Still pregnant.

Oh wow! It has been a long time since I updated!!! I'm still pregnant, even though I wasn't sure how much longer I would be last month. I was having preterm labor and was put on modified bedrest for a couple of weeks, until I hit the 36 week mark. I am now 37 weeks, and according to my exam yesterday, I am 2 cm dilated and 70% effaced. How much longer?? We are all very excited for this one to come! We still have no clue as to whether this one is a boy or girl, but we do have names picked out for both! I'll update more later, as I am too tired right now. I'm going to take advantage of my last few napping moments before baby number three arrives!!!

Baby #3

Baby #3 on 12/22/04 (head is on the right) 

An update for the month

Well, hooray, hooray!! School ended last month for me until next September!! I'm not taking any classes this semester due to the circumstance of pregnancy! Classes end too close to my due date. I was a little worried about my English final. I had to write a five-hundred word essay from memory - no notes or outlines allowed during the final- on one of three controversial topics. The first topic was about anti-Semitism and why Jew-haters hate Jews, which I was not about to even attempt, being that my teacher is Jewish. The second was on the differences between the Protestant and Catholic religions, and the beef between the two groups. The third was about what blacks and whites hate about each other, and the long time battle between the two races. Eesh! I wrote mine on the latter of the three. Anywho, it turns out I was worried over nothing! My grades came in the mail... turns out I got an A in Sociology and an A in English, leaving my current GPA intact at a 4.0!! Hip hip hooray for me!

Christmas was fun this year! Abby was so much more involved this year, more than any other year and was so excited. We emailed Santa her wishlist, and she even put one together for Georgie! (I know, emailing Santa! Who knew?) Anyway, she got her exercise Care Bear, and many other toys... Georgie got the train set that Abby said he wanted. She left cookies and chocolate milk for Santa, which I'm sure he enjoyed very much... no regular milk at this house!

Georgie is talking more... his current words are: dad(dy), mom(my), Abby, baby, ba-ba, yea!, yeah, no, eat, go, ball, football, yum, hello, bye-bye, and during Sunday's Eagles game, he kept saying: "Go, go Eagles!" (if I think of any more, I will add them in later.)

We had about a foot of snow come down over the weekend, which Abby loved! (Georgie, not so much.) I spent the longest two-and-a-half hours of my life freezing in the cold while she played in the snow, making snow angels, snow pillows to sleep on(?), and she was digging and digging forever. The pictures are on our photo website, if you're interested.
sleeping in the snow?! 
That's all for updating now... I have to make something for dinner. Hopefully the only thing I will be making is a phone call for take-out. I'm too tired to cook!

By the way, here's a picture of the ultrsound we had done three days before x-mas (and no, we still don't know if it's a boy/girl! I'm looking forward to being surprised!)
"Baby #3" (head is on the right) 

Wiggles and squirms.

I am now 18 weeks along, which means in 2 weeks I will be halfway through this pregnancy - baby is medium rare! Anyway, the little one I am harboring is a live wire in the middle of the night ~ rolling from one side of my belly to the other in record time, and tiny feet stretching as faaaar as they will. Only another month or so before it gets too cramped for that nonsense. I am really loving pregnancy again, and I am really trying more than ever to cherish the good, bad and ugly of this one since it is definitely my last time. I have to schedule my ultrasound for next week!!!

George and I think we may have found the perfect house for our growing family - only a mile from my mom's house!! I'm excited to look at it next week. The house has 4 bedrooms, kitchen, dining rm, living rm, family rm, 2 fireplaces, wood stove, jacuzzi(!!), basement, deck, sunroom, etc... It is perfect, so far (without seeing it, of course). We shall see, and I will update as soon as I know more.

We have a busy week ahead... christmas shopping and house cleaning tomorrow, Lucia on Sunday, Monday I have class, Tuesday is George and my anniversary and Sean's bday gathering, Wednesday is George's (other) company xmas party, Thursday or Friday we look at the house, and then it's the weekend again!! Where does the time go?

Yea!

