Labour?

Statistically proven only 5% expectant mum-to-be laboured on their estimated due date. Unfortunately I am not one of those figure. No sign of show or labour yet, therefore finger-crossed the long awaiting moment be here soon. I feel the baby head is lower (3/5) and in the right position for labour rather than his/her back is tilted on my right hand side. Probably, its run in my family, my sisters' first babies were overdued between 5-12 days.

I should try increasing oxytocin level to induce labour naturally....eating fresh pineapple, stimulating nipples, having sex, etc.??? Mid-wife appoinment Thursday, 17th February; then if nothing happen yet, she will book me in for hospital induction latest by 23rd February as full term pregnancy can't stretch beyond 42 weeks. Please wish me luck and smooth labour hopefully!

Blooming, tired and exhausted

Taking 2 weeks annual leave, follow by 52 weeks maternity leave...hiphip hoorah..... officially lady of leisure until the baby born...estimated due date 12/02/2011. Therefore, put my feet up and relax.

Gained 7 kgs so far but still blooming like a wheel-barrow in front. Prescribed (yesterday) hand support (splints) for both hands to protect wrist and tingling palms caused by Carpal Tunnel since 6 weeks ago.
Feeling the strain and reached full term now and can go into labour any time, very scary and excited. Need to write birth plan soon, today I supposed.

Packed hospital bags for baby and myself, fitted car seat, baby moses basket, baby push-chair (travel system), most baby essential - clothes, caps, jacket, babygros, sleepsuits, bodysuits, bibs, blankets, fleece, bathing support tub, feeding and steriliser steamer, breast pump, little ones daily necessities and grooming kits, soft toys, baby night projector, bedding, etc....can't believe how much a tiny baby need :-)

First Wedding Anniversary (24/10/2010)

Can't believe it, time flies and its our first wedding anniversary!


We attended Sunday morning service at St. John's Church, where we were married. Lots of unfamiliar faces and curate whom married us and few familiar faces that we knew weren't there. Visited Sunday Farmer's market supporting local farmers and their products: bought mergets, Toulouse and Lincolnshire sausages, Blue cheese, smoke duck breast, Cornish pastie, pumpkins (for cooking soup) and Rustic apples.


We had fantastics 3 courses meal at Luton Hoo Hotel, Wernher Restaurant (formal dining room). Have a leisurely stroll at Formal and Rock Gardens and watch the world goes by.

Anamoly Scan 20w 5d (30/09/2010)

I drank 2 pint s (6 glasses) of non fizzy water within an hour before the anamoly scan (20-23 weeks). West Herfortfordshire Hospital have a no sex determine on fetus policy. Therefore, its gonna be a surprise for us. We gotta buy baby stuffs in nuetral colours, i.e black, grey, white, creamy but not pink or blue, how lovely.


Seeing the perfectly form baby for the very first time is quite emotional and I see his/her little arm moving, sweet little lips, lungs, heart beats, spinal chord, fully formed face and body, limbs/legs, kidneys, bladder and etc. I just want to hold my little angel tightly and comfort him/her. The report showed no obvious abnormality and average growth.

Amniocentesis Test

Test brought forward to 25th August instead due to consultant schedule. Been briefed 1:25 (4%) risk of Trisomy 21 and 0.75-1.0% miscarriage after the procedure. We determined to have the further test to confirm the chromosomes abnormality.

The consultant drawn 16ml of amniotic fluid from my uterus with a thin needle poked through stomach with probe from scan. This procedure have to be done within 15th week but not later than 16th week just in case the fetus grow bigger. I have to put up my feet and rest for at least 48 hours without any house-work and refrained from work too.

Fortunately, the trisomy test for chromosomes 13, 18 and 21 is normal and I can carry on with my pregnancy as nothing happened.

Nuchal Translucency and Dating scan 13w and 2d (09/08/2010)

My EDD brought forward from 18th February to 12th February, 2010. I have triple test where blood test, dating and Nuchal (normally scan from 11w till 13+6 weeks) at the same time. My blood markers result ain't great and the Nuchal Translucency screening is 28mm (higher that average 25mm or lower).

Therefore, I have been categorised as increased risk for Trisomy 21 or baby with Down Syndrome or Chromosomes 21 abnormality. It had been a stressful and dreadful week ahead since the midwife rang to arrange for an amniocentesis procedure scheduled on 26th August, 2010.

FHHR

I heard my baby first ever FHHR (Fetal Heart Heard Regularly) during routine 17 weeks check-up. beating so fast and strong. Average beat 16-20 per minute. Occasionally heard his/her movement too. BP 100/50 and all well so far.

Awww...its been a long time since I last blogged!

