Liebster Blog Award!

Wow! The over pouring amount of love is awesome! We have been nominated three times in the past week for the Liebster award!! This makes me feel super happy! I love to blog to just let everything out and knowing others are reading it and enjoying it is truly the icing on the cake!

Huge thanks to Our Journey to Become Mommies, Pieces of Religion & Bloggity Bloo

So what is a Liebster award?
It is a way for small bloggers out there to give recognition to other small bloggers (200 followers or less). Here is how it works:

The Rules:

1. Thank the Liebster blog presenter who nominated you and link back to their blog.
2. Post 11 facts about yourself, answering the 11 questions you were asked and create 11 questions for you nominees. 
3. Nominate 11 blogs who you feel deserve to be noticed and leave a comment on their blog letting them know they have been chosen.
4. Display the Liebster Award Logo.
5. No tag backs meaning you can't just re-nominate the person who nominated you.

As solo the first put it "the real purpose behind these nominations are not only as an accolade from a fellow blogger and let's face it, nothing really gently strokes our little writer hearts more than someone telling you they appreciate your work. In addition to the back patting we need to receive from time to time, it also allows us to get a little more personal as we get to know our increasing blogging community. It also helps drive traffic to your site as we reference one another".

Here are my nominations (in no particular order!) I also have no idea how many followers these people currently have, but I love reading them!:

Questions to be answered by me! (Since I got nominated three times I have decided to take questions from all of the fellow nominators!)

1. White, milk or dark chocolate mocha? I love anything sweet but I would have to choose milk chocolate!
2. City or nature person? City! I love being surrounded by people and buildings. Its a big comfort for me.
3. What are you most proud of in your life? My wife. She is my everything. She is the reason why I live and breathe everyday and the reason why we have a little miracle on the way!
4. Paper book or electronic? Paper. I love the way books smell both old and new. Wish I would read more. 
5. What's your biggest pet peeve? People not being courteous. Use your manners. I know we were all taught this!
6. Where do you see yourself in 15 minutes? In bed! YAY!!
7. Hot or cold? Cold, you can always add more layers!
8. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? Anywhere that has beautiful blue water. Fiji.
9. Favorite book? Diary of Anne Frank
10. If you could meet anyone person dead or alive, who would it be? Rosa Parks
11. Best thing about where you live? We have everything at our fingertips.

• Struggling to be Mothers
• Bits and Peaces
• Mrs. Katy Em
• Lezbmommies
• Non Fat Caramel Lesbian does Baby Making
• Two Mommas to Be
• Our Griswold
• The Adventures of Life, Love and Baby Making
• Two Moms and a Journey
• Little One Still to Come
• Mina's Musings
• Expecting to be Expecting

Now here are my 11 questions for the fellow bloggers I have nominated!

1. Sweet or salty?
2. Who would be the perfect dinner date and why?
3. Describe yourself when you were 18
4. What is next on your bucket list?
5. Favorite season
6. Where would your next vacation be?
7. What is the meaning of life?
8. Do you own any pets?
9. Do you have any fears?
10. Who is your role model?
11. How does a perfect day look like?

Enjoy and once again thank you to those who nominated me!

Tales of a pregnant woman

I'm sitting here 34 weeks pregnant and a hormonal mess. These past couple of days have just taken a toll on me. Yes, I am to blame for some of it but the rest I will blame on just being plain pregnant! I haven't really felt pregnant until oh about 28 weeks. That is when I started to notice a more noticeable bump and it was getting harder for me to just walk normally. Then I got to 30 weeks and I started having the lovely Braxton Hicks contractions...OK no worries I just learned how to adjust to them when they came. Everyone asked me how I was doing and my answer was always "great"! Then all of a sudden this Monday it hit me like a ton of bricks...my breathing was getting a bit harder to control, my groin felt like it got punched a bazillion times, my lower back is killing me and Harper is kicking me in my upper chest/ribs.

Maybe today at work was just not my special day and maybe the gal at the cafeteria didn't make it any better when she said I had the "waddle". I don't even notice that I waddle! She then went into a whole discussion about how I looked like a penguin with my lovely "waddle walk". That just ticked me off. So what if I waddle! I prefer to call it my strut!

Yes! This picture is how I felt when she was pointing out my walk. After that I proceeded to drop my water bottle on the floor and I'm guessing I was just too hormonal that I bent down way to quickly...got up and felt 90 years old. Wow! I had to have pulled a muscle. I then proceeded out of the cafeteria waddle and all LOL! The entire day at work I was miserable. I tried to find any bottle I could roll on my back. I rushed home and took a 1 hour bath. Wow, I must say that one hour bath made me feel like I had my body back for a split second.

My lovely wife then started talking about getting my body back after Harper is born. I continued to dream...she asked if I was excited. I never really thought about it as being excited because this is something we had longed for but a sense of me thought of all the things I will be able to do once baby girl is here. I enjoy being pregnant I really do and this is not me being selfish. It will be nice to be able to sleep on my back and stomach again, only pee once before bed, getting out of breath for every little activity and most of all being able to lift things without me always having to ask Sarah for help because its too heavy. So am I ready for my body back!? Yes and no. I want baby girl to cook until 40 weeks ideally. I mean that's in a perfect world. I hope this post does not offend anyone. I mean haven't we all complained about something while being pregnant? 

