My Pregnancy Journey

Counting down! Bey and I are expecting our baby's arrival in less than a month.  We are so amaze about this wonderful journey; some of the days I still can't believe there is a baby in my tummy!

My pregnancy journey began when I did not have my menses on time; which was not the norm. My colleague suggested for urine pregnancy test. I was like "seriously?" With her ac-companion, we got a Urine Pregnancy Test kit at the nearest pharmacy. The next morning, the first thing I did was rush to the toilet and collect my first urine sample. (I was told to collect first urine sample of the day to get the most accurate result.) I asked Bey to wait outside the washroom; I knew he was at the door. I dipped on the strip and asked him in.We both stared on the strip; and it gradually appeared 2 pink lines.

Referring to interpretation of result, 2 lines means positive. 

I burst into tears. I had all kinds of feelings at that moment: surprised, stunned, worried, happy... Bey hugged me tightly; he was even more ready than I was. He was so happy to change his status as a proud daddy!

Being in my new position as a mum, I was worried. I need a professional Dr. consultation to solve my questions in mind. As suggested by my friend who is a mum herself, I went to Penang Adventist Hospital. When I was there, the nurse asked "which Dr. would you like to meet?" I did not know who is famous and have no specific preference. So, I met with Dr. Selma Ng. I feel comfortable with her. Since then, I follow up at PAH and do not go to Klinik Kesihatan.

During my first trimester, I spent 3 weeks with my beloved toilet bowl. LOL. It's true, not being exaggerate. We all know that most pregnant ladies suffer morning sickness. But, I seriously did not expect it to be that bad. I didn't feel like eating, vomited out everything, till I saw green liquid (which I believe it was bile juice). I lost 2 kgs, I was 48 kg. When things get worse, I was prescribed with Gaviscon which can relieve gastric re- flux; but it didn't work for me; it was even worse. I only took once and I stopped it. Luckily, things got better after my vacation at Sabah and I started to enjoy my pregnancy! Checkout my Sabah trip here.

Baby Center

I download BabyCenter app and keep track on my baby everyday. It is a very useful app which shares daily articles and weekly updates on baby size. When my baby bump started to be noticeable, I got a lot of advice from family members. People are most likely concern about my weight. The most common question that I receive "You got eat or not? Why you look so thin?" Due to that, I started to increase a meal per day , I make it a practice to snack after work.

Talking about food intake during pregnancy; below are some of the dos and don'ts  that I have been practicing. (Those label * are based on gynae's advice, others are based on customs and traditions; don't ask me why can't eat; LOL.)
Don't eat  
1. Half boiled egg, watery egg.* prevent food-borne illness
2. Sushi/sashimi (cold/ raw food items) * prevent food-borne illness
3. Rojak (Prawn sauce)
4. Chee Cheong Fan (Prawn sauce)
5. Laksa
6. Unripe papaya
7. Yellow mee/ wantan mee (starting from last trimester)

Eat less
1. Crab
2. Octopus / squid
3. Cold food (ice-cream, ice drink, smoothie)

Eat more
1. Milk to increase calcium intake
2. Cheese to increase calcium intake
3. Fruits& Vegetables to increase fiber intake, prevent constipation
4. Black sesame/ black soya drink to increase iron intake
5. Fish to increase omega 3 intake
6. White Fungus
7. Bird Nest
8. Coconut water (Starting from third trimester, I take once per week )
9. Folic acid 5mg supplement *
10. Obimin Plus supplement *

Each month, we are looking forward to meet up our gynae. This is because during each visit Dr. Selma will perform ultrasound to check on our baby. (Each follow up visitation costs around RM130. Other extra charges base on blood/ urine/ swab test) We are able to look at our baby form the monitor screen, baby grows from a tiny bean size to a melon size; and now to a newborn miniature. Without my own eyes, I won't believe in this miracle. By the end of second trimester, I was asked to monitor on baby kicks. At the first place, I was confused about the movement, I was not confident whether it was baby moving or not. But when the kicks get stronger, I am able to feel it, then I ask Bey to put on his hands to feel it too. :) Baby kick is the most incredible feeling ever.

