Since there had been so much news in the papers about Singapore’s falling birth rate and all, we were obviously expecting PM Lee to say quite a bit about it in his National Day Rally Speech and for the changes to be announced soon after. The husband’s point of view was that since these changes are incentives that are supposed to entice those who have not decided whether they want children, the perks would probably only take effect about roughly 9 months after his speech, i.e. around May 2009. In my heart, I was praying very hard that our baby would benefit from the changes and that my friends/relatives (Yun, Xin, Selena & Sharon) would benefit too. So when they initially announced that the changes would be with effect from Jan 2009, I was happy that we would be included but slightly disappointed that the others wouldn’t. Of course, a few days after that, it was announced that the benefits would take immediate effect as of 17 August 2008. Yay! :)

Of course, with or without these perks, the baby is still planned for and desired so this is really a bonus for us and even if we didn’t qualify, I may have felt a bit disappointed but certainly not devastated. However, there are now people writing to the press and demanding asking for the effective date to be backdated to 1 Jan 2008 to be “fair” to those who had their babies before 17 Aug because they are losing out on incentives worth about $7000. But I think these are called “incentives” for a reason. The government is being rather generous to backdate it to the time the announcement was made instead of 9 months after. I don’t think there’s really a need to feel bad for those who gave birth this year before the effective date because most of them would have made the decision to have the baby regardless of any additional incentives and they should have taken into account their financial ability as well.

If the government gives in to their demands, then we may have people who gave birth in 2007 asking for further backdating of the qualifying period. Seriously, when will the demands end? Maybe they should backdate it to the time when they first introduced the “Have Three or More” campaign in 1987. -_-

Went to see Dr Soong on Thursday. She did an ultrasound this time around instead of an internal scan which is obviously a lot less uncomfortable for me!

The baby is about 2.1cm now. Quite a big difference from 2 weeks ago! I’ve put on 900g within the 2 weeks which the doctor says is good. In fact, she says I’m doing very well since I’m not throwing up or having any adverse symptons but she doesn’t quite agree with my notion of Botak Jones as nutritious food. Haha.

So we have an appointment for the OSCAR (One-Stop Clinic for Assessment of Risk) pre-natal test in 4 weeks’ time and then another appointment with Dr Soong one week after that. We opted to do the OSCAR test instead of amniocentesis although the accuracy is lower. Adrian will also be tested for toxoplasmosis since he’s the one who changes the cat litter. These tests are not cheap! I got a bit of a shock when I saw what we were paying but of course I think the money has to be spent.

I can’t deny that I’m slightly worried and insecure about the possible results of the pre-natal test but I’m trying to cope with it by praying whenever I’m plagued by any negative feelings. The book that Xin bought for me is really useful in this area because I’m praying with a lot more focus and confidence and praying for specific things as well. I will put my trust in God because He’s so much bigger than all my fears and worries.

Went to see Dr Soong last Thursday. Wasn’t so lucky with the peeing again! Thought I’d pee right at the beginning so there would be no chance of me missing my appointment but after peeing, Adrian passed me this little strip of paper that the reception people wanted me to pee on! Argh. Good thing I managed to squeeze out a few drops. Anyway, I put on about 100 grams but I think it was just the jeans I was wearing and not 100 grams of baby! So she did another internal scan and the baby is now 5mm long:

The black area is the water bag and then round thingy in the water bag is the yolk sac. The baby is the tiny bit above the yolk sac. We could see the baby’s heart beating! So interesting! We talked a bit about pre-natal tests and we’re going to take some time to think about the options that we have. We also talked about my travelling in November and the precautions that I need to take. She said something about how my feet will swell when I fly and Adrian was laughing away. I told Dr Soong about how his head was so big when he was a kid that the doctor was worried about him and she said something to the effect of, “Your head is still big, huh?” Hahaha!! She gave me another 7 days of MC and some calcium pills and stretchmark cream. I don’t want to get stretchmarks!! Argh!! Seeing her again in 2 weeks’ time. Lalala…