Week 26 - Baby whisperer

My body:

* Weight is going up steady no matter how I control my diet. It is still within reasonable range but every Friday morning (my weighing day), I still hold my breath when I step on that damn scale!
*Am bloated most of the time. Oh deaaar... It's one those situation where eating or not eating doesn't make any difference so you might as well eat.....

My baby:
is almost 1 kg, and hears noises, responds to light and is generally more aware of its surrounding. In the same way that you can see a flashlight if you hold it against your palm, the baby can see the light coming through my belly. His hearing is fully developed and as he reacts to sounds, its pulse increased.

Aaargh.... 26 weeks! Where did time go? Next week I will be going in my third trimester... In a short order, i will be a (giant) walking canvas of diapers, breast milk and poo... probably longing for the calm of being a Lady of Leisure I am now. I can't yet fathom the life with the baby but people said I should definitely enjoy the boredom of not doing anything at the moment, I sure won't have any leisure time when junior is born. There is a worry that the carefree side of me will rebel - I still have my chick lit book next to my pregnancy book on my bedside table. And although I have been piling books about choosing the right nursery and all the baby stuff, I still haven't actually read any and still choose Paulo Coelho over them.

I have put the dvd of baby whisperer (not sure what it's called though) by this Australian woman, Priscilla Dunstan, on my Christmas list. She was in Oprah the other day and on Australian TV yesterday and claimed that she had unlocked the secret language of babies. A lot of parents swore that understanding the sounds that babies make have made their life so much easier and more relaxed - especially for new parents.

After studying more than 1000 babies between 0-3 months old, she said she had identified 5 words that babies say (coming from their bodies' needs and are manifested in their cries), regardless their culture or races.
Here they are:
"Neh" means "I am hungry"
"Eh" means "I need to burp"
"Owh" means "I am sleepy"
"Heh" means "I am experiencing discomfort"
"Eairh" means "I have lower gas"

Scott went "Neh" "Neh" all night when I went "Eh" "Eh" in reply (due to the bloating).

I have made an appointment to check the daycare centre facilities in the area for next week. As suspected the waiting list is about a year at the moment (eeeks...) and I was suggested to put my name down as soon as possible. Not to mention these centres are not really cheaper one from the other. I'd still like to get junior to socialise in early age though - good for his development and my sanity!

Dreams and Emotions
No moody feelings for me, thank God. I hardly feel hormonal or emotional during these months. What I found funny though, is, that even though I dont' feel like crying or yelling during the days, there were nights that I have had dreams where I had very emotional fights with people in which I was very very upset and angry and usually ended up screaming at those people. Had those dreams with mum in it, even my ex boyfriends, but thankfully never with Scott (otherwise I would be very concerned! As a matter a fact, in those dreams where I had emotional upsetting episodes with my exes, I woke up and felt very blessed that I am with Scott and not with them now :D). Certainly the way my body channeling the frustration and emotions in other ways since I never really channel them in the real life.

Week 25 - Yummy mummy

On the left: Scott and I getting ready for the Chairs for Charity dinner at Flemington Racecourse. Was very proud and slightly surprised that I still have good balance for dancing on those high heels and the big belly!


My body:
Over all I am feeling alright. No complaints except those old ones (but I have made peace with them). I have been told by a few people though, that my belly is puffing like self raising flour. You just left the dough to stand for a few minutes, look away and PUFF it raised like magic.

Some people commented that it looked like I am having a big baby. I did feel humongous last week. And a little uncomfortable with the sturdiness and the fact that it is getting hard to bend over. I know it is a bit early but my envy to big bellies that those soon-to-be mummies have, have disappeared. I just want it to be over. At the same time I think my belly has reached it best shape - from now on it's going downhill (bigger and eventually will look like it is going to explode!)

Honestly, it is such a mixed bag - sometimes I look at my belly and wish I could stay pregnant forever. Other times, it feels like a science project (or as I said before, baking dough) gone wrong and expanding out of control and I wonder how I'll survive another three more months.

My baby:
weighs about 1.5 pounds and measures 8.8 inches from crown to rump (or about 13.5 inches from head to heel). He is becoming stronger as its stem cells continue to develop into bone tissue, and its bones become solid through a process called ossification. Slightly worried about him because he seems to be less active than last week though. Hope everything is fine.

