food. It was also a time of gift giving. The thing about my department is that people usually give presents to one another and it was not really an 'exchange' situation. It was really up to you who you wanted to give to. I must say that I felt really touched when I received many gifts from a group of colleagues from another section that I've only recently been getting a bit more close to. Thanks to the fact that many of them were already mummies, I've gotten to know them better by sharing and learning about pregnancy and motherhood from them. I guess I did not really think of getting them individual gifts, but bought them a group present and also just little packets of sweets. Yet I ended up receiving individual gifts from quite a few of them....felt quite 'paiseh' about it!! Nevertheless, I'm really thankful and touched by their gesture. Although they may not read this, but just want to say, THANK YOU friends! I really appreciate it!

Christmas eve before opening our presents

After opening presents which were mostly from my colleagues

We also went for the usual Christmas eve dinner/gathering at my grandma's place as organised by my uncle and aunt. This year was also a simple affair again with lots of food and family and relatives all gathered together having small chats and watching TV. Back at home, Dear and I opened our gift for one another once it was Midnight. Hehe. Thanks Dear for the lovely necklace that came on a little 'piggy' :)













And on Christmas day itself, we also spent some time with Dear's family with dinner at his mum's place followed by gift exchange too. Thanks for your gift Phyllis and Sudha!

Well, with that, Christmas is over already...back to work for a few days before we hit 2008! Merry Christmas to one and all again. Hope that my friends out there had a blessed time this Christmas :)

2 days to Christmas...

This week was a short but extremely busy week at work for me. Currently I'm busy with a research project that required going out to interview some of our respondents face to face to find out some information. As I was scheduled to go out more this week with my boss, I was practically in and out of office at least twice in a day. At the same time, there were also some other urgent stuff on hand to complete by Wednesday. How glad I was with the Hari Raya Haji public holiday that was on Thursday, as it meant a time to relax and chill out at home and do more personal stuff. So over this long weekend, Dear and I took time to catch the movie, Alvin & The Chipmunks (which was pretty cute la...but not that funny as I thought it would be). A little bit more of final Christmas shopping was done too in addition to a housewarming cum Christmas gathering we had at one of Dear's colleague's home, and a luncheon with my family.

Quite glad that this would be another fairly short week at work for me with Christmas just round the corner and the leave we are taking at the end of the week! Just hope that I will be able to cope well in the last few weeks of my pregnancy. Although I try my best to continue to stay active, but it can be tiring after a short while, along with slight breathlessness. Nevertheless, will continue to push on...it's the final weeks already!!

Anyway, I'm now looking forward to a nice and simple Christmas with Dear Dear and our family again. I've always liked the year end Nov- Dec period the best, but time seems to fly faster and faster each year! Soon we will be stepping ahead into 2008! Ha ha... Anyway, here's wishing all my friends and family a Merry Christmas!

It's another shopping week!

This week at work was another 'mini' shopping week for me. It started on Tue with my colleague informing me that they could get staff discount sale through someone they knew working at ESPIRIT, so off we went to the United Sq branch during lunch to shop. It turned out there were like more than 10 of us who went and we all ended up buying a lot of stuff like it was a super sale..lol...I bought stuff mainly for others as Christmas gifts, plus a bit of stuff for my big 'baby' and coming baby :P Then on Wednesday, it was another rushed shopping time again during lunch as I went with my colleagues to to Orchard to get some stuff and finally on Friday, we went nearby to J8 for lunch and shopping again. Think everyone is really in the Christmas mood to buy buy buy! Quite amazed that I still had the energy to keep up with all the walking and shopping. It was tiring no doubt, but I think it hit me the worse on Saturday when shopping with Dear that my back really ached!!! :( Anyway, as you can see, we have our little Christmas tree up and lots of presents for others around it :)

However, on a sad note, our third hamster died on Wednesday. She was taken ill quite suddenly on Monday. We noticed that she looked very weak and did not move much nor eat much. We thought she was getting better on Tuesday, but she was not able to defeat her sudden illness after all and Tiffy died on Wednesday. Felt quite sad as this meant that we only have one hamster left. It led us to think back on the time when we had the 4 of them running around in the cage, a truly entertaining sight... sigh. RIP Tiffy....

