Monthly Archive for October, 2006

“TGI Saturday…”

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Mel
2 years, 2 months ago
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This week has been pretty stressful for me.

First, last Saturday I had to take a glucose tolerance test which checks for gestational diabetes. For this test I had to drink a little bottle of orange soda and then draw blood an hour later. I was trying to prepare myself as best as possible the day before to eat less carbs and no candy/sweets and just drink water all day. I found out on Wednesday that I failed it. I would then have to do a 3-hour glucose test, in which I draw blood, then drink another soda substance and draw blood 3 more times (1 per hour), WITHOUT any food or water. So this test is scheduled for this morning. (It’s now 9:15 AM) I went downstairs at 9 to go do the test and no one is there. So I’m annoyed now. I want to get this test over with as soon as possible so I can eat and get hydrated. I tried to prep myself again all day yesterday and the day before. I had the teeniest bit of carbs and ate veggies and chicken for the second half of the day.

Second, on Thursday, I received a hospital bill for $525 for the Level II Sonogram that I did in the beginning of the month. I was surprised that my insurance didn’t cover it. I started to freak out and ball like crazy. So I called my insurance company yesterday and they said that it’s supposed to be covered and they didn’t even receive a claim from the hospital for that date of service. So therefore I suspect that the hospital is trying to rip me off – get my money and then bill the insurance to get their money too. Stupid hospital. I have to wait until Monday to complain to them.

Anyway my point is, this may not be that stressful for normal people, but for a pregnant woman with hormones going in wack, this is REALLY stressful. You could imagine how sensitive I got. (I started to cry over it.) I would have to change my whole eating habits. No rice or noodles, or at least a tiny bit of it. How can any normal Chinese person NOT eat rice? Noodles and pasta are my favorite foods. Then I don’t get to be like every other pregnant woman who gets to have those midnight cravings for ice cream or cake or cookies. It’s FRUSTRATING! This year has been full of changes for me. Getting married, moving out, getting pregnant, (changing eating habits… what’s next? Don’t get me wrong, the first 3 things are great & I’m happy, but it’s a lot to handle for me within a few months.

Anyway, I must go back down now to see if they’re downstairs yet. Wish me luck and sorry for complaining.

Do you Skype?

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Ether
2 years, 2 months ago
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If you have broadband/high-speed internet connection at home, a microphone, and ever need to make long distance phone calls (both within U.S. or international), you may want to consider trying Skype.

It’s a simple program that let you make phone calls using the computer over the internet at a very low rate, or even free! A call from U.S. to Hong Kong is only $0.021 per minute! It’s rates that you only get with those phone cards from Chinatown, and Skype doesn’t charge any additional fee like those phone cards do!

It’s even better if you want to call Canada or within the U.S., it’s FREE until the end of the year! Perfect for the holidays that are coming up! You won’t have to waste your minutes or wait until after 9 pm to call.

All Skype-to-Phone calls have the same sound quality as regular phones, but not for Skype-to-Skype calls! The sound is comparable to FM radio quality!

One time I had my friend from Hong Kong put his mic by his radio’s speakers & it was like I was there in his room!

All it takes is for both sides to have Skype installed. Skype-to-Skype calls are FREE, doesn’t matter where you or the other person is in the world!

Plus, Skype-to-Skype calls are not limited to 2 people. Regular phones can do 3-way, Skype can do 4-way. Skype also does video calls. Good-quality video, unlike Yahoo! Messenger’s choppy video. Of course, you’ll need a decent camera to get good quality in the first place.

When you just want to do regular online text chat, you can do a group chat with up to 100 people at the same time.

If you are familiar with normal chat programs like AIM, MSN, Yahoo!Messenger, ICQ, etc., you would know how to use this.

I wish they pay me to say all this, but seriously, this is one of those rare things that I highly recommend to people (besides getting a Mac).

p.s. Great for those of you who have kids but your parents live far away!

Profiles of the princess

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Ether
2 years, 2 months ago
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Ultrasound04-2006-10-06a

Ultrasound04-2006-10-06b

*Hint – Turn your head to the right side. You’ll see the nose and the lips on top.

Ultrasound-October 6-a-outlined
See!

Jen, the only thing that will get spoiled here is…

Published
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Ether
2 years, 2 months ago
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…leftover food and your sister. :-p

“How,” you ask?

