My Pregnancy Calendar is Mocking Me!

Waiting

So I-Day (induce-day) will be Monday evening if nothing happens between now and then.  I'm so tired right now but I've given up hoping that I'm going into labour every time I have a contraction, because I seem to have those every day.  I'm doing my best to relax but that's a bit difficult when we're planning an international move and attempting to buy our first home at the same time.  Thinking about it exhausts me.
Everything seems to be going well, thank God.  We have a renter for our apartment here in LA and she is going to buy most of our furniture.  We have almost chosen a house and are in the process of making an offer on that.  We have a wonderful Christian real estate agent who has been extremely helpful-not just with finding a house, but with our whole move to Waterloo.  Today I got in contact with a community nurse who will be able to provide postpartum care to me and the baby as soon as we get to Waterloo.  We are in the process of putting together paperwork for my application for permanent residency, hopefully we'll be able to file that soon after we arrive in Canada.
In the meantime we wait for Baby Fung.  I think s/he's a smart one and is choosing to avoid all the drama by staying put :)

Moving Sale

Various household goods for sale. Check out postings on Craigslist:

Baby Swing $15
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/bab/2758126460.html

Multipurpose storage cabinet - $35 
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/fuo/2745407897.html

Wooden shoe rack (pine), 8 compartments - $60
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/fuo/2745348364.html

We also have reams of office paper and a box of unused envelopes plus various other office supplies for sale.

Blah

I am so over this pregnancy.  I know a lot of women get this way toward the end of their pregnancy, but in my case, being over the pregnancy makes me a little less careful about my diabetes.  It's just so hard to keep on top of it at the moment because all I'm thinking about is having this baby.  This morning I finally called my nurse educator and asked for help.  Hoping they'll be able to help a bit with getting some of my numbers tightened up.  Of course my phone also died a couple of days ago-great time to be without a mobile phone!  The past two days have been spent mostly at home however so that land line is enough for that.  The Christmas tree is decorated, cards are ready to be posted, most of my presents have been bought and my hospital bags are packed (just need to get some snacks for Andrew and gatorade for me (I miss lucozade!)
I'm having lots of contractions these days, many of them kind of achy -still hoping for an early arrival! Only 18 days left!

Knitting Frenzy

I have gone through times in my life when I've enjoyed knitting.  Once I used to get a knitting magazine that had me practising new stitches and knitting skills each week.  I think that's where I learned a lot of basic knitting techniques.  However, since moving to LA I haven't really taken out the needles.  Recently however I discovered that one of my good friends from work is a bit of a knitting addict, this got me interested.  However, it wasn't until I discovered I was pregnant and started researching reusable nappies that I really got bit by the knitting bug again.  My knitting friend, Guinevere, introduced me to the coolest website www.ravelry.com where you could find every knitting pattern you would ever want.  Some patterns are free, some cost a small sum of money to download.  Whatever pattern you're interested in, you can also see how other people made this item (different colour wools, little personalisations etc).  Anyway I bought this particularly popular soaker pattern.  A soaker is a nappy cover made of wool, wool is water resistant especially after it is soaked in lanolin and wool soakers work really well as nappy covers.  Then I invested in lots of superwash wool yarn and got knitting! Below is the result.  8 soakers :)

While knitting these soakers I found myself learning a lot about knitting and fixing a lot of bad habits.  I especially improved my finishing techniques.

I then decided to branch out and make one or two more items for little Fung.  I found it hard to find really cute, neutral items, but I was very excited when I found this absolutely gorgeous owl sweater.  I ended up using the exact wool and colour suggested by the pattern because it was so beautiful.  I kind of went crazy with this one and ended up knitting the whole thing in 2 days.  I loved knitting this!  The owls were so cute.  It took a while before I finally bought buttons to give the owls eyes, but I eventually finished this last week and I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Finally, I decided it was time to knit a blanket.  I wanted to have a sheep theme in our baby's nursery but I was finding it difficult to get some nice bedding with sheep on it, so I decided to make it myself.  I enjoyed knitting this blanket.  I did begin to hate the sheep towards the end but ultimately I was pleased with the results.  I enjoyed learning new stitches while making this one.

