Guess What! It's Wednesday again!

Week 16! 4 months down, 5 months to go! I've been waiting and waiting for "the bump" to start showing, but it must be hibernating or something. I've already told myself that next week, I'll start taking belly pix whether it's showing or not.

It's been nice having my husband back. I guess I'm just less bitter cuz now we're both stuck here instead of just me. Aren't I just the most unselfish person ever!

Honestly though, I've actually been really happy these couple of days. No quarrels yet! Just give it a week or so and it'll probably change.

Anyway, today we went to BR to get some ice cream! 31% off on the 31st of every month! (every other month). =P

Anyway, we finally have some visitors this weekend! Lily and Danny are arriving on Sat. Then the four of us are off to Bali on Sunday! I'm kinda bummed though cuz I might not be able to participate in all the activities... but I spose I wouldn't mind laying by the pool~~~

Hmmm

I'd just written nearly a whole essay's worth of crap regarding how pissed off I was at a someone... but why bother. It'll just make him sound really bad, and I'll feel guilty for having written it when I reread it later on.

Anyway, Yi-Hua helped me pick up my blood test from the OBGYN in Taiwan. I'm glad they're releasing the results to us so we can use them here, otherwise I'd have to do it again, and I am NOT a big fan of having blood drawn.

So next week is a big week for people traveling to KL... Yi-Hua gets back on Monday, my father-in-law gets in on Tuesday, Constance (from college) is coming in on Wednesday, and then last but not least, Lily & Danny are flying in next Sunday.

I should take my vitamins and get ready to crash. Didn't get much sleep last night.

Questionable judgement

hah check this out... writing third day in a row! ...ok, maybe i'm a little bored...

Yesterday night, my father in law asks if I can bring him to KL Sentral the next morning at 5:30. Of course I say "Yes!" We all know the first rule is to never say NO to the in-laws. lol but as it got later, I started getting worried that I would get lost going there and thus cause embarrassment for myself. This place that is only a 5 min drive away can be a 30 min+ drive when under my directions. So by 11:30 pm, I was so antsy that I decided to take the car out for a quick route run-through. Yay, I got there no problem. It was on the way HOME that I missed a turn... and therefore started my long journey of continuous wrong turns. I didn't freak out cuz I knew I just had to turn on the GPS. But for goodness sake, it wouldn't pick up any signal!!!! "Acquiring satellite... Acquiring satellite... Acquiring satellite..." That was all I got for 20 frickin minutes! Anyway, I did eventually get home in one piece, but boy what a night that was.

I'm hoping 小宝宝 will have wayyyyyyyyy better of a sense of direction than me.

It's days like today...

It's days like today that I would love to just sit back with a martini. I won't of course, but it can't hurt to wish.

Had a pounding headache since last night. Actually, it had gone away by morning, but came back at full strength a couple hours into work.

Ahhh the problems. I always get left with tasks to "take care of..." but when it comes to the actual "solving the problem" part, it's never something that I can solely decide or sign off on... so usually the original problem has to go back to the original person and the process begins again. Why even bother going through me?

Today, I brought the new salesgirl to meet some of my customers. I think it went alright. I'm just glad that I won't have to keep doing sales anymore. I thought I could take on 2 people's worth of work to save paying out an extra salary we can't quite afford... you know... do all the secretarial crap in the morning, and then run sales in the afternoon, but I was wrong. It worked out for a while, but upon further analysis, the time I have in a day divided by 2 is simply not enough to do a satisfactory job either way. I could never "completely finish" my office things before I had to leave for sales... and when I did my sales, I never spent as much time BSing with the customers as I should. You know... mebbe 30% of why salon stylists decide to buy your brand of hair product is because they like the product itself, but 70% of doing business with you is because they like you. I never was able to take the time to build that relationship with em... which I'm sure led to many missed opportunities.

...this all leads to one conclusion. this country sux. I'm praying praying praying that some day we will get the opportunity to get out of here cuz I will feel forever guilty if I have to raise my child here when I know there are so many better places out there.

