Week 26 and Other Matters

I *think* I'm entering Week 26. (checks pregnancy calculator) Yup. Week 26, it is.

The pregnancy is going on smoothly. Baby is growing well. The last check-up shows that the placenta is still low. But, that's a small matter. I just have to ensure that I take all the precautions to avoid early labour. And, if it's still low at the end of the pregnancy, C-section it will be. But, it's okay. I'm not so bothered as to how the baby comes out. As long as she comes out safely.

My stomach is much bigger now than when I was about to deliver Huda. So, this explains why I can't eat much in one sitting. (I'm quite sure I talked about this before so I shall stop here about this one.)

This pregnancy has made my tastebuds extremely sensitive. Many types of food leave an unpleasant taste in the mouth. Mamee snacks, certain types of chocolates and biscuits, instant noodles, 3-n-1 tea mix etc etc.. Basically (I really hate using that word - basically), everything that is made using additives and preservatives and strange 'food' substances like glycerides and polyunsaturated vegetable oils etc etc. I suppose, this daughter of mine will have a preference for organic food when she starts eating.

Just like it was for Huda, The Husband and I still can't see eye-to-eye about the name for the second baby. I want Fxxxx and The Husband wants Nxxxxx. As usual, I told him that I would run to the baby-name-registering-office once the baby pops and with my placenta still dangling out but he reminded me that he gave in to me the last time. Heh. We'll see. Maybe, it will all come down to a game of scissors-paper-stone.

On to non-pregnancy related stuff... (I am extra chatty tonight because I'm supposed to do my w0r;k re\/i3w but as usual, I just can't bring myself to do it. I really hate doing those things. It's not that difficult but the mere thought of it puts me off.)

The Husband and I are in a sort-of dilemma. We are presently looking for a new place because we realise that while our place was cosy enough for the two of us, there's just not enough running space for the little ones. The problem is, we are looking for a place in only a few blocks and it should preferably be on the higher floors and it must be certain units. Given these specific requirements, our choices are very, very limited.

So, the dilemma is, should we do up the girls' room or not? Presently, Huda is still very contented to sleep on the mattress beside our bed. We do/did(?) have plans to kick her out move her to her own room soon. Because of the hunt for the new place, we are unsure if we should put in so much time and effort in doing up the girls' room only to use it for a few months (should our dream flat appears). But, there is also a possibility that we won't find the dream flat all that soon so, we need to move Huda and the little sister to their own room. What to do? What to do? Maybe we should also solve this problem with a game of scissors-paper-stone.

There is at least one more thing I wanted to talk about but, as usual, I can't recall what it is.

Now, on to that \/\/0rk r3v|ew... *big sigh*

 

An Evening with ---

There were no pyrotechnics, no fireworks, no fancy dance moves, no dancers, no confetti, no elaborate stage set-up.

But those were not necessary.

Because there was Anuar Zain.

It was almost surreal to see Anuar Zain live in person. I only managed to shake off that am-I-really-here feeling by the third song.

I was blown away by his perfect vocals. And The Husband (yes, he was beside me all along to make sure that I remember that I'm a married woman - heh) was just as enthralled by his voice. This despite telling me repeatedly before the concert began that he was going to fall asleep. He reached all the high notes effortlessly and he was pitch-perfect all the time. He sang with emotion and you can feel the pain when he sang Kembalilah Kasih, which he wrote to mourn the loss of a lady for whom he waited five years. *gulp* Five years. Imagine that. And all you get at the end of five years is news that this woman is marrying someone else. With a man like that, how can the ladies in the crowd not swoon?

He sounded so much better than on his CD (and he already sounds great on CD). I wished that I had an audio-recording device (heh heh - the ushers at Esplanade would have a fit) so that I could listen to his powerful vocals again and again and again...

Now, I can only hope that there will soon be a DVD of his concert released.

-

Acknowledgements: 1. Jiji & family for babysitting Huda;   2. The Husband - for the tickets, for the company and for enjoying himself and not falling asleep. :D

Duck

I don't want to waddle but I've got cramps on my bottoms and waddling seems to be the best way to walk.

Gaaah!

Week 23

TDF

That stands for too free. D stands for? This may be read by my children when they grow up so let's sanitise things a bit.

Yes,  yes. I'm too free today. That explains two blog entries within an hour.

I *think* I'm in Week 23.