So as I sit here with my feet up on the couch and our doggy at my toes I feel great. My back is not hurting anymore and why, yes I do have to go pee again. Thanks for asking :)

Lazy Sunday

Today has been a very low key day. For the first time in weeks it wasn't full of running from one store to another or doing this and that for the house. It was low key which felt amazing! It even included a two hour nap!

I finally decided to get up and do some laundry since I always leave it for the last thing on my weekend. Then again who likes laundry?! So after finishing the laundry I decided it would be wise to start washing baby Harper's clothes. It was the most exciting thing ever and I hate laundry! Her clothes are so cute and tiny and just so dang cute!

So I leave you with some pics of my not so productive day!

Even our pup jake was lazy!

Also, thank you to the two fellow bloggers who nominated our blog! I promise the next post will be about it! Love you all!

33 Weeks & 1 Day

According to my ticker we only have 6 weeks & 6 days (48 days) until baby girl makes her debut. This is getting more and more real as time passes by. It still is all so surreal to me....that in less than 6 weeks we will be moms. Our long journey of TTC will soon end with a baby in our arms. I just can't believe it in all honesty.

The other day we were talking about our maternity photos and what we plan on wearing on the day we take our photos. Sarah had asked me if I plan on taking any photos of my belly. If you would have asked me that when we first found out we were pregnant I would have probably said no. I guess the sight of my stomach made me cringe. I have always battled weight issues since I was little and my stomach being a huge area of battle for me just made me sick. I am so used to seeing all these women on covers, magazines and even friends showing their beautiful bellies. They look so soft and so perfect. I then continued to lift my shirt up at 33 weeks. You know it is really weird. I haven't really stopped lately to just look at my body since becoming pregnant. I guess I try and avoid mirrors at all costs. Sarah smiled and made me tear up when she said I looked beautiful. I immediately went to the mirror and there I stood bare belly and all and I took it in. I loved what I saw. I love what has become of me since becoming pregnant. I don't think I am fat or ugly...I feel beautiful! I feel empowered. Sarah wanted to take a picture of my belly to save and share. I am not embarrassed of my stretch marks that have been made since becoming pregnant. I adore these beautiful marks made my our growing baby girl. In fact they are her imprints on me. I call them her tiger stripes.

I will really miss this belly when she is here but when I see her I will be reminded that she was housed for 9 cozy months. She has forever left a mark in our hearts and on my belly.

Prepping and Putting it Together

So remember how I mentioned in a previous blog post that time seems to be slipping from our fingers? Yeah...well I feel like we need to get things done ASAP. I believe my reasoning behind all of this is the fact that baby girl can come whenever she would like. We pray and hope that she doesn't make her debut until she is ready and well around her due date but reality is everyone is so different and since this is our first pregnancy everything is in the "unknown". This is where I believe our panic mode buttons have come from. I would hate for her to come and we are not ready at all. So the past two weeks we put on our "let's get this done now" hats and work towards having everything ready.

Well, to say the least my OCD has just taken over and instead of me just getting things done I want to make sure everything is perfect. So this brings me to the word "nesting". I know I have mentioned it before and quite frankly I feel like I have been nesting forever. So I decided that nesting is not just for the birds...pfft! Story is I want everything in tip top shape before our little princess arrives and well this means making sure everything is clean and organized.

So in my venture of organizing our household I have done some major cleaning and de-cluttering of stuff, which, I will save for another post.

What I will share is what I found useful in my adventure of prepping for baby in the past couple days!

The Diaper Bag!

At first, I thought you just threw in as many diapers and wipes as you could fit. It then sunk in that babies need more than just diapers and wipes. So I sat down with a pen and paper and wrote down what I thought was important to include in a diaper bag. This is what I came up with.

 A whole bunch of everything! 

 So you ask what I have included in our little girls diaper bag? Well, I thought it would be nice to share along to others what I thought was a good head start in getting the diaper bag ready.

1. The diaper bag (Well, duh! I think this may come in handy to help carry the 1,000 things that lug around with a child)!
2. Bibs
3. Changing pad
4. Diapers (I researched that for a newborn a good rule of thumb is to bring one diaper for every hour or two that you will be out)
5. First Aid Kit (You never know when this will come in handy for you or the baby)
6. Pacifier clip (We all know we don't want that little sucker to disappear)!
7. Diaper disposal bags (I can count many places where this will come in handy....we all don't want to smell a stinky diaper).
8. Boogie Wipes
9. Wipes (from what I have been told they say you never have enough wipes!)
10. Kleenex (in case I get so hormonal or just need one lol)
11. Diaper rash cream
12. Pacifier wipes (we hate germs especially those on the floor which is where a pacifier usually falls to)
13. Pacifier
14. Nursing cover
15. Hand sanitizer wipes 
16. Disposable nursing pads
17. Mittens
18. Pacifier bag to keep it away 
19. Extra outfit with hat
20. Socks
21. Grooming kit
22. Blanket
23. Burp cloths

What I forgot to picture...

  24.  Wallet

  25.  Cell phone

  26.  Sunscreen

So I leave you here with some helpful hints-at least I did lol. I have some more exciting posts to come about the good ole nesting syndrome. 

Till next time!

