Wee! I'm THREE!

We're all in a little bit of shock that Sophia has now turned 3! All day Sunday, Rod & I reminisced on our life 3yrs ago that fateful day...

• getting up to go to Jackson Hospital at the crack of dawn
• watching Saved By the Bell in the waiting room before getting officially checked in
• mommy weighing in at her heftiest ever: 144!
• getting all hooked up to IV's, etc to start the induction
• feeling nervous & scared!
• realizing there weren't enough magazines to keep me occupied during that long day
• getting mad at Rod for wanting to keep watching the Food Network - when I clearly was NOT allowed to eat!!
• Rod pacing like a lion in the room - and driving me thoroughly CRAZY
• Begging his dad to dig into his "Doc stash" to give Rod some meds to shut him up & put him to sleep - thus giving me a break! (which Rafa kindly removed Rod from the room to take him to lunch & drug him!)
• Having the Dr. tell us that it was 6pm & nothing was happening & we could either "go home & try again next week" or "break the bag & get things moving". We opted for the latter!
• Finally getting the epidural & getting about an hour rest before I was ready to push!
• Watching The Tonight Show while pushing (no kidding!) & joking with Dr. Duggar during commercials!
• Hearing Sophia cry for the first time at 11:10 March 28th, 2007!
• Eating a 100 calorie pack of oreo crisps from my moms purse in my hospital bed - it was the first food I saw & I was starving!
• Holding Sophia for the first time

There were many other "firsts" to follow in the coming days, weeks, months & years - and it truly only gets better each day! Sophia is such a tremendous joy in our lives & we simply cannot imagine life without her - she is our first giggle of the day, often our first tantrum, but always our last kiss goodnight. She's growing up so fast & we're doing everything we can to hold onto the simple sweetness of toddlerhood right now - cherishing all the small things as we go.

We had a fun celebration in honor of the birthday girl - we invited her little friends & their parents, along with our family to help her blow out the 3 big candles this year! We all had a wonderful time as the girls played house, colored, shopped & became hopped up on sugar...we were ALL pooped by the days end!

March Madness...

No, not the basketball kind - but more of the family kind! It's been a busy month for our family - work, home & Sophia's 3rd birthday (yesterday, March 28th) proved to nearly wipe us out. One other little tidbit we experienced this months was that Rod & I found out we're expanding our little family of three to FOUR this past month! We're SO excited & Sophia is really liking the idea of being a big sister too. She of course got to sport the 'I'm the BIG Sister' t-shirt to spill the beans to our family...she thought that was fun, well, in addition to the 'big sister' bracelet that Daddy bought for her too. The first positive test came on Thurs. Feb. 17th, followed by 4 more (just to be sure I was reading those two lines right!) & was then confirmed by our Doc on Tues. March 2nd! We opted to tell just the grandparents before it was confirmed by the Dr., because we were just too darn excited! We then got the baby's first u/s (ultrasound)photos on March 2nd - putting me at 6w1d (6 weeks 1 day)! We were so thrilled! We'd been planning this second baby since last Fall & were so delighted when God finally blessed us with another one! So, I'm officially due Oct. 25th & am exactly 10wks today. I went for another appt this morning just to confirm the baby's growth & due date & Baby Lopez was right on track - we even got to see Baby L waving his/her arms & legs & bouncing around. Since Baby L is only the size of a kumquat right now, I can't feel any movement (although I'm much more in tune with a 2nd pregnancy, I think I may have felt a very slight movement last night in bed!).

At this point, Baby L can bend his/her arms & legs....and tiny fingernails are starting to form. A growing baby is nothing short of a miracle & the process never ceases to amaze me. In another 10wks, we'll return for our 20wk u/s visit & we'll find out if we need to invest in pink or blue! Of course we'll have a few more regular visits in between, but those 10wks will fly by!

I've been feeling pretty good so far - with some bouts of nausea, that has really been about the worst. Nausea kept me from having much of an appetite, especially around dinnertime. I did find that getting back to my daily gym routine & goldfish crackers seemed to do the trick! By that alone, I'm thinking that this baby may just be a boy - I never felt nauseous like that with Sophia! The gym (thankfully I love to go!) has also helped me in beating mid-day fatigue & keeping my raging preggie hormones in check - which Rod gladly appreciates! Only now am I really feeling better as I near the 2nd trimester - although I'm a bit more fatigued these days. Since it's the 2nd time around, I'm beginning to show a little - but despise this 'in-between' phase! Meaning I feel terribly bloated & uncomfortable in some regular clothes - but I'm not yet ready for the full-blown maternity gear. Sigh. Good news is, I've got my good girlfriend Monica (Ava's mommy) who is also expecting & due about 6wks ahead of me - so we can be fluffy together this summer. Hooray!

We'll keep you posted on our Babywatch 2010....only 30 weeks to go! I'll also do my best to upload photos of Sophia's 3rd birthday party asap too - it was a great little party & she is SUPER proud to be THREE!!