7 weeks!

My husband has been getting on my case about not keeping the blog up-to-date, so I'm doing my best to get some posts done while the babe is asleep. :)

I am starting a countdown...or I guess it's a count-...up (?) no longer of the pregnancy, but of Alicia! Our little girl is 7 weeks now and she has grown SO much! Her little cheeks aren't so little anymore, she is smiling everyday and we are starting to see a little bit of personality shine through. She has certain traits of both Jake and me.

Some of the cute:

• she has Jake's side smirk
• she always sneezes twice like me

Some of the not-so-cute:

• she can fart as loud as and sometimes louder than Jake
• she's perfectly fine without going #2 for several days like... :)

Some of her most note-worthy moments thus far in her 7 weeks of existence post-womb:

• she slept for 6 straight hours for the first time a few days ago!
• she pooped so much one time that we got 4 diapers dirty while trying to change her because apparently she wasn't done yet!
• she's starting to babble and from the sounds of it, she'll be a yapper like her dad!
• her hair is sticking straight up like mine when i was a baby

Just to give you a little taste of what this cutie pie looks like, here are some pics to enjoy!

Introducing...!!!

I know, I have been such a horrible blogger this past month, but better late than never...introducing:

ALICIA JOOYOUNG TADEMA

October 27, 2008

7 pounds

19 inches

* Full head of hair*

I started a post about the whole labor and delivery, but I think I will post a link to the full narrative in a future blog as it has gotten very long, so if you are really interested, you can click and read about it later. :)

Our precious little one has been with us for almost 1 month now and she is the greatest joy I have ever experienced! Her little noises, her whimpers, melt my heart and I would pay money to see the little smiles she cracks randomly when she's falling asleep and waking up. This past month has been very good. Allie has been typically sleeping about 3 hours at a time which we hear for newborns, is really good. We are very blessed!

And since I just can't get enough of my girl, here are some more pics! :)

Contractions

It looks like this baby will be coming sooner than people thought. It all started Friday night. I was waking up every hour to go pee. When I woke up at 6:15am on Saturday, I was having contractions, but they weren't bad. The contractions were coming about every hour pretty consistently until about 5pm. They started getting closer to about 30 minutes apart. Around 8pm, they were 20 minutes apart. At this point, they were still not that bad. It's now 4:40am on Sunday, October 26th, and the contractions are pretty painful. I think that I have a pretty high threshold of pain, but during that 1 minute or so that the contraction lasts, I feel like I can't breathe and my stomach is contracting like a REALLY bad menstrual cramp. Since we don't know if we'll make it to 40 weeks, here is a picture of me (in between contractions, of course!) at 39 weeks and 5 days. :)

More Prego Pics!

So Jake FINALLY took some pics of me. We were on our way to a wedding and since I was dressed up, he whipped out the camera. The background is a little ghetto because it's outside our apt, but he did a good job of making sure you can't see the road and parking stalls! :)

Pregnancy Pics!

So I've been bugging Jake to take some pictures of me while I'm prego...why i want to document pictures of me while I am the size of a beached whale, I don't know, but something about it makes me feel like I'll miss it once my bump is gone. Anyway, over the weekend my Gran Big Sis, Tiffany, offered to take pics of the two of us! She did my makeup beforehand because I'm completely clueless when it comes to makeup. We had so much fun with Tiffany and Jared - and she is GREAT w/ the camera! Take a look! :)

Jake likes to talk to my belly and tell the baby, "Come out, come out whatever you are!" I guess we'll find out soon enough when this little one decides to finally make its debut! T - 6 days!

Check out more pics here: http://styleishphoto.blogspot.com/2008/10/jen-jake-and-jens-bump.html

38 Week Appointment

We went in for our 38 week appointment today (by now, we are going to weekly appointments) and to my disappointment, the doctor didn't have anything interesting to tell us. I was hoping that she would tell me that I was dilated, that she felt I would deliver early, SOMETHING, but all she said was "baby's heartrate is good, LOUD. Blood pressure is good. I think you will probably go past your due date." That was exactly what I did NOT want to hear. Oh well...I guess Jooyoung is pretty comfy right where he/she is. He/she is head down right now with his/her bum on my left and limbs on my right. If you look at the video I posted a while back, that protruding is from the butt. :)

Now I am on a mission. I will eat all spicy foods, walk a ton, take Evening Primrose Oil and partake in "relations" (as we now like to call it!) to try to get this baby out! If anyone has any other self-inducing tactics, please let me know!!!

