Whoa Baby! What a month!

Hey everyone!

So it has been a looooong time since we have been on here and I apologize. Germany has obviously kept us very busy, especially Javier, with painting the entire interior of our house and replacing the flooring in our bedrooms. We also were very fortunate to have some friends come visit us throughout the months of August and September which took us on some adventures to Amsterdam (I am pretty sure I was the only pregnant woman in the entire city) and to Belgium and Luxemburg as well. We are officially settled into our house, the baby room is 98% ready and we are now just impatiently waiting on our little diva.

October has been a little chaotic for us to say the least. In one week, we had experienced me falling outside, Javier having knee surgery, and 3 admissions to the hospital for me, as well as losing a wonderful and dear close friend of mine back home.....yes, all this in one week. To say we were a little overwhelmed would be an understatement. Just imagine Javier on crutches carrying his bag up a hill to the entrance of the hospital, followed by me holding my heavy belly in one hand and my hospital bag and camera bag in the other....we are a bit of a gongshow right now! A positive highlight to this month was that we got to see Javier's brother Ricardo, return safe and sound from his 4 month deployment in Afghanistan. This was especially awesome for me as I had never met him in person, only had communicated with him over the phone for the past 3 years. He flew through Germany on his way home back in the States but had a 2 hr layover here.

So the scoop on the baby~ I went in for my 34 week appt to be told I was 1 cm dilated and having a few contractions I was absolutely unaware of. Within 24 hrs, I was 100% efaced and at 2 cm dilated. I stayed in the hospital to monitor my contractions which were far and few between so I went home. Two days later, I went back in for a follow-up and to mine and the Dr.'s surprise, I was now 4 cm dilated and her head was right there waiting to pop out....literally, with the exception of my water not breaking and still intact. My contractions became more apparent to Javi and I that evening so we waited until the denial went away and we decided to go in. After being admitted and going into L&D to be monitored, I had a little breakdown, and when I heard the screaming of a lady as if her baby was murdering her, I could not take anymore and got myself out of there as fast as possible and planted myself on the maternity ward for the remainder of the night.....just imagine poor Javi on his crutches trying his hardest to catch up to me as I literally speed walked out of there as fast as possible. Do women really need to scream like that?! That sound is enough to scare someone out of having children altogether.

I am now at home and trying to hold her in the oven to cook for another week as per the request of the Dr.....(cause I can control that, right?!) Yesterday was a great day, I was in good spirits, our friends Lucas and Kristen brought handsome Gunnar Dean into this world, and now Baby Mejia has a little boyfriend awaiting her arrival.

Last night was a little bit of a different story. Besides my hips feeling like someone was ripping them apart, I also felt as though I was going to give birth to the baby in bed. Again, I have had no pain whatsoever, just very intense pressure and uncomfortableness. And when I am uncomfortable, my body has an amazing mechanism of shutting down and going to sleep. So throughout the night I was awoken to the baby moving all about and some possible contractions. Today, I refuse to leave the house as I literally feel as though I am carrying a 5 pound weight in my undergarments....to which Javier's response was "I know the exact feeling, I live with it every day"....oh, thank God for his humor to get me through this!!! LOL!

So here is a pic or two of our past month and the baby room almost complete. We hope all of our friends and family are doing well and enjoying the beautiful fall weather where ever you may be. Germany is a very stunning place to be in the fall. We are surrounded by all my favorite colors!

