Being a clean and organised freak when not pregnant, you can imagine what the ‘Nesting’ instinct has done to me. I have become a cleaning monster. My home must be at an acceptable ‘cleanliness’ state (just in case baby arrives this weekend), I need to be able to see my reflection when looking at my car, the whole family has had to have their hairs newly cut, upcoming wedding and birthday gifts have been bought and wrapped and to the extreme, I have some Christmas presents organised as well. What a freak! Who is this crazy women?

Being full term has also attracted annoying comments like:

“Have you had the baby yet?” - No, but I’ll tell you when I have

“Are you still pregnant?” - Obviously because I still look like a whale

“Any day now, oooh, any day now” - like I didn’t know that

“Have you got any news?” - No, otherwise I would have told you by now

“I thought you would have had the baby by now!” - I thought you’d have better manners by now!

I’m sure most pregnant women get these comments, but they are just more irritating when I am hormonally charged, tired and waddling.

Being full term also has meant that I can sigh with relief knowing that my baby is fully developed inside and has an excellent chance if survival if born today. But there is that tiny spot of doubt inside of me that still worries about the labour and how the baby will pull through. Do all pregnant women have these worries or is it just me?

Then there is my husband who tells me that he goes to work everyday wondering if he will get that important phone call from me telling him to come home NOW because I am in labour. He checks his phone all day for my missed calls and wonders if he’ll make it home on time if I was in labour. I am sure that I will not be so lucky as to have such a quick labour, so quick that he wouldn’t make it home within an hour of my phone call.

Ah, the fun of it all and soon, it will be all over and I’ll be challenged with other things like engorged breasts, sleepless days and nights, fatigue (well, I’m used to that one) and feeding issues.

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Braxton Hicks Contractions

Today, I felt false contractions (Braxton Hicks) for almost 3 hours. They were painful but were not consistent and did not intensify. I had to stop and relax, take deep breaths as I could barely talk through them. I don’t remember having such strong Braxton Hicks contractions with my first pregnancy or at this length of time.

Without going into too much detail about the history of these false contractions, they were named after a British gynaecologist John Braxton Hicks who first noticed them in the 1870s. They were barely noticeable when I was pregnant with Jeremy but this around, they are very noticeable! My uterus felt rock hard during these contractions.

The only comfort I felt during these contractions was that I knew they would go away and that they wouldn’t get any stronger and longer, and if they did, then I guess I would have to call the hospital!

These contractions have briefly reminded me what I have to look forward to when the time comes. Labour and birth hasn’t been my first concern with this pregnancy. I’ve taken on the philosophy that I will just take it as it comes, and baby will arrive when he arrives. I have no birth plans nor do I let labour occupy my mind as I did with Jeremy’s pregnancy.

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The ‘ I feel like a whale symptom’

The last 4 weeks have been an eye opener or should I say, a big reminder of the third trimester. I feel like a whale now, having gained 9 kgs. For those who have not read my earlier blogs, this is a huge milestone for me. Having struggled to gain any weight during the first six months due to nausea and vomiting, I’ve made a big leap forward and made up for all that weight lost plus more! At this stage, I need alot of reassurance from my husband to tell me that I look as gorgeous as those slender models out there, that my bum and thighs don’t wobble when I walk and that my double chin is cute and that my legs don’t look like tree trunks.

The ‘ I hope I have an easier labour and birth preoccupation’

With this being the second pregnancy, I should be a pro at this, but I’m not. As the time nears to ‘L’ day (or days), I feel apprehensive about the labour, the birth and the baby’s health. Having spent 8 hours at home with mild contractions then 20 hours in hospital in labour with Jeremy, I can’t think of things going worse during labour other than having spent the same amount of time in pain and it ending in a caesarean. But there is worse and that worse is a worse that I don’t want to even imagine.

The ‘Fluid retention and blow up look‘

I thought by having a winter pregnancy, I’d avoid any fluid retention. That was one of the main reasons why we tried to get pregnant earlier on in the year. However, it was obviously in vain. I suffered fluid retention during the last 3 months of my first pregnancy, with the last three months being over the summer. The pain, discomfort and misery that it caused cannot be forgotten. I thought I’d happily escaped the blow up look this time around until I noticed that my shoes were a little tight a couple of weeks ago. Then today, I got hubby to take photos of me with our little boy and I did a double take of the photos. I have a double chin and forget about the rings on my fingers, they can’t be taken off anymore.

