Last visit to UK gynea

Last sunday church service in London

Its our last sunday attending church service in London, before flying back to Singapore next week. We attended Dunamis Church service together with our riverpark church, which we have been part of over the past 3 years.

All 3 of us (YL, Sze and Bambino) got prayed over, and its really wonderful to think that we are bringing blessings of fellow brothers and sisters-in-Christ across different continents back with us to Singapore!

We will certainly miss the different people from both churches, whom we have had the good blessings to know...

a series of farewell to friends

We're uprooting from London next Saturday! Apart from all the last minute intensive packing, the week ahead is going to be filled with a whole series of "farewell" get-togethers with friends in UK.

We had one this evening with the Lethams - Rab and Mel. They're great friends whom we have met from a photography website. Look at the funny picture we took below using the self-timer on the camera...sums up our friendships - one full of joys and laughter!! They've also taught us both a lot, from photography to boxing to jujitsu (lol!) . More importantly, they've encouraged us to live our lives to their fullest! :)

God willing, if we are able to bring Bambino (Rab calls him "little Gym-Ghengis") over to London next April to attend YL's convocation, we will definitely wanna' introduce Uncle Rab and Aunty Mel to Bambino! :)

Dad's dreaming...

YL loves travelling...especially independent travelling.

This morning, I saw him surfing the net for ideas on overseas trips.
Instead of looking into his usual categories such as "independent travel" or "adventure travel", he was looking at the one labelled "family travel"...
specially taking note of the minimum age for accompanying children.

...Ahh...already becoming a family man...dreaming of the trips that he would be making with his bambino! :)

Thanksgivings!!

(1) All's Normal!

Yay! The results for the urine sample that the clinic had sent for testing has come back:
"All Normal. No further action required."

Praise God...prayer works! :)

(2) Increased baggage allowance

Wrote an email to SIA's office to enquire about their baggage allowance, explaining to them that YL had finished his postgraduate studies and is returning to Singapore for the final time. This is their response to the email:

"Thank you for your email regarding excess baggage. Returning final year students are entitled to an extra 15kgs baggage allowance if a headed letter from the college/university is presented at check in. The letter must state that the passenger has completed their studies and will not be returning. On presenting this letter you will be entitled to 35kgs plus 1 piece of hand luggage at 7kgs.

If you do not have this letter or are not a final year student, you will be only entitled to an extra 5kgs to bring your baggage allowance to 25kgs in addition to the hand luggage allowance."

This means that we managed to secure at least 15kg more baggage allowance! Yippy!! Every little counts, you know! ;)

However, on the front of trying to get ourselves upgraded to Business/Raffles class, we think the chances are growing slimmer and slimmer... But nevermind. We just need to pray that sze will somehow be able to find herself a comfortable position on the economy class seat and be able to rest properly during the long flight back home!

29th week pics

Bambino nestling happily in mummy's tummy...

approximately 10 more weeks to go.... :)

mummy seems happy too... :)

opps, but mummy just noticed that her face seems to have put on a bit of weight! :(

29+week GP checkup

Had my 29+ week checkup today...Just realised that this is also my last midwife checkup in UK before we fly back to Singapore for good!!

Everything is fine (as usual, the midwives commented that i have a really active baby...) except that there was some concern over the urine sample that i had provided. The midwife decided to send the sample for further test. I think the concern was that I might be having some urinary tract infection, which is apparantly rather common in later stages of pregnancies.

According to the book What to expect when you are expecting:
"UTIs are so common in pregnancy that 10 percent of pregnant women can expect to develop at least one, and those who have already had one have a 1 in 3 chance of an encore! ... This occurs more often in the last trimester and can lead to preterm labor."

Whatever the case, I am not too worried at the moment. Gonna' pray that God will heal me of it, and am gonna' drink loads of water and cranberry juice to flush out the bacteria. Well, this also means that I will be heading off towards the toilet even more often!! :P

Another of Bambino's playmate has arrived!!

