23 Weeks

I hit my 23 week mark yesterday and I can't believe my pregnancy is already half over. I feel like I just peed on a stick yesterday and yet, here I am, 5 months pregnant already. The great news is that I feel terrific (the only troubling aspects of pregnancy so far are the increased number of trips to the bathroom and the occasional leg cramp) and the baby is continuing to grow and weighs over a pound now. I feel him moving every day now, though somedays he's more active than others.

Before you get excited over the use of the pronoun "he," the frustrating news is that the doctor couldn't tell if our baby is a boy or a girl at our ultrasound last week. The baby's back was toward us and his legs were closed. Sometimes it looked like a girl (as in, there was nothing to see between the legs) and other times it looked like there was a bump (but that could have been the umbilical cord). Since the doctor also couldn't get a good look at the baby's four-chamber heart, he wanted us to go to a Korean hospital for a second ultrasound since they have better machinery that can get clearer pictures. The even more frustrating part is that I've spent the last week and a half jumping through all these hoops and calling 20 times a day just so that I can MAKE the appointment. Maybe tomorrow will be my breakthrough and I'll actually get to schedule an appointment. As of right now, I have no idea when I'll have another ultrasound or if we'll get to find out the sex of the baby (since I've heard various rumors that Korean doctors are not legally allowed to tell you).

I've been trying really hard not to be so frustrated or disappointed, but.......it's obviously not going so well.

UPDATE (Friday): I had my regular check-up today and went into the Tricare office at the hospital and was able to make my next ultrasound appointment. It's next Tuesday at some random Korean hospital so yaaaay!

But on to happier topics. Here's the bulging belly. I didn't think there was a lot of difference between now and 20 weeks but when I looked at the photographs back to back, I was amazed at the change.

And here's me with my other baby. Suyom's not really a fan of being held but I'm slowly wearing her down. Poor cat doesn't know what's coming. I think having a baby in the house is going to scare her quite a bit. But hopefully, she'll get over that too.

Cherry Blossoms

It's cherry blossom season in Asia. Many of our friends traveled all over Korea to attend cherry blossom festivals but David and I decided to have our own little festival right here in Seoul. We found a nice little street that was lined with trees and walked up and down it. It was really exciting. And festive. No seriously, cherry blossoms are gorgeous and they always make me smile every time I see a tree in all its pink glory.

That big building in the background is the War Museum. It's actually a fascinating museum. I just forgot to bring my camera when we went. I must bring it the next time I go.

There's something so sweet and ethereal about all those tiny pink blossoms. But David keeps wondering, "What's the point?" I mean, the blossoms only last for two, maybe three weeks and then they fall off and are replaced by leaves.

And it's a very good thing we went last week, because most of the trees have already lost their blossoms now. Still, it was gorgeous while it lasted.

Ticket to Ride

I keep ticket stubs. I don't know why I started to do it, but I've been doing it for quite some time now. I can't say I've kept all my ticket stubs, but the heart-shaped box I keep them in is positively overflowing with tickets. Feeling a bit nostalgic, I pulled out my ticket box the other night and started looking through its contents. It brought back so many memories.

Like seeing Titanic in 1998. This is the first ticket stub that I kept. I didn't particularly LOVE Titanic the way some people did but it did seem like a momentous occasion--it was THE movie to see--and I think that's why I kept the ticket around for so long. Eventually, I added many, many other tickets to the pile. The vast majority of my ticket stubs are for movies and it's fun to remember all the movies that I went and saw. I eventually started writing who I went and saw the movie with on the back of the ticket, but that's been a recent development.

If I hadn't kept all my movie stubs, I wouldn't know that I spent $53.25 to see Moulin Rouge eight times in the theatres. I was a little obsessed with that film. But I have never seen a movie more than twice in a theatre since then. (I miss the dollar theatre.) But there are more than just movie stubs in my box.

There are stubs for plays, like when my sister, cousin Kerrie, and I saw Les Miserables in London during our summer trip to France and England.

