Mothers Day

It's my first mothers day!! We actually turned it into a mothers day weekend. My mom, dad and grandmother were in town. Saturday we had lunch at a local Brazilian restaurant that we all love and Sofia's grandparents decided to let us have a mothers day date on Saturday night. Hubby and I enjoyed a nice romantic sushi dinner. We had a nice low-key day on Sunday. The day started with presents and cards in the morning, breakfast at the brazilian bakery and then a big group lunch with the in-laws. Sofia wore the cutest yellow dress. She looked like a little angel. :)

SleepFULL Nights

Sofia is a dream baby...She pretty much has slept through the night since she was born! Trust me, I know how lucky we are ;)

We are currently trying to work out a good sleeping schedule and it goes like this:

1. A bath every other day around 8:15, which is working out great! It took her about a month and a half to actually start liking the bath, though. In the beginning, she would turn purple from crying hysterically and it was stressful for all three of us - mommy, daddy and baby!

2. After a 15 minute bath or so, she nurses while she listens to her playlist on my I-Pod (usually Jewels lullabies, Enya or the rock-a-bye baby CD's) She usually nurses for about 30-40 minutes, then the lights go out for a small bottle of formula.

3. 9:00ish - We put her in her crib pretty drowsy by this time, but awake and the music changes to ocean sounds. She lays there for 30-40 minutes and falls fast asleep on her own with no crying or fussing!!!

4. 9:45ish - Mommy and daddy time and she usually sleeps til 5-5:30am (sometimes 6!) She rocks!

We've been on this schedule for a week now. Tonight we're hoping for an 8:30 bedtime. :)

Hiatus is over!...Hopefully.

Took a brief little break from blogging to enjoy my baby girls first two months out of my tummy. It has been a whirlwind!! We have been getting to know eachother pretty well and things are running pretty smoothly in the de Souza household. We are loving our time with Sofia & watching how she grows and changes. She was born at 6lbs 5oz. and 21.5" long. Now, at 9 weeks, she's over 11lbs and 23" or so. I'm guessing because we haven't been to our 2 month appointment yet for an official weigh-in and measurements yet. It's really astonishing how fast my munchkin is growing!

Now that I feel more comfortable with her, I'll have more time for Friago PlusOne ;)

D-DAY

My baby girl is here! Sofia Evoli de Souza was born on February 28th, 2010 at 6:48pm after two loooooong failed inductions. She came in at 6lbs. 5oz and 20.5" long. Waaay smaller than I thought she would be. Last minute I got diagnosed with Pre-eclampsia (not fun) so I ended up having a c-section.

She was absolutely gorgeous from the moment she came out. Screaming like crazy of course!

Meet SOFIA:

I'll be posting details of the delivery and more pictures of Sofia soon!

Rainy Day Stuff

I love dark & gloomy, rainy days. They make you just wanna open the window, listen to the rain as you lay in bed and watch a movie. If you're lucky, while snuggling up to hubby next to you! I'm not that lucky, hubby is working like a mad man to free up his schedule for Sofia's arrival. Soooo, since I'm all alone all day, I decided to blog about some random fun things.

My mom bought hubby a great new book! He loved it...Until he opened it up and some key words caught his eye & freaked him out! LOL...Words like drugs, alcohol and sex :) I can't wait for him to read it & to hear all about the

10 secrets!

While I was out shopping with my mom, I picked a book for me:

Except I got the third newly revised edition (the one with the pink cover). I am really looking forward to reading up on all the crazy, fun or scary things Sofia will do or experience. I still want to purchase a book called 'The Happiest Baby on the Block.' I've heard only good things about how it helps to calm and soothe babies.

