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 :)

In Need of Some Serious Relaxation

For the past 2 weeks I've been feeling so tired; but not just like exhausted tired but physically my body is in pain. Mostly the pain is concentrated in my lower and upper back and neck. I know that having never fully recovered from the bad car accident and then getting pregnant and now working with kids that love to beat me up on a daily basis has probably bought me to this point where I feel like my back is going to give out.

I should have kept doing the physical therapy exercise that I was doing when I was recovering from the accident but they are time and space consuming. After graduating from The U and in doing our planning on trying to get pregnant Derek and I started working out and going on daily walks to try to be as fit as possible when we wanted to start trying so I felt great and a lot of the back pain was almost not existent but obviously once I got pregnant, even though I didn't gain a lot of weight it still brought on a lot of pain.

I've decided I need to start setting some pampering goals for myself. I want to start getting regular massages, maybe starting out with once a month and working my way to twice a month, ultimately 3 times a month would be ideal for me and also I definitely need to go back to the gym. I miss working out and I know that will help to relieve some stress, that I'm sure is also contributing to my aches and pains.

Enough about my complaining, let's talk about what is making me happy right now! I am so excited to be going home to visit the family this upcoming weekend. I haven't seen them since July, 6 months!!! That is crazy! I think that is the longest time I've gone without seeing my family, ever. I'm also excited to see my friends! None of them have met Alexis yet; well none of my friends from back home i guess :) I just can't wait to be back home. Especially because I know how much my mom misses Alexis and I know she'll be soooo excited to spend time with her.

Speaking of Alexis, she's getting so big. Today we moved her up to size 3 in her diapers. Size 3 makes me think of an older baby so it's still blowing my mind that she's wearing those now. She still only has her 2 bottom teeth :) and she's still rolling like crazy. Sometime in the next week or two I'm going to be getting a haircut and taking her in with me to get her haircut for the first time, I'm sooooo excited, but a little sad.

Also I need to get her ears pierced, I really wanted to do it at 6 months but we decided to wait, so now I feel so left behind. I'm also not sure though of where to go, only because I want to her to have them pierced with a needle not a piercing gun. I've read a lot about how ear piercings with guns are less sterile and how with a needle the piercing is more clean all the way through. My ears were pierced when I was just a couple months old and I know they used a needle. So I'm trying to research some places in Southern California that also do infant piercings, because I'm not sure if our pediatrician's office has someone who does it.

I wish I had more to update but for now that's it :)

Ideas For Alexis' 1st Birthday :))

So I've been wanting to do a zoo themed birthday for Alexis since she was like 3 months. So I've known for a while the type of things I wanted and just recently started pinning ideas on Pinterest for what I want to do.

Derek and I want to take Alexis to the San Diego Zoo for her birthday and since it's not like a traditional birthday party where you have it at your home or at a park, we still are going to be inviting family and friends to join us for a day at the zoo and then we will be heading to a restaurant after for a birthday dinner and for cake :)

I have some ideas for invitations:

I love this invite because we can put pictures of Alexis on it, but I don't like that the wording doesn't seem to pop(except for the name).

I love this invitation because it's cute and I love that the number 2 is big and noticeable as opposed to the first invitation.

This invitation is sooo colorful and it has a ton of different zoo animals so I like that, but I don't like that there is no place for a picture and that it doesn't showcase the birthday number in bold or in big letters.

Some cakes I absolutely love:

I think this cake is soooo cute.

This cake is very similar to the first one but I think it looks sharper and just plain better. I love this but want it to be a hot pink with black zebra stripes and the other layer with the giraffe print to maybe be lavender with white print, so basically just like this but girly.

I love these cake toppers :)

Other fun stuff:

Instead of a typical cone shaped birthday hat I am loving the idea of getting a crown likes this for Alexis, but in a purple or lime green color :)

Potential Birthday Present:

I love these little diamond earrings. Since we're going to be getting my baby ring plated white gold for Alexis I really want to get her these diamond earrings to match :)

At first when I told Derek I wanted to get her some diamond earrings he thought that was too much but I told him that I think having things like that, that our daughter(s) can pass down to their children would be really awesome, like my ring that I'm giving to Alexis. Plus they're not that expensive.

