Bun in the Oven

Today is Day 5 of Week 14 and we were able to listen to the baby's heartbeat for the first time at the doctor's office; the sound was AMAZING! Dr. Horvath said the heartbeat sounded good and strong. Ken taped the audio of the heartbeat and made a little video of it with a previous ultrasound picture of the baby; click here for the link.

It's been a long while since I've posted on the blog. I haven't even finished posted about our Japan trip. To catch people up on what's been going on, here are a few stories.

Planning Baby: Yes, the baby was planned; it took a while for my work trips to meet-up with the right time, but it eventually happened.

BFP (Big Fat Positive): I've been getting use to the forum acronyms. Being close to a week late, I told Ken we should do the test on Saturday (this is back in April). It was either the storm or mother-nature that woke me up at 2 a.m. Friday morning. Ken doesn't remember, but I told him I was taking the test. After waiting, two distinct lines appeared and I ran into the bedroom and said, "LOOK AT THIS!" practically shoving the test in Ken's face. Ken said something to the fact that he couldn't see and finally he realized what I was showing him. We were both excited and I found it tough to get back to sleep.

First Trimester: Talk about a rough go. I think they should officially change the word "morning sickness" to "pregnancy sickness." During the first trimester, I sometimes would be sick ALL DAY LONG; yeah, no fun. Also I hate my prenatal vitamins. I've been taking them for a while before the pregnancy and sometimes they would make me sick, well during the first three months, they did a great job of making me hate food. Just this week I received the okay from Dr. Horvath to start taking gummy prenatal vitamins (I hate swallowing pills and the other vitamins had 156% DV of iron, talk about causing problems). I have also been allowed to stop taking progesterone capsules. The dosage wasn't high, 200mg per day, but they still made me feel ill.

Boy or Girl: We are not going to find out until the birth! Ken and I decided we have been waited long enough to have a baby, what is a few more months of waiting to find out the gender? What about preparation? Currently our minds are thinking of doing a underwater/ocean theme to the room for the baby. There are plenty of non-gender items to buy and I don't mind greens, yellows, or browns. For those who want to do guessing: my neighbor-friend, Amanda, says my bump currently looks low; I was extremely nauseated and tired during the first three months; and I craved and still crave Cripps Pink apples and other fruits.

The Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Incident: I won't be eating mac-&-cheese for a very long time. During the first trimester, the only way I could feel decent was to have something in my stomach at all times. Ken has been great and has cooked or retrieved anything that I thought sounded good. One night I asked him for mac-&-cheese, which of course he whipped up. Our mistake, Ken placed the whole batch in a big bowl for me to eat from and I didn't know when to stop eating. I bowed down to the porcelain god; I think Ken thought I was dying. Worst night ever.

Funny Sayings: [Disclaimer: We BOTH thought these were funny at the time.]

Me to Ken: "I'm gonna poop out a loaf of bread, cuz I have a bun in the oven!"

Me: "I think it's a boy."

Ken: "Why?"

Me: "Because now I burp and fart a lot like you do!"

Me: "Hand me my towel."

Ken: "I think you've lost your pleases."

Ken to Me: "After dealing with all your whining and complaining, taking care of a baby that constantly cries and shits its self is going to be a piece of cake."

Here is the sonogram taken on June 15th, 2011, Day 6 of Week 11:

At this visit Dr. Horvath said the visible eye-sockets make the baby look like a little owl. At the time of the ultrasound the baby was about the size of a lime. Currently, the baby is suppose to be the size of a lemon.

Plum Blossoms

I think it is my and Ken's destiny to view castles in the rain. Osaka castle was still beautiful in the rain and this time the plum orchard on the grounds was in bloom. We located some geocaches and toured the castle and grounds. I took oodles of plum blossom photographs, but have only chosen a few to share; enjoy.

SAMURAI TIME !!!

Plum orchard.

Made it to JAPAN!

After a short flight from Taiwan, we arrived at the Kansai International Airport. We exchanged money, picked up some tourist information, and rode the train to the hotel. Our home-away-from home in Japan was once again the Hotel Monterey Osaka; Ken and I stayed at this same hotel in June of last year. The only difficult part about getting to the hotel is the maze of underground passageways from the train-station to the hotel. It was only until the last few days of our stay, did we finally get the hang of the signs and didn't have to do any backtracking.

On our first night, we ate at a restaurant in the Dotonbori. It was a rainy evening and the neon and mechanized signs, which the Dotonbori is so famous for, were powered-off to conserve energy because of the quake. The night ended well with the location of a geocache.

Kansai International Airport.

Heading to the hotel with luggage in tow.

Area where we found the geocache.

Leaving Taiwan

Our time in Taiwan was short. We packed our belongings and made our way to Japan. On March 11th, 2011 while in Taipei, we heard from Helen's Dad via telephone an earthquake/tsunami had hit Japan. While eating snake in one of the night market restaurants, we watched the destruction unfold on a TV inside the restaurant; water enveloping everything, debris, fires, and so much loss of life.

The next day, The China Post reported, "8.9-magnitude quake ravages Japan - 5th largest quake in the last 100 years, equal to impact of 11,000 atomic bombs, sets off 23-foot high tsunami". The quake was later increased to 9.0 from 8.9, has shortened Earth's day by just over one-millionth of a second (1.8 microsecond), and shifted the Earth's axis by ~6.5 inches. Such POWER!

Ken spent hours on the phone making calls regarding our Japan plans. News from Osaka was promising, our flights were changed from touching down in Narita International Airport (Tokyo) to Kansai International Airport (Osaka). We arrived in Japan on March 15th, 2011, four days after the quake.

Master Packer.

The following are images from the Taoyuan International Airport.

The "Taiwan Green Wall", which measures 12.2 meters (40 feet), covers an area of ~36 square meters, and is made up of over three thousand different varieties of plants.

Our ride to Japan.

Us as Taiwanese aborigines.

Mom and Dad :)

The terminals in the airport are very elaborate.

The port town of Danshuei, Taiwan

We traveled by boat to reach the port town of Danshuei (Danshui). This historic town has remnants of the island's European colonial history. In Danshuei, we met up with more of Helen's family, took in the sites of the town, and of course, we tried more Taiwanese street food. There was no holding back on trying new food (read below to find out more).

Deep-fried, spiced, potato on a stick.

Hmmmmm... this looks interesting...

Pig's blood cake: sticky rice and hot pig's blood is formed into a flat cake and is cut into rectangular pieces and skewered. It is usually garnished with soy sauce, hot sauce, powdered peanut, and cilantro.

Sugarcane juice.

Spicy mini snails.

The mini snails were great!

Quail egg covered in mini fish.

Bust of one of Taiwan's most famous foreign residents, Canadian missionary and benefactor George Leslie Mackay (1844-1901). Locals call this "the cuttlefish statue."

Danshuei Church, built by Mackay; however, there is not much left of the original structure.

Eating more food...

Red bean filled pastries.