YOU WON'T BELIEVE THIS!!!

We actually closed on our house today! Woohoo! Will try to post some pics once we get up and running at the new house...should be by early next week. Cross your fingers that Ryan won't come early! :)

Getting Close

I went to the doctor yesterday (35 weeks and 3 days) and because of all of the pregnancy issues I've had, she said that I won't go full term to 40 weeks, which does make sense. Full term is 37 weeks which is 1.5 weeks away, but she said that it'd be better if I was at least 38 weeks (February 9th). At 38 weeks, if I'm dilated, then we'll induce. If I'm not dilated, then we'll probably wait until I am dilated to determine when to induce, if it doesn't happen naturally, but the baby is definitely coming before February 23rd. I will be 38 weeks pregnant in ONLY 2.5 weeks. It's so soon! I'm super excited to finally see our little one, but I'm really nervous about the whole process of actually getting him out!!! Well, let's hope that we get to move in this week, so I'll have at least 2 weeks in the new house before the baby comes!

That reminds me, we've tentatively decided on a name...Ryan Yi-zen Tang. I will try my best to refer to him now as Ryan and not the baby or him. :) We're still working out how we want to spell his middle name, but it'll be something along those lines. Yi-zen kind of sounds like Ethan, so I'm thinking about calling him Ethan instead of Ryan. I figure that once we see him, he'll look like a Ryan or an Ethan and we'll figure out what to call him then. Yes, I procrastinate on everything.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

From Monday, January 15th, to Wednesday, January 17th, the whole city of Austin shut down and this is the reason why. Look at all of that ice! Our deck was a solid piece of ice along with our driveway and my car! Steven got to stay home from work on both Tuesday and Wednesday. It was fun having him around for those couple of days, but there was some serious cabin fever by Thursday!

Because of the ice, we had to postpone closing on the house...again. We postponed it by one week, hopefully this will be it...it's the 4th close date that we've set! Let's hope that on Thursday, January 25th, we will be owners on a new home!

More Shower Pics

Here are more shower pics. Kathy and Arthur are busily working away at putting together the gecko. Maria is showcasing her and RJ's mosaic talents in their picture frame. There's Emili working away on her fish.

The last picture is one of my favs and it goes to show how self-centered I am. This is a pic of the hostess (l-r): Cindy, Kathy and Maria. As a thank you gift for hosting our baby shower, we got each of them an "adult" gift from Victoria's Secret. I realize that may seem odd as a thank you gift for a baby shower (it's a little bachelorette party-esque), but I figure that was the fastest way for my baby to get friends...hehe...I'm telling you, it's all about me!

Working Away

More shower pics. The first is B and Neha. Maria thought that they were a couple, especially since Neha is sporting that gorgeous e-ring these days, but no, they're just friends. Not to pimp out a friend or anything, but he's single if anyone's interested. ;)

The next pic is of Melissa and Alice. They did such a great job of drawing those elephants! I had to use a stencil and even then both of my parents commented on two separate occasions that my elephant didn't look like an elephant. Oh well...

The next pic is of Jessica and Ken showing off their car mosaic. It kind of reminds me of the blue Chevy nova that we had as a car growing up. I remember that the car had blue vinyl seats, those were the days!

The last pic is of my parents working away on the turtle mosaic. Not sure if you can tell in the picture or not, but the turtle is sporting an anatomically correct black eye, black feet and red lips. I've heard of snapping turtles, but is there such a thing as a kissing turtle?

Baby Shower on 1/6/2007

Here are some pictures from the shower. We all got to sit together on one long table. It felt like we were all back in kindergarten working on an art project!

I really like the pic of the hands on my belly. He was very wiggly that night, he was probably just excited that everyone was there because of him. :) It's no wonder first borns are the way they are! Usually when people ask to feel him kick, he doesn't kick. For awhile, I was thinking that he'd have some kind of performance anxiety! That definitely wasn't true during the shower. He was moving and grooving!

I really like this last pic of me and Steven. Looking at this picture, I just think to myself that this kid has no chance of showing his eyes when he smiles...all I see is slits where eyes are suppose to be!

