My Best Teacher

Wow….where to begin!!!! I must apologize that we have not updated in a LONG time, we usually just post on Facebook. I am going to take a conscious effort to post on our website, but being a mamma is sure keeping me busy.

First, no one can EVER tell you the intensity of emotions one feels as a new mother.  Some adjectives described were: “amazing, incredible, discouraging”  but honestly the words that comes to mind for me is “priceless” and “indescribable”.  Being a mother is a true gift. I have to admit the first few weeks were the hardest of our lives. I had a pretty intense labor and delivery, complete with almost 4 and half hours of pushing. Like Joe mentioned, Avery had jaundice, which made it difficult those first few days, especially since the only thing I wanted to do was hold my baby. And those darn hormones!  Anyway, after many ups and downs those first weeks of motherhood, I finally felt like I could do it. All of those sleepless nights, monotonous nursing, diaper changing, burping, is ALL worth it.

Now, at almost 4 months old, Avery and I have such a special relationship. She is my daughter, and I am her mother. Those were just words to me before I became a mother, and even when I was pregnant. Now, as a mother, it holds such a powerful feeling, feelings that words cannot describe. Avery is doing very well, she brings a smile to our faces every day. I cannot even begin to list all the “adorableness” that makes Avery who she is. One of the things that I absolutely love about my daughter is her expressive nature. Avery has the best expressions throughout the day: her morning gummy grins, her little person laugh and countless giggles, and her arching eyebrows. Avery’s squeals and coos make even the 2 hour sleep from the night before seem like 10 hour sleep. She also lets you know when she is frustrated. This happens usually when she is tired and wants to be cuddled and put to sleep. We are teaching one another and learning so much from and about each other.  Every day is a gift.

Avery has already experienced so much of the world in her short months. Some of the highlights include: visits from family and friends, numerous play dates with new friends and even boyfriends, visiting Daddy at work, seeing Mommy’s classroom, weekend trips to Starbucks with Daddy, daily walks around our neighborhood, accompanying mommy and daddy to sushi, shopping trips and even a road trip to Portland to see Uncle Ryan and Auntie Becca! Overall, we have learned that she is quite the observer and is taking everything in. She truly is experiencing the world, and in lots of ways, I am experiencing the world through her eyes.

My daughter is the best teacher I have ever had. Her lessons go beyond anything I have ever taught my students. Being her mother has taught me lifelong lessons, new levels of patience, understanding and love.  Most of all, I have learned that being a mother produces such unconditional love (both receiving and giving) that no one could ever prepare you for.

January Excitement!

3D Ultrasound of little Avery

What an exciting start to 2010! Avery’s furniture was delivered the first week of January and it has added such a feeling of warmth to her nursery. Most of her nursery is complete, just adding the final touches to make it as cozy as we can! We are still waiting for her crib, a bookcase and a light fixture.  I just love going in there and journaling, imagining the many days, nights, days and years we will spend in there! We also started our childbirth classes, which have been great! Joe and I agree that our instructor is a hoot, she makes the class so interesting and fast paced. I honestly look forward to it each week.  We have learned a lot of helpful information.

Avery's banner made by Auntie Carrie.

This past weekend, one of my best friends, Carrie threw me my “girlfriends” shower! Carrie did an impeccable job and I wish I could have captured every moment of it. She put so many personal touches to everything, everywhere I turned something made me smile! She even made a few things for Avery that I will be putting in her nursery. I loved my first baby shower, fittingly the theme was a girly tea party. Thanks Auntie Carrie! I feel so lucky to be surrounded by generous and compassionate individuals. Avery is so well loved, and she isn’t even here yet! Thanks so much to all the ladies that came out!!  Joe and I have a couple joint showers coming up, one this weekend and another the following weekend. Lots of celebrating!

Check out the organic diaper cake and washcloth bouquet!

Girly tea party treats!

