Happy Birthday Connie!!

A quick birthday shout out to my Sis-In-Law, Connie!! Hope you have a wonderful day today! You deserve it! :)

Week 16

On Friday, I was officially 16 weeks pregnant. Now I'm about 16 1/2.

They say that between 16-20 you may start feeling the baby move. I'm not really sure what I should be looking for. Some people say it feels like bubbles popping, butterflies, or just hunger pains or gas bubbles. I think I've been feeling something lately though, more like bubbles popping. I can't wait until they get stronger and I'm sure of what I'm feeling. From what we've been reading, the baby's bones get harder as it approaches 20 weeks.

I scheduled my ultrasound with Radiology for Tuesday, March 31st in the late afternoon. At that appointment, they'll be checking the size of the baby, the development of the major organs, and the sex of the baby. Woohoo! I can't wait.

Cuong took some pictures of my belly last night, so I figured I'd share. It seems to be growing as each weeks go on.

Warning: I really need a tan!!

Baby Shower

I'm helping Yolanda's friend Dana (or doing most of the work) for Yolanda's baby shower in early April. I don't mind, but I just hope she doesn't take the credit like she usually does. I just want to make sure that Yolanda enjoys herself and feels like we're celebrating her and Tomas.

I've been working on putting together the games, game prizes, favors, desserts, and more. Since I have the time, it's pretty convenient for me. I went to Costco today to pick up some candy to put in the favor bags. I was excited to put them together since I had used my Xyron sticker-maker to make the the little tag to attach to the bag. I was so excited to get it done that after they were finished, I realized that I hadn't even put away my groceries from Costco yet! Whoops.

Here's a sneak peak! Plus, I plan on making cupcakes (per Yolanda's request) and I've already put together cute toothpicks with a monkey on top to put on the cupcakes. It's similar to the tag on the favors. It should be adorable. Now I just need to learn how to do the fancy frosting on cupcakes.

New Ultrasounds! 14.5 weeks

We just got back from the doctor's office this morning. There wasn't much to do at this appointment. First she was just using a doppler to find the heartbeat. It worried me a little when she was having trouble finding it. She ended up "cheating" and using a little ultrasound machine. I didn't mind too much though since we got new pictures of the baby! These are even better than the last ones! Now I'm almost 15 weeks pregnant.

She put in an order for an ultrasound in the Radiology department for the big ultrasound to check for the vital organs...and sex. So my appointment will probably be towards the end of the month. I can't wait! I hope the baby is in a good position so we can find out the sex.

Here are the ultrasounds we got this morning. I added some text to make it easier to figure out, but it's getting much easier now that the baby is getting bigger and looking more human!

14 Weeks

Today I'm almost 14 1/2 weeks pregnant. In my doctors appointments thus far, they've decided that I'm progressing to a new week either each Wednesday or Friday. Who knows. That's the confusing part.

Either way, I'm just happy to be progressing well.

Cuong took these pictures last Thursday (Feb. 26th) to show my belly. I was surprised to see how fast it was growing. I've been hearing that everyone grows differently. Some pop out really quickly and then don't grow again until towards the end. Some don't grow much until the end...and some just continue growing throughout! Who knows what will happen to me!

Note: This shirt was very clingy, so it exaggerated the bump. But my stomach definitely looks different than it did in the past!

At 14 weeks, the baby is about 3 1/2 inches long - about the size of a lemon.

GREAT Grandparents

Each February, my Aunt Rita and Uncle Mike from Illinois (my mom's brother) come out to visit California. This year was no exception. They brought along their daughter (my cousin) Julie and her daughter Celia. Julie's husband is a Deputy Sherrif and was stuck at work, so he wasn't able to escape the cold weather this year. They were all staying at my grandparents' house in San Diego.

Since I'm not working, my mom decided that she would take a day off work and asked me to join her to visit them down in San Diego (Feb. 11th). They wanted to make a day trip of going to Coronado Island. Even though I've lived in California, I had never been to Coronado before! So it was a new adventure to me.

I wanted to tell my grandparents about the pregnancy, so before we headed out for Coronado, I gave them a little gift.

I had picked up a plain white metal mailbox in the $1 spot at Target and embellished it with some scrapbook papers, stickers and jewels. Inside I had written them a little note, stuck the ultrasounds in and given them a sweet treat for Valentine's Day.

My grandma had my grandpa read the note outloud. After he read it, he gasped and got a big smile on his face. My grandma was crying, gave me a hug and said how happy she was! My grandpa was a little teary eyed, gave me a hug and said how lucky he was. My grandma then turned to him and said, "We made it Paul. Now just hang in there!" They're so funny. My grandpa has been in and out of the hospital a lot in the past few years, so I was really glad to be able to tell them this good news while he's still healthy.

This will be their 2nd great-grandchild, but Celia lives all the way in Illinois and they only get to see her once a year.

The big announcements!

Now that I was further into my 1st Trimester (about 11 weeks), we felt safe announcing it to our families. With the high rate of miscarriages and the fact that my mom had about 3-4 miscarriages during her pregnancies, I was a bit worried about announcing it too soon. I wasn't sure what I would do if we had already told people and then something happened.

