Almost 32 weeks!

Hello bloggers,

I just saw my gynae last Thursday (at 31 weeks 5 days) and did a blood test for gestational diabetes. My blood sugar level is 119 :). The so called "high level" which means diabetes is 125. So, I am quite safe, despite my daily cravings for magnum and cornetto ice-cream... :p Baby Aloysius is still in the breech position. I had another jab of Vitamin B12 again...

We discussed about delivery options for me during the doc's visit. To my dismay, doc recommended that I consider C-section. Considering that I am already 30 years old and it's not easy to conceive at this age, plus I am married for many years already, plus it's my first boy, plus I had a major surgery with a big cut on my womb... Doc said I better consider C-section to reduce the risk. However, he did not say a big "NO" if I want to try for natural birth :). We will have to discuss about the "birth plan" in more details in the next visit, after the final detailed scan. Now, I gotta see doc every two weeks. It means baby is coming out very soon... Very soon, I will be on the weekly visits to doc and before I know it, baby will be in my arms... Getting exciting, eh?

I am preparing myself mentally for a drug free, natural birth. My friend will be lending me a book on the mental preparation for total natural birth. I have been reading about the holistic way of giving birth. What happen during the birth of baby will actually affect baby's mental growth and development in future.

I have been talking to baby Aloysius to ask him to use his own strength to be born naturally since he was about 20 weeks. I also asked him to give me a smooth and minimal pain delivery. I hope these will help in the delivery process :). My sis has a friend who also talked to her baby for a fast and smooth delivery and she had two drug-free, minimal pain, and fast labour. Her frined strongly believes in "tai jiao". hmm... at least there's someone who had tried and tested this method that I have read about :).

This week, I have done quite a bit of things. I have washed almost all baby's clothes and nappy. My baby seems to have a lot of clothes in his 6-12 months. 90% of the clothes that I have are for 6-12 months. I am starting to look around how does a new-born sized clothes feel like. The base of the baby's cot is wrapped with a layer of waterproof sheet. My hubby wanted to set-up the baby cot, but it's still more than a month away from baby's arrival... I prefer to have more space in my room for a while more :). Next, I will have to buy a matress for baby. I am eyeing on a latex mattress from Robinsons.

I also bought a Medela mini electric breast pump... :) I have asked around experienced breastfeeding mothers... It seems like Medela mini electric or Medela pump in style are very good. For manual pump, Avent Isis has very good comments. However, most mothers who had used manual pumps before will be going for electric ones in future. I guess electric will make the whole process of pumping faster and easier. I put in the batteries and tried the pump on my thigh. hmm... not bad... I hope it will be good on my breasts. hahaha... last nite, before I went to bed, I was trying that out and I dreamt of pumping milk! And my breasts hurt in the middle of the nite... hahaha... So funny rite?

This afternoon, when I was surfing the website of Medela, I saw their interesting 2 phase manual breast pump - Medela Harmony. I read what is "2-phase" all about. hmm... It's very interesting. I am now very tempted to get the pump head for Medela Harmony to try... hahaha... Maybe I am a technology freak... Wait till I see it and consider the price :p I wish I get to try all the breast pumps in the market, especially the Avent Isis Uno IQ and Medela range of 2-phase pumps, and also the very cheap ones... kekeke... maybe my hubby will "scold" me for being "crazy"...

Today, I took a picture of my tummy.. Gosh! It has grown so much in just two weeks! When I did the comparison of the previous photos, I can see a big difference! I wonder how much more I will be growing...

30th week of pregnancy...

Hello blogspot,

It has been a while since I have updated my blog here. I have been very busy with work, and also updating my blog somewhere else... haha... Ok, let me recall what happened since I last updated.


About naming our baby:
We have chosen a name for our baby :). He's baby Aloysius. We also respected our baby's "decision". We narrowed down to two names - Aloysius or Mason. Then when baby was actively kicking inside me, we asked baby to kick if he likes Aloysius or Mason. Coincidentally or not, baby seems to like "Aloysius" :). We did confirmation with our baby a few times... hahaha... When we asked if he likes "Aloysius", he will kick. Amazing rite? As for the chinese name, it gotta be till baby's birth...


Things for baby:
We have bought a set of Glen Doman flashcards for baby. This is the most expensive thing we got for baby so far. We bought the English, Chinese and Maths original set. We were told that we can use the cards till baby is 3 years old, and there will be after sales service support for us to teach us how to use the cards effectively. The sets of cards comes with 3 books that have the details of how to teach baby. We also went for a workshop on how to teach our baby right from birth till 3 months, and how to teach baby Maths. We still yet to attend the workshops for English and Chinese. We also bought a book on how to stimulate baby physically and mentally. It's quite an interesting read :).

I just watched a video clip of a 7 months old baby being able to do addition, subtraction, multiplication and division! Amazing! I read from a book by Makato Shichida that babies use their right brain only and our right brain has amazing high-speed computing abilities... hahaha... I tried to follow the book and switch to my right brain when I was reading on my bed. I ended up falling asleep...

We went to the baby fair at Takashimaya and bought Avent milk bags, disposable breast pads, a support for bathing from Safety First, 4 pre-folded nappy, 1 visco-elastic pillow, 3 cotton bath towels.

From John Little, we bought a full set of beddings for baby -comforter, bedsheet, pillows, bolster, cot bumper. We also bought 2 packs of S sized Petpet diapers, 2 packs of L sized Petpet diapers, and 1 M sized Drypers diapers, Johnsons shower gel for infants, powder, Anakku cotton wool, baby wipes, nappy liner, hand towels.

