The Countdown begins...

I am now officially counting down. As of now its 4 days until we find out the gender of our baby. I'm stoked! Once we find out we'll be able to start decorating the nursery, buy baby clothes, and get mentally prepared for whats ahead of us.

I had a couple people ask me if I wanted to find out. I gave them a blank stare. Why wouldn't I want to find out? I know some people live for the suspense and excitement of not finding out until the birthdate but just knowing that we're having a baby is way too much for me to handle. The technology is there so why not take advantage of it. Back in the day when it didn't exist, people were holding threads and needles over a pregnant woman's baby bump, trying to see how and what way it would move just to come up with a guess of what the baby would be. So of course I want to know!

I'm still stuck on the idea of having a baby girl. I have no idea why but its a feeling I can't shake. My wife seemed to agree with me up until a few days ago. All of a sudden, she now has a feeling that we might have a boy. Maybe there's more to these feelings we have. Maybe this gut feeling won't go away because its what we secretly want! From what I've seen, children are almost always attached more to their parent of the opposite gender, hence the terms Momma's Boy and Daddy little girl, right? I can totally see that though  If we had a girl, her daddy would spoil her rotten and if we had a little boy he'd stick to his mommy like there ain't no tomorrow! 

So many of you know my wife and I do Crossfit and before you freak out and think that pregnant woman shouldn't do those workouts let me say that the workouts are scaled down or changed to accommodate her by a professional. Anyways, we recently took a 2 week hiatus from crossfit due to work and our mini weekend vacation so when we went back it kicked our butts bad! My shoulders were killing me and I felt like throwing up (I blame it on the heat and humidity wink..wink). But my wife's experience was also different. The baby is now the size of a sweet potato and her uterus is the size of a cantaloupe. So while she's squatting, jumping, and burpeeing it up, there's a little sweet potato inside a cantaloupe, inside her belly moving with her. Something else thats interesting is that her body is pumping more blood into her system to nourish and help the baby grow. She's working out harder and doesn't even realize it, so props to her for sticking with it. This is the first time she's felt actually pregnant while working out which is another testament to how fast the baby is growing and that's a great feeling because my wife isn't showing as much but we know the growth is there.

Changing the subject, have you guys heard of Vine? It's a social media app like Instagram but it uses short 10 to 15 second videos. I heard of some people using ot and curiosity got the best of me and I decided to check it out. There are some really funny and creative short videos there. I found a hilarious father/daughter duo on ther by the username of Eh Bee, check them out. I'm  on there too under Adrian Loera if you guys want to look me up. Maybe I can upload a video of the ultrasound on Wednesday. Thanks for checking in.

A little vacay here, a little vacay there

Have I ever told you guys about how the wife and I never took a honeymoon?

The year was 1965....jk.

When we got engaged in August of 2009, I was in the hiring process for the Fire Department. I had no idea wether or not I was going to get hired. So when it came time to set a wedding date we chose March. Another 3 months passed by before I got a "conditional" offer of employment and it wasn't until December when I finally received a Letter telling me what recruit class I would be in. The fire academy was a 6 month school/miniature boot camp. There was no vacation that first year on the job, so when we got married, the next day all we did was just go to the Waffle House and chill the rest of the day. Romantic, right? The year after, we got so caught up with different friends and family issues and we purchased our house that we never took a belated honeymoon.

Now don't get me wrong, we've gone on small vacations. We took a trip to California in which my brother and mom decided to tag along. We've taken small weekend trips to different places with friends but we have never honestly taken a trip just the two of us to a resort or a cruise. We just never have.

Now that were having a baby I don't know if we'll ever have our Honey moon. I'm not saying it to get people to pity us. If anything it's our fault, maybe we're subconsciously sabotaging ourselves because we're scared of flying or being on a ship? Not really, just lack of planning.

We wanted to go on a big vacation before my wife got big but looking at our budget we figured it would be smarter to save for baby expenses. So what were gonna do is take smaller weekend getaways. This week were heading up to a cabin in the mountains. I good friend of mine owns a cabin in the mountains and rented it out to us for an awesome price. Hopefully next month we'll hit the beach.

Can you hear me now?

