Baby gifts
Gift from Jo, a Deglingos Nonos.

A 7 piece baby clothings from Liz and Steve.

A range of clothings (Bibs and mitts are in the washing, therefore not in pic) and toys from Kit and Jess.

Different in birth cost

In UK, as we already paid approx 10% of our salary into National Insurance from our gross salary, there's no bill to pay for giving birth in public hospital. Any prescription from GP are also free as pregnant woman are given exemption during pregnancy and up to 12 months after giving birth.

Of course the public hospital is different from the Singapore hospital (not that I have given birth in SG) :-
- We visited the labour ward and they are 6 or 8 beds in the ward. There's 1 room (only 1 bed) which you can pay to be in there (if you want some privacy) but it's not ensuite and it cost about £100 a night (what's the point).
- If you are in labour, you need to call the labour ward and you will need to be having 3 contractions in 10 minutes before they ask you in. If you insist on going in, you can but if you are not dilated 3cm and beyond, you will be asked to go home and wait instead. That's why I bought a TENS machine to cope with the pain at home.
- You see your GP and a group of midwives throughout your pregnancy. During labour, any of the midwives might be there (depending on their schedule) and you don't get to see a doctor unless you are having complications.
- One of the mid-wife will visit you after you take the baby home (just to ensure you and the baby are fine)

Of course you can go to private hospital in UK, but it's going to cost lots!!

Last day of work

Today is my last day of work before I go off on maternity leave.
Had a nice lunch with colleagues and receive this lovely pinky bouquet of flowers from them yesterday.

36 weeks pregnant

The 36 weeks pregnant me.

So far I have gained 8kg. Face complexion is great (no spots!!), not sure whether it's because it's a boy (read it somewhere that when you are pregnant,carrying a boy will enhance your beauty and carrying a girl will steal your beauty), the bird nest soup I have been eating or the healthy eating I have been on. Oh well, enjoy while I can, 4 more weeks to go.

Stokke Xplory

This was the pushchair which we loved years ago when we first saw it at the airport security queue. When I got pregnant, we checked up on the price but it was just too expensive, therefore we look at others. However we cannot decide on any.

Recently we realised that the Stokke Xplory can also be a high chair and there's a price reduction. We found House of Baby price online and decide to visit the showroom in Bedford and physically test the product before buying it.

The staff was very friendly, knowledgeable and we can test the pushchair outside the showroom, road testing on the tarmac, grass and uneven surfaces. We also tried how it fold into our car and how the car seat fit into our car.

In the end, we decided to buy it, costing us £743. For this price we get :-

- Stokke Xplory, Dark Navy in colour
- Stokke Carry cot (from birth to approx 6 months old), dark navy in colour
- Maxi Cosi Cabrofix car seat (A must for transporting the baby in car), light blue in colour
- Stokke adaptor for car seat
- Stokke carry bag (free for purchasing the Stokke Xplory in store), dark navy in colour



The product is guarantee for 2 years and can be extended to 3 years by registering online. This is the most expensive thing we bought for the baby so far. Think it's worth it as we can use it for a few years and there's a second hand value on ebay.

PS : Based on the colour chosen, have you guess the gender of the baby?

The pregnancy effect

It's a life changing experience to get pregnant. Changes are :-

1. I used to sleep on my stomach but need to sleep on my sides now as bump is sticking out. Also can't sleep on my back as baby will press on my blood vessels and I can feel faint (Happened to me when I was lying on my back during one of the scan and I was feeling faint, so scary).

2. Leg cramps. Got three leg cramps one after the other last Saturday night, worst cramp so far. Eventually I have to wake Sam up to relieve my leg cramp.

3. So tired...... Feel so tired, especially every Sat after going out shopping, I must go to sleep at mid-afternoon to rest.

4. Out of breath. I feel out of breath easily after a flight of stairs. Got to walk slowly and minimise the things I carry around.

Pregnant
I'm 14 weeks pregnant and just had the first baby scan last Thursday. The baby is now 8.36cm and wasn't co-operative during the scan as the baby kept facing the wrong direction for the scan for the heart, face, etc. In total, the ultrasonographer saw me 4 times and each time, she press really hard into my belly hoping to see the right position!! Overall, she managed to get all the scans and the baby is fine. We were at the hospital for the 10.30am appointment and we only managed to leave at 4pm!

My appetite is really bad and not improving, feeling nauseous most of the time and still can't stomach meat (e.g. pork, beef, lamb). As I'm not eating meat, my blood test result shows that my iron level is lower than expected and now I'm on iron supplement tablet.

