Pregnancy Notes – Second Trimester (2/2)

So here are my notes for the rest of the second trimester. At some point when I was nearing week 28, I saw some websites that define the second trimester up to week 26 only. But then there are also others that say it is until week 28. And anyway since 28 weeks seem to be another milestone in the check-up department (I had to do my glucose test then) I decided to stick with my original plan and consider second trimester to include all the way up to 28 weeks.

Enjoy reading!

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5 Mar. 2014. I think I’m starting to be able to tell several types of movement from the baby. One is a straight out kick, another is like a larger body part turning around (either her head or butt or whole body), and the third is a much lighter fluttering (and I’m guessing I may be feeling her fingers or arms moving lightly!). Then last night just before I drifted off to sleep I felt some light spasm / lots of quick light movements when I tapped my tummy on one side. This happened several times, leaving me puzzled and trying to imagine what she could possibly be doing to produce that sensation. Then I thought I must be imagining things. But this morning I read an article on how spasms and vibration may be due to hiccups. Hmmm. How exciting. I really wish I can just watch her 24/7. I remember having little guppies when I was young and I enjoyed spending time watching them in the fish bowl. Well she is in a kind of fish bowl too… (with a very advanced filtration system too! a.k.a. the placenta and umbilical cord) so yes… if only… =p

10 Mar. 2014. Last weekend was a very productive one in the baby-prep department. Our baby will share a room with my brother (he’s studying overseas and won’t be using his room for the next few years). So we had to rearrange some things and furniture to make things work: Robby re-positioned two hanging bookshelves and moved some things that were on the standing bookshelf to the hanging ones so we have some space for the baby. I spent Saturday and Sunday sorting through and discarding items, my old books, etc. Oh and more things were vacuumed flat, and things in the wardrobe rearranged. Anyway we end up with a lot of space for baby stuff now without having to buy additional furniture. Hahaha. Andre if you’re reading this don’t be alarmed, your stuff is safe, just most likely vacuumed real flat. =p

Speaking of which… I personally hate clutter. I don’t care how much money you spent buying something. If it’s not useful and not likely to be used then it’s better off out of the house. Give it away, bring it downstairs to the bulk disposal station, whatever. Someone else who thinks it’s useful can pick it up. But I don’t want it occupying precious space at home. Throwing things away is actually a liberating activity to me. HAHA.

That means no unnecessary baby things, minimal bulky noisy plastic toys, just minimal everything really. I know I know many parents will say it’s not possible, but I’ll do my best. Because instead of buying a lot of frills, I’d rather spend money on quality things that last (even better if there’s heirloom appeal). So minimum quantity, maximum quality. Anything in between needs to be replaced by creativity & imaginative minds.

So I’m setting an ambitious target for myself: 1 large plastic bin to keep all toys and 1 large plastic bin for vacuumed-packed unused clothes (too small but can be kept for next child or still too big) and other accessories per child. That’s it. =p

11 Mar. 2014. My dad brought up the name RUBELLA after ruby (because that’s July birth stone). ERM. Excuse me. =.=

And I sketched our dear little bub. She’s 21 weeks today and likely to be 26.7cm long from head to heel – almost an entire length of A4 page!

19 Mar. 2014. Last weekend Robby got very busy painting the walls in the baby’s room while I did some more sorting and discarding of stuff. The colour scheme we decided on is: creamy yellow, pink, grey and white! Since the room originally had white walls, he painted two walls creamy yellow, which match the beech-coloured furniture pieces well, and let the other two walls remain white. And then today the wall decals arrived! So this weekend we’ll try to do up the wall decor, which are pictures of pink sakura flowers and branches with another decal of flower basket. Next to go to Ikea to get new curtain rods and some other stuff… Hmmm things are moving along nicely in the room decor department! =p

Oh and I keep buying more baby clothes just because they’re so cute… It helps that H&M is having great discounts for their organic cotton baby wear range. Hehee… I think I need to check out Robinson and Metro too. Don’t worry, I go off my checklist when buying those clothes so we don’t get too many of each item. After all a baby grows up so quickly and a clothing item can only be worn for a few months before she grows out of it. But we do pick pieces we really love as opposed to simply buying 5pcs of white vests here or 10pcs of plain sleep suits there. Practicality has to be tempered with cute designs and great prices!

