23 weeeeeeeeeee-ks!

Hello my dear wonderful fabulous friends! I'm sorry I am a little behind with the posty posts. This lady has been a busy gal, although I cant exactly remember what I've been busy with.. Thank you mushy pregger brain!!!! Well I told you in my previous posts that my BFF Nikki was coming down for her birthday celebration and so we could talk baby shower, but she only got to stay for one night because we had a dumb stupid ice storm!!! Although it was a short trip it was very fun and we did get some celebrating in and also some baby shower talk, and she even got to feel Lilliana kick! Lilly is not very shy, she is always kicking and you would probably feel her kick if your hand somehow stumbled upon my mountainous belly. MY BELLY IS GETTING SO BIG! Have a looksie!

How far along? 23 weeks!

Total weight gain: 16.7 lbs 

Maternity clothes? Yes, I have graduated from the demi panel maternity pants to the full panel maternity pants! I went shopping at Old Navy to buy some more maternity shirts too, I should be set for a while! 

Stretch Marks? Not any more than I have had before thank goodness, but I think the girls keep on accumulating more!

Sleep: Really uncomfortable!!! UGH! My doctor recommended vitamin B6 to help me sleep, but when I looked on the bottle it said "not intended for pregnant or nursing women," not sure if my Doctor was wrong (which I highly doubt) but I'm paranoid and refuse to take them, so there. 

Best moment this week: Nikki getting to feel Lilliana kick! Its so special to share that with the people that love her so much!

Miss anything? back and stomach sleeping, now I cant even sleep on my back!! WHAAAAT? It can cut off oxygen and blood to the baby, scary... 

Movement: oh tons and tons! she never stops moving, I love it!! ..now

Food cravings: Today I wanted to drink windex or pine sol, aaand munch on cascade bleach..... Dont worry I will not do this, I wont even take my vitamin B6, I was just craving it. WEIRD!! On a more normal note, chocolate ice cream and pizza!

Anything making you queasy or sick: nope!

Gender: girl

Labor Signs: nope!

Symptoms: sore belly, gas, bleeding gums. pregnancy is quite odd.

Belly Button in or out? in!

Happy or Moody most of the time: happy girl!

Looking forward to: my day off tomorrow! wahoooooo! I think I'm gunna get my hair cut!!!!!! FINALLY!

Until next time, 

<3 Me & L.G. 

xoxo.

[22] weeks!

Okay people, here it is, whenever I wasn't pregnant and I heard pregnant women say they felt fat and ugly I would get upset because I think pregnant women are so beautiful and have such a wonderful purpose, carrying and growing a precious life in their belly.. well now that I am pregnant.. I am flippin' trashin' that beautiful speech!!!!  I am so right along with those women!!! I understand that I have to gain weight right now because I'm two in one package, but man my face and my arms are getting chubby and I absolutely hate it. I honestly feel so insecure about taking my weekly pictures because I look so heavy. This post has taken me a little longer to post because I had a complete meltdown! I took the pictures on Monday and I thought I looked so fat that I marched myself down to my room flopped myself onto the bed and baaaaaaawled my eyes out of my head! Sam came to my rescue and hugged me and assured me that I was beautiful and carrying his beautiful baby and all that sweet stuff. Poor guy! He has probably had to deal with more random spurts of crying than he's ever imagined possible. Anyways I didn't use any of those pictures and didn't take another picture until last night, so here it is. I still really dont like it but you know what?! I am going to try to embrace my new-gained chubs and try to remember the beautiful speech my 'not yet pregnant' self made to those beautiful pregnant women!

Choosing to wear my bump PROUD!

How far along? 22 weeks

Total weight gain: at least 4 m&m McFlurry's worth....

Maternity clothes? YEP. Almost only maternity, I need to go shopping, those flowy shirts I was talking about last week... yeah.. not cuttin it.

Stretch Marks? on the girls and the thighs. :/ bummer dude.

Sleep: Ehh. My back hurts a lot and I find myself waking up a lot, I miss stomach sleeping!!!

Best moment this week: My mom got to feel Lilliana kick, that was pretty special!

