36 weeks

Well I was trying to write an update every two weeks but the last few weeks have been crazy busy and I'm sure life will only get busier as April 12th approaches. Fair warning, this is a longer post since it covers 4 weeks instead of 2.

Our 32 week appointment went well, we are measuring ahead of what is expected and I got some tips on how to avoid these killer cramps I get in my right leg in the middle of the night. My rice bag, made by a coworker, is my new best friend.

We had our first shower hosted by my coworkers on February 20th. It was a Peruvian brunch and the food was delicious! We had asked for this to be a diaper shower and we ended up with close to 800 diapers! With 10-12 per day that should at least get us to month 3 of Baby La Rosa's life, and I am excited about that :)






Here is a group photo of most everyone that was there:

After the shower we went to pick out paint for the nursery. I have decided I like when other people make all the decisions and then I just get to execute the plan. Picking out a color was not a good time but the actual painting part was something where I could see progress being made. I'm excited to bring the baby home and show him his new space! I hope he likes it as much as Alberto and I do :)







The following weekend we were off to Chicagoland for our second shower. It was also conveniently the same weekend my niece had a softball tournament in Rosemont and my sister's children were having a fundraiser dinner & a show in Bloomingdale. So glad that we were able to make all of these events!

Here are a few photos from the shower:

The food!

Mom to be and Dad to be!

The hostesses! (minus my sister and Mandolin)

Soon to be grandmas again :)

Our Chicagoland shower was wonderful and we had a great time catching up with everyone!

Then after the shower Alberto and I went to catch up with the University of Iowa girls and it was very nice to have a chill night with them :)

And here's a shot of my 34 week belly:

We got a crib from one of Alberto's professors and decided to put it together and it sure made us feel even more ready to bring home baby La Rosa! It's all coming together now :)

Then we headed to Iowa on Friday for our next baby shower. I had not been to Southwest Iowa for 6 months so I was definitely excited to get back and see people again!

Here are photos from the Iowa Baby Shower:

The food set up at Elliott UMC!

My mom and me! 

6 of the Magnificent Seven back together again! 

The hostesses! 

The whole group (minus a few people who had to leave early)!

Reunited with seminary friends too!

Another plus is sharing this wonderful time with my niece who is due 6 weeks after us :) 

Again so glad and appreciative of everyone that helped us celebrate the coming of the baby. We feel so loved!

After the shower we went out to eat to celebrate my mom's 71st and my dad's 72nd birthdays. Casa de Oro was delicious as always and then we headed home to play Heads Up with my nieces. It was quite a successful weekend!

This past weekend Jess M came to visit and it was so nice to have some one-on-one time to catch up and do some baby stuff sorting and prepping. We had a fun time prepping meals and eating together :)

We received some pretty great news from two PhD programs during these past 4 weeks and now we are in a time of discernment. Prayers for this to be a smooth process would be much appreciated. 

Pregnancy update: I am feeling very uncomfortable most days. Hard to sleep well and my back has a lot of pressure. I hear this is normal but this is definitely one of those times where I wish Eve hadn't eaten the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3 reference). Also, I could not imagine doing this alone. Alberto is so supportive and patient and does so much to help me out (even knowing what words I'm looking for when pregnancy brain kicks in). Words cannot even describe how happy/blessed/fortunate I am that we are in this together. And we both agree that you can come any time, baby La Rosa! 

I start weekly appointments this week and my 36 week appointment is tomorrow. Here is my 36 week belly: 

32 weeks

Ok so remember when I was nervous about 10 weeks? Welp now we are in the single digits. 8 weeks is a little bit scarier than 10 but at the end we will have a little baby boy that is part of me and part of Alberto and that is very exciting to me!

I had the 3 hour glucose tolerance test two weekends ago and it was a very long morning of sitting at the clinic (after 12 hours of fasting, which was tough!). We found out a couple days later that I passed and do not have gestational diabetes! Yay!

