How to Protect Yourself from the H1N1 Virus

Really, what else do you need? No need to fear having an allergic reaction to eggs or mercury or what have you--a great muscle toner, too! ^.~

This picture is from the books my hospital had out at our last visit for pregnant women to take on protecting themselves during flu season. I took it for the pictures, personally.

In all seriousness, though, it is getting to be a bigger issue here. This past Friday, many schools had long, long lines of students waiting to enter as each child had his/her temperature checked to see if any signs of a fever were present. Of course, my students were jealous of those with slight fevers who spent the day at the hospital and went home instead of having to study. Korea really is taking a ton of initiative to do whatever it can to prevent the virus from spreading. It's still getting to be a bit scary, though.


Pictures!

28, almost 29 weeks. Taken last Sunday.


29.5 weeks--Saturday


Like I mentioned in my last post, my schedule changes last week left me a little less motivated to take a picture. This week, we had an appointment after our morning class on Friday, so I came home and just wanted to lie down. Every time I came back home, I changed clothing before I could snap a photo. Thus, I just took one yesterday before heading out for an unsuccessful shopping venture.

As you can see, this is my preferred casual going-out type of outfit. The top picture was taken on the way to HomePlus (sorry, Korea--I do find it a bit ridiculous to wear tons of frills and accessories and 5-inch heels when going to the grocery store), and yesterday was going to Dongdaemun to shop for fabric, which also happily turned into meeting my friend and her family for some kalbi and naengmyeon. Yum!

The baby fairs were different, though. My self-esteem would have been too low in casual wear, so I picked something slightly nicer while still wearing my tennis shoes. ^.~

An Exception
We stopped by our local public health center (보건소) on Friday because Hee Suk had found out about a program the government had just finished that offers families 5,000,000won if their babies are born prematurely (I think it goes more by the weight) to help with medical expenses. He called and asked if there was any way to still enroll, and they called back stating that even though the deadline had passed, they would still allow foreigners to enroll. I don't know if this is the case for every district in Seoul, but it is for ours.

Anyway, we went there and were asked a ton of questions to make sure that I was in good health and whatnot. They also took my hemoglobin level to test for anemia, which came back at 11.2 (the normal range for pregnant women is between 11 and 12). All is well. As part of a nutrition program, we should be receiving a box of food in the near future that includes items like kim ("dried roasted laver") and what have you that is for mom only. Yum!

Growth Spurt
I think our little one has done quite a bit of growing this past week. The biggest sign of this is how hard it is to stay asleep for more than a couple of hours. The past several nights, I've been waking up at almost every hour because my left hip gets sore from sleeping on it. I'm taking this as a sign that my pelvis is ever-widening, which is of course a great thing!

Due to speculation that reclining can encourage a baby to stay breech, I have decided to quit my reclined sleeping cold turkey. (Before, my nights were basically a combination of left side and reclined positions.) How am I supposed to sleep, then? However, sleeping on your right isn't all that great for you, either, because it squashes different organs. So what do I do?

I am still primarily sleeping on my left, but when I need to, I switch to the right. Sometimes, I am able to reposition on the left to something a little more relaxing on my hip, but others, it's better just to switch and just switch back when that hip has had enough as well. We'll see how this develops as time goes by.

Good Baby!
I've tried to figure out this belly mapping stuff to see where baby is positioned, but it leaves me more flustered than anything. One thing I read, though, was that hiccups are a great indicator of where your baby's head is. I think he's been head's down for awhile now again, but this morning, the hiccups were definitely higher up.

I was very sleepy, but I decided to do a cat stretch to try to get him to flip since they are most effective when baby is awake. It worked! I felt the hiccups move to a couple of different spots until they were very low. I am very proud of our little boy.

Yoga
In preparation for starting yoga classes on Wednesday, I decided to find some videos on the internet so I could practice at home. I just do better when I have something to follow. There's a studio in New York called The Prenatal Yoga Center, and they've got three great videos that they offer for free! I do two every day now, and I always feel so good afterwards. It's definitely helping my posture, too, which I need to watch more.

Shopping
I mentioned earlier our unsuccessful shopping venture yesterday. We went to Dongdaemun to go fabric shopping, but most sellers decided to close shop a couple hours early. It was pretty much a waste of time. Like I said, though, our friends wound up out this way, so we were able to enjoy some delicious food together. That's quite alright in my book!

I DID find what I want online. It's a white and blue damask pattern, but unfortunately, the fabric is only apparently 44" wide, and I need 52". I could have a border around it, but I don't know about that. Otherwise, I could piece it together to make it look continuous. It would involve one extra seam for each of the long sides, but it might look alright. We'll see. I'm also open to a toile design of the same color scheme, but anything I've found comes with designer price tags (it's the perfect width, though!).

