My pregnancy experience as i am nearing my estimated date of delivery

Hello readers! I am writing this post for sharing as well as to document my first pregnancy experience for this past 10 months. As of to-date, i am in my 3rd trimester, week 38 day 6, my original EDD is on 1 Oct 2020, however my birth plan is via elective c section so i decided to have my c section date on 25 Sep 2020 which is only 2 days more to go!

Do take note my sharing is based on my own, every women's pregnancy is unique and different so do not be afraid if you do have fears towards childbirth like i do! For my case, i think it is only tough during the first trimester for me.

As i am nearing the end of my pregnancy, i am just amazed how times really flies, in this year 2020, as much as covid has affected everyone's life and everyone is confined in Singapore without being able to travel, i think this is a timely period for me to be pregnant and giving birth to my baby. Haha, mainly because for the first trimester, i still goes to work, but the rest of the second and third trimester, i have been working from home due to covid and i think this is a privilege that i really cherished because pregnancy is tough but because i was working from home, i  have enough rest since i don't have to wake up early to travel to my workplace and because i moved back to my mum house, my meals are also well taken care of, and as my stomach get bigger and bigger i do not need to buy more maternity dress since i am usually in my home wear while working from home. :)

During my 1st trimester, when i found out i am pregnant, my morning sickness has been very consistent and it is a terrible feeling for me waking up every morning gagging but still having to prepare to go for work. My morning sickness lasted until the start of my second trimester, but luckily i was working from home by then so it's still ok because nobody will see me gagging most of the time. I was feeling very tired most of the time and i remember there were days my morning sickness got so bad that i vomitted when i haven't even had any breakfast and this was twice during public places! Once in the train and worse when i didn't even prepare any vomit bag because i thought i wouldn't really vomit anything since most of the times it's just nauseous and gagging. Second time i prepare a vomit bag but it's overflow and i feel so bad for making a mess of the place. At times i vomit but there was nothing and this feeling sucks too. 

My 2nd trimester was by far the best part of the pregnancy that i enjoyed throughout the entire pregnancy as my morning sickness went off, i become more energetic and i feel normal like pre-pregnancy, no mood swings, stomach was not too big so i was able to sleep well, rest well. So far i didn't have any headache, water retention, cramps during this pregnancy. I didn't have any strong cravings too but i do eat alot until the doctor is asking me to stop eating so much. I love sweet stuffs and bubble tea, i think i drink bubble tea alot during this pregnancy. Hahaha. 

I had heartburn for few times as i feel the burning pain at my lower chest, initially i didn't even know it was heartburn until i google it. Most terrible feeling ever. Beside heartburn, there was another incident i feel it was gastric pain but the doctor told me it's probably something that i eat wrong, the kind of pain that stirred up every few sec is really no joke, it hurt so bad i was just rolling on my bed, even if i don't move, the pain persist, and i ended up crying so hard and telling myself i am definitely not opting for natural birth since i can't even tolerate such pain. This pain lasted for several hours and i only become better after i vomit, and this happen in the middle of the night zz. 

Throughout the whole pregnancy, i don't think i have a sensitive smell too which some women might have which i think i am still lucky so i won't feel nauseous if i happen to smell anything that is smell bad to me. Everything was pretty normal. 

But after i am nearing the end of my 2nd trimester and reaching the 3rd trimester, this is the anxiety period when i started to think of the actual day and i couldn't really sleep well. I was growing bigger, it was getting difficult for me to move and turn when i am sleeping, i can't get up immediately whenever i am getting up from my bed every morning due to the big tummy. 