There are plane tickets to and from some of the exciting places I've visited. (I don't have a lot of my plane tickets because I often tend to lose them before I make it home to store them in my box. That, or they become the bookmark for whatever book I was reading at the time and then got tossed away.) But here are tickets to Taipei, Rome, Barcelona, and Seoul. Apparently, I fly through Atlanta a lot. (Mainly because I often fly Delta.)

There are tickets to buildings, historic houses, and museums. I like my matching tickets for the Empire State Building and Taipei 101. [Former] tallest buildings in the world unite!

There are tickets to document my shame, like the little *Nsync obsession I had back in my freshmen year of college. Let's not even discuss how much money I spent to see them in concert three times. (Once in San Diego, once in Salt Lake and once in Las Vegas.) The middle ticket--to see *Nsync perform at the Olympic Medals Ceremony during the Salt Lake Olympics in 2002--was actually free. That was one crazy night. Seriously. One of my best stories ever.

There are a whole slew of tickets to see some of my favorite bands. Of particular value to me is the ticket signed by Raine Maida, the lead singer of Our Lady Peace, my one-time favorite band. My best friend, Kara, and I drove up to the House of Blues on Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles (yeah, my parents were thrilled about that adventure) the summer we graduated from high school. We managed to work our way almost to the very front by the stage and at the end of the concert, some random people gave me their extra backstage pass. I ran into the backstage room, gushed over Raine Maida and the rest of the band like the teenage fangirl that I was and got them to sign our album covers and tickets. I was beyond elated.

There are tickets to more somber occasions, like attending a session of General Conference in the Conference Center for the first (and only) time. (I did go to one conference session in the old tabernacle before the Conference Center was built too.) That building is amazing and huge inside. My friend's parents had gotten tickets from their home ward in Connecticut and the seats were really close to the pulpit.

And then there are the tickets that remind me of sad events, like this ticket to Don Giovanni which I saw the night my dad called to tell me that my Aunt Fran had passed away. Sitting through a three hour opera after receiving that kind of news is no easy feat. But then again, I find sitting through a three hour opera under any circumstances to be a little difficult sometimes....(I've tried, but opera is just not really my thing.)

But then, there are those few special reminders of days of pure joy, like the nametags that David and I wore in order to be sealed and married in the San Diego temple.

In graduate school, I took a material culture class taught by the curator of medicine at the Smithsonian's Museum of American History. She was intensely fascinated with ephemera, those fleeting scraps of paper like tickets, pamphlets, broadsides, and posters, that were never meant to last. Most people would call them insignificant, just things to be thrown away when their purpose and timeliness have passed. But these ephemeral items have great value to the historical record--and to my personal life. Some of my tickets are crinkled or fading or falling apart and yet, I could never part with that heart-shaped box. That box contains more than just scraps of paper; it holds pocket-sized memories and the shape of my past.

Won and Me

I have a problem with won. I've lived in Korea for nearly 9 months now and the problem has only gotten worse, not better. Won looks like Monopoly money to me and therefore has absolutely no connection to real money to me. I think the reason it seems so unreal and unmoneylike to me is that the currency is so inflated. One thousand won is less than a dollar. (The current exchange rate puts W1,000 as equal to $0.85.) Ten thousand won is less than ten dollars. Normally, I'd hear a number like 10,000 and freak out, but here, it's nothing. And so it doesn't faze me to spend 60,000 won because it has no connection to the real American money behind it. I don't think, "I just spent $53" (which in reality, I did), but "60,000 won? That's it? I've still got 40,000 won left in my wallet. Maybe I can buy Park Place."

The other funny thing about won (as depicted above) is that despite their high currency, most Koreans don't use bills bigger than the 10,000 won. They finally just introduced a 50,000 won note but most of the banks still tend to only give out 10,000 notes. (Which gets a little ridiculous when your rent is over 3 million won a month. Luckily, we pay our rent in dollars and our real estate agent exchanges it for us but seriously? Can you imagine paying your $3,000 a month rent in 300 $10 bills?)

