It’s never a pleasant thing to get these fake Braxton Hicks contractions, especially when you’re still a month away from being full term. Everything about this fourth pregnancy seem to be more intense than my previous ones. I suppose this is why my OBGYN is recommending the weekly check-ups now. No matter. When he’s ready to come out, he’s ready. Yes, he’s a he. I picked up a name for him already.

Just as a side note to self, this is the first time that my better half has never attended any of my pregnancy check-up. I’m fine with it, though. The important thing is that he’s around when the time comes, and not being outstationed for work.

Counting the days. Let’s hope my little comes on the due date next month

Update: This post was actually made on 18th June and scheduled to be posted on 20th. What do you know — I delivered my son on June 19. More on that coming soon.

Personally, I actually don’t like to talk about my pregnancy experiences. And whenever people talk about those pregnancy glows, I would roll my eyes and look back at them as if they’re aliens from another planet. It’s like 99.99% of the pregnant population had a breeze with their pregnancies. I had to be that 00.01% who miserably tries to go through my daily routine and survived. Things got worse with each pregnancy, too. With my fourth (the one I’m having right now), I got extremely anemic, something that I’ve never experienced during my first three pregnancies. My OBGYN suggested that it may be due to my weight loss after I had my third child (and I thought losing weight was a good thing after being overweight for years).

And, oh, how pregnancy wrecks havoc on my emotional and mental states! Those dodo hormonal changes made me feel like a dimwit paranoid slug most of the time. Thank God for my husband! Communication is very important during my pregnancy. I made sure I warned my husband in advance that all those sudden emotional breakdowns and fits are mostly my state of hormonal-induced hysterics. When the attacks do come, one calming hug is all it took to stop them. Sometimes I get those hugs from my kids as well, those little angels. They’re what keeps me sane.

I guarantee you that this will be the last time I’m going to talk about my pregnancy. I’ve planned on “closing this factory” once I deliver soon.

Christmas this year started well, starting with the afternoon before Christmas having a late lunch, just the kids and myself and their daddy at Sushi King. We enjoyed ourselves so much that I never got the chance to take some shots of the food or of Eric ravenously gobbling up all the sushi. The eve was spent at my cousin’s new house for a housewarming party. Christmas day was spent with relatives on my husband’s side. All in all, spending time with family is always a good thing.

In the evening, while trying to confirm the registration date for Eric’s first day of school, I was greeted with an unfortunate sight of the Stella Maris Primary School website being hacked. The worse thing about it was not the hack itself, but the fact that the hack was done earlier in the month, yet no one in the school’s supposed “web team” did anything about it. It goes to show that not even the Principal or the teachers of the school itself ever bother looking at their own web site, let alone use it.

Now I am in my kampung Tuaran Labuaya. I have a cousin. His name is also Eric Ribuan and Eric noel is my name. He is 11 years old. I have my PS2 in the kampung. He doesn’t have a video game. His daddy doesn’t buy for him.

My recent periodic checkup to the OBGYN finally revealed the sex of my baby. He finally showed his healthy “turtle” form during the scan. I would have included the ultrasound picture here if not for the fact that I’m too lazy to scan the printout.

So, scrap my baby girl names. Off I went looking for the right name that matches Eric’s and Joel’s, and I tell you it wasn’t an easy for me to find a name that matches the “oel” in their middle names.

I think I’m going for either Ewan (“young warrior”) or Ezra (“helper”), and Roel or Yoel. I like the fact that Yoel means “the Lord is God” and it goes with the religious themes of the rest of my boys’ middle name, but it sounds too much like Joel. Roel sounds catchy, though the meaning “famous country” doesn’t mix well with my taste.

What do you think? Can you help me decide?