Third Trimester!!! (Week 27) **Nursery room pics**

I made it to the third trimester! Our baby is no longer an eggplant. :-( Now she's ... I guessed spaghetti squash again, Joe guessed melon... a cauliflower?!  Okaaaayyy.  I love our little cauliflower, but I do miss our eggplant. 

We did a lot this week. I am thoroughly exhausted. The nursery is painted, carpet is pulled up, and her crib and dresser are set up! ANNND all her clothes so far have been washed and folded and put away.  :-) 

Speaking of folding... Peggy, Barrie, and Julianna helped de-tag and fold all the clothes. Julianna did most of the folding and as she was folding she said, "I can fold. I am so ready for babysitting!" I love her!  The next day I found a Seventh Generation sample of detergent so I washed and then folded and put them away in her brandy new dresser! I can fold, too. I am so ready to be a mom!! 

 Jules folded all these. Best babysitter ever!

Joe took me to watch the sunrise one morning and took some really great pictures. It's so hard to pick just a few to share because there are so many good ones, but here are some faves: 

 Someone stole a kiss! <3

(This is the nice guy that offered to take some of the both of us. Beach people are so nice!)

 I love that man.

 Daddy is writing Johanna in the sand.

We had a wonderful morning! 

Then after that, we came home and I whipped up some breakfast for our lovely helpers! Peggy, Barrie, the girls, Wayne, and Gary all helped get Johanna's room in shape! Joe and I can't thank them enough. They all did such a great job, too!!! Check it out:

 Shh, she's sleeping. 

And then the next day I really wanted to go back to Value City Furniture to sit on the couch we are going to be getting as soon as Grandma comes down. Thanks, Grandma!!! 

Seriously, I love this couch!!!!! 

And here we are starting our 3rd trimester:

Messy hair, don't care... Joe might care... I don't. 

If you know what it feels like to have your hair up all day and then finally let it down....then you know how I feel.  Anyway, look't that little cauliflower. She's a growin'! Can I kiss her yet????  

By the way, I almost cried moving all her clothes and belongings into her room... she graduated from the corner of the fireplace room to her VERY OWN ROOM!!! :-) 

Week 28

We started school this week. It was actually kind of refreshing to get back into the groove of things....plus, it's a lot easier knowing I am leaving around Thanksgiving! 
On the first day at the staff meeting my principal announced my pregnancy.  It was nice, but kind of embarrassing.  The students have been so adorable.  My students from last year are excited to see me then they immediately change their expression to complete confusion as they stare at my belly.  Some of them ask if I'm having a baby.  The ones that ask follow it up with "is it a boy or girl?" When I tell them it's a girl if it's a girl who asked she gets so excited, if it's a boy he usually gives a coy smile. My new students are so intrigued and it seems to be that only girls know I'm pregnant. Boys have no clue (unless a girl told them). One student told me my belly is going to get as big as a watermelon.  A former student approached me and just stared at my belly and then said, "What's with the big belly!?" Kids are great! 

Our cabbage is now the size of .... I guessed celery, Joe guessed cantaloupe... a head of iceburg lettuce. C'mon! That's not even any different than last week! I love my iceburg lettuce, though, but I miss my cabbage.  

She has started to move a lot this week. Or maybe she has always been moving a lot, but now she's got some fat and muscle so I'm feeling the movements more often. 

Sometimes I just go into her room and just smile... it looks so nice! And I can't even imagine what my life will be like when I walk in there and she's in the crib. :-)

I read that I should be consuming apx 400 more calories by this point.  I showed this to Joe and he was like, "You need to eat even MORE?!" I am always so hungry... 

I have to get blood work this week to test for gestational diabetes among some other things... I have to drink this juice that I've heard is gross so I'm not really looking forward to it, considering I haven't really been able to enjoy any liquids except water throughout this pregnancy.  

We are heading to the pool today to hang out with her Azzarello cousins :-) 

Here we are at 28 weeks! 

Belly button is starting to pop!! 

Week 29

Almost in the 10 week countdown! But not yet... 

Our little iceburg lettuce is now the size of ... I guessed pineapple (I thought that was a good guess!), Joe guessed cantaloupe again... a BUTTERNUT SQUASH!!! Duhhh ;-) I love my butternut squash!!! But I do miss my crunchy iceburg lettuce.  

She has definitely put on some bone mass, b/c I am feeling her more often lately.  She does these strange movements where she grazes my belly.  Or sometimes she just sticks what seems to be her leg straight out and leaves it like that for a good 10 seconds. Or sometimes she balls up on one side of my stomach and I look all lop-sided.  I am too intrigued and excited to feel and watch her movements that I haven't gotten a good picture of that. 

Sometimes when I know she's squirmy and about to kick I'll ask Joe to feel my stomach and she usually kicks him. I love it! He gets all squirmish and runs away. "It's weird!!!" He has no idea how not weird it is... 

Sometimes she lets other people feel her moving, but nothing like letting her daddy feel.  I don't think there has ever been a time that she hasn't moved when he touches my belly. Sometimes he will lay his head on my legs near my belly while we are watching tv and she will get so squirmy.  He doesn't feel the movements b/c he's not close enough or he has fallen asleep, but I can tell she knows he's there. It's so cute.  

