The working world

As my time in the in the 9-to-5 working world winds down, Mark is ending 2008 with a bang! A few months back, Mark was awarded with the Engineer of the Month award. It’s a very cool honor because he is being recognized for all of the advancements & efficiencies he has created within his division. Not to brag, but he created a process that the headquarters in Japan have now adopted. In the world of Toyota, this is a very big deal!

This week, his boss created a new position for him & he was promoted. And to top it all off, he won the Engineer of the Year award today. It’s been a very big week! I'm so proud to be married to such a badass :)

As I write all of this, my time in the 9-to-5 world is winding down. Yesterday, I cleaned out my desk at work in preparation for Tuesday, my last day of work. I'll have nearly 2 months to 'nest' to my heart's content, before the lil one arrives and then I'll be a stay-at-home-momma. I could not be more excited about my transition into motherhood, but packing up all of my 'work stuff' was a little surreal. I've been working at ad agencies for the past 10 years & have come to know the ebb & flow of life at an agency.

Now I’m starting at square one & will need to learn the new ebb & flow of being a stay-at-home-mom. While we will definitely miss the extra paycheck, time raising our son or daughter is priceless. According to salary.com, if a SAHM mom in Orange County, CA were to get a “mom paycheck”, I’d be making nearly $150,000 a year!

As 2008 comes to a close, I couldn’t be more proud of my husband or more excited for our new chapter in life! We hope everyone has a safe & happy holiday.

I have the greatest friends

Its been way too long since our last post! We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We went to my parents house & celebrated with 35 extended family members - true LaBonge style. I'm so thankful we have such a big family. It really makes the holidays fun!

On the Sunday of the Thanksgiving weekend, two of my absolute dearest friends threw a baby shower for me. Stephanie & I were roommates 3 of the 4 years in college & have been best of pals since. Tracey & I got to be friends when we were in preschool at 3-1/2 years old! Not only did we grow up taking dance classes together, but we also went to college together too!

Stephanie's mom has a beautiful house in Carlsbad & was generous enough to host the shower there. The weather was perfect & we sat outside for lunch. Then we went inside to open gifts & eat the cutest cake ever! All in all, it was a wonderful day & I was reminded of how generous & amazing my friends are. For that I am truly thankful!

The hostesses & me ... plus the cutest cake ever!

Kath, Shannon & Amy ~ wonderful friends

The grandma's to be

Nana, Aly & Michelle enjoying lunch

Just add water ...

Last weekend, my mom's gal pals threw an amazing shower for me. While we were at the baby shower, Mark & my dad put the nursery furniture together. I came home from the shower with a ton of gifts & a brand new nursery ... instant nursery, just add water!

The baby shower was nothing short of amazing. Five of my mom's girlfriends threw the shower for me. It took place at Waters Lakehouse Restaurant. The restaurant is on the lake by the house in Irvine where I grew up. It was so nice to look around the tables to see all of these amazing women, most of whom are friends from my childhood days. My mom's friends are super creative & made it a 'teddy bear picnic' theme; complete with picnic tablecloths with ants drawn on them!

Thank goodness for SUVs because we had a lot of loot to get home after the shower. Mark unpacked it all & brought it up to the new nursery. As soon as I put away all the gifts, I'll post some pics of the nursery. In the meantime, here are some pics from the shower. Enjoy!

Me & the 5 Fabulous Hostesses

Grandma Robin, Me, Grandma Nellie & Great Grandma Adela (Nana) to be

Hard to tell who's having more fun!

A bump in the road

So far its been smooth sailing with my pregnancy. No morning sickness, minimal aches & pains, working out on a regular basis, etc. But I've run into a bump in the road (pun totally intended) over these past few weeks. Everything is developing just fine with the baby, but I have been having a lot of pain when I walk or just move my pelvic area in general. We spoke to my doctor about this last week & apparently its a pretty rare disorder. I won't go into all the details but my doctor has only seen this a handful of times. As the baby grows bigger, its likely to cause more pain & the only "cure" is childbirth. So, I'm on bedrest. My company has been extremely accommodating & is allowing me to work from home.

Luckily everything is ok with our little one & am able to work from home. Next week ... it's onto the 3rd trimester. WOW!

Fall Traditions

Halloween is almost here & Mark is giddy with excitement! He's taking tomorrow off of work just to prepare the house with all the necessary decor to scare the neighborhood kiddos.

A couple of weeks ago, we went to Julian, CA to partake in our annual Fall Tradition - picking apples in the apple orchards & picking out our pumpkins at the pumpkin patch that Mark went to as a child. Mark outdid himself this year & got a 126lb pumpkin! I will definitely post some pictures of the carved pumpkins soon! Meanwhile, here are some pics from our Fall Traditions trip - can't wait to do it next year with an 8month old!!

