Happy New Year 2016!!

It’s week 8 of my pregnancy and I seriously can’t wait till 15th and 27th Jan for blood test and NT scan respectively. 

In the new year resolution, I hope for healthy twins, smooth progress in pregnancy and good prospect in my career. 

There’s many events that will be coming up and I really can’t wait for the following . 

1. Our new home nest to be ready for key collection by Feb 2016 
2. Cruise trip
3. Every ultrasound scan to see what’s babies doing in me 
4. Really really hope to see the birth of my twins after week 36
5. Baby shower 
6. Getting a new car

Wishing everyone happy new year! 

Worries as a Mummy-to-be

Coming back to reality, I have to be prepared to take care of my 2 babies in 6-8 months time. 

I know I maybe worrying too much but I just want to make sure I will not panic too much and causing my cutie pies to be insecure. 

Here’s some problems 

1. What are the risks? The common risk is premature birth. I always wanted natural birth but the chances of caesarean is higher. 
2. Will my twins be growing well? I’m so worried when one of my colleagues started to scared me that it’s only near EDD when I will know I will have one or two babies. I don’t wish to lose any of them as they are lives who are made by us. Seeing some of my fertilized eggs deteriorating were already very demoralizing and I felt helpless to them. If any of my twins is not developing, I don’t think I can handle these emotions. 
3. Who will be taking care of my twins? During confinement, I will have to rest if I undergo caesarean, so at least 3 adults should be around to take care of the twins and help to do housework. They have to rotate during night feed duties. 
4. How to take care of twins at the same time? Extra hands are definitely required to take turns for feeding and changing diapers. I shall see how hubby is going to handle them. 
5. Cost of having twins? It’s definitely higher as everything will be almost doubled. Getting confinement lady will cost 3.5-4K to take care of twins and on top of that, they request to have a maid at home.
6. How to reduce risk of premature birth? It will be exercising to strengthen pelvic area and thighs. I arranged a home prenatal yoga coach to attend to me at a cost of $90 per session. 

Ultrasound Scan – Week 8

During the past few weeks, my tummy grew bigger and it looked as if it’s 3 months old. I was not sure it’s because of my cyst or baby growth. When I saw my friend’s baby bump who was about 13 weeks old, it looked similar mine, which was only 7-8 weeks. 

To my surprise, we saw 2 little ones today! 
Both 8 weeks old and its of the right size as of now 🙂 

  

The bigger one is 8.4 weeks old while the smaller one is 8 weeks old. I was so happy and excited to see my little ones. They are really too adorable. 

After seeking gynae advice, we aborted the plan to travel by flight to overseas as of now since my current situation is considered a high risk pregnancy. 

I couldn’t continue with SPRESTO anymore since they only allow single pregnancy but I’ll introduce more friends, who wanted to conceive to join them then. I would really like to thank the team for doing a great job in my checkups. 

Total duration : 2.5hrs 

Total fee : $98+123 (consultation and medicine; last free ultrasound scan) 

Symptoms thus far…

I guess it’s going to be ups and downs. Symptoms kept changing and now I realized I had the following symptoms. 

1. Morning sighness – I woke up feeling nausea and also felt the same before I sleep. It’s good to keep something sour around me all the time and I felt better after taking Blackmore pregnancy pills 
2. No more cakes! – I love cakes and tarts yet when I put it in my mouth, it just taste different 😦 
3. No more meat?! – I had Korean BBQ a few weeks back and now when I smell or eat it, it taste like pure protein. Yucks! 
4. Craving for salty food – I love to drink soup with salty taste at the tip of my tongue. Yummy!! 
5. Seafood!! – I don’t really eat fish all the time but when I don’t get to eat for 1-2 days, I will start craving for it. Prawns and crabs are tasty and I can keep on eating it without feeling disgusting. 
6. Stomach will growl at the same time everyday – at 7am, 12pm and 6pm sharp, I can’t control my hunger and once the time past, I don’t feel like eating anymore. 
7. Urination issues – I kept feeling I have to pee but every time when I tried to pee, it’s so little? 
8. Bloated tummy and gassy – it’s either I keep farting or burping (sorry TMI!) but I can’t help it. Whenever I’m having a meal, I will have to wait till I burp in order to continue eating. If not, I will feel very full and wanted to puke. 
9. Stuffy nose – I experience breathless nights and I can’t breath with my nose. 
10. Speedy hair growth – this maybe due to production of androgen and hair grew pretty fast not only at pubic areas but also more can be seen around legs, lower tummy and my wrist. 

Counting down…

First trimester is another hurdle! 

I guess every pregnant woman will have to go through. It’s another stage of difficulties i.e. Coping with emotions, nausea, choosing food to eat etc etc 

Now I’m counting down to CNY as its the nearest celebration of my next trimester! 