Thank you!

Thank you, Kate 이모! This outfit is perfect since our little one's middle (Korean) name means "peace," and what a great addition to the tiny little library we have started (read: to the only other baby book we've purchased)!


We received this quite some time ago, but I have never showcased it. My dear friend gave this to us, and it's perfect! Well, there is one problem--Appa says 50 cents is far too cheap. Thanks for all the kindness you've shown us!

**If anyone is wanting to ship something to us, even if you have our address in English, PLEASE ask for a Korean address label. It makes an incredibly huge difference in ensuring that the package gets to us and arrives within a timely matter. (For those wondering, no, you do NOT need an English address label--just the city and country need to be in English, which I have included on the label.**

Getting Sassy

I'm not much of one for snarky baby wear, but this onesie was just SO me that I couldn't resist (plus, it was on clearance!). In case it is difficult to make out the text, it reads, "Pinch me one more time I'll break your finger!"

Aww...
As Appa was leaving the house today, I kissed him goodbye and walked away from the door just in case there were other people in the hallway (I was not in presentable condition). Before he would leave, though, he had me come back so he could talk to our son and rub my belly, telling him he'd be back a little later. I just about cried after that, it was so sweet. He really loves our little one so incredibly much. We are truly blessed.

Anyway...
That should about do it for now! Hopefully, Appa will be back soon so that we can scout out a good shabu shabu place to eat at tonight. All is well over here, and I am very excited that we are just days away from the 30-week mark--that's huge! Just a little over 2 months to go!

Prayer
Lord, the past couple of weeks have been filled with so many announcing the arrival of their new little ones, but they have also been filled with many stories of loss. I pray for those who are experiencing joy, that they never take their blessings for granted and that their families continue to thrive. For those suffering through loss, I pray for their healing and that they might be comforted by the promises You have made to hold them and bless them greatly, that You will always be by their sides. Please hold all of these people tightly, my King, for You are so able and mighty.

It's the simple things...

I was an emotional wreck for the majority of the day, but I still somehow managed to not break down bawling. For whatever reason, I got really emotional at the dentist. I didn't want to be there, didn't want someone messing around in my mouth, didn't want to be lying down in that chair. It isn't a big deal at all, but that's how I felt nonetheless.

It doesn't bother me terribly much, but my dentist is kind of one of those women who is eager to tell you everything you already know with regards to pregnancy and what have you. She just had her first child this year, so she's still on a bit of a high, of course. She knows which hospital we attend (since Hee Suk told her), so we can't mention that we know we're having a son. Hee Suk was trying to tell her that we've seen "something" on the ultrasound, and she quickly dismissed it as just the umbilical cord. We just smiled and went on our way, but it's a combination of funny and annoying. I suppose, though, I've had it far easier than many when it comes to comments from others.

When we were leaving the building where my dentist is, I was totally backhanded right in the belly. I was shocked and scared, so I turned around to face the woman. I didn't realize that she most likely had some mental issue at first because of the emotions involved, but Hee Suk urged me to just keep going because talking wasn't going to do a thing. I completely thought it was just some random chick who was upset I ever-so-slightly brushed up against her shopping bag and decided backhanding me was the way to go. Her speech and movements did indicate some sort of an issue, though, so we left without saying anything. It's just frightening. You can imagine all the places my mind went after that.

Enough of that, though. I feel better now that I've got some munchkins from Dunkin Donuts waiting to be eaten. Our son has been begging for them (yes, he), but I've resisted. I decided to treat him tonight, though. Well, I suppose tomorrow since I won't be eating them tonight, but still. I'm pretty excited.

Otherwise, we were the only couple to sign up for the prenatal yoga and massage class for couples this upcoming Sunday, so we received a call today that they had to cancel it. I am really bummed about that. I do start my own yoga classes next Wednesday, but I was really looking forward to doing this together and just having the chance to experience a class with my husband before doing them on my own. It'll be fine, but it's still a bit disappointing.

On the agenda for this weekend is fabric shopping at Dongdaemun to price out how much the fabric would cost plus having the items we want for the crib made and hopefully getting some shabu shabu. For some reason, I started craving it this week, and Hee Suk seems more than ready to happily oblige. We went to an awesome place in Busan when we were on our two-year anniversary trip, so hopefully, we'll be able to find a good place up here as well (that doesn't break the bank!).

