I think I will share with all of you who extend the courtesy of reading my blog the story of how we came to be expecting the bean. Let me begin by saying that this isn’t likely to become a “Mommy Blog” (at least not anytime real soon), although I may decide to start one of those in due time.

Not that there is anything wrong with mommy blogging…it just isn’t all that Cat and Muse is about. I started this site to chronicle my journey to live halfway around the world from where my 30+ years of existence have been spent and getting knocked up in Hong Kong is part of this journey, so you will have to expect to hear about it to some degree.

Now that I have unnecessarily explained myself, I will begin…

I lived with endometriosis and the pain associated with it for 17 years (damn, that makes me sound old! I was really young when it first began, seriously). I agreed to have my doctor explore my abdomen in hopes of him fixing whatever he found to be broken inside me and he found that I was riddled with endometriosis to the point that (without surgery) I would have never conceived. The surgery resulted in both good and bad news: I have a severe case of endo (bad), the endo had trapped my appendix and twisted it requiring that I have it removed (also bad) and that despite the severity of the endo my ovaries were, in fact, viable (very good news).

Let’s fast forward to Cybr and I deciding to give conception a try…we were trying for5-6 months when my body decided to stop menstruating for no apparent reason. After three missed cycles and numerous tests, we were left with two out of three doctors agreeing that I was likely to be in early ovarian failure. That is bad. I refused to accept it, I am not that old and two years ago my ovaries were viable. All along, all doctors were in agreement that whatever the problem, there was no way I would conceive do to lack of ovulation brought on by amenorrhea.

We were advised to take a pill called Provera to force menstruation so that we could move forward with more extensive testing to find out why my body was not working properly. An ultrasound was preformed prior to taking the Provera, as well as a pregnancy blood test because it is not recommended that a pregnant woman take this drug. At this time, the u/s showed nothing and the blood test showed a negative result.  I reluctantly took the medicine only to have absolutely nothing happen. Nothing.

After waiting beyond the time required for the Provera to work, I sought answers from my doctor again. She agreed that we should move forward more aggressively and just do the tests even without having a period first (not preferred), but was required to perform both the pregnancy blood test and an ultrasound again to be certain as a pregnancy would not survive the additional testing I was preparing to have done.

Upon beginning the ultrasound, my doctor gasped and clutched her mouth with her cupped hand. I asked, “Uh, does that reaction mean I am pregnant or there is a tumor and I am dying?!?”. She was thrilled to tell me that I was pregnant. I came home happy but in shock and told Cybr what had happened, including the surprise ending where he is going to be a daddy.

Even my doctors are surprised, they were certain based on my blood tests and hormone levels that at the very least I was not currently ovulating…but apparently I was.

So, here we are, 13 weeks into our pregnancy. The bean is growing into a tiny shrunken baby. We are both thrilled and scared and ready and apprehensive…all the normal emotions of learning we are going to be parents.

I feel good. (thanks for asking Nominimom) I have had morning sickness that lasted 24/7, but luckily that has passed. I have been utterly exhausted (thus the lack of posts), but that seems a bit better as more time passes. My one big gripe is the heartburn. DAMN THE HEARTBURN! I hate it. I have never actually had it, you see I have an iron stomach and not even eating half a jar of jalapeños can upset my stomach…until now. Now the most benign foods give me unbearable heartburn and it sucks. Ginger tea seems to help the most and it tastes good, too. Currently, all is well except for a spike in my blood pressure…my doctor(s) seem to think it will pass since it is very early on in the pregnancy and I was not hypertensive prior to pregnancy. Let’s hope that is the case.

Thanks to everyone for all the congrats and well wishes!

We had an eventful weekend, relatively speaking.

On Friday, we watched Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer and ate dinner at home.

On Saturday, we went to Wan Chai to look for some XBOX360 games and a PSP for Cybr. Oh, and the Scene It for XBOX (which I love!!!) that we found for about the equivalent of $34 USD. Yay!

Cybr found a few games he wanted, we got the Scene It game, no luck on the PSP, we ate dinner at Outback (which is the first time since we were in Seoul, Korea…doesn’t that sound funny!?) and then we headed home.

Then Sunday we went on the Hong Kong Dolphin Watch Tour which includes up to 4 hours on a nice boat with refreshments and seeing pink dolphins in their natural habitat. It was awesome! The boat was really nice, I enjoyed the upper deck a lot. We totally need one of those so Cybr can cruise us around while I take in the sights and the sun from my lounging position on the upper deck. That would rock.

We saw a few (possibly as many as 6, but they were spread out feasting on the fish cast off through the net of a fishing boat) pink dolphins while we were out in the open water. They are so cute, they really are pink!!

I feel I have to mention that the dolphin watch website states that there is a refrigerator on board the vessel; however, it states that it is “available for cake and cheese storage only”. This struck me as particularly amusing. Cake and cheese, but not cheesecake. Milk is a definite violation of refrigerator usage. Hehe.

Also, there are signs posted clearly throughout the vessel that diving into the waters from the vessel is strictly prohibited. It clearly states that the reason for this is for liability sake but I think we can all agree that it is really because of the sea snakes.

Here is a picture of an adolescent pink dolphin:

I do realize that it doesn’t appear to be pink in my photo, but that is because it is an adolescent. Babies are born dark gray, they fade to light gray within a short time after birth, as they reach adolescence they become a mottled gray/pink and then in adulthood they gray fades completely leaving them a bubblegum pink color. They are beautiful. I love seeing them in their natural habitat, but it saddens me greatly to see how polluted their habitat is. They are truly in great danger for extinction. They are pink for physiological reasons, by the way, and not the pollution which is likely to be suspect in their odd coloring.

I have a sinus headache that is headed for the 24 hour mark.

