Well Done T!

I'm so proud of my boy!!!

The HG family was at IKEA today to get some stuff in preparation for BG's arrival and deciding that T will probably be happier at the kids' play area within IKEA, we left him to his own devices there while the adults shopped in peace. Just for reference, each munchkin gets only 1 hour play time before he gets booted out of the play area; wished it could be longer though. I mean, unless you already know what you wanna get, how can 1 hour be enough in IKEA??

Anyway, we collected him when the one hour was up and on the way back, he told us that he did a poo in the play area toilet.  Firstly, he is one of those folks who poo only in designated, familiar toilets and so, it came as a very big surprise to me that he actually deigned to poo in a completely unfamiliar toilet. That was not the best part: he managed to poo and wipe his bum all on his own! (cleanliness of bum non withstanding) I was so proud of him at that moment and upon reflection, perhaps I have been molly-coddling him too much. He is by nature an independent soul and I have been so blinded by the fact that he is (and always will be) my little boy that I have failed to see how capable he is of doing things on his own.

Downside? He did not get to wash his hands after the poo and wipe cos the sink was apparently too high for him to reach. Eeeuuwww...

The Time Draws Near...

Firstly, I can't believe all you readers out there have not pointed out at all the error in my blog name. I am expecting a Foal, not a Calf!! Don't quite know what I was thinking when I changed the name but anyway, the title is correct now. Not quite happy with the name though -CONSTRUCTIVE suggestions, anyone?

Back to the main topic: I am typing this entry cos I am on a loooong bus journey back to Hougang from Bukit Merah. No cabs in sight and I have absolutely no clue how to get to the nearest MRT station of which I do not even know the name of. The place I am at could be in outer Mongolia for all I know.

Digressing again...I am approximately 2 months away from saying hi to Baby Girl (not that she can see or hear me very well then) and a strange thought/feeling has been plaguing me for a few weeks. I am holding on dearly to what's left of the private time alone I have with T and cannot seem to get enough of kissing his chubby cheeks and inhaling the scent of him. His innocent eyes melt my heart into gooey puddles and I will really miss the times I have with him alone.

Yes, I probably sound very silly since it will be an addition of happiness when Baby Girl (BG for short cos it gets tiresome if u have to type it many times. Ah ah ah ah stayin' alive, stayin' alive!!) decides to make her presence known instead of a subtraction of love from T. But honestly, T will always have the special status of being my firstborn and he has given YSY and I so much happiness over these 4 years that I can't really wrap my head around the fact that someone is coming soon to join the crowd.

These are the kind of silly thoughts that come up when hormones are running amok and the fear of not knowing what the future holds...

To share another paranoia: I do hope the good doc's scanning machine is working fine cos if BG turns out to be a BB, he will be having quite an *ahem* unusual wardrobe cos it will basically be all pink and girlie...oh the hours of fun I had digging through all the hand me downs!!

No More Ms Nice Preggie

I DID IT! I asked someone to give up a Reserved Seat in the MRT for me today!

"Big fat hairy deal..." some might say.

Let's start from the beginning: my organisation had a work retreat today, which basically entails a day of presentations and team bonding activities. I also had a dinner gathering with some ex-colleagues after the retreat.

Very much tired out from the retreat activities, I had to take the train during peak hour in order to get to the dinner venue. As you may expect, peak hour commute definitely ain't a bed of roses and somehow, something snapped in my cranium and I marched right up (marched being a relative description, considering that I was squashed almost right up the side partition) to the young lady sitting in the RS.

I am glad I did so cos the train was acting cranky and stopping for prolonged periods at each and every station before my destination (it was 7 stops from my boarding station to the destination).

Final Lap

Amidst all the mad-hattering of family life,  motherhood, pregnancy hood (nope, I don't consider motherhood and pregnancy to be the same, unless some trick of science allows you to kiss a cuddly 'foetus' goodnight) and work demands (for the record, folks who tell you that Civil Service is easy work ought to be strung up, quartered and shot through their fingers and toes), I find myself entering the last trimester of pregnancy.

I wish I could say that it has been a blissfully happy one but unfortunately, it is not. Heartburn, non-existent tummies and worries about logistics after Gillian/Amber/??? is born continues to plague me to this day, though things have improved on the tummy front (yeah, yeah, it is an obsession. Other folks get strange food cravings; I measure the diameter of my tummy circumference. What about it?? ;p)

Seriously though, there are certain things that I will like to remember when I look back at this pregnancy 5 years down the road and before Mummy Brain sets in, I better get the memories down in this post.

