Baby Bouncing in Big Bag of Water

Finally, I am feeling the baby move in a way that is discernible and real and it feels like he is bouncing around in an enormous bag of water, so his movements though big and bold for him, seem soft and muffled to me. It's exciting to finally feel these movements and to not have to wonder if they are just my bundi digesting the stragglers from my last big meal. I wish I could share these movements with Roshan, but though he has tried placing his hand on my bundi when I feel the movements, he has been unable to feel them as yet. One of his colleagues told him that putting his cheek on my bundi is better as the skin on the face is more sensitive than the skin on the hand, so we will have to try that sometime. With all the emphasis on how the mother-to-be is supposed to feel as she goes through pregnancy, it sometimes escapes me how odd it must be for Roshan to see me take on a shape and form that is completely new (did I mention my belly button is getting shallower by the day?). Even more so, I think it must be strange for Roshan, who doesn't have the reality of physically experiencing pregnancy, to grapple with the fact that in my bundi is his child, his son; who, the moment he enters this world, will make Roshan 'thaththi'.

I had my appointment with Dr Marci today. I'm 147lb (apparently "good weight gain", if you can believe that), the baby's moving around a lot according to Dr Marci and she said I am all set for travel next week. Roshan and I can't wait - he even did a little celebratory "this time next week we're on our way to Singapore" dance when he got home tonight. Now he is sleeping his week off before we head out to the movies. We haven't been seeing a lot of movies, but we thought we'd better get a few date nights in before Peanut makes his grand entrance.

Will stop here for tonight as I need to wake up my big baby from his afternoon nap. :-) I guess this is good practice for those toddler years, but I hope when the time comes, Peanut will be easier to rouse than his thaththi.

Enter the Michellin (Wo)Man

Vancouver Trip

Here's a photo of us taken this weekend in Vancouver with our friends Tony and Cameron. We had a great weekend up there, spending time with Tony & Claire, Cameron & Yayoi. The abundance of water around the city, the smell of pine trees, the dampness of cool forests punctuated by waterfalls and the sprinklings of snow on mountaintops make Vancouver stunningly beautiful and we absolutely loved it. I soldiered on with the boys on a busy Saturday of sightseeing, which included getting in and out of the back seat of Tony's two door car at least 15 times and some short hikes through the forests. I think I impressed Tony with my level of fitness, which - to those of you who don't know Tony - is a bit of an achievement, given that he is the only person I know who has run a continuous double marathon!! :-O Peanut didn't seem to mind the extra activities.

Sixth Month

I'm now in my sixth month and getting chubby in the face. I was fairly sure this would come, but was desperately optimistic that I might be one of those lucky girls whose face remains the same despite the ballooning going on below the neck. Sadly, those hopes were crushed after I saw this photo. In that woolly white top and with my chubby cheeks, wouldn't you agree there is something a little Michellin-Man-esq about me? :-) Things are still going great, so no complaints here. I have started to feel strange sensations in my bundi which I am struggling to describe properly to Roshan, ammi and others of you who have asked me if I've felt Peanut move yet. The best word I have come up with so far is "discomfort" - sorry Peanut - that's the closest I can come to describing how it feels. The sensations feel, at different times, like a stretch inside my bundi, a series of cramps, small waves of liquid and the feeling you get when the car goes over a rise in the road and comes off the ground before dropping back down. I'm told in a few weeks/months, these strange, almost imperceptible sensations will become kicks and punches that will keep me up at night and visible, odd shaped protrusions of my bundi that others will notice when hanging around me. Exciting and a little alien-ish. :-)

Goings On

So Roshan and I have been reading to Peanut regularly in the nights, while rubbing organic, all natural "Antique Rose" body butter on my bundi in the hope of avoiding those dreaded stretchmarks. I have a feeling I'm in for them though, no matter how much body butter Roshan slaps on. But the reading is going well and Roshan and I both love the Dr Seuss book "Oh Baby the Places You'll Go". Hope Peanut likes it too. I would definitely recommend that book for any future parents-to-be. Other than that, I haven't been doing anything exceptionally "out there" to make Peanut's in utero experience more entertaining. I listen to classical music occasionally, but then at other times, I'll put Bob Marley or Counting Crows or Tupac or Sri Lankan baila on, so hopefully, if the classical music doesn't make Peanut a genius, at least he will come out with an appreciation for diversity. I'm trying to eat better which is hard for me because I really am not a salad girl. My vegetable intake is probably not as good as it should be, but I am getting in plenty of dairy, fruit and wholegrains and doing my best with those pesky greens. I'm hoping the prenatal vitamin will kick in for anything lacking in my diet. I've become even more of a Milo addict than I used to be and drink at least one (and more often two) Milos a day. Yummy.... No crazy, bizarre cravings, but I have been making a lot of chocolate milkshakes at home (with low fat milk and light ice cream - so it's not THAT bad!). Ro's doing great and seems to get aches and pains in much the same places that I do. It's apparently called the "me-too syndrome", a coping mechanism for men which makes women feel guilty to ask for a backrub when their partner is in worse back pain than them!!! To be fair, he's super duper when it comes to all that and gives me a lot of head & neck rubs before going to sleep and makes me those fabulous Milos in the morning. Lucky me....

So that's about it for the moment. We are counting the days till our trip to Singapore in the middle of the month. Can't wait for that!! I badly need to show off my bundi to ammi, thaththi and malli. :-) Will make a post again soon, probably after my next visit with Dr Marci, which is scheduled for 11 November.