WEEK 35 - WEEK 36: Danville Shower, 90% effaced

WEEK 35:

This picture was taken at a maternity photo shoot we had after  the Danville shower. I had to make it this big so you could appreciate the cute sign Suz made. More pictures below..

This week was my baby shower in Danville, thrown by my very party-planning talented Mom and Sister Suz. It was quite the day, full of many unexpected surprises.

Excitement before the baby shower...but not the kind I was expecting.
I naturally wake up early, but the later in pregnancy I get, the earlier I have been waking up. In this case I woke up super early because the baby originally woke me up at 3AM with a weird vibrating, shaking and bouncing almost earthquake-like movement. I stayed up for about 30 minutes to wait to feel him move "normally" a couple of times, and then fell back asleep.

I woke up around 6ish and had some yogurt and berries for breakfast, and then sat on my glider downstairs because he usually likes that, and will move around. Except this morning he wasn't moving. I started to get nervous and chugged some juice to see if the sugar would move him, this always works...still no movement.

 I wouldn't normally have thought anything of it , but the doctor just gave us a lecture about counting how often he moves, and how it's important it is to become aware of this. If he doesn't move, or the movements slow down, the doctor said to come in immediately and worst case scenario would be an emergency c-section. Then he told us a story of one of his patients who was around 8-9 months pregnant. It was a friday, and she was on her way to her 80-year-old grandma's birthday party. She wasn't feeling the baby move, but she had an appointment with him on Monday, and didn't want to worry the family or miss the birthday. Well, by the time she got to the doctors on Monday there was no heart beat.

This story seriously scared me, and needless to say it made an impression.

So instead of going to  my pre-baby shower hair appointment, I drove to the hospital. I thought it would be a quick heart beat check and I would be on my way...not the case. They actually made me change into a hospital gown, hooked me up to a monitor to not only hear his hearbeat but also to monitor my contractons. Seemed like a bit much. I just wanted to be able to enjoy my shower, worry-free. Could they just check his heart already??!!

Thankfully, everything was fine. He had a nice strong heartbeat, and I was even showing signs of contractions, which I was told is normal. "Ok....baby is healthy, I feel a million times better knowing that. Get me out of here, so I can go to my hair appointment and party!" That's all I kept thinking. Well my OB was in the hospital doing an emergency C-section and wanted to personally come in to look over everything before I was officially released. I was told it would take 10 minutes. An HOUR later, the doctor came in, and I officially lost my appointment. :(

I was still beyond glad I went to check on things. I know I would have been a mess the rest of the day if I didn't officially make sure he was ok, and I was just hanging out eating cake or something. I just wish my hair had had as happy of an ending too. Oh well.

Garrett asked me how it felt to officially act as a Mom, and to give something up for the baby. I told him I was glad I did it, but it was still a little bummed about my hair. He laughed, and said that at least I was honest.

Dress? What Dress?
So after spending 2 hours in the hospital. I came home, and got on the road with Garrett towards the bay area.

Since the shower was in Danville, which is about an hour drive, I thought I would hang my dress in the car and change once I arrived, so it wouldn't get wrinkled.

 We were about 2 miles away from our exit and all of a sudden I realized I didn't see the dress hanging in the back seat. I asked Garrett if he layed it down in the trunk with some of the other things he had put in the car.

Garrett: "Dress, what dress?"
Yesica: "The dress I left on the stair banister, along with your shirt for the maternity photo shoot after the baby shower. You grabbed them right?"
Garret: "Ummm...No. I thought you were taking care of that."
Yesica: "Oh my God, I have no dress for my shower and it starts in less than 20 minutes! "

I tried not to freak out or cry, and instead we continued driving past Danville to Walnut Creek towards the maternity store. It really wasn't anyone's fault, we just didn't communicate. Lately, I'm a little spacey which is apparently normal and everyone calls pregnancy brain. This was definitely a pregnancy brain moment since this is completely unlike me!

I tried on about 5 dresses, chose one, changed into it, ripped off the tag, bought it and arrived at the shower in less than 30 minutes. Whew!I was still late to my own shower, which I wasn't happy about, but it definitely could have been much worst.

Danville shower...a bit overwhelming for this large pregnant lady, but a great time!
The shower my friend Kristin threw me was perfect. I was able to come early, take-in all the details and take pictures of all the wonderful little pieces of decor she and her helpers had put together, and even managed to scarf down a couple little (mini actually) cupcakes Alison made before guests arrived. (Ha) This shower was much different...

It was my own fault I was late, so I didn't get to go around and take-in (or take pictures) of all the details- which is one of my favorite parts. Many guests were already there, so I felt like I was playing catch-up to say hi everyone for a bit. And because I am lucky enough (being truthful here, not sarcastic)  to have such a large family and wonderful group of friends- there were a lot of people! I was also fortunate enough to have my Mama Rosita and Abella here from Mexico. :) My high school friend Sarah, brought here beautiful newborn baby MacKenzie, which was really nice. I think some of us that are expecting couldn't take our eyes off her! She is pretty cute, and was a great little party baby. :)

Once I had some yummy fruit punch (my sugar levels were probably running a little low after my crazy day) I started to finally enjoy the event, and finally relax. I had a wonderful time, and can't thank everyone enough for coming. I am very gratefully for all the time and effort my Mom and Sister put into this day for me, and of course for the baby. I truly feel very blessed!