Since the first day I met you, I love you baby.

35 weeks > 27 weeks > 22 weeks > 16 weeks 

Time flies. Coming to the end of pregnancy, I am getting more anxious; but I tell myself  "I am ready to roll this! I can't wait to meet my baby!"

Love,
Yvonne

Design Our Home

To do it yourself or to employ an interior designer? This might be one of the most struggling question that you would have. I would say....

I have ABSOLUTELY no regret that we have Grace as our interior designer (ID) to design our home!
I recalled that during the first visit, Grace tried to know me better and understand about my preferences. I shared my ideas that I had in mind- simple, clean-looking and easy to maintain. I have numerous pictures in mind; but, I do not know how to tie them together; luckily Grace was here to help.

We had uncountable discussions and meet up sessions to go through every details. She cared about all the tiny details from materials, colors, lighting, electricity, practicality and most importantly budget. Those days, I looked forward towards the design drawings. Before the real work began,  I needed images for a great visual. The 3D drawings that Grace prepared were really good! Have a look.

When the real work began, she visited and monitored on site to make sure everything was in the right place. I would say she was the middle-man in between us and the carpenter. I am very glad with the outcome. Although it was tiring, but it was a wonderful  journey to design our new home. We went to lots and lots of furniture fair and shops to compare price and quality. If you are interested in any of materials or branding that I had selected; please refer below.

Choosing our furniture materials from Lamitak collection 

Sofa : (Penfurnex fair @ SPICE) Eng Marketing Trading
Fan : Alpha
Coffee Table: BM Creative Furniture Centre
Lights: (Fair @ SPICE) Light Paradise Sdn Bhd
Carpet: Home's Harmony 
TV: Samsung 

Bey worked hard to fix up a cabinet that we bought from IKEA.
Dar, 辛苦了！

This makes me smile :) 

P.S. Lazy on work, stay at home ...

Love,

Yvonne

Travel Sabah- Gaya Island Resort, KK & Kundasang!

Big thanks to our buddies- Ivan Tan and Bo Xing for touring us around ! We had a great time at the island of Borneo- Sabah. Our direct flight from Penang to Kota Kinabalu took about 3 hours. Our first station at KK was Fatt Kee Seafood Restaurant. 
I tried on 清汤米粉 and to my surprise the clear soup was very flavorful, it was cooked with lots and lots of fresh tomatoes. Hot tomato soup with 4 big pieces of fried fish. Yummy-licious. Bey tried on 干捞面 with tom yam soup. The tom yam is not so similar with the one that we usually have, it is more towards the curry side. We also had fried 鱼腐. It was so good that Bey can't resist to order another set.

Left: 清汤米粉; Centre: 干捞面 with tom yam soup; Right: 鱼腐

Our next stop was Jesselton Point. During last January, we held our wedding dinner at Vistana Hotel Penang, they offered us  a complimentary honeymoon stay. We chose Gaya Island Resort among 3 other YTL Hotels. Hence, we have FOC  3 days 2 nights stay at Gaya Island Resort!!  (if you are planning for your wedding, do read this post .) It took about 15 minutes speed boat ride from Jesselton Point towards Gaya Island Resort. Upon arrival, we were welcomed with a lush of greenery, beach and ocean.

Waiting room at Jesselton Point 

Greenery; Beach; Ocean

The staffs were super friendly and greeted us every time. We were guided to our room which was Bayu Villa. It was situated at a higher hillside, we needed to climb up stairs to get there. I love the surrounding of our villa, we were surrounded with leafy trees. Let's take a room tour!

This was our villa and we were lucky to stay at the upper floor.

