Exausting Sunday

This pass Sunday was the 1st Sunday that I've been out of the house since Secondo was born. We went to Costco to buy some diapers, wipes and things that we didn't know we need until we got to Costco. S was very attentive to the baby and wanted to push the stroller eventhough she's not tall enough to see where she's going. S was eager to test some free samples but we were there too early that the sample stands were not out yet.

Circle of life

Recently, my friend Patty told me that her mom is really sick to the point where the doctor told Patty that her mom has only 2 weeks to live. What we found was disturbing is that her mom was misdiagnosed for Altzheimer when her liver was the problem. By the time the correct diagnosis was done, it was too late. Patty said that it's going to take a miracle for her mom to get better. Now she's home taking care of her mom the best she can.

Today, I read on the news that Howard Flint II died on June 14, 2005 at the age of 66 when He recently retired in January 2005. He retired for about six month and died. Considering I don't know about his health, it just tells me that life is short and it is best that we live life to the fullest everyday.
This is a difficult task for me to do since I tend to not appriciate the moment. Case in point: When I was pregnant, I so.. look forward to the day for the baby to arrive instead of enjoying the pregnancy process. Keep in mind that it is not an easy task to enjoy pregnancy when you're 30 pounds heavier. Thanks to my mom's hard work on nursing me back to health with her Chinese post pregnancy diet, I have 5 more pounds to get to my pre-pregnancy weight.
Is it because I've been brain wash to plan for the future, work for the future and not take in what is going on right now?
During this month of recovering and caring for a new born, I have more time on my hand to reflect about my life and what I have, and think about the kids and what the challenges will be for the next 2-3 years. One of my goal is to help my parents enjoy their golden years and live a care free life or as much as possible.

Secondo 4 weeks old

I've decided to call younger daughter Secondo from now on on the blog. She's 4 weeks old today. Can't believe that 4 weeks a go she was inside my tummy and now she's out and my tummy is slowly shrinking. Segundo is more fiesty than S, Primero. She loves being held and cuddled. In the middle of the night when it's time to feed, she doesn't cry. She grunts and make funny noises as if she's constipated.
This pass month, my arms were still sore so I had a massage. Besides my arms she also massaged my belly. It wasn't relaxing at all. She worked my belly as if it was dough. As reflex, I tensed up what ever abs muscles I got left to counter her actions. After the session, I was in pain for 2 days.
3 more days and I'll be able to go out and about and be independent.
I look forward to Bulleye's visit in 2 weeks.

My Dad

Today, Dad came and dropped off mom to stay with me for a couple of days. He was helping by cooking chinese medicine for me but we let it cook in the backyard due to the odor. He was in such a hurry that he forgot that the screen door was closed so he ran into the screen door. Mom was glad that the glass door was open so Dad didn't run into to the glass.
It took a while for dad to fix the door but he fixed it.

We are home

BTW, the Bathroom blog is from Bulleye. He's in Taiwan vacationing.
Our 2nd daughter, N was born on 5-17-05. My water broke on the evening of 5-16-05 so hubby and I went in to the hospital right away. When we arrived, the nurses hooked me up with IV, contraction monitors and baby monitors. All night my contractions were irregular and managable and I was only 3 cm dialated. (P.S. It requires 10 cm for the baby to come out naturally. By 6 AM the next morning, I was only 4 cm dialated so they decided that I need oxytocin to speed up the process. This is when the contractions were more intense and less managable so I've asked for an epidural. After the epidural I was able to nap and relax until the epidural started to wear off on my left leg so the Dr. injected some stronger medicine that make the left side completely numb. By 6:00PM I was 10 cm dialated and ready to push the baby out and the Dr. made it just in time.
N was born on 6:06 PM. Weight: 7 pound 15 oz. and 20 inches long.
She has a full head of hair like her sister.
It nice not to have a big belly anymore..

38 Weeks

She finally turned (said the Dr) and her head is down. No wonder I felt more pressure on my bladder the pass few days.
Mom is coming over tonight and we may be having a baby tomorrow.
Stay tune.

37 week visit

Went to the Dr yesterday and had ultrasound done on the baby. The technician showed me her chubby cheek which I'll have to take her word for it since it's hard to see anything with the ultrasound black and white. She's already 7.5 pound and growing. To not have to deliver a 9lb 9oz baby again, Dr is suggesting to induce labor on Friday the 13th. I'm not superstitious or anything but it doesn't sound like a good day to have a baby. We're thinking of may be Saturday the 14th?
She's transverse still so we don't know if her head will move down by then. Dr. is suggesting C section but I asked her if she can try manually moving the baby 90 so her head would be down. We'll see next week. I'm feeling more scared as I get closer and closer to the delivery date. My dream delivery would be a short labor, and natural delivery.

