Pregnancy update: 25 weeks

Stats: 6 months and 1 week, 4 days; 179 days to be exact. Yup. 179/280. About 100 more days to go. Whoa.
Update:

• I have been wearing a ring on my right hand thumb since the day I received it as a senior in high school. Up until last week that is. My thumb is no longer the dainty thumb that I had in high school. nope. Can't wear that anymore. Also can't wear my diamond ring; am still rocking the band though. We'll see for how long.
• At my last appointment I didn't gain any weight. I was super proud because that covered the holiday month! wahoo. We'll see if that continues this month. My guess... NO WAY!
• Baby girl is moving around a ton. You can see my belly shaking and most of the time you can feel her kicks from the outside. Hubby has caught both the kicking and the belly rocking. 
• I try to talk to the little lady every chance I get. So not necessarily while sitting at my desk but if I am in the car or at home and she is kicking I am talking to her; sometimes singing.
• Some books say this is the last week in the second trimester some books say a couple more weeks. I am generally feeling pretty good. Mostly I forget until I get a kick or have to pee. My back hurts a little and my feel are somewhat swollen by the end of the day. Otherwise, really no complaints.
• Except the sleeping. I can't seem to get consistent sleep. I have my new boyfriend the pregnancy body pillow and most of the time that helps; until you want to turn over of course. I couldn't even really tell you why I'm not sleeping. It isn't the kicking, although it is when she tends to starts that jazzercise routine.  Side story; the other night her kicking was tickling me in my sleep. I think I was laughing in my sleep.
• I am getting larger but not too big, which is nice. As I understand that will end during the third trimester so there is no real rush to get there.
• Hubby has started working on the nursery. We picked out a color and we have emptied the room of all furniture. Little by little we will get there.
• The battle of the girl's name 2013 has begun. I shouldn't really describe it as a battle because we are generally on the same page. Mostly we haven't found the exact name yet. Hubby thinks we have but we haven't. We will not share this information, so don't ask. Mostly the issue is that we have so many women in our families and we don't want to name her after anyone... this too will get figured out. Right now hubby calls her cheesy because of her last ultrasound pic, she had a big cheesy grin. 

That's all for now. Oh except to say that I should have made the first goal on my goal sheet to make a goal sheet. I still haven't worked that out but I am getting there. The first few weeks of this year have been super busy, both at work and at home.

Ciao for now,
xo
S

Adriana Trigiani

Last week I had the distinct pleasure of hearing one of my favorite authors speak at the Mark Twain House. Let me back up to the having missed the opportunity last year at the WHPL and being so bummed about it. So when I heard that she was coming back and to one of my favorite places in Hartford, I wasted no time in making plans to be there. On of my very best peeps works at the Twain House so he set it up that I got to go to the reception beforehand to get some one on one time with her and that I did.
Within minutes of arriving I was being introduced to one of my favorite authors in the whole entire world. So cool. She is down to earth and hilarious. She had the whole room in the palm of her hand within minutes. She was walking up to people and talking to them as if she had known them for years. My mom was my date and they hit it off within minutes. We Italian sisters always bond! Sadly my real sister (who may be just as big a fan as I am) couldn't make it.
The talk was moderated by Giulia Melucci another fabulous Italian writer. She wrote "I Loved,  I Lost, I Made Spaghetti" which was adapted to a play this past spring by the one and only Jacques Lamarre.
The whole evening was amazing. Good questions, hilarious answers, amazing stories... beyond my every expectation. I have told and retold the stories already a million times. I am ready to reread "The Shoemakers Wife" so that I can see the story more clearly through Adriana's eyes (yes we are on a first name basis!!). Really truly an amazing experience. If you haven't read this book, I can't recommend it more!!

Happy New Year!!

2013! Is here and there ain't no stopping now! Mayans be damned!
I'm not a resolution makin and keepin kinda gal, but as I look at the calendar and realize that there are 16 weeks til this little lady is due and there are a million things to do I can't help but want to make a list. This will be a goals list. It is hard for me to look at the next 16 weeks as one big chink. One of the things that has been helping me stay calm through this pregnancy has been taking it a small chunk at a time. Not event just trimester by trimester because those are pretty long too, but rather by milestones, appointments and other smaller chunks. (I'm not quite sure what my deal is this morning with the work chunk but it seems to work!) Last week was the echo ultrasound where we looked really closely at her heart. Hubby was born with a heart defect so we get to take an extra in depth look at her heart. It is really amazing what they can see and detect in utero and at what stages. Her heart is perfect, I am happy to report. Next chunk is Dr appt. next week, so this was a really small one.
So I am looking at the next 16 weeks and assigning goals to each week. I'm not sure yet what kinds of goals, I'm sure some will be smaller and more fun, while others will be more important and big ticket kind of stuff like paint the room, order a crib, build the crib and most importantly go through the six tubs of stuff and figure out what I have and what I want/need. I don't think I will share the list but I will be sure to let you all know when I accomplish something. That's just the way I roll.
Lastly and sadly vaca is over. It was fun while it lasted. Hubby and I had a blast. We went out to breakfast, attended holiday parties, went to visit a little lady that was born about a month ago to his best friend, I spent lots of time with my mom, I read and rested and only set my alarm like 3 times. Ahhh.... it was heavenly.  Last night at about 7pm I realized that yesterday was the last vaca day that I will take until little lady is here. I don't plan on stopping working by any specific day. My work is mostly office work, I will stop traveling by middle of February, and the office is about 7 minutes from the dr office and about 5 from the hospital, and is full of women ready to take me anywhere I need to go so frankly I feel safer there than at home. 
Ok peeps. Hope all is well in bloggie land and that you are all healthy happy!
xo
ciao
S