The day when 5 became 6

40 weeks and 1 day

I'm past my due date and my belly looks really funny now.

Almost 40 weeks

According to history, I should be having contractions later this morning. Doesn't quite feel like anything yet. I have a doctor's appointment later this morning. Let's see what she says.

The gramps have been here for almost a week now, just about the same time that my piles have taken me by storm. It's very painful! Sitting, standing, walking, laying down are all painful. The only relief is being on all fours. But how long can I stay in that position? The next best is laying down, so I did that for an entire day on Monday. But it cuts off blood circulation to my legs and then my sciatic nerves hurt. Nothing to please this pregnant woman with her baby so low down and stuck in her birth canal and baby legs dangling in the air.

I finally woke up at 3am to pee and realized that my piles have started to bleed. Ouch. I feel a little better after cleaning them up. Time to do something that makes me feel a little better-like looking at pictures of Soph.

First day of maternity leave

What a blessing to be sitting at the mall with a bubble tea without a care in the world (for the first day!)!

So tired trying to wrap up work yesterday that my sciatic nerves went crazy. I imagined I had to spent my first day of leave in labour... But I made it! Ahhh...

Not too much longer now...

And now we wait...

Full term mei mei

"Hello full term mei-mei!" From guilty mom who only posted ONCE about u. Tsk tsk.

Can you see her face with a pig-like nose? Since her head is down, it's almost impossible to get nice 3D pics. No wonder the ideal time to take 3D pictures is sometime in the second trimester. 

We had quite a few detailed ultrasounds due to the low PAPP-A hormone. At last week, mei mei is an estimated 5lb 3ounces and doctor estimates her final weight to be between 6lb 3ounces-7lb ounces. I thought this was perfectly fine, but the way he said it made me feel like I should be concerned. 

My pelvic area is in continuous pain now-lying, sitting and standing. There is no comfortable position for me! Anyway three more weeks to go. I hope Sophie will love mei-mei too.

Hello baby mei mei!

This blog is finally going to live up to its name, with the latest addition-baby mei mei!

2nd trimester pics-still looking like mush.

3rd trimester.

Looking like our dear Soph?!

Can't believe that 6 months have zoomed by and I'm already in my third trimester. It's time to start nesting-the nursery is once again re-prepped for 2 girls. Last night, we managed to put Sophie to sleep in her new toddler bed! She woke up crying at 3am and climbed back into our bed. But it was still a valiant effort. I think she likes her new bed!

The Peter Rabbit Themed Shower

A&J were very kind to offer to organise my baby shower for last Saturday. I suggested a theme of Peter Rabbit and J went forth and bought a Peter Rabbit party kit. It came with a garland, fancy carousel centrepiece, pretty printed plates, cups and napkins and even a Peter Rabbit soft toy.

A made some pretty tissue paper pom-poms for decoration. We met on Friday night to decorate our living room and A taught us how to make her pretty cake cones which was stuck in a pretty cake box tower. We even hid a "U're a winner" paper in one of the cones as a prize.

We prepared fried rice, chow mein, baby quiches, puff pastries, konnyaku jellies, salad and fruits for that day. About twenty-five guests turned up and surprisingly, everyone had a dish to share. So my every counter and tabletop in our dining room and tiny kitchen was used to display food. Even the electric stove was not spared. There was so much food that we had lots of leftovers.

J planned four interesting games for everyone to play. The first game which was played throughout the baby shower was not to say the word "baby" otherwise they would have the stickers on their clothes stolen by the one who caught them saying it. The second game was to guess the brands and types of chocolate which melted into six diapers beforehand. I think someone even tried to lick the chocolate from the diaper! It was hilarious and rowdy as everyone scrambled to guess the chocolates on each of the diapers. The third game was to list down as many baby items as they in three minutes. The fourth game was a row of able-bodied men trying to finish half a milk bottle as quickly as they can. They even had to squeeze and crush the poor bottles to get the milk out from the stubborn nipples.

We ended off with the unwrapping of gifts. Nice. There should be baby showers in Singapore too. We picked amazon for our baby registry and we received most of the baby supplies delivered to our doorstep before fifi's born. What a lucky girl!

