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.

Insomnia

Today is the last day of 36th week. Last 2 nights were horrible. On Monday 3am to 5am, I had Braxton hicks contraction that lasted 1min+ each and with varying intervals. The intervals could be from 3min to 11min apart. So I couldn't sleep the whole night. Woke up intermittently to drag myself to the bathroom too. What's worse, from Monday night to Tuesday morning, I had insomnia, partly caused by me sleeping too much on Monday due to the tiring contractions the night before, and partly due to baby kicking, poking and jabbing me strongly the whole night. I guess my sleeping position disturbed him a lot. When I thought of lying down, I had phobia, really. Lying down caused a lot of aches to my back and sides. Before my belly becomes this heavy and big, I am ok with just putting a pillow behind me or lying on my side hugging a bolster. But now, its really difficult. I did all these but the aches just stay there.

I'm going to do some pelvic exercise before I sleep tonight and I'm going to try putting something at the arch of my back to prevent my spine from being stressed too much by the weight. Grrr this aching and sleeplessness really made me wish baby can quickly come. I cannot tahan 1 month of horrendous aches and insomnia anymore!

One good news though is that my new flat at Punggol Spring is nearly completed for moving in. Renovation finally completed last week. Made the final payment. I love our neat kitchen, our cozy little corner at the full length windows which overlook the Water Way and the baby room which will be done up nicely soon before we move in with our darling baby. Just now we went IKEA to get some furniture. We were rudely shocked with the delivery policy of IKEA which was not mentioned when we checked the website or when we asked the customer service officer before making payment. We were given 3 days of delivery to choose from, and after which we must pay $5 per day of extension! What's worse is their delivery timings are only from 10am to 2pm, and they couldn't specify exactly a range of time that they usually deliver to Punggol area. I have to stay at home and wait from 10am to 2pm on a weekday?! That's ridiculous! Grrr... I'm thinking of writing a complain letter to IKEA. They should improve their inflexible delivery service. It doesn't come cheap too! $55 for delivery above $300 of purchases and 6% of item price for assembly. Seriously...

Time to go back to bed again. I hope my back won't suffer too much tonight.

Braxton Hicks Contraction

I had my first Braxton Hicks contraction pains at 6 months into my pregnancy.

According to my research, we are not supposed to experience pain when having this false "practise" labour contractions. Most mothers feel a tightening of the stomach muscle, much like cramp. But contrary to what is written online, some mothers, like me do feel pain when having this false contraction.

Braxton Hicks contractions are called "practise contractions" because the uterus is practising for the real labour. In the third trimester, this can be mistaken as real labour pains. There are guidelines to help us differentiate between real labour pains and Braxton Hicks contraction but unfortunately, kiasi first time mothers like me would most prob just rush to the hospital for whatever pain or indication of labour anytime near the EDD.

The first time I experienced it, I missed lunch as I fell asleep after ironing the clothes, and then I suddenly realised I felt cramps when I eat the first morsel of food about 5 hours apart from breakfast. I thought it was gastric pain but relieve came in a while and after that, I went furniture shopping with my parents. But soon, the pain came again and stronger this time as I walked a lot during the shopping. I was breathing hard and lying down on the back seat of my dad's car. It lasted for about 20min. He almost drove me to the hospital. The cramps decreased with rest.

I didn't realise that was Braxton Hicks until I had it the second time. Over this weekend, Friday and Saturday were hectic days for me. I went to submit forms at Town Council and walked long distances for public transport, went to meet friends, walked long distances too to meet them, met up with contractor regarding new flat renovation, etc etc... Then while in the MRT with hubby, the cramp came so strong and painful that I broke out in cold sweat and I grabbed his hands for comfort. I realised its almost the same kind of pain and this time, I didn't skip any meal. The pain eased after about 5 min. Thank goodness it disappeared by the time we alighted the MRT.

Research says that we can reduce the incidences of Braxton Hicks by avoiding dehydration, being too active, and keeping a full bladder. Taking warm bath, drinking warm drinks and changing positions can alleviate the contractions. I definitely won't want to feel the pain again soon. I'm taking all kinds of precautions. Mom told me she never had this until late in pregnancy when she's carrying my youngest sis. At that time, she rushed to the hospital because she thought she's about to go into labour.

I did a search online and realised that this pain I experienced was what I had been reading about but had no idea how it really feels like. False labour pain is already so strong, I'm sure the real one is 10 times worse... I'm definitely opting for epidural.