baby bump #2

I had made very few records of how my preganacy this 2nd time round compared to my 1st time experiencing being pregnant. Besides having an active baby, i do many things with baby R physically, mentally, emotionally, i kind of neglect connecting with my baby in my tummy except at nite when i lie down, before i fall asleep, feeling baby #2's movement, i would try to talk to her always reminding baby #2 to be good... to really listen to daddy and mummy... Here are some of the moments with baby #2 that i recorded and the very few pics i had taken with my baby bump with new write ups.

*

It was on the day that the Chinggay floats were coming into tpy that i decided to pop into the phamacy to get a test-kit. 20th February 2011, Sunday nite, i was late for almost a week and i felt that it was time to check it out. my gut feeling was proven right. I'm pregnant! gx had wanted to wait for another few more days cos everytime we tot we hit jackpot, the next day it will come... my breast felt so swollen till i jus had to get it out of my system to know if i had a baby. I was happy and i showed gx. He was happy but jus like me, we both werent as excited as before like when we knew we had our 1st baby! weird was the feeling that came along with the happiness.

Gx said that we were looking forward for the good news but prob knows better what we need to expect in the coming 9mths after and thus maybe we are feeling scared at the same time not forgetting we have an older one to deal with at the same time! So i am pregnant and people who knows about our good news are Our families, my relatives and some friends. Cos it is still not 3 months yet but this time i want to keep a better record that goes along with my pregnancy. I am still late in catching up but i am trying to be as on time as possible. haven been in the best mood cos of the on-going battle with gx's lousy mood. i have to survive and be as happy as possible for my 2nd baby!

*

21st Feb11, Monday. I couldnt really sleep cos i was excited and worried about the pregnancy. my mind wot rest till i see the gynae to confirm my pregnancy! called in and my appointment was at 6pm. gx made it in time and he got me soyabean from tmc... at tmc theres nothing else except Jollybean and delifrance! i knew i needed to drink lots of water which is never my favourite beverage to be able to be scanned! when doc confirmed its there, i  felt relieved! so my journey with my 2nd baby begins! baby is about 6 weeks old... countdown to 9 months has started!

*

12th April11, Tuesday. Gx took off cos we were off to TMC early in the morning to do the Oscars Test for baby #2... to check that everything is normal and that baby is developing normally... the clinic nurse managed to secure the 1st spot for us... Gx was the one who saw most of the scan as the monitor was not facing me and the doc was busy pressing so hard on my tummy with the scanner and asking me to lie lower, higher then turning to my side to get a better view of the baby...

Gx gestured to me that the baby had both arms up and the legs were stretching too! the doc tried to make the baby move above some "line" that she jiggled the scanner on my tummy so hard and make me turn left and right a few times. Gx saw the baby bounced! then came the moment where the doc had to check the baby's heartbeat... she on it pretty loud and we could hear very clearly our baby's heartbeat with swish swash sounds! the doc did turn the screen to let me view a few moments of the baby and that was it... too short i would say... Gx did tried to ask the doc if everything was good... she replied that we needed to wait for the blood test results and it will be sent to our gynae with a report. Saw our gynae in the nite and he told us that the baby is very normal and very good. thats the relief news we needed to hear... i have officially past my 1st trimester and baby is now into 13th week!

*

baby R meets baby #2

12th April11, Tuesday nite... thou we did quite abit after the morning scan i would love to blog on the meetup of my 2 babies... cos it was fantastic, a sweet encounter and a beautiful moment... Gx and I prep baby R about the meetup she was going have with baby #2... we didnt want her to freak out knowing she was visiting the doctor... then we told her she was going to see baby who she calls baobao on a screen when the doctor puts a scanner on mummy's tummy. We told her she should tell baobao she is around by telling baby #2 thats she's NingNing Jiejie, a name she wants baby #2 to address her!

the moment we walked into the clinic, she freaked and cried... i repeatedly told her its mummy who needs to see doc. well i did frighten her when we were waiting for our turn cos she wanted to go all over the place and out of the clinic so i told her to sit if not the nurse will give her Kuaikuai zhen (obedient jab!) she sure sat better... in the room, baby R only stopped crying when the doc told her he was giving her sweet! She stopped to see where the doc got his sweet and when she got it, she tried to cry again! my gynae say she sure is a very smart gal! Stop crying to take sweet first then continue to cry... Somehow she did stop and she freaked out when we entered the smaller room to do the scan.

told her to stop crying and making so much noise so she can see baobao... she held back while struggling alittle with GX who was carrying her... when the image came on, baby #2 was in tummy position, face down and we tried to tell baby R thats baobao... then we heard baby R loudly saying 'Ning Ning Jiejie!'

