Party at Our House! Day 234 / Week 35

Woohoo! So we had some great friends over last evening (Wednesday) for a Mid-Autumn Moon Festival shindig. It wasn't quite traditional in that we had Taiwanese style beef noodle soup, and it was after the actual festival, but we did eat delicious lotus paste mooncakes that Olivia brought, so that made it a Moon-Festival dinner.

After dinner, we played the traditional Chinese Moon Festival game of Taboo. Bill, Olivia and I got trounced by Molly, Sylvia and SAM something like 53 - 26. I need to take the bulk of the responsibility as I had the the bulk of the point deductions on our side. But it was still a great time.

Anyways, we're into week 35 of our pregnancy and, really, the baby could come pretty much at any time. Think that Brad, Sylvia and I were all born by this point. Of course, Sylvia and I were 3rd and 4th children respectively and Brad was one of a twin, but still, we're getting prepared.

The baby HAS changed in the past couple of days, though. In our recent visit to the midwife on Monday, she said that the baby is starting to engage (about a -3). We don't know if this has anything to do with things, but Sarah thinks that the baby is much harder and feels bigger now than it did even a few days ago. I for one, am starting to be able to feel parts and sticky-out bits of the baby more than ever before. Sometimes, sticking out of interesting places! For instance, the night before last, Petunia was sticking a fist or a foot practically out Sarah's back! Amazing.

The rest of the midwife's exam was fairly normal. She said that the baby had a healthy heart rate of about 140 bpm which is fairly consistent with what we've seen.

Birth preparations continue as we practice with our Hypnobirthing relaxation tapes and begin preparing our Birth Plan. Eddie, the marketing exec in our class suggests we use the softer language of "Birth Wish List" in order to have a better chance of getting what we want. We all agree heartily. Anyone from the Hypnobirthing Institute listening?


The AMAZING TC Bilingual Ed MA Girls! (L to R) Olivia, Sarah and Sylvia

And of course, the requisite weekly belly shot.

Day 228 / Week 34 and a 1/2

Taken today on day 228 - week 34 and a half. Almost there.


SAM and our brand new Baby Bjorn Baby Carrier. Doesn't it look good on her?


I had to get in on the action to. Can't you just see Petunia in it?


It's actually pretty complicated - SAM's the one who figured it out.


Load of baby crap

Hi Team! So here we are, getting closer and closer to the day it's all supposed to happen (which, for those of you not keeping up, is October 29th). In the last few days we've picked up a new used highchair (visible in the top photo) from one of Sarah's colleagues, Marian. Thanks, Marian! We've also gotten a little bath seat, a seat for her to sit and rock in and a play mat / gym from Janice and Sunil. Thanks, guys!

It's funny, at every stage, I think we're totally ready and have everything we need. Then I learn that there's yet something else we don't have. I'm not sure what's next... but it seems to me we're pretty ready... until we get home from the hospital, I guess. Actually, I do have on my list a baby nail clipper and thermometer... but I think I have a little bit of time to get those.

We are thankful for each passing day she stays in because we're glad not only for the extra time for us, but because it will help her be more prepared for life on the "outside." We spend every day wondering what she will be like, who she will look like more, will she be a good person, all those things all the time savoring the very wondering itself!

Anyways, this one will be short since we had date night tonight and had dinner and watched Hairspray. Very funny movie, actually. Highly recommended. But all this crazy partying has left us pooped and we're going to turn in for the night. Love you guys!

SURPRISE!

So this weekend, (Saturday) we had a surprise baby shower for Sam. My sisters came up with the idea and put it together with the theme of "Tell Me a Story." Guests were asked to bring a favorite childhood book as a shower gift. Gayle, Joan, my mom and the kids flew in and Joy and her family decorated the house and got treats and snacks ready. My role was to keep the secret and bring the unsuspecting guest of honor.

So on Saturday afternoon, the family spent the morning decorating and preparing the house and the guests were asked to arrive by 2:30. My role was to get SAM there by 3:00. Under the excuse that everyone had a lunch appointment, Sarah and I stayed at home instead of rushing to Joy's house to hang out.

By 2:30 PM, the trap was set and I was awaiting nervously, ready to go as Sarah slowly took her time getting ready. We must have done a great job keeping the secret because she had NO IDEA there was a house full of guests awaiting her arrival. As I nervously tapped my feet and waited by the door, Sarah slowly dressed and seemed quite put out at me that I wanted to leave so early, at one point saying, "I thought you said we had to arrive only around 3:00!"

