Griffin Family Adventures

Camping!

2010-11-22T22:51:00.000-08:00

DAY 4: A PHOTO OF THE LAST PLACE YOU WENT ON HOLIDAY
Just three weeks before Logan was born, I decided to get a little bit crazy and go camping... in a tent. This picture above is our campsite! Originally we had plans to camp up in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Well everyone else was going to camp, but seeing as I was 37 weeks pregnant we were going to be staying with some friends of my Mom's who have a place close by. But plans got changed, and I didn't want to give up our vacation. So we borrowed a tent from some friends, bought an air mattress (because there is no way I could handle sleeping on the ground, especially being pregnant), and decided to join in on our family camping trip. We camped at Flying Flags RV park in Buellton, CA. We booked a family site, that had room for a Motor Home (which slept my parents, sister, aunt, uncle, cousin and their dog) and Sean, Brody & I had a tent on the lawn. It was a nice set up being right there all together. Most of the tent sites at this campground were very far away from the RV sites. The biggest challenge for me was being so pregnant the many times a night I would have to hike to the restroom. Good times! Brody had so much fun playing "knock down", a game my Dad helped him come up with, where he set water bottles up on a paint bucket and threw balls at them. The kid loves bowling, so this was the next best thing! I believe we spent 4 nights there, and then headed down to Anaheim where we went to Disneyland for a day and stayed in Orange County through the 4th of July. Our favorite place to be on the 4th is in Balboa, where my dad grew up. It was really nice to get down to Orange County for the last half of our trip and stay in a hotel after camping the first part of the trip. Over all it was a great vacation, and I was mostly thankful that Logan decided to stay put while we were away from home. I had been having lots of contractions... and my midwife wasn't too excited that I would be 2.5 hours away from a hospital during that time. Logan wasn't born until just a few days before his due date, so I'm really glad we decided to go on this trip. Two years before when Brody was born, we skipped out on a trip to Hawaii because I was 36 weeks along, the cut of for flying. He stayed cooking for almost two weeks past his due date, so I was bummed that we missed out on that trip. In the future I've requested my family not plan their super fun vacations at the end of my pregnancies, hopefully they will comply... :)

And here is a favorite picture of our little "Happy Camper":

Brothers

2010-11-21T22:17:00.000-08:00

DAY 3: A PHOTO THAT MAKES YOU HAPPY

There is nothing that makes me happier than watching my boys together. Brody is such a sweet big brother. He is always loving on Logan, and it brings me so much joy. He constantly asks to hold his brother, or if Logan is crying he comes up and gives him kisses or tries to help by shoving a paci in his mouth. I love how sweet & gentle he is with him. And I especially love when he says "I Wuv You Brudder". I hope & pray that they grow up to be best friends! My boys are such sweet blessings. I am thankful for them both everyday.

Amy's Wedding Day

2010-11-20T14:47:00.000-08:00

DAY 2: A PHOTO OF YOURSELF A YEAR AGO

Okay, so it's only the second day and I almost already forgot I was doing this! For Day 2, I chose this picture taken at my little sister's wedding last October.

They have such a great story!

Amy & Jarrod met at our wedding in May of 2007. In fact he caught the garter, and she caught the bouquet. When Sean's mom first met Amy, she pointed out that she would be perfect for her friend Lori's son, Jarrod. I told her to leave it alone as Amy was not interested in being set up as she had been the victim of many set up attempts. When I first met Jarrod, I changed my mind a little as I knew they would be a great match. So yeah the toss at our wedding may have been a bit rigged, at least for Amy... but I know Jarrod had to fight for it. Once that happened, my mom and my mother-in-law ran over to the D.J. and asked him to announce a special tradition for a dance between the couple who caught the garter & bouquet. They both knew it was a cheesy set up attempt, but were great sports about it.

They even exchanged information, but because both of them were in new relationships at the time it took them a year to even start communicating. I believe their first communication was Jarrod asking Amy (on Facebook) if she was excited about becoming an Aunt, back when we were expecting Brody. Once they started dating, it was evident that they were very right for each other. Eventually they became engaged, and then in October of last year they were finally married! I had the privilege of being Matron of Honor, Sean was a groomsman, and Brody the ring bearer.

So I know it's a year late, but Congratulations Amy & Jarrod. We are so happy to have played a part in you finding each other, and loved sharing with you in your big day!

And We're Back!

2010-11-19T00:12:00.000-08:00

After almost two years away from the blog, I have decided it's time to revive it. I've been wanting to start writing again for a while, but have been dreading this first post. Last time I wrote, my Brody was only seven months old! There have been so many changes over these past twenty-two months... the thought of an update is overwhelming. I stumbled across this 30-day Photo Challenge over on my friend Jenny's Blog, and thought it would be the perfect opportunity to get this blog back up and running! Someone better tag me in something after that, or it's possible I might just forget I even have a blog (again!).

It's my hopes that through this Photo Challenge you might be updated on the details of these past months that I've neglected to write. To catch you all up to speed on where we are now, here is a quick summary of the past couple years:

- Sean got hired by the U.S. Navy, as a civilian employee in Finance
- We moved to San Diego & lived with my in-laws for 4 months
- We took a cruise to Catalina to celebrate our 2nd Anniversary
- We celebrated Brody's 1st birthday!
- We purchased our first home!
- My little sis got married, the end result of a set-up at our wedding!
- We found out we were expecting baby #2!
- Enjoyed the holidays, spending time with both sides of our family
- Cruised to Mexico with both our families to celebrate Mom's 50th!
- Purchased a Minivan to accommodate our growing family!
- Found out that baby #2 was a healthy baby BOY!
- Celebrated our 3rd Anniversary!
- Went tent camping, at 37 weeks pregnant for family vacation!
- Sean graduated with his Masters of Science in Accounting
- Met our sweet baby boy, LOGAN EDWARD GRIFFIN! (July 22, 2010)
- Celebrated Brody's 2nd Birthday ten days later...
- Adjusted to life as a Mommy of 2, and a family of 4... loving every moment of it!

And there you have it. Hopefully this 30 day photo challenge will allow me to fill in some of the details along the way! And with that I'll start with the 1st photo:

DAY 1: YOUR FACEBOOK PROFILE PHOTO

Our Family! This photo was taken by Cindy Franklin back in September, when we were up visiting my parents over Labor Day weekend. Brody had just turned two, and Logan was only six weeks old. Sadly, I think this is the ONLY picture I have of the four of us. I guess we need to work on that...

So I guess this blog is officially up and running again, lets hope I can keep up the motivation to post on a somewhat regular basis!

Seven Months

2009-03-02T23:25:00.000-08:00

Brody is now seven months old. I'm not sure why, but in case you haven't noticed I've been neglecting this blog for quite some time. I just seem to lack the motivation to update it, especially as my sweet boy seems to need more and more of my constant attention as he is now on the move.

Brody is growing up SO fast, and a has bunch of new tricks up his sleeve. At his six month check-up, he weighed in at 15lbs,5oz, and was 27.5" long. He has more than doubled in weight since birth, and has grown more than half a foot! He is now able to sit up on his own, pull himself up to a standing position in places like his crib, the pack n' play, and on our couches. He always prefers to be in an upright position to the sitting one. Brody mastered the "army crawl" right at six months, but now has learned to crawl up on both hands and knees. No matter how many toys he has in front of him on the floor he always seems to go for everything he is not suppose to have. Brody's favorite are the electronics.. he is always headed for the DVR/DVD players, and the remote control! From the side he looks just like his Daddy, but from the front I think he looks a lot like my Dad did when he was a baby. He has a lot of hair, and his eyes are still changing. He recently discovered solid food, and dines on oatmeal and rice cereal and his favorite purees are carrots, peas, and bananas. He also likes the "yo baby" yogurts! He is learning to self feed with Cheerios, and does a great job of gumming them up before trying to swallow. He also has one tooth, on the bottom left of the two middle teeth... I think the second tooth is on its way in soon. This age is crazy full of new milestones on an almost daily basis. I'm excited for him that he pretty much fully mobile, but its a lot more work as if I turn my head for even a moment it seems he is off down the hall. As a result he is spending a little more time each day in the pack n' play or in his walker, until we get everything baby-proofed. Brody is also very "talkative", most of it is babbling, but he does say "Dadda" and "Mama", although I'm not sure if he knows what they mean yet. He just loves the sound of his own voice! I'm so blessed to be his Mommy, and I'm still loving every moment of it.

Sean and I are doing well! We are excited to announce that we are relocating down to the San Diego area in the beginning of April. Sean is attending the University of Phoenix, working towards his Masters in Accountancy, and just accepted a new job on the naval base at Point Loma to gain experience while in school. For now, I will continue to stay at home with Brody. I am also pursuing a degree in Nursing and my RN license, and I will continue taking pre-reqs for the program at Grossmont starting in the fall. We have enjoyed the year we spent here on the central coast, and it is bittersweet that we are leaving. We are looking forward to the opportunities that we have down south, and to spending more time with friends, and Sean's family!

In other news, I started taking Brody to a Gymnastics class last week called "BabyRoo's" that is designed specifically for babies starting at his age. It is structured playtime with focus on movement and motor development, and it's a great opportunity for him to get out of the house. I've included pictures here... enjoy!

Our Little Boy

2008-12-21T22:25:00.000-08:00

Brody is looking more and more like a little boy to me than an "infant". I still can't believe how quickly time has passed since his birth. Everyday has been filled with such precious moments, I am truly blessed. I am SO in love with this little boy, he brings such joy to my heart. He is almost five months old now! At his last check-up (4 months), he was 13 lbs, 6 oz, and 25 inches long. That puts him back in the 25th percentile for weight, and the 90th for length... I was excited to see that his growth had slowed some in terms of length- he was pretty much off the charts for his 2 month visit. But the doctor would like to see him gaining a little more weight. The boy loves to eat, so I'm not sure why he's not chunk enough yet. The doctor gave the okay for us to start him out on some baby food, first cereal then slowly adding in veggies and fruits depending on how he did. We found some Rice Rusks, which have been fantastic for him. They dissolve in his mouth so he won't choke, he enjoys holding them while eating, and they aren't really all that messy- so that's been a good little snack. As far as the cereal goes, well he doesn't seem to like it much yet. He kind of spits it back out after he eats it. So we are going to try that again after the new year. It's so much fun to watch the new development that happens with him on a daily basis. His newest game is Peek-A-Boo! He loves to play this, usually laying on my chest. When I say "Peek-A-Boo" he puts his little head down to hide, and then lifts it back up with a huge grin on his face. He is now rolling over both front to back, and back to front on a pretty regular basis as well. He is starting to enjoy being on his tummy more as he is learning to scoot- and I'm sure will soon be crawling. He has also become very talkative over the recent few weeks, and that always puts a smile on my face to hear his sweet voice as he tries so hard to communicate with us. He is such a happy, sweet little boy... and I am thankful for him everyday. We are so looking forward to his first Christmas, and sharing with him all the wonderful holiday traditions that we grew up with!

As far as Sean and I go, life has thrown us a few curve balls. Sean recently got laid off, and is now looking for work again. I am so proud of him as he has also decided to go back to school to earn his Master's degree in Accountancy. The program he is doing is through the University of Phoenix online, so it will give him time to still hold a full time job as soon as he can find something. I am staying home with Brody during the days, and have taken on a few babysitting jobs. I have a 10 month old little girl that comes over every afternoon to play with Brody, and now that he is getting a little older it is fun to watch them interact. I also will be babysitting at a local church, during one of their weekly morning bible studies. There is about 4-5 kids on a regular basis, and Brody will also be coming along- so I'm excited for him to have the chance to make a few new friends. Starting in late January I will also be going back to school in the evenings at Cuesta to tackle my pre-requisites for the Nursing program. Depending on Sean's job situation, it's possible we will be relocating to the San Diego area after the spring semester. We know that God is in control, and that he will provide for our needs. We are trusting in him during the difficult times to lead us, and open and close doors according to his will. We are blessed to have such wonderful family support during this time, and we continue to count our blessings daily! We wish you a very Merry Christmas, and the happiest New Year!

Catching Up ...

2008-11-25T11:03:00.001-08:00

Seems we have a bit of catching up to do... I will probably do this over a few posts so as not to write an entire book at once. Hmmmmm, where did we last leave off? I think it was the 2 month update! That's pretty bad being that Brody is now almost 4 months old. His 2 month appointment was a rough one for Mom. He got his shots... 4 of them at once. I cried, after hearing him scream, it was SO hard. I am dreading his next appointment at the 4 month mark, where he has to get 4 more shots. He started sleeping through the night completely right at 2 months also, that has been SO nice. Now if he would just learn to do it in his own bed, we'd be good... he currently prefers my arms as his sleeping place of choice. At his appointment we found out that he is in the 95th percentile for length at 24 inches long, and the 50th percentile for weight at 11 pounds, 11 ounces. He didn't have an appointment at the three month mark, so I know he's grown a lot.. but I'm curious to see by how much. In clothing he pretty much skipped the 0-3 month size. I would try clothes on him from that size range when he was still wearing newborn, and everything was so wide. Then all of the sudden none of the newborn onesies would snap anymore and neither would the 0-3... pretty much the same day. Luckily for us, 3-6 month is pretty much the same in width as the 0-3, just a few inches longer which helps. So for now he's in mostly 3-6 month clothes, although we have a few 0-3 outfits which fit him okay thankfully. I was really bummed we blew right through that size, because he had a lot of really cute stuff that he only got to wear once! We are enjoying every moment with him, but I already think he's growing up too fast.

