Killing Time Till 2012

Just got off work and Alexis is taking a nap :)

I'm cleaning up and trying to organize the apartment. It's always nice to start off a new year with a clean house.

I've been organizing Alexis' side of the closet and surprisingly she has a lot. I've retired some of her clothes that she doesn't fit into anymore and other things like bottle sanitizers and BF covers that I don't use anymore. Here is a picture of her side of the closet :)

She's got her clothes, toys, books (along with all my pregnancy books), diapers, wipes and all her necessities. We also have her cute little piggy bank, shoes, and headbands :) Can't wait to go on a winter/spring shopping spree and add some more cuteness.

I wish that Alexis and I could spend time with my family today but sadly they are too far away. So it will just be me and Lexi today. As long as I have my little love bug to bring in the year I'm happy!

I'm Ready For You 2012!

I can't believe it's almost 2012. It feels like just yesterday I was pregnant with Alexis and counting down the days till June. Now she's here and 7 months old; we are more than half way to her birthday! Which by the way I am sooooo excited to plan!

A lot of stuff happened in 2011, some good and some bad. Regardless of the bad though, 2011 will forever be the greatest year of my life because I had the privilege of bringing Alexis into this world and I know this world will be a better place because of her.

Alexis already has her little personality and I love it because it reminds me so much of me. I've been calling her Sass Ass #2, I am Sass Ass (thanks to Rachel's wonderful nickname giving skills). I love that I'm sassy I think it's a characteristic that anyone with a strong personality needs to have, and I think Alexis already has it. Which she is going to need to keep all the boys away, that's if daddy doesn't do it for her already :P

Derek and I love to talk about all the fun things we get to do with her and all the things she'll get to participate in. Derek thinks she's going to be soccer-tennis-basketball player lol. I definitely think she's going to be athletically inclined, she may get this athletic gene that Derek has although only men in his family seem to be getting it but from me she'll definitely get that competitive drive. I played just about everything growing up. I played volleyball and basketball for the city league and I did cheerleading in elementary and middle school and finally decided on tennis during high school. I wish football would have been an option but I did get to do some powder puff junior and senior year which was fun. So I know Alexis will be an athlete and even though she's not a little boy I definitely want her to know football, guys adore girls who know football ;)

Aside from sports we've talked a lot about the other things we want her to participate in. Growing up I did everything from school plays, chorus, science club, and running for student council. I loved being so involved in school. I'm excited to get her into ballet classes and maybe even some drama classes, i've heard that those are very good to help kids develop their imagination. I also definitely have high aspirations for her academically. All through elementary and middle school I was always on the honor roll and in advanced classes and through high school taking advanced classes and participating in clubs and sports was so important to me. I'm glad Alexis will be able to look at me as a role model, hopefully, in every aspect of her life but especially when it comes to academics. I can't wait for Derek to go back to school and finish, I want Alexis to see that we are a family that values academics.

It's also important to me that Alexis have a mind of her own. I think most kids now a days have opinions but they're their parents opinions. I'm sure Alexis will be aware of what mine and Derek's opinions are politically and socially and pretty much about anything but I don't want her to take those opinions as her own unless she believes in them. I find that I have little respect for people who have an opinion and when you ask them why, they don't know, and that's usually because it's something they just picked up, a lot of the time from their parents. I want Alexis to be informed and even if her opinions are not the same as mine, I won't care as long as she has a strong conviction for what she feels. One of my professors at the U told us that he brings home different newspapers with the same stories and let's his kids read all of them and form their own opinions; I thought that was such a genius idea because all papers have their biases and I think hearing a story from different angles is the best way to make an informed decision.

I know, she's only 7 months right? But I am a firm believer that forming (good) habits should be started early.

One of the things I'm most excited for is to give Alexis my ring my parents got me when I was a baby. It probably won't fit her until she's 1 maybe 2, I can't really tell just by looking at it. I'm surprised that I still have it, but I am so excited to give it to her and have her pass it down to her little girl, if and when she has one. The ring is yellow gold and it is in the shape of a heart in the front, that's probably where my love for hearts came from. We're going to get it plated white gold, because I dislike yellow gold, and hopefully I can get something written inside even though the band is so small. Here's a picture of the ring. I'm so excited for 2012 to get all of this started.

25th Birthday Bash?

So I'm turning 25 in June. Growing up I always thought my 25th birthday would be a bigger deal than 18 and 21; Not that I didn't celebrate those birthdays appropriately. But I've always been in love with the idea of being 25. Twenty five just seems like such an accomplished age and I have pretty much accomplished everything I wanted, I graduated college with two degrees, I'm married, I have a gorgeous baby girl and I've done a good amount of traveling. The only things I've fallen short on my personal goals are not finishing law school and not being at a career style job right now, granted my job does involve the field of Psychology. Even without those two things I can't complain, I'm definitely more accomplished than most 25 year olds, and I worked hard to get here.

I definitely think 25 is the year to celebrate. For my 18 birthday I had dinner with a bunch of friends and had a great time. For my 20th Birthday my roomie Chelle and I went to New York :) and we had a blast. For my 21st birthday a ton of my close friends came out to Vegas to celebrate with me and that was an amazing weekend. So in thinking about my 25th birthday of course I would want to out do everything else i've done, but at first we were thinking of taking a trip to Mexico just Derek, me and Alexis. I really want Alexis to go to Mexico and visit, after all she is half Mexican and I want her to be in touch with her Heritage.

Lately though, I have been talking to my best friend about her 25th birthday; which is also in June and she wants to go to Vegas, so I thought how fun it would be to have our 25th birthdays together in Vegas with all our friends. I figure Derek and I can plan a trip to Mexico at the end of the summer for Alexis.

To be honest I am excited to turn 25 but I'm also a little apprehensive. After I turn 25 I'm pretty much on the fast track to 30. I dread getting older. If only I could be 25 forever.

Christmas Come Early...

Christmas came a couple of days early for Alexis.

I asked my dad to buy Alexis a highchair as her Christmas present. We had planned to get her the Graco Blossom but everywhere we looked that design was discontinued so I found a new design I wanted but I found few places that even sold it and those places were out of stock.

We really needed a highchair for Alexis because we want to start her solids and feeding her solids out of a highchair is not fun. So sadly I gave in to buying another highchair for now an then buying her the Blossom once she grows out of this one. So grandpa's gift turned into a highchair a long with other stuff Alexis needed :) since this highchair turned out to be much cheaper.

We let Alexis open her gift early since we want to get her started on her veggies and fruits right away.

Here she is opening up her gift:

Can't wait to feed her some veggies tonight :)))

Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is Friday! One more day of working at the school and then I have 2 weeks off :) I'm excited because I am very much looking forward to a break from unruly kids and the slapping craziness; but I am going to miss seeing their cute faces for those 2 weeks.

Today was an eventful day. It was outing day so most of the kids went out to the store and the library, then we had a birthday party for one of the kids and lastly we had two kids graduating from the school today :) Sooo precious!

The only downside to having 2 weeks off, is missing out on the paycheck but I will be picking up some extra shifts at BJ's so that'll help a little. I got a bonus from work which was pretty cool, I didn't think I would get one because i've only been there since September, so that was a nice surprise.

I'm really excited for Alexis' gift from my dad, he's getting her a highchair :) So we'll have that to put under our Christmas tree after this weekend.

Alexis has been so crazy cute lately, not that she isn't always but she's been extra cute lately :) she gets so excited in the mornings when she wakes up and sees me she shakes her whole body smiling like crazy, it's the perfect way to start my day. She's been holding my face lately when I hold her and talk to her and she's also been trying to eat my nose. When I call my mom I put her on speaker so Alexis can hear her and she always tries to eat my phone, if it's anywhere near her mouth. She's definitely into the munching phase.

