Contractions, Carpal Tunnel, & "Cankles," Oh My!

This week marks 32 weeks into my pregnancy.  Baby & I checked out just fine at our doctor's appointment this week (yep, we're on the every-other-week program now).  Baby is estimated at around 3.5 pounds, and the Doc thinks s/he will be average size (7.5-8 pounds) at birth, unless s/he does some crazy growing in the next few weeks.  I hope this is true, as I would like the little peanut to come out peanut-sized and not linebacker-sized!  We got to listen to the heartbeat via Doppler again, which is always cool.

Symptoms this week include more Braxton-Hicks "practice" contractions, a touch of carpal tunnel syndrome in my right hand (a common problem in pregnant women), and the continuation of swollen ankles.  Luckily, I've been promised that all of these issues go away right after delivery.

32 Weeks Pregnant

Baby has been a little quieter the last few weeks, which the Doc says could be the new "normal."  Baby is running out of "womb" (pun intended!), and the other day I got a few painful kicks in the liver (which luckily stopped after 3 times and a motherly scolding).

I ordered the cutest "Catholic Baby's First Bible" off Amazon a few weeks ago.  It finally arrived and is so sweet!  It's a board book that includes little snippets of Bible stories with wonderful color drawings.  It even has the "Our Father" and "Hail Mary" on two of the pages so baby can practice!  I think it's a must-have for Catholic babies, and I can't wait to read it to our little angel.

The perfect addition to baby's library!

In other family news, we are gearing up for the arrival of our new niece in a week!  Perhaps she'll be another "Alessandra?"

The Single Digit Countdown Begins!

Ack!  This week is 8 months!  (Well, in terms of pregnancy weeks, which don't really follow along with actual months correctly...  Weeks 31-35 account for month 8.)  That means the single digit countdown begins!  Only 9 weeks to go!  Yikes!  I am so excited, especially since we've purchased the last bunch of little things for baby (thank you to those who gave us monetary gifts & gift cards!) and the next few days will feel like Christmas when the goodies arrive!

Also, Craig's gift from baby's Babcia arrived - she got him a bottle warmer that she says he'll really appreciate.  He's not so ready to jump to that conclusion, but I agree that he'll probably like the convenience of a 3-minute warm-up in a machine instead of having to run a bottle under the sink or putting it in a pot of boiling water.  It's also a device that my brother swears by, so we'll see how it goes.

Craig's present - thanks Babcia!

This week, baby is the size of a pineapple!  S/he is approaching birth length but still has a few pounds to gain (though hopefully not many!).  Baby has been moving around a little less these last three weeks (running out of "womb"?  Pun intended, hehehe!), but s/he still gets going early in the morning while waiting for breakfast and also sometime after lunch.

Baby is the size of a pineapple this week!

I definitely felt the lack of lung capacity from my expanding uterus this week.  It was a little tough singing in church on Sunday - though maybe the people around me were happy they couldn't hear me as well as usual?  (I am not a contender for American Idol, that's for sure!  But, as my mother always said, they can't kick you out of church for singing off-key.)  I did make a trip to the gym at work on Monday.  I took it slow but still broke a sweat, and it felt good to get back in the groove.  And I wasn't as unbalanced on the elliptical as I thought I would be with this burgeoning belly, and the breathlessness didn't come back.  My calves were complaining the next two days, however!

31 Weeks Pregnant

Sleep has been elusive due to a bit of heartburn (Is that myth about heartburn indicating the baby has a full head of hair true?), and propping my pillow up just makes my arms fall asleep faster.  Well, I guess that's just how it's going to be for a few more weeks.  Of course, eating all this spicy food surely doesn't help with the heartburn!  That's probably my "craving" during this pregnancy - adding red pepper flakes to everything from pizza to pasta sauce.

But seriously, can you believe it?  Only 9 weeks left!

More Nesting News!

On Friday, my mother-in-law Barbara and I had a nice morning together.  We picked up a few things from Babies'R'Us (thanks to my Dad for the high chair and also for the toddler carseat!) and stopped in to Carter's and Kohl's to snag a few on-sale baby outfits.  Then we had a nice lunch at Applebee's. 

Thanks to baby's Nonno for the high chair &...

...the toddler car seat!

The weekend started off with a surprise dinner on Friday night, courtesy of Craig, at our favorite restaurant, "Takara" (a Japanese hibachi steakhouse in Kelly Square), and a yummy vanilla cone via the McDonald's drive thru on the way home.  We hadn't been out in a while, so it was nice to enjoy ourselves.  Who knows how many more opportunities there will be for "just the two of us" outings for a while!