Funny daughter

Last night during dinner, she found these plastic semi circle container and placed it in her cup and pretended that it was some sort of dessert.
S: "Mom would you like some Philippinos?"
I didn't know what to say at first.
Me: "Philippinos is not a kind of dessert. Philippinos are people from the Philippines."
S: "You buy it when we go to the book store"
Me: " I did? "
S: " Yes.. you order Philippinos coffee drinks with whip cream on top"
Me: " Oh...That's called Frappachinos. Sounds close to Philippinos but it's FRAPpachinos."
We both started laughing..

Lack of time

Life has been super busy this pass week. I don't seem to have time to sit and ponder on what I've done.
Last Friday, I found out that my Ob will be on vacation from May 5th thru May 19th. Thanks for letting me know ahead of time lady. Now I got to meet the other doctors in the office who may be delivering my baby if the baby decides to arrive early. Urgh..
It's hard to start bonding with other Drs at the very last minutes. What can I do? It's beyond my control.. I liked the other office better in Valencia where I visit with all the Drs that practice in that office and get to know them before going into labor.
We moved the piano this weekend from my parent's house to our house. I'm looking into piano teacher for S. S said that she doesn't want to take lessons. I tried teaching her to use all her fingers but she refuses to take direction from me so piano teacher it will be. She doesn't take criticism well or she doesn't like me telling her that she's wrong.

On Saturday night right before bed, S asked for some chocolate chip cookies. I told her that we don't have any in the house and proceed to do other things. Later when we got ready to brush out teeth, she burst in to tears and I asked her what was wrong.
S: "I want some chocolate chip cookies..whoa.."
Me: "I can't magically have cookies in the house. We'll go to the store tomorrow and buy some OK?" I gave her a big hug.
S: "OK"
I didn't expect her to be unreasonable at 5 years old.
She drew several mother's day card for me but she won't let me see it. I asked her to draw one for my mom and her response was
S: " Why don't you draw it for your mom and I draw it for my mom."
She's got a point.

Bloody nose

In the 2nd & 3rd trimester of this pregnancy, I've been getting bloody nose more often. During winter, I attributed it to using the heater but now that we don't use the heater anymore, I still get it at least twice/week. 4 more weeks until the due date and hopefully bloody nose will go away once the baby is born.

Hubby and I had been training S to sleep in her own room this pass week. One of us would read her a story and put her to bed. She's doing OK for the most part. 2 nights ago, she woke up around 2:00AM saying her Pikachu clock was too loud so we took it out of the room. One night she complained about strange noises so we're taking baby steps.

New tires

Recently I noticed my back left tire was balding so I told hubby that I need a new tire for my car. Hubby said that usually people get 2 new tires at once to balance the wear so we went to Costco and had the intention of buying 2 tires. We were contempalting which two to take out so we showed the tires to the mechanic, he said that all 3 tires were bald and recommended that we get 4 tires instead since it has to be even number. Hubby thinks that he's just being a salesman so he diagree with the recommendation. Me being conservative and not wanting to deal with changing flat tires on the freeway with a big belly agreed to buy all 4 new tires. Sold!
The bad part was that we had to wait for almost 2 hours for the installation so all 3 of us stroll inside Costco and ate lunch there. Pizza was really greasy but Myles liked their hotdog
Once the new tires were on the car, I noticed the contrast of how worn out the old tires were.

Amazing Race last night

Last night's episode was so stressful just watching it. I'm sad that Lynn and Alex are out but I have new respect for the black couple and they are my favorite and I hope they win. I put myself in Joyce's shoes and I would shave my head for a chance for $1M. She looked beautiful without hair and her husband was very supportive. I was hoping that more teams were going for fastforward but no one but the black couple did.
Apparently Amber and Rob's wedding will be aired on CBS sometime in May.

5 more weeks to go

Visted my Ob today. She didn't make me wait too long. Baby's heart beat is strong and Dr thinks that her head has moved down which is a good thing.
Baby is active and likes to move right under my stomach. I asked S to sing and talk to her down low so that baby would swim down instead of staying up towards my voice. It actually worked.
I tried to recall the time when mom was pregnant with Bulleye, but I don't remember touching my mom's belly at all. On the day Bulleye was born, I was in 1st grade. I walked home by my self in the rain, rang our house door bell but no one answered. I stood there for a long time (for a 6 year old) and finally a stranger came and took me to her apartment. She was my mom's co-worker and I stayed with her until mom and baby came home from the hospital.

I don't like Dr's visit

I have another Dr's Appointment this coming Friday which I dread because they always have me wait in the lobby, and wait in the examination room for the Dr to see me for may be 5-10 min max. My last visit to the OB, she made me wait for 40 minutes in the room. I was ready to walk out the door and the nurse said "You are next.." I felt just like Seinfeld's dad in the episode where he flew all the way from Florida to see a back specialist who made him wait to be seen. While waiting he explored everything possible in the room, and couldn't stand it anymore so he opened the door and said "Hello...you forgot about me.. I've been waiting for over 20 minutes. They are crooks!!"
Why do doctors or dentists treat patients as if our time is less valuable than their time? Is it because they schedule too many patients for the same time slot? Isn't that what appointments are for? If there's a doctor reading this blog, please explain this behavior.
Unfortunately, after 36 weeks, I'll be visiting my ob once a week. Urgh..

