My New himmel V Super Slicer

Yay! My himmel V Super Slicer finally arrived about 2 weeks ago. Elsa,  of course came by to deliver it to me and she brought some yummy crunchy Fuji apples to try out! (How thoughtful of her) My dehydrator was kind of gathering dust as I was too lazy to cut the fruits using a knife. She brought an extra bonus which was an apple corer!

My ever willing model! Thanks Elsa! It came packaged in a box like this. 

Inside the box, you will get a slicer, a  holder and a set of blades.

You get a total of 5 interchangeable blades for doing different things. It comes with a convenient holder so you can keep them all in one place.

Overall, the slicer was very sturdy and the make is really similar to the much more expensive slicer sold by Tupperware. I felt that it was a really good buy at RM 119 because I bought it on pre-order! So we started coring the apples which was a lot harder than I thought. You literally had to use quite a lot of strength to push the corer through the apples and the corer accidentally came out the side on one apple! (Hahaha! So I ate that apple the next day) 

Using the slicer was incredibly easy and we got through about 8 apples in less than 10-15 minutes! It was awesome considering that it took us nearly half an hour the last time trying to cut the apples thin enough with a knife.

Ta-da! The end result! Beautiful round shaped apple slices to dehydrate.

The finished apple slices all ready to snack on!

This time I decided to use a much lower temperature (55°C) and leave it for 16 hours. I feel like the taste of the apples was a lot sweeter and nicer compared to my previous tries. So from now on, will work on using lower temperatures. 

More healthy fruit snacks to come for the whole family!! 

3rd Consultation Appt. with Obstetrician & Gynaecologist - Dr Tan Ee Ping

Work has been really punishing these last couple of weeks. All my blogs postings are piling up and I finally get to sit down and finish one. I thought that this was important as it marks Week 25 of being pregnant with Baby #2.

Anyway, earlier this week we went to for our routine monthly check up and this time we decided to bring Chapati along to "meet" his didi (little brother) for the first time!

We arrived at the clinic about the same time as our previous visit but there was a heck of a lot more people and I was No. 17 on the queue. All in all I think we waited about 2 hours plus which is a little longer than our previous visit but still bearable apart from the fact that both Chapati and I were starving because we didn't manage to eat breakfast before leaving the house. All he got was his morning milk.

Chapati went straight for the playhouse and did a few round down the little slide before settling on a toy that makes the most noise! Aiyo...so pandai children nowadays I tell you. 

I weighed in at 68 kgs! Horrors! I put on 2.3 kilos in just one month! I don't know how it happened considering that I still don't have any cravings and for the last 3 weeks my taste buds were non-existent because I had a cold and sore throat. So all food was bland and tasteless! How could I put on so much weight??!! But I was definitely eating more regularly than the previous months as there was no more morning sickness. Hubby says maybe some water retention? I hope so...Three more months to go...and only 3 kilos left to the 10 kilo mark! I really don't want to put on any more weight than necessary because it is going to be hell losing it. The nurse told me to cut out sugar completely... hmm... right... and no more Milo. I only drank Milo twice in the last one month. I have to be so careful from now on. It is good that Hubby and I are in agreement that we want to cook and eat at home more so that it is more healthy for the both of us. Hopefully this will help to keep the weight at bay. 

Urine test was good but my last blood test showed that my blood count was a bit low. Longan red dates tea coming up! The most surprising thing about this visit was that they gave me a tetanus jab. I asked them if it was normal and the nurse said yes. Usually with the first baby, they give you two tetanus jab and when you have your second baby, you only need one. I honestly cannot remember getting any jabs at all with Chapati. Anyway, after jabbing my arm, the nurse put on a baby band aid and Chapati was so amused by it that the nurse gave him one too and Hubby promptly put it on his arm.

Hahaha! So proud of it and showing it off!

The ultrasound was also good, really thank God! Baby#2 is now a whooping 746 grams. We brought Chapati in to see didi but he didn't really seem to know what was happening and didn't seem to interested in the pictures on the screen. Maybe because it was black and white?

Hi everyone! I am getting bigger and stronger!

This time around,  I have been feeling a downward pressure on my pelvic and vaginal area. It became worse over the last one and half week, and then the muscles near my panty line hurt like crazy when I walk or move around. So I have been walking very slowly and like a duck/penguin (I still do now...) But some days the pain was so bad that I just couldn't move at all. I complained to the doctor and she put me on immediate bed rest for 1 week citing that the pelvic muscles and the area around my groin was injured somewhat and I need to rest and recover if I didn't want complications during birth or after birth. I still had my coughing and running nose so she decided to put me on antibiotics for 5 days and on top of that, steroids to help reduce the inflammation and aid in muscle recovery. (More medicines!)

