Week 31

Okay, so since I'm extremely late on posting this update, once again I'll be doing a very short bullet point update on what happened this past week!

• On Thursday I met Jorge up in Solvang for a mini Babymoon! He was up North since Sunday night for a work conference so I was very anxious to see him. Although it may not seem like a long time to some of you, but four nights apart is the longest time we've spent apart since being married. It was a nice short vacation but being in Solvang was such a tease because of all of the wine tasting places! We'll have to make another visit after the baby is born.
• It's been pretty hot here in Southern California lately so I'm not sure if I'm actually getting swollen or reacting to the temperature change. But it has been more and more difficult to get my wedding ring on and off! I'm sure soon I'll stop wearing it, but maybe have it around a necklace, we'll see.
• Since I'm posting so late I've already been to the baby shower for the Ortiz side of the family, but I'll update you on that next week!

-Heather Ortiz, mama to be

Week 30

Only ten more weeks to go!

This week was my Mom's and my birthday week so we went to dinner with my Grandma at a restaurant called The Market Place in Downey. It is delicious Greek food! During dinner my Grandma made it a point to ask me about my birth plan and the birth center where we're planning on delivering Little Foot. After giving her some information she made it a point to say how she would like to be there if she could! I had never really thought about asking her if she would be interested in being present for the birth, but she made it very clear that if I would allow her to be there, that she would love to be a part of the experience. (She did also make it a point to say that if I wanted her, or anyone else out of the room during my labor, to just say the word and she would leave). My Grandma is going to be 93 in May, and knowing that she wants to share this experience means a lot to me.

This week Jorge and I kept up with some cleaning and rearranging furniture in the room (I feel like it's never ending!) and bought some bins to organize and store baby blankets, clothes, and some swaddle blankets. We definitely need to buy another dresser or clean out some of ours because we are NOT going to have enough space after the baby showers.

I think Little Foot's now in position...I could be wrong, but I feel more pressure towards the bottom of my belly every time I stand up which makes me think it's the baby's head pressing down on my bladder! It's still so amazing every time I feel the baby move inside me and try to stretch out. The baby's definitely running out of room in there, but I'm sure my belly will continue to keep growing to allow for space.

Below is a picture from the front of Little Foot and one of my favorite quotes. Might print this out and put it in the nursery for decoration :) See you next week...almost in the single digits for how many weeks are left! 

One of my favorite quotes with a picture of Little Foot inside :)

My view at 30 Weeks! Feet are almost gone!

-Heather Ortiz, mama to be

Week 29

Whoops! Well this week was pretty busy so I'm going to quickly do some bullet points of what this week has brought us!

• Glucose test came back normal!
• Found out through the blood tests that i'm anemic :( Now have to take some liquid iron+herbs to help and we'll be retaking some blood tests in three weeks.
• Took the RH- shot...have always hated shots but it really wasn't that bad.
• Bought some nursing bras that I started wearing right away because they were so comfortable! Figured it was a smart purchase since i'll be needing them.
• Painted the tree design on the wall where the crib will be! It's not completely finished but I'm so excited about the colors and the way it looks so far!
• We received our first registry gifts! Thank you to Jorge's co-worker Walter for gifting Little Foot's car seat, and our ex-neighbors for purchasing the crib mattress and sheet savers! It's so exciting receiving the first gifts, but also reminds me how much we still have to do to get the room and find space for all of Little Foot's gifts that we'll be getting soon. Only 11 weeks to go...time is going by very quickly.

There's a short re-cap, hopefully i'll be doing a better (quicker) job at posting these weekly updates in a timely manner!

-Heather Ortiz, mama to be

Week 28

Oh Little Foot, you're name now suits you well! Using you're little hands and feet to kick and punch anytime you feel like it. Like at 5:00 in the morning when I get up to use the bathroom (because I now have to pee ALL THE TIME) I think you believe it's time to wake up and do your morning exercise in my belly. Seriously, I tried going back to sleep for about an hour and every time I was close you were moving around and wanting some attention!

Jorge says "better get used to it!" and I know that's true because the baby is only getting bigger, and after the baby is born...well, I think we've all heard it a million times so I don't have to say how much things are going to change.

