What a difference a day makes!

Dropping in

As I feel I am now required to say, I CAN'T BELIEVE LUCA IS SO OLD!   Three months and three days.  Who let that happen??

A few things lately:
- He's trying to roll over and I think he will succeed any day now.  It's so awesome and so scary all at the same time!
- Luca is doing an amazing job following people, even when they are far distances away.
- He responds to his name...or maybe it's just my voice.  I'm not sure.
- He smiles and TALKS.  Oh goodness does this baby like to communicate.
- His sleep is currently all over the place.  Two nights ago he woke up every 1.5 to 2 hours from 7:30 to 8am.  Last night he was only up twice from 8pm to 7:15am.  I'm very torn about sleep.  To train and how, when, what's natural, how to tell if he needs to be waking up for more food, etc. etc. etc.  Oh the trials of motherhood.
- Luca is starting to reach out for and hold toys which is so cute!

And on that note, not much has changed when it comes to the need for diaper changes.  :p

No question

Just in case anyone was wondering, my kid's dad is a geek :)

Daily Musings

So, I can't believe that Luca is almost 3 months old.  Where does the time go??  I know that every parent asks themselves this question almost daily (well, except maybe on mornings after really rough nights with a baby).  But it's SO true.

And, as I have always and will always be bad at blogging/journaling/generally recording life events in any sort of methodical way, I'm going to try and stop by here and jot down stuff from time to time so I don't forget it!

Luca is really getting into munching on his hand.  It's funny that it's taken him what feels like forever (to me) for him to do this.  Avanen (my girlfriend's daughter) has been doing it for ages and I feel like he should have been enjoying the tasty treat of a mano.  Just reminds me that all babies are different!

Also, this kid has so MAD cradle cap.  It's getting so much better, but it's still funky looking on top of his head.  And funny enough, it makes him look like a bit of a red-head.

We put up the Christmas tree this weekend and decorated it last night.  Luca had a great time sitting in his bouncy chair last night and this morning checking it out.  Lights are so cool.  :)

And that's about all I've got for now!  Well, in reality, I think I just got a bit of a present in someone's diaper to clean up.  So, off to do that.  :)

Best Christmas yet

I couldn't ask for a better gift.

Way better than tummy time!

Mae and Mabuela

Celebrating my baptism on 11/25.

Foster grants

I'm so cool that the bib only helps my street cred.

Nanny here

Making sure mom is doing everything right with Luca.

Nap time

It was a bit of a rough night sleep wise last night...so Papa is taking a nap.

Fact!

Proud to be an American

Where we have the right to vote!

Big boy!

Doesn't he look like a teenager??

Luca had his 2 month shots Monday and also came down with the bug I had late last week so Monday night was a pretty tough night for us all. Thankfully we are on the mend and Luca and I can't wait to be in NC tomorrow!!

Melting his brain...

But the doctor in the family thinks its about time Luca learns to play the ps3.

Second best friend

...or third best friend, depending on how you count. Luca loves his friend Raffie!

Happy 6 week bday

Hola Tia Lindsey

Hola Mae

I'm cute

Hooray hands!

I finally found my hand...yum!!

Perfect walking weather

Pretty awesome

That describes our day today! We started with a nice long walk with all the pups. Then we met Laurie (my doula) for lunch. And finally we finished out the day with dinner with friends. Wednesday you rock!

Bodyguard

I was busy working out today. Lots of adoring fans watched but Sammy was there to make sure no one got unruly.

One month!!

How is this little man already a month old??

This is Luca chillin with his homie tigger. They're tight. :)

Water baby

Luca's first real bath was on Friday and he had a repeat performance tonight. Thank heavens this kid likes the water! And he's pretty darn cute in the towel too! See the evidence below.

On another baby related note we are managing pretty well on sleep. We usually get one long (relatively) stretch of about 4 hours followed by a quick meal and diaper change and then a few more hours of sleep. The last two days I think this stinker has been sleeping more than usual during the day which is really common around a physical or developmental leap and guess what he did tonight?!?!?! SMILED! Full on. Not gas. Smiled at his Mama smile. I think I died and went to heaven. Cheeeeeeesy I know but true!

Haute cotoure

Ducks are the new black. Soooooo 2012.

Rough life

Luca and Mabuela have been leading a rough life these last few days.

But mom!

Dad's missing something!

Soooo cool

Many thanks to Tia Lau for my awesome outfit!

First doctor appointment

Went GREAT!!

(He's almost back to birth weight just four days after birth and the doctor said everything else looks right on track.

At birth: 7 lb 8.5 oz and 21 in long
At 9/13 appointment: 7 lb 7+oz and 20 & 5/8 in

No he didn't shrink... Just different people measuring.)

Here's Luca's happy dance to prove it.

Like father like son

Happy Memorial Day

Thank you to all of the men and women who have or are serving our country in the armed forces.

Whether they are as muddy as these two service men...or not.  :)

More Awesomeness

It lived longer than just one post!  Here's more of my own 1000 Awesome Things.


