I'm a full-time mummy

Ladies and gentlemen, we are cruising into the 5th month+ of my third pregnancy now! I realised I did not blogged much about this pregnancy, compared to my previous one which I blogged religiously every month. But that is because with this pregnancy, I didn't see our gynae every month for check up. Anyway here goes the update:

* APPETITE

So-so, depends on what foods are being served. Some foods that I used to love eating (like eggs) are still a turn-off for me. Tofu, potato are OK on the other hand. My all-time favorite fast food, good ol' McDonalds are still OK at this stage. My passion for sweet chocolate-y stuff just came back a week ago so yeahhhhh....

* WEIGHT GAIN

I have not been gaining weight at all! I remembered experiencing the same thing with my 1st pregnancy until my gynae had to force me to drink UHT full cream milk EVERYDAY. I am doing that since 20th May and in 4 days, have gained 2kgs already (I'm now at 47kg). Basically if I eat something now, I go to 47kg, else 46kg...

* GYNAE CHECK-UPS

My first (and only so far!) check-up with gynae was when I was at 10 weeks pregnancy and because I was kinda lazy to be lugging 2 kiddos along every month to the hospital for my check-ups, have negotiated with my gynae to cut down my check-ups. My next one was supposed to be at 28 weeks pregnancy but I have earlier on 20th May 2013 called up my gynae to schedule an additional check-up just to be safe and make sure baby is growing normally (due to my initial concerns of not gaining weight)

* BUMP SIZE

My tummy at the beginning of 5th month is really not that visible - picture below taken on 4th May 2013 when we went for a day trip at the KL Bird Park.

And picture below taken the day after, 5th May 2013 right after I exercised my rights as a Malaysian citizen! Our 13th General Election! My bump wasn't that noticeable as nobody let me cut queues as I waited in line for my turn to cast my vote -____-

* BREASTFEEDING DURING PREGNANCY

Yes, like what I did with Benjamin when I was pregnant with Alyson, I nursed him throughout the pregnancy. This round? Same. I think my milk has dried up few weeks back but like her brother, Alyson does not seem to be bothered and continued to comfort dry suckling from me whenever she wants and before her sleeptime.

* BABY MOVEMENT

Yes, I started feeling the tiny flutters in my tummy at month 4 actually and have been using Babyplus gadget 2 weeks ago twice a day (9am and 9pm) and the kicks are getting stronger everyday.

So there you go, updates as at 5 months+ pregnancy... have a blessed week and thank you for reading!

Seriously people, the moment I saw the words "Little Critter" in the latest Oceanhouse Media's press release in my email inbox, my heart went "Eeeepppp! I gotta have it! I had previously reviewed the 1st collection over a year ago and I knew I had to add this into our collections!

* Title: Little Critter Collection #2
* Price: $12.99
* Category: Books
* Released: May 22, 2013
* Current Version: 2.3
* Size: 196 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: Oceanhouse Media, Inc.
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 5.0 or later.

Description from the product page:

"Little Critter Collection #2 features 10 popular Little Critter stories that lovingly address all the major issues of growing up. Children will easily identify with Little Critter's adventures as he maneuvers through childhood one day at a time.

-Just Go to Bed: Playful and energetic Little Critter resists his father's efforts to get him ready for bed.
-Just a Mess: The search for his baseball mitt leads Little Critter to the doorway of his bedroom which is "just a mess."
-Just Going to the Dentist: Good natured Little Critter reassures young readers that going to the dentist is not that bad after all.
-Just Grandpa and Me: Little Critter and his Grandpa go on a shopping expedition for a new suit.
-Just Lost: It's quite an adventure at the mall when Little Critter gets separated from his mom.
-Just Me and My Little Brother: Little Critter is looking forward to all the fun things he can do with his little brother.
-Just Me and My Puppy: Little Critter happily feeds, walks, trains and loves his new friend.
-Just Shopping With Mom: Shopping with his family turns into an eventful day for Little Critter.
-What a Bad Dream: Little Critter dreams that a magic potion turns him into a scary, disagreeable monster that no one wants to be around.
-When I Grow Up: Little Critter's sister imagines all the wonderful things she'll do when she grows up."

I have most of the Little Critter story apps on my iPad but really, this is a collection that must be added into my iPad!!! My 4 years old boy likes listening and watching Little Critters so yes, I am definitely happy I get to add this collection! (and I've gotta keep my eyes open for the next collection hahaha!)

What's good?

* It is engaging and interactive and I love that we can also touch the objects in each page on the screen and the words pop out to tell you what it is!

* My boy particularly enjoys 'Just Lost' as he is very much into his security guard / soldier / police phase right now and I love this app too as I get to use the opportunity to teach my boy to stick around us whenever we go out and also to teach him what to do in the event he found himself lost and apart from us.

* In "Just Shopping With Mom", my boy also like this app as I normally bring him and my 1.5 years old girl along whenever we go out grocery shopping and I think he can totally relate himself to Little Critter's situation in the storyapp. I took this opportunity to teach my boy that we need to be patient if we want something, to always behave, to stay close to mummy when he is out and to help look after and protect his little sister as well.

* The rest of the story in this collection are very good as well as it comes with lessons to learn which we can instill on our children - such as to be caring towards our pets and siblings, to be neat and control our emotions, to have ambitions and goals  and so on.

You can purchase the " Little Critter Collection #2" app from the iTunes App Store.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the promo code by the sponsor to redeem the application for free from iTunes Store in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. And if you'd like to read my previous iPad Apps reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My iPad App Reviews"

The first time I saw this picture, I chuckled to myself. So true! When our 2nd child came along, I was quite miserable. I had spent quite sometime adjusting myself and synching both my kiddos' daytime nap so that they both nap together and I get to rest a bit and just when they did managed to do that, my girl skipped her 2nd nap. There goes 1-2 hours of my rest time.

Now, I managed to sync their naptime again to around 2ish to 3ish pm and when they do both nap, it will be 2 hours of rest for me. That is if I don't have to help out hubby in his paperworks (not often nowadays). Sometimes just when I managed to close my eyes to rest, there comes the postman or delivery guy sending parcels and stuff to our house.

Or my 4 years old boy decided to skip his daytime nap - the good thing is when he does this, he knows not to disturb mummy resting and he can actually play his Lego or soldier toys by himself or watch iPad. Bad thing? He gets cranky by evening time because he skipped his nap and to be honest, when he skipped his nap, no matter how, I am not able to just sleep and let my boy play on his own. I just don't feel comfortable at all. So I normally just lie on the bed, surfed the Net on my iPad or catch up on my blogging or see if there's anything to help out on hubby's paperwork.

On average, if I'm lucky I get about half to 1 hour of sleep when BOTH my kiddos nap at the same time. Else, it will be me zombie-ing throughout the day until their bedtime. It's pretty tough especially now that I'm preggy with our 3rd child because I do really get tired easily and even a 5 minutes power nap does help here and there.

So mums, do you get to have your nap time?