fumofu

I’m starting to get nervous. 33 weeks: 4 more til Baby’s full term, 7 more til expected delivery date (EDD). I’m watching closely at the slightest signs of labor. Reading about early deliveries in baby forums makes me feel unsettled. It’s like driving by a car accident. You just can’t help yourself but look. (Actually that’s a bad example; I usually don’t look when I’m driving, just to prove that I can resist.) Dr Kent says I’m measuring smaller than age of fetus by EDD. Going in for an ultrasound Monday. I hope he’s doing OK inside. At least he’s very active – I’ll never get bored watching and feeling him move and hiccup. :)

We signed the loan documents at the title company yesterday! Expected to finalize everything and get keys next Tuesday!! The ideal situation is to get the house ready for move-in before Baby arrives. Realistically…that probably won’t happen. We definitely want the house painted (uneven, two-tone paint lines bug). The plan is to drag Albie to the paint store this weekend to get some ideas – definitely spa blue in the master bedroom. :)

Last night’s CPR class marked the end of baby classes. Now I know what to do if a pregnant lady chokes (no Heimlich maneuvers!). Sad thing is if I’m alone in the house, choking and verbally-impaired, I won’t be located via cell phone if I dial 911. Santa Clara county isn’t equipped yet to locate callers via cell phone GPS. It’s possible to locate to the nearest tower, but that doesn’t really help, does it now. Maybe we should get a land line after all.

Too many things going on! I’m grateful for my silly husband, impossibly cute nephews, and a relatively healthy family.

One of my favorite pastimes on Sundays is reading the paper – that is, the circulars that are bundled by the comic pages.

• Back in elementary/middle school, I would only care for the comics and sometimes the ToysRUs circular.
• In high school, I clipped coupons, browsed the beauty store circulars, still read the comics.
• In college and grad school, I added Target and drugstore circulars to the list.
• Last year I discovered the Michael’s circular (its 40%-off one-item coupon is a gift that keeps on giving) when I was wedding planning.
• Now that we’re expecting, I found the 20%-off one-item coupon at BabiesRUs.
• Finally, with the gardening and house hunting, I’ve also added Home Depot, OSH, and other home improvement & appliances circulars to the long reading list.

Funny how we obsess over different things as Albert and I go through the phases of life (I never imagined I would ever get giddy flipping through a Home Depot ad). Same goes for TV shows I/we watch:

• “MMC” & cartoons in elementary/middle schools
• “Dawson’s Creek” while on the phone with Hana (after we checked our math homework) in high school
• “Gilmore Girls” and anime on Cartoon Network in college
• “The OC,”  ”House MD,” “Project Runway,” and “Battlestar Galactica” in grad school, then switched over to Japanese dramas and variety shows
• Our go-to channels these days: HGTV, DIY, Food, Travel, sometimes Discovery, Bravo, History, and the Japanese goodness

Plus the fact we got married, pregnant, and are in the market for a house (and car) all within 8 months. Then again we were together for 10 years before the craziness began. Not your typical timeline of life’s events.

We saw the OB today. Dr. Kent is such a nice doctor. We really like him – will probably keep him as Baby’s pediatrician, but I asked for a reference closer to Mountain View, just in case. The little guy is growing steadily, with a good, strong heartbeat. Dr. Kent pointed his foot out to me – so cool that he can decipher which body part is jutting out of my tummy! We’ll start going in every 2 weeks now. 10 more weeks to go…time flies way too fast.

Which will come first – the house or the baby? With the slow loan application process, it’s possible Baby will win the race – a big GRR.

When Albie is away, I tend to be more OCD. This week I’ve been reading up on circumcision (how funny that we were talking about smegma just days ago). I don’t know much about it, since I don’t own a penis. But Albert thought it was an automatic procedure that hospitals perform. Wrong! at least, I hope it’s not. No one’s chopping anything off my boy before I give permission, except for the umbilical cord.

So first of all, I was surprised that I can still access UCR’s VPN so that I can look up primary literature on PubMed. Second, I’m not surprised that I still get bored and sleepy while reading journal articles.

Here’s what I gathered from my reading:

• The American Academy of Pediatrics takes a neutral stance and does not recommend routine neonatal circumcision due to insufficient data on health benefits of circumcision.
• The three studies that show statistically significant decrease in HIV rates in circumcised males were done in Africa, which is a very different place than the US.
• Websites that give statements vying for and against circumcision do not always list references. Even if they do, some have a predetermined position and may give skewed opinions.
• While global rates of circumcised males given by WHO are different (20-80% in US & Canada, under 20% in European countries), rates of HIV-infected males are all under 1%, as estimated by UNAIDS/WHO. Within that 1%, the US actually has the highest rate of HIV-infected males. Interesting to note that most Asian countries contain less than 20% circumcised males while South Korea contains over 80%, all these countries have comparable HIV-infected population rates.
• Lower UTI and HIV infection rates are also reduced by proper hygiene and lifestyle behaviors. I’m sure daily cleaning and wearing a condom are much better prevention methods of contracting diseases than cutting off one’s foreskin. Will my boy always clean his weewee and always wear a condom? No. But all it takes is one act of negligence.
• I did watch videos of the procedure using three different contraptions at the Stanford site. They weren’t as bad as I thought…

I feel like this is similar to deciding whether to bank the baby’s cord blood/stem cells. It’s like adding that insignificant rate increase of preventing or treating the contraction/onset of a disease. Is it really worth making that decision for my child? Will he regret having an intact or altered foreskin?

