Krabi 2016

I nearly forgot to blog about the Krabi trip that I took last July. The main reason it slipped my mind is that I've been to Phuket and Krabi is very similar to Phuket. Beaches, sand, sun, Thai food, island hopping yadaa yadaa yadaaa. So, you get the gist. But it would not be fair to dismiss Krabi just because of that. Yes, it can be very similar to Phuket but Krabi do have its own attraction. 

This is the first real holiday that I took with the husband and his family. We planned the trip last year as couple but went as husband and wife. And I am 4 months pregnant during the trip. Amazing what can happen in a year time,eh?

The deep blue sea view never fails to amaze me.

If you're long time reader, you would know that I love love love beach holiday. I love the sea, I love the sand and I love the sun too! It just makes me happy. Actually I love travelling in general, so I love every holidays. Sorting through the photos makes me wanna book myself a ticket right now and flying off somewhere new for a change of routine. Too bad being heavily pregnant at almost 31 weeks, I'm confined here. But I already lined up some vacations for next year hehehe. If you think that having a baby will stop me from travelling, then you're so wrong.

We stayed at Oscar Villa in Aonang.

We had our own villa and had all the privacy that needed. The villa is equipped with kitchenette which really comes in handy when I need to make a simple breakfast or late supper. Since the husband and I are super chill, we often slept in while others are out exploring.So we prefer to settle our breakfast at the villa. Plus a hungry pregnant lady is not someone you want to mess it ;p

Instant noodles, fresh kiwi and yogurt drinks that we got from 7-11 are enough to fuel us up till lunch time.

Since our villa is located between Aonang and Krabi town and only accessible by car, it is a wise decision for us to rent a car for our 5 days stay. The car renting process was done online prior to our departure and we collected our car at the airport. With our tourist sim card that we got at the airport, we rely on the data to google for maps. 

A 4 wheel drive to accommodate 8 of us. 

One of the must go places that we slipped into our itinerary is to visit Krabi Night Market. Word has it that it only open on weekend, so we were mad rush from the airport and checked into Oscar Villa and then drive out to Krabi Town because that's the only weekend that we had.

But the next night we passed by the area, the night market still open -'-

The night market is no different from other night markets that I had been to. The abundance of food stalls, souvenirs stalls selling trinklets, phone casing, t-shirts, handmade crafts, clothes and so on lined the whole street. There are some local performance going on too where the local play musical instruments.

You can never go wrong with Thai food

This is an old coffee shop that we stopped at on our way to Emerald Pool

Not a hint of tourists are in sight and because we were hungry and their food looks delicious, we decided to just wing it and dine there. Language is the biggest barrier for us because they speak nil English. So, to order we basically just point and nod, they got some of our orders wrong but it's okay because it is delicious. This shop is specialise in innards of pork and beef paired with broth of your choice (pork/beef/chicken) and noddles of your choice too (rice vermicelli/yellow noodles etc)

Islands hopping day

My memory is hazy about the islands that we visited but we did stopped at a few spots for snorkelling. It was fun to see all the colourful fish underwater, too bad I have no waterproof camera. At our second snorkelling spot, we stopped quite far from the shore and the waves was quite strong. I was so into my snorkelling session, chasing fish with the husband and before we realised it, we  had swam away quite far from our boat.

Frankly, I was scared because we're in the middle of the sea and the waves was strong. Each waves coming in and swept us even further from the boat. Suddenly, the dark blue sea looked almost greenish black to me. When our guide signalling us to get back on the boat, I tried to swim back several times only to realise the waves sent me back to my original spot.

But luckily the husband is by my side. If I were alone, I think I would have spiralled into panic mode and cried on the spot. I gathered myself and continued swimming to the boat with the husband. It was the most tiring swim ever and I was 4 months pregnant. Every time I stroked harder, I could feel my stomach cramp a little.

But I'm not the one that will give up, so yeah, we reached the boat and our guide was grinning at breathless us. ='=

Our guide brought us to an island, sorry ah I forgot the name and gave us a an hour to chill there. Unlike most of the islands that I've visited, this one has not much activities going on. Even the kayaks are quite deserted. I guess it is a lazy day for beach goers as everyone opted to make full use of the sun and sunbathing. 

