Baby Shower

So it is a few days later than I planned, but work took it's toll on me this week and I have been exhausted! Anyways, I definitely wanted to write a post about the wonderful shower that my family threw for me this weekend. I had such a great time and was so touched by all of the hard work they put into it, as well as all of the sweet friends that were able to make it.
We had the shower Sunday afternoon and feasted on a lovely spread of Cuban food and fun appetizers, including my sister's incredible fruit dip. We played a lot of fun games that Mandy organized, including guessing the items in all of the individual bags which spelled out "Baby Shower" (which also led to a bunch of great gifts for the little man!) as well as guessing what the different diapers contained (sniffing 10 different diapers that were filled with everything from cinnamon to pickles). We opened gifts and had an overall wonderful time. It was a huge blessing to get to spend the day with some of my favorite people and we are so thankful for their kind and thoughtful gifts! Here are a bunch of pictures from the shower:
The Invitation





Yes, that would be the same sister that I allowed to paint my belly. She is a hot mess, and so much fun!


My sweet grandmother "Ita" and my Aunt Ofelia

Grammy and Eileen

My cousin Stef who is such a sweet girl

My cuban family!


Opening up gifts with my sister


Peeking at the items in the gift bags-such a cute game idea!

Classic face! It was right after my sister got a deep whiff of the diaper stuffed with pickles. Ha!

Me with the hat Mandy made out of all the ribbons and bows. I don't think I'm going to take them up on the idea of wearing it while I'm in labor!

Me with the hostesses: My mom, sister and sister-in-law

I love this picture of them!

Me and my "real" mother. We always joke that Marcie is my birth mother and Jennifer (bopper) is my mother's daughter since out personalities are so alike. I'd think we were switched at birth but Jenny's 3 months older than me!

Barbara and I- another one of my "mothers". I'm so glad she was able to be in town for the shower....and hoping she'll come visit once Jackson is born!

Debi, Mandy and I

Overall I had a great time and Jackson and I are so grateful everything. We are truly blessed and I can't wait for the little guy to meet all of these amazing women who love him so much!

I swallowed a Pumpkin-weekend recap

So I am way behind on the weekly updates, but I'm thinking it's my husband's fault for not taking pictures of me. I keep saying we need to do it, but then he always wants to take a picture of me when I am tired with no makeup and wearing his gym shorts and t-shirts cause that's all that will fit as far as comfortable clothes is concerned. But I'm not one to cast blame so I won't mention it :)

Anyways, this weekend was a blast. I flew home to Miami (since my father has deemed it completely inappropriate for me to drive more than 5 miles in my "delicate condition") for the UM-FSU game, which we will not talk about, as well as for my family baby shower. Friday I got into town and had the chance to take a nap and then meet my sister and her family as well as my mom and Barbara for dinner. The highlight was sitting next to this cutie in the pirate shirt I made him.

He is so funny. He came into the bathroom when I was in there and asked me if I "wanted him to turn on the air conditioner?" and proceeded to turn on the fan to vent the bathroom. He then said "see, the air feels good!". What a hot mess!

After dinner we went to the mall to shop at a store where my sweet cousing works. I got tons of adorable clothes for the baby at a great price. Saturday was the game, which again, we will not mention. Except to say I had a great time hanging out with my dad and my aunt, even if Miami did lose. My father is the best tailgater I know-we have tons of good food and a flat screen TV hooked up to the satellite so we can watch all the other games. Inevitably we end up with a random crowd of strangers hanging out with us because they all want to watch the TV. We were quite popular. We even had some of the MIami Dade Fire Rescue guys stop by. My brother said he got a little worried when he was meeting up with us and saw them-he thought I'd gone into labor or something. Nope, they were just watching the Alabama game with us!



Sorry the pic is so bad. It was taken on my phone at dusk...

Sunday I woke up to this little boy banging on the bathroom door. He had stuffed a baby doll up his shirt and told me "look, I have a baby in my belly too!". He loves his little cousin Jackson and spent the morning kissing and hugging my belly.

He also spent the morning doing this:


Yes, I let his insane mother talk me into painting my belly like a pumpkin. Of course once I saw how big my belly is in these pictures I'd say it's more like a whole patch of pumpkins (yikes!!). I can't believe I'm even putting any of these pictures on here, but I figured my little man might as well know what kind of a nutty family he's being born into. We also painted Alex's belly too.

