An Old Place We Call New…

We have shifted! Now I am going back to Blogger…since this is a new place, it is still pretty raw. Do update your links and see you at my new URL http://momsyworld.blogspot.com or new header is Pitter Patter @ Momsy World.

See you there!

Growing and Thriving

After the ordeal, Ethyl lost quite a bit of chubs and all of us are trying to pile some kilos on her. So far her appetite has been growing…it’s a good sign!

She can finish a bowl of rice at dinner, plus fruit, plus some little snacks. Back at home, she’ll ask for milk at 9ish and at 10pm, she’d ask for some more. If we do not give her, she won’t be able to sleep and kept complaining of hunger.

It was until last saturday that I don her on one of her CNY denim skirt that I knew she put on weight. I need to adjust her skirt so that she could wear it! What a console!

Her cheeks began to look rosy once again, her appetite is back, but there is one thing she is still afraid of…CAKES! Especially cakes from school whenever her friends celebrates their birthday.

Oh, did I mention we suspected that it was the birthday cake of her friend that caused the last episode? Anyways, we have no proof…though the teachers mentioned another kid got the same ailment as hers. There are still many other possible factors though…she heard us during our conversations and remembered till now. Last week, she came home telling me, “Mommy, today is my friend’s birthday, but I never eat the cake, I scared later I vomit and diarrhea…so scary!”.

It is a console she grows so sensible. Though at times, she could really drive me bonkers with all the WWH-s.

How much does she loves me? She always reminds Brayden not to kick me so much and so hard…she calls herself jiejie whenever she chats with the little bro. I find this sweet and amusing…Brayden does react to her calls most times. I guess he simply adores this sister of his 🙂 Her daily morning and night kisses are never absent. She’d hug Brayden whenever she feels like it too! SO often, she’d pull up my top, revealing my silver-lined tummy and gave him kisses through my belly. How lovely!

She too, can’t wait for the arrival of little guy! Kept telling Brayden that she’ll see him soon and will love him so so much! I hope they can get along well. Having said that, my initial decision to deliver Brayden on 28 april might have some changes. Mom prefers weekend so that she can cook and deliver the meals to me. Me, on the other hand prefers weekdays as the hospital will not be so crowded…will discuss with Hubby and of course my gynae on the dates during my next appointment. Who knows I may be going natural? *winks*

I Knew This Would Happen

Due to the lack of communication, Hubby and I first raised our voice at each other because of house hunting and selling.

I knew this would happen, plus if we sell off our unit, and planning to renovate the new place, more arguements will break out. The lousy part of this episode was…we “exchanged our words” in front of Ethyl. As usual, Ethyl stood up for me, and told Hubby not to upset me, turn over, and gave me a hug and kiss.

However, very soon, we were talking to each other in normal tone of voice and started our discussion again. I hate to fall into arguments. Having been through this 5 years ago when we got our flat, we both also argued several times due to renovation works and stuff. I believe this is inevitable, but I do hope this will not hurt our relationship too much.

26 or 28 April?

I have prepared myself to go under the knife for the second time. Since I am “suffering” so much now, I told Hubby that I want to end my “misery” by the 38th week.

I choose the dates myself to bring little guy out…it’s either 26 or 28 april…but Mom wants to look into the dates and see if they are good. Unless little guy can’t wait, else I have more or less decided on the date.

Having said that, this might be my last pregnancy…I ought to tell myself to enjoy before this ends…but the sleepless nights, breathless-ness and lethargy are really killers. I can wait no longer.

Unless the placenta moves up, and I am able to go through natural birth, else these are the days that little guy is more likely to be out meeting us!

Another Sleepless Night

Time: 0412hrs

Here I am, woken up by Ethyl at 3ish (or maybe earlier?) and had difficulty falling back into slumberland again…sigh! Anyways, there is also something that is keeping my mind active after being woken up.

Am discussing with Hubby about upgrading our humble 4 room flat to a bigger unit for quite a while. We, or rather I would love to “settle down” at least before Ethyl goes to primary 1, so that she need not go through the trouble of school transfer and adapting to a whole new environment once again.

