October 30, 2009

19 Weeks!

How Far Along: 19 weeks (147 more days to go!)

What "They" Say About Our Baby's Development: Your baby's sensory development is exploding! Its brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. Some research suggests that it may be able to hear your voice now, so don't be shy about reading aloud, talking to it, or singing a happy tune if the mood strikes you. Your baby weighs about 8 1/2 ounces and measures 6 inches, head to bottom. Its arms and legs are in the right proportions to each other and the rest of its body now. Its kidneys continue to make urine and the hair on its scalp is sprouting. A waxy protective coating called the vernix caseosa is forming on its skin to prevent it from pickling in the amniotic fluid.

Weekly Food Comparison: An heirloom tomato...

The Good: Still feeling the baby move...when I have orange juice, chocolate milk or anything with sugar in it, it feels like a dance party in there...

The Bad: Getting tired walking up the three flights of stairs at work

The Weird: Pregnancy brain. This week I have locked my keys in the car and out of the house (at the same time), and forgotten my phone at home when it's normally habit for me to bring it with me everywhere.

Currently Craving/Avoiding:

Avoiding: String cheese (I don't know if I'll ever like this again)

Craving: Carbs, chocolate


Doctor Updates:
Today is the big ultrasound...finding out if it's a boy or girl!


The Weekly Belly Bump: Here's the 19 week belly!



October 29, 2009

Tomorrow is the day!

Tomorrow is the day we find out if I've got a baby boy or baby girl brewing inside me. Our anatomy scan! We're tried to peek before hand, but having no knowledge of what things look like on an ultrasound can only make guesses.

My guess is girl, Tito's is boy. I think we're guessing what we're most comfortable with. :)

We might have been able to see on Sunday when I ended up in the ER with food poisoning (and they ended up keeping me overnight for observation due to my health and heart history - but all was ok with me and especially the baby) had it not been for the poor probably 1st year resident who was my doc. He did an ultrasound to check the heartrate and make sure everything was ok. Bad thing was that he'd ok'd me for fluids, and especially soda, about an hour before. About 20 minutes before he did the ultrasound, I'd finished about 12oz of Diet Coke. So when he put that wand on my stomach, what he saw was a little baby, rocking out, hopped up on caffeine (making mommy proud..) :)

He also, we think, was doing what was about his 3rd ultrasound. Reason for thinking this? Because he pushed SO HARD on my stomach. As in, the wand was pushing my belly down quite a bit. I think he was attempting to touch the baby with the wand from the outside and get it to high five him or something. He kept complaining the baby was moving too much, he couldn't get a heartrate, etc. Tito thought it was moving so much because it was trying to avoid the ultrasound wand and the pushing. He joked afterwards that the kid was doing some "Matrix" moves in there avoiding the wand (a la Keanu Reeves dodging bullets...)

I think he either pushed the wand between my abdominal muscles or pretty darn close to it at that point because afterwards, I felt like I had some bruising on my stomach! He finally got the heartrate (133bpm) and we saw the baby too. Of course, he didn't turn the screen, so I got a side view of the ultrasound. Tito was looking straight on and said he couldn't tell if there were any definitive "boy" parts or "girl" parts because he didn't really know what he was looking at. He did recognize the head though, which was good. :) After the resident left, Tito said he was thisclose to punching him out because he thought he was hurting me and/or the baby. Luckily our ultrasound experience did not come to blows.

So we will know officially tomorrow...any last minute guesses?

October 23, 2009

18 Weeks!

How Far Along: 18 weeks (154 more days to go!)

What "They" Say About Our Baby's Development: Head to rump, your baby is about 5 1/2 inches long and it weighs almost 7 ounces. It's busy flexing its arms and legs — movements that you'll start noticing more and more in the weeks ahead. Its blood vessels are visible through its thin skin, and its ears are now in their final position, although they're still standing out from its head a bit. A protective covering of myelin is beginning to form around its nerves, a process that will continue for a year after it's born. If you're having a girl, her uterus and fallopian tubes are formed and in place. If you're having a boy, his genitals are noticeable now, but he may hide them from you during an ultrasound.

Weekly Food Comparison: A bell pepper...yum, a favorite craving of mine since the beginning of this pregnancy!

The Good: Feeling the baby moving now...amazing, and felt two strong kicks last week!

The Bad: Back pain

The Weird: Stuffy nose all the time

Currently Craving/Avoiding:

Avoiding: String cheese (I don't know if I'll ever like this again), sugary foods

Craving: Carbs, spicy foods (chips and salsa!)


Doctor Updates:
Nothing this week. One week until our BIG ultrasound!


The Weekly Belly Bump: No photo yet, will update soon! Definitely bigger!

