Mira's 3-year check up; Week 23

I had my Week 23 check up on Monday. A little disappointing... and not because of anything bad, but just because I didn't get an ultrasound today, so no picture of Baby Boy to post this time. :( The OB just checked the heartbeat and that was it. His heartbeat was loud and strong, so good sign! :)

Aside from the visit, this month I've really started to feel Baby Boy moving around a lot. Mark was finally able to feel him earlier this week. Mira has yet to feel him. He's pretty active at night, just like his Papa and sister. As for me, my belly button is pretty flush and should be popping out any day. My allergy symptoms have improved significantly so I'm feeling much better, aside from feeling huge.

Christmas shopping has kicked in and I met Emma at The Grove last weekend for shopping and dinner. After that experience I've decided to avoid crowded malls as much as possible since my belly had accidentally brushed up against a couple of rear ends... LOL.

Mira had her 3-year check up early last month. She had 2 shots - Hep A and Flu. After the 1st shot, it was difficult to get the 2nd on in, but with a little distraction with a lollipop, it happened, although she was NOT happy. On the ride home, she said that her doctor was nice, but she didn't like the nurse lady, "that crazy lady, gave me shots..."

Christmas decorating was lots of fun this year with my little helper Mira. She loved putting up decorations and is so into the Christmas lights. She still bugs me to put up more decorations.

This past weekend we went to see Santa Clause at Pierce College in Woodland Hills. Mira wished for "an orange princess dress." So specific... wish me luck!

Next week we will be heading to San Jose to spend Christmas with the Garcia's at Mark's brother's house. Mira has lots of cousins her age on the Garcia side so should be lots of fun for her!

Hope everyone has a safe and happy holidays!

Week 19 Visit

I had my visit with my OB on Monday. Below is the latest picture of Baby Boy Garcia at 19 1/2 weeks. While my OB was doing the ultrasound, we caught him moving his hands around his face and then he yawned! He actually opened his mouth and yawned inside my belly and we caught it on camera! It was so cool. :) I actually didn't know they could open their mouths in the womb! Unfortunately, I don't have a video of it, but my MD gave me pictures, but it's hard to see so I didn't post them.

The last week I've had horrible sinus problems, which has lead to sleepless nights and miserable days since I can't breathe through my nose! It's hard to even eat or drink anything since I can only breathe through my mouth. Today and yesterday it's gotten better and I was actually able to sleep through the night last night (finally!). woo hoo!!!! :) You don't realize how difficult everything else becomes when you can't breathe!

Everything else is same as usual. It's been pretty quiet since Mira's bday and Halloween. Here are some pictures of Mira and her bday presents:

Princess scooter from her friend Natalie

Princess shoes from Tita InchikDisney castle from Ninang Carla

Notice the theme here? She's obviously into princesses and castles like almost every 3 year old girl!

Of course, not to mention all the other wonderful presents she's received from everyone else (sorry, I just didn't take pictures of all of them with my phone).

This weekend is Tita Med's one year death anniversary, so we will be joining all the Bello relatives at Carla's house for another gluttonous day of food, food and more food. Can't wait!

It's a (drum roll please)....................

Any more guesses??

We had our second trimester detailed ultrasound today. It went very well! Baby is doing great... growth, bloodflow, heartbeat, measurements, etc. Woohoo! :) Mira came with us to this appt and afterwards kept talking about going to the doctor and seeing the "baby in mommy's tummy." We drop her off at daycare and let her announce the news to her friends and teachers.

The past few days have been very eventful. Friday was Mira's birthday. We celebrated at her school with her classmates with Coldstone ice cream cupcakes (YUM) and party favors that she helped me put together. Her classmates made her birthday cards (so cute). Everyone was dressed up in their Halloween costumes and they went to the elementary school across the street for the Halloween parade.

Here's a pic of Mira and a few of her classmates, (left to right: Becca (Snow White), Mira (Belle), Scarlett (Sleeping Beauty), Sienna (Katara) and Preston (Fire Fighter)).

