Sen's suggestion of chinese name for Bambino

Had a superb Korean meal at Arang Restaurant with our good friends Sen and Emily on Friday night, in celebration of YL submitting his thesis to the examination board.

Earlier, we had asked Sen to help us brainstorm of possible chinese names for Bambino. Having given it some thought, Sen took the opportunity to share with us his suggestion:

林乐扬

According to an online chinese-english dictionary:
the meaning of 扬 [yang2] = /hurl/to raise/to scatter.

As such, a literal translation of the name 乐扬 would mean scattering/raising joy.

We really do like the suggestion a lot.

Firstly, the name has got a 'bright' ring/tone to it!

Secondly, the way we saw it, if we take 扬 to be the short form of 宣扬 (xuan1 yang2) which means 'proclaiming', the name 乐扬 would mean proclaiming joy! To us, it would mean to be proclaiming the Joy of the Lord!

YL's earlier post had also explained that he had decided to name Bambino Isaac, in the hope that Bambino would appreciate laughter. As such, the name 乐扬 would certainly complement the meaning of his english name, i.e. to proclaim and spread the joy that comes from knowing God!

We love it! Must remember to tell YL's dad about Sen's suggested name when we call him long-distance later! :)



p/s: Sen - Thanks a mil! Regardless of whether 乐扬 is finally chosen as Bambino's chinese name, do know that we are very touched by your thoughtful suggestion. Oh yes, and thanks a lot for your gift to Bambino - "Classics for children"! We've already been playing it on and off for Bambino to listen... :)

I want you to appreciate laughter...

My dear Bambino,

After much thoughts and prayers, I have decided to name you Isaac because I want you to appreciate laughter. You are a miracle and a sign from God that He is faithful to His promises to me and your mummy. God will do incredible things for us and through us, so much so that people will rejoice and laugh with what will happen. (Gen 21:6)

"It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring." Romans 9:7-8. In the bible, Issac is a child of promise from God to Abraham. And you are a promise from God to me... I hadn't told your mummy this before, but I did prayed for a son as my first-born. :)

I pray that you would be joyful and bring laughter to many people.

I would love you to grow up happily and, God willing, even have a quirky sense of humour!

And so, your name shall be Issac Lim or Yitzkhak Lim, whichever you prefer to call yourself! :)

With all my love,
Daddy

p/s: Amen!! May our journeys with one another as a family and with God be always filled with much love, much joy and much laughter, in all circumstances... Love, Mummy. :)

pps: This post was posted whilst your Daddy was helping mummy to squash bananas to bake banana loaf again, closed to midnight!! Daddy loves to eat banana loaf for breakfast! :)

he shall be called "Isaac"...

...so says Bambino's dad!

After much thoughts and prayers, YL has decided to name his soon-to-be born son Isaac Lim. We have not decided on his chinese name as we would like YL's dad to name him.

There is this interesting website that we came by called "The Baby Name Wizard's Name Voyager", whereby one could find out the popularity of most english names. See the image below on the popularity of the name "Isaac".

YL will soon follow-up with a short entry on his reasons for choosing to name Bambino 'Isaac'.

:)

Food Cravings

I've mentioned before that thankfully I didn't have much food cravings as a result of the pregnancy, because most of the food that I would crave for can only be found back home in Singapore! (e.g. durian, chilli crab, dried mee pok, etc...)

But then again, I thought I will document down some of the food that I've subconciously developed an inclination for and would and could keep eating them again and again whilst in London during this period of time:

a) Breakfast Milk (from Jersey and Guernsey herds)
- Since young, I've really dislike freshmilk and often have to mix it with honey to give it a sweeter taste and less "raw feel"... this was until we discovered this brand of breakfast milk that YL would buy from Waitrose. The description on the label describes the milk as "The champagne of milks! Breakfast Milk comes from fully traceable, pure bred herds of Jersey and Guernsey cows and is naturally high in calcium and protein..."

b) Ben & Jerry Cherry Garcia Ice Cream
- Loved it, loving it...

c) Loh Bak
- I keep making this at home for dinner (nearly once every week!)...Loh Bak (pork cook in dark sauce and various chinese spices in pressure cooker till really tender) with tao pok, chinese mushrooms, and whole hardboiled eggs.... yum!! Thankfully YL loves the gravy and doesn't mind eating it for dinner every other week!

d) Xiao Long Bao (小龙包)
- I've been craving for this for a long time, and thanks to my dear gourmet cousin Aileen who's also here in London, I've been recommended this restaurant in Chinatown called The Chinese Experience, which is apparantly one of the best place in London to get authentic hot steamy Xiao Long Bao. Ate it last friday with her, and it was most yummy, each bao retaining much of its soupy juice within. Yum!! 1 basket (8 pieces) of Xiao Long Bao costs GBP5.80 though. Yep, its not cheap, but now i've got its 10% discount card...yay!!

e) Clementines
- The bags of small easy-to-peel clementines that we get from Waitrose are refreshingly sweet, bursting with juice and full of vitamin C and folic acid. I've been consuming at least 4 of these clementines daily!

f) Vietnamese Pho
- Have craved this for a long time (especially the ones from Cay Tre and Song Que 'cos of their really delicious broth) but still haven't had time to get there... must go soon!

