Cali Baby Shower Pics

I said I'd post more pictures from the Cali baby showers once I got copies, so here they are! Each picture has a caption to give you more of an idea of what went on at the showers. If you'd like to read about the Cali showers, you can check out the blog entries Cali Trip Day 2 for the Seaside shower, and check out Cali Trip Day 4 for the SJ shower.

~~~The Seaside Baby Shower~~~

The set-up for the Seaside baby shower! Karlyn and Lynn had tadpoles swimming around the room and used blue streamers to make it look like they were in water

Mark created a poster with what Tadpole's Facebook page might look like, and all the friends listed were the attendees of the shower. Mark and Karlyn also bought the baby girl balloon, and the frog, Prince Frederic the XXVII (the 27th because Tadpole is due on the 27th of April. I named him)

Karlyn knows I love chocolate chip cookies, so she made a huge one for dessert, with no dairy! Yay! And she used frosting to decorate it and "paint" a tadpole for Tadpole.

My mom won the first game, which was to find the most bottles hidden in the room.

In the 2nd game, everyone had to draw a baby in the womb. The catch of this game is that you couldn't look at what you were doing AND you had to draw the picture while the paper was on your head.

We all voted that Alicia's was the best drawing.

Valerie won at Baby Bingo!

The guys came back early from their pizza dinner to "crash" the shower and say hi. They let us be to continue in the girlyness.

I totally wanted this outfit for Tadpole! It's so darn cute! And it had a frog on the butt. hehe Thanks, Shilo!

Oh yeah! My daughter got her own pair of sunglasses! I always have sunglasses with me somewhere, so now Tadpole can be like her mother. ^_^

Karlyn made a blanket for Tadpole (left), that was a recreation of a blanket she grew up with (right). Cute isn't it. ^_^

~~~The SJ Baby Shower~~~

My mom also knows I love chocolate chip cookies. She made these, and they have Oreos in the middle! So good!

My mom decorated the room with toys, books, and clothes that were mine when I was little. For each item she had a picture that went with it to show me wearing it or playing with it. And yes, I'm a natural red head and proud of it!

The first game Amy planned was to have everyone guess how big my baby bump was. Alison guessed the closest! She was off by less than a centimeter!

For the 2nd game, Amy read off a series of questions relating to babies and pregnancy (they had multiple choice answers). Julie got the most correct!

For the 3rd and final game, everyone was given a small container of play-doh, from which they were to craft a model of a baby. I then had to vote on which one looked the most realistic and that I liked the most.

These were all the lovely creations which made it so hard to choose the winner! I liked Julies best, but since she already won a game, I picked my 2nd favorite, which Sarah made. And yes, the one on the top in the middle is a mermaid. hehehe ^_^

Ruth gave this to Tadpole. It was made by women who are part of Crafters for Christ at my church back home.I love the stars and moons on it.

This outfit is so cute! My mom found it. I can't wait for Tadpole to wear this!

Whoohoo! We got the diaper bag that matches Tadpole's bed set that we're planning on getting. Judy, Alison and Lindsey had it filled with other wonderful baby items for Tadpole

Yeah, I'd say Sarah know me. She knows I LOVE the Little Mermaid. ^_^

If you want to see a few more pictures from the showers, you of course can check out the blog entries I mentioned above. Hope you enjoyed seeing a bit more from the baby showers!

Again, thank you Mom, Amy, Karlyn and Lynn for planning the showers! And thank you everyone for blessing our little girl and us. I can't believe we are only two months away from her due date!

God bless you all! ^_^

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Happy Birthday, Mom!!!

I love you very very much! So this blog entry is dedicated to you! 

I hope you have a blessed and wonderful birthday.

In San Fran

Mom visiting me in Seattle right after I moved

In NY right after we saw Beauty and the Beast on stage.

At the Japanese Friendship Garden

Me and my mom on my wedding day

At the Japanese Friendship Garden again, this time I'm preggers.

I love you mom!

Maternity Pictures!!!

For your enjoyment, here are some of my favorite maternity pictures that were taken during our Cali trip that have not been posted yet. The first two are ones my mom took of Andrew and I at the Japanese Friendship Garden. The rest were taken by Valerie in Marina. Enjoy!

Being goofy

Soaking up the sun as a family

Mommy and Daddy to be!

