Not Finding Out the Gender

I recently discovered a baby registry designed for parent who choose not to know the gender of the baby. According to the registry, friends and family can select items and once the baby is born the gender-appropriate gift and color is mail to the parents.

Unfortunately, Not Finding Out still perpetuates gender specific colors and items but it does make it easier for friends and family shopping for couples who choose not to know the gender of the baby.

Only six weeks of Maternity Leave...not Fair!

Our Priorities

I'm mad at the world or at least our society. With the birth of the baby approaching, I am now dealing with the logistics of maternity leave. The fact that it lasts only 6 weeks upsets me. It took my daughter longer than six weeks before she started sleeping through the night and the stress of pumping at work drove me nuts. Clearly, the lack of time to recuperate and time to properly nurse my daughter was the cause of my stress. Even my students noticed and periodically reminded me to take it easy!

Why are we not conscious of the needs and struggles of new parents? How can we expect new parents to be productive at work when they don't even get a good night sleep. Really, where are our priorities? Again, this all upsets me!

Below is a map of the world and the allocated amount of maternity leave for each county. Note that the U.S. is one of the few first-world countries that provides less than three months of maternity leave and the only industrialized nation that does not mandate paid leave for new parents.

Click on the link below for a better view of the map:

NPR World Map Report

Baby Shower

Festival Du Bebe

Countdown begins! I now have less than one weeks before maternity leave begins--can you tell I'm excited? I'm looking forward to the relaxing and alone time I will have until the birth of the baby and then all hell breaks loose and I will have numerous sleepless night :)

To kick off the last few weeks of pregnancy and to celebrate the baby to come, my friends hosted a great baby shower in my honor. Since the shower had a French circus theme, we had face paint, clown performances, and a beautiful cake. The party was great and I'm happy to have such wonderful friends!

A quick video of the event.

Here are some of the pictures:

Face Paint by Tammy Artis--she did a great job!
Clown Show. I asked for strippers but got samba dancers. I can live with that :)Games: This was so beyond embarrassing but I did get the pen inside the bottle :)

Must everything be pink or blue?

Camila's Bedroom

As the delivery date approaches, hubby and I have started shopping for baby things. The problem, however, is that most things are pink or blue, girl or boy. This poses a problem at time since hubby and I chose to keep the gender of the baby a surprise (We are not the only crazy ones. Click on the article for other crazy parents). I'm under the belief that learning the gender of the baby is going to be one of the few pleasurable experiences on the day of delivery. Consequently, we are having a difficult time shopping and redecorating the kids' room.Camila and the baby will share a room. While we have tried to make it into a gender neutral room, we have failed miserably. The room is full of pink storage containers, flowers on the walls, and girly bedding. We have failed because the baby to come may be a boy (for some odd reason I have a strong gut feeling that the baby will be a mini version of my hubby--a little boy with a big butt).

Though we are not sure of the colors and style , we are set on a few decorating ideas that will help make it gender neutral:

Reading nook for Camila and the baby:
I love the idea of letting kids have a space designated for reading. I hope that by fostering positive reading habits, I'm going to set my kids up for a successful future.

Bunk beds for the kids:

Our space is limited so a bunk bed just sounds like the logical solution. Plus, it just seems so fun.

A faux polar bear rug:

I don't really have a reason for this. I just really like it.

Once a Week

Blogging Once a Week

I sure am tired. I don't know if it's a result of the pregnancy, or the demanding college courses, or the stack of essays that I must grade, or a culmination of all three. All I know is that I sure am tired.

My week plays out in the following way: Mondays and Tuesdays are fine. I am productive at work, school, and home. By Wednesday, I feel like a dementor is slowly sucking the energy out of me and only Harry Potter can save me. Thursdays are difficult; it's the white-flag-I-surrender day. Come Friday, energy slowly creeps back into my body. On Saturdays and Sundays, I recharge my batteries and am whole again--right now, I love the weekend and nap time :)

I 'm not in my pajamas. I really look this good when I'm studying.

