Dearest Skyler,

Hi! You've hit Week 30, little girl. You're really big now and making life very very difficult for Mommy! Mommy finds you very heavy and you're moving around a lot and sometimes, when you move, you nudge Mommy very painfully!

Mommy has not been able to sleep well at all! She can only sleep for about 3 hours at a time before your weight makes it very uncomfortable for her. She'll feel cramps and body aches all over and she'll have to wake up and do something to make herself feel tired again so that she can get some more sleep. During these times, Mommy will surf the Internet to find out more about how to take of you.

See how much Mommy loves you? You had better love her lots when you come out and NEVER EVER give Mommy a bad time after what you've already made her go through, understand?

Daddy's really really proud of how well Mommy is handling all the changes you've made to her body and all the discomfort and pain you've made her go through. She's really doing her best to ensure that you have a healthy headstart. Sometimes M0mmy feels really sad because of the hormones that you've generated but she's really bearing up very well. Daddy sometimes doesn't help because Daddy gets tired from work and cannot help Mommy. Daddy feels bad when he doesn't make things better. So, you better make things better when you're out!

Mommy and Daddy love you lots! We are definitely going to take care of you really well. You're going to be one of the most blessed babies in the history of humankind. We're quite ready for you, Skyler. Come out in December, okay?

We love you lots!

Daddy and Mommy

Dear Skyler,

We've managed to sell off the furniture from your room so that you have a place to stay in when you're bigger.

Mommy and Daddy had bought the furniture when we first moved into our home. It was the first bedroom set that we'd bought from this company called Pennsylvania House. This furniture store specialised in bringing in country-style furniture. We'd loved the four-poster bed and all the accessories like the bedside tables, the dressing table, stool and matching mirror. It was all great! However, when we received it all, we found that it was difficult to sleep in the bed as it had a headboard and footboard that made it a bit too short for Daddy to sleep in comfortably. It's not that Daddy is tall. It's just Daddy could not stretch out over the mattress and this made it slightly uncomfortable. So, we had to buy another set of furniture that we still have. (You'll get to see them when you're with us.)

Anyway, Mommy and Daddy wanted to give you a room (one that you can share with any sibling that may come along). So, we had to clear the room out and decided to sell off all the furniture. We initially put up an advertisement at the Causeway Point Cold Storage supermarket. They had a policy of only allowing advertisements to be put up for one week. After that week, we received one phone call but the lady who called did not come to view the furniture as she said that her husband did not really like it.

So, Mommy put up some photos of the furniture on the Internet in the hope that someone would come across them and buy the furniture from us. We also put up another advertisement at Carrefour Supermarket at Suntec City. We waited with bated breath for someone to call as we really needed to clear the room soon so that we could prepare it for you.

After 2 months, Mommy's advertisement time on the Internet expired and she had to renew the advertisement for another period of time. The one at Carrefour was still up - apparently, the staff there don't rem0ve the adverstisements put up by their customers. Still, we did not get any calls from interested parties.

Finally, a kind American gentleman called Mommy on her handphone. He had seen her advertisement and was interested in purchasing the furniture for his daughter's room. He was an expatriate posted to Singapore for two years! His daughter and wife had come over with him and they were setting up home.

We arranged for them to come view the furniture the next day. The gentleman and his daughter came after 9 o'clock at night after having travelled around the whole day. They viewed the furniture and were extremely interested. The girl seemed to love it lots. They left us a downpayment and agreed to come pick the lot up the next day when they could get a van.

Mommy and Daddy then spent the rest of the night preparing the furniture for transfer. We had to take apart the bed and tape up the furniture for transport. It took us some time as the screws had set after this number of years.

The next day, they came again at 9 o'clock at night with a fair sized van. Daddy helped them to carry the furniture down to their vehicle. There were quite a few pieces as the bed was quite big and the other stuff just made up the number of pieces that we had to carry. Finally, we got everything in and they took off with the furniture. We hope that they enjoy it the same amount that we did. :)

Mommy and Daddy spent a lot of time making sure that we had labelled all the parts carefully so that they would not have too many problems putting the bed frame back together again. We also tried to make the furniture travel-friendly. Remember, Skyler, we must always think of others and make things better for everyone if we can.

We are glad that this one man came to buy the furniture. We thank God that this one man wanted the furniture. Now, two families have benefited. We can prepare your room now.

We love you, Skyler. Lots!

Mommy and Daddy

Dearest Skyler,

Do you realise how much you are loved by Mommy and Daddy? We're spending so much money on you because we simply want the best for you that we can get!

We've finally bought a car seat for you. As we've mentioned before, we were ding-donging back and forth between all kinds of car seats before finally deciding on this one.

We thought that we had to give up on the idea of the combination rear and front facing seats due to the length of our car seatbelt. We thus decided to get you an infant carrier seat as that should fit without any problems. We decided to visit "Baby's Kingdom" once more to see what they had to offer in this area. We had been there before and we had been introduced to other combination seats but we thought that they would not fit either.

