We picked up Baby Bear's Pack n' Play today.  It was a gift from my parents since they thought having a play pen was so useful when we were babies.  I put it together all by myself!  Well, it did come pretty much already assembled...I just had to snap on the accessories...tee hee.  I LOVE it....especially the colors.  This will be perfect for our living area so we can watch Baby Bear while we're cooking or possibly relaxing (yeah right).

We're planning on putting a thin mattress over the one that's provided since that one feels like a piece of wood.  It's okay as the base of the play pen, but i can't image when it would feel like sleeping on that. I love that the changing table part rests on the play pen, so it feels secure.  And you just flip it over to get it out of the way.  The mobile spins and plays jewelry box type music (eh)...which is good since the mobile we chose for Baby Bear's regular crib doesn't spin.  So this will help him with his visual tracking development.  And the best part is that I can plug my iPod into the music/vibration part and play normal music for Baby Bear.  It's relatively easy to fold away and tote to a-pau's or a-mah's. 

Baby Bear should be here in 99 days!!!!  We're in double digits!!!!  Well, theoretically.

So I asked my mom about the post partum eating of tons of chicken.  And she said that back in the day, chicken was considered a luxury food, only to be eaten at special occasions.  It was the best source of nutrition they could get...beef was normally out of the question.  She said Taiwanese style chicken was cooked with black sesame oil and ginger to increase blood flow and all that stuff.  I can handle that...I LOVE black sesame oil!  But she says that now that beef is so readily available, she encouraged me to eat that in addition to the chicken...not just eat chicken every day because of tradition.  My dad was even more lenient with the tradition, he said, "just eat anything you like".  hahahaha.  I'm sure that's what he would do if it were him! 

My mom also did not follow the not showering every day rule.  She had a c-section and she said the hospital had her shower the very next day and told her to shower frequently so her stitches wouldn't get infected.  So she showered daily and she said she actually healed really quickly with me.  She said she feels that the most important thing is getting enough rest.  Because with me, she had a lot of rest and she felt really good and strong afterwards.  But with Chrissy, she had to take care of me (i was around 2) AND my sister and she had to carry me around even with the c-section.  And she didn't really get a lot of rest and she said her body felt different afterwards.

I finished all my thank you cards! WHEW!  There were a LOT!  I feel so much better now...less guilty. hahaha.  Now I just have to upload all the wedding pics...on my slow ass internet connection.  I have cable, but for some reason, it's still slow.  ugh.

I finished all the thank you cards for the church peeps with the exception of one person because I honestly can't remember if he ended up coming to the wedding or not (one of those yes, then no, then yes guests).  I have a card from him, but I'm not sure if that was given to my parents before the wedding or at the wedding.  I know, it's bad that I don't know this.  But FINALLY seeing the end of the light...that was a LOT of writing!  I tried to make them a little more personal.  I can't say I succeeded with all of them, but I tried! 

I just have a few more to write for my friends from school and my family then I'm DONE!!!!  Oh, but then I have to upload all my pro pics since I'm giving out the website and password to view them.  So ALMOST DONE!  And then all the wedding stuff will be done.  I feel like we never had closure with the wedding with the thank you cards hanging over our heads hahahaha.

But I've been sneaking peeks at the baby registry and things are disappearing fast!  I know I shouldn't be, but it's actually still a work in progress, so I can't help but to see.  Plus, Papa Bear and I decided to delete the more expensive items off the registry and purchase them ourselves.  We get these awesome 15% off one item coupons all the time for having a registry there and it's more worth it to use it on the more pricey things than like the cheaper things.  Plus, we felt kind of bad having our friends and family buy the expensive stuff.  We didn't get the stroller off of there in time because we didn't realize people started buying stuff yet.  Papa Bear still laments over the fact that we could have saved that person $30 with our coupon.

So we made a trip down to Babies R Us yesterday to use one of our coupons ( I drove us there!!!!  It's all local roads, but busy local roads) and now I have my breast pump!

*SEE PROTECTED*  Sorry, my xanga premium expired which is why some of you can't see my protected posts anymore.  I didn't kick you guys out!  I'll try to rotate you guys through

I'm back from my GTT...it wasn't so bad except the fasting part.  But in a show of support, PB didn't eat breakfast until after my appt either...I tried to force him to eat a granola bar, but he wouldn't.  The drink wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be...it was actually just a small little cup.  In the pharmacy, we dispense these larger sized bottles, so I was under the impression that I would have to drink an entire bottle.  They walked me and handed me this cup and I peered eagerly inside to see what flavor I would get.  It was clear.  I was like wth...I hope they didn't just dissolve a whole bunch of sugar in some water.  But it turned out to be Sprite flavored (but sweeter, flatter and slightly bitter for some reason) and not bad at all.  In surprise, I kind of blurted out, "hey, this is pretty good!".  The nurse aide was like, wow, you're the first person to say that hahaha.  I didn't feel all sugar-high dizzy or nauseous afterwards either.  We kind of just walked around the U Penn campus for about an hour (I'm sure we looked like a preggo college girl and her boyfriend hahaha).  The blood draw was quick (but not painless, I got a needle stabber)...and I was done!  Until I get my results that is!

