More Visits & Mail Packages

Dee came by to visit Popo today.
I need to let people know to bring their own drinks, since we don't have anything at our house... since I only drink water & cow milk.

Dee played with Popo all afternoon.
While Sat... napped...

We also received packages and congrats cards.

I have a play date w/ Ards on Friday.
Yay, my week is filled up ^__^

Visits & Taru Hat

We made a separate PopoLife blog.
It's basically for grandparents who want to stay updated w/ Popo's life, so it's in Japanese. But feel free to check it out once in a while.

Anyway, Ards & Sasami came by after work today.
Sasami brought me some lotion (for any stretchmarks I have) and a knitted hat for Popo!

Very cute.
I asked for neutral colors, so she made the main color brown. With a touch of pink to make it a bit girly.

Oh, we played dress up w/ Popo alright.
She's our little dress up doll *laugh*

Popo was being good & modeled for us as we took pictures.
Photos will be uploaded to Flickr soon.

Out of the Hospital

We left the hospital around 1pm today & all three of us got home safely.

I had a lot of trouble climbing up the stairs in front.
So I'll be living downstairs this week... altho I'll try to go upstairs at least once a day.

I'm going to concentrate on pumping; tummy recovery; and getting my swollen feet back to normal. My feet currently look like eggplants. I'll be warming them all night long w/ a heating pad. Hope that works.

Since I can't walk much, じゅるる is in charge of feeding this week.
Good thing we have Sat and Ichigo helping.

Ichigo will also be helping us w/ adult food.
We've gotten so used to having food delivered to us at the hospital, we didn't really think about how we're going to eat at home. Someone's gonna have to make dinner, you know?

I'll be stuck at home this week.
If anyone wants to visit, bring food or babysit while I nap, it would be wonderful.

Oven Progress: Hospital Day 5

Forgot to mention that Popo has a real name now.

Hospital staff have been asking us for her name, and we'd had to say "we haven't decided yet..." each time. Which was kinda sad, since most new parents have a name decided by the time they're at the hospital.

We had decided on the kanji for the name too... but after Googling the kanji, we decided we would need to change it. Well, only the second kanji.

Yama clan came over again in the morning.
Sat wanted to take pictures w/ a better camera than the one Papa Yama had (not that his compact digital camera is bad or anything...), so she made him come over again. They stayed for about 3 hours... kinda overstaying their welcome, don't you think?

They gave us opinions on Popo's kanji name, which was helpful.
We're also gonna ask Papa T and Mama T for their opinion too. Altho we have a clear favorite.

My feet & legs are super swollen right now... and the left foot is fatter than the time I broke my ankle. I didn't think that was possible, but I have a really thick, really elephant-like foot & ankle in front of me. Keeping it raised isn't helping... What to do, what to do?

I think we're checking out tomorrow... but none of the doctors showed up today, so I don't know what's going on. Hopefully they show up tomorrow morning.

Oven Progress: Hospital Day 4

I realized it should no longer be the "oven progress," since the bun is already out. Oh wells.

Ichigo & Papa Yama came at 6am today.
6am!?
They decided to stop by before dropping stuff off at Koge Haus.

We didn't have the good camera w/ us, so we only took pictures w/ Papa Yama's new digital camera. I guess that's good enough.

We took a nap before Sat showed up at 10am.
I finally got to shower! Yay!
It's been 3 days... gah!

Mama T & Papa T came by around noon.
But the hospital was doing a hearing test on Popo right when they came, so I had to have them wait outside for a few minutes. No hearing problems for Popo, tho!

Ards, Nads & Jams came by in the afternoon, after watching How to Train Your Dragon. We want to see it, but I dunno if we'll ever get the chance to see it in the theaters. Maybe they'll have a mommy screening somewhere... nah, doubt it.

We have the rest of the day to ourselves.
I have rashes all over my body, so I might want to get checked out before I leave.

BTW, we're here til Monday.
Although we could possibly check out on Sunday, if I'm up for it.

Oven Progress: Hospital Day 3

Popo didn't let us sleep at all last night.
After being a pleasant angel for her first 12 hours, she decided to show her true self. Lots to look forward to in the coming years.

Of course it didn't help that all the nurses came in to probe us. Temperature here, heart rate there, blood pressure over here, blood test over there...

じゅるる and I took turns napping.

