We're home!

This blog is a little overdue... We've been home from my parents' house for a week now. It was so nice and comforting to stay with my parents and have my mom look after Avery for me so I can take naps and prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner for me. Since I had a Caesarian birth, it was more necessary to have some help for the first couple weeks. The recovery was quicker than I thought and not as bad... The first week after I came home from hospital was a little painful and hard to get out of bed but I managed to go to Avery's doctors' visit with Paul. By second week, there was little pain left except when I was getting out of bed. I even drove myself to my doctors' appointment during my second week. By third week, there was little pain getting in and out of bed. The websites and books made caesarian recovery sound horrifying and long but it was not like that at all. There is still little sensation in my lower stomach though... But I must say, my tummy is getting flatter by day. Yay!!!!!

A week ago, Avery and I returned to our home in LA. With Paul gone at work, it's been nice to spend all day with Avery getting to know her and taking care of her. I don't know how I'll return to work in July. I can't imagine it! I can't believe she's already 6 weeks old! Avery does something new everyday. These days, she started to coo and make all kinds of noises and make these huge smiles at mommy and daddy. She holds up her head for long periods of time now and she makes eye contact with us which is fun. She's ginormous too! We're going to the dr. tomorrow so I'll report on how much she's grown on tomorrow's blog. She slept her record of 7 hours the other night too which was heavenly! She eats, poops and sleeps a lot.

Below are some recent pics of our little princess!

Happy Mother's Day!

We celebrated our first mother's day as parents! Having Avery in our lives has been the best blessing... She's been such a wonderful little baby so far. She started sleeping for 5 hours straight at night and not sleeping much during the day. She's acting like such a big girl that we keep forgetting that she's only a little over 3 weeks old! She's eating a lot these days too and started to wear size 3 months. Wow! She's a cutie-pie though.

For mother's day, Paul asked my mom to watch Avery and took me to get my hair cut and for a manicure and pedicure. It was such a nice treat to be pampered! I was looking pretty nasty these days! Couldn't remember the last time I blowed dried by hair! Now with my new haircut and great looking hands and feet, I feel wonderful.

On Sunday, we took Avery to church for the first time. My mom's friends met Avery for the first time and they thought she was so cute and pretty! It never gets old hearing people say how cute she is, haha! When we got home, Paul watched Avery so I can take a loooong nap. Paul and my brother also made mexican dinner for my mom, Gina and me so we don't have to do anything. It was awesome. After dinner, my niece Minji entertained us! Too cute. It was an awesome mother's day!!!

First Dr. Visit

Avery went to her first pediatrician appointment on Friday. It was pretty hectic trying to get mommy, daddy and Avery ready to get out of the house in the morning. Early morning appointment was not a good idea.. Now I understand why my friends who have babies or kids are always running late and never on-time. Whole new found respect for mommies out there! Avery put on her special outfit that daddy got her and we were off to see Dr. Beesley.

At the Dr.'s office, all other babies cried in the waiting area except Avery! She slept quietly in her carseat. She was an angel. She even played and smiled the whole time during the exam! Dr. Beesley said "she's a keeper... You should definitely keep her." Yup, she's a keeper! She sleeps for 3 hour stretches and never cries... She's really an angel. I remember my friend Sara saying after the birth of her son, "He's so easy, I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop." That's how I feel these days. Avery is fed around midnight, then she wakes up once around 4am and then sleeps till 7am or so. But boy, does she eat!!! She is a porker! We don't really hear her cry since she wakes up and plays by herself until we come to feed her.

Our Avery grew in the last week! She is now 8 pounds 11.5 ounces and 20.25 inches. Yay! Although pregnancy and delivery was a little rough, having a fully developed, healthy baby was all worth it. She is already so alert and strong.

Avery Eunae Hwang is born!!!!

