I survived my first weekend as a "single mom!"

Being 8 months pregnant, I was really nervous about my first weekend taking care of Aubrina all by myself. Who would I complain to about my pregnancy pains? Who would reassure me that I'm doing the right thing in the middle of a toddler tantrum? Who would take care of Aubrina while I pass out on the couch from exhaustion at 2pm? I usually rely on Mark for all of those things.

Of course I could always call my mom or Mark's mom for help, but I also really wanted to see if I could do it without help. Saturday went by in a flash - Aubrina was a big helper as I rearranged her room to make room for Robby's things. Nana and Papa came over for a bit and Papa helped me babyproof the bathrooms! We even made it out to Babies R Us to get the last few things I needed for the baby. Sunday was great too. We went to a friend's house to watch the Superbowl, and Aubrina got to play with her friends Matthew and Madison.

The only trouble spot during the whole weekend was making dinner on Saturday night. She's going through a phase where she wants to do EVERYTHING that Mommy does, especially in the kitchen. It was very exhausting trying to keep her happy while preparing the food and making sure she didn't get burned. It was a test in patience, but I learned a lot from that experience too, and now I'll try to prepare dinners after she goes to bed for the next day.

Overall Aubrina and I had a great weekend together, and now I'm confident that we're going to do well even if Daddy isn't here.

A few weeks ago we went to have a 3D ultrasound done. We did this with Aubrina and it was a cool experience - they projected everything on a big screen and we were able to invite all the grandparents. We also got a DVD with a movie of the ultrasound, which convinced me that we should do the same thing for this baby.

We always swore that we wouldn't be those parents who take less pictures of the second baby just because we're busier, but the baby isn't even born yet and we're already slacking. With Aubrina, I took a picture of my growing belly every week, and this time I've taken about 6 pictures total! Yikes!

But anyway, I'm getting off track :) We decided to have a 3D ultrasound done for Robby, but this time it was just me, Mark and Aubrina. It was interesting because Aubrina acted really concerned, which I've never seen before. She was very protective of Mommy and didn't want the technician to touch my tummy.

The pictures came out great. His nose looks funny in some pictures because it was squished against my belly.

From Robby's 3D Ultrasound

From Robby's 3D Ultrasound

From Robby's 3D Ultrasound

I was amazed at how much he and Aubrina look alike. Here's one of her 3D pictures:

From 3D Ultrasound 8-12-08

We also confirmed that he's a boy. :) I can't wait to see him in person!

Today I'm 33 weeks along, and have 6 weeks left. The scheduled C-section date (March 17th) is one week before my actual due date (March 24th). I'm getting really excited to see this little baby! He's been kicking the heck out of me... I love it!

And after careful consideration, we decided on a name a few weeks ago. We will name him Robert Anthony Scianna. Robert is my dad's name, and Anthony is Mark's middle name. We'll call him Robby for short.

Here are a few more videos I took from the past couple weeks. The first is Aubrina in the bath. She loves bath time!

This one is Aubrina climbing the ladder in the garage. She climbed to the top before I started recording.

On Saturday we took Aubrina to get her picture taken with Santa. We went to Tiny Tots, which is a cool baby boutique in Campbell.

First we took a family picture to get Aubrina somewhat used to taking a picture with a weird looking stranger in a red suit with a big bushy white beard.

From Pictures with Santa 2009

Then we let Aubrina take an individual picture with Santa. She didn't cry, but she looked like she was scared that we were going to leave her there!

From Pictures with Santa 2009

I just got back from my latest doctor appointment for the new baby. This birth will have to be a scheduled C-section (Aubrina was born via C-section, and it's too risky to try the natural way since it's so soon after Aubrina's birth). My doctor says she has to schedule C-sections three months in advance, or else we would have to do it at a crazy time like 5:30am, so she's already scheduled this baby's birth.

Our new due date is March 17, 2010. We'll have a little St. Patrick's baby!

We're still thinking of names, and we definitely have some front-runners. We'll let you know once we decide for sure. :)

Even though Aubrina's walking now, she still practices while holding on to things. The other night she decided to take her shopping cart for a spin, and maneuvered like a pro! I caught part of it on my iphone. I'll post more pics of her walking by herself soon.

For months we'd been looking forward to celebrating Aubrina's first birthday with a big old party. But the plans quickly changed when Aubrina caught a stomach bug the day before her birthday (which was on October 11), and we had to cancel her party.

We ended up postponing the party for 2 weeks, and instead of having it at the park, we had it at our house. It was great to see lots of family and friends and have all their kids come over to play!

From Aubrina's First Birthday

From Aubrina's First Birthday

We kept the same catering order for 75 people, although we knew that only about 50 people would show up for the new party (and actually only about 40 people ended up coming). We had TONS of Mexican food leftover and gave it away to some of our guests and packed up the rest in the freezer. Yum!

From Aubrina's First Birthday

Aubrina loved eating the frosting on her cake (she wasn't too interested in the cake itself) and opening her presents. Her favorite gifts were the bottle from a baby doll (she's still getting used to the actual baby doll, but she looooves the bottle!) and a gum ball machine that lights up and plays music (The 'gum balls' are 2.5 in colorful balls, so there's no choking hazard).

From Aubrina's First Birthday

From Aubrina's First Birthday

Thanks to everyone who could make it to the party on short notice and help make her birthday special!!

On Friday night Aubrina started walking! She's been cruising around the furniture and walking with help for months now... since she was about 9 months old. I figured that she was just trying to gain confidence and practice, and that she would walk when she was ready.

Sure enough, Friday night after we'd finished dinner, we were playing in the living room and she just got up and walked from the coffee table to the TV. When she got there I started clapping and getting excited, but she looked at me like "What's the big deal, Mom?" I had a feeling she would start walking one day without noticing what she was doing, and that's exactly what she did!

This year for Halloween Aubrina was a giraffe. I let her pick out the costume herself, and she made a cute choice! She looked so cute in her costume, and even looked like a giraffe since she's still crawling. It cracked me up!

From Halloween 2009

From Halloween 2009

We went to the Halloween party at Google and saw Zoe, a friend from Aubrina's school who was dressed up like a duck. The girls didn't know what to make of seeing each other in these crazy get-ups and just stared at each other for awhile.

From Halloween 2009

On Halloween night Mark took Aubrina trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. She was comfy & cozy in her stroller, and of course had no idea what was going on. :) But she got lots of good candy!

From Halloween 2009