Fourteenth week: Serious leg cramps

The moment after I woke this morning, I experienced the most excruciatingly painful cramp on my left leg*. The muscle is located on the outer left leg, just above the shin area.

Hubby heard me calling out in pain and came to help stretch and massage the area of my left leg.

However, when a muscle goes in to a cramp, it does not stop until the cramp passes. Through my cries of pain and sobbing, he managed to massage some medicated oil in to affected area and just hold my foot until the cramp passed.

While this was not the first time I experienced cramps in that area of the leg since the beginning of the eleventh week, this has been the most painful and longest duration of cramp.

Hubby figures that it might be caused either by the air conditioner or fan blowing indirectly at my feet, as we only did moderate walking on most days. Therefore, we have to find a comfortable position where the draft from air conditioner or fan will not hit my feet directly.

I am hoping this will be the last of serious leg cramps as it is not the most pleasant thing to experience just after you wake in the morning!

* Pregnant women may start from the twelfth week to experience leg cramps from extended periods of walking without regular rest. This is also aggravated by the increased weight that the legs have to bear as the pregnancy progresses.

Fourteenth week: Nutrition boost

The beginning of the fourteenth week means that our little one has crossed the threshold of danger - higher incidence of miscarriage - thus continuing to grow larger and stronger.

This extract, taken from BabyCenter.com, explains more about the current growth of our little one (parenthesis are my words): " Your belly may soon be noticeably bigger, but your baby is still tiny. He's about 3 inches long — roughly the size of a jumbo shrimp (picture that!) — and weighs about an ounce. His tiny, unique fingerprints are already in place. His kidneys and urinary tract are functional, and he's starting to excrete the amniotic fluid he's been swallowing. As you start your second trimester, most of your baby's critical development will be completed and your odds of miscarriage drop considerably."

It is also this week when I begin boosting my nutrition for our little one. A major reason is due to the lack of dark/leafy green vegetables on menus in Bali. Another is that the diet of the Balinese/Indonesian is more similar to Malay cuisine as we know it in Singapore, than to the Chinese cuisine that I was brought up on.

So to ensure that I have sufficient iron, calcium, folic acid and vitamins, I have combined supplements prescribed by Dr Teoh with natural foods.

Daily must-haves include yoghurt drink to aid digestion; a variety of cut fruit or fresh fruit juice (local warungs squeeze juice from oranges or jeruk and lime or nipis for a tangy vitamin C boost); at least one serving of fish, tofu or tempe; and as much green vegetables (including long/green beans, kangkung, tapioca leaf, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumber) that is offered by the warung.

Additionally, I have begun drinking a cup of powdered milk supplement for expectant mothers. There are several brands retailed in the local supermarkets. However, I have chosen to go with EnfaMama as it is the only brand I am familiar with.

Besides these nutritional supplements, I am also careful about my food intake. For example, in ensuring that our little one is not exposed to viruses that an adult body is immunised against, such as hepatitis A/B, I have left out raw meats & fish, as well as shell fish such as mussels and clams from my diet.

While everyone exclaims that being pregnant is the perfect excuse for pigging out, nutritionists and gynaecologists advise against overeating as it will lead to both exceptional weight gain, and rapid expansion of the belly.

Expectant mothers should keep in mind that weight gain of between 13kg to 18kg during pregnancy is normal, as a minimum of 9kg to 10kg would consist of water and placenta. Any weight gain of more than 20kg would be unhealthy for both mother and child.

Another extract taken from BabyCenter.com about weight gain during pregnancy: "If pre-pregnancy weight was in the healthy range for your height according to your healthcare provider (a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9), you should gain between 25 and 35 pounds (11kg to 16kg), gaining 2 to 5 pounds (1kg to 2.25kg) in the first trimester and about 1 pound (about 450 grams) per week for the rest of your pregnancy for the optimal growth of your baby."

Further, rapid expansion of the belly due to overeating will cause strecth marks to appear earlier in the pregnancy than the normal appearance period of the seventh to ninth months.