Ah, I don't think I've mentioned our son's complete 180 with regards to oranges and clementines and things of the like. I mentioned how I had to cut them out because they were triggering gagging fits. In the second trimester, I could NOT get my mind to realize that they are not evil--I had a severe mental aversion to them. However, I ate some mandarin oranges in small quantities at a few different places (mixed in with salads) and slowly started getting passed that block. Sure enough, this boy LOVES orange juice now. It's one of my main cravings nowadays. Other juices are well-appreciated, but he just loves orange juice. I think he will really enjoy fruit as he gets older.

We are pretty sure he's going to be quite the eager eater. He gets hiccups ALL of the time. I always feel so bad for him, despite sources stating that it's completely harmless. I hope it doesn't continue out of the womb for his sake!

I am very tired and should go lie down for a bit now. I was up far too late last night, but it was for a good cause. Every year, I receive at least one free photobook offer, so I just can't pass it up! I didn't have time over the weekend to make one so I stayed up way later than I had expected whipping one up. I used photos from the most memorable things that have happened to us between our first and second years of marriage, including photos related to our little one. My eyes definitely swelled with tears a few times. We are so incredibly blessed.

Anyway, time to go relax a bit. Many blessings to you all!

"Why is your belly fat?"

The past week has been full of children just saying the funniest things. I was in the elevator one day last week when two little girls, who I can't imagine were any older than four, asked me in Korean, "Why is your belly fat?" On Monday, another one of my students (I think I mentioned one who said the same thing before), told me that my stomach was getting fat. I always just laugh and smile and say, "Yes, my tummy is getting big." They usually catch on quickly after that.

It's been a little bit indulgent for me recently because those who know me have been commenting on how big I am getting. ^^ Those who don't know me think I am way too small. Oh, yes, it is story time:

On Sunday, we went to Home Plus to grab a few groceries. (How many Home Plus stories does this make now??) I wanted to stop by the sellers in the baby section (it's different here--not like the gloriousness that is Target) to ask them about crib sets. The few that I have seen here are not that cute and ridiculously expensive. We asked her, and after listening to her for quite some time describe the bumper they have (I wonder how accurate her hand estimates were with size) that they are able to order but have no picture of, she asked how far along we are and looked at me in slight horror for a bit because she must have assumed I was far less along due to my size. She did come to her senses, though, and realized, "Ah, it must be because you are so tall. Women here usually carry like this (::shows the general belly shape with her hands::)." Good times.

On the note of crib sets, I have decided we will either a) get a custom one made at Dongdaemun, or b) order one from the states and get it shipped here. My friend here has had some great success getting stuff made for her home at Dongdaemun, so we'll price it out to see how much it would cost. Otherwise, we'll still get a better deal even with shipping by ordering from the US. It's crazy here.

In other news, we are now 29 weeks. I have a picture from 28 weeks, but I have been too lazy to upload it. I actually just took it on Sunday, too. :3 I usually wear something nicer of Friday mornings because of the class I have, but since that was moved to Thursday, I didn't have much motivation to take the picture Friday. I was simply too tired to do it Thursday, and I completely forgot I had wanted to take one on Saturday at the fair. Oh, well. ^^

Our son has not slowed down one bit! It sometimes concerns me because he is so incredibly active, but he is simply thriving at this point. He moves all over the place. Appa has decided that he has moved on from UFC practices to dance time.

We are pretty sure that this is what he is doing in there:



We are talking to him more and more every single day. Appa especially adores being close to him and talking to him. Sometimes, the attention makes me a little jealous. ^.~ It's been really wonderful. There's so much to be said but hardly any words for it!

Ah, on a different topic, we took what was referred to as a pilates class at our hospital on Monday. At first, I was a little bored because it seemed so basic, but as we got into it, it was really great. I enjoy class-type settings, and the teacher was very kind. She has a DVD, but unfortunately, we had to leave before she finished class so that we were unable to obtain information about it. I'm making Hee Suk do a little more hunting, though. At the very least, I can try to take her class again in two weeks and get the information at that time. Otherwise, my yoga class starts next week! I am very excited.

Cat stretches have not been happening as they should. Here's the problem: they should certainly be done before food intake. After eating spells a certain doom. The problem is, though, that as soon as I come back home, I am always wanting to eat. If I wait too long to eat, I get heartburn or what have you. After I eat, I realize that I should have tried to do my stretches first. I am going to try to be better, though. I have to!

Anyway, it is late, and I should certainly be heading off to bed.

Thank You, my Lord, for holding us so tightly. I feel as though I so often repeat myself, but this is just such an incredible blessing to me. I pray for all of the families that have been affected by loss recently, Lord, that You would hold them and be their rock when everything else seems so unsteady right now. I pray that they might find peace in You and be comforted by Your grace.

