Baby Bump

To borrow lyrics from Sir Mix-A-Lot’s famous song: Oh my god, Becky, look at her… BELLY!

Yup, this belly has popped. Currently I’m at least 4kg (9lbs) heavier than pre-pregnancy and my waist is 6.5in (YIKES!) wider. My hips feel larger too, but I’m still in denial about that so no measurement for you. =p There was a second sometime ago where I went into a panic because I thought I could no longer touch my toes, but I tried again and succeeded. I imagine that will change soon enough.

So Mike and I took a little babymoon last week. Mike had an Ultimate Frisbee tournament in Singapore and then we hopped right over to Thailand for a nice 5-night vacation. I’ll write more about the trip later because this post is the baby update.

What baby update? Well the day before we left for the trip we had THE CHECKUP – the halfway mark and detailed ultrasound. Baby Shyu is developing nicely, just the right size with all the fingers and toes. What a relief it was to see all the amniotic fluid surrounding the baby, though in no way was it anything like the peaceful floating in a bubble that a lot of drawings depict. Baby’s actually a bit cramped in there! During the ultrasound, baby was actually head down and pushing around trying to get more space. Practicing for the big push perhaps? I’ve no clue. Everything from this point on is new territory and we’re ecstatic about it. We’re so looking forward to be able to feel baby from outside the belly (kick mommy!), then meeting for the first time around Christmas.

The only thing the doctor ordered was for me to gain more weight (I was only +2kg the day of the checkup). Well I’ve definitely achieved that this past week, doubling my weight gain! Ah thank you Singapore chili crabs, Thailand hotel Thai food buffets, room service American breakfast and croissants, and the bountiful shrimps in every dish we ate the past week. Seeing as how I eat 5 times a day, that’s a lot of food. I’m so glad I brought my lock-and-lock with me for all those meals. The leftover chili crab with bread for next morning’s breakfast was excellent. I anticipate this week that baby will be wondering where all the yummy seafood went and issue a complaint with me. Sorry baby, it’s not the same in Beijing.

This isn’t 100%, but the technician thinks it may be a girl. YAY! A girl would be great to lavish our affections on. I suspected it might be a girl earlier in the pregnancy although I wasn’t as sure later on. Either way, this one’s gonna be loved. All we pray for is that baby is healthy. Mike’s debating on whether to collect knives or guns to scare future suitors. HA!

So Mike and I are now thinking of names, but it seems easier to think of names NOT to name her:
• Already in the family – ie: Anna; Ariel; Gillian; Helen; Leslie; Maureen; Natalie; Rosalie; Stephanie; Tiffany; Wendy; Whitney; Charlotte; (in no particular order)
• No colors - ie: Ruby Shyu; Jade Shyu; Pearl Shyu; Heather Shyu;
• No seasons – ie: Summer Shyu; Autumn Shyu;
• Watch the initials – ie: A.S.S.
Yeah, the list goes on. I’m sure you’ll think of more. Whatever our choice is, the advice we got from a fellow tourist in Thailand was to keep the name a secret ‘til the end. I guess if we let the name out, someone’s gonna find a way to ruin it, such as knowing another person with that name and adding a bad connotation to it. There’s wisdom in that advice, so mum’s the word.

Shopping for baby items is next? How early is too early to be buying stuff? And good lord, that’s a lot of money.