38 weeks: Pregnancy annoyances I've had to endure so far

I've just been browsing through some old posts on Shen's blog about pregnancy and I'm grinning because now I know EXACTLY what she's writing about whereas I didn't before.

In her post about stretchmarks, I will sadly confirm that what she said is true: the much-touted and highly expensive anti-stretchmark creams on the market don't work. I'd listened to my mum-in-law when she advised me to put creams from Day One. It worked... until about my 35th week of pregnancy when Little Monkey decided to have a massive growth spurt and I put on 4kg within a month. My usual weight gain up till then had been about 1-2kg a month. I think that single growth spurt wrecked everything as my skin had to stretch too quickly. Sigh. Ah my son, my son... if you knew what I have sacrificed for you... my smooth tummy had been one of your daddy's favourite bits of me...

Her post about pregnancy weight gain had me nodding sadly along too. I'd checked out the very same pregnancy weight gain calculator she used on Babycenter UK and it said I should gain about 13kg. Bollocks lah. I'm wayyyy above that limit, I've gained about 20kg++ now. The best part is when I popped in to say hello to Dear Hubby today at his office, he looked at me and marveled, "You know what babe, you're still not vast and all that huge for your stage!" Dey... if I were as huge as I were supposed to be, I'd probably weigh in at his weight which is 100kg. As it is, I'm seriously wondering how I'm ever going to fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes again. Some of them look ridiculously small to me now.

I had to laugh when I read her post about being large and clumsy, especially the part about dribbling sauce down her front at mealtimes without her realising it. I've experienced exactly the same thing and I'll tell you why. One reason is that I can no longer sit close to the table with my big belly. So food splatters are more common as food has to travel a longer way from plate to mouth now. Another reason is that being preggers makes you busty and a pregnancy bust makes a very handy food catcher. So food drips that would normally just be caught by your napkin on your lap get stuck on your chest instead. I look like a toddler that's just started to eat solids at times with food splatters all over me.

Constipation is another common complaint but I've been lucky so far. Living in Jakarta where the water quality is a little dodgy has helped things along tremendously! ;)) Come to think of it, I don't see a lot of laxatives for sale here. LOL
I still made sure I ate fruits and oats daily for fibre and have had no probs my entire time here in Jakarta/Malaysia. I only had a bad case of constipation once and that in Aug when we were in Scotland. I think I know why Nature made pregnant women prone to constipation - it's to help them practise squeezing large things out of little places. I kid you not, I was on the throne for one agonising hour. After that mini-exertion, I thought, "Well! I'd like to see what delivery is like then!" It doesn't help that in all the scans we've had so far, Little Monkey looks like he's got an enormous head! AUGH!!!!

One prob I had was dealing with the heat. I found that I sweated a lot more during pregnancy and I simply couldn't tolerate any sort of heat. This makes life difficult if you're living in the tropics. The air-cond is always switched on full blast to the point that Dear Hubby, who'd spent many years in Scotland, complains that he's shivering. I then discovered the heat was more bearable if I wore dresses. So I bought stretchy, wrap-around type dresses and they worked just fine to keep me cool. Buy them slightly on the long side because as your bump gets bigger, the hemlines get shorter on the same dress. They're easier to put on than maternity jeans, no risk of you losing your balance while trying to dress/undress because you either slip them over your head or wrap them around and if you buy them in the right material, they can last you a looooooooong time. I bought one when I was 4 months pregnant and still relatively small and I'm still wearing it!

Oh well. Just another 2 weeks to go, I guess. Then I'll have another set of annoyances to deal with!

Back to Kuala Lumpur!

I'm home! Caught the 11:10am flight in Jakarta and touched down at KLIA at 3pm. Today is Hari Raya Nyepi in Indonesia, the Day of Silence that is celebrated by Hindus. It's a public holiday, so the roads were all quiet and we got to the airport nice and easy.

One of the first things I did was to drink the tap water. It's such a relief to be able to brush my teeth with the water from the tap. See, this morning, I totally forgot where I was and actually gargled with the tap water. Gasp! I was so horrified that I choked, spat the water out and then ran to the water cooler with a glass and filled that up with clean water to flush my mouth out. I was so worried that I would get the Jakarta tummy upsets while at the airport but my tummy obligingly held out till we'd arrived home. Then it was... GET OUT OF MY WAY, I NEED THE TOILET!!!

I'm off now for a shower, I need to scrub myself thoroughly, sing loudly in the shower and gargle with as much tap water as I can and then come out for a nice relaxing snooze in my own bed.

I'll be here in KL for the next 2 weeks before going back to resume house-hunting in Jakarta again. Once we get that done, we'll be packing up and moving over. I have to say that after one week in Jakarta, I think I will enjoy myself there (hey, who's not going to enjoy having a maid AND a young handsome pool boy!) but there's no place like home.

Drinking water in Jakarta

Do not, I repeat, DO NOT ever put a drop of the local water in your mouth unless it comes in a bottle. The water in Jakarta is incredibly polluted. OK, I learnt this the hard way. I thought that the tap water in the hotel would be safe enough to brush my teeth with. Somehow, I never made the connection between using tap water to brush my teeth with the tummy upsets I was getting. So I'm a bit stupid sometimes. :))

If you are not local, you are likely to have problems with the local water. I was lucky enough to escape with just minor tummy upsets. Dear Hubby used to come home to KL from his Jakarta trips 4lbs lighter and looking sick as a dog. You can shower in it as long as you keep your mouth shut and do not sing in the shower, but do not brush your teeth with it, do not wash your vegetables with it and do not drink it unless you fancy colonic cleansing on a major scale.

Houses and hotels are all equipped with a water cooler and water vendors sell the 15lt bottles everywhere for those coolers and that's the water you use for drinking, washing and brushing. If you're thirsty, get yourself a bottle of water, it's very cheap. I paid Rp1,000 (30 sen) for a small bottle of water that would normally cost me RM1.20 back home.

I can't believe I'll have to put up with this for next few years!