Counting Down

I'm in my last week of my 3rd trimester and in a counting down mode!

As far as I feel sooo heavy and uncomfortable, and glad the bub will pop out soon, I still can't believe it's about the time. It feels just a few days ago when I found out that I'm expecting.

At the doctor visit on Thursday, he said it can be happening anytime this week due to the position of the baby and the braxton hicks contraction I felt everyday in the last few days. He asked the methods of the delivery I want. He explained that considering the size of the baby and 'other' medical reason I have, it might be wiser to have c-section, which then I and hubby agreed. He then gave us admission letter and schedule date for the big day, which will be 12th of April. He said I should be resting a lot, and to call him anytime this week as it might be happening earlier (*gosh!*). I and hubby was surprised to hear that.

To just sitting around and rest, is a bit hard. There are always plenty things to do around the house, and of course few invitation and things to do outside the house are awaiting. And all of them at least will require me to drive and walk! Hubby of course happy to help without question, but I can't be dependent on him on everything as he will be busy at work, which I completely understand. But for sure I need to slow down, and not to force myself.

My energy level is slowly going down because of the weight I carry in my tummy. Walking and standing too long is not recommended, besides, it does difficult and hurt when I did. By far, doctor predicted the bub is a big baby (about 3.6 kg on Thursday). I've gained 17 kg! Can you imagine? The heavier I've ever been! But I have to say during my pregnancy my immune system is a lot better. I guess that's because of the prenatal vitamin that I take regularly and healthier lifestyle that I have and all healthy snacks that I eat. I caught flu only once in the last 9 months, but I've survived the last round of fall/winter/spring germ fest without being sick.

How am I feeling now? I guess it's a mix between scared, nervous, and excited. The c-section plan sounds big. I understand it's a big operation, that makes me nervous. However, I know lot of people have gone through this and survived well, besides I like to be organised, and by having c-section I got an exact date so I can prepare myself and everything (hopefully) ready in time. It give me a bit of relieve and relax feeling. Everything will be up in the air if I have a normal delivery, don't know when it going to happen, and I'll be waiting and waiting, and might make me more nervous.

Since the beginning of last week, I'm pampering myself with the treatment I don't usually have. I went pedicure, manicure, had warm jacuzzi baths, had a hair treatment and hair cut (I have a shocking short hair cut now!), stop reading book and information about baby and pregnancy, watch funny movies, playing computer games, and enjoy preparing the nursery and hospital bag.

Little junior who are now moving and kicking in my tummy will be coming into the world soon. I and hubby can't wait for the big day.

Killing The Time

I was thinking to make something to wear for the bub, but it was hard to find good pattern. I found this mittens and bootees's pattern finally, thought this was the best from the others. Not easy to do, considering my numb and sore hand due to pregnancy. Also found some new knit term in this pattern, but I managed to know what and how, and think I did it well! Not sure if the bub will really wear this, though. But it would be nice for decoration too, I guess. Besides, it was a soothe enjoyable thing to do for killing the time and counting down!

Do you agree that my knitting skills has improved? ;p

Up And Down

Last weekend Hubby took another day off, since we planned to hit Dead Sea for two days. I know it would be fun. Weather warm and nice. The scene of green and flower would be everywhere out of town, which is very rare and would be nice to see. But I was hesitant to go. Other than because I didn't feel like having a long drive, we also still have to prepare a lot of things for the bub. More stuff to buy, and more things to do for the nursery. I thought I would feel much better to have holiday if everything's ready for the bub.

We ended up stay in town, and Hubby didn't mind. Instead, we spent time together deciding which room are we going to make over into nursery and shops. I started to wash some of baby's the blanket and clothing. Hubby did the hard bit like installing the cot, stroller and canopy stand. The nursery is not really ready as we need to move some wardrobe to other room. But at least the cot is now up. It look more like a baby cot when we put the bed sheet and dolls and canopy on it. We also managed to visit the maternity hospital and take a tour. It looks good, and people said the service is like a hotel. So the long weekend is not bad after all. We are happy to have some things up and ready for the bub.

I started to knit things for baby too, and recently finish the mitten. It might look like socks,... but it's a pair of mitten, and I was only following the pattern. Think it's not too bad for the first knit wear I made. (*grin*)

Can't wait for the bub to pop out! My tummy is really growing, as well as my body. It swell in some part, and hard to move around. Although I still drive, I have to limit my activity. I can't stand, walk, or sit too long. Tired and exhausted easily, and usually need to take a nap. I also have a sore and numb feet and hands. Not a great feeling, very uncomfortable and make me a bit down sometimes as I can't do as much as I wanted. Anyway,.. not long to go. Just need to hang on here.