Extreme Makeover: Blog Edition

2008-11-01T22:52:00.001-07:00

Yes, thats right! There are some changes around here. We got ourselves a colorful new layout, now we just need a new blog name. That's where you come in, because "Sean & Sarah Griffin" is kind of boring! While this blog started as a way to update all my friends and family throughout my pregnancy, I realized things are more and more exciting on day to day basis now that Brody is here! I promise more frequent updates, but I do need help with a name. I lack creativity... so if you have any idea's, please post them here as a comment! Thanks in advance. I'm also considering making this blog private, just for safety reasons. According to my sitemeter this blog gets about 100 hits per week, and while I'm pretty sure thats mostly family and friends I'd still be more comfortable knowing who's reading. SO if you do read this blog, and you'd like to continue reading this blog... do one of two things. The first option, is to "follow" this blog. That lets me know your reading, and I can send you an invitation to keep reading. It is also a great new feature that Blogger rolled out that I love. I am able to "follow" all the blogs that I read, and rather than having to go through my blog list one by one, I get a list of all new updates in order of recent posts from all the different blogs I enjoy reading... and then I don't waste time checking blogs that haven't been updated. So that's my plug on the following feature! The other option is to just send me an email (sarahgriffin1@gmail.com), or leave me a comment with your email address and I will make sure to add you to the list of readers to invite when I do make this private. Thank you, and "Stay Tuned"... there will be more updates, more frequently very very soon!

Peppermint Pooties!

2008-09-16T21:17:00.000-07:00

Last night I was kissing Brody's cute little feet and telling him that I was gonna eat him all up because he is just so yummy! And that he smelled so good like ~~a freshly bathed baby~~ peppermint!?! I kept sniffing and there was a very strong peppermint smell coming from my baby boy. I couldn't figure it out, I kept sniffing and the only thing I could come up with is that someone had spilled peppermint extract somewhere and we must have set him down it it? It didn't make sense. I started freaking out, like is there some disease that makes a body give off a weird pepperminty smell? I feared the worse! And then I found it.. in the diaper, the dirty diaper no less... Peppermint Pooties! The diaper was what was giving off the peppermint smell, and well we later figured it got that way because I left a pack of doublemint gum in the diaper bag. And so my fellow mommies, if you ever want to cover up a smelly diaper... you know what to do!

Six Week Smiles!

2008-09-12T23:58:00.000-07:00

So this morning at exactly six weeks of age, I was finally able to capture his adorable little smile on camera! Brody has been smiling a lot lately. He's so much more awake and alert these days... it's so much fun that he can interact with us more now. He likes to try and imitate faces that we make, he likes to make faces at himself in the mirror above his swing, its really cute and so much fun to watch.... I am really enjoying the stage he's at now, where most of his smiles are now a result of us talking to him and playing little games with him, rather than in the beginning when usually a smile meant some gas or a present in the diaper!

One Month

2008-09-01T22:27:00.001-07:00

Today my sweet baby boy is one month old! I can't believe how much more quickly the time has passed now that he's actually here. The above picture is my best attempt at catching his smile on camera. We get to see little smiles daily, but I never have my camera ready in time to capture them. Brody has me wrapped around his tiny little fingers. I love every little bit of him, and I feel so blessed to get to be his Mommy! I beg him everyday to please not grow up too fast, but I have a feeling he won't listen to me there. At his four week check-up he was weighing in at 9lbs, 2oz and is now 22 inches long. He's pretty close to growing out of those newborn outfits and will soon be able to wear some of his 0-3 month stuff! To everyone who ever said: "babies are a lot of work", I've found it to be much more true than I could have ever prepared myself for. But its worth every moment of it, even the ones at 3:00am. Although I'm quite thankful to report we don't see much of each other at 3:00am anymore... a few nights ago, he slept through the night for the first time! We got almost a full seven hours out of him, which I think is amazing for a four week old. For the most part he's been keeping on this routine ever since, so we are hoping it continues. I love the little parts of his personality we are able to see. He seems very alert for his age. I call him my "little man", because a lot of times when he's awake he has a very serious look on his face... He makes lots of cute faces already, and its kind of hard to tell who he looks like more at this point. My first impression when he was born was that he looked just like his Daddy, but now I can see a lot of resemblence to both of us. It's funny how quickly they grow and change. I'm so thankful for the invention of the digital camera because without it, it would be much more difficult to capture this precious time in his life. I'm much more thankful that God has blessed us with such a perfect baby boy. I still can't believe that he's ours sometimes... but I couldn't be happier that he is!

Brody's First Road Trip

2008-08-29T20:36:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, last time I updated we were down in Southern California giving Brody the opportunity to meet some of his extended family. Overall it was a pretty easy trip for having a newborn in tow. We ended up making a ninety minute stop in Camarillo on the way down to El Cajon, and then we hit some traffic through LA and Orange county.. so in the end it took us eight hours to get there! We spent the first week in El Cajon with Sean's family, a bunch of pictures from that part of the trip are below in my last update, titled "Catching Up...". Most of the week was pretty relaxing, we really didn't have an agenda, and we got to spend a lot of quality time with Sean's family. I celebrated my twenty-sixth birthday while we were there, and my Mother-in-Law made one of my favorite dinners and some Creme Brulee for dessert (I'm soooo not a cake person, unless of course its made by Judy... who did our wedding & baby shower cakes)!
On Saturday morning we got in the car and headed up to Orange County. We had planned to be on the road by 7:00am, and had mostly packed the night before. We ended up making it out of there by 7:15am which I thought was pretty good having a 3 week old! That was the beginning of a very busy weekend! We arrived at my parents hotel around 9:00am and waited there until my sister Amy called and told us to head over to Disneyland. Yes, Brody went to Disneyland for the first time at 3 weeks and 1 day old!
We had planned on spending a few hours there so my other little sister Chanel could ride on California Screamin' aka "the upside-down ride". She had finally become tall enough right at the beginning of my pregnancy! She almost chickened out, but in the end LOVED it and begged to go again and again. Lucky for her, we had Brody with us... and since he's not quite old enough to ride they gave us a rider switch pass so Sean could wait with him while we went on the ride, and then Sean could ride with one additional person without having to wait in line. So Chanel got to ride twice and only waited in line once, lucky kid!
Brody did great, and it wasn't really that difficult to have him there at such a young age. He made friends with the little green men from Toy Story... it was a plush stuffed animal that danced and vibrated when you pushed the button on it's hand. I put it in the infant carrier with Brody and he'd instantly relax. I was tempted to buy it for him, but he has lots of stuffed animals already and he can't really do much with them at this point anyways.

We also bought him his first Mickey Mouse Ears, with his name embroidered on the back! I got these super cute pics of him... being a good sport while I made him wear them!

Just as we were getting ready to leave, Chanel ended up getting chosen by Merlin to pull the sword out of the stone! I got to do this when I was in 4th grade, so I thought it was a pretty special end to her day at the park.

At 5:00pm we packed it up and headed over to our hotel to get checked in and ready to go out again. We stayed at the Ayres in Anahiem, I have to say I highly recommend it to anyone traveling to Southern California. We were able to get a great rate, just booking directly through their website, using our AAA discount. We got great service, the rooms were very comfortable, there is free high-speed internet access, and a full hot delicious breakfast included! We couldn't have gotten better value for our money anywhere else. After we got all settled-in at the hotel we headed down to my aunts house Balboa to meet up with my parents, and a bunch of family. They were having a potluck and movie night out in the alley with all the neighbors, most of whom where childhood friends of my Dad! It was pretty fun to see everyone, and everyone really enjoyed getting to see Brody! We didn't end up staying for the movie, because we were pretty exhausted at that point. So we headed back to the hotel to get some rest! Sunday seemed just as eventful as we had a little "Welcome Brody" party for my OC friends & family. It turned out to be kind of last minute in terms of date, so a lot of our friends weren't able to come. But we did have a great time visiting with all of my Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins on my Dad's side of the family!

After Brody's party we were on the road.. stopping in Fullerton for dinner with our friends Ray & Jenna who we hadn't seen in a while. Once we left we ended up having to make two more stops on the way back. These were a lot quicker than our original stop on the way down. The first was in Carpenteria, where I thought I could get away with feeding him less than normal... but what I thought would be enough to knock him out for the rest of the trip. WRONG! So 20 minutes later we stopped again in Goleta and fed him a little more and that did the trick. I guess that's what I get for trying to take short cuts, but it was late and we really just wanted to get home... and he tends to be somewhat of a slow eater. We made it home safe and sound in time for Sean to get a decent nights sleep before his first day at his new job... I'll write more on that later. Brody is now four weeks old! I can't believe how fast that went by, I'll be posting a one month update pretty soon as well... stay tuned!

Catching Up...

2008-08-20T11:29:00.001-07:00

Just in case your wondering we haven't dropped off the face of the planet. Our lives now revolve around 7lbs and 21in of baby, and we couldn't be happier! We are a little sleep deprived, but adjusting well and little by little he seems to be awake more during the day and asleep a little more at night. Here's what we've been up to since the last update...

Ready to Leave the Hospital First Picture as a Family of Three Hanging Out with Daddy Meeting Grandma AnnHanging Out in the Swing
First Bath
Afternoon Naps with Mommy
Hanging Out with Grandpa Larry
Meeting Auntie Amy

Making Funny Faces
Nap Time with Daddy Meeting Auntie Marghee & Cousin Eliann

Eliann Likes to Help Out

Meeting Uncle Brian
Learning How to Sit Up
Playing on Eliann's Jungle Gym with Mama

Happy Family of Three

Mama Loves Her Baby Boy!

Making Cute Faces

... So as you can see, we've been having all kinds of fun! Right now we are visiting Sean's family down in San Diego. On Saturday we are headed up to Orange County to introduce Brody to my extended family! Brody will also be taking his first trip to Disneyland... he's a little too young to enjoy it, but for the most part he's a pretty easy baby and he loves being outside so we think it will be alright. We are actually going with my little sister Chanel, who is finally tall enough to go on "the upside-down ride" or California Screamin' as most people know it. She finally became tall enough to ride just about the time we found out we were expecting and I've been promising I'd take her on it once I wasn't pregnant anymore. So it should be a pretty fun weekend, and hopefully not too interesting with the baby in tow! I'll have more time to keep things a little more updated once we get home and back into a routine.

Brody's First Pictures!

2008-08-02T23:02:00.001-07:00

Visitors

2008-08-02T13:55:00.000-07:00

We are doing well and enjoying our precious new baby! We've spent the morning getting some rest, and Brody had his first little check up with the pediatrician... The OB came and checked on me, and we just got done with the lactation consultant so we're pretty much ready to see anyone that wants to come by! Visitor's are welcome today anytime after 3:00pm. We are at TCCH, in room 3105! Regular Visting hours run until 8:00pm.

I'll work on posting some more pics of our sweet boy tonight!

Introducing: Brody Lawrence Griffin!

2008-08-01T22:05:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to announce the arrival of our sweet baby boy! Brody was born at 5:29 this afternoon. He weighed in at 7lbs even, and is 21in long, both Brody & Mama are doing well!

After a slow morning for us things picked up and progressed very quickly towards the end. As I mentioned in my 4:00am post, I was 2cm dilated when they first checked. After they started the pitocin the contractions came on pretty strong almost right away. Around 10:30am they gave me some Stadol, it knocked me out right away and took about two hours to wear off. After a long morning of labor they checked me again and found I was only 2.5cm, that was disappointing because I had expected after all those painful contractions that I would have been closer to 4cm. The nursing staff decided to move me over into one of the delivery rooms at this point, and strongly encouraged that I take the epidural. I reluctantly agreed because I had planned to go without, but in the end I felt like it was the best decision for us. Basically the nurses felt the main reason I wasn't progressing was because I was too tense and unable to relax during my contractions, they thought it would actually speed things up if had the epidural and it would also allow them to up the pitocin a little to make things happen a little faster as well. At around 2:oopm the doctor came in to break my water. Immediately following the anesthesiologist came in to administer the epidural. I do have to say the combination of these two procedures were actually very traumatic for me. No one really tells you what you are in for when you get an epidural! I thought they'd come in, give me a quick shot to numb the place where the big scary needle goes... and then use the big scary needle to get things started and get the catheter in place. No one ever told me it would take about thirty minutes and that I would have to sit completely still in the same uncomfortable position while enduring the most intense contractions I had ever felt. Once that was finally over it was only about 15 minutes and I was feeling much more comfortable. By 2:30pm I was at 4cm, I got to 5cm by 3:30, 7cm by 4:30 and fully dilated and ready to push by 4:45. Everything progressed very quickly after I got the epidural. The nurse had me do some "practice pushing", but realized in the process it would probably happen pretty quickly. I only pushed for about 25 minutes, and the doctor barely arrived in time to catch the baby. His head actually out before the doctor made it in the room. It turned out he had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and they couldn't get it loose, so the doctor cut it, suctioned him and then he pretty much slipped out on his own without me even pushing. I will post more pictures of him tomorrow, but for now we are all exhausted and need to get some rest!

