Things that Move Me

There are quite a number of things that move me, meaning that either sends me into a deep meaningful reflection or complete rage (ok lah, not rage but anger). Such has been the case last week. Due to some dramas at work, I have been on a roller coaster of emotions.

This situation at work has made me angry but more so disappointed that such a thing could have happened. I shall not expand on it, but take it from me the circumstances were not pleasant. However the thing that has really really upset me is that this work issue has got my mind so preoccupied that I am unable to fully enjoy the last few days I have with my wife before Mojo comes.

I imagined to have that airy feeling of butterflies in the stomach but at the same time that uncontrollable eagerness of what is come. Its like going for that insane rollercoaster ride that you have always wanted to be on for so long and best of all to be on it with the one you love the most. However in my case, while standing in line to get on, my mind is someplace else as both of us stand there in silence, waiting for the event to take place. I feel somewhat robbed of that emotion.

I know we can control how we feel but sometimes our emotions and feelings just get the better of us. However, I know that when I see that most anticipated face, everything will melt away and what is truly important will be all that matters.

This morning I read something profound from The One Thing, that moved me and my emotional state one step closer to where I should and want to be. It a verse from Deuteronomy 28:4 which I have personalised. It goes like this:

Blessed shall be the fruit of MY body, the produce of MY ground and the increase of MY herds, the increase of MY cattle and the offspring of MY flocks.

M better now!

Mojo Update

A quick Mojo update: We are one day from Mojo month and the wife is in “early labor” already (perhaps that is not the exact term but you get the idea). No, the baby is not coming just yet, but according to our gynae on Sat morning she is 1CM dilated. So folks any time now!

There were a few false alarms, which was good as it served as dry runs for the actual event. I now have almost military precision in terms of what to do when I receive the call from the wife to tell me “Mojo is coming!”

M in anticipation

Essential Reading

 

This has been what I have been reading over the past few weeks; it’s The First Year from the What to Expect series. It has been quite a revelation as the book is well written and very easy to understand. It is very very detailed and I like to read books which leave very little to the imagination. I would recommend it to anyone who is going to be a first time parent.

 

M almost there

Baby Engineering Part 2

Since the baby preparation phase is more or less over with the resolution of the preverbal spanner (will talk about details and God’s super favour for this topic in another post), we are now moving to handling issues when Mojo comes. One of the goals of some parents will be to be so insync with their little ones that at the sound of their cries they will know exactly what’s up. To state the obvious, babies do not talk, they cry, but are all cries are the same? Can we decode their cries to understand what is up with the little fella?

Apparently studies have been done which actually show that baby’s cries can be discerned and the exact problem pinpointed (to 95% accuracy) using the following factors:

• Crying Power
• Crying Frequency
• Crying Intervals

Enter the Why Cry Baby Analyzer; which claims to with 90% accuracy be able to “decode” a baby’s cry within 20 seconds to display the following image to show if baby is Hungry, Bored, Annoyed, Sleepy or Stressed, as per the Chart of Tranquility, shown below.

 

 

 

 

It all sounds a bit loopy to be honest but then again we could be on to something, considering that this technology is based on over 6 years of research and clinical testing. So I started on some research and basically found nothing in the way of user reviews. There are numerous sites, talking about the product which contains the same press release information but can it be trusted? Am I willing to shell out USD$ 75 to get this contraption?

So more searching, and guess what? Remember the time I said I love my iPhone, well it is one of those “I love my iPhone” times. A company called Biloop came up with something called a Cry Translator, it too claims to do the same thing that the Why Cry Baby Analyzer does, only difference its an application that runs on the iPhone!! Now how cool is that!! It identifies the cries in 3-5 seconds and it boast the accuracy of 95%! The clincher is that it cost only USD$10 through the App Store.

But before you rush out and purchase this App, read the reviews! Yes there are 8 reviews and out of them, only 2 are positive the rest say that this App is “a waste of money”. Talk about anti climax.

So in conclusion, do these things work? Who knows? Perhaps they are complete hype or just tech companies preying on the desperation of tired and weary parents. But coming back to the first point and the intended goal which is “parents who want to be insync with their little ones”. In order to be insync with anything, there will be a period of learning or “getting insync” this time can vary and results also might vary but it does take time and patience. All I know is that whenever Mojo cries I will smile (at least I will try) to myself in memory of this post!

M Smiling to Myself.

Spanner in the works

We are about 3-4 weeks away from Mojo’s delivery. Aside from all the planning and “project management” work that went into getting ourselves ready for her delivery, one of the first things, not to mention one of the most critical things, we tied down was our Confinement Lady.

A confinement lady (CL) is like a postpartum doula, who is meant to help with mother’s recovery after childbirth as well provide basic childcare so that mother can fully recover. We had ours booked I think almost in June or July because we knew that we would have not much help considering the wife is from out of town. 

