ryan's prebirth journey :: Feb 9 2006, 05:17 PM ::

Delayed again….entry for 3 feb…..It's the detailed scan day at last! Veron picked me up at 1130 and we made our way to TMC. The entirexray dept has been renovated and we thought we came to the wrong place. Surprisingly not many people around, so after about 10mins it was our turn already. We went into the room, this time the room appeared smaller than the previous time. It was the same doctor who attended to us. She could even remember us and commended me for always accompanying my wife on every visit! Hahahha….our lil boy was heads down already and she had a hard time trying to measure his head, etc. everything was within normal range and we were exhilarated! She turned the screen and moved around so that we could see our lil boy’s face. Abit blur here and there but we were able to make out his face. Hahahaha…then we went down to LC Cheng’s clinic and waited for our turn. Soon after, it was our turn already! Today has been extremely fast! Oh ya…our lil boy’s weight is 1.98kg at 32wks 05 days. Lc cheng looked throught he results and said everything was great and bb is growing well! Then he proceeded to check veron’s blood pressure and said it was perfect! Then he checked bb’s heartbeat and very good once again! PRAISE THE LORD! Then he needed to do the v-swap to check the level of infection, kinda normal procedure for all. Then he told us to come back in a fortnight again. Meanwhile to have lots of rest and dun over exert!

ryan's prebirth journey :: Jan 21 2006, 12:46 PM ::

This is 3 days overdue again! Hahah…been very busy with work lately. We went to see lc cheng on Wednesday for our fortnitely checkup now…veron was down wif stomach flu for the entire week and couldn’t eat much, I was terribly worried for her and our lil boy. Rod gave her 2 days mc from mon to tues and then lc cheng gave her another 3 days to rest at home. Her appetite is back on track today and eating like a cow again! Hahahha….they did a blood test for her again and lc cheng said the blood test results were excellent and glucose level was low, prob due to not eating much prior to the visit. Once again, he checked our lil boy and everything was fine, we were so relieved! Then we went to fix the next appt due in 2 weeks which will be the detailed scan again and then to see lc cheng. We are so excited to see our lil boy up close and personal again! Hahaha…we have already more or less done up the décor of our lil boy’s room. Stuck up some of the sesame street and other cartoon posters. Guess we have to wash boy’s clothes soon, plan to wash at least 2 to 3 times before he wears them. We finally completed our antenatal class as well last Sunday and we also bought a “childcare” book from mrs wong and the contents are great! There are still quite a few things we need to buy for our boy, so we plan to go JL tomm and complete our list!

ryan's prebirth journey :: Jan 13 2006, 01:01 PM ::

we finally managed to tidy up ryan's room on tuesday since it was a public holiday! we threw out the old sofa and rearranged everything. to our surprise the mattress that we bought for veron to sleep in the other room since she complained that its very bright in our room during the day, fits the "car" perfectly, with a little excess! hahahha...lucky we did not buy the foam mattress from kids mall! saved 50 bucks! placed my golf bags and the hung-up clothes on on side and the rest of the room will be his stuff! guess will start to decorate his room with the posters we bought sometime after CNY. gota do a stockcheck of the items we need to buy and have bought so that we will be adequately prepared when he decides to come out! hahahah.... been making a glass of milk for veron every night! rachel (ivan's wife) gave us 3 tins of Dumex Mamil Mama (vanilla) for ante and post natal consumption. to my immense surprise, veron actually dun mind drinking it. veron is a great mum! she hates to drink milk! hahahha....she has been feeling the weight of her tummy now and i always ask her to walk slowly. 2 more months to seeing ryan! hahahha....

ryan's prebirth journey :: Jan 13 2006, 12:51 PM ::

