Introduction: Our Brazilian Food Baby

Hello all, there is someone I would like you to meet.

Here on Life As We Know It, she will be known as Miss Zell or perhaps even just Miss Z. because sometimes I am too lazy to type out the other three letters.

She was NOT HAPPY to be kicked out of her watery abode. And she made sure EVERY one knew it.

Our little lady took some time joining us.
And not just by missing her due date and having to be forced out--and even in her ousting she took her sweet time joining the rest of us...but in general, she was a long time coming to our family.

You see, I thought we were done--DONE--having children.

That's all. Case closed. Sell the baby gear!

But then, waaaay back in July of 2011, Dr. C and I took the family on a vacation to Utah. We celebrated our anniversary while we were there and Dr. C's parents were kind enough to watch the kiddos while we went out to eat Brazilian food at one of our favorite restaurants.

And while we were there...Boom!

Out of NOWHERE, I felt very strongly that we should have another child.

But seeing how I still was recovering from our last pregnancy and childbirth--the one that brought us our sweet and sassy Miss Banana; the one that aged us 100 years in her first year of life--we hesitated.

Ok, ok... I hesitated.

Dr. C was all for it from Day One. But being the fabulous husband that he is and knowing that my nerves were just barely getting over their frayed state from the previous two-and-a-half years...we put the idea on the back burner.

All of the pictures of Miss Z in this little pink and white outfit were taken by the hospital phootographer who works for Bella Baby. Didn't she do a great job? Don't worry though, I bought them so I am free to use them here.

The waaaaaaaay back burner.
With the flame off.
In fact, I completely pushed the idea out of my mind.

Because at that point, having another child was crazy talk.

And then, Dr. C and I took a lovely little trip to San Antonio. And guess what we did there?

That's right.

We ate Brazilian food.

 That night, I had dream after dream about another little one being in our family.

I blamed it on that darn tasty Brazilian lemonade.
(Non-alcoholic, in case you were wondering.)

 After that, I did what any self-respecting mother with a little bit of PTSD from her previous pregnancy would do:

I STOPPED eating Brazilian food.

 And then...life got busy. We moved from the South to Iowa.

And once again, the baby idea got pushed waaaaaay back.

A Brazilian food restaurant opened near my parents' house and Dr. C suggested that we go while we were there visiting.

Um, NO. 
It will tell me we should have another baby! 
We just moved! 
We were getting settled into our new house!
I don't even know the neighbors yet!

But apparently--by this point--just the mere mention of Brazilian food would send me a night full of baby dreams.

I held them off again.

And then, my "alien abduction" symptoms started getting worse.
And instead of having baby dreams at night, I would wake up not being able to feel or move half of my body.

I'll take those baby dreams back, please.

And so began a different adventure--one in which I became very much like a baby myself. An adventure that forced me to re-evaluate what I thought was "hard".

When I came out of surgery and knew that I was alive and moving and still me...Dr. C and I knew it was time to embrace those Brazilian food thoughts and dreams. We decided that when I was healthy enough--our little one that had been waiting so long, should join our family.

No more excuses.
No more waiting.
No more back burner.

JUST EAT THE BRAZILIAN FOOD. 
Which I did, at the luncheon for my brother's wedding.

We were pregnant a week later.
Go figure.

Which is why it is ironic that after waiting more than two years...I had to kick her out in the end.

Maybe she didn't mind the wait after all.

This picture looks so much better with four loveys, don't you think?

Thank you, Brazilian food, for helping us get our little Miss Zell into our family.
I'll take another lemonade.
(But hold the baby dreams...because Miss Z doesn't let me sleep long enough to dream anyway.)