F1

22 weeks 6 days

with the overwhelming raves and excitement for the 1st F1 night race, most of the people would love to have the opportunity to view and participate in one of the sessions. Having said that, it would be beyond me to pay for a ticket.

anyhow, on sat night after dinner at Toa Payoh's Ocean (famous for their fish curry), we decide to go pak-tor at Clarke Quay since I have not been there for like ages. Took a walk around and I appear to be the most unglam woman amid the dressed to kill ladies partying away. As we are watching the reverse bungee and extreme swing, heard the roaring engines sound in the distance. An idea striked us and we decide to try our luck by walking to Padang, see if we can catch anything of F1 even at a far distance. A short stroll of about 10mins, we got excited by the nearing roaring engine sounds. Managed to find a spot near supreme court where we can catch a glimpse of the mean machines negotiating a tight bend (of course at a distance through fences and barriers further blocked by banner). We saw Ferrari and Maclaren whizzed by for a few laps and it was so exciting basking in the roars of these mean machines. Just when even Baby is getting excited by more kicks (hopefully it's excitement instead of finding it to be a nuisance), our excitement was dampen when the silly staffs brought forward another opaque black banner obstructing our minimum view totally. Chey!

spent the day on sun for some housework - vaccuming and moping our dirty, incorrigible floor. spent a good near 2 hours and took a bath before cooking some noodles for ourselves and watching the F1 race live on TV. Can't imagine the agony of the racers when our weather is so hot and humid, for them to be cladded in the thick protective suit, stuck in the little cockpit like space racing for 61 laps. The race was indeed a drama packed one and poor Ferrari got nothing which is a little disappointing due to some silly error from the marshalls, dashing Massa's leading grip in the race. The supposedly last hope on Raikkinoen was also dashed when he slammed into one of the bend.

Another 4 more years to go for F1 night race? would be great if there's an opportunity to enjoy the experience not that I'm a fan of F1 but solely for the sake of experiencing it!

22 weeks

22 weeks 2 days
weight ~ 61.7kg

mummy feeling hungry always every 3-4 hours. food intake increasingly large. imagine we used to cook about 1 and 1/4 cup of rice with a small portion for mummy but now we have upgraded to 2 cups of rice and almost 1/2 goes to mummy's dinner plate! that's just for dinner....3 hrs later will be supper time usually 1/2 an apple (to relieve constipation which works ocassionally) and a slice of wholemeal bread spreaded with jam / peanut butter with a pc of cheese thrown in at times.

speaking of which that brings me to the escalating melamime tainted milk saga. It's really unbelievable for these idiots to cheat in milk powder obviously meant for infants and children. The daily dose of news brought anger to me, are there PRC idiots mad or what, hearts eaten by wolves probably. Now peanut butter had been my all time favourite on my sandwich. Reading from the forum, realised that Skippy is Made in China and confirmed from the packaging yestersday although there have been no mention of milk / milk protein being used. Okay I know I'm reacting quite critically in trying to decide if it is safe for consumption as our body is able to get rid of the toxic on its own. Then again the situation I'm in currently does warranty paranoid concerns and behaviour as it does concern and might affect our precious little one.

looking at the prices of diapers these days and making a fair bit of comparison among the different brands. Imagine this silly mummy and daddy actually went around feeling the different softness and texture of diaper samples last weekend. we have come to realise that it does make a difference between brands and as always better quality comes with a premium that's going to burn a big hole in the pocket! Mummy have more or less decided to make the challenging move to use cloth nappy for our precious in the daytime and a trustworthy diaper (read as absorbent and non leaking) in the night. I know many of you would have been laughing out loud and started to place bets on how long would this insistence of using cloth diaper last. Well it's always a trial and error thingy isn't it.

Baby have been extremely active for the past few days regardless of mealtimes, post meals, TV time or even sleeptime! Mummy was just complaining to daddy yestersday that Baby is practising his somersaults in the tummy which leads us to another of daddy's joke! "Could he be dreaming inside thus the large movement"....can faint lor! Once again at night Baby is having such large movements creaing sudden nudges on mummy's tummy that I had to ask daddy to place his palm on the tummy. Baby stopped right on track for a good 1-2 mins and once the palm is gone, the havoc start again. Haha, uncertain to cry or to laugh out loud!

mummy is also very slow in her actions these days especially in walking, more so after dinner. citing yestersday's example, we had to stock up on my staple food of wholemeal after dinner so we walked to the nearby 7-11. mummy had to grumble at daddy to slow down his pace as it's making me breatheless and impossible to keep up. He too in turn grumble and said with his usual pace, he would have reached long ago. Had to remind him what dr woody said the other day, getting heavier thus have to slow down in actions especially slowing down in walking pace. wonder how bad can it be over the last trimester, slower than a granny perhaps.

