• Filled up form (with the given name, complete with parents’ detail)
• Original and photocopied Marriage Certificate
• Original and photocopied ICs (Yes, both mom and dad even though mom is not there)
• Original and photocopied check up and follow up book (Hospitals and clinics)
• Delivery note from the hospital

All information will be verified at the counter. It s a good move from JPN. The number of ‘foreigners’ ending up as Malaysians seems to be on the increasing trend in recent years. All newborns has to be registered as soon as possible. I read somewhere there is a penalty or fine for late registrations. A nice birth cert is issued upon confirmation. A baby myCard will be issued within 3 weeks.

For newborns, you can choose between breastfeeding or formula milk. We opted for breastfeeding. Breast milk is the best stuff you can give to your newborn. During the first 3 days, the baby gets the best nutrition and defense system via the yellowish substance called colostrum.  It s good stuff as people pay premiums to buy those  commercial ‘Colostrum’ available at your local pharmacies. It may seems little but rest assured, despite the small amount, baby is getting enough for the first 3 days. Loss in weight is common. Don’t be surprised by the low urine output. Its common. Nathania wet one diaper a day for the first 3 days. She only had her first poo on the fourth day. Milk production goes full scale on Day 4. You will need to let the baby suckle on the nipple every two hours or so. This is to maintain stimulation to ensure ample milk production. You may notice milk trickling out from one of your breast as the baby nurse on the other. This is common too. Hahahaha. I was wondering by my wife’s shirt is all wet. You can alleviate the problem by using nursing pads. But according to a fellow pharmacist of mine who gave birth recently, the best method is to pump the milk out. I am using a manual pump instead of electrical. Regrets..Should have gotten an electrical version.

Nathania’s poo poo is healthy yellow colour. Nice!!~ Hehehehe. Some folks say that if you take breast milk, poo production is low. I cant verify that yet. But according to mum, it s easier on the bowel movement compared to commercial milk powder. Some may be too rich in iron hence hard stool. Yesterday, I had a huge scare. Baby Nathania wet her nappy. When mummy did the nappy change, she saw blood stain on the nappy. I was shocked and worried sick when I saw that. Did a quick check with mummy, “Is baby crying?”, “Fever?”, “Unusual movement?” Thank God no. Made a quick call to Dr Teh (By the way, Dr Teh is a pediatrician besides a great photographer). Dr Teh, thanks for answering my queries! According to him, it s common for baby girl to have menses during the first weeks. Now we know!~ Hahaha. Plenty to learn. Baby’s face is changing everyday. Here is a pic shot on Day 4. Had some guidance on BW conversion from MunKeat (Do check out his work. Absolutely love his vintage conversion). Same as photography. Its about a journey rather than a destination. I got to practice more Photoshop. Signing off for now. Ciao.

Eyes look like who ar?

Yee Woon got into the inspection room and was attended to immediately. They have this device which was known as ‘Portable Karaoke’ once upon a time. It s used to listen to the baby’s heartbeat. What a relief it was when we were told that the baby is fine. We were told that the contraction has started. Yee Woon had to be admitted immediately. Fine by me. It s around 7 am and we got to Wad Nilam. By 11 am, wifey is having some form of contraction. Every 3-5 minutes or so, Yee Woon’s tummy contracts and it turns into a very hard ball. So…This is what they call contraction. Hehehe. I thought Yee Woon will give birth that day (Sat). I was wrong. From the ward, the cervix needs to open until 4 cm before they transfer you to the delivery room. I waited till 8 pm..Guess what..It s only 1 cm. LOL!~ Back home I went.

Fast forward!~ Its Sunday morning. Called Yee Woon and asked “Dear!~ Berapa cm dah?” Yee Woon answered 2 cm. She sounded like she is in pain which was true. As the contraction gets stronger, you will feel more pain in the cervix. I got to the hospital around 11.30 am. Dr prescribed her Pethidine 75 mg IM. This is because Yee Woon was in pain. Best thing is, she got very sleepy instead after the injection. Not much of a painkiller if you ask me. I waited till 4.30 pm to get some confirmation of the cervix opening. After another VE (vaginal examination), I was told its only 3 cm. I decided to head home and told Yee Woon I will be back around 8 pm. It was raining. I was hungry. Havent eat my lunch yet. I bought some Maggi mee from Mont Kiara 7 Eleven. I was almost back home when Yee Woon called me. “Dear!~ Water bag burst!~ They are transferring me to the Delivery room. Come! Quick!” Panic mode kicked in and I was like “WTF!~ I am almost home!~” I took a quick bath and rushed back to the hospital. In my mind..I thought by the time I got to the hospital, the baby is out. Hahaha. Talk about first timer. I was WRONG!~

