i'm half way done with this pregnancy! yeh!! yet, i still don't look pregnant really. most people at work still don't know that i'm pregnant. i usually wear sweatshirts to work. and with my lab coat on, no one has approached me inquiring my growing belly! :) i've gained about 6-7lb so far. not sure if that's enough or not. will ck with my dr. next week. next thursday will be the big day for knowing the gender of our baby.... so so excited!!

last week, we were suppposed to be in Europe (London/Paris). we canceled our trip shortly after finding out about my pregnancy. eventhough it's safe and the best time to travel during second trimester, i didn't want to travel there since it'll be too cold for me. plus knowing us, we would most likely have a packed schedule and would be more tired than before our vacation. also, i wouldn't be able to enjoy the food in Paris since i can't have foie gras, wine, cheese... and it's a hassle to check and make sure that the food doesn't have certain kind of cheese or high mercury fish or wine...so we canceled our trip. but now, i'm longing for a get-away. i guess i really want to have our babymoon so we can enjoy our last trip alone before having a baby. so we have been thinking about going to Vancouver... a little closer and a little familiar to us... will decide after our next dr. visit next week.

we bought a new car!! it's a Toyota Rav 4. it's been hard for me getting in and out of my tiny corolla. and since we'll need an SUV for the baby eventually, we decided to get it earlier. it's been sooooooo nice driving this car! it's soooo roomy and it has so much power. i just love it! :)

baby is doing great. he/she has been very active. i can feel the movement everyday. and it moves alot after eating!! so cute... i have been enjoying feeling the baby moving in me alot. second trimester is really the best!! :P

we have been anticipating our baby's first movement for a few weeks. after our dr appt 2 weeks ago, we were disappointed to learn that i won't be feeling any movement by my baby until i'm 20 weeks pregnant. so i thought we had to wait for another month. but since i know that 20 weeks is just the average number, i am always on an alert  to notice his/her first movement.

2 days ago (2/17) i was lying down in bed in the living room while watching an on-demand video about prenatal classes. it was about 11:30pm, right after my second dinner. i put my hand on my belly as usual just in case my baby wants to greet me! i thought i felt a couple of movements in there. i wasn't sure if it was gas bubbles or not. so i told my hubby and he put his hand on my belly for the next few minutes. i read from a pregnancy website that  i can try pushing on my lower ab and the baby might respond with a kick or a punch! so that's what we did!... there were a few "not-so-sure" movements. but then there was one that we just looked at each other after the "pretty-sure" movement!! in the inside, it felt like something was turning in my tummy. on the outside, my hubby said it felt like a tap on his hand! it's so fun to feel our baby together for the first time! after that, i felt it on and off. sometimes very faint, on the outside, it feels like a pulse to me. but there was one time that he/she kicked me hard that i was so sure that it was my baby kicking and not gas! :)

for the past week, my belly has been finally growing BIG! it seems like it grew overnight. last thursday, my hubby came to have lunch with me since it's valentine's day. when he saw me, he said "how come your belly is so big??? "  like he hasn't seen me for a long time! i looked down and was surprised to see that indeed my belly was way bigger than a day ago!! i haven't been eating any differently. but my weight has increased day by day! :) will post up the updated profile in the album here soon!

we had our 3rd dr. visit on Wed. (2/6). it was a normal ck-up. we heard our baby's heartbeat again! :) it was beating strong and powerful at 156 bmp!! it's so wonderful to hear his/her heartbeat. i wish i could listen to it all day.

during the visit, the dr. asked me about my bleeding/spotting. i told her that i still have it on and off. she informed me that there's nothing we can do now but to monitor it and take it easy by not doing anything active. if i stop spotting for a longer period of time, maybe i can resume some activities which i'm preventing now like prolonged walking. and during next ultrasound we can ck the blood clot and hope that it all came out or dissolved.