Phew! Luckily we made it! Go baby!

We first announced to each of our parents on the weekend of Feb. 6th-9th. Cuong's parents were planning on coming up that weekend, so we asked my parents to come up to help us out with some electrical and plumbing issues we were having.

We had made a trip to Babies R Us during the prior weekend to pick up some matching bibs in order to make the big announcement.

On Friday night, Cuong's parents came up and brought some yummy crab and his mom made one of my favorite Vietnamese dishes! Yum! After dinner, Cuong went upstairs and grabbed 2 gift bags. He told them that we had gotten them matching gifts and them asked them to open them at the same time.
Cuong's dad was so excited, he jumped out of his chair, ran over, gave me a big hug and said, "THANK YOU!" It was so great to see such an enthusiastic reaction! :) Cuong's parents were so happy to be having a 4th grandchild and then reminded him that he needed to help out around the house and make sure I wasn't carrying heavy things or reaching up too high.


On Sunday, my parents came over to the house. We had some delicious lunch at Zito's Pizza, and then we headed back to the house to figure out our electrical and sprinkler problems. After successfully figuring one of them out, we headed back into the house. Now it was my turn to go upstairs to get the gift bags! Once again, we said we had gotten them matching gifts and to open them at the same time. My dad, being a smarty-pants, said "Why do we have to open them at the same time if they match? Just have mom open hers!" Grrr! To which I responded, "Just open it!" My mom was surprised and then gave me a hug and said congratulations and then commented that she couldn't believe she was going to be a grandmother!

Doctor's Appointments

After I got my positive home pregnancy tests, I called to make an appointment with my OB/GYN. I wasn't sure how quickly (or not) I was supposed to see her. They told me that they would set up an appointment with their Nurse Midwife so she could do my first pre-natal exam. I went on January 7th to see her. After I filled out tons of paper work, I went into the exam room to see Lisa. She was a very nice and intelligent lady.

She told me that she was going to request for me to go to the lab and have some blood drawn for all of the different tests they needed to run. She explained about different races/ethnicity having a higher rate of carrying genes for diseases, etc. Towards the end of the appointment she said that she was going to do an ultrasound. I was in shock! It was only 7 weeks pregnant, why would she do an ultrasound? I had just told Cuong that he didn't need to come with me because the book I read told me that all they would do was just check vital signs, blood work, etc. Boy was I wrong!

Lisa went ahead and did an ultrasound. I could see a tiny heartbeat going at a rapid speed. It just looked like a little dot inside an egg sack. She told me that it was about the size of a jellybean!

My second appointment was about 3 weeks later, January 29th. This time my appointment was with my OB/GYN. She talked to us about genetic testing during the first trimester to check for the possibility of having a high or low risk of birth defects. There was also an option to wait until the 2nd trimester to do the testing. We decided that the 2nd trimester was better suited for us. It gave us more of a choice of what would happen even if the test came back saying that there was a higher risk.
My blood tests came back and everything looked normal as far as being a carrier for Cystic Fibrosis or being anemic, etc.
At this appointment they were able to do another ultrasound to check the baby's development and heartbeat. The doctor said that things looked to be progressing normally and that the heartbeat was strong. The baby looked a little more "human" during this ultrasound. Believe it or not, the head is on the right side and the legs were still developing on the left side. The doctor said she could even see a little hand!

Our next appointment is this Wednesday, so we're excited to see what else we can learn!

I'm back!

It's been a while since my last post. Some exciting things have happened, and now it's all out in the open!

After I was notified that I was being laid off, Cuong and I decided that despite me losing my job and the economy going into a recession, it was the perfect time to get pregnant....right? :) Pretty ironic. None the less, we started trying and within 3 weeks or so, I was pregnant!

On Tuesday, December 23rd, I got out of bed at the same time that Cuong usually gets up to go to work. I had picked up a 2 pack of pregnancy tests at the store the day before. Since I had missed my period we decided that I should take the test.

I went into the restroom and did my thing, and then set it on the counter. The directions said it would take about 5 minutes until something showed up. I bought one of the "digital" tests so there was no mistaking lines or colors. After putting the test on the counter, I went into the closet and started folding some clothes.

Cuong, meanwhile, was doing his usual routine to get ready for work. He had gotten dressed and headed to the sink area to do his hair. I heard him get quiet and then poke his head in the closet and say, "I think you'd better get the camera!". I of course told him to "shut up" and that it had only been about 2 minutes and the directions said it would take 5 minutes. So he told me to come out and have a look for myself.

Sure enough, when I looked at the test it said " YES +". I was in complete shock. I ran and got the camera and took a picture. I was still in disbelief at what I saw on that little stick. Could I have really gotten pregnant? We hadn't even been trying for that long!

But....here is the proof.

Since I still couldn't belive it, I ended up taking the 2nd pregnancy test later in the day. I called Cuong to tell him that it definitely said YES on it too!

Talk about a Christmas present!