Gabrielle is 7 months!

I need to weigh her ?lbs!
Size 3 diapers.
Size 6-9-12 clothing! Some 18 month shorts fit her too lol; size 6 is getting very small.
Still breast fed!

Still in the bassinet in our room, but, she is quickly out growing it. It is time to make the switch :( time for her to sleep in her big girl crib. I don't want her to leave our room though!
She can roll both ways :) She mastered sitting up by herself! When she falls back, if she is on a slightly elevated surface, she can use her tummy muscles to pull herself back to a sitting position.
Had Jasmine rice for the first time tonight. Loves it. :) She pats her belly/chest like a gorilla lol She's such a happy baby and always in a good mood.
Looking forward to her first Halloween, she's a monkey! 

Gabrielle is 6 months!

 

17-18lbs!
Size 3 diapers.
Size 6-9-12 clothing! Some 18 month shorts fit her too lol; size 6 is getting very small.
Still breast fed!

Still in the bassinet in our room, but, she is quickly out growing it. It is time to make the switch :( time for her to sleep in her big girl crib. I don't want her to leave our room though!
She can roll both ways :) She mastered sitting up by herself! When she falls back, if she is on a slightly elevated surface, she can use her tummy muscles to pull herself back to a sitting position.
Between 5-6 months, she has tried a wide variety of foods. She had and loves, sweet potato, peas, carrots (sometimes), and mango. She doesn't really like avocado much :( Sometimes I sneak in avocado, I dunk some in peas, and she eats it ;)
She is traditional weaning and Baby Led weaning sometimes.  We give her 3 solid meals a day, tried her on a sippy cup. She doesn't know for sure what to do with it yet, but she will learn. She tried baby apple juice, and loves Gerber Puffs!
She also said "dada" :)
Her last doctors appointment, she was 90th percentile for her weight and 40th percentile for her height lol.



Super late uploading this here, she will be 7 months next week!

A Colorado Vacation

This little girl will be taking her first plane ride ever, to Colorado :) hurry up, Tuesday!

Gabrielle is 5 months!

17lbs!
Size 3 diapers.
Size 6-9-12 clothing! Some 18 month shorts fit her too lol
Still breast fed!
Has been having baby rice for the last week :) She loves it! We give her some at dinner time when we eat. This coming week I'm going to gradually increase the thickness. It has been very runny. She also had a taste of banana for the first time, not a big reaction from that.
Still sleeps in her bassinet in our room.
Rolled ONCE! from her tummy to her back. Gets close to rolling from her back to her tummy but keeps getting stuck on her arm. She'll get it :)
Loves blowing raspberries.
Still loves bath time and her reflection.
Giggles giggles giggles <3
Is currently teething :( Poor baby G. Runny eyes, runny nose, sneeze, dry cough, fever, the runs. The whole 9 yards.
She sleeps pretty well at night. She sometimes will sleep through the night. Other times she will sleep for 5-6-7hrs and wake for food then go back to sleep. She is usually asleep between 9-10pm and up around 3-4am to eat, and back to sleep until 7-730am.
She is drinking 22-26oz of breast milk in 9hrs! She's a hungry baby. I don't know how many ounces she drinks in all. I nurse her through the night, before work, and after work.

Bath time

Tonight, you learned if you kicked your feet, water will splash everywhere :) mostly all over your dad, you thought this was funny!

I'm so lucky

To be her mom <3

So close!

Any day now and her foot will go and stay in her mouth lol

Gabrielle is 4 months!

15.5-16lbs!
Can fit 12 month clothing lol
Size 2 diapers but they are getting smaller. Will be in 3's soon!
Still breast fed :)
Her sleeping at night varies. Some nights she'll wake 2 times, sometimes 3-4 times.
She is still sleeping in her bassinet. It is getting small. I think, within a few weeks, she'll be in her big girl crib in her own room :(!!!!
Her neck is strong! She is a pro at tummy time and can lift her head and does a baby "crunch" !!
She is very alert and active.
She started sucking on her upper lip lol
She loves bath time.
She loves her reflection.
Will coo and goo to you, :)

One year ago, yesterday...

