No fun without me!

Last night while Avery, Paul and I were playing and laughing really hard, baby #2 gave me the strongest kick or elbow nudge I've ever felt. I jumped and let out a yelp since it kind of hurt! I think if we were looking at my tummy we could have seen a foot or elbow poking out. I think it was his/her way of saying "don't have any fun without me!"

16 Weeks!

Wow, it's been almost 3 weeks since my last blog entry... Sorry!!!! Nothing's wrong, just been busy. Paul, Avery, baby #2 and I took a 9 day trip to Philadelphia for Hwang family reunion. It was hot and humid for the first few days but it was so nice to see all the brothers and parents. Avery finally got to meet her cousin from Korea, Elizabeth. The two of them playing together brought tears to my eyes. They were hugging and kissing constantly and we heard that Elizabeth went looking for Avery every morning in our room after we left. They're only 1.5 months apart so it was perfect!!! Now we're back in LA, back to work, back to our everyday lives. By the way, CONGRATS to the Newmans as Tiff delivered a beautiful healthy baby girl yesterday. Welcome to the world, baby Bennett May Newman!!! Charlotte will be such an awesome big sister!

Today marks 16 weeks of our pregnancy. I presume the baby is growing well and happy in my tummy. I hate not seeing an ultrasound everyday to make sure! For about a week until couple days ago, my head was pounding everyday. It was almost debilitating where I couldn't focus, play with Avery or do anything productive. But yesterday and today, I feel great! I have more energy in the mornings and don't have any weird nauseous feeling but by about 8pm, I'm completely BEAT! I am so tired and sleepy by 8pm that I can just fall asleep right on the couch! I'm sleeping well at night and my super vivid dreams have subsided for now. Those pregnancy dreams are wild!!! It feels so real! I told my big bosses that I'm pregnant yesterday. I think they're happy for me... I think...

Below is a picture we took to mark our 16 weeks:

Oh.... YUM!

My newest craving... BURGERS!! Couple days ago after my doctor's appointment, I didn't have much time for lunch so I grabbed a McDonald's Big n Tasty Burger. Oh it was so good!!! Then last night, I really wanted to eat an In n Out burger so Paul picked them up for me... A double double!! The only problem was there was not enough! I wanted to eat another one when I was done.... It's so weird how I go into burger mode when I'm pregnant.. I ate lots of burgers when I was pregnant with Avery too. I normally don't like to eat burgers.. So strange but I love it!

1st trimester down syndrome screening

Today marks 12 weeks and 5 days of our pregnancy. We went to see Dr. Bochner for our 1st trimester down syndrome screening. It was so good to see Dr. Bochner since we haven't seen him since the week Avery was born. I love going to our doctors since everyone there knows us and they are just so nice and pleasant! Dr. Bochner did an ultrasound to get a nice picture of the baby's spine area to measure the fluid between the skin and the spine. We'll know the results in about 10 days, I'll be biting my nails in the meantime!!! He also measured the baby and he measured at almost 3 inches, just perfect size for his age!!!

Below is the picture of our little baby at 12 weeks and 5 days:

After we saw Dr. Bochner, we saw Dr. Bohn. Dr. Bohn listened to the baby's heartbeat which was great and we talked about some of my concerns, questions and just this and that. I feel so much better everytime I see Dr. Bohn. I just love my doctors!!!

Back from the dead....

That's what it feels like today, back from the dead! I feel like I've come out of a coma. Well, about 70%. What I thought was a cold turned out to be much worse. Last Monday, I woke up with a sore throat and body aches and I couldn't go to work. By Tuesday morning, I couldn't swallow, drink, eat, sleep or talk because of my throat pain which spread to my ear. I couldn't get out of bed until Thursday morning when I finally went to see a ENT specialist. The diagnosis was tonsilitis with mild strep. I've struggled with my tonsils all of my adult life and it rears its ugly head when I'm exhausted. I think I had a pretty tiring weekend last week because it came back. The odd thing to me was that I had my tonsils taken out 3 years ago and gosh, was that painful! I do not recomend tonsil surgery as an adult. The pain is excruciating. So I was more than upset when I found out that tonsils which I don't have, is inflamed again! Apparently, the soft tissue left from where the tonsils were taken out can still get inflamed. Yikes. When I was pregnant with Avery, I had similar symptoms and was treated with antibiotics. After I had Avery and was recovering from c-section, I was also treated with antibiotics for the similar symptoms. I guess it's something I'll have to deal with for a long time!

My regular ENT doctor who was about 80 years old the last time I saw him has since retired so I had to call about 10 doctors before someone would agree to see me on such short notice. The problem I had this time was that the ENT doctor I saw refused to give me antibiotics without the consent of Dr. Bohn, my OB-GYN because I'm pregnant. The wires were crossed with Dr. Bohn and I wasn't able to get a prescription until Friday afternoon which made me very frustrated since I was in so much pain. I finally decided to take Avery (poor Avery was such a good sport, trying to leave her mommy alone for a week) and retrieve to my parents' house for the weekend... I needed my mommy to take care of me! I felt like if I went to my parents' house, my mom will magically make me feel better... Which ended up being true, but it was probably the antibiotics that did the trick...

By Sunday morning, the antibiotics were finally working and I was able to eat a little. I had lost about 6 pounds in the last week which was 6 pounds less than my pre-pregnancy weight. I was so afraid that I was starving my poor baby in my stomach. I have my 3 month check up with Dr. Bohn tomorrow so we'll make sure the baby is safe and healthy. I am so lucky that I have such good support system. I'm so thankful to my parents who unconditionally take care of me at all costs, to Paul who has been so understanding and supportive while I've been recovering, to my wonderful nanny for keeping Avery away while I was in bed and to my darling Avery who has been such an angel even though she wanted her mommy all the time.... By Sunday, I can see in Avery's face her frustration of not being able to play with mommy. She'd come to me, sit on my lap, hold my shoulders and try to get me up and say "umma, up up"... then she'd crinkle her nose and look so frustrated when I couldn't get up. That made me cry all the time...

Today, I feel much better and I am excited to eat and see Avery later to play with her. I'm on a mission now to eat eat eat!!! We finally took a picture last night of my belly. This is my belly at 12 weeks and 3 days. Finally, we're in second trimester!!!!

Below is a picture we took this weekend of our little munchkin and her cousin, Minji, wearing matching outfits that grandma got them. Aren't they so cute???