Braxton Hicks

Yes, I am one of the lovely gals that gets to experience the joys of Braxton Hicks. Also, known as "false labor or practice contractions". I started feeling these two weeks ago and at first I went into full panic mode. Oh dear god I thought labor was around the corner. I sat down and called my doctor immediately. She pretty much said that what I described was for sure Braxton Hicks! I was not excited to say the least. I was scared. Thoughts of early labor freaked me out. We were only 30 weeks she couldn't come that early. As time went by I learned that this was something I was going to have to deal with and more importantly I needed Sarah to understand it didn't mean to get everything ready and rush me to the hospital....poor Sarah. 

Things that I have learned make Braxton Hicks come more than usual....

~(lack of water) I learned this the hard way the other night when I woke up to immense uncomfortable Braxton Hicks. I woke Sarah up at 3:30 AM and said to get as many water bottles as she could carry. Soon enough she came in with 6 water bottles. I downed them all. Within minutes I felt 110% better! So ladies drink lots of water!! 

~(overworking myself) lately we have been in full get everything done before baby girl arrives and time seems to be scarce that I feel myself running to get anything done. I noticed when I worked too much it causes these lovely contractions. So I have been listening more to my body and learning this mama needs a break every now and then. 

To this day it amazes me how awesome our body is. It's unique in so many ways. 

So, anyone else have these lovely contractions known as Braxton Hicks?

Baby Shower

Ugh! I hate that I keep forgetting to update on our blog. Makes me upset because I have very good intentions to and then I am not sure what happens but a blog post is never made. Anyways, instead of boring you with my excuses I thought I would share pictures and an update from our beautiful baby shower! When we found out we were pregnant right away many wanted to throw us a baby shower. So we thought it would be nice for it to be a group effort since so many wanted to help including us. I know baby showers are supposed to be thrown for the parents to be but since this was our first baby and we had such a long journey of getting to this point we wanted to be involved. Boy, were we ever involved. I think we went a tad overboard with everything because by the end of the day on our baby shower I was glad I didn't have to plan another detail!

I took on the task of getting everything ready decoration wise for the shower. Sarah helped me even though craftiness isn't one of her key points. I have a very powerful mind when it comes to what I want and sometimes that take over the best of me. I try not to but it happens. All in all we ended up making everything for the shower and it came out fabulous! A memory that will forever be in our hearts and minds.

It was so nice to see how many friends and family we have in our lives and most importantly in our little girl's life. She is so blessed and lucky and so are we! We were so overwhelmed with all the amount of gifts we received. At first when we found it we were pregnant the first thing that was on my mind was making sure our pregnancy stuck and then making sure we had everything we needed for our miracle baby. After our baby shower it came to both of our minds and eyes that indeed we had everything for her. Now comes the task of putting everything away! That shall be another blog post!!

We would like to give a thank you to all of our family and friends for all the help they offered to make our baby shower a huge success! Special thanks to our two moms and grandma! You all are awesome!

Now I leave you with some pictures from the wonderful day!

Sarah feeling her kick

Can you believe I'm actually updating more than once in a week! I can't either. I really want to update more, I just get tied up with a million other things or I get tired. BLAH!

On June 12th around 10 PM we were laying in bed like we do every night watching TV and I was doing my normal news watching when Harper started kicking. She is a funny little girl. She has her "kicking" fests which occur during the morning and late, late evening. If this is anything like she will be outside the womb then we are in big trouble at night time LOL! Anyways, I told Sarah that she was kicking and kicking hard nonetheless. So like we have done many other nights Sarah put her hand on my bare belly in hopes that she would feel her kick. Keep in mind im 28 weeks weeks and we were starting to get sad that she could still not feel her kick. I laid there with my belly ready and she kicked and kicked some more and finally that moment when Sarah felt her kick brough tears to both of our eyes. It was the most amazing feeling for both of us. We could now know what it felt like for the two of us to feel her kick. Something so little that just flooded our hearts with joy. So since then every time she kick Sarah runs to my belly and tries and feel her and without a doubt she is finally getting used to us and our hands around her. This was one of those moments where you stop and look around you and know that EVERY struggle you went through to get to that point was so worth it. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

28 Weeks

I honestly don't know where time has gone. Everyone keeps telling me is slows down and then it feels like it takes forever for the baby to come but to the two of us we feel like time is flying right past us and finding time to breathe is becoming a challenge. Tomorrow we are 28 weeks! Which means we have less than 12 weeks or 85 days to go. However you look at it its going by super fast. I never thought in a million years we would be sitting here getting ready to meet our miracle our little baby girl. I can't wait for the day for her eyes to meet both of our eyes and tears to run down my eyes. Tears of joy. Tears of long awaited love. 

Pregnancy has been going great. Nothing to much to complain or mope about. If every pregnancy was like this then I would be pregnant all the time! It's been such a walk in the park *knock on wood*. I better be careful with my choice of words because maybe next post I will be posting about how miserable I am, LOL! I haven't weighed myself in two weeks. I know for sure I have gained something because baby is growing and so is my belly. It's like overnight my belly just appeared. For a while I didn't feel "pregnant" and now I'm fitting more and more into maternity clothes and I can see my belly pop out! The most awesome thing to see on a daily basis. Before I used to hate looking in the mirror now I love it and just stare at my ever growing belly. Makes me smile. 

So what would a girl with an easy pregnancy have to complain about? Really, nothing. The only thing I am finding more difficult is keeping my bladder normal. I have to pee all the dang time other than that and mild pressure on my lower belly everything is peachy. Thankfully there has been zero swelling with my feet or ankles. For sure I thought the other day when our temperature hit 105 I would be seeing my feet swell and thankfully nothing. Phew!