My hand-made baby shower favours

Thinking About B-Day

Actually I think I am pretty scared thinking about it. A few weeks ago, I could still hop and skip. But now, with about ten weeks to go and a fat pot belly, I know my end is near. Even after reading materials and talking to other has-been moms, I still do not know what to expect. It's like studying exam-smart for an exam but never knowing what questions will pop out, or maybe the format might change. I think I might pee in my pants when they day comes.
Current weight: 120lb (~55kg)

Baby Trivia

"True or false? If you have heartburn, your newborn will have a full head of hair.
True. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University set out to disprove this but were surprised by evidence supporting it. They found that 82 percent of women with moderate to severe heartburn delivered hairy babies; most women with little or no heartburn ended up with baldies. Makes sense, since the hormones responsible for heartburn also trigger fetal hair growth."

I don't think I had much heartburn, just a little acid reflux sometimes but not too frequent. Looks like fifi may be born an egghead like me.

More physical changes

I was informed by my sleeping buddy that I knock out quickly and snore very loudly (like a dragon) at night these days. My colleague commented that I suddenly look very pregnant. I want to wear a dress for a church wedding this Saturday but every dress I tried on at the store makes me look like a Chirstmas tree shape (super A shape). I walk slower and waddle from side to side like a penguin/duck.

The Birth Plan

It seems that my fitness and energy levels have taken a dive over the past few days. I owe it to the winter season and third trimester which just makes me want to snuggle in bed all day. But when I try to lie down sideways on the bed, I feel like a whale washed onto the seashore, stuck and not able to move and turn easily. Well at least on sunday yesterday, I attempted to try out some yoga poses from bits of what I remember from my yoga lessons (which dd was sniggering at my contorted positions). Anyway, I'm starting to think whether I'm being too ambitious by wanting to work till the day I pop and squeezing in an examination before that too.

For our last yoga lesson, we talked about the birthing and labour process, our thoughts, who we put our trust in and whether our perceptions have changed. It made me realise that I haven't given much thought about THE day, except wondering from time to time how much it is going to hurt. I have been focussing my research on pregnancy, newborn care and breastfeeding books but never really looked at any birthing material.

Fortunately, the yoga instructor gave us a list of books to read:
Ina May's Guide to Natural Childbirth
Hypnobirthing (The Monogam Method)
Birthing From Within (by Pam England)
The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth (by Henci Goer)

I guess I need to do a crash course on these so I can have questions ready for the childbirth class. And think about my birth plan and options I would like to have and take during labour.

Baby Shower

Fifi's baby shower is coming on January 7th at our home and my plan is to get the house looking fairly decent and decorated when the friends come over. Well, at least the living room where people will be hanging out at. So far, furniture checked, painting checked. I think we only have to swop the ugly office blinds for the 3 windows in the living and dining areas with pretty daperies, and add a couple of paintings or decorations. I wonder if our christmas tree would have shrivelled up by then, it would be nice to have it around.

Chinese-Americans have it good here. They celebrate the ang-moh baby shower before the baby is born so they get one round of gifts. And then they have a chinese three-month celebration after the baby is born so they get a second of gifts or simply cash. Not that I'm complaining. We set up a gift registry with Amazon which is pretty straightforward and addictive. Just click click click everything you want and it's easily added to the list for friends and family to buy for you. I also set up a secret Pottery Barn baby registry for myself because it entitles me to 10% discount when I buy the stuff I listed on it even if no one buys it for me. I listed a couple of Peter Rabbit crib sheets and night light on it which I would like to give as presents to Fifi.

Fifi the Frisky

Fifi the Frisky has been having a whale of a time trying all her different moves in her swimming pool in me. Sometimes I feel funny wriggles. Or I might feel some flips. Sometimes after I visited the bathroom, she would be stomping all over my bladder, making me feel like going again.

Last night, when I accidentally bumped my belly into the ktchen counter, it felt hard and painful. I pressed at that spot again and it still felt hard and painful compared to other areas which were generally spongey. I decided to leave it alone and about fifteen minutes later, that spot felt spongey again. Maybe it was her head against the uterus wall or her palms of her hands/feet pushing out as if to say "stop". I hope I didn't bruise her head by poking around at it.

All Baby

In the last month or so, I have suddenly ballooned. Now I stand at a hefty 117lb so that's a weight gain of 24lb (11kg) so far. Sometimes I underestimate myself and get stuck in corners.Today, someone at work was very kind to say that I'm all baby and if she looked at me from the back, she would not be able to tell that I am pregnant (although I am pretty sure my hips are looking like back in the days before I lost weight - like an ant). I still remember the time I accompanied my sister for a prenatal visit and one of the patients there was all stick figure with only a belly. So I aspire to be like her too.

