Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Alexis' First Plane Ride!

Alexis gets to go on her first flight this Thursday. We are flying back up to Sacramento. One of these days I will have to update on the big change we're making but for now I want to keep this relatively short.

Alexis has her 9 month doctor's appointment on Friday in Chico. I haven't been able to find a new pediatrician for her so that's why we're flying up. We fly out of Ontario Thursday night, just the two of us since Derek is already in Sacramento. I am sooooo excited for her first flight. I love love love airports and flying, pretty much traveling is something that I love. I'm really hoping Alexis will feel the same way. I did a lot of research and reading stuff on the Bump about what others experiences were traveling with their little ones. I called the airline and asked about bringing formula through security, about checking in the car seat, and all that kind of stuff. I think I'm as prepared as I can be. I know she'll do fine, she is soooo good in public.

We're going to be flying into Sacramento and driving up to Chico for her doctor's appointment. Sometime later in the evening we'll be driving a U-Haul back to Southern California and moving into our new place. Derek will be spending the weekend with us but then he flies back to Sacramento Monday :( he's going to be finishing up his two weeks there before getting transferred down here.

I am really excited for Alexis' doctor's appointment. I love going to her appointments and hearing all the progress she's making and hear what Dr. Brown says about what other things Alexis may be ready for. I'm saddened that we're going to have to find another pediatrician because Dr. Brown is amazing, and I love her practice it's very kid friendly and just a really nice place. I always hear people say how hard it is to find a good pediatrician.

Well that is it for now I will update on the move, Alexis, and what's been going on later :)

P.S. Alexis is a rockstar! More on that later.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Mommy Moments

I really need to update on how everything is going, but today won't be that day.

I just wanted to write really quick about my proud mommy moment. Alexis woke up at 3am this morning and felt really hot all over I took her temp and it was at 100.4, she had fallen asleep early and didn't get her normal 6oz bottle before bed so I fed her and gave her some Tylenol to help bring her temp down and she fell right to sleep.

Well when she woke up this morning, I took her temperature again and it was back up to 101 and again I gave her Tylenol and she was fine, well I had to go somewhere later in the afternoon and left her with my mom, asked her to take her temperature again and if it was high to give her Tylenol. Well my dad calls me an hour later talking about how I should take her to the hospital because she has a fever and I explained to him that she was fine as long as it didn't go over 104, at that point she would have to go to the hospital.

Earlier in the day I had called her pediatrician's office to speak to one of the nurses and just confirm what I already knew. I came back home and checked her temp and it was at 102 so I gave her some Tylenol and formula and she was fine. The nurse finally called me back and told me exactly what I had told everyone, a 102 fever is mid grade and normal for infants to get especially when they have a cold or anything else wrong with them and not till 104 should I go to the hospital :)

It was a proud mommy moment for me to know that I was doing exactly what I should have been doing, no "first time mom" moment here.

It especially felt good because it's pretty annoying when your parents try to tell you to do this and that, even though I know they're trying to be helpful, it's like, "Hello, I planned this baby I'm pretty sure I researched not just the making a baby part but also the part about what to do after their born!" I'm sure all of you ladies with little ones know what I'm saying.

I know I'm an amazing mom and Derek is an amazing dad. Most importantly I know Alexis knows and feels it :)

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Once Upon A Time Two People Decided To Have A Baby...

So I was on the bump a couple of days ago and someone was posting about this lady who had this over the top blog where she documented every single thing about her pregnancy this specific post was about all the crazy stuff she was taking in her hospital bag with her, and they attached a link, so of course I checked it out. Well turns out this lady does blog about every single thing that happens to her, well she had posted a blog about their whole conception process and it made me think that I never really wrote about that,which to me was a very emotional and exciting time, so I'm doing it now. Sort of like a prequel :) We all know how everyone loves those.

So once upon a time... I was graduating from college and Derek and I had talked about waiting until I was done with Law School, at the time i had applied and was waiting for responses, well that plan was set until I got baby fever. We talked and talked about it and did some research in the month leading up to us moving back to California. I specifically went on websites of other women who had been in law school and gotten pregnant during and how it turned out for them.

