On going to do list

I enjoy ticking that "check box" when you get a task complete...just like crossing off an item from the grocery list when you've placed it in your cart. Getting the task done is the goal, but ticking that check box gives me a sense of accomplishment...it is finished! Otherwise, how else do you know if the task is completely done? Some people are more organized than I am, so they may have their to-do list in their head, but I tend to forget (especially with the pregnant brain, or with a husband who says "I will take care of it" and then forgets as well).

Similar to planning a wedding or a vacation to a new place, there's a laundry list of things to do prior to baby's arrival. I've been blessed to have a husband who is helpful (after I nag and nag and nag haha!!) his excuse is "I want to be a kid for as long as I can before the kid comes!" that leaves me as the only "adult" trying to shrink the to-do list. What makes it more difficult is that we are in the midst of moving, therefore, a lot of things are changing simultaneously. Here's what we have on-going now...

• Get life insurance quote
• Caleb get T-Dap vaccine (need to look for primary care provider)
• Interview pediatrician (need to research local pediatricians)
• Fill in Cord-Blood donation paper work
• Sign up for birthing classes (need to find one first!)
• Finalize baby-item list (loan from Holly and purchase the rest)
• Acquire hospital bag (since I am delivering at a birthing center)
• Purchase more pre-natal vitamins
• Find Chinese middle name for baby Violet/Annabel/Hailey...
• Submit maternity leave for work
• Figure out tax paper work changes from new addition to the family
• Move into new apartment (get nursery ready)
• Pregnancy photoshoot
• Discuss expectations with confinement lady (aka Mummy!)

This list is baby-specific...we have another personal to-do list that I don't know how to get them all done by October 16! Breathe, mama, breathe!!!

The lady who lived in her shoe

I've always wondered about the ol' nursery rhyme of the old grandma who lived her shoe. I don't really know what that is about, but if I had to make a guess, she probably spent so much money on shoes that the cost of all her shoes combined would equate to the cost of a house! This has never been and probably will never be my case; as much as I like to own pretty stuffs, I'm too practical. The shoes must serve a greater purpose than just being a fashion statement.

For the past two weeks, my weight gain has been rather tremendous. I started this pregnancy journey at about 106lbs and now at week 25, I am at a whopping 130+lbs! And I still have 15more weeks to go! I am definitely maintaining a healthy diet (except for the occasional craving for Shin Ramen!) so I know my weight gain is not in vain. However, I have never been this heavy in my life, so my poor feet is struggling to hold up such a big body! Therefore, I have been experiencing rather unpleasant soreness around my ankle and the sole of my feet. Since walking is the only form of "exercise" that I do while I'm pregnant, I can't let my aching feet be a hindrance from my one and only physical activity!

I spent several days visiting multiple stores to try to find the right shoes...this time, cost wasn't an issue! I am willing to invest in some good walking shoes, but alas, it is not easy to find the right pair~! I visited Payless Shoe store, Target, Ross, Sports Authority, REI and even Whole Foods (they carry Toms...). I was told how comfortable Toms are, but upon trying them on, I was not impressed. 

These were some candidates that I was considering... 

I ended up purchasing this instead...

Unfortunately, I did not like them because they rubbed against my toes and heel...I will be returning them soon...I begrudgingly bought these and will probably be using them as my walking shoes. I dislike the lack of appeal to the eyes, but I really appreciate the comfort it provides...

To help ease the sight for sore eyes, I rewarded myself with these....

(no they do not contain any raw fish in them!)

The Baby Gender Announcement!

Ladies and Gentlemen may we introduce to you our wonderful, beautiful, amazing, the very first 

Baby Girl Martin!!

We've known for a little over a month now, but have waited to announce it on the web because we needed to wait till after July 1st, when we announced it to the Webbs and Martin (that's the earliest date everyone was available to get together). We have announced to Malaysia via postcard ahead of time and everyone was thrilled to receive the surprise in the mail (thank God everyone received their mail!) 

We've been trying to find a good way to announce the gender of the baby, so after some research, we decided to play pinata as oppose to simply verbalizing the gender. Caleb and I enjoyed a sunny afternoon making the paper-mache in the sun as we got ourselves sticky with paste!

We made two balloons - one for the small group and another for the family. Each event was unique in its own way. With the small group, the news came out a little bit faster than expected when Andreea decided to rip open the pinata instead of hitting it. With the family, the pinata did not want to break so it took almost 10minutes until the confetti came out! Hopefully that does not symbolize how the baby will actually be born!

Here's the vote of the gender...I guess we know now who is right...

Yesterday was a really fun event - thanks to everyone for helping making it such a memorable day! 

Caleb, Heidi and Grandma Joan helping make the shish-kebabs

Holly made the beautiful watermelon basket

Dereck was grilling all the yummy food

Heidi taking the picture of everyone on the dinner table

After dinner, Caleb took hung the pinata and explained the rules. Everyone randomly drew a number and went in order from smallest to biggest number of who gets to hit the pinata. Each person gets 30seconds to find the pinata and make a hit - you can make multiple swings but you only get one go at the pinata. Since the pinata was so resilient, majority of the family had an opportunity to go at the pinata! 