At 5:00am, I was told to try walking.
Oh my gosh, it's the hardest thing ever! I did walk over to the bathroom (4 feet away). I'm supposed to practice walking for the next few days before I'm discharged.

I was told my urine bag would be removed around 11am.
That'sa bummer, because I was really enjoying not having to go to the bathroom to pee. I think everyone should try it out... you can keep drinking, but never go to the bathroom! Awesome stuff.

With the urine bag gone, I'm now on pills for pain killer.
I think it works better than going thru the IV. They're keeping the IV on me until I pee normally... But that came quickly, so now I'm free!!

But it's still hard to walk around.

Today was visiting day for a few friends & family.

Sat & Ichigo came again. Around 10am?
They brought Paris Baguette bread, but I can't eat any of it. Grr!! I should be allowed to eat things other than "clear liquid" tomorrow.

Dee came by around 1pm.
He took videos of Popo. One of Ichigo changing the diaper, and Popo letting out another squirt in the middle of the diaper change. Ewww.

And Ards & Sasami came by after work.
They brought dinner for じゅるる and Sat. And they also brought gifts! How sweet of them.

More visitors tomorrow.

Oven Progress: Hospital Day 2

Semi live-blog.
Altho I probably can't type anymore soon...

12:00am
We were told doc prefers another dose of medicine C b/c no progress yet. Waiting for medicine to be delivered from pharmacy.

12:30am
Now I have too much contractions for medicine C.
Back to medicine P, which is more controllable.
But told to hold off on epidural until further along.

4:00am
Was in lots of pain w/ no sleep.
Nurses convinced me to get epidural, even tho I still hadn't progressed.

4:45am
Got epidural.
Miracle drug, I tell ya.
No more pain.
Can finally get some rest.

6:00am
A bit of pain in back.
Hallucinating hamburgers... weird.

7:45am
Doc shows up for check up.
Still only 1cm!!
Broke water, made a lake.

8:45am
Still making puddles.
Ichigo calls for update.
She said she'll come by w/ food for じゅるる.
I'm not allowed to eat anymore, but really hungry.

10:00am
A bunch of nurses rush in, trying different things to check Popo's heart rate. They give じゅるる some scrubs to wear over his clothes. We guess c-section, but not sure yet.

10:30am
Taken to OR.
At 3cm and Popo's heart rate getting low w/ more contractions, they think c-section is best. I'm shivering in the OR...

10:54am
Popo taken out.
Looks like an alien.
Cries like one too.

Updated
Oh, Popo did have a cord around her neck.
Three times!
No wonder she wasn't coming down...

11:30am
I'm patched up, taken to recovery room.
I crash.

Popo & じゅるる head to the nursery for Popo to be cleaned up.
Sat & Ichigo arrive around this time.

1:30pm
My blood pressure is too high, so they keep me on monitor for another hour.
Tried out suckling.
This is the first time I hold Popo in my arms.
Wiggles around like an inch worm. Gotta get used to this.

5:30pm
Finally released from L&D area, taken to PP area.

During the ride over to the new room, I get sick & burp. Then puke out water. That was a complete surprise. I wasn't even feeling nauseated.

7:00pm
After an hour long nap, 2nd attempt at suckling.
Popo's already been sucking her thumb since she was in the nursery, so the nurse said she'll do fine suckling. And sure enough, she latches on good.

Can't get on Skype, so check here for updates.
Oh, we definitely can't get on IRC either.

11:00pm
Third and final attempt at suckling for the day.
じゅるる got to change diapers for the first time too. We're still not sure how to clean up all the smeary poo. Popo isn't liking it. Hehe...

I don't get to eat anything for today.
Just ice. But moderately.

Tomorrow, I get to have liquid food. Like Jell-O.
But before all that, I need to pass gas.
I was so gassy all these months... but now I no longer need to fart. Hmmm... I hope I get to eat Jell-O tomorrow.

Oven Progress: Hospital Day 1

Pretend live-blog.

10:45am
Checked into hospital.
We were supposed to go in at 10:00am, but we were kinda running late. Had to pick up breakfast at McD's. Egg McMuffin good♪

11:30am
After answering paperwork related questions & stuff, medicine C in.
I'm not allowed to pee for 2 hours. Hrm...

11:45am
Sat showed up w/ Arby's for じゅるる.
She took pictures too.

And brought me manga. How sweet.
Okay, not really sweet b/c she wouldn't let me take it home last night to read, since she wanted to read it first.

