it is past the mid-point of october.
and yuanze is already 1 month old! last saturday we had yuan ze's baby shower part 1, for darling's relatives and friends.
part 2 will be this sunday, mainly for my students, colleagues, relatives, and some of darling's friends.
some pictures to describe the happenings of the past 2 weeks!
the pe dept photo is out! really love this pic. love the coordination of colours and how wacky we are in this fun shot. :)
last fri i conducted the o levels briefing to my invigilators, i am the chief presiding examiner AGAIN (i did it in 2013 and 2015), this time at a sch in the north. after the briefing i went to visit my ex VP, who is now a VP in another sch in the north. had a really great time catching up with her, and the moment i post this pic on instagram/facebook, the general consensus is... SHE LOOKS DIFFERENT. honestly i think that she looks more 憔悴.
a pic of yuanze, taken at man yue part 1, by darling's bff. :)
on sunday morning, my army friends mr leow and mr mak came to visit yuanze, and got him gifts. thank you mr leow and mr mak!
final pic of this blog post is a family pic taken yesterday night at SEA Aquarium. our cousin held his wedding there. honestly it is a very unique experience to hold a wedding there. how often you get the opportunity to dine with fishes, sharks and stingrays. but the jia lat part is... dinner starts at 830 pm, because have to wait until 7 pm when all the tourists left, then can start to set up the tables and chairs for the banquet. yesterday night the dinner only start at 850 pm. and by the time the dessert came... it was already 1120 pm. i reach home at 12 midnight. HAIYOOOOO. but still, a big thank you to my cousin for this unique dining experience, and congrats to you for tying the knot!
the baby is the most powerful person in the whole family because when he cries in the middle of the night, everyone will wake up and attend to him.
i have encountered sleepless nights thanks to the baby, and it is really tiring, but i must say that we are thankful to have the support from darling's parents to help look after the baby. darling's mum is the baby expert, and she has the power to convert a crying baby to a consoled baby (that stops crying). because of them, i can catch up on my sleep in the morning.
sidetrack a bit, on thursday i went back to the previous workplace to play football. also shun bian meet my financial planner at TM starbucks to buy insurance for yuan ze. ok the 重点 is that i scored my first ever header goal for the previous workplace, and is a diving header! just want to document this in my blog hahahahaha. we won our opponents 5-4. :)
my sister is back from her long overdue honeymoon, and she bought lots of stuff for us. she bought under armour tops for myself and darling, bought a harry potter top for yuan ze, and the icing on the cake is she bought an oakley shades as my early birthday present. thank you THY! love you lots~
here's some photos to showcase the happenings of the week!
praying that yuanze dun bite my nipple as i am taking this selfie.
my tank instructor Tho Fengyi bought yuanze diapers. 2 big boxes! thank you Fengyi~
really love this pic! look at yuanze's deep dimple!
forcing yuanze to become a ninja. hahahahahahaha.
friday was staff photo taking day. presenting to you the science department! the most happening science dept photo that i have ever taken, with all the props. A+ for effort! the pe dept photo has props too. can't wait to see how it will turn out.
23 sept was my HOD's birthday.
we actually planned a birthday surprise for her. however it was an eventful day on her birthday. one colleague took mc. another colleague hurt his back while teaching volleyball. we have to ask another teacher to send him to the TCM at chong pang as the rest of the PE teachers are still having lessons.
so myself and miss lim decided to still carry on with the surprise. during her last lesson, we appeared during the last 5 min with a cake. and both of us, together with another two colleagues, and her PE class, sang her a birthday song.
from 7 people in the department to only... THREE. pathetic sia.
and today we had a belated birthday celebration for our boss! but still our boss treated us because it is a belated teacher's day treat. of course we bought birthday presents for her lah. we went to rasa istimewa restaurant at woodlands waterfront. my first time there! woodlands waterfront is a hot place to catch pokemon, and opposite you can see JB. the food at the restaurant is not bad! most importantly it is halal. we were there at 230 pm so the restaurant is quite empty. evenings are packed.
