my lovely roses from hubby ...

sigh ... lousy thing about flowers is that they die so quickly :( what a dreadful waste of money. They are really very pretty though.

My 35th Birthday ...

*SOB*

yes, it's true .. I turned 35 on the 27th of Dec ... BUMMER. I'm OLD ..

Hubby was so sweet ... secretly ordered a beautiful cake and a lovely bunch of roses for me .. it's also our 11th wedding anniversary .. (yes, can u imagine we've been STUCK with each other for 11 years?) we started DATING 17 years ago .. then got married after 6 years of courtship ..

11 years of marriage and 4 kids later and we're happier now than when we first got married cos we have our lovely, wonderful girls :)








yeah, u don't see Calista cos she was asleep in her crib .. lol



Here I am with my bunch of roses .. :) and my girls ... again without Calista .. poor baby.

Merry Christmas to everyone !!!

Me and my gals ... ok, the ones that were NOT napping at the time ... lol. Emily and Calista were out cold after lunch ... Emily from the food at Swensens and Calista from all the milk she drank while Mummy was having her food .. lol .. multi-tasking I call it.

Anyway, this was taken outside my favourite store ... DAISO .. aw, come on .. the place is awesome ... they have everything!! And for only $2!! .. I replaced my pair of chopsticks today (mine were getting old looking) ... and some birthday candles ... they have these nice ones with hearts on them ... 10 candles in the pack .. $2 only!! I was looking at the baking stuff they had too .. so cheap .. !! I used to love baking when I was younger ... now with kids, I just don't have the time ... sigh ... must pick it up again soon ...

So I was walking around Daiso looking at the kitchen stuff when I hear the announcement over their PA system ... they have a new store opening at Sembawang Shopping Centre ... !!!

That is wonderful news ... Sembawang SC is just a 5 min drive away from my house !! YAY!!!!!!

I know, I know .. it's damn unglam to like Daiso ... BUT I CAN'T HELP IT .. I DO !!! Ok, I draw the line on buying make-up and CLOTHES (heaven forbid) from Daiso ... but I love the other stuff they have ... lol.

Another hubby story ...

Yesterday, while we were at Causeway Point, hubby saw some DVD sale happening in front of Cold Storage. He spotted this really old dvd title ..



Come on, I watched this in the cinema when I was like 6 years old I think. My father took us to see it ...
That's how old it is .. lol

Anyway, it was on sale for $14.90 so hubby happily bought it and declared that he was going to make Claudia (poor girl) watch it with him. SIGH. I pointed out that it wasn't really something a child would watch (cos it's a freaking 3 hour and 39 minutes long movie) and that she might not understand the story.

But of course, uncle claimed that he watched it when he was young .. NUMEROUS TIMES and that he ENJOYED the movie immensely .. and that he was sure Claudia would like it too.

Yeah, right .. sometimes I think he was born yesterday and doesm't know his own daughter.. lol!

So today after lunch, he made everyone sit down and put on the movie.
Initially, like the first 10 min, it was ok ... then it got a bit tedious. And there was a lot of dialogue ...

A lot ...

The only one watching the movie intently was hubby.
I had earlier announced to him that I was not going to sit through such a long and OLD movie and ran off to my PC to surf the net. Lauren, the poor girl, initially had 20 million questions like, "why did she put the baby in the basket?" .. and "Is she a bad aunty?" hahahahahaah. Then she got bored and ran off to play with Emily ...

Claudia tried her best to understand what she could .. my poor poor child. She did try to get away once or twice but was called back to sit and watch the movie by hubby .. the evil man .. lol.

It was a very long 3 hours and 39 minutes.

I am so going to HIDE that dvd in some cupboard.

vomitting blood ...

ok, so I don't have a picture of me actually vomitting blood, but trust me, I felt like it today .. why, u ask? ... I made the dire mistake of going grocery shopping with hubby .. not the quick run to the NTUC nearby type of shopping trip ... but the major once a month grocery run to Carrefour at Suntec City mall.

Firstly, we left the house rather late after lunch ... then as we were travelling on the SLE, there was a massive jam .. turned out an accident JUST occurred .. it was quite tragic actually - a motorcyclist was killed .. (yes, we saw the body) .. So we arrived at Carrefour a little before 4pm .. not really near closing time BUT Claudia had a ballet class at 5.30pm .. so we basically had just an hour to shop for everything.

sigh

And that was the problem ...

Hubby thinks I should have a list .. so that we don't "wander aimlessly" in the hypermart ... as he puts it ...

HUH *me snorting*

I told him that I have to go through almost every aisle anyway .. so list or not, I know what I need to buy ... I don't need a list .. I buy almost the same things every month anyway!

So there he was ... rushing us though the place .. I hate being rushed .. I tend to forget things when I am rushed ...

blardy man.

So ... as we left the carpark a little past 5pm, uncle was complaining cos we had to pay per hour parking PLUS the per entry charge (cos we went past 5pm) .. for just that short ONE hour that we parked ... he was saying that I should've have listened to him and rushed through my shopping etc etc ...

I pointed out to him that we had been delayed by the jam on the SLE .. and that we were late to begin with .. and that I had told him to just turn back and go back and leave the shopping for another day ... but of course uncle didn't want to hear it.

sigh

Anyway, that is the last time we bring him along to Carrefour ..

Actually, I wanted to wait till he went back to work on Tuesday but we were running low on groceries and other items that I had no choice but to bring him along ..

