9 Weeks

Baby is the size of a cherry at 9 weeks pregnant. At 9-weeks it measures around .9 inches and weighs about .07 ounces, and his or her growth is picking up steam! Baby is no longer an embryo—now baby's a fetus. That means he or she is becoming more and more baby-like.

How far along? 9 weeks

Weight gain/loss: Up 8 pounds. Is that from baby or all the holiday carbs we ate? I am actually going back to a low carb diet starting today so I am hoping this weight gain does not continue at this pace.

Sleep? We just got back from Norther California and I am LOVING sleeping in my own bed again. Although we had a king size in our rental (which is pretty awesome), nothing beats our mattress at home. Plus the bed in the rental was not the cleanest and the last three days I woke up with a swollen face from allergies - yuck. So, I am thrilled to be home in a comfy and clean bed and a face that is not swollen. I will have plenty of face swelling in my future as it is!

Best moment this week? It was a great week with lots of really fun moments. Christmas Eve dinner was delicious. Christmas day with the kids was everything we hoped for - lots of laughs and happy faces. The following day we went to Napa and went wine tasting (I was designated driver) and had a fabulous lunch at Market in downtown St. Helena. But I think the topper was today finally getting that ultrasound and seeing a baby with a healthy heartbeat, measuring on track and ONLY ONE BABY.

Movement: I can't feel it yet but we did get to see baby moving around today!

Food cravings: Crabcakes. This has been constant for the last week and a half or so and I swear every restaurant we went to was not serving them - even one that used to make them! I got one at Market in Napa but it wasn't enough to curb the craving so I made a big batch myself yesterday and we had some for dinner. I had three leftover so I got one for lunch today too. Plus, I have two more sitting around in case I need more tomorrow.

What I miss? Real coffee and wine. Still. Especially after a week with double the kids in our rental house and a trip to Napa watching everyone enjoy some great wine.

What I am looking forward to? This weekend at home with Jay and the kids. It will be nice to have a long quiet weekend at our house to unwind from the holiday travels, get rid of all of the Christmas stuff (does anyone else get just as excited to take it down as they do to put it up? I swear by the end of December I am soooooo tired of the extra clutter).

Milestones: Seeing that heartbeat was a major milestone.

What I'm nervous about: Going back to work. I love my job but having the last week and a half off has been wonderful. I am not sure I'd be happy being home all the time but another week would not be terrible. Plus I am a bit nervous about hiding my tummy at this point.

6 Weeks

Baby is 6 weeks and 2 days today and about the size of a sweet pea. Baby's also circulating blood with an increasingly more sophisticated circulatory system. Baby's about to get cuter too, since he or she is starting to sprout a nose, eyes, ears, chin and cheeks. And baby might even be wiggling his or her (paddle-like) hands and feet. The average embryo at week six is about .25 inches and will double in size again next week. What’s amazing is that many of the crucial areas of baby development have already started at six weeks, including circulating blood and sprouting eyes.

How far along? 6 weeks

Weight gain/loss: Not checking yet.

Sleep? Not so great but mostly due to sinus congestion that is lingering.

Best moment this week? Taking a much needed long nap on Saturday after a week of bad sleep. It made a huge difference.

Movement: This won't happen for a long time.

Food cravings: Ginger - the kind you get at sushi restaurants. Maybe because I've had a few moments of nausea already.

What I miss? Real coffee and wine.

What I am looking forward to? So much! We have Noemi's birthday on Friday, Christmas coming up and our first ultrasound on the 30th.

Milestones: I did my second set of beta tests last week and got the thumbs up so things are looking good so far!

What I'm nervous about: Twins.

8 Weeks!

Hi All (or, all who haven't given up on my posting new stuff to this blog!).

Miss Noemi is 8 weeks today. Wow, time really flies. The last 8 weeks have been a whirlwind of holiday traveling, diaper changing, and general fun with our two kiddos.

Joaquin is now almost 28 months. He is a joy to be with (most of the time!). We are going through some terrible two issues (throwing food is our biggest challenge right now, followed closely by cleaning up toy messes). But, I think we will get a handle on those things with time. In the meantime, Joaquin is talking more than ever, has a wonderful sense of humor and can recite the entire alphabet! He is very into cars, trucks and other large vehicles. Monday is trash day in our neighborhood and the highlight of Joaquin's week is watching his "amigos de basura" come pick up our trash in the morning. It's pretty cute. Jorge and Mario (our trash guys) know him well by now. He also loves story time. We've been doing a lot of Dr. Seuss lately and he loves all of the made up words with funny sounds. It's nice to sit in bed with him and read at the end of the day. Joaquin has also started tell us that he loves us. Melts. my. heart.

Noemi has been a dream come true. I never could have imagined a baby could be as easy as she is. She eats all of the time and never spits up so she is huge - over 12 pounds already by my estimation. We'll find out for sure at her 2 month check up. She naps quite a bit during the day. She goes to bed around 11 every night and sleeps 3-4 hours, wakes up to eat and then goes right back to sleep for another 2-3 hours, eats and then back to sleep. She will sleep in until 9:30 or 10:00 if I don't wake her up. I haven't stayed up trying to get her back to sleep in the middle of the night yet. It's amazing. She will also let me put her down while she is awake and go to sleep on her own. Another minor miracle in my eyes.

