Brothers

Merry Christmas!

My Greatest Gifts. These two. I couldn't ask for anything more.




Time to begin our Christmas traditions of breakfast, hot chocolate, opening presents & emptying out our stockings in our jammies.

Later tonight, my family will come over and we'll have a nice Christmas dinner. This year, Adam is making a prime rib, yummy, can't wait!

The Greatest Gift

I was scheduled for an induction on 12/13 at 8pm. I'd been hoping and praying all weekend that I go into labor on my own and my prayers were answered when my waters broke at 4:30am. I called L&D and asked if I needed to come in right away and they said no, it was fine if I waited for a couple of hours. So I cooked breakfast, took a shower and got Caleb ready for school. Adam & I dropped Caleb off at school then headed to the hospital at around 8:30. I was having contractions but they weren't painful yet. They admitted me and hooked me up to the monitors, they checked me and I was at 4cm. Adam & I walked around, and by noon my contractions were becoming more consistent, intense and painful. I took a shower and tried breathing through my contractions. By 3pm my contractions were coming on strong & on top of each other. They checked me and I was still only at 4cm!! They thought I'd be dialated even more by now since my contractions were coming on so intensely and on top of each other. At around 6, I asked them to check me again because I was in so much pain, I was still barely a 5. I couldn't handle another 3 hours of no progress so I asked for an epidural. 6:45, got my epidural, didn't feel that much pain, just the pressure of the contractions. Around 9, I started feeling the urge to push, but when they checked me I was still only at 8cm. At around 10, the pressure was getting to be too much and they checked me again, I was there!!! After 45 minutes of pushing, Liam was born. Due to the epidural and my exhaustion my pushes weren't very effective. When Liam was almost out, the midwife had to really get stern with me and told me to make the last push count. I found out later it was because the cord was wrapped around his neck. He had swallowed some fluid so they had to suction it out shortly after he was born. After that, they brought him to me for skin to skin and I was in LOVE.

Adam was a great partner throughout the birthing process and I couldn't have done it without him. I reached a new level of love for this man. My sister and his mom were also there and they totally helped me out too. But Adam, he stayed so strong for me and I am so grateful.

I ended up with a postpartum hemorrhage during recovery and lost 1000ml of blood. It was so scary!! I was pumped full of meds to try to stop the bleeding and they kept pressing on my stomach, it was so painful!! Adam said the blood clots were as big as my placenta! They monitored me for 24 hours to see if the bleeding would subside on it's own but had me ready for a transfusion or surgery just in case. Thank God it didn't come to that.

Liam ended up being a little jaundiced so he had to stay in the hospital another 24 hours under the bili lights. That was so hard for us to do, we had to go home and come back to the hospital every 3 hours to breastfeed. :(

For Liam

My dear baby boy,

We are so anxious to meet you. I didn't think I could love another baby, but I love you so much already. Who knew that my heart could hold so much love? It's filled to the brim and overflowing. I think of you and I'm overwhelmed with emotions. I feel so blessed that God chose me to be your mother. That he found me worthy enough to carry you and sustain you in my womb. These 37 weeks have flown by so fast. I remember seeing you on that screen when we first found out you were created and you were just a tiny little thing. Now, you barely have any room in there! I love feeling you move throughout the day, the way you respond to my touch. I dream of your face every night and I imagine holding your warm little body. We are unbelievably excited to meet you and welcome you into this world. Whenever you're ready little guy, mommy, daddy and your big brother Caleb are ready to shower you with love out here.

Thankful.

I have so much to be thankful for. I don't have the words to give justice to all the blessings that God has bestowed upon me.

*I thank HIM everyday for the life he's blessed me with. For a loving family, a wonderful husband, an awesome son & the miracle of life growing inside me. Every day I wake up I know is another blessing. Every breath another gift. I am undeserving of his LOVE, but he still loves me, perfectly and unconditionally.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Besides all the yummy food that puts me into a food coma every year, it's the overall feeling of gratitude and thankfulness that washes over me. It's the warm fuzzy feelings of families coming together to begin the holiday season.

This year we had a wonderful thanksgiving. My sister hosted it at her house and it was perfect. A house full of family, with kids running around, the sound of laughter and love filling every nook and cranny. It was perfect.

Thanksgiving also marked my 37th week of pregnancy. Another reason to be thankful. Full term. Blessed.

