We're Expecting a Baby!

Haven't Posted in 2 Months!

2009-04-11T00:15:00.000-07:00

Amazing. I haven't posted in over two months. A lot has changed, most notably... our baby shower, and of course the size of Kathy's tummy. Tomorrow will be the beginning of the 35th week!

Our Baby Shower was last week. We were surrounded by our close family and friends. Up until the shower, Kathy and I were freaking out a bit. With so many kicks, and rolls, and other such baby movements we started to think, what if our baby comes early? Well then, we'll have a sum total of two outfits, one baby bottle, and that's about it. Now, simply one week after the baby shower, we have truly been showered with the following: adorable outfits, blankets galore, an amazing all metal and pearl finished baby crib, great play mats, wonderful bath sets, lotions, great winnie the poo crib set, etc.

Our baby is kicking up a storm. She is so active, and Kathy and I have now realized that she could come any time. Kathy is eating very healthy as usual, one time she ate over 15 tangerines in one sitting. Kathy is taking Yoga for Pregnancy. On Mondays we're taking a Bradley natural child birth class. So far so good.

Our little girl is probably 5 pounds at least!

So Many Kicks!

2009-02-10T23:31:00.000-08:00

Kathy and I are in our 26th week. Our little baby girl is kicking so much that Kathy wakes up from her sleep. She's very active and strong too. I take great delight placing my hand on Kathy's tummy while she sleeps to feel all the kicks.

Kathy is very much craving tangerines - she'll eat as many as six tangerines in one sitting. Kathy has no appetite for steak, chicken, nor pork. Kathy's taking prenatal vitamins each and every day.

Now, we're in the process of opening up a baby registry and selecting a name for our baby. I told eBay about us expecting a baby, and my boss was very supportive - stating that I will soon have weekly doctor appointments and to just send an email when I need to attend with Kathy. So far, I have made it to every appointment, and don't plan anything different!

She's a Girl!

2009-01-29T01:11:00.000-08:00

Just what we were hoping for! The ultrasound on Wednesday, with no uncertainty, indicated that Little Baby Sexton is a girl! All along we were hoping for a girl to be our first baby and even began our baby shopping in Peru and bought very cute outfits for a baby girl.

The funniest thing happened during the ultrasound. As the technician was showing us the telltale anatomy (or lack of) of our baby girl, she then began to pee! Right there on the big-screen of the ultrasound, I saw a splash of water jet on out of the baby! This lasted for a few seconds, and the technician said she hardly ever gets to see a pee episode on the ultrasound!

Dad gave me a very nice tip once we bring home our baby - he said he learned of this from super daddy Michael Saunders. I read a lot about tummy time and the importance in the first month for neck muscle development for the quickly growing head - I heard from Dad that Mike would do tummy time every day with the baby on his tummy, tummy to tummy. I'm looking forward to that moment - what a great way to bond with the baby - after all, I won't get in on any feeding time.

Kathy and I are now thinking about names!

Love to all family and friends who might be still reading this!

Ultrasound to Know Sex of Baby on 1/28

2009-01-24T11:49:00.000-08:00

Hello Everybody!

Kathy and I have an appointment this coming Wednesday, for the telltale ultrasound! We'll know if we have a baby girl or a baby boy!

We'll post the news in four short days!

Wish us luck!

Love,
Ed and Kathy

Back from Peru!

2009-01-24T11:24:00.000-08:00

Hello Family and Friends-

We're back from Peru - our 28 days there were amazing and action packed! We visited Machu Picchu, had an expedition into the Amazon Rainforest near Iquitos, and scoured Lima for countless weeks with family and friends.

We met with many artisans, and bought over 2,000 items to bring back for "Lindo Peru Imports". Coming back to the US we decided to jettison our conventional type luggage, and exchange them for an all plastic, zero weight, gigantic bag. In addition, we decided to each pay for an extra bag, yielding a combined bag total of 6 check-in and 2 carry-on. Little did we know that every official in the airports (both Lima and San Francisco) would be shocked at our luggage allowance.

Luckily we declared all the goods, and we broke no laws. The Taca employee helping us with our bags in Lima kindly told us that 7 out of 8 bags were significantly overweight (40 lbs allowed - each bag was over by 10-20 lbs). An overweight bag costs $50 additional, and two extra bags cost $100 each. We should have been charged $500 in extra bag/weight, but for some reason he was kind and only charged us $100! In the Lima airport, a plain clothed police officer detained us for a few minutes asking why we have a mountain of luggage. We think he wanted a bribe, but when Kathy mentioned that her Dad is affiliated with the police force, he said "Okay, have a nice day!". Thanks Crusty!

Kathy and I had a wonderful time bonding with family in Peru. This trip gave me a chance to finally know Orlando Junior, to see Christian in his natural element, and to visit with Ghil as she starts her round of classes. We stayed in the Jesus Maria apartment for the whole vacation ad probably saved around $2,000 in hotel charges. Despite the savings, it was so worth it to be in the apartment so close with family and it would not have been such a great trip otherwise.