I saw on the screen baby #2 FLIPPED!

then i saw baobao's hand waved!

i excitedly asked if they all saw baby flipped over and waved! baby R then pointed to the screen and said - Baobao is there! she repeated a few times and my heart was melting... its the best scan so far that i had with baby #2! baby #2 responded to her jiejie! the best scan we had with baby R was the one she faced the scanner and her hands were up waving too!

gynae and nurse couldnt help smiling thru the scan and my consultation! gynae told me that the baby is doing fine. i told him that i haven been able to drink milk thou i eat cheese and drink soya milk... so i was given dha pills and i am going to start obmin that is a multi-vit pill i took for baby R too. passed my 1st trimester and i can't wait for 20weeks Oscar test to make sure baby is doing fine and of cos the gender so i can start planning the full-month party and to get the clothes ready for baby #2's arrival!

*

Pics taken by Gx of my baby bump on 24th April 2011, my 34th birthday
these were the best pics i have taken with baby bump #2!

*

Weird Encounter

Writtten on 18th May, Gx started his reservist last week and weird thing was he comes home complaining having headaches in the late afternoons.... my headaches had stopped 3 days before he went back to camp... till today, he still isnt feeling very well... Worse... he threw up today! Coincidently, i threw up this morning too!

Called him at 1pm to see how was his day... he told me he started alright but before noon strike, he felt giddy and threw up terribly, his breakfast all out! i ate fish soup this morning and when i was done, bringing my utensils to the sink, i coughed like mad and threw up everything that i had eaten... coughing terribly and i couldnt hold back at all and sometimes i feel like i was choking badly!

i have heard before from my maid long ago that sometimes, hubby, good friends, family members who are close to pregnant woman, might suffer with the preggy or suffer for the preggy... during my 1st pregnancy gx was fine... but this time round, he fell sick quite often and now for no reason, he's having giddy spell and throwing up today sounds so weird!

But again he may not be suffering for me... i just hope that he will feel better... maybe its the camp environment... i jus hope its not his health...recently, i am happier with Gx... he's been doing more at home with baby R, bathing her, feeding her, doing nite potty sessions with baby R.. when we are outside, he takes charge of sitting next to her, feeding her while i eat 1st... i told him i really appreciate his recent changes... it helps to make me feel better, relieved that i have help and not making me feel helpless with my active child...

*

taken in May 2011 before my sis gave birth to lit boy

who could be happier than my mum!

my mum has always been the only RABBIT in the family, every CNY when we do take group horoscope pics... my dearest mum would the only one who is alone... the only rabbit till this year just before she turns 60 in another 1week+, she is a proud grandmother of a bunny boy and after her big 60, in a couple of weeks time, she is a proud granny of another bunny gal! She is prob the most luckiest in the family to have her very own grandchild sharing the same horoscope as her. (another lady would be my Aunt M cos she has a pair of twins sharing same chinese horoscope)

*

6th June11, Monday. after shopping for baby L's full month gift which sis and i decided to build a mini library, we didnt have much time left to shop cos i spent a long time choosing books! we sent baby R home, rest for awhile and we were off again to TMC and it was a wise choice not to drive cos we were there for a couple of hours! while waiting for our turn at the scanning level at TMC, gx caught on with his nap while i was snacking while waiting... it was a horrible long wait!

in the end we had time to go down to the only cafe delifrance to sip a hot cuppa coffee and hot choc... when we returned, we still had to wait... i was the last to go in for our scan... then it was already 6+pm! we were there before 3+pm! being the last is terrible cos the nurse or doctor, seem to do it in a rush... it wasnt as professionally done if i compared to my 1st time! she didnt really show us the parts like the experience we had with baby R! i could see baby r's fingers on the screen very clearly... then worse of all, she jus declared Oh see 3 lines is a girl? HUH was written on Gx face when he looked at the screen cos he didnt see what the doc was refering to! anyway, we trust that the report is right and we had to wait at the gynae clinic for our report briefing.... baby #2 is doing well. when we were home, told the family the news and i can't help feeling that everyone did wish it was a boy or thought it was a boy...

Had a talk with gx when the sex of our 2nd baby was revealed... he was fine that we have a gal. he said see how baby R is so sweet, a daddy's gal, making him so happy... so he really didnt mind if 2nd one was a girl! then he joked with me that gives us a chance to have a boy next and we could name him Leslie!