1. No Mummy Tummy

Yes, I am starting to sound like a broken record but I will still say it. Due to curvy hip bones, *cue roll of eyes* I have a non-existent pregnant tummy which has caused much distress during the infant stages (pardon the pun) of my pregnancy. Hushed/embarrassed questions from colleagues asking me if I am pregnant (during month 5-6 of my pregnancy), sneak looks from folks sitting down in the train and wondering "Is she? Is she not?", and the clincher? Smiling old men who ask me to give up my Reserved Seat early in the morning. Yup, I am nursing a grudge for that one and happily sitting in yet another Reserved Seat typing this entry out. Bleagh!

2. Breaking the XX / YY Tradition

Among my closer group of friends, they all have multiple offsprings who are of the same gender i.e. both siblings are either boy-boy or girl-girl pairings. The one other lady who managed to break this strange tradition cheated by increasing the number of offspring that she had, thereby increasing her odds of having a different-gender offspring, sneaky chick that she is (love you Ms T!!). Just recently,  I received happy news of another Stallion/Mare in the making. Well, maybe not so much making, more like nurturing.  Anyway, we shall soon see if the XX / YY tradition can be broken yet again in a couple of months.

3. Biological Workings

Throughout the whole pregnancy, I was a bundle of paranoia and hormones (talk about a lethal combination...). The result of this was a short tempered shrew who blew up over small things and then breaking down after that. Dark shadows of unfounded fears plague me and caused many sleepless nights, which in turn fuel the short tempers. Chicken and egg, anyone? Anyway, the surges of hormones seem to have abated and I feel more like a sane person now.

The one constant in this pregnancy however, was an unbelievable constant craving for all things sweet. Chocolates, cakes, soft drinks...you name it, I want it. While I have a sweet tooth all along, this constant need for sugars is scary. So much so that I am actually concerned that Baby Girl may turn out bigger than she should have been if I were on a sugar-little diet.

Funny Tummy & Skinny Jeans

My biggest bugbear throughout the course of this pregnancy would be the circumference of my tummy. Yeah, for folks who have been following the blog posts since I officially went public with the pregnancy, they probably may have noticed that not one post goes by without some form of mention of my itty bitty tummy. Though my memory isn't so good anymore, I seem to remember a bigger tummy from when I was carrying the Rascal. Though it wasn't very big at that time, it was round enough to make me look obviously pregnant and not 'is she or is she not'.

Despite this very huge bugbear, it is not without a good dose of amusement to see fellow co-workers do a double-take when I told them that I am 5.5 months along my pregnancy. In the words of a colleague: 'I can't believe I have been working with you for the past few months and not realise that you are pregnant!' Quite unlike my previous workplace where news and gossip will spread like wild-fire 3 seconds after it has left the mouth of a perpetrator, folks in my current organisation kept pretty much to themselves. Even within my department, personal information is pretty well contained unless asked for.

Though my tummy is not sufficiently huge enough to look outright pregnant, my waistline has still expanded somewhat that I can't fit comfortably into my usual wardrobe now. At the recommendation of a friend, I bought some maternity wear online and one of these included a pair of skinny jeans. Now, I had previously shunned skinny jeans like the plague when they first became all the rage across the fashion world. Kate Moss I am not, and shunting myself into those skin-tight denims will be akin to an elephant trying to fit into leotards. Anyway, ASOS (the online store I was ordering from) carried only skinny jeans and I needed casual clothes, so skinny jeans it was.

When my order arrived and I tried the jeans on, ooooh! I was immediately struck by how elongated and 'shapely' my legs appeared. Skin-tight does indeed work its magic...in a time where I feel perpetually bloated and shapeless in loose fitting clothes, you will not believe how amazing I felt when I saw my jeans-clad reflection in the mirror :) The jeans are now a favourite piece in my current wardrobe (not that I have much to choose from) and who knows? I can continue to wear them post-pregnancy..

2013

Heralded in January

Gone in February

Was to be a Virgo

Replaced by a Taurus

Penning this down

As the only remembrance

Of a fleeting moment in time



A Good Ol' Whine

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.

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...

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.

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?