cindy's world

I never thought I’d be one of those women who would be delivering AFTER her baby’s due date, altho statistically, it’s not surprising. It might be surprising how surprised I am.

The OB did one of those uncomfortable/painful cervical checks again, and said there’s definitely progress. Allie’s head is straight on against my bladder, and engaged at 0 station. I’m dilated to 1 cm. Effacement is almost complete. (I think the LEEP helped.) He updated her expected arrival date from “due date” to “the week after her due date,” which is what gave me the clue that I didn’t progress as far as he’d expected me to by now. He later confirmed that (without knowing) by telling me he can’t do a membrane sweep this week because 1cm is too small for him to fit his finger in, but that by my appointment next week (the day AFTER my due date, wah!), he could do it if I want. He said there’s no reason to induce at this point, Allie’s measuring a perfectly normal size and doing well, but if she doesn’t come at 41 weeks, then we can schedule something. He noted that recently, he’d scheduled 4 patients for induction after they passed 41 weeks, and by the 42nd week, 3 of them naturally went into labor before the scheduled induction date. I guess the threats helped the kids decide to come on their own. =P

I explained that my concern would be that I wanted to deliver a smaller baby to avoid complications, and I’m afraid that the longer I wait, the more there is a chance that Allie pops out a 8.5 lb baby. He was very unconcerned about that. “Her size is already pre-determined. Remember how in the 2nd trimester, we had talked a lot about your weight gain and nutrition?” OH yeah. “That’s to prevent the baby from being oversized. Women who birth a very large baby were already making their babies large early on. There’s nothing you can do at this point that would suddenly make your baby gain 3 pounds before you deliver, while it’s true that babies do gain weight toward the end.” I felt just a teeny bit better about the odds and ends of Halloween candy I’d had a couple of weeks ago. Darned lazy neighborhood kids didn’t feel like ringing our bell much this year. “Do you have any other questions or concerns?”

We certainly did. Mr. W brought out his FMLA forms for the second time to this doctor, and explained all the stress this was causing us and showed him the rejection letter from the Kaiser Disability Department. The OB already had his pen out before Mr. W even finished talking. We explained that all Mr. W’s work needed was a signature from my doctor certifying that yes, I really am pregnant. My OB had originally thought we needed to start the FMLA process with him, which meant that he had to do write-ups and diagnoses which he didn’t have time to do, but when he realized it was only a signature on Mr. W’s work form (which Mr. W had already filled out except for the physician signature section) and he didn’t have to do a separate FMLA packet, he readily wrote “wife is pregnant, EDC 11/21/11” and signed off on it. And then he apologized for all the stress we’d been undergoing while we were running in circles and hitting walls on this requirement in order for Mr. W to get FMLA. On the way to the appointment, I was visualizing the OB taking the paperwork and signing it, no conflict, and he did. 🙂 One huge hurdle…uh…hurdled. Good thing, too, cuz when Mr. W emailed his superior the rejection letter from Disability, the response he got back was to the effect of “Yeah, that sucks, but we still need our form signed to give you FMLA; what you’d turned in before from her doctor still isn’t good enough.”

I had lower abdominal cramps on and off all day and night after my appointment. The doctor had asked me about symptoms, and I told him periodic cramps that felt like menstrual cramps, with lower back soreness. He thought those may have been mild contractions. So hopefully, I’ll have gradual, relatively painless contractions until I hit the transition part of labor, and then I’ll deliver.

I’ve had pretty heavy munchies for the past few weeks. I’ve been trying to get myself to reach for healthier alternatives to chocolate, cookies, etc., so when I stood in front of the open refrigerator, I’d reach for an apple daily. Mr. W has been buying Fujis and recently, a new crop called “Honeycrisps” from Costco, so I’ve been eating those. It wasn’t until the other day when I was crunching into one and looked down to see the mostly-green skin that I had a small start. At a private reading at least 6 months ago, Rebecca had asked me if I liked “green apples.” I think Granny Smith apples when I think “green apples,” so I said no. She said she could see me eating green apples late in my pregnancy. I thought that was unlikely. I don’t like sour stuff or hard chewy stuff and Granny Smiths were both. But these Fujis and Honeycrisps are 2/3 to 3/4 green-colored, and depending how I’m holding them, they look as she described: green apples. Mr. W noted how she’d been wrong about every delivery date she’d foreseen for Allie. I said that the doctor said over and over again that we now know the baby decides when it’s going to come out by releasing labor hormones when its ready, and that Rebecca can’t see clearly things that haven’t been decided yet. It’s possible that her “as early as the 7th to as late as the 23rd” is the range of days that Allie would be fine coming out, but Allie had decided she wasn’t quite ready, yet, when those dates came and went. Nevertheless, Rebecca saw this as my delivery scenario:

