December 29, 2006 - High School Reunion and New Car For Baby

My fabulous friend Ivy co-hosted our 10 year high school reunion this past week. We had a good turn out considering there was relatively short notice for the event. My bump was sizable enough that people were not afraid to come up to me and congratulate me on the baby. It would have been fun to say... uh, what baby? Rick and I teamed up and won the Beverly Hills 90210 trivia game. We scored the complete season one on DVD! Guess what I'll be doing tonight...

On the way home from Vancouver, we stopped off at Acura of Lynnwood and bought a new car for the baby! OK, maybe it's for us too but we decided to upgrade my 2-door Accord coupe for a more sensible family car. Here's a picture of me with our new Acura MDX. I must have been a good girl this year!

All I want for Christmas is a brand new car!

December 26 - Christmas and Third Ultrasound

My parents came to Seattle to spend Christmas with us. They saw me a month prior when my belly was nothing but a slight bulge so naturally they were very excited to see my now sizable bump. My dad was very anxious to take pictures of my growing belly to send to all of our relatives.

We had our third ultrasound at 20 weeks where we could find out the sex of the baby. Rick and I had decided long ago that we wanted the baby's sex to be a surprise. It has also been fun for everyone to guess the sex based on the shape of my bump or the complexion of my face. My dad says that if my face starts to get ugly then I will have a boy. Rick and I both just want our baby to be healthy but I think I secretly hope it will be a girl although I will be equally happy if it is a boy. We have had a boy name picked out for years but we're still undecided on a girl name. Any suggestions?



Here's a picture of the baby at 19 weeks.


Here's a picture of the baby's little feet!

December 9, 2006 - The Start of The Second Trimester and Vegas!!

The first trimester had been a little rough. I was extremely tired during the second month and nauseous every evening. In the third month, my appetite picked up but I was still getting sick occasionally. The fourth month was much smoother, I regained some of my energy and got sick less frequently. I also learned how to deal with my growing appetite: eat 6 medium sized meals each day. My typical day consists of breakfast at 8am, a snack at 10am, early lunch at 11:30am then a second lunch at 3pm. I eat a full dinner at 7pm and another snack at 10pm. This diet has required me to think ahead and plan out my meals for the entire day so I have plenty to eat at work. It is a bit of a chore trying to prepare easy to eat and healthy meals but I have to give my baby the nutrients it needs.

My belly has been growing but it became much more noticiable when I hit four months. I took my growing bump with me to Las Vegas for our last fun adult getaway before the baby arrives. I took long naps in the afternoon so I could have plenty of energy to soak in the Vegas fun at night. Rick and I had a fabulous time with our friends Sean and Chi.

Here is Rick and I at Ghostbar looking over the Las Vegas Strip.

October 25, 2006 - Second Ultrasound

I am 11 weeks pregnant at our second ultrasound. This time, Rick came to my appointment with me and he met baby for the first time. The picture was quite different this time around. You could see the baby's arms and legs, nose and head. It was quite amazing. The baby has already developed some kind of personality. The technician tried hard to get a good picture of the baby's neck but the baby refused to cooperate. So I had to do all sorts of dance moves and wiggling to get the baby to move to the desired position. After much prodding, the baby finally moved slightly then went back to its original lounging position.


Here's a profile of the baby.

October 12, 2006 - Being Pregnant

This week has been on and off. Tuesday was really rough when I felt totally bloated and nauseous the entire day. It was as if I was suffering from a hang over. My first instinct when I got home was to plop on the couch but I knew I had to eat or the nausea would get worse. I’ve conceded that I would continue to feel tired and lazy like this for the next couple of weeks. I haven’t exercised all week. The last time I tried, I felt nauseous after 20 minutes on the elliptical machine. Rick has been very nice to me. He lets me do whatever I want, sleep as much as I want and eat whatever I want. Last week, he made chicken Adobo but I couldn’t eat it so he went to McDonald’s and got me a hamburger and French fries. It’s been really nice to be able to complain to him. I’m really looking forward to the end of the first trimester so I can get my appetite back and we can start telling all of our friends about the baby.

October 2, 2006 - First Glimpse At Baby

I went to my family doctor where my pregnancy was re-confirmed. It felt more real to have someone else tell you that you’re pregnant so that you know it’s not all just in your head. They told me my due date is May 17^th. Wow, it felt like it was all really happening. After visiting my family doctor, I made an appointment to see an OB doctor and they told me that I would be meeting with a nurse. At the OB intake appointment, the nurse gave me a standard physical exam. Then she rolled out an ultrasound machine and announced that she was going to take a look at the baby. Really? I wasn’t prepared for this. I had told Rick not to come to this appointment since I figured there would be nothing to see. But when the nurse turned on the ultrasound and pointed out the tiny spec inside my uterus I could see the distinct flickering that was the baby’s heartbeat. I couldn’t help but smile and say “this is so cool!” After I got home, I showed the picture of the ultrasound to Rick and he called the baby “peanut”. Can you spot the baby in the picture?

September 25th, 2006 - How We Found Out

I went to Boston for a recruiting trip at MIT. Rick tagged along since he’d never been to Boston and we were going to stay through the weekend and explore the city. At the start of that week, I started losing my appetite. I went to the cafeteria and absolutely nothing sounded good so I just ended up getting a small bowl of soup. I didn’t think too much of it because the cafeteria food is never that inviting. During our trip, I noticed that my stomach felt unsettled whenever I ate anything. I still hadn’t gotten my period, but my cycle has been known to vary so I hesitated to conclude anything. By the time we got back from our trip, it had been more than 45 days since my last period. We decided that I would take a pregnancy test the next morning. All night, I was nervous and dreamt about the test. Deep down, I was afraid that the test would come out negative and I would feel silly about being hopeful too early. The next morning, I jumped out of bed and took the test. I fumbled around with the test stick, making sure that I was laying it perfectly flat on the counter as I was supposed to. Before I even had time to realize it, the test beeped and it showed “pregnant”. I felt relieved and ecstatic at the same time. I kept on looking at it and taking mental pictures of the test result. It was amazing that in those few seconds, I was finding out that my life was about to change. I shook Rick awake and said to him “pregnant” and he gave me a high five. We had only started officially trying for a baby and I didn’t think I would get pregnant so quickly. I felt so incredibly lucky and blessed.