37 weeks, 5 days

This past Monday was J's birthday! We took a mini-trip to a nearby coastal town, had yummy lunch at a super cute bar/restaurant, stopped by a "fancy" Taco Bell by the beach, and visited a lighthouse. 

It was a good day! 

37 weeks

Last Wednesday, I had my first appointment with UCSF (we switched over from Kaiser). Turns out, baby is breech just like J was when he was a little fetus. 

By 37 weeks, babies are usually head down and ready to go, but not ours! We've been trying all kinds of things to turn the baby, but so far, he won't move. I can feel the back of his little head at the top of my belly, he's just sitting cross-legged in there.

So far, I've been spending some time upside-down. Half on the couch, half on the floor.

I've tried putting a bag of frozen berries at the top of my belly to try to get him to move down. 

I've played music on my iPhone and put it in between my legs.

I've shined a flashlight down there to try to get his attention.

As you can see, I'm getting pretty desperate.

After our second appointment on Friday, I went to an acupuncturist and had moxibustion done. It's also supposed to be really effective in turning breech babies. They even sent me home with a moxa stick for me to continue the practice until he turns.

You're supposed to light it up like an incense and put it close to the corner of your pinky toe. Once it gets hot, you move it away, and go to the other foot. 

The radiant heat produced stimulates the acupuncture point that activates the uterus.

 Moxa is said to have a warming effect which promotes movement and activity. Hopefully, this will help turn baby head-down!

If not, we have another appointment on Tuesday to "turn" the baby with an external cephalic version. There's a very, very small chance that I might go into labor because of this procedure so we're going to bring our hospital bags and we've installed the carseat. 

I hope all goes well!

In other news, the weather has been really nice lately. It makes our neighborhood feel extra cheery and happy with all its brightly painted houses.

Here I am with my 37 week belly:

Oh yeah! Aside from finding out that baby is breech, we also found out that he has hair! We saw it on the ultrasound. It was very cute hair.

35 weeks, 5 days

I don't feel big, but when I see myself in pictures, I realize that I have a giant pregnant belly! In restaurants, I still try to squeeze in-between chairs, but then realize that I don't fit and do the awkward, "oops! excuse me, excuse me" thing. 

I still wear non-maternity dresses because they fit, but then I'll look in the mirror and realize that the belly is lifting the skirt up wayyyy too high, and that the dress is now inappropriate for a pregnant lady.

It's so weird how much my body has changed, but I don't realize it. The other night, I ran into the kitchen because I forgot to turn off the stove, and our doula was shocked at how fast I was moving for a person who is 8 months pregnant. 

Because of this, I feel like I need to document these last remaining weeks of the pregnancy. If I can't realize it now, I'm sure I won't remember it later.

35 weeks, 2 days

This past weekend, we had some people over for spontaneous hot pot and a yucky jelly bean game.

It was fun!

35 weeks

My birth plan.

I know things don't always go according to plan, but ideally, these are our preferences.

I wonder how things will eventually turn out.

34 weeks, 2 days

New Year's Eve 2013

Looking around here tonight, you wouldn't even be able to tell that it's New Year's Eve. We're keeping it casual and low-key. J is watching The Hobbit and I'm browsing the internet. I'm glad we both think that staying out past midnight sounds really unappealing right now.

Instead, I'd like to recap the wonderful year we've had. 2013 has been so, so good to us! Here are some highlights via iPhone photos.

One year ago today, we went out to a fancy dinner with friends and counted down to 2013 at the Palace Hotel for some crappy, but expensive, NYE party:

In February, we got married!

In March, we went on a wine tasting tour, got really drunk, and broke things at the Ferry Building:

In April, and pretty much all before I got pregnant, we ate tons of delicious oysters and seafood. I would stay home from work and Tiff and I would go to Swan Oyster Depot for white wine, bloody beers, and oysters:

In May, J and I had a nice evening in. We ordered Thai take-out, opened up a bottle of white wine, and watched Place Beyond the Pines...

a month later, we found out that we also made a baby that night!

All throughout the summer, we went to a total of four weddings. This is us at the first one. I remember feeling very nauseous here: 

In July, J and I canceled our honeymoon and had many mini moons instead. We took road trips and saw old buildings and roadside attractions, one of my favorite pastimes:

In August, I visited family in Southern California, and took a small vacation in Palm Springs with my favorite girlfriends:

In September, we found that that we're having a baby boy!

In October, we bought our dream house! Here is J right before we got the call about them accepting our offer:

In November, we moved into our dream house and took many trips to Home Depot, Ikea, and many other furniture stores. In just a few weeks, we made our house into a home:

And right now, on the last night of December, after looking through old photos and writing this post, we are sitting next to each other on our laptops and laughing at funny gifs on Reddit. The one that had us laughing hysterically was this guitar one.

Goodbye 2013! Thanks for being so good to us, and making us feel like the luckiest people alive!

Cheers (or dry cheers) to the new year!

34 weeks, 1 day

Recent news

1. I'm finally on winter break, which means I've pretty much started my maternity leave, which means I'm not going to be working for a verrryyyyy long time! Yay! I think I got lucky with the timing cause my leave begins in January, and goes until mid-June. Then we have summer break, and I don't have to be back at work until August...if I decide to return to work.

2. My sister and niece were visiting for the weekend! It's always so much fun having them around.

3. Like I mentioned in the previous post, my brother and sister-in-law had their baby earlier this month. Welcome to the world, Baby Lily!

4. My hands and feet are getting really swollen and I did not take my wedding rings off in time. I really didn't want to get them cut off so we tried every trick in the book... Soap and water did not help, Windex just made my fingers sticky, and "the dental floss trick" left my finger even more swollen and very irritated. Finally, I rubbed Preparation H on my ring finger and left it on for 30 minutes. It still looked really swollen, but I thought I'd try twisting it off anyway... Lo and behold! It worked! It kind of hurt, but miraculously, it twisted off! I was very proud of myself.

5. I should've followed my gut instinct and not tell the in-laws our baby's name until after he was born. However, we thought it'd be nice to just let them know. Turns out, they hate it and want us to change it. Their arguments are 1. "He'll get made fun of" and 2. "The meaning is too negative". My arguments are 1. I am a school teacher and kids just don't make fun of names anymore if they have the right upbringing and teaching, plus there is a whole new generation of crazy names out there that nobody even knows what to make fun of anymore. 2. Do you really think we'd pick a name without considering the meaning? We have done thorough research and know exactly what the name means, and guess what? We are ok with it. Plus, their idea of what the name means is not even true. I have no idea where they're getting their information from. This is a major source of stress for me, and I'm having trouble sleeping because of it. I hate having so much negativity while pregnant. Why can't they just be respectful? We've already named our baby and it's not their choice! So rude.