‘Haemorrhoids - the grapes on my bum’

If you’ve never had haemorrhoids or children, you should stop reading now. It’s one of those ugly truths that most women with children will not tell those who have not had children before. I never experienced these ‘grapes on my bum’ until I gave birth to Jeremy. I think they are worse than stitches from an episiotomy. For some reason, once they have appeared to say ‘Hello’, they are just there, waiting to come back out to say ‘Hello’ again and again and again, even when all you really want them to do is to go away! I cannot seem to beat them away, whether I am mildly constipated or have diarrhoea (both of which I have suffered from followed by the haemorrhiods during this last trimester).

The ‘I need to get everything done before baby arrives’

It’s strange how everything is travelling fine and then all of a sudden, I just feel the urge to get everything, baby related or not, done before the baby arrives. The other day, out of the blue, I said to my husband ‘I have to clean the oven before the baby arrives, I need to clean the oven NOW!’, obviously, he didn’t want to argue with this psycho chick and said nothing, just gave me an odd look.

The ‘I need a nap *yawn* right this minute’

I didn’t see this symptom coming until I noticed that I was yawning while in the car, at the red lights, watching tv, talking on the phone, before a shower, after a shower, after all meals…just yawning all day long. Silently, I kept saying to myself, ‘It would be nice to have a nap now’ until I realised that, I was in the third trimester now and fatigue has returned with a vengeance.

I know I shouldn’t complain about these symptoms when there are many women who would be happy to have them just to be pregnant. They are some of the symptoms that I would love to forget and make me appreciate my non pregnant body more, the body that truly is mine and not possessed by raging hormones and a baby that will make it all worthwhile.

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200 grams of butter softened

1 1/2 cups of white sugar

3 eggs

4 bananas peeled and mashed

3 cups of plain flour

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/2 cup of milk

2 tablespoons of lemon

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius using a fan forced oven.

2. Put the softened butter and sugar in a bowl and beat it well. Add eggs one at a time and beat.

3. Mash the bananas in a separate bowl.

4. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in another bowl.

5. Stir in HALF  the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt mixture into the butter, eggs and sugar mixture.

6. Add the milk and lemon juice then the rest of the remaining dry ingredients into the mixture.  Mix well.

7. Add the mashed bananas in.

8. Line a large square or round tin with baking paper and pour in the mixture until the tin is half full.

HINT: Any left over cake mixture can be poured into a muffin tray and baked for 15-20 minutes.

9. Smooth the top of the cake tin and bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown and firm to the touch. Use a skewer and insert it into the cake, if the skewer comes out clean and dry, it’s cooked.

10. Let the cake sit in the tin for 5-10 minutes and remove it from the tin.

This is a simple and classic banana cake recipe that I make when I have bananas that no one wants to eat because the skin has gone all brown!

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- When I feel relieved that that my son has done a poo for the day

- When I get more excited on my son’s birthday than my own

- Toys sales gets me more excited than sales at my favourite stores like Mimco, Midas and Jigsaw.

- When I trick myself into thinking that the mash potatos or chips my son eats is a serving of vegies

- When I can’t remember the last time I read a book that had more words than pictures

- When I stop everything that I am doing and run to the window in excitement pointing to my son that there’s a rubbish truck on the road

- When going to the toilet alone gets me excited

- When I go out smelling like breastmilk, on my milk stained top and not realise it until it’s too late

- When I know the words to more nursery rhymes than the latest top 10 songs on the music charts

- When i find my fingers picking not just my nose, but that of my sons

- When saying, ‘Say Thank You’  and ‘Say Please’ is automatic

- When makeup and lipgloss in my handbag got replaced with emergency biscuits and Matchbox cars.

- When I kiss my son and give him cuddles when he’s got the flu, coughing and sneezing on me even though I am 26 weeks pregnant

Ahhh, that’s love, that’s being a mum!

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When not pregnant, I can assure you all that I was energetic and on the go. I was hoping that during the second trimester, this energy would return. It did, but half heartedly. That was when I wasn’t caught down with the flu. I reckon I’ve had the swine flu several times over this winter. There is just something about my pregnant body that is a target for the virus. This last round has taken much longer to get over and I thank Neways for their Ming VM and Rispiral tablets which I have been taking to boost my immune system whilst sick. I dreaded the thought of taking Tamiflu or worse.  Luckily, I didn’t have to.

With all the warnings out there for precaution amongst pregnant women to protect themselves against the swine flu, I don’t blame any like minded women out there who prefer to stay at home and avoid crowded places. After all, that has been how I’ve caught most of the flu and colds I’ve had to endure. But realistically, life has to go on and no matter how many precautions one takes, if you get the flu, then you’ll just get it.