I found out I was pregnant! After a short time of trying and not even missing my period yet, the test was positive! I love my Gabby girl so much. XO

Gabby 14 weeks

She's so beautiful. I love her facial expressions :)

July 4th

She started grabbing her feet! My MIL says, in her culture, this means she wants a sibling to play with lol

Gabrielle is 3 months!

14lbs :)
Easily fits 3-6 clothing
Size 2 diapers
Still breastfed
Started putting her in her bassinet to sleep at night, instead of her swing. She no longer sleeps through the night lol
She likes to be propped up to sit. Likes sitting on your lap/leg
She started grabbing for her feet on July 4th!
She giggles now and smiles often
She can now reach, grab, and hold things

Gabrielle is two months old!

My chubby baby :)
Well she now weighs 11lb 8oz!

She gets a rare bottle and will drink anywhere from 3oz to 5oz, if she's really hungry. Otherwise, she is fully breast fed. That also got easier, thank goodness! I'm glad I stuck with it. She usually eats every 2-3hrs during the day and only wakes sometimes during the night.

Yes, she has been sleeping through the night *KNOCK ON WOOD* she will sleep 8-9hrs, wake to feed, and take another couple hour nap. Then be up most of the day with little 30min naps here and there. Bed time is between 9-11pm, whenever she is finally deep sleeping.

She wears size 1 diapers and is wearing 3month+ clothing. A lot of the clothing fits width, but length is too short lol

She has started to smile. Like, the real smile! It is the cutest thing. She talks a lot and loves her little play mat I got her. She still hates tummy time though. She loves watching tv lol.

Gabrielle is One Month old!

Gabby is a whole month old!

Things really are getting easier, **knock on wood** ! We are learning her and she is learning us. The first two weeks were the toughest. She was the cutest at that point but it was the hardest stretch to get through. Not only was I healing from the c-section but we had a newborn. What the heck do you do with a newborn!? Lots of family came to visit, lots of pictures were taken, I am not posting any of those because there is no time for me to ever get myself together. I can't remember the last time I wore jeans and had my hair down... fixed up and down. ;)

Breastfeeding has been quite the challenge. It has been a tough month for learning that, too. I think we are finally getting the hang of it...again I must **knock on wood**! There have been a million and one times I have almost given up. I've cried too many times to count. And had silly arguments. Looking back they don't seem like a big deal, but in the moment -- it meant the world to me. I always wanted to try breastfeeding. And I know that if it didn't work out, there are other ways of feeding my baby and it wouldn't kill her. At first she has lost some weight because we both were learning the ropes. The doctor said they want her to be 8-8.8lbs by her one month appointment (April 25th), I freaked out. So I pumped and pumped and gave her breast milk through a bottle. Family came to visit during the same time, so it was convenient. Now we are back to mostly breastfeeding and M gives her bottles for the stretch of time he watches her while I nap.

She eats, from the bottle, 3.5-4oz every 2-3hrs. When we went to the lactation specialist, we weighed her, she ate, and we weighed her again and she got 3oz from me :) So she is a 3oz kind of gal, for now.

She has definitely filled out. We are guessing she will be well over 8lbs. I'm interested in seeing how long she is. When she was born, they said she was 21inches. At her first check up, she was 19inches lol

She is such a good baby. The last month has definitely been a huge change and an adjustment but it is worth every second. :)

UPDATE - She had her one month appointment and weighs 9lb 3.4oz!!  and is 21.14in long.
She can still wear newborn clothing but she has been wearing more 0-3 month clothing, some fit a bit baggy though. She is no longer in Newborn diapers :( She now fits size 1's.

Gabby is here!

I am officially a mommy! :) She is almost a month old! I had her on her due date, which I thought was pretty cool -- since I hear it doesn't happen very often.

Here's the long story.

