The Pregger's Journey Part 2

Wokay, so here I am at 12 midnite on the eve of my 38th week check up... Trying to scribble something on pregnancy since I am not able to sleep yet... Well, that is a bit of an understatement actually coz memang i dok memanjang susah nak tido since masuk 3rd trimester ni... 

Wish this is me now....

Anyways, just a few thots and tips hopefully, since I rasa ramai kat luar sana yg samada baru nak jadi mommies or just would like to get some heads up on things about pregnancy... Since I dah ada 5 kali experience ni I rasa tak salah kan share apa2 yg patut... Sharing is caring.... 

Firstly, I nak share my thots and feelings on this pregnancy journey... I rasa this time memang experience yg sangat different from the rest of my pregnancies... Maybe it's the age thingy, or maybe it's even the fact that I am carrying a boy this time... Entahlah, yg pasti kali ni dah la terlebih penat, pastu very anxious to get it over & done with... Siap dok usha videos on giving birth and the likes sedangkan sebelum ni I couldn't be bothered at all... My most favourite site will have to be BabyCentre (http://www.babycenter.com.my)... Banyak info and tips berguna for us mommies kat sini.... And I especially like to read on the Birth Stories... You can really get a lot of ideas on how things can be like during childbirth.... 

My own personal experience on all 4 childbirth masa dengan Dr Marlik was that all were induced. Masa my 1st baby, I had a show... Ada la secalit dua darah kot keluar at 38 weeks but that was enough to send us to the hospital at about midnite... Terus kena tahan although there was no contractions... So Dr Marlik put me on Pitocyn and later I was given Entonox gas as painkiller... I terima je lah apa2 pun since 1st time and memang tak tau what to expect... Alhamdulillah the labour pain was not too long... By dawn my baby Feera already made her grand entrance... Second pregnancy, Dr Marlik told us to come in for check up on Boxing Day at 37 weeks... Dia buat VE (vaginal examination) and said I was 2cm dilated... No contraction but he wanted me to be induced... Again I just followed his advise but this time I insisted not to have any painkiller since the last time the after effect was that I was too drowsy to breastfeed my baby... I was determined to immediately breastfeed my baby this time round... Alhamdulillah the labour lasted for about 4- 5 hours only and baby Erin said hi to the world... Similarly for baby Ayra, Dr Marlik told us to come in for checkup at 37 weeks and indicated that baby will be borne on that day... Kali ni memang almost similar to no 2, VE was done and I was told I was 4cm dilated... I was induced on Pitocyn and no painkiller.... Come baby Zara's turn, when we went for the 37 weeks checkup I was 2cm dilated... This time I was determined to wait for some contractions to come by... So Dr Marlik sent us home and 3 days after I had some contractions when hubby rushed me to hospital... Still the contractions were not strong or regular enough so again I was put on Pitocyn... This time tho, I have heard of Epidural and requested to have it as painkiller... Unfortunately, the anesthetist did some blunder that the Epidural did not work on me... I could actually feel every single thing including the insertion of catheter (hmmm betul ke nama benda tu??) to extract urine... Punya lah sakit kali ni... Dah la belakang kena inject for the Epidural, then semua kesakitan pun boleh rasa gak!!! Defeats the whole purpose.... Anyway, alhamdulillah all went well with another short labour cuma of all the childbirth this was the most painful by far although Zara only weighted 2.33kg....

Back to this pregnancy, kali ni memang i kena macam2 punya sakit... Like the migraine attack, then very frequent lower back pain even during 2nd trimester, a very bad toothache yg I dok tahan sampai sekarang and recently the muscle pull that came from no where... Memang teramatlah mencabar this time round... I suppose inilah dugaan tapi something yg memang buat I agak cuak since this is the first time I ambik advance MC prior to delivery... My other 4 pregnancies memang I redah kerja till the day i deliver... So nampak sangat la yg I sememangnya dah berumur... Huhuhuhuh.... Yes, I can actually feel my body age... It's like wear & tear case where all the alignments dah lari, banyak parts yg dah longgar and you feel like "This is it... This is the finale!!".... And kali ni agaknya since I banyak rest and less active, baby macam tak nak keluar lagi (Dr Aziz thot I was going to deliver on the 16th January ari tu lagi...)... Macam2 I dah cuba... Swimming, eat lotsa curries, scrubbing the toilet floor (they say the doggy position is good to bring on labor), drink a concoction of tea + yolk, drink air akar fatimah, etc....  Now I just need to leave it all to Allah to decide when baby will make his appearance... I do hope he will be born this Thursday tho sempena Maulud Nabi... Nak ambik berkat birthday Rasulullah s.a.w. amin.....