On Saturday, we were gifted with a new washer/dryer set from my mom - supposedly a combination baby christening gift + birthday gift + Christmas gift.  I don't think she wanted the 1980-something model washer we currently have that chews up sheets to chew up the baby's new clothes!  Or maybe she was just concerned about washing her own clothes when she comes to visit in October, haha!  Either way, it was really generous of her, and we are excited because the new machines come with WiFi that notify us on our smart phones when a load of laundry is done!  How cool is that?  We are definitely in the new millennium now!

Thanks to baby's Babcia for the new dryer &...

...washer!

Also on Saturday, we celebrated Grammy's birthday with Craig's family and took a nice couple's picture (we were overdue to put up a new one in our photo wall clock).

The happy couple!

In other fun news, the baby's hospital bag is packed, and mine is almost complete.  I just have to wash a few things once we get a little closer to the due date (and know how big the baby's going to be).  I also put a reminder in my phone's calendar to have Craig install the carseat in early October!  Craig has been nesting in his own way - he has been working on his truck to get it all ready for transporting the little one, and he's been playing with the baby monitor (thanks Hansen family!) to make sure it's ready to go.

Baby's hospital bag is packed!  The newborn outfit on the right is from baby's Grammy.  (The 0-3mo outfit on the left is my own purchase.)  The diaper bag is from family friend Margherita, and the green bunny toy peeking around the right side of the bag is from my Aunt Teresa.

3/4 of the Way There!

At 30 weeks, my pregnancy is already 3/4 of the way finished!  I can't believe how fast time has flown and that baby will be here in a mere 10 weeks (give or take).

30 Weeks Pregnant

I decided to resurrect the weekly t-shirt, since my bump will hopefully make it look more flattering by now!

And that would be a no, it's still not flattering!

Time to retire this bad boy!

This week, baby's brain is developing many convolutions that allow for an increased amount of brain tissue.  His/her brain and new fat cells are taking over temperature regulation, so the soft downy coat of lanugo is beginning to disappear.  Also, baby's bone marrow is beginning to take over production of red blood cells (where before this was the job of the spleen and other tissues).  Baby seems a little less active than in the previous few weeks, probably because s/he is running out of room in there!  Estimated at just over 3 lbs by my phone apps, s/he is definitely growing in size and bulging my baby bump out with him/her!

I'm now re-experiencing some of the symptoms I had in my first trimester:  fatigue combined with breathlessness (especially after climbing stairs or hills!), some heartburn, frequent getting up to pee during the night, and the ever-present swollen ankles.  But, if you know me, you know that I don't stop being busy very easily, so putting my feet up is a chore!

I recently signed us up for classes on childbirth and breastfeeding at the hospital.  We'll also get a complimentary tour of the maternity ward.  (I can't believe we'll be in there for the real thing in no time!)  Craig tells me that the class on childbirth will basically result in him saying "Breathe, babe, breath!" and "Push, babe, push!" and then the baby will be out, haha.  If labor & delivery goes that easily, I will be impressed!  I also sent in our information for pre-registration and started working on the birth certificate paperwork (one can never be too prepared and really, who wants to do all that when you're holding your cute new baby?).

Today we had our next doctor's appointment.  The doc said baby is measuring about 2-2.5 lbs (so a little less than what my phone apps are saying), but he said that it's within normal limits and my uterus is an appropriate size for the stage of my pregnancy.  According to him, babies start to show whether they are going to be large in size starting around week 34.  He seems to think mine will be of average size (thankfully not the heavyweight champion of babies!), but only time will tell.  We got to listen to the baby's heartbeat again, which is always thrilling!

Thus begins the visits every two weeks until week 36 (then it becomes a weekly routine).  What they get from seeing me that frequently is a mystery to me!

Other happenings this week include my picking up some of the remaining odds and ends off our registries to complete baby's list of necessities.  Not much was left after the generosity of our family and friends, but those gift cards and monetary gifts definitely came in handy to pick up some of the little things.  I've been arranging and re-arranging the nursery closet to fit everything, but without having baby's dressers here yet, it's difficult to find places for everything.  And there are large boxes taking up room in there too - from the crib to the swing to the car seat.  At least the time is fast approaching when Craig will "let" us put things together!  I hope to have the car seat installed in my car and the majority of the big items that will be needed right away open and in place by the beginning of October, just in case the baby decides to arrive early!

I finally had a chance to add the baby hunches from the NY shower guests to the website.  (There's still plenty of time to add yours to see if you win the prize for the closest guesses to baby's birth statistics!  Click here and enter the password "babylatour" to submit your guesses.)  Here's the new update on guess percentages:

It looks like the guess of "girl" is still going strong!

