soooo, this is my last week of my 2nd trimester! i'm getting more tired during the day. don't know why but really need a nap...

anyway, i started doing some prenatal exercise. last thursday, i went to the hospital and took the aqua class. it was not just for preggers. so the class was a high intensity one. i didn't follow quite as hard. i just took it easy. it's nice to be in the water. it's a heated pool so it's nice and warm. and that's also why i didn't work too hard cuz i didn't want to overheat my body. it's a 50 min. class. even though it's not vigorous, i'm sure it's good for my body to have some light exercise. tonight, i might go to a pregnancy center for a prenatal yoga class. this center is right down the street from my work, so it's convenient. i think i need to do some stretching since my muscles are quite stiff... will see if i still got energy to do this after work.

tomorrow  night, we have an appt to tour the hospital which i'll deliver my baby. then thursday morning, i'm planning to take the glucose test! i have been postponing this test... i worry that i won't pass so i am trying to eat less sugar these few days... hopefully, everything will be fine...

baby has been moving alot! during our babymoon, i "saw " him move! well, i was just watching my belly and one side of it got bigger by his punch! so cute. then i told my hubby and the next day, he saw it too. it's so funny. after we got back from our babymoon, my baby started moving a lot more and gave me many "belly-dancing" shows!!  before, he would just kinda tap on my belly. the movements were usually quick and sudden. for the past week, he likes to move slowly but firmly. we would place our hands on my belly and he would push against our hands slowly from one end to the other! sooo cute. we can feel that he's a lot bigger now since when he moves, we can feel him not in just 1 spot but in a pretty big surface area of my belly!! my belly has still not grown too big but as long as he is bigger, that's all it matters.

last night, my hubby started moving around some clothes and dressers. since our new extra closet in our bedroom is all ready for use, we are trying to transfer all the clothes from the nursery's closet out to other closets in the house, so baby will have his own closet! :)

we have been back from Mexico since Monday night (4/14/). but i was quite lazy to update my blog.... i guess i was still in my vacation mode this week! :P that’s the problem with going on a short trip. during last week, i was daydreaming about going to Mexico since last Monday. this week, i have been thinking and missing about my trip! so going away for 4 days actually means my mind was away for 2 whole weeks! :P

anyway, we had a great babymoon. it was much needed and we enjoyed every moment of it! here is the recap by categories:

hotel: we stayed at Villa Premiere Hotel & Spa in downtown, Puerto Vallarta. it was a 4.5 star hotel!! well, we usually don't stay in these kind of upscale hotels. when it comes to traveling, accommodations is the least important on our list. we don't like to spend tons of money on rooms when we are usually out all day and night and just need a place to crash. but this time, we deliberately booked an upscale hotel since i'm pregnant. pregnancy has given me many sleepless nights. sleeping in a foreign bed usually is an adjustment for me to begin with. so to make sure that i have a good sleep, i opted for a higher class hotel. and was i right in making that decision! once we got to the reception for ck-in, we were asked what kind of scent we want in our room!! we selected the eucalyptus one. i believe it was for relaxation. then we were given a "pillow menu"!! it has all kinds of pillows with different softness. we both wanted the orthopedic - the firm one, kind of like the memory foam ones. and indeed, they were very comfy. when i travel, i usually use my own travel pillow (the one for the neck) during nights. but this time, i could sleep deep with the orthopedic pillow as well as in the firm bed! :) the room was very nice and clean. a set of bathrobes and slippers were there for our use. we got an ocean-view room overlooking both the swimming pools and the Banderas Bay.

amenities: we went to the pool both Sat & Sun. it was not a huge pool but enough for me to float around and even do some lap swims from time to time. the people mostly like to sunbath by the pool instead of swim. there were some floaters which allow me to sunbath my back. besides the large pool, there was a smaller one which has a swim-up bar. we did order some snacks during the afternoons. it's nice to snack while being in the pool! what impressed us were the beach-beds by the pool. there were 2 of them in a hut. those were the swinging kind. there was also one without the shades. then there were 4 more on the beach along with some beach chairs. we arrived late on sat and all the beds were taken, so we sunbathed in the beach chairs on the beach. it's nice to be on the beach but those local sellers were too annoying. ever 3 minutes, they came up and asked us to buy things from them. so after an hour or so, we went back to the pool area. the next day, we got there early and got one of the swinging beds in the hut! it was one of the highlight of our trip. resting in a beach bed by the pool!

food: we didn't go for "all-inclusive" from the hotel since it costs $140 per night extra. we didn't think we could spend that much on eating. and since the hotel was located in downtown, it was not a problem to find good restaurants. since PV is a touristy city, there were many fine restaurants around. most of the ones we chose were not 4 stars, but maybe 3 stars. we didn't want fine-dining but to have some authentic mexican food! so we tried burrito, fajitas, taco, enchiladas, ceviche. the only non-mexican food we had was tapas (Spanish). all in all, we enjoyed the food. they were good but didn't really blow us away. i guess the mexican food in the bay area is very authentic already and the ones in PV were not any different. the only thing that's better are the beans and rice in PV. we usually don't eat the beans here, but the beans there were tastier. :) but then again, the mexican food here are good enough to satisfy our palate. so the night after we came back, we went to our local Taqueria for some burrito and quesadilla.  besides that, i had Taco Bell for lunch 2 days in a row since PV doesn't have these kind of hard shell tacos and i was craving for it!  :)

sight-seeing: the only thing we did was to stroll along the Malecon (boardway) after dinner nightly. it's a nice walk and good place to view the sunset. we did walk alot during the trip since it takes about 10-15 min to walk to downtown from our hotel and the Malecon is about 30min or so long for walking. so i probably walk an hour or more each day. since my belly has grown much, i can't walk too long nor fast without getting some round ligament pain. my hubby is a fast-walker. so every now and then, i had to remind him that he is with a pregger. then he would slow down... but in about 10 min. or so, his pace picked up naturally and i would have to drag him down! :)

so that's mostly what we did during our trip: sunbath/swim, eat, and walk! :) our hotel didn't have any entertainment. so at night, we stayed in our room and played the games we brought: Dominoes, Mancala and Monopoly. after our games, we would go out to the nearby convenient store for ice-cream bars! :) the weather was very nice when we were there. daytime was warm but not super hot. night-time was warm enough to wear short-sleeves... and yes, to have some ice-cream bars!