How awful? I should have done better in blogging my latest news!
Yeah, excitment and mixed feelings kick-in especially preparing for new arrival coming February. I'm 16 weeks pregnant and hopefully all goes well and my EDD 18th, February or first dating scan brought forward to 12th February, 2011. So, stay tune :-)

I'm lucky not having morning sickness or any time of the days' sickness except frequent trips to loo in the evening :-( Therefore, unable to sleep well and enjoy my beauty sleep. I suffer from cold and sneeze a lots; funny taste buds and metallic like taste lingering in my mouth ever since I discovered I'm pregnant 6th week. I thought all this will eleminate after 12th week but unfortunately I still have to tolerate with that! None of my close friends or colleagues suspect I'm expecting as my little bum still disguise well under loose T-shirt.

I'm gone off Indian curries but still craving for spicy food sometimes. Mostly, I'm craving sweet taste and chinese ribs (BBQ or Capital spare ribs)...probably my baby like Chinese food :-)

Sometimes I wonder what hair colour (probably dark or brownish hair colour), eye and how my baby look, etc??? Unknown sex yet and not able to feel the trumble or somersault at 16th week as describe in most book. Probably first time mom only identify this between 18th to 20th week!

Victoria Cake

Freshly baked from oven!
Cooled and spread with Blackcurrent jam without cream. I dislike very rich cake!

A classic Victoria sponge cake, anyone?
I didn't sprinkle icing sugar on top because I didn't like my cake too sweet!


Mmmm...smell of baking cake is so great and this motivate me to try more recipes (finger-cross)
I researched baking cakes recipes and tips from internet but have faith with Delia Smith Easy Cookbook.
Preparation time 15 minutes, baking time 35 minutes for 8 inches tin at 170C fan oven.

I would give 7/10 in term of taste and texture and no presentation :-)
The edge is a bit crunchy and dried, probably too much oil for the sandwich tin.

Zesty Orange Blueberries Muffins

I think I have fallen in love with baking cakes.
My first attempt in baking muffins was better than expected.
The baking smell make the house feel cosy and welcoming...compliment from my husband back home from work.
Preparation time is 15 minutes and baking time is 20-25 minutes at 180C fan oven.
I follow Delia Smith's method and a "twist" of recipe from the Leith's Cooking Bible.
The muffins taste great and perfect.

Rice Cooker

How exciting, we seem to have cutting-edge in kitchen over majority of British for rice cooker. What happened?? Most of the British boiled rice in saucepan with salt; drained and served. Sadly, they preferred rice less soggy and less starchy, where as I brought up the opposite side, I like my rice soft and a bit starchy.
My family have been wondering how we cook our rice????

We bought a rice cooker to experiment cooking perfect rice.

1) I rinsed the long grain rice twice, something new to Tim, he cooked rice without rinsing in a saucepan (lots of water).
Tim was bought up boiling rice with salt water in saucepan, drained and served.
I measured water using back of my palm, sometimes finger.
Tim used more scientific calculation; ratio 2:1 (packaging suggestion)
The rice too soggy and starchy for him.

2) Rinsed rice three/four times, used the ratio 2:1 ie cooked 200g rice in 400ml water.
We discovered after rinsing, there is 50ml water in rice, so minus 50ml from the total amount of water for cooking.
He added a pinch of salt in cooking rice with rice cooker :-(
A bit less starchy but still soggy

3) Third time lucky, we cooked easy cook rice (part boiled). Rinsed twice, cooked rice by a ratio of 1:2. Precisely, the rice cooked to perfection and we like it too. So, we agreed on easy cook rice with the ratio of 1 (part of rice) : 2 (water)

4) Cooked rice as suggested on packaging 1(rice):1.8(water) without rinsing
Rice ok but overall texture a bit dry
This is not rocket science and it's easier to round up figure rather than 1.8 calculation of whatever amount of rice we cook :-)


We bought Thai Fragrant Rice but yet to experiment. Don't worry, we're not rice cooking obsessive and we didn't bulk buying.
We normally buy rice in 1kg pack :-)

There are express rice for microwave or boiled rice in sealed pack.
How revolting to dump a pack of sealed rice (literally heating up); fish out, cut and serve on plate. That's how you consider, cooking your own rice!!!

Joyful Christmas

We throw a pre-Christmas festive party for my family, altogether 10 of us..Woww, we had roasted pork instead of traditional turkey with potatoes, parnips, cauliflower, broccoli, sweetcorn and peas.

We bought 2.805kg pork from our local farm at St. Alban, simply roast the pork with pinch of salt in oven at 220C for 30 minutes, then 160C till cooked (add 30 minutes cooking time to every 500g of meat). We peeled 2.5kg potatoes and 1.5kg parnips to roast in goose fat (yummy and smelling really nice).

Our dessert, Woodland fruits strudel with Vanilla and toffee ice-cream served with blueberries.

