Eat, drink and be married!

So....pregnancy is not all roses and unicorns and candy floss happy. I'm sorry but it wasn't one of those times where I had the best time in my life - life is a lot better not being pregnant.

For sure, there is a life growing inside me and every fibre of my being should be rejoicing over that - but no, there are bits to it that makes this journey suck. Taken off the horse's mouth.

Mommy's Brain

The forgetfulness got so bad at some point - I got my staycation dates mixed up, forgot to note the order number of my online order...got so frustrated with myself that every Friday seemed like Friday the 13th though I was looking forward to end of week so much.

I hated being pregnant

The body that isn't mine anymore. The belly, girth, swollen everything...and weight gain. Having been weight conscious all my life, this was just beyond me to comprehend. The weighing scales and mirrors already started being my fiend from day one, and slowly it morphed into a monster that I dreaded so darn much. One fine day I even asked the poor husband if I can remove all mirrors in the house.

People showed off their bumps, I preferred to hide mine. Not that I wasn't happy with the living one inside but it was this physical change that no amount of comforting could ever help. How can wearing clothes become such a pain, and literally I struggled in and out of outfits for a special dinner and still was not satisfied with my choice and that swollen thing called belly getting in the way.

OF all the pregnancy symptoms, lower backache and bloatedness got me under my skin. SO BAD. And no home remedy seem to help - exercising was completely out of the question given my complicated history, and taking ginger is also out of the equation. Yet every other best remedies to bloatedness post had nothing helpful to say except

• Eat smaller meals
• Increase fibre intake
• Exercise
• Cut down on refined sugars

To which the darling Hubba summed up "as good as telling you eat, sleep, poo and repeat". 

Hormones that rage, more than you can imagine

First, I was angry at being put on bed rest. The trip cancellations during festive periods made me go bonkers literally on my couch - I could probably soak it twice through with the amount of weeping and emotional breakdowns I had.

Then, I had trouble sleeping which made me even angrier than angry.

Subsequently, getting so emotional and hormonal about teeny tiny things. Gosh, I hate myself already.

Gestational Diabetes

As much as this is an angel trying to help me lead a healthier lifestyle, it was a demon in its own right. I felt maligned and all the sugary intake was not even part of my usual regime. Preserved prunes and yakult became daily affairs to help with indigestion and gas and suddenly they were forbidden. The usual foods that I love so dearly with my heart became poison and I hated the diabetes mention so much, it was ear sore and every ounce of poison.

I have to admit the journey is not smooth sailing - more on that in a full entry. 

Countdown to week 40

Every passing week meant a week nearer to getting myself out of this misery. And that despite all the discomfort made me wee bit happier.

Written when still pregnant and angsty, I would imagine the angst hitting all notes of high when baby is here! 

Being a First Time Mom does influence the way I have made purchases or decisions in the last almost 9 months and amongst those things at brings on the great divide is the hospital bag.

I toyed with the idea of packing it sometime at Week 32 and started filling it in 33...

So here's what's inside my very pretty vacation bag - except it will not be as cushy as a staycation and barely half the fun.

For Momma,

• Maternity pads
• Sterile Gauze
• Nursing Bras
• Going home outfit
• Toiletries set
• Make up pouch
• Breast pads
• Breast pump (half hearted on this since the supply will not come in anyway!) 
• Gestational Diabetes Rental Kit (to return to the pharmacy on day of check out!)
• Snacks
• Handphone charger 

For Dadda

• Laptop battery
• Camera and charger
• Jacket

For Baby

• Going home clothes
• Swaddle 
• Mittens and booties
• Original copy of marriage cert to do the birth cert registration
• Bills to make claims
• Cordblood banking kit

And with that, we are literally a ticking time bomb now...!

I started out not having a plan, and then it became something more and that's when excitement finally seeped in!

Planning for our own home did not seem so fun, somehow...perhaps cuter things existed for the tiny tyke that made it more fun. I started out with a colour scheme in mind more than a theme - afterall, installing wall paper according to theme is going to be tricky when the tyke grows up and starts attacking the walls with crayons and what nots.

White it would be mainly, lots of sunshine and pops of colour here and there. One thing let to another and here's what we ended up with. 

A4 LightBox
http://www.alittlelovelycompany.nl/en/

At 16 weeks, I made my first purchase for speckie and it wasn't even an insurance policy yet. Frivolous momma had other plans in mind and it included a A4 sized light box. The hubba was clearly very amused but I justified and defended my purchase to no end. Shipping set me back by 20 euros and using master card another 1 euro which still worked out to be cheaper than the Cotton On alternative which coincidentally was already retailing at $80.