Quick Update

2008-08-01T16:34:00.000-07:00

So this is just a quick update since there is a lot going on and we will be able to write more later. But they broke her water and gave her an epidural at 2 pm and at 3 pm she was 4 cm. Now they say she is at 7 cm and she is having really big contractions and she feels like she needs to push, so its definitly going to be soon.

Drugs!

2008-08-01T10:35:00.001-07:00

Hey all, its Sean. I'm posting because Sarah is drugged up on Stadol (or however you spell it) and is not very coherent, its kinda funny, since she asks me the same questions every five minutes or so. But anyways, since the last post that she did this morning, things have been slowly progressing. They haven't checked her cervix again though so no word on that, but the Pitocin seems to be working and is giving her full, regular, painful contractions. They finished with one round of that a few hours ago and started her on her Penicillian again, and then they gave her the Stadol about 30 minutes ago for the pain and she went out in less than a minute, so right now she is getting some needed rest. We'll keep the updates coming as long as something new happens.

4:00am

2008-08-01T05:07:00.000-07:00

Wow, its early! I certainly didn't come here to sleep, but somehow I wasn't quite ready to begin the early morning torture session. I was actually getting some good rest... oh well, I'd rather be making some progress so we can meet this baby boy today! It turns out that my body decided to cooperate a little over night.... it's about time!!! I was REALLY discouraged after what they said when they checked at 7:30, so it was nice to finally get the good news. My cervix has softened, and I'm finally at a good 2cm dilated- oh and my nurse is sure of that this time! They came in early and got me monitored for a little bit to make sure the baby was still doing well, and by about 4:30 I was all hooked up and am now receiving Pitocin to get the active labor going. I guess they like to start really early so that I will deliver sometime during the afternoon or evening rather than in the middle of the night. The nurse said it would be pretty slow going at first and that I should get some more sleep, but I don't know how sleep would be possible right now with these contractions! These hurt pretty bad already, which has to be a good thing in terms of progress!

No Progress...

2008-07-31T23:57:00.000-07:00

Well tonight at around 7:30 they came in to check and see if I had started to dilate yet, and unfortunately there was no progress. I was also starting to contract too frequently for them to be able to administer my 3rd dose of Misoprostol. These aren't true labor contractions, just a side effect of the medications. But hopefully they are doing some good. It was really hard for me to hear that we'd spent another whole day here and hadn't gotten anywhere. The next step is to start the Pitocin tomorrow morning at 4:00am. The goal is to have this baby sometime tomorrow, one way or another- and hopefully that doesn't mean a c-section! We may not be able to update as frequently as things progress, but we'll do our best. Please continue to pray for us, its going to be a very long hard day... hopefully with a beautiful ending!

2nd Dose

2008-07-31T17:14:00.000-07:00

I'm pleased to report that at this point we've made it a little further than we got on Monday! I still don't know my progress in terms of dilation & effacement, but we were able to get the 2nd dose on the Misoprostol. They typically run a twelve hour treatment of three doses to soften the cervix before they start the Pitocin. When they attempted to induce on Monday they were only able to give me one dose, because I started contracting abnormally and it would have been dangerous for them to give me anymore. Today they are giving me smaller, but more frequent doses and I have a feeling it will work a little better this time. A few hours ago they let me move over into a regular room since it will be a while before we need to use one of the delivery beds. It's a smaller room, but in exchange for a more comfortable bed it's well worth it to me. I actually like the bathroom/shower better in this room and there is also a DVD player! We rented a few movies to help pass the time... so I've been watching The Nanny Diaries while waiting for the medication to do its job. Depending on how I progress through this 2nd dose, I believe the plan is either to administer the 3rd dose sometime around 7:30... or possibly start the Pitocin if my body is ready for it. So far today has been a much better day for me than what we went through on Monday. I was definitely more prepared for what was in store, and I feel like I have a more realistic expectation of how long things will take. It's allowed me to be more patient and just kind of go with the flow. I've been able to relax and I'm actually not scared out of my mind right now. That's all the news I have for now, I'll be sure to post more later as things progress!

Visitors Welcome

2008-07-31T12:35:00.000-07:00

Since I've had a few questions about visitors... at this point we are totally up for company. I don't expect to be in active labor anytime too soon, so mostly we're just bored and waiting for things to start happening. So, if anyone wants to come by that's fine and we're happy to have you help us pass the time. Once I'm in pain, I probably won't want to see anyone for a while... but we'll let you know when that happens. I'm not so sure I'm comfortable posting our location, here on the web for the whole wide world to see, so if you don't know which hospital we are at and you'd like to come by just shoot me an email at sarahgriffin1@gmail.com, and I'll let you know where to find us!

Progress... (or not!)

2008-07-31T10:19:00.000-07:00

This morning's cervical exam was a big disappointment. It turns out I am only dilated to a half centimeter and 25% effaced. We left the hospital the other day being told I was close to 2 centimeters and 50%, but either that wasn't accurate or I have regressed. I guess it is possible to regress, but its pretty uncommon. I'm pretty frustrated because I feel like we are back at square one and that I endured a day of pure torture Monday all for a lost cause. They are getting ready to give me the first dose of the Misoprostol, and hopefully this time my body will be ready to do something with it. I really like my nurse today- she doesn't leave me in the dark about things and she honest answers to my questions. She even got my IV in right the first time, and it flushes better than any of the others they tried. She's worked in Labor & Delivery here for nineteen years, so I'm pretty confident in her abilities to do her job. It's helped me to be able to relax a bit. It may be a while before we know anything more, they have to wait four to six hours after the first dose of meds before they can re-dose or give me something different.

Third Time's the Charm?

2008-07-31T06:27:00.000-07:00

We are back at the hospital, again, for our rescheduled induction! We are not sure of their game plan for today yet, but we'll be keeping you posted. They aren't going to let me leave this time while I'm still pregnant, so hopefully this little boy is ready to make his arrival!

Fear

2008-07-30T22:28:00.000-07:00

Child birth scares me, I'm not so sure I'm ready. I would rather speak in public than give birth. I mean I am definitely ready to not be pregnant anymore and to finally meet this boy. But with less than eight hours to go before we have to be back at the hospital I am overwhelmingly afraid of what is ahead. I am the queen of irrational fears, so I know most of it is silly stuff- but its still very hard not knowing how things will go. We were really thinking and hoping that I would go into active labor on my own by now, and we are praying that it somehow happens before 6:00am tomorrow when we have to be back at the hospital for our rescheduled induction. Hopefully the third time is the charm, I doubt they will let me leave again no matter how much I beg. If they aren't satisfied with how labor is progressing, they will most likely be doing a c-section. This is because on Saturday I will be at 42 weeks and it can be dangerous for the baby to stay in any longer than that. Having to have a c-section is pretty close to being at the top of my list of fears! I'm hesitant to go through with the induction, but at this point I'm not feeling as if we have much of a choice. I honestly feel like I have been in labor for a week, even though its early labor- all that time in the hospital and all the contractions at home have kind of worn me out. I've been fortunate to be able to be at home and get a lot of rest, but at the same time I am dreading tomorrow and just praying that it will happen quickly. Most of the time when labor is induced it progresses at a much slower pace, and if they have to start the induction tomorrow morning it's very likely that our baby's birthday will actually be August 1st. I guess little Brody just has something against the month of July! It's either that or he wants an August birthday like his Mama. I do have a big favor to ask, for those of you who believe in the power of prayer. Please be praying for us tomorrow: specifically that we would get through this without any complications, that our baby will be healthy and arrive safely, and also that I will be able to let go of all of my fears. Please pray for wisdom & good judgement for the doctors who will be making decisions for us, and for patience for the nurse who will have to deal with me. Thank you in advance!

Still Waiting...

2008-07-30T07:48:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to post a quick update to let you all know that we are still at home and waiting. I'm so thankful that my doctor allowed us to come home. I have had a chance to get lots of rest and I plan on staying here and laboring at home as long as possible before we have to go to the hospital again. I have been having some pretty good contractions last night and this morning, so we are hoping today is the big day. My sister has been in town since Monday morning when they initially tried inducing, and the latest she can stay is through late tonight as she has to be at work in Anaheim by tomorrow morning. I know she is really hoping to get to meet her nephew before she leaves! The doctor said I have "no restrictions" in terms of physical activity, so I think we might go ~~on some crazy rides at the mid-state fair~~ walk around the lake again today and see if gravity will inspire a little more action. We are praying he will come today on his own so that we don't have to go through with the rescheduled induction tomorrow morning. That is the latest the doctors will let me go as I am approaching 42 weeks, and it's time for this baby to come out... hopefully he will figure that out on his own today. Please keep us in your prayers today, we'll keep you posted on any progress!

Welcome Baby Haylee!

2008-07-30T07:29:00.000-07:00

Congrats to our good friends (and next door neighbors) Donny & Jen on the birth of their beautiful baby girl, Haylee Ann! It's been fun going through this pregnancy with a friend in the same boat. With due dates two days apart we were hoping to have little birthday buddies. We both left for the hospital on Sunday only to be sent home and told we were just in "early labor". We also both headed back to the hospital around the same time the next day, only she was actually in labor this time and I was going to be induced. My little one decided he just wasn't ready, but I guess Haylee got tired of waiting! We had a great time visiting them yesterday at the hospital and it was so sweet to get to see their precious little bundle of joy, and Brody's soon-to-be best buddy. Welcome to the world Haylee Ann, we are so happy you are finally here!

Home Sweet Home...

2008-07-29T12:11:00.000-07:00

We left the hospital this morning shortly after 8:00am. After determining that all those painful contractions had not brought us any progress I asked if we could leave and just give the baby some time to come on his own. Today's game plan would have been most likely to start me on Pitocin to bring on stronger contractions. I'm not really comfortable with using the Pitocin to induce labor, and we were really hoping the Misoprostol they used yesterday would be enough to "jump start" labor for us. I had a pretty rough night, with a little bit of rest but a whole lot of pain and discomfort. My IV had to be re-done, so three more attempts there until they got it in and some more battle scars on my arms to prove it. I was up on and off all night until 5:00am having contractions, and then I tried to go back to sleep. I actually slept soundly for almost two hours, but when I woke up I had stopped having contractions almost completely. The doctor came in and spoke with us around that time, and she was willing to give us a couple more days to let this happen on its own. They rescheduled our induction for Thursday morning, should this not happen sooner. She also thought we would for sure be in labor on our own by then. So we'll see what happens. I'm really thankful to be home and resting and to have a little more time, I don't think our little one would appreciate being forced out into the world when he's just not quite ready!

I LOVE My Night Nurse!

2008-07-29T04:32:00.001-07:00

When we first came to the hospital, very early Sunday morning we were greeted by a red-head nurse named Renae! She was a total sweetheart and took great care of me. We were fortunate to have her just finishing up her shift as we got here this morning for the induction, and then assisgned to us when she came back on for nights! She has really gone above and beyond in making this experience as comfortable as humanly possible for us. Tonight I was having sort of a melt down as the contractions were becoming painfully strong, I couldn't get into a comfortable position anywhere and they only thing I wanted was to go home and SLEEP in my own bed. I made a joke that if she can't find me, I'd probably be sneaking a nap on one of the beds in the postpartum rooms- because they are much more comfortable than the delivery beds. A little while later, she was back informing me that she had got me a new bed for the night, and was going to give me some Ambien so I could get a little rest! They've had to do things like hook up monitors every so often to keep a watch on the baby, and change out my IV fluids, etc. So I would get woken up here or there... but there is no way I would have got a wink of sleep on that other so called bed. It was so sweet of Renae to go the extra mile to make sure I could be comfortable. I've been having contractions all night long, although the Ambien has allowed me to sleep through most of them. They still have that "early labor" pattern of being way too close together, so they would like to see them more rhythmic at about 3-5 minutes apart. I'm pretty sure we are headed there and hopefully there will be some progress to report in the morning when they check. Yesterday was a VERY long day for us, but today could actually end up being a lot longer and a lot more painful! Please keep me in your prayers, that I would have strength to get through the pain and that everything goes smoothly with no complications! We are hoping that by sometime this afternoon we'll be holding our baby boy!

Active Labor?

2008-07-28T22:32:00.000-07:00

So it seems I am finally in "active labor". We won't know for sure until they do another cervical exam. I would have updated this much sooner, but we were waiting to know what was going on- its been a long day of just waiting around here! I made a correction on the early labor post because apparently I was closer to 1cm dilated and only 25% effaced yesterday. There was some debate between the nurses, but that is where I was when the checked me this morning, and you can't really go backwards so I guess I had really made less progress initially then we had thought. This morning at about 11:00am they gave me some Misoprostol to soften the cervix. They said it could take up to twelve hours to start working, and that most likely they would have to re-dose every four hours. I started having contractions regularly at 2:45pm and they checked me close to 5:00pm and said I had dilated closer to 2cm, and that I was now at 50% effacement and had made a lot of progress in terms of thinning of the cervix. The contractions are now really close together, and very intense. They are lasting about 45-60 seconds each, one to two minutes apart! They have made the decision to hold off on the pitocin because it seems I'm progressing on my own now, which is good news! According to our nurse, the Misoprostol they gave this morning should have worn off completely by about 7:00pm. These contractions REALLY hurt now! I can't imagine how they will be when I get farther along. I don't think I'll be getting much sleep tonight either and we probably won't have a baby now for another six to ten hours! Okay well time to get hooked back up...

