Feeling the tip-a-tapping

During this last week, whenever I lay still I can feel the baby moving inside me. It's very subtle, but I feel like someone is tapping on me. Last week when I went for my appointment with my doctor, I mentioned to her that I didn't feel the baby moving inside of me (even though that baby was moving quite a bit on both ultrasounds). She told me to not worry, and that she didn't feel movement until 23 weeks. But, during this week I started to feel movement and I don't think it was me that was doing the moving. :)

I am feeling good these days. So far the second trimester has been great. I will start my third trimester in late March.

In other news, Alfonso and I have been actively looking to buy a house, and we recently placed an offer. Hopefully everything will go through and we will have the house by early March. More details to come after the process has been finalized.

Here are some new belly shots. This is me at 19 weeks. I recently bought some new shirts at Old Navy. I like to wear tank tops under my shirts, it creates a nice, smooth belly look.

It's a boy!

Yesterday we had our 18 week doctor's appointment in Los Angeles. Our doctor had previously mentioned that she would do another ultrasound at 20 weeks to check to major organs and determine the baby's gender. When I came in to my appointment yesterday, I was hoping that she would do an early ultrasound so that we could see what sex the baby was. We even brought the video camera that I had given Alfonso for Christmas. After the nurse weighed me (141 lbs now) the doctor said that we could do a gender check ultrasound (!) and draw blood for Downs Syndrome (they do this screening between 15-20 weeks).

While waiting in the examination room, Alfonso had the video camera and recorded me saying that I felt that it would be a boy (just through some dreams that I had and by a feeling that I had gotten during the last couple of months). We were just killing time before the doctor came in.

Once she came in, she went over my labs with us (everything looked normal). My blood type is O positive, so I do not have to worry about the Rh factor with the baby. Also, I do not carry the Cystic Fibrosis gene trait, so that was good news as well. Just seeing that my labs were normal made me feel good and gave me reassurance that everything was progressing well.

Then we started the abdominal ultrasound. Immediately we could see the baby moving around (I don't feel movement yet, so it's really amazing to see the baby moving) and we could easily make out the fingers, hands, arms, toes, feet, and legs. Also we could see the heart beating. At one point, the baby had it's mouth open halfway- he looked really cute. :) Then the doctor started to look around for the sex- it didn't take long. We could see that he was a boy right away. Our OB doctor has a lot of personality- the comments that she makes are really funny and make us laugh. She was like "woah, look at that! You can't miss this, can you tell what it is?" Alfonso said that he thought that it was a boy- and indeed we are having a little boy. :)

In two weeks I will be seeing a perinatologist for the full ultrasound. They will look at all of the major organs and make sure that the baby is progressing well. I will also find out the results of the Downs Syndrome screening, so it's one thing at a time. My next appointment is Wednesday, February 14th on Valentine's Day. :)

The Proposal

After going ring shopping (this was back in October) and being together for nearly three years, Alfonso and I are officially engaged! :) He proposed on Christmas Day after we both had worked the 23rd and 24th. We had slept until 2pm on the 25th and had made plans to go to the Santa Monica Beach and watch the sunset and open gifts together. We left by 4pm so that we could catch the sunset by 4:50. We were in a rush to get there and my gas tank was on empty so we were a little stressed. After we found parking (with little time to spare before the sunset) we ran to the beach and took in the sunset. It was a perfect day with the temperature in the 70's and not windy. There were many families out enjoying the day. We took some pictures of the sunset and then looked for someone to take our picture together.




After the picture, Alfonso turned towards me and asked what would make this day more special. I started to feel a little emotional and that was when he pulled out a ring from a little pouch that was around his neck.



Then he got down on one knee and said that he loved me and wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. He asked if I would marry him. By this time I was crying. The man that was taking our picture had his family in the background and they were all yelling and cheering. It was quite a moment.







Of course I said yes. :) We spent the rest of the evening on the Santa Monica Pier (this was actually one of the first places we spent together when we first met) and we had a portraits drawn and then rode the carousal together. Afterwards we went to the hospital where we saw our friends Diego, Brandy and Dennis and showed them the ring. We were leaving the next day for MI, so we wanted to see them before we left. Here is a picture of the ring that I took while I was in the airport going to MI. The ring is absolutely gorgeous. I feel so happy and blessed to have my dream of marrying Alfonso come true and to share the rest of my life with him. :)

Our holiday in MI and GA

We had a nice vacation in MI and GA this year with our families. We flew into MI on the 26th and spent a couple of days with my family, and then on the 30th we flew to GA and spent time with Alfonso's family. My family had a nice holiday dinner that included venison from the deer that my dad had hunted for in November and bear from a neighborhood kid. Courtesy of Chicago O'Hara Airport, I had a mild case of food poisoning from a hamburger I had eaten during our layover. So, I wasn't able to enjoy the venison and bear, but I ate well once the food had cleared from my system.

It was good to see my siblings along with their significant others. Also, my brother Joe had proposed to his girlfriend Mary, so it was exciting. Also, my little grandmother came to visit us (she is very cute and quite like the grandmotherly type) so we had a good time. We saw Alfonso's family in Georgia, where we rented a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We ate lots of yummy mexican food that Alfonso's sister and mother cooked for us. One day we tried to go visit some waterfalls, but it didn't quite work out. Still, we had a good time watching movies, eating, making a fire in the backyard, and hanging out. We had to leave on Wednesday the 3rd, so it was hard to put an end to our vacation.

We had a 9:30am flight from Atlanta to Dallas, and then a one hour layover before our next plane to Los Angeles. On the plane from Atlanta to Dallas we had a medical emergency of which the flight attendants had announced over the intercom. Alfonso and I got up from our seats and walked to the back of the plane where a lady was sitting in her seat nonresponsive. She was barely awake and could hardly say anything. At first I thought that she had a stroke, but then she said yes when we asked if she was a diabetic. (A note for those that have allergies or other serious conditions-- wear your medical bracelet or necklace so we know what medical problems you have.) We asked the flight attendants to announce if another passenger had a blood sugar machine so that we could check her blood sugar. When we checked it the machine read 43 (60-110 is normal). The medical emergency kit had glucose gel that we could put in her mouth, but since she was so out of it (she was drooling and her head was falling forward) it didn't work. Our next option was to insert an IV and give her sugar water through the IV (they had an amp of D50). It was then decided that we should land the plane, so we told the flight attendants that we needed an emergency landing. Alfonso started the IV (the airline kit had 2 #22 gauge (very very tiny) and we started a bag of normal saline. The flight attendant needed someone to talk to the paramedics on ground, so I volunteered and gave them a quick report. After pushing the D50 she woke up and started talking to us. We were already on the verge of landing (we were landing in Shreveport, LA) and there was a team of paramedics waiting for us. Once we had landed, the paramedics came on board and we explained to them what had happened and what we had done. They rechecked her blood sugar and it was 47. They started another line (an #18 gauge this time) and gave her saline with dextrose and pushed more D50. We rechecked her blood sugar and it was 211. By this time, the patient was all perky and apologetic. She felt really bad for what happened (in my opinion, the airlines need to at least give out free snacks on the planes) but felt better. We spent 30 minutes on ground, and after the paramedics had checked her out, we took off for Dallas. We made it in to Dallas, but missed our connecting flight to LA. We were able to sit standby, and got onto another flight 2 hrs later. We made it back to LA with our luggage (our good friend Diego picked us up) and were home by 6pm. We were so exhausted that we were in bed by 10pm. All in all, it was a good vacation. :)