There were many thoughts, even though each gynae reviews shows baby are healthy, so i didn't have to think so much on his health but there were other concerns which scan might not shows, for eg, birthmark, what if the baby has birthmark on his face? what if he is not cute at all? This might sound silly but this was my exact feeling all the way to the actual day of birth. I am also worried on the actual day how it is going to be like, whether there might be complications during the operation, and what if the anesthesiologist didn't inject enough dosage of the anesthesia and i feel the pain during the operation? or what if the doctor didn't manage to reach on time and the anesthesia wears off? Death is my biggest fear so i really hope everything can goes well smoothly but it's hard not to think about it despite assurance from many of my friends. Haha

I didn't went to watch the natural birth or c sec videos to avoid having fear on the actual birth day, but i do lots of research and checked with some of my friends that had delivered via c section of how it is like, for eg. many say the operation is super fast, it takes only about 30min for the operation to end, they also told me i will feel tugging on my tummy when the doctor is getting the baby out as well as because i am conscious since they will only numb my lower part of the body, so i will be able to hear all the sounds going on in the operation. By understanding all this makes me less scared of the actual day and have some rough idea of how it is going to be like.

But for me, i do know that natural birth delivery is definitely out of the question for me, even though i didn't watch the actual footage video of how the baby arrived to this world, but i watched video of women going through natural birth delivery and it is too tough for me to handle. They are just so brave to tolerate hours of the contractions and i don't think i can do it, so even though the doctor told me my body is able to deliver naturally, but no thanks!

My gynae is a cute man when he always pretend he didn't know i want to deliver via c section when i have been telling him during my 1st trimester because he is a pro-natural doctor. Haha he will always ask me why and try to bluff me! Haha for eg, the long hours of waiting and contractions before the actual pushing. I have never seen any women delivering via natural birth get the baby out in 30mins, it is usually long hours of waiting for the dilation, even though every women varies, but during this long hours of waiting comes with contraction, as much as they mentioned there is epidural available, but i just don't want my vagina to expand up to 10cm because the post birth pain will be terrible even though many mentioned the recovery is faster than c section. The pushing part probably will takes 10min but i am referring to the moment waiting for the cervix to open, it is just too long!

In Singapore, if you opt for natural delivery but imagine waiting for so many hours but the baby still doesn't want to come out and you eventually have to go for c section, it's pretty much waste of time isn't it?  Especially they will charge you twice as well, one for natural birth and one more due to emergency C-section. I doesn't want to take this risk. Even though many are always pro towards natural birth, but i think birth plan is personal for every mummy, you have the choice to decide which is more comfortable for you and not be swayed by just because everyone is going natural, or hearsay natural is good for baby and you want to do the same. Many baby that are delivered through c section are living healthy too, i am a true case as i am also delivered via c section.

Thus i will prefer planned c section and choose it to be my birth plan because it's fast, less worrying compare to natural birth on when your water bag is going to break, and what to do if it really do and wondering which day is your baby coming to this world. If you are a first time mummy going for the planned c section, you probably will only be worrying the actual thing on the actual day.

 I shall share in another post my birth experience after that!

Till then. 

 

We are having a baby!

Hello readers! As what i indicate for my post title, yes we'are having a baby!

Personally, i think Jeremy is more happy than me because he has been asking for a baby ever since we got married, but we was waiting for our house and i was planning to change a job at that time, so baby making plan has been put on hold. This was my excuses because i do have my fear of childbirth so as long as i can drag, i will drag. Unlike others who are excited about having kids, to me i have always maintain a very neutral view in having kids. We got married in 2017, but as we have been taking safe precautions so definitely its no wonder we didn't have any good news for the past few years.

I couldn't be bothered what other said, especially when relatives would ask when is our turn, while some questioning if we have some issues with conceiving a baby, both of us know the real reason. Because it's just not the right time. You can see Jeremy doesn't have much power to decide because he is not the one giving birth. Hahaha.

Finally last year, we received our house keys, i manage to change a new job. So we moved in to our new house, me having a new job, everything was perfect. So there was no excuses for me and i remember it was during last october when Jeremy bring up the topic again. It was a random conversation as we talk about the zodiac, as 2020 is Rat year, both of us don't like the zodiac of ox, and the following zodiac after ox was tiger and we find the zodiac tiger sound too fierce, so the next zodiac would be rabbit. However if i wait till the year of Rabbit, i would be in my 30s. We was looking to have at least 2 kids. So if i have my 1st one in my 30s, the 2nd one will be mid-30s. So eventually year of rat seems to be the suitable year for us to make our baby. 

