The bare facts

In case I forget, this is how much I need to 'payback' in terms of fasting days:

During pregnancy
31 - 2 days = 29 days

During breastfeeding
7 days

Yesteryears
est 7 days

Total 43 days

Paid in 2008 5 days

Balance 38 days

OMG!

Maybe Baby part deux

...and whilst we're still on the topic of baby-making, my period has gone MIA again since 5 June. GASP!!! I do a mental check every morning because I think I know my pregnancy symptoms pretty well by now:

1) Fever - no

2) Woozy head - no

3) Pukey feeling when brushing teeth - no

4) Lethargy - yes
**but could be because I have inherited Arissa's tiny bed??

5) Sudden hunger pangs, followed by weakness - a little

So on Friday, I took the day off and popped unannounced into Lawrence Ang's office. He remembers my ongoing battle with PCO and asked if I've taken any urine test yet. Answer: No. He tells me he will do a short scan to see if I'm pregnant. Answer: Yes please. 2 short minutes later, I've got my confirmation.

No growth i.e. fibroids. No cysts. No foetus. Just my hormones acting up again.

A round of dydrogesterone and the period would show up within a week of course completion. IF I'm not pregnant.

"Next time you guys are trying, let me know and we will put you on the fertility programme", he advises and a sudden feeling of deja vu embraced me (different gynae, same line, 4 years ago. God willing, we conceived within 8 months of our marriage- we should be so lucky). He continues "Then your husband don't have to keep trying all over the shop". I told him we're not trying for No 2. Yet. Heee....

I left his office, paid S$110 for that and texted hubby who is in Malaysia:

"I'm not pregnant, doc says. Are you disappointed?"

He texts back:

"A little."

Please don't tell me he is buying into the whole Parenthood Package deal!! Argh..

Maybe Baby

It seems I'm not the only one who finds the Baby Bonus Package more of a bogus sham to get us to go along with the government's propoganda. We're mothers, not production houses!

http://forum.channelnewsasia.com/viewtopic.php?p=2193186&highlight=#2193186


That pathetic package barely scratches the surface at finding a solution for our low fertility rate. Get those dunces at policy-making department off their high chairs and start working ground up!

Sheesh.

PS: I do like how elements50 have spelled out his financial situation. I totally empathise, can PM Lee (who earns gezillion times more than elements50)?

Baby Bogus Package

And after all that anticipation about the new Parenthood Package! Its nowhere NEAR what those Swedish families enjoy (read their policies here!) nor their Dutch counterparts (read their policies here!). Did they ever speak to the likes of those on the 11th floor of Shaw Towers of child-bearing age and understand where our actual difficulties lie?

For yours truly, these policies below would give me more motivation to jump between the sheets with Mr Daddy:

1) Medical

As 1st time parents, the thing that caught us offguard was the cost of immunisations and medical. There are 20 mandatory jabs a child has to go through from birth to age 12, as reflected in the Healthbook. Each costs about S$50 on average, total it up and there goes a large chunk of your Baby Bonus. Give free vaccines!!

The other thing is infants and toddlers get sick a great deal from the sniffles due to haze to fever bouts due to wonky climate change. Every month I take my girl to see a doctor, and each time a trip to KK costs me S$75. Provide free medical (until they're 6 years of age at least)!!

2) ERP

One of the reason I stay in office until after 8pm is not because my work can't wait til tomorrow to complete (well, sometimes it warrants that). Its to avoid having to pay S$1 extra at the 2nd ERP gantry along CTE on my way home from work. (On that note, why are there TWO ERP gantries on ECP for the good citizens going from town to Bishan/AMK/Yishun/Woodlands? The jam is same as ever with or without the gantry). We're talking being able to avoid funnelling S$260 of my hard earned annual income back to the government. Where is the motivation to get home early to spend time with my girl? Banish ERP gantries from 7pm onwards!!

3) Parking

Grandparents time- wat dat? I am not motivated to sleep over at tot's grandparents' house on Saturday nights for a bonding session because I keep having to buy parking coupons. Hello! As it is, I'm already paying S$90 for season pass for my MSC, S$140 for season pass at office... I still need to buy parking coupon for day parking and night parking? Why can't we all just buy 1 season parking per month.. its still only 1 car parked at 1 spot irregardless that the spot on Saturday night is in AMK and not Woodlands. Provide free parking on Sat and Sun at all HDB/HUDC carparks!!

Sorry? Did I just hear someone say- if you're whinging so much about owning a car, give it up then!

