Matt + Janae

The doctor was an older short skinny doctor with glasses. I later found out he had previously run three hospitals, a ultrasound school for over 20 years, and now is hired on a consulting basis by Kaiser. Needless to say, he was very experienced. He kept on saying he just does what he's told and couldn't deal with the bureaucracy anymore. I've read a bit lately and been thinking of a bit about situations where hospitals, insurance, and the risk of law suits creates policies that may not be necessarily in the patient's best interest. I tried to get him to comment on these situations and he said he couldn't comment as he was employed by hospital and referred me to administration. I wish he would have talked. He was still very nice and gave us more pictures than he was suppose to telling us not to let the hospital know.

It's an alien...I mean it's a girl

The first shot of the face I saw looked like an alien. Unfortunately it didn't get too much better, but were able to find out it is a girl. Usually the doc gives 85% guarantee that it's a girl. He's giving us 95%. I think the picture is pretty definitive...I really hope he's right. May have other issues if he's wrong.

As he got going, it was amazing to see all the devloping features on the baby. You can see the parts of the heart, brain and other systems developing. My favorite was the circle of willis.

Getting to be at the sonogram was a miracle in itself...

It's a miracle!

I won't forget the morning we had to go to the sonogram and all that had to happen for me to be there. I wasn't going to miss it. It turns the night before I had a lot to do for work that had to be completed the next morning.

Tuesday night was tough as it was past 11pm and still had many tasks to complete, one of which required me to wait on others to finish before I could start. This was in addition to the tasks that had to be completed Wednesday morning. Without the sonogram, I would have just come in earlier Wednesday after a late night Tuesday and been done with it. With the sonogram scheduled at 8am at Fair Oaks, almost an hour drive from our home, I had few options. I could get a hotel room near work, come in around 4-5, finish, and have Janae meet me at the office before going to the appointment together. I could go home, sleep a few hours, have Janae go with me early to work and wait until I finish. None were ideal as I would have been rushed in the morning and also risked not getting done before the deadline.

I needed 3 or 4 over-night processes to complete successfully for Wednesday morning. These are standard processes that were available only early in the morning. I made non-ideal back-up plans in case I didn't have them around 5am or so. Around 11:30 pm Tuesday night, all of heaven aligned perfectly. The nightly processes were completed! It then came to me to set the system clock to the next day as to trick the apps I needed to run as if it was Wednesday morning. I was able to finish everything a little before 2am. I headed home and found myself waking after only 3.5 hours of sleep before heading to the appointment.

Posted by Matt Huang at 9:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Janae and I found out at the beginning of this year that we are expecting a baby. I still remember the morning that she awoke me. She said she wasn't feeling well and hadn't felt quite right for a few days and had a suspicion that she may be pregnant. The pregnancy test affirmed her suspicion. I was in a bit of shock. I made her take the test again. Positive. Over the next few days she took a few more just to be certain.

We wanted to do it again when we went to the doctors for our first visit, but they said that it wasn't necessary as the home tests test for the presence of the same chemical. It was our little secret for the first few months as this is the highest risk period. No need to get people worked up especially if something happened.

As time passed, both of us got more and more excited that someone was going to join our family!

It's a parasite

The first trimester was extremely difficult for Janae as she was incessantly sick with no appetite and naturally lacked energy to do anything. Looking back, she was pretty lifeless. The time was one where we were both very concerned as were the doctors, who asked us to check in and performed sonograms every other week. The only comfort I gained from the doctors was the fact the baby was growing a healthy rate. In fact, I recall at one visit the doctor asked if we were having twins because the baby felt so big. The sonogram affirmed we weren't having twins. Fortunately, Janae never had to get an IV for not eating like Mandy and others have had. Aaron put it best when he called the baby a resilient parasite that will suck the life out of the mother if necessary.

Mom has been absolutely wonderful during this time. Although she didn't show it too much, I can tell she is very excited to have a grandchild. It's her first and I guess at a certain age you just want grandchildren. The time for me to understand is far away.

Since Janae gained her super-hero sense of smell, her yummy home cooked meals and lunches have stopped. I lived on microwave food cooked in the basement (smell from the kitchen was still too strong). This liberty was rather generous as her Autumn and Celeste had to eat outside in the cold! I later started bbq-ing. Thanks Kyle and Kristin! Without your bbq I didn't experience sympathy starvation!

Mom has been a tremendous help during this time. She cooks food at her place and brings over to us once every couple days for Janae and I to eat. I can't express enough the help this was.

Janae lost about 20 lbs before regaining her appetite and energy. On the bright side she hadn't started showing yet and looked fabulous!

Why is it when I want to lose weight I can't stop eating and when I need to gain weight I can't eat a thing?

It's a hungry parasite

Janae has just re-gained her appetite and she is making up for not eating the last 3 months! We celebrated by going to eat at Panang last weekend. This weekend we went to Lighthouse Korean Tofu soup and bbq twice! It's nice to be able to enjoy food with her again.

