pregnancy

Second Trimester Wrap Up

May 31, 2012

If I have to sum it up, my first trimester was pretty much like having to survive a brutal kungfu endurance training, but with less of the awesome kungfu moves and more of the part where I end up vomiting all over myself multiple times a day.

In comparison, the second trimester was like a leisurely stroll in the park. Nay, make it a dance in the park to a chorus of pretty little birdies. No, wait, make it a full on party in the park with a Glee-level rendition of Party Rock Anthem.

It is the only time where you get to bask in that elusive pregnancy glow that people talk about. It’s 3 precious months of repite without any nasty side effects before everything goes downhill again.

Now that I’m officially in third trimester territory and stricken with a different (but no less annoying) set of pregnancy discomforts, it’s only right that I look back at the awesomeness that is the second trimester.

1. Hello, Appetite.

Some people eat because they have to and others eat because they enjoy it. I happen to fall in the category of people who consider good food an art form. I need to make my calories count so every meal must be worth its weight in taste and satisfaction.

During the first trimester, I would spend hours surfing food blogs looking at pictures just to find something that would trigger my appetite. Laksa, chicken rice, Bak Kut Teh, Wagyu beef steak… nothing worked.

Thankfully, the appetite’s back and I’m at least enjoying my meals again. All’s right with the world.

2. Sporadic Bursts of Energy

I still tire more easily than when I’m not pregnant but comparatively, my energy levels during the second trimester is a marked difference from the other two trimesters. I go to bed at 11pm instead of right after dinner at 7.30 and some days, I can even make do without my afternoon naps.

3. Boom-Chica-Wow-Wow

I shan’t bore you with the details of my sexytime but let’s just say that it’s 50 Shades of Awesome. Ok, I haven’t actually read the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy despite the frenzy it’s caused among the mommy blogging circles but *ahem* at this point, there hasn’t been a need to.

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kids in motion, not feeling so supermom

Plastered

May 29, 2012

It’s an unspoken rule – there are certain things we’re not supposed to do as moms.

We don’t let our kids play with knives or stick their fingers in sockets or eat too much junk food. And we most definitely don’t fall asleep on the job because that’s when they will attempt to do all of the above.

That rule changes when you’re pregnant though, because I’m certain there’s a link between pregnancy and narcolepsy. I’m exhausted all the time and not in the I-don’t-mind-a-nap kind of tired. It’s the kind where I fall asleep involuntarily at various points throughout the day.

As a precaution, we’ve toddler-proofed the house and told them explicitly that they’re not allowed to engage in any activity that will get themselves mortally wounded or maimed. So they know to stay away from the carving knives and electricity.

This afternoon, I was watching them fix a puzzle when I must have dozed off for a couple of minutes. If you’ve never watched a 3-year-old fix a puzzle, it’s the ultimate test of your self control. On the one hand, you’re watching them struggle with a piece that obviously doesn’t fit, which makes you want to be all “here, let me help you” and finish the whole thing in 20 seconds. Then on the other hand, you want to let them learn through the struggle so you try to disengage your brain from mentally fixing the entire puzzle in your head.

So the only way to do it is to stone out while they spend 15 minutes figuring out which piece goes where.

Next thing I knew, I woke up to the sound of my own snoring. You know how when you’re in the zone between semi-consciousness and a deep sleep and the sound of your own snoring travels back to your ears to wake you up? Yeah, that totally does happen.

But that’s not the fun part. The fun part was when I woke up to discover that I had been plastered by the kids. As in literally covered in plasters. They got bored with the puzzle so they decided to break into my medical box and peeled open a whole bunch of plasters to paste on my arms, face, thighs and feet.

I thought of telling them off for the plaster incident but I sighed and gave them a hi-5 instead because 1) It was pretty creative and 2) I’m just thankful they didn’t break into my permanent marker drawer. That could have been a lot worse.

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events

My Avengers Moment

May 28, 2012

MINDEF had its annual Army Open House over the weekend and we were invited for a preview earlier in the week. I usually don’t go for these sorts of events but they told me that I could ride on military vehicles and fire a real rifle, which I just couldn’t resist.

I blame it on the Avengers hangover I was having.

Turned out that I wasn’t allowed on the moving demo rides because I was pregnant but there were these stationary vehicles on display and nothing was going to stop me from pretending to ride those.

I got some badass photos, which I wanted to make into a series of Army Recruitment posters but I figured it’d be sending the wrong message. You know, in case we ended up recruiting a bunch of heavily pregnant women.

So here are some movie posters from my personal stash instead.

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