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

Merry Christmas

Today is Christmas day and I am feeling pretty lucky right now. My family is happy and healthy and enjoying one another, my hubby is pretty amazing and my friends are all plugging right along. No complaints here.

I want to wish you all the merriest and happiest day and year.

Lastly hubby and I had a secret among us. At our last ultrasound the technician was able to determine the sex of our baby. She wrote it on a post it and gave it to hubby. For the last two and a half weeks he has known and I have not. It was a lot harder than I expected it to be. It was a lot of fun. Yesterday morning when I woke up he told me to check the tree for a new ornament and I discovered....

(BTW that wasn't the ornament. The ornament was an angry birds princess Leia.)

Happy happy, merry merry to all.
xoxo
Ciao
S

Countdown is on!

There are three business days left til I am FREE. Three super busy business days but three nonetheless.
I bring you a list of things I want to do during my break:

• Sleep until my eyes open, with no aide from my alarm, and then lay in bed reading for another hour after that.
• Clean the office out.
• Backup my computer and burn all the pictures onto discs.
• Once I find out the sex of this baby start to figure out what I need/ want.
• Take lots of naps after reading for hours in bed.
• Figure out how to get my wifi to reach the bedroom so I can watch movies in bed. (Really truly one of my biggest annoyances. My wifi doesn't reach the bedroom ugh!)
• Pick a color for the baby's room.
• Get a manicure. I have a gift certificate burning a whole in my wallet.
• Have lunch  with Sue and get together with friends.
• Hopefully meet my best friend's baby! She is due at the beginning of January but we are hoping for a pre-New Year's miracle.
• Cook lots.
• Take walks and visit with Mom.
• Right now we don't have solid plans for NYE and I'm not sad about it.
• Get re-energized and ready for an awesome 2013!! 

What about you? Any plans for the week?
Ciao for now.
xo
S

12.12.12

How could I resist a list of randomness on this of all momentous days.

• 9 days and 4 hours or so until holiday break! Can you tell how super excited I am!!! 
• I have only done about 1-2% of my Christmas shopping and I kinda don't care. I am still not really in the spirit (change that to mood). I have plenty of Christmas spirit, I just can't get in the mood to drop money on peeps I only see once a year. Ya know?
• Everyone beware I just put a little caffeinated coffee in my decaf. I feel like such a rebel.
• Right now my hubby knows the sex of the baby growing inside my belly and I don't. I didn't think it would be as hard as it is, but oh what fun. He lets me play and ask him all kinds of questions to try to trip him up and he doesn't break. I thought it would be the other way around... fun fun. I really don't know if I will make it.
• Did I already mention 9 days til break? yup. excited.
• Yesterday was a really good day and those don't come around too often so I just wanted to say so. 
• Hubby and I have plans to get our tree this weekend and I am excited. We always make a big deal about trimming and whatnot. Hot cocoa, music in the background and we tell stories about all the ornaments. He wants a huge tree with purple lights... hmmm.... where am I gonna find purple lights?
• I think the baby already likes to taunt me. The baby will be kicking kicking kicking and when I finally go to  feel it or put hubby's hands to feel it, the kicking stops. 
• My best friend is pregnant and due very soon and I am SO excited about it. She is having a boy and I CAN'T WAIT TO MEET HIM!!!! I might have to break my rule and visit her in the hospital if she will let me.
• Just had a gingerbread pop-tart and it was AH-MAH-ZING! Even though that goes against my "no store bought treats" rule this time of year. I guess rules were made to be broken.
• I pulled the "prego" card last night and it felt darn good.
• I can't seem to get it together today. Other than this list I haven't accomplished much. 

Ciao for now!!
xo
S

Holiday Spirit

Having a hard time getting into the spirit this year. Not sure if we (hubby and I) are just too caught up in preggo land or what but we can't seem to get it together. I went on a "holiday trip" to NYC this past weekend and I thought for sure that would do it. Nope. I spent about 5 minutes on 5th looking at the store windows (why is there ALWAYS a line around the building at Abercrombie?) and about 1 minute at Rockafeller Center looking at the tree and the millions of peeps. I spent the rest of the day with some besties from college and that was amazing. Long story short; no infusion of the holiday spirit.
I'm gonna see if hubby wants to go buy our ornament tomorrow evening or this weekend. We have a tradition of buying an ornament every year that is in some way indicative of the year we've had. We will wait another week or so to get the tree; we like to keep it up for the 12 days of Christmas which run through Jan 6, so we wait as long as possible to put it up otherwise it dries out and is a pain to maintain. Honestly it is the gift giving that I can't get on board with. UGH. It has been a crazy 6 months and trying to figure out what to get for everyone is exhausting.... on top of working full time, school, being preggo and trying to save up for the kiddo.... ugh. Happiest season of all?
I'm playing holiday music in my office in hopes of holiday spirit by osmosis of the ears...
Any other ideas?

Ciao
xo
S