once again, happy birthday boss! glad to have you as our boss, and i am loving this pe dept more and more each day! :)
still feeling surreal that i am now a dad.
and i experienced these first times as a dad:
1) feeding milk to my son (and also transferred my skills of washing test tubes in nus to washing milk bottles at home)
2) changing my son's diapers everytime he poo-ed and pee-ed (there was one time in the middle of the night i was changing his diapers halfway and the fountain of pee happened and the pee kenna himself and myself)
3) bringing him to the polyclinic for his first check up (thank goodness my mother in-law accompanied me)
AND also.. bringing him back to KKH because his jaundice level was too high. on friday it was at 101. on monday it was at 251. and yesterday, darling and mother in-law brought yuan ze to the polyclinic, it shot up to 330. and the doctor said he must be admitted into KKH A&E. darling and mother in-law went back home first to feed him, and i asked darling to pack my staycation bag. i left school at 12 pm (super thankful to my hod for covering my lessons) and drove back home, to pick mother in-law and yuan ze.
thus this is my first time seeing yuan ze undergoing phototherapy, and he has to be warded for one night, and parents are not allowed to stay over.
yesterday night at about 10 pm we received a call from kkh, saying that his jaundice has increased to 334. we were so worried because his jaundice has increased, even after 7+ hours of phototherapy.
but thank goodness this morning his jaundice level has dropped to 268. the nurse will check his jaundice level again at 4 pm. if the jaundice level has dropped below 260, we can bring him back home. we are really praying for it to drop so that he can come home soon.
yuan ze, jia you!!! papa and mama miss you.
too shag in the morning because i woke up a few times throughout the night to feed him/change his diapers.
can you see his dimple? :)
darling's edd is on 14 sept. because it is her first child, she need to go to KKH one day earlier for induction, so that the cervix will be fully dilated at 10 cm on the day of edd.
our obstetrician is dr ck khoo. initially we asked xinyi, our chinese dance friend, who is also an obstetrician at kkh. but because darling works at ktph, and ktph is paying 90% of the hospital bill for darling to stay at the 1st class private ward. the obstetrician for 1st class private word must be at the senior consultant level. xinyi told us that she havent reach the senior consultant level yet, so she highly recommended her mentor, dr ck khoo, to be our obstetrician. and so we chose dr khoo, dr khoo accepted darling to be his patient, and he showed us all the love. during one of the consultations i wore a man u jersey, and he was so happy because he is also a man u fan! he praised us for being a very chill couple, and he said that it is ok to not see him that frequently. he gave us his hp number and told us to call him or msg him anytime if we have any questions. he said that he dont need to worry about us because we can reach him or xinyi at any time. so before darling's edd, the last we saw him was one month ago. other preggies still see their obstetrician a week ago before edd. that's how much faith he placed in us. hahahahaha.
on tuesday (13 sept), we reached kkh at 545 am. darling went for her first induction at 6 am. and she came out at 9 am. induction is a very painful process. :(
we checked in our 1st class private suite.
2nd induction took place at 2 pm. 3rd induction will be taking place at 10 pm. xinyi said that if the cervix has dilated to 3 com, there is not a need for the 3rd induction.
at 10 pm darling starts to have contractions already and she requested for pain relief. from the private suite (at 8th floor) she is brought down to the labour ward (2nd floor).
she had to use the laughing gas to ease the pain. the doctor on duty came in (who is xinyi's friend). the doctor checked darling's cervix. dilated 3 cm. water bag burst already.
and then dilated 4 cm. darling cannot take the pain already. request for epidural. the epidural injection will take 30 minutes, and i cannot stay inside the labour ward.
after the epidural darling felt much better. so both of us caught some sleep. one or two hours later, the side effects of the epidural start to kick in. she kept trembling. her shoulders, waist, buttocks are very pain. she has to lie in a very awkward position. the whole process of giving birth is really very painful. at this point in time, i appreciate darling even more, and all the mothers in the world, including my own mum.
the next check, she has dilated 6 cm.
i feed her water, give her massages on the shoulders (that made her feel better), keep encouraging her.
finally it is 6 plus in the morning. 9 cm already.
