Yoga pants for the long haul...

37 week progress pic...

I hope we aren't in for a having a little diva because this little girl is still sitting up high and mighty!  I am back to congestion and cold symptoms = sleep was HORRID last night...blow nose, cough, bathroom (no I didn't go to the bathroom when I coughed ;)), go to guest room so I don't keep Tim up, downstairs for more water, read on iPad, sleep for an hour, cough, blow nose, sit up, back to the bathroom, ughhhh!!!

In these progress pics I used to be able to wear my black terry shorts, well those hardly get over my butt cheeks now so onto my maternity yoga pants I've been wearing...I am just short of living in them!  When you find something you like buy it in every color is what they say, so I have black with a black fold over band and black with a teal green fold over band.  As most of you know Ross is my go to for thrifty shopping and since I can't fathom spending alot of money on designer maternity clothes (I splurged on a few items but even those were on sale :)) I have gotten most of my leggings/comfy pants there.  So I came across these yoga pants with the intention of using them for yoga during pregnancy and for comfy pants at home while I was recovering, for $9 each who could say no to 2 pairs!  Well these pants are so darn comfy that I think I wear them at least 6 days a week at some point in the day.  I have not been folding the band over bcs. it helps hold my belly in, they are comfy stretch cotton, the right length, I can run errands in them and they make me look like a preggo staying in shape, yay to a super good find!  I went back and found one extra pair that I am not going to wear until post delivery since I think these are certainly going to show their wear and tear by then! 

Fully cooked

Today I am 37 weeks pregnant and Raya is "fully cooked"!  I am considered at full term and if baby girl decides to come early she should be very healthy.  However, I am now seeing my doctor for weekly internal exams and last week when she checked me out she said everything is where it is supposed to be but with confidence told me "you will still be pregnant next week", haha! 

So I am entering the waiting game period.  I know that it is best for her to stay put for the next few weeks, I just wish she would drop down from my ribcage a little bit so I could breath a little better and have a little bigger stomach so I don't feel like when I eat the food just sits in my chest.  Hopefully, in the coming days/weeks she will start dropping a little, at least we know she is in the head down position waiting to make her appearance into this world.

Until my next doctor visit on Tuesday...

Shower in San Diego

It's fitting that I write about the beautiful San Diego baby shower I had two weeks ago on a rare rainy San Diego Saturday. 

It was a picture perfect warm (80 degrees warm!) March day.  My friends Amber, Linnea and sister in law Lori co-hosted the shower.  It was held at Amber's house and their backyard and backdrop was a beautiful setting for the shower.  There were so many sweet and thoughtful touches that meant so much to me!

Lori put together a beautiful drink station, mimosas, pink bubbly (alcoholic and non-alcoholic options), strawberry lemonade and iced tea, so refreshing for the warm day!

 A special day for baby Raya Grace

 Lunch seating

 There was a wishing tree or guests to offer their advice or suggestions as I enter motherhood, thank you everybody for the advice it is definitely going to be helpful!

Amber has a hand or should I say hands for cooking and made all the delicious food for the shower, YUM YUM AND MORE YUM!!!  Taking from our wedding (so thoughtful) she made a roasted tomato soup and mini grilled cheese = SO GOOD! Mini tea sandwiches, delicious turkey/chicken meatballs, caprese bites turkey artichoke stromboli bites, I could go on about how great the food was but it will make me too hungry...It was all so amazing!!! (notice the little R for Raya toothpicks - so cute!)

I was gifted two very special diaper cakes, I felt SO guilty taking them apart, I know how much work goes into them...Lori made an adorable monkey themed cake (inside joke with Tim's family that he is a  monkey :))  It was so cute and thoughtful and I would have never known it was her first attempt at making a diaper cake if she never told me - GOOD JOB!!

The 2nd was made by my friends Calista and Amanda.  I met Calista back in 2007 when I coordinated her wedding the following year I had the pleasure of coordinating Amanda (her sister in laws wedding).  Following their weddings we have developed friendships which I cherish!  Calista is an super creative supermom, check out her website for the items she makes http://www.customfromcalista.com/. 

Everybody enjoying lunch

The girls put a game together, "The Attribute Game", I had filled it out earlier in the day in regards to which attributes I want Baby Raya to have of me and of Tim, there were about 25 things on the list and whoever matched my answers the most was the winner!  My great friend Kim won!

There were so many gifts that we are SO THANKFUL for, I have read and researched about all the stuff you need to be prepared for a baby but geesh there is A LOT of stuff you need for a baby ;)  Raya is going to be one stylish girl with the wardrobe she has already accumulated and I can't wait to start dressing her up!!

Thank you Linnea for keeping track of it all, so many people to thank and my memory with pregnancy is non-existant!



Then it was dessert time...WOW!!!  Linnea is a great baker and her and Amber put together a beautiful dessert spread - brownies, cupcakes, chocolate covered pretzels, PB&J cookies, chocolate covered rice krispy treats.  I have acquired a new love of chocolate during this pregnancy and I am thankful there were some leftover goodies to take home at the end because everything was SO delicious!

THANK YOU THANK YOU lovely ladies for such a beautiful day, I will never forget it and feel so special and loved!!

Baby Raya will be adding one more girl to team Girl Altbaum (The Altbaum boys are starting to get outnumbered!)

Such a wonderful day with amazing memories, this little girl is already so spoiled!!!

**A special thank you to my mom's childhood friend Joyce who lives in San Diego and was able to make it to the shower and take most of these amazing pictures to help capture the day!

XOXO to all!!!

