my belly has been growing much over the last few days and i'm starting to feel uncomfortable. :( it feels like i just finished a BIG meal even though i haven't. it feels like my stomach has been pushed away by my growing belly and all my organs are not in the places where they should be.... very unpleasant feelings... and what's worse is "this is just the beginning"! :( since i'm only 24-25 weeks, i'm sure my growing belly has a long way to go and grow. since i feel so bloated, i've got no appetite. :( but i can't starve myself either cuz i'll get heartburn... but if i eat, i'll feel more bloated... :( so it's a catch 22 situation...

i'm almost fully recovered from my flu. i gained back the 2 lbs that i lost due to the flu and then some. i have gained a total of 12 lb so far. will have my next dr. visit next Wed. (4/9)...

anyway, new photo uploaded in the photo album... ck out my growing belly...

so..... it turned out that it wasn't a cold that i had..... but the flu !!   besides the coughing and stuffy nose, i was feeling extremely warm with no sweating...apparently, i had a high fever starting Sat. night. Up until then, i still didn't take any medication cuz it's not recommended during pregnancy. but after getting a 101.4 reading for my temperature, my hubby rushed out to get some Tylenol for my fever.  after taking some Tylenol, i took a nap and when i woke up, i was sweating all over! that probably helped reduced my body-temp cuz my temp went back down to ~97F... i thought i was getting better but Sunday morning, i woke up with 100F again. my hubby said that i needed to rest so we missed Easter Sunday worship. :(  i took more Tylenol and slept more. but as soon as the medicine wore off, the fever came back. around 6pm, my fever was back to 100F. my hubby thought that i should go to the hospital so we did. we first went to the ER but since i'm pregnant, they sent us to the maternity ward. so i was put in a room and the baby's heartrate was monitored. the heartrate was higher than usual (~170-180) due to my high temperature. after being in the room for half an hour, i was discharged. the nurses told me to keep taking Tylenol to keep the fever down and also take Sudafed for my congestion. so that's what i did for the next few days. on monday, i still needed to take Tylenol for my fever. by tuesday, i could live without it. i have been taking Sudafed only before bed so i could sleep better. but last night, after taking Sudafed, i felt more awake! so i didn't sleep too well... :( but i feel alot better today (wednesday) and came back to work. now, i just feel like i have a common cold... i'm going to stop taking any medication since i don't want to harm my baby... :( 

i guess it's true that being pregnant means that your immune system is weaker than usual since you have to tolerate a foreign object (the baby) in your body. but this leads to so much more sickness. :( i haven't been this sick for ages!! i think the last time i had this high fever which sent me to the hospital was when i was 10? anyway, 4 more months... i really hope that i won't get sick again during the next 4 months....

got an itchy throat on Wed. afternoon and started coughing... so, not good.... :( i haven't been able to sleep well at night. i wake up about 2-3 hrs after getting into bed for a bathroom break. then i can't fall back asleep due to hunger... so i usually get up and have a cup of warm milk with honey. and the only way to fall back asleep is to sleep in the living room. we brought our guest room's mattress out to the living room for me since i sometimes dose off while watching tv at night. so it's good to have it out in the living room so i have a place to go to when i can't seem to sleep well in my own bed... i hope i can take advantage of the weekend and rest and sleep more...

we have booked our Mexico trip after our pregger friend, K , came back and highly recommended the place! :) so we'll be going to Puerto Vallarta on 4/11-4/14 for our babymoon as well as celebrating our 11th dating anniversary! :) very looking fwd to this trip. 3 more weeks to go... aghhh, too long to wait...

i have been gaining more weight steadily. so far, i've gained 10 lb in total. most ppl say is not enough. but i think that's just about right. i have about 17 more weeks to go and if i gain 1 lb/week, i'll gain 17lbs more and that would be 27lb. my mom said she gained 24lb for her first pregnancy. so i think 27lb isn't too bad.

i went to the hospital this morning and did an orientation for the pool. i'm thinking about taking some prenatal aqua classes. i guess i'll start going after i get my new maternity swim wear! :) need to do some shopping this weekend too!

just changed the background of this journal from yellow with butterflies to blue with cars... sooo that means it's a BOY! :) most of our friends already know right after my ultrasound! and 99.9% of them guessed that it's a boy. so i guess it was not too much of a surprise. but still it was nice for us to finally find out for sure what we are having.

we had both the 4th dr. visit and 20wk ultrasound on Thursday, 3/6. Dr. visit was brief as usual, in and out within 30min. baby's heartbeat was heard again... this time at 152bpm. got my slips for testing diabetes. will do that within 24-28 weeks. also got my Dr's referral letter for taking prenatal classes. will have to look into that too.  i was weighed and this time i've gained some weight. so far, since pregnancy, i've gained a total of 7lb-8lb. the dr said i can just continue to eat normal.

the ultrasound took about an hour. at first, the technician was looking at different things which most of the things didn't look like anything to me! :) the technician didn't talk much and since i had to hold up a mirror to look at the screen, i felt a little tired and sleepy during the first half of it! but when she asked whether we wanted to find out what we are having, i got alerted and saw that it's a boy! it was pretty obvious. (ck out the photo album). then the dr. came in to scan more. she said if it's not a boy, she'll quit! she then checked for blood in the sac since i had the subchorionic hemorrhage from last u/s at week12. she said she couldn't find any! so the hemorrhage is gone! :) the only minor thing she commented on was the kidney of the baby. she said that it has more fluid than usual. she said either come back for another u/s around week 30 or see a pediatrician for antibiotics after my baby is born. i asked for her referral for pediatricians and she gave me 2. will see whether my dr wants me to go back for another u/s at week 30.

from the u/s this time, my baby was measured to be around 20 weeks and 4 days. so the due date should be around 7/20. it's about 4 days later than my first u/s. but since all my entries in this blog is based on that due date, i'm just gonna stick with that.

one of my pregnant friends went on their babymoon at Puerto Vallarta this weekend! she has been tempting me sooo much that we have changed our babymoon destination from Vancouver to Mexico! still waiting for some better deals. we'll probably booked early next week...