We got our new couches this week!! We are still doing some rearranging (by we I don't mean me
...I'm just there doing tushie tests as Bobs Furniture would say!), but we LOVE them! We now have a theater couch and an upstairs leather couch that reclines and is so big and comfy! We watched our first Giants game and I predicted the Giants to win. It was my upset pick....and it surely was an upset....they basically won and gave it up in the last few seconds. Daddy was FURIOUS to say the least. 

Here are some other pictures from the week:

My mom brought me a bunch of nightgowns and told me, "these are good for when you have company."  Kids say the darndest things? I think moms say the darndest things! 

     

 

We went to the Manasquan inlet and beach. I had never been there. It's so pretty! And Santa was there singing Johnny Cash songs! Daddy tipped him a dollar. ;-) 

We will be back there next Wednesday to tie the knot. 
Shhh ;-)

And here we are at 29 weeks!
 

So, yea, Joe thought he would be funny and make fun of me while I was taking my weekly belly picture. It was all funny until I pointed the camera at him and he ran away. He tried to pretend he was looking in his closet.  Yes, his closet. The one in Johanna's room. Because he thinks that Johanna doesn't need a closet.   But I made him return and take a picture with me.  I even got a belly picture of him, too! He was so afraid I was going to post the pictures on my blog. hehehehe 

He's so afraid of my blog. 

Me and my precious bump ;-) 

Week 30

Woohoo, I don't have gestational diabetes! 

Our butternut squash is now the size of ... I guessed spaghetti squash... I forgot to ask Joe (we had a busy weekend, you'll see ;-) ).... a large cabbage.  What the heck, app? Large cabbage? Anyway, I love my large cabbage, but I do miss my butternut squash! 

For almost 2 days I've been experiencing pelvic pain.  Joe and I are pretty sure (hoping) it's just because she is getting bigger and trying to make room.  It's 3am right now and I couldn't sleep because of the pain, so I may call the doctor later just to confirm that it's just pelvic pain and not something more serious. But I can feel her and she's so stinking low and when she kicks or moves her arms (whatever limbs I'm feeling) they are right in my pelvic region causing me to jolt sometimes. I still love the movements, even though they really hurt the past few days. 

We had a really exciting week!  On Wednesday we picked out our wedding rings/bands. We went to Kay and picked out Joe's ring first. He actually decided on one rather quickly! I liked it, too.  This happens very infrequently as we are the worst decision-makers when shopping.  Then we started to look for mine. My only request was that it matched his. This took us a little longer, but we landed on such a pretty wedding band. I love it! I was so happy to have finally picked out rings.  I told Joe that I didn't need an engagement ring because I didn't want him spend all that money and that a wedding band is all I want. We were all set for our big day on the 23rd! 

The next day I had a doctor's appointment.  My mom was able to attend.  She got to see our little one's amniotic face! She also got to witness how stubborn she is.  The nurse was taking measurements and Johanna was just not cooperating.  "She's stubborn! But I'm more stubborn!....Roll on your side!" the nurse said to me.  It took a good 30 minutes for her to get all the measurements. Our little butternut squash (at the time) measured in at 3.9lbs! She's in the 73rd percentile. My little chunky monkey!

 She looks like my father in that top picture. Sometimes she looks just like Joe, but this time she looks like my father... I told you she's a daddy's little girl! She looks like her daddy or my daddy.

On Saturday, Joe suggested that we go check out the Manasquan inlet at 5pm to see how the lighting is at that time of day because that's when we plan to get married (5pm, not 5:30 Aunt Eggplant!).  I was very excited to do this because I wanted to get some pictures for Chamin, plus it was such a pretty area! Joe's brother Russ ended up visiting us at 1pm to watch the Yankee game. At least he told us 1. He showed up at 2:50pm. I told Joe maybe we should just go to Manasquan on a different day since Russ was here and I didn't want to have to rush out or kick him out at 4. Joe said, "No, we'll go today."

So, we headed out and Russ followed us because he wanted to see where we would be getting married. Well, we get there and it's so crowded! There was a wedding party there. The gazebo was packed.  We walked up by the gazebo anyway and I snuck a few pictures.  Then Joe led me on to the beach. I thought it was funny because there was an entire wedding party there so we couldn't even go in the gazebo, but it was ok. I got a good picture of the gazebo from the beach and then I turned to Joe who was saying something....

What the heck?!?! He is proposing! .... He got a ring! .... He's down on one knee! ... 

I will so marry you! 

The entire wedding party clapped and some strange lady was taking our picture...wait, it wasn't a strange lady... it was Kate! And there was Melissa! Joe had his friends show up to take pictures of this. He surprised me. And he surprised me good! And now I have a gorgeous ring and am going to marry the best man in the world.  Shh don't tell him I said.  

But he's so my favorite. 

Here are some pictures that Kate and Melissa took:

This is right before he got down on one knee. That's me getting a "good shot of the gazebo."

Melissa disguising herself.

Kate, once she finally got the right lens on ;-)

Then we went out to eat. 

So, I don't know about you, but I think the lighting is perfect at that time of day! 

.............................................................................

I'm very excited to officially be a family. The 3 JA's.

:-)

And here I am with my chunky monkey at 30 weeks:

I took the "30 weeks" picture and then went out in the living room because the lighting is better and I swear I am growing by the minute... it looks like it hurts ... it does, but the pain is usually masked by happiness... p.s. check out my ring! :-)