Hmmm 10 more days to our next check-up. Can’t wait to see her again… =)

24 Mar. 2014. Everyone and everything is getting on my nerves!! Seriously. Things at work, stupid people I encountered on the mrt or coffee shop or anywhere making stupid remarks or being inconsiderate, my naggy mum, just about anything sets me off within a split second. Everything is bloody irritating. And i feel like punching people in the face several times these past few days. Aaarrrgghhhhh!!!!

31 Mar. 2014. So we had our 23rd week check-up last Friday and the doctor declared everything to be “perfectly normal”. She was again laying on her tummy with her spine facing up so we couldn’t see her face clearly. I’m quite sure she has Robby’s sleeping style. Heheheh. Oh and we saw her yawning during the scan – so cute! Too bad there was an error in the video file that Robby took so we couldn’t replay the moment. Oh well… there have been plenty of memorable moments that went recorded only in our minds anyway. Other than that the weekend went by pretty smoothly, albeit peppered with migraine headaches throughout. The doctor also told me to watch my diet. No juice, milo, drink supplements for expecting mums (not that I drink this.. I tried once and it tasted yucky. I don’t even drink milk. Haha..), no fast food or fried stuff, no sweets, etc. Let’s see how everything goes in the next 4 weeks. Oh and interestingly our baby isn’t big, she’s measuring just right at around 500grams.

In the movement department, her movements have been getting stronger. These past couple of weeks I can already see movements, my tummy having mini earthquakes! hahaha… Sometimes she kicks hard enough that she pushes off my or Robby’s hands. Also I feel her towards the back of the abdominal space too. Like sometimes I’ll feel her make a big move towards front and back at the same time. The back feels like she’s pushing / kicking against the lower part of my intestines. Wahaha…

2 Apr. 2014. How much to exercise. While I’ve been telling people that it should be fine to exercise during pregnancy and even reading up on stories of really fit expecting women who lift weights or surf on the sea, I haven’t been exercising regularly. Somehow at the back of my mind I still worry if I’ll be hurting the baby. But these two articles motivate me again to have a go at those prenatal ballet stuff a lot more regularly. So far I’m glad that I haven’t gotten out of breath more easily or feel more tired / heavier (despite the mad 10kg weight gain) in my daily activities like walking or going up and down the stairs. So… time to step it up a few notches!

http://www.ideafit.com/fitness-library/the-pregnant-athlete

http://www.cassandraforsythe.com/blog/Fit Pregnancy Interview Series Part 1

9 Apr. 2014. For about a week or so I’ve been getting numbness / tingling sensation on my bum and back of legs… turns out it may be sciatica where the baby’s position is pressing on a nerve. Hmmm. No pain or any other discomfort though. It’s just weird looking at the back of my legs on the mirror yesterday and seeing that the skin on those areas is slightly darker than the rest of my legs. Hope it’s nothing serious. I’ve also been getting nightmares these past two nights – nothing related to pregnancy (last night I dreamt about being a drug addict… ERRR) and I largely forgot the details in my dreams the moment I woke up.

On to more fun things: my friend and fellow expecting mum passed me LOADS of baby stuff on Monday and Tuesday. Previously another colleague (who just gave birth) had also passed me a bag of baby clothes. After sorting out everything, I now have 4 large bags of baby items: newborn & 0-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-12 months and a bag of other necessities (blankets, socks, mittens, hats, booties) and an assortment of toys on the shelves. My mum in law has also bought quite a lot of stuff so this baby will end up with many many things to wear. She’s so blessed!

We definitely do not need to get her any more clothing items, though if I see a nice deal for some sweet-looking item I may still get it, like the newborn cardigan we got last week. Hahaha. But really we’ve only bought a few items for her.

