The Name Game

Naming Popper wasn't as difficult as I had thought it was going to be. Here is how it went for us. I threw out a bunch of names, he said no. He threw out a bunch of names, I said no. I threw out Isabelle, he loved it, I loved it. Perfect. See, how simple was that?!?!? HA! The tricky part with picking the first name was that we wanted a name with a double letter. Why you ask? Because Lance married a crazy person! Here is my reasoning. My first name has two N's. When I married Lance, my new last name has two L's. My mother in law's first name has two R's, my father in law's first name has two N's, Ryan married Emma, which has two M's and they had Ella which has two L's! I mean really how cool is that!! So basically Ryan and Lance are the only two who can't play in our double letter first and last name game! hahahaha As a disclaimer, there is absolutely no pressure on Ryan and Emma to continue the double letter name game when they decide if/when they are going to have more kids! Like I said, I'm the crazy one and I just think weird things like that are neat! So that's how we came up with Isabelle. We call her Belle for short, though my sister Cat calls her Izzy. I like calling her my beautiful Belle.

Speaking of beautiful Belle, here is a picture from our 3D ultrasound we did at 30 weeks.

This is the picture I have hanging in my office. I love it. That is her hand on the side of her cheek. The lady doing the ultra sound said, ooohhh look at those cheeks. I just shook my head and apologized to Isabelle now because unfortunately for her, she's never going to grow out of them. Her mother is speaking from experience!

This one is cool because you can sort of see her right eye which is open and then her cute little hand in front of her left eye.

Here is another cute one with her hand rubbing her eye. She was pretty cooperative during the ultra sound but almost all of the pictures we got of her have her hand trying to block some part of her face. She wasn't a huge fan of the paparazzi! Her lips look like she's trying to give kisses to us!!!

The whole 3D ultra sound experience was absolutely amazing. I would highly recommend it to any parents who want a sneak peak of their little one. For us, it was worth every penny! We were able to Skype with my in-laws during the ultra sound so even though they were in Tucson, they were able to experience it with us. We had my family in the room along with my BFF Wendy. Having everyone there (and on Skype) seeing Isabelle for the first time was one of the coolest experiences ever.

Isabelle's middle name is going to be Olivia. I can't really remember how we came up with that name. It was a name we both liked and it went well with Isabelle so we went with it.

Isabelle Olivia arriving July 21, 2012!!!

Love,
Suzanne

37 Week Update

Well, we are coming to the end of week 37 and my stubborn little girl is still breeched. I was certain when we headed in there at week 36 she had turned. I guess my mommy instincts suck. I hope it improves soon! haha My regular doctor who we have been seeing since week 5 is off having his own baby (well at least his wife is) so we have 3 appointments without him. Unfortunately for us, they are 3 of our last 4 appointments and right about now I'm really wishing he were here with us to keep me calm. The midwifes that we've had the last two weeks have been very nice and have been very helpful but it's just not the same. The midwife last week really put the pressure on us to schedule the version flip right then and there and I just couldn't do it. I was terrified of the thought of having someone take their hands, place them around my stomach and the outside of the baby and try to flip her. I decided at that point my fear of the flip was greater than my fear of a c section so I guess c section it is. I've heard many stories of friends and family who have had babies flip the day they went into labor or a few days before their scheduled c section. But, if she doesn't flip, she doesn't flip and I think now, I'm at the point where I'm ok with it. What other choice do I have?!?! hahaha I'm sure this kid will wait until the c section is scheduled on the books and then flip. She's my daughter, why wouldn't she be difficult?!?! :)

We had an ultra sound scheduled for yesterday so they could determine how big she was. I was pretty confident she wasn't 10 lbs or anything like that since my stomach isn't very big. My doctors still wanted to check because if she was big, I think they would have recommended a c section sooner rather than later. As of yesterday she is weighing in at about 7 lbs. The thing with the ultra sound weight measurement game is that it's not an exact science. When they told us she was approximately 7 lbs they said, but that could be higher by a pound or lower by a pound. hahaha um ok, so really, she could be 6, 7 or 8 lbs right now! hahaha Either way, at the end of 37 weeks I'm perfectly happy with a 6, 7 or 8 pound baby. Though if she is going to flip and I am going to push 6 lbs is starting to sound even better! :-P