It's been a while since my last blog but lots have happened since then. Our little angel, Avery Eunae Hwang was born on April 16th at 6:30pm at Good Samaritan Hospital. She was a whopping 8 pounds 4 ounces and 20 inches long. Since my last blog called "Game Plan," things went a little different than we all expected and I feel the need to document the happenings of April 16th in this blog to show my daughter one day what an ordeal I went through to have her when she says her first "mommy, how could you do that to me?" haha!

We were admitted at Good Samaritan Hospital at midnight on April 16th. We began dripping Pitocin around 1:30am to induce labor. By 8 am, I was 3cm dilated and was having pretty strong contractions. Around 9am, Dr. Bohn broke my bag of water and that was painful! I was given Epidural around 1pm or so but I tried to go on with as little epidural as possible since I heard that epidural may slow contractions and I didn't want to be completely numb when the time to push came. By 3pm, I was 6cm dilated and doing well and the contractions were out of this world!!! They were coming at less than 2 minutes apart and lasted a minute or so.. So as soon as I got through the contraction, another one came in a flash. Paul and I were excited and thought that we would have a baby by late night. But around 4pm, the baby's heartrate slowed a little and we had to turn off Pitocin for an hour. When her heartrate returned to normal, we turned Pitocin back on but by then, I was bleeding pretty badly. We waited another hour for the bleeding to stop and by 6pm, the doctor told us that the baby dropped suddenly and made my cervix so swollen that it was impossible for the baby to come out vaginally. The only choice was to have a C-section which was a hard news to hear but by that point, I was so tired from my 18-hour labor that I welcomed the surgery.

Paul and I were in the operating room, Paul with his video camera in hand, and the doctor called out, "look at the size of this head!" Then we heard "your baby is huge, there is no way she would have come out of you vaginally anyways." I wish we knew that earlier before our 18-hour labor!!! THEN we heard the most amazing sound ever! The sound of our little girl crying. Paul went to cut the unbilical cord and yelled out "she looks like an Avery." We were debating between the names Avery and Emma and decided that we'll choose a name after we saw her in person. She was an Avery! Paul brought her over to me while I was being closed up and she was just beautiful and I could not believe that she came out of my body! It was the happiest day of my life hands down!

In labor approx. hour 3 - Still happy

Paul ready for surgery
Avery is born!

Mommy meets Avery for the first time!

8 pounds and 4 ounces!

Game Plan

Ok! We now have a game plan! Paul and I just got back from the dr. appointment. By the way, tomorrow is Paul's birthday so please wish him a happy day!

Our due date was Saturday and it has obviously passed. We listened to the baby's heartbeat which was just fine and she moved around thoughout the whole checkup which the Dr. said was a sign of a happy healthy baby. But since our baby was in the 60th percentile in the size department 3 weeks ago when we measured her and the baby is obviously healthy right now, she recommended that we not wait too long to have this baby... The longer we wait, the less happy the baby will be and the harder it'll be for me to have a baby naturally without a c-section. So! The doctor did a simple procedure today that might bring on labor naturally sometime today or tomorrow. If the contractions do not come naturally by the end of tomorrow, then we have an appointmet at midnight to go to the hospital to be induced. So we'll have a baby for sure either Thursday or Friday morning at the latest if the induction takes a long time.

If the baby decides to come all on her own, then there is a chance that she'll be born on Paul's birthday! That'd be awesome. What could be a better birthday gift to Paul than a baby girl!

Mommy's ready!

Ok, princess, mommy and daddy are ready for you!!!

We have officially now reached 40 weeks. Tomorrow is our due date and our little girl seems to not want to come out at all anytime soon. We had our doctor's appointment yesterday and Dr. Bohn said I was a little over 1cm dilated and a bit effaced. We made another appointment for Tuesday at which time we'll talk about our options...

Our little girl is definitely a Hwang! She'll be fashionably late coming out to the world but she'll come out dancing and having a great time! Being a very large family with parents, 5 boys, 2 wives and now 2 babies, Hwang family is rarely on-time but we always have a great time wherever we go!

Below is what I hope is my last belly picture I took today...

