26 weeks

We are in the double digits on the baby countdown! Only 98 days (more or less) until we meet our little man!

I had a doctors appointment a couple of days ago and everything looks great! We heard his nice strong heartbeat and were told he is measuring just right. I seriously can't believe how great this pregnancy is. I love being pregnant! It is so nice not having to worry about belly fat rolling over the top of jeans.

I've been comparing my blog posts from my pregnancy with Aubri. By this gestation with Aubri I said I felt like and old lady at the end of the day and my back and hip pain was unbearable most days. This time I honestly don't feel weighted down at all with this baby yet, and haven't had a hint of back pain since the first month. It must be that I still weigh significantly less than with Aubri- in fact only 3 pounds more than I was at the start of my last pregnancy. My total weight gain at this point is about 15 pounds. I gained 10 pounds though in the last 7 weeks, but my midwife was not the least concerned.

The last couple of weeks have been fun as the kicks are getting stronger. I can watch my stomach jump around as he kicks inside, and occasionally I'm already starting to feel a foot or hand under the side of my ribs.

Aubri loves to yell into my stomach and says "Wake up little brother! Kick me little brother!" At night or nap time she insists on lifting my shirt to kiss him goodnight. If you ask her what his name is she says "Guke" (Luke) , and if you ask what is the other name he might be, she says "Egwa" (Ezra).

The other day she came into the room as I was sorting some hand-me- down clothes for the little guy, and she said "Mama what you buy little brother?" She ran to the clothes and said "So pretty! Awww cute!" as she looked through the things. She doesn't seem to have any jealousy yet and she always points out boy things at the store and tells me "Buy for little brother please." She cracks me up!

(We haven't been so good taking the weekly pictures! We missed weeks 23 and 24 because of Thanksgiving, and then missed week 26. This is the picture from week 25)

Fall Fun

I just uploaded our camera with pictures from the last 8 weeks! Thought I would catch us up to speed on what has been happening around our house this fall season.

Aurbi had her first cup of hot cocoa. She loved the whipped cream most of all!

Jose taught Aubri how to make a fort while I was gone one evening. She loved it! Excuse her messy hair, that is what happens when she is running and rolling around!

The nights have been chilly!! We've taken a few evening walks and this is how Aubri gets bundled up to ride in her stroller.

Aubri and I made crafts together for the first time. She LOOOVED it. At first she didn't appreciate the paint on her hands for our handprint turkeys, but soon got in to it. She could have colored and glued all afternoon.

She was excited to show off her works of art. A couple of minutes after this picture was a completely different scene. It involved her kicking and screaming on the floor asking for "MOOORE CRAFTS!!!! NO NAP!!"

Since our first arts and craft experience was an overall success, we've been doing it weekly. Our next project was what we called our "craft/treat". I showed her acorns online and we read about them growing on trees (don't really have any acorn trees available to me) and squirrels eating them, then made our own acorn treats.

Anytime I make anything involving food, she insists on wearing her apron and sitting on the counter. She will sit and "bake with mommy" all day if she could. She was a great help unwrapping the candies and sticking the parts together. However every time I looked she was cramming the candy in her mouth in true chipmunk fashion.

Our finished product. Super simple, but super tasty!

Our latest craft was pom pom snowmen. She wanted to make one for herself and her two grandma's. They all look a little hunched back because she wasn't as concerned as I was for perfection. I think the one at our house is actually flashing gang signs at me as he cocks his head to the left.

And finally, possibly the best 24 hours I've had in a long time! A little getaway with my love! We celebrated our 4th anniversary with a night stay at Avila La Fonda (where we stayed our wedding night).


We could not believe the amazing weather! We walked up and down the beach in shorts enjoying the heat.

This hotel is our favorite ever. They offer so many fun little treats (we took advantage of it all!). Happy hour hors d'ouvers and appetizers, and late night dessert.


Isn't he cute?? We were excited and surprised they upgraded us, and we got the same room we had on our wedding night. I don't think we will wait 4 years to visit again! I'm already thinking V-day might need to include a stay here!