We decided to have a last minute Super Bowl 50 party with a few people and it reminded us that we love hosting! However, I did forget that by hosting it means you have to stay for the whole game :-/ and with how tired I have been that was rough. Having guests and making food was a good time though :)

We joined a gym on Monday. It seems like a nice place and I mainly just walk and catch up on my TV shows while Alberto runs or lifts weights. Seems like a good time so far!

Fat Tuesday was celebrated with my first EVER pączki! It was lemon flavored and it was delicious. I'm still not quite sure I get all the hype about this Polish tradition but gladly to take part in consuming sweets any time of the day :)

After work we headed over to the Voskuils' home for their Fat Tuesday Gathering. It was quite a day of delicious food and wonderful people!

Lent started on Wednesday with Ash Wednesday. We had a soup dinner at church followed by a service.

Friday, we went to CityVū Bistro for lunch as they are now closed for remodeling and plan to turn the restaurant into an event center. We had our 6 month dating date there (photo from 2.8.2013), have taken many of our visitors to eat there, and Alberto had breakfast there with his fellas the morning of our wedding so we figured we should go one last time before they change everything. They had our favorite flatbreads on the buffet and it was fabulous!

Alberto has been co-coaching an indoor soccer league team, the Iguanas, for the past couple of months and they had their last couple of games this past weekend so I went with to support. I'm pretty excited for the day when baby La Rosa is out on the field!

Alberto had both PhD interviews this past week and we feel they went well. Now we wait some more to see if we are accepted or wait-listed :)

This is us on Valentine's Day before we went out to dinner.

Ramesses and Padfoot had a great couple days together as well. 

32 week appointment is on Friday so I'll let you know how it goes. We got back late last night from Chicagoland and Alberto is at a school dinner so I'm pretty sure I'll be falling asleep here shortly. Goodnight!

30 weeks

Bah! Only 10 weeks left! I am not feeling very prepared to be a mom. I keep hearing "it will come to you" and I do know that I already do some pretty motherly type things (and don't get me wrong, I am so excited to have this little one!) but it's just hitting me that in 10 short weeks we will be responsible for another life.

We went to a birthing class on Saturday. Now we have some decisions to make. There are risks and benefits to everything involved with labor and I'm thankful to the class for bringing some of these things up that I had just figured I would know how we would handle. Labor videos were intense to watch and it looks real painful. All in all, birthing class was a good idea and very eye opening.

At our 28 week appointment I had a glucose tolerance test. I did not pass which means my blood sugar is too high. We also found out that my iron is too low and I will have to start taking an iron pill once a day. For the blood sugar, we set up a time on February 6th for a three hour glucose tolerance test. I hope it goes better than my first test!

Also! We have two PhD interviews so far! Yay! Interviews are the third week of February so I'll keep you all updated :)

We registered last weekend and goodness. SO many items needed for a little one with too many brands/styles to pick from. I'm blessed that my husband enjoys researching the best/favorite products and then that narrows down the prospects.














We made some pretty delicious meals this week (if you ask me). Here are a few photos and recipes:

• White Chicken Chili (but with a few edits)
  
• Torta Milanesa (also with a few edits) 
  
• Sausage, Potato, and Spinach Soup (with a few edits as well)
  

Also, saw the most beautiful West Michigan sunset as we were headed to a birthday party last Friday. I am definitely going to miss this place someday with all its beauty.

Here's the 30 week photo. My belly button disappeared today and that was the weirdest thing. I looked down and was like what happened? It's just flat (soon to be an outie, I'm sure). It's amazing how my body is changing and just knows what to do.

Also, I would like to wish a very happy 71st birthday to my mom today!

28 weeks

Well Alberto is finally back! I picked him up on Saturday 10:30pm. I'm very glad he made it home safely and had a wonderful trip. You can see his photos here!