Miss anything? Just being able to sleep on my stomach and paint my toes without cutting off my air supply.

Movement: She is starting to be really really active! She was moving and squirming all morning! It is really cool because this morning Sam was talking to her and as soon as he would talk she would start moving. She definitely knows her daddy's voice! 

Food cravings: m&m or oreo McFlurrys', Pizza, and fruit!

Anything making you queasy or sick: No Sir!

Gender: Still a girl, haha!

Labor Signs: Nope! Thank the Lord!

Symptoms: Just realllly tired. 

Belly Button in or out? Innie!!!!!!!

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy happy camper! :) I don't think I have had any crabby outbursts this week buuuut you might get a different answer if you ask Sam ;)

Looking forward to: My BFF coming TOMORROW! :) Excited to plan this shower and celebrate her 22nd Birthday! :)

Until next time

<3 Me and L.G.

xoxo.

21 weeks

hello my fabulous friends and followers!! I hope you have had a wonderful week! I definitely have, though I am EXHAUSTED! Yesterday one of my BFF's and I got together and we made a huge dinner for my family, just for fun! it was great! We actually made the same dinner I made for Sam for his birthday except we tweaked the recipes a bit and it was wayyyy better last night! Anyways, since I post (or try to post) every week there really isn't a whole lot to talk about every single week so I am going to start posting a little update that I found on my favorite blog to copy (www.littlebabygarvin.blogspot.com) this mom had the cutest weekly blog updates! So here it goes!

How far along? 21 weeks

Total weight gain: 12+ lbs

Maternity clothes? yes, maternity pants, shirts (my fave maternity clothes from Old Navy) and I can still get away  with cute flowy/oversized shirts from any store!

Stretch Marks? YES.. on the girls.. :'(

Sleep: its been alright, my sides are getting annoying to sleep on my back, shoulders, and neck have been hurting a lot so its hard to get comfortable. Oh and I wake up about 5 times in the night to pee!

Best moment this week: Lilliana kicked or punched me with all of her tiny little strength! It was the most amazing thing I have ever felt!

Miss anything? Sleeping on my stomach and being able to bend over to pick up things that I drop. I drop everything these days too, so not cool.

Movement: Yes! Still cant feel her from the outside yet, but Sam says she is going to be a great soccer player! **update** **WE CAN FEEL HER FROM THE OUTSIDE!!! Sam felt her kicking tonight!!! :)**

Food cravings: Glazers Donuts from Kwik Trip are my constant, I also LOVE fruit! I have been going through grapefruit like crazy!

Anything making you queasy or sick: No way! I will eat almost anything!

Gender: Girl!

Labor Signs: No

Symptoms: Thankfully not really any, except I occasionally get a little plugged up, gotta pull out that Metamucil!

Belly Button in or out? in!

Happy or Moody most of the time: Pretty dang happy, though I do have my moments. I may have snapped at Sam for opening the oven door while my cheesecake was cooling (it got a huge crack in it,) but hey its just a cheesecake and I felt really bad after I had my moment.

Looking forward to: Next weekend!!! My BFF Nikki is coming down from the cities so we can celebrate her b-day and start talking baby shower! :)

Until next time, 

<3 Me & L.G.

xoxo.

18, 19 & 20 weeks. [[oopsies]]

hello my beautiful friends, I am so so sorry that I have been a little blog slacker. I got busy with Christmas and New Years and I didn't make the time to blog or even post the bump pics!!!! I'm horrible I know! Anywaysssss. My Christmas and New Years was fabulous and I hope that all of you had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! For Christmas Eve the whole fam bam came over to my mamma's house to celebrate including my brother Nic (who currently lives in Phoenix,) my BFF Nikki and her boyfriend Joel! So we had a few guests of honor! :) Mom usually cooks a big ole' Christmas dinner but this year, since we sort of have a new family (my stepdad and my boyfriend and my unborn little pumpkin) we decided to start a new tradition and we got Chinese take-out! Hahaha it reminds me of the movie 'A Christmas Story' where the family goes and eats Chinese on Christmas because the neighbors dogs destroyed their Christmas turkey! The food was fabulous and it was such a fun new tradition! Then we all exchanged gifts and let me tell you I think Lilliana got more gifts than anyone, and she isn't even born yet! I can tell our little girl is going to be SPOILED just NOT rotten! :)

At Christmas I was 18 weeks pregnant and miss Lilliana started to move a TON by that week, what a fabulous Christmas gift! :) Feeling your baby move is the most incredible feeling and there is really no way to describe it besides to say that it just feels like strong flutters inside your belly, below your stomach!  By 18 weeks I really started showing!

