Dear1 Dear2

Dear1 and Dear2 were planning to go on a short holiday this week – a holiday that after this trip, might be a long long while more before we can go on the next holiday with baby in tow next time.  And as the trip was really planned very hastily, this week was quite a mad rush for both Dear1 and Dear2 before we embark on the holiday.

Dear1 was frantically trying to finish up his work before we depart for Penang on Friday, and Dear2 was also trying to sort out all her work this week, which so happen that there will be a company marketing event on the next day when we return to Singapore.  So the whole week was really rush rush rush rush for both Dear1 and Dear2.

It was probably due to the stress of having to complete so many things in a week, that Dear2 was not very emotionally strong this week.  When Dear1 gave her the task of doing up the trip’s itinerary, Dear2 suddenly totally went ‘blank’.  Dunno where to start, and dunno how to start, and all these have to be done in 2 days’ time – Dear2 just completely went blank.  Luckily Dear2 was able to quickly voice out her weakness to Dear1, so from a ‘big assignment’, Dear1 broke it down into smaller tasks for Dear2 which she completed 1 by 1.  :)

The morning heat continues to be the biggest bane for Dear2 every morning, making the journey to work a daily struggle… Maybe we should consider getting out of the house much much earlier, before the morning heat starts.  And that might mean stepping out of the house before 7.30 am…. Groan..

- Dear2

This week has been a tiring week, because Dear2’s body is busy fighting the season flu bug.  You know when the bug is in the air, when everyday you see a few Medical Leave Applications – Fever/ Cold from around the office.

So this week has been a tired, tired week, and Dear2 was really just hanging on for the weekends to come. Its worse when every bedtime was an effort to get in bed and be able to fall asleep. Dear2 has started to notice a pattern – mornings are faint, afternoons are ok, and nights are very full.  Despite me eating enough breakfast before setting off from the house, the morning journey to work is still a struggle.  Only upon reaching office and having a super early lunch at 11am, den does the day really starts.  An afternoon snack around 4pm, plus a normal portion of dabao-ed dinner, and plus a fruit or 2 at around 10pm, and Dear2 is off to bedtime.  But by this time, the tummy is so heavy such that every movement to get onto bed and every turn to get into the right position makes a groan.  Hmm, our only conclusion is that the tummy is now very stretched with the dinner contents.  Sigh… Usually the discomfort eases into the night, and by the time of waking up the next day, the tummy feels soft again…

Because of this nightly ordeal, Dear2 is afraid of eating too much now.  No more ‘can eat a cow’, even though the appetite is still good in the day, and after-dinners still do get that ‘eat not full, feel like nibbling on something’ feeling, but ‘if you eat now, you’ll suffer later in bed’ torture is too much for Dear2 to dare to eat more than the necessary.  Dear1 and Dear2 loaded our cupboard with quite a bit of snacks and biscuits and sweets at the beginning of second trimester when Dear2’s appetite was tremendous, but 2 months on and the biscuits are only about halfway done. The super cheap offer of kiwis at NTUC – 8 for $5+ seemed like a very good deal since Dear2 can eat 2 kiwis every day, but barely 2 days later,  it became a ‘wait tomorrow than I eat’ kind of phenomenon…  The moral of the story – only buy what/ how much you can eat.

Pregnant mummies should really watch their diet.  Dear1 and Dear2 heard about the ‘no lamb cos the baby may have yang2 dian1 feng1′, or no crabs cos the baby may turn out to be super touchy, aka ‘many hands’ from old folks.  Though these seem to be founded on traditional nonsense, but no harm just avoiding these foods since Dear2 don’t normally eat these as well.  But for foods that have a scientific disbenefit to the baby, these ought to be paid attention to.  Dear2 had an almost narrow escape with Luo Han Guo.  A common cooling herbal tea, Dear2 wanted to get a bottle to cool her body down, as well as to expel the phlegm in her lungs, benefits known for the Luo Han Guo.  Luckily the auntie at the herbal tea stall (Westmall, Basement 1) was observant enough to notice Dear2’s bump, and kindly advised that pregnant women should avoid this as the tea contain xia4 gu1 chao3.  Not too sure what harm is there in this herb, but Dear2 is just very grateful to this auntie.  Kudos. (This stall will remain as Dear2’s favourite herbal tea stall.  Dear2 found that only herbal teas from this stall are effective, probably because the teas are brewed and sold freshly.)

