LA Baby Shower

The "Hostest with the Mostest" and my awesome sister, Tricia - Thank You!!!

My wonderful, lovely, generous, kind sister, Tricia, throws one fabulous baby shower!  She hosted a beautiful shower for me and Baby at The Malibu Cafe last weekend and it was absolutely gorgeous.  We (well, everyone else) drank bottomless mimosas and lemonade to try and beat the heat while we enjoyed the beautiful setting and had a chance to catch up.  We ordered a delicious brunch (blueberry waffles, what!?) and then moved over to a more shaded/cool area to dip our feet in the water and open presents. 

Like I said, Baby, is blessed!

My wonderful sis-in-law, Mackenzie!

Marshall/Matt/Clayton/Judis - All the same person - I LOVE you!

I can't thank Tricia enough for such a perfect shower.  A huge thank you also to my mom who flew in from Oregon to attend the shower and to my sister-in-law, Mackenzie, for making the trek from San Diego.  Oh, and a huge thank you to Christina for some delicious push-pop cupcakes (that she decorated with "It's a Girl" ribbons (yummy).

My beautiful mommy

Xtina - Queen of Push-Pop Cupcakes (and she just had a baby!)

Baby K is one VERY lucky girl and can't wait to meet everyone in about 5 weeks!

Bump, Bump and Away!!!!

Today marks our 32nd week on this journey of pregnancy!  I've kind of slacked on the bump update posts but hopefully, the pics from Spain and the baby showers have kept you in the loop.

All is going great with baby and I'm relatively comfortable - I'll be even more comfortable once the air conditioning is installed (crossing fingers this happens within the week)!  My doctor is happy with the development of our baby and my weight gain is on track thus far.  I have realized however that I can not lift heavy items like I had been, which is frustrating.  It's not like I was power lifting or anything but this fact makes me feel even less like a contributor to our renovation(s).  Russ is now relegated to carrying most large items up and down the stairs and I've found gardening a little more difficult with this growing baby inside of me.

Baby K is super active and loves to save her kicks and twirls for bedtime but it doesn't bother me because already, I think that everything she does is perfect ;)



32 weeks!  Baby is the size of a large squash!

Feeling Showered with Love!

The love we have experienced over the past month is overwhelming, humbling and awesome all at the same time!  Russ and I are incredibly blessed to have such wonderful friends and family who poured out their love on us (and baby) by throwing us three baby showers!

Grandma Nancy and I

My ladies in Seattle - - Jenelle was with us in spirit, she was sick :(

Our first stop was Seattle where we were able to enjoy some sunshine (yes, it was rare) and celebrate Father's Day and Grandpa Dave's birthday in addition to two baby showers!  The first was thrown by my sweet mother-in-law and friend Carol Ross and the other was perfectly planned by my longtime girlfriends Piper, Jackie and Jenelle.

While it was a whirlwind trip, we also managed to fit in some quality time at some of our favorite restaurants with friends, take a beautiful walk along the Sammamish trail with Grandma and Grandpa Kerwin and enjoy a delicious Father's Day brunch with Grandpa Dave and soon-to-be-daddy Russ!  If you want to see more pics from the girlfriends shower in Seattle, click here.

Heather, Mom, Tricia and I

Russ headed back to Los Angeles after that first weekend but I was fortunate to be able to fly down to Oregon to spend a week with my family prior to the shower that my mom and sister, Heather, threw for me (and baby)!  Little did I know, that my cousin Lyn flew all the way from Maryland to be at the shower AND she did ALL the cooking!  She is incredible and the food was to die for!

Best Mom in the WORLD!

One of the highlights of my time in Oregon, was seeing all of my closest childhood girlfriends who I am still closer than ever with.  It is so rare to get all of us to get together at the same time and I felt blessed beyond belief!  We had so much fun talking well into the night, and we still didn't even scratch the surface.
 

While each shower was beautifully executed and the gifts were beyond generous (thank you!!!!), the real gift(s) were seeing friends and family and feeling so loved I could burst.  A heartfelt thanks to all who are making our pregnancy experience so memorable and our lives so blessed.

Babymoon in Espana

We've been off the grid for a couple of weeks (and then a couple more to recover) from our babymoon to Espana!

Cocktails/Mocktails before dinner in Marbella, Spain

What a treat to spend nearly two weeks with each other exploring the southern part of Spain and soaking in the rays of the Costa del Sol. 

Not only was it a great trip to see another country and experience a new culture, it was also a really nice time to reconnect with each other.  Russ and I have learned that travelling has helped us enormously because it affords us the space and time (minus distractions) to focus on each other.

So, while Spain was beautiful - I'd say the best part of the trip was growing together as a couple and cherishing our "last hurrah" before baby.

Since we've missed some "bump" updates, this will have to suffice for the 26 week pic and of course, I'm acting like a ham!

Our overall trip went something like this: Madrid, Toledo, Seville, Marbella, Morocco, Almunecar, Nerja, Granada, Madrid, Amsterdam and HOME!