This is just a little update about my pregnancy so far. The vomiting has stopped. Yayyy! But, this baby seems to be squeezing my stomach and so I can only eat a tiny amount each time because I feel extremely bloated after each meal.

Occasionally, I feel cramps especially in the lower abdomen area. I don't know if that's because of the low placenta but I have faith that the placenta will not be too low as the weeks go by. That's what the gynae says. I am trying to avoid carrying heavy things. By January, I should be able to avoid climbing stairs also because the lift in my block should be ready by then. So, when I'm heavily pregnant in January, I should be having an easier time.

The baby is moving about the tummy quite a bit these days. I can feel movements on the left and right and mostly nearer to the bottom, below my C-section scar. It's nice to know that the little one is having a whale of a time in there.

My stomach now is so much bigger than when I was 34 weeks pregnant with Huda. (That's not saying much because I barely had a tummy then. Haha!) So, I'm actually filling out some of my maternity clothes nicely.

Talking about maternity clothes - I really dont understand myself. I only need to wear maternity clothes for about 6 months at best but I have a lot more maternity clothes than I have nursing tops. I intend to nurse my child for about 2 years so it makes sense to have more nursing tops, doesn't it?

And, I gotta make a decision between CordLife and StemCord. Dunno which one to go for. I couldn't bank in Huda's cord blood because she was a preemie with IUGR. Hopefully, this one will be okay so there will be some cord blood to be stored as insurance.

Going to School

1 December 2008 will mark a major milestone in Huda's life.

She's going to school, at the ripe old age of 2 years 9 months.

Initially, my main motivation of sending her to school was to allow her to mix around with people her age. Then, my father fell ill and the need to send her to a school was even greater. Now that things have stabilised on the home front, she will be going to school mainly to socialise.

She will be attending a nearby childcare centre, a centre that my nieces and nephew also go to. Choosing the cc wasn't a difficult task. It meets almost all the criteria I have, not that I had many to begin with. It was not airconditioned and the same teachers have been there for many years. I would not want to send Huda to a cc where the teachers change every few months. It also helps that three of her cousins are in the same cc so she'll see familiar faces all the time.

I don't know who will be affected worse when she goes to school. Huda or her mother. I have a feeling that she will adapt to the new school easily (the school is not unfamiliar to her; we go there sometimes to pick up her cousins) but I will most probably miss her terribly. Sigh.

I think I have to start planning my December schedule so that I will be kept busy when she's at school. Cooking and baking, perhaps? *nervous laughter*

Week 20

What is it? What is it? It's a GIRL!

I'm now hoping for a healthy baby girl who's not a fussy eater. :)

The scan shows that our little girl is growing normally and is healthy. She was playing peek-a-boo with us during the scan and Huda enjoyed getting a sneak peak of her baby sister.

We asked Huda to suggest a few names for her sister, otherwise known as Baby Adik. These are her suggestions:

1. Lion

2. Rhino

3. Her grandfather’s name

 

---

Other W20-related stuff:

1. I'm feeling breathless a lot more frequently these days. Even after not-so-strenuous activities like scrubbing the toilet floor. (Seriously, not much effort is needed for that because out of all the house chores, scrubbing the toilet floor is the one thing that I do very, very regularly.)

2. The colostrum has started leaking. If this means that breastfeeding will be as easy this time round, then leak away! (Of course, nothing on the internet says that this is true. It's only a myth but it's a good myth.)

3. My placenta is low. According to the gynae, for 90% of pregnant women with low placenta, the placenta will move up as the baby grows bigger. But for the other 10%, the placenta will remain low til the end of the pregnancy so the baby has to exit via a C-section. The gynae told me to take some precautions; one of which is not to carry anything more than 10kg (that will be Huda). I've already done that since the beginning of this pregnancy. The problem of having a low-lying placenta is really nowhere near as bad as having intrauterine growth restriction, which was Huda's problem. As long as our little girl is healthy, I am happy.

4. Braxton-Hicks contractions have begun also, much to my annoyance. Is there a reason for these fake contractions? It hurts and it serves no purpose. Or does it?

5. I'm beginning to be able to take plain water more often these days. I better. The urine test shows that the glucose level in the urine is a +2. I don't exactly understand what that means but I know that it shows that there's some possibility of gestational diabetes. No!!! I'm already not eating all that much and I simply can't afford to watch my diet. The gynae told me to continue eating normally and see what the next test shows. If it's still positive, then she'll order a glucose test.

