Hello to the Third, and FINAL Trimester!

Baby Girl Aiello and I are in our 27th week...meaning it is the third and final trimester!!  Yay!  I am excited for this in more than one way!  Don't get me wrong, I love being pregnant (no...seriously!).  I love her little kicks and nudges.  Just the other day she gave me a punch, I poked back, and and she punched again.  It's like she was saying "Let's play, Mommy!!"  But...I am so ready to meet her!!  I want to hold her, to smell her, to cuddle her, and to see her smile.  I even want to hear her cry.  Chris and I already are so in love with her, I cannot even imagine what it will be like when she is here!  Here is our 27 week picture!

At 27 weeks, Baby Girl Aiello is the size of a cauliflower....pretty large and in charge!  She is about 15 inches and 2.5 pounds!  She is practicing inhaling and exhaling and she is officially showing brain activity!  As of today, we have exactly 12 weeks until her arrival in 84 days.  It's not like I'm counting down or anything though.  ;-)  Do you think she looks something like this??

Hehe!

Speaking of!  Next Monday we have a 3D ultrasound scheduled!  I was waivering back and forth about whether or not I wanted to do it, but now I REALLY want to!  I also have my gestational diabetes test that day too. (YUCK!)  At my last appointment, they sent me home with this mysterious looking clear "soda."  It has been staring me down for a good month.  Thank God I don't have to fast overnight, but I do have to a little in the morning.  I need to make sure I eat a very low carb breakfast (hello, eggs!) because this is one test I do not want to flunk!  What would I do without ice cream??  Let's not even think about that!  So, I am very glad I have the ultrasound after the blood work to look forward to!!  It will be so crazy to compare our baby pictures to her pictures...I can't wait!

Chris and I also have a maternity photo shoot on Sunday with Blue Balloon Photography at Butler.  I am super looking forward to that!  I have not been feeling the cutest lately between the broken out skin, growing belly, and growing everything else, it seems!  It will be a nice chance to get all dolled up and show off the "little" bump.  Chris and I always love taking pictures together.  It brings us closer and I am way excited to see the final result!  I cannot wait to share with all of you!

This week has been another busy one!  Allison had us over to her parents' house for a traditional Lebanese dinner.  I won't even try to explain what we ate, but it was yummy!!  Here she is with the wide array of food that her and her parents made for us.  It was so much fun!

The car shopping saga continues.  I *think* we are leaning towards getting a Toyota Highlander.  Usually I love researching and looking into this kind of thing, but I have been putting all of my energy into everything baby and I just want "the car" to magically appear.  That could happen, right??

I also reconnected with a friend from college that just last week had the most adorable baby boy...Hudson!  I was able to ooh and ahh over him last night.  He is so precious, Lauren!!!  Congrats, again!

I will leave you all with a couple of maternity pictures that have inspired me for our shoot on Sunday.  I am hoping we can re-create something like this!
 

Lettuce Tell You All About our Busy Week!

This is going to be a crazy busy week for the Aiellos!  Let me first explain the title of the post...Baby Girl Aiello is 26 weeks this week...yay!  I feel like at this point, every week is a milestone.  She is the size of a head of lettuce and is about 2 lbs. and about 14 inches!  

Does that seem big to anyone else??  The neatest thing I read about this week was that her eyes are opening and her eyelashes are fully formed.  It has been so nice outside, I just want to take my belly outside and have her soak up some Vitamin D!  I don't know how much the patrons of Panera or McAlister's would like that on my lunch break.  I guess there's always the weekend!  Here is my 26 week shot along with some great pictures my photographer of a Husband took.  He has such a great eye!

Baby Girl Aiello already has the key to our hearts!

This past weekend we went to Mom & Dad Aiello’s to help install their home entertainment center.  We had a great time and the Klipsch speakers and the new projector and screen they bought look amazing!!  What do you think?

Tomorrow we are meeting with our contractor to try and go over some ideas about our current closet situation.  Or lack there of.  We really need to expand.  Poor Baby Girl Aiello’s clothes are all over the floor of our guest bedroom since all of our clothes are still in her closet since we ran out of room in ours.  We hope to expand the closet into the bathroom as well as get a new tiled shower in the process which will eliminate our garden tub, but should be ok since right now it just holds my curling irons. :)  Here is a 3D image of what Chris sketched up:

I also have my work review tomorrow, which I always get nervous for.  I have no idea why.  I just always hate them and try to get then over with as soon as possible.  Wish me luck!  At least we have dinner with Matt & Jody planned so if the estimate and review go bad, we will have that to look forward to!  I will just need to replace the wine with chocolate...I think I can do that!

Saturday we have our newborn basics preparation class and an infant CPR class.  It is called Newborn Express, but I think maybe we need more than that!  It is a 5 hour class.  Chris and I are a little clueless right now, but that comes with the territory of new parents, right?  Come on...I seriously need some encouragement!  We are also going car shopping.  I feel like there needs to be a "dun dun DUN!" with that.  We are looking into getting a Honda CRV or Toyota Highlander.  We will be trading Chris's car in since it is a coupe which is not really infant friendly and he will drive my Civic to work while we will use the new car on the weekends.  I have not had a new car in 10 years and I am more than ready!  Which should we choose??

