20 Week - The Halfway Point

22nd November 2009

Yes, i am now half way through the pregancy! Baby is 20 weeks now :)

Status of baby according to fetal development chart:

• Baby is 17cm long crown to rump, and weighs about 310 grams.


• The baby can hear and recognize the mother's voice.


• The mother will probably start feeling the first fetal movements.


• The toenails and fingernails are growing.


• The growth of hair on the rest of the body has started.


• The skin is getting thicker.


• The heart can now be heard with a stethoscope.

Baby may react to loud sounds. Baby can actually hear noises outside of the womb. Familiar voices, music, and sounds that baby becomes accustomed to during their development stages often are calming after birth. This is an important time for sensory development since nerve cells serving each of the senses; taste, smell, hearing, sight, and touch are now developing into their specialized area of the brain.

Ah, so many changes mark the midpoint milestone for the baby. Looking at myself, my physical appearance does change a lot too. By now most of colleagues already knew that i am pregnant cos tummy is getting bigger and obvious.

Antenatal Class at KKH

21st November 2009

yay... 上课咯！！！
Today Geo and I went for our very first antenatel class together with our couple friend - Derrick and Linda. We have our breakfast there before lesson commenced at 9am. During registration we were given a goodie bag which contains course notes, baby feeding set, sample milk powders, diapers, brochures, etc.

Geo and I never wake up so early on saturday before, so throughout the lesson i have lost count of how many yawns we made..hahe, first lesson quite boring leh, cos all theory, talking about body changes during pregnancy and orientation of maternity services in KKH. The class is not very big, i think probably have approx 10-12 couples, all are first time parents, including one angmoh parent who came late).

Luckily lesson ended earlier, four of us went to nearby Bugis OG shopping centre for shopping and lunch. Derrick and Linda have bought quite a lot of baby stuff wor, but for me and Geo - empty handed..haha, cos have not really planned to shortlist what to buy at this moment.. hmm..wait for December sales bah...

Look forward to next class, may have to do some exercise :)

20 week detail ultrasound scan

17th November 2009

I am 19 week and 3 day pregnant now.
Pretty look forward to this day for detail scan to see baby again. The scan is similar to the detail scan done during week 12 in KK ADC, this time round it is under another female doctor who looks more senior and experienced.

Luckily KKH allows hubby to sit in throughout the whole scanning process, but the sonographer did not allow us to video it. She started by scanning baby's heart, wow it is pumping really fast! Then she went on to check and measure different parts of baby : the head, spines, lips, abdomen (to see stomach, kidneys, bladder and cord insertion), chest, limbs, blood blows, amniotic fluid etc etc. During the process i think i could see the baby sticking out the tongue, very cute :D

When the sonographer wanted to check the nose, one of the baby's hands is covering the face, the sonopraher asked me to have a toilet break then come back to room 3 to scan again. But after the toilet break, sonographer still cannot get to see the baby's face clearly cos baby now facing down, like swimming. Haha, so no choice she asked us to take 30 mins break, go for breakfast then come back again.

3rd round of scan, finally manage to get all done, and the sonographer concluded all is ok then we quickly paid up ($85) and proceed to TPS to see our gynae Doc Benjamin. The gynae seem to be rather concerned on the Thalassaemia result, he asked to arrange another medical consultation with Doc Angeline Lai, a genetic dctor to ensure we made an informed decicion about all possibilities on the baby's blood, though he assured us the baby will still be a minor carrier, i am very worried cos i might need to go through amnio test :(

Anyway now cannot do much about it, just have to keep praying and see what the genetic doctor says on the next appointment 23rd Nov.

The whole visit took more than 4 hours this time, but the process is very memorable. The day before we went for the scan, we kept telling baby to co-operate during the scan to let us see if the baby is a boy or gal. Baby seems to hear us :) During the scan, it did not take much effort for sonographer to find the right angel to check the baby's genital. The most magical moment has finally arrived - when doctor move the camera to see the baby legs, the angle is like viewing the baby's buttock, she shown us something in between the baby' legs, it was clearly a baby boy!

This is one of the scan photos given to us.

Baby weighs about 315gram now.

6th Appointment

13th October 2009

I am now14week pregnant, into second trimester now. Morning sickness is getting slightly better now, and i can feel that energy level is slowly picking up.

Today i have to see the doctor because i have pretty bad water retention, and worst, painful piles. My body is all puffed up, so much so that i can't wear the wedding band now,
I try to put pillow to lift up my leg when I sleep, drink more water at day but cut down water intake at night but still it does not improve. My face is puffy and look swollen, my nose too, and both hands and fingers are painful and numb...... but all these cannot beat the pain and discomfort due to piles, gosh, i can barely sit straight because sitting put pressure on the piles and aggravate the pain. Sigh, not sure why i got all these pregnancy symptoms in such an early stage?

Since i was tested positive being a Thalassaemia minor carrier, Doctor Tham advised both of us to do a detail DNA test on Thalassaemia. After collecting the medicene, we went to KKH level 7 to draw blood for the test.

Today doctor scan the baby but did not give me any photo to keep, i was quite unhappy about it cos i want to keep all these precious photos mah. Anway from the scan monitor i saw that baby is now 7.6cm, grew by about 1cm compared to the last visit :)