The 9th Month!!

It's hard to believe that our little one is scheduled to arrive in about a month! To be honest, physically I'm ready to have the baby now! The last month of pregnancy has been a bit more difficult. Sleeping has become challenging and uncomfortable. I normally sleep on my back but at this stage of the pregnancy I have to sleep on my side so that I get better circulation. I have no problems falling asleep but I always wake up with aches in my neck and shoulders. I get up a couple of times in the middle of the night to switch sides and go to the bathroom. Sometimes my legs cramp up really bad in the morning and I have to use my labour breathing to get through it! My legs and feet swell up throughout the day from water retention. Not only that I have a hard time fitting into most of my shoes, I have trouble walking when my feet are swollen and stiff. I try to put my feet up during the day if I get a chance so that they don't get so puffy and unrecognizable by the evening. Of course then there's the additional weight. Because I retain so much water, my weight can fluctuate 4lbs between morning and evening. I've gained over 40lbs since the start of my pregnancy and I've kind of stopped keeping track. Carrying all that extra weight has certainly slowed me down when I walk. Although Rick did notice that my calves have gotten more muscular from supporting the additional weight!

Despite the physical discomfort, I'm still not quite ready for the baby to arrive yet. Over the last few weeks Rick and I have been spending every weekend getting things ready for the baby. We painted the baby's room and got a crib, changing table and glider. I know that the baby doesn't really need much at first but getting the room ready helps us mentally prepare for the baby's arrival. We just finished our childbirth and newborn classes a couple of weeks ago. The course was 2 hours each week for 7 weeks. Although most of the information in the class could have been found in most pregnancy books, Rick and I found the class useful because it highlighted certain things that we should be thinking about. I have a much better idea now what kind of birth I'd ideally like and I'm going to included my wishes in a birth plan. The instructor showed us a birth video every class so that not only would we know what it looks like for babies to be born we would no longer be shocked by it. Being with a roomful of expectant first time parents and going through the course made me feel a lot less nervous about the upcoming delivery. I'm planning to work up until my due date as long as the baby doesn't arrive before that. I've already started working on a transition plan to hand over my responsibilities to my coworkers. Starting the transition at work has really eased my anxiety because for a while I was having panic attacks about the baby arriving early and me leaving work dangling behind. Deep down, I know I will never be truly, 100% mentally ready for the baby to arrive. The physical discomforts that I'm feeling now is probably nothing compared to the challenges that I'm going to face when the baby is here. At the same time, I'm getting more and more excited about finally meeting the baby. I can't wait to finding out whether we're having a boy and a girl and I can't wait to see what the baby looks like.

Baby Shower Part II

Over Easter weekend, Rick's sister Betsy and Rick's mom Eileen threw me a baby shower in Seattle. The guests included relatives from Rick's family and our Seattle friends. 2007 is turning out to be a big baby boom year, so 4 of the girls at the shower are pregnant: Myra is expecting a boy in May, Trish is expecting her 2nd little girl in July, Arleen is expecting a boy in August and of course me in May. Rick and I actually know about 5 other couples who are also expecting babies in 2007. People have been saying that there must be something in the water in Seattle!

Betsy and Rick's mom went all out for the baby shower. We had lots of yummy food and Betsy made a ton of adorable customized chocolate favours. Taylor and her cousin Michelle organized the shower games. My favourite one was where you had to guess a baby related word by asking only yes and no questions. I received a ton of wonderful presents from everyone. My friend Ivy who lives in New York was so thoughtful as to send a gift to Betsy's house to surprise me. I really enjoyed the shower because it was just such a nice occasion for everyone to get together, catch up, eat and relax.


Presents!!

Pregnant, not fat.

There's a Party in My Belly!

So far, the most amazing part of being pregnant is being able to feel the baby move. When the baby first gave me a little nudge, it was just the tiniest little flutter that could have easily been mistaken for gas. Then just in the following couple of weeks, the movements were often enough that I could let Rick feel them by touching his hand on my belly. At first, the idea of having another person inside me is a little strange. Someone with a mind of its own is in me? As time went on, the movements became stronger. Sometimes, the baby is pushing against my belly such that I could feel something round and hard from the outside. That made me wonder, is that your little head? Or your little bottom? Those moments made me feel that I'm already starting to bond with the baby and that I'm going to love it so much. I can't see it yet, but I'm imagining what its doing. Is that poke a kick or a punch? Is the baby awake or just tossing in its sleep? I could just picture that after the baby arrives, I would be watching it all day and all night, doing its thing and thinking to myself, so that's what you were up to when you were inside! At night, when I'm laying on my side getting ready to sleep, the baby really starts kicking up a storm. So I get Rick to talk to the baby. He doesn't really know what to say but it doesn't really matter. The baby will get to know his voice and recognize him when it arrives. Nowadays, the baby movements are so wide and strong that not only you can feel it outside my belly, you can see it. When we listen to the radio and the baby starts kicking, we imagine that it's because it really likes that type of music. When the baby acts up at night, we think to ourselves that it is a night owl just like Daddy. Even though we can't see the baby yet, we already feel like it's got a personality. It just makes us that much more anxious to meet the little one.

