Welcome to the Family

I'm sure all of you already know about our newest member - Dante. I'm not sure about these figures but I think he was born 17.5 inches long weighing 5 lbs. 12 oz. Josh was kind enough to send me some pictures and I thought I would share them with anyone who may not have gotten them. Here they are:

Dante

More Belly Pictures

These were fun to look at. I'm sure you all can tell which is my favorite. Laura is getting pretty pregnant and we are both getting excited for our baby to come although, probably for slightly different reasons (I'm not as uncomfortable as Laura is).

I just thought you might like to have a look.

27 Days

Laura's due date is in 27 days. We are both pretty excited. Laura has been feeling less comfortable every day but I think that she has been lucky that it hasn't been worse. She's still working and actually she's been staying late and working harder than normal to make sure she is caught up and ready for the long-term substitute that will take her place while she's on maternity leave.

Below is a picture of Laura in a funny hat. We went snow shoeing almost a month ago (on President's Day) and it was really fun. Laura did a great job, I was actually surprised at how long she lasted. She wouldn't agree but she's a real trooper (just a nicer sweeter trooper).

I've been doing fine too. I'm not very excited/happy with most of my classes this semester but I seem to be doing alright. If I can maintain an A- average then my overall GPA won't be affected. I'm not really sure why I care now that I'm already in my graduate program at CSUSB but, I do.

I've been busy and distracted and haven't been posting but I hope I can change that especially since I'll be out of work for a little while until we get to California. Luckily, Laura will still be getting her checks throughout the summer and that will help smooth out our income. I may need some help finding a decent job in California but I've been fortunate so far with work.

I heard about Sarah's bed rest. I imagine that was nice at first but can get kind of boring. I hope she is feeling well. We love you all and miss you a lot.

"maternity belt"

Hi, All. I just had a quick question for those in the family who are or have ever been pregnant. I have seen something called a maternity belt (I think), that is basically support for your lower back. It's like an elastic belt that goes under your belly to take some of the weight off of your back. Has anyone used one? Do they help? (Husbands, feel free to relay the question to your wife or give any input you might have.) My lower back doesn't feel good some days (especially when I over use it) and I've considered trying one of the belt thingies.

Name Meaning

Chris asked the meaning of the name we chose, so I looked it up.

Dante is of Latin origin and means everlasting, lasting, enduring.

Our little one.

We had our 20 week appointment yesterday and we found out we are having a boy. Here are the pictures from our sonogram. (If the images are small, click on them and you should get a full sized version, which is easier to see the detail on.) The first two are profile shots and the third is the "boy" picture. You can see his legs and, of course, in between. On the top leg of the "boy" picture, if you look, you can see his little toes. During the sonogram, Dante was moving all over, stretching his leg all the way out and pushing, moving his arms, wiggling and rolling. The lady doing the sonogram had no trouble getting all the images she needed because Dante was very accommodating in all of his wiggling. The profile shot was the only one that he wasn't as cooperative for. She was trying to get a good detailed shot and the two below are as good as we could get. Seeing how much he was moving in the sonogram, I'm pretty positive that I've felt him move. It's hard to identify having never felt anything like that before, but I'm pretty sure that I know what I'm feeling now. We are half way through the pregnancy! We are looking forward to welcoming Dante Julian Anguiano into our family next spring.





Also, here is a picture from Nov 24 of me. I'm certainly starting to look pregnant. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and we love you all!

It's a Girl!

Laura had her 20-week appointment today. We found out that we're having a girl. I don't have much time to write so I'll let these pictures do the talking.

This one is cool because you can see her spine.

This is how we know it's a girl. On the left is her little bum
and you can see her legs sticking out and there isn't much in between.


This is her little heart. I'm assuming the colors are
indicating direction of blood flow.


This is her cute little head and face.

Ok, got to go. I have to write my statement of purpose for my grad school applications.

My progress...if you can see any...

I don't think I really look pregnant yet, just a little rounder. But here is a picture anyway. It was taken Oct 24 (so about 15 weeks pregnant) at our ward "Fall Festival". I look a little like a "deer in the head lights", not sure why, but it was a fun party.

Progress

I've been meaning to post these for a while. I've tried to remember to take pictures of Laura's "progress" so that when she starts thinking she's being woos and tired of having a huge belly I can show her these pictures and she can see how much bigger and justified she is.

These pictures are about 3 weeks apart.



This is a picture from the second ultrasound its about 4 weeks old. I meant to put it up sooner. Laura has another appointment today and that, hopefully, means another picture.

Thanks for the pics!

So we are slacking a little bit on getting pictures out. Things have been pretty busy! Hope everyone is doing well. We are all pretty good. Josh went back to work today and his girls all missed having him around. Vivian has a bit of tummy trouble (just like her big sis) but the gas drops seem to be helping a bit. I am also cutting all dairy out of my diet for the next couple of days to see if that helps as well. It's pretty hard not eating dairy, I think I am a milk junkie.

My experience with childbirth this time around was a little more traumatic for me. I think I assumed it would go just as it did with Gillian, and it was pretty different. We are just grateful that she is here and healthy. I did have a spinal headache after the birth that lasted for a few days, but that has gone away. I am having some back trouble that has not gone away. It started in the hospital so I don't really know what the deal is. I might go see a sports medicine dr or something soon if it doesn't go away.

Still taking classes and just trying to keep up with everything. Josh will be busy trying to catch up at work. The Bank of America stuff is all starting to roll over. We will be choosing our new Bank of America insurance and stuff in April. Gillian is doing good, although she seems to be acting a bit like a three year old lately, go figure.

Talk to you guys soon!
Love you lots,
~Jen, Josh, Gillian, and Vivian
xoxo

It's Not Fair

I'm sure that most of you have already seen Vivian but these were the first pictures I'd seen of her. I thought I'd share then in case you haven't seen these.

