34 weeks 5 days

Here is me at 34 weeks and 5 days into my pregnancy.

Tummy doesn't seem to be very big. I didn't have very big tummy during my first pregnancy too, but I had water retention which made me look swollen. This time, hurray! No water retention and not much stretch marks too. But belly button popped out, sadly. Took one year to flatten back after first child birth and now its out again.

My baby Caitlin is kicking me more strongly now, as if she's protesting that there's no more space for her inside. I asked a friend who has a baby girl, whether her girl kicked her strongly too. I guess some girls are more gentle. She said her girl never gave her strong kicks, whereas her boy (she's pregnant with a boy) is now giving her strong karate kicks and punches very often. Hmm that means both my boy and girl are "violent" babies huh?!

Sadly I'm having flu now and I wake up with stuffy nose and sore throat everyday. When I sleep, I also had to bear with one side of my nose blocked, whichever side I'm lying on.

And I have to protect my tummy every time I hug Kieran to sleep because he likes to kick his legs before he doze off. I think some mummy somewhere must have invented some tummy protecting armour just for mummies with little toddlers.

My symptoms now are:

• Frequent urination. At night, I have to get up about 4 times to go toilet.
• Frequent contraction. I feel tummy tightening to become rock-hard, and sometimes if I'm lying down when it happens, I get backaches too.
• Aching legs. If I walk too much or stand for too long, it happens, usually at the end of the day. 
• Urge to drink water or beverage. I drink lots of liquid now. Listening to my body. I think its because my breasts are producing milk in preparation for baby.
• Cravings to eat sweet stuff but the urge is lesser now. Last few weeks, I guess baby had a growth spurt and everyday after 4pm, I was eating and eating and eating. My fridge suddenly became filled with food.
• Right side, upper thigh, and near to waist area hurts terribly if I sat down on the floor in one position for too long. I guess its sciatic nerve pain. Had that for first one too. It's getting increasingly difficult to get up from sitting on floor to standing position.
• Had insomnia sometimes. 
• Panicking about things occasionally... especially when I start to worry about what happens after baby is here, how we can adapt to another baby, and how to be control of my life when everything becomes chaotic once more.

I'm looking forward to seeing Dr Ho again this Thurs for 35th week review. Looking forward to seeing baby on the ultrasound monitor again. Every time I sees him, Dr Ho says everything is well. This pregnancy is too smooth sailing to be true. In fact, I never get extra fats, never had very nauseating symptoms or extreme exhaustion or that irritating eczema all over my body, like I had with my first.