Registered myself at the security for the delivery room pass. I got in and asked the Dr. “Macam mana? Dah bersalin?” The Dr gave me the weird look and said “Baru 4 cm aje.” I was like “Ok..Tunggu berapa lama lagi?” Dr look at me again and went ” 10 cm” I was like…Double WTF! According to theory, from 4 cm, they will burst the water bag if its not done yet naturally. Then the waiting game begins ( I didnt read up on this..I went unprepared. So I hope you guy will do so). Yee Woon went into the delivery room around 5 pm. By 12.30 midnite, it s only 5 cm. Can you imagine the pain she went through? Now only I know the greatest pain and love a mother goes through is labour pain. They hooked her up to a machine that measures the baby heart rate and contraction rate. I could tell when the contraction occurs. Zero reading means no contraction. The machine can measure up to 127. So when the number goes up slowly, you will know. How? Yee Woon’s facial expression changes, eye rolled and of course, she screams. It s the worst when the number hit 127. I couldnt do anything. The only thing I could do was to ‘Gas’ her. Apparently it helps. But it did not in her case. She was already cursing coz she was in so much pain. “Jason!~ Its all your fault!~ Why did you tell the Dr no Cesarean?” , “Please transfer me to the private hospital, I want Ceasarean!”, “Dear, the Gas is not working!”, “I am willing to pay, just get me to a private hospital!”, ” I feel like dying!!!”…It hurts me so much watching her groaning in pain, face twisted and eyes rolling..But what can I do? Except Gassing her Hahahah. I told her “Dear, you got to control your breath”. I know..Talk is easy. Seriously..If you cant take the pain, C-sec is your choice. No joke. Oh yeah, they gave her another round of Pethidine which by this time, we all know..It just knocks you out..But the pain is still there.

I couldnt take it anymore, I told Yee Woon, ” Dear..I am gonna take a short nap outside”. It s 12.30 am. Dr said its only 5 cm. By my rough estimation, it opens a cm an hour. So..I thought its gonna be in 6 am. I tried to sleep on the sofa. Its difficult. Not much space. I drifted in and out. Yee Woon’s painful groan can be heard all the way to the waiting area. Suddenly, a medical student taps me on the shoulder “Sir, wake up! She is ready..Its 10 cm!” I was like okok ! Come. I looked at the clock. O!~ Its 1.30 am. How come suddenly so fast? God answered my prayers la!~ I went in and got in place. Held her hands and say “Mummy, moment of truth is here” Actually, I have no idea what s gonna happen (its not the same as what we watch on TV k?) By now, we had about 6-7 medical students and Staff nurses. All were there to cheer her on. Some lubricant was applied to the vagina to ease the exit of the baby’s head. Instruction was very clear. Try pushing as though you are shitting in the loo. No sound or leaking sound allowed. The moment you feel the pain, push!!~ It s not easy. But Yee Woon did in 3 tries. Of course in between, the Staff nurse actually cut the vagina slightly ( now that s what the big scissors for!) Third push and the baby’s head exits. It happened quickly. The moment the head is out, the nurse pulls the whole body out and it was like Whooosh!~ All the blood, water, shit (baby’s) comes out.

Nurses inserts a tube into the baby’s nose to remove the liquid from the airways. They cut the umbilical cord and the baby is immediately whisked out of the room. They cleaned her up and I took some pics. Of course, I was in awe of everything that I was shocked for a moment. Happy coz it s my first child (flesh and blood wey..) and Yee Woon is no longer in any pain. It s surreal. But for those who followed me on Twitter and Facebook..Yes..I was updating non stop. Hahahah. So..They gave Nathania Vitamin K injection and Hepatitis B injection. They also cleaned up mummy. Some suturing was done. They removed the placenta. Funny, the Medical student asked me, “Sir, do you want to bring the placenta back?” It reminds me of something I read on Harian Metro. Some women believe that if you cook a meal out of the placenta, it keeps you young..EEyuck. I told the student they can dispose it. After they cleaned the baby up, I made some calls to family members, they brought the baby to mummy. Voila..Nature takes over. Breast feeding session begins. After I m assured that both of them are doing well, I went home. I got back around 5 am. Got to sleep by 5.30 am. A once in a lifetime experience (If satu anak la), this is not to be missed experience. I thank God for blessing us a beautiful and healthy child, I present to you all, Nathania Ng En Qi.

