Baby This Week: 10 Weeks

Although he's barely the size of a kumquat — a little over an inch or so long, crown to bottom — and weighs less than a quarter of an ounce, your baby now has completed the most critical portion of his development. This is the beginning of the so-called fetal period, a time when the tissues and organs in his body rapidly grow and mature. If you could take a peek inside your womb, you'd spot minute details, like tiny nails forming on fingers and toes (no more webbing) and peach-fuzz hair beginning to grow on tender skin.

Spoke Too Soon

9 weeks, 4 days pregnant

I spoke too soon! :( I got sick again today. Boo.
Today has been a very hectic day at work. I'll blog about it later this week.

Belly Picture: 9.5 Weeks

9 weeks, 3 days pregnant

First belly pic! As you can see, my bump is not quite there. My clothes are feeling tighter, but it could just be gas, haha! I can't wait to see a little bump! It will make this whole pregnancy thing seem more "real"!



In other news, I've been feeling better regarding the nausea. I really hope I'm on the upswing. These last few weeks have been really rough. But I'm feeling better every day now! I'm able to eat more and I have more energy. Definitely good news! Now let's hope I didn't jinx it!

Visit From Gaby

9 weeks, 2 days pregnant

One of my bestest friends, Gaby Serrado came down from Orlando today! I just told her I was pregnant a week ago, so it was exciting to see each other! She and her boyfriend Fed are going to Costa Rica tomorrow and they're flying out of Fort Lauderdale, so we got to see each other for dinner and catch up. Oh, how I've missed her!

Good Read!

9 weeks pregnant

I've been reading this fabulous book my mother-in-law recommended called "Our Bodies, Ourselves: Pregnancy and Birth." It's fantastic! It really gives insight into pregnancy as a normal event for our bodies, that it is something that is to be nurtured. I love how it talks about giving birth in a hospital as well as going into depth about birthing centers, doulas and midwives. It also discusses birthing methods used in the US and compares it to methods used in other parts of the world. It's very educational and I can't wait to read more tonight! Thanks Mrs. Granja!! Me and Baby G give it 2 thumbs up!

Baby This Week: 9 Weeks

Your new resident is nearly an inch long — about the size of a grape — and weighs just a fraction of an ounce. She's starting to look more and more human. Her essential body parts are accounted for, though they'll go through plenty of fine-tuning in the coming months. Other changes abound: Your baby's heart finishes dividing into four chambers, and the valves start to form — as do her tiny teeth. The embryonic "tail" is completely gone. Your baby's organs, muscles, and nerves are kicking into gear. The external sex organs are there but won't be distinguishable as male or female for another few weeks.

Second Prenatal Appointment

8 weeks, 4 days pregnant

This morning I had my second prenatal appointment. I was so glad Jorge went with me. He really wants to be involved, I love that! It was a very quick and uneventful appointment. They took my blood pressure and wieghed me (still 111 lbs.) and then Dr. A just met with us and talked to us about eating smaller meals and getting a bit of exercise, at least 15 minutes a day. Since I've been sick, I haven't had a lot of energy lately, but 15 minutes sounds like something I could manage. She also told us that according to the ultrasound, the dating has changed slightly. I thought I was 9 weeks 1 day today, and I'm actually 8.5 weeks. My new due date is January 7th.

At our next appointment on June 29th we should hear a heartbeat! I can't wait!! Knowing that we have that coming up makes the nausea more bearable!

First Trimester Woes

8 weeks, 3 days pregnant

Initially, I thought I was so lucky that I had no symptoms! No nausea, nothing. A little bit of bloating and heartburn, but nothing too serious. Now... let me just say... I spoke too soon. Since the weekend of the 16th, (about 6 weeks 2 days) the nausea started. Queasiness and all around uneasiness in my stomach. It was really bad. For the last two weeks it's been awful, I even had to take a couple of days off from work! My mom was so sweet and came over to take care of me during the day while Jorge was at work. I was so glad we had Memorial Day weekend so I could recouperate! Last week I even was sick at work... Oh, Baby G! What are you doing to me?

I had been trying to go as long as I could without medication and trying to find natural remedies, but nothing helped! I tried ginger candies, ginger tea, chamomile tea, crackers... nothing worked! The nausea was getting so bad I was hardly eating or sleeping and we finally had to call the doctor for some medicine. I've only taken it when it gets really bad, but it does help.

Jorge has been wonderful though. He's been cooking and cleaning and taking care of me. He's been so sweet! He even made me some of my mom's chicken soup that he knows I love! So thoughtful! I love my husband!

This past weekend was better, although I still don't feel like myself. I'm really tired and I'm not getting a lot of sleep. I wake up in the middle of the night with my stomach growling/gurgling. I've been reading that these symptoms rarely persist after the 12th week, so I'm counting down the days!!

