Visits to our Gynecologist

The last two visits to Dr. Siti has been great, we didn’t have to wait too long to see her, most of the time just barely completing our read of the morning papers. Olivia is progressing very well although her mother would need to come back for the works to check her blood sugar level but that is another story.

Anyway, Olivia has grown so much that it was hard for us to have a full view of her from just one scan. Today was especially great because we could see her facial image through the ultrasound and I could tell that she has my looks – what a cute and adorable baby she will turn out to be. 

I am excited, can’t wait, can’t wait, can’t wait, can’t wait, can’t wait, can’t wait… as I look at her I imagine her growing up, taking slow walks with me in the park, playing kite on a Sunday evening before we have dinner and coming up with relentless answers to feed her never ending curiosity of Why questions. (Just like me when I was young).

Mei and I have agreed that she'll be the "bad cop" parent and I will be the good one (although she may insist or tell you otherwise but I clearly remember it to be the case and she has no basis to argue for the fact that Pregnant Women are proven to be more forgetful). Anyway, I am sure we will both be great parents be it good or bad cop.

The Elephant Song

About the 26 weeks onwards, Olivia could hear and respond to voices and since both mother and daughter are always together for now, Olivia hears every conversation that Mei speaks. It is actually quite fascinating that when Olivia first arrives, she will be able to pick out from a crowd, her own mother’s voice and smell, the father although he has made 50% of the contribution, maybe more in terms of support and financial aid will not be remembered unless he puts in his equal share of TLC. By TLC, it means spending time with Olivia whilst she is still in the mother’s womb.

I don't know about you but I personally find it strange to be speaking to the wife’s belly button every night. "What do you say to the BB?"... By nature I am also not one who is extremely fond of the belly button especially my wife’s who navel sticks out like Pinocchio’s nose (Trust me that is exactly how it looks like when women are pregnant). Furthermore, I would run out of words describing Mei’s tummy to Olivia – there are only so many ways you can describe the tummy to your unborn child.

I have therefore resorted to singing a song that I learned whilst I was about 5 years of age. It is called the Elephant Song – strange words to the song but it is kind of cute. If you had watched the Elephant Show in the 80s you would know what I mean.

Now that Olivia’s reflexes are mature, she would abuse her mother inside out, kicking and punching just before Mei goes to sleep. To calm her down I would sing her the Elephant Song and low and behold she would remain really quiet. I wonder if she is soothed or absolutely terrified.

Anyway, I believe that when Olivia is physically in this world, apart from recognizing her mother’s voice, she would be familiar with her father’s elephant song. That is how she will know that I am her daddy. (Proud Grin)

The Godfather - Part 1

Let me tell you about the relationship I have with my 2 best friends - Parthiban and Wee Yee Tat, you can say we are like Joey, Chandler and Ross in Friends. (I love that series – watches every episode). They have such a history together and will always remain as great friends and that is basically the essence of what we have. I would however like to think of Parthiban as Ross because he is after all the one pursuing his PHD and although I would like Yee Tat to be Joey because we all know Joey is a little “duh” but I guess since I have the good looks and the charm with the women (Ahem), I will have to be Joey and Chandler of course is Yee Tat lah.

Discovering that I will be the first to have a child, both have expressed interest to be my child’s godfather. Of course secretly Yee Tat wants to take the lead on this one and have expressed interest to sponsor Olivia’s nutritional diet of endless supply of milk till she is 50 (I added the 50 bit). The reason I know this is because Yee Tat told Mei... wait till Parthi discovered what Yee Tat is working on behind his back whilst he is away.

No matter who the godfather is or are, I know that my best friends will equally be great dad’s themselves be it to my child or their own. If they suck at that, at least I know that for Olivia’s college fund, I will have 2 very willing sponsors.

Messy Child

Since we got married and shifted into our place in BU, we have not been the most organized couple. Sure it may look neat and tidy but it is only skin deep, there are lots of rubbish still hidden in one of those cupboards or in one of those boxes that are safely hidden away from our visitors’ eyes. So for the next few weekends I aspire to clean up our place to make room for baby stuff.

This week I managed to remove everything from our kitchen cabinets to reorganize them according to function and frequency of use. The less frequent we use them, the higher it should go. Also for Olivia’s benefit, all breakable and harmful objects should be out of her reach. I can see it coming; very soon we would need to start proofing our home.

I also discovered what my mother-in-law was rambling about, Mei being untidy and disorganized – I tell you it is all TRUE. Never saw it till it was too late. “Sigh”

Next stop, Mei's wardrobe, any volunteers?

Baby Names

Was discussing with a friend of mine if he and his wife has selected a name for their baby boy due approximately a month after Olivia. This was his reply to me, it was simply hilarious that I just had to include it in my blog:

“Lately Mae and I have been racking our brains for a nice name for Baby. And believe me, the burden of naming a child is incredibly daunting. What if we choose a sucky name and our poor kid gets teased all his life? As Chinese, our troubles are doubled since we want a nice Chinese name to go with a nice English name. And as far as Chinese names go, while they mean beautiful things in the language, a lot of times they sound like something really horrendous in English or Malay.

