Good News Mama!

It was only just a little over a year ago, that my friends and I were sitting at Yardhouse and toasting to a new year. We were dressed up, excited, and happy to be out celebrating. We got free "Happy New Year" headbands & hats and the energy was rising in the crowd. “2014 is our year!” I yelled, and as the fireworks shot into the sky, it felt like confirmation that something promising would happen the next upcoming months. And I was right! It wasn’t only a special year for Kevin & me, but a special year for my friends celebrating along with us. My best friend Jamielyne started dating our mutual friend Darrel, and 8 months later, they got engaged! Jason, our college friend, got offered a stable position at a popular fashion company and had his first baby-a FUR baby, a yellow lab named Jedi! And our friend Zach got into Talbot Divinity School! As for Kevin and me? Well, let’s just say that this year was the year of our baby Evangeline! Here we are celebrating ...

Evangeline has been home with us for almost a month now (already?!) and we've finally created a routine...it's a "new normal" for all three of us! Currently life consists of drawing up medications, breastpumping, cleaning bottles/breaspumping accessories/syringes, feeding our baby and changing diapers. When Evangeline was born at 6 months gestation, our routine consisted of us going to the NICU for 88 days. It was exhausting and difficult, but it was the only way to see our baby (we can't stress how thankful we are that she's home!) And well, just as we got used to this "new normal," I'm going to have to get used to another "new normal" in about 2 weeks! Why? Because Kevin will be going back to work, since his paid-time off will end soon! Honestly, having a baby is already life-changing as is. But to have a baby with special needs is a lot of work! It's like an overtime job! I always ask Kevin, "What am I going to do when you...

Bye Bye NICU!  Having Evangeline home can be described as two polar opposites. On one end, we as parents are elated with joy and happiness! We waited so long for the NICU Journey to end and we were just so relieved we didn’t have to go back to the hospital! It was such a long process to have to find a parking spot, show our visitor/parent pass downstairs, go upstairs, sign in, scrub up to our elbows for at least a minute, then put everything we are carrying into a pillow case. Every.Single.Day. When you’re in the NICU, you don’t have much privacy either. So once we took Evangeline home, it was such a shock to have peace and quiet. To go to bed and to see her there next to us was such a surreal and pleasant adjustment. And for the first time ever, we heard her snore and grunt and sigh (it’s practically impossible to hear any of the preemies do this in the NICU bc there’s always something going on, whether it be beeping alarms, nurses chatting, or doctors doing their roun...

In the NICU, a surprising majority of the nurses who care over our baby ask us, "How did you choose the name Evangeline? I love it!" We smile because that's a sweet compliment for us as newbie parents. Kevin actually had never heard of the name before, but I first heard it when I was at Pastor Greg Laurie's Harvest Church in Riverside with my best friend Zerah when we were 19. We were surprised at the beginning of Sunday service when they said that they were dedicating a baby to God! I had never witnessed a baby dedication before, and the hope was that the baby would come to saving faith when she became older and eventually get baptized. There were these two happy parents who went up holding the cutest little baby! She was wearing a cute little pink headband with a giant flower and a white dress. I remember the man introduced the family, and said, "This baby's name is Evangeline, which means 'good news' or 'gospel'..how wonderful!" I was ...

When Kevin and I found out we were pregnant, we would talk about and daydream about the day that our baby would arrive. We talked about what we would pack in our bag to the hospital, how we would have an infant car seat ready, what we would do to prepare the nursery...None of that happened because nothing happened the way we expected! In fact, the day before she arrived, we had finally decided a day to have the baby shower and maternity photo shoot! Some things you just can't be prepared for... Kevin and I have been blessed with our daughter, Evangeline,  for 10 whole days (outside of the womb!) She was born at 26 weeks gestation. Ideally, a baby stays inside the womb for about 40 weeks, so she was born premature and in the last week of our second trimester. Her birthday was July 23, 2014 at 7:11 pm at Long Beach Memorial. She is the biggest blessing of our lives and we praise God for her being alive and stablizing in the NICU! So here's the story of the day she was born......