Pregnancy update: We're 36 weeks now.  I've been having lots of lovely "fake" contractions.  Today my Dr. gave Andrew the okay to head to Philadelphia for a couple of days next week however so nothing will be happening for a while, for now :)

Please let me know your favourite knitting projects in the comments section, or some constructive criticism is much appreciated.

Baby's Coming

Woohoo the baby in my pregnancy calendar is hanging upside down-this means the end (or the beginning) is in sight!
Right now my ob is insisting that I'm expecting a huge baby (she likes to remind me of this often), my endocrinologist on the other hand rolls his eyes at this and wonders when the obs are going to realise that not every diabetic mother has huge babies, especially ones with very good blood sugar control.  I choose to listen to my endo and just say nothing now when my ob refers to my MONSTROUS baby.  Right now baby Fung is approximately 5lbs and we'll find out next week how much bigger s/he has become.
I'm busy finishing off soakers that I've been knitting over the past 8 months or so (still have one more to finish) and making lists of all the things I need to do before baby gets here.  I am so grateful for Amazon.com.co.uk and.ca!  I am also very thankful for my friend Guinevere who has helped me so much with so much of the preparation for this baby.
Today I made a list for our hospital bag and started packing it a little bit.  It's weird packing so far in advance but I suppose this is what I'm supposed to do.   I think it'll take about a week to get it all done.
My pelvic bone has been bothering me a little too so I need to slow things down a little bit.
Tomorrow I work one last day at SMMS then I'm done.  I'll miss that place but I really feel ready to be completely finished with work and focus on this little baby's arrival.
We have Thanksgiving next week which is when Andrew and I will get our Christmas tree and decorate it-can't wait! Waiting for a baby to come around Christmas time gives us a whole new understanding of advent.  It makes it very special this year.

34 weeks

Let's Vote!

At this point my bump is pretty huge.  I know I have a couple more months for it do get huger, but for now I think it's big enough to do this.   Andrew and I have not found out the baby's gender but I love guessing.  Now I want to hand it over to you.  Take a look at the bump...does it say anything to you?  Now in the comments vote if you think it might be a boy or a girl!  I'm not telling you what I think.

33 weeks

Moving to Van Nuys and NSTs

This week I am 30 weeks pregnant.  We're on the home straight.  I also started my non-stress tests.  I will have these twice a week until the baby is born.  They consist of me lying on a bed with a fetal heart monitor on my stomach measuring the baby's heartbeat and movement.  They want to see how well the placenta is working.  The baby's heartbeat should rise and fall with its movement.  NSTs can take just 20 minutes, however if the baby isn't moving or if the baby is moving too much the nurses make you wait until the baby is just moving a little bit so that they can get a baseline then they can see if the heart rate goes up with movement.  Our baby is chronically uncooperative.  When getting an echo cardiogram s/he refused to lift its chin off its chest so that the doctors could see its heart clearly.  S/he routinely kicks the doppler device when the ob is checking the baby's heartbeat and when it came to the NST s/he decided to do an Irish jig or some kind of kung fu just when we needed it to be a little calmer which meant I had to lie there for almost an hour before they could get a good read (at which point the nurse called it picture perfect).  I think we'll have our hands full with this one.

This past weekend we moved from south west LA to a little further north.  We're living about 7 minutes from our church and about 20 minutes from Andrew's work now.  We moved into a bigger, 2 bedroom apartment in Van Nuys.  It's much hotter here so we're very glad to have air conditioning!  We're planning on having the second room as our baby's room but also as a guest room whenever guests come (don't worry we'll move the baby out).  So no excuses now for not visiting!  Our movers arrived on Friday morning and started packing at about 9am, they didn't finish until 10:35pm...we have too much stuff, nothing like a move to make you aware of that...

Kitchen

Dining area

Living room

Hallway

Baby/Guest bedroom

Master bedroom

I'm in the process of unpacking and trying to get this place looking like a home.  Then it's down to setting up the baby's room-the fun part :)  We really love our new neighbourhood.  We're right by some great shops and restaurants and they're all so much cheaper than anything you could find in west la.  It's lovely being closer to church too.  Andrew is carpooling with a lady who works in UCLA.  The traffic can be difficult but they're finding ways around it.  We're excited to be finally settled in the home that we hope to bring our baby to.  Only 8 to 10 weeks to go before little Fung makes his/her appearance.  We can't wait!

