My second trimester

The second trimester was an interesting combination of residual morning sickness and rapid waist expansion.  The first six weeks were much like my first trimester which, if you read about it, was less than awesome.  However, once I hit week 19 ~ 20, I was able to remember what life was like without nausea and a whole new experience began.  I re-discovered food and spent a ton more time in the kitchen baking and cooking.  I didn't realize how much I missed that! 

I started showing (finally!), and my body decided to make up for lost time and gain the first trimester and second trimester weight all within about a month.  It was kind of shocking to get on the scale in the doctor's office at my last appointment and hear how much I had gained, but when you look at my weight gain overall, it actually isn't that much.  Within a span of about 2 weeks I "grew out of" all my pants and was left with 2 dresses, 3 skirts, and 1 pair of shorts that still fit.  No more procrastinating shopping for maternity clothes for me!

Anyway, I have tried to make the most of this trimester by socializing (I still have friends?!) and traveling (see the Babymoon posts for details).  Trip has enjoyed the second trimester as well because I have actually been wearing makeup and doing my hair again, so I look like a human being  :)

The best part about this trimester is experiencing Baby Bean's development.  We found out that our little "jumping bean" is a girl, and we couldn't be more thrilled.  (This has been confirmed at the last 2 ultrasounds, so we are pretty confident that we won't be surprised on her birthday)  I started feeling her move this trimester, which is both awesome and sometimes weird.  When I first started recognizing her movements it seemed like she was always hitting my bladder.  It was such a foreign feeling, I knew it was the baby.  Sometimes I joked that she liked to jump on it, but I think she must have known that was the best way to get my attention because since I have gotten better at feeling her, she has left my bladder alone.

She sits low in my belly, and even though she moves a decent amount, she is not as active as other babies that I hear about.  She rarely rolls around; instead she just kicks and punches and occasionally jumps.  She has gotten the hiccups a couple of times but not very often.  Baby Bean often sleeps during the day and gets active around 9 or 10 at night.  Sometimes she wakes me up in the middle of the night...looks like we are going to have another night owl on our hands!

Trip and Baby Bean have had a great time getting to know each other too.  When she is poking me, you can actually see my belly move (reminds me of a popcorn bag when it's popping).  Once, Trip poked my tummy while talking to her and we could see her poke back in the same spot!  They did that a couple of times and he got a kick out of it.  It seems like most of the time I tell Trip to come and feel and then she will stop moving...typical :P  She has been nice to me so far and avoided my ribs (for the most part) which I appreciate because I don't like that feeling at all!

The second trimester was all too short and very sweet.  We have enjoyed having some time to get to know our baby's personality a little better and of course, we have loved getting some good quality time in before she joins us  :)  Here's to a smooth third trimester and delivery!

Bad Parenting

Waiting to see the vet and not too sure how she feels about it

Quick Update:  Tigger's x-rays showed no foreign objects in her intestine, so the worst case scenario did not happen, thank goodness!  Looks like it was a false alarm and she is doing just fine.


To some people, pets are just pets.  Similar to other household items, they are just one more thing to take care of and should it become inconvenient to keep a pet, they find some way to get rid of them.  To other people, pets are family.  They stick with you and you plan around their needs just like any other family member.  These people would do anything to save their pets.  Of course, these are 2 extremes and most people fall somewhere in between.


Trip and I both treat our pets like family.  I believe that even though they are not "people", they are still living and breathing creatures with distinct personalities and they deserve to be treated as such.  I recognize that pets are not the same thing as children, but part of the reason we brought Jack and Tigger to Malaysia (and we will take them back to the US with us) is because we took on a responsibility when we adopted them and we take that seriously.  Unfortunately, just like caring for children, caring for pets is not always easy.  We started out by being very conscientious caregivers; the kind who would never let a regular vet visit slip by and who would notice the second something seemed amiss.  However, living in Malaysia has made the regular vet visit difficult (they don't do preventative medicine here), and lately I feel like I keep missing things that I shouldn't be missing.  


Poor Jack had an allergic reaction to the flea spray that the vet used when we put him up for boarding one weekend, and it took his hair falling out for us to notice (how did we miss his itchiness?!).  Sweet Tigger hasn't gone to the bathroom in a couple of days and it took that long for me to even notice!  As soon as I did, I took her to the vet, but I'm afraid that my negligence means that the situation is not going to be good and she will suffer for this.  I hate knowing that it all could have been prevented too.


