On Baby A's birthday, the c-section surgery went as planned. I walked into the OR around 9:30am and was pushed out around 2 hours later. W was instructed to wait outside while the team was getting me prepared for anesthesia. He then got invited to come in and sat next to me while the team worked on getting Baby A out of me 😂. W was a good DJ and Baby A was born while Taylor Swift's Shake It Off was being played. So...did I feel any pain during this life-changing surgery? No, I didn't. I had a spinal block. I never felt any type of pain during the surgery. Getting the anesthesia injected - however - was the most uncomfortable part of the surgery. There was a lot of pressure. I felt my back being pulled or pushed, or something. It just felt very uncomfortable, not painful, but very uncomfortable. It was also hard to try leaning toward the source of that uncomfortableness. Learning to relax while being uncomfortable was a very hard thing to do. But it was necessary. Once it...
Week 34 began with my now-normal routine of NST. Baby was very active that morning and suddenly her heart rate took a dip so the nurse had me stay strapped to the machine for an extra 20 minutes while she consulted with my ob. The nurse also rolled in an ultrasound machine to check on baby. She looked for several "small movements" (moving fingers, practice swallowing, openning/closing the mouth etc) and we waited for baby to make a few "big movements" (kick/wiggle). Everything looked good so the guess was baby "got too excited and grabbed the cord hence a dip in heart rate." Her heart rate came back up almost immediately "probably because she let go of the cord." I guess we will never find out what really happened. We're just glad everything's looking good. That same morning, I had my 8th prenatal appointment right after the NST. The nurse took us straight from the NST room to the exam room for the prenatal appointment. The appointment was short but we got several items checked off! First and foremost, we're having a c-section during Week 38! She initially asked how I feel about getting induced at 39 Weeks. I replied with how about we go ahead and schedule for a c-section since baby has been in this breech position since Week 19. She said "yes, we can do that too." I've been getting a weekly scan for a while and not once has she flipped to the head-down position and my ob also doesn't think it's likely that she'll flip by this point because baby only has less room to flip as time passes. Ob said she will personally check with the hospital's schedule and get a date set. We agreed if baby decides to flip before the operation (by some miracle!), then we'll switch to induction. We talked about what infant medicine to keep at home (basically none, if anything happens, call the hospital/clinic for advice before giving out anything, or go straight to the hospital to get checked out). I also asked my ob on her thoughts about "red raspberry leaf tea." It's something I heard that helps to naturally induce baby. I was very glad that I asked my ob before going out to buy a box of the tea because her response was like a wakeup call. She said "it might and it might not work, but since the baby is still in breech position and we're going to have a c-section, it's probably best to not drink it." I don't know how I didn't even think about that! Baby's breech, it's a no-brainer I shouldn't try any method, natural or not, to induce baby. After we left the hospital, W told me my eyes literally lit up as soon as the ob agreed to a c-section at 38 weeks!
My appetite continued to rise at Week 34, though it's a bit of...hard to describe. It's like my brain and my body were constantly in conflicts. My brain kept giving cues to "eat this, eat that" while my body got bloated, felt the rush of acid reflux, and even to the point of feeling nauseated DURING EVERY MEAL! It's like my morning sickness has returned....along with body aches, swelling ankles, carpet tunnel, worsen sciatica etc.
Right after the 8th prenatal appointment, we went to a Korean restaurant (same one where we had Korean BBQ just a little while ago) for some a la carte items. I had a ginseng chicken soup. It's a traditional Korean soup dish with a whole chicken cooked in the soup. The chicken is filled with rice and dates (well mine came with...just 1 date 😂). W had a spicy pork dish, which I took a bite of and found it to be too spicy (aka heartburn attack). I really liked the ginseng soup but I could only eat 1/4 of the broth and about 1/3 of the chicken before my stomach began protesting (e.g., bloating, acid reflux, also baby was moving a lot and her head was pushing against my ribs while I was eating). We boxed the rest home and it took me two more settings to finish the soup.
One fantastic news we had this week was my gestational diabetes case manager informed me that I could switch to testing myself every other day because of how well controlled my glucose level has been. Before this new change, it was testing after each meal every other day and testing my fasting level every day. And before that, it was testing 4 times every day. So overall, there's been a huge improvement in terms of the amount of times I have to poke myself 😃 We celebrated by going to our favorite local coffeeshop to grab a drink for each of us! Paired the drinks with "McGriddle copycat" haha! The backstory is I just love McDonald's McGriddle sandwiches so I made my version of them 😎
The weekend of Week 34 was a big milestone for us. Not only because of the good news of glucose levels being well managed by diet alone, we also got the majority of the nursery set up! W assembled the stroller and we tested it with the infant car seat that we bought back in March. All's looking and working great! W actually did his happy dance and said he was very impressed with the design and the engineering of the stroller 😂
I finally unboxed the sanitizer and sanitized all parts & the glass bottles & the nipples this weekend. About the bottles, we received this set of Philips Avent glass bottles as a gift, along with 7 or 8 plastic bottles from different goodie bags (from Amazon, BuyBuyBaby, Target, and WalMart). The Avent bottles came with "0m+" nipples, though I paired the bottles with "0m" nipples because I read it's recommended to start with the slowest flow to avoid baby preferring bottles over nursing. My game plan is to nurse for the most part, and have W help with feeding once or twice a day while I rest. I only sanitized the glass bottles because I prefer to only use glass (since we likely will need to reheat the milk and I believe glass is better than plastic when it comes to reheating). The plastic bottles are still in their original packages and we'll use those as backup if a need arises.