Now mummy is really praying hard that she could breastfeed Baby with a good steady supply of breastmilk. It's gonna be really tough and challenging but I'm hoping that I could preservere on despite the pain and what's not. As for now, it's anybody's guess!

21 weeks

21 weeks 5 days
weight ~ 61.3kg

mummy has been feeling very warm and perspiring furiously for the past week and the eccentric weather doesn't seem to help much. tummy felt really tight and stretched to the max. Sitting for too long a time result in butt pain. constantly feeling thirsty so the best thing to do will drown in lots of water. Baby is very active and are always moving, kicking, punching and nudging! Baby had better not turned into night owl as he's extremely active late in the night when naughty mummy (who sleep late recently too) prepare for bed.

mummy wanted to visit dr woody in the late morning (19 sept 08 - mummy & daddy's 5th ROM anniversary too) to avoid the crowd. just nice the nurse called in the morning to inform that they received our Detailed Scan results and all are normal. It was only after making known that we wanted to see him that he is not in the clinic for morning so no choice but to see him at night.

the night session was rather packed when we reached at about 6.15pm and he just stepped in. After standing for like 10 mins, we found ourselves a seat and around 20 mins mummy's name was called out. the same usual greeting statement of how are you. mummy couldn't make up her mind to take a seat or now as previously was always whisked off to the couchfor scanning so she remain standing. Dr woody looked at mummy and asked her to sit down to run through the Detailed Scan result. Everything is normal including placenta, major organs etc.

We then proceed for our usual scan and he was real quick with his 'this baby's head, heartbeat & tummy'. In a flash it was over and mummy was shocked that he remembered mummy's job hunt as he asked for status. So his advice remains as per go get urself a gov't job, can't be wrong for sure. When asked about any shift in EDD, he advised to follow the Oscar EDD but take it as a marker as usually most of the births are earlier.

So the results & scan was given in a envelope and he added in some advise that since mummy will be getting heavier thus would have to be more careful and slowed down in actions and movements. When mummy and daddy are preapring to leave his office, he started saying "so knowing it's a boy, can start shopping!" mummy told him started shopping and he burst out laughing.

It's only when we are waiting for collection of vitamins that we realised Baby has grown to 459g, 100g in less than a week (from our Detailed scan). however the printout is disappointing showing only bb's tummy?

pics from Detailed Scan

Joker

20 weeks 2 days

daddy is such a joker today, what he said nearly make spurt out the mouthful of water she's drinking!

here the 'joke' contributed by daddy....

daddy ~ what time did we have our dinner? (counting on his fingers) 8....9....10. It was just 3 hrs back we had dinner but why am I hungry? Are you hungry

mummy ~ (nod head as drinking water)

daddy ~ can't be what. is it because you are hungry that's why I'm hungry too?

mummy ~ (controlling very hard not to spurt out the mouthful of water while giggling to herself)

what a joker daddy is. On the other hand mummy have read that it is possible that this could happen. Because of the close relationship husband and wife shared, it was observed that husband could share same cravings and feel hunger pangs together with the wife!

on a side note, daddy and mummy observed earlier again and saw Baby moved!

Daddy

21 weeks 1 day

this post is titled daddy as yesterday for the 1st time daddy is able to observe Baby's movement.

as mentioned previously, daddy is unable to feel Baby's movement as Baby as always decide to stop his movement whenever a palm is placed on the tummy.

mummy noted Baby's kick creating movement on the tummy at night thus signal daddy to observe mummy's tummy. After 2 kicks or so, daddy saw it and laughed to himself.

subsequently at intervals, daddy will ask mummy if Baby is moving, has daddy begin to be more aware of Baby's presence and hopefully get more involved?

Tonic

20 weeks 7 days

mummy have been hearing alot about the benefits of 'Pao Shen' and birdnest for Baby thus went around asking for more information.

Apparently what it can do is to build up Baby's immunity system while in the womb (Pao Shen) resulting in less prone to illness after Baby is born. At the same time it also serve its purpose for mummy to improve the healthy well being of mummy (Bu).

As we till have bottled bird nest bought a while back so we decided to finish them 1st before purchasing raw bird nest to self stew / double boiled. As mummy have read that although bird nest is known to give good complexion to Baby, high consumption might result in asthma in infants thus to be on the safe side mummy is consuming a small bottle on a weekly basis (to much of anything is never beneficial).

