My sweet baby

As we were putting Natalia to bed last night she was so sweet. We laid her down, covered her with all her blankets (she totally gets this from me, even when it's warm, she loves being under the weight of a billion blankets) and were saying goodnight. As we were walking toward the door she turned her head toward us and said "Aye YOooo" which is how she says I love you!!!!! Usually she will say it this after I say "I love you," but last night she said it completely on her own and unprompted. It was the best moment ever!!!!!!!!

Obama has my phone bugged!!

I know this because he totally is using my idea of capping CEO salaries! If you haven't heard, CEO's of companies who received bailout money are now having their salaries capped at $500k/year. While this still sounds like a lot, you have to keep in mind that people who are making a lot of money tend to have a lot of bills. We don't want these guys going into default also and adding yet another foreclosure to this mess.

Congrats Mr.
President, I think listening to me is a good idea!!

http://features. csmonitor. com/economyrebuild/2009/02/04/obama%E2%80%99s-cap-on-ceo-pay-strives-to-end-era-of-excess/

Oh the places she'll go!

Current mood: fascinated

So, Natalia is doing all sorts of new things since the last time I posted a blog. The most significant of them is this new walking thing! She started it on 12/21 (it's a Christmas miracle!!) and hasn't slowed down since. She just keeps getting faster and faster! She also waves good-bye pretty consistantly now, although not where the person that she's waving to can see her. We still don't have any English or Portuguese words, but she is a joke master in her own language. On 1/7 she gave her first little kiss, she kissed me right on the cheek. She is becoming a master at eating with a spoon, but still finds it faster to use her hands, we have quite a few tantrums over this because using her hands involves smearing food in her hair. Mommy has decided that this is not allowed and Natalia vehemetly disagrees. She likes to wear bracelets, which is pretty much anything circular that her hand fits through, and she walks all over the house showing them off.
She has 4 teeth now and we are enjoying her little snaggle toothed look before it disappears. Mommy and Daddy just love that big ol' toothy grin!
She is also quite the little performer and has become quite adept at imitations, most notable are her Tarzan and Godzilla.
She loves to read to us and carries her books all over her house. I think her favorite toy is her bookshelf, she spends hours pulling books down and putting them back up.
Natalia is enjoying bathtime more and more every day, although she doesn't really care about her toys. She prefers to play with the pumice stone and shower brush, not to mention the drain.
She is very independent and will sometimes spend an hour playing in her room by herself. But this little independent streak has it's downsides too, especially when we are in a hurry. She enjoys picking out her own clothes and I usually hold up to her closet so that she can decide.
She is Menininha do Papai and prefers to be with Daddy over Mommy at any time. This makes Mommy sad sometimes, but she does have Talia all to herself during the day.
We are pretty lucky to have such a wonderful little girl!

Happy Birthday Talia!!!

Well, yesterday was Natalia's 1st birthday. It's ridiculous how fast it has come up. I can't believe how big she is now. On Saturday, as many of you know, we had her 1st birthday party. It was lots of fun. We played Natalia Jeopardy and had lots of laughs. Also, Natalia's grandparents, aunt and cousin came from Brasil to visit for her birthday. It has been really great.



Here is a little trip of what she used to look like:
just born:

href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vcGljYXNhd2ViLmdvb2dsZS5jb20vam1tb250ZXMvTmF0YWxpYUlzSGVyZT9hdXRoa2V5PXkyelpaOWtOei13">

2 days old:



a couple of weeks old:



1 month:



2 months:



3 months:



4 months:



5 months:



6 months:



7 months:



8 months:



9 months:



10 months:



11 months:



1 yr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

teefs and stuff

talia's getting them! i noticed this evening (as she was chewing on my knee) that she is getting teeth for real now! shes been faking it for several months and a couple of days ago i felt her gums and i could feel the ridge of a tooth in there. tonight it has poked itself out!! you can feel the sharp little corners. and for a baby that is teething, she has been so sweet! hardly cranky at all!!!! i love my little baby! she is also trying to stand by herself. on monday night she did it on accident for about a second. we were playing on the floor and she tried to stand up, using my shoulders as support, but she missed and she caught herself and stood, unsupported for a second!!! then today as we were on the floor she pushed herself up from my legs and stood for, like, 2 seconds!!! OMG!!!!!!! also, some of brunos family will be here starting next week. his sister and niece get in on the 8th and his parents arrive on the 13th. we are so excited!!!