March 23rd I woke up around 3-4am with aches in my belly/lower back. I figured they were the fake braxton hicks, so I thought nothing of them. I couldn't sleep through them though. They were mostly just uncomfortable. I debated on going to work that day, or not. I called the OBGYN and my midwives to see what signs I should be looking for before I should panic. Basically they said, don't come in until the contractions are 3-5min apart and I can't walk or talk through them. They said if my water breaks, then come in right away. So I decided to go into work. The pain was tolerable. Everyone was really nice at work. I had made a post about the pains on FB, so by the time I got to work, everyone was aware, I might not be there too much longer. My friend Flor let me borrow her blanket to sit on in case my waters broke lol I worked and the pains were still there. I only lasted at work till I think around 2pm...so I was at work for only 2.5hrs before I had to leave. I am on the phones all day at work and the pain was getting worse, it was getting hard to hide that i was in pain lol

I left work and headed home to wait until Mario got off of work. He got home before 5pm and by then the pain seemed to settle a bit. So we decided to go walking around Walmart. We went to get some snacks to bring to the hospital. We walked around for an hour or so and met up with his friend, they had a few cigarettes and I went into payless to shop for shoes, haha. Walking around helped a lot. Some of the contractions/braxton hicks were pretty strong. Didn't stop me in my tracks though.

We returned home and just relaxed. By now the pain was getting more intense. I downloaded a contraction counter on my phone to track the times they were coming. I have no idea how to track contractions lol but I did my best. Around 11:30pm we were laying in bed watching tv and I felt a gush. SHIT. So I got up and checked myself in the bathroom. I got cleaned up and laid back down. I wasn't sure if that was my water that had broke, or if I just peed myself a little due to the intense pain lol We called labour and delivery and asked them. They said if I thought it was my waters, to come on in. I didn't know what to do. All I knew is that I was in pain but I didn't want to drive all the way to the hospital, which is about 35miles away, just to get sent home. By this time I was in tears. The pain was bad. About an hour later we decided to go to the hospital just in case.

The drive to the hospital was intense. It is so far away but we made it in 10min, no lie! Usually takes about 35-40min to get there. He put on the hazard lights and gunned it. He was so helpful in the car. He was talking calmly and soothing to me "just breathe, it'll be ok, just breathe." When I would get a contraction all I could do was cover my eyes and shake my foot LOL idk, but that is how I dealt with the pain. Once we got to the hospital and parked, I got out and my butt was wet. So yes, the gush I felt around 11:30pm, was in fact my waters.

We rushed to find an elevator to take down to the main floor. From there we tried 2 different entrances to the hospital, both closed. This wasn't a fast process, as my contractions were coming about every 1-2 minutes. So during one I would have to walk very slowly and even stop. So he would run up to the doors and check them while I stood there hunched over in pain with a wet ass LOL Just imagine it. It was not funny at the time but just to think back, if anyone was watching us, I bet they were laughing lol

We found the ER entrance and headed in. They asked what was wrong and how far along I was, got a wheel chair and wheeled me to L&D on floor 10. I hated that part the most because I can walk, slowly and might have to stop a few times, but I can walk. Anyway, we got up there and they checked and sure enough, my waters broke. Now, I had just had a mid wife appointment about a week before this and they said I was only a fingertip dilated. When they checked me once we got to the hospital, I was 7-8cm dilated. HOLY SHIT.

I didn't have a birth plan. The only thing I wanted was some sort of pain relief. That almost didn't happen. It was a very busy night at the hospital and there were like 2 emergency c-sections going on & 5 others in labour, so all the epidural people were busy. That sucked. I was getting contractions pretty much every minute. Again I just covered my eyes/face and shook my foot till the pain passed. They were able to give me some other drug to help ease the pain. I have no idea what it was. But thank goodness for that :) Once that kicked in, I started fixing my makeup lol From then on it is kind of a blur. I know I ended up getting an epidural finally. And we were going to wait a little longer till her head dropped down more -- so we napped. The midwife that was doing the over night shift was great, we liked her from the beginning (when we first had midwife appointments) But of course, the whole pregnancy, we were avoiding the ONE male midwife. We saw him for one check up and that was it in all 40 weeks. Until it was time to push. Guess who was on duty? Yes, the male mid wife LOL. Just our luck. **He looks like my step dad, it was so weird.** So it was time to push (around 7:30-8am), and I pushed, and pushed, and pushed and pushed, for 3.5 hours. She would start to crown then suck back up. She just would not come out. I remember they also gave me pitocin because my contractions started slowing down once I was fully dilated.