Lance and I could not be happier than we are right now. We can't wait to meet our little girl! And to think that she's going to be here in about 2 weeks just rocks our world! We have truly felt so blessed this entire pregnancy. When I got up on the ultra sound table yesterday, the ultra sound lady said, are you so over being pregnant? I said nope, I've had a super easy pregnancy and I know it. And I am grateful for it! If I didn't want to meet her so bad I could easily carry her for another couple of months. But lets not get crazy 40 weeks of carrying a child is enough for me. I'm starting to miss my coffee, and my occasional adult beverage and my Pei Wei, oh my goodness do I miss my Pei Wei! I know my coffee and adult beverage aren't coming for awhile longer since I'll be breastfeeding, but that's ok. Because Pei Wei's Pad Thai has my name all over it as soon as this little girl gets here!

I just realized I have not done a blog about what our baby girls name is going to be. I think most everyone knows it by now, but in the next blog, I'll share her name, along with some pictures from the 3D ultra sound we had at week 30!

Love,
Suzanne

Can't Sleep

4am blogging is not what I had in mind for today. I can't get my brain to shut off so after laying there for over an hour I decided to get up and do something useful. Like watching the news and blogging! :) I haven't real time blogged since Rachel was in the hospital, that was almost 2 years ago now!

I was actually sleeping well until 3:30 when I woke up having to use the bathroom. Which, if you've ever been pregnant before you know in these last few weeks happens at least once a night. If I make it through the night with only having to get up once to use the bathroom, I consider that a successful night! hahaha After I got up this morning to use the bathroom, my brain went into overdrive and sleep apparently was not on the list. I'm anxious for my appointment today. I've been trying to tell myself to relax but being that I'm up blogging right now, clearly, that's not working.

Today is our 36 week appointment, at our 34 week appointment we found out baby was breeched. I was totally bummed. She had been face down in the proper position for the last two and a half months and now as we approach her due date she flipped on us. My doctor told me that she needed to flip back by the 36 week appointment or we would need to discuss either planning for a c-section or planning to have him manually flip her. There is a another term for the manual flip, I just don't remember what it was. Anyway, I don't want either. Neither sounds fun. I'm horribly afraid of having surgery and the thought of my doctor putting his hands on my stomach and forcing her to flip makes me start sweating just thinking about it.

The day before our 34 week appointment Lance was outside grilling our dinner and I was in the kitchen stirring the rice. I looked down at my stomach, it was the weirdest thing to watch. My stomach looked like it was being taken over by and alien. Lance came in from outside and I told him to check it out and we watched her moving around making my stomach do some really weird looking things. It never occurred to us (hello! Clearly we are first time parents!) that she was moving out of position. We had never seen that before so we were pretty in awe. Well, the very next day our doctor was doing the ultrasound and was not happy when he couldn't find her head where it had been for the last 2 1/2 months.

My gut tells me she actually has moved back down into position but my head won't rest until I know for sure. I really hope my gut is right. On Father's day right before bed, she started moving like crazy again, creating another alien baby moment. The next day, and the days to follow, I've had a hard time walking after sitting for a long period of time. That was the same issue I was having when she was the correct position before. Those issues relieved themselves when she had breeched herself. We kept laughing every time I would get out of the car after our long drive home and I couldn't walk. I told Lance I really hope all this pain really does mean she is back in birthing position!

My in-laws come into town today for my baby shower on Saturday. I'm very excited to have them here, and I know they are very excited to see their future granddaughter! We haven't seen them (other than Skyping) since we told them we were pregnant at Christmas time. My stomach is much much bigger than it was at Christmas time! We will have great weather while they are here, though, I have the news on right now and they keep talking about the "heat wave" we are going to have this weekend. Apparently us SoCal residents think heat wave means 80 degrees because that's what we are going to have. I'm sure Ronnie and Sherry will very much enjoy our version of a heat wave especially since they live in Tucson. They know heat in Tucson!