18 weeks, we have a kicker!

Our New Years was really good too, the fabulous thing was that I got a 3 day weekend from work two weeks in a row, Christmas weekend, and New Years because Christmas Day and New Years Day both fell on a Tuesday! (My work is always closed Sundays and Mondays) So I had Sunday Monday and Tuesday off two weeks in a row!!!!! I loved having that extra time but man I sure kept busy and didn't get that much done! Well New Years Eve is kinda crazy in my world because not only is it a fabulous holiday but it is also Sam's birthday!!! So New Years Eve I cooked ALLLL day to make a special meal for my man! I made Penne Rosa with Parmesan Crusted Chicken, Garlic Breadsticks, and for dessert NY Cheesecake with the choice of Cherry or Strawberry topping.  It was SO delicious and I was very proud of myself! I also broke open the Sparkling grape juice in place of the champagne in celebration of the coming New Year! ;) I might have gained a few pounds over the holiday season, not sure if its the baby or how much food I ate, or maybe a combo of both! 

Sam's home-made birthday dinner! YAY ME!

sweet potato baby! :)

Okay so right now I am 20 weeks! I am at the halfway point in my pregnancy, 20 more weeks to go, give or take a couple! I went in for my 20 week Dr Appt. today. Unfortunately I had to switch Doctors because the Dr. I was seeing only comes in on Wednesdays and I can only go in on Mondays, so I had a new Dr today, but guess what?! I love her even more than my other Doctor, so its not really that unfortunate after all! :) Today Sam had to work so my Mom and my Stepdad came with me to my appt. We were expecting to do the 20 week ultrasound where you find out the gender and all that (which we already know thanks to Enlightened 4D Imaging!!!!) but my Stepdad really wanted to see the baby and the clinic needs to look at the baby to see if everything looks normal and healthy, aaaand I just wanted the clinic to confirm that we were for certain having a girl since the development between 16 and 20 weeks is astounding! (Each week is comparable to 1 year of growth, INCREDIBLE!) Sooo anyways thats what we were expecting, weeeeellll apparently the "anatomy ultrasound," as they call it at the clinic, is a huge deal and you have to schedule it as a separate appointment and its pretty solidly booked out. oopsies. My Dr told us not to hold our breath and that we would probably have to wait a couple weeks to get in, well guess what we should've held our breaths because there was an opening for later that day! So at 2:45pm we trekked back into the clinic to get our ultrasound! (My Stepdad, Tony, didn't end up getting to see the baby because he had to be back at work :/ but Mom and I made it up for round 2!) We got into the room and our ultrasound tech was a little rude (bummer) but it was still really cool to see baby again. At the beginning of the ultrasound the tech said she calls all the babies a 'he' while she's going through the ultrasound. Okay so at this point I'm psyching myself out a little bit because I'm like "What if its a boy?! We've already bought things for a girl! I would love a boy, but we already bought stuff for a girl!! Did I mention that we already have 2 boxes full of baby girl stuff?!!?" So meanwhile I am enjoying the ultrasound but am super nervous to get to the end so she could tell me I was having a girl. But we did get some awesome shots of baby and her profile and we even saw her open her mouth, I think she must have been swallowing. It was just incredible! The tech did confirm that baby is a GIRL, and I was relieved for the sake of my two bins FULL of girl stuff, my bump pics, and the beautiful name we have picked out, oh and also all the girl stuff we have... did I say that yet? ;) 

Lilly, with her mouth open!

my baby girl's beautiful profile!

