Today I am going to talk about…

MEN.

and Delivering Babies.

I’ve totally no love for men who determine (and made that a final option) on how their pregnant wives should deliver their babies. From all the stories I’ve heard, one of the worst I’ve heard thus far was that this man thinks that, if the wife go ahead with epidural during natural birth, she is not a real woman who has experienced child birthing. I thought it was pretty nonsensical that his entire family thinks the same, and her mother in law (mil) says that she managed without epidural and that she’s a real woman who went through being a woman.

Now to that, duck you both.

Come on, every month when I am having my menses, I feel like a real woman. I don’t need this process to determine if I am real or not, my organs speak for themselves.

Honestly, I feel for this wife. I mean, she was ‘brainwashed’ into believing that’s her way out. But it’s really not. I believed that she don’t trust what she was sharing and she was made into saying that as though she believes in it, so that nobody judges her extended family tree. It’s not about judging actually, it’s more of knowing your options and going for what works best for you. You are the one that’s going through childbirth, not anyone else. And for that matter, make use of the technology you have in this generation as you deem fit. No one is suppose to tell you what to do. In fact, some mothers don’t even have the option to choose whereas for others, they made their choices but they have to change it to another procedure halfway due to complications. It’s really not that easy.

Of course, for mothers who went through the entire process without any drugs, I salute you. But if you’re a mum whom have opt for less painful methods, there is no wrong in that. Many have asked me what would I go for .. and personally I hope to be the first to hold bean aside to the doctor, or second to my husband. So that means, natural birth with epidural cause I’ve have no threshold for pain. In fact, I have no love for needles in any medical aspect. The last time I recalled I wailed like a baby being pushed into the operating theatre and I wanted to stop the procedure while the nurse was trying to IV me. Sadly, once you signed the procedure form there is no U-turning back. That aside, I do hope that everything turns out well. Otherwise, like I said earlier, there is no other option and it’s all in the hands of your gynae.

I also do not believe the old saying that taking epidural will cause you more aches when you age. I’ve asked my gynae and she says the aches comes with old age. So don’t go pushing all the blame to epidural..how many women went through childbirth with epidural? If it was the main cause of those aches, I’m sure researched science would have stop the usage of this awesome medical drug by now 🙂

I’m not advocating any forms of childbirth methods. It’s really all up to the individual and whichever method you opt for, there is no one you have to answer to, there is no wrong or right, and no one should judge you based on the choices you made.

The beginning of aches.

Bean currently weighs 700g while I’ve conveniently put on about 7kg. You can’t tell where that 7kg went to and I can’t tell you how much I’m aching all over, especially my feet. Just standing a mere 15 mins or waiting for a 6 mins train to arrive is almost taking my life. That doesn’t work well that I have close to zero patience.

I haven’t had the luxury of time to blog about any updates for the last two weeks as the company that I’m currently at was doing a launch party. Thank goodness it all ended last week. A launch party sounded like fun but all that backend work is no joke. Work and babies are not exactly categorize as fun things since both requires massive amount of attention. That said, while bean has been actively kicking me three weeks before, now she’s mainly sleeping and occasionally giving me a kick here and there only when she’s happy. Being paranoid, I remembered googling and doing some homework about baby kicks and why the sudden stop of kicks for two days straight. And what miraculously made her kick was an action movie that involves a scene where the wife of the president falls down that bridge from the movie ‘Olympus has Fallen’. Pretty awkward scene to be kicking me but well, whatever makes you happy bean!

Currently how my tummy looks like now and it was taken last Friday:

I don’t have much side profile pictures as I seldom do makeup to work these days. I have a group photo taken but you can’t tell that I’m going 6 months from that photo either. Perhaps I should work on that. Maybe the next post will consist of the 4D scan of bean’s face and a side profile of me. Keep on reading my friends! 🙂

Some random photos to tide you through the week.

My shaped up tummy.