So we decided to try, for the first two months, i thought maybe it wasn't easy to conceive afterall since my period still came on time. We didn't do any planned pregnancy or bought any ovulation kit. For the first two month, i would tell Jeremy happily when my menses came. Hahahaha he was disappointed but he commented maybe we need to go for check up if we still didn't have a baby by then.

However, into the 3rd month without taking precautions, which happen to be nearing the chinese new year period in January i mentioned i had a fall in JB during my staycation with JY. It actually turns out that i am already pregnant at that time! This is amazing how i fall down with such a huge impact when i was already pregnant with our little baby but luckily the baby was not affected. I didn't know at that time of cos until we calculate backwards. Especially during CNY we even had a huge fight, so we went through a cold war period and didn't talk as well, he make me very very angry. I still remember how i went back to complain to my mum and glad we didn't have kids at all. Hahaha what i didn't know at that time was our baby is already growing inside my body. 

 As i usually note down the date of my menses, so the last menses was on 26 Dec 2019, so I didn't thought it was strange that my menses was still not here by Jan 26-28 because sometimes it would usually push back by a few days every month and my menses is quite regular.

However my menses still didn't came during early Feb, which i started to panic because it was already late by 1 week plus. I talked to Jeremy and text some of my close friends and they was so excited and asking me to get a pregnancy kit to test, but being stubborn, i choose to wait and monitor again. 

During this period, i would feel very tired when i was at work, the tiredness was scary because i have enough sleep every day and come afternoon, i would feel so tired that i almost dozed off! I tried to google the symptoms and know fatigue is one of the factors, but i decided to wait. 

By the 2nd week of Feb, i started to have nightmares every night. Every morning, i would feel nauseous and gag. While cheeky Jeremy would comment, ' confirm pregnant liao' irritating.

So eventually, i decided to get the test kit to test because i had enough of nightmare dream every night.

I went to buy two different kit, 1 kit even have 1 for 1 promo. Haha actually i know i should be pregnant after having morning sickness every morning, when i got it test, the two line appear instantly!

My first reaction was, shit, really pregnant liao. Haha

but i decided to prank Jeremy, so i use water to drop on the test kit to have the 1 line result.

After the prank, before i show him the two line, and he got even more confused!

So here's the two line real result after testing with two kit. I test another kit the next morning just to confirm again. Haha

some of my friends introduced me this clearblue kit which i got Jeremy to buy for me because this clearblue kit would be able to test roughly how many weeks pregnant i was. It is also pretty accurate.

When this appear, it means i am confirm pregnant, and 3+ would indicate i have been pregnant for at least 5+weeks! 

However according to what i google, the doctor would usually see the patient only when she is at least 8 weeks pregnant, as i worked in a clinic before, i know doctor would usually prescribe the vitamins or supplements to pregnant ladies. So, even if i have not fix an appointment to see the gynae, i decided to visit the normal GP doctor, which i know him personally. So he calculate for me that i was actually 7 almost going 8 weeks pregnant by the time i went to him. He prescribe me some supplements to take first.

As for my choice of gynae, i do not have any preference of female gynae because i feel it's the same whether its a male/female so i didn't do any research before that, we only use referral from Jeremy friend wife, as i have already did some prior research of the hospital that i would like to deliver, which is Thomson medical centre and the doctor works in one of the clinic there, so i proceed to make appointment to visit him. Later, i get to know he is quite popular among all the mummies. He is also my cousin gynae doctor that help her to deliver her baby previously.

Upon confirming that i am pregnant, the first thing i do was to purchase stretch marks creams! Haha, so i went to clarins website as i remember they have this maternity set so i bought the whole set. But after trying all the products, i only like their stretch marks cream. 

