Nesting

A work in progress, trust me...

Ok, so I let time get the better of me… and school, games, home, work, and laziness.

35 Weeks and counting! Our family now consists of four entities: Me, Janet, Baby, and “belly”, the thing that’s not quite Janet and not quite baby, but makes its presence known whenever it gets the chance. Some out of the way object would get knocked to the ground, or I would turn/back-up/lift my arm into belly’s way, which would make (at least) me very unnerved.

I am very proud of Janet. She is so strong and has been handling this pregnancy very well, especially in these physically trying weeks. She is pretty active, constantly working around the house to prepare for baby, staying on top of her diet, and has been pretty ambulatory without having much trouble. At our last midwife visit, all of her vitals and levels were spot-on. She’s very strong, and I am proud to be with her. I know she needs rest and shouldn’t be too active, but those who honestly say she shouldn’t be doing anything don’t quite understand pregnancy or the strength of the human body.

We are slowly but surely getting the house together for baby, though there is still MUCH that needs to get done. We finished painting the crib last week, a nice combination of teal and yellow if you ask me (though there is still some touch-up work to do). Funny thing is, after we finished painting the crib we realized that we might not need the crib for another couple months. We are planning on trying co-sleeping for however long, and someone handed down a bassinet to us. As for our plans for baby, I’ll save that for the next post.

We got a great amount of stuff for baby from the baby showers (thank you!) and so the house is inundated with baby stuff. I’m pretty sure Janet spends most of the day just sorting through the stuff! If there is any indication that another person will be living in our house, this is it. I honestly thought that baby and baby’s stuff wouldn’t take up much room since all of it (including baby) should be small. However, everywhere you turn in the house there are baby clothes, diapers, crib parts, toys, books, etc. And all the storage bins are full! I hope we get it in some sort of order before baby comes, because once baby comes, things will stay as they are. I know I need to apply more effort in the cleaning process though (remember laziness?) before the nesting Janet bites my head off.

March Madness

Hallo, Baby!

Gosh, it's been more than a month already! Time flies so fast, and school, chores, and life can really take over one's life. Janet and baby are doing well, she is at 25 weeks and 3 days with no sickness or anything adverse. They say that baby is about 1 lb 9 oz now, and is in great shape. Baby likes to let his/her presence be known, and gives Jane some pretty big kicks (I'm kinda not looking forward to Janet at 36+ weeks; two people in one body can definitely get crowded). She actually perplexes me sometimes, because when baby isn't kicking she taps her belly to make baby kick. I tell her that she should enjoy the calm times, cause baby chooses some exotic times to kick, like 3AM!

We started getting baby stuff in the past couple weeks, and it really gets us excited that soon they will be used by and for our child! We got a crib...let's talk about the crib. We saw this crib while shopping in IKEA. It was a really nice, sturdy, Dr. Seuss-looking crib, and we both liked the design. The only issue with this crib was that it came in two colors: baby-periwinkle, and blind-me pink. So one can say we were a little hesitant in buying one immediately seeing as we wanted the gender to be a surprise. We decided to wait until May/June to get a blue one and paint/decorate it so that it could work for either boy or girl. Turns out that was a good plan since they decided to discontinue the pink. One week later, we are back at IKEA and we decide to look through the "as is" section, and we find a bunch of pink cribs - unsold in their original boxes with no defects - for 63% off the original price. Really? Long story short, we bring home a blind-me pink Dr. Seuss crib (it sounded cooler when it was a blue Dr. Seuss crib). Anyone who would be willing to paint this crib another color, gimme a call.

Janet shared with me the quote of the year, and the honor goes to my mother-in-law. Turns out in Chinese culture there are many things pregnant women cannot eat for the sake and safety of the baby, some of which are founded in superstition. Like Janet can't eat lamb, because it could give the baby epilepsy; or frog, because it will give baby bulgy eyes. I'm waiting for a report on these before I make a conclusion. Anyway, so Jane is hanging out with her mother and her mother's friends, and mom-in-law is complaining to her friends about all the things Janet has the nerve to eat, like mango and pineapple among things. Then she says something along the lines of "...and you know what else she dares to eat? CHOCOLATE! Next thing you know the baby's going to come out black!" *Insert foot in mouth* Really mom, chocolate might make the baby black?  Take that, biology! We had a really big laugh out of that one, and so did mom when she realized that I may have had a role in determining the color of our child.

Life may be a little hectic trying to take care of our current lives and preparing for the new one that will be joining us shortly, but God has blessed us with help from our family and friends, a peace that passes all understanding, and the joy that comes with marriage and the prospect of becoming parents! There's some more to talk about, but I'll save that for the next post, which will be soon. God bless!

Half-way there!

 Yay! Good-bye Bellevue, hello Brooklyn Birthing Center, and hello baby!

As of today, Janet is 20 weeks pregnant out of a 40 week term. We're half-way there! Much has happened since the last post (which is why I'm not so good at blogging) so I'll try and catch everyone up.

First, we were able to transfer from Bellevue Hospital to Brooklyn Birthing Center for prenatal care and the birth. BBC is a facility that primarily specializes in pregnancy and childbirth as well as some basic OB/GYN care.  We were originally planning to birth out of Methodist Hospital, but after watching an enlightening movie called "The Business of Being Born" we decided to go with the birthing center instead of the hospital. Why not a hospital? Short answer: pregnancy and childbirth is seen as a medical condition that needs to be remedied as opposed to a natural process that needs to run its course. I would recommend that movie to anyone interested in having children of just in health issues in general, but I should warn you that the movie can be graphic, as there is live births and women parts. Anyway, the people at BBC are really cool, and we are looking forward to giving birth there!

