Week 37 : 3rd trimester scan II

Baby is the size of small watermelon!

Everything is still going fine except that my ankles started to swell,

then it was my feet and calves.

It literally looks like pork trotters.

I was fearful that it could be pre-eclampsia,

since my sister had it

and gestional diabetes often goes hand in hand with pre-eclampsia.

Thankfully, my blood pressure was fine,

protein in urine is normal

and no other signs

so midwife and gynae just brush it off as normal water retention.

As planned previously,

this is the final scan to determine whether:

- Baby is still growing too big

- I am to be induced on the 5 apr

Good news is that baby is now 2.96kg

and she is only 80percentile for her size,

which means she is not too large!

However, due to my gestional diabetes,

gynae still suggest that wego ahead for the induce on 4/5 april.

The actual date will depends on my next appointment on 3 april.

If by then, im not dilated enough

I will need to be admitted on the 4 april evening

and be induced viaginally.

Problem for this induce method is that,

it will bring on intense contractions

but im not a1lowed to be given epidural!

So it will be bare suffering till im dilated enough

or im given induce via iv,

then ill be able to have epidural.

If by 3 apr, im dilated enough,

i will only be admitted on 5 apr morning

and to receive induce via IV.

It will also brings on intense contractions

but ill be able to receive epidural.

Definitely, this will be a much better choice than the previous.

Gynae informed that im already dilated 1cm,

so she is quite hopeful that i will be dilated enough on 3 apr

and be induce via IV on 5 apr.

Or that i may even be in labor earlier than the induce date

and i am to check in hospital if i have the labor signs.

As much as i hope to walk more etc to help dilate more naturally,

Im worried as well to do too much and deliver earlier!

I guess all i can hope and wish is a smooth delivery and healthy baby!

OCD mummy waiting for the baby!!

Week 36 : Baby Salon

Baby is the size of celery!

Every year in paris, normally in march or april,

there is the baby salon / expo.

Husband was unsure whether i will be up to it to visit

since i will be in my 36 weeks.

In order not to miss collecting freebies or buying baby things at cheaper price,

I still went ahead to buy the tickets online...

Because it costs 6eur/ pax online

and 11eur/pax if you buy on the spot!

Since it is a baby salon,

i expected it to be well catered for kids and pregnant women...

meaning lots of seats and toilets!

Crazily, there was not much seatings and toilet queues were a nightmare.

I think im 1 of the rare heavily pregnant women,

most were parents with kids

or women in early pregnancy.

Most of the booths didnt applied to my current pregnancy

eg pregnancy apps, maternity clothes...

so we skipped most of them

Luckily, the salon was not too big

and i already bought most of the required stuff 

so we managed to finish in about 2.5hours.

The happiest thing is collecting freebies!

As expected, I knew that we will probably receive freebies,

not as much as if we were in baby expo in Singapore,

but is still rare to receive freebies in Paris..

Anyhow, im glad that husband can be quite kiasu and kept asking for freebies

that we will probably collect less if he didnt kept asking!!

Lunar New Year

This week was crazy...
14 Feb - Valentine's day
15 Feb - Our wedding anniversary + Chinese New Year eve
And im like super super tired...
I thought we will probably not do any special celebrations
but i managed to find energy to go all the way to the asian supermarket
and get some ingredients for the steamboat.
So, we lump all the events into 1 celebration meal...steamboat!

So, we are in the year of dog,
i just realised that husband is born in the year of dog
and the little puppy in my tummy.
Well, we are a family of 猪朋狗友! haha..

For this cny eve, 
I managed to wake up at 0630am to do video call with family.
I guess is nice to just spend a little time saying hello to everyone
and show them my growing tummy
since im not there for most of my pregnancy.

The most fun part... Steamboat!

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone...

Ending off with a selfie of my latest tummy...

Babymoon Day 5 & 6 - London

Day 5:
It was the last lap of our babymoon trip.
We took the near noon train to london
and arrived on time for our hotel check in at 1300.
Since the hotel stays were much more expensive in oxford and bath,
i chose a cheap 1/2 star hotel for the night.
It was a clean room with basic facilities
at least the shower works perfectly and i get have a real bath
after the nightmare in the previous appartment.

Since we visited london a year ago,
i didnt plan much for the last 2 days.
We walked around the the neighbourhood (paddington) 
and found late lunch in a cafe.
Husband wanted to visit the westminister abbey during our last trip
so i suggested that we visit it.
Since i read that on normal days, it cost 22pounds per pax
and on wednesday 1630-1900, the ticket will only be 10pounds per pax.
And we were on wednesday!
After we made our way to westminister abbey,
the guards told us that this and next wednesdays the abbey was unavailable for visit.
So, we basically made an empty trip.

Husband suggested that we walked to teh national gallery since it was free to visit.
We spent about 1 hour visiting the art galleries 
thereafter, we went to search for wine places to purchase the requested whiskey for my friend.
Surprisingly, we found the whiskey in the first store.
We continued to walked around and decided to serach for a place for dinner.
Crazily, the oxford full restos and pubs curse return
that we cant find a proper place to eat.
We end up in an expensive organic cafe to get some food into our hungry stomach.