Yay, another of Bambino's playmate has arrived! Our heartiest congratulations to AK and CH on the arrival of their little princess!! We're so happy for you three!!!

Apparantly, the birth was really quick. The couple called us this morning at close to 9am to say that AK has been confined to hospital, and was dilated halfway. By 11-ish am, I received a text from CH announcing the arrival of Nathalie. Wow!! AK seems to have the anointing of quick labour...must get her to pray over me when I eventually go into labour... :)

So happy that the Tans are now enjoying their little one...

We're looking forward to getting to meet our Bambino soon too...in 2.5 months' time!

Packing up...

Have been busy with lots of packing up.

We're flying on 24 Sep (Saturday), and that gives us less than 2 weeks left in London!! Goodness, i can't believe we're going back after spending 3 years of our life here...

yay...new tops!

YL took a morning break from school and went shopping with me this morning at Ealing Broadway (our neighbourhood's high-street shopping centre), even though he was still visibly tired from the events of the past few days...

I realised that I am quickly outgrowing all my big t-shirts and its high time that I upgrade to bigger, more stretchable and proper maternity tops. So I went on a hunt for for budget and non-ostentatious maternity wear. Thankfully, I managed to find four decent maternity tops all at very reasonable prices from Mothercare as well as Next 2 Choice (the boutique that sells out-of-season NEXT clothes).

Nowadays, our eyes seemed to be addicted to cute baby wear... we couldn't help but took the opportunity to also purchase a few baby tops for bambino, his playmates, as well as our niece and nephew.

:)

Sleepless nights...

The night before his viva, YL only managed to sleep at 4.30am in the morning, because he was slightly anxious.

This morning after his viva, YL woke up at 4.30am in the morning, because he was too excited now that his viva is over!!

He mentioned this morning that he had told his examiners during his viva yesterday that he had only had about 2.5 hours of sleep before the session. One of the examiners laughed and told him that this is "practice" for him before Bambino arrives!

YL then said this to me, "Dear, although I've complained about the sleepless nights due to my concerns with physics during the past three years, I am more than ready to embrace the sleepless nights over the next few years for the sake of Bambino and yourself!!"

sweet. :)

woo-hoo!! he's passed his viva!!

Yep....finally received YL's call conveying the good news!

"Dr. Lim" said the viva lasted nearly 3 hours...he's exhausted but really happy. Officially, he's received a "pass with no revision", which was the best category in his college's system, and also what he had prayed to God for!! He even received a bottle of champagne from his supervisor... and is going to have celebratory drinks at the pub with his colleagues tonight!

Thank you Lord for your grace to us! :)

When Dr Lim came home: slightly drunk, very tired, but overjoyed & extremely relieved!!

p/s: Update (9 Sept) - Apparantly, the examiners liked his thesis so much that they suggested quite a few editorial refinements to it so that it can be even better and more comprehensive for publication on the internet archive for physics PhD thesis! So, this weekend shall see YL continue to slog over the thesis (post-exam!!) trying to "perfect" it!!

just before the viva...

Just prayed for YL and kissed him goodbye, as he sets off to school for his viva.

He had a restless night. Though tired, his heart and mind were so "pumped up" with the excitement of the day's event ahead, that the poor chap found great difficulties falling asleep! In the middle of the night, when I flipped my body over on the bed to face him after getting a restful sleep on one side, he gently whispered to me, "I still can't sleep...".

I opened one of my eyes to look at him, and then took a look at the clock, and realised its already 4am in the morning! I got up and made him a nice malt Horlick to hopefully warm him up and help him to sleep. He drank it gratefully and we got back to bed again. I told him to wake me up if he still couldn't sleep. Thankfully, when my eyes winked open (temporarily) at 6.30am this morning, I heard that reassuring sound of his breathe inhaling and exhaling, knowing that he did eventually fall asleep.

