the end of the first trimester

well, almost that is since we're still on our 12th week next week!

ang bilis noh, so what have we been up to so far?

• still haven't experienced any morning sickness, cravings or anything out of the ordinary that can be brought about by the pregnancy, thank GOD
• bought the pram already (i know, i know...it's too soon not to mention too expensive. well, ni-layby ko na since it was on sale, $200 off and it goes on sale once a year lang, so might as well grab the opportunity already. we haven't decided though which color topping to get but i'm leaning towards getting the condura canvas fabric. i haven't told my mama yet though kasi papagalitan ako nun! hehehehe :-P)
• told relatives in sydney about our big news
• told my team in the office about it as well
• started buying maternity stuff (i haven't worn them yet since i'm too small pa but so far i've got a couple of tops and jeans already, they were on sale!)
• i bought a top for the baby too that was on sale, since we don't know the gender yet, i bought one for a boy and one for a girl. hala!
• started walking during the weekends for an hour (okay, i've done it twice pa lang so far). been searching for prenatal yoga classes in our area but couldn't find one. an officemate of mine gave me a dvd copy of shiva rea's prenatal yoga instead which is supposed to be really good. i might just do home yoga instead.
• went to the ob yesterday for my 2nd antenatal check-up. had two blood tests done prior and my platelets are way lower than normal (normal is around 150,000-400,000, mine read 60,000 the first time and 51,000 the second time. pre-pregnancy blood tests showed i was already on the low side of the range at 142,000 but it seems like my pregnancy is doing something to make by platelets fall even lower.) the doctor ordered for another round of blood tests (third time in a matter of weeks! i feel like a pin cushion na, and she even told me to expect more blood tests done!) and referred me to a hematologist already which we'll be seeing in the next couple of weeks. and i thought i won't be experiencing any dramas with this pregnancy! i just hope everything will be fine. so far, all i know is that low platelets mean your blood loses the ability to clot which leads to excessive bleeding (pano na yan during the delivery?).
• we're scheduled for our nuchal translucency screening on tuesday. at first, eric and i decided not to undergo this screening test anymore but after our appointment with the ob yesterday, she told us it is in our best interest to do so since it not only gives us the probability of the baby having down syndrome (it doesn't sound good doesn't it?) but it also shows at this early stage any cardiac and skeletal defects as well as anything else that could be happening inside me that shouldn't be (given my history of congenital heart disease and this possible blood disorder). the way we're thinking about it na lang is that if they find something not normal then we get the chance to do about it something sooner rather than later.
• the good news from our check-up was we saw our baby again when she did an ultrasound (that's the advantage of having an ob with her own ultrasound machine in her clinic!). the baby is so big already compared to the last time we saw him/her wherein he/she was just as small as a bean! he/she (can't wait to know the gender already para i know na kung he or she na ba talaga!) looks human now with his/her head, spine, body, legs and arms defined. it's such a wonderful feeling to see the the baby is growing inside you. oh, and i gained .3 kgs already. that should be fine right?
• we've started our search for either a family day care or a day care near our area or at least someplace on the way when i get back to work after my maternity leave (still thinking if i'm going for 6 months or 1 year maternity leave). yup, you read it right, you have to reserve a slot at least a year in advance (at least for day care). there's one just right across our office but they're charging $90/day so we're looking for someplace else less expensive. i've been asking a lot of mommies and i was told family day care is around $30 and up and day care is around $50 and up. we've already asked a migration agent how to go about getting a full-time nanny from the philippines but we were told not to even consider it since given all the labor laws in australia, we have to pay the nanny a little less lang than what i earn! ako na lang kaya mag-apply na nanny tapos pabayad ako kay eric? that way, i get to take care of our baby tapos i earn at the same time! hehehehehe :-P

as you can see, everything seems to be going all a-okay except for my low platelets. i don't want to worry about it yet since i know it won't do us any good anyway. we'll know more about it when we see the hematologist. according to my mama, as long as i don't experience any pain or bleeding i shouldn't worry too much.

i am having trouble dressing for work though since my normal clothes are getting tighter (not exactly a good look on me) but i'm still too small to wear maternity clothes. i can still wear my work pants but can no longer button them (i loop rubber bands instead to keep them together). tops are harder since i don't like the fitted look (note to self: need to buy looser tops, more reason to shop!). i also only wear my kitten heels and flats now.

what else? i'm trying as much as i can to not buy too much baby stuff as this stage since we don't know the gender yet and we don't know what we might get from family and friends. that doesn't keep me from going to the shops though! but if it's on sale, why not? :-P my parents are off to the us in a couple of weeks and i'm already working on a list of stuff i want them to buy (both stuff for the baby and myself of course!). sabi nga ng papa ko, i'm just passing it as stuff for the apo but really it's just for me. my dad knows me too much. :-)