Baby Shower Art

Maria, Cindy and Kathy threw us a couples baby shower on January 6th at The Mad Potter. We had such a fun time!! Each couple or individual person got to paint a star tile or square tile or do a mosaic and we'll use the pieces that everyone made as artwork for the nursery! RJ mentioned wanting to put all of the pieces onto a toy box, which I think is a great idea, but I'm worried about it being too heavy! What if he can't open his own toy box? Wouldn't that be sad?

Star tiles, top to bottom: The fish tile was painted by Steven. Doesn't the orange fish look like Nemo? The "Is Born" tile was painted by my Aunt and Uncle visiting from the Philippines. Basically, the jist is that "A Star Is Born." The Harry Potter tile was painted by B and Neha. They definitely win the most original award! The T tile was painted by the newly engaged Cindy and John. I know the T stands for Tang, but I also see it as Thi, Cindy's real name...hehe, she's leaving her mark on the nursery!

Square tiles, clockwise from top, center last: The We Love You Tile was painted by Auntie Alice and Auntie Melissa. The elephants were inspired by our nursery's theme and the card they got us, notice how the baby elephant is holding onto the Mama elephant by the tail...it's the cutest! The baby tile was painted by Lizette. Lizette is definitely the person you want to call when you go painting at a pottery place, she has her own brushes! The quadrant tile was painted by Josephine. I liked the patterns that she picked for each quadrant, I had a hard enough time thinking of only one thing to paint! The stenciled elephant tile was painted by me. Yes, I am jealous that Melissa and Alice's elephant tile came out better than mine! The smiley face tile was painted by Carolyn. This tile just makes you want to smile back at it.

Mosaics, clockwise starting at fish, center last: Emili did the fish mosaic. She was the last one to finish and when she did, everyone started clapping! The turtle was made by my parents. There's an RT on it, I guess that means that he have to name the baby Ryan, if not, then this turtle is meant for me! Jessica and Ken did the car mosaic. I'd like to point out the chrome rims, I'm sure that was Ken's idea. The gecko (not geico) was made by Kathy and Arthur. Hopefully he'll be the only lizard in the nursery. Maria and RJ did the picture frame. Should we put a picture of Maria and RJ in it or the baby? ;)

Don't all of the pieces look great? I think that everyone did such a great job on them and I love how everything is so personalized. Thanks everyone for coming and spending time with us!!!

Me at 34 Weeks and 6 Days

I am almost 35 weeks in this picture...I still can't believe that it's been 35 weeks! I don't think that I've gotten that much bigger, but definitely rounder! I really do like this sweater, but it barely covers my belly nowadays. You can see it riding up in the picture. :) Only 5 more weeks left and then hopefully I don't have to worry about exposing my belly (and stretch marks) anymore!

It's funny because a lot of people have said that I don't look that big, but sometimes when I walk by a mirror, I'm surprised at how big I am! I guess it's all relative. :)

33 Weeks and 5 Days

This pic was taken at our most recent growth scan (we get them monthly). He's measuring 5.5 pounds, still one week ahead of schedule, like last time, which is great because that means that my GD hasn't gotten totally out of control making him a huge baby! It's kind of crazy that he's 5.5 pounds. At least that's 5.5 pounds that I lose immediately once he is delivered. :)

Again, this pic is kind of hard to see just because he really is running out of room in there! You can kind of see his face, eyes and mouth.

We ended up doing a non-stress test when we were at the doctor's office because when we were doing the ultrasound, he was asleep and wasn't moving much. Basically, they hooked me up to a fetal monitor and whenever I felt him move, I pressed a button and the movement was recorded along with his heartbeat. They were only looking for 2 movements within an hour, but he was up and kicking within 10 minutes, so we finished pretty quickly. :)

All of my other labs turned out good too, so things are looking good. My blood pressure is doing well and my gestational diabetes is doing even better (I'm down to only taking it one day a week). Yay! A little more than 6 weeks left!

32 Weeks and 5 Days

Here are a couple of face pictures. You can kind of see his arm and hand up by his face, almost like he's waving hi. He's head down (not breeched or butt first...yay!) and he's got his hands also down by his face. The weird thing is that his feet are also down there, I think it's like a really bendy fetal position! So whenever I feel a lump going into my chest/ribs, I think that's his butt. It's just amazing how he's fitting inside me!

Week 32

This is not the best picture, but you can kind of see his face toward you and the left side of his face is being squeezed...he's running out of room in there!