Today we are 4 months into this pregnancy. The baby is the size of a turnip. I didn't title this post after a turnip because I didn't know what one was until about 4 minutes ago when I googled what one was. So now that we have that out of the way, let's talk about what we can expect from the baby this week. The baby is beginning to form body fat. Its slowly developing its thumb sucking skills and get this, It can hear us! At week 16 the baby can hear noises especially loud ones like the dogs barking. Pretty soon it will start to recognize daddy and mommy's voices. While I was thinking about all the beautiful things the baby can hear I became sad when I realized the baby would soon fall victim to hearing all the crappy music we have to endure. Yes, you too, my son or daughter will have to hear the no talent stutters and screams of Nicki Minaj. Well not if I can help it. I got that Spotify Premium baby!!! I have always been a fan of Oldies Music. Anything Motown and definitely my west coast Lowrider Oldies. I can honestly say I'm an all around fan of any "good" music and If I have a say in it, so will my son or daughter. So from now on, anytime my wife and I are riding in the car together we will be listening to the classics.

Guard dogs reporting for duty

As many of you know, I currently own 2 dogs. A Boston terrier named pollo and a pitbull mix named Oso. These 2 little guys are like my kids right now. I've trained them and they're the most loving little creatures. Now I know everyone says that about their dogs, especially when they have a fierce demeanor like in the case of our pit. But I sincerely believe it. I have never seen my dogs be aggressive with anyone except on one occasion when a stranger let himself into my house in which case I didn't mind it. I have mentioned before, how I make some spontaneous decisions, some of which I look back to and have to wonder what led me to make them. Adopting our first dog was one of those decisions. I was getting close to finishing the fire academy, my wife and I were newly weds and I knew that my 24 hr shifts were probably going to be tough on her. So one Saturday morning I woke up and decided we were going to adopt a dog that day. We lived close to a Pets Mart that hosted different dog rescues every week. We made our way down and saw that the rescue being hosted was a Great Dane Rescue. They had huge dogs! Great Danes, Pits, Mastiffs, but I wanted something smaller (I say I because my wife wasn't too crazy about the idea). I asked one of the volunteers randomly if they had any smaller dogs like a Boston for example, and they happened to have one back at the rescue. Long story short, being that it was a rescue; they made some home inspections, made me sign some papers, pay some money and a few day later we had pollo. Growing up my neighbor had a Boston. They are some of the most alert dogs I'd ever seen! They're super friendly and hyper. I figured that a dog like that would be perfect! A hyper dog would keep my wife entertained and keep her company. It's keen senses would warn of any strangers or passer-bys and being a small dog would be the best choice for living in an apartment. Well other than being small, Pollo was none of the above. Although he was loving and eventually warmed up to us, he wasn't a good guard dog. He was really mellow, never barked, in fact in the event of a break-in, I don't have a doubt that he would probably lead an intruder into our bedroom as if showing them the way to the goods. Oh well, he grew on us even though he defeated every purpose for why we wanted a dog in the first place. So after a year or so, we or should I say, I decided we needed another dog (does anyone else notice a trend?). This time we had a little more freedom with the breed. We were moving into another location so I decided to look into a bully breed. I figured, if I wanted a guard dog I was going to get a GUARD DOG! So I started looking into pitbull mixes. Now before anyone out there starts to going off about their bad reps and how they knew someone who knew someone who had a cousin.....that was eaten whole by a pitbull, let me just throw this out there. I sincerely believe that any dog can be either a loyal, loving animal or a feisty, mean, aggressive, demon dog. I've been bit about 5 times by a dogs and its been by small chihuahuas. It's all in the way they are trained and wether or not they are socialized as puppies. Unfortunately, many of the people who own that kind of breed don't care to invest the time to learn how to train them properly and leave them tied to a tree in their back yard. Anyways, I found a puppy on Craigslist that was going to be taken to a pound if not adopted by 5pm the next day. So out of the blue, I told my wife that night that we were gonna go see this dog. We literally drove to Troutman (about 45min from Charlotte) around 9 that night to go see a puppy. And that's how we found Oso. He was a feisty little guy. The family that originally owned him were a bunch of kids that tossed him around and it showed in his attitude. Ironically they had named him Tyson, after a guy who bit someone's ear off. But with a little patience and training he's turned into the best dog.

