You know those weekly posts I put up on baby’s growth so far from Baby Center? Had abit too much time on my hands and decided to compile all the fruits and vege into one pic and scale it using the coin as a comparison.
It’s quite amazing to see how baby has grown from week 4 to week 13 when you put all of the weeks together!
Photo and info from: Baby Center, edited by yours truly
First day back to work after a nearly 2-month long break, and I’m utterly drained and exhausted. Even walking around in Singapore didn’t feel this tiring.
My eyes are half closed, my back aches, and my throat hurts! 
The slight sore throat worries me more than anything since I can’t drink much water without wanting to throw up, and I really don’t want to take any medicine while I’m pregnant. How?
[Edit: Honey lemon to the rescue! I drank 2 cups of hot honey lemon the same night, and another cup at work, and lo and behold, the sore throat that almost was...wasn't! 
]
…baby has reached the size of a medium shrimp and weighs nearly an ounce. (Length: almost 3 inches, head to bottom.)
Photo and info from: Baby Center.
We went for our third visit to the ob/gyn yesterday morning. It had been 3 weeks since we last saw baby, and little did I know, we were in for a big treat!
I’ll skip the details of the visit and go straight to the ultrasound. Baby had grown so much in the past 3 weeks…from a tiny 1.91mm to 6cm from crown to rump (*)! We could see baby’s fingers and toes, and happy happy joy joy…baby moved and kicked while the scan was being done! I felt completely overwhelmed and so excited! Hubby said baby was tossing and turning, but it looked more like a full body jerk to me…LOL! It was amazing, to see how a silhouette of a previously unidentifiable little cluster of cells turn into what we saw yesterday…a clearly outlined head, body, fingers and toes!
I was on a natural high for the rest of the day!
I’m now going into my second trimester, and as pregnant women would know, this is the honeymoon stage of the pregnancy when those pesky pregnancy symptoms start to dissipate. Doctor said I can start being more active now…some light exercise such as swimming is ok, and I just have to continue being careful about the food I eat. I’m really looking forward to these coming three months…I hope that I fall into the normal category of women where nausea really disappears!
In the meantime, I would like to share a couple of tips that I found on the net that seems to work for me when it comes to dealing with nausea:
1. I found that my nausea peaks when I feel too full. Too much food, coupled with lots of gas = “a frog in the throat” type of feeling = nausea…hence I’ve started to eat much smaller portions and supplement my meals with fruits in between when I get hungry.
2. Eating fruits right after a meal causes gassiness as the body cannot digest the fruits while it’s still digesting your breakfast/lunch/dinner/supper. The fruit then ferments in your tummy, causing gas and bloating. I used to eat fruits right after my meals before reading about this and the resulting gassiness and bloating is no joke! I now eat my fruits about 1 to 2 hours after a main meal, and found that the gassiness decreased quite alot. Less gas, less nausea.
3. I don’t like drinking plain water. It makes me bloat, and that worsens my nausea, and I think psychologically, that feeling has totally put me off drinking plain water…I can’t even stand the taste (I know, what taste, right?). I’ve recently started putting lemon slices in my water, and the slightly sourish tang actually makes it more palatable. Plus, the smell of the lemon helps somewhat when I feel nauseous. Furthermore, sipping a cup of hot water with lemon slices in the morning on an empty stomach helps with bowel movements too (I have yet to suffer from constipation since getting pregnant and I really thank my lucky stars for that!).
4. Another newly discovered tip that works for me is the two acupressure points on the wrists. Measure three finger-widths up from where your arm meets your palm (ie. from your wrist, la), and slowly apply some pressure with your thumb where the depression is (you should be able to feel two tendons side by side). I press the spot about 15 times before switching hands, and I do two rotations. Breathe in when pressing, breathe out when releasing the pressure.
I wouldn’t say those tips would get rid of nausea completely, but it does offer some relief…and when the feeling of throwing up stays with you from the moment you wake up till when you fall asleep, even a few minutes of relief is a godsend! 
* CRL, or crown rump length, is a term used to measure the baby’s growth up to around 14 weeks and usually used as a parameter to date the embryo with an accuracy of up to plus-minus 3 days. I found this useful chart on a website that has since disappeared (luckily I saved it!). As a general rule of thumb, the CRL (in cm) + 6.5 = age of the fetus in weeks.
…baby is, by this time, the size of a lime and weighs 1/2 ounce. (Length: just over 2 inches, head to bottom.)
Photo and info from: Baby Center.