Born on 19th July 2010 Year of the Tiger

A very talented singer. But I didn’t get his name.

Bassist doing a ‘Face-Off’

Another attempt at slow shutter

Yuri was a guest performer that night

Trying to create a mood. But I guess a bit underexposed

Slow Shutter with the Bassist

Morning all!~Tried taking a shot at the moon? I was browsing my Flickr account this morning and I came across this picture. I think I shot this pic some years ago. I had a 300 mm back then. When coupled with a crop body camera it becomes 450 mm effectively. Many years ago, I had a telescope. A cheapo RM200 Stargazer telescope. But it functioned well until it was attacked by fungus. I would often take a peek at the moon from my room. I remember I was really fascinated with it cause ‘Hey..You are viewing the moon up close and personal”.  So..Armed with a 300 mm ( You could still achieve something similar with a 180 mm lens) and the Nikon D300, I took some shots of the moon. Spot metered the moon and used a small aperture to obtain good depth of field. Ah yes, don’t forget your trusty tripod and cable release. Those are essential gears for night shoot.

]]> http://www.jasonbeyond.com/2010/05/subject-far-way/feed/ 0 http://www.jasonbeyond.com/2010/05/canon-brings-us-simon-yam/ http://www.jasonbeyond.com/2010/05/canon-brings-us-simon-yam/#comments Wed, 26 May 2010 08:23:28 +0000 beyond http://www.jasonbeyond.com/?p=681 Woot!~ 24th of May 2010 was an exciting day for Canon EOS users. In celebration of Canon endorsed artist Simon Yam being awarded the Best Actor Award (at the Hong Kong Film Festival), Canon organized a celebration party at Golden Screen Cinemas, Pavillion, Kuala Lumpur. Those who owns a Canon EOS were entitled to two invitation tickets to the event. It was however limited to the first 300 eligible registrants. I met  a few familiar faces over there that day. I saw MarkLeo and Munz. I also saw Hon Woei Tatt from CPF Negeri Sembilan. This is the first time I am up close and personal with Mr Simon. LOL. Didn’t dare to ask for a pic coz was shooting that time. Should have done it. Dang!~ Missed the chance. But overall, I think Simon is a real gentlemen. Soft spoken and a passionate about his work. And yes, from the short interview session, I know he is very passionate about the 5DMkII. Also recalled that he spoke of how he didn’t afford the luxury of a camera while growing up. Yeah Simon. Most of us share the same experiences. I think he also mentioned he did a short movie using the 5DMkII. I should google it up. Here are some pics to share and as usual BW mode.

Interview was done here

I also must camwhore abit. Thanks MarkLeo for the pic.

PS: Am gonna re-edit the pictures.

Leica IIIF

P.S. As off 10.45 am, I have problems with my wordpress. Am updating by typing in HTML codes. Hopefully this will work out. Hahahah.

P.S.2. As off 11.02 am, I have successfully posted a blog entry by using HTML codes. But susah la…

Sometime last year in 2009. I was bitten by the Leica Leitz IIIF bug. I think it s all because of Liew aka Silentshutter’s fault. He left his unit in my dry box for sometime. His IIIF is a Black Dial version. A Leica III is seriously a fully mechanical rangefinder. Not a camera for everyone but if you are serious about photography, you will appreciate such a masterpiece. First that grabs you is..The loading mechanism. You will have to trim the film leader. Loading is unlike the conventional way. Some might find it a hassle. It still amazes me how those war photographer changed film rapidly under stress *bullets and explosions all around* The is a Visual Finder (50 mm) and a Rangefinder Focusing window. Not easy as you will have to look into the Visual Finder first to compose and then into the Rangefinder Focusing window to focus. For focusing, there is even a zooming lever where you can zoom in to make focusing easier. After releasing the shutter, to advance you will have to rotate and dial the advance knob. Interesting piece of camera if you ask me. Hehehe.