The bill this time around was in between our first and second visit so here is the breakdown of my bill:-

Consultation Fee          = RM 80
Pharmacy                     = RM 98
Ultrasound                   = RM 40
Total Bill                     = RM 218

Pharmacy consisted of the following:-

Multi-vitamins - Elepro Multivitamins Supplement - 28 tabs                   - RM 16

Calcium supplements tablets - 28 tabs                                                       - RM 12

Prednisone - 30 tabs (3 tabs, 2 times a day)                                               - RM 15

Antibiotics (co-amoxiclav 625 mg) - 10 tabs (1 tab, 2 times a day)          - RM 25

Tetanus injection                                                                                        - RM 30

I told the doctor directly that her DHA supplements were pricey and asked her if she could recommend other types of supplements that I could take since I am now no longer sensitive to smells. She recommended Neurogain. So it's off to the pharmacies to check on pricing. However, will only probably be able to do it next week as I am under "house arrest"! Bed rest is excruciatingly difficult. I just can't imagine having to lie down in bed the whole day. Ok, I guess I can still sit up on the computer and type. Not to mention that emails and other stuff from the office would be coming in since this is so sudden. I also get to spend some time finishing off all my pending blog posts! Yay! I can't believe that I haven't been able to post a single one this month yet. Busy busy month indeed.

Anyway, I spoke to doc sister about my condition so she told me exactly what it was. I have to go do some research on round ligament pain and sacroiliac pain. (That's a mouthful)

Preggie mummies and mummies to be out there, do you have pain like what I described? 

Sunday Laughs: Really Sleepy Baby

I really got to share this with everyone as it has never happened before. Hubby and I were a bit worried at first, but I guess he was just very tired. Too much excitement and not enough rest.

Chapati woke up yesterday morning looking a little grumpy. As with most days, he would follow me right out of the bedroom to the kitchen for breakfast. He seemed a little clingy and would not let go of his soft toy caterpillar (which doubles as a bolster now) and didn't seem to enthusiastic about having breakfast. After calling him a few times to come into the kitchen, he kind of responded in his normal "eh" (his universal word for everything and anything. He is still not talking!) I walked out and found him standing outside in the hallway looking like this.

Just looking at me and hugging his multi- coloured caterpillar

I turned around and called him to come into the kitchen again and he decided to sit down and suck his thumb.

I then decided to pick him up and put him in his high chair to try and feed him. I started to prepare his cereal when I noticed him nodding off on the chair!

He then promptly fell asleep on the chair

I just couldn't resist taking a video of the moment! Ha ha ha!

Finally I decided to put him out of his misery and take him back to bed to sleep properly. Sleep tight baby boy! Smuack!

Has any of you other Mummies and Daddies experienced this before? I would love to know your sleepy stories!

2nd Consultation Appt. with Obstetrician & Gynaecologist - Dr Tan Ee Ping

These last two and the half weeks have been a tad chaotic due to changes in schedules for trips and doctor's appointment! Arrgh!

NOTE to self: Key in appointments immediately once they are changed/confirmed and to double check and reconfirm dates rather than assume that they are unchanged. 

Anyway, got to give some credit to her nurses as they sent a reminder sms message yesterday informing me that I have appointment to see her. So we rushed through the morning preparations and went straight to the clinic because if I don't go, I will not see her until sometime mid-October as she and her whole clinic will be on long leave. I also wanted to see her soonest because we will be leaving for our holiday in Phuket later this week. 

It is my second consultation with her, but my first time to her clinic CT Woman & Specialist Clinic in Sri Kembangan. You can read about my first experience with her in my earlier post. 

I was pleasantly surprised when I walked into the clinic. The atmosphere was relaxed, pleasant and cooling. I was a little hot and bothered after being so disorganised but when I walked in, her bevy of capable nurses were excellent. They were so smiley, friendly and extremely efficient. No wishy washy questions or funny looks even though they couldn't find my file and within minutes I was registered and my file was created asap! I was patient No. 10. Best registration experience so far and I immediately felt calm and strangely reassured. 

Straight after registration, I was asked to weigh in and I am now 65.7 kilos! Gee, the 5 kilos sure came back pretty quickly. It kinda just snuck up without me even noticing it. I waited for another 10 minutes and I was called to see the nurse. She proceeded to inform me clearly that they were going to be on leave and if I had any emergencies, I could call the 24 hour hotline which she highlighted on my appointment card and then proceeded to take my blood pressure and blood samples for the normal pregnancy testing, then I went to toilet to get a urine sample. 

