April and Steamed Cod Fish

April has been a busy month. Chaotic in fact. There were a few scares along the way and one of which had the two of us rushing to the labour ward @ SGH in the midst of the night. Fortunately everything turned out fine after two hours of intensive checks by the staff on duty. Both Buddy's heartbeats and contractions were being monitored and every time Buddy's heartbeat went more than 160, the machine would beep till his heart rate went back below 160. I was told that he would be fine as long as it's between 110-160.

Various apps have mentioned that Buddy's brain will be developing by leaps and bounds from Week 28 onwards, where grooves and indents will be developed and there will be more brain tissues. So we decided to make it a point to increase our intake of DHA... by having more fish! 

Hubby was rather adventurous this month and he came up with a few new dishes. One of them was Steamed Cod Fish. It's quite easy to prepare and nutritious. A few variations along the way can make it into an excellent confinement food. 

For the first trial, he bought one big slice for $12 at the local wet market (according to my MIL, the market rate is $22 for 1/2kg) and he divided it into 3 portions for use during the week. 

Ingredients:
Cod Fish - 1 Slice
Wolfberries - 5-6 pieces
Ginger - Few slices
Oyster Sauce - 1 tablespoon
Light Soy Sauce - 1 tablespoon

Put all ingredients into a bowl or plate and add some water. Place it in the steamer or pot for steaming. As recommended by some recipes, steam the fish for 6-8 minutes. Hubby steamed it longer the first time round to ensure that it's fully cooked.

The result is a delicious and nutritious dish which complements well with rice, since there's the gravy to go along with. Do experiment and adjust the amount of sauce according to taste. Some recipes even recommend adding sugar or fried garlic oil. 

 The end product!

Some other dishes that we had

To make it into a confinement dish, just add the usual confinement must-have ingredients, such as sesame oil, angelica root, red dates and Hua Diao wine. 

Adios!

Daddy

Hey Buddy,

Today is Mommy's birthday! I have been telling you this since last night right? Hehe..

We have already celebrated with your grandparents and uncle on Sun, at Causeway Bay HK Cafe @ Causeway Point.

However, since today is the actual day, it is still a meaningful and special day for Mommy. Some people will take this day to reflect and some will take it as a starting point for some special resolution they have made for themselves on this day. There are some who will count their blessings and deep in their hearts thank those who have cared for them.

I was thinking perhaps I will take this opportunity to note down some of the things that Daddy has done for us during my pregnancy. Then you will know what a wonderful Daddy you have.

1. There was once Mommy was extremely exhausted after work. So tired that she took a nap right after she returned home. Daddy wasn't back yet. So Mommy slept... An hour or two later, in her semi-conscious state, Mommy heard someone singing and was roused from her sleep. Then in the darkness she saw Daddy, knelt down by the bedside, one hand holding his Samsung Note, singing baby songs to her bulging tummy...

2. Daddy has been talking and singing to you as much as he could each day. Sometimes he would treat Mommy's navel as the communication port to you, as we thought your head would be somewhere near there at this stage. 'Cos this was what we had seen in the detailed scan a month ago. 

However, we went for another scan yesterday, and the scan revealed that you have turned head down and in the anterior position, which means that you have been head-down, bottom-up for quite some time after the previous scan. So it meant that all these while, Daddy has been speaking to...

3.  Mommy feels bad writing about this one:

As again, Mommy was tired after work. Hence, she went for a nap while waiting for Daddy to return from work. She slept and slept, till some time after 9pm, she was roused awake by the house phone ringing in the study. 

9pm! Mommy noticed that the bedroom was still in darkness, which shouldn't be the case if Daddy was around. Normally Daddy would be home by 7pm, so something was amiss. She checked her iphone, which was in silent mode and there was 3 missed calls from Daddy. Then the doorbell rang...

Mommy realized something and quickly jumped out of bed to answer the door. Deep down inside, she knew what happened...

As she opened the door, Daddy appeared, looking tired but smiling. Poor Daddy, he has forgotten to bring the house key to work and from 7pm-9pm, was patiently waiting outside the house for Mommy to wake up and open the door...