We started watching Julie & Julia.

1:00pm
Sat leaves.

1:30pm
Lunchtime♪
Chicken w/ tomato sauce + rice, salad, bread, apple.

Oh, finally got to pee.

2:00pm
Medicine C is working.
Pain level is around 3.
I still have 10 hours before the real pain starts.

I get a call asking about the menu for dinner, breakfast & lunch.
They have several options. How nice.
Too bad I can't eat anything after midnight.
じゅるる will just have to enjoy the breakfast & lunch for me.

4:15pm
My doc came by to visit.
Next time I'll see her is tomorrow morning.

6:00pm
Dinnertime♪
Turkey & rice soup; turkey & cheese sandwich; lemon bars.
I had the soup & half the sandwich & half the lemon bar.

Pain level going up to 4-5 range.
Watching the news.

7:50pm
Was told pain doc was dealing w/ two c-sections, so our epidural should be planned for about midnight. Looking forward to 4 hours later.

11:30pm
Took out medicine C.
12 hours of medicine, 10 hours of early labor, absolutely no change in the exit.

Pain level around 6-7 when it's bad.
We were told not to get an epidural yet, so I have to endure this a little bit longer w/ medicine P. Torture? Yeah-huh.

Looks like we're not sleeping tonight.

Oven Progress: 5 Days Past Due

I went to the doc today.

I'm officially checking into the hospital tomorrow.
At 10am.
Whee!

I'll be on the initial medication (like a tampon) for the day.

And if I'm not that further along, then I'll be on the secondary medication (IV) at midnight. And be in pain all night long, until the doc arrives on Thursday morning. Yay!

I don't know how much pain I'll be in on Wed, so I'll have my PC on.
And be on FB.
And Skype.
And possibly IRC.

Thursday, I'll be dead.
Don't try calling me or anything.
But じゅるる will probably update FB or something.

And I'll be in the recovery room on Friday.
Hopefully open to visitors, but I'll let people know via FB, Skype, IRC.

And probably checking out on Saturday.

Maybe I'll take Vu's mini Dell to the hospital, so I can do video Skype w/ the T family.

PS. Parking at St John's
If you park in the lot next to St John's, it's $12 for the day (or anything over 1 hour).

If you want to park on the streets, Arizona will most likely have space. Santa Monica is metered parking (2 hours) only. You can't park on most of the streets perpendicular to Santa Monica b/c they require permits (=residents only).

More info on how to come into the hospital later.

Oven Progress: 2 Days Past Due

Still no change in status, folks.

I ate leftover gyoza & deep fried lamb pieces at Sat's yesterday... and the grease made me a little sick. I guess I'll stay on a bread-only diet for a while.

Today, I slept all day.
Stayed on a mostly carb diet.

じゅるる bought me a cheesecake from Angel Maid. Happy♪
And bagels from Noah's Bagels. Happy♪

Maybe there'll be more progress tomorrow.

Oven Progress: Week 40

So we went to the doctor's again.
Not much progress seen yet.

We were told that there's really nothing good about leaving Popo inside too long, so I'm going in again next Tuesday. If still no progress, then I'm checking into the hospital on Wed afternoon & they'll put me on gradual medication to induce me.

And I should be popping the creature out by Thursday.

Popo might just be a procrastinator just like me.
If it's me... I'd be getting my ass ready on the 18th (today), and be done the next day.

Anyhoo, stay tuned.

Oven Progress: Week 39

Since I've been getting emails & messages, and I've been bad at responding to everyone... here's an update about Popo (week 39).

I had slightly painful contractions for a little under an hour on Saturday night. So I thought I'm about to pop the sucker out any minute, but noooooooothing happened on Saturday. Or Monday. Or today (Tuesday).

So we're on standby.

I have another appointment tomorrow, so we'll see how it goes.

I don't think we're hitting the target date of the 18th, tho.

Shiz Can't Cook Series: Corned Beef & Cabbage

Last week, I bought a package of corned beef brisket cuz it was on sale at Ralphs.

I've been wanting to make corned beef & cabbage w/ the slow cooker... and St Patty's Day is coming up... so perfect, eh?

I bought the smallest packet of meat.
2.5 lbs.

Cuz it's only the two of us eating... unless Sat wants some, but she never seems to like anything I make.

