The last big purchase for Jerry!

Been meaning to blog this down but I seemed to be really tired these days. I guess all that sleepless nights (waking in the wee hours of 4am everyday) is taking a toil on me as the weeks and months passes, especially since work has been equally draining and I had to force myself to concentrate in order to meet those deadlines. Am also stressing out about my long overdue claims (I’m so not diligent in that matter) and stuff like packing up my desk, and starting to work on my handover.. Feels a little deja vu because this was exactly what happened last year when I was prepping for the wedding and the month-long honeymoon!

Have been feeling slightly under the weather (slight cough, throat irritation) and yesterday, I spent the entire day making friends with the toilet bowl. I felt sick after a sucky breakfast, and vomited a whole bunch of bile just when I was stepping out for lunch. Didn’t manage a happy lunch in the condition I was in and I couldn’t find anything that could soothe my tastebuds either so I left my entire lunch (which was chicken chop) untouched. The frozen chicken smell ignited the retching reaction.. Just one bite into it.

The day went on with everything that went into my mouth ending up in the toilet bowl, including water. I managed a light dinner with the boy and decided to hydrate myself with an isotonic drink and that also came out in the middle of the night. I actually woke up to puke.

This morning didn’t see the situation turning for the better, was still sickie/pukey so I went to the doc and was given 2 days mc. Thing is, I think I’ll pop back tomorrow if I’m feeling better. Im losing the race against time already! Any way, I spent the day lying in bed (I wasn’t given medication cos I’m preggers) drifting in between sleep and entertaining myself with mindless games on my phone. any distraction helps! I was told to just drink and not attempt to eat if I can till I’m better. I managed to keep a few mouthful of porridge in from lunch (doc say a few small bites), but vomited the mini mars bar that I swallowed in the late afternoon in an attempt to ease the bitter taste in my mouth.

And gawd, why does the day pass so fast? It’s evening already!

Oh, back to the last big purchase for the baby – the inglesina marco polo car seat!

And yup, its my favorite red colour despite Jerry being a boy! The other colors available were dark blue (not nice) and black. Would have gotten the black but I had an issue with it trapping heat and you know how terrible our weather is. Sometimes, I get into the car and feel like I’m being roasted especially when the car is parked in the sun so I cannot imagine putting my baby boy in that, on top of a black car seat which would trap more heat! I dont particularly love it (in terms of design/brand) but it’s functional, and can be used from an infant to toddler so we dont have to change it out. Besides, we went back to the shop at 2 separate occasions and the same car seat was being recommended! There is this other maxi cosi one that I like but it was almost twice the price and other than the looks, there’s no major difference in its functions. After all, a car seat is a car seat! The cheaper one wins.

Some has asked me why I didn’t buy an entire travel system, the kind where the car seat, stroller can be used interchangeably. Actually, this whole baby shopping business is so tough and I do wish there were some kind of manual that all mothers out there could adhere to or at least use as a guideline. For der and me, we evaluated all our purchases based on the following – ease of usage, meeting our lifestyle needs, not too heavy and cost effective.

While we initially thought the travel systems like Quinny/maxi cosi were damn cool.. They were expensive, heavy and the parts don’t quite grow with the baby. You need to change the seats out as the baby grows bigger or into a toddler, which adds to the cost and wastage as the parts become obsolete. My main concern was also the fact that the stroller frame was way too heavy at 12kg (referring to the Quinny one here). While it is not too heavy to manage, I think it’s quite a hassle when I have diaper bags and a potentially struggling or moving baby on my busy hands. This consideration is magnified in my instance because I do foresee myself struggling alone with it often because the boy travels so much and I do have quite a wide window throughout the year where he’ll be away. I am so not looking forward to it seriously. Funny how in the past, I’m totally cool with it, then comes the pregnancy and he has managed to cut down the trips because of my situation but I’m sure he cannot have anymore excuse after the baby is born. He has to be fair to his colleagues too, all of whom has nicely taken his place in traveling the past months. So we got a really light mclaren stroller that’s only at 5.5kg, at half the price and easily opened/closed with one arm and separately shopped for the car seat.

Some has also asked me if there is a need for an infant car seat..The babies grow out of it so fast and you could always hug the baby in your arms while traveling in the car. Afterall, I do have friends who have done that till their kids have turned toddler and see no harm in it. Well, safety has been my main issue.. Besides, it’s against the law.. Isn’t it? That said, I do want to be the kind of parent (note- do want to be, but I dont know if it’ll pan out as I would like it to be) where I don’t carry my baby all the time. I want the baby to be independent and not needy if possible, unless he is in distress/pain or some other situation where attention is needed. I will also be likely to find myself in situations where I’ll have to bring the kid out myself.. Like mentioned above, the father won’t be around for some periods and I do not want the kid to have such a huge attachment as a baby because I think there will be a lot of issues to deal with. Besides, my mum would be the main care giver and she sure have strict rules on such stuff. I’m not complaining because I think she did a fine job of bringing both my brother and me up all by herself in a foreign land and thus far, I have heard from the older generation that her practices are really what makes it tick (I was telling my colleague about my mum’s rules one day in a taxi and when we alighted, the uncle had to tell me that he fully agree with my mum because that’s how he brought up his 3 kids too and how to toilet train them). I haven’t read any books on babies yet.. Still reading the pregnancy ones but I guess I can learn along the journey.

And yup, that’s the last big purchase and we are all set for the baby’s arrival! This whole baby shopping business really is a lot of work/research! I do hope my entries can serve as some form of reference for future mums to be tho I ain’t no baby guru. =)

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