preparation for birth

The hospital blueberry will be born in offers a bunch of classes in preparation for the arrival. Tonight we had our first class, the first in a series of three called Preparation for Birth. Sort of a hybrid education class about the birthing process, Lamaze and everything else that could happen at delivery, the class covers a ton of stuff. Tonight we did the basic overview of labor, phases and physiology of it all. Frankly, pretty interesting. Then we watched the movie everyone talks about. Now, while the actual images were "wow" inducing, it didn't help that it was on a VHS tape, in a player that needs some cleaning of the heads and played on an elderly tv, with production quality that would make any 80's producer proud. Actually, it reminded me of two things: science movies we saw on the reel-to-reel film projectors in elementary school and old Wild Kingdom episodes. Not terrifying and slightly amusing in the presentation but completely engrossing and informative.

I didn't faint, get nauseous or have to leave the room (he knows who he is, if he's reading this).

We followed up the a/v presentations with some introductory relaxation breathing and massage.

We have two more of these classes as well as numerous others over the next few weeks. With 9 weeks or so to go till the final date, there isn't much to do or prepare and I'd say we're almost completely ready.

That doesn't mean he can come early. I'd like to finish these classes first.

At least that's what I tell him every night. I'm sure he's already practicing the 'ignoring the old man' trick and will do as he pleases.

Kids these days!

go lil bears!

Die hard Cal fans, we attend a number of football home games every year. With our schedule getting things ready for the baby, the pregnancy classes and more, it was tough getting one in, but we did. The outcome isn't important, what is important is what we bought! We bought some great Cal wear for the guy and his Abuelita Chavarela got him a rugby jersey to match his dad's. The kid is ready!

for real

I'm inserting this one post back, hiding it from the mother to be. But I've posted it other places and she hasn't rejected it, so I figured it'd be great here. Plus she looks cute all Cal'd up!

it all started with new furniture

then the closet moved into the living room. but the new carpet is nice. and the kids room looks good now. it's not completely done yet, so no pictures. once we get the linens and things in there (hey now the name of the store makes sense...) we'll do a proper tour.

wall to wall, mostly

UPDATE:

Done!

cartwheels & somersaults

Last couple of nights have been a little bit more challenging than the last 6.5 mos!  We think Blueberry might be starting to practice to be an Olympic gymnast because I swear he's doing cartwheels and somersaults in here!!  (Sometime it also feels like's he's doing the kickworm - which is something I mastered in elementary school.)  I've been feeling so much more movement at night this past week and it's getting a bit more difficult to sleep through the night - I guess this is training for when he arrives!  No biggie - he's totally worth it.

furnished

the furniture arrived today! from left to right we have - lifetime crib/bed (assembly required - it would be weird and useless if it was that thin), dresser (in back), glider w/ ottoman (in front, assembly also required) and drawer set. The bookcase in this picture is moving, but he'll have one in there as well.

next up. carpet. and we're just about done!

blue and gold

In what will probably be the first of many, many blue and gold outfits the kid will proudly wear, I was able to coerce Dina into buying this awesome number, sized appropriately to wear during the 2010 season (to compliment his other yet to be purchased, but extensive Cal wear).

Gambling a little that the kid will be on time and not late, Dina had to pull the trigger on these holiday booties:

Grandparents go shopping!

More progress on Blueberry's room this weekend.  Grandparents Ariza & Abuelos Chavarela ordered the furniture for Blueberry's room today!  Never thought we'd be so excited about a chest of drawers, but like Philip has said often as we're getting Blueberry's room ready, aside from the growing belly and him bouncing around and hiccuping, getting his room ready does make it all seem that much more real and remind us that he'll be here so soon!!  Thank you so very much to our parents for the wonderful gifts which (we hope) will last for many, many years to come: a lifetime (convertible) crib to bed (with mattress), combo unit; 6 drawer chest and glider w/ ottoman to boot!

Progress on Blueberry's Room

So this weekend was/is still another BB work weekend.  We painted the room and Daddy put up the curtains yesterday and as I'm posting this, Daddy is working on touching up the baseboards!  What an awesome Daddy, right?

BB Room Still in Progress ...

Daddy's not just lounging around - he's workin'!