Showered With Love - Part II

The beautiful cake!

The MA baby shower was another wonderful event!  I so very much enjoyed having Craig's family and our friends around.  A great big round of thank-yous are due to Craig's cousin Lorene, for hosting and making sure to serve my favorite treat (ice cream cake!); my sister-in-laws Deb & Julie and my mother-in-law Barbara, for bringing some of the delicious food; my niece Justine, for helping with the favors and decorating Lorene's home; my friend Kristen, for recording the gifts; and my friend Chelsea, for taking beautiful pictures of the event.  All of your contributions made for a perfect day!  I can't forget to thank my little helpers, Hailey, Molly, and Hannah (with a little help from Wyatt too!), for assisting me with gift opening.  They made the process speedy and fun!

Thanks to Lorene for hosting!  (Do you notice Hailey stuck to me like glue?)

Kristen helpfully recorded all of the gifts for me.

My three wonderful little helpers, from left to right - Molly, Hannah, & Hailey.

We played a couple of games during the afternoon.  Laurie won the Nursery Rhyme game - but personally, I think she studied beforehand!  There's no way anyone could have gotten all 10 out of 10 correct!  Then the guests played baby shower bingo and Barbara won - she's a bingo pro!  Lastly, I drew a name out of a bowl for the diaper raffle winner, who was Rachel.

I received a lot of beautiful baby things and a good load of diapers of various sizes.  And the baby has another great batch of books for his/her collection.  Everyone was so generous; I am still speechless.  Overall, it was a beautiful day and we are truly blessed to have such great friends and family.

Such generous guests!

Books for baby's collection.

Now, for your viewing enjoyment, a selection of photographs (the majority of which are courtesy of Chelsea) that depict the great day we enjoyed:

Having a great time!

Me & my helpers checking out cute outfits for baby.

Check out the huge stack of diapers for baby!

Grammy is practicing for our baby with Carolyn!

Bath toys for baby

Some of the beautiful holiday onesies from Kristen

Baby's grandmas!

Excitement Times 2!

No, there was no discovery of twins!  I am just very excited that tomorrow is another baby shower!  I am looking forward to seeing friends & family from MA (since all of us have been so busy with living our lives and don't get together as often as we'd like).

It's also going to be a fun weekend in our house - my mother and my best friend Kristen are staying overnight before the shower.  So, we'll actually be tied up for girls (Mom, Kristen, Venus, & I) & boys (Craig, Chip, Apollo, & Zephyr), if we include the cats.  The baby would be the tie-breaker, but we won't know who won until October, haha!

Speaking of cats, our 4 no-longer-so-little ones are somewhat confused as to why there are stacks of boxes of baby items in the 2nd bedroom that they can't play with yet.  Of course, they are taking delight in climbing and lying on TOP of the boxes while they can!  They have taken over the glider (covered with a spare sheet to contain the cat hair, thankfully!) as a new sleeping place,  but that won't last long because the door is going to start staying closed once we put the crib, etc together in the beginning of October.  For your entertainment, here's a picture of Chip, practicing his baby sitting skills:

Chip is practicing his baby-sitting skills!

And speaking of putting things together, Craig "allowed" us to put the travel lite pack 'n' play  together the other day!  (Thank you to my Aunt Lisa & cousin Melissa for their generous gift!)  Finally SOMETHING is put together!  I think the only reason he agreed was because it could be refolded and put away, but it turns out that it fit into our spare closet while in the open position.  I covered it with another spare sheet, since he thought it might get dusty.  The best news, besides it being really cute, is that it will fit right next to our bed perfectly for the 6 weeks or so that we have company staying here in the baby's room and function as a bassinet.  Here's a picture of this one item (well, besides the closet) that is finally set up!

The cute travel lite pack'n'play all set up!

Baby on Board!

At 29 weeks pregnant, baby is almost as tall as s/he will be at birth!  S/he is also about 3 lbs in weight, but that weight will at least DOUBLE in the next 11 weeks.  Buds for baby teeth have already formed under baby's gums, but now the buds for permanent adult teeth are forming as well.  This week baby is the size of an acorn squash!

Baby is the size of an acorn squash this week!

Baby is now pummeling me from the inside quite frequently, especially after I eat and if I settle down to relax for a few minutes between chores.  Craig & I swore we felt the heel of a foot the other day - something hard and kind of rounded on my right side up near my ribs.  We still haven't seen that crazy view of a full foot pressed against my belly, but maybe soon.