A steady expansion of the belly through the months would mean that both the mother and baby develops at a constant rate and stays healthy.

On the flip side, a pregnancy is not an excuse to execute extreme diets as numerous vitamins and nutrients are essential for the formation of the foetus in to a well-formed and healthy baby.

Those who are lactose intolerant (like myself), or have allergies to certain foods should check with their nutritionist or gynaecologist about natural food substitutes instead of relying totally on supplements. While the job of supplements is as its name describes - to add on what is lacking or insufficient from the food intake - nothing beats obtaining the necessary nutrients from fresh produce/foods.

Health is something that I value for myself for for those close to me. Now that I have someone else growing in me, I feel even more responsible for my health as it will indirectly affect our little one.

Hopefully expectant mothers and wives hoping to become pregnant will keep this in mind, for themselves and for their little one.

Happy moderate and healthy eating!

For more information about weight gain during pregnancy, and tips on reducing the weight gain after birth, you can refer to this URL: http://www.babycenter.com/0_pregnancy-weight-gain-what-to-expect_1466.bc?Ad=com.bc.common.AdInfo%405e751e1a

Twelfth week: Minor shock

This morning, I gave Roberto, myself, and possibly our little one too, a little shock.

As we were leaving the house, I slipped on the small slope of the back entrance and fell on my left bum.

Other than the scare given to everyone, my left bum hurt terribly from taking the entire impact of the fall.

By mid afternoon, I also had an ache in the area above my right hip bone so that it is unbearably sore when I twist my torso to the left.

Other than some discomfort caused by the sore, which I intend to remedy with nightly applications of Tiger Balm, our little is fine.

This had me thinking: if our little one survives this fall, he/she will be able to survive minor shocks!

Twelfth week: Back home

(This is a post-dated entry.)

We returned to Bali yesterday night, landing at 2325hr at Ngurah Rai Airport.

As of now, our little one is already 'international', having been in Mestre (place of conception) and Venice in Italy; Brugge, Antwerp, Brussels and Duerne in Belgium; Amsterdam in Hollad; Singapore, and now Bali.

Our little one will spend the formative years on the island of Bali, the place that we now call home.

At the moment the house is dirty, as it has been unoccupied for many months, and requires major cleaning as well as refurbishment works.

There are another six months before the arrival of our little one. By next April, we should have a nursery set up, as well as many safety features installed in the house so that our little one will have less accidents in the first year.

As our little one takes baby steps growing in my uterus, we take complementary baby steps in preparing for his/her arrival.

Eleventh Week: Test results

The test results are out and the follow-up appointment with Dr Teoh brought good news: the incidence of Down Syndrome in our baby is very low!

We cannot remember the exact statistics, as the report is with him, but the ratio we obtained is 1:22000, which is many times better than normal ratio of 1:600.

As I am also immunised against Rubella since I was a little girl, our little one is also automatically immunised.

Overall, everything is as it should be at this stage of the pregnancy and that has given us much relieve.

Another week and the danger of miscarriage is greatly reduced!

Eleventh week: 'Dancing' baby

Yet another early morning for us, for we left home at 9am for a 11.15am appointment at the Antenatal Diagnostic Centre at the National University of Singapore. This visit was for tests to determine whether our baby might be at risk of having Down Syndrome.

The first part was easy: an ultrasound scan to measure the length of and thickness of the skin on the neck.

Our little one was happily napping with the right fist to its nose, but was not the most ideal position for taking measurements. Thankfully our little one shifted a little and the sonographer, Dawn, managed to get the readings very quickly.

As a treat, she showed us an animated orange-tinge image of our little one, which looked like a video. The outline of our little one's body, head and limbs were clearly seen as our little one bent its knees and moved its arms. It was thrilling to clearly see all the movement it was making in mommy's uterus.

Following this was withdrawal of blood for further tests to complement the measurements and scan result. We will be seeing Dr Teoh on Wednesday, when he will explain the results clearly to us.

We are now crossing our fingers and hoping that our little one is a healthy baby!

For now, here is the latest sonogram from today: