Weekly Checkup: Week 38

"Expecting to see some action this week" were the words Dr Tan said to us, after she did my checkup.

Our baby is now:

• 3.2kg
• Engaged

However, cervix is still not opened.  And again, she reminded us to rush down to the hospital if the contractions came to intervals of 15 minutes.  She said that the contractions would start as mild, irregular ones, and then become regular.  If we were not sure, it would be better for us just to come down to the hospital.  She was also afraid that the pain would progress too quickly and become too intense for me to walk, if we did not make it to the hospital fast enough.

Hubby is wondering whether his girl is bent on sharing the same birthday as him!

Weekly Checkup: Week 37

Another long wait today.  Even though we booked the last appointment at 12pm, we only entered the room after 2pm and had to wait for a while. 

This week, I did not gain much weight myself, but our baby girl has grown to 3.1kg.  Dr commented that she had surpassed her big brother!  She did a quick cervix check and said that our girl was still not ready to come out.

Since I was experiencing frequent BH contractions, I asked Dr how would I differentiate BH from the real contractions.  She mentioned that the real thing would feel like hardening of the tummy, and the pain would be at the lower abdominal area, and would be much more painful than the usual menses-like crampy feeling that I had been experiencing.  It would come and go, and I would definitely tell the difference.  Being a second-time mummy did not seem to help me in knowing when was the real contractions, because the last time round, everything happened so quickly (from waterbag leaking in the middle of the night, to the sudden intensifying of the pain, and to delivery).

Since Ian was delivered in the 37th weeks at 3.1kg, our girl had surpassed all of her big brother's records.  I had been starting to feel the stretching and expansion of the tummy as though it was my first pregnancy, and sadly, new stretch marks seemed to have formed. :(  Because of the experience with Ian, I think I am getting a phobia of going to bed, just in case the waterbag leaks again in my sleep... :(

Verdict: Ian Is A Happy Child

I was reading an article on the Babycenter ("How to raise a happy child"), and came to the conclusion that Ian is a happy child.

According to the article, "a happy child smiles, plays, shows curiosity, socializes with other children, and doesn't need constant stimulation".  And, an unhappy one "is withdrawn, quiet, not eating very much, doesn't spontaneously get involved with other children, doesn't play, doesn't ask questions, doesn't laugh and smile, and has very spare speech".

Ian is definitely not quiet, has tons of questions, and always laugh at the tiniest things such that sometimes, we do even not get his joke.

Weekly Checkup: Week 36

It was a long wait today, because Dr had to attend to a delivery (or was it more than one?) and we only managed to see her at almost 11am, even though our appointment was at 9am.  From this checkup onwards, I had to clear the Strep B test and also do internal examinations.  After checking, Dr told me "3 weeks" with a smile.  I was a bit stunned at first.  Did she meant she was predicting another 3 weeks before I would deliver?  Anyway, I did not ask.  She said that baby's head was in the correct position, but not yet engaged, and my cervix had not ripened too.

The estimated weight of our baby was 2.8kg, which was just as we had guessed (about 250g gain every week).  As for my own weight, it was 57kg.  That meant most of the weight I had gained had gone to our baby?  Some people had asked me why I did not gain much weight until now, and my reply would always be "how to gain with a super active kid like Ian?"!

Since 37 weeks is considered to be full-term for a pregnancy, we are now expecting our girl to come any time... And thanks to Hubby, who has relieved me of my chauffeuring duties since the beginning of week 36.

Shapes Sticker Book

I happened to buy this sticker book from a shopping mall roadshow some time last year, and only took it out for Ian to try recently.  It required the child to be able to match the shape of the sticker to the picture in the book, eg. to paste a missing flag or a missing wheel in the picture.  It was pretty interesting, and I was pleasantly surprised that Ian could do most of the sticking on his own, though there were some that still needed guidance.

There were only about 150 stickers in the book, but it had provided a lot of fun for my little boy.