Hey Paesano!

A very integral part of my upbringing was my Italian-American culture. We lived, ate, spoke…Italian…it was who we were and where we came from. It was important to me to learn about my culture and it’s my hope that our baby will learn about the two vibrant beautiful cultures that it owes its heritage too!

And it’s never too early to start…Okay, maybe it’s a little early…

But the 9th Street Italian Festival was this weekend and I wasn’t about to let a little thing like STILL BEING IN MY STOMACH stop the baby from experiencing all the fun that is an Italian Festival! Ricky was working all weekend and Uncle Rel was in class so Aunt Alexis and I decided to head down to Philly for the fun! Finding parking was a bit of a pain, but we had a nice tour of south Philly while looking lol… We finally found an awesome spot right at the beginning of the blocked off section!

The smells and sounds were just like a street festival in Italy…sausage, meatballs, mozzarella, salami, fish…you name it…not even getting into the pastries, cannoli, biscotti, gelato…it was a physical assault of the senses in the best way! Especially with my prego superpowers of smell, I mean I could smell stuff that was 3 blocks away! It was AWESOME!

Alexis and I just wandered down the street, stopping to look at all the different vendors. I should have brought a hundred bucks! I could’ve done all my Christmas shopping in one place! They had such great stuff and the prices were so reasonable! But I refused to bring a lot because we’ve been saving and being frugal so we’re prepared when the baby comes...

BUT... I couldn’t help getting the baby at least a memento of it’s very first Italian festival! And of course I had to eat a gelato so the baby could try one of those as well lol! Being pregnant is my new excuse for EVERYTHING! Heeheehee!

One of the best things to see was all the little caramel babies that came out with their Italian daddies/mommies and Black daddies/mommies…they were SOOOOOOOOOO cute!!! Alexis and I were melting! My favorites were this pair of twin boys; they are destined to be models! They were adorable! I just kept seeing little faces and wondering what shade my little caramel latte will be and what little personality it will have…

After that we decided to hit up the Arts Festival down on Penns Landing too.  It was a gorgeous day and the breeze down on the walkway was divine!  We wandered through the rows of vendors (kept losing our way because the set up wound round Penn's Landing's stage and off to the side, etc)  We thought there would be more jewelry and stuff like that but we were shocked to see how many vendors were selling BABY stuff!  It was like hippy baby love fest!  There was such cute stuff, but without knowing if its a boy or girl yet I really didn't want to buy anything... The gender specific stuff was so cute!  And there was other neutral things like receiving quilts but they were out of my price range *sniff*

We must have walked 5 miles by the end of the day...talk about getting our exercise but it didn't even feel like it because it was fun and the weather was warm and breezy!  When I woke up the next day I actually contemplated taking the train back to the Italian Fest w/more $, but my feet reminded me just how much walking I did the day before so that idea got shelved!  But my little bun was thoroughly "cultured" for a day and has an adorable little memento from its day w/Aunt Alexis and I at the Italian Festival! :)

Happy Mother's Day...to me? Really?!

The last 2 weeks have been a blur of allergies/sinus infection type thingy: P This week was the worst for me, but thankfully a trip to the doc this past Monday (after Mother’s Day) allowed me to start taking cold medicine thus eradicating some of the worst symptoms (such as coughing all night long)! With this going on, the last thing on my mind was the upcoming Mother’s Day holiday! Saturday rolled around and I realized I hadn’t gotten a card or put together the present I had planned for my mommy :)

With some bare necessity cleaning done, dinner in the crockpot ready in about 20 mins and Ricky happily playing Xbox, I figured I would run to the store and “enact my delightful plan”! Which meant a trip to Walmart’s photo center… I asked Ricky if he wanted to take a quick trip but he was tired from the cleaning and stuff we did that day and would (rather die than go to Walmart) stay home and get the table set, etc.

I headed off, got there, found parking in a matter of mins and thought “Great, I’ll be home in 15!” Made my way back to the photo center and YES! the photo machine was available! I quickly set to work creating my masterpiece and struck up a conversation with the lady on the kiosk next to me. She was making a Mother’s Day present for her daughter with pictures of her grandson (who was truly cute and I didn’t have to struggle with something nice to say, thank God!). She was having some trouble so I helped her out while my stuff was printing. 3 mins later I was going up to the counter to pay for my purchase.

That’s when I realized…

I’M GOING TO PASS OUT!!!

At which point I had the presence of mind to SIT DOWN! And pass out…

Amidst the humming in my ears, I could hear people panicking. My only thought was “Give me a few mins and I’ll be good as gold!” This wasn’t my first jaunt down the “passing out” path…and it always passed, I got some sugar or juice in me and the rest was history. Then I became aware of someone talking next to me and I recognized the voice of the woman I had helped mins ago. She was saying something about being an obgyn nurse (what were those chances?! Holy Toledo!) and she shoved something in my hands and told me to start drinking. I groggily obliged and immediately started to focus a little better. Turns out this Gatorade type stuff for toddlers is really good for passed out preggers!

By this time the Walmart staff had called in a wheel chair for me and rounding the corner pushing said wheel chair was none other than a dear friend (who we call Video) who I haven’t seen in 4 yrs! He took one look at me and was like NO WAY!!! Haha It was an awesome reunion of me, a wheelchair, some watery syrupy juice, a doting obgyn nurse and an awesome friend I hadn’t seen in YEARS! My first Mother’s day was going to be memorable!