Rebecca: Cindy, I think Allie will make you think nothing is happening. Then, bingo, everything will be hard and fast and it will be over before you know it.
Me: uh-oh…that sounds like Pitocin usage. =/
Rebecca: Nope, I don’t think so. I think you may be one of those lucky women whose contractions aren’t that painful until you are in transition. And transition goes pretty quickly.
Me: I would be SO grateful if that happened! Louise has been sending early prayers and putting me in bubbles of pain-free light.
Rebecca: And Louise does good work with those bubbles 🙂
Louise: Sweet prayers to you with all the warmth and comfort the Universe has to offer. You’re so strong. Just breathe and focus. 🙂

So I was SO comfortable…that yesterday, Mr. W and I went to see the newest release of the Twilight Series, “Breaking Dawn, Part I.” It was the most well-done of all the Twilight movies so far, and very well adapted from the book, but I still wish that Kristen Stewart had the acting capacity to truly capture Bella’s character. Bella has a very cute, quirky and funny side, and Stewart plays her one-dimensionally. All angst, kinda annoying. As usual, Taylor Lautner did awesomely. He was just like the character of Jacob at this point in the books, and created the same feelings of irritation (for his constant running-off tantrums) and grudging compassion (cuz I’ve been thru that unrequited love frustration) from me that I had for Jacob in reading the book. And after the movie, I was tricked/dragged to going for a walk and early dinner at Dana Point harbor. Hubby is so restless.

I’ve had a good-busy week so far (as opposed to bad-busy), starting from last Saturday, when Ann threw me the classiest, most beautiful baby shower ever with about 15 of my closest friends and family at her beautiful new house. It was in the traditional non-co-ed style, or she would’ve had to find a bigger venue elsewhere. I discovered while putting together the guest list that I have WAY more male friends than female. We’ll have to use THAT guest list for something else later on. 🙂 It was great seeing people I haven’t seen for a long time. That’s one of the cool things about celebratory events: it gets (most) people together in a jolly mood to celebrate. My parents-in-law and sister-in law (Gamer Bro’s wife) even drove down from Vegas and spent the weekend with us to attend the shower. I’ll post photos when I get a moment to sit down in front of the computer and compile photos. My mom sent me a slew of photos she’d taken the same night. I’m hoping others will process and make their photos available soon, so I can steal some. 😀 (How did we ever survive without digital photos and the internet?)

Vanessa was out of town on the weekend of the shower, but still wanted to celebrate with me, so we met up on Monday at The Melting Pot in Brea. It was her first time there, but she did great with the fondue dinner. This was also the first time I’ve seen her since she’d gotten engaged, so there was lots to talk about. Like, how she’s planning on making Allie a little playmate in 4 years. Yay! It’s funny when I think back to how early on in this blog, when I’d first met her in jujitsu, I’d referred to her as Navy Girl Vanessa to give her some form of identity. I’d also called Ann “Commenter Ann” or “Commenter A,” because that was how we interacted in the beginning — she commented on this blog. And now the both of them have larger-than-life presence and their names alone hold enough meaning and identity to be simply “Vanessa” and “Ann.” Meet my friends, Vanessa and Ann. Of course you know them, I talk about them on the blog.

