Fences, Football and Dropping

Nathan and I were planning to celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary with a fancy dinner and some downtown Sacramento activities. Well, being 34 weeks pregnant put a hinge in that plan. On Saturday morning, I told Nathan that I really didn't feel like driving 25 minutes to go to some fancy dinner and walk around downtown Sacramento all night. He replied, "We can do what you want!" Thank goodness my hubby cares so much! Honestly the thought of having to walk all over is absolutely horrifying especially if it can't be done in my slippers...

So we opted to go to our favorite local Mexican restaurant, La Placita Dos, and headed on up to the cheesecake factory for some dessert to go. We then rented Brave from the red box and had an absolutely relaxing (and much more economical) night. It also made me extremely happy. I don't feel like I missed out on trying another chicken dish at a fancy seafood restaurant. Plus, who goes to eat chicken at a seafood restaurant? Oh yes, I do because I don't like it! I also didn't have to seriously dress up which was a huge relief.

I know that right now a lot of pregnant women enjoy dressing up and it makes them feel better and I say to them go for it! Once that baby comes, dressing up and feeling good about your self that way will be few and far between, so I say do it now. I really don't get much enjoyment out of it. I would just rather be comfortable and happy.

Going to dinner. Nathan is sporting his new Niner's hat!
(Which by the way they won this weekend and now have the second seed in the NFC!)

Holy crap look at that belly!

 As previously mentioned, our fence is needing some mending and Nathan took it upon himself to get it done on Sunday and boy he did! I really am useless at this point helping with anything involving any sort of manual labor so I just sat inside, took a bath, and pretended like I didn't know what was going on. The only time I checked on him was when I heard crashing from the side yard about three times. I did this out of fear that my husband had killed himself by death of fence falling on him but he managed just fine. (I knew he would!)
He managed to get the concrete poured and fence poles placed in the ground. Tomorrow he is going to secure the fencing to the new poles and ta da! we should have a new fence. Way to go honey!

I also took the time to make Nate some yummy spinach dip so that way when he was done he could have a snack to eat while watching the Niner's play yesterday. Oh and did I not mention that they won? So, a Ravens and Niners Superbowl is still on the horizon! How much fun would that be for our household? Like I said before though, knowing my luck it will be a niners/ravens Superbowl and I will most likely be in labor. Ha!

I'm just a wifey extraordinaire, as Nate would say.

Here is the recipe for the kick-ass spinach dip:

1 8oz. box of cream cheese at room temperature
1/2 cup of mayonnaise
1/4 cup of sour cream
1 package frozen spinach
3/4 cup parmesan

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and grease a small pan well with cooking spray.
Boil the spinach in a pot with about 1/2 cup of water. Once the spinach is soft, drain it and stick it in cheese cloth. Drain as much liquid out of the spinach as possible. If it's wet at all you will have dip that is runny and watery! (GROSS!)

Combine mayo, cream cheese, and sour cream in a bowl and mix well. Then add the spinach while its still hot from being boiled. Combine until mixed well. You don't want chunks of cream cheese in this mixture, so really get your mixing hand going.

Pour into the greased glass pan and then sprinkle parmesan cheese on top. Cook for 25-30 minutes.


As of Sunday, Lincoln has decided to take residence in the lower half of my belly and hip region. I can also feel him flirting with the idea of getting in place for birth. He has started to lower himself into my hips and that created a shitty night of sleeping last night. He has decided to place his head right into the left hip joint which creates a lot of discomfort. Its not painful, just uncomfortable and makes sleeping difficult. As of this morning, he has moved a bit more to the right, so I think he is just trying to figure out the right place to be when he's ready 'to exit.' Yes it's uncomfortable but definitely not unbearable.

Tonight we are just staying home and making homemade Zuppa Toscana. It's delicious! We're also going to try to make it to midnight but with how tired I have been recently it might just not happen.

~Julia

Full of Water

Nathan I just spent 4 whole days between Ripon and Turlock to celebrate Christmas with our families. It was great and thank you to our families who bought us some great gifts! Of course Lincoln was not left out. It was hilarious when my brother-in-law Ian made the joke that its not fair that I got more gifts this year because I'm opening for two people. I love stuff like that. Reminds Nate and I that next Christmas Lincoln is going to be having so much fun with our families.

