fumofu

I knew it was a boy! (Joy was right, Hana not so much – sorry!) My mom and dad, parents of 3 girls, will be grandparents to 3 boys. I was a bit nervous before leaving the house this morning, especially since we overslept. The ultrasound specialist definitely knew his stuff. He pointed out anatomical parts left and right. Yes, I see the 4-chambered heart. Yes, I see the skull and spine. (All this is really cool shit.) No, I don’t know where the liver and spleen are. BUT! I definitely saw the pee pee after he pointed out the thigh bone to us!

It’s just the coolest thing! I feel him kicking me all day. It’s all fun and games now. But I bet as he gets bigger, I’m going to feel my body parts being dislodged by his karate kicks.

After the doctor’s and a lunch break, I went to the library and checked out two baby name books. We had one name each for both sexes in mind during these few months. Now that we know it’s a boy, we’ll have to start seriously thinking. I had Albert ask his parents to help us think of a Chinese name. But it’s gotta sound good in both Mandarin and Cantonese. I’ll have to run it by my parents too.

Went to see Dr Kent in the afternoon. He is just a very sweet man, but a very busy man. I had to wait a while in the exam room before he came to see me. I confessed I had a cold last week and didn’t call him. But he assured me that I took good care of myself and all is well. We listened to Baby’s heart, which was fast and strong. He’s growing up so fast!

So now that we’re well into our second trimester and we know it’s a boy, it’s time to share our good news to everyone.

Anyone who volunteers to babysit gets a vote on naming our kid. Maybe.

Addendum

I’m flipping through the baby names book and asked Albie, “How about Bailey?”

Albie: “For a girl or boy?”

Me: “…”

Me: “We’re having a boy.”

Albie: “Oh yeah! You’re so smart!”

Me: “…”

I felt Baby kicking tonight! I’ve been trying to get a sense of what it feels like. But so far, I’ve only felt my pulse on my tummy or my stomach growling. But tonight after I was well-fed (made some homemade triple chocolate ice cream – WOW!) I felt a bubble of movement in my lower belly once every few minutes or so. It’s just amazing. There’s a little person inside me playing! I can’t wait to meet him/her. But first thing first, are you a boy or girl? I NEED to know!! Just 3 more days now…

In the homemaking forefront, I am starting to make good use of my KitchenAid stand mixer and attachments. Like last week I ground my own beef to make pita pockets. It was really good! I even fed my brother-in-law with it, and he ate everything on his plate. Albie had to take a work call, but said it was better than when I made it one other time. I’m definitely going to start grinding my own meat. Next time I make zuppa toscana, I’ll definitely make my own Italian sausage. Tonight I made my first batch of ice cream, which was easier than I thought. It required a lot of chocolate, which made it very rich and creamy. I ate a couple of spoonfuls and was satiated. Definitely need to pass that around to my parents and sisters.

Late night earlier this week I was making chicken nuggets as a pre-bed snack. Albie wanted some too, so we turned on the TV while waiting for the nuggets to cook. We settled on “Death Race” aka Jason Statham driving movie. I don’t know if it’s the hormones or mother’s instinct, but I just couldn’t stomach the violence and brutality. I used to never do this, but I covered my eyes and asked Albie if it was over, and after that I just had to walk away. Even he was surprised, “What’s happening? You used to love this kind of stuff!” I think my days for violent, horror and gory movies are over. But not ready for Disney or Pokemon either…

My belly ballooned this week. I definitely look pregnant these days. I got my tape measure out earlier this week and measured again tonight, and somehow I grew 3 inches in a matter of days. I feel majorly bloated. My belly feels really tight. And I’ve never seen my belly button stretched this big before. And I’m climbing up the scale to numbers I’ve never hit. Scary and exciting at the same time!