We arrived sometime after 3:10 PM and I rushed upstairs to Joy's door just in time to pull a sign off the door that read, "Happy Baby Shower, Auntie Sarah!" that some child had put there, not realizing it was a surprise party. Sarah came ambling up the stairs just in time to walk in the open door and be surprised by all the guests jumping out from closets, around corners, and some even under the tables!

Finally, she got it!

It was great. We got tons of great books from the wonderfully generous guests who included, besides family, her co-teacher Janice Dwyer and her friends from school (and Samantha's Chinese teacher) Tressy Chang and Molly Williams Pugh.

After the initial surprise, we enjoyed delicious food (spring rolls, fried noodles, fresh straberries, brownies, coffee, tea, etc) and wonderful company. George took Philip, Andrew and Joey out to run errands (pick up the birthday cake and present for my mom who we were having birthday dinner with later in the evening) and left the house to the women + Nicky and me.

There was lots of conversation and fun games (including "name that quote" from a children's book) and presents.

It was great. As I set in the house typing this, I'm looking at our new copies of Pat the Bunny, We're Going on a Bear Hunt, Butter Battle, Harold and the Purple Crayon, The Giving Tree, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, If You Give A Mouse a Cookie, and more! My favorite is, of course, "Because Daddy Loves Me" which is in Chinese.


SURPRISE! The whole group.


Just the ladies (and Nicky)


Look at all the wonderful presents!

After the guests departed at around 5:30, we hung out for awhile before taking my mom to dinner. Mom turns 70 this year so congratulations mom! We had a delicious meal at Cine Cite (film city?). Dinner was sublime. My appetizer of Prosciutto wrapped mozarellas with mushrooms was incredible. Sam's steak was so tender it melted in your mouth. Desert was caramel crunch cake that was without a doubt the best cake I've ever had (with the exception of the ones that Sarah, Joy and Roz make, of course).


At Cine Cite

While Joy arranged the menu and the reservations, it was Gayle who wound up paying for dinner by sneaking her credit card to the waiter before we had even sat down. This meant that she not only paid for the delicious dinner, but that she also is the one that bought mom's present and was gracious enough to say that it was from 'all of us.' Well, the one of us who could afford it! Thanks Gayle! We all know who makes it all possible.

After dinner, we went back to Joy's house to watch the ultrasound DVD before Sarah and I came home. The Taipei contingent had flights at around noon, so we met them at the airport to say our goodbyes before coming home to sort through all the great presents and to get some rest!

It was all in all, an exhausting weekend full of family and fun. We're glad we had it and are sad it's over, but will be happy to have tonight to rest.

Isn't family great? Yeah!

Week 33 / Day 219 - 3D/4D Ultrasound

We had our 3D and 4D Ultrasound today and I think that pictures will speak louder than words for this.










You can click on them to enlarge.

In some photos, you'll notice a hand or some umbilical cord in the way, but for the most part, she (and it was reconfirmed to be a she today) was very patient and accomodating for her first real closeup photos.

We were heartened to learn that everything was very normal and that she is almost exactly average (just a smidge under) on the curve for size, which, by the way, was 2000 grams even, our ultrasound technician told us.

Today represented a real milestone for us, and for me in particular. Getting to see her face and to be reassured that everything was normal (fingers, toes, no hare lip and even HAIR) that could be observed helps to relieve a lot of worry and worst case scenarios that I had. Her heartbeat is strong and her cord blood flow is good and all that's left is to wait for her to be ready to come out and say 'hello' to us all for the first time. Our Pregnancy Journal states, "From this time on, your baby has the maturity to adapt to living outtside the womb if born." That is reassuring, indeed us to have made it so far.

While I'm sure that the baby is of most (and for many of you, the only) interest, we do have a couple of updated belly shots of SAM. Both of these were taken 'yesterday' or rather on day 218 which was Tuesday, Sept 11.




It's hard to tell from the photos, but the belly is getting ever larger. Sam's belly is surprisingly hard with baby parts filling out the space in her belly. It is becoming easier and easier to discern individual parts to outsiders (i.e. not Sam or Baby) and Sam is able to (she thinks) figure out what little Petunia is doing much more clearly and easily than before.

We were both stunned at the capabilities of today's technology and thankful for how it has allowed us to be reassured and kept up to date at each step of this process. Modern science is truly miraculous and I am proud to be associated with Brad whose work will help us to move forward the boundaries of the possible.

