well that was unexpected, part two

So where was I?  Oh yeah, collecting my pee.

So the next day was Friday and we had signed Emma up for a Sibling Preparation Class at the hospital.  It's just a little class for kids where they watch a video about babies and learn how to hold babies and change their diapers.  Then they color a picture for the baby.  It was really cute.  We dropped off the lovely jug of pee and headed home.

Things were going peachy.  With the blood pressure thing I'm supposed to check once a day, preferably in the morning.  But I'm a curious creature so around 10 o'clock Friday night I checked my blood pressure again just to see where I was at.  I was at 160/101.  Just to give you an idea, normal readings should be below 120/80.  I called the perinatal nurse and they said COME IN NOW.

So for the second time in a week we were off to labor & delivery.  We called my parents and they met us there so they could take Emma home with them and let her get some sleep.  We fully expected just to be sent home in a few hours because when we were in the day before the doctors talked about how even though at 37 weeks the baby is considered full term they still prefer not to deliver if it's not necessary.

To rule out pre-eclampsia they take another urine sample and a blood sample to check for proteins.  From what I understand the placenta is releasing these proteins that can cause damage to your liver and kidneys.  Pre-eclampsia is the beginning stages, eclampsia can result in seizures and the only cure for it is to deliver the placenta.  Generally, eclampsia can occur from 32 weeks on.  The bright side for us was that I was at 37 weeks.  Olivia had a much better chance if we had to deliver right then.

When the results came back they determined that my protein levels were climbing and they would need to deliver the baby.  So deliver her we did.  She was born at 6:23 in the morning and she was sooooooo tiny.  More than 2 pounds and 2 inches smaller than Emma was!  The c-section was much more relaxed and a lot less painful than the first one I had.  Because there wasn't a time issue they took things much slower to make sure everything went very smoothly.  They went over the previous section scar and looking at it now it actually looks better than it did before!  Everyone, nurses, the doctors & anesthesiologist were so nice and personable.  It was a completely different experience.  I was scared going in, but I didn't feel a thing this time and that was awesome.

Because of the pre-eclampsia I had to take magnesium sulfate for 24 hours after delivery.  That meant I had to stay in bed for those 24 hours.  Not really a bad deal, right?

But Olivia is perfect.  Teeny tiny, but perfect.  She had a little bit of jaundice, but that worked itself out and now she's just trying to pack on some weight.  It's surreal to have her here and at the same time pass by the calendar to see this:

Not that I'm complaining that she's here!  I'm enjoying every minute with her, especially knowing this is the last time we'll have a baby in the house.  And we're lucky so far, she only wakes up around 4 or 5 in the morning, eats and then goes back to sleep...we'll see how long that lasts!  Emma started sleeping through the night at 2 weeks.  I don't think we'll be that lucky again, but it's okay.

For now we're just enjoying this.

well that was unexpected

It's crazy to say since I now have two little girls, but I don't think this body was built for having babies!

My pregnancy and delivery with Emma was difficult.  The pregnancy was hard, but I chalked it up to being the first time and going from 86 pounds to 166 pounds.  My body was not happy stretching out and making room for the baby.  Mostly my rib cage disliked me.  The delivery was difficult because they really wanted me to deliver naturally and Emma just wasn't going to come out that way.  She hung out in the birth canal for a few days, they broke my water and gave me an infection.  Finally, they decided she had to come out via c-section and because I had the epidural in for so many days during the surgery I started regaining feeling very quickly and they ended up just knocking me out.  I got to see her quickly before they did that.  I was pretty worn out and I still had the infection, but once she was out and all that stress was finished things weren't so bad.

This time I'm five years older and let me tell you, that does make a difference.  I started out not being able to stomach eating any kinds of food at all.  I gained barely any weight for about half the pregnancy, but so far nothing too bad.  Then I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes and that sucked.  It's not the end of the world and it ended up not being all that bad, but it was definitely disappointing.  I got used to poking my fingers and checking my blood glucose levels and I stayed well within my limits.  It bummed me out not being able to pig out on ice cream or Reese's Fast Break bars, but I guess that was probably for the best!

