Namasté (नमस्ते)

today sophia went to her first "mommy & baby" yoga class!  we went to class in manhattan near union square with molly/annamaria and guna/gabriela, both from my 'astoria stay at home moms' group.  we had such a good time!  i really liked the class because it not only had me doing stretching and yoga poses, but also Sophia.  it was completely interactive with her, and i think she enjoyed it!  she slept the entire way to the class studio, i was afraid she was going to sleep during class... but she didn't!  she was awake and happy all the way up to the end!  well... the very very very end at the ending meditation she was fussy cause she didn't want to be on her tummy any more.  so i held her close and rocked her until meditation was over and she was calm.  we then diaper changed and got her in the sling.  instant sleep.  the yoga class was just enough!  we'll be going to more most definitely.  namaste.

Push-Ups... almost.

today was sophia's first time pushing up from her belly!!  granted, it was maybe half-an-inch to an inch up off the bed mattress, but she held her head up and pushed her chest up!  of course, this didn't last long.  I have been trying to get her to do more tummy time- as it is supposed to be good for her to work out her neck/back/stomach/arm/leg muscles to help her progress on to the next phase of movement... rolling over and then crawling.  She's not a huge fan of the tummy time for more than a few minutes or so.  she has her Boppy playmat (thanks nicole!) that she plays with, she has some time on my chest during the day (although it's tough to keep her awake then!) and sometimes i just put her on the bed and hang out with her on the side or front of her with a toy.  i learned a new tummy time from my baby newsletter-  essentially SUPERGIRL TIME!  she takes to that a whole lot better than just being put on her belly on flat surface.  she's still yet to throw up on me!  well, she's still yet to throw up on me while doing supergirl time.  

i also think that she's coming close to having her last days in her orange and white rugby stripe jumper.  :(  i'll probably try to have her wear it for another two or three weeks.  i just have more of a sentimental attachment to it since it's once of the first outfits she wore when she came home (although she was SWIMMING in it).  my little girl continues to grow up... *sigh* 

Last Day @ Work

Today was me and Baby XX's last day at work!  Chris sent us a beauuuu-tiful bouquet of flowers.  (See photo)  Tomorrow our shipment of baby furniture will be coming in, so it's a good thing that I won't be working anymore- someone needs to receive the shipments!  We will miss our friends @ Spon, but we will see them again... just in different shape.  Baby XX will be post-utero and I will be hopefully over 30lbs. lighter...

Passed with FLYING COLORS

YESSSSSSSSS. So Chris and I finished our Childbirth Education class. We took classes at St. Vincent's Hospital (where we're delivering the baby). Who was the best couple in the class? You guessed it. US. What is my final conclusion after so many hours of education? I never want to see another 70's/80's birthing video. Seriously... isn't it time someone made some money off of some recent docu videos for childbirthing classes? I would do it, but I'm having my fill by having a child myself.

It was interesting. There were a total of 4 couples including me and Chris. Once couple only came to one session. Talk about a waste of moolah! All of us oddly worked in production of some kind. One chick, Delia, was an editor, her boyf was the head of the editing department at the New York Film Academy and another guy was a broadcast producer. We did learn a lot- different positions to cope with labor pains, epidurals, stages of labor, natural childbirth, etc.  We seriously watched so many childbirthing videos.  All of them from the 80's.  I haven't seen that many perms going through labor and giving birth- ever.  I don't want to ever again either.  Watching all the birthing videos wigged me out.  I would have been fine with just one, even two.  It was just birth after birth after birth after birth after birth after birth.  Egad.  We got all kinds of handouts and worked on a lot of exercises together.  It was good for me to learn what Chris' concerns, fears, excitements were with everything and vice versa.  :)  It was great for us not only to learn, learn, learn... but to also grow and bond together.  Hooray!  

WASTED! She better not be!!

*HICCUP* *HICCUP* *HICCUP*

yes... Baby XX has had the hiccups! At first, I thought that she had already developed a sense of amazing rhythm (which i don't doubt now), but it's way more faint than her growing-in-strength kicks. it also happens pretty much every day where she gets them. TOO CUTE. i can only imagine. she's definitely getting stronger and squirmy in the her ever shrinking space. not that i'm getting smaller... NOOOOOOO... she's getting larger, so less space to move. she has been taking more interest in making her presence known in my upper cavity right below the "girls". not quite painful yet, but i can definitely feel the pressure. please pray that it doens't get super hot this summer. i'm already schvitzing when it's only in the 70's/80's. not mad schvitz... yet. just those annoying beads of sweat that form on my nose. cute? only for the first second...