34 weeks!

I'll be 34 weeks tomorrow! 6 weeks left until due date and only 3 weeks until full term. If this little guy is anything like his older brother, he might just come into the world a little early. We're all so excited to meet him!

I'm counting down my days left at work, 10 to be exact! I'm exhausted and finding it harder and harder to get up in the morning. I'm also still waiting for that nesting to kick in because I have no energy whatsoever!

Jaclyn sent us the rest of our pictures and here are a couple of my most favorite. I can't wait until baby Liam is joining us for our family pictures. :)

Maternity/Family Teasers + 30weeks!

I'm 30 weeks into this pregnancy, which means 7 more weeks until full term. Woohoo! Time has flown so quickly and I can't wait for my little guy to be here. We're slowly but surely getting ready for the little guy but at night I toss and turn feeling like I have so much more to do. We received our cloth diapers in the mail & I'm so excited to venture into the world of cloth diapering!



Last weekend, we took our family/maternity pictures with our wedding photographer. She has grown so much!! She's always had a great artistic eye but she has really developed her shooting style and I love it!

She posted teaser photos on Facebook & I love them. I love my growing family and my handsome fellas. :)

An Anniversary & A Birthday

Woooooooo, it's been such a long time since I've written anything. I'm so bad about blogging. I really should do it more because it helps me remember. I blogged a lot when I was pregnant with Caleb and I still love to look back and read those old posts and see the baby pictures of my little monster, who is now 7!!!

An Anniversary
September 6th was our 2nd wedding anniversary. Since it landed on a Tuesday, we decided to celebrate the following weekend.

Saturday came around and I was feeling so blah. I wanted to stay in bed all day, my body was just exhausted. Adam had made reservations for Ruth's Chris in SF and around 6 p.m, I told him to cancel the reservations because I didn't feel like doing anything. Just one of those days. Luckily, Adam persuaded me to get out of bed and we were able to get reservations at the Walnut Creek location of Ruth's Chris. I took a shower and forced myself to look pretty for my husband. I'm glad we went because dinner was DELICIOUS!!! We both had a great time and it was nice to spend some alone time with Adam. We didn't finish dinner until almost 11 and didn't get home until midnight. It was a lovely night in Walnut Creek, and it was a great way for us to celebrate 2 years of marriage.






Sunday we drove out to Half Moon Bay to eat at Sam's Chowder House, I'd been craving a lobster roll for awhile. LOVE their lobster rolls!! The weather in Half Moon Bay was really nice considering that it's usually pretty chilly and foggy. The beaches were packed and you could tell people were taking advantage of the sunshine. After lunch, we went to watch Warrior. ( I loved it, and spent most of the movie crying quietly, lol, pregnancy hormones?)








Great laid back anniversary celebration, I loved every minute of it.

A Birthday

Caleb, my baby, my first born, my little monster, the first love of my life, the one who has my heart, turned 7 on the 14th. SEVEN!!!!! It's amazing how fast time seems to be flying. I can still remember being in labor and meeting the guy who would change my life as if it was yesterday. He's an awesome kid. He's sweet, funny, charismatic (those dimples are killer), he's thoughtful, bright, social. I could go on and on about this guy. He's my favorite person to be around. I just love him so much, even when he's frustrating me to no end.



I took a half day of work to spend time with him on his birthday. We went to lunch. Then I took him to Toys 'R Us to pick a gift. We spent about an hour in that store, hitting up every aisle until he settled on something. He settled on a Spiderman web launcher that shoots out silly string, lol. When we went up to pay, he told the cashier that it was birthday and she gave him a birthday crown and a balloon, he was so happy. After Toys 'R Us, I took him and my sister to a laser tagging place that opened up near our house. They had a blast and Caleb won! For dinner, my whole family went to a new cajun seafood restaurant that just opened up. Caleb got both the things he wanted, a whole dungeness crab and sushi. He ate so much!! We brought a cake to the restaurant for him and when we were finished with dinner, our server brought it out for us to sing "Happy Birthday." Caleb was so surprised and happy. He loves being with my family and when we got home that night he thanked me for giving him such a great birthday.





Saturday, the 17th, was his birthday party. We had a magic theme and I hired a magician to entertain the kids. My friend brought his jumper and cotton candy machine as a gift to Caleb. Adam bbq'ed and we had about 20 kids show up along with about 30 adults. I was so stressed out planning the party. If it weren't for the help of my family and friends, I probably would've lost it. Everything turned out for the best though because everyone had a great time, especially Caleb. And that is the most important thing.

