Less than 100

There are (approximately) less than 100 days left before Leila comes out! Holy cow! That's kind of crazy! She kicks more and more each day, and they get harder too. I had a check up last Monday and the doctor said she's growing well, right where she should be, she even kicked him while he measured my belly. I've even gained a couple of pounds since my last appointment. I've only gained four pounds, and that was after losing five after my first appointment. How many women can say they're approaching their third trimester and are below their pre-pregnancy weight. The doctor said it's not a big deal that I haven't gained very much because she's growing the way she should be and I'm a good baby grower (yes he actually said that.) I feel like I can't really complain about being pregnant, it's been a lot easier than I thought it would be. The only thing that kind of sucks right now is the heartburn, but even that's just once in a while. I can't wait to sleep on my stomach again. But it's worth it, I can't wait to meet her and see what she looks like since Scott and I are so different! Only 14 weeks to go...

QBS @ Dos Lagos

Friday night, the guys of Quick Before Sinking played at Dos Lagos in Corona. It was a really great show, even without Adam's ukelele! I always love watching them, but Friday was really special. I invited a few friends, but they couldn't make it, so instead I got to spend most of the night with Jess and Adrianne. They are two awesome ladies! I'm really grateful for the friendship Scott and I have with the guys and their wives!
I wish I had more photos to share, but my battery died and I didn't have a spare. :[

Lunch Time!

Why is it that when given soda and straws, grown men turn into 9 year old boys? Today at lunch, Adam shot straw wrappers at the other table and made the wrapper worm. And Mark ran into a tree branch on his way in and had flowers in his hair. We didn't tell him until about 10 minutes later. Poor guy.

Baby Kyler

I forgot to mention that my cousin Marissa gave birth (via c-section) to a baby boy this morning! His name is Kyler, he's 6 lbs, 14 oz and 20 inches long. Mom and baby are doing great! She'll be recovering in the hospital for a few days before she can go home. I'll have pictures later this week after I go visit them.

Dad Update

Dad's procedure went well yesterday. The pacemaker's in, we won't really know if it's working unless Dad's heart rate drops below 50. Hopefully he never really needs it, but it's good that it's there just in case. He said that his shoulder hurts really bad, like an 8 out of 10 (10 being the worst.) That's normal, plus Dad has a low tolerance for pain. Just pray that the pain he's feeling is temporary, and as the swelling around the site goes down, so will his pain. He should be discharged this afternoon. He'll be very happy to be at home!

Prayer request for Dad

A few months ago, my dad had surgery to clear his carotid artery and quadruple bypass on his heart. He recovered well, but still needed more help. He went in on Tuesday to have 3 stents put into his other carotid and 1 in his left leg to open up blood flow in those arteries. He should have been discharged by Thursday, but wasn't because his heart rate and blood pressure were low. Since Wednesday, he's had a couple episodes where his heart "pauses" for a few beats, then resumes working. His heart rate has dropped as low as the 20s during these episodes. To help his heart, the doctors are going to put a pacemaker in on Monday. Since my dad is so tiny (5'5", 105 pounds) there isn't a whole lot of meat to hold the pacemaker in place, so they basically have to create a skin pocket. They have an external pacer in his room in case he really drops, but hopefully they won't be needing that. Please pray for my dad, his heart and the medical staff working with him. Thanks!

What color is nectarine juice?

The skin of the fruit is yellow/orange/red, the meat of the fruit is yellow...what color's the juice? PINK! How do I know? Because I just dripped a couple drops on my nice clean white pants. Ugh.

Daddy's Girl

I think we already have a daddy's girl on our hands...not that that's a bad thing, it's just funny. You see, during the week Scott wakes up somewhere between 4:30 - 6:00 AM for work. Little Leila also wakes up whenever Daddy does, and she starts fiddling around and kicking. I know because her kicks have gotten a lot stronger the past week or two, so they wake me up. Today, Scott was off, so he slept in until about 9. I woke up around 8 to go to the bathroom, laid back down and she was still sleeping. But when Scott got up to go to the bathroom and he came back, she woke up too! She's already so in tune with him, it's funny! Scott got to feel her kicking this morning, just a little bit, but she's definitely there.

