Meet Archie!

We decided to have Archie delivered on his 37th week after Dr Fong gave the green light on the 5th of March. We were confident that the delivery would be fairly quick, as this is the second birth and the dilation of the cervix had already reached 2cm.

We check into the delivery suite of Mt Alvernia, at 0000hrs, expecting to deliver early morning.  

A nauseous looking Mama Flo, experiencing the side effects of epidural. 

The night came and went but the dilation was slow, it only reached 5cm at 5am, we had expected Flo to give birth at between 4-5am. 

But by 630am, the dilation rate drastically increased, the wall of the cervix was getting thinner. Flo started to feel strong downward pressure and stronger contractions as well. The nurse checked and confirm that the delivery should be soon.

The delivery was quick, Archie was out after three pushes! Well done Mama Flo!

Our son, Archie Yau, 杨晨曦, came into this world on 6th of March 2010, weighing 2.50 kg. A mere 50g heavier than his sister at birth, must be the additional weight of his 'royal jewels'.

Sarah's birth date is 6-3-2008 while Archie's 3-6-2010. The day and month are direct opposite of each other.

Mama holding Archie for the first time, 你看我，我看你。

At first glance, Archie although heavier than his sister at birth, seems to be skinnier, he has inherited Papa's skinny calf and big nose. He seems to be more gentle than his sister, though it is still early days.

The 'Hokkien Pai' terrible two

Sarah has been putting us through her terrible two antics for quite a while, ever since she discovered the power of 'NO'. She has blatanly defied her parents in public by refusing to walk, to come down the stairs, to hold hand while crossing the road, to leave the supermarket........ Every visit to the supermarket is traumatic for us, it almost always end with a wrestling match, force has to be used to evacuate her out of the supermarket. The most tricky sections are the fruits section, where she must grab the apples; and the cashier counter, as they have colourful wide variety of candies on display besides the cashier.

Even though saying 'NO' is a norm attribute of the terrible two, she has left us scratching our heads as she uses 'MAI' instead of no'. Mai is the hokkien for no, no one in our family, extended family or school speaks any dialect to her. She will 'MAI' at us loudly and swings her arm wildly and furiously like a drama queen.

Dilation

The dilation has began, which means Bei should be borned within the few days or by the end of the week.

We went for our scheduled consultation with Dr Fong today, it was brought forward from the end of the week as Flo has been experiencing contractual + lower abdominal pains since the latter part of last week. Upon hearing the symptoms, Dr Fong said there was a lot of downward pressure and wanted to check on the cervix. From the examination, he discovered that the cervix has already dilated to a width of about 2cm. Next he proceeded to the ultrascan, due to some unknown reasons, the attempts to gauge bei's weight were in-conclusive, the first take was 3kg, the second 2.1kg and the third at 2.3kg -_-" . After doing an ECG test, bei's heart rate was normal but contraction movements was charted as well. Dr Fong decided to send us to TMC for a more thorough scan to ascertain his weight as well as the blood pressure.

The test results at TMC were good, bei has grown to 2.5kg, his blood pressure is normal and the best news was the placenta has fully moved up, as such c-section is not necessary for delivery! However, as the cervix has dilated, we are told to monitor bei closely and be prepared for delivery any time this week.

We are very excited and looking forward to seeing him.

祈福

向外婆, 舅舅与祖祖祈福，保佑妈妈能够顺力生产，弟弟能够平安！

CNY 15th Dinner

We had our 元宵 dinner at the 7th Storey Restaurant at the Marina Barrage.

But instead of having it on the 15th night, we brought in forward by a day to fit into everybody's schedule.

We had to sit outdoors as we were having the steamboat. Even though the weather has been terribly warm and humid, it was quite enjoyable as there was a constant sea breeze.

Another lou hei (捞起), thankfully it's the last of the year, had enough of shredded carrots and radishes.
Sarah enjoyed it, especially the crackers.
We had the ala-carte + steamboat set for 10. The portions was too much as we had only 7 adults and 2 toddlers.

As it is a hainanese restaurant, we had to have 白斩鸡＋ 猪扒！

带子

Their specialty, the charcoal fish steamboat. There was really lots and lots of fish meat inside, we ate until we were so sick of fish.

Overall, it was an enjoyable family dinner in a lovely setting.

Hilda's take on CNY

A series of shots taken by Hilda on the first day of CNY at beach rd.

Sarah holding on firmly to the red packet given to her by great grandma.
Papa trying to calm her down.
Mama offering her a barter trade, bananas for red packet.
You know what she chose, food of course.
There was still space in her stomach for many pieces of kueh lapis.
The banana gave her too much energy, she had to resort to shifting/pushing stools to burn it off.
After burning off her excessive energy, it's back to recharging them again, LUNCH time!
Papa looked like he had dozed off, while Sarah was posing cheekily for Auntie Hilda.
She then ran around and offered to shake everyone's hand. Very PR.
A shot of her with great grandma.

Just having fun

Just having fun, that's all she wants nowadays. She does not want to take her nap in the afternoon nor sleep early at night.

Went over to Membina this morning to visit Auntie Jen and Great Auntie Margaret, as well as the playground.
Some lovely shots of her taken by Auntie Jen at the playground.

I love this playground too! Why? Because it's much lower than the one we have at our place, I do not have to accompany her to climb up every time she wants to play the slide!

Independent Girl↓
She did not get to spend too long at the playground though, as the sun was blazing. Nevertheless, she found her own playground upstairs. There she is performing a perfect back arch using the main gate.
Epi pop by to pay us a visit on her monthly off day, how sweet of her.