I brought some balloons home after my baby shower (post about this to come soon), which was mistake number one.  I should have remembered that our vet had told us not to have anything with strings around because Tigger would eat the strings and that could cause some major problems.  Mistake number two was when I caught Tigger eating said balloon strings and still didn't remember what the vet said.  We did get rid of the balloons, but the damage had already been done.  On Saturday, Tigger threw up 3 times, but then started acting relatively normal.  We watched her on Sunday, but she seemed to be doing fine, so we promptly forgot about it.  That was mistake number three.  Yesterday, I noticed that she hadn't used her litter box, and we decided that if she still hadn't by the time we got up this morning, we would have to take her to the vet, which is where I just got back from.


The vet was very nice and I know that Tigger is in good hands, but I could tell that he was worried about her condition.  She is running a temperature and might have an infection, but the worst part is that he thinks her intestines are blocked.  If this is the case, then we will have to do surgery to fix it, otherwise they will go necrotic and she will die.  I had to leave her at the Animal Hospital so that they can do x-rays and watch her overnight and it is killing me!  This is all my fault and if I had not been so caught up in what was going on with myself, I would have noticed this sooner and things wouldn't be so bad.  How could I have become such a neglectful pet parent so quickly?  Am I going to be like this with my own children?  I feel like such a bad mom right now.

Welcome home

Captain Jack and Tigger were certainly glad to have us back from our little adventures for awhile.  Both of them welcomed us home in their own sweet way.

"Dad cuddles, my favorite"

I'm so happy, I look high...

I'm just gonna lay on your pillow and not move for a long, long time

Tigger was rubbing against Trip's leg for at least 5 minutes straight.  Of course, she stopped when we started videoing. 

Babymoon part 4: Vietnam

Vietnam was the last of our weekend trips.  It was pretty cool and we enjoyed it, but didn't take nearly as many pictures as we normally do.  I guess there are only so many pictures of a city that you can take  :)  One of the best things about Vietnam was the food, but sadly, I didn't take any pictures of it.  It was delicious all the same.  Something that immediately stood out about Vietnam was the traffic.  We thought driving in Malaysia was crazy, but Vietnam took it to a whole new level.  I managed to get a video on the way to the airport that kind of gives a sense of what the traffic was like, but it really was crazier in person.

The family sandwich!  We see this in Malaysia a lot, but I haven't gotten a successful picture before.  At least in Vietnam they wear helmets.

Our first day there, we did a walking tour of District 1, which is where most of the activities, museums, and buildings of interest can be found.  The city is pretty diverse, with colonial style buildings nestled among high rises in one area, while just around the corner are street markets surrounded by a hodgepodge of houses crammed next to each other.  We found some great markets for shopping and stopped at some of the highlighted "tourist stops".  Most of these were museums, which were interesting because Vietnam certainly brings a different perspective to the table when discussing history.

The Reunification Palace, or Presidential Palace...very retro on the inside

The opera house.  Very different architecture than the rest of Saigon

Some cool boats on the Saigon River

That evening, we went to a Water Puppet Show that was pretty cool.  The music and voices were done live by people sitting on the sides of the pool, while the puppeteers worked the puppets from somewhere...we really couldn't tell where until they revealed themselves at the end.  Here are a couple of clips of the show.








The next day we took a half day tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels which were used by North Vietnam during the war.  It was pretty interesting and amazing how small the tunnels were!  I did not go inside because I was pretty sure I wouldn't fit, and even if I did it didn't look comfortable.  Trip, Steve, mom and dad all went through the tunnels and came out no worse for the wear.  Here are some of the pictures we took at the tunnels.

Trip showing off the tiny little secret entrance to one of the many tunnels

A picture of the tunnels from the inside...most of the time Trip had to crouch down or crawl on hands and knees, that's how small they were.

One of the US tanks that was taken out by the Cu Chi guerillas

One of the jungle paths through the Cu Chi area.

Trip shooting and AK-47.  You could pay to shoot different types of weapons in one part of the park.

Our tour guide, "Slim Jim" was pretty entertaining.  Trip got a video of him explaining how the cooking fire smoke was dispersed so that the American troops would not see the North Vietnamese camps.





After we got back from the tour, Trip and I took off to one of the markets to get some cute little baby clothes.  I really wanted to get some Asian clothes for our Baby Bean so that she has a souvenir too.  We did pretty well and got 3 adorable outfits.  

Can't wait until she will fit into these!

I had more videos to upload, but it just is not working for me right now, so maybe I will add them in later.  It was a fun trip overall, and we enjoyed spending time with the family.  I am glad that it's over for now; I was getting worn out after all the vacationing, and there are still plenty of things to do around KL  :)