something new

Current mood: drained

natalia pulled herself into a sitting position last night. it wasnt from completely flat, but about 45 degrees (she fell backward ontop of a folded blanket). pretty soon she will be able to do it laying down completely. she still wont roll over though... just onto her side...
she also has a cold right now. im pretty sure she got it in sf while riding bart and muni. because of this, she woke up every hour sunday night. last night she only woke up once, but i cant wait for her to sleep all the way through again. she is napping right now after chowing down on an enormous amount of food (two ice tray cubes of carrots mixed w/ oatmeal to thicken it up, about 1 cup of prepared oatmeal with 40 cc's of milk and then 4 oz of formula), i thought she was never going to stop eating. the baby book that lisa gave us said that one cube of food from an ice cube tray is the perfect portion size for a baby... apparently not for natalia

so many new things!

Current mood: relieved natalia is doing so many cute new things now! she finally started grabbing for things about 4 weeks ago. and once she started, there was no stopping her. its amazing how long her arms actually are, she can get to almost anything that you dont want her to (raw chicken, for example, as one is trying to cook dinner at a time when she does not want to be put down). now, after grabbing something, she can pick it up, and hold on to it, too. and the things she can hold are getting bigger, like she can pick up her bear and take it with her when you pick her up. she has become interested in her toys also. she loves her stuffed animals, her books and plastic cups. and apparently they all taste really yummy! she has also discovered that mommys nose is delicious and that her glasses come off! yay! that is so much fun!! mommy needs to get contacts now... she does some super cute things now when we change her diaper; she lifts up her bum to help! she does this in two different ways: curling her legs up to her chest until her bum comes up or she plants her feet, arches her back, and pulls her hips up. in the last couple of days she has started something new. when i have her sit up on the couch in the boppy, i have her face the back of the couch so she doesnt watch tv. but now, she puts her feet on the back of the couch and pushes so that she slides off the boppy and her head is upside down until she can see the tv. shes so crafty! natalia is also laughing a lot at mommy, but the only other person she lets see her laugh is daddy. now we just need to work on tummy-time to get rid of that little, tiny flat spot.

hahaha

Current mood: amused

Natalia laughed yesterday! It was sooo cute. It was an actual "hahaha" laugh! now if i can only get her to do it again....

Sniffles

Current mood: sneezy

Natalia has a cold now. She got it from her cousin Danny and she has snot running all over the place, is cranky and sleepy and developed a fever today. It was only 101.1 degrees, so we are giving her Tylenol. Guess that means another day that she doesn't get to go have lunch with her Daddy. And does anything break your heart more than having to hold your baby down as she's screaming and flailing to suction out her nose? It's so sad!
Oh, I also have a cold.

She's growing

natalia weighs 11 pounds (4.99kg) now! She gained 1.5lbs in one month, she is so heavy now. it is hard to carry her in her carseat. i dont know how lisa carries danny, its just insane. and she is so cute! shes smiling all the time now. and she chats with us, and yesterday she was purposely pulling on the toys on her bouncer. i thought she would never get control over her arms. there are still a lot of involuntary spasms, but she has deliberate movements now. yay!

baby mullet

Current mood: confused

my baby has a mullet!!! all that hair that she was born with is already getting longer. unfortunately, like most babies she is losing a lot of that pretty hair. REALLY unfortunate is the fact that she is losing that hair on the sides of her head creating a mullet. she still has hair on the top. and i just cant bring myself to cut her hair. how do i make it grow back in the bald spots?

Natalia update

Current mood: exhausted For a few weeks now she has been able to track me with her eyes and yesterday she started trying to "use" her bouncer. She was bouncing herself and hitting the rattles to turn the lights on. She seems so big now, absolutely huge. If the scale in my parents' bathroom was correct, she is now over 9lbs. Crazy! Well, that's pretty much all she does besides eat, cry and poop (notice I didn't say sleep?).