I experienced a huge sense of anxiety last week. My doctor had ordered an ultrasound between weeks 28-32. The reason…unknown at the time. Being a first time mom, and also an individual that values communication, I was STRESSED. I could NOT get a straight answer as to WHY the ultrasound was ordered. Silver lining though, we got to see little Avery this week for a growth ultrasound! The ultrasound was given to ensure Avery and I are continuing to grow healthy. We are! According to the specialists, we look “marvelous and magnificent”. I was sooo relieved! A little background: the last time I was measured, I measured a tad “big”. At each doctor’s visit, my doctor takes a measurement and this measurement correlates to the number of gestational weeks. At my 26^th week, I measured three centimeters bigger. At my doctor’s visit today, we discussed that patients like myself (short and petite) will always be measuring a tad bit bigger because there is no where else for baby to go! According to her, I am “all baby”. She apologized because of the miscommunication or lack thereof, since I wasn’t even sure the degree of tests they were going to do. Anyway, Avery looks beautiful on the ultrasound! Healthy, bouncing and happy! If we didn’t have to get an ultrasound, we wouldn’t have been able to see her on screen.

One of Avery's new outfits from Auntie Jennie!

Avery’s movements are unbelievable!  The feeling is indescribable.  I love every moment of it. She and Daddy love to play a game, where he taps on various parts of my belly and she kicks in response. Soo cute! Thanks for all your prayers and support!  We cannot wait to meet her and hold her!

The Final Stretch… 85 days left!

We are in the final trimester, wow has time flown by! According to all my baby books, Avery is about 15 inches long and more than 2 pounds! She definitely is moving quite a lot. If we watch my stomach for a few minutes, we can actually see parts of Avery moving about in there. I hope she is feeling cozy! She seems to be very active and especially is responsive when you talk, sing or read to her! We cannot wait to meet her. I have been tracking Avery’s kicks and it’s been amazing! She loves when Daddy cooks, especially his barbeque chicken pizza!

Over the last two weeks, Joe has been working so hard on her nursery. It has definitely become a beautiful room. We will post pictures up soon. We are hoping to have a more organized baby closet in the next few weeks. I have helped in any way that I can, but as you can imagine, my energy level has been less than normal. In fact, doctors say, many of the first trimester symptoms can come back in the final trimester. Luckily, I did not have morning sickness or anything like that, just exhaustion. Joe has been very supportive, by letting me rest as much as I can.   I have been experiencing those incredibly painful leg cramps, though only twice, but still painful! I learned some exercises you can do before bed and that has seemed to prevent them.

It’s going to be an exciting few months! Over Christmas, our families have given us lots of presents for Avery’s homecoming. I love thinking that next Christmas, there will be a9 month old baby crawling around pulling off ornaments off our tree!  We got our Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag, our Beco Butterfly 2 carrier, our Stokke high chair, a play swing and so many other gifts. Everyone continues to be so generous and helpful, we are so lucky to be surrounded by such loving families and friends.  Over the next couple months, we are celebrating with baby showers, furniture delivery, baby classes and maternity photos! Everything is going to be fabulous!

Second Trimester Highlights

The second trimester has been full of fetal activity and overall good health. Avery continues to put a smile on my face with each flutter, kick and punch. I adore feeling her moving in there!  The emotional ups and downs are always there, but in the second trimester, it’s less exaggerated, which is a huge plus! I have gained about 20 pounds, which is in the “healthy range”. I’m supposed to gain between 25-35 pounds during my entire pregnancy.

During this trimester, I took the glucose tolerance test. I had a feeling that I may not pass this because of what our doctor was telling us. By the way, we love our doctors…they job share and both of them are awesome! Anyway, one of the doctors was telling us that a lot of Asian American women, no matter what size they are develop gestational diabetes. So, I wasn’t surprised to learn I had to endure the 3 HOUR long test once my elevated blood sugar test results came back from the initial test. The whole time though, I was thinking about Avery and hoping that she was safe. During this test, mothers-to-be are supposed to fast between 10-12 hours, and have their blood drawn 4 times the next day. One of the people that took my blood was a student, and I felt so bad for him. First of all, I have teeny tiny veins. It is challenging for people, unless they are pro blood drawers. He used the wrong size needle and the initial poke was horrible!!! Luckily, a veteran came to my rescue and told him about the needle size. I asked for another staff member to draw my blood the final 2 times, I didn’t want to experience that discomfort again!

Fortunately the test results came back from the 3 hour test and everything was normal. We are being a lot more conscious (even more so than we were) than what we are having, especially in the morning. The best suggestion that came from our doctor and our fabulous sister in law, Danelle (she’s a dietician/nutritionist) is to stay AWAY from carbs and fruits in the morning. So Joe and I have been eating lots of protein for breakfast!

