Alexis' First Trip To The Park As Well As Some Other Randomness...

Today Derek and I decided to take Alexis to the park and put her on her first "real" swing. Alexis really loved being on the swing, it was a little cold but we had her all bundled up :) I also went down the slide with Alexis and she seemed to really enjoy it.

My mom and my little brother "baby" came with us and we all had a good time. Afterwards we came back to our place and my dad came over and we picked up my other brothers and went out for lunch :) It was nice to see my dad and spend some time with him.

Alexis has been doing so many new things lately! She has been doing her pageant wave a lot and is shaking her head no, which is probably the cutest thing ever! We've started to give Alexis table food and she is loving it. We did the first time a couple of days ago, we went to Cafe Rio and I gave her some the beans, rice, tortilla, and meat in my salad, she made some funny faces I'm sure because she wasn't used to the texture but after a couple of bites she was loving it! Alexis also tried some of Derek's backed potato and bread; I can tell she is loving this new food.

Now that Derek and I have moved back to Southern California we have been talking a lot more about what our plans for the near future are. We have always had a "plan" but we are trying to really get it set now. It made me think about it even more today when I was talking to my dad and he reminded me that Derek and I should be trying to get into a house, in this down housing market, and of course I agree and that's one of the things that we are wanting to do within the next 2 years, especially now that I am at a career style job. Derek and I want to pay off our debts (all except for my school loans of course those will take some time) and start saving for a down payment and hopefully in the next year and a half we can get into a home. Derek is going to start going back to school either in the summer or fall and hopefully he can finish his AA in a year maybe a year and a half and then transfer to a university and finish his degree; He's looking into getting a BA in HR. I'm going to be working and once Derek is done with school I plan on going back to get my Masters in Clinical Psychology, while I continue to work as a behavior therapist.

There are 49 more days till Alexis' birthday!!!

P.S. One of my best friends is pregnant and she just found out she is having a girl! I am so excited Alexis is going to have a little cousin in July and a playmate in August, granted Alexis will be a year older but once they get older she'll be able to play with them more.

Alexis' Firsts.

So there are a couple of things that I have been meaning to do with Alexis for a while now, this would be some firsts.

We have been meaning to get her ears pierced since she was like 3 months but we kept putting it off and now we're cutting it close. They say that if you are going to pierce an infants ears you need to do it before they turn 1 otherwise the pain will be a lot worse for them so I'm hoping we can go next month and get them done for her. I'm excited for her :)

One of the other things we were supposed to do was cut Alexis' hair, mostly her bangs. We were going to do it in the beginning of February; Derek and I got haircuts so we were going to get hers done too but the stylist told me that I should just do it myself and that it would be a waste of money to pay her to do it, so we didn't. I'm too chicken to cut her hair myself because I don't want to mess it up, so we didn't.

I moved back down to Southern California that weekend and the following week went to the doctor with my mom and little brother because my brother had sprained his ankle. One of the flabotomist at the doctors office saw Alexis and was like obsessed with her for the whole 5 hours we were there so when she heard me telling my mom about cutting her hair she was like "OMG, don't cut her hair, her little hairstyle is sooo cute." I will admit it is ridiculously cute, when her bangs stay swept to the side and they always seem to be when we go out, so everyone tells me the same thing, not to cut her hair. When Derek brought Alexis into my last day of work at the school all my coworkers were telling me not to cut her hair so I guess there is a consensus, and I agree. For the longest time I think I felt I needed to cut her hair because at some point babies need their first haircut but I definitely think she looks amazing with the long hair and her first haircut can wait till later :)

Alexis has this really cute bathing suit that she hasn't been able to wear yet. I am really hoping to get her to the beach maybe next weekend and get her to atleast wear it once, so it doesn't go to waste, then we can store it for when we have another girl :) So that would be Alexis first time in a bathing suit and at the beach, well a warm beach, San Francisco beaches hardly count ;)

Also when Derek gets down here this weekend we are going to take Alexis to the park to get on her first real swing. I am sooo excited for that!

Derek has been apart from me and Alexis for 6 weeks, granted we saw him 3 or so weeks ago when we had Alexis' doctor's appointment, but it's not the same. I've missed him sooo much and I know Alexis has too, I'm excited for us to be together again and never have to be apart like this again!

Alexis' 1st birthday dress?

I should be sleeping but I'm not tired lol.I think I may have found Alexis' birthday dress. I wasn't sure what type of dress I wanted for her first birthday, and I know a lot of people do the tutu dress thing for a first birthday. I wasn't sure if I wanted a tutu style dress only because all of the ones I had seen were too much. I was researching dresses today and was on Etsy(I love Etsy!!), and I found this cute dress and I think this is what I want for her birthday dress :)

I also was looking at different shoes and OMG one of the shops I found on Etsy has the cutest shoes, i seriously want all of them! I found the perfect shoes that would match this dress perfectly!