38 Weeks!

I am officially considered "Full-Term." At 38 weeks, it's just a waiting game at this point. Every night, Jake talks to my belly and says "Come out, come out, whatever you are!" The anticipation of not knowing the gender of little Jooyoung is starting to get to him and he says never again will we wait to find out. :) At least we're only a couple weeks away from knowing! My belly has definitely popped out in the last week or so (sorry for the lack of 36 and 37 week pics!) and I'm definitely starting to feel like my body is preparing to deliver this baby. I've been more tired lately, so have been trying to get as much sleep as I can as I've heard that once the baby is here, it's a completely different story.

Since we have been in town for the past several weeks, we've been trying to do things that we normally don't have time for...like clean. We've got the bassinet set up and washed a bunch of baby clothes, blankets and burp cloths. Last weekend, we went to the pumpkin patch (silly us forgot our camera!) to pick out 3 pumpkins...one for mommy, one for daddy and one for Jooyoung. We have decided to make this an annual tradition - I'll post pics once we carve them. Then we went to the outlets. They were having a huge Columbus Day sale, so we bought a bunch of boys AND girls clothes thinking we'll return whatever we end up not using.

We have another appointment today, so I'll update again if there is any progress (hopefully there is!). 'Til then, here are some 38 week pics! Enjoy! :)

Early or Late, a Doctor's Response

As with any expectant parent, once you hit the one month mark of your due date, you start to wonder when the elusive baby will finally arrive. You start to wonder if it will be early or late and if you'll be ready. This was the question we asked our radiologist, but I will first begin with why we were in to see him in the first place.

After our regular 35 week appointment, our OB said that I was measuring on the small side. This worried her a bit, so she tried to get us in to see the radiologist for an unscheduled ultrasound. Unfortunately, it being late afternoon on Friday, the office was closed for the day (weekend). Our OB had me do a Non-Stress Test which tests two things: 1) contractions and 2) baby's heartrate. I was hooked up to the Non-Stress Test machine for 20 minutes, eating crackers and juice to make the baby more responsive and clicking a button every time I felt movement from the baby. After 20 minutes of this, the results came out normal (which normal means that the baby's heartrate will rise and fall between 130 and 160 bpm consistently and fairly rhythymically) which meant I didn't have to go into the ER. I scheduled our ultrasound for the following Tuesday to see the radiologist. We had some more pictures taken, measurements done and the doctor said the baby looked good. It measured in the 14th percentile of all babies which is small, but taking my size into consideration, the baby was right on track - what a relief!

SO - after all this, I asked the radiologist, "After looking at all of this and doing these measurements and tests, do you have any inkling of whether the baby will be early or late?" (Of course what I was asking was if he thought it would be before our due date of 10/28 or after) Here is the doctor's response - and of course this would have only come from a doctor. "Well, anywhere between 37 and 42 weeks is considered full term. You're 36 weeks now, so I don't think you will be early since there are only a few more days left of 36 weeks. I think you'll be right on time"

UMM...thank you, doctor, for giving me a 5 week window! haha! Oh well, I guess it's still a guessing game of when Jooyoung decides to join us! :)

Baby Shower!

On September 13, my sister threw me a wonderful baby shower! From the handmade invitations to the carefully crafted diaper cake, it was everything I could have imagined and more. I feel really lucky that Jooyoung will have such a great auntie that will love him/her in countless ways. Here are some pics from the shower for those that weren't able to make it!

Here is the diaper cake that my sister made...pretty creative, huh? She took newborn diapers to create the "layers" and used yellow tulle to hold each layer together. The cake topper was made of 3 stuffed animals. :)

Here is a pic of me and my cousin, Candice. She was about 5 weeks ahead of me - due September 21st. She just recently gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Harley Clem. Born September 24th at 3:06am, Harley weighed in at 8 lbs, 3 oz and was 22" long. When Jake and I went to visit, Harley made the cutest little whimpering noise...can't even say it was a cry. Made us realize how precious a newborn is and how soon our little one will be arriving! Jooyoung can't wait to meet you, cousin Harley! Congratulations, Candice and John!

Here are the mini cupcakes my sister ordered from www.trophycupcakes.com. I must say, they were the cutest cupcakes in the world and they tasted as good as they looked... absolutely delish! Cafe Latte, Vanilla, Luscious Lemon and Red Velvet...yum!

And of course, my sister, Michelle, who made it all happen! She's the best sister anyone could ever ask for and I know she'll be the best auntie to little Jooyoung! Thank you unnie for everything!

