Mopi is a watermelon

I think Mopi has had a major growth spurt.

For the last three days, my tummy has been feeling so heavy. Walking around the house, I even use my hands to help carry the watermelon that has become my stomach.

It was such a sudden thing. Overnight. Pop! Out came the tum. Waaaay out.

***

On another note, I've been confused for the longest time.

We know pregnancies last for 9 months, right?

Wrong.

Doctors calculate the gestation period and the various milestones over a period of 40 weeks. They start counting from when you get your period so for most of the first month, one isn't really pregnant at all.

Anyway 40 weeks = 10 months right?

So being at about 25 weeks, I've been telling everyone that I am 5 months pregnant. I thought in layman's terms, one would discount the first month.

Thus, 25 weeks - 4 weeks (for the first month) = 21 weeks, which is 5 months right?

Wrong.

I've JUST discovered that I am actually one more month pregnant that I thought!

In fact, I'm six and a half months pregnant.

ALREADY!?!?!

You see, last night Mopi was being particularly active and so was my mind. I just couldn't get to sleep. So I decided to flip through What to expect when you are expecting - a book I discarded after about 10 weeks. (Pregnancy books are tres zzzz... and I am also scared to read the last chapters so I stop halfway!)

According to the book, the 40 weeks so work out to 9 months:

First Trimester
Month 1: 1-4 weeks
Month 2: 5-8 weeks
Month 3: 9-13 weeks

Second Trimester
Month 4: 14-17 weeks
Month 5: 18-22 weeks
Month 6: 23-27 weeks --->>> ME! at 25 weeks!

Third Trimester
Month 7: 28-31 weeks
Month 8: 32-35 weeks
Month 9: 36-40 weeks

This is just really scary... coz I'm really quite advanced at 6.5 months, aren't I?

D-Day looms... and I still don't understand the maths of it all.

But the good news is, I've still got my innie!

More space needed for Mopi

So we've gone and found Mopi a new home.

It was quite a quick decision. We saw the place on Friday and we loved it. So we immediately put in an offer and it was approved this afternoon. We move in on the 7th of February - in two weeks!

The place is huge. There are two levels with a great view of the Twin Towers.

The first floor has a kitchen, dining area, lounge and a guest room. The second floor has a little family sitting area, master with study and three bedrooms. One bedroom will be Mopi's nursery and one will be turned into my study/office.

No doubt, there'll be lots of room for Mopi to crawl about.

Our new home is just upstairs from where we are. So we're moving on up from 9 to 23A, which is actually 24 but the Chinese don't like the number 4.

Chinese people are so superstitious. The landlord said to D: "You better check if the date is ok with your feng shui guy, coz it's the Fiery Year of the Dog, you know!"

Do people really have a feng shui guy on call?

While it may be the same block of apartments, but it will still be quite an effort to shift all our stuff.

We're getting movers, so hopefully it won't be too stressful. I'll just sit back and point: there, here, there, upstairs, room two... chop chop!

Anyway, it's quite exciting as Mopi will have her own room and since we'll be all settled in our new place by mid-February, I can take my time doing up the nursery.

So many options!

No pinks though!

24 weeks

Baby sensations:
Mopi has been kicking a lot more. The kicks are stronger now. Little karate chops. Hyaaaaayah! But they are still sporadic and there's no real time when she's particularly active. She seems to kick most when I am lying down on my back, probably in protest as I've read that's when space is most constricted. Incidentally, she seems to kick a lot when I pay mahjong as well. Maybe she likes the clicketyclack of the tiles. Now that she kicks a lot, if I don't feel anything for a while I poke at my tummy trying to get her to respond, usually in vain. She does what she wants! When I was feeling really ill last week it was nice to feel her kick, kinda reassuring to know she was alright and that I wasn't all alone in my suffering. Hope the meds didn't affect her too much. Poor doped up baby!

Baby's likes and dislikes:
She doesn't really like classical music, especially hates opera (or maybe that's just me). She seems to like Enya though. During one particular song, she kicked for quite an extended period of time in rhythm to the music. Hilarious! But maybe that's only funny to me...

At this month's prenatal visit we learnt that:
All test results came back clean. Mopi is at very very low risk of neural tube defects and down syndrome. Thank God!
Risk of NTD: 1 in 10000
Risk of Down: 1 in 1425
(Age related Down risk 1 in 538)

Anyway, I got to see some pretty cool pictures this visit to Dr R's. D didn't make it coz we had already been to see Dr AT and Dr Y in Singapore. Dr R put up a 4D (what does that mean?) scan and you could really see quite clearly a picture of Mopi floating around and waving away. It was surreal. Dr R says it becomes even more so in the coming months coz the face will become more detailed - and at the very end we'll be able to see what Mopi looks like even before she pops out!

It's still not so clear but here's a pic of the bubs - she was waving her arm at us all through this scan. Helllooooo!

This month has been:
REALLY TOUGH. Somehow I got me the shingles. And it was such a horrible, painful, disgusting experience.

We went to see Dr R who confirmed it and he gave me some painkillers and cream. But the rash progressively got worse. It was like some flesh eating virus. Blisters popped up the size of grapes and in fact, were in clusters like grapes. The pain was BAAAD - a deep stabbing, relentless, pounding sensation. GIVE ME AN EPIDURAL ALREADY!

Finally, I caved in and went to see a specialist who painstaking explained to D and I the risks associated with taking the meds. So the three of us weighed up the pros and cons and I went on the meds. Ahhhhh drugs. *Bliss*

The blisters have popped and gone crusty (yum yum) and I am feeling stronger, though not enough to venture out of the house as yet, which is why this blog is getting so much attention!

Baby bag

I thought this may be cute to carry Mopi's things about town...



... then I discovered the price.

A mere USD$498.

Mopi's chin

There's no doubt, she's got my pointy chin!

When I discovered this, I showed D and he was like: "OH NOOOOooooooooooo! She's gonna look like you!"

Nice.

Not!