About 10 minutes after passing my urine sample to the nurse, I was called again to the Ultrasound room to get a scan. The nurse there apologised to me that their sonographer was on leave today and that the person will do a proper scan on my next visit. So this scan was a simple scan to check weight and size of head of Bump and measure amniotic fluid. After the scan, Hubby had arrived after sending off Chapati and we waited hardly another 10 minutes when we were called to see the doctor. All in all, the wait was pretty reasonable which was about 1 hour and it was hardly noticeable because of all the things that I had to do. 

The consultation went well. I asked her about my current bout of urinary incontinence when I vomit or cough and assured me that it is very common among pregnant women. For the moment she recommends a lot of pelvic/kegel exercises and if it gets worse we'd deal with it then. I told her that I was coughing this last few days and it was uncomfortable leaking every time it happens. She then did a second scan and printed two photos of Bump. However, this time he was a little shy so we could not really get a nice clear shot.

Hello everyone! Today at 20 weeks, 5 days and weighing in at 386 grams.

I also mentioned to her that I was going to be travelling to Phuket for a holiday and if there was anything that I needed to be concerned with. She said that the pregnancy was progressing well and she will just issue a simple letter for me saying that I am fit to travel. Then she asked about my supplements and I told her that I would need some, so she said that she would issue me with more multivitamins, DHA tablets, calcium and some cough mixture to help suppress the cough. We didn't have anymore questions so we completed the visit and proceeded to wait for the bill. 

I was quite unprepared for the bill amount this time because of my last experience with her at Pantai Hospital. I knew that I would have to pay more because of the blood work but it was significantly more this time.  So here is the breakdown of my bill:-

Consultation Fee        = RM 80
Pharmacy                   = RM 144
Laboratory                 = RM 70
Ultrasound                 = RM 50
Others                        = RM 10         

Total                          = RM 354

I assume the "Others" could be the admin fee or registration fee, will see if it pops up again next visit,  or it could be the urine test. If it is, then it is more expensive than Pantai Hospital or Prince Court Hospital. Laboratory was for the blood tests.

Consultation and Ultrasound charges were comparable to Pantai Hospital. The additional amount paid at Pantai was for the 6% GST.

As the bill was more than double from my previous bill,  I kinda dissected the bill  with her nurse as I was surprised my medicine and supplement charge was so high. I was prescribed the following:-

• Multi-vitamins - Elepro Multivitamins Supplement for pregnant women - 30 days supply
• DHA blister packs - Belvea 35 days supply
• Calcium supplements tablets - 30 days supply
• 1 bottle of cough syrup -  Axcel Iridin Linctus
• Antihistamine - Xyzal - 5 tablets

The most expensive supplement was the DHA which the nurse told me is RM75 for 35 tabs! Nearly fainted! But then even deducting RM 75 from RM 144 leaves RM 69 for the rest of the medicines and supplements which I thought was still pricey considering that the multi-vitamins only cost RM 14 for 30 days supply. So deducting RM 14 from RM 69, the rest of the medicines were RM 55! Calcium, cough syrup and 1 strip of antihistamines for RM 55? I am feeling like I paid a lot more and was complaining a little to Hubby. I won't know for sure until I check out the meds and supplements at BIG and Caring pharmacy.

I am sure that there is a better and more cost effective way to go about pregnancy supplements? Will have to do more research but do share if you have any suggestions and ideas! I would love to hear them in the comments!


P/S Today was the first time that I could feel Bump move! 

Confinement Food Catering Reviews

I am now into my second stage of my do-it-yourself confinement planning. Ie.  No confinement lady or staying in a confinement home and hopefully saving a monster load of money.  Earlier this month, Hubby and I decided that we would  look after baby#2 on our own.

I finally managed to collate together the responses that I got from my enquiries.

SN Confinement Care Centre

I clicked on their meal delivery service tab and there wasn't much information on it. So I decided to send an email to them via the email listed on their contacts page. I thought of calling but I wanted to have information in writing anyway so email it was.

I received a response pretty quickly on the same day. (Note: When sending enquiries about meal delivery, do send them your location as well, which I forgot to do) So here it is.

Total Cost: RM 3,500
Duration: 28 days
If  I am interested in shorter periods they can do 14 days at RM 2,000 and 21 days at RM 2,900.  