Regular checkup at the clinic + Hearing Bambino's heartbeat!

In Singapore, one basically sees the gynaecologist all the way throughout the pregnancy, sometimes once every month, if you can afford it. The key here is that we pay to see the gynae.

On the other hand, being in London for the large part of our pregnancy with Bambino has allowed us to experience the oh-so-good and FREE NHS maternity system.

I've already explained in my earlier post that in UK, one primarily deals with the midwives (rather than gynaes) for all our checkups, tests, and pregnancy queries, unless one's pregnancy is diagnosed to be problematic, or when one is about to give birth. This is not surprising, considering that the system is free-of-charge and resources such as gynaes need to be distributed according to the level of complication of the pregnancy. Having said that, I think that the midwives here are generally very professional, reassuring and as capable as gynaes in dealing with most general antenatal conditions.

The system's workload is split between the hospital's maternity department and the General Practices (i.e. clinics). For a typical problem-free pregnancy, the antenatal checkups are as follow:

• First booking Checkup : Hospital
• Level 2 Detailed Checkup (21/22 weeks) : Hospital
• 24th week : General Practice
• 28th week : General Practice
• 30th week : Checkup at General Practice + Bloodtest to be done in Hospital
• 32th week: General Practice
• 34th week: General Practice
• 36th week : Hospital (Detailed checkup)
• 38th week: General Practice
• 40th week: General Practice
• 41th week: Hospital

What happens is that every two weeks, midwives would be dispatched to the local (non-private) General Practices and conduct antenatal clinics. So all I need to do during those odd weeks would be to visit my local clinic to have my urine sample checked (for sugar level), blood pressure checked, as well as for the midwife to physically feel my abdomen to determine if the size and position of the baby is normal.

We visited our local clinic this morning for the first of our regular checkup with the midwife at the GP. The midwife commented that all was normal and my bloodpressure recorded exactly the same as when it was last checked in the hospital. I told her that maybe because I do not work, I am therefore not too stressed, so it should be quite normal and constant...she laughed! :)

Whilst we may not have the luxury of a sonogram image scan in the clinic, the midwife had brought out a doppler. A doppler is a device which employs ultrasound to listen to the fetal heart, via the abdomen. We had only used to see Bambino's heartbeat on the ultrasound imaging system, but never had the chance to actually hear it! So, for the first time, we heard his heartbeat loud, clear and fast! One can see the heartrate recorded every second through the doppler's digital screen and Bambino measured the normal rate of between 110 - 160 beat per minute. The midwife explained that as babies are growing fast, their heatrates would normally be twice as fast as normal adults.

YL and myself were pretty intrigued by bambino's heartbeat resonating from the doppler...they certainly sound like drumbeats! :)

"Papa" makes special mention of Bambino in his thesis acknowledgement!

After months of hardwork, YL has finally printed out his thesis and sent it for binding today, preparing to submit it to the examiners. Last night, he was editing the acknowledgement section of his thesis and below is an excerpt from the section:

"I thank my wife Puay-Sze for her neverending patience, support and love which has been so crucial to me. I also want to make special mention of my soon-to-be-born son, Isaac, for the joy and additional motivation that he brings to me during the last lap of my thesis-writing!"

Awww....sweet!

:)

Having a sense of rhythm!

Went to church this morning and there was a really talented team leading worship. The worship songs chosen by the worship leader has a tint of African flavour to it (not surprising, as he was a Afro-British), and i felt as if i was worshipping God from Africa itself!

We saw a double-bass player amidst the team and the sound of his double-bass just resonated and boomed through the room! Having noted the power of the double-bass, YL whispered to me, "Wonder if Bambino can hear it?"

I laughed and replied that Bambino was probably asleep but was sure he would soon wake up to the music!

And true enough, in the middle of worship, whilst singing this verse,"I will worship You with all that is within me...", I felt Bambino moving and kicking to the beat of the double bass!

At that moment, I realised two things:
a) As I was trying to worship God with all that is within me, Bambino must have realised the part that he plays in fulfilling that promise to God (afterall, he was within me!). A mother's (and father's) spiritual life must indeed have some effect on the unborn child!
b) Bambino sure had a sense of rhythm, as I felt him "move to the groove"!

I was reminded of this verse that YL had read out to me a few evenings ago:
"This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the LORD. " (Psalm 102:18, KJV)

That morning, as a family, we worship and praise God with all of our being... :)