Posted by Matt Huang at 10:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Janae was good enough to surprise me on my 30th birthday with a visit from Jerin and Wami, who happened to be in town for work and visiting other friends. We had planned on getting together later in the week, but Janae re-arranged the time for my birthday. Given Janae hasn't been feeling well at all, I was planning on a very low key birthday and perhaps do something with friends at a later date and just spend the evening with her. The last thing I wanted to do was to leave her while going out with friends or family, which she had proposed earlier. She went ahead with the plans without me knowing.

Jerin was kind enough to bring a cake. Mom was kind enough to take Jerin, Wami, and Beverly out to dinner at Bonefish. It was my first time to eat there and was happy to find a good seafood restaurant in our area. It was a great unexpected birthday gift.

Posted by Matt Huang at 10:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I've been lucky enough to substitute teach early morning seminary this year. It's been quite the challenge to not only wake up and show up at the church building at 6am, but to be prepared to teach a sleepy group of high school students. I've taught both Sophomore and Junior classes now and have been surprised how much I've enjoyed it. True they are sleepy at times but so am I. The best part is when they respond in ways that show they really get it. One day after teaching the Junior class, a Lindsey, a quieter girl, came up and asked me for an extra copy of an Ensign article I handed out that day and started talking to me. She wanted to share what we discussed in class that day! Another anecdote from teaching: Kevin runs track and shared a story once where he and a friend were running in practice and his friend asked if Mormons believed in Jesus. His friend tripped and fell on his face immediately after asking and said, "I guess they do." Kevin just smiled. Pretty funny.

The kids are amazing and a testament to me of the quality of young people today. This is refreshing given everything you hear in the media about the youth of today. They wake up and attend seminary every day of the school year. This they do on top of their school work and the time they spend in their sports and other extra curricular activities. Their beliefs in Christ, good nature, and positive attitudes are inspiring. The picture below is of the sophomore class.

Posted by Matt Huang at 9:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So I've been very bad about keeping up this blog. It's now the end of the first quarter in 2007, I figure it's a good time to get current.

Thanksgiving

Mom was overly generous for Thanksgiving by inviting 6 of her co-workers, Autumn, Christian, and Celeste made 9 and with Janae, myself, and Mom, we were at 12. We put two large tables together to fit everyone in her small kitchen. The two large tables were just large enough to seat the people and not large enough to fit the food. The table filled with three traditional Chinese hot pots and left no room for the turkey. Nobody seemed to mind as they were full before remembering the turkey and still got to enjoy the best part of Thanksgiving - taking leftover turkey with them.

To top off the celebration, Janae and I brought over a birthday pumpkin pie to celebrate Mom's birthday is on the 22nd. It was perfect since everyone was already gathered together.

Law School for Mary

We were lucky enough to see Mary as she traveled around for law school interviews. She arranged a schedule where she flew to North Carolina to interview at Duke, come up here tovisit us and interview at GW before finishing off the tour at Case Western in Ohio. What an ordeal! She has been accepted now to U of Utah and Case Western. Case Western is not too far away. GW and Duke are close too, but she hasn't heard from them yet.

Janae's Birthday...she's 25 again...

November 9th is a popular day for birthdays. Kevin Palmer and Megan Getz both have the same birthday as Janae. I called to enlist the help of Kasey and others to throw a little surprise for everyone that Sunday. We got together casually for a little cake and good time together. Cash and Amy, Kyle and Kristyn (who made a delicious cake!), and the Leonards also showed. When the cake came, Janae innocently asked who's birthday it was before she realized that it was a little birthday celebration for all three of them.

Brodi was good enough to tell Kevin that someone was going to throw him a surprise birthday party that weekend when they carpooled home that night. I had called him previously to see if his home would be a good place to host. He was leaving for the weekend and had to decline, but was good enough to tell Kevin. Classic Brodi.

It's all about the food. Mom took us, Christian, Autumn, and Celeste to a delicious Korean restaurant that's open 24 hours for good eats. I heard it's the pride of Korean businesses to be able to open 24 hours. It's a sign of achieving a certain level of business success - the level where the business finally takes over the last couple hours a day you had away from your business. Even if I don't understand, I know it's good eats. We followed dinner with desserts at Shila, a Korean bakery for more good eats.

Christmas with the Fam

Everyone came in for Christmas at Mom's place. Debbie came in with Charles and Mary came without Mike. It's always fun to get together and have a low key holiday watching 'Arrested Development' and doing little else.

Mary was kind enough to offer her hair cutting services as a bonus gift to me. I did need my hair cut and thought it was convenient. She provided many self-acclaimed accolades and the lazy part of me bought it. The result was not too bad considering it was free. Saving grace is my hair grows really fast and I can always say I had a Mary Huang haircut.

Posted by Matt Huang at 11:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)