Marching Into the 3rd Trimester

From apprehensiveness to accepting to anticipation of little fifi, this pregnancy journey has been somewhat long and ardous. But now there are only 88 days left. What!!! And I haven't been blogging or had any progress photos of my belly taken (dd: please take note).

When I started working two months ago, I was feeling jittery about people knowing that I'm pregnant and giving me 'the eye' about skipping work soon after I started. I still remember trying to wear clothes that made me look as unpregnant as possible and groaned when I had to put aside a top because my belly started to stick out. All that has now stopped since I'm way too obvious and I feel more comfortable these days wearing clothes that wrap around my tummy and answering questions such as "how are u feeling?"; "when are u due?"; "do u know the sex yet?".

Now the honeymoon second trimester that moms-to-be have been raving about has passed and I am back into the supposed treacherous third. I had a two-hour glucose test and blood test yesterday. The test was no fun at all. They drew my blood before the test, made me drink a bottle of Fanta and drew my blood twice again in intervals of an hour. By the end of it, I was dead hungry from all the fasting.

The results of the glucose test looked fine which means I probably have no gestational diabetes. Phew. But this doesn't mean I should slack on food choices for my final leg. However my blood test showed a higher level of white blood cell count, low red blood cells and low platelets. Uh-oh. I did a bit of research and found out that higher white blood cells could be a sign of infection. That probably explained why I was shivering the night before. I wonder if the obgyn will prescribe me iron supplements for haemoglobin. And I also read that if I continue to have low platelets, they might not be able to administer epidural or have to inject epidural accurately to prevent accidental puncturing. Although epidural is not part of my birth plan, it isn't totally out of my list of options yet. Now I can only wait for my obgyn visit next week to see what the doctor thinks and whether she will make me do another blood test.

Over these past few weeks, fifi has been getting pretty active, particularly before and after mealtimes and also while the classical music is playing in the car (or so I would like to think!). The kicks and somersaults are random and strong, not that I'm complaining. With the start of my third trimester, I hope to be more dilligent with my posts (just like my more frequent doctor visits - fortnightly from now the last month where the visits are weekly).

Repeat after me

I am not fat... I'm just growing a baby.

It's Official!

I am officially fat.
Last week we had a fire drill and the secretary sitting outside my room took the opportunity to ask me (while we were escaping) if I was expecting.
I was buying fat expensive organic grapes and the cashier looked down at my tummy and asked me if how I was feeling these days.
We were buying a washer and dryer and the cashier asked me if this was my first baby.

On a sad note, my piles are back to re-visit which is made worse by my persistent coughing. In fact, I have been coughing myself awake for the past 3 nights.
Fifi is doing big kung fu kicks, starting from today. Even dd can feel them too! Finally!

She's A...

The doctor wrote that on my pregnancy newsletter. So cute. I am just glad that it's one of the other sex and not both. Phew! And all the limbs and body parts are in the right places. One more hurdle crossed.

Today is my last free weekday as I am saying goodbye to my tai-tai life of one and a half years. No more lazy chillout afternoons spent at home, digging out deals at the mall and cruising the library shelves. I am heading back to the workforce, a new career, many new changes. I hope I can adapt to the hustle and bustle of the rat race again. That said, I'm glad that moola will be rolling in, so we are in a more comfortable position to give fifi better gear and toys!

Week 18

My first trimester swooshed by without me blogging of any sort. At least I have these pictures to remember the weeks that went by.

Week 7

Week 13 

Dear bean has transformed into a foetus (nicknamed fifi from now) in a short span of weeks.

Right now, my focus should be on food, exercise, reading and having positive thoughts. After attending the nutrition class provided by the hospital, I am constantly paranoid about whether the food I eat is nutritious and clean. Last night, I made myself some薏米腐竹糖水, thinking it was good stuff of calcium, protein and would make our skins smooth. But after I ate it, I wondered if barley was indeed good for me and I searched online and realised there's a difference between chinese pearl barley (Job's tears) and pearl barley. And I think I have the former. Job's tears are supposed to be an early pregnancy taboo food. 

UH-OH.

I have not really embarked on some consistent exercise regime yet, except walking to the library and around Target. I am always tired but I really should start soon. At least my prenatal yoga classes are starting in Nov. There's a few nice shelves of pregnancy and parenting books, and half a level of children's books and music at the library for me to bury my head into.

Weight now: 103.9lb