I am well into my 22nd week of pregnancy this week without realising how quickly time flies. With this pregnancy, three things stand out in very stark contrast to when I was carrying the Rascal.
Symptoms
I had a whale of a time during my last pregnancy, with morning sickness being limited to saliva spitting and the odd piece of undigested food. Had all the usual swollen feet, mild heartburn and sudden leg cramps but all these happened during the last few months. This time round? OMG....I graduated directly into full blown throwing up, abrupt flaring of temper and absolutely disgusting loud belching that came out of nowhere. In fact, if you like half digested red cherries coming out of your throat and burping fish oil capsules, pregnancy is the way to go.
I had a whale of a time during my last pregnancy, with morning sickness being limited to saliva spitting and the odd piece of undigested food. Had all the usual swollen feet, mild heartburn and sudden leg cramps but all these happened during the last few months. This time round? OMG....I graduated directly into full blown throwing up, abrupt flaring of temper and absolutely disgusting loud belching that came out of nowhere. In fact, if you like half digested red cherries coming out of your throat and burping fish oil capsules, pregnancy is the way to go.
Common symptoms aside, I also get strange happenings that I did not even know was part and parcel of lugging a (non existent) tummy around. Cue Exhibit A: Did anyone know that pregnant women are more prone to nosebleeds? I sure as hell didn't. But it happened one evening and scared the heck out of me and YSY to see blood soaked tissues after I blew my nose. It apparently had something to do with increased blood supply and overworked blood capillaries.
Exhibit B: Spotting. The birds and the bees happened and the spotting came one day during my second trimester. For folks who are not aware, spotting/bleeding are never a good sign during the second and third trimester as this may indicate all sorts of pregnancy complications or even miscarriage. Again scared the heck out of me and the Husband, more so the Husband cos his precious daughter may be in danger. Humph! Anyway, the spotting stopped and our pounding hearts stilled.
With the first pregnancy, I breezed through it with shiny hair, glowing skin and a general feeling of sunshine. Alas! This was not replicated for the current one. Even in my second tri, the general feeling was one of crappiness though I am having an easier time now without any morning sickness. However, the heartburn is still bad enough that mass hoards of undigested food are migrating my poor gullet. Let's not even go into the distressed complexion and fizzy hair...
Le Showing
The Tummy - how do I describe thee? Non existent, that's how. Whenever I see pregnant ladies with ginormous tummies on the streets, the one thought I have everytime is: how is it humanly possible for a tummy to stick out so much? Will it burst with the next inch that it grows? Sadly or happily (depending on how u want to look at it), I will never know. At 22 weeks, my tummy is woefully small, more like a love handle rather than the protective container of a living thing. According to the good doctor/nurse/lab technician at TMC, the size of a pregnant tummy is determined by the curvature of the mother's hip bone - the curvier the bone, the more contained the tummy. At least I know I have curvy hip bones now...
The Tummy - how do I describe thee? Non existent, that's how. Whenever I see pregnant ladies with ginormous tummies on the streets, the one thought I have everytime is: how is it humanly possible for a tummy to stick out so much? Will it burst with the next inch that it grows? Sadly or happily (depending on how u want to look at it), I will never know. At 22 weeks, my tummy is woefully small, more like a love handle rather than the protective container of a living thing. According to the good doctor/nurse/lab technician at TMC, the size of a pregnant tummy is determined by the curvature of the mother's hip bone - the curvier the bone, the more contained the tummy. At least I know I have curvy hip bones now...
Attention Seekers
When I broke the news to T, he apparently was not too affected about the arrival of a baby sister (yup, it's a girl!!). So it came as a surprise to me when during a conversation with his Chinese teacher, I was told that his attention span has greatly shortened in school when he previously loved learning in class. Also, he became fidgety and kept telling everyone that his mummy has a baby. This out-of-the-blue behaviour coincides with the time I was trying to prep him for his new sibling. At home, he starts crying over the slightest thing and gets very emotional.
When I broke the news to T, he apparently was not too affected about the arrival of a baby sister (yup, it's a girl!!). So it came as a surprise to me when during a conversation with his Chinese teacher, I was told that his attention span has greatly shortened in school when he previously loved learning in class. Also, he became fidgety and kept telling everyone that his mummy has a baby. This out-of-the-blue behaviour coincides with the time I was trying to prep him for his new sibling. At home, he starts crying over the slightest thing and gets very emotional.
Being cared for at the nanny's where babies are a dime a dozen, I am actually very surprised that T is reacting so strangely to my pregnancy. Anyway, it is still an uphill trek to deal with his behaviour right now: too strict and it will merely reinforces the idea that a new sister is associated with negativity but relax the discipline and we risk undoing all the good of past enforcement. What's a mother to do in times like this?
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