Gianna is here!

Over 9.5 months pregnant

Nonna's baby shower in Manila

Jebo's mom threw Gianna a baby shower luncheon with all of her closest friends. They also had a ladybug themed shower.

Nonna bought Gianna a book called "Ladybug girl and Bumble Bee boy" for all of the ladies to write little notes to Gianna in. I'm sure Gianna will love reading that book when she's older, and will enjoy feeling all the love everyone has for her even before she was born. So sweet!
Nonna also made these cute ladybug candy wrappers for the shower:
Thank you to Nonna and all the ladies who attended the shower to celebrate Giannas's soon-to-be arrival. We are so blessed to have all of your prayers and well wishes for our sweet baby girl.

We love you all!

9 month baby belly

Here is Gianna 9 months in the womb. We are 9.5 months today, so I'll post another picture soon. Enjoy!

Baby Shower Pictures

We had such a great time at our baby shower! Everyone came dressed in red, black or white for our Ladybug themed party.

Mom made tons of food. Among the selections were: Brie with Roasted Garlic, Smoked Salmon, Tarragon Chicken Salad Sandwiches, Egg Salad on Croissants, Spinach & Artichoke Dip, Eggplant Tapenade over sliced mozzarella on bread, fruit and cheese platters and more...

Everything was soooo tasty.

For dessert Mom made a Death by Chocolate Cake and her famous Banana Pudding. The Banana Pudding was a huge hit. Good thing she made 2 pans of it. =)

Gianna received tons of great gifts. She got a lot of really cute outfits, and most of the items off of our registry. We officially have everything we need for her. She even received some "Butt Paste" diaper cream. Hehe!



We also played a few cute games, organized by my BFF Megan. One was a drinking contest to see who could chug their baby bottle of wine or beer the quickest, and the other was a play-doh baby contest, and everyone had to mold a baby.

Morgan won for the boys side- he made a cute fat baby and Rachel won for the girls side- she made a cute Asian baby. Here's Jebo and I holding the winners:
The boys "working hard" to make a baby:

The girls "working hard" to make a baby:
It was so nice to see everyone and we can't wait for Gianna to arrive soon!
A big Thank You to Mom, Paul, Megan for throwing the shower, and a big Thank You to everyone who attended. We love you all!!!

Baby Shower Galore

Jebo just called me to tell me his office threw him a surprise baby shower. How sweet is that? It's nice that they did something to honor him as the Daddy- since it's usually just the Mommy's that get spoiled. He received tons of gifts and gift cards for Gianna and they even had cake for him.

Tomorrow is OUR baby shower, thrown by my Mom, Paul & Megan. It's is being held at Pauls house, Mom is doing to catering and Megan is organizing the games and doing the photography for us. It's going to be a fun event, and most of our close friends will be there. Mom has Bartenders and Waitresses working the shower, and it's co-ed. It is Ladybug themed (of course) and we've asked everyone to wear red and black to keep with the ladybug theme. If nothing else, it will make for good photos! Haha!

On Sunday, Jebo's Mom is hosting a Shower Luncheon with all of her friends in Manila in Gianna's honor. She has also kept with the ladybug theme, and has even handmade ladybug place mats for the table setting and she made ladybug candy bar wrappers for chocolate bars to give out. Cute!!!

Gianna is one VERY spoiled girl already with 3 showers, 3 days in a row.

Our Lucky Ladybug!!!

Lots of Deliveries today

Giannas glider was shipped to us today. Yey!!!

It is absolutely perfect in her room. I'm so happy we decided to buy it.

One of my best friends in Florida, Auntie Marissa sent Gianna the most adorable ladybug outfit today. Marissa has known about my ladybug obsession since she met me 10+ years ago, and she still has the eye for finding the cutest things.

Giannas Cord Blood Collection kit from ViaCord also came in the mail today. We have it downstairs with her car seat ready to go with us to the Hospital when we give birth to our beautiful baby girl.

All we have to do now is get our hospital bags packed, and we are ready to go.

