sooyindotcom

No, don’t worry, I’m not one of those breastfeeding “evangelists” who will give you a dirty look if you say that you don’t ever want to breastfeed your kid while continuously espousing the virtues and benefits of breastfeeding and when all else fails, chant “breast is best” under my breath whenever we meet… …neither am I one of those who thinks that you love your kid less if you don’t breastfeed. I believe everyone has their own reasons for doing things, so to each its own.

As for me, I do plan to exclusively breastfeed as much as possible when baby arrives My goal is to breastfeed for at least 6 months if not longer - either directly from the breast or through expressing*. Yes, I’ve read about sleepless nights and engorged breasts and cracked nipples and not having enough milk to feed the baby and so on…but with exception for the latter (and even that can be resolved), I’m determined to try. I’m lucky in the sense that my family is really supportive - we’ve agreed not to get a confinement lady (more about that in another post) who might have opposing ideas about breastfeeding, my mum herself is very supportive about breastfeeding and hubby…well, hubby is always supportive in the things I do.

I may be jumping the gun, but during our last trip to Singapore, I’d already purchased an electronic breast pump from The First Few Years @ Paragon. After reading several reviews from blogs, websites and forums, I settled on Medela’s electronic dual breastpump and found that The First Few Years had one of the cheapest prices around (even cheaper than Taka’s Baby Fair, imagine that!).

Of course, it’s not cheap cheap per se…the whole set costs as much as a nice Nokia handphone, and definitely more than the Kitchen Aid mixer that I really wanted to buy… But it had good reviews all round, plus it’s electronic and portable - two of the must-have criteria for me. Plus, a good breastpump can be used again for the second child (or third, or fourth…haha…), so look at it this way…it’s a good investment, yes?

Anyways, another 4.5 months to go before we’ll know how successful I am at breastfeeding…for those in the know, let’s hope that nickname that you’ve given me is a self-fulfilling prophecy…

Siew has written several great posts about breastfeeding…do read them here if you’re interested to know more: part 1, part 2 and part 3.

* I don’t know if my definition of breastfeeding is the norm, but just to avoid confusion, for me, I define feeding directly from the breast and expressing milk into the bottle as breastfeeding, while giving formula milk to the baby is bottle feeding.

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.

Ooo….baby’s kicks and movements are getting stronger and stronger!

From little prods and nudges, it has now progressed to gentle kicks and occasionally, some really unexpected powderful ones… The latter literally takes my breath away due to the suddenness of it!

Baby’s pretty active after meals and at night, and I can feel baby squirming and stretching particularly when I’m lying down coz that’s when my belly’s stretched taut (hmmppph….that’s the ONLY time my belly’s stretched taut… ). I don’t know if it’s because baby’s turning and shifting positions, but quite often, I can feel a really weird sensation in my tummy and lo and behold, a hard mass suddenly forms (presumably that’s baby’s back?)! Err…as for my choice of words, I honestly have no other words to describe it other than weird…how else do you describe the feeling of a very little someone rummaging around inside your belly?!?

Anyways…

A few days ago, I started stroking my tummy whenever the above happened, and after a while, the hard part would slowly disappear. And then re-form when I stopped stroking. And slowly disappear again when I started stroking. My mum says I’ve found a new source of self-entertainment to which I replied…”yeah…one that can’t escape me…*evil laugh*”…

Just two nights ago, baby did the same thing while I was lying down in front of the telly and hubby said he could literally see my belly distended towards the left! Which also reminds me…baby seems to like the left side of my tummy more than the right as I usually feel more movement and kicks on the left than on the right. And my poor bladder seems to be a target for baby’s experimental kicks coz at times, I can feel a really sudden urge to pee even though I’d just emptied my bladder not too long ago…

Healthwise, I’ve been down with a nasty cold and sore throat for the past week. Drinking copious amount of hot honey lemon helped to sooth my throat somewhat, but what started off as a itchy throat has progressed into an almost full-blown cold, complete with low grade fever and blocked nose. Pre-pregnancy days would’ve seen me reaching for Clarinase / Dequadin / liquorice bark / Sanjin Watermelon Frost immediately, but since I’m carrying this precious little parcel around, I dare not take any medication at all even thought the GP said that it’s safe for pregnant women (I came home and Google-ed and most websites still said that it’s best to abstain from oral medication). So it’s down to getting alot of rest, drinking lots and lots of water and staying away from crowded places as many people seem to be sick the past few days…

…which, to be honest, hasn’t really worked and has left me feeling quite like this (see below) for the past few days…

No worries…no sympathy needed. It’s a good reminder to myself to keep healthy (and stop being too dependent on meds!) for coming few months…

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!

Our parents and a couple of really close friends have known for quite some time now. Afterall, I’ve never been good at keeping secrets…and good news IS meant to be shared.

Since it’s traditional to keep mum till after the first trimester, I’ve been keeping all my baby posts private (and there you thought I wasn’t blogging at all)! Despite experiencing some pretty harrowing moments at the beginning, everything has been moving along smoothly since then…so I think it’s definitely time to ‘un-privatize’ my private posts.

Two has become three (or at the moment, two and a half… )…and needless to say, both hubby and I are absolutely over the moon!