The meals we had in Peru were amazing. On average, one eats for the low low price of $2-$3 dollars. When we would have group dinners having Pollo a La Brasa, salad, Inca Kola, desserts, french fries, the works, each person would eat for $4.00. Taxi cabs across the city, lasting for 15-20 minutes would only cost 15 S/. which is like $5.00.

We can't wait to go back. I immediately started looking into airfare for this coming year, and booking in advance the cost is around $340 round trip!

We'll be back Peru! Here are pictures of us in Cusco, taking pictures with the Cholitas. Notice the baby, baby llama, and the big piece of corn in one girls hand. This is called choclo, and the corn nuggets are gigantic (about the size of a quarter)- and delicious!

FIrst Kick Felt after Machu Picchu!

2009-01-07T06:36:00.000-08:00

Kathy and I are so excited to tell the family that we felt the first kick from our baby on Sunday! This happened one day after the Machu Picchu ascension!

Kathy has been so strong during the Machu Picchu trip, with the altitude, climbing, long train rides, and a little rainy weather. We later read in the paper, that on Monday, due to the rain, certain parts of Cusco received extensive landslides, which trapped all tourists from travelling home for many days. We got lucky!

Kathy's Graduation This Friday!

2008-12-17T11:40:00.000-08:00

Guess what Family and Friends? Kathy is graduating from San Jose State University with her undergraduate degree in Business Administration! Please give her a call and congratulate her on her big day! We will be celebrating at a Peruvian restaurant called Nazca in San Jose around 7pm PT, if you can call then! Kathy's cell is 408.582.2018!

Thanks! - Ed By the way, check out who is in back of us, right in the middle! It is Daniel!

Lindo Peru Orders!

2008-12-01T18:09:00.000-08:00

Thanks to our family and friends for helping us launch Lindo Peru.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this one shows 'paragraphs and paragraphs' of our collective happiness. Look at all those orders! This photo was taken on Monday, November 24th, we stopped by the post office before going to work at eBay. That weekend we had five orders on Lindo Peru, one order was big enough to use a box!

We are getting ready to make a donation to our chosen charity, it is small donation - but it is a start!

What does this have to do with LBS (little baby sexton)? Well, Lindo Peru is the 'college fund', it is the 'diaper dough', etc. etc. :)

My First Post!

2008-11-22T15:00:00.000-08:00

Now I am on the spot! First of all, I wanted to thank to my wonderful husband Ed for creating this baby blog for us. Memories like this are treasure and we will share them with the family and our children forever. I just started my second trimester in my pregnancy. The first one and the most challenging one is over. Thanks Mary Lee for the Saltine Crackers recommendation. I always keep them next to my bed and in the car in case I get nauseous. You really have saved me from many trips to the bathroom.
I already can feel the change in my body. Now my tummy doesn't look like a person after eating lunch, but actually it is starting to have the shape of a pregnant mommy. The food tastes better, and I have more appetite now. However, I can't walk by the kitchen too much since the smell of food is still making me sick, most of the times when the food is being prepared or warmed up. My nails feel stronger than ever. They look long and beautiful and my hair is growing even more!
This is a very exciting moment and stage in my life and indeed the best year in my life so far. 2008 has been a year full of blessings: My marriage with the best man in the world, my upcoming baby, my graduation and our trip to Peru after 8 years and finally bring my husband to my homeland and introduce him to the rest of my family! I can't wait.

Sir! Just What IS inside that Bag?

2008-11-20T00:15:00.000-08:00

I see the voting booths have closed on the "What is inside that gigantic bag Ed is holding, and why is he smiling like never before?".

And the results are in:

Baby clothes received the most votes, how intuitive you all are, but the voter did have the opportunity to select more than one item, after all it is a big bag!

The next runner up choice there was a tie between Daniel Mendoza (famed 15 year old piano prodigy and my brother-in-law) and Peruvian crafts. Once again, hats off to your keen powers of association (with crafts, not with Daniel).

Surprisingly, no one chose rice (it does look like a big bag of 'lumpy' rice, but then again I would have to be quite strong and I would not be smiling.) Most unsurprisingly, no one selected Paco Gutierrez nor bottles of Pisco (Peruvian Grappa) - both of whom are quite good friends of mine. Paco is Kathy's 78 year old grandfather and he is as strong as a bottle of Pisco. His favorite past-times include long walks around the neighborhood in search of fruit from the neighbors trees!, and crossword/word search puzzles (the $1.99 Walgreens brand is his favorite).

Side Note: Peruvian Pisco, is the main ingredient of the famed Pisco Sour, served with a healthy froth of raw egg whites, thus explaining its scarcity at your local Chili's or Outback Steakhouse Bar. When in Peru, one must have a Pisco Sour, especially on February 2nd, which is National Pisco Sour Day. Read more about the famed Pisco Sour and its fascinating history.

Enough about Pisco! Let's get to the correct answers! The final and most correct answer of the puzzle is the following triplet (I should be careful using that word on a baby blog!):

Baby Clothes
Peruvian Crafts
Jewelry

Specifically: 45 jewelry sets, 33 handbags, 34 hats, 6 sweaters, and 4 ponchos!