Nice balcony view
But, I didn't like the outdoor sofa; it was full with mold because of the rainy + sunny weather.
I dared not to sit on it. It will be nice if it's a bamboo chair.
Hope the resort will take this into matter :p

Hallway towards the bathroom

 I am deeply in love with the spacious bathroom, it has a huge bath tub which can fits both of us in.
Hooray! (sounds like coming out from jungle :p)

These days, we just relaxed on the beach and spent some time in the pool. Beautiful time spent. :)

Beach towel provided 

Quiet pool when everyone is not awake yet. Sun rises very early at Sabah as early at 6am. 

I would say the only cons for my stay at GIR was food. There were 3 meals inclusive in our stay, which we can choose to dine in at either Feast Village or Pool Bar. The food at Feast Village were served in buffet style, there were a variety of food range from western, oriental, local. But only a few of them met my expectation. We were thinking of dining at the other 2 restaurants at the resort ; but the price per meal was RM195 per pax.... (highly over my budget). There was also no ala-carte menu... so sadly, we did not have great food at GIR .

When we were back to KK, our main aim was to look for good food.  * the only restaurant that we don't like was Fong Ip Cafe. (food not nice) * We had great seafood  at Welcome Seafood Restaurant Penampang. At the restaurant, we got to choose raw fresh seafood from the aquarium. The fish was really good; fresh, soft, silky. Thumbs up! We also had a local vegetable dish known as sayur manis; must try.

The next day, we had tuaran mee for breakfast at Kantin Bakut. In my opinion, tuaran mee tastes more or less like mee goreng texture which is springy. We ordered gan lao version tuaran mee which was served along with a bowl of seafood ingredients soup. I got to say that Sabah food portion is huge compared to Penang. The price range of noodle is around RM6- 8 but double the portion of RM4 Penang noodles. Kantin Bakut serves no pork so you can see a lot of different races eating together, they were also very generous with the portion of seafood such as fresh fish slices, fish cake and prawns .

Then, we continued our journey towards Kundasang. On the mid-way, we stopped by at Pekan Nabalu that has a good view of  Mount Kinabalu. We were lucky to have sunny day to be able to see the peak of it.

We arrived at noon. So I looked dark and with shadow in this photo. But who cares, look at all the peaks at  Mount Kinabalu that can be clearly seen from distance. 

After another 1 hour, we arrived at Desa Cattle Dairy Farm. The weather started to change cloudy, misty, and windy. There was a herd of cow mooing and eating grass at the beautiful green pastures which created the illusion of being at New Zealand . You can feed calves and goats in the farm, but I preferred not to. We tried on Gelato, milk, and also yogurt at the cafe. All of them were made from fresh and pasteurized milk; tasted good too.

Spot the cows on your right . 

The next day, we strolled around at the city area and visited shopping complex Suria. We took Grab car/ Uber to travel in the city area, which was so convenient (charges around RM3 to RM5).

Photo check point"I love KK" at Segama Waterfront. 

In the evening, we went to Jalan Sulaman for kelapa bakar and coconut pudding. There were a lot of stalls at the roadside, selling the exact same food. We chose on the stall that has a banner of 阿贤人情味. The kelapa bakar was worth trying, the coconut was grilled and served hot. It tasted more like soup instead of a drink. I preferred coconut pudding, it was so nice, creamy, sweet and refreshing; a perfect dessert on a sunny day. 

We then went to Shangrila's Rasa Ria Resort for sunset view. Although we did not stay at the resort, but I would love to introduce it to anyone of you. It has large spacious beach, great garden, and also huge swimming pool. It will be in my top selection for my second visit. (but i need to save money first)

Although we did not manage to see the "egg yolk" sun setting down into the sea;
 blocked by some clouds but the sunset view was still breathtaking. 

I am glad to have you  <3 

I truly enjoyed this relaxing trip. See you again, Sabah!

