27 weeks and 5 days

This week, I felt like a swollen elephant. My ankles were so swollen after going to the Pregnancy Baby Children expo, that it felt horrible. I could feel my feet almost bursting from my shoes, and I couldn't even flex my toes! Looking at my ankles, they were BIG! *shocked*

This is the first time I had experience real swollen feet. I remembered seeing those of my patients who had that while they were pregnantm but never did I expect to get them. Haha. My ankle was basically gone. Just a straight leg from my calf to my feet. And I usually have skinny bony feet! Suddenly it's like 'meaty' and big. Eric gave me so much massage last night, and it's much better today when I woke up. I think I'll have to wear my compression socks all the time from now. Time to go for more socks shopping!

My pelvis and pubic bone pain is much better this past few days! Yay! All thanks to the ear seeds. I highly recommend women to get them put in by acupuncturist. 

I get more hungry easily these days, and keep wanting to snack away. Probably because baby is now on the putting weight stage of his growth. Just have to remind myself to choose better snacks than the sugary ones. 

Talking about the baby expo I went to on Friday (on my own) and Sunday (with Eric). There's basically just one item I'm interested in getting, and that is the Phillips breast nipple shell. It's something my sniokies friend recommended to help collect the dripping breast milk from the other breast when it's engorged. You know, not want to waste the precious milk! I went on Friday, asking for the expo price, which the sales lady said will be $18. While retail price is $24. I said I'll think about it and she said they will stock it up daily, so if I come on Sunday, I can still purchase it. After a few google research and consulting with Eric at home, we decided to buy it from the expo for $18. And guess what, when we got there on Sunday, the lady on the floor serving, wanted me to pay $20 for that last box on the shelf! 

I questioned the lady, as I remembered looking at the price sheet on Friday, and it was to be sold for $18. And her reply was: ok, you'll get it for $18. And she just key the price into the efptos machine, and asked me for my card. -_-"

I know it's the last day of the expo, and you want to get rid of the items on the shelf. But also cannot anyhow state a price you like and charge people mah. Good that I didn't rip you off by saying that it cost <$18, cause you didn't even bother to check! 

For the rest of the afternoon, Eric and I went around to check out the different brands of breast pumps and collect food samples for baby J. I'm definitely going back to work part-time at about four months after giving birth, so I would need to have breast pumping equipment on standby. Thank you to Eric's brother for giving us their breast pump, so we are saving quite a bit of money. However, our horror when speaking to the breast feeding association people, that the brand of the breast pump we are going to be inheriting, was prone to growing mold! Googling also shows it's quite common topic amongst mums with this brand of breast pump, as it's an open system. Have to be careful when using it next time and to dry it well to prevent mold from forming. 

The expo ended at 5 pm. Eric and I dragged my big swollen self to the train station and then to our car. As my feet were so swollen, we decided to have a simple dinner of take away Roast pork rice, with an additional box of veges to go with it at the next suburb. However when we got there, all the roast pork were sold out. We settled instead for a box of Char Siew rice plus a box of vegetables. This is our favourite place for takeaway boxes, as they stuffed so much ingredients and rice in each box, that it can feed both Eric and I! And for just cost $9!!  So with $15 ( additional vege is $6), we can have a very yummy and healthy meal of veges, meat and rice that makes us so full! We usually ate in the car after buying the food. But on Sunday, my bladder was bursting as does happens to many women who are pregnant. So we drop by at the local train station again, looking for toilet. And what better place to have dinner after that, than sitting on the benches at the platform, under the platform light and under the starry night sky! Sounds romantic right? 

Our day ended with a nice hot shower at home, with feet massage by Eric for my elephant legs. 

I hope this swollen feet phase is just temporary and won't get worse. It's really scary looking at my foot and can't recognise my own. :( 

Oh, and my sniokies friend Qing has given birth last Thursday! Congrats!! 

I can't wait to meet my baby J soon. 

Kcan

Baby Shower Invitation

Beth (our church leader's wife), has kindly sent out the baby shower invitation to our guest!!

THANK YOU!!

