Welcome to my Pregnancy Diary series! To read about my first trimester experience, click here!
Weeks 14 – 15
By the start of my second trimester, most of my morning sickness had eased and I was slowly getting my appetite back. Food no longer triggered my nausea but sometimes I’d have to wait and see whether it would come up or not! I started developing strong cravings for Asian food and a strong longing to go back to my home country, so my husband and I booked a sneaky babymoon back to Singapore!
Most of my extended family live in Singapore, so I felt bad not telling anyone (sorry guys!) but I wanted to be selfish and make this trip just about us before we announced our pregnancy. When we touched down and entered the airport I took a deep breath to take in the distinct smell of home. I felt very emotional and teared up thinking about my dad.
Since we were only going to be here for a few nights, my husband spoiled me by booking us in at the Shangri-La. We stayed in the one-bedroom suite in the Tower Wing and it was by far the most amazing hotel experience I’ve ever had! As part of our stay, we had access to the Horizon Club Lounge and spent most of our time enjoying the hotel’s facilities.
By now I had a small bump and when we weren’t relaxing at the hotel, we ventured out to eat some local food and posing for my very first baby bump pictures! Since I only had a tiny bump I spent most of my time trying to puff it out for the pictures, ha!
Week 16
When we returned home from our babymoon, we had another obgyn appointment and after receiving another positive check, up I felt confident enough to announce our pregnancy to our immediate families. I organised a combined family dim sum at Eight on the Point and my plan was to surprise everyone with cute baby onesie cookies on everyone’s plates. Since one of my sister’s wasn’t able to make it, I surprised her first the day before and everyone else the following day. It was so fun seeing everyone’s reactions when they sat down and my mum especially was very emotional.
Weeks 17 – 19
By now we had confirmed our move to Albury, so the next few weeks were a flurry of packing and organising an obgyn in Albury-Wodonga. Since we had so much trouble finding an obgyn in Perth, I was worried about finding one in Albury at such late notice but was glad to get our first choice!
Since my husband was swamped with work, I was charged with overseeing our move and getting our house leased. Fortunately my energy levels returned during second trimester and I was able to get started on the packing. Since we had about 12 weeks until our move date, I was able to pace the packing and declutter as well.
Week 20
At 20 weeks, we had our most important ultrasound scan to check the baby’s anatomy and ensure that everything looks normal. Defects such as brain, heart or spinal cord abnormalities, can now be seen and I was worried of course, but everything turned out to be fine. The technician took her time measuring every part of our baby’s growing body and it was reassuring to see that everything was developing as it should be.
During the scan our baby was very shy and had its body turned away from us with its face covered, so unfortunately we weren’t able to get any good ultrasound scans but we had a good laugh about it. Even if we wanted to take a peek at its sex we wouldn’t have been able too!
Week 21
A few weeks before our moving date, I had my baby shower at Gordon Street Garage with my sisters and some of my closest friends. It doubled up as a farewell as well and it was nice catching up with everyone before leaving. The venue and food were amazing, and I indulged in their homemade hummus even though technically it isn’t a recommended pregnancy food.
Initially throughout the pregnancy I had been pretty strict about adhering to the recommended guidelines around food but as my pregnancy progressed and I did more research surrounding the risks, I allowed myself to eat certain foods at certain places. At the end of the day I think that it’s about using your common sense, knowing the likelihood and probability of something bad occurring, and being comfortable with the foods that you’re eating. I’ve indulged in raw to semi cooked sushi at a high end restaurant but wouldn’t be comfortable eating sushi from a supermarket chain. If you’re pregnant, you do you, and don’t let anyone tell you what you should or shouldn’t eat!
Weeks 22 – 23
My husband and I attended our first baby expo at the Claremont Show Grounds. To be honest, up until this point I hadn’t been very interested in learning or researching baby hardware, so I thought it might be useful to get a broad idea of things we should buy before the baby comes.
When we arrived it was pretty overwhelming. There were many stalls featuring variants of the same product and many things that I felt were ‘nice to have’ but not necessarily essential. We took our time wandering around the stalls and stopping to get a demo of things that interested us. In the end, I decided to focus on cloth nappies as that was one thing I’d been looking into and I ended up purchasing a starter pack from Pea Pods and Grovia. I also picked up some reusable food pouches, which I thought was such a fantastic idea!
At 23 weeks, I had my last obgyn appointment and thanked Dr Aitken for looking after me.
Weeks 24 – 26
The last two weeks of my second trimester were spent finalising the packing and getting our house ready to rent. By now, my bump had grown considerably and made it difficult to lift items, so I had to leave any heavy lifting for my husband. My energy levels also dropped and I found myself squeezing in naps in the afternoon when I could. There were some days when all I could do was make a few calls, answer a few emails, and head straight back to sleep!
In between all the packing we had various farewell dinners and drinks with family and friends, which was nice but exhausting. Both mum’s were also doing weekly food drop offs, which was helpful as it meant I didn’t have to cook as often. In between, my husband and I would visit our favourite food haunts mostly focusing on Asian cuisine, as it didn’t look like Albury had much in the way of Asian foods.
On our last week, we said our final farewells and hopped onto a plane for our next adventure!
Stay tuned for the final part of my pregnancy diary!
Marie xo