37 weeks

My last day of work was Friday, August 12th. When the day actually arrived, I didn't necessarily feel as excited as I thought I should. I guess it's because lately, work has been a fairly relaxing environment. A quiet place where I can have a cup of tea, have hilarious adult conversation, solve lots of problems and actually accomplish things. All of which are done sitting down, which it feels I'm rarely able to do at home not surprisingly, with a 20 month old. But now, it's Saturday evening and we will go for a mini family vacation for a few days in Morro Bay, California so I'm already excited that I don't have to work next week :). When we return, I'll turn into my tornado woman self trying to complete all the tasks at home that have been on my to-do wish list and then hopefully just when everything feels ready, little Mr. Muslera will arrive. Of course, that's how baby arrivals always go, right? Just exactly when you want them to ;-). With Mateo being 10 days late it's difficult for me to feel like I don't have plenty of time, but on the flip side I no longer feel "great" like I always seemed to with Mateo. In fact, it's difficult to walk, my upper back hurts constantly and I get a lot of lower pelvic pain. I really hope I'm not too early because I'm really excited about having a Virgo baby. Only 10 more days to make it safely out of the Leo times! Since I'm a Virgo, I can report it is the best sign of the zodiac ;-)!

33-week photo

July 15, 2011

32 week photo

From Heidi and Armando's Douglas Preserve wedding - July 8, 2011

Inexplicably Late

I think it's been 5 weeks since my last post. I think blogs are more difficult than they seem. I initiated this blog with my first pregnancy when everything was an exciting new adventure/process in learning. As this is my second pregnancy, I thought it would be a good idea to do the same, but all that learning is already complete so I find myself trying hard to continue to focus the blog on pregnancy, but I think I should transition into just "blogging". That's a little intimidating because on one had there are infinite things one can blog about and simultaneously perhaps nothing that will hold the interest of others like a blog should. These days I follow quite a few clever/humorous blogs so I feel a bit of pressure.

To focus on the pregnancy: I am now 35 weeks along and feeling SO MUCH MOVEMENT and also lots of pressure. This little guy already feels like he definitely has a much different personality than Mateo. How interesting to see how they will differ and also their similarities. I wonder what this one will look like?

Life: Mateo and Javier just returned from their one week boys trip to Argentina without me. Javier wanted to "take a trip" in July and my only request was that it not be to a place where I would have to be on a plane. I'm way too pregnant and also, road trips are fun! That turned into him going to Argentina with Mateo without me. No where close to my ideal, but once this discussion started happening and I realized I didn't have much choice in the matter, I decided that it would at least be a way for me to relax from the daily duties of domestic life with a toddler. It's important to always look at the positives, right? While they were away in the chaos and winter of Buenos Aires, I was here catching up with all my friends without kids. My life was so foreign to me. Suddenly I was on leisurely walks with friends, drinking tea and listening to loud music in the mornings at my choice of time to wake up, I had tons of meals out and got to try two new local restaurants, I saw a film! and even got many things accomplished around the house (you know, nesting stuff, like organizing cabinets and framing photos). I worked diligently with our contractor and had a new closet created and quickly filled it with neatly stacked towels, wash cloths and sheets. I boxed and sorted critical office papers. It was just me and Queso and wow, was life relaxing. It's difficult for me to remember life feeling that way before, but there is a very clear and definable difference between life with a husband and toddler and life without the husband and toddler. One is definitely not better than the other, but they are simply different. I, of course, missed my little monkey like crazy. I missed his infectious laugh, his 7:30am "Mama" calls from his room, our walks to the beach, and rushing home from work to see him every day. But my very pregnant body appreciated the break, I'm pretty sure of that.

