Pregnancy Update: 27 weeks

A long awaited update for you guys! So far nothing different has happened since I last posted about the baby, except that we found out we're having a boy and that this pregnancy has been going by so quickly! Michael told me he was initially nervous about having a son because everything will be new again but I think now that we get closer to his arrival, we are becoming more excited! I feel blessed that we get to experience the joy of not only having a daughter but also having a son. I think Lydia will love having a little brother to play with and hopefully grow to love! 

It's been 10 weeks since my last update so here's another one of those simple questionnaires...

How far along: 28 weeks on Thursday :o

Gender: We are having a boy!!

Total weight gain:  Around 12 pounds

Maternity Clothes: I can’t get enough of my denim maternity shorts, I also tend to wear roomy knit shorts when I am at home though. I like the fit of maternity tees so I have a few new ones that I bought this time around and also a pretty dress from Old Navy.

Sleep: So far okay.. I do tend to sleep in a little more but I blame that on Michael since he's been sleeping in now that he works from home permanently! Haha

Miss Anything: My summer wardrobe. I mean, I can still wear a lot of my dresses but all my shorts (except the maternity and linen) are off limits! And a handful of my blouses/shirts are too short.. Also margaritas :)

Cravings: Salty chocolate chip cookies, fried or roasted potatoes, sushi and blts!

Symptoms: I get tired after I eat and sometimes pelvic cramps when I walk long distances, and still tired at times.

Belly Button in or out: In.

Mood: I have been happy though feel down some days. I think it's definitely a combination of the hormones and being tired all the time. 

Exercise: It really depends on how I'm feeling. Most weeks I've been still working out five days a week and sometimes I'm happy with just working out four days a week. I try to focus mostly on toning, low impact cardio, and indulging in longer stretches after I'm finished working out!

Best Moment this week: Having Lydia's bedtime finished last weekend, seeing family on Father's day and going for a walk tonight with Michael and Lydia. 

Looking forward to: Ah, the rest of this month should be fun, and my parents are coming on the 30^th for fourth of July so that will be nice!

On My Mind: Ah, the glucose tolerance test this weekend.  I did fine when I was pregnancy with Lydia but for some reason I always get a little anxiety with tests such as these. And I'm also thinking about how fast everything seems to be moving along this time around.. This week I'll be entering my 3rd trimester!!

Life with Lydia {6.10.17}

Hi friends!

It was almost a year ago since I've last posted all about Lydia. And as I write this post, I have a little girl climbing all over me, and a baby boy squiggling around in my womb. I didn't tell you guys, but we are having a boy! I feel tired lately but mostly blessed as we are getting closer and closer to becoming a family of four. Life with Lydia has been both a fun and interesting endeavor! She'll be 27 months old in a few days and like most kids her age she's into everything.

A few of her favorite things these days are her PJ Masks stuffed dolls, anything and everything Mickey Mouse related, singing, playing outside, and talking. She has been talking so much lately and we're finally able to understand what she's talking about too! She's been able to understand us for a little over a year but was slower to start talking back to us, and using words to express herself. It's been truly exciting to hear what she has to say!

What I'm not so excited about is whenever Lydia gets into these tizzies and throws things, and thinks it's the funniest thing in the entire world. She's especially keen about throwing her food when she's "all done!" Since she's turned two she has been pickier with food and sometimes won't even touch things she used to eat with no problem. It tests my patience, and I am always making sure she's getting enough to eat. However she loves eating fruits and vegetables, likes chicken sausage, peanut butter and guacamole! I have been limiting her snack intake during the day to reinforce the importance of eating meals. I also put collagen in her chocolate milk for a little boost too. I'm just hoping this is a phase!

