31 weeks 3 days

realised that I don't have a picture of my pregnant self up, so here's one taken yesterday. The hair has gone shorter and shorter!



(more pics on drastic measures)

belly pic (you can see the stretch marks under the navel)



baby ultrasound
the greedy little thing was trying to lick the placenta or umbilical cord during her scan!!! she's now 1.7+ kg and growing according to target.



This little girl is getting stronger and more active by the day - I feel her hiccups, squirms and tiny limbs poking and scraping below the skin of my belly. Sometimes her movements extend really high, like my ribcage just under my boobs, and other times it almost feels like she's poking me in the crease where my thigh meets my torso. How on earth does she reach these places?!

She moves constantly, which is a good thing, and luckily, it doesn't bother me at all. I can happily sleep through it all. She's gaining mass in her bones each day so I guess the kicks will only get stronger. Despite me going "Ooh!" and "Ah!" suddenly along the street as I grab my tummy - (when she hits me at a particularly strange spot; just under the belly button being one of them) - I love the feel of every movement and seeing the tics in my belly.

Kisu finds it quite amusing too, but not to the same extent that I do. I never fail to be fascinated with each movement she makes - and it makes me happy and reassured that she's active and growing each day. I suppose this is something that only a mother, and not a father could understand.

I think I will miss it when she's out.

For all the ladies out there who are TTC (trying to conceive) and yet are scared or worried about pregnancy (sounds contradictory?) - don't be overly apprehensive. That was me! I am a person most afraid of pregnancy - I want a child but I don't know if I can deal with the sacrifices it calls for. Everything about it from the labour (pain, blood, cut down there!!!) to the bodily and hormonal changes scare me - look, I'm still struggling to come to terms with stretch marks! Sounds frivolous, but true - it's a struggle for me.

There's a reason why a baby takes 9 months to be formed. Each day as your baby grows bigger and more real to you - she's no longer just some blob on an ultrasound scan - somewhere along the way you will find the courage to face your fears and worries.

While I haven't gone through the entire pregnancy process, and I can't honestly tell you that "It was all worth it!" - I am increasingly looking forward to meeting my baby, even more so than my (initially thought insurmountable) fear of the labour and delivery process.

Amazing.

28weeks 3 days

Baby

She is approx. 1.3kgs now. We saw her little feet! Her 2nd toe is longer than her big toe - a recessive gene, the doc says. Inherited from her Dad.



Belly



See how I've grown? I gained 2.7 kg over the last 3 weeks - this is way, way too fast, too much.
I should be putting on a maximum of 0.5kg a week, or 2 kg a month. Was pretty shocked as I had been increasing at a very reasonable rate over the last 6 months. But appetite picked up and I wasn't too discriminating in my dietary choices. Now I have to cut down on the carbs and sugary stuff. I guess indulging in those durian puffs were not a very good idea. But thankfully, the overall weight gain since I started (8kg) is OK.

25 Weeks

Baby has grown significantly in the last 4 weeks; she's approximately 800-900g now (and most definitely a girl, as confirmed by my doc) Today when I did the ultrasound scan, we couldn't even see her entire body on the screen. Mostly her head and her hands - I can see all the fingers clearly now! She was also doing this punching thing with her little fists, which accounts for all that rumbling I feel in my tummy! It was quite amazing - I saw her do it on the ultrasound screen and felt it at the same time.

Tummy also feels like it's grown quite a bit in the last week or so and showing more now. Was told by the nurse that I had put on 1.1 kg since my last visit. Aiming to keep the weight gain at this rate - no more than 1.5kg a month, I've been advised.

The Belly Pic (updated) - 25 weeks 1 day



I've been feeling more greedy as of late, and that I find that I actually have to hold myself back from consuming too much junkfood. Last time (i.e. before pregnancy) I always used my appetite as a gauge - I would eat anything, even fatty pork but my weight would be fine as long as I ate within my appetite. However, now I'm not sure I can use that as a gauge anymore because my capacity has increased (though thankfully, not that much). I'm definitely eating more than usual, but I hope it's not beyond the recommended 300 calories per day.

And almost every kind of food that I see or think of instantly becomes a potential delicious morsel. Last time, if I ever got a craving, it would be for just one kind of food. Now, everything seems tasty - donuts, ham cheem pang, curry puffs, cream puffs, cakes, etc etc. Last weekend, at the Takashimaya Food Festival, everything looked SO good! And this was just after I had eaten a pretty big lunch. Normally I wouldn't even have considered it, but I was just this close to giving in and pigging out on all the tidbits.

Scan 17wk3d and Belly Progress

Scan
Head on the right. Baby was not cooperating today - curled up in a ball - so we can't tell the gender yet! Have to wait till next month.....




















Belly
(being pregnant makes you think it's OK to do things you wouldn't normally consider doing, like baring your tummy for the world to see)

What Kisu calls the little "bloop"

Photos

The Belly aka 1 Mommy Way @ 13 weeks



Apparently, on the inside, it looks like this:



The new hairdo, for curious people out there (YJ!)