The not-so-neighborly neighbor

I have been living in my house for 3 years and I have never met my next door neighbor!
Of course, this is no biggie. I am told that he works night shifts so he is never up and about during the daytime. Ok, that is understandable.

Earlier this week, I had Caitlin strapped to my torso and we were going for a walk around the neighborhood. On my way back home, I passed by my next door neighbor's driveway and saw that my neighbor was in the driveway!  It appeared that maybe he just got home and decided to stop and pull a few weeds from his driveway before heading indoors.

In my head, I thought "Oh good!  I finally have the opportunity to introduce myself and Caitlin to the neighbor".  I stopped on the sidewalk at the end of his driveway and said "Hi!!".
The neighbor stopped pulling weeds, stood up, looked at me, crouched back down, and resumed plucking at his weeds.
I spoke a little louder "Hello??".
No response.
I resumed walking and went home.

Wow.
I don't think anyone has ever been so rude to me.
It's one thing to ignore a person trying to strike up a conversation, but how in the world can a someone ignore a person wearing a tiny baby in a cute pink hat trying to strike up a conversation?  And if you are going to ignore a person, then just pretend that you didn't hear them!  Don't stand up, look the person in the eye, and then ignore them!!

I think now I know why I have never met my next door neighbor in the 3 years that I have lived here.  And it's NOT because he works night shifts.

Want to see how big I got during my pregnancy?

When I was pregnant, I donned the same gray dress every month, stood in the same pose every month, and had Jeff take a couple of pictures of me.
What for?
So I can see how much my belly grew every month!

I put all the pictures onto one sheet so you can compare side by side. hehe

I would have really preferred the lighting to be the same in all the shots but I'm not that talented.


I gained a total of 25 pounds during my pregnancy, which is actually the amount I was supposed to gain for someone my size (I didn't go under or over the recommended amount). 

Despite gaining the optimal amount of weight, Caitlin's birth weight was 6 pounds 1oz, which is considered very small compared to the average birth weight in America (which is 8 pounds).
I think that goes to show how big (*ahem* fat) the average American person is, and people are gaining WAY too much weight during their pregnancy.

Brand new heating, a/c, and ducts!

We finally did it! After 2 years of no heat and no a/c in this house, we finally got brand new heat and air conditioning units and ducts.  It made sense to change all 3 since the central heat and air were so old, it made no sense to repair them, and the ducts were so old and torn that they had to be changed as well.

I was reluctant to get our central heat/air fixed since it is just so expensive!
Shortly after the central heat broke, we had a HVAC guy come see if he could repair it. He had some guesses on why it was broken but nothing concrete.  And he said that if he were to replace the entire heating unit, it would be $9,000.  He did not provide an estimate for a new a/c and ducts.

Last summer, after the gawd awful back and forth with Sears Outlet regarding our broken refrigerator, they offered to send out an HVAC guy to our house for free heat/ac consultation and 20% off the purchase, as a consolation.  The quote that Sears Outlet gave us for just the central heat was also around $9,000.  And if we also wanted new a/c and ducts, the grand total would be $15,000 for all 3 and they would take 20% off the price if we booked that same day. 

That seemed way to expensive so we decided to stick with no central heat and air, and the poor guineas endured through another warm summer and poor Jeff endured through another cold winter (me? I think West LA weather is awesome year round!!).

Spring of this year, Jeff decided that we should fix the central heat and air anyways since it would make the house difficult to sell.  And if we have to fix the heat and air before we sell the house, might as well do it now so we can enjoy it too.  I reluctantly agreed, mentally preparing myself for a gaping $15K hole in our bank account.

Jeff pulled up 5 HVAC places on Yelp with glowing reviews, and booked free consultations with 3 of the 5 places (the other 2 charged for the consultations! ridiculous!). 

The first guy came and said that it would cost $8,600 for the heat, a/c, and ducts.
My jaw dropped.  That is way less than $15K!

The second guy came and seemed more professional than the first guy, and kept talking about how their company's focus is on quality.  The thought that crossed my mind was "Quality? hmm... sounds expensive...".  His quote for new heat, a/c, and ducts? $8,750!
Wow!  That's not much more than the first guy AND you get quality.

