Washington DC

I just got back from a business trip in Washington DC. This is the third year in a row I have attended the GTM conference with my company. In those three years, I have not had a chance to sight see. We work very hard at this conference, on average 10 hour days.

You can imagine that this year was very hard for me being pregnant. I felt like I had to prove to my boss that I can still work hard even though I am pregnant. I have never felt so tired as I do now. Luckily with Memorial Day, I have a four day weekend to rest.

I have good news to share about Gilbert's mom. She is breathing on her own now! They are weaning her off the ventilator and she breathes on her own for 12 hours and then at night she goes on the ventilator and in the morning back to breathing on her own. She has made a lot of progress. She is now opening her eyes often and leaving them open for long periods of time.

11th Week Doctor Appointment

This afternoon I had my 11th week appointment. Lately I have started to feel better: I am still nauseous sometimes but not that often. However, I am still tired a lot.

I have been excited about this appointment because Gilbert and I have been looking forward to hearing the baby's heart beat. On the drive to the maternity center I was a bit anxious because I kept thinking what if we don't hear the heart beat.

After doing all the preliminary stuff (weighing, blood pressure, temp, peeing in a cup, asking my million questions...) we got down to business, the heart beat. Of course it took about 5 minutes to find the stinker's heart beat. After I got all worked up, the midwife finally found the heart beat. The baby's heart was beating at 160 beats per minute which was right on target.

While we were there we went ahead and scheduled the ultrasound to find out the sex of the baby. If you know me well, you know that I would drive myself crazy if I couldn't find out the sex. We had to go ahead and schedule it because my mom is going to fly down to be there for this appointment. So exactly 8 weeks from today, July 10th, we will find out the sex of the baby. And to celebrate that night we will be going to The Police concert (which by the way Gilbert told me he would divorce me if we didn't get tickets to this concert).

Speaking of the sex of the baby, everyone has been telling us what they think we are having. Gilbert and my mom think we are having a boy and Gilbert's family and some of our friends think we are having a girl. I used to say I want a boy first but now it really doesn't matter to me.

New Toy

Gilbert and I got a new car about a week ago and it has taken me this long to download the picture to my computer. We have been together for three years now and this whole time we only had one car. Finally we got a second car. It has been so nice to be able to leave and go somewhere with out having to ask each other if you need the car.

Maddie and Random

She is such a cutie

How can this be comfortable?

Maddie watching Gilbert play XBOX

This used to be my chair but I lost it to Random

Update on Gilbert's Mom

I wanted to provide everyone with an update on Gilbert's mom. This week she came off of the sedation but not the ventilator.

After running some tests, the doctors found that she has a Phechromocytoma Tumor on her Kidney. This tumor causes her body to produce excess adrenaline which in turn raises her blood pressure and caused this stroke. The tumor will have to be removed surgically. However, this can not be done until she becomes stable.

Also this week the doctors inserted a tracheotomy and a feeding tube into her stomach. Like I said earlier she has come off of the sedation, however, she has not woken up yet.

She still continues to respond to commands and yesterday for the first time she opened her eyes far enough to see her pupils and left them open for a short time before closing them again.

We thank you for all of your prayers and ask that you continue to pray for his mom to recover and to give our family strength during this hard time.

Belly Laughs

My best friend, Stephanie, sent me a package of baby things and in the package was this book, Belly Laughs by Jenny McCarthy. If you are pregnant or have been pregnant you will love this book. I laughed so hard when I read it and couldn't put it down. I highly recommend this book to all you pregnant women and mothers.

Happy Birthday Gilbert!

I wanted to wish my husband a very happy 28th birthday. Gilbert's birthday was Saturday. I hope that he was able to enjoy himself a little that day as he deserves nothing but the best.

Gilbert and I have had a very difficult week. On Wednesday we received a call that everyone dreads. Gilbert's mom had a stoke and she was at the hospital. This is her second stoke. The first one was 10 years ago. So we immediately rushed over to the hospital. These last few days have been emotionally and physically draining.

Right now his mom is sedated and on a ventilator. The doctors told us that in the next 4-5 days they will slowly take her off the sedation and the ventilator. Then she will make improvements for another 4-5 days and she will plateau. At this time we will know what brain damage has occurred from this stroke. We would greatly appreciate you prayers for her and our family during this time.

Due Date ?

A couple of people have asked why my due dates changed. The first due date of November 10th was based on when I had my last period. The midwives told me that it is not uncommon for someone that has had a miscarriage to ovulate irregularly. Apparently that is what happened to me, I was ovulating irregularly which also explains why the first pregnancy test I took was negative.

What Does That Say

That's Right I am pregnant! Gilbert and I are very excited that we will be parents soon. My due date is December 4, 2007. Although I am only 7 weeks pregnant there has been a lot that has happened.

On our first appointment with the midwife, we were told our due date was November 10th. We had a few concerns we talked about, the main one being that we know I do not produce enough progesterone. For those of you that don't I had a miscarriage almost 3 years ago. After this happened we found out I do not produce enough progesterone. So I was going every two days to get blood drawn to check my progesterone levels.

Sure enough, after about a week they confirmed that my progesterone was not rising like it should. So now I take daily vaginal progesterone suppositories. After this the midwifes wanted me to have an ultrasound to make sure everything was fine with the baby.


Everything is fine with the baby but that is when they gave me my new due date of December 4th. This 7 weeks has felt like an eternity. I currently am tired and battling nausea. Which working 9 hour days make it hard to deal with. But I am hanging in there and can't wait till I feel better soon.

