Flu bug

I m having slight running nose on most mornings but usually it will stop before noon. Thot that's part of the morning sickness thingy :)

Last Friday, I got on the bus and took a seat at the last row. A lady sat next to me and starting sneezing n coughing without covering her nose/mouth! The guy on my other side and me tried to look the other way to avoid breathing in the "virus". Haiz, it was an air-con bus -- guess it cannot be avoided. When I reached office, I started sneezing non-stop and my running nose got worse. It became unbearable and I took PM leave to go home to rest...

I slept through the whole of Saturday and drank tons of water. Surprise, surprise, MS stopped! Guess our 15-week baby knew mummy was sick and let me take a break :) We decided not to see the doc as we wanna avoid taking medicine. Hope my body will be strong enough to fight out the flu virus!

I felt good enough to go for the Southern Ridges walk with my friends on Sunday morning. Weather was cool and we had a great time -- it was great to sweat it out! I cooked a Japanese lunch for them at our place -- Yamagata udon & fruit salad with wafu & goma tare sauce.

P.S. TK sprained his ankle after playing basketball with his friends :( Hope he will recover speedily!

Yogamama

Last night, we went for a trial lesson for pre-natal yoga. Father-to-be(FTB) can accompany mother-to-be(MTB) -- TK joined me for the class :)

Yogamama Class @ La Vidal loft
http://www.lavidaloft.net/index.html

It was a small size class conducted by Regina(a mother of a toddler son) -- 5 preggy ladies + 2 FTB. 2 MTB are 7mth+, 1 MTB is 5mth+ and 2 MTB are 3mth+ -- am one of the small tummy 3mth+ MTB :)

The poses are modified to suit preggie ladies -- with lotsa of stretching for the back, shoulder, inner thigh, calves etc. Gosh, after 2 mth+ of inactivity, I am very stiff and inflexible! TK had to help me with some poses... MS was at full swing and I felt uncomfortable with the puking feeling inbetween poses... urghh...

Regina and some of the MTBs were sharing birth experiences throughout the session. Upon hearing about my MS, Regina suggested using breathing to control and also try out different food.

After the trial class, we signed up for 10 lessons and plan to continue at the west studio near our place.

P.S. I was so tired after the class -- had a good sleep thru the nite (without interruption of toilet visit at 3-4am like I used to)!

Naming our little one...

My darling nieces Hui(7 yo) and Ying(5 yo) have been my life's little joy -- as I watched them grow up from tiny babies till today. Talking to them always bring much laughter -- by their innocent and funny response :)

Last Saturday, we were home for lunch at my parents' place and Hui & Ying greeted me with a loud "Ah Yee" when they saw me at the door. Then they would rush to give me a hug and kiss :) After a sumptous lunch, we adjorned to their bedroom for chit-chatting.

Ah Yee : Do you prefer a boy or girl for my baby?
Hui & Ying : (in unison) GIRL!
Ah Yee : Why?
Hui : We don't like boy, coz he will pee on you! LOL
Ah Yee : Huh, how do you know??
Ying : We watched "Ten Brothers" on TV -- the babies pee onto their father when he changed diaper for them!
Ah Yee : Hahahaha...
Ying : Ah Yee, what name do you call your baby?
Ah Yee : Erhmm, we have not decide on the name yet. Now my baby's nickname is Yuan Yuan coz uncle TK said Ah Yee is round round :) What do you like to name our baby?
Ying : I like to call your baby "Nicole" -- coz the baby in the "Nanny Father" TV series is very cute :)

And the sweet darling came over to rub against my tummy and whispered "Nicole" :)

Sharing of good news :)

Last Saturday, we sent out a message to our friends :-

Subject : After 1 wedding & 3 honeymoon trips...
Dear friends,
We like to share good news with you -- we are expecting our first baby :)
Today, our baby is 13th week old -- we hope our little one will join us on 13 May 2009 :)
Here's a blog to share the marathon-like journey to welcome our life's little joy
http://tkdo-lifeslittlejoy.blogspot.com/
Regards,
Doreen & TK

Wow, received many congradulatory replies -- everyone is happy for us :) Thank you for sharing our joy & baby tips!

First Trimester : Lifestyle change...

From being active in sports, my lifestyle took a drastic change. Being our first baby, TK, the protective and cautious father-to-be(FTB), "forbids" me to run -- so I have to hang up my new running shoes for a good 1 year. Swimming is limited to leisure waddling in the pool instead of laps. We spend most of our evenings after dinner strolling at the garden at our place -- to help to relieve indigestion. During the weekends, we will go for long walk at nature parks.