The third guy forgot he had an appointment with us so we had to reschedule.  Hmm.. not very professional already... He did not wear booties upon entering our house (while guy #1 and guy #2 did)... Hmm, not very considerate either.  However, this guy was running his own mom & pop business and seemed like a honest and friendly guy.  +1 there. 
After he did a quick look around our house, his quote for new heat, a/c, and ducts was $4,975!

Whoa!
For ~$3,600 cheaper than the other folks, I don't care how dirty he gets the place!  Hire some cleaners and there will still be extra money in our pocket!
We booked him the same day and scheduled for the install the next day.

It was estimated to take 2 days to get the work done but it ended up taking 3 because the workers were 2-3 hours late every.single.day.  Being punctual is apparently not their thing.  This also meant 3 days of loud noises and banging around the attic, which meant 3 days that Caitlin couldn't get any rest.  And at the end of the 3 days, the house was indeed, very filthy.

But we now have brand new ducts and working central heat and air for 1/3 the cost that we would have paid 1 year ago (the benefits of a crappy economy? good timing? who knows...)! 
We also have additional vents cuts into the ceiling of some rooms for more effective cooling.  How lovely!

Happy 3rd Year House Anniversary

Today is the 3rd year anniversary of the day we got the keys to our house!

Ok.  It seriously feels like just the day before yesterday, I was reluctantly house hunting.  And it feels like just yesterday that I was blogging that it was the 2nd year house anniversary, complaining that it felt like just yesterday I was blogging about our 1st year house anniversary.

When we bought our house in 2009 , we qualified for the First Time Home Buyer Tax Rebate (I think it was $7K), but the catch was that we had to live in the house to for 3 years.  Glad to know that as of today, that $7K is officially ours to keep.  =D

We haven't done much to the house this year since I spent about half of 2011 being pregnant.  But also, since we got a lot of major work done on the house the first 2 years, it's smooth sailing from here on out!

Family photo in front of our house!
(Caitlin was 7 weeks old here)

What kind of stuff have we done to the house within the last year?
Well..

1. Put up dry wall in the garage.
2. Leveled out the grassy area in the backyard.  Previously, if you were frolicking in the grass in our backyard, a sprained ankle was guaranteed.  (We didn't buy the house like this.  When we hired some guys to run the electrical wiring underground in our backyard, those idiots failed to put back all the soil that they dug up!  Then grass grew over the trenches...) .
3. Got a new front door.

What changes do I foresee for this upcoming year?

1. Get a screen door for our front door, so mosquitoes and flies don't get into the house!
2. Get brand new heating and air conditioning unit installed.  (We have HVAC guys coming over tomorrow for a consultation!).

Health insurance is a pain in the butt!

As we all probably already know, the health insurance system in the U.S is pretty broken!  I have once tried to explain the concept of health insurance to my friends in the Philippines and they couldn't even wrap their head around how it works.

During my pregnancy, I had switched health insurance several times and it was all pretty annoying, ultimately ending in my health insurance refusing to pay for my 9 months of prenatal care!  Luckily, it is all squared away now, but it was all very frustrating!

It all started last summer when I was pregnant and needed an ob-gyn for my prenatal care.
At that time, I was on Jeff's insurance policy, which was with United Healthcare. 
We were on an HMO plan so I had to go to my primary care physician to "confirm" that I am pregnant, then get a referral to an ob-gym from her.  This meant that, the ob I was referred to is the one I was stuck with (oh the beauty of HMOs....) and I was referred to Plaza Towers Ob, which is a medical group, rather than 1 ob-gyn.  I ended up seeing 6 different obs during my entire pregnancy, and not 1 ob even bothered to remember my name.

Oh well, that part is not so bad, I already knew what I was getting into since we have an HMO.

In the Fall of 2010, Jeff switched jobs and the health insurance at his new company was Anthem Blue Cross.  When Anthem Blue Cross issued us our health insurance cards, I was not on the policy and all the information on the health insurance card was incorrect (such as, it said the co-pay was $15 even though it should have been $5).
After calling Anthem, it turns out that Anthem was confused because Jeff used to be an Anthem policyholder back in 2008 at his last job.  So when Jeff joined his new job and was back on Anthem again, they used his 2008 information, and that was also why I was not on the policy (I was not on Jeff's health insurance back in 2008 since we were not married yet).

