Your mom and I went to Las Vegas last weekend.  Don’t worry, we didn’t lose our life savings so you can still go to college.  We were in Vegas from Thursday to Monday and had a wonderful time.  We were there for the wedding of our friends Chris Yard and Amanda Vasquez.  We stayed at Planet Hollywood on Thursday and at the Paris hotel the remainder of the time.

If later in life you find yourself with an odd obsession with Prince, that’s probably because we watched a Prince tribute band named Purple Reign at the House of Blues.  It was pretty loud in there so your either going to have an aversion to loud noises or we messed you up for life.

The most exciting part of the trip was that I got to feel you kick for the first time!  You’ve been such a squirmy worm throughout the pregnancy.  Your mom has been feeling you kick for a while, but this was the first time she felt you from the outside.  We hope your restlessness is not a sign of things to come 🙂 .

This was the fourth and final time you’ve flown in your mom’s belly. So far you’ve been to San Antonio, Iowa, Indianapolis, and Las Vegas. Your mom and I love to travel so much, there will be many more flights in your future!

BTW, the title of this blog is a quote from a popular movie from 1996 call Swingers staring Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn…you just put a whole new spin on it.

Brad, Kristine, and Hailey at the Bellagio

Stephanie, Chris, Amanda, Jason, K & B

Purple Reign at the House of Blues

So your father had this great idea when we found out we were pregnant – set a countdown clock that would count backwards to your due date. Well today, for the first time, it is showing a double digit number….gone are the triple digit days! While this clock seemed like a fantastically fun idea when it showed 180+ days, I am starting to think it’s a bad idea for me now…especially since my heart rate increased when I saw it showed 99 days today! YIKES!

I woke up this morning to the delicious smell of breakfast cooking. Your father decided to surprise me with breakfast (pancakes, eggs, bacon, and chocolate covered strawberries) for Valentine’s day! He also gave me a very sweet card. I truly am the luckiest woman alive! I gave him a card and some new cologne – Kenneth Cole’s RSVP. After breakfast we went and got haircuts then went to look at baby furniture. We still haven’t decided on your bedroom furniture though we have it narrowed down to a few choices.

After furniture shopping, I went to the mall while your dad took a nap. The minute I got home we went right to it….painting your room. We’d already chosen the color – it’s called Moonlit Yellow – and fortunately, Brad had taped off the room last week so we were pretty much ready to go. However, we’d both forgotten how much we hate to paint. If we can help it, I think this might be the last room we ever paint! Though we have quite a few friends who are true do-it-yourselfers, your father and I just can’t seem to derive much pleasure from most DIY projects. Just one of the things we have in common!

Brad the Painter

As the story goes, babies are delivered to their parents by a stork. But we don’t believe that to be the case for our little girl. On the weekend we believe you began to grow in your mommy’s tummy we were hanging out in our swimming pool. Dragonflies are all too common around our pool in the summer time. But on this weekend, on this day, there was a special dragonfly.

He was the friendliest dragonfly we’d ever seen. He just would not stay away from your mom. He’d land on her shoulder, her head, or if she held out her hand the little guy would perch on her finger. I could hold out my hand and he would land there too. But he seemed to be most infatuated with Kristine.  He hung out with us all weekend.   That’s why we believe our little angel was delivered to us by, not the stork, but the dragonfly.

Hailey's Dragonfly

On Kristine's Hand

Kristine and the Dragonfly

Man, I can offically say I’ve got pregnancy symptoms!  My ankles were swollen to the size of cantalopes last night and my feet weren’t any better.  Jason always teases me that my feet look like Barney Rubble’s feet (he calls them “Barney Rubs”).  I hate to admit it but they truly were living up to that name last night.  I am having the same feet/ankle swelling today, too.  I think that’s just going to be part of it for the next few months.

I’ve also had swelling in my fingers and hands and I’ve been having the occassional bout of heart burn.  I am also starting to feel really tired again.  I feel asleep on the couch at 6pm tonight.  I slept for about an hour until the phone rang and woke me up.  I go in on the 17th for mandatory diabetes testing, the doctor said she would also check my blood for antyhing else that might be contributing to my fatigue, like anemia.  Chances are it’s just a result of the pregancy itself combined with the extra stress that’s been going on lately.  We’ll see….

Your father and I went for our monthly check up today.  Everything looks really good!  We got to see you on the sonogram again…it was pretty amazing that we could both tell how much you’ve grown just in the 4 weeks since our last appointment!  Your arm and leg bones are longer and you just looked bigger overall.

