She has a name!

Well, she's actually had a name since the day after we found out that she is in fact a "she".  We've just been bouncing it around and calling her by her name to make sure that we do absolutely love it (and we do).  So she is officially 

Nicolette Branson Randazzo

I wanted something girly and feminine and had to give up my fight for the name Giuliana since the Italian was adamantly opposed.  So I put together a list of about 20 names on Sunday after our Gender Party and had the Italian review them.  He nixed every single name except Nicolette.  As soon as I heard him say it out loud I said you know I love that name too, let's name her Nicolette.  And so we did!  

Branson was our first name for a boy and it comes from part of my maiden name and we thought that it would still be a nice and special middle name for our little girl.  Not only is Nicolette a pretty name, but the Randazzo family is full of Nicholases.  Grandpa Randazzo is a Nicholas so this is a nice variation on it   and each of her names incorporate a part of each of our families which makes it even more special.  

I think it may be the fastest that two parents have ever named a child, but when you know, you know, right?  

Other than the name we just started work on the nursery - I've been taping off the trim and Daddy was kind enough to start painting this weekend.  We'll definitely share pictures as it starts to come together. 

And I can't wait to see my Hump Day Bump Day pic this coming Wednesday...I feel like she's tripled in size over the last two weeks.  Time is trucking right along and we'll be 6 months along this week...I can hardly believe it!  

HDBD - 21 weeks!

It's Hump Day, Bump Day once again!  We're officially 21 weeks along with Baby Girl Randazzo!  Over the half-way mark!!!! :) 

I'm trying to see if I can tell a difference from week to week so here are pics over the last 3 weeks:

21 weeks

20 weeks

19 weeks

She's GROWING!  Not a huge difference - but I'm sure that's all going to change and SOON!!!!! 

It's A Girl!!!!!!

So yesterday was the BIG Gender Reveal soiree for Baby Randazzler.  One of my dearest friends Janie came into town for the weekend and God bless her I put her to work the entire time!  We spent Friday night decorating and Saturday setting up and baking some killer Pepperoni Rolls for the get together.  My awesome and uber talented cake baker and friend, Jill Delmastro brought the cake to our house at 11:30 - so Janie and I were doing everything we could to stay busy and resist temptation to go over and poke into it to reveal the secret!!!!  (You can visit Jill's website HERE).

So we went with a "Bun in the Oven" Theme and Jill created the most adorable cake!

We kept the decor equally pink and blue so that both were represented.  Janie and I had quite a time hanging these lanterns in our dining room.  It took a few different methods to get them up (and to STAY up) :)

Thank God for my parents who came over early to help us pull together all the "last minute" details.  While the morning crept by at a snail's pace, the time between 1:30 and 2pm (when guests were supposed to start arriving) absolutely FLEW by!!!  One minute there were 6 of us and literally 15 minutes later there were nearly 50!!!!

Here are a few more pics from the actual cake cutting - I'm still in disbelief!  Had to double check the cake crumbs this morning to make sure they were REALLY pink!!!! :)

We asked everyone to wear either pink or blue to cast their vote/guess for Baby Randazzler.  Daddy was set on pink from day #1 and I wanted to support our potential son so wore blue.  Obviously, Daddy was right on this one.

Here we go...

 It's PINK!!!!!

The proud grandparents (my parents) BOTH on team pink (dad sat on the fence and claimed his blue jeans were "blue" so that he would win either way).  Grandma & Grandpa Randazzo live in Connecticut so they were unable to be here.  

It's really pink!!!!

Team Randazzo - even though mommy picked the wrong color to wear :)

Thank goodness for years in the wedding and catering business.  Janie & I were able to knock out slicing the cake pretty quickly!  :)  And it was DELICIOUS!!!!  It's rare to find pastry chefs whose cakes TASTE as great as they look!  Kudos again to Jill Delmastro!

We felt so honored and blessed to share this special celebration with so many of our dear friends and family!  I have honestly never felt so loved and Baby Girl Randazzo is certainly one lucky chick-a-dee to have so many awesome aunties and uncles (and grandparents) to love her up!  I thank God for each and every one of you and pray for blessing upon blessing for each of you!

