We are full Term! 37 weeks – 21 days to go!

Seven weeks have passed since my last update and as expected nature is taking its course as we approach the big day. But before I go on with the latest updates Duke and I would like to say thank you to our friends and family for coming to our baby shower and for their generous gifts. We had a wonderful baby shower and we greatly appreciate your generosity, but most importantly we appreciate you being part of this very special moment in our lives. A big thanks to Sonya and Steve for hosting our baby shower in their spacious and beautiful home; Debbie, my mother-in-law, for all the help (especially with the cupcake fondant lion faces which was very labor intense, but worth it, they came out really cute); and my mother for making the delicious Brasilian docinhos that everyone seemed to love.

I heard from many of you that I was the only person crazy enough to make my own baby shower food, but I am sure there are other “crazy” new mothers like me out there ;o), besides I am a perfectionist and I could not pass up the opportunity to make good food for this very special occasion. I hope all of you enjoyed the food and your time at the shower as much as I did. Sorry to all the guys, but it was a ladies only shower.

We are getting closer and closer to Ryder’s arrival and we can hardly wait for him to be here, especially after seeing how lovely little Isabella is and how much love and joy she has brought to all of our lives. At 37 weeks our bebê is considered full term, which means he is ready to make his debut to the world. His lungs are fully developed and he is ready to take his first breath outside the womb. He could arrive at any moment and if he follows his prima Isabella he should be here any day now. Although we’ve been asking him to wait a little longer so we can take care of some last minute details and make sure we have everything as ready as possible to bring him home.

For the past 3 weeks we’ve been going to the doctor on a weekly basis and everything seems to be going really well. Three weeks ago Ryder’s weight was 4lbs and 10 ounces; he will be a little bebê like his parents, and although Duke doesn’t seem very thrilled about that small detail, I told him that in Brasil (of course we have a saying for everything in Brasil), we say “the best fragrances come in small bottles”, so that is nothing to worry about except that we want him to be a healthy bebê.

Duke is still being plagued with Couvade symptoms, some days my poor baby can hardly catch his breath, but we hope that once Ryder is here the anxiety will subside and he will be able to breathe in a normal pattern again. A lot of the anxiety he is experiencing has to do with me and how the delivery will go, he is very concerned about the labor pain I will have to endure. If it was up to him I would get the epidural as soon as we set foot at the hospital. Hopefully he won’t pass out on me as his father did when he was born. As for me, well I can hardly catch my breath either! However not for the same reasons as Duke, but rather because as Ryder grows in the womb everything gets really crowded.

These past three weeks I finally came to experience and understand firsthand the warnings from veteran mothers in the expecting business. Up until my 34th week I could pretty much do anything as before pregnant, but that my friends has changed. I am feeling pretty uncomfortable to the point of sleepless nights, constant trips to the bathroom, backaches, waves of tiredness and many symptoms that I didn’t have or had very little of before. Oh, and don’t let me forget to mention that I have a slightly different walking pattern these days and it is called waddling. No I am not proud of it, but I was not able to avoid it as lately I don’t seem to have control of my body, it has control over me! I am now in the last stage of the pregnancy, but it is not as bad as it sounds especially when I think of what awaits us at the finish line. Yet not a second goes by that I don’t feel blessed for having such a great pregnancy up to this point, specially being at a “mature” age, and as I keep repeating myself I would not change any of it for anything in the world. I have experienced feelings that I have never experienced before, somehow it just feels that life is so much more grandiose, and everything is more meaningful and beautiful, and in a not shallow way I feel more beautiful, a beauty that irradiates from within.
Most of you know that it was my desire to become a mother one day, so forgive me if I sound melodramatic, but this is all a big deal for me. I had to wait for Duke to be ready, with the possibility that it could never happen, and give me the assurance that we would do this together as I believe it should be. Well, that day has come and here we are living what at times still feels like a dream, a beautiful dream. The ultimate step in the life of two people who love each other and almost like magic are able to create something so wonderful; a new life that is a piece of the two of us. Soon we will be a three-some and if life was wonderful before now, now it will be wonderfully complete.

These past nine months have been quite a journey; one that we both know is just beginning and one that we can't wait to continue on. We find ourselves both excited and scared at the same time and we know that no amount of "preparation" will spare us of the unpredictability of parenthood, the joys, the tears and everything else that comes with the territory. We just pray that we have what it takes to love and care for Ryder the best way possible with one single objective in mind, to raise a healthy, happy and good, hearted human being.

Being pregnant has been an extraordinary experience, one that I guess only mothers can understand and attest to, but I also understand that it is a very personal experience and not all expectant mothers may feel or experience pregnancy the same way. For me it has been nothing but bliss. I feel blessed and privileged for the opportunity that life has granted me and let me assure you that I am not naïve enough to think that it will always be an easy journey, but we have made the choice to become parents and a commitment that we will be there for Ryder and for each other all the way and always.

A few days ago as I washed and folded Ryder’s newborn clothing I stared at these tiny pair of socks and tiny white shirts and I couldn’t help but to have my eyes filled with tears and my heart filled with joy and excitement to think that very soon we will be holding Ryder in our arms and that we have been entrusted with the biggest and most amazing task of all, to care and to love him forever, because “we are forever responsible for what we have tamed” – from the book The Little Prince.

BABY SHOWER and Other Pictures
Click on the slideshow and a new window will open for bigger pictures viewing.




Follow this LINK to watch a short slideshow of our pregnancy pictures.

Until next update
Duke, Laura and Ryder

She Is Here!

Today, July 14th, 2009 Little Isabella was born, she just couldn't wait any longer and decided that it was time to make her debut.
Paulinha, little Isabella and pround dad Gary are doing well and filled with joy.
She is the most beautiful, precious little thing!
She weights 6.5 Lbs and measures 19 inches.
My sister had the most speedy and "easy" delivery ever, it was unbelievable!
I just hope that things go well for me as it did for Paulinha.

I am posting a picture taken with Duke's phone, so you guys see how cute little Isabella is.

Beijos!
Laura