Noemi is just learning to smile and her smiles are gorgeous. She has an adorable dimple on her left cheek that I still haven't been able to get on camera.

I'll try to update more regularly from here on out! And, I will add some pictures as soon as possible.

Noemi's Birth Story

Well, this birth story will be a bit shorter than Joaquin's.

On Sunday, December 16, 2012, I started feeling some contractions that were stronger than my normal braxton hicks contractions but were still easy to talk through, walk through and generally no big deal. They started around 7:45 or 8:00 p.m. I thought it was probably the same thing that happened with Joaquin - a night or two of those kind of contractions before the real deal. I remembered that the "real" contractions were miserable and I was only at 4cm when I got to the hospital with Joaquin after about 2 hours of those painful contractions. I was trying not to get my hopes up too!

So, while Jay read Joaquin bedtime stories I jumped in the bath. I kept my iPhone with me and timed the contractions just in case. I timed them in the tup until around 9:00. They were averaging 45-50 seconds and were about 5-6 minutes apart. The general rule is that you don't go to the hospital until contractions are 1 minute long and 5 minutes apart for at least an hour. I wasn't there yet.

But when I got out of the tub I felt a small pop. It was not dramatic like when my water broke with Joaquin but I thought it was a leak in the amniotic sack. So, I told Jay to let Gery and my Dad know and ask them to come over.

I jumped in the shower and Jay started packing up the rest of the stuff for the hospital bag. I got dressed, put on some makeup, and then debated blow drying my hair. Jay thought I was crazy and convinced me to just leave it wet so we could go. The contractions were pretty painful at this point and I stopped timing them. They were definitely coming quickly - probably ever 2 or 3 minutes.

Jay got the car all ready and our neighbors happened to be outside chatting. They offered to sit in our living room until Gery showed up. I thought it was sort of silly and didn't see the need to rush out when Gery was only 5-10 minutes away, but I let it go and we left.

Jay dropped me off at the front of the hospital and I walked up to check in while he parked the car. The nurses brought me to triage to do a preliminary check and ask the basic questions about my contractions, etc. They got me set up on a bed and one of the nurses checked to see how dilated I was (OUCH!). She got a very surprised look on her face and said to the other nurse "I think she's at 8.5 or 9 cm. Can you check to make sure I got that right?"

Um..... WHAT?!!?!

The other nurse confirmed (double OUCH) that I was at 9 cm. They immediately got me in a wheelchair and raced me to labor and delivery. This is when I started asking that they get the anesthesiologist in there pronto so I could get an epidural. I think I knew it was not going to happen but I was clinging to hope.

Once in delivery room, the nurses started getting me set up with an IV (for the antibiotics because I was GBS positive) and with the heart and contraction monitors. They called my OB and the anesthesiologist. By the time the anesthesiologist got in the room I could tell I was at 10 cm and ready to push. Now, for those of you who have not given birth, let me just tell you that when you are ready to push, there is no choice in the matter. You just do it. You can't stop it. Which is why when the nurses started to sort of panic and tell me not to push I wanted to rip their throats out (well, not quite, but sort of). The anesthesiologist gave me a sympathetic look and said "maybe next time."

This was when I looked at Jay in total panic. It was terrifying. But I had no choice. The hospital laborist rushed to get his gloves on and was barely even ready when Noemi's head started to come out. It was excruciating but the pain only lasted for a few minutes and then she was out! It was incredible. It took about an hour or two for the initial shock of the experience to wear off. In fact, I couldn't really sleep at all until about 6:00 am because of all of the adrenaline.

All in all, it was a great experience. I could have done without some of the pain but it was great to avoid numb legs, a catheter, tons of excess IV fluid, etc. I didn't even take a Motrin after!

We checked out of the hospital at around 7:30 pm the next day. So, from check in to check out was 21.5 hours. I sort of expect my health insurance company to send me a thank you note for how much money we just saved them :-)

Thanks for reading our story!

One last note: the L&D nurse suggested that we have 10 kids since it was clearly so easy for us. Hahah. Not likely. But maybe 1 more :-)

Joaquin is Adorable

Let's not forget our original cutie pie! Here's a great picture of Joaquin taken yesterday. Boy oh boy do we have a future heartbreaker on our hands!

Noemi Rebecca is Here!

Here is a picture of Noemi from yesterday, peacefully sleeping:

And here is a picture of us right after the birth:

Noemi arrived on December 16, 2012 at 10:32 p.m. She weighed 7 lbs. 13 oz. and was 19.5 inches tall. She scored an 8/9 on her apgars.

Birth story to follow when I have a bit more time. Suffice it to say for now, the experience was not at all what we expected but was fabulous none-the-less.

More pictures to follow later as well.

Barf

Yup...

I really hope that randomly barfing is a sign I'm about to go into labor. Otherwise, that was just really unpleasant for no reason.

Will keep you posted.

We are headed to the mall to walk around/tempt fate.