October 20, 2009

So we've moved. We're officially in. And I think we owe our friends and my brother BIG TIME. Because we moved on Saturday. And when people showed up to help at about 9am, it was POURING outside. Not fun. And of course, the truck was getting wet on the inside. And annoyingly enough, we had reserved a furniture dolly and when Tito went to pick up the truck, apparently some guy had come in right before and rented 8 of them. Without a reservation. And the guy had just given them away leaving none for us, with our reservation. Annoying. But not the end of the world.

I was probably the least helpful mover ever. I moved everything light. Which wasn't much since so much was in boxes. Lamps, blankets, etc. were moved by me. I spent a lot of time, sitting, directing and getting food. But I was under doctor's instructions not to "strain myself." Which he defined as "don't pick up anything heavy and move it for long periods of time or space." So moving a heavy box off of something to the floor = ok. Picking up the same heavy box and moving it from the house, down a flight or stairs to the truck = bad.

We had 3 guys and one girl help us. Thank goodness for our friend Chris who works at Boeing with Tito...he had the best sense of space and basically took over direction of where things went in the truck and what could fit. Before he got there, Tito decided to move boxes out to the truck. I reminded him he needed to move furniture first then the boxes since you can put boxes on furniture but you can't really put a couch on top of boxes. :) So thankfully Chris showed up and reorganized everything. And we should have gone with my gut and gotten the larger truck. We got the 17' one and had to make two trips. One trip the truck was completely full, the second the truck was about 1/4 to 1/2 full. We started moving at 9am, and didn't finish until 8:30pm. Granted, we took breaks and lunch. But it was a LONG day. Tito left to bring the truck back at about 9pm, went to get his car with my brother, had to drive back to our new place and have my brother help him move our big tv up to the new place and then had to drive my brother back to Green Lake. They stopped for dinner first and then Tito came home at about 11:30pm. In the time he left at 9pm until about 10:30pm though I managed to get all of the dining room furniture in place and some of the boxes unpacked for the dining room.

I woke up naturally at 6am yesterday morning. We have no cable or internet yet, so I spent the day with the laptop on the breakfast bar, watching some of our movie collection. I had a mini-Sarah Jessica Parker fest (Sex and the City, Failure to Launch and The Family Stone), then watched Dirty Dancing Havana Nights (ah, Patrick Swayze cameos..), The Wedding Date and Fun With Dick and Jane, as well as Madagascar. Fun times. I managed to get 99% of the kitchen unpacked and organized, as well as the rest of the dining room, and organized our deck and storage closet. Then I tackled about 1/2 the closet. I worked from 6am taking little breaks here and there until about 7pm.

Downside of this place is that while it has more rooms and a better layout, it has less storage space. So it's really putting my organizational skills to the test. We lost a linen closet, our laundry room (and pantry area) a master bedroom closet and large hall closet. And our bathrooms have essentially no storage space. So a trip to Ikea is in our future. We've got to get some shelves for my craft area, something to hold towels in for the bathrooms, and something that can have closed doors and be our pantry area for overflow food in our dining area.

Last night Tito thankfully put our bed together (we'd been sleeping on the mattress on the floor) while I took a bath and rested my feet and back (SO happy to have a bathtub in our master bathroom again! We'd only had a shower in our last place and had to take baths in the guest bath.) and I fell asleep at about 9pm. Had to get up to pee twice in the middle of the night and my lower back hurt so much I almost had to crawl to the bathroom. I couldn't stand up straight. Felt much better this morning though. :)

New commute is ok. Took me about 45 minutes to drive in via I-5 (it was a toss up to take I-5 or 405 since we're halfway in between them) but I chose I-5 this morning. Annoying Seattle drivers that don't know how to merge properly were everywhere so it was a commute filled with "let's drive the speed limit" to "let's sit at a standstill on the highway for 4 minutes because people up ahead don't know how to merge." But I made it.

Next weekend, we're planning on spending part of Saturday at the old apartment, patching, painting and cleaning. Then be done except for a walk through on the 31st.

Here's some photos:


Dining area filled with boxes


Dining area mostly in place


Kitchen before


One of my favorite parts of the kitchen, the built in drawer organizers! ( My inner organizational OCDness loved this!)


Kitchen after


Kitchen after


Kitchen after


Monet adjusting...she was fine once we put the food out!


And here's how Epi adjusted...hiding behind our box spring in the hallway for about an hour (much better than last move!) and then she came out, had some food, used the cat box and was fine. :)

October 16, 2009

17 Weeks!

How Far Along: 17 weeks (161 more days to go!)

What "They" Say About Our Baby's Development: Your baby's skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone, and the umbilical cord — its lifeline to the placenta — is growing stronger and thicker. Your baby weighs 5 ounces now, and its around 5 inches long from head to bottom. It can move its joints, and its sweat glands are starting to develop.