Quick Recap of the Day

Today was the day we picked to go to the Baby Fair. For whatever reason, I was super excited all day yesterday about going. Maybe for as hectic as the fair we went to last weekend was, it just had me pumped.

Overall, though, I was pretty disappointed. Most vendors were pretty stingy, whereas with other fairs (as I have so pictured in past posts), they load you with goodies or at least a warm smile. This fair is pretty expensive to be a vendor at, though, and with the mass crowds, it would be expensive to just give stuff away to any- and everyone. But still.

I wasn't too impressed with the selection of vendors, either. Whereas the fair we went to in the spring lacked in carriers and bouncers and things of the like, this one was overflowing with them. Of course, this stroller here is from Italy, this carrier here is from Sweden, I have no idea how to pronounce that even with having studied so many languages...you get the drift: expensive. However, if you are looking for a pricey and pretty impractical stroller, car seat, imported lotions with huge mark-ups or organic Korean-style newborn wears, definitely stop by!

OK, so there was more than that, and not every stroller was impractical.

Here's what we made out with:

♬ A bouncer! This one, to be almost precise. Ours actually has four little attachments instead of the three mentioned. Most here are over 40,000won, and this one was on sale for about 39,000won. It's not my favorite design (I prefer softer tones), but the price was right. It is packaged in a fairly small box, so the actual selling point was that we could easily tuck it away for now.

♬ A Booby Tube. The idea of putting cabbage leaves on my bosom is not appealing to me, so I decided to buy one of these for now and see where it ends up getting me. I *almost* didn't buy it because of Hee Suk's reaction to it (just made me wonder if I really needed to buy it or not), but when one girl came over and started trying to sell it to me in English, even though I had heard it all in Korean and knew it from the site, we decided it was a good deal. The hilarious thing, though, is that her English was slightly casual, as she kept saying boob instead of breast. That was funny to me.

♬ A "baby cape". If you click the link and click on the third picture from the left of a woman holding a baby wrapped in something bright green, click that. We purchased the sky blue one. It's cuteness sold me immediately. We got ours for 20,000won, but I found it on GMarket for 18,500won plus free shipping--not a huge difference, though. Since we'll be carrying baby quite a bit, this will work great when it is windy or rainy. Also, as the pictures show, it works well on a stroller, too.

And the big purchase of the day...

♬ A crib! We've been agonzing over this. We didn't want to spend a lot of money on one and have been looking for one that fits well next to our bed, but after looking again at the one we wound up purchasing (this seller had been at Kintex), we decided that it was a great deal in the end. It has storage underneath, converts to a toddler bed and is just beautiful. It's more than we wanted to spend, but it includes a nice spring mattress and eliminates another expense we were looking at. Plus, it will save us a lot of space, too. Here's what we bought. It will be delivered at a later time, as we don't need it just yet. I love it. ♥

I am exhausted from the day, though, so I had best be off. More soon, though.

Thank You, Lord, for blessing us not only with a child, but with the means to take care of him. You have never let go of us, even when we find ourselves drifting at times. You are far beyond generous, and we could never thank You enough.

More from today

I will most likely repeat some info from my other post today because I can't keep things straight sometimes. I completely forgot the code to enter into our apartment building this evening, if that says anything.

I mentioned that baby measured in at 1.3kg (2.86 lbs). According to babycenter.com, average at this time is 2.22 lbs, so we've got quite a healthy little one if the measurements were accurate.

Our doctor said he seemed to have pretty thin lips which will probably resemble mine. Aww... *^^*

Here were my stats:
Weight: 68.6kg (150.92 lbs)--right on track
Blood Pressure: 99/58
Heart Rate: 96bpm

When I got there, though, we had run up the hill because heavy traffic caused us to arrive late (and *cough* Hee Suk spent a little too much time on the computer beforehand), and my blood pressure was 130/something with a heart rate of something like 102. I retested after we visited with the doctor and got the results listed above. Sounds good to me!

I decided that instead of spending time typing up the abbreviated birth plan for the nurses without being completely aware of standard procedures at the hospital, I would first just ask my doctor about them. Thus, I had a bunch of questions for her today. Even though a lot of stuff I don't want to have done is usually routine here (things that are not routine in the US), she was very reassuring that if there's something I don't want, then it's okay.

I asked about bonding with baby immediately after birth as well and for a decent amount of time, and her answer for that was also very reassuring. I was a bit worried about how she would answer, but it seems like she really wants to ensure I have the experience I want (barring complications, of course).

