Sleepy at 37 Weeks

Today we had a 37 week check up and a surprise sonogram. The doctor ordered a sonogram to check on Gigi's size. The sonographer estimates that Gigi weighs 7 lbs 3 ounces...and also says that she's perfectly healthy. As you can see from the 3D photos, it appears we caught Gigi in the middle of a nap...



Check out that little chubby wrist...

Special Delivery

Jim spent a couple hours on Christmas Eve doing his part to make sure the world (or at least the people that drive down Crestwood Drive) knows when Gigi arrives. As you can see from the pictures, he created a 6'0" tall stork (aka Stephen the Stork) to announce Gigi's arrival. Stephen the Stork will take a prominent position in our front yard, displaying all of Gigi's vitals. Stephen is now in Pennsylvania, as Christina uses her artist talents to give him color (and some clothes). She will also be responsible for filling in the vitals when we are at the hospital.




Jim working hard to bring Stephen the Stork to Life







Gotta love power tools



"Naked" Stephen the Stork in our back yard. Once Gigi is born, Stephen will display Gigi's vitals from a bundle that he carries with his beak.

36 Weeks and Counting!

We had our 36 week checkup earlier in the week.
Mom to be and Gigi are doing well, and Gigi is right on schedule.
The doctor could feel Gigi's head, but he is still predicting that she will be "on time" with her due date. He said there was a 20% chance she would come before the
18th, we shall see what they say when we go in a few days for week 37.
We believe we have an over achiever on our hands... so Donna is thinking this baby will be an eager beaver and come out sooner, however, whenever she comes it is her decision and we are happy with that! Our Princess is healthy and that is what matters!

Packing the Bags

Over the past week, Donna started having Braxton-Hicks contraction pains, which spurred our realization that Gigi is arriving relatively soon. Therefore, we spent most of the weekend cleaning and organizing the house, and packing the hospital bags. We also installed her car seat bases and her new car seat(thanks Nanna and Big Paw) in both of our cars. She's going to be riding in style. However, Lola was not too happy that she spent most of her Sunday afternoon sitting in our cars testing out Gigi's new car seat.

Name Clue Alert: Gigi shares both of her names (first name and middle name) with Saints.

34 Weeks and Counting...

Posts have been few and far between over the past couple weeks, in part because there has been little to report, Donna has been unable to sleep, and Jim has been preparing for final exams (two exams down, two more to go). Since things are likely to get much more interesting soon, and since Jim finishes the fall semester on Thursday, you can expect more frequent posts in the very near future.

We had another routine check-up this morning and all is going well. At home we are continuing to prepare and organize for Gigi's arrival.

Happy Birthday!!!

To the world's most wonderful husband and father-to-be!!!

Giving thanks for another great check-up

This morning Donna and Gigi had their 32nd week doctor visit and all is going well. We learned that the sonogram that was performed at 29 weeks indicated that Gigi was in the 70th percentile for size, which the doctor said was fine. No other baby news to report. We hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving.

Thanks Lola...

We must admit that we are having fun testing all of the baby stuff before Gigi arrives. We use Gigi's "Lola" doll, of the cartoon Charlie & Lola, as our test subject. We have successfully changed Lola's diaper, swaddled Lola, dressed Lola in a onesie, carried Lola in the Baby Bjorn, watched Lola "sleep" in the crib on the video baby monitor, and strolled Lola around the house in the stroller. Oh yeah, Lola is now hanging out in the small vibrating chair-thing in our family room. So, here's to Lola...thanks for being our test subject... Pictures of Lola's adventures will follow.

One more clue... "Lola" and "Gigi" have fewer letter's combined than Gigi's real name.

4th of July in November...

The days of having to carefully feel for Gigi's small kicks have long passed. Not only can you feel Gigi's movements, you can clearly see them. Donna talks about watching her shirt move when she's sitting at work. In the past, Gigi's movements resembled a small backyard fireworks display, with an occasional small explosion of movement. Gigi's current movements more closely resemble July 4th on the Washington Mall with multiple explosive movements all over the place. With each day, our "uuh"s and "aah"s are getting bigger and bigger as we marvel at Gigi's fireworks display.

For those that are still interested in additional name clues, here's one for you...her name has a Greek origin.

