Healthy Lifestyle I achieved in August

I started August with a controlled diet and a discipline gym regime. I couldn't stand my bulging tummy and weight that increased about 2kg over a short 6-9 months. I know its only 2 kg, but I seems having difficulty wearing my shoes due to the tummy that pressing onto my belt. I need to be healthy and be stronger before my babies arrives.

It was an overnight decision, I almost stopped taking a lot of food that I used to take all the time such as Mee Siam, Mee Rebus, Pig Organ Soup, Kuay Chap, Bak Tuk Teh, Chicken Rice, Nasi Lemak, Nasi Bryani, Kaya Toast, Mee Pok noodles, Rendang Mutton, Roti Prata, Chee Cheong Fun, etc... My usual diet becomes something like below:

Breakfast
DrOatCare Milk with quarker oats
2 slices or pieces of bread with 1 bottle Chicken Essence
1 small bowl of peanut porridge

Lunch / Dinner
Watercress Soup with brown rice
Soup Spoon soup with half wrap
Cold Storage Salad with toppings
6 pieces big Maki sushi
Subway sandwiches
Economical rice with 1 meat, 1 veg, 1 tofu with least oil and no gravy on rice

Snack
1 piece Honeydew or Papaya
1 banana milkshake
1 kopi o kosong with few Cashew nuts
1 quarker raisin snack bar

* Absolutely no sugar and minimum Carbo food at night.

I also went gym twice and at least a jog weekly. I never done anything like this before and I'm happy with it. I felt happier and more healthy. I am now more sensitive towards Fats, Sodium, Calories of all those unhealthy food after this one month of food awareness program. I hope to maintain such lifestyle for as long as possible.

Midnight Chocolate Milk Delivery

I took the last bus and reached home at 1:30am last night. When I opened the door, Felin called me. I was surprised because Felin normally will be sleeping very soundly at this hour.

Adrian: Dear, Why are you not sleeping yet?
Felin: I am still thinking about my work. I'm stressful.
Adrian: Oh no. My poor baby. Stop thinking. You got to rest at this hour already.
Felin: I'm trying not to think but still can't sleep.
Adrian: Do you need some milk so that you can sleep better?
Felin: Yes dear, I'm feeling hungry.
Adrian: Let me go make milk for you. (ready to go off)
Felin: I want chocolate milk!
Adrian: Chocolate Milk? I add some milo into the milk. Can?
Felin: No. It will taste different. I want it cold too.
Adrian: Cold? I add some ice for you. Can?
Felin: No. I don't want. I want "Cold Chocolate milk"!
Adrian: But where can I get cold Chocolate milk at this hour?
Felin: I'm hungry and can't sleep.
Adrian: You want me go buy for you?
Felin: Where you want go buy?
Adrian: I go now. Leave it to me...

There I am, went to buy Chocolate milk at 2am... First time Felin had a craving which need me go buy at midnight. She drank a full cup and had a good sleep after that...

2 tentative Christian names for my Babies

After knowing the gender of our babies, we are now able to think of their names more seriously. For the moment, we agreed that the babies shall be named "Joshua" and "Josiah" until God gave us any indication of other names. Joshua is first suggested by Felin and Josiah is from me.These 2 names are very common names but we have reasons for these selections because we want to tell them the story in future behind these names. Both names are prominent characters in the Bible and we love them for serving the Lord wholeheartedly. 

Joshua is the leader of the Israelite who led the conquest of the promised land after taking over Moses. He is one of the 12 spies that Moses sent to explore the land of Canaan and together with Caleb, they believe that God will guide them to defeat the enemies. In Joshua 10:12-14, it was written that Joshua asked God to stop the Sun and Moon in order that they can win the war.

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Joshua 10:12-14

¹² At that time Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel,

“Sun, stand still at Gibeon,
    and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.”
¹³ And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped,
    until the nation took vengeance on their enemies.

Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day. ¹⁴ There has been no day like it before or since, when the Lord heeded the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel.