Flu aside, I am counting down the months until I meet baby. I haven’t made any preparations and we are definitely still struggling with finding a name for the baby, but we have plenty to time left…a whole trimester!

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Some comments that I did not notice with my first pregnancy, but are glaringly obvious this time around are the comments on my size. By my size, I mean my weight gain and belly size. Often, people say things that they think are acceptable to pregnant women but not to the rest of the female population. Should I not be pregnant, I think people would not be so up front as to tell me how much weight I have or have not gained. They would not consider themselves as obstetrician or dieticians and give me advice as to what I should or should not be eating to gain or slow down my weight gain.

It’s never acceptable to comment on how big a pregnant woman is. Actually, it’s not acceptable to comment on how small a pregnant woman is either. If you’re feeling compelled to say something about a pregnant women’s appearance, then it should be along the lines of,

“You look great pregnant” or “You’re looking gorgeous”.

Inappropriate comments such as:

“You look so big now”

“You’re really small/big for 5 months!”

“Are you carrying twins?”

“I only gained 9 kg when I was pregnant”

will not only annoy a pregnant woman, but can really hurt her.

In my case, I’ve not gained much weight. Actually, with 5 months of  ’all day sickness’, I’ve struggled to gain any weight. I’m just happy that I have finally gained back all the weight I lost so the comments coming my way have been more along the lines of my lack of weight gain. I’m sure that as baby gets bigger and my belly is protruding out more and more, the comments would be streaming my way. How I’ll handle them will depend on my pregnancy hormones.

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I am someone who wants to know what I can, if I can. If I can find out about our baby’s occupation and who he or she will marry, how many kids they will have or not, I would too. Surprises are not for me. With that being said, I have no particular preferences of a boy or girl. I keep bouncing the thought of having a little boy to a little girl for obvious reasons. If we have another boy, I would selfishly be the only princess in the family and be surrounded by my handsome princes. On the other hand, a little girl would be nice only for my own shallow reasons like giving me an excuse to buy all those very cute girls outfits (that happen to take up most of the space in kids stores).

Since week 12, I’ve had a feeling that I was carrying a boy. These feelings come from various sources that you could say are ‘old wives tales’,  but I take these sources very seriously. The first was an appearance of a line on my palm that represents a male child. In my past time (and past life), I used to study palmistry until I got bombard with requests to read every Tom, Dick and Harry who found out that I can read palms. After that, I went underground and decided not to advertise or read anyone’s palms anymore (with some exceptions). I’ve never been wrong when reading people’s palms so I didn’t see how I could be wrong in reading my own palm.

The second source was from my mother-in-law who has a theory about ovulation and conception. She swears that she has a 100% success rate and with 6 kids (3 boys and 3 girls) with the sexes she chose, who am I to argue? She’s recommended this theory to others who’ve all managed to conceive with the chosen sex of their baby. Here is her theory: She says that if you have intercourse BEFORE ovulation and conceive, then you will have a boy. However, if you conceive AFTER ovulation, then you will have a girl. The week that I happen to be ovulating, it was the last week of January 2009 when we had a heat wave in Melbourne and temperatures were between 43 and 45 degrees celcius for a consecutive 4 days. After a few attempts of trying to get pregnant, we just decided it was too hot to be doing anything in bed other than trying to stay cool! By the time I was at my peak ovulation period, we just said enough was enough and there was such a thing as it being too hot for sex! Hence, conception could only have occurred before ovulation. So according to my mother-in-law’s theory, we would be having a boy.

The other source is the Chinese Birth Calendar. This calendar tells you what sex you will conceive depending on the month of conception and the mother’s birth age at the time of conception. According to the Chinese Birth Calendar, we would have a boy (conceived in January to my age of 31 at the time of conception).

With all this being said, it was time to confirm my suspicions at the week 20 ultrasound. Surprise Surprise, or should I say, No Surprise No Surprise, I saw a very obvious penis between our son’s legs.

I have no doubt of the joy in finding out the sex of your child after the delivery and it would be just as powerful as finding out now. However, for us, the chance to imagine the baby as a him for the next 20 weeks is a luxury that I wouldn’t trade for the world.

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It’s only limited to 2 boxes per customer and the required $20 in store purchase cannot be for nappies or services charges.

Alternatively, print out the Toys R Us catelogue, bring it to K Mart or Big W and ask for a price match!

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