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Time has really flown by so quickly. I'm at 13 weeks now!

Happy to say that I haven't puked at all this week, 3 times last week. The irony of last week was that the day I turned exactly 12 weeks, I puked twice that morning! :)

Nausea is subsiding, having the occasional weird feelings. The only constant thing is the weird after taste when I consume food.

And this is the best part - call it sadistic, paranoia or just plain weird. When I was pregnant with Rye Li and was constantly puking, hubby used to console me by telling me they were signs of a healthy pregnancy. This was what other people told me too.

So psychologically, I have this implanted in my mind till now. Thus last week, when my pukings were subsiding, I began to worry. "Is the baby ok?"

I was also laughing at myself as just weeks before I was complaining and complaining about my pregnancy, the "why me" self-pity mode and now when it is getting better, I have this worry too. Ok, ok, shoot me!

I told this to hubby and I said that my only consolation that I know my pregnancy should be okay is the blardy after taste I get after eating. Hah!

Yes, my emotions are crazy too which is also a tell-tale sign that the pregnancy should be okay.

I'm killing 2 birds with a stone on this post. Here's what Baby Centre has to say about being 12 weeks:-

Welcome to your second trimester! Your raging hormones could be calming down a bit and you may also notice your nausea tapering off. Most women happily wave goodbye to morning sickness around now (although queasiness can return periodically throughout pregnancy). This week, your baby's face looks much more human. Her eyes have moved closer together and her ears are just about where they should be. Your baby has entered what is known as the fetal period, when tissues and organs rapidly grow and mature. Many women enjoy pregnancy much more in this trimester — early symptoms fade and the risk of miscarriage drops dramatically. We hope this is the way it turns out for you, and we're here to support you through all the ups and downs of the weeks to come.

Here's where I'm a little confused. I was counting to 14 weeks to the 2nd trimester and Baby Centre welcomes me to it already at 12 weeks. Alot of pregnancy books and websites also states that 14 weeks is the beginning to the 2nd trimester and 28 weeks is the beginning to the 3rd trimester. So I'm still waiting for another week to go before I officially hit into my 2nd trimester.

And here's what Baby Centre has to say about 13 weeks:-

If you could hold your baby's hand this week, you'd notice the swirling lines that make up his unique fingerprints. You'd also see the veins and vital organs beneath his tissue-thin skin. He's growing... Are your long-lost energy and sex drive making a comeback? If so, you may soon find out why many women call this the honeymoon trimester. For other women, the discomforts last a while longer yet. Every pregnancy is individual — even women who have been pregnant before find that the second or third are different.

Here's where I'm laughing my head off - long lost energy and sex drive making a comeback?!! I'm sure hubby would be happy reading at this statement but sad to say, I'm still feeling really tired and all I can think of is I need more sleep! ;)

On the progress of how the girl is handling this pregnancy, I also wonder at times what is actually going on through her head. At times she is so lovey-dovey and will kiss my tummy and talk to Baby 2 saying "Hello baby, this is cher-cher (elder sister)". And then there was one night when I asked her if baby comes out, where is baby going to sleep and she replied "My bed no space ady (already), baby oi-oi (sleep) on the mattress". I then asked her if baby can sleep in her cot and she said "No!". We dismantled her cot in our room which she has not slept in since last year over the weekend and plan to have it out of sight for a while. But knowing this girl, she will be having loads to say when we put it up again for baby 2!

Hubby sleeps on the mattress in her room while I sleep with her on her bed (a queen size mattress).I need to start soon on sleeping separately from her while hubby is around as she is getting too close to me for this. I'm not sure how am I going to cope with Baby 2 and her when hubby travels next time as I planned to sleep separately with Baby 2 in my room while Rye Li remains in her room. Hubby said that we should just start training her to sleep on her own while we have the baby monitor on but somehow I'm reluctant to do this as well as I feel I can't leave her alone just as yet. Part of me feels sad to have her on her own and yet part of me knows that if I don't start soon, I will suffer later when Baby 2 comes into the picture. Now I just wish my room is big enough to have everyone in there! ;)

3rd checkup

We went in to see my Obgyn for our 3rd checkup and we got to see the full form of Baby 2! I guess with the pressing of the scan on my belly, baby 2 was moving all over, from sideview to frontview and sideview again. We didn't have this with Rye Li during the same time. Because of this, I asked my doc whether we could tell the gender and he said not yet, most likely the next visit.

