Miss Sam

Don't laugh. I have been told by many I resemble Eliza Sam albeit the fatter version. If you do not know who she is, please google. That was what I did too.
It first started with my neighbour. She said I look like some "ge ge" in a certain tvb drama. I do not watch tvb, I watch TVN.

On a work trip to Hong Kong, I met some old friends and they said I look like some "ge ge" too. "Ok I got it. It's Eliza right?" I asked. They nodded their head vigorously. You realize I am now on first name basis with Eliza? *haha*

Well, i honestly see no resemblance but I will take it anyway. Thank you all!
I told my mummy about this and showed her a picture of Eliza Sam. She said there is a slight resemblance. I exclaimed if really so pretty good lor. Fat version I also take.
My mummy retorted: " of course pretty la.....coz you look like me," I was dumbfounded....

On one of my regular visits to my gynae, the nurses told me I looked like some actress in Philippines. I did not get the name. Hey, some say I am famous in hong kong and now even Philippines *xoxo*

3 on 3

My jc mate cum steamboat buddy that peels the prawns for us as mentioned in one of my previous post, whatsapp us in our TCSS (talk cork sing song) group chat 3 days ago.  

"Wanna play 3on3? Sponsored by someone." 

My first retort: "ah? Wait bones break"

Another replied: " Siao. I think I asthma attack."

3rd person: " u sure we still can play. Thinking forgot the rules."

This is far cry from our first pact to play basketball once a month to prepare for our yearly alumni games. I blogged about this before too. We stopped going to the alumni matches. The monthly appointment was not fulfilled either. We also hardly meet for steamboat. I do not even know if our regular steamboat place is still around. Gosh, I am craving for steamboat now.....

Back to basketball. Asthma attack possibility will be in Auckland then. The rest of us decided to risk brittle bones and forgotten rules to play. We still lack a reserve. This is important because I think I can only last 2 mins. Anyway, I am excited. D-day is on 14 dec. 

Belated updates

Gosh, it's another 2 years since my last update. It's been so long that Blogger is now acquired by Google and my email address which is maintained as an organizational account under my friend's domain disallows me to login to my blog. Not sure how it finally allowed me to login but I guess I better move my blog to another email address login soon.

Back to updates. I became a busy working mother in the past 2 years. Work had been challenging since I became a "head". Trying to juggle work and a baby that fell sick often was extremely stressful. However, seeing my baby grow each day to the active toddler he is now is very satisfying. 

I also became mummy to a new baby boy 3 months ago. The night feeds, the diaper changes and the continuous pumping started all over. I am more tired than before but am more experienced now in coping.

Not sure if anyone still reads my blog but I will definitely try to post more frequently.

My Birth Story

I had big plans. One of it was to eat durians. Main purpose was of course to increase baby ong's weight and the other was just I am greedy. I also wanted to have some "me" time before baby Ong's arrival. Hence, I planned to stop work on 23 march.
It's funny how plans never work out, especially when it comes to trying to conceive, if you conceive, when and how you conceive...the list goes on.
My first signs of early delivery came on the morning of 21 mar. I awoke with so much discharge, a wee bit pink in fact. Called my good friend/colleague to re-confirm my water bag has not burst. Silly you may think, why would I not know if my water bag had burst? Pregnancy does funny things to your brains truly. Anyway, decided to work from home instead that day since I do not want to risk going into labour at the office. The day passed pretty uneventful but for some reason, I couldn't postpone doing up the baby cot anymore. That very night, I told hubby, let's get the sheets and bumper ready for the cot and we did. I also packed some stuffs into my hospital bag, again something that I have procrastinated for a long time. Decided to call it a night at about 1am on 22 march.
4am - I suddenly woke. Had the weirdest feeling down under. I quickly got out from bed and "Whoosh" came a gush of water. I stood there staring at the pool of water around my feet for abit before I actually woke hubby. I think hubby was more excited than I was. In a daze, he was like "how? How? Do we rush to the hospital now?" I was still taking my tIme and re-assuring him that I have no pains. I even got him to mop up the floor whilst I slowly went about putting the toiletries into my hospital bag. I did not have another shower as I just did before bedtime.
We arrived at the hospital at 540am and was sent to the observation ward in the delivery suites. I was hooked up to some apparatus to monitor baby's heart rate as well as my contractions. Nurse said I was supposedly having contractions already. I was thinking if that is how contractions feel, I can jolly well do without epidural!
830am - I showed no further signs of dilation. I was still only at 1cm after so long. They decided to insert a pill and put me on drip to induce labour. Before they administer the drip though, they decided to push me to the ward upstairs to "hold" and wait. TMC was extremely full that day, so I was actually pushed to the premier wards to await my turn. How nice, I got to experience what the celebrities get for $1600 a night at TMC :)
I was supposed to go back to the delivery suite at 1pm. They didn't push me down till 230pm as there was no delivery suite available!
Once in the delivery suite, I was put on drip and the full contractions started at 330pm. Omg, the pain was crazy. The laughing gas they gave me which I had to administer was useless! The only thing to laugh about was the yellow beak lookalike mask that the gas came through on. I stuck it out for 1.5hrs before I asked for epidural. Silly me, I should have done that earlier. Once I had epidural, I went from 4cm to 9cm dilation within an hour. I was ready to push!
Midwife made me push a couple of times and then promptly went out to call Dr Loh (my gynae). I did not feel right as she reminded me constantly to take in more oxygen through the yellow beak. I got hubby to check with her when she returned if everything was ok. She gave a big smile and re-assured us.
Anyhow, dr loh was there in a flash and the first thing he said was, "I am going to help you with the vacuum ok? Baby's heart rate will drop each time you push." Ahhhh, no wonder. At this point, I was shivering so badly, one side effect of epidural. I also wanted to puke. With my last bit of strength, I pushed a couple of times more and welcomed baby kieran ong to this world at 1928hrs on 22 march 2012. I puked right after.
Dr loh didn't think I could make it before 2359hrs on that day. I proved him wrong. Now the whole family has birthdays on the 22nd. Hubby and I were born on the 22nd too albeit different months :) so isn't it funny how things worked out?