REMINDER: PLEASE NOTE

please note the dates on these postings have been adjusted from the time i really posted. i changed the dates to make it more easy to follow along actual events with us chronologically. so no, i haven't had this page up since january. thank you. -Management.

Intense Glucose Test (part i & ii)- Week 28

today, i had to starve myself until around 11:00am.  christina at dr. elizabeth stein's office gave me a bottle of straight up glucose drink for my 4-hour test.  this is to test me for gestational diabetes.  i had previously taken a 1-hour blood test, but the levels were so "iffy" she wanted me to take the more intense test.  she said, take this an hour before they take your blood.  so i left work at 10:00am and drank the beverage.  (it tastes like straight up syrup from the Hi-C orange fountain soda from McD's).  i went to the lab place, and i basically fought with the blood taker/receptionist saying that i was instructed to take the drink an hour before.  apparently i was supposed to take it THERE and sit there for 4 hours until they took my blood.  i think i was trying to save time to where i didn't have to be away from the office too long.  so they sent me back and told me to come back the next day to drink that mess again.  so all i was for that day was extremely wired on pure sugar, only to have a major sugar meltdown crash.  

so i went in the next day and did it again.  drank it.  and i had to be there for 4 HOURS!  they took my blood about 4-6 times, and had to pee in a cup that many times.  i was like... I DON'T HAVE ANY MORE PEE IN ME after the first two times going to the bathroom.  somehow i managed to get the job done.  i am also not good with needles, so it was awful.  i tried to keep distracted by talking to the blood-taker, but she wasn't a talking type person, so i had to look around the room and grit my teeth when the needle went in and the vials were filled with my life juice.  

by the time i was done with that mess of bodily fluids i left and went to go get something to eat.  i went to We Liang Ye on the upper east side on 86th street.  i ordered and pretty much was shaking since i didn't have any food and i had had so much blood taken out of me.  it was pretty sad seeing me try to eat my first course of soup and spring roll with my arm shaking like a leaf.  i decided to reward myself by going to pinkberry.  a delightful frozen yogurt place where you can have fresh fruit toppings (among other toppings) on real frozen yogurt- and it actually tasted kinda tangy like yogurt!  quite refreshing for a hot, food depraved, almost passing out day. 

First Mets Game - 27 weeks

here is baby xx at her first mets game! don't worry cards fans... i was wearing my cardinals hat! the place where i work, spontaneous, had a baseball night where we all went out to see the mets play the giants. of course, we were cheering for the cardinals #1, and the giants #2. for those who don't know... baby daddy is a HUGE giants fan. he was at the game as well, but in better seats with clients. you could probably see his speck of a face across the stadium above the dugout. that's where his seats were. again, millions of hot dogs around me, but none for me. *sigh*. so i got chicken fingers and fries and water and a pretzel and a frozen lemon chill. it was delish, but i was still longing for that foot long hotdog with ketchup and mustard. one day... one day... anyways. here's a picture of me caught red-handed with my frozen lemon chill. i'm thinking about entering this into gap maternity to see if they'll hire me as a prego model...

Auntie Jessi Visit & First Yankee Game - 26 weeks

So auntie jessi of BFFE (Best Friends For Ever (we didn't know how to spell back in grade school)) came all the way from D.C. to visit baby XX for the first time. jessi, her boyf Joe, chris, baby XX and i went to our first Yankee game of the season. on the train ride to yankee stadium, it was prego fest. i was sitting next to two pregnant ladies, both who had other younger children. so there we were... three pregos in a row. i should have taken a picture, but i didn't. i know, bad call. i wore my mother's day tank that chris got me that said "due in august". the game: quite exciting!! i must tell you that it was absolute torture not being able to eat a hot dog. that's one of the forbidden preggers foods... because of the nitrates and the crap gross meat in them. sausages, hot dogs, foot longs... oh the torture! so i had to go on this 2 inning trek around yankee statium to find non-hotdog food. jessi and i finally found a place after being directed to go everywhere but the right place. so i had a philly cheesesteak. Mmm... healthy. i definitely would have had at least 3 hot dogs normally. and a frozen lemonade. and a carvel ice cream. and dippin dots. anyway, enough about me. how bout my baby?!?! here is her first baseball game picture. first game. first yankee game. just to calm those st. louis cardinals and san francisco giants fan's fears... she will NEVER wear yankee gear. EVER.