Tuesday was supposed to be my down-day of the week. I’d planned to do my laundry and get the photos organized to post on the shower. However, one load of laundry in, and the washing machine gave out on me. It refused to spin or drain, so my clothes were just sitting in a vat of dirty water. I turned the dial back a bit and re-ran the last portion of the prior cycle. That worked, but the darn machine stopped again when it got to the same point of the wash.
Mr. W had just received a phone call days before from his tenant describing the exact same problem with the washer at the rental place and Mr. W had given the tenant permission to call a repair guy over and fix the problem on Mr. W’s tab. Mr. W was understandably concerned with how much it was going to cost him, and now this was happening at our house, too. After an initial freak-out period where he exercised his yelling, cussing, hitting and kicking muscles, Mr. W went online to see if he could troubleshoot and find a decent fix. Turns out this is a common problem and most of the time, the issue is the lid switch. In the next half hour, Mr. W took the washing machine apart, found the problem with the lid switch, and FIXED it! We have a working washing machine again!
Of course now it was too late to do the rest of my laundry loads, but it does show one thing: there’s a reason for everything. “WHAT ARE THE ODDS of this !@#$ happening AT THE SAME TIME as the !@#$ at the condo?!” Mr. W had lamented. “WHY would this happen to everybody?!” Apparently, it was to answer his prayer about having to spend hundreds on getting a professional out to fix his tenants’ washing machine. I encouraged him to contact his tenants to see if they’d gotten someone to fix their machine yet, and if not, to see if we (Mr. W) can go over and do it ourselves (himself).
He texted his tenant the next day, turned out the tenant hadn’t gotten anyone yet, so after work and my chiropractor appointment yesterday (Wednesday), we went to Mr. W’s rental property and he FIXED THAT WASHER, TOO! Same part, same problem. On the drive home Mr. W spoke of how he didn’t have the confidence to attempt to fix a washer at someone else’s home, but because it had happened at our home, he was okay to attempt it first on his own. That then gave him the experience and confidence to try it at the tenants’ place. The total cost for the repair at the tenants: $45 for a new lid switch. They were happy, we were happy. I was happy cuz while Mr. W was spending half an hour doing the fix, I hung out with the tenants’ two very nice young adult daughters and played with their two cats.

Today, childhood friend Sandy (she still needs that title to distinguish her from coworker Sandy) and I had made plans to meet up. She moved to Texas about a year and a half ago, and I hadn’t seen her since. She flew back to CA to attend my shower and was staying a week, so we wanted to take advantage of the opportunity of being in the same state, and she wanted to come visit Dodo. Because I’ve known her from age 6, I figure she won’t find it rude if I do the rest of my laundry while she visits.

I pretty much only come here to write a post if there’s a lot of stuff I want to say and document. Otherwise the short little ditties just go on the social networking site. I feel a little bad about this, cuz blog readers don’t see my quickies and I lose out on the daily documentation. Stuff like:

Today: “Cindy woke up this morning on her stomach, with Allie trying to tap out. Oops.”
“Cindy indulged in some yummy Japanese treats for breakfast. Thanks, Lauren [court reporter’s daugher working for Disneyland in Japan], Danielle [court reporter’s daughter visiting Disneyland sister], and [court reporter]! =9 Allie’s all happy and bouncing from it right now.”

Yesterday: “Cindy and hubby got Allie what will be the most expensive furniture in the entire house. =P http://www.babyappleseed.com/beaumont-crib.htm”
“Cindy dreamt Riley came out instead of Allie, but as a talking intellectual small child. He had to wear Allie’s pink ‘coming home’ outfit that was too small, but when asked why he hid his gender behind his foot at the last ultrasound (preventing proper clothes from being prepared for him), he wouldn’t give a straight answer.”

Sunday: “
Cats find their sunny perches anywhere, so watch where ur steppin when one’s around.”

Saturday: “Cindy is among a throng of 2000 (& growing) ppl for the raffling of lake spots for the B52 concert tonite. Not feeling optimistic. Come on, blue-8.” (along with a whole album of photos, posted later, of the resulting surprisingly decent spot we snagged on the sand at a diagonal to the stage, but front-center for the fireworks show after the concert, and photos of us there with our guests, Coworker Sandy, her hubby Rich, Gym Trainee, and my growing-like-a-week godson, Gym Trainee’s now 14-yr old high school kid.)

Friday: “Cindy wonders if she should alert plaintiffs’ counsel to the difference between ‘skim’ and ‘scan,’ as he keeps telling witnesses things like, ‘This is a half-inch document, if you could just scan this briefly?’.” Comments on this one were amusing.

Monday brought me to Week 28 of my pregnancy, so I started recording “kick-counts” at my OB’s direction. The object is to see how long it takes Allie to move 10 times. If she takes longer than 2 hours to move 10 times, I’ve been instructed to call the hospital. “An active baby is a healthy baby,” my OB had sung.
Monday, it took her about 13 minutes to jolt me 10 times. Tuesday, under 10 minutes. Wednesday, under 10 minutes. She must be healthy. 😛 Her movements are still relatively gentle, mostly taps. She’d only brought me pain once last week when she did something weird that felt like she was jabbing me out my right side. We were at Maggie’s progressive dinner fundraiser with Edgar and Ruby and I straightened up, giving her as much room as possible, and she stopped.