Beside using clarin stretch marks cream, JY help me to buy bio-oil as well which help to reduce the appearance of stretch marks, so after checking with my gynae, i started to apply the stretch marks cream during the first trimester. 

Our appointment date was on 17 Feb, one day before our wedding anniversary. The first time he do the ultrasound scan for me, i couldn't really see anything until he point out the little one that look like a grain of rice. The feeling is amazing and touching when we get to see a life that we have created for the first time.

The doctor did some checks and say everything looks fine so the next visit was 12 weeks later.

Our baby first look. Haha

During our 2nd visit, they will need to perform some detailed scan and they have to draw our blood for further testing. 

The tests require are pre-eclampsia screening, as it is a form of pregnancy complication that the mummy might have for eg high blood pressure or signs of damage to another organ system.

Another test that we have to decide is to test for baby whether he/she has any high risks of getting down syndrome.

They have the Oscar or Panorama test. Oscar are 95% accuracy while Panorama has 99% accuracy. Oscar is definitely cheaper but Panorama could also check the gender of the baby.

We had to make the decision during the payment, so eventually we choose the Panorama test even though the doctor was shocked because he say i am still young and not really necessary to do that, but since there is a 4% difference of their accuracy so we went for Panorama.

Our first visit to Gynae came up to $310.30, we was given the option to pay for a package that cost $900 so this will cover all the medical appointment to gynae, including urine test. So it is usually more worthwhile to sign the $900 package. Afterall, we could claim this amount from medisave as long as we bring the receipt during my admission to hospital for delivery.

Our second visit to the gynae was on 20 Mar 2020. The total amount was $3268, $900 for the consultation package, $807 for the baby detailed scan, and $1561 was for the panorama scan.

During our 2nd visit, the baby has grown significantly! We can see more clearly the baby head, shape. The baby detailed scan took longer because it couldn't give the angle or view that the sonographer wanted, despite i try to move around but baby was not very cooperative.

Eventually i had to go walk around to see if the position of the baby can change.

After the scan, we collected the report and went back to the clinic for doctor review, so he was asking if we need them to seal the gender portion when the result is out because gender reveal party is common, but i wanted to know the gender so we told him to tell us when the report is out.

However even before i was pregnant, i kinda of know that i will be having a boy next time, because i prefer girls over boy so life will purposely give u the reverse. Hahaha i was very sure it was going to be a boy, for Jeremy, he has no preference, so we have a bet with some of my closer friends, we have the team boy and team girl. Loser team will have to do a forfeit which is giving the winner team each a cup of chi cha san qian! Hahaha. i was very sure i would win. 

So on 31 Mar 2020, the nurse called me and told me the report shows that everything is normal,  before she ask if i want to know the gender of the baby. I say yes, and she say..

'It's a boy'. my reaction was pretty calm as i replied her 'ok, thanks'.

Hahaha maybe she sense me being too calm, she ask me why? I wanted a girl isit? Hahaha, i told her yea so she ask me to try for the next project. But i feel if we have a 2nd child next time, it will still be a boy. oh well. When i did an online vote poll on my instagram, i was pretty surprised most of my friends vote for a boy. Lucky i didn't bet with them. Haha

As long as the baby is healthy, the gender doesn't mattar so much now. 

This was another visit when i went back to collect the report and the doctor did a scan, he told me this is the best shot he could capture because my baby is very active, previously we saw how he will bounce around and this time, he was moving around and escape the doctor reading when he want to capture his heartbeat. 

During the 1st trimester, even though i am having a boy, but my morning sickness could get pretty serious, every morning when i woke up, i would gag and on few occasions when it got really bad, i would vomit acid and it was horrible. Sometimes when i already had my breakfast and i will still vomit afterwards. So, i guess it's not true when they say bad morning sickness only applies when you are having a baby girl. 

I will be updating more on my pregnancy journey again.

shall end this post for now!