Well, I better finish up here. I need to start getting ready for work and my appointment. I'm sure this afternoon I'm going to be a pregnant sleep deprived zombie. ha! Hopefully my next post will say baby girl is back and position and we are still on for a natural birth, that sure would make me one happy mama!!

Love,
Suzanne
P.S. Lance is my proof reader before I normally post my posts, but he's sleeping. So hopefully this post isn't a hot mess of grammatical and spelling errors! :)

35 week update

I posted a new post last night, so scroll down if you haven't read that one yet. Besides yesterday's update, the last time I updated I was 22 weeks and now I'm almost 36 weeks. Holy cow has time flown by! I can't believe I'm going to be 36 weeks already! About a month left!

These last 14 weeks have been crazy! I didn't know how I was going to survive May, but thankfully I did! Between working full time, taking two college classes and taking a million baby classes May was a month I would soon like to forget. Just looking at the month of May on my calendar seriously sent me into a panic. We had 3 doctor's appointments, I had class two nights a week, plus finals and we started our birthing classes and maternity ward tour. The stress had reached it's peak about mid way through May, but once my two finals were done, I felt like I could breathe again. And, I got good grades in both my classes so I was happy about that. I do remember a certain sister of mine (CAT!) saying I shouldn't take two classes this semester. Clearly, she has no faith in me! :)

We really did enjoy our maternity ward tour. We have two options of where we can give birth at. One of the hospitals is in Irvine and the other is in Anaheim. The Anaheim hospital is closer to us, but the Irvine hospital is much newer. The Anaheim hospital will actually be closing in September to move to their new hospital (still in Anaheim) so we wanted to take a peek at what the old Anaheim hospital looks like. The new Anaheim hospital is the one we go to every two weeks to have my check ups. It's really nice. I'm sure the maternity ward in that hospital is going to be awesome. But alas, baby girl is coming in July, not September. We actually really enjoyed the tour we took of the current Anaheim maternity ward. They really have kept it up and it is a really nice place. After doing our tour, we decided that Anaheim it would be. Plus, my doctor said he thought the staff was better at the Anaheim hospital so when it's time to give birth, that's where we'll be! On the tour we got to pick a little hat for our baby! A volunteer knitted them and each parent to be was able to pick one for their baby. Lance let me pick and of course I picked a super cute yellow one! I'll be sure to post a picture of her wearing her super cute hat. I think it's so nice that volunteers would make these hats for all the parents to be on the tours! It's such a nice thing to receive.

The birthing class we took were actually very good. It was a 5 week class that was held every Thursday from 6:30-9pm every week. After a full day of working from 7-5 then hopping on the freeway for an hour and a half drive to the class, to then be in class until 9pm, we were pretty much over it by the time our 5 week class was up. We learned a ton in these classes which was great. Now if we can avoid a c-section all these classes wouldn't have been for nothing! One of the things we did learn was that by now, we should already have our bags packed for the hospital. Um, ya, we are 4 weeks away and we still haven't packed our bags yet. hahaha Maybe this weekend!

All of my appointments in May went really well. My glucose levels are still staying normal (knock on wood) and my blood pressure is remaining perfect and I'm still in the negative for my weight. I'll take it. I really have been super blessed during this pregnancy. No morning sickness, no heartburn, no swelling, I'm losing weight, the baby is doing great and I'm able to sleep at night. Can't ask for much more than that!

More updates to come. I have a bunch of pictures to share from 2 of the showers we've had so far, pictures from our 4D ultra sound and pictures from us getting her nursery ready. So many fun things left to share!!

Love,
Suzanne

One Month To Go!

I wanted to do a quick post tonight since we are exactly one month away from our due date. I can't believe it!! Where have these last 35 weeks gone? I thought for sure by the time we reached the 4 week countdown I would be starting to panic, but I am surprisingly calm....so far. haha I'm more panicked about work and being gone for 4 months. The amount of work I have left to do before I go out on maternity is absolutely crazy. If all goes well, I plan on working until July 19th. If she actually comes on July21st then bonus. If she comes later (which Wendy will not be happy about! haha) then I'll just be at home waiting for her to arrive. Lance plans on taking at least a week off after the baby is born so he'll be going to work until after the 19th until I call him (if he's at work) and tell him it's go time. Hopefully baby girl won't decide to come during rush hour while Lance is at work! :)

I have a bunch of posts I still need to finish which hopefully will happen this weekend. Here is the latest picture of me taken on Father's Day.