Dear2’s 1/3 brain is really having very limited processing capability. New information, especially those on lengthy paragraphs are a total turn off, and you’d better not ask me to remember any new knowledge, simply because my brain cannot process these  now, haha.  But for old knowledge and information, Dear2 can surprisingly still execute them very well.  Give me an old problem sum anytime and I should be able to systematically work out the solution, but this may take a slightly longer time than before, haha.

With this constraint in mind, Dear2 was suddenly frightened by the prospect of baby coming out prematurely.  A friend narrated that her recent birth was 7 weeks premature though the pregnancy for the past 32 weeks seemed to be very normal.  Even until today, doctors are not able to detect this abnormality through blood tests and such.  So much for wanting to enjoy the bak kwas and love letters during Chinese New Year, exactly 1 week before baby’s EDD!  And we won’t have time to slowly get ready all the baby stuff if baby really is premature!  Hmm… Baby’s EDD is 21 Feb 2010, Christmas is slightly more than 2 months before that, so the new action plan will have to be, to get ready all the hand-me-downs before Christmas, and buy all the shortfalls during the Christmas sale.  And from now until then, if there are cheap buys at super good deals (haha, ie SPREES!! Yeah.), better get them now also in case we won’t have the time. :P

- Dear2

Oh, we’ve finally crossed the halfway mark at week 21.

The 40 week pregnancy is now halfway done, and there’s 5 more months to go.  Talk about long, it’s not that long, but say short, it’s not too short either.  The week 21 milestone just means that 1) There’s 2 more months left in the second trimester which is supposedly the ‘honeymoon’ trimester, and 2) This will be followed by the uncomfortable 3 months of third trimester.  Oh gosh.

2 more months till the end of the ‘honeymoon’ trimester… Dear2 has not been feeling exceptionally well this past 2 months either.  The appetite is ok, there’s better immunity compared to the first few months of reduced immunity and all that coughs and colds, and the bump is getting so big now that it’s hard to miss this pregnant mtb on the train.  But ‘honeymoon’ period….  That sounds like a far fetched tale…

Gynae however recommend that we go on a holiday if we want to, NOW, cos third trimester is gonna be uncomfortable again, and once baby comes out, it’s gonna be a long long while before Dear1 and Dear2 can go on a holiday again.  We did contemplate – perhaps bring baby on a long holiday at the end of the 4 months maternity leave, which will be in Jun 2010, but going to a foreign place for too long, you dunno if baby’s immune system is able to take it.  Plus, seeing a doctor when you are not in Singapore can be troublesome as well.  And by the time baby is old enough, say 1 year old plus, we’ll be planning and preparing for baby #2 already.  Wah, it’s really going to take a long long long while before Dear1 and Dear2 can go on a long and far holiday.

So this just means that if we really want to go, it’ll have to be NOW.

Considering our options, Penang seems like a nice quick getaway since Dear2 has not been there before, and it’s relatively a civilised place.  So we quickly booked our air tickets and accommodation, and in 2 weeks’ time, it’ll be Dear1 and Dear2 retreat at Penang.  :)

All this haste on confirming tickets and accom, Dear1 and Dear2 were busy with spreeing this week too.  Referring to the earlier post, Dear2 was very much hooked onto spreeing this week.  The store discount + (potential) savings in shipping makes Dear2 hooked onto this shopping method.  Now its restraint time, until the goods arrive and we have a good sense of how much is the shipping cost, and whether is the spree really so worth it after all.

Gas….  A blot/ punch of gas…  Muscle twitch….  Are these baby kicks?  Dear2 has been experiencing this on and off this past week, but it’s hardly what I’ll imagine as a baby kick.  Often, it’s a feeling of a blot of gas punching out of the tummy, and sometimes it’s towards the internal hips area, making Dear2 feel like letting out gas (suddenly) most of the time.  On other occasions, especially when I am lying down, the sides experience a sudden slight muscle twitch feeling.  Dear2 has not been able to find many mtb’s description of their baby kicks experiences online, but from that few that I’ve seen, plus the timing of 21 weeks seems to be already overdue when mtbs experience their baby kicks, this should be it bah.  It’s really not a pleasant feeling, and hopefully once mummy soothes the tummy every time baby kick, to tell her that mummy is right here with you, this will give baby comfort and assurance.  I love you, baby.