Can you tell which ones are pumpkins & which one is a preggo belly?

Our feet picture in the apple orchard.

The best dog in the world - the Ginge! She loved picking apples.

He's going to be such a great dad!

Ever since we got the email from our friends at BabyCenter.com, stating that the baby can hear sounds from outside the womb, Mark has started a nightly tradition of reading Goodnight Moon to my belly. It is quite cute & I am so lucky to have such a great husband/father-to-be by my side!

I'm sure this little nightly tradition will continue as soon as we get to hold our sweet baby in our arms & put him/her to sleep in the nursery ... and we can't wait!

The family keeps growing & growing

BIG news from the ever-expanding Lane family. My mom's side of the family seems to be growing daily! My mom's brother & his family live in Atlanta. Within the past few months, they've added 2 granddaughters to the family. My mom's sister & her family live in Seattle & are expecting a grandchild in March. I wish my grandfather (Pa) was around to see all of his great grandchildren. He would've loved having these 6 munchkins around!


Today, I'm happy to announce that my cousin Todd & his wife Michelle welcomed Harper Jane Lane into the world early this morning. Michelle had a quick labor & is recovering well. Harper is a healthy 6 pounds, 13 ounces & 21 inches! Isn't she beautiful?!?! Their oldest daughter, Cosette, is already loving being a big sister. We are so happy for them & wish we lived closer to Atlanta so we could see everyone.






And on the other side of the nation, my cousin Gregg & his girlfriend Elisa are due about 5 weeks after me. Yesterday, they found out that they will have a lil slugger on their hands! Gregg has worked for the Seattle Mariners forever, so I'm sure he's going to love having a son to take to the ballpark. The profile picture from their 'big' ultrasound is so cute, but the 2nd picture is what had me on the floor laughing. The lil guy is giving us the bird! HA! Too much :)

Pics from the 20wk ultrasound

This is a front view of the bean ...


This is a profile view ....


And this is our very own Jack Skellington. Just in time for Halloween!

"Normal" has never sounded so good!

I have to admit, I was a bit anxious before our 20wk ultrasound. Up until this point, all of them had been performed during routine visits at the doctor's office. For this ultrasound, we went to a Hoag Hospital Imaging Center so they could use some special equipment. The appointment was approx. 45 minutes & it was nice because there was a big flat-screen TV on the wall so we could see the images. Well, almost ...

As we were checking in for the appointment, we promptly told the technician that we didn't want to know if we were having a boy or a girl. She said that's was great & she'd just reference the baby as "he", since she was the mother of three boys. So I laid down, did the whole jelly-on-the-belly thing & got excited because we'd be able to see the baby much clearer with the flat screen TV. Well, Mark & I were are convinced that there was some sort of Divine Intervention because the flat screen TV was a bit blurry. Since we were nervous & didn't know any better, we didn't say anything & went along with the procedure. The technician took all the measurements she needed to & we were done. As she was wrapping up, she looked at the flat screen (it was to her back) & gasped at how out of focus it was! Mark immediately said that was probably God's way of keeping our baby's sex a secret! She apologized profusely, but we were just happy & relieved that everything was measuring normal.

All in all, the baby is developing normally & that is music to our ears!

PS - As we were leaving the room, the TV magically snapped back into focus. Hmmmm!

Fun Birthday Facts About the Baby

• Your baby's birthstone will be Amethyst (Sincerity)
• Your baby's Astrological Sign will be Aquarius
• Your baby's Flower is Violet or Primrose (Violet, Sky Blue or Yellow)
• Your baby will be born in the Chinese Year of The Ox
• This time next year your baby will be 32 Weeks Old!
• Your baby will start kindergarten in 2014, be old enough to drive a car in 2025, finish high school in 2027, and will graduate from college with the class of 2031, give or take a year.
  

1/2 Way There!

Wow, time is really flying! I'm in my 20th week right now ... officially the 1/2 way point. We have a big ultrasound coming up on Thursday where they will take a bunch of measurements to make sure that everything is progressing along properly. I'm a little anxious about this test but have my fingers (and toes) crossed that everything will be ok. This is also the ultrasound where most parents find out the sex of their baby. Mark & I still want to be surprised at the birth, so we're going to make sure the ultrasound technician knows this before the ultrasound begins!

Too many choices!

Last weekend, Mark & I ventured into a few baby stores to start researching strollers, car seats & furniture for the nursery. We were super excited, but ended up being a little overwhelmed with all of the choices. Our #1 objective it to find the safest stuff on the market so we did some research before we left on our adventure & headed to the tot-filled shops.

The sales folks at Right Start were a huge help. The store wasn't totally packed with customers, so we felt like we could push the strollers around, collapse them down & give them a good run around to see if its something that we liked. We came out of Right Start with a pick of 2 strollers we loved - a jogger & an everyday one.

