the-missus-blogs.com

Since the beginning of my pregnancy, I’ve toyed around with the idea of getting some nice maternity shots done to commemorate our journey as first time (soon to be) parents and as a reminder to Baby S how big mommy had to get just to give birth to her, heh. Ok I kid about the last part.

The idea probably came from the fact that till today we have yet to get our fancy studio wedding photos done because it was always one thing after the other that kept postponing it. Granted, 80% of it I can blame on the fact that our wedding got brought forward much earlier followed by I-need-to-loose-weight moments before I get photographed, followed by the husband not being around for the shoot…….you get the idea. I’m really not sure if our deposit and package is still valid at this studio (it’s been 3 years afterall!) but I’ve told my husband once this baby pops out and IF I get back into shape, we’ll try to get it done then. It’s as good as saying yea when pigs fly…….but we’ll see

Before I digress much, it was one of those days when I did a search for maternity photoshoot in Malaysia on Mr Google when I came across Asther Lau’s blog.

At a glance, I was quite impressed with her work. But to be honest, the one thing that stood out about her is the fact that she’s a female! Which obviously makes it a whole lot easier for someone who is shy like me

A few emails bounced back and forth before we decided to engage her and here’s the end results I must have booked her at least 5 months in advance. Talk about being overly excited about a maternity shoot eh?

This is only the first batch and I’m already very happy with the outcome. She has at least managed to make me look decent in the photos, lol. It was my first time at a photo shoot session (was nervous as hell as I’m a very conscious person but she managed to put us at ease) and this was probably the husband’s third or fourth since someone is a part time talent and has the experience

Definitely one of my fav!

LOVE this shot and will definitely frame it up in the baby’s room

I adore this too but it kinda looks like the hubby is grabbing my you know what, haha.

There are a few other photos that I absolutely love but since they’re rather indecent, I shall refrain from putting them up, haha.

Thanks Asther for these wonderful photos. Can’t wait for Batch 2 of photos.

That said, I highly recommend a maternity photoshoot with the hubby before the little one arrives. It creates a great bonding session and it’s definitely something you can look back at years from now and be very happy about a simple thing like this :)

If you love Asther’s work, hop over to her site here and book a slot today!

P.s:  All pretty necklaces and the pillow cover seen in the photos are courtesy of  Elevyn.com These babies are hand-made with love from the marginalized communities within Malaysia. Please help support them by picking up a few of these gorgeous pieces.  Head over to Elevyn.com NOW!

It’s finally here.

I came home from work and found the cot all assembled by my dad and mom. Everytime I pass by the cot I tell myself, wow in about 3 weeks from now, a little  tiny baby totally dependant on ME will be having her naps in this very cot.  I constantly ask myself if she’ll take a strong liking towards me, if I’ll be the mom she thought she’d have, if she’ll be an easy baby or one that will keep her mommie up late at night, so many questions which I guess will be answered very soon.

The night the cot was up, I had this dream where I was breast feeding my baby girl. Both boobies had its turn. She looked so peaceful, full of innocence and cute!

In real life, one of my major concern is not being able to produce milk for her – I don’t know why this bugs me to no end but it does.

Anyway, I’ve been staying with my parents for the past 3 weeks because they don’t trust my husband in times of an emergency they say it’s easier for them to handle any pregnant/labour situation. Hence in the past weeks I have been chauffeured around (then again, this aint new!) to work, I get to eat mom’s cooking and more importantly I get to be pampered on a daily basis! The hubby of course comes over from work and stays till 10ish before he goes home. If I’m not too tired I try to go to our apartment for the weekend, otherwise he just stays with me at my parent’s place.

We had a checkup this week and Baby S is already close to 3kgs and we still have 3 weeks to go!! I told the hubby that she definitely has inherited the Punjabi genes somehow :D I suspect it could also be due to the amount of chocolates I’ve been stuffing my face with, heh. Total shopping spree $ as of today: RM2.9k. Woot.

We have also done a pre-admission with the hospital in case I go into labour any time soon so we wouldn’t need to spend a huge chunk of our time filing up forms. Now that’s done and taken care of, all I need to do is wash and pack up some baby clothes to be stored in a luggage together with my things to take to the hospital.