So last Thursday, our confirmed CL, threw us a super curve ball and backed out on us. I was not really surprised because she had been stalling on a few things but to completely back out is downright irresponsible especially to do it so close to the time when delivery in impending. So now, there is an additional crease to iron out. The wife was peeved to say the least. Read her thoughts here.

After numerous phone calls to different people and countless numbers of friends helping out, I have to say that we are blessed to have found quite a few options even at such a late stage that we have the liberty to choose the one that is right for us. But it is hard as we have to decide based on a short phone conversation. We would have preferred direct recommendations of friends but they have already been booked, so we are relying on recommendations’ recommendations. As the dust settled, we have narrowed the field down and we need to speak to a few more before we tie details down with our decided CL.

I take comfort from the fact that, the wife and I are no strangers to last minute scrambles resulting in success. Our wedding for instance, we started planning a particular wedding for about 6 -8 months and then with around 3 months to the wedding day we decided to change all our previously plans to go in a different direction altogether. It could have been a disaster but it was a resounding success! So it shall be with our new CL. She shall be 10 times better than the one who has pulled out and if anything it is her loss that she will not be able to meet our Mojo!

M Expectant 

Picture from www.birthinglove.co.uk

Duh Moment

As most of you know I work in a software company and I have been doing software in the region of about 12 years. So I consider myself pretty tech and web savvy, or so I believed. Well read on.

I love comments, and I love to leave comments on thought provoking sites and blogs but, whenever I leave comments I never get any response from the blog owners. Well I do but its usually me having to go back to that particular blog post to check it out.

Then I discovered the “Notify me of follow-up comments via email.'’ checkbox at the bottom of the comment box. This signifies the first part of the Duh Moment. So now I intentionally click the checkbox hoping for email follow ups. But there was nothing. I even get a “Comment Subscription Confirmation” email to say that I will indeed get email notifications if there are follow up comments. But still nothing.

Now comes the second part of the Duh Moment. Whenever I get these “Comment Subscription Confirmation” emails, I just delete them without reading them. For the blog savvy folks you are already getting my “Duh-ness”.

Today I was in a long meeting so I got one of these emails and decided to read it. And there plain as day it said:

“To confirm all future notifications for this post, click this link:”

So now for all my blogger friends who have left follow up comments or questions and not received any response, a big big sorry. I will not be doing that any longer. Also some of you might have noticed responses to older posts. Well you’ll know why now.

M embarrassed

It has been confirmed

For those who are connected to me on Facebook, you’d probably seen my “It has been confirmed” status update. So some of my friends who knew that we were preggers started asking me if it was a girl or boy.

Well as most of you know that has been confirmed a while ago to be a little girl! So what has been confirmed?

Yeap we have decided on a name. We have been toying with a couple of names which have stuck since our initial brainstorm. But after yesterday in church, I quietly said to myself subconsciously that if the name is mentioned during the service that will be the confirmation. So guess what, the name was mentioned and we both looked at each other and we knew.

So as per my previous post have we met the criteria?

• Something exotic – Well, its not that common but exotic might be too far a stretch.
• No space age or new age – Nice big CHECK on that.
• Perhaps French – Yes its French
• Something that will not be made fun off – I doubt this name will be made fun off, oh well its a rite of passage anyways.
• Something biblical – Nice big CHECK on that one too, well not really a name in the Bible but the meaning has biblical significance
• Something strong yet gentle – I have to YES to this point. It’s feminine yet strong.

So what is it? It shall be revealed in due course. Now we just need to formulate the full name.

M pleased

One Month Out

As the date draws nearer, the activities get heightened. We have almost had all things delivered. Cot was delivered today and the wife just told me to complete the hospital bag packing and place them in the car. Might sound a little kiasu at this stage but who knows, better to be prepared.

So as all the logistics gets sorted and all the necessary equipment gets readied, how are we doing? Well for me personally, I can’t wait to meet the little fella at the same time there is a small apprehension as to whether I can measure up. Of course there is absolutely no way to prepare for what is coming but, all I know it is going to fun, tiring I am sure, but fun. I do not expect to be perfect but I eventually will be perfect for Mojo.

As for my Maju, she is just getting more and more tired and she’s having difficultly moving around. The spirit is high, that I can see but of course the body is trying to keep up. She gave me an early birthday surprise considering that she’ll be in the midst of confinement when it comes along. She is always so sweet and thoughtful, if it was me I will be completely oblivious and unprepared.

She gave me a homemade voucher to “redeem” a new iMac!! Its amazing!! She being a techno-blur went and did all the research and found out all the necessary details. But she was sadly a little disappointed when I said that it is something I do not need nor do I want at this point as I am pretty happy with my PC. It was a good thing she did go out not buy one. We made a few trips to the MacShop to have a looksy but never put an order down as I did not have the peace to get one. So now, I am on the lookout for something that I would like as a present. Any suggestions?

How blessed am I?

M super abundantly blessed