I was worried about the baby getting too big, but our ultrasound we had on the 4th showed she was just right and the tech estimated she weighed around 6 pounds, 11 ounces.  Then two days later on the 6th I woke up really early in the morning with contractions.  I didn't really think they were anything, but they were pretty strong and pretty regular.  Then they were about 2 minutes apart so I figured it was time to wake up Ray and call in to Labor & Delivery.  They wanted me to come in.

So we woke up our friends (thank you JeNae!) and dropped Emma off at their house and our other friends (thanks Kim!) volunteered to pick her up and keep her until we got home or my sister came to get her.  We headed over to the hospital and they determined that I am a wuss when it comes to contractions.  Yes, I was having them.  No, they weren't very strong and were doing nothing in terms of getting me ready for delivery.  However, my blood pressure was ridiculously high so they wanted me to hang out until it went down.

It didn't go down so they sent me home with a blood pressure monitor and instructions on HOW TO COLLECT MY PEE for 24 hours.  Yes, you read that right.  Sounds fun, right?  It wasn't.  Grossed me out.  But they wanted to test to see if I was developing pre-eclampsia.

But before we could find that out...I'll get back to you on that tomorrow!

i guess early is better than later!

The pregnancy ticker at the top of the page says 'about 12 days to go'.  Not quite accurate anymore since Olivia arrived a week ago today!

Yep, you read that right!  Olivia Francisca Yukie Ramirez was delivered via c-section on October 8, 2011 at 6:23 a.m.  She weighed in at 5 pounds, 11 ounces and 19 inches long.  Tall, but teeny tiny!

She is super amazing and we love her tons!  It's been a crazy pregnancy but having her here sweet and healthy is well worth it.

I've restarted my 365 Project.  I'll be doing two, a picture of Emma everyday and a picture of Olivia everyday.  I've added tabs at the top of the page where you can see both projects.

In the meantime, I'm going to get some sleep!  I'll tell you the whole story soon!

right on track

Today was the big day.  Well, the second to biggest day.  Nope, no baby yet, but we did get confirmation that we're right on track.

To explain gestational diabetes ... your pancreas isn't producing enough insulin the body can't deal with the sugar as quickly as it normally would.  Just like regular diabetes only with gestational diabetes there is a good chance that your pancreas will kick back into gear and everything will settle back into place after the baby is born.  One of the side effects is that you're sending the excess sugars to the baby and they begin to do what any body normally does and store that sugar in little pockets of baby fat.  Some baby fat is good, but too much is baaad.  Women with gestational diabetes run the risk of having a baby that is just too big to carry and around week 36 they'll undergo another ultrasound to measure the baby's tummy and head to see where she's at.

My numbers have been really good so I wasn't too worried.  Plus, I haven't gained too much weight these last few weeks so I didn't think she was getting too big, but things aren't always what they seem, right?  Some people would rather I have the baby now than her due date, but this baby's got enough going against her.  She has the higher risk of developing diabetes.  Already, she's a risk, as is Emma since Ray's side of the family has a lot of diabetes history, but now she's got a greater risk because I have g.d.  She has a higher risk of childhood obesity and a myriad of other things all because I have diabetes.  So, I'd like to make sure she cooks in there are long as she possibly needs to.  I'd like her to have perfectly healthy lungs and anything else that still needs simmering.

Plus, Ray's work schedule is really delicate right now.  He's on a couple of new accounts and things need to be scheduled.  Things like paternity leave.  My mom is taking two weeks off to help out as well so going to the due date is helpful to all of us.  Except my sister who is very impatient.  Very.

So they measured and checked and even though she was not being very cooperative by keeping her arm over her little face the technician was able to get all the measurements and she's perfectly on track for an October 26th arrival!  Right now she weighs 6 pounds, 11 ounces and they predict she'll be close to 8 pounds at birth.

They'll continue to monitor over the last few weeks, but unless I go into labor early we'll see Ramirez baby #2 on the 26th!  Just a few more weeks to go!  Yikes!

whaaaaaaaaat???

I realized the other day that being a stay at home mom sometimes blows for little reasons.  Like, not going out to lunch with friends/co-workers to a place that isn't kid friendly.  Or maybe having drinks after work at a bar that definitely isn't kid friendly.  But those really aren't important things and granted, if I wanted to I could go meet some friends for drinks one night and now that Emma is in school I could dart over to meet them for lunch at a non-kid establishment.