And I am especially thankful for Kristin Vining - one of the most talented photographers I know - who offered to grab my camera and take these pictures so that we have the memories forever!!!! THANK YOU!!!!  I was so GRATEFUL to see all of the gorgeous shots when I picked my camera up last night!  :)  xo

HDBD - 19 weeks

That's right!  Today is Hump Day, Bump Day!  We're officially at 19 weeks (almost 1/2 way through, can you believe it????) and for those who read my post yesterday we are BOTH doing great!!!! Our anatomy scan ultrasound was absolutely amazing!!!  I can't believe that there is a little, tiny person inside there!  I'm feeling large and in charge, but I know that this is NOTHING compared to what is to come over the next 20 weeks! 

We're still holding out on the gender.  I have the results sealed in an envelope to give to the uber talented Jill DelMastro (http://weddingcakesbyjill.com/) today!  She'll be baking our cake with either PINK or BLUE inside and we can NOT wait to see what it is!!! 

Dave is still holding firm with his guess of It's A Girl...to be honest, I kind of feel girl too, but am saying boy because if it is a boy I would be equally thrilled - so we have one of us on each side of the vote!  I'm curious to hear other people's guesses too!  Our guests will be dressed in pink or blue to cast their vote so it will be exciting to see who's right and who's wrong!  Either way - there are no losers in this game! 

On another note, I was doing my prenatal yoga this morning and just started crying - not sad crying at all, definitely happy tears.  I can't believe how unbelievably grateful we are for where we are in this process right now!  Thanks be to God for all of His wonderful blessings!!!!

Happy Hump Day friends!!!!  xoxo

Baby Randazzo is...

HEALTHY!!!!!

Sweetest words we've ever heard!  :)   We had our anatomy scan today and it was amazing to see the little wiggle worm's tiny hands, feet, legs, arms and little mouth opening and closing.  I think it became very, very real for the Italian for the first time!  He was a nervous wreck throughout the appointment just waiting to hear the words "normal" and "healthy".  I had a minor scare this weekend with some leakage and was placed on bed rest throughout the weekend so hearing the heartbeat and seeing that all of the measurements are within the normal/healthy range were answers to prayers!!!!

So we get to the moment when the ultrasound tech is checking out the "girl or boy parts" and she asked us to turn our heads (since we want it to be a surprise at our Gender Reveal Party) however, she then typed what it is on the screen and Dave is just SURE that he knows what it is.  He's convinced that they type either "male" or "female" and he thinks that she typed "female" because he noticed it was more than 4 letters BUT I keep telling him that most of the U/S pics that I've seen say "It's A Boy" or "It's A Girl".  So we're at a stalemate on this one.  We'll have to hold on until February 25th for the big announcement!!!  This is going to be a long 9 day wait!

HDBD (Hump Day, Bump Day)

So the bump is progressing :)  We're officially 18 weeks along (almost half way - how can that possibly be true!!!!????) 

The Italian is convinced that I have a rabbit in my belly instead of a baby.  I can't eat enough vegetables!  We went to Olive Garden with mi familia this weekend and I think I ate two entire bowls of the salad all by myself!!!!  And might I say, I had forgotten how much I enjoy the Olive Garden.  Don't hate, that place is good! 

We have our anatomy scan next week, on Valentine's Day!  Saying lots and lots of prayers for a healthy baby!!!!  BUT we won't find out the gender until our party at the end of the month!  We're so excited!  Either way I'll either be the queen of the house in a house full of men or have a little princess/mini-me...we can't go wrong!  Just praying that the little Randazzler is healthy, HEALTHY, HEALTHY!!!!

Holy Macaroni!

There's somebody living in there!!!!!  I literally scared myself when I caught my profile in the mirror this morning after yoga!  How in the world could this possibly pop out like this in a matter of 24 hours????  Now I wish I would have taken a picture yesterday to prove the difference!  CRAZY!  14 weeks and 6 days today!

And please pardon the messy house.  The Italian was kind enough to wash the slip covers for our couch and put them back on, but apparently he's opposed to zipping them back up :) 

And as an update to yesterday's post - I DID make it to the gym yesterday.  Not the "old me" gym routine - only eeked out 3 miles on the elliptical (and pretty slow at that), but it still felt good! 