Anyways, we are so excited for our precious girl Lilliana Grace to get here!!! HALFWAY THERE!!!!! :)

HALFWAY! YAHOO!

 

until next time

<3 Me & L.G.

xoxo.

the {GREAT} name :|REVEAL|:

Last week was a big week, we found out that our precious baby is a girl! This week, is just as important and exciting, we have chosen a name for our baby girl! Names are incredible things, they usually describe the person you are, many times your name is the very first thing somebody knows about you, maybe even before they meet you. I love names, I think they are beautiful and I was bound and determined to give my baby a beautiful unique name that they would love. Growing up, my friends and I always shared all the names we picked out that we wanted to name our children someday, I think I had some pretty silly names picked out over the years, but I remember how much I loved coming up with different names for boys and girls. But man, when I found out I was pregnant that was one of the first things we talked about, names. Naming a someday baby and naming your baby that is actually going to be born in a few months is so much different, so much more difficult especially when you have to come to an agreement on a name with your significant other! I had names that I loved but Sam didn't like them, and Sam had names that he loved and I didn't like them. We had a really hard time agreeing, especially on boys names. 

Like I said in my last post I had a feeling we were going to have a girl the whole time, my mom and Sam's mom had the same instinct. But even before we found out the gender of the baby something crazy happened. Sam and I were dog sitting for my Aunt and we were hanging out my phone buzzed like I got a text message and at the same time Sam came to me and said how about the name "Lilliana Grace" and I said that I loved it so much. Sam's mom's name is Lillian, and she is an amazing woman! I thought it was perfect! Well Sam went about doing his thing again (Remember how I said I got a text,) I checked my phone and I had gotten a text from my mom and it said "Lilliana Grace" I SWEAR ON MY ENTIRE LIFE PEOPLE THIS IS NOT A JOKE. I talked to both of them and neither of them had spoken to each other! They picked, out of the millions of names in the world, the exact first and middle name. I felt like it was fate. But, like I said this was before we knew the gender so if it was a boy we were just out of luck. We only agreed on one boy name, Noah. and I wasn't too super crazy about it. Not like I was Lilliana Grace, it was just too perfect. 

So when we found out on Thursday that the baby was a girl, I knew her name had to be Lilliana Grace. We still had to officially decide and I was already calling her Lilly and talking to her using that name, so Sam told me that I had to make it official. So here I am, making it official. Our beautiful daughter is going to be named Lilliana Grace Diaz, after her beautiful grandma Lillian. I could only pray that she would be just as wonderful, beautiful, kind, humble, and caring as her grandma. Sam and I agreed that it is the perfect name to describe our baby girl. So cheers, to choosing a name! 

Lilliana Grace Diaz

Giraffe necks! haha trying to reach over the board!

Love my little family <3

until next time

<3 Me & L.G.

xoxo.

sugar & spice {{16 weeks}}

Friends I am SO sorry that it has taken me a week to post! I have been extremely busy this past week and I honestly didn't feel like sitting down and blogging!!!! But now I am going to tell you all the story of finding out Baby D's gender!

So right when I found out I was pregnant my wonderful friend Jenna told me about this place in the cities called Enlightened 4D Imaging, its an AMAZING ultra sound clinic where they do fabulous 2D 3D 4D ultrasounds, you name it AAAAND they can tell you the gender of your baby at 16 weeks (at my Dr. you have to wait til you're 20 weeks!) and of course since I am impatient I could not wait and booked my appointment very very very far in advance!!!  (here's the link for those who are interested in the clinic, http://www.enlightened4dimaging.com/)

Our appointment was last Thursday morning, the night before Sammy flew in from Puerto Rico (where he was visiting his beautiful family,) so me and mom and Sam stayed in the cities that night and my best friend Nikki met us at the hotel the next morning so we could all go to the ultrasound! The morning felt like it just dragged on, I could not wait to get to the clinic and find out what we were having! We finally got to the clinic which was literally .5 miles from our hotel, it took all of 2 minutes to get there, and needless to say we were SUPER early! Let me just take a second to give a shout out to this clinic, seriously, the BEST customer service I have ever had. They gave Sam and I a diaper bag, a cooler to keep milk cold, 2 containers of formula, a bunch of formula in bottles, a bottle, a bunch of coupons and more that I cant even think of right now. The receptionist, Bonnie, was so sweet and welcoming, and our Ultrasound tech was fabulous. He knew what he was talking about, he was hilarious and he made everyone feel really comfortable. I love this place and I will definitely go back!!!

