Baby Shower

Sophie and Susan hosted our baby shower yesterday. The day before, a group of girls at work organized a little shower just amongst six girls. And my department will organize one at work next month. I feel loved! Baby is lucky boy.

Goodbye to PUPPP

My PUPPP (Pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy) finally went away after seven days. The first three days I spent researching and reading what other women did. On the 4th day, I was totally miserable. And I finally managed to get an appointment with the dermatologist on the 6th day.

In the meantime, I was trying out all sorts of lotions, creams and ointments. Some made it worse.

This is what worked best for me:
Sarna Lotion
Grandpa's Pine Tar Soap
Shower with cool water. (Warm water made the rashes flare up and itched more)
Steroid cream (from the dermatologist)
Dandelion Root capsules (1 capsule, 3 times a day)

I also avoided sugar. And cut down on fried foods. I drank freshly squeezed lemon juice every morning.
Ate brussel sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli and avocado every other day. Walnuts and apples as a snack.
Basically, foods that support liver health was on my diet list.

Three women told me to avoid cocoa butter lotion. I think that may have been what triggered the rash in the first place.

The Home Stretch

29 weeks! We have 11 weeks to go. We can do this baby!

But first I have to stop scratching. Two days ago, I came down with PUPPP (Pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy). They say it is a common rash in pregnancy but it is driving me crazy. The itch is beyond imagination!! I need mittens. It started on the belly. Went to my neck and now my hands are on fire.
I called up the clinic nurse last night and she told me to go to the emergency room. But I did not. Because they will just put me on steroids and I'd rather not go that route.

After googling about this for hours, I have decided to try taking dandelion root capsules. Many pregnant mammas and midwives swear by this. So we'll see. I am also applying calamine lotion, hydrocortisone cream and fresh aloe.

Just when I thought I was so over with the shingles, now this. (I had the shingles on Friday, July 13)

Baby has been very entertaining with all his little kicks and punches. And occasional hiccups. Tho I still have a hard time telling the difference between a hiccup and his rhythmic kick. He "moves like jagger" when  Maroon 5 is playing. And is soothed by Debussy and Mozart. And dislikes Adele.
He wakes me up at 4am every morning and pretty much sleeps all afternoon.

The foot that kicks and dances

He should be 2.5lbs now and about the size of a butternut squash. People are still asking if I am carrying twins. Nope, just one lovable butternut squash swimming in lots of fluid.

A birthday cake for a geek

My geek husband wanted a Star Trek Voyager cake.
But I wasn't brave enough to attempt it. Because you know.. I do not bake fancy stuff.
So I was just going to stick to something round or square. Simple enough right? But at the same time, I wanted it geeky.

So a trip to Michaels' did the trick. They now have these sugar sheets and stenciled alphabets! How cool is that!
So here's what I did ( a bit sloppy on the icing part, but oh well..) :

Trouble gets to be on the wall of fame

Our neighbor, who is a very talented artist, offered to draw a portrait of Trouble.
She enjoys painting animals and has a lovely studio in her home.
This really looks like Trouble... except in real life, he usually almost always has a furball hanging out of his mouth.

Pregnancy blahs

I have a ton of things to do on my list to prepare for baby's arrival.
We are turning my craft room into a makeshift nursery, and eventually convert the guest room into a toddler room.
The Expedit shelves and desk from Ikea will make a great changing table. So all we need is a crib and a chest of drawers.
But before all that can come into place, I have six year's worth of crafting goodness that needs to be put away some where. Where? I don't know. So it's all sitting in the middle of the room while I scratch my head in vain.

And then there are the unsolicited comments on my size. I'm always getting the 'Wow, you are SO big!' or "Wow, you are really showing!" and someone jokingly(or not) said to me last week, "Are you sure you are not 11 month's pregnant?". I try to laugh it off instead of saying "Yes I am SO big because I have too much amniotic fluid and am risk of losing my baby because he might be born too early, or they might accidentally poke him with the needle while doing an amniocentesis"

And  then there's people touching, poking and patting my belly. This is really awkward especially when it's people I hardly know. Perhaps I should poke their stomach back in response.
Being pregnant does not mean I became public property.

