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.

Daddy's Birthday Get Together

Today, Jorge and I woke up early again and we went for a powerwalk/jog. It was nice. I'm still not crazy about the running, but I feel great knowing that I did it!

Then I worked on organizing our home videos -- I'm almost done! I'm transferring all of our home video tapes onto DVDs and I have just 2 more to go and I'm caught up! Woo-hoo! I love finishing projects!

Afterwards we rushed to church and then ran some errands.

Since my Dad's birthday is on Wednesday, December 10th, Cathy and I planned on celebrating it today. So we invited him over for dinner and I made some steamed veggies with brown rice and lentils. Cathy brought over some sugar free pudding instead of cake, which was perfect. I considered renting a movie for us to watch, but then I thought maybe it would be best if we got a little exercise! So we went to walk down to the beach and saw all the Christmas lights. It was a little chilly, but it was nice! Then we came back and we sang Happy Birthday and then had some pudding. Lovely time!

Bake December: Pumpkinammon Bars

So I woke up at 8:30 this morning and went jogging around my neighborhood. I jogged about 2.4 miles. I didn't love it. It was hard at first. But I did it anyway. And it didn't take me too long, only about 40 minutes. The weather was perfect -- nice and cool.

Then we went to pick up Blanca from the airport. She just arrived from her vacation in Dubai! She stayed with our friends Reuben and Gaby there. Sounds like she had a wonderful time! We picked up Bailey from doggy daycare and then had lunch at the Euro Cafe near her place. Bailey is such a cutie!

Then Jorge and I went to Sawgrass Mall to see if there were any deals. We shopped for a bit, but then I got a killer headache -- I mean KILLER -- and we went home. I hardly ever get headaches, but I swear, I think that's the worst one I've ever had. I fell asleep on the way home and I felt a little better when I woke up. When we got home, Jorge brought me a Motrin, tucked me into bed and then made us dinner. He was so sweet! I love how he takes care of me! I slept while he cooked and when I woke up, the headache was gone. Such a relief!! Since I felt better, I went ahead with my plans for what we now call "Bake December" where I make some baked goodies every weekend in December.

For this weekend, I decided to make Cinnamon Pumpkin Bars. I got this recipe from my coworker, Beth. A few days before Thanksgiving, I went to her house for lunch and she offered me some of these Pumpkin Bars her neighbor had made. I was reluctant at first because I'm not a huge fan of pumpkin, but when I took a bite, I melted... seriously, they are sooooo good. I couldn't stop thinking about them over the Thanksgiving holiday and on Monday I asked her to track down the recipe! I was so happy when she emailed me within the hour and she'd found it!!



My first attempt came out really good -- I'm so happy I made them! I think next time I'll use half as much oil so they aren't so greasy. But OMG, they are soooo yummy! Here's the recipe! Give them a shot! You won't regret it!:)

They are actually more cinnamon flavored than pumpkin flavored, so I've been calling them Cinnamon Pumpkin Bars. Jorge is bent on calling them "Pumpkinammon Bars." If you hear him say that, this is what he's referring to. They are yummy any way you call them!

Inspired

Jorge and I hung out with our dear friends Stefan and Pinar, who were in town from Turkey. We met up with them and our friend Mily at Hollywood Vine in Hollywood. It was a cute little place, perfect for talking and catching up! We had a lovely time! It was great hanging out with them, since the last time we saw them was over a year ago!

And, I must say, Pinar looked amazing! She is so toned! Honestly, seeing how in shape she was really inspired me! It has really motivated me to step it up. I want to be toned too! With muscles. Grrr! Jorge and I have been going out for walks 3-4 times a week, but I think I'll start jogging now... Maybe I'll start going everyday! And with my 28th birthday around the corner (in 4 weeks!), it only reminds me I'm only getting closer to 30. I've always wanted to have kick-ass abs and a toned body! Watch out, I'm gonna get pumped!! :)

Christmas on Las Olas

Last night Jorge and I went to the Christmas on Las Olas, which is kind of like a fair. It was nice. We walked all the way down to Cheesecake Factory, had some Cheesecake (yum!), and then walked all the way back. There was a skiing lesson machine, a sledding slope, even an ice-skating rink for the kids! Well, it really wasn't ice though. It looked like wax. And they had a snow machine, but I think it was really soap. It was a great walk, although it was a bit cold. But it was worth it: the cheesecake was delish! And seeing the carolers and the lights really made it seem like Christmas!



