Erm.. update on Little Monkey's measurements

Okay, I goofed up yesterday on Little Monkey's measurements. She's not really 12.18cm. I got all the acronyms mixed up from my results sheet. After consulting with my younger bro (who's a medical officer at a hospital back home), he told me what they all stood for:



BPD: biparietal diameter. This is the measurement of the widest part of the head.
HC: head circumference
OFD: occipitofrontal circumference (haven't found out yet what this is for and little bro has forgotten because they rarely use it)
AC: abdominal circumference
FL: femur length



Basically, these are all measurements taken to gauge the baby's size. The measurements are then checked against standards for that stage of growth. I found a set of standards here for the measurements above. When I compared Little Monkey's measurements to the standards, she was well in the range for a 16-week-old baby.
I don't have a full size measurement for Little Monkey on my results but I'm not too worried if all those measurements above are within the standards.



I also checked with my brother about her weight. It's listed in my results sheet as an EFW, which stands for Estimated Fetal Weight. And yep, it's true. Little Monkey weighs in at 158.77gm, about 60% heavier than the average EFW for a 16-week-old baby. Yikes! Must be due to Top Monkey's Danish genes... you know.. big, tall, blond Viking conquerors. I wouldn't mind it so much if it weren't for the fact that I'm a much shorter, smaller Asian type and just thinking about delivering a big baby is making me faint.

5th scan at 16 weeks

Can you believe it? I'm almost halfway there. I'm 16+1 now (i.e. 16 weeks + 1 day) into my pregnancy. Saw my gynae here in Jakarta for the first time.

I can't post any pics of the scan. The machine they were using gave grainier images than the one my doc in KL used, so I can't quite make out myself which bit is which. This much I know - Little Monkey's head is to the left of my belly button (when I look down towards my toes) and it's pointing downwards. Her body is horizontally across my belly with her legs curled up somewhere past the right of my belly button.

She is now a mighty 12.18cm in length. I'm really pleased because the book I'm reading called Your Pregnancy Week by Week by Curtis and Schuler gave an average measurement of 10.8-11.6cm for a baby at this stage of pregnancy. I was initially a little worried over Little Monkey's progress because I didn't seem to be gaining much weight even at 16 weeks even though I was eating 5 meals a day. Looks like now I know where those 5 meals have been going!
I'm doing the 5 meals bit because 5 small meals at somewhat regular intervals throughout the day are easier to digest than 3 large meals. I generally have cereal and fruit for brekkie, maybe a banana around 11am and then lunch at say 1pm. At about 3pm, I'll get hungry again and have a sandwich. Dinner is generally at 7-8pm, depending on what time Top Monkey arrives home from the office. I don't do the crisps and fast food bit, I try to eat things like fruit and some nuts if I need a snack and I try and drink as much water as I can throughout the day.

The book also says the baby should weigh around 2 3/4oz. I have a weight measurement here on my results card that says 6oz. ??? I forgot to ask the doc if that's the baby's weight or the baby + sac weight. I can't imagine it if Little Monkey is about twice the weight of the average baby at this stage. Eek. Maybe we should be changing the baby's nick to Big Monkey then!

The nurse said I have a very active baby. And yep, she is one active little one all right, squirming away all the time, kicking and wriggling. Each time the nurse pressed the ultrasound probe a little harder against my belly, she would throw up her arms and wave frantically as if to say, "OI!!! Not so hard! I'm inside here!"

I still can't feel any movement. Mums can usually start feeling it from Week 16-20 but the timing differs for every woman. I mean, a book can only give you an estimate of what's going to happen on average for every woman. Talk to other mums and ask them when they had this and that happen to them and you'll get different responses from every woman. I know because I ask all my other friends who've had children. I asked my mum but she can't remember now, it was so long since she had a baby!

I also took a Triple Screen Test. Yuk. I hate blood tests. This test checks for levels of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) and unconjugated triol (a form of estrogen produced by the placenta). The levels of these chemicals will indicate the chances the baby has Down's Syndrome.
There is a high risk of false positives with this test. One is due to the wrong due date. For example, if you think you're 16 weeks pregnant, but you're actually 18 weeks pregnant, then your hormone levels will be way off. Another reason may be if you're carrying more than one baby. Anyway, if your test results are abnormal, the doc will carried out amniocentesis to verify the test results.

I'm not going to think about the outcome of the results for now. I'm just going to relax and just think about how funny it was to see Little Monkey being so active in the womb. I read somewhere that the baby can do backflips in the womb at this point in time and the thought of it is just hilarious.

Only one teeny bit of disappointment for me this time: We couldn't see whether Little Monkey's a boy or a girl. She was lying on her stomach inside me and no amount of trying by us would make her turn around. All the baby did was wave her arms more frantically each time and I just wanted to laugh. Finally, we gave up and decided to try again at the next scan.