Biweekly Doctor Visit

This morning we had another routine doctor visit. Not much to report (which of course is a good thing), so we'll use this opportunity to offer a not so subtle clue. Gigi's real name is widely used in many countries and has even been the name of numerous queens and princesses (how appropriate).

Nursery Update

With the plethora of gifts that Gigi received at the shower, we were able to fill her nursery with many beautiful touches. Also, as you can see the furniture arrived.



Gigi's Room





Thanks Nana for the beautiful bedding...





Mr. Bailey helped us unpack (he couldn't understand why he wasn't allowed to cuddle with "his" new stuffed animals)



Mr. Simba helped too... like a baby, he preferred to play with the paper.

A Shower to Remember...

We can't thank everyone enough for all the love and support that we received at Donna's baby shower this weekend in Baltimore. Christina and Babcha (Grandma Chapelsky) did a wonderful job hosting this incredible event. Here's a special thanks to our family artist, Christina, for hand painting the shower favors (the petite pysanka, which are Ukrainian Easter eggs) and "baking" the amazing diaper cake.



3 of the Pysanka's (made from quail eggs)



...almost good enough to eat


The shower was held at the Alumni House at the College of Notre Dame. As you can see from the pictures, the beautifully decorated Alumni House was the perfect place to celebrate the anticipated arrival of our daughter. We really enjoyed spending time with all that attended, and we especially appreciate all that traveled (including the Healy girls) to make this event one to remember.



Alumni House at the College of Notre Dame



Donna says "thanks dad" for Gigi's first doll.




Great Food...



...Great Dessert...



and very generous Gifts... (to everyone's amazement... these gifts, plus more, fit in Jim's VW for the ride home to Alexandria)

Halloween in Alexandria

In anticipation of Gigi's arrival, we carved three pumpkins... a "VT" for the dad-to-be, a baby for the mom-to-be, and a tiara for the princess-to-be...





Donna with Gigi's Tiara Pumpkin

Babymoon on the Upper West Side

In October we had a chance to get away to our favorite hotel (On the Ave Hotel) in NYC. This trip coincided with the nine year anniversary of our first trip together to NYC at On the Ave. Unlike other stays in NYC, this trip was a little extra special knowing that Gigi came along for the ride.... and Gigi made her presence known. Donna didn't have the same energy to walk for hours and hours. Therefore, we hung out in the Upper West side, which we call our second home, visting our favorite restaurants and coffee shops.



Donna (and Gigi) and Jim in Central Park

After further review... Gigi's not so Big...

The past two doctor visits estimated Gigi to be larger than normal (two weeks ahead of schedule). Today, we had a sonogram to get a much more accurate estimate of her size. The sonogram determined that shE's measuring right on schedule (29 weeks). She's not too big and not too small (about 3 lbs). For the first time we had the pleasure of seeing our daughter in 3D (including a big yawn and an even bigger smile). In 3D, she really resembles Donna's baby pictures and she definitely has Jim's nose (what a lucky girl). Stay tuned, Donna will scan some of the images to post on the blog.



Look at those lips!



Gigi smiling for the camera!



I'm getting tired of the parent-azzi!


I'm going to start charging!

Infant CPR was a success

We spent Saturday morning learning Infant and Child CPR at George Washington Hospital. The technique today is much more simple than when both of us took CPR years ago to become lifeguards. Along with several other expectant parents, two "child care" providers were in our class. After watching the so called "child care" providers perform CPR on the baby maniquiNs, we learned that some care providers take things more seriously than others. Needless to say, we would not want either of the two care providers in our class to ever watch our child. Which left us asking ourselves if we should "test" everyone that takes care of Gigi. It was probably the most useful two hours each of us has spent in a long time. Hopefully, we will never need to use our new skills, but we feel confident if the situations arises.

A little insight to the waiting...

As I sit here at work and am constantly thinking about the baby, I came to a good description of what it feels like when you are expecting.
Its very similar to the excitement of falling in love and and bouncing with joy all the time. The world could fall apart and it does not matter. One truly understands when their parents say how all that matters is that everyone is healthy and happy, the rest is just gravy! Truly that is all that matters!
A little insight from me the mom-to-be.

Clues, clues, clues....

Just as a reminder, we are still posting baby name clues in each (ok... most of) the messages. They have started out subtle and will become a little more clear as time passes. Here's a gimme... Donna's list is not likely to include a short name.