How your life's changing: Starting to feel a bit off balance? As your belly grows, your center of gravity changes, so you may begin to occasionally feel a little unsteady on your feet. Try to avoid situations with a high risk of falling. Wear low-heeled shoes to reduce your risk of taking a tumble; trauma to your abdomen could be dangerous for you and your baby.


Weekly Food Comparison: A turnip...again, never had one of these.

The Good: Still no morning/all day sickness!

The Bad: Back pain

The Weird: Random coughing fits that will cause me to gag. Also gagged and had an upset stomach from brushing my teeth. Have to concentrate on something else when brushing to avoid getting sick!

Currently Craving/Avoiding:

Avoiding: Still cheese, fried foods.

Craving: Carbs, spicy foods (chips and salsa!)


Doctor Updates:
Nothing this week.


The Weekly Belly Bump: Think I've "popped"...



October 12, 2009

Birthday love

Feeling the birthday love...today I am 32. Wow. You know when you're a kid and you think of where you'll be when you're certain ages? I never thought I would be where I am now at the age of 32. However, being that I'm here, I wouldn't change a thing.

I have a wonderful husband, two loving cats (who are more protective of me than ever!) and a child who I'll meet in 5 short months. We have a great life, even if it's not what I planned when I was a kid (but hey, what did I know then? I wanted to be married at 24 and have 3 kids by now!)

Tito woke me up this morning with breakfast in bed. He had asked me last night what I wanted and I said eggs and toast. So I got that, and OJ and then he had a small piece of cake for me with candles on it. I knew something was up when the candles were sparking and he had a goofy grin on his face...I kept asking why the candles were sparking and he said he didn't know and was giggling. So he asked me to make a wish and blow them out. The second I tried and they re-lit I knew I was in for it. Dork got me the candles that don't go out. I was laughing mostly at him and how he thought he'd gotten one over on me. :) I told him that I wasn't going to wish for anything real because if I wish for it and the candles don't go out then the wish doesn't come true. So after attempting to blow them out he took the cake and I heard him all the way to the kitchen trying to blow them out. I kept saying "you have to put them in water, you can't blow them out." But he kept trying. :)

So I had a great breakfast, and then, even though it's Columbus Day, I had to come into work. Too much to do. Tonight I have dinner with Tito, and our friends Jessica, her husband Adam, and our friend Carisa. It's Jessica's birthday too so it'll be a fun night.

I can't believe that this is the last birthday I'll celebrate as just Tito and I (and the cats.) Next year, we'll have a 7 month old! Things, I'm sure, will be different! But I am excited for all that is to come!

October 9, 2009

16 weeks!

How Far Along: 16 weeks or 4 months along (168 more days to go!)

What "They" Say About Our Baby's Development: Get ready for a growth spurt. In the next few weeks, your baby will double its weight and add inches to its length. Right now, it's about 4 1/2 inches long (head to rump) and weighs 3 1/2 ounces. Its legs are much more developed, its head is more erect than it has been, and its eyes have moved closer to the front of its head. Its ears are close to their final position, too. The patterning of its scalp has begun, though its locks aren't recognizable yet. Its even started growing toenails. And there's a lot happening inside as well. For example, its heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day, and this amount will continue to increase as your baby continues to develop.


Weekly Food Comparison: An avocado...never had one but good size comparison

The Good: No more sickness!


The Bad:
Round ligament pain...random shooting pains in my abdomen, leg sockets, left arm, etc. Don't know when they're going to happen, but I've been told that they're normal. Just due to hormones, body stretching and ligaments loosening to prepare for labor and the growth of this baby. Also I'm in need of a facial as my skin is SO dry! And my hair is not full and bouncy, but more limp and not shiny. I'm pampering myself this weekend for my birthday with a haircut and maybe getting some highlights. Hopefully this will help!

The Weird: Cold all the time. I used to have hot flashes at the beginning of this pregnancy (a sign of what's to come in about 15-20 years?) but now I'm cold all the time.

Currently Craving/Avoiding:

Avoiding: Sweet stuff (really bothers my stomach)

Craving: Carbs!


Doctor Updates:
Heard the heartbeat for the first time on Tuesday! Even though it was for just a second, I heard it! The little "gusha, gusha, gusha" sound was the sweetest sound I've heard! Everything is looking good...my doc said my blood pressure was down, as was my cardiac output (amount of blood I'm pushing through my arteries) which is good. However, they are going to be monitoring me like a hawk for preeclampsia signs and warnings. We're hoping this isn't an issue and will do everything to keep this baby "cooking" in my belly for as long as possible!


The Weekly Belly Bump: Definitely bigger in my mind...



October 6, 2009

Doctor's appointment 10/6/09

Had an appointment today...took FOREVER. Note to self - never schedule the 11:30am appointment again. When that's your doc's last appointment of the day and he spends a lot of time with his patients, being the last always pushes you back. I didn't even see him until 1pm.