Delivery Charge: Price includes delivery

Lunch and Dinner meals consists of the following per day:-

• 2 types of meat (one for each meal)
• 2 types of vegetables (one for each meal)
• Brown rice (enough for two meals) 
• 1 liter of Red Dates drink
• 1 x Herbal Soup 

Food tasting: They charge RM 80 if you would like to order a meal to taste. Delivery is included in the price. You will have to choose either lunch or dinner. If you want to try both then the cost will be RM 120

Payment Terms: 30% deposit upon confirmation and balance payment upon first meal delivery.

Exceptions: They do not deliver during Chinese New Year (CNY). I believe from the email response that it starts from the 1st day of CNY to the 10th day of CNY. Therefore if you were to pay for 28 days then they will deliver the replacement meals after CNY to complete the 28 days duration.


Hampden Wellness

Most of the information on their confinement food services was available on their website.

Total Cost: RM 2,500
Duration: 28 days
If I am interested in a shorter period they, only do 14 days at RM 1,350

Delivery Charge: RM 15 per day (to my area in Cheras)
(Note: You will have to write to them to get the exact cost of delivery depending on your area)

Lunch and Dinner meals consist of the following per day:-

• 2 meat
• 2 vegetables
• 1 herbal soup

Food tasting: They charge RM 90 if you would like to order a meal to taste. However on top of that they quoted me RM 8 to deliver the meal to my office (located in the KL golden triangle) You will get the following for the food tasting.

• 2 meats 
• 2 vegetables
• 1 herbal soup

Payment Terms: They seemed to be quite flexible with the payment terms. They do not require any deposit but just full payment before they start to deliver. 

Preparation Timing: 2 working days before the start of the delivery. So best to call them and inform them when labour starts.

Exceptions:

They do not deliver on public holidays and weekends (both Saturday and Sunday).
The meals to do not include rice or the red dates drink.
They will not deliver during the 8th -10th of February 2016 for the CNY period

Confinement Care Malaysia

I filled up their online enquiry form and waited for about a week. When I didn't get a reply from them, I decided to call the hotline number and spoke to a guy named Dave. He was very helpful and promised that he would send me information via email if I could send him a text message of my email address. After waiting a couple of days and receiving nothing, I called him again and finally got the email as promised. There seems to something wrong with their online enquiry form as he mentioned that my email had gone to the spam/junk mail folder. (I thought this was strange as strangers are going to write to you as it is an online enquiry form!) 

Total Cost: RM 3,888
Duration: 28 days
They can also do 14 days at RM 2,688

Current Promotion: RM 3,388 for 28 days and RM 2,188 for 14 days

• 2 meats (chicken/fish/pork)
• Vegetables 
• Brown rice
• 1.5 L red dates drink
• 1 herbal tonic soup 

Delivery Charge: Price includes delivery

Delivery Time: 11.30 am - 1 pm

Exceptions:

They do not have any! Which is great! They will deliver during weekends and even Public Holidays like Chinese New Year which I was very surprised as everyone else has said that they would not. 

Payment Terms: Upon confirmation, I will have to pay RM 1,000 as a deposit to secure my slot. As they have limited slots and if the slots are filled up then they will not accept anymore orders.

A little hard to do a fair comparison as we are not exactly comparing apples to apples here. I will have to go find out the approximate cost of making my own red dates tea and rice.

Will stop by Eu Yan Sang when I do my grocery shopping next.

Financial Independence and Simple Living

I was discussing with Hubby the last couple of days and whilst we are comfortable and well off, the current economic situation of our country and the rest of the world was a bit of a wake up call. We have taken for granted that everything is alright and will continue to be alright. With baby#2 on the way and Chapati growing up, we need to really sit down and seriously think of our future as a family. We believe that in times like this, it is important to be careful with how we spend money and be even more focused on how the rest of our money is working for us. We have also accumulated some debt recently and suddenly we feel a strong need to clear them as soon as possible. These are unsecured debts like credit cards and personal loans.

So one weekend, I spent some time thinking of what we wanted for ourselves and our children and why we are starting to think more seriously about financial planning for the future. Since hubby and I got married, it is so easy to spend money and not think about it. Our thinking was, just spend the money as we can always earn money. I must say that in hindsight, we were young and a little...stupid. We were so busy working from the wee hours of the morning to late nights that we never sat down to talk about important stuff like this.

Anyway first and foremost, during this time of many uncertainties, we believe that being prudent with our spending is the way to go. We still have a long way to go in our plans for the future which we want to work on mapping out within this year as baby#2 will be arriving next year. It will be an interesting adventure for us I believe. Will probably do a series of posting on this over the next few months.