Hubster and I just made a super exciting purchase! We took out our camcorder to get it ready for Sofia and it was broken! :( So, it was out to the store to buy another. We decided on the Sony Handycam and we looove it. Here it is:

I know I would've loved to see video of my mom pregnant with me. I can't wait to show Sofia everything! Although she might be 20 years old before she even cares! ;)

Bump Wear

Pretty much for my entire pregnancy I've been able to wear 'normal' clothes. Normal meaning non-maternity clothes! :) I was so happy to be able to shop at regular stores like Macy's & Express. Now that I'm about to pop there are absolutely essentials that I couldn't live without:

Jeans:

Around 5-1/2 months I got sick of having to carry around rubberbands to close my jeans and visited Motherhood Maternity for the first time. NOT FUN. There isn't much to chose from, but I figured jeans shouldn't be too hard to find. I'm 5'-10"....I found 1 pair of jeans that come in size TALL. 1!! Come on people, give the tall girls something to chose from! Thank god they had at least 1 pair because all the other jeans made me look like I was waiting for a flood! LOL... Here they are, not bad:

Stretchy pants & Tanks:

Marshalls carries Green Apple yoga/workout pants that I wore pre-pregnancy. They have now transitioned for me as maternity wear! Same size and everything :) I know, LUCKY! They are amazingly comfortable and cute....Nice enough to wear pretty much anywhere - daytime, of course, and they are relatively inexpensive ($14.99-$24.99)

Cotton Tanks are also great! I got mine at Motherhood Maternity sometimes, but Target was usually more convenient for me. Get them in EVERY color so you can mix it up ($9.99).

Shoes:

Throughout my entire pregnancy I wore Havaianas! I love them. They are cute, comfortable and most importantly.....THEY FIT! Now that I'm 9 months pregnant its prettty much the only thing I can wear. :)

Maternity Session

We got our maternity session photographs and I couldn't be happier with them! They look absolutely beautiful. The location was amazing, I was super happy with the outfits we picked out and the photographer (Karen Lisa) captured some really precious moments. There are 60+ photos so I'll just show you some of my faves. Karen will also be shooting Sofia after she's born at about 7 days old. I cannot wait for that day!! The excitement is literally overwhelming.

We've already had a lot of people asking about our photographer. I 100% recommend her! She made us feel really comfortable and the laid back feel of the photos is exactly what we wanted. Check out her site!
Karen Lisa Artistic Photography

37 weeks

Feeling like a blimp!! lol...Good days and kinda crappy days now, but finally passed 'THE' 37th week. Sofia can finally come out safely from now on. Whether or not she will is a different story! The most horrible part of these last three weeks is the swelling. The swelling of my feet, my hands and, especially horrible, of my face! Hanging in there & waiting for my baby girl!

Uncle Nick

My little brother is going to be an uncle for the first time & I'm so excited for him! He teaches people how to fly helicopters for a living (how cool is that?!) Here he is, looking all top gun! lol

I was shopping at Target and discovered their Dwell Studio line - Helicopter themed! It's supposed to be for boys, but I picked out an outfit that was pretty neutral. Besides, all we need are some earrings and a little bow in her hair and we're all girlied out! Can't wait to have her rep for her uncle. Hopefully, soon, we'll have a photo of her in this outift with her uncle by a helicopter!

Haiti Relief

The amazing neighborhood that we live in decided to do a drive with the Salvation Army for Haiti. Everytime I watch the coverage of the Haiti Earthquake what impacts me the most is all of the kids walking around aimlessly, scared & without family. One of the requests for things needed were kids items. I ran out to big lots right away determined to buy all kinds of fun distract-me-from-the-chaos stuff! Our neighborhood consists of 412 units & the pick-up was from 3-6pm. I showed up around 4pm so the pictures I got were only a fraction of what was collected! I love it when people can get together for a good cause. Makes ya all warm inside!! :)

New Threads for Sofia

Daddy loves anything that says that his little girl loves him!