I didn't know how long you need to cook it, so I looked up recipes online. One recipe said 8 hours for a 4 lbs chunk of meat. Also suggested adding potatoes & carrots. Ooh, that's a good idea!

So the meat went in first (around 1pm).
And I put mini red potatoes and carrots in around 5pm.
And cabbage around 7pm.

Our dinner is always 8pm or so, b/c じゅるる comes home around that time. Altho we're not always hungry around then, cuz I snack all day (usually around 6pm), and じゅるる also eats his lunch leftover in the afternoon too (usually the last 1/4 of a Subway sandwich).

Aside from the meat & veggies, I only put in water... which I was skeptical about. But it came out delicious!

Yay!
I think I could eat this pretty regularly.
I wonder if corned beef briskets are available all year round... or if it's only a St Patty's season thing.

Shiz Can't Cook Series: Mexican Out-of-a-Box

I made dinner again today.
Three days in a row!? It's gonna start snowing in LA!

I decided to make Mexican tonight.
I looked through the flavoring packet section & found an enchilada packet. I read the ingredients on the back... tomato sauce only (aside from ground meat & tortillas). That sounds easy enough.

The packet makes red sauce. Water + tomato sauce + packet.
Okay, that's easy.

Next, cook the ground turkey.
And pour a bit of the red sauce on it.
Okay, that's easy.

Next, heat the tortilla. Put sauce on the tortilla. Put meat in the tortilla. Wrap tortilla.
Done, done, done, done.
I also decided to add a bit of cheese inside the tortilla too.

Next, pour the rest of the red sauce on the enchilada wraps.
Hmmmm... there isn't enough red sauce.

Oh well.

I also made Spanish rice out of a box.
And stir fried some frozen veggies & added baby spinach.



The enchilada wasn't soaking wet, but it was moist in the inside, so it was okay. Next time, I'll only wrap 4-5 enchiladas, instead of 7 (the instructions said 8, but I could only squeeze in 6 enchiladas inside the baking dish... and the 7th went on top *laugh*). Then we'd have enough red sauce to make everything soggy.

Shiz Can't Cook Series: Tomato-y Italian Dinner

I cooked dinner two nights in a row!
Am I becoming more domestic? Oh ho ho.

Well, it's not really cooking... more like heating things up.

I wanted to eat gnocchi, and we had a packet from Trader Joe's.
Of course I thought it was the creamy type... which I find out later that it's not (I didn't check before I started cooking).

But the TJ gnocchi packet is never enough for two people, unless you have something else with it. So I decided to make something w/ chicken.

I considered making Parmesan chicken, but that seemed too difficult... so I looked up stuff on CookPad (Japanese recipe site) and decided to go w/ a tomato based stew-y chicken.

Onion, mushroom, chicken, spinach + pasta sauce.
Okay, pretty simple.

Then I open the gnocchi packet... ack!
It's tomato based too!

So we'll end up w/ two tomato dishes. Gah!

We also had frozen garlic Parmesan toast, so we toasted it in our toaster oven.

I wanted to also serve Brussels sprouts (frozen w/ garlic butter), but we thought it was too much food, so we decided against it. It really would have been nice to have something green and not tomato based...


Look how red the plate looks!

Next time, greens!

Shiz Can't Cook Series: Faux Chinese Dinner

Today I made dinner.
This would be like the 5th time I made dinner since getting hitched (been 8 months?).

I decided to make fried rice cuz we got a ball of rice from Ichigo.
But no matter how much salt I'd put in the fried rice, it wasn't getting salty. So I decided to add curry powder, but that just made it spicier. Oh well.

And since fried rice by itself would be too boring, I decided to make soup.

Instant, of course.

I found a packet of shark fin soup no moto, so I decided to use that. It just needed to be mixed with 250ml of water & when it's boiling, just drop in an egg. And voila! So easy, and so yummy.

I should have stir fried green beans or something, but I ran out of time.


Still... the fried rice could have been saltier.

Tech Support Day w/ Vu

Vu came by today w/ a new laptop in tow.
A family friend needed a new laptop, and Vu found a good deal for them.

To thank(?) him for getting the laptop, we went to Hop Woo.
Didn't have duck, tho.

We were going to get the laptop ready (change to Japanese settings, etc), when Ichigo calls w/ another friend who's having trouble w/ SlingBox. I never heard of it, but apparently it's some box that lets you stream video from your TV (or whatever video source) to someone off-site.