Baby Memory Book

We bought Giannas baby book today from ETSY.com. Have I mentioned that I LOVE ETSY???!!! The book was $70, but totally worth it because it is personalized and handmade just for Gianna. The pages include:

-Before you were born
-When we first learned of you
-Family Tree
-Baby Showers
-2 pockets for Mementos
-Your birth
-How we chose your name
-Chinese Zodiac and Astrological Sign
-The year you hatched
-Place for hands and feet
-Bringing you home
-A first for everything
-Glassine Envelope for lock of hair
-Family Photos
-Growth table and Immunization record
-Baby gets teeth
-A day in your life
-Holiday and Celebration photos
-1st Birthday
-Foot Prints/Hand Prints page

I can't wait for it to come. The lady who makes them will be done with it next week, and ship it out then. Yey! http://www.blinkblots.com/babybook.asp

Nesting

Apparently I've been nesting because I have the urge to do all these things now that Gianna will be here soon. I've gotten rid of the spring flowers on my patio and changed them out to the summer ones. I have cleaned out our fish tank, and hermit crab cage. I have done a load of Gianna's EVER GROWING pile of clothes. (Have I mentioned that this girl does not need anymore clothes?)

Jebo and I also went to Babies R Us and got a few things this weekend. We signed up for a rewards program, since we'll likely have to buy everything on our registry ourselves. Babies R' Us has been sending out coupons lately, so that will help also!

I've been having lots of dreams about Gianna lately. Birthing dreams mostly...
Last night I dreamt I was grabbing her arms through my stomach, and my skin was soft enough that I could feel her elbows and touch them.

I also held her hand in my dream, while she was in my stomach. I couldn't see her hand, but I could feel the layout of it, and it was reaching for my hand as I placed it on my stomach and she wrapped her fingers around my finger. It was so cute and tiny. I really felt like I have held her had now after that dream.

Our baby shower is this Saturday, and we are excited to see everyone prior to Gianna's arrival. I'm sure we'll be MIA for a while after she is born, so it will be good to spend some quality time with our friends and family.

We can't wait to hold our baby in our arms...

Gianna- 32.5 weeks in the womb

We are so in love...

8 month Baby Belly

Tomorrow, we have our second 4D sonogram, so check back for pictures of our baby girl tomorrow night!

Music for Gianna

We recently started playing Gianna classical music and lullabies via our Bellysonic. She really loves it! When I first place it on my stomach, she starts moving all around excitedly. After her initial excitement, she is mostly still and listening, but I get a few jabs here and there.

When I take the bellysonic off to use the bathroom, or help someone that walks in at work, she kicks because she wants her music back on. It's SO cute. I have to tell her, "Mommy will put it back on in a minute, I have to do something really quick." Then she will calm down. She gets so excited every time I put the music back on for her.

I have noticed she really likes these 2 songs when they come on:

Tchaikovsky- The Nutcracker- Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies
Petzold- Notebooks of A.M. Bach- Minuets 4 and 5

When they come on, she starts moving around happily. She has only been listening to the bellysonic for 2 days, and she already knows which songs she likes the most. She is such a smart baby.

I think the one by Tchaikovsky is particularly funny b/c it is called "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies". Her favorite nursery rhyme is called " The sugar plum tree", and the other story she really likes is called "The Dinkey Bird", which also mentions Sugar Plums.

Maybe she likes Sugar Plums, or that will be one of our many nicknames for our sweet baby Girl?

They say to stop playing it closer to your due date. I suppose that's because you don't want the baby to get too comfy in there, with her music, and then decide to hang around in the womb longer. Haha!

HypnoBirthing

Jebo and I have planned to have a drug- fee labor, as I mentioned before. For those of you that think I've lost my mind, here is a little info on Hypnobirthing, the method we will be using to birth Gianna:

"Comfort is not a word often attributed to childbirth, but as Marie Mongon writes in HypnoBirthing. A Celebration of Life, "When the mind accepts the belief that without complication, birthing proceeds naturally, no pain exists and no pain is experienced.' In other words, if a laboring mother's mind is free of fear, pain can be reduced or even eliminated.

Mongan developed HypnoBirthing in 1989, based on the pioneering work of English obstetrician Grantly Dick Read. Dick Read postulated a fear tension pain feedback loop between a woman’s mind and body that produces oxygen deprivation in the uterus and painful, inefficient contractions.

By relying on her natural instincts, he claimed, a woman might short circuit the loop and experience childbirth calmly, comfortably and safely. In five two and a half hour classes, certified Hypnotherapist (who often are doulas, midwives or nurses, too) teach women how to gain control over their minds, bodies and emotions.

Participants, accompanied by their husband or partner, learn that the birthing muscles work better when the body is relaxed and practice visualization, self hypnosis and relaxation techniques to achieve deep relaxation. A pregnant woman might be instructed to imagine how she wants her labor to feel.