Why is this so important and what does this have to do with the Baby Blog? Well, what you see in the photo represents the very beginning of "Lindo Peru" - which is our business of importing beautiful items from Peru and selling them online and also, later down the road, at famer's markets and shopping center booths.

Kathy and I will be in Peru for 4 weeks over Christmas (12/23 - 1/18), and we will be having so much fun going to the markets and selecting more beautiful items to bring back with us. Of course I will be the invisible gringo, and Orlando and Christian and Ghil I hope can help us make the rounds. Kathy and I will be able to carrying on her mother's tradition of benevolence by helping out the poor kids in Lima, Peru. We plan on redirecting 10% of our proceeds to Peruvian Charities such as Better Peru, Org. Sonia's dream is to establish a children's music school in Lima, and who knows, this could be the seeds which sow that reality.

We have defined our mission statement as:

The mission of ‘Lindo Peru’ is to raise awareness of Peruvian products and inspire the world to purchase high quality, safe, and environmentally conscious products from Peru which will help families in Peru to achieve a higher quality of life.

Lindo Peru will also be the home-based business Kathy and I focus on after the birth. Kathy and I will be able to dedicate efforts on the business, in between the cries and diaper changes. Also, since I am planning on taking the maximum amount of family leave for the birth (12 weeks!), hopefully I will be running to the post office every other day to ship Lindo Peru products!

Our website is live and fully functional! If you could help us spread the word about Lindo Peru to our extended friends and family members we'd appreciate it! Now is the perfect time to pick up a little stocking stuffer, the prices range from $5 to $20 dollars. Have a look, and if you have any suggestions or improvements please let Kathy and I know! I can't wait what shipment #2 is going to look like, hopefully it will be too big to carry! Don't worry, there won't be another gallop poll! I am already having delusions of shipping containers and trans-pacific vessels hauling Peruvian Jewelry, Purses, Chullo Hats, etc. Perhaps we will put Paco in there this time! We miss Paco very much as he is in Peru now after his long stay. I am so glad to have a grandfather once again, well... grandfather-in-law.

Special thanks to Natali and Daniel for helping out with the photo shoot for the website products! Here is a quick picture of the happy faces right before taking the photos for the website:

Signs of Becoming a Daddy

2008-11-14T14:12:00.000-08:00

Despite having laser eye surgery a few years ago, a routine check-up to the eye doctor has resulted in the prescription of reading glasses! If these don't make me look like a daddy, I don't know what will. I only wear them while on the computer and the occasional moment when actually picking up a book. But then again, I am reading many pregnancy books.

Here is the new look, like it or not, here comes daddy. Now I can peer over the top of the glasses and practice my disapproving look (I think I learned that from Charlie). I can call my Dad Charlie now, since we're now on 'common ground'. Or maybe not, he'll always be dear (ole) Dad.

"The Business of Being Born", a Movie

2008-11-08T09:50:00.000-08:00

Kathy's friend at school recommended to us a very powerful movie called "The Business of Being Born", produced by Ricki Lake.

We're so glad we watched this movie, and feel more informed about what to expect at the hospital. We have so many questions now for our OBGYN, and have decided to write up a birth plan.

What are your thoughts about having a natural birth? We would love your input on this topic! In our collective family, we have relatives who are nurses and work in the hospital industry and we'd love your insight or references to other educational material - so that Kathy and I can make an informed decision.

This movie was a godsend! You can pick it up at Netflix.

Delivery from the Stork?! Guess what's inside...

2008-11-06T14:33:00.000-08:00

Since we are at the 12th week marker, we are a bit early for a delivery from the stork, but we received this mysterious package!

This is an exciting time for Kathy and I, and this package only adds to the excitement!

Kathy and I will tell you what is inside on 11/16, but until then, you will have to start guessing! There is a poll to the right in which you can cast your vote.

Entering 12th Week

2008-11-01T10:02:00.000-07:00

We visited with Dr. Chandler yesterday for our 2nd OBGYN appointment, everything is going great. The saltine crackers (as recommended by Mary Lee!) are working their magic against nausea.

We had our 2nd ultrasound, and oh my God what changes have occurred! From a little gummy bear sized baby with a beating heart, the baby is now formed, arms and legs were flailing about in the ultrasound video. The baby is active, and we could see the babies hands, silhouette of a face and chin. Kathy and I were so blown away by this experience, it moved us deeply.

Our baby is now around 5 centimeters in size!

Here are the ultrasound photos at 11 weeks 5 days!

Can you see a hint of the Cosgrove jaw? :)

Photo Slideshow Clarification (to the right)

2008-11-01T10:01:00.000-07:00

Just to let you know, the babies appearing in the photo slideshow off to the right side of the website are from the Halloween party at Little Stars Daycare, Kathy's family business.

You can see these cute kids here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ed_and_kathy/sets/72157608553473175/

Just wanted to clarify in case you might think we are becoming (more) obsessed with babies!