I love you too, Dear1.

- Dear2

PS: Oh, we went to Baby Kingdom and Baby Hypermart @ Shun Li Industrial over the weekends.  Not exactly fruitful – things are not cheaper than elsewhere, they are just the same, and there’s not exactly many things to buy.  Probably the main takeaway was that we got to know a bit more about strollers through the sales people’s explanation and demonstration.  But… some information seems to be not accurate too… Just take it with pinch of salt.  We left after 1 hour’s of pacing in the 2 stores which is really a stone’s throw away from each other.

It’s finally week 20!!

Week 20 is an important week for baby, cos that’s when the Detailed Scan is being done.  Most gynaes will advise that new parents don’t buy anything for baby until after week 20, cos though the Oscar Scan which was done during week 12 helps to assess the risk of Down Syndrome, the week 20 Detailed Scan further re-assesses this risk, as well as test for other fetal anomalies.  So it is with much anticipation and nervousness that Dear1 and Dear2 awaits for this week 20.

The scan results turn out to be very well.  Baby’s major organs and parts are developing well, and her spine and limbs are okay as well.  Earlier during the Oscar Test, baby has a higher risk of DS even though her neck thickness and nose bridge height are within normal range, but somehow mummy’s blood test came out to be less than ideal, hence increasing the risk level to a level that is still within normal range but considered high for mummy’s age group.  So when the Detailed Scan reveals that baby’s spine and leg length are okay, mummy really heaved a huge sigh of relief.  Yeah!  We can start shopping for baby’s stuff liao!

Oh, next come the next headache.  What to buy first?  As Dear1 and Dear2 were really obedient and listened to gynae’s advice, we did not get anything for baby so far (Fren JJ who is 8 weeks behind Dear2 has already gotten all the baby essentials.  The only things that she hasn’t bought are a car seat and a stroller.  -_-’” ).  While Dear1 does not seem to be too anxious, Dear2 is raring to go shopping for baby soon!  (Relax relax, dun be so gan jiong..)

Hot, faint, hip pain, fat, leg cramp, sole pain, no clothes to wear….. Dear2 still gets these almost everyday, and even some perpetually!

Hot – The only way is, dun use too much energy, stay in air con places, and wear sleeveless clothes lor…..

Faint (in the morning) – Gynae says that it is because baby is taking a lot of iron from mummy, such that mummy’s iron level gets depleted.  The prescribed multi-vitamins should contain sufficient iron, so gynae was cautious of issuing more iron tables (cos Dear2 is beta-thalassemic and cannot store iron well).  Let’s just try to get more iron through natural means like dark green leaves, eggs and red meat and see if the situation improves.

Hip Pain – Dear2 thinks that this is due to gas accumulation.  The pain in the right hip + weight of tummy is so unbearable that on those painful nights, Dear2 really feel like sleeping in a sitting position.  Luckily the massage by Dear1 really does help to relief the pain so that Dear2 can have a good night’s sleep.

Fat – Yes.  Dear2 is obviously putting on a lot of weight now.  1.5kg in 3 weeks, oh my!  Before having baby, Dear2 was about 51kg.  Now 20 weeks in the pregnancy and she is already 57.4kg.  I think it’s not difficult for Dear2 to hit 65kg by the time she is due.  (I’m ok with putting on weight, but can it not be visible…?)

Leg Cramp  – Dear2 gets this almost every night.  It will be right leg cramp for 2 or 3 nights, and den the left leg cramps as well for the next 2 to 3 nights, making Dear2 jump out of bed every time it occurs.  Stretching or adjusting the leg angle is the only way to alleviate the excruciating pain.  Dear2 can still ‘jump’ out of bed now to stretch that problematic calf, but as the tummy gets heavier, or if both legs start to cramp together at the same time, Dear2 will have to scream to Dear1 for help in future….