The only thing constant is change

I try to make the pictures be consistent so we can track the actual growth of the belly over time, however, since we are in a transition period, our location is not constant. As you can see from Week 1- Week 15, the location is the same (our first home in Vancouver, the master bathroom). After that, we moved and lived separately :-( In Week 20 & 21 the picture was taken in my room at the Lim's and in Week 22 the picture was taken in Caleb's room at Mike's place where he is renting. I think it is interesting to see the comparison between week 1 and week 22 where change is so drastic! I didn't even realize that my tummy is now pointy! Not only that, my hair is growing along with the belly! Hehe :-) I'm glad that my hair is long enough to put in a pony tail so its disable baby to pull my hair haha!!

Belly is a hand magnet

On June 11 Caleb and I felt the baby kick for the first time. I was told that the baby was probably moving heavily in me, but since it is a new experience for me, I probably couldn't recognize them as baby movements. But I was 100% confirm that baby was squirming and kicking on that Sunday evening when Caleb and I were snuggling watching a movie. I told Caleb to put his hand on my tummy and shortly after that we felt a very distinct kick! It was super exciting! Ever since then, little baby has been kicking up a storm everyday; not too strong but little bumps here and there randomly throughout the day. Brings me so much joy to feel baby's movement :-)

At Week 22, baby should have developed more features like eyelids and ears, so I try to hum or sing more. Since baby is kicking, that means baby feels me as much as I feel baby, so I would frequently rub my tummy or simply place my hand on my belly...makes me feel like I am holding baby. I heard about having random hands rubbing pregnant bellies, but since I work in a male-dominant environment, it would be super awkward to have men touch my belly. So the only hands that has been touching baby are mine or the dad's :-) So my belly is only a hand magnet to us, not strangers!

Since my belly is rather big now, it is challenging to cook..I made dinner last night and since the kitchen counter is waist height, I am constantly using my upper back muscles to reach out and that causes a sore back!! I thought having backache would be from carrying the belly, not from bending over...sigh, I am just glad that so far, I don't have to be cooking so much.

Our midwife called us with some bad news a few days ago. One of my tube test came back positive for BV which is bacterial vaginosis...this is supposedly common for a lot of pregnancies, but may be dangerous for the baby if not treated well - we could face a premature birth. To treat it, we need to kill those bad bacteria by flushing out all bacteria with antibiotics, and then build up the good bacteria with probiotics...I was given metronidazole prescription which is basically antibiotics in gel form applied vaginally. It was a difficult process to go through to get those medication and here's why. With Caleb and I being in transition between jobs and housing, our insurance information, medical history and mailing address are all over the place, and to add to complication, the medical clerical staff were not very efficient in their work ...the different clinic/test lab/hospital that we had to go through did not know how to handle paperwork transmission well...thus lots of time was wasted just waiting. I suppose that's why the people waiting to see the doctors are called PATIENTS!

After our ultrasound from two weeks ago, I mailed postcards home to the other side of the world for the gender announcement and my family knows what we are having, so they are already giving input on the baby names. We narrowed down to top 10, but with family assistance, I think it got slashed in half haha! The announcement in USA will happen on July 1st which the soonest when the Webbs and Martins can get together. I am biting nails to not leak!! But thankfully I am able to discuss it with my family in Malaysia, since they are also giving ideas for the baby's middle name.

Baby's First Video

We were at the ultrasound yesterday to find out the gender of the baby. Before they called our name to the service room, I told Caleb to take a video of the session. What I forgot to tell him was to not ask for permission because I was previously informed of the dumb rule that any photography or video footage was not allowed during the ultrasound. When we went in and I was prepped up for the scan, Caleb asked," Babe, do you want me to video the whole thing or just the gender discovery section?" This blows our cover and the technician proceeded with telling us what I already knew. Feeling sorry for exposing our cover, Caleb decided to take the following action...

I don't know if the technician knew Caleb was trying his best to bluff, but we sure had a good laugh from his attempt to redeem himself. Even though we weren't able to have a video session of the entire experience, the service center was nice to give us a CD of some pictures and short clips of the ultrasound. Here are some cooler footage of the session that we can share :-)

This is baby's kicking activity...

This is baby playing peekaboo and opening/closing mouth...

Daddy and Mommy loves baby

Since Daddy and Mommy have to live separately for a short time in order to setup a better career arrangement that enables Mommy to take care of baby from home, we still love each other very much and we talk every evening through FaceTime on our iPhones :-)  Yesterday night we spent some quality time together praying for baby, reading some scriptures over baby for God's favor, grace and wisdom. Today is the revealing of the gender and Daddy woke up very nervous and excited to find out what baby is!

Daddy was playing with his iPhone and making fun of Mommy's belly since it is growing so big now, it really feels like the belly cannot be any bigger!! As you can see, baby is taking up so much space inside Mommy that the belly button is being pushed out..when Mommy sits straight, the belly button is still an Inny but when Mommy bends back, belly button is almost and Outty! It is a very silly picture, but I thought it would be fun to show Daddy and Mommy's silly side :-)