The Cake Story

During the full month party, there was a story going around on how Zoe "chose" her cake. What originally happened is this...

Actual Story

We were deciding between a chocolate or strawberry cake for her. For fun, we decided to ask Zoe to raise her right hand if she prefers strawberry and left hand if it is chocolate. She immediately raised her right hand. So we when to the bakery and looked at the options available... the chocolates cakes seemed more tempting so we went home again and asked the same question. Again, she raised her right hand. That's why we decided to buy a strawberry cake.


Final version after relatives shared the story among themselves....

We were deciding between a choc or strawberry cake for her. For fun, we asked her to raise her right hand if she prefers strawberry and left hand if it is chocolate. She immediately raised her right hand. To confirm her choice, we switched it around. Now it is right hand for chocolate and left hand for strawberry. And she raised her left hand immediately!

Well... we kind of prefer the second story even though it is not completely true... :)

Baby Shower!

Our confinement nanny ended her 28-day stint with us yesterday. It was bittersweet. Bitter because we now have to wake up in the middle of the night, cook our own food and do our own housework. Sweet because there are times when she gets on our nerves... anyway... good to have the home back to ourselves.

Yesterday, had to wake up at 1am, 4am and then 7am to feed the baby, change diapers and such. We are turning into vampires.

We had our first shower with Zoe together this morning. Shimin has been undergoing training from the confinement nanny... so see how good she is at this... (pictures strategically censored to protect Zoe's modesty, don't want her to scold me when she grows older)

Bathe her front first...

ahh.... shiok... like spa like that....

then flip to wash the back... looks shiok right... but not easy to do... first few days she was crying like crazy during bath times... her Dad is still undergoing training, that's why pretend to hang around and take pictures....

After bath and milk... sleepy already....

Before that... a bit of bonding between father and daughter.

Full Month visit to Office!

I did not invite my colleagues to the Full Month party since we already have quite a lot of guests. If I included them, we will have more than 100 guests to manage. So, decided that we will pay a visit to my office on 26th Mar. We got cakes from Choz... they come in nice little individual boxes...

with personalized messages...

we had 2 varieties... the one below has 2 red eggs, 2 ang ku kuehs, 1 pandan cake and 1 orange cake... the other had 2 red eggs, 2 ang ku kuehs, 2 glutinous rice and 2 fruit tarts.

Zoe was generally well behaved during the trip although there were a couple of really loud cries from her that the whole office heard.... well, I guess she prefers to be back at home...

By the way, the result of the Poll whether to shave Zoe's head is out... 72% voted to shave so that's what we will do... probably when she is 2 months.

Also, we visited the doc on Tuesday to check on her nappy rash.... she weighs 3.03kg already! But can tell la, just look at her face... double chin already.

Zoe's Full Month Party

Yesterday was Zoe's Full Month Party... we got everything ready including the red eggs (symbolizes completeness and fullness);

the ang gu kuehs (Gu means tortoise), the kuehs are shaped like tortoise shells and symbolizes longevity.

and there is the strawberry cake that Zoe chose! (details on that in the next post)

there is also the symbolic snipping of Zoe's hair... not sure what is it for though.

Well, after that, it started pouring. Things got a bit hectic since we could not fit everyone into our home or the function room. So we had to split the guests, one location to see Zoe, another location for the food. There was also a bit of shuttling between the two locations... so it got so busy that we forgot to take pictures. Anyway, thanks to everyone for the generous gifts and ang baos. Also thanks for the cooperation in moving around the 2 locations. Sorry about the crabby security guard. Hope the laksa made up for it. Here's some of the gifts that we got.... a baby monitor and diaper organizer...

a cute teddy bear bracelet...

and another bracelet from Shimin's mum.

Oh, for those we asked, our caterer is Lavish Dine. You can check out their website www.lavish.com.sg. Those who took pictures as well, please feel free to email them to us!

Day Before Birthday Bash

Tomorrow we are throwing Zoe's full month party. Expecting around 70 guests, mainly relatives. Here's some pictures of Zoe preparing for the big day...

In deep thought.... which dress should I wear tomorrow?

Scratch head, tomorrow sure a lot of people take picture one... better find nice dress...

Also better practice how to smile for the camera....

Ok la, see you guys tomorrow... Bye Bye!

Poll: Should we cut Zoe's hair?

There are a lot of theories on how we can make our babies prettier. Some of those we have heard from the confinement nanny:

1. Parents should pinch their nose bridge after feeding. This will make their nose sharp.
2. We should clip their eye lashes from young so that the eyelash will grow very long.
   
3. We should cut shave their head at one month so that they will have nice hair.
   

We don't mind pinching the nose since it is no big deal. We will not be doing the eye lashes. because we don't want Zoe to blame us if she has no eyelashes in the future. Plus with eyelash extensions these days, short eyelashes are really better than no eyelashes.

As for cutting her hair, we are still undecided. Hence, please help us by submitting your votes on the right!

2 weeks old... more pictures

Zoe is now more than 2 weeks old.... she seems to be putting on weight (having a double chin) and has a fairly healthy appetite. We have not managed to weigh her since we don't have the right equipment. But from the crude weighing scale estimates, she should be around 2.7kg now.

Here are some more pictures of her.... let us know if she looks more chubby ok?