If she wants the experience to be like snow falling gently on her fare, for example, her partner might stroke her arm while she visualizes this sensation. The stroking is intended as a reminder of what the mind is suggesting to the body. Then, during actual labor, the practice is replicated to help coax the mind into a fearless state, permitting the muscles in the uterus to relax and work without stress.

Even the vocabulary used by HypnoBirthers redefines birth in a more positive way. According to Mongan, babies are birthed, not "delivered" like pizzas. The word "surge" replaces the word "contraction." While contraction means tightening and shrinking, surge connotes the opposite the rush or flow of something.

"I felt pressure during my surges, but no pain" says Napper, who gave birth to a daughter, Caitlin, after 18 hours of labor. "The best part was that my baby was alert. She wasn’t stressed at all ' "

Studies have shown that hypnosis during labor can reduce pain, complications and length of labor.

Source:http://www.lightparty.com/Health/BetterBirthing.html

Mothers Day 2009

When I got to work on Friday, I was surprised to see these beautiful Mothers Day flowers on my desk:

Today we had a leisure morning, and then we met up with my Mom for brunch at Kilroys, one of our past-time favorites. We took some pictures together this afternoon, but our flash drive crashed, so the pictures we took at brunch were all lost. Boo! I had to improvise and take one of myself. Ha!

Gianna in my womb on Mothers Day. 7 months, 3 weeks. I can hardly believe we are ONE week away from the 8 month mark! Before you know it we'll be holding our sweet baby girl in our arms!
Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers and mothers-to-be!

30 Week Update

We are officially 30 weeks pregnant today!

It's hard to believe that we have 10 weeks or less to go before Gianna is here. Jebo and I are SO excited and can hardly wait to meet her!

They say right now Gianna weighs around 3 pounds, and will gain around .5 pounds every week until she is born. I am feeling the pressure now in my pelvic bones from the added weight and I feel sore every time I stand but once I move around a bit it fades.

When I get out of bed now, I have to "roll" out. I can still sit up straight and use my stomach muscles if I need to, but I prefer to not put any strain on my body since my back has been a bit sore. My weekly pre-natal massages have really helped with my back though. I'm SO blessed to be able to get those every week!

I bought a book called Hypnobirthing http://www.hypnobirthing.com/ , that teaches mothers to think of labor pain differently. Women who use this method have shorter labor times, and say they feel hardly any pain. I was shocked at our childbirth class last week, to learn that I was the only woman there planning to have a natural birth. Everyone else has either already planned their C-Section, or have no doubts about having an Epidural.

I am shocked that most of these mothers have not done their research on the negative effects of an Epidural on their baby. They say it negatively effects the breastfeeding, the bonding, the baby's alertness etc. No Thanks. I'll pass on drugging Gianna while she's trying to come down the birthing canal. At that point I will have gone 9 months being careful of what I put in my body, and I don't plan on screwing up at the last minute.

Last night we read Gianna her bedtime stories and Bible. Afterwards, Jebo laid his head on Gianna and started talking to her and listening to the sounds in my stomach, when he got kicked in the head two times by Gianna. It was so funny. He would jump away from my womb and look at me all bright eyed and say "Hey! She kicked me!" Then he would put his head right back for some more action. She already has him wrapped around her little sweet fingers. So cute! She is going to be a "daddy's girl", and he will be a "daughters daddy". Ha!

Our Bumbo chair came this week, along with the cover from Etsy. When I put the cover on and showed the chair to Jebo he got all giggly and said it made him want to squeeze the invisible baby in the chair. He was looking at the chair, but picturing Puddy in it and wanting to squeeze her. (Puddy is our nickname for Gianna. Like Puddy in your hands.)

As I mentioned a few days ago, I read a book recently that gave me the idea to start a mommy diary for Gianna. The purpose of it is to tell her all about Daddy and I and how I feel while pregnant with her. Then after she is born, I will write in it all the time so she can read about our lives together when she was a little baby.

I would have loved to have had something like that to read when I was older, if my mom had documented my childhood in a diary.

Jebo also wants to start making videos of us talking to her before she is born, videos of me pregnant, and us together while I'm pregnant so we can have a little time capsule of memories for Gianna. We'll just have to be sure to keep up with it, and do it for our future children as well so they don't feel slighted. It's so sweet how my husband is even thinking of all these cute ideas to carry out for Gianna. I suppose having a little girl will bring out the sap in him. Haha!

We love you Gianna!