2

2…it may not seem like a monumental number to most but in 2 weeks my sweet girl will be 2 years old. And in less than 2 months I'll have 2 babies to love on, care for and worry about/obsess over.

First, let's start with little Nicolette turning 2. 

This hardly seems possible or even fair. The past year has gone by at least twice as quickly as her first year. Every day she is learning more, talking more and making me laugh more. She is such a treasure and really is such a sweet, sweet child. She's an absolute sponge…soaking in EVERYTHING that everyone around her says and does (so please watch your language if you're spending any time around Nicolette)!

The Italian marvels at the fact that she and I can sit at the dinner table and talk back and forth for a good 30-45 minutes. She is my best little buddy.

I can't bring myself to correct her when she walks up to me with her arms up and says, "Mommy? Hold you?" My heart will ache when she says it correctly and will very likely break when she no longer asks me to hold her at all. She loves to curl up in my lap and say, "Mommy, make me cozy?" which means she wants me to cradle her and hold her like a little baby. She'll do the same thing with her dollies and either ask me to make them cozy or cradle them in her little arms herself and beam with pride as she boasts about how she's making her baby cozy. She is obsessed with her baby dolls and could spend the entire day taking care of them. Sometimes she "nurses" them, sometimes feeds them bottles, changes their diapers, always careful to put diaper cream on, pushes them in her shopping cart or "strolder" (which she pronounces like I imagine a German would…she almost rolls the "s" and emphasizes the "d" in strolder"). And speaking of strollers, she still loves the stroller and has no problem hanging out in the stroller for an hour or more at dr.'s appointments or whatnot. She LOOOOOOVES shoes and loves looking at her shoe collection and picking out which shoes she's going to wear for the day. Sadly she also loves hair and hair accessories. The hair is finally coming in but not enough for ponytails and Nicolette asks for mommy to "do ponytails" almost daily…soon enough baby, soon enough.

Exhibit A - hanging out in the stroller happily while
mommy enjoys a pedicure she was given for her birthday! 

Then as soon as we got come, she wanted to
give Daddy his own pedicure!

Nursing her bunny

Obsessed with mommy's shoes

Obsessed with mommy's shoes

"Mommy do ponytails?"

She loves when I make silly faces at her, can say her first and last name and can also tell you that she turns 2 in July. She has started reciting entire pages of some of her favorite books. Her favorite book right now is an old Golden Book from the 60's titled "Little Mommy".  She'll ask to read that one and randomly recite "Billy is Daddy, he works in the city. He's got a new car, isn't it pretty?" or many of the other pages from the book in her sweet little sing song voice throughout the day. She still loves to "read" and look at books. 9 times out of 10 when I lay her down for nap or bedtime she'll look up at me and say "Book?" I'll hand her a book and she'll flip through the pages until she falls asleep. I hope her love for reading continues as she grows up!

We've made a few feeble attempts at potty training. Had a couple of instances where she asked to go peepee or poopoo on the potty and actually did it. Also had a successful afternoon in big girl underpants and then had 3 accidents in big girl underpants the next morning so I'm not sure where we stand on the potty. I want to take the time to do the intensive 3 day potty training "boot camp" but we honestly have not had 3 consecutive days at home without traveling, dr.'s appointments, mommy's meetings or classes for work or what not. Oh well, we'll get there eventually right?

Our first peepee…I have more photos but refuse to post
nudie pics on my blog. 

We spent a few days with Gram & Papa in Connecticut over Father's Day weekend. Gram was so impressed at what a good eater Nicolette was. We're still 80/90% organic with what we feed her. Right now her favorite food would probably have to be cucumbers with red wine vinegar and a little seasoning salt (this was my FAVORITE snack as a kid, teenager and even now). She'll eat a full cucumber in one sitting and ask for more. She also gobbles up wild alaskan salmon…she can eat a 6-8oz filet with no problem. She loves the oatmeal I make for her in the mornings with old fashioned oats, hemp seeds, chia seeds, ground flaxseed meal and wild organic blueberries. She's always asking for more "booblerries". Avocados are still a go to for us as well. And of course we're still nursing 2-3 times a day. I've tried to get her to drink organic, grass fed milk out of  a sippy cup and she really had no interest and would take a little sip and then hand it back to me with a look of disgust on her face and say "no…no muhlk." She does love cheese though! Don't think she's totally deprived though…she has eaten take out pizza two or three times and even had the grilled chicken bites at Chick fil A once. She's only had cake once, on her first birthday but we'll have cake again this year on her birthday.