I have been very busy lately and am still a little stressed by my work load form school. One of these days I'll get around to posting our latest ultrasound. My computer has been having troubles and I haven't had time to fix it so the ultrasound will have to wait.

Tuesday afternoon

Hi, Adam! It's just an average Tuesday afternoon, but I thought I'd respond to your questions. Yes, I am still in my Master's program. So I feel your pain! I've been in school forever, too. I'll be extending one extra semester because of the baby. Instead of Dec 2009, I should graduate in May 2010. The program I'm in is really flexible, though, all of the Masters classes needed to graduate are offered as online classes. I prefer the face-to-face classes, but I'll end up taking more online classes for the scheduling advantages. Stephen and I should both be finishing up schooling in north Texas at about the same time and the plan is still to transfer down to A&M at that point (Fall 2010).

The baby furniture shopping hasn't been that great. We found furniture we liked, but it was way over priced ($1000 for a convertible crib to full bed). There are other more reasonably priced baby cribs (most are convertible to a toddler bed, twin bed, or full bed), but they aren't made very well. At the moment, Stephen is planning to make a crib with someone that we know who has woodworking tools. If that doesn't work out, we will probably find something off of Craig's list. We already have a few baby cloths that my mom has bought and my mom made a really cute baby blanket out of material Stephen and I pick out, so we have a few small things, but we haven't made any of the big purchases yet. Still so much to do and get prepared for before the impending arrival.

My waist is expanding as well, although I haven't gained any weight yet. My pants don't really fit anymore. It's very annoying because I'm in between normal size pants and prego pants. I've started spending a lot more time in a pair of exercise pants I have that have a flexible waist band. I'm not "showing" quite yet, i.e. I don't look pregnant yet to other people, but my lower abdomane is swelling and is actually firm to the touch. It's really weird to watch my body change. I'm still having a battle with food and I'm averaging once every week or so having one day where I can't keep much down. I'm looking forward to the beginning of October when the first trimester will be over. I'm hoping that will be the end of the food rejection phase that my body is in right now.

It is nice to here that Laura is experiencing much the same issues as I am. It's really cool to be pregnant at the same time. I'm not alone! :)

Names of my future nieces and nephews

As we are now in the baby name business (as my younger siblings have finally decided to catch up with my posterity...just kidding) it would be wise to consider the principle of naming your kids something that will not make them or you look like a retard. For sake of clarification, I have on my wife's side of the family (that's Connie btw) I have a nephew named Blaize and Tylee, now I understand the need to be different, and as Connie is pointing out to me while typing this you can name your kids Bertha and Adolf and it's your choice, but let's not do anything that might besmirch our family name. Were gonna see Grandpa and Grandma again, and the first question I don't want to hear is Drandma Naguiano asking me what the heck we were thinking. Thoughts. Sean

School's in Forever

School started this week and I think it's going to be another hard semester. I wish I were smarter or had one of those time traveling necklaces from Harry Potter. I'm taking my capstone seminar which is basically just a class where they assign a ton of reading and simultaneously ask you to write the best research paper of your undergraduate career. It should be easy ;).

I'm taking two other reading intensive classes (HIST 251 & PHIL 202) mostly because I have to if I want to graduate but it turns out they look interesting. The one class I was excited about kind of flopped the first day. The professor seemed unprepared and I got tired of listening to him after 15 minutes. I hope it was just first day jitters and that the class will improve (I've seen it happen).

Laura is super tired too (Sarah, you're in good company). It seems like she's been poisoned with black lotus everyday when I come home. I've never seen her so tired. It takes a lot of energy to actually make a baby.  I have to encourage Laura to eat too.  I think this is at least in part because food just isn't as interesting to her.

Teaching has been a chore for her.  I can only imagine what it feels like to try and teach a bunch of 13 and 14 year old kids with as little sleep and energy as she has.  I feel quite useless too.  I wish I could harness my chi and send some her way but I guess my ninja skills have been waning.

Josh, I'm sorry I haven't been more vigilant about baby names. I'll make a renewed effort.  Didn't you guys have some kind of theme or pattern to your naming (i.e. Anguiano) or did you scap that since a name has been hard to find?  Do you have some draft names?  Give us a list of what we're working with.  Meaning,  a list of possible names and the names/name combinations that you've already rejected.

Sarah, I wish I labeled my pictures.  That was very cool.  I'm so glad that you are pregnant while Laura is.  It's helpful, to me at least, to know that Laura's transformation is normal/expected.  Are you still in your master's program?  How did furniture shopping go?

Well, I have to go to class.  I feel like I'm too old to be saying that.

The Utah Twins' Texas Cousin

Ok, so it's our turn to post pictures of our little blob. We had an ultrasound almost two weeks ago. (It'll be two weeks tomorrow.) I will be at eight weeks along on Saturday, two days from this post. Not much to see in the pictures, yet, but here they are any way. We will probably not have another ultrasound until the end of November or beginning of December, so everyone will have to be satisfied with pictures of Adam and Laura's brood until then.

We are looking forward to our new addition, but at the moment, I am looking forward to the end of the first trimester. They say it gets better after that. I have been feeling ill and very tired. Food doesn't taste the same; it actually has less taste and is very unapealing. I'm not enjoying my body doing weird and inexplicable things, but only another month and then I just get to be uncomfortable for the other six months, right?

I've included the unlabled and the labled versions of each so that it is clear which blob is the baby. The outer circle is red (uterus), the middle circle is orange (yoke sack) and the inner circle is green (baby). (If you click on the images, you should get a larger image. It's easier to read what I put on the pictures with a larger image.)