It's funny because some things in Korea are insanely expensive. I'll look at a price tag and my head wants to implode trying to compute how much 2,450,000 won would translate into American dollars. But there are other things in Korea that are insanely cheap but because the price tag still says "2,000 won," it still takes me a good little while to process that that's only $1.70.

Right now, it's strawberry season in Korea. The markets and produce trucks are lined with packages and package of strawberries--some small and overcrowded and others big and delicately packaged--and one of the markets near our house has been practically giving them away for free.

So Thursday night David and I bought 3 packages loaded full of fresh and juicy strawberries for 5,000 won. Yes, we spent $4.50 on the number of strawberries that would have cost us well over $12 in the States. So this weekend, we've enjoyed strawberry and nutella crepes, a strawberry and cream cheese tart, strawberry and blueberry smoothies, and pancakes with fresh strawberries. I think I need to go buy 12 more cases before the prices go back up.

Because right now, I'm really loving the won. And the strawberry induced heaven I'm currently inhabiting.

A Sad Tale of Sick Kitty Woe

Spring has finally come to the Korean peninsula and since David had today (Friday) off from work, I had hoped that we could finally get out and see some more sights in and around Seoul (since we've been mostly homebound since the winter set in). Instead, I spent the day with a sick cat.

We noticed on Wednesday night that Suyom seemed unusually lethargic and turned up her nose at her wet food so we decided to watch her on Thursday. She slept all day long (rotating between our bed, the couch and her cat bed) and refused to eat or drink water, which had us really concerned. She felt much warmer than usual and was uninterested in anything around her. I decided that I'd call the vet first thing Friday morning if she didn't seem any better in the morning. She spent the whole night sleeping next to me (normally she gets up and leaves halfway through the night) so I knew she was still not feeling well. I called the vet on base as soon as I got up. They had had a cancellation that morning and so I quickly got dressed, loaded Suyom into her cat carrier and set off directly for the vet's.

After waiting awhile, the vet determined that Suyom had a fever of 104 degrees (a cat's normal temperature is 102) which meant that Suyom had either an infection or inflammation but they couldn't be sure without a blood test. Unfortunately they couldn't do bloodwork at the vet clinic on base so I had to put Suyom back in her carrier, walk to a Korean vet clinic off base, cross two very busy intersections and attempt to have a conversation with the Korean vet about my cat's bowel movements in very bad English. They wrapped Suyom in a blanket and went to draw some blood but she was fighting and clawing her way out of there (don't blame the poor cat) so they clipped her poor claws. After wrapping her little leg with a bandage, Suyom and I had an hour to wait for the results to come back so I decided to head back to base to eat (since I needed all the won in my wallet to pay for the blood test). Just as I was about to enter the base, the Korean vet called to say that they needed MORE blood so I crossed back over the two busy intersections again and walked back to the vet clinic. (And I had so worn the wrong shoes.) Her meows this time were so pitiful and heartbreaking that I nearly started to cry. But she made it through and once safely ensconced back in her carrier, we set off again for the base.

By this time, it was 11:30a.m. and I had yet to eat anything. I was one very unhappy pregnant woman, carting around one very unhappy and picked-on cat. We made it back to base and I had just enough time to eat before I got a call saying the blood results were ready to be picked up and so I walked back to the clinic, crossed two very busy intersections with my abused cat and picked up the results and paid them 90,000 won for the privilege. (And more Korean/English language barrier fun ensued when I asked for a receipt.)

It was nearing one o'clock by the time I got back to the vet on base. But the vet was pleased that the blood work showed that there was no infection in Suyom's kidneys or liver and that it was probably just inflammation. But since Suyom hadn't had any water in at least 24 hours, they wanted to give her an I.V. to pump her up with fluids before sending her back home which would take about an hour.

I went home, picked up David and we headed back to the clinic at 2:30 to retrieve our poor cat. The vet had shaved one of Suyom's arms in order to put in an I.V. but the vessel was blown (from the blood taking) so they shaved the other arm, but that vessel wasn't viable either so they waited for us to get back to show us how to inject fluids under her skin ourselves and to administer her antibiotics. So, for the next three days, David and I get to stick needles into our cat and pump her full of fluids and for the next 2 weeks, we get to force-feed banana flavored antibiotics down her throat. It should be fun. If my arms aren't scratched to pieces by the end of the weekend, I'll be very pleased indeed.