I'm BACK! (I think)

So I woke up this morning and for the first time in MONTHS feel like MYSELF!!!  I used to be an EARLY riser - usually 4:30 or so and would get in a good 4-6 mile run or hour and a half of yoga.  Well, that me seemed to disappear into the toilet over the past 3 months and for the month prior to that was put on restriction by Dr. Katz.  Well this morning, I hopped out of bed at 5:30 (not as early as the old days, but still better than dragging myself out around 7/7:30), ate breakfast and then did my prenatal yoga DVD.  Now the prenatal yoga is NOTHING like my Power Yoga that I used to enjoy, but it's kind of nice to just stretch and relax instead of being the psycho yogi wanna-be that I once was. I'm hoping to actually make it to the gym for a short burst on the elliptical...it's been nearly FIVE MONTHS since a trip to the gym...for those who didn't know me before all this or don't know me outside of the blog world that is INSANE to me!!!!  I've been a religious and some may say "obsessive" work out person for years.  I have to admit, the break has been nice, but my mind and body both miss the regular butt kicking I used to give myself. 

I've been off Zofran (my anti-nausea meds) for nearly 2 weeks now and am thankful to only have occasional and light bouts of nausea now and then. 

We did our first day care tour on Saturday and there is only one word to describe it....TRAUMATIC!  The facility was perfectly nice and the people were so friendly, but I started crying as soon as we pulled into the parking lot so that started things off on the wrong note.  Then we go inside and fill out the form and the nice Director lady begins our tour.  We got into the infant room and she started going through the dailly schedule, what to bring each day, each week, how to check in, the "lesson plans", the sanitation guidelines, etc....I thought the Italian was going to lose it.  It was definitely way too much for the male mind to take in.  She wanted to continue to tour us through the Toddler, Twaddler and Pre-Schooler rooms, but Dave just wanted to BOLT.  It was definitely overwhelming. 

I don't know what made us think that it would be a good idea to head to Buy Buy Baby after that traumatic outing...but we did.  I just wanted to quickly look at cribs as we had a 20% off coupon which would be a nice discount on a crib but while we were there the Italian was like, "I want to look at Car Seats and Strollers".  So we bravely walked over to the foreign land of strange baby equipment.  We both just stood there in shock until Dave saw the Jog Strollers - "Well, you have to have one of these!" he said as he took off towards the heavy duty equipment.  I told him that I heard that Bob Strollers were good jog strollers so he said ok and pulled the price tag on the first one we say..."$699!!!!!!!" We both said and then noted that our 20% coupon was no good on Bob products.  So we hightailed it out of the store, headed to a dive and drowned our sorrows in Cheeseburgers and French Fries.  :)  Luckily one of my besties and all around super-mom is coming into town in February for the Reveal party and she's been kind enough to come help me register...I'm CLUELESS with this stuff!  It will feel so much better to have a real life mommy there to help pick out what we need! 

So wish me luck (or continued energy) so that I can hopefully make it to the gym tonight.  Thanks again for continued prayers and support.  Less than 1 month until our anatomy scan - until then I keep looking down and asking "Are you really in there?  Are you ok?  Will you please STAY ok????"  So grow baby grow!  Let's get this show on the road :) 

HELLOOOOO 2nd Trimester!!!!!

Praise the Lord!  Praise the Lord!  Praise the Lord!  Baby Randazzler and I are officially in our second trimester - officially 14 weeks TODAY!!!!  HALLELUJAH!  I can't begin to express what a relief reaching this point is!  I know we still have a LOOONG ways to go (182 days to be exact), but reaching this milestone is something to be celebrated in my humble opinion!  I was reminded to be thankful with my morning devotion which was I Samuel 1:27-28..."I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. ²⁸ So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD.”  Thank God for Hannah...I've spent a lot of time reading her words over the past couple of years and sometimes I swear that her purpose in life was to be a source of inspiration to me thousands of years later :)