15!

I know I'm silly, but I get so excited for Wednesdays. Today my calendar is marked 15 weeks!

It's just gonna be 小宝宝 and me this week. I sent off a group of 29 people at the airport on Monday, one of which was my husband. For the past half a year, we've been organizing for our customers to go on a trip to Taiwan to both attend a hair cutting seminar and sight see around Taipei. *sigh* I was sposed to go too... but something came up. Shan't get into details there.

However, I haven't been as bummed as I thought I'd be. Been pretty busy with work during the days, and evenings are spent tidying up our home... slowly. We're gonna have a nice visit from Lily and Danny early April!

You know... this pregnancy thing still seems to be pretty easy so far. I had heard so many horror stories from other mothers that I was kinda expecting the worst. But things seem overly normal with me that it freaks me out a lil bit. =P

In the evenings, I've been playing classical music nearly non-stop. Rumor has it that babies come out smarter yeah? Well... I sure hope so cuz I'm sacrificing my own ears. It was nice in the beginning, but I'm kinda getting bored? Maybe, I should just listen to my MP3 while baby listens to that music. hehe wonder if it'd send mixed signals.

Anywho, I also read that for the rest of the pregnancy, we should talk to the belly so that Baby can get used to hearing our voices. I thought it'd be easy... but when I tried it, I felt plain silly. Omg, I can't even talk to my unborn child! What a terrible mommy I'm gonna be. It's okay, there is a Plan B! Reading to baby works too. So every night, besides a couple chapters of Winnie the Pooh, Baby gets to listen to whatever other book I'm reading. Current book in hand: Julie and Julia.

Stretch Marks

What a peculiar thing stretch marks are. I never really thought about them til I started looking at other people's pregnant belly pics. Wow... some of them have these major red streaks all over their body.

So they say there are all these lotions and stuff u can use to prevent them, but at the same time, it's said that they may or may not work. Isn't that just a tad bit contradictory? But no matter what, it will all fade over time, right? It's not exactly like running around in a bikini is my kinda thing.

I AM excited to start gaining weight though! I am now in the 52kg+ range!!! Waiting Waiting Waiting for a real looking baby bump!

I'm gonna be home alone this whole week. What does that mean? No housework!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (not that I do much normally anyway). YAY! Plus I get to catch up on a whole buncha TV shows! (Been waiting to catch up on Cougar Town, Private Practice, and Grey's Anatomy) wooooo!!!! It's better to watch these shows sooner than later... they're not exactly the most healthy shows. It's okay... I'll cover up my tummy so the baby won't hear a thing.

What's In A Name

While Yi-Hua and I were eating lunch today, we were discussing names. Not baby names, but just names in general. I've noticed that a lot of his relatives and friends have changed their names before... as adults, and I'm curious to why.

I actually learned some interesting things.

Names of infants are chosen by the grandfather. (The parents can make suggestions, but ultimately the decision lies with the granddad).

The name of a person is actually sposed to determine the FATE of the person.

There are "experts" that you can consult to help u choose the most suitable name for the infant. I think factors such as time, date, place, year, etc are all taken into consideration.

As an adult, if your life is not going as smoothly as you think it should (whether it be job, money, relationships, etc), you can get your name changed officially! TWICE!!! This is a lot of paperwork and hassle we're talking about. I mean changing all sorts of documents, credit cards, passports, etc. Yuck!

There were some other things too, but I already forgot. But what I did also learn was that Yi-Hua's grandpa had gone to an expert in order to choose his name. I guess it worked out for him. lol

As for me, I don't know why, but my parents gave me a very boyish sounding name. I never knew that until I stepped into Chinese 101 frosh year of college. While the prof was taking roll, he called out my name, and when I answered to it, his reaction was, "you have a boy's name." Great, just what I needed.