Saturday was Elle's (Mira's step cousin) birthday party. Her and Mira are only 3 days apart! Mira and I drove out to Arcadia for the party while Mark helped prepare for Mira's party the next day.

Sunday was Mira's bday party with family at the house. We ate, ate and ate some more! Thank you so much to all the family that came especially the Basu's for driving out from SD, the Garcia's for cooking almost all the food (not to mention bringing the Belle cake that Mira fell in LOVE with!) and Brig and Maryan as the clean-up crew! :)

Here's a pic of Mira's cousin in her home-made Yo Gabba-Gabba Foofa costume. So, not only did Nicole (Marks' sister) make amazing pinakbit for the party, but also managed to make this incredible costume for her daughter, Helena!

Then, of course, trick-or-treating... we met up with some of Mira's classmates and friends (Becca, Ben, Sienna, Liam, Evan and Lucas) and went trick-or-treating at Sienna and Liam's awesome Halloween-friendly neighborhood. The kids had a blast!

Picture of the a few of the trick-or-treating crew (left to right: Ben (Monkey), Becca (Snow White), Mira (Belle with sunglassess) and Sienna (Katara))

So... as you can tell, I'm stalling to keep you all on the edge of your seats (hope it worked)! Here is a picture from today's visit. A perfect side profile of our beautiful baby boy. :) Mira will soon have a baby brother!

Send us some names! Suggestions are welcome!

San Jose Vacay

Just got back from a week's vacation in San Jose to celebrate the wedding of my cousin Dion and Angela (congrats again guys!) The wedding was so beautiful! Mira danced the night away with her dancing machine buddies Tita Aisha and Tito Dino. The rest of the week was spent with my brother and his family (wife Denise and two kids Aiden and Amelia), as well as spending some time with the Garcia side when possible. Unfortunately, two days before our planned trip, Mark's uncle had passed away. Fortunately, Mira and I had plans to be in the bay area already so we were able to attend the funeral.

Mira and Amelia hit it off and became parterns in crime the whole week. Poor Aiden was annoyed by the two of them repeating everything each other said. :)

Here's a picture of Lola and the grandkids (clockwise: Aiden, Amelia, Mira) at Tito Sol's house.

Here's Mira with her Garcia cousins (from left: Jordyn, Zack, Mira)

Once we got back from our trip, I had my 15 week visit with my OB. The baby seems to be doing well and was moving alot during the ultrasound. At first baby seemed to be looking at us and was dancing around while the doctor was taking measurements. But as soon as the doctor tried to take a pic for me to take home, the baby decided that he/she was camera shy and was kind of playing peek-a-boo. Here's a pic of the baby's back turned to us, but the head slightly turned in a side profile... it's a little hard to see.

I go back to my perinatolgist in 3 weeks to find out the sex of the baby. Any guesses yet?? Stay tuned... I'll be posting as soon as we find out!

First Trimester Screening

For those of you who don't already know (since we are now formally announcing our good news to everyone)... yep!... the Garcia family is expanding! Mira will be a big sister come April! :)

We wanted to wait until our first trimester screening was clear before announcing it to our extended family and friends.

My first trimester screening was on Friday and everything went well (whew!). My perinatologist said everything looks "great" (measurements, blood flow, heartbeat, etc). I go back in 5 weeks for another screening, consultation with a genetic counselor (these are now routine for expectant mothers >= 35 yrs :\) and to find out the sex of the baby... anyone want to take a guess? I have my own 'maternal suspicions' ;).

Here is the most recent picture of Baby Garcia #2 taken on Sept 16.

We told Mira's teacher on Friday, which it turns out Mira has already been talking about it at school. :) One great thing also is that Mira's best friend at school, Becca, will be a big sister ALSO (for the 2nd time)! Her mom and I are only 3 weeks apart (I'm 3 weeks ahead of her) and I am so thankful that not only do I get to share this experience with someone nearby, but so does Mira! :) I'm hoping it will make the adjustment a little easier for her since she will have someone to share the experience with.

That's it for now... stay tuned for more udpates!