I had an ultrasound on Tuesday, my mom went with me since Scott had to work. It's neat because my mom never had an ultrasound when she was pregnant, so she was really excited! (Not like she hasn't seen one, she's a nurse, but it's neat when it's your grandbaby.) My mom said that Leila has Scott's nose. In profile her nose is a lot pointier (pointy-er, more pointy?) than mine ever was/will be. She'll be so cute!

The other morning, I laid in bed feeling her little kicks and I'd push back a little bit with my hand. She'd kick another spot, so I'd push there, then she'd go back to the first spot. It's a fun little game! She's so neat!

A little over months to go...WOW!

BIRTHDAY!!

How do you like to spend your birthday? Day at Disneyland? Dinner out with friends? A fun party at home? Not me.

I like to be woken up by a big kick from inside my belly, a minute after my actualy birth time (2:42 AM,) then stay up emailing people and writing myself reminders of things I need to take care of at work that day. Then maybe I'll fall asleep for a two hours around 6 AM, then get up, get ready and go to work at 9 AM. Then once I get to work on my birthday, I like to spend the entire day walking back and forth from our office, to the tech booth in the worship center, to the green room, back to the tech booth, out to the lobby, over to the classrooms, back to the office, the worship center again, and keep repeating that for about 15 hours. And add a baby kicking all day to that. Sounds like fun, right?

Oh wait, I forgot to mention, it was all for a great cause! I helped put on an awesome concert featuring Riverside's own, The Trade and grammy nominated band, Leeland! Ok, so even though I had to work my butt off all day, it was totally worth it because it made it one of the best birthdays I've ever had! The Trade got the crowd pumped and excited and just totally rocked! Then Leeland came on... They were awesome! Although I was a little sad when the singer, Lee, said, "We've got two songs left..." because according to my set list there were three, and I knew the one they were cutting out was my favorite song, "Sound of Melodies." It was a great night of worship, even if they didn't do my favorite song. They took a bow and headed off the stage. A few minutes later, Lee returns to the stage alone, sits behind the keyboard and sings "Brighter Days," it was absolutely beautiful! When he finished, the rest of the band came out and finished the night with a nice little present, my favorite song! Seriously, could it have gotten any better?! I didn't really think so, but it did. I went to the green room to ask Scott's mom something and I had my camera with me because I was going to go wait in line in the lobby to get a picture with the band. As I was about to walk out to get in line, the bass player, Jake says to the band "Hey guys, let's take a picture with her before we go out there." I did kind of ask them before the show if we could take a picture after, but I figured I'd just get in line like everyone else. That totally made my day that he remembered, plus I didn't have to stand in line! They are some of the nicest, friendliest, laid back guys I've ever met! I wish they were here all the time!

Seriously, two days later, my feet and calves are still killing me. Leila's finally settled down after dancing to the music all day in my belly. And it was one of the best birthdays I've ever had! I love my job!

Birthday!!!

Happy birthday to me!
Happy birthday to me!
Happy birthday dear Christina!
Happy birthday to me!
Yay! I'm 23 today! And Leila kicked me at 2:43 this morning to say happy birthday. How'd she know I was born at 2:42!?

Oh, we've decided her name's going to be Leila, no matter what. I just feels right. :}

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24 years ago...

24 years ago today, my wonderful husband Scott was born! I can't tell you how thankful I am for him. He's so loving, caring, funny, talented, and well, nice to look at! ;] He's amazing! Happy birthday, my love!

WE'RE HAVING A.......

GIRL!!!
Since Scott wouldn't be able to be at the ultrasound on the 29th, we decided to just go to Fetal Focus (an ultrasound place in the mall) and find out what we're having. We're very excited! Our moms were both hoping for a girl, especially Scott's mom since she raised four boys.
We have names picked out, but it depends on what she looks like/when she's born. Our first choice is Leila Kate, Leila comes from the Hebrew for night (as Tyler told us last night) so it means either born at night or dark (haired) beauty. So if our baby is born during the day and has blonde hair like her daddy, that name doesn't fit very well. In that case, her name will be Lucy Elizabeth. Lucy because it means light, and we hope our little girl would go out and let her light shine before the world. But for right now, we're just calling her "L" (like Elle) since both names start with the letter L. Scott's so cleaver!
So that's it, we're having a little girl!

The head?!

I had my 20 week check up (Yes, 20 weeks! Halfway there!) The doctor was feeling my belly to see how the uterus is baby have grown.
Doc: There's your baby's head, it's nice and firm.
Me: The head?!
Doc: Yup, right here. (And he pushes down a little bit.)
Me: Wow, I didn't know I was at the point where you could identify body parts. Cool, baby has a head!
Doc laughs.

