Pregnancy updates

I remember saying that Baby H only started hiccupping at the beginning of my third trimester unlike Rye Li who started way earlier. But Baby H is exactly like her sister in that she hiccups at least once a day and this can go up to as many as 4 times a day! At times I really wonder what is she really feeling when she hiccups so many times in a day.

She still moves aggressively and at times it’s so ticklish that I will yelped, something I didn’t do with Rye Li. Again, I really wonder what is she doing in there. She seems to be awake during the day and at nights too with all that movements.

I am at 34 and a half weeks now and if she comes out at 37 weeks, this means I got another 2 and half weeks more to go. Wow! So fast and it feels like yesterday that I found out I was pregnant and then the beginning of my morning sickness and all. I can’t believe that we will be a family of four soon.

I went for my check up after my Grandma’s funeral since I had the time and also we don’t have to rush on Saturday. I was pleasantly surprised that I only added 100 grams to my weight. Hehe…but my doctor said it was nothing to worry about since my previous check up was at his other clinic and hence, different weighing machine! Party pooper! Anyway, I’m also guessing that I didn’t eat that much this week especially after finding out about my grandma (just didn’t have an appetite and only ate coz I was thinking about baby H and that I felt weak at times too).

My doc didn’t scan my tummy this time but just checked on baby H’s heartbeat through this device and said all was okay. My next visit in 2 weeks time, he will go back to scanning her like usual. I told him that I didn’t get this with Rye Li and I forgot what his reply was. Anyway, after my next visit which I would be nearly 37 weeks, my check ups will be weekly from then onwards. I also didn’t get to the weekly checkups with Rye Li since she came out so early. Let’s see how it will go this time round.

And again, my doc said that baby H is big and will definitely be bigger than Rye Li. This I know for sure since Rye Li is already so small but I’m just curious how much bigger will she be. Some people said my tummy is small while some say is big. I feel it is definitely bigger than Rye Li’s.
I’ve been asked by several people now, where are my preggy shots?! I have not even taken that many pictures of Rye Li lately, what more of my own?! ;) So, we force ourselves to take some this weekend and the following are the best few of the very few we took. Rye Li was in a good mood that evening so we took the opportunity to have a family one but it didn’t last for long so not that many good shots. I still need to take some more of us especially of Rye Li kissing my tummy.

we did some funny drawings on our tummy, an idea we got from the hospital when we were there for my checkup that day

Grandma has left us

Grandma has left us unexpectedly early Wednesday morning. We were all surprised as we didn’t think she would go so suddenly just like that. She was 76 years old.

Apparently, she collapsed on Tuesday afternoon and was already unconscious when my youngest cousin found her in the toilet. She never woke up and was in a comatose state since then. We got her to the hospital by an ambulance and after several checks and scans, it was found that there was a lot of bleeding at the back of her brains in which the doctors confirmed that it wasn’t caused by the fall but a rupture by one of her veins.

Due to several factors, which also include her age and the fact that she’s taking medication to thin her blood, the doctor doesn’t recommend immediate surgery to stop the bleeding. They added that she would not wake up from her comatose state and told us to expect that her time can be anytime from then on. It is also a matter of time when her lungs give way and the family has to make a decision to keep her on a ventilator or not.

I rushed to the hospital after work that evening and found her breathing quite heavily into the mask they had for her, with her chest heaving up and down aggressively. At first I thought she was on a ventilator but it was all her and I was amazed at such strength she had (you tend to see people so ‘dead’ when they are in a coma state on TV). It broke my heart to see her like that and not responding to me at all – at least during Grandpa’s time, even when he was suffering, he responded to us till the last moments of his life.

I left the hospital about 8-30pm that night saying my last goodbye to her, having to pick Rye Li up from the day care and I didn’t expect Grandma to leave us in 4 hours later as I thought she would wait for one of my uncles who is in Singapore. She passed away at 12-23am.