Planning to look for a place in the eastern part of the island. I always love Pasir Ris…Thus this is always the priority option in my house hunting plan. Lately, I have increased the area to Tampines and also “see-see-look-look” at Bedok. Pasir Ris is still my top choice as the flats there not as old compared to Tampines and of course, Bedok.

Hubby seems to prefer Pasir Ris as well, though we do agree that Tampines is also a popular area in the east.

We were planning to have Executive Mansionette (EM) initially, but due to the young kiddos at home, I think this is not a good idea. Hence, we decided to get Executive Apartment (EA) instead. After flipping through the classifieds, I have decided that since we are getting a flat from the open market, so long as the area meets the minimal requirements, a 5 room flat should be sufficient for our family of 4. I do not want to over-stretch our dollar; and of course, dealing with the housework is no joke. If we want to upgrade in future, we might be looking at private property then…at least that is what I know Hubby has in mind.

There are many factors that I look into when planning to get a new house. Firstly, I need to know if Ethyl is comfortable with our plan. Being part of the family, I do not think that I should neglect her in this plan, as she, will be staying with us and being a 3yr 3 months old, she is capable enough to convey her thoughts to me effcetively and able to understand the concepts of daily lives. Needless to say, she is more than happy.

Having said so, she is well-loved by her teachers in her current school, I also had to explain to her that if we were to move, she had to transfer to another Montessori or even some other school if the centre that is near us is not suitable for us. She seems fine so far…plus, I reminded her that we are still planning, no concrete plans yet. Still, she is more than happy to know we may shift.

On the other hand, environment is also important. As our estate is windy all year round, we had privacy in our current home, neighbours are nice, not rowdy, and of course, so convenient and comfy here…I hope to be able to find a place that is able to let us enjoy the same privacy as well.

Told Hubby that this time around, I want to do up our house nicely, especially my kitchen! So, that means when I am looking for a new place, I am not looking at something very nicely renovated as I have my own plans to a new comfy nest we call our own. The place should be well kept though as the flats we are looking at were at least a decade old.

This is sort of exciting for us, but our main caregiver for the kids, my Mom will be so busy. She plans to downgrade as she has only Gina with her now. Selfishly, I hope she can also move to the east, which will give both of us convenience when looking after the kids. Mom, knowing that I will never be able to part with my kids for the weekdays, said she’ll put up at my place, to look after my house and kids if I manage to find a house of our minds. She didn’t mind the trouble at all…Mommies are so noble!

Having said that, I told her I do not wish that to happen as Dad is dependent on Mom on lots of things, and Gina, who is working as well, is unable to look after the house in terms of household chores and more importantly, the laundry. Mom says she’ll work that out somehow…

Since we are still at the stage of planning, there is still time for us to shop around and seek some advice. The main issue I have is, I do not know the area well, I always rely on the maps to tell me roughly where the areas are located and what are the primary schools and amenities around.

I also managed to list down some of the ads on the papers…and going through and compiling for Hubby. Both of us had never stayed in the east in our lives so far…This is going to be a huge environment change for us, and our families were all located in the western part of the island.

Now, we are working out our budget for the new place, once our calculations worked out, we will officially start to hunt for houses!!! How exciting yah?!

Self-Theraphy

Am nursing myself from the cold bug for the past few days. The cough seems to get worse everyday, the cold, no better. I can only seek solace from my fave hobby…baking. This is really therapeutic. Since I am unwell, I try my best to keep the bugs away from my bakes.

Ann came back with pig Lleroy yesterday, baked sardine roll and bread pudding. One for her, the latter for myself. I was 13 when I baked nice yummy sardine rolls. This time, my shortcrust pastry failed. Sigh…It must be the proprtions. Anyway, I hope to try doing it again and hopefully, I can do it.

