The Snake Dream

I read somewhere that pregnant mothers have interesting dreams. Yesterday night was my first experience. I was in a dingy, messy apartment with Caleb. There's stacks of paper piled up randomly throughout the apartment wooden floor. I was having a difficult time with my pregnancy and Caleb agreed to take over the pregnancy, so I was going to push the baby out and pass it to him for the remainder of the pregnancy period. Since he doesn't have a uterus, he got a boa snake that would act as a sack in his tummy to hold the baby in place. This was a pretty big snake with big buggy-eyes. So the baby came out of me and got swallowed by this snake, which would then somehow slither into Caleb. He went into the bathroom to get this done, while I figured out a way to escape our imprisonment. There was a shower stall in the corner of the apartment which was on white tiles with bright white lights. My cartoon-looking vampire friends were helping me figure out a way to break free. There were a lot of tiny blue bar of soaps in the shower stall. We decided to each take turns to rub the soap until it activated the auto-lather mode and filled the apartment with bubbles. Before we were successful, Caleb was already ready for delivery. I did not make it to the birth but I was there for my baby daughter's first words. She kinda looked like my niece Winter but with more hair and a smaller frame. We celebrated the moment by taking a stroll in the park on a beautiful sunny day.

Thumpity Thump Thump!

A lot has changed since my last post. Caleb and I have officially moved out of our house that will be signed over to the new homeowners tomorrow....why is this important in the baby-step journey? Because for the next few months...it will be a lonnggggg lonelyyyy summmeerrrr :-( My baby's daddy has moved to Lynnwood and I am in Camas...approximately 5hours apart, just like Seattle to Pullman when we were dating. Good thing we are going to get our smartphone soon, so we can have unlimited talk time and texting through free apps! This way, the baby daddy can stay in touch the baby progress remotely!

Since the baby is coming in a few months, we decided to increase our term life insurance to a more suitable amount. That means we needed to do blood draw, urine test etc. When the phlebotomist drew my blood, I noticed how plumpy my arm was! I thought that my fingers/hand/feet would be the most noticeable, but I didn't pay attention to my arm! How nice to know that I am gaining weight. I started off pre-pregnancy at about 108lbs and am now about 114lbs (17weeks I guess) I hope I gain weight gradually as oppose to gaining it all during the 3rd trimester...the midwife said stretch marks occur easier when the skin does not have time to slowly stretch along with the growth.

Speaking of my midwife, we met the midwife that is to deliver our baby; the same lady that delivered my niece and nephew - Charlotte something haha We got to listen to the baby's heartbeat for the first time! It was very exciting, since I don't feel too many effects of pregnancy, it is nice to know the baby's heart is beating strongly inside!

White + Asian = Wasian?

We started looking into naming little Caden...if he is a boy, we will stick with Caden (maybe we should have a back up?) but we both mutually liked the name instantaneously when we heard of the name on Biggest Loser haha it means Battle. We didn't start thinking of any girl names, but we just recently ordered a Chinese-English baby names, so we can give our kids Chinese middle names.

The thing I like best from our last ultrasound is seeing the baby move- made me feel such a connection to the baby and knowing that something alive and precious is inside of me. This is a great gift, even thou it can be uncomfortable from time to time. It gave me the courage to turn down the job offer from Boeing even though it paid more, because I know that I would need to try be at home for my baby as much as I could.

The other thing we were curious about is what our baby may look like..there's so many cute babies that are the product of mixed lineage, we feel like ours should turn out that way too. However, morphthing.com made our baby look really weird haha I don't think it looks like either one of us, but then again, most parents don't really believe that their kids look more like one parent or the other!

                                                                                                   

2inch peanut

We saw the baby kick and wave its arms around...such excitement! From the picture, it seems like it's so big, but really, it is only 4.5cm hahaha I am having a great pregnancy, feeling very healthy and strong...just constipated :-(

We had Winter over for the weekend and Caleb and I took turns to change her diaper. This is the first time Caleb changed a diaper and there turns out to be poop in the diaper! He was afraid that the poop will smear on the carpet, so he changed Winter on the hardwood floor.

Funny Bodily Functions

Our next ultrascan is this Friday - it should tell us more accurately when the baby is due, but at this point, we are still shooting for early October, after all, we are pretty sure that we conceived in mid January. So if you just do the basic math, 9months later baby Caden should be out sometime then.