Our 2nd baby's name is going to start with A... Rachel was a favourite name of ours... we had that in mind long time ago and we never had any disagreement with it. so when we found out our 1st baby was a girl it was simple - we sure had the name and no changes made! then i told gx that if we put our 1st letters of our name together, it forms G-E-R... and we ever "planned" to have 4 kids! So the other 3 kids would form

G-E-R-A-L-D

when i conceived our 2nd baby, we cracked out head with names starting with A... it was tough as 2 of us couldnt agree with either girls or boys name with A! we do have one in mind that we kind of agree on... but we need to wait till 4th July's gynae checkup to be sure our baby is a girl... cos baby R still tells us its Didi!

not sure if she is influenced by my neighbour kids that the 2nd younger one must be a didi and also my sis' baby boy birth might have caused her to keep telling us its a didi! anyway i really want to be sure before grabbing the bags in the storeroom out to start sorting and preparing the wardrobe for baby #2!

for me, i did wish it was a boy... i am still kind of traditional in a way... also it would be nice to have one gal and one boy... but of cos if its a gal, i would still love my baby #2! Mum joked with me say i can follow her foot steps to have 3 children and went on to tell me if i have a pair of twin boys then it would be perfect! GOSH! but then really we will have our L & D if i ever have a pair of twins... i didnt want to go into late labour... cos i know alot of injections and checkups are needed... but if i really hope for a boy... think i will past the 35 mark! lets see how i survive with 2 kids 1st!

*

4th July resting my tired feet while daddy babysit baby R in the Art Museum

one of the very few pics of myself and baby bump#2...

next year i look forward bringing both my gals to our annual art museum family trip!

*

25th July, it was this day that we DOUBLE-CONFIRMED with our gynae! He had asked us to book an appointment earlier so that he can try to see if baby #2 was in a different position so he can help us scan to make sure we know the sex of the baby cos i told gynae i need to wash baby's clothes if its a gal and source for clothes if its a boy! Also with the sex confirmed, our gynae has proposed to us to choose a date for the caserean... he say to avoid complication, its better to choose a date bewteen 6-8 Oct, about 2 weeks before my etd which is 20th October.

Gx on the spot say 6th seems a good day... WHY? cos he say its easy to remember... cos baby R was born 10/6 and baby #2 can be 6/10! when i casually ask if the date could stretch to the 10th cos 10/10 gynae say possible but not any nearer to etd... GX tot it would cool to give birth on 9/10/11 and when i posted on FB, some frens too suggested its a cool date! We went home to announce we need a date and  mil was kind to help us check the calendar to suggest some dates that seems better... but the next morning, mil and i decided to just make a call to gx's granny fren to ask what kind of timing is best to give birth and the old lady was kind enough to go thru the chinese calendar to advise us the best dates for the baby and for me and gx to have our 2nd one. The dates mil saw generally was good but in terms for specific events like birth it turned out that it was actually a "xiong ri' bad day! so we were lucky we decided to call for expert advice! the date is set 6th October in the morning... but i am ready that baby might choose her own date cos with my aunt O's experience, twice she chose the dates, my cousins decided otherwise and came out so much earlier...

*

8th August, jus baby #2 with daddy and mummy at Dali's exhibition

daddy was nice to ask me out, a trip out on our own without baby R.

i cracked my brains where to go!

 we brought jus baby #2 in my belly to a very quiet museum!

before i gave birth to baby R, we went for Da Vinci exhibition!

*

15th August, its actually the 1st time i went to gynae for checkup alone... GX had alot on hand to settle and it was raining, he was very worried about me, texting me and calling me to see how i was doing. I was touched. For baby R, i usually turned up at the gynae on my own after work and he was hardly with me, only when i needed to do important scans and tests back then, gx would then take leave to accompany me. One reason why thru this 2nd pregnancy he could come with me so often was my appointment usually ends up after 6pm and by the time its my turn its about almost 7+pm! Also with the confusion created by baby R regarding the sex of our baby #2, i was glad GX was with me all the time, supporting me, telling me its fine to have another gal.

good news from this session was that our little one has turned! i could tell cos i felt so much pain at the lower belly and sometimes so pain that i needed to lie down.... somehow i have this feeling baby #2 would come sooner that expected... experiencing more pain than my 1st time. Reason could be i rest less than before... i have so much to do, so many projects i have on hand, an active one and i really am chasing time to do as much as i can, as i want before baby #2 pops out... the other reason could be i am expanding more than my 1st pregnancy! cos baby R didnt managed to engage herself then... maybe now i am expanding more to accomodate baby #2.

Gx was very sweet cos he didnt want me to take public transport home after the checkup, he offered to come pick me up but he ended leaving the office so late that i waited very long for him almost 1hour+ wait but i used the time to start wrapping up my plans for my 2nd baby's full month party!

*

20th August, i was so tired from standing and walking in Massimo Dutti's kids launch

baby #2 was prob frustrated with mummy for standing too long cos when i sat thru the car ride i could feel baby #2 stretching non-stop! i decided to take a pic of my tummy with the cute octupus balloon cos my top looked so much like under the sea and i wanted a pic of my huge belly! 20th August to 20th October is exactly 2 months away to my etd... with 6th Oct op date, it would mean i have less than 6 weeks more! Excited, panicking cos i still have so much to do before THE DAY!