Kids named Chee Wai always get teased. Similarly, so do Yee Ting and Wai Ping, because after Yee Ting, you should always be Wai Ping... your mouth. If you subscribe to the notion that, "sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me!" try telling that to little Kah Yew. And if you think Ai Ting is bad, wait till you meet Ai Pee! Some Chinese surnames add more misery to the lives of these kids like Wan Kok Keat and Pee Onn Joo. And surely you've heard of the two shops in Johor, Ooi Kian Fatt and it's competitor, Soh Kean Wee! I guess the older generation parents just never thought things through, seeing as to how many tragic names came from those times.

There are probably some rules we should remember when it comes to Chinese surnames. Here are a few that comes to mind. If your surname is Loo, the next name should never be Bang or King. If it's Chew, then no Weng. Phang must never go with Sai or Pui. And Tham should never be followed by Bee or you'll sound more Indian than Chinese. The next dilemma comes if you decide on an English name before your surname. My auntie knows a Harry Kok, though I'm sure she's seen more than one. Heh! And then, there was this family friend who named his daughter Diana Saw - which is surely a classic, if not Jurassic!

So you see our worry? What if we overlook something and give Baby a name that results in a lifetime of teasing? Anyway, we're open to suggestions. We like a little English name for our kid - maybe Aidan, Brandon, Dylan, Julian or something nice. My surname is Tan, so names like Rambo and Sy are definitely out!”

I laughed myself silly and my only advice to him was, to stay clear of Michael in light of his surname and if he likes the middle name Phang, Jiou is also out of the question. Good Luck James.

Night Fever, Night Fever

For sometime now, we have been expecting some serious Zhang ZiYi action to come from Olivia and night after night we would sit in bed having my palm on Mei's tummy feeling for some "Crouching Tiger or Hidden Dragon" to emerge.

According to the Pregnancy Bible by the 18th week, Olivia would start kicking however, it all depends on how sensitive the mother is to the baby's movement. For the first child, it may be as late as the 22nd week before we can feel anything. When I ask Mei, she did say that she felt something but wasn't sure if it was her stomach growling or it was actually Olivia.

Then it came all of the sudden, saturday night fever, where Olivia started dancing to the beat of her mother's heartbeat. It was exciting and Mei loves the feel of her movements. An active baby is a healthy baby.

Nowadays she sometimes practices her moves wee into the night even after mother has fallen asleep. How do I know? When you observe the mother's stomach long enough, you can see movement on her abdoment. It is fascinating... how I wish us men could get the chance to feel something growing and I don't mean the excess kg which our wives call "love handles".

I read somewhere that very soon we would start seeing ripples on the abdoment area and when the baby grows stronger, you advance to seeing bulges on the mother's stomach from her pushing and kicking.

Can't wait for that to happen.

Enjoy the Experience while it Last - SHOPPING!!

They say that having a baby is the joy of life. I would like to extend that beyond just having the baby. It is also the shopping that is quite intriguing, hunting down the best bargains and selecting the cutest outfits. My friends who have children of their own said "To enjoy the experience, cause it is the most fun part of having a baby"

Mei is in her most energetic and radiant chapter since she got pregnant and Praise the Lord, it coincides with the Malaysian Mega Sale. The MAD Mega Sale takes place only 3 times a year - March, August and December. Based on our calculation, it is now or never because in August, Baby Olivia would have arrived and by then Mei would be in confinement. It would definitely be too taxing on the two of us being first time parents and all to run around getting stuff for Olivia then.

Anyway, our shopping escapade started off at First Few Years - Centerpoint BU. Mrs. Teh the principle came highly recommended by our relatives and friends who have had numerous purchases made from her. She was pleasant and knowledgeable and she certainly helped to expand our knowledge of what features and functions all the new baby gadgetry has. Service was good and best of all she has the product knowledge. Before the end of our time with her, we departed with the first installment for a lifelong investment - a baby cot.

There was also a small shop in SS2 called Bambino... although they have limited selections but all that Mr. Tham had to offer fitted our profile and at bargain prices as well. We met Mrs. Tham as well in her full glory; she is expecting her 3rd child and her first baby girl; Mei and I clicked instantly with them. We couldn't be happier getting our Travel System, Play Pen and Bath Tub from Bambino. They were honest and would rather build the referral than to loose the sale... my kind of sales guy. I am doing my part now - "Buy from Bambino", as the saying goes "there is no such thing as a free lunch".

Originally we planned to obtain as many hand me downs as possible however as this is a baby boom period, they are becoming more and more scarce, furthermore my cousins are either light years ahead of me or still in their diapers. Look on the bright side, now Yen have something to inherit from us (Mei's younger sister). Originally it was just the soiled diapers and that ugly crockery we got for Christmas from Mei's broker but now we have something to hand down.

The shopping list was long - Diapers, Bottles, Sterilizer, Organic Bottle Wash, Nappy Rash and the list goes on and on. Our friends warned us that this could happen and we didn't believe them. It has been 2 weeks since we started and we are broke but happy with all of the many bargains we got.

When Baby Olivia goes to sleep, mum and dad can then play with her new toys. (Yeah!!)