Speaking of Maggie’s progressive dinner last Saturday, it was fun this year like it was the last time we went, and Edgar and Ruby enjoyed themselves on their first progressive dinner. Mr. W and I, learning from our engorgement last year, paced ourselves and didn’t overeat this time. I wasn’t able to drink this time, so being the kind man that my husband is, he made sure he had enough alcohol for the both of us. What a sacrifice on his part. =P

Monday, Mr. W and I both took the afternoon off work so we could go to my dental appointment at 1pm in Pasadena. After the appointment we explored a new-to-us VIP-style theatre called Gold Class Cinemas. Mr. W had a $75 gift card from his coworker, which we figured would be plenty to pay for our movie tickets and a dinner there. This theatre is larger and fancier than the VIP theatre we’re used to going to near home, the service is excellent, food was pretty good, but after 2 tickets for “Our Idiot Brother” (wait for the rental), two specialty savory martinis for Mr. W, truffle fries, flatbread pizza for me, and 3 filet mignon sliders for Mr. W, we were out an additional $60 + tip. “This movie cost $150,” Mr. W said incredulously. I had to laugh. Our evening continued with a walk around an outdoor mall nearby the theatre, and a visit to Eddie & Michelle’s home, where we got to see their Paul Gauguin cruise photos. We reminisced about our cruise as we saw their pictures and listened to their stories.

Yesterday, our marriage turned the ripe old age of 3 years. I had some fun banter with friends on the social networking site about what to get Mr. W. 3 years is leather (traditional) or glass (modern), according to Claudio. After much back-and-forth, Claudio and I decided the perfect gift would be a gift certificate for getting a hearing aid (it’ll improve our marriage when he can actually hear the sound of my melodious voice instead of my having to constantly repeat myself after his “I’m sorry, what?”s), gift certificate for getting glasses (it’s glass! and it’ll improve our marriage if he can see me clearly and read my expressions of irritation from having to repeat myself too many times), and a leather wallet for all the money he has collected after being with me (Asian –> thrifty). A female coworker disagreed with the gifts, romantic as they are, and said, “I have the perfect gift: you may allow him to continue worshipping you as the goddess that you are. That’s what I get my boyfriend – my continued indulgence of his presence.” I ended up getting Mr. W the latter suggested item. He got me the same thing.
We had a nice low-key evening, dropping by a local Elephant Bar on our way home to share a shrimp noodle in lobster sauce entree and a giant slice of mud pie made with Starbucks kona coffee ice cream, and caught up on the latest episode of “True Blood.” The celebration continues tonight, as we have our second annual co-anniversary dinner with Tom and Maggie. We’re meeting at Andrei’s Conscious Cuisine after work.

My old friend Edgar and his long-time girlfriend of 13 years Ruby just got engaged last nite. I’m going to tell this story, cuz it’s not the kind of engagement I’m used to seeing and it’s cute.

The two have been dating since Ruby was in high school, and they’ve managed to keep a teen-love-esque charm in their relationship. For example, because they got together November 20, they always make a point of doing a mini anniversary dinner or just something special every month on the 20th. Yesterday was also a 20th, so it wasn’t unusual when Edgar told Ruby he was going to make dinner reservations for the two of them at a favorite restaurant, Owen’s Bistro. (BTW, I Yelped this place and it’s got one of the highest ratings I’d ever seen in local restaurants.) Then, shortly before they were to leave for dinner, Edgar received a planned call from a buddy. I can’t remember the buddy’s name, so we’ll just call him Steve (wouldn’t it be funny it if actually WERE “Steve?”).

Steve claimed he’d tripped and injured himself while on a hiking trail behind Edgar’s neighborhood, and wanted to know if Edgar were at home so that Edgar could go get Steve and help Steve to his car. Edgar explained to Steve they were on their way to dinner reservations, but that they would go help Steve before they went. Earlier, Steve and Edgar had already set up 300 LCD tealight candles on a part of the hiking trail so that it spelled out “WILL YOU MARRY ME?” The words were clearly visible from an upper section of the trail that looked down over a drop, and that overlook section was cemented with a railing, like a balcony. That was the proposal site, and when Edgar and Ruby got on the path, Edgar called Steve to let him know they had arrived. That was when Steve activated the hidden camera in the bushes pointing at the balcony section of the trail. Steve then ran and hid. The plan was for Ruby to get to the balcony section, look down to look for Steve, see the candles, then turn to Edgar. Edgar would then be on his knee with the ring out. (I’d told Edgar to spell out “Ruby” with the candles, too, so she doesn’t assume it’s someone else’s proposal, and so others on the hiking trail didn’t think their significant other were proposing and then have an awkward moment. He didn’t do it, and apparently there WAS a couple that crossed that section shortly before they did, and it did create an awkward moment between them. Ouch.)

