Monthly Review at the Gynae's

Now that I'm entering into the 3rd trimester, I begin to understand why people label the 2nd trimester as the honeymoon period. I'm just at the start but I have started to feel the full blown of the 3rd trimester symptoms.

1. Pain - Yes... Pain everywhere. I have pain at my back, at my hip joint. Pain when I walk or stand for too long. Leg cramp at night. I was a little confused initially with my back pain, wondering if it's the disc problem or a pregnancy issue. Dr Tan did a check for me and said all my pain was due to the expansion of the pelvic joints... in another word, my body is preparing itself for D-day.

2. Piles! - Yucks a million times! I also pride myself for not having constipation, having my regular bowel movements, drinking lotsa of water and eating plenty of fruits. But all these still don't prevent me from getting piles. Occasionally, I still experience the "bloody toilet bowl" symptom which freak me out a big deal.

3. Pregnancy-related rashes - Rashes on my tummy, on my chest, on my legs. They are here to stay so long Xiao Poh is still incubating in my womb. Shall not complain because it is very important that Xiao Poh stays inside me till full term... which Dr translated to week 38 and above. But my own definition is 17 Sept.

4. Contraction - the pull and tightness on my tummy. I'm glad that it doesn't mean I'm going into early labour. That will be too frightening. Dr Tan explained that is the way the body is practicing itself. It also means... rest, rest, rest and more rest.

5. Blood stained mucous - Again... the only remedy is to drink more water, eat more fruits.

6. Can't sleep well at night. The breathlessness, the baby's strong movements, the frequent trip to toilet, the pain at my back and joints.

Casting aside all these discomforts, my Xiao Poh is now at a head-down position. When we are scanning him today, he is upright like us, resting his little head on my left and legs are kicking near my pelvic region. He is 1124g now, in the 50th percentile and Dr Tan projected him to be a 2.8kg baby by week 36. He's slightly small but Dr assured us that baby above 2.5kg is of acceptable weight.

Then, I got back my GTT result (Glucose Tolerance Test) which was given an all-clear sign! Yes, Thank God for the good result. And this time round, both mummy and baby are putting on the designated weight gain. No more and no less.

Finally, the serious bit is on counting Xiao Poh's movements. Since Xiao Poh moves randomly throughout the whole day, I have to set a period of 12 hours and count if there's at least 10 movements. Criteria as followed:

a) 2 movements at the same time = 1 movement

b) a string of movements within seconds = 1 movement

c) gentle or big movement = 1 movement

Dr Tan explained this is very important to note as any lesser movement detected could mean baby is in distress. So it is very very important to keep a vigilant watch on the movement tracking to prevent stillborn.

I just did a trial with Xiao Poh. He's doing well, 10 movements within 3 hours. Well done!