He woke up at about 7.15am. I asked him if he did catch some rest, and he said that he prob fell asleep at about 4.30am. So that gave him slightly less than 3 hours rest. He made his own breakfast, surf the net for a while before washing up. I got up thereafter to help him dress in his formal suit and tie...before eventually snapping a photo to commemorate the "Before viva" moment.

After seeing him off at the door, I sat down and thought about the events...what would it be like to see off Isaac when he goes off to take his first examination in a few years time? Would he be as excited and somewhat anxious as his father? I smiled, and drank my morning beverage. :)

Prior to the viva: Forcing a smile after a sleepless night...

random thoughts

Thought #1: Viva tomorrow!!

Its YL's PhD viva tomorrow!! 3 years of mental toil in London is finally culminating in this important oral examination, to determine if he is to graduate with a "Doctor of Philosophy" in Physics. At 9.30am (UK time) tomorrow, he has to stand in front of two examiners and be critically questioned on his thesis.

YL is naturally rather anxious about it, even though everyone around him (his supervisors, many of his colleagues, friends, family and myself) have got faith that he will pass the viva without any problem. Many people believe so because they think that YL is good in what he does and I've too witnessed his discipline and the hardwork which he has invested in his research. So, "naturally", he should deserve to pass! But for me, the more crucial point is that I trust in God. I trust that our faithful Lord who has brought him through all the ups and downs in his research over the past 3 years will definitely see him through to the end!

Someone in cellgroup lastnight mentioned about how God had blessed Moses in the old Testament with the right words to speak and I am praying that for YL too. When Moses told God in Exodus 4 that he is not eloquent and slow of speech and tongue, God responded to him with these words, "Who gave man his mouth? .... Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and teach you what to say". May the same be with YL, should he be asked difficult questions by the examiners!!

We're also claiming Psalm 121 : "My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth...He will not let your foot slip - He who watches over you will not slumber....The Lord will keep you from all harm - He will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forever more!!"

Go YL, go!!! Bambino and myself will be cheering you on in prayer!! :)


Thought #2: Thanksgiving

The nagging wet cough has been bugging me for more than a week already. It was particularly bad on the Monday night that just passed, so bad that my sleep was interrupted at least 5 times in the night by sudden long outbursts of coughing. After each coughing "burst", I then had to pick up my heavy body and crawl out of bed to get to the toilet to get rid of the phlegms that kept building up!! I was still dead tired when I finally got myself up in the morning and feeling really miserable.

So I got on the phone with the GP at the clinic and told her my problems. Whilst sympathetic, she was reluctant to prescribe me anything in view of the pregnancy and also that my phlegms have seemingly turned from greenish back to whitish. She also noted that I wasn't running a temperature and there is therefore no need for any course of antibiotics. She suggested that I inhale steam instead to try and unblock the nasal passage.

Well, I was still upset and prayed really hard that God will just take away the whole "suffering". I also got my friends during cellgroup meeting last night to pray with me on that...

Praise God!! I only had to wake up ONCE last night to clear my throat. Otherwise, my sleep was pretty undisturbed and I had a rather decent rest for the first time in days!! :)


Thought #3 : On Waiting List

We've booked our air tix back to Singapore! Leaving London on 24 Sep (Sat) and arriving in Singapore on 25 Sep (Sun). We are trying to get our seats upgraded from Economy Class to Business/Raffles Class, based on our mileage, so that I will have more space on the seat to accomodate my bigger size (I should be about 31-32 weeks with Bambino by then) during the long 12-13 hours flight back! Also, if we do get the upgrade to Raffles class, we will be able to have a baggage allowance of 30 kg each, instead of the 20 kg allowance for Economy class. That makes a very BIG difference of 20 kg in total for a couple that is shifting back their stuff from one country to another, having stayed in the first for 3 years!

However, as there are limited seats for such upgrades, they have put us on the waiting list for all 3 flights on that day. So, its no guarentee that we will be upgraded. Please pray with us that we will eventually be upgraded...

First purchase for Bambino

We made a first purchase for Bambino today!