All righty. That's about it. I'm now entering Week 21. But I foresee that I'll be much too l/a/z/y to do updates. ;)

Some More Thoughts

1. My interest in crochet has been given a new lease of life. I realise that the crochet-ed tablecloth that was given to me is not quite the crochet-ed tablecloth of my dreams and before The Husband gets heart palpitations from my desire to get a new tablecloth, I might as well learn how to crochet, yes?

2. My house is still not Raya Ready despite this being the 5th day of Hari Raya. Hur hur hur. Well, to begin with, we were not in much of a celebratory mode considering that the patriarch of the family fell ill. The matriarch of the family made frequent trips to the hospital, leaving me to take care of the not-so-young younger siblings. And somehow, that pretty much dampened our intentions to spruce the house up (excuses, excuses - well, we weren't home most of the time, if that justifies our laziness..). I had plans before then, like getting some professional cleaners to do something to our once-upon-a-time off-white leather sofa (which is presently a cross between grey and brown), like cleaning the window grilles and getting rid of the mountains of lizards' poo on the window sills, like scrubbing the floor clean, like clearing out our bedroom-turned-storeroom and turning it into Huda's room, like like like...

BUT, my noble intentions remain as intentions. They have yet to be carried out (except for the kitchen window grille). When will the house ever be Raya Ready? (By Deepavali, I hope..)

3. Alhamdulillah, after everything that has happened, the patriarch of the family was discharged yesterday and is resting at home now. Thank you, all, for the prayers and kind words. Please, if you do have the time, make a do'a for his good health. Amin. Thank you.

4. Huda is interested in a doll now. This is the first doll that has held her interest for more than 28 seconds. She took it from her cousin's toy box on Friday and as of today, her interest in the doll is still strong. How strong? The doll goes everywhere with her. The Husband is most glad because he has always been concerned about Huda's lack of interest in girl-y things.

5. I am itching to get stuff (clothes, actually) for #2. But, the gender is not known yet and I have to resist the urge til 13th October when all will be revealed.

 

A Salty Story

We ran out of salt.

The Husband went to buy salt.

The salt was so white, so clean, not clumpy and each grain was of the exact same size. Too perfect?

Then, I read the fine print. Produce of China.

Errrr...

So, yesterday, The Husband bought another pack of salt. This time, the fine print is checked carefully. Made in Australia. Ok, pass.

Turning 30

Huda is 30 months old today.. She's a big girl now and here's a progress report on her for all those who are interested..

1. Does she throw tantrums? Oh yes. When she's scolded, she'll start to spit (euw!!), throw things on the floor or say 'Ep!' to the person scolding her. How, how, how do we stop this? We have tried reasoning with her, scolded her, smacked her.. But this behaviour still continues. Sigh. We can't possibly wait til she's older to reason with her. We need her to know NOW that her behaviour is unacceptable. How? How do you discipline your children? Does Supernanny's naughty corner work for 2-year-olds?

2. She's still shy around strangers. This is good. It makes her a lot more manageable when we are in a public place. Something about her really tickled me recently. We were at the hospital recently (visiting, not staying). A visitor dropped by. Huda took the 'Urban' section of the Straits Times, placed it on the floor, plonked herself in front of the papers and started to read the papers. Slowly she flipped to the next page and the next page. Then, when the visitor started to take notice of her, she bent even lower, pointed to the words on the papers (and her fingers actually moved from left to right, following the text), as if she was concentrating really hard on what she was reading. We laughed so hard at the sight but Huda was way too engrossed.

3. She is getting chubbier. Hooray! Everyone around her has been commenting on how there are more of her cheeks now. Yipppeeeee!!! She's drinking milk very often (Pediasure and Enfagrow - thanks for the recommendation Nani, Norza & Liza!) although when it comes to her main meals, it's still a bit of a struggle to feed her.

4. We still have not toilet-trained her. We'll wait til she turns three or during the end-of-year school holidays. We are simply l-a-z-y.

5. Her speech - This was one of our areas of concern for her. But, she has improved tremendously since I last wrote about her. She's now talking a lot. She is mostly a Malay-speaking child and we intend to keep it that way for as long as possible. At the same time, she is also aware that there are different words for the same thing but I am not too sure if she is aware that the different labels come from two different language systems.

Once, she asked for 'chox'. I had no idea what that was and I told her so. Soon, she was exasperated and asked for 'tetotin'. Ah! Enlightenment. She wanted socks and when I failed to understand her, she used the Malay word which is 'stokin'.