Cravings...

I've been craving crab since this weekend, and Adam & I planned on going to SF to have dinner at one of their many crab restaurants Saturday night. However, my lazy butt didn't want to get out of bed and I just couldn't bring myself to justify spending over $100 on a crab dinner. So, we stayed home, finally getting out of bed at around 1pm and headed over the Great Mall instead. We ate dinner at Outback (blech) and watched Horrible Bosses (FUNNY!).

SO last night, I was determined to eat some crab, I drove to the asian grocers after work to pick up some live dungeness crab. I satisfied my craving with some roasted garlic crab and garlic noodles! yay. Those cravings are just intense!!




Another craving I've been having lately is cucumbers with lemon, salt and chili powder. It's so refreshing. I requested Adam keep our fridge stocked with cucumbers on his last grocery run. Love that MAN. <3

Baby Bump Progress

Week 14: Baby is the size of a lemon :)




Week 17: Baby is the size of an onion <3


I missed taking pics of week 15 & 16, life was just so hectic.

It's A....

We had our ultrasound yesterday and it was by the far the best experience I've had with Kaiser so far. Our ultrasound tech was the sweetest, kindest lady ever. We brought along Caleb to experience the whole thing and our tech was just smitten with him. She involved him in the whole process and engaged us in conversation the whole time. She even answered all mine and Caleb's questions while she was measuring the baby. She printed so many pictures for us to take home and she even wrote on the ultrasound for Caleb and gave him his own copy. It was so wonderful!!!! We are beyond excited and seeing my baby boy made this pregancy feel that much more real to me. :)

Second Trimester

I've officially entered into my second trimester. I'm not as anxious and worried as I was in the first. Adam and I are both so excited, yet terrified of becoming parents. I wonder if I can do this again but at the same time I'm so excited to do it again. I just know that I feel so blessed to be given the chance to.




Our baby is the size of a peach already. Got this idea from Sydney @TheDaybook. (Caleb took these pictures)

The Dreaded GD

Saturday morning at 7am, I woke up to get to the Labs early enough to get all my prenatal blood work done. At my last appt my OB told me she would order a sugar test since my blood work from my primary showed that I was pre-diabetic and I had developed gestational diabetes during my pregnancy with Caleb.

I get to the lab and they tell me about all my blood tests and she asks me if I'd been fasting for my sugar test. I said yes. She tells me it's the 3 hour test!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I was not expecting a 3 hour test. I was prepared for a 1 hour test. But I took the test, drank the nasty limeade flavored sugar drink, and wasted my life for 3 full hours. The sugar drank made me nauseous and it took everything in me (plus the threat of having to start all over again) not to get sick. I let them poke my veins 4 times, by the time I left, I looked like a heroin addict with trackmarks.

So, I get my results back, lo and behold, my blood sugar levels were higher than the normal range. Bummer, I have GD again. Last night I get the call from the nurses office to let me know I have to participate in the program and to pick up my meter this Friday. Great, I have to poke myself 4 times a day and monitor my blood sugar levels and watch what I eat. Not good news for a sugar addict like myself. I guess my sugar loving ways have finally caught up to me because here I am with gestational diabetes, again.

Oh well, I will do everything I can; resist the sugar urges, go into withdrawal, just to have a healthy baby in the end. The sacrifices a mother has to make and well before the baby is even here!

Cravings.

What better craving than mango with bagoong. :P deeeelicious.

The Sleepy Bug has bit me.

I am so extremely exhausted ALL the time. Fatigue will just in me in the middle of the day and I feel like I could just drop down and sleep. Not only that but I am nauseous EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. ALL. DAY. LONG.

Just a couple more weeks until I'm out of the first trimester, hopefully it'll be smooth sailing from there. *crossing my fingers, toes, ears and eyes*

Hellllooo 30, I'm so excited to meet you!

Surprisingly, I took turning 30 pretty well. So far this has been one of my best birthdays so far. I have been so incredibly, abundantly and undeservingly blessed. I woke up this morning to a flood of love and birthday greetings via text, facebook and voicemail. My whole being is just radiating with love and blessings. I am so thankful and grateful for another year.

