We hope it's going to be a girl...

People have been telling me over and over again that no two pregnancies are the same, and I can’t agree more. In my case – the first and second pregnancies are a lot different, so much so that I hope the gender will be different too this time…

Alhamdulillah, the vomiting stopped after the 4^th month – a big change from last time because with Huzaifah, I was vomiting almost throughout the whole 9 months, including the morning I delivered him. I don’t get tired that easily too now, which is good, because I do need my energy to keep up with Huzaifah.

However, now I am experiencing other previously-not-experienced pregnancy related pains - leg cramps (which could really hurt, especially in the middle of a winter night on a futon) and constipation. Tried stretching before bed and taking more calcium (drinking more milk, eating more yogurt) to overcome the cramp thingy – but doesn’t seem to work all that well. I drink plenty of water regularly, and eat prunes to overcome the constipation problem - again, with not much difference. Currently I am consuming lots of green tea, just to see if it will make any difference…

I also sometimes feel guilty – to Huzaifah because he’s getting an adik even before his second birthday, and to the adik, because I am not taking the same care with this pregnancy like I did with the first. With Huzaifah, I used to read more Quran (now I just listen to Quran recital on the PC occasionally), drank plenty of soya milk and bird’s nest (not much soya and no bird's nest this time around, in fact I even drink kopi kampung sometimes - not good, not good), took my prenatal vitamin religiously (stopped taking folic acid after 4th month this time) and communicated daily with him (now I only ask adik to stop moving around so much when I am trying to get some sleep). And apart from some bodysuits on sale in Gap, I haven’t bought anything new for the adik. I am counting on Mak to bring Huzaifah’s old stuff from home when she comes here in March, but Mak also have asked me to buy some new stuff. Baby stuff are not cheap – even more so in Japan where nothing is cheap.

Now that I have to take care of Huzaifah, with his never ending unexpected stunts (the oven is sealed because he kept climbing the oven to get to pans and pots on the stove, the chairs are located not at the dining table because he kept climbing the table using the chair as a ladder of some sort, a lot of dinner wares had been transferred to the mosque’s kitchen since he kept rummaging through the lower cabinets and took out glass wares to play with them), I feel like I am a bit emotionally distant from this pregnancy. Hubby too, seems to take less interest in this pregnancy – probably because he too is drained with taking care of Huzaifah.

Not that I love this yet unborn adik any less. It’s just – different. But I hope it’s going to be a girl. And if the old wives’ tales are to be believed – there are plenty of signs that it’s going to be a girl…

The signs?

I am carrying high – it’s still unnoticed to some although I will be entering my seventh month next week.

Hubby is not gaining weight along with me.

I am craving sweets – not just ice cream and cheesecake, but also chocolate, and I am normally not a chocolate person (more an ‘asam’ person actually)

I crave for fruits too – persimmons, strawberries, pears

I don’t get headaches

My nose doesn’t change its shape

My chest development is pretty dramatic

My belly resembles a watermelon more than a basketball

Plus, Huzaifah loves playing in the kitchen and with kitchen wares. He is happiest when he’s allowed to play with ladles although he has a trunk full of toys suitable for his age. Sabah confessed that his mom told him that he used to love playing in the kitchen and with kitchen utensils when he was a toddler – and he got a baby sister…

Not to mention just a few days ago, I craved to read chick lit. Maybe I was influenced by Kit, maybe it was the “50% off chick lit” signboard that was put outside my favorite used bookstore, or maybe it was just my raging hormones – I bought not one, but three Shopaholic books in one go (for less than 1000 yen). I have heard about the Shopaholic series 2 or 3 years ago from Afaf, a colleague at work, but never tried buying, borrowing or reading it until now. And being more of a Sheldon/Koontz/Grisham/Archer/Dan Brown reader – yes, chick lit is not my usual cup of tea… So, what else but girly hormones that would drive me to buy chick lit, huh?

Oh, by the by, another reason why hubby and I hope for a girl is that so we can put all those dresses, girly bodysuits, tops, pants, shoes, socks and what-nots bought in 2005 (when we thought our first born was going to be a girl) to good use…