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....