Serene's bump

It's amazing to see how baby grows when we go for each ultrasound. Equally fantastic is seeing how Serene's bump grows and baby moving within the bump, and being able to see and feel her movements.

I am enjoying this new life a great deal, and seeing how she turns and moves. Lately she's been moving a lot and she even kicks Serene pretty hard. The thought of this makes my heart go warm and fuzzy. It's like baby is already here with us, just that we have yet to see her face.

I am posting pics below to let you all see how Serene's bump has been changing:


Even Darcy is eagerly expecting baby's arrival!

Is this a Sign?

We've been racking our brains, praying and scouring baby names websites for the longest time, and we didn't seem to make much progress in finding a name we both liked and which fitted our criteria. We shortlisted a few but we weren't completely satisfied with any of them.

Ariel - lion of God
Arielle - lion of God
Alyssa - noble, rational
Emma - universal, all-embracing
Emily - industrious, hardworking

After months of mulling, we were leaning towards Arielle - we like the meaning, it sounds sweet and feminine, and it's not too common. But would we pronounce it as AIR-ee-ell, ARR-ee-elle, or air-ee-ELLE? If we went with ARR-ee-elle or air-ee-ELLE, would it sound too pretentious? Would she be teased in school and called a little mermaid? Or a sans serif font?

A few nights ago, while surfing the net aimlessly, we decided to try out a Baby Name Advisor which analyses the parents' names and meanings and then generates a baby name. We were stunned.


Could it be a coincidence? What were the odds? Was it a sign? We decided it must be. :D

Now came the Chinese / Dialect name question. Would we go with my family's very helpful suggestions of:

Ho Lim
Ho Jiak
Ho Kua
Ho Kun
Ho Sei
OR......... Ho Sanna?

So far, we quite like 何爱蕾 hé ài lěi (爱 = love, 蕾 = bud). That would make her a loving and blossoming lion of God!

The mulling continues... we have 82 more days!

Little Hiccups!

The cutest thing happened this morning as I was lying in bed refusing to wake up. I felt Baby hiccuping for the first time! Normally the taps, thumps, kicks, prods, pokes and rolls are completely random and I never know when, where or how the next one might be, but this time, it lasted a few minutes and my tummy was jumping at the same place and at regular intervals! It's really thrilling to feel her moving inside me. She's started moving a lot more lately. She used to just prod and poke occasionally, but now I feel her rolling around, moving up and down and doing all sort of acrobatics. Sometimes I watch in amazement as my tummy develops a life and personality of its own. It's like those round curtain changing rooms, where you see all sorts of funny shapes and movements when someone is changing inside. Or like Darcy when we put him in a doggy bag and the funny shapes we see when he stretches or pushes against the sides of the bag!

I'm really excited. Baby is now 28 weeks old, is the size of a chinese cabbage, has eye lashes, can hiccup and suck her fingers!