I feel tired easily and will be in bed ard 9pm(my usual bedtime is 12midnite). Morning sickness(MS) sets in from week 6 onwards (yet to subside @ week 13 now) -- the constant nauseous and bloated feeling lasted throughout the day! Unable to withstand the smell of oil, we have to avoid food centre and do only light cooking at home. Lost my interest and appetite in food... We have to prepare small meals(bread & fruits) for me to bring to work -- I have to eat something every 1-2 hours to stop the nauseous feeling. TK jokes that seems like we r going for picnic :)

Thanks to my darling and supportive hubby, the almost unbearable first trimester is over! Now, we look forward to second trimester (after MS eases) -- the so-called honeymoon period of pregancy :) Hope to have some of my energy back and become more active!

P.S. TK does not want me to take any flight throughout my pregnancy -- it is with much regret that we canceled our Nov trip to Japan. We are sad to miss Mamiko & Tachi-san's wedding and have to forgo running at Yokosuka Seaside Marathon...

How the story begins...

After we signed up for Yokosuka Seaside Marathon in November 2008, we bought a new pair of running shoes and ready to start training in September 2008. I began to experience lower abdominal pain during running but put it off till I began to feel more discomfort. We visited the GP near our home and I was tested positive for pregnancy test! Instead of feeling happy, the doc suspected that I may have conceive outside of the womb(ectopic) and refer me to A&E immediately. That got us worried but both of us braved ourselves to face the obstacle ahead.

We arrived at NUH A&E at 9.37pm. Paid a consultation fee of $80 and the nurse took my blood pressure and asked me some questions (allergies, intensity of pain etc.). A nice friendly female doc was in the room and asked me about my medical history and my purpose of visiting A&E. Upon hearing that I increase of weekly mileage from 9km to 37km within a weak, she suspected I had ligament strain. Next I lied down on the bed and she pressed on various part of my abdomen -- no pain at specific area (center is urintary tract infection, right/left is conceived out of the womb etc.). Usually, if I have any complication, I would be having fever, dizziness, and severe pain when she pressed on the abdomen. She assured me that I am fine and should see a gynae. Phew, that was great news! Gosh, a false alarm! I was discharged at 11pm and we reached home at 11.20pm. TK would like to keep the good news to ourselves and immediate family until my pregnancy is stable (after 1st trimester).

Ultrascan pictures of our little one ...

We look forward to our visits to the gynaecologist -- to see our baby's progress and watch it's movement. Here's some ultrasound pictures of our little one.

Sept 24 : 6.5 weeks @ 4.3mm

The tiny dot is our precious little one!

Oct 22 : 10.5 weeks @ 35mm

Amazing that we can see the eyes, nose and mouth! Such joy when we see our baby waving at us and seems like it is doing it's own marathon :) Hmm, is that why mummy is feeling tired easily??!!

Nov 5 : 12.5 weeks @ 61.7mm

Double growth in 2 weeks! A slight cough and baby will flip over!

After 1 wedding & 3 honeymoon trips...

After our wedding in March 2008, we immediately set off for our 1st honeymoon trip to Japan. It was romantic trip as we visited a ski resort in Iwate, famous onsen village in Kusatsu, bustling city in Sendai, scenic Hakone and a short stay in Tokyo to catch up with our Japanese friends. Oh, how we missed the yummy & fresh Japanese food!

Our 2nd honeymoon trip was to USA in June 2008 and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves on the road trip from Las Vegas to Grand Canyon, Yosemite, San Francisco and Los Angeles -- beautiful beautiful scenery! We experienced some heart-stopping moments when our car almost ran out of gas in the desert and when we drove through thick smoke from a mountain on fire! Very happy to meet up with my friend Wally who warmly welcome us to stay at his lovely place in Mill Valley.

Our 3rd honeymoon trip was a short getaway to Koh Samui, Thailand in August 2008 for snorkeling, island hopping & ATV adventure.

Our plan for 4th honeymoon trip to Japan in November 2008 to attend my good friend Mamiko's traditional Japanese wedding (and run a cool climate race at Yokosuka Seaside Half-Marathon) was canceled unexpectedly -- a pleasant surprise by the discovery of the "fruit" of our love :)

I juz enter my 2nd trimester and hope my morning sickness(which last through the whole day) will subside soon :) If everything goes well, our "fruit" of love will join us in mid May 2009 :) Being 1st time parent, this is a whole new experience to us -- do stay tune to more updates here...