From Belle-Mere and Auntie Kaity.
Love the motordodder aka motorcycle.

Aunt Kaity made this darling quilt for Lincoln.
I was having a hard time finding one that was affordable
and figured what's better than one that was made just for him!

 Besides the Christmas holiday, we had some interesting developments at the Roos household. First to start off the week we found a minor seepage issue coming from the rosebush to the cement foundation to the house. Sounds like a big deal but in the end really wasn't. All we had to do was take out the rosebush and then just dig down to the cement foundation in the front of the house. That way water doesn't want pool up and seep in through the concrete.

The MAJOR bonus with this is that Lincoln is getting all new awesome laminate flooring in his room. I have been wanting to get this flooring for a long, long time since I hate carpet. We also got it for only 370 bucks thanks to my mom and her manager from Lowes. My parents and little brother are going to come up next weekend and help us install it too! Man did we score or what! Another bonus is that  I don't have to convince Nate to buy it now because it became a necessity since the carpet was ruined. :)

Here is what Lincoln's room looks like currently:

Yes this is what it really looks like.

Look at that beautiful flooring! Eek! So excited!

We also have an unplanned home improvement project looming this weekend. When Nate and I got back home on Christmas night we discovered that our front side fence had completely blown over. How awesome is that? (Super sarcastic there). Good thing the fence is salvageable and it shouldn't be too much of a task....hopefully! I have built fences before and its not like Nate is a dummy so I'm sure we can figure it out. More like I will be directing and Nate will be doing the work since I can't lift fencing like I used to be able to.

This weekend is also our 5 year wedding anniversary. Our last one of just us together. We are going to a restaurant in Sacramento called the Firehouse and depending on how our fence building goes we might go see a movie. Hopefully this dinner will be as spectacular as everybody keeps saying. After all it keeps getting rated one of the best restaurants in Sacramento!

Our adventures of doing just us time has kind of taken a back seat this week, but I did find Nathan doing this last night. Good for him! He knows that when Lincoln first comes video gaming might take a back seat just for a bit, or rather he won't have the time to sit down for 3 hours and play non-stop.

Kill those mofo's Nathan!

I am right in the middle of my 34th week at this point. I feel like ugh. I feel like I am just full of water. I hope that my weight gain is due to that. I also have recently became very tired again. Part of it is that I'm not sleeping well and the other I think is just because I'm so uncomfortable. In other words I'm hitting the 3rd trimester slump.

Here is a picture of me at 34 weeks. Yes I look tired and its because I am :)

Go back and look at last weeks picture.
I noticed a huge change in my belly size.

~Julia

4:00 AM

Well at least I'm alive today and the Mayan Apocalypse didn't happen....

I have not had a difficult pregnancy. I mean, I have had the usual shit like swelling, weight gain, having to use the restroom non-stop, minor back aches, and I'm a bit more gassy than usual, but otherwise it's been smooth sailing. Well its been smooth sailing up until now.

I have recently developed insomnia and it SUCKS. I have always, always been a great sleeper and this waking up at 4 AM constantly is bullshit. Now, I don't wake up in a panic, worried or with thoughts on my mind, I just wake up even though my body doesn't want to. I do attribute some of it to Lincoln since when I do wake up in the wee hours of the morning he is always wreaking havoc in my uterus. One thing I know is my kid knows how to party, which is super cute now. It will probably not be cute when he reaches high school. I also wake up and I'm hungry, but I'm trying to avoid falling into the pitfall of that. Then again who the hell wants oatmeal at 4 AM?

The only positive is that I don't seem to bother Nathan or at least he hasn't noticed. Then again, he sleeps like death is upon him. I swear getting him to wake up out of his sleep is like trying to wake up a damn corpse, so at least my insomnia is not bothering him, which makes me extremely happy. I would feel awful if he had to endure this with me while going to work also. He will also take me out for an early breakfast sometimes too, since he gets up at 6 AM for work anyways. I say hell yes to that and what a good husband he is! I'm seriously soooo lucky.