Everyone keeps saying my baby bump is so small, which makes me laugh. I sure don't feel like it's so small when I'm trying to turn over in bed, or when I'm trying to get out of a chair! I do feel very lucky at how this pregnancy has gone. One might call it an easy peasy pregnancy, but I don't want to jinx myself, I still have 4 weeks left! 

More posts coming soon!

Love,

Suzanne

More Appointment Info

I did an update yesterday so if you haven’t scrolled down yet, make sure you go back and check that post out. I know I don’t normally post two days in a row so I didn’t want to throw everyone off!

Since our leap day appointment we had another regularly scheduled appointment with my OB. The only issue I have with my OB is that he is a huge Yankees fan. Hahahaha Baseball season is amongst us so you know the trash talking has begun! Other than that little fault, I really like him. He seems to really know his stuff and always give us all the time we need to ask all of our questions. I know this guy saw NEW PARENTS written all over our face when we walked into his office back in November. He hasn’t had to grab us by the shoulders yet and tell us to snap out of it so that’s good. We must not be freaking out too bad!

My appointments have been going really well. Thank goodness! My sugar levels continue to remain consistent and my blood pressure has been outstanding! I have read a bunch of information that says during your second trimester it goes down but should return to normal in the third trimester. I am still carefully watching my diet and exercising so I hope that when I hit the third trimester my blood pressure continues to stay normal. I know swelling and discomfort are part of the deal with being pregnant but I really don’t want swelling or discomfort! I mean really, who does? However, if walking or riding my spinning bike helps with the swelling and discomfort, you’ll find me on the track or walking my neighborhood! I can just hear all you moms out there laughing at me. Saying, she thinks she’ll be out there in the 9th month! Hahaha
At the appointment before the leap day appointment, I had gained two pounds and I figured here is where the baby and all the extra blood and fluids I’m carrying were going to start to outweigh my good food choices and exercise. But then at my latest appointment I had lost 4 lbs! Yay!

My doctor had looked over all the ultrasound pictures that were taken the week before and said that everything looked good and that our little girl was growing and developing very well. He also said the latest results to our disabilities screening had come back and everything looked normal there too. We sure do like hearing such great news. Keep the good news coming!!

This Sunday we start week 22! I have already started to feel the flutters I was told would be coming. I normally only feel them when I’m sitting at my desk at work. They aren’t strong enough to feel while I’m walking or moving around. The other day I was sitting at my desk at work and she must have given me a huge kick or punch because it was the strongest one I had felt yet and it totally caught my attention. I immediately emailed Lance telling him about it! I can’t wait until she’s kicking and moving and he can feel it. Every night before we go to bed he lies right next to my stomach and talks to her. He always tries to get her to kick me, but so far she hasn’t done it on command. Last night he was encouraging her to kick me and he was waiting patiently trying to feel any movement, but she wasn’t going for it. As soon as I turned over she began kicking. I started laughing and told Lance that she was already toying with him! Hahaha She is so going to rule this household.

Lance has continued to be awesome and has continued to be the rock I need at times. Going through all of this with him has really made it so much easier on me. For that I am truly grateful! He has really picked up a lot of the things I used to do around the house since I have school two days a week and when I’m not in school, I feel like I’m always walking. Just knowing that things are getting done really does take a bunch of stress out of my life. I really do have the best husband ever!