I was a mess and I think my sister definitely enjoyed it most out of all of us! And as my friend Jenn just told me, she's going to see me around Thanksgiving when she can paint it like a Turkey....I think I've set a bad precedent. All I know is, it may shake like a bowl full of jelly, but I am not painting my belly to look like Santa this Christmas!
I look huge in these pictures...very scary. Oh well, 14 and a half weeks to go!

Sunday afternoon was the baby shower which was hosted by my family. I'm going to do a separate post about that with all the pictures, so check out the blog tomorrow. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!!

It's Unanimous

I am so thankful for everyone who has checked in to read my little blog and I really enjoyed hearing everybody's feedback. Every single person that commented on the blog and on facebook voted for the first bedding set! That was my original choice, which just goes to show that you should always stick with your instincts, and that I really need to stop looking!
I am hoping to have the bedding ordered by this weekend, and it will take 4-6 weeks to get here. On another note, I got my first baby shower gift in the mail today (thank you Barbara!) and I think it all of a sudden hit me that I am going to have a baby to take care of soon! Never mind the rapidly expanding belly or the alien kicks going on inside of me, it took seeing the Fisher Price Infant Seat inside my house to make me realize just how fast this is happening. That being said, we couldnt' be happier. These past few weeks have been so fun now that the little man is kicking and moving around so much. I'm getting little glimpses of who he is, and I must say, it's pretty amusing. I was at work the other night and had to go over to the bedside of a baby girl who was screaching at the top of her lungs. As soon as I got near her my little one started kicking and moving around like crazy in protest. Needless to say, I don't think he appreciated the crying! We're still waiting for Jackson to be able to feel him move, and I think it should happen soon as he is getting quite forceful with his soccer practice in there. The day I first felt him move Jackson asked me "can I feel it?" to which I responded "I don't think so, it's not strong enough". He looked at me with a serious face and said "Selfish!". He's a mess, but he makes me laugh.
We've also invested in a little doppler for home so I can hear his heartbeat (and squelch my paranoia). It's nice to have that reassuring little "woosh woosh" noise whenever I want.
Tomorrow I'll be back with my 25 week (can't believe it!) post. And a picture of my huge stomach. But I wouldn't hold my breath on the weight gain report....
Have a great day!!

And I thought I knew what I wanted...

Thanks for all the great feedback on the nursery furniture! It has been ordered and will hopefully be here by the time the holidays roll around. And now I need some help. I thought I had decided on what bedding I wanted to use for the nursery, but today I found another one that I really like as well. So I'm going to ask you all to weigh in on which one you think would be best. I have no theme for the nursery and wanted to avoid anything to babyish. You've already seen the furniture we've chosen and we are having my awesome, handy dad put in some white beadboard. I'm wanting to paint the room with a light blue (robins egg blue probably) color. My goal is to keep the room nice and bright.
Here's a pic of the type of beadboard that I am wanting to put in the room....



And here are the two bedding options I'm considering for the room....


I can't manage to get a picture of the second bedding, but to see it, just click here.

So let me know what you think! You can leave a comment in the comment section below. Can't wait to hear your opinions! I'll be posting my decision later this week!!

Nursery Peek

Ok, so I know I promised that I would do this post yesterday but my work schedule has not been favorable this week and needless to say, the babies have not been kind to this poor, tired pregnant woman! So better a day late then never.

It took me forever to pick out furniture. I've gone back and forth a hundred times, would pick something, and then change my mind again. I think Jackson stopped listening to me after a while! This past weekend we went to Brandon after church to look at some of the furniture possibilities. The amusing story from that day is that I thought I was being smart and brought a pair of flat slip on shoes/sandals to change into after church, knowing that my feet would probably hurt and I wanted to be comfortable while shopping. What I didn't consider is that my feet would be so swollen that I couldn't get those shoes even halfway on! And there was no way I was putting my church shoes back on...they killed my feet. Thankfully there was a Sports Authority right next to the baby store where we were able to run in (with my shoes half on!) and buy a cheap pair of flip flops. Definitely a memorable moment.

