Covid-19 Work From Home, Foods

Hello readers! I am here to update my blog again. It was kinda terrible during my first trimester because i will have morning sickness every single morning. Every morning when i get up from bed, i will be gagging within seconds. Thus i hate to wake up every single morning but i have no choice as i need to go for work.

Everyone first heard about the wuhan virus that has since been renamed as covid-19 in dec 2019 but never did we expect that it will affect the whole world including Singapore with the first case being detected in Singapore on 23 Jan 2020. That was around the chinese new year period. 

By February, Singapore raise its dorscon level from yellow to orange, everyone had to take their temperature when we report for work, and we were allocated duty to take temperature for visitors etc due to my nature of work. The situation soon escalate and there were more work for us to monitor the travel declaration. I was hoping it won't be too serious because i was looking forward to my korea trip which we have already booked our tickets. (However eventually we have to cancel this trip because Korea have increasing cases everyday and it was not safe to travel there too). I remember my colleagues were asking whether there will be a work from home approach as we were waiting for further updates since this was a pandemic which we have never encountered before.

Due to my bad morning sickness, my mum told me to move back to her house so that she could better take care of me, so i began shuffling in between my house and her house after i reported sick during one of the bad days.

Eventually by 7 Apr, Singapore government announced the circuit breaker, whereby only essential services will remain open and most of the offices will adopt the work from home approach. Thus despite us having additional more work to do due to covid, i was pretty glad that we could work from home because my morning sickness was so bad that on one occasion i had to take medical leave to rest at home. I was still wondering how to survive the remaining months. But with the circuit breaker and work from home approach means I could rest more since i don't have to wake up early to travel to my workplace. I don't have to worry about whether people will give up their seat for me since they can't really tell my baby bump as i was still in my 1st going to 2nd trimester.

Due to the circuit breaker and because of Jeremy nature of work, so he was deployed which means he couldn't take care of me even if i stay in my own house so eventually i move back my mum house officially during the circuit breaker period and have been staying there.

After working from home since Apr till now, my morning sickness eventually stop during the mid of 2nd trimester, i was less sleepy, more energetic by then.

Because of the circuit breaker, everyone has been staying home so we have been ordering more food takeaway than usual. Below is a series of my foods photo that we have been ordering during the circuit breaker period. How i grow my baby during this pregnancy.

Foods from grain.

Stickies bar pizza and fries

I bought this corgi macaroons for JY while i got myself the unicorn ones.

By end of May, it was also the durian season, i love durians! But i realise i couldn't eat much because my tummy will ache afterthat probably my baby don't enjoy it as much as i do.

During the circuit breaker period, the oden and mala suan la fen was trending and everyone was purchasing it. my sister got it from her friend so i get to try it too!

The famous Poh Chieu ang ku kueh,  i was never a fan of ang ku kueh but this is pretty good!

On days when i am back at my own house, i will try to prepare breakfast when i am in the mood. Haha

JY got this for me!

The circuit breaker has created many chefs! Haha many was flaunting their cooking skills to whip up a meal cook at home, so it was also an opportunity for me to learn how to cook simple meals. Above is a super easy fuss free meal, japanese curry rice!

Mother's day meal cook by my dad.

For Father's day dinner, we order on and on diners! Look at the generous servings that is meant for 5-6pax.

I don't really have any pregnancy cravings, like i dont have to eat this particular food at this particular timing but i do realise i love bubble tea and will love all the sweet stuffs! Sweets or savory, i love it all!

This is a real simple savory dish using prata skin, spread the pasta sauce, add the toppings and shredded cheese, throw it inside air fryer for 15min and its ready to consume!

Prawn noodles cooked by my mum. 

Shall end this post for now, next post coming up will be my birthday post!

We are having a baby!

Hello readers! As what i indicate for my post title, yes we'are having a baby!

Personally, i think Jeremy is more happy than me because he has been asking for a baby ever since we got married, but we was waiting for our house and i was planning to change a job at that time, so baby making plan has been put on hold. This was my excuses because i do have my fear of childbirth so as long as i can drag, i will drag. Unlike others who are excited about having kids, to me i have always maintain a very neutral view in having kids. We got married in 2017, but as we have been taking safe precautions so definitely its no wonder we didn't have any good news for the past few years.