23 weeks

Grr....just finished this post and lost it all. So in a much more abbreviated form then the original:

*No weight gain this week! A true miracle when I think of all the times we ate out and the holiday food sampling!

*Twice this week people were vocal about commenting on me being pregnant! The first was the lady at the jewelry store. She asked how much longer I had. I didn't know what she meant and she said she was asking about the pregnancy. She said it has been fun to see our family grow over the past 4 years- she sold Jose my engagement ring! At church a couple of young guys pulled Jose aside to ask if I was pregnant. Apparently the missed the announcement and my sweater dress showed off the bump. I told Jose he missed a perfect chance to mess with the guys and tell them I wasn't pregnant!

*We did our baby registry! I forgot how much fun it was to scan that little gun. It was nice to see that we don't need much! And we have a much better understanding of what is really important.

*Our crib bedskirt arrived! We ordered it to start buying accessories and painting!

*I cleaned out my closet of the too-snug clothes and was left with a pretty bare selection....so the maternity clothes have made it at least out of storage and are ready to start being worn.

*I've been feeling this little guy kick stronger in the night and when I wake up. I love feeling him move. It still amazes me how I can love him so much without having met him! I almost got a little emotional when Jose and I were talking about the Chargers crummy season. I mentioned how next year will be better because Jose and the Little Man will be watching football together, and picturing that was so surreal! So crazy to imagine our lives with another little person to love!

22 weeks

Add another 2 pounds to the charts! I've now gained 10 pounds, but am still 2 pounds less than I was at the start of my pregnancy with Aubri. Still wearing normal clothes (though have added a couple of hand me down maternity shirts in the mix), haven't unpacked my own maternity clothes from the bin in the garage, and today I am still wearing one of my smallest jeans (with a rubber band around the button and unzipped...shhhh).

After browsing a few fabric stores, Jose and I picked out some fabric for the baby's room. But then I started stressing about how much it would cost to pay someone to make it. We were back to square one until I found a simple bedding set on target.com. Of course before I could settle on it, I had to ask Jose his opinion a few times, check out several more stores online, and checked out fabric one last time. We ordered one of the pieces today so we can check it out in person and start finding paint colors and accessories. Whew! What a relief!

And as far as decisions go...I think we are close to settling on a name. We've gone back and forth but it is looking like this little guy will be Ezra Joseph! Luke is still an option though, but the more Jose and I read the book of Ezra in the Bible, the more we admire this un-sung hero.

Other 22 week updates- Aubri has discovered the art of tantruming. Running, screaming, throwing herself to the floor and kicking....yup at least once a day. The first huge fiasco was after a fun outing with her best bud Ella. She was tired, but not ready to call it an end to the playdate. What a scene. I had no idea last Wednesday we'd see more of those. We are still figuring out how to parent these situations.

Lest you think my daughter is all brat, let me tell you about the good things:
*This week also marks the transition to her "big girl bed". We've taken the side off and lowered the mattress of her crib making it a toddler bed. She seems to like it and has adjusted well (since the addition of the bed rail to avoid another night like the first involving several falls out of bed). In a couple of months we will switch her to a queen sized bed and move the crib to Ezra's (Luke's??) new room.
*The past month she has learned to sing her ABC's all the way through. It is one of her favorite songs (trailing behind Happy Birthday and Elmo's Song).
*We continue to improve on potty training despite our doctors lecture that she is too young.
*She counts to 10, and knows every other number to 20
*She counts to 3 in Spanish, and with help up to 10 (her Spanish numbers are much more clear than English!)
*She has spent the night at Nana and Papa's a couple of times and loves it!
*She is ready for Christmas! She keeps talking about "See Santa, sit in lap, say cheese, get baby candy." Let's see if she actually does that when she sees the big man in person!

Side note: I bought the Elf on the Shelf! Aubri may be too young, but we are going to give it a try. Anyone have any fun tips??