3 days to Christmas 

10 days to New Year 2016 

48 days to CNY 2016! 

I literally have another 6-7 weeks to reach trimester 2! 

I seriously can’t wait. I wanted to be normal, feel baby kicks and able to travel! 

Travel plans? Bkk is a must to get baby stuff, maternity wear and pray for healthy baby. Next consideration maybe Japan or Europe or Aussie!? 

Hmm… I can’t book tickets until Dr Tan gave a thumbs up so I shall wait. Anyway, pain has been tolerable and getting better. Tummy is not as bloated as before so it’s a good sign! ^_^ 

Ultrasound Scan – week 5-6

  
This is the second ultrasound scan as the first one was an emergency scan to check if it’s ectopic due to a chronic pain on left side of my lower abdomen. The first scan was only a 3mm sac. Finally, I saw baby in C-sharp with a heartbeat in a sac of size 4.6cm! Mummy and daddy were so delightful to see baby. 😊

Unfortunately, the pain on my left ovary did not subside as the size of cyst was 4cm and some cysts were found in my uterus. There’s a big round sac beside baby so the radiographer suspect there maybe another pregnancy but require further monitoring since there’s no sign of yolk. The size of fetus was only 2mm and estimated to be 5.4 weeks only. 

Waiting for Dr Tan HH required a lot of patience especially in the morning as he needed to go for surgeries or procedures and there’s many patients. We waited more than an hour to see him. During the consultation, I told Dr Tan HH that based on my calendar it should be 6.4 weeks but reassured me that baby was fine and I counted wrongly as I should start from the day of embryo transfer. Ok… I shall take it as week 5 then. Praying hard baby continue to grow!! 

Duration : 3hrs (8am to 11am) 

Consultation fee : $98.44

Ultrasound scan : Free (sponsored by SPRESTO) 

Medicine : $7.50 (anti-nauseous and folic acid) 

IVF Bill

The bill came in a stack and mentioned in great details including the guaze and gloves used.

Main payment includes the following 

Injectable Medication – $1200 

Progesterone – $444

Art stimulation – $888 

Hubby’s sperm analysis – $1200 

ISCI and ER – $4800 

Embryo transfer and freezing – $2000 

It’s a total of $10, 680!!! 😱 
It didn’t mentioned if I need to pay by cash but apparently, no second letter was received to chase on payment. 

Emergency Check

The day before I went back to work and tried to do normal activities like walking to printing machine, pantry or toilet but they were all a distance away. When I go for lunch with my colleagues, I tried to walk faster but I was still in pain. 

In the middle of the night, I woke up in pain and it went worst in the morning. I couldn’t sleep and I called KKH around 7am. The receptionist told me go to O&G 24hr clinic immediately. 

As Dr Tan was not around on weekends, we were attended by Dr Goh XX (can’t remember his full name). We waited longer than other patients as I’m an IVF patient and the nurse required to take my history file from clinic D. He did a vagina ultrasound scan and he can’t find any baby sac so he asked me to go for detailed scan and blood test. 

During the blood test, I was poked twice by an old nurse yet she can’t get my blood. I told the nurse if she can’t get my blood, send me to clinic D as the nurses there can draw blood painlessly. In the end, another nurse took over and she just need to poke once to draw 2 tubes of blood. 

After that I was put on wheelchair to go for detailed ultrasound at level 1. The radiologist took sometime to do a thorough scan from my lower abdomen and vagina. From the top, she found one baby sac on my right uterus. From my vagina, she saw many cyst in the ovaries and luckily there’s no sign of ectopic pregnancy. Then I was pushed back to the clinic to wait for report and see Dr Goh. 

When I was called in, Dr Goh said I am lucky as I don’t have OHSS but there’s multiple cysts in both of my ovaries. This was due to the stimulation medicine I took during IVF treatment. They all grew bigger into corpus cysts so as to produce progesterone and due to the effect of HCG. My left ovary became 7.2cm BIG and that caused the pain. Dr Goh prescribed pain killers and told me to rest. He said I can take leave to rest at home until it subside in 3-4weeks time when my plcenta grew. 

Total duration: 4-5hrs 

Total fee: $390 

Early Pregnancy Symptoms

Every woman experience different symptoms so my symptoms may not be similar to yours. 

Here’s some symptoms I’m experiencing after knowing I’m pregnant. 

1. Fatigue – I can’t go out for long and I need naps during the day.  
2. Cramps – it’s on and off. It feels like I got punched? I will also feel swollen at lower abdomen. 
3. Gassy – I kept farting and burping (TMI) 
4. Frequent urination – I will need to run to the loo at least twice per night and this disrupt my sleep. 
5. Hungry easily – I will get hungry easily for every 2-3hrs so now I split meals and eat lesser so I don’t feel bloated if I eat too much. 

There’s no sign of morning sickness.