First Clothes for Baby!

I am currently back in England on a business trip. For some strange reason, I enjoy shopping in the UK and the US. I think it is because there is much more space here to walk around, browse, and move freely about. There is just no space for very leisure shopping in Asia, especially Singapore. Anyway, I am presently at Hatfield, and the best shopping place here is The Galleria! Hence, I spent some time shopping for baby clothes, and these are the first clothes I have bought for our baby!

Here is an overview of the clothes I have bought at Gap:

This is the traditional "white" baby clothes that my baby would probably wear when coming home:

And this the clothes my baby would probably wear during the "one-month introduction". The words "just add milk" simply seems so appropriate! ;)


And I bought this because I think my baby would look super-cool in it!

Of course, I did buy some stuff for Sweetheart and also myself:


Can't wait to go shopping again (Bicester Village?) ...LOL...

Fifth Gynae Visit

Sweetheart and I went for our fifth gynae visit yesterday. We were very excited to find out, with a greater amount of certainty, the sex of our baby. While scanning during the previous check-up, Dr Yang had said that her sense is that it's probably a girl. Then, while on the plane back to Singapore, I noticed Sweetheart's behaviour and mannerism, and I just had a feeling that "it's a girl!". So I turned to her and told her "to be prepared" that it's most likely "a girl". I think she felt quite strongly that it's going to be a boy, but my sense of such things is seldom wrong. Hence, the visit to the gynae was particularly exciting!

Here's a photo of our baby -- head on the right, and the eye sockets are rather distinct. Can you guess what sex is our baby, just by looking at this photo?

Here is another photo -- this time, the head is on the left, and our baby's face is clearer. In fact, the entire face is visible! So how? What do you think? Boy or a girl? (Hint: Notice the sharp features)


Here's a photo of our baby (you are looking at the backside and legs)...if you look closely, you can see an arrow, which shows some "folds" at the crotch area. Hence....it's a GIRL!

Well, since we are having a girl, it is absolutely important that Sweetheart nourishes herself well. After all, girls must have beauty and brains! Thanks to Kelvin's friend (who is married to a Bird Nest tycoon's daughter in Indonesia), we managed to buy 1kg of Bird's Nest at a good price!

I am already keeping all the receipts of things I have spent on my daughter in which her future husband have to "pay off" in order to "redeem" her...LOL...

Fourth Gynae Check-up

Today we went for our 4th gynae check-up, and I must say that it was a very exciting visit for us. Firstly, we have not seen Baby for about five weeks already, and we miss Baby and were wondering how Baby is doing. Secondly, we know that Baby would be well-formed by now and would resemble what is in our minds the concept of a real "baby". Lastly, we wanted to be assured that our Baby is fine and wanted to seek some reassurance from Dr Yang. We had seen Dr Soon the previous day, and Sweetheart's thyroid condition is in check, even though she needs to increase her medical dosage (which is normal).

And indeed...it was an exciting day for us! We got to see Baby swallowing saliva, kicking, pushing, moving, etc! And Baby's heartbeat is as strong as before!

Here are some photos...

The photo below shows our Baby sucking thumb! As you can see, the baby is slightly larger than 6.5cm, which is inline with being about 13 weeks old. Baby was moving a lot, moving arms and legs when Dr Yang was doing the ultra-scan. Such a smart Baby! Knows how to defence oneself! :)


The photo below shows Baby waving at the world...as if saying "Hello, World!" with a high-five!



And here's a photo of Baby looking directly at the ultra-scan, saying "How's it going, mate!" You can also see Baby's arms waving ;)



As we were also doing a Nuchal Translucency (NT) scan, Baby had to be in a specific position whereby Dr Yang can measure the length of collection of fluid under the skin at the back of Baby's neck. However, Baby was not in the right position after scanning for over 5 minutes, so we went for a short walk and returned later to rescan. Dr Yang was saying that, in the worst case, it could take multiple attempts to catch Baby in the right position for the measurement. We talked to Baby, and after 10 minutes of walking about (and buying some stuff), we went for a rescan and Baby was cooperative this time! Naturally, this was because we talked to Baby in order to explain the benefits of cooperating ;) The measurement taken by Dr Yang is 1.3mm (which is very good), but we are still waiting for the results of the blood test as a double confirmation of an overall sign that Down's is highly unlikely.

Here's another photo of Baby, this one showing Baby taking a quick rest:



Finally, here's Dr Yang's attempt at determining the sex (too early to tell, I say!). At this stage, Dr Yang says it might be a..........................GIRL! But naturally, she can't be sure at this stage, so we'll only know for sure at a later stage!


See you again soon, Baby! Continue to be strong for Daddy and Mummy, and grow strong and healthy! We love you!

Third Gynae Check-up

Today we had our third gynae check-up with Dr Mary Yang -- the third in three weeks. It is important for us that our Baby is growing well, and today's check-up proved just that! Our Baby has grown by 1cm during the week, and is about 1.5cm now. The photo below shows the ultra-scan image of our Baby:



Also, our Baby's heart is beating at a rate of 175bpm, which according to Dr Yang is a good thing. The photo below shows the strong heartbeat of our Baby:


These past few weeks, Sweetheart has been very tired and recently her appetite has not been very good. Also, she feels generally unwell but these are normal signs of pregnancy. With things more or less stable, we feel more comfortable about going to Nepal (this coming Monday). We will be back in Feb for another check-up with both Dr Yang and Dr Soon.

Baby, grow healthy and strong in Mummy's womb ok? We love you!

Second Gynae Check-up

On the 28th of December, we went for our second gynae check-up. During the previous visit, Dr Yang had said that we should be able to hear our Baby's heartbeat and indeed we did! We saw our Baby's heartbeat on the monitor (see photo below; the black "bag" between the white is the water bag, and the white within the water bag is our Baby), and also heard it! Dr Yang estimated the heartbeat at 120 per minute, which is normal. Also, she estimated our Baby to be about 0.5cm "big" now. With this information, our Baby supposed to be due between 19-22 August.




For the past week or so, Sweetheart has been feeling tired and has morning sickness, which is considered normal. Also, she likes "western food" such as fried chicken, pizza, grilled chicken, garlic rolls, potato wedges, etc. Looks like our Baby has similar taste to me :)

First Gynae Check-up

Today we went for our first gynae check up. Our gynae is Dr Mary Yang and she has been recommended by Dr Soon. We like Dr Yang as she is patient and makes us feel very comfortable. Here is the photo of our Baby's very first ultrasound scan:




As you can see from photo above, Sweetheart got pregnant from the left ovary and our Baby is only the size of a sesame seed now (can see our Baby in the bottom ultrasound scan; the white spot within the small black spot). Below is a closed-up photo of our Baby:


Our Baby is now 5 weeks old, and because we need to visit both Dr Yang and Dr Soon next week, our trip to Nepal needs to be postponed by two weeks. Thankfully, the blood tests done at Dr Yang's showed that Sweetheart is good thus far, so we are all hoping to "see" a heartbeat next week!

The Pregnancy Test

Today we purchased a pregnancy test kit. Since we had several unsuccessful tests with "Clearblue", I decided to try a different, more sensitive brand called "Fortel", and Sweetheart tested positive! (see photo below)


After many, many months of trying, we are finally successful! Sweetheart and I have been discussing names for our baby, and I think we have finalised names for both a boy or a girl :) More details to come in future!