Otherwise, my pregnancy has truly not been too bad.

Here are some pictures taken last night of me at 33 weeks. I'm getting big. Please do not judge me based on my attire. I know, I am channeling my inner white trash aka it was almost bed time when these were taken.

Shelia seriously can't stay out of these weekly updates.

I can't believe he's still going to grow more.
I'm going to be a house...

Have a great Christmas!

Julia

Natural Childbirth

This weekend was interesting to say the least. We not only got to go to some fancy Christmas party for Nate's work at Catta Vedera Country Club in Lincoln but we also completed our birthing class. The Christmas party was fun and we had a nice time together even though we spent most of the night apart gambling at our own respective tables. Nathan was the big winner and made five times the amount of 'money' that we were given to start with. The food was good and I can't complain about a free meal and entertainment.

Making pregnancy look good!

Nathan actually did my braid! It came out nice!
Thinking our next child will be a girl....

Prior to actually getting pregnant, I was all about getting an epidural. I was so for it, that I was convinced that there is no other way to have a baby. Now, what I'm going to say next might actually shock some of you and not surprise others. After taking this birthing class it has confirmed what I have been feeling in my heart for the last two months. I think I am going to try to have a 'natural birth' with just a bit of morphine to take the edge off of the contractions. I know that epidurals are all the rage, and I'm not saying that I am not going to have one either, but if I can handle it without a epidural I will not be getting one.

At the child birth class we watched the epidural being administered and I'm not going to lie it freaked me the fuck out. Now the video was actually meant to encourage mom's to actually get an epidural during child birth, so it was biased but in the other direction. I have always had a huge fear of needles, like huge! I'm so afraid of needles that I, no joke, bring chocolate with me to doctor's office or when I get blood drawn to eat when they are putting the needle in me. It keeps me distracted. After seeing what an epidural is all about it seriously freaked and stressed me out more than the actual thought of birth. I would, at this point, rather give birth and be in pain than get an epidural.

There were also a lot of other concerns that I felt about getting an epidural and learning more about labor made really feel good about my decision to try a low medicated birth.

Here is a list of my reasoning for all you other people out there considering a low medicated or natural birth.

1. Generally, how your mother's and grandmother's labors went is how your labor is going to go.
The women in my family are birthing warriors. My mother went from active labor to the pushing phase in less than two hours with all three of her children. (For those of you that don't know active labor is when you go from 4-8cm. ) My mom also only pushed for less than 8 minutes with each kid and my sister Erica was born in 2 minutes.  My brother was also induced, which generally means a longer labor. Not in her case! My mom was given pitocin at 8am and 11 hours and 11 minutes later Zachary entered the world. My aunts labors were even less and my grandma Bea was in and out of the hospital in less than a day with all five of her children. All of these women did this with no pain medication or small doses of IV pain killers.  So hopefully in my case genetics prevails! (Crossing my fingers for sure!)

2. Epidurals can slow down your labor and then you are given pitocin on top of it to make labor resume. 
My goal is to be in and out of the hospital as soon as possible. I hate hospitals and I am much more comfortable at my house. In fact I'm so comfortable at my house that the idea of a home birth actually appeals to me after my first child.

3. Epidurals can cause your blood pressure to drop suddenly. 
I already have low blood pressure to the point when I'm relaxed it can be as low as 90/60. When I'm nervous it goes up to 128/80/. They then give you more medication to increase your blood pressure if this happens so its just more medication.

4. Women who have epidurals have a higher rate of having their baby extracted using forceps or the vacuum when pushing.
Not good for you and not good for baby. Its not that the vacuum and forceps are bad its just a bit more complicated.

5. You don't get to move! 
I know they say they have walking epidurals now but most hospitals, including the one I'm delivering at, don't allow you to leave your bed once you have the epidural for liability issues. You get to roll from side to side now that's it.

After all has been said and done, I am still not closed to the idea of having an epidural.

I think that if my labor is pretty basic and normal, as in once I hit 4cm and I'm dilating at 1 cm per hour I will stick with the basic narcotics. If I am seriously in so much pain where I'm becoming exhausted or in active labor for a long period of time then I will get an epidural. I will not be heartbroken or disappointed if I can't do it with low medication. I just want to go into this birth with a mind that is completely open as possible.
I think I will know when I'm actually in labor if I need an epidural or not and I'm so happy that I am going into this birth with the idea now that I might not need it.