Lydia is stubborn, independent and active. She's always running, climbing, and tumbling. I really would like to sign her up for gymnastics in a few months because I think she would have a blast! She is also our little cling-on and doesn't love sleeping on her own. She sleeps in her crib and actually didn't mind being in there but things got hairy when we visited my parents in Jersey. She was in our bed with us a good portion of the trip and bed time has been a bit of a battle since then. The good news is that her bedroom should be finished this weekend, and that means Michael and I get our bedroom back. Woohoo! We were sleeping in the guestroom just so she could get used to sleeping by herself again. She has been in our bedroom all her life so it'll be an adjustment, but hopefully nothing too crazy. I think she'll grow to love having her own space and might be even happier to share it with her little brother. Updates and photos of the room to follow!

Now onto potty training... Hm. It's a non-existent issue at the moment but she does like to read the potty book, and sometimes asks me questions. She also tells me when she went to bathroom which is a step in the right direction! I still haven't bought an insert for the toilet or even a little potty only because I don't think she's quite ready for it. We're not in too much of a rush but I am looking forward to only have one baby in diapers in the near future!

Lastly this summer should be really fun, because Lydia is old enough to understand what's going on around her and will love spending most of her days outside. Hopefully we can take her to the beach next time we visit New Jersey and maybe even go to Sesame Place with her big cousin DJ!

Until next time,

Lydia Renee's { 19-month-update! }

I always find myself in awe with this little girl... Even when she drives me loco, I am always finding myself awestruck that she is my daughter and that I’m her mama. She just turned 19 months which means in five months she'll be a two-year-old! Her personality is really blooming. She’s strong-willed, passionate, and independent yet somehow still clingy with me especially. Independent in the sense that she's capable of playing by herself and not big on being spoon fed or having her hand held. Yet, clingy in the sense that she craves cuddles, which is fine, until she demands cuddles whenever I am in the middle of cooking dinner.

On talking: She doesn’t form sentences yet but is an excellent babbler! The words she says most have been very enthusiastic greetings such as “hi!” and “bye!!” She also likes to point to her head and say "head-head", and then of course she points to things and asks "whatsthat?!" I'm mama and Michael is "da." Sometimes she tells me "no!" which I don’t always agree with but it’s slightly better than her yelling or grunting her foreign language at me. She also barks. She seems to understand more than she can speak... Kind of like me with my Spanish skills! Though she's not a lost cause like me, and will learn to speak English fluently as time passes.

Lydia's daily activities: Besides babbling, Lydia's days are filled with what I think she believes as "organizing." She likes helping me clean by stuffing her toys in between the sofa cushion or slipping the really small stuff inside the vent.  She is big on reading and spends quite a while engrossed in her animal alphabet book. We are trying to teach her how to make animal noises and decipher which animal makes which sound. She loves playing hide and seek, and being chased too, though she's the happiest when she's outside and exploring nature. She's also happy when she is allowed to watch her nursery rhyme videos. She gets her groove on and I get a work out in, it’s a win-win. The YouTube channels that she loves (and that I can tolerate), are ChuChu TV, Dave & Ava, and occasionally The Farmees. If I sing the songs to her she tries to sing-a-long with me and does a little jig too.

What she's eating lately: Lydia is still a great eater! Her favorite are still blueberries, but now I can confidently add bananas and avocados to the list which were off limits before! During breakfast she’s currently loving oatmeal with cinnamon and maple syrup with a side of blueberries. She will usually have chocolate milk and juice throughout the day. Lunch varies between peanut butter and jelly, Annie’s mac and cheese, or whatever leftovers from last night’s dinner. She gets hungry in between meals and typically eats an applesauce or yogurt kefir squeeze packs. And when dinner rolls around, she will eat whatever we’re eating and sometimes a Biscoff cookie if most of her dinner goes into mouth and not into Zoe’s! 

Sleep: Lydia is still sleeping in crib in our bedroom and manages to sleep through the night. She's been having a hard time going to sleep earlier than 9pm but we are working on it. We are planning on moving her into the spare bedroom once it's cleaned up and painted. I have been wanting her to sleep in her own room for a while now but of course life gets busy and it will be a big adjustment for her. It's one thing to have her sleep in her crib for most of the night in our bedroom (she always winds up in our bed somehow), it's another thing to have her sleep in the crib and be in a separate bedroom all night. Sleep training is hard but I think it'll be good for all of us!

