5 months

Can't believe I haven't updated this since Sophia was 2-3 months old. She is now 5 months going on 6! Its truly incredible how fast time goes by. Can't believe she's already half a year old. Crazy. Do I sound like a broken record? Sorry.

Sophia is in full force learning mode!
She is starting to love her bouncer and "activity yard" thing.
She can grasp her toys and other objects.
Everything ends up getting the "taste test" by Sophia and her tongue.
She's attempting to sit up on her own and her attempts look like shes doing sit-ups.
She's a little roly poly and rolls around on the carpet from her back to stomach and back again.
She's def a talker (just noises right now), especially when we're in quiet places like church.
I think she loves her car seat and almost always falls asleep in it on our car rides.
She LOVES our doggies Bella and Rome. She watches them and laughs when they look at her.
Her bedtime is 8:30-9. Any time after 8:30 she becomes a crank if she doesn't get to sleep.
She loves colorful things, whether it be a piece of paper, ipad or phone screen, tv, toys, anything!
She still loves to be held.all.the.time.
Peek-a-boo makes her laugh and smile.

Her smile and laugh melt my heart.

Two months go by...

To my dear Sophia,

You are almost 3 months old! These months have flown by and we can’t slow it down. It’s already November! The year is almost over and we are heading into your first holiday season! JOY!

We really can’t put into words how you have changed our life. Throughout my pregnancy a lot of people would tell us “just wait until you get to hold your baby in your arms.” But nothing can prepare you for the love that knocks you down full force. Our hearts grow bigger and bigger every day. Some days I look at you sleeping and tears roll down my cheeks out of pure LOVE and JOY. NOTHING and NOONE can describe it, you just feel it. It kind of lets you know just how much God loves us, his children. Indescribable love.

You are growing up so fast and every day is different. This month

- You want to sit up more and always have to know what’s going on and facing the action.

- You chew and suck your hands all the time & your drooling is out of control at times. We think you are already starting to teeth.

- You talk, laugh, and smile when you wake up in the morning. Every morning we wake up with a smile on our face because of you.

- You’re a wiggle worm! You love to dance when we put you on your back, kicking your legs and waving your arms around.

- You love to watch football on the TV. It must be the colors and movement.

- Around 8:30-9:00pm, you get extra grouchy until we go to bed.

- You’re gigging and smiling more and more throughout the day. Happy baby

- You enjoy tummy time more! Yay

- You have outgrown your Newborn clothes and now wearing 0-3 month clothing.

- You took your first 5k with mommy in your Baby Bjorn! We took “strides against Breast Cancer"

- You enjoy to watch mommy & daddy do the Insanity workouts. (We think you’re going to be such an athlete!)

- You were so brave at your 2-month doctor appointment when you got your 2-month vaccinations. Mommy wasn’t such a wimp this time and didn’t cry for 2 hours. I still couldn’t watch though.

- Your hair is growing fast and is in an awkward stage where it stands straight up. My little peacock

Until ext month...

Love, mommy & daddy

Dear Sophia

You are 1 month old! Actually 1 month, 1 week, and 5 days old now. I've decided to turn this blog into something for you to read one day. Kind of like a baby book!

Right now you are eating...yep, on my boob. Thats's where you spend most of your time. You absolutely HAVE to eat every 2hrs or you go into a screaming rage and make mean faces at me and daddy.

Some memories we've created:

- Coming home from the hospital and meeting the puppies. They are VERY curious! Always wanting to sniff you and see why you make weird noises. Rome is protective of you, even growls at Bella sometimes when she tries to sniff you. You sometimes stare at them with wide eyes. I keep telling them one day you will probably torture them with lots of tail & ear pulls. They go into absolute crazy mode when people come over to visit you, so we have to put them outside sometimes. They love you.

-Mommy's mind is no where to be found. The first time I packed up your diaper bag to take you to your first doctor appointment I forgot to pack diapers. Isn't that the most important item in a diaper bag? I made a pizza the first time actually making dinner since you've been here, and daddy went to take it out of the oven and said "Alex, you didn't put cheese on the pizza?" Yep, i forgot to put cheese on the pizza..even though the shredded mozzarella cheese was right there on the counter.

- We went to Marissa & Jon's wedding and you loved to dance! We took turns bringing you on the dance floor and dancing around with you in our arms. You were looking at everyone with a big smile on your face. Daddy and you had matching outfits and we didn't even get a picture together! I am mad about this. ;)

- After several attempts, you still won't take a bottle. You don't find it funny when we try and "trick" you into thinking a bottle is mommy's boob. This has led to many phone calls from daddy when I go to the grocery store. "Babe, where are you? Sophia is hungry, won't take the bottle, and has been crying for the past 20 minutes."