I am moving on to the fun stages of pregnancy!! No more feeling sick, and I'm getting my energy back! More cravings too. Along with the old cravings, I am also having yearnings for: sushi, belgian fries, pizza from Pietro's & jello. It shouldn't be long now before I feel the baby move. Since I am feeling better I am getting really excited about having another baby. George and I are getting the house ready to sell. We looked at a house this weekend, but we more than likely won't be buying it. A few reasons contribute: 1. we were hoping to sell this house before we even started to look for a new one.
2. I would love to move out of the city
3. George and I weren't sure about the neighborhood. When we buy our new house, I want it to be the same house my children come home from college to visit me in. I can't see myself over in this area for that long. We saw a few houses near my mom for very decent prices. I would love to move back closer to "home." The taxes are a little higher, but it all evens out when we wouldn't have to pay for Catholic school over there. I have a lot of ideas about what I want in the new house. George has set his standards too, so together we will not compromise on what we both want. Until next time...

number 3 

Still here.

I'm still here. Sorry for the lack of communication!!! I'll try to get you up to date:

Starting with a little test I took. About two weeks ago I peed on a little "magic wand" and after 3 minutes: two blue lines appeared!! Much to my surprise: we're having another baby! I was a little taken-aback, so I didn't tell George right away... he got the news just a few days ago. When I finally got around to telling him, he was really excited! I didn't doubt that he would be, but I knew we were definitely not planning on baby #3 for quite some time. But he reassured me, "I love being a dad, and I love the two we have already, so why wouldn't I be excited?"
I went for an ultrasound yesterday. and have the pictures to prove it. I won't find out my exact due date until November 10th, when I return to the doctor.

Cravings so far: orange juice, calamari, avocados, nachos w/ extra extra artificial cheese product, frosted mini-wheats, bean soup and I have the urge to put mayonaisse on everything. As with all my pregnancies I also have a hankering for lemonade... but not just any lemonade - I am dying for an icy cup of boardwalk lemonade! I guess George will be driving me to the shore during the very off-season to buy me my treat!!

I've been feeling pretty nauseous to the point where I can't eat my first meal until about 4 o'clock in the afternoon... thus the life of an incubator. But I'm starting to wonder if the whole 'morning sickness' bit was all in my head. I've been fairly stressed about this pregnancy so far... especially since the doctor handed me the script for an ultrasound. But since I have seen my healthy little one, the morning sickness has vanished - literally overnight!! I have come to the conclusion that it was mostly related to stress. Once you have gone for an ultrasound and they don't find the baby's heartbeat, you panic that they won't find a heartbeat for the next baby, and the next, and the next. It's such a sickening feeling. Luckily, we are so blessed that in yesterday's U/S, the heart rate was present, and beating at a perfect pace. The size of the fetus showed that I am 11 weeks along... only 29 weeks to go! Eek! According to BabyCenter, the little one is a teeny-tiny 1 and 1/2 inches long - the size of a "fig."


Baby #3 (the head is on the left)


number 3

Abby came with us to see "her baby" yesterday. We passed time in the waiting room looking at pictures of the development of babies in-utero, from one of the magazines they give you with your "welcome to pregnancy" care-package at the OB office. She loved looking at the baby develop month after month, and when I showed her the picture of what our baby looks like at this point, she laughed. "It looks like a fish!" she exclaimed. She's right.

We went on vacation with my parents from September 25 - October 2. We drove to the Outer Banks and stayed in a posh, yet child friendly, 6 bedroom house right off the beach. Abby and Georgie had a great time, though we didn't do very much once we unpacked our bags... the perfect vacation, I say. But by the end of the week, we did venture out - far out. Lol. We went on a wild horse hunt... lucky for the SUV because, to find the horses, we had to drive 8 miles on the beach. Once you get off the beach at this point, the roads are all unpaved, sand roads... so needless to say, not for the 4-wheel-driveless. Abby was in her glory!!! She made a friend almost immediately. She named him "Spirit" from her favorite movie. He was an uncommonly friendly horse (according to the locals, anyway), who really took an immediate liking to Abby. Actually, one local said that in all the years he had been on the island he had never seen a horse come that close to a human. But this horse followed Abby everywhere she went. He must have sensed her love of horses. We have a bazillion pictures. Here are just a few:






I swear, in none of the above photos does Abby have anything in her hands to eat... I don't know what it was about her, but that horse was hooked! We all said it must have been the "Herbal Essences" shampoo she used in her hair that morning.

The ride home was long and grueling. It took us 10 hrs to drive what normally should only take about 7 hrs. Needless to say, Georgie was a mess. He cried - screamed - the entire ride! I completely understood his pain - like I said, it was a long, long ride.