Awaiting Janine's arrival

Being 36 weeks pregnant is simply boring. Several normal day-to-day activities have become increasingly difficult, if not near-impossible, due to my huge tummy. These include:
- Sitting cross-legged on the floor
- Crossing your legs when you sit down
- Drying your legs after a bath
- Cutting toenails
- Tossing or turning on the bed

We're all eagerly awaiting Janine's arrival. Even Janelle has been patting my tummy everyday and kissing it! She'll happily point to my tummy and say "this is mei-mei". And when asked what's mei-mei's name, she'll proudly say "na-neen!" (she can't pronounce the "ja" sound so it comes out as "na" instead). As for now, while Janine is still in the womb, Janelle is a very good older sister, though I think the jealous side of Janelle will show when Janine is finally out into the world!

Our concerns are so different while awaiting the arrival of our 2nd child, as compared to when we had our 1st child. Before Janelle came, we were concerned how we would cope, whether would breastfeeding come easy, how to change diapers, etc etc. Now, all these seem like "small concerns" while awaiting Janine's arrival. Our greater concern is how would Janelle react to Janine's presence?? Would she be really jealous and become a difficult kid? Would she demand our attention even more? etc etc. And of course, how would we cope when both our kids cry at the same time? Oh well, but I guess things will somehow work out. We will all have to learn together

Right now, we're just praying for:
- a natural delivery (after Janelle arrived by emergency C-sect, I'm really hoping to try for a natural birth this time round)
- efficient labour and smooth delivery
- Janine to arrive by Christmas or earlier (so that Royston will have some time with her before school reopens in January, and so that the agonising wait will be shortened!)

Trusting God to answer these prayers according to His good will!

God is Gracious!

Janine Lee is 28 weeks old in gestation. Due on 8 January 2008, we have calculated that she may arrive anytime from 18 Dec 2007 onwards, once she's 37 weeks old.

We have decided to name our 2nd girl Janine (pronounced "Ja-neen"), which like the name Janelle, comes from the same root name "Jane" meaning God is gracious. Indeed, we were hoping for a second girl and when we found out that our number two was indeed a girl, we were overjoyed! Really feel that God is so gracious to bless us with a second girl and hence the name Janine. Indeed, God blesses us with our heart's desires!

It's really strange that when the older folks and relatives ask me what's the gender of my second baby and I tell them it's a girl, they will say things like "oh may not be accurate...might still be a boy", or "really? scan already? accurate or not?", or "nevermind, can try for a third one".

In my mind, I'm like hmmm....but we WANTED a girl! What's your problem people?? Of course, I don't verbalize those thoughts. But if I do so much as to express any sense of rejoicing over a second girl, I'm met with doubtful looks of "are you sure??" and so on. In fact, someone even commented "choy!!" (ie. touch wood) when I said that I'd be perfectly happy even if I had a 3rd baby and it's still a girl.  

Much as we promote and advocate gender equality in the workplace, the Asian society still very much favours baby boys over baby girls. Guess this is something that we cannot escape from! However, we are truly happy and proud that we have 2 girls! In fact, if we were to have a 3rd kid (just saying IF) and it's still a girl, we would still be contented and happy.

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; "
(Psalm 139:13-14)

Whether a girl or boy, one thing remains the same - we are fearfully and wonderfully created!

Sleeping Positions

9 or 10 months old - fell asleep in her highchair after lunch (my favourite picture!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

16 months old - in Australia snugly wrapped up

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

17 months old - Preferring to sleep on the floor than on the mattress

 

 

 

 

 

nearly 20 months old (pic taken today!) - fell asleep hugging our filthy cloth clock!

Time Flies

I've been getting really lazy to update this blog, partly because Multiply is so slow in uploading entries and photos! But since it's been more than a month since I last wrote anything, I thought I'd put up some of Janelle's pictures here. She's already 19 months old and growing up fast into a big girl!

We can now hold a mini-conversation with her responding in 2-3 word sentences. Perhaps it's only us parents who feel this way - but we find her extremely cute and endearing! I used to think that babies are only cute below 1 year old when they're helpless and can't walk, but I guess having a daughter of my own has changed my thinking. They seem to get cuter and more interesting as they grow older! But of course, very much naughtier too!