To wrap this up I will say Lydia you are a crazy little girl, and we love you so much. You create messes and have a fiery temper that tests my patience but you make both Michael and I's (maybe even Zoe's) hearts so full, and life just wouldn't be as fun without your silly antics. 

Breastfeeding: The End of an Era

I think it’s safe to say Lydia has officially weaned herself. We’re going on day four without nursing and it’s been a gradual process ever since she’s turned one. Nursing three times a day quickly turned into twice a day, in the morning and before bedtime, and then a few weeks later she dwindled down to only nursing at night. Then suddenly she would go a day without nursing and then the next day she would want to nurse at night or in the morning. She was nursing every other day for about two weeks and would only nurse about five minutes or so. Nursing time decreased once Lydia was 12 months old, after that she always got to the point and quickly moved on, she had places to be I guess! 

Because she’s so active, I give her chocolate milk during the day and snacks in between meals. She’s always been a good eater which has been a tremendous blessing and might also be why she was ready to wean herself.

As happy as I am that she weaned herself and is moving on with her life, a part of me will miss our breastfeeding journey and I am a little sad it’s over. I know that may sound odd but she still seems so tiny to me, maybe time has just flown by so quickly that I’m not always prepared to let go. I laugh because when I was her age I was still nursing and my mom eventually had to force me to quit nursing (aka cold turkey) because I was well over two years old and asking her if I could have “nursings.” She told me that she had me sleepover a family friend’s house so I wouldn’t have access to the goods! I guess I figured Lydia would be the same because much like I was, she is a mama’s girl. Though Lydia choosing to wean herself couldn’t have been a more seamless transition, and I’m proud of her!

I feel fortunate that I was able to have a pleasant breastfeeding experience and am even more fortunate to be her mama! She is the sweetest little girl, quirky like Michael and I, and so incredibly sharp. So even though we’re ending this era of breastfeeding, I know we’ll have so much more to bond over as she grows into a little lady and the thought of that just melts my heart. I love you Lydia!

Friday Love! {6.10.16}

one // These pictures of Lydia eating corn last weekend. She was all about that corn and wasn't about to share with anyone either!

two // Buying 10 plantains for $1.99 and yucca for $0.69 a pound in New Jersey… It made part of me miss living in Jersey. We used a few of the plantains for tostones on Tuesday and now that the rest of them are ripening I'm going to make a pastelon tomorrow! And instead of making yucca fries, I'm going to boil chunks and serve them with mojo because it's been a while!

three // This blog post on protecting your marriage. Such encouraging list of things I know and have heard in different ways but always need reminded of. IE: raying for Michael, doing more of those little things, making time for him, etc. Life gets hectic being a mom, and unfortunately I haven't been making my most important relationship top priority. The list reminded me that I need to spend more time praying for Michael and being present for him. Fortunately we are going on a date tonight by ourselves to catch and spend much needed alone time with one another!

fresh out of the oven; feelin' confident with my results!

the next day after being transferred, prayin' ice cream will cover this up!

four // I learned a little lesson in pie baking. I baked a cherry pie with frozen cherries and it resulted in an extremely loose/watery filling, and then I transferred it all the way to New Jersey. Unfortunately when I took the pie out of the foil it was covered in the cherry filling and the once flaky crust became soggy. While I did have a mini meltdown, the pie was still 100% edible and was an excellent base for ice cream. I learned that next time I will be using fresh cherries in my next pie : )

five // Our CSA begins this Wednesday and I am so excited! It'll be our third year subscribing and I feel much more confident with knowing what to do with all the produce. I got a spiralizer attachment for my Kitchen-Aid on Christmas so I'm seeing a lot of zucchini pasta in the future, and possibly use my juicer to make fresh juices. (Confession: I've had my juicer for 4 years and only used it twice in my life!) Though I might need to do more research on kohlrabi and what the heck to do with it. That vegetable befuddles me. Any suggestions? 

source

six // I made these mini oatmeal cream pies and they were really quite good! I didn't get a chance to take my own picture but I found them to have the perfect balance of sweet & salty, the cream filling was delightful and not too sweet, the cookies had a nice kick from the cinnamon and were exceptionally soft as any oatmeal cookie should be!