I am with mixed feelings of her sudden death. In a way, I’m glad she went peacefully and painlessly (I hope!) especially after seeing how Grandpa suffered the last 5 months of his life. And at the same time, I am really sad that she didn’t live long enough to see baby H. Apparently the week before, she asked my sister what to give baby H when she is born.

It’s also ironic that 3 weeks before Rye Li was born, my great grandmother, my grandma’s mom passed away. And I was calculating in 3 weeks time I will be 37 weeks in which Rye Li was born at 37 weeks. And now that Grandma has passed away 3 weeks before I turned 37 weeks with baby H, I can’t help but feel a little superstitious now. I’ve been telling people the next time I plan to have another baby, I would think twice already.

We had her funeral today, with her body cremated after the mass at church. This time we had her wake and mass at a different church to that of Grandpa’s due to unavailability at the previous church.

I only brought Rye Li to the wake yesterday and the funeral today as hubby only got back from India (a day earlier than scheduled) early yesterday morning. I am amaze at her understanding of the whole thing. She knows that “Mummy’s grandma” (as she calls my mom Grandma too and she knows the difference between mummy’s grandma and rye li’s grandma) has gone to heaven to join Dr. Foo (her paediatrician) and she can even reply with “I miss Dr. Foo and Mummy’s grandma”. I initially didn’t want her to see my Grandma’s body till the funeral but she insisted with “see only” and so we let her. She asked many times after that to see her and we let her too. She knows that Grandma is ‘sleeping’ in the coffin and that she cannot wake up already. She did ask many questions after that like “why mummy’s grandma sleeping in the coffin”, “why mummy’s grandma go to heaven already like Dr. Foo” and “why the people (my relatives) don’t want to go home (from the church as we left earlier than the rest)” and she can even tell the caretakers at the day care that she went to church to say bye to mummy’s grandma. When we picked her up from the day care just now, she asked whether are we going to the church again. She was well behaved throughout the mass and I wasn’t sure whether she talked or not as she sat several rows behind me with the maid. She only got upset when it was time to leave the church after the mass to the crematorium and she couldn’t follow me (hubby took her and the maid to the day care). Since I last missed Grandpa’s session at the crematorium, I didn’t want to miss Grandma’s this time.

I am also going to miss my Grandma big time like how I am still missing my Grandpa. Grandma passed away just over a year after my Grandpa did. It’s ironic that I was craving for her bubur cha cha (malay: a dessert dish) lately and now that she is gone, a lot of her recipes are too. This Christmas will be a huge void to all of us who are so used to celebrating Christmas at Grandma’s place with our grandparents. Already last Christmas was our first without Grandpa and we did feel a great sense of loss then. And now, we will feel a bigger lost. I’m not sure even whether we will be celebrating Christmas like how we have always been and it is a shame really as I was so looking forward to this Christmas with Baby H! And I’m not sure whether we will still have the house – it has been our family reunion venue for Christmas and Chinese New Year and other celebrations for over 25 years already!

Grandma, I miss you so much already but like I told you that night, if you have to go, we understand. We will always love you and will remember you. When baby H is born, I know you and Grandpa will be looking down on us smiling. You rest in peace now.

In memory of my grandparents - with Rye Li when she was about 4 months old.

8 months and counting!

Ok, a mental note to myself…to do Baby H’s birth story immediately if I ever plan to have baby no. 3.!

After the previous post, I’ve been scared of the inevitable. Even describing it then, scared me as I was reliving everything again and had to seek comfort from hubby. I really wanted to cry but like I said, whether I like it or not, Baby H has to come out one way or the other!

Saw my Obgyn today and I had loads of questions to ask. But firstly, I told him I want to scan that part again as I need to make sure Baby H is Baby H since we have only scanned there once. I told him that a lot of people have been asking me how sure am I that I’m getting another girl and this week itself, a few of my clients said my tummy’s shape looks like I’m carrying a boy. Told him, I already have a name for her and a blog for her too so she better be a girl! He said hopefully, she’ll show herself which she did and yep, it’s definitely a girl! So that’s settled.

