The flu

Well, I've learned that being sick while pregnant is far worse than being sick while not. Started vomiting Sunday morning at 5:30 a.m. and continued without sign of stopping 'til 10 a.m. when I decided to head to the hospital. So I was there from around 11 a.m. 'til 4:30 on IV and some kind of anit-vomiting drip, and then on the fetal heart monitor to make sure everything was OK. It really sucked. Of course, this all had to happen on a Sunday when my doctor wasn't around! I was so sore and unable to get comfortable, and even a small sip of water would make me throw up. By the time I went home, I was able to keep down small amounts of liquids, but was still in pain and had terrible chills. I really believe that being pregnant made my symptoms worse - I haven't felt that bad or weak in a long time...

This was all done in the labor and delivery room, which was extremely hot. I know Koreans like to keep the temperature a bit higher than normal, but this was ridiculous. So now I have another point to discuss with my doctor about my birth preferences: since I'll have a private room, I want to be able to have some control over the temperature.

Luckily I'm feeling better today. Still not 100%, but worlds better than yesterday. I'm off to rest some more.

Too many cute things

When preparing for a baby, cuteness really shouldn't be a priority, but sometimes you just can't help it, especially when the stuff is affordable. I've been really good so far I think, considering all the cute kids' stuff there is out there.

Today Sejin picked up our crib sheet sets in Dongdaemun. We had them custom made because they're really hard to find here. One set consists of the matress cover, a top flat sheet, and bumper covers. When you go to Dongdaemun Shopping Town, you first have to find a seamstress (in the basement) who will sew for you, and tell her what you want. She'll tell you how much fabric you need to buy. One set requires about eight yards of fabric. Then you go shopping for the fabric, bring it back to her, and pick it up at the appointed time. All together, fabric + sewing, each set cost us 70,000 won, which I don't think is too bad to have custom made bedding. It's really cute fabric, too. I still have to wash it up and make the crib properly, but you get the idea:

Here is some other stuff I couldn't resist buying.

My doctor's appointment was good. I was told it's normal for me to be sore right now, so that's good; I like normal. I'm continuing to gain weight... so far over 30 pounds! Do I look impressed?

Getting there slowly

Baby preparations are coming along slowly. Most of the reasons it's so slow going is because I can't do much. If I try to do too much, I get sore and spend the entire next day on the sofa. I've learned my lesson. So I can only do very little at a time, and I give Sejin as much to do as he can handle.

Last Sunday Sejin's brother came over and helped us move stuff around. We got rid of one of our old wardrobes, moved all our newer wardrobes into the storage room, making it a walk-in closet, and moved the baby stuff into our room. It looks better already, but there's still a lot to get done.

I finished the Fantasy Naturale Top Down Baby Cardigan and I'm very pleased with how it came out. This would be an easy pattern to modify by changing the girly eyelet pattern to some ribbing or other edging.

Robbed?

Sometimes I brag about my Internet searching skills. I can pretty much find anything, in English or Korean. But I think this time I went too far. I scoured the Internet for days in search of a glider rocker. Finally found a site that sells them, only to find out that they are sold out and have no plans to get any more in.

So I scour for another few days and find another site. It's not sold out. Free delivery...awesome. I promptly have Sejin order the chair and pat myself on the back.

That was last week and no sign of the chair yet. Sejin called the "customer service" number on the site and it seems it's out of service. No emails are returned.

I think we were robbed of our 140,000 won ($140).

Here is the site: http://www.mozorishop.com/goods_detail.php?goodsIdx=560

At least it was only $140...but it still sucks to be a victim of such fraud.

I'm through looking for rocking chairs. I've got a comfy sofa and my nice new nursing pillow. That's enough.

A quiet visit

Well, mom left two days ago after a pretty low-key three week visit. Now the place seems kind of empty, but I'll get used to it again.

Mom in Dongdaemun:

Unfortunately, mom and I didn't get to do a lot. We did a few little shopping trips on her first days here, but one Tuesday morning I had a setback that no one was expecting. I woke up that morning and it was painful to walk, so I knew something wasn't good. So that afternoon we went to the hospital to find out that the baby had dropped (not good at only 30 weeks). The doctor ordered me to stay in and rest. So that's what I did. But I felt really bad that mom was here all the way from Canada and all we could do was sit around my apartment. The good thing is that we both got some knitting done and my mom did a lot of baking and cooking, which I really appreciated.

Multidirectional scarf I sent home for my sister:

Baby cardigan (one year size):

Saartje's booties (maybe six month size?):
Cable baby hat (3 month size?):
My mom baked this pie in my little convection oven:
Another good thing about staying in was that I had time to think about what baby stuff I needed, and I ended up doing a lot of online shopping. I got some serious deals on gmarket...far cheaper than what I'd found even in Namdaemun. Onesies for 2,900 won, sleepers for 7,000. Stuff like that. I couldn't even find onesies in the baby malls in Namdaemun and the sleepers I saw there were 10,000 won and up (some over 20,000). So the baby stash has been growing and I haven't even gone that crazy, money-wise. My list of things to get is growing smaller, which puts my mind at ease.

Baby stuff is piling up. Still need to make a place for it all...

I washed up all the cute little onesies and sleepers:

Anyway, I had a follow-up appointment a week later and I guess the rest paid off because the baby had moved up a bit and things appeared to have improved. I'm still supposed to take it slow, but it was reassuring to hear that things looked good. I've only been working about 2 hours a day while making sure to take rests here and there between work, laundry, cooking, etc.

I also received lots of gifts from Canada, which came over in my mom's suitcase. My sister sent me lots of goodies and my mom made a bunch of stuff, including a quilt, an afghan, two very nice receiving blankets, and plush baby blocks. I didn't expect all that stuff! I'm hungry. Wish mom was still here to make lunch!