Naming Chamu

Of course by now all of you should know that Chamu is just a nick name. I came up with this name because the baby is a Cham and it rhymes with Shamu*. Chamu has lived up to his name and is a human whale in terms of his size. My dad has taken on the task of coming up with Chamu's Chinese name since week 15. Chinese name is not easy. You need to look at the baby's Chinese zodiac sign (year of rat) and his last name Cham (詹) in order to come up with the right combination of strokes and characters. Rats, for example, cannot have particles in the character that has water (水), rain (雨), sun (日), mountain (山) knife (刀), fire (火), or strength (力). Rats are likely to have better luck when there is any of the following elements: rice (米), field (田), moon/meat(月), wheat(禾), people(人) , gold (金), cover/shelter (top of 家) and grass (艹).
Dad first came up with a very nice name: 詹鈞宇(Junyu). We stuck with it for a while but since Jaime can only pronounce it like jinyu (sounds like 金魚(gold fish) or 鯨魚(whale)), we had to go back to Dad for a second look.
My mom also has studied Chinese names before so she helped pick the best strokes combination that would go with Cham. After putting all the plausible combination of characters in a final short list, we sent to Mom & Dad in Panama for their opinion. Right now, we are down to two choices and still haven't made up our mind. It is a big responsibility since the name will be stuck with Chamu for his life time but I think either one we end up picking will be a good name for Chamu.
As far as English name goes, we have already decided on a name with Spanish origin. Forgive us for not being able to disclose it yet since we are afraid of people telling us about some ex-boyfriend or some dorks having the same name as we picked. Both names will come on the birth announcement with Chamu's picture on it so people will have nothing else to comment other than saying how cute Chamu is (yes, "cute" is the only word you can say; and I beg you to be kind to him and to my feelings even if he does not turn out to be as cute as you expect). Until then, he will continue to be the little Chamu that grows at the same rate as Shamu.
*For those of you who are not familiar with Shamu, here is the google image.

C-section

Spoke to a good friend of mine last night. She has had two babies and both time with C-section. Her recovery both times were quite well. I have somewhat made up my mind but actually I'm still quite scared of both ways of delivery. And I guess this is not just me because the other day I was chatting with J who is due 6 weeks after me, she is also quite anxious given that we are both first-time moms. But somehow Chamu has to come out one way or another.

Just managed to squeeze into my doctor's schedule next Monday. At least I get to have the check up as soon as she comes back to Hong Kong and perhaps we can have Chamu on the 14th (which coincides with my best friend's birthday!).

Still working this week. Chamu has been a very good boy and will continue to grow nicely until we see him next week.

Hot Hot Hot

When you are pregnant, it feels like you are carrying a portable heater all the time. These days, I often wake up in my own sweat 4am in the morning while Jaime curls up under the sheet next to me because he is freezing (with all the windows wide open and the ceiling fan running). The other day I had to move to the living room so I can stop sweating and go back to sleep again. It is quite a strange scene because I was always the one who is always cold while he is the one who is hot. But with a bun in the oven, it means your body can't do much to adjust the heat in the oven. I already cut my hair to ear length but within the last three weeks, it has already grown to almost shoulder length (thanks to super human growth hormone that my body is producing). I feel like shaving it completely like what Britney Spears did last year, maybe that will help me cool down more and leave me no worries about how to address the hair washing issue during confinement. I'm almost certain that it will match Chamu's hairstyle anyways (but he will look adorable and I would look freaky with the same look).
Yesterday Jaime and I went to Ines' one-year birthday party and met quite a few parents and babies. Margaret has not invited any non-parent friends because she thinks it would scare people off and since we are only two weeks away from being parents, she wanted us to get a taste of what parenthood is like. Most of the parents are bankers and high achievers who are used to doing things on schedule and at their demand but most of them admit babie are here to test your ultimate patience since they do not follow any logic and each of them has his/her unique personality. It is still quite a scary thought to think how much our life will change after Chamu's arrival. We are so used to doing things spontaneously like watching midnight movies and playing video games until 3 or 4am (which would put us as failures under the Gina Ford model). I guess there is nothing we can do to ease our worries and we can only take it one step at a time.

Chamu @ 38 Weeks

Today we had another check up for Chamu. I am exactly 37 weeks and 6 days. Chamu gained another pound and is now estimated to be around 8 to 9 lbs (Doctor thinks he is more likely to be 8 lbs than 9 lbs). At any measure, he is a big baby. Cervix is still at 3.1 cm so no chance of him coming early. My doctor is actually going away from May 6 to 12 so I guess the earliest Chamu can be scheduled for delivery will be after May 12. Still somewhat debating on the topic of C-section but with such a big baby I guess the decision is quite clear.