originally, i scheduled my u/s for 2/25. but we were disappointed to know that my dr. doesn't go with the u/s due date. from the u/s last time, my due date was changed from 7/23 to 7/16. i was happy that i am a week ahead. but the dr said she is sticking to the original due date. :( i told her that i usually have a shorter cycle. so she now predicts the due date is 7/22. and she wants me to do my 20week ultrasound no earlier than 3/6. :( so we had to reschedule the u/s appt to 3/6. so 1 more month before we know the gender of our baby for sure. :(

during the visit, i was weighed and surprised to see that the number was the same as last month's!  maybe i wore less clothes this time. according to my home scale, it led me to believe that i gained 2lb over the last month. so overall, a total of 3lb weight gain from pre-pregnancy. still i thought i should gain more like 1lb a week since 2nd trimester. i asked my dr and she said it's ok not to gain weight. she said i'll gain weight when i do. i guess i don't mind to not gain too much baby fat. but my hubby always worries that i'm not gaining enough weight!

i asked the dr. about sleeping position and she said i can sleep however i want now until the 7th month when i should tilt my body a little and not sleep on my back. she said just put a pillow on one cheek is fine... i hope i did not waste too much money on my snoogle pillow since it's already getting a little flat for my head and i need to put a towel underneath. but other than that, i still enjoy the back and leg support.

on tuesday, the ultrasound clinic called and said that the first and second trimester blood test result for detecting birth defects came back. everything is normal and negative. :) we are so relieved and thankful for the good result! :)

i had a great b-day last Friday... mostly becuz i can finally eat w/o my "all-day sickness" and vomiting!! :)

actually we didn't do much... both me and my hubby took a day off. slept in until 11:30am!!! didn't get to the city til 1:30pm. we had lunch at an Indonesian restaurant that my friend recommended. it was quite good. but i didn't stuff myself cuz it was a late lunch and i wanted to save room for dinner which was only a few hours later. after lunch we went to have my earring removed. i had the piercing done half a year ago. due to my laziness in keeping up with the cleaning, it's still painful and has accumulated lots of dead skin. since i have to start sleeping on my sides, i want to have this earring removed so then i can alternate sides during my sleep. so i gave up on my piercing... :(

afterward, we went to the mall to look for some maternity pants... my first pair!! actually, i can still fit into most of my pants, but when i sit down, it's still uncomfy since my belly is starting to grow. so we were at Motherhood for almost an hour trying out maternity pants. i got one that's new and it's called the Secret Fit Belly. i highly recommend this!!! it's so comfy and they said it can last the whole 9 months!!

after that we went to the nearby Babies R Us shopping for a pillow. i have been having extreme back/shoulder/ neck pain last week. i guess i'm not used to sleeping on my sides and i need some more support for my neck and spine. we got the Snoogle one. it's quite expensive but it was worth the price since my pain went away after i used it. :)

as for dinner, we went to a Tapas restaurant in the city called Andalu. we ordered 5 small plates plus a dessert. it was plenty for the 2 of us and the food was very yummy!!  i'm sure i'll go back to this restaurant after i have the baby since there were some dishes i wanted to order but they were not pregnant-lady friendly - seabass, ahi tuna, carpaccio...etc... ok,  6 more months to go... i'll be patient! :)

sat. night, our friends took us out to have fondue at Melting Pot nearby our house... i love fondue and we went to this restaurant at a further location last year for my b-day as well. this yr, they opened one right in our neighboorhood!! so it was nice to not having drive too far. food was awesome as always... but we were a little disappointed to learn that all the cheese fondue had wine in them. but the waiter said that the alcohol content get burned off during cooking and it should be ok. i had a few bites with bread, veggie and apple. it was soooo good. but still i was being cautious so i didn't eat too much. but i just checked some website and people said it's ok to eat food that's cooked in alcohol...hmm, i should've eaten more... :(

i wore the new maternity pants for dinner on sat. it was so comfy that i didn't feel that full even after eating like a cow!!! our friends joked that these pants should be called "buffet-pants" which we can use when we go have buffet or big feasts!!! :P

all in all, i enjoyed a lot of the food this weekend!!! :) i'm sooo happy that i can finally eat now after 2 months of "all-day sickness"...but i guess i stood/walked too much on Friday while shopping that my bleeding came back sat morning. the spotting was gone for 2 days and then the blood-clot like thing came back in my first morning pee on sat morning... i guess i really need to rest as much as i can and restrain from even long walking and standing...

this wed, we'll take the second bloodtest for the integrated screening...then next wed, we'll have our monthly dr. visit.. hope the report will be out by then.