Pregnancy Update

Warning: Long post

On the day of the exam, I was exactly 15 weeks pregnant. I brought forward my appointment with Dr Kowa from 26th May to 24th May as I was very anxious to see the progress of the little Rao. That would also mean probably that I would be able to schedule my cerclage earlier. Also sometimes I do get a little paranoid especially now that I've passed my first trimester and the
pregnancy discomfort is not so apparent and that little Rao was still too small to make me feel tickled (I have started to feel movements last two days :) ).

Triple test
At Kowa's clinic, Annie proceeded to take my blood for the triple test first. I was kindof disappointed that it's not Dr Kowa drawing my blood cos having taken blood for health checks and all, Dr Kowa's technique is so far the best... totally painless. Anyway nevermind lah, it was just an ant bite. Results will be out in 5 working days.

Ultrascan
Nothing beats the assurance of the ultrascan. We tend to believe what we can see. Seeing the little one inside, heart beating with gentle movements just makes me look forward to each checkup.

One thing I like about Dr Kowa is he gives us a lot of information. While scanning, he said that little Rao is growing well, length and head diameter are all in accordance to the pregnancy calendar. Water level is normal, cervix is still nicely closed. Placenta is high which is good (right now the size of the placenta is same as little Rao :) ). No visible abnormalities, there are no excessive folds behind the neck (sign of hydrops).

Statistics:

Head to rump: 97mm; Head Diameter: 31mm

Cerclage
Dr Kowa seemed to be relieved when he saw the position of the placenta. I almost took it for granted cos the positions of placentas in my previous pregnancies were high as well. I only felt how fortunate I was when Dr Kowa mentioned that if the placenta is low, it'll be risky to do cerclage.

He scheduled cerclage on 6th June, when I'm exactly 17th week. (It will be a short day surgery with a night's stay and I will be covered on MC for 14 days.) I was a little concerned as I read that a lot of pple have the procedure between week 12-14. So I asked Dr Kowa and I was satisfied with his explanation. He said cerclage also has its risks (though small) and they usually delay the cerclage to a more stable part of the pregnancy. This is also the period where natural selection had already taken place. Furthermore, as the pregnancy progresses, the cervix changes to allow more "fibre" (not sure if he used this term) to stitch up. Plus the time when the cerclage is done also depends on when the previous miscarriage happened (I lost Angel in week 21). Eng asked if I'm nervous about the cerclage, I told her there are risks but it's a lot riskier not to do it. In fact, at the moment I'm more uneasy that I'm not stitched up. I'm also very glad that I don't have to be faced with the dilemma of to stitch or not to stitch if the position of the placenta is low.

Gender?
When I was pregnant with Angel, I was kindof hoping for a boy. That'll give me more reasons to go for a third one (I've always liked the idea of 3, probably cos in my family there were 3 of us till about 16 years later when Huizi was born). In fact 4 seemed like an even better idea, best is 2 boys and 2 girls so each child has their own same sexed sibling for company. Now things are a little different. I felt that I've lost some time after I lost Angel and also not getting any younger and pregnancy is indeed getting tiring. Not to mention the mental stress that I experience subconsciously. So I was secretly hoping for a girl this time so I will have a feel of having a daughter and a son. It also acts as a consolation for the loss of Angel (even though Angel can never be replaced). My heart rate must had gone up when I saw Dr Kowa zooming in to check little Rao's gender..

Kowa: want to know the gender of the baby?

Me: boy? I thought I saw a ball.
Kowa: no girl.
Me: issit? I cannot see the "3 lines"

Kowa showed me the 3 lines later.. yes I'm expecting a girl :-) Can you see?

I told little Rao: even though mummy is very anxious to see you, let's patiently wait till November..