sooyindotcom

Been pretty busy the past 2-3 weeks hence the long silence…

Just got back from another checkup with the gynae today. Baby is growing nicely, and the doctor estimated that she now weighs about 800gm. Which left me wondering…where did the rest of the 7.2kg that I’ve put on so far go to (other than the amniotic fluid)?!? Probably my bum and hips, no less…sigh. Like I just told a friend…70% to my hips, 20% to my waist and only 10 measly percent to my boobs…

Got some rashes on my tummy recently…I thought it was due to an allergic reaction to a new dress that I wore without washing first (it came packed in a plastic bag, but who knows what chemicals were left on the material, eh?), but when I went to see the doctor today, he said that it’s probably due to the pregnancy. It’s gotten better since, and I’ve been continuing my regime of slathering on the tonic oil from Clarins daily. No stretch marks….yet…but….cellulite! OMG, why didn’t anyone tell me about cellulite during pregnancy? It’s everywhere I look! *wails* Feels like even my toes have cellulite…

Baby bump-wise…it’s obviously getting bigger…duh! The top of my uterus is now about 3 finger-widths above my belly button (still an innie as opposed to an outie!), and I can now feel baby’s kicks near my diaphragm. It’s still a pretty neat bump though, which led most colleagues to speculate that baby’s a boy! Yes, I still don’t look very pregnant from the back and at certain, more flattering mirrors, I still look like I have a teeny tiny semblance of a waistline!

My little girl is still as active as ever…kicking, squirming…and lately, doing something that feels alot like she’s drumming her fingers… Yes…a very distinct feeling of four consecutive tiny little jabs! I confess that I do miss her movements whenever she goes to sleep…I really do enjoy this little bit of interaction with her! I’ve sort of recognized a pattern to her kicks…she kicks a few minutes after I wake up and when I’m still lying in bed. Then she goes back to sleep as I get ready to go to the office. She hardly ever kicks when I’m in the car. She kicks more frequently when it’s near lunch time, and is most active throughout the day when I’m working (and it’s pretty fun to watch the skin of my belly jump out at different places when she’s kicking). And lastly, when I’m back in bed at night and about to go to sleep, she’ll start squirming and kicking for a while before settling down for the night. And oh…she apparently doesn’t like it when I turn to the side coz I can feel her jab-jab-jabbing until I turn back onto my back!

The newest development thus far has been the round ligament pain that I started to experience after walking around too much during my lunch hour. It’s a slight jabbing/throbbing type of sensation, and for me, it only occurred on my right side at the top of my hip. The first time I felt it, I thought it was appendicitis! Confirmed with the doctor today that it’s round ligament pain, which isn’t so worrying since it’s part and parcel of being pregnant. It comes and goes, and usually only occurs after I’ve walked too much…so I suppose I’ll just have to be careful not to over-exert myself.

With the third trimester coming up, I guess it’s time to start eating bird’s nest (yummy yummy!) and more cooling stuff. I’ve been told that towards the last few weeks, I should start drinking coconut water…it apparently helps to prevent baby from having jaundice (though whether it’s scientifically proven or not, or it’s one of those pregnancy myths, I have no idea!). I’ve also started eating bananas…why? Bananas are rich in potassium, which apparently helps to prevent leg cramps - another one of those lovely pregnancy side-effects! Doesn’t hurt that bananas are one of my favourite fruits and goes deliciously well with ice-cream (and superbly well when eaten on its own with a dollop of peanut butter…but unfortunately, peanut butter is one of the things pregnant women are advised to avoid). Oh, and here’s a tip I got from my parents…when the bananas are ripe, pop them in the fridge. They somehow keep longer (ie. doesn’t go black and rotten so fast), and it tastes much better cold than at room temperature (at least to me!). Village Grocer @ BV sells organic bananas which is practically double the price of the ‘normal’ ones, but they are wonderfully sweet!

Baby shopping…we’re now in the midst of searching for baby cots. Been to a few shops so far, but the good ones are too expensive and the not-very-expensive ones do not look very sturdy. Sigh. After going back and forth a few times (on average, I think we visited each shop twice!), we’ve more or less decided on one…so we’ll probably go back to the shop to take another look and make our final decision. Can’t wait to get it over and done with…it’s the last ‘big ticket item’ left on my baby shopping list and the sooner I buy all the stuff that’s on that list, the more relaxed I’ll feel!

