Third trimester

6.5 months-dancing with my boys Well hello 7 months, finally! My thoughts are all consumed with Gio's third birthday which was a week long blast and now impending delivery. Alexander you are so active and I feel like you are practicing some soccer and gymnastic moves in my belly. I get so involved with doing things, lately a lot of nesting that I don't snack or eat as often, which you will kick me till I do. I'm not doing it on purpose I just get so involved. Gio and I have been home alot, both of us got sick after his birthday and we are battling a continuous cough and runny nose. We are one week in and right when it seems it goes away, its back. Anywhoo, my 7 mo appointment went well and was fast this time, thank you Bernie! I'm still concerned that I haven't gained that much weight and wanted to make sure you are ok. But Bernie, assured me that most of her patients who get on Thyroid supplementation will lose throughout and that you are totally ok, plus you are living and eating up my reserve fat, which hello eat it up kiddo! lol! I got blood work and glucose screen test done. Test results came back all negative except for slightly low anemia 1 number out of normal range, so I am now on supplements. I had the same process with Gio, so no big deal. My thyroid levels are great, thanks to my Thyroid Armor supplement. Which by the way, not that I don't think this pregnancy is a priority and health, I just can't consume my vitamins and thyroid supplement on a daily basis or water. EEk! I am trying. What I am good at...is having a great daily sugar craving...which I am trying to resist. It helps when we don't keep that stuff in the house. I didn't even have any at Gio's Bday which I will blog about later.

Don't worry we didn't forget about you at gio's bday. My hips are starting to hurt and I need to stretch, do I know I need to do this, YES. Hello freaking Chiropractor here, but do I follow my own advice no. After this hectic past year, any workout routine went out the window and now that I have the time I don't go, except for the occasional walk with Gio. I bought a copy of Prenatal Yoga that I misplaced after first pregnancy. Still in it's package...lol Yea I need to be better about things. I am all about baby shopping and getting rid of any clutter in the house. Sorting Gio's clothes, what to keep, what to donate, what still fits.. Yea about what still fits....I cleaned out my closet of clothes that do not fit. Shouldn't I keep my clothes for afterwards, well after a year in scrubs and lack of workout, I gained and maintained my weight at Gio's delivery weight. First Trimester morning sickness and Thyroid Armor supplement, enabled a 13 lb weight loss, I have since gained 5 lbs and maintained it. I had bought three tops and a pair of jeans in October for a wedding we attended and I have rotated my tops around those jeans. I also found my favorite preggo jeans and dress pants from first pregnancy that I had in storage. Then on a whim, I stopped by Gap Maternity and found tops on clearance. XL fits perfectly, I have lost weight on top and now have a nice noticeable bump. I love my bump! I look preggo for once. I am obviously still overweight, but thankful that I am able to keep my weight gain within reason. With Gio I didn't look preggo till 8-9 months, I just looked big before that, now a noticeable bump is there especially with preggo pants to help enhance that feature. So I have bought tops that will transition well to nursing tops afterwards. I can't wait till your Baby Shower and have to keep myself from not doing any more planning till after my test, which I should be using every free minute to study for, yea not happening.. because of all my nesting and trying to keep up with your active big brother Giovanni. According to Baby Center you are the size of a Chinese cabbage. You can -smell -taste what I eat -eyes are ready with tears and your brain will get 400% to 500% heavier between now and birth. I am in countdown mode, only 12 weeks to go, woohoo. Filling out FMLA paperwork for precious time with you and Giovanni.

5.5 months

A three year old to be....