Ahah... that takes me to my next point:

4) Public transport

So we are poor people who can only afford to own one car. We make way to accommodate each other's schedule but there are times when I would like to get home early rather than wait around for hubby to come pick me up. So I trot off to the nearest MRT station at 7pm, hoping to get home within the hour. And I wait, and I wait. In my heels. For a full 5 minutes. Watching crappy TVCs on the plasma (oops, we made some of those TVCs). And ooh what's that... the train is finally here! Except the cabins are so chokeful of people they're all sandwiched in there like tunas in a can. I breathe my last breath of fresh air and squash myself in with the other pleibeians. Because waiting another 5 minutes for the next train is out of the question. Taxis? I now pay double of what I used to pay before the price hike. The wait is just as long, the taxi still stinks of pandan leaves and the driver is still rude and drives like a maniac on speed, at the same time making anti-government comments which I do not condone. :}

And yet they DARE to increase fares public transport??? How about giving us a more comfortable ride FIRST, or some reason to justify paying more for the same shite deal. MAKE PUBLIC TRANSPORT MORE AFFORDABLE (and quicker)!!

5) Baby bonus

Its now paid in 4 instalments but adds up to nothing in this day and (inflationary) time. The problem firstly is you get such a small portion each time that it doesn't mean much and secondly it would have stopped before you realise how expensive children can really get (usually after their 2nd birthday when they start school).

Each Swedish child gets a support of 950SEK/month (S$210/mth) up until age 16. That's approximately S$40K per child in allowance. Now compare that to the new exciting S$4K for 1st child... what do you get? p-e-a-n-u-t-s. In the Netherlands, each child receives a minimum of 60 euros/month (S$125/mth) and this rate is incremental which means the older the child, the bigger the expenses, he more he/she receives. GIVE MORE BABY BONUS!!

Oh and while I'm ranting, thank you for upping the maternity leave by a month (we're now on par with Sweden and Netherlands on this point- hurrah!) and the childcare leave by 4 days and the baby bonus by $1000 (which will go to paying medical refer pt 1). But whats that about 1 week unpaid infantcare... I can take that of my own accord, thank you much. Was that meant to be the fake cherry on top of the bitter icing on a stale cake? You decide while I wallow in disappointment at our policy-makers. As someone said wisely "Want to give, give properly laaaa!"

:[

Winging it

We have looked and looked and can only find them in those big expensive furniture stores (I'm talking S$5000 and up for ONE wing chair). Thank you Sappy darling for telling me about your little nook! I'm so excited, I can barely work!!

I dream!


I want!!


I have died and gone to heaven!!!



And I call the husband and he now says "See how la".. Dammit!

Happy Birthday Singapore!

...even though I am not patriotic as such! :S

For the 4 of us.. it was an excuse to get together and stuff our faces at Newton. Arissa was so well-behaved (apparent from the greased elbows riiiiiiiight) and totally loving the sunkissed, newlyweds Aunty Nana & Uncle Ogy:




Then the question of WHERE to catch the fireworks because everywhere would be packed. The answer was MY OFFICE ROOFTOP:

with Sidik who had lugged his family there and Apple who was editing on the CNY project (her excuse: I'm Thai so ND doesn't apply to me na ka)

The fireworks were so-so, the credit crunch and inflation a sign of the times to come... *heh*



Oh well, nothing beats the mother of all fireworks at the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, wish I was there (but lucky I'm not!).

For those who missed it on telly, watch it on youtube here!

Tinkle Tinkle Little Star

21 months:
Arissa has been humming all sorts of nursery rhymes for a some time now. She can't sing the words yet but her relative pitch has been fairly accurate.

Just the other day, I caught her humming "Are you sleeping" and we don't have that tune on our audio CDs/Barney CDs. When I asked Mum, she said "Yer, mama selalu nyanyikan dia" (Yes, I sing it to her often). On another occasion, she was humming "Satu satu... aku sayang ibu", to my amazement, and Mum's the culprit yet again.

This is her singing a lullaby to her "beeebeee":




I really should send this girl to group music class... I just hope she likes it better than I did tinkling on the piano for 10 years and as hubby puts it "a total waste of your parents money"- heh. That's why I'm a firm believer in making sure you send your kids to activity classes that you KNOW he/she will enjoy, and not for the heck of it or because the neighbours/friends/cousins/colleagues are sending their offspring to one.

Long after the enjoyment of group lessons wore off, my parents forced me to continue with solo piano lessons for another 7 years. I had to worm my way out of Saturday classes at Yamaha and Kawai but how many excuses can a 10 year old come up with in a month? After a while, they realised that I only came down with some distinct virus on Saturday mornings, which went away by nightfall.

I was never destined to become a Bach or a Beethovan... they should've sent me to typing classes instead.

:D