7 Months Celebration

This special rujak, especially made for me (and the bub) to celebrate the seventh months of my pregnancy. It's a fruit salad, which made in mixture of seven types of fruits which are sweet, sour, hot, and salty in flavour. No, I don't know exactly the tradition, I thought at least I want to be thankful that everything seems to be fine so far, and to celebrate it with some friends here. Brought it with some snacks to the monthly meeting of Indo Women's meeting last month and had it for all the embassy's staff there. People love it as they haven't eaten rujak for so long.

It has been said it depends on the rujak's taste to determine the gender of the baby. It actually taste spicy more than sweet. Since I have known the gender, so it doesn't matter anymore about the taste. All I know is it's refreshing and yummy

If anyone curious,... of course it was made by Bu Minul. ;p

Hello! SOS!

Akhir-akhir ini gue....

Suka lupa apa yang mau diomongin. Orang yang diajak ngomong udah nungguin gue mau ngomong apa, mulut pun udah mangap,.. tapi kok gue lupa mo ngomong apa....

Kurang bisa multitask... misalnya:
Kalo lagi nyetir, gak bisa sambil ngomong. Kalo ngomong bakal jadi kayak gini ni "mmm.... i mean it was.... mmm what I was saying?.... mmm yes, I mean it wasn't good enough that...what do you call it... ouch... that car didn't indicate! ooops... I have to turn right back there.... "... and on on.... never ending statement.
Kalo lagi masak, gak bisa sambil nonton
Kalo lagi telpon, gak bisa sambil chatting di komputer
Kalo lagi makan, gak bisa sambil tidur (ya iya laaaah..!)

Suka lupa apa yang mau dilakuin... misalnya:
Mau nge-google sesuatu, pas googlenya udah kepampang di monitor,.. terus blank. Mau google apa ya tadi? lupa loh...

Suka lupa nama ato istilah2 tertentu...misalnya
Mau nyebut nama seorang teman,...tapi tiba-tiba ditengah percakapan lupa banget nama orang tersebut
Kadang malah lupa nama yang gue ajak ngomong
Atau kadang mau nyebut satu kata tapi gak bisa inget istilahnya, sampe musti ngeles dibelokin pake kata-kata lain.



Kenapa ya? Tanda-tanda ketuaan kali ya. :) Mungkin perlu terapi otak lebih banyak. Contohnya dengan ngerjain kerjaan2 yang lebih pake otak. misalnya... hmmm... isi tts, maen sudoku, bikin budget belanja, hmm.. kurang menantang ya... coba sapa yang mau kasih gue kerjaan menantang... itung-itungan? translation? project ini itu? silahkan loh.

Tapi setelah baca beberapa buku dan browsing, ternyata nemu satu excuse. Katanya sih absentminded atau pelupa during pregnancy itu wajar. Sebabnya bisa baca sendiri disini. Intinya kalo lagi hamil bisa jadi lebih pelupa ato 'lemot' alias dung-dung. Bener ga bener,..percaya ga percaya tapi masalah forgetful atau absentminded selalu ada dalam tiap buku dan website yang ngebahas tentang pregnancy.

So that's my excuse. Gue gak pelupa ato lemot kok. :) Cuma sementara aja. ;p

----update (5 Feb 08) - baca artikel ini----

First Bub Shopping

Never had headache this bad when shopping before! Not that I shop for myself, which would be much easier. But this time we are starting to look and shop for the bub. According to my custom, I'm not suppose do a baby shop until next month when my pregnancy reach month seven. But I'm so excited and can't wait to start to look, and the seventh months will not far away anyway. Other reasonable reason is that Winter Sales season has started, and won't last long. When everything is so expensive and we need every single things the baby needs, the sales would be advantegous.

Shopping... it sounds easy. But it's not! For the first mum to be like me, enter to a baby shop is new experience. It was overwhelming. So many products with different types, styles, brands, and qualities. I didn't know where to start. Didn't know what I really need and what to choose.

After looking around from mall to mall and from local shop to local shop with Andrew and with the help of my female friend who has 2 kids (assumes she has experience), I started to have a picture and ideas. I and Andrew started to make a list. We decided to concentrate to get things that is now on sale and the other things can wait.