Not being pregnant is nice

The benefits of not being pregnant anymore:
No more heartburn as soon as I'm done eating
No more heartburn because it's been too long since I've eaten
No more heartburn just because I'm breathing...
I am able to sleep in my bed again
Getting in and out of the car is getting easier
Pants are staying up better
My feet aren't swollen
Much less back pain
I don't have to sleep in a semi-sitting position to avoid vomiting in my sleep
I can wear my wedding ring again
My fingers don't hurt anymore when I flex them
Most of my joints have stopped popping
Even though I'm still not sleeping, I have much more energy
I'm losing weight instead of gaining it!
I can go 4 hours without peeing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I do miss the little internal heater though, it's kind of cold now.

But I do have an adorable little baby I get to play with, well, more like AT. There isn't a lot of interaction at this point, but she's so cute to watch!

Most of you know already

that I finally had the baby. Yes, Tara, I "pushed that kid out" finally! I thought the day would never come, then when it did, I wished it hadn't. I had been having contractions since Wednesday morning, but they were very small. Friday they got stronger, but they were still ok and I thought "ok, I'm going to be able to do this" since everything was building gradually. I was uncomfortable, sometimes in some pain, but I would count to 60 and it would be over. Friday night they got a little stronger where I needed Bruno to rub my back when they came, but it was still ok, I was able to keep doing whatever I wanted in between them and they were 8-20 minutes apart. Then, at 8:50 PM on 10/19, my water broke. We arrived at the hospital at about 10:30 and I was admitted at about midnight.
Since my water had broken, but my contractions were still too irregular to be considered "active labor" they started giving my pitocin. Not only did this make the contractions much stronger, but they were also much sharper and right on top of each other. By about 4:30, I couldn't cope with them anymore, I was becoming exhausted so I asked them to give me something for the pain. Because I was only dilated to 2.5 cm, they wouldn't give me an epidural, so they gave me phenti-something, a narcotic. I thought, "this will be ok, I know that it will still hurt, but I will be stoned and won't care, right?" WRONG!!!! All it did was make me even more tired, but the contractions were so strong, I couldn't sleep, so I was very worn out.
I finally got the epidural at 6AM (administered by the worst anesthesiologist ever, he stabbed me at least 6 times while trying to find the right spot, but every time he did, he would wiggle the needle around to try and get it in the right spot, hitting every nerve possible in my spinal column; it felt like someone was dragging a knife up and down my hip bone) and at 8:20 AM informed the nurse that I needed to push.
She agreed with my since she could feel the head only about 2 inches in when she checked me, and after only 30 mins of pushing (ha, beat that Lisa!), out came my little baby girl.
She was pretty icky and purple, but I decided to keep her anyway. She was 7lbs 15.2 oz and over 19 in long.
We named her Natalia (no middle name) Montes Borges.
We are very happy to have her home, but also very tired.

how much information do you really want?

i woke up this morning at 6 am because i felt something come out of me. first thought? i just peed, on myself and the couch; fabulous. so i went to the bathroom, and when i turned on the light i could see that it was blood on me. and it was bright red blood. so i started getting scared. we called labor and delivery and they told me to come in. it took about 45 mins to get dressed and get to the hospital, and she never moved. so that made me even more scared. we got in to triage and they put the fetal monitor on me and we heard the heartbeat. it was such a relief. she was still there and her heart was still beating, but she still wasnt moving. i poked, i rubbed my belly, i massaged her and she still didnt move. i know she was sleeping, but i thought some of that would have woken her up, but it didnt. so the nurse gave me some juice and i sat in the bed hooked up to the monitor. about 10 mins later she woke up! and she started moving all around and kicking at the monitor.
2 hours later they finally did an exam on me. my water hadnt broken and all that was happening was apparently the "bloody show." so at least that means that something is happening! and the monitor showed that i was having contractions. only a couple of them were strong enough for me to feel though.
but in all of the classes that we took, every time they talked about "bloody show" they said that if it was bright red, call labor and delivery. they said that it would be kind of pink, or dark red, or brown. they also made it sound like it was just something that you might see when you wipe or a little bit on your underwear. but every time i stand up it feels like it just gushes out! it is so gross!
BUT IT'S A SIGN, SOMETHING IS HAPPENING AND SHE IS ACTUALLY GOING TO COME OUT!!!!