Finally, we got every thing clarified with Anthem, but during that process, I had to delay my prenatal appointments with my ob-gyn, *AND* get another referral from my primary care physician to the ob-gyn.

On March 1, 2011, Jeff's company switched health insurance and automatically moved us from Anthem to Cigna.  Keep in mind I was 8.5 months pregnant at this time and I delivered 14 days later! With our Cigna insurance, it is an "open hmo" plan, meanng, we can just show up at our specialist's office without getting a referral from our primary physician.  And from what I recall, we were told that our ob-gyn (Plaza Towers ob) was in-network
Oh how perfect!
Or so we thought...

1 week after Caitlin was born, I got a call from Plaza Towers Ob saying that Cigna was refusing to cover the cost of my prenatal care, and possibly also not covering the cost of the delivery either, since they were considered "out-of network".  And I had to call  my insurance to appeal the decision.  Now, the cost of prenatal care was $6,300 and the cost of the delivery at the hospital was $14,700", so this was a lot of money we are dealing with!

That is so frustrating and it did not help that I had to deal with this so soon after delivering a baby!
I had to call Cigna and appeal their coverage denial.  I figured, worst case, if they still don't budge, then I am forking over the $20K bill over to Jeff's employer since they switched health insurance companies on us so late in my pregnancy!  We really didn't have much of a choice.

I called Cigna and drafted a letter of appeal with the rep on the phone.  My letter of appeal included arguments such as:

• I have been using this ob-gyn for the entire duration of my pregnancy
• The employer changed health insurance on me so late in my pregnancy
• We were told that our ob-gym was in-network
• My ob-gyn was actually "in-network" with Cigna until January 31, 2011, which was only 1.5 months before I delivered

The letter was submitted and would take up to 5 weeks for review.  The rep on the phone also informed me that the hospital we delivered at (St Johns Health Center) was indeed an in-network facility, so the coverage that was denied was only for my prenatal care.  That's great news!

A couple of weeks later, I got a letter in the mail from Cigna stating that after reviewing my letter of appeal, they decided to cover my prenatal care!
Horray!

I'm glad that was all taken care of.  That was a big headache.

The Loquat Heist

Loquats are underrated.
Hell, I bet you don't even know what a loquat is.
Even blogger is putting a red squiggly line under the word "loquat", thinking I misspelled "loquacity".

Well, loquats are one of my favorite fruits, up there with watermelons.  It kills me that it's impossible to buy these sweet, juicy, fruits at the super market or farmers market. 
I have to resort to stealing.

I found a loquat tree during one of my late afternoon walks around town and I noticed that all the fruits were ripe and falling to the ground!  Apparently whoever owned the house next to this tree was not taking advantage of the fruit it was bearing!
I'm too shy to go knock on the door and ask if I could harvest their fruit and I was even too shy to pluck 1 fruit off that tree in broad daylight.

There was only 1 option left...
I had to pull a loquat heist.

Last Sunday night, after Caitlin was put to bed, I grabbed a plastic bag and a pair of scissors and strolled back to where the loquat tree was located.
After plucking a few that were within reach, I realized that I had a pretty full bag!  That was fast!
If you look at the tree though, you can't even tell I plucked any!

I have been merrily eating these fruits these last few days.  I just hate that they are very tedious to eat (you have to remove the peel, which requires 2 hands!  When you are holding a crying baby in one arm, it's close to impossible to do!).

I think for my next house, it is a requirement to have a loquat tree in the yard.
And a third arm/hand would be good too.

Ruby chirping like a bird

Many people don't know that guinea pigs can actually chirp like a bird!  Yes, this is different from their typical "wheeking" sound.
Not many people have witnessed their guinea pigs chirp either.

Luckily, I have witnessed Ruby chirp on a few occasions (Marbles have never chirped), and I was able to capture it on video today!

Newborn Photo Session

Remember when I was 35 weeks pregnant, I did a maternity photo session with Nicole Loggins Photography?  Well, that was a 2-parter, since we also were booked to do a newborn photo session with her once Caitlin was born.