I couldn't be bothered what other said, especially when relatives would ask when is our turn, while some questioning if we have some issues with conceiving a baby, both of us know the real reason. Because it's just not the right time. You can see Jeremy doesn't have much power to decide because he is not the one giving birth. Hahaha.

Finally last year, we received our house keys, i manage to change a new job. So we moved in to our new house, me having a new job, everything was perfect. So there was no excuses for me and i remember it was during last october when Jeremy bring up the topic again. It was a random conversation as we talk about the zodiac, as 2020 is Rat year, both of us don't like the zodiac of ox, and the following zodiac after ox was tiger and we find the zodiac tiger sound too fierce, so the next zodiac would be rabbit. However if i wait till the year of Rabbit, i would be in my 30s. We was looking to have at least 2 kids. So if i have my 1st one in my 30s, the 2nd one will be mid-30s. So eventually year of rat seems to be the suitable year for us to make our baby. 

So we decided to try, for the first two months, i thought maybe it wasn't easy to conceive afterall since my period still came on time. We didn't do any planned pregnancy or bought any ovulation kit. For the first two month, i would tell Jeremy happily when my menses came. Hahahaha he was disappointed but he commented maybe we need to go for check up if we still didn't have a baby by then.

However, into the 3rd month without taking precautions, which happen to be nearing the chinese new year period in January i mentioned i had a fall in JB during my staycation with JY. It actually turns out that i am already pregnant at that time! This is amazing how i fall down with such a huge impact when i was already pregnant with our little baby but luckily the baby was not affected. I didn't know at that time of cos until we calculate backwards. Especially during CNY we even had a huge fight, so we went through a cold war period and didn't talk as well, he make me very very angry. I still remember how i went back to complain to my mum and glad we didn't have kids at all. Hahaha what i didn't know at that time was our baby is already growing inside my body. 

 As i usually note down the date of my menses, so the last menses was on 26 Dec 2019, so I didn't thought it was strange that my menses was still not here by Jan 26-28 because sometimes it would usually push back by a few days every month and my menses is quite regular.

However my menses still didn't came during early Feb, which i started to panic because it was already late by 1 week plus. I talked to Jeremy and text some of my close friends and they was so excited and asking me to get a pregnancy kit to test, but being stubborn, i choose to wait and monitor again. 

During this period, i would feel very tired when i was at work, the tiredness was scary because i have enough sleep every day and come afternoon, i would feel so tired that i almost dozed off! I tried to google the symptoms and know fatigue is one of the factors, but i decided to wait. 

By the 2nd week of Feb, i started to have nightmares every night. Every morning, i would feel nauseous and gag. While cheeky Jeremy would comment, ' confirm pregnant liao' irritating.

So eventually, i decided to get the test kit to test because i had enough of nightmare dream every night.

I went to buy two different kit, 1 kit even have 1 for 1 promo. Haha actually i know i should be pregnant after having morning sickness every morning, when i got it test, the two line appear instantly!

My first reaction was, shit, really pregnant liao. Haha

but i decided to prank Jeremy, so i use water to drop on the test kit to have the 1 line result.

You can refer to this video, when i was telling him i test and he was so excited to know the results.

This was 1 line test, and never fail to make me laugh when i saw his reaction!

After the prank, before i show him the two line, and he got even more confused!

So here's the two line real result after testing with two kit. I test another kit the next morning just to confirm again. Haha

some of my friends introduced me this clearblue kit which i got Jeremy to buy for me because this clearblue kit would be able to test roughly how many weeks pregnant i was. It is also pretty accurate.

When this appear, it means i am confirm pregnant, and 3+ would indicate i have been pregnant for at least 5+weeks! 

However according to what i google, the doctor would usually see the patient only when she is at least 8 weeks pregnant, as i worked in a clinic before, i know doctor would usually prescribe the vitamins or supplements to pregnant ladies. So, even if i have not fix an appointment to see the gynae, i decided to visit the normal GP doctor, which i know him personally. So he calculate for me that i was actually 7 almost going 8 weeks pregnant by the time i went to him. He prescribe me some supplements to take first.

As for my choice of gynae, i do not have any preference of female gynae because i feel it's the same whether its a male/female so i didn't do any research before that, we only use referral from Jeremy friend wife, as i have already did some prior research of the hospital that i would like to deliver, which is Thomson medical centre and the doctor works in one of the clinic there, so i proceed to make appointment to visit him. Later, i get to know he is quite popular among all the mummies. He is also my cousin gynae doctor that help her to deliver her baby previously.