I know there was some dark fluid or goo coming out when I would push. So they were going to take her right when she came out to make sure she didn't get any of the goo in her lungs or anything. That goo was poop -- hers, not mine lol. They said it happens from time to time, no biggie. I was fine with that. But she wouldn't come out!! They said "OK, we can try a vacuum but it can cause harm to you and the baby, and if it doesn't work, you'll have to get a c-section, or we can just go straight for the c-section." M and I talked about it and just said, "give me the c-section." As they were prepping for that and I was signing my life away, they still had the pitocin going, and I was like 'omg please stop it, i feel like i'm going to crap myself.'

I wasn't at all upset that I had to get a c-section. They wheeled me in and set everything up. Gave me that spinal thing, made sure I was numb, brought M in, and started to cut me open. The whole thing went just fine. I have no complaints, I had a great experience with a surprise c-section. No complaints at all. I felt pressure and that was about it. I was in a daze pretty much, like "OMG THIS IS IT OMG OMG OMG" There was talking going on from the doctors and M, he would stand up every now and then. When she was out, he stood up and heard him say "Awwwww" right away tears fell down my face. They brought her to me and I just stared at her. I kissed her and smelled her and they took her away -- M followed. They put me back together and at this point I had horrible labour shakes. I had it earlier before I started pushing too. They were all talking about their favorite shows and they asked me and I remember I mumbled something about Jersey Shore LOL Once I was stitched up I went to recovery for an hour. M came in and was telling me all about her. She finally came down too and I got to hold her for the first time! **Picture is above**

Her name is Gabrielle Faye and she weighed 7lb 5oz and was 21 inches long :) Born March 24, 2012 at 12:17pm xoxo

Baby #1 ; Week 38

Baby #1 ; Week 37

Photo taken March 10, 2012.

Baby #1 ; Week 36

 

Photo taken March 3, 2012

Baby #1; Week 35

Today's date: March 2, 2012 {picture was taken on Feb 25, 2012}

How far along: 35 weeks

Total weight gain: 26lbs
Size of the baby: 18in; size of a honeydew melon -- around 5.25lbs.

Sex: Girl! Girl! Girl!

Maternity clothes: The one pair of maternity work pants. I now have 2 maternity jeans and can still wear my bigger size jeans I bought. Still regular tops...well Mediums.

Sleep: Sleeping good. I pee all the time but am usually able to fall back to sleep right away. I am up every 2hrs! And I seem to be soooo thirsty at night.

Best moment(s) of the week: Nothing too crazy has happened this week. It has been pretty mellow around here. :)

Movement: Still very active :) Movements are becoming bigger and her body parts stick out of my belly for longer periods of time.

Food cravings: Sweets, ha. Chocolate milk!
Food aversions: So far, anything goes.

Morning sickness: So far, so good.

Symptoms: Swelling of ankles!! It happened a couple times this week. Nothing too bad or crazy but noticeable to me.

Labor signs: Too soon. Had my first braxton hick, that I've noticed. Nothing since!

Belly button in or out: Flat lol

What I miss:  Red bull and sushi!

What I'm looking forward to: Dropping and labor signs.

Baby #1 ; Week 34

 

Today's date: Feb 24, 2012 {picture was taken on Feb 18, 2012}

How far along: 34 weeks

Total weight gain: 26lbs, that's a 3lb weight gain since previous doctors visit.
Size of the baby: 17.75in; size of an average cantaloupe -- around 4.75lbs.

Sex: Girl! Girl! Girl!

Maternity clothes: The one pair of maternity work pants. I now have 2 maternity jeans and can still wear my bigger size jeans I bought. Still regular tops...well Mediums.

Sleep: Sleeping good. I pee all the time but am usually able to fall back to sleep right away. I am up every 2hrs! And I seem to be soooo thirsty at night.

Best moment(s) of the week: Nothing too crazy has happened this week. It has been pretty mellow around here. :)

Movement: Still very active :) Movements are becoming bigger and her body parts stick out of my belly for longer periods of time.

