The "Grand Opening" of 2nd Trimester

The second trimester finally arrived as expected, wait, too early to cheer up. It is coming with a cold first and hay fever followed. In order to avoid the allergen – pollen, I have to chain myself at home with windows closed. New England just entered into summer, sunny, mild weather, the pleasing breeze, the balmy smell…the best season in a year. All I can do is to watch it through a closed window. Sigh!

As every pregnant woman desperately looks forward to, the second trimester is supposed to be the best part of pregnancy, even the most joyful part in a woman’s life. I definitely haven’t tasted a bit of it with the cold and hay fever. My nose has been running and I have been sneezing so hard that I am afraid I could almost shoot the baby out of my body every time I sneeze. The most annoying thing of hay fever is that it lasts LONG, as long as there is pollen in the air. It has been 2 weeks in my case and there is still no sign of the end. The pollen allergy also does damage to my face. It caused red rash all over my face, which not only ruined my “maternity glow”, but also itches really bad.

Hopefully, as traditional wisdom said, the best part comes later.

Celebrity Maternity Looks in One Day

Angelina Jolie without any doubt is the most famous young mommy in the world; a mysterious, stylish, sexy and versatile movie star; a humanitarian and Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency; one of the most reported movie stars in Hollywood.

With 3 adopted kids and a biological daughter, she is expecting twins again. Check out her stunning maternity looks in one day:

We Saw You, Baby!

As I am approaching the end of the first trimester, (yeah!), things are gradually looking up like they said in the books indeed. Nausea is already a remote word to me. As a meat lover, there was some time between 7th and 8th week, I couldn’t even bear smelling the so-called “slaver-inducing” flavor of meats. It is all gone by now. I started to enjoy cooking and eating meat again. The tiredness and sleepiness, however, are still with me day and night. I am still very unproductive on anything I do daily. Really look forward to the days coming that I can be active, spirited and energetic again.

We have been to the hospital and seen the fetus' ultrasound picture twice, last Tuesday (5/6) and today (5/15). Obviously the fetus is growing very fast. I hardly saw anything last Tuesday when the OB checked the heartbeat of the baby. XJ did see some tiny electric waves as he sat closer to the monitor. We both felt so CALM that we started to doubt that we are both retarded on this parental intuition thing. Today, only 8 days later, in my 12 weeks and 1 day pregnancy, the size of fetus doubled! I finally saw it clearly, especially when the operator enlarged it on the screen. She (as XJ referred it) was moving violently (as XJ described it) with arms and legs all over the place. The heartbeat was very obvious and quite powerful. It was really amazing to see a moving creature inside my body. We were definitely amused by her performance. And as “retarded” parent, we still haven’t felt that flush of desperately thrill and joy as people described. Just as one close friend puts it, she is more thrilled for us than we are.

First Close Interaction with Maternity Clothes

When I started the blog, I had blogging about maternity fashion in my mind. While it was not until this Sunday had I had the first close interaction with maternity clothes.

Honestly and shamelessly, the first thing I was worried about when I first got to know that I was pregnant was not about how to be a good mom-to-be, instead I was wondering what I was going to wear during pregnancy, how to keep in style with a growing belly, how to be hip instead of boring…silly me, hah? Anyway, researching on maternity fashion turns out to be a good distraction from the notorious hardship of the first trimester so far. With so many brilliant maternity fashion companies and designers offering beautiful maternity clothes, we are able to indulge ourselves a little bit on clothes while going through this tremendous “project”. It is a privilege, I declare.

A month ago, immediately after the pregnant test, screaming and laughing, XJ and I went to Amazon.com and ordered seven pregnancy books, four of them are about maternity style according to my requirements. I have finished all style books and am still working on those books with REAL stuff. What can I say? It is just easier for me to read the style books. (Sometimes, I feel I am really a superficial person. Luckily, XJ thinks it makes me a very interesting person. ) And reading those books did make me enjoy my pregnancy much better. I was amazed by the autobiography written by the founder of Mother Works Inc., Rebecca Matthias, how she turned a simple idea to a business, how she found a niche market and built a successful public company based on it. It is absolutely inspirational. Also, I enjoyed Expecting Style by Lauren Sara. It tells you can be much more creative and fashionable than you could imagine during belly days. It also makes me feel less guilty to care about the appearance because some people out there make it as a career.