And so, there you have it…my pregnancy update at 24 weeks and 5 days, recorded for posterity!

Despite just having gone back to work for two days after my 1.5 weeks of (medical) rest, I already feel exhausted and am so happy that the weekend’s here! I’m off on Monday and Tuesday, so with the Hari Raya hols on Wednesday and Thursday, next week is just a one-day work week for me, how absolutely perfect!

Hubby booked a 3D/2N package at Cameron Highlands Resort and we’ll be there from Saturday till Monday. We’re calling this our ‘last’ vacation for the next 1.5 years…

We plan to take a leisurely drive to Ipoh tomorrow, and probably stop by at ISC for lunch (mmm…yummy chicken sandwiches!) before continuing our drive up to Camerons. I do hope the roads will still be clear as I don’t fancy getting stuck in a jam with a bursting bladder like last time!

Since this is supposed to be a relaxing holiday as I’ve just recovered from being ill, I’m planning to bring season 3 & 4 of Grey’s Anatomy along (note to self…bring the laptop and cables in case the room doesn’t have a DVD player!) to keep me company. The package also includes meals (yes, breakfast, lunch AND dinner), so looks like we’ll be doing alot of vegetating at the hotel…

I do hope the weather is good and the skies are nice and clear as I also plan to bring along my camera to take photos. I’m really hoping that I get the chance to take some nice photos with hubby since my belly is now showing (yay!), plus the picturesque hotel grounds will make a lovely backdrop…so the tripod and remote trigger are definitely coming along with us too!

Can’t wait, can’t wait!

Have a great weekend, people!

“Hi, do you do delivery?”

“Yes”

“Any minimum order?”

“……RM3″

“You mean a RM3 delivery charge?”

“……Yes”

“So no minimum order?”

“……No”

“Ok. Then I’ll like to order one mushroom porridge, large. That’s all.”

“……Just one?……We don’t deliver just one.”

Extremely un-amusing when you wake up feeling hungry after nursing a stuffy head cold that has blocked your sinuses so badly that it gives you the feeling of walking with a fish bowl around your head with evil goblins having a jackhammer demonstration all along your nasal passages right up to your ear.

If I didn’t like the porridge at that place so much, I would’ve just put it on my blacklist straightaway given the mood I was in…plus the fact that someone working there once double parked and blocked my car for a good 15-20 minutes despite me honking incessantly and to rub it in further, I’d just come from having dinner there!

To end the conversation, I told the person that someone will come pick it up.

And was asked in return…
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“So you want to takeaway?”

Why did I stop blogging previously? It wasn’t because I found it a chore as I love writing and editing photos. I stopped because:

1. I felt that it (blogging) had become rather pointless.
Food blogging had lost it’s interest for me. There were so many better food blogs around and I got tired of playing around with my few adjectives of yummy, delish…and yummy. No, seriously, I just got tired of blogging about food. I still like recommending new restaurants now and again…after all, good things are meant to be shared, but in truth, I’ve always felt that I lacked the depth and palate to really comment in depth about a particular restaurant’s food…I’ve always felt like a fake food connoisseur whenever I did it. So I stopped. As for blogging about other things…well, some things just felt too mundane to be blogged about, and others…see reason #3.

2. I was at a place where I literally felt directionless.
I’d quit my job pretty much without thinking things through, but at the same time, knowing that I really didn’t want to continue doing what I was doing day in, day out. I really had some self doubts about what I wanted to do, what I didn’t want to do, how I wanted to move forward. So, feeling as I did, blogging was one of the things furthest on my mind.

3. There were things that I wanted to write about but couldn’t because I knew certain people were reading this blog.
Ah…the irony of blogging. We blog because we want to share, yet we don’t want to share too much, and we complain when we do and we complain when we can’t. And yes, I’m guilty of that too. There were personal things that I wanted to write…or rather bitch about - about people I dislike, about the idiotic behavior of some people I know, about how I really wanted to throttle this particularly person for being such a…ok ok, must not get worked up when pregnant…and basically, a whole lot of personal stuff - and couldn’t because I knew that the person, or friends of the person I wanted to write about reads my blog. Yes, I’ve been through the whole argument of ‘why not just write it down in some private diary on pen and paper’ but I like my thoughts to be all sitting neatly in one place, so to speak. Anyways, it irked me to no end. So, for a short while after I stopped blogging here, I set up a private blog to just spill some stuff that has been bugging me for ages and although it contained only a handful of posts, it was pretty cathartic and felt extremely satisfying to be able to get it out of my system.