Food cravings: Sweets, ha. But I am trying to not eat any sweets unless I bake them. I have been finding recipes and putting a healthy spin on them. Like, using apple sauce instead of oil, and splenda instead of real sugar. I bought the ingredients to make pumpkin bread, can't wait to try it.
Food aversions: So far, anything goes.

Morning sickness: So far, so good.

Symptoms: Back hurts easily, I'm out of breath faster, and getting up off the bed/out of M's car -- is a chore :) I have been soooooooooo tired too. No matter how much sleep I get, I feel like I hadn't slept all night. She also started bouncing on my bladder, ouch!

Labor signs: Too soon.

Belly button in or out: Flat lol

What I miss:  Red bull and sushi!

What I'm looking forward to: Our baby appointment Feb 29, 2012 :) 

Baby #1 ; Week 33

Today's date: Feb 14, 2012 {picture was taken on Feb 11, 2012}

How far along: 33 weeks

Total weight gain: 23lbs +

Size of the baby: 17in; size of a pineapple -- around 4.25lbs.

Sex: Girl! Girl! Girl!

Maternity clothes: The one pair of maternity work pants. I now have 2 maternity jeans and can still wear my bigger size jeans I bought. Still regular tops...well Mediums.

Sleep: Sleeping good. I pee all the time but am usually able to fall back to sleep right away.

Best moment(s) of the week: Our baby shower and our wedding :) Pics at the bottom of survey

Movement: Still very active :) Movements are becoming bigger and her body parts stick out of my belly for longer periods of time.

Food cravings: Finally have been wanting fruits and some veggies. Up until now all I've wanted are like, the bad foods lol We have been eating salads almost every night with fruit in them.

Food aversions: So far, anything goes.

Morning sickness: So far, so good.

Symptoms: Back hurts easily, I'm out of breath faster, and getting up off the bed/out of M's car -- is a chore :)

Labor signs: Too soon.

Belly button in or out: Flat lol

What I miss:  Same things as usual lol also, I miss having a flat belly and feeling attractive, ah!

What I'm looking forward to: Our baby appointment Feb 14, 2012. Which we already went to :D



We had our 34 week appointment today. I take my weekly photos at the end of the week, so I wont take my 34 week photo until this coming Saturday. But! Baby girl is still head down, and I have gained 3lbs since 2 weeks ago. Yikes. So I am at 27lb gain, good lawdy! But I am gaining just right still, and everything looks good, my pee, blood pressure, and the glucose test results came back good :)

We then went out to eat

 Oishi is a fairly new restaurant and is becoming our fave.

 I ordered the Tropical Mango Sauce with Tofu and Veggies. Delish.

 He got the rack of lamb, very good!

 Our self cell phone portrait!

 

And the picture we asked the waitress to take of us. She kept telling him to smile lol, smiiiiile smiiiiiile!

We then went grocery shopping, they were having great deals on fruits, had to get some and some more salad fixings.

Monday at work, he sent me these :) He sends me flowers every month. When I'm called to the front office, every one knows why lol 

We also had our baby shower!

 The two awesome girls who put the whole thing together, and myself :)

 Our cake and cupcakes. The cake was red velvet, mmmm. And cupcakes were dark chocolate and vanilla. The lovely girl that made these for us, gave it to us as our baby gift. How awesome right!?

 Our gifts! We got so many gifts! Some didn't have a name who it was from :(

M in the center front :) We had a good turn out, 30 or so came, all at different times lol it was a great time.

Also, a big surprise, my friend flew down from Colorado, where I moved from last Jan, with her son and came to our baby shower! I hadn't seen her in over a year. I cried when she walked in. It was really good to see her :)

Feb 10th, M and I got married :D Just a simple courthouse wedding. It happened so fast. It took but a couple minutes and we were official! We had a few friends come. We will be having a bigger wedding in a year or so, with the dress and decorations, and all that fun stuff :)

 My little bouquet I had made :)

 On our way. It just started snowing :D

 Yes, I am very very very preggo lol

 Now husband and wife :D

 xoxoox

 <3

L-R: Rene, John, Debbie, Kevin, Me, M, M's mom, my dad, M's dad, my step mom. :D

That is all that has been happening. It was a busy fun week :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Baby #1 ; Week 32

Today's date: Feb 4, 2012

How far along: 32 weeks

Total weight gain: 23lbs omg lol

Size of the baby: 16.7in; size of a large jicama -- what ever that is :) And around 3.75lbs.