Some final tidbits. We've finally cancelled our reservations at Matilda, the private hospital and are now committed to Queen Mary, the public one. Our birthing classes are going well and we've enrolled in a Doula service which means a qualified midwife will come over to help monitor and reassure Sarah when she starts her labor and then accompany her to the hospital when she's ready. In this way, she can stay home as long as possible in a safe and calm way.

Also, in answer to Sylvia's question, no, we don't have a legal name yet. We've got some options, but we're going to wait to meet her to decide.

We DO, however, have an illegal name. Esmeralda Ursula. Anyone who calls her that will be arrested and shot. Particularly in Venezuela.

New Post of added storage

Dear Family,

Over the course of the last couple of weeks, we have done some work to reconfigure our space so that the coming little one can actually have some of her own things fit in our space challenged apartment. We've made a couple of minor changes, but nothing major - the largest item we added was a filing cabinet. Mostly we repositioned, reconfigured and added bins to hold stuff that would work with our existing furniture.


Here you can see that we've added Ikea cloth covered storage boxes to the top of our "Billy" bookcase. The boxes fit perfectly. You can also see that Sarah made a special low area for some story books and for some toys so that they would be more at little Petunia's level. If you look closely to the lower left corner, you can see someone's belly and Petunia's current home!


Here's a lower view of the bookcase so you can see a bit closer up how the books and toys are arranged. There's now even a nifty little basket in the right cubbyhole to hold all of my Wii games and accessories. Yay! Finally, no more messy wires and boxes everywhere!


In the part of our bookshelf with doors, we've now moved my camera equipment and opened up a storage unit for the baby's creams, diapers and other necessaries. It's the one on the lower left.


Here you can see some storage bins above the bookshelf that contain many of Petunia's clothes for as she grows. We've got most of the Newborn and 0-3 month clothes in our drawers, but because so many of our family members have been so generous, we have lots of clothes for as the baby grows. We've put these items and other 'soft goods' for the baby up here.


Here you see one view of how we've moved our bookshelf/divider in our little office/desk space. We've moved he shelf over towards the wall (it was centered between the desks before) in order to make room for the filing cabinet, which you see the side of here (with the printer on it). We've also cleared some space on the shelf for some additional storage we're going to get for baby related things.


Here's the reverse angle where you can see the actual file cabinet that we got. This helps us a lot because we now have actual storage space for our files which were previously taking up space on our bookshelves, desks, and under our desks. The bottom drawer is joint stuff, the middle drawer is mine and the top one is Sam's!

You can also see the small low shelf along the wall between our desks that is waiting for appropriate storage. We built this medium height shelf out of two low Ikea shelves by screwing them together. Thank's SAM and family for the power tools!


Finally, here you can see the changing area that we've set aside. We've got a changing pad all set up for when the baby needs her diapers changed. On top of it is the little muslins for mopping up accidents and spills. There is room on the side reserved for a basket that we'll be getting to hold the diapers, creams, etc that we're going to need for this very important space.

To the left is her 'go bag' which is full of all the things we're bringing to the hospital.


This here is an update I just added to the post. It's a photo of a shelf system we built above our microwave out of two Ikea end tables to store the baby's kitchen essentials - bottle sterilizers, warmers, bottles, etc.

Anyways, that brings you mostly up to date on the updates to our house. Stay tuned until next time when we'll have more updated belly pics and a 4-D Ultrasound!

My Favorite Picture of Lily. Ever.

Swimming at the East Float Beach.

I think she's cold.

At 31 Weeks/Day 207

Taken at 205 days


Comparing and Contrasting at MacMahan


Taken at the beginning


So here I am, 31 weeks (207 days) in, posting my first blog entry on the upcoming baby that we're having.

The house is PREPARED. Extra storage? Check. Diapers? Check. Grab and Go bag for when SAM goes into labor? Check. Baby clothes? Check. (Thanks to all you friends and family). We are even being responsible parents and attending birthing classes (saw my first birthing videos) and have signed up for infant CPR classes. Now THAT is exciting stuff.

The 4-D ultrasound is the week after next, and the doctor says that all systems are go.