After spending 2-1/2 hours trying to figure out the problem... it seemed like the box was broken. Oy.

So we went to pick up a new one at Best Buy.
And since we were already hungry by then, we ordered pizza from Papa Johns and picked up hot wings from KFC.

Tomorrow I go deliver the laptop to the family friend.
And sometime next week, I go set up SlingBox at the other house.

Bento & Museum Trip

じゅるる took the day off today, so we planned to go to the Getty Museum.

I've never been to the Getty, despite all those ISA years planning field trips... including trips to the Getty (old Malibu location). So it was a good reason to go.

We made bento to eat at the Getty.
Onigiri (w/ salmon), tamago (sweet), chicken sausage, sauteed spinach & leftover mac and cheese.



At the Getty, we ate our bento... and as usual, I didn't taste the onigiri mixture before molding them into triangles... and there wasn't enough salt. I thought the salmon would be salty enough! Thank goodness other things in the bento had plenty of salt (except the tamago). I would make the tamago sweeter next time too.

We participated in two tours.
The architecture tour & the garden tour.


Unfortunately, by the time we went on the garden tour, it got really windy and chilly. And my belly never can handle chilly weather... and while we were walking through some French furniture area of the museum, I had to go to the bathroom really bad.

But the museum closes at 5:30pm... and I think I went in around 5:15pm.
So by the time I got out of the bathroom, there was a museum staff member waiting outside w/ じゅるる, ready to kick us out.

My tummy still wasn't 100%, and I had to go to the bathroom at the entrance area building too. Thank goodness the gift shop is open til 6:00pm.

I took lots of photos, but found out that my computer is too old to read SDHC cards. I'll have to go to Best Buy tomorrow to get an adapter, then I can add photos to Flickr and here.

Update 3.07.2010: I got a SDHC card reader, so I uploaded photos to my Flickr account. Unfortunately, despite the good camera, I suck at taking photos... I picked the more decent photos, but they're pretty sucky nevertheless *sigh*

Shiz Can't Cook Series: Kare-Kare

We found some oxtail at Albertsons, so we decided that'll be our next slow cooker project. While discussing what flavor to go with, we bought a packet of beef stew, but I also mentioned that I like the peanut butter flavored oxtail soup that Ards makes.

So I looked up the recipe... also consulted Ards (who consulted her dad & auntie)... and decided I'll give kare-kare a try.

Here's the oxtail

Mighty fine pieces.
I also added 4 strips of short rib fillets to add more meat into the soup.


Chopped up onions & bell peppers, and tossed it into the water along w/ the meat pieces. I think you're supposed to sautee the onions, but I was okay w/ them just boiling & dissolving away. Maybe I should have put half in the boiling pot & sauteed the other half.

And bell peppers... we just had a bunch from Ichigo, so I tossed them in. They're not part of the original recipe.

I ended up using the kare kare mix I bought at a Filipino supermarket... but I think there was too much water in the slow cooker (4 cups).

So there was no flavor just w/ the kare kare mix, so I started dumping in peanut butter. We only had crunchy peanut butter, so there are little bits of peanut chunks floating in the soup.

It still seemed like there wasn't enough flavor, so I added more salt. But it still wasn't thickening much.

Then じゅるる said to let the slow cooker simmer w/ the lid off, so the water would boil down. How come I didn't think of that?

After a few minutes, the consistency was right.
And tasted pretty decent too.

Of course I could have added more garlic, but I don't like the smell of garlic right now. And fish paste would have been handy too, perhaps.


But it came out pretty good.
And the oxtail was soft and yummy. That's all that matters, anyway.

Slow Cooker Cookbook (Borrowed)

Dee came by today with a cookbook in one hand & crutches in both armpits.

He (his mom) is letting me borrow the cookbook b/c I wanted to try more recipes w/ the slow cooker. It has lots of photos... and some of the recipes look difficult... but there are plenty of yumminess I want to try. Now it's all about figuring out what some of the ingredients are (skip those! says Dee).

As for the crutches... something about his ankle area hurting.
Maybe broken, maybe sprained, maybe nothing at all.

Well, it's good to stay off the painful foot anyway. If it's broken, you don't want to move it around too much and have to wear a cast for longer than 6 weeks.

Speaking of which... my ankle has turned into a rain-sensor.
It gets ache-y whenever rain is approaching. Handy little sucker...