Open House

No silly - not school's open house ... Blueberry's not even born yet!  We went to the Hospital's Open House tonight and took a tour of the hospital.  We first won a neat raffle prize and then we got the best treat - walking the actual maternity wing and visiting the actual rooms where we'll be in labor, delivery and recovery.  It answered a whole lot of my questions and really put me at ease. Thankfully, (as Philip noted) we heard nobody screaming! We've also been continuing to prepare Blueberry's room.  Here's a picture of Daddy spackling the wall and one of Mommy making sure the color we chose for his room will work.

Gifts for Blueberry, Mommy & Daddy!!

Thanks to a very generous friend, Blueberry received the cutest and softest sleepwear with little polar bear feet to keep him warm during the winter and we received our diaper bag!!  The diaper bag is even cooler than what we thought, so we're very excited about it.  Thank you very much to Christina and Family!!  There's Daddy modeling the bag and something for Blueberry to look forward to.

baby appointment today

had a baby appointment today. all sounded good. the pregnancy continues on in good form (knock on wood) and we find ourselves trying to come up with things to ask the doctor since we haven't had any issues. which is great, if you ask me!

dina received the lab order for the glucose test, so that'll be in a couple of weeks.

6 years

We've started the arduous task of preparing the living space for the arrival of the boy. It's amazing what you accumulate when you don't need to worry about having an extra space. Sure, now and again we'd clean things up. But 12 coffee mugs? Really? Now, I'm not going to complain about having so much stuff, because it's pretty amazing how much we have, but this business about acquiring things just to have them; we've got to be better at it. So this last weekend we started. In order to make ready, we've begun consolidating and reducing. We've got to clear out a room, consolidate another and find new spaces for the things we're keeping.

These are the bags of clothes we gave away. What you're aren't seeing are the boxes of books, small appliances, and collection of pans from the previous owners we kept just in case we had a huge buffet; all of which were donated to the Salvation Army. I should have taken a picture of Dina's car, it was full.

Suffice to say, it's surprising what you can stuff in a place about 1100 square feet and never actually use.

The work continues. And the arrival approaches.

Now I'm not going to sleep again.

baby registration. day one.

[quicktime]http://dinaandphilip.com/site/wp-content/video/babyregistration.m4v[/quicktime] it's surprising how distracting it can be when filming, comparing the relevant merits of this BPA-free toy vs that BPA-free toy...

woah

I felt him move! Wow. That was pretty awesome! Let me tell you though, if this is the way he's gonna move, we're going to have our hands full!

errata

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If you choose to use twitter as an additional service (and as I described in an earlier post) then you'll start to receive updates on your phone via text message whenever there's a post at dinaandphilip.com or news from us via twitter.

If you don't want to use twitter or facebook or any of those services, no problem! Just keep coming back here to check in and find out what's up with Dina, Philip and Blueberry.

Thanks again for visiting.

Movements ...

So, we've been meaning to tell ya'll, that not only were we able to see Blueberry in all his glory on the small screen a couple of weeks ago, and, of course, hear his strong heartbeat last week - but I felt Blueberry move for the first time around the last week of July!  I wasn't too certain whether I was actually feeling Blueberry move or if my undergarments were just feeling weird - but after conversations with friends from work and with Philip confirming that he'd read that the first fetal movements often feel like butterflies fluttering around - I realized that it must be Blueberry!!  Sure enough, within 5 more days, the sensations became more pronounced and now I feel him all the time!  and it doesn't always feeling like butterflies - but we can't actually see the movement in the belly yet.  Doc said it could be another 3 or so weeks for that.  Looking forward to it!!!

calendaring

forgot to mention the other week that we finally signed up for our myriad of pre-birth classes and what not. included in that are: Open House Prep for Birth Class (a series of 3) Prenatal Breast-feeding Baby Care Basics TotSaver (2 classes. first for babies and kids. 'chris, chris are you ok?!')

You'd think this was hard or something.

Blueberry will be born at Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, CA. You can visit the hospital's website here. Following his birth, they provide an opportunity to view his image on their 'virtual nursery' - but let's be honest. It's going to be tough to beat his dad when it comes to spreading the word and images!

play ball!

Blueberry visited his first ballpark. He probably won't remember, so we made sure we had a picture to show him!