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.