It's been awhile. Time for an update. What's happened lately and what's coming up.

We've entered the third trimester now. This Thursday will be Week 28! We're entering the final stages, the last third of this journey!

We've begun working on the baby shower - which consists of building a list and gathering addresses. Then our wonderful friend, Kali Akana, my mom, Tina, and Sonia's mom Kristi are doing all the work with setting up the shower, sending out the invites, and everything else. Big thanks to them and we are looking forward to both of the showers. We had to break the parties into two - one mainly for family and one mainly for friends, there were just so many people we wanted to share this with.

With the shower coming up that means Sonia and I have to start and fill our baby registry. So far we have one started at Babies R Us and we need to fill it up with much more stuff --because, you know, who doesn't love gifts, especially when having a baby requires so much stuff?!

A name. Heh. Well...still nothing much to report there. We haven't made time to sit down together and really go over name choices to pick one. We kicked around some names here and there but nothing serious. We have some ones we like but are still waiting for that one name to really stand out...well, another one to stand out besides Alistair =P (I know, I know, not a favorite of many but its working for now haha).

Little Man is getting stronger and I've been feeling his kicks and punches get stronger and feeling them more often. A few nights ago I laid my head on Sonia's belly to listen for the heartbeat (apparently you can hear it that way sometimes). Well, baby man decided to throw me a kick right in the face and followed up with a four-hit combo. I guess I was invading his space and he was defending his personal bubble. haha.

Mini-mister is also able to hear now as well. Which means Daddy is going to dedicate some time for some father-son TOOL time. I saw a youtube video this week, shared by a friend, a mom, who also loves TOOL. I'd have to wipe away a tear from my eye when I see my son do this:



Some stuff coming up...Sonia is taking her glucose test on Thursday. Here's to some good results after she chugs down that sugary drink!!

Baby room resurrection is still coming along. We bought a lot of the big, major furniture we're gonna need. Now I just need to clean the room up, disinfect it, paint, build the furniture, and arrange it. Easy enough. I should have that done in 45 minutes tops. =P

Lastly, today, May 24, is my 30th birthday - kicking off a great year of age. I'm entering my 30s and will become a father, experience a lot of first holidays with the little guy, and so much more. I'm looking forward to it.

Thanks for reading!! =)

24 Weeks - Bump Update!

I can't believe I am already 24 weeks pregnant. I feel like this is all literally flying by so much!! Since the last 'skin' bump pic I took was back at 16 weeks, I thought it was about time to show how much little man has grown!

A shot from the front, which I've never done. Yes my belly button is starting to change a little, and I no longer am wearing my belly ring ;)


And a side shot:


Things are going really well. We actually went out and bought quite a few baby items this last weekend. Crib, Dresser/Changing table, car seat, stroller, pack-n-play/bassinett and a swing. It's time to start really working on Little Man's nursery! We will keep you updated!!

XO,
Soni

Ultrasound Photos

Here are some of the ultrasound photos from Week 20, 3/31/2011, from when we found out the gender of our baby - which as you all know by now is a BOY!

1) Little guy faced the camera at the end of the ultrasound.



2) A profile shot of baby boy Rossman, including torso, legs, and feet.


3) Another shot of the profile.
4) He decided to wave to us too!

Week 23 Photo Update!

So today marks the start of another week...WEEK 23!! The end of my 5th month being pregnant. That is so surreal to me!! I swear this is all going so fast.

This morning I'm sitting at my desk at work, and just laughing because I swear that 'little man' is trying to impersonate the Easter Bunny. He's hopping around all over the place!! I enjoy feeling him move inside me so much!! At this point it's just soft little flutters, and not the painful jabs that my fellow preggos and fellow mommies have told me will come when he gets bigger and stronger ;) I'm so happy that Tony finally felt him move too. We were just staring at each other while he waited patiently, hand on belly, to feel any movement. When little man kicked and we both looked at each other knowing we both felt it at the same time, it was a GREAT moment, and one that I'll never forget!

I signed us up today for a childbirth prep class that will cover basic baby care, baby behaviors, newborn feeding, labor and birth, basic comfort techniques, postpartum care for the new family, and a tour of the Labor and Delivery suites. It's a 6 week course that we'll attend once a week from 6:30-9pm. I'm excited!

Hope all is well with our family and friends. We are all doing great in the Rossman household :)

XO,
Soni

Kickin' it

Last Sunday, I felt my baby boy kick!!