Wow! This is so overdue!! Lets recap our last gynae visit last Friday! Our appt was at 4pm, veron took the car in the morning and picked me up at 3.30pm to go TMC. Melvin and yufen’s appt was also at 4pm but they got there earlier than us. When we got there, veron weighed herself and as usual, put on 2kg which is great! Then the nurse told us that LC Cheng will be expected to go up for delivery in a while’s time and she will try to push us in prior to that. Melvin and yufen went in first and when it was gona be our turn, he had to go up already. We waited for about 45mins and then he was down! That was fast! Of course we were the next to go in, and it was the best consultation so far, he did not need to rush just as previous visits and took the time to talk to us and when we did the ultrasound scan, veron asked to confirm the sex of the baby again! When he tried to scan, boy was hiding his dingding from us! Hahhaha….then LC Cheng moved around and boy finally opened his legs for all to see! LC Cheng pointed to us that “there, that's his testicles and his birdie!” hahahha, he even printed a copy for us to keep! We were exhilarated! He told us to come back in a fortnight and thereafter another fortnight will be the detailed scan already. Hmmm….which means that Melvin’s baby may be arriving 1 week earlier than ours! That's strange since his was supposed to be 2 days later than ours! Anyway, we shall wait for the detailed scan to confirm further on the EDD. We drove down to centrepoint to shop around and buy my ashworth polo tee and then we went to Alexandra for dinner which sucked cos the carrot cake stall and the wanton mee stall wasn't opened! Sigh. Ikea was crowded so we had to make do. Then we went home.

ryan's prebirth journey :: Dec 13 2005, 06:02 PM ::

back to work today! sigh....we checked out of hilton yesterday after spending one nite there for our very first anniversary! we went for the 10am mass on sunday and then went to eat brunch at ghim moh market. thereafter, we went to TMC for our 2nd antenatal class. at last, we managed to meet the infamous mrs wong boi boi! she's great and she discussed and dispelled so many myths and taught us new ways to massage our wives especially for backaches and breathing exercises for labour. the whole lesson took about 3 hours!! she brought us to the nursery and showed us how to handle a baby of which the head and neck is of utmost importance! then we visited the suite and it was akin to that of a typical hotel! we left TMC and reached hilton at about 4pm. checking-in was a breeze at the row for hilton honnors members and they even gave us complimentary breakfast cos i m a diamond member! breakfast is charged at $32+++ per pax! we got to stay on the 16th level, room 1611, street view, non smoking, deluxe king room! it cost about $290 per nite!! we unpacked our luggage and enjoyed the plate of fresh fruits and flowers provided cos i told them we are celebrating our anniversary!after unpacking we decided to check out the swimming pool and changed into our swimming attire. when we got to the 23rd floor. we were put off by the state and size of the swimming pool! it was pathetically small and seems kinda filthy! there was no one to give out towels at all! we went back to the room and changed to our evening wear and proceeded to zara next door to check out the bb stuff. kinda disappointing again since the majority of the range is for gals! sigh! and melvin said they bought lotsa stuff for his bb boy. we culdnt find anything we like! ahahha...we reached checkers at about 7pm and we were brought to our special section for dinner! at about 715pm, as per planned, vincent, the person i spoke to to arrange prior, brought the enormous bouquet of flowers to veron! of course i taped the whole thing on our video cam! the bouquet consisted on a dozen white roses and 3 stalks of lilies and some baby's breath and my fav leaves! ordered from the same florist as wat cecilia frequents! spent about 45mins choosing and deciding!! hahahha....told the gal that i want the biggest and nicest bouquet ever! i m totally pleased at wat i saw! veron was simply taken aback as prior to that i told her that no one delivers flowers on sunday and she looked disappointed! and suddenly there is an enormous bouquet for her! she couldnt stop smiling! we ordered our soup of onion and mushroom, main course of beef tenderloin and t-bone steak and dessert of hilton american cheesecake and brownie with macademia ice-cream. dinner was fantastic. when the soup arrived, i gave her the second surprise! i bought her a nice "present" from swavorski, shaped as to a nicely wrapped present, except it is in crystal with silver ribbons! she was pleasantly surprised, but i guess wat threw her off her feet was the bouquet of flowers! hahhaa.....told her at least before i pass on, i have fulfilled her wish of receiving a huge bouquet of flowers!after dinner, we went up to change to casual clothes and went over to isetan to shop around. veron bought a fila tee and i bought...nothing. we went back to the hotel room thereafter and turn in for the nite. of course we took a few more photos of the flowers and the "present".breakfast was great and veron thoroughly enjoyed it, not becos of the spread but the whole concept of a hotel's buffet bfast! thats my wife! hahahha....i had my bread pudding and lotsa of others. we went back to the room and napped til about 1 plus where we packed our stuff and check-out at about 2pm. we were offered to check out at 4pm but we were worried about the 2 pets at home. told veron that we must keep the flowers forever! even if its all withered up! ahhaha.....of course there was another round of phototaking at home, together with the wedding cake from hilton, 1 yr old now! hahah...dun intend to cut it at all!