The Google Baby Fund

2008-10-26T11:38:00.000-07:00

Here is the 2nd report on how well Google's Ad Sense program is working. The "Ad Sense" program is contextual advertisement , based on the contents of one's web page. In the case of this baby blog, you might see Ad Sense advertisements for trips to Peru, or information on photo albums, or even full blown graphical ads from Tylenol (my favorite these days now that I am off coffee). When family or friends, or random people searching the Internet coming to the website, visit these ads, Google will charge the advertiser, and then give the baby blog proceeds.

So far, Google has donated this amount to the baby fund: $1.72 !

A few baby photos

2008-10-24T23:27:00.000-07:00

For those who might not have seen Kathy and my baby photos, here they are! Maybe this will get the imagination going for what little baby sexton will look like!

Tomorrow begins the 12th week. I decided to give up the coffee, well the caffeinated type. It has been 3-4 days since having a cup of regular coffee, and I've been drinking decaf. I thought I would be lucky to avoid the headaches, but I was wrong! Caffeine intake supplanted by aspirin, what a gambit!

Picaboo: The Best Online Tool for Creating Photo Books

2008-10-21T23:20:00.000-07:00

I write this blog entry because I came across our photo album we created for our guest sign-in for our wedding on June 28th. I thought I would share with everybody a link to the website I used to create the photo book, called Picaboo.

During the month's of our wedding preparation, we knew that we wanted our wedding guest book to be customized. We searched for fancy guest books at bridal shops, and they were either $100+ or tacky, or both. We decided to create our own, so the search was on.

On night I came across this website called Picaboo. After stumbling upon this website, about 3 hours vanished immediately while I had so much fun uploading pictures and choosing background image for each page of the book (around 50 pages). I sent the results of what I created to Kathy, and we decided right then and there, that Picaboo was going to be our Wedding Guestbook sign-in.

Here is a a sample of our wedding guestbook. Check it out in case you did not have a chance to view every page during our wedding reception.

Picaboo is amazing. Check it out! Upload your pictures, choose the background graphics, and send a free preview to family & friends. Picaboo has this one template where you can drag and drop about 50 photos on one page, and it looks like a cascade of photos. Very awesome. As you can tell, I am a big fan of Picaboo.

Celebration Party at the Mendozas

2008-10-19T22:47:00.000-07:00

Real quick post to say thanks to the Mendozas for throwing a nice ceviche lunch party on Sunday after church! Also thanks for the decorations, especially this highly edited photograph of Kathy & Baby, obviously a visualization technique! I've been wondering ever since Sunday why my name wasn't listed on the photo. :)

Baby Product Reviews

2008-10-19T08:57:00.001-07:00

Baby Products

Reviews on various baby products which we have purchased. If you have a suggestion and a comment on a baby product, please reply with a website link of the product and your review!

Where the Wild Things Are: I am remembering this from when I was young, the Sexton family favorite book of all time. I came across this image, and thought of my sister, Mary Lee. Long live Max!

Cotton versus Organic Cotton? I read a few Target baby product reviews and it seems that all the parents are raving about organic cotton products like the Kiddopotamus Swaddle, as being so soft. For some reason I thought it would be more nutritious, but I guess that is a different kind of "organic". Confession: I have no idea what a swaddle is, but it sounds like I better learn how to get my "swaddle on" soon.

Motherhood Maternity Corduroy Khakis. Oh My God, we had so much fun picking out our first pair of maternity pants. We tried on some horrible ones, but these fit perfectly. Kathy is at the stage now, in the 10th week, where a few of her pants will not close! By the way, I picked these out and handed them to Kathy to try on. A winner every time, super shopper daddy.

Irish Wedding Blessing: It's Working!

2008-10-18T15:19:00.000-07:00

I spoke to Norm today and told him the news. Unfortunately Diane was out doing her bingo thing :) - making good money I hear too. I asked Norm to deliver the news in grand fashion, hopefully he gave Diane a nice surprise!

I wanted to share with the family a close-up photo of the Irish Wedding Blessing Kathy and I received in the form of cross-stitch from Diane. It is absolutely beautiful and the photo does not do it justice.

We watched the wedding video, and there is a nice part where Diane is with Kathy and I and we are reading the words together. I hope you can read it from photograph.

Thanks a ton Norman and Diane, it is bringing us wonderful blessing already :).

- Ed and Kathy.

"Tuna" Means Prickly Pear in Peruvian!

2008-10-18T14:17:00.000-07:00

It's Saturday morning in the "Little Baby Sexton to Be" household, and it's my turn to prepare breakfast. Here is a photo of a typical breakfast, let me point out the funny red and green stuff on the right-side. This is called Tuna, but it is not a fish. Its the fruit part of a cactus, which Americans refer to as Prickly Pear! Caution must be used when peeling the tuna, sometimes there are tiny needles which are impossible to get out of your fingers. It is fun peeling them though. They also have these quite strange seeds! There are two types of prickly pear, red and green. the red are by far the best!

Along with the prickly pear offering, we have oranges, scrambled eggs, a cup of coffee, strawberry yogurt, Nesquik chocolate milk, wheat toast and strawberry jam, and cocoa puffs! The cocoa puffs went into the yogurt. A little bit of everything.

sdfsf

Going to San Francisco for an Appointment!