Why did I start again, then?

Because I finally found a reason to blog again! Partly to share my joy with all of you…(and I do think that’s one of the best things about blogging…when people you’ve never met is able to share in your happiness and wish you well and vice versa)…but mainly because I want to be able to look back and remember this journey which is unique to me. Because everything that I’m feeling and experiencing now is a first for me and I don’t want to forget even a single moment of what I honestly feel is one of the best things that has ever happened to me (hubby being right up there as well, of course!).

So, yeah…I can definitely see a change of direction in my blog going forwards. Definitely less travel and food posts and a whole lot more pregnancy and baby posts to come…and should this blog one day turn into a fully fledged parenting blog, haha…well, it’s fine by me coz after all, I’m going to become one in 149 days!

So here’s to the next chapter…sooyindotcom: baby, you and me.

Movements
Definitely getting stronger. I have a strong feeling that baby likes hearing daddy’s voice…pregnancy books and websites have said that male voices penetrate the abdomen and uterine wall better than the higher frequencies of the female voice. A feeling further confirmed by last night’s incident when baby moved non-stop while we were in my in-law’s place…hubby was talking to my FIL and I was sitting beside him and felt baby squirming and kicking almost throughout the whole 1 hour that we were there.

Belly
Huge for 18 weeks, or so I’ve been told! Not too obvious from the back but from the side…let’s just say my belly enters a room before the rest of me…

Clothes
Just finished a round of spring cleaning. At least 50% of my clothes will have to go into storage for the next few months (with the fervent hope that I can still fit into them post-delivery!). Skirts that used to fall all the way till my hips can’t even be zipped up around my waist now! Some long skirts with elastic bands now look nicer as a strapless top…

Appetite
Very much back to normal with exception for steamed chicken. No weird cravings still (my hubby better thank his lucky stars!). Don’t feel as hungry as before…but breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner is a must. Again, even though I’m eating more often, I’m actually eating less per meal so it probably still works out to be the same as how much I used to eat pre-pregnancy.

Skin
My complexion has never been better. I don’t know if it’s partly due to La Mer which I’ve been religiously using, but I haven’t had much problems with pimples or change in skin tone, ie. getting oilier or drier. My legs however, have really become very very dry. Till a point where it’s kinda…flaking…ugh. So far, nothing seems to help…I don’t like heavy creams because of the sticky icky feeling it leaves behind, but other than slathering on the heaviest body cream I have at home, I don’t see how I can prevent my legs from turning into something akin a crocodile skin…sigh.

General wellbeing
Tiredness is still the hardest thing to overcome. Night time sleep is often interrupted by having to go pee - at least twice a night (and my pregnancy book says this is good practice for future night feeds… ), and I often wake up in the morning feeling tired and therefore, miserable. Weekends are better coz I get to sleep in, or at least, take afternoon naps.

It’s only 4.5 months, but tossing and turning in bed whenever I feel like it has become a thing of the past! Partly because I’m usually so tired by the time I go to bed that I just fall asleep and wake up in the same position, but even if I do turn, I try to do it ever so carefully to prevent what I think of as ’sloshing the baby around in my tummy’…

Slouching over the laptop at work does not do any favours for my back…at least once a week, I drive back home after work with a nagging ache in my lower back…and I’m trying hard to remember not to sit cross-legged either cause it’s apparently bad for the circulation, but I find myself forgetting most of the time and end up with numb legs.

Mood
Being pregnant has me feeling happy all the time. I only get snappish when I’m hungry. And the only time I feel down is mainly when I’m at work. Even then, rubbing my tummy and thinking of baby inside never fails to elicit a smile…

Hubby
He goes with me for all the checkups, talks to baby, calls me ‘mummy’, listens when I read bedtime stories to baby, does the laundry and refuses to let me carry anything heavy. Totally refused to go on any holidays that involves flying even though the doctor said that it’s safe. Has already begun asking if I can still drive myself to work (yes I can, and I told him I’ll stop when I can no longer fit behind the wheel). Lets me choose what I want to eat. In short, I couldn’t ask for more!

I really can’t believe we’re almost halfway there!