I hate sinuses.  I would like to have mine removed, surgically or otherwise.  I mean, really, what purpose to they serve other than to ache or to fill with snot?  I am fine with snot NOT being stored in my head…of course, then what would happen to it?  It could get messy, I suppose.

This gorgeous dolphin was part of the new and improved dolphin show at Ocean Park, Hong Kong. The dolphins were great, beautiful, graceful, cheeky and lovable…the show and the actors/trainers, however, sucked ass in a way that Cybr, myself, and our two friends who were with us have never before witnessed. It was like a train wreck, you couldn’t help but stare.

They had a pre-recorded anime-style story playing on a really crappy intercom system and the trainers were trying to act it out (we think) while the dolphins did their thing. Oh, the horror. Except for seeing the dolphins, we were all so glad that it was over.

Just for the record, I took this photo.  I think it is awesome…I love my camera!!!  (not to completely undermine my ability as a photographer, but the camera seriously helps!)

I extended my advise to a newbie today.  I saw a woman with her two small children in Wing On department store having a bit of a potty emergency with her three-year-old and she was asking an employee if they had a washroom or a bathroom her daughter could use.  This was a useless feat because no local in Hong Kong uses those terms for what is known only as a toilet here and the employee kept simply nodding and saying yes.

The way it works in HK is that very few shops and very few restaurants have public toilets…there are some that do, of course, but it is much less common than in the U.S.  Here in Discovery Bay, for example, there are no shops or restaurants that have toilets at all.  Not for public or employee usage. Instead, there are three public facilities spread around the plaza area for anyone to use.

Back to the newbie and her little girl…I intervened and let her know that they did not have a toilet, but there was a public toilet nearby.  I tried explaining the location, but she has only been here three days and doesn’t know where even the common landmarks are yet.  So, my friend Teresa walked her to the toilet.

She was eternally grateful and when she returned to the department store we all began chatting about some basic things she should know and helping her navigate.  We offered to help her find things, give her a tour and have her join us for a trip to Hong Kong Island to learn where some of the basic necessities can be found.

These are all things I could have only wished for upon my own arrival here in Hong Kong.  I was lost and had a very difficult time finding simple things.  Things are set up quite different here and until you get the hang of it, it is quite frustrating and difficult.  It was nice being able to shed some light on someone’s darkness today and hopefully it will help her adjust more quickly to living here.

Also, there was a “CRAZY” porcelain sale at the local church and all proceeds (100%!) go to orphanages in mainland China.  I picked up a couple of really cheap, cute items there today.  It was a surprise to have a porcelain sale during the week here, that is a rare thing.  Usually markets and such are left for the weekends here in Disco Bay.

We left our flat twice this weekend! Yay for us!

We had dinner with friends Saturday evening at McSorley’s Ale House, where they (for the second time in some way or another) refused our cash voucher. As soon as they accept it, that will be our last visit to McSorley’s…not that it will make a noticeable difference in the cash flow if we end our patronage, it is a decision based more on principle. Dinner was fun and the company was good. We left there and went back to our friends’ flat and ordered some stuff from Amazon.com. We also got to check out the Wii Fit game (in Japanese!), which was a riot! The soccer practice (or football if you are not American) was hilarious and we were able to watch our friend get hit in the head with shoes…that was funny. The other thing that I thought was a riot was watching Cybr do the skiing long jump — wow! my husband sure can clinch those cheeks!

Today (Sunday), it was/is absolutely gorgeous weather and we debated a few options around town, but the bottom line is that it is a beautiful day and we shouldn’t waste it indoors. So, we opted for a Ngong Ping 360 ride to check out the village of Ngong Ping and the Po Lin Monastery where the Big Buddha is located.

We shared a cable car with three young Chinese people, one of which was very pregnant. Once we passed over the harbor and began making our way over the mountain the wind picked up a bit and she began panicking a little. She was not enjoying herself and even when spoken in Cantonese, it was obvious some of the things she was saying…her panic made me a little panicky and the two of us combined was making Cybr a bit jumpy, too. We just made it to our destination when the wind began gusting hard. I was certain we were taking the bus home!

Anyway, we wandered around and walked the stairs to the Big Buddha, took many photos, saw three feral cows roaming around, petted cute puppies, and shopped a bit. It was a good time.

I did make a total ass of myself more than once, I am pretty sure. I wore a skirt today and at sea level the wind wasn’t bad, but on the mountain where the Big Buddha sits…well, my skirt was blown up more than once while I took pictures. If that isn’t bad enough, I came out of the bathroom with my skirt tucked into my underwear. I passed at least 5 people before a nice lady came running after me saying, “Your skirt, your skirt!”. Wind + squatty-potty + backpack + skirt = Michelle makes an ass of herself.  Yeah, that was nice.

Anyway, the wind died down a bit and we rode the cable car back down the mountain. Without a panicked pregnant woman, it wasn’t nearly as scary. Once we arrived in Tung Chung where the ride ends, we decided to dine out. We opted for Pizza Hut because it is sooooo opposite of what it is in the U.S. We ended up sharing baked spaghetti and a small pizza, which combined had about a pint of grease. It tasted okay, but the grease was a bit much for me. We were going to share the tiered dessert platter (yeah, a little different than in the U.S??) but we were too full and I had a bit of heartburn kicking in already.

Next stop - Watson’s to buy me some Gaviscon.

Final Stop - Home.

And that brings us up to date on our beautiful day in Hong Kong.

The moral to my story?

Blessed are we who can laugh at ourselves, for we shall never cease to be amused.  ~unknown

And it’s the Dood, aka Guinness, hamming it up for mom and her camera. He is a handsome boy. He didn’t feel so good today, but he is much better (seemingly much better) now.