Obviously with the pregnancy my wife and I have pondered if we will be able to keep the dogs once the baby is born. I love these little guys. I sometimes wonder if my wife feels the same way. I know she enjoys them but I don't think it would hurt her as much as it would devastate me to lose them. Once she even confessed that after a couple days of the dogs being sick and throwing up repeatedly, she had entertained the thought of taking them to the shelter while I was at work and then telling me they ran away. She kind of laughed it off but I had a hard time sleeping that night. Jk.

I honestly do think the dogs have taught us alot! Even if they're sick and making a mess. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that part of raising kids? Having to care for a little being in the good times and the bad? There's been times when we've accumulated hefty vet bills because one of our dogs hadn't pooped in 4 days or because we noticed one of them is walking with a limp. How about the times we have to interrupt our plans to go home and let them out to pee and feed them or having to find dog sitters for our out of town trips. Obviously I'm not comparing babies to dogs. I know that having a child is on a whole 'nother level. You can't send the baby to its crate if its bad (or can you?). And even though I love my dogs, at the end of the day they're still dogs. Not my flesh and blood. I know where they stand in the circle of life but even then, they still have brought a large amount of joy and happiness into our lives.

So we have made a deal. We will try to keep the dogs as long as we can and as long as its safe for the baby i.e. the allergy factor etc. That being said, Oso and Pollo, you have now been officially deputized as Baby Guard Dogs of the Loera Household. Report for duty October 26th, 2013.

An Avocado

This is week 15. Almost 4 months of pregnancy. In just a few weeks we will have hit the half way point and its all down hill from there! The baby is now the size of an Avocado. That means we can take some of the past fruits and veggies that the baby resembled like a small tomato, a lime, an onion, add a little olive oil, salt and pepper and make some guacamole!

So at this stage in the pregnancy, one can't help but wonder what the baby will look like. My wife and I had the funniest conversation thinking about all the possibilities. Our families and their facial characteristics vary widely from sibling to sibling and parent to parent. For example, my dad and my mother-in-law are light skinned. My wife's siblings have colored eyes while my family is dark eyed dominant. My brother has thick hair while I inherited my dad's thinning hair (why, Why, WHY?!?!). My family is taller (for being mexican) while my wife's family is a little shorter. I'm sure all of you get the point right? The baby's features can take a turn in any direction and the funny thing is that there's nothing we can do about it. Not that I would love the baby any less but the baby has already started forming all of his or her little features. Meanwhile the wife and I are left in the dark until the day comes when we can see and hold our little creation for the first time.

So until then, there are certain websites that claim to give you a preview of what your baby "could" look like (keyword: Could). I know its all fun and games but when my wife found one of them we literally spent about an hour uploading different pictures of us trying to see what the different outcome could be. So Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you Micah and Leilah!!!

#TeamMicah

#TeamLeilah #TeamAbigail 

What do you guys think? I know that these picture are pretty much based on no science at all. They just  merge 2 pictures to see what they can come up with but I'll tell you what. The little baby boy looks EXACTLY like me when I was a baby. The resemblance is almost shocking. I have to find a picture of me as a baby so you guys can see for yourselve's but for the meantime trust me and Isn't that little girl the cutest thing you've ever seen in your life? Both of them are. Once we were done with our baby morphs as the cool kids call it, we started morphing pictures of other friends just out of curiosity. Some of you reading this blog were morphed. Don't worry all of your babies were cute except for one, but I'll never tell.

I'll just throw the final result up here and let you figure out who you are....

All of the babies were cute. Which made me think, this website would not be popular at all if it showed ugly babies and that led me to think, When parents have ugly babies do they know their babies are ugly or do they not realize it because of the love for their creation? Then I started thinking of a baby I made faces at, at a Grocery store earlier this week. Then I started thinking of Sweet Potatoes at the Grocery store and then I thought about fire trucks. Did I mention I have ADD? More on that in another post. (Squirrel!) But as I mentioned earlier we will love our baby no matter what!

So I finally found a happy place to blog. A place where my words and ideas come easy and flow without obstruction. The nursery! We have started turning one of the rooms upstairs into a nursery, complete with an awesome rocking chair and changing table! I was up there typing my fingers off, writing without stop when my wife calls me down because she wants me to Blog next to her. So being the good husband that I am, I came down to be beside her even though I explained that I had found a happy place. Well long story short, she just wanted me to see all the combinations of cases she can make for her iphone because that's not distracting at all. Love you baby!