Enjoying our home, preparing for Christopher

It has been two weeks now since we moved into our new place. It feels so nice to be living in a place of our own and to not have the same worries as living in an apartment complex. Just before we moved from our apartment, we had our bikes stolen (they were double locked and inside a cage) and the constant noise level and destruction of common areas was just annoying. Plus the apartment complex management were just plain incompetent and rude.

We had our good friends Diego and Julie over for dinner tonight. Diego's daughter Vivian (she is almost 15) joined us as well. We made our favorite dinner of marinated chicken (using Italian dressing) placed on the grill, and seasoned vegetables (potatoes, yams, carrots, red onion seasoned with oregano, bit of salt and seasoning) baked in the oven. We also had a garden salad, corn bread, and for dessert brownies and vanilla ice cream. Alfonso and I really love marinating chicken and grilling it- it just tastes so flavorful. Next week we are going shopping for a little grill so that we can grill food and not have to use the common grill up the hill by the pool.

I have been doing some planning for the baby lately- I have most items registered at www.babiesrus.com and www.target.com Planning for the baby is a little overwhelming, so I am appreciate of any input and suggestions. I am trying to choose the most necessary items, but I really do not know what items are good and what items are not. I have been trying to read reviews, but some people give positive reviews of items and others give negative views. So, any helpful tips and suggestions are much appreciated. :)

We have our doctors appointment tomorrow. I will be fasting for 6 hrs and then taking a high sugary drink called Glucola. After drinking the Glucola, I need to have my blood drawn an hr later to see what my fasting blood glucose is. I will be in my 3rd trimester in two weeks, so soon I will be going to the doctors every two weeks and then every week for the last month.

We are starting to get excited, knowing that in just 3 months little Christopher will be here with us. He has been really active, and his strength is growing. I no longer feel gentle tapping but little thumpings. Sometimes when I watch tv, I will see my stomach move out of the corner of my eye. I believe that his head is still facing upwards and his feet and down near my bladder. Sometimes I have the sensation that he is sitting on my bladder and then I have to go to the bathroom frequently. Here is a picture of me taken earlier today. I am wearing a dress that I bought from the Gap, it's very light and comfortable. This week the temperature is in the 90's, so I have been trying to dress cooly.

Our new home

I realize that it has been over a month since I last posted. Since we came back from MI/GA in early January, we started to look at houses. This time, we started to look at homes 30 minutes north of Los Angeles in a community called Santa Clarita. Santa Clarita is more of a family-friendly community with affordable housing, better schools, and less traffic and congestion than Los Angeles. Although driving to work would take 30 minutes without traffic each way, we weighed the benefits and chose to move to Santa Clarita.

Within our second week of house searching, we came across a home that we both really liked. By this time, we were working exclusively with one realtor who was recommended by a friend of ours. Also, his son works as a RN at the same hospital as us, so we had heard about him through word of mouth. We placed an offer on the house during the 3rd week of January and were expected to close February 21st.

Meanwhile, I had to move out of my apartment by January 28th (my current lease was ending) and I had to move everything into storage until we moved into our home. Alfonso had given 30 day notice on his apartment and had cancelled his utilities. We looked into hiring movers for our move-in day of February 25th. With one week left before move-in, we had everything ready.

Then we get a call from our realtor saying that the seller (who is a realtor herself) needed another two weeks on the home before we could move in. She currently had a tenant who needed more time before he moved out. We were upset since we had given notice to our apartment complex and had cancelled our utilites in advance. We were basically without a place to live after February 25th. We told our realtor this, and said he would tell the seller. Alfonso decided to check the MLS listings at work one night, and saw that our house had been put back on the market.

We started to get a bad feeling about the situation. We soon found out that the seller was trying to cancel escrow on the house. Our realtor reassured us that she couldn't cancel escrow, and the VP of our branch was involved in the situation. Our realtor reassured us that we would close February 21st, regardless of the seller. After several stressful days, (we were feeling pretty helpless at this point) we signed our final papers for the loan and waited for the bank to fund our loan. We officially closed on the house Thursday, February 22nd (a day late due to Monday being President's Day) and I picked up the keys Friday, February 23rd.