2008-10-16T23:57:00.001-07:00

Here's my girl. It's Thursday. We're driving into SF for an appointment. eBay's moving 150TB of data to their new data warehouse - and I have my cell phone turned off. I guess my priorities have changed a little bit!

An Old Picture of Ed

2008-10-16T23:36:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine from high school, Fred Pienkos, sent me an 18 year old photo.

I was at Nazareth Academy, in my junior or senior year of high school.

I think this is the time when my sister Mary Lee took me to Glacier National Park for a month long camping trip!

Receiving the photo helps me more easily quantify the passage of practically 20 years of my life. I guess I'm not a kid anymore!

Sold it on eBay! A book for $50!

2008-10-13T18:16:00.000-07:00

Wow. I've worked at eBay for 2.5 years, and I've never sold anything on eBay all that time. I just got back from training, and read the course manual already, realizing that I no longer need it I decided to experiment with selling it on eBay. Tadah! In under 24 hours, the used, but in mint condition, book sold on eBay for $50!

Straight into the 529 College Savings fund for Little Baby Sexton.

Telling the Family!!!

2008-10-13T17:34:00.000-07:00

We've told the family!

First Trip for Maternal Clothing: Super Sale at Macy's!

2008-10-13T10:31:00.000-07:00

Being in the 9th week and all, a few of Kathy's jeans are fitting a little more snug than before. Also, we're expecting some growth to happen in the next 1-2 months, so we decided to stock up on loose fitting clothes. It turned out to be a Macy's Shopping Extravaganza, I'll let the picture tell the real story!

We also are purchasing a few gifts for Kathy's family and friends for when we visit Peru. We had a wonderful time shopping and picking out beautiful tops but with a secondary function of being very mommy-esque.

Macy's never saw it coming! As with every other weekend of the year, they had a 15% super secret Friday/Saturday sale ending promptly at 1pm. By the time we were done, from 12:00 to 4:00), we received the discount anyway. That is why we are avid Macy's shoppers. Macy's has our trust! We broke a very nice serving platter from our Macy's 45 piece Wedding China, and they replaced it sight unseen, on our word. They did not want us to package up all of the pieces for a full set return. They just gave us the serving platter off their display case. Now that is service! Our wedding china was a spectacular gift from Patty Boettcher and family. We use the china each and every day and it brings us so much happiness and delight. Thank you so much Patty!

Abstract Food Art: Fun with Dinners!

2008-10-13T10:20:00.000-07:00

Perspective changes on so many things, I a few days ago I was creating a very fun dinner for Kathy and I. Kathy gave told me about the Mendoza family favorite called "Huevos y Fideos" - a peruvian cuisine delicacy! Here is a picture, to the left. Pinto beans and a nice cucumber, tomoato, romain lettuce salad are accompanying the spaghetti omlette.

After the main course, dessert of peach jello and blueberries was served. I am trying to work in the blueberry superfood into the diet. When assembling the dessert, it reminded me of something, some theme common to the early days of pregnancy. Can you see what I am referring to?!? We had a good laugh about it!

1st Baby Ultrasound at 8 weeks!

2008-10-12T22:52:00.000-07:00

We had our 2nd OBGYN appointment to interview a new doctor (actually a team of doctors). We were thrilled to meet them and they are such wonderfully competent and sincerely nice people.

During this 'get to know you' interview, I inquired about how long an ultrasound might take and to receive the results. The Dr. Chandler was nice enough to offer to do it right then and there, and we decided to do it. We had some fears caused by the previous horrible Dr. Shakira Karipenini doctor and in the back of our minds we were thinking we might be having twins due to our grand-parents history.

Kathy was so brave and within moments we saw our baby! The doctor had me turn off the lights, and lo and behold, we saw our baby. Dr. Chandler really liked what she saw, a firm connection to the uterus. The baby is 16mm, about the size of a gummy-bear! We saw the fluttering heart, beating so fast, about 150 beats/minute. The baby is producing its own blood and at this stage there isn't any exchange of blood.

All of our fears melted away - truly a monumental day!

Maternity Leave: California benefits

2008-10-08T13:54:00.000-07:00

This article on "Maternity Leave in California, Understanding the Money Part" is a very helpful article about how much the state pays during maternity, State Disability Insurance (SDI), and Paid Family Leave (PFL). This article was also very helpful.

Lima, Peru & Machu Picchu Here We Come!

2008-10-07T19:16:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, I bought two tickets from Taca Airlines for Lima Peru! The tickets were only $1200 each, for a grand total of $2400 dollars! Two tickets for three passengers!

We will be in Peru from Dec 23rd until January 18th! Kathy hasn't been back since the year 2000. This will be an amazing homecoming for Kathy.

$0.01 From Baby Blog Ads!

2008-10-07T18:51:00.000-07:00

An article which I quoted earlier tells a story about a father who created a blog for his newborn baby to chronicle the development and exciting moments. He realized that by simply activating Google's AdSense (contextual ad placements on partner websites - Google owns this Blogger website), a small but steady source of incoming can be made. He makes $200/month in AdSense advertising, which is quite amazing. He did this so he can start saving for the college fund.