No offense to other mummies but I thought having those milestone cards were too cliche.

Cushion and Trolley
IKEA

I caved in to a number of items from IKEA because of the price mainly AND they really did resemble those from the high end shops at sucha fraction of the price! Buying for baby is bank breaking and budgeting is super important - plus we already splurged on the lightbox and the tula....something had to give yes?

Cloud cushion

Trolley

Playmat
Parklon

I was torn between getting a playmat and a rug.

And ultimately, the playmat won for practicality and hygiene reasons - I cannot possibly de-fur a rug per se. Stalking pupsik for a good discount on my Parklon mat was priority and I nailed one with a reasonable discount off, free delivery and a first time purchase discount too - please always look out for additional codes!

Delivery was settled in 2 working days flat, super impressive. While some may say nabbing these at a baby fair could be cheaper, I did my sums and having to drag the fella bag alongside all the other buys is going to be daunting.

The crib
Bon Bebe - Vermont

Stokke was on my dream and lust list for SO LONG. Oval shaped cribs are so uncommon amongst the brands and it can be converted along the way. With so many selling points, I still have to cave into a normal looking crib eventually. Price, does matter unfortunately.

Key things to look out for include casters, colour of wood and sturdiness. I contemplated a play pen and a cot but the flimsiness of the former put me off.

I had my eye on the Bon Bebe Alexia after rave reviews from the gf, and ended up with the Vermont since they ran out of white for Alexia. Sturdy and looks pretty enough for the nursery, one down and so many more to go! 

Blankie turned ornament piece
http://modernburlap.com/

I was sold on their swaddles with biblical verses printed, this would mean so much for us and Speckie whom we owe so much to God for. I thought it would be nice if Speckie grew up with a verse that would be instrumental, subsequently. So it ended up being on the wall like most mommas have done! 

Plus they have a super meaningful charity drive going on - one for a stranger.
http://modernburlap.com/collections/tots-kiddos/products/add-on-to-any-swaddle-to-make-it-one-for-one

Cotton Mobile

Needle and I's works are to die for...but but but I still did not cave into getting one to hang. Somehow plastic ones did not appeal to me as much as the cotton ones and I ended up with a musical toy from disney instead! Cute and squishy too!

You know how an unsatisfied lusting returns and haunts? I ended up with yet another cotton mobile off taobao - just because.

There are a ton in the market with prices varying depending on budget - and also a variety of styles. We wanted something journalistic, one that hopefully tells a story and captures the raw emotions. I sound like I want the heavens and the stars already. Baring the belly was not my idea of tasteful, somewhat - neither do posy studio shoots appeal.

I fell in love with Samuel Goh's eye for detail - though he specialised in weddings, I thought it would be great for this special chapter. A couple of emails and there we had our maternity photographer settled at 11 weeks. Whoops, too early maybe? But then again I learnt that nothing is too early to book.  

A visit at his studio and a conversation that dragged for hours, we found our photographer.

We decided to keep things simple for those 2 hours and traveled around our favourite neighbourhood.

Murals

We stumbled upon two wall murals in the vicinity - we are becoming a mini Penang here!

One Olive

This secret garden needs no further mention, though hardly resembling any other florist in town.

Plain Vanilla

My favourite cupcakery in town - I wish we got ourselves cupcakes too but this was the final location for the shoot.


We prayed for good weather and was given more than good weather, sunny skies, white fluffy clouds and heat. The Hubba was soaked through within 30 minutes and by the end of the shoot, we were both thankful that we are over and done with pre-wedding shoots.



My getup - who'd have thought chiffon could be equally hot too!? At 33 weeks, the bump was definitely becoming a permanent barrel!


Samuel was a joy to work with, he had a flair for details most definitely and a knack of digging deep into our inner selves through the things he asked us to do - whisper into each other ear's a song that we would sing to the little boy and others...at some point it got emotional for me, recounting our journey as a couple. Perhaps he should be a counsellor too!



Here's just one as a preview, the rest of the photos probably won't arrive till almost my due date!

Here we are again getting prodded and having my nerves on tenterhooks - thank god I could sleep the night before.

Note that this experience and thoughts are entirely my own. 

What happens?

A minimum 8 hour fast (read: no food or drink) from 12 midnight and until the first draw of blood. A 75ml sugary mixture is given before a second draw of blood is taken 2 hours later.



What really happens?