6. Mint and chocolate, together.  AWESOME.

7. Family walks with the dogs.  And I think it will get more awesome once this little guy is here.

8. The first firefly of the season.

9. Fresh veggies.  Especially snap peas.

10. Fresh veggies on the grill.  AWESOMESAUCE.  :)

Photo Friday

It's been awhile since this was taken, but it's appropriate because it's a little (teeny tiny) hint about what we plan on naming Baby Gunner.  :)  

Happy Friday!

Confessions

Clearly, I'm bad at blogging (so I won't even bother to confess that).  But life is getting a little less insane, so I'm going to try and pick it back up.  But we'll start with an easy one, a list.

1. I sometimes eat chocolate or cupcakes or anything with a lot of sugar.  Because it's delicious.  And because it makes Gunner KICK!  Which is really really fun.  :)

2. I'm nervous about a lot of things when it comes to pregnancy, but one that I haven't really confessed to anyone is that I'm most nervous about sharing this little boy with the world.  He's mine (all mine!) right now.  And I know he'll always be my baby and I'll always be his Momma, but it'll be different when other people can hold him and feed him and take care of him.  So I will relish this time when it's just me doing it.  Even if I sometimes do it by eating sweets to entertain myself with his dancing.

3. I "worked from home" yesterday afternoon.  And got approximately one email and one short phone call taken care of.

4. I'm finally moving into the land of the 21st century!  IPhone for me tomorrow.  I'm excited!  :)

5. I have not been one of those adorable pregnant women who takes a picture of her belly every week to see how much she's changed.  But I do have a ridiculous (RIDICULOUS) husband who takes "belly" photos with me like this:

It's admittedly old - from March 24th.

6. I keep adding things, then moving things, then deleting things from our baby registries.

7. And I just realized that I never told you all (one) that we found out the sex of the baby.  Which, you may have figured out by now...Gunner is a boy.  And Gunner is NOT going to be this little man's name, for the record.

Happy almost Memorial Day!!!

For Unspoken Reasons

I need a little pick-me-up.  It's been a fantastically full few weeks with family and friends.  Lots of good food, good stories, good house-projects complete (THANK YOU!).  But Sunday I had a 2 minute snippet of hell.  And I can't stop thinking about it.  And I'm not ready to talk about it (not sure if I ever will in cyberspace).  But suffice it to say I was, and am, upset and hurt.

SO.

I'm going to really make an effort to change my attitude and mindset.  Today, on Post Secret, I read about 1000 Awesome Things.  And I decided I want to start a list of Awesome Things.  It may not reach 1000. It may not even reach past this post, but here are some of the things that I think are AWESOME.

1. Cherry blossom petals flying across the sky like snow.
2. Sammy's love for her bunny.
3. Having someone bring you a nice cold glass of {insert beverage here}
4. Sharing hand lotion with Mom when I've gotten too much.
5. Holding hands.

Despite bad moments, life is AWESOME.

What's on your AWESOME list?

Happy Birthday Brub!

To the BEST big brother in the world...

HAPPY 30 YEARS!!!

Love you.  :)

Nutritious AND Delicious

Tonight, eating "well" during this pregnancy looked a bit like this:

And by "a bit" I mean EXACTLY.  Plus the ever beneficial seltzer water.

I really should get to the grocery store...

The Two-Legged Puppy's Close Up

Well, kind of...

Jan 13, 2012 (7 weeks)

Jan 22, 2012 (8 weeks 2 days)

Feb 12, 2012 (11 weeks 2 days)

And here's where I became lazy...for a few days...which turned into weeks......

March 25, 2012 (17 weeks 2 days...before dinner)

I feel like it's kind of hard to tell in these pictures how much my belly has grown!  But when I try on my pants...I know it has.  :)

We find out the baby's sex on April 23rd and I'm really excited, but also really enjoying this time of not knowing. Partly because EVERYONE has an opinion.  And for the record, everyone so far thinks it's a girl (including Hubster's dream-self, apparently).

So we'll see!

The Night Sammy Was Eaten By a Snake

To set the scene, I'm at Mom's house standing with her in the dining room, looking out the window.  My brother is outside, standing on a ladder to clip the forsythia bush.  The forsythia is in full bloom and looks like a giant yellow balloon.

Suddenly the window, screen and all, disappear so there is just a giant hole in the wall.  And Sammy (our black lab baby) decides to jump through it.  Not sure exactly where she came from...but bear with me.  At this exact moment, I see something yellow moving near the base of the ladder that Ben is standing on.  This yellow something is partially camouflaged by the forsythia until it moves out from under the bush.

At which time I realize that it's a GIANT YELLOW PYTHON!

(http://wallpapers.free-review.net/15__Yellow_python.htm)

Ugh.  I've got the willies just putting that picture in here.  

