The weeks are passing faster and faster as we near the end. We officially enter the 3rd trimester this week. With my careful balance of food choice, avoidance of smells and daily consumption of doxylamine, I’ve managed to stave off most morning sickness lately. I’ve experienced a bit of heartburn, but it has mostly been my own overeating. Unfortunately, I’ve been warned by many that I have apparently just left my most comfortable trimester. This is rather alarming seeing as how I continued to have morning sickness, got inexplicably very ill and now have to pee more than ever! I’d hate to think of what the 3rd trimester may have prepared for me. Luckily, the heat hasn’t begun bothering me yet. I may be the only pregnant woman in the world who continues to enjoy the Southern California heat. I’ve heard that many have problems getting any sleep (due to general discomfort). I get about 8-10 hours a night (I used to only sleep 5-8/night). However, I do get the urge to nap each day now at around 5:00 PM. My efforts to nap have been futile. I don’t think I’ve been able to nap since infancy. Napping, thus far, has constituted me, in bed, staring at the ceiling, growing more and more bored to death. I’ve since given up on napping.

I’m beginning to feel much bigger. I didn’t think I was much bigger, until I spent half of a bridal shower being told by the bride’s aunt that I’m apparently rather big for 26-27 weeks. Usually, I brush off unsolicited advice and dialog, but it is a bit more difficult to ignore what a registered labor and delivery nurse at Cedars-Sinai has to say. At first she was concerned that I may have developed gestational diabetes (it has yet to rear its ugly head at any of my check-ups). She was much less concerned after I informed her that both Kevin and I were born at 9.5 lbs each! Hopefully, Baby Sophie is just a chubster like the both of us, because I really don’t want to do the GD test. So just how big am I?

Checking into Parenting.com, we find that Sophie is now 14 inches from head to toe and tips the scales at more than 2 pounds. She’s finally bulking up with some fat and her lungs are continuing to develop. Her immune system is gearing up for life outside the womb. She has officially discovered thumb sucking, which will help to strengthen her cheek and jaw. We’re going to be checking into BabyCenter.com for the illustration this week. Kevin insists that Parenting.com’s picture this week is both amorphous and scary.

We’ve been keeping rather busy these days. I’m still working on building up Grand Soirees and Whimsical Designs, as well as finishing up the planning for a wedding taking place in one month. Kevin and Grandpa Ly have been putting their time towards the nursery and baby proofing. Grandpa Ly found a new baby gate listed on Craigslist for $20.00 less than retail. Kevin and I dashed to Newport Beach to pick it up on Sunday. After Grandpa Ly did some chinchilla proofing on it, it now functions as both a Chino and Sophie gate.

Please excuse the mess beyond the gate, the former contents of Sophie’s nursery has been moved into the living room

The nursery is coming along nicely. After tearing up the carpeting, we discovered a little snafu. The foundation has cracked a bit since it was laid 7 years ago.

Luckily, Grandpa Ly has since filled in the cracks to protect Sophie from any gases that might seep up from the ground. Grandpa Ly then finished painting it pink (cursing it the entire time, of course). He considers any shade of pink, pepto-bismol pink. He would have preferred Salmon Toast. I chose to go with Poetic Princess. This is how it looks so far:

I was bummed because no one would let me paint :-( And I was rather looking forward to painting. Instead, I had to find a different outlet for my crafting urges. I decided to work a little magic on the packaging for the bridal shower I was attending. The bride is actually both a friend and a client. I ended up packaging her hostess gifts for each of her bridesmaids.

Then I decided to wrap her gift (a cake stand, and a box of baking recipes) into a faux-wedding cake. I then topped it with a peony cake topper (that doubles as a floral headband after you take it off).

As for Kevin, he’s busily researching and haggling for a new vehicle. Kevin has been driving the same Honda Civic since he was 16 years old and newly licensed. As many 16 year old boys would do when asked what kind of car he wanted, Kevin wanted a cool one. Thus, he chose a two door (sporty, but inconvenient), black (impossible to see at night), Honda Civic. With age, and a baby on the way, Kevin is thinking much safer these days. After test driving a few cars, and doing some research, Kevin is leaning towards the 2010 Toyota Camry in white.

Most of you are probably wondering what I think of this heat? I L-O-V-E, love it! I’ve always been the one who finds weather in the 70s cold, so this 90-100 degree weather has been welcomed with open arms. I must admit, the refuge available in our central air is one of the reasons that makes the heat so pleasant. I can get in my car, drive around and run errands in the hot weather. When I get home, it’s a nice cool temperature, perfect for a nap (if I took them).

Each week is passing more quickly than the last. It seriously feels like just yesterday that I wrote our last blog. We really need to get working on Sophie’s nursery. Luckily, a paint color has officially been chosen!