So I did. Last Thursday, was my first shopping for my bub. I started from what I thought would be the easiest one, which was clothing. But it's not as easy as I thought. I've been warned to not buy too many clothing as the baby will grow fast. But everything look so cute! So here is what I bought that day. There would be more things to buy, from other stores, soon in the next few weeks, before the sale finish. ;p

What The Girls Say

"Hey, you look fresh!"
"You look cute with popping tummy and petite body!"
"Wow, look how the baby grow, and you doesn't look big at all."
"you only look big on your belly"
"I can see it's a boy"
"seems like the baby grow so fast since I last met you"

That was only a few comments form some women I met today whom I haven't met for about 2 months.

Whilst I started to feel not comfortable with some part of my body (other than belly) that keep enlarging day by day, it's really comforting to hear such nice comments. I don't know if they tell the truth or not as I gained about 11 kg by now, still, they've made my day.

Before Year End

Some people asked me how I went with my pregnancy. Just realise that I didn't put much stories about it here. That was simply because I have other journal where I post the development of the bub every week and all the joy and complaint related to the pregnancy, including photos, ultrasound, and videos. But it requires permission if you want to have a look at it. Unlike other people who are pretty open to show her own tummy to anyone, for me I thought it's rather private. But I'll be happy to share it with my friends. Just send me message or email me.

In this time of the year, I thought I'll share with you a bit from my preggy journal.
Last Saturday I went to obgyn for another monthly check up and had another ultrasound. As I only can feel bub's nudges, and don't feel the kick yet, I asked the Doc if that's normal. He said the bub is kicking but I might not feel it because he is still small and this is my first so I might not sensitive enough to feel it. We could see through the ultrasound that the bub is moving a lot, and his heart is beating. Doc also said that the bub is now weight 900 gr. Good news is all are looking good, perfect baby, nothing to worry about. Doc also said to Hubby that I am worry too much!! Hhhh.... Hubby just laughed, very happy to get a partner in crime who agree with him since he's also been telling me over and over that I am worry too much about everything. (*ugh*). But I couldn't help being worry. I guess, it will happen to all women on their first pregnancy. I still think I'm normal! (*stubborn grin*) ....

Recently I'm craving for sweets more than usual. I even couldn't help myself to get a donut after ordering cheese croissant when I had small lunch with my friend last week. My friend noticed and said, ooh,.. I don't know if you like donut! :D Well, not that I like donut so much, usually I will not be bother. I was just looking at it and it look sooo tempting that time :) Also I started to eat more sweet, cakes, and biscuits at home.. and coke and teh botol!

I also do have itchy skin lately! around my belly, hips, thighs, and legs. I've been using body lotion and butter cream from Body Shop to reduce the itch and stretch mark. However, I haven't seen any stretch mark on my tummy by far. Hopefully never!

As for pregnant 'shape',... o ya,... I definitely have that shape now. Tummy is really growing, and it's getting bigger and rounder. I weight 56 kg, gained around 9 kg so far. I feel heavy on my lower back, and have a very bad back ache, particularly at the up left side. It's a hard work every night lately to be able to sleep well at night since it was very hard to find comfortable position to balance tummy and back.

The pregnancy went very fast without I even realised. It is only around 4 months more to go. I'm sure it will go very quick too. New Year is coming soon, next year will be very different and merrier for me and Hubby, with little bub come into our life. Can't wait!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Hope 2008 brings lots of great things your way, good health and happiness.

End of 2007, 24 weeks preggy.

Answer Of The Big Question

ALERT!!!

Anyone who don't want to know the answer of the BIG QUESTION is not recommended to continue to read this post.

Well, we know the answer of our curious question, finally.

After 2 monthly check up, and had a couple of thorough ultrasound, we (doctor, I, and hubby) are now sure that our baby is.... a boy!

So we are going to have a baby boy! I still can't believe that sometimes. Life is changing so quickly for me lately. At least that's what I felt!

Anyway we both happy with the result and started to fill our mind with plans. One of them is find a boy name. I tell you, it's not easy. Boy's name are so average while girl name can be more varies and interesting. We threw names out and also look up some options on the internet. After a few days we finally have a short list, and from it we have one that we both like the most. Seems like we have our choice, but we are still open to other names and going to see if we can find other name on the way.

So many things to think about baby, and we are looking forward to have another team work to welcome the baby into the world.