Love,
Yvonne

Travel Seoul during Autumn 2

More about food ! Dining in a restaurant at Seoul will cost you a bit more than you expect. But, who does not like good food. LOL

My favorite list as below:
Even though it was cold outside, we still craved for desserts. We stopped by at Sulbing Korean Dessert Cafe.These two bowls of snow ice were absolutely GREAT ! The shaved ice were soft like snow. I chose on mango and tiramisu toppings.  The mango snow ice came along with pale yellow cubes, Bey said the cubes were butter, I said the cubes were cheese. Anyway, the cubes were flavorful and creamy , perfect match on the fruity snow ice.

Interior of Sulbing Korean Dessert Cafe

Craving for BBQ ?  This grilled pork is $$$ expensive but it's a must try. It is 黑豚家(明洞店), located underground at Myeong Dong. The black pork is known to originated from Jeju Island. There were not a lot of side dishes, but their pork were really really GOOD !

We also had 陈玉华一只鸡 at Dongdaemun. Basically, the whole chicken, potatoes and green onions were cooked and boiled in a pot of clear soup. It looked simple but it tasted AWESOME. You can also add in kimchi or spicy sauce based on your preference. Later on, when you are almost done, you can add in noodles and rice cake and cook it with the remaining soup.  

When we were walking around Insadong Street, we spotted this dumpling logo, and gave it a try. Dumpling is known as Mandu in Korea, it is a perfect snack dish. We ordered a platter that had both steam and fried dumplings, the ingredients in it were minced pork, vegetables and also tang hoon. 

After tired walking at Myeong Dong, we stopped by OSULLOC cafe. This cafe serves a range of green tea food from dessert, hot tea, smoothies, parfait. It was a relaxing cafe !

I believe that there are still lots and lots of good food in Seoul waiting to explore!

Let's continue with
Day 7 
We departed early in the morning to Nami island by taking ITX train from Cheongyangni station to Gapyeong station. We then took the shuttle bus from Gapyeong station to Nami island ferry station. It is a big island, where you can spend your whole day here, bicycling, strolling, eating.

At the entrance 

Beautiful autumn leaves at Nami island; but too bad; people mountain people sea.
Bey said there were more people than trees

One of the tourist volunteered to help us for a photo. Greatly appreciate!
Winter sonata shooting spot - checked . 

When we were there, there were none Jinko leaves on tree.
But, it was still very romantic to have the right person with me >.< 

Look! What's Bey doing? He was shaking a metal box vigorously !

Dada! It was a bento box with kimchi, rice and egg. It tasted super duper good!!!
After we shaked it, look how well all the ingredients were mixed.
Must try this at Drama Cafe. 

We also visited the Petite France. But, let me tell you, if I knew it was a small place like this; I will not spend extra bucks to visit it. Not too much here. Just colorful buildings and some shows. I did not enjoy the place and we headed to our next stop: Morning Calm Garden

Morning calm garden had less crowd. It was a peaceful garden.

In the late evening, the weather started to change gloomy and chilly.
 But, it was just nice to have our day trip ended here. 

Day 8 

It was the last day of our trip; we started shopping at Myeong Dong. I am not too fancy about cosmetics or skincarse; but, I still bought some basic ones from Innisfree and Etude House. We also tried a couple of street foods. 

I think this is the most special one - egg bread !
 It was served hot, fluffy soft bread with an egg inside. :p

We also tried hot teokbokki (spicy rice cake) and odeng (fish cake) at this stall.
People just stand and eat. Kinda like our rojak stall. lol
The hawkers are aggressive, they speak Mandarin and persuade you to try on everything. 

Of course, must take a photo with this huge line bear. Grin widely :) 

At night, this place was so happening.
Even more food stalls, even more crowd, even more music, endless night... 

Before packing our lugagges, we had a late night supper at our hostel. We dabao fried chicken from Kyochon which is just a street opposite our hostel. We also cooked a pack of instant noodles. The best combination of all: fried chicken + beer+ instant noodles !!!!!I am now saliva-ing .....

Hope to see you again, Seoul! Tataz.

Click here for the first post Day 1-6
http://yvonneyeu.blogspot.my/2017/04/visit-seoul-during-autumn.html

Love, 

Yvonne