I know that I have all but disappeared over the last 3 months in the blogosphere and that is due to a number of reasons...1) killer morning/all day sickness, 2) craziness at work, 3) mostly due to fear and anxiety.  I never would have imagined that the first 3 months of pregnancy would be as SCARY as they are.  It feels so amazing to be blessed with such a miracle but SO SCARY to know that in the blink of an eye it can disappear and for no apparent reason.  It was definitely a difficult exercise in patience and trust for me, the control freak who likes to think that somehow I am directly responsible for the outcome of all situations.  I'd be praising God and thankful one minute and then questioning "Why is this working out for me?  I don't deserve this anymore than anyone else I know who is struggling, probably deserve is LESS if I'm being perfectly honest" the next.  I have so many friends who have not been so fortunate and I do not and never will understand why things work out for some and not for others.  I constantly remind myself that it is HIS will, not mine that will be done and that's what I pray for...even if it produces a result that I'm not happy with at the time.

Anyway, all that aside - I am ETERNALLY grateful for where we are now, TODAY!  We're now starting to explore daycares vs. nannies vs. "granny care" (yeah - uh Mom and Dad, need to talk to you guys about that :) ), cleaning out the soon to be baby suite as I call it, will probably be ordering furniture soon, and planning our GENDER REVEAL PARTY!!!  Some say they're cheesey - but I am committed to celebrating every little milestone, so YES, we WILL be having a Gender Reveal Party late February after our anatomy scan (which is scheduled for VALENTINE'S DAY - but the party will be a week or two after that)!!!!!  I can't wait to be surprised along with my family and some of our closest friends by finding out if Baby Randazzler is a boy or girl!   This is a NO PRESENTS party - just a celebration and us sharing something VERY special with those nearest to us. 

Speaking of gender - people ask all the time if I have a feeling one way or the other.  Well, initially I was thinking BOY - mostly because of wives tales I'd heard, on the rare occassion that I was hungry, I could/would only eat insanely spicy foods - loved tacos and could drink salsa by the gallon if you'd let me.  Then about a month ago I realized that I had subconsciously started calling baby "her" in my prayers or in my head when I'd be thinking about things.  Then after my dr's appt on Monday I bounced back to BOY - so to answer your question...I don't know!!!!  Honestly just praying for HEALTHY - please God let this baby be perfectly healthy!  I know that's a lot to ask and I have had a laundry list of requests that have graciously been granted over my 34 years on earth, but this is probably the most important and fervent prayer I've ever prayed. 

So thanks again for all the prayers and support over the past several months of my public journey.  I'm eternally grateful and know that God heard every prayer.  And every message, comment and email I received seriously helped to raise my spirits and help me to stay positive.  Blessings to you all!

Our Little Firecracker....

First off, let me apologize for my absence and rest assured that all is well!!!!  (Praise the Lord)!!!!  

Our little Firecracker is doing amazingly well and is due in JULY!  July 11th!!!  We're now 11 weeks along and inching towards the end of the first trimester!  

At 9 weeks I had a second visit with Dr. Katz and everything looked great!  The heartbeat had increased from 150 bpm to 170 bpm and I even got to see the little wiggle worm dancing on the screen!  It was amazing.  At the end of that visit, they let me know that we had officially graduated - meaning no more progesterone, no more estrogen, no more meds - just prenatal vitamins and an adorable graduation present...a sweet little "Made in Charlotte" onesie for this little one!  

The only negative is that I have had CRAZY, C-R-A-Z-Y "morning sickness".  That title is really a misnomer since it literally strikes at all times of the day and night.  Dr. K put me on a medication called Zofran and it definitely helps, but doesn't eliminate the nausea entirely.  Still any relief is good news for me and here's to hoping the nausea magically disappears somewhere in the next couple of weeks as I've heard so many mommies claim.  

I had my first prenatal appointment with our OB yesterday...man that was a LONG visit...nearly 2 1/2 hours!   But we got to hear the heartbeat again and that made me feel better!  Dr. Bale is our OB and he said that as much as the nausea stinks, it is a good sign that my hormones are doing the right thing, so I'll continue to look at it as a blessing :)  

So I apologize again for being M.I.A., it's been such a "delicate" time that I've kind of been afraid to post anything.  Starting to feel better and better and looking forward to our little firecracker's arrival in July!