Hope you all have a beautiful weekend!

Just a little encouragement today...

I'll keep this short by saying Lydia was up most of the night fussing and is now a crank monster. I stumbled upon this scripture and wanted to share it with you all. I don't know what you're personally going through but we all have something that overwhelms us. Some more than others. I hope this encourages you to draw closer to Christ during those times; allow Him to be your comfort and to take on those burdens.

Lydia Lately 5.23.2016

Lydia is 14 months old.  I’m trying my best to cherish every moment, even the not so fun moments. If you’re a mom, you know exactly which moments I’m referring to! The demands from a little person who wants to be carried all day long even though they’re getting heavier, that creates tornado style messes every day, and constantly putting up a fight each and every diaper change. My patience, which I always thought was solid, gets tested every day and now I totally get what it means to be slow to anger. I try my hardest not to raise my voice because it almost always makes the situation worse. Instead of reacting negatively, I’ve been singing more and sometimes it helps calm us both us down. If God uses marriage to sanctify us, He absolutely uses parenthood too, and I’m learning more and more that I need to be slower to anger, more patient and calm even when I’m exhausted. But those moments quickly get better. I could go on and on about how much Lydia is a blessing and that she truly makes it all worth it!

She’s currently fluent in full-blown gibberish, no real words yet other than “no no” and mama, da-da. She has been trying to mimic our words and when she pets Zoe she goes “naaanaaa” which is in the same tone as us telling her to be “niiiice.” While we do encourage her to talk by telling her what things are and play narrative of what we’re doing, we’re not worried nor in any rush. I try not to compare her milestones with other kids because everyone learns things on their own time. She did learn how to walk at 10 ½ months so maybe she will talk a little later. Only time will tell!

Her favorite things to do are dancing, exploring outside (thank God the weather is finally warming up), playing with Zoe, and eating. She is especially fond of “If You’re happy and You Know It” and knows all the moves too! We recently stayed a week at my parent’s house and she got to spend lots of time with her cousin DJ. There were a few fights over toys/attention and Lydia discovered how to bite! I know I already covered the negative sides of raising a toddler, but Lydia sometimes bites us when she doesn’t get her way, please tell me this is just a phase?! 

Lydia is also at the age where she’s creating her own fun with her toys and stuffed animals. I am always so curious to know what’s going on in her little head and what she is gabbing about. It reminds me of how vivid my imagination was when I was little and how much fun I could have on my own. It makes me excited for her to have little siblings and watch them all interact. My sister and I are five years apart in age so we didn’t have many years of playing because she was too cool for playing pretend. This is kind of a side note but I remember the day Aria declared she was done taking baths together and the dreaded day she told me this was her last day playing pretend with me. I was devastated! I consider her one of my best friends now that we’re older but I think it would be better for Michael and I to have kids closer in age, and hopefully we’ll be able to expand our family soon. 

hardcore snacking!

I mentioned one of Lydia’s favorite things is to eat. Girlfriend is so passionate about food! She is so enthusiastic and literally sings when she eats. Her favorite foods are blueberries, yogurt, beans, tortilla chips and applesauce. She isn’t 100% weaned, she nurses at night and in the morning, I don’t really have a specific day when to stop. I am still giving her homemade chocolate milk and have been adding a little chia seeds, and spinach for a little heft which she loves. I’ll definitely have to do a separate post about toddler-friendly meals and snacks! 

To end this post, I want to say how much I'm looking forward to the weather warming up and starting summer traditions as a family. Possibly trips down the shore when visiting my parents in Jersey, going to the pool in town, watching the parades, going to Pittsburgh, and hosting a BBQ or two! Gotta love the summer:)

A long overdue Lydia update

A few months have passed since I've last written a post about Lydia and I apologize for not doing so sooner! I guess I've been pretty wrapped up in this new chapter in my life as mama, and I've been putting blogging on the back-burner, yet again. Oops! Since I've last posted a lot has happened too. Lydia's almost nine months old and that means she will be the same number of months as I carried her in my womb; which feels so long ago! 