Waiting...

2008-07-28T10:10:00.000-07:00

Since I have nothing better to do at the moment, I figured I'd post an update. They did come in to get me started on the Pitocin, but after about five seconds came in and turned it off. I guess the doctor decided she wanted an ultrasound first to make sure the baby was still head down, and then they decided to hold off on the Pitocin and give me something else to soften the cervix first. They have already been here and done the ultrasound, everything looks good there! It's going to be a very long day for us and I don't anticipate getting much sleep until after I give birth. Now that I think about it, probably not much then either. I totally understand now why some women choose to birth at home! At the moment there is not much going on, I'm just waiting for the medication to get things started... it seems like a lot of waiting is done around here. I know I'm not their only patient, BUT it's kind of feels like so much time is being wasted that could be used to get this going. Wow... they must be reading this as I write because she just came in to have me get back in the bed so they could start the meds. Sean will probably be doing most of the updating from here on out. Who knows... I'm just glad they let me have my laptop and that they have wireless internet to help pass the time away. The first medication they give me could take up to twelve hours to do it's job, so they may not have me on the Pitocin until later tonight! I pray it goes much quicker, but I guess we'll see.

Induction

2008-07-28T08:49:00.000-07:00

We are back at the hospital now, and have been since 7:00am. I stopped having contractions so close together late yesterday afternoon, so they are going with the induction now that I am nine days late. It's been really slow going since we got here. The nursing staff is all really nice, although we did have some issues getting the IV in which wasn't fun. I have pretty tough veins that weren't cooperating so after three painful and failed attempts, they finally called an ER nurse up to get the job done. Luckily she was able to get it in on the first try, and right now I'm just receiving fluids for hydration. Then they will start me on the Pitocin to get the contractions going. As much as I don't want the drugs in my system I'm really ready to get things going. I'm pretty scared of this whole blessed event, so please keep us in your prayers for a quick & complication free delivery!

Early Labor

2008-07-27T10:57:00.000-07:00

After spending six hours at the hospital this morning it was determined that I am in "early labor", rather than "active labor". The contractions are still coming about two to five minutes apart, but they aren't super strong or lasting quite long enough to change the cervix. I left the hospital dilated to 1cm, and only 25% effaced. Translation: I still have quite a long ways to go. Early labor typically lasts between twelve and twenty-four hours. The doctor actually wanted to induce me right then and there, but the wonderful nurse told her that we'd like to get some rest (since we didn't get any last night), and so we were given the chance to go home and let active labor begin on its own. The only catch is that if it doesn't, then we have to be back at 6:00am tomorrow for the induction. I am currently at 41 weeks & 1 day... and I guess according to the hospital that means its time! I'm not really going to argue too much there, because it's been a long wait- but I'm really glad we have the chance let this progress naturally first! So hopefully we will be back, sometime today... but for now I'm going to try and get some much needed rest. It looks as though we have a big day ahead of us quite soon.

This could be it!

2008-07-27T04:08:00.000-07:00

We're headed to the hospital! Contractions have been regular since 2:20am, 3-5 minutes apart. We're not sure if its for real but we're bringing the laptop to the hospital so we should be able to post updates as things progress.

Six Days Late!

2008-07-25T10:51:00.000-07:00

I'm seriously beginning to wonder why they even give you a due date to begin with, apparently it doesn't mean much. That day on the calender I had been looking forward to for practically the last year of my life... came and went, and is now a week in the dust. So yes, I'm still quite pregnant and with no signs of change to come soon! There is an empty bassinet next to our bed, a changing station all set up with the cutest little diapers I've ever seen, and some very adorable outfits organized by size... just waiting to be shown off by a brand new baby boy. The hospital bags are packed! I've had PLENTY of sleep, enough to get me through the next year in fact- so I'm even ready for the sleepless nights! Now all we need are some good strong, regular contractions! I'm debating if I should just head down to the hospital now... on foot... its about ten miles, surely I'll go into labor on the way if I'm walking?!? Okay, maybe that's not the greatest plan! But a few laps around the lake today will hopefully do some good! I know you are all waiting for a big fancy post that says: "I'm in Labor!", but unfortunately there's not too much going on in that department yet.

August Baby?

2008-07-23T16:12:00.001-07:00

I went to the doctor's today, and I'm actually a little upset over it right now. I was hoping they would be doing an internal exam to see what kind of progress has been made. They will usually tell you how many centimeters you have dilated, and what percentage of effacement there is. Well apparently I'm some kind of freak of nature or something, because he wasn't even able to tell. My cervix was too far back or something and he couldn't reach! He then tried to tell me that it moves forward as you make progress, so that was just a sign that nothing significant has happened yet. They said if I don't go into labor naturally within a week, they will schedule an induction. I don't really want labor induced (especially chemically), but I also don't want to be pregnant forever either! So I thought... one more week at most, I can handle that!

Then it was time to go back up to the front desk on our way out to schedule our next appointment, turns out the soonest they can see me is not in a week from today... but in a week from Friday! So at that appointment they will talk about scheduling an induction. It will most likely be too late in the day on that friday because we have an afternoon appointment. And I highly doubt they would schedule one on a Saturday, which means that we would be waiting until the following Monday, which is August 4th. Two and a half weeks past my due date! This is pretty upsetting, not so much because I may have to be pregnant for almost two more weeks, but because I'm concerned about the safety of the baby. After 40 weeks they generally preform something called a non-stress test, and also check the level of fluid left in the amniotic sac to make sure the baby is doing okay! I guess they aren't too concerned about these things, OR they over looked them today in the midst of being a very crowded office, that was backed up over an hour! I'm really not sure which! I will probably call them sometime tomorrow ... when I've calmed down a little bit so that I ~~don't verbally abuse the receptionist~~ can try and get some answers and make sure that nothing important got overlooked. Chances are I will go into labor on my own, naturally before the next appointment, but in any case the prospect of having to wait that long is really frustrating! Please be praying that this happens soon, and also for an easy and complication free delivery. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of this baby boy. Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, and well-wishes, we'll be sure to keep you posted!

Walking and Waiting

2008-07-21T10:22:00.000-07:00

This is a beautiful picture of the lake by our house. From our home... down to the lake, once around, and back home is about a two mile walk. It's a nice walk, when you aren't in your 41st week of pregnancy! I'm hoping it becomes a more useful walk, as I'm counting on it to help get this baby ready to make his arrival. I took the walk last night, and subsequently had some regular contractions for a while. They got pretty close together but they varied in intensity and once I decided to lay down and get some rest, I fell asleep and they went away. Yesterday my husband was at work while I walked, so I had a seven year old in tow... I didn't want to walk alone in case anything happened. She at least knows how to pull my cell phone from my pocket and call the house, or both of my parents cell phones in the event of an emergency and for the most part she makes pretty good company... except for the fact that yesterday she had the most annoying disney channel song stuck in her head and sang it the whole way around the lake. Maybe three times around will do the trick! I'm not sure if I could make it that far, especially if I don't find my other shoes.... they seemed to have up and walked away as it is. They probably got lost when I cleaned and organized the room last week... go figure. I'm a little forgetful these days, and the room we are in well doesn't exactly have a place for everything so we have to get a little creative and I forgot where I put them. My tennis shoes that I had to wear yesterday just kill my feet right now as they are a little tight! My feet don't actually look very swollen, but judging on how my shoes fit they actually are. So I really need my other shoes before I do anymore walking! Then I wonder if I am walking for no good reason, I mean it really doesn't feel good at all these days. Then I ache all over and I feel like I can't move... is it worth it? YES! If it helps convince this baby it's time to come, then I will keep taking that chance.

Two days overdue, and no baby yet... I'm getting pretty curious when or if this is ever going to happen! I mean, he can't just stay in there forever right?

My Due Date...

2008-07-19T23:59:00.000-07:00

... was today! But it came and went and there was no action. I guess my little man is refusing to make his appearance. It looks like we will be playing the waiting game a little longer. I was really convinced he'd arrive on time. They say you're usually a few days late with your first one, but I was my mom's first pregnancy and I came right on time! So I thought... maybe the baby will take after Mama and show up. I guess that was wishful thinking. The hard part was having that date circled on the calender and counting down what felt like forever for it to arrive, and then nothing! But now that's its here I feel so relieved, even though I'm not holding my baby boy yet. I know it will be soon, and I feel like we actually have everything together and ready at this point. I just finally typed up our birth plan, now I just have to find some colored paper to print it out on before we leave for the hospital. For now, I'm trying to enjoy the last few days Sean & I have together before we become a family of three. I'm enjoying sleeping through the night (for the most part...), and all the peace and quiet we still have. I know we are in for a BIG change so I'm trying to savor every last moment of life as we know it. I must admit we are a little intimidated by the new responsibility we will have. But we know in the end, when this chapter of our lives close and the new one opens... when we finally get to hold that little boy... it will all have been worth the wait.

As far as my doctors appointment on Friday went, there is really no big news to report. I am seen weekly at this point, so all they do is check my vitals and listen for the baby's heartbeat. They said to come in on Wednesday if the baby isn't here yet and they will do a more extensive check since I am past due, and make sure that everything is okay and possibly discuss setting an induction date. They don't like to let you go more than a week past due. Most likely the baby will come on his own at some point within the next week, so we're not really worried about that yet.

We'll keep you posted on the progress, I have a feeling things will be happening very soon!

Pregnancy Update!

2008-07-17T10:43:00.000-07:00

I can hardly believe that I'm only two days away from our due date. We're not sure if he'll be here on time, but it should be soon! I've been having contractions all week, they seem to be about twenty minutes apart, in two to three hour spurts. They have never really developed into anything significant, which is a little frustrating because I'm so ready to meet this little boy already and sometimes it feels like I'll just be pregnant forever. I've been getting in as many naps as I can, because I know I will soon be sleep deprived. It's amazing to me how much harder the last few weeks is than the rest of the pregnancy. I've been pretty uncomfortable lately, but I know that's just because he's still rapidly growing in there. It's said that they gain about a half pound each week at this stage. So hopefully he's here soon, or I'll be pushing out a big baby! It has just gotten so much harder to do all the little things. I am SO thankful for my wonderful husband who takes such good care of me! He has been a constant support and a huge help to me through all this, dropping whatever he is working on to help me with whatever I need. I appreciate him so much for it.

I've got my weekly check-up on Friday, so I'll be sure to post an update then if nothing happens sooner!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

2008-07-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

Thank you for being the best Grandpa anyone could ever ask for! We are so blessed to have you in our lives! You have always been a source of wisdom and support to us. We love the times we get to share with you, and we can't wait for you to meet our baby boy, your great-grandson! We wish you health and happiness on your special day. We Love You Lots!

39 Weeks

2008-07-12T22:49:00.001-07:00

Today officially marks the end of 39 weeks! Tomorrow begins what should be the last week of this pregnancy! There's nothing really new to report from my doctors visit this week, except that the doctor said that "this baby could come at anytime!" So I guess that's good to hear. We are as ready as we will ever be. I'm thankful to have made it through, its been pretty uneventful and we're hoping and praying delivery will go just as smooth. I'm getting pretty nervous and anxious about what is to come, but I'm really ready to not be pregnant anymore. I can't remember what it feels like to not be pregnant. We pretty much have the bags packed for the hospital, at least with the necessities! There are a few other things I'd like to throw in if I can get them together in time... but other than that we're ready to go! I spent a good part of the day organizing our room and all the baby stuff to make things more functional when he arrives.

I'm excited to potentially only have 7 days left! I know we don't get to choose our baby's birthday, but we do have a few dates that we would be extra excited about... the first being this coming Monday, July 14th! This is my husbands grandpa's birthday, and I think it would be really special for Brody to share a birthday with his great-grandpa. If he doesn't come on Monday, then my next hope would be for his actual due date, the 19th! You see my birthday is on the 19th of August, and I arrived on my due date. So even though it's a different month it would still be kind of cool if he decided to take after his Mama and show up on time!

Speaking of when he will be making his arrival... I recently set up a little contest here on my blogger. It's mainly for my own entertainment, but to encourage participation there will also be a prize for the winner! I know we said that the game ends when we post that I am in labor, but don't wait too long to enter, I have a feeling it could be any day now... and you don't want to miss out. So to enter our little contest click here!

I did find out that we should be able to keep this blog updated pretty easily during labor! Turns out they do actually have free wi-fi in the labor & delivery ward of the hospital! So we'll be bringing our camera, and the laptop and we'll try to keep things updated as they happen.

Stay tuned... he'll be here any day now!

My Adorable Neice...

2008-07-10T01:23:00.000-07:00

This is a video clip that my sister-in-law Marghee took of her daughter Eliann. It began when Marghee was asking Eliann questions about when her new baby cousin would be making his arrival. As it turns out, she's not so excited about a cousin and would rather have a sister instead! Isn't she adorable? We just love this little girl, and we're pretty sure she'll be a make a great cousin- once she gets over the fact that Brody isn't her new sister.

Guessing Game!

2008-07-06T19:17:00.000-07:00

Just for my amusement... I thought it would be fun if we played a little game! My "official due date" is on July 19th, and the ultrasounds have all told us we are having a BOY! But, with about two weeks to go we are very curious as to how everything will play out... so we want your best guesses!