Family Visit

This past Sunday, my parents came to visit us with my niece, Minji. Since I haven't gone to Orange County to my parents' house in over 3 weeks, I missed my little niece sooo bad! I didn't want us to drive to Orange County just in case we got stuck on the freeway when our baby decided to come. My mom brought us tons of homemade food for us to eat for the next few days, yay! Minji made us laugh all day long. She is too cute! We tried a new restaurant in Koreatown called So Hyang which we all agreed is a keeper on our restaurant list. Yum.

Spending Time with Friends

Paul and I have been trying to spend some time with friends and have dinners and enjoy our last couple weeks of time before our little girl comes and we become confined to our home... Vivenne and I went to eat at this great little seafood place in Alhambra called Boiling Crab and we had to wait over an hour but the food was delicious! It was very low-key, we had sweet potato fries, spicy cajun crawfish and corn. YUM-O!!!! I want to eat it again but I don't think I can do the hour wait until after the baby comes... The first picture below is me before we started eating and the second picture is me after we finished..... So good!

Our friend Hyun Sun let us babysit her maltese, Mochi, while she went on her weekend trips (2 weekends in a row). Mochi is the smallest, cutest dog! We wanted to steal her from Hyun Sun!!! She is so affectionate and attached to us and she slept with us too! We were so sad when she was picked up.... We took her to Brad and Shawna's house for dinner and Tommy just loved her. Tommy said "I love Mochi, can she stay over?" Sooo cute!

Maternity Leave!!!

I started my maternity leave today!!!!! YAY!!! I have been sooo looking forward to this! The last couple weeks were really tough, mentally and physically. The anxiety of the baby coming any day now AND the uncomfortableness of carrying 28 extra pounds was pretty tough. Yesterday was bittersweet... I felt sad leaving work and saying goodbye to everyone since I'll be gone for 3 months but happy to have some time to myself until our little bundle of joy arrives!

I woke up this morning completely clueless as to what I should do today... I think this is the first time since I graduated college where I had a day to myself where I'm not sick, or on vacation or working from home.. I had no work emails or voicemails to check and I can do whatever I want! After a few minutes of lying in bed blankly, I got going and loved the rest of the day! I met my hubby for lunch and then we went to Bed Bath and Beyond and bought some bed sheets.. We desperately needed some new sheets so we were both so excited to get them! Oh, life's littlest pleasures.. Once you get married and get older, bedsheets are what get you excited!!! I was so tired after our shopping trip, I even took a nap! How great is that, I can take a nap!!! Everyone tells me to get as much sleep as possible now before baby arrives so I guess I can use this maternity time to sleep!!! YAY!

We have a little over a week until our due date.. I'm hoping she'll decide to come out sometime in the next few days.. But we'll see!!! In due time when she's ready, I suppose.. So keep your eyes open for our email announcing the birth of our little precious girl!!!!

Hwang out! (I love American Idol..)

Oh Man!

Baby and I went to see Dr. Hill for a checkup today. I was hoping she'd say that I've at least dilated 1cm but she said I dilated 1/2cm. What is that? Not even a whole centimeter! I know that how much I dilate has nothing to do with when I'll go into labor but I was hoping for some progress... BUT! I continue to check out well and baby's heartbeat was stronger than ever! She kept kicking the heartbeat monitor which made Dr. Hill laugh a lot. She's a fiesty one!

Ouch ouch ouch!

This blog post will just be me venting and complaining -

My back's been hurting a lot these past couple days.. It hurts more to lie down than sit. But then sitting makes my stomach uncomfortable and puts a lot of pressure on my pelvic bone.. I just can't win! The back pain feels a lot like much more painful menstrual cramps..... Is this normal? May be my body is getting ready for contractions and labor??? No idea. The back and pelvic pain is making sleeping difficult and getting out of bed to go bathroom even harder. I'd ask my husband to push me off of the bed but he's always so sound asleep just snoring away! No need for both of us to suffer... This weekend is our baby class where we'll cover labor, delivery and postpartum. It's supposed to be an 8-hour class, ouch!!!