I use My Pregnancy app to keep track of the baby's developments and to see what I should be doing each week. A couple weeks ago it said to "Do something nice for yourself" so I went to get my toe nails done and it was very relaxing! I may need to do that again soon :)

We had our Fellowship Staff Christmas Party a couple of weekends ago and I made Peruvian Tequeños! Recipe can be found here. It was a great time to fellowship as staff and families.

For the remainder of last week, I spent a lot of it catching up on TV shows that I watch and Alberto doesn't as well as phone/coffee/skype dates with friends and my sister. And of course hanging out with this kitty, he was great company and a great watch cat while Alberto was gone.

My 28 week appointment was supposed to be yesterday but my doctor is sick so it was rescheduled for Friday. It's the glucose test appointment and I'm not real excited about drinking the sugary drink but I'll let you know how it goes in the next post. And here's the shot of the 28 week tummy: 

26 weeks

Well Alberto left for Israel today and I'm going to blame all my emotions over the next 11 days on the pregnancy. You've been warned ;)

We spent Christmas in Chicago with Alberto's family and it was really nice to be there and not be so busy with life stuff. We got there on Christmas Eve and spent the evening getting dinner ready for after the 11pm Christmas Eve service. Alberto's mom made quite a spread and then I added to it with a ham (requested by the non-Peruvians). We stopped at Starbucks before church so I was able to stay awake until 3am to celebrate with Alberto's family. I was quite proud of myself  :)


Saturday was Alberto's 25th birthday. We spent most of the day with friends and then shared a strawberry cake (Alberto's favorite) with his family.

We then came back to Michigan for a couple days. The 28th was the anniversary of adopting Padfoot so of course I had to dig up this photo. We are very glad he came into our lives and made us a family of three.






On the 30th I had my 24 week appointment, all was well. Then we left for Iowa for Jones family Christmas. Thursday we went to HuHot for lunch and then Casa Tequila for dinner. I love getting back to the Iowa City area to eat at my favorite places with family and friends :)

We spent NYE in WIlliamsburg at the Wellingtons. It was a onesie party so wearing pjs was allowed (and way more comfortable for someone who is growing out of most my clothes!). We played board games and watched the NYE coverage. I'm so thankful for these friends and our time together!

Iowa played vs Stanford on Friday in the Rose Bowl so we watched that as a family (well the first half at least) and then celebrated Christmas. It was so wonderful to be altogether again!

Then we stopped in Chicago for a night to hang out with Alberto's family before he left for Israel today. Here is the 26 week tummy photo:

24 weeks

Well, December is flying by. We finally finished our Christmas shopping and now we need to wrap!

There was a cookie exchange with the WTS ladies on Friday the 11th, there were few of us but it was nice to be together and catch up on life. I made these guys:

I was having trouble keeping anything down on Saturday the 12th so after 12 hours of this we went to the ER. I had an IV put in and then they dismissed me and then I got sick again. So then I got re-admitted and another IV with more liquids and medicine. After this I felt a lot better and we went home. 24 hours of a liquid diet and then I was on my feet. 

Last Friday was the last day of seminary classes for Alberto (ever!) so Alberto and I celebrated by going to see the new Star Wars movie. It was pretty good but definitely left me with more questions at the end. I guess that's how they keep making money :)

We announced this past weekend that baby La Rosa is a boy! 

Our 24 week appointment isn't until next week due to the holidays. But here is a photo of my 24 week tummy:

Merry Christmas to all! 

22 weeks

We had our ultrasound last Thursday and baby is doing well! Weight is 1 lb 1 oz which is quite normal for 21 weeks they tell me. Also, we found out the gender! Keeping the gender a secret for now but here's baby so far :) 

AND Alberto felt the baby kick for the first time last night! Baby has been kicking quite a bit lately but the placing of my placenta makes it easy for me to feel than for others. So I was really happy to share that with him.

Also. I turned 28 last week. It's going to be a life changing year. I'm excited and very nervous at the same time. We celebrated with Thai food and it was delicious!

22 week tummy!