The color will appear differently on different screens, but to describe it, it’s a nice shade of light pink. Not very pastel-ey because it doesn’t really have the chalky look most people associate with Easter pastels. And the color isn’t such a bright or saturated pink that it comes off pepto bismol-ey.

We’ll also soon have the glider and ottoman. It was delivered to Babies R Us on Monday. We’ll be bringing it home by the end of the week. I’m planning on hitting up the Fabric District in Los Angeles to procure fabric for a slip cover. I’m thinking a nice cream color, accented with pink pillows.

Also in baby merchandise news, I thought I had an AWESOME deal on the Graco Quattro Tour Sport when I got it for $220! Well, lo and behold, this week, they mark it down even further. I had an errand that would be right near the Babies R Us, so brought along the receipt and asked for a price adjustment. Everything is just hunky dory.

As I sit here, rambling away, Sophie just gave me a few good swift kicks to remind me of the reason I’m actually writing this blog. This week’s baby bump feels quite a bit bigger to me this week. Check it out:

Actually, I think, to really see how much bigger my belly has become, we need to do a side-by-side comparison. The photo on the left is my baby bump at week 18, and the photo on the right is my baby bump at week 26.

As for Sophie, here’s a little photo provided by Babyzone.com. Kevin insisted that I had to switch out the photo from Parenting.com, as this week’s photo was beyond creepy.

Sophie, interestingly enough, currently has blue eyes. Despite of what her ethnicity is, all babies have blue eyes at 26 weeks. She’s now more than a foot long and weighs a good two pounds. I’m sure she’ll be coming out much more pleasantly plump.

Check out our blog later this week for a recap on my makeover. Drastic, by no means, but definitely necessary. I’ve had a nasty several months since getting pregnant. Between morning sickness and just plain illness, I haven’t been looking real hot. However, the last month has been a real hit to the morale. First, a nurse at urgent care asked me if I was Kevin’s mother! A few weeks later, my grandmother asked me why my armed was bruised. It wasn't bruised! It was just begging for a good waxing. Le sigh, it was obviously time to put myself back together. I’ve gotten a wax, a haircut, and replenished my supply of makeup and skincare products. I’m still waiting on the arrival of a few new makeup brushes, still need to have my face threaded and definitely need to procure some more maternity clothing (I currently own less than a dozen maternity items).

It has been a much calmer week. However, we did have an exciting day at Babies R Us last week. I got a heads up about a big one day sale at Babies R Us via theBump.com’s Orange County message board. When I spied that several items we had earmarked were going to be marked down I immediately text messaged Kevin to schedule a scouting trip. Thursday night we made our way out to Babies R Us and decided that there were 3 items we definitely wanted to get. There was a glider and ottoman set that was originally $550 marked down to $200. We had originally decided that the price made this particular glider out of the question. After all, what are we supposed to do with it after Sophie and her younger sibling grow up? But I was still quite smitten with the look of a large, squishy, non wood glider. The only problem with this glider is that it is navy blue. I wanted one in white or ivory to contrast with the pink we intend on painting the nursery. After we tried it out, and spoke to Grandma Ngo about slip covering it, we decided the glider was a go.

Rock-A-Bye Glider & Ottoman

The other large ticket item we were going to look into is the Graco Quattro Tour Deluxe Travel System. It is a travel stroller with a matching infant car seat. I consider it to be the Honda or Toyota of strollers. It has the second highest rating on Consumer Reports (second to a stroller that costs 3X as much and doesn’t come with a car seat) and is very moderately priced. We had originally chosen the Deco pattern, but the Diaz pattern was going on sale at $50 off the original price. Decent sales on Graco strollers rarely ever happen. We couldn’t even find this kind of price on Amazon. Our only concern was whether or not the car seat was going to be unisex enough. We had intended on purchasing all big ticket items as unisex items just in case the next baby is a boy. To our delight, upon examining the Diaz pattern, we decided that despite its blue coloring, the pattern was actually more feminine than the polka dots we had originally chosen. We also preferred the silver detailing on the stroller to the mocha colored detailing on the Deco pattern. Grandma & Grandpa Pang had already earmarked the stroller as their gift for the baby shower, but we picked it up for them.

Graco Quattro Tour Deluxe Travel System

And, for the tech geeks following this blog, we purchased the Exergen Temporal Artery Thermometer. It is the latest and greatest in thermometer technology, if there is such a thing. I know rectal thermometers are recommended for infants, and we will keep one on hand for confirmation, but I find the temporal artery thermometer much less demoralizing. A simple scan across the forehead and we get a temperature. Research has shown that the Exergen thermometer is as accurate as the rectal thermometer when used properly. I know the key words here are, “used properly”. It was a whopping 50% off and I have a rebate form for an additional $5 back.