Next things on the shopping list: cot & mattress, curtain rod, storage baskets, rubber changing mat to lay on the bed, newborn diapers, stroller, bottle brushes, baby detergent, napisan, baby bath tub…

I’m not sure if we need to get a steriliser because while there are those who sterilise milk bottles and such for the first year of baby’s life, there are also those who never sterilise or stop at 3-4 months. I read that sterilising is only necessary because in the past water supply isn’t so clean. Considering we live in Singapore with potable tap water, I’m quite sure the water quality we have here is pretty top-notch. Anyway to me once the baby starts crawling / moving around she’ll pick up germs from all over the house so it’s rather pointless to keep sterilising. Also there’s the microwave oven that can do the job really well, but I’ll then have to get glass bottles and perhaps one of those microwave sterilising kits. But we also have a dishwasher so that effectively sterilises everything too at the end of a wash & dry program, but I don’t think we’ll generate enough baby bottles & dish ware to warrant a regular use of the dishwasher. Hahaha. Or if everything ends up sterilised anyway maybe we can wash baby and adult dishes together? Anyway I’m still undecided…

I’m also not sure about electric bottle warmer… because while it’s not recommended to heat milk bottles directly in the microwave, I can still microwave plain water or use the electric kettle, and then just immerse the bottle in the hot water.

Honestly if we’re not careful there are just too many ways to waste money on things that are not really necessary. Money that could be put to better use… hahaha…

10 Apr. 2014. I found another breakfast cereal option I quite like: Kellog’s rice krispies with honey. Well the cereal itself is really bland but the texture is fine (sometimes like with coco crunch and honey stars I find the texture to be quite rough that it bothers the roof of my mouth) and with honey I quite like it! Anyway I’m really sleepy this morning after waking up at 6am to relieve myself and then have the baby actively kicking plus have a number of things swirling through my mind so I couldn’t quite get back to sleep.

11 Apr. 2014. Last night I had a fun time playing with her. First I think she was hiccupping because I felt subtle, rhythmic movements in my belly that lasted a minute or two… Cute! Then I was tapping my tummy lightly and she kicked/hit back! I tapped 3-4 times, she’d tap twice back on the same place I was tapping. This kinda went on a few times and then I decided to wait a bit… and she didn’t tap… and then I resumed the game and tapped again… and she responded again! SO FUN!!! Hahahaha… I did the waiting thing a few times and each time she responded accordingly. Good girl! Haha.. Then I was gently stroking my belly and I felt her move slightly and then stayed quiet. But the moment I removed my hand from my belly, she squirmed until I started stroking again… Awww… I really love it when I feel that she’s responding to my touch (and Robby’s too). It’s so fun to experience that connection even though we have yet to see each other face to face. =)

15 Apr. 2014. These days I’m addicted to Kit Kat! I typically have one every working day at around 3-5pm… the time of day when your brain needs a little pick-up. Not during the weekends though cos I don’t exactly have to “power through” the day like I do in the office. Heheh. As a comparison, pre-pregnancy I would probably eat Kit Kat only once every erm… few months? Or once or twice a year. I’m not exaggerating. I’m just not the type to snack. And when it comes to chocolate I prefer the less sweet, aromatic dark chocolate varieties and probably would eat just 1-2 small squares each time… which is maybe like once or twice a month. So having a Kit Kat 5 days a week is definitely a huge, sweet change. =p

21 Apr. 2014. I’ll be 27 weeks pregnant tomorrow. And today is Robby’s birthday – definitely a special one for him with our first baby on the way (in his own words: It’s a blessing and greatest present from God”)… Anyway I’m now trying to plan when I should start stocking up on expressed breast milk and how much I’ll need since I’m planning to come back to work. Loads to consider just on breastfeeding alone. Hahaha… Another thing: I’ve not gained any weight for the past 3 weeks even though I eat pretty much the same way as last month (weird huh?).

27 Apr. 2014. We shopped for more stuff for baby at Ikea and Isetan yesterday. We now have almost everything ready. And Robby just finished installing new curtain rods & curtain for baby’s room. One more thing to check off the list. YAY!