Our dreams...

At 34 weeks, Ric and I are getting anxious and excited with the upcoming arrival of our baby :)

Well Ric is still in Hanoi and his flight will still be on the 28th of December and my estimated due date is January 8 of next year. Hopefully everything goes well and as scheduled so that Ric wouldn't have to miss Baby J's birth in case he decides to come out early (Oh no! Wait for daddy, baby.) :)

The other night, Ric and I had this conversation about what we dream for Baby J to be when he grows up.

Well being the sporty type, Ric immediately said that he dreams or would like Baby J to excel in ofcourse...basketball. "Just like Kobe" he said. So I told him, ok let's enrol him to the Milo Best Training Camp as soon as possible heheheh

We finished our conversation and said our goodnights but I wasn't able to tell Ric my dreams for Baby J. Hmmm...a successful doctor, lawyer, engineer, businessman or maybe a famous star, performer, athlete, artist...so many good things...so many dreams...

Well I realized that no matter what Baby J decides to be when he grows up, all we can do as parents is to guide, encourage and support him.

Then it came to me that I should've told him that my real dream for Baby J is... to be just like him...to be just like his dad.

Baby's 24th week checkup

September 18, 2007

Today is our 24th week checkup with Vietnamese OB, Dra. Nguyen Thi Tan Sinh. We were supposed to go and see her last month but she was out of the country. We found out that she attended a doctor's conference in Greece. Wow!

Dra. Sinh was recommended to us by Dra. Helen Ng. We've heard and read that she's the best OB here in Hanoi!

"Dr. Nguyen Thi Tan Sinh: Gynecologist and Obstetrician (Vietnamese)Dr. Sinh is one of Vietnam's leading specialists in women's health issues, trained in France, Vietnam and Australia. She combines a busy practice with writing research articles on gynecology and obstetrics for publication in both French and Vietnamese medical journals. Dr. Sinh headed up the Gynecological and Obstetrics Department at the Vietnam International Hospital for three years, before joining the Hanoi Family Medical Practice in 2000. She speaks fluent English, French and Vietnamese."
Text from: http://www.vietnammedicalpractice.com/our_doctors/hanoi.html

With her credentials, it's understandable why she can charge $30 for foreigners. Ouch!

Our appointment was scheduled at 4PM. Ric just worked at home and we left around 3:15PM. We got there too early and the clinic was still closed so we just waited at another clinic just beside Dra. Sinh's clinic. It was a pediatric clinic and the nurses looked ok except that they were wearing slippers! hahaha Uniquely Vietnam!

They started talking to us in Viet and I couldn't understand a word that they were saying. After many repetitions and hand gestures, they were asking us if we were Koreans. We said no, from the Philippines. I can't count how many times people here taught we were Koreans!

First impression of Dra. Sinh, she was very accomodating and answered all our questions. She can converse well and was also excited for our coming baby.

Our checkup went well, baby is well and also mommy :) She had a machine to check the urine and the result was ready in minutes. Everything was normal :) I now weigh 130 lbs! Kinda scary huh? I was 116 lbs before I got pregnant. But I know I need to gain weight for our baby.

Also one thing that made our visit to Dra. Sinh memorable was that she used a fetoscope instead of a doppler to check our baby's heartbeat. It's our first time to see one of those and it was so cool! We didn't know that a thing like that existed!

Now time to celebrate! We went to Quan An Ngon for dinner, well an early dinner! :) We ordered Vietnamese pancake, crab in tamarind sauce and rice. But we were not yet satisfied, especially me, so we ordered a bowl of Pho Bun Hue. Then for dessert we each ordered Che. Che is like their version of our halo halo and ginatan. Yummy!

It was a great day! Spent the whole day with my husband, healthy baby and mommy and ended with a good dinner!