The boys returned yesterday (Friday, July 29th) at 3pm to a bag that didn't arrive which kept us at the airport for another solid hour to report the missing bag. When we finally arrived at home, I was desperate to get my tired little one in the bath because I was transposing the feelings that I have after International (and national for that matter) flights of a desperation to get clean and rid myself of the plane air stuck in my nose and on my skin. It always grosses me out so much. In the bath, Mateo started shivering pretty badly. Got him out immediately figuring he was over tired and perhaps very hungry. Took him downstairs for a bite to eat, and he was definitely out of character in the eating department. I knew immediately that he would have to be in bed early ... like 6:30pm early as he was just not himself. After putting him down I went to check on him about an hour later and he was BURNING UP! Scarily so, big fever for sure. We eventually brought him in bed with us and administered some acetaminophen upon confirming a 103.5 degree fever. Today hasn't been much better and in fact at one point his fever got up to 104.8. I was about to have a panic attack, but Dr. Vic has assured me that since he has no other symptoms the only thing we need to do is keep his fever down (with acetaminophen or motrin) and thinks he's probably just working on kicking a virus or something. I hope so, but I must admit to googling "West Nile Virus" today. There's a fine line between being a relaxed parent and neglect. And a high fever can be very dangerous. It's hard with a sick baby because they are unable to tell you much about how they feel. It's a guessing game and you do the best you can. Mateo is such a trooper though, really. He always impresses me and he's handled his "virus" like a champ. I just hope he's better by tomorrow!

I'll post some ever expanding photos now!

Photo - 31 weeks

Can't believe I'm posting this, but here goes:

30 weeks

As we head into the final stretch, we're FINALLY beginning to take steps towards making room for little mister numero dos. We're pretty much decided on the name and I've even been sharing it with a few so maybe we'll just start calling him by his name soon. I thought it was a lot of fun not to disclose Mateo's name before he was born for several reasons:
1. When you tell people the name of your unborn child they inevitably give you their opinion ("Oh, I like that." or if you're my mom, "How about _____ instead"). It's tough enough to give a child a moniker that will take him through his life without having to listen to what other people have to say about it. Unless they have been asked of course ;-)!
2. These days people know so much about the baby before the birth so at least the name can be a surprise!
3. It can just be strange for someone to call your unborn child by name ... seems like a right that should be reserved for the parents only, but I definitely understand this one. It's just simpler and other people want to get on with calling the baby his name.

But I digress. I'm excited to post that we are taking baby steps (no pun intended) towards prepping the house. For me, it was a HUGE goal for us to organize the garage. I don't necessarily think Javier was as excited about it (definitely not!), but I knew JUST how to get him moving .... called California Closets to have them over for a quote! When other 'professionals' start coming around his territory it has a pretty consistent effect of getting him moving :). I'm very proud to say that what California Closets quoted us $7000 to do, Javier has been able to accomplish pretty much the same thing for under $800. Although sure has spent a LOT of time in the garage. But I'm happy we've been able to save the money and he's happy to do the work himself. Next project - baby closet. Javier has done most of the closets of our house, but the spare room/office/room for new baby closet has not been completed yet. So we're going to do something interesting there by turning a small portion of the existing closet into a linen closet so that we can turn our existing linen closet into a partial coat closet as currently all of our coats are in the new baby's closet. A lot of words to basically say 'we are creating space'. It's a good thing our home has a lot of storage space to play with. The more we talk about how to shift things around, the less excited I become about us not having an office/spare bedroom so it looks like little mister numero dos will have his own bedroom only until he is sleeping through the night. Plans always subject to change, but I think it would be a shame for us to give up our spare bedroom. We love visitors and people are a lot more likely to come if there is space for them. We're thinking the boys will want to share a room anyhow, right? We'll see! And maybe it will be just more than I can handle. I can just imagine it now ... the constant bed diving contests and wrestling noises coming from upstairs. Hopefully this will become music to my ears ;-).

I ordered the crib bedding today just to jump start me in thinking about paint/window covering options. That's the fun stuff though and everyone knows babies don't need much so I'll try my best to refrain from getting to pushy and stressed about this stuff.

Junior League has kept me super busy this month. I took over the presidency in May and this month planned a Board of Directors retreat (for 11 ladies), a Leadership Retreat (for 30+ ladies), my first general meeting (for 100 ladies) and a board meeting tomorrow night. It's a lot of work, but I truly am enjoying it. It's an honor to serve the Junior League of Santa Barbara. Everyone thinks I'm nuts, but it's making me uber productive to have all this stuff going on at once. We've also begun to look into preschool options for Mateo. So far we've looked at a Montessori preschool and the Jewish preschool (even though neither of us is Jewish). I don't know much at all about Judaism, but read "The Blessing of a Skinned Knee" and really liked the Jewish principles and values as they were described in this book. It seems for Jewish people, respecting and honoring parents/elders is a very big deal. I like that :). I get concerned with the amount of child-centered parenting I see today.