Last night Derek read to Alexis after her bath,while I sat with her, and after he was done she turned to me, stared into my eyes, smiled and started to "talk" to me, it was soooooo precious.

Everyday I love her just a little bit more.

Baby Hodgepodge

I haven't posted anything in a while and the other day I thought of something I wanted to write about but I was really busy so I never got a chance to blog. So I'm pretty much just going to write about whatever seems to be floating around in my head.

So for the last 2 months or so we've been using Target's diaper brand, Up & Up, to save some money since diapers are pretty expensive, we also tried Walmart's brand. Well I've hated both brands, especially Walmart's, the diapers were very dry and starchy feeling and Alexis has had tons of leaks and blow outs in both brands. Before trying out the store brands we were using Huggies, my mom used Huggies with me and my brothers and I wanted to use them because I fancied them for whatever reason. I love Huggies and especially after using other brands I can't think of using anything else. Well the other day we finally went back to Huggies and I'm so thankful because they are so soft and comfy and fit snug and definitely keep her dry and free of blow outs. Plus I love the rewards codes! I know for some people using the store brands works but for us it definitely was not working.

Alexis is such a champ with her cereal! We've been feeding it to her twice a day and continuing with her formula. Alexis is really into eating the cereal now, she opens her mouth as wide as possible and leans into the spoon sometimes which is so cute she even makes noises as she's eating, she's even grabbing the spoon and wanting to feed herself. We have a ton of baby food, veggies and fruits, that we plan on starting her on possibly next week. Since the baby food is thick I wanted to wait till Alexis was comfortable with the cereal and was actually opening her mouth up wide and having better control of her tongue before we started feeding her the baby food. I think she's pretty much there!

This weekend we're going to buy her ornament and get it engraved!!! I am so excited to put her beautiful "First Christmas Ornament" on our tree. Derek and I are also on the hunt to find purple Avent pacifiers, we've seen them for 0-6 months but for some reason we can only find pacifiers with animals on them that are 6 months and up, we really just want the color ones.

Alexis is going through some serious separation anxiety with me. I feel so bad for Derek because she freaks out while i'm at work and he has a hard time keeping her happy :/ she is such a doll when I'm home which allows for me to get so much done around the house :) I hope for Derek's sake that she gets over her separation anxiety sooner than later.

Alexis loves when I sing to her in Spanish and English :))) and I love singing to her! We're a match made in heaven <3

I have to mention this, even though the situation at first was awkward, I love having these proud mommy moments. When we were in Chico last for Alexis' 6 month appointment, we went to Starbucks to hang out with Derek's friend, well these two ladies, one that was probably around my age and another that was probably around 30 stopped me, which has been happening ever since Alexis was born, people stop to tell me how cute and small she is and it's always been awkward because I'm like "uhhh thank you?"; this time though it was everything but awkward, Alexis was smiling at them and the younger one even came back twice to ask me about her and it was funny to finally hear someone else admit that not all babies are cute, as she mentioned signaling to a baby behind me lol. The other lady was asking me about how early she was and talking to me about statistics about babies that face out being more extroverted, I had Alexis facing out in the Moby; she was so sweet, she said I made her want to have babies. It's nice to have conversations like that with people, even people who don't have their own kids; I definitely hear the mom side of it on The Bump. It's always nice to have a good convo and it's always flattering to hear how cute your baby is :)

I really wish we could spend Christmas with my parents :( My mom really misses Alexis and I was hoping we'd have the money to drive down but I don't think we will; I have the time off too but I know Derek probably won't. Sad Sad Sad.

Alexis 6 Month Pedi Appointment

This morning Alexis had her 6 month appointment :) I was really looking forward to finding out how much she had grown since her last appointment. Well I guessed her weight would be 12 lbs 4 oz, but she only came in at 12 lbs 1 oz, but her length is now 25". It looks like Alexis is in the 1 percentile for her weight, which is crazy, Dr. Brown said not to worry though that she's just tiny but she isn't malnourished. She thinks that because she's getting longer that the weight gain will follow. On that note she asked us about what she's been eating and we told her we've been giving her whole wheat cereal and she said that's good and that we can also start her on baby foods. I'm really excited about that but I'm also a little hesitant I feel like she's not completely ready for that so I think we're going to keep doing the cereal for a couple more weeks and come mid December we can start her on her vegetables and fruits (looks like Alexis might be opening one of her Christmas gifts early ;)).

Derek and I both feel very strongly about introducing vegetables first for the first 2 weeks and than moving her into fruits. I hear a lot of stories about babies who won't eat vegetables after they've had fruits. I definitely want to make sure Alexis has a love for vegetables just as much as fruits.

During this visit Alexis got another round of all of the vaccinations she got last time but she also got a flu shot. This was Alexis' 3rd time getting shots but for some reason this time her cries were even more sad than the last two times; it was so sad that I started crying a little :( I hate seeing my little baby cry. But she was a real trooper as soon as she was done and got into mommy's arms she stopped crying :)

Dr. Brown prescribed some vitamins and fluoride for Alexis so she gets to start taking that and she wants us to start brushing Alexis' gum's even though she doesn't have any teeth yet. We also talked about Alexis' development and she seems to be right on track. We talked about baby proofing since she's approaching that stage where she's going to be moving around a lot.

We have to see Dr. Brown again in a month for another flu shot and also 3 months from now for her next round of shots. I am really sad that we're going to have to find another pediatrician once we move to Utah; Dr. Brown is such a sweetheart and Alexis loves her!

My beautiful little princess.

I'm such a mom!

I feel like such a mom right now. So as I wrote in one of my previous post, I fell in love with the Graco Blossom highchair, specifically the Bombay design which is red and white. My dad is going to buy that as Alexis' Chrsitmas gift, I talked to him the other day and he asked me if I was going to order it online because he's not too computer savvy and doesn't know which one I want, so he's just going to give me his credit card info and I'm going to order it. My plan was to order it from Babies R Us and do their in store pick up, well we went yesterday and it turns out they don't have that color and it's being discontinued :( The lady helping us checked the computer and told me Stockton and Fairfield had one, so I called them and Stockton doesn't have it and Fairfield has it as their floor model and they won't sell it.

Well needless to say I was crushed. I feel like such a mom being so upset about a highchair. I very much dislike the color scheme of the one they did have at BRU. I looked all over the Internet, even EBay and I couldn't find a single person with the red one :( So i went on Graco's website and looked at the other designs. There is a cute design that is black and white and has some red accents on it so I'm leaning towards that one. I wish I could post a picture but I'm doing this from my iPhone so I don't know how to do that. Even though I can't have the one I originally wanted I'm just excited to order it in the next 2 weeks and get it all wrapped for Alexis to put under our tree. Which by the way we already put up :))

Which reminds me. We bought Alexis her main gift and I got it all wrapped up and under the tree. We also bought her "My First Christmas" onesie and some cute little "My First Christmas" socks/booties; I wrapped them up and I'm so excited to have her unwrap them on Christmas Eve so she can wear them the next morning to open up the rest of her gifts :)

I still need to buy some ornaments for the tree along with her 1st Christmas ornament, which I'm having a hard time deciding on what I want. Also I have to find a cute dress for her Christmas pictures to get our Christmas cards out. I love the holidays :)

P.S. My poor little Alexis is sick :( I think she caught mine and daddy's cold. I hate seeing her sick.

Creeping Up On 6 Months!