Third Trimester... and maybe a little more.

Yesterday was the official start of the third trimester and this morning we had one of our routine doctor check-ups (now biweekly). All is going well and Gigi is perfectly healthy. In fact, our little baby Gigi is measuring two weeks ahead schedule. In other words, the doc thinks that she may be a larger than average princess or the doctors simply miscalculated her due date. As you may recall the initial due date was January 18th. If she arrives two weeks before the initial due date then she may be a New Year's Day baby. Assuming the doc miscalculated the due date, dad's rooting for a 2008 tax deduction :) In reality, we are both so happy that she's healthy and we'll be overjoyed whenever she arrives.

Mom is doing well too.. well except for sleeping. Last night Donna nudged me at 3:23 AM to tell me that she couldn't get comfortable. I guess this is just a little practice for the sleepness nights to come.

Baby Class Graduates

Yesterday was the date of our all day baby birthing class. Although we were a few minutes late (not unlike most of the other "students"), we were excited to attend the class because we knew that it would help us get ready for the big day (or two). After about eight hours of learning how to breath and relax (yeah, right, like Donna's going to relax), we both suddenly realized how close we are to Gigi's arrival. Nobody warned us about the very graphic videos that we had the pleasure of watching. The videos didn't hold anything back. While there is much more to learn over the next couple months, we feel better prepared for what's to come on Gigi's "birth day". Oh, most importantly, Donna finally learned exactly what we need to take with us to the hospital. Donna already made one of her famous lists and she can't wait to pack the hospital bags.

A New Niece to Love

We are thrilled to announce that Eva Beth Whittaker made her entrance into the world yesterday at 10:57pm. Baby, Mom and Dad are doing well and over joyed to be new parents! Welcome to the family Eva! We can not wait to meet you!

The joys of pregnancy

I have been so blessed during this pregnancy. As my 2nd trimester is coming to an end I am reflecting more on the time I have had so far with this baby girl and how lucky I am.

My sister-in-law Amanda is 11 weeks ahead of me expecting a Baby Girl too! This entire time we have been fortunate to share and give each other daily updates on the girls! Luckily she is ahead of me, so anything she feels now, I will feel soon enough and know its normal.

So far I have loved being pregnant. It has been the most fantastic thing I could have ever experienced. Jim and I are bursting with love with every move that she makes and dreaming of the future with her, that we can not imagine how wonderful it will be when our little girl arrives!

Then for me the saddness kicks in. As I reflect, I realize there will be a time in my life where I will no longer be pregnant, no longer have a newborn to hold, and all that comes with it. However, not to say that watching our children grow will not be miraculous.

My Mom has always told me how wonderful it is to be a Mom and how much she and my Dad love to spend time with my sister and I and now our husbands. I can start to understand now.

I hope that everyone enjoys the special times in life that we are blessed to have. I know I will be enjoying the last trimester knowing my little girl is with me 24/7, warm and safe.

She has parents anxiously awaiting to raise and love their little girl.

Yumm... Glucose

This week the doctors performed a routine test for gestational diAbetes by asking Donna to drink a glucose beverage. It wasn't as bad as expected and she downed it in record time. She's quite the trooper. Gigi doesn't appear to be a fan of the doctor's heart rate monitor. When the doctor was checking her heart rate, Gigi startled Donna and the doctor with a couple of big kicks (maybe a future soccer player in the making).

As a side note, Gigi's furniture arrived on Saturday. The parents-to-be are happy that the furniture is both sturdy and stylish. Only a few changes will need to made to make it fit for a princess.

Name game....

As you all know Gigi's real name is a secret until she's born. However, to make this more interesting, we may occasionally incorporate subtle hints into the blog that may offer as clues to her name. Feel free to post comments with your guess for Gigi's name. Please, keep all criticisms to yourself. Huuummm... I wonder if there's a hint in this message.
Remember her name is a secret until she is born!
Have fun!

Morning Glory...

Unlike her parents, Gigi's recent baby movements indicate that she may be a morning person. The intensity and frequency of her movements are much more pronounced in the mornings than in the evenings. When Jim and I are up late in the evenings trying to feel her movements, she tends to be reserved. However, early in the morning when we want to rest, she tends to be playing jump rope with her umbilical cord.

Gigi's nursey is almost complete!