This time, being pregnant I realized with the utmost clarity yesterday that I will not get maternity leave. 

Whaaaaat?? 

Every day I have something going on, whether it be appointments or getting Emma to school or a play date.  When I was pregnant with Emma I took one or two (I can't quite remember) weeks off before my due date because they paid me to and it was great.  I sat around the house since everything was ready and waiting for Emma to get here and watched TV.  I mostly watched A Baby Story on TLC until I started really getting freaked out.  That show is better watched AFTER baby arrives.

Well, she was 2.5 weeks late so my pre-birth maternity leave lasted almost a month and it was glorious (though uncomfortable).  My work environment was unpredictable and unhappy so to have that time away from all the drama and angst was wonderful.

I'm at the point in this pregnancy where it is incredibly uncomfortable to do most regular things.  Getting up off the sofa is actually painful and when the baby moves around, though I am always relieved she is moving, it hurts every time.  I would like to spend a day laying in bed on my side because honestly, that's the only time I am comfortable.  Until my arm falls asleep.  Then I roll over to my other side (which takes me about 3 minutes to do).

Though I realize how incredibly lucky I am to be able to stay at home with my kids there are times when I wish I could go back to that first pregnancy when everything was all about me.  How selfish does that sound?!?!  But I mean it more in the sense that I just had to worry about me.  What I was eating, what time I got out of bed, picking up dinner instead of making it ... all that stuff. 

So maybe a day goes like this:

• Get up & check my glucose
• Get Emma up and dressed, teeth brushed
• Fight her to get her to eat some breakfast
• Make her lunch
• Eat my breakfast
• Get on our bikes and head to school
• Come home & check glucose again
• Head out to a doctor's appointment
• Run some miscellaneous errands (library, Target, grocery store, etc.)
• Get some lunch
• Get on my bike and pick up the munchkin
• Check my glucose
• Get her home and either finish the lunch she didn't eat or get her a snack
• Get her working on her homework
• Make dinner

Once dinner is made there's a breather.  Then we eat, I try to clean up the kitchen as I cook so I don't have a mess on my hands.  I check my glucose one more time and space out my pills.  Force myself to eat that last snack of the day and take my last pill and go to sleep.

Granted, not every day is like this.  I only have doctor's appointments twice a week and usually Thursdays (today) I have little going on so I can sit here for hours while Emma's at school and do nothing important.  But still, if someone offered maternity leave I don't think I'd turn them down!

ten day challenge, day ten!

I did it!  It's day 10!  Woo Hoo!

Now if you missed the other nine days, never fear!  You can go back and read them here:

Day One - Ten Secrets

Day Two - Nine Loves

Day Three - Eight Fears

Day Four - Seven Wants

Day Five - Six Places

Day Six - Five Foods

Day Seven - Four Books

Day Eight - Three Movies

Day Nine - Two Songs

And today's?  One photo of yourself.  Ugh.

Since some friends who live out of town have been asking me to please post a picture of my giant belly all you lucky people get to see the monstrosity.

I think I should take a picture of it from my perspective.  I swear it photographs much smaller than it is in real life.

So that's all she wrote about that folks!  I finished my 10 Day Challenge.  Now what?  You ask?  I have no idea!

cheater

Have I ever mentioned that I love my OB?  Just in case you want to know of a good OB to go to at Kaiser Santa Clara and she's taking new patients you should get Dr. Catherine Berger.  She's awesome.

When I was preggo with Emma I had a male OB because I wasn't really picky and I needed to choose someone fast.  He was nice enough, but very distant, not easy to talk to and kind of dismissive of any concerns I had during my pregnancy.  He was also really old so I'm wondering if maybe he was just counting down the days until his retirement.

Anyhoo ... the doctor that delivered Emma was great.  Even though my delivery was a nightmare she (besides actually getting Emma) was the bright spot - well her and my anesthesiologist - of that experience.  She wasn't taking new patients officially but since I just had a baby and wouldn't be having another right away she took me on.  Unfortunately, she left Kaiser about a year after Emma was born.  Boooooo!