Speaking of birthdays, I had so much fun planning her 1st birthday celebration but this year I was really torn over what to do. I finally decided (last week) that what I'd really like more than anything is just to celebrate with our little family. I plan to bake a cake from scratch with Nicolette and we'll have her favorite dinner and just celebrate with the three of us. Simple and sweet. Part of me still wants to have "a party" but I think this will be a better memory for our family. I know she probably won't remember it, but I always will.

And now it's Baby Walker's turn

In less than 2 months, we'll be a family of 4 and I can hardly believe it! This pregnancy dragged on in the beginning. When I was so nauseous it felt like summer would never get here but now everything is in fast forward. My second trimester was very similar to my second trimester with Nicolette but the third trimester is definitely more exhausting this time around. I'm sure that's because I'm chasing a very active nearly two year old for most of my waking hours. Carrying Nicolette around and bending down and picking her up and putting her down is definitely harder on my body than my old job. I've been having tons of Braxton Hicks contractions which I really didn't have with Nicolette but my OB assured me that this is normal, especially for a second pregnancy. He just keeps reminding me to rest while I can and not do too much. Ha! Easy for him to say…he's never experienced the "nesting" instinct that we mommies to be go through. I'll settle down to take a bath and instead spend 4 hours cleaning our bathroom and then decide to spend the next 2 days totally reorganizing the bathroom and linen closet. Go to the kitchen for a snack and spend 4-5 hours emptying all cabinets, drawers and both pantries and deep cleaning and reorganizing the kitchen. Sit down to watch tv and spend hours painting and upholstering Nicolette's tiny table and chairs that go in her playroom. I'm a crazy person. And yet Walker's room is at a stand still.

The Italian spent a weekend priming and painting the room and is insisting on installing crown moulding but that isn't up yet. He's been traveling a LOT for work including some international travel so finding time to complete this is a challenge. AND we're having all of the carpet replaced in our house at the end of the month so we have to work around that too. Poor Walker's dresser and crib are still boxed up in our foyer…no sense getting them out until the new carpet is in. And I've got some really cool vintage golf artwork that's just chilling in the hallway…can't really decide where to hang them until the furniture is in and we've already established that that isn't happening anytime soon, soooooo….just twiddling my thumbs on this project.

Since I can't "nest" in the nursery I started focusing on the playroom. I've started making cornice boards for the windows (a super cheap and easy DIY project) and painted her table and chairs and padded and upholstered the seat cushions. Got some cheap, bright throw pillows for the sofa and am hoping to have enough fabric left over from the cornice boards and upholstery project to be able to make a couple of throw pillows for the sofa. We'll eventually paint the playroom…probably a neutral/tan color. Nicolette's play kitchen is up there and it is red so I wanted to find something fun but not to girly to go with the red kitchen. Hopefully this will all look nice once it's all finished (if that ever happens).

Table & Chairs "Before"

Table & Chairs "After" - I think I'm going to stencil the top
with some sort of pattern

First cornice board - don't have the hardware to hang it yet

PILLOWS!

I don't remember feeling tired as easily when I was pregnant with Nicolette. I get worn out so quickly now with Walker. And not in a "I want to take a nap" sort of way. More of a "I feel like I just did 20 burpees or mountain climbers and now I can't breath and need to sit down ASAP" kind of way. Speaking of burpees and mountain climbers I have only worked out a couple of times during this pregnancy and now that I'm getting the "I'm going to black out and faint if I don't sit down every 15 minutes" feeling I'm afraid to even try. Sometimes I feel like we can go for a walk without fear of me fainting in the middle of the street but not very often. It was scary enough when it was just me while I was pregnant with Nicolette but now that I have her with me and I'm pregnant and could easily black out in the middle of our neighborhood I think I'll pass on the walks (unless we have friends with us).

I had a lengthy prenatal consult with my lactation consultant yesterday and I think we have a good plan moving forward to help breastfeeding with Walker get off to a better start than we did with Nicolette…fingers crossed and lots of prayers that I don't have to go through the rigorous schedule (see here) that I kept up for the early months with Nicolette.

