Medical Catch 22

So Baby Mama has kidney stones since she was a kid. Her stones are caused by calcium deposits. Now, prenatal vitamins (and all the lovely stuff preggos take) has calcium for the baby. That causes her to have more painful stones.

Usually, medicine can be taken to help ease the stones' movement out of the body. But since she is pregnant, the medicine can't be use. Another medicine may be used but she would need to be hospitalized so that they can monitor her (presumably because they are using a high risk drug).

Yesterday she told me that she doesn't want to go to the hospital for the meds because she rather save the money for a couch.

Go figure.

Second Ultrasound picture from the FIRST VISIT. 8 weeks+

Fun Fact: Ultrasounds have screensavers. Hope they don't have BSOD.

This is the first picture of the fetus. It is about 22.8 mm (i.e., just under an inch). But it was pretty exciting to see it moving. The heart was beating at 165bpm. The "leg(s)" (or something that looks like it) was moving and so were the arms. Movements (like the arms, legs, and heartbeat) show up on the ultrasound machine like blinking black/white pixels. It's a little like through an infra-red scope with digital zoom.

The doctor was pretty pleasant. She can't be much older than I am, though my mum says she's probably 40 years old. She explained the usual stuff to us (e.g., different tests at different weeks, etc)... The doctor also dispelled some myths about pregnancy. I deliberately asked about PINEAPPLES so that my wife can eat in peace. The one thing I find funny about this doctor is how she kept asking Alaina to go shopping and spend my money. (I counted about 4-5 times). I guess she doesn't know I don't have an income now, so it is not possible to have an "out"come. We are going to see the doctor once every month except the last trimester when we see her fortnightly.

Phenergan cost a bomb here. About $50 a pill. But there is an alternative here to that. Not sure what it is called. I've also started to keep track of vital stats for the baby's mama. The data will help the doctor determine if certain medications are warranted should the need arises. Using Google Docs, the baby's mama can also enter the data herself.

I've been up since 3 am... the burden of jet lag. Went to see the new condo/apt yesterday. If all goes well, we should be able to move in by Sept or October. If not, December. It looked pretty nice so far. The showroom/showflat was pretty pleasant too. The appliances that are included with the apartment are pretty cool, but I'll probably give my sis the coffee/expresso maker. She has been wanting one. Just treat it as her birthday gift for the next 10 years. I'm old fashion, I prefer the press. (Thanks Celine for getting me another press. The one I had was yucky)

My only complain about the apartment is the size of the rooms. But this is Singapore. I guess I should be happy with a shoebox. We kinda decided on which room will be the baby's room. (No, not that one, the other one.) We had a little disagree about where the baby sleep at night though. I wanted the baby to sleep with us in the same room but with his/her own cot. She wanted the baby to sleep in a separate room. She said that's what baby monitors are for. I just think it would be more convenient for US in the middle of the night. When the kiddo is older, we can have him/her sleep alone. In the dark.

The bomb-shelter room looks pretty cool. THAT WILL BE MY STUDIO. Any objections, Wife?

Oh any thing, the condo is beside the residential housing for the Gurkha. They are mostly in the riot police force here.

p.s. Can't find Ketchup in the fridge. Leftove fries and rice from Manhattan Fish Market. Their service is actually pretty decent. Food is so-so, but the the garlic rice rocks!

SEE U SEE ME!

I want to setup a video monitoring system at home. Maybe using some existing webcams or getting IP cameras. IP Cameras are expensive. RIDICULOUS EXPENSIVE! There must be a better way to hack a normal webcam so that it because like a IP camera.

Baby Registry (aka, how the Price Gun makes you feel empowered)

So we spent the last 2 days at Target and Baby R'US looking for stuff to put on the baby registry. Small items, big items, everything... She was just scanning them in. I was most interested in the baby car seat, cart (AKA stroller)and the diaper bags. They seem to be the coolest stuff of all the items we saw.

We were trying to find matching Graco seats and strollers and I think we found out that would work. It wasn't too bulky and it folds up pretty well. Not too sure what the model number was , but it was Gray and Blue. I noticed one thing about those baby carriers that attaches to the stroller. They don't necessary clip-fit in both ways. That must be the dumbest design ever. How difficult can it be to design another catch on the other end of the seat? The seat can do a 360 is there was a hard enough impact on the end without the catch.

The baby diaper bags were the next thing that caught my attention. Some of them were pretty slick. Maybe I'll turn the baby bag into a laptop bag when the baby's done with it. I like the magnets that secure the flaps of the bags. Makes it easy to reach in and reach out, and still have a certain level of discretness. All the bag needs is a few modifications, and it will be field-ready for Urban-Survival.

I'm thinking of making a wireless baby video/sound monitor. Get a few webcams, hook it up to the network, maybe have live internet videos... sounds like a fun project. Maybe it can double as a home security system.

How I knew and when I knew it

So I received the news on 18 July, Saturday morning. I was in bed at a family's friend's garage/house/fun room, when I was greeted with a "Good Morning, Daddy-To-Be." She had gone for a pregnancy test earlier that morning and got the confirmation. She said it turned "positive" as soon as the urine sample touched the applicator.

It's kinda weird but exciting at the same time. From a biological point of view, it was really no big deal. These things happen everyday to millions of creatures big and small. But when it is my own, somehow it feels like a miracle. Like something happened out of the most unusual circumstances. Thank God for microscopes and pregnancy tests.

The next few days, she did some reading up on pregnancy. I had to leave for NY. She continuously updated me on her condition and the fetus size and shape. Now, it looks like a manatee. She was bleeding the last couple days but it has since stopped for more than 24 hrs.

So we got pretty much everything we need for Singapore. Business class tickets for the first time. Finally, it's my turn to look at those with cheap seats parade in front of me. LOL. Just kidding. Not really. ;) I got the business class tickets because I wanted her to be able to recline as much as possible. The extra legroom would help too. Next stop, some socks to help prevent Deep Vein Thrombosis. Been looking at some baby products too. The market is saturated with them.