It’s so nice being home alone! Albert’s parents flew back to Ohio 3 days ago. It’s just nice being able to do laundry late at night and not having to close the door when we change. It was a good parting week for everyone. We took them to see OVO by Cirque du Soleil on a weeknight. Great show! as expected. We bought the cheapest tickets and thought our seats weren’t bad at all. Albert’s dad has never been to a CdS production, so during intermission he said to me, “So, no animals?” It was cute. They seem like they enjoyed themselves. The following night we let Albert’s mom off of cooking duty and took them to an izakaya for dinner. I wanted sushi, dammit, but settled with katsudon. The beef tongue shio was good too. Definitely have to go back there. They have wagyu sashimi for $$$. May consider trying when Baby comes out.

At first I thought it was going to be OK having Baby sleep in our room. But then I realize what a drag it is to train him/her to sleep through the night starting at month 4, and that maybe having a nursery would be nice. So now we’re hopping into the real estate market sooner than we had anticipated. We’ll have to go to the bank for a loan assessment to see how much we can borrow before we start shopping. It’s scary and exciting at the same time!

My belly is getting slightly bigger by the week. I’ve been pretty obsessed with the scale lately, which I think needs to be recalibrated. But I suddenly gained 2.5 pounds overnight, so I’m starting to watch what I eat more closely. I’m supposed to gain a pound a week. Don’t want to gain too much now! or else I’ll weight more than Albie towards the end of the pregnancy.

Albie’s been going into work wearing Casual Friday wardrobe every day. He’s been too lazy to iron his button ups, so he’s opting to wear t-shirts instead. I needed to iron my maternity pants, so I decided to help him iron his shirts as well using our super duper Rowenta steam iron I bought off our wedding registry. I love that thing. It doesn’t make me love ironing, but it makes the process go a lot faster. I think if I You Tube video clips on how to properly iron shirts and pants, it’d make the experience even better. I think we’ve taken great advantage off our wedding registry. We received gadgets that I would never buy myself but have always wanted. Who wants to buy a $xxx.xx combination coffee maker on their own? But Albert likes the DeLonghi Caffe Nero a lot. I finally figured out how to make espresso and had fun making them. It froths milk for cappuccinos, but I’m too lazy to clean out the frother. So I manually do it with our battery-powered handheld frother. Works like a charm.

We read an article a couple months back stating that couples that manage the household together maintain a better and longer-lasting relationship. Its title went something like, “Couples who do dishes together stay together.” So now I say that to everything we do to get Albie to do anything with me. Couples who do laundry together stay together; couples who shower together stay together; couples who fart together stay together! :D

Happy One-Month Birthday, Mason! Hehe…I haven’t seen him in a couple of weeks, hope he’s OK.

Brownie points for Albert’s Dad for badgering him to change the air filters, coz today I woke up with just a slightly stuffed nose and no parched mouth. It’s a miracle! If only we had changed them 3 months ago, my first trimester would’ve been more enjoyable. Not like it was bad though.

My pregnancy has been a breeze compared to some horror stories I’ve heard and read on the internet. Even Patricia had a bad case of morning sickness. But there are two things I miss: Raw seafood and my relatively acne-free face. I wouldn’t mind some uni onigiri right now – YUM. My doctor said I should stop using benzoyl peroxide, so not having my face bleached and having my hormone levels go haywire these past 3 months have resulted in a zitty face. I’m itchy all over and I just want to pick my face all the time. I feel like I’m scratching Albie’s face when I brush my forehead against him. I guess it’ll be my fault if Baby ends up having bad acne.