Sonia's been feeling the "flutters" from our son's movement for a few weeks now and I've tried to catch the movements a couple times but was unsuccessful. According to the midwives, my son doesn't hate me if I don’t feel him kick once I place my hand on Sonia's belly. Apparently, some fathers get all emo about not feeling their baby kick and think the baby doesn't like them. So the midwife thought I should know that I have a calming influence over my son which is why he may stop moving once I place my hand on the belly. I was surprised to hear grown men get all sad if their baby doesn't kung fu their hand all the time when they place it on their girls' bellies (sheesh, some men are just sissies these days). The calming influence makes sense; so does the timing. The baby's strength doesn't get strong enough to really feel the kicks until the 24th week, up until the 26th week. We're coming up on week 23 on Thursday. So, I was able to feel a few movements slightly - mainly because Sonia confirmed that yes the baby did move whenever I thought I felt something. The movements felt like air bubbles popping inside the belly - like when the stomach grumbles it kinda vibrates or when a person holds a burp in and the air, the gas pops inside the throat. I dunno, I guess it's hard to describe unless you've felt it before.

Nonetheless, it was cool to feel my son's movement, even if it was a faint sensation on my hand. Hopefully in the coming weeks when he gets stronger, I'll be able to feel some stronger kicks and punches!

Picture Update! Weeks19, 20 and 21!

Hey guys, I took these two pictures and and just getting around to uploading them. :)

Week 20 was taken on the morning of 03.31.11...the day we got to find out that we were having a little boy! As promised, bump pictures will always be posted HERE FIRST!

WEEK 19 - 03.26.11:


WEEK 20 - 03.31.11:

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WEEK 21 - 04.08.11 (LILLI'S 4th BIRTHDAY!!)



I have just started to POP like crazy this past week, so I plan on taking another picture of just the skin this weekend and posting as well! He's also been moving around like crazy, I LOVE IT!! KEEP POSTED!!!

XO,
Soni

"Project: Room Resurrection"

The work day is dragging. My lower back hates this office chair and it's hurting (I need to find my lumbar support chair attachment). I'm wearing uncomfortable fancy pants. I'm bored. This is a recipe for a blog post to kill some time. Lucky you. ;)

This post is inspired by a reader, Kiara. I recently asked to hear what you readers wanted to see us discuss. Kiara asked about what I'm excited about next in this baby making process. Well, now that Sonia and I know the baby is a boy we can begin working on the baby's room. We are pretty excited to pick a theme, go shopping, and start decorating.

First task is to clear out the room. The room is a spare bedroom that has turned into a "dump miscellaneous stuff in this room" room. So there is a ton of random stuff in there. Lots of wedding stuff, books, magazines, stuffed animals, CDs, photos & frames, our old bed, an elliptical, RockBand drums and guitars all clutter this room. Before the junk room it was Milo's, our cat's, room. Therefore the room still has a slight stale odor of cat. Once we de-clutter the room, it will be disinfected from top to bottom. The room has hardwood floors which may require some work. Although we plan on using an area rug in the room, like a 5x5.

Next we will be selecting some paint colors and picking a design. We don’t want to have just plain white/colored walls. We will have patterned paint and/or vinyl cut outs of stuff like animals or something. We've found some cool themes like safari with vinyl trees with monkeys on them, elephants, giraffes, zebras, etc. It looked really cool. There is also the sea turtle theme. Sonia loves sea turtles and we've been collecting a lot of turtle things for the baby. Another theme idea is something with sports. We are still looking for themes and should be picking one soon.

Once we have a theme, we can paint and stick the vinyls, with the clean floor and empty room, we'll be able to fill it with furniture. Which means shopping! So we'll need to pick a crib, a rocker/glider chair, a dresser, changing table, or dresser and changing table combo, an area rug, maybe a lamp, and maybe a bassinet. There is also a "california closet" is the room. Its one of those creative space closets. We'll be setting the closet up too with all the baby's clothes. We will also be removing the venetian blinds and doing some different window coverings.

I just have this awesome vision in my head of what the finished product will look like. I wish I could post this mind-photo on here for you all to see too. =P

We are starting "Project: Room Resurrection" this weekend. It's gonna be a lot of work but totally worth it. If you have any suggestions, tips, or tricks, please let us know - we appreciate the help. This room is going to go from forgotten part of the house to heavenly sanctuary!