Finally I found Dr. Berger.  I chose her mostly because she was at Kaiser Santa Clara and I swore after my delivery experience at Santa Theresa I was never going to step foot in L&D there again.  Santa Clara is relatively brand new and that's where I was going to deliver next time.  She's been fantastic through all of my infertility stuff, any concerns I've had and she's super responsive.  I love her!

Well now with the diabetes I see a High Risk Pregnancy NP in addition to Dr. Berger.  She does almost the same things Dr. Berger does except she focuses more on how I'm coping with my diabetes.  She'll also do the ultrasound in October to determine if we have to deliver early.  I see her once every other week.  I see Dr. Berger once a month and then I have stress tests twice a week.

I also love my NP Castellanos.  She's a lot to take in at first, lots of personality, but dangit you know she's listening to you.  She's aggressive with her treatments, she doesn't want to take any chances and she doesn't want to do the 'let's wait and see' tactic because there's only so much time left.

Today she prescribed me with a stronger dose of acid reflux meds that she said will help a whole lot.  I'm ecstatic.  I can't wait to go to bed tonight because there is now a good possibility that I will sleep through the night!  Woo hoo!

Yet, I can't help but feel like I'm cheating on Dr. Berger!  She told me I could take 75mg twice a day.  Granted, I haven't had the chance to let her know that it wasn't working for me so she couldn't offer me an alternative yet and I'm sure she would have prescribed me the same 300mg that NP Castellanos.  Still I feel like a giant cheater! 

I'm sure she'll forgive me though!

i'm going to take this moment to bitch...a lot.

This week I have three doctor appointments.  By Friday I will have poked myself with a tiny, mean little needle 16 times from today.  Unless something is off then I'll have to do it more times.  To add to all the fun-ness that is this pregnancy I have pretty much constant acid reflux.  I didn't even really know what that was until now.  I guess that's fitting considering that I didn't know what heartburn was until I was pregnant with Emma.

When I was pregnant with Emma, near the end I started swelling like a balloon.  It was INSANE!  It lasted for about a week after she was born.  My brother-in-law and I were talking about it this weekend.  He said he just remembered how swollen I got and how he didn't think someone could get that swollen.  I told him I remembered him standing over my legs as they were propped up on the ottoman commenting on how nuts it looked.  I'm starting to get there again a bit.

And the leg cramps.  They started a couple of nights ago and I've had one every night since.  A friend of mine said if I took my calcium pills at night that would help so I've got to try that.  It's also a dehydration thing, but if I drink too much water before bed the acid reflux just loooooves that.

Saturday night I woke up around 3:00 a.m. thanks to my good pal acid reflux, but things just went downhill from there and I was actually throwing up in Ray's little office garbage can.  Why the garbage can, you ask?  Because I was also partaking in a little diarrhea removal.  Yes!  So fun!  I find that sitting in the shower when I feel like crap always helps so that's what I did.  Felt a little better when I got out and got into bed where I began shivering uncontrollably.  I could not get warm!  And I sleep with 7 blankets.

So what I've learned from all this is that I basically can't eat anything.  Not too much salt because it will make me swell.  Not too much sugar because things will go bad for the baby.  No tomatoes, lemon, vinegar, spicy, et al. because of the acid reflux.

But I know that the pay off is greater than all this.  That I signed up for this and wanted it (and still do) so badly.  That even though she's at the stage where she is seriously trying to cause great bodily damage to my internal organs with her little pointy elbows and feet it is all worth it. 

On the bright side, with the three appointments I think I only have to pee in a cup for one.  Yipee!!

and the fun keeps coming

Today I had my first appointment with the High Risk Pregnancy NP.  It was quite informative.  Quite.  Never in the time that we were trying to get pregnant or when I was pregnant with Emma did I think this would be something I would have to worry about.  I always kind of went with the idea that ‘that won’t happen to me’ and to be perfectly honest, in the grand scheme of things all of this is not really that bad.  Everything could always be worse…it’s just frustrating.