i want her out!!!

so, i had a doctor's appointment today and found out (drum roll please!): NOTHING IS HAPPENING!!!! she is at 0 station, i am 0 cm dilated and only 25% effaced.
i ate a huge prego pizza this weekend, and: nothing.
ive been walking, and: bupkis.
sex: zilch (well, baby-wise, zilch)
i want her out!!!!! i need to do something to make it uncomfortable in there for her. im obviously too generous of a host and provide too comfortable of an environment.
get out baby bling!!!! right now! you have to listen to me, im your mother!
i have another doctors appt next tuesday, at that point they will talk about inducing if she hasnt come yet. but, i wont need that appt, right? cause shes going to be here tomorrow, right?
GET OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

signs, signs, are there any?

no! there arent! bling hasnt dropped, there are no contractions and no signs that i am dilating or efacing. shouldnt some of that be happening if she is going to be born on 10/15 like i told her she is? i can tell she is definitely stronger though. maybe shes planning on coming out through my belly button. does she know that that isnt an exit? but maybe that would be better... that guy from spaceballs looked like he faired a lot better than the women we watched on the birthing videos (hello my honey!), his ordeal was much shorter!





but ive only got 7 days left until shes supposed to be here, shouldnt something be happening?
at least we installed the car seat last night. there is no longer room for passengers in my car. if we need to take a "family" trip somewhere we now have to take 2 cars. we couldnt install it using the LATCH system in the middle of the backseat, so its behind the passenger seat, which has to be a teeny bit past vertical to fit the seat in; comfy! i guess we could just get a new car... oh, wait, i have no income, maybe a new car isnt such a good idea! and i love my car. anyway, im digressing.
tchau.

what do you think baby bling is?

we had our appointment yesterday for the 3-d ultrasound. just as we were about to head into the city i got a phone call from the clinic, they called to inform me that they were running behind and wanted to push my appointment back 30mins. i said "ok," hung-up and was glad that they had the decency to call. this left me with high hopes for the appointment. not only did they seem courteous, but the reason they were so far behind is that the babies weren't cooperating and each appointment took longer than expected to get good pictures, translation, they knew the importance of getting good pictures, they didn't just take your money, slap some goo on your stomach and send you home with a bunch of pictures of knee caps. so we got to south san francisco at 530 to see some pictures of our baby ling. at 608 we were still waiting for them to finish up with the people before us. i think it was about 630 when they finally called us in. so i hopped up on the table (ok, so i used the step stool and kind of flopped on it) and waited to see the pictures of our little bling. he started with the 2-d pictures, the same ones that they do at the dr's office, to check the placement and see if i was going to have to move around so we could get some good shots. we saw the grainy, fuzzy little profile of our baby. he zoomed in on the head and switched to 3-d. i was pretty cool. then, he went back to 2-d to tell us the gender of the baby. he said we came at a good time to tell the sex, the baby isn't too big or too small. so i rolled over so he could get a good angle. so he poked around for a little bit and was able to get a good shot to tell us what the gender is. it was so weird to hear... now we know what bling is! it's so strange to know now.
so then he took some more pictures, but baby bling started to turn. so i had to get up on my knees and elbows and wait for baby bling to turn around. it was very uncomfortable. but, as you can see, we got some good pictures of our little baby bling!
it's getting so close, it's terrifying! i cant believe we are going to have a baby in our house soon. bruno spent last weekend painting the baby's room. he is redoing the closet now and it looks really good. we are moving furniture back in there today.

second chance

we have an appointment on saturday to try and find out if we have a bling-O or a bling-A. let's hope it cooperates!

cankles

i am so glad that when we were in london we decided that cankles were a sign of royalty, i am so swollen i should be empress of the earth now! apparently just sitting at my desk causes ever ounce of fluid within my body (that isnt in my increasingly small bladder) to flow directly to my ankles. its really disgusting. my little toes seem to peek out from underneath my giant fat balloon foot. ive tried drinking massive amounts of water, but it doesnt help. it probably is counter-acted by the fact that the baby likes salty food. what am i to do?