Lonely, I am so lonely...

Because my cheeky is away for the next 5 day and I'm back to mom's place for the time being. I remember I used to love being at home alone, having the whole house to myself, doing whatever I wanted to do. But after a whole day of meeting in office today, for the first time I wasn't looking forward to taking mrt and going back to an empty house. Now I know why there are so many workaholics who can stay in office everyday, even weekends because at least there's company and most importantly satisfaction in working. Sorry, but that's definitely not going to be me! How I look forward to the end of each day to pick Cheeky and weekends where I can spent quality time with my dearest hubby, even if its just lazing around at home.

Well, at least I've little cheeky to accompany me wherever I go. She's so playful now, kicking and moving around. Just measured myself the other day, 36-36-36! Omg! I'm officially round now! Haha

2 more months before the end of our 二人世界!

Counting up and down...

There's only one word to explain the lack of updates - laziness.

Actually life has been more relaxed after the wedding and honeymoon, other than the usual work from Monday to Friday, and the usual sleep-till-noon weekends, my other days are pretty free actually. Yes, life's quite a breeze now and it's good.

Now that I've lived as Mrs Chong for more than a year, time flies doesn't it. Nothing much has changed actually, we're still enjoying each other's company as much as the times we were dating, probably more so since we now have a common goal and direction, and that is to set up our own family. It's not about the bouquets of flowers, expensive gifts or meals that he gives me, but it's the simple things like queuing for n95 masks when the psi is 400 that never fails to touch me.

Major updates since we were back from honeymoon? Cut my hair short (and then even shorter), visited S.E.A Aquarium (foc thanks to the ns45 vouchers), and our house is almost done!!!

And of course the most exciting of it all, watching little cheeky grow slowly in my tummy, and here's some tummy shots for 2,3,4 and 5 months...

2 and a half months more to go, can't wait!

Expect the Unexpected

Yes, I'm talking about a baby!!

It came as quite a surprise though. Although both Cheeky and I wanted kids, we decided to just 顺其自然, because we've heard many stories of couples trying so hard for years, so we're not putting much stress on ourselves to plan exactly when is the right time.

So on 1st of January, Cheeky made his new year resolution to 好好做人. I had no idea when was the faithful day that it happened, all I remember was that one fine night I told Cheeky 'I think I'm ovulating, let's try.'

Life went on as per normal after that, I still went running, gym, cycling, eating and drinking like what I always did. As my period was never accurate, I didn't suspect anything when it didn't come the next month. Somemore my boobs were starting to feel swollen, like how they always do before my period comes, so I thought to myself: mission failed. try again next month. And so I waited, another 2 weeks passed, nothing happened. Boobs were still swollen, and cheeky said I became literally very hot. Then I grew a bit suspicious so I googled for symptoms of pregnancy. It says things like swollen breasts and sensitive nipples, yes. Fatigue, yes a bit, but everyone gets it somemore I was busy preparing for my wedding. Nauseous and vomiting, not really, I'm still eating like I used to. Spotting and cramping, just a tiny bit of cramping perhaps. Need to pee frequently, not that I noticed. Other things like headache, backache, mood swings etc, all these are so general that it's as good as not saying.

As the days passed, I waited and waited, until it came to a point that I don't know if I'm really starting to feel nauseous or was it psychological. And then came CNY which means lots of steamboat, food, wine and other goodies. Surprisingly my usual sweet tooth for all the sinful cookies and pineapple tarts disappeared. Then I began to get more and more suspicious as each day passed. Everyday I'll ask Cheeky "should I go buy the test kit" and he'll tell me "wait a few more days la, where got so lucky one?"

So I waited for exactly another month, until Valentine's day eve when we were walking around in Tampines One that I finally decided to buy it and test. If we're really so lucky, it will be our Vday present.

And so after the clock strike twelve and reading the instructions many times, I grabbed my towel and the test kit to the shower. Actually the instructions were quite idiot-proof. Just pee on it, point it down or horizontal, wait for a minute and see if it's a + or -. Honestly I've never felt so stressed peeing before, my hands were trembling and so many thoughts were going through my head, like "what to do when it's a +?" or "what's wrong with my period if it's a -?" As my pee wetted the strip and gradually spread to the 'window of truth', the results came staring at me almost instantly:

My hands were still trembling as I stared at 'the moment of truth' in disbelief and shouted "OMG! OMG!" to myself. As I closed my eyes and showered, I couldn't help but think of how to break the news to everyone, how I'll look like with a big fat tummy and how our lives are going to change with a baby on board.

I hid the test kit as I walked back into the room where Cheeky was waiting. I smiled at him, didn't say anything and just showed it to him. He stared at it for a few seconds and asked me what it means. "Happy Valentine's day and you're going to be a daddy!" I whispered and gave Cheeky a tight tight hug.

The next few days I completely put our wedding preps to a halt and spent all my free time reading up forums and searching for a gynae as we didn't want to inform anyone until it has been confirmed. So I made the first appointment to see the gynae that Saturday. 

On Friday night I was so worried and paranoid until I couldn't sleep. I don't know why but all the possible negative outcomes came to my mind, maybe because I was reading too much forum discussions about babies with no heartbeats, miscarriages etc (touch wood!), knowing that the probability of babies not making past the first trimester is as high as one in five or six, and even more worried when I have heard of many such experiences from people I know. I even wondered if it can be a false alarm.

