31 weeks pregnant

I am really beginning to feel myself waddling about. I feel bloated in the face, the legs, the arms, the thighs and of cos the tummy! But what do you expect? Hannah's growing in there! Hannah is becoming SUPER ACTIVE too. Just this morning, I was awakened when she started 'playing' with me! She was playing 'Peek a boo' using her little fist! Haha... when I touched her, she'll 'disappear' and once i stop, she'll show me her little fist again. What a cute little thing- she made me laugh!

I think Hannah's going through this last minute surge of growth now. I can almost feel myself getting heavier ( and of cos the weighing scale has confirmed my suspicion) and I am hungry half the time. I tried fighting off the urge to drink a glass of warm milk or have a small bite before I retire to bed BUT each attempt convinced me even further to just GIVE IN TO HANNAH. Well, what happened was, I would wake up at 2am, 3am or even 4am to look for food before I can finally fall asleep thereafter. So, now, I make sure I have my nightly dosage of warm milk prior to my sleep to prevent such agony again. BEST!

Anyway I am kind of looking forward to Hannah coming out. Seriously I wonder what will become of me though! I was looking at the pic of myself taken in first trimester. I have forgotten that I used to look so slim. And was I mad when I complained about my tummy prior to pregnancy? I mean... goodness, I look down now and I can't even see my toes anymore. I'll make sure I get back to that condition after birth. I give myself 6 months. (oh, I sure hope my determination won't waver off...)

Oh, btw, I stocked up with more scrapbooking stuff this week and made another new page ( my fav thus far).

The arrival of Hannah's Goodies!

One of the best thing about pregnancy is that you get to do lots of SHOPPING without feeling 'guilty' because you can justify every buy of yours( or at least you can get away it somehow!
We bought some clothes, a baby cot, a comforter and bedding set, a baby bag(from KATE SPADE! - This is really a want more than need... well I've been saying I want a Kate Spade baby bag way before I was pregnant so... now that I am... and it's on sale... oh well, we got it! hahaa), a trolley to put the daily essentials like powder, towel, cream, diapers, clothes...

I nearly fell!

Someone asked why there isn't any pictures of fatmama... well.... to begin with this blog is meant for Baby Hannah so... fatmama's face ain't that important I guess... secondly, of course, Fatmama prefers to stay low key lest she takes the attention away from Baby Hannah. hahaha..

Anyway, I nearly fell a couple of days back.


Well, we were watching our favourite 'Family Guy' dvd when hubby screamed in shock and started running towards the bedroom door. And when I saw that and witnessed some flying creature that has 'attacked' him so suddenly, I instantly morphed into a sprinter and screamed as I fled for dear life. Now, with my new found figure that is totally off the centre of gravity, I almost slipped and fell face down. Goodness! Still, thankfully, I made it to safety behind my bedroom door. I closed the door, and peeped through watching how my brave hubby 'wrestled' and 'fought' with the full-grown, menacing looking PRAYING MANTIS! And as I witnessed the entire episode, I couldn't help but laughed hysterically as I recalled and imagined how silly we both would have looked!


But, the weird part was this: my hysterical laughter got the better of me and I started sobbing. It was kind of weird. I mean, I REALLY thought it was funny but why did I cry? Hubby was astonished too. He couldn't tell if I was crying or laughing. It was then that it dawned upon me that I must have felt quite scared when I realised that I could have fell on Hannah. Asmuchas I thought the scenario was hilarious, some maternity instinct must have kicked in. I was so scared. I could have gone straight to the labour ward and given birth to Hannah prematurely. Goodness. It was at that moment that we thanked God for his protection over us.

Photographs---at long last

My friend asked me why didn't I upload the Ultrasound pics... then I realised... I haven't!

This is taken right from the beginning when we first found out that we are pregnant! Can you see our lil' one? Yes, that bubble-like thing!

Now, isn't God's creation simply wonderful? In just a matter of 8 weeks, the form of our precious lil' one is out!
" I will give thanks to Thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." Ps 139:14

That's baby Hannah taken on 17th November 2008. Our lil' girl weighs about 1 kg when the picture was taken.