Saying Good-Bye to the "Old".....Hello to the "New"

Well, it will almost be a week now since moving out of our Casa Mejia. I asked Javi last night if he missed our house and he told me he was trying not to think about it much. As for me, I must be really becoming acquainted with change because as much as I haven't thought about it either, I am ready to move on to the "new" with no sad feelings. This past week has been really busy for us with settling into TLF, trying to catch up with friends who are also leaving or are going away for vacation, dealing with my continual complications with my US residency application, and the final means to our out-processing. We took a trip one last time, to Venice in our new family-mobile to meet up with Javier's friend from Colombia and his wife. It was the first time we have ever drove to Venice, as oppose to taking the train, and it led us into a new part of Venice neither of us had explored before....sadly, a part I wish I had more time to wander around in. I love Venice so very much and the fact that each and every time I go, I can get lost and find a new hidden treasure. This time round, it was finding the lead singer from Maroon 5 (Adam Levine) singing for a party of less than 50 in a private courtyard. Even though we missed meeting Javier's friend and his wife at St. Mark's square due to time restraints and lack of communication, we were able to meet up with them at their hotel later that evening, which was so nice, especially for Javier to catch up with a long lost friend who he originally met in the US when he was learning English at a college they both attended. Javier and I decided to have dinner at the Venice Hard Rock Cafe, stroll around some more, stop for drinks along the way, take lots of pictures, and just take in our final moments of Venice.

As for my pregnancy, things seem to be going as they should. My belly is growing, and I can definitely feel the stretching. My short term memory is almost non-exisitent at the moment, my hair had to be cut off do to the obscene thickness, and I am hungry all the time. I am feeling alot better now, however the exhaustion of this past week has started to catch up with me. I still believe I am having a girl, even though we won't find out until my appointment in July. Everyone, including Javier, has been telling me it is a boy, but lately with my belly taking on a new shape, the word is quickly changing amongst my guessers that it is now a girl. I guess we will see! Anyhow, for our last and final week ahead, we will continue to catch up with friends, plan for our road trip to Germany, possibly take one last trip next weekend on a boat cruise in Croatia, and one last doctor's appointment. Hope you enjoy the pictures! Stay tuned....

Into our little temporary house we go!

Today we move into what we call TLF Temporary Lodging Facility. We should be there for the remaining of our time in Italy up until we take off to our new assignment. Allison and I are tired today, moving from this house has been a challenging task, but we made sure that the new tenants will receive the house just as we got it. While sleeping on an air mattress isn't the most confortable way to rest, I am grateful to Allison who has been a trooper by accepting the low standard conditions in which we had to live during the past two days.

The cats are super confused......when the movers left and took everything, we let them out of their room and the expression on their faces was priceless!!! I just hope that they can cope with the long ride that awaits us, especially Fatty who is actually the most spoiled, claustrophobic, and loudest of them both!!! Ohh did i mentioned that he cries, poops, pukes, and pees, or how I'd like to call it, he commits the 3 P's while in the kennel for a 15 minute ride......So we are both crossing our fingers that our 9 hours ride doesn't become a portable litter box.

Ok guys....we will update some pictures on our next post.....Stay tuned!

And It Begins....

We have been living here in Italy for almost three years and it has been surreal...The mountains, the food, the WINE, and the amazing places we had visited so far had to come to a stop.....for the moment that is! We just got orders to move to Germany for the next four years of our lives. Allison and I are static about this news, but what we are most excited about is the

arrival of baby Mejia in November of this year. BOY or GIRL, we have yet to know the gender of our newest family member, but what we do know for certain is that he/she will be loved beyond belief.
Yesterday was a brutal reminder of our short time in Italy as the movers came in and took everything we had collected in our married life. After 10 hours of packing, cleaning, and Allison sleeping on an air mattress right outside our yard, the house was completely cleaned out of all the items that made it a sweet home. I have to say that we are really tired today......we get our new car, I have to do a few more out-processing actions on my "Good-bye Italy Checklist", Allison has to clean up the fridge, microwave and oven for the new tenants arriving this week, and later tonight, we will be going one last time to Venice to meet a long lasting friend of mine from Colombia who I have not seen in many years. His name is Carlos and he is touring Europe by BUS......I think....the 20 days that he will be here in Europe, he can at least say, that 15 of those 20 days were spent in the back of a touring BUS....just JK!

I hope that today goes according to plan and that Allison and I accomplish everything timely so that we can get our stuff together to move to our hotel tomorrow morning. That's all I got for now, stay tuned!

Javier.