I can't believe Alexis will be 6 months in 4 days. That means we're half way to her very first birthday!!! Anyone that knows me shouldn't be surprised to hear that I have already started planning out her 1st birthday. I haven't bought anything or reserved anything but I already know where I want it to be, what I want the invitations to look like and already have an idea for a cake :)))

We're planning on taking Alexis to the San Diego Wild Animal Park for her first birthday and having friends and family join us. Alexis loves the zoo animals on her swing so we think spending her birthday at the zoo would be a super fun experience for her. Alexis' birthday is in May so it'll be really nice weather too.

It feels like just yesterday I was pregnant and now my little baby is going to be 6 months. Time really does fly; Before we know it Alexis will be 18! Okay, maybe not 18 but it feels like she'll be a toddler in no time. One thing that makes me feel a little bit better is that she's so tiny still at 5 months that she seems smaller than she really is which means I'll be able to carry her around longer and maybe it won't feel like she's growing up as quickly as she really is.

Speaking of Alexis being so tiny, we just put her newborn clothes away in storage. She is 4 days away from being 6 months and she barely got out of her newborn clothes, it's crazy. At this point she fits into 0-3 and 3 month clothing really well, but 3-6 month clothing is still too big for her. Her clothes are going to really last her a long time which is good :)

I'm super excited for the coming months leading up to Alexis' 1st birthday! Derek and I decided that we're going to move back to Utah. I had been super opposed to it for a long time but the truth is that Derek has really great connections out there for a good job and I think my chances of getting a good job are better out there than here in the Sacramento area. Also I'm planning on going back to graduate school and getting my Masters in Psychology. Since my path was always to go to law school there are certain classes I didn't take within my Psychology major that I need to take before I can apply to a Masters so I would love to be able to take those at The U since that's where I got my bachelors degrees. We're planning on moving in February or March. It will definitely be hard not to be in California because I am a California girl and I know I'll miss it but it's for the best for our family right now.

We're hoping that we can find a Spanish speaking daycare for Alexis in Utah. I really hate that my parents aren't nearby to be able to speak to Alexis and help with her Spanish, right not it's just me and Derek speaks to her in Spanish sometimes too but I want him to stick strictly to English and me to Spanish. It would be really helpful if she was learning Spanish in daycare as well, at least for the time that we're in Utah until we move back to California. Which I should mention we're planning on only being in Utah for 5 or 6 years and moving back to Southern California, because Utah is definitely not where I want to settle down.

Once we get settled in Utah and take care of some debt we have to pay down. I'm excited to celebrate Alexis' birthday in California and we're planning on going to Mexico for my 25th birthday. I'm excited to get Alexis her 1st passport :)) I know this is trivial and Derek thinks I'm crazy but I love the idea of a baby passport. Alexis is definitely going to be a little world traveler. I love traveling and Derek does too so it only makes sense that Alexis should have a passport because we do plan to travel a lot. I also need to file for a new passport because of my name change. Sadly my old passport still had 4 years on it but it has my maiden name so I have to get a new one.

I'm also excited to move to Utah and get into a new 2 bedroom apartment so I can finally put Alexis' room together. Right now we're in a one bedroom so it doesn't leave a lot of room for Alexis to have her own space. I'm also excited to go on a mini shopping spree with my little cutie for winter-snow clothes.

I'm excited for the holidays and for moving and getting settled into Utah.

Here's a picture of my cutie :)

Excited For Christmas :)

I know we just entered November, which I loveeeeeeee because it is my favorite month; It is also mine and my husbands anniversary month. However, I am even more excited for December.

Fall is my favorite season! I love love love the holidays. I am really excited for Christmas. Derek and I bought Alexis this cute mini stocking that has an "A" on it and I'm excited to fill it up with some stuff. I originally wanted to get her a big stocking and engrave her name on it, but I figured we would wait till next year to get her one of those when she can actually appreciate it a little better. I figured in her mini stocking we would buy her some new pacifiers and some rattles and teethers.

Derek and I have been thinking about what we want to get Alexis for Christmas, for the last two months. We narrowed it down to asking his parents for a shopping cart cover and then a gift card for other day to day things she may need. My dad is going to get Alexis her high chair :) I'm asking my mom to get us a gift card from Barnes and Noble so we can buy Alexis some books. Lastly I'll be asking Uncle Manuel to get us a gift card from Jamboree or some other clothing store that I like.

So before I buy anything for Alexis I usually research online the different reviews that the product received and I go on The Bump and see what everyone else says about the product I'm interested in. So I thought I knew which high chair I wanted; I was going to stick with the Luv U Zoo theme from Fischer Price, which is what her swing is, but after doing some research I changed my mind. The Luv U Zoo high chair does not convert into anything, which means I would have to eventually buy a booster seat which would already put me over $100; So I looked at the Graco Blossom 4-in-1, at first I only looked at it because of the cute colors, but after researching it I know it's the one.

The high chair functions as a regular highchair, infant feeding booster, toddler booster, and a youth chair.

This highchair is expensive compared to other ones but it is soooo functional. The highchair is of course the best part of it because that's how we'll be feeding her but the infant feeding high chair will pretty much be a necessity as well because my in laws do not have a high chair at their home for Alexis and neither do my parents so when we go over and Alexis needs to eat it will be so much easier to bring over that part of the chair as opposed to the whole thing. The toddler booster is great because you can use the toddler booster seat and the infant booster/highchair/youth chair at the same time, so I can feed two babies at the same time with one high chair! Which will come in handy when we have our next baby :))) The youth chair is also pretty amazing because kids that are too big for booster seats are usually still to short to be able to reach the dinner table at an adequate height so the youth chair is another amazing quality of this high chair.

I don't even have it yet but I already love it!!!! Now all I have to decide on is the color I want. They have I believe 6 or more different colors on the Graco site. I'm going to be getting mine from Babies R Us and they have 4 different colors, the ones I'm interested in are the red one and the teal one.

I love teal, but I also love red, especially as an accent color. I think I'm leaning towards the red <3

Buying stuff for Alexis makes me more excited than getting things for me :)

Reminiscing

One of my guilty pleasures is countdowns. I love all kinds of countdowns, especially the ones on VH1, they always have video, artist, and movie countdowns. I especially love the music countdowns because it reminds me of songs that I use to love when I was in middle school, high school and college. Music now mostly makes me want to shot myself because truthfully a lot of it is crap and has no lyrical genius; there are still some gems out there but they are few and far between.

Anyway, I love being reminded of all of these songs that I used to listen to. Well in the process of listening to these it reminded me of all the fun "concerts" I used to have in my car with Josh/Freddy/Larissa. It also reminded me of all the fun I had going to clubs with my friends (which I totally miss and must do soon).

As much as I miss all of these things and tons of other things, I definitely would never change my decision to become a mom when I did and how I did. It's nice to know that I don't have any regrets about not having enjoyed my independence and being young before getting married and becoming a mom. I feel like so many girls now get pregnant that never enjoyed being on their own and getting to experience being a single adult and getting that out of their system and a lot of the time they end up regretting it after they've already made the decision to "play house".

I guess what I'm trying to say out of all this randomness is that I'm glad I have things to look back on and cherish that I experienced in my life and I hope that others think about this before jumping into things that they can't change because it's important. Which is why I try so hard to encourage people (like my younger brothers) to go to college and experience that fun college life and get that out of their system and build memories with friends before settling down.

I'll have a lot of fun stories and pictures to show Alexis of all the stuff her mom did and I'm sure that will come in handy if we ever have the conversation of "you don't know what it's like to be young".

Random Mommy Talk

I haven't written a random post in a long time but today I feel like being random, so here we go.

I knew before Alexis was born and even before I thought about having a baby, that I would have a specific taste in all things baby related. I didn't know any specifics on what I would like but now that she's 5 months old I already have some specific things I love and things I hate.

