fuss budget

holy cow weeks 4-5 has hit us like a ton of bricks! sofia had a few rough nights in a row this week. according to our doctor, fussiness peaks around week 5 or 6, so we probably only have another week or so of fussiness increasing, and then it will hopefully wind down.

bez had his last t-ball game last weekend and we got to have a pizza party with the team - while i don't know if he has a future as a major-league player, this is the first time he's really enjoyed an organized sport. he'll start soccer in the fall and hopefully it will be as much of a success!

this week is my first full week home with both kids and the last week i have "off-off" before i start working from home. i read an article recently about how to balance feeling like a good mom and working. the pieces of advice i really took to heart are:

schedule time to work everyday - tell your older children so they know when they need to occupy themselves. make a routine for the kids while you prepare to work so they know what is happening.

write a list of things you want to accomplish during the summer with the kids - try to get them all checked off before the end of the summer. here is the start of my list:

1. bike riding at the park
2. walk at greenlake
3. beach
4. zoo
5. jetty island
6. grandma's house on whidbey island
7. fish ladder
8. edmonds saturday market
9. swimming at the ymca

i'm so excited to spend the summer home with the kids, but also a little nervous about how it is all going to work! the last 5 weeks have passed soooo fast - i can't believe i'm going to be handing sofia off to another person in 7 more weeks. my friend natalie (who has a little girl about 2 months older than sofia) and i are planning to do a nanny-share and we meet with the program director tomorrow.

one fun thing - my mom came over last for the day and we had so much fun! we tried a new restaurant in edmonds, five. had a deeelicious pear and gorgonzola pizza and a yummy salad with miso vinaigrette. then we walked on the edmonds waterfront and saw a blue heron's nest and two big babies. we topped off our walk with ice cream. it's not often i get to spend time with my mom with work and everything else, so it was great to spend time with her.

this time home has been so nice. i've loved the extra time to get stuff done that when i'm working always seems to get backburnered. i'm loving cooking yummy, healthy meals, seeing friends and of course, naptime with sofia. this week, bez starts swimming lessons and i'm looking forward to the ymca's monday and friday mom/baby yoga class. the ymca by our house has a great indoor play area for bigger kids (like the mcdonald's playhouse tubes), so bez can spend time playing there while sofia and i do yoga.

<>

Planning

planning, planning, planning... it's summer in seattle, which means we have to cram in events and parties in between t-ball, bday parties, shows, baby showers, weddings, bbqs and etc. in the weekends we have left before it starts raining again (did it ever stop raining?).

this year it's tony's 20th high school reunion in las vegas at the end of september. we are trying to cram a vacation to the california coast during the same week without breaking the bank. it will also be my first month back at work, so it will take some creative planning in order to make it work. right now we are trying to decide between san diego (sd zoo, beaches, etc) and the orange county beaches (our favorite book store in laguna, disneyland, etc) for a three day jaunt before heading back to las vegas for the rest of the week. tony's high school band, isolation, has been asked to perform at one of the reunion events. i'm so excited to hear him play with his hs friends cj and joe!

since this is our second baby, we decided not to have a baby shower, but decided instead to lift the idea of having a "meet the baby" party from one of my favorite blogs. once again, because it is seattle and summer, we have baby showers, bbqs, vacations, etc to plan around. looking at the calendar, july 3rd is the only free weekend we had to plan the party. it's a weird date to have a party, but the weather should be nice, so we compromise. i love making cupcakes and i am excited to make super-girly cupcakes, chocolate with strawberry buttercream frosting (also lifted from helen jane's blog). we'll also have sangria for the grownups and i'm going to cheat and use the super-easy and super-yummy red sangria mix from dish d'lish. it's also going to be the weekend after i turn 30 (ack!) so we will be "celebrating" that as well.

bez is turning six this year and we've decided to celebrate his birthday by hosting a party at stone gardens in ballard. we can't think of anything better than allowing 5 six yr old boys and 1 five year old girl to climb to their hearts content! it's always weird to plan birthdays for bez, because the weather can never be counted on and it seems like everything books up in seattle a long time out. we originally wanted to have his party at this great park near our house, but the park is reserved for every weekend from june 1 - september 30! oh the joys of living in a big city with only 3 months of predictable weather per year. the good thing is that it forced us to think outside of the box and he is really excited about having his party at stone gardens!

amongst all of this planning, and baby-having, i managed to squeeze in a mom-baby yoga class yesterday. it was so nice to do yoga for the first time in 6-7 months, but it made me wish i had kept up yoga through my pregnancy. i was surprised by how much my body had forgotten! hopefully it won't be a long road back to where i was before i got pregnant.

sofia continues to be a sweet, easy and sleepy baby and we relish the moments when her eyes are open. i'm looking forward to having both my babies home this summer!

day 1

...and here it is, my inagural post! i'm using this blog to record, for family and friends, what is happening with the kids (bez and sofia), tony and me.

the biggest news in the zuniga household is the birth of our baby girl, sofia, almost 3 weeks ago. what a magical experience it has been welcoming this sweet little girl into our family. what a surprise she was, too! here is the story...

on may 18th (1 week before sofia's due date), i was finishing up a conference call with my boss at 11:00am and headed out the door to go to my 39-week dr appointment at 11:40am. i was having contractions every 15 mins or so, but nothing too strong or regular, so i was expecting a run-of-the-mill dr appointment (listen to the baby, blood pressure, cervical check and out). my last words to my boss were "ok, i'll talk to you this afternoon".

during my appointment, i had my doctor check to see if i was leaking amniotic fluid. sure enough, i was and the dr asked me to go check into the hospital so she could get labor started right away. oh boy! we weren't quite ready for the suddenness of it all! i called tony and had him head over to the hospital from work asap while i checked in and got my paperwork completed. tony arrived around 12:45pm and they got my antibiotics, fluids and pitocin hooked up and started. from about 1:00pm to about 6:50pm, my contractions were slowly increasing in frequency and strength, but nothing too difficult so i decided to forego any pain relief.

around 6:50pm, the doctor (not my doctor, but one from the office we had met with before) came in and checked me, i was right at transition (6cm, 90%, +1), but they needed to completely break my water before we could move forward. She broke my water and went to eat some dinner. my next contraction was immediately much stronger.

it seemed like an eternity that we were in transition - the contractions were extremely strong and i tried really hard (for all of my pregnant friends) to remember what it felt like. unfortunately, the maternity-amnesia has set in and all i can say is that it was very intense and very painful, but i know it was not any more than i was capable of handling. eventhough it seemed like an eternity, in reality it was only 7 or 8 contractions before i started pushing. They went to grab the doctor and let me start pushing at 7:30 - 7 pushes later and she was here!

sofia was/is perfect! 7 lbs 10 oz, 19.5 in long - sweet, sleepy and beautiful.

now i have given birth both ways - with bez, i had an epidural during transition and delivery (that was an 16+ hour labor) and this time we went natural. i can say that i wouldn't change a thing about either birth experience. what an amazing thing to go through!

after she was born, bez came to the hospital in his jammies and had the chance to meet her. i am happy to report that he is proving to be the awesome big brother we knew he would be. tony was, as always, amazing - he held my hand through the labor, cut her cord and changed her first diaper. when we were all ready for bed, we wrapped her up and i snuggled her next to me and dozed off.

now it feels like she has always been here....