She's forming proper sentences too. She can join a few concepts together to form a coherent and grammatically sound sentence. At times, she has this strange quirk which surfaces when she's about to sleep. She will start off with one sentence, for example, "Umar (her cousin) baca Quran" (Umar reads the Quran). Then, she'll just change the subject of the sentence and she'll go, "Nabilah baca Quran; Sofia baca Quran; Cik Jiji baca Quran.." (The list goes on until she has covered every single member of her extended family.) It is strangely endearing yet annoying all at once because all I want to do is sleep yet she's going on and on and on and on like a broken record.

Her favourite phrase for now, unfortunately, is "Tak tahu" (Don't know). That, and "Tak nak" (Don't want). I have myself to blame because sometimes when she asks me a question, I'll just tell her that I don't know. So, now, I am always reminding myself to banish the phrase from my vocab and give her a proper answer each time she asks me a question.

As for "Tak nak", it's such a convenient thing for her to say. "Huda, help me pick up your toys." Answer: Tak nak. "Huda, do you want to eat?" Answer: Tak nak. "Huda, can you help me put this in the room?" Answer: Tak nak.

She can also sustain a conversation for a few turns. She is in love with cranes and excavators and one day, when she looked out of the window, she saw a crane.

Huda: Mak, apa tu? (Mak, what's that? - Sometimes, she asks me the obvious.)

Me: Crane (because I have no idea what a crane is called in Malay)

Huda: Ooooooohh.. Crane.

(pause)

Huda: Mak nak crane? (Do you want the crane?)

Me: Nak. (Yes)

Huda: Nanti Ayah belikan, okay? (Later, Ayah will buy for you, okay?)

6. And, of course, she's as active as ever. She climbs and jumps and falls and climbs and jumps again.

So, this is Huda at the ripe old age of 30 months.

Week 16

Week 16 I should not have had that orange juice for sahur just now. I should have stuck to my glass of Anmum. The orange juice is now dancing in my stomach and threatening to escape.

Week 17 Anmum! Only when I'm writing this did I realise I should have taken Anmum instead of plain water after sahur. Aiyaaahhh.. Somehow I've forgotten about Anmum. Plain water makes me feel queasy and somehow it will instigate the rest of the food in my tummy to escape.

The vomiting still continues. There are vomity days and there are okay days - these are days when I only feel like vomiting but didn't. It doesn't help that I've caught a cold. The coughing is quite bad. And a few times, I vomited all thanks to the incessant coughing.

Check-up this week shows that baby is growing well. Yayy! I'm actually a bit apprehensive before each scan because I've heard enough horror stories to have some unpleasant thoughts stored at the back of my head. So, each time I see the little kiddo jumping about in his/her little sac, I'll be so thankful, The gynae could not determine the gender just yet because the baby refuses to open his/her leg. So, could it be a girl? But, really, really, really.. I am not fussy.. Boy or girl, it doesn't matter. It should not matter.

My blood pressure was very low. 77/56. But the gynae said that low blood pressure is better than high bp. With a low bp, all I need to do is have more rest. I suppose eating more red meat will help too? Yes?

Week 18 What a busy, busy week this week was. The Big Exam is just tomorrow and the kids are oh-so-relaxed. Hari Raya was okay.

Today, the day after Hari Raya, my stomach is not used to eating in the day. I felt like throwing up after having a slice of papaya. I skipped lunch after the papaya episode. I don't wish to throw up at work. The toilet stinks. It induces more vomitting.

I think I felt movements made by the little kid. But, I'm not sure. I'm incredibly insensitive most times so I don't know if those movements I thought I felt were the little kid's or just my stomach doing its regular somersaults.

Week 19 I can't believe that it's already week 19. The vomitting, predictably, is still ongoing, around 2-3 times a week. Stomach discomfort also, as per normal. Still don't like the taste of plain water. But, the good thing is, I'm almost halfway through the pregnancy! Yippeee!!!!

I'm beginning to feel more movements coming from the baby. It's really nice to know that the baby is moving about actively.

As for me, I'm beginning to feel a lot more energetic than before. In the past few days, I have been walking to my parents' place instead of cabbing it (which is what I've been doing since I got pregnant - for that super-short distance, I paid up to $4.60 during peak hours).

Next week, I'll know the gender. Whatever it is, I hope we'll be able to raise the child well and that s/he will be a good Muslim, humble, smart, hardworking, has a high EQ...among other positive qualities. Amin.