In my previous post about Lydia, she was barely sitting up and now, get this, she is starting to cruise! But let's rewind a bit, shall we? At six months, I remember being worried because Lydia wasn't sitting up on her own, and would only sit up if I sat her down myself and once she tipped over she was stuck on her belly which frustrated her. She even started to army crawl before sitting up on her own; though once she finally sat up on her own, she started crawling on all fours and that quickly turned into speed crawling which was began her journey to get into all sorts of things...

Fortunately we were prepared and had the baby gates installed shortly after she began army crawling! 

A little before she turned eight months she was starting to stand up with support and later began to pull herself up with the help of furniture, and now she as she is veering closer to nine months she is using furniture to cruise! As she gets more mobile, she is also becoming more independent in how she eats and prefers to eat finger foods over purees now. Her favorites include my homemade waffles, guacamole with chips, daddy's oven roasted buffalo chicken wings, puffs and pieces of beef! She likes to self-feed by using her pincer grasp or by using reusable squeeze bags. It's funny because she doesn't have teeth yet and that doesn't stop her from gumming these foods down! I am still exclusively breastfeeding her, everything is still going wonderfully, and we both couldn’t be happier!  She’s sleeping well through the night, and usually takes a long nap in the early afternoon and shorter one after dinnertime. 

Her personality is coming through more and more now too. She is independent and enjoys playing by herself yet she loves to cuddle with one of us when she's sleepy. She can be a little shy when she is around new people and seems to enjoy people watching. I should also add that she has a temper and is known to putting up a fight when things are taken away from her or during diaper changes. Boy does this little chub test my patience but at the end of the day, I'm so blessed by her and love her more each day! Speaking of love, Lydia loves her dad, and is definitely a daddy’s girl because as soon as he comes home I no longer exist, unless she wants to nurse of course. But I adore that she and Michael share such a special bond! 

And that's what Lydia's been up to lately! Until next time my loves,

Lydia these days...

 Hey guys!

It’s been a while since I’ve taken the time to write about Lydia, motherhood and all that good stuff… I’m happy but at the same time think it’s bananas that my darling Lydia is now five months old! I am happy because her personality grows more each day and am still amazed by how quickly time is passing because it felt like the first few weeks leading up to her turning one month were an eternity. Anyway, I am going to try my best to take a minute to reflect and share what our little chub has been up to these days…

It’s surreal to me that I am a stay-at-home mom at only twenty-two years old. Yet it feels so natural for me to be home with her. I might not always be a stay-at-home mom but right now I’m appreciating it and taking full advantage of this time I get with Lydia. She’s only five months old and is already teaching me to appreciate the little things in life like morning cuddles, being flexible with time and not taking myself too seriously. Some days can be a little uneventful, while other days are all over the place but for the most part these days have been joyful!

I am still breastfeeding Lydia exclusively and don’t necessarily keep track of how many times a day I nurse her, she basically runs the show! I also want to say Lydia sleeps through the night but that’s not always the case. She doesn’t fuss but lets me know when she’s hungry. I am not bothered by this because we’re usually half asleep during these feeding sessions and we both pass out shortly after. As far as going out on dates, Lydia will happily take a bottle of expressed milk from her grandparents and that’s been good! Breastfeeding has so far been absolutely successful, and Lydia’s got the cankles and sweet dimples on her knees to prove it. She’s downright delicious!! It’s also been rewarding for me as we have created a special bond. I find it fascinating and wonderful that not only does nursing nourish my daughter but it also soothes her when she’s feeling overwhelmed. I love being there for her in that way.