Well, let me share some progress with you :) - since 9/28, this little baby blog website has earned $0.01 cent!

I hope the family members and friends who read this blog don't mind the side excursions from the real baby stories!

$0.60 cents the Easy Way

2008-10-07T00:26:00.000-07:00

Filled up the tank. 16.5 gallons. $60.00 dollars roughly. Used the uPromise credit card. Banked a whopping $0.60 cents. A song comes to mind:

"Just what makes that little ol' ant
Think he'll move that rubber tree plant
Anyone knows an ant, can't
Move a rubber tree plant

But he's got high hopes... he's got high hopes
He's got high apple pie in the sky hopes
So any time you're getting low
'Stead of letting go,

Just remember that ant.
Oops there goes another rubber tree
Oops there goes another rubber tree
Oops there goes another rubber tree plant."

Big Daddy's got some high hopes! 20 years until college, * 365 days a year, * $0.60 cents a day (Sally Struthers watch me now) = $4380! If we take in consideration interest, this will grow to $17,503. We know how much that will be worth in 20 years!

Wedding Video Has Arrived!

2008-10-07T00:12:00.000-07:00

9th Week: A little tummy showing: lots of nausea

Wow, the wedding video is amazing. We love the special messages our family and friends left for us. Read on why it is important to mention the wedding video in the Baby Blog context.

Kathy was sick on a number of occasions today. We have found the pattern of: no appetite in the morning except for fruit, milk and drinkable yogurt (strawberry yum!), normal appetite for lunch, and approaching the evening: nausea and no desire to eat.

Today eBay announced their worst ever layoff in their history, 10% of the employees, around 1,500+ people. The dust hasn't settled yet, but those standing are safe. eBay projects saving around 100 million dollars in the reduction, but yet they followed up layoffs with a few strategic acquisitions, namely "Bill Me Later", for $820 million. I mention this because all day today I had to entertain the possibility of being one in the 10%, and having to return back to the nest and tell the "family" that I lost my job. Luckily I did not have to go down that road today.

We've scheduled viewing the wedding video for this Friday, 10/10. Following the wedding video, we'll be telling our families that we're expecting baby! It seems so perfect to celebrate the video, and then share the news! We're going to order some Peruvian chicken a la brasa (grilled chicken) and celebrate. We can't wait to see our parents expressions and our siblings too.

We have a second OBGYN appointment scheduled for this Wednesday, 10/8. It is with Dr. Sheri Task. She has wonderful reviews on www.healthgrades.com, www.wellness.com, and www.vimo.com.

It's late, time to crash. Kathy's tummy is showing more now. It is the 9th week!

1st Measurement of the Waist

2008-10-04T19:17:00.001-07:00

I measured Kathy's waist, and it is 81.5 centimeters. There is only a small little shape showing. We had pizza and beer for lunch today! We'll one of us had a non-alcoholic beer, and our pizza was a hawaiian one. We ate at such a wonderful place called Mission Pizza. They have over 20 different kind of beer on tap. We worked up an appetite from our first ever exercise outing, we walked around Lake Victoria in Fremont.

1st OBGYN Visit: Bad experience with Dr. Shakira Karipineni

2008-10-04T18:31:00.000-07:00

Kathy and I went to our 1st OBGYN appointment. A PAP smear test was done. We picked a doctor from the Bay Valley Medical Group and we probably received the worst doctor possible. Her name is Dr. Shakira Karipineni. After the exam and upon paying the co-pay, I asked for a form to transfer the medical records. The front office was surprised and said "You've just completed new patient paperwork". We're switching doctors. I should have done my homework, if so I could have found this awful review of Dr. Shakira Karipineni.

I filed a complaint against Dr. Shakira Karipineni with Bay Valley Medical group. Once the medical records are transferred, I will be filing a complaint with her office, and fowarding the above review website.

Dr. Shakira Karipineni ruined what should have been a most beautiful experience.

Don't worry, we're over it! I told Kathy, we have to learn from these experiences, these bad experiences will make us stronger parents.

Funny Realization: Coke, Coffee, etc...

2008-10-01T16:15:00.000-07:00

Kathy and I Skype back and forth through the day. Skype is an instant messaging client which has a great video setup and voice quality.

Kathy sent me this message today:

[4:12:12 PM] ...Kathy Sexton: I will try to reach Natalie baby....and get a coke -- oh! I can't drink coke hmmmm?
[4:12:43 PM] ...Kathy Sexton: no coke, no coffee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why Am I at Panera????????????????????

This is really the $1 million dollar question!

uPromise: $13.67!

2008-10-01T12:46:00.000-07:00

Just noticed today that we received our credit for the baby magazines we purchased through uPromise. Our account is now up to $13.67!

Every little bit helps. One person who created a baby blog gave me the idea to list advertisements on the "Baby Blog". I thought friends and family would not be too annoyed with ads, since they might see this as yet another possible revenue stream for Little Baby Sexton. The advertisements hopefully will be not too intrusive, and maybe even relevant. It is possible that the Baby Blog will be viewed by other people, and perhaps they will consume the advertisements as well (hint, hint).