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I want my son to be a wise and fearless leader like Joshua. He shall trust in the Lord wholeheartedly that even God will stop the movement of the Sun and moon for the victory of his people. 

As for Josiah, he is one of the best king of Judah after countless kings who worship Baal and all sort of idols. I remembered while I was reading the Bible in 2 Kings 22 & 23, he was like a hero to me who overturned all idolatry with gusto.
Josiah became king at the tender age of 8 and reigned for 31 years. His name was mentioned in 1 Kings 13:1-3, as early as 300 years before he was born. Despite being a king at such tender age, he ended up as one of the best Judah kings in history.

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1 Kings 13:1-3
13 By the word of the Lord a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering. ² By the word of the Lord he cried out against the altar: “Altar, altar! This is what the Lord says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you.’” ³ That same day the man of God gave a sign: “This is the sign the Lord has declared: The altar will be split apart and the ashes on it will be poured out.”

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He is responsible for major reforms in Judah and cleansed the whole land from Idolatry. He fearlessly destroyed everything not of God and turned the whole country by 180 degrees. He also rebuilt the Lord's temple and found the "Book of Law" during his reign. The covenant of his people with God was renewed with the leadership of Josiah.

I want my son to be focused like Josiah and trust in the Lord with all his mind. He will also be a wise leader and will not be resistant to change when reform are needed.

Currently the baby on the Felin's left will be Joshua because he is more active and always move around during our scans. Josiah will be the one on the right. He moves lesser and seems to be a thinker.

The only thing I don't really like for both names now will be that the names are somehow a bit common and not so unique.

Hearing the heartbeats of my babies

Its finally time to meet our babies and to hear their heartbeats again. The wait in the clinic was longer today and it took about 2 hours before we can meet Dr Su. Mother in Law accompanied us to the clinic again today and as excited as us.

It is always a joy to know that the babies are doing well in Felin's womb. It was confirmed that the other baby is also a boy. He sat in a more obvious position this time compared to 3 weeks ago. When its finally our turn to consult Dr Su, I'm amazed with her patience as she really took her time to explain whatever we need to know and scanned the babies slowly for us to view. She kept asking if we have any further question. (Despite so many people are still waiting for her.)

We had also booked our Antenatal course to start from 20th September to 1st November. It cost both of us $214 for 8 classes. There was initially no more Sep slot but NUH squeezed it for us considering that the next class in November can be a bit too late for us. How nice of them. I pretty like the services in NUH actually.

Since the genders are confirmed, we will be in a better position to start looking out for items such as strollers and cots with the right colours. We may also start looking for baby clothing, etc... I think it will be shopping time over the next few months, with activities intensifying from October onward.

Our first visit to a Baby Fair

It was a relaxing Saturday morning as Felin and I had breakfast at Elias Mall. I proceeded for my appointment and Felin back home to sleep, I supposed.

I went to meet a ex-colleague who asked me about some insurance stuff. Previously, she did not do well in my company, switched to the bank as a relationship manager and managed to excel while in the new environment. I am really proud of her because I can see that she went through tough times to achieve her breakthrough in her career. During the meeting, she stressed the importance of right mentorship. Frankly, even if she was under me in the past, I don't think I am to guide her to this level.
I began to ponder upon my own capabilities on how I can help my 2 advisers to have a breakthrough as well. I personally haven't achieved such breakthrough myself, how can I help them do it?

After the meeting, I went back home to fetch Felin for lunch and to the Suntec Baby Fair. That was our first ever baby fair. I was never interested with such fairs in the past and never took a second glance with my friend's facebook when they posted on their loot. I was only interested with PC Show or the probably Electronic fairs.

I was pleasantly surprised that the crowd is just about the same as the PC Fairs. The booths are of wide varieties ranging from Baby's products such as Diapers, milk powder, clothings, accessories, cots, prams, etc... to Education, Enrichment classes. It also target mothers such as post maternal message, nutrients, breast pumps, etc... Fathers are also involved such as renovation on window grills, new cars, insurances, cord blood, etc... A lot of things are sold out within first 2 days such as Diapers and clothing items.