To this day, we believe that the seller was trying to get out of escrow due to a higher offer. We have heard several different stories from her- ranging from the tenant needed another two weeks before he moved (however, when I was opening the accounts for the utilities in early February, the operators were telling me that the power and water were going to be turned off on the 19th/20th of February and not two weeks later) or that she had another tenant that needed to occupy the house for only one month, so she didn't want to cancel the agreement with the other tenant.

Also, as part of our contingency, we had wanted the carpets cleaned prior to moving in. The seller did not agree to clean the carpets, so we made arrangements to have the carpets cleaned before we moved in. However, when I picked up the keys Friday evening, there was a note from the seller saying that she was willing to pay for the carpet cleaning and to give her a call. We later had her reimburse us for the cost of the cleaning, but we found it sort of strange.

Overall, the experience went well except for the last week of escrow. We didn't have any difficulties securing a loan and we were able to shop around and negotiate with various lenders. However, the other day I woke up from a bad dream- I dreamt that the seller was trying to get the house back!

Here are some photos of our new home:



Our home is three levels, with the garage, closet and entranceway on the bottom level. You go up a flight of stairs to the second level with the living room, dining room, kitchen, two bedrooms, full bath and utility closet. The third level has the Master bedroom and bath.


Attached garage


Side section off of garage for storage


Living Room


Dining room


Kitchen


Baby Christopher's room


Guest room


Our new front loading washer and dryer in the utility closet


Full size bathroom downstairs


We also have a little balcony off to the side of the living room. This little nook is where we are going to have our computer station.


Balcony


Another flight of stairs to the master bedroom and bathroom


Our Bedroom




Master bathroom with two sinks!


Master bathroom with tub and shower

Now, nearly two weeks after moving in, we are very happy with our home. It feels so nice to be able to call a place home and to be proud owners. We now have all of our major appliances installed and running (washer, dryer and refrigerator) and we are slowly decorating the place. Our next big project is to get ready for the baby (I have another 14 weeks left until my due date) and we are planning on hosting a house warming party with our friends and co-workers (and family members for those who can join us) Saturday, April 14th. The baby shower will be in mid-May. :)

20 weeks

Lately we've been really busy with buying the house and searching for refrigerators, washers, and dryers. We will be closing on the house February 21st, and moving in on the 25th. It's been a little chaotic lately, but hopefully everything will slow down during the next couple of weeks.

We had our 20 week ultrasound with the perinatologist on Tuesday. This ultrasound was to look at the different organ systems and make sure that the baby is progressing well. So far everything looks normal- they measured the brain, kidneys, bladder, legs, and cervix. The ultrasound tech commented on how much movement the baby was doing. She said it looked like he was pushing down on his legs so that he could change into another position. I just hope that the baby does not do too much movement and will not turn into a breech position by the time of delivery.

The screening for Downs Syndrome was negative, and the baby does not have a cleft palate (as was viewed during the ultrasound). We could see the four different chambers of the heart, and his heart rate was normal at 143 beats per minute. The baby measured 25cm in length (10 inches) and weighs 15 ounces (about 1 lb). We could see his little hands and feet and at one point he sucked on his fingers.

I can feel the baby moving- he is starting to get stronger. I had Alfonso put his hand on my lower belly and he could feel the baby moving around.

Lately I've been having quite a few nosebleeds. I think it has something to do with the heat drying out my sinuses and the increased hormones softening my mucous membranes. I normally do not have nosebleeds (I think the last one I had was when I was four) so this has been a little new for me. I don't dare blow my nose hard (even though I wake up every morning feeling a little stuffy) and I may just ask my OB during my next appointment about a OTC nasal spray for the dryness.

We are still looking at names, but we are going to narrow it down to three names by the time the baby is born. We want to include a middle name, so we will have a couple of different combinations. We'll keep everyone updated on which names we choose.

Here is the baby waving bye to everyone: :)

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. :)