We moved into our little cottage (casa impian) about 3 months ago. But, we haven’t finish unpacking the boxes yet!

Due to me heavily pregnant, taking the stuff out of the boxes and arranging them in the house is quite a big chore. Alasan la tuh…

The pictures above are our little cottage from the day we decided to buy it until the day of completion. The house is fully completed in October 2007 but CF was only issued in early December 2007.

We received our keys in middle of December last year and quickly arrange for a contractor to do some renovations like wiring, plaster ceiling, piping, based for kitchen cabinet etc.

Below is the picture of our house. Noticed the neighbour’s house next door colored in apple green? Our little cottage seems “raw” compared to their ‘Bali-style’ porch… he..he..he

Thursday, November 22, 2007

I went to see Dr K at LPPKN again on 20th November 2007. My pregnancy is now about 15 weeks plus.

As usual, the nurse took my weight and blood pressure. And, some blood for blood test. I was asked to go to the 10th floor for urine analysis and the blood test.

The lab girl handed me the result of my test and I was a bit concern when I saw my Hg count dropped from 10 to 8.5. This looked not good ;0

And, it was really not a good news. My hemoglobin level (red blood) was so low and I was diagnosed as having moderate anemia. Meaning I don’t have enough iron in my body to produce red blood.

Another issue was my placenta was lying so low, very near to the cervic. And, the baby’s head is on it as if it is its pillow. My baby’s progress is great, measuring 8.9mm at 15 weeks.

Due to the low lying placenta and low hemoglobin level, Dr K decided to discharge me a month early from LPPKN. She issued a letter to my choice of hospital for further ante natal care and delivery.

The low lying placenta can cause bleeding. The bleeding will not harm the baby but it is fatal to me because my red blood is so low.

I need to eat more iron fortified food to increase the level before my next appointment at the hospital.

Some research on internet regarding low-lying placenta reveals that this is common for pregnancy under 7 months. And will normally corrected itself as the womb grows.

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A low-lying placenta is not an uncommon finding on second trimester ultrasound scan. As many as 15% to 20% (one in five to six) of pregnancies have a low lying placenta. Fortunately, only 5% (one in 20) of these remain low lying at 32 weeks and only one third of those are low lying at term (37 weeks). After 28 weeks, a low lying placenta is known as placenta praevia.

The vast majority of pregnant women will have their placenta issues resolved by the time labour starts and will not have any problems.

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So, what should I concern is to increase iron that is necessary to produce more red bloods because the baby is taking the iron from me.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Now I’m in the second trimester already. And, I’m so happy!

However, new pregnancy complications start to emerge. I got flu, cold and mild fever a few days ago. And, yes - sore throat and cough.

I was struggling to breath when sleeping because both my nostrils were blocked with thick mucus. And, I felt really bad because I can’t take any medicine to clear them up!

Except for some Vicks Vaporub and Vick Inhaler - which do no good - there was nothing else that I can do.

When the cold and flu went away, I got these terrible itchy rashes all over my belly! My belly now is swollen red with little bumps/bristles. Almost every night I woke up feeling the urge to scratch and scratch!!

I tried not to scratch but sometime I scratched in my sleep.

My husband bough me a medicated powder and I applied it on my belly. What a relief. The itching stops but not completely. It will come again and I starts to pour more powder on my belly. And, later I felt my belly skin so dry and tensed up.

Oh my God! Help me please.

Luckily, a month ago I bought a C-Mama Healing Salve by EarthMamaAngelBaby from an online store. The box said it can heal surgical wounds, strech marks, burns, existing scars, inflammations and RASHES. I originally bought the salve for my leg scars.

So, I applied the salve all over my belly. Amazingly, the itching stops. And, my belly skin feel moisturise again. But, sometimes I felt a burning sensation on certain parts of the skin. It is as if the salve is acting to heal the rashes.

It has been a week since I suffered from the itchy rashes. And, it has been two days since I applied the healing salve. I thinks my belly looks better today. It is written on the box that it will take 2-4 weeks for rashes to be healed.

Ooh.. that long eh? But, 2-4 weeks is better that having to suffer the extremely itchy belly for the next 7 month, right?

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Yesterday, I have an appointment with Dr K at LPPKN for checking the baby’s progress.

The nurse took my weight, my blood pressure and some of my blood for test. I was asked to go to the 10th floor to handover the blood vial to the lab lady. I was also asked to do urine test.

It turned out that I have iron deficiency (my measurement was 10 - normal is 11 above).

Then, I went down again to the 6th floor to give the result to the nurse. And, to do the ultrasound for checking the baby’s progress. Again, it was a vagina scan.

The nurse said, the abdominal scan will only be done after 12 weeks.

I was delighted to see the baby has grown from merely 1.34 cm last month to 5.5 cm!! It’s already moving actively - kicking and moving the limbs.

Dr K prescribed me with Duphaston (I’ll need to take this until 5 month pregnant) and Obimin, a bottle of multivitamins which includes folic acid, iron and various vitamins.

The doctor will be monitoring me for another 2 months and later will issue a reference letter for me to give to whatever ante-natal clinic that I choose. I’m thinking of going to Poliklinik Komuniti Kelana Jaya for check up later since it was really close to my office.

Dear Lil’ Baby,

Today mama want to tell you a bit about your cousins. Oh yes, you have lots and lots of cousins!

So, don’t be surprised. 

When you come out to this world, there will be so many faces looking and adoring your angelic face. Their little hands will lovingly touch you again and again.

And, you will hear they talk about how chubby and cute you’re, how you look more like mama than babah (or vice versa) and how lovely you’re in the white sleepsuits that mama just bought. 

They’re just adoring you, lil’ baby.

Like mama is adoring mama’s youngest nephew in the picture below. His name is Haziq and he’s just 3 months older than you!

So, how many cousins that Lil’ Baby have?

2? 8? 10?

No honey. It’s 40 cousins!!

27 cousins from mama’s side and 13 cousins from babah’s side.

Oh wow!

Your oldest cousin is 19 years old and the youngest is now 3 months old. Another cousin is due to be born in September this year.

Yes, we have a very big and happy family!

Abang Danish, Kak Iman, Kak Ina & Kak Anis

Abang Amin, Abang Hazwan, Kak Aliya & Abang Hisham