Be Amazed - Week 37

Be amazed as you scroll down and see my belly pic from week 37! My belly is gigantic! I feel as though the baby is dropping but I can't be 100% sure since I don't exactly know what it feels like... I've read that I should be able to breathe easier and have less heartburns but I didn't really feel all that short of breath or had many heartburns in this pregnancy so I'm not sure if the baby has dropped..

When we went to our dr. appointment a week ago, the doctor said that the baby was dropping but hasn't dropped.. And I did not dilate at that point. Baby's size was perfect according to Dr. Bochner, approximately 6.5 pounds last Tuesday and he estimated that baby would be around 7.75 pounds at birth if I carried her to week 40. We'll see how accurate he is! That sounds like a huge baby to me!!

Thursday was my 3-hour breastfeeding class at the hospital. I thought it would be a very long 3-hour session but it went by so quickly since there was so much to learn! I'm most nervous and worried about the breastfeeding part since I hear some pleasant and some not-s0-pleasant horror stories about the breastfeeding process. I hope our baby will be easy and have no problem with feeding!!! As my last day of work approaches (1 week and 2 days to go!), I'm getting excited! I can't wait to relax and just wait for her to come and not worry about work or waking up in the morning or putting on my make up or drying my hair or picking out clothes to wear, etc.... :-)

36 weeks!

We have surpassed our 36 weeks! Wow, less than 4 weeks and hopefully we'll have our little girl at home with us! I can't believe it. I dream about bringing our baby home almost every night. Brackston Hicks contractions are coming more frequently and much stronger. It gets tight and uncomfortable but I'll be happy if the real contractions are like the Brackston Hicks (which I know will be 100 times more painful!). I am sleeping much less at night. I wake up every hour or two to go to the restroom and I've given up on the sleeping only on the left side thing and sleep a little on my right side. I always thought I need like 8-9 hours of sleep every night but I'm beginning to realize that when you enter motherhood, sleep is a luxury not necessity. So many people have expressed their surprise at my cankles and unfortunately, they have not gotten any better....

Tuesday is our appointment with Dr. Bochner for an ultrasound to check if the baby is in head-down position, if she's moved down and how big she is so far. I am so excited about this appointment that this week has gone sooo slow!!! Besides, it's been almost 2 months since we've seen our baby on an ultrasound!

On Saturday, Paul and I attended our first baby class at Good Samaritan Hospital. We thought we knew pretty much everything about bringing a newborn home with the practice we had with our niece Minji, the DVDs we've been watching and the books we've been reading but we actually learned some new things and stayed for the entire 5 hours! And we found out that the burger at the hospital cafeteria is AWESOME! I think we'll be eating that after I deliver our baby.

Below is my belly pic at 36 weeks.. YIKES!

All Good to Go!

Yesterday was our 35 week check-up appointment with Dr. Hill. Dr. Bohn just gave birth to a baby girl! The check-up was quick but we scheduled an ultrasound appointment for week 37 at which we'll make sure the baby's head is down in the right position and measure her to see how big she is.

Dr. Hill measured my tummy yesterday and said that the baby will be just the right size, not too big or small. She predicted what the weight of the baby will be but I won't post it here since Paul says his friends will be making bets on our baby's weight and he doesnt' want anyone to have inside information. To date, I've gained 25 pounds... Is that a lot? Is that little? I just hope our baby is healthy and getting enough nutrients that she needs!

Welcome to the World, Elizabeth Eunbee!

We got the most wonderful new this morning! Paul's brother Dave became a daddy today! Judy, Dave's wife, was due to deliver 2 weeks before our due date but the baby girl decided to come out a bit earlier. Since today is Paul's grandma's memorial, we think that God sent us little Elizabeth in memory of Paul's grandmother. She was born in Seoul, Korea around 4pm at 5.5 pounds. Her name is Elizabeth Eunbee Hwang. Eunbee is a Korean name with the meaning "daughter prepared/given by God through His grace." We can't wait to see some pictures of the first Hwang granddaughter!