Sex: Girl! Girl! Girl!

Maternity clothes: The one pair of maternity work pants. I now have 2 maternity jeans and can still wear my bigger size jeans I bought. Still regular tops...well Mediums.

Sleep: Sleeping good. I pee all the time but am usually able to fall back to sleep right away. Last few weeks I have had bad hip pains, still do some nights. But still sleeping well.

Best moment(s) of the week: Doctors appointment! We had our 32 week doctors appointment Tuesday Jan 31, 2012. Just the basic check up. Check your pee, blood pressure, weighs you, answers questions. And got to hear her heart beat :) It was in the 130's. She found it right away. I am measuring 32in from bottom of my boobs to my pelvic area. Gabby is head down and her little bum was right below my ribs. She favors my left side, has the whole pregnancy -- well since I could start feeling her kicks and things. :) Hoping she stays head down. We now see our midwife every 2 weeks now, we go back Feb 14th!

Movement: Still very active :) I can feel her throughout the day and always at night. We played her a song the other night, M and his friend made a video singing and playing guitar to "98* - It's all because of you" and Gabby was moving all around :) She also had hiccups the other night and M moved down to my belly and was going "Boo!!!" "Raahhh!!" Trying to scare her so she would stop hiccuping lol, it was the sweetest cutest thing.

Food cravings: Chocolate milk. I swear I've gone through 2 gallons in a month and there's a full gallon in the fridge with my name on it lol

Food aversions: So far, anything goes.

Morning sickness: So far, so good.

Symptoms: The other day at work I got the most horrible back pain. I don't know if it was related to pregnancy, but I'm guessing so. It was so painful and stuck around only for a few minutes, but wow. It was in my upper back though, can back labor be that high? I haven't felt the pain since. Other than that, my back starts hurting most every day. I have a sit down job, so I don't know why my back hurts when I'm not doing anything lol but it does. Also my belly gets tired easily. Specially if we go out shopping for the day, it just aches like I've been doing crunches nonstop.

Labor signs: Too soon.

Belly button in or out: Flat lol

What I miss:  Red bull!!!! Rare cooked stake, sushi, and I would kill for a sandwich!!

What I'm looking forward to: This whole week! Super Bowl is today, I requested the day off of work about 4 months ago lol. Feb 7th is our baby shower. & Feb 10th is our wedding day :)

I know I haven't updated the survey for a few weeks. There just really wasn't many changes. I am so thankful and lucky to have had such an easy pregnancy. I haven't had any weird odd cravings or anything crazy like that. It has been a boring pregnancy, and in our midwifes book, that equals GREAT!

We are meeting with someone on Feb 22nd to see about getting some Maternity pictures done. I have an idea in mind of what I want and what I don't. I hope we can get some great photos done that aren't cheesy but are also affordable.

We bought a new car! I said bye bye to my Eclipse and said Hello to this:

2012 GMC Terrain! Me and M in front of it on the day we bought it :) There were only about 7miles on it, so its brand spankin' new. He wanted a sunroof but this didn't come with one, so instead we got TV's put in the head rest for Gabby, one behind the driver seat and one behind the passenger seat. They are so cool! You can play a movie on one and play games on the other. Or watch a movie on both, all at the same time. It will be perfect for Gabby and our future 2nd baby. We are also getting chrome handles put on and a chrome grill, whatever that is -- M's idea lol. It is a great suv! It isn't too big, M didn't want anything overly large. It is just our size. And it has some balls lol it can cruise. There is also a camera in the rear that comes on the screen so you can see when you are backing up.

 

Cool right!? And at night, all the lights on the inside of the car and the buttons light up in red.

I will have more pictures to update with later on this week -- with everything going on. :) Hope everyone has been well!

Baby #1 ; Week 31

Picture taken January 28, 2012.

Baby #1 ; Week 30

Photo taken January 20, 2012.

Baby #1 ; Week 29

Taken January 14, 2012.

Baby #1 ; Week 28

Photo taken January 7, 2012; Happy New Year!!