We enjoyed our food very much and compliment to the chef, Tim. We did the traditional bit by pulling Christmas cracker crossed hands, decorating our first Christmas tree and a White Christmas meal :-)



Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow (Frank Sinatra's song playing in my mind, feel very X'masty) Looking forwards for White Christmas :-)

Kissing Under Christmas Mistletoe

There are several stories to explain how the tradition of kissing under the Mistletoe began.
It is said that it began from the Greek festival of Saturnalia.
It has also been seen that Mistletoe was used primitive marriage rites, as it was believed that Mistletoe had the power to confer fertility.

Thus, another belief associated with the Mistletoe is that it is blessed with 'life-giving' powers. This belief has certainly been derived from the legend of Balder and Frigga. Scandinavian people regard Mistletoe to be a carrier of peace and thus, people coming under it, had to make up or declare ceasefire, at least temporarily.

However it was in 18th century in England that the concept of 'kissing ball' was introduced. Since then, it was made a ritual that if any young lady was caught under the ball of Mistletoe, she could not refuse to be kissed. This ritual is still prevalent in many European countries and even Canada. Kissing under the Mistletoe is an art in itself and thus, you need to be well prepared for the have to catch or you are caught by, someone under the mistletoe.

It is about a healthy exchange of love and good wishes, so if you are apprehensive about it, you can simply refuse.

Wedding Reception

Bohooo........... everything went beautifully as planned. Everybody like the idea of "bubbles" (cheerful and happy vibe all over the air) and "surreal" rose promander entrance.





We have a modest reception at Thai Fusion, with live broadcast to Malaysia.
Like the children facial expression while skype online!
My lovely niece, Rachel and mom
We have lots of compliment on our food selection and everybody enjoyed the meal with jazz music background.









There was a tiny hole on my floor skimming wedding gown hemline, therefore I changed to modern Chinese Cheong-sam.












This is our lovely decorated three tiers cake. The roses and butterflies complement each other well.


We followed Chinese cultural tradition by giving red packets (ang pau) to the children and unmarried sibling. The western kids were very amused and grateful for the "ang pau". Most of them "show and tell" at school.


Here, come the guest .......

We had the most grateful and wonderful day of our life. We would like to thank you all our guest for taking extra miles to travel early in Saturday morning in order to witness our church ceremony. Lovely to see them at our wedding and thank you very much for their helps and kind gifts.

Signing of Marriage Certificate

Wooden mantel clock at 11:40am, signing 5 copies of Marriage certificate. We need two witnesses to verify our signatures.






Mike Ffrench Lynch (Best man)

David CW Chin (My elder brother)

Wedding Ceremony

Its all happened so fast, after all we are ready to say our wedding vows and exchanging of the wedding rings as husband and wife. Service started at 11:15am and finished 12 midday.



The Entrance : Jeremiah Clarke (Prince of Denmark's March/Trumpet Voluntary
I hardly noticed the background music while walking down the aisle and trying to slow down. Unfortunately, we marched through quietly without peeping at the guests standing for our entrance.

Saying our marriage vows : Charles announced "Tim and Siew Fun, I now invite you to join hands and make your vows, in the presence of God and his people"

“I, Timothy Niall Ffrench Lynch, take you, Siew Fun Chin, to be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part; according to God's holy law. In the presence of God I make this vow”

Vice-versa on my side, saying our vows to each other strengthen our love.



Tim placed the ring on my fourth finger, holding it and declared: "Siew Fun, I give you this ring as a sign of our marriage. With my body, I honour you, all that I am I give to you, and all that I have I share with you, within the love of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit"
Holding Tim fourth finger I suddenly feel clumsy and blurted: "Tim, I give you this ring as a sign of our marriage. With my body, I honour you, all that I am I give IT to you, and all that I have I share with you, within the love of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit"
So, who care if I said it my way and Tim thought this add a little character to our vow.

Wedding at St. John's Church, Harpenden 24-10-2009

Curate The Reverend Charles Burch, David, Madeline, Christine

Traditionally, bride is not suppose to be seen by others before the wedding ceremony. Therefore, I've been hiding in the church hall. On our way to main church and seeing my husband-to-be (Tim) as well as families, relatives and friends for the first time.

Madeline, my lovely flower girl scattered red rose petals while we were walking down the aisle.
My elder brother, David Chin giving me away at the church ceremony.

It was a raw drizzling rain in the morning of Saturday, 24th October, 2009.
There is an old saying that rain on your wedding day is a lucky omen. The Italians even have a saying for it, "Sposa bagnata, sposa fortunata", which means that a wet bride is a lucky bride. In the U.S., it is commonly repeated that rain is lucky.

Although it was drizzling and raining in between, we enjoyed and survived the day beautifully. Everyone have a wonderful time and mingled along well till 5:30pm.

Rain is also considered to be a good wedding omen in Germany, Sweden, and France. This is possibly because rain is associated with a bountiful harvest, and thus, fertility. Some believe that the rainier the wedding day, the more children the marriage will produce. Blessed!