Baby Clothes: When it comes to clothes that I absolutely love for Alexis I have two specific brands that I adore. I love love love Carter's and Gymboree clothing. Carter's makes clothing in so many cute colors, not just basic colors, and their clothes have cute designs. Gymboree doesn't have as much variety but their stuff is simple but cute, not overbearing like some other brands. I very much dislike print shirts that have catch phrases or tag lines on them, there are some exceptions to this like onesies that say "I love dad" and things like that but I usually only like the ones that are sown in to the clothing not the print ones. There are very few exceptions to this. Last weekend we were at Babies R Us and I saw these really cute outfits that were ballet style/tutu outfits and they were so cute they were in black/tan/ivory colors and I want them for Alexis sooo bad.

Shoes: Alexis does not have any shoes yet; she does have these cute slippers that her aunt Holly bought for her, but no shoes yet. We figured she didn't need any right away, plus doctors say that it can be bad for infants to wear shoes when they are really young because it can actually cause damage to their feet. I am excited though to start buying her some shoes!

Also random, Alexis loves pillow talk :) Every night when I lay with her she starts chatting me up. I love it <3

That's all the randomness for now.

My Little Mumbler

New, new, new.

Alexis has been mumbling like crazy. I know she's trying to talk but it's not happening quite yet but she is soooo close. I swore she said mama the other day but it was sort of muffled so I don't think I'm going to count that as her first word just yet ;)

About a week ago Alexis rolled over for the first time! I was working at the school so Derek was home with her when she did it, he said he tried to get her to do it again but no such luck.

Derek has been trying to convince me to start Alexis on cereal. At her 4 month pedi appointment, Dr. Brown let us know that we could start her on cereal at 4 months, but I really wanted to wait till 6 months, there really is no rush. Well I told Derek that we could start her at 5 months, so the other day we were at the store and we bought some whole wheat cereal and gave it to her for the first time yesterday. Well she was really hungry and didn't like having to deal with learning how to eat the cereal so she screamed the whole time and was really upset so I fed her her bottle and decided to try again later. Last night during her night time bath I decided to try and feed her again to see if she would be more receptive to it while she was calm; She didn't cry this time but she didn't seem to enjoy the taste too much and I couldn't get her to eat too much of it but I figured if we keep trying a little bit at a time in a couple of weeks I'm sure she'll be a pro at it.

Alexis is also starting to actually grab at things and not just grasping. She grabbed her paci out of her mouth the other day and held it for a couple of seconds and then threw it to the side. I want to buy her some blocks so she can start practicing grabbing with them.

One thing that Alexis is not doing yet is sitting unsupported on her own. She will sit up if I'm holding her, she's been able to support her head pretty much from day one but she doesn't have enough weight to evenly support herself on her own so that's why she can't sit up yet without any help. I hope that starting to feed her this cereal will help her gain more weight, granted Dr. Brown said she's progressing perfectly but she's still so small.

I've been working a lot lately at the school Monday thru Friday and then 3 days a week at BJ's. I really look forward at the end of my day to coming home and being able to lay with Alexis :)

A Little Bit of Me & A Little Bit of Alexis :)

So I haven't posted much about what's going on with me lately so I thought I would do that. I just started working at Odyssey Learning Center, with kids that have autism and other developmental disabilities. I had orientation last Thursday and started training this Monday. For training I've been pretty much thrown into a classroom with all the kids, the teacher and the other educational aides. The first day I just observed, the second day I shadowed one of the aides and on the third day I got to work one on one with the kids while someone shadowed me.

On my first day I got slapped a couple of times (pretty hard) by one of the kids. On the second day one of the kids dug his sharp fingernails into my hand. On the third day and fourth day there was a lot more slapping. So looks like this is going to be the norm everyday, but I don't mind it's part of the job. The kids are such characters and the staff is really nice; I think I'm really going to enjoy it.

Alexis has been trying to speak, the last couple of weeks, mostly she's just mumbling random noises. I had been speaking mostly to Alexis in English with a little bit of Spanish but for the past two weeks I've started to strictly speak to her in Spanish, now that she's starting to speak I really want to concentrate on Spanish with her. When I started speaking strictly Spanish with her she stopped "talking" to me as much as she did when I was speaking English with her. Today she started to talk to me like she used to, which makes me happy because that means she's getting comfortable with the Spanish version of me lol.

I just thought I would update on what has been going on lately with me, and Alexis :)

Growing Up

It's been a while since I've posted anything on here and I've really been meaning to I'm just too busy taking care of Alexis or just too tired. But at the moment she is sound asleep, taking a little nap so I thought I would update.

Alexis is 4 months now and she is getting bigger and bigger by the day. She's still pretty tiny compared to other babies her age but in my eyes she's grown soooo much. About a month ago she weighed in at 9 lbs. We have her pediatrician's appointment on Tuesday thank gosh! I feel like it's been forever since we last saw her pediatrician. I just have sooo many questions for Dr. Brown so I'm glad we finally get too see her again. The one thing I'm not excited about is that Alexis gets her next round of shots at this visit and I know how heartbreaking it was when she got them the first time around.

I started a routine with Alexis 2 weeks ago and it's working out marvelously. It's not a super rigid routine but it's consistent. I'll feed her, play with her and talk with her, then she'll play on her play mat for like 40 minutes and then we'll have some tummy time and she'll nap and we pretty much do this throughout the day every time she wakes up. In between all that we'll go out and take a walk to the mailbox. Also at around 10pm I give her a bath with all her bedtime stuff and feed her and change her and she usually goes to sleep, wakes up at 11:30 for another feeding and then she's out from midnight till 6 in the morning and then she eats and gets changed again and goes back to sleep for another 3 hours before getting up around 9 to start her day. Sometimes this routine isn't completely solid because we'll have to go out and run errands and things like that but when we have a normal day when we don't go out it works really well. Daddy and I are both extremely excited that she is sleeping through the night, because that means we are too :)

Alexis has started to drool a lot, which started about a month ago; we think she is teething. I haven't seen any hint of a tooth yet but all the drooling tells me that it may be coming soon. We bought her some teething toys to chew on but she doesn't care for them that much, I think it's because they're cold; I'm sure once her teeth come in she'll appreciate them.

The best part of her getting bigger and older is that now she has started to smile, laugh, and attempt to talk that she hardly ever cries anymore. She makes the cutest noises. I can't wait for her to actually speak. I'm hoping her first word will be momma or dada but you never know.

Tummy time isn't working out so great with Alexis. She doesn't really enjoy being on her tummy and we've been trying to have her do tummy time everyday so that she can learn to roll over. She hasn't done it yet. One thing she does love to do is crawl on her back, she uses her legs to push herself on her back. I'll put her on her play mat while I'm in the kitchen cooking or cleaning and periodically look over at her in the living room to make sure she's ok and I'll find that she went from being right below her toys to almost on the carpet! She has some strong legs. Now we just need to get her to use her arms and legs to roll over.

Her hair is getting longer, but we haven't cut it. I think it looks really good, it's not unattractive long or in her face long so when it gets to that point I think is when we'll have her first hair cut.

We haven't gotten her ears pierced yet. But I think within the next month or two is when we're going to get it done. I can't wait to find some cute little studs for her.

Non Alexis related. I found a second job working at a school with kids that have Autism. I had to get a physical and do a background check and a ton of other things. I've done pretty much everything so I'm just waiting to find out when orientation and training starts. I'm really excited to start working in an environment that will give me some fulfillment in helping others. What's awesome about it is that it's Monday-Friday from 8:45- 2:45, and I get time off during Thanksgiving and Christmas, it isn't paid time off but it's nice to have it. I can still work at BJ's some nights with this schedule too. Derek works from 4-1 so our schedules line up perfectly so we don't have to take Alexis to daycare. so the days that Derek doesn't work nights I'll be working at BJ's and also during the days on the weekends. Once Derek goes back to school we might have to have her in day care for 3 hours maybe twice a week but at that point she'll be 6 months and it still won't be for too long. I'm glad we found something that would work for the both of us.