So here's the deal:

Leave me a message or comment here on blogger, or through myspace, facebook or my personal email. There will be a little prize... and it will be good, I promise! But I have to be able to contact you for you to get that prize. If you wish to leave your comment here, just make sure to leave me your name w/last initial (there may be other participants with the same first name as you!) as well as an email address so I can contact you if you win! Whoever has the most accurate answers is the winner! The contest ends when we post here that I am in labor. Thanks for playing, and happy guessing!

Your comment should include your best guesses of the following...

1. What date will our baby actually arrive?

2. How long will I be in labor? (in hours)

3. How much will our baby weigh at birth? (in both lbs. & oz.)

4. How long will our baby be? (in inches)

5. *Are we really having a boy... or do you think it's a girl?

*You may judge the ultrasound results for yourself by checking out these pictures from our 24 week scan.

Just Two More Weeks...

2008-07-05T10:24:00.000-07:00

I can't believe its already here, today officially marks thirty-eight weeks! In just about two weeks time, God willing, I will be holding my baby boy! We had our last check-up on Wednesday... and there is really nothing new to report. The doctor says everything looks good still, and checked his positioning... confirming that he was still head down and ready to make his way into this world (as he has been for the last seven weeks). And for being this pregnant, I can't really complain too much. I still feel pretty good, the only thing really bothering me is the heat- and these hot flashes I'm having more frequently.

I wish I had pictures of his nursery to post, but right now we're staying with my parents for a while and he will be sharing a room with us for the first six or so months of his life- so he doesn't have a nursery yet. It's cool though, because all that furniture and bedding is expensive and would just be a waste of space at this point anyways. We did decorate his corner in our room! My very talented sister-in-law, Marghee painted him that beautiful sign with his name on it!
Because we are going with a jungle theme my little sister Chanel let us borrow one of her stuffed monkey's to put up on the little wooden shelf that would otherwise be empty! Although, I hear "Grammy" (the Grandma name my Mom has given herself) has picked Brody up his own adorable stuffed monkey on her trip to Hawaii, so when they return we'll put his up instead.
I have been on "maternity leave" now for about two weeks, it's been a welcome break for me and Sean's been working the closing shift during most of it, so its been nice to have most days at home with him! Other than getting his stroller and car seat set up as soon as it came, and setting up the bassinet in our room, I don't feel like I ever went through much of a "nesting" stage, and I still feel like there is SO much that needs to be done before we will be ready for his arrival. I've had his laundry on my to-do list for this entire past week. I think the procrastination bug is about to die though, since it's now hitting me that we are only two weeks away from the due-date that he could choose to make his arrival now at anytime! I'm only going to wash a few outfits... mostly onesies... his bed sheets and receiving blankets. Everything else stays in the closet with the tags on and the receipts attached just incase we are suprised with the birth of a baby girl!

Right now it seems like a lot of people I know are pregnant! It's almost as if we're having a little "2008 Baby Boom"! I'm a little worried there might not be any open beds at in the L&D unit at the hospital when its time... all joking aside, it's actually kind of fun to be going through this experience with a few friends. Having people around that actually understand pregnancy, comparing notes, and being thankful that I don't have it quite as bad as a few others who have been insanely miserable for the past nine months! A few weeks ago at my baby shower, I had two of my friends who are also pregnant, and due within the same week as me, it was fun having them there! The following Sunday I got to attend the shower of my dear friend Ariana who is giving birth to her second, a baby girl... due just three days before me. I was one of three other pregnant women at that shower as well! The first thing we did when we got their was to decorate onesies for her baby girl, and I'm not usually very creative or artistically talented so I was really quite happy and surprised at how well mine turned out! Although, I have had a little experience painting onesies this year... as that is how we told the parents our big news back in November! Isn't it cute?
We are planning to keep this post updated frequently as things progress over the next two weeks. He could arrive now at anytime! If Sean can't pick up a Wi-Fi connection at the hospital (...my wishful thinking) then we'll be finding a friend or family member that can post labor updates for us... so stay tuned, there is sure to be several new posts in the immediate future!

Happy 4th of July!

2008-07-04T21:15:00.000-07:00

I guess I'll start with reporting that there is no big baby news today! I was kind of secretly hoping I'd go into labor this morning, so we could have a 4th of July baby. I know that might sound silly, but I'm now at thirty-seven weeks and six days so the baby is considered to be full term! It's safe now... and besides the fact that it would have been cool to deliver today, I'm quite ready to be done being pregnant. This little boy could arrive any day now, so I'm hoping the sooner the better. I am holding out hope for a few other significant dates, but I guess in the end he'll tell us which day is going to be his birthday! Today does happen to be my aunt's birthday.. Happy Birthday Aunt Sharon!
This year we didn't get to get out and do much celebrating. The pictures you are seeing are of Chanel (my little sister) from last year's 4th of July celebration down in Newport Beach. I found myself wishing I was there today, and was halfway tempted to take a little five hour drive this morning when I found myself wide awake at 6:30am. If my husband didn't have to work in the afternoon, I would have done my best to convince him it would be fun... although I don't think he would be buying it. Driving all that way just for one day, probably not worth it!
It seems like we've spent a good number of 4th of July's down in Newport Beach at my Aunt's house. The house used to belong to my Grandmother, and it is the same house my Dad grew up in. We've taken lots of family trips down there over the many years, and its one of my favorite places to visit... but I think I especially enjoy being there for the 4th of July.
There is always a parade that comes down the street in the morning! This is not your typical parade, as most people participate in it... rather than stand on the sidelines and watch. Everyone gets all dressed up in their best red, white, and blue. People decorate their bikes, wagons, pets, and children! And everyone marches down the street in true patriotic spirit. I enjoy being one of the few spectators who watch, and take pictures from the sidelines, but I fear those days are coming to an end as the next time we have the opportunity to be there I will have a child who is most likely walking and wanting to participate! Later in the afternoon, there is a potluck with the neighbors in back alley behind the house! This is a tradition that has gone on for as long as I can remember and it always seems to be a lot of fun. Some of the neighbors have been there so long that they were around to watch my Dad and his siblings grow up... their kids come out and celebrate too, so its kind of fun to see the reunion of old childhood friends all grown up and sharing the tradition with their own children! Once it gets dark, they break out the small time fireworks, and things like sparklers. Honestly those things scare me half to death, and I'm not sure how comfortable I'll feel watching all the action with a 1 year old next year (if we are fortunate enough to make it down for all the festivities)! We then usually walk down around the corner to the beach to catch the city's firework display, and by the time that's over with everyone is pretty tired and ready for bed!
This year was much different, I never even left the house! My other very pregnant friend Jen came over and we did BBQ up a little feast for lunch and hung out for a while! I also spent some time cooling off in our kiddie pool that's set up in the backyard. I would die without that thing in this heat! It's one of those easy set pools, with the inflatable ring around the top... the 10ft size, which is about 30in deep! It's small, and mainly built for children, but there's also enough room for about four adults to lounge comfortably around the sides. It's quite nice just sitting in there, the water comes up just enough to almost cover my shoulders! So its not TOO small and its something I'm quite thankful for, especially this late in pregnancy! I'll post a pregnancy update tomorrow (38 weeks), so stay tuned!

Baby Shower!

2008-07-01T22:28:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to get this post up for a little over a week now! Even though I'm now officially on maternity leave, and not working- I've somehow kept pretty busy and struggled to find time to write about this fun little get together we had the Sunday before last! It was our first baby shower, and we had a great time! The party was hosted by Judy and her daughter Jennifer at their beautiful home in Paso Robles, along with my Mom. Judy did an amazing job with the cake and the food, and was incredibly hospitable! She is actually the one who made my wedding cake, as well as my parents wedding cake. She seriously makes the worlds best cakes, I'm pretty sure anyone who has tried them will agree! I'm going to use this opportunity to plug her new website (click here), which you all should check out and keep in mind next time you need a cake for any occasion! Here are the cakes she made for the baby shower... the blue one is a Chocolate-Chocolate Chip with Chocolate filling, and the white one is Coconut with Lemon filling- both were a huge hit!
And here is the beautiful and talented Judy... responsible for the above masterpieces:

I was not exaggerating when I said the food was amazing as well. She served up Champagne, Mimosa's, Tea, and Ice Water along with an assortment of canned Sodas and this beautiful array of food!
There was a very delicious veggie lasagna, a beautiful fruit tray, a greek salad, and some really yummy wraps with an assortment of deli meats and fillings!

At first we all relaxed and had lunch, enjoying each others company! The first activity was a devotional my mom put together, along with a stack of gifts she presented me. I was to open one at a time, while she had each guest read a verse from the Bible and some helpful guidance in raising a child. This was first of the stack that I opened, a pack of receiving blankets. To go along with that 1 John 4:7 was read: "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God." Along with that came the advice: "Be sure to wrap your child up in the love of Jesus and keep him warm. Fill your home with love for each other. The more the love of Christ is shown in your home, the less there will be of bickering, fighting, and arguing, which is something no child needs to grow up with." I really appreciate all the time and trouble my Mom went to, to put together this special devotional. And of course the supply of baby necessities that came along with was very nice too!
Once that was over, it was time for games! It seems most baby showers I go to have the same games- so we tried to mix it up a bit and I actually spent some time online searching for some unique game ideas to help my mom with the planning. The first one was adapted from one that is sometimes played at co-ed showers- where the men will race to drink beer from the baby bottles! We thought it would be just as fun with the women, we also played the "non-alcoholic version" and used water. Each participant was handed a bottle filled with 3 oz of water, which had to be sucked out through a "slow flow" nipple! It was rather amusing to watch a bunch of grown women drink out of baby bottles... which is why for your viewing pleasure I can't resist posting these:

I forgot to mention that this was suppose to be an all gals event! No boys allowed... however, at the last minute we decided we should have my Dad and my Husband tag along! At first Sean really wasn't up for coming to a Baby Shower. But we lured the men there with promises of delicious food and cake. But he ended up being a great sport and even participated in the embarrassing baby bottle game!
After the bottle game, we got everyone in a circle and passed around two gift bags to this very cute story I found online about Mr. & Mrs. Wright, and their trip to the hospital to have their own baby. It was a cute story about them heading right to the hospital, and to get there they had to turn left out of the driveway. But quickly discovered that they had left something important at home. It went on and on filled with the words left and right and each time the bag would be passed to the person in the specific direction being called out in the story. In the end I believe Stephanie and Kyle took home the prizes!And finally that delicious cake was served, as I mentioned it was a huge hit and I was sooooo glad she let me choose two flavors because we had left overs and ate got to enjoy that cake for almost an entire week! Also pictured here is my very pregnant friend Ariana, due just three days before me. I was glad she could make it, along with my other friend Jen who is also pregnant and due two days after me! There were three of us there that were due the same week... there must be something in the water!

Once cake was served it was time for gifts!
Here are just some of the great gifts we received... I love the adorable onesies!

This had to be one of my favorites, and Grandpa's too! He's a huge Angels fan as I'm sure we will brainwash our son to be! I can't wait until he gets to wear this. It's just the right size to fit him in time for next season!

This was handmade just for Brody! Isn't it beautiful?
Another something we can't live without! The Boppy... this will come in very handy for feeding time!
Not only was this little stuffed puppy incredibly adorable, it's the quite soft and cuddly and sure to be Brody's little best buddy for a while!

See, I told you he was cute!
I'm so glad to have gotten some great books to read to him! This one was a touch and feel book about the ABC's!
I also really loved this very soft... super cuddly... baby blanket!
I've always wanted to get him some of these adorable shoes by Bobux!
And I think this one is more for my sanity then for the baby! It's a Fisher-Price Papasan Cradle Swing!
For those of you who were there, THANK YOU so much for coming! It was such a special day for us, and I appreciate all the awesome baby gifts!

We do have one more shower planned down south for our friends and family that live in Orange County. This will be a co-ed gig, and more of a "Welcome Brody!" party, as it is planned after his arrival! Mainly because we don't get down there too often, and I know people are going to want to meet him! Also, now that I'm getting closer to thirty-eight weeks I don't feel much like traveling!

Oh and in case I haven't mentioned, we did finally decide on a name. We've had it picked out for a while now, but I just haven't found the right opportunity to post it on my Blog! His name will be: Brody Lawrence Griffin. This was the name we had chosen for our first boy even before we found out we were pregnant. The first name is just something I really liked, and the middle name is in honor of my Dad! We did some second guessing somewhere along the way, which is why there is a name poll still up. I'm going to leave it running until he's here I guess! But unless the ultrasound played tricks on our eyes, and this baby turns out to be a girl... something at which I would be completely shocked! Then we are excited to be welcoming our baby boy- Brody Lawrence- in just a few short weeks!

It's July!

2008-07-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

July is finally here, and that means that THIS MONTH we will be welcoming our baby boy! I can't really say that time has flown by- but I can't believe we have less than three weeks to go! :) I'm going to try and keep this updated somehow during labor, and with a timely birth annoucment! Let's hope Twin Cities has WIFI, otherwise I'll have to find an outside connection to keep everyone up to date for me! Thanks for reading, there is sure to be more regular posts from here on out! Especially once we have a baby to posts pictures of! :)

Pregnancy Update: 36 weeks!

