Week 24 - Passed the Half-way Mark

cant believe i'm already in my 20 plus week and i've only seen my gynae once! usually at this stage i'm already making my fifth or sixth appointment.

anyway, during my second appointment, the baby decided to show her existance clearly...very very clearly. she started making all kinds of moves when the doctor scanned. she was so clear and so close and when she started opening her mouth and moving her hands all over, my gynae and i quickly decided to get a 4D scan as it was rare to see a fetus so clear and so active.

first thing i thought was she looks like ariff. then i thought, no amira!!

ok, i'm not sure if its because i really want her to look like amira or because she really do.

we decided on a date which is good. i'm due 3 weeks after raya and during raya i would be 37 weeks, which looking back at the history of the 5 pregnancies, that's when i would start labour. so no, 37th week is not a good week as everyone would be on a long raya leave - my gynae, my anesthetist, the baby's pediatrician, everyone. so we decided on the week before, the 36th week. and just so happened, the monday of my 36th week was the 19th of the month - the same date as amira. so basically, we put that date down as potential date, insyaAllah.

its getting a bit exciting now dah we've set a date...and that the baby is showing herself to mummy.

Unwell EAS1

about a week after akmal started to feel 'normal' again, amira's temperature suddenly shot up. it was early friday morning when she climbed over me from her cot, as she would normally do, and i felt she was hot. not warm...very very hot! i quickly took the thermometer and it was showing a 39c reading. i gave her a bath, gave her pcm and throughout the day her temperature played around 38c - 39c.

the next morning it was even worse, at 39.3c but we had plans to go to ikea and we proceeded with the plan, after giving her pcm and sponging. at ikea she was pretty ok but once we got home she was moody and weak and we brought her to the nearest clinic to get her checked. her blood test showed nothing too concerning and the doctor said it could be viral fever, as with akmal, but we needed to monitor her in case its something else.

on sunday, she was still feverish but she was all better on monday. she was able to play and eat and watch telly with her brothers who were on school holiday. she was weak but i attributed that to post-fever.

then on tuesday it came back. her temperature went higher and higher as the day passed. we've been giving her pcm constantly but nothing's happening. she's on constant sponging and bathes 3-4 times a day to keep the temperature down. she wakes up at 2am as her body is so hot and i'd spent an hour getting her body cool again. on wednesday we took her back to the clinic. blood test again, and again, nothing could be found. then the doctor said, do nasal swab and there it was. influenza A for amira.

the next day we took her to dsh to see dr azizi. another round of nasal swab to confirm and as they did the swab they prepped her for admission, just in case. and confirmed they did, as well as wheezing and coughing and because of the three combination, amira had to be admitted and stayed on in the hospital for 5 days.

amira was on antiviral for the influenza, antibiotics for the cough & wheezing, pcm for the first couple of days as her temperature was still high and on 4-hourly nebuliser. she lost a lot of weight, slept a lot but slowly recovered.

once she was finally discharged, it was up to mummy to get her back to her chubby self...

Unwell EAI4

its been a while since anyone in the family had come down with anything. looking back, its around this time when one, two or three of us would contract something. i think in the first 3 months of school, only asyraf came down with fever...twice! he was off school two days each time he had a fever but other than that, everyone else was good, alhamdulillah.

that is until akmal came home one day, all weak and warm and the next day, all hot and unmoving. one thing about akmal is that when he gets feverish, its sudden and would escalate quickly and takes a long time to go away. this time it took longer than normal. after a few days of him with high temperature, going up and down, we took him to the nearby clinic for a blood test. dengue was negative and the doctor concluded that it was viral fever.

akmal was off school for a week, only going to agama school in the morning because he had to sit for his exams. we told him he can do repeats but he pushed himself to sit for the exams with his classmates.

after about 10 days, the fever finally went away but he still had a week to finish his medication.