This week we went to a wedding out in Victorville for a friend of Jorge's side of the family and it was a beautiful wedding and reception. I actually wore my Jessica Simpson heels all night long! Once the dancing started we got up and joined the crowd, but after a little while I started feeling a sharp-like pain towards the bottom of my belly/uterus and decided it was best to sit down. I didn't want anything to happen, and in my mind I was thinking anything is possible (like going into labor because of dancing, or pushing the baby down because I was moving so much). Having contractions or having anything happen all the way out in Victorville was definitely NOT part of my plan. After sitting down I didn't feel anything and all was well.

Something that definitely happened more this week (due to the wedding) was people feeling the urge/need to touch my belly. Keep in mind, these are family friends from Jorge's side so I don't know them very well (or at all) and they just felt free to go ahead and touch. I was fine with it mostly because it was women, and I know they're all well-meaning and just love babies/pregnant women, but there will come a time when some stranger tries to touch and I'm going to react differently I'm sure. I guess I should be prepared for the baby shower because I know there will be plenty of belly touching then. (To be clear, I am perfectly fine with people I know who would like to touch my belly. Women in particular. It get's a little uncomfortable thinking about men touching though...I have to think of a way to kindly say "Please no touching". Or I can just train my dog to do this...!)

According to The Pregnant Chicken the baby is the size of a Chihuahua, which is really funny to think about. Baby is getting big in there! Looking forward to many things to come in the next few weeks which include birthday's and baby showers! See you next week :)

Yep...still on our to-do list!

-Heather Ortiz, mama to be

Week 27

This week came and went just like all of the others so far...leaving me so confused as to where the time went! This week Thursday we went in for the third trimester ultrasound and everything went great! He did mention that the baby is still in breech position so we had to schedule another appointment for around 37 weeks to see if the baby has turned by then. I'm not sure if this is normal or not though. I know it's super early for baby to actually be in position, but even at 37 weeks does Little Foot have to be turned? And if we know by going to the midwife and she feels that the baby is in position (head down) do we still have to go in for the ultrasound? I don't know, that will be one of the questions at my next midwife appointment which is next week.

Valentine's Day was on Friday! Both Jorge and I woke up with surprises/gifts from each other :) He leaves to work so much earlier than I do, so I made sure when I got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom (I knew it was going to happen) I put his gift on his dresser so he can see it when he wakes up at 5am. Later when I left to go to work I placed little gifts for my parents and sister in the dining room and went out to my car to find my surprise from Jorge! He always knows how to make me smile :) Later that night we went out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants and ate WAY TOO MUCH! It was delicious, but I was full. Now, keep in mind he doesn't get home from work until around 8ish, so we didn't eat until 9...came home and went right to sleep. BIG MISTAKE! Woke up in the middle of the night with really bad indigestion, and tums did not help one bit. Tried sitting up and going back to sleep, but just laid there for about an hour til I was able to do so. I've learned my lesson though. Smaller meals, and leave plenty of time for food to digest before going to sleep. Man, that was not fun!

Weekend came and went. Sunday I got a haircut (nothing new but makes me feel good) and Devo and I went to go see Frozen. Loved it! I'm the type of person that can sit and watch Disney movies (animated/children's movies) even if it's by myself, but I liked it a lot!

Monday we had the day off for the holiday and went to the Huntington Dog Beach with Lexi. Even though we're only there for a few hours, not only does she get exhausted...but so do we! All we do is throw the toy into the water for her to fetch, but I guess being in the sun during that time really takes it out of us. I took yet another nap when we got home. I'm starting to get the hang of this nap thing!

Overall great week, and looking forward to going to a wedding this upcoming Saturday for one of Jorge's family friends! Not sure if I can last in heels very long, but I'm sure going to try!

27 Weeks at Huntington Dog Beach

Little Foot at 27 Weeks

Playing with Lexi on a beautiful February afternoon

  -Heather Ortiz, mama to be

Week 26

Just putting it out there, but this picture was taken with my iphone instead of a regular camera because the battery died...and so did the back-up camera's battery! So it's not as clear as others but oh well.

This week we got a little bit more done upstairs! We painted the wall Saturday morning with the color I bought at Lowe's that was supposed to be a steel gray. Well, it looked blue...baby blue! Not so much the neutral color I was looking for! We ended up going to the new Dunn Edwards store and repainted the wall with the newer, darker gray color I was looking for. Well thankfully it came out looking just as I hoped. After adding some base molding, painting the door, attaching new door hinges, new door knob, and door moldings the wall looked great. Now, the next step it picking out a design I like and stenciling/painting the decor for behind/around the crib. I'm excited for that!