Wow...it's a little crazy to have someone push on your belly and tell you what part of the baby it is! I didn't realize he'd be able to tell, the baby's only about 6 inches long. We listened to the heart beat, it's still nice and strong. My results from the glucose tolerence test came back normal. He ordered an ultrasound so we'll get to see the baby again and (hopefully) find out what we're having. My last ultrasound was at 10 weeks, so it probably looks quite a bit different. The only bad thing is that Scott has to work the day of my ultrasound (July 29,) hopefully he can move things around or not be too busy and get part of the morning off. It'd be fun to be able to go together!

A little confession

Let me start of by saying that I am very excited to be having a baby and I can't wait to meet him/her and to be a mommy. I can't wait to see Scott hold our baby for the first time. But some mornings I wake up and just want to not be pregnant yet. It's not the morning sickness, I haven't had any in months. It's not my aching muscles, I can tough it out. It's the stupid thoughts... Today was one of those mornings where the thoughts of "there's so much I wanted to do before I had kids" and "I don't know anything about kids! What have we gotten ourselves into?" flood my mind and it's a little overwhelming. Eventually, I cry and move on, but it just stinks. I'm not on my own "afraid of motherhood" island am I? This happens to other people right?

We made a what?

Totally how I feel about being pregnant sometimes... The baby isn't even here yet, and won't be for almost 6 months, but it's still a little strange to think that God thinks we're ready for a kid. Well, I guess God knows we're ready...maybe ready isn't the right word...

Baby Update...

I'm 16 weeks along, had a check up on Monday. I turned down the AFP testing. I've lost 3 pounds since my appointment 4 weeks ago, 5 pounds since I found out I was pregnant. But the doctor's not worried about it since he thinks the baby's growing just fine (he can tell just by pushing on my tummy I guess.) I have to go to the lab in 2 weeks and have a sugar test and something else...normal prenatal stuff. When I go back for my next check up he'll review those test results and order an ultrasound and hopefully we'll get to see if we're having a boy or girl! Any predictions?

Plans for tonight?

Come down, check 'em out! Hope to see you there!

Dad Update

A few weeks ago, I asked for prayers for my dad and just wanted to update folks on the situation.

This past Tuesday he was supposed to have a carotid angio done to look at the blockage in his neck before they do the surgery to remove it. That procedure was postponed until next Thursday because he missed the radiology consult last Friday. There was a miscommunication because neither of my parents knew he had a consult, which is not like them to forget something like that.

Today, he had a cardiac cath done to look for any blockages he may have in his heart that may cause problems after the carotid is fixed. They found that he has four vessels that are VERY blocked, so he needs a quadruple bypass surgery The doctor is keeping him at the hospital overnight and bumped up the carotid angio to tomorrow instead of next Thursday.

My mom (an ICU nurse at the hospital where my dad is) wasn't comfortable with the cardiothoracic surgeon the cardiologist had consulted with, so she asked if a different surgeon. We're so blessed because the doctor she wanted was there today, saw my dad and will be doing the surgery next week. So the plan, for now at least, is carotid angio tomorrow, he'll go home for a few days, then they'll do a carotid endarterectomy surgery to clear the blockage from the most occluded side, perform the CABG surgery immediately following. The surgery will probably be done Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, hasn't been scheduled yet.

My dad says he feels fine, which makes it even more difficult for him to just sit still. I know he's nervous, but doesn't want to show it. He's still his normal goofy, happy self, which is nice to see. I know my mom is worried, but she won't show it. I just hope she's ok and doesn't bottle it up. I'm trying to be strong, but it's hard to not worry, I'm not quite as good about not showing it. I know that God's in control of the situation, but it's still scary.

Any prayers for my mom and dad and his doctors would be greatly appreciated! I'll be sure to update later next week. Thank you!

Pre-natal appointment #2

I went in for another check-up with my doctor this morning. He said that I'm actually not as far along as we had originally calculated. According to the ultrasound I'm only 11 weeks pregnant as of today (we thought I'd be 13 weeks tomorrow.) So instead of being due November 17, I'm due December 1! How fun! Other than that, everything looks good and healthy, which is what's really important! I heard the heartbeat today, it sounded like a train! :]