Sole Pain – I can’t understand why there’s this perpetual pain in the sole nowadays.  It’s that kind of pain that you get if you shop for the entire day on heals, and the sole pain still persists after a night’s sleep.  The mtb sole pain is just like that, except that 1) We don’t shop for entire days nowadays, and 2) We don’t wear heals anymore.  So why this persistent pain?  Dear2 read that it’s because of the relaxation of dunno-what in the soles alongside the relaxation of the vaginal canal (or something like that) that causes the dunno-what in the sole to relax as well, causing the feet to carry more load etc etc etc.

No Clothes to Wear -  There was a clothes crisis again this week, because Dear1 did not do the laundry.  Dear1 forgot that Dear2 only has that 5 dresses to wear to work, and if these are not washed and dried on time, that’s it – Dear2 totally has no other clothes to wear.  The day was only saved because Dear2 had bought another new dress earlier in the week, and it was already hung out in the drying….

So much for week 20.  I want to go shopping for baby’s stuff soon!

- Dear2

PS: Baby now weighs 335g!

It’s end of week 19, and next week, baby is going for her week 20 detailed scan.

Dear2 tries not to worry too much about the detailed scan next week. Even though baby has not kicked yet, and so far there was only one occurrence of the weird ‘bubbling’ feeling, Dear2 tells herself that baby is just growing fine and there’s nothing to worry about.  There are some mtbs who bought the baby heartbeat listening device just to hear their baby’s heartbeat so that they can be more assured, but unless doctor says that we have to, Dear2 will not spend such un-necessary monies on such items.  So endure a few more days and we can take baby photo and do the detailed scan.  Jiayou yo!!

This past week has been rather productive.  With the ‘Just a wage earner‘ mindset in mind now, Dear2 feels lighter and just does her work.  Let it be if the assignment is rejected and has to be redone – I am just going to do what I can.  Let it be if the company is not doing things the right way – I am just a wage earner doing what I am told to do.  Baby probably has an influence in Dear2’s change in attitude recently, becos without baby, Dear2 will be giving her best at work and expecting things to improve.  But with a 4 months maternity leave 5 months later, I can’t care less if the company still continues in its rotten ways.

On Friday, Dear2 encountered a clothes crisis too.  All the maternity dresses were not washed yet, the newly bought maternity jeans is way too loose to be worn now, all the other normal clothes were in no way to be able to fit, and Dear2 has seriously ran out of clothes to wear. :(  The last resort was to wear the newly bought tube dress which was not washed yet (yucks), but it was a serious no choice.  Thus on that same fateful day, Dear2 bought another tube dress just to expand her ‘can wear clothes’ range……

Many say pregnancy is a science project, and ever since Dear2 knew of her pregnancy, she has never dis-believe this for 1 second.  Every day there are new changes to her body, from the initial queasiness (aka morning sickness) to the heartburn at the beginning of the second trimester, to the ever increasing in size tummy, breasts, and now its all over (as in arms, chest, collarbone, calf, butt, just everywhere).  This week, Dear2 was horrified to notice that her usually toes are getting shorter too!!  The slender feet has more meat now, making her tiny toes look smaller.  Huhuhu… :(

Dear2 can tolerate all the ugliness in her body, fat everywhere, lines across the tummy, stretch makes (hopefully not too many also lah), pimples, but, PLEASE DON’T LET THE BELLY BUTTON POP OUT. It’s so ugly when the popped out belly button is so visible through the clothes, and Dear2 is feverishly praying that hers won’t pop out.  There are now wrinkles just above the belly button, and some times it feels hard but sometimes it feels soft, and…………… the belly button seems to be getting smaller on some days too, but despite all these symptoms, the dreaded has not yet happen.  So……… let’s just hope…… (Not all mtbs will have their belly button pop out, some people say this depends on the shape of your own belly button when you were born.  I do hope that the gynae who delivered me did a a good job by tying my umbilical cord nicely that time when I was born.)

3 more days and it will be the detailed scan…. (Don’t think about it…..)

- Dear2

PS:  Dear2 manage to do a ‘5 day work week’ as requested by Dear1.  Yeah!!