This is what I saw on the video of the proposal (no sound, as I watched it on the camera): Ruby comes on the scene (balcony) on a cell phone talking to Steve, as Steve tries to tell her where he is (allegedly) sitting so that she would look over the balcony railing and see the proposal candles. She has a concerned look on her face as she looks around the place in a circle. Edgar appears on the video as Ruby’s back is turned, and stealthily takes out the ring box, making sure it’s facing the right way in his hand. Ruby walks to the balcony railing and looks over. Edgar positions himself on his knee behind her. She turns back around, still on the phone, still looking concerned. She sees Edgar and stares at him in confusion. He appears to be saying something. She starts laughing, then doubles over laughing with her face in her hands.

Okay, so what happened was that she was so busy looking for Steve that when she looked over the balcony, she completely missed the candles. Edgar meanwhile assumed she saw the candle proposal, so he was making his verbal proposal. She couldn’t figure out why he was on his knee, and appeared to be proposing in the middle of their hunt for their injured friend. What odd timing. Awkward! What about Steve? And she also wanted to know who the guy was who was standing behind them on the hiking trail, staring at them with his mouth open. This whole thing was a set-up? So Steve’s okay? Is that guy part of the proposal? What’s his role? Edgar turned and saw the guy for the first time shamelessly taking in their personal moment. Ruby wanted to know if this whole thing was a joke, and whether Steve was really okay. She was so distracted and confused that she forgot to say “yes.”

So Steve soon appeared (walking just fine!) and helped put away the tea light candles, then agreed to join Edgar and Ruby for dinner. Meanwhile, about 16 additional friends of theirs (us, included) were already at Owen’s Bistro waiting in a private room. Ruby walked in the room for their private reservation, recognized everyone, looked confused, and suddenly looked a little tearful as her hands went up to cover her face again. We swarmed them and congratulated them, she got to show off her ring right away…

…(superb quality round brilliant center stone with many smaller glittering rounds down each side of the platinum band, very nicely designed by Edgar), and we all had a very nice 3-course prix fixe dinner that Edgar REFUSED to let any of us pay for. =P

Mr. W and I sat at the end of the long table across from Eddie & Michelle, who had just returned fairly recently from their 2-week Paul Gauguin cruise to the French Polynesian Islands (same cruise we went on, only twice as long and with huge raving reviews from us). I felt slightly antisocial because the 4 of us (Eddie, Michelle, me and Mr. W) mainly just gushed about our experiences on this amazing cruise (see our series here!), but we had been waiting to hear about this cruise and were excited and jealous the entire 2 weeks they were on it.

I didn’t have any photos of Edgar & Ruby’s engagement or dinner at the time I first wrote this post, but I did have these! =D


But I digress.

Congrats, Edgar & Ruby! It’s not everyone who puts so much effort into proposals anymore. Aside from boys trying to be creative to push the odds in their favor when asking a girl to Prom, this much work in popping any question is virtually unheard of, and we’re so happy to have been a part of it.

Wednesday, I had a tremendous tire adventure. I changed all 4 tires for the first time on the Lexus, pretty good considering the car’s 5 years old and has 32,300 miles on it. Apparently those high-performance stock tires were only meant to last 15,000 miles. I’d brought the car into the dealership for a recall check, and they observed that my rear tires were almost bald and the fronts were worn pretty badly on the insides (normal wear on sports suspension, which tilts tires inward in the front for better traction). They quoted me $885 for the 4 tires including mounting and balancing, plus $169 for alignment. I don’t know whether this would include the mandatory tire disposal fees and taxes, and it was already too big of a number for me. I’m used to the Accord Coupe’s tires costing $110 each.
I left to go shop around, and after researching, ended up buying the exact same tires (Bridgestone Potenza RE760 Sport) from Discount Tires, and they installed, mounted, balanced, disposed, taxed for just under $850. Their inspection revealed that my suspension is perfectly fine, so because they saved me an alignment, I was fine paying an additional $70 for their replacement program on all 4 tires. I never thought I’d think a grand on tires is a good deal, but that appears to be the norm from my research, and I got away with really good, high-performance, higher-wear tires for under a grand, and if anything happens to them for the next 3 years, they’ll be replaced for free.
The young guys working at Discount Tires/America’s Tires were very knowledgable, friendly, and professional, and many of them have those same tires on their own cars, which they take on the race track on weekends and drift. They must’ve looked at me and my old tires that lasted 32K+ miles and thought, “Man, this car’s wasted on her, the old folgie.”