Baby’s not even born yet, and there already are so many decisions to make. I wish Albie was here, so we can ask our OB at my monthly appointment next week.

It started out well when Albie and I met Jason and Johann for lunch, even better that we had In-N-Out. But then I decided to go on a shopping spree at 4 grocery stores. I thought that since we’re buying whole foods and eating better these days, that I’d “upgrade” from Lion and go to the 99 Ranch in Cupertino. I was looking at the fishmonger scooping out shrimp. But as I walked down the aisle toward checkout, I noticed my bag was considerably lighter, but ignored it. But as the cashier was ringing me up, I tried fishing my wallet out and I couldn’t find it. Someone stole my wallet while I was shopping inside the grocery store. I felt so idiotic and violated. And as my pregnant hormones were running rampant, I walked down the fish/meat aisle with unshed tears while retracing my steps, knowing my efforts were futile and that my wallet was long gone.

It suddenly occurred to me that if I could lose something as important as my wallet, then I could lose my baby… Albie even joked about it when he was consoling me when he got home that night. Not a good joke. He even said that I was due to lose my wallet since it’s been so long… Grr that hubby of mine.

That was Tuesday. Wednesday I woke up to my Dad and Patricia calling me on the phone. My mom collapsed and was rushed to the emergency room by the ambulance. Of course I had to go to the DMV first to get my temporary license, which took 1.5 hours. Mom called me while I was there. Hearing her choking up while recalling what happened made me very sad and anxious. But the fact she was talking and didn’t get hurt from her fall gave some relief. I didn’t make it to the hospital until mid-afternoon. Mom had to stay overnight so the docs could monitor her. Thursday morning I got a call from her. I spoke with one of her doctors, who said that Mom’s sodium level was lower than the normal range. Plus the fact that they still don’t know what happened, so she couldn’t be released yet. Dad and I went to the hospital, where Mom was a bit anxious. I talked to her team of doctors. The team leader thinks the sodium test result was a fluke and ordered another blood and urine test. My poor Mom, not only is she low on blood to begin with, but she’s been poked and prodded with needles so many times since she entered the emergency room, she has puncture holes and bruises from bad labotomy jobs all over both arms. But she survived. The tests came back and this time her sodium levels fell within normal range. So which one do you trust? I don’t know. But the doctors thought since she’s not feeling anything out of the ordinary, Mom could be released. She seems tired from her hospital stay and loss of blood, but otherwise she was very much alive. I thank my lucky stars.

It was really scary, probably the most scared I’ve ever been. Let’s not experience that again any time soon.

Current Mood:  sore

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

:D

I feel like this is the first weekend Albie and I have relaxed after getting married. Nothing major hanging over my hand. I got to relax and spend some quality time with Hubby.

I didn’t expect to spend so much just on wedding photos. Vince did a great job snapping over 700 shots on our wedding day. He recommended this site, Mpix, to get our photos developed. I also got sets printed from Snapfish and Kodak Gallery. Even though Mpix is more expensive, photo quality is definitely better. I scavenged a bunch of picture frames from my parents’ place, so that took care a lot of costs. Got my larger prints yesterday and spent the entire evening after dinner organizing them into the collage frames. All this while Albie played Disgaea 3. I wish game developers would allocate a higher budget on music. It wouldn’t kill them to have more than one track running on continuous rotation playing for hours and hours…

Now I have to finish all the thank you notes before we leave for Ohio for Thanksgiving.

But before that! Winnie’s ex-coworker and I are organizing her and Eric’s baby shower this coming Saturday for Baby Mason. Albie and I went to Pottery Barn Kids and bought a bunch of stuff. That cunning saleslady coerced me into buying another matching item to the collection. She knows aunts and uncles won’t say no to their nephews…dammit.

Been spending some quality time with my other sister Patricia (I’m helping her file her taxes). Her dog Bahamas is just too cute. Too bad she doesn’t understand the words that are coming out of my mouth. And she can’t talk back.

Current Mood:  relaxed

Yay!

Can’t believe we were engaged exactly a year ago. So much has happened in a year, and much more changes ahead to come!

Current Mood:  cold

…I feel no different. Should I be feeling different?

There has been some changes. We’ve upgraded some of our kitchenware and appliances (OMG, where has a citrus press been all my life?!). We took a major step toward making real coffee. But other than that, I don’t feel much like a Mrs. yet. Maybe after I have my name officially changed and people start addressing me as Mrs. Chu, which in my mind still refers to Albert’s mom. Addressing people “Mom” and “Dad” other than your Mom and Dad is just weird. Even weirder is addressing them by their first names.

Jason is right. Having more expensive cookware really does allow you to have a completely different mindset about cooking. Having produce delivered to your door (a very nice off-the-registry gift!) is quite nice too. But that means I have to cook!! I still can’t whip up food on the go, and I’m not very good at finding recipes. It’s a learning process.

The one thing that’s different is being on baby mode. Good thing I have future nephew(s) and/or niece to practice with first! O:p

Thought I could get most things done and out of the way by today. But seems like there’s still so much left to do.

Maybe I should look into sleeping pills. Feel like I haven’t been sleeping very soundly.

Period = Hell