ryan's prebirth journey :: Dec 9 2005, 09:00 PM ::

halo! its been such a loooong day today! we woke up bout 10am and i proceeded to shave bubblez cos he has been developing rashes lately. then we went down to the coffeeshop for brunch and then proceeded to TMC for the checkup. we reached at about 1230pm and it was crowded! melvin and yufen were already there since 1130am! we chatted and then i called eric to ask which room he was in (eric's wife, lydia, gave birth 2 days ago at TMC, his gal is sooo chubby and cute!), he told me that he was about to discharge and we went up to meet them.back at wc cheng's clinic, we waited for lc cheng to come down. he was caught up at some delivery and was especially long! we waited till about 2.30pm when one of the nurses asked if we wanted to see wc cheng instead! we said why not and went to wait outside his room. while we were waiting, we joked that wc cheng do not need the ultrasound scan, he will use his hands to feel the baby and advice if is fine! ahahha...guess wat, when melvin and yufen went in, thats exactly what he did! melvin was sooo disappointed!! he wanted to see his son before his birthday (11th dec) but failed to do so! he was sooo upset that he later requested to see lc cheng to do the ultrasound scan, but nurse patsy said there were simply tooo many people waiting to see him. we felt bad for melvin. while melvin was inside wc cheng's room, we saw lc cheng come down and we immediately requested to see him instead! PRAISE THE LORD that we did! he looked tired and answered some of our queries like numbness, nausea and backache. then i asked him for a letter stating the EDD so that i can apply for deferment in april! then he did the ultrasound scan and we saw our lil precious one! i asked lc to help us confirm the gender once again and he said "see, thats his birdie!" hahaha...ryan was very co-operative today and it was for all-to-see! but he said at this stage, bb is too big to see the whole of him and that's it. no printout or knowing weight of bb. later found at the singaporemotherhood forum that we should ask gynae the estimated weight of the baby for reference. hahahha....will do that next visit! hope we do not need to wait so long next time round! we changed the appt to 4pm since he is around in the afternoon on fridays now.we went to office for a while to send out some quotes and then we went over to suntec to buy the carebear umbrella which veron adores! we bought 2 after much deliberation and then we went to cafe cartel for her waffle with ice-cream! i wanted so much to eat the st louis pork ribs and ordered that too! we had such a filling dinner that i found it hard to move around thereafter! we went up to the atrium once again and browsed through the maternity shops like flava mama, perfect mum and spring maternity! veron bought a tube dress and some underwear! i chanced upon the bengawan solo ad in the motherhood mag and called henry to compliment the nice box design! he said, u and melvin better order from me, no doubts about it, he will "settle it" for us! ahhahaha.....we walked around a while more and then left for mum's place. we will be checking into hilton for our very first anniversary on sunday! watch out for the update!

ryan's prebirth journey :: Dec 4 2005, 04:41 PM ::

halo! we are back from our first antenatal class! mrs wong could not make it so an indian lady took over. she taught us some exercises to massage our wives as well as some stretching exercises to alleviate veron's butt aches and such. the massages proved to be quite useful and we have to actually do that twice daily! veron is so goin to enjoy it! could not identify the 3 other MTBs from the singapore motherhood forum that i so actively engage in daily. we were told of the various food to take and avoid and also a brief intro to breastfeeding! we are sooo looking forward to next week's lesson when mrs wong is back so that we can meet the infamous mrs wong! we were taught of the ways to communicate wif our lil one and wat not to do such as rubbing her tummy in a circular motion which could actually trigger off a contraction! rubbing it downwards is the right way to do it and when talking to baby, must alternate and moving both palms vertically and horizontally on veron's tummy and we must talk to ryann daily while repeating the action. of course playing the mozart for mums cd is very important, helps to soothe the bb and improve brain activity and such! parking was such a breeze cos its a sunday!went to KFC for tea since veron had a craving for the fish fillet burger and i had the 2 piece meal! now back at mum's place to rest and thereafter to dinner and pick veron's parents.watch out for this space when we return wif updated news bout ryan when we see LC CHENG on friday! melvin and yufen are also seeing him on friday, same time as us! we were just at henry's place for dinner 2 days ago where we celebrated the birthdays of the 4 of us, mine, melvin, henry and kevin (gerad's fren). the choc cake was great, of course it was from bengawan solo! we played wif the infamous light savers from starwars which henry has 4 of them! we were totally intrigued!! i'm gona buy one soon! hahahah.....