When baby 2's face was facing front, the hands were also up as if it was waving to us (due to the moving and pressing of the scanner) and hubby was excited by this. In the midst of scanning, Rye Li went "Hello Baby!" which impressed all of us. I actually prepared her for this before the appointment, telling her that we will see baby 2 on the screen and when we do, she has to say hello. I didn't really think that this would work and when she did say it, I just had to praise her.

We actually had the scan printed out but it is not as clear as Rye Li's which so happened hers at 12 weeks happened to be the last scanned picture that we got out of her pregnancy since the rest of the visits will always have her back facing us.

I was comparing Baby 2's size to that of Rye Li's at 12 weeks and a half weeks, well, actually Baby 2 is at 11 and a half weeks now. The measurements are the same but Baby 2's body seems to be bigger while Rye Li's head seems to be bigger. The scanned printed out the week as 12 and half weeks so I'm thinking that Baby 2 is growing faster than Rye Li.

As for my weight, I've only put on slightly over 1kg (2.2 pounds) so far since Day 1 and I'm happy with this coz with Rye Li, I think I was about 3 kgs then. But I'm not celebrating just as yet as who knows, I may put on more later but I'm trying my best to control my weight this time round as I went up to 21kgs with Rye Li. And she was only 2.3 kgs (5 pounds) at birth!

My next check up will be at 14 and a half weeks which is in 3 weeks time. I will be doing the blood test then. Hubby was asking me why I want to test for Down Syndrome for eventhough my doc said from the scan, he is 80% sure that Baby 2 looks normal. I told him that I just need to know and assured him that I will not do an ammio test if needed as I know my decision no matter what the outcome is.

As for my own well-being, I'm happy to report that my morning sickness is fading away. Well, I don't puke daily anymore although I do puke now and then but it is mostly in the mornings now. However, my nausea is still there and the after taste of whatever I eat still remains in my mouth and it's disgusting. I didn't have this with Rye Li at all and the nausea with her only lasted a month. I can't wait for 14 weeks as this would mean I'm officially into the 2nd trimester but I'm not counting on the fact that my morning sickness will go away completely. I was puking all the way to 6 months with Rye Li but at least I didn't feel so bad in the 2nd trimester then.

Here's what Baby Centre has to say about 11 weeks (sorry that I couldn't update last weekend, have been extremely busy at work and I'm thinking constantly all the time whether it's worth going through the stress for money! haha...but cant quit just as yet!):-

Your fetus now looks like a baby, with tiny but fully formed fingers and toes. As his body grows and becomes more developed and functional, he'll start twisting and turning like an acrobat, cushioned and protected by your amniotic fluid. You, on the other hand, are probably feeling less like a gymnast every day. Leg cramps, which can sometimes be a sign of calcium deficiency, and heartburn (caused by pregnancy hormones that relax the valve which separates the oesophagus from the stomach) may be annoying you during the day and keeping you up at night. Just remember, all this suffering is temporary — and it's all in a good cause — you're having a baby!

The ironies of my pregancies

I’m just puzzled how there are so many ironies with my pregnancies (including my first pregnancy with the girl). I mean, I don’t hear these from my sister with her 2 pregnancies nor with my cousin with her 3 pregnancies nor with my mom and her 3 pregnancies. Am I normal?

I’m really tired, extremely tired. And yet I can’t sleep well. I’m also a light sleeper normally so when I’m dead tired at night but have to wake up to pee, I just can’t go back to sleep. It takes me forever to go back to sleep and of course, I’m not getting the right amount of sleep that I should. So, this will affect the rest of my day.

I just don’t understand why do I have to pee so much. I also can’t drink much ever since I got pregnant. Water taste funny to me so I’ve been drinking cordial stuff or honey just to get my daily liquid but I’m not drinking as much as I should coz you can’t just force down something you don’t like. So it’s really interesting to know that I pee so much more even though I drink so much lesser.

And this also leads to my constipation. It hurts to poo now but I got no choice but to suffer in silence. I cant really drink much of prune juice either coz it taste funny after a while. So I try to compensate this with high fiber food or fruits but it doesn’t really have that much effect coz I also can’t eat too much of these at one go.