The next morning, we woke up earlier than our usual Saturdays and paid our first visit to the gynae. The nurse first asked me to do a urine dip stick to test for any leaking sugar or protein, then took my weight and bp before waiting to go in to the doctor's room. After the doctor asked the usual questions of past medical history, LMP etc, I was asked to lie on the bed for a ultrasound scan. He tried the abdominal scan first, but because the baby was too small and couldn't see much, he then took out his 'secret weapon' - the vaginal scan. I was nervous when he poked that thing in to search for the baby, and there it was:

A little thing in a sac with a tiny heart that's beating strong. That's our 7 weeks old baby!!!

Fast forward, now little cheeky is 18 weeks already and growing strong and fast. I'm starting to feel his/her little kicks and somersaults like a fish swimming in me. Little cheeky sure is playful, doing handstands during OSCAR and crossing his/her legs at the last scan, not showing doctor if he/she's a boy or girl. But little cheeky has been good to me, I didn't have much morning sickness throughout my first trimester, just felt a bit nauseous especially at night, but I still ate my meals and didn't puke. Little cheeky loves meat just like the daddy and he/she is surprisingly a healthy eater who loves fruits and vege and have no interest in chocolates or ice-cream (which I used to eat so much!)

Now that we're finally done with all the wedding stuff, it's time to get busy again making space in the house for little cheeky and very soon after that, our new house!

And finally a picture of me?

Haha, that's a very unglam shot taken during our honeymoon.

Back from honeymoon!!

Reluctantly of course. It has been the most beautiful 2 weeks of 2013 so far, to spend 2 completely carefree weeks away from this hot little island to the other side of the world!

Although we had abt 1 and a half weeks after our wedding to pack our luggage and prepare for the trip, time was still very tight as I had to work till the very day we were leaving. 

We took the midnight flight on Emirates, stopping 1 hour in Colombo and transitting in Dubai before finally reaching Rome! First day in Rome was free and easy, so after settling down in the hotel and going to the supermarket to get some water, we collapsed on the bed till the next morning.

We started our Italy tour from Rome with the mandatory tourist places, I don't know if its because of the Easter weekend, but Italy was very crowded everywhere, and we had to grab on to our bags tight and keep a lookout for the gypsies. My favourite part of Italy was shopping! The tour took us to The Mall where it is the outlet for most of the branded boutique, and boy, it was so much cheaper there!!! Just look at me and you can guess the damage.

After Rome, we also visited Florence, Pisa, Venice and Milan. So let the photos speak...

After a few nights in Italy, we set off to our next destination: Switzerland. Although it was a long drive, the journey was scenic, especially upon entering the Swiss mountains where we were all so excited at the first sight of snow!

We spent 2 nights in Interlaken and went up 2 mountains. First was Jungfraujoch, which is the top of Europe. The journey up by train is about 2 hours but certainly worth it.

The next day we went up Mt Titlis by cable car, similarly snowy, but it was a pity the sky bridge was closed so we spent the time playing in snow! Cheeky was so scared I will slip and fall and was holding on to me so tight!

Presenting to you the beautiful city of Interlaken! All was good except for the big groups of tiong tourists who buy rolex like toy watches!

After Interlaken, we proceeded to Lucerne for a few photo stops and to spend the night there before the long journey the next day. Beautiful city by day and night!

The next day was the longest bus ride to Paris, we set off at 8 plus and only arrived in Paris at 6ish in the evening. Being adventurous, we decided to take a cab down to Eiffel Tower with the initial plan of going up the tower and search for dinner in the area. Never did we expect it to be so cold and the wind so strong that we almost froze our ears off up in the tower while waiting for the lifts! We took so long just to get up and down the tower and were too cold to walk anywhere for dinner that we decided to just go back to hotel and settle dinner with room service and cup noodles.

Our guided tour in Paris began the next day with sightseeing drive in the city and visit to Louvre Museum and of course shopping!!! Since we didn't get to have a proper dinner the day before, we decided to treat ourselves to something French to end our tour in Paris. Walking down the street where our hotel was located, we settled for this french restaurant which looked authentic as it was full of the local people. Our verdict: real French food can only be found in France. The onion soup was nothing like the ones I've tasted in S'pore, it came in a huge bowl and had a thick layer of cheese of at last 3cm!!  I surrendered after half a bowl. For mains, I had salmon and Cheeky finally had his duck confit which he had been craving for for days. My salmon was normal and the duck was good! And finally came dessert, we shared a creme brûlée as I'm not a big fan of desserts now. It was huge and the best creme brûlée I've had so far!!

Then we headed further north to our last 2 destinations: Brussels and Amsterdam.

Brussels was just a stopover for lunch and photos and not forgetting chocolates.

Headed over to Amsterdam where we spent the last 2 nights.

We visited Keukenhof to see the tulips which were not in full bloom yet, and of course not forgetting the wooden clogs and windmills, before ending the day with a walk down the red light district.

And the total damage: see it for yourself (of course not all are mine):

 

Now that we're back, I wonder when our next holiday will be...