Almost forgot
Spin for 46 min.
Ave heart rate: 136 b/min
Cal burned: 345

Confession of a 5 year old

Lastnight, I was laying on the sofa watching TV and S decided to join me and laid next to me. I checked out her finger nail polish and made a comment.
Me: "S, your thumb seems to be flatter than before. Are you sucking thumb again?"
S: "Sometimes I forget..."
Me: "When do you forget?"
S: "At night.."
Me: "Every night?"
S: "Yeah.."
Me: " You know that you are eating nail polish when you suck your thumb."
S: Silence
Me" " I guess I'll call up jo-jo and ask him to stop sending you pokemon figurines"
S: Silence
I share this information with hubby and hubby said that he would pull her thumb out when she unconsciously sucks it at night.
Must think of away to prevent her from sucking at night.

33 weeks

7 more weeks to go and hopefully I'll go into labor naturally this time so no induction is necessary.
Baby is about 4 lbs and I have been feeling some tightening of the belly/contraction pass few days.
I was not able to sleep much last night. I had weird dreams about an exboyfriend and after I woke up, couldn't go back to sleep so I snuggle next to S and watch her sleep. She still looks like the way she was as an infant, sleeping with both arms over her head.
Curious to see how if the two girls will have similar features or totally different.

This pass weekend went by like a flash. Had to go in to work on Saturday and Sunday was mother inlaw's "house warming party" When we arrived at mother inlaw's house, I heard "Surprise!!!" My parents, my friends were there. I saw pink and purple baloons that has "It's a girl" printed on the surface. Apparently, my sister inlaw and hubby had been planning a surprise baby shower for the pass two weeks. Looking back, I realized there were some clues that were there but I didn't put pieces of the puzzle together.
We had lots of good Chinese and Vietnamese food but I didn't have my camera with me to share the moment.
Baby girl got lots of outfits and hubby got an toy race car (Display type).

Week 32

Had Dr. Appt for the 32nd week. Ob measured the baby and said that she isn't too big yet. I told her that this one kicks differently than S so they did an ultrasound which shows that the baby is laying horizontally instead of vertically with the head down. If she (a.k.a. secret) doesn't change position on her own, then the Ob will have to manually move her.
This weekend we are going to visit the hospital where I'll be delivering and S will attend a sibling class.

As far as Amazing race, I didn't watch the whole show but was surprised that Ray and Dena were eliminated even they were in 1st place in South Africa. Based on what I read, I missed lots of excitement with the car accident and stuff. Definitely a much better show than Survivor which is getting really boring. I like the gay couple, they work well as a team.

Immunization & stuff

I had good Friday off and so did daughter so what did we do together? We went to a new pediatrician and had her 5 year old check up. She doesn't like going to the doctors and retaliate if I prep her a head of time. I told her that we were going to the doctor for the baby but when we were in the office, and the nurse called S's name, she said "Why is she calling my name and not you or the baby's?"
She did great during the check up but not so well during the immunization shots. She got 5 shots + TB test. When the nurse gave her the shot she didn't say anything or make any sound. Once the nurse left the room, she was started to cry. The doctor had requested urine and hemoglobin test where they will draw blood. I decided not to do those test on the same day since she had been poked 6 times already. She was fine afterwards. I hid some eggs in the back yard and she went hunting for them. She also likes to hid the eggs and at this age she's able to hid green eggs in green background so it's not so easy to find. I recalled when she was 2 years old. She would hid the eggs in very obvious places and easily found.
My friend P & G came for visit on Saturday and P was sharing with me how G was really good at finding easter eggs.
I asked G
Me: "How old where you when you were really good at finding easter eggs?"
G: " Oh.. I was in my twenties."
Me: "You are kidding me."
P: " No, I thought it was strange that when I joined his family that they expected me to go easter egg hunting with heels and everything"
Me: "Interesting.. No wonder you were so good at finding them"

Cord Blood Banking

With all the reserch on stem cell, I went on the web and looked into cord blood banking. On the website there was no information on how much it actually cost to bank embilical cord blood so I called them.
Me: "Can you give me an estimate cost for cord blood banking?"
Salesman: "We are running this March special where you get $250.00 off if you sign up in March. It cost $95 and 1595 which include the collection kit etc.."
Me: "It's $95 to sign up and $15.85/month for storage?" (In my mind, it's not as expensive as I thought)
Salesmaan: " NO... It's fifteen hundred and ninty five dollars to enrole and Ninety five dollars per year for the next 18 years"
Me: "Oh.. Let me talk to my husband and get back to you."
Apparently, the blood will be stored it Arizona.