After car shopping, we are going over to Allison's to celebrate her Birthday and have an authentic Lebanese meal....we are excited!!!

Sunday will be a relaxing day of going out to breakfast and going to see The Hunger Games...both I am very excited about!  Hopefully we can get the crib put up this weekend AND the decal!  I cannot wait to share pics of the nursery, but I want to wait until all of the furniture is up.

It's my company's poster! 

Special thanks to my Aunt Sally for the amazing glider you bought us (I will show it to you once the whole room is set up at this point), my Mom for the awesome nursery furniture, Mark for getting the diaper bag I wanted and paying for Baby Girl Aiello's letters of her name that will go in the nursery, my Dad for the nearly brand new crib,  and my Uncle Fred who bought us the Angelcare Monitor we registered for that has a video so we can watch our princess at all times!  ;-)

I will leave you with my new favorite thing that I had made.  A little owl stuffed toy for our littlest Ai-owl-lo out of her crib bedding.  I am in love!

 

The Travelling Husband

As most of you know, our Ai-owl-lo Nest has felt a little empty at times lately.  Chris has been travelling for work a lot.  He loves his job and the travelling is a great experience, but it makes it hard sometimes with my pregnancy hormones running rampant.  I always try to remain busy...too busy at times to the point of being exhausted!  I know it's hard for him to be away from home too, so I always try to do something special for him just to show how much we will miss him while he is gone.  I try to do something new and fresh and creative every trip and I got to the internet sometimes to try to find inspiration.  You know what I found??  Nothing!  Which is part of why I am writing this post.  I figure I am not the only Wife out there whose Husband travels or is deployed, so I thought I would show some of the things I have done for Chris while he has been away.

I found a great selection of unique candy...at Old Navy of all places!  I tried to get some cute, relatable things and wrote cute little notes with them tied with little ribbons.  "You are my Big Hunk..."  You get the idea. :) 

I found these awesome heart puzzles and stickers at Michael's.  For each puzzle piece, I put a sticker that was close to "us" as a couple and then I took it apart, put the pieces in an envelope and had Chris put the puzzle back together again.  I also did one with words that had a special note.

When Chris was gone for a week long trip, I found a large pill box and put some of his favorite candies along with a note that he opened daily.  I hope at least.  :)

Chris, there is always a large hole in our family when you are away.  You are my rock and my best friend and I cannot even tell you how much I love you.  You are the best Husband I could have ever asked for and I know you will be a great Dad.  We all love you so much!



Baby Girl Aiello has Reached Viability!

Whew!  Ok, that was me breathing for the first time in a little while. :)  Week 24 is a big week in a pregnancy...our little cinnamon roll has a fighting chance of surviving in the outside world if God forbid, something were to happen.  But, she has strict orders that she must bake 14 more weeks. 

Speaking of cinnamon rolls..yummm.....

Ok!  I'm back!  I got lost for a second.  We had Baby Girl Aiello's 24 week appointment this week and it went pretty well.  We were told by our Dr. that she is a little on the big side.  I know what you're thinking...too many cinnamon rolls, right?  But he did say my weight is right on track.  Even though I am starting to feel pretty blimp-ish.  Chris continues to tell me how great I look and most of the time I buy it, which helps just a little bit. :)  Since she is "bigger" we have an ultrasound scheduled for April 16th to check in on her.  I was given this lovely concoction of a drink for my Gestational Diabetes test on April 2nd.  It is supposedly like flat Sprite...bottoms up!  We also have a 3D ultrasound on April 2nd, which will make that nasty drink all worthwhile!  I cannot wait to see what she looks like!!  The ultrasounds are supposed to be so realistic...it will be great!

Her fruit of the week is a...grapefruit!  Without a doubt, my biggest pregnancy craving.  I have grapefruit every day!

Here is my 24 week photo with Baby Girl Aiello! :)

We were also able to schedule her Birthday this week.  It almost sounds weird to say it like that!  June 20th will be her Birthday if she decides to come when she is supposed to.  She will be a "First Day of Summer" Baby!  That is kind of fun!  I am scheduled to have a c-section at 7:30 AM, but will need to get there a couple of hours in advance.  I probably won't be able to sleep for days ahead out of sheer excitement and nervousness!

The nursery is also coming along quite nicely!!!  We have the room all painted and the changing table set up!

See?

We received the decal in the mail and I cannot wait to put it up!  I love all of the things that we have ordered for her and I cannot wait for them to come!  

Chris had a work baby shower and all of the things his Klipsch employees gave us were BEYOND sweet!  We cannot thank all of you enough!  I cannot wait to wash Baby Girl Aiello in the tub, use the owl Boppy, and dress her in the cute clothes....thank you!!

Chris is off to Texas today!  I have spoken to him and he has already had BBQ, so I think he's set!

I asked him everything was bigger in Texas and he replied..."Big enough."  He is there for the SXSW (South by Southwest) festival in Austin and has trade shows!  I am sure he will have stories for all of you when he returns!