Upon confirming that i am pregnant, the first thing i do was to purchase stretch marks creams! Haha, so i went to clarins website as i remember they have this maternity set so i bought the whole set. But after trying all the products, i only like their stretch marks cream. 

Beside using clarin stretch marks cream, JY help me to buy bio-oil as well which help to reduce the appearance of stretch marks, so after checking with my gynae, i started to apply the stretch marks cream during the first trimester. 

Our appointment date was on 17 Feb, one day before our wedding anniversary. The first time he do the ultrasound scan for me, i couldn't really see anything until he point out the little one that look like a grain of rice. The feeling is amazing and touching when we get to see a life that we have created for the first time.

The doctor did some checks and say everything looks fine so the next visit was 12 weeks later.

Our baby first look. Haha

During our 2nd visit, they will need to perform some detailed scan and they have to draw our blood for further testing. 

The tests require are pre-eclampsia screening, as it is a form of pregnancy complication that the mummy might have for eg high blood pressure or signs of damage to another organ system.

Another test that we have to decide is to test for baby whether he/she has any high risks of getting down syndrome.

They have the Oscar or Panorama test. Oscar are 95% accuracy while Panorama has 99% accuracy. Oscar is definitely cheaper but Panorama could also check the gender of the baby.

We had to make the decision during the payment, so eventually we choose the Panorama test even though the doctor was shocked because he say i am still young and not really necessary to do that, but since there is a 4% difference of their accuracy so we went for Panorama.

Our first visit to Gynae came up to $310.30, we was given the option to pay for a package that cost $900 so this will cover all the medical appointment to gynae, including urine test. So it is usually more worthwhile to sign the $900 package. Afterall, we could claim this amount from medisave as long as we bring the receipt during my admission to hospital for delivery.

Our second visit to the gynae was on 20 Mar 2020. The total amount was $3268, $900 for the consultation package, $807 for the baby detailed scan, and $1561 was for the panorama scan.

During our 2nd visit, the baby has grown significantly! We can see more clearly the baby head, shape. The baby detailed scan took longer because it couldn't give the angle or view that the sonographer wanted, despite i try to move around but baby was not very cooperative.

Eventually i had to go walk around to see if the position of the baby can change.

After the scan, we collected the report and went back to the clinic for doctor review, so he was asking if we need them to seal the gender portion when the result is out because gender reveal party is common, but i wanted to know the gender so we told him to tell us when the report is out.

However even before i was pregnant, i kinda of know that i will be having a boy next time, because i prefer girls over boy so life will purposely give u the reverse. Hahaha i was very sure it was going to be a boy, for Jeremy, he has no preference, so we have a bet with some of my closer friends, we have the team boy and team girl. Loser team will have to do a forfeit which is giving the winner team each a cup of chi cha san qian! Hahaha. i was very sure i would win. 

So on 31 Mar 2020, the nurse called me and told me the report shows that everything is normal,  before she ask if i want to know the gender of the baby. I say yes, and she say..

'It's a boy'. my reaction was pretty calm as i replied her 'ok, thanks'.

Hahaha maybe she sense me being too calm, she ask me why? I wanted a girl isit? Hahaha, i told her yea so she ask me to try for the next project. But i feel if we have a 2nd child next time, it will still be a boy. oh well. When i did an online vote poll on my instagram, i was pretty surprised most of my friends vote for a boy. Lucky i didn't bet with them. Haha

As long as the baby is healthy, the gender doesn't mattar so much now. 

This was another visit when i went back to collect the report and the doctor did a scan, he told me this is the best shot he could capture because my baby is very active, previously we saw how he will bounce around and this time, he was moving around and escape the doctor reading when he want to capture his heartbeat. 

During the 1st trimester, even though i am having a boy, but my morning sickness could get pretty serious, every morning when i woke up, i would gag and on few occasions when it got really bad, i would vomit acid and it was horrible. Sometimes when i already had my breakfast and i will still vomit afterwards. So, i guess it's not true when they say bad morning sickness only applies when you are having a baby girl. 

I will be updating more on my pregnancy journey again.

shall end this post for now!