32 Weeks, 0 days

3D Ultrasound & Visit from Grandma Lisa

Thursday 3/25 the hubby and I celebrated our 17th month wedding anniversary by cleaning house for Grandma Lisa’s visit and sending the doggies to the groomers. With a busy day at work, Michael wasn’t able to pick me up until 6:00 pm and of course, the groomers lock their doors at 6:30 on the dot. For those of you who don’t know, we live roughly 35-40 miles away from work and even though we carpool the drive can take us at least 45 minutes to get from one destination to the other. This didn’t leave us much hope for picking up the puppies on time which would force us to leave them overnight and pick them up in the morning. Thankfully (and with a little prayer), the rain and traffic was so bad this day that we weren’t the only puppy parents to be late and we were able to pick up our little boys at 6:45 pm. So when Grandma Lisa came in for her visit later that night she was welcomed by the whole family!

Grandma Lisa came in to town to go with Michael and I to our 3D Ultrasound and to take a peek at Auntie Elizabeth’s beautiful still-under-construction house. Also, us kids threw in a surprise birthday dinner for her since her big day was on the 31st! Now, if only she put her birthday on Facebook everyone else would have been able to send her well wishes. You can do it Grandma Lisa!!

Friday the 26th started off with Michael and Auntie Elizabeth heading off to work in the wee-hours of the morning while Grandma Lisa and I slept in and watched an episode of The Marriage Ref I had recorded on my DVR. Oh, what a great start to the day! Knowing this was the BIG DAY for the ultrasound I read up on all of the cool tips and tricks to get the best photos…..things like: Eat a bunch of candy or something very spicy at least 2 hours before the session. What a great idea huh?? Well, somehow in my mind those instructions turned in to “lets go have a great big breakfast with mom and put us all in a food coma for the rest of the day!” That’s right, Grandma Lisa was sleeping in the car, I could barely open my eyes….and Sprout was just dead asleep for the whole ultrasound session. The entire time the technician was commenting on how content Sprout and as much as we flip-flopped directions and poked at her she wouldn’t move! We’re all hoping that she will be this calm and content once she makes her appearance in to the world.

Hands….Sprout loved her hands. From picking her nose, sucking on her foot, playing with the umbilical cord and sucking her fingers, our little baby girl was as happy as could be in my tummy! With every new glimpse we tried to identify whose features she has and what she was doing to entertain herself. But her hands were definitely a winner this day. The room was dark and filled with 2 medium screens and 1 huge 50” flat screen TV for everyone to get a good view of what was going on. Within seconds of starting, Grandma Lisa jumped up and put her nose right up to one of the screens so she could have the best view. As an excited mom, I loved this! The hubby was right there by my side holding my hand and rubbing the top of my tummy as we talked to her and watched her reactions. This was a truly amazing experience and I think we could have staying in the room the entire time!
Thank you Grandma Lisa for flying all of the way up here to come visit us! We truly enjoyed your company. To the rest of the family – we miss you all tons and can’t wait for your visits in a couple of months when Sprout joins our family!

28 weeks, 0 days

Third trimester here we come! For all of you who actually stay up to date on the blog sorry I have fallen behind again. It has been a busy couple of weeks. After the explosion of baby items that consumed our main living area, the hubby and I have been working like crazy to finish the baby room and get the house in a tidy order. Although I would like to say I inherited my mother’s ability to organize, straighten-up and keep the model-esque looking house……I can’t. Michael and I bought our house almost three years ago and still had boxes to unpack. Slowly but surely we painted and redid the dog room, the office and our bedroom. But each time we seem to get everything in order, I realized all we managed to do is Crap-Shift. That’s right….move crap from one room to the next. While we always love having company, we have a tendency to throw everything in an empty bedroom or closet so the house always “looked” nice but wanted to bust out of the seams. And oh boy were we good at this method of cleaning!! But with Sprout growing and getting closer to joining our family, we have been working our tails off to get rid of the crap and really clean and organize the house. And if I say so myself…..we’ve done a heck of a good job. The garage may not fit a car in it for a while, but everything in there is either in bins for storage (which will go on the large shelves we bought to surround the garage walls but still sit unassembled due to lack of work space) or is part of a huge garage sale pile. Hopefully we can have a massive garage sale in the upcoming weekend - - weather permitting - - that will get the last of our crap out of the house for good!

Michael finished putting together the crib, wall hangings, blinds and valance this week finishing off the perfect baby room this week. We’re so excited to have her come and see her beautifully clean room that was delicately decorated just for her. Here are some photos to share:

27 weeks, 0 days

Our little baby girl isn’t so little anymore. Measuring around 16 inches and over approx. 2.5 lbs she is well in to her first growth spurt….and boy is mama feeling it! My tummy seems to have exploded in to its own celestial planet and yet we still have 3 months to go. I just can’t wait to see the gigantic proportions this baby bump will evolve in to with the weeks and months to come.

This weekend the hubby and I had our very first introduction to baby care and breastfeeding info, as we spent all of Saturday morning and early afternoon attending baby classes through Group Health in Capital Hill. Slightly overwhelmed and even more perplexed about body parts and baby poop, the classes were taught by an excellent instructor. Sitting in the room with over a dozen 8 month+ preggers was definitely a sight to see…especially when we got a ½ hr break to go grab food. I think Safeway was a little overwhelmed with the bellies! As Michael and I go on tours of local hospitals and birthing centers, and attend more of these baby prep classes, the more we realize that what we thought the birthing process was going to be like is not the way it actually happens. Instead of a room full of family meeting and greeting the new baby, we find out the short recovery period will be filled with doctors, nurses, and lactation consultants. Any time we thought we would have to visit seems to be taken over by medical paperwork and the always-advised time to sleep. Every source of information we consult (books, nurses, baby dr, doulas, etc), there seems to be more of a laundry list of stuff to prepare for baby. At least 45 mins of skin to skin contact per day for the first 3 months……you sleep when the baby sleeps……all night marathons of breastfeeding…..yay! All the while I’m sitting in the room staring at videos of babies sucking out mommy’s milk thinking “ouch” and “is that even possible?” Nonetheless, as much as this baby stuff becomes overwhelming it is overshadowed by the excitement we both have to meet our baby girl and to see her grow in our arms every day.