The surprising thing was that the MD said I only gained 1 pound since my last visit 4 weeks ago.  Until now, I've been gaining about 1 pound per week which is normal.  And I feel like recently, I've been wolfing down even more than normal...to the point where PB would be like, um...you just ate a LOT, maybe you should stop for now.  I usually out eat him at each meal now.  So  i was expected them to say that I gained more than 1 pound per week.  I have no idea how that happened, but the MD didn't seem too concerned.    AND my blood pressure went back down to 100/60...yay!

PB thinks it's because we started eating a little healthier since Hawaii.  Perhaps.  The first few months, I ate a LOT of junk food....PB would feel bad that I was feeling uncomfortable and would buy chips and soda (stuff I love).  In Hawaii, we started eating tons of fruits and veggies as snacks because that's all they had (they have bad stuff too, but our B&B were run by Whole Food, organic foods type people...so there were a lot of grains and fruits and yogurt).  But I had the BEST plumbing ever while I was there (if you know what I mean).  So  after we got back, we tried to continue with all the fruits/veggies since prior to hawaii, it was not so good.  I still eat my gigantic meals about 4 times a day, but the chips/soda are more of a sometimes thing, instead of every day.  And I'm eating about 3 fruits a day along with salads.  I guess healthy eating does work!

(I never noticed there was a space for an entry title until today!)

Today, I drove the Corolla...the first time I drove a car in a VERY VERY VERY long time.  It was only the local roads around our apt...accompanied by my driving instructor, Papa Bear tee hee.  It's funny because my only 10 hours of driving experience was during driving class (at age 18) in an old corolla.  And the only few times my dad let me drive our family car was in our big, yellow, station wagon.  So back in those times, to get the car to go, I had to nearly floor the gas pedal...and to brake, it was the same.  But OMG, the pedals are so sensitive now.  I barely touch them and the car jerks to a stop or just takes off. 

But I think I did okay for my first time (I consider this my first time since it's been over a decade since my 10 hours of driving class).  Most of it came back to me...except I still have a little trouble telling if I'm in my lane or not.  But turning and stuff is okay.  I like to have a higher view of the road, so I started pumping the driver side seat up higher and higher until Papa Bear was like, um...your head is almost touching the ceiling.  Then I stopped hahaha.  But he was a very good and patient instructor...no yelling, only encouraging words (unlike the padre many years ago haha).

But I love the Corolla...it's so smooth...sometimes so smooth that I can't tell that I'm going too fast (as nervous as I am driving, I tend to have a lead foot).  I guess I have to work on that too.

***New post in Baby Bear Blog!!! ***

I go in on Tuesday for my 1 hour Glucose Tolerance Test to rule out gestational diabetes...and I'm kind of nervous that I won't pass.  I don't have a history of diabetes, but I do hear that a lot of women fail and have to take the 3 hour GTT (and usually pass).  But they make your drink this super super sugary drink in 5 minutes after fasting the whole night.  And then an hour later they draw blood to see if your blood glucose levels have returned to normal.  I hear that drink is sooo nasty on an empty stomach...and I've seen it in the pharmacy since we dispense it to the kids on the endocrine floors.  We usually get a lot of requests for a new bottle because the kids threw up the first.  Yech.  But yeah..it kind of looks like soda...either orange or like a dark, coke looking one (not sure what flavor that is) but REALLY thick.  I hope I get the orange flavor since I LOVE orange soda...I think I can handle that.

But I don't normally take in that amount of sugar in a meal...I hope my body can handle it.  Gestational diabestes and pre-eclampsia are my two worries since it's out of my control and can complicate the pregnancy a lot.  At my last visit, my blood pressure was 120/70, which is still normal, but it's kind of on the higher side for me...it's actually never been that high before..it's usually around 100/60.  The MD's didn't mention anything since that's normal for most people, but I brought it up.  They (there was a med student there too) kind of gave each other that 'oh, she's one of those patients that know what's going on and will freak out over every little thing" look and told me they thought it was okay, but they'll monitor.  Darn right, they'll monitor.  Since a single blood pressure reading isn't always accurate, when the MD's left, PB took my blood pressure again (YAY for having a nurse husband!) and it was still the same.  I meant to bring back my sphygmometer from home so I could monitor my BP myself (one of those things they made us buy in school and I brought home to throw in my 'I'll never need this for work' pile), but I forgot on my last visit home.  Actually, now that i've typed this entire paragraph, I feel like I've posted about this before hahahahaha.  oops.

