Meet our Gracie Girl!

Our beautiful baby girl, Grace Marina, was born on June 20 and she has filled our lives with so much love and so many blessings. She is healthy and strong and that's what is most important. She is also the cutest little munchkin (or little croquette of love, as Daddy calls her!) in the world! I am in awe and this all still seems so surreal... wow, I am a MOM! :)

This is the night we headed to the hospital on June 19...



After being induced overnight, I ended up having a C-section so the recovery was a bit painful but I am feeling much better now. Here's our very FIRST family photo in the operating room:



Daddy feeding his baby girl for the first time in scrubs (how sexy!)...



Mommy feeding Gracie...



Leaving the hospital...



Coming home!





We are also getting into a little bit of a routine now (one day at a time!) and doing our best to get used to the loooong sleepless days and nights that a newborn requires. Being a Mommy (and Daddy) is REALLY hard work but oh so rewarding!!

She always has her arms up in the air or her hands on her face...(I need to file those nails again!)



This past weekend, we ended up going to the ER twice. The first time was because of a bad colic attack that Gracie suffered. We called the pediatrician's office and they had us take her to the ER for a check-up. Things are better now. We changed her formula and we're trying to get her tummy feeling better and her gas pains to go away.

The second visit to the ER was for me :( This has been a really hard week! It seems that all the stress led to me developing Bells Palsy, something that's very common in pregnant women (I developed it 5 days AFTER giving birth!). It's a temporary condition that can last a few weeks where your facial nerves become inflamed due to a virus, etc. and it causes one side of your face to become somewhat paralyzed. Mine is NOT that bad, but it still feels very strange and it's difficult to eat, blink your eye, smile, brush your teeth, etc. It REALLY makes you appreciate all those things you take for granted every day! And I hate that I don't want to appear in any pictures because I want to take photos with my baby girl!! I also cannot give her my breast milk due to the meds that I have to take so I am pumping and throwing it all away!! Right now, I am trying some vitamins and I will start acupuncture treatment tomorrow to help me heal faster. I just pray that it goes away fast.

Be back soon...

39 weeks... and Grace is almost here!!!

Thank you so much to you lovely ladies for your beautiful, funny and supportive comments on my last post. Just a couple of days after I posted that, this *woman* who's a friend of my mother-in-law's comes up to me at work and says things like, "OMG! You're so huge!! That baby must be too big!" When I told her the baby is just fine in size, thank you. She responds, "Well you should hold back on eating too much and watch what you are consuming...." To say I held back is a major UNDERSTATEMENT. I just walked away and said BITCH under my breath!! I was so angry she practically brought me to tears. It's hard to control your emotions when you're ultra sensitive and hormonal. The nerve of some people!

Anyway, enough about that!

I wanted to share with you two of our maternity photo shoot images that my talented and all-around awesome friend and photographer, Margie Bonilla, shot back in May. If you are in South Florida, look her up people cause she rocks. (Click on her name for a direct link to her blog.)




I'll leave you with a letter that I wrote my baby girl, which I will be putting in her album...

Letter to Gracie

Today is June 16, 2011 and I cannot believe you are almost here! I’m so excited to finally meet you after all the squirming you’ve been doing inside my belly. I love feeling you move around because that’s how I know you’re doing well. I won’t lie – it does get rather uncomfortable at times and it even hurts when you kick me hard, but I wouldn’t want it any other way my sweet Gracie Girl…. Yep, that’s the nickname I’ve given you. I’m sure you will get many other nicknames later on. When you start moving around, there’s a song that comes to mind… “There She Goes” by Sixpence None the Richer. Don’t ask me why! It just popped into my head one day and it stuck.

I pray for you almost every day and ask God to keep you healthy and strong and that the delivery goes well.

We’ve been working hard to prepare the house for you so I hope you will enjoy living here and have lots of fun in your beautiful room.

I want you to know how very much your Daddy and I love you and how badly we wanted to become parents. You have made our dream a reality and you will surely fill our lives with even more blessings and our hearts will know a new love like no other. Just know that Daddy and I are pretty silly and you may have to get used to us being crazy kids, too!

Gracie Girl, always remember to love deeply, be kind to others, cherish the everyday and chase after your dreams. Finish school, go to college, word hard and success will be yours. You can do anything that you set your mind to – don’t ever forget that!

I wish that Mami and my Mom were here to meet you – you would have LOVED them and they would have spoiled you rotten! I know that they are watching over us, but I miss them so much and wish they were here to share this experience with me and guide me through it all. Sometimes I get scared that I won’t know how to take care of you or how to protect you, but somehow I know that God and my little guardian angels will help me figure it out… one day at a time.

I love you very much already!

Vanessa (AKA Mom)

38 weeks pregnant!!!

Where do I begin??? There's so much to say, so many thoughts going through my head right now...

First of all, my belly is BIG!!! Our baby girl is over 6 lbs now and I've been getting Braxton Hicks contractions. I'm working another week even though it's getting harder and harder to find the energy to make it in to the office. I went swimming a couple of weeks ago in our pool and I snapped this photo of my bump (well, it's more like a hill or mountain now - LOL!)

Which leads me to vent about pregnancy etiquette and the idiots out there who lack common sense, tact or sensitivity... (I bet you have come across these folks, too!) Sorry, but I need to get this off my chest!

Who gives people the right to come and feel up your belly when you don't really know them? (Ever heard of personal space, sir!?)
Oh, and the woman in the salon or the one at Target or my husband's family... (yep, there's been a few) who come up and ask, "How many babies are in there?", "Are you having twins?", "Are you sure it's not two or three?" (Last time, I responded that it's probably more like 6 babies, but I had lost count.)
"I'm sure you're not going to make it till the end - you're just wayyyyy too big!!!"
"Your boobs look so small now that your belly is so big."

And the trophy winner by far...

"Wow... you're so big you look like a submarine!"

It got to the point where I actually asked the doctor, "Is my belly too big? Is my baby too big? People are saying all this..." She says my belly is measuring a week or two ahead in size but that it's perfectly normal and that I should tell people that if they don't have anything nice to say, then they shouldn't say anything at all. So SCREW OFF PEOPLE!

OK, I feel better now that I shared my frustration! :) Now on to happier things...

My honey bunny and his uncle put together all the baby furniture a couple of weekends ago - here's a sneak peek!



Then my BFF (what would I EVER do without her???) helped me organize, decorate and wash baby clothes. She is truly heaven-sent :) I still have a few more things to do, but I will share photos of the nursery one day soon. It brought tears to my eyes when I first walked in there...

My aunt Mae and step dad, Jorge, came by to visit yesterday and they LOVED the baby's room :) It was so nice to see them and spend some quality time together. Jorge even brought me yellow roses - my favorite!



I'll be back soon - I may even have a layout to share. WOW!