Anyway, I need to get my rest now... There is possibility of me getting induced tomorrow since I am already 2cm dilated as of 3 days ago... Maybe more by now... As worried as I am that I will be in greater pain this time, I pray to Allah that all will be well and that segalanya dipermudahkan.... And hopefully I get to update this blog once I have delivered my baby so that I can share my experience yet again.... Please pray for me and my baby, amin....

A wonderful surprise.... The Pregger's Journey Part 1

In my last entry I mentioned that something huge happened and I only get to scribble this down only now... Found out I was pregnant in June, to baby no 5!!!! Wowwww, both hubby & I were in deep shock... We obviously did not plan for this especially since I've exceeded my target age of conceiving a child (fyi, this means over 35 yrs old). Nevertheless, we were both happy with this huge news... silently hoping that this time we will be blessed with a prince after having 4 beautiful princesses to complete our happy family.... 

As always, my 1st trimester is the most trying period... My morning sickness, as much as I dread them, keep on coming... I thought being the 5th time (well, actually 6th pregnancy since I had a miscarriage for the 1st one), it will be easier or lasts for shorter period... But oh no, I still have to go through that whole episode of throwing up, big burps (yes, I'm one of those VERY windy persons!!), dizziness and the whole nausea package regardless of time & place for at least 3 months... I was losing around 5kg during this period... 

Lost weight but still tried to enjoy food with besties....

I stocked up not only asam (not a fan of asam but during pregnancy have to keep spare) & sweets in my handbag, I had a few packets of tissues and plastic bags as well in case things get nasty.... And as always, I can never conceal this big secret so before long everyone in the office knew about it.... Not that I needed to keep it a secret so much... just following petua orang tua2 not to make a big hoo haa before fetus is stable.... And worse part was during Ramadhan where I insisted to fast despite vomitting almost on daily basis... I figured no point to break my fast when everything I consumed would still come out... Alhamdulillah Allah gave me the strength to proceed with the exception of 5 days where I was too worn out from lack of liquid....

Anyway, alhamdulillah 1st trimester passed immediately after Aidilfitri.... I indulged on all the ketupats, rendangs, nasi impits and cookies and managed to put on a bit of weight...

Our Hari Raya family photo... Someone's looking chubbier!!

I even managed to be part of the organising team for the Hari Raya do for our company at Mandarin Oriental Hotel... I was entrusted to lead the entertainment segment and brought in the ever talented Nabil & Sharifah Shahira... Kelakar doh diorang berdua ni... and very easy to deal with...

 Thought 2nd trimester would be a smooth sailing... well, it did for a moment... Until i reached 24 weeks and on one fine morning on the way to work (and it happened to be the eve of my birthday, huhuhuh), I had a severe migraine attack... Hubby had to send me to the emergency ward at Ampang Puteri where I was seeing my gynae... 

To cut a long story short, I was hospitalised for 3 days and given another 2 days MC to rest... What made it a very significant event was the fact that I finally decided to stop going to Ampang Puteri, EVER as the hospital's service sucks major time!!! I had a heavy heart to change gynae tho as Dr Marlik was an excellent Obstetrician/ Gynaecologist but he acknowledged the shortfall with the hospital's services and gave a good reference to another excellent gynae in Prince Court Medical Centre. So now, I am under the care of Dato' Dr Aziz Yahya in PCMC. Hope he'll take good care of me just like Dr Marlik did for all my 4 deliveries...

So now I'm already in my 3rd and final trimester... I knew I'd go through some sleepless nights during this period but little did I know that with age comes bigger problems... I am somehow bigger than my previous pregnancies... Probably coz the shape of tummy is "muncung" instead of "lebar" as usual... Yes, both Dr Marlik & Dato' Dr Aziz confirmed that it's going to be a BOY!!!! Alhamdulillah.... indeed a bonus to us.... And then my back pain seems to be endless... Every nite I'll be having sleeping problem... Tossing & turning don't help at all... At times I'd sleep at the edge of the bed, most of the times with dozens of pillows as a fortress and I even went to the extent of getting a pregnancy pillow for this purpose.... Imagine all 4 pregnancies I could do without this pillow but now I have to resort to this plus every nite of ointment... Kesian Hubby who has to quickly learn to be a masseur just to get me to sleep... 

Well, who says being preggy is easy??? It's not, but in my entire pregnancy history I must emphasize that this is the most challenging of all... I still think it pretty much revolves around the age factor tho many told me it's because this time I'm carrying a boy.... Whatever it is, I am glad and grateful to be given this opportunity again tho now at 36 weeks I am tested yet again with a muscle pull at my shoulder which makes my every move an agony.... This makes Dato' Dr Aziz give me an advanced MC so that I am able to get some rest prior to delivery which should be anytime soon since baby is already engaged!!!

Mosr preggy stories will follow after this.... Need to get my rest for now....