I'm so excited for her birthday to be coming up. It's crazy to think that it's almost been a year since I was last pregnant and had my little baby. I'm just excited because I found the perfect invitations the other night and now I've found the perfect dress and shoes!!!I know the next 50 or so days are going to be stressful with all the birthday planning, but it will be exciting. May is going to be a juggling act because of Alexis' birthday, my brothers high school graduation, atleast one baby shower and having to fly up to Chico for Alexis' doctor's appointment. Well that is it for now. I just had to share!

Serious Update Time!

Finally I am blogging about everything that has been going on.

Moving:
So Derek and I at first were planning on moving back to Utah, but after lots of thought and consideration we decided that moving back to Southern California would be the best thing, for lots of reasons. We both knew that Southern California is were we wanted to settle, so moving to Utah and then after a couple of years moving back to California would just be a hassle, so we cut the middle part out. Derek wasn't going to be able to transfer right away but we decided that I would quit and move down here with Alexis first and then Derek would join us later on. Derek will be transferring on the 23rd, so a little under 2 weeks!!! We moved me and Alexis down here on February 4th and then on the 23rd Alexis and I flew up to Sacramento for her pediatrician appointment, more on her flight later. That weekend we drove down with all our stuff in a UHaul and Derek flew back up to Sacramento Monday :( We are all settled into our place. For the moment we are living in Rialto, borderline Fontana, hopefully within a year we will be moving to Orange County.

Work:
In Sacramento I was working as an educational aide with children that have autism. So I really wanted to work in the same field here, but actually using my degree and getting paid on that level. I found a job as a Behavior Therapist for an awesome company in Orange County; I'm still in the training phase but it's a little different from my last job because instead of being in a classroom setting, I will be going to family's homes and working with them and their children. I am excited to finally be in a career job with growth opportunities and good pay, and excited because it is in Orange County which will make our eventual move easier :)

Family:
It is so nice to be near my family again. My mom is like a 5 minute drive from us which is great when I need her to watch Alexis for me. Also my brother and his girlfriend are sharing a townhome with us, which is nice because being able to split rent and bills gives Derek and I an opportunity to save money and pay off some debt we really need to get rid of. Alexis loves spending time with my parents and my brothers so it's nice to be able to spend time together as a family :)

And last but not least Alexis:Alexis is amazing. I was a little afraid she wouldn't be super receptive to my family since she hasn't seen them since she was 3 months old; But the second we got here she was all smiles and loves spending time with everybody, especially my mom and youngest brother. She is also very fond of my dad :)

Alexis got to go on her first flight on the 23rd and she was perfect! Also everyone was sooo sweet to me. The lady who checked me in was so helpful and when I went through security, the girl infront told me I could go in front of her and helped me move my bag onto the belt :)

My plan for the flight was to feed Alexis during take off, so it would help with her ears popping and then to do the same during the landing, or get her to sleep. I boarded the plane with the A group so I pretty much had my choice of where to sit, so I decided to sit all the way in the back in the aisle seat. I decided to make Alexis' bottle before it got to full and I ran out of room, but the second she saw her bottle she wanted it so I fed her hoping we would take off soon but she finished her bottle right before take off, but lucky for me she didn't mind. She was wide awake the whole time and she seemed to like the take off. She didn't cry or whine once, she was literal perfection. She was smiling at everyone and one of the flight attendants even gave her a little certificate for her first flight and the little southwest airline wings. I was pretty impressed with her, not that I ever doubted her :) Getting off the plane all this sweet lady was like, "Oh my gosh I didn't even know there was a baby on the plane, what a perfect little girl." It was nice to have people be so nice to you on a plane with a baby when I hear so many horror stories about people being rude to people that fly with babies. We were soooo excited to see Derek! We all hugged and kissed and that night drove to Chico, since her appointment was early the next morning.

Alexis did not have to get any shots at her 9 month appointment :) Dr. Brown let us know that Alexis' weight is progressing but it's not where she thought it would be so she's hoping that it will pick up these next 3 months before she turns one.

Alexis loves sitting up and she is always smiling and such a chatterbox. I just bought her, her first sippy cup and she loves it. For now I'm just giving her water, I really don't want to introduce juice or anything sweet like that for a long time, it just is not necessary to give little kids juice so I feel no need to now. Alexis has a pretty set feeding schedule: she wakes up in the morning and gets 6oz bottle of formula, has some oatmeal and fruit and through out the day has 4oz along with some vegetables and cherrios every couple of hours, and at night gets another 6oz bottle and some fruit. I've been giving her some finger foods here and there but for the most part she is all over the solids. Alexis is not yet crawling but she is getting there, I'm excited for her to start but I'm also a little sad because that means she is getting older and she won't be a little baby anymore :(

Birthday! Birthday! Birthday!So Alexis' birthday is almost 2 months away, so it's time to kick it into high gear. No more pinteresting ideas, it's time to actually put them into action. I'm soooo excited for her 1st birthday!!!!

Well that is all I can think of for now, but this is long enough anyway so enjoy!

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.

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 :)

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 :)