And here's some of my artistic work for Hannah:)

Scrapbook pages one and two:

Believe or not, the first tooth box!:

A Great Help

Finally after much much headache and sourcing around we've finally found an hourly domestic helper.(And not via an agency thus we save on the reference fees!). It's a welcoming change after coming 2 years of handling the household cleaning ourselves. I guess we've had enough of practice already. ahahha.

Anyway we wanted to have the domestic cleaner coming in only after the delivery of Hannah so that at least we can just be tired out by looking after her and not to be too worried with the cleanliness of the place... but well... i got a lil' worried. Not sure if we can find a good one and if it's too last minute we won't get to change... and(not that I'm doing a lot these days...) but laziness kicks in with the growing tummy.

Auntie is not bad. She does quite a thorough job though I have to tell her what are the main chores required for the week. She is not bad I must say though I feel that Hubby mops better. hehe... but I am not complaining. I think this is the best investment so far! lol. Imagine, someone coming in weekly to handle stuff like wiping of furniture, windows, mirrors, doors... vacuum, wash toilet, mop floor, change bedsheet, change bin lining, wash the blades of the fans, iron clothes, wipe the stove.... I really appreciate that. I am sure we will appreciate it more when Hannah comes along.

Want to engage auntie's service? Here's how she looks:

Putting on more weight than ever...

Goodness me! Gynae said that I must put on about 1 kg every 2 weeks and behold! It only took me one week to gain that extra kg. Flabby arms and thighs and butt! Oh man! Who could have believed that the thing that I miss doing during pregnancy is to hit the gym. What used to be motivated by sheer discipline is now something i look forward to doing. (we'll see if that motivation keeps up...)On top of that hubby is hitting the gym almost thrice a week. Oh man... how I envy him. But he's promised to babysit Hannah and have some father-daughter bonding time while I go for my weekly gym and pilates after baby comes. So my success will depend on how motivated I am. I MUST DO IT!

Gynae said that the normal range is to put on 10-12kg in a pregnancy. I am hitting 6kg soon and I am 29 weeks now and have about 8-11 more weeks to go. Hopefully I can ration the kilograms out nicely. At least if all turns out well, what I need to concentrate on will only be toning which is less daunting. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I'll be visiting the gynae again tmr. Hopefully he will do a scan for us then we can see Hannah again. Will ask him to estimate when Hannah will come out too. I'm hoping for 37/38 weeks. Smaller easier to come out(I hope) and during CNY, hubby will surely be around.

Yoga mama

Okie, i've decided I have put off exercise quite long enough. I kept telling myself the power shopping that I have up and down Orchard road or neighbourhood malls are sufficient to keep the heart pumping and muscles strong. Boy! It was only until session ONE of my prenatal yoga class that I realised how much my body has deterioriated in terms of flexibility as compared to about half a year ago when I was still doing pilates. Goodness, IT IS A DISGRACE! lol.




I mean I can't do THIS --->
anymore!


hahaha nah, I am kidding. We weren't expect to do such challenging stuff. But seriously, my bones are stiff and muscles strained and my tummy is much much smaller compared to all the ang mos in my class. Most of them , if not all, could still balance and stretch really well. I was half worried about over-doing it and hurting Hannah or inducing birth but the other half is really due to my tight muscles. Hopefully at the end of 8 sessions(If I can complete them before birth) I will be more ready for labour. So, stretch more folks! I'm trying to do some each morning and each night.

Some moves that I can still do:

Hubby and I attended the talk at the hospital on labour. I seriously wonder if I can pull through without epidural procedure. I think I can but then again one will only know when the pain kicks in. I shan't be too hard on myself. I will see how much I can endure the first stage of labour. If all else fails, epidural shall be my best friend. Hubby thinks my threshold of pain is high but what may fail me will probably be my scary-cat nature.... oh yes, like that wisdom tooth removal trauma that I went through... cried after the entire procedure in fear rather than in pain.

We'll see how then. Hopefully Hannah cooperates with mummy and comes out fast. I'll give her an extra big kiss for that! hahaha.

Hannah is growing again!- outdated post.