Handover

I hardly mentioned work anymore but lots have transpired over the past couple of years.
During this time, i was given a significant pay rise. Glad the company took notice of my hard work!
Over the last few months (despite my long absence due to MS), I was also given a promotion. I am now a "Head". Haha not like titles meant much to me but I am now head of sales operations for both APAC and US. In total, i have 6 direct reports. Given my company's practices to only review pays in June, I was not given another pay increment with this promotion.

With the promotion came added responsibilities, of course! I started preparing my handover list today for my impending maternity leave and it was only 3 pages long. How is it that I find myself really busy but when it's time to drop your work, you just cannot put it down in writing? No matter what, i still hope my presence will be missed and come June, I will see my rewards!

A little addition

It took me 3 holidays to get over the emotional trauma of losing the baby earlier last year. In July 2011, I took the plunge again and was rewarded with positive news! Positive news were followed with countless visits to the hospital as I was spotting from early weeks. Seriously, why does it have to be so difficult?? I really thought it was another goner.

The spotting finally stopped in Week 7. What followed were however months of misery. I was diagnosed with hyperemesis. It meant I could not work and was literally bed-bounded. I am so thankful to have an understanding boss. I stayed away from office for nearly 2.5mths and lost 8kg! Not surprising when I could not even swallow water without puking it straight out. Some lucky ones suffer from just 3 weeks of MS, my puking persisted till I was 24 weeks along. Once I could eat, I piled back the weight! To date, I put back 12kg but given i lost 8kg, it's just 4kg that i gained. Phew!

I am 35 weeks along today. It is fascinating to feel the little one move everyday. Honestly, I am not prepared. On one hand, I cannot wait to see the little one, on the other, i cannot imagine how our lives will change. It will be exciting times ahead.

Settled in a new home

After 2.5 years of wait, we got the keys to our new place. Whoopie it's good to be back east. I am sick of travelling from Jurong to the office in Chai Chee!

Sourcing around for an ID or contractor was no fun. We had to spend hours talking to people, sharing the same ideas over and over again. Eventually, we settled on a contractor who reminded me of Phua Chu Kang. He was only missing the yellow wellingtons. He was also the only contractor who actually produced 3D drawings without extra costs. Even asked how many 3D drawings I wanted. Funny. However, once we have decided on the contractor, doing up the place was great. I thoroughly enjoyed choosing the laminates i like, wallpapers, space planning, furnishings and the list goes on. Of course, I can once again indulge in shopping for crockery and utensils so that I can perhaps start cooking again?

After nearly 2 months of renos and settling defects with the developer for our unit, we moved in officially on 20 Jan 2012. I was overwhelmed to finally be able to say, "Welcome Home".

Depression

I know....enough talk about the miscarriage already! I am now over it but it was difficult the past few weeks. I lost interest in all things, had no appetite and could not sleep. Spent a week at home in a daze and just not wanting to do anything. Kinda sucks right? Am really glad i came out of it....didnt think i could survive much longer that way. I was sleeping at nearly 6 to 7am each day and will wake a couple of hours later. My dark eye rings were really horrid. I think pandas are cute but i wasnt that cute.....
Work kinda brought me back to reality. I was swamped with so much issues when i returned to office, i had no choice but focus. Brought some sanity back despite the chaos at work. Contradicting ey? At least it gave me a sense of normalcy.

Miles

The moment i miscarried, the first thing i did was to book tickets for a holiday. Like any great fengshui master will say, travelling and breathing new air in foreign countries are bound to lift spirits. Lucky me, my miles were just sufficient for me to exchange two tickets to hong kong. Decided to spend my birthday overseas this year. Thank you SQ! I now have to restart the clock and spend more so that i can have more miles to travel soon. Lame excuse really!!

7th day

On 7th February, I went to do a bhcg. What does that mean? It's a blood test to determine if I was pregnant. Just the weekend before, I used 2 home pregnancy kits and both showed positive. So on this day, I finally got confirmation from the bhcg that I was pregnant!! Whoopie!!

I was told to wait out a couple of weeks before I do an ultrasound as it was too early. On 22 feb at my scan, i was told no fetal pole detected. My world came crashing down. I cried buckets and did not know how to react. Again, I was told to wait as it could be slow fetal growth. I held out for another couple of weeks but on 7th march, one month exactly since my positive news, I was declared to have a blighted pregnancy.

I was slated for an evacuation today. In other words, removal of the dead sac but I guess someone above decided not to let me go through this pain. I actually miscarried myself last Friday at home. Was in the bathroom when my sac just plopped out of me. It was gross and it looked like I just delivered an alien.

So here I am, in pain coz the doc had to give me some meds to ensure I dispel everything. I can feel the cramping and boy, the feeling ain't great. Then again, no physical pain can beat the emotional pain.......