Week 18 was a horrible week.  Dear2 was totally unmotivated at work and all she feels like doing everyday was to call in sick and apply for leave. The heartburn and fainting spells seems to be especially worse this week, especially in the mornings when she has to go to work.  Yucks……

Anyway, this week was a hot, hot, hot week, and Dear2 frequently stinks from her own sweat and stinky feet.  The cropped hair did not really ease the hot feeling, though it definitely makes washing hair daily much less of a chore now as the short hair can dry quicker and Dear2 can turn in earlier every night.

The expanding tummy and butt also caused Dear2 to use MUCH MORE of the stretch mark cream which she bought at a discount from TMC.  At 50% discount, the cream (some Paris brand by the name of Galenic) still cost about $50 for 2 tubes.  Dear2 found it very nice as it is not greasy at all so on the last trip to TMC, Dear1 and Dear2 bought another 4 tubes just to stock up.  :p

This week, Dear1 and Dear2 also arranged the study room to make room for baby’s play area.  Dear1 likes to have very BIG study desks, and very BIG and comfortable study chairs, hence our study room is pretty much filled with these 4 items plus 1 sofa bed and 2 book shelves.  As a 3-room flat, our house was really designed for 2 to stay (not to forget the various sharp corners and glasses everywhere…).  After much consideration, the study room was found to be the only viable place where we can divide out a play area for baby.  With a simple shift in orientation of 1 of the large study desk, and some reallocation of the desk space among Dear1 and Dear2, baby now has a little spacious area for her to crawl around next time.  :)  The only other things to do will be to remove the handles of the book shelves, and to line the area with those soft padding next time to demarcate out her play area.

Friend JJ and her hubby came over to visit during the weekend.  So happens that JJ who has been trying for a baby ever since she got married 2 years back, is also pregnant and is 2 months behind Dear2 in schedule.  But being super kan jiong, JJ has already bought tons of baby clothes and stuff last year while they were honey-mooning, and has also scooped up many items from the Taka Baby Fair recently (which Dear2 told her about) including the baby cot.  Omg, JJ is really super kan jiong, so better not get too influenced by her, haha.

- Dear2

Dear2 likes to encourage people to write, not only because writing helps to log down events and memories, but it is also a reflection of your daily life, your self, and as a form for you to improve yourself and to keep going.  So if Dear2 drags writing Week 16 day after day, until it reaches Week 17, and now it’s almost end of Week 18, it means that Dear2 is unhappy.  But let’s leave that to some other day.

Week 16.  Hmm… What happened during that week?  Basically it was a pretty uneventful week. Dear2 ordered some maternity clothes online and they finally arrived in a parcel.  It was the second time that Dear2 ordered from this shop called My Little Angels Maternity, because apart from that few dresses that she has, the ‘baggy t-shirts and kaki pants weekends’ were getting not baggy enough for the expanding tummy, and Dear2 was seriously in need of more maternity clothes.  The online store is also having an anniversary sale until 7 Oct so there’s free postage and a free gift with purchases of more than $88.

Week 16 was also when Dear2 started to feel a change in the abdomen discomfort.  Previously, it was queasiness, a feeling where you feel that things are rumbling around in the stomach.  If you think that was terrible, the heartburn that starts now is even more unbearable.  Gastric juice and vomit now rises to the throat, and only the constant burping can relieve it, but only temporarily.

After Week 16 and comes Week 17.  Early in the week, we had a scheduled gynae appointment, but instead of taking the usual full day MC, Dear2 had to go back to office after the appointment cos she has to attend a meeting.  Duh.  Dear1 and Dear2 had to wait a while before seeing the gynae too as she was out on a delivery that morning, and after the appointment, Dear1 and Dear2 went to Parentcraft to confirm the pre-natal lessons in Nov.  The delay and everything caused Dear2 to reach office pretty late, but then again, having to cut short a rest day into half totally spoils the entire week’s mood for Dear2 too.  Duh.

Anyway, Dear1 and Dear2 managed to see some baby fingers during the scan.  Oh my, baby has fingers, haha!  She is close to 12 cm in length now, and weights about 200g, but Dear2 has put on 3kg in the last 3 weeks.  Oh dear, that sounds excessive, but gynae says it is still within acceptable weight gain.  Mtbs can gain between 15 to 20kg during the pregnancy, so this increase is still reasonable.  Dear2 still find it hard to imagine herself becoming 70kg….