The one thing I am concerned about and that no one really has any control over since there's no telling when our son will make his appearance is the birthing/rooming situation. If he comes on a day where a bunch of other babies also decide to be born, I'm afraid I'll be in more of a community room rather than a private room for the birth and afterwards as well. The private room for after he is born is less of a concern since most people opt to recover "Korean style" (as I see it), where some of the facilities are shared (and it costs a bunch less), but I told Hee Suk that if need be, he will have to pull the "psycho foreigner" card for when we are heading to the hospital in labor to make sure I get a private room for the birth.

Fretting over that will get me nowhere, though, so I will have to toss it up to God and pray for the best. Deep down inside, I know it will all be fine...but the part of me that is perhaps a bit too fond of having some degree of control over things is just unsettled at this point in time. It will be fine. People don't stay in those private rooms for a very long time anyway, so it should be just fine. Go positive thinking!

Otherwise...

This weekend is the COEX Baby Fair. ^o^

We found a baby bathtub that isn't just about the size of a regular bathtub and is a decent price! (They are pretty huge here!)

Next weekend is the couple's prenatal yoga and massage class.

We met the yoga instructor today and decided to go ahead and sign me up for the fall session of prenatal yoga. I am so excited to finally be taking a yoga class, nevertheless a prenatal one! It will definitely help keep me motivated. It does mean having to change one of my classes around a bit, but this is more important to me.

Our Sophrology class is also next month and will go for three Saturdays. Things are really moving along now!

Anyway, that's about all I have energy for right now. In short, all is well on our end!

Thank You, Lord, for blessing us with such a healthy son, even if he is a bit of a troublemaker right now. I give all of my fears and worries to You, because You are so mighty and so in control. You know my every step before I even take it, and I have no reason to fear with You holding us in Your loving hands. Thank You, my King.

Our Little Troublemaker

Though they say that it's difficult for an individual to tell the position of their baby in most cases, I feel pretty confident judging our son's. I was absolutely certain he flipped head's up yesterday, and the doctor confirmed today that yes, he is indeed head's up and facing the rear right now.

I don't know if he's on some-odd crazy moon cycle right now or what, but he knows when we're going to the hospital and apparently enjoys teasing his parents. He's still super active, though, so we're not going to fuss unless he is still up in 4 weeks. Until then, though, I'll be doing plenty of cat stretches each day and exploring other methods to entice him to get back to where he ought to be.

I don't have much time to type now, as I have to catch the bus, so I will update more later. Right now, he is measuring at 1.3kg, which is 2.86 lbs. I have no idea where that is for the average baby at 28 weeks, but it sounds good to me. My bp was super high when we got there because we got stuck in traffic and were late and ran to the place from the bus stop, but it was nice and low when I took it again afterwards.

I wasn't given RhoGAM. I was given something else called Partobulin, which seems to be more popular in the UK. It doesn't seem to have mercury in it, but I'm still trying to get more info to be sure (mercury and I don't mix very well).

Oh, and our son punched the ultrasound wand a couple of times. He was totally in a boxing stance with his hands. I love him. ♥

As for everything else, I will type later. The pictures aren't so clear this time since he decided to be sassy, so I may or may not post them.

Much love to you all!

A Day at the Madhouse

I mean at the Mom and Baby Expo at KINTEX in Ilsan.

We went to a baby fair close to COEX (Setec) in the spring, and it was spread out over a few exhibition halls and just generally wasn't too crowded/busy. This was madness, though! Even just taking the shuttle bus from the subway station to the site was pretty crazy. There were just so many people.

I had to laugh because I had observed how ridiculously gentle and polite the pregnant ladies are in our Mommy School classes. Their voices are so sweet, and they sound like they are almost too kind. Going to a baby fair will snap you back into reality, though! Everyone is concerned only about getting what they want, when they want it.

Also, trying to buy nursing bras from a casual seller is a joke:
::notices only B cups::
"I'm wearing an 80B right now, so..."
"OK, so just buy an 85."
"But my boobs are getting bigger, not my ribs."
"The bigger size has bigger cups."
"Yes, but then it's too loose on me."
::focuses on other customers::

Actually, Hee Suk had the conversation with her and it went *slightly* differently, but that was basically it.

But anyway, it was a fruitful trip!



We had briefly talked about skipping it due to distance and since we are going to a huge one next weekend, but thankfully, we didn't. The vendors we were most interested in at Setec said they would be at COEX, but given its highly competitive nature, they did not make it in. That could have cost us a ton of money since the deals are so incredible at the fairs.