On some mornings, bean makes the day by planting a wide smile in my face. She really didn’t have to do much. All she did was to ‘curl’ up in my tummy. Maybe it’s me who indirectly forced her to curl like that by sleeping on my sides and rotating every few hours (now you can guess how little sleep I get daily). But when I wake and see that my tummy has become so….compact. I really have to give it to her. She’s like showing me how good a contortionist she has became as she grows by the day.

Needless to say, I always rub my tummy and make her go into a more comfortable position. Afterall, my comfort level is a direct relationship to how comfortable she actually is. These days, aside to feeling the kicks, I can actually feel her swimming in a 360 degrees circle. Imagine that! The weight is also increasing and the tummy is growing at a boom town rate. I have also became increasingly cautious of the people I walk beside, behind or infront of on pavements and especially on trains. You never know when someone is gonna step on your shoes or elbow you. Better to be safe than sorry!

Naming Bean.

These past few weeks we have been trying to decide on a name for bean, both English and Chinese. You may assume that the English name was the easy part but no, apparently we have kind of settled for a chinese name but the english one was quite meh.

Initially we have got one in mind…just that very special only name that we both liked. But I’m having second thoughts because of the last name that goes along with it and that my mum probably can’t pronounce it. There’s still a good chance we may use it anyway…but we’re sitting on it now and shortlisting some others before we conclude. I don’t want my babygirl to go through the process of having nicknames everywhere she go. But, even a proper name like mine could have nicknames let alone this one we have for her right? That said, bean’s name will still be kept a secret till the full name is ready.

I can’t wait to settle on the name because that’s when I can communicate with bean directly and letting her get used to her own name before she pops. Ahh..The love of a mother.

These few days I’ve also been going around asking friends and relatives if they went to a fortune teller to get their baby’s name calculated for good luck and fortune. In case you didn’t know, most Chinese gives the birth date and time to a fortune teller to get the chinese names. This is to ensure that their kid lives well and prosper in their life in no matter what they do. I asked the hubs but he didn’t think it matters.. I’m on the same side of the fence with a good 80%. My chinese name was not calculated by any fortune tellers but by my dad himself..and to this date, I believed that your life is based on what you achieve on your own and not what your name brings you. I hope in the few posts after I will have bean’s name ready to announce to the world. Bento’s relative has already got their girl an english name and their EDD is the same month as me!

Halfway mark.

I’m currently into my 5th month, that only meant another few more months to go. How time flies when you’re busy working. That said, I haven’t been actively piling up those baby knowledge and making up my mind for confinement stuff either. Too busy. Le sigh.

My feet have also started to feel the weight pile even though bean is only about 400grams. . Maybe the rest of the weight came from my own weight gain? 😛 Either way I guess its not reflecting much since first time strangers say I’m as pregnant as a cat. Further elaborating that you can only tell if a cat is pregnant when you look at it’s tummy. Glad to hear that.

On a side note, we are starting to feel bean’s activity in my tummy! It’s indeed indescribable. The first time when I felt it last month where I was only about 4 months into pregnancy, I described the feeling as ‘wobbly’. I asked my gynae and she says not everyone can feel it at 4 months cause the movements are very light..its almost like a fly landing on you. I know…we could have stick to more beautiful things like butterflies but I guess butterflies movements are heavier. The wobbling was actually quite an awkward feeling.. Like I said, its indescribable and wobble was the closest term I could came up with. Now at 5 months, I can tell you bean no longer wobbles…she kicks! In such a way that it felt like an extra heartbeat when I managed to catch the movements on my belly with my bare hands! I have not catch up with her kicking patterns yet but it seems that waiting for dinner is unbearable for her (like it is for me). I had to get Bento (the husband) to listen in to the movements. And I don’t know why I’m so happy when bean kicks when he place his head on my belly. Maybe I’m thinking in the sense that bean is kicking his father’s face..probably something I wanted to do in my dreams. Hahaha! With that, it’ll be another month to the gynae and I’ll keep you guys posted of more updates to come! Happy April’s Fool people! 🙂