Gynae also 99% confirmed that baby is a girl.  Oh, I do hope that she will be pretty like mummy next time, heehee…  I also think that Dear1 will dote on a baby girl more so than a boy, heehee…

Gynae prescribed some cod fish oil which cost $1 per capsule, and some Gaviscon for the heartburn which cost $14 per bottle.  Plus the multi-vitamins, the medicine alone came up to be $88.  No wonder having a baby is not cheap…..  So better not waste the medicine!!

End of week 17, friend X gave birth to a baby girl, 1 day earlier than her expected due date.  Together with 4 other friends, Dear1 and Dear2 visited the couple at TMC on Sun which was Hari Raya Puasa as well.  It was the first time that Dear1 and Dear2 visited the hospital on a non-working day, so there were no mtbs on gynae appointments, but just lots of new born babies and their parents discharged and ready to go home.  How interesting!  All these new daddies, tenderly and cautiously load mummy and baby onto the car, and happily go home to begin their new lives.  Dear2 also saw a Malay family going home, so means that this baby is able to go home and celebrate the new year with his relatives!  Dear2 wonders if she will deliver sooner than expected, as her EDD is just 1 week after next year’s Chinese New Year.  Better not. I want to eat all the bak kuas and drink all the orange juice before baby is out because there are MANY restrictions on food during confinement.  Haha.

Mummy really needs to take things easy, and not let work bother her so much.  Mummy also wants baby to grow happily during this period.

- Dear2

On the first day of week 15, Dear1 and Dear2 suddenly realise that the bump is now sooooooooo obvious!  So far, Dear2 has just been feeling and looking very bloated, and was beginning to wonder how she’ll look like with a pregnant tummy, ie looking really pregnant.  As Dear1 and Dear2 were wondering how long more will the bump show, it suddenly appeared (aka, looked more pronounced)!  Amazing.

Apart from looking pregnant, Dear2 is suddenly feeling more pregnant too. The constant queasiness and lethargic feeling is starting to ease, not to say they totally subsided, but definitely life is becoming more enjoyable now, and with it comes the all so familiar….. HOT.  Yes, it’s puzzling why pregnancy will make a women feel so hot suddenly, not the sexy hot, haha, but the constant feeling that the weather is hot.  At home it’s hot, in air-conditioned office it’s hot, outside it’s hot.  Enough is enough, let’s crop the hair.  And so without much hesitation, Dear2 crops her hair to a above shoulder length that was forgotten since she was 14 years old.  Kudos.

The next tell-tale sign of pregnancy is hunger.  Dear2 will wake up in the middle of the night hungry, and wake up in the morning hungry.  4 hours after a meal, she feels hungry again, and 4 hours after dinner, it’s hunger again.  Dear2 feels hungry almost all the time, despite having normal sized meals at the stipulated meal times.  It’s no exaggeration that pregnant ladies can eat a cow, haha.

With first trimester over now, Dear2 must now start to loudly ‘hint’ to colleagues about her pregnancy.  Call it pan-dang/ superstition/ what-modern-science-will-agree-anyway, Dear2 firmly kept this ’secret’ well under wraps throughout her first trimester, and will only confess if smart and observant friends and colleagues guessed it correctly on their own.  Now that the ‘unstable’ phase is over, it’s time to let everybody know, haha.  Being shy, it’s not Dear2 to go around telling everyone, so off you go you office shawl, the bump is so noticeable now.  Let’s see when will it take for the news to spread to all, haha.

‘Please give up your seat to those who need it more than you.’  Very often, Dear2 is heartened that aunties, young men and young women graciously offer their seats to a little tummy Dear2, but an interesting trend seems to arise, that is Dear2 is usually offered the seat only on the evening train.  On the other hand, Dear2 has to battle the 30 min journey standing on the morning trip.  This daily challenge was made worse on those times when Dear2 has to be in office early/ on time, and the sardine-packed train becomes more stuffy and unbearable. Huhuhu….

- Dear2