I decided that we should buy 2 cheap burgers from Burger king to bring back to our room
since it was just beside the hotel
and the dinner was not really satisfying.
And im glad we had the burgers for supper after my good hot shower!

Day 6:
Despite being a cheap hotel,
breakfast was included in the price
and reviews about breakfast was great.
We had a nice english breakfast to start the day
and decided to check out early to start our last day in london.

Since we had a big luggage and half a day to spare.
We went to St pancras station and store our luggage.
so that we can visit the British museum.
Following google map, it was suppose to take us 25mins of walk
but we ended up walking for close to 1 hour before we finally found it.
The museum was huge but we had limited time and a tired pregnant woman.

After a short visit, we went for lunch nearby
and return to the museum for a short visit.
We then took the direct bus back to st pancras,
took our luggage and went for our train back to paris.

Throughout our trip,
husband was updated by family and friends of the heavy snow in Paris
and how we missed it.
Fortunately, we were greeted by the remaining of the snowing weather on our way home.
That marks the end of our final trip before baby arrives...

Babymoon Day 3 & 4 - Bath

Day 3:
We wanted to had english breakfast at the same pub
but they are only opened for breakfast at 1030
and we had a train to catch at 1100.
So, it was the easy way out to munch breakfast in our room.
As usual, im so impressed with the UK transport system.
It is clean, smooth transits, clear directions, clean toilets at the stations,
and they apologise for all kinds of delays.
On our train to oxford,
the driver even gave a full description of what happened
(Apparently there was a transpasser on the railway)
that delayed our train for 15mins.

After 1h+ train, we arrived at Bath.
Near the train station, it wasn't outstanding looking as oxford.
We grabbed lunch at a small cafe and went to meet the owner of the appartment.
We got a nice appartment in the center of the city,
right next to the city's famous roman bath attractions.
Husband was a big fan of the appartment's deco and old facilites.
Usually, i will prefer staying in a hotel,
but the appartment costs the same as a lousy 2/3 stars hotel,
in similar location and much bigger in size,
so it made sense to get an appartment instead.
Anyway, it was nice to have a little kitchen to cook a little
instead of eating out for every meal.

I was starting to get a little tired from all the trip.
Instead of following our plan,
i decided that we will just visit the roman bath for the day.
It seems small from the outside,
and ticket was expensive at 16.50pounds per pax.
In reality, it was a huge underground museum
that we ended up spending almost 3 hours there!

Unlike oxford, the shops close really ealy at about 1830.

By the time we are done with the Roman bath,

we went to the supermarket to buy dinner to reheat in our appartment.

Thereafter, we took a nice quiet walk around the city to burn my sugar.

I wanted to take a nice hot shower and head to bed.

And the nightmare happened, when i realised that the shower was not really working well.

The water flow was very slow 

and the water went from icy cold to extreme hot.

It was a torture to take a shower!

I decided that i shall not wash my hair or take a full shower till the next hotel!

As expected, there was not as much choice of TV channels in the appartment,

so we just rested early for the night.

Day 4:

The initial plan was to do a half day trip to a small city nearby

but i decided i want to take the day easy

so we stayed in bath and explored.

We went to the royal crescent, which is basically a row of houses in a curve

but the museum was closed for winter.

I cannot missed the chance of hightea while being in UK.

Despite that i am definitely not supposed to eat hightea,

i got a groupon voucher and we went high tea for lunch!

Well, it will be totally impossible for me to have it after lunch and before dinner.

I told husband that it was like my happiest meal in a long long time..

After lunch,

we explored the city and the church beside the roman bath.

But i wasnt really full of energy,

so we had an early dinner at the Sally Lunn's.

It was supposed to be the oldest resto in bath

and famous for their buns.

We were not very impressed by the buns

because i think we are so used to the sweet buns found in asia

and it tasted similar.

Well, it definitely was different from the usual english or french bread.

Since there was nothing much to watch on TV

but there was a dvd machine

and beside the appartment was a 2nd hand dvd, games etcs shop.

We bought 2 old dvds to watch at the appartment

while i packed up our luggages...

PS: I was checking my bank account balance 
to ensure that my credit limit is still enough for the rest of our trip
since we only have my card to be used.
I realised there was a transaction for ebook purchase the night before our trip.
Then we realised that the card associated in the lost ebook was actually my card!
It must be husband lost his card then
and entered my card details to his ebook,
which means we cancelled the wrong card!
I immedately transferred most of the money out of my account
but i guess we will cancel my card once husband received his, arggghhhh

Babymoon Day 1 & 2 - Oxford

I told husband that i need a babymoon, 
a last trip before baby arrives
and i want it to be a non-french city (Preferably english speaking).
Thankfully, there was a sale on eurostar
and we are having a babymoon in uk!
Our last trip to london was in Aug 2016,
so i didnt planned much time in London for this trip!

Husband was worried that i will be too tired or big to visit the cities.
While im worried whether it will be too cold and what can i eat while traveling with diabetes.
Strangely, while we were in UK, the weather was not too cold
and France was freezing with heavy snow.
I guess we had good luck.

