Pregnancy

Was a great adventure with this little one.  It was a smooth, relatively easy pregnancy that both Shane and I honestly enjoyed :).  I didn't suffer from very much morning sickness, only nausea when I was hungry, and while that first trimester exhaustion was real, it was truly a time of marveling at how there was a little person being knit together inside me by God.  The second trimester went smoothly as well with only a minor scare of borderline gestational diabetes.  I failed the first one hour glucose tolerance test with the cut off score of 40, but I passed the three hour test the next week!  It was a helpful reminder for me to eat well :).  

I also didn't really start showing until well into the second trimester.  I ate well during the first trimester, maybe a little too well with sweets and "pregnancy cravings" calling my name and feeling like I was always being encouraged to "eat for two"!  It was fun, and I feel like I enjoyed it without taking too much advantage of the encouragements :P.  Then when I failed the glucose tolerance test, I realized that I needed to eat well for my baby.  So I did!  Lots of protein and balanced meals with of course sweets here and there characterized the second trimester.  The exhaustion dissipated and really all I experienced was a ravenous hunger.  One hot Los Angeles day, I looked at Shane and asked him to take me to eat pho.  I have never once out eaten Shane, but that day I did.  Not only did I eat the whole bowl of pho myself, but I ate some of his too!  

It was weird to me when I started showing.  Due to my job at the time, I always wore clothing that masked my pregnancy.  Eventually I started showing enough for strangers to comment.  Even then, I had a relatively small belly for most of my pregnancy which made people less willing to comment, or at least most of the time.  I remember one day I was at 85c buying a massive amount of taiwanese pastries and I was explaining to a friend how these three pastries were for Shane and allll of the rest were for me.  The lady in line before me said, that's okay, you're eating for two! .... Aren't you?  It made me laugh so hard :).  

Again, I was fortunate in the third trimester in terms of pregnancy symptoms.  I was gaining the right amount of weight, still wasn't getting too massive of a pregnant belly, kept myself active and busy, and generally didn't feel like life being pregnant was too different from life not being pregnant.  I never got swollen ankles or cankles, never got asked if I was having twins, never got asked if I was due any day.  I even hiked eaton canyon 39 weeks pregnant in an effort to try to make the baby come out!  I did all nine or ten river crossings and made it to the waterfall, no problem!  

But then pregnancy got hard in the last two and a half weeks, not physically, but emotionally, waiting for this little one to arrive.  We always thought of Xinyi as our christmas baby and desperately wanted her here before Christmas so we could put her in a stocking and call her our Christmas present.  She had different plans.

On a different but related note, while pregnancy was a grand adventure, it also showed me how fearful of a person I am.  My job at the time I got pregnant was working in adoption.  Many of the families who came to me had suffered from either infertility and/or multiple miscarriages at all different stages of pregnancy.  I knew there were so so many things that could go wrong.  I studied and read so many books and websites, and I did everything I could to not do anything wrong.  But I still worried.  Every story I read that was about bad things happening to a pregnant woman, I was convinced would happen to me. Every screening test and major ultrasound was a nerve wracking experience for me.  I prayed all the time for a healthy baby, listing out organs and body parts and neurons and brain connections and everything I could think of trying to cover my little baby in prayer in utero.

What was funny about being pregnant was that all my worries and fears didn't amount to much.  It turned out to be what my doctor called a medically boring pregnancy, which she also emphasized was the best kind of pregnancy.  I agreed and still agree and know that it was a blessing and that many were praying for us all the time.  

Here we are a few days after we found out we were pregnant:

We had a 4d ultrasound done at 12 weeks to find out the gender.  She looks like an alien :).

And then we saw her little hands and her profile at our 19 week ultrasound:

Here we are later at our baby shower (6 1/2 months pregnant):

Shane decided he needed to grow a beard during my pregnancy. 

And then our church family threw us a shower too (7 months pregnant)

My wonderful sister in law, Christina, took amazing pictures of us at 37 weeks:

And Shane of course, being Shane, insisted on a heart belly shot for himself :).

And finally me at eaton canyon at 39 weeks:

Weeks 38 through 40 and a half, I was on pins and needles, thinking every day that today could be the day I meet my daughter!  Shane and I were excited and anxious and terrified and more all wrapped into one.  We just couldn't wait to have our little baby here with us!