Pregnancy - Week 5

So I'm going to start writing weekly posts about our pregnancy on this blog. Mainly to track my bodily changes on a week to week basis, to keep a journal of my experience that I can come back to in the future (who knows, maybe baby will get to read this when he/she is older!) and also for friends/readers of this blog who may appreciate some basic info about what to expect when pregnant.


I am feeling a little out of sorts at the moment trying to embrace the new me and the fact that our family will have an extra member really soon. The news is still sinking in. I'm usually quite confident about decisions that I make and am organized about things that I have to get done but in this case of being pregnant, I am feeling rather overwhelmed, very green around the ears and kinda wish I had a software that I could install in my brain called 'All you need to know about pregnancy and children'.


I suppose most of my trepidation comes from the fact that I am in Australia and all I know about raising children is based in Malaysia. Things like health care, maternity stuff, childcare, clothing for changing weather, bedding for changing weather, car seats, capsules, maternity leave, work arrangements, money... all these things are blinking like crazy neon lights in my mind. To say that I feel equipped to raise a child at this moment is wishful thinking but I guess all first time mothers feel the same way?


Anyhow with that said, we had my blood tests done this week. All my health indicators are good. I have a rather high iron level (0.1 higher than the normal range) and best of all my cholesterol level is now at an all time low of 4.8! I am so happy with that result. To explain a little, I am super happy with that result because while I was with Intel my cholesterol level was 6.5 for two years. After the second high reading, I decided to do something about it and started exercising at the gym during my lunch hours. After 4 months, I had another health check and my cholesterol levels had dropped to 5.8 which was a fantastic reward for all my efforts even though the number was still above the healthy range. Since then I had not had another health check but I have kept to some form of weekly exercise. And now its at 4.8! Woohoo! I think it could be stress related. I didnt use to feel stressed while at Intel but I must say that out of 10 colleagues, 7 of us would be diagnosed with high cholesterol. So my conclusion is that our high levels must have been stress related.


As for how I am feeling this week, I am extremely tired when I come home from work at 5pm. I am unwilling to cook, mostly because I have no appetite (and as people who love to eat know, you can't cook a good meal unless you feel the passion and desire to eat it) I struggle to keep my eyes open for a couple more hours because if I fall asleep at 5pm, I would then wake at maybe 3am the next morning and boy, will I pay the price for it the next day. After my very valiant efforts of staying upright, I usually collapse by 8-830pm and sleep till 7am the next day.


There is not much body change other than a lack of appetite for dinner and extreme tiredness for this week. More soon.

cheryl