Pregnancy update: Week 22

rather smooth sailing week!

still having some mild lingering nausea that comes on in the afternoon or at night, but at times i'm not sure whether it's nausea or just an uncomfortable feeling when i have eaten too much.

and the occasional acne breakout is still present.

my back pain and pelvic girdle pain seems better this week.

weight is 54.8kg (+0.4kg in the past week, overall +7.8kg). hope the weight gain maintains around 0.5kg per week... at least that's more like it. let's see the weight trend next week.

Atty is kicking up a storm as usual, especially active at night and in the early morning. at times she is quite active in the afternoon too. when she is super active the kicks are at a frequency of 10 kicks or so within a minute hehee. she is really living up to her nickname 'Atty' which sounds like '爱踢' (meaning 'loves to kick') in mandarin, lol. and apparently the name 'Atty' in celtic language means 'strong like a bear' haha... some of her kicks are really strong.. keeps me awake at night and even wakes me up in the early morning! can even see my tummy move where she kicks!

i love to feel her kicks <3 it's such a magical feeling. it's also nice to get the feedback and know that she is doing well... should be developing well as she is so active. initially before i could feel fetal movement i couldn't help but worry... wondering if she is growing well or getting enough nutrients especially since my morning sickness was quite bad then and was hard to get in balanced meals. such a relief to start feeling those fetal movements and kicks... and kicks that are getting stronger haha.

so now my favorite hobby is just placing my palm on my tummy and feeling her movements. sometimes i play with her by poking one side of my tummy and at times she will kick back. don't know if it's just a coincidence or she is reacting to my poke hehe. 做妈妈各式各样的自作多情又来了~

Pregnancy update: Week 21

the usual symptoms continue: nausea, acne, and pelvic girdle pain
new symptoms: had my first leg cramp in my right calf in the morning during my sleep. prior to this already had some "almost leg cramps" that were resolved with me flexing my foot. and some fatigue over few days... took a 2 hour nap on sunday depsite already sleeping 8 hours. then on monday i slept 11 hours and woke up still feeling tired...

weight 54.4kg (+0.8kg in the past week, overall +7.4kg)... hmm why is it going up so quickly when my intake has not really increased? omg the weight gain is so scary...

for this week the most happening day was 19 May 2017 (Friday).

it all started off in the morning when i dreamt that i had given birth already. Atty has my eye shape, a combination of mine and K's nose...wide but with a sharper tip. her lips were a bit thinner than mine. anyway from the nose downwards she looked like K hehee.

in my dream i'm quite frustrated as K keeps running out of the house to buy this and that to make different types of food and i'm not getting much help while trying to get Atty to latch and breastfeed. i'm trying to breastfeed in the room in front of the house and the windows are all open but i can't get to close it as Atty is attached to me. later i seem to leave and by the time i get back to the room i find Atty sleeping in the infant capsule by herself and i'm so upset that K left her alone to sleep there and did not bring her back to our room. when i get to our room, we don't have the cosleeper bassinet there and it seems there's no safe place for Atty to sleep. in another dream scene i'm breastfeeding and my milk supply comes in but it seems i'm also pumping? suddenly the flow of milk is too quick and i worry that Atty may choke. i don't know if it was the malfunction of the pump or she was sucking too quickly...then milk explodes everywhere and Atty is not moving. omg i'm just freaking out and trying to check her breathing... then i wake up.

what a dream! perhaps it's a reflection of the many anxieties i have and the general unpreparedness currently. makes me want to quickly buy all the baby stuff needed!

that morning i had my first appointment with my midwife from the Midwifery Group Practice program, which i got into eventually. initial they said i didn't get in but later another letter came to say i got in! quite excited as it seems to be a good program. this day actually i was supposed to go to the Outpatient Midwife Clinic at WCH but we just changed the appointment to seeing my MGP midwife and we had the appointment at the birthing suite so had the chance to see how the environment is like. that particular birthing suite we were in was overlooking a little park with trees painted in the autumn colors so that was nice. it also had a huge tub for water birth. apparently most birthing suites come with the tub. hopefully it's not 100% occupancy rate when it's my turn to give birth hehe.

everything seems to be progressing well, midwife just asked some questions, checked my vitals, fundal height and Atty's heart rate with the fetal doppler. she said the fundal height will more or less correlate with the week of pregnancy you are in, that's cool to know. Atty's heart rate is about 150 beats per minute... midwife had to keep trying to find a good spot to hear Atty's heart rate as Atty kept kicking the fetal doppler hahaa! Atty seemed to have been disturbed by the check up, usually she is rather quiet in the morning but she started moving around and kicking after the check up.

after the midwife appointment we had lunch in the city. finally got to try Star of Siam's pad thai...not bad but not the best. then we grabbed bubble tea after lunch before going to explore different parks for my 30 minute walk of the day. we stopped by a park (unable to recall the name anymore) nearby the city but it was too small (finished walking around it in 10 minutes) so we moved on to linear park. weather forecast said it was going to be a rainy day but it turned out to be a sunny day perfect for a stroll :)

Pregnancy update: Week 20

halfway there! yay!
see how much my baby bump has grown~
hello Atty~~~ <3

my nausea seems to be finally easing up, still having some nausea in the afternoon and night but more manageable. acne and pelvic girdle pain continues...

weight 53.6kg (+0.9kg in the past week, +6.6kg so far)

went to see my antenatal shared care gp on 9 May 2017 for the ultrasound report. everything seems to be going well, nil abnormalities :) gp is happy with my weight gain (i think its going up a bit quickly though), BP, fundal height and fetal movement/heart rate so far.

gp gave me the order for the 28 week bloods... i'm a little worried about the OGTT since the limits are so strict. last time during a routine health check up i think my fasting blood glucose was above 5mmol/L (cannot remember the exact reading anymore)... but based on the criteria for GDM if FBG >= 5.1mmol/L it's a positive diagnosis. hmm... we shall see.

then there was Mothers' Day on 14 May 2017... hehe my first Mothers' Day as a mother-to-be (see previous post).

on 15 May 2017 we went for our first antenatal education session at the WCH! it's a session on 'Back care and healthy exercise' conducted by a physiotherapist. the physio shared some useful tips and exercise recommendations especially with a fitness ball. i also hired a oppo belt, hopefully it can help my pelvic girdle pain.

Mothers' Day 2017

my first mothers' day as a mother-to-be :)

i wonder what kind of mother i would be... could i become a fraction of the amazing mother that my mummy is? <3

since Atty is still growing in her little climate-control spa environment, Atty's mummy shall also get her spa treatment today heheee. got pampered with a spa retreat at home which was great as i'm aching all over, especially with the back pain and pelvic girdle pain. since this past week i've also started lying on my side to sleep, and since i'm usually a back sleeper i'm really not used to sleeping on my side... so my hips hurt and my shoulders hurt and even my neck hurts too. oh man... this pregnant lady has so many problems. pregnancy is really taking a toll on my body, but i feel it's worth it to feel Atty rolling about and kicking her taekwondo kicks #priceless

spa sessions in australia are too expensive, so no choice, have to DIY at home with K as the spa therapist lol. managed to do a series of spa treatments such as foot soak, onsen, massage and shampoo but ran out of time for the facial mask haha... i shall DIY that some other day. feel so rejuvenated after the entire spa session! and maybe because of the onsen i didn't feel as cold in the night anymore. should do onsen more often... i still have a bunch of onsen bath salts that we got from our japan trip.

Pregnancy update: Week 13-19

Another backtrack post for the first few weeks of the 2nd trimester.
Overall still having nausea, but no more retching so a bit more bearable. Nausea is mostly all-day, some days are better with nausea only setting in towards the evening.
Started having pelvic girdle pain... ouch..

 Week 13: nausea still bad, especially at night. acne and tender breasts ongoing
20/3 sudden dizziness around 10+am after breakfast - was just standing watching Honey with nil sudden movement and suddenly my vision became bright and spinning, feeling faint. this was resolved in few minutes
22-23/3 nausea seemed a bit milder
24/3 nausea bad from late pm onwards, worsened by cooking smell of onion and beef
25/3 vital statistics 34-29 (baby bump 32)-35

 Week 14: acne, nausea (no more retching), tender breasts, headache, heartburn
28/3 weight 48.5kg

 Week 15: acne, bloating, heartburn, nausea, tender breasts
2/4 burping++ after taking euick ezex2 for heartburn
3/4 made pregnancy announcement on instagram and facebook :)
4/4 weight 49.5kg
5/4 ?fatigue, took about 1-1.5hr nap in pm
6/4 dreamt i got an ultrasound but just couldn't figure out baby's sex despite 2 attempts. baby's heart rate in my dream was 108bpm and baby had quite round eyes with subtle hidden double eyelids like mine. Nose was like King's.. the nose was quite close to the mouth.
also dreamt that the house has been built but the design is different from the one we have in mind, there's a separate wing for dad and mum via a stairs that leads up from the main house. their wing is huge like a bungalow and with wide clear windows overlooking the sea, hills/mountains and sunset. there's quite a bit of stairs and split levels though.
7/4 not much nausea today

 Week 16: acne, nausea especially at night but nil retching, tender breasts, pelvic girdle pain
11/4 weight 50.2kg

 Week 17: acne, nausea, tender breasts, fatigue
18/4 ?felt some movement from Atty. weight 50.5kg
22/4 quite certain that movement felt is Atty.. when i'm laying flat and barely moving then can sense Atty's movements. a bit hard to notice but definitely fetal movements!

 Week 18: acne, nausea, tender breasts, pelvic girdle pain, hemorrhoids
25/4 weight 52.1kg

 Week 19: acne, nausea, tender breasts, pelvic girdle pain, hemorrhoids
2/5 weight 52.3kg
5/5 ultrasound scan today - baby Atty is a girl!!! well, sonographer is 70-80% sure. Atty yawned during the scan (brought her hand to her mouth) hehee so cute. She was mostly cooperative other than having her hands clasped together, making it hard for her fingers to be captured... sonographer kept poking my tummy but she didn't unclasp her hands hehe. when i laid on my side then she unclasped her hands