I feel like a yummy mummy this week. There were days when I felt FAT but most of the time I feel good and sexy. Had a look around for photography sessions for pregnancy portrait, but they all are rip off. Ripping off the joy of people's life I think, their job descriptions are! (ask Sharon if you don't believe me, she's getting married next year so she's gone through the motions of finding a photographer and I am sure they mark their price up even worse for weddings!)

This week, finally, it was appeal to me to start looking at baby's stuff, such as nursery and little tiny clothings. I even started to look around for baby day care. It is ludicrous, that people need to book ahead even before the baby is even born (for people that actually want to get back to work after a year off they actually need to book even before they find out they are pregnant!). I do have the luxury of not having to go back to work, and have also realised that my former self has collapsed under the nesting impulse, when I find myself ironing Scott's working shirts. I have also done a lot of washing and cooking and vacuuming (twice within 2 weeks - that's definitely my maternal instinct kicks in)
Anyway, this whole world of parental responsibilities lurking out there - and it is making me a bit nervous. All these thoughts of what might go wrong - what if our son doesn't get a daycare centre on time, what if he ends up in a lame nursery school, where the carers don't care about them and just looking at them while having cigarettes? And what if our son ends up hanging out with the wrong crowd and smoking pots after school - errrrrr.. that might be too far into the future but you get the point!

Am a bit disappointed of myself though. I still haven't started my pregnancy pilates/yoga/exercise that I was planning to do straight away after we move to Melbourne. I had fallen into my comfort zone last week and as a result I felt even more tired and more wasted. There isn't any pilates/yoga places close here that convenient by feet and we're getting tired of waiting for my car to arrive. It's really a lame excuse, I know.. but I just can't be bothered to go if I have to walk or wait for bus half an hour each way.

Finally - U2 concert happened last Sunday. It was fantastic, especially because I hadn't been to any concerts for ages. I am glad I made effort to buy those tickets after I sold the ones for Auckland. Oh and baby didn't seem to mind - he didn't kick as much as I thought he would be but I wonder if that is because he covered his ears and maybe preferred the classical music?)

Week 24 - Finding Forester

My body:
* Undies are getting too small, not sure if my bum is getting bigger or all my undies have shrunk in the dryer or combination of both.
* Braxton hicks? Well, as always, am not very sure if I did experience the hicks. Braxton Hicks are intermittent contractions of the uterus that some women experience during their pregnancy. They were first described by Dr. John Braxton Hicks in 1872, an English gynecologist, and are often referred to as practice labor because they are thought to help prepare your body for the real deal. Apparently most women notice Braxton hicks contractions in their second half of their pregnancy and in their third trimester in particular. Most of them last between 30 to 60 seconds, often feel like a tightening of the front of your abdomen or pelvis. * Numbness - the blood circulation in the body of course is affected by the pregnancy, and as result I feel numbness on my fingers or feets from time to time. Mostly when I lay down in bed and not moving for a while.
* Just like an old pregnant woman, I started to need Scott's help to move around after getting comfortable or settled for a while in bed or in the lounge. Sometimes he needed to push my back or I need to roll to my side before able to actually standing up or changing my position!


My baby:
Weighs about 1.2 pounds and about 12 inches from head to heel - that is around 30 cm! He's growing for sure!) His lungs have started secreting surfactant, the substance that keeps the moist, interior surface of the lungs from sticking together, and he is practicing breathing. His eyes are also watching for lights and his ears are listenign to the heartbeat and the stomach growl.

While we were on the topics of his hearings, the other day I put an easy listening classical CD on - you know what they say, it is supposed to calm the baby down and stimulate his brain while he is still inside the womb. A few minutes after the music was on, he started to kick. I haven't got any clue whether or not that means he liked the music or hated it (Maybe he prefers top 40 music?)

Also this morning, I was woken up by the sound of a truck blowing his horn. A split second later I felt his movement as if this had startled him as well. He didn't really have a good reflex though, he kicked a bit too long after the horn blew but at least we know he was reacting to sounds!

Pregnancy is a funny thing. It is funny enough having someone (a real person!) growing inside your tummy - and you can't control it. It grows without you have any saying about it. Sharon said last night - it wouldn't sink down in her until she sees me holding the baby in my arm. I almost feel like that too. Sometimes it is real, sometimes it is not.