Anyways, when we got there Nikki took little video clips of everyone talking to the baby and saying what our gender predictions were. I am really excited to see those videos and I am really glad that we are doing little things during this pregnancy that we can look back on and smile and have something to show for it. The ultra sound tech got there and led us back to the room. It was a huge room with couches and a big projection screen that we would see the ultrasound on. Everyone got all situated, I got the blue goo on my belly and we began the ultrasound. Right away you could see baby up on the screen heart beating super strong, the tech was moving the wand all over my belly trying to get different shots of baby. Well, baby wasn't budging, and I'm thinking, OH GREAT the baby's gunna be stubborn again! After a couple of minutes of me flipping on my side and upside down and doing backflips.... (okay maybe not the last two...) he showed us how the baby was sitting in a pocket in my uterus (that sounds really weird and gross!) and she was all comfy and didn't want to move. Wellll then he gets up and asks me if I like chocolate and I'm like DUH! I'm pregnant and I am a woman of course I like chocolate! So he disappears and comes back with a Lindor Truffle. Within 1 minute the baby's heart rate went up and the baby started kicking and flipping and moved to the complete opposite side of my uterus! It was the most amazing thing I have ever experienced, he showed us all the fingers and toes and legs and arms and heart and spine and explained all these different facts to us. I couldn't look away from that screen, before my eyes was the most amazing little human being, moving and kicking and raising its arms, and this little human was mine, with my DNA inside it's little body. It was so SURREAL.

All cozy in the pocket!

The tech almost right off the bat had an idea of what the gender was, he kept saying that his prediction was very consistant with what he was seeing, and of course we were all dying to know!! Its so funny because before the ultrasound my mom thought the baby was going to be a girl and then she said she had a dream it was going to be a boy and then the whole ultra sound mom kept calling the baby a "he," I kept saying "OR SHE," I had a feeling the whole time that it was a girl. Finally the tech said, "okay guys, you want to know what you're having?!" and of course by this point my mom and Nikki are pretty much a foot from the screen eyes and video cameras glued to it! He went through showing us what we were looking at and talking about what these parts of the body were and what they were doing and then he said, "So that means, GIRL!" My jaw literally dropped, my mouth was wide open for 5 minutes, I was laughing and crying and these emotions just flooded over me of complete joy and peace.  I was having a baby girl, I knew it all along, but that very moment just confirmed everything. It was one of the most precious moments of my life.

Its a GIRL!

As soon as we got out of there all of us called about every person we could think of to tell them the news! Of course me, mom and Nikki were THRILLED because that meant fun girly baby clothes shopping!!!!! So after the ultra sound, thats exactly what we did, poor Sam..... He was so good though, what a guy, spending the day with.. now FOUR girls!! ;)

Well, this is a long post but thank you for sticking with me and reading, and motivating me to get this up before she is born! ;) haha! Love you all so much!

Baby "D" is a GIRL!

until next time 

<3 Me & Baby D.

xoxo.

Is Baby "D" a [[boy]] or {{girl}}?!

Hey guess what?!? I'm 15 weeks already people! That means 1 more week until we find out the baby's sex!! Next thursday I have the gender determination ultra sound and I can't even hardly wait one little bit! So last week my sweet boyfriend left for Puerto Rico to surprise his mamma! How sweet?! So I've been without him for a week, which is nothing compared to what we have done in the past. He is from Puerto Rico so we did long distance for a little over a year! He will be gone for one more week, so a total of 2 weeks we will be apart, and I really miss him! Plus I feel like my belly has grown a lot since I last saw him and I think it will be even bigger by the time he gets home! But he gets home the night before the ultra sound! What a wonderful way to bring in his home-coming!!

