Icon of Reflection

OK, I'm back for an update! I'm 27 weeks along today! Yes yes, big and fat now... my baby feels so heavy sometimes.

Speaking of baby, I promised my husband that from now onwards, I will try my very best not to post any more pictures of my baby, for privacy purposes. Perhaps she wouldn't like people seeing her pictures, and until I know for sure, I shall just protect her and let her choose what she wants to do with her pictures when she's more grown up.

Till then, here's a side profile of me that I took last week.

People on the train stand up to give me their seat nowadays! :"> lol

Can you believe it, I have less than 3 months to go!

OK, before I talk about more serious stuff, lets enjoy some random light hearted stuff that makes me smile. :-)

Back during my first trimester when I had trouble eating meat due to the smell, I bought some marmite which is high in all sorts of B vitamins, iron and stuff.

Here's marmite with butter on whole wheat bread.

I even tried drinking it diluted in water. It tastes like beef broth even though it was an yeast extract. :-p

Luckily after my first trimester I was back to eating meat! Yay! I threw away the marmite when it expired in April, and didn't buy it again. It really wasn't appetizing.

Ok next, an interesting food produce...

Elephant Garlic!

Whole elephant garlic on the left, and normal garlic on the right.

Big size difference!

Let's open it up to see what it's like inside.

Just ONE CLOVE of the elephant garlic looks as big as the WHOLE NORMAL GARLIC!

Comparing the size of one clove of elephant garlic to one clove of normal sized garlic

It looks nice and fresh inside!

Size difference again. Elephant garlic on the left, normal garlic on the right.

Elephant garlic above, normal garlic below.

How does it taste? Very nice actually! Slightly milder, but very nice when roasted in the oven on it's own, and it melts in your mouth when boiled in soup!

How much does it cost?

It was $5.99 from Keyfood supermarket. Normal Garlic can be $1-$3 for a pack of five.

It's not a regular item though... it was the first and last time I saw it.

Ok, next amusing thing...

A heart-shaped sweet plum!

lol I think the heart shape is so cute. I just happened to see it among all the round ones. ^_^

Ok, other then blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, plums and peaches, there is another fruit that comes in season during the summer.....

Fresh Figs!

Nice fresh basket of Figs, about $2 from a fruit-stand.

I've never eaten fresh figs before.

It tastes nice... sweet. But not as sweet as dried figs of course.

I can't really explain how it tastes like...

A close up of the seeds. Looks scary eh? Like ALIEN TEETH

ROWRRRR! It's gonna bite!!!

Here's a healthy breakfast of a hot bowl of whole grain oats, with a splash of cold milk, blueberries, blackberries and cut-up figs. All for me! ^_^

Ok, last but not least, here's a real treat.

Guess what this is?

No idea?

It's bird's nest! 燕窝！！！！

With much thanks to my mother's generosity, I double-boiled a big bowl of "Yan Wo". For the next few days, I'll scoop a small portion (see the red bowl) and eat it on an empty stomach as my first meal for "maximum absorption". lol Thanks Ma!

I don't add sugar/rock sugar while cooking it though...

Instead I add a spoonful of honey to the small portion of chilled bird's nest I scoop into my little bowl.

And after stirring it in, it turns into a nice golden color. SO YUMMYYYYYY!!!!

OK NOW, ABOUT SERIOUS STUFF

Why why WHY must we preggie ladies have so much blood taken from us... SIGH~ -_-"

Remember at 8wks, I had 5 viles of blood taken from me?

At 16 weeks I had another 6 viles taken from me again, for more testing of genetic diseases. The results came back, and all was well.

And last week at 26 weeks, it was time for MORE blood tests. My appointment was in the afternoon, and I quickly ate my lunch which was leftover soup from dinner ("Ang Moh Tng", a soup with pork, carrots, tomatos, onions and potatos.). I had lots of yummy potatos in the soup :-)

Then off I went to the clinic and they handed me this.

It was a glucose drink. Orange-flavoured, YUM!

One hour after finishing the drink, they drew 2 viles of my blood.

Ouch, so painful :-(

And I've got sad news (albeit temporary) to tell you guys...

... ...

The clinical manager called me 2 days ago and told me that I had to come back in for extra blood tests.

... ...

Because something was wrong

... ...

:-(

... ...

My blood glucose level was above the normal treshold...

... ...

Not too high, but high enough to warrant a fasting 3 hour glucose test. GAH!

OH NOOOOOOOO

Might I have gestational diabetes?!?!?!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

... ...

The lady assured me it wasn't very high. It just slightly crossed the borderline.

Whatever it was, "fasting" meant that I am supposed to not eat anymore food after 12am, and come into the clinic at 9am for another bottle of glucose drink.

I took milk at 10.30pm and went to bed, and next morning, arrived at the clinic slightly early.

The nurse took 1 vile of blood from my arm. This is to be my baseline blood glucose level.

Then she gave me a bottle of glucose to drink.

This time it was "fruit punch" flavoured. YUCK! It tasted bad, not like the orange one which tasted nice.

I had trouble drinking it, but decided to finish it and ask for water.

But the nurse said "No, no water."

"No water, no food whatsoever until the test is over."

-_-"!!!! ...ok....