This is the latest picture of our baby girl. Even though this isn't a high resolution shot, we are starting to see more features especially on her face. In case you can't tell what you're looking at, she's laying on her side, and her head is on the right of the picture. She is laying on her hand.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Love,
Suzanne

Popper Update

Well I hope everyone enjoyed watching the video!! If you haven’t figured it out yet….we are having a baby girl!! We couldn’t be happier! We didn’t really have a preference on whether we wanted a boy or a girl, just a healthy baby will do us just fine. But, now we know what we are in for. Pink, butterflies, princesses and more pink! And of course a bunch of baseball stuff too, she’s not going to be totally girly!! Hahahaha

Our appointment was on leap day and I had been dreading the 24oz of water I had to drink an hour before my 7:30am appointment. It actually wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I drank the water no problem, it was only right at my appointment time that I really needed to use the rest room. Luckily though I only had to wait a few minutes into the appointment before the technician let me use the restroom. Yay! I guess they needed to take a few ultrasound pictures with my bladder full, then she was able to let me go to the bathroom and she could take the rest of the pictures with a empty bladder. They wouldn’t let Lance come back with me at first so I was back there while she was taking all the ultrasound pictures while he was waiting in the waiting room. I don’t think he liked that very much especially since I was back there for about 30 minutes or so before they came and got him. Once they brought him back he totally gave me the stink eye trying to figure out if I knew if we were having a boy or a girl. I started laughing and told him right away he could stop trying to read my face to determine if it was a boy or a girl because I didn’t know. The whole time the tech was taking all the ultrasound pictures she didn’t have the screen facing me at all. I couldn’t see anything. Once Lance was in the room the tech turned the screen towards us and we could see our little Popper! This kid really tried to make sure that we were going to leave there not knowing if it was a boy or a girl. She was all over the place. She was doing cartwheels and summersaults and handstands. The tech kept saying to me, can you feel that, she is kicking you with both feet. Hahaha Unfortunately I couldn’t, but I really wanted to be able to! Though in a few months I might be begging this child to stop kicking me for just a few hours so I can sleep!

Every time the tech tried to get a shot between the legs she would move her position. Finally, after about 10 more minutes of trying to get a shot, she gave us a quick peak. The tech said, see that line right there, with the three lines in it? That means your baby is a girl. Lance and I were shocked. I literally looked at the tech and said seriously? It’s a girl? Here is why we were so shocked. My OB that we see every two weeks told us about a month ago we were having a boy. We get an ultrasound every two weeks when we go to see him and he showed us why he thought it was a boy and hey, I couldn’t disagree with him, it looked like a boy to me. We had a month to digest the fact that we were going to have a boy and now we are being told, nope, it’s actually a girl. We weren’t disappointed, just shocked. I think I was more shocked than Lance was. I’m pretty sure the tech was tired of me asking, really, a girl? Are you sure it’s a girl? Hahahaha I actually had an ultrasound picture with me from our last visit with our doctor where it seriously looked like boy parts. She looked at the picture and said, she wasn’t sure what that was, but it wasn’t boy parts. I will say that the ultrasound our doctor uses every two weeks is a portable machine that is definitely not as good of quality as the one we used on leap day, so I am very much trusting that machine more than the portable one. Though I swear on everything holy that if I go through the next few months thinking we are having a girl and then I deliver a boy, I am going to go kung fu crazy on someone. It’s a crazy emotional rollercoaster! I had already started calling the baby the boys name we had picked out! hahaha I’m very confident though that it’s a girl now though. We’ve had another ultrasound since then and now my doctor is convinced it’s a girl too. So that’s good!

We made two videos, one for a boy and one for a girl. Lance did a really great job! He did all the work and he was so convinced as well we were having a boy that he almost didn’t make a girl video. The night before we were to have our appointment, he showed me his final boy video and I said that I loved it and could I see the final girl video. I received a blank stare and he said that he didn’t do a girl video. This is how sure we were people!!! I started laughing and said well what the heck are we going to do if it’s a girl tomorrow? He quickly made the girl video and low and behold, that’s the one we needed! Thank goodness he made that video!

We made cupcakes the night before for all of our co-workers at work. We decided we would make cupcakes with white frosting and then put pink sprinkles if it was a girl, or blue sprinkles if it was a boy. The cupcakes with pink sprinkles were a big hit and a fun way to let everyone know we would be welcoming a baby girl in July!!
Here is a high resolution shot of Popper from the ultrasound appointment on the leap day. She is getting so big!

Love,
Suzanne