Getting Ready

It's the tail-end of Week 36, which means starting on Saturday, a healthy baby's arrival is fair game at any time! S. and I have been rushing to get things ready over the last month, just in case little Aiden decided to make an early appearance. It seemed to me that everyone else who was expecting a baby this year has had an early arrival, and I wanted to be prepared for that. We had a laundry list of things to do that we've been checking off diligently, though at times it seemed to be never-ending as we kept adding to it, too. I think we are basically at the point though where we are about as ready as we're ever going to be... let's do this! *Fist pump*

I'm super grateful to have had the option of taking four weeks off prior to my due date. This past week was the first week of my maternity leave, and I loved being able to take my own time to get things done (or not get things done). The days have passed quickly in a blur of house organizing, naps, walks, and meeting up with friends/family. Ladies, if you have the option of taking time off, you should do it. For me, it's been so, so great to finally take my mind off work and to get in some much needed rest and quiet before the baby arrives. I feel like having this time to myself has allowed me to mentally and emotionally prepare for the baby and motherhood, for me to really believe that we absolutely can handle the responsibility of being someone's parents.

Aiden's been getting stronger and stronger each day. When he wasn't so strong, it was easier just to think of him as indigestion or something that was causing my tummy to rumble, but now, it cannot be ignored - there is definitely a little human being in there, almost ready to come out and be a part of our family. It's crazy, wonderful, scary, and calming at the same time. So many emotions! The baby movements in my womb are definitely a large part of what I'll miss most about being pregnant; I love feeling so connected to him at all times. I'm pretty sure it's the last time I'll feel so connected to him without any effort at all. Once he comes out, it's back to square one in terms of determining his likes, dislikes, his personality, etc... Everything! He's a new little person that I'll have to figure out and get to know again. Hopefully, I'll get to know and love him enough that we can build an even stronger bond than what we have now.

Another aspect of the pregnancy that I've truly appreciated is how much my relationship with S. has grown. I didn't think it were possible to love him any more than when we got married, but every day since has proved me wrong. And throughout this pregnancy, I'm reminded time and again how lucky I am to have such a wonderful, supportive, loving life partner by my side, facing everything with me, every step of the way. Our love and relationship have deepened so much through the last two years since we exchanged our vows - happy early 2nd anniversary, honey! - and I can't wait to see how it will continue to grow as we tackle parenthood together. Always together. :)

Okay, that's about as much mushy as I can handle without bawling these days. This will likely be the last post before Aiden comes... Any friendly wagers on when he will make an appearance?

Week 32 - Aiden's the Size of a Squash!

Time is flying by! According to The Bump, Aiden is now the size of a squash, measuring between 15.5 and 16.5 inches in length and weighing approximately 2.5 to 3.8 pounds. It's crazy to think that we're so close to meeting our little one! Every day we get just a little bit giddier at the prospect of parenthood. :)

My favorite position these days is lying down on my left side with pillows propping up my feet to try to alleviate the swelling. My feet and ankles still swell up fairly easily these days with prolonged standing or sitting, and it's so uncomfortable to feel my skin stretched that way.  Plus, it makes me sad to see the dimples stay in my foot from where I press my fingers into the flesh. So weird and pitiful at the same time. It's now a daily routine to come home from work, lie down on the couch with pillows under my head and feet, and veg with some TV til S. gets home in the evening for us to have dinner together.

The three (!) of us just got back from our last flying trip pre-birth this past week; we had decided to fly to Houston to see my family for my mom's 60th birthday. It was a great surprise for her, and we had a lot of fun hanging out with everyone. We spent a weekend in the Texas Hill Country where we went inner tubing down the San Marcos river (yup, I went, too!), explored a bit of Austin, and did a lot of yummy BBQ-ing. It was a great way to spend the July 4th weekend.

Surprising Mom for her birthday :)

Everyone was also super excited about Aiden and wanted to rub my growing belly. He is so well-loved already! My Aunt #6 and mom went a little crazy with baby clothes shopping; I think they've managed to single-handedly buy his entire wardrobe for his first year of life. :P

My brother with me and Aiden at 31 weeks!

Aiden is super active these days; I don't think a half hour goes by without me feeling some movement from him. Sometimes, the kicks are so strong, I'm surprised I don't see actual limbs poking out of my belly already. Poor S. has even had his hand knocked off my belly a couple of times by Aiden's karate chops. So crazy! Yet super reassuring as he's letting us know that he's getting bigger, stronger, and hopefully healthier in there. :)

S. and Aiden having some bonding time :)

Bye, Bye Second Trimester!

Well, today is the last day of my second trimester. Third trimester, here we come! We are at week 28 starting tomorrow!