2008-06-26T19:56:00.000-07:00

Someone could make a living right now if they made personalized maternity t-shirts with all the important information! I found this cartoon to be so funny and true. I love that my friends and family are interested in my pregnancy, but when random strangers start asking questions it gets a little annoying. Mostly I find that strangers lack a certain amount of tact when asking questions. Last weekend, my mom and I were out shopping for some fabric for a quilt she is making for the baby, when the lady behind the counter starting asking way too many questions. When she asked what name we had decided on and I had told her, her first reaction was to ask me if people made comments that they didn't like the name or if they thought it was horrible? Maybe its the pregnancy hormones, but I took that as it being her way of saying that is how she felt about the name, which quite frankly as a stranger wasn't any of her business to begin with. I just responded "No, but I don't really care what anyone thinks anyways- it's not their kid." People should really be more careful about messing with very pregnant (and hormonal) women.

Anyways, on to the update:

Last Saturday marked the thirty six week mark for us! This is an exciting milestone, because most babies born at thirty-six weeks do very well and don't need a stay in the NICU! I feel like I can breathe and not worry about an early delivery so much. Not that I am expecting one, or even at risk... but you never know! With less than four weeks to go, I feel great! Sure there are all the discomforts of pregnancy, like not being able to sleep through the night because I need to get up and pee every 2 hours and being exhausted half the day. But overall for being so far along I think my body is handling it well. I've managed to maintain my weight loss through the pregnancy, down about ten pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight! They say at delivery I will probably lose another twelve or so, and then breastfeeding should help even more! I've been really careful throughout the pregnancy to take good care of myself and this baby, and I'm really happy my hard work seems to have paid off. For one I was blessed with healthy cravings, most of the foods that appeal to me right now are fruits and veggies! Secondly I took the mentality that I am not eating for two! A lot of pregnant women gain way more weight than they need to because they take pregnancy as an excuse to double up on their portion sizes. While that is okay for those who don't have a weight problem, most of them lose it quickly after pregnancy, I knew it wouldn't work for me as I have a really hard time losing weight and I couldn't really afford to gain any- except what was healthy for the baby. I also think that the pregnancy gave me a little boost in metabolism as my body was burning the calories more quickly from the task of growing the little one! I believe that keeping a good handle on my weight throughout the pregnancy has helped me to avoid some of the complications that overweight women are more prone to, such as high blood pressure and gestational diabetes. I am happy to report that my blood pressure has been in the low/normal range throughout the entire pregnancy and I the doctor said my blood sugar was just "perfect" and "right where it should be".

I am now seeing the doctor on a weekly basis until delivery! At my thirty-six week check-up I got the results back from my Strep B test.. and that was good news with a negative reading! That means I won't have to have antibiotics pumped through me during labor! The nurse practitioner checked the position of the baby... he's still head down and dropped... just waiting to make his way into this world! And his little heart beat was strong, I love getting to hear it each week at my appointments. Overall everything has been going well. I am just praying for a complication free delivery.

I'm very torn between wanting to do this naturally, and knowing that I am the biggest wimp ever when it comes to pain. Initially I was all about the epidural and planning to have one the minute we got to the hospital! But, after talking with a new friend who is also pregnant and due just two days after me, she was explaining that she was definitely not going to be having one and that her decision was based on information she was given at a childbirth preparation class. Well, being the Google addict that I am, I decided to start researching the effects and well that had me sold on not having one and just trying to "tough it out". I even watched the documentary: "The Business of Being Born", which should have even more convinced me that I don't want one. But in all reality, it had just the opposite effect. You see, they showed women in actual labor! I watched in horror as I saw what I would be enduring if I did not have an epidural, and honestly I just couldn't handle it. So now I'm a bit torn, and scared and not quite sure how they are going to get this kid out! I'm considering some alternative pain management like Stadol, and trying to labor at home as much as possible before heading to the hospital, so that they don't try to put me on Pitocin right away which will cause stronger contractions and more of a need for the epidural. But I guess I won't know how it will all go down until we are actually there! I am just hoping and praying that it won't be a traumatic experience. And aside from all the fears, I'm really ready to go through it all so I can meet this baby boy!

Bay Area Adventures

2008-06-17T22:09:00.000-07:00

So... Sean & I decided it was time for a much needed last getaway before we have the responsibility of another life. On Thursday we headed up to the Bay Area where we were to stay with Sean's grandparents in Hayward, and then spend a few days in the City of San Francisco!

The very first day we stopped off in Monteray to visit Cannery Row and the Aquarium. We had a lot of fun, and for being thirty-five weeks pregnant I did pretty well walking around for parking four blocks away and spending about three hours on foot touring the place! Here is some footage I got of the big fish tank at the Aquarium:

And a few pictures from our visit:

We made it up to Hayward just in time for dinner that night where we were welcomed into Sean's grandparents home with a delicious meal, lasagna and artichokes! Artichokes are pretty much my favorite food, and these ones were SO good! We had a very nice time visiting with his grandparents over dinner that night, and got all our stuff settled in for the five days we would be staying. On Friday we stayed in Hayward. Sean drove me around the town a bit and showed me where he grew up. I made him stand out in front of the house he grew up in so I could get this picture:

He also took me to this little shop called the "Ice Creamery" which was one of his favorite eateries as a child. I was kind of sad for him, because we ate lunch there and it wasn't as good as he remembered. He didn't really care for his food, especially the clam chowder- it looked horrible, and on top of that we got the worst service ever. By the time we were done with our lunch we were too full to even try the Ice Cream, although I'm sure that would have been good seeing it is their specialty. We also went to the local... and very ghetto... mall that day, in search of a new pair of Crocs for me as my little swollen feet were hurting from my tennis shoes being too tight, and I knew I wouldn't be able to make it a whole day in the City with them! I was finally successful in finding what I needed after a lot of looking.

Saturday morning we got up and headed down to the Bart station to catch a train into San Francisco.

I was a little scared about taking the Bart under the Bay... I was so worried we'd get stuck under there somehow. But then I just kept thinking about labor and childbirth and all that I will be going through in less than five weeks, and we were at our first stop in the city. We had a great day in the city, and I was so glad I bought my Crocs because there was only one time, after we walked six long blocks and one of them uphill where my feet started to hurt. I did really well walking around the City that day- even though I probably did more walking than what was good for me. We started off our day at the Powell St. Station and hopped on the Cable Car to get down to Fisherman's Warf. We waited in line for about an hour just to get on the car... well Sean waited in line, while I took a tour of the Baby Gap!

We made it down to Fisherman's Warf where we spent some time checking out the shops and having lunch. We also stopped watched the Sea Lions at Pier 39!

I think the highlight of our whole time in San Francisco was the Bay Adventure Cruise we took with the Blue & Gold Fleet out of Pier 39. We spent an hour on a boat that took us around the bay. We went underneath the golden gate bridge, around Alcatraz, and then out to check out the Bay Bridge and saw some amazing views of the city. There was some educational narration on the tour about San Francisco, and specifically the parts we were seeing. I thought it was pretty well done, and not to cheesy! It was very cold and windy from the boat, but it was worth it for all that we got to experience. I was wearing shorts that day, and we had both forgotten our jackets. For the other parts of the day we were just fine, and not too cold... but it just gets really windy out on that boat!

After our little bay excursion, it was time for a six block walk over and up to Ghirardelli Square. We somehow ended up in the Ghirardelli Ice Cream Shop, where we found the most amazing Ice Cream I have ever tasted. It was Ghirardelli's Rocky Road in a Chocolate Dipped Waffle Cone.

We ended our day in San Francisco with one more trip back to Powell Station on the Cable Car, and then hopped on the Bart for our trip to back to Hayward in time for dinner. I cooked Sean one of his favorite meals- Penne Pasta with Sundried Tomato Alfredo sauce, Caesar Salad, and Garlic Bread! After that we were both pretty tired and we're very glad that we had planned to rest a day before venturing back into the city!

We spent Father's Day at "home" in Hayward with Sean's Grandparents. There is this Italian style restaurant called Banchero's that they frequent for special occasions. I had heard all about it, and how it is a family tradition to take the whole family there every Mother's Day. But since this was my first visit up to the area, Sean's grandparents treated us to lunch there. The food was great, but mostly it was neat to get a little glimpse into the family traditions! I really enjoy Sean's grandparents. I especially enjoy listening to all the great stories that his grandpa tells about the kids growing up! We had a really nice time just resting on Sunday and visiting with them. We also went back over to Sean's old neighborhood and visited a family friend from Sean's childhood.

On Monday we decided to brave San Francisco again. Although this time with much less success. Word to the wise: SAN FRANCISCO IS CLOSED ON MONDAY! Seriously... We had planned to set off into the City an hour earlier than our Saturday trip. This is because we knew we'd be fighting the commuters for a seat on the Bart to get home if we left any later than 4:00pm. So we arrived at the Powell St. Station at about 9:20am. This time however I noticed an exit into this mall, that I just had to check out. It was six stories, and I'd never seen anything like it!

We ventured into one or two shops and then just rode the escalators up to the top and back, just for kicks. Then we decided we should be on our way, because we had a lot to see and not too much time to see it in. Since our destinations were quite far between, I used the online trip planner provided by Muni. It wrote down where we were going, which busses to take, where the bus stops were, and how often the bus came by each stop. The trip planner let me select based on my preferences of less walking time over a shorter bus route, and according to the selections made online we shouldn't have had to walk more than 1/8 of a mile at any given stop to get to our destination. The whole bus thing went ALL wrong! First off, the stops it told us to get off on were much further than 1/8 of a mile from our destination- and the worst part is that there were ones two or three stops prior that were MUCH closer to where we needed to go. The very first bus of the day we boarded... bus #5... broke down on us before it even got to the next stop. It turned out the power lines had gone down for that block and they couldn't get them up and running for a while. And since I didn't have my laptop or internet access in the City it was impossible for me to go online and figure out a new route!

About an hour later they had finally fixed the broken down bus, and we re-boarded to head over to the Conservatory of Flowers at Golden Gate Park. This is one of those bus stops that we should have been told to get off about four exits earlier, as we ended up walking probably over a mile in the park just to get the conservatory. When we got there, we were disappointed to find out that it was CLOSED on Mondays! We did however get lots of pretty pics from the outside!

Now the problem with the fact that the bus gave us the wrong stop to get off at, means that the route to exit that location is also in the same place as where we originally got off. This would mean another mile walk back to the bus stop to get on the correct bus. We decided to go out to the stop where we should have originally gotten off- only to find that the bus line we needed to get to our next destination didn't depart from that stop. At least there was a map at that one, because we were able to figure out where we needed to go, even though it required three line transfers. By now its about 12:30pm and we still haven't done anything other than walk around and ride on busses. We finally have reached our next destination, The Exploratorium! Well the area to get to the entrance happened to be under construction, so there were signs routing us around the building to enter on the other side. After about five minutes of walking we saw a sign that said "Entrance... 250 meters ahead". After commenting that we would be walking the distance of two and a half football fields, I made a joke about this being closed on Monday's too. Well much to my chagrin, that happened to be just the case! I'm not sure why I never checked the operating hours of these attractions, I guess I just assumed they would be open on a Monday, especially since most schools had let out and being the beginning of summer I would expect an infulx of tourists! It was rather disappointing that our day had started off like this, but at that point I was amused and we were both in good spirits. We had gotten good exercise, gotten to see some beautiful quiet scenery away from the rush of the city, and best of all we had gotten to enjoy each others company! Too many things had gone wrong that day, that it became humorous and we weren't going to let it ruin or trip! On the plus side, we did save ourselves a combined total of $40 in admission to both attractions.

Thankfully, the bus stop for this one was close. It turned out we could really walk through the area that was "under construction", as that construction was just to the side and all fenced off. I'm not sure why the signs were so misleading- but I'm guessing they didn't want a whole lot of foot traffic going in and out. We got on our next bus and headed back over to Ghiradelli Square. Of course, our stop never came up- and we ended up going a few blocks past so we jumped off the bus as soon as we realized and walked back the rest of the way. Sean wanted Ice Cream again, I was pretty cold and opted for some Hot Cocoa!

After resting a bit we decided to continue the journey on foot down to Fisherman's Warf to get some lunch and take a quick tour of the Boudin Factory. You see we had planned this tour for Saturday on our first trip over, but it ended up being closed due to some private party. The tour wasn't anything special, it was self guided and as you can imagine it smelled amazing as they were baking the frest baked bread! We ended up taking home a very cute little loaf, shaped into a turtle! And we got some fun pictures as well.

It was getting to be close to 4:00pm and being quite pregnant it was important to make sure I was able to get a seat for the trip back across the bay. So we picked up a little gift for our neice, Eliann and then headed over to the F-Line Streetcar stop to take us to the Embarcadero Bart Station. We were one of the first ones in line for the next car, but much to my disappointment it pulled up past where the line had formed and all the people in the back of the line pushed their way through to the opening. The car was too full and there was no more room. The streetcar operator told us we would have to wait for the next one. After a lot of walking, and a lot of standing and waiting I was really needing to sit down- but I didn't want to risk losing our place in line. So we stood excatly where the last cars doors had opened and waited another fifteen minutes for the next car. By this time a long line had formed behind us, there had to have been atleast sixty eighty people! Well the next car pulls up to a different place than we were all standing and its a mad dash as the doors open. We fight our way inside and get crammed among the car in standing room only. I had to hold on to the rail with one hand and guard my pockets with the other... in a crowed that tight it would have been way to easy to get pick-pocketed. Oh well, at least we were finally on our way out of San Francisco...