I am very glad that I don't have severe nausea..that wave came and left with the jetlag. The only time I feel nausea now is if I am too hungry for too long, or if I am too full because I stuffed myself. So the key is to maintain a stable blood sugar level. So I am munching on something every hour. I carry around a bag of almonds and beef jerky (high in protein so I stay full for longer) and at work, since I am at a desk most of the time, I have easy access to my snacks - string cheese, yogurt, fruit, weight loss shake...and because of these option of snack, I have also been experiencing an increase in flatulence-passing. Dairy does not sit very well with me but I needed these healthy snacks that can increase bowel movements because I am constipated :-(

The biggest change I am facing now is my appetite and the food portion. I don't enjoy snacking as frequent as I do, but I realize that I feel better if I make myself eat something light consistently. Last weekend we bought some pants for me that are 2size bigger than what I normally wear, because we are anticipating thunder thighs and fat bottom hahaha as it is I can't zip some of my pants, so I wear really long shirts to work in order to cover up the open fly...

Breaking the news

Despite the jetlag and nausea, we decided the news is too good to hold in any longer. I had the privilege to share the news with my family in Malaysia in person, so it is time to break the news to the American family!

I wish I was able to record the expressions on my own family members back at home, but they got to know the news as soon as I found out which means I didn't have the chance to video them. It was a blessing to see the responses of the American family's excitement for our new bundle of joy!

Growing

March 1, 2012

God is good! I am not experiencing any morning sickness at all. At this point, I am about 8weeks (I think) and I am healthy as a horse. Aside from the fact that I know I am pregnant, it doesn't really show. Although, I am eating a lot. Maybe I am eating a lot because I am in Malaysia and I try to eat as much as I can LOL!

March 15, 2012

I spoke too soon...God is still good. I just am experiencing the morning sickness more closer to the middle of my first trimester. I think I started getting mild nausea on March 6th...usually occurring around feeding time. When I am hungry, I think of the different food I can eat, and the idea of eating most of it gets me nauseous. When I'm eating, I'm usually okay. The only time I'm not feeling okay when eating is when I try to swallow my pills (which I have since given up eating at the start of the nausea)...it's bad enough to be gagging from normal food, I don't need the help of pills to add to the gagging! When I am done eating, I also get slight nausea because I overstuff myself. By overstuff, I dont really mean I eat too much; I mean the normal portion that I am used to is suddenly too big of a portion, so I keep trying to give out a big belch so I can make space in my tummy to reduce the discomfort...that is when the meals try to follow the burps :-( !!!

We just came back from our first doctor visit yesterday afternoon. Apparently, they dont use the handheld ultrasound checker on your tummy when you are in your first trimester. The doctor said that the baby is too small to see from the tummy, so she had to use a handheld ultrasound probe to insert vaginally to see the baby...not the most comfortable experience, but it is rather exciting when you see the baby's heartbeat!

According to my period cycle (the first day of my last period I had was on Dec 31st) I am at 10weeks pregnant, but according to this sonogram, my baby is only 7.5weeks old. It could be due to my longer period cycle from the normal 28days, I am at 32days. So if I am really 10weeks preggers, it puts my due date at Oct 9, a day after Mary Jo's birthday. But if I am only 7.5weeks prego, then the due date is at Oct 25, a day after Joanna's birthday. Either birthday, I am glad it is not a Christmas baby, and plus, it's easy to remember since it's near important people's birthday!

Looking at the picture, the long black worm is the amniotic fluid (according to Wikipedia, amniotic fluid is the nourishing and protecting liquid contained by the amniotic sac of a pregnant woman), whatever that is haha! But the baby is the white circle inside that long black worm...yes...the baby is THAT small now! Even at that size it is putting me through soooo much changes!!!We saw the heartbeat in that small circle, and it was beating super fast. We didnt really see a heart, but we saw beating which was super cool!

We have another appointment next week with a better ultrasound machine that will take a better picture of the baby, so that will help me identify a better due date and more accurate baby's age now. Until then, my job is to stay healthy and eat well. Doctor says I am to eat every 2hours..lots of snacks...high protein and lesser on the carbohydrates! Protein makes me fuller longer and carbs makes me hungry faster, and since I'm eating in smaller portion, I need to make the eating count! So we went to Costco to buy beef jerky and almonds, then we packed it into tiny bags for me to carry around in my purse so I can have my Munchy Munchy, as Mummy always calls it ;-)