I was hoping that during pregnancy I can eat what I like but this wasn't the case for me....:(

Our garden collections
We are visiting DIY shops weekly to do some home improvement and will always visit the garden centre and buy something for the garden.

This is our collections :-
Goji Berry (it was only a bare roots with no leaf when we bought it, now it's has grown.
I always want a cherry tree and have bought the first one that fit into our garden (It's a miniature patio version which means it will only grow up to 2m in height), however later did I realise that it's sour cherry (for cooking). Hopefully, if I leave the cherry abit longer (when it fruits), it will be less sour and can be eaten straight from the tree.
Lemon tree, again it's a minature patio type, so it's small.
My climbling roses to grow on the fences and use as security measure.
Potatoes bag. Can you see the 2 small little plants growing from the bag. Apparently the potatoes are ready for collection when the plant flowers. Not sure when the little plants will grow and flower.
Broad beans plant, growing well but no beans yet.
Strawberry plants. These are not those we grew from seed, as they either died are way to small to bear any fruits this summer. Therefore we bought small strawberry plant pots from garden centre and plant them onto this strawberry pot. Really hope there's some fruits for us this year!
Spring onions, they are small, isn't it.
My carrots!! Hope the pot are big and deep enough for them to grow.
Rockets for salads.
The one that we are most proud of - Lettuce. We bought the 99 pences pot set from Homebase for growing lettuce and repot them into these 2 larger pot. These are great for the guinea pigs and they love it!
Our other plants (e.g. peppers, sunflowers, chili padi) in the greenhouse)

Hope these plants will cut down on our grocery shopping expenses each week.

Plant
As we have a garden and it's nearly spring, we decided to grow some plants from seeds (i.e. chili and strawberry). Finally saw a sign of life of the stawberry plant today.

Can you see it?

Crispin with Cookie
Crispin is sleeping and Cookie is fearless (or trying to be invisible by not moving)! Cream kept running away, thus unable to get nice shot without me holding onto her.

The two of them are soooo sweet.....:)

Valentine's day walk

The charity (All Dogs Matter) where we got Crispin from organised a Valentine Day walk last Sunday and we are pleased we went. Sam & I make some new friends and so did Crispin.

Crispin after surgery
Sam dropped Crispin off at the vet at about 9am in the morning and we were back at the vet at 4.15pm to pick him up. The surgery went well. He had 3 bottom front teeth & large left tooth removed, castration done, lump removed and microchipped.
Crispin is in the buster collar so that he wouldn't be able to lick/ touch his wounds and the buster collar will stay on for 10 days.
The vet also took some x-ray of Crispin and informed us that he has hip dysplasia on his right leg. No surgery required, but we need to think about treatment plans for him :-
- Oral supplements (Glucosamine & Green-lipped mussel)
- injection
- Hydrotherapy

Tennis Ball
Crispin will only play fetch with tennis ball, no other balls or items!! And can only be play at home as he's too distracted with smell of other dogs outside and refuse to play.
At the moment Sam is driving Crispin to the vet for surgery which includes :-
- Neutering
- Removing a lump near his right rib
- removing one of his teeth
- x-ray his leg

Hope everything will be ok.

The furminated Crispin
Isn't the coat shiny!! Crispin has a diet of :-
- Wet food = Natures menu/ Wainwright/ home-cooked food (chicken, veg, rice & potatoes)
- Dry food = James Wellbeloved
- A can of sardine weekly
- Treats (Kong/ Wainwright/ dried pig ears/ dried triple/ carrots)

We just bought the furminator and it works amazingly!! Got alot of fur off Crispin and Sam can't stop not furminating Crispin.

Crispin


Name : Crispin
Breed : Black labrador
Weight : Approx 20kg (is underweight!)
Other animals : Got along with Cookie and Cream. Crispin will walk to their cage occasionally and look at them for a while and then walk away. Cookie and Cream behave as normal (not hiding when they see Crispin).

At the moment we are very likely to keep Crispin. Sam is taking him out for a walk every morning at about 6.45am for half an hour and I take him out for another half an hour when I'm back home from work. Good exercise for us. Crispin sleep in the living room (same room as Cookie as Cream) and loves to sleep on Sam's armchair when we are not around (as we do not allow him on the armchair when we are in). I think sometimes, he want us to go out without him so that he can sleep on the armchair!

So far, Crispin has been very well behave - no barking, chewing of stuff, jumping on us, etc. However, when he's out walking, he does pull on the lead and not always response to us, thus we definitely need to train him on these.