& mommy is hoping that this is true! (daddy is probably not...lol)

36 Weeks

Sloowly, but surely I'm getting better from the Bells Palsy! The only major downside of Bells Palsy (other than loooking extremely strange at the beginning) is the medicine to treat it! Even though nothing really hurts, you usually get prescribed an anti-inflammatory med called Prednisone for that inflamed nerve on the right side of my face. The side effects of this medicine are HORRIBLE and annoying. You retain tons of fluid with this medicine especially in the face and neck. This is my second 5 day cycle and for the last cycle I gained and then lost again 5 pounds of water weight all in a span of 4-6 days. NOT FUN....Now with the second cycle, I am retaining water weight again. I feel like miss piggy! lol & i miss my neck and jawline. Can't wait til tomorrow when the cycle is finally over.

Here is a belly shot from my 36th week:

Representing my daughters other half - her brazilian side! :)

Little shoes

How could someone not fall in love with shoes that are so tiny that they fit in the palm of your hand?! Newborn shoes are a little unnecessary, but still we all drool and oooh & ahhh when we see them. The companies that are overcharging like crazy for them have the right idea! I'm a sucker and here are some of the shoes my little girl already has:

Converse

Polo Ralph Lauren

Pedi Ped

35 Week Surprise

At 35 weeks

I AM:

Hungry 24/7, feeling huge, being forced to rest (booooring!)

feeling like my belly button is going to do something weird - like POP!...

hands are sore, tossing & turning all night - getting little sleep, but napping from time to time. I'm not really smiling in this picture, this is why:

Now here's some crappy news - I woke up last Tuesday morning with a numb tongue. Ok, I thought it was strange, but continued on with my day normally. By the end of the day my food tasted funny, my teeth felt numb, and when I brushed my teeth my lips were so numb I couldn't pucker my mouth to spit! Now I'm feeling a little scared. My neck is also hurting right behind my ear - there is a throbbing pain. I'm medically savvy enough to know that this is something with my nervous system. It seems to only be affecting the right side of my face. It was already 11pm so I went to bed. I woke up Wednesday morning and my right eye was tearing and I couldn't raise my eyebrow.

I OFFICALLY FREAKED OUT!

It was 8:20am and the OB's office didn't open til 9am. Hubby stuck around till then to hear what she had to say. He was concerned. I could see it in his face, but he was trying to not freak me out more than I already was. They finally call me back to tell me to go to the Emergency Room. Great...Those were probably the last words in the world that I wanted to hear...
After visiting the ER, going to see my OB, picking up some meds, & visiting a neurologist. I officially have Bells Palsy...

BELLS PALSY:

a disfunction of cranial nerve VII (the facial nerve) that results in inability to control facial muscles on the affected side.

I am completely thankful that this is something that Sofia knows nothing about! She has no idea whats going on and it doesn't affect her at all. It does however affect me. :( I can't smile...Well, I can, but only on one side so it looks pretty funny. It makes you a little self conscious when it's something that is in such an obvious place. Right on your face!

Now 6 days later, I have regained some mobility in my mouth. Before I couldn't move the right side of my mouth at all. Now I can move it a little. It was a big enough deal to get a high five from hubby when I showed him!

Bells Palsy is more common than I knew, according to the neurologist and it is 3 times more likely to happen to pregnant women. Like we don't suffer enough! lol...I feel much better knowing that this is temporary. I feel fine, it's just horribly uncomfortable to look so weird.

I'll absolutely be posting a picture of me smiling really big when I get better! Stay tuned... :) :)

Butterlfy Mobile

So, the frustration with finding Sofia a mobile is officially over! I never actually found one though. lol...Like I always say:

If you can't find it, make it yourself! So I made one.

Hubby and I had this gorgeous display at the entrance to our wedding reception:

We have the white branches displayed in our house now. The one thing I knew was that I wanted to keep the design of the mobile with the organic, simple, nature theme of the rest of the room (elephants, flowers, birds....etc.)

