Surprise - It's a Boy!

Wait ... I thought your baby was due in January ... and weren't you having a girl?

Just kidding!!! It's not OUR baby ... this is Jeremy Ruiz, our friends' Cymbre and John's 2 month old bundle of joy.

Brett and I visited with Cymbre and John and got the lowdown on the lives of new parents. They seemed quite alert for parents of a newborn. We'll have to find out their secrets!

Jeremy also very aptly demonstrated what a baby BURP and baby #2 sound like ... amazing what noises can come from such a cute lil thing!

The big question of the night was ... will Baby U be born with as much hair as Baby Ruiz? There is a striking resemblance in the mops of Jeremy and Brett ... :)

23 Week Bump Update - the Belly Has Popped!

I thought it was about time for a "Bump Update" as our little girl is starting to grow and grow and Courtney is starting to show and show!

Moose is adjusting to life with a Nursery. Although we are pretty sure he thinks any toys in that room are for him.

Don't worry Moose - it will all be worth it when Cheerios are being flung from highchairs and we are too tired to pick them up :)

Baby Girl Uyeshiro has been quite active lately! She is definitely trying to get attention and likes to kick and squirm most often when I lay down to sleep or am in the middle of a meeting for work.

Brett felt her kick for the first time when we went to see the movie, 3:10 to Yuma. Being a Western, the movie opened with quite a bang, and Baby U wanted to know what the commotion was all about.

Our Trip to LA and Newport Beach

Brimming with the news of our "baby girl on board," Brett and I were very excited to visit friends and family on our little mini-vacation to LA and Newport Beach the weekend of September 7-10th.

Brett's good friend Billy Montgomery was getting married on Sunday, September 9th, on a boat in Newport, so we drove down and spent the weekend in LA and visited with our good friends, Melissa and Eli and also got a chance to stay with Ronee and witness what film school at USC is all about.

I asked Kia (also at the wedding) to take a photo of Brett and me on the boat because we didn't have any of the "three of us" together yet. Unfortunately the wind on the boat was quite challenging and I wound up looking closer to 30 weeks pregnant than 20!

There was lots to celebrate over the weekend - Saturday, September 8th was Brett's birthday and we got to hang out with Melissa, Eli, Ronee and Kia, who drove up from San Diego. Also adding to the fun was that Melissa and Eli have some exciting news of their own ... they too are expecting and are due at the start of May!!!

Melissa and I had fun delving into some "prego mags," while the boys chose to watch Entourage and play tennis. Here are some pix: Meliss and I compared bellies (at the time I was 20 wks and Melissa was 5) ... and then Melissa and Eli compared bellies.

The Moment We've All Been Waiting For...

Brett and I went in for our 20 week ultrasound today. After waiting this long to know if "it" is a "he" or a "she," we were forced to endure over an hour in the waiting room - enough time for the lobby TV's health infomercials to cycle through again (ugh!). However, our patience was rewarded when we got to see our little one again.

After a measure of the head and the heart, the next thing we were told was "yup, looks like a girl," ... "and there is the leg...and there is," the technician carried on. "Wait - are you sure?" We had to know. With a bit of a chip on her shoulder, the technician assured us that yes, she was sure - we were going to have a baby girl! Woohoo! Brett and I were amazed and excited. We had gone out for Chinese food last night and we both agreed that we were "thinking girl," but it was still very surreal to have it affirmed.

Please meet Baby Girl Uyeshiro - 20 weeks old, 10 oz. strong and already kickin' and screamin (we saw her little mouth yapping on about something!):

*The first photo is unclear but in 2 and 3 you can see and arm near her mouth and chin. Then, a definite leg and foot! She even had her ankles crossed at one point - aww, how dainty :)

The Benefits of Sleepless Nights - Bargains!

This whole sleeping on your side thing is getting old. Since I was a little girl I have been a stomach sleeper. Now that there is a growing bump, stomach sleeping is out of the question. With the combination of multiple visits to le toilet, the whole side sleeping thing, and occasional mid-night wakeups by Moose, needless to say I have had a few nights spent on the computer with a glass of milk at the wee hours.

Long story short, last night was one of those nights. However, the benefits outweighed the drawbacks this time! Having spent many hours on Craigslist, determined to find some quality used nursery furniture, I didn't expect to hit the jackpot like I did last night. The stars aligned and by the end of the week we might have half the nursery furniture!

Here's what I found:

On Craigslist: Dutailier Glider and Ottoman - slightly used, $150 (normally around $600!) - apparently this poor mom wound up with twins and her visions of quietly nursing the babies to sleep in the glider just didn't ever materialize.



On Craigslist: Pottery Barn "Dana" Crib in white - slightly used but looking new, for $250 (normally $500). Even better, this crib happens to be about 6 miles down the road and being the only one to email about it before the break of dawn, we got it!








Pottery Barn Kids "Animals on Parade" 5x8 Rug - New on sale for $199.99 (from $299.99). Even better, when I called the store to inquire if they had one in stock she said they were backordered, but they have a floor model that is in good shape and we could get that for $139.99! This is actually a rug that caught my eye early on, as I posted on my YellowBungalow Notebook!

This nursery is coming together!

Nesting and the Endless World of Baby Stuff

I suppose I have started to nest.

Although I am not as "nesty" as my friend Lori, who has claimed to be in a cleaning/de-junking fury with all things in their home pending the arrival of their little one, I have started to clear out the nursery. Things done so far:

• Bit by bit I am selling all our extra crap (ahem, I mean stuff) that we stored in the guest/junk room. As I do this I start to wonder why we never did it before! eBay and Craigslist can be very fulfilling in a Zen-like way!
  
• So far we have banked over $300! Vases, candles from wedding - $45; Camera - $125; Other Camera - $65; Pots and pans - $50; Assorted things on eBay $40
• Shelves and shelves of books are getting boxed and carted to the garage until we have a literary urge.
  
• 3 arm-fulls of work clothes have been donated to a local charity that helps people find jobs
• Clothing that no longer fit have been bagged up to make room for maternity clothes

And the biggest thing is, I have started the baby registry at Babies R Us, Target and Pottery Barn Kids. At this point, it is helpful for me to add things to the registry as I do research. Once you have a baby on the way, you see, you start accumulating lots of advice and it's hard to keep it all straight!

Just the other day in Babies R Us a new mom told me about bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical that leaks from most baby bottles when heated. These plastic bottles (and sippy cups) are made of a hard plastic called Polycarbonate (PC), but there are alternatives made of Polyamide (PA) that is free of Bisphenol-A. Even Nalgenes contain PC (oh no!), but the problem seems to occur when you put them in the dishwasher or put something hot in them - so don't and it should be OK.

There is endless debate and information on this subject, but the bottles I am going to go with are Born Free, free of BPA. This warning also applies to pacifiers, because you put them in the dishwasher. Apparently Gerber's Nuk pacifiers are safe, as are silicone and latex pacifiers by Playtex and others. However, if they have a silicone nipple but PC safety piece, they are not as good. Another interesting thing I read is that babies seem to prefer latex over silicone because the latex absorbs tastes and they become more familiar, but using a lot of latex early on can cause latex allergies later. Aye, aye, aye!!!

Next on the topic to discover and debate ... diapers - cloth or plastic?