We also finally tackled this one wall of the nursery - the wall that was supposed to have our custom wallpaper pasted on. Unfortunately, the wallpaper got lost during shipping. Still have no idea if it was lost while in transit in England or got lost in the States. Either way, the seller has agreed to issue a full refund and we moved on to decals because I can no longer help W with wallpaper at this point.
We ordered this set of "rainbow & dots" decals on Amazon. It was a pain in the **** to align on the wall. It looked ok from afar but I really didn't like how there was a line in the middle of the rainbow because the rainbow is two-parts. The line was very obvious when standing closer.
I tried to not over obsess with that line in the middle of the rainbow. However, the rainbow just had to go because the next day, it started peeling off on its own. We tried to fix it, maybe 5 times? Finally, I ripped it off and ordered another rainbow from another company 😠 I kept the dots on the wall.
So what happened to the peeling rainbow? Well, we didn't throw it away. Since I hated that line that goes between the top and bottom halves of the rainbow, I decided to just let them part their ways. We put the top half in a hallway and the bottom half under a painting of Einstein 😎
Then came Week 35. I sent out my "2 weeks notice" to a research team I'm volunteering with. It didn't matter whether the work's paid or not, that feeling after sending out a "2 weeks notice" was just too good haha!
Week 35 also took "baby movements" to the next level. Baby became noticeably more active and W sometimes notices these movements without even touching my belly. He just sees jabs and movements, especially during NST appointments and in the evenings when we're just relaxing with Netflix in bed. The picture below was taken by W. It was a perfect moment of when baby was kicking the NST belts and I was in the middle of saying something. That's the expression I had while I had to stop mid-sentence 😂.
Week 35 was also when I had my first Indian food in a long time. I've been avoiding Indian food due to fear of heartburn and later was because I felt it was too risky for my gestational diabetes diet (because Indian food often means eating dishes paired with rice/nann and they are loaded with carbs). Well, I decided to try it with caution. So I had 2 slices of paneer nann (this was so delicious) and about 3 spoons of rice with chicken makhani (with tandoori chicken). Waited 2 hours and then poked myself and bam! It was ok! Yay! I probably won't have Indian food again for a while because I don't want to be pushing it, but I am glad that the numbers were fine and that it seems like I am getting good at controlling the numbers with portions even if I allow myself to "test the water" for a bit.
Another food I "tested" myself with was....California rolls 😂!! I have not had these since...last November? I honestly don't remember. I avoided sushi ever since I found out about the pregnancy. I had some "cooked sushi" without rice from a buffet restaurant ONCE during this whole pregnancy up until this day. I had cravings for Japanese food and wanted yakitori so W got takeout from Toshi's for me! The California roll came as part of a bento meal. I had half of the roll, so 3 pieces. I waited for 2 hours and then poked my finger, and hurray!!!! There was no spike! Again, I probably won't have these again anytime soon (I was never a fan of rolls anyway, I prefer sashimi, nigiri, and chirashi) but am glad that having a little taste of it didn't cause any spike. That being said, my heartburn, acid reflux, and that general "ugh" feeling of these last few weeks have been brutal.
The weekend of Week 35 was our last week to work on the nursery! We began the Saturday with an easy brunch and played some board games. We figured this was one of our last few "quiet, peaceful" weekends before baby makes her entrance so we took the day easy to just relax and spend time with Beibei, Lulu, and Duke.
We also received this cute welcome baby kit haha. 
I finally unboxed the breast pump kit (Medela) I received from the hospital. It's 100% covered by our insurance. I wanted to get a Spectre, however, the insurance didn't let me pick what I wanted so I just went with what was given to me. I was surprised that it came with a tote! I'm not sure if I'll be carrying the pump with me anywhere outside of home, but it's nice to have a dedicated tote for it.
This kit came with a book for new dads. I thought the advice it gives are quite practical and humorous hahaha.
The Sunday of Week 35 was Father's Day, also Juneteenth. We took the holiday weekend to finish all of the final touches for the nursery, including putting up the new rainbow decals! This time, the rainbow didn't peel! It's a one-piece rainbow and it's looking pretty cute 💖On Monday, we spoiled ourselves with maid service. Well, I did some gardening and W mowed the lawn and pulled out the weed while three professional cleaners cleaned our home. This is the second time we've used them to clean our home. We really liked their service the first time (all appliances were sparkling clean) hence decided to hire them again this time. We're not opposed to having them back again sometime after baby's born 😃.
After the cleaners left, I used the sparkling kitchen to make the following breakfast plates 😊 There's nothing that beats the feeling of cooking with sparkling clean appliances haha!
Sometime during Week 35, I received messages from the hospital that the c-section has been scheduled. We're less than 3 weeks away from meeting baby! Also, Duke & Lulu are still following me to every bathroom trip. Beibei sometimes follows me too when she realizes that I'm moving around, though more often than not she's usually napping by a window and she doesn't have good hearing anymore. So she's probably not aware of my moving around during the day. They're our little guardians!
Another thing that happened this week was I received my interview notice for my naturalization application. The letter says my interview date has been set for July 21. My due date is July 22. I immediately called them the next day and made a request to have the interview rescheduled. The person I spoke with told me it can take up to 30 business days to process my request. My mind immediately went on thinking "the interview date is within that 30 business days period..." thankfully, I was told that since the request is made well before the interview day so even if they don't get to my request before the initial interview date, I'll be ok. The person on the phone said I've done everything I could do and that there's nothing else for me to do.
💗CM
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