Me and lil Tadpole, next to one of my favorite things in the world; the ocean!

I love my lil Tadpole! Thank you, God!

<3 Love <3

Whoohoo! I'm gonna be a mom!

I have no idea what we're doing in this picture, but I like it

We love our lil girl. (Our new banner for the blog)

Thinking about my little Tadpole, and how precious she is

Lovin' on the bump

Us thinking about our lil girl and the blessing she already is to us

Andrew loves us! And we love him. ^_^

Doctor Update

Well, I had my doctor appointment today with Doc S. Everything is still going well. Tadpole’s lil heart was recorded at 146bpm, which is the same as last time. She’s still measuring at taking up the average amount of space in my body, which right now is 31cm. Here’s a little trivia for those who don’t know: starting at about week 20, a woman’s uterus tends to measure, in centimeters, the same number as her week in pregnancy. Of course this is an average. Some women’s uteruses are smaller, some larger. Not everyone has the same body build so obviously there are variations. But it seems Tadpole and I are right on the average mark. So if you understood all that, that means I’m on week _____. Yes, that’s right. I’m on week 31. Just started it actually. ^_^

After all the normal check-up stuff, I asked Doc. S. a few questions. One, I wanted to know how many support people he is comfortable with being in the delivery room. He answered that however many people I want/need that can fit comfortable in the birthing room is fine. Well, I’m not looking at inviting a lot of people in the room, but I was thinking of two people, possibly three. Not to say they’d all be there at the same time.

Anyway! Questions two was about birthing plans. Now-a-days, it seems everyone and everything is saying to write up a birthing plan, or fill out a birthing plan form that some doctors have. So I asked Doc. S. if he wanted me to create one or if he had a form or something. He said if I’d like to create one with my husband, I can. He said they bring up great things to talk about to make sure we’re on the same page. He also said that I don’t need to write one up unless I want to, but to bring up the topics to him that are most important to me and Andrew. So, I made sure he had one thing written down on my chart that I have decided upon; my view of using medication while giving birth. Right now my stance is that I don’t want to use meds to give birth to lil Tadpole. I want to experience it! Even though the thought of pushing a lil person out of me kind of freaks me out…. However, if I come to a point in delivery where I feel I need it, then I’m all for it.

And then I was brave and brought up a topic that really freaks me out: episiotomy. I really don’t want one, and any time I even think about the topic I literally start feeling sick or/and freaked out (that includes right now as I type this). Thankfully Doc. S. is a doctor who does his best at staying away from doing an episiotomy. He explained that he’d only ever make that incision if Tadpole’s life was in danger, or I just couldn’t push anymore and Tadpole needed more help getting out. To tell the truth, it was really hard for me to have this short conversation with Doc. S. I had to concentrate on my breathing and kept reminding myself that everything was okay and to calm down. For some reason I just really don’t like even the thought of an episiotomy…

Okay! Moving on! After all that I had some blood drawn to have my glucose level checked, and for a few other normal routine check-ups that occur during the third trimester. I believe the results should be in at my next visit, which will be in two weeks.

On a completely different note! I now have photos from my mom and two friends from our Cali trip. This means there will be a maternity picture post at some point, and probably another one showing a few more pictures from baby showers. You might have noticed the banner for the blog changed again. It’s a photo Valerie took for us of Andrew and I making a heart with our hands over Tadpole. We love our little girl. ^_^  Thanks, Val! I love that photo!

Giggles

At church yesterday, Tadpole was dancing around like crazy when Pastor Mike was speaking. I couldn’t resist looking down every once and a while to watch her movement when it was strong enough to make my bump bulge. My friend, Alicia, who was sitting next to me, noticed I was paying an ample amount of attention to my belly, so she started watching too and we were smiling back and forth at Tadpole’s little movement that could be seen. THEN! Tadpole all of a sudden kicked really hard on the right and then hard on the left, making my belly look like waves in the ocean. We both looked at each other and then started giggling in church (Mike, I swear we weren’t giggling at anything you had to share! I loved your sermon yesterday!), trying not to laugh too loud to disturb anyone. Alicia then wrote a note to me saying “she’s alive!!” which made me smile too.