The day I gave birth to Caitlin, I messaged Nicole and let her know that Caitlin has arrived and to pick a date to do the newborn photo session (ideally, within the baby's first 7 days).  We decided to do the photo session on Tuesday, March 20, making Caitlin 6 days old that day.

Because Nicole requested for Caitlin to be naked for the photo session (since clothing can look bulky on tiny newborns), we heated up the room to an uncomfortable 88 degrees!  After feeding Caitlin, she fell asleep for the entire duration of the photo session, making the session very easy!  Typically, a newborn photo session takes 6 hours because the baby will wake up, cry, want to eat... etc.  But because Caitlin slept the entire time, we were able to finish the session in 2 hours!

Caitlin was placed in all sorts of cute poses and dressed in plenty of pretty head bands.
I discreetly snapped some behind-the-scenes shots of the photo session.

Caitlin doing one of the poses

 

Jeff lending a helping hand, blowing bubbles

We have Caitlin's newborn photoshoot photos uploaded to our Picasa:

Caitlin Photoshoot

Spin off blog

We have created a spin-off blog, where we will share the details of Jeff and Jen's new life as parents and raising a baby.  Not everyone is interested in reading about things like that, so we don't want to bombard our Adventures of Jeff and Jen blog with it.

The spin-off blog called The Adventures of Jeff and Jen: Raising a Family

If you are interested in following our adventure in learning how to be parents and following the development of Baby Caitlin, please subscribe to our new blog:  http://jenandjeffyangfamily.blogspot.com/

Baby Caitlin's Birth Story

**WARNING: very long, detailed, and descriptive post! 
Read only if you have 71 hours to spare!**

As you probably already know, we have a new addition in our family!  Baby Caitlin arrived at 7:30pm on Wednesday, March 14, 2012.
It was so perfect that Caitlin arrived on her due date (March 14) because that day is Pi Day!
Did you know only 5% of babies arrive on their due date?  As a result, I was pretty sure I would not get a pi day baby, so this was such a pleasant surprise. 

Typically, babies are born shortly after the mom goes into labor.
What most people don't know, and what most of the nurses at the hospital did not believe, is that my labor actually started the Sunday prior!  At the hospital, several nurses asked "when did you start feeling contractions?".  I said "Sunday night".  And a common response that we got was "No, really.  When did the painful contractions start?".  And my answer was still "Sunday night".

So here is the story of our 4-day journey to Caitlin's arrival:

Sunday (March 11) to Monday (March 12):

All day Sunday, I had terrible cramping and aching in my lower abdominal area.  Of course, I did not let that cramp my style! Jeff and I spent the afternoon going out for Chinese food for lunch, walking (slowly) around Rodeo Drive, and eating Sprinkles Cupcakes.

On Sunday night, after crawling into bed, I was unable to sleep because the cramping got worse and the painless contractions suddenly became painful.  Jeff took notice that my painful contractions were coming roughly every 10-20 minutes.  Around 2am, still wide awake and watching the clock, I noticed that the contraction frequency increased to every ~7-16 minutes.
I finally gave up on trying to sleep and got out of bed at 4:30am and watched early morning news.  At this time, contractions were coming every 5-9 minutes.
I secretly hoped that the baby will arrive soon.

By the time morning arrived (~8am), the contractions subsided and came randomly (sometimes, once every 5 minutes, or once every 45 minutes, or nothing for 2+ hours).
I was disappointed that all the regular contractions the night before was a false alarm.
I spent the day trying to get some naps in to make up for loss sleep, and cleaned the house in preparation for baby's arrival.

Monday Night (March 12) to Tuesday (March 13):
Sleep was impossible Monday night!
The pressure against my butt and pelvic area was so painful that I was unable to sit down at all.  Laying down was painful too so I literally spent the entire Monday night to Tuesday morning pacing around my house, watching more crappy early morning news.  Walking helps induce labor so I hoped that my pacing would induce labor, as well as burn some additional calories.
The contractions arrived every 5-10 minutes throughout the entire night, until around 8am and the contractions slowed down (again) to about once every 10-15 minutes.

(Notice the trend?  That the most painful, frequent, and regular contractions occurred during the night time.  Labor slows down once morning arrives). 