I questioned him about my high blood pressure the last time while delivering Rye Li and he said it’s not a concern as some women tend to have high bp while delivering. If it was a concern, he would have raised this issue up earlier. He said of course I will be monitored for this throughout the labour but he don’t foresee that it will impose a danger to me or to baby H.

I asked him a lot on epidural and my fear on pain and said the epidural doctor came too late the last time and he suggested if Baby H doesn’t come out by the time I reach 38 weeks, I can chose a date to induce and have the epidural upfront and wait. But if I have labour pains before that then we will just have to see my luck again. He said usually, second time round, the baby tends to come out faster but he guarantees if it were the third one onwards, it would be very fast already. I was telling him, let’s focus on this second one first as we may not see a third!

I also asked about panthedine whether got any difference and he said it helps with 50% of the pain and of course, it’s much cheaper than epidural. He said if money is not a concern, then I should opt for epidural (RM1k plus vs RM40!). I told him money would be a concern but for me, my body and how I would take the pain at this point in time are more important. He did stress that I should relax and don’t think so much about delivering as I’m creating unnecessary fear which I also agree (I do worry too much!)

Thus, I’ve come to a conclusion that I will play by ear too like how I will play by ear on where I will deliver, either at the same place which is TDMC or Sunway Medical Centre (since Sunway is nearer to my house and office) but my Obgyn is the house doctor at TDMC. I don’t want to take the risk of having another doctor if I dilate too fast again this time, so if I’m not stuck in traffic by the time I go into labour, I will head to TDMC. If it’s too late again to take epidural, then I will just get the jab to ease 50% of the pain.

Oh, I’m adding on weight like nobody’s business again. Put on 2 kgs in 2 weeks which is not good as I should be putting on about half a kg a week. So hubby asked me whether half of it went to Baby H and I just gave him the stare! Men! I will worry about the excess weight after Baby H is out.

I’ve been getting faintish spells and fast heartbeats. Doc said that I’m not getting enough rest which is true as it is getting difficult to have a peaceful sleep lately and Rye Li is getting sick often too (flu) which she has passed to me several times. And work is crazy as usual which I’m trying to clear as much as I can before I pop. As for the heartbeats, doc said it’s normal in my condition.

I’m at the stage where I cannot wait to have Baby H out and at the same time, scared of the after birth events too like how am I going to deal with 2 kids then. Can I equally divide my attention and love for them? I know I’ve been reading other mummies’ blogs as well as listening to experienced moms and that they all managed to overcome this. You just grow and learn along with it and you will find that you love them all as much. I guess I will encounter the ‘culture shock’ initially and will just learn to deal with it.

Rye Li's Birth Story

Finally I'm done.....enjoy the details! If you're not into this kind of story, please don't read further, it's a darn long one.

------------------------------------------

I feel with another baby on the way, I better penned this down in case I ever forget about how I delivered Rye Li. Prior to this, a lot of ladies told me that I will forget the pain after I’ve given birth. Well, Rye Li is over 2 and a half years old and till today, I can remember vividly the details. I’m not sure after my second one, will I still remember this clearly though.

The day before Rye Li came out, I walked a whole lot although I was in pain in terms of my right leg! I was limping for over a month as I think my right leg just couldn’t handle my sudden increase in weight. It was a Friday and I took medical leave that day and went to see my Obgyn. I was only a day short to 37 weeks then and didn’t expect to see the girl for another 2 weeks or so.

My Obgyn also checked me “there” as I was complaining it has been hurting lately and he said it looked alright to him. He also added that Rye Li will be 6-7 pounds when she comes out (I’m guessing he was indicating this from my huge size).

After the checkup, we went to One Utama for a stroll and to get some stuff for our friend’s New Year eve’s party the next day. We spent nearly half the day there and by the time night came, I couldn’t really walk anymore with a limping leg.

After One Utama, we even went to get some DVDs, thinking that we could catch up with some movies over the long weekend then (till today, we haven’t seen all of the DVDs we got that night!).

