Baby Sheri is one week old!

We brought baby Sheri to her pediatrician, Dr Toff, for her first check up on the day after she was discharged from the hospital. She has her first vaccination for hepatitis B. Her physical examination results are normal. What amazes me is some of the reflexes that newborn baby has. One of them is called 'stepping'. With the help of Dr Toff, baby Sheri is able to place one foot in front of the other and'walk'. According to Dr Toff, this reflex will disappear after 2 months and then it will recur as the learned voluntary behaviour of walking towards the end of the first year.




Time passes very quickly. Baby Sheri has been home for a week. She has very good appettite, drinking about 2 to 3 oz of breast milk at each feeding. Mummy has difficulties trying to keep up with her demand for breast milk. She seems to sleep better in the daytime, but she can be quite fussy at night. Fortunately, the grandmother is around to deal with this little terror so that mummy and daddy can get some sleep.

Happy Birthday to Baby Sheri!

Hi everyone, baby Sheri has finally made her grand debut into this world on 22nd Dec 2006 at St Lukes hospital in Allentown. Thank God! Everything went on smoothly as planned. Her weight was 8 lbs 7oz when she was born. She has very rosy cheeks which I could not resist pinching her. The medical staff told me that it was a blessing in disguise that she was in a breech presentation which warrants a C-section, as I might not be able to deliver her naturally given her size. I stayed in the hospital for 4 days and was discharged on Christmas day. The hospital staff was very supportive and the meals were excellent. I'm still recovering from my incision at home. Fortunately, my parents and brother arrived the day after my surgery to take care of me and little baby Sheri. Little Sheri has been quite well-behaved so far and she has very good appetite. Even though she lost 7 oz during the first few days after she was born, she was able to regain her lost weight in 3 days after she was discharged from the hospital. We are quite happy with her progress so far. I shall keep you updated as she grows. Once again, thank you for all your concern and prayers.

39th week of pregnancy

This is my 39th week of pregnancy. We have scheduled a C-section on this coming friday 22nd December. Knowing that the last weekend was our last weekend of peace, we spent some quiet moments together. In appreciation of all the discomforts that I have been through for the past 9 months and 3 weeks, my hubby took me out for dinner on Saturday night. The food was excellent. It was one of the best American meals that we have tasted so far. The grilled ribs was tender and succulent, and the grilled chicken was crispy and tasty. When we went out, everyone seemed to notice my big tummy. Some of them stopped by to ask for my due date while others could not wait to touch my big tummy.
We spent the whole Sunday cleaning the house and the car to get ready to welcome the new member of the family, as well as my parents and brother who will be arriving on this coming Saturday. I feel so clumsy to move around the house with a big tummy. Maw Lin did most of the house work until he was totally worn out at the end of the day. Well, I suppose that is just the beginning of fatherhood for him.

37th week of pregnancy

I'm feeling the contractions more frequently now as I approach 37th week of pregnancy this week. The OBGYN did an ultrasound last week to determine the position of the baby. To our dismay, the baby is still not in the head down position, so my OBGYN suggested scheduling a C-section in my 39th week of pregnancy. The reason he wanted to get the baby out in the 39th week is because he does not want the baby to be too big in my tummy as baby now weighs about 7.1 pounds which is about 3.175 kg. I was feeling quite sad for the whole week because I have always wanted to deliver the baby naturally just like all my friends here. Delivering the baby through C-section makes me feel a sense of failure in my first step to motherhood. I'm also pretty worried about the slow recovery process from C-section as we may not be able to receive much help from our family members here unlike in Singapore. All we can do now is to hope that everything will turn out well and the baby Sheri will be delivered in a way that is in her best interest.

The much awaited long weekend...