Day 1
Meals proved to be difficult from the start
with a pregnant woman, who has gestional diabetes.
The train ride affected my meal time, sugar level and choice of food
which was a good learning lesson for the rest of the trip.
Our train arrived St pancras at 1330 and we had to catch our train to oxford at 1500,
so we had plenty of time to catch a proper meal.
However, husband has to left his ebook in the train
so we spent time at the lost and found,
deciding what to do for money since his ebook is linked to his credit card.
Ended up no ebook was found and we cancelled his credit card.
Not a good start for the trip and i didnt appreciate the adreline rush.

We managed to buy some healthy food for the next train
and arrived oxford around 1630.
We checked in our hotel and spent some time exploring the city
before trying to find a place for dinner.

It was a big challenge to find a proper place for dinner
since there was a big football match that evening
and all of UK's good food - mac&cheese, fish&chicks etcs
are normally only found in pubs and bars.
In the end, we managed to find a resto in a small street,
despite the higer price, we chose to have dinner here
and not explore the streets for another 45mins.
Probably we need to eat dinner earlier as all the places seems to be full before 1900.
We explored the city a little after dinner
and finally headed back to our room for a well needed rest.

Day 2:

We had a simple breakfast in our room 

and start the day early to explore the city.

I think the only benefit of my condition is that i need to eat early

and so, we start our everyday very early for the trip.

Despite being a sunday, 

we were suprised that most of the shops and attractions were open.

Oxford was really beautiful and truly a wonderful university city.
We tried our best to explore as much of the university as possible
but didnt signed up for any tour
as the pregnant me needs the trip to be slow paced and often pee pee breaks.

We then had lunch at a pie place in the market

and continued exploring the city.

I told husband that if our baby makes it to study in oxford,

we should sell everything we have to make sure she can afford to study here

and we can become homeless people in oxford...

hmmm, even if is cambridge, im fine too!

We took a tea break at a library nearby

and decided to do some window shopping at the main streets.
We rested in the hotel room for awhile
and left early for dinner,
just in case it will be as crowded as the day before.
Maybe because its sunday, there is no big match,
or because we are early,
it was not as crowded and we had dinner in a nice pub near the hotel
and finally had our mac&cheese and fish&chips...

Because it was so hard to find healthy food,
the plan was to always walk after a meal.
It is always diffficult to do so at home
becasue we are already in our pyjamas by the time of dinner.
However, i think i walked so much during this trip,
that i managed to burn sugar of most of the crazy unhealthy meals in uk.
And i think is the first trip that we moved so much after meals
when we normally prefer to just take a nap or sit and do nothing, haha.

Anyway, we ended the night early to pack the bags 
and watch crappy shows on the food network channel...

Week 25: Happy New Year!

Baby is the size of eggplant!

It was great to be home after the christmas weekend.

I missed my maternity pillow so much, haha.

For my christmas present,

Husband bought us tickets to watch a musical

"Singing in the rain"

and it was cool because instead of the usual theatre,

it was showing in a temporary theatre in a museum!

Well, we thought it was cool till the actual performance.

Because it was not officially a theatre,

the number of toilets were limited,

that i was rushing to pee before the show and during the intermission

and the queue for the ladies was loooooooong.

Luckily i didnt peed in my pants

and still managed to pee in time for the show.

The next problem was the seating,

it was temporary concert-super-squeezy seats,

definitely not pregnant women friendly,

i was constantly in contact with my neighbour.

Each movement i made, 

seems to produce ripple effects on my row.

It was really hard for my big bum and aching back

to stay in the same position for the show.

Thankfully, despite husband's insisting that his corner seat was worse,

i took his seat and felt so much better for the 2nd half of the show.

Despite all my above complaints,

i still think the show is great!

Especially when its my first proper musical show.

The coolest part is the actual "rain" on stage...

I guess probably 1 day we can watch it again 

when im not pregnant...

Normally for New Year Eve,

we spent it with husband's friends.

But this year, i decided that i want to stay home

and spend our last quiet new year eve at home.

Despite husband insisting that he is fine with the idea,

im kinda bored of him repeating to everyone and me

about how is the first time he is not spending it with friends.

Argggh

Anyway, it was my way or the highway,

the pregnant woman has the final say.

To make a nicer "celebrations" at home,

we went to search for some post-xmas sale,

but didnt managed to find much

since the good food normally goes on sale after New year.

However, even with consideration to my diet,

we still managed to have a decent spread.

We wanted to watch the usual effiel tower countdown and fireworks

and started searching the TV channels 5 minutes before midnight.

We almost missed the countdown

because there was only 2 channels showing it live.

In addition, it was not at effiel tower

and there was not the usual concert etcs.

The countdown was not so impressive

that we actually went youtube to look at countdowns of different countries, haha.

For 2018, I guess I not really setting resolutions

but more about wishes for the year:

- Baby to stay inside till full term

- Smooth and safe delivery

- Good health to our baby and family (Husband is sick too often)

- To lose weight after delivery