I'm just so happy to have Alexis. I love her more than anything and I can't wait for her to keep growing. I really love all this mommy/parenting stuff.,

New Job. New Apartment. New City.

There have been a ton of new stuff going on and it's been pretty hectic up until now.

A couple of weeks ago, while we were still living in Chico, I applied to some jobs in the Sacramento area and one of the places I applied to was BJ's in Folsom and they hired me. I applied as a server but they told me I didn't have enough experience (which I think is ridiculous) so they hired me on as a host.

So 2 weeks ago Derek and I came down to Sacramento, we found an apartment close to my work and close to the community college he's going to be attending. Even though his school is in Folsom and so is my job we decided to live in Orangevale because the rent is a lot cheaper. I really like the apartment complex.

Last week we went down to Southern California to pick up our stuff from storage and to see my family. We were only down there for a day which sadly meant I didn't get to spend as much time with my family as I wanted. It was great to see Alexis spend time with her grandparents and her uncles :)

BJ's is my favorite restaurant and I really like working there, the people are really nice and I miss working at a restaurant but going back to being a host after being a server is very disappointing. So I'm trying to look for another job. I was trying to find a career style job but there aren't any openings right now in my field so I'm hoping to find a server job while I try to find a career style job.

Orangevale is a nice area but I still don't particularly like Sacramento, being this close to San Francisco makes me nostalgic, living in Orangevale definietly does not compare. We probably won't be staying here for more than a year and a half at the most. We're planning on moving back to Southern California, Orange County or maybe Santa Barbara.

Alexis will be 12 weeks next Saturday. It's so crazy to think about how quickly she's been growing and how she's changed over these last couple of weeks. Every day she gets more and more beautiful and every day I see more and more of myself in her. Going through our stuff we had in storage I found pictures of me as a baby and she looks just like me it's crazy, except she of course is even more beautiful. Having a little miniature you is such a great experience. I can't wait for her to get older I have so many amazing plans for her :)

So many pregnant women have been coming into work lately and it makes me want to be pregnant again. I miss my belly bump. I loved being pregnant. But Derek and I need to get some things together before we decide to have a second one.

Alexis Update

I promised myself I would keep up on the blog especially now that Alexis is here but of course I underestimated how unimportant everything else seems to be when I have her to spend time with. So on that note, here is an update.

Alexis is 6 weeks and 5 days old. I can't believe we are so close to being at the 2 month mark. She was doing really well the first 3 weeks but after that she started being really fussy so I'm pretty sure she has colic and I also have a suspicion that she has reflux. My poor baby doesn't go a day without spitting up her milk and she goes hours on end crying inconsolably. I feel so bad for her because there is really nothing I can do. I thought about calling her pediatrician and taking her in but it's seems to be very common and I figured we would wait till her next appointment and then if need be we can get a prescription for the reflux. Apparently they only recommend taking medications if she's not gaining weight so we'll see if she's keeping up on her weight gain at her next appointment; I think she looks bigger but I've been off the last two times I tried to guess her weight.

We had Alexis' newborn shoot at around her 2 week mark. We had originally planned to do it with her just being a couple of days old but because of the preeclampsia and the unexpected c-section we weren't able to do that. I loved the pictures I just wish I had more newborn outfits for her shoot and some headbands but we were so all over the place we didn't get a chance to go out and get them for her. Here are some of the pictures:

We had our first day trip with Alexis on the 22nd. My 24th birthday was on the 21st so we went to San Francisco the next day to celebrate. She loves car rides and this one was no exception, it was a longer car ride than she is used to but she loved it. I got to try out my Moby Wrap and she liked it for the most part but I think the colic and reflux makes it hard for her since she's always in pain. I'm hoping once the colic and reflux go away she'll be able to really enjoy being in the Moby.

When we were in San Francisco we got so many compliments on our precious little Alexis. The best part was when I was catching up with my old roommate, we were just sitting outside a restaurant chatting and this lady came over and told me her little girl wanted to come see the baby, the little girl reached over and touched Alexis' feet and she just stood there smiling staring at her curiously, it was precious. I love little kids :)

We're going to be blessing Alexis at church this Sunday. I'm really excited about that :)

Well I can't think of anything else I should update on at the moment. Oh ya except one random thought, Alexis is getting darker! I only say this because she was so white when she was first born and didn't seem to have gotten any color from me but now she looks like she's getting darker and her skin looks so tan! Well anyway enought of that. I will definitely be better about updating on here.

Alexis' Birth Story.

It's been almost two months since I've posed anything on here. After Alexis was born I kept meaning to get on here and write about the birth story, but going online is always the last thing on my mind these days. So I finally have a little bit of down time today so I thought I should write about it. This is going to be long so bear with me.

On May 12th I woke up at around 2am feeling sick to my stomach. At this point I'm 37 weeks and my due date wasn't until June 8th. So I woke up with a sharp pain in my upper abdomen and excruciating mid and upper back pain. I attempted to just lay there and just breathe through it but it didn't work I ended up vomiting. I took a shot shower and just stood there trying to will the pain away and finally after 3 hours it subsided. I had a doctors appointment with my OB-GYN that day and I told her what I was feeling and she told me it was just really bad heartburn. I've had really bad heartburn during this pregnancy and trust me that is not what this felt like. However, since she is a doctor I listened to her and that day I didn't eat anything spicy, I drank lots of water, and when I went to bed I made sure to prop my upper body on some pillows.

May 13th I woke up at the same time as the night before, around 2am. The pain was much worse this time and I could not believe it, just like I thought it definitely was not heartburn. I tried not to vomit but I couldn't help it; I wasn't even throwing up food it was just water and then water and bile and then just bile, nasty sour bile, ugh! I didn't know what to do I felt like my body was just breaking down on me. I decided to take a hot shower and it worked, for the 40 minutes I was in the shower, then the second I got out the pain was back and so was the need to vomit. I couldn't even sleep, the pain would not allow it. That day the pain lasted for 8 hours. I called my doctor that morning but she was busy, they told me she would call me back, but she never did. For some reason the pain only came in the early morning, go figure.

On May 14th without fail at 2am the pain was back and stronger then ever. I woke Derek up crying and told him I couldn't take it and I didn't know what to do. Derek sadly didn't believe that it was anything too serious so he told me to just take it easy and hope that it would go away. That morning was the same old routine, me taking several hot showers and vomiting off and on. Morning finally came and I called my doctor's office, since it was Saturday the emergency on-call doctor was there, he is not my doctor. I told him all my symptoms and what my doctor had told me and he said the same thing she had told me, "it must be heartburn". Are you kidding me!?!? He recommended that I buy some Pepcid and take it easy on what I was eating and that if it still didn't work I could call Monday and make an appointment for a sonogram to check for gallstones. Then he said that if the pain got really bad and I couldn't deal with it I should go to the emergency room. The second I got off the phone with him I had Derek take me to the emergency room. Not that I don't trust doctors but seriously the pain I was feeling was not heartburn and it really pissed me off that they kept trying to tell me it was. I was genuinely worried.

We get to the emergency room and they send us to Labor and Delivery since I'm 37 and a half weeks pregnant. The nurses get me hooked up to monitor the baby's heart rate and another to monitor my contractions. I wasn't having any contractions and the baby's heart rate was normal. They had me do a sonogram to check for gallstones and they had me give a urine sample to check for protein in my urine. They took us back to the room and hooked me back up to the monitors while they waiting for the results. The nurses started talking about getting me some Pepcid( I guess they were still on this whole heartburn trip). Then one of my nurses told me they were going to hook me up to an IV and that the Dr. Mazen( the emergency on call doctor I had spoken with earlier) was going to be coming in to tell me my options. Well at this point I knew something serious was going on.

