How to know if you're pregnant (additional symptoms)

This topic suddenly came to mind today (actually two days ago but I couldn't find time to finish this post, so ... play along). I can't remember what initiated the thought but it is something that interests many people (many of them young, some probably too young) and is interesting to write.

So, here goes.

The usual symptoms of pregnancy: nausea, unexplainable weight gain or weight loss, a change in appetite, an increased sense of smell, getting emotional very quickly, pain at the breasts. I get some of them, and a few other Internet-unlisted symptoms as well.

The usual suspects:
Nausea
I had nausea after I found out I was pregnant but not before. It lasted until the 4th month. My grandma, a lady of about 70 plus and mother of 6, said that pregnant women get nausea for either 4 weeks, 4 months or the whole pregnancy. So if by the 4th month your nausea has not alleviate... I feel so sorry for you. Take more assam or dried orange peel.

Change in appetite
This particular part for most women was not forced. For me, a person who dislike and at all costs avoid bread, and cannot naturally take milk without running to the toilet, I had to depend on bread and milk for the in-between meals (I had like 6 meals in a day, big, small, etc) and I'd just like to say that the amount of bread and milk I took during my pregnancy was more than the total amount of bread and milk I've had in my whole life. I've gone off bread. But milk, milk I'm keeping.

Canine-level smelling abilities.
Okay maybe I can't sniff out narcotics at the airport yet but yes, my sense of smell had strengthened during my pregnancy, which lead to me eating more or sometimes less of certain foods, depending on my level of acceptance of the smell of those foodstuff.

etcetera, other boring usual symptoms you can find on the Internet, etcetera...

...and then there was...

Wow, I didn't see that coming:
Fatigue
The most evident symptom is that I find it hard to get up in the mornings to get to work. Other words for it would be lethargy, exhaustion, fatigue. Big words but they all mean one thing, I am tired and unexplainably so. I can get 10 hours of sleep and still can't lift an eyelid the next morning. I didn't think much of it at the time but later on I found out that a colleague of mine found it hard to even go up and down a flight of steps at the office. I go up 3 flights every day to get to work and to go home and numerous more while at work but I didn't feel as tired as she did. So, this particular symptom is different for every individual.

The sweet smell of.. what?
Urine. Yes, my urine smelt sweet. It wasn't the nice honey kind of smell. It was the oh my god am I diabetic kind of, worrying type of, smell. I didn't take a sample and put it up close to my nose. I just smelt it after every time I'm in the toilet. It is that evident. I've not heard anyone else talked about this particular symptom, so it's kinda subtle. Or maybe I'm just paranoid.

Hard to lose weight
I also found that I've been gaining weight around the hip area before my pregnancy, and the weight is getting hard to come off. I would reduce my calorie intake but the weight does not come off as easily as it used to. It was as if my body was prepping me for pregnancy. This particular symptom is evident for all mothers after they gave birth so either I'm weird or I'm paranoid.

Abdominal pain
This, I found out later on, was due to me having a intestinal gas problem which was aggravated by my pregnancy. It was the nailing point of my suspicions of being pregnant, and it was the reason I got myself to clinic to get myself checked. I was worried it was going to be an ectopic pregnancy, something my husband didn't know and so grudgingly followed me to the clinic to get my woman problem checked. You can be sure we had different reactions to the results of the pregnancy test conducted by the clinic.

Forgetfulness
I don't know how, I don't know why... but I forget things during my pregnancy. Things that should not have been in the Just forget it list. Some of my colleagues share this symptom and attributed it to losing body mass to the baby growing inside the womb but I think just taking it easy due to the pregnancy was the main culprit.

But all this.. is just me.

The best way to know for sure if you are pregnant is to take a pregnancy test or go see a doctor. A pregnancy is a very important event in a person's life and I don't know about those who deliver the baby themselves then throw their newborn in a ditch or a dumpster or God knows where, but once you have held that 9-month creation of yours in your arms, you feel things inside of you that you never thought you'd feel.. and a lot of things that other people have told you before will start to make sense. Yes, it is a life changing experience partially in that sense. Apart from that, you have someone you can call your own. Just be prepared for the sleepless nights and the sacrifices you have to make. And if you aren't ready to take responsibilities as heavy as a child in your name, don't have unprotected sex.

Ohmigosh ohmigosh

Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol is here! Well, not exactly here, but it is up for Pre-Order! If you are Malaysian and you know what MPH stands for, click here to pre-order it at 30% off the original price. A hard cover at RM70.00.. and that's a bargain. Sigh.

Me, I gotta get down to crunching numbers to see if I can get it, subject for approval by the hubby. *blink blink*

Ohmigosh ohmigosh ohmigosh.. I'm so excited.

Dad's day

Father's Day coming up and the usual comparison of the contribution from fathers and mothers is sure to follow. For those of you who are still clueless, it's on the THIRD Sunday of June.

Don't ask me why they chose that day. The reason somehow isn't curious enough to send me to a Google Search frenzy... Ok, fine, I'm getting lazier by the day from the fatigue and constant interruption of a train of thought by my princess (soon to be Queen judging by her short fuse and level of IMpatience).