Thank goodness my bread pudding turns out well. It was based on the recipe by a fellow blogging Mom of 5 (you know who you are 🙂 ). I forgot to take pictures for both though…

Today, I baked Japanese Souffle Cheesecake! One of our fave!

The cake would look better if I used a smaller pan. Taste wise, I can only ask my cousin to tell me as my cold was quite bad today, I couldn’t really taste the cake.

He said it was very nice…Can I trust him?! Anyway, he was so worried…he wiped out my doggie biscuits and told me Gina warned him not to finish all the cake and save some for her. Hubby called to remind me and set aside half the cake for him and not bring over to Mom’s place. Poor boy…I told him, I would save two slices for him, and that he can’t eat so much.

Now, am planning to try out banana cake over the weekend…I can’t get donut premix, else I will make donuts for lovely girl over the weekend…maybe will do so next week when Ann is back with her chubby little man. And I owe Gine her cornflakes chocochip cookies! I remember and will try to bake some soon!

Third Trimester

I didn’t remember being so worn out and heavy at the early stage of 3rd trimester with Ethyl. This time, it is really different.

Mom saw me wearing a more fitting maternity top yesterday and commented my tummy has descended southwards. Kinda early actually. During my check last week, gynae also commented that the baby has turned down and is lying pretty low, but he has not engaged.

I am constantly tired and sleepy…even sweetie would give me back rubs once in a while 🙂

My tummy felt so heavy of late. I can’t walkk too long, not to mention shopping! Only when I am shopping for my little ones, I would feel less tired. To mention, there are many things not done yet. I can;t bring out the cot mattress for suntanning as it has been raining so much lately. The hands me down were not washed, again, due to the rain. The toys for him…hmm…maybe too early for me to dig out (cos I am lazy). Since Mom is helping me with Little Guy, I need to bring out the nappies and wash them too!

Many said baby will be out before May looking at my tummy carrying him so low. I am hoping to take in more food and hope little guy will be strong and healthy even if he is prematured. Am now sniffling and having a really bad throat…I hope all these will go away in no time!

Doggie Cookies

Little girl is up and well…She is back to her usual routine yesterday, and as an encouragement, I asked her what would she love to have. Her reply was simple…she wanted to eat cookies! Since it is so easy, I told her, I would bake the Horlicks Doggie Cookie for her and she can enjoy when she’s back from school!

Got this recipe from here. Simple to do with clear instructions.

Turn out was good and my cousin wiped out my cookies and left us with nothing when he went back home today! I am in the mood to bake!!

@ 30 Weeks

The visit was not so pleasant like before. I was asked about my birth options, as my placenta is too low, i can only go for csec and nothing else. Howeer, there’ll be a certain percentage of risk involved.

Gynae said my placenta, being too low, even during csec, they need to cut thru’ the placenta so that they can retrieve our little guy. Having said that, it also means I will bleed more than normal under this procedure. My blood count is not ideal. He gave me feso 4 (Iron tabs) and wanted me to take gingerly everyday.

If I can boost my blood supply in my body, I will not require any blood transfusion during the process, or even after it. I am worried of course. First of all, I hoped to be able to go natural this time, but seems like heaven decides otherwise. Though gynae mentioned that there might still be a chance for my placenta to pull up, I still decide for the worst. If the good happens. it happens!

Little guy is growing well. He weigh approximately 1313grams and is very active in wombsville. My only wish now is for him to thrive well during his last days in the womb and I hope to see a cute little thing in our arms soon! Our jiejie-to-be can’t wait to see her little bro! Counting down…67 days to go!

Eat. Gift. Love.

Had been trying to eat more nutritious meals for both myself and baby. This is my current fave with low fat milk!

Baking order from Ann…

chocochip-walnut cookies

First try in baking layered cake with whipped cream and mango…

looks wise…not so nice. Taste wise…everyone loves it!!!

In the mail…

A nice gift from Mamabliss, Pauline. It’s a lovely gift and we all love it! Thank you so much, Pauline 🙂

More than a thousand words…

The doting jiejie kisses didi many times a day!