So what has happened in the past couple of weeks?! Well, we celebrated 9 years of being together and being in love. I still can't believe I have been in love with my other half for nine years. She is my better half and I truly understand what people mean when they say you couldn't live without them. I could never live without her. She completes me. Her daily smile and laugh still tickle me, and it will never, ever get old.

I also celebrated my birthday. Years before if you asked me how I felt about getting older I would have been sad and terrified and this year I was just happy. Age is just a number. Before, in the previous years I was scared because it seemed as thought birthdays reminded me that we were one more year without being pregnant and our chances of fertility had lowered. This year we celebrated the fact that I was given another year to live and celebrate life. 

In upcoming news our baby shower is next Saturday. Can't wait! Everything is just getting real!

Oh and how could I forget....tomorrow I have my dang gestational diabetes test. Now this is not my first time. My doctor had me have one at 16 weeks and I passed no problem....this time I am a tad scared I won't pass it. I have just been to good of friends with sweets. I hope and pray all goes well. I just want our baby girl to be okay. We also have a doctor appointment! Can't wait to see how all is going.

Well I leave you with pictures of the last two weeks!

My birthday celebration!

 27 weeks, 4 days bump!

 27 weeks, 4 days bump! Out shopping!

Bows made for Harper from a friend

 More bows 

 Baby shower gifts are starting to arrive for Harper!

 

How far along? 28 weeks

How big is baby? Cauliflower

Total weight gain/loss: Not sure, LOL! I will find out tomorrow!

Maternity Clothes: Maternity shirts/maternity pants

Have you started to show yet? Yes! Finally!!

Sleep: Better

Best moment this week: Feeling Harper kick more and more. Her kicks are getting stronger!!

Miss Anything? Hot dogs

Movement: Movement each and every day!

Food Cravings: Sweets

Anything make you queasy or sick? Not right now

Gender prediction: We already know its a GIRL!

Symptoms: Short fused 

Major purchases this week? baby shower items

Looking forward to: Seeing her on 4D soon!

Meeting with the Attorney

This past Friday we met with an LGBT attorney in San Francisco to go over the adoption process for my wife Sarah after the baby is born. It is very unfair that we have to go through something like this but we do. We live in California and have a registered domestic partnership which we have had since 2009. Since living in California with this domestic partnership Sarah will have all parental rights no problems, its all the other states outside of California that do not protect her unless they offer domestic partnership as well. We do not want anything to ever happen and I want Sarah to have these rights that everyone in the world should have.

We were super excited and nervous at the same time but there we were in the city holding hands on our way to the 14th floor to meet the attorney. She was soooo nice and for the entire hour she told us the in's and out's of each adoption and we asked our questions from our list we had written out together. After much talk and going through every scenario we decided on the type of adoption that best fit our needs and family and decided that she would be the attorney we would work with. She has over 20 plus years of experience with LGBT families and more important 10 years of LGBT adoption. We are very relieved that everything will be done with her and we won't have to worry about a thing except turning in the paperwork! Unfortunately, we can't start the full on process until after Harper is born but we felt a huge sense of relief that we are going in the right direction!

Baby Harper is doing great. She keeps moving more and more and her kicks are becoming more and more stronger. The other day we started playing music to my belly. She was having fun and kicking. It was the cutest thing ever!

Other than that life is going really well and things are going fast. We have officially 101 days until she shows up in our lives. We can't wait and as each day goes by we feel more and more blessed to be where we are at.

How far along? 25 weeks & 4 days

How big is baby? Eggplant still!

Total weight gain/loss: three pounds

Maternity Clothes: Maternity shirts/maternity pants

Have you started to show yet? a little pooch

Sleep: Better

Best moment this week: Still feeling her kick

Miss Anything? Hot dogs

Movement: Movement each and every day!

Food Cravings: Donuts

Anything make you queasy or sick? Not right now

Gender prediction: We already know its a GIRL!

Symptoms: Short fused 

Major purchases this week? baby shower items

Looking forward to: Feeling her kick more and more often

Milestones-Hitting 24 Weeks!

Ever since we got pregnant we knew there would be many humps (milestones) to get over throughout the pregancy. At first it seemed as though days took forever and weeks took years and little by little we got over one hump and we were then able to breathe a huge sigh of relief. It seemed as though it was one hump after another and everytime we went to a doctor's appointment we were a bunch of nerves and then another sigh of relief.

Last Thursday, we hit one of the biggest humps we have been wanting to get over since the day we found out we were pregnant. 24 weeks. Many don't know what 24 weeks means and many do not celebrate this huge milestone. The 24th week of pregnancy usually marks the start of the age of vitality; the first time the fetus could potentially survive outside the uterus. This was huge for both of us! We know that if anything god for bid was to happen and our baby would have to be delievered there is a chance she could survive outside the womb. However, she better keep baking for a long, long time until she is fully ready to come! Last Thursday, like every other morning I woke up and reached for my phone to shut my alarm off and quickly I had remebered today was a very special day for both of us. We were both so happy to have gotten this far in the pregnancy and we celebrated that entire day.

While we were at dinner we were talking about all our milestones that we have overcome and we came up with a list...