Here's a video of the baby moving about in my belly. Can you see the baby poking out to say hello?

Baby Shower Part I

On March 10th, my friends Tina and Catherine threw me a lovely little baby shower in Vancouver. Rick and I, along with his parents and his sister's whole family were all in Vancouver to celebrate a belated Chinese New Year with my parents. Tina hosted the shower at her apartment with a total about 10 guests. It was just the perfect location and perfect party for the occasion. Tina and Catherine put a lot of thought into putting together an elegant, beautiful and personal shower. And they complied with my single request: no poopy diaper game! Instead, they catered the baby shower games to my interests, such as match the celebrity baby names to their parents. I enjoyed all of the food (especially the cooked sushi and cupcakes) and opening all the gifts, but my favourite part was just spending time with my good friends. It felt so good to know that I have such good friends to share this special time in my life with.


My lovely hostesses Tina and Catherine.

Mmmm... Baby likes cupcakes!

Baby Moon

A couple of weekends ago, Rick and I organized a last minute baby moon with a few of our good friends. A baby moon is like a honeymoon except it's a getaway before the baby comes. Since we didn't really plan to go anywhere far, we decided a nice weekend away at our family friend's vacation house would be the perfect last getaway. Mrs. Suyama's family has a nice, big vacation house in the city of Shelton which is about 70 miles south of Seattle. The house is on a beautiful beach property abundant with oysters, clams and mussels. The view is amazing and the setting is so laid back. We spent all Saturday gathering seafood from the beach then the rest of the time cooking and eating and napping. It doesn't really get more relaxing than that!

On the way to Shelton, we decided to play the name game to kill time. Our friends John and Erin helped us come up with some pretty creative and funny names with the last name Locke. Here are some of the ones that made the list. And yes, pun intended.

Lady Locke
Head Locke
Wed Locke
Zip Locke
Boom Shaka Locke
Sher Locke
Dred Locke
Goldie Locke
Digital Anna Locke
Grid Locke


Gathering oysters on the beach.

Starting a fire in the middle of the day?!

Fresh Hood Canal oysters!

Mommy-To-Be Fashion

When I first got pregnant, I made a conscious decision to buy as little maternity clothes as possible. Why spend money on something that you can wear for just a few months? I started outgrowing my jeans around the 4th month and my coworker introduced me to this clever accessory called the Bella Band. It's kind of like a tube top that you wear around your belly. The purpose of the Bella Band is two fold: it holds up your pre-pregnancy jeans while you wear them unbuttoned or unzipped, and it lengthens your pre-pregnancy tops that have become too short because of the growing bump. The Bella Band allowed me to wear my regular jeans until I hit about 4 months. Then I broke down and asked Santa (aka Rick) to bring me some nice maternity jeans. Around the same time, I started checking out maternity stores like A Pea in the Pod and was unpleasantly surprised by how much cute maternity clothes cost! A simple t-shirt was $50 and a slightly embellished one would be $100! On the other hand, maternity clothes at lower end stores like Old Navy just don't look very nice. I soon realized that it was mostly unnecessary to buy tops from maternity stores. Now that baby dolls and longer tops are in fashion, you can find something cute and wearable at stores like Banana Republic and American Eagle without paying inflated prices. I'm wearing a top from Banana Republic in the picture above. It seems to me that maternity fashion retailers try to charge more because they know that you are in an emotional stage in your life and that you probably will easily succumb to the hoopla of over-priced hot mama fashion. However, it is getting harder and harder to stay away from maternity clothes as I enter my 7th month of pregnancy. I'll need to get a little more creative to find clothes that look good, feel comfortable and are suitable for work.

Start of the Third Trimester!

It's amazing how time flies, our little golden pig is going to arrive in just 3 more months! The first trimester was painfully slow. I remember counting down the days to 3 months so I could tell everyone about the baby. The second trimester was much smoother, I finally started to look pregnant and feel pregnant. The nausea went away and my energy level picked up. I actually felt quite great. Now that I'm officially 6 months pregnant, I'm starting to notice little differences again. I'm beginning to feel the effects of my weight gain: woddling a bit more, noticing that extra padding in unexpected areas of my body and finally outgrowing a size small at Banana Republic. A few people have been telling me about the "nesting instinct" and boy has it started to kick in! We hadn't done anything to our house for the baby in the past 6 months but in the last couple of weeks I've gotten the incredible urge to clean! Pack! Prepare! The baby's room was full of stuff so I've been on a mission to clear out all of the clutter and get it ready for a makeover. So far, we've managed to clean out the entire closet and toss out a few things while relocating a few others. This process has actually been pretty fun and I'm looking forward to seeing the room turning into a blank canvas for me to unleash my creativity on. Home Depot and Pottery Barn Kids here we come!


Here's a picture of us at our friends Howie and Vika's wedding last weekend. Good thing that's a wrap dress I'm wearing because it expands as my belly grows!

Here's a before picture of the nursery-to-be. We'll keep you posted as we make progress.