ryan's prebirth journey :: Dec 4 2005, 11:12 AM ::

today is our first antenatal class! class starts at 12.30 to 2.30pm at TMC. it will be conducted by the renowned Mrs Wong and we are kinda the last 2 to register for the class since i procrastinated till last week to book! the very next slot will be jan next year!!! hahaha....just came back from church and will leave 329 soon!we had a very fruitful shopping trip yesterday! after office, we went down to suntec so that veron can have her xiao long bao which she has craved and even dreamt about the night before! while waiting, i chanced upon this makeshift shop selling calendars and guess wat! they had a sesame street calendar which i immediately grabbed and paid 22 bucks for! just a preview, we have decided to decorate the kids room based on the sesame street theme!! while at concourse 2 days ago with amy, i went into this shop that retailed carpets and they had some original disney carpets which i acquired 2! one baby mickey and friends at the playground scenario and one winnie pooh and friends on a jungle trail! paid 100 bucks for both. too bad they do not carry any sesame street ones, or else i would have bought them all! back to yesterday, we had out lunch at crystal jade xiao long bao and thereafter, we went to the 3rd level where toys'r'us is and browsed around. so happens we chanced upon this new shop called ELC (early learning centre) at the new atrium. i saw this big inflatable red car hanging in the middle of the shop and immediately went inside to check it out. guess wat! it only cost 80 bucks!!!! i was thrilled! there was this australian guy explaining the benefits of the product and i was convinced to buy it! we can fill it with water so it becomes a play pool or fill it up with those colorful balls. wat i intend to do is buy a small mattress so that it becomes a bed as well for ryan! hahahaha....but it was kinda heavy to lug around! bought a christmas gift for natnat as well from there. proceeding on, we went into kiddy palace and veron found that they carry some sesame street pacifiers, bottles and toys! we bought 2 pacifiers (one elmo and one cookie monster). also bought the pigeon powder detergent to prewash the clothes we have bought so far. then we went o carrefour to buy some groceries and made our way back! we were simply exhausted by the time we were home!its an hour away before our class starts! we are simply excited to the max!!! watch out for the update soon!

ryan's prebirth journey :: Nov 13 2005, 02:57 PM ::