! Kathy... Estas Mas Panzona !

2008-10-01T09:47:00.001-07:00

Kathy and I are having so much fun seeing who might be the first to notice Kathy's symptoms. Today Natali said to Kathy, "Kathy, estas mas panzona!" - which translates to "Kathy, you stomach is getting bigger!". Earlier that morning, Crusty (Mr. Mendoza), kept offering Kathy some coffee, but Kathy told her dad that she drank coffee with me during our morning breakfast. Crusty replied, "Yeah, Ed coffee really strong!". So far so good.

One thought about breakfast time, Kathy and I have had weekday morning breakfast every morning with the exception of one or two days. We're trying to maintain our schedule of morning time, where we talk and pray and eat together. This always results in great communication but also results in me being late to work pretty much every morning! We are still working out the morning schedule, but so far it is our favorite part of the day. We read from either a daily Bible companion-ish kind of book or a book on buddhist short little readings - some of it goes way over my head, so in that case we'll read a different one! About being late to work, don't worry, I am usually the first or second person to arrive into my workplace in my group. Most of the people work from home, and even then, most people start their days at around 10am.

The baby books came today, the one's from Amazon. My uPromise account is now up to $5.00 - I followed a tylenol promotion when opening up the account. The uPromise credit card was approved which I will receive in about a week, at the very least I'll get 1% cash back. Time to repoint the mortgage payment to that account. This will deposit around $40 a month just from mortgage payments alone.

It is very hard not to tell parents, especially the Moms (Sonia, Colleen, and Rhunette). We know how much joy it will bring them. We also know that if Crusty gets wind of the news, of course he also will be equally happy, but the whole world will receive the news as fast as his little fingers can dial the phone. Well with the exception of one special little finger which 'got broke' early in his life, and does not close properly. When he did his dumbell curls during his Mr. Peru Olympia days, people in the gym thought he was giving them the finger!

Kathy has her first OBGYN appointment this Friday. We're shopping at Trader Joe's trying to find a more healthy selection, and we were successful this evening - found nice organic blueberries, and champagne grapes (the closest we'll come to champagne!) and some natural no salt free range chickens who never smoked a day in their lives and were told jokes constantly to help foster positive emotions, or something like that. The drumsticks were also $1.55 a pound, that is nice too.

I am finding various things to remedy Kathy's morning sickness, found some real ginger soft candy chews at Trader Joes, found little 6 oz. cans of Canada Dry Ginger Ale, and we have plenty of lemons and limes in the house. You'd think we were a fruit stand. I think I am going overboard with 'borrowing' fruit from work, last I counted, in a day I somehow amassed 14 fruit like objects in the form of oranges and pears and red apples.

Time to go, we are eating 'Arroz Tapado', which means Covered Rice. It contains grean peas, fried potatoes, onion, tomato, and hard-boiled eggs. We have a side salad of sliced cabbage with an ample squirt of lime juice. Dinner time, Kathy is caaaaallllllling :)

Thanks for reading.

Pregnancy Symptoms: Early Signs:How We Knew We Were Pregnant?

2008-09-28T23:32:00.000-07:00

Pregnancy Symptoms: Common Signs of Pregnancy

These symptoms can be early signs of pregnancy. Kathy and I experienced these.

Missed Period. This obvious, but important especially if occurring in conjunction with other symptoms.
Fatigue. Taking more naps, having your energy depleted is a common sign of pregnancy.
Nausea. This can include dizziness, picky eating, loss of appetite.
Intuition. Kathy and I sort of knew that we were pregnant.
Pregnancy Test: Positive. Still, even at this point there was a small amount of doubt.
Blood Test: Positive. Conclusive evidence and will pinpoint the week of gestation. We're not sharing any news with the family until we receive the results of this test.

Within our 7 weeks since conception, we experienced these signs and because of the frequency of these symptoms, we knew before taking the pregnancy test that conception occurred and we were parents!

Pregnancy Diet: Meals and Nutrition

2008-09-28T23:07:00.001-07:00

Nutrition During Pregnancy: Key Foods For the Diet

Key foods to eat and why:

Orange Juice: folate. Freshly squeezed is easy if you pickup a Cuisinart Citrus Juicer. We bought ours right after our wedding.
Corn Flakes: folate.
Eggs: folate, choline.
Nuts: folate.
Pasta: folate.
Salmon: Omega-3
Spinach: Iron.
Beans, split pea, lentils, etc. Folate.
Milk.

Key foods to avoid and why:

Smoking, alcohol, caffeine, chocolate, energy drinks, herbal teas (effects not known).
Sushi and oysters: raw fish should be avoided.
Large fish: due to mercury.

Pregnancy Diet Idea #1: Peruvian Breakfast Potato and Egg Garden Salad

4 boiled eggs, halved.
3 boiled potatoes, sliced into little disks (4 slices each).
2 tomatoes, cut into wedges (8 wedges per fruit).
1/2 cucumber, sliced
Red leaf Romaine lettuce, placed as a bed.
2 limes, squeezed.
Assembly: Place on large serving plate, gently mix so yolks do not separate. Coat with lime juice and add salt to taste.