Since I update every week I feel like I don't have a whole super lot to talk about, but since we have our gender determination I feel like I should stay true to that subject. I'm sure you are all wondering if I want a boy or a girl, and the truth is, It honestly doesn't matter to me as long as my baby is healthy. Mine and Sam's Mom have a gut feeling its a girl, so I have gotten very used to that idea. Mom and I look at girl baby clothes and nurseries online, so I suppose I'm slightly leaning towards a girl because I want to dress her super cute! But I would love having a boy just as well (even though they definitely don't make as cute of boy clothes as they do girls!) My mom already bought the baby a hot pink ruffly diaper cover and a bunch of headbands that we are going to glue big huge bows and flowers on. So we will see, obviously my mom is certain! haha!

Lately I have been craving mexican food, and really anything spicy. The other night My BFF Tori and I went to a Mexican restaraunt and I ordered a chicken burrito with spicy green sauce and when it arrived I about had a heart attack by just looking at it, I promise you it was the size of my forearm! It was HUMUNGOUS and DELISH. I love flamin' hot cheetos, and I have a hankering for ramen noodles doused with sriracha sauce and lime juice. YUM. Oh and Mom and I have been baking so I've been eating lots of ginger snaps (I think we might have to make a triple batch this year!)

Like I said last week, I LOVE CHRISTMAS, and one of my favorite things to do is decorate the Christmas tree. Well We decorated the tree two weekends ago, and this year we had a stubborn tree, the branches were flimsy and you couldn't hang ornaments without the branch bowing, so it was really droopy. My stepdad so sweetly (God Bless his heart) picked out the Christmas lights this year and put them on the tree. But the lights he picked out were the huge bulbed bright LED lights that you need sunglasses on to look at them. Mom and I always pick out the mini soft colored lights that look so magical and twinkly, we tried to suck it up and adjust our feelings and eyes to the new lights. So we just continued to decorate the tree. The next day mom called me and told me to get ready because Tony (my stepdad) had class, and we were going to redecorate the tree with our lights because she hated the LED lights. So that night we went to home depot and got our lights, went to target and got tinsel, went home and took off all the ornaments and lights and completely redecorated the tree, the smaller lights seemed to help not weigh the branches down as much, but it was still hard to hang ornaments because of all the drooping branches, but we covered the tree in tinsel so you couldn't even tell. The tree looked BEAUTIFUL, you could actually look at it without going blind (before, it was like staring into the sun.....I may be slightly exaggerating.....) it twinkled and glimmered, and the tinsel absolutely made it! Finally we had a beautiful tree. Well the next day, I called mom when I got off of work, and she began to inform me that when she got home the tree was scattered all over the floor. It had fallen in the day and the trunk had a huge gouge and wouldn't stand back up in the base. It kept falling over. So my mom went out and got a brand new tree and we had to redecorate it all over again, for the THIRD time. Needless to say, my tree decorating tank has been filled 2 times over so I will be okay for a couple years.... So there it is, The Great Tree Disaster of 2012.

Well folks, I LOVE MY JOB SO MUCH! Lasata is amazing, I love every single person I work with and I feel so blessed to be there. I told my boss I was pregnant last week, and I was really scared about what she would say because I didn't want her to think I was trying to trick her, and I didn't want her to be mad for me not saying it right up front. And I was even more scared because every day I was finding out about a new pregnant person in the salon! I am the 4th pregnant person there, and we are all a month apart. I for sure thought that I was in some deep trouble. Though I was extremely nervous I braved it and told my boss. She was SO good about it! Everyone has been so amazing and supportive, and welcoming and nobody has given me any trouble for being pregnant. I LOVE IT. I am being trained in nails right now so if you're in town stop in and I'll give you a fabulous mani pedi!

Anyways, I am really happy, so many good things are happening right now, and I cant wait to find out what gender our sweet baby is! So here is the belly pic this week to tie you over. My blog post next week (to announce the gender) will be on Thursday night the 13th or Friday night the 14th. So be looking out for that! :)

Is Baby Diaz a Boy or Girl?!

Until next time,

<3 Me and Baby D

xoxo