Keep in mind these pic's are only from my camera, so I'm missing a couple of key shots others took. Big thanks to my cousin Andrea who took charge of my camera and made it less overwhelming for me to make sure I got some pics on my camera too! :) Thank you!

My Mom and Garrett's Mom- they can't wait to hold the baby.. literally :)

The "party planners" and I :)

All of the cousins - not overall, just in attendance at the party. Suz, Andrea, Myself, Melissa, Ana Victoria and Lila :)

Grandma Edith and I

Doris, Aunt Efi, Grandma Edith, Heidi and I

Cute little place card holders. The cupcake was the party favor with my favorite Cadbury chocolate eggs on top. Goes with the stork theme...pretty clever, not to mention delicious! I'm missing a picture of some nuts they put together  in a little bag with "stork airlines" as the tags- what a cute idea!

Might be my favorite part of the decoration. Susi said they were supposed to look like clouds. These woman took the stork theme to a new level!

Our good family friend Rosario, My Mama Rosita (aka Grandma) and Abella (Aka Grandma- not by blood, but by heart :)

Kim, Kris and I 

Monica, Sarah (holding the very cute baby MacKenzie) and I

Aunt Loli, Aunt Celina, Aunt Mona and Aunt Magda. 

Dessert time!

Chocolate ganache filing- yum!

Abella not only knitted this adorable blanket, she also perfumed it. So cute!

Didn't realize how expressive I was during gifts...the facial expressions run in our family. Ha.

Lila wrapped this present with a cute little owl and a glittery "Pounds" spelled out on it. So cute! 

Doris made this adorable quilt and even had it monogrammed! :) She definitely has a talent for making beautiful quilts. Ava and Camilla (the baby's cousins) also have some very cute quilts made by their Grandma Doris, glad our baby is now part of the club :)

Love this book! The baby actually got a copy in Spanish from Suz, and one in English from Jose and Lila-
So he's set! :)

My Mom has been working on this bassinet for a while, and I was excited to finally be able to see it! She was showing me how it rocks and all of its "bells and whistles." She actually bought the a plain bassinet and made it look like this! She made a point of letting me know that the bows are removable, so she could one day switch the blue ones out for pink ones. (Sigh)
 I think I'm admiring it and giving it my seal of approval in this picture.  It's really beautiful.

Suz secretly ecstatic it's over. Ha :) Must have been a lot of work- I feel like a spoiled Mommy-to-be and I know the baby feels the love too!

Maternity Shoot
This is all still going on in the same day, which my explain some of my lovely puffy features, ha.

 Thanks to my Aunt Celina for gifting these photos for us. Janelle White, the photographer did a great job. I was happy I sucked up having swollen feet and ankles, being tired, and overcoming the heat at the park. The pictures turned out very nice!

Week 36: 4 more weeks to go!

Wonderful end-of -pregnancy symptoms (slight sarcasm)
I now get to see my doctor once a week, to make sure things are progressing well. At my appointment yesterday, he told me my cervix was 90% effaced, or thinned out. Apparently, that means I'm right on track? I tried asking friends, googling and researching more on exactly what it meant, but there's no definitive answer. Some people efface and stay there for weeks, and others go from 0 to 100% really quickly. All I know is I have to be 100% effaced in order to increase chances delivering vaginally, and I'll take that as good news!

As a side little confession: I felt like the baby was arriving any minute when the doctor told me about the progression of my cervix, so I freaked out (just a little) came home and washed all of the baby's sheets, clothes, towels and anything else I could put in the wash. I did an empty sterilizing cycle to clean the washer first though, because in my pregnant head that's just what made sense. Not sure if this qualifies as officially nesting yet or just my normal OCD?

The Baby has been extremely active in my belly these past could of days, which I actually really enjoy. It might be my favorite part of pregnancy. It's surreal to feel a little human being inside, and to feel his little hands and feet poke around. Sounds creepy, but I've grown really fond of it :) He also hiccups like crazy, and every now and then I even let out an unexpectedly loud hiccup, which is borderline embarrassing. Hopefully people don't think I'm a super drunk, super pregnant lady.

My back is progressively getting worst, but I found a great physical therapy place in Modesto and they want to see me at least twice a week, which is really helping. It was hard to let go of the one I had in the bay area, but I just can't make it out there that often.

Finally, the good news is that my ankles aren't puffing up as often anymore, but my feet and hands are another story. The swelling used to go down after I napped or woke up in the morning, but those days are long gone. So I think it's flip flops from now until the day of delivery! Oh well. I'm almost half way through this week, so about 3 and a half weeks left to meet the little guy! :)

Unless he's late...hopefully he takes after his western european/ German side in this case and is "on-time" if not early, as opposed to the hispanic side. :)