Julia

Married and Childless For Now

This weekend was one that was full of good stuff! Our last ditch efforts to maintain our married couple with no children status this weekend was a complete success!

First off on Friday night, Nate and I went down to the fountains area by the mall and treated our selves to some dinner at Zocalo, some shopping, and a late night coffee. Dinner was absolutely delicious and Nate and I think we found our new favorite 'upscale' Mexican restaurant. After we ate, Nate went shopping for some jewelry that I have had my eye on for Christmas. Well rather, I picked some stuff out and Nate bought it.  I will not reveal my jewelry choices until after Christmas since Nate is going to wrap them up.We also found the world's cutest dinosaur outfit for Lincoln at this children's shop, so Nate is going to wrap that bad boy up for Lincoln for Christmas too.  He's such a good husband! Then we stopped off at Peet's Coffee and enjoyed our selves by talking and just being us. While we were there a caroling group, who literally looked like they had just walked out of Disneyland, sang a holiday song. They were actually surprisingly good and normally I would find this super cute and be happy, but I just found my self annoyed. I'm chalking that up to pregnancy hormones. 

Here are some pictures of the evening:

Before pregnancy that shirt was worn as a dress to nightclubs.
I will probably never see a club ever again unless I'm in Vegas on vacation.

We're super cute.
 If you can spot Lincoln in this picture you get extra points.

Nate literally said, "The bean dip was the best part of the meal."
I just laughed. Seriously the free beans were the best?
I'm not going to lie though they were pretty good.

Nate had some pork dish.

I had chicken enchiladas.
The best chicken enchiladas I have ever had! Seriously!

Us at coffee.
Look I'm wearing my wedding ring! It actually fit that night!

Tres leches cake! Need I say more?
They even baked it in this cute mason jar!

On Saturday we went and saw Lincoln the movie! Most people don't know since I try to hide it, but I love, love, love history. I actually read a ton of historical novels and I have done my fair share of historical research.  I love president Lincoln and I have told Nate plenty of times that if I was born during his time, Mary Todd Lincoln would of had nothing on me! I would of married him in a heartbeat. He is the main reason we are naming our son Lincoln. It is because this man was amazing and I love everything Lincoln stood for. I was so happy this movie came out and I really, really liked it. It was mostly historically correct in regards to the time line of events and the sentiments of the nation of the time, but the scenes where they tried to capture Lincoln as himself were pretty good but not quite as I had envisioned him. In other words  I think they took a lot of artistic license with Lincoln himself. We then went to home depot and began painting/re purposing some furniture for Lincoln's room. I did manage to get the changing table painted and it has officially moved into Lincoln's nursery.  The book shelves still need some work.

Think Lincoln is going to care when he is 25 that I took the time to paint this?
Probably not ha!

Sheila of course had to be involved.

Sunday we went to lunch with my parents since they were up here for some of my brother's water polo games. After lunch, we came home and watched football. Nothing too exciting, but it was nice just relaxing. Nathan didn't get to relax as much because he felt the need to do some yard work, which is fine by me! Then he of course had to do his weekend scheduling that he does for work each weekend, so I relaxed a bit more than he did.

Nate and I have another busy weekend ahead, since we have our birthing class at the hospital on Saturday from 9am-5pm! They are asking us to bring a yoga mat or blanket and pillow so I'm sure I will have a lot of stories after! Be sure to check back for my take on modern birthing classes. I'm hoping that it will teach us something and not feel like wasted time. 

We then have Nate's company Christmas party that night also! Busy Saturday!

On Sunday we are getting all of our Christmas shopping done, hallelujah!