Exergen Temporal Artery Thermometer

And for all of you stacking junkies out there (those who stack the savings, coupons, mark downs), we also opened up a Babies R Us Rewards R Us card. We’ll be collecting $5 for every $150 spent at Babies R Us.

As for the baby bump, I think I may be rounder this week, but it’s all beginning to blend together. Kevin and I are anxious to do a slideshow of every bump photo after Sophie comes. I think the increase in size will be much more noticeable then. For the time being, this will have to suffice:

As for Sophie, she’s now the size of an eggplant!

I’m sure you’re all as relieved as I am that this week’s photograph is a produce product from TheBump. Unfortunately, we’re back to Parenting.com blobs next week. This week, it may be possible to hear the baby’s heartbeat by putting an ear to my belly. Kevin tried this last week with no success. In fact, Sophie kicked him in the ear. Inside the womb, the formation of tiny capillaries is giving Sophie a healthy pink glow. She’s also soaking up antibodies, getting her immune system ready for life outside the womb. Her eyes are forming and she’ll soon perfect the blink-perfect for batting her freshly grown lashes. We’ll try to post again sometime this week. In the mean time, wish Grandpa Ly and Grandma Ngo a Happy 25th Anniversary! We’ll be taking them to dinner tomorrow night to celebrate.

It has been a medically interesting month for the Ly-Pang household. I’m even considering a medical recap post for the blog. My little medical drama began Thursday evening when I got an innocent little hankering for a snack. I decided on a croissant stuffed with a slice of warm ham, which wasn’t a wise or a healthy choice, but I was desperate and sleepy. Soon after, I could feel the heartburn set in, then nausea. I accounted both to the ham croissant. It was a terrible night as I hardly got a wink of sleep. At 6 in the morning, I got out of bed and tried, in vain, to pass my time by doing a little bit of work at the computer. Clearly, this wasn’t all that effective in my comatose and sleep deprived state. I decided that poking at Kevin was a much better solution. Really, I was attempting to rouse him from his sleeping beauty slumber. After all, misery loves company and I was truly miserable at that point. I spent an hour doing this, but with no luck and finally at 8 AM he woke up on his own.

One thing I hadn't mentioned previously regarding my lack of sleep that night was that his tossing and turning was half the reason. As he vacated the bed, I immediately jumped back in, hoping I’d now be able to get a few hours of blissful slumber. I did in fact sleep from 9 till 1 in the afternoon. Upon waking, the nausea was still with me. I began to feel achy all over. I started to suspect that last night had to do with more than just a croissant. As the afternoon wore on, I got achier and achier. Fortunately, I didn’t notice the pain to most of my body. Unfortunately, this was due to the fact that my shoulders and the back of my neck was now throbbing with pain. To give you an idea of how excruciating this pain was, let me give you an idea of how high my pain tolerance normally is. I don’t make a peep when I fall, I think bikini waxes aren’t notably painful and 2nd trimester leg cramps? I hardly wake up for them. I just stretch my leg and go right back to sleep. Friday afternoon, however, was a completely different kind of pain. It hurt like a leg cramp, but throbbed with achiness. Around 5 PM, I couldn’t deny that I was feeling warm, not scorching, but warm. I decided to take my temperature and found that I was running 100.5 Not too bad, but definitely not what you’d want while pregnant. I called the physician on call and was advised to take acetaminophen, and get plenty of fluids. I was also told that if the temperature got any higher, or the nausea turned to vomiting, I should report to labor and delivery and have lab work done. I was not a happy camper and I was too delirious to drive out and buy Tylenol. I decided that Kevin would be home soon enough and I would just try to nap until then. Little did I know that my short nap would last until 10 PM. I finally woke up because the achiness and the pain was really begin to throb with intensity and the sides of my jaw were now aching as well. I’m still not entirely sure if that had to do with the illness, or if I had been grinding my teeth while asleep and had triggered my TMJ. I took my temperature again and was now thankfully down to 100. Kevin decided to go get me Tylenol, just in case, and popsicles to try and up my fluid intake. At this point, I hadn’t eaten more than a pineapple ring since the croissant from the evening prior. I could barely even get sips of water down. The popsicles proved to be A-MAZING.