Click here for more pics of Christmas on Las Olas.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ...

Jorge and I spent the day today getting in the Christmas spirit! We put on Christmas music, put on our Santa hats and we set up the Christmas tree. Then I made Christmas sugar cookies, which turned out to not be as tasty as we expected. :( So I'll have to make them again, probably for Christmas weekend. But I have to find another recipe.

But it got me thinking: I really enjoy baking, and I know how much Jorge loves baked goods and how much we love Christmas, so I thought it would be a good idea to start a new family tradition to bake something yummy every weekend in December until Christmas! Of course, I told Jorge the idea and he loved it! We'll see what I make this weekend. I love this new idea!! Here's a some pics of us setting up the tree.







Here are more pictures of us setting up the tree.

Happy Thanksgivings!

I love Thanksgiving! I have so much to be thankful for this year. My wonderful husband, my amazing parents, my sisters Cathy and Cindy! And the rest of my family may be a little cooky but I love each and every one of them. I wouldn't change them for the world! I have amazing friends and family, and although some are far away this year, I miss them dearly and I can't wait until we see each other again. :)

We had a wonderful time celebrating this year. We had 3 Thanksgivings! We had an early Thanksgiving with my sister-in-law Blanca two weeks ago. She was going to Dubai and won't be back until after the holiday. So she came over and made turkey, her AMAZING stuffing, biscuits, corn and of course we had to have the traditional dessert: apple pie with ice-cream! It was sooooo good. Her stuffing rocks! She really has a talent at making everything for Thanksgiving so smoothly. Whenever I have a big meal to make, I always end up forgetting something or burning something. Not Blanca. She's really got the whole process down pat!









Here are more pictures of Thanksgiving with Blanca.


Our Thanksgiving #2 was Thanksgiving day at my grandmother's house. We got together there with my grandmother, my mom and my sister Cathy and her boyfriend Garry, my aunt Martha, my aunt Carmen Julia and her daughter Lily, my uncle Carlos, his wife Lupe, their 3 kids Jennifer, Carlos Andres and Glenn. Us cousins talked for a bit and played with my cousin Lily's brand new 25th anniversary Cabbage Patch that looks so much like the one I had as a little kid. This doll was gorgeous, with the original yarn hair and the cloth bodies! Her face smelled like powder! Oh, the memories! Such a beautiful doll! Her face smelled so good, I went around and I made everyone smell it! It was like smelling childhood... And then an hour later we moved on to something else and Lily ended up sitting on the doll's head. No one wanted to smell the dolls face again after that.

Then we helped clean up and then we left. I was happy we were able to get home at a decent hour, since we were planning on waking up early to do some Black Friday shopping at Circuit City and Best Buy.









Here are more pictures of Thanksgiving at my grandmother's house.



Friday, we were up at 5:30am and made it to Circuit City at 6am. I was surprised that we found parking so quickly and when we went inside, there were no lines! I couldn't believe it! Last year we were in line for at least an hour. This year, there was no one. The same thing happened at Best Buy. Last year the lines went all around the store. This year, it seemed like any other day. We got a webcam that was on sale for $9.99 after a $50 mail in rebate. I told Jorge, "We gotta send this rebate in TODAY. If the economy is this bad, Circuit City will be closing in no time!" But it turns out that Sawgrass Mall was open since midnight and they had amazing sales. So that's where everyone went! And the reports I heard on TV said that Black Friday sales were up 3% from last year, so maybe the economy isn't doing that badly.

After our early morning shopping, Jorge and I took a nap before preparing for our Thanksgiving #3 that we were having at our place. We always have a Thanksgiving at our place so we can invite my dad over and celebrate with him as well. My mom and Cathy came over around noon. I was determined to make a healthy Thanksgiving! Cathy made the turkey and my mom and I made the stuffing, steamed veggies, corn and salad. Cindy and her husband Justin also came over and they brought sugar-free vanilla pudding with bananas for dessert. It was really good! We had a really nice time. We watched the movie Wall-e (so cute!!) while the turkey cooked and then we watched the movie Hancock after everyone left.









Here are more pictures of Thanksgiving at our house.


It was so nice to spend the last few days busy going to see family and cooking for everyone, but there's nothing like cuddling up with my hubby at the end of the day in a nice, quiet house. :)