Yikes...Gio you are going to be three in a week from today! What is mommy and daddy to do? Baby features are hurriedly going away, which makes mommy run to the comp and look at your old videos and pics all the time.... You got your first official big boy haircut about a month ago...I teared up...daddy laughed at me. I thought they were going to ruin your precious hair, but when it was all done, you looked so handsome and a lot older than your usual long hair look. Mommy finally finished her program and now studying for boards, but enjoying the free time during the weeks with you. We kept busy during December that it flew by so fast and here we are so close to your bday. Well lets catch you up. I ended up doing most of your pictures on Instagram so I will def print that out to go with this. Last time I posted we were celebrating the news of you becoming a big brother to Alexander The Nguyen ETA April 22, 2013. October was a fun month, we went trick or treating for the first time with a big group of friends thanks to the Trujillo family who invited us over to their annual party. You were such a cute sheriff and loved running up the sidewalk to the doors. We stayed up way to late and collected a lot of candy. Sorry but you enjoyed some pretzels and rice Krispy treats. I took the rest of the loot to work and let my students go crazy, thanks for the donation. There will be a time you will enjoy it, so calm down. Heather and her twins also invited us to a trunk or treat at her church, first time ever and lots of fun. You were most impressed with the plastic Dracula teeth. November we celebrated Thanksgiving at our home, joined by your grandparents, bac hai and auntie. Lots of food and desserts! Mommy was very exhausted and made the executive decision to order a dinner and guess what it was delicious and perfect, of course as always we had too much. Mommy also made you and some friends personalized turkey letter shirts. I loved yours, of course a etsy/Pinterest inspiration. Mommy finally finished her cases and got to spend more time at home with you. Mommy and Daddy also celebrated 14 years of love and you are one of our best memories and everyday treasure! You also adorned the house in Christmas flair with daddy and let mommy rest! Thank you my boys! You are really into helping! December, my favorite month! You and daddy spoiled mommy with my favorite flowers and nice watch for my birthday. Mommy went into a cleaning spree this month and finally emptied out closets of items no longer necessary, you willingly helped and played as I went around like a mad woman. You got a new bed thanks to tita in your room and daddy rearranged things to give you more space. Tita also bought you new sheets in your favorite theme: Disney Cars. Oh yea you are urgently obsessed with cars everything especially a cartoon on Netflix called Mater's Tall Tales. I love to hear you laugh when watching your show. Daddy also got a Mcqueen game on his iPad that you drive using your fingers, you are very iPad interactive...drawings, shapes and books you love on the iPad. The holidays were busy as always, family get togethers and food overload. OngNoi suffered some health issues, but he is getting stronger and healthier daily. Tita went present crazy with you, which probably could have put a dent in your college savings plan, but she enjoyed shopping for you! I can't wait to see what she does next year with two boys in the house! We finally opened up the envelope containing Alexander's sex, he was known as Lil pumpkin then on Christmas Eve! Daddy and I were trying to do a photo shoot but you couldn't help yourself and snuck out to join in on the fun. Because this pregnancy has been so different from yours, I thought Alexander was a girl so we or I kept saying your sissy is in mommy's pansa,so when we told you brother you said no sissy. But you finally moved on from that and tell us that you are going to play with baby Alexander and share all your toys. So back to the reveal, once. Again a Pinterest inspiration, we blew up two balloons one pink, one blue. We opened envelope saw that we had a boy, and took a pic as pink balloon went bye bye...then you adorable as ever held a sign saying Lil pumpkin is a boy!!!!! Daddy and mommy finally picked a name and continuing our middle name tradition and now your baby brother to be is known as Alexander! Santa was very generous to you this year! We had a great Christmas and New Years! I love doing small activities with you such as the gingerbread train and decorating Santa's Cookies! Little things like that count the most and being surrounded by family! Tita, daddy and you joined me on a trip to visit your Abuelo Ramon in Taft, TX. You helped us plant some flowers for him along with ones for his parents and sister. Thank you for making a difficult trip for me, enjoyable. I couldn't have done it without y'all! January 2013 so far has been busy...I started review, you are active as ever...and I am trying to keep up. Who are you now?.. Well let me tell you...Lil mr talkative! Any thoughts of us worried about your speech skills...GONE! You use our words against us, you pose wonderful questions, very big analyzer of subjects and your comprehension is amazing! Is every two year old like this? I'm not so sure but daddy and I are very impressed! Your vocabulary is vast And makes us question where did you learn that from? Curious as ever, love your books to no end! Dinosaurs, dragons, anatomy and pretty much anything else you are very book happy! You also love your tv time..lately it's about the little einsteins and dinosaur train and oh yes Diego. Thomas the train who? Sometimes you will ask about it, train table who? Oh yes but you love strangers' train table... yours is always overlooked. Drawing and coloring is a great pastime, and anyone you can get to draw for you, even better. Oh did I forget to say you are charming and very intuitive as to whom you can use those cute baby cheeks and smile on! Kid you have skills! Appreciative as well! You found your birthday party supplies and you said for me? I love it! Mommy, daddy thank you so much, i love it! Mommy come here give me a kiss and hug! It was so sweet, daddy and I were just surprised! See kid you have skills! Saturday you shocked me again you asked to sleep in your own room. I was shocked and nervous. I didn't sleep the whole night, around 4 u woke up and cried out, daddy went to check on you and never came back. Lol I kept him up half the night with my tossing and turning, lol. I'm not sure I'm ready, daddy is loving it, you slept in there last night as well. We are giving you options and not pushing the subject, but there will be a time when it will come to you being in your own room, yikes. Oh yea about sleep, I'm not sure I mentioned this on the blog but around September? You started sleeping on your own, we read our two-three books, prayers and then you stay in bed while mommy and daddy have their time. It's been such a nice change of pace, love it! And kudos to you for being a good big boy! You are very aware that your birthday is coming up and that you are turning three. We are practicing our thank you's and blowing out candles. I am way too excited about your birthday, I really love planning them! It's been a great year, we are so proud and amazed by you. It's weird but we are still shocked that we are parents and that we were blessed by you in our lives! We love you Giovanni! FYI Gigi or Gio are not allowed because you tell us your name is Giovanni Nguyen! And sometimes you are a big boy and other times its a strong big baby! Well whatever you want to be referred as,we love you our first born son on the verge of the big 3!