First trip on an airplane?

To go or not to go....

I don't think it feels any different while floating inside a well padded sac of liquid, but GF wasn't feeling too hopeful yesterday about her flight to Shanghai in the next few days. Traveling with a friend to visit a classmate now based in Shanghai seemed a great adventure half a year ago, especially with the World Expo on, and great low fare early discounts on flights.

With half a mind confident enough to be able to make it on an adventure like many other pregnant mothers who travel at every stage of pregnancy, GF maintained the booked ticket and hotel all the way. 3 weeks ago, after the discovery of our pregnancy, an unusual window opened too! A SMS came in with notification of a flight delay from morning flight to a night flight, which meant any unhappy customer can take the rare opportunity to call in and cancel their purchase with a full refund. She just moved it to the next day.

All through this time, still feeling unwell on and off, she seemed to be having some faith in feeling much better by the end of her first 3 months like what most people seemed to have experienced.

Today seemed alright, but yesterday wasn't very pleasant with occasional headaches and feeling of nausea which were both quite common in the past many weeks.

While home the last few evenings, I was faced with a cycle of considerations... questions asked of me but I know I'm not the one to answer.... "should I still go?".... "will I be well enough not to feel too tired half way through the day and hold the others back?"

I know she's been going through discouragement and advise on how she should be resting at home for the sake of our most precious. I know her decision not to just cancel everything from the start is a hidden confidence that many don't see of her, not even herself sometimes. Whatever it is, I stand by my interpretation of what I feel she wants. Her suitcase is being readied for packing.

I've flown a lot in my past, and I've seen many pregnant mothers fly. Although I've never been on a flight where a mother gives birth, there have been enough stories of these to instil confidence in the safety of flying pregnant. I know many of her "advisors" mean well, and would not want anything undesirable to happen, but if she's up for it. I am. At least she's giving herself the chance to be able to decide on the last day whether she gets out of bed for her flight or not. In the end, I'm still the driver and if she rolls in bed at 5am saying "I'm not going", I'll just fall back to sleep too.

Damansara Specialist Hospital

After 2 scans at her GP and considering that the GP doesn't do deliveries, we decided to check out the facilities and services at our nearby specialist hospital. No drastically bad reviews so far, and a friend recommended a Dr.Neoh.

Standard specialist centre. We've been here before for our earlier firtility tests and to visit friends who were patients. However, the Dr.Neoh experience started off very strange. Imagine a thin haired bow-tied man in his 50's with thick glasses with "mad professor" movements. Ok I'm exaggerating, but am not too far off. After an initial chat, it was time for the highlight of our visit..... my 2nd scan (GF's 3rd by now)

"Normal, healthy, so far so good. No movement because your baby is sleeping"
Here came a scary part...
"Let's wake your baby up", and he proceeds to jab the ultrasound into GF's tummy a few times to shake the baby up! "...still sleeping..." shakes some more.

At this point, GF and I were looking at each other more than at the screen. Has this bow-tied comedian gynae gone a bit off somewhere already? Well I was telling myself what he's doing logically possible as the mother does shake quite a bit when walking too. "Ah see, your baby's awake", he says, and we see the little hands and feet wriggling on the screen. Too bad I only got a photo. Next time, I'll make sure I get a video too.

Length 37.2mm, revised estimated due date: 14 November 2010

Oh no! Thick books....

I've always had an aversion to books, especially thick books with mostly text. GF picked the Dr.Sears "The Pregnancy Book" at Popular Bookstore after browsing through a few, and Karen my sister in-law passed us "What to Expect" which she used herself 3 years ago.

Since I can't read Chinese text, we don't fight over who reads which book at nights.
The "Guide to a healthy pregnancy" is an EnfaMama info-guide, laden with subtle hints that the nutrients you need through each period can be found in their various products. Good info, but we'll pass on the EnfaMama

Anmum vs EnfaMama

The EnfaMama sales aunty was really persistent and had endless benefits to tell of. All we wanted was to get a box of Anmum from the shelf after some personal recommendations GF got from friends. Anyway, we got what we were looking for, and since sales aunty passed us free EnfaMama samples, we took them too.

After trying some when we got home, we decided to stick to Anmum. They're all almost the same anyway when it comes to nutritional and content value. The only difference is that Anmum tastes like regular power milk while EnfaMama only comes in chocolate or vanilla flavouring and catered more to mums who have never liked the taste of milk to start with. Since GF was already fine with milk, the choc and valilla flavoured ones were definitely out. Anyone wants our two more sample packs of EnfaMama A+?

Tiger baby's very first picture!

Not exactly a camera photograph, but a thermal printout of an ultrasound scan. I regretted missing the first scan 2 weeks earlier, so I made sure I was around for this second one. A short wait on the sofa and we were in for a short follow up chat before getting on the bed next to the ultrasound.

Good enough for the album. If I didn't already know better myself, you could tell me this was a "weather radar display, showing storms up ahead", I'd believe it. Come to think of it, this interpretation may also be valid!

With some imagination, we can see the thick uterus walls holding a balloon sac of liquid with "something" inside measuring around 16.8mm, consistent with a 7 week pregnancy, and an estimated due date of 23 Nov 2010.

Roti Babi!

Sharing the news with Sarah over a roti-babi caesarian. Yut Kee in Jalan Dang Wangi (previously known as Campbell Road). Roti babi's unique and delicious, but usually runs out by about 2pm. Shop closes 4pm and has variety of other mixed fare like pork & chicken chops, tai-chow style noodles, kopitiam breakfasts etc.

After 2 weeks of feeling weak and having no apetite, this was a welcome food adventure outing together for both of us.

No grave visits for pregnant mothers

Cheng Beng – a day the family gets together at the graves of ancestors. I am unsure of how much the true origins come from the spiritual aspect of ancestral afterlife connection, or the social aspect of a family get-together at a site of common ancestral respect. Whatever it is, dead or alive, granny in the grave is still keeping us together with such an annual occasion.

Over the centuries, long family hikes to mountainside gravestones has evolved to air-conditioned drives on highways to manicured memorial parks laid out like an urban metropolis. Even the traditional burning of paper folded “gold” ingots and “hell bank notes” to transmit “wealth” to the afterworld is now supplemented with paper mobile phones, LCD TVs with blu-ray DVD players, and we even saw a convincing gucci bag!

GF didn't join us this year. There is a belief that grave visits by pregnant mothers may undesirably invite some “residents” of these neighbourhoods to “follow us home”. Although this advice was from her mum, mine concurred too and played along. The rest at the grave still didn't know and a "she's tired and is still sleeping at home" was sufficient. For now, the general tiredness of early pregnancy is also a real enough reason for GF to skip and stay home to sleep on too. Anyway, she didn't miss much. Just the usual annual morning family picnic by the campfire on the hillside.