After my tires were done, I drove my suddenly quiet car over to Ann’s new house and she, her hubby Mark, and I went to the Orange County Fair. The goal was to let her try this year’s new gimmick, deep-fried Kool-Aid balls. When I saw this in a news article, I’d sent the link to her, and we’d been talking about it since. Last year, I’d discovered a deep-fried butter article and sent that to her, and she did go to the fair and try that, too. I wonder what they’re going to deep-fry next year. But anyway, we weren’t sure we’d find it since a friend was just recently at that Fair and had never heard of the Kool-Aid balls. As luck (good or bad, I’ll let you decide) would have it, it was one of the first things we came across. Ann spotted a giant sign immediately:

(BTW, at 5.5 months pregnant, I weighed myself this morning and I weigh 131.6, up 0.1 lbs from what I weighed 2 weeks ago, when the doctor told me to watch the weight gain and restrict it to half pound per week from this point on. Yay.)

There were a lot of large people in the fried foods line, we observed. I lined up in a significantly shorter line farther down for crepes, and ordered a grilled chicken pesto salad crepe, and noticed that everyone in line in front of me was fit or slender. Interesting. Anyway, I didn’t try the Kool-Aid balls. Ann wasn’t too impressed, saying the fried butter last year was better. The Kool-Aid balls were apparently just donut holes in which red punch Kool-Aid powder was mixed into the dough, then deep-fried. She said the doughy innards didn’t have much taste, altho the more fried outside seemed to have been sprinkled with Kool-Aid powder and did achieve more tang of flavor. She felt sick after eating those and some globules of deep fried zucchini strips, and didn’t eat anything else. Mark had a giant hot dog in a giant bun buried in giant amounts of condiments. I’d never thought of mayo as a hot dog topping. At one point Mark got up and left the table to look at some exhibits, and Ann and I were approached by an elderly couple, the woman in a wheelchair. The gentleman asked politely if they could share our table (I guess the farther back ones would make for difficult wheelchair maneuvering) and I told him of course. It then occurred to me I didn’t even check with Ann, but she didn’t seem to mind. The couple had purchased deep-fried Oreo cookies and offered one to me as I was curious to them. I did not allow Allison to have that, but the two of them said it was good and showed me a cross-section of one they’d bitten into. It looked like fried yellow cake (batter) with a doughy black center (Oreo). Ann said she’d had it before and the oil makes everything soggy inside.
It was fun wandering around the fairgrounds with them, people-watching, exhibit-examining, animal-observing. At the livestock section, a goat had just given birth to two little does about 45 minutes before we’d gotten there. She had already licked her girls clean, altho her rear was still seeping some bloody goo. Animals are so resilient. Mama goat doesn’t even look tired, and the baby goats were already walking their tiny, wobbly fuzzy bodies to mom’s teats and nipping at them, eyes open and everything. Farther down in another pen, some giant sows were laying on hay sleeping on their sides. Their tender sat on the gate, explaining to a bunch of onlookers that the sow behind him is expected to give birth the next day, signs being the changes in her behavior, teats, and she’d begun lactating a bit. Mark leaned against this gate and watched the sow, as Ann and I wandered around all the pens and looked at other goats, chicken, chicks, etc. We returned to the sow section a couple of times and had a good laugh at how many people were gathered around the pregnant sow, just staring, when she was on her side asleep the entire time. What are they looking at? Nothing was happening or going to happen, apparently, until the next day.
Anyway, I think I’m now vegetarian again. The Fair does this to me every time.