I've already told him once that if he's going to NOT be of any help .. then it's better he not be there at all ..

lol.

I also told him in the car that I think it's time he goes back to wotk ..

lol.

I'm not one of those wives that can tahan their hubbies being home for long stretches of time ..

PLEASE, go to work. As long as I have the maid at home, I am a happy chicky .. that and the car .. and my computer and internet access .. and money of course ...

Hubby being at home is a not essential .. well, not ALL the time .. I'd go bonkers.

Anyway, I spent a bomb at Carrefour ... $822. No snacks, no tidbits .. no extras .. all essentials like rice and soap and diapers and formula.

*sob*

ahhh the hefty price of a big family .. that doesn't even include the amt I spend on meat, veggies and bread and other things I buy on a weekly basis .. I calculated that for that I spend another $600 per month.

After just 10 days ...

I'm thinking maybe we can have Number 5 ... of course, hubby was adamant we stop at 4 .. lol. I look at Calista's face and I think .. awww is she really going to be my last baby??

I would love to have a few kids more I guess but I am afraid that physically, my body won't be able to handle it ... this time around, it took me a week to recover from the aches and pains from the delivery .. gosh, A WEEK!! .. I couldn't believe it .. I was a bit alarmed actually.. previously, it took me all of 3 days to be perfectly fine and back to normal. This time, however, no such luck. I was careful to rest and not exert myself those 7 days it took me to feel ok. Thankfully, I had my hubby and my helper with me .. and baby Calista is a very easy baby to care for .. thank goodness!

Calista is always sleeping ... lol

She's 6 days old today ... and so far (touch wood) .. she's a very easy baby. She doesn't fuss or cry very much. She doesn't really mind being put down after a feed .. and she loves sleeping.

So much so, that hubby and I were starting to worry .. lol. She's a really quiet and calm baby.

After FOUR kids ....

Hubby FINALLY buys me flowers .. the girls presented them to me happily when they came to see me after I had Calista ... lol. I love receiving flowers even though I KNOW they're a horrid waste of money ... I guess it's ok for a special occasion like this.



Another good buy ... the rocking cradle from Mothercare ..Calista is lying in it during the day in the hall ... I'm so glad I bought it! .. Here is a pic of Calista taken today ... she's 4 days old !

Some pics of Calista Grace ..

sorry, it's really hard to look glam after giving birth ... lol



Right after she was born ...



She cried for a really short time ... thank goodness !



Ah now, then I don't look so AWFUL ... lol



Here's a nice shot of her ...



Ah yes, all my gals and me .. !




lookin a bit grumpy




At home .. yes, I was discharged today !! YAY!!!

So .. I've POPPED !!!

On Saturday, I was pretty bummed cos hubby said we had to stay home that day IN CASE. I was all game to go down to Vivocity to see the Christmas decorations there .. I hear it's very nice .. !! Anyway, admittedly, like I mentioned earlier ... Vivocity is quite a distance away from KKH so I had to reluctantly agree to stay home that day ...

SIGH.

Nearly died of boredom. When night came around, I suddenly had a bout of dizziness and breathlessness and nausea. Checked my BP with my trusty electronic BP Monitor and true enough, my BP was rather high ... I really really didn't want to go in because of that, so I went to lie down in the hopes that my BP would drop .. it didn't ... Finally, we had to go down to KKH and have it checked out .. I was worried it was pre-eclampsia and decided it was better to be safe than sorry.

At the hospital at about 11pm, I was checked and admitted ... gawd, it was an awful night at the delivery suite .. I was put on all the monitors to check on my baby and myself and a drip ... I couldn't get any sleep AT ALL till about 5am I think. My gynae only came in the next morning .. (Sunday) at about 8am ..

She had my blood tested and all .. and thank goodness it wasn't pre-eclampsia after all .. just a high BP. She decided to let me have my breakfast then said she would induce me since I was going to come in on Tuesday anyway so there was no point waiting. I agreed with her.

At 9am, she broke my waterbag and put me on a drip with medication to help my contractions along. I have to say .. it was a boring few hours with irregular contractions that didn't really hurt all that bad .. They checked me at 11 and baby was till high up and my cervix had not opened.

SIGH.

At 12noon, I was busy sms-ing a pregnant friend and complaining to her that induction was a waste of time for me as nothing was really happening ... dammit. I think I spoke too soon. After that, the nurse came to check on me and asked me to empty my bladder ... I really really tried but the baby was obviously pressing on my bladder so I could not pee at all ... the nurse then used a catheter to drain my bladder ..

The the fun began ...

Well, it wasn't exactly FUN ... more like .. "ACTION" ..

I started to feel quite intense regular contractions at 12.08, 12.09, 12.11 then at 12.14 ..the nurse came to do a VE and I was effaced and about 6cm dilated already!!! My gynae came in at about 12.30pm ... did a check and told me I could start pushin whenever I wanted to ...

WHAT??? So fast? That was my reaction ... !! I was starting to feel really anxious about the actual pushing and felt like backing out .. lol. Of course, I didn't have a choice and started pushin .. I had opted for no epidural or gas mask or any kind of pain relief btw ... *sigh* and had also asked for my gynae to avoid making an episiotomy if possble.

At 1.04, Baby Calista Grace arrived. She weighed 3.61 kg and 52 cm in length ...

I had successfully done it without an epidural or an episiotomy.

YEA!!!