‘Cuz we are going to make ALL our kids do chores around the house, things like washing dishes, scrubbing toilet, cleaning windows, vacuuming & sweeping floor, washing clothes, and even cooking!

All right, we won’t make them cook dinner until they turn 10.

See! When that happens, Mel will be so spoiled! :-)

(Gosh, I gotta think of ways to make them spoil me too!!)
Oh, and no more rides in the stroller after turning 4, the latest. It stinks to have to lug that thing around, up & down, in & out of subway stations!

So the baby is a….

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Mel
2 years, 2 months ago
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The suspense must be killing some of you.. hahaha.. serves you right for taking so long to do the baby poll thing. =D j/k.. The baby is going to be a girl.. So some of you got it right. Even I got it wrong. We haven’t really decided on any names yet, although we have a whole list of possible names.

Anyway the sonogram we got on friday was pretty fun. She was hiding from us for a good 20 minutes. Even though my belly is still not huge yet, the sonographer said that the baby is a normal size (with a proportional head w/ body) and weighs about 14 ounces. Hopefully the baby won’t inherit my “short & chubby” genes. =D

“And the baby is …”

Published
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Ether
2 years, 3 months ago
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…a lot more clear in the sonograms we took today! Look:
Baby Face 01
You’re not seeing it?

Face 01 outlined
There! Does this help? :-D
Also, since some of you questioned what I saw in the last sonogram, I’ve added some outlines to help you see what I see:
Monster & Chicken
And now, if you would look at the original below, you would realize that I’m not “koo-koo” in the head!

So you ask: Is it a boy or a girl???

Well, I’m not at liberty to announce that here due to a direct order from the mothership. Apparently she really wants some of her “friends” to guess & do the poll first, and some still haven’t done it yet. (Mel says: YEAH! I posted that up like a month ago – sept 14 to be exact – and NONE of you did it, so too bad! This only applies to the joy luck club.) So if you’re not one of “her friends” & you really want to know, just call us or leave us a comment with your email, then we’ll write back. Sorry for any pain that we may have caused you.

And please, “friends,” you know who you are, do the world a favor, do the poll. :-p

Crappy Sonogram = Impatient Auntie Maggie

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Ether
2 years, 3 months ago
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Dear cousin Meg (and everybody else),

Our last visit to the doctor downstairs went well. As usual, the baby was hiccupping and we got our sonogram. But this time, I’ve got to say that Dr. Eng desperately need a new sonogram machine!

In our previous visits, I was willing to accept the fact that I’m not a trained medical professional (or trained in any profession, I guess), and that’s why I was only able to see “something” moving until the doctors pointed out the fetus every time.

Besides, at week 8 or 12 or even 16, the fetus is still relatively small, so it’s understandable for an unexperienced father-to-be like myself to have a little difficulties recognizing his own offspring, wouldn’t you agree?
But this was week 20 (or was it 21?)! So, when I went like “Huh? This thing is the baby?” and Dr. Eng reacted to my incompentance with “Well yeah, actually this thing is just the head. …That’s the body. And the legs are together.”, I was like “You’ve got to be kidding!” in my head.

I mean when the fetus is SO LARGE, large enough to take up the whole sonogram, you would think that the least creative graphic designer in the world would still be able to imagine a fetus out of all that dots, right? But NO! The little-bit-of-something that I saw look like an evil cookie monster hand puppet (on the left) and a roasted whole chicken from Costco (on the left) instead!

That’s how bad they need a new sonogram machine. I mean if the one that took this sonogram is for sale, they should take it!
Now I know as soon as you look at the sonogram below, some of you’re gonna be like “I can see it. What’s wrong with you?”, but you know what? You weren’t there. And I know what I saw… I’m not exactly sure, but at least I saw my offspring (whether it be cookie monster or roasted chicken) moving… hiccupping.

Anyway, that’s why we don’t know it’s a boy or girl yet. Not even a clue.

But not all is lost.

This Friday, Oct 6, at 2 p.m., we’ll be at Lutheran and get the ultimate Level-II Ultrasound! You will then know whether to buy/make stuff for our boy or girl! Isn’t that exciting?!

So, until then, please keep guessing!

Ultrasound 03 2006-09-23
You see the hand puppet on the left & roasted chicken on the bottom right?
See! Told ya!