Oh My God: We're Pregnant!

2008-09-28T22:04:00.000-07:00

On 9/26/08, Kathy and I took a pregnancy test, the second one actually since they are sold in packs of two. Kathy took the 1st one too early, about 10 days from today (9/26) which turned out negative. Weellll, this one turned out positive! I was waiting on the bed after fixing something for breakfast for us, and ran back upstairs. Kathy came out of the bathroom and blurted: "According to this test... you're gonna be a daddy". I knew it, I was very sure due to her earlier symptoms. I hugged her and couldn't remove the smile from my face. Little Baby Sexton is coming to our lives.

Here is a photo of the expecting parents, along with the most beautiful two pink lines from the EPT. This photo was taken at Momma Colleen's house. You can see a few paintings/prints hanging on the wall. Mary Lee and I bought these for Mom over 10 years ago when Mom first came out to california. I think I was 18 years old or so.

Expected delivery date: May 16th, 2009!

Later that morning, we went to a doctor's appointment, partly due to her throat hurting her, but also to make preparations to visit a gynecologist. The doctor took a blood sample, and we will know for sure on Tuesday. We're quite sure now, and the doctor stated that we're in the 7th week! We filled a prenatal vitamin prescription.

When I arrived to work, I immediately bought 'What to Expect When You are Expecting' and another pregnancy book called 'The Pregnancy Bible: Your Complete Guide to Pregnancy and Early Parenthood'.

It is Sunday now, and Kathy is having some nausea. I cooked her a magnificent breakfast, see the photo. Salad, eggs, potato, tomato, cucumber, and lime juice on top. I also cooked lentils, but Kathy only had a few. I've been reading about folic acid, and other topics related to prenatal nutrition. No sushi, raw fish, soft cheese, large fish from the ocean, etc. No smoking, drinking, drug use, or caffeine. We'd only have problems with the caffeine, since it is in so many things like coffee (duh), tea, chocolate, soda, red bulls, etc. Coffee we will have to be careful about.

Of course once one realizes quite late in the process that conception has occurred, a few weeks do go go by. From what I understand these are very important for neural tube development weeks. Thinking back, I remember Kathy and I juicing a lot of oranges (compliments of eBay), taking Centrum vitamins, and eating really healthy. I think the folate intake was great. On two occasions, we had a glass of wine or a beer. That's our confession, I think we're very lucky!

I printed out the first 20 weeks from a nice website called http://storknet.com. We read this on Saturday, cuddled up in bed, eating a great fruit salad, yogurt, corn flakes, wheat bread and cheese breakfast. I read the weeks aloud. We later jumped on http://www.baby.com and found an excellent slideshow showing gestational growth. We learned about things like the lanugo (hair covering the baby), and meconium. I remember Pete telling me about this one with Molly - "If that black tarry substance gets on anything, you have to throw it away". That kind of freaked me out back then.

We survived our first knowingly pregnant Sunday with Kathy's parents having a nice lunch. We brought a bag of coughdrops as sort of a decoy to help explain Kathy's symptoms. We are not yet ready to tell family, we want to be sure and at least find out on Tuesday more details. We plan sometime in mid-October. Family members reading this now, please forgive us, we are a little scared!

All Saturday night I spent with my head buried in baby nutrition readings as well as finally finishing that family budget! It is all accounted for even monthly spend for gas and grocery.

We're wrapping up our weekend studying (well Kathy's studying!). I opened up a uPromise account for our Little Baby Sexton. This will eventually turn into a 529 College Savings Plan. So far, I purchased a few Baby magazine subscriptions (American Baby, Parenting, and Fit Pregnancy). I received a $10 off the order, and on top of that 30% of the total went into the uPromise account. I found that Netflix has a uPromise promotion - signup and get $12 into your uPromise account. So I canceled my existing registration, and signed-up with a different credit card and address (thanks eBay for the work address). I should receive the $12 into the uPromise account in around 4-6 days. Last bit here, I applied for a Citi uPromise credit card, which carries an APR of 12% and no annual fees (not too bad). For any purchase we make, Citi will throw in an additional 10% into the uPromise account if the purchase is from a grocery store or drug store, otherwise it is a 1% kick-back. This 10% also applies to over 8,000 restaurants. Seems like many ways to save! Also, perhaps family and friends someday will give little uPromise gift for the 'good ole college fund'. Here is a website link for uPromise, if you buy anything through this website, you'll contribute to the Little Baby Sexton college fund!

I can feel such a wonderful change happening. I can summarize it up by saying that this is 'a dream is happening within a dream'. The first dream is 'Kathy', then the second dream is our 'baby'.

We have two placeholder names that we've had since our first year of dating. We refer to the conceptual baby boy as Johnny, and the figurative baby girl as Jenny! These aren't the names, well... we will see in May!

Thanks for reading! -Ed (aka Big Daddy).