Bad, Good, Great

Finally..... I can log in to blogger! I don't know what happened with my internet connection, but it's been very hard to log into Blogger and browsing Youtube. Also have trouble in opening some websites like Baby Centre and BBC, and some blogs which are hosted by blogger. Or if could get in to Blogger, I could not save my posting or upload photos. Soooooo frustrating. Made five calls to the internet provider to complain, but got nothing but conclusion that they have no problem with my internet connection.

And that's one reason why I haven't been blogging lately.

The other reason is that I was busy. I have things to do almost everyday that forced me to go out and spent times with friends and new people and had a blast of Indonesian food! I had class and project to do a home, had some things to prepare and to researched for application, had to find and book some things for the coming plan holiday, went to International Bazaar where hubby busy voluntering at the Australian lam burger stand, and I was only busy strolling along and eat bakso and sate from Indonesian food stand, and got invited to the meeting of Ibu-ibu Dharma Wanita of the Indo Embassy. They usually get together every month and have cake/craft demonstration and arisan! I think I was expected to join the arisan too. But at the time I went there, they have a feast to celebrate Eid. O... My... God.... the food....for people who live far away from home town like me, eating authentic food was something luxurious, especially if it's free :D. Started from martabak telor and krupuk rengginang, followed by main course: lodeh, ayam goreng, dendeng balado, teri goreng kacang dan pete (yes, pete!!!!), and sambel goreng cumi. All made by ibu-ibu, and all taste great. Just perfect. Yuuum...! I made sound very norak, but I that's what I felt! Tasting real Indo food again was soooo....greeeat! Anyhoo, it's nice to know there's bunch of Indonesian here, and they are all nice and helpful. I got to know some new people, but the important thing, I know what to get the food if i really want to get one, especially the difficult one like lontong and bakso. Someone has apparently can cook it for us. :D And the other day I got invited to a my indo friend's 1 year old son birthday party, and had another indo food feast, and ended up bring home sambel goreng teri and emping, and couple of teh tong tji. I felt sorry for hubby who has been left out for quite a while. But he seems didn't mind hot dog and sandwiches for munchies in a few nights.

Basically I felt more energetic lately and don't have to take a nap anymore. But at the end of the week I felt pain around my lower abdomen so I had to see my Obgyn. He said everythings looks ok, the twinges pain may caused by the grow of the baby which make the uterus expanded so much that the ligaments in my abdomen are stretching to make room for it. But he suggest me to have lot of rest and reduce activity outside the house! Gosh,... but I have so much plan and need to do so much things. Not good, especially when I just gained my energy back and feel like going out a lot and go back to my favorite place,... Malls. (*hiks*). I reach week 16 today, that means I just enter the 2nd trisemester. So far I can still wear my usual clothes. Wearing maternity clothes are more comfortable but they are still a bit too big. By the sound of what doctor said, seems I am going to need maternity clothes soon.

I guess I better have a rest in the next few days to gather all the energy and health for the coming holiday.

Big Question

Is it a girl or a boy ??

Another question is whether I want to know it now or want it to be a surprise.

Some people say this, the others say that,

but no one can tell me what to do

Yes, I make up my mind,

I don't want to be a surprise!

Am too excited and too curiouuus!!

Expecting

I've been waiting for so long to tell this. In the past 3 months I've been feeling tired, sleepy, and lazy most of the time. I know I know,.. for anyone who knows me, it's sounds like very 'me'. But not only I felt it more than usual (so bad that I have to lied down or took a nap), but after a few weeks, it also followed with other symptoms, like headache, heartburn, bladder 'calling' 100 times at night, and... growing tummy.

Guess what, ... yes,... I'm expecting!

I know! Can you imagine, me, pregnant? It was a rather shocking when I found it out too. ;p

I welcome the second trisemester this week. The last first trisemester had been full of new sensations. This very new experience, so amazing that I could freak-out and excited at the same time. Doctor said being pregnant means live as normal. But I don't agree. I definitely have to take a good care of myself more. More cautious of myself. Have to watch what I eat, what I drink, what I see, what I hear, what I say, what I feel, and what I do. Automatically I have to switch the way I think, as I am not only think about myself anymore. So, yeah, this is another changes in my life I should take, and I am really thankful for that.

As I am in the second trisemester now, my tummy is a little bit showing. At least that's what people said when they see me. I am hoping to feel better, have more energy, more energetic and enjoy this new experience more.