Off to Jazz Camp

This one time, at band camp...

Rosi left for jazz camp this morning.. She's going with her brothers, and will be there for the next week. It's located out in the forest near Woodside, far from civilization, at a YMCA camp in LaHonda. This means that Blitz and I are bachelors again, on our own for the next week. Freedom! No responsibilities, no pregnant wife to take care of! It's heaven! Wait, no, I'm bored and lonely. Ah well, it was fun while it lasted.

Phil and Gonzalo got in from LA about midnight last night, making the long drive in great time. They managed to squeeze their giant truck full of gear into our small garage... the truck could be no larger and the garage no smaller in any way for things to have still fit. It was kind of impressive, really, every cubic foot of garage was filled by truck. Rosi was up late packing but managed to get some sleep in while preparing to leave. Everyone was up early to finish getting ready, and then at about 10am they left, off for the woods to commune with nature and music.

Blitz and I promptly took a nap.

Here are some pictures!




Scott

New Doctor!

Yesterday we had our 28 week check-up and met our new doctor - Dr. Gary Hoff. He's a jolly man and you can tell he really loves his work. While we were waiting I could hear him laugh with his patients and even speak some Spanish with them. The hallways of his practice are filled with baby and delivery pictures. I was anxious to meet him. And although he was 1.5 hours late (there was an emergency with a woman who had a cyst burst - eeks), it was worth it! :)A little background: He comes from a family of people in the medical field, his mother was a nurse and his father was well known OB who delivered over 10,000 babies in his career - mostly at Sequoia Hospital (our new hospital)! Dr. Gary Hoff is one of 6 kids, 4 of which turned out to be doctors of some sort and 1 of which also is also an OB with him (J.D. Hoff) at the Redwood City Woman's Medical Center.

The reason we switched was because after doing a tour at Stanford Hospital, I realized I wanted something that was more cozy and intimate. Stanford Hospital is great - amazing doctors and state-of-the-art everything and is really the right choice for lots of people. The problem is is that everyone seems to go there and they often seem to be crowded and they don't have private rooms. The person giving us the presentation said just on that day that they had delivered 17 babies in less than 12 hours. And I could tell that she was tired and a little stressed.

I didn't want to feel rushed or crowded when delivering or recovering so I asked around and received recommendations for the Hoff brothers from friends (thanks Nerissa!) and people at Blossom Birth center. Luckily the Hoff brothers and Sequoia were covered under our insurance and Dr. Gary Hoff agreed to take me on even though I was in my 3rd trimester. Plus the facilities are super duper close to work and a lot faster to get to! :) Oh, and our new doctor prefers to deliver his own babies - so unless we deliver while he's out of town, he'll be our delivering doctor.

I spoke to him about how I didn't want to get an IV right away, didn't want to be induced, wanted to avoid c-section, wanted my epidural only after 5 or 6 centimeters of dilation and all sorts of other things and he was very amenable to it all. Good! I have warm fuzzies about the switch to our new doctor and our new hospital.

OK - so here are some stats from our appointment - in general it went well! :

• Gemma's heartbeat = 156 bpm (fast and healthy)
• My fundal height = 29 cm (length from my pubic bone to the top of my uterus). From this point on, the cm # usually matches the # of weeks I'm at so we are right on target if not a little ahead
• My blood pressure = 120/60 (normal)
• My weight gain this past month = 5.5 lbs (making up for not gaining anything last month). At this point I'm supposed to be gaining 1 lb every week so at this rate with 12 weeks left I am targeting a little less than 30lbs (26.5lbs). I'm ok with that. Scott keeps reminding me that I'm growing a human! LOL! :)
• We've now graduated to seeing the doctor once every 2 weeks!
  

That's about all I have for now. In one month the doctor will be checking to see if my low-lying placenta has moved up. I bet/hope it has! Wish us luck!

Diaper Dude!

My awesome sister Maria and mother of 6 children, bought Scott his first daddy gift. It is called a 'Diaper Dude' - a diaper bag that looks cool and not anything like a diaper bag so Scott won't be shy about carrying it around. Blitz, of course, had to inspect it immediately.

In the past, Scott has had this idea that if bought a Hello Kitty pink diaper bag and took it on a flight that they would let him on early. He never tried out his idea but always wanted too. Well, now he doesn't have to pretend, we'll have the real-deal soon enough. Though I don't know how much we plan to fly after Gemma arrives... well, not at first anyway.

Thank you Maria for the great gift! :)

27 Weeks

Isn't she cute?

27 Weeks - Self Portrait

Here's the official picture of me @ 27 weeks. I forgot to ask Scott to take my picture so this was the best I could do this morning.

A couple of things I found out that week:

• Good news: My glucose test came back normal - I'm handling my sugars well. :)
• Not so good news: I'm slightly anemic. :( So I've starting taking iron supplements and eating more food with iron which seem to be taking care of the headaches and major fatigue I had been experiencing recently.
• If I stay up as late as possible, I sleep better and wake up a lot less during the night.
• At this point, I can't live without my snoogle - prego pillow! :)
  

At the very least, I'm figuring things out. So I'm feeling good!

Happy Father's Day! Happy 27 weeks!

This weekend has been one of just relaxing and chilling out with Scott. We've eaten one of his favorite meals (tacos made at home), watched one of his favorite shows ("Studio 360" and I'm sure tonight we'll watch "My Name is Earl" and "Robot Chicken Star Wars Special"), slept in, read in bed, and today I think he plans to either play video games and or program for fun. :)

As for me, I'm really happy to be at 27 weeks - 3rd trimester and in the home stretch! Our Gemma (we decided on 2 m's) continues to grow and she's almost 2 lbs and about 14.4 inches long head-to-toe. She can now open and close her eyes and is starting to have regular sleep patterns. I love when Scott calls her "Mambo Queen" when she's moving around a lot. :) We have a doctor's appointment later this week so we'll know more of her stats then.

This past week was really hectic but at the same time fun. I was in LA for work (recording voice-over for our next game and doing motion capture auditions). Our director called me the morning of our auditions (@5am) saying he wouldn't be able to make it because his wife was in labor - 2 weeks early! Well, that put me and our casting director into overdrive and we sprang into action. We scrambled to figure out a casting script, borrow a video camera, buy tapes and we winged it! We survived and we were able to get some great actors on tape and move the project forward.

While I was in LA I was able to see my family - they came to the Sheraton in Burbank to hang out with me. I really missed them and it was great to see them. In the photos are Sophia (9) and Katharina (5) with me above, my mother Carmen, my sister Maria with me in the water, Isabella (7), and Francesca (15 today! :) with my sister Carmen.

Oh, and btw, I this was the first time swimming with Gemma and it felt great.

Daddy's Little Girl!

Gemma is getting ready! She's already a wildcat and not even born yet. :)

Scott