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!!

Long Key Nature Center

Just visited the gorgeous Long Key Nature Center to see if maybe we can do our maternity shoot there. This is one of the options. I wanted something lush and really vegetated. This place is beautiful. I can't believe I've never been there! It's a little far from my house - about 30 minutes - Davie. The drive is really no big deal though.

There are horse trails that look amazing!

Once my baby girl is here, hubby and I can hit the trails. Can't wait!

Here are a few pics:

Photos

We booked a photographer for our maternity/newborn session! I went on a pretty exhausting search online. There are so many cheeseball photographers out there and hubby and I are not the cheesy 'sit in a studio' kind of couple....I went on to Flickr and searched for South Florida Maternity. I quickly weeded out all the creepy naked ones, chiffon covered bellies, anyone holding a rose LOL!! (come on, seriously?!) & clicked on the ones that caught my eye; mostly bright crisp images, urban maternity shots, beach and park shots at sunset...etc.

THEN, (the extremely annoying part) of checking out prices. I want pictures of my belly and my baby, but I dont wanna blow $2k either! Having a baby should involve saving some money too. I hear those suckers are expensive. :) Weeded out the money hungry...

We chose the lovely Karen Lisa Berlin Ziemkowski. Check out her work...Can't wait!

Now comes the equally exhausting choice of location for the shoot. Beach? Park? Downtown? I can't....WE can't decide........I'm off to check out one more park!

32 Week Update!

Awwwww yea! At 32 weeks I finally look and feel pregnant!! I've gained 22 pounds and have about 8 weeks to go.

Sadly and annoyingly, I have developed pregnancy carpal tunnel & it does NOT feel good! I wake up with tingling & numbness in my hands which would be the least of it, but they also hurt to grip and pick up things or open jars. I still can't complain too much because my pregnancy has been pretty easy until now. Can't wait for it to go away after my pregnancy is over.

Sofia is super, super active. It's amazing, but also uncomfortable at times ;) It's the perfect way for hubby to feel connected to her in some way. She responds to his voice probably 95% of the time and she makes sure he knows shes in there (& makes sure mommy doesn't forget it either!).

We are totally in love with her already....

Mobile Madness

Who knew it would be so stressfull to find a mobile for Sofia's room?! Nothing seems to exactly fit the look I'm going for. She's got a subtle nature theme going on with the elephants, butterflies and flowers. I might as well already decide to make my own, that way I get EXACTLY what I want. Seems like that always ends up being the solution! Here are some inspiration mobiles, that are almost perfect but not quite there:

3D Ultrasound of Sofia

I'm loving this baby in my belly!! Can't wait to finally meet her and see what she looks like when NOT submerged in 'stuff' lol....7 weeks and counting :)

In the second video she actually moves her arm out of the way and you can see her entire face. My cutiepie!

Slow & Steady Belly

It's been FOREVER since I updated anything on this blog! I know....bad. With the holidays being over though, I figured I should get a move on.

My belly growth has been slow and steady, which has been great! At 31 weeks I am still somewhat comfortable and able to do pretty much everything with ease. Of course, I get tired MUUUUCH faster, but yoga, stretching, and moving around is still relatively easy even with a weight gain of 19 pounds!! Not bad for 31 weeks though. I'm quite proud of myself. ;)

Up until now, hubby and I have been pretty lax about our belly pictures - taking them every other week or so. Now that we've hit the 30 week mark we are stepping it up to every week! Sooo exciting :) Here is a photo of the progression of the belly (13-30 weeks):