1. Getting a positive pregnancy test
2. Seeing a sac on the ultrasound
3. Seeing a heartbeat
4. Hearing a heartbeat
5. Growth between the 6th & 8th week
6. Making it past the 12th week where miscarriage rates lower by half
7. Making it past the first trimester
8. Making sure all Trisomy and Down syndrome tests are clear and normal
9. Nuchal scan being normal and clear
10. Passing my first glucose test
11. Anatomy scan being normal and clear
12. Reaching vitality-24 weeks!

As time goes on with the pregnancy we will keep writing stuff down of our milestones that we reach. Such a beautiful thing to see written down.

This year Mother's day was such a wonderful day for us. I remember so much the past years crying and wishing we would be able to be given the chance of being mothers. Finally our time has come and we celebrated Mother's day as I had always expected in my dreams. We got each other gifts and we surprised each other with posts on each others Facebook. I swear I fall more and more in love with Sarah each and every day that goes by. 

How far along? 24 weeks & 4 days

How big is baby? Eggplant

Total weight gain/loss: Two pound=p

Maternity Clothes: Maternity shirts

Have you started to show yet? a little pooch

Sleep: Better

Best moment this week: Feeling her kick like crazy this past week

Miss Anything? Hot dogs

Movement: Movement each and every day!

Food Cravings: Nothing

Anything make you queasy or sick? Not right now

Gender prediction: We already know its a GIRL!

Symptoms: Irratable 

Major purchases this week? Closet organization

Looking forward to: Feeling her kick more and more often

Last but not least I leave you with a picture of our beautiful baby girl. She already is wrapped around our fingers! We love her SO much!

Feeling Harper Kick

From the moment we found out we were pregnant it felt surreal. As the weeks flew by I knew we were for real pregnant. Ultrasounds showed beautiful sights of our bouncing baby girl. She grew and grew but I still didn't feel pregnant. It might have been the lack of symtoms or the lack of baby bump but deep down inside my heart I knew she was there. I kept telling Sarah I would feel "pregnant" when I felt her kick because its her way of saying "Im really here mommies"! The past couple of weeks I was looking for signs of the so called first kicks. I couldn't really figure if it was a real kick or just my imagination. Sarah kept asking me everyday if I had felt her kick. My response was the same..."not yet". I was sad because so many other women around me had started feeling their first kicks....then I started to panic. Is everything okay with Harper?! Why is she not moving but again I was reassured at all her appointments that she was just fine. She was a bouncing baby girl full of energy. Maybe, she's already giving us a run for our money!

Then a couple days ago I felt this weird feeling in my stomach. Like a gas like bubble feeling. At first my instinct was my lunch didn't quite sit right so I kept going with my day. Then it happened again that evening. I told Sarah and we both got excited and before you knew it I felt no more. Then the next day again like clock work I felt this little flutter. I then knew it was no longer my lunch from the other day but rather a little tiny human in my belly named Harper. I couldn't help but smile and giggle of excitement. I looked down at my belly and said "I love you".

The past couple of days it has been happening more and more throughout the day. No specific time of day but I feel it. Its such a beautiful reassurment that she is there and that she is all right. Not sure what she is doing excatly...maybe baby aerobics, dancing or practicing on her basketball moves as my wife would say but she is there moving in my belly. The best feeling in the entire world. It's almost like a little kick to say get ready mommies because soon I will be kicking for your attention.

Sarah asks me over and over to explain to her what it feels like and the best explanation I could give her was it felt like my intestines were coming out. Now that I think about it that was NOT the best or clearest answer! I now know what people mean when they say it feels like a gas like bubble. It does! I can't wait for her to grow and get bigger so then I can really feel her and while I may be singing a different tune when she really kicks me for now it makes us both happy!

22 weeks & 2 days!

It seems as though ever since we became pregnant time has slipped right through and we find ourselves always on the go! Its amazing what your priorities change to once you are pregnant and you know a baby is well on the way. You want to make sure you are prepared and that means prepared with everything. Our weekends have continued to be organizing and getting the house ready for baby Harper.  We have been cleaning the outside and garage and just organizing and organizing every nook and cranny in this house.

Recently we got a package in the mail from a very close friend. She got us our bedding from Potter Barn for Harper!! We were beyond thrilled to see her bedding here as a pre-baby shower gift. It also shows us how much love we have from both family and friends. We have been blessed with such great people to surround us. We can't even explain how much we have received in little gifts for our baby since we announced we were pregnant. We can't wait to share the love of Harper with them just like they have showed their love with us.

On Monday, April 29th we finally had our anatomy scan. The doctor's office we booked with at 12 weeks was completely booked with appointments and the only opening they had was at 21 weeks! Most  usually have it as early as 18 weeks but nonetheless time went by super quick and before you knew it there we were waiting for our scan to start. As I was laying on the table with my belly bare as can be I got this nervous feeling throughout my body. I was scared the scan would not go okay and we would hear a bad report from the doctor. I left my worries with God and I knew that everything would be okay. The appointment was an hour long and it was the best hour scan ever! We were SOOOOOO happy to be able to see our little baby girl even if it was for measuring. The tech was super nice this time! Finally the doctor came in and did his scan and looked over everything and said everything was "perfect"! Best word I had heard in the longest time. There is absolutely nothing more in the world than nothing everything is clear and we are free to go and our worries are out the door. We got some beautiful sonogram pictures on disc and even another gender scan even though we already know shes a baby girl. 