The husband is convinced that I would somehow spend time doing my hair first when I find myself going into labour, just because I was complaining to him about the strict no appliance rule the hospital has imposed. Bah. Guess the first thing the baby will see is a crappy looking mommie – makeup free and deranged hair! Then again, babies don’t have very good eye sight when they’re born isn’t it? Hmm….

Btw, does this place look familiar or what? Ahem.

 You bet there’s more to come!

10 Things I Will Miss About Being Pregnant

1. All that attention and fuss from family, relatives,  friends, colleagues and even strangers!! Let’s not forget the gifts, emails, calls, text asking about my progress etc. How I feel loved Have you noticed how difficult it is to actually hate a preggie?? We’re a loveable bunch I tell you.

2. Strangers smiling at my bump and stopping to make small chat about my pregnancy while trying to guess the gender of the baby at the same time :D  To date only a FATHER of four got it right. Everyone else thought I was carrying a boy!!

3. Bossing the husband around and using the pregnancy as an excuse to get out of household chores and everything else

4. Pigging out and having NO guilt whatsoever coz I tell myself what I eat – my baby benefits from it That or the baby is making me crave it.

5. Free massages from my mom and husband.  Sometimes I don’t even have to ask

6. Taking countless days of medical leave because I have a damn good reason. Yes it’s 17 days and counting as of today.

7. Saying good bye to the most comfie clothes ever - maternity clothes.  And of course granny panties and maternity bras. Hmm, on seconds thought I might just hang on to these granny panties!

8. Not bothering about dressing up because I can’t be arsed.

9. Not caring in the world about putting on weight or how I look like because no one checks out a knocked up woman, unless they’re somewhat demented.

10. My baby’s kick and punches in my tummy and of course my monthly ultrasound scan. It’s been a journey watching her grow from the size of a peanut to a baby of 2.8 kgs and counting!

10 Things I look Forward To After Giving Birth

1. Meeting and spoiling my mini me!!

2. Getting back into shape. I can’t wait to be able to finally fit into my old clothes AND buy new ones :)  Oh dresses that show off the curve – how I yearn to wear them again.

Karen Millen – I got my eyes on you!

3. To be able to see my long lost vagina and toes again. HELLOOOOO girls! It’s time you and I get reacquainted again

4. Free from back-pain – I can finally store away the deep heat rub cream and painkillers and say good bye to being miserable.

5. Alcohol – okay so not in mass quantities anymore, but maybe a glass once in a while?

5. To be bump free!! Don’t get me wrong, as much as I love being pregnant, I also miss being bump free. The strain from this 8th month is REALLY getting to me.

6. To be able to do my OWN toe nails (although I’ve secretly come to enjoy pedicures done in nail saloons)

7. To see the joy again in going to a cinema again coz I can finally sit through a movie without cursing and lamenting about my back/bump/bum pain.

8. Making trips – albeit not so spontenous anymore but still………..dont have to stare at Airasia’s bargain deals and sigh with envy while cursing all those lucky f*ckers who bought tickets at a steal. I’m such a sore person that way.

9. Getting my lion mane sorted!!! OMG this should be number 2! It’s been MORE than a year since my hair came in contact with any sort of chemicals and it surely looks the part

10. Pow-ing something expensive from the hubby for getting me knocked up! Suggestions are most welcome :D  I”m thinking of a Gucci bag or some $ for a shopping spree. The husband has already promised to give me RM1 to match every 1 gm of the baby’s weight. And we both suspect Baby S could go up to 4kgs.  No I am not stuffing myself on purpose just to make her fat.

You do the maths

3.5 weeks to go before we take on a new exciting role and be reponsible for this brand new life.  It’s scary and exciting at the same time.

Whimsicaljottings was mentioning recently that there’s this broccoli-chicken dish that she makes that’s very tasty yet very simple to make. So when she blogged about it on her site, I shamelessly flicked her recipe (again!) and told myself I’d make it for the weekend

Made this on the same day we had the labor scare coz hey, a girl’s still gotta eat and cook for her man right?

I only made a little modification to the cooking method and this was the end result:

The dish was lovely!!! And this woman does not lie, when she says it’s tasty –  IT IS TASTY. When she says it’s easy – IT IS EASY!!

A photo does not lie either:

Besides the taste, I LOVE the fact that you have your meat AND your daily dose of favorite vege in one dish. I was telling the hubby that this would come in handy on days when I have no time to cook once Baby S arrives I should teach him how to make this!