Kev and I are finally moved in to our new place! This is a really exciting time for the both of us because it's the first time in our marriage where we get to live on our own, with just the two of us (I don't count our two dogs hehe). This will obviously be short-lived, since a baby will be taking up all our attention in about 3 months (how exciting is that?!) I'm trying my best to spend as much time with Kev before the baby comes. I'm actually at The Masters College in a separate room while Kevin is in class. I'm really thankful for this time since I stopped working and get to be with him. Almost every morning I drop him off at work and then pick him up after, and depending on his schedule, two or three nights of the week are spent driving to Santa Clarita to attend one of his classes at TMC. God willing, he will graduate in a year. If he keeps on going at the pace he's going, he will graduate by next summer. That means that it took him 4 years to get a Bachelo...

Praise the Lord! Today we received our keys to our new house...Well, technically we don't own the house. We probably won't even own a house until we are way older. We are renting a new house, and the lease ends in 3 years so it will be our home for a while! The way we even got chosen to be the tenants of this home was God's blessing upon us as well. We had someone really help us out and he was very beneficial on our behalf. I'm so excited to move into this new place because it will be our first "home home." We are already blessed to be living in the house that we live in (it belongs to Kev's parents) because this house is super huge and beautiful. But it never really felt like our home. We came into the house and everything was already decorated. We weren't living by ourselves as a married couple. Kevin grew up in this house as a teenager. This is the same house I'd visit Kev in as a 15 year-old. We used to dance on the streets as teenagers and r...

My doctor called me two days ago to discuss the results from the special 20 week anatomical ultrasound (which examines the baby's body parts close-up, specifically to determine if there's a birth defect or a possibility of Down's syndrome).  As I type this, I am currently 24 weeks pregnant. The fact that she called at 6pm on a weekday was a little bit alarming, because that means something was up. She told me, "The baby is ok, but your placenta is very low. It is right next to your cervix, which means we cannot do any pelvic exams or physicals. If you ever have to go to the ER in the next few weeks, let them know your doctor said nothing is allowed inside of you. Also, we need to reschedule another anatomical ultrasound so we can see if the placenta has moved away from the cervix. Otherwise, if it places itself over your cervix, you may develop placenta previa, and we will take it from there." I remember learning about placenta previa when I was in my LVN progra...

I can't believe that we are more than halfway done with this pregnancy! I wish I had been posting more consistently about our experience so far. Pregnancy is tough on my body but I am very thankful to be holding our little baby inside of my womb! It's such a blessing. It's also great to have such a supportive and understanding husband. Kevin's always so sweet and concerned for me whenever I look like I'm about to throw up (which is at least once a day)! It's also really nice because I feel like I'm bonding more with my mommy. I have always loved and appreciated my mom, but I did feel kind of envious growing up because I felt like she was closer to my brothers than me. She even mentioned it at her speech at my wedding, "Anak, I know you thought I spent more time with your brothers but it's because I knew you were making good choices by yourself. I am also very proud of your two academic achievements..." HUH?!?! What a transition! And what TWO ...

When I first started this blog, I wrote about the highlights of our wedding day. That was a little over two years ago. And now, here I am, about to write about one of the most monumental days in our lives: On Valentines Day 2014, Kevin and I found out we were PREGNANT! I still can't believe it. I really can't. I am now ending off my 13th week of pregnancy, and am technically in the second trimester zone. Because of my PCOS, because of all the blood tests, two of my past OBGYN's told me to that I wouldn't be able to conceive naturally. Honestly, there is something very soul-crushing about being told you are not able to do what every woman should be able to do. I have never prayed so hard in my life...there wasn't a day for the past two years that I didn't pray fervently for the ability to one day bear a child naturally. Well, I can say I prayed for something else harder than that, and that was for my to-be husband. I prayed for my husband since I was 19, the ...