Bumbo Cover

Another reason why I love ETSY.com...

A Bumbo Chair is on our list for "must haves" on our registry. The only problem is we aren't huge fans of the baby pink color or the other colors it comes in. I happened to google "Bumbo Cover", and was surprised to see that Esty has them!

This is the one I ordered:

This is what the chair looks like with a baby sitting in it. (I might end up buying this cover eventually also, but for now I'm into the black and white pattern):


Cute huh?

Love the Baby!

I'm reading a book right now called, Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas By: James Patterson. The story is basically a diary that a woman kept for her unborn child, and she wrote about how her and her husband met, their dates, their wedding, their lifes while pregnant etc.

I've tried to keep up with this blog, in hopes of printing it and turning it in to a scrapbook for Gianna one day, to document the announcement of our conception, and her growth in my womb. After reading this book, now I want to start a handwritten diary/book for her also.

The most exciting part of pregnancy so far for me, is the last trimester. Gianna is starting to get on a regular pattern with me, and I know her active times and she knows mine. She really is such a good baby already. When I sleep, she sleeps. She moves around a bit at first when I first lay down, but she does not ever jab and kick when I am still and sleeping.

I suppose having our nightly rituals of reading her baby poems, reading the baby bible, then reading our devotional and bible out loud to her calm her and let her know it is almost time to sleep and be still. By the time we are finished and we lay down, she moves a little bit, but then settles in.

When I get up to pee multiple times in the middle of the night, she will give me a light movement as if to say "Hello Mommy", but then she is still again when I lay back down. Even in the mornings, when my alarm starts to go off, she very gently starts moving around. She is such a sweet Angel.

I look forward to her movements all day. I know when she sleeps, and when her most active times are. She is always still when we read to her, but recently she has started moving a bit, especially when we read the bible to her. It's as if she's recognizing the books/words and getting excited.

On another note, we are slowly starting to collect the items we need for Gianna. As of right now, we have TONS of Clothes & a Co-Sleeper from my mom, a Crib from my Aunt Donna, and a Dresser/Changing table from my Dad. Jebo & I also bought a glider for Gianna.

We started collecting toiletries and diapers as well. The pampers swaddler diapers are so cute & tiny! I can't wait to put them on her! We have a ton of more things to buy, but now that we aren't having a shower, we will have to slowly collect the items from our registry at Babies R' Us ourselves.

I feel like we just conceived Gianna yesterday, yet here we are, with only 78 days left until her due date. Exciting!!!

7 month Belly

Here's Gianna at 7 months in the womb. Side View:

Front View:

View looking down. Where have my feet gone? I can't see them anymore:

It's hard to believe that we are already 7 months pregnant.

Soon, we will be meeting Gianna face to face!

Our CS neighbors (who bought our condo) actually just gave birth last week to their first child, a little girl they named Lily Ann. She came almost 4 weeks early! That gives me hope that Gianna could still come around 37 weeks.

Exciting!

Birthing Class

Yesterday Jebo and I (and Gianna of course) had our first child birth class. It was held at our doctors office and all of the other couples in the class were also patients that go to the clinic, and are having babies within weeks of our due date. The classes will be conducted for 2 hours, once a week, for the next 6 weeks. They even include a hospital tour.

At the beginning of the class, we all introduced ourselves and said a little bit about our lives. All of the couples, like us, are first time parents and clueless for the most part of all the things we need to know about delivering a baby. After hearing everyone speak, it became clear that all of the women in the class were scared and all of the husbands were nervous.

When it was my turn to speak, I said "I don't think I'm as scared as the rest of you are. (insert laugh here). We were created to be able to do this, and SO many women have done it before us. Even 12 year olds can do it!" Everyone laughed, and it hopefully helped calm some of them down, even if it only lasted a moment.

After introductions, the instructor started explaining all kinds of medical terms to us, and giving us a run down of the hospital we will give birth at. We found out that Alexandria hospital has an Natal Intensive Care Unit (or NICU) if there were to be any complications, which there WONT be.