For some reason I wanted to make tofu too. Got the recipe from a Chinese site (although I’m very sure she has a tofu recipe on her site too, ahem)

Something went very wrong with the seasoning, which had everything to do with the 1 cube chicken stock granules – it was too salty so I had to add in a lot of water to tone down the saltiness. But in the end, it was pretty yummy.

It was my first time making tofu. I even stupidly asked the husband IF the bean curd would eventually turn brown if I fry it (coz it didnt look like it would ok) .

For the record, he didn’t know if it would either.

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

2 pieces of soft bean curd

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 red chili, finely sliced

Red capsicum, chopped

Minced Chicken (you may skip this if  you’re already making another chicken dish)

Seasoning:

Water according to how thin or thick you want the sauce. I used quarter cup.

2 tbsps oyster sauce

1 tsps dark soy sauce

A pinch of chicken stock granules  (Original recipe called for whole cube but you REALLY want to go slow on this one and not make the same mistake I did)

½ tsp sesame oil

Pepper to taste

1 tsp cornstarch, mixed with 2 tsps water 

Directions:

1.  Cut bean curd into half and fry bean till brown; set aside.

2.   Stir fry garlic, chili and red capsicum in hot oil until lightly browned.

3.   Add in chicken meat and fry for 2 minutes.

4.  Stir in seasoning and bring to a boil. Thicken with cornstarch mixture and set aside. Adjust seasoning if necessary.

5.  Spoon sauce over bean curd and feel free to  garnish with coriander.

Done.

For dessert, we had the luxury of having the cupcakes my good friend Anusha got for me when I met her for a catch up session on Friday.

Aren’t these the cutest?? Wasn’t really expecting it but thanks alot babe!

The booties were just sooo adorable, made me think twice before I goobled them up.

There are three things a preggie is supposed to look out for when she’s almost due:

1. Rupture of membrane aka when your water breaks

2. Contractions

3. Bleeding

On Saturday, I was all set to have a girlie lunch-pedicure session with Nicole  and Mimi. I was just about to shower after peeing when I noticed there was BLOOD in the damn toilet bowl.

I froze for 2 minutes, flushed the toilet bowl and went OMG AM I HAVING THIS BABY NOW???!  It took me a while to compose myself before shouting out for the husband. Being pregnant for the first time, I have no idea what no 1 and 2 feels like hence the blood was the only indicator that I might be having the baby soon.

Made a quick call to my gynea (who thankfully works throughout Saturday afternoons because of her busy schedule) and was told to come see her asap as she needs to determine if I’m REALLY going into labor.

As we drove to the hospital, so many things came to mind. A part of me was convinced that I wasn’t going into labor yet while another part of me was worried as hell about the blood.

Suddenly it dawned to me that I have yet to feel the baby move AT ALL and it was already close to 1pm!! I don’t know if it’s a placebo effect but I remember asking my husband if he noticed anything different about my tummy. It felt like it was smaller than usual and that joker agreed that it was!

After registering, we had to wait for another 20 minutes before seeing her and it was quite the torture to endure not knowing what’s really going on. It was finally our turn and she quickly did a scan and heart beat check on the baby. It was a HUGE relieve to know everything was A-okay in there. We saw the baby move about and my gynea confirmed that the placenta is still intact which was her initial worry.

 Ok all’s good!!

Or so I thought…………………..

She then put on her gloves and must have shoved what seemed like her entire fist (it could have been two or three fingers but my bump was obstructing my view) allllll the way up you know where to check and see if my cervix was open and if there was any blood!!!! Which thankfully came out negative.

It was the most uncomfortable thing EVERRRRR!!

I remember reading about this in forums and how painful it was for all of them but never thought I’d be going through it even before giving birth - damnit!

I was squirming like a lil b*tch. My husband of course made fun of me after that.

So I told him he should count himself very very very lucky coz things would have been a WHOLE lot different and exciting if my gynea was a hot male resembling one John Abraham

The doctor said for now she can’t pint point what exactly is the problem but told me to look out for further bleeding (which thankfully has not happened to date, knock on wood).

So after all that fuss and worry, I decided to treat myself to not one but two Secret Recipe cakes and boy did I deserve every damn bite of it!

P.s: I still need that pedicure session badly