======================================

I stayed in a comfortable room with a magazine and my books (about gardening) that I borrowed from the library... and got sleepy while waiting in between the next three blood draws to take place 1 hour, 2 hours, and lastly 3 hours after drinking the glucose.

...zzzzzZZZZ..zzzzzZZZZZ.... *morning nap*

The clinical manager popped by into the room at about 10-11am and asked "Good morning... do you feel tired often?"

"Err...no, not really. My husband comes home late from work, so I stay up to be able to see him and spend time with him... that's why I nap in the morning"... I was coming up with reasons for her, and I wondered if I was not supposed to be sleeping during this 3 hour blood test.

"Oh don't worry, it's ok to say that you're tired", she said. "You're anaemic".

WHAT?!?!

"Your blood tests came back, and remember we took 2 viles of blood? One tested that your sugar was slightly high, and the other tested that you were below the lowest range of what's normal for blood iron. You're going to have to take iron pills from now on ok?"

She handed me the prescription. Now I feel giddy.

Even if all this was common for pregnant women, it feels dramatic for a first time mother.

Ok, so I asked for numbers.

My blood sugar was 144 mg/dL and it was above the treshold of 140 mg/dL which warranted a fasting-3-hour test. You need to be more than 180-200 mg/dL to be diagnosed diabetic, and they needed to be sure, so hence I was there.

I think for blood iron, my total blood count and other levels were ok, but my Hemoglobin was 10.9 (normal range 11.5-16.0) and my Hematocrit was about 31 (normal range 34.5-47.0). She said I just need to take iron pills and all should be ok. In a few weeks time, they'll draw blood to check again.

Food wise she said eat red meat, chopped liver, dark green leafy salads...but as long as I take the iron pills, I should have no problems whatsoever with my daily intake of iron. Oh, and she said to not drink milk when I take the iron pills.

Finally, it's past 12pm, and the test is over. My left arm has been poked 4 times to retrieve 4 viles of blood.

So that was how my morning went yesterday.

And GOOD NEWS TODAY! THE RESULTS ARE BACK!

The clinical manager called me JUST NOW to say EVERYTHING IS FINE, I'M NOT DIABETIC!

The baseline was 72mg/dL , 1st hour 132mg/dL , 2nd hour 133mg/dL , 3rd hour 120mg/dL.

I asked her how did my previous high result happen, and she said "I don't know, but it just happened!" lol

So everything ended well. Just remember to take iron.

Check.

OK, BACK TO LIGHT-HEARTED STUFF!

So, since I'll be having a baby soon, I decided to involve myself in quieter hobbies.

I love recording music and all...but I think a quiet hobby would be a good idea for now.

Recently I bought approximately $130 worth of sprouting equipment and seeds (brand new and UNUSED) from a nice lady for $20.

What a bargain right!

She somehow bought all these online from http://sproutpeople.org/ on a whim and by the time it was delivered, she lost interest in sprouting. Oh dear! She never even opened the box since it arrived at her house.

In the picture are the sprouting equipment and 8 types of grain/seeds that she never used such as wild rice, wheat, peas.

But I wasn't really interested in sprouting her grains/seeds yet.

I'm keen to impress my hubby with sprouts that we Asians are used to eating. 豆芽！:-)

Prior to my pregnancy, I used to cook green bean soup (a.k.a. mung beans) for hubby and I to "cool" our bodies, especially if he had been working late. Some beans/grains/oats can have "cooling" properties according to Traditional Chinese Medicine, while others can be "heaty". By growing them into sprouts, these properties are neutralized! And they are 10 to 100 times more nutricious than the seeds or the grown plant! Isn't that amazing?

So within 5 days of using the Easy Sprouter, and following the valuable instructions on http://sproutpeople.org/mung.html, I grew a quarter cup (60ml) of beans...

Into slightly over 1 quart (more than 950ml) of bean sprouts! With just water and the plastic sprouter. :-D

Harvest time! I spent about 3 hrs 45min to pinch off the roots to make it look aesthetically pleasing to cook.

It's quite a lot of beans to pinch, but it was important to me that the food looks as good as it tastes. The roots looked messy to me.

I think the longest bean sprout I had was nearly 3 inches long. The rest weren't so long of course.

I stir-fried them with olive oil, garlic and light sauce. I didn't want to add anything else like salted fish, because I wanted to know what hubby and my bible-study group mates think about the taste of the bean sprouts without being distracted by other ingredients.

Apparently, it was very good! One of my bible-study group mates who came over for a shared chinese meal said it was sooooo good, and he ate a lot of it. He says he misses eating them! LOL

I saved some raw sprouts in the fridge as I planned to cook Laksa 2 days later.

This time I did not pluck off the roots. I wanted to see if it made a big taste difference.

Apparently, it doesn't taste very different, and hubby thinks it looks fine. In fact he says "Don't waste your time pinching bean sprouts in future, spend the (almost) 4 hours doing something else instead!"

Since he doesn't mind how it looks, I guess I'd be glad to follow his advise. LOL

Ok, that's it for this month's journal.

Perhaps in future, I will be updating you on other stuff I have been growing at home.

For example, I have been growing a batch of lettuce hydroponically/aeroponically for the past 20 days.

Here's a picture of the lettuce I took of it a few hours ago: