cord blood banking

i'm growing puffier with each passing day.

no kidding.

besides heaving about the extra weight on my belly, more frequent trips to the loo and sleepless nights (caused by regular visits to the toilet every other hour), my face, fingers, calves and feet (toes?) are bloating at a rate faster than the balloon sculptor pumps helium into his balloons. the water retention is a sure sign that terrorliza's making her grand entrance soon, within the next 2 to 4 weeks.

this morning, i had to remove my wedding ring as it was getting itchy and tight. there's still an imprint around my 4th finger and i doubt i'll be wearing my ring till after the baby's delivery. :(

the hub and i also decided that since terrorliza's probably going to be our last baby, we should seriously consider storing her cord blood, just in case. dr lim also reckoned that with medical and scientific research progressing at such a miraculously advanced rate, the future uses of cord blood and stem cells could benefit the family if ever the need arises.

i was tasked to research on this and discovered that there are 2 private and 1 public cord blood banks in singapore: cordlife, stemcord and the singapore cord blood bank. we discounted the public cord blood bank immediately as it was more of a voluntary donation at no cost (which means that we can't use our own child's cord blood should we ever need to). as for the other 2 private cord blood banks, the main difference (for now) is that one is internationally accredited by AABB (formerly known as american association of blood banks) while the other has multiple storage units for the cord blood.

the terms and conditions and procedures were similar and the annual storage fee of S$250 (for up till 21 years) was identical. the hub told me to make the final call. so it was down to the dollars and cents. i spoke to respective representatives from both companies and i finally settled for stemcord, which charged only S$100 less for the initial payment.

it's definitely not a cheap investment - we'll probably cough out about 7-8k in total - but it's worth the expenses especially if something horrid really happens and the children's lives are at risk. one can never truly predict what the future has in store for us.

judy, judy, judy i love you...

've been into a young readers' craze since last year - which i suspect is largely due to the fact that i'm a mum trying to cultivate good reading habit in her kids - and still haven't gotten out of it.

kiddie books are obviously easier to digest, with simple story lines which make for light reading and won't tax your brain cells too much. life is already stressful and complicated as it is, and ploughing through dan brown's elaborate twist and turns thrillers isn't exactly what i want to pick up after a gruelling day at work and tucking the boisterous kids in bed. i've already blown a few hundred dollars on dr. seuss (hardcover) books and now own about 95% of his entire collection. both xian and wen love his ridiculously witty and funny rhymes and i try to read 1 or 2 books every night before they sleep.

last year, when i was browsing through the shelves to buy birthday books for my nieces and nephew, i was picking our roald dahl's collection. then i decided that my eldest niece, who turns 11 this july, should be reading something a little "more advanced" and that's when i recalled my first "coming-of-age" teen book by judy blume entitled Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret? and i got a copy for her (it's all wrapped up and i'm waiting for july to give it to her). i also picked up another judy blume book for her younger sister (who'll be 9 this july as well) and got her Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, which is the 1st of 5 fudge books.

i was fascinated by the Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing book cover and when i read the first few lines of the chapter, i was hooked and suddenly remembered why i love judy blume! and of course, since i have an anal habit of buying my books from the same publisher / similar artwork and design, i had to raid several bookshops to get all 5 of the fudge books. then, i hid the books in my drawer, waiting for an appropriate time to read them... :)

here's presenting the fudge series:

of course, since they weren't displayed openly on my bookcase, i conveniently forgot about their existence until last week when i was packing my maternity bag, getting ready for the delivery. i emptied my drawers to file my clinic receipts and scans of terrorliza, and found the books neatly stashed in the corner.

my initial plan was to pack them in my maternity bag so that i could read them in the hospital when i was bored. but they looked so inviting...

...so during the easter weekend, i dug out all 5 books and promised myself that i'd complete reading them. (not a mean feat as they're pretty thin and meant for 9-12 year olds. and if i managed to devour the last harry potter novel in 48 hours, it wasn't going to be a challenge.)

it was well worth the wait. i even posted a short review in my facebook iread:

"it doesn't matter if you're 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years young! this fudge series is a light-hearted take on sibling rivalry and the pressures of coping with peer influence. great for young kids with siblings and parents with young kids. ;) love this"

now my only problem is that i've to find some other alternative reading material during my stay in the hospital...

by the way, i'm not sure if anyone has heard of johnny tillotson's classic judy judy judy, but that's where i got this blog title from. ;)

What Kind Of Mom Will You Be?

here's another one of those random quizzes from facebook. try this out yourselves.

and my result is...Super Duper Mom???!?!?!?!?!?!?

yeah...right. how i wish it were true.

if i were so super, my kids would be intellectually brilliant, well-mannered, well-behaved, perfect little sweetie pie angels...and i won't be getting snide remarks about how lax i am with the kids, how i don't know how to teach/discipline my kids etc.