I managed to get one really Mint Leica IIIF Red Dial Self Timer from a Hong Kong eBay seller. I was told that I do not require Clean Lube and Adjustment (CLA) as the owner had done so. Paid somewhere near a premium price for this camera. But when it arrived, I found that the camera need some form of adjustment. Didn’t pursue the matter with the seller as he is in Hong Kong. I shot a test roll of 36 exposures. First 20 frames came out perfect, but the last 16 frames were half exposed. Contacted YouXin. He said it s best to have it CLA-ed. Called my regular middleman Eddie Teoh. Had the camera passed to Vinson. I received the camera last week. Unfortunately..I dont want to say Vinson did a shoddy job. But the camera came back with 3 problems. It s back with him. I hope he will do a better job. To his credit, he did a really good job with my Pre AI and AI Nikon lens. Those were badly fungus-ed. The lens came back in pristine condition, not even a hint of wipemarks. So I hope the IIIF is an isolated case

]]> http://www.jasonbeyond.com/2010/05/alive-and-not-dead/feed/ 0 http://www.jasonbeyond.com/2010/05/bundle-of-joy/ http://www.jasonbeyond.com/2010/05/bundle-of-joy/#comments Mon, 17 May 2010 13:42:41 +0000 beyond http://www.jasonbeyond.com/?p=640 Good Evening all!~ I m going to be a Daddy soon. Wife is currently 30 weeks pregnant. It s  such an amazing experience from Day 1. I didn’t really blog about this earlier. So I guess I want to share this now. We actually got to know about the pregnancy last year (Nothing to be shy about despite we actually got Married this year, but we are legally registered early last year) on the 27th of November. It was a day before my cousin’s birthday. Hahaha. Can remember this forever. I could hardly contain my excitement when wifey called me that morning. It was around 8 am. She told she had a positive result for the pregnancy test kit. The first person I called was my cousin. Hahaha. I didnt tell mom and dad immediately. I was worried as they are kinda traditional. But I did tell my parents after speaking with my cousin. I was kinda shock actually. The person who I thought all along as a  open minded person (mom) was shocked whereas the person I thought of as ‘kolot’ (dad) was pretty cool about it. Hahahah. Mom eventually shared the happiness and excitement. She was already wishing for a grand daughter. * her wish came true*

We went to a private O and G doctor at Sentosa Hospital to ‘confirm’ the pregnancy. Pregnancy was confirmed via a test strip again. Next came the ultrasound machine. Dr showed us a small sac with a black dot. She said, there..That s your Baby. I was like..Wah!~ But the next thing she did really kicked in. Dr: Mr Ng, Lets see if we can see the heartbeat. Me: Dr, Baru 6 weeks only wo..? And the next thing I saw was some ECG waves on the monitor. It was then, when I became kinda excited and in awe. I am going to be a father. Life is really a miracle. It’s just so magical. I got a copy of scan and kept it in the wallet

Fast forward, wow..Wifey is 4 months into pregnancy. We went for regular checkups in Klinik Kesihatan Jinjang. They have a Klinik Ibu and Anak there. We were actually amazed at the stringent screening process in KKJ. They did all kind of tests. Kudos to them. Imagine how much you will have to pay if these procedures are done in the private sector. Every a month or so, we went back for ultrasound scan. And this time, I asked the Dr ‘Eh Dr, Boleh nampak Boy or Girl tak? ‘ She zoomed into something and we actually saw a Penis!~ I was like super happy at that time coz I wanted a Boy!~ Hahahaha. Wifey have always wanted a girl. Kekekek. So I was talking to the tummy for one month or so by referring the baby as Boy Boy. Imagine my shock when during the fifth month ultrasound, we failed to locate the tiny kukuciao. Kakaka. Dr told me, ‘Jason..Saya rasa girl la..Pasal nampak Burger’. Hahaha. This time, Wifey was really happy. My mom was even happier. I was disappointed. But at the end of the day, I know I would be happy as long the baby is healthy

So last night, wifey is already 30 weeks pregnant. I took out the camera and said ‘Mummy!~ Come..Lets take some picture’. It was raining and we did about 10 shots in the bedroom Hehehe. Since I am still in Black and White mood. I kinda converted some pics into BW again. Kekekeke. One thing I noticed was..The tummy is really Bulat. Old people has this saying ‘ If it s a boy, the tummy elongates. And if it s a girl, the tummy is Round’. I guess it s pretty true. I hope to take more pics soon. So stay tune

My wife asked me to smooth-en her hands..Mana boleh wey!~ Hahahah *evil*

Not exactly what I had in my mind..My PP not power la