I know I have said this many times before, but I have been very blessed to have a smooth pregnancy. I have loved being pregnant and I cannot believe it’s almost over. Once the holidays are done, time is going to fly by even faster!

26 weeks and nesting!!!

Avery Noelle is definitely growing! I swear she is doing cartwheels, somersaults, flips and kicks. She is just like her Mommy and Daddy! I LOVE feeling her moving! We are looking forward to working on her nursery these next few weeks. Right now, Avery’s room looks like pinks and purples exploded all over it!

My sister-in-law Danelle, and some good friends have given us so many cute outfits already! Joe and I tried to categorize them into months, and “types” of clothing, but I know this will change once Avery is born. We ordered furniture in November and it should be here by the end of January. Joe had this great idea of putting tape down that is the exact measurement of furniture so we can see what it will look like. What a good idea that was!! I think we have a set up that we are both happy with.

We also looked at various paint chips this weekend. Oh my, there are SO many shades of pink. We decided on doing 2 shades of pink, but now it’s finding the right ones. We are accenting with pinks, whites and greens.  We also found this beautiful tree decal complete with butterflies that we are thinking of applying to one of her nursery walls.

I cannot believe the time has flown by so fast. Every day I am reminded of how blessed we are with such a healthy pregnancy. I hope and pray that Avery will continue to grow healthy. We are surrounded by such excited family members, friends and co-workers. We are so excited to meet Avery and introduce her to the whole world!

Tickled Pink!

We found out last week that our baby is a GIRL! We are beyond thrilled and so excited to meet her! We spent some of the weekend registering, Mommy looking at nursery decor and Daddy creating this website.

First Trimester

I was so blessed to have a fabulous first trimester. No morning sickness, just exhaustion. Joe and I had only told our family and a few close friends that I was expecting. First trimester was full of joy, fear and just continued hope that our baby was okay. Once we came back from Maui, I immediately called my doctor to confirm my pregnancy. An immediate blood draw took place, and my levels came back extremely high, according to the nurse, I was “very pregnant”. They needed to do another blood draw a week later (numbers and levels are supposed to double early in the pregnancy), my levels came back almost tripled! Of course, the thought of multiples entered our minds, but the initial ultrasound confirmed one baby. It was amazing to experience that first ultrasound. We were able to hear the heartbeat, and see the tiny, tiny baby. I felt so blessed that everything was going so well!

My first trimester went incredibly smooth, didn’t have any aversions to foods or smells. Pure exhaustion is what my first trimester was like. Luckily, by the time I started teaching, my first trimester was coming to an end.

"+ YES"

I found out I was pregnant while vacationing in Maui with the Hallock family in July. While packing for the trip, I packed necessities, just in case the pregnancy test came out negative. I am always punctual (yes, pun intended) and was supposed to have my monthly visitor that Monday, our third day of vacation, but no visitor. Because I wasn’t prepared to get another “NO” on the test, Joe and I decided to wait a few days.

As the days passed, a feeling of peace and calmness fell over me. I distinctly remember a moment of clarity while snorkeling in the Molokini crater. I was floating by myself, while Joe and his brother were diving deep into the ocean floor. I remember feeling so peaceful, partly because of the beauty surrounding me, but also because part of me knew that there was life growing inside of me. However, I hadn’t taken the test yet.

Finally, on Friday (5 DAYS of being late), after a night full of tossing and turning, Joe and I woke up before 6:00 A.M and I walked into the bathroom, with my digital test in my trembling hand. I tested, and set the test stick down. Since it was a digital test, there staring back at me was a TICKING CLOCK. I decided to look away, and literally a few seconds later, a plus sign with the word YES in CAPS stared back at me. I took a minute to myself, celebrating and thanking God and decided to tell Joe the life-changing news.

I ran into our room, finding Joe sitting up, smiling at me and nodded yes. Happy tears, hugs and kisses were exchanged. A feeling of overwhelming joy and happiness filled my heart. We then started deciding who we should tell and when. Of course we told Joe’s family who were there vacationing with us. I decided that I would call my family (since they knew I would be taking a test in Maui), rather than waiting to tell them in person. All were and still are very excited!!! I called a few close girlfriends and they were very thrilled and enthusiastic! And so began my pregnancy journey…