28 weeks

People are Demanding the Fat Photos

A few people have asked me how big my bump is (code for, how fat are you now :D)

So I suppose I'll just post a bunch of them starting at the very beginning.

8 weeks

14 weeks

19 weeks

20 weeks

23 weeks

25 weeks (today)

Off Again

Well we're off again. Tonight we're flying to Seattle then early tomorrow morning we're getting the clipper ferry to Vancouver Island then a Greyhound bus to Cowichan Bay for a wedding which will take place on Saturday. Just thinking about it makes me want to curl up and sleep...We're looking forward to the scenery and hopefully to cooler weather. I like cool weather these days :D

Yesterday we had an echo cardiogram to check the baby's heart and everything looks good. That was nice to hear. The baby however is like it's father and is very stubborn. He/She had its chin resting on its chest and even though the Dr. had me doing jumping jacks, baby refused to lift it's head. Later on at the obstretritian's he decided to give the doppler device a few kicks while we were checking for its heartbeat. We'll have to have a word with him/her about their behaviour...

Half Way There!

This past week was busy. I started Physical Therapy because my back has been hurting pretty bad recently. Of course, when I went to the PT appointment my back felt just fine so I felt like a fraud :P Now I have some exercises I'm supposed to do once or twice a day and I have two PT appointments every week for the next few weeks. I'm beginning to see a bit too much of UCLA hospital...

In other news I finished a very cute baby cardigan for some friends of ours who are having a baby girl about a month before us. It feels like quite an accomplishment to finally get the cardigan made! I just need to sew up the arms now and get some cute buttons.

On Saturday we went to O'Melverny Park with some friends. We celebrated three birthdays and had a very enjoyable picnic in a lovely shaded area. It was a very enjoyable afternoon.

We are 20 weeks pregnant now, officially halfway through, just another 20 more to go. Pregnancies take way too long in my opinion. Everything seems to be going well however and this is probably the easier part of the pregnancy. I have appointments this week with my ob/gyn and with my diabetes nurse. I need to see if it will be okay for me to fly with Andrew to D.C. the end of August.

That's all the news for now I think. A pretty uneventful week, not sure whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Thumbs Up!

Well, we've been home almost a week now. I'm almost back in LA time, still a bit sleepy in the evenings. I still need to get my knitting needles out again. I need some inspiration!

Today we went for our big 19 week scan. It was so fun to see the little baby move and study each detail. I lay in the ultrasound room for a whole hour while the radiologist checked everything!

She started on the head and made her way down to the toes. Counting every little digit and measuring everything there was to be measured including arteries and ventricles in the brain. The pictures were so clear you could see the chambers of the heart. She even got a photo of the baby’s nostrils!

It was unreal. The baby was moving lots and even gave us a thumbs up :D The radiologist identified the baby’s gender but she didn't tell us because we asked her not to. It was very hard not to sneak a peak though :)

The pictures are not as clear as the 11 week scan because the baby was more squished this time and we didn't really see the whole baby like we did when it was smaller, the picture of his arm is pretty impressive though!

Boring blurry shot

Thumbs up from BFung!

A Week of Weddings, Friends and Family

This week was a great week, but very busy. I'm very thankful that my energy levels have returned (mostly). Monday was Phil and Katie's wedding. Phil and Katie both traveled all the way to LA last year for our wedding so we were really glad to have made it to Ireland to celebrate theirs this year. We aren't allowed to post wedding photos online, so I'll put up a photo of myself and Andrew and picture with a friend who's also pregnant (there were several pregnant people at this wedding actually)

Tuesday we went to visit Stephen and Siobhain and finally got to meet Levi. He's such a cutie. Sara, their 2 year old, is also a one woman show. She's hilarious, she talks so much and is extremely bright. Unfortunately we forgot our camera, so no photos.

Wednesday was spent with the whole family visiting Garnish Island to celebrate Dad's 60th birthday. It was a beautiful day, the weather was perfect and the scenery glorious. We ended the day with a birthday meal at the Poacher's Inn in Bandon. Great Fish pie!