They wouldn’t let me leave the wheelchair even though my color was starting to come back so Video wheeled me around the store and did the rest of my shopping (note to self: this isn’t a half bad idea for the future lol)! We talked, laughed and caught up on everything. I invited him over for chili but he couldn’t leave. I got “fastpassed” through the checkouts and wheeled all the way to my car. I felt like a queen albeit it a frumpy slightly pale and sickly one, but definitely a queen! By the time I got home it was more like an hour and 15 mins rather than 15 mins, but I was thankful that God had wonderful people in just the right place to take care of me! Poor Ricky was thoroughly alarmed when I got home because all he had to go on was a quick voicemail from a stranger’s phone saying “Honey, I passed out in Walmart, I’m fine really I’m just gonna be longer than I thought!” But once he saw I was safely in one piece, we settled in for some kickin’ chili and I regaled him with my crazy misadventure!

What can I say, it's official my friends I'm somebody's mommy to be :) and just in case I thought the baby forgot, it decided to send me a little Mother's Day reminder that it's really on its way!  Thank you, my little Caramel Latte xoxo!

Help me, I've fallen and I can't get up!

The last couple of days/week have been rough. My body hasn’t been too cooperative with this whole “pregnancy” thing…the nausea increased and my food aversion as well…which isn’t a great combination when the only thing that keeps the nausea down is EATING! Its amazing how something I was craving a few days prior, makes me sick at the very sight just that quickly… I’ve never felt more “out of control” of my body or anything that’s happening! The good part is, I know what the cause is and the end (2nd Trimester) is in sight…the bad news, I don’t feel the baby or even have a picture and so I’m left to feel that all of this is just a big sick practical joke on me…hey, the last ultrasound looked like a mass of mush with a little flutter that they told me was a heartbeat…my mind has since decided that what I’m really carrying is a cross between the loch ness monster, the yeti and the chupacabra!: P

Anyway, to top it all off my right hip has been going out of place. My chiropractor says that’s normal but usually later in the pregnancy. With my car accident last summer, my back is doing well but is still prone to flare ups…ie: baby’s expanding in all directions – it no likey! So walking has been fun…walk, almost fall, try to walk again, ouch… Last night was the worst! It went out completely, it hurt so bad and I couldn’t walk. Ricky had to carry me to the bathroom and I was a miserable sobbing mess… Finally I called my parents in the middle of the night to see if my mom had an idea of how to get the damn thing back in?! Thankfully my dad was coherent and calm…he said that when it happened to my mom, it would eventually “pop back in”…then he prayed for me and I finally fell asleep. By my early morning bathroom trip it was “in” enough to walk to the bathroom! It was still sore but I limped around and headed for work.

No matter how my body was feeling, I was so excited for today! It was “ultrasound” day plus the consult with the perinatal doc (high risk doctor) to find out if the baby was developing correctly (and not one of the monsters I had created in my head)! Ricky was thrilled too. I called ahead to see if I should drink gallons of water like usual. They said to make sure I was “fully hydrated” so my bladder would fill and after the very first experience (at 5 weeks where they were determining due date) I didn’t want to show up with a half full bladder! The nazi lady running the machine made me drink 2 ice cold water bottles in 5 mins and then was mad when I was shivering uncontrollably while she was trying to get clear pictures!!! *shakes head*

Well I was in so much pain…my poor bladder was screaming, I could barely walk…and then we went to the wrong center lol! Thankfully the right one was just down the street so we weren’t too late. And thankfully they took me within 10 mins! They were concerned that they wouldn’t be able to get a full examine done since I am a few days short of the 3 month mark so I was praying that the baby was big enough... I couldn’t take this bladder torture again in a few days! Once in there the nurse (who was so sweet and funny) told me that my bladder was TOO full and to go pee! *cue hallelujah chorus* I ran to the bathroom! Back on the table I still felt like I had more and she said my bladder was starting to fill already lol…guess I wasn’t as dehydrated as I thought?!

Finally the moment came...I was nervous to look...but there it was, my baby, our baby…moving around, flailing it’s little arms, trying to grab it’s feet apparently already on the move…and apparently not happy to be disturbed with pushing and prodding! It was incredible… It had a head and arms and feet and looked like a tiny little person… The tech kept trying to get a good picture of the umbilical cord (part of what they check on in development) but the baby wouldn’t stop grooving lol! Finally she got the measurements and it was big enough to get all the information we needed!:) They sent us back out to wait to have the consult with the doctor. They weighed me – I am proud to announce I am now 102 lbs! And took my vital signs which were low as always…who knows maybe my low blood pressure and Ricky’s high blood pressure will come out as “normal blood pressure” in the baby?!

The doctor was an absolute sweetheart! She went through our medical history and over the concerns that they initially had for the baby with my gluten intolerance. Long story short she said she was VERY happy with the baby’s development and it’s even a little ahead of schedule in the growth department (God help me!) So the due date stands at November 22, 2010, but she said it could come up to 3 weeks earlier then that since it may get big fast! Turkey baby here we come...if I had any say in the matter, I’d vote for a mid-Nov delivery so I am able to eat Thanksgiving dinner comfortable lol! But babies come when they come…either way I can’t wait to meet my little caramel latte!

Only 8 more weeks (June 30th appointment) and we get to find out what we’re having! It’ll be nice to actually call it by its name finally and not tadpole, squirrel, Zazarella and any other myriad of names it’s been called lol:)