19, 20, and 21 weeks

At 19 weeks. Aubri insisted we take a picture to track her growth too!

I have been slacking on the weekly updates! Since this pregnancy is going so well there is little change week to week. I have gained a few more pounds, and I have worn 2 maternity sweaters (mostly out of necessity because it is so stinking cold and they were all I had, and one is a hand me down from a very, very petite friend!). The little man is squirming and kicking more and more, and he must be growing because the belly is getting bigger! A combination of the stretching belly skin and a reaction to the lotion I was using caused some seriously dry and itchy skin- which has since gone away!

I'm a little overwhelmed with how much pink we have...and how very little blue we have! I haven't found any bedding that I love, so I'm hoping we can get creative with fabrics and find some colors or themes we like for a nursery. I don't even know where to start! I don't want to do the whole "room in a box" again,and would like something more unique. Right now it all seems overwhelming because instead of starting with an empty room (like Aubri's had been), I have to figure out what to do with all the furniture and storage we have in the closet. Aubri will be getting the queen guest bed, but even that can't happen right away because I know my finicky little sleeper won't do well with a sudden change.

20 weeks
A cute story that happened a couple of days ago at church...
Aubri was in Sunday School/nursery and was reading a book with the kids and her teacher. The book had a picture of little kids, and the teacher asked them "Where is the little boy?" expecting them to point. Aubri looked at her and said "In mama's belly!"

21 weeks

October 31st

You may remember me saying that traditionally Halloween is not a holiday I look forward to or particularly enjoy. Last year having a kid to dress up made me recant a bit, but this year I absolutely LOVED the day!! It probably has something to do with the fact that we started our day off with our ultrasound!

Aubri was happy to put on her strawberry costume (something she had been refusing to try on until we got our favorite neighbor kids to convince her the day before) and kept telling us she was going to say "tick-o-tweet!"

We headed to San Luis Obispo, had a great visit with our midwife, and headed over to the ultrasound center. I have a confession to make. The entire pregnancy I'd been saying I didn't care what we were having. That is mostly true, but I did have a period where practicality was winning out and I preferred a girl. Well something changed in the couple of days leading up to our ultrasound, and I found myself lying on the bed praying "Please God let it be a boy!"

We had probably the boring-est ultrasound techs in the planet who barely uttered 10 words to us. When she finally turned the screen so I could see she quickly scanned the body. Thankfully I seem to have a skill at looking at ultrasounds (the one thing I had going for me when I wanted to be an OBGYN) and I was able to point out what we were looking at. Our sweet baby was waving to us, curling his little fingers and shaking his hand! When she asked if we wanted to know what we were having, we of course said yes. When she zeroed in on the private area she didn't have to tell me the sex, it was pretty obvious!

After our appointments we enjoyed a little bit of time in SLO then came home to get ready for our "Little Pumpkin Reveal Party!"

That evening most our family and a few friends came over for the big announcement. We had everyone make a guess of what they thought the baby would be (pictures didn't come out too well!)

Jose had carved a pumpkin that said "Boy or Girl" and we had hidden the answer inside. Aubri has some homemade flash cards she has memorized, and we had stuck the boy card inside. We had Aubri pull it out and asked everyone to quiet down so she could read it aloud. She said "Boy!" perfectly and everyone cheered. Poor thing was a little surprised at the response and was pretty stunned (Now she brings that card to me, reads "boy" and says, "Mama clap! Everybody clapped!").

We had a fun time eating lots of food, and took Aubri trick or treating to a couple of houses. She loved handing out candy to the hundreds (yes, hundreds) of trick or treaters who came to our door, but I had to post a sign asking people to take off their scary masks because Aubri and her cousin kept getting scared.

It was such an exciting day,and it was really special to see how many people were just as excited for our little guy (yet to be named!) as we are!

It's a...

BOY! We couldn't be happier. We got a great shot of the goods, and got to see our little man wave and kick around!

It has been a crazy couple of days, but I'm hoping to post pictures soon of all the fun festivities.