Family Announcement

This past weekend we drove up to San Jose for my cousin Mikko and Katherine's wedding (congratulations again, Mikko and Kat!!). What a jam-packed weekend! We arrived Thurs at ~10:30pm, Fri drove to Gilroy for the wedding, Sat partied up some more with cousins, Sun took the kids to Happy Hallow and Mon night drove home (10:30pm-2:30am, record time!).


Since the wedding was open bar, I made all sorts of excuses not to take shots and party hard with my cousins. Mark, on the other hand, took full advantage... the entire weekend! lol

Since I was stuggling to hide my already protruding belly and continued to make excuses for my weight gain and non-alcoholic weekend, I finally talked Mark into telling our family about our good news on Saturday. Especially since everyone was all together, it made it convenient.


We were partying it up at Tito Guy and Tita Dinah's house Sat night - eating, drinking, laughing, eating and eating (then eating some more... arroz caldo and chicharon bulaklak... mmmmmm!). I had bought a book for Mira called "I'm Going to be a Big Sister," which I brought with us "just in case we decided to announce" ;). I wrapped it up and gave it to her as a present for being "such a good girl at the wedding." She opened it in front of everyone, and from what I remember, Rita started punching me in the arm and screaming (she had recognized the book before it was completely revealed), then there was a lot more screaming. :) I got hugs and congrats from everyone and the occassional "no wonder you looked like you were gaining weight/getting fat..." :\


The next day it was time to tell the Garcia's. We had spent the night and Carlo and Zsandra's. Mommy Malu and Papa Oids were also there. We were getting ready to take the kids to Happy Hollow, when I asked Mira to have Grandmama read to her her new book (Grandmama loves reading to Mira). Grandmama read the title out loud, which Zsandra and Papa Oids overheard and picked up on. ;) Papa Oids was nice enought to say he couldn't tell. :)

Here We Go Again!

That's right... Mira will be a big sister! :)

We found out the morning of Tuesday Aug 3, after being ~4 days late for my cycle. I had a Lady Gaga concert coming up the following week with my girlfriends and needed to know if I would be able to drink. haha...

I immediately made an appt with my OB and he confirmed our pregnancy that Friday. :) It was still too early to hear a heartbeat, but we were able to see our tiny implanted bean on the screen as he did the ultrasound.

We sheduled to come back in 2 weeks to hear the heartbeat.

Mira came with us to this visit, but she's still to young to understand what is going on. After we dropped her off at school, she explained to her teacher that Mama and Papa had a dentist appt. :) And that Mama and Papa were with the dentist, but not Mira. haha

I thought about not blogging this time around since we've already been through it, but being a second child, I know I shouldn't deprive the 2nd child of the same things we did for the 1st. :) Also, I know this time around will have it's own unique set of experiences and emotions (as it already has!) that I still want to document and remember. Especially having to share it with an extra special person this time around - Mira! We decided not to really tell/explain to her yet since she verbalizes everything SO well, but doesn't understand the concept of keeping secrets yet. :) We plan to tell her either very shortly before or at the same time as everyone else (in about a month from now).

So, two weeks later, 8/20, Mark and I went back to the OB and heard the heartbeat for the first time! :) It was really strong and really loud! We were all happy and somewhat relieved since I had mentioned to my OB that I had been spotting for the last 2 weeks. I read that this was normal "implantation spotting," but it still made me a little nervous since I had not experienced the same with Mira. Our next appt will be in 4 weeks and I will also be scheduling a 1st trimester detailed ultrasound with another MD who specializes in high-risk pregnancies. Now that I am over 35 (sucks...), these are mandatory screenings to test for downs syndrome and/or other possible effects on the fetus. Amniocentesis is optional, so I think as long as these screenings are clear, we will probably skip the amnio due to the risks involved with it (albeit low). We've decided that once our 1st trimester screening is clear, we can announce Mira's new role as a big-sister-to-be!!! :)

Our due date is 4/7/11. Since we'll be having a scheduled c-section (which is usually scheduled 1 week prior to the due date), Mark may have to share his birthday! :)