This one's for you Brook

Today I had a great time with my friend Brook and her son Mick. Taking time out to spend a nice afternoon with another awesome mom is such a blessing. I promised her I'd post these pictures of halloween so here they are!!!

7 weeks

Zeina is 7 weeks old this week. -sigh- She has grown a lot but not quite out of her newborn clothes...PPPHHHEEEWWWW! Not that I don't want her to grow up...actually I'm lying. I'm already dreading her first day of school, graduation, and her wedding!!! LOL! I can't help it. I think about it all the time. Nick is always telling me "Honey she's still a baby, look at her" lol. Oh well I guess I'll never outgrow that mentality but at least I'm enjoying her right now. Not only can I see her physically grow, I can see how she's already learning about the world around her. On the weekend, Nick makes sure he puts on Sindi Bad. It's the Arabic version of Dora the Explorer so she can get used to the language. LOL!!! He sits on the couch and bounces her on his knee and repeats all the words to her while she just stares at him. lol He' s so funny, but he's a really good daddy. :D
Well Zeina is starting to coo and she follows us around the room with her eyes and is smiling back at us when we smile at her. She is just a little doll. I can't stand it sometimes. xoxo. She is also starting to figure out how to calm herself down and put herself to sleep for naps. She is doing really well. Last night she slept 6 hours!!! I couldn't believe it. I'm sure that probably won't happen again for a while but at least we know that we are getting close. We are lucky parents for sure.
Her newborn pictures are up on the photographers blog now. You can find them here
http://www.melissabarrickphotography.com/?p=455&cpage=1#comment-381
Melissa is so sweet and did an awesome job really capturing us in a natural state and really getting the organic feel of Zeina's nursery which is exactly how I imagined it to look.  :D YAY!!!
Hope you all are having a great weekend so far, and again we will see you all soon. Until next time

a HUGE update

WOW where shall I start. A lot has happened the past few weeks. We'll start from the beginning

1 week old- We were all very tired. Zeina did so well. She slept all the time. It was actually hard to wake her up to feed sometimes. She'd sleep all night. I'm a very heavy sleeper so I wouldn't wake up to feed her unless she was crying which was never. I felt like such a bad mom cause she'd go about 5-6 hours without eating but at her 1 week dr appt she gained all but 1 ounce of weight back so I know she was getting enough to eat. ppphhheeewww! She was holding her head up by that time as well. Her doctor was amazed. Only problem was she wouldn't sleep in her bassinet or crib at all. She did not like it. We took her out for the first time to Costco when she was 4 days old and she did great. hhhhhhmmmmmmmm..what else... I think that is it for the first week

2 weeks old- Mommy's family come to visit. It was so great to see everyone. Found out my cousin La Deca got ENGAGED!!!!! YAY! wedding is next fall and I'm her matron of honor and Zeini bee will be the flower girl :D. My mom and La Deca helped me re-due the nursery, re-paint and add a couple more things to the room. We went to DC. The first really big day out for Zeina. She did really well. No big blow ups except for one big blow out at the Natural history museum. With Nick and I still getting used to new baby needs we forgot one of her changings and realized at the museum she needed to be changed and she had a major blow out. lol. poor thing. Everything turned out fine and I had extra clothes in her bag. I was a little worried about nursing her out in public but thanks to my moby wrap and a nursing drape a friend had made for me, thanks kim, it was so easy. No biggy.

3 weeks old- This week Zeina had another dr appt and she gained 1 lbs and 1 inch. She is in the 50th % for height and weight and 90th% for head size. LOL!!! i told Nick no wonder it took 3 hours to push her out. i guess she takes after her mommy. LOL! i could never fit my head into regular sized beanies and hats. Got her on a different schedule which really helped with sleeping in her crib. Worked the first night we tried it and has worked ever since. Who knew just a 30 min change could make a huge difference! YAY!!!

4 weeks old- Nicks mom came down for the day. Nick's dad, soon to be step mom, grandma, and unexpected but good surprise cousin Ashley, and friends Eddie and Jaime come down for the week. We had SO much fun with everyone. Went to DC again and had a blast! Nick's family is so much fun. We all love to make fun of each other which is just our way of saying "I love you". :D

5 weeks old- This brings us to this week. Nick getting back to regular work hours and I had a busy week. Trying to get all of my sister-in-laws gift ready to send out to her. We are expecting our first niece in a couple weeks! so exciting. Zeina and Londyn will only be about 2 months apart which is awesome. I hope they are close. I was very blessed to have had a cousin I was and still am very close with and I've got to say they are some of my most favorite childhood moments so I hope and pray Zeina will be so blessed to have the same thing. We also had Zeina's newborn pictures taken this weekend at our house. Melissa Barrick was referred to us by friends from our small group and she did such a great job making us feel comfortable and she's so creative. She really has a great eye for photography. Nick and I are so awkward in front of cameras but she reassured us that we can take great pictures. Zeina was a little fussy throughout our session which was odd cause she's not usually a fussy baby. I hope there are enough pictures of her NOT crying. LOL!!! They should be ready in about two weeks so look out for them.