I’m back from a weeklong+ roadtrip from home to Vancouver, Canada and back! Gosh darn if the pants I packed and wore at the beginning of the road trip aren’t snugger now, 11 days later. And the doctor said that the baby is too small for me to feel moving around, but I feel deep nerve twinges and muscle twitches, the latter kind of like an air bubble going through the intestine (sorry to imply gas), and I know they’re involuntary cuz they happen when I’m not doing anything. I’m not looking forward to clothes-shopping, but I’m estimating that I have about a week or two left in these regular slacks. That gives me enough time to go into denial and procrastinate another few days. Weight gain is still minimal-to-none at this point, 14 weeks in, but my body dimensions are changing so I’m doing my best to keep stretch marks at bay with daily cocoa butter slatherings. I’ll post road trip stuff soon.

Some quick highlights:
* bought my first baby item (well, item-and-a-half) at Pike Marketplace in Seattle, WA
* found future dream retirement community in Ashland, OR
* over Vancouver, Canada. Over.it.
* enjoyed time spent with NorCal friends, and discovering a long-desired treat: Magnum Bars (Had fun with that one on the social networking site.)
* had a very different homecoming this time compared to the last one upon our return from Italy.

Mr. W and I took my mom, grandma, and dad out for dinner on Friday night for Mother’s Day. I felt bad because with all the doctor appointments and running around we did in the past week and a half, I hadn’t been able to buy my mom and grandma a Mother’s Day gift. They’re also really cheap dates; Grandma chose Boston Cafe (although it turned out she meant the affiliated restaurant Boston Kitchen a few miles away, oops), so the entire dinner with tax and tip included came out to just over $50.

Mr. W and I drove out early Saturday morning to spend the weekend with his side of the family in Vegas and just returned today. We gave his dad a 1-day advance warning (we were supposed to be on vacation all next week, but changed our minds last minute and gave the days back, altho keeping Monday to drive home) that we were coming, and his dad said that just the day before, my mother-in-law had remarked, “I have a feeling they’re coming down to see us this weekend.” Very intuitive of her! We arrived Saturday late morning and ate lunch at Mr. W’s must-have restaurant every time we go to Vegas: Aurelio’s Chicago pizza. Mr. W’s parents and Gamer Bro were with us. Then Sunday, most of the family (all those who didn’t have to work) took my MIL to a champagne brunch buffet at South Point Hotel & Casino. There’s free mimosas and champagne with our meal, pre-poured, and Mr. W and his mom both told me that given my inability to drink, I should grab a champagne/mimosa anyway and give it to them. All of us walked up to the beverage table and got an OJ and a champagne, or so we thought. Turned out the OJ was a mimosa so we ended up with WAY too much alcohol at the table. Mr. W, his mom, and Rocker Brother did their best to drink the table dry, but didn’t do all that well; Gamer Bro finished what he took, his wife and I didn’t drink either one, and the kids’ end of the table drank surprisingly little given that they’re used to drinking and partying. I guess champagne isn’t their thing. Mr. W drank so much that he ended the brunch with a cartwheel at the elevator lobby and dance-swirled his way to the car in the parking structure while holding a laughing 2-year-old niece. Now I know how to get him to take care of babies. I’ll make sure the house is fully stocked with champagne.

This weekend also marks the day I “came out” on the social networking site. I had been pondering how to do it, and thought maybe I’d just jump right into it with a status message that says, “Cindy says goodbye to the first trimester and hello to the second.” However, Mr. W gave me an unexpected opening opportunity. I posted this photo instead, with the following caption:

Hubby surprised me with my first Mother’s Day present.

At first the only comments that drew were from people who already knew, such as Rebecca (who knew before we had even begun the process to get pregnant) and some coworkers (I’ve already been outed at work). I started to think that my coming out post was too subtle. But soon, and then like wildfire, others caught on. I got a bunch of congratulatory remarks, questions, comments, and a bunch of Happy Mother’s Day well-wishes. I hadn’t considered this my first Mother’s Day, but everyone else said it counts, including Mr. W. I even received a voice mail from my cousin Olivia, who put both her young daughters on the phone to wish me a happy first Mother’s Day. It was very sweet. 🙂

I hadn’t had morning sickness in quite a few days, and it was making me concerned. Andrae came by to visit on Saturday as he was in town for some karate practice, and we introduced him to The Counter. (He was blown away by the burger joint.) That late lunch ended up being my first meal, and despite sleeping through breakfast, I didn’t feel sick. I carbo-loaded at lunch with a veggie burger, parmesan fries (SO amazing) and a peanut butter shake, and it got gaggy after I’d eaten it. But not morning-sickness gaggy. I had a baked potato with butter and mayo (a childhood favorite, the only time I’d eat mayo) for dinner. Sunday, we got up and hit the road for the Renaissance Faire, thinking we’d stop for purse-sized snacks on the way, but didn’t. I didn’t eat until late lunch time again, when I shared an incredible “cottage meat pie” with Mr. W (pieces of steak and veggies) and had a spanikopita at another booth (meh, greasy). Hubby had a steak gyro. For dinner I steamed some pork, leek and black pepper dumplings, organic broccoli from Maggie’s garden, and had a slice of cheese toast.