Janelle is extremely cheeky and mischevious - till now, we have no idea who she inherited this trait from. She loves to play peek-a-boo still, and says the funniest and most innocent statements at the strangest times. She also loves to have her armpit tickled, and would voluntarily raise her arm just so that you can tickle her armpit!

Her most recent development is that she can now respond over the phone. Previously she'd just be pressing the buttons or pushing the phone away. But now if I "phone" her when I'm outside (or rather, ask Royston to pass the phone to her), she can repeat after me stuff like "bye bye", "take care", "God bless", "love you". It's extremely endearing to hear your own daughter's voice over the telephone! Makes my heart melt  and makes me want to get home earlier to see her!

 

 

Happy!

Janelle is now 18 months old (ie. 1.5 years old). It's amusing to bring her out nowadays as she'll give a running commentatory on what's going on around her. When it's raining, she'll keep going on like a broken recorder "raining, raining", and she'll name everything she sees and can name. Recently I brought her on a bus journey to Bukit Panjang Plaza, just to break out of the monotony of staying at home. On the bus, she was busy pointing out to the different people and calling "che-che", "kor-kor", "auntie", or "uncle". And whenever someone alights the bus, she'll say a big "bye-bye!!" to the person. Really amusing and pretty embarrassing, I must say!

Her recent favourite word is "happy!!", which she will exclaim in a loud and happy tone and give a big bright smile. Her vocabulary is increasing on the average of 2 new words per day, and she can now respond on the telephone. (previously she would just listen and not speak, but now she's learning how to respond back). Here are some of the words she can say:

A - apple, ant, auntie
B - book, bear, ball, bubble, bible, barney, bread, beans, baby, bye-bye, bag, bird, ber-zek, banana ("nana"), bottle, blue, beat, black
C - car, cheese, cheek, come, close, che-che, chor-chor, chair
D - dog, daddy, door, duck, draw
E - elephant (she'll go "air..."), egg, eye, eat, Elmo, Eeyore
F - fish, flower, fly, four, five
G - girl, God bless, gugu, gong-gong ("tong-tong")
H - hi, hammer, happy, horse, hop, hair, hot, hug, hat
I -
J - Janelle ("nell-nell"), jump
K - kiss, kite, key, kor-kor, kway teow
L -
M - mummy, mama, mum-mum, more, me, mei-mei, march, mouth
N - no, nose, neck
O - oh-oh, open, owl, one, orh-orh
P - pear, potato ("ta-to"), papaya ("papa"), press, pee-pee, poo-poo, potty, Pooh bear, powder, pink, pen, pencil, push
Q
R - run, raining, red, rice
S - shoes ("yoos"), socks ("yocks"), sit, star, sit
T - toes, Tigger, two, truck, throw, tissue ("tish"), towel
U - uncle, up
V - van
W - wash, water, wet-wet, wire, where?, walk, wet wipes, white
X -
Y - yellow,
Z

 

Australia Trip (5-20 June '07)

Some pictures of our trip to Brisbane and Sydney...

Realisation

The past few days have been a sad realisation of my artistic talent (or rather, the lack of). Now that Janelle is able to verbalise slightly better, she's been asking me to draw pictures for her. She'd take the magnetic drawing board and ask me to "draw". Thank God her favourite picture is "apple", which I can still manage! Then she asked me to draw "banana", and when I drew what looked like a bunch of bananas to me, she looked puzzledly at me as though saying "is this a banana??". Then she asked me to draw "duck". Oh my. That was the real test of my drawing abilities....I realized I could not draw a duck!! It somehow ended up looking like a chicken, or bird, or whatever. And when I handed the poorly-drawn picture of a duck to her, she scrutinized it right-side up and upside-down and looked imploringly at me, as though I was supposed to do more to make it look like a duck! I had a good laugh at myself and Janelle was really puzzled as to why I was laughing at my own drawing!

I wonder what I would do when she starts asking me to draw her favourite Winnie the Pooh series, like Pooh Bear or Eeyore. Hmm...

All I can say is that different people are gifted with different abilities  Mine's definitely not drawing!