After a weekend of nonstop work, Gigi's nursery is almost complete. Jim hung the wallpaper (occassionaly he had the pleasure of recutting and hanging strips when things looked a little funny) and dressed up the plain baseboard molding with a little detail (which will soon be painted white). As you can see, the pink rug was also delivered. We couldn't be more pleased with how the nursery looks. Later his week the furniture will be delivered.

Click me to enlarge
Click me to enlarge

Shake, rattle, and kick! Part 2

For the first time last night, Gigi's movements were strong enough for Jim to feel. Needless to say, he was very excited to finally experience what I've been enjoying for a couple weeks. However, just because it's possible for other people to feel the baby's movements, please ask before touching!

People are too funny!

So I'm getting my lunch this afternoon. A woman comes up to me and says oh you must be ready to "pop". I said no, not until January. She says you must be having twins, No I tell her 1 baby. Then she looks at me is disbelief and says oh you are a big one!
I start to laugh so hard. I'm thrilled I finally have my own funny story, I have heard so many like this from family and friends, now I have my own. I do have to say, I'm only 43.5" around according to my measurements.

Shake, rattle, and kick!

Finally after much anticipation, Donna can finally feel the baby's "flutters" (the technical word the doctor's use). Donna however, calls the baby a fish swimming around, since that is truly what it feels like, not like something fluttering. Gigi often kicks and pokes the heart monitor when her heart rate is checked, apparently she does not want to be disturbed! Jim can not wait for their little girl to grow bigger and stronger so he can feel her movements. For now he happily relies on Donna's recaps.

Decisions, decisions, decisions....

Over the weekend we've made a few decisions on decorating Gigi's nursery. We've decided (or more accurately, Donna decided), at least for the moment (things are very likely to change) that Gigi's nursery will have a white chair rail molding with a light shade of pink ("Shimmy", see sample below) below the molding and a white/pink toile wallpaper (see sample below) above the molding. "Shimmy" is already on the wall and looks really good (and really girly). The wallpaper has been ordered!! Over the weekend, Jim finished sanding the walls, painted the ceiling, primed the walls, and painted "Shimmy" on the bottom 3 feet of the walls. Jim also installed Gigi's white, bouquet inspired chandelier (see image above). Jim says that there is no doubt that this room is designed by a princess, for a princess.

Halfway there..

Halfway there and all is going well!

Last week we reached a milestone as we passed the halfway point of the pregnancy. This morning, we had another routine check-up and the doctor gave us a clean bill of health. GiGi has a strong heartbeat and she (or should I say we) are growing appropriately for 21 weeks.

Although progress on the nursery has slowed a little (Jim started law school again two weeks ago), we are still making progress. GiGi's little white chandelier arrived last week and Jim hopes to have all the wood paneling removed and the walls ready for painting by the end of the month.

Check-in for future developments.

Feeling nostalgic

Over the weekend Jim and I met my parents for Mass at The National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The massive Shrine, dedicated to the Virgin Mary happens to share the land of CUA where I graduated from College and spent many happy years! We took sometime to walk around the campus, the students had moved in that weekend and it was busy with excitement! We talked about how much we loved college and how certain smells reminded us of those days. For me the dried up grass in the hot sun always reminds me of the first few days of school; from Elementary-College it was the start of Fall Sports for me. Not sure how the kids in college now know how lucky they are to have the opportunity to go to college and explore life! It goes by so fast.. Which then reminded me of my first day in Kindergarten. My teacher was Ms. Papka. The majority of my friends from Nursery School were in my class. To this day 28 years later, I am still friends with the individuals whom I went to Nursery and Kindergarten. We are married and having children of our own! Its amazing how as an adult you can remember when you were 4 years old or earlier and it seems like yesterday. I remember my parents telling me stories of their youth growing up together and I would think they were making things up, they were "too old" to remember, I was wrong!
To present time, Jim and I are so excited for our little one to arrive. As Jim calls her ,our little bundle of joy, she is a Princess to me! I heard the song by Eddie Money this morning on the radio "I wanna go back". Talks about being older and how you can't go back in time, but have the memories of your childhood. I am so lucky to have married my High School sweetheart. A person who I grew up with, and who understand me. We have the same friends and we all have known eachother since we were very little. Which we can't go back, but we have an amazing past that we have shared, and right now our little girl and our time now is a present to us. Can't wait for the future, but will enjoy this time!
Hope everyone does the same, time goes by so quickly! Just enjoy life!

