On Impending Motherhood

Its time to capture for posterity the size of my [not very] bulging belly and to fully embrace motherhood in its totality. While convincing myself that big is beautiful is a large part of the latter, indeed there are some changes that pregnancy brings :)

So, how has pregnancy changed me, emotionally and physically? Let's see...

1) Skin tone and complexion have certainly improved. Eating junks like chips and crackers don't send a bout of pimples sprouting on my face. Hmmm... is that a sign than that Baby might be a girl cos they say that expectant mothers with girls glow during pregnancy?? *wink*

2) Appetite has decreased - Yep! Its not a typo! I think I eat lesser than what I used to at each meal. I compensate by eating maybe 4-5 small meals a day instead of 3 full ones.

3) No cravings, thank goodness! In fact, I think I had more cravings pre-pregnancy.

4) Developed distaste for chicken (especially breast meat) and fish. On the flipside, I would devour beef and pork with gusto. Now, I wonder if that's a sign that Baby might be a boy?? *double wink*

5) Can no longer sleep half-sprawled on my belly/side. Boo hoo hoo... that's as emotionally gut-wrenching as snatching a child's favourite teddy bear from his/her clutches.

6) Oh yeah, how can I forget *smack forehead*... a squashed bladder sends me to the toilet more frequently. That implies that I wake up often in the middle of the night to do the you-know-what.

7) Speaking of waking up in the middle of the night, I kinda do that a lot now. For a number of reasons, e.g. can't sleep, hunger, need for the toilet, dry skin, blah blah blah. Just name it, I could wake up for a number of reasons. Or none at all.

8) I've said this in another posting about having more lung power. I could swim more laps at a stretch. Currently, I do about 20-25 laps at the pool each week. Could it be that I'm preparing my lung for what all mothers need to do? Screaming their heads off at their pesky offsprings?

Alrighty. That's all my sketchy brain can think of at this moment in time. If I remember more, I would add it to the list. Till the next posting, ciao!

Using Epidural

I figured that instead of my usual ramblings, today's posting is going to focus on the process of delivery... or rather, how should I cope with the pains of labour. I'm sure there are scores of women who were petrified of the pains of delivery but have gone through and lived to tell the tale. In part, this posting is a little bit of "research" that I'm taking so that I can better cope with my personal demon.

So, to all the women out there (ok, and maybe some men who have lived through their wives' own delivery process) who have gone through the pains of delivery, I was hoping that you would be able to share with me your thoughts on epidural. Consider this a little fact finding so that I can weigh the pros and cons of epidural and any lingering side effects of it. And for the brave ones out there who chosed not to use epidural, how did you cope and what was the pain like? What other unknown facts should I be aware of going into the delivery ward?

I've asked my hubby a few nights about whether he think I should use epidural during delivery and his frank opinion was that I should go ahead and do it. His rationale? Becos he felt that I have a low threshold tolerance for pain. Oookkk... that doesn't sound very encouraging, although he could be right for a number of reasons. Firstly, I lucked out and have not really had to go through excruciating menstral cramps. Secondly, on the 2 ocassions where I experienced close to feelings of cramps due to severe food poisoning, I was in a real pathetic state and probably scare a few years off Louis' lifespan. To top it off, during the last blood tests that I did 2 months ago where the nurse had to draw 4 vials of blood from me, I nearly fainted, this time, scaring the nurse right out of her skin.

So... maybe Louis does have a point and since we do have every intentions (at this juncture) to have another kid in the future, I shouldn't try to be too gung-ho and go through labour sans epidural.

But before I commit and agree to let the anesthesiologist plunge that needle into my spine, I wanted to have the deck of cards laid out in front of me.

Hence, I'm inviting you to share your thoughts, experiences, tips or advice with me via comments on this blog or email. Merci beaucoup :)

Daddy in defense

I'm eating a bowl of banana split and Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia as I write this blog. And it's 10:40pm now...:) As you can tell, I'm going to be gaining weight at the same rate as Eve is :)

The good thing about the hotel is that there's this large table here which seats four comfortably. It's our Small-Office, Home-Office in the room. Each evening, Eve and I sit next to each other doing our stuffs - she'd be doing her IMing (cos' it's just about the time when her colleagues catch a break before/after lunch, or when they just feel bored) while I do my work or clear my bills or return my personal emails - simply - a chillout time in front of the computer..(just noticed that my ice-cream turned into a milk shake while writing the first para..oh well)

In any case, as a follow-up to Mummy's blog, Baby should know that the central purpose of singing isn't to teach Baby the song, but to familiarise Baby with my voice. As such, Baby, when you read this blog, we must keep that context in mind okay? Notwithstanding of course, daddy shall endeavour to learn the right words. Mummy has a knack for remembering lyrics, but Daddy has lost touch a little. Daddy used to sing quite a lot (to himself, in the car and in the bath) when he was young - so Daddy has a good repertoire of retro songs - not Mary had a Little Lamb though :) But hey, it shouldn't be too hard, or at least I hope...:)

Nightly Singing Routine

Now, a friend has been whinning to me about how our postings do not allow for people to comment. He said too that its not just him, but he's stepping forward to echo the views of many who had wanted to comment on some of our postings but couldn't. Between you and me, I think he's just using others as an excuse.

So, I've finally made some changes to my blog settings to automatically allow all postings to be commented. We shall see if that friend of ours really would comment ;)

Louis, Baby and I have kind of settled into this nightly routine. I noticed that Baby makes more movements around midnight, Houston time. Probably Baby moves about in the day, but usually around that time of the night, Louis and I would be preparing to call it a day, so perhaps, Baby's movements were more pronounced or obvious to us. Well... to get back to our little routine, Louis would place his hands over my belly and croon to Baby the song "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". And moments after, Baby would respond with a few little kicks. Louis would talk to Baby a little more (which Baby responds again with a few more movements), kiss Baby goodnight before we hit the lights off.

