My mom had warned me that the last couple of weeks would feel like an eternity and boy was she right! That last month felt about as long as the entire pregnancy put together. We did our best to stay active and entertained. With the intense August heat, I swelled up like the pillsbury doughboy and was guzzling water by the liters.
Shortly before Jimmy's arrival we went on his first camping trip. We actually didn't stay the night but it was still fun to eat dinner and hang out with Gerald, Eunjin, and Daniel (and Coco). Halfway through grilling it started pouring rain! we huddled under the tent and continued the party :)
We continued to frequent our favorite coffee shops and I continued to grow... This kid was not being kind to his mother! :) It's funny how right moms can be. My mom had told me that with my oldest brother Jason, the doctor had told her she would go 2 weeks early... and he came 2 weeks after his due date. She said that month was the longest month of her life. Well, I tucked that story away in my brain and lo and behold my doctor told me I would come early. As hard as I tried to not get my hopes up, it was useless... I thought for sure Jimmy would come early! Nope. Not a chance.
Jimmy got quite a few packages in the mail! He is spoiled rotten already!
My friend Jackie was my go-to eat out partner. We had some great times and this one was a funny time in particular. It so happened to be one of the hottest days in August and we were going to go to lunch. We walked to our first choice, the Chinese restaurant, and it was closed (which is very common for this restaurant so we weren't all that surprised). So we journeyed on in search of our next stop, Jjajjangmeon (also a Chinese option) and was again met with closed doors. How ridiculous, we thought so we carried on to our third stop, a fast food Chinese option... you're seeing the pattern, right? Closed again!? We then headed to Lucky Penny to get a hamburger and found it closed too. By now we were so hot and getting quite hungry and frustrated. We grabbed a cab and headed over to a different part of town to get Misoya (Japanese restaurant)... closed for construction if you can believe it! So we walked a few doors down to another Japanese restaurant (this is a Korean thing to have multiples of the same thing in one area) and were happy to just be sitting in an air conditioned place with food in front of us regardless of what it was! We were sitting there eating our less than average food when a delivery man comes in and brings the staff of the JAPANESE restaurant CHINESE food!!! Of all the luck! We were quite annoyed and come to find out later, this day happened to be in the middle of the three days that almost all restaurants take for summer vacation.. .what are the odds. We rewarded ourselves with ice cream after the ring around we went through just trying to get lunch! Fun memories to be sure.
We were eagerly awaiting the arrival of both sets of parents. I had fun putting together a little "Summer Survival" kit for them and the University was so kind to put them in a beautiful apartment on campus. They put towels and special plum soaps and lotions that the university makes in the rooms and everything was carefully prepared for their arrival.
You've seen it before and you'll see it again... my least favorite thing about living in Korea is all the goodbyes that I have to say. This time around it was Jenny and Jackie that were heading out (Vince and Nina were a few weeks later). We headed to the first Chinese option from above and thankfully it was open this time! Afterwards we enjoyed coffee at Nearby. Love these girls and miss them so much already!
The first set of parents arrived!!! Robert's parents arrived in Gimcheon on August 8th which was a Thursday. It was so wonderful to have people to wait with. We went around town and tried to keep occupied because we were all eagerly awaiting Jimmy's arrival!
On Thursday we introduced them to, of course, our favorite spot and they got to meet the owner who is a good friend.
On Friday we hit up Cafe 무지음 for Brunch and Coffee
On Saturday we headed to Gumi to eat at Terrace 5 which is a a lovely little Italian restaurant we like. Unbeknownst to us, the restaurant underwent a huge renovation and this happened to be opening day. If you know anything about a restaurant opening in Korea, you know how crazy that place was. We opted for a less crowded Smoothie King and then Starbucks after perusing a few shops along the way.
For dinner we celebrated Mama's birthday :) She said she loves pizza and ice cream and we just so happened to have both of those things close by :)
Mr Pizza and Baskin Robbins... Happy Birthday Mama! We love you! :)
Sunday we treated them to one of our favorite little delicacies, 교동 Recipe. This was my due date and so it was a bit of a let down to go the whole day with no baby arriving...
40 weeks
We got a big kick out of Mama offering $2.00 to pay for a $30.00 meal :) She kind of struggled with the money a little bit :)
Monday was a chill day at home and then Tuesday we had lunch at Pasta Buono and then discovered a lovely little new spot called Cafe 오늘.
After coffee we headed to the hospital for my last checkup. The doctor said everything was fine so he wanted Jimmy to come naturally, but that he would not let me go past August 20th (a whole more week!) I started praying then because I could not handle one more week of this... I was so over being pregnant by now. I just wanted to hold my baby!
제니퍼블랙... that's my name! :)
Our awesome team! Couldn't have done it with my friend Michaely who went to all my appointments with me to translate and my amazing Doctor Jang.
After the hospital we headed to Jikjisa temple to meet our friend and show Mama and Daddy around the temple. This is a very famous temple in Korea and in my opinion, one of the most beautiful too.
On Wednesday we decided to have a "Nearby" day. By that I mean that we spent the afternoon in the coffee shop and then had dinner in the restaurant. Michaely's family owns both places and we enjoyed them both. My parents were scheduled to arrive the next afternoon and were in route already. This was, hands down, the most uncomfortable day of my entire pregnancy. I could not get comfortable for anything and was just trying to keep my mind off the fact that I still didn't have a baby! :)
The weather was gorgeous that night so we headed up to the roof to watch a movie on the projector screen. As you can tell... I'm super enthused. :)
After the movie we went back downstairs and it was Dad's turn to give me a foot rub. He joked about his being the magical foot rub because guess what... my water broke at 3am.
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