Christmas Shopping Bug

I guess I'm in the mood to shop again with Christmas drawing near and the fact that some of the sales that are currently on-going seem so tempting! :) Of course, it's the season of giving too, so you kind of feel happy to buy things for family and friends. So despite my big belly, here I was, shopping and buying stuff over the weekend!

It started out on Friday when a colleague of mine told us of a 'special sale' at Great World City. We went down during lunch to check it out and I ended up buying a couple of good quality clothing for my boy boy to wear in future as they were sellling at a very very good price. Though some of the clothes were really for much older toddlers, I just could not resist! My colleagues ended up buying a lot more for their children, nieces and nephews! I particularly liked this green and white jacket that was really very 'boyish' in nature :)

On Saturday, Dear and I also took the opportunity to sort of celebrate our wedding anniversary in advance, just in case by the time of our actual anniversary next month, I might be in hospital?! We had dinner at Bugis Junction then took time to buy some Christmas presents for our family. After quite a while of shopping around and buying some stuff, I was tired out already so we headed home. We continued our Christmas shopping again on Sunday though. This afternoon, we bought a couple more items and again after some time, the weight of my body was taking a toll on my legs and back. Had to head home to rest. But I certainly enjoyed wrapping up the presents and putting them by our little Christmas tree in the living room :) So on the whole, kind of felt like the whole weekend was really tiring too. I still have not completed my Christmas shopping though. Ha Ha...hopefully I can still last another week or two!

Christmas at Orchard

We went with our yearly tradition of going for a stroll down Orchard Road to view the Christmas light-up again this year. Also, since Dear Dear bought a new 'toy', all the more it was the time to take some photos! After a simple dinner at NYDC at Wheelock Place, we started our stroll down towards Ngee Ann City. That was about all that I could walk this year actually. Haha. In fact, I suddenly started to feel really 'heavy' today and my walking pace had to be much slower. Plus some backaches that I was getting again, I was quite amazed I could sustain that long actually.

Anyway, it was quite a breezy evening fortunately and the crowd was not as bad as it would be nearer Christmas. So we took some photos here and there but I must say, the light-up and festive atmosphere this year does not look and feel as great as last year. Seems like getting worse each year. We then stopped by at Takashimaya for a bit of shopping. Yeh, I was starting to look around at what I could buy for my colleagues for Christmas gift giving this year, just in case I get too tired in the next few weeks. The shopping stop took quite a while and by the time we were done, the stores were closing. With that, we decided it was time to head home. By now, I was really freaking tired!! Haha. Thank goodness still managed to walk back to the carpark. Though really tired out with all the walking, still felt happy that it was a nice time spent together :)

*Enchanted*

It was an "Enchanted" weekend for us as we went to catch the latest Disney movie. The last 6 weeks had been antenatal classes for us so it's been quite a long while since we went to watch a movie together. Felt quite happy to be able to chill out together :) Not sure if I will still be watching any movie in the cinema in a long while!

Anyway, the movie Enchanted is worth a watch, especially if you don't mind something light-hearted and feel good. It's quite a typical 'fairytale' story, where they incorporated cartoon animation into real-life acting. The show also had typical singing by the lead characters as if it was in those typical Disney cartoons. Ha Ha... On the whole, I was pretty amused by it and of course, the lovely fairy-tale ending.

We then had dinner at Kenny Rogers...somehow I had a slight craving for the macaroni and cheese side dish, so I felt pretty satisfied after my meal. Hehe... Then on Sunday, we got down to cooking our lunch in. Again, something which we have not done in a long while... so though it was only a simple pasta meal, it was still delicious coz' we both were cooking together.

Here's the lyrics of a song from "Enchanted"...

Carrie Underwood - Ever Ever After Lyrics