Then it was onto Bergstroms (or Burger Storm as Mark likes to call it!). Bergstroms was the exact opposite experience as Right Start. The place was packed to the ceilings with every gadget that you could ever think of for a baby. And on top of that, the service was lousy! But they had quite a selection & we were there to really look at furniture & glider chairs. We practically had to beg a salesperson (who looked a tad hungover) to show us where a certain brand of furniture was located. After testing out the drawers & such of that particular brand & another that we happened to run across, we think we have it narrowed down. Phew! Now onto a glider. Well, that was my favorite part :) These chairs are so stinkin' comfy! I think everyone should own one, even if you don't have kids!!

So this weekend, my mom, Mark & I will head to a furniture store that my friend owns. We'll check out their fabric choices for gliders. They can beat the price plus they have a bazillion fabric choices - sweet! And then my mom & I will hit up Right Start & Burger Storm, um Bergstroms to check out everything agin ... just to make sure :)

Its a ........................................ GIRL!

Well, according to the following old wives tales, we'll be having a girl. As you probably have heard, Mark & I want to experience one of the last true surprises in life. We will not be finding out the baby's gender before he or she is born. But last week, the girls in my office had a great time 'determining' if it would be a boy or a girl. Low and behold, according to their VERY scientific studies, it will be a girl! HA!

Here are some of the old wives tales ...

• Chinese Gender Chart - As legend would have it, the Chinese Gender Chart was buried in a royal tomb over 700 years ago. Recently discovered, the chart has been used to predict the gender of an unborn child based on the mother's age and month of conception.
• Heart Rate - The theory states that if your baby's heart rate was 140 beats per minute and above, you would be having a girl. If the heart rate was under 140 beats per minute, then you would be having a boy. During the last doctor's appointment the heart rate was 149.
  
• Needle Gender Prediction - Take a needle and attach it to a thread. Hold the dangling item over mom to be's wrist. If the needle or wedding ring swings in a strong circular motion, you will be having a girl. If it moves in a to and fro motion like a pendulum, you will be having a boy.

Make sure to take our poll on the right-hand side & let us know if you think it'll be a girl or a boy!

Soundcheck ... check 1 ... check 2!

VERY cool doctor's appointment today.  All my vitals checked out A-OK, but the coolest part was seeing how much the kiddo has grown in the past month!  No joke, last month the baby looked like a gummy bear in the ultrasound pictures.  This month we got to see the baby flip around & move its arms & legs!!  We also got to hear a strong heartbeat which was music to our ears :)  Enjoy the pics of the little one at the end of my 1st trimester ...

The kiddo is already rockin' out!

While the kiddo has been busy developing, we've been trying to expose the lil bean to as much music as possible! Here's a quick rundown of the amazing shows we've been to within the past few months ...

The Police @ the Hollywood Bowl
Kanye West @ Staples Center
Stone Temple Pilots @ the Hollywood Bowl
Coldplay @ the Forum

We hope the kiddo loves concerts as much as we do. Rock on lil one!

4 tests & 2 ultrasounds later - IT'S OFFICIAL!

We're pregnant!! It's so crazy because it doesn't seem real. Even though I've taken 4 tests, had to 2 doctor's appointment with ultrasounds & even saw the heartbeat, I don't really feel much different. Don't get me wrong ... I am so tired that I could put my head on my keyboard right now & sleep until tomorrow morning, but since I don't have a buddha belly just yet, I guess its all just a little surreal.

The day after we found out, I went to Barnes & Noble to load up on books & magazines. Thankfully, one of my good friends told me to quickly return a book I bought because its full of everything that could possibly go wrong. I definitely don't need all that info & don't want to stress about things that most likely won't happen. So I settled on a new book for me & Mark is quite happy with his Everything Father-To-Be book.

The tests came back positive in early June, but until the doctor confirmed everything, we wanted to keep the secret to ourselves. On June 12th, we visited the doctor & he confirmed it! An ultrasound was performed but it was too early to see anything besides the gestational sac. So he asked to see us back in 10 days. Meanwhile, father's day was just a few days away & we really wanted to share the news with our parents. We planned on taking a Duffy Boat harbor cruise with my parents, Mark's mom, grandma & brother. It was Mark's mom's birthday as well, so this worked out perfectly! We got a cake that said "Happy GRANDfather's Day". My mom squealed, my dad's face lit up & everyone was ecstatic. Lots of hugs, tears & happiness was shared that day.

Just a week after that, we went for my follow-up ultrasound ... and this time we saw a heartbeat! Man, it is just shocking how cool this is. We were sent home with a goody bag full of brochures, magazines, a keepsake journal & more.

We hope to keep this blog updated periodically with notes about our adventure into being parents.
xoxo,
M&L (and the bean)