Back to the pao shen, we check with a medical hall near our place before which cost a whopping $160 (the cheapest and lowest end) for 1 'liang' translating to about 37g and was advised to consume it in 5 portions. Today we went to another medical hall and the americal Pao shen they offer was $80 per 'liang' with advise to place about 5 slices to make a drink / double boiled with lean meat / chicken twice weekly. Should one like it to be more intense then add in more slices of Pao Shen. Mummy and daddy decide to give it a try even being a tad skeptical. mummy was pretty assured despite of the vast difference in price largely due to some queries I posted for him on G6PD in which alot of TCM are not aware of (even the reputable ones)

Detailed Scan

20 weeks 5 days
weight ~ 61kg

woke up at about 9+am and start preparing for our trip to TMC for our detailed scan. After bathing, woke daddy up and shortly we left for breakfast at Macdonalds. had a quick breakies and saw Esther and hubby with bb Owen.

it was amazing that on a sat morning the expressway and roads are packed with cars. We reached TMC at around 11am and the carpark is packed to the brim so mummy suggest to be dropped off while daddy went to the carpark opp hopefully to find a parking lot.

daddy is pretty lucky and managed to find a parking lot shortly. We went up to level 4 and this time no registration is necessary and mummy was given a number immediately. It is a short wait of about 5 mins or so before mummy's name is called and was lead to one of the ultrasound room preparing for the sonographer to be ready. Coincidentally we met the same sonographer Elizabeth as per our Oscar scan.

She was a very patient and nice lady and showed us alot of scans about Baby. She remarked that Baby is very active and constantly playing in the womb but a little shy. We were shown Baby's penis and I joked saying now daddy will be utterly convinced that Baby is a BOY. haha. We saw Baby's nose, lips, nasal bone, head, fingers, toes, tummy, heart chambers and the blood circulation in the 4 chambers of the heart. Everything look normal, fine and good. meanwhile Baby is constantly on the move with head near the left of mummy's abdomen to above the belly button (identified with the help of Elizabeth)

Then she told us she needed some time to take some measurements to estimate the weight of Baby afterwhich she will showed us Baby again. We kept very quiet while she was taking her measurements and she joked saying we could still communicate, does not have to be so serious, hee. She then procced to key in the data (Baby stirred abit while waiting) and we were told Baby is about 376g (if mummy's memory did not failed her, short term memory at play).

She continue to show us more views of Baby and we managed to catch better views of Baby such as Baby's nose + nostrils and we even caught him moving his lips. Saw Baby's spine too and the little hands and legs again. Apparently Baby like to place his hand near his face. Another caught on screen act will be seeing for ourselves how he give a powerful kick!

Overall the results are good, all are normal and fine. How relieved are we to hear that. No problem observed with the major organs, placenta and Baby belong to the normal range. Was told that we will be given a page of scans and results sent to our gynae. Baby is so cooperative and well behaved to enable the scan done in less than 30 mins.

After that we went to Parentcraft to register for our antenatal class starting 18 Oct 7-9pm which cost us near to $200.

Will be seeing Dr Woody on thur (our 5th ROM anniversary but no celebrations intended) to review the Detailed scan.

oh..one more thing to add...the sonographer indicated that Baby is having a jolly good time playing in mummy's womb, she saw him playing with his little feet, little hand grabbing little feet, keke!

Punch / Kick

20 weeks 4 days

mummy noted an interesting sign and thought to blog it down for memory purposes.

late in the noon and feeling hungry even after munching a few biscuits, mummy saw for the 1st time the kick/punch Baby demonstrated which was reflected by a little buldge from mummy's tummy (it feel much stronger too)

mummy laughed to myself and observed closely when Baby demonstrated his stunt for a 2nd time at a different location. Tears filled (blame it on the surging hormone, mummy not crybaby) haha

p/s ~ we are going for our detail scan tomorrow morning, Baby will be a well behaved & cooperative Baby to ensure the scan done smoothly. mummy will remember to have breakies before our scan!

Spree

Mummy bought this cutie little thingy from one of the spree in the forum at a very reasonable price with good material.

As you might be saying the last heard is mummy decided to stop buying clothings for Baby but will still be buying just a few more footed sleepsuits to be used as Baby's jammies.

Love the vibrant color of this sleepsuit!