Two of our big vendors were for our diapers and for the breast pump we had decided on. We will be cloth diapering, and we walked away with 30 inserts, two covers, a changing blanket, a "diaper band" and a bunch of freebies for 178,000won, which is less than $150 US. These will last until he is 10 months, so to me, that's an incredible deal! (Here is a link to the basic set we bought--we saved so much money buying it there!)

We went with Angel Palm for the breast pump and the breastfeeding cushion. The pump retails for 129,00won, and the pillow retails for 69,000won, a total of 198,000won. At this fair, they were selling the pump for 91,000won and the cushion for 32,000won, a total of 123,000won--that's cheaper than the retail price of the pump! However! We are smart cookies. At Setec, we took someone's business card and asked her to write down the prices they were offering there for the pump and to give us that price at the next fair, just in case they went up. She obligedm given how early we were still in the pregnancy, so we got the pump for 78,000won, a grand total of 110,000won!

But that's not nearly enough. We didn't want to buy the 5-pack of bottles since it seemed like too many, so the lady helping us gave it to us for free! We didn't even ask on that one. That's a 10,000won value. Including the free bottles, we saved 98,000won.

We had the pricing from the other baby fair for the diapers, too, but they were doing different package options that were also great deals, so we just had them throw in a few extra freebies. ^o^

If you look back at the picture of Appa, you'll notice a large white shopping bag. That was full of freebies. Yes, freebies--anything from socks to rags to a box of tissues to plenty of wet wipes. As you can see, we made out very well!

Anyway, belly photo time!

Friday: 27 weeks and then some
This is the dress I got for 5,000won!


Going to the fair on Saturday. I feel cute when I wear this, so I had Hee Suk allow me to strike a couple of poses. ^.~
Taken to the other side to show my hair clip. ^o^



BONUS!
Some people simply don't believe/can't imagine how active our son is. I made this video a few nights ago to shatter any disbelief. It might weird you out, just to warn you! When you start seeing me poke my belly, he's decided not to show off for the camera anymore. He does get camera shy sometimes.


He was incredibly active Friday night and throughout Saturday. He's slowed down today, but only a bit. He is too funny.

Coming Up
-Appointment on Wednesday, where I will be given the RhoGAM shot.
-COEX Baby Fair on Saturday.
-Prenatal yoga and massage class on the 30th for couples.

September won't slow down for us a bit, either!

Thank You, my Lord, for blessing us so greatly. Though we agonized over when You would send us a child, it has clearly all been in Your timing. You never cease to amaze us with the glory of Your mighty name. Thank You, my King!

Moving on to the 3rd...

Last Friday: 26 weeks and then some


The Third Trimester
Though there is "debate" over when the 3rd trimester actually starts, I say 27 weeks is reasonable. If you take 40 and divide it by three, it comes to 13.3 repeating. Thus, 26.6 repeating is the magic number. 27 sounds better. Some people like to factor in the extra time many muffins take to cook, but that just gets to be crazy. Thus, it's 27 and now for me. Time to celebrate with some cheese or something!

Elephant
My ankles and feet suddenly swelled up early last week, most likely due to overdoing it. I was on self-imposed bed rest whenever I was at home to help get my legs back to normal. It definitely helped day-by-day, and by Saturday, all seemed to be well.

Saturday
I thought I would have more time to type over the weekend, but I was hardly on the computer at all. I relaxed a great bit of Saturday to be sure things stayed okay, but I suddenly remembered I needed to make a trip out to the bookstore to pick up a new reading book (a manga!) for one of my students. I wanted to be sure it would be age-appropriate and that the English wasn't too high-level, so that's why I actually made the trip instead of just ordering it. Anyway, for those who are anime/manga savvy, we are totally reading Fruits Basket in one of my classes.

Anyway, while we were there, I wanted to see if they had any good books on a baby's first year. I was a little disappointed with what was there and almost walked away empty-handed, but upon inspecting What to Expect: The First Year a little more thoroughly, I deemed it very suitable for what we were looking for. It has diagrams and drawings, so it's a winner in my book. Even though I love the internet, I prefer having books to reference rather than trying to sort everything out that's on the web.

I was so exhausted from the short shopping trip, but we were both hungry and had nothing easy to prepare at home. We hopped on over to Dongdaemun to eat at a great new place we found that is super inexpensive and yummy (kalbi and naengmyeon--yum!), and I wanted to quickly check out my favorite spot for maternity wears to see if there were any great deals. The place I got my denim capris from is going out of business, so she had a ton of stuff that was only 5,000 or 10,000￦. I used all of the cash I had (a whopping 20,000￦), and walked away with 5 new pieces--she included a cute breastfeeding top for free! Everything was 5,000￦: the super comfy skirt I mentioned before in a different color, a great dress, some really nice black pants and a pair of comfy pants for the prenatal yoga class I hope to take. It's all in the wash right now, but I'll try to get a picture sometime.