Theoretically, all of the above is friendly. In reality,

• I was crazy thirsty when I woke up, thankfully did not heed my dad's advise of taking a drink of water since he is allowed before he has his own blood tests because that would render the fast useless. 
• The nurse allocated to me was super friendly which then became a trade off when she helped me count 1-3 and the thinner needle she chose could not find the vein. Great. Second nurse called to help and just to draw the first vial needed, I had both my arms pricked. 
• Some likened it to orange fanta and to start with, I do not like my soft drinks and am best friends with orange juice. This started off as pleasant and slowly morphed into a monster of rancid, icky and all things bad. Between this and Fleet oral, I say both are equally disgusting. It is neither gassy nor delicious, a drink that basically left a medicinal aftertaste. ACK. 
• The bottle's label did warn of potential side effects: nausea, abdominal bloating and puking. And if puke happens, thank you very much come back another time to repeat the test. Thrice I had the mixture regurgitate up my throat. 
• Thankfully I chose to take an hour long walk to ease off time in the 2 hour wait, that helped distract and keep the drink down...else I promise I would be heading straight to the loo and probably gagging on it. 
• Second prick happened way faster than the first, with the plaster pasted I was ready to eat up the day. Ready a snack! 
• Get ready to wait out the results as the day rolled on...I kept my fingers and toes crossed for a no phone call, at least that means some good news. At the back of my mind, I was all ready to dig into an icecream cone if I did not get that dreaded phone call. 

The verdict

Tested positive for gestational diabetes with a reading of 8.1 when the cut off is 7.8. :( Made to go see a dietician and that made me super unhappy already. 

One life-changing test

Like all bad news and any other person in denial I went through a bevy of emotions - frustration, sadness, disappointment and all things negative. The number 1 question is always Why Me? What did I eat wrong? Was it the sugars? I'm not sure why but having been told the piece of bad news on Friday just screwed my entire weekend over.

The weekend was spent scouring the web for articles, studies and finding out about this animal called gestational diabetes. In short, it is a transient phase for pregnant women whose blood sugars spike and the body cannot deal with excess sugars. In the long run, it may be a sign of diabetes to come (though most women go on to lead very normal lives and not be a diabetic patient).

So where do I go from here?

A date was set with the nutritionist and as usual armed with a whole list of foods I usually eat - to see how badly the meal plans would be affected, seriously being a pregnant foodie with gestational diabetes is beginning to sound a lot like a nightmare.

A 3 hour session that morphed into 5 hours, lunch included. 

Registration - Glucose Finger Prick Test - Pee Test - Doctor's Consultation - Nurse's Consultation - Lunch - Dietician's Session - Loan of glucose machine and purchase of consumables

So that is in a gist what happened in a span of 5 hours. The whole time, I can only imagine how much time is vested in attending a single consultation. Well maybe first visits always turn out so lengthy and these ended up being my takeaways from seeing a whole bevy of people -

1) Pregnant women are already given priority on Tuesdays.
2) Who has all the time to wait and wait and wait?
3) Another specialist to add onto my existing list of an obstetrician and cardiologist. Ha-ha.
4) I probably knew more than the dietician herself knew. I mean Coke Zero is allowed because it's better than Coke proper. HMM.
5) Carbohydrate exchanges are a term I got acquainted with. My breakfast of 2 tablespoon rolled oats, 1 green apple, 10 almonds and 2/3 cup low fat milk already consumed 2 carbohydrate exchanges for breakfast.
6) What is advised and what works may not agree - ultimately it all boils down to how your own blood sugar reacts. HURHUR.. As good as not saying anything imho. What good is it telling me I can take mee siam but my blood sugars may not agree?
7) Having gestational diabetes does not make one a diabetic patient.

 

The days ahead

Finger prick blood tests for the rest of the remaining 14 weeks - 7 times a day (Before and after breakfast, lunch, dinner and after supper) for a week day and weekend to monitor blood sugars. Any 3 consecutive day hikes, I had to inform my Ob-gyn.

Admittedly, there are good and bad days. Emotional breakdowns at the hospital and at home are common, I'm not sure if they are the hormones or...just me reacting to the situation.

Within the first week, I dropped 500grams but that really could be weight fluctuation from water loss more than anything else. The whole purpose was never to lose weight per se but it is interesting to know how sugar impacts one's weight fluctuations.

The safe meal plan

I love my food with sucha vengeance, it is almost pitiful that I have to come to this. Nonetheless, I tried to play with any variations and still be on the safe side of things. Carbohydrates are necessary yet it boils down to your own body and preferences to plan happy meals.

