38 weeks!

I am now 38 weeks and am starting to wonder as my first patient asked this morning, am I "ever gonna get that thing outta there?" Never heard that one before. 

We are hanging in there despite a rough night last night that involved several bathroom visits, pacing around the floor, and severe chills. I attribute it to the pizza that I had yesterday at my work baby shower that I just had to have again for dinner, but who knows? Either way, it was not pretty, hence why my face is cropped out of this belly picture today.

 Some things I've read say that tummy troubles can be a sign of labor. I know that's what Nick was thinking the whole time although, even though my B-H contractions have picked up lately, it never entered my mind. If it is, I hope I'm past that stage now. I'll keep ya posted.

37 Weeks!

 

I am 37 weeks today! Full term! My doctor (and my grandmother) said the baby is still high (as of last week), so I think I may still have time to pack my bag and install the car seat, but we'll see what she says tomorrow. It's really strange not knowing when this thing is going to happen. I have tried to plan as much as possible and even have coverage at work starting May 14, but the truth is there's no telling what's going to happen. It's all in God's hands at this point and I have totally accepted that, and I'm really thankful to have made it this far. I just pray that this sweet baby is strong and healthy, and I can't wait to meet her!!

Things

Z has become increasingly rambunctious lately. I have actually confirmed that with his teachers at school who noted he “has a lot of energy these days.” I’m not loving the fact that this new burst in energy is going to coincide with the birth of his little sister.

Exhibit A

On a positive note, Z has been eating so much better and more these days. We are prescribing to the French philosophy of few (if any) snacks and few (in any) choices. If you’re not hungry and you know mom will offer more appealing options then why would you try something new? Now, I’m not saying he eats tofu and sauteed spinach, but he’s broadened his horizons a bit from chicken nuggets and fish sticks.

I still really don’t know what my child care plans are going to be when I return to work. This makes me nervous. When we were discussing the options, Nick admitted that he just realized that 2 kids in daycare, means the tuition will be doubled. The fact that he just figured that out also makes me a little nervous.

I am probably going to gain about the same amount of weight with number 2 that I did with Z. Maybe a couple of pounds less, although I feel like the pattern has been totally different. I am definitely in that forgot-what-it-feels-like-to-button-pants period right now where I feel like I’ve had this belly forever.

My mom’s mom is in town, so it has been a treat to see her while I’m pregnant.

I have been wanting to take maternity pics with Z, but I haven’t been able to coordinate it. Here’s the best we have from the other night.

I realized the other day that the only pictures I have out or hanging in my house are of Z. We look like we are obsessed with our child, which I guess we are.

One of my absolute favorite things Z does right now is come up to me or Nick and give us a hug and say “that’s my mama” or “that’s my baba.” It totally melts my heart. He also periodically will look over and say with enthusiasm “hey mama!” or “hey baba.” I love his happiness and especially his innocence.

If you’ve seen Nick in the past year and a half, you probably know that he has braces. We are so excited that he’s getting them off this week, and he’ll finally being showing those pearly whites in pictures again!

As many arguments and issues as my bro and I have had over the years. I’m thankful that we are able to be so close. I love that he and Nick are so close too and that Z loves his “Uncle Faris.” We always say he’s gonna be Z’s cool uncle that he wants to be like (but we’ll have to watch that).

 

By the way, this has been my fun with Pioneer Woman Photoshop actions portion of the post. These are pictures from our evening out with my grandmother and another family friend who was in town.

I’ll leave you with this:

Belly

35 Weeks

36 Weeks

You read that right folks, 36 weeks, 9 months. Wait! What? Okay when did I get 9 months pregnant? I have so much to do!

Parties and Potties

We had an eventful weekend. In fact, we were down right social butterflies compared to our usual weekends of doing not much of anything outside of ourselves. Thursday night, Nick’s group at work hosted a dinner/shower for us and the 2 other couples in his group who are expecting. They are both due around the same time as us, so the bellies were in full force. I loved it! We had an awesome time, everyone was very generous, and it was great to get out even though we stayed up way too late.

Then, on Friday, one of my dear friends from college was in town and came to visit me and Z. Z decided that day that he was going to go potty for me. He walked up to me in the morning and said “I want tin-tane hearts.” Which translates to candy hearts (from Valentine’s Day) and more importantly the treat he usually gets when he goes in the potty. So, I said “Do you want to go tee tee in the potty?” and he said “yes.” At this point I am not getting my hopes up that anything is going to happen because he has only gone a few times and always at night after dinner. But we went anyway, and within a few seconds he started going. Long story short, he went in the potty for the rest of the day including at the Lebanese Food Festival! And, he was dry most of the day too! I was in awe/ecstasy. Is it possible? Could he have potty trained in one day? The kid had so many treats on Friday, he was probably on a constant sugar high, but I didn’t care. Side note, I was so emotionally and mentally invested in this that I had dreams about the potty Friday  night. That is sad!

The next day he continued his potty journey, although he had had one big traumatic poop on Friday that had him totally freaked out to poop again. He kept saying “no poo poo right now” “poo poo tomorrow.” And there it is. So before we even got started we’ve suffered a little set-back. So now, just because he went for one day I’m expecting it to be done, when 2 days ago I would have been happy with him going 2 times in one day instead of once. We went a lot of places this weekend and he didn’t get nearly the amount of sleep he needs, so in that sense it was not the best weekend for potty progress.

We got to celebrate sweet Henry’s first birthday on Saturday, and it was a beautiful day for it! Z had so much fun! We loved catching up with H’s parents and we were honored to share his special day with them!

Z had a blast opening H’s presents and sweet Henry didn’t mind at all! I wasn’t sure he was going to let this one go!

The automatic bubble blower was a huge hit!

Sunday we went to the Day out with Thomas in Calera. I gotta tell you, I was star struck by the life size Thomas engine myself! It was so cool! Z loved riding the train and equally the bounce house, train tables and mini golf!

I can’t reach it!

Not too excited about leaving

Belly Update

I just thought I'd update belly pics. I'm pretty happy my weight gain has slowed a bit. I'm just trying to eat normal and avoid swollen ankles, although I had to have some hearty lunches after I recovered from sick-mania 2012. I NEVER want to go through that again, and I am just praying that my sweet baby stayed protected in her little bubble. I go to the doctor tomorrow, so hopefully she'll give me some reassurance.

Here is 33 weeks


34 Weeks

Names Names Names

Well, I have tried to protect the innocent as much as possible on this blog by referring to him as Z, and I’m sure I will do the same for numba 2, but I thought I would at least officially announce her name and the evolution to it. After much discussion, we have decided on Lujayn Pacha Gaxiola.

The Pacha Gaxiola part was pretty much set from the beginning the rest has been an evolution. We began discussing names from the day we learned of her gender. We went round and round looking for an Arabic name with a nice meaning that would be easy to pronounce and not too common. I love L’s in girls names and thought about many of those including Layla and Lyla, then Nick reminded me of the song Liza Jane and we thought about Lyla Jane, which ultimately led us to Lujayn, which my brother’s wife had mentioned once but we had never really heard it much before that. Nick loved it from the start and already thinks of her as his little Lou, and I realized it met all the criteria we were looking for, and it’s a sweet sounding name. I have a hard time really loving a name until I see the baby with the name, so I have been less enthusiastic and would have been no matter what name we chose. We researched and found out that it means “silver,” which Nick appreciated as he referred to it as a “non-pretentious” metal.

So, that is it, little Lujayn. She’s been on my brain non-stop these days. I think I am making up for all those months when it didn’t register that she would be coming!