Dr. Mazen comes in and tells me very bluntly "there is something very wrong with you" and then proceeds to tell me that I have protein in my urine, my kidneys were swollen, and my platelet levels were extremely low. He told me I had a disease known as HELLP syndrome, which is a step past pre-eclampsia. Apparently the disease makes it so that your body starts to reject the pregnancy and it's pretty much telling you to get the baby out or it will breakdown your body. HELLP syndrome attacks people randomly and it happens in only 0.6% of all pregnancies, lucky me. He told us "looks like we're having your baby today"; he let us know that since I wasn't having contractions and I was 37 weeks along he didn't think I could have the baby naturally through a vaginal birth, he recommended doing a c-section. I definitely did not want to do a c-section, for many different reasons, he said that we could try to induce labor but he was afraid that the likelihood that I would have a quick labor was not very likely; what he said after that scared me. He said that if we induced labor and allowed me to labor into the next day that my condition would most likely get much worse and there was a high possibility that I could die. I asked him if it was possible to induce me and give me a small window of time too see if I could do it naturally and then if that failed we could go through with the c-section, he agreed to give me 4 hours to try and labor. After Dr. Mazen and the nurses left the room I broke down. I kept calm in front of them because I didn't want them to see how afraid I was but I was freaking out inside. I was crying because I was upset that my body had betrayed me, that my baby was going to be three and a half weeks early, and that I wasn't ready for this. Derek tried to comfort me and I let the moment pass, I knew that I needed to prepare myself for what was next.

They put me into a labor room and got my IV started on some magnesium that is supposed to help with the pain. The nurses were waiting on the pitocin to get me started. Derek called his mom and let her know what was happening and they were on their way to the hospital. I called my parents and let them know and told them I would call them after she was born. I started to feel contractions but they were very mild. My mother-in-law and younger sister-in-law showed up with some food for Derek. An hour and a half had passed since Dr. Mazen had said I could have 4 hours to labor, and the pitocin still hadn't come in and my contractions were getting more painful. Derek's mom and his sister had stepped out of the room for a second and Derek told me that he was afraid something might happen to me if we tried to labor. It was hard for me to see him that way because I could tell he was fighting back tears, I knew he was afraid that me and the baby could die. We talked about it and made the decision to just go through with the c-section. A couple of minutes after making the decision the nurse comes in with the pitocin, I let her know that I wanted to do the c-section instead and she let the doctor know.

Not having gotten any sleep for the last 3 days, I was exhausted and I started to doze off while we waiting for the anesthesiologist to come in. Finally at around 6:30 he came in and let me know what the procedure was going to be. Dr. Mazen also came in and let me know that we would get started at 7pm. It seemed like forever when 7 finally rolled around. Derek had to wait to go into the surgery room until after they had given me the spinal tap. I think the worst part of the whole thing was the spinal tap, it was extremely painful and once they laid me down on the table my whole body was shaking, and it wasn't even that cold in there. They finally let Derek come in and they started the c-section. All I could feel was extreme pressure on my stomach as the doctors were pushing the baby out. I can't really describe the feeling any better, it was definitely an interesting experience.

Finally Alexis Claire Hodges was born. I could feel her come out but I couldn't hear her yet, they whisked Derek away and I finally heard her cry. Even though I couldn't see her I was overcome with joy and I started crying, it seemed like forever before Derek finally bought her over to me. When I saw her beautiful little face I instantly fell in love with her. I held her and kissed her little face. I couldn't stop crying. They had Derek take her while they stapled me back up(weirdest feeling in the word). They took us into a recovery room while they weighed and measured Alexis and while they were getting my room ready. Alexis weighed in at 4 lbs 6 oz and 17 inches and 3/4.

I was in the hospital for 5 days total. I thought my stay in the hospital was going to give me a chance to rest before going home, but it was not like that at all. I had to have my blood pressure and vitals checked every 2 hours and in between that I had to feed Alexis and pump and take my painkillers and so one and so forth. Derek's family came to visit and Derek's good friend Eric came by, it was nice to have visitors. All in all it wasn't bad but I definitely did not enjoy having to wear a catheter, not being able to shower for 2 days, and having staples pulled out of my stomach.

Alexis is a month old today and it feels almost surreal that I've been a mother for a month now. It took a couple of days to get use to it but it's definitely worth it. She's beautiful with her big almond shaped eyes, her cute little nose and her crazy head of hair. She weighs 6 lbs and 2.5 ounces now and getting bigger everyday. I will post some pictures up soon once we get her newborn pictures back from the photographer.

This is super long. I just wanted to share and document her birth story. Even though it didn't happen the way I thought it would I'm just so glad that she got here safe and sound and she's healthy.

Are we really at 34 weeks!?!?

I just hit 34 weeks yesterday. There are 41 days left till my due date. Time is going by so quickly, I never thought 34 weeks would come. I feel huge now compared to how I felt the last couple of weeks. Baby is moving around like crazy and I can definitely see her different body parts poking at my belly.

I've started feeling a lot of the not so fun pregnancy symptoms now that I've reached week 34. My back pain is getting pretty unbearable. I have cankles!!!! I couldn't believe it when I saw them so that's kind of depressed me a little but I guess it comes with the territory. I've also started to feel a lot of different cramps and tightening in my stomach, borderline BH contractions.

I'm going to be starting my series of classes next month. I'm taking a lamaze and birthing class and I'm really excited about them because I know they will help me feel less nervous about the whole thing. I'm definitely looking forward to learning hands on and not just from my pregnancy books. Derek and I went to a breastfeeding class today and that was really informational and we really enjoyed it.

I still feel really unprepared but that's only because we haven't gotten all of the little things we need yet. We have a bathtub and several outfits and a ton of diaper boxes. We have the bassinet but haven't set it up yet, we're waiting till about week 36. I'll be flying home this weekend for two baby showers, one that my friends are throwing me and one that my mom is throwing me for my family. My dad is going to be buying us the car seat; I'm excited to get that and get it all set up and ready to go. I think once I get back home from the baby showers and really get into the last weeks I'll feel more prepared and hopefully not as nervous. I just want to make sure everything is ready for our little girl.

Here is a picture of me from last week at 33 weeks. [I look huge!]

Things I Miss From Pre- Pregnancy.

Being on The Bump all the time I always read post about what all these pregnant women miss about pre-pregnancy. It got me thinking about the things that I miss about not being pregnant. So I thought I should share.

Having Clear Skin
I have never been the type of person that breaks out or has a lot of pimples. But OMG being pregnant has just messed up my face :( I seem to get a new zit everyday and they seem to be all on my forehead or on my cheeks. I don't want to sound vain because it's all worth it in the end but it's made worse by the fact that I don't wear make up, every once in a while I wear some mascara and eyeliner or a really light blush but for the most part I'm anti-make up and don't want to turn to it now. That saying really is true, you know you're having a baby girl because she steals your beauty.

Shaving Twice A Week
It is unbelievable how many times a week I have to shave now. It is no lie that pre-natal vitamins make hair and nails grow like crazy! Before becoming pregnant I could shave twice a week and be ok now it's like every other day, sometimes more. What's worse is hair growing where it didn't really grow before. Not to over share but my belly is really hairy and it's ridiculous I'm thinking of waxing it soon because I just can't stand looking at it. Having to clip my nails every other day too is really annoying and tedious. Can't wait for the hairiness to go away!

Not Feeling Swollen
This last week I've started to notice my feet and ankles swelling and it so uncomfortable not to mention kind of gross looking. My shoes fit me so tight now and I'm afraid I'm going to break out of them any day now. Plus I just think my feet look gross now. I want a pedicure so bad!

