aaah bliss, i just had my current favorite breakfast, toasted bagel with butter, fried eggs and creamy coffee. i know i'm not supposed to have fried eggs because of the presence of salmonella which is a risk in pregnancy but hubby made sure that the egg yolk is totally cooked and coffee because of caffeine but according to health standards, 3 cups a day or less is acceptable but i only have coffee now once a week and i share a cup with my husband, who right now is out helping a friend build their own decking in the garden and then he's going to play basketball with the boys straight after. so, that would mean i'll be alone all day with my own thoughts with nothing to do (i'm still not back doing household chores). my doctor told me to take it easy until my pregnancy has progressed further along. i'm actually 13 weeks now, just a couple of days into my second trimester. but i guess, i could stretch it a little bit. this is a very good excuse of not doing those mundane household chores.
having said that, i'm not really totally alone, in the real sense of the word because i have my little baby inside me to keep me company. i had my second scan yesterday and it was great to see our baby again. this time, fully formed with arms and legs compared to the first one we had 6 weeks ago when we could hardly see him/her inside the tiny sac. it was the most beautiful experience seeing our formed baby for the first time. the arms were moving all the time, i'm sure he/she was trying to wave at her parents.
i'm starting to enjoy my pregnancy now. i'm not showing yet but if i'm wearing my pajama bottoms, my hubby and i can definitely see a bulge there and when i'm lying down, i can see a tiny bump protruding but still not obvious to people around us. my symptoms have eased off now a bit. i'm not as tired as before. the queasiness has started to fade away and i'm not as sleepy as before though i still get the odd backaches and headaches. but i'm still hungry all the time.
i didn't have weird cravings at all. thank goodness i was only craving for normal foods. on my 7th week when i started having my symptoms, i was queasy all the time, so i was always wanting to eat hot and spicy indian foods like samosa and curry,mexican like fajitas and nachos with hot and spicy dip and we were always at nando's restaurant, a portuguese restaurant which serves hot and spicy barbecued chicken with hot and spicy rice and hot and spicy dip that comes with it. oh i just loved hot and spicy.then came my 8th week when i was hungry all the time. every two hours on the dot, i have to eat and biscuits or bread is not good enough. i had to have rice and if not, pancakes. they tend to make me feel full for longer. so even late in the afternoon, i was having pancakes with chocolate Nutella spread. then came the time when i always wanted to eat scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam with a cup of tea (decaf!) with milk. the only difficult thing was when i started to have cravings for filipino foods. the nearest filipino restaurant is in central london which is half an hour's ride by train. so when i craved for pancit, i had to make it. when i craved tinolang manok, i had to make it and when i craved for caldereta, i had to make it but i cheated using Mama Cita's ready mix powder.one time i craved for siopao,specifically goldilocks and grand majestic. got a frozen one from the chinese store in town, microwaved it. not good but that did the trick.onother time i craved for lechon and God is really good because a few days after, someone invited us to a party and right in the corner of their dining room was a 49 kgs lechon on the table. it was heaven. the skin was very crunchy and the meat very tasty.just like a cebu lechon would taste(thanks jun and razel).one other time, i wanted to eat pinakbet so much and that evening our friend Uly phoned my husband to go to his house, bring a container coz he made a lot of pinakbet. how great is that! i just hope i won't be craving for jollibee spaghetti soon. i have been craving for casava cake now and i'm going to bake it this weekend. after all, i already had the recipe from my online friend
Dana's food blog.
how could this tiny being inside me influence my everyday life. i could not even stand my husband's perfume anymore. i used to like the versace blue jeans scent on him but smelling it now seems to stir my guts. i'm a scented candle lover, but now they are tucked in the corner of the house because the scent just makes me sick and don't even get me started on fried fish and fried chicken.ewww!
but i'm quite past those symptoms now and despite the hassles and the nuisance, i consider them good because those symptoms only meant that my baby is really a reality, making his/her presence known to me by way of these symptoms. if it means having a baby at the end of it all, then bring it on.
finally, i had my last day at work today or should i say half day to start my maternity leave. i only worked in the morning and left work at 1pm not for good (i wish) but only for the next 7 months. my colleagues prepared a few gifts for me and the baby and a little get together with some cakes to eat. it was so sweet of them to organize it and to present me with all these gifts. i got a lot of body suits for my baby and someone knitted a pink cardigan (the one on the left) for her as well. they got me some pampering gifts. it was the sweetest thing.