After that, we were able to go to the baby store and test the car seat and stroller we picked out and looked at a few pieces of furniture. We also drove to another store that carried a brand I really wanted to look at, but of course it was out of business. After searching on the internet I found the same set at a store in Miami and it was 15% off. Best thing is that my wonderful dad can pick it up and deliver it, so no delivery fee! I can't wait to see what it looks like once the room is done. Here is a picture of what we ordered:

The bottoms are a little different, but the color and style are basically the same. I'm really happy with the choice and can't wait to see it in person!
Tonight I plan on staying up and cleaning out the guest bedroom that will become the nursery so that we can start getting things done in there. Next, on the list is ordering the bedding. Can't wait!
And on a not-so-attractive note (can't believe I'm putting this picture up, but the purpose of my blogging is to have a way to remember everything-even the ugly), here is a picture of my lovely feet after a crazy few days at work. Not a good sign of things to come....yikes!

23 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:
How Far Along: 23 Weeks
Size of Baby: He is the size of a papaya. 10.5 inches and 20 ounces!
Total Weight Gain/Loss: As of my last appointment, I had gained 18 pounds (yikes!). I may have to stop putting that number on here!
Maternity Clothes: All of my clothes are now maternity.
Best Moment this week: Learning his movements and the times when he likes to be awake. Picking out the furniture for little man's nursery.
Gender: Boy!!!
Movement: Yes. He seems to be moving around a bunch in there, which is always reassuring. He's also been keeping me company at 3 am when I'm at work...hopefully not something he'll be doing once he's here. His kicks are definitely getting stronger.
Food Craving: Still no real cravings. I'm trying to avoid salty foods since I noticed I was swelling more lately.
What I miss: Sleep!
Sleep: Not a problem this past week. I've been sleeping every chance I get and have been taking lots of naps.
What I am looking forward to: Being 24 weeks and "viability" age. I can't believe I'm that far along!
Belly Button: In
Symptoms: Heart burn and reflux have been awful these past few weeks. It was making me extremely sick/nauseous but I've started taking pepcid and it's much better!

Overall, I'm really feeling well (other than the tiredness and heartburn" and I'm looking forward to all of the excitement coming up as we start getting the nursery ready and preparing for his arrival. I know January will be here before we know it, so I'm trying to just enjoy every minute of this experience.

Check back tomorrow to see what nursery furniture we've picked out for our little man!

20 Weeks!

So we are officially halfway there, and I couldn't be more excited. I love that as I am typing this my little man is bouncing around inside and playing kickball with my bladder! I just want to say thanks to everyone for all of the kind, encouraging comments I received about my last post. It meant a lot to me and served as a reminder that God indeed has a purpose for everything.
That being said, here is my 20 week update!


I cannot tell you the drama that goes on when it comes to taking these pictures. Jackson just wants to point and click real fast and I'm worried about looking too fat and what kind of angle it's at, so it leads to a lot of pictures being taken and him sighing a lot!

Pregnancy Highlights:
How Far Along: 20 Weeks
Total Weight Gain/Loss: As of my last appointment, I had gained 13 pounds. And I have avoided the scale since then, seeing as how I seemed to have grown significantly since then!
Maternity Clothes: All of my clothes are now maternity.
Best Moment this week: Feeling him move for the first time and finding out that he was perfectly formed and healthy at our 20 week ultrasound yesterday.
Gender: Boy!!!
Movement: A lot! I think I have a night owl on my hands, and he seems to like keeping me company at work by bouncing all around. Daddy is really praying that doesn't continue once he's born!
Food Craving: No real cravings. I mostly want something after I've read about it or seen it on TV. I finally got to have PF Changs last week (delicious!). I havn't been wanting as many sweets and I actually turned down chocolate cake yesterday!
What I miss: Nothing really at this point
Sleep: This has been a rough sleep week, not so much because I hadn't been able to, I just didn't have the time to sleep. I would work a night and then have appointments or meetings the next day where I couldn't go home and sleep, so needless to say I'm exhausted.
What I am looking forward to: Vacation! We leave tomorrow morning for Pennsylvania to visit family and I can't wait. It should be very relaxing and I have been counting down the days!
Belly Button: In
Symptoms: Some back pain and round ligament pain. I'm getting used to it so that I don't freak out every time I feel a little twinge or pang and I've been trying to make sure I rest as much as I can when I start hurting. Overall though, I'm feeling pretty great!


I'm including a few pictures of the baby from the ultrasound yesterday. He was such a wiggle worm and was definitely not wanting to stay still for all of the pictures she had to take! And just like the last one, his hands were continually by his face and mouth and moving non-stop. His papa (my dad) thinks he's gonna be a linebacker or maybe a safety....we'll see!
I'm going to try and be a good blogger and take lots of pictures next week to post. Stay tuned!