~Julia

Getting Huge

Last week I felt pretty good with Lincoln taking over my belly. I was having issues sleeping but, I just took more naps to compensate. This week is a different story. Lincoln feels huge. He has officially taken over my rib cage and I swear that I'm just going straight out since I literally had no torso pre-pregnancy. Nathan last night even commented when we were getting ready for bed that, "Seriously Julia, you don't look pregnant from behind. You look the same before you were pregnant." Going straight out has made me super uncomfortable. When I sit on the couch now I have to sit legs open and as far back as I can to make room for my belly. Now I still have about 8 weeks left, give or take, and I don't know how I can get bigger, but I know I will. If my mother's previous pregnancies are any indicator of how big I will get since we have the same bone structure, I'm going to get massive.  Just as an example when my mom was pregnant with my little brother people would ask if she is having twins! Having twins?? He was only 7lbs 11oz! So yes, I am mentally preparing myself and hoping for the best.

In fact, when I went into Raley's the other day to get some stuff for a lunch date with one of my friends the lady at the deli counter asked when I was due and I told her first week of February. She then replied, "Oh wow I thought you were further along." So I know that I'm not going crazy here! Most pregnant women would take offense to this, but I loved that it justified exactly how I was feeling about my self! Also I have learned not to take offense to people commenting on how large you get because its just not worth the stress. Of course you are getting big you have a freaking 3 lb baby inside your belly.

This week I have also developed a ton of water retention. Which I think had to do with my 5lb weight gain from my last appointment two weeks ago! (It might of been the holiday cookies that we made, but honestly at this point I don't care. I still have gained only 23 lbs.) I can't wear my wedding at all any longer, my ankles disappear at points during the day, my face feels fat, and overall I just feel well....squishy. This is a feeling I hate since I have never, ever felt squishy. When ever my body would begin to feel squishy I would just pick up my work out regimen to 2 hours a day versus 1 hour and in about 2 weeks the squishy would be gone. I think I'm just going to have to cope with being squishy for a bit.

Otherwise than me being negative nancy this morning, things are actually going well. Lincoln is healthy and I have strangely developed this idea that he is going to come early and we won't make it to February. Not early enough where there would be complications but for some odd reason I now believe we will have an end of January baby. Not sure why and I'm going to chalk it up to mothers intuition, or the fact that I know by the end of January I will want him out!

Here are some pictures of me hitting the 31 week mark:

Julia

Seasonal Comforts

Nathan and I completed our decorating for the most part of the house this weekend. We even came up with a new family tradition! Nate and I had not really established any of our own family traditions since we have spent every holiday since we got married with each of our families, so there was really no need to establish them. Plus, the first four years of our marriage we were both either going to school full time and/or working full time so we were really busy! With Lincoln coming we thought that maybe establishing some small traditions with just our little family would be important. We decided that on December 1st, no matter what, we will set up our house decorations together as a family complete with a Christmas brunch for dinner. I really hope this is something our kids will enjoy over time and might even pass on to their families. :)

What our Christmas extravaganza looked like:

I can't believe I still have 9 weeks...look at that belly.

Green and silver rule this house during the holiday season.

Above the television

Even the birdcage got a holiday makeover!

On the coffee table. Not quite sure why Nate didn't get the whole tray....

No this was not staged, I promise!

The living room in all its Christmas cheer!
See that lamp? Nathan fixed it for me this weekend!
Sheila when she was a puppy had chewed through the electrical cord.

French toast casserole! This was some good stuff!

Apple cider with hot buttered rum. Mine of course didn't have rum :(

This weekend we are going to two R rated films! Watch out! We know when Lincoln comes we will not just be able to attend any PG-13 or higher rated movies unless we hire a baby sitter or wait for them to come out on DVD, so were hitting up two matinees for a double feature. So until Lincoln comes, any kid movies are just not going to see the day of light in our house. We also are going to Zocalo for dinner on Saturday also. They just opened their second location in Roseville, so hopefully there will not be too long of a wait since we couldn't get reservations because they were already booked!

Although it looks like we are just having a great time, my body is starting to get uncomfortable because of how large my stomach is getting. Lincoln also likes to throw a lot of punches to the point where I am now woken up at 4:30 am every day. Thanks Son :) I usually can fall back to sleep but unfortunately today I was unable to do so until about 7am. Thank goodness I have an awesome husband who works hard, so I can stay home and just work for about two hours a day coaching during the week! Cheers to Nate!


~Julia