Aidan's One Month Birthday Celebration on July 16th, 2005 at the Tanglin Club (Singapore). Click on the image to see all the pictures from the event! 

More photos

A few more photos of our new addition... we've made it back home after we extended our stay at the hospital for a day due to jaundice - the doctor recommended that we keep Baby Aidan under a special light to reduce the severity, and so we're now back...

A few peaceful shots of the Kid:
Aidan Sleeping 1
Aidan Sleeping 2

And with Ann looking very happy:
Aidan and Ann 1
Aidan and Ann 2

Finally Aidan being carried by the nurse as we departed the hospital:
Aidan in arms

Ann will write more and update you guys on her experience.. Take care!

Baby Aidan is here!

Wow, after an exhausting 14 and a half hours of labour, Aidan is finally with us! Baby Aidan was born in Singapore, on 20-06-2005 at 12:32am. Weighing in at 3.15 kg and 50 cm long, both he and mother are doing well.

We will write more about the experience a bit later on. Here's a few photos...
Baby Photo 1
Baby Photo 2

Peanut's REAL late!

hi, it's ann here. no baby yet!!
i am just as anxious as the rest of you. but the baby is just way too comfortable in there. he gets to eat whenever he wants (as opposed to on a schedule the moment he gets out), it's nice and warm (although cramped), he gets to join in all the movies with mum and dad (yes, we managed to catch star wars, hitchhikers guide and mr & mrs smith and hopefully batman begins - didn't peanut love them all), goes gallavanting with mum about town, does exercises with mum at pre-natal yoga and gets to to go join mum and dad at romantic dinners!
i do want him out. he's getting SO heavy, my belly is SO stretched, and i am getting severe back aches. it's a real challenge to change positions (e.g. from sitting to standing, getting on/off bed, picking up things from the floor), with the braxton hicks really kicking in and going to the loo at least 6 times a night. these last 3 wks have not been easy, with each day progressively getting harder. the rest of the pregnancy has been such a breeze.
i have been getting loads of advice on how to get the labour going....walk more, do squats, eat curry, drink coconut juice, don't walk so much, climb stairs, sit on the rubber ball etc. well, i am trying to do all of that! but in the end, i guess it's when the body is ready and when is the best time for the baby to come out.
my hope is that the labour can start naturally, and that i don't need to be induced. we have an appointment with the OB on mon (20/6) which makes peanut 10 days late... we'll go through our options then.

oh well, hopefully the next time i post, it would be from the 3 of us!

children's music

There's a whole other world of music out there for children... music to
enhance the senses, make them smarter, sleep better, eat better... we
went into HMV the other day and saw a mini-section on Mozart for Babies
- it's like a 5 CD collection, segmented by age... you mean babies need
different music depending on whether they're 0-3, 3-6, 6-12 months? hard
to believe... We decided to pick up a 2 CD set of just nice sounding
classical music - it comes with an introduction track for each piece
that announces the name and composer. Pretty handy - I recognize many of
the pieces but normally don't know the names - so I'll be learning along
with the baby...

Just came across a new group the other day... has anyone ever heard of
the Doodlebops
?
They're a children's musical group that is going to be showing on
Disney... they look like they'd capture a child's attention, but are
they healthy? Is there any educational value? Maybe we'll stick to the
traditional Winnie the Pooh...

Ann in her made-in-Shanghai jacket

We made a trip up to Shanghai during the Easter long weekend, and over the few days that we were up there, Ann managed to get a tailor made silk jacket... great quality and price... they had to estimate on her post-pregnancy size.

Stem cells - 200 million of 'em...

Just had a meeting with the Stemcord person, talking about storing the
stem cells from the umbilical cord. It sounds like a fairly simple
procedure - once the baby is out of the womb, the umbilical cord is
clamped and cut. The blood in the cord is drained into a receptacle and
processed to separate the red, white, and plasma components - apparently
only the white blood cells are needed - these then placed into 4 vials
and then frozen at -170 C degrees until they're needed (if ever...)

Since the research and real-world applications of stem cells is still
evolving, I feel like we're buying into another form of insurance - not
sure if you'll ever use it, but for the potential benefits, you're
willing to pay the $250 or so each year...

Quick update

Hi guys, yes, we've been busy! Since the last update, we've been busy
getting prepared - the room's just about set-up, the classes are over,
the furniture's assembled and the sterlizer has been tested... yep,
we're all ready! (yeah, sure...)

We just went to the doc on the weekend.. Peanut's already in the right
position to come out... he's healthy, and been busy swimming around and
keeping Ann up at night...