I'm sure they have a good reason for not having it on the second Sunday of June, parallel with Mother's Day. Come to think of it, maybe it's because the sacrifices and contributions coming from either parent is incomparable yet somehow equally significant in a child's life. And therefore even though the fathers are not the one carrying the child for 9 mths and suffering the consequences thereafter, they have their own ways of making a child's life special.

For one thing, the father is the bringer of bread. Nowadays, he's the bringer of fast food; a break from the usual mundane food mom always makes for the kids: porridge, milk, rice, soup... nutritious but... after awhile you need to get some MSG into the system.

Then, the father is the one who does all the carrying during short trips to shopping malls or the playground. The reason being that he is usually busy at work and therefore lacks the opportunity to spend quality time with the kids aka being a slave to them aka doing mom's weekday job during the weekends.

The father is also the appeal court. That means when mom says NO, there is a high probability that dad can still say YES, as long as you don't ask him in front of Mom and if are good with the puppy-dog eye thing that Bolt does.

I is so cute!

Fathers are suckers for daughters. I have one and my daughter has one. We are living proof that fathers can never say no to their daughters, unless it has to do with boyfriends, piercings and tattoos. It's worse when the daughter is the firstborn and you are the wife. Now I know how my mother feels.

And you know what? Fathers cry too. They can't show it to you or to anyone else but the hurt that the mother feels, it is felt 100% by the father as well. Sometimes the burden is worse because they have to be the pillar of strength for the wife to lean on. So, yeah.. dad's have it tough too.

So to everyone out there, if you are celebrating Father's Day, sit back and really think of why you are celebrating it. This, like Mother's Day, is an occasion that should not be commercialized no matter what the media says.

And if you are not celebrating Father's Day, maybe this year, you should.

Happy Father's Day!

The King and Queen of Music

There was a time when loving Celine Dion was cool. Now, it's cheesy... but I don't care. I still love her. Another artiste I love would be ... Elvis. Yes, Elvis Presley. I love his songs. I don't know all of them but I like the ones I do know, including the one called If I Can Dream.

Put one of the biggest selling female artiste in the world together with the King, the one of the biggest selling artiste of all time and you will get this. Oh, and did I say that it's a live performance? A duet of the weirdest kind?




Lovely isn't it? The first time I bumped into the video above, which has been watched more than 1.37 million times, I spent hours searching for the explanation of how those two could be placed on stage with the video playing at the background over and over and over and over again. What can I say? I'm a fan.

Back to the explanation: No, that is not an impersonator. And no, it is not live CGI either. The fact is... both Elvis and Celine were not on stage in front of the AI audience when the performance was broadcast. In fact, Celine was not in the house (couldn't resist) the night the performance was shown on the American Idol stage, or to be more precise, on the screen.

The audience you see in the video is actually pre-recorded, as was Celine and as was Elvis (a few decades earlier). The three components were painstakingly pieced together: Celine performed in front of a green screen, Elvis was 'cut' out of an original video he was in (you can find it on Youtube, his mannerisms in the original video were exactly like in the video above), brushed up and placed on an imaginary stage with Celine then the audience was added in, and voila! Jaw-dropping performance. Oh, I forgot to mention the fact that for the scenes that show the back of Elvis; that was a body double. Everything else was done through the magic of technology.

Don't you just love dreams coming true? ...If I can walk

Noticing newborns: Patience

Newborns can really test one's patience. You can really know a person when you see them try to deal with an uncomfortable newborn. The concept behind this is that a newborn is not the type who cries for no reason. They aren't capable of doing that yet at this point in their lives.

Many new parents forget that.

They don't look like this all the time.











or this.














or this.











Nope, the reality is a whole lot scarier. And.. fortunately I don't have photos to prove that at the moment.. yet.

The older generation will do one out of two things only whenever a baby cries: give the baby milk or carry them and then shake them as if they want to give the baby head trauma. I swear. Seriously. They either do it or they tell you to do it.

During my one month crash course, I've picked up a few thing more things to add to the above to-do list. Here are a couple of hints I've picked up about a baby crying.

Once a baby has pooped, she's hungry. Doesn't matter if you just fed her an hour ago. It's as if their stomach empties out once they have pooped. If she cries after you've cleaned her, then she's hungry. Same goes with peeing, only in larger quantities. Hey, it's just milk and water, how long do you think it stays in the baby's tummy?


Sometimes they cry and scream and can't tell you what is wrong with them. They act as if they cry because they want to, which is really never the case. There is always a problem and while you're figuring it out, you just have to stay calm, remember that they cry for a reason, and have patience.

And don't ever scream, shout or scold your newborn.

You will immediately regret it because it will only scare them, which makes them cry more, after which the only remedy is to carry them, close to your body (closer than usual) until they stop shaking/jerking/sobbing... which takes about half an hour to an hour. Plus, it's really heartbreaking to see that.

Babies are never easy but many people can handle their newborns well, no reason to think that you shouldn't be part of that crowd.

Susan Boyle singing Memory