As if I'm not already annoyed because of how uncomfortable I am!

I also like telling people "Are you trying to tell me I am fat?" when they ask me how far along I am, just to see their response.

I am not even going to start on heartburn, back pain, swollen feet, constipation, lack of sleep, and moodiness. You can already tell that I am moody right now.

Why I don't look forward to these monthly visits

So each time I come home from a doctor's visit, I get more disheartening news.
It seems that I am measuring too big at my stage and they are sending me back for another ultrasound next month to measure my amniotic fluid level, and possibly talk me into doing an amniocentesis to draw out some fluid to prevent pre-term labor. And have a diagnostic test for down's syndrome.

On the bright side, I get to see my baby again on screen.

18 weeks + 1 day

We had our second ultrasound today. It was a very detailed scan with measurements of everything taken.
This is when we get to find out the sex of the baby too.

We think it is a boy. But the doctor says he cannot confirm that yet as the umbilical cord was blocking the view. But he says he thinks he saw a scrotum so chances are that it is a boy.

Anyway, he got me all worried when he told me he could not see the stomach (because the baby did not swallow any fluid), which could mean the esophagus is not connected or there may be a leak somewhere, or some sort of birth defect.
I will go back next week for another ultrasound. Baby boy, you better start drinking some fluid and stop freaking your mommy out!
I also have a lot of amniotic fluid. I don't know if that's related to the esophagus problem. The more I read, the more worried I get. So I will stay away from the internet for now.

I told myself I will not be posting any ultrasound photos on Facebook.  So on the blog it goes.
Too bad we didn't get that pic of baby with his right hand pointing upwards saying "number one!". I thought that was cute.

Side profile

Baby loves sucking his left thumb

16 weeks 4 days

Major stabbing pains on my left glute area today.
Pain like I have never experienced before. It happens when I stand or try to walk. And it shoots bolts of spasms to leave me immobile for a few seconds, making my left leg go limp.

I laid on the kitchen floor and cried. Waiting for the spasms to go away. Cat saw me, sniffed and got worried and started howling in Jason's office like he was trying to get help. I guess we need to teach him how to use the speed dial.

I've been using an ice pack on that area every hour. It seems to help stop the spasms. Now it's just the muscle -like cramp. And I have a slight limp when I walk. I can live with this.

Oh and Tylenol doesn't work.

24 weeks more to go. I can do this. I must!

13 weeks 1 day

We had our first ultrasound today.
Since we have a history of twins on both sides of the family, we were anticipating the nurse to tell us that we're having twins. She told us "I see just one baby". 

The baby is about the size of a medium shrimp.

This is starting to feel real.

Sucking his/her thumb

One little lentil

Today, I found out I have a lentil growing in me.

I couldn't believe it. The first test kit had expired so I thought, well, maybe it's giving me a false positive. So I took the test two more times. (I went out and bought different brands). Still positive.
The next day, I went out and bought some diapers, came home, handed the diapers to Jason and said "Start practicing".

He was pleasantly shocked too. I think it took him two days to get over the shock. Then he started ordering books for himself to read.

This has been a five year plus project for us. So it feels like a miracle.

Our lives are about to change.

Fake friends no more

We finally met Alaska Amy and sweet Julia. We've been blog friends (Amy calls it fake friends) for atleast five years I think. Not exactly sure how that came about. I think we found her through the Carans.
Then, Facebook came along and everybody started falling off the blogging world.

So our first meeting, and guess where we took them to? The Mummies of the World exhibit. Classy eh.
I wonder what kind of hosts she must think of us. But you see, Charlotte is oh-so-boring. There is practically nowhere touristy or cool to take someone to. No Disneyworld equivalent here. Unless you like boring Nascar museums. Or maybe because we just don't go out much.

I still think it was so cool that we had finally met (for real!).

Actually, I am writing this to see if Amy Maio is actually reading my blog :)