Let me tell you a little secret :) Louis appears to know the lyrics to a great number of songs. I've got to admit that he surprises me sometimes with the repetoir of song lyrics that he knows. Then, there's a number of songs that he actually doesn't know the lyrics, but he exhibits some amount of creativity and aplomb to make up the lyrics as he goes along. And becos he's so confident singing them, you would think he knows the lyrics (that is if you don't know the lyrics yourself). Hahahah... I say this becos he was trying to sing more songs other than "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to Baby with "Mary Had a Little Lamb". And while the last sentence of the song lyric totally escaped me, I was quite sure it wasn't quite the right lyrics either.

Baby, you've got a daddy who is creative in his singing. But most importantly, he loves you a great deal and would be the most dotting, loving and sweetest dad that any kid could ask for!

Weekend in Houston

It was a relaxing weekend. On Sat, we went into Rice Village just to do a little bit of shopping and I managed to get some threads and needles to mend my jeans too. After, we went down to the YMCA some 20 minutes outside of town to swim. Well... I needed to get my weekly dosage of swimming in order to curb those backaches. I'm really quite proud of myself... I did 25 laps (Olympic size length) at a go. I'm not sure why, but maybe pregnancy increases my buoyancy. I could never swim more than 14 laps in total pre-pregnancy, not to talk about 20 laps at a single stretch. Now, swimming feels quite effortless too without really exerting myself. How cool is that?

On Sun, Louis went back to YMCA again for a swim -- we both joined YMCA for a 2-month membership in order to make use of the indoor swimming facilities :) After, we went grocery shopping in Bellaire (Houston's Chinatown stretch) for Asian groceries and then to Krogers, for the remaining items.

For the coming week, we've planned to cook in for 3 of the dinners and here's what we have planned:

• Curry chicken (main) with stir-fry oyster-sauce broccoli (veg dish)
• Wantan soup (main) with char-siew (meat dish) -- I didn't make the char-siew, its store-bought ;)
• Fried rice vermicelli (main) with lotus root soup (soup dish)

The rest of the week, we have some flexibility to either join Louis' colleagues or try a new place in Houston.

This Wed, FIL will be travelling to Perth for his part-time MBA attachment. On Sun, MIL is going over to join him for 4-5 days before flying back. They have signed up for a package to tour Margaret River. I'm sure they are going to have fun.

In 3 weeks time, Adrian will be back from his training and can finally be together with the family after spending 7 weeks overseas.

Ohh... here's a bit of trivia about Louis and myself. Louis needs to go out in order to recharge himself, while I'm more a homebody. This weekend, we've got to learn how to work our schedule so that he get enough activity to feel that his weekend was fruitful and to recharge himself, while at the same time, we do not do too many things that I feel drained. That's one thing in which we are both quite different :)

Christmas Wishlist

Today, we got to skype with family for the first time. Astee was using my laptop, which already had the webcam installed. For some reasons, the line kept dropping but we were able to get some good connections twice and had a decent video-conference call :)

It was nice to be able to see Astee, Anthea and Anders over the webcam. Louis asked what they wanted for Christmas presents and here's the kids wishlist, including what they thought their Ye-ye (grandpa), Nai-Nai (grandma) and parents wanted:

Anthea & Anders' Christmas Wishlist

• For Ye-ye: A pair of pants
• For Nai-nai: A pair of necklace
• For Adrian: A camera
• For Astee: A pair of pink shoes
• For Anthea: Barbie dolls of Ashley and Genevieve, of the 12 Princesses
• For Anders: A Mickey Mouse soft toy

Louis also asked the kids on their prediction of Baby's gender. And guess what? Their unanimous answer was that they both wanted a "mei-mei" (sister). I guess we'll know if both their "predictions" or wishes come through in Apr 07 ;)

As for what Louis and I would wish for this Christma, we only have a simple one. That Baby would be born healthy.

A Colder Houston

Overnight, Texas weather has taken a dip to a temperature of about 8 Degrees Celsius today. I've heard over the news that Dallas (north of Houston) is expecting a winter storm. For the first time since my arrival, the hotel windows are frosted over, the ground outside is wet and people are walking around town, huddled in thicker outer jackets. The cold front is going to stay with us at least till this weekend, based on what I can see of the weather forecast for the next few days.

I think the sensations that I had thought all along were uterus contractions (aka Braxton Hicks contraction) might just be Baby's movements afterall. Becos after Louis sang to Baby last night in bed, I could suddenly feel a little movement/kick inside of me. When Louis placed his hands over my stomach, Baby kicked again. We were both enthralled and excited at the same time :) Baby is responding to us!

Louis ended work late last night as his client and consulting manager (CM) were in town for a few days. I met them at a nearby pub for a drink. Angela, his client, was really nice... she was all excited and sharing with us stories about her 2 pregnancies. Even though her boys are now 15 and 12 yrs old, she could still remember how they were when she was expecting them.

Tonight, I'm making beef bulgogi for dinner. I've marinated the beef and its now sitting in the fridge, absorbing all the flavours. It might not be a bad idea to eat in seeing that the weather has turned colder. Yoonmi, my Korean friend has taught me to try marinating the beef with sliced pears as substitutes for sugar. Hmmm... I can't wait to try the beef tonight *slurp* :)



I'm glad that the nausea is gone and I'm able to go back to cooking again. And its worth every effort to see Louis enjoying and appreciating the home cooked food. That said, I am looking forward to the day that I'll be able to cook for Baby too. There's nothing that gives the cook the greatest satisfaction than to see enjoyment on the faces of the people around the dinning table. And in Baby's case... a toothless grin :)