On Thursday we had a maternity hospital tour at Masada. The lady showed the facilities around. That time it felt real, that I am having a baby - looking at the birthing room made me shiver. When the lady said some women have been in those rooms for a long birth, it dawned to me all the pains and the things that can happen in the labour. Eeeeeeks.....

The other day I was also freaked out by the thought that I AM going to be a mother. And this is it, no turning back! I thought, what if I didn't enjoy being a mother? What if I hated not being free as I was before, or if I wasn't a good mother? So many things that started to sink in as the pregnancy grows. So many worries. And joys at the same time.
I have to say, despite all that, I have been enjoying my pregnancy.

We picked up the new Subaru Forester on friday. How exciting! I got to drive it after dinner at Sharon's on Saturday (pregnant women = designated drivers!) and it was as smooth as. Scott's been like a little boy with his new toy - he went to see the car in the garage before he went to sleep and checking the car out on the way to the shop around the corner (walking!).

Week 23 - Suburbia housewife

My body:
• Oh waist, where are tho? It’s gone! Mum said I looked much bigger than I was when she first arrived. I think I did finally grow pregnant within the past 4 or 5 weeks. Every week I feel big but the next week when I look at my last week’s picture I can see that I was definitely smaller then. Funny how a week can make a difference (on the scale as well!)
• I have been getting more and more tired easily. Only need to walk for half an hour or so to feel my back aching and the need to sit down. The thing is I walked a lot this week with mum here and we didn't have any car. It's good because we definitely need the exercise but bad because I got very very tired at the end of the day (at least mum cooked dinner every night hehe)

My baby:
weighs a little less than one pound, and is about 8 inches from crown to rump (or about 11.5 inches head to heel). He is continuing to develop facial features, has eyes that open and close, ears that can hear, and a thumb well worth sucking.

Scott’s away the whole week! Glad I have mummy as a company until next Sunday.

Things haven’t been as smoothly as we hoped since we moved here. Nothing had been easy, for example my car still hasn’t arrived – we’ve been waiting for the permit to arrive since 3 weeks ago and it only just arrived a few days ago, we still haven’t got any internet connection (I received an automated phone call yesterday saying: “This is an automated call from Exetel. Your ADSL application has been rejected. For more details or reasons why it is rejected, please visit our website bla bla bla…”, trouble with the health insurance correspondence, the list goes on and on and on.

The suburbian public transportation in Melbourne is crap – crappier than Jakarta since you can actually get a bus literally every 3 minutes in Jakarta (and you can halt it anywhere!). Mum and I are of course forced to take the public transportation to move about during her staying here. I got very cranky with the unreliable system and everything. This afternoon the bus was running late for half an hour, my back hurt and two young lads sitting on the bench didn’t even moved for that half hour, even after I said to mum in a loud voice and in English “I can’t take it anymore. I am pregnant and I need to sit down”. I had to sit down on the pavement!

After three days of walking from dusk til down (hiperbolic!) I started to get worried because baby seemed to be quiet. Would he be distressed because I forced it? Don't know - what I know is that he started to be a Haka warrior again when Scott came home after his trip. Maybe he just missed his father!

Week 22 – Home sweet home

My body:
• To sum it all: a little tired, a little hungry and a little uncomfortable. I truly get tired very easily, and my back sore very much when I stand or walk too long. As for a little uncomfortable, I freaked out the other day when I can’t really recognize or feel my body anymore. It’s not the same, not the look, not the sense. I feel like I am living in someone else’s body – a borrowed one. Or maybe mine was borrowed? Hope it will be returned to me after bubba is born.

My baby:
Weighs about 11 ounces, measures about 7.6 inches from head to rump (or just under 11 inches head to heel), and is growing eyelashes and eyebrows.

Everyone but mum left on Monday. Mum is staying another 2 weeks here and another week in Sydney with her friend so I employed her to help me with unpacking at the new house.
Yup, we moved in on Tuesday! A comfortable town house with central heating and air conditioning (what more can a pregnant lady who is due in the middle of summer ask?), dishwasher, and own room for bubsie.

I couldn’t get out of the house for 2 days because I just could not leave the house unfinished. On the third day, I gave in and dumped the remaining stuff in baby’s room (still have plenty of time to unpack them before baby arrives – although I am sure this will fly very quickly and I will get panic shortly!)

Scott and I were busy spending money on the house – went crazy! So much we spent already but I keep my mind on perspective: might as well spend now since we won’t be able to spend once baby arrives.