Contrary to popular beliefs, the Americans work very hard. There are very few holidays in the States in comparision to Singapore. One reason is due to our multi racial culture in Singapore where we have the opportunities to celebrate the festive seasons of the 4 major ethnic groups in Singapore. However, there is one distinct difference between the holidays in Singapore and in the States. The holidays in the States always fall on a Friday or Thursday to allow people to enjoy a long weekend, whereas the holidays in Singapore can fall on any days of the week. The much waited Thanksgiving is just round the corner. We are celebrating Thanksgiving on this coming Thursday. In the past, we usually made use of this break to go somewhere faraway. However, with this big belly of mine, I guess we have to stay put in the house this year. We are invited to a gathering at one of Maw Lin's colleague house on Friday and we have a pre-delivery visit to the hospital on Saturday. Here, things work a bit differently from Singapore. We have to interview the pediatricians and choose one of them for our baby before delivery. Fortunately, mummy and daddy-to-be have done our homework and we will inform the nurse during our pre-delivery visit to the hospital on this coming Saturday.

Changing table......a nice thing to have

As the name implies, a changing table is a table used to change diapers for the baby. It is usually a wooden table with a changing pad on top and a few shelves below for you to store the baby's stuff. Some of my friends here said that it is more convenient to change the baby on the changing table as you need to change the diaper 10 to 12 times a day. I have never seen a changing table being used in Singapore as I always see my mum changing the baby on the bed. So, we did not have any intention to buy a changing table. Thank God, one of our American friends decided to give us a changing table last weekend and now we have a changing table for baby Sheri.
From this week onwards, I have to visit my OBGYN on a weekly basis. The baby weighs about 5 pounds now and the baby's head is facing down . My mum always asks me this question whenever I call her because the position of the baby will determine whether I can deliver the baby through natural delivery or C-section. Generally, it's good that the baby's head is in the down position.

I'm so embarrassed.....

Last week, Maw Lin and I attended a pregnancy class on' Taking care of newborn babies'. When we looked around at the rest of the participants, it seems that my tummy is the biggest among all. Initially, I thought that they might be due later than me. However, I was astonished to find out from the attendance sheet that all their due dates are earlier than mine. On comparision with them, I think my tummy is quite big. This is not the end of the story yet. When I visited the dentist today, I met this patient at the reception. She asked me for my due date and she was taken aback when I told her that I still have 8 more weeks to go. She said that my tummy looks really big for a small Asian girl like me and I look as if I'm going to 'pop' at any moment. Looks like my tummy is really big! It is either that baby Sheri is big or my aminotic sac is very well cushioned. Anyway, I can't wait to return to my own body after delivery.

30th week of my pregnancy

This week is my 3oth week of my pregnancy. I visited my OBGYN this week and was elated to find out that I have passed the gestational diabetes test. That was a great relief for me. I suppose I can celebrate with a big tub of ice of cream. From now onwards, my visit to the doctor will be every 2 weeks until 34th week when I need to see him every week. Baby Sheri's movements are getting more intense. Yesterday night, we spent 20 mins seeing her movements inside my tummy. She seems to be particularly active after dinner from 8 pm to 9 pm. With all these movements in sight, I suppose my hubby cannot escape from the reality that he is going to be a daddy soon. Perhaps, that is the reason he has been quite conscientious recently in reading books about babies before bedtime. We have bought most of the major items such as crib, bedding set, strollers, infant car seat, bouncer seat, swing and baby clothes, pampers and wipes. Of course, there are still some small items that we need to get. Today is mummy's day out. I get to use the car for the whole afternoon after sending my hubby to work. Hopefully, I can get some of the stuff for baby Sheri.

Beautiful Fall

This is my favourite season of the year when the leaves on the trees start to change colours. It is also during this season that people will drive out to the mountaineous region to see the fall colours. Last year, we went to Algongquin Park in Canada last year to look at the fall colours and it was a very enjoyable trip. These are sights that people living in the tropical countries like Singapore do not have a chance to see. This year, we decided not to go any where as we are busy preparing the arrival of baby Sheri. This is a picture that we took yesterday's evening when we went to the park just outside our apartment complex. The good thing about living in the suburb is that there are more greeneries and the air is fresher. You can feel it, especially in the morning when you go out for a walk. Frankly speaking, I have never breathe in air that is so fresh before in my home country.
This year, the weather has been especially cold. Now, the temperature outside is about 7 degrees. It feels like winter. I don't remember that the weather can be so cold in the fall. I hope to enjoy some warmth before winter comes after Thanksgiving.