Just had my 30-wk blood work done and it appears I am gestational diabetes free. Yippy!

photo - 29 weeks

26 weeks

Wow, this pregnancy is running away from me. So hard to believe this little one has been incubating for 26 weeks. He's a little trooper as mama is really busy right now and definitely not getting enough rest, but I can feel him all the time kicking away and enjoying life. He is extremely active. So much that he can give me quite a surprise at any moment. You can physically see my stomach move around pretty wildly if you're looking in just the right moment. Sometimes it's difficult to concentrate on anything else. Mateo is somewhat interested in my belly as well. He'll say hello and give me some pats. I really think kids are smarter than people give them credit so I'd like to think he kind of knows what's up. I don't expect that he completely understands the complexity of it, but I tell him that he used to be there and soon he'll have a brother. It's clear there is something in my stomach ;-)!

Fortunately, I've been blessed with two wonderful pregnancies so I don't want to complain, but juggling work, the house, a husband, a toddler, the Junior League presidency (hooray!) and general social outings is seeming like a lot. I'm doing my best to remember to breathe as I know that so much of how I feel right now is being transmitted to him.

It's 8pm and I feel like having a bowl of cereal and crashing for the night. I feel this way quite often actually. Too tired to think about food or anything else. Javier has been a champ and has been cooking lots of wonderful meals when he's been home, but he seems to have been out of town a lot over the past few months. We're about to face a pretty massive transition as the last day of his job is June 30th. As if adding a 2nd baby were not transition enough. I'm hopeful and optimistic about change. Everything will be great!

I've been trying to figure out if I'm bigger this time around or not and I don't think I logged my weight well last pregnancy. The midwives have all the info, but at 26+ (almost 27) weeks in this time around, I've gained 15 pounds.

21 weeks

20 weeks

Another Day at the Beach :)

It's another BOY!

Javier, Mateo and I have just come from the appointment with Santa Barbara's premier perinatal doctor, Dr. Soffici. My memory of this appointment with the first pregnancy was wonderful. It's such a special time to see the 4 chambers of the baby's beating heart, the healthy spine and other healthy organs and also the baby's sex. I remembered that we were able to view all of this on a 40" LCD on the wall above our heads - a very magical memory. But, when we arrived in the room today, much to my surprise and disappointment, I found the monitor is actually quite small. Again, nothing as exciting as the first time. Also, I started to have some intuition that I have been carrying a baby girl around. When Dr. Soffici mentioned the sex as "obvious", I knew in an instant I was wrong. "Unmistakably another boy," he exclaimed of his discovery. It took a while to sink in .... okay, another boy. Well, that seems easy enough. We have the clothes, we have another boy - perfect. But why do I somehow feel a little strange and why has no other mother ever talked to me about this feeling that probably happens to a lot of mother's who learn that their second baby is the same sex as their first. Ideally, we would like three children, but obviously we'll need to re-evaluate after two for financial and other reasons, and at this point our odds are leaning heavily toward a one-sex family. Ultimately I believe very strongly that God always gets things perfectly and that having two boys is going to be really fantastic, I don't want to be misunderstood. I simply wanted to take some time to explore the feelings of learning that your second baby is the same sex as your first. ... If anything, I think it makes the case for 3 kids even stronger :)! Congratulations to the brothers Muslera! And congratulations to Javier, Mimi, Abu, Grandpa, Abuelo and all of the rest of our loving and supportive family and friends. A healthy baby is the ultimate blessing.

18 weeks

Wow, just reviewed my 18-week photo from my pregnancy with Mateo. I'm definitely bigger already this time around. The roundness looks more full. With Mateo at 18 weeks, my stomach looked kind of like it was fighting to come out, but this time I'm round and looking quite pregnant already. Hum, wonder if this baby is bigger or if one just shows differently the second time around.

