Finding Out The Gender of Baby #2

Today at 16w3d, we found out the gender of beanie.

The anticipation built up was beyond words. You would think this being baby #2, the anticipation is lesser, but NO! This time round, it was equally jittery.

To be honest, I know many people will say boy or girl doesn't matter. Truth is, yes, it does not matter as long as baby is healthy, but for me, I had a preference. No, preference is too strong a word. Let's just say I had wanted another boy for various reasons but mainly because I have been caring for a boy so it should come easier. We would save some more on clothings and toys.

Then I thought, actually, a girl would be good too. Girls are more homely, even after they get married, they are still close to the family and mother. When Bradley is busy dating, at least (hopefully) I have my daughter to still keep me company.

Lastly, for very selfish and superficial reasons, I think boys tend to look like their mums while daughters father. OOPS!

Anyhow, here's a look at beanie during the scan today.

Now, can you tell?

Yep, there's nothing between the legs except the "hamburger". We are expecting a baby girl this round. :) :) :) :)

She was super active this morning that Dr W. was unable to capture still images of both her hands and legs because she was moving too much. Quite a funny scene to see her jumping and moving. Here's how the convo went between Dr W. and I minutes leading up to the "discovery".

Me: Are those the legs?

Dr: Y...e...s...

Me: *pause*

Me: There's nothing between the legs..?

Dr: Um hmm... *smile*

Me: Hmmm.... *laughing*

Dr: So there's nothing between the legs.

And we all including DH started laughing. It was quite funny. She showed me the three lines, aka "hamburger". Now that I am actually putting this down in words, I'm really beginning to feel the bliss.

WE ARE HAVING A GIRL!!

OMG. Before we had Bradley, we were yearning for 2 girls. Well, we got the best of both worlds now don't we? Once upon a time, the 2 girls that we were going to have were named Clara and Chloe. Chloe is never gonna happen now, but Clara... you will be welcomed with open arms into our family.

On a separate note, I've actually lost weight. With B, I lost weight too and only started putting on after the 4th month. With C, the weight gain in the beginning was very gradual and given my loss of appetite, I'm not surprised with the weight loss. However, I'm sure those pounds will come back in the later part of the pregnancy. For now, I just want to focus on having a healthy pregnancy and baby.

It's all coming to place now. Our dressing room has been dismantled. The wardrobe in our bedroom is up. We are ready to decorate Clara's room now!

Back To The Mat

I was so happy to be back at the yoga studio doing hatha last night, with my favourite (hot) teacher.

But I'm paying the price today for having not practise yoga for almost 4 months.

Ouch.

Letter To My Future Daughter-in-Law

After my toilet break at around 130am early this morning, I couldn't go back to sleep no matter how hard I tried. It's been like this for a while. So I was wide awake from 130am to 4am, counting sheeps, smelling and huffing my dearest son and worrying about unnecessary stuff. Then I chanced upon this video on FB.

I was crying so hard by the end of the video I couldn't stop. What a father. Then another wave of sadness hit me and I cried harder. 

My baby, the very baby who was sleeping beside me, the very baby who has been extremely clingy and goes "mummy mummy mummy" all day, will one day, not be my baby anymore. Technically, he'll always be mine, but one day, he's gonna find the woman he loves and marry her, and have his own family. Just that thought alone makes me sad, but who am I kidding? I can't keep him by my side forever. This is what life should be.

Anyhow, I got inspired and wanted to write a letter to my future daughter-in-law. Maybe, just maybe, one day, B will chance upon this letter. And perhaps maybe, his future wife might even get a snigger out of it. But right now, I want to write this for my sake, to remind myself how precious this fellow is to me and how much I love him.

******

Dear You,

Yes, you. At this stage, you are just you to me. Because very soon, you are going to snatch away one of the love of my life that I hold so dear. You are taking a part of me away.

But I guess you are a part of his life that he now hold so dear, that he wants to spend the rest of his life with. So I shall embrace you into our family and hope you don't create rifts between us mother and son.

Well, who am I kidding? I hated my mother-in-law to the guts. So I can't stop you from feeling the same, but all I can say is, I will try my very best to not be that mother-in-law that everybody hates. I will give you guys the freedom that every newly weds yearn and my hubby and I will very well be minding our own business, unless circumstances dictate otherwise. All I can say is, relationships between MILs and DILs are 2-way thing, and usually the MILs refuse to admit. But I will give you my word, I will do my part and I hope you do yours too. And if all else fails, just love my son truthfully, honour him and be faithful to him, because, after all, you two are the ones who will spend the bulk of your lives together. We will be there, but we won't be there for long.

Now you have to know the reason I'm doing this. Your husband, my first born, was the best thing that happened to me. You might not be interested to know the details, but we worked hard to conceive him, after all the months of frustrations, tears and desolation. He was literally godsend. The early weeks after his arrival are now fading away in my memory, but if my memory did not fail me, it was the hardest weeks of my life. The countless amount of food strikes he went on that brought on so much heartache is something I wish that you will never have to go through as a mother. If you are ever faced with such a situation one day, I hope I can be there to help alleviate some of your stress without being a nuisance.

As he grew, he brought so much joy to my husband and I. Every morning I look forward to waking up with him, or rather, being woken by his antics, because he is such a happy baby in the morning. We literally laugh ourselves out of bed to get ready for the day. Such is the happiness I wish upon you one day when you become a mother.

You should also know that as I am writing this, your husband-to-be is not even 21 months. I know, dramatic MIL here. But understand that this is a very delicate and precious period for me. He has been so clingy to me (I'm totally loving it), and it just brings a fresh new bout of emotions that one day, my dear baby will be a grown man, all independent and ready to start a family. Your FIL and I will do our very best to nurture him into the perfect gentleman that he will soon be to you and your family, but please, please, please, please, continue the work we did and I ask that if you could, even exceed it, because you must be someone really extraordinary to my son, and I cannot imagine what his world would become should you not be part of it.