Jeff left for work at around 11:00am but he returned home at 1pm to take me to our weekly prenatal appointment.  Normally, I drive myself to the ob appointment but considering that sitting down was painful and I would probably hit a car during every contraction, it was best that Jeff escorted me.
At the prenatal appointment, the ob said that I was 3.5 cm dilated, and the non-stress test machine showed that I was contracting every 10 minutes.  The ob said that labor is near and her recommendation is to walk around to induce the labor (I've already been walking!).  She also said to go to the Labor & Delivery at the hospital when I have contractions that are 3-5 minutes apart, for at least 1 hour.

We returned back home and Jeff spent the afternoon with me rather than going back to work (how sweet of him!!). 

Tuesday Night (March 13)
We spent the evening living through my contractions as they became more and more frequent.  We killed time by finishing up items on our to-do list, such as cleaning the guinea cage, tidying up the house, getting the dishes done, etc.  We picked up Thai take-out (pad thai and thai bbq chicken) for dinner.
When counting the time between my contractions, the contractions were not 3-5 minutes apart.  Instead, the contractions kept being bunched into triples, like (5 mins, 5 mins, 5 mins), then a gap (of like, 8 mins) of no contractions! 
Despite that, Jeff thought that I was must in active labor and said we should go to the hospital that night.  We both showered, flossed, brushed our teeth, and notified my friend that I was going to the hospital and to please come take Marbles and Ruby to his house.

I was nervous that I would show up at the hospital and they would send me back home because I was not contracting at the "3-5 minute" rule.  That would be embarrassing...
It was around 11:30pm when I made sure all the windows and doors were locked, turned off all the lights  in the house, and piled into the car.  (Jeff already packed our hospital bag into the car earlier that day). 

Our drive to St Johns Health Center was not any different than any other drive to any other destination.  Movies and TV always glamorizes the drive to the hospital when in labor -- the laboring mother grabbing her belly, screaming her husband's head off as he speeds to the hospital. 
That would be cool... but no, that's not how it happened.   It was a typical quiet evening drive down the 10 freeway.

It was after-hours, so we had to enter the hospital through the Emergency Room entrance.  We left our keys with the valet and strolled up to the maternity department's Labor & Delivery.

At the check-in desk, the receptionist asked what we were doing there.
Um, I'm at Labor &Delivery?  Maybe that means I am in labor?
I told her that I was having contractions and would like to check-in.
The woman took one look at me and did not believe me. Once again, this was not like in the movies where a laboring woman is wheeled in, in a wheelchair, screaming and panting.  I would expect the receptionist to know better.

She stuck me into a small, crappy, temporary room to examine me and confirm I am in active labor before checking me in.  The nurse checked me and said I was 4cm dilated, which confirms that I am in active labor, and that I was contracting around every 4 minutes.  It was close to midnight when I was checked-in.

Wednesday (March 14!) Labor and Delivery Day!/Pi Day!
We waited in the temporary room for about an hour, while we waited for a birthing suite to be cleaned and ready for me.
 
At 1:00am, we moved to my private birthing suite, which was equipped with goodies such as a flat screen TV, a couch/bench/bed-thing for the dad-to-be, a rocking/glider chair, and a bathroom.  Of course, I wasn't in the mood to take advantage of any of the amenities.
We were left to my own devices, so Jeff napped while I was wide awake, groaning though every contraction.  It sucks that I was tethered to the bed, hooked up to a machine and an IV drip!  Which genius invented that? It's easier to handle contractions while standing or walking around!

At 2:30am, the nurse checked me and said I was 6cm dilated! Wow, that was fast!

At 3:30am, I was 7cm dilated and I caved and requested for an epidural  =(. 
I was really disappointed in myself for opting for painkillers, but the thought of continuing on without it really frightened me.  I don't know why I felt frightened but I was. Maybe because I did not know what to expect?
Also, my body hurt so badly from being in labor for so many days, so I really wanted some relief.


At 5:30am, my water broke.  I wish my water broke at home, like in the movies.

At 9:30am, I was 8cm dilated.  Apparently, I only dilated 1 cm in 6 hours, which is very slow.
This is suspiciously similar to Sunday night and Monday night, when I was painfully contracting through the night, and by morning, labor slowed down or stalled.
 