I had some more ideas but I'll leave those to my Pinterest board. I'm so excited to keep planning! I can't believe she's going to be 1 soon!

A Doozie Of An Update On My 8 Month Roly Poly!

Alexis is 8 months now! I feel like I haven't blogged forever. I guess I have blogged recently but not really about anything "substantial" it feels like. I know that I have been meaning to write a lot about what Alexis has been up to lately, I've just been really busy working a lot and Alexis has been keeping me busy too :)

So about 2 weeks or so ago Alexis went from rolling over every once in a while to rolling over all the time and all over the place! She is like a roly poly, she's in one place one moment and then another the next. I love that she's moving around so much but at the same time it makes me sad because that just means that she's growing up and soon she's going to be crawling too; which she is doing a little of, but not enough for me to document it as "real" crawling, just yet. Also I think I already mentioned on here that on Christmas we discovered that her 2 front teeth had started coming in. She is sooooo cute with her two little teeth. For now it looks like she doesn't have any of her other teeth coming in but I've heard that more teeth should be soon to follow, once the two front ones come in. She's growing up so fast.

Aside from rolling and her teeth coming in Alexis has also been a blabbermouth for the past 3 weeks. It sounds like she's saying "mama" when she's crying and wanting me to pick her up, but I can't be sure that she's not just mumbling random noises that seem to sound like "mama", so I'm not counting that as her first word yet. Alexis likes to be alone in silence sometimes, so I'll put her in the bedroom and have the baby monitor on in the living room and I can hear her talking away, having little conversations with herself it's sooooo cute; I wish I knew what she was trying to say to herself.

Alexis loves smiling, she is such a happy girl. For months now I've been calling her "Chica" and every time I say it she shakes and smiles, she loves it. Alexis loves to be tickled and giggles so much; She seriously has the cutest giggle ever! I love love love what a sweetheart she is to me. Last week she was having a rough morning with Derek at home so he went on Facebook and looked at pictures of me with her and she calmed down right away, stuff like that just warms my heart and brings tears to my eyes :) I feel so lucky to have such a beautiful little girl love me that much. Also, I have a picture of Alexis as my screensaver and background on my iPhone and I show it to her from time to time and she just smiles at herself (of course she doesn't recognize herself yet but I think it's so funny that she smiles at a picture of herself).

We've been feeding Alexis solids for the past 3 weeks and she is so good with it. We started her off on veggies first. So far we've only had her try 4 veggies: Squash, Peas, Carrots, and Green Beans. I really really want to make my own baby food but I haven't gone out and bought a baby bullet or anything like that yet, hopefully I can get one of those and start giving her other vegetables to try. Now that we got the veggies out of the way, we've started on fruits, after we're done having her try all the fruits, then we are going to mix the veggies and fruits. I'm thinking we will do a fruit in the morning and evening and do veggies through out the day, so she's eating mostly veggies. So far she's starting on one fruit, we decided to start her off with bananas. So far I think Alexis likes the bananas, maybe not her favorite but she doesn't hate them. I think out of all the veggies, carrots are definitely her favorite so far.

Alexis is fitting into her 6 month clothing pretty good; It's still a little big on her but her 3 month clothing were a little too tight. I really need to go shopping for some new clothes for her and I really want to buy her new bottles and move up to the 6oz bottles, I think she's ready for it.

So I still have not been able to bring myself to cut her hair. It's getting really long but now her "bangs" seem to be easier to sweep to the side but I know she still needs a haircut, I'm in need of one too, so I'm thinking when I go in to get mine I'll just have them cut her hair too.

Now that she's 8 months I am really getting into [1st] Birthday-Party-Planning-Mode! I will update more on that later.

P.S. I really really really want this diaper bag! [In any one of these designs.]

Not that I don't love my Coach diaper bag(thanks Mags and Debbie) but I really want one that is more zoo/park/activity friendly. I love the Coach bag for going out to dinner or the the mall/store but I would hate to ruin it by taking it out to the zoo or something like that.

P.S.S. My older brother and his girlfriend are expecting a baby sometime in July :) My brother and I weren't speaking for some time but we've since both apologized and are on good terms now. I am excited for Alexis to have a little cousin. I think it would be cute for them to have a little boy :)) but of course would love a little girl playmate for Alexis. Regardless of what it is I am going to be the best aunt ever :)))