Well, a few months ago, we babymooned in St. Augustine, Forida & I spotted these beautiful butterflies on a string in a little boutique. I bought them thinking I would find a place for them eventually.

I had hubby cut the branches for me (I'm a tad bit accident prone). I took apart the strung butterflies, added some clear glass beads & fishing wire & now we have a mobile!

Here is the finished product in the room. From Sofia's view:

It always amazes me how intensely satisfying it is to create exactly what you want, love it and be proud of it! I couldn't be happier with the final result and how it looks in the room. Even better, is that it incorporates a project I made myself for our wedding day. Much nicer than shelling out $50 for a pre-made factory mobile....

Silly Great Stuff

Good friends make you smile by doing silly little things! My friend Angela was obviously thinking of my little girl on her shopping trip to Ikea! Got this from her & it made me smile. :)

Sofia's Nursery

After about 2-3 months of shopping, waiting for sales, changing my mind a millon times, lots of sweat and tears....my nursery, well...

Sofia's nursery is almost done!
We decided to not go the traditional route and shop only at baby stores. Overly pink or cutesy furniture drives me insane. Not to mention the fact that as soon as you call it 'baby' furniture the price goes way UP! I wanted to make sure that we got ONLY what we wanted. Right away I knew I wanted clean and simple lines in the room. The bigger pieces are simple, monochromatic and the little touches have a bit more detail.

We really didn't want an overwhelmingly cluttered room.

We chose a great paint brand called: The FreshAire Choice in Organic Garden. No nasty fumes for baby! Hubby was great and painted about 99% of the room, but it was great to be able to help paint too and not have to inhale fumes :)

I looked for weeks for a bedding set I liked, NO LUCK...Nothing seemed to be quite right or it was +$400 for a 'designer' set. I decided to look on Etsy for something custom made. We ended up choosing the bedding from a fellow Etsian who has a shop called BabyDarling. Check out her super cute stuff. WE LOVE IT! The paint color matches the grey in the Amy Butler fabric she used. (did you think that was a coincidence? Nothing is coincidence. There's always a plan LOL ;)





(Crib has since moved, haven't taken a pic in the new spot yet)


The glass bubble lamps were re-used from our master bedroom (orginally from JcPenneys). The mirror at the changing table was...ready for this?.....$50!! It's from Bombay Company with a regular price tag of $350! We went to the Las Olas Art Fair, as we do every year, and noticed that there was a baby store going out of business. That street is a tourist trap so we were only browsing. Then I saw the mirror on the wall with a sign that read: EVERYTHING IN THE STORE MUST GO! $50 ONLY!.....I grabbed it and said: I NEED THIS! The owner of the store sold it to me in a second. Lucky for me, she was eager to get rid of it. Dresser is Ikea ($279). We replaced the ugly black pulls with pretty clear pulls from walmart.



We found a fixture for the ceiling at World Market for the insane price of $55 - on sale of course (reg. price was $69). All the other Capiz Chandeliers I've seen range from $100-$300.

Good buy and asolutely worth the wait!

I couldn't wrap my head around buying an 80's looking poofy, chunky, ugly glider (upwards of $300 at baby stores...crazy) or wobbly rocking chair so I opted for Ikea's Poang Chair ($149 chair, $70 footstool). I'm one of those people who gets motion sickness on the moving walkways at the airport so this chair has just enough bounce to not make me nauseated. :) It's design is gorgeous, clean & simple, the fabric pattern looks great with the rest of the color palette in the room, and most importantly, it's comfortable!

We purchased the matching footstool later also (not pictured here).
Curtains are Ikea, rug is Ikea ($50), and the little metal mirror top table I found at marshalls for only 24.99 and on accident, might I add!



Super important in a room, especially a baby room is storage! The expedit storage unit ($159) is awesome & with a few durable, simple baskets from Target I added a splash of Fuschia.

We are 99% done! The only thing left to do is the mobile over her crib.

Working on that now, pictures to come soon!!