So happy. 16 weeks and all is well so far. We are happy Monkeys indeed.

Whee! I've bought my first pair of maternity jeans!

Feeling like a real mom now! Look at me! I'm shopping in the maternity section! I've got a wee bump! You know what's the best thing about buying maternity clothes? The sizes don't really matter! I know that if in normal times I was looking for jeans that were size 12 and above, I'd be getting on a treadmill pretty quick. But when you're having a bump and you know you can't fit into your normal size jeans because of the wee one, it really doesn't matter!

I bought mine from the Dorothy Perkins outlet in Debenham's, Senayan City. They also had a really nice, comfy line of cargo pants there but when I put one on, I looked like I was wearing two long potato sacks. Hmm. I think I'll wait for Top Monkey to pass judgement before I buy them. I just thought the cargo pants would be really useful as they have pockets to stuff things into. Hey, who needs diaper bags? Just wear a really pocket-sy pair of cargos!

I'm still on the hunt for more maternity lines. If anyone from Jakarta is reading this, please let me know where I can find nice maternity clothes. Or if anyone is coming over from Kuala Lumpur, bring me some clothes! Hehe.

Buying maternity clothes

I've come to the point where my bump won't allow me to wear my jeans anymore. They fit all right when I'm standing up but all I have to do is sit and eek! - it digs into me.

So last weekend, we went shopping along Kemang for mummy clothes. I told Top Monkey that I wanted to be as yummy a mummy for as long as I could be and he was trying to tell me that I had to accept that if I were going to be as big as a whale, I couldn't possibly be 100% fashionable. Boo-hoo. Can't I at least try to aim for 80% fashionable?

The maternity shops along Kemang had a very small selection and I was left wondering what pregnant women in Jakarta wore. Hmm... very curious. I left without any purchases but kept in mind where the shops were, just in case I would need them one day.

The next day, we hopped along to Senayan City, the big glitzy mall downtown. It was a Sunday and the mall was crowded with families on a day out. There was a Debenham's there, so we just popped in out of curiousity.
Much to my delight, two labels there carried a maternity line - Red Herring and Dorothy Perkins. Although the selection was again rather limited, at least they had nice flattering bottoms and tops for a mum-to-be. See, I'd tried explaining to Top Monkey that if I'm going to be all big and wobbly, I'd like to at least feel like an attractive big and wobbly person. :)))
They had very pretty nursing bras in their lingerie section too! I thought they looked lovely, can't wait for the time when I can buy them. No sense buying them now when I'm only 15 weeks along!

So now I know where to go to shop for my yummy mummy stuff, I'll probably just buy a pair of jeans or two for now. We're headed for Canada in June and I'll have a look-see there, I'm sure I'll have a lot more to choose from in Vancouver!

Still searching for a baby name for Little Monkey

I have just bought a baby names book and am reading it for inspiration. We still don't know if Little Monkey is a boy or girl, so we've been looking at both boys' and girl's names.

As the family name is Danish in origin (Top Monkey's forefathers came from the Faroe Islands and settled in England many moons ago), I thought it would be fun to have a Nordic first name for the baby. A friend of mine suggested Thor Heyerdahl, after the famous explorer he so admires. Thor Heyerdahl Larssen sounded quite nice. Until I remembered the baby would have a Chinese name as well and when you put that in, it become Thor Heyerdahl Chong Ming Larssen. Which then looks kinda weird, I can imagine Little Monkey getting a lot of teasing in school, I can imagine him being called things like a Danish Dimsum behind his back. Back to drawing board.

See, I never expected to marry an Englishman and to have a child that would bear an English name. I'd always assumed that if I ever had children, they would have Chinese names like me. For Chinese names, you generally have three parts. The first would be the family name. The middle would be a generation name. This bit is kinda hard to explain. For example, my brothers and I all have the character "Hui" for the middle part of our name. So do all my paternal cousins. My father, and all his paternal cousins, share the middle name of "Sai". This way, we know precisely who belongs to which generation just by looking at the middle name.

The last bit of a Chinese name is normally a name that is unique to you. Chinese don't name their children after family members, so we don't have the concept of names like JFK Jr in our culture. The middle name + your last name = your given name. Ta-dah! Confusing, eh?

Never mind. We're still searching for a nice first name that we can both agree on. I'll leave the Chinese name bit to Dad. We've still got time, I'm just coming up to 16 weeks!

Note: All real names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Parents board flight, forget toddler at airport

Source: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080513/tod-canada-airline-child-philippines-off-7f81b96.html


GOLLY. I can relate to that a bit, having left Top Monkey's precious camera on board while we were frantically opening hand luggage, searching for his wallet. In the confusion, you just forget things. Honestly, you just do. After the very efficient staff at Soekarno-Hatta airport here in Jakarta had helped him locate the camera, he handed it to me (was my job to carry it while he struggled with luggage) and said to me wearily, "Don't do this with the baby, okay?"

I was all panicky thinking I'd lost the camera, which wasn't your average point-and-shoot type, so I can imagine how the family must have felt when they realised their little one was lost. The panic must have been magnified a thousand times. All ended well though, the family was reunited in Canada a day later.

Reminds me of how I'd gotten lost as a 4-year-old in a shopping mall in Singapore once. My aunt, who was supposed to keep an eye on me, thought I was with my parents. Naturally, my parents thought I was with her. It was Christmas and the mall was crowded. The adults all stepped into a lift, not realising I was still staring at the reindeer display. My dad said they panicked right away when they realised I wasn't with them and they got out of the lift the moment they could and hopped into another to get back to my floor.
Was I crying? Not a bit! When I stopped staring at the reindeer and took a look around, I realised that I was alone. It didn't scare me a bit and I remembered thinking to myself, "Oh well, I'll just take a taxi back to Uncle's place." and went on wandering around quite happily.
I happened to walk in front of the lifts and when the doors opened, there were my frantic parents. I looked up, saw them and walked into the lift nonchalantly with a "Oh, there are you are" sort of expression while my parents nearly melted from the relief.

Well, in any event, they would have found me quite quickly because they'd taught me that if I got lost, I was to stay where I was (I didn't do that then!) and if someone in the store uniform (they'd point that out to me when we got into stores) came to ask me, I was to tell them my name and my parents' names and ask them to help look for my Papa and Mama.

I think I'll teach Little Monkey that the moment she's old enough to understand. Don't want to end up leaving her on the plane like I did the camera!

My 4th scan @ 14 weeks

Well, here we are in Jakarta at last. No more shuttling between KL and Jakarta anymore. Phew. It was tiring last week as we packed our things and had the movers come in to do the heavier packing. When I finally got on the plane at KLIA, all I felt was relief that it was finally over. Well, at least Phase I is over, I've still got to think about unpacking in our new home!

Before I left for Jakarta, I had my 4th scan. No pics this time, I've tried taking pics of the scan but it's all blurry. So I'll leave that alone for now until I can get a suitably decent pic to post.

Little Monkey is now 7.56cm long and fully formed! She's an active one, squirming away and kicking whenever the doctor pressed the ultrasound erm.. thingy against my tummy. I'm so glad I don't have to have the vaginal scan anymore, I really do not enjoy having strange things poked into me down under! *grumble*
The funniest bit of the scan was seeing her bones. LOL The doctor pointed out all her ten fingers to me. "See? Can you see?" and proceeded to count from 1 to 10. That was pretty amazing, I could clearly see tiny handprints on the monitor. Then he showed me her spine and her ribs and I laughed out loud because the bones all lit up on the monitor and it was like looking at a Halloween costume with the flourescent bones painted upon it.

The doc tried his best to get a view of her neck so that he could calculate the ratio of the neck length to her total length to estimate the possibility of Down's Syndrome but Little Monkey was stubbornly lying in a way that made it impossible to get an accurate measurement. Haha, that's my girl! (boy!) Stubborn like Mummy! Anyway, the doc did an estimation the best he could and it looks like Little Monkey is all right.
However, I still have to take a blood test in my 16th week to test for Down's. Shite. Another blood test. I can't stand blood tests!!! I can't stand needles!!! As I am below 35, the doctor told me that amniocentesis is not required, just the blood test and I was relieved because that procedure involves a very loooooooooooong needle and I can just tell I'm going to faint the moment the needle is brought out.

I also got my blood test results back. My three vials of blood had been subjected to a battery of tests and to my relief, I came back with very normal results. I left with an armful of supplements to take (multivits, folic acid, calcium and DHA) and a bounce in my step. I called home to tell Mum about the scan and she told me that such technology wasn't available when she was pregnant with me, so she never knew what I looked like till I popped out. Gee. That was a surprise. I'd always assumed ultrasound had been available since her time as a young mother.

It's always great to see the little one and to know that she's doing well. I'm planning to visit the gynae here in Jakarta on my 16th week. By then, we should be able to tell if Little Monkey is a he or she. I don't really mind either way but it's kinda nice to be able to visualise the little one in the correct gender.

At this point in time, we're hoping she'll come out safe and sound, bright and happy. Top Monkey is hoping that she'll be musical like me while I'm hoping she inherits his lovely long eyelashes, hazel eyes and calm temperament. We'll save our hopes for her entering med school or law school for 10 years later. :))

Random Happy Moment

This morning, Top Monkey woke up, kissed my tummy and said, "Good morning Little Monkey!" He then put his ear to my tummy to listen for sounds but there weren't any of course. So he raised his head and put his mouth close to my tummy and said, "It's Daddy here!"

I just thought it was an Awwwwwwwww.... moment. :)))