According to the Baby Center, Aiden is about the size of a large eggplant, weighing in at ~2.5 pounds and is probably close to 15 inches in length from head to toe.

Somehow, that doesn't look very large, but the stats certainly make him sound large. He's got all the essentials at this point, and it's basically weeks of building up layers of muscle and fat for the next three months. Oh joy, more weight to carry around! :P

I've loved my second trimester. I had it luckier than most women, I think. I felt mostly normal, and my energy levels for being active have been great. I managed to go on a couple of trips both near and far - London, Paris, Seattle, Santa Cruz, Monterey, Berlin, Munich, Salzburg, Vienna, and Chicago - without any major issues. Little Aiden is one well-travelled baby already! I bet he's going to get my travel lust gene. 

The one thing that's come up is swollen feet. Longer flights made my feet swell up like boiled sausages, ready to bust open their skins. The most swollen they got was probably from my return trip to the States from Vienna. The night before the long flight home, we had decided to get standing room only tickets to the Viennese Opera, and lucky us, we got them and stood up for all of the 3.5 hour opera. Then there was the 14 hours of flight time home the very next day... Yeah, not so great for my feet. I basically spent the following week trying to elevate and ice my feet when I could, and that seemed to help. In my head, it was still worth it! We got to see the opera for 4 Euros as opposed to 250 Euros! Yes, Aiden, your mom is a sucker for deals. :)

I'm getting heavier and heavier. :( At this point, I am currently 34 pounds heavier than pre-pregnancy. I wish I could blame it all on Aiden, but he's only 2.5 pounds. 

I've loved feeling Aiden move inside me. His movements are getting stronger and stronger. I remember at 18 weeks, I was so impatient to feel something, anything, to indicate that there was a baby in there. It wasn't until week 20 that I felt something definitive and S. could verify with me that he felt Aiden move as well. It was so alien! Nowadays, he's just poking around at all hours of the day. I love that reassurance that he's alive and well inside me. My mom also got very excited to feel his movements; we were in Chicago together for the weekend, and she was as bad as S. in terms of how often she'd just reach over to feel him kick against her hand. :) He is going to be a loved baby, that's for sure!

Alright, hopefully things continue to progress smoothly. Days are just flying by! I've got two months left to go before my maternity leave starts. Can't wait!

And... We've Got a Name!

S. and I agreed that it's probably the right time to tell everyone our baby's name now, especially since we (okay, more like I) apparently feel comfortable enough with the name to have it slip out in public company! Last Friday, we were having dinner with our friends T. and L., and after dinner, as they were walking away, I said while rubbing my belly, "Poor <baby's name>. He must be feeling so squished from all the food I ate tonight!" Oops. Almost as soon as I said that, I realized my mistake and hoped fervently that I hadn't been overheard. Unfortunately, L. did hear, tossing back, "I heard that!" I guess the secret's out!

It's not like we hadn't been holding onto this name for awhile now - I think starting from week 5 or 6, we'd already been playing around with various boys' names, and we always came back to this one as the one we liked best. We did what a lot of new parents-to-be did - we each looked for baby names that we liked and came up with our own lists. We tried to see which names overlapped for us... Unfortunately, none of them did! Then we just started going through the names together that we'd come up with to see which ones we liked. 

I'll reveal his middle name first - Franklin. This was something I had proposed to S. early on, and lucky for me, he agreed to it. I really wanted to name our son after my uncle on my mom's side. He's the only uncle on my mom's side of the family, and he's both unmarried and without kids. As me, my brother, and my cousins grew up, he took care of us like a real dad would, taking us on trips together, planning weekend outings for us, and just being an awesome father figure. He's one of the kindest, generous, intelligent, family-oriented men I know, and I would be so proud if our son could grow up to be like my Uncle Franklin.

Given that we wanted to go with <something> Franklin Chong, the "K" names were quickly nixed from our list... Think about the initials. Yeah. His father, "Colonel" Sanders, and little KFC. I'm sure our little guy would have loved to deal with that growing up! :) 

We wanted a name that wasn't too common, too Biblical, too much associated with a particular stereotype, etc... We wanted a name that our son could really grow into and make it into something that represents him, his personality/character, whatever that may be. The name we decided on was one that S. had found first, and after saying it aloud a few times, addressing my belly by the name for a couple of weeks, and really just falling in love with saying the name and thinking about the baby with that name for awhile, we've decided to go with it. 

We're going to name our son Aiden Franklin Chong. Aiden has Celtic origins, meaning "fire", which we both liked since "fire" has so many different properties and characteristics, and it'll be up to our son to make the name represent what he will as he grows up. 