I’ve been having backaches too and my Obgyn suggested I take calcium pills and I immediately said no as I had a bad experience with this when I was pregnant with the girl. My stools after that was rock solid and I ain’t going to go through this anymore. So I’ve resorted to taking milk now and this, I have to force myself to drink. I wish the milkshakes at McD’s are not so fattening! And I did try other low-fat ones, I can’t stand the taste!

And speaking about eating, I also can’t eat right anymore. I can’t take seafood, including fish but I can with ikan bilis (dried anchovies) and I will usually take this to add to my calcium intake. I can’t stand mushrooms, durians and certain type of veggies but I love bitter gourd and petai. I can’t really eat chocolate anymore although I like McD’s chocolate milkshake. Poor hubby got me Godiva chocs again from one of his trips and I tried one and I didn’t enjoy it at all. Told him I will try again in my 2nd trimester and hopefully I can eat them then.

My inlaws are in town and they were cooking last night. I told them not to cook so much as I can’t really eat much these days. I only managed to eat an egg dish of theirs as I couldn’t stomach the fish, prawns and mushroom soup they also made. My FIL wanted to cook other stuff for me and I said no need as I was afraid my dinner may come out later. He also asked what I like to eat and he will cook for me while they are here and I said it’s ok as I don’t really know what I want to eat either. The thought of food makes me sick but I do get hungry a lot of the time and I will resort to eating dry crackers so that I don’t puke.

And speaking about puking, I thought I was lucky to get away with literary morning sickness initially. Boy, was I wrong. In the past 1 week, I also puked out my dinner 3 times and I totally hate it. Usually, my morning sickness is always liquid as I don’t take my breakfast immediately when I wake up and this is fine. But with those 3 times of night sickness with my dinner was utterly horrendous!

Ok, I’m going into details here and I’m sorry if you also get disgusted. You can stop reading here if you want to. ;)

To those mothers out there who have not experienced what I have, consider yourself darn lucky! And I know there are women who have it worst off than I am now and I am considering myself lucky too. Anyway, when you have morning, day or night sickness, it’s not so much about vomiting everything at one go. It comes in stages and will vary from anything within a minute or several minutes. If you think, the first “output” is it, think again, there is probably another 3-10 times more after the 1st one and you need to stay put at the toilet bowl until you don’t feel the need to gag anymore.

With Rye Li, I only had one episode where I did puke out food and it was in a small amount and that itself was nasty. Now, with Baby 2, the 4 times I puked out my dinner, it felt as if I had several small rats stuck in my throat!

*pause* [had to stop typing as I just had my morning sickness! IRONIC eh?! I’m guessing the thought of me puking also got to me! ;)]

One of the nights, we had pizza for dinner and I puked all of that out. Hubby asked me if I wanted some more since we had leftovers and I just gave him that stare. Men! And this is the other thing too, if you just puked out whatever you just ate, the last thing you want to eat is the same food again!

I’ve been asked a few times so far whether I want a boy this time. I really don’t care coz I know I definitely want another girl so if Baby 2 is a boy, most likely there will also be a 3rd attempt for Baby 3. But I told hubby the other day, if Baby 2 is a girl, I will ‘close shop’ for sure and his reply was “what is wrong with 3 girls!”. Oh well, we shall just see-la.

Here’s my 9 weeks update from Baby Centre:-

If extreme mood swings leave you feeling like a drama queen this week, you're not alone. Hormonal fluctuations are treating your emotions like a yo-yo now. One minute you feel weepy and the next you're laughing harder than you've ever laughed before. Take comfort in knowing that those same volatile hormones are helping your baby grow. In fact, this week marks the first time your baby looks almost human. He has all the standard body parts in place now — though they're not yet formed to perfection.

Maybe no thanks to this hormonal fluctuations I'm feeling this way too. I was an emotional wreck last week and I felt as if I was about to have a nervous breakdown. I really need to find ways to relax but I have to admit that I'm also going through a "Nesting" syndrome now. My house has always been messy and this never got to me till now. I really can't stand the mess lately and it doesn't help that I'm also too tired to clean up the bulk of the mess (yea, excuses!).