The whole family: Back from left: John, Mum, Dad

Middle from left: Daithi, Dara, Sandra, Andrew

Front from left: Marcas, Sinead, Naomi, Me

Thursday we traveled to Limerick to see Garret and Jacqueline and their new baby girl Grace Hannah. It was so nice to see Jesse and Samuel again and to meet their sweet little sister. Grace was only 10 days old and very tiny. I've seen and held smaller babies than her, however, it felt a little closer to home this time. I must say it was a bit nerve wracking to think that we'd be having a tiny little one like this in our home soon! Again, we forgot our camera...

Friday was wedding number two. Our dear friends Fons and Beatrice De Wit's daughter Kelly married Brian O'Mahony. These two are a really lovely couple and I really enjoyed seeing them get married. Beatrice made a beautiful wedding cake and I really loved the South African (Beatrice is South African) touches in the wedding, in particular the protea in the bride's bouquet and on the cake.

Dad, Mum, Andrew, Me, Kelly, Brian, Marcas, Sinead

Brendan, Kelly, Beatrice, Fons

Beautiful Proteas

Brian and Kelly

Back Home

We're in Ireland for a couple of weeks right now. Wish it was more like a couple of months! I love this place, even though so far I've been just sitting at home suffering from melatonin free jet lag. It hasn't been too bad though, and this morning I slept until 8am, so I'm getting there. Hopefully I'll get through the day today without having to nap. Phil and Katie's wedding is tomorrow so not needing to nap during that would be very helpful :D

We totally forgot cameras which is really quite a bummer, I mean, not only are we in Ireland for two weeks, but we're going to to two weddings! Cameras are needed! For the weddings I brought a dress and shoes and am stealing all accessories from my mother. Saves a lot of money!! Anyway, I think I'll manage this dress for the next two weddings but I'll probably need yet another one for the Eng wedding in August. This, getting bigger every week, is really not helpful when one has weddings throughout the summer...

Soakers

I have gone knitting crazy this past week. My friend Guinevere has got me hooked!

Since I've decided that I'm going to use reusable nappies for the baby I've been getting lots of advice from a friend from Arizona, Abby Green, who is a very practical mum who has been using them for her little guy, Ezra, for the past year. Along with all the very cool different kinds of nappies that you can use she highly recommended wool soakers as a nappy cover. These soakers are breathable and when soaked in lanolin they are also water resistant and can be used quite a often before they need to be washed. So I decided to get to work and start knitting some soakers for Baby Fung. I went a bit crazy, I have now knitted the best part of 4 soakers. I'm waiting on some wool to finish soaker #2 and soaker #4 should be done today. Unfortunately soaker #3 won't be functional as a soaker because I stupidly knitted with cotton yarn which is not water resistant. Oh well, it's still cute and I can just use it as a pants, over another soaker :D

Soaker #1

Soaker #2

Soaker #3

Soaker #4

Andrew and I spent his day off yesterday exploring Pasadena. It's a nice town but it was way too hot, as it generally is in LA these days. We're heading to Ireland next week-I cannot wait! I'm especially going to enjoy the cooler weather. I have two appointments this week, may get to see the baby on u/s tomorrow, and one appointment next week before we fly off. I don't know what they're going to do without seeing me for a whole two weeks. UCLA medical centre just won't be the same!

Anyway, I should get some lunch now and get some work done today, including my Chinese homework-ugh!

1 week at home

Well I have one week of my summer holidays under my belt and I spent it tired! At 14 weeks pregnant I'm expecting more from this week-I'm waiting to get that long awaited second trimester energy burst. I went for a walk this morning and did some shopping and I felt more energetic, however after lunch I slept for 3 hours. Oh well, maybe I'll get some things done this evening instead.

We attended a friend's wedding on Saturday, barely. I was so exhausted I thought I wouldn't make it, but thankfully after a nap I did. Before I realised I was pregnant I bought this gorgeous dress for this wedding and Phil and Katie's wedding. I was still hoping I'd manage to pull it off for both weddings. I did manage to wear it on Saturday but I think it'll have to be packed away for a while, it was a bit of a squeeze :P At this point I don't look pregnant, I just look like I've gorged myself on one too many In 'n Out burgers.

It was nice to see a lot of Andrew's old college friends at the wedding-it was like a little reunion :)

This week I have my diabetes nurse appointment and that's it. One appointment in a week is like a little holiday!

That's it, a kind of boring update, but I can do boring updates now that I have more time on my hands :D