An exciting event came this weekend as Auntie Elizabeth and I started opening the 3 huge moving boxes of clothes and gifts we received from the baby shower in California. As we started ooo-ing and awe-ing over all of the cute outfits we realized that we were going to need somewhere to put all of this stuff. Sprout’s room may have cute polka dots on the wall, but we haven’t even started putting together any of the furniture yet…including the dresser. So my fantastic husband (who actually reads directions) put together the nightstand and dresser for Sprout’s room. Unfortunately, by time ½ of the clothes were hung and folded I remembered I wanted to wash the clothes before our little girl ever wore or used these items. After working in the stock room in a department store once, I became aware of the chemicals and pesticides they use when shipping and packing clothes. So, we just feel it is better to give it a clean wash for our little girl. You ask where that left us with 3 huge boxes of clothes and gifts??? Well, it was left right there in the middle of the living room! Our puppy Jacob seemed to love it because he could sniff and pull out his favorite pieces, but to us it just looks like a tornado came about and destroyed the inside of our house. Guess this is just a sign of what’s to come with a new baby?!?

Baby Doctor Follow-Up (3/5/2010)

It has been four weeks since our last baby doctor appointment and this one was a quick visit. We met with Dr. Danica Bloomquist at the Bellevue Group Health office today and we did the normal “how is everything going” routine. These past four weeks have been great and we just touched upon the numb leg, random backache, and hip pains I get...but nothing to be concerned about and everything seems to be normal. So far Sprout is doing great and the second trimester has definitely been better than the first trimester. At the visit the baby doctor gave us another peek of Sprout’s heartbeat so I’ve posted the video below to share with you. Her fetal heart rate was 130 beats per minute. Go Baby Girl! We have one more visit at 4 weeks, and then we move to 3 weeks, 2 weeks, then one baby doctor appt every week until I am 41 weeks along. Fingers crossed that she does not stay in mommy’s tummy through 41 weeks.

Hope you enjoy the video

26 weeks, 1 day

Can you believe we have hit the six and a half month mark of preggersville? I surely can’t. But as this time passes so quickly, our excitement for baby Sprout is growing exponentially! The hubby and I cannot wait to hold our little girl and watch her grow in to a beautiful person. Granted, if she’s anything like mom and dad she’ll be a hairy little creature at birth…but nonetheless, BEAUTIFUL!

Sprout is growing quickly and has a new fascination for Milk and dairy products. Every day I have at least two full glasses of fat-free milk (yes the watery stuff…..I hate tasting like I was just in the big striped tent at the Orange County Fair), a yogurt and a string cheese. Yummy! So far our house consumes two gallons of milk per week and an extra ½ gallon I keep in the refrigerator at work. If nothing else, the extra milk has given me wonderfully natural white finger nails. Lovely! On the solids menu, cucumbers and random veggies has also made an appearance. Of course the cucumbers have to be covered in ranch dressing…but Yumm-O! This is a complete turnaround from my first trimester when the sight or smell of veggies made me feel like I just drank a gallon of ipecac. But I eat the healthy things I can for our little one. I want her to be healthy and preferably no gallstones by the age of 18 like I had.

Another pregger symptom that has been escalating as our little girl grows is the numbness in my right thigh and hip. This has been going on since about my fourth month and would usually only occur after standing for 10 or so minutes. Soon the 10 minutes turned to 5 minutes….and now the 5 minutes has turned in to 3 minutes and even occurring when I am sitting down. Through the months I have learned to live with this awkwardly uncomfortable numbness, but it’s definitely on my mind every time we go shopping or try to get stuff done around the house. I have even resorted to the little motor chair when Michael and I go grocery shopping because as soon as my leg starts hurting my patience level drops to zero and I’m ready to high-tail it out of there. Being so, we were lacking real groceries for quite a while there. But we’re all stocked up now thanks to the motor chair! There’s no good way to describe this feeling…..it is definitely not that ticklish feeling when your foot falls asleep. It’s more like I just put on a pair of cold wet saggy jeans and they’re hanging off of my right leg. I have absolutely no feeling in my thigh or hip and if someone were to ask me about it I would say it is someone else’s leg. EWE! I have checked in with the baby doctor and was told it is probably my sciatica and not to worry. When I get regular checkups she makes sure everything sensory-wise and circulation-wise is healthy. So far, a clean bill of health. Yay!

So Cal Baby Shower - Feb 27th, 2010

Michael and I had the time of our lives this weekend as we hopped on a plane and headed to Orange Country for a spectacular baby shower. First and foremost, there are some very important people we would like to send our love to and thank for making this huge event come together:

Grandma Lisa – Thank you for the beautiful invitations, decorations, table center pieces and overall coordination of the party. You’ve done so much to make sure this party was a hit and you really surpassed all of our expectations.


Grandma Nancy, Aunt Stacey & Grandpa Howard – Thank you for bringing the awesome sandwich platters, fruit and veggie trays and salads! The decorations you brought helped bring everything together and make our day truly special.


Grandpa Dan – The chili was a huge hit (and not only when a bowl of it hit the floor) and could only have been made by you. Thank you!


Grandpa Chris – You put so much effort in getting the house ready, cleaning, setting up, taking care of the table, chairs and tent. Thank you!


Great Grandma & Grandpa Luppino – Your house was the perfect setting for this party, and even though I’m sure it was a little stressful and overwhelming at times, we truly appreciate your generosity. Also, thanks you for the last minute scramble to make 5-dozen eggs worth of deviled eggs. They were awesome!