Mommy was quite heartbroken to see Daddy in this state, but all Daddy has said was that he was glad that Mommy had a good rest.


You know, Daddy has done some other stuff which I shall not elaborate here. In another blog post perhaps. But all you should know is that Daddy is a wonderful man and a great dad-to-be.

Thanks Daddy!

Love,
Mommy

Today's post might be a short one as we are both tired after one whole day of hopping from one location to another. Hubby has already fallen asleep on the couch.

After catching an early session of G.I Joe 2 at the newly opened Cathay cinema at West Mall (and of course, we bought more baby stuff from Tom & Stephanie), we headed to the two places that have been at the back of my mind recently - Baby Kingdom and Baby Hyperstore. We are looking for a few things for Buddy - stroller and carrier.

The two places are located in Shun Li Industrial Park, within walking distance of one another. If you are driving, you can always park at either one and walk over to the other one after you are done shopping with one.

I was quite amazed by the variety of baby stuff offered by the two. Baby Hyperstore offers more choices in terms of strollers. If you are going for Maclaren, Quinny or Peg Prego strollers, this is the place that you may want to begin your hunt with. There are lots of car seats on display too, but it's not on our shopping list so we didn't take note of what are the types being offered.

Showroom on the 2nd floor.

The showroom is on the 2nd and 3rd floor and there is the lift service, so no worries for pregnant ladies. I spotted lots of foldable chairs in the showroom, so if you are tired or want to flip through the catalogues, go ahead and make yourself comfortable on those chairs. On the 3rd floor, there is a section for cribs, baby chairs, sarong nets and etc.

As for Baby Kingdom, it is more cramped, especially on the 1st floor. There are less strollers available and mainly they are Combi strollers (might have other brands too, but I wasn't paying particular attention to the strollers on sale there).

Baby Kingdom also offers car seat/stroller pad ($16.90-$19.90), so if your stroller doesn't come with any stroller pad and you find the brand's pad a tad expensive, do consider going to Baby Kingdom to purchase the stroller pad. We were tempted to buy, but in the end decided to wait till we have confirmed on the stroller that we will be buying.

In the showroom on the 2nd floor, which is also accessible by a lift, we felt like we were in Tom & Stephanie yet again - wet tissues, diapers (but limited choices), baby clothes, nursing and feeding products by Pigeon, Avent, Medela and some other brands, bath tubs and etc. All those miscellaneous baby items that you will need day-to-day.

We ended up buying a pack of cloth diapers and two boxes of disposable diaper liner at Baby Kingdom. We know most probably we will be back here Baby Hyperstore in a month's time to buy the stroller. Hubby's buddies recommended him Maclaren Techno XT and we agreed it's the best choice so far - comfortable price range and easy to handle.

The Maclaren Techno XT

I won't comment on the quality of service at both places, but if you have been to the two places, you will definitely notice something distinct between them and that's what set the two apart. Btw, at the cashier's there is a checklist prepared by Baby Kingdom, which is rather helpful if you are a new parent.

The checklist by Baby Kingdom.

Finally, to end the day, we went to Downtown East and treated ourselves to the famous Mr. Chicken Rice for dinner. That's why Hubby has succumbed to the sleeping bug right now.

The 2-person chicken rice set ($14+)

Adios!

Baby Hyperstore
69 Kaki Bukit Ave 1, 
Shun Li Industrial Park, 
S(417947)

Baby Kingdom
83 Kaki Bukit Ave 1, 
Shun Li Industrial Park, 
S(417954)

Today both Hubby and I tried to be hardworking and prepared the first double-boiled soup in my pregnancy. Since the second trimester, I have been taking 'instant' tonics, such as Eu Yan Sang's Concentrated Bird's Nest and Brand's Essence of Chicken regularly.

But after listening to the advice of friends and colleagues, we decided to try some double-boiled soups to better prepare both Buddy and I. 