Now as I hand over this part of me to you, treat it with plenty of tender, loving care, but also to yourself, take good care of yourself, so that both of you will have many many wonderful years ahead of you.

Love,

Your mother-in-law

Where Did Time Go?

Has it been 10 days already since my last post?! Seriously?

At the back of my mind, I was thinking, oh, it's ok, I just blogged the other day. Well, turns out the other day was 10 days ago. Crazy.

So much happening on the home front which I really can't find the energy to blog about it. I reckon if I were to go into details, I'll be writing a 10-page entry. Ok, I exaggerate, maybe just 5. But you get it. I attempted to draft that post in my mind but I got tired just thinking about it. Never mind, a Singapore Mom Bloggers blog train is coming up which I will be participating in, so maybe that's something to stay tuned for? Otherwise, I guess I'll definitely have something more exciting to share next week when I go for my check-up. We should be able to tell the gender then, IF baby cooperates. Now that IS something to look forward to.

I also want to do a post on the difference between 1st pregnancy and 2nd pregnancy.

See! There's so much I plan on writing. It's just about getting down to it.

Meanwhile, let me mope a little more as my DH is traveling and a part of me is gone with him.....

Emotions Rollercoaster

Yesterday, I found out a good friend of mine from our mummies group is pregnant. She is keeping it hush for now till she pass the 12 week mark and I am so honoured that she chose to share with me even before her parents. We are both SAHM and both our sons went through somewhat similar things, so that gave us a lot in common to talk about. We worry about our sons' nap time, we struggle with people thinking we are the ones who force our children to go to bed early, our obsession with where and how long they nap, how much and what they eat. We both went through a bit to conceive the first child. In short, we have a lot in common, more than we know.

So I was really very happy for her when she told me and happy for myself too! Having a good friend go through the pregnancy woes, pains and joys together. Can you imagine all the late night feedings and pumping sessions? There's someone to chat with while you are at it. Haha.

However, sighs.. there was bad news today. The other pregnant mummy from our group (there is a few) had a miscarriage. Her first visit to the doctor did not go well, they couldn't really see heartbeat and had to do a transvaginal to see the sac. Size was a little off too so doctor advised her to go back today for another check. Unfortunately, the embryo stopped  growing. So now she's left to decide if she wants to go through the D&C or let it discharge naturally. Such a painful decision to make and when I found out, I was extremely sad. I can't imagine what she is going through now.

Every baby is a gift, I've learned that when trying to conceive B. I must remember to be thankful for what I have today and not let trivial things bother me too much.

Missing The Man

DH left for the first of his two business trips this month last night. Sighs. The countless times I've ranted here about how much I miss him whenever he's away will never seem to be over. It's our first "separation" since he went on leave on 17 December. We were so 依依不舍 yesterday before he left for the airport its like we are teenagers.

But hor, quite sweet la hor?

Considering this year we'll be married for 9 years and together for 13 years.

OSCAR Result

So 2 days after we did the scan, I received a call from Dr W's office informing me of the result.

"So Pauline, your OSCAR result is out, everything is ok, you are low risk".

For a while, I paused. 

"Ok, so what does that mean? Everything ok?"

"Yes, yes"

"Ah, ok. What's the ratio?"

"1:13500" 

I don't remember the exact ratio but it was about 13500+. 2 years ago, with B, the ratio was 1: 15000+. 

So it is true, the older the mum gets, the higher the risk. In my case, 2 years difference resulted in a 2000+ difference in the ratio.

Oh wells. Numbers, numbers.

***

Is it possible to feel baby's movements at 13 weeks? I remember with B, I felt it somewhat early too.. at around 17 weeks. But I swear last night and this morning I felt what definitely resembled baby's movements. So I googled.

According to WebMD.com:

"You should feel your baby's first movements, called 'quickening', between weeks 16 and 25 of your pregnancy. If this is your first pregnancy, you may not feel your baby move until closer to 25 weeks. By the second pregnancy, some women start to feel movements as early as 13 weeks"

So it is possible!!

Could it really be beanie moving?

I guess, baby is about the size of a peach now, so it is possible to feel it's movements right?

Boy oh boy. It is really happening!

December Staycation - Part 2

My last two posts were actually written at the hotel where we stayed for our second staycation in two weeks.

I know it's a bit silly - we could have used the money spent to go on an overseas trip. Trust me, I would love that too. But I really am too kiasi to travel in my first trimester. And really, the second staycation was totally impromptu. We made a booking on the evening of Xmas eve to check in on Xmas day itself for two nights.

It started because DH and I were completely clueless as where we can bring B to during his time off. We wanted to avoid indoor playgrounds as it was the school holidays and a friend who's hubby is a doctor at a hospital A&E told us there was a stomach virus going around. The weather was unpredictable to plan for a day at the beach or pool. So, what the heck, let's just go enjoy at a hotel with club facilities and let B go wild again.

The weather was great on the first day and we spent the bulk of the afternoon at the pool and B has come to a point where he's no longer afraid of entering the water on his own and can even jump in. Of course, we did not allow that. One of us is in the pool at any one time to catch him so when he jumps, he is jumping into our arms.

Happy hour at club lounge

Brekkie time

That sums up our tiring December. It was great having DH home and someone to relief me or share the workload but now that we are in 2015, the whole cycle is starting again. DH has 2 business trips in January (argh) and I'm back to reality too.

Never mind, all these shall pass and good days ahead.

Until beanie comes along 7 months later.