With my not so active disposition, something has to give. Consequently, I have reduced my blogging time :( to once a week, and I hate it. I truly enjoy sitting with my laptop thinking of nothing better to do but write a blog entry about things I have no business writing about. I like adding photos, sharing my thoughts, looking at my followers, and reading my fav blogs. I really do! Oh well, I need to accept that I can't blog as often as I did, and that a once a week entry is better than nothing.

The show must go on!

"Take It Easy:" 3rd Trimester

As I begin the 3rd and final trimester of my pregnancy, my midwife has asked me to take it easy. Take it easy! Is she nuts? It's like asking Snoop to stop smoking weed. Though feasible, it is not realistic.


With my first child, I did not slow down. I, in the early stages of my 3rd trimester, samba down Mission Street in celebration of the San Francisco Carnaval parade, went on long hikes with my hubby, and sorted loads of heavy textbooks on the last few days of school. Now, I often ask myself "What was I thinking?"
Yes, I need to remember that it is not about me; it's about the growing baby inside of me. Therefore, I vow to take it easy or at least not repeat the things I did during my first pregnancy.

Nap time, here I come!

Sexy Mama

I began today with the goal of making Valentine's Day special. Yes, I love my hubby but I also need to redeem myself. Last year, I barely gave Valentine's Day any attention and still feel the ramifications of my behavior.

Unfortunately, I have come to an unpleasant conclusion--pregnant women are off the sexy radar. Companies that glorify female sexuality simply dismiss us; we don't exist. Really, Victoria's Secret does make lingerie for pregnant women. They don't have a single secret for preg ladies! Even Frederick of Hollywood, the sleazy version of Vicky, past on the pregnancy bandwagon. Discrimination!!!

Enough is enough. I refuse to let others place me in the Virgin Mary category (after all, my pregnancy is not a result of immaculate conception). It's bad enough that students constantly tell me I can't wear heels because it's bad for the baby. Really, I become pregnant and automatically forfeited my sexuality? Come on, reinstate me!

Ok, I'm not unreasonable. I understand that accommodations need to be made. My butty shorts need a support fabric that goes over my tummy and the bra, in a few months, will need a detachable flap to accommodate breastfeeding. Yeeessss, I am aware that the accommodation don't increase the sexiness of it all, but it's still beautiful...right?

To console myself, I turn to some of my favorite sexy mama stuff:

I see a baby bump. Do you?

Alessandra was several weeks pregnant when she strutted down the catwalk in the Victoria's Secret Fashion show in November.

Rachael Green trying to induce labor.

New Year's Resolution Article

Growing Belly

Rutabaga

Each week, I receive an email letting me know how my baby is developing. The size of the baby is always compared to a fruit or vegetable. This week, my 13" developing baby is a rutabaga (It's a beet-looking vegetable--I had to look it up).

What the email fails to say is that my rutabaga baby is made out of lead! Really, all of a sudden, my belly and size are overwhelmingly noticeable to me. I feel huge, clumsy, and exhausted. I can no longer see my feet, which are now in a constant 45 degree angle so to accommodate my waddle. When practicing my Warrior pose, I feel like a sumo wrestler getting ready for battle. I am big and getting bigger!

To make matters worst, my loving hubby said, as I walked passed him, "Being pregnant must really be uncomfortable." No, shit! I don't want to over react or make assumptions, but he only came to this eye-opening conclusion after seeing me struggle to get up from the sofa and waddle my way past him.

Now a bigger question comes to mind--was he trying to say something or am I reading too much into it? Since I'm a loving wife with raging hormones, I'm going to assume the latter. Simply, it's like the time he asked, "Does it really hurt?" This after I gave birth to my daughter. I replied by saying that "I wished I could leave my body."

To ease my mind and since I am a loving wife, I'm going to say that my loving husband had no clue of what he was saying. He was overwhelmed by the miracle of childbirth and my overwhelmingly large tummy, right?