Thank you so much!

This past Saturday was my babyshower at my parents' house organized by San and Gina. I had the best time with my closest friends. I just wished that my bridesmaids who all live out of state could have been there.... To the right is the cute invitation sent out to the guests and the diaper cake that San brought. So cute! It has so many diapers for our baby to use!

Saturday was beautiful. It was around 80 degrees and very sunny. We had to take advantage of the weather and have the shower in the backyard.

We ate kalbi, chinese chicken salad, my mom's special salad, seafood pasta, little appetizer quiches, etc for lunch and played a few games. San did a great job of coming up with some fun and original games. The first game was unscrambling baby related words. The second game was fill-in-the-blank nursery rhymes. The third game was guessing the celebrities' babies. The third game was a lot of fun but harder than I thought.

After the games and desserts, we opened the many gifts that I got. Our baby girl got tons of cute outfits (I mean TONS), baby monitor, car seat base for daddy's car, blankets, etc. It took almost an hour for me to open all the gifts. Thank you everyone for your generous gifts! We (Paul, baby girl, and I) appreciate it very very much!!!

It was a perfect shower full of laughter, close friends, wonderful weather and yummy food. THANK YOU!

34 Weeks!

Today marks our 34 weeks into pregnancy! According to Dr. Bohn, we have 1 more week to go and I'm considered full term. Yay! The last couple weeks just flew by. The anxiety I've been feeling about the birth has gone away and now it's turned into pure excitement. I'm ready for our baby to come out already! Next weekend, I'll pack my bag for the hospital and put it in Paul's car just in case our girl decides to come out a little earlier... I want to be prepared! Sleeping is still ok, other than that I have to wake up 4-5 times a night to go to the bathroom and additional 4-5 times to adjust myself since I find myself on my back occassionally or on my right side... So considering I wake up like 10 times a night, I'm still getting good sleep since I'm so tired all the time!

I'm so big these days, my maternity clothes seem to be getting tighter around the belly... Too funny... I lose my breath just walking around our office, more like waddling around the office... My last day at work will be April 1, which I'm definitely looking forward to. I hope I get some time off for R&R before the baby girl arrives!

Today, our baby is almost 5 pounds (like a cantaloupe) and almost 18 inches. Her fat layers are filling her out, making her rounder and chubbier. Below is my belly photo at 34 weeks!

Tomorrow is my babyshower at my parents' house! Thank you to San and Gina for organizing it! I can't wait!!!

Baby Room!!

Our baby girl's room, more like corner, is finally ready!!! We're so excited! We spent this past Sunday picking up all the baby furniture and goodies from my brother's house. Steve and Gina were more than generous with their hand-me-downs which were mostly unused and still in the box. They had more than what we needed or imagined we needed so it was like going shopping at Babies R Us. Our little girl has boxes and boxes of clothes to last her till she's 2 years old and quite a shoe and hat collection as well!!!

On Monday, Paul spent the whole day building the crib, decorating the walls with butterflies and cleaning out our closets to make room for baby's things. She's going to be a tiny little thing but she'll have so much stuff!!!

8 more weeks to go!

Today marks 32 weeks of our pregnancy! Only 8 more weeks to go, yay! Now, our baby weighs approx. 3.75 pounds, like a large jicama, and is about 16.7 inches long. She is moving less vigorously these days which I assume is because there is not much room in there for her... Poor thing.

This weekend is Valentines day weekend. My sweet husband sent me and our moms beautiful roses yesterday. He's such a sweetheart! We will be going to my brother's house this weekend to pick up the baby furniture and other baby necessities. I should have some pictures of our baby "room," more like corner, next week! I'm so excited to set up her space!

Below is our 32 week belly picture...

Work baby shower - Surprise!