Eating Whatever I Want
Granted I guess I could eat whatever I want but not without consequences. One of the things I was looking forward to eating the most while being pregnant was pizza. I like pizza but I'm not obsessed with it but for once I was really hoping to really crave it and was excited to eat lots of it. Well come to find out that eating pizza makes me throw up :( I was pretty pissed about this, since I was so looking forward to pigging out on it. It's made worse that Derek loves pizza and every time he wants to eat it I have to get something else. Also lasagna, I can't stomach that very well either and it's pretty annoying. I've also had to cut out some of the spicy foods I love, because the heartburn is too unbearable.

Wearing Victoria Secret Underwear
This may sound like a funny one, but I really miss my pre-pregnancy underwear. All of my underwear is from VS and I love love love them. I tried to stick it out as far as I could but come 7 months I had to give in to buying some bikini cut maternity underwear from Maternity Motherhood. Thankfully they're not as granny panty as I thought they would be but they're not the cute underwear I was used to.

My Butt
To start with I have a big butt and big hips which I'm pretty happy with but since becoming pregnant it feels like my hips have widened even more and my butt has gotten bigger (not in the good way). I already felt I had child-bearing hips to begin with so the horror of them getting bigger and my butt going with it is very disappointing. The bright side I guess is that I have to date only gained 2 pounds so getting a personal trainer after baby is born and really hitting the gym and getting into shape won't be as hard. I hope.

Not Having Extreme Stretch Marks
I had some stretch marks before getting pregnant but nothing crazy and definitely not in some spots I have them now. They are gross and I'm afraid they won't go away. I've been using Bio-Oil since the beginning to make sure I didn't get any but it seems like my body doesn't really care. I think the reason they are so extreme though is because I didn't gain any weight at all till just a week or so ago so my body has literally taken fat from other parts of my body for my belly and the stretch marks in that case were inevitable. It's pretty weird, my waist is thinner because of all the fat that got pulled to my stomach. I just want everything to be normal again.

Being Heartburn Free
I had never experienced heartburn in my life before becoming pregnant. Derek seemed to always get heartburn after every meal but I never really knew what that felt like and boy do I hate the feeling. My doctor prescribed me Zantac but it doesn't always completely go away and I really really hate the feeling. It's not just heartburn either it's all the burping and other bodily functions. I was also never one to burp much but now it happens all the time and I hate it; I feel like a nasty gassy old man lol. Not fun.

Well I can't think of anything else at the moment but this is a pretty good list to start with. At the end of the day I don't really care because I know it's all worth it for my precious little girl, but I can't deny it would be nice to not have to deal with these side effects. End of the rant for me.

Free Newborn Photography Session!

I just had to blog about this amazing find!

So lately I've been trying to figure out what I will be doing for maternity pictures and thinking ahead as well to the newborn pictures. Anyone that knows me knows how much I love photography and love being in front of the camera. Pictures are priceless to me and I want to be able to capture all of the special moments in my life through photography. Well being pregnant is one of those moments were I want to capture everything. My wonderful husband, Derek, is less into these things, so it's not really a priority for him to have maternity pictures taken. We had the same amazing photographers for our engagement, wedding, and Christmas shoot. Our photo sessions have not been cheap and now I find myself with almost no budget to have my maternity pictures done.

So anyway, I had the thought of going on Craigslist and see if I could find any local photographers that might be offering up there services for cheap, to build their portfolio. Well I totally hit the jackpot! A photographer from Phoenix is moving to Chico in May and was offering a free session of several of her services to the first people who contacted her. One of her free sessions was a newborn session; I e-mailed her right away and sure enough she still had the free session available! I was a little scared to look on craigslist for a photographer because I know that photographers starting out may not have the best quality pictures, but I got lucky because this photographer is experienced and just happens to be offering free sessions to build her reputation in Northern California.

Derek was pretty excited that we are saving ourselves some money on this. I however need to still figure out what I will do about my maternity pictures. If I still had my Nikon DSLR I would just have Derek take pictures of me but I don't have my camera anymore and I know my little canon point and shoot would not be very good. I pretty much have all of the big purchases for the baby being done by my parents and my inlaws except for I haven't thought of anything for my mom to get me so I'm thinking I might ask her to pay for the maternity pictures.

Anyway, enough ranting from me. I am 29 weeks today. Eleven weeks to go!

It's The Final Push. The 3rd Trimester!

I can't believe we are already into March, almost to the ides of March actually. It feels like 2011 just started but we're already a 4th of the way through, crazy. We just had Day Light Savings and it makes me happy because that means the days are getting longer which means my birthday is getting close. It's not so much my birthday I'm looking forward to as much as the fact that my birthday and my baby's birthday will be in the same month, and therefore the closer to my birthday we are the closer we are to baby's birth date :)

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about the next coming months, specifically June, for lots of reasons of course. Since leaving law school and moving back to Northern California (I guess that might be confusing I haven't lived in Northern California for 3 years but it feels like I was just here, so essentially I'm coming back) I'm excited to be here, parts of me want to be back in Southern California, not just because that is my home but because my dream was always to come back to Southern California and start my family and career living in beautiful Orange County, for now though that doesn't seem to be the plan. Truth be told though I'm not to disappointed I love Northern California, well let's be honest just the Bay Area and San Francisco to be specific, so I'm not to sad that if I had to choose to live somewhere that wasn't Orange County it would definitely be in the San Francisco Area. [But if I really could live anywhere it would be New York ;)] I'm excited for June to come so that I can have my baby, celebrate my 24th birthday and because after spending almost 6 years in school between undergrad and my semester of law school, for the first time I get to start working at a career style job. Don't get me wrong, I loved working as a server in San Francisco I wouldn't trade that experience for the world. I also loved working the other jobs that I did and greatly appreciate the job experience that I had in Salt Lake as an executive assistant, but that still was just a job, something that I did while going to college. I'm excited to get into a career, even if it's not my permanent career choice. I will still have the satisfaction of using one of my degrees or both of them and making a salary for the first time in my life :) Plus after living like a college student I'm going to enjoy having some money to do the things that I want to do.

Anyways, enough about me let's talk about the real star in my life right now, my baby girl. I've officially entered into the 3rd Trimester (does a happy dance)! I entered into the 27th week last Wednesday and now it's just a waiting game into 40 weeks, maybe sooner if baby decides she's ready to come early. I am so in love with my little girl, I wish I could see her pretty little face again but I think I'm just going to have to wait till she's here. Everyday I find myself looking at her little baby clothes and being so excited to be able to put her into her first pieces of clothing. I can't wait to see if she looks like a perfect mix of both Derek and I, or maybe more like me or more like him, the suspense is killing me. I still have yet to gain any weight except for maybe like a pound or so, and it's not from a lack of eating, my doctor only wanted me to gain about 15 lbs so I guess I'm saving them all for the splurge at the end, without really trying.

I don't have any new pictures to post. I was going to take pictures of the clothes I have so far but I am pretty lazy right now. This lazyness is not good because my belly book is suffering. I bought a belly book journal when we first found out we were pregnant and it's amazing to document everything in there, well for every week they have a spot for a belly picture and I was pretty good through the 1st trimester and most of the 2nd but I have not taken a belly picture in so long and I need to start again because my belly is pretty big now.

Ummm let's see. Well one of my bestest friends, Magaly, and Debbie are throwing me a baby shower. I am really excited Magaly is amazing, she was also my Maid of Honor. The shower is going to be for some close friends and then my mom and my uncle's girlfriend are throwing me a family baby shower. I'm excited to be able to go back home for this so everyone can see me again before I have the baby. My daddy is going to buy the car seat for us, I'm so excited because it's my dream car seat :)

I'm not sure if this is the design I want yet. Decisions, Decisions.