Auntie Elizabeth – Even though you were unable to make the flight down to CA, thank you for arranging the fun baby shower games for us to play. They were so much fun!

Grandpa Frank – All of those beautiful gifts could have never made it to Seattle without your help. Thank you for taking care of those logistics.  Also, you knocked it out of the ball park when I asked you to pick up 5 "creative" cans of baby food for the taste testing game.  The lucky winner has a whopping 2 correct answers!

Aunt Cynthia - Thank you for coming over and working well in to friday night to help put together the hand-made center pieces.  They were the perfect touch of cuteness to the party.

Cousin Danielle & Megan Hizon – Without the two of you it would have been a much more stressful event….but instead my parents, Michael and I were all able to enjoy ourselves so a great big Thank You for all of your hard work to execute the games and make everything run so friggen smoothly!!

Friends & Family – Thank you for the love and support even through the huge torrential downpour and the slight hail storm. The gifts were amazing and seeing everyone come together to support our Baby Sprout was touching and much appreciated by us. Thank you!

25 weeks, 0 days

Valentine's Day 2010

"To my beautiful wife on this very special Valentines Day.  You will never know how much I love you and how special you are to me.  You are the reason I wake up in the morning. - Love your husband, Michael"

Thank you honey for my wonderful Valentine's Day flowers and cards.  Sprout and I love you so very much! XOXO and xoxo

24 Weeks, 0 days

So it’s been a little while since I’ve last updated the blog and for my friends and family that actually read this thing…Sorry! Here’s a catch up entry that will hopefully fill you in on all of the main things that have happened in the last week or so.

Failed the first glucose test to diagnose gestational diabetes. It could be because of the strawberry and chocolate fondue that I had the night before while celebrating Super Bowl…..or maybe I just enjoyed the taste of that orange soda they make you drink before drawing your blood for the test. Since getting preggers I have given up all soda (really) and have been dying for some orange soda or anything sweet and carbonated. To my surprise, that is exactly what I got to drink before vampire lab lady came and took my blood. Unfortunately, I failed the test by 2 points (137 when the normal range is 70-135). Oops!

Glucose Test Part 2. While I may have enjoyed the soothing taste of orange bubbly down my throat on Monday, I wasn’t so sure about the 3 times-as-sweet Lime Syrup I had to drink for the follow-up test. The original test had me drink, wait an hour and then draw blood. This time, it was draw blood, drink, wait an hour then draw blood, wait an additional hour then draw blood, and then wait one more hour then draw blood. For those of you counting that makes 4 stabs in one day for blood samples and a total of 5 blood-sucking stabs for the week. The hubby was awesome enough to sit with me throughout the entire test since I was not allowed to go outside of the building. I found this to be a great time to nap in front of the cozy loby fireplace while he was busy playing videos and games on his iPhone. Thanks honey for all of your support. Luckily, this second test turned out normal and neither Sprout nor I will be impacted by gestational diabetes. WHEW! Let me tell you…I was kind of freakin and not too happy about this rollercoaster. But God answered my prayers and we are all doing just fine.

Painting Polka Dots & Mike’s Birthday Party

This was an awesome Saturday filled with baby room decorating, family, friends and none other than Rocky & Bullwinkle themselves. A special Thank You to Auntie Elizabeth and Soon-To-Be-Cool Daddy Michael for all of your help painting the polka dots on the wall in Sprout’s room. Also, another Thank You goes out to all of the friends that showed up to Mike’s Family Fun Center birthday party!

Polka Dots:

Mike's Birthday Party!

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Follow Up Baby Dr. Appointment

Bright and early Monday morning and we are off to see Dr. Danica Bloomquist at Group Health in Bellevue. It was just a routine visit to see how our little girl is doing. It is always the best that we get to hear Sprouts heart beat when we go in for these monthly visits. I tell ya what…we just can’t get enough of that.  It might be kind of hard to hear, but take a listen to the video below :-D

The baby doctor did commend me for only gaining 7 lbs during the pregnancy. Yay! Unfortunately, 6 of those lbs were gained in the last month. (Thank goodness the food aversions are gone and I can finally eat, but maybe it’s not all such a good thing) So in the midst of her delightful compliments on my subtle weight gain, she told me I needed to revert back to more of what I was doing before. Maybe she doesn’t realize I am an “all or nothing” kind of gal. Just Kidddin. I’ll definitely try to make sure I’m not over-doing the food now that I can finally eat. Along with the visit, I had the luxury of getting stabbed in the arm for yet another blood test. This time it is a glucose test that will help us see if I’ve developed gestational diabetes from the pregnancy. The good news is I’ve been craving orange soda since getting preggers and I finally got to drink some for this test! I guess it was worth the little poke in the arm.

23 weeks, 0 days

Happy Super Bowl Sunday! The hubby and I spent a weekend in the house while we waited for the painters to finish up in the baby’s room, hallways and vaulted ceilings. It turned out wonderful and we are so glad we were able to get this huge project done before Sprout arrives. Now we’re down to our last 3 little rooms with the oh-so-lovely peachy pink décor.

Auntie Elizabeth and Uncle Rick invited us over to their condo to watch the game. Of course I had to talk house shopping with the sister and the boys watched the game. It was a fun time as I’m sure you can tell by my exhausted expression in this week’s photo. Another week down and we’re getting closer and closer to meeting our beautiful little girl. Can’t Wait!

Michael & Erin Baby Pics

I just found these slideshos I created for our wedding website back in 2008. Enjoy!

Following the Leader

So I know every parent thinks their child is the smartest, cutest and all around the world’s greatest kid. And for us, well, we are no different. I have talked about the hubby and I celebrating Sprout’s mini-mile stones like the first time we thought we heard her heartbeat and instead it was gas….or when we were at our 20 week ultrasound and we hip-hip-hoorayed for two arms and two legs. Yep, Sprout has proved to us time and time again that she is a miracle and already a high achiever. Just in the past 24 hours we had another mini-milestone for our little daughter that we were oober excited about.

