Tuesday, February 28, 2017

22 weeks ++

On Monday I saw my gynae and I got my travel letter! Alhamdulillah I'm clear to fly on the 11th March. Indonesia here we come!

Baby is kicking all the time now. My appetite is better, though I still only take rice once or twice every week. No more scan until early May.

End of March I'm supposed to do my DM blood test. Praying so hard everything goes smooth until delivery and beyond. InsyaAllah vaginal delivery if possible, smooth breastfeeding journey etc etc etc.


Tuesday, February 21, 2017

My 21Week Scan

So yesterday I had my detail and gender scan. It took about half an hour. The baby was sleeping I guess he didn't stir much. It was difficult to check his spine due to the fact that he laid on his back.

At the beginning we found out the gender first. The sonographer asked whether I want to know the gender. I said yeah sure. You know already right, she said. Iwas like huh? (stared blank at the monitor). I did see some sort of a round thingy in between the legs. But isn't it supposed to look like a trunk? It's a BOY she said. My husband confirmed and said he saw something stuck out behind the ball which I was oblivious to.

Alhamdulillah all praises to God the baby has complete organs, so far everything is good. Developing normally. It's about 400grams now. I gained 1kg in a week which is good. BP was normal. InsyaAllah Allah will ease everything until birth and beyond.

So now that I know I'm carrying a boy a bit of pressure went off me.
Looking back kind of makes me think was there REALLY a difference pregnant with boys or girls?

Let's see whether my pregnancy fits the old wives tale...
1. Tummy low and grows forward -> true for me
2. Big appetite: : nope. This might be in fact my most un-appetizing pregnancy ever
3. Crave meat : i crave fruits, soup, and anything that is not RICE
4. More emotionally stable: True dat
5. My girl toddler is so attached to me :  true but maybe just coincidence? She's very independent and suddenly since beginning of the pregnancy she became overly attached. She even consistently predicted she'll have a brother
6. Crave salty : hmmmmm, not quite true. I do crave wafers once in a while
7. No morning sickness : Well, I do get night sickness, not morning sickness
8. Pregnancy glow : I do have good hair and skin even though small pimples broke out in the beginning.
9. Heart rate 140 and below: Nope, the first USG saw his heartrate was 168
10. Chinese gender chart: Well unfortunately, majority of the chinese calender I tested said girl.
So true for 4 out of 10?

From my personal experience the difference in pregnancies are:
1. The way I carry. Since the beginning the tummy have been sticking out. For both of my girls I started out all around.
2. Morning sickness. I don't get morning sickness, just night sickness and it never switched. With my girls I get morning AND evening sickness.
3. Appetite. With my girls, once the sickness subsided I ate like a monster. All that goes in, never comes out (at least in 2nd tri), and I have cravings. Various cravings. With this one, I eat to survive. I've never had horrible sickness but once I eat too much I throw up. NO cravings whatsoever. Because sometimes what I crave is not what I can eat. This is as I mentioned, my healthiest pregnancy ever. The only thing that I don't throw up when I overeat is FRUITS! And I crave fruits almost every single day and they say fruits cravings mean girl.
4. Lots of energy. Well, carrying girls maybe more exhausting. Because all I ever wanted to do with them was SLEEP. I always took afternoon naps with my girls. This one? I'm an energizer bunny until night sets in.
5. Sex drive. Carrying girls twice increased my sex drive. Carrying this boy, I think I could care less of when was the last time I did it hahahahaha
6. Cow milk consumption. I think this has nothing to do with gender. It just so happens that THIS time, I can drink low fat cow milk. I still can't bear full cream milk and ice cream. With my girls I couldn't take it. And they developed an allergy to milk and eczema.

Every pregnancy is different, but though pregnancies with both girls were different, there were similarities. Even though this third one is different there are some similarities.
But like I said, I'm feeling boy. And maybe it's a mother's instinct. In the end, a healthy baby is what is most important. So whatever gender it is, they are still a blessing.

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

20 Weeks ++

Alhamdulillah! Half way to go!

Next week is my detail scan+my gender scan. So excited and anxious, I don't know, I hope so much for a boy but I don't want to be too disappointed if it's a girl.

We prepared names already. For a boy it's gonna be Altair Ra'uf, for girl it'll be Aeris Raifa. Altair is the name of the main character in PS game, assassin's creed. Ra'uf is one of the asmaul husna which means compassionate. Aeris is one of the character in FFVII game, Raifa is the female version of Ra'uf. So yes, this time the theme is VIDEO GAME CHARACTERS!!!!!

My husband is so into games we thought to put it onto one of our kids' names. I love Assasin's creed and FF, though I'm no gamer.

This week's update:

1. Still limited rice for me.... Seriously I can eat rice once a week!
2. Weight gain within this month I guess about 1-1.5kg. My stomach is expanding forward. So far no water retention anywhere.
3. Baby moves so actively now. Kicking, punching here and there. Turning about. It's so busy in there. It's still staying on my right side. It's so difficult to sleep now on my sides, especially my right side. .
4. I still vomit occasionally, especially if I overstuff myself.
5. Snacking wise, I eat go naturals fruits n nuts (expensive!!), fruits, nuts. Now trying to switch to plain HiLo milk, so far so good.
6. I got brownish discharge with pulling sensation below. Just to ensure everything's fine I went to A&E. Cervix was closed, no bleeding, only leftover brownish inside, heartbeat was found, no infection. So alhamdulillah everything was fine. The discharge came out from nowhere. Maybe from my ever expanding uterus. I do expand really fast these past 2-3 weeks.

Hoping for a healthy troublefree pregnancy and a smooth (hoping for normal vaginal) delivery.