The only centre of attraction is the boat that sells food. They really made an awesome BBQ chicken which left us wanting for more but the waiting time.....

Me seeking refugee under the tree while waiting for my BBQ chicken

A visit to the Tiger Cave Temple is totally impromptu because my MIL is not fond of temples. But we all are eager to have a look around, so the majority won. I mean it doesn't hurt to appreciate other religions prayer places. I love to learn and explore about the local traditions and stories behind these temples. 

The local name of the temple is Wat Tham Suea and the entrance is free. But it has a strict dress code for visitors. Shorts and revealing outfits are big no no as it shown no respect to the holy ground. We came unprepared since it is not in the plan. 

Because of that we didn't go up the hill and actually got told off by the guard. But the ground area is very interesting to explore as well. Some of the monuments are still under construction.

By the way, if you're coming here to look for tiger due to its name, you will be disappointed because there are no tiger around but they do have monkeys I heard. But the temple is filled with tiger statues and I heard the view of the top of the hill is amazing.

One of the things that I'm excited about during this trip is the visit to Emerald Pool. I've never been to any emerald pool before. The emerald pool is the blueish green pond that filled with clear warm water from nearby stream. The entrance fee is 200THB for adult. 

Spamming our photos at the entrance because halfway through our hike into the forest, it rained. 

We need to walk through a trail for almost a kilometre before reaching the emerald pool. Walking through the trail with some of the trees are tagged reminded me so much of my field trip days. Halfway through the trail, it poured heavily. 

We had no choice but to seek shelter at the nearby abandon building along with other visitors. There were no guide in sight, not sure if they even have any guides there because the trail is pretty straight forward. 

Since we're going to get wet swimming anyway, we decided to just wing it and walked under the rain. Quite a genius decision because the rain didn't stop at all. I was shivering but it was refreshing. 

Before the rainfall

The emerald pool, nah I'm kidding. This is just the surrounding area

I have no photos of the emerald pool because it was drizzling and I put away my camera. It was quite packed with people. We swam for awhile before taking a break. Too bad the facility nearby is not quite well. There is only one hut for the visitors to rest or put away their stuff or in our case, to put our stuff from being drenched in rain. 

I also dropped my camera here and broke my lens here :(

We also took tour for elephant ride + ATV and rafting. I did not fancy the elephant ride because we did it before in Phuket and it breaks my heart to see those elephants being forced to work. I even see it with my own eyes that the elephant is hit by the trainer if they refused to walk.

Our first stop during the car ride to the trekking place, again I forgot which tour company that we signed up with.

It was a full day trip that included pick up from our villa, buffet lunch and activities such as elephant trekking, ATV, rafting and a visit to the fruit orchard. I think July is the wettest month in Krabi because it rains almost every day for the whole week we're there.

So, this is my OOTD for the tour.

Monkey and elephant shows are available too but for merely less than 5 minutes. Very disappointing and there is no interaction between the host and the audience too.

We did get on the elephant ride but cut it short because the downpour was getting heavier. Our track is muddy and some are even blocked by landslide. Even the ATV activity was cancelled too. 

And this is the activity that I'm so bummed to miss. Rafting!

I've never go rafting before and it is so much fun, according to the husband that he even extended their rafting journey. ='= I wanna try it too but maybe next time after I deliver our baby. I also missed out on flying fox for safety sake but also it is rather boring. 

When I heard that we're going to get fruit tasting, I thought we're going to a real fruit orchard.

Turned out this is the fruit orchard that they're referring to.

Fail to the max la, I was expecting the real trekking into the orchard and picking up fruits ourselves. Instead we're served with fruit platter consisted of guava, watermelon, jack fruit, honeydew and pomelo. Nothing special but you can buy other fruits that available there. We came back empty handed tho.

Baby shopping

I think being pregnant has enhanced my shopping habit to a whole new level. I never pay attention to baby and kids clothing before but now it is all that I've noticed. It doesn't help that Facebook does this thing where it tracks your history and keep popping baby stuff in the ads. Luckily my will is strong.