We also found out that after birth, the babies are secured with an arm band and a leg band, and only Jebo and I will have the same band, and only the two of us will be permitted to remove the baby from the room they normally keep all the babies in. They even secure a chip on the end of the babys umbilical cord, and if the baby gets too close to the holding room doors, the alarm sounds. (They take the chip off when we take the baby home.)

While were giving birth we get to have 4 other people in the Labor and Delivery room with us. No children under 12 years old are even permitted on the birthing floor of the hospital, because they carry too many germs. I guess it's a good thing that Gab will be in Fredricksburg on Summer Break, then. We'll just have to hose him down when he comes home to get all the germs off of him. Haha!

I know Jebo and I will be super protective of anyone touching Gianna unless they are clean and their hands/arms have been scrubbed. I guess that's a normal practice before you touch ANY newborn, since they are so prone to illness once they are exposed to the world.

The instructor also put a big emphasis on us mothers drinking at least 2 liters of water a day. I already exceed that amount, as I am ALWAYS thirsty for water. It will also help to drink a lot of water during the hot and humid Virginia days when swelling is possible.

Hopefully Gianna makes her appearance around 37 weeks, so it will be towards the end of June and it wont be too hot out yet. I know she will come when God is ready for her to come, but I'll still put my "end of June" prayer request in. =) They say for first time moms, only 20% of babies come before their due date, and 80% come after. C'mon Gianna! Be in the 20% for Mommy & Daddy, m'kay?

Towards the end of the class we watched a birthing video, and everyone was quiet until the video SHOWED a baby popping out of a vagina. I think for most of them, it was the first time watching something like that. All of them men were wide-eyed, and all of the women were whispering to their husbands and vice-versa. Jebo and I were just looking at each other laughing. This is our first birth also, so we'll see how he does in the delivery room. He thinks he's going to pass out, but I think he will pull through it when he realizes he has to keep me strong and help me get our daughter into the world safely and hopefully, quickly!

Sooooooooo excited!!!

Senses in the womb

I found out today that babies can taste and smell in the womb! Amazing!

Here are the facts:

Taste:

By 13 to 15 weeks a fetus's taste buds already look like a mature adults, and the amniotic fluid that surrounds the fetus can smell strongly of curry, cumin, garlic, onion, or other strong tastes from a mother's diet. Studies show that a fetus's swallowing increases when surrounded by sweet tastes and decreases with bitter and sour tastes. (I guess I should eat more chocolate? Haha!)

By birth, babies have a strong sense of taste. Newborns can discriminate between tastes and have shown definite taste preferences. Even preemies as young as 33 weeks suck harder on a sweetened nipple than on a plain rubber one.

Smell:

A fetus's nose develops between 11 and 15 weeks. Until recently, scientists didn't believe that fetuses would have any sense of smell, since it was assumed that smelling depended on air and breathing. However, the latest research has opened up a new world of possibilities.

The nasal system is made up of no less than four subsystems, and it's now believed that the amniotic fluid surrounding the fetus passes through the baby's oral and nasal cavities, triggering these senses.

http://health.discovery.com/centers/pregnancy/americanbaby/senses.html

Gianna- 4D at almost 27 weeks

Yesterday was our 4D sonogram.

When we started the scan, Gianna had her whole face IN the placenta. I had to do a lot of flopping from side to side and I had to get up and down a few times before we got her to move. She is the cutest little baby ever!

While we were trying to get her to flop over, the doctor was shoving on my stomach and poking it like crazy to shake her a little and get her to shift positions. All that made her do was grab the cord with one hand, and her foot with the other. Ha! She was looking for something to hold on to! Cute!

She was sucking on the umbilical cord almost the whole time. She would hold it with one hand, and if it would drop, she would grab it with the other and bring it back up to her mouth. The doctor said she is very smart, because most babies don't have coordination like that in the womb.

We have over 50 pictures, as well as a movie of the whole sonogram. At the beginning of the movie, she is opening and closing her mouth as if she is hungry. I'm going to try to post it later.