And on a different note, my two new favorite artists at the moment are: Rilo Kiley and The Weepies ...check them out!!! SOOO good!

I was watching the men's gymnastics prelims (which is here in Philly! yay!) on TV and there's this asian guy who's amazing on the rings and will basically go to the Olympics for the rings.  And the announcers were likes, "oh, we think it's unbelievable (in a good way) that a man of Chinese descent will be going to Bejing on the American team".  I guess they meant it as a compliment, but WTH...how is that any more unbelievable than anyone else of any other descent going?  There were plenty of times when athletes of a certain descent compete in their motherland...but I guess since they're seen as just caucasion in general, it's not as a big of an impact.

I think I've hit the second trimester "wall"...where you start feeling less great and very pregnant.  From what I've heard, the first half of the second trimester is great...you've started getting over all your symptoms and you feel pretty normal...until you hit the "wall".  I'm so tired all the time now.  At 8 PM, it feels like it's 11 PM and I'm totally ready for bed.  I'm exhausted at work by noon (granted, I start around 7 AM) and I just feel like I want to crawl in a corner and take a nap. 

Someone told me I have a slight waddle...NOOOOOOOOOO...I thought that I could avoid that since I'm still pretty small.  But they told me to walk and they were LOOKING for a waddle, so maybe they just saw one because they were looking specifically for one.  I feel like I walk relatively normallly still....when I walk to and from the train station, I think I still have my NY stride since I'm out-walking non-preggo people (including men).

And I'm eating a ton of food now.  Today, I packed an extra big lunch...almost double what I normally do.  Two evening pharmaicsts had called out yesterday and we have a list of people that have to rotate to cover call-outs.  After yesterday, I was next on the list and I thought maybe one of them would call out again today.  So I packed two tupperwares full of food thinking I may need to save part of it for my dinner (one was a completely full container of mei fun and the other was a salad, so not TOO bad).  Then I packed a separate container of fruit.  I sat down for lunch and ate all of it in less than half an hour...and I wasn't particularly hungry either.  (Good think i didn't have to stay!).  Then the guy covering my lunch had an extra lollipop and was going to offer it to me, but stopped halfway and was like, "oh you probably can't eat this bad stuff because of the baby".  I was like, give me that lollipop. hahaha. 

It's starting to get hard to get up from a deep slouching position.  And it's starting to get hard to put on my pants normally since my thighs bump into my belly.  At least I can still see my toes....for now.

Okay, that's it...I'm growing my hair out again.  Not as long as for the wedding, but definitely a little past the shoulders.  As much as I love short hair, I don't have any time in the morning to do it.  And short hair is definitely more high maintenance than long hair because you basically HAVE to style it.  With long hair, I could just let it air dry and it would just be straight....and even the cowlick here and there doesn't matter.  With short hair, a cowlick is catastrophic.  I thought I would be motivated to wake up just 10 minutes earlier to blow dry my hair in the mornings.  Nope...that 10 minutes is one entire snooze button push...I need that hahaha. 

So every day, I run out with wet hair...and by the time I get to work and it's dry, I look in the mirror, and it looks horrible.  (If i blowdry it the day before and sleep on it, it's worse).  My hair is REALLY straight, so my layered bob looks like a very very blunt bob if I don't blowdry the ends under....it looks like someone just grabbed my hair and cut straight across.  And I do have one cowlick which flips my hair outwards on the right side....so then I have that going on. 

Worse yet, it's not long enough for me to tie up in a pony tail...so I have to leave it like that.  AND....when I work in the IV room, we have to gown up (think surgery style) from head to toe.  So I basically wear like a thin, cloth like shower cap thing on my head.  And my hair is JUST long enough that the ends rests on the bottom part of the cap and buckles out a little.  So after spending hours in the IV room, when I take the cap off, my hair is straight until my ear....and then from my ear to the ends, it's a big "C" shaped curve outwards....almost like a gourd.  It's not a pretty sight...and I can't tie it up, so for the rest of the day, I look like a gourd-head.

So I think I'm going to cut/trim it to give it more shape...then I'm letting it GROW!  After Baby Bear, I definitely won't have time to do my hair....I'll have to be a ponytail girl!