22 weeks: give mom a break

Hi, this is Seung Ho (or 'sh' as Carol puts it). Carol has wanted me to do a guest post for some time now. Since she is busy with work today, I guess this would be the perfect opportunity to jump in. I only hope that I won't disappoint her faithful followers.

First off, we give all glory to God for blessing us with this precious gift. I'm going to trust in His all-knowing wisdom and plan for all of this because if I was in His shoes, I wouldn't trust me with a tiny new human being. hahaha. In all seriousness, we're just in awe of His love and care for us during the whole process. He's been providing for us every step of the way.

Needless to say, it's been a crazy journey. I can't believe she's already 22 weeks pregnant. Has it really been 15-16 weeks since she took the test? It's been a blur, although for Carol it might seem a lot longer since she's the one that actually has to carry the little booger. Speaking of which, I can't even begin to imagine what women go through in carrying a baby for 9 months (props to all you moms out there!). It definitely hasn't been easy for her with all of the symptoms that she had, but through it all, she's been great.

So as you guys already know, we're going to be having a little girl. I'm totally excited about it. I really had no preference. It's not like I was sitting there wanting 5 boys. I always wanted at least one of each (Lord willing, of course). Carol and I both come from families that have both sons and daughters and that's what we wanted as well. The only "request" that I have is that the baby will grow healthy and that the baby will come to know Jesus as his/her personal savior. The only one reason I wanted a son first (if we were gonna have at least one of each) was that, let's face it, I'm no spring chicken. AND... I have a jacked up back to boot. I always had the typical dream that fathers have of teaching their little boys how to play catch and hit a baseball. So if I was going to have a son, I wanted him first so that I can still be somewhat "young" enough to run around with him. Not that I can't do that with a daughter (I still might) and I'm not being sexist, but you know... it's just different.

Anyways, I guess I'll wrap this up since I can go on forever talking about our future little one (I'll jump in on future posts if Carol lets me). I'll end with revealing the name that we picked out for our daughter:

"Lana Choe"
(korean name to come later)

Oh, here's her bump!!

21 weeks: congrats, it's a basketball!

it's always hardest coming back to reality after a vacation, and work always seems to be at its worst after a vacation (but maybe it's not objectively worse, just subjectively because you're comparing real life to the awesomeness of vacation, which, obviously, is completely unfair to real life). i'm still recovering from this past weekend where i worked most of my waking hours, and it made me realize how different my energy level is now compared to pre-pregnancy. also, my belly has grown a lot this past week which has made things interesting. the belly growth is not steady, as i've realized, but more spurt-like. it'll seem to be the same size for a while, then within a couple days, it'll grow all of a sudden. if you compare this week's bump picture to last week, you'll see that the top of my belly has filled out a lot, almost as if a basketball's in there. before, it was bigger more in the lower ab area but she's creeping up. this makes it hard to sit for long periods of time. i'm feeling a lot more pressure and sometimes breathing gets hard too. i feel HUGE but i can't believe i still have 19 more weeks to go until the due date. i am scared about how big i'll get. i measured my belly the other day and i was 36 inches. 36!! i regularly pray for baby to be tiny (but healthy of course) at birth but grow to be much taller than her mommy (like her daddy). :)

so in anticipation of our growing family, sh and i have decided to move to nj. we've started the hunt but it's been stressful already (we found a place we loved but lost it to someone with a may 1 move-in date - we're june 1). i know we'll find something right for us but it's been a bit overwhelming dealing with househunting on top of work and baby stuff. i am such a control freak and feel antsy whenever i don't feel completely on top of every situation i'm in. i suppose i should start learning now how to be ok with not feeling in control, since i'm sure baby will be very good at taking that control away from me. o_O

bump!!

20 weeks (+ 1 day): halftime!

i am officially halfway through my pregnancy. sometimes it feels like it went fast, sometimes i'm like, "i still have 20 weeks to go??" either way, when i do a little retrospection, i'm so thankful for how well the pregnancy's gone so far. yes the morning sickness, nausea and exhaustion were no fun. and yes i'm still not eating completely normally and yes i see grandmas pass me when walking up the stairs, but whenever i feel cranky about it, i try to remind myself that it's normal and expected. also, health-wise for me and baby, everything's been going really well, whether it's blood tests or ultrasounds. my OB said "everything looks perfect perfect perfect." so many things can go wrong in a pregnancy that it's just such a relief that everything has gone so well so far. let's hope and pray the second 20 weeks are as good (or better!) than the first 20. and please let me have a painless labor and delivery ok thanks much.

we went to florida this past weekend for sh's sister's wedding. the whole trip was amazing. the weather was perfect, the wedding was beautiful and it was great to just relax with family and friends. i should go on vacation all the time because i eat so much better when i'm on vacation. all for the baby, of course. i'm not sure what it is, but it's definitely true. i think it's just the relaxed timeline - we have time to consider what we want and then go eat it. which is so unlike real life where we're always rushed and eating on the go. the good news is...my mom's coming back in three weeks! (mom = food.) she can't last more than 4 months at a time in china. actually, she has visa issues but she's not exactly torn up about having to leave the country. she bought a one-way ticket so she has the option of staying until the baby's here. my poor dad. always gets shafted.

speaking of dads, my father-in-law has come up a suggestion for baby's korean name (which will be her legal middle name). we told him we'd think about it. but he's so sneaky. why? two reasons: 1) first, he says, "this name was given to me by God so if you don't like it, you'll just have to come up with another name. i'm sticking to the one name." major guilt trip! 2) but then, while we're driving to the wedding, he says, "ok. maybe i have one more suggestion" and gives us another name to consider. but this second name is pretty ugly. i wonder if it's a strategy to make the first name look better! so it begins...o_O

and speaking of grandparents, my mom is looking high and low in china for a chi pao (the traditional chinese dress) for the baby...and also one for sammie. can't forget about the first grandchild. :)

bump! (was already in my pjs and too lazy to change into the usual tshirt i wear, so i pulled the shirt back so you can see the bump better)