Double Trouble!

We had our last visit with Dr. Vitali on Wednesday and let's just say, boy or girl, my baby's already got a personality! Refused to uncross those legs and let us find out the gender. Most votes go for a stubborn girl (she would in fact have quite a precedent) or a timid boy.

Either is still fine with us, as long as Double's healthy -- and, from the last visit, he/she is indeed! We got a look at the 2 lobes of the brain, the formed bladder, the heart, the pulsating umbilical cord (little known fact my doctor gave us: a healthy umbilical cord pulsates at the same rate as the heartbeat...which it was!), the arms and legs and eyes.

Our next appointment - the 3D ultrasound where we'll get a more in depth look (does it make me a bad mother to admit I'm afraid these images of my alien baby are going to freak me out?) and - yes - we've been promised they'll poke and prod me until Double reveals its privates. Is my kid going to love me or WHAT?

34!!

Happy Birthday me!

Yeah, I'm in bear pajamas. What of it?

Week 17

Jodi's Bday: Part I!

So this whole spreading-out-the-bday-over-several-mini-days tradition is just fiiiine by me!

Yesterday afternoon, Andrea and I headed out for a nice lunch and then a visit to an exhibit being held in the center of town, called "From Corot to Picasso and from Fattori to De Pisis". We got the headsets and wandered around for a good two hours (the picture above, "Mystery" by Redon, was Andrea's favorite), then grabbed a warm-n-cozy cappuccino and came home.

Jodi's Bday: Part II will be a movie tonight ("Slumdog Millionaire") and some ice-cream.

Will let ya know about Part III and, possibly, IV! (though, these should all *really* be Parts II, III, IV and V since Part I was my birthday cake in Jamaica...but who's counting really...)!

I'm one lucky pre-birthday girl!!

16 weeks and growing (half the time anyway!)...

Sometimes I wake up and there's hardly any belly at all, then it gets to be about 2pm and POP, all of a sudden it's there again! The wonders of baby growth.

Jodi & Andrea present....DOUBLE!

Now that the cat's out of the bag in all areas of my life (family, friends, work...), I can even bring the news to my blog: WE'RE HAVING A BABY!!! =)

The little one has been lovingly nicknamed "Double" (long story but, no, we're not having twins) and hasn't caused his/her Mom too too much pain! Minor, really, and now that I'm officially in my second trimester I'm feeling pretty damn good actually. (Well, if you don't count my mega headache right now, but that's from my company Xmas party last night, not baby-related!)

The picture above is Double's second ultrasound -- he/she (yes, we want to find out the gender but it's still too early to tell) was in great form. Literal hand-clapping and general wiggling was involved...this one's not going to be much of a sleeper, I can tell already!

Andrea and I are thrilled and -- oddly enough -- feeling pretty ready (not like "bring it on NOW" ready, but well on our way!) and are so excited to be able to share this really cool, exciting, fun, momentous, incredible, mysterious, weird, life-changing period of our lives with you all!

Stay tuned for further updates!!

Rain. Again. How Novel.

Ya know, I am generally that romantic type of person who loves the rain - loves cozying up with dim lights and listening to the pitter-patter of the raindrops. But ya know what? 3 weeks straight? A little much!

Perugia, and half the world if the global weather reports are any indication, is *this* close to preparing its ark and organizing its animals in gender pairs. Enough already!!

The "ray of sunshine" in all of this is that we leave soon for JAMAICA. Yep, that's right, vacation away, in the sunshine and heat. My body will probably go into shock after all this rain. At least I'm hydrated for it!

Happy Holiday Season! Hope your umbrellas are festive and your rainboots hole-less. That's pretty much as good as I can get right now.