30/3/18 - staycation?

I woke up at 0700 by the nurse asking me what drink I wanted for breakfast and do I eat all meat? I was like what meat for breakfast?? Then I realise she means do I have any food preference for the rest of the meals..Haha, I was that half awake. Anyway, I probably will be discharge after seeing the gynae, what's the point of asking for the rest of the day?? 

Then the silly me realised that I took my diabetes injection tools but forgot my insulin. Thankfully husband decided to cancel his appt and brought them to me before breakfast and to hear some updates from gynae. 0800 to 0900 came and went, no sight of gynae and I did a blood test and blood pressure tests, all seems well. More nurses came and started doing my hospital admission?! We have no idea why they are wasting efforts to do all the administration when there is no update about whether I was going to be hospitalised. 

Next thing we knew, my gynae won't be here the whole day, so we will be seeing a replacement gynae. We were told as well that my blood pressure was high last night (14_) and needed monitoring. Eh ok, so am I going to be hospitalised or discharge today? 

Lunch came and went, still waiting for the imaginary gynae and hospital admission was done. I was looking and feeling fine that we questioned the purpose of staying. Husband even suggested that we go home after seeing the gynae to finish our half watched movie at home. Finally at 1600, the gynae is free!! He did a quick scan and said baby is big at 3.3kg but all seems fine. Then we recd new information again, there is a little bb blood in my blood test. And he will keep me hospital till my gynae return the next day to decide the next step. If im his patient, he will probably induce me now but he prefer to sms my gynae and let her decide what to do next.

This is crazy! Now we know why I am continuously hospitalised and no one gave us any information on what happened. Since tv rental was 6€ per day, I decided it's time to rent the tv.. it's boring on the hospital. I started googling all the scary stories about bb blood in my blood till husband stopped me and told me to stop scaring myself. Dinner came and this time we had the tv on....

Just as we thought nothing else for the day, my gynae informed the hospital to have me induced viaginally at 2100. So I was hooked on bb heartbeat machine for 2hours and need to fight my aching back. Finally all was done and I was sent back to room and husband stayed for the night with me... this starts our staycation in hospital...

29/3/18 - No warning

It reached the stage where I'm so bored and tired of being pregnant. Despite the big tummy, I moved more to get things done and hopefully help to dilate before the next gynae appt.
Everything seemed fine except that bb appeared to be moving more "gentle" and it took longer for her to reach 10kicks (she used to be doing karate kicks so often that she can reach 10kicks in less than 15min) but I googled and it's more about her having less space to move. According to forum, as long as she moves 6x in 1 or 2hr, there was nothing to panic. Since bb was still kicking 10x writhing 45m or 1hr, so I didn't panic. A part of me was secretly hoping that she will be coming out soon.. 

It was the last day to see the midwife and I was shocked to see that I had put in 5kg in a week (82kg!!), which is definitely not normal and I started to worry about pre eclampsia. My blood pressure was fine and had no other symptoms so sage femme didnt worried about pre e. I told sage femme about the slower kicks and bb was taking longer than usual to move while on bb heartbeat monitor. She told me to monitor bb movement and to go hospital if it continues. Before I left, she sms my gynae about these conditions- is the first time she sms my gynae about me but I thought because is my last session w her and she didn't appeared worried about my conditions...

Later in the evening, we recd a sms from her that my gynae will like to see us on 31/3 instead of the planned 3/4 for a closer monitor because of my conditions but nothing to panic about... I was more glad than worried to know we will see gynae earlier and maybe earlier induce?? Seriously, I didn't think that there was anything to worry about. 

As usual, before I went to bed, I started to count bb kicks... I was a lil panicking when it was already 1.5hours and she only kicked 8x. It feels silly to worry about it when she is already moving.. I couldn't bear it any longer and woke up husband at midnight. I needed him to call the hospital for advice. I predicted that the hospital will probably ask us to do something's to wake up the bb etc but instead they asked us to go in and stay for the night. I took a quick shower, my mummy bag and we took a slow walk to the hospital. 

Since husband has an early work appt the next day, i told him that i can stay for the check and he goes home to rest. To me, it was probably just 2hrs hooked up on the bb heartbeat machine then wait for some gynae to come see me in the morning that's why I needed to stay for the night. I was still joking that my dream delivery plan is to take a hot shower, have a good meal and slow painless walk to hospital and we managed to do it now(I didn't had a good meal because I wasn't hungry, haha).

When we arrived, the midwife checked my cervix and sadly still only 1cm...I was then hooked to the bb heartbeat monitor and bb seemed to be moving well and the midwife shown us how he moved my tummy to wake up the baby. After about 1hour, we were sent to my room to rest. We chose a single room since I'll be staying in a single room after delivery and it seems a good time to "try out" the room. And I was definitely not interested to share a room in the middle of the night. 

We were told that bb will be monitored again and we need to see my gynae in the morning..it was close to 3am, I chased husband home and hoped that he can end his appt early to see the gynae in the morning (supposed to be 0800 - 0900)... 

Maybe it was the bed, the room or lack of pillow..it was hard to fall asleep... 

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...

Week 32: 3rd Trimester Scan

Baby is the size of pineapple!

Since we went for holidays,

the 3rd trimester is scheduled later than usual.

As usual, we still confirmed whether baby is still a girl,

and yes, she is...

Despite baby putting on weight,

I did not so that is a very good news.

But i already put on 13kg and feels like a big whale.

Problem is,

baby is 200g bigger than expected.

The average weight is 1.8kg and baby is 2.02kg,

which means that baby is affected by my gestional diabetes.

In France, the full term is 40 weeks

and gynae suggests that i induce the baby 2 weeks earlier

at 5 april instead of waiting for the actual due date of 20 April.

I am fine at inducing baby at 38 weeks

since in Singapore full term is at 38 weeks

and it feels good to know the actual date baby will be here.

The only downside is i googled about how baby is induced

and is not fun.

I hope i wont be tortured for many hours

before a c-sect is done instead.

Anyway, our next appointment will be in 5 weeks
and we shall see whether the induce will be scheduled as plan.
If so, 7 more weeks to go!

Coming to the end of pregnancy means:
- More anxiety about the delivery
- More stress about whether we can handle the baby 
- My back is breaking into 2
- Sleep is badly affected due to backpain and pee pee

I shall try to continue to be cherish the last few weeks of pregnancy...

PS: Baby didnt had a photogenic angle this scan

and ended up not a really pretty photo ((flat nose & thick lips).

Husband insisted that baby looks more like me

but i managed to found a baby photo of husband

and apparently he had the same flat nose and thick lips when young?!

The bad news is baby is going to have fat genes from both parents... *sob*

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...