Jebo and I are in awe of how beautiful she is already. He says she has my eyes, my nose and his mouth. I think she will have a combo of our eyes, a combo of our nose and his mouth for sure. We will see!

In a few weeks we have another 4D sonogram and will be able to see her face more clearly since she will be bigger and plumper.

We are so in love with her! Jebo is so excited to meet his little girl, and so am I!

More pics:

View of Gianna from up top:

Front view of face and body:

Side view of body, arm, head and ear:

We think it looks like she is praying here:

Kick the Daddy!

Last night we were laying in bed and Jebo had his hand on my stomach and Gianna kicked him so hard HE jumped and almost screamed! That was the first time he had actually felt Gianna kick. He's placed his hand on my stomach many times before, but for some reason she is always still when he tries to feel her move. In the past, he'd have his hand there for a period of time, and she wouldn't budge, but then right when he'd move his hand she would kick and he'd miss it.

His reaction to her kick last night was SO funny. He was so worried that it hurt me and he didn't want to put his hand back because the realization that a human being just kicked him from inside his wife momentarily made him weak. It was like a kid that got bit by the fish in the fish tank, so he was weary to put his finger back in. Ha! That didn't last long, because after the shock of feeling her moving for the first time passed, he placed his hands right back and got a few more jabs from her. His eye's widened at each one. Cute!

After his "moment" with her he was freaking out if I moved to quick, or if I wasn't being "careful" enough. He said he's already protective of her, and it will only get worse. We watched Nick and Nora's infinite play list last night after dinner, and in one scene the kids were kissing, and he said, "Gianna will be doing none of that! I'm going to stalk her when she's out to make sure of it!" Haha!

Protective Daddy, incident # 1. Get used to it Gianna. Your daddy loves you too much already! Wait until he has you in his arms. You wont be able to get more then 10 feet away without him panicking! Sorry, darling! Haha!

26 Weeks

I wonder sometimes if we have a future jazz dancer in my stomach with how much this little girl moves! She is ALWAYS moving and punching and kicking. I decided to start monitoring her most active hours, in hopes that it will give me a clue of when she will sleep after being born. Good luck with that, right?!

Our 4D sonogram is this Saturday, and we are SO excited to see Gianna's beautiful little face. Our appointment is at 1:00pm, which is good because in the afternoon she is the most active between 12:30pm and 2:30pm. Then she falls asleep and is active again from 4:00-4:30. She's always moving at least a little bit all day and night, but during the afternoon I feel the strong jabs that almost throw me forward in my chair. Soon she will be bigger and not able to move so freely in her cramped quarters, so I guess I should start looking forward to feeling those jabs in my ribs. Haha!

At 26 weeks, Gianna is now:
Opening and closing her eyes
Moving her head back and forth in the womb
Growing hair on her head
Growing fat under the loose baby skin
She has all her fingernails and toe nails now
Her brain tissue and neurons are rapidly developing

The best part is that she can now hear not only me, but Daddy and anyone else that is around me a lot! I have noticed that she is responding with kicks to loud noises that don't stop.

When we went for a drive the other day in the MG it was so loud that she was kicking and protesting the whole time. It actually made me uncomfortable to be in the car because I felt like I was torturing her, and instead of enjoying the open air ride, I was worrying about her sitting in my stomach terrified! Poor baby!

Last night I took a jacuzzi bath and she was protesting at the sounds of the jet rumbling, so I ended up just turning them off and soaking in the tub the regular way. She reacted the same way to the jacuzzi the last time I took one a few weeks ago. Jebo thinks it hilarious. We are always in the bathroom at night at the same time, so he always laughs when I turn the jets off, and asks me, "Puddi's kicking?" (Puddi is our nickname for Gianna. Like- Puddy in your hand.)

I'll have to get her used to these noises because I'm sure I'll be soaking in the jacuzzi a lot more in these last few months of pregnancy, and I certainly plan on going for more drives in the MG and enjoying the spring weather!

98 days until Gianna's due date!