Baby This Week: 8 Weeks

Your baby is now 5/8 of an inch long, about the size of a kidney bean. New this week: Webbed fingers and toes are poking out from your baby's hands and feet, his eyelids practically cover his eyes, breathing tubes extend from his throat to the branches of his developing lungs, and his "tail" is just about gone. His arms have lengthened, too, and his hands are now flexed at the wrist and meet over his heart. His knee joints have formed, and his feet may be long enough to meet in front of his body. In his brain, nerve cells are branching out to connect with one another, forming primitive neural pathways.

Baby This Week: 7 Weeks

The big news this week: Hands and feet are emerging from developing arms and legs — although they look more like paddles at this point than the tiny, pudgy extremities you're daydreaming about holding and tickling. Technically, your baby is still considered an embryo and has something of a small tail, which is an extension of her tailbone. The tail will disappear within a few weeks, but that's the only thing getting smaller. Your baby has doubled in size since last week and now measures half an inch long, about the size of a blueberry.

Cynthia's Wedding Invitations

6 weeks, 4 days pregnant

As you know, I started my little side-biz doing wedding invitations. It's really my dream job and I absolutely love it!

These last few weeks I have been working on a wedding invitation set for a wonderful couple, Cynthia and Andres. When I met with her initially, she had no specific ideas of what she wanted, only that she wanted something different and unique that really represented them. She told me how she and Andres love to travel and how they were recently in Europe. It inspired me to create this adorable travel wedding theme invitation set. It features a wedding invitation in the form of a ticket with it's complimenting ticket jacket. It also comes with an RSVP postcard with the same theme. She also ordered custom wedding stamps. It's so adorable!! I had also designed a passport ceremony program for them as well as luggage tags as the place cards. She absolutely loved my ideas! And after a few weeks of production and assembly, I finished the invites a few days early and I drove them down today. Cynthia absolutely loved them!! And her fabulous wedding planner Sandra (who helped plan my wedding as well) loved them too! I was thrilled!! I was so excited to give Cynthia the finished product!

Oh, how I loooove weddings!







Here's a beautiful picture of the invites taken by the couple's photographer Juan, from Hera Studios Photography. (Click to see larger.)

Spotting

6 weeks, 2 days pregnant

Yesterday right before I left work I had some spotting and I was a bit concerned. It was minor, but I called the doctor and they just told me to rest up for the evening and to follow up today with the doctor. Jorge just left to Orlando yesterday for a few days for work, so Cindy came over Monday night and kept me company in the evening. I was fine the rest of the night and this morning, with no problems. I called to follow up that I was feeling much better and there was no more spotting. The nurse spoke to my doctor told me it sounds like it's normal, but they wanted to do an ultrasound just to make sure everything was going ok. So I made the appointment for tomorrow morning. I debated making the appointment for Friday so Jorge could go with me and we could see our first ultrasound together, but after we talked about it, we decided finding out everything was ok was more of a priority and he would see the baby next time. My mom and Cindy offered to go with me and keep me company. My mom drove up and spent the night so we could go to the appointment together. I'm excited for the ultrasound, but a bit nervous!

Happy Mother's Day!

6 weeks pregnant

Happy Mother's Day! Today Jorge and I told the news to my grandmother and to my mom's family. We went to the Mother's Day get-together at my grandmother's house where most of my family had gathered for a BBQ. My uncle Ricky and aunt Martha did a fabulous job cooking! The food was delicious.

Jorge and I decided to wait until the end of the party when my grandmother was opening her gifts to share the news. I had written it in her Mother's Day card. We asked her to read it outloud. It said something along the lines of how special she is to us and what a wonderful grandmother and mother she is and that I hoped to be as wonderful a mom as she has been when our baby is born in January of next year. When she got to the end everyone gasped and cheered! They were all so happy for us! It's been a long time since there was a little baby in the family and it was so very exciting! It would also be my mom's first grandchild, so they were all thrilled for her too! My aunt Carmen Julia and my cousin Lily were already talking about crocheting something for him/her, haha!

It was nice to have my grandmother be the one to announce it. It really meant a lot to her!

Baby This Week: 6 Weeks

This week's major developments: The nose, mouth, and ears that you'll spend so much time kissing in eight months are beginning to take shape. If you could see into your uterus, you'd find an oversize head and dark spots where your baby's eyes and nostrils are starting to form. His emerging ears are marked by small depressions on the sides of the head, and his arms and legs by protruding buds. His heart is beating about 100 to 160 times a minute — almost twice as fast as yours — and blood is beginning to course through his body. His intestines are developing, and the bud of tissue that will give rise to his lungs has appeared. His pituitary gland is forming, as are the rest of his brain, muscles, and bones. Right now, your baby is a quarter of an inch long, about the size of a lentil bean.