My next doctor's appointment is next week and that begins the silliness of bi-weekly visits until mid-September when it becomes a weekly routine.  I can't believe there are only 11 weeks left until our little angel arrives!  As far as new symptoms, I am really only experiencing increased intensity of existing symptoms:  swollen ankles, having to get up to pee 3 times instead of once during the night, arms falling asleep faster when I sleep on my side, and tiredness when I overexert myself (including going up stairs!).

I'm easing myself back into a work routine this week and am going to also attempt getting back to the gym for slow, easy workouts on the elliptical and weight machines.  (It's such a great benefit to have a free gym at work!)  I'm excited to show off my baby bump to my coworkers.

29 Weeks Pregnant

If you didn't already see yesterday's post on Craig's diapering lessons, definitely check it out - make sure you are ready to have a good laugh!

Hailey's School for Daddy-to-Be

We visited our great-niece Hailey (4 1/2 years old) yesterday, and she was telling me how she was practicing for our baby with her doll, "Baby Hailey."  So, I asked her to show me how she holds the baby, and she did a perfect job!

I told Hailey that she should probably show her uncle how to properly change a diaper because it's been many years since he's done it.  Oh boy, was that a hysterically funny event!  I can't even describe it without laughing, so I photographed it for your viewing pleasure:

"First we take off the used diaper." - Hailey

"Here, I'll get her ready for the fresh diaper for you."  -Craig; "No, Uncle Craig!  You don't hold the baby up by the leg!" - Hailey

"This is how you put on the clean diaper." - Hailey

"Then you stick the little tabs to hold the diaper on." - Hailey; "Like this?" - Craig; "Yup!" - Hailey

"Then you put baby's clothes back on." - Hailey; "I'll hold the baby still for you." - Craig;  "No, Uncle Craig!  You can't hold the baby by her head!" - Hailey

I'm sure you can imagine how funny this was in person!  I had such a hard time steadying the camera and not peeing myself from laughing so hard!  Craig's mom, Barbara, was looking on, and she also had a hard time containing her giggles.

Then I asked Hailey to show her uncle how to properly hold a baby.  He did fine holding her, but he got a scolding from Grammy about feeding the baby iced coffee!

"Craig!  Babies don't drink coffee!" - Barbara

Showered With Love - Part I

I am to blessed to have had an amazing baby shower experience in NY this past weekend!  First, to thank some Very Important People:  my mother, for hosting the wonderful event and being on wrapping paper trash duty; my cousins Basia, Kevin, and Cathy, for decorating, serving, organizing & photographing; Brian and the staff at Cafe Lore, for opening the restaurant to us for the day and providing delicious food & cake; my cousin Christina, for recording all the gifts as I opened them; my cousin Melissa, for handing me the gifts and making sure I didn't lift anything too heavy (or drop anything due to pregnancy klutziness!); and my mother-in-law Barbara, for being the "LaTour family representative" for the weekend.  Without all of their hard work, as well as the liveliness of all of the guests, it could not have been the total perfect success that it was.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  I am truly grateful!

Melissa & I happened to wear almost identical dragonfly necklaces!

That's Melissa's arm, helping me to avoid dropping everything!

Christina diligently recorded all the gifts.

Kevin, Basia, & Cathy were such a great help!

Me & the Grandmas with the delicious cake!

We played a few fun games during the afternoon.  My cousin Dorothy won a prize for having the birthday closest to the baby's due date.  In "Baby Name Race," everyone had to try to come up with a name (either for a boy or a girl) for each letter of the alphabet and the first one done won.  Family friend Stella won that, and we also got a lot of ideas for names.  Bart, Earl, Ursula, and Yolanda were some of the more "memorable" ones!  Lastly, everyone played Bingo during gift-opening, and my aunt Nancy won that.  I received many wonderful baby gifts, including a slew of books with personalized messages that we will treasure.

Reading a book inscription

Everyone made such great book choices!

More wonderful books!

And now for your viewing pleasure, some more pictures to document the wonderful event!  (Thank you again to my photographer Basia!)

Handmade butterfly blanket, courtesy of family friend Carol

Handmade crocheted blanket and pillow, courtesy of my aunt Teresa

Some of our family friends made the trip down to Brooklyn.

I received some beautiful handmade cards!  This one's courtesy of family friend Mary Jane.

Baby will definitely be well-dressed!

I was so excited to see all the cute baby things!

Some of my lovely Italian guests!

Another view of these lovely Italian ladies.

The "youthful" head table!

Some of my lovely Polish guests!

Baby's Piggy Bank!

The Sarrica smile!