Anyway, my Chinese name didn't matter much back at home cuz I never used it. But once I moved to Taiwan, 80% of the time someone asked for my Chinese name, I would get the reaction that it was a boy's name. So I learned to give the warning that it was a masculine sounding name before I actually told them what it was.

The most embarrassing time though was when we were taking our engagement photos. The photographer kept looking at Yi-Hua while saying my name, and looking at me while saying his. After a while, we just told him to call me Judy. =P

Still too early to think of Eng names for our 小宝宝. Definitely know we're gonna stay away from those terribly wacky celebrity baby names... =P

13 WEEKS!

Our baby @ 13 weeks!

I'm a bit bummed that hospitals in Malaysia aren't equipped with as nice of equipment as back in Taiwan. At our other OBGYN, we were given both a 2D and a 3D image scan, a CD of the baby and its movements, plus they would measure and tell us the length from its head to its heel! Here... well, I guess I can't be too greedy. I should just be happy to have found a decent place to do my follow up checkups until I head back to Taiwan.

But yes! We are happy! One healthy baby due in 26 weeks + 2 days!

2nd Trimester!

We've made it to the second trimester! I can't believe we are 1/3 of the way there. Sometimes I still can't believe this is all happening. Omg, we're gonna be parents!!!!!

So this Saturday, I totally got all freaked out. The original plan was for me to go back to Taiwan about a month and a half b4 the due date and stay for one month afterward. But then the family is saying that it's better to stay in Taiwan for at least 4 months after the birth so that the proper follow up care and procedures can be taken. But leaving my duties for four months is a long time... so they were saying I could leave my baby there and come back to KL. Seriously my heart just broke. I know all the relatives are just dying to help me raise my baby, but I kinda wanna do it on my own. Well, not completely on my own... but you know what I mean. Anyway, we're trying to work something out now. Maybe I can fly back to KL for 3-4 days at the end of each month to take care of the paperwork... or maybe I'll just have to teach Yi-Hua how to do that stuff. It's not hard, but it's just time consuming. Plus he's usually got his own stuff to do, and paperwork isn't his kinda thing.

Today there's talk from his parents that they want to help us hire a maid. I don't know whether to be thrilled or worried. I've never really thought bout it too much b4, but I guess it would be nice for someone else to do the cleaning...? heh btw/ I haven't cleaned in ages... that's something I really gotta work on.

Right now, we're in the process of hiring another salesman to take on my area. It was already exhausting before doing office stuff in the morning and the running sales in the afternoon. But now, even the thought of it drains me. However, for now, I still have to make my sales calls. But if my delivery is too heavy, at least Yi-Hua will help me carry it in.

It's strange... I haven't been able to gain weight yet. And for some reason, my face, (as observed by other people) has been getting pointier. So when they ask me if I'm losing weight, I say NO!!! I'm 3 months pregnant! I'm praying that all the fat is moving to my tummy to create a nice lil home for our baby.

Seems like I've been waiting for this next ultrasound forever! I simply can't wait til the profile of the baby and the heartbeat appear on the screen again. It really is an amazing thing.

12 weeks

I can't believe it's already been 12 weeks! 12 weeks and 2 days to be exact. Time has been passing by ever so quickly. I'm still in search of a SAFE place to do ultrasounds here. We've been asking around and have a few places that we need to check out. I've heard so many scary stories about sketchy practices that I'm kinda freaked out.

Cheese cravings have hit me all of a sudden. Been eating cheese in any way I can lay my hands on. By the slice, in sandwiches, melted on rice, on pasta, etc.

I've been wearing these jeans that have a stretchy top. They are the most amazing thing ever!!!! Man, it's a good thing I never lay my hands on these during college, otherwise I woulda gained even more weight, (esp. during those cold winters).

Ahh... I still really need to tell all of my friends our big news, but I'm just so paranoid. Just one more ultrasound... then I'm promising myself I'll make the big announcement. I wonder if I could get away w/ not telling ppl til the baby is here. =P