I have still yet to collect the clothes for babies from my friend and my cousin :). And also the babycot... Will have to get that done soon :). We are thinking of made-to-measure a crawling track for baby according to the recommendations in Glen Doman's book titled "How smart is your baby?".


Hospital Tour:
I went to Gleneagles for their tour of the maternity wards with hubby. I will be delivering in Gleneagles cos my doctor only deliver there. We visited the delivery suite which is rather big and have a massage chair for the fathers-to-be to relax in. There's even a satellite TV in the delivery suite. My hubby checked that there's sports channel. hahaha... It gonna be the World Cup 2006 when I am delivering. Furthermore, there's a spa at the entrance to the delivery suites, and there will be a complimentary massage for the fathers-to-be... hahaha... The fathers-to-be will really be pampered here rite? Then we toured the nursery, and the maternity ward. I am very tempted to opt for the single deluxe room so that hubby and baby can stay overnite with me in the room. But that will mean everything will be ala carte. There's no maternity package for the deluxe room. Furthermore, there's only 2 deluxe room.

There will be lactation consultants around to help new mothers in breastfeeding. There's also classes on how to take care of our newborn.


Travelling:
Well, I made a trip to Penang from 31 March to 2 April :). I went with my parents, my brother and of course my hubby. It was a good driving trip. I am glad that we drove there cos I have the priviledge of going to the toilet hourly and keeping myself hydrated with Kinertec V6 water. I brought many bottles of water for our journey. kekeke... Remember in my last post? Preggie need to drink best quality water? Cos normal tap water will affects baby's brain development. hee... After reading that, I am very conscious of what I drink too. Usually, if I am outside and I have finished my own water, I will buy Evian mineral water.

In Penang, I am lucky that my relatives also installed Kinertec V6. I used my empty bottles to fill up for my daily consumption :).

I met my cousin and her 19 months old baby. He's a very smart baby indeed. He understands Mandarin, English, Teochew and Malay! Wow! And he can speak too. My cousin has been reading up and following Glen Doman and Shichida method, which I will follow for my baby. My cousin also plays "Lovely Baby" music CDs for her son. The music is very soothing and cute and I love it too :). Now, I also have some music CDs from "Lovely baby" series.

I experienced water retention for the first time for 2 days! My legs looked so ugly for the very first time! Like elephant legs! I think it's due to my diet plus the constipation I had. The food in Penang is too tempting and I did not watch my diet strictly... My baby is gonna be a Hunza baby. I broke the record... cos none of the Hunza mums-to-be ever experienced water retention. I think it's the prawn noodles that I had. Luckily, when I am back, I continued to watch my diet and the water retention subsided in one day :). So far, I am back for more than a week already and (*touchwood*) I did not get anymore water retention.


Gynae's visits:
From my last update, I have visited my gynae twice for checkup. During the visit in March, my blood pressure was normal and sugar level at 116. 125 is the level when the alarm gotta ring! Phew!

My last visit to gynae was on 8 April. So far, gestational diabetes is still far far away, but I have put on quite a lot of weight! I weighed 58.6kg - up by 4 kg! My haemoglobin level is still not satisfactory at 10.9. I had a jab of Vit B12 in my last visit again... Ouch...

hahaha... My gynae scared me that if I do not conscientiously take the iron pills, he gonna prescribe me with more jabs :(. I better faithfully take those pills faithfully 3 times a day. Sometimes, one can forget rite? kekeke... Dr Chew told my hubby to remind me via sms everyday...

I gotta see my gynae again 12 days from the last visit for diabetes test again... Oops... the frequency of seeing Dr Chew is increasing...

Oh yes, in the last visit to Dr Chew, we saw baby sucking his toes! hahaha... it's so cute. I guess my baby will have no problems at all with suckling breast milk since he has been practicing sucking his fingers since week 13 scan. Dr Chew also double confirmed that our baby is a boy. hahaha... we saw his "balls" and they are so obvious.


Baby Aloysius:
So far, I have been following the "tai jiao" :). I have finished reading the book twice and now went on to the next two books about right brain training and physical development of baby. The physical development of infant is very important for future learning abilities. I am starting to see the fruits of "tai jiao". kekeke... Nowadays at night, baby will be actively kicking starting from about 11pm. Before I sleep, I will talk to baby and tell him that it's night time already and it's time to sleep till the next morning. After that, he will stop kicking already :). Last time, when I woke up in the middle of the night, he could be kicking away. But nowadays, he has stopped.
When I start to do "xin ling gou tong" with baby, baby will start kicking. I wonder is it just coincidence, or we really can "xin ling gou tong" :). I will picture baby growing up healthily. I will tell baby to give us a smile when he sees us at birth. I also tell baby to "cure" my thalassaemia before coming out. Fingers and toes crossed... I hope it will work according to the "tai jiao" book. Recently, I am starting to picture the drug-free, painless and easy natural birth that I will want. hahaha... I still have to firm up my decision and gain the courage that I want a drug-free natural birth.

I have still yet to attain the "xin ling gou tong" level whereby when I look at food, and ask baby if he wants to eat by giving me a kick.

Something interesting: Baby has been kicking me quite hard lately. This morning, before hubby went to work, he told baby not to kick mummy too hard today. Dunno whether it's coincidence or not, baby did not kick very hard today :)