35 Weeks

5 weeks to go...EEEEEEKKK!!!  I think Tim is finding a good angle to take these pictures at bcs. I SWEAR I am much bigger in person than I think I look in pictures :(

Sleeping is near IMPOSSIBLE now - toss and turn and repeat 100x throughout the night is how it has been.  I have my Boppy sleeping pillow, I have another pillow too for my back or between my legs and no matter what combination I use, it's just flat out uncomfortable!! :( My legs have been cramping when I try to stretch them out while in bed and I have a bit of numbing in my right foot for the past week which are all symptoms so my books and online articles say.

My hips have been aching which is the stretching to allow the baby to come through (as if I need my hips to stretch out wider than they were pre-pregnancy??!!  waaahhh!). I have been doing Wii Fit Yoga to try to stretch out the muscles a bit and I am starting to go for more walks to hopefully help work the baby down into position.  According to quite a few people, I am still "sitting really high".

No stretch marks still (fingers crossed and knock on wood it stays that way), even my doctor mentioned how good my skin looked when I saw her last Tuesday, YAY - one thing that makes me feel good ;)

Parenting 101

Tim and I recently took our Childbirth Preparation classes and we are ALL SET to become parents...haha!!!  We did actually learn alot and are now more educated in several areas that we were not before.  We took our classes up at Sharp Mary Birch campus and it was a 6 week course.  Our teacher covered subjects of

• Pre-term Labor signs
• Relaxation and breathing techniques
• Labor and delivery (signs and stages of labor)
• Medications at the hospital
• Hospital procedures
• Birth variations (Cesarean and VBAC)
• Hospital tour (MY FAVORITE CLASS, who would think after my hospital stay a few months back I'd be excited to go to the hospital, BUT this was a different experience. I had never seen the inside of Mary Birch and I wanted to see first hand where I would be delivering baby Raya and it all felt very real knowing that the next time I was there would be for the "real thing")
• Review of labor and pushing (the Dads got to practice the pushing part - LOL, she said it's too risky for the women to practice at this stage but since dad will be with us, they can practice)


• Postpartum
• Skin to skin contact
• Breastfeeding benefits

I hope I remember even a handful of things I learned while actually in the physical act of labor, if not I am sure Tim will he has always been a good student and I am thankful EVERYDAY that he has a pre-med background!

So, are we educated? YES..Are we ready? MAYBE...but WE PASSED!!!

The NURSERY

I had a wonderful shower on Sunday with California friends and family.  So that means that nesting part 2 or more like part 200 took place this week :)  With all the generous gifts and clothes I was able to "finish up" and re-organize the nursery.

We started Project Nursery the weekend of Christmas and painted and assembled the crib.  I had the idea of neutral walls for a while that way we could use the color of choice as an accent so off we went to Home Depot to pick out the paint and painting items.  we chose a soft grey for the bottom and an ivory for the top. 

Painting progress

Overall we did the painting in two days and to my surprise when we finished the painting Tim said "let's put the crib together"...uh ok, I have to take his time while I have it right? 

Here is Tim enjoying the crib assembly with a little assembly from Zara

 TA-DA!  We did it!  It was actually not a very difficult assembly.  I have heard many nightmare stories of crib assemblies.  I think it took us just under an hour from beginning to end and putting it in place.  The crib and dresser are from Babies R Us, it is the Sorelle Brand and Verona model.  It's a rich espresso color and a nice solid wood, we love it!

Grandma Schuster bought us the bedding for the crib and I was SO excited when it came in the mail I think I got the box and put it on in a matter of minutes.  I am so glad with what we selected, the colors are very soft and calming which is exactly the feeling I wanted for the room.  Life is going to be chaotic and there will be plenty of colors and stimulation during the day but sleep time is for relaxing (at least we hope it will calm her to sleep well).

The final touches have been added this week and I think I can finally say that the room is READY!!!  Granted she won't be sleeping in there for about 3+ months but at least it's ready for her when she is ready to sleep in there, Zzzzzzz

For those of you wondering about the RAYA frame drama it was the first A that the frame broke on...I gave up on the hunt, my mom even checked Marshall's and Home Goods back in NY and couldn't find the frame, so I glued the broken on back together with some SUPER crazy glue and so far so good it has held together.  If you look up close you can see the cracks but at least it is still usable and hopefully with all the reinforcement I did I wont run into that situation again, no bueno!!!

Thank you EVERYONE for all the gifts that made putting this room together possible from top to bottom and everything in between!!  XO

Dad's a Tough Mudder

And so is mom for supporting dad at his Tough Mudder races especially when the first one was 32 degrees and snowing in MAY in SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA and the second was an hour away when I've been getting car sickness at 7.5 months pregnant ;)  But back to Tim...for those of you unfamiliar with the Tough Mudder Races, it is an obstacle race put together by the British Special Forces.  It is about 10 miles, through steep hills, dunks in ice tanks, sludging through mud, electric shock wires, etc...you get the picture :)

Tim has been running more races in the last 6 months than he has since I have known him.  He has always been very athletic and used to run many half and full marathons but the past few years this extracurricular activity was put on the back burner while he focused on building his business, which he has done very successfully and we are so lucky he works so hard for us!  I think to avoid the sympathy pregnancy weight gain he got back into his running, either way I am glad he is happy and enjoying the training and races (Zara doesn't mind either since he takes her along on runs sometimes)

This last race he ran with his friend Mauricio, this is them ready to race!

Tim out of the start gate

Tim leaping for the top of a half-pipe ramp, he lifted himself right up!

 Screaming like a girl running through the electric wires, he fell pretty bad and got a nasty cut on his knee, of course on the last challenge he gets a boo-boo :(

Tim and Mauricio crossing the finish line together

They did a great job and finished the course in just under 2 hours 15 minutes, thankfully they had good weather this time around which made for a much more pleasant race to run and watch :)