Nursery progress continuing

Work on the nursery is continuing. As you may be able to tell from the new pictures, the walls of the nursery are covered in not-so attractive green and yellow painted wood paneling. Believe it or not, the wood paneling actually comes off the walls rather easily. Besides making the nursery more attractive, removal of the wood paneling gives the nursery an extra 1/2 inch in length and width (in this room, every fraction of an inch counts). The original plaster walls reveal three layers of old paint including white, pink, and blue. Clearly this room has been a nursery many times over it's fifty-eight year life. Over the next couple weeks Jim will remove the paneling and patch the walls, while Donna picks out the perfect shade (or shades) of pink. Also, you may have noticed that the closet door is missing. Luckily, we found it and it's original hardware in the basement. It already is being filled of course with clothes!

Once we found out that the baby's gender on Tuesday, we couldn't wait to purchase the nursery furniture (a crib and a dresser). As we were warned, it will take 12-14 weeks to arrive. Stay tuned for future updates.

Surprise!! It's a Baby Girl!

Hello Everyone! Surprise, we are having a baby girl!
We had the opportunity to find out yesterday on our 8 year wedding anniversary. We could not pass it up and on such a perfect day! We are absolutely elated! The most important this is she is 100% positively healthy. The Doctor said she is textbook excellent and that is the most important thing, all we could ask for! God has truly blessed us.
More updates and pictures of Gigi to come to come! (Baby Girl, AKA Gigi for short)

*If you click on her picture it will expand

A nursery in progress

As you can can see in the pictures, the nursery is clearly a work in progress. The current yellow/green walls will soon be replaced with pink or blue (which reminds me...keep voting). Also, we plan to go furniture shopping soon. Since we've been warned that some furniture may take 12 weeks to be arrive, we are starting early to make sure that the room is ready in January. Our first task, that we completed over the weekend, was to clear out the clutter and remove the built-in shelving. Stay tuned for more updates and pictures of the nursery's continued development.

MATERNITY CLOTHES ARE UGLY!

Sorry to be so blunt, but its the truth!! My husband is even feeling sorry for me. Those of you that have seen my closets know, that for someone to feel bad for me regarding clothes, there has to be something wrong. So currently I have 6 things I can wear! 3 pairs of pants, 2 of which are black and 3 pairs of shirts, 2 of which are black!

Here is a list of why maternity clothes are not favored by me:
1. Mostly can be washed in a wash machine. I prefer my clothes to be dry-cleaned = less hassle!
2. They have no style!
3. Hate to wear the same thing in the same week!
4. They want all pregnant women to end up on "What not to wear"!


So if anyone knows of a good place to get clothes that are not ugly and I can actually wear in public to work, please give your suggestions! However, I ask no Gap Maternity. (sorry to those of you that love the Gap, but I did not wear it before I was pregnant, too casual for work and that is where I am 90%of the time.)

Thanks to all!

Adventures in registering

We could not wait any longer to register for the basics! This was more for us to have fun then for the baby. Of course we can not wait to take the little one to the toy stores, once again, more fun for the parents. Enjoy the pictures as we had a great time that night.

Baby's Gender

Another update:
We have set up a poll to see how many of you think the baby is a Girl or Boy!
Special enough, we find out on my cousin Adda's 20th Birthday, August 25th!!
I remember being over the moon the day that she was born, finally my sister and I had a cousin to play with and a girl to create more family craziness!!! I need to find a baby picture of Adda to put up on the special day :-)

Another update!

We had our regular checkup this morning! The baby has a very strong heart beat and is growing well, so is Mom to be! We have our ultrasound in a couple of weeks! We will be posting a poll to see if everyone's guess if its a Girl or Boy!

Baby Update on Bastille Day!

Bonjour nos amis!
We had our 13 week check up today! Baby is doing well, he/she has a strong heart beat!

Mom-to-be is still exhausted, and Dad-to-be is happy we are no longer going to sleep at 1am!

In a few months it will turn to 1am feedings :-)

Baby M's Anticipated Arrival!

Its official, we are expecting a little one in January 2009. We are absolutely over the moon.
With the craziness in our lives we are keeping a blog. A way for our family and friends to keep up with us!