Sunday
Sunday was busy (by our standards, anyway!). It was UFC 101 in the morning, and then we made a quick trip out to HomePlus to get a few groceries and have lunch. When we came back, we met our friends and watched their little one for a couple of hours so they could have a little quality time together. My back felt it by the end of the night, but I think the reality of the matter is that our son doesn't want to share me with anyone. ^.~

Classes
First, a couple of pictures from our breastfeeding class last week:



We skipped out on the Wednesday class I had mentioned in my last post in favor of me getting a bit more rest and not having a really tight schedule for the day, but we went to classes on Thursday and Friday.

Prenatal Nutrition
I didn't really want to go, but we went because Hee Suk seemed really keen on it. It was pretty much everything I already knew, but we did walk away with something. I can't remember what it is now, but I do remember there was one thing we walked away with! Obviously, it wasn't too much of a revelation, but it was find anyway.

Newborn Care
Hmm, where to start?

I was really looking forward to this class because I am at the stage where I suddenly feel like I don't know anything, but I left not feeling so wonderful for a few different reasons.

The content itself was fine, but the doctor holding the class...I am just glad she is not my doctor. She stood right in the middle of the screen, so her head was always blocking something. We had to remind her a couple of times to please use the microphone because she was incredibly soft-spoken. For many of the questions people asked, she would begin with, "As I told you before..." which when repeated so many times, makes me feel as though she's somehow trying to "defend" herself in that she wants people to know she already covered that. I am far from eloquent right now, but maybe someone is following with me.

Hee Suk asked a question about the hospital discharge timeframe since she had mentioned it to be about 3 days for a normal vaginal delivery, which is pretty long by US standards. If it is unnecessary to be there, I might go psycho. Almost everyone in the class literally scoffed at him as if he were a complete moron for asking such a thing. The look on the face of the woman in front of me is unfortunately pretty deeply embedded into my memory right now (yes, I am often hyper-sensitive about such things). I'm sorry, but I don't find joy in lying on an uncomfortable bed for three days while gladly letting others watch my baby and do as they please because "doctors know best." If there is an actual reason to stay, of course I understand.

The end result was that if everything is fine, it is possible to leave after 8 hours a the earliest, which seems comparable to the timeframe in the US as well.

Then the kicker:

We decided it might be more comfortable to just ask this doctor about them stealing baby away after birth. What I had heard in brief from our doctor is that they take baby away for two hours to "monitor" him to be sure all is well. Issues can arise, of course, but I see this as absolutely unnecessary. Her response sounded promising at first, but then she got into how they usually keep baby for somewhere between 2-4 hours.

Um, no.

Since she is not our doctor (and I am pretty sure she doesn't do deliveries anyway), Hee Suk decided not to press the matter much further as there is really nothing she can do for us. I couldn't shake the blues all day, though. I wanted to just call our doctor to talk with her to put my mind at ease, but he thinks it is better to talk with her face-to-face. I do agree, but the wait is a bit difficult, especially since this is something I had wanted to cover at our last appointment but couldn't due to being just about knocked out from the Orange Drink of Sugary Goodness. I love our doctor and our hospital to no end, but I will go absolutely psycho if they take a our healthy baby away for that long. Hopefully, we will be able to work something out. Otherwise, we just might have to look into another place to have our baby, which I would really like to avoid.

When I had briefly asked our doctor about it before, she had mentioned, "You'll be so tired from labor anyway." I know several other moms who can vouch that the fatigue was nowhere near enough to get them to be okay with having their babies gone. Some are fine, which is dandy and all. We are not okay with this for a perfectly healthy baby. We didn't go into details at that time or press the matter, so we'll see how a bigger discussion goes.

Anyway, that's on the list of discussion topics for next Wednesday.

Upcoming Classes
Hee Suk may attend a few on his own so that I can rest up more and save time. Tomorrow is a baby food class, for example, and he might just go himself since Wednesdays are slightly busier for me. He is so wonderful. He isn't afraid to go even though it's usually just a room full of women with the occassional spouse tagging along. I really admire that in him and hope our son inherits that!

Yoga
There are some new prenatal yoga sessions starting in September at the culture centers of EMart and HomePlus here, and we are currently trying to figure out which one is better for me to take. It will require a few schedule changes, but it's something I really want to do. I could just do a video at home, but having a class really keeps me accountable. I definitely should supplement at home, though, with some of the videos Hee Suk has found for me. Hopefully, it all works out!