That night, we went to bed as usual. About 2 plus in the morning or so, I got up as I felt some cramps (like menstrual cramps) and I went to pee. Came back to bed, and started doing the pelvic exercise to see whether the cramps will go away but of course it didn’t. So happened, hubby got up to pee as well and I told him that I was having some cramps. At the same time, I felt a discharge came out and I asked him to help me out of bed as I wanted to check on the discharge. As I got up from bed, a sudden gush of water came out and I quickly went to the toilet. Told hubby that I think my water bag broke and he asked how sure was I. Told him when I sat down on the toilet, another gush of water came out again and also I managed to pee. The water stain on my panty had some little trace of blood too except that I couldn’t tell what colour was the water as I was wearing a green colour panty then.

I started to panic and the first thing I said was “I’m not ready! My work!” – I had a lot of outstanding stuff then which I thought I would clear them in the next week or so since it’s 3 weeks away to my due date. Hubby knocked some sense into me and then I said “My hospital bag! It’s only half packed!” I only started packing it the week before during Christmas as I started having cramps then and it panicked me big time. Trying to calm myself down, I told him I’m going to shower and wash my hair while instructing him on what else to pack into my hospital bag.

By the time we’re ready with me putting a maternity pad on (I was leaking a little bit by bit after that), we headed to the hospital. It was about 3 plus in the morning when we arrived there and we checked in. They put me in a room and the nurse checked me there and said I was only 1cm dilated and my cervix was still hard. She also added that my baby would only come out in the evening. By this time I have yet to experience any contractions. She said that hubby can go home first to rest and come back later. I asked if I can go back (thinking that to wait till evening was such a long time more) and she said cannot as my water bag had broken and I couldn’t risk any infection. Anyway, hubby didn’t want to go home and said that he would sleep in the car downstairs first and to call him if anything. We brought a nail clipper along and I cut all my finger nails – something we were told to do from many people as we don’t want to risk hubby getting cut from me! :)

The nurse inserted some stuff up my bum to clear my bowels and then asked me to rest. About 4 plus in the morning, the contractions started and it was about every 5 minutes. Although it was bearable, I couldn’t sleep with the contractions. I was thinking how was I going to last till evening not getting any sleep at all. Anyway, about 6am, the contractions became more intense and I tried to stand it as long as I could. Towards 6-30am, I called for the nurse and told her that the contractions are getting more intense. She checked me there and said I’m only 2cm dilated and that my cervix was still hard. She gave me several options for the pain but I told her if I’m going to take the jab, I might as well take epidural (since I read that the jab only eases the pain a little). She said I can only take the epidural when I’m 3cm dilated. Told her I will think about it and let her know, thinking that I may be able to stand the pain. She added that my baby is still facing upwards and needs to turn around (towards my bum) so that I will dilate faster. And she left the room.

When she left, I spoke to Rye Li and said “please turn the other way” and the next thing I knew, a contraction came and it was so darn painful that I immediately call for the nurse again. At that time, I was also thinking that I won’t be able to bear the pain till evening and I told the nurse that I want epidural there and then. She asked me whether I was sure and whether I want to discuss with hubby (who was sleeping in the car then) and I said yes. She asked me to go clear my bowels again as she would transfer me to the delivery ward and that I had to wait for the epidural doctor who would be coming all the way from Ampang (I delivered at Taman Desa Medical Centre).

So I called hubby to come up while I went to clear my bowels again. When he came, it was about 7am already and we were transferred to the delivery ward. It was tough to walk with contractions. Every time a contraction came, I had to stop, suffered and then walk again.

I was put on a chair in the delivery room and was given a milo to drink. I felt like vomiting at the same time (probably due to the pain) and was given a plastic container as a standby. By this time, I was already doing the breathing exercise and hubby tried to do it with me. He was next to my face and I found this irritating and told him to stop. I was trying to fight with the contractions in that, every time a contraction came, I would hold my breath and go against it which the midwives told me later that I shouldn’t as it would be more painful. They asked me to relax as much as I could with the breathing exercise. Easy for them to say!

