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