it was a great trip for us to have before the baby is born. besides being a babymoon, it was also our 11th yr dating anniversary! this yr is quite special since the days are the same as 11 yrs ago. so the date my hubby asked me out is once again on a saturday as it was 11 yrs ago! we did reminisce the days lead up to the big day and the actual special day! it was fun and sweet to talk about the old days. actually, the week before we went on our trip, we went back to Berkeley, our school, and had dinner at the same restaurant my hubby asked me out. :) that night, i asked my hubby if he can believe that i'm pregnant with his child 11 yrs after. he said he's not too surprise about that, but he just can't believe that it was 11 yrs ago when he asked me out. i agreed. even though we've been through alot during these yrs, it still seems like yesterday when we were in school. we both haven't changed much. (well, besides the 20-30lbs we've gained!) :P but we still feel the same way. i guess we will feel different when the baby comes. we'll enter into a different phase of our lives -- parenthood! it's quite daunting to think about that. it consists of so much responsibility. but it will be something that we'll embrace, enjoy and experience together. only 3 more months, can't wait to get on this new journey! :)

ok, i lied. i decided to write about my ck-up now instead of after our babymoon next week since i still have those numbers fresh in my mind... and just in case i have pregnancy brain, you know! :) with our vacation around the corner, part of my mind is actually in Mexico already!! :P

well, we had to wait for about 30 min for the dr to arrive since she was in delivery this morning. the ck-up was quick as usual. and here are the numbers:

weight: gained 5lb since last visit which was 5 weeks ago. so right on target, 1 lb per week! as of now, i gained about a total of 12-13lb!

measurement of the uterus: 25cm... once again, right on target since i'm 25 weeks now. the length (cm) should = the number of weeks

baby's heartbeat: 163rpm... nice and strong... so cute...

next visit will be in 4 weeks (5/7). i will be starting the rotation with other Dr. in the clinic next time. and after next visit, i'll have to go in for ck-up every 2 weeks. can't believe i'm almost in my 3rd trimester!! i'm sure the next few months will go by fast since all our weekends are filled up with classes and friend's baby showers! we have already signed up on the Lamaze class which will be at the end of May and early June. we are thinking about other classes like taking care of newborns and safety classes...etc.

i asked about the liquid in our baby's kidney and my dr. suggested me to wait til the baby is born to do anything. and she added that it's common for that to happen and it's not anything that we should be alarmed. so no more ultrasound will be done now til labor...

i also asked about maternity leaves, and my dr. said 4 weeks before and 6 weeks after. i'm definitely going to take 4 weeks off before my due date. so it'll be around 6/24... since my last ultrasound shows that my due date should be around 7/20... my dr. is going to stick with the original due date 7/22. so i'm going to change the due date here on the blog...

my bloatedness is gone! i think my body was getting adjusted to my growing belly pushing up my stomach. the bloatedness lasted for a week. but during the past weekend, i regained my appetite and ate more than usual. hope this good appetite of mine will continue for this weekend's babymoon trip at Mexico! :) since i get tired easily now from just walking, we are planning to just lounge out by the pool/ beach and eat most of the time there. so a good appepite is a must for this trip! :)

over the weekend, we started our registry at Babies R Us. hmm, i must say it was not all that exciting for me. since my hubby is the designated researcher for all the baby gears, i'm so ignorant about all the differences from one stroller to another. and since i'm not a big fan of shopping to begin with, shopping for baby gears is all the more foreign to me... so after about 10 min of checking out the gears... i had to sit down and rest cuz i was quite bored! :P the most fun i had was to pick out the nursery theme. right after we found out it's a boy, i knew that i'm not gonna go for those boyish theme (cars, balls...etc). i wanted something with stars and moon. since i enjoy looking at the glowing stars up on the ceiling in my room, i'm sure my little baby will enjoy being surrounded by stars and moon in his nursery. :) so the theme i picked out was "Goodnight Star". the color of the wall is already yellow in the nursery and the crib and furniture will be of lighter color than the picture shown here. anyway, this time, we only scanned a few items. but my hubby has been reading up on the book "baby bargain" to prepare for some more serious scanning for our baby! :) hope it'll be more exciting next time! :)

just announced my pregnancy during my lab mtg and a few co-workers who just found out were shocked to know that i'm already 6 months pregnant! i guess my growing belly is not all that big after all.... i probably could have hid it for another month! :P

we'll be leaving for Puerto Vallarta, Mexico this Friday and will be there til Monday... we are very excited about the trip. over the weekend, we borrowed our friends', K & R, straw hats! last night, we went to look for some board games so we can play there. we are ready to enjoy our last trip alone together before our baby's arrival! :)

tomorrow morning, we'll be going to my monthly dr. visit.... so i'll write more about the ck-up maybe after our babymoon! Hasta luego! :)