We're goin back to school! - 26 weeks

This weekend I just set us up for a hospital tour of where the baby is going to be delivered. St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan, cause that's where Elizabeth Stein delivers at. The tour isn't until next month, but it will be interesting being in the actual place where a world of pain awaits me. HahaHAhhh. I also signed us up for our "Childbirth Prep" class. Since we have to work until at least 7pm, we have to do the weekend course. It's like one of those intensive ACT/SAT prep classes where you're there all day for two days straight. That should be fun. Lamaze breathing from 10am to 5pm. NONSTOP. I'm hoping that Chris will have to massage my back the entire time. ;)
My belly is definitely getting larger... but not nearly as big as it's going to be ultimately. Saturday was the first time she kicked (or punched) on my belly in slo-mo. It was SO weird, I was staring at my belly and it just raised slowly. It's all still very cool and exciting. She's definitely gotten more active as time has passed by. I can definitely feel it more with more force! She still likes her fruit! It's funny how much fruit I have been wanting, craving, eating and drinking. Watermelon seems to be a hit!

The Baby kicks!

So today was the first day that Chris had actually 100% felt Baby XX kicking!! We were waiting for a car to take us to the airport, sitting on the sofa and she started to move around. Chris rushed over and put his hand on me belly and felt her kick... HARD! Very funny. Chris was GLOWING. I'm glad that he can feel her kick with me now. Not that he was left out of feeling her kick before, but he was. HAhHAHhaHaah. It's great to be able to share the exhilaration and excitement. :)

What flavor is it?? - Sonogram 20 weeks

what is it? do you know? what flavor is it? pink or blue? do you want to know what the baby is? girl or boy??? at first, i didn't want to know what it was going to be. chris had always said that it's up to me to make the decision. "whatever you want to do is what i want to do." truly said like a wonderful baby daddy. of course, i know he wanted to know deep down. some parent's decisions to wait for it to be a surprise say they waited because "there aren't that many surprises that happen in life". BOLOGNA! after some thinking, i figured... baby XX in itself was a huge surprise. i'm done with the thrills for right now.

what do you think??? perhaps you think it's a girl. you can clearly see the female anatomy. or wait... what is that? a fifth appendage? could that baby have a penis, or is that just the umbilical cord? well... if you guessed that it's a BOY, you are totally wrong. you want to rethink that decision to go into medschool. BABY XX IS A GIRL!!! i know, you're wondering how will my hate for the color pink, and all shades of the color pink will effect things. honestly, i don't know yet. i'm just stoked that my mom sent me a St. Louis Cardinals onesie- white with red pinstripes. similar to this: PIMP.

the sonogram was phenomenal! even more than the previous one! they get more and more amazing! she waved a couple of times, kicked, flopped around, stretched HER arms and legs out. you could see HER toes on her little feet and fingers on HER little hands. the doctor took a sonogram photo of HER where SHE was tipping HER head back and opening HER mouth pretty big. it looked like SHE was yawning! the CUTEST THING EVER!!!! here is the sonogram of it:

soooooo cute right? things aren't looking as roomy in there as they did before... i don't think i would do so well with my 5'8" stature and all, especially if i were wearing heels. but hey, when does that ever happen? at this point, SHE's about 6.5 inches from head to bottom and about 10 inches from head to heel (aka. crown to rump measurement) SHE's my growing baby GIRL!!!

Perfect Fit - Sonogram 12 weeks

Here is Baby XX at her week 12 sonogram. I like having these sonograms being often! We get to see her a lot more. It never gets old, it's never dull, and it's quite funny and entertaining and emotional. It's good to see that XX doesn't look like an alien anymore, right? At this point, the baby is only 2 inches long! It seems like it's much bigger through the sonogram when you can see the detailings of the spine, facial profile and such. The baby continued to kick and kinda flip around like a fish out of water. Still rather amazing watching that little heart beat.

