January 2020 – Last few weeks of pregnancy, Malacca staycay & Chickpea’s birth!

What a huge month this January has been!

pregnancy updates — weeks 36 to 39

As it dawned on me that my pregnancy was going to end, I tried to savour it as much as possible. The mystery of what Chickpea looks like, the anticipation of her arrival, the last few weeks of carrying her in my body before it was time to share her with the world…

My pelvis started to ache after we approached full-term, probably from Chickpea descending lower. Thankfully this time I had no unsightly water retention, unlike my last pregnancy. I also slowed down on exercising because my body needed more rest. Though did go for nice, long walks with friends and my doulas, and a last kopek Zumba class (my last session on my punch card) in weeks 38-39. Zumba was a little funny because I couldn’t keep up with the quicker moves — it was as though my coordination skills were running on 0.25 playback speed.

Oh and we finally met my obstetrician Dr Citra! After a long 7-month wait 😅 We waited 2.5h in the clinic for our turn, eeks. Even though she was probably running behind schedule, she carefully went through my birth plan, which I really appreciated. She also went through our scan results and confirmed everything looked good/normal, and gave me the option to skip the tests for gestational diabetes and GBS :p

Our next appointment the following week had a much shorter waiting time, and Dr Citra confirmed that baby was head down and in a good position to be engaged, and that the water level in my waterbag was good. Yay! We skipped the 39th week appointment coz I felt it would be pointless … the waiting game would have started and I prefer for no early VEs or membrane sweeps to be done anyway.

Nesting-wise, we still had no clothes or diapers for Chickpea at the start of the month. Thankfully two friends passed me some of their daughters’ clothes — some of which are Watermelon’s old ones, yay! — and then I bought a little more from Carousell. The moment I received the rompers from the Carousell sellers in the mail, I had them washed and dried within the night. Lol. Felt sooo relieved, like okay Chickpea you can come now.

It was only late in my 38th week that I got around to organising our cupboard to make space for newborn clothes and supplies. I felt sooo tired that night even though all I did was spend time in a tiny room deciding what to keep and throw.

My last birth walk with my doulas. Beautiful weather on the Marang Trail again. Only nightmare was the traffic that morning!

Our staycation at Malacca

One of the crazy things we did this pregnancy was to travel … at 36 weeks! Lulz. The story is that we had 2 nights’ Hilton hotel vouchers to redeem, and we thought of spending them on a last hurrah where it was just the 3 of us, plus as an early birthday treat for Watermelon. December was out since NG had his 3-week reservist, so early January it “had” to be.

JB would have been good, but we already spent 2 weekends there in November, so I wasn’t too keen. KL would have been *great*, but the car ride would be punishing and I feel like KL needs a minimum of 4d 3n to properly enjoy if you’re driving up. So the in between location would be Malacca, which both of us haven’t visited in years.

…It turned out to be a ghost town during weekdays, omg! My last holiday there was over the weekend, in a huge tour bus with my mum and her ex-schoolmates. It was a very touristy and kecoh experience. I didn’t expect it to be soooo different this time. Our hotel was pretty empty, the streets were deserted, and even Mahkota Parade was sooo quiet. But anyway it was meant to be a mellow family holiday so it was fine for us lah.

Highlights was probably the awesome breakfast spread typical of Doubletree Hilton, and the indoor playground that we brought Watermelon to. At first we were the only ones there. Luckily a small group of parents and their 5 kids soon joined us, making the place more lively. It was great seeing Watermelon have a good time, espesh on the trampolines with NG.

Our doulas got us to pack a small hospital bag for the trip just in case I went into labour early. And scarily it felt like I was starting to hear more stories of premature labour so we were worried too — just not worried enough to cancel our plans :p Was relieved we reached back SG as family of 3 and not 4. Haha thank you Chickpea for hanging in there!!!

At a deserted Dataran Merdeka in Malacca

Side note, we had these chicken rice balls, which I didn’t know were famous in Malacca

And then came Chickpea’s birth!

She arrived on 39+2, the day after our skipped appointment. InsyaAllah I’ll share the full birth story but the TLDR; version is that my waterbag leaked, consistent surges kicked in slightly more than 24h later, I laboured at home and arrived at the hospital 10cm dilated because Chickpea emerged within 5 minutes of us entering our delivery suite. Alhamdulillah she is healthy and good!

Watermelon’s birthday celebrations

With me being heavily pregnant, I wasn’t really onz about planning Watermelon’s birthday celebrations this year. We didn’t organise a celebration in her new school because #lazy, and we almost didn’t plan family dinners either.

But in the end we brought NG’s family out to Rasa Istimewa at Pasir Ris park one week before her birthday, and we planned to bring my family out to Yassin Restaurant at Bedok Central one day before her birthday … although that plan was somewhat thwarted by Chickpea’s arrival. Haha. My family proceeded with the dinner though, with Watermelon and without NG and me. It was impossible to find a cake shop that was still open on CNY eve, so we had a separate cake cutting sesh on the night we returned home from the hospital. Thank god for Swensen’s cakes being available for delivery on Food Panda, espesh over the CNY break!

Watermelon’s new school

Watermelon started N1 at her “new school” earlier this month, and the transition has been a little bumpy. Quite heartbreaking to hear her say she doesn’t want her new school, when she’s generally been loving her “old school” the previous years. Even though her teachers are lovely and some of her good friends from playgroup are in the same class as her, the new environment is still a huge change for her. Hopefully it gets better from here, insyaAllah.

Maternity shoot

We did a short maternity shoot earlier this month. I found the photographer through IG ads. I thought his style was simple and authentic enough, and he was having a good promo for a 1-hr sesh so I signed up for it. I ended up being super nervous about it mostly because I didn’t know what to wear! Anyways it went well and good, and I’m glad I took the effort to do it.

Next month I want to …

1. Finish Watermelon’s photo book (omg third time I’m saying this)
2. Survive Chickpea’s first month
3. Recover quickly, insyaAllah!!!