In fact, we were rather surprised that quite a number of our friends and colleagues were willing to splurge during their or their wives' pregnancies and spend quite a fortune on the tonics. Weeks ago, we knew that almost everyone we asked have invested in bird's nest during their pregnancy, and off we went to buy the goodies. And a few days ago, to our surprise, almost all have invested in cordyceps （冬虫草）as well! Mind you, the price of cordyceps has increased tremendously in recent years, due to declining supply. Thanks to the opening special by the Eu Yan Sang outlet in 112 Katong, we were able to purchase tonics such as Essence of Chicken at discounted price.

8 boxes of Essence of Chicken!

Let me give you an idea on the price range for cordycep sold in EYS and ZTP.

For EYS, the selling price for 4000 pcs is $2900. (a 10% discount is possible). We saw a smaller box of 40 pcs selling at $800+. During the opening special, EYS is selling the 4000 pcs at $2088, but it's only limited to 50 sets per day (23-24 Mar).

For ZTP, the selling price for a small box of around 40 pcs (tried to visually count), quality looks similar to EYS and from Tibet, is $500+. The salesperson offered a discount and the final price is $360. ZTP also offers cheaper alternatives, in bundled form from Qinghai, but the cordyceps are not as good looking as the more expensive ones.

As we weren't sure how my body will react to cordyceps, we opted for a small box from EYS.

While Hubby was preparing the soup today, 
I counted and there are 22 pcs. 

We were given a few recipes to try, and we opted for the Cordycep with Black Chicken recipe from Grace.

Ingredients:
Cordyceps - 6 pcs
Pitted red dates - 6 pcs
Wolfberries -  6 pcs
Black chicken - 1 whole

Thanks to my Mom's advice, Hubby bought the black chicken from the wet market instead of the supermarket. The stallholder was able to skin the chicken for him, thus saving him effort and time!

Btw, the Wolfberries are from EYS (from the same roadshow). The wolfberries came in a can form and the quality is indeed better than those in packet form.

 $25.50 per can. We got it at $20.40 due to the opening special.

The wolfberries were bigger and fresher looking.

Ok, let's get back to the preparation:

1. Wash all ingredients. (We saved the cordyceps for the last)

2. Put the black chicken in boiling water for a few minutes. 

3. Put all ingredients in the ceramic pot and cover with hot water.

4. Double boil the pot for 1.5hrs.

5. Add salt to taste.

This is what it looked like before we add the cordyceps.

Think we added too much water.. But the taste is still nice!

Voila! After 2 hrs plus of boiling...

Conclusion: More skin can be removed from the chicken as there was a layer of oil in the end. Nevertheless, it was great effort by Hubby and a yummy way to spend our Sunday afternoon. Hubby, who's quite averse to Chinese soups, drank a big bowl today! He shall be tasked to eat the fungus as there may still be some medicinal value left.

Adios!

Buddy

Some information about Buddy...

Currently, Buddy is 22 Weeks and 4 Days old. EDD is 13 Jul. As this is our first child, we are very excited. In the detailed scan two Saturdays ago, we learned of the gender, and it's a boy! He was quite shy to show us his face, but wasn't as shy to show us his gender. Hehe..

Thanks to 2nd Aunt for the lovely baby clothes. She has set aside a car seat for us as well. We have bought more stuff for Buddy (a nickname for the baby since months ago). There are some places in Singapore where you can purchase really good and reasonably priced baby stuff.

Take for example Tom and Stephanie. The outlet we frequented in West Mall offers a wide range of baby stuff. It has the more popular brands, such as Avent, Pigeon and Tollyjoy. The baby clothes can be priced as low as $3-5 per shorts, shirt and singlet, and the quality is not too bad! Though we didn't buy any clothes the last time we visited, I will make it a priority the next time we go.

Btw, if you sign up as a member with T&S, you will enjoy 10% discount off goods with white price tags. Membership cost you only $10 and it's life-long, so you do not have to worry about annual renewals.

These are what we have bought from T&S on Sun night. 

Think the big bag of baby wipes can last Buddy for a few months..

This pair of shoes is so cute, with a pair of equally adorable fish applique!

Adios!

Tom & Stephanie (West Mall Outlet)
1 Bukit Batok Central Link
#01-32 & #02-01, West Mall
S(658713)