Back story: For those who don't know me. I started going to college right out of high school and went for 5 years, double majored in Psychology and Political Science and also minored in Campaign Management. During pretty much all of my time in college except for maybe two semesters I took a full load of classes usually 16 units sometimes 19 and I would work at least 35hrs or more a week while doing this. Also during my last couple of years of college I got engaged and married and my last year was dealing with studying for and taking the LSAT and applying to law schools. My friends used to comment on how I was "superwoman" because of all I did and I very much thought of myself as one, so for me going to law school and getting pregnant would definitely be difficult, law school in itself would be, but I thought that if anyone could do it I could, and I think I did rightfully so, even if that's not how it happened.

The Plan: As I am very much a planner I wanted to have a baby in June, because school would be out for summer at the end of May so having a baby in June would make the timing perfect. Plus I also have very specific months that I love, like and dislike and June is one of my favorites :) I happen to be a June baby. So we figured that I would have to get pregnant in September, so that's what we were shooting for. I know that sounded crazy, I went on the Bump's TTC board and of course was told by many women that you can't plan a baby and that getting pregnant the first time is hard blah blah. I know it's true you can't plan it but I was going to plan it anyway and hope for the best.

The Preparation: We moved back to California mid May. We knew that we were going to start trying end of August beginning of September. So we bought, "What to Expect Before Your Expecting" and we would read the book together every night about what things we should be doing to prepare for conception, like how Derek should drink orange juice to help our chances and all the other "methods" that can help. I was very adamant about starting to take prenatal vitamins 3 months before we started trying so we did that and we also started exercising and eating better hoping to lose weight and basically just to feel healthier. Derek and I, even before we got married had several talks about how we wanted to raise our kids and the things that were important to us like how many we wanted to have and so on and so forth so I know we were definitely prepared in that sense. I was on the Nuvaring and in July I had stopped my last cycle of Nuvaring because I want to go a full month without it to help clear up whatever the birth control was doing to my body, I wanted to be as "fresh" as possible if that makes any sense ;) So for that last month of August we just used condoms. I knew the last date of my menstrual cycle and knew when I was ovulating.

Lets Make A Baby: The week that I was ovulating was the last week in August and we followed the things we read in the book. Having sex in the morning instead of at night, only having it once a day; I even would prop a pillow under to help the chances ;) I mean when you're trying one shot to have a baby in a specific month why wouldn't you try everything? I also bought another baby book, "From The Hips", such a funny and informational book.

Baby or No Baby?:
Well obviously we had a baby haha. I knew the week after I ovulated that I was pregnant; I just had this feeling. Derek didn't think that I was, shows what he knows. Well Derek's birthday, as well as my moms, is the 10th of September, I was hoping to surprise him with the news on his birthday. I went out and bought a pregnancy test, the digital ones that say "pregnant","not pregnant" because I thought those were cool instead of the little lines, well I took both of them and they both said "not pregnant". Well of course I still thought I was pregnant, I figured the HCG hormone is not present enough yet to show a positive, made me a little sad because I wanted to surprise Derek on his birthday. I hadn't told Derek that I bought the test well eventually I told him a couple of days after his birthday and I kept telling him that I knew I was pregnant. We went to the LA County fair that week and I remember not getting on any of the rides because I thought I was pregnant. So after about a week and a half Derek told me to go buy another test. I went out and bought one, I had already had 2 negative digital ones, so this time I bought the regular ones with the pink lines I took the test and left it sitting in the bathroom waiting and finally I went to check on it and remember staring at the two lines, one of them was not as solid but it was definitely there and I remember just walking out and saying, "guess what?" and Derek just looking at me like, whatever you're kidding kind of look and I said "I'm pregnant" with the biggest smile on my face and he walked over and looked at the test and had the biggest smile I have ever seen on his face. We cried and just hugged and kissed and enjoyed and shared the moment together.

Then we spent the next couple of hours laughing about how fertile I am and how potent he is haha. I gotta say getting pregnant on the first try did kind of give me an ego :) Making a baby is fun :)I'm convinced that the whole process made us more prepared. I know one of my proudest moments as a pregnant women came from how impressed my doctor was when I told him I had started taking prenatal vitamins 3 months before trying to get pregnant :)

So that's the conception story. It puts a smile on my face just thinking about how fun it was for me to go through this process with Derek.

Post are always better with a picture :) Here is Lexi in her little red dress.

P.S. My brother is having a girl! I am excited to have a little niece and to be an aunt :)