Though she looks rather pathetic here, she is doing a lot better now. I just hope she won't hate us forever for all the trauma we put her through today. It can't be any worse than carting her halfway around the world with us. And she's (mostly) forgiven us for that.

Baby Bump

Ever since that home pregnancy test showed me a plus-sign back in December, I've been anxiously awaiting the day when I would look and feel pregnant. Oh sure, the nausea was a good indication that something was up and seeing the first ultrasound at 12 weeks was nothing short of awesome, but it's sometimes all too surprisingly easy to forget--or simply to doubt--that I'm really pregnant. Every week since the first trimester ended, I've been encouraging Baby to grow so that I could have a little belly to show off. I didn't take any photographs before since it really didn't seem like there was anything there worth showing. (Plus, I find the whole photograph-my-belly-at-every-week thing to be a little silly, and yet, I want documentation. I swear I've lost half my sanity since getting pregnant.) I finally broke down and made David take some photos of me this week. (I felt really stupid. I will probably continue to feel stupid, but I will also probably continue to take photographs every few weeks to chart my growing baby bump.)

So here I am at 19 weeks. (Though according to the OB-GYN, I'm at 20 weeks since they bumped up the due date.) I know it's a little difficult to tell that there is a baby bump there because my breasts have also decided that now would be a fun time to become INSANE. I'm seriously working my way into bra sizes I never knew existed and are impossible to find. I ordered new bras about 3 weeks ago and they still haven't arrived and my old bras can barely contain the surplus. (David, of course, sees nothing wrong with this situation.)

I'm starting to feel flutterings of movement more and more (though it happens so quick and so suddenly that I always question whether it was really the baby or not) and I know David is super anxious for Baby to start kicking and moving so he can feel him too. In two weeks, we finally get to have our ultrasound to find out if Baby really is the boy we're convinced that he is.*

I'm curious......does anyone think I'm going to have a girl?

* For the record, David and I will be happy with a boy or a girl. We just want a healthy baby. But we both just feel that this baby is a boy. And we will both feel like idiots if we are wrong. But we won't be. I hope....

Projects!

I'm happy to report that several of my baby projects are coming along. I finished the blocks for my baby quilt tonight. I've got to sew all the blocks together and then sew on the border and backing but it's fun to see that I'm making progress, especially since I've never taken on such a large project before. (There were probably be many more quilts in my future. I really enjoy doing it.)

Of course, I've rearranged all the blocks a million times and I even re-did several blocks just to have a better selection of fabrics. Even now, looking at this photograph, I want to change about 3 blocks but I have to restrain myself and let it be. Otherwise, I'll never finish this project. Hopefully I'll be showing off the finished product soon.

A few weeks ago, my friend Amanda showed this cute animal hat idea to our knitting group. Since I needed a new knitting project--and since I already had a skein of the perfect tan yarn in my knitting basket--I decided to do it. I started knitting the hat in the round and by the end of the week, I was nearly done. But, as I was transferring my hat from the circular needles to sticks (which you need to do when you have less stitches to work with as you decrease at the top), I dropped a few stitches and couldn't figure out how to fix them. I decided to wait until our next knitting group to have Kathryn, the knitting goddess, fix the mess I had made. But as my luck would have it, sicknesses and cancellations and other events got in the way, and we didn't have any of our weekly knitting group get-togethers during March.

Today we had our knitting group (which often seconds as a group therapy session for all us crazy displaced military wives) and Kathryn was finally able to fix my hat so I could finish making the bear on top. I think it turned out pretty cute.

Here's a monkey (which my mom just sent me) modeling the cute bear hat.

And here's a closer view. It's a little silly but also ridiculously cute. I just hope it'll fit my little baby so I can admire my handiwork more. It's always nice to finish one project of the many I want to do!