Mooncake Festival

Hi, I suppose all my relatives and friends in Singapore celebrated Mooncake festival on last Friday. Over here in States, we do try to celebrate all the festive seasons that we used to celebrate in Singapore. My parents sent me a pair of lanterns this year. On last Friday, we lighted the lanterns and went out for a walk in the apartment complex. It was a very windy night and we were afraid that the candles in the lanterns would be blown out by the wind. Fortunately, this did not happen. However, the sky was overcast, so we were not able to see the moon very well. Someone told me before that the moon always looks the same no matter where you are in this world. So, even though we may be far away from Singapore, but I think the moon that we are seeing is the same as what my family and friends are seeing in Singapore. On Saturday night, we had a good view of the moon near the mountains when we were driving along the highway to one of our German friend's place for dinner. The moon looked very big and round from the angle that we were approaching. It was a magnificent sight.

I'm so heavy...

My belly is growing every week. From my last checkup, I have gained 4 pounds for the last 3 weeks. Now, my weight is 138 pounds, which is equivalent to 63 kg. This means that I have gained about 17 kg. Surprisingly, I don't have a huge appetite. In fact, I'm eating almost the same amount that I used to eat before I'm pregnant. I begin to wonder where these extra pounds come from.

However, I don't deny that I do enjoy some priviledges as a pregnant woman when I go out. The people here are very understanding towards pregnant women. I have encountered a number of instances where they tried to open the door for me in shopping malls and they let me use the bathroom first even though there was a quene.

Baby Sheri getting more active now. You can feel her movements every now and then, but she always stops moving whenever I ask my hubby to see. She seems to be able to hear us from the inside. My favourite activity now is to observe her movements every night.

Craving for dim sum...

Last week, I suddenly have a craving for dim sum, even though I seldom craved for that when I was in Singapore. I miss Chin Cheong Fun, the one that my parents used to buy for me in the morning from the food centre. In Singapore, I don't think it makes sense to eat dim sum as we can find most of the varieties in the food centre.
It's hard to find dim sum here as we do not have a sizeable number of Hong Long population here. Fortunately, one of my friends who is from Hong Kong told me about this Chinese restaurant in Bethlehem that serves dim sum in the weekends. We googled for the directions to get there and we went there on last Saturday to satisfy my craving for dim sum. It took us a half an hour's drive drive to get there. Even though it was not the authentic Hong Kong style, I guess we have no choice since beggars cannot be choosers. The Chin Cheong Fun is not as nice as the one that I used to have with shrimp paste. It basically comes with 2 big shrimps wrapped in it as filling. This is supposed to be more expensive that the one I used to eat in Singapore, but it doesn't taste as nice. I like their turnip rice cake the best even though it is a quite oily. Yummy! I was still thinking about it last night. Maw Lin took pity on me and offered to drive there the next weekend to buy for me as he feels that 'a happy pregnant woman in a family is a happy household'.

Buying baby stuff.......a big headache!

I'm now 26 weeks pregnant. It's time to start buying stuff for baby Sheri. We had a lot of inertia in buying the baby stuff at the beginning. Somehow, we were not used to walking into the baby's department in the mall. I suppose we were used to buying stuff for ourselves only for so many years and therefore, we found it difficult to buy things for a new member in the family who has not arrived. I wonder whether any of my friends who have just become parents shared the sentiments as us at the beginning. Anyway, we have started to accept the reality when we bought the first baby item, that is, a 4-in-1 crib from Target. It was from then onwards that we began our collection of baby items.
Buying baby items can be quite an overwhelming experience for first time parents like us. Fortunately, our friends here have been quite helpful to us. They gave us buying lists and offer us valuable advice. So far, we have gathered items like the infant car seat, stroller, baby crib and crib bedding set. Having a baby in a foreign country is not easy as we do not get to use items that are passed down from your nephews and nieces. So, it can be quite straining on our finances as we have to buy most of the stuff ourselves.