But it was all worth it because I FINALLY got to hear little jalapeno's heartbeat! The doppler was on just for about a minute but it was the sweetest sound ever - that "gusha, gusha, gusha" so high pitched...so great. I've heard my own heart beat many times but nothing compares to this.

Scheduled our BIG ultrasound (anatomy scan) for October 30th. That is the day we'll know what we're having - baby girl Davila or baby boy Davila. We'll also spend a lot of time looking at the baby (the nurse said about an hour) and get some good photos. A chance to really look at him or her and see how they're growing, how their heart, lungs, etc. look. Tito is coming to this appointment with me and I am very excited. As far as telling our families what we're having, we've come up with a creative way to do this, despite the distance between us. Won't spill now, but let's just say the internet is our aid in this. The only person we'll be able to tell in person is my brother Sean who lives here. We'll surprise him in his own way too. Everyone else will have to wait another three weeks (hey, we have to wait too!) :)

Will be 4 months along on Friday...crazy! My doc asked me today if it feels like it's been a longer pregnancy than that and I said yes! He agreed and he thinks it's because I literally knew the day after conception basically (since they had to switch my meds over and such.) Nice to know I'm not the only one feeling like that though!

October 2, 2009

October

So it's now October 2nd, and it's 10 days until my 32nd birthday. Around this time last year, Tito and I had begun the official talk of trying to conceive (TTC.) Things officially started in late November. I joked with Tito after his birthday last year that the only thing I wanted for my birthday this year was to be pregnant. He apparently took his job seriously, because now I'm 15 weeks along.

However, this year, now that it's close to my birthday, he asked me if I wanted anything at all. I couldn't really think of anything. In the past few years, I've gotten books, a Palm Pilot, an Ipod Nano, and a few other things. This year I couldn't think of anything like that that I needed or wanted. But I did manage to come up with something. I said the best thing he could get for me was a gift certificate to get a massage and facial since I'm in need of both. And it would be a great way to spend a day, relaxing and getting a facial.

The funny thing is that the only other thing I could think of was stuff for the baby. What's funny about this to me, is I clearly remember having a conversation with a friend when Tito and I had just gotten engaged (when I was 26) and I said I knew I wasn't ready for kids because I couldn't imagine getting things for a baby (clothes, etc.) over clothes or things for myself. I was talking to two moms and they said "don't worry, that changes." I couldn't imagine it then, but that's exactly where I'm at now. It's funny how in just 6 short years, my whole mindset has changed. I'm ready to give anything and everything to this little baby. And that's part of the reason that I want to know what this baby is (boy or girl) so that I can start buying cute clothes either way for it.

15 weeks!

How Far Along: 15 weeks (175 more days to go!)

What "They" Say About Our Baby's Development: How your baby's growing: Your growing baby now measures about 4 inches long, crown to rump, and weighs in at about 2 1/2 ounces. It's busy moving amniotic fluid through its nose and upper respiratory tract, which helps the primitive air sacs in its lungs begin to develop. Its legs are growing longer than its arms now, and it can move all of its joints and limbs. Although its eyelids are still fused shut, it can sense light. If you shine a flashlight at your tummy, for instance, it's likely to move away from the beam. There's not much for your baby to taste at this point, but it is forming taste buds. Finally, if you have an ultrasound this week, you may be able to find out whether your baby's a boy or a girl! (Don't be too disappointed if it remains a mystery, though. Nailing down your baby's sex depends on the clarity of the picture and on your baby's position. He or she may be modestly curled up or turned in such a way as to "hide the goods.")


Weekly Food Comparison: An apple...the one constant in my diet since getting pregnant!

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1kHbuP31TZwSQ0yWzST3zIioDxjpSbhsfeOd-LfIfWWEZXpv_tBGJv2_zrdVEwsTgYEmxSCGDVQF710K70milKNv53w_Uu6Wf9ZkSDUuRMkyh8PUA5Z81kzWYwCQy-qaT3Lk3pLElTwg/s320/15-apple.jpg


The Good: Nausea seems to have subsided!

The Bad:
Back is hurting more and more, as is left leg. Have been going to massage therapy to help with this. Seems to be working!

The Weird: Still having odd cravings and making weird impulse buys in the store. Last night it was candy corn and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. :)


Currently Craving/Avoiding:

Avoiding: String cheese, sodas (too sweet to drink)

Craving: Chicken, rice, random things like chocolate chip cookies


Doctor Updates:
Nothing new this week. Have an appointment in 4 days.


The Weekly Belly Bump: Definitely seems a little bigger.

Those lines on my belly are from my pj bottoms

(not normally there and not stretch marks - yet!)