and now for the much awaited results of the gender for our precious lil one!!!! .................................. its gona be RYAN CHUA!!!!!!!!!! melvin has also confirmed that h's is also a BOY, MARCUS NG! we agreed that both will go to St Joseph's Junior and then SJI! future Josephians!!! ORA ET LABORA!we reached TMC at about 1045am on friday, 11 nov and waited quite long for the detailed scan. while waiting, i went Delifrance to buy 02 chicken curry puffs for veron and myself. while waiting, we met victor's mum, who was sitting just behind us. she called me and then we started chatting. told her that melvin's baby is a boy and we are about to find out. finally, our turn came and we were led to this room with warm lighting. a lady by the name of dawn came in and start scanning our baby. veron cant see the monitor, but i can! hehehe... baby was in a squatting position and thus cant tell the gender as yet. we were quite disappointed at first. the lady scanned and measured the baby's head, kidneys, hands and by the time she got to measure the legs, she commented that our baby's legs are quite long and asked me for my height. i was thinking "a tall gal? hmmm.....", just then, she said that the baby suddenly opened his legs and she zoomed in to try to deduce the gender and she announced "i think i saw something" and i was like "serious!, please zoom in further to confirm, sure its not the cord or something else?" she zoomed in and confirmed that it was "soft tissue" and i was quite disappointed that we are not gona have a princess this time round. veron kept on saying its fine and she had secretly prayed for a boy cos she wants to fulfill her daughter-in-law duties for my grandma and parents. but i told her my parents never had any preference, as long as the baby is healthy and is GOD's gift to us. veron was smiling away and she kept reassuring me, seeing my disappointed look.the lady then showed us that our boy was in a very relaxed position! left hand was behind his head while right hand was playing with his toes which was curled up infront of him. just like me when i sleep sometimes...heheheh.....just like baby is in a vacation! all results showed that baby was growing well and normal. PRAISE THE LORD!upon leaving the room, i immediately switched on my phone and called my dad and tell him the good news. he said "oh, very good! must take care huh?!" then we went down to LC CHENG's clinic. nurse told us to come back later and we went to the cafe for lunch. i didnt feel like eating and veron ordered a plate of beef kway teow while i drank a cuppa coffee. kind of disappointed still....hahahaha.... no polo ralph white dress for my princess!! veron said boy better, next time teenage period no need to worry and be paranoid about where and who she goes out with and all that crap! i was drinking my coffee and re-orientating myself to having a baby BOY, RYAN CHUA!back in the clinic, it was our turn and LC CHENG told us that everything was fine for veron's detailed blood test, except she needs to drink abit more water and that she will need to take the hep-B vaccination jab after the pregnancy. told us to come back in a month's time. veron is not very happy with LC CHENG cos she said he is not very personal and warm enough, compared to other gynaes she had heard about and kept blaming me for deciding to go with him. sigh...prob being the best fertility doc in TMC doesnt mean that he will be very warm and caring like the others.i went to get the car and on the way there, tried to call my mum, but her mobile phone was switched off and my grandma was out at sentosa with the kids. i called melvin and told him the good news. he kept saying, "it's ok bro, boy good, u will like him, can go SJI next time, we can apply together! lets go polo ralph and get them clothes together!" on the way to pick veron, i convinced myself that a boy is great afterall, just need to discipline more and easier to dress up and can play tennis and golf with me next time! more stress to make sure he goes to SJI and NUS! hahaha....guess it's really up to me then!we went back to my office to settle some stuff and send some emails before goin to the printer to do presscheck and return home. back home, told my mum the great news and she said she also secretly prayed for a boy!! hahahaha....my parents' prayers are really powerful! veron and i have to be model catholic parents for ryan so that he will grow up with the right catholic values and morals! i then sent veron to her staff dinner at chevrons and then went to pick derek up for dinner. we had all planned to go out for drinks to celebrate the good news and also derek's belated and mine be-early birthday! we went over to aunt anna's place first to pick up some toys for baby ryan and then alex met us downstairs and we all went for dinner in my car. ate ke ai ji at clementi and then went home to put the stuff. gave them a bottle of beer each and then we left to pick veron at 10pm. after that, the guys told me not to drive so that i can drink also and we took a cab to O-bar at mohd sultan! yang, don, avin and his galfren were late, so we decided to go in first and get a table. we opened 2 bottles of bombay saphire in order to get a table for 7 of us. they all came later and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! every toast was "TO RYAN CHUA!!", "FOR RYAN!!", and that went on several times till each of us was almost drunk! avin was the first to drop and he was outside puking like mad on the pavement and his galfren had to send him back first! saw jeremy koek and jeraldine together with their frens in O-bar also and i offered jeremy a drink and said "to my baby boy!" he also bought me a bacardi breezer and said "to your baby boy!" the night was great and we had a few other shots of tequila and sabokar. alex then left first cos he needed to serve the country the next day at 1pm. it was down to derek, don, yang and myself, as usual, the 4 musketeers! we went to eat prata and mee goreng at the nearby indian shop and then derek and i left in a cab and he dropped me off first. yesterday had a bit of hangover and then we went to eat bfast at my parents' place and then they came over to help us paint the boy's room! dropped veron off at her mum's plce, cant let her smell the fumes. i sent an sms telling everyone of the good news and asked them to pray for us and our baby boy! everyone replied with good wishes!

ryan's prebirth journey :: Nov 4 2005, 10:44 AM ::

it's a great morning today! cool and breezy after the rain. yesterday was hari raya puasa and we went to orchard to shop and eat the buffet at Marriott. went to forum to take a look at the baby stuff and guess wat, we bought 05pcs of clothes from polo ralph lauren!!! 30% off usual prices, so we practically went crazy! wished my mum was there, then we could have gotten more stuff!!! snigger snigger! the clothes were sooooo cute and sweet! we bought the white and red ones, so that whatever the gender of my precious lil one, they can still be worn with pride. we decided to buy a piece every 2 months! hahahaha.... the buffett at Marriott was just so-so, oysters, sushi, but overall not so fantastic as everyone claimed.veron's butt ache the entire day yesterday, prob due to the walk when we took bubblez down for a walk the day before. hahahaha...my poor sweetheart! used the videocam to record the stage of pregnancy she is in now as well. we are simply excited about next week's detailed scan. hopefullt my precious lil one will cooperate with us and show us his/her gender!!! then we can start buying more clothes from polo ralph, especially the sweeet white dress with pink lines on the collar for our gal.decided on names already! gal will be RACHEL GABRIELLE CHUA and boy will be RYAN GABRIEL CHUA. watch out for this space next week to find out about the gender! melvin's appt is 1 day before us on the 10th Nov.