Autumn begins now.......

Monday was Labour Day, so we just had a long weekend. Labour Day marks the official beginning of autumn. In States, every season will begin with a public holiday. Hurricane Ernesto made a landfall on North Carolina on last friday and as a result, it brought a lot of rain to the place that I'm residing. It rained heavily during Friday's night and we discovered that our electricity supply was disrupted when we woke up on Saturday morning. We were unable to heat up the milk using the stove because there was no electric spark to ignite. Being a Singaporean who has never encountered such things in Singapore, I was really caught unprepared. My hubby tried to look for lighter, but we could not seem to find it. We could have possibly misplaced it during the move. As we need to use the stove to cook lunch later, my hubby had to drive out in the rain to buy some matches. Fortunately, the electricity was restored later. I begin to wonder how fortunate I was in Singapore as we never have to encounter such incidents. This incident has taught me to be always well-prepared for emergency. City folks like us are sometimes just too compacent and we take a lot of things for granted.

Food Craving

One of the most unbearable experiences of pregnancy is food craving. I come from a place that is well known to be a food paradise. Over there, food is so readily available at a nominal price. I suddenly miss the soya bean drink in the hawker centre. The closest thing I can find here is the Yeo's soya bean milk, but the taste is entirely diffferent. When I was in Singapore, I always thought that it is good to be pregnant in Singapore as you get to enjoy a great variety of food without worrying about the waistline. God knows why I don't get to enjoy this privilege at all when I'm pregnant now. So sad!

9 months of marathon

I'm approaching 22 weeks now, which is slightly more than halfway through the whole pregnancy. There is still 18 more weeks to go. Sometimes, I feel that I'm running a 9 months marathon, getting out of breath at times. I wonder whether all the mothers share the same sentiments as me when they were pregnant. I must say that all mothers are really great. They have to endure such a long and tedious process just to conceive the baby. Three cheers for all the mothers out there!!! I really salute the hard work and the discomfort that you have endured. Sometimes, we may complain to our partners how much we are enduring, but I wonder how much they will truly understand. I hope I'm not doing a great injustice to all the daddies out there.

What shall we call our little girl?

My hubby has decided to name our baby girl 'Sheri'. It is named after a undergraduate girl that he met in Princeton University. He is very impressed by her intelligence and modesty. I suppose these are the qualities that he wants her to have when she grows up. Now, I'm beginning to feel the presence of baby Sheri as I'm starting to feel her movements inside my tummy. I find it hard to describe the feeling of having a human life inside the tummy. It is indeed a very thrilling experience.

Pregnancy woes

So sad! I received a call from my OB/GYN that my blood test results show that I am deficient in iron. So, I have to start taking iron pills besides the prenatal pills that I was prescribed. I hate popping pills into my mouth. I guess I have no choice in this case. This pregnancy has been quite tough for me. First, I have to grapple with morning sickness, and then I have to take all these medications. Hopefully, things will get better when the baby is born. I guess I will have to face another set of challenges.

New addition to the family

Hi, I'm now five months pregnant. The baby was conceived in Canada, discovered in Singapore and will be delivered in the States at the end of this year. We didn't expect this baby to be so well-travelled even at such tender age.

Anyway, I had my second ultrasound scan last week and it turned that my hubby's wish is granted. It's a baby girl! Now, I guess we have to start getting ready for our little girl to arrive. I have an agreement with my hubby that he will be given the onerous task of naming the baby if it is a girl. So, let me just sit back and relax. He will need to crack his head for the name of the baby. Hee hee hee!