I've spent hours on the net scrolling through thousand and thousand of baby items and comparing prices on various sites. So for the big bulk items like crib/cot and stroller, we still looking around for the best deal. I already shortlisted stroller brand that I want and will purchase it next year perhaps. I have baby carrier and car seat ready, all thanks to my aunt.

I'm around 70% done tackling some items such as milk bottles, baby clothes (which I think is never enough), wash clothes, socks, mittens, hats, napkins and so on. If you think shopping for yourself is fun, try shop for a baby. The fun level is instantly up by thousand folds because everything are so cute and tiny. It just makes me squealing so much.

I'm gonna share some shopping loots and gifts from friends for my baby, only clothing wise because nobody is interested in seeing milk bottles and breast pump, right?

Isn't the tiny socks are so cute?

I got the above item from Cotton On Online at 30%. I didn't plan on shopping there because I've been to their physical store and found that baby stuff are quite overpriced. When I received the email about the 30% sale, I quickly jumped at the opportunity and got on my laptop. It is my first time shopping online for baby so I just roughly estimate the size.

May told me not to buy too much newborns size because babies grown out of newborn size in a blink of an eye. But I think I went a little overboard with the shirt above, I picked 12-18 months. But it's okay because baby will wear it some times in the near future. And the tiny shoes is not necessary for a newborn but I couldn't resists. It is only RM15 but I'm not so sure about the comfort level. Finger cross it is comfortable for baby.

And I already made my second order and still waiting for the parcel to come. Don't tell my husband okay! He thinks I'm going overboard with the shopping, pffft.

These are all the stuff that my aunt got for baby during my visit to Brunei

I have never seen anyone more excited than me about shopping for my baby. My aunt is the first. She's in auto pilot mode and just picked anything pink and squealing like me and threw it to our shopping trolley. I literally had to stop her from picking anymore socks and mittens because no babies need that much socks and mittens, right? The white onesie was chosen by me to neutralise the pinkness lol. Even her hand-me-down stuff for baby are 80% pink. 

So now, I'm avoiding buying anymore pink stuff.

My aunt even got this for baby for her coming home from hospital outfit.

My baby's godmother also got her lots of clothes. I'm very grateful that my baby is very well loved by everyone. Such a lucky baby I have. Since I bought mostly clothes size from 3-6 months, I'm kinda worry that my baby has nothing to wear during her newborn days because till now I only got 5 onesie for her in newborn size, the rest are for 3-6 months and 6-9 months.

I'm so happy when bestie gifted these onesie for baby and it is in newborn sizes.

More cute newborn onesie from Bonds

Leggings and socks too

My favourite is this Wondersuits from Bonds. Super cute! 

I was thinking about swaddle the other day and wondering if I should buy swaddle for baby. I know newborn have to be swaddle so that they feel secure and can sleep uninterrupted and I've seen people swaddling baby with just towel. If it is nice and fluffy towel, then maybe it is okay. But I still think a proper swaddle is needed.

So I went ahead and bought one.

I will buy more in November and hopefully tick all the must buy items off my list in the same month so that I won't be worry about last minute shopping in December. Also, I need to start looking at confinement stuff that I will need. So far I have a long list of items on my confinement list but haven't start buying yet. So if you're wondering, yes, I will be doing a full month confinement after delivery. I already have my confinement lady booked. :) 

October update

So what's up, you guys ask?

It is pretty much the same to me. Wake up, work and sleep and repeat the whole cycle again. But I have to say, I kinda love this. I'm trying to squeeze in as much alone time with the husband before baby arrival. So our nightly routine pretty much the same. After work, we would have dinner and watch movie together or sometimes he watches his movie and I read my book side by side. I'm finally getting back into reading mode again and I really love it. Just last week I've finished Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult and as cliche as it sounds, Picoult touched my heart again with her story. 

Anyway, let's the photos do the talking. These are the photos that I took this month.