We're so excited to meet little Aiden in person, but until then, don't be surprised if you hear us talking about him as if he were here already! :) 

Side note, as I found this to be utterly adorable and I'm sure little Aiden (when he's finally able to read this blog) will find touching: I just found out that S. has gone and purchased little Aiden's first gift already. He bought a baby book that he wants to read to Aiden when he's finally here. :) It's so sweet to see S. this happy and excited about our baby - I love it! <3

Almost Halfway There!

We are almost at the halfway mark; this Sunday will mark the start of my 20th week of pregnancy! I am feeling pretty wonderful these days. My energy levels are back, I feel like being active (for the most part), and everything feels mostly the same as pre-pregnancy... except for the growing belly, of course.

We found out that we are having a baby boy at this week's ultrasound appointment. It's likely the last time we'll see our precious baby's image before we welcome him into the world this fall, so we definitely treasured every minute of it. He was very active the whole time; it's a wonder I can't feel him moving around yet! (I hear first time moms don't feel the kicks til the 20th-22nd weeks.) Neither S. nor I were particularly surprised by the news since our ultrasound technician at the 12th week mark told us she thought that the baby would be a boy. She seemed to have years of experience, so I'm sure she knew what she was talking about. :) We've been agonizing over it somewhat because, although we've always had a solid baby girl's name in mind for a daughter, we're still uncertain about what we want to name our son. I guess now we have to figure it out! We do have a front runner in mind, so I guess we'll start addressing our baby more frequently by the name and see how we like it. Feel free to suggest some names, though I won't hold it against you if you're trying to keep the perfect name to yourself for your future son!

Again, for the sake of remembering this time period, I am going to make a quick list of easy/hard things about the pregnancy over the last month:

Easy:
1. Drinking more water - I'm usually not much of a water drinker, and when I found out that I had to consistently down 8-10 8-oz. glasses of water everyday, I was pretty sure that this was never going to happen. My body seems to know that I need more water though - I feel thirsty if I don't have a gulp of water every 15 minutes or so. The 64-80 ounces of water per day was easy, even without me keeping track of it too hard.

2. Fooding - I'm not craving anything unusual, and there aren't any smells that are putting me off.

3. Staying stress-free - I guess it's a combination of work being more stress-free these days as well as my general philosophy of life keeping me stress-free, but whatever it is, it's working. I am feeling good - very content, happy, and thrilled with life. :)

Hard:
1. In-taking 1200 mg of calcium a day - I'm just not used to having the equivalent of 4 8-oz. glasses of milk a day to get this much calcium digested! It's a lot of calcium! Luckily, I've picked up some calcium gummies that give me 500 mg when I take two. That helps a ton.

2. Gaining an appropriate amount of weight - In my case, I've gained way too much weight already, and I was told I needed to NOT gain any weight between the last check-in and next week's check-in. So hard! But I know it's better for me in the long run; I don't want to be that woman in FL that delivered an 18-pound baby.

3. Figuring out what baby needs - With the huge and ever burgeoning baby industry the way it is, it really is little wonder that first-time parents are overwhelmed with what they need to get for their baby. I'm starting up a list of items and researching whether it's a necessity or a want, the various brands, the price... There's so much to look into! We went into a baby store recently to check out strollers and car seats, and we were completely out of our element. As soon as we saw the rows of strollers, our eyes kind of glazed over. It took a seasoned sales clerk to show us how everything worked, what parents typically look for in a stroller/car seat combo, etc. We were so thankful to get that walk-through. Honestly, you can read up all you want, but until you touch and play with it yourself, you have no idea what will work for you. Don't even get me started on the daycare search...yikes.

Anyway, overall we are still super happy and excited to be doing all this prep for Baby Chong. Can't wait to meet the little guy in the fall. Until then, I'm giving him loving belly rubs and telling him all the reasons why he should love me more than Dad. ;)

Mommy at the end of 18 weeks!

How We Discovered the Existence of Baby

I thought I'd have more exciting news to write about today, thinking that we would get to do another ultrasound and be able to confirm our baby's gender. Alas, it was not to be! Apparently, we have to wait for our 19-to-20 week visit to get the ultrasound then. Both S. and I were very disappointed at the news, but it was still a good OB/GYN visit as we got to hear our baby's heartbeat for the first time, so loud and strong. :)

In lieu of the gender news, I thought I'd take this blog entry to write about how we found out that we were having a baby in the first place!

It was New Year's Eve, and S. and I were busily driving from store to store, shopping for last minute items for the party we were hosting that night. As we were driving through the San Antonio Shopping Center, it suddenly occurred to me that 1) I was about four days late for my period, and 2) we were planning to have lots of alcoholic drinks at the party. Not that I am much of a drinker these days, but I had planned on at least tasting a bit of each concoction during the night; the thought that I might be pregnant made me take pause.