Wednesday, April 6, is the big day. The day we will apparently find out if we are to have a baby boy or girl. The fact that I want to know disappoints me, but I cannot live with this level of curiosity for 4-5 more months knowing that we could know. I really admire those who do not find out. It's an amazing statement of character given the technological world in which we live.

Super Cute Photo - March 7th (15 weeks)

16 weeks - Take 2

My dad and his girlfriend, Chris, left our house on Friday after staying one week with us. It was so much fun to have them around. I especially loved that Mateo and his grandpa got to spend so much special time together. I love our life here in Santa Barbara, California, but now that Mateo is in the picture I find it very sad that we don't have any family nearby. But it's important to always see the bright side of things and that is we have a lot of wonderful friends and a really blessed life here in Santa Barbara and no family member is ever more than a flight (or two or three) away. We had a lovely visit and enjoyed the Saturday morning farmer's market, the annual SB Orchid Show, a Muslera BBQ and several local eating establishments. Javier and I eat out very rarely these days so I enjoyed all the meals prepared by others. Mateo did as well. I guess he's one of the main reasons we don't go out so much, but he was a super champ and did extremely well for a 15 1/2 month old toddler. The bread helps - he seems to be a carb loader and generally really enjoys eating.

In other news we got a new vehicle, more of a family vehicle. Javier sold his 1995 Volvo 850 Turbo and we purchased a 2010 Honda CR-V. We're hoping it will suffice with two kids. Now, Javier wants to trade in our other car (our 2006 Acura TSX) for a used Volvo station wagon. It's true, even with one child, a regular sedan can suddenly seem very small.

My pregnancy is going all swimmingly. In fact, I often forget that I'm pregnant. I feel great. We had an appointment with our midwife a couple of weeks ago and got to hear that great sound of the baby's heartbeat. I love it! We find out in a couple of short weeks if we are expecting a boy or a girl. I don't have a super strong intuition this time. Nothing like last time, but I do have a slight inclination. I'll be so happy either way, truly. A happy healthy baby is all I can request and to be given such is a HUGE blessing!

10-wk scan of Baby #2 (02/04/2011)

Take Two - 12 weeks

Here I am, back to the blog, and pregnant AGAIN :)! It certainly doesn't feel like all that long ago when I was here blogging about my experiences with pregnancy the first time around. Do not get me wrong, I am VERY excited, but being pregnant for the second time is a whole lot less exciting. For one, I am too busy to give it much thought. I have a 14-month old at home and am working 30+ hours a week. I don't have the same kind of time to devote to thinking about "pregnancy". The other thing is I kind of already know what to expect. No coffee, no alcohol, no sushi, etc all seems a little bit more harsh this time. The first time around I didn't mind any of that much, but it definitely seems like more of an inconvenience now. And wow, did I forgot about how draining and unmotivating pregnancy can be? My energy levels after Mateo was born (well, once he started sleeping through the night at 4-months) were incredible. I felt almost like super woman, so I'm keenly aware of how drained and unenergized this pregnancy is making me. I also forgot about the uncontrollable appetite thing ... Of course, I do my best to keep it under control, but being pregnant definitely sparks a mean appetite!

Now for the cool stuff: I'm so excited Mateo will have a sibling only 1 year and 9 months younger than him :)! I'm sure they will be the best of playmates at times and the worst of enemies at others, but they will always have each other in a way that only siblings can understand. I feel that aside from our unconditional love, there is no greater gift we could give Mateo. Mateo will be 21 months old when he becomes a big brother so I'm guessing he will never even remember a time of being an only child. I think he will be an amazing brother because he is so mellow and easy going. Also, it's just exciting to think about having another child. The birth of Mateo goes down, without a doubt as the best day of my life so having an opportunity to have that experience again is going to be fabulous! I can only hope the birth of baby #2 is as magical as the first!

We had an ultrasound at 10 weeks and I was amazed at the size and mobility of the baby even at this early time. It was amazing! The first scan we had with Mateo was at 8 weeks I believe, and the 10-week scan was so different! The 10-week scan looked like a baby and did not warrant a nickname such as "Patito". Once again, we've decided to forgo all genetic testing, etc. with the hopes that everything will be perfect. Last time this decision was a no-brainer, but now that we already have one child at home we thought about this decision a little more ... maybe about 5 minutes longer.