My blood sugar levels have been really good all day long, but during the night when your pancreas ups your hormones it’s too busy making crazy preggo hormones that it’s completely ignoring the fact that I need insulin.  I’m supposed to have a snack right before I go to bed to help keep my blood levels down then when I wake up in the morning I have to test my blood and those numbers should be relatively low.  Unfortunately, mine have not been consistent.  I haven’t been in the danger zone, but I have been close and then I’ll have a couple of days where everything’s fine and then it will spike up again.

And there is nothing I can do about it.  It isn’t something that can be fixed by changing my diet.  They’re all very quick to assure me that it’s nothing that I’m doing, it’s just my pancreas.  (In case you’re wondering, my pancreas and I?  We’re not friends right now)  So because I’m only got about 9 weeks left it’s time to take action before it gets too late.

Which means medication.  For the duration of my pregnancy I’ll be taking a very small dosage of a medicine that will stimulate my frenemy Pancreas to release more insulin.  Hopefully, this works.  If I don’t see any improvement they’ll up my dosage.  If there still isn’t any improvement I’ll have to start giving myself insulin injections every night.  BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!  Once I had to give myself one of my fertility injections because I forgot to bring it with me to the office.  It was NO FUN.  I thought I would take it to my mom (she’s an RN) and she’d do it for me, but she said no way.

But I’m optimistic that this medication will be fine.  The other complication is if this medication makes my pancreas release too much insulin.  Then they’ll just pull me off and stick me (literally) with insulin.  So we’re rooting for that not happening.

With all this fun stuff comes bi-weekly appointments for stress tests where they monitor the baby to see how she’s coping in there and at least one, but most likely two more ultrasounds to measure her belly.  If her belly gets too big at 36 weeks they’ll have to pull her out of there.  So we may have a September baby instead of October.

Like I said, I’m optimistic.  My blood sugar levels have been excellent after every meal and I’ve felt really good.  With Emma in school now I’ve been either walking or riding my bike to pick her up so my NP was very excited about all that exercise.  Hopefully, things will be just fine.

But for right now, me and my pancreas are gonna fight.

fun & sugar free?

This pregnancy has been quite different than my last.  Last time I gained 60 pounds.  At about this time in my pregnancy I was probably up by at least 40 pounds.  This time, going into my last 10 weeks I’ve gained 17 pounds.

Woohoo me!

This time the ‘morning sickness’ lasted much longer.  I’ve been more tired, sleep is harder to come by and the back aches and just all around body aches are killing me.  Then to top it all off I came in a few points (2, actually) high on my glucose test which grants me with the awesomeness that is gestational diabetes.

Woohoo me.

The glucose test is by far one of the most unfun things about pregnancy.  If you’ve never had it, let me tell you about it.  You go in sometime during the day, preferably before you’ve eaten anything.  You get to drink this sugary sweet drink either in orange flavor or lemon lime flavor.  Then you sit and wait around for an hour and then they draw blood to see what your glucose levels are.  If you’re lucky enough to pass that yipee!  If not, you have to go back for the dreaded three hour test.

This time you have to eat half a sandwich and a glass of milk around 10 p.m. the night before your test.  Then you have to make sure that you eat nothing for at least eight hours, but no more than 10.  You hightail it over to the lab and they draw blood to show your levels after fasting.  Then they give you the lovely drink (which really isn’t that bad.  Think flat orange soda) and you sit around for an hour and they draw your blood.  Then you sit around for another hour and draw your blood and then the whole thing repeats itself one more time.

I got to do both of these.  Then six months after the baby’s born I go back in to do a two hour test to see if the diabetes has stuck around.  See, with your body producing so many hormones while your pregnant sometimes your pancreas just can’t keep up and there goes your glucose levels.  Most often it lasts only the duration of the pregnancy, but for some it can become a permanent condition.

So I got this little gadget.

It’s my glucose meter.  It’s not really as fun of a gadget as say my camera or iPad, but it’s got parts and pieces and stabs me every few hours.  What could be more fun than that?

Today I had my appointment with a diabetes nurse and a dietician to go over how to use my meter and what kinds of meals I should be eating.  Not so fun, but not so bad either.  Today was my first day checking my blood.  I have to check in the morning before breakfast and then an hour after each meal.  All of my checks were well below the max levels so I’m a happy camper.  I didn’t do too much to change my diet today except for staying away from soda.  Go figure.  Biggest Loser was right!