The next hour was hell while waiting for the darn epidural doctor to arrive and finally he came around 8am. This time I was asked again to clear my bowels before I go up to the ‘delivery bed’ as once the epidural is administered, I won’t be able to get out of the bed. It was extremely tough to walk to the toilet this time round and had to stop in between when the contractions came. Hubby had to assist me since I was limping.

It was tougher to get up on the ‘delivery bed’ with a limping leg and contractions. The midwives and hubby had to help me, literary carried me up. When I was finally settled down, the midwife checked me and said “You can’t have the epidural already as you’re 9cm dilated!”. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at this statement at that time. I dilated from 2cm to 9cm in 1 and a half hour! She added “You want me to help you, I can make it 10cm”. I didn’t care what she meant by help but I just nodded my head.

With all the pain that I was going through, I just couldn’t talk anymore but in my head I was cursing at everyone, the midwives, the epidural doctor, my Obgyn and hubby included. In the last 2 hours till Rye Li came out, I didn’t talk at all and my eyes were mostly shut tight then.

Anyway, I think the midwife put a whole fist in “there” and then I heard “Oh, you’re only 8 cm dilated and we have called Dr. Fan already (my Obgyn) and he’s on the way”. And then I was given the gas mask. Hubby tried talking to me to calm me down and told me to do the breathing exercise. Again I found this irritating and I told him “Don’t talk, just stand here!” :) My style is like this, when I’m suffering in pain, don’t tell me what to do, just be there physically. I know he felt helpless then but at that time I was more concern whether I was going to die or not from the pain then those around me.

The midwife inserted the drip inserter thingy into my left hand (or was it the right?!) – mind you, before this, I was terrified about this part as I hate needles. But interestingly, the pain coming from this was nothing compared to the labour pains so I didn’t really recall the pain from this.

My Obgyn came at around 8-30am and I was still only 8cm dilated! He said if Rye Li doesn’t come out by 9-30am, he will do a vacuum and left the room.

I did find some pain relief with the gas mask and I think I inhaled too much and when the midwife realized this, she told me not to inhale too much as I could be high from it. Too late, I was already ‘high’ then and whatever happened after that was as if my soul came out from my body and I was looking at everything like I was watching a movie. The scenes somehow repeated themselves again but what was very real was the pain itself when the contractions came. I was just going with the flow and when the pain came, I actually screamed! I screamed so loud that I was told off by the midwife. She told me when the contractions came, I am to clench my teeth and just breathe through it. She also threatened me that if I were to continue screaming, she will get hubby out of the room. This worked as I dutifully listened to her while cursing her in my head!

The gas also made me very emotional. I felt so cheated there and then. Firstly I was told that my baby would be out in the evening and there was no way I could stand the pain till evening. Then while waiting for an hour for the epidural doctor to arrive, I was told that I could not have it and had to wait for my Obgyn. And when my Obgyn came, he said to wait again for another hour. And then to be threatened by the midwife too. I couldn’t help myself that in between the contractions when it wasn’t painful, I cried like a baby! When the contractions came, I faced up and dealt with the pain, grunting silently. When it went away, I turned left and put my face into hubby’s tummy and cried like a baby!

There was another lady in the next room having her baby at the same time and she was screaming. We could hear her hubby was encouraging her on to push. We all heard it and it frightened me further so I wailed into hubby’s tummy again before the next contraction came. This went on for nearly an hour and next thing I knew, the midwife asked me whether I had the urge to push. To tell you the truth, I was aware that you cannot push until you’re fully dilated but at that time, I really didn’t care whether I was fully dilated or not. So when the midwife asked me, I just nodded my head and I think (my eyes were shut) she checked me there and said that she could see Rye Li’s head already and that she will be calling Dr. Fan now. And I heard hubby saying “I can see baby’s hair!”. Hubby was holding my left hand all this while. During the whole ordeal, I heard the midwife asked him why wasn’t he encouraging me on and he said that I asked him not to.