Sarah took my 20 week photo mark and even though my belly bump is still small for almost 6 months I know when I can barely move or walk I will be singing a different tune! At my last doctors appointment my total weight gain for this pregnancy so far....drum roll please.......1 whoppin pound! WOWZERS! There is NO complaining here and even though I have only gained 1 pound my stomach is stretching out  I can notice this in my pants and shirts. The tech said my uterus has only stretched out 10% so if this is true I sure do have a long ways to go before we start to really see a baby bump!

Hope all is well with everyone and sending lots of baby dust from California!!

How far along? 22 weeks & 2 days

How big is baby? Papaya

Total weight gain/loss: One pound!

Maternity Clothes: Maternity shirts

Have you started to show yet? a little pooch

Sleep: Better

Best moment this week: Knowing there is a little baby in my belly that will soon be apart of our family so soon!

Miss Anything? Sandwiches

Movement: Very tiny movements :)

Food Cravings: Nothing

Anything make you queasy or sick? Not right now

Gender prediction: We already know its a GIRL!

Symptoms: Nada!

Major purchases this week? Decor for her room

Looking forward to: Vitality

Update Palooza!

Wow...It has been some time since our last update. As you can see I have been forgetting to blog and I need to get back on the wagon. It's weird...ever since becoming pregnant its like all of a sudden a million and one things appear right in front of you and then you loose track of other stuff because of the overwhelmess of the other million and one things!

Anyways everything has been great, moving right along. Tommorow I will be 20 weeks!! Holy smokes! We are officially halfway through the pregnancy with only 20 more weeks to go! Hopefully we can keep this bun in the oven cooking long! According to our dandy pregnancy ticker we have 4 months, 2 weeks and 5 days until she is here! Yelp! I swear and time goes by I get more and more excited and nervous. Excited to finally meet our long awaited miracle but nervous that we wont be ready and nervous for all the changes to come.

In the past couple of weeks we have registered at both Babies R' Us, Target & Pottery Barn! Phew writing this makes me tired. Pottery barn was easy, Target took 2 hours (not bad)....then there is Babies R' Us.....can we say 5 hours of beeping. I was exhausted and had a throbbing headache by the end of that day. I never realized what a baby needs. There is so much out there in the market that it got daunting at first. We made it through and we registered for everything baby Harper will need! It has been fun looking at our registry from time to time. It seems so real now that we are registered and we sent the "save the dates" for our baby shower in June!

Still no movement in the house! UGH!!! Now I have felt certain things that I have never felt before being pregnant and I do associate it to her moving, but nothing consistent enough for me to be like "she's kicking"!

I know I am only 20 weeks and every pregnancy is different. I do hope she starts soon because these two mamas are getting ansy to feel her move!

Nursery is slowly but surely coming along. We bought some decals and the letters for her name. Now all we need to do is put them up! She already has so much clothes its amazing! We have all coordinated by size and I won't be washing it until a month before arrival.

Other than that, everything is great! Our anatomy scan is in two weeks! Even though we already know what we are having it will be super fun to see her organs and make sure we are in the clear. Another hurdle to jump through!

How far along? 19 weeks & 6 days...almost 20!

How big is baby? Mango!

Total weight gain/loss: One pound!

Maternity Clothes: I had to pull out my maternity band to put over my pants I wore before pregnancy. So far so good. Still have not bought maternity clothes other than a couple shirts and one pair of pants.

Have you started to show yet? a little pooch

Sleep: Better

Best moment this week: Knowing we are pregnant after so much heartache

Miss Anything? Nothing on the top of my head!

Movement: Little flutters?!

Food Cravings: Nothing

Anything make you queasy or sick? Not right now

Gender prediction: We already know its a GIRL!

Symptoms: Nada!

Major purchases this week? Diaper bag

Looking forward to: Our next ultrasound at 22 weeks AKA anatomy scan!

 

Till next time!

Chugging right along baby!

Today I am 17 weeks and 1 day today! The baby is the size of a sweet potato! Our official countdown is 22 weeks and 6 days until we see our little baby girl. Which makes it even more real that we are rolling on this train faster than I expected! When we first got pregnant it seemed like time was super slow and I counted for the weeks to change. I couldn't wait to be 10 weeks and now I sit here typing and were just 3 weeks away from being at the halfway mark! For me this is a HUGE milestone and my next milestone is to complete 24 weeks once vitality is here! Which means we only have 7 weeks to go! Come on baby girl you got this!

This past week we went to a 4D place because once you are discharged from your RE your OBGYN doc doesn't really give you as many ultrasounds as one would like. Luckily my OB is awesome and will give me ultrasounds when I request but she told me the next one wont be for awhile so we decided to see her early! It was the most amazing experience ever! Seeing her move and her little body in 4D made my heart melt and fall more deeply in love with her than I already was. Funny thing is she sure is one stubborn little baby. There is no denying that at all. What was supposed to be a 15 min ultrasound turned into a 2 hour ultrasound off and on and three walks around the building. It also consisted to drinking apple juice and eating candy to get her to move from the stubborn position she was in. She was only showing us her back and kicking away. Finally we were able to get some good shots but the lady was not accepting that so we have a free come back visit at 18 weeks. Yay! Can't wait to see her in just another week!

This is by far my favorite photo of her and shes smiling if you can see it. Can't wait to see her grow throughout the months!

I leave everyone with a photo of me at 16 weeks. I took photos before 16 weeks but I really couldn't see anything until now! Its a tiny, tiny bump but it's there LOL!