I appreciate the prayers that the baby will continue to be healthy and ask that you keep praying for us.

Couldn't Resist

 

This was so funny to me, I couldn't help but post it.

Misc.

I have not been very good about updating my blog. Not much is going on here right now. I do have some random pictures that I have not posted.


I had mentioned earlier that I was into Orchids. This is the third Orchid I bought. It is the only one blooming at the time. My goal is to get all three to re-bloom next year. Hope I can be patient enough.



This is Maddie's new past time. She loves to look out the window.

Youth Fair

Gilbert and I went to the Youth Fair with our friends last weekend. One of our friends, Jason, won the stuffed animal pictured above for me. I went for the food but I am not sure the headache to get there was worth it. We waited in traffic for about an hour to park and then when we got to the gate we had to wait 30 mins to an hour to buy our tickets. I believe we left the house about 8:30pm and didn't get into the fair until about 10:30pm.

I also got a taste of the real Miami at this fair. I saw all kinds of people here. If you like to people watch this was a very entertaining place to go. I can tell Gilbert and I are getting older because we had no interest in riding the rides. One: we didn't want to wait in the long lines to get on the rides and two: they just don't seem that safe anymore. I can remember when I was a teenager and loved getting on the rides and the lines didn't seem that long then. We had a good time but we were exhausted by the time we got home. I don't think I will feel the need to go there again anytime soon.

Bachelorette Party

I have been so busy lately I have not had time to update the blog. On March 17th I went to a friends bachelorette party. This was my first "real" bachelorette party I have been to and let me tell you it was crazy right down to the adult entertainment.

On the way to the bachelorette party another girl, Char, and I got into a car accident. We had just left for Ft. Lauderdale (where the party was) and a 80 year old woman ran a red light and hit the rear passenger side of Char's SUV. We spun around twice and almost flipped. It was pretty scary. I hurt my neck/shoulder and lower back but have been going to therapy for it. This is my 5th accident since I moved to Miami in 2004. We didn't let this ruin our night but it sure put a damper on the start. After, a few drinks we were okay and ready to party.

Some of the girls got too drunk and out of control towards the end of the night. At that point it was a mission to get everyone back in the hotel room. Which I thought was selfish because they could go out any night they want but this night was about the bachelorette. All in all we had a great time. Sorry no pictures from this night, they have all been destroyed.

Sunday we went to a University of Miami baseball game with our friends. I am not into baseball I just went for a tan and to socialize. But we had fun. I will post pictures later.

Work has us super busy as of late and we have not had much time to do anything else exciting.

Trip to the Keys

We went down to the Keys to celebrate our friend, Alfredo's birthday. The weather was great and we had a wonderful time. Below are some pictures from the weekend.


Gilbert and I


View from the porch where we stayed.


Chris and Casey relaxing at the pool.


The boys.


Gilbert getting ready to fish.


Casey relaxing


Jason, Hector, Gilbert, and Alfredo getting ready to fish.





Chris holding the lobster he caught. We had to put it back because it wasn't lobster season.

Little Get Together

A couple of weekends ago we had a little get together with our friends. Here are some pictures from it below.



Casey getting her grove on.


Jason chillin


Gilbert being silly.


Alfredo and Melissa giving a duet

Heat vs Pistons

Gilbert and I were given Heat vs Pistons tickets. We had great seats and the game was awesome. Dwayne Wade was hurt but Shaq put on a great show and the Heat won! The first game we went to this season was the opening game against the Bulls and the Heat did not show up to play. It was nice to go to a game that was entertaining to watch. At the game we saw the rapper Naz and his wife Kelis, Scotty Pippen (who apparently wants to come out of retirement to play for the Heat at 41), and Jason Taylor (plays for the Dolphins).

Coconut Grove Art Festival

Gilbert and I went to the Coconut Grove Art Festival this weekend. The weather was a little chilly but the skies were crystal clear. As long as you stayed in the sun the weather was perfect.

Apparently this is one of the nations biggest art festivals. This was the 44th year for this festival. The work displayed was amazing. Hannah you should have been here for this you would have loved it. Below are some pictures of the sculptures. We saw plenty of other amazing artwork but I didn't want to take pictures of the art in the booths. I did not think the artists would have appreciated it.

We also saw OJ Simpson at the festival. There is a picture below. For those of you who do not know he lives here in Miami and his children go to school here. He appeared just to be sitting at the table and allowing anyone to sit with him that wanted to.

Coconut Grove Art Festival Pics

This was one of my favorites.




This bench was very clever. If you are interested in buying it, it was for sale for $29,000.

Dog Whisperer

We have a TV watcher. Maddie loves to watch TV. In the first picture she is watching the Dog Whisperer and in the second picture she is watching a video game. However, her favorite show to watch is the Dog Whisperer. It comes on late at night so she sits on the edge of the bed and just stares at the TV. It is the cutest thing. If you are a dog owner and have not watched this show you need to. What Cesar Millan does is amazing. I wish he would come to my house and help correct the bad behavior we have.


Maddie loves to cuddle with Random, especially on my favorite chair.

Bridal Shower

This weekend I went to a Bridal Shower. It was held at the Rusty Pelican, a very nice restaurant over looking Biscayne Bay. The party had a purse theme as you see above the centerpieces were purses with flower arrangements. I thought this was very clever and I had a great time.


Me and Char at the Bridal Shower.