Was scrolling through my phone and I found that I rarely take selfie now. So decided to take one on the way to work. Putting on mascara every morning is such a hassle to me, so I have been playing with the idea of eyelashes extension.

I thought of doing it on December so that I can have pretty lashes during confinement wtf. I mean if it makes me happy then why not. At least I can be pretty and happy without hair wash for a month lol.

This was taken during my 28 weeks and now I'm 31 weeks and the bump has grown significantly bigger which means limited wardrobe choice. 

Since my wardrobe choice is limited and I'm not planning on getting anymore new clothes to accommodate the bump, I'm rotating my clothes that fit on heavy rotation. I will make a dressing the bump post soon. Right now, the dress above is my favourite because it is so comfortable and doesn't restrict my movement.

Was attending dinner with husband and his family early October. Bummer that we didn't won the lucky draw this time because last time in Kuching, we won quite an impressive lucky draw. I have to say our baby brings us so much luck. I'm feeling really really grateful for it.

We managed to squeeze a visit to Brunei on long weekend in early October to visit my cousins. 

It was an impromptu plan because my aunt wanted us to come over to pick up some hand-me-down stuff from Kelly for our baby but we couldn't manage to find time. Plus, we need to drive all the way from Sibu to Brunei and bumpy car ride doesn't sound like fun when you're 6 months pregnant. But we realised that the long weekend in October is the only long weekend left before the baby's due.

So, we just went ahead. I'm really glad we did because I had wonderful time catching up my aunt and cousins. But the ride came with big price, we drove straight back from Brunei to Sibu and the whole journey took 12 hours. I couldn't felt my bum and back afterwards. 

I had the best dim sum breakfast ever and it is halal.

I was beyond tired when we reached Sibu and the next day I had a Modified Glucose Test scheduled early in the morning. I thought I was okay and went ahead with the test. 30 minutes into the test, I threw up because I got dizzy and started to break into cold sweat. Bummer but I already scheduled for another one next month. I've asked the doctor is it necessary to do glucose test, she explained that is it the hospital policy to have expecting mother aged 25 years old above to do the test. I guess there is no escape then.

Say hello to my 29 weeks bump

And this is my 30 weeks bump

Someone is taking advantage of my bump as his resting spot. 

I feel so guilty for spending less time with Pino now. So when I'm home, I'd make sure that I bring him for long walk which is his favourite activity. He's 8 years old now and I could sense that he's not as active as he was before. It's sad to know that my little pup is growing old.

Many has asked whether I eat clean during the pregnancy, honestly I tried to but I didn't stick to any diet. Most day I have my meal on time in small portion. I do snack in between and this is where I get naughty. During my first and second trimester, I diligently snack on fruits only and totally avoiding junk food and carbs such as bread.

My favourite fruits are kiwi and seedless grapes.

Sometimes, I do have instant noodles such as maggie curry as dinner. This is my guilty pleasure and if it is up to me, I can have this as dinner every night. During this pregnancy, I've developed sweet tooth. Another guilty pleasure of mine that I had almost every day is ice cream. Husband knows that I love ice cream but what he doesn't know is that I had it every day. Hehehe I sneaked a few scoops when I'm alone. 

I never thought that I would love chips and chocolate too because pre-pregnancy, I detest junk food and anything sweet. But now, I can finish a packet of chips on my own in less than 10 minutes. Even the husband is shaking his head. 

Yup, this is our groceries.

But when it comes to carbs, I still try to reduce it. During my last checkup, the nurse did mentioned that my weight gain is slightly fast. I'm 7 and half months pregnant and has gained 10 kg. So, I guess no more sneaking ice cream for me then. sobs

This year the husband decide to go back to basketball and joined a competition. 

It is refreshing to see him back in the court. They're playing in semi final now and some games were very nerve wrecking because the points were so close. Even the baby in my bump is as tense as me when I watched the game. We just got back from the game now and too bad that the husband and his team lost by one point. It was so close but it's okay, they'd played well.

That's all for my October update!

My first trimester

After the pregnancy announcement went out, the most popular question that I've got asked is "How does it feel when you're pregnant?" I was only 5 weeks pregnant when we found out, so it is still too soon to feel different, I guess.