How far along? 17 weeks and 1 day :)

How big is baby? Sweet Potato

Total weight gain/loss: Still ZERO!

Maternity Clothes: I wear maternity shirts because I am not going to lie but they are the most comfy shirts ever! 

Have you started to show yet? a little, little pooch

Sleep: Off and on

Best moment this week: Watching our baby girl move a storm in the ultrasound and seeing her face smiling at us!

Miss Anything? honestly soda and sandwiches

Movement: None :(

Food Cravings: Sweets, sweets and more sweets!

Anything make you queasy or sick? Mexican food

Gender prediction: We already know its a GIRL!

Symptoms: Nada! Love it!

Major purchases this week? Storage ottoman for baby toys

Looking forward to: Our next ultrasound at 18 weeks!

2.5 years ago....

2.5 years ago this month we were preparing for our first IUI. We were so excited and nervous. We had everything ready and felt like this was it. We never knew at that moment that our world would be changed forever. We never knew how naive we were about this entire TTC process.

Thinking back to that first time and the times after that it boggled my mind as to why it just wasn't working. It seemed like we were doing everything right....were we not meant to be mommies? As our first failed IUI stared at us clear in the eye we knew it would get easier and harder at the same time. What we never knew was just how strong we would become, together.

I never in a million years thought we would be able to go through the emotional journey of TTC. We were both put to the test with our first IVF. All the countless injections, pills, exams, driving and crazy hormones were all so daunting at the start. I remember crying before we started....there next to me was my wife Sarah holding my hand with tears streaming down her face just as nervous as I was. Together we held hands tightly and went through our IVF battle ready for whatever came our way. By the second IVF we were ready. Our wounds were healed but there was still band-aids all over our broken hearts. Despite the past we kept going and kept smiling. Happy and blessed to be able to go through it again. Happy that everything went without any problems. Scared shitless we left our faith in God and let our worries out the door. We both always agreed that no matter what we would NEVER give up.

Then we got the best present in the entire world....at the moment of our positive pregnancy test all negative energy and bad memories went out the door. Only happy ones were filling the room. I remember looking at Sarah in front of me. We started jumping up and down and immediately stopped so our miracle wouldn't get hurt. We hugged each other so tight. I never wanted to let go because in her arms I felt safe. Ever since that positive test that has forever changed our lives our days are filled with daily talks to our baby girl and blissful thoughts of what she will look like and how exciting we are to become the mommies we have always longed for.

This year we celebrate 9 years together and I remember on our 4th date we were talking about children....and here we are getting ready to meet her in just five months!

Life is great, and one thing I can pass along is to never, ever give up!

First come love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in the baby carriage and a tighter budget!

I was trying to be creative with my title but seeing as I am falling asleep and my allergies are kicking me in the butt that is all I could come up with at the time.

Ever since we became pregnant my mind has been in a totally different ballpark. I now have daily things on my mind such as the health and safe being of our little girl, what she will need, and making sure everything is in order for her as she is born. Along with the endless thoughts a tighter budget has also been on my mind. I want our baby to have a great future. We already started talking about college funds, preschool, activities....yeah I know we may be jumping the gun a little fast but I am a HUGE control freak and I have to have things somewhat researched and prepared.

So with all that talk....our budget came next. Before the baby it was just "us". Now that we have a baby in the picture I want to provide the best for her so we are making sure we don't just spend to spend money anymore. I never have been a savvy shopper when it comes to food and gas but starting now I need to be more on top of things like that. I have decided that creating a baby budget will help us with all the extra costs involved in having a baby....first stop.....to stop buying for the baby because its cute!!

Ever since finding out we are having a girl we have been buying what ever strikes our eye...thing is if we don't stop now there will be nothing for anyone to buy off our registry. First person I need to get on board is my lovely wife who so happened to convince me to buy her two more pair of shoes tonight...ARG!

SO besides getting our budget ready here is a "list" I found to help us get on the "right" track.

Preschool

We would like to put her in preschool at age 3 to help with developmental skills. We want her to interact with other kids on a daily basis and get to know life outside of just her family. 

HEALTH INSURANCE

Bye bye “Individual +1” health plan. Hello “Family Plan.” This means our deductible with be $3,000 and monthly cost will go to $70 a month. I know really good insurance.

FLEXIBLE SPENDING ACCOUNT 

Need to look into starting one of these accounts to help with co-pays and unexpected "medical" expenses.

LIFE INSURANCE

Got one in place but I need to look at getting it increased in case anything was to happen there would be enough money.

WRITING A WILL

We really, REALLY need to work on setting up a will and getting it certified with our attorney. 

COLLEGE SAVINGS

The only thing more frightening than imagining our itsy bitsy Baby Girl as a college-aged young woman (who will still wear turtlenecks all day, every day per Sarah's orders) is how much her tuition will cost. And while we haven’t yet figured out how much (if any) she’ll be expected to contribute to her own education, we’d like to start saving to cover 100% of tuition. That means it’s time to figure out all the specifics of 529 plans and the amount we’ll need to set aside for tuition plus inflation starting as soon as she is born.

Ok, I know this is a bit extreme but for me this is how I cope with the many changes that are soon to come. The many changes I would never trade for the world!