The midwives prepared me for the delivery and I couldn’t feel hubby’s hand anymore. They strapped my legs to the sides of the bed and while they were doing this, I heard hubby saying ‘Syn, I’m here!” which I was glad he said that so that I know he was still there. Then they made my right hand hold on to the hand bar and wanted my left hand to do the same but hubby said that he will hold on to it. The midwife also asked him was he sure about this and he said it was alright. He later told me that the pain he felt from my nails (even after I cut them off) was nothing compared to what he was seeing me going through. He also told me later that at that time, he didn’t care anymore about the baby as he was so worried seeing me in that condition. All I know was during the whole ordeal I was talking/cussing in my head – I read a pregnancy book “A girlfriend’s guide to pregnancy, what your doctor will not tell you” (or something like that) and one of the things it mentioned was that during delivery, there is no way you can say that you do not want to have the baby anymore. So this was practically going through my head that whether I like it or not, my baby is coming out! Thus, I was thinking in my head that I do not want to have any babies anymore after this! Haha – look where I am now! ;)

When my Obgyn arrived, I was all ready to push and when he gave the green light, I pushed all the way! I didn’t even know that he actually cut me. Mind you again, I was also terrified about this cut thingy but in reality, when you’re going through labour pains, whatever needle or knife that goes through your body is nothing at all!

I only gave one hard push and was waiting for the instructions to push again but instead I heard “you see what is in front of you?!” and I opened my eyes. Rye Li was actually on top of my chest but because she was so light, 2.3kgs/5 pounds, I couldn’t even feel her. The darn midwife opened her legs right in front of my face and asked me what it was! I couldn’t even tell as her vagina wasn’t looking like the vaginas I know, it was protruding out (probably it wasn’t fully formed yet) and she answered for me “it’s a girl yea” and I just nodded my head. She then asked me to kiss her which I did with tears in my eyes and they took her away for cleaning up.

Rye Li came out at 9-28am on 31st December 2005. Actually the clock in the delivery room, the longhand was showing somewhere in between 5-6 so hubby decided that it was 9-28.

It was such a relief that she was out but when my Obgyn took out my placenta, it was another round of minor pain too but nothing much compared to the pain before that. He asked me whether I want to see my placenta and I said “No thank you or else you will never see me again!”. He did his stuff and sewed me up. While sewing me up, he was describing to me the kind of stitches he was giving me which will end up looking like just one knot if you were to look at it. And the whole time he was saying that, I was thinking to myself as if I would take a mirror and look there which he told me I could. No thank you! In fact I didn’t touch myself there for more than a month after that! I only touched up to my anus for cleaning and the rest was water while I dabbed with toilet paper after that. See how traumatized I was!

In short, I had a total of 7 hours labour which breaks down to 5 hours of contractions with less than 3 hours of real pain :-

1) 2-30am – water bag broke
2) 3-30am – admitted to hospital, only 1 cm dilated
3) 4-30am – contractions started, mild and bearable
4) 6-30am – intense contractions, getting unbearable, only 2 cm dilated
5) 7am - 8am – in deep pain but couldn’t take epidural as 8 cm dilated by 8am
6) 8am - 9-28am – was in hell waiting to be fully dilated
7) 9-28am – finally baby is out!

Now we shall see how Baby H’s birth would be like…wish me luck!

31 weeks, among other things

31 weeks and I feel I’m ready to give birth already. Of course it’s still too early but the way Baby H has been moving, I kind of half wish she will be out earlier than expected. Seriously, I cannot remember feeling this much of discomfort with Rye Li at such an early stage. I really loved Rye Li’s movements in my tummy as she was gentle, hardly any ‘shocks’, only towards the end. I’m just regretting on what I’ve said earlier on how much I miss the baby movements in my tummy when I found out I was pregnant months back!

The way Baby H moves, I’m very worried that she will be a big baby. I had my check-up on Saturday and my Obgyn said that it’s normal for our tummies to be extra sensitive to Baby’s movements second time onwards. Funny though, I would have thought it should be the other way round since our tummies were stretched the first time and hence, should be less sensitive. Go figure!