Even the scan photo showed that it is just a sac forming. Still, we are very excited.

But one thing for sure is that the spotlight is on me. I decide what to eat, where to eat, I'm not allowed to do any housework and is told to get as much rest as possible. Suddenly I felt so spiled.  I'm loving all the attention and become very manja with the husband. Hahaha

Many asked me about how's my pregnancy been treating me. I have to say I'm very lucky that I have it easy if compared to others. I have heard that some pregnant woman got terrible morning sickness and had to be bedridden for months. These horror stories are enough to put some woman off pregnancy. But for me, the first 3 months flew by in a breeze. Probably because I was so busy with the wedding preparation and also I slept a lot. #truestory

Night sickness

While many suffers from horrible morning sickness, it is the opposite case for me. I got night sickness which is very light too. When the night fall, I'd feel light headed and nausea but all it took for it to go away is just tucking myself early to bed or I'll take nap. When I woke up in the morning, I'll be full of energy and ready to kick start the day. Throughout my first trimester, I only vomited 3 times. Once was when I brushed my teeth, I gagged too much. Others are just random occasions.

One of the occasion was when we went to watch movie in the cinema. We were watching Suicide Squad when my head suddenly felt light and my vision blurred. I've had tom yum for dinner, although I'm not sure if it's the tom yum that triggered the nauseous feeling. I stayed till the end of the movie but I couldn't walked straight to the car and vomited everything out when we reached home. Tucked myself to bed afterwards and the next morning everything is fine and dandy again.

First glance at our baby and she's just tinier than a peanut

Exhaustion

My body is still adjusting to the pregnancy and I was exhausted everyday and need to take nap as longer as 2 hours during the first trimester. I was so tired that I chose nap over food. If I don't get to nap, I'd be very cranky and not the nicest person to be around. Backache also starting to become constant visitor for me. Whenever I walked too much/stand too long/sit too long, the back pain comes and stays. Sometimes, I've lost sleep at night tossing and turning because the pain become unbearable.

I was tempted to get the pregnancy pillow but after seeing the price and how bulky it is, I've decided not to. Instead bolster has become my best friend now. I never sleep with bolster growing up but now I can't sleep without it. It does helps and I also put my small pillow behind my back when I sleep sideways which is the only way for me to sleep now. How I miss sleeping on my back and stomach!

Breakout
I think this is the earliest symptom of pregnancy that I've had. I have always smooth skin and rarely have pimple unless it is the time of the month. But suddenly in April/May I started to get breakout. I didn't know that I'm already pregnant this time. So I figured that the time of the month would come soon. The breakout started with just minor bump on my skin then suddenly it developed into pimples all over my face.

But the period never came. Then I thought, okay maybe I was stress. But stress for what? I rarely breakout from stress too because if any, I perform better under stress. Once we're confirmed pregnant by the doctor, the pimples and breakout slowly went away on its own. I didn't even change anything in my skin care routine.

Constipation
This is what's been really bothering me during my first trimester. I couldn't go to toilet and it was hurt to even try to force it, sorry it's a little bit tmi. I have normal bowel system pre pregnancy. At first I didn't even know that constipation is part of the pregnancy symptoms until I googled it because I've never heard anyone having this problem.

My constipation is so bad that I've resorted to take supplement from Elken to help me go. Before that I did tried to eat as much fruits and veggies to increase my fiber intake but nothing is helping except for the drinks from Elken. I didn't take it daily though, only when I couldn't go in 3 to 4 days and even then I only took half a packet.

Constant hunger
When I was not sleepy, I was hungry. I have no special cravings for anything but I have to have food or snacks with me all the time. I've started to bring fruits for snack to work because I wanted the healthy option. My favorite fruits are apple, seedless grape, kiwi and oranges.

My weight during the first trimester

Although I always hungry but I'll make sure that I steer clear from junk food. This is not a big problem for me because I don't even like chips to begin with. But I seem to have a tiny sweet tooth in me. I don't like chocolate or anything sweet before but now it is one of my favorite. Even the husband noticed this. 