Ray also sent me an app that lets me track my counts and the times I test so I don’t have to make sure I always have this booklet that they gave me.  Every Monday at a certain time a nurse will call me to get all my readings for the week, answer any questions and check on my kick counts for the baby.

So yeah, way different pregnancy this time.  But eh, what are you going to do?  This will force me not to become a giant blimp by the end of the pregnancy and eat better.  Maybe I’ll become one of those heath nut weirdos.  Well, I did discover sugar free Oreos today (they are AMAZING!) so that probably won’t really happen, but who know, right?

things i forgot about in the 5 years i wasn’t pregnant

• EVERYONE wants to touch my stomach.  I don’t mind my friends and family, but people I barely know … that’s just creepy.
• The backache, the boobache, the buttache, all the aches.  Seriously, why does my tailbone hurt no matter how much cushion I’m sitting on??
• My stomach literally feels like the heaviest thing in the world.
• Getting out of chairs is next to impossible.
• There is no such thing as a comfortable sleeping position.
• The novelty of pregnancy (for me) wears off pretty quickly.
• Sitting on the toilet is ridiculous.  I feel like I need a sling to pull my stomach up because straddling the toilet is just not an option.
• Riding a bike without possibly giving my baby shaken baby syndrome is also impossible.
• I’m pretty sure in about a month I will be unable to clip my toenails or shave my legs.
• I REALLY miss sushi.  And bloody rare steak.
• Because I can't eat it I miss hot dogs and lunch meat.  I don't really like those things when I'm not pregnant.

But really, now that I’m not feeling like puking after everything I eat I feel much better.  The heat’s started here … today was 97 degrees and it was slightly miserable, but we have air conditioning so I really can’t complain.  Ask me in a few more days though.

I love how excited Emma is, how she loves to hug my tummy, give it kisses and tell the baby how she loves her. 

Yesterday we were at my sister’s house for Father’s Day and my nephew pointed at my tummy and asked ‘What’s that?’  I said it was the baby in my tummy.  He asked if he could see it and I told him that he really couldn’t see anything because it’s inside Auntie’s tummy.  He insisted.  I lifted my shirt over my belly so he could see and he did look disappointed.  My tattoos were not interesting to him, he wanted to see a baby.  I reminded him that the baby was in Auntie’s tummy just like Chloe was in Mama’s tummy.  My sister was standing next to me holding Chloe (who’s a little over a year now) and Chloe looked around like, ‘what the heck is she talking about??’  I told Dominic he could touch my tummy where the baby was so he did.  He was slightly fascinated, slightly unimpressed.  Chloe also wanted to touch.  This morning my sister told me Dominic told her ‘Auntie let me feel the baby last week.  I think she’s going to hatch soon.’

And that, my bloggie friends is what makes this pregnancy so much more fun than the last one!

quite a trip

This week Ray had a conference in Burlingame as I’ve talked about here.  Originally, Emma and I were going to go with him for the week and hang out in the city, but I’ve gotten to the lovely point in the pregnancy where sleeping just sucks so I thought it would be better just to wait until the end of the week and stay one night.

The plan was to go to Emma’s Fun Fitness Class (she has that every Monday & Wednesday) at 3, pick up my Timptations box at 4 and head out to Burlingame.  But then I thought it would be fun to take the train out there instead.  We’re almost at the beginning of CalTrain.  There’s a stop or two south of us, but we’re really at the beginning of the line.  Which means that there’s only 3 trains that leave from Morgan Hill and only one that stops in Burlingame.  That train leaves at 6:45 a.m.

My lovely friend Kim picked up my Timptations box for me and we decided to skip the class so we could take the train.  Emma was super excited.  I packed the night before, ran the dishwasher and set my alarm for 5:30 a.m.