We called this “following the leader.” After a restless night and 10+ hours at work I was in bed and ready to crash by 9pm last night. Sometimes Auntie Elizabeth calls me old for going to bed so early, but me….I think growing a baby in your tummy takes a lot of energy and therefore more naps are needed. After all, one of the greatest sayings from my dad is “Naps are my friend” and I completely agree. As for all of those other early turn downs before Sprout was baking in my tummy….well, squirrel! While I may believe a hard day ensured me to an early bed time, the husband seemed to think that this was a queue for some other type of evening activity. No, get your mind out of the gutter. I was talking about playing with the puppies on our bed and getting them all riled up. Without fail, Jonnie and Jacob spring and pounce all over the bed when it looks like dad is coming. Last night would be nothing less. As much as I enjoy the nervous guarding of my baby bump to make sure 4 to 8 little paws didn’t try to stab me, Sprout seemed to think this was time to start playing too. Within minutes of barking and playful growling, our daughter was kicking up a storm in my tummy. Kidneys, bladder, hips, lungs, you name it and she was using it as a punching bag. After the first 10 seconds of whining and grinning with a look only a 5 year old cold make, I was excited to feel all of the baby’s movements. The hubby joined in the fun by pressing down lightly on my tummy to feel her kick. This time was a little different in that as Mike moved his hand to different sides of my chub-meets-baby bumps and Sprout followed him and kicked exactly where he was pushing down. This could be because our cute little one may not be a fan of someone crowding her tight living quarters…..or we just have that wonderfully smart and high-achieving kid. I vote for option two. Shrieking with excitement (partially because of indigestion) we spent the next half hour playing with Sprout and her kicking abilities. The puppies, on the other hand, retired to the corner of the bed where Jacob looked at us with utter confusion and Jonnie was laying down facing the bedroom door (this is the signal for “dad give me my bedtime treat). Another milestone for our baby and we were so excited and entertained by Sprout’s interaction with the outside world. Now, if only the crying, screaming and other babiness can be just as exciting as this, we will be set!

22 Weeks, 0 Days

Well we are well on our way through five and a half months of preggersville and we can’t be more excited. From choosing the nursery colors to celebrating with friends and family this has really been an exciting year for us so far. This week we got the pleasure of watching the baby bump get bigger and bigger! We are just about to the point where I’m surrounding myself in a pillow cocoon at night just to try to get comfortable and sleep. As for last night, I had the pleasure of waking up every 30 mins for a solid 30 mins followed by a mere 30 mins of sleep. Sound fun huh? I think it’s a combination of eating too much salt at Bowling on Sunday nights and Sprout trying to get me ready for the midnight feedings. Oh I can’t wait! I’d rather be waking up at night to hold our baby girl than to be tossing and turning in a sea of pillows.

The hubby and I picked our nursery colors and are anxiously awaiting the job to be done this upcoming week (2/5-2/7). We went with some lighter neutral green colors that will look awesome against the butterfly nursery bedding set we chose for Sprout. Instead of a chair rail we are going to do 3 walls one color and 1 accent wall a slight shade lighter. The accent wall will have the crib against it and a beautiful piece of molding 2 ft down from the ceiling that will highlight some painted polka dots that match the bedding. We are oober excited and can’t wait to show you the end project. Now that we have picked the paint we just have to clear out the room (already piling baby stuff up in the corner) and patch the holes so painter dudes can do a quicker job. Wish us good luck that everything turns out great.

This Sunday at bowling we had a wonderful visit by Mr. Ed Gannon and Baby Eddie….who isn’t so much a baby anymore. But boy is he as cute as can be. Mike being the kid lover and bowling extraordinaire had to give Baby Eddie his first ever bowling lesson. While I was convinced the adorable kid would lose interest after the first 3-4 frames….this was clearly not the case as dad was carrying him out to the car while screaming “I want ball, I want ball” all of the way home. Thanks for the great night Hubby, Auntie Elizabeth, Uncle Rick, Steph, Ed and baby Eddie!

21 Week 5 Day Ultrasound

Our little baby Sprout is growing so quickly no wonder I wake up every morning with a bigger and better baby bump! Three weeks ago our daughter was weighing in at 3oz total body weight, and today she is a whopping 1lbs 3oz. Michael was by my side today as we went for our “do-over” 20 weeks ultrasound and hoped that this time she was going to be in a little better position for us to see her. Last time we enjoyed staring at her back through the entire exam, but this time it was nice that we got some different views of Sprout. We even were lucky enough to score a couple of extra photos before leaving the office. First thing, our ultrasound technician made sure we got some of those precious profile snapshots every parent hopes for and then we went on to take photos of the rest of her anatomy. While sprout was posing for the cameras we got a beautiful photo of her face while she’s waving hello. I tell you, she’s going to love all of the photos we take of her when she is born! Next up was a full body shot where Sprout decided to fling her butt up in the air and show off those cute legs (or at least one cute leg). Shortly after we snapped this 2nd awesome photo, Michael and I watched as Sprout started to play with her legs by grabbing on to them and swinging them up in the air. It was right at this “spred-em” pose that we received confirmation that Sprout is still a girl. Whew! To be honest, I was wondering if some extra body parts were going to show up that maybe our technician missed. So glad we can stick with our current girly themes!

Some other interesting facts: her heartbeat was a quick 136 beats per minutes and per the computer generated information, her estimated due date is June 1st, 2010. THIS HAS NOT BEEN OFFICIALLY CHANGED BY OUR BABY DR YET.  It was merely an automatic data feed from the computer that will help the dr make her assessment during our next visit. It is interesting to see that her due date is bouncing all around. Safe thing to say is that she’ll be here in early June. Haha!

Up next is our baby doctor visit on 2/8/10 which will just entail our routine checkup.