Thank you to everyone that came out to my shower to help me celebrate the long awaited arrival of our little boy or girl! You all were so generous and I am lucky to have friends like you that I know will care and love this baby! Thanks! :)

Baby on the Move!

A baby is an amazing thing. I don't think that any pregnant woman can fully explain the feelings that go through her the first time she finds out she's pregnant...the first time she hears that heartbeat...the first time she feels that little flutter...the first time those little flutters turn into full on jabs!

I signed up for these weekly updates on http://www.babycenter.com/ when I became pregnant. It tracks how your baby is growing and what is happening in your current week. The fun part is they always associate the baby with a food item each week, so I have coworkers and friends asking "what's the baby this week?". Read on to find out how big Jooyoung was/is through this process!

Week 4: poppyseed
Week 5: sesame seed - looks more like a tadpole than human
Week 6: lentil bean - features are starting to form, limbs start to form
Week 7: blueberry - hands and feet begin to form
Week 8: kidney bean
Week 9: grape
Week 10: kumquat - nails and peach fuzz hair start to grow, organs are working
Week 11: fig
Week 12: lime - begin having reflexes
Week 13: medium shrimp - 1 oz. - fingerprints have formed
Week 14: lemon - 1.5 oz. - beginning to have facial expressions
Week 15: apple - 2.5 oz. - can sense light, taste buds are forming
Week 16: avocado - 3 oz. - toenails are growing
Week 17: turnip - 5 oz.
Week 18: bell pepper - 7 oz.
Week 19: heirloom tomato - 8.5 oz. - 6" tall - 5 senses are developing
Week 20: banana - 10.5 oz - 6.5"
Week 21: carrot - 3/4 lb. - 10.5"
Week 22: spaghetti squash - 1 lb. - 11"
Week 23: large mango - over 1 lb. - 11+"
Week 24: ear of corn - gained 4 oz. since week 23 - 12"
Week 25: rutabaga - 1.5 lb. - 13.5"
Week 26: English hothouse cucumber - 1.66 lb. - 14"
Week 27: head of cauliflower - almost 2 lb. - 14.5"
Week 28: Chinese cabbage - 2.25 lb. - 14.8"
Week 29: butternut squash - 2.5 lb. - 15+"
Week 30: head of cabbage - almost 3 lb. - 15.7"
Week 31: 4 navel oranges - 3.3 lbs. - 16"
Week 32: jicima - 3.75 lbs. - 17"
Week 33: pineapple - 4 lbs. - 17+"
Week 34: cantaloupe - 4.75 lbs. - 18"
Week 35: honeydew - 5.25 lbs. - 18+"

Now that we're at 35 weeks, take a look at how Jooyoung is moving!

:)

35 Weeks!

Wow...only 5 more weeks to go! It seems like the pregnancy flew by and now, we only have about a month left before Jooyoung joins us. My back pains have been getting better. I had a pregnancy massage yesterday and it felt SOOOOO good! We had our childbirth class last weekend and got a bunch of questions answered and got a tour of the birthing center. Now Jake knows where to take me when I go into labor! :) We have an appointment today and our first aid and infant CPR class tomorrow - will blog about how all of that goes later. Until then...here are some pics for you to enjoy!

Baby Game!

We found a fun little game for all of you to play. Follow the link and use game name: jooyoung. You will be able to guess the details of the little one's arrival! Let's see who can get the closest!

http://expectnet.com/game.php

Happy guessing!

33 Week Appointment & Update

We went to our 33 week appointment today. From here on out, we're going to see the doc every two weeks, then the last month, we'll be going every week. I got some referrals for massages and physical therapists, so I'll be taking advantage of the free massages w/ $20 copay! :) Jooyoung's heartbeat was really fast today - 160 bpm...he/she must have been excited. (So all you who thought that it was a boy because of the slower heartbeat of 130ish, sorry to burst your bubble)

On other updates, we have been looking for a place to call home. After a disappointing short sale that took way too long with no result, we looked at some other houses. We have since put in an offer on a house, but decided it wasn't the best place for us. We saw, yet another place that we really fell in love with. It's perfect for us - really we have no complaints about the place except for a few projects that we would have no problem fixing up. Anyway, we are planning on making an offer tomorrow, so please keep us and this opportunity in your prayers. Jooyoung will be here soon and he/she needs a place to sleep! :)

31 and 33 weeks!

Here are some pictures from week 31 and 33. I think my belly popped in a matter of days...actually, overnight. I was at work one day and people said "you don't look that big for 7 months" and I swear, literally the very next day, the exact same people said "woah! I think you grew 5 inches overnight!" (and they weren't talking about my height!)