Or at least so we thought! When we arrived to the Bart station it seemed we were early enough to beat the mass rush of commuters that fill the downtown stations as they end their workdays. However the green line train which took us back to Hayward happened to be delayed somehow, and had to be taken off the tracks. The next train didn't get to the station until about 5:20pm, which means that it had stopped at all the other downtown locations and picked up commuters already off of work. We were at the last station before the train would cross under the bay, leaving the city. It was packed just as tightly as Streetcar, but I was so ready to be home I didn't care. I would stand the whole way if I had to. The operator announces to please give up your seat for the elderly, disabled or pregnant- but it was too crowded for anyone to even notice that I was pregnant, and even if they did I doubt they would care. Everyone seemed annoyed to be there and anxious to get to where they were going. I guess the Bart has gotten a lot more crowded since the cost of fuel has skyrocketed. Thankfully I only had to ride the first five minutes standing up, as we approached the first stop in Oakland the two people sitting directly infront of us got up to leave and we quickly snatched their seats for the rest of the way home! We made it back safe and sound by 6:00pm. It sure wasn't the day we planned, but it was an adventure none the less. And we did enjoy each others company through the whole ordeal!

The next morning we got up, packed our stuff and headed home to Atascadero! And it only took us about three hours to get back, the drive home was a lot less eventful than our Monday in San Francisco. It was sure nice to sleep in my own bed again... and after all that, I'm really thankful that Sean has one more day off of work to recover from our vacation! With just about a month left before the baby arrives, I'm really glad we decided to get away for a few days!

Congrats Jill!

2008-06-07T17:29:00.000-07:00

WELCOME MADISON & ABIGAIL!

So my friend Jillian just gave birth to her twin girls! She has an amazing birth story, which is posted on her blog ... and now two brand new beautiful babies at home!

One Year Anniversary

2008-05-26T19:47:00.000-07:00

Sean,
I can't believe its already been a whole year since we said "I Do". We started our lives together in a beautiful apartment in Aliso Viejo, we were blessed to be able to work for the same company- and carpool to work & have lunch together every day! We had the same work schedules, and we enjoyed our weekends at home (or on the road) together! Now we are soon to become a family of three... our lives have changed drastically in the past few months, and even more to come in just eight short weeks! Even though we don't have our pretty apartment, and we are living in my parents garage, there is no where else I'd rather be- because you are here with me! I know this time of transition brings a lot of unknowns, but soon enough we will have steady income again and a place of our own. We have everything we need, a place to sleep, food to eat, and each other. I know that in time we will have the right jobs, and the right place to live. It is so nice for me to have this break at the end of my pregnancy to focus on the baby, and preparing for motherhood. I appreciate everything you are doing to make that possible- and your supportiveness of my need to be home with the baby in the beginning. I'm sorry that you have to work for so much less than you are worth right now, while we figure this all out. But I love that everyday you get up and go without complaining because you want to provide for us. I appreciate how you take care of me when you get home, even though you are tired from a long days work. They say that the first year of marriage is the hardest, and I sure hope thats the truth... because looking back at this year, its not very hard being married to you! Thank you for being a wonderful, loving, supportive husband. I love you with all my heart, and I look forward to spending the rest of my life with you! Happy One Year Anniversary...
Love Always,
Sarah

A Year Ago Today....

So Guess What...

2008-05-19T22:29:00.001-07:00

I'm pregnant!!! This may not come as a shock to you if you regularly read my blog. But we were amused to find that out today when I had to go take a pregnancy test.

Since we've moved up to the Central Coast, I've had trouble finding a job. I have applied all over the place, but it seems to me that most employers aren't willing to hire someone when they will have to take a 6-10 week leave of absence within their first 90 days of employment. Additionally, my insurance from my job in Orange County was an HMO with no participating providers on the Central Coast. This means a trip to the OC every two weeks for a doctors appointment, and then living down there for a month (without my husband) while we await baby's arrival. So in an effort to avoid all the traveling, I applied for Medi-Cal so I could get a doctor up here and not have to go five hours away to have this baby.

I turned in my Medi-Cal application a few weeks ago, along with a ton of documentation they require to prove a lack of income and assets... I had been patiently awaiting an approval, when I got this letter in the mail from them saying they needed additional documentation. They need a birth certificate, marriage certificate, and verification that I was pregnant. Would the one inch stack of medical records documenting my entire pregnancy from my provider in OC do the trick? Nope. I had to go to one of their clinics and take a pregnancy test.

So after a short wait and leaving a urine sample for testing, a medical assistant brought us back to wait for the nurse practitioner. When she makes her way to the exam room, she congratulates us and informs us that we are expecting! (As if we had no clue...) So I sarcastically say, "really?, I'm shocked"... I guess she didn't pick up on the sarcasm because then she proceeded to try and calculate a due date for me by asking when my last period was. So I went along with it and said... "um, I think mid-October". She looks at me and says "Oh, my..." I am trying not to crack up, because I feel huge, and I think its obvious to most people now that I'm pregnant. I don't look like 7-8 months along... but I clearly have a "bump"- which I guess she didn't notice when she asked "Oh, so you knew you were pregnant". I informed her that I was almost 32 weeks along, and that we had just moved to the area from Orange County where I was receiving treatment previously. She was relieved to find out that I'd been going to the doctor the whole time! I was glad to find some humor in the hour that we wasted for me to go take a pregnancy test. But, at least I got my "pregnancy verification" so that I can finally show proof to Medi-Cal... and hopefully get an approval so that I can receive care locally!

The last 11 weeks...

2008-05-15T07:30:00.000-07:00

So I realize I haven't really updated (other than pictures) since my appointment at 20 weeks. I am now approaching the 31 week mark, and those of you who regularly stalk my blog are probably wondering If I dropped off the face of the planet. I don't know why, but I just haven't had the energy or motivation to want to sit down and write about all that has gone on. Just about everything in my life has changed, drastically. So just as a warning, this little update may not be so little. I've got 11 weeks to cover here people... happy reading!

I will start with the 24 week appointment, this is where we got all those great ultrasound pics and finally got some real confirmation that we are in fact having a boy, like for sure. I know they are never 100% accurate, but they showed us the umbilical cord on the screen (and highlighted the blood flow) so we could be certain that was not what we were seeing between the legs. Needless to say, I will be shocked if this baby turns out to be a girl. And I finally got to start buying a few outfits! I've been pretty good and haven't gone overboard. I only have about 6 things for him right now, and considering how much I love baby clothes I think I'm doing great in that department! I haven't even bought him any shoes yet... and don't get me started on the shoes, they are usually even a bigger weakness for me. Anyways, other than finding out he was a boy, they were able to complete the head-to-toe scan of the baby and check to make sure he was doing well, and was healthy and to look for any visable heart or birth defects. They were able to get some really good views of his little heart, and from what they could tell, everything looked good and healthy! He was still measuring about 7 days behind the due date, which concerned me some since I really don't want to have to wait an extra week to meet this little boy... but my doctor assured me that there is a 7-10 day margin of error on the ultrasounds and that he was pretty sure he had my dates correct. We were just very happy to see that he was doing well in there, and that they sent us home with a video of the session- it was great to be able to share with my family!

The day before this appointment... was our last day at work. That's right we quit our jobs! The weekend was spent packing, and loading up a UHAUL and starting a new journey. We made it up to the Central Coast on Sunday night where we were suppose to bunk with my parents for a week or two until we could find a place and get things settled on the job end of things. We had decided, with a baby on the way that we wanted to live closer to family. Sean really likes the small town life, and I like being close to my parents and my little sister... plus the cost of living up here is a lot less than in Orange County. Three bedroom houses rent for about the same as what we were paying for our one-bedroom apartment! There were finally a few decent job openings that looked promising, and we just both felt like it was time for a change- SO we moved! My whole job thing completely fell though, I ended up being in the final 4 candidates out of over 50 who applied and in the end they went with someone who had worked there before and already knew the job. So that turned out to be a disappointment at first, but looking back- probably a huge blessing in disguise. Sean's prospective jobs both still look very promising, but the hiring process is very long.. he's had to do written testing , physical agility testing, and oral interviews- with all that we still haven't heard anything except that they won't be making a decision until closer to when the job will be available. I am extremely proud of him for scoring in the top 5 on the written tests and passing the physical! We learned after we moved up here, that one of the jobs he applied for doesn't start until July or August, and the other is at the end of August, so in the mean time he took a job at Albertsons to pay the bills. We are still watching the job listings, and putting in applications when something good comes along... but mostly just waiting to hear back. I was never able to find employment, likely due to the fact with giving birth and all I would need to take a leave of absence within the first few months of employment. That's not usually so convenient for an employer, and when they have other qualified candidates who don't need to take leave... well... that makes it hard to get a job. It has been good for me to rest, and take it easy- especially over the last few weeks! I haven't been feeling as well and I think my body just needed a break. I also came across a business opportunity- which I won't really explain here- that I'm working on so that I might be able to stay home with the baby after he is born. I do feel more comfortable putting him in daycare up here (since I know the person I would be sending him too), but still if at all possible I'd like to be a work-at-home mommy and take care of my son! It's going great so far, and I'm working really hard to make my dream a reality!

As far as medical insurance goes, I stayed on my plan from work through Cobra. Unfortunately since it is an HMO I only have certain doctors I can see. I haven't heard the greatest things about the few that are here on the Central Coast that accept my health plan, and I absolutely LOVE the doctor I had in Orange County so I was planning to take the train down for my appointments and stay with relatives for the last few weeks of pregnancy so that I could deliver at Saddleback w/my doctor. So I took the train down for my 28 week appointment, which went well. The doctor got the results back from my glucose tolerance testing and it came back a 114- perfectly normal (the range they like to see is between 110-130) so that means that I did NOT develop gestational diabetes! A huge concern of mine going into the pregnancy overweight. I've only gained about 4 of the pounds back that I initially lost during in the first two trimesters and I seem to be holding there for the last four weeks. So I'm still about 12 lbs less than my pre-pregnancy weight- which I am happy with. My doctor would like to see my back up where I started (for the baby's sake) but as long as I'm eating enough, and eating healthy he's not going to be on my case for not gaining enough weight. I've worked really hard at staying healthy throughout the pregnancy and I am really glad that it all seems to be paying off! The doctor also checked to see how I was measuring, and turns out I'm right on pace for my due date of July 19th!

Up until about 29.5 weeks, I was having a great pregnancy. I really had nothing to complain about, and I think I was one of those that other pregnant women can't stand because they have spent their whole pregnancies feeling like crap. I didn't have morning sickness (at all), I wasn't uncomfortable, in pain, and best of all I even lost a few pounds.... I felt great! But all of the sudden at 29 weeks, I started to feel slightly uncomfortable! By the middle of the week I was in SO MUCH PAIN that I couldn't walk, sit down, stand up, change positions in bed... everything hurt to the point where I was in tears. I thought something was wrong- but I knew it wasn't labor because the pain was constant. To try and make a long story short, we ended up going to the ER twice- the first time I was only checked out by Labor & Delivery to make sure that I wasn't in labor and that I didn't have any infections... I was sent home and told to return if the pain persisted. The next day it was much worse, so 32 hours later we went back, they did a quick check in L & D again- but then took me back down to the actual ER to try and figure out what was causing all the pain. Six hours, an ultrasound, and a few IVs of really good stuff later they were able to determine that they baby had positioned himself head down, and had already dropped lower into my pelvic region in preparation for delivery. This is something that doesn't typically happen in a first pregnancy until about 36 weeks- but with mine in happened early and my body just wasn't prepared, which caused a great deal of pain. I told my husband I would not be doing this whole pregnancy thing again and that if our child was not be an only child all of his siblings would need to be adopted. I just don't understand HOW people who have had hard pregnancies go through it more than once. Three days later my body had adjusted and now I am feeling a lot better, but as bad as that hurt I don't even want to know what labor is going to be like. I am so thankful for epidurals and whoever discovered them- because I am counting on one to get me through the whole giving birth thing. Anyways, I think I can reconsider the "I'll never bear another child" decision when the time is right. But with all that drama, I kind of decided that maybe I want to think about getting a doctor up here and delivering locally, so now that is in the works- although I still have to travel to Orange County next week for my 32 week check-up!

Our one year anniversary is in less than two weeks! I can't believe its already been a whole year, it really doesn't feel like it. I'm gonna take this opportunity to say how much I love my husband and how thankful I am to have him in my life. Not only is he there for me day in and day out, but he was especially a trooper throughout the whole ER experience. After a very long day at work he stayed by my side for 6 hours straight (until 4:ooam) and refused to go out and get some rest in the car, even though I could tell he was exhausted! They just had a little (very uncomfortable looking) chair for him to sit in, while I got to rest with some really nice meds. Sean, THANK YOU for ALWAYS being there for me and taking such great care of me- I Love You!