S. and I had been disappointed before though. My period had been late to come the month before, and we had been so excited to take the test and see that positive sign on it that when the test came out negative, I think both of us felt more than a little let down. Therefore, even though we went and bought a box of the pregnancy tests that afternoon, I think both of us weren't expecting much from it.

Well, we got home, and I went to the bathroom to take the test. I tried really hard not to have any expectations whatsoever. Unlike the last time though, where I agonizingly stared at the indicator for the full two minutes, expecting the "+" to appear, I took the test and just left it on the counter, trying not to psyche myself out on the result. S. kept me company as we waited in the bedroom, talking about last minute tasks to complete for the party that night. I finally went to take a look (making S. wait in the bedroom while I did so), and low and behold, a "+"! I was stunned speechless, and I remember this well of emotion filling my heart and blanking out every thought except for "WOW!" The immediate second thought was "How should I tell S.???"

You see, months before, I'd been joking with him that if I did find out that I were pregnant, I would probably not tell him and see how long it took for him to figure it out. :) I would never have followed through on that threat, but that didn't mean that I didn't want to announce it as a surprise of some sort. But how was I to accomplish the surprise now, especially with him standing just beyond the open door of the bathroom with me and the test just a few steps away?

I took a deep breath, schooled my expression, and turned towards him. "I'm not pregnant," I said in a low voice. I deliberately put the test back down on the counter, and walked out to him, holding my arms out for a hug. He held me soothingly and said, "It's okay... We can try again." From his tone, I could tell that he'd probably also been trying not to have any expectations this time around. I looked up at him and said softly, "Maybe you should look at it, too. Maybe I made a mistake or something. I dunno." I was trying so hard not to sound suspicious as I said this! :) He went into the bathroom and picked up the test.

He looked at the test for a few seconds, and his brow furrowed. He then looked at the instructions on the box, then back at the test. "Wait a minute...," he said, as he did another double-take between the test and the instructions. He looked up at me. "You're pregnant!" Hahaha... And thus I was able to surprise him. :)

We managed to keep the news a secret that night, except for a quick call to my mom to tell her. I asked her not to tell anyone yet though, since it was so early. However, come New Year's Day, we both had agreed that it was too much good news to contain, so we ended up telling some of our closest family and friends. It really was probably the best way we've ever rung in a New Year before. <3

Baby Thoughts - First Trimester Recap

We are expecting a baby early September, and the days are passing by way too quickly. How am I in my second trimester already??

I wanted to try to capture key thoughts/feelings from the last three months so I can come back to this and remember it all. Here goes:

- The fatigue that hit me during the first trimester was pretty hefty. I would barely make it through the work day and would be absolutely useless til I took a nap as soon as I got home. For someone who is used to having loads of energy, the huge change in energy levels took some getting used to. I didn't feel like seeing people, I didn't feel like organizing anything... Basically, I was in a state of sleep, wake up, eat, work, eat, work, sleep, eat, sleep for days on end.

- The amount of weight I put on in such a short amount of time was staggering. I read that body changes are different with each pregnancy, but to see myself gain 10 pounds within a month's time in January was shocking. I've gained 17 pounds since the beginning of January, and I am so determined to try to regiment future weight gain by being more active and eating better. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure how much of the weight gain thus far can actually be attributed to my pregnancy and how much of it was just me being low energy the last few months and eating whatever suited my mood. I will do better!

- I learned pretty quickly that I needed to have food in my stomach at all times to prevent nausea. I ate almost every 2 to 3 hours, and I began to carry around snacks (which I never used to do as I was used to only eating three meals a day). If I was ever caught without food around, I felt pretty gaggy, but it was speedily rectified with food in my stomach.

- Strangely, since I'd heard so much about this, I had no weird food cravings. The only thing I really noticed was an increased tolerance and desire for spicy food. Good thing spicy food was not something I had to avoid!

- Also, strangely, the two food items I thought I'd have a hard time quitting for a year didn't end up being so hard to quit. Somehow my body/baby must know what is good for it because coffee and the smell of coffee didn't tempt me anymore (I noticed this even back in December when I didn't even know I was pregnant yet), and I don't crave sushi, which is something that I used to crave at least once a week or every other week. I do still have coffee every now and again, but I can't seem to make myself want black coffee anymore, which is the only way I would drink coffee in the past. Instead, I'll order extra milky latte if I order coffee at all.

I can't believe that we're already at the point where we'll find out the sex of our baby at the next doctor's visit! S. and I don't have a preference for either sex, but we are excited to find out so that we can start addressing the baby properly by name when we talk to him/her. (Yeah, we had started doing that even as early as the first day that we found out I was pregnant.) We already have names in mind for both sexes, but as most people have recommended, we're not sharing til the baby's born! We can't wait for the day. :)