Baby P #2 Bump Watch: 27 Weeks Preggers

27 Weeks

What is up with Baby P #2 this week?

• Baby P weighs almost 2 lbs and measures about 14 1/2 inches long with her legs extended…so about the size of a cauliflower or head of lettuce.
• She sleeps and wakes at regular intervals, opens and closes her eyes, and could potentially even be sucking her fingers.
• She is super active now which means her brain tissue is continuing to develop.
• She is breathing (amniotic fluid) but her lungs are still immature but would be capable of functioning (with a lot of medical help) if she were to be born now.
• And it is very common for her to have episodes of baby hiccups (that rhythmic movements I am feeling from time to time) that lasts only a few moments.

 

What’s been happening with ME this week?

Weight Gained: at my last doc appointment on June 30th, I found out I was still at 17 lbs gained since the start of this pregnancy. Totally didn’t gain anything but maybe a few ounces since my last appointment about 3 weeks prior. I also still feel like that’s a lot but my doctor didn’t seem too concerned. So I guess I shouldn’t be either.

Workouts: not a damn one. Just the hustle and bustle of my work life.

Symptoms: 

• Mild leg cramps at night…especially when I was up visiting my mother-in-law over the weekend. Not exactly sure if it’s because of the altitude since she lives in the mountains.
• Lower back pain
• Exhaustion
• Hot flashes
• Some headaches

Food Aversions: it’s been pretty good lately.

Food Cravings: sweets. Junk food.

Sleep: fine except for all the trips to the restroom.

Any Baby/Pregnancy-Related Purchases? First baby gift from my favorite sister in the whole wide world!!!

The Sea Punk Tokidoki print Jujube diaper bag. The BRB (Be Right Back). Super cute!!!

Stretch Marks: still the same ones

Miss Anything?: I miss being able to just walk without waddling or feeling like I’ve done a million squats. I’m barely about to enter into my last and final trimester and I’m already feeling like I can barely move.

Belly Button In or Out? Out

Wedding Rings On or Off? On! But I noticed my fingers were a little puffy over the weekend. Must be the heat.

Happy or Moody Most Of The Time? Happy! Not as irritable this week as the last one.

Any Movement? She seems to be rolling a lot more than kicking and punching. I guess she’s still got plenty of room to be rolling around in there. Her kicks and punches have been pretty mild.

Fun and/or Interesting Things from the Week? 

Took a trip up north to get Ella. Had a good time just relaxing and enjoying nature. Spent some time sightseeing in Tahoe. And then came back home in time to celebrate the 4th with my father in law and the rest of the fam. Oh! And since Ella was up at her grandma’s house on her birthday, we had a little celebration for her on the 4th as well. It was a pretty awesome weekend.

Looking Forward To? Shopping this weekend for our maternity family photo shoot next week! Yup.

Spring Break

I think I deserve a pat on back.

No really. I do.

You see… I’ve survived a week without my child. With one more week to go. And I’m holding up pretty damn good if I do say so myself.

Ella is only a few months shy of turning 2 years old. And she’s taken her first spring break vacation without mommy and daddy all by herself. Well, not exactly by herself… she’s spending Spring Break with her grandma and grandpa up north near Lake Tahoe along with 3 of her cousins. Of course I was reluctant to let her go without me at such a young age, but she loves spending time with her cousins and I thought this would be a great opportunity for her to get used to going off to grandma’s without us. I mean, one day when she’s older, I want to be able to send her off to spend Christmas, Spring, or Summer break with my family in Hawaii.

We knew it would be hard to let her go. I mean, I have not been away from her since she was born. Yeah sure, I am away from her when I’m at work during the day… but I have never spent a night without her. So this was a big deal for us.

 

I guess it’s safe to say that my child is having a blast.

While mom and dad are missing her a lot, she’s off enjoying the outdoors.

Playing in grandma’s backyard (complete with a custom playground that was built just for the grandchildren)…

 

 

Sledding in the snow not far from the house…

 

 

 

 

Swimming at the community pool…

Even going bowling for the first time…

 

My baby is growing up so quickly. And in this short amount of time she’s grown up even more. I can’t wait until she’s back home with us, but it makes me so happy to see her enjoying herself with her family and making memories for herself and everyone she’s with.