For our anniversary, Sean and I were going to try to go on one of those weekend cruises down to Mexico, but apparently you can't get on a boat when your more than 24 weeks. You can fly until the last month, but cruise lines have this whole pregnancy discrimination thing going on... okay I know its not really discrimination- but it kind of sucks because like how many people actually go into labor at 24 weeks? I know it happens, but in most cases the doctors know ahead of time if you are at risk or not. But, I guess they just don't have the right medical equipment & staff on board to be okay just in case. So I was okay with it in the end, until I found out babies are FULL price. If I want to take my 6 month old child with me, (same size room, same size meals... since he's being fed from me) they would charge a full price fare! Because they have "entertainment for all ages" which is a load of dirty diaper if you ask me! How are they gonna keep my 6 month old entertained.. I'll have to pay EXTRA for an on board babysitter, so unless grandma & grandpa want some serious baby time I don't think we'll be going on any cruises anytime soon. We did however decide that we still want to do something special for our anniversary, and that we need one last little getaway before the baby is here. So we are going to take a trip to the Bay Area and spend a couple of days in San Francisco! It's not the cruise I was hoping for, but its still a vacation with my husband to celebrate our anniversary and savor some of our last moments as a twosome.

Well, there you have it! I actually blogged... now I'm off to my aqua aerobics class! 9 more weeks to go...

Ultrasound - 24 Weeks!

2008-04-07T09:12:00.000-07:00

Here are the pics from our latest ultrasound!

I don't think he liked having his picture taken very much!

Thumb Sucker!

Profile Shot

Another one... this time you can see his little hand coming up to his mouth.

It's a BOY!

That's no umbilical cord!

Better Late than Never!

2008-03-10T21:03:00.000-07:00

... As promised, an update of our 20 week appointment and the most recent ultrasound pics! I'll keep this short and sweet. Sean finally got to meet our doctor, we took a half day off work so we could both attend the ultrasound and doctors appointment together. The ultrasound went well, and if you read my previous post they are still saying BOY, but also still not completely sure. They didn't find any obvious defects or anything they were concerned about so that was good news, that at this point we are expecting a healthy little one! Either way we don't believe in terminating the pregnancy regardless of what was or was not shown, and we are extremely happy to be parents of this child even if it turns out that he is not perfect in the eyes of the world. I got some really bad news at the doctor's office- I gained my first pregnancy pound! ... just one. I was excited to have made it through the first 20 weeks without gaining weight, and the doctor is happy with what I've been able to lose. If I'm successful with only putting on 15 lbs from here on out I will give birth at my pre-pregnancy weight! Other than that everything is going great still.. they are watching my blood pressure and blood sugar closely and everything is right on track where I am suppose to be. It's nice to see my doctor so pleased with my progress. Please be praying that I continue to have a healthy pregnancy! We have a lot going on right now, more of which I can explain after the next appointment and I'm hoping the stress of it all doesn't adversely effect the Baby.

Where's the Baby?

2008-03-08T15:44:00.000-08:00

I thought this was too adorable not to post! This was shot last weekend while we were visting Sean's family. The little girl is our 16 month old niece, Eliann!

It's STILL a BOY!

2008-03-01T22:36:00.000-08:00

Well.. its still not 100% official, but the results of our 20 week ultrasound confirmed the result of our scan at 16 weeks. They said "don't paint the room blue just yet". But they are pretty sure. We had this one done at the doctors office as opposed to last time at a studio. We didn't tell them what the people at the studio thought, because we wanted an unbiased opinion. We'll have another scan at 24 weeks to try one more time. I was measuring a little small, they said I could possibly be a week behind. But the doctor said there is also a ten day margin of error in the size so for now he is going from the date of my LMP, and the due date is staying the same- July 19th. We did get some better ultrasound pics, but I have to get down to Kinko's to get them scanned and uploaded so I can post them. I will post a more updated blog soon with details from the doctors appointment!

So far we have narrowed down our favorite BOY names to the top seven! We are still having a really hard time deciding on one. Thankfully we do have some time, but for now we'd love your help. There is a poll here to the left with our faves- please vote!!! I didn't include middle names, because we aren't sure on those yet either. We want that to be something meaningful and right now our first choice is Lawrence (after my Dad), we have a back-up of Ames picked out (after my sister) in case the first name we choose doesn't sound good with Lawrence. We have a few others but for now thats what we're going with.

After you vote, leave us a comment with what middle name sounds best with the names you choose! Thanks... :)

It's a Boy!

2008-02-06T22:00:00.001-08:00

UNOFFICALLY, "It's a Boy!" Today we went for our first ultrasound. This was not done at my doctors office, rather a retail ultrasound studio that lets you take a peek at your bundle of joy. The goal was a gender reading, but because the baby is still so small it was hard for them to get a clear image of with the 3D/4D. We ended up being able to see so much more with the 2D. It was the most amazing experience! Especially when we got to see the profile shots and a clear view of the head, and body... I even saw a little hand waving at us at one point. I am disappointed that we didn't get any snapshots of the profile, because it was really neat. We just ended up with the two you see above. The baby was very active, which also made it difficult for her to get a good shot of the goods- because everytime she thought she had one "he" would move. We are not completly conviced that it's a boy yet, for anyone who knows about our neice- we have good reason to doubt the results. My sister and my aunt were present for the scan, and they were both pretty convinced and sure that they "saw something"... it's just hard to say if that "something" was the goods or an umbilical cord. The ultrasound technician seemed to be "pretty sure" and it was her best educated guess. Either way we are excited we are just disappointed that its not more clear. We have another ultrasound scheduled for February 29th for my appointment at 20 weeks. The baby will double in size by that time so it should be easier for them to get a better reading. So for now, It's a Boy... but who knows? That could change- and hopefully we'll know for sure real soon!

As far as my appointment at 16 weeks- it went great! The doctor was extremely happy with my progress, and said that I was doing great. I've lost about a total of 15lbs since learning of the pregnancy, and they are very happy with that as long as I continue to lose in a way that is healthy. The goal is that through the 2nd & 3rd trimester I can keep the weight gain to a maximum of 15lbs which would mean getting through the pregnancy without actually gaining any weight from where I started. The most exciting moment at my doctors appointment was that for the very first time I got to hear the baby's little heartbeat. It made me cry... happy tears of course. It just made everything very real!

Test Results!

2008-01-14T18:09:00.000-08:00

So I finally got a call from the Dr's office today, and we got the good news. Sean is NOT a carrier of the cystic fibrosis gene! This means that there is no risk the baby- as far as cystic fibrosis goes. It's a big relief- so thank you all for your prayers. Unless something comes up between now and then, my next appointment is not until February 5th- so it will probably be a few weeks before you hear from us again!

Thirteen Weeks

2008-01-12T20:55:00.000-08:00

Today we hit the thirteen week milestone. This is the last week of the first trimester, and according to the doctor I may be getting some of my energy back soon! This post brings both good news and some could be bad news. The good news is that I had my doctor's appointment on Monday. The doctor was extremely happy with all the results of my blood work (with the exception of one test which I will mention later). He said everything that should be positive, was positive. And everything that should have been negative, was negative. And all my counts, and levels were great! In addition to that he was happy that I was able to lose ten pounds over the previous four weeks. He has given me the go ahead to try and lose weight through my pregnancy as long as I do it by eating right and exercise (no sketchy fad diets, anorexia, bulimia, or diet pills). I've had a really hard time getting enough protein, because I seem to have a slight aversion to meat. There are times when I am able to tolerate it, so I try as much as I can to get what I need (and what the baby needs). But mostly I have been craving fruits & veggies... so it's pretty been my Subway "Veggie Delite" sandwich, yogurt, and fruit smoothies. I find myself getting full very quickly, which is kind of nice except that I become hungry more often. I feel like this pregnancy is training my body to eat smaller, healthier more frequent meals. I know that kinds of eating schedule will be good for a long term weight loss attempt after delivery.

The news that could potentially be bad is that the one thing that came back on my blood work is that I am whats called a "symptomless carrier" of the cystic fibrosis gene. For caucasians, one in twenty-nine carry this gene. In order for there to be any danger to the baby, both parents have to be a carrier of the gene. The odds of Sean having that gene is only about three percent, but it still is something that worries me. Sean had his blood drawn last week, and we should have his results back on Monday- so please pray that it comes back okay. If he does have the gene, there would be a twenty-five percent chance that the baby could have the actual disease. There is no known cure for cystic fibrosis. The average life span of someone with cystic fibrosis is only thirty-one years! Not to mention that those thirty-one years can be filled with a lot of pain and suffering for the child and many expensive medical bills for the parents. They usually recommend amniocentesis in cases where both patients have tested positive as a carrier of the gene, because they can determine if the child will have cystic fibrosis and then the parents can either prepare themselves or choose to terminate the pregnancy. Sean and I have decided against amniocentesis, because it increases the risk of a miscarriage- and we do not believe in terminating the pregnancy regardless of any problems with the baby. We are hoping and praying that his test will come back negative and that we have nothing to worry about, but it can be scary to think about.

We are told we should be able to hear the heartbeat at the next doctors appointment, when I am at sixteen weeks. And one week after that, we have an appointment scheduled at a 3D ultrasound studio to determine the gender of our baby! Using that type of ultrasound, they can usually tell at sixteen weeks so we should be able to find out! I will keep you all posted...

Precious Feet

2007-12-21T09:25:00.000-08:00

Above is an enlarged photo of the "Precious Feet" lapel pin. These little feet represent the exact size and shape of baby's feet just ten weeks after conception. While they are known as an international "pro-life" symbol, they are also special to me this week as we are hitting week ten tomorrow! It is amazing to me to read about what develops each week. It is so fascinating and kind of overwhelming to think that a little life is being formed inside my womb.

I know its been quite a while since I have posted an update! Life around the holidays is always busy! I have not really suffered much and for the most part I feel pretty good! The worst pregnancy symptom I get to deal with so far is exhaustion, leaving me little motivation or energy to blog. I have found myself going to bed frequently around nine, which kinda drives me crazy. But I'd rather be tired than sick & tired. I am so thankful that I haven't been throwing up everyday! I know I am one of the lucky few to be feeling okay. There are few things that do make me queasy, a lot of foods I have no desire to eat. But so far, so good!

I found a great doctor in Laguna Hills, who delivers at Saddleback Memorial Hospital which is a very nice hospital and very close to our home. I was thrilled when I met my doctor, and I knew right away he was the one I wanted to deliver our baby. My first appointment went well, and he said so far everything looks good. I go back on January 7th, where hopefully we will get to hear the heart beat! I was really worried about possible pregnancy complications due to my weight, but the doctor didn't seem to be too concerned. He said right now the biggest draw back is we may have to wait a few extra weeks before he will be to hear the heartbeat. But he assured me that I am in good health and that he has many women who are in my same situation get through a healthy pregnancy without complication, and at this point there is nothing to worry about!

I realized I never posted an update as to my parents reaction, but yes the cat is out of the bag and you don't have to keep it a secret anymore. For the most part I would say they were pretty happy with the news! My mother was not thrilled about the possibility of being called "grandma", because she thinks she is too young to be a grandma. She's not! She just looks to young, that's all! She immediately suggested that we need to find a younger sounding alternative name to call her... so she will probably be going by Nana. I was hoping to have my camera ready when I gave out the onesies, but the battery died just prior. It was very late at night and it was just before Chanel's adoption party so no one got it right away. They all thought it had to do with welcoming a new family member but they had a hard time processing words like "Grandma", "Grandpa", and "Uncle". It was pretty funny, but I was surprised it took them all a few minutes to get it.

My next update will most likely take place after the new year (after my next doctors visit). We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Telling the Parents...

2007-11-24T15:09:00.000-08:00

We were able to get in to see a doctor on Friday, and he confirmed it! We are expecting. I am feeling such a huge rush of all different emotions. We are excited, but I've never been more nervous in my life, especially about telling the parents! We have decided to break the news to them in one week from today. We are going to be in Atascadero for Chanel's adoption party. I wanted to come up with a creative way to tell them, so I went to target today to buy some onesies. I also went to a craft store and bought some puff paint. I just spent half the afternoon painting them to say: "I <3 My Grandma", "Grandpa <3's Me", "Uncle's Monkey", and "Auntie Spoils Me". I also bought a little long sleeved t-shirt for Chanel that says "Auntie in Training". We are going to wrap them up and have them all open them at the same time on Saturday morning. I will try to have my camera ready to catch the reaction! Until then it's still hush-hush on the big news!

Thanksgiving Surprise!

2007-11-22T20:12:00.001-08:00

This morning I woke up feeling a bit of nausea, and then I realized I was almost two weeks late. I had also seemed to be unusually emotional the past few days, crying over the most stupid things. But I had taken the test once already, about a week ago because I was late and it came up negative. So to ease my mind I decided to take the other test in the package, and much to my surprise it was positive! Before that I thought I may be cursed with the stomach flu on Thanksgiving... WOW! I don't even know what to think. I am happy and excited because I can't wait to be a mommy, but at the same time I am so incredibly scared and nervous about what is to come. This was not exactly planned or expected right now and we have quite a bit to plan for. Thank God pregnancies take nine months, it will give us time to prepare! I'm sure I won't be saying that in nine months when I am about to pop, but for now it sounds good. Please keep us in your prayers as we embark on this journey, that this will be a healthy pregnancy. We also need to find a good OBGYN! I thought this would be the perfect occasion for a first blog... so until next time.