the joys (and sufferings) of being pregnant

As we enter the final weeks of what is possibly my last pregnancy (since I really don't know if I have the energy to have another one), it's easy to understand why most people enjoy the 2nd trimester the most. In the 1st trimester, most are busy purging out what they are trying to put into their bodies. Fortunately, I've never had very serious morning sickness - with all 3 pregnancies, the most pronounced symptom that indicated I was carrying a new life was how tired I felt all the time. With Claire, I also clearly remembered that I couldn't bear the taste of normal toothpaste and had to switch to natural herbal ones. With the two boys, life was mostly normal - other than constantly needing to indulge in a siesta every now and then, though this time round, I was quite frequently looking for sour things in my diet. I drank lots of tom yum talay in the initial weeks and that definitely contributed to my weight gain (all that coconut milk!). Up to this point (roughly into the 34th week), I think I have already put on what I put on for the entire pregnancy when I was carrying Chace.

For most people, the 2nd trimester represents a stable pregnancy and their bodily curves start to give away the fact that they are carrying a precious little being inside their body. Appetites also tend to improve and travelling becomes possible. For me, carrying a third child just meant that I look fat, regardless of the angle and the baby bump only becomes pronounced towards the end of the 2nd trimester. It is also during this time that many start to feel the movement of their little one. It is probably these movements that clearly tells one 'there is life within you' - I enjoy communicating with the little one in this way because it is so very special. No one can really 'tell' unless you choose to tell so these are very special moments between the two of you.

And where I am right now, impatience has started to set in. While I understand it is important to carry the baby full term, I can't help but wish for time to move faster. Unfortunately, that is a little bit of an irony right now since I have plenty of uncompleted work (and unfulfilled quota) yet I can't wait for week 40 to arrive. The little one is very busy with his acrobatic stunts and his movements become so obvious due to the lack of space. It is extremely uncomfortable to carry this extra weight around (last visit at week 33, he is estimated to be about 2.4kg) and even more difficult to get to sleep or stay asleep for that matter. And don't even get me started on the recent weather... my only respite from that are the aqua-aerobic classes that I have been attending in the last few weeks. The joy of being 'weightless', enjoying the cool water in the pool. With just over a month to go, I've shifted into high gear - attempting to cover as much ground as possible at work so that I can enjoy the rest of the year, bonding with my 3 precious babies. So pray for me and wish me luck!

Return of Maid problems

Someone told me that if I should start to have maid problems again, I should test if I am pregnant because pregnant ladies always have issues with their maid. In this case, you would already know by now that I am indeed pregnant (and in fact, already in my final trimester) and I am starting to be less tolerant of the maid. The truth is, the problems were always there but I chose to close BOTH eyes for the past one year. I kept this maid for so long only because she didn't show any signs that she would abuse my children when I am not around. Not that she does now... but her lack of initiative and cleanliness is getting on my nerves right now, ESP when we are going to welcome a newborn into the family pretty soon. I guess that means the hunt for a new maid will begin soon (at some point...). Once I have sorted out Claire's party this weekend, completed the sale of our property (so that i have one less thing in my mind) and tying up the loose ends at work... another one bites the dust.

preparing for Claire's 5th birthday

Every year, without fail, Claire will throw me the toughest of challenge for her birthday (last year she asked for a rainbow theme) and this year, because we bought her the movie 'Tinkerbell and the Great Fairy Rescue" last year when we were travelling, she decided that she wants a Tinkerbell theme. She won't settle for anything else. I suggested Disney Princess, Hello Kitty, Dora, etc etc but all got rejected. And since the movie was not actually shown in Singapore (I don't recall ever seeing any promotional materials on it), it was practically impossible to find merchandise on the theme. Fortunately, I have this GOOD habit of being prepared so I did ask her way in advance (probably like in Jan or something), I had plenty of time to source for things related to the theme. My only gripe - there was NOTHING that boys can have with a theme like this! Nope, nothing - not Peter Pan (not even remotely popular), not Captain Hook, not even 'Jake and the Neverland Pirate' (too new so no merchandise yet). In the end, I settled for 'Toys Story' since many boys do like Toy Story and the color themes for both are quite similar (green & yellow mostly).

So I eventually ordered the goodies from USA - I contemplated on ordering some items from a China website but given the amount of 'fake' items manufactured in that country, I really did not want to take a risk particularly if we are talking about food stuff.

Though this really should have been part of last year's party, I also attempted to bake some rainbow cupcakes so that the children can decorate them as part of the party activity - however, the colors came out too strong for my liking. I will try to bake one more round before the actual day to see if I can achieve more moderately colored rainbow cupcakes. With the cupcakes and some vanilla butter cream piping to resemble clouds in the sky, it would go with the party theme.

Claire loves to draw

This is Claire's drawing done on LOTS. She told me that this is the 'boomerang bird' in angry bird. Don't ask me why she wrote Chace's name below though. :)

Getting back into the hang of things

I realised over the past couple of days the reasons why I blogged so infrequently in the last two years... 

1) I barely turned on the computer since I got my hands on the ipad since it practically does everything I need to do. The only times I had the turn on the computer was because some pages did not load properly on the ipad (namely those that were running adobe flash content though there ARE ways to get around that problem).

2) I suffer from insomnia only when I am pregnant and my creative juices only flow in the middle of the night when all is quiet (like now!)

3) Facebook has made it much easier to share updates and photos with
iPhones/iPads

So that explains why I have blogged more in the past two months than the entire of last year! :P and I suppose that means you will be reading more frequent updates on us for the next four months at least!

Another reason would also be that I've downloaded the blogger app on my iphone and ipad and that allows me to upload a photo and blog almost instantly - Hurray for technology advancement!

School Dental Health

Claire getting her two front teeth fixed by the dentist last week - but the filling on one of her tooth came off the same night coz she kept playing with it. Anyway, the dentist said that the 'cavity' is too small (to do the filling and) to be of a concern as long as we pay attention and brush them clean daily.

Learning to Spell

Claire has been doing spelling since the start of this year - are there specific methods to learn to spell? I teach her to recite the letters and then the word as she writes them so that they 'register' in her brain. Is this a good method?

cold & coughing away

I always know its trouble - when the OTHER family falls ill. Though we do not meet often (once every two weeks, maybe - even that is too much), there is a 'carrier' who will bring the germs and viruses over to my household. It normally starts with the children and then DH... and I'm usually the last to get hit. But since I am pregnant now (there are many articles explaining why pregnant women get sick more easily - just google it), I got infected before DH and I'm glad to say *touch wood* that the children got a much milder version.

It started last week - with a horrible feeling in the throat and before I knew it, I lost my voice *almost completely* - conversations were reduced to whispers and I bet the children were glad that I couldn't SHOUT at them when they did something dangerous! I started off with laryngitis and then, drippy nose - I've got my voice back now but now the throat is always itchy, the nose is stuffy and the phlegm is greenish. *YUCKS* but I guess that means I'm on the way to recovery. But I hate it, really, really hate it. Hope I recover before we leave for our cruise this weekend... :{ I am actually looking forward to the trip - though we have cruised before many times, this will be the first time we go on a Royal Caribbean cruise and obviously, its a first for the kids - Claire is excited as its a early birthday trip for her. We can't cruise any later, partly because there are not many cruises scheduled from now to her birthday and also because women beyond 24 weeks are not allowed on board - How silly, isn't it? Considering that airlines do permit flying up to 32 weeks or something, with a DR's certification. And oh, the OTHER (copycat) family is also going to go on a cruise after this - I really wonder why she find so much joy 'copying' what we do.