Yup, our little one is alive! And still kicking strong. I have a doctor appointment on Wednesday with Doc. Slack for a check-up. I’m supposed to eat a big meal before I go in because they’ll be taking blood for the third trimester blood check-up and seeing how my blood sugar level is. If my blood sugar level is totally fine then I won’t have to take one of those nasty sugar drinks to see if I have gestational diabetes. It doesn't run in my family and I'm a healthy woman, so the chances of me having it are very minimal.

Cramped

Yesterday marked our 10 week count down! That means today it’s 69 days until Tadpole’s due date. WOW!!! That makes me just have to sit back and think about it. Sometimes I’m totally keyed into the fact that I am going to be a mom soon, and other times it’s just so dang surreal! It’s like a teeter totter ride going up and down.

Something that is kind of new for me is the fact that I am starting to feel cramped. I mean my insides feel cramped. Ten more weeks to go and I already feel cramped and yet I know I’m just going to be giving up more space for Tadpole to grow. I was really hoping this feeling wouldn’t start for at least, I don’t know, 5 more weeks…

I’d say this feeling started two days ago, when Tadpole gained a fascination in playing with my ribs and down near my right hip. At the same time! I think I’m growing a ninja girl. I’ve been trying to figure out how to explain this cramped feeling to people who haven’t been pregnant. The best I’ve been able to come up with is you know that feeling you have after a hard hiccup, or a series of hiccups? Well, it kind of feels like that, but prolonged. It’s very interesting and uncomfortable at the same time.

Tadpole has been super active the last couple days too. I have been trying to catch her motion on video, but it’s like she knows when I push the record button and she just stops moving, or at least to the degree that she was dancing around. What can I say? She’s stubborn like her parents.

Cali Trip Day 5

Monday, February 7th, 2011
Our last day in sunny California was filled with good times with my mom, but also some errands. We started off the day by going through my kid stuff in the attic; pulling out what we’d like my mom to bring up to Seattle when Tadpole is born (books, a few stuffed animals, lego duplo blocks), putting aside some things I don’t need to keep any more, and looking at all the toys Tadpole can play with when she’s older. Some of the things will stay at Grandma’s house so Tadpole and her nieces have something to play with when they visit, while others might come to our home once Tadpole is a few years of age. It was fun going through all the old toys and telling Andrew about them all. He had fun checking out how a few of the toys I grew up with worked. Two boxes we did not pull out were the My Little Pony box, and the Barbie box. Tadpole can wait until she’s at least two to be exposed to some of those. Of course while going through all this the animals wanted to help out.

Shika is my cat, and Hoshi's half sister. But since she's a twin to Bree (my mom's cat), she lives at home with my mom

Bree doesn't like staying still. So in order to take a picture of her I had to hold her

Auzzie!!! Our "puppy-dog." He totally still thinks he's a puppy even though he'll be turning 14 this summer

After that fun rollback in time we went off to run a few errands, and to make sure Andrew got his In N Out.  Then we went to one of my favorite places in the world: Kelly Park. Sadly the Happy Hollow part of Kelly Park was closed for the day, but the Japanese Friendship gardens were open!

Japanese Friendship garden. They'll finally be getting more koi later this year.

 We took a nice stroll through the garden, and my mom took some pictures of Andrew and me in our “love shirts.” I really wanted maternity pics of us in the gardens, and am happy we got some great shots! And Andrew took a few of me and my mom. ^_^

Showing off our "love" shirts

Giving our love to baby Tadpole

Aww, Andrew loves me! <3

Me and my mommy. ^_^

The garden just started to get a hint of my favorite scent that resides there: the sakura (cherry blossoms). Some of the sakura trees were just starting to be in bloom. I LOVE the smell of them! I anxiously await them blooming in the Seattle area so Andrew and I can go on walks just to smell them. 

One of the many types of sakura at the garden.

 I really wish Monday was longer; that we could have hung out with my mom more and done more things together. But I am happy for the time we were able to spend with her (and the sun). We left that evening from warm and sunny California, to cold and damp Seattle. We’re totally happy the Cali sun followed us up north for a few days!

Our trip was a blessed time with family and friends, celebrating Tadpole’s life in anticipation for her to enter the world. Thank you again to everyone who blessed our little one, and us, with gifts while we were in Cali! We are so thankful and overjoyed!