Anyway, yours truly has so far put on 12kgs….nice. Stay like this and I should not put on as much as I did before with Rye Li. But still, my bum looks really big and so do my arms. Of course, the tummy too coz I really feel Baby H is big! I still have another 9 weeks or so to go and the way I’ve been eating…tsk tsk tsk!

I’ve bought some baby stuff over the long weekend and I should start doing her laundry in the weeks to come. I only need to clear out Rye Li’s clothes to her new drawers we got her to make space for Baby H’s stuff. My maid is pretty free at times (my condo isn’t that big) and even asked me whether she can start washing Baby H’s stuff 2 weeks back but I said I need to get some baby’s detergent first.

Anyway, my maid should have more work to do soon since she will need to help out more at the day care (the maid there is leaving) in terms of housework and also I would want her to cook for us over weekends once whoever (either hubby/me/Aunty Ng/in-laws) teaches her. A lot of people have been telling me that I’m under utilizing my maid. I’m also slowly letting her handle Rye Li wherever she can like when the girl wants to pee (we still have to keep an eye on her when she goes to her potty although she managed to pee on her own without informing us many times but someone just got to make sure she washes her hand!) or play with her (this is because Rye Li asked for it at times and I let them be, if the maid has done her work) but overall, the girl still prefers me. I will next let her start to pack Rye Li’s stuff for the day care and also when we go out (like preparing her milk powder, bottle and hot water) – I didn’t teach her this initially as I don’t trust her from a hygienic point of view. She still needs to gain my trust in terms of this area (I caught her with several bad habits like picking her teeth with the same toothpick kept in her room and picking at her hair – squatting and face down with fingers picking at her as if she’s got hair lice which I know she doesn’t as all of us would have gotten it by now). This is also one of the reasons why I have not gotten her to cook for us yet. I have loads more to say about the maid but since my time is precious on blogging, I’d rather not waste my time on her – she is overall alright but at times can get on my nerves. J

Back to my pregnancy, my checkups are now every 2 weeks and I have yet to talk to my Obgyn about the delivery plans. I have loads of questions to ask especially about my apparent high blood pressure when I was delivering Rye Li. I only knew this 6 weeks after I’ve delivered Rye Li. Interestingly, during her pregnancy and after she came out, I don’t have any problems with my blood pressure. Even now, during this pregnancy, I also don’t have any problems which I’m jumping to conclusion that my blood pressure could have shot up then due to the pain I was going through or rather, the fear of the pain that I was going through then. This reminds me that I need to finish my birth story with Rye Li – it is kinda funny now thinking back although I know it won’t be funny going through the pain again this time!

Anyway, my Obgyn told me then that if I were to have a high BP second time round delivering means I would need to take caution should I go for my third child. I need to remind him this again in my next visit as I feel if it was really due to my fear of pain, I will tell him in advance this time that by hook or crook, I want the darn epidural! I didn’t get this the first time round as I dilated too fast! I know I can save heaps of money not using the epidural and the fact that if I could last the pain first time round means I can last the pain second time round too but heck, it’s my body and I do whatever pleases me. Too bad there are only 2 ways to get a baby out of you and both ways also scare the jeepers out of me. Sigh!

Funny eh, you would think an experienced mom would think lesser of delivering the baby second time round but not me man! I remember having so many weird dreams in my first trimester about giving birth and I always wake up thinking “That’s it, I know I want epidural upfront this time!” …I am paranoid about the pain. When I tell people about my fear, some asked me to opt of C-sect instead since it’s faster and less hassle. I’m scared of surgery la…and I don’t think I can be awake knowing I’m being cut up and I want to be awake when my baby comes out to this world. Only 2 things now will make me go for a C-sect and that is if she’s breached and the other is if she’s really huge like over 3.5kgs kind of huge! Let’s pray she’s not huge and not breached. :)