From this Fair, we gained more knowledge about items such baby strollers, cots, baby car seat, baby carrier, These are probably the bigger items which we will need to settle preferably by late November. My target is to complete my shopping list before 2nd week of December, when Felin is into her 34th week. Twin baby might come early, so better be prepared early.

We will definitely be going for the October Expo fair. That one, we will really need to stock up our stuffs and snatch the good stuffs with kiasu parents probably from the first day of the event. We have got another month plus to prepare our shopping list... Exciting times coming ahead...

Yeah. Its 18th week!!!

We are really counting every single week that passed. Each week seems to pass fast but mysteriously the number of weeks seems to be moving very slowly. Its 18th week today. I am certainly still not ready for the babies to arrive. I feel that I'm still taking things too easily and letting time passed too fast. I still haven't gone for my first toastmasters session and haven't started public speaking. I'm not persistent enough on my own sales and not doing much to enhance my business. I did not sign up for the ChFC module too.

I also are not ready to take care of babies yet as I'm totally untrained and still do not know what to expect when they arrives. Felin and I shall be signing up for the pre-natal course starting from September onwards over 6 weeks. My Saturdays will be burned for 6 weeks and probably not able to meet clients on Saturday during this period. I think this time sacrifice is crucial. I must learn well over that few weeks in order that I can be more confident and be more capable in taking care of the babies.

So whats at 18th week? Just read through the babycentre website:

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Head to rump, your baby is about 5 1/2 inches (14cm) long, and he weighs almost 7 ounce (198gm). Her chest moves up and down to mimic breathing. Her blood vessels are visible through her thin skin, and her ears are now in their final position, although they're still standing out from her head a bit.

Soon you may get glimpse of all the things your baby is getting up in your uterus (womb). A mid-pregnancy ultrasound scan, called an anomaly scan, is usually done between 18 and 22 weeks. This assesses your baby's growth and development and checks whether the gestational age is accurate.

During this scan, you might see your baby kick, flex, reach, roll, or even suck her thumb. See if your partner can come along to share the thrilling sight of your baby, and ask if you can have images from the scan.

If you're having a girl, the vagina, uterus (womb), and fallopian tubes are in place. If it's a boy, his genitals will be distinct and recognisable.

From now on, when you lie down, it's best to lie on your side, or at least partly tilted to one side. When you lie flat on your back, your uterus can compress a major vein. This may make you feel dizzy because less blood can return to your heart. Try placing a pillow behind you or under your hip or upper leg for comfort.
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Its the size of a Sweet Potato now...

The two "First" toys for my babies

I have 2 toys which I considered as first toys for my babies. I purchased the Zebra while holidaying with Felin in South Africa February this year. I have no idea why I like that Zebra so much and still love it even today. It is innocent looking and always looks so sweet.

As for the Colourful bear, it was given by my Cell Group Leader, Angeline last year. She purchased and gave it to us before Felin conceived. She said that it will come handy very soon. True enough, all our prayers were heard and indeed, this bear will come in handy by January next year. Actually almost all my soft-toys have a name but I haven't give a name for it yet. Maybe I can call it "Colourful".

Both of them are currently sitting on my sofa everyday. Felin and I always have fun with them. We like to change their position on the sofa occasionally as if they are really alive while we are out at work. Eg. Few days ago, I placed them on the bed as if Colourful was riding on Zebra and yesterday Felin placed them on floor, by the door as if they were welcoming me home. (I forgot to take a picture). We also like to place notepads beside them as if they are talking to us.

I told Felin that they were playing horse riding

Felin told me that they were chit chatting by the doorway, waiting for me to wake up.

I'd told Colourful and Zebra that their job is to entertain the babies when they arrive. I'm sure the babies will love them just like we do...