7 plus in the morning: xinyi came in and say hi.
8 am: 10 cm already. nurse lower the epidural. dr khoo came in and say hi.
820 am: darling start to PUSH!!! pushing is like you are having constipation, and you still push for all the shit to come out. for the first phase of the pushing, two nurses are helping us. dr khoo and xinyi are not in yet. half an hour later, the senior nurse manager came in. the senior nurse manager suggested darling to change to a lateral position to push. and the pushing really improved! better progress was made. (xinyi later on told us that the senior nurse manager got wind that we are xinyi's friends and so she came in to show us some love)
915 am: xinyi comes in and help with the pushing
928 am: ok can see the baby's top part of the head already. call for dr khoo. dr khoo comes in.
ok now is crunch time. the next minute, dr khoo put his fist on the right side of darling's tummy. xinyi put her fist on the left side of darling's tummy. so while darling is pushing with all her might, dr khoo and xinyi are also pressing on her tummy with their fists with all their might. darling was really in super duper pain and just keep pushing. the whole head came out.
and dr khoo ask yueting to stop pushing, and take a look at the baby's face. and the next second, dr khoo pull the whole baby out AND ta daaaaaaaaaaaaaaa the baby is born. honestly the feeling of seeing the whole baby come out is damn amazing.
dr khoo instructed me to cut the umbilical cord. then once the cord is cut, dr khoo asked the nurse to place the baby on the weighing scale. and he asked me to go and take the photo of the whole baby, and also remember to take the picture of the weight. baby weighs 2.98 kg.
and then dr khoo together with xinyi patched up yueting's wound. and we ended off with a group photo!
darling is so so so so brave. i am so proud of her. husbands who are going to be fathers, please accompany your wife throughout, even when she is in contractions. she will be so thankful to have your presence and support. i saw a husband waiting outside with his headphones and playing games on his hp... :(
everyone, please meet Tan Yuan Ze 陈源赜!!!
darling and i are parents!!! really cannot believe it.
my parents are finally ah gong and ah ma! they look so happy. :)
thank you everyone for the well wishes through instagram, facebook, and whatsapp.
thank you everyone for visiting us KKH. my cousin made a surprise visit yesterday morning at 1030 am (just before we are about to discharge) and bought a man u jersey for yuan ze. :)
looking forward to see all of you at yuan ze's baby shower!! :)
we had a birthday meal for xiaoyu in advance of her actual birthday (19 sept) because of the following reasons:
1) darling's edd is on 14 sept and she will be in confinement for 1 month
2) huanyang and husband are going for their long overdue honeymoon, flying off to san francisco on 17 sept
3) xiaoyu has rehearsal on 19 sept
originally we wanted to eat at swensen, to trigger our childhood memories because when we were very young, our parents brought us to the swensen at changi airport for ice cream and we were all very happy. so when huanyang called to make reservations, swensen told her that they don't do reservations.
so we are afraid of the unpredictable long queues during lunch hour, hence we opted for the safer route of going to a restaurant that allows us to make reservations. hence here we are at 福临门豆捞!
when you go to fu lin men, you will naturally compare it with hai di lao. the quality of ingredients at both restaurants are about the same. the shiok part about fu lin men is that each person has ONE pot! and the manager takes pride in the soup stock they have, saying that the soup stock is broiled for dunno how many hours, and there is totally no MSG used in the soup stock, because the boss of fu lin men is the director of two hospitals in china and he advocates HEALTHY EATING.
this was where we sat! :)
this 木耳 appetiser taste really good!
because our total bill reached $280.00, the restaurant gave us complimentary 4 x abalone. each abalone cost $10! and when they knew the lunch was an early birthday celebration for xiaoyu, the chef cooked a bowl of 寿面 for her. what great service!
xiaoyu's birthday cake is 2 x durian mooncakes from 818 durian trading company.