21 weeks, 0 days

This week was filled with 10 hour work days, the most awesome prenatal massage, a hilarious movie with a good friend, a night in with the hubby, raiding a friend’s baby leftovers, church, rain, and a winning night at bowling. Whew, this week was as exhausting as it sounds. All in all, I’m ready for a long nap and can’t wait for our next ultrasound coming up on Friday 1/29. I hope so badly that we get some decent pictures this time from our appointment….even a couple of extra beauty shots wouldn’t hurt! Also, it will be nice to know that Sprout shows up as a girl the second time around. Even with all of the confidence in the world from our last technician, there is no definitive way of knowing the gender until little Sprout pops out.

On our to-do list this upcoming week is finalizing the baby room colors, which seems to be more of a challenge than I initially thought. I was all set on a chair rail with two tones of sage walls and we even got 6 different paint samples from the painter.  This was supposed to help us decide which color combo we wanted. But now that our Picasso-like talent has been slathered on the wall, I am so undecided I think I just doubled my gray hair count. BTW, after 5 months of no root touch ups I am a natural salt & pepper kind of gal. But back to the room…..no clue. The end!

The hubby and I also need to sign up for our baby classes. We are considering either Overlake Hospital in Bellevue (close to work and well known in an upscale neighborhood but over 30 miles away from home) or Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Tacoma (close to home, Jesuit hospital with a beautiful view of Mt. Rainier). The problem right now with Saint Joseph’s is trying to make it 50 miles south during the work day for a baby doctor appointment. That is why we have been doing all of our checkups at the Bellevue location. Close, convenient and a beautiful facility. In the next two weeks we will be taking a tour of Saint Joseph’s to see if we like it. Then, here we come baby classes! Something along the lines of “how to take care of this completely dependent-immobile-probably chubby looking thing” followed by “dad, what the heck are you going to do” and topped off with “those voluptuous twins on your chest will now have the life sucked out of them while giving life to your little one” type of classes. Yay can’t wait!

For those family and friends in California, Michael and I will be down for a visit and a co-ed baby shower for Sprout hosted by my Grandma Lisa, Grandma Nancy, Auntie Elizabeth and Auntie Stacey on 2/27. I just want to give them and my Luppino Grandparents (who are opening up their doors for a party location) a HUGE shout-out to tell them thank you for all of the work you are putting in to this for us and the baby. We are truly excited to come down and celebrate the blessing of Sprout! Love you all so much and we are grateful for everything that you are putting together. Cannot wait to see you guys and all of our friends and family. Xoxoxo!

20 Weeks, 0 days - We're Half Way There!

Can you believe we finally hit the half-way point of preggersville? This has been the most exciting, nerve-wrecking, confusing, anticipatory and overall loveable experience I have ever gone through! This week was truly special to me because I felt little Sprout kick my hand for the first time. It was one thing to feel our little girl gurgle in my tummy and questioning whether it was gas or her gymnastics’ moves…but this was a totally different experience! While I was working from home on Friday I was in a reclining position on my back with my laptop on top of a pillow and on my lap. I do not know what it is about this specific position, but I can always feel her move and kick around the most when I lay back like that. (Don’t worry moms…I wasn’t laying flat on my back, I was just sitting in a slightly reclining position) Well, Sprout’s kicking was so strong I decided to press down on my left side…because she LIVES only on that side…and waited to see if anything happened. After a couple of minutes I felt the most incredible kick and my eyes jumped open. I was in disbelief. This was no little poke at the hand, this was a “mom, get your hand off of my cocoon, it’s already tight in here as it is!” type of kick. I was so excited I had to leave Michael a message at work and my voice was so high-pitched and screechy with enthusiasm that I am not even sure he understood what I was trying to tell him. And so the joys of motherhood continue! I love these little but HUGE milestones for Sprout.

While I was on a glowing high from my baby girl’s big adventure for the day, it was quickly old news when the hubby shared his story. Turns out my wonderfully loving husband was rubbing and pushing my tummy in the midst of my coma-like sleep the night before and Sprout had given dad the same thrilling kick. Yay! My only question is, why the heck don’t I know that my husband is poking around my tummy when I’m asleep at night? I should have figured since Michael has already established a relationship with my chub bumps….giving Sprout the sign of peace at church, blessing it with its own cross of holy water, running over to give me a hug and quickly droping down to say hi to what I would call my rolls, but he thinks it is baby. (hint: baby is low and on the left side! The rest of the bloating is Sprout pushing everything up and out.) But, I love it all the same and I’m sure our daughter does too.

Some new twist and turns have showed up over the past couple of weeks when it comes to pregger symptoms. Although grateful that I don’t have to deal with the constant crawl-out-of-my-skin nausea, I am learning how to deal with the life of hot flashes and being hungrier than a 14 year old boy going through his high-school growth spurt. No kidding I eat every 20 mins or so munching on a tangerine, string cheese, yogurt, or whatever else I have in my goodie bag for the day. I am completely unable to sit down and have a large meal like normal, but instead have to interrupt my conversations because the next snack is making its way in to my mouth. And as far the hot flashes…I’m sure everyone at work probably thinks of me as “the bloated check who ate too many doughnuts and must be going through menopause because she’s really not doing a good job hiding her gray hair and has to wear short sleeves with a wet towel on her neck to control those old-lady hot flashes!” Nice visual huh? Love being pregnant! I’m definitely glowing.

Final Poll Results - Boy or Girl!

Okay, here are the final poll results from our first round of polls:

Boy or Girl:
Of the 29 of you who voted 58% (or 17 people) were completely wrong and guessed Sprout was going to be a boy. 13% (or 4 people) were WAY off base and must need glasses because they obviously didn’t look at our first ultrasound photos to see there was only one Sprout inside my tummy. These people (Grandma Lisa and Grandpa Dan) voted for “One of each, who knows a miracle could happen!” And lastly, 27% (or all whopping 8 people) were correct and guessed that our little baby Sprout was going to be a girl! CONGRATS to those lucky guessers!