We haven’t started solids just yet, but when we do we’re planning on going for a baby-led weaning/self-feeding approach. Hopefully this will teach her how to feed herself by giving her soft finger foods to explore, grab and eat! I am mostly excited because I don’t have to buy special baby food or puree anything. Yay more time for mama! Though, I am not against those squeeze-y tubes that they sell where you can add in your own smoothies and fresh fruit purees. I’m aware that baby-lead weaning is a recipe for future messes and testing my patience but I think it’ll be worth it. I am hoping she’ll enjoy the foods we eat an early age too!

Lydia is a sensitive little soul; we learned this at around two months old when we visited Michael’s family and she cried most of the visit. It was nothing we were prepared for and nothing we had ever dealt with before. Lydia never had an issue being at my in-laws house; let alone cried when anyone but her parents held her. She seems to get overstimulated when a lot of people are around her and paying attention to her. At first this was difficult to deal with because I felt bad for Lydia and I also didn’t want my in-laws to take it personally or to not want to be around her because she was fussy or something. They obviously didn’t take it personally and now my mother in law makes weekly visits in effort to make Lydia more comfortable around her. This has helped tremendously. And when we visit my family in New Jersey, we stay more than a day which gives Lydia plenty of time to warm up to the environment and of course her beloved grandparents!

These days Lydia finds happiness in playing with her doll, being tickled, rolling all over the place and loves it when we sing to her. She really is the happiest baby! I am not kidding when I say the girl wakes up in a good mood smiling ear to ear, and just about ready to start her day. She is getting strong too; almost able to sit up on her own for long periods and when she’s on her belly she tries so hard to crawl. This often times frustrates her because she obviously isn’t strong enough yet she manages to rotate herself by kicking legs and arms around. Almost always I put in her bassinet vertically and she wakes up horizontally!

Because Lydia’s usually a happy baby the hardest thing is to witness her teething! Last week she fussed, screamed in pain and needed something to chew on constantly. I froze a mesh feeder and she sucked on it like a popsicle. I even added some frozen pieces of mango and she loved that! It was a difficult few days for us but we all got through it! On Monday when she turned five months we took her to get her ears pierced. She sat on Michael's lap while she got both her ears pierced and it went by quicker than I thought. Fortunately she only cried a few seconds and was back to her smiling self again. That Lydia and her happiness truly bring joy into both mama and daddy’s lives!

That’s all for now, 

My Little List

I tend to create little mental lists in my head while showering or lying in bed. I know I should write these lists down but 99% of the time they never wind up on paper or in this case my blog. And now that I’m a new mama, the whole “mommy brain” phenomenon makes sense! It’s like my brain doesn't care how young I am, it just knows that I've become a mommy and now destined to forget what the heck I’m doing at any given time. Ever have a mission to do something and once you enter that room you forget what you’re doing? That’s become the story of my life. 

Anyway, let’s get back on topic… I need to write these little lists down. They are little thoughts that resonate in my brain and are quite important to me. So here’s my little list of the moment and perhaps by physically reading this it will help me accomplish rather than forget.

1. Read books, articles and short stories that impact, influence and inspire me!

I am so overdue for a good read…Got any suggestions?

2. Organize more day trips and dates.

Because we’re parents now, it’s been harder to go on spontaneous adventures together as a couple and that’s why I want us to organize dates for us to keep things fun and exciting.

3. Get business cards.

To help bring awareness to my private chef, catering and potentially fitness instructing business!

4. Challenge myself more in the kitchen!

I want to master baking a pie this summer… I don’t mean a semi homemade pie. I mean a real pie with scrumptiously flaky pastry made from scratch! I also want to make lobster and a vibrant paella with squid, mussels and clams… Deeelicious.

5. Host a party just ‘cause!

Michael and I will be living in our home for a year next month. Boy does time fly! I have this idea of us hosting our first get together by celebrating our home ownership with friends and family. It'll not only be a good time of fellowship but a valid reason for us to buy a grill, and an opportunity for me to make pretty food too!

6. Reestablish photography as a hobby. 

I miss this. A lot. I need to start making time for taking pictures, editing and sharing just like the good 'ole days!