Ear itchy, let me dig my ear...

Here's a wide smile for you...

I can do the surprised look too!

I love to air my armpits...

And here's waving goodbye to you....

Gifts for Zoe!

Over the weekend, a number of friends and relatives came over to our place to say hi to the new baby. Since she sleeps most of the time and when she wakes, she just drinks milk, most were not able to catch any activity from her.

There were numerous gifts for Shimin and Zoe. For Shimin, they were mainly birds nest, chicken essence and a bottle of D.O.M. Zoe had a number of interesting toys as well...

Baby mobile from my brother...

Necklace from Shimin's grandma...
Rat year coin from Aunt Ann...

also a Rat year coin from Shimin's Dad..

playmat from some friends in P&G...

The confinement lady was also offered to crochet a dress for her... see her in the cute little pink dress.... she's supposed to wear that for her 1st month party.... There were also numerous other gifts such as a fan and rattle from Shimin's brother, clothes from my mum, toys from my colleagues, etc etc..... sorry but really could not post them all...

Well... one fortunate guy came while she was REALLY awake... check out the delighted Grandad...

Zoe's already 1 week old!

Time flies... today's Zoe's one week birthday. It seems so far away that we were leading a life of couplehood... now we are at the parenthood stage already....

Went for the Gynae and PD visits today. Zoe's doing well... she weighed in at 2.115kg today.

• Day 0 - 2.000 kg
• Day 1 - 1.835 kg
• Day 3 - 1.910 kg
• Day 7 - 2.115 kg

She's also spending more time awake these days and already has a wide range of expressions... here's what I took in 2 mins.

Who touched my head?

Who's tickling my feet... ticklish la!!

Very fun... i want to play somemore...

Yaaaawn.... tired already...

Don't disturb la, I want to sleep already.

Visited the Gynae at the same time to check on the C-section incision for Shimin. Everything is fine except for some rashes around the wound due to having the plaster on for 1 week. Also took the shot of mum, baby and gynae for posterity.

Ok, that's all for today...leaving you with my favorite shot for today (notice her very prominent double eyelids).

The Hospital Stay

A number of people have been asking about the hospital stay and the costs associated with it... since a number of our friends are pregnant.... here goes.

Our stay is at Thomson Medical Center and it was a great stay. The nurses are very dedicated and caring... and the hospital is extremely pro breast feeding.

Initially we asked for a single bed room but unfortunately, 1-bedded rooms are fully booked on that day, hence, we were put into a 2 bedder. Checked in around 11:30am and Shimin was wheeled into the operating theatre at 1:30pm.

Operations are never pleasant but the doctors were very professional. It was a epidural c-section where only the bottom half of your body is numb.... they will put a screen around your chest area while the operation goes on. Here's a picture of my brave wife smiling for the camera while they are stitching her up.

After the operation and around 3 hours when Shimin's feeling better, Zoe was wheeled into the room for a bit of bonding between Mum and Daughter.
Second day, we were moved to a single bedder. Its a very nice room (except the toilet) and we enjoyed the privacy. Husbands or other companions can also stay over at $75 a day with all meals provided. I stayed over "illegally" by sleeping on the sofa... there is prata and beef noodles across the road, so no worries about the companion starving.
Some gifts from relatives and friends....


The food at the hospital is good.... you have a lot of options (including roti prata, spaghetti, etc) if you want but you can also stick to confinement food (recommended) where it is usually rice, 1 meat, 1 veg, 1 soup and fruits. The soups are very nice. There are 6 meals a day...

• 7am - breakfast
• 10am - soup (usually papaya and fish to help breast feeding)
• 12nn - lunch
• 3pm - tea (sandwich and milo kind of stuff)
  
• 6pm - dinner
• 8 pm - supper (cake and milo kind of stuff)

Total bill can be quite prohibitive.

• Hospital charges (Mum) - $2573 (Single Bed, $100 discount for FBI card)
• Anesthetist (Dr Chong) - $450
• Gynae (Dr Jocelyn Wong) - $2254 ($100 discount for FBI card)
• Hospital charges (Zoe) - $789
• Paediatrician (Dr Keoy SS) - $369 (10% discount for FBI card)
• Grand Total - $6615.13

More Updates on Zoe

Been home a couple of days with Zoe... and we have settled into a new routine in our lifes... no longer 8 continuous hours of sleep but 3 hour spurts of nap with intervals of feeding the baby and pumping breast milk in between.

Zoe has been pretty good so far... sleeps peacefully and cries only when hungry or when she needs a change of diapers. Here's her sleeping peacefully with one of the "I Love Mummy" mittens.


Here's an angelic shot of her with eyes and mouth open....

And here's her looking almost surprised....

Baby Zoe's home!

Shimin gave birth to our baby girl Zoe on 27th Feb 2008. She weights EXACTLY 2.000kg at birth. Anything less than that and she would need to go into ICU. Thank God for that.

She opened her eyes on the second day. Big eyes with double eyelids.... very cute!!

We brought her home today... slightly nervous to be away from the comforts of the hospitals but glad to be finally home. Here's Zoe sleeping peacefully in her cot.

And here's Zoe at her kawaii best.... oh, by the way, Zoe's full name will be Zoe Liu Xin Ru （刘芯如）.