Pick a Boy’s Name:
It was a landslide win for Christopher Daniel Ramirez with a total of 51% (or 15 of the 29 voters) for the choice of a boy’s name. I have to say, this was my favorite choice too. Oh well, maybe the next one will pop out with some extra parts and we can name him Christopher Daniel. The rest of the voting went like this: 24% for Michael Daniel, 13% for Christopher Frank and 10% Michael Fortunato. Thanks for playing along and sharing your opinions!

Pick a Girl’s Name:
Okay, now it’s time to get serious. We are going to start over the voting for a little girl’s name since Sprout will actually have to live with one of these choices for the rest of her life. While the boy’s name was easily agreed upon by both the hubby and me….it is a completely different story for a girl’s name. LET THE FUN BEGIN!! For record, here are where the polls ended with this round one of voting: 22% voted for Kaylee Ann Ramirez, 34% voted for Eva Josie Ramirez, 2% voted for Lisa Cynthia Ramirez and finally 40% voted for Kaylee Marie Ramirez. By far we had the most voters on this poll at a total of 34 votes. We hope to get many more votes during the 2nd half of the pregnancy!


Have a good suggestion for a girl’s name? Leave us a comment at the end of this posting and we will take a look at them. THANKS!

19 weeks, 0 days

Can you say…..LUMPY? Because I think my chub bumps have definitely taken their own unique shape. I can only pray that as Sprout grows she’ll decide to push around my internal organs in a more uniformed fashion. As for now, the 1st trimester pregger-haunting symptoms have subsided…YAY!...and I have finally been able to eat food and am constantly hungry. As of the last baby doctor’s appointment I have gained less than 1 lbs since my first visit, which is totally on track per my weight gain recommendations. Let’s just hope the trend continues in a positive fashion.

100% of this weekend was spent cleaning out the house - mainly our master bedroom, the guest room to be turned in to the nursery, and my closet room downstairs that is now my closet/guest bedroom. Michael and I could not have accomplished everything that we did without Auntie Elizabeth and Uncle Rick. We feel SO much better being able to tackle big cleaning projects like these…so thank you guys for all of your help. And yes Rick, watching football all day with the occasional heavy lifting is very valuable help! With all of the excitement of moving in to a new house (May 2007), the hubby and I never really finished unpacking and my closet room became a storage area of unpacked boxes, suitcases and of course the oh-so-valuable empty boxes. Once upon a time I used to move at least once a year, and I quickly realized that it was much easier to move all of my stuff if I kept the original boxes that some fragile stuff came in. Ie, wine glass box with all of the Styrofoam wrappings. Turns out, once you buy a house you don’t really move as often and I finally was able to let go of tons of empty boxes. Have I mentioned that I loved getting rid of this stuff. Whew! Yay for nesting. It was a long hard weekend, but I found I had more energy since my house made me feel so good.

Also on the agenda this weekend was scoping out the next painting project and getting a couple of quotes from some professionals. Michael and I have painted several of the rooms in the house including the living room, kitchen and dining room, but unfortunately we haven’t been able to reach the 1980’s peachy-pink vaulted ceilings, and split-entry stairwell. So, let the pros do it is my way of thinking. We found an awesome guy who is scheduled to come out and paint Sprout’s room, hallways, closets, ceilings, and stairs. So hopefully after the first weekend in February our painting days are over and we can sit pretty in the house.

With all of the excitement of finding out Sprout was going to be a girl, Michael and I were finally able to pick out a bedding set/theme for the baby room and add some key items to our registry at Babys “R” Us. The bedding has different textures for Sprout to play with and is sage green, pink, white and lady bugs. Too freakin cute!

2nd Ultrasound Visit

The hubby and I have waiting 19 long…long weeks for today and were crossing our fingers that little Sprout was going to be a healthy baby with all normal limbs and in a position where we could see if it is a HE or SHE.

It all started like this: at 9:30am Michael and I ran to check-in at desk 1A at the Bellevue Group Health Medical Center for our second ultrasound ever! Sitting in the lobby the hubby held me tight to calm my nerves and over-excitement about seeing the baby again on our favorite place….the tv screen…all the while we discussed how we both know the ultrasound was going to prove Sprout is a boy. It only took about five minutes before the ultrasound technician called our names. Simultaneously we jumped up, held hands, and headed into the back of the office where a small dark room with funky equipment and TV screens waited for us. I got the pleasure of laying on the large recliner-table covered in what I would describe as an oversized toilet seat cover, and Michael sat on the chair situated to my left with a clear view of the technician’s screen.

As the gooey jelly stuff was squirted on to my chub bumps I was so thankful that the container had been sitting in an electronic warming tray and was not as cold as the white hospital-like room. Side-Note:  I could never understand why new parents would put a baby wipe warmer on their registries. In fact, I was making fun of another couple at the store for picking one up. But now….NOW I understand. Don’t know if I’d want one, but I understand. Within minutes of the goop slowing sliding down the sides of my torso, we found out that Sprout was going to be a challenge today. Its head was low….and I mean REALLY LOW….and only wanted to give us a backside view. Turns out too, Sprout is only living on the left side of my stomach. I said a little prayer hoping that it'll move to the middle as it grows so I am not carrying a lopsided watermelon on my left hip for the next 5 months.

The first thing we saw, well Michael saw, was something moving around and he called it “the baby.” All I saw was a fuzzy black and white image that looked more like a static-filled tv than it did a baby. My anticipation of seeing Sprout was quickly minimized when I couldn’t make out heads or tails from what was on the screen. Maybe it was because they required me to come in with a 32 oz filled bladder and Sprout was sitting right on top of it? Finally, I saw a recognizable image of an arm, a leg, and a spine. I think I even yelled out “Yay, baby has an arm!” As we marked each of Sprout’s extremities, we would celebrate it. Hey, when you’re growing something from scratch it is pretty exciting to see things appearing in the right places. Our technician was really nice and was trying not only to capture the images she needed for the exam, but to also get us a cute photo she could print out and send home with us. But, no such luck.