We confirmed yet again that you are a girl.  And like every other time, you were VERY active.  You were moving around so much that they had trouble getting you to sit still long enough to hear your heartbeat.  We also got to see you fold up into the shape of a U and play with your toes.  I guess you’ve gotta do something to keep yourself entertained in there.  The nurse said “oh, the active ones grow up to be leaders, not followers”.  I had to politely explain to her that there were already two very strong leaders in our household and that adding a third would be challenging for everyone involed.  🙂

You weighed in at over a pound and are measuring about 11 inches long.  I can definitely feel you moving around these days; everytime you move it makes me smile.  I am going to have to start  sleeping on my side now which is less than thrilling for me since I am a full time back sleeper.  It’s officially the beginning of the many sleepless nights to come.

Well, I am disappointed that I’ve gone so long without writing! Let’s see, what’s happened since last entry…

We’ve pretty much narrowed down most of our registry items. After much debate, it looks like your bedding will be the Nojo Ladybug Lullabye collection. It’s soooo cute – we hope you like it as much as we do! We have your bedroom furniture narrowed down to a few options and hope to decide something on that soon.

I am about 99.9% sure that I’ve been feeling you move around for the past couple of weeks or so but I haven’t been certain. Although I feel certain you were feeling very active today – I felt some movement at work this morning and on the way home today!!!

We’re about 22 weeks pregnant right now. Nicole and Grady are only 5 days behind us so it’s very possible you and your baby boy cousin might be born on the same day! We also realized this weekend that we really only have about 3 more months to get everything in order. We figure we should be prepared by the beginning of May just in case you decide to make your debut early.

We’ve got 2 showers planned. The first one is being hosted by Christine Hernandez and will be held on March 14th. That one is a more formal, female only affair…all of your grandmas will probably be there! Knowing Christine, every detail will be tended to! The second is on April 4th, hosted by my work friends, and will be a more casual type co-ed party atmosphere. We didn’t want your dad to feel left out. 🙂

I’ve also come to the painful realization that it will probably be another year or so before I actually get to sleep soundly through the night. I must admit, I am missing the days when I could fall asleep mid sentence and not wake up until 12 hours later. It used to drive your dad crazy that it was so easy for me to come by a good night’s sleep! I knew those days would be over once you got here, but I didn’t realize it would actually start much sooner than that! 🙁

From what I hear it will ALL be worth it!

Well, it’s official – you are a GIRL! Your dad picked me up at work and we drove to the doctor’s office for our 11am appointment. After much anticipation we were called to the sonogram room. The lady who did your last sonogram was there and so was a nurse in training – she was there to observe and practice.

Well, it wasn’t long before the lady doing the sonogram said she was “pretty sure” but not 100% sure what you were because you kept crossing your little legs. She asked if we wanted to hear her guess or come back for another sonogram at a later date. My response, “Neither. I want you to keep pokin’ around until you can be 100% sure!” We all got a good laugh out of that one…but I was pretty serious. 🙂 She must have picked up on that fact cause she continued to move you around until she said she was 100% sure. Then she said it, “It’s a girl!”

After much excitement your father and I wanted to know how she could be so sure. That’s when she pulled up a picture of your bottom and showed us the three lines she said resembled a hamburger. Ha! A hamburger?! Then we asked what she would look for if it were a boy and the answer made us both laugh – a turtle! HA!

So, you’re a girl!?!? Wow! What a blessing! Everything looked great – your measurements were right on, your heartbeat was a healthy 164, and your growth appears to be right on track – she said you were 6-7″ long and weighed about 9 ounces. I am absolutely amazed at how good I feel! No weight gain and no heart burn, I keep thinking this is just the calm bef0re the storm. 🙂

We left the office and immediately called our parents. Luli was ecstatic, Terry and Sue both said they knew you were a girl, and Karen was jazzed to finally have a baby girl in the family. We both texted all the other important people. I couldn’t help but wonder so many things: what color will your eyes be, will you have light or dark hair, how much of my Arab heritage will you inherit, how tall will you be, what will your skin be like, etc? I am looking so forward to watching your relationship with your father blossom – you will definitely be Daddy’s Little Girl from here on out.

We spent a good portion of the afternoon/evening registering for the sex specific items like bedding, blankets, an clothing. Still only 2 names in the running – Hailey and Nicole. We’ll keep looking just to make sure we’ve got the best options to choose from. You are going to be one very special, spoiled, and lucky little lady! We can’t wait to meet you!!!

Our sonogram is scheduled for 11am tomorrow – only 21 more hours before we know what you are! I am getting super excited…and anxious.

I am going through one of my “am I still pregnant” stages. You’ve been so good to me (hardly any symptoms at all) that I sometimes question if you’re still in there! Your father laughs at me and says I am silly….while I know he’s right, it’s hard sometimes not to worry. 😉