Name Change

Yesterday was such an amazing day for me and our family! When we got married in 2009 I was just hired with my new job at the hospital and all my paperwork was being finalized that the thought of me changing my name would hold a stop to the process of me starting my job. Stupid thought and I regret it more and more each day that went by but I can't keep holding that grudge on myself. Anyways we knew that we wanted to change my name but with the cost of TTC it was out of the question. After finding out we were pregnant we knew the first step would be to change my name. In fact on December 31, 2012 we put in the paperwork to make this change and FINALLY yesterday at 8:45 AM my name change was official!!

I stood in front of the judge while I was sworn in and he said my old name to my new name and my heart was beating a mile a minute. I said "yes" and was dismissed. I got the paper in my hands with the certified copy that it was for sure official. Such an amazing piece of paper!

Right away we went to the social security office and DMV and changed my name immediately. Now I have the wonderful task to changed everything else! 

Now I feel like a cohesive family and once the baby is born we will start the adoption process for Sarah to adopt her. 

Life is going so well!

15 weeks

Ok....well almost! Tomorrow I will be 15 weeks preggo! I can't believe time is flying right by us. Today at lunch it sank in that in about a week I will be four months pregnant! Wowzers....they sure do not kid when they say that time goes fast when your pregnant. This leaves us with 176 days until we see our little peanut!

Things are coming along in our household! We are cleaning and weeding still. As you can tell we are in no hurry to weed out lol. We sure are taking our sweet time. Its nice to get rid of stuff that we have been meaning to do for YEARS!

The babies room got painted this weekend by my lovely wife. She also finished building all her closet units so I have more room....because based on the clothes we have recieved from friends and family she sure is going to be one spoiled little girl!

Other than that nothing really going on. I do wonder at times when the "pregnant" feeling will hit me. I know that I am pregnant because I think about it on a daily basis but I still have a teeny tiny bump and my clothes are still fitting...they are getting snug as we talk but other than that I feel pregnant but not....does this insanity make sense?!

Sarah and I were talking about it the other night and we came to the conclusion that we won't really feel pregnant until she moves and we can feel it or see it. Right now she is still so small and while she is doing baby zumba in my tummy I still do not feel her. I honestly can't wait for that moment. Until then I cherish everyday of being pregnant. Everyday that passes by is a HUGE milestone!

Getting things done!

I feel like time is flying by. When we first found out we were pregnant on Christmas Eve I kept thinking about the weeks ahead. I had so many thoughts about 6, 8 and 10 weeks. All of a sudden those weeks came and went! Now here we are almost 14 weeks and in our second trimester. Now I know what my friend meant when she said just wait....time will fly by. I didn't believe it one bit!

Ever since we found out we were pregnant we started a "list" of things that need to get done. Not urgent things but things we have been meaning to get done for sometime. This list consists of the following....

• painting baby room
• organizing all closets
• organizing all drawers 
• getting rid of stuff we no longer use
• having a garage sale
• building closet unit for baby room
• replace all area rugs in three rooms
• retouch paint within house
• get garage in order
• purge, purge and purge some more!

I know my list is way more but for now this is a good start. Well today Sarah decided to start on the baby closet. While she is almost done I decided to be some help and sit next to her and take pictures! LOL as you can tell I am a big help.....NOT!

We also cleaned the entire fridge inside and out and cleaned every bin. Cleaned the filter and moved the fridge. Phew!

I also decided to start putting up some of my Easter decorations. I got tired and stopped...oh what a poor excuse!

After that Sarah's mom came over and surprised us! She knew we were getting ready to buy our crib for the baby and she wanted to be the first to buy us a gift for our baby girl. She bought us our crib/furniture set! We are so excited to receive in through the mail!! I feel like a little kid at Christmas time! 

Isn't it puurrtty?! We are still undecided on the crib bedding. We are going to be searching on Pottery Barn or Amazon for our "dream" bedding. We are also going to start looking at paint colors this weekend! 

Phew writing all of this sure makes me tired!

Till next time! Toodles!

Our pregnancy announcements!

I remember 2.5 years ago gazing at baby stuff and having ideas in my head about how I wanted things to go. It seemed like we would never, ever get there. I thought we would never get be pregnant and here I type on the couch almost 14 weeks along. We knew we wanted to announce our pregnancy to our friends and family and I knew there was no better way than photos! Who doesn't love photos?! Here they are! Enjoy!!

Nuchal Scan

Yesterday was our nuchal scan. I wasn't one bit nervous because the day before we got out blood test results stating we were in the normal range for any chromosomal abnormalities. So this appointment was more of an exciting time to see our baby peanut!

When we got there they had me empty my bladder and took me to the next available room. I was full of excitement! The tech told me I had officially graduated to the belly sonogram. I was delighted! I didn't have to take my pants off anymore who isn't excited for that?! Anyways I laid down and she put the cold gel on my belly and started moving the wand on my belly. Holy smokes was it painful. She used so much pressure and it hurt. Needless to say I have many bruises from how hard she pressed on my belly. She was completely rude. Not sure why there are rude people working around pregnant women. This is a time for happiness! After ten minutes of the tech sighing back and forth and complaining about our baby not cooperating...whoops she must be stubborn like her momma she finally decided that she needed the vaginal probe. As soon as that happened she was able to get a better picture. Our little peanut was just showing us her back the little stinker! She was able to get three measurements and our average was 1.34! So after that little let down and rudeness the doctor came in and proceeded to say that all is good and that I don't need to come in until the anatomy scan....she doesn't know that we know already, LOL!

Hope all is well with everyone!