Saturday we also attended a baby shower for Cain and Jessica's little one coming next month! Baby Jordan is already so loved, we can't wait for his arrival! I'm especially excited because our kids will be so close in age I hope they can grow up together and have play dates, family vacations together in the future!

Sunday we did a little running around and bought material for the wall project upstairs (I'll post a picture below of the before and after). Attended mass as usual, and dared going to Walmart to check out a great deal my mom and sister had found the day before. We bought our first nursery furniture piece! There was a glider/ottoman combo at Walmart for only $130! That's a great deal! Everything we had seen at Babies-R-Us was ridiciously expensive and mostly came as separate pieces. So this...was a deal we couldn't pass up on. After sitting in it I knew it was worth getting, so we brought home our first (larger) purchase. That was exciting.

Looking forward to our next (and hopefully last) ultrasound this Thursday since it's the last time we'll be able to see the baby before his/her birthday! I'll keep you updated as we continue, and I'm thinking in the next few weeks I'll be doing a post on our own type of Gender: Old Wives Tales edition to see if the universe is thinking we're having a little boy or girl!

Left: Before painting; filling in the holes                                 Right: Finished base color with new moldings

Glider and Ottoman combo from Walmart

I think Little Foot likes it ;)

-Heather Ortiz, mama to be

Week 25

Twenty-five weeks down, fifteen to go! For some reason I was secretly praying to at least make it to week 25 (even though I obviously want to make it to the 40 week mark), so it felt good making it to this point with no problems. I've read that babies can live outside the womb at 25 weeks, so in my head (always thinking the worst) if there WAS an emergency, I would believe the baby would survive. Well, Little Foot made it! Now getting off of negative thinking and on to all I have to be thankful for and what happened this week!

I had a regular, uneventful work week, which is always nice. Friday night Jorge and I took Bryan to Frisco's for dinner which was nice because it's been a slight craving during this pregnancy. Jorge had his craving (Greek Chicken Salad- amazing if you haven't tried it), and I had a meal that was way too much food, but very good. We even indulged and shared a Banana Split...delicious!

Saturday I went out shopping with my Mom and Devo to Best Buy, grabbed some Starbucks, and seemed like we spent a lot of time walking around which got me a little tired. Stopped by Babies-R-Us by our house to see if they had the swivel rocker I registered for online so I can try it out...and they didn't. But that didn't stop us from sitting in the gliders they did have for about twenty minutes! Yeah, I was tired. I really didn't think I had done much that day, but it hit me then and it was nice putting my feet up for a little bit. Jorge came home from a "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day" lol. Ok, it probably wasn't that bad but it was funny hearing what happens when men are in charge of planning an event. We went to the Lazy Dog in Brea with Bobby, Eric, and Shuey and had a great dinner!

Superbowl Sunday! Took the drive out to Rancho Cucamonga to our cousin's house for their party. It was nice seeing family, and actually getting to relax, make some bets, and watch the game! I obviously passed on the jello shots, and realized how much I missed having a glass of wine! I'll definitely be planning a wine tasting night after the baby, because it's something I don't have often but when you CAN'T have it I realized I missed it just a little bit.

Monday I had our midwife appointment and everything is going well still. I've gained 5 lbs since my last appointment a month ago (eeeek) but only a total of 11 lbs so far, so I guess that's not too bad considering I'm almost 6 months pregnant. The blood tests came back from the last appointment and they concluded that the baby does have RH+ blood, which means I do need to get the set of shots (one at 28 weeks, and the other after the birth). I HATE SHOTS. I MEAN REALLY HATE SHOTS. I used to breakdown just by giving blood, but hey...it's necessary. Oh well.

There were a few pregnancy related symptoms or moods this week. For one, I would get out of the car too quickly and would pull my round ligament. It takes my breath away for a little bit. So here I am in the parking lot of Jamba Juice stretching and massaging the area (where your leg meets your pelvic bone) haha. It went away after a while, but I really need to remember to swing both legs out of the car at the same time from now on because it keeps happening! I also had an emotional/moody night that was exaggerated because of the pregnancy hormones (yes, I'm sticking with that excuse) lol. We had a few new developments with the lot we're purchasing, and starting the research of building and it just seemed a little overwhelming. Not going into detail, but it just made me realize how much I'd like to have in order before the baby comes. We'll see how that goes!

Another week in the making, and baby keeps growing and kicking like crazy! Next week I think I'll officially be 6 months!

-Heather Ortiz, mama to be