Right now I don't have much else to update on :)

Bigger Bump Equals Bigger Spending :)

Derek and I just made our move back up to Northern California, the move was bittersweet, leaving Southern California made me sad but I also have lots of love for the Bay Area and will enjoy living in the area again. I miss my family, especially my little brother but it's nice to get to spend time with my in laws :)

My belly is getting bigger and bigger everyday, it's starting to point out and it's pretty weird looking at myself in the mirror and trying not to freak out over how huge I look! I'm a week away from the 3rd Trimester, just turned 25 weeks yesterday :) I finally got to do some maternity shopping the other day. I bought a couple of pairs of capris, tops, layering tanks and a cute long sleeve open sweater :) This past weekend my in laws came down to Southern California to visit us and help us move and while they were there we went to The Block at Orange and I bought some adorable baby onesies (I will post some pictures soon) and my wonderful mother in law and younger sister in law bought us a ridiculously adorable bathing suit and matching dress for our little girl :)) We also got some adorable bath towels and blanket from my other sister in law and her husband, we hadn't seen them for Christmas so we finally got to see the gift :) I'm loving all these little baby purchases and I can't wait to see what else we get along the way.

I'm still not sure when we'll be having my baby shower and I still haven't figured out when I will be taking my maternity pictures but I really need to get on that since time seems to be flying by.

Ohhh and of course how could I forget! We did our 3D/4D Ultrasound this last Saturday, my parents and little brothers were there and so were my in laws. Every time I get to see my little girl it is the most amazing feeling, but this time to get to see her in 4D was the best feeling ever. We did it at 24 weeks and they recommend you do it between 28 and 34 weeks to get the best pictures but I really didn't want to wait and I wanted my parents to be able to be there too and since we were moving that weekend it wouldn't have been possible. Here are some pictures :)

Our little girls face:) She's got my lips ;)

This was so precious she had her hand under her chin and the other hand at the back of her head, you can see her elbow.

It looks like she is shushing us with her finger over her lips.

It looks like she's giving us the thumbs up in this pictures, she's just posing away.

She's kicking her little foot to her head :)

We had a ton more pictures but it's pretty much more of the same just slightly different angles. I am so in love with her cute little face. I might be biased but I think she is sooo cute, I wish we could have waited longer, when she had more fat on her so we could get an even better look but I still think she's beautiful, she has my lips and it looks like she has a little button nose. I swear she was smiling the whole time, maybe it's just me but it looks like she can't stop smiling. The place we went to was really great, we got a DVD of the ultrasound and a CD with pictures and a ton of 3D/4D pictures printed out.

Well that's all the updating I have for now, enjoy :)

Oh Baby!

This post is supposed to be more baby ranting but I couldn't post something today without mentioning the amazing game last night. I had been looking forward to the Super Bowl for 2 weeks and yesterday my Packers did not disappoint. I am ecstatic that they won and I'm so happy my little girl is coming into a year where her team wins the Super Bowl, because my baby is definitely a Packer's Baby!

So enough of that, now time for some baby ranting.

Today I had a doctors appointment, just a typical check up to hear the baby's heartbeat but we also got to find out if everything was ok from the last ultrasound, regarding the baby's measurements. The doctor said I'm doing great :) and our little girl measured perfectly! Now we're pretty much just riding it out and making sure I'm ok, the doctor said we're pretty much done with blood test for the baby and everything we just need to make sure I'm ok.

I'm about 2 weeks away from entering into the 3rd trimester and I'm ridiculously excited. My belly has gotten bigger, it seems to be growing everyday. Our little girl is the size of a papaya right now and apparently she's taking up a lot of room in my belly. I've been feeling her hiccup a lot and kick every once in a while, it's a crazy feeling but I love it, when she's not moving around I find myself giving my stomach a little shake and asking her to wake up :)

I'm excited in the next few weeks to do some real baby shopping. I really need to go maternity clothes shopping, which I'm excited to do. I'm also really looking forward to buying my diaper bag! It is a Timi & Leslie Baby Jane in black.

I love this diaper bag because it's stylish I can use it as a purse and a diaper bag, instead of having to haul around a purse and a diaper bag, plus I think it's really cute.

I've also been going back and forth about what stroller I want. At first even before we got pregnant I had been looking at the Maclaren strollers and had my heart set on one of these.

However, I have been going back and forth for a while and the other day I was at the mall with my best friend and we were looking at baby clothes and I saw this women with the Quinny Buzz 3 and I all of a sudden really wanted that stroller, I had seen it before online and really liked it but seeing it in person was even better. I know it's different from the traditional stroller and I think that's what I really like about it, it's trendy but still comfortable, it's not bulky which is a big deal for me and it's stylish. It's kind of expensive so It would take a lot of convincing of the husband on my part to be able to get it. For now though I'm really in love with it.

The thing I'm looking forward to the most though is going baby girl clothes shopping!!! I haven't bought any baby clothes yet, we've been trying to hold off but I can't wait much longer so in the following weeks once we make our big move, I'm going to scour the Bay Area for the perfect baby clothes :)

Since I'm no longer in school and I'm also not working at the moment I've been spending a lot of time watching tv and reading pregnancy books, magazines, and spend a substantial amount of time on thebump. One of the things I watch a lot of is Baby Story, it's a show on TLC that documents the last weeks of a woman's pregnancy. I love watching the show but I can't help but get really emotional, I mean I'm already an emotional person (it's my cancer side) but this is out of control, when they show the baby being born, I without fail break down and cry. I know I'm probably just crying out of excitement for wanting to be in that position myself but It makes me feel like a big baby. I don't mind crying though it just sucks because it gives Derek something to make fun of me for. No worries though I know Derek will turn into a big fat baby when he gets to meet our little girl ;)

Well for now that is all I have to report. Hopefully I'll have some more fun news to share soon.

It's Been A While, So It's Time For An Update

So it's been a while since I posted anything so I thought I should do a little updating. The past couple of weeks have been pretty hectic. I have a couple of changes going on right now so I thought I would update on that.

In terms of school I won't be going to Law School this semester. Due to some personal issues I feel like right now is not the best time for me to be going to Law School and I'm going to take some time off to work and be with my family. Hopefully I can go back in the near future because Law is definitely still what I want to do and where I want to be.

Along with my decision to leave school for the time being, Derek and I will be moving up to Northern California. I will be taking time off to relax before the baby comes, after the baby is born I will be working and Derek will be finishing school. I miss San Francisco and it will be nice to be back in the Bay Area for a little bit before Derek and I move back down here for good.

Now for some baby news! So the last post I wrote I talked about how we would be finding out if we were having a boy or a girl. We'll turns out we're having a girl :)))) We are sooooo excited! We had two sets of names picked out for a boy or a girl so we already know what we're naming her. After we found out we're having a girl we registered for gifts and it was so fun. We also scheduled a 4D ultrasound for the 19th and we're going to have my parents and Derek parents come so they can see the baby. I'm really excited to start buying more baby stuff, so far we've only purchased the bath tub and some pacifiers. I just recently felt the baby kick for the first time and over the past 2 days she's been going crazy in my belly and kicking and hiccuping like crazy, it's such a weird feeling but it's amazing.

I'm 22 weeks pregnant and it feels surreal that I'm past the halfway point. I finally need to start buying some real maternity clothes, so I'm excited to go shopping. I'm also looking forward to waddling. Even before Derek and I decided to get pregnant waddling has always been my favorite thing, when I would see other pregnant women, I just want to waddle like a penguin :) I know it's probably weird but I'm excited.

Here's a picture of our last ultrasound :)