So, Sammy goes chasing after said giant snake.  And the snake clamps its giant jaws around her face!  Then wraps it's body around her throat.  I panic, and my mom/Diego/whoever was there (it's blurry at this point), just kind of stare.  I decide that the ONLY thing I can do is unwind said python from my poor child's neck.  So, I grab the python by the tail and start to unwind.  I end up picking Sammy off the ground in the process and she's inches from my face.  As I struggle with the python beast, Sammy seems to realize that things are not going well for her.  And she gives me one last, very sad, "goodbye Mommy" lick on the face.

AND THEN I WAKE UP.

Who dreams about their dog being eaten by a giant yellow python and saying goodbye???  Needless to say I woke up mildly panicked that my dog was gone.  

Thankfully she was curled up on the bed with me.  I spent probably 15 minutes petting her and telling her I loved her and telling her to stay away from pythons.

All of that to say that, hands down, the weirdest pregnancy symptom I've experienced is crazy dreams.

So, I guess I should count myself as lucky.

Mutant Baby

Mara, this is for you...

So there was this time when I thought I had turned my 11 week old fetus into a mutant...and it happened like this:

My company does health screenings, among other things.  And to help the office employees understand what it was like to go through a screening we had one at the office.  It was the typical, finger stick for cholesterol, blood pressure, height, weight.  And they also do a body fat measurement using this thingy:

(From: http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_SPM257530729P?sid=IDx20101019x00001a&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=SPM257530729)

All my numbers were good and I didn't even have to tell anyone I was pregnant (which was my main concern because at the time no one at work knew about our impending tiny human).  About a week later, I was at a screening event for a client.  All was going well.  Until I saw a big sign:

PREGNANT WOMEN AND THOSE WITH IMPLANTED MEDICAL DEVICES SHOULD NOT HAVE THEIR BODY FAT MEASURED!

Exclamation point and all.  Oh my how my mind started racing.  And my heart started racing.  And I started thinking about how awful a mother I already was and how I MUST have turned my child into a mutant.  This progressed over the next 12 hours to the point where I called my OB clinic (only to leave an unreturned message), I called my husband demanding he bring home a doppler to make sure this kid was still alive, and I even called Mom to cry about how I must have done something awful.  The weird part of this all was that I KNEW, I mean absolutely logically and with every scientific ounce of knowledge I possess (and that the internets could convey), that it didn't hurt the kid.  But I could NOT stop thinking about how I'd turned the kid into a mutant.

I feel like I've been really lucky throughout the first 14 weeks of this pregnancy.  Next to no nausea, no crazy exhaustion, few food aversions, etc.  And I've been pretty rational.  There haven't been any crazy incidents of crying after reading a Facebook post or yelling at Hubster for something random or anything. So, now we all know I didn't get through the first trimester without at least one crazy story.  :)

In the end, my anxiety finally abated, but not after I realized that this completely irrational thoughts will probably continue to pop up in my life for the next forever.  :)  But I'm looking forward to it.

The jury is still out on whether Diego is looking forward to it though!

Give It Up

Lent started more than a week ago, but, as it extremely applicable to baby-baking, I wanted to share my lenten resolution.

For Lent, I generally try to take on something.  Every year for the past few during I've devoted time to read the Bible.  And I'm doing that this year.  It's a wonderful way to start the day.

I'm not one for giving up sweets or drinks or most other things.  And what mother-to-be wants to give up chocolate chip cookies or Wheat Thins?  I haven't really had cravings, but giving up any food just didn't sound like a good idea....

So, I've also decided on something that is both a "give up" and "take on"...I will be letting go of anxiety this year for Lent.  With this tiny human on the way, there's always something to worry about.  (I'll tell you about the time I was drowning in anxiety because I thought I'd made the baby a mutant with a body fat machine sometime soon.  Mara, you'll love it.)  Whether it's remembering who we've told about our good news, or what I ate, or heck if we're ready for this, I'm giving it up.  I could be anxious every single second of every single day and I've spent my fair share of anxious moments in the past two weeks.

[Side Note:  Did you know that it's SERIOUSLY a full-time (and often stressful) job to tell people you're pregnant?  I wish someone had told me that.]

BUT I QUIT!  I don't have the time or the energy or the willpower to be anxious.  So, I'm not going to.  Don't get me wrong, this is a daily (hourly) struggle.  But I think in the end, it'll all be worth it.

Appropriate Timing

So the blog has been neglected.  But the house, husband and pups have not.  I'm considering it all a win, in the end.

And it is only appropriate that my last post was on September 1, 2011 because on September 1, 2012...

There will be a new child in the house.  :)

I am going to do my best to update this blog with baby-growing information and general how we're doing  insight.  Diego and I are really looking forward to our new addition, as well as the next 6 months to get used to the whole idea!!

Also, the blog is going private (as you may know by now) because I'm not all about sharing every detail of my life with all of the internets.  This also explains why there hasn't been and won't be a giant Facebook/gchat/Twitter/Washington Post announcement about our news.  

I look forward to sharing this new chapter with the people in our life who we love so much and I'm also sure it will be really fascinating to look back on when the tiny human is here!

Cheers!