Okie, i really feel this. She squeezed me non-stop, stretched, kicked, punched, had bouts of hiccups... (I can't tell one from another). This happened throughout the night. Then, almost like a dream, I woke up with a bigger balloon! This is kind of surreal and almost magical.



I have yet to find nice maternity wear though... maybe I am just too picky. Maybe by the time i get some cool ones, I would have given birth! I don't like the tops that they have in the retails... they look kind of 'ahma-rish'... and so I am still wearing those baby-doll cut tops with maternity pants/skirt. Wonder how long I can hang in there with such improvised stuff. Maybe I have yet to explore enough...



We explored the labour suite though! It looks comfy enough but I just couldn't stop picturing myself on that bed... I guess that is another experience that I can talk about after going through it.

Hello, little one!

We went to visit the Gynae on Monday and at long last we got to see our lil' one again. It has been a while since we last saw her. She's really getting bigger and stronger and more active as the days pass. Now her 'punches' are with some might and vigor!

Dr R say that Hannah's growing well and the size is good(despite all the comments about my tummy being too small...bleah!) We also saw Hannah's lips! Oh those luscious lips! Hubby thinks that those lips resemble mine! I can't wait to see the little girl to see if that is true! She's got daddy's nose though. We can't see the eyes as cleary... wonder whose eyes she's got. We were given two photos of her and those will keep me busy again for the next page of scrapbooking.

Hannah... we will see you soon. 27 weeks... about 10 more weeks to go and we can see you ANY MOMENT. (and I wonder how many more kg to pile on... haha... time to hit the gym soon!)

Backache

Okie, now I know why pregnant mummies complain of backache. It is starting now. Not exactly excruciating but sitting too long, walking too long, standing too long kind of accumulates some pressure on the back. BUT I still prefer this to the nightmare of morning sickness. :)

Gonna sign up for prenatal Yoga classes soon. Seems like the only one that seems available is at Tanglin Mall ( so out of the way), but given that it'll be holidays then, I think it'll be a good reason enough to drag my two feet and Hannah down to ease some discomfort in this fast growing fat mama body of mine!

check this out: http://www.motherandchild.com.sg/

Prenatal Photoshoot

Today we've finally decided on the photographer to engage to take the maternity shoot for us and if we are satisfied with her work, we'll engage her service to take Hannah's first family picture with us too! I am so thrilled. Unfortunately, we cannot go for the photoshoot anytime soon because the photos are supposed to be nicer when the tummy is BIGGER... so I made arrangement to go on boxing day! (I'll be 32weeks then)Hopefully other than the bigger tummy other parts still look presentable... Anyhow, I am so looking forward to that day of fun! I've already got some concepts in mind... what clothes I want... the type of shots...excitement!

Check out the photographer's work at http://www.thestudioloft.com.sg/ .
I think she's a talent. :)

A Whole New World

To begin with, I must explain the name of this blog. A Whole New World. No, it's not that I like that Disney cartoon, Aladdin. Rather, we are entering into a whole new world literally because of our baby Hannah who is coming our way in about 3 months' time.

This is such a surreal experience. Something that cannot be fathomed unless one has gone through it. Until now (25 weeks into the pregnancy), I can just be jolted to reality and realised that there's a life within me! I can stare at my growing tummy and wonder how someone could be living inside there! God is so amazing and I am a walking testimony of his miraculous creation, the human anatomy. Now that I can feel Hannah punching me and squirming within that limited playground of hers, it makes things real yet surreal. Really don't know how to explain it.

Thankfully the dark days of nausea, vomitting, gloom, extreme weight loss are over (I hope!)That one month of so was truly painful. I never knew pregnancy to be so depressing. (esp so when I couldn't eat!) These days, other than the additional weight I have to carry and the slight sore back, things are looking much much better. I just have to learn to trust in God's guidance into the next trimester and the birth of our baby.

Life will be different, I am sure. Changes to adapt to. Lessons to be learnt. Character to be moulded. But it will be a phase of growth and joy to witness the growing up of our sweetheart, Hannah Hoon.

This blog is dedicated to all of you out there whom I know will adore this little angel of ours, the way we do.

Cheers!