So the first question I asked was, how do we really go about being prudent/frugal in a place like Kuala Lumpur. As usual I looked on Google for some inspiration and came across some very interesting people and their unique approach. After reading through them all, I really enjoyed this particular blog The Frugalwoods and decided to use their tagline for my title of this posting. It really spoke to me about being more intentional instead of just letting things fly right by us. Mrs Frugalwood's posting on Strategic Luxury gave me a lot of things to think about. I love the way that she defines it as "frugality isn't about deprivation or hardship, it's about spending money only on what truly matters." After reading these postings from her The Joy That Comes When Less Is Enough and Benefits of Frugality That Have Nothing to do with Money, I really liked the idea of a different way of living.

I realised that I am the sort of person whilst careful, will buy something if I like it, rather than really needing  it. I am also the quintessential hoarder. Coupled with the fact that I am rather disorganised and a tad bit messy...Our home is full of good stuff which are new and unused and I keep buying more because I can't seem to find them or forget that I have them already. My clothes cupboards are full to the brim with clothes that I haven't worn in years, and the same goes for my kitchen cabinets and fridge with food that we either eat very little of and then have to throw them away because they have expired or spoilt. We have little things everywhere! The worse if a SALE comes by which most of you know in KL is nearly every month! I have to buy more because we can save money! (Yeah right...)

The Frugalwoods is also expecting Babywoods in 11 weeks and I am really interested to learn how they plan to continue being frugal after the new addition to the family. After all Baby #2 is not that far way for us! February 2016 is looming!

So after coming across two more of her postings Uber Frugal Month and Clutter Free Life, I felt inspired to take baby steps towards being more prudent and frugal from now. I am going to start with the following:-

1. Clothes-buying ban for me
2. Track our family expenditure every month
3. De-Clutter our home (also in preparation for Baby #2)

I tried looking through the internet and blogs for more ideas and examples of living frugally/prudently in Malaysia and came across search results that yielded almost nothing. There was a blog on How To Save Money in Malaysia dated back to 2009 and a 52 Week Money Saving Challenge which was disappointing.  More research to do it seems or I will have to blaze my own trail in the Malaysian context of being frugal! Gotta run now as Chapati just woke up, wants to play with my exercise ball that is as big as him and wants me to join him. Mummy is coming!

Happy weekend everyone! My sunshine is calling!

My New himmel Food Dehydrater V3

I am so excited! We just bought a Korean import himmel brand food dehydrator last Sunday during the Home Improvement & Renovation Expo at the Mid Valley Exhibition Centre! So much possibilities!

They showed us how we could make healthy home made dried snacks made out of fruits like red dragon fruit, apples, pears, oranges and pineapple. Not to mentioned vegetable chips and what everyone usually buys from the supermarkets potato chips! On top of that you could make your own yoghurt and powders! Elsa the sales person even suggested that we could make our own puree baby food for travelling.

I was totally sold on owning one and Hubby was pretty amused just watching me fawn over the machine. So we decided to purchase the V3 model dehydrator which is the newest and bigger model at RM 2,099. Then we added RM 1 to get the additional trays, fruit leather and tupperware set. It is also fantastic that you can op for a 12 month interest free payment which means that the repayment every month is only RM 175.

I feel that the company provides pretty good after sales service as their sales people will come over to your home personally to teach you and help you on using the machine. They also provide support on Facebook where owners can share or ask questions. On top of that they also help to provide recipes, guidelines and more ideas to experiment with.

These are the boxes before the opening ceremony! The additional box on the right is the additional trays, fruit leather and tupperware set that came with it. 

I managed to secure an appointment with Elsa on Tuesday night at 7.30 pm. She turned up right on time and we dove straight into the preparation. She helped to unpack the machine and set it up, then proceeded to cut the apples, pears and zucchini that I had bought. (She very kindly agreed to be my model for the pictures)

Ta-da! After set up and turning on the power.

Some tips that she shared was while cutting the apples, we could prepare a solution of mild salt water to avoid the apple turning brown. On top of that, we could also soak the zucchini in sea salt water to give it some flavour.

We piled it all into 6 trays and put on the timer for 11 hours at 70°C so that it will be ready early tomorrow morning!

The end result was yummy and chewy fruits! I will have to experiment more to get them to look prettier. Now the shape not so nice and the edges are very curled and crinkled.

Can't wait to try other vegetables and fruits! Not to mention, fruit rolls and chewy fruit candy!

If you are interested in purchasing the dehydrator, you can always give a Elsa a call. She is wonderful and will come over to see you and show you all the stuff that it can do! Her number is 017-2352828. Just tell her you got her number from me! Or you can also message her on her FB at Elsa's FB profile.