It's getting very difficult for me to move around. I can't sleep on the bed anymore. For the last two nights, I had to sleep on the couch because it is softer than the mattress. Even so I can only sleep sitting half way up. I'm approaching 80 kgs (I don't even want to convert it to pounds because it's disgusting). My stretch marks are slowly crawling above my belly button. It is hard to imagine that I will have at least another 10 days to go but if Chamu wants to stay inside and grow to be a 10 pounder then we will just need to wait patiently for our plumpy fat baby... We are still missing a changing table, a car seat and the nursing chair but have made some good progress in finalizing the list (especially now we have 10 more days...).

Pregnancy Privileges

People have told me that when you are pregnant, others grant you privileges. You no longer need to wait inline at the restaurants. You get a seat when you board public transportations. You get to have right of the way and you are always first inline for anything. Somehow this has not proven to be true in my pregnancy experience. I continue to wait inline at restaurants, at bus stops and at taxi lines. One mother tried to run me over with her baby stroller (because I walked too slow) and instead ran over my mom's foot. She said she already said 'excuse me' so she was not at fault (and I had to yelled at her while my mom's god son threatened to run her over with his body after saying excuse me). One father almost ran me over with his Mercedes on the sidewalk (and Jaime had to kick his tire and the father even got out of the car wanting to instigate a fight while his wife and kid were watching). Today, I was asked by the security guard at this neighboring building of our office tower to wait in the slow taxi line just because I'm not their tenant. The person behind me was trying to defend me and told the security guard that it is crazy that I'm not already put to the beginning of the line given how pregnant I am. I yelled at the security guard and said that he was heartless to ask a pregnant woman who can be due any time now to stand behind 20 people after she has been waiting behind 10 people. I was so mad that I almost broke into tears. I left that taxi line and walked to the nearby hotel instead. In the process I twisted my already swollen ankle. Right now I'm sitting on the cab on my way home after waiting inline for 20 min at the hotel. I told myself not to get too angry but I just cannot believe how people in this town have really lost their sensitivity and compassion. It's very sad and I hope that Chamu will grow up to be any of these heartless people I have encountered during my pregnancy.

Chamu Dropping

In the past two days, I have started to feel tremendous amount of pressure from Chamu in my pelvic area. This is quite a strange feeling. I don't think (and I hope not) he is engaged yet because that means he is coming out soon. I need him to stay inside for 12 more days (until after May 8)... He has been moving a lot and the Braxton Hicks contractions are occuring more often. I think the water around him is getting thinner as Chamu grows bigger and I can feel him a lot more (elbows, knees, feet and his little butt). I am having a hard time distinguish whether it's pressure from Chamu dropping lower or presssure from contractions. It seems like my belly is just tight all the time and all around.
We made quite a progress over the weekend to get stuff ready for Chamu. Thanks to Christy, we don't need to worry about his bed for now (will use Nathan's little Moses basket and Baby Bjorn until we get our own). We bought a bathtub, a breast pump, and a bouncing chair. We do need to buy a car seat still so we can bring him home safely from the hospital. We also started making the traditional Cantonese ginger/vinegar dish today (after Jaime tested the clay pot for lead carefully). We need to get a nursing chair and a changing table though.
Mom is back from Taiwan and she has been feeding me the right food to get rid of my cough and my elephant feet (and they seem to work!).
The Brazilian orchid which Jaime bought for me more than 6 years ago (his first gift to me) started to bloom this week. It has not bloomed at all since we bought it and for a long time we thought we bought a Brazilian green onion plant by mistake. And now it has five flowers blossoming at the same time! Isn't it beautiful? Just in time to celebrate the arrival of Chamu (that is, Jaime and I's love has now 開花結果). :)

37 weeks and counting...

We went for another check-up today since we are now officially in the last month. Chamu is growing nicely (estimated at 3.4 to 3.8 kgs) and Mamu has managed to maintain the same weight (76.7 kgs) for the last few check ups now. No progress on cervix though (still measured at more than 3 cm long). No chance of Chamu coming early and we will keep monitor his progress next week when we come back to the doctor's.

It seems like we have at least two more weeks to go and in the next two weeks I have to finish all the work so I can go on leave with a peace of mind. This may be a tall task: need to update the company budget, close a deal, hold a board meeting and then host an earnings call. I recognize that I do need to delegate and have a Plan B but it is easier said than done. It freaks me out that I may not be able to execute Plan A but I guess part of parenthood is to learn to let go that control freak side of me... I still do wish that Chamu stays inside until after May 9... After all, 1 day in the womb is more than 10 days outside and we want him to be a big and healthy baby!