"Those burgers look good! I NEED TO KNOW WHERE THEY ARE FROM!"

Answer: Chili's.

We were driving to the doctor's for our monthly check-up when she spotted an ad on the bus. She was drinking her drink but suddenly screamed "Those burgers look good! I NEED TO KNOW WHERE THEY ARE FROM!" Apparently, they were from Chili's. They just opened a branch in Tanglin Mall (AKA White People's Paradise).

The doctor had the OSCAR test (for physical and genetical abnormality) done for her. We saw the fetus and everything looked okay. Head, Heart, Limbs, neck thickness, etc... The lab test who did the ultrasound was as chatty as BabyMama. I guess birds of a feather...

The doctor wanted to do some other tests because of her Blood Pressure and possibility of diabetes during pregnancy. We were able to use the blood from the labwork (done that morning) so all we needed was some pee. BabyMama was unable to pee so we decided to go eat lunch first then return with the pee sample.

Lunch was good for her. I have pics to prove it. No pee yet. Then we shopped for CDs and some groceries. Still no pee. We went home to rest a little, hoping that she would soon be able to send the sample to the doctor. But nope, we slept until 6pm. She could feel that her bladder was full but there was no pee. She was also in pain... Well, you guessed it. It is probably a Kidney Stone. We finally when to the doctor at around 2:30 am.

We went to KK Hospital first (we were there the last time). However, the triage nurse told use that their clinic was not equipped to deal with Alaina's problem. They suggested we go to the Singapore General Hospital (SGH). Their full service hospital would be better. So we went... I took the "local" route because I couldn't find the highway entrance... then there was a police stop on the road just outside the hospital... Maybe there are looking for some fugitives. Anyway,she immediately go to see a doctor after getting her physio readings done. I waited in the waiting area... playing Soccer on my ipod.

The doctor later came out and told me that she is fine, couldn't see the stones (no xray done bec of pregnancy), the fetus was very active. Will need to run some test but she should be fine after a jab. (They found a painkiller that was safe for the fetus). She was wheeled into a Observation room after the administration of the drug. Stayed there for a couple hours. We got home about 6am. While we were there, there were some interesting characters. A chinese-looking lady with blonde hair... probably ODed. A guy with long slightly curly blond hair and a full handlebar mustache. I think he looked like an Australian Hulk Hogan. Oh, he was in police custody. The ER doctor later told use the test results looked good. The levels of the elements in her blood was normal. But he made us an appointment for an urologist visit. I think BabyMama has a crush on him because he was able to get the needle into her vein on the first try.
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She has been drinking lots of Cranberry and Grape juice. Finally passed the stone in the last few hours.

Shellfish Interrupted

Sunday (6th Sept,2009), Baby Mama had been sleeping for over 14hrs. At approximately 4:30pm, she walked out of the bathroom saying that she wants to go see a doctor. She has been feeling nauseous and couldn't eat or drink without pulling a Merlion.

I was eating a plate of cockles with about 15 pieces left. What do I do? Do I abandon the lovely shellfish and get up to drive my wife to the 24 hour clinic? Or continue eating and ask her to wait until I finish eating before going? Decisions, decisons... The solution: "Okay dear, go dress up and we'll go." Then eat all the cockles like there's no tomorrow.

We went to the best Women and Children Hospital in the world... ok, not really... it's just that I was born there... The wait was about 30 mins (admission + bp test, urine, etc) before we saw the doctor. The doctor diagnosed her as being dehydrated. Gave her 2 packets of saline + dextrose cocktail and some anti-nausea meds. The whole process will take 2hrs (i.e., for the solution to go into her).

She has tiny veins and the doctor had a tough time putting the needle into the vein in her hand. Ended up using the bigger vein in the bend of the elbow. After she was hooked up to the IV packets, she was wheeled off to another room to rest.

She wanted me to stay with her in the same room. At first the nurse wasn't too happy about it but she relented. To pass time, I entertained her with my wonderful singing voice (Ha!) and amazing talent of making up words when I fumble with lyrics. I figured if singers can sing all the time during a 2 hr concert, so can I. We ended up playing "What song is this melody from." Took turns to sing the introduction music of songs and the other person had to guess the title. I WON! (END OF DISCUSSION!)

About 1hr 30mins into the treatment, she was feeling much better. Talking more, laughing, etc... So it seems the treatment worked. We went back to the doctor's room (next door) at the end of the treatment (and after the doctor's dinner break). The new urine test shows she is hydrated well. She also got to hear the baby's heartbeat. She thinks it's a baby because it is fast.

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.