- You have a love/hate relationship with your car seat. Sometimes you will sleep the whole car ride, and other times you scream at the top of your little lungs for someone to take you out.

- We have found the miracle that lets you sleep the whole night. It's called the "Miracle Blanket" and I will now get it for every friend at their baby shower. Daddy told me I was mean for strapping your arms down, but when his sleep didn't get interrupted that night he quickly changed his mind. Your arms scare you and you have no idea what to do with them.

- I love you and your daddy more than anything in this world. I am extremely blessed.

Sophia's birth story

After 3 weeks of doctor appointments and my cervix not doing anything, my doctor suggested Ischedule an induction because it looked like my body wasn’t going to go into labor on its own.

On Monday night, the hospital called to schedule the induction. When I got off the phone I was overwhelmed with emotions. I cried and cried for a good hour. I couldn’t even call Angelo to tell him without bursting in tears. I was so excited/anxious/nervous/scared/happy/etc,etc,etc! Tuesday and Wednesday were a blur as I tried to think of everything and anything I needed to bring a baby into our new home. Thursday came and I was pretty quiet the whole day. I was calm on the outside but terrified on the inside. I was so scared of the pain that I was about to go through. I wanted to skip the whole labor process and meet my baby girl! Before we made our way to the hospital we went to our last prenatal appointment (to find out my cervix was closed “tighter than Fort Knox”), Angelo got a hair cut (because he “needed to look good in pictures”), dropped the puppies off at their grandparent’s house, cleaned the house & car spotless, and finally installed the car seat. Around 5pm we gathered our hospital bags and out the door we went. The next time we would walk in our front door we will have a baby with us!

On the way to the hospital I started crying and told Angelo how scared I was. He calmed me down and assured me that any pain I was going to feel was to bring our baby girl safely into the world. The pain had a beautiful purpose. We stopped by Chickfila to get some last minute dinner and try to get my mind off of it.

6:00pm: Checked into the hospital and settled into the labor & delivery room around 6:15. Filled out paper work, started the IV, and had 2 monitors strapped around my stomach. These were for the baby’s heart rate and another to monitor my contractions.

8:00pm: Cervidil was inserted. Cervidil is a tampon like object with a drug called dinoprostone that is used to “ripen” the cervix and get it ready to be able to deliver a baby. I couldn’t get out of bed or eat/drink anything for the next two hours. This was kinda hard since you always have to pee when someone tells you that you can’t! Pain scale: 0

10:00pm: My last chance to eat until after Sophia was born. Not knowing when that would be, I ate some pineapple and melon. Pain scale: 0

11:00pm: I tried to get some sleep but couldn’t, even though I felt really tired. Angelo fell asleep on his sleeper couch next to me.

12:00am: Contractions started to hit me. They felt like really bad period cramps. I also had to pee every 5 minutes because of the IV fluids being pumped through me. Pain scale: 4

1:00am: My water broke! Weirdest feeling ever! It felt like a balloon literally popped inside of me. I was scared because I didn’t know what it was so I jumped out of bed and stood in the middle of the floor, water pouring out of me, trying to yell at Angelo to wake up. Angelo ran and told the nurse. My body was naturally going into labor without the Pictosin. I was told it is very rare to go into labor with just the Cervidil. I guess I’m one of the lucky ones! With all the peeing I was doing, the Cervidil fell out at some point anyway.

2:00am: Contractions REALLLLY starting to hurt. I think they were coming every 4-5 minutes and I could barely lay still when they hit. It’s weird because you can actually feel them coming, peaking, and then leaving. Pain scale: 7

3:00am: I could barely talk, breathe, or think through the contractions. I was begging for pain medication but wasn’t allowed to have any because Sophia’s heart rate would drop every time I had a contraction. I could feel Sophia moving down with every contraction and it felt like my uterus was being twisted in a knot and cut out of me. Yes, it was the worst pain I have every felt before in my life. Pain scale: 9 Cervix check: 1cm! When the nurse told me I was barely a cm dilated, I thought I was going to punch her. All this pain and still nothing?!

4:00-5:00am: Pain Pain and Pain. Contractions were coming every 1-3 minutes. I couldn’t get any relief with pain meds. I was attempting to rip the bed rail off the bed, trying to find any way possible to make the pain go away. The worst part was knowing the pain was coming back every friggin minute. Every now and then I’d ask angelo how HE was doing because I was convinced he would pass out at any moment with all my weird breathing and noise making.

