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!