Progress

@@ Week 20 @@

~~ You ~~
Hooray, you’ve made it to the halfway mark. Your abdomen is now quite distended due to your uterus having grown to just below your belly button. You may find your belly button “pops out” as your uterus expands. Your linea nigra may now really be quite pronounced. You may have noticed your hair has taken on a new lustre and shine, and has become increasingly thick. This is because your hair has a tendency not to fall out during your pregnancy. This also applies to your pubic hair.Make sure you are maintaining your healthy eating regime. Calcium and iron are essential to your baby for the development of their bones and making red blood cells.. Also ensure you are drinking enough fluids.Have you organised a tour of the hospital or birthing centre where you have chosen to deliver your baby? Being familiar with your surroundings can make the initial transition from home to the labour room a little less daunting. It will also answer some simple questions like “Where can we park the car?”; “Which floor should I come to first?”; “When should we come to the hospital?”; “Where can my partner rest/get a drink/make a phone call/go to the toilet?”.

~~ Your Baby ~~
Your baby now measures approximately 15-17cm and has increased his body weight by 60-80grams this week and he now weighs around 270 grams. Although he is now quite well developed he would not be able to survive if he were born now. His heartbeat is stronger now and easier to detect by using a stethoscope.This is a crucial time for your baby’s sensory development. His sense of smell, taste, hearing sight and touch are now undergoing specialised development in his brain. He is continuing to put on layers of fat under his maturing and thickening skin. His hair and nails are continuing to grow. In fact some baby’s are born with quite long nails that need to be cut quite soon after birth to prevent them from scratching themselves.

Half journey

20 weeks 2 days
weight ~ 60.7kg

**pop champagne first**

mummy & Baby made it to our 1/2 mark yesterday, we are 20 weeks!

mummy noted some progress of Baby. played music for Baby everyday with the constant reminder from daddy every night (note: that's what he had done for Baby so far) and apparently Baby has a mind of his own responding better with certain tunes that he prefer of course based on mummy's assumption. kicked much harder and frequently with certain tunes which mummy noted, can used it to soothe Baby when he's born.

Another cute observation, whenever a hand be it mummy's or daddy's placed on the tummy the kicking stop almost immediately and stayed very still for the next minute or two untill the hand is removed. As you have guessed it, daddy have not been able to feel Baby's kicks and punches as yet.

Mummy is eating much more than her pre pregnancy portion especially on the rice portion. Hunger sets in every 3 hours or so and bread is for sure the staple food nowadays perhaps overtook rice for that matter.
changes in mummy ~ as compared to 1st trimester, skin is not as oily and acne occurance reduces on the face as well as back. Insomina starts to kick in occassionally and definitely bump continue to grow. Fatigue largely reduce and are more mobile and active, able to shop for longer period of time. Not as prone to sickness as well **touchwood**

We have yet to plan for Baby's room should there be one? Received quite a lot of handowns from Aunty Jamie which should suffice on the clothing aspect so no more shopping for Baby's clothing untill he is 6 months old. Shortlisted a few names but indecisive due to the naughty daddy who make fun of every single names shortlisted.

bump @ 19 weeks

Handowns from Aunty Jaime

Godsend

19 weeks 7 days

we got this body pillow from cheeky bon bon during the recent taka baby fair. since it wasn't costing alot ($16.90 if my memory never fail me), decide to give it a try even though that's the last pc on the shelf and I hate the PINK design.

Previously sleeping at night is a chore as using bolster in between my legs was a little too huge while pillow is a little too flat. Yeah, readin till this point you might be wondering does it have to be so troublesome but indeed it is. Finding the right position to sleep is a major headache as it is not to mention the bedding accessories involved!

Anyway back to the topic, although it wasn't as comfy as the regular size maternity body pillow, at least it suffice for me to have better ease of sleep. I like the feel that it's neither too huge nor flat in between my legs and the fact that it could be close to my growing bump. So with the help of this godsend thingy, if not for better quality sleep then the least will be floating into la-la land much easier.

Fall

19 weeks 1 day

hooray...marked another milestone today with our precious...we are 19 weeks today!

clumsy and bad mummy had a fall this afternoon after attending an interview. careless mummy slipped while approaching a low ramp partly caused by my bad sandal which is barely 2 months old!

slipped outdoor but it wasn't even raining but the lucky thing is mummy managed to break the fall with my knees thus bruising it slightly and reducing the impact of landing on my bum bum.

mummy is so upset and angry with myself that I nearly cried to myself. this is the 1st time in my whole life that I fell while walking. feeling a little paranoid, thought run wild and feel as if mummy feel some pain in the lower abdomen. well to think positively, it could be a blessin in disguise at the very least mummy did not land on the tummy.

will make a mental note to throw away this pair of sandal and get another pair which is another headache because it's tough to get comfy shoes especially covered shoes. mummy have broad & fleshy feet which worsen now that pregnant.