5:00am: I was finally dilated to 3cm, able to get the epidural. THANK GOD I thought…some relief. To get the epidural I was told to be completely still while having the worst contractions yet. I think I almost broke the nurse’s hands from squeezing them so hard. Angelo had to sit down during the epidural.

5:30am: Still in major pain. The epidural wasn’t working at all. I think the

only part of me that went numb was my right thigh. I still felt every contraction. The nurses were wondering why I was still in so much pain so they checked my cervix again to find out I was already at 9.5 cm! I went from 3cm to 9.5cm in about 30 minutes! Talk about progress! Sophia was on her way and in a hurry!

6:00am: The epidural kicked in a little more and the pain was manageable. Nurse told me to start pushing. Angelo was told to grab my right leg (the one leg that was totally numb and felt like 1000lbs). I pushed for maybe 5 seconds and was told to stop. Sophia’s head was coming quickly so the Nurse ran to get the doctor. Pain scale: 4

6:17am: After 4 pushes Sophia made her way into the world! 7lbs 2oz, 19inches long. My beautiful screaming baby girl was put into my arms and Angelo cut the umbilical cord! Pain scale: ZERO.

Let the games begin...

Angelo & I with our little girl

Daddy's girl

Sophia Grace Metallo

The final countdown

Hey folks!!! Well, we finally moved into our new house so things have been NONSTOP over here. I still have a ton of unpacking and organizing to do and hopefully will get it all done before Sophia makes her appearance! It's around 6pm on a Monday night right now and I am eating some whole wheat pancakes with eggs...lol Sounded good and was super fast to make in between all the chaos of unpacking. I think I am finally finished organizing our closet, hopefully I don't find another bag of clothes hiding in the boxes in the garage.

Thursday is the BIG DAY (my due date!) I have a doctor's appointment in the morning where they will check if there's any "activity" going on "down there". I haven't showed any progress the past 2 weeks. If I still have no progress then they will induce me Thursday night, which means...SOPHIA WILL BE HERE ON FRIDAY!!!!!

Weekly Report

How far along? 39 Weeks, 4 days. 3 days until my due date!

Total weight gain/loss:? 30 lbs

Stretch marks? No change

Sleep: Sleeping in our new king-sized bed has been wonderful! So much more room for me to roll my big belly over lol

Best moment this week: SO MANY awesome moments for me this week. Sleeping in our new house, taking a late-night swim with the hubby in our new pool, having Sophia's furniture delivered and set up, officially being a homeowner!

Movement: Yep

Food cravings: Anything and everything sounds good. I could eat our entire fridge if you let me.

Gender: Girl

Labor Signs: Nope..unfortunately.

Belly Button in or out? Flat like a pancake.

What I miss: My skinny feet and hands! They get so swollen and hurt!

What I am looking forward to: Thursday's doc appt!

Weekly Wisdom: "Once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairytale"

Sophia's growing: Her brain is still developing rapidly, and her skin has taken on a paler shade thanks to a thicker layer of fat around the blood vessels. (Don't worry; she'll change color again soon after birth.) She's now able to flex her limbs, and her nails might extend past her fingertips.

Inducing Labor

HEY! It's FRIDAY, time for the weekend once again! This weekend is filled with furniture shopping, a graduation party, and bridal shower. FUN stuff!

Sunday we went to the zoo because it was $5 day. Usually it's $24 a person, crazy right? This creature below is an Alligator Turtle pressing itself up against the glass of his water home.

Thursday was our 38wk doctor appointment. They start doing internal exams now to see if I'm progressing towards labor. I haven't progressed much at all. Doc said I was "maybe" 50% effaced (thinned out) and 0cm dilated (completely closed). We were told if there is 0 progress by next week's appointment then we will start looking at inducing labor. This got me thinking. What are ways I can try and induce labor myself, without any medical interventions? I’m definitely not trying to get Sophia to make an appearance early…I mean I STILL have to move my life into a new house! I just love to read different ways people try to induce labor. I don’t think I believe in any of these because I feel like the baby will come when baby wants to come out. These are my findings after much internet searching.

-Sex. This was right out of the doctor’s mouth and what he believes to be the only one to actually work. Semen has Prostagladins, which play a tole in the natural initiation of labor.

-Castor Oil. Said to also have Prostagladins.

-Walking. I do enough walking as it is.

-Raspberry loose leaf tea.

-Pineapple. I think I've eaten a lot of pineapple throughout this pregnancy already, but I'll def get some on my next grocery store trip.

-Spicy food.

-Eggplant Parmigiana. Yes this recipe claims it has induced labor of about 300 pregnant women. http://www.scalinis.com/Bambino.htm

-Prune juice. Doesn't prune juice make you do to the bathroom?!

