Seventeen, this week's number is 17!

Last friday's scan went by quite uneventfully but it's nice to be able to hear Sweet Pea's heartbeat thumping away! Of late I am conscious of 2 sets of heartbeats even though it seems as if it's just my heartbeat, but I was able to detect a thumping feeling when I lie down and tuck my hand under the back of my tummy. Very nice, and now let's all be patient and wait for the first kickings! I've felt flutterings akin to gas moving before and being a victim of constant gas plagues I still think it's gas. Sweet Pea, we know you're in there, just take your time!

I'm not sure when it exactly happened, but I suddenly noticed my swollen tummy last week. Perhaps I was distracted by all the excitement of reading the past 2/3 weeks it just grew without me really noticing it until one day it just hit me. Like 'hellooooo, belly!'. So there's no more denying left to be done, and I've marked it by starting on wearing my preggy tops. Like the time I first wore my preggy bottoms (oh gawd that feels like eons ago) it takes a little for the eyes and mind getting used to. To draw reference to a food type, I look like a spillingly huge blueberry muffin topped with a cherry from Starbucks; to draw reference to the impending holiday season I look like a 7 ft undecorated plain fir Xmas tree with a ball on top. Both are attractive and beautiful in its own unique way, as the reflection on the glass doors tell me. I say yeah, sure. Wait till I dish out the fishbowl panties grandma loved to wear, completing the metamorphosis. Meanwhile 'embrace your new beautiful form!' as the pregger books say. After all soon it'll be hard embracing anybody except myself.

Upon reading 'What to expect when you're expecting', which is by the way an excellent pregger book, I'm much in line with their recommended pregnancy diet except for the fibre part. 8 portions of wholemeal stuff a day is really a lot. I can switch the bread to wholemeal and munch on wholemeal biscuits but brown rice is really another thing altogether. No complaints though, I had little problems in the loo this morning after wolfing down a ham and cheese sandwich in brown bread. My appetite starting to pick up, along with the weird cravings. Ok I've had enough fries and sprite the past 2 months. Now it's local food - I had chwee kuey, chee cheong fun and fried beehoon for breakfast last sunday. The oil got to me a little but it never tasted so good. This sunday? Fried carrot cake. Maybe soya sauce chicken noodles. Maybe nasi lemak. Maybe? But before I lose my head over these irrepressibly sinful foods with little nutritional value except to boost the size of my growing bum, I'm mindful to choose healthy alternatives on weekdays. Like dried apricots, yoghurt, cherry tomatoes, and baked oatmeal biscuits.

Mmmm chwee kuey...