So that is the update. I'll try to be more on top of the blogging. We miss you all out in Cali land but we will be out there soon for our friends wedding in December. Luv ya all. until next time

A Re-paint

My family came down last week. It was so good to see them again. They helped me re-paint and add a few things to Zeina's room. The original paint was supposed to be grey and ended up being lavender! I did not like it. So they helped me fix it. I LOVE IT NOW!!!! here are some pix

More Pics

Our Biggest Accomplishment

Our baby girl is here... OOOOFFF where shall I start.
It all started Tuesday morning at 1:00am. OOOOOOOO OUCH! woke up to contractions and went to the bathroom... oh yes I'm in labor. I woke Nick up and we started timing them. I decided to call the doctor at 4:30am and she said "come on down" AHHHHHHHHH!!! we both took showers and headed down to the hospital and got there at around 6:00am. We got to the exam room and to our surprise contractions stopped. GGGGGRRRRRRRR! The doctor checked me and I was 3-4 cm dilated with faint contractions. ARE YOU KIDDING! The doctor told us to go back home take a nap and a walk and come back when the contractions came back strong and frequent again. :( . I was so frustrated! We got back home around 8:00am I told Nick to go to work and I'd call him when i thought I was ready. I took a nap and at 9:15am woke up with strong contractions again. I laid in bed for a few minutes, got up and started walking around the house. I called Nick around 11:00am and told him to come home. We left the house an hour or so later, I wanted to make sure contractions were consistent, got to the hospital around 1:00pm. YAY!!!! I was sure I'd be admitted. But sure enough guess what happened as soon as I laid down on the bed...YES contractions stopped AGAIN!!!!! OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!! NO WAY WAS I GOING BACK HOME! Doctor check me again and YES!!!! I was dilated to 4cm. They admitted me and I got right back to walking again. After a million laps around the L&D floor we decided to get some rest in our room. After laboring for 16 hours it was time to get the drugs. I couldn't imagine being okay if the contractions got any worse and I was worried that the anaesthesiologist was going to be too busy to get to me if I waited any longer. Good thing because after I was done my nurse told me a ton of women had just come in to get admitted :D. After feeling so much better Nick and I were able to get some rest. We both watched TV together and ended up falling asleep. I woke up just before midnight with strong contractions on the right side of my lower back and stomach. I woke Nick up to get the nurse, who was awesome by the way, and she gave me a couple options. I decided I wanted to start pushing with the contractions and it helped a lot. I continued for the next 2 1/2 hours with no problems. Actually I think I told the nurse i could do that all day until the contractions in my lower back and stomach got worse. YIKES! She was coming and she was coming now. No time for the anaesthesiologist to come give me more drugs I had to push her out. After a half an hour of very strong contractions and excellent coaching and encouragement form my nurse and Nick our daughter was born.

At 3:05am on August 19th we had our baby girl. It was the best experience we've ever had. Nick was the best supporter ever. He was awesome. I couldn't have done it without him, I really couldn't. Especially the last 30 mins. It wasn't easy it was probably the hardest thing I've ever done but the feeling of accomplishment I know we both felt that morning was more than we could ever hope for. I felt proud that I did it and I felt the overwhelming love and pride Nick had for me. XOXOXOXOXOXO. I think we fell in love all over again with each other that morning and found a new love for our biggest accomplishment, our daughter. It was the best experience we've ever shared together and I'm so grateful for it.

I get to spend all of my time with her and I'm enjoying it very much and Nick is completely in love with her. He wants to hold her all the time when he gets home which is completely fine with me. Not only does it give me a little brake from taking care of her all day but I totally enjoy seeing him with her. They are both the cutest thing I've ever seen together. I love my new family and we are enjoying our new bundle more than we ever thought we would. Check in for more updates. Until next time

PS Lilu loves her too. She's being a very good big sister :D

Playing the waiting game

Okay so I know EVERY pregnant women who goes over their due date goes through this but it is SO different when it's you going through it. It is so hard to not know when your baby is coming. Every single poke or squeeze could mean anything. So if you are asking...NOPE, no baby yet...I'M STILL PREGNANT! and how do I feel?... uh PREGNANT and ANXIOUS! and how will I feel tomorrow?...probably PREGNANT and ANXIOUS! and the day after that? SAME! LOL!!!! I feel as though I want to just get up and go shopping or go SOMEWHERE but on the other hand I feel so heavy and it's so hot outside I can't bare to leave the house. CONFUSIOUS????? I'm not miserable I promise it's just really hard to get my feelings in sync. It's like you are a million different things at once and the missing link is that baby inside you. :D Well all-in-all we couldn't be more excited, anxious, worried, achy, tired, joyful, silly, in love, and happy than we are right now but I'm pretty sure we will be once Zeina is here. Just waiting and I know the answer to this question but I have to ask- "IS SHE EVER GONNA COME?"
Until next time