Dr. Bala said that the size of the baby is normal, and the size of the baby's neck was normal (a pre-test for possible trisomy-21 or Down's Syndrome) It's always a relief hearing that the baby is progressing normally and is healthy. It's so mindblowing that all this development happens with all its intricacies- blood vessels, organs, body shape, nerves, hair, skeletal system, muscles, ALL OF IT. i think how can God not be involved in something so complex and beautiful. it's amazing that things don't go wrong more often considering the elaborate 40 week process. Baby is "fearfully and wonderfully made". There's my "deep thought" for this blog entry. XX is beautiful and amazing, yes? If you disagree, i challenge you to a duel.

Alien Baby Sonogram - 10 weeks

Here is the sonogram of Baby XX at 10 weeeks. we could see the hands, feet, legs, arms and even FINGERS! it was flippin around in my belly and moving around. so crazy to imagine i'm growing someone inside of me. right now, he/she is 2-2.5 inches long. if you look at the top picture, you can see the eyes, nose and jaw forming. when they took that picture, the baby was waving its arm around like it was waving. super cute. so we got a picture. :) the heartbeat was super fast, we got to hear it. the baby's head is massive as you can see. hopefully it'll grow into his head... unlike its mother. ;) i have sucha big head. hahahahHAH.

of course, i started crying. not like CRYING, but tearing, sniffling. it was a huge relief to see tht the baby was continuing to grow and live and thrive. though i knew everything was going to be "ok" and will work out, in the back of my head i was a little worried since my pregnancy horomone blood levels were going all over the place. my doctor didn't freak me out, but was just honest about the situation and that there was some concern. but then again, all pregnancies aren't "normal". part of me was scared that the baby wouldn't be alive and moving, or something terrible like that. so it was a huge relief. God's so amazing. i can't stop thinking about it.

the doctor scanned the area and showed the umbilical cord that was attached to the baby. he then said, "and there's only one." PHEW! he went on to explain how if there were more then it would be "here in this dark area". there was a slight possibility that there was going to be more than one, according to my hCG horomone levels. but only one baby! two would be twice the blessing, but twice the everything else. so one is good. :)

Our First Sonogram! 7 weeks

Here is me and my Bebi at the doctors office, waiting for the sonogram. Isn't it amazing how much better black & white photos make people look better? Right now, I'm debating whether to tell you all the details of my first ultrasound appointment. Why should I show restraint? I shouldn't. I figure... you know me, we all love a funny story. So I went to the doctor with my baby's daddy, Christopher Lewis Volckmann, and my friend Melissa. They show us to the exam room and they tell me to strip down neked from the waist down and put on this paper robe- not so comfortable. So I apparently had some mental block that didn't understand "take off everything below your waist" and I left me under-roos on. I figured that I only saw sonograms done in movies, and they put that thing on your belly. Why would I have to strip down to nada? That would be silly and unnecessary...
So I get on the table (which has what looks to be a doggie wee-wee pad) and lay on me back. The doctor comes in, introduces himself and tells me to relax. So his back is turned towards me and he's prepping the sonogram device thingy. He turns around and has this long massive stick-like device that's hooked up to the sonogram machine. "This is the sonogram PROBE..." My eyes get SO big and open, you would have thought I turned white. "Just bend your knees and insert this like you would a tampon." He said it so casually, and I'm in shock. "Excuse me?" I asked. So now it hits me why I was supposed to take my 'roos off. Man, what a challenge.

Anyways, after that fiasco, things were a lot easier and "less shocking in a bad way." TA-DA!!! Look at it! Here is the first visual confirmation of our upcoming baby!! At first, everything was very technical. He showed me my uterus, the ovary from which the very egg came from (the right) and then the baby. it was extremely tiny and you couldn't see much movement- you could just see a little glitch of the pixels. He continued on with the technical jargon, which I remembered from high school and college biology classes, and he then zoomed in. The sonogram picture to the right is what we saw, but in motion. That "glitch of pixels" was the HEARTBEAT! the baby wasn't developed enough to where you could make out much of anything but the heartbeat, but it was AMAZING! the second we saw he/she, it became so much more real. *cue tears and sniffles* it's a rather intense experience... i'm making a little person inside of me! the due date is AUGUST 31st. Mark it on your calendar folks...