Since it's hard to tell how big I've really gotten, I've put together a strip of pics from week 21 - week 33...enjoy!

The Evolution of My Belly!

32 Weeks!

I know I'm supposed to post a picture for week 31 and week 32, but I haven't uploaded them yet. They're coming. So this week, Baby T is about 17" long and weighs about 3.75 pounds. JooYoung is approximately the size of a jicima. What used to be little flutters and kicks are now full on movements. I will look at my belly and it will protrude on one side, making it lopsided. As of this morning, I noticed how much this baby will be like me. My alarm went off at 5:30am. I typically snooze for about 15 minutes, but this early riser would not let me sleep in. JooYoung was moving around in my belly and would not stop until I got out of bed...already a fiesty little one! Then during the day, I noticed that the movements are getting stronger and harder. I felt a push on my stomach so I pushed back and felt the foot (or hand) move across my belly. It's a pretty surreal feeling. The foot (or hand) was pushing against my stomach so much that I felt like I could literally grab and pinch it. So crazy!

Another joy of being 32 weeks, backaches have started and they sure do hurt! I didn't really have any problems throughout my pregnancy, so this is the first real "problem" or "discomfort" I've noticed. It's getting harder and harder to get out of bed (I have to roll over to my side) and I feel like I'm waddling around like a penguin. When I stand up from a seated position, it hurts. When i bend down, it hurts. Pretty much I just hurt. But it's all worth it in the end. :)

Clarification

Hello all! I thought I needed to make a clarification about Baby T's name. Jooyoung will be his/her middle name. Their first name is still yet to be determined. That's all!

30 Weeks!

Only 10 more weeks to go! We just had our 30 week appointment and these appointments have become somewhat uneventful and disappointing - but I guess I'm not complaining because it means that our little one is doing just fine. Basically we go in for our appointment, end up waiting for about 20 - 30 min, see the doctor for 3 minutes and we're outta there. The most exciting part (or most dreadful - whichever way you look at it) is checking my weight. i've never weighed myself so much that a pound a week GAIN is a good thing. So far I have gained about 16 pounds which is on the lower end of the recommended 25 - 35 lb. total weight gain by the end of the 40 weeks. Another exciting part of the appointment is hearing the heartbeat. This week, JooYoung's heartbeat was around 130 bpm. Since I can feel Jooyoung wiggle around so much, I'm never *really* worried that something is wrong, but it's always reassuring to hear the heartbeat of the little thing living inside me. According to my weekly updates, Jooyoung is about 15.7 inches long, weighs about 3 pounds and is approximately the size of a head of cabbage.

Since we're keeping Jooyoung's gender a surprise until we deliver, we've been getting people's guesses on what they think we're having...what do you think? Here are some more pictures in case you make the call based on the shape/size of the belly!

My Growing Belly!

I finally figured out how to paste pictures together to create a strip. Although it's not a very good comparison since the pictures are taken from different distances, you can kind of see my growing belly. :) i have yet to take my 29 week pictures, but will definitely update the blog once I do so...enjoy!

Grandpa's Job!

I've been getting questions about how the name JooYoung came about so I thought I should explain this in a post. In Korea, it's tradition for the grandfather of the baby to give it a name. When Jake and I asked my dad to give our baby a Korean name, he was very happy and took this duty VERY seriously. At one point, he told us he had a name in mind, but when we asked what it was, he said he was still praying about it and didn't want to announce it until he was SURE. :) (yes, pretty sweet of my dad, isn't it?) Finally, one day he sat us down and said he was ready to tell us the name he came up with and that's when he told us it was JooYoung. When the name is chosen, they don't just choose any random name, but they consider the meaning of the name. Our baby's name means: Joo (which comes from JooNim) = Lord, Young (which comes from YuongGwang) = Glory. So our baby's name means "the Lord's glory".

28 Week Update

We just had our 28 week appointment and everything is progressing well. JooYoung had a heartrate of 135 bps - a little lower than we've heard it in the past. JooYoung has been very active lately, kicking a lot after Jen eats and right before she's about to go to bed. JooYoung says everyting is "A OK!" (See him/her giving a thumbs up?) :)

Hello from Baby T!

Jen and I wanted to create this blog so we can share our thoughts/pictures/lives with our friends and family who are both far and near.

Jen is 26 weeks pregnant now...and we are getting very nervous/excited for the arrival of little JooYoung. Here he/she is saying "hi" to all of you! We are waiting to find out the gender of our baby until they are born...and we don't have any names (American) picked out yet. (Well, we do...but we're not telling you) =)