*sigh*

whoever said being a parent is easy-peasy?

i'm now 35 weeks into my final trimester, and i think wen's beginning to sense that "the competition" will begin soon. i remember xian also started to behave in a similar a few weeks before wen was born - she was clingy and difficult, and demanded my attention constantly even though the grandfolks and her dad were around. so i suppose it's natural reaction/intuition for wen to behave as such. and she's still a little too young to verbally communicate her insecurities (xian was slightly older then and she was able to voice her frustrations to a certain extent).

last night i raided the cupboards and unpacked all the old baby clothes which i'd kept. the MIL and i went through the pile and sorted out all the newborn-sized apparel, including mittens, booties, hankies and cloth diapers for washing. most of them were hand-me-downs from the older cousins to xian, then to wen and now to terrorliza. one of the outfits is really ancient - my mum had passed down an old shirt that i had worn when i was a baby! gosh, that's like 34 years old!

i've also packed my hospital bag, just in case terrorliza makes an earlier-than-planned appearance. technically, if she chooses to arrive in week 37, she's still considered full-term. essentially this means i have about 3-5 weeks left to carry the bump. and we all *know* how quickly time flies, so i can't afford to laze around and wait till the final moments.

not surprisingly, i'm not too excited about going through all that labour-contraction motion. i just hope for a safe, smooth, fuss-free and uncomplicated birth. perhaps it's just my feminist streak try to break free, but i just think it's so darn unfair that women have to go through 40 weeks of pregnancy, then hours of agonising labour, childbirth and after the ordeal, thrown the main responsibility of being the primary care-giver!

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

forgive me. it's them crazy hormones taking control again.

Super Duper Mom? let's face it, i'm obviously *so* not mumsy material.

reading recommendations?

i'm so, so glad that the 07/08 academic year is nearly over.

granted, there're a few more administrative procedures to go through, what with the supplementary revisions and assessments coming up within the next 2 weeks.

other than that, there only thing left for me to do is to clean/tidy up my desk at work before i go on my maternity leave (don't intend to return to a pest-infested cubicle and find new creepy crawlie residents snuggly settled in my workspace during my 12 week absence!)

and, of course, get ready to tackle my next challenge: the birth of terrorliza the rugrat.

i'm hoping to catch up on some reading which i've sorely neglected since the start of my 3rd pregnancy. the latest book on my list to look out for is Christopher Paolini's Brisingr, the 3rd novel from the Inheritance Cycle (previously known as the Inheritance Trilogy before he realised he had too much to write and could only complete the series with 4 instead of the originally planned 3 books.)

unfortunately, the book's only going to be published in september 2008. argh. that's quite a long wait. but here're the covers of all three, including the 3rd one:

any suggestions on what book(s) i should pick up?

are you on facebook?

i'll own up. i've been facebooking.

yes, facebook is quite addictive.

it started when i decided to fight vampires, werewolves, zombies and slayers.

completely senseless and nonsensical, i know.

then i got hooked sending roses, ice-creams, hugs, smiles, eggs, plants and water globes, not to mention super-poking friends: throwing them obamas, hilarys, ghosts, pies, sheep, cows etc.

there're a zillion other applications which i've added and removed along the way (stuff i find totally meaningless / boring / useless), and others which i keep receiving but have completely ignored (stuff i find totally meaningless / boring / useless). actually i'm equally guilty of sending invitations and requests asking friends to add the ones i like.

but that's just the tip of the iceberg. the real fun (at least for me) was to find out what people were up to these days. i trawled friends' list and discovered other long lost classmates/friends who were somehow connected - the usual six degrees of separation situation. when the list was exhausted, i turned to networks and groups to continue my search for old friends, schoolmates and - gasp - the ex!

it's a terrible confession to make cos i'm actually admitting that my curiosity has gotten the better of me and i'm indirectly spying on people!!!

oooooooooo. nasty, NASTY mumsy!

but i reconnected with friends i've lost contact with over the years, and have been playing the "catch-up game" with them. i've added some of my cousins, students (past and present), ex-colleagues, workmates etc to my list too.

naturally, there are individuals who are quite expressive and won't hesitate to broadcast and post their daily activities on facebook. some others are a teeny-weeny more reserved and inactive, and have opted to guard their privacy with restriction settings to prevent unauthorised viewing of their profile.

personally, i don't fancy the thought of total strangers prying into all aspects of my life either so i've limited my profile to allow access only to friends.

ironically, the hub's kept his distance from these technologically driven attempts to get people connected.

we're talking about a guy who's got a degree in computer science and spent his early career days as a systems analyst, living and breathing IT. so far, he's remained msn-free (much less own a blog) and thinks facebook is overhyped and overrated, and a waste of time.

ah well.

but i can see his point. facebook can be a tad distracting especially when there're deadlines to meet. i doubt bosses will appreciate delays and lapses in project management because their staff have been too busy super-poking their contacts online to work effectively.

facebook may be red-hot until the "next big thing" usurps its position and it joins the dethroned myspace, friendster et al.

before that happens, let me go spread some love and monster hug some 20 people online. and i think i'll try to persuade a couple of friends to join me as sith in the battle against the jedi.

the waiting game

yes, the countdown has begun.

i'm now 34 weeks pregnant, with just another 4-6 more weeks to go. terrorliza's due 21 april, but i can't be certain if she's going to pop earlier. as mentioned in my previous post, my 2 older ones decided they'd had enough of cramp conditions in the womb and arrived at about 38 weeks.

and frankly, i'm quite tired of answering the "when's baby due?" question from colleagues and friends. not that i want to be rude, but it's absolutely frustrating!
thankfully, the teaching term has ended though the examination results have not been officially released yet. in about 2 weeks the supplementary assessments will commence and i *should* be still around to close the loop as i don't anticipate that terrorliza will arrive any earlier than the 1st week of april.

all right, i'm getting a little impatient already. need some distraction. think i've got a pack of peanut butter m&m's in the drawer to lighten my mood...