The Good Little Girl

Today was a crazy day, but I made sure I gave my little one growing in my belly time to dance. I woke up early so I could eat at home instead of in the car. I packed a wonderful lunch of mangos, pineapple, grapes and strawberries, and I drank plenty of water. Today I was at a school in north Jersey. Instead of running around like a chicken without a head, I made sure all my lessons and meetings were stellar, but when it was time for a break, I took a break. I even put my feet up. Guess what? Yes, her movement is so much better. She is giving me signals that she enjoys the quiet time when it's her and I - Sitting. Take it from me, take it easy. I read two books weekly, What To Expect When Your Expecting and Week by Week. They are both great reads and must haves for preggo mommies. In both books it clearly states that baby is most active when you are not. It says it straight out that you may not feel your baby if you are on the move all day. Low and behold, I have found that to be true.

Because I love reading these books weekly, I have decided to list some more books on the eBay store: Little Baby Headquarters. I just sold What To Expect, but two others are listed right now. They are for moms of many kinds. Check these out!

The Milk Memos: This one-of-a-kind guide to balancing motherhood and work is based on actual journals kept by a group of IBM women during their visits to the company's employee lactation room. It all began when IBM manager Cate Colburn-Smith sat down in the company's employee lactation room, shed a few silent tears, and wrote the following on a paper towel: I'm a new mom and today is my first day back at work. Is anyone else using this room? Right away women responded, and the paper towel was eventually replaced by a series of notebooks, in which women offered one another advice and support on juggling work and a newborn. Based on the original notebooks, The Milk Memos is a heartwarming, encouraging (and often hilarious!) guide to working motherhood.

Sippy Cups Are Not For Chardonnay: In busy Mom-friendly short essays, Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay delivers the empathetic straight dirt on parenting, tackling everything from Mommy & Me classes ("Your baby doesn't need to be making friends at three months old -- you do! But not with people you'll meet at Mommy & Me") to attachment parenting ("If you're holding your baby 24/7, that's not a baby, that's a tumor"). Stefanie Wilder-Taylor combines practical tips with sidesplitting humor and refreshing honesty, assuring women that they can be good mothers and responsibly make their own choices.

Read up. There's a lot we don't know:)

Let's jump to today for a moment

Today I am feeling much stress. I was hoping to order some new and exciting items for our eBay store, Little Baby Headquarters, but life happened. Yesterday, Jeff and I had to go to the doctors because I hadn't felt the baby move for over 24 hours. We just stopped everything and spent the entire business day in doctors' offices. Everything turned out fine, but I have come to learn that if you don't feel your baby move after 12 hours, it's time to call the doctor. We went to our OBGYN and I was put on the monitor. I couldn't feel her moving, but I could hear her heartbeat and that was a relief. The monitor picked up some movement and my doctor was satisfied. To be extra cautious, he sent me to Maternal-Fetal Medicine to get a Biophysical Profile via ultrasound. There they saw her movements, measured the amniotic fluid and checked her heart... 3 times. All went well and we finally had a sigh of relief. Sorry I haven't updated, but that has had me preoccupied.

The lesson I learned was to stop. I was constantly going. I wanted to find new wholesalers for the eBay store, I needed to prepare for my day job as an educational consultant, and laundry was building up. Sometimes, I wonder, if I pampered myself more, would she have more time and room to move. Today is a busy day, but not to busy to stop and let my baby do some dance moves. Mommies-to-be: Stop. Put your feet up. Take deep breathes and let your baby do her thing. Trust me.
I'll be back tomorrow. BE WELL!

Our first steps...

As I mentioned, we never gave up faith in God over these past three years. We knew he would bless us with a child. We just didn't know when and how. So in the meantime, we started looking into money streams that would be consistent while allowing us the freedom to raise our children together. In other words, we were looking to get out of the rat race. Jeff started by going to real estate school on the weekends. He finished quickly and passed the test. Shortly after the test, he began talks with specific realtors regarding hanging his license in their office. We quickly came to find out that it was a viable idea, but in order to match his very nice salary he was making at the time, he would have to do this full time. And the first year doesn't usually bring any profit. But, again we turned it into a positive experience. We both decided to continue reading about real estate but on the investment/landlord end. We spoke extensively about how we would handle being partners in real estate deals, and we came to find out we were both very excited about it. More importantly, we felt if we invested right now, we could pass these investments and/or profits on to our children. We also decided if we enjoyed owning and renting real estate, it could be an option for our children to work for themselves at some point. For one entire year, we read books, went to seminars and hired a real estate coach. All along, we continued to try to conceive and we began discussing adoption options. Our real estate kept our minds preoccupied, but more importantly it really brought us closer together as a couple. Hopefully,in my next excerpt, I will have links to some sites to help you if you are interested in educating yourselves on keeping your money for yourself and getting out of the rat race. I am in contact with those companies to create a working relationship with them.

How Did I Arrive Here?

Once we found out that having children was going to be a struggle, we started to realize that trying with faith and the adoption would both take some time and patience. Jeff and I decided to invest in our family very early. We spent the last part of 2006 and all of 2007 educating ourselves. On what? You ask.

We loved our families, and still are blessed with both sets of parents. Both Jeff and I had hard working successful dads, but we remember them traveling and coming home late for dinner. We know that was difficult for them. Also, we know that our moms had to play both parenting roles sometimes. We knew there had to be a better way. My father was a great entrepreneur and I remember him always telling me..."Work for yourself." So we started to educate ourselves. We read all about investing in real estate, then we dove into start up businesses and along the way, we try to aquire tips for smart investing. Our end goal, when God blesses us with the special little ones, we're ready to parent as a team and not as overworked zombies. It's been hard, scary and bonding.

Tomorrow, I will discuss what action steps we took to get our new life started, in the meantime...
go read something to invest in your family's future:)

Welcome to Day #1: How I Got Here

Thank you for sharing with me our journey of pregnancy and adoption.
My blog will discuss our three year struggle to get pregnant. I will explain how I arrived at this point (This point is called 6 months pregnant and mid-way through an international adoption).
Interestingly, I will walk backwards to explain struggles, lessons and procedures while I progress forward to my due date, June 3rd. During this time I will continue to update you on our adoption from China.
Most importantly, I will inform you of all the products, questions and life lessons my husband and I have encountered during this pregnancy and adoption. My goal is to personally review specific baby products while including pointers and ratings from consumer reports. Many of the products mentioned will be available to buy through our newly created eBay store: Little Baby Headquarters.
Let's begin, shall we.

Today, my husband, Jeff, and I went to the doctors to hear our daughter's heart beat. She is growing so strong.
Funny to think...
A year ago, I was told by my former GYN that I should consider a life without children. A year prior to that, a highly regarded fertility specialist in NYC also indicated the same barren idea. We had decided long ago that infertility treatments weren't for us. Jeff and I never gave up, and we turned to the only source that supplies guarantees: GOD. On August 7, 2007, Jeff and I took a lunge of faith. We began paper work with CCAI in Colorado to adopt a daughter from China. In Addition, with deep faith and unending prayer by many, we experienced our first positive pregnancy test on Sept. 25, 2007. I truly believe God heard and answered our prayers to be parents. In a month's time, He made us parents to two beautiful, unborn children.
For now, I'll leave you with that information to digest. Tomorrow, I will discuss the parenting philosophy that Jeff and I share and how that lead us toward working together and starting a Baby eBay store: Little Baby Headquarters. Also, I'll review the beginning stages of the adoption and the pregnancy.
Be Well.