Falling sick

Is falling sick on non-pregnant days easier? I think so. At least you don't have to worry about taking prescriptions that could be harmful to the life growing in you. There are certainly many medications proven or to-be-proven harmful to unborn child in you! And there is no way know if the GP prescribed the right medications for you. So it is important to go go a trusted GP when you are sick! And if you are pregnant, remember to inform the GP that you are pregnant!

I started to have sore throat and I thought it was under control with the help of Manuka Honey, Lemon and 枇杷膏. But over the weekend, it got worse - coughing came. Then on Monday night, flu came. That was is, the battle is lost and I decided to finally go see a GP on Tuesday morning. So now, in the morning I have flu and phlegm medications, then at night I have extra cough medications (I only take at night because the cough mostly affect me at night only).

Immediately after my first dosage, I felt the phlegm is slowing going away - my nose is less stuffed up and it's certainly not making me cough as much- which is good! So I continued the medications for night which include the cough, but it's not much use since I woke up every on and off to cough and sip a bit of water. In fact, I finished 450ml of water and I had to refill the bottle in the middle of the night!

But at least I find the medication is helping me, easing my flu and chesty cough. Now I just need to drink more water. And hopefully I don't need to finish the 5 days medications that doctor prescribed.

Oh I think I cough so much that my stomach muscle aches. I believe it's because each time I cough, I cringed my tummy. I even hold onto my tummy when I cough - I know the baby is well protected by the amniotic fluid, I just want him to feel better by "holding" onto him and make him feel secure. Well, that's just me :)

Tonight is movie night with hubby! Yaye!!

What changes?

When there is a new life growing in you, you are expected of the many changes to your body. So far, I have:

• (The obvious) Ever growing tummy
• Hairier legs & tummy area (Hahaha!)
• Food aversion - FISH! Take the fish head AWAY from me!
• Swollen feet - Each time they are becoming swollen, I could feel the tension starting from my calf area. So I went to the pharmacy to get these special socks to help ease the swelling and water retention.
• Fattening finger - My wedding band ALMOST couldn't come out anymore. I had to take it out, otherwise it will be stuck and it will be too late to remove it by the time I'm due.
• Weight gain - for the first 3 months, there was no weight gain even with the ever growing tummy. But in my 4th month, I finally put on some. I wonder if it's for real for because I have not poo for a day when the nurse weighed me!
• Dry skin - My face is now super dry, and thankfully this is better than having outbreak! And the ever growing tummy means stretched skin and that leads to another set of itchiness!
  
• (Either you love it or hate it) Growing boobs - Yes, I had to buy new bras!! They are not just bigger but are super tender and sensitive (They kinda hurt if the seat belt tension pulled against me!)
• Stuff nose - pretty common among pregnant women apparently. This is due to the higher amount of estrogen that contributes to the overloaded production of mucous in the nose. There's even a name for it: rhinitis of pregnancy.
  

Now what did not change or did not happen:

• Appetite - there is NO SUCH THING AS EATING FOR TWO! Just because you are pregnant doesn't mean you should be eating for two. In fact eating more nutritional food is the key here. And I have plenty of prenatal vitamins from Dr F that should help the baby's growth. I am now on Calcium, Iron with Folic Acid and Omega-3.
• No cravings - so far I don't desperately crave for a certain food that I will asked hubby to drive all the way out to get for me. (I'm sure hubby is super happy about this!) And I have been telling myself to just have whatever that is available that can fill my hungriness at night especially.
• Sleepiness - Hmmm... I'm not sure if I should categorise this as change or no change! HAHAHAH.. I have been quite a sleepyhead before, but now it's more of tiredness I guess. And hence I still LOVE sleep!
• Morning sickness - I'm one of those lucky one who did not have this wonderful symptom. Well, there were days that I felt a bit of a nausea but not to the extend of morning sickness. So I'm THANKFUL that this is not happening to me!
• Constipation - This is a touch and go topic. I don't really have constipation but maybe lesser output then before that's all. I could go to the bathroom up to twice a day, but not anymore. It's only once a day now, and rarely on alternate days. So nothing serious for me. The culprit is Progesterone which relaxes the muscles of the whole body and unfortunately this includes slowing down of your digestive/intestinal tract.
  

I'm sure along the way, there will be more new discoveries of myself! Every pregnancy is different - it is totally proven since I have no morning sickness or cravings (so far!).

Antenatal Tests

There are so many antenatal test available that even I am confused by it. I most certainly didn't do most of the test. Here are just a few of the available test:

- Human Chorionic ganadotropin (hCG): This is the first blood test I did to confirm my pregnancy. hCG is produced during pregnancy, mine was showing 563 mIU/mL after my agonising 2-weeks wait.