This Sunday, when we drove to Boston via route 9, we made a stop at the Destination Maternity store. The moment we drove to the parking lot, we “smelled” something different. All the cars in the parking lot are either SUVs, or Volvos, a.k.a safe cars. Our compact, fuel efficient car easily tells that we are yet serious, responsible parents. Upon entering the store, XJ and I quickly located our separate destinations, with him settling in a big sofa with a big flat TV screen broadcasting sports events and I heading to racks and racks of maternity fashions. As usual, I picked out what I liked, went to fitting room, put on every piece and showed them to XJ. It is our shopping routine that I always get his second opinion because I am a big spender and he pulls our wallet string. Today, I picked three winners and he killed one. I ended up with bringing home two pregnant dresses without a showing belly yet. And here they are:

The Word For You Is To CHILL

It has been several days since my first nurse visit. I should have written something about it but the pregnancy fatigue hit me so hard and I feel like doing nothing these days, even sitting in front of the computer makes me sick. I am in my ninth week pregnant. Hopefully the nausea and other discomforts will magically disappear as the second trimester sets in like they said in books.

Usually, the first hospital visit is with a nurse. I guess the doctor is too busy to see me and I am too insignificant to be seen by a doctor in current stage. Basically, it is like a meeting and greeting experience. We are supposed to ask the nurse a lot of questions and be drawn A LOT OF bloods to be tested for various items. I was drawn EIGHT tubes of bloods that day.

The nurse is very amiable, and knowledgeable. She is a like a pregnancy cheerleader trying to cheer you up. You can feel the professional fake underneath it but what do you expect instead, a cold shoulder? During the visit, we found out my exact due date – 11/30/08. XJ had a lot more questions to ask than I have. He appeared more concerned than I was. At the end of the appointment, the nurse asked me to relax, live as usual and enjoy my pregnancy. She turned to my husband and said: “For you, the word is to CHILL.” We all laughed.

Find The OB and The Hospital

I never imagined how much work to do to pick an obstetrician and the hospital to have the baby. The reality is there are a lot of due diligence to do.

Like choosing any products or marketing a brand, word-of-mouth is the king. By week 5, we started asking around, friends, colleagues, friends’ friends, friends’ colleagues…Basically, anybody with experience we can reach.

For hospitals, it boils to down to two – Newton Wellesley and Brigham and Women. XJ and I decided to check out the location and neighborhood of the hospitals before we choose an obstetrician because we need to choose an OB who is affiliated to the hospital we want to deliver our baby in. On Saturday, we drove around, checked the routes, traffic, the hospital buildings and parking lots, you know, all kinds of superficial stuff. We still couldn’t make our decisions after the visits. I started to call my friend who had an adorable baby again and during our conversation, the light hit me, why not to use her OB and the hospital she went to. It was that easy. I later checked out her OB background and found that she is overall the most impressive. Brigham and Women’s Hospital is also the best women’s hospital in United States. Why not to take advantage of it since I live so close?!

My conclusion is if you want to make your life easier, follow the choice of your friend who you know well and trust. The reality is, s/he has done all the due diligence as you would do.

.Com Rush

My American friend told me an expecting website: What to Expect. While I was exclaiming how great and helpful this website is and how genius the business model is and how can I transfer this business model to China, my Chinese friend informed me a very popular Chinese website: 摇篮网. They did everything exactly I wanted to do. No matter it is born separately or imitation, I can’t help but wonder how fast the new information travels around the world. The world is not only flat, it is literately a dot! Anyway, individuals benefit most from this rapid information spreading. I registered on both websites and enjoy the good of both sides.