Baby Wong (Caleb Wong & Caris Wong & Chloe Wong)

caleb has so many clothes… certainly more than chris. probably more than me now. we’ve gotten 2 huge storage boxes of clothes from patrick & denise cooley – some of the stuff still had tags on it. and today, i get a box from my sister sandra… more clothes! everyone with kids tell me you need lots of clothes–that babies go through several outfits a day. well, if caleb ends up being the cleanest baby ever and wears only 1 outfit a day, i just might be able to make it through his first year without ever having to wash baby clothes! we will have a clean baby, right?!

good thing caleb’s clothes are so tiny. a newborn outfit is maybe the size of chris’ arm sleeve on a short-sleeve t-shirt. hee-hee. otherwise, i wouldn’t know where to put all these cute clothes!

wow, so this week has been a little crazy…. starting to show all these signs of prelabor. i’ve been going through this nesting syndrome. of course, it could just be my normal “gotta get everything done” personality, but i’ve never had a desire to wash walls before or wash loads and loads of clothes. i started washing baby clothes and couldn’t stop. i told myself, “ok, you really don’t need to wash bigger sized clothes… after all, caleb won’t need those clothes for close to 12 months.” did that stop me? nope! all of caleb’s clothes are washed… for the first 2 years of his life!

sunday, i started losing my mucous plug, which is normal starting at 36 weeks. i’ve been getting more braxton hicks contractions and lower abdominal crampiness…. all normal body preparation for labor. thursday, i went to a pediatric trauma/critical care conference. during the last few hours of the conference, i started getting stronger contractions every 10 minutes. the contractions didn’t let up even as i drove home. so i went into an “oh no” phase… i called in sick to work for the next day (friday)… and i started running all these errands. after all, i HAVE to buy that replacement light bulb for that hallway light that’s been out… right? hee-hee. so when i finally get a heap of stuff done, including packing our hospital bags (for us and the baby)… and finishing up our thank you gift basket for the nursing staff, i start slowing down and resting. next thing i know, these contractions slow down too and pretty much stop. ha… i was tricked! but the false call kinda made me realize that i’m so unprepared physically and emotionally for this labor. i don’t wanna be like my fellow coworker who worked one day, and started labor that same night. i actually do want some rest before caleb comes. so, it’s official. i went to my ob’s office on friday and turned in my official leave of absence form to work. no more 12-hour ER work days!

So, we just got back this past Monday from Orlando. We went there to attend General Council for our denomination (Christian & Missionary Alliance)… and also to have some out of town fun before Caleb comes! So, we took a redeye flight out to Orlando. I figured this would be great… I can sleep during the whole flight. I’ve always been a great plane sleeper, right? I don’t know why, but being pregnant makes finding the perfect sleep position impossible… especially when you’re in a middle seat on a full flight. During the flight, I tried to be good by doing leg exercises. But, at one point, I felt my feet get all tingly. In the middle of the flight, I got up to use the restroom and discovered that I could no longer fit my feet into my TEVA sandals. that’s strange, but i was sleepy so i went to the restroom, got back in my seat, and ignored it. by the time we got off the flight, i looked down at my legs and feet and saw that they were like double the size they used to be. hee-hee. i couldn’t see any of my ankle bones. so on monday, we (chris, my mom, and me) went to epcot (my 1st time there). i agreed to use a wheelchair. kinda funny… me in a wheelchair. here’s a pic of chris & my mom massaging my legs to try to get them back to normal. did you know that you get treated like a princess when you’re pregnant? hee-hee. it’s hard to see how big my legs/ankles/feet are in the pics we took, but here’s one of me with chris at the moroccan pavilion. my legs look pretty big.

my feet and legs still aren’t back to normal. but that’s ok… i had so much fun out in Orlando. it was great being at Council. it was great seeing Pastor Dan again. it still weirds me out looking at my legs and body. i certainly didn’t look like this 9 months ago. hee-hee. i’m already 36 weeks pregnant! caleb joshua will be here soon.