- blood test: group, Phesus (Rh) factor, Iron level, rubella, Hepatitis B, HIV and other abnormalities of red blood cells (sickle cell or thalassaemia)

- (and of course the standard) urine test

- Nuchal translucency (NT) scan: NT is a collection of fluid under the skin at the back of a baby's neck. It can be measured using ultrasound some time between 11 weeks and 13 weeks. All babies have some fluid, but many babies with Down's syndrome have an increased amount. A screening test can only estimate the risk of your baby having Down's Syndrome. During the scan, the doctor will measure your baby from the top of his head to the bottom of his spine. He/She will then measure the width of the NT. The skin will appear as a white line, and the fluid under the skin will look black. The measurement will be able to give an estimation of risk of Down's Syndrome.


- Amniocentesis (I've mentioned about this earlier on in my blog)

- Chorionic villus sampling (CVS): usually done between week 10 to 13 of pregnancy which can detests chromosomal abnormalities such as Down's syndrome - similar to Amniocentesis only this can be carried out earlier. The test is done with ultrasound is used throughout the procedure and a full bladder (oh how I hate the feeling of full bladder), where the doctor will extract a fragment of chorionic villi from the placenta.

- Glucose tolerence: to detect gestational diabetes (GD) in the mother

So far, I only did the blood test and urine test (done every time I visit Dr F). I guess my test result was quite positive so Dr F didn't ask me for the NT scan or Amniocentesis. But what Dr F adviced me to do was to go see another doctor across the causeway and we did an Early Genetic Diagnostic - which eventually minimises the percentage of chromosomal abnormalities as well as confirming the good/normal growth rate of the baby.

Every pregnancy is different, so antenatal tests prescribed by your doctor varies. So be prepared and make sure you know what is the purpose of the test!

What's with all the poking

It's now been 16 weeks. I have felt the baby kinda boxing me a couple of times, and totally enjoy poking me during sleeping hours. The baby now decides how I sleep - if he is not in the mood for me to sleep on my left, he will poke me until I change to his preferred sleeping position.

Oh yes, the baby is a HE - as confirmed by 2 doctors. Today during my routine monthly check-up with Dr F, the baby's legs were dangling and so Dr F tried to confirmed the sex the baby. And he is very co-operative. With his feet dangling, there is another glowing part that is dangling which Dr F confirmed he's a BOY :)

BellaBand

I have earlier bought a BellaBand after reading it's usefulness. I wore it maybe once or twice when my tummy wasn't that big yet, so felt that it's under-utilised. Today, as I was going through my wardrobe for clothes to wear to work, I have too many casual wear! HAHAHAHA. I took out a pair of slacks and give it a try and I can't even zip it up even for a bit!!!! When that's when BellaBand comes useful. I wore the BellaBand over my pants and ta-da! I still can wear my slack. (Which also means my thighs and buttocks have not been putting on weight! YES!!!)

Some might find BellaBand slightly on the expensive side, especially here in Malaysia/Singapore, there are other options of similar bellyband. I went around looking at other brands before deciding on BellaBand. I find that Bellaband's material is thicker hence can hold your pants/skirt in place better. You don't want the bellyband to start rolling up while you are seated and exposing your unzip pants/skirts! With thicker material in the BellaBand means the elasticity is gonna last longer and it should hold your tummy comfortably until full term. In our hot climate, some might find that BellaBand is a bit too thick to wear, since I will mostly wear it over my working pants, and I work in air-conditioned office... why not right? Besides, I will not stay in hot/warm condition for too long, I don't think I can take it either!

The other reason for getting is also when your tummy grows bigger, you will be needing some support. I guess that's why some preggers hold their tummy as they walk. So with BellaBand, it will also supports your burgeoning tummy in place.

It's only week 15

25 more weeks to go to the big day!

I went for a antenatal diagnostic center for a check up, I was prepared mentally if the doc will ask me to do the amnio test! Needles, how big can that be right? Besides, I have been through more needles, so that more is this one!

As I lay down on the examination bed, I can see this huge hi-tech Siemens machine next to me. I don't see needles, yet... then when doc came in, all he did was scan! He scanned everything from head to toe, from nose to spine, from waist to kidney, from left limb to right limb, etc. At one stage during the scan, I can see that the baby is sucking his/hers thumb. It was such heart-melting moment to see that. After a while, I think doc wants to scan something but baby wasn't cooperating. He not-so-gently pressed the scanner deeper and said "move baby move" =.="

And half way during the scan, doc laughed and asked if we want to know the sex of the baby. He was marking something on the screen and type... I still can't say yet because I have friends betting the sex of the baby!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA! So, it shall remain a secret until later stage for now :)

Dr Appointment Rescheduled

Last Friday was the scheduled doc appointment in Singapore but last minute in the morning, I received a call from the clinic that doc won't be coming and is being rescheduled :(

We still had to go to Singapore because we've booked a nice hotel to stay, so we are just gonna chill and enjoy our anniversary. And we did enjoy the hotel room so much! HAHAHA.. the bed was nice, spacious room, quiet environment, and best of all, it was raining in the morning the next day. So we took our time to get out of bed.

So... I'm all set and ready to go into Singapore again - and bear with all the terrible traffic at the causeway. Sigh~