-Eating macaroni and cheese with A1 sauce. I have no idea...

-Nipple stimulation.

-Walking up and down stairs.

-Sitting on an exercise ball and bouncing (gently)

I'll let you know if I try any of these methods and we will see if there is any progress by next Thursday.

Weekly Report

How far along? 38 Weeks.. 13 days left until due date!!!!

Total weight gain/loss:? I'm stuck between 28-30 lbs. I lost 2 lbs from last week which puts me back at 28lbs. I REALLY don't know how. The past 2 weeks my appetite has been out.of.control. I eat A LOT! :) Mostly "healthy" foods but still some junk foods, ie: cookies, brownies, ice cream, potato chips.

Stretch marks? No change

Sleep: Ehhh, it's been OK. Not really any major complaints. My hips start hurting in the middle of the night from sleeping on my side. I have to switch from my right and left quite a few days throughout the night. Plus getting up about 2 times to pee. But hey...I'm still getting enough sleep.

Best moment this week: Going to our new home and seeing it completely empty and ready to move in. It made the interior designer in me go crazy with ideas. We are currently STILL waiting on the appraisal to be approved by the lender. We SHOULD close by Monday...please please please.

Movement: Yep

Food cravings: Cravings have been everywhere this week. On Monday I was craving Ramen Noodles. haha So, of course I went to the store and bought some. Did you know they were only $0.99 for a 6-pack?! CRAZAY! But, there are still 5 packs left and they no longer sound good. Anyone want some Ramen noodles? ;) Some other random cravings this week: Tuna salad with jalapenos, Greek salad, potato chips dipped in sour cream.

Gender: Girl

Labor Signs: Nope

Belly Button in or out? Flat like a pancake.

What I miss: Cuddle time with the hubby when I go to sleep. I'm too hot and I surround myself with 4 pillows trying to get comfortable.

What I am looking forward to: Next week's doc appointment!

Weekly Wisdom: Who in their right mind watches Soap Operas? When I'm home during the day they usually come on the TV at 1:00 after the Today shows. I have to change the channel immediately, because just the background noise of them is cheesy.

Sophia's growing: The last bits of vernix caseosa (the white goo keeping her skin moist) and lanugo (downy hair) are slowly shedding into my amniotic fluid. Her head is about the same circumference as her abdomen, and her head could be covered in an inch or so of hair.

Bump in the road

HEY!

This week my fitness routine hit a bump in the road. My dog, Rome, chewed up my Nike+ sensor on my shoe. Such a downer because I use it for my walks to make sure I get in so many miles/time per week. Before I had the Nike+ I used an iPhone app but it's just not the same. I LOVE the Nike+ and will have to get a new one ASAP. You can see the little booger in the background of the pic.

Even though I was sad about the sensor, I still got in my 5 walks this week. It's so freeeeaking hot outside, I have to take my walks around 9-10am before it gets too hot. But even at that time I come back drenched in sweat. I drink about a gallon of water everyday to keep hydrated. That's the key!

I wonder if people look at me funny with my big belly walking 2 dogs in this heat. :) Oh well. FYI: I do wear a shirt when I go on my walks, I just had to take it off once I got back inside because it was too hot and felt like it was strangling me. I told you I don't like to wear clothes...right?

Weekly Report

How far along? 37 Weeks..19 days left until due date!!!!

Total weight gain/loss:? I can't.stop.eating. I've officially hit 30 lbs. :o

Stretch marks? No change

Sleep: I wake up about 2 times per night to either pee or change positions. Angelo has had a harder time sleeping than I have. Maybe it's time for a new & bigger bed! :)

Best moment this week: Found out our house loan was approved. Now a couple more details (like the appraisal) need to be ironed out and we should be go-to-go! I also bought my baby monitor this week! Funny how simple baby things like that make me excited. :)

Movement: Yep, all up in my right rib.

Food cravings: On Wednesday I was craving a Milkshake...that's about it.

Gender: Girl

Labor Signs: Nope

Belly Button in or out? Flat like a pancake.

What I miss: I just want beer or glass of wine....haha pathetic I know.

What I am looking forward to: MOVING! Fingers crossed that by the next time I post I will be moving!

Weekly Wisdom: I've learned a big lesson in patience this week. “He that can have Patience, can have what he will” Once I started to have patience with the house situation and a few other things, they just started to fall into place.

Sophia's growing: I am full-term (yay!) and Sophia is gaining about 1/2 ounce a day and getting her first sticky poop (called meconium) ready. (yuck) She's also brushing up on skills for the outside world: blinking, sucking, inhaling, exhaling, and gripping (she's getting strong!). Wow, she is about the size of a freaking watermelon now!!