Lunchtime came and passed, and no food for Jen.  =(  Jeff got to eat a breakfast burrito for breakfast and a burger for lunch.

At 2:00pm, I was 9cm dilated, which is a relief, since even though labor was progressing slowly, at least it did not come to a halt.

Around 3:00pm, we watched Crazy Stupid Love on the hospital TV.  It was quite amusing and I love anything with Emma Stone in it.  Sadly, I was pretty nauseous throughout the afternoon and vomited, which is quite common during labor

At 4:00pm, I was 9.5 cm... almost there!

At 5:00pm, I was getting impatient that I couldn't eat or drink.  I asked Jeff to be the good husband that he is, and sneak me some soda from the cafeteria.  He brought back some Pepsi, which I happily drank (I'm normally not happy about Pepsi. lol) . 

At 5:30pm, the nurse strolled in and confirmed that I was fully dilated (10cm.  YES!).  When she wanted me to start practice pushing, nausea set in again and I vomited all the Pepsi!!! 
Whoops.
I hope she did not notice that the vomit looked like smuggled-in soda.

After a few practice pushes, I was ready to deliver the baby.  I was feeling the urge to push (my epidural was not very strong since I still felt some contractions was able to feel the urge to push), but I was afraid to push on my own.  I wanted a damn doctor to show up before I start pushing!  Where the hell was the doctor?

At around 6:00pm, the nurse called for the doctor to come deliver the baby (What? Barely? Wish she called sooner).  Unfortunately, the doctor was at another building and had to walk over.

Finally, at 7:00pm, the doctor arrives.  Took her long enough!  It really should not take her an hour to walk from the building next door. 
She still dilly-dallied for a bit and had me do some more practice pushes.  I was so ready to deliver the baby already.
She told me to take breaks between practice pushes so I don't wear myself out, as pushing typically takes 1-2 hours and the mother gets worn out before the baby is delivered.
But for me, it actually felt really uncomfortable to take a break in between pushes.  I just wanted to keep pushing and get this sh*t over with. 

Maybe around 7:15pm, they took apart the bottom of my birthing bed, so the baby could be delivered.  Because I kept pushing without many breaks, the doctor asked if I stayed active during my pregnancy.  Um, I hate to admit it, but I fell off the 'healthy' wagon midway through the pregnancy.  lol.

Jeff got to watch the baby crown.  When I asked him what it looked like, he said that he saw a lot of hair, and it looked like when you have shampoo in your hair, all wet and mashed up.  The doctor held up a small mirror so I could get a glimpse of the crowning as well.  It was pretty amazing.

After 15 more minutes of pushing, baby Caitlin arrived at 7:30pm!

The ob cut the umbilical cord since it was around Caitlin's neck, then let Jeff cut the umbilical cord stump shorter since we previously requested for Jeff to cut the cord.  Caitlin was immediately placed onto my chest while nurses came in and dried her off.  I remember thinking how "odd" it felt, for something so warm and wet to lay on me, and it moves!
I overheard the nurses saying that the baby looked "big" and maybe was an "8 or 9 pounder".  (we later learn they were terribly off).  

Not long after the delivery, they had Caitlin try nursing and Caitlin nursed like a pro!  What a relief.  I have heard horror stories of people taking several hours to try and get their baby to learn how to latch (and ultimately giving up), so I was expecting the worst.

Finally, the nurse measured and bathed Caitlin.  Caitlin weighed a measly 6 pounds 1oz and measured at 19 inches long.

Jeff picked up chicken wings and burger and fries from the cafeteria for us to enjoy for dinner.  Both were so delicious but maybe it was because it was my first meal after not eating for 23 hours.  And despite all the excitement of having a baby, Jeff still remembered to pick up a slice of pie to celebrate Pi day!

After I finished eating dinner, we packed up our stuff and migrated from the birthing suite to my private postpartum maternity suite.  The suites seemed so much like a hotel room, that I actually kept forgetting I was in a hospital.  In my dazed and confused state, I kept thinking Jeff and I were in a hotel room on vacation somewhere, but for some reason, my body hurt, we were sleep deprived, and there was a newborn baby bumming it in our room.  =)

The happy family