7. And lastly, become certified as a fitness instructor (preferably Pilates and Barre!) and teach classes.

I can’t tell you how many times I've daydreamed of teaching a fitness class while I exercised. I suppose you could say fitness has been a hidden passion of mine for the past five years and much like cooking healthfully, I want to share this passion with others! I want to get certified for me, too. I think of myself as a strong woman on the inside but on the outside, I know I’m shy and one of those people who never puts herself out there enough. I guess I've struggled with social anxiety most of my teenage and now adult life. But you know what? I am genuinely tired of living up to that expectation and actually teaching classes would be out of character for me. I want to set an example to Lydia by not letting fear hinder my life.  I pray that she will be a little go-getter just like her daddy!

After overcoming avascular necrosis, getting my hips replaced and regaining strength, I feel this is my season to get certified in fitness. I hope to use it to glorify God, link it with my cooking business and of course help others become healthier!

And that’s my little list.

Life Lately: My Baby Shower and Preparing for Birth

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to celebrate baby Lydia Renee with my family and friends in Jersey. My baby shower was an intimate little shindig at a Chinese restaurant close to where I grew up, and like my bridal shower is thrown by lovely mom. She always manages to put together beautiful showers and my baby shower was no different! She used my favorite color lavender and even added French Bulldog pictures into the decor; does she know me or what? I felt like it was the perfect combination of spending time with the people I love and sharing mutual excitement for the arrival of baby Lydia. Speaking of Lydia, she received gifts that went above and beyond Michael and I's expectations! At the end of the shower I received a notebook that collected everyone's advice and words of wisdom. I don't mean to sound cheesy (even though I kind of am!) but I couldn't help but feel so blessed to be surrounded by so much love. Nothing is more encouraging to me than knowing that people are praying and supporting Michael and I through this exciting journey as new parents. 

After my shower we headed to my parents house, and spent the rest of the night lounging and catching up. The next day my nephew DJ got dedicated at church and I was so happy to be able to witness that! During the dedication DJ, who is usually a fun loving baby, managed to keep on this serious face the entire time; it was so cute. After the dedication we headed to Aria and David's house for lunch and fellowship. It was much needed since I won't be coming back to Jersey in June! Hopefully my family gets the hint and decides to visit us months before that. My parents did say that they plan on staying two weeks, after Michael's paternity leave ends and I am hoping my sister can come shortly after that. 

my mom and baby me :) 

As far as feeling prepared to give birth to a baby naturally, I feel like I might be almost there. I doubt I'll be 100% ready and that's fine with me; God designed my body for this! I started writing my birth plan and am getting more comfortable with the idea that Lydia might be here in less than a month. That is of course she decides to make her debut earlier than later. Michael and I started taking Lamaze classes in Pittsburgh to further prepare ourselves. I was impressed to learn more about Lamaze and was relived that it wasn't just breathing techniques! (Because I don't think that would be enough for me when labor pains intensify!!)  It's also about having confidence in your birthing experience, finding relaxation in between each contraction, being educated on decision making and using non-medical pain management techniques, etc.

We did an exercise in class with our spouses that required us to use pillows to find a place where we felt most comfortable. I ended up leaning on Michael on my side and needed pillows just about everywhere. My head, hips, legs, in between my legs and in between my arms were nice and cushioned. I had been experiencing back pains prior to the exercise and that position helped alleviate pressure from my back which felt awesome. We have 4 more classes if Lydia decides to come later than my due date and I kind of hope she does because I really enjoyed the first class! Our instructor who is also a doula, mentioned that labor is obviously hard work and will be painful but at the end of the day, our bodies were designed to give birth! Another great resource for me has been Ina May Gaskin's Guide to Childbirth which similarly focuses on natural childbirth and opens up with birth stories. And lastly, I also have the advantage of having my big sister give birth to a healthy baby last August! She's been helping me immensely plan out my birth plan and all the little details that come after giving birth. Because let's be real, I'm getting closer and closer to becoming a mom! I'll probably share one or two more posts about how I am preparing for the biggest event of my life... giving birth to my daughter!

xo, Jessica