So it looks like much of the meat aversion is gone AND I’m not sick? Uh-oh. I started thinking back. My first Pilates class after I was cleared to exercise did focus pretty intensely on core and ab stuff. Did I accidentally kill the kid last Wednesday in Pilates? I didn’t cramp or spot, though. My morning sickness, a response to the hormone hCG, shouldn’t be going away until the beginning of my 2nd trimester, which is still 7 or so weeks away!

I started responding to people’s inquires of “How’re you feeling?” with explanations of how abnormally and disconcertingly fine I felt. They all pretty much told me not to worry, they’re sure Riley is fine. My court reporter told me she ran a 10K 4 months pregnant and was fine, and that if the pregnancy is healthy, a little exercise that my body’s already accustomed to doing isn’t going to be a problem. Rebecca and I were exchanging an email string discussing some business, and she asked how I was feeling. I wrote to her the same thing. She laughed, called me silly, and said she still has a feeling of fullness when she thinks of me so she’s sure I’m still pregnant, and that my Wednesday Pilates can not kill a child.

So what happens when one complains about a good thing too much? “Oh, you wanna feel sick? Here ya go.” Right in the middle of my gymming yesterday, after a set of crunches, the nauseating feeling came back. It could have been triggered by the supine and rocking position, since pregnancy causes the muscle between the stomach and esophagus to relax, making puking a more common response to gravitational shifts (among other things). But still, the feeling came and didn’t go until I’d fallen asleep. Late night, it became an acid reflux sensation.

Well, I feel fine today so far. If the pregnancy nausea lessened this dramatically, maybe I still will be lucky with just 3 weeks of morning sickness through my pregnancy. By the way, there are some studies that link severe morning sickness with having a girl. Something about a conflict or reaction of hormones between mother and child.

Monday was so beautiful and warm that Ann decided to snatch me up after work to explore a Laguna Beach rooftop bar for drinks and appetizers. The Rooftop Lounge sits atop the classic hotel La Casa del Camino, mere feet from the beach with a gorgeous ocean view. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, the place was completely packed due to nice weather and their awesome happy hour. So we went downstairs to the indoor restaurant bar, K’ya Bistro Bar. We were seated promptly and our waiter looked like an off-duty actor (think younger version of Stephen Moyer). He was one of those guys who pulls off jokes with a total straight face so you’re left guessing a little, and yet was perfectly nice and accommodating.
The menu was the most shocking thing of all. Premium ingredients and quality seafood, salad, pasta, meat small dishes (altho they turned out to be way bigger than tapa-sized), averaging $8 each. I think I saw 2 or 3 items over $12. Crazy! Even their drinks were inexpensive (around $5), unbelievable given their primo waterfront real estate. Ann and I each got a wild berry mojito (virgin for me, waiter’s suggestion as I was apparently being “penalized” for being pregnant), and she ordered a goat cheese, fennel & orange salad ($5) and some wild broiled scallops atop spinach, arugula, fingerling potatoes ($12). I had a lobster truffle risotto ($10) that had plenty of chunks of lobster and visible black truffle shavings that was sooo savory. For dessert we had berries & cream with chocolate liqueur on the side (she dipped, I skipped). Ann had purchased a discounted voucher for 2 mojitos and 2 appetizers, and our waiter was nice enough to apply it to our most expensive orders (risotto and scallops), and made sure I could sub the virgin mojito. We knew we had to come back.

On the drastic opposite side of the spectrum, here’s what’s going on at work. A robbery trial began yesterday (not in my courtroom), and they were set to do jury selection. The only witness in the trial didn’t show up. Turned out, on his way home from work the evening before, the witness was gunned down and killed. So the court ended up doing a GSR (gunshot residue) test on the defendant’s hands. The defendant was apparently out on bail. Kinda makes you wonder if you would agree to be witness on a case if you saw something bad go down. =P