Tioman Island

Tioman Island is located on the north east of Batu Pahat, the city where we live. It's not the most beautiful island in Malaysia, but its boat ride is very short, ie. around 2 hours, so we thought it's a good place for us to introduce an island to our 4-year old boy without too much stress as we do not know if he would have any seasick.





We started out early in the morning and stopped by at Kluang Rail Coffee to have breakfast. Than we continue our journey on the windy and hilly road to reach Mersing port after 3 hours.

We were very lucky as the boat was on time, sometimes it can be late by an hour !! We were also lucky as the beach we are heading to was the first stop with the majority of passengers, otherwise we could have spent more time on the boat ride by dropping other passengers to other beaches first.




It was a sunny day and the water looks very clear and beautiful.





Checking in to our room, in Salang Sayang Beach Resort. The room with double beds is better than the room with single bed as its bathroom is much bigger.



The beach is small but it's not crowded in early August.




I had fun going snorkeling although it was cloudy and the wave was bigger on the second day.



There was a monkey who kept plugging fresh coconut from the trees and looking for food at the beach.



I was glad that Tristan enjoyed himself very much at the beach although he was too timid to try and float in the water.



The evening was serene and relaxing, we had a fun trip ....



Until the bad experience in the boat ride back to Mersing port - the boat was late and the crowd waited anxiously for mre than half an hour, than it finally arrived and we thought wow, this is a new and big boat ! But than it started to pick up other passengers from other beaches, one by one, and at the last beach, it waited for passengers to arrived for another half an hour, than we realized that it was overloaded, many passengers had to stand in the aisle, and when it almost reaching the port, it started to rain and the boat was stuck due to low tide which in fact was due to overloading, than some passengers at the back were told to move to the middle of the boat to elevate the weight at the rear and the captain kept trying desperately to move the boat forward, which it finally gave up after 45 minutes !!! Than 2 smaller boats were called to unload some passengers and the boat than started to crawl like a tortoise back to the port, where the boat ride has become almost 5 hours ....... and there's still a minor thing, someone has stolen my husband's toiletry ...

It was really a bad ending and experience to this trip, but our friend who visited Tioman twice a year in the past few years had never experience this type of delay before, the common incidence is a transfer from smaller to bigger boat during low tide when departs from Mersing port or vice versa, but not in such a long delay.

Rolled over

Quentin rolled over more than a week ago, he was a little slower compared to Tristan, we waited and waited, he finally did it - on the bathroom floor :

Our new born

Quentin was born last week, weigh 3kg and length 51cm. Here's a snap of him, will update more when I get a chance.

Tristan's First Pet

We bought Tristan some colorful small fish in August 11th, he liked to feed them endlessly, and he liked to scare them by hitting the shoe cabinet where the fish bowl was placed on top :(

I was thinking of taking the photos of the small fish bowl but I was too late ... The fish died one by one each day and they were all gone after more than a week, I felt so sorry for them, we didn't know the cause of their death, we followed the instructions given by the fish shop helper, we did change water regularly and restrict Tristan from feeding them too much.

I think we won't be buying any new pets for him for a while until we know for sure that we can help him to take great care of them.

New problems

While I was happily enjoying my second trimester (at 23rd week now), good time doesn't last long for me, I had Hemorrhoid that's getting bigger and very painful, I can't sit properly and when it gets to the most serious condition, I felt extreme pain even with a slight movement.

It was actually my own fault to have dragged it for a few days, I was hoping it will go away but it actually got bigger and bigger. Finally I went to the local gynae who has prescribed daflon for this problem, I didn't want to take painkiller as I thought I should limit the medicine intake, so I had to suffer for another 2 days or so before the hemorrhoid become smaller and less painful.

Then Tristan started having fever, coughing and running nose on Tuesday night, I was so worry that it would be the H1N1 virus, so we brought him to the general hospital the next morning, hoping that they would perform some kind of test to verify it, but the temperature turns out to be below 38 degree C (through ear measurement) and the doctor said his symptoms do not look to be the same as the H1N1's, so no test was performed, instead we were given some medicine to take for 3 days and continue to monitor the symptoms.

The medicine seems to be so awful that Tristan ran for his life whenever he sees them, the fever persisted and we had to bring him to the child specialist the next morning, we did the right thing as the child specialist again confirm that it's very likely not H1N1, and Tristan is willing to take the medicine from the child specialist.

His fever is finally under control, but the coughing remained, we'll have to be cautious and continue to give medicine besides monitoring it.

Now the hemorrhoid is getting very small and almost painless, I hope nothing new pops up in the near future so that I can enjoy a peaceful pregnancy for a while.

Getting Bigger

Since week 20th, I have more energy and feeling so much better, I can finally go for 30 minutes breeze walking in the evening twice a week, I can take bath for Tristan without the feeling of throwing up. I can eat all kinds of food without feeling ill and I have put on 2kg in the last month itself ! I really enjoy myself in whatever I'm doing now.

But the last visit to the Gynae reviewed that there's water on the fetus' brain. I checked the book and it is called Hydrocephalus, although the Gynae said that it is normal and it is usually gone after 2-3 months, I am worry as the book says it often occurs with neurological defects such as spina bifida.

I thought I had been lucky to skip the amneocentesis and the 3 weeks waiting for its result, now it's even longer to have to wait for 2-3 months for this "water on the brain". However there's nothing I can do except to wait and hope for the best.

Feeling better

Starting week 17th the morning sickness had reduced substantially, and got better at week 18th. And this week (19th) I am feeling much better except for the tireness, am very glad that the morning sickness is finally going away, it's not easy for me to reach this stage.

In my last medical checkup, we have discovered that we are going to have a boy, in Dec 13th. Although I was hoping for a girl so that I would have an experience of bringing up a girl, but I would be as happy to have a normal and healthy boy who can accompany Tristan and grow up together with him.

We did triple blood test and luckily the result is good, so we don't have to go through the amniocentesis this time.

Back in the last week of June, I had to travel to Petaling Jaya (3 hours journey) for a certification exam, I was still having morning sickness at that time, lucky thing is that it wasn't too bad and I was glad that I did not throw up at public area.

When I was feeling better in Week 18th, I started travelling back to my mom's place by plane (an hour), things went well and I had a great time relaxing at home. Due to H1N1, I tried to put on mask in the plane on the way there but felt very uncomfortable with the hot air being trapped within the mask.

Finally, I get a chance to go for my first 30 minutes breeze walking on Thursday as I haven't done any exercise for the past 3 months and walking is a great exercise for pregnant women, I hope to be able to do it at least once a week.

I started to enjoy different types of food and expected to grow much heavier soon ;o)