First Prenatal Appointment

5 weeks, 6 days pregnant

I had my first prenatal appointment today. Jorge is in NY for work until Saturday, but we had agreed that it was best to have the appointment sooner than later. Besides, there wouldn't be an ultrasound so we thought it was ok he wouldn't be there. I was a bit nervous though, so I asked my mom and Cindy (ok, they volunteered!) to come with me. Cindy brought her camera and took some pictures.

The appointment went well. I really love my doctor. She was very patient with all my questions and is so incredibly nice! I'm really happy with her. I thought there would be some kind of blood test or something to confirm the pregnancy, but there wasn't. It was a routine exam and then I asked my questions. She gave me an estimated due date of January 5th, 2010 (3 days after my birthday!) and she estimated that I'm about 5 and a half weeks along. I should be seeing her every month from now until I'm 28 weeks, when I'll start seeing her every two weeks. Then after 32 weeks, I'll see her once a week.

My next appointment is June 1st, where hopefully we'll have our first ultrasound!!

Telling My Parents

My family came over last night for dinner and we told them! Between dinner and desert I told them the big news. I told them that Jorge and I had been talking and planning to have kids sometime soon, and they wouldn't have to wait for long (started crying here) because I'm preg--- (sobbing began here, incomprehensable gibberish followed.) Cathy instantly knew and jumped up and hugged me. My mom and dad were confused. What? They had no idea what I said. I finally repeated the news and it seems like they were utterly shocked. Then they broke out in smiles and cheers and hugged us! They were thrilled!! Their first grandchild!

Cindy and Justin had fortunately brought their new DSLR camera and took amazing pictures. I am so glad they captured my parent's faces! It was priceless!!

It was wonderful to share our special news with my mom and dad, Cathy, Blanca, Cindy and Justin. :)






Click here for more pictures!

Second Wedding Anniversary

Ok. There is no denying it now. We're pregnant!!!!!!! We laughed, we cried! We're over the moon with the news! And on our anniversary! We woke up at around 6:30am to take the test so we could have plenty of time before work to soak in the news. I wanted to call my parents as soon as we saw those 2 very bright, unmistakeable lines, but I really want to tell them in person, so I'll wait. I was walking on clouds all day. It's so hard to believe that this is real -- we're pregnant! It's the best day ever. :)

When we came home from work, Jorge had brought 2 roses for me. One for the 2 wonderful things we were celebrating: our anniversary and our baby-to-be. So romantic! We were planning on having our annual anniversary dinner tradition at a burger place. (It became a tradition because after our wedding we went to the hotel and we were starving! We ordered a burger for room service and set up a little table in front of our window. It was so romantic, sitting there with our wedding gear half undone with barefeet and scarfing down a burger. So simple!) But in light of our new little growing family member, we decided to do something a bit more healthy and went to our favorite Cuban place, Padrinos. It was also the place where we had our rehersal dinner, so it was still relavent to our wedding.

Over dinner we discussed how we would tell our family. Jorge had already told his sister that morning over the phone and was planning to call his mom in San Francisco to tell her the next day. I wanted to tell my family in person, so we arranged to have my mom and my dad, Blanca, Cathy, Cindy and Justin come over for dinner the next day, under the guise that we'd be showing them our new sofas that were just delivered.

I'm bursting to tell them!!

And the answer is... huh?

So this morning Jorge and I took the pregnancy test. We waited the three minutes. One line -- not pregnant. Two lines -- pregnant. We walked over to the test and held our breath. We counted to 3 and we looked down at the test at the same time... for a spit second, I only saw one line, but upon closer examination, there was a second line. Very faint. Extremely faint. What could this mean???! We were so confused. I wanted so much to be elated or to be disappointed -- but didn't know how to feel. I've read that a line is a line is a line. But it was so very faint! We decided to test again. And again got the same result. Maybe we are in denial, but we decided the test was inconclusive and we will wait until Tuesday (when the test will be more accurate) to take the test again. What a great way to celebrate our 2 year wedding anniversary!

Waiting

I read an article about research done on pregnancy tests to see which one is the most accurate, and it found that First Response Early Pregnancy Test is the one that is the best. You can take it up to 5 days early. Jorge and I plan to take it on Sunday (3 days early) just so we'd have time to take in the news on the weekend either way. The follow-up test would be on Tuesday. Tuesday would be April 28th -- our 2 year anniversary. It seems like it will take an eternity for Sunday to get here!

New Addition Coming Soon...

Jorge and I have been talking about starting a family for the last several months. We'd love to have a little one to share our lives with. We aren't pregnant yet, but we're working on it! :)

I'm nervous and excited when I think about it. What comforts me is reading and learning more about it. I've been reading "What to Expect When You're Expecting," "The Girlfriends Guide to Pregnancy" and "Nutrition for a Healthy Pregnancy." Jorge, on the other hand, is excited, but really has not wanted to read too much about it. He says it's too soon until we're actually pregnant. I, on the other hand, am devouring every book I get my hands on.