Went to Baby Gap 'cos they were having a sale. Its the first time that we actually enter into a baby clothing store, inclining/ having a reason to buy something. There were so many CUTE little babies' and toddlers' wear there. Being first time parents, we realised for the first time that baby clothes may be divided into the following age ranges:
0-3 month
3-6 month
6-12 month
12-18 month ...etc...

There were quite a few nice items on sale, but a lot of them were autumn wear and a bit too impractical for the hot singapore climate which Bambino would be living in! So we concentrated browsing amongst the limited 'summer wear' (since summer was ending soon). YL immediately set his eyes on this "polo-t" bodysuit with a teddybear emblem on it. We then debated whether to get the 0-3 month or the 3-6 month one, and ended up buying the latter 'cos we figured that there was greater mileage, as we would probably bring him out more often when he is slightly 'older' rather than in the tender first few months. :)

When we came home, YL kept picking up and staring at the little polo-t and bringing it near my tummy (as if measuring if it would fit Bambino... of course it wouldn't yet lah!!). I supposed having purchased something for Bambino brings further home to him the fact that he's indeed having a baby!! :)

Can't reach...my toenails...

Was telling YL today that the tummy is really getting into the way of me and my feet:

Example:
a) Need to sit down rather than to bend down to wear my shoes; and
b) Am not very flexible in the first place (sit-and-reach was never my forte in PE lessons)...and now with the growing tummy in the way , I find it really tiresome to try to bend further to reach and trim my toenails!

YL said that he would trim my toenails for me when I find that I absolutely cannot reach them. Hmm, I don't ever remember anyone but my Mummy (when I was very little) trimming my toenails for me. I guess its down to trust...whether I trust someone else to handle those tiny little vulnerable toes of mine and to properly trim the toenails, since I am quite particular in the way I trim them - you know, must be neat, cannot have angular edges, etc...!

But thats still a very sweet offer from YL, and I may find myself accepting the offer without much of a choice very soon as Bambino grows bigger and takes up more space in between!!

p/s: I did consider pedicures, but think that its ridiculous to spend money on them just because I can't reach my own toes!!

cough cough

Have contracted this irritating cough.

My throat is full of phlegm and i am constantly trying to get rid of it. Worse still, the phlegm accumulates and comes down to tickle my throat whenever i lie down on bed, causing me to get into a coughing fit. This added to the difficulties of me trying to fall asleep, despite pilling up pillows under my head.

As it was, it was already rather difficult to find a comfortable position to lie down with the growing tummy. Everytime i try out an "innovative" position while lying on the side of the stomache and if it seemed to obstruct the tummy a little, i would find Bambino nudging me from within in protest! He certainly loves his space!

Anyhow, back to the cough. We are avoiding taking any medication for fear that it may negatively affect Bambino. So have been taking the chinese herbal syrap Chuan Pei Pi Pa Gao, elderflower drinks, as well as self-brewed "chrysanthemum cum Luo Han Guo" drink hoping that they would be of help. I think this is going to be a really slow healing process. Praying that God will somehow speed it up!

Meanwhile, am hoping that Bambino wouldn't think that he is going through an earthquake everytime i get into a coughing frenzy!! :)

p/s [updates]: A medical doctor friend of ours has advised me to stop taking milk, cold water and orange juice (anything acidic). He also informed us that Chlorpheniramine has been found suitable for pregnant women suffering from my condition. We happened to find some of these tablets in our medical box and having taken it, I found it rather helpful in drying out the drips from my nasal passage to my throat, thereby reducing my cough and giving me better sleep... Cheers M! :)

p/s/s [further updates] : Just realised that whilst Chlorpheniramine seems to work in drying out the drips from my nasal passage, its also giving me some mild diarrhea... Well, I'm either mildly allergic to it, or it may be because the tablets that we've got might have been outdated (afterall, we brought them over with us 3 years ago when we first came over to London)... Whatever the case might be, I've decided to stop taking it... So, its back to relying just on prayers for full healing...!