Unfortunately, I forgot to turn the volume up on my alarm so when it went off I didn’t hear it.  I woke up at 6 in a panic.  Luckily, we live 5 minutes from the station, but still I was sure we would miss the train.  I threw on my clothes (I had the foresight the night before to set out the clothes that Emma and I would wear on the train) and woke Emma up, threw her clothes at her and told her to get dressed.  She cried because she was 1) tired. 2) grumpy & 3) thought we would miss our train and she wouldn’t see Daddy.  I ran and threw our stuff in the car, came back and miraculously she was dressed and we ran out the door.

We made it to the station with 10 minutes to spare.

She’s so tired!

Emma directed us to the upstairs and she squirmed around excited to be on the train and on our way.  Until the train took off the second stop and she announced she had to use the restroom.  We still had about an hour before we got to Burlingame and there are no bathrooms on the train. 

At the San Jose station there’s a train that leaves just about every 15 minutes and using the fancy CalTrain app I had downloaded onto my phone the night before I was able to figure out we could get off in San Jose and get right back on to the next train and make it to Burlingame.  It worked out perfectly!

We get off the train at Burlingame and I check Google Maps to see which way we’re supposed to walk to get to the hotel and realize the stop we got off on is 1.1 miles further away than I had thought.  We had to walk 2 miles to the hotel.

Now that might not sound like that much to you, but imagine this:  think about a woman who is about 30 weeks pregnant.  I am only 21 weeks, but I am as big as if I were 10 weeks further along.  I had my backpack that has my laptop, iPad, 3 hardback books, 3 paperback books, miscellaneous other crap.  Then Emma had her backpack with her junk to do in it, her rolling suitcase and I also had a slightly large travel bag that had the rest of our junk in it.  Emma pulled her suitcase along and wore her backpack, but after the first 1/2 mile of the almost 2 miles we had to walk she just couldn’t carry the backpack anymore.  So I took that.

Trucking along.

We stopped every other block or so to rest.  Finally, after we made it about a mile Ray was able to come and pick us up so we didn’t have to do the overpass over the freeway.  That was the best car ride EVER!

We hung out in the room, got some breakfast and then went out to the pool.  Of course, I had to fall in the hot tub paying more attention to Emma than myself.  I was able to grab the pole by the stairs, but that caused me to wrench my arm.  That was fun.

For dinner we took Emma to Benihana’s.  She didn’t want to go.  She wanted to go to McDonald’s.  Our kid’s palate is quite refined, you know.  She ended up in awe of the whole thing.  She loved our chef.  His name was Hiro, just like my uncle so that was instantly exciting for her.  She thought Hiro was pretty cool.

She’s expressing her disbelief at something Ray has told her.

Now she’s completely engrossed in the cooking!

When we woke up this morning I discovered that it was very difficult to move my entire body.  Good stuff.  But totally worth it.  Ray and I have spent the night apart very few times since we’ve been together so anytime away is no fun.  I just feel odd and sad when he’s not here.  And Emma too.  She’s got to have her little family unit under one roof to feel happy.

So now we’re all back home and everything’s back to normal.  Except for my friend Kim!  She’s broke her foot in two places last night!  Let’s hope for a super speedy recovery.  Until then, Emma’s decided we can temporarily adopt Kim’s kids.  This should be a good time had by all!

surprisingly it looks smaller on film

2o weeks gone by now … we’re halfway there!  When I look down at my stomach I swear it’s 5 times bigger than it looks here.  Maybe because in this picture in comparison to the fridge it is much smaller?

Anyhoo …

We bought the first thing for the baby yesterday!

It’s soft and cuddly and it’s a monkey so it’s automatically adorable.  Emma helped pick it out.  Emma and I are blankie people.  Ray says this baby is not going to have a blankie, but we know that’s just crazy talk.

We registered yesterday at Target.  That was eye opening.  I can’t believe how much more expensive crap is now!  It’s only been 5 years!  It was fun though.  I haven’t really gotten excited, everything feels slightly unreal.  Picking out little towels and seeing all the cute new stuff there is now made everything real!  Coupled with the fact that we’re at the halfway mark brings a bit of relief as well.

So we’ve begun the registering!  We’ll register at Babies R Us & Buy Buy Baby too because you get goodies for registering!  That and you get a 15% completion discount to purchase things off the registry you didn’t get.  We’ll be putting lots of diapers on there.  Plus, you get to walk around the store with a scanner.  That’s always a good time.