For me, I can't wait for little Petunia (our diminutive for her right now) to come screaming into the world, but SAM wants her in awhile longer. For me, I worry because I don't know what's going on in there. It seems like there's still lots of risk to her INSIDE that I can't protect her from - umbilical cords, listeria, indigestion, etc whereas once she's out of her mom and in the house, I can block any dangers at the door. For SAM, she feels the wonder of this growing being inside of her and simply loves it. She glows and laughs at their private communication when the little one gently turns or jabs a limb into her bladder. Even the most undignified of kicks at the most inopportune times are an opportunity for Sarah to smile and laugh at the wonder of it all.

Amazing.

Sending off Meg and Eric

Meg and Eric left us, today for the rest of their adventure and I had the pleasure of escorting them to the train.

I really enjoyed getting to know the two of them in their time with us here in Hong Kong and look forward to seeing more of these two at future family events. We hope that they have a great time on the remainder of their trip!


Getting packed up.


Tickets all purchased and ready to go.


Outta' here!

With Meg and Eric at The Big Buddha

Today was a big day with an even bigger Buddha. Meg, Eric and I took the Tung Chung Line out to the new Skyrail and took it up to the Big Buddha statue where we walked around, saw the Buddha relic (which looked like a tooth) and ate our turkey sandwiches in front of the sign that said, "Vegetarian Food Only." We felt bad, but not too bad. That's what hunger does to you.

The weather these past few days have been remarkably clear and we are sad to see Meg and Eric go the day after tomorrow because it seems like the clear air and balmy temps coincide with their presence here. In any case, we've had views of Hong Kong that only happen once or twice a year.

We liked the Buddha, and our tickets included free ice cream so it was a good day. At the end of it, Eric even found a belt at the mall above the MTR subway station and all was well.

We're now getting ready to enjoy a delicious pizza dinner that they are slaving away in our kitchen to prepare. Delish!


Waiting to get on the Skyrail gondola to get to the Big Buddha


Inside the Gondola. We had the car to ourselves and got to truly enjoy the panoramic 360 degree views.


View of the Buddha from the cable car.


Here they are at the top! Big Buddha in the background. Apparently, it's the largest seated, outdoor, bronze Buddha statue in the world. I guess that means that there are larger Buddhas that are outdoor and bronze but not seated, seated and bronze but not outdoors and seated and outdoors but not bronze. Truly exclusive.


Meg enjoys free ice cream while Eric learns more about the Buddha through the helpful brochure.


At the base of the world's largest seated, bronze, outdoor Buddha statue.


Exhausted and on the way home.


Eric trying to look happy for his mother. It's one for the scrap book!


The first of three pizzas that Meg and Eric prepared for us for dinner.


The crew.

Kyoto scenery pics!

See the post below for my earlier post (and photos of Sam and I) in Kyoto. I thought I'd attach some more scenery pics that I took to give an idea of what Kyoto was like.

Kyoto is Japan's ancient imperial capital and was spared bombing during World War II so is rich in ancient architecture. From what we learned, it sounds like the speed of life is set just a notch lower than it is in Tokyo or even Osaka and we enjoyed the very friendly people, very incredible sights and most delicious food.


Our hotel room! This is where we started from and came back to every day. A 7 minute walk from the Main Kyoto Train Station (with a complimentary shuttle bus in case the walk was too long), the "Rihga Royal Hotel Kyoto" was our home away from home.


Our first view of women dressed as Geisha (these are either Geisha or Maiko, trainee Geishas) came in the Ponto-Cho district - an area of tea houses and other entertainments which sounds like the seat of Geisha culture. We would frequently see these women walking around and while walking in front of tea houses could see Geisha and parties through the window, serving tea and engaged in conversation. It was stunning to see this element of their culture so readily and alone was worth the ticket to Kyoto.


A view of the Ponto-Cho district from the river (as opposed to the street where the last picture was taken). Many of them face the river and offer delicious views of the water with an al fresco option.


I got one photo that made carrying around my very heavy 200 mm lens worth it. It is this one of a heron (or some other type of bird) in the Nijo Castle garden catching its lunch.


Detail of the eaves of the Shrine for the Protection of Pregnant Ladies and Their Babies (or whatever its title is). This was my favorite shrine because of its quietude and care-worn state.


View of the entrance of the Kiyomizu-Dera temple/shrine complex of which the "Shrine for the Protection of Pregnant Ladies and Their Babies" is a part.


Altar offerings at Kiyomizu-Dera


Sam and I on the front steps of Kiyomizu-Dera.


My girl sitting on a bench at Kiyomizu-Dera.