Breakfast
2 tablespoons rolled oats, 1 green apple, 10 almonds and 2/3 cup low fat milk
Fruit variations include red apples and strawberries
Lychee chiffon cake

Lunch
Chicken salad with egg, celery, long beans, peppers, mushrooms, cucumbers and tomatoes with wasabi soy dressing
Seafood soup with greens

Pre-dinner snack
Plum

Dinner 
Popiah and dry dumplings
Thunder tea rice with 2 pieces of fried ngoh hiang
Yakitori
Papaya

Midnight Snack
1/3 sugee cake and 1 cup low fat milk

Exercise is recommended for 30 minutes per day, I was thrilled to be back walking! The spotting and bleeding episodes put me off any form of exercise for way too long.


Afterthoughts

Coming to terms with GD made me feel tons better about the pregnancy, negative emotions aside and realising how this would help me in my life ahead made a lot of sense. Except hospitals always relay such bad news in a manner that never goes well.

Truth be told, the carbs and sugars were my nemesis, it did not mean I absolutely could not eat them, just in smaller portions. At some point I joked that my dieting plans throughout my life came to fruition, my resistance towards carbs is a lot higher than sugars, unfortunately.

Weight gain became more controlled, I was no longer stepping on the machine in fear over daily weight surges or unexpected weight gain. It was nice to be in control again, no pain no gain yes?

It could be all the fashionista mommy blogs I have been reading that I long decided ahead of time which baby carrier I want. The plan had always been the Tula, until I got introduced to the world of woven carriers. Seems there is a difference between a normal tula, half woven and full woven.

And, the quest for it is even more crazed than the Birkin. Oh well, I suppose the insanity would be far worse if we could order a birkin online.

Turns out, the woven Tula was only retailed online and at specific timings every two weeks. Judging by the success rate after 7-8 tries, I gave myself a good 6 months to score one.

The apprehensive first

I didn't have high hopes scoring one on the first try - I mean heck, IUI didn't even work for us the first try. Surely my chances would be higher than that but how much higher, I really did not know.

7am release saw me setting the alarm at 650am and scrambling before the lappy to camp. I mean seriously I have been there and done that with Hello Kitty merchandise and concert tickets. I just did not know what they really meant by everything goes out of stock in a minute.

So great, I saw the stock took a second to read and tried to cart and bam! Out of stock. ALL GONE IN A MINUTE. WOW. How much stock do they really carry? Do I really need to resort to the black market to score one? Damn. I shall try my luck again two weeks later and hopefully slightly better luck!

The hopeful second


So then this fell on a public holiday, and both the Hubba and I surely thought of sleeping through it - I mean, who can even guarantee we will nail one this round. I think he felt the stress and was tossing the whole night :x And I the light sleeper actually stirred at 6am, a tad too early before the official 7am ungodly hour. Strangely, I even had the luxury to throw in a tiresome dream in between and finally kicked off the covers at 645am when our alarms cooperated and rang.

Two of us on our laptops refreshing the page repeatedly for a good 5 minutes and I even assured the Hubba that "it's ok if we don't nail one." I mean, the higher the expectation the greater the disappointment!

Our tactic was simple, once the page loaded scroll for a full wrap conversion regardless design and try to cart it.

AND IT WORKED!!!!! As if I stumbled upon a secret, this seems to be the only way to nail one according to a number of tula fans - and it did for us.


The aftermath

Now there's the infant insert, customizable drool pads, perhaps a hoodie too for our first Tula. Hopefully the last, Hubba wishes.

The tula blankets look so droolicious too but that ball game is another mind boggling and nerve wrecking affair, I suppose I'd just lay off and settle for Aden+Anais or Modern Burlap that I have got my eyes on. :P

There was a seconds sample sale subsequently and I was hoping to score a discounted baby insert but they were not part of it. Bummer.

The accessories

Turns out, a friend managed to score tula blankets off the EU website on my behalf and there, the first and hopefully the last of its kind. <strike> With 5 Aden+Anais swaddles and a Modern Burlap, the husband finds no reason why I need another blanket to wrap one baby up. </strike> Turns out, I nabbed one too in bouquet stems! :P

Infant insert had me laying off the purchase till late into the pregnancy, I wanted to make sure he needed one given his growth spurts - and finally I caved into a slate coloured one! Sigh, frivolous mom.




Drool pads are costly to purchase in Singapore I have to admit and I turned to overseas options which worked out fine for me even after shipping is factored in. Curved and straight drool pads with button snaps, checked!



I could not resist dolling my Tula up with a customized teddy bear, possibly the only customization I'd do since the rest were too expensive to consider. Hoodies and pull straps all add up to a pretty princely sum, methinks.


After the teddy, came the dragon. GOOD LORD. Just stop me already. The option to customize is way too attractive to pass up...

Now, I need to work on getting more than one tula. OOPS.