Alhambra in Granada, Spain

I can fill ya in on details (hotels, what we saw, ate and did) later but that should give you a general sense of our itinerary.  It was just enough city/beach balance and overall a once-in -a-lifetime trip that we'll treasure forever.

The Growing Bump

I got a bit behind on the posts esp. since there has been such big news lately so don't fall over that you're getting two posts in two days ;)  I'm also doing my best to keep ya'll updated on the growing belly (it's an entity unto its own) and posting pics every two weeks.

We all know Russ was less than thrilled about taking this picture but he's learning to be a good sport.  Beba is silently protesting

My Dr. said that it is normal to gain about 25-35 lbs over the course of a pregnancy and at my last appointment, I had gained ten lbs.  Which, I should mentioned I relayed to Russ and his response was, "that's all, you look like you've gained more".  * Note, never a good idea to say that to your wife.  It's all good, I know the baby is getting everything she needs and getting big and round is part of the deal you make when taking on a pregnancy.

The fruit artwork is courtesy of Russ - it's supposed to be a papaya

My diet hasn't really changed too much since being pregnant.  Early on, I couldn't stand the idea of coffee but this aversion has passed and just recently I experienced my first craving for a strawberry shake from Jack in the Box.  All in all though, I'm just trying to remember more fruits and vegetables and to eat small frequent meals.  I took some tips from my mother-in-law and added some of the swiss chard we have in our garden to my fruit smoothies in the morning so at least I'm getting my fruit and at least one veggie each day (hopefully more in my lunch in dinner).

Not a great quality pic but I feel like this image shows more accurately how big the belly has gotten (22 weeks, 3 days)

The Big News!

While some people find out at 13 weeks (my sister), others have to wait until close to 21 weeks to find out the sex of their baby! 

Our dessert...

Our Perinatologist, Dr. Platt, recommends conducting the second trimester ultrasound at 20-22 weeks to maximize the information he can gather.  They measure everything in the second trimester and it's so cool when you can actually see your baby's heart pumping blood in and out using such advanced technology.

 We thought long and hard about how we wanted to find out the sex of our baby and knew that we wanted something intimate and authentic to who we are.  We considered the "reveal" party, the cake, special boxes with the gender name inside, etc... but at the end of the day - we decided that we just wanted "us".  We love nothing more than a good date night and so we picked a special place we'd been wanting to try, WP24 at the top of the Ritz Carlton in downtown.

To be honest, we both thought that we'd know the sex of our baby prior to dinner because the 52 inch+ (?) plasma screen that you watch during the ultrasound doesn't hide very much.  But, to our surprise, Dr. Platt was pretty incredible (and fast) as he confirmed the sex.  He is a funny Dr. and wrote the sex down on a post-it note and then wrapped it in tons of tape and layers of paper and placed the "ball" in an envelope.

As we were finishing up our main course, we took turns opening the note revealing a new layer until finally I got it back from Russ and opened up the final post-it to reveal that we are having a ...

An emotional moment - the paper says "girl"!

 GIRL!!!!

We are over the moon excited about our little baby girl who is gonna be here before we know it.  

Halfway Hooray and Nancy's Bday!

We are halfway through this incredible journey of pregnancy and as cliche as it sounds, I have no idea where the time has gone?!

At a wedding in San Diego

We've been busy working on our house (which has been put into high gear now), trying to enjoy time with family and cherishing these last few months as just "Russ and Ang".  Knowing that we are going to have a child (for the rest of our lives) in a few months can be a little overwhelming, but a challenge we have spent the past 14 years preparing for.  Yes, we have been together for 14 years!

We were lucky to be able to spend time with family both at Easter and the following weekend in San Diego for a wedding.  And who could forget  - -  we managed to squeeze in a special birthday boating trip to celebrate Nancy's fabulous 60th birthday! 

Pouring some bubbly to celebrate Nancy!

Boating for Nancy's 60th Birthday (official bday 4/22)!

I got a little dose of just how soon the baby will be here when calling a hotel to make reservations for a wedding this September.  I told the receptionist to put us in the quietest area because we'll have a baby with us.  Just saying this out loud to a stranger was surreal and she informed me that they don't have cribs so we'll have to bring our own sleeping device.  I know, we are ambitious to plan to attend a wedding less than 4 weeks after our baby is born, but we're gonna do our best because they are very close friends.  We'll see...

I celebrated the halfway point by getting a mani-pedi.  I think Russ would say he celebrated by finding a deal on Craigslist for hardwood floors ;)

For those of you (Piper & mom) who said they can't tell I'm pregnant, I have included proof that mama's getting big!  The past two weeks have been the most dramatic thus far. 


20 Weeks (2 days) Woo Hoo!

Highlights of the past two weeks:

• Hearing the baby's heartbeat at my 2nd trimester Dr. Appt - click here to hear it (it's on Youtube but there isn't anything to see)
• Feeling the baby kick for the first time on Sunday, April 15th
• Russ actually felt the baby in a ball this morning (4/21) on the right side of my uterus