I watched almost the entirety of the Super Bowl, save for food and bathroom breaks. More than Albie did, who had to check in on work every now and then. I don’t think I’ve watched an entire game before, especially not one I actually paid attention to. Well…there were a lot of fatties to keep me attentive. ;)

We’ve officially passed our first trimester, yay! Albert and I went to our prenatal appointment with Dr Kent. Gained 3 pounds since last month, making in 5-6 in total. We got to see Baby again on the ultrasound machine. We caught him sleeping, I think, this time with a side view. He’s so cute! I just want to go in there and rub his head, stroke his back, and pat his little bum. He’s about 3 inches long now, with head diameter of 1 inch. My belly is growing steadily. I still look frumpy. Hopefully in a few more weeks I’ll upgrade to a more pregnant belly. I also got a Pap smear, which is a little different than the standard test. I guess the doctor can’t really take a sample of my cervix anymore. Instead, he took samples just up the va-j-j. Usually I’m pretty good at relaxing my muscles during a Pap test. But this time, I think, subconsciously I just didn’t want anything foreign shoved up there and I instinctually clenched those muscles. The whole process was just more uncomfortable than previous Pap’s. The doctor also gauged how much room is in the vagina to see if I have enough room for Baby to come out come delivery time. I passed!

What was also different was Albie was in the room with me. Had I known it was gonna be uncomfy I would’ve had him hold my hand. But I was a good girl, and Dr Kent said this was a good preview of delivery day behavior. Which I think I’d be mess with swear words coming out left and right. But we’ll see. :)

These days we’re excited about Baby and finding out the gender in a month at our next genetic screening appointment. We’ll get another in-depth ultrasound to inspect if the organs are forming correctly. Hopefully we’ll find out if we’re having a boy or girl! Albert doesn’t have a preference for one or the other. My friend Joy thinks it’ll be a boy. My gut instinct says it’ll be a boy, but I wouldn’t mind a girl either. I’d like to have two kids, a boy and a girl (the American dream, right?). So whatever we have now, I hope to have the opposite sex next time. And being born with two older sisters, I would like to raise a boy just to see how it’ll be like. So a slight preference for a boy for me. But baby girl clothes are soooo much cuter!

Tonight we met up with my extended family for Chinese New Year dinner at East Ocean. Standard New Years set dinner, like fat choy with dried oysters. Good stuff. My skinny cousin Yvonne didn’t want to have anything to do with the dried oyster, but my aunt said she has to eat it for auspicious reasons. That girl needs to eat more. Doesn’t matter what it is, just eat more. Anyways, it was nice comparing notes with Patricia. She said she and Steve attended their first baby class on Caesarian births. They didn’t get their ID’s checked, and it was a simple video showing with a nurse explaining. Maybe we should’ve snuck in and saved some money. Next week they’re going to an all-day class on Labor Day, so I’ll be babysitting Bahamas then.

Went to our nuchal translucency screening today and got some more ultrasound photos. Baby is growing fast now, almost at 3 inches in length. She kept making this coughing/hiccupping motion, which Albert commented might be from all that cigarette smoke I inhaled over the weekend… Anyways, Baby passed the genetic screening, which is reassuring. There was a mix-up with my OB in regards to my blood test, which I had to redo. I got a line by line price list for the entire genetic screening, which may be costing us a fortune. I suspect our insurance won’t pay any of it, as the test is not required by the state. But the test was worth it.

I bought my first pairs of maternity pants! Got tired of wearing sweats, so I went to the mall after my appointment. Bought a pair of black pants from GAP maternity. I got to witness some parental frustration from the mom and her two toddlers next to me in the dressing room. Her kids were misbehaving, and one of them refused to try on her clothes, and the boy got button-pushing crazy and pushed the assistance button, which frustrated the mom. Kids were cranky and mom was losing it – definitely not looking forward to that! Anyways, went to Motherhood Maternity and got the royal treatment. I tried on about 15 pairs of pants and ended up with a pair of jeans and brown pants. Sold my soul by signing up for some shit and now I’m getting (more) junk mail for life. Whoops. So far I’ve only worn the jeans. They’re definitely comfy. All elastic waistband – it’s a faux zipper! But either I have big hips and my thighs taper off, or my belly bump isn’t big enough yet, but the pants keep slipping down. I might need to invest in some suspenders.