So yes… I deserve a pat on my back.

And maybe some cheesecake.

Sin City

It. Was. A Blast.

That’s all I really have to say about it.

****

So let’s start at the very beginning.

Hubs rented us a car…

 

 

If you ask me, I think this was the hub’s favorite part about the whole trip.

He LOVES Ford Mustangs.

 

We stayed at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino

 

Room 5107 with a strip view

 

We dined at PF Changs, Cafe Vettro, Yolo’s and other hot spots.

 

Watched a band play cover songs at the Extra Lounge

 

Walked the strip and did a little bit of shopping

 

Saw Cirque Du Soleil’s Zarkana

oh…just us waiting for the show…

Awesome show, by the way. It even got me thinkin’ about making a career change…

From fashion to acrobat. What do ya think?

😉

And, of course, there was some gambling and some drinking involved.

A lot of people watching. Go-Go Dancer watching.

Mostly from me 😉

Like I said…Vegas was fun.

We had a blast.

🙂

Finally!!!

I’m finally able to sit down and hash out a blog post. Almost 7pm and I’ve worked out, showered, and had dinner. And guess what. I’m ready for bed. Spent the last 30 minutes looking for a phone charger that seems to have disappeared. I think I’ve completely lost it. My mind. And my phone charger. A small part of me is hoping I left it at work…but for some odd reason… I’m totally thinkin’ I lost it in transit from work to home. Yup. Story of my life.

Okay. So what I wanted to write about tonight, before I became distracted with the whole phone charger ish, is of our trip to Knott’s Berry Farm over the weekend.

Very fun place to go. Not as big a park as Disneyland, but still very fun to visit nonetheless. And this day was all about London. My niece. Who is at that age where every thing excites her.

What I loved most about this entire day is watching her face light up when she saw the rides and the Peanuts Gang. You know, Snoopy…Patty….Woodstock. Well…Woodstock was there, but Ladybugs did not want to go near him. Just Patty. And Snoopy.

We got there in time to catch the Wild West Stunt Show. I thought it was a pretty cool show to watch. More comical than anything else.

I don’t think Ladybugs cared for it much. She was pretty eager to get on the rides. And for a 3 year old, she sure wasn’t afraid to get on the rides by herself! She even wanted to get on the adult rides. Oh she’s gonna be a blast to ride with on the big kid rides at Magic Mountain when she gets older…that is, if she’ll let us ;-).

Us big kids got on some rides, too. Most of ’em were little kid rides… but we did get to squeeze in a couple of the big kid rides. Like the Xcelerator and the Sierra Sidewinder (the only 2 names I can remember). And, of course… I have no pics to post but trust me…they were fun!!!

So it was a pretty good day. London enjoyed herself very much. It was sooo worth going on a day that could have easily been the perfect “Lazy Sunday” because we all know cool weather equals cuddle weather, right?!

Anyway, some highlight pics to end this post…

BTW…

Can you tell just how much we LOVE this kid?

🙂

Koko Head Crater Trail

Being in Hawaii for a wedding meant crazy, busy schedules and running around. I had every intention of keeping up with my daily workouts…but that’s not exactly what happened. So after the wedding, I was determined to get a workout in. Not my typical gym workout routine. Not just a typical run around town. I wanted to do something outdoors. Take advantage of the beautiful weather and gorgeous views Hawaii has to offer. So what did we end up doing? We went for a hike on the Koko Head Crater Trail.

I have to admit. I lived in Hawaii for the first 18 years of my life and have never been on this hike. It’s not a typical hike on a trail that winds around a hill or mountain. It’s actually an old railroad track that goes directly up to the top of Koko Head Crater. It’s like hiking up stairs. And the higher up we went, the steeper the “steps” became.

The hubs and I were ready to conquer this trail. My little 16 year old cousin Mae wanted to come with us. Don’t let this trail fool you. Just because it’s just “stairs” up a mountain, doesn’t mean it’s easy. This hike is definitely challenging both physically and mentally. Fortunately, for me, I’m in pretty good shape.