It's now making having the baby seems so real and I'm feeling excited! ^_^

So apparently, baby shower is usually only given to the first baby that's going to be born to the couple. I'm feeling loved! And I hope you are too baby J!

So many of my students touched my belly today at the class today. I must be showing a lot more now with this big size tummy. haha.

Eric and I had a hard time deciding how many people to invite. But in the end, we invited almost our whole church service people. We were so blessed to be welcomed and added into the church family. And we all shared so many laughter, joy, and even sadness together. So we do want them to be there welcoming our baby to the world. The location of the baby shower is going to be Beth's house, so lets see if everyone is going to come or not. If yes, we may need to find a bigger venue. haha.

Now, Eric and I will have to set up a gift list, which I think it won't be too much items. We are so blessed to be given so many hand me downs from our church families. Even my dear patient Nikki, has also given me bags of baby clothes, toys and even high chair for baby J. That saves us lots of money in getting baby clothes and the essential items. Thank you!! We are more than happy to get more pass me downs items. So do pass it our way!

Our baby shower will be held on 15 July. ^_^

kcan

26 weeks + 6 days

This week has been a painful week. Starting with waking up at 3am in the morning on Monday by a severe pain in my epigastric region. It's so painful that I thought if I'm going into labour or something. >_<

However, it also felt like the gastric pain which I sometimes get if I skip/irregular meals. So I woke Eric up to bring me some warm milk and a slice of bread. *sorry Eric!*
The pain came in waves. And after taking some milk and eating some bread, the pain gets less frequent and less intense. Finally after 1 hr, I could manage to lie down and sleep again. Sigh...
Thinking back, I think I've been having lesser food portion for dinner than before, because the baby is squashing the stomach. BUT, I think I'll just need to have another 'pre-supper' before sleeping, so that I won't wake up with this pain again.

Thankfully, baby was ok throughout the painful episode. He didn't even move! He's probably sleeping through it. haha

I've also been experiencing more hip pain and swelling on my palms and legs this week. I've left out the ear seeds for about 3 days. And by the 3rd day, I realised I couldn't walk up and down the stairs at home properly. Turning in bed became such a chore (because it needs my hips to move) that I couldn't get comfortable in bed. So back in my ears are the ear seeds.
My palms are swelling up every morning when I woke up. So bad that I couldn't even move my wedding ring! Strangely, it'll subside as the day goes by. However, it's not the case for my feet. My feel + legs swells up gradually during the day, especially if I've been out the whole day seeing patients. Compression socks are now my must have/wear when ever I go out for work. Overnight, the swellings will come down,

Since Sunday, I've also been feeling some palpitations in my chest. Not sure what it was about. It was especially bad on Monday afternoon, after not sleeping well from the epigastric episode in the morning. Thankfully it's much better now in terms of frequency.

I went for my midwife visit again on Wednesday afternoon. The glucose test results are good! Yay! Don't have gestational diabetes. I will continue to do my cycling at least 3/week to keep my circulation going. The blood test results were good too, even though my Haemaglobin levels went down a little, but still in the normal range. I did have some worry about my Iron levels during pregnancy, as I didn't want any red meats during my first trimester. And 2 weeks ago, I had a sudden cravings for beef. I'll have to remind myself to eat more red meat now. During the visit, they also checked the baby's heart beat and position. He's heart is beating well, and on the time of visit, he's lying down low horizontally in my belly. The midwife said that there's lots of amniotic fluid in there, so he's can keep swimming and turning inside. That I agrees, as some times, he kicks down low at my cervix, while at times it's on the upper ribs region. Have fun swimming and playing inside! BUT please don't bounce on my bladder like a trampoline. >_<

Tonight, we are skipping bible study to attend this music event held by EMU music. It may be the last 'concert' that I'll get to attend without any kids. So I'm making full use of this opportunity! ^_^
Pray that it'll be a good and fun night for both Eric and I.

Oh, and just as I'm typing this, my dear friend Qing from Sniokies, is in labour!!!
Pray that labour will go smoothly and both mother and baby will be safe. Look forward to meet another of our sniok junior!

anni