Anyway, we went back there to see what infant carriers they had to offer. They had a few but we were not very impressed by the offering. The second salesgirl told us that the combination seats that they had would have absolutely no problems fitting in our car. She told us not to waste time with the infant carrier as it would not last very long as you would grow very quickly. We were doubtful at first as we thought that all car seats would be installed in a similar way. She "challenged" us to try it out and we decided to give it a chance.

She fit it into the car without any problems!

We were then totally thrown off! We had to rethink our decision. It could fit so did we really want an infant car seat. We decided to buy the combination seat that they offered as we would then not have to purchase two different seats for you. And the seat was one of the plushest that we'd seen so far. It was from an Australian company called Safe-n-Sound, which is actually a branch of Britax, one of the most reliable car seat manufacturers around. It was the Guardian model. We decided that we would buy that but the salesperson - Janica - told us to consider the next better model called Royale. It was really the plushest, most comfortable car seat that we'd ever seen - even when compared with models much more expensive! However, it was still very costly.

Mommy and Daddy spent a lot of time debating which model would be better for you. The Guardian was already very good but the Royale was very much better. But it cost more. We kept on swinging between the two until finally we decided that we wanted the best for you. We got the Royale! We hope that you really find it as comfortable as we do. It's really the best that we've ever seen and touched. And also way beyond our budget. We really love you!

Grow well!

Daddy and Mommy

Hi Skyler,

Mommy and Daddy have been shopping frantically for you, little Skyler. We decided that we had been going around checking out the products long enough to know what we want and we have finally paid for and received some of the stuff that you'll need.

We've gotten you a playpen to sleep in, a stroller, a steriliser, some milk bottles and some other stuff. We got the playpen and stroller from this place called "Baby Kingdom". Actually, the playpen is from Mommy's Mommy - your Maternal Grandma - and the stroller is from Mommy's Brother - your Uncle Victor! You must remember to thank them ok? =)

The playpen is the bigger version that they have. It's got cute little pictures of bears all around the top. They were having an offer on it so we got some extra stuff to go with it. We hope you'll enjoy sleeping in it for a while.

The stroller is one that I think I've mentioned before. It's from the "Lucky Baby" range made by a Korean company called "Capella". We chose the blue coloured one as we like it more than the other colours. It's got the works, little baby. We can move the handle-bar forward and backward so that you can either look at us as we push you around or you can look forward (away) from us. It's also got a full cover so that not so much sun will get you in the eyes when we're outside. It's also got this cute trick where all four wheels can turn at the same time! Most strollers can only turn the two front wheels at the same time. The idea is that we'll be more manoeuvrable in tight spaces.

These items were delivered to us and Mommy suggested that we set them all up so that we could be sure that they were all ready for you! After setting them up, we took them apart again as they were just so big and took up so much space. We've put them aside, Skyler, just waiting for you to use them.

We also got a steam steriliser that's meant to be used in the microwave oven. We were wondering whether to get an electric one instead but we decided that the one we bought would be more useful after you stop using the bottles. We can then steam other stuff in the microwave when we don't have to steam your bottles anymore. And are we prepared with bottles - we have 8 big bottles and two small ones! All of them just waiting for you to use!

We were also on the verge of buying a car seat for you but everybody says that we need to test the seat in the car before buying one as not all car seats fit in all types of cars. So, we decided to wait until we could test it before buying. We finally decided on this seat by "Britax". The model is "First Class Si". This seat was exclusively brought in by this maternity shop called "Mothercare". We got the ladies at the Causeway Point outlet to bring the seat to our car for us to see if it would fit. We were convinced that there would not be any problems because the "Britax" website said that it would fit in our car model. You can't imagine our surprise and partial disappointment when it couldn't fit nicely. The seat belt was too short!

The Sales Girl, Angela, told us that there was another model that was available that was considered the best that they'd seen. She told us to go down to the Kendang Kerbau Hospital outlet to take a look. We agreed as we were going there for our lessons on how to take care of you.

When we dropped by the "Mothercare" outlet, we were very impressed with the car seat. It was made by Concord. The model is "Ultimate Racer". It was very plush. The seat cover was very comfortable and the colour was quite pleasing. Mommy and I liked it a lot. Anyway, we asked the ladies there to test it in our car. However, after trying it out, we realised that it could not properly in the car either. The seat belt was once again too short. It was so unfortunate because they were having a good offer on the seat and it was the most comfortable seat that we'd seen thus far. Oh well...

We'll be looking for an infant car seat for you instead, Skyler, as it should fit you nicely and it should also be able to go into the car without any difficulty. We'll see how it goes. :)

You're really kicking Mommy a lot and it's very painful for Mommy. Try not to kick so hard, okay? Let Mommy rest a bit more. Mommy's also got cramps and pains all over her body because of your growing size. So, please help Mommy to move around and not give her more pain than necessary, okay?

It's already Week 27, Skyler. Only about 13 more weeks to go and you'll be out here with us. We're very excited. Please be healthy and strong.

We love you!

Mommy and Daddy