I got a call yesterday at work saying that there was a package delivery for me at reception.... I walked down to reception and San told me that the package was in the conference room....? Strage, I thought... Then SURPRISE! There they were, my coworkers! They threw me a baby shower with cupcakes and gifts! So sweet... Our baby got a basket of baby goodies (so adorable) and a gift card (just what we need). Thank you to everyone who came and contributed! It was so thoughtful!

Cankles!!!!

Yesterday was the first day I noticed that my feet and ankles are so swollen. Paul says my feet look like sausages! haha.. I have cankles- ankles the size of my calves. It's shocking and scary to me but it's funny at the same time. I normally have the skinniest ankles and smallest feet! Before pregnancy, my shoe size was 6 and now it's 7.5. That's just crazzzzy! Below is a picture of my feet from last night. Please excuse my toenails.. I haven't gotten a pedicure since I got pregnant with the fear that the nail polish might hurt the baby.... One good thing was that I got a nice foot massage from my husband last night!

31 week check-up

Today was our 31 week check-up with Dr. Bohn. In short, everything checked out perfectly! I have gained 3 pounds in the last 3 weeks, which is right on target (1 pound per week is our target) which makes the total weight gain of this pregnancy to 19 pounds. We checked baby's heartbeat and it was 140 beats/minute which is perfect. We also measured my belly and did the normal urine test for protein, checking for preeclampsia. It seems like a successful doctor's visit! I'll go to the doctor every 2 weeks for next 3 visits and then every week after that. Lots of doctor's visits but we wanna make sure everything's in tip-top shape!

30+ weeks and counting!

Today marks 30 weeks and 4 days of our pregnancy journey. I must say, the last couple of weeks have flown by at a blink of an eye. Luckily, I've been feeling great, eating a lot and sleeping well. I hear that the last month of the pregnancy is the hardest. I can imagine why... My ever growing belly is becoming heavier and I can feel the pressure of it on my legs and hips. Trying to sleep on my side has been challenging as well. Paul constantly finds me on my back and tells me to turn... I even have a ginormous body pillow, why can't I sleep on my side?

Strangely, I have not had any cravings throughout this pregnancy. I wanted to eat potato chips for couple days but that was about it. It is funny how once I see something on television, like a burger commercial, all I want to eat is a burger and I cannot think about anything else until I have it. It's amazing how our body is designed... I also keep forgetting that my belly is protruding quite a bit now and I keep bumping it into things. I guess I think I'm skinnier than I really am... Now that I'm close to the finish-line, I have forgotten the miseries of first trimester morning sickness or any other discomforts I've had and looking ahead to motherhood! Oh, I'm going to cry.... I cannot wait to meet our little girl! Seeing Paul being so loving with my niece and our friends' babies, I can't wait to see Paul with our little girl as well. He will be such a wonderful daddy!

Below is a picture we took at week 30. WOW....

Welcome Baby Sho and Baby Charlotte!!!!

Yesterday (January 22) was a very exciting day! Two of my closest friends, Ray and Tiffany, both had their babies! Ray's baby boy named Sho was born yesterday morning around 9am at 6 pounds 10 ounces, 19.5 inches. Tiffany's baby girl named Charlotte was born around 3am at 6 pounds.

I do not have a picture of baby Charlotte yet but I did stop by the hospital and see Ray's boy last night. Isn't he sooo cute? His face was so soft and he smelled so good! He slept so quietly the entire time we were there and I heard he slept through the night so mommy and daddy can sleep. What a good boy!

Ok, I just got a picture of Baby Charlotte! What a beauty!!!

Bigger and Bigger...

It's been 2 weeks since I last took my belly photo. It's amazing how much my belly grows in 2 weeks! I feel like I'm ready to pop and I still have 11.5 more weeks to go... My belly button is still somewhat present so I assume I still have long ways to go. I know I walk like a penguin and Paul says "wow" everytime he sees my bare belly. I think my belly looks a lot bigger because the dr. says I have lots of amniotic fluid. This is me at 28 weeks...