The best birthday present I got today was seeing our little bean on the ultrasound and seeing it's little heart beating on that screen, it was so incredibly amazing. Being pregnant is one of the most profound mysteries of life, you worry about everything cooking inside of your body which you have no control over. Every little twinge or pain feels like something could be wrong and just rains worry upon a mothers heart, but seeing our baby on the ultrasound really calmed me today. I have tried not to let my anxieties get the best of me and just know that God is taking care of me and my life. I know that I am just the vessel and I feel blessed knowing that.



This morning I woke Caleb up for school, and the first thing he says to me with his groggy, sleep filled eyes was "did you get my card mommy?" I looked on the kitchen table and saw a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a card with "mom" written on it. It was the best thing ever! (A couple of weeks ago he was asking me what I wanted for my birthday and I told him hugs and kisses, he said "no mommy I want to buy you something" so I said I'd like flowers and a card.) My 6 year old son spent the whole day trying to make my birthday special. Our tradition for my birthday is to go to Chuck E Cheese, this year he said that he would pay for me to play and that if I got hungry, he would buy me something to eat. (This kid melts my heart) And you know what, he really did buy tokens with his own money. :) He said he would win me a prize. <3




And my husband, what can I say about that man. He spoils me. He tries his hardest to make me happy and make my wishes come true. I'd been wanting a macbook pro for awhile and I was saving up my money to purchase my own. My husband surprised me with one for my birthday! :) But in all honesty, it's not the material things I really enjoy for my birthday, it's the time and the love I feel. My favorite part of this weekend with my husband was going to watch Kevin Hart perform on Saturday night. I've never laughed so hard in my life. My face and my head hurt from laughing so hard.




This birthday weekend was just so amazing, from Saturday brunch with my ladies, (some who traveled 2 hours away just to celebrate with me) to a day full of nothing but relaxation. I am so thankful to have such amazing friends and family. I imagine my 30th year will be the best one yet. :) <3

10 things I love about you..

(how lucky I feel to wake up to this face every morning)

*how you love cuddling
*the way you hold me when I'm being emotional and crying for no reason
*how much you love Caleb
*when we're annoying each other, you give me a look that makes me bust out laughing and I forget why I was annoyed in the first place
*you love to give me kisses in the morning
*your hugs make me feel safe
*the way you take care of your family
*how hard you work for us
*you revive the plants I kill
*the way you get excited to see our little bean growing

There are a million more reasons why I love you & I know I'm so lucky to be loved by you. Xoxox

The Rabbit Died!!!

Dessert before dinner

Tonight I took my good friend Mike out to dinner at Boiling Crab for his birthday and also as a farewell since he'll be moving to New York on Tuesday.

I was also able to meet his girlfriend, I LOVED her, she was so sweet! I'm so happy that Mike has found someone like her. She makes him happy.

The wait time at Boiling Crab is always long, at least an hour, so we decided to get dessert before dinner. It was a beautiful night tonight and there was a froyo/gelato place right next to Boiling Crab. Yummy!

This was Mike and Drea's first time at Boiling Crab so they did their research beforehand. Happy to report that they both thoroughly loved it!

Too bad they don't have any in New York.

Hello Sunshine!

Now we're talking! After a week of rain, I'm so happy to see the sunshine out. This is what spring is supposed to feel like in the Bay Area.

The weather is forecasted to be in the 60/70's all week. Hallelujah! Time to bust out spring dresses, shorts and bare feet!

I sent my little monster off to school in shorts today.

Next week my most favorite guy is on spring break, so I decided to take a couple of days off work to have some special momm & me time.

With beautiful weather here, the possibilities are endless! I'm thinking of taking him to a couple of museums, the movies, picnics at the park, bike riding and more. Plus, I just scored and awesome deal on horseback riding from Groupon.

Obsessed!!

The highlight of my busy weekend was receiving my new THEIT bag

It was like Christmas morning when I saw that lovely little brown box on my doorstep. I squealed like a child, knowing that the thing I'd been waiting so long for was finally mine.

I LOVE this bag. Not only is it stylish but it is so functional. I can carry my whole life in this bag. I love the removable and repositionable inserts which allow me to fit my camera and extra lenses along with my normal day-to-day necessities. I love it! It is pure awesomeness and now I have no excuse not to carry my camera everywhere. I won't miss any important moments with my little monster anymore. :)



My handsome little monster. Growing so fast!