The hubs and I probably could have made it up the hill in 20 minutes. Give or take. But for someone who’s not as active as we are… it could take longer. It took us 45+ minutes to get up to the top. Only because Mae was not used to going at our pace. At one point we had to slow things down for her and do intervals – climb up 10 steps rest for 30 seconds and then take 10 more steps and so on.

She was such a trooper! I cannot tell you how many times I heard her say “I can’t go any more. I’ll just sit here and wait for you guys to come back down.” But the hubs and I kept encouraging her to keep going. That the view up on top is sooo worth the pain and sweat.

On one of our rest stops, I decided to keep going. The constant stops messed with my momentum.

Then finally, we made it to the top. Well, I made it up there first….but whatever, we made it!

Check out the gorgeous view!

Hanauma Bay

Mae was quite proud of herself. We were very proud of her, too. She said she couldn’t have done it without us nagging encouraging her to keep pushing forward. And we were right…the view was soooo worth it.

Here’s a short clip of the view from the top.

Sorry for the poor quality. The original video file mysteriously disappeared from the hub’s phone.
And the only copy of it exists on his FB profile.
But I wanted to show you anyway. Oh yeah, and there’s no audio either.

Anyway, we spent about 15 minutes at the top before we realized that it wasn’t over yet… we needed to get back down. Oy. We met a girl on the way down, that does this hike daily. She told us it used to take her 10 minutes to get back down the hill. Because she would run down this trail. But she had a little accident awhile back where she tripped and fell down like 3 steps, injured herself pretty badly and had to have stitches which had her out for 2 weeks before she could do it again. Now it takes her about 40 minutes to get down because she’s afraid of falling again. While we were talking to her, a guy ran up past us. We had moved to the side to let him pass.

About 8-10 minutes later, as we were hiking down, the same dude ran past us going down. The hubs and I stopped and exchanged looks. Completely floored by this guy’s strength and endurance to run up and down this hill. So what did we do? We ran down the rest of the way. It took us a total of 20 minutes to get back down (from the top). About 10 minutes (maybe less)  from the moment we decided to run. My legs were on fiyah by the time we reached the bottom. Seriously. Legs were shaking. It was AWESOME! Of course, we had to wait for Mae to catch up to us… but she wasn’t that far behind.

So yeah. Loved this hike. Loved the burn. LOVED that I could do it without complaining. Hubs even told me he was proud of me. Because a year ago, I would have probably complained the whole way up. Yay me! 🙂

Homesick For Hawaii

A week ago, I was in Hawaii. Celebrating with family and friends one of the best days of my sister’s life – her wedding. It’s been a long time since I’ve been back home. About a year and a half. And seriously, a week in Hawaii just isn’t enough time to do everything you wanna do. For my husband, it was all about doing the tourist thing. For me, it was about spending time with my family. And then when it was time to leave, doesn’t matter how many times I’ve done it before, it’s never easy saying good-bye. But I know it’s not good-bye forever. I know I will be back again soon.

So it’s been awhile since I’ve blogged. That’s no secret. With running around and making sure I had everything ready for our flight to the middle of the Pacific, I really had no time to sit and blog. And things got even crazier once I was in Hawaii. Girl time with my sisters and the rest of her ‘maids’, wedding rehearsal, bachelorette party festivities, the WEDDING…and playing tourist… Yeah, there was no time to blog.

I’ve lived in California for almost 12 years now. That’s a lot of flying back and forth. I’m not afraid of flying…I just hate that it takes forever to get to my destination. I wish we could just step into some transporter thing and transport ourselves from one place to another. Kinda like in Star Trek. Flying to Hawaii this time around took longer than usual. About 6 hours. Because we had to stop in Lihue, which is on the island of Kauai…which happens to be a 30 minute flight away from Oahu. Needless to say, Thursday was the longest day EVER!!!! We stopped in Kauai for about an hour and a half. Then finally arrived at the Honolulu International Airport just before 7:30 in the evening.

All I have to say is, thank goodness for smartphones and Instagram. It made killing time that much easier and tolerable.

Anyway, I won’t try to cram a week’s worth of events into one LONG blog post. I do have lots of pics and “stories” to share so keep checking back. 🙂