Second, baby is making his presence known! Janet has been feeling the baby kick for about two weeks now, and I felt my first kick this past Saturday! It's so weird and exciting to feel something moving in Janet's tummy that's not Janet (weird that something's moving, exciting to know that it's our baby!). Baby is about as long as a banana, and should be able to hear outside the womb soon, so I'll have to start playing guitar for baby!

We'll be having our next sonogram next week, so hopefully there will be some really good pics to post!

Here's looking at you, kid!

 

16 weeks! (that's the head in the middle, below and to the right of the word "PROFILE")

The baby is saying Hi!

By Dion

Beautiful, isn't it? Looking back on what we had to go through to get this mediocre picture, I think I'll store this experience for my child if they ever they say we do nothing for them.

We were scheduled for our first sonogram at Bellevue Hospital on January 13, for 10AM. Before this, the only indications we've had of Janet's pregnancy was a blue line on a special stick, a doctor's note, Janet's naps (which may not be a great indicator, I know she likes to take those), an acute case of "morning" (read: avocado) sickness, and a heartbeat check via fetal heart monitor at 12 weeks. Forgive me for saying this, but oh me of little faith needed to see something to assure me that everything the books were telling us was happening correctly.

I must say that I am blessed to have Janet as a wife. All those worries of morning, afternoon, evening, night, eating, walking, sitting, home, work, and whatever-else-may-come sickness were unfounded in Janet. For some reason, her family is immune to it. The only case we had to encounter was when we did California rolls with avocado; Janet almost threw up her belly button. So the worst we have to worry about is Janet missing her nap, she gets really tired and upset.

OK, back to the hospital. This was our first time to the hospital, so we arrived early, around 9:30AM. We jumped through the hoops (registration, financial, etc.) and got to the sonogram reception desk minutes to 10. We sat down and got to waiting...

and waiting...

and waiting...

1:00PM. In the past three and a half hours, eight people are called, none of them us. A few came back out and were waiting for their next appointment arrangements. I walk over to the receptionist and ask how much longer. She says we're next...riiiiiiiiiiiight! After another hour, when Janet and I were just about at our wits end, we hear "JANET SMALL". It was like winning a raffle.

We get into the room and the sonographer wastes no time setting up. Before we know it, there it is - a baby on the screen, and what a baby! He (general term, gender isn't known yet) put the sonographer to work, twisting, turning, flipping around, grabbing at his feet, sucking his thumb, I didn't think he had that much room in there. He even took a few gulps of amniotic fluid and turned waved at us while we were watching! Awesome, God, truly awesome.

After about half an hour, we come back outside and wait for our next appointment slip. Mind you, by this time, Janet and I are running on breakfast, one yogurt and polly-o string cheese. So we head downstairs to the bakery to get something light and head back up and wait. Janet then realizes that all the other people who went in and came back out came with pictures, but we didn't. So I go over to the receptionist and ask about pictures and she tells me that while we were downstairs Janet was called again, and that she'll go and talk to them. So we wait and are called again, and we go in.

This lady was different from the first. Our first sonographer was courteous, made a lot of conversation, and was very helpful. This lady was none of the former. For reasons unexplained to us, Janet had to take another sonogram. This time I made sure to ask for pictures. Now here is my gripe: during both sonograms, we saw detail. The spine, the bones, the pumping heart, fingers, toes, and blood vessels. Heck, we saw enough to clearly see that baby was drinking! Details. We ask for pictures and what does the sonographer give us? Two of the above, the one above being the clearer. And when people look at it they ask "where's the head?" I think they should give lessons on good pictures to send home with the parents.

All in all, our experience at Bellevue was a nightmare, especially with that last sonographer, and we basically vowed never to go back there. We are looking for another center, one better and closer to home. We are going to check out Brooklyn Birthing Center in hopes of finding a better atmosphere to work out the rest of this pregnancy and to bring our child into this world. However, all that trouble and waiting was worth the few minutes of meeting our new child and seeing this miracle that God is knitting inside of Janet. Praise the Lord!

Time of adjustment

Time is passing so slowly. What would have been weeks zooming by has become a snail's crawl. Every Thursday starts a new week and new developments of this precious child.

So far the only person we told was Dion's father only because we needed an appointment set for an official record of this miracle that is happening inside me. We needed time to adjust to this news on our own first. Seriously, we're going to be PARENTS? We were planning on trying to have kids in June, but now June is when we'll be having our first one!

Now we need to start preparing our lives for the pregnancy; getting health insurance, finding a doctor, preparing to tell everybody, figuring out what the baby needs, figuring out what I need, figuring out what we need to figure out... Pregnancy takes a lot out of you! I got What to Expect When You're Expecting and The Baby Book from the library and I read them out loud every night. It's so amazing to read about all the things happening in my womb week by week. I have been really tired lately, so I takes naps everyday. They say it's because of all the preparation going on inside of me; the creation of the placenta and the formation of the baby's (!) organs and bones, so cool! We can't wait to feel this baby start kicking!