Half way through the morning I was able to use the restroom (thank goodness!) all the while jumping up and down, shaking side to side and pushing on my tummy in awkward ways in order to try to flip Sprout over so we could see something besides her back. While my attempt to use gravity did not work as well as I would have liked, it did work long enough for the technician to tell us “Well, your He is a She!” At that moment I was completely shocked (thanks to the at-home gender test who said Sprout was a boy) and even cried a little while I looked at Mike and said “We’re having a girl.” Talk about a shocker! Michael’s face was stretched from ear to ear with the biggest smile I’ve ever seen, and you could see the happiness in his eyes. I just know Sprout is going to be a daddy’s girl. Okay so it maybe a guess, but our tech lady was 100% positive in her reading of the images that it was a girl. She even pointed out how she came to the conclusion by showing us where the labia tissues were and how some people might mistake the umbilical cord as the little boy parts (she changed the image to show heat and it clearly was no peepee messer maker).

As quickly as Sprout peeked around for us to determine her gender she turned right back over, never being able to get our photo. But, the good news is that not only did we miss out on the crucial photo opportunity, but so did the radiologist. Even with all of their hard trying, they could not get all of the images they needed so we get to go back in 3 weeks for a re-do! Yay!!!!


As of today, Sprout weighs 8 oz and has an updated due date of June 6th, 2010.

It's a Girl!

8oz
updated due date: 6/6/10

18 weeks, 2 days - VOTE, VOTE VOTE!

Okay, 4 ½ months down and only many…many more to go! At least that’s what I am telling myself. It feels like it was just yesterday that we were celebrating our 17th week of growing Sprout and now here we are at 18 weeks. The time is definitely passing too quickly, but with each new day comes a new flutter in my tummy and a new inch to my chub bump.

This week started with the celebration of 2010 and the hubby and I rang in the New Year at home watching Land of the Lost (which I slept through until the final countdown of 2009). Earlier in the night we joined Auntie Elizabeth and Uncle Rick and visited their friends Royce, Rachel and baby Raiden. He’s so cute and we had a great visit and played a couple of board games. Lets just say girls kick butt (until we pull the wild card and had to go back to start! What kind of game is that?). After all of the phone calls wishing everyone a Happy New Year, Mike and I hit the pillows and decided to listen to baby Sprout. A couple of months ago we got this audio device that straps around my tummy and has two sets of headphones for us to hear what is going on in my tummy. We can’t hear the heartbeat with the device, but you can definitely hear Sprout’s wild exercising, body flinging and kicking…especially when he just happens to kick right where the microphone is sitting. Hubby and I actually fell asleep listening to Sprout and woke up around 1am, just in time to unlatch me and to take my vitamins. Then, off to bed!

Okay friends and family….it’s your time to get involved! Our 2nd trimester ultrasound is coming up this Friday and we are taking all last bets on if Sprout will be a girl or a boy. So make sure and take the gender poll found to the right of this blog! We can’t wait for this ultrasound and can’t wait to see how big baby has grown. Wish us luck and we will keep you posted on all of the news to come.

Baby Furniture!

I just can't believe that Sprout is growing so fast and we're almost to the 1/2 way point in the pregnancy! The hubby and I decided it was time to buckle down and get some of the essentials taken care of so the little one has a room of his own. While we physically didn’t get anything accomplished, but we did step over the massive hurdle of finding and ordering the furniture. The crib will be here in 6-8 weeks and that should give us enough time to paint the room and put together any moving pieces. SO EXCITED!!! Here’s a sneak peek…

• Crib
• Dresser
• Changing Table (which turns in to a cabinet when Sprout is old enough)
• Mirror to go horizontally over the dresser
• Nightstand to put next to the awesome Glider Auntie Elizabeth and Uncle Rick got us for christmas!

17 weeks, 5 days

Weeks seem to be flying by just like the quantity of clothes I am unable to wear! This week I definitely feel preggers and I am so happy that most of my symptoms have subsided or at least minimized. While the chub bumps still haven’t connected into a cute baby bump, I am enjoying the poofiness of my tummy and have definitely started to feel a heaviness inside. This week I gained confidence that some of the grumblings I have felt in my tummy is from Sprout and not just oh-so-lovely balls of gaseous matter. You know when you get so cold that it makes your whole body shiver? And at the point where you’re warming up your body stops shivering, but the insides of your tummy may still shake a little? That is how I would compare the fluttering of little Sprout in my tummy. I especially feel him move when I lay on my sides…which is where I spent 99% of my time when lying down. Oh how I miss lying on my back!!!

Mike, Sprout, Puppies and I would like to wish you all a very HAPPY NEW YEAR! Here’s to 2010 (pronounced “twenty-ten” according to the NY Times) and all of the exciting things to come!

Ramirez, Butenko, McDermid Christmas

Take two on Thanksgiving Dinner!  Grandma Lisa prepared our favorite dishes from Thanksgiving and our family spent a wonderful night playing Unno, eating, and watching the animated favorite, UP.  It was an awesome night and great way to end our Christmas vacation in CA.  Thanks Grandma Lisa and Grandpa Frank!

Christmas with Dad & the Hopkins

Amidst the holiday craziness the Hubby, puppies and I had the pleasure of spending Christmas Dinner with Grandpa Dan, Grandma Nancy, Aunt Stacey, Nana Noreen and Grandpa Howard. We opened presents first thing and then followed up good gifts with a great ham dinner!