Birth Plan
I have a fantastic birth plan that a few expats here have shared in both English and Korean that I gave to our doctor. I have decided, however, to work with Hee Suk to get it to be far simpler and much more to the point, which he agrees is a great idea. We haven't started it yet, but hopefully, we'll be able to get to it before next Wednesday. That way, our wishes will be ridiculously easy to see and won't get lost in wordiness and length. (Seriously, it will be alphabetized as much as possible.)

Sideways
Our little one has taken some delight in lying in a sideways position a couple of times since last Friday. He's not making a habit of it, but I think it's hilarious. My belly looks so strange when he turns! I took one picture, but you might not realize how strange it looks unless you're really familiar with pregnant bellies.

That's about it for now from me! I will try to have more frequent updates rather than big massive ones...but we'll see!

Lord, thank You so much for blessing us with a little one who is thus far so incredibly healthy and full of so much life. You work in incredible ways that we may never be able to comprehend but fill us in amazing ways. Even though we are weak at times, You are always strong--our Rock, our Shield, our Salvation. Thank You, my King, for blessing us far beyond measure and even farther beyond anything we could ever deserve.

Mommy School

Intro to Sophrology
I am now really looking forward to taking the three-week course next month. I was pleased with the whole ideology behind it and just the hospital's stance on birthing in general. It's not anything that goes way outside what other methods generally offered in pregnancy classes, but it sounds just right for what I am looking for.

At the beginning of class, the doctor asked the women about what kinds of birthing methods there are out there, and the only one anyone really knew was Lamaze. I listed off a whole bunch of methods in my head and was even brave enough to mention hypnobirthing, but even the doctor had no idea what I was trying to say. It just might be more of a western thing still...

Anyway, its main focus is on relaxing and knowing that pain in childbirth is a good sign and that it's hard for baby, too. We will go over different methods of pain relief, from breathing technique to visualizations, and will also work on different stretches. That's the course in short, anyway.

At the beginning of the class, Hee Suk was the only man there, and the doctor had people applaud him a couple of times for being such a good husband as she encouraged others to take courses with their spouses. Later on, two more couples joined in, but he definitely enjoyed his ego being fed. ^.~

Breastfeeding
Can you believe I sacrificed most of my nap time today to go to class? I know.

This was a great class with some nice diagrams and helpful videos and pictures. At the end, we were able to practice holding baby with those Chou Chou dolls. When I have more motivation/energy to do so, I will upload a couple of pictures from that. It's silly, but I think we bonded with our doll a bit. I didn't want to set the baby down after class! Our hospital highly encourages breastfeeding right after birth, which is wonderful.

**As a random sidenote, there was some sort of breastfeeding competition last month sponsored by the Korean government (I had seen a poster at our government health office--보건소). They are really trying to promote it more and more. I'm still trying to figure out how they judge it.**

Coming Up
I'm contemplating taking every morning class they are offering this month. Tomorrow is a sort of breastfeeding quiz thing that I am not sure we will go to, but Thursday is a nutrition course we figured it wouldn't hurt to check out. Next week Monday is a stretching course which incorporates a few Pilates things, so I am definitely wanting to check that out. I hope that in September, the classes in the afternoon are offered in the morning so that those who can't go in the afternoon have the opportunity to take them. My doctor is offering a class on maintaining an S-line after birth, and I just laughed at that.

In Other News
Our son has been super active the past couple of days. He's getting his workouts in while he still can, that's for sure. I think I overdid it this weekend, because my sciatica hasn't been so kind to me. It's definitely much better today, but it's still there. I think he also loves bus rides. Little does he know... ^.~

The poor thing has been getting hiccups quite a bit. I think I've passed them onto him. I've read that this is actually a good sign of a healthy baby, though, so I am happy to hear that. I was slightly concerned since they can last for so long, but I have since learned that this, too, is normal.

Countdown
We're in the double digits! Less than 100 days to go now!

Anyway, that's about all I have for now. I will try to get those pics up soon. Nothing special, but it will be fun to look back on.

Much love!

As always, my Lord, thank You for blessing us so greatly, far, far beyond what we could ever deserve.

Hiccups

Our little boy must have been plagued with the hiccups this morning! I felt a very rhythmic sort of tapping, if you will, which is what I hear is a sign that it is indeed hiccups. Hee Suk said, "Oh, no! He's going to be just like you!" (He never gets them, and I used to get them pretty often.) I felt so helpless in trying to get them to stop. After some time, though, he started squirming around and kicking. That seemed to help in the end.

That's about all I have for now. ^__^