31 Weeks

Here is baby Tangy at 31 weeks. Whenever we get an ultrasound, they always ask us if we know the "flavor" of the baby and we always say, "Yes, it's a boy, unless you tell us otherwise," because you just never know! In the first pic, the doc wrote "Still A Boy." One issue we haven't run into is him being shy...he's always ready to strut his stuff! He is definitely not a shy baby!

The second pic is of them measuring his heart rate. This time around, it was 141 bpm which is in the normal range. He's been ranging between ~130 bpm to ~150 bpm.

The third picture is a profile of his face. If you use your imagination enough, you can see that he has his hand up to his mouth. He was probably sucking on his hand. Isn't he the cutest?

Me at 32 Weeks and 6 Days

We took this picture when I got home from the shower. I needed a hair cut, so I got it cut the day of the shower and had salon styled hair. :) It's not going to look that good ever again!

I don't have any pics from the actual shower, Heather or Holly, do you have any?

Also notice the lack of stuff in the background...slowly but surely, we are getting things packed...woohoo! Our close date got moved back to January 18th...less than 2 weeks left! 

My Shower...1/4/2007

The lovely ladies that hosted my shower got us the Baby Bjorn, so, of course, when I got home, Steven immediately took it out, assembled it and started playing with it! Here he is testing it out on our 10 pound baby Button. :) I should do a before and after Baby Tang picture...hehe...

I had a great time at the shower thanks to all of my hostesses! We played a few games (btw, baby food is gross!), ate and opened presents. Thanks again everyone! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

I'm an Auntie!

Meet lil Miss Samantha, isn't she a cutie? Her momma finally sent me pics the other week and while I was looking at them, I thought to myself, I want one...we've got a little over two months left...I can't wait! Congrats to baby and momma, I can't wait to see you both over Easter weekend! 

Congratulations to Xin Xin and John!

They got engaged a couple of weeks ago and guess what? I'm going to be a bridesmaid! Yay! :) The wedding is set for January 2008. That means that I was a bridesmaid in 2005 for Maria and RJ's wedding, 2006 for Kathy and Arthur's wedding, and 2008 for Cindy and John's wedding...c'mon Mae or Lydia, get hitched in 2007, so I can be a bridesmaid next year to keep up the trend!

In case you're wondering, no, John is not standing on a step, he is that tall (and Xin Xin is probably wearing stilettos and she's not a short girl!). I thought that Steven's height at 6'2" was an issue...have fun with that Xin Xin! 

House Update

As of last Saturday, the 16th, the house had carpet! There's still quite a few things that need to be done though, like the sprinkler system and landscaping which they'll probably do the week we close, we got pavers for the front entryway and the patios that still need to be put in, we're adding a small deck off of the baby's room, we need a fence, and the wrought iron railings need to be added to the patio areas. Those are the biggest things that I can think of right now, but besides that, there are a couple of things in the house that need staining like the staircase and mantle, and the paint needs to be touched up everywhere. The independent inspector that we hired is coming out on Friday to look over the house. I'm really interested in what he's going to find, you really just never know. Next week, we'll have our New Home Orientation on the 28th. The house should be really close to being done on Friday, so I'm super excited about that. It's really crunch time now...it's so exciting! Once we move in, I'll make sure to take more pics to post!

Our Baby Boy at 29 Weeks and 5 Days

These pics are from our monthly growth ultrasound for December. Isn't he cute? I think that he has Steven's nose and lips. :)

He measured 1 week ahead and weighs 3 1/2 pounds. At our last ultrasound, he measured 2 days ahead, so in the last month, he's grown an extra 5 days. They said that it's a side effect of the gestational diabetes, but the good news is that measuring one week ahead isn't that uncommon and it's not anything that we should be worried about. Everything else looked normal, which at this point, we're very thankful for!

After the ultrasound, we met with the dietician and I am officially on a diabetic diet which basically means no simple sugars, no fruit until lunch time, and I have to limit my intake of carbs. It's really not that big of a deal until I start craving dessert. At least there are ways around it, like sugar-free ice cream...yummy! I have to take my blood sugar 4 times a day, once in the morning before I've had any food, and then 2 hours after each meal. I have to admit that this was the part that I was dreading the most, but pricking myself has really not been that big of a deal. It doesn't hurt as much as I expected it would and I don't really have that big a phobia of needles or blood, so if this was going to happen to anyone, I would probably be the best person to have it happen to!