Thursday, 31 March 2016

Pregnancy: 20 Week Update


Bubba is 20 weeks now! Can't believe time flew so fast and we're already half way through the journey.

HOSPITAL/MIDWIFE VISIT

On week 16, we finally visited the hospital for the first midwife visit after a month delay since my 12-week scan. I'm such a lazy mother, lol, for not picking up bubba's scan result on time.

I was referred to the Westmead Hospital as that is the closest hospital from our home. I had high expectation of the hospital. I thought it would be as nice as the Liverpool hospital because the one in Liverpool has just been renovated. The hospital was okay, I guess, but I won't have it any other way.

The visit lasted for 2 hours, more or less. I was told to do the Postnatal depression test (Edinburgh scale) and the midwife did a thorough interview about my medical background.

I had seen the Postnatal Depression test before, but I think I haven't tried to complete it. So, basically the nurse will ask you to select the most appropriate answers that applies to you within the past week. You can have a look at the questions here. I scored low on the test, which is good because the lower your score the better. I remember I was pretty happy on the previous week. And when I had completed the test, I thought to myself, "if I had completed this test when I was still having my nausea I would have scored much much worse. And also, perhaps if I didn't have a job I would have scored higher as well."

At the end of the appointment, the midwife gave me instructions on what the next steps were, such as getting the 20-week scan, coming for the doctor's appointment, booking the Parental and breastfeeding class.

19-WEEK SCAN

I booked in the 19-week scan on the week after the midwife visit. I had learned my lesson, twice in fact, that you have to book in scan appointment waaayy ahead.

There is actually this place which provides health scan service and they also do bulk billing very close to our place. I don't know why we always go to that rude and always full scan place in Auburn *knock on the head*, I think because it's so close to our family GP. This time around we decided to try this new place called Medscan.

I had my scan on my 19 week and 3 days. The scan lasted for around 30 minutes to 1 hour. The nurse was checking everything (literally) to make sure all of the organs are present and no fingers are missing! I think this was the best scan so far because bubba is already looking like a human. Bubba was sucking his thumb when the nurse was trying to count his fingers and we had a bit of trouble finding his legs because bubba wasn't moving a lot. The nurse had to shake my tummy a couple of times to 'wake' Bubba up. It was cute.

We also found out Bubba's gender in the scan. InshaaAllah we're having a BOY! I'm so thrilled for my husband and mum-in-law. I'm not playing favourites, but if I did prefer a boy for my first because my mum in law already had two granddaughters from my sister-in-law so I thought it would be great if this one is a boy to complete her grandchildren.

HOW LIFE IS GOING

Life is much better now. I'm much less exhausted, I don't eat a lot like in my first trimester, I can drink plain water again (this is a big relief for me!), I'm much happier as well. Our family has become a regular fruit eater now thanks to my pregnancy because in my first trimester all I wanted is cold and sweet food hence we always stock up on fruits. I think the most important thing for me now is to stay happy so bubba is also happy and healthy.

I know we're not supposed to do this yet, but I have started baby shopping haha. Not too much, just the essentials for newborns. No clothes, swaddles, socks, or baby gloves shopping as I'm planning to have my mum bring them from Indonesia. I purchased several flannelette fabrics with too-cute prints to sew into blankets. Carseat, pram, nursing pillow, baby carrier, and breastpump had also been taken care of. In my culture you're not supposed to go baby shopping before your pregnancy is 7 months. But discounts are not always around, so when we find a bargain then we'll purchase. Now that I had purchased most of my essentials, I can just sit back, relax, and enjoy the rest of my pregnancy.


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