My 29th week pregnancy check up

Waaa...can't believe that I'm already into the 3rd semester of pregnancy - 29th week as of 13 September 2010. I'm 7 month pregnant now, with no sign of water retention (yet) but I hope not getting any of it though. Last month I was weighing at 45.9kg and yesterday, the reading was 49kg! Unbelievable! Previous month I only gained 1kg and this month record is 3kg extra. Even Dr Tan also said that 2kg extra is enough for me. Glad that, for once I have so called "exceeded the quota". Muahahahaha.

Lil BB's weight has doubled up again, from 513gm to 1120gm. I've asked Dr Tan whether Lil BB's size is consider too small as of now? He said that not too bad, as long as the baby is growing according to the growth chart, she'll be fine. Furthermore, I'm so petite thus the lil one inside me most likely will follow my petite gene too. I feel that Lil BB is slightly bigger than Smellybutt who was then in my tummy 3yrs ago at this point of time. You see ar, Smellybutt only weighed at 2.3kg at birth. The moment Smellybutt was out of my "oven", she really looked like a miniature Barbie doll! But now at 7th month of pregnancy, Lil BB already reached 1.1kg. 3yrs ago, I was pretty stressed when my gynea told me that Smellybutt's size was too small and that lead to 2 rounds of detailed scan from 2 different woman specialist center. Hope that I don't have to go thru the same worry this round.

Here are some of the important facts given by Dr. Tan, which I need to keep in mind for going through this trimester period safely :

No Chinese herbal tonic
By now, no more Bak Kut Teh, and all those Chinese herbs (dong guai, dong sam, etc) which enhances the blood circulation. This is very dangerous as these tonic will cause excessive bleeding. Even during the first semester gotto avoid such herbs as well.

Start monitoring baby's movement
I was given a few sheets of chart for me to record down the date and time of baby's 10 movement per day. I like this as I tend to forget most of the things lately, big or small matter. So now by putting a small tick on each column will help me to count Lil BB's kung-fu kicks accurately. In case if I don't get the full 10 count of movement from the baby (touch wood!), I gotto refer back to my gynae for a quick scan.

Sleeping position
Best to lye on my left side, or right side but NEVER sleep on my back. This is extremely harmful to the baby. If I sleep on my back, the baby's body will press against my blood vessel and subsequently affect the blood flow from my lower body back to my heart. If this fails, baby will not be getting sufficient blood either. When there's pressure against my blood vessel, my body will automatically give me a signal to roll over to the side to release the pressure. This will happen if I HAVE NOT fallen into deep sleep. But if I'm totally knocked off (accompanied by dreams some more), then I might not be getting the signal from my body to change my sleeping position to release the pressure in my body. So what will happen next?

sleep on your back - pressure against blood vessel - no proper blood flow - baby is not getting enough of blood supply and oxygen throughout the night - next morning baby will not be kicking as usual = This spells d.e.a.t.h!!!

According to Dr Tan, he has seen many cases where pregnant mommy (in 3rd semester) complaint that all of the sudden baby is not moving since early morning, but baby was fine a night before. When checked on the baby's condition, it was too late...baby is dead ;( It was due to mommy sleeping on her back the whole night +_+ Gosh, that was scary man. I have slept on my back few times but not the whole night. I had back pain if I sleep on side way, thus lately I often toss around the bed at night to adjust the pain that I had.




Remember, sleep on your left is the best. The benefit of sleeping on the left side is it allows maximum blood flow to the baby and improves kidney function for the pregnant woman too. And the improved kidney flow will help to reduce swelling. Our liver is on the right side of our body, sleeping on your left will help to keep the pressure off your liver.

So, to all preggie mama....sleep tight and sleep right!