today the niece's kindergarten is closed (because all the teachers have to go for a meeting). so i suggested to bring her to gardens by the bay to play at the children's pool. i knew about that place because i went there to support xuehong, viv and meizheng who were performing as sea creatures.
so darling asked for the niece's mum's permission. niece's mum said ok. niece's grandma (my MIL) also said ok. and so off we go! myself, darling, my in-laws and the niece!
you can see from all the photos how much she enjoyed herself. :)
yesterday i prepared korean army stew.
today darling prepared ramen, with the soft boiled ramen eggs!
the eggs had to be put in boiling water for 5 min. after 5 min must immediately take out. the eggs were prepared yesterday, and after taking out the eggs, darling deshell the eggs, and dip them in a special dipping sauce, inside a zip loc bag. the whole zip loc bag with sauce and eggs are placed in the fridge overnight. today darling cut the eggs into half like an apprehensive masterchef contestant and voila!!! thank goodness the eggs look good! taste good too!
so proud of darling!
totally enjoying the holidays!
on tuesday i went to tkss to play volleyball with my pe classmates. we had not enough people so i jio-ed my colleagues from the previous workplace. still not enough people and my previous workplace colleague jio-ed his friends. thank goodness the volleyball game happened.
all feeling happy after a good exercise! do you recognise the girl in maroon on my right? she appeared in the 联合晚报 facebook video because she camped at the marine parade hdb block where joseph schooling stayed at and she took a selfie with him. hahahahaha. she wear the PESS tshirt some more. wants the whole sg to know that she is a pe teacher waiting to take a selfie with olympic gold medalist. (she does not know the existence of my blog so i can 酸 her all i want hahahahaha)
today's lunch i cooked korean army stew!
looks good isnt it? 183 likes on instagram and 30+ likes on facebook ok! mai siao siao! too much for me and darling so we jio-ed my MIL to come over. this big pot of goodness is just nice for 3 people. very easy to prepare. the ingredients that i put in are: tofu, mushrooms, cocktail cheese sausages, kimchi, korean instant ramen. to prepare the soup base: the seasoning packet from the korean instant ramen, gochukang (korean spicy paste), mirin (japanese rice wine), soya sauce, sugar and black pepper.
in the evening i met up with my previous workplace colleagues for dinner. the place is shuffle bistro, at clarke quay. very nice place, and they have a live band. the live band for wednesday night is music stream sg, and they appear at shuffle on wednesday nights and saturday nights. the songs that they sing are mainly chinese pop songs. and these songs are from my era. really enjoyed myself and i strongly recommend this place. :)
7 more days to darling's EDD!
it is the sept holidays!
it is also the first day when darling start her leave before she gives birth. her edd is on 14 sept.
today we went for a date. we started with lunch at york hotel, for the penang hawker fare. york hotel is a memorable place for me, because it was my first DnD with kevii hall. that was in... 2006?! i am back at york hotel 10 years later. hahahaha.
the penang hawker fare is served buffet style, at white rose cafe. no reservations. only walk-in. we reach the cafe at 12 pm sharp and there was already a queue. on a monday, by 1230 pm it was already full house. i cannot imagine when it comes to weekends.
and we love the food! my favourite is the oyster omelette, followed by the penang laksa. the rest taste very delicious also.
yes we tried everything above. as well as this dish roti babi that is newly introduced this year. is two pieces of bread with pork in between, and the whole thing is deep fried in oil. very yummy.
lunch on weekdays is $29++. quite reasonable i guess, because i can eat authentic penang food in singapore, instead of taking a 12 hour bus ride to penang. york hotel flew all the hawkers from penang to singapore just for this!
after the full lunch we went to catch the movie Big Friendly Giant. it will most probably be our last movie, and god knows when will we have a chance to catch a movie when the baby pops out.
the pace of the movie was a bit too slow in the beginning and i fell asleep for about 10 minutes. towards the end it start to get better. overall i think is quite a good show, and very suitable for kids. :)
tomorrow going to play volleyball with my pe classmates!