Kevin and I stayed up till midnight just trying to burn through time. He periodically massaged my shoulders and neck to relieve some of the pain. Honestly, no amount of massaging was going to get rid of the pain, but I just needed it bearable. Between midnight and 5 AM, I slept for 20-30 minutes at a time. I woke up each time the pain became severe enough to wake me up on its own. I would try to drink some water each time I woke up. Kevin was a complete dear and massaged me back to sleep every time I woke up. He also got me heat packs and cold packs in an attempt to assuage some of the pain. FINALLY, around 5 AM, I fell asleep for good. Kevin waited up until 6 AM just to make sure I was finally going to remain asleep. At 9 AM, I woke up and for the first time in 36 hours, I was hungry. Nay, I was STARVING. The fever had finally broken and I was astonishingly normal again! Never had I been as happy to be normal as I was Saturday morning. It took me 48 hours to fully recover, but I’m happy as a clam now. After all that drama and illness, I still don’t know what I had (other than the OB’s diagnosis that it was a virus).

On a happier note, Sophie is still kicking and well inside my tummy as you can see below:

Checking in with Parenting.com, we find that Baby Sophie is about 12 inches long and weighs a little over a pound. She has developed her sweet little face and her wee little ears. Apparently she can no longer do cartwheels and tumbles so we won’t be seeing her switch sides anymore. She is now more attuned to sounds outside the womb. If a loud noise disturbs her, she may be restless for hours. Apparently, it is possible to catch the sound of her heartbeat by putting your ear up to my stomach. Kevin decided to test this out today. He couldn’t catch her heartbeat, but while his ear was against my stomach, Sophie kicked him. :-)

And since we still don't have a cute fruit analogy picture from TheBump, we'll leave you with yet another creepy little photo from Parenting.com. This one is apparently supposed to show the baby's strengthening bone structure:

Yesterday, I had my monthly check-up with my OB in Newport Beach. I was informed that my next monthly check-up will be my last. From then on, I will be going in for visits bi-weekly. In the last month of pregnancy, I will be going weekly. This really is a relief for me, I’m always nervous until I hear her little heartbeat on the Doppler. Her little heartbeat is currently at 150 bpm. We went over my last ultrasound, which was generally good. My blood pressure is currently excellent and as for weight, I’m weighing in at 117. I go by the actual weight on the scale, but the doctor’s office always subtracts two pounds for clothing and shoes. We’re also excited to be scheduling another ultrasound to take place in two months. Kevin didn’t attend the last one, since it was only two weeks after our second ultrasound, but he’s excited to attend Sophie’s fourth. She’s going to be so big and cramped by then!

For all you eagle-eyed blog readers, we are indeed one day late with this post. I spent yesterday doing our taxes instead of writing up this blog post, but thankfully we’re now done.

This past week has flown by. I think my baby bump has gotten bigger, but it’s difficult for me to tell since I see it every day. It is definitely the roundest it has ever been. Baby Sophie has begun kicking up a storm! Most of the time, it’s just a soft tapping that only I can feel. However, occasionally -- usually after I’ve had a pastry or my weekly allotment of caffeine -- her kicks are much more intense and Kevin has been able to feel them with his hands. We like to imagine that she’s floating around in there like a little guppy.

Unfortunately, The Bump is now only updating monthly, so we won’t be seeing anymore fruit comparisons for 3-4 weeks. Luckily, I’ve tracked down a week-by-week breakdown of the average pregnancy via Parenting.com, which shows that Sophie now weighs a whole pound and measures between 11-12 inches. She’s busy kicking her feet and stretching her arms. She can even use her hands to feel her umbilical cord! Loud noises are now capable of startling her, making her heart thump and her arms flail. The creepy little photo below was also provided by Parenting.com.

In other news, we took our official tour of Hoag hospital (where I will be delivering Baby Sophie) on Sunday. The hospital was absolute perfection. We are brilliantly happy that we took the time to do our research before settling on an obstetrician and hospital. They even offer complimentary valet (free for guests too, so please take advantage of it if you come visit)! The hospital was clean, professional, and, as usual, odor free. On a previous visit, Great Grandma even commented that they don’t smell medicine-ey like other hospitals.

Hoag has streamlined the labor and delivery process by having moms pre-register prior to the big day. When I arrive at the hospital to deliver Sophie, I can skip the lines and head straight up to the fifth floor to the nurses’ station. They won’t have us fill out any more paper work until we’ve had a chance to settle into our labor, delivery and recovery room. Here's what the labor and delivery rooms look like:

We *love* the fact that there is a couch bed for Kevin in the room and that the room is fully equipped, thus enabling Sophie to stay with us the entire time. The icing on the cake is the fact that Hoag comes with free wi-fi internet access. Kevin and I are heavily dependent on the internet so this is a definite plus for us!

Two hours after delivery, we will be moved two floors up to the postpartum room where we’ll have a chance to recover for 24-48 hours and bond with Sophie. The LDR and Postpartum rooms are very similar, although the postpartum rooms are smaller and have a much more hotel aesthetic to them.

For more information, check out the photo tour on Hoag's website.

And last but not least, the biggest perks to delivering at Hoag? Filet mignon after delivery and a 75% chance of an ocean front view!