I'm so grateful that this pregnancy has been going so well and I'm really excited to welcome my baby around Christmas which is my favorite time of the year. More updates on the pregnancy topics and baby stuff soon!

Yes, we are expecting our first child

Feel so glad to finally be able to blog about my pregnancy. We've announced it on social media but not in my blog because I have been waiting for the right time to pen down my feeling and thoughts. I've write some in my Dayre and the feeling of being one of the Dayre moms is amazing because everyone has been so supportive. 

Anyway, I'm on my 28 weeks now which means I'm already entering my 3rd trimester. Why I wait this long to write about this pregnancy you ask? Most people make their announcement after 3 months but I waited till 6 months because 1) too lazy to sort through photos and this post is not something that I want to rush. 2) I want to properly sit down without interruption to pen down my experience, feeling and thought so far.  3) I'm very paranoid at the beginning of my pregnancy. Now that I'm almost two months away from giving birth, I think it is the best time to spill all the beans.

"When I first found out"

It was after my trip to Penang that I suspected that I'm pregnant. During that trip I was very tired easily and would dozed off anywhere. No kidding, I slept in our van while waiting for them to shop and I also slept immediately every nights during the trip. It was like once my head touched the pillow, I fell into deep sleep until morning. But I still feel tired constantly the next day.

When I got back, I told the husband then bf about this and he said go check it out and we decide from there. But I could tell that he did not believe my gut feeling. I've waited until a week after that to actually buy pregnancy test. My period was late but that's not something new to me. However, my gut feeling was so strong and I actually convinced myself pregnant even before I tested it. I don't know how to describe my gut feeling but I just know. 

I even asked my husband what if we really pregnant and he nonchalantly said we'll get married and start our very own family. I was like "wah, so confident one? no need to prepare ourselves for parenthood. marriage and etc ah?" He being his usual self told me that "you will never get prepared enough for such things, when it (the baby) comes you will automatically learn along the way" His chill vibes sometimes really scare me but it really helps during my pregnancy. If you don't know my husband, he is very chill in everything to the point it looks like he doesn't care. He is also generally doesn't show excitement in anything. Drop him a million dollar and he'll be like "oh okay" 

So imagine my feeling when I showed him the positive pregnancy test?!  I can't remember his exact response but it was something along the line of "wow, we will have child now. It's time to arrange for our marriage"

A very clear double line indeed

The only person that I confided my gut feeling about the pregnancy is my sister. She is so excited even before I took my pregnancy test. She was the first person I informed about the positive test and next is my husband. 

The 2 minutes of waiting for the test result is the most kancheong moment in my life. My heart was beating so hard that I scared I might pop a vein or something. Once the line was formed and it is confirmed that I'm pregnant, I screamed but not sure out of excitement or scare. Lol The wave of emotions started to sweep in. I felt disbelief (seriously, am I really pregnant?), scare (OMG, I have a life growing in me!), excited (I'm going to be a mother!),  horror (my life is going to change forever!), happy (This is my first child!!). Once I calmed myself down, I feel so relief and happy. 

I took a second test the next morning just to be sure although the double line from the first test was pretty clear. I bought the pack of 2 pregnancy tests so might as well use both la. Plus I wanted to show my husband how the double line formed. And he looked very calm and the rest is history. Truth is, this pregnancy wasn't planned but it is the greatest surprise of all. We went to the doctor the same weekend to get confirmation. 

"Once the news is out"

Everyone are excited especially our siblings. My mom told me to keep mum about it for the first 3 months and I did. So mum that I only wrote about my pregnancy openly now lol. I only told my closest friends and been really laying low. I have to say that I am very lucky because during my first trimester, I experienced no morning sickness or nausea or crazy craving for anything. For that I'm really really grateful.

My first ever bump photo. I was around 8 to 10 weeks this time.

As you can see, I'm not that into taking bump photo during the early pregnancy because can't really see my bump. Now that my bump is big I really really love it especially when the baby moves. It is such an amazing feeling to talk to my baby and she actually responded. Do expect more pregnancy post coming up soon because I have a lots to jot down here.