 

Luppino Family Christmas Breakfast

Making Tamales with Grandma Josie

16 weeks, 5 days

Here is to another glamorous weekly photo of my bed-head and bloated chub bumps. I recall at my last baby doctor appointment asking her “When does the glowing pregnancy part start?” And she so kindly replied, “You’re in it! You just can’t see it, but we can.” When I look at this photo and a couple of my earlier versions, I just sit here glossy eyed wondering if there was any type of special lens I need to request from my eye doctor to see the glow. To me it looks more like I had too much fun at the buffet the night before and someone played a cruel joke by mixing my face wash with a pimple creator cream. All joking and bad photos aside, it has definitely been an interesting experience being pregnant that I will truly remember forever. I may not be the one that LOVES BEING PREGNANT, but I will be that mom that loves little Sprout and all of his milestones he has created so far. I don’t think a day goes by without the hubby and I smiling and rejoicing about Sprout. 4 months down…..lots more to go!

Driving to CA for Christmas

Christmas before Christmas!

You just can’t ask for anything more than a wonderful holiday season full of friends, family, puppies, food and presents! This Sunday we celebrated a Seattle Christmas with Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Rick. Sure it was easier to lug over Christmas presents to Tacoma than it would be to CA….and we wanted an excuse to cook, dress up and take pictures. But all in all, it was a wonderful pre-christmas day with the family. Sprout got his first Christmas presents including a bottle drying rack, his first plastic key toy, a placemat and a bottle scrubber. I lucked out and got the best gift of the night from Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Rick! I got the glider that I am sure will get a lot of use throughout the upcoming year. Elizabeth was an awesome cook with a homemade BBQ chicken salad followed by Grandma Luppino’s pizza! Yummy!!! Thank you guys so much for hosting our mini-christmas this year. It was uber fun and can’t wait for next year.

Tonight also marked the last night of bowling for me on team Ramenko! I lasted about a game and a half and realized that it was just too much for me. But starting in January my BF Stephanie will be taking my place on the team. I’m uber excited to be with her and the family every Sunday as a loud spectator cheering in the background. Go Ramenkos!!!

Visit with Dr. Bloomquist

The hubby and I officially have a new address....Group Health Medical Center, Bellevue. We have been bouncing from one physical therapy appointment to the next OBGYN baby appointment, and it's starting to feel like a second home! I’m sure it’s just the beginning, but it just gets more and more exciting every time we go in. Today’s visit was with Dr. Danica Bloomquist and was a follow up appointment to my bladder pains and backaches. Sprout is still growing strong and living large in his “well-cushioned” habitat, as the baby doctor put it. Glad to know my chubs are providing some type of comfort for the baby. I’ve still maintained my weight and have only gained 2 lbs since first coming in to the doctor’s office. On the other hand, my belly could win a “Shrek-Round-A-Like” contest with no help from a maternity belt that my physical therapist has prescribed me. That’s right, a maternity belt. For those of you asking what the heck that is…..well let me try to explain. It’s an ugly ask 12 inch elastic band around your waist that all of those very hot dudes standing outside of Home Depot wear before you hire them to do all of the hard labor work you’re too lazy to do. You know, the belts that only seem to accentuate the full beauty of the beer belly that god has given them. Yep, that’s me. And yes, my chub bumps have been soaring to new heights (literally) as everything gets pushed up and out. Sprout doesn’t know how easy he has it! Belly aside, Michael and I are so excited for Sprout and our upcoming appointments. In three weeks we’ll get to see him again for our 20wk (or 19wk in our case) ultrasound. In the meantime, here is another video of Sprout’s heartbeat. This was the first time that we got to hear the heartbeat within milliseconds of touching my baby bump. Last time it took a good couple of minutes and it was still fairly faint. Yay for Sprout’s strong heartbeat!!!

15 weeks, 2 days

Where oh where did the chub bumps go, where oh where can they be? It was a miraculous awakening this morning when I looked down only to see that my chub-bumpy tummy had flatten out (not rounded out, not disappeared completely, just lowered in volume) significantly compared to the previous Sunday. But……should the baby bump be growing at this point and not shrinking? I guess I’ll just blame it on getting over Sprout’s cravings for potato chips! Or maybe it is because of all those thumb exercises I’ve been practicing on the TV DVR remote since I am still resting my back and tummy pains? I have to say, with the baby-bump not being all cute and preggery-like, I have started to dread the weekly photo. I think we should skip the awkward “she ate too many donuts” phase and just jump straight to the cute baby bump photos. What do you think?

Go Elf Yourself!

Send your own ElfYourself

Holiday Season!

As the holiday season quickly approaches like the oncoming 4th month of pregnancy, Michael was awesome enough to go pick out a small Christmas tree. Unfortunately, it took us well over a week to get it in the house….and then another several days to actually decorate it. But what a joyous sight it is to see all of our mini bulbs and mini lights hanging there on our mini tree! It was the perfect pick-me-up after being secluded on the couch and working from home all week. The hubby came home on Tuesday and surprised me by pulling out our box of Hallmark ornaments and other misc decorating items from the outside storage unit. And let me tell you….we went all out on all 3.5 feet of the Christmas tree! Like every year Michael and I picked out our new 2009 Hallmark ornaments to put on the tree. It’s a tradition that was started back in 2001 and I have done every year since. Even the puppies got their special ornaments. This year my choice was a preggers mommy…but of course she has a cute baby bump and not a multiple chub bump like I’ve got going on. Either way, the ornaments look awesome and I can’t wait to get Sprout his first ornament next year!! Although, I highly doubt we will be able to keep it to just one ornament for the baby. I’m thinking…..mom will go overboard! One tradition I will miss is going to see the Christmas Parade at Disneyland with Sprout. It’s a little hard from Seattle, but who knows…maybe there will be a trip in there when we go visit the family in CA?!?

For an update on my back and bladder pains, they are still there and I am just trying to take it easy for a while. I’ve got more prenatal massages and Physical Therapy appointments scheduled so hopefully we’ll see some improvement quickly. We’re just glad Sprout is growing like he should be and seems to be doing great. Auntie Elizabeth was awesome enough to take me and Sprout to our first PT appointment in Bellevue early this morning followed by an awesome massage at Uncle Rick’s work, DreamClinic in Seattle. Can’t wait for next Tuesday when we get another hour to fall asleep and snore on the table!