Today I scheduled all of my remaining prenatal OB appointments, pre-registered at the hospital and registered Nicolette for a "sibling class" at the hospital for next month. We had a good OB appointment this morning, he was super active so the nurse had to chase him around with the monitor but his heartbeat was strong at 154 bpm. (My blood pressure is still on the low side at 90/54). I also moved the pack n play and glider into our room so that when Nicolette sees everything we can talk about where Walker is going to sleep and how things are going to change in a couple of months. She already knows where his room is and talks about it a lot. She also knows that Walker is in mommy's tummy, that she's going to be a big sister and that her brother's name is Walker. Nicolette and I went shopping today and picked out a special gift for her to bring to the hospital to give to Walker when he gets here. It's a little puppy dog lovie with his name embroidered on it. She loved carrying it around the store and seemed to understand when I told her that it was a present for her to give to her brother.

Walker is craving many of the same foods that I craved with Nicolette at this point…lots of salad and TONS OF FRUIT! Berries are my obsession…especially raspberries, but pretty much all fruit is fair game at this point…watermelon, mangos, grapes, berries, apples and I'm addicted to lemonade mixed with sparkling water to make it nice a fizzy.

Overall at nearly 33 weeks pregnant I'm feeling good but also a little nervous. Nervous about being away from Nicolette for the first time ever, nervous that this labor and delivery will likely be entirely different than my first so not knowing what to expect, nervous that I'll go to the hospital too early or even worse wait until it's too late (since last time I delivered 40 minutes after checking in I can't say that I'm the best at gauging how far along I am into my labor), nervous that Nicolette will feel neglected once Walker does arrive, nervous, nervous, nervous. But also excited. I can't wait to meet this little guy and have another baby to snuggle and love. And definitely excited about watching Nicolette love him too! We are truly, truly blessed and I thank God daily for trusting not one but two precious babies to our care. He has more faith in me than I have in myself.

Seven Year Itch?

We seem to have beat it!  Happy Anniversary to Us!!!!  7 years ago at 7pm I became Mrs. Randazzo!  It really does not feel like it's been 7 years since we said "I Do" and it really doesn't feel like we've been together for 10 years.  Time is funny that way!  We've definitely had our ups and downs but so thankful that we've persevered and are where we are today.

Weren't we cute???  :)

We don't normally exchange gifts for Anniversaries but this year the Italian surprised me.  He gave me a beautiful ruby & diamond pendant as an anniversary/(advance) push present.  Since it's officially July 1st and the little princess hasn't arrived yet that means that her birthstone will definitely be a RUBY.  So thoughtful, and I mean no disrespect but definitely unexpected coming from The Italian. 

I LOVE IT!!!!!   

Speaking of her highness, the little princess has not made any further progress.  At my doctor's appointment Thursday we were still dilated 1 cm and 50% effaced.  Doc says that that really doesn't mean anything - he's had patients not dilate at all and deliver that night and some who walk around dilated 3cm for 3 or 4 weeks!  Her majesty has however discovered a new toy...my bladder.  The Italian and I were trying to watch a movie last night and I literally had to have him pause it 3 times in 10 minutes...I am NOT exaggerating either.  (wish I was).  

I did get some packing done yesterday...

Nicolette's bag is all packed (Boppy, Going Home Dress - which was actually one of my dresses when I was a baby, Extra Onesie for Going Home, Hair Bows, Blankie, Baby Legs, Socks & Mittens). 

Sweet Nicolette's Bag of Goodies for the Hospital 

I LOVE this bag from Auntie Laura - it's the only one big enough to fit the Boppy to take to the hospital!  

I packed a basket full of "snacks" to give to the sweet Labor & Delivery Nurses at the hospital.  It's my "please-be-super-nice-to-me-even-though-I might-yell-at-you-peace-offering gift". 

I also vacuumed the whole house (again), cleaned the bathrooms (again), started working on Nicolette's baby book, learned how to make a Sock Bun (thinking this might be the best way to keep my hair out of my face during delivery), packed up (and hid) snacks for Daddy...but I cannot seem to make myself make any significant progress on MY hospital bag...

Mommy's Hospital "Pile"

At least I have some stuff together - pjs, slippers, chapstick, hair ties, headband, flip flops, leggings, t-shirt, hospital paperwork, starting to get charging cords together for camera, iPad, computer, going home dress, etc... I don't know why I'm procrastinating so much with this!  Maybe today will be the day that I get fully motivated...

No Rest in this Nest

Let the nesting continue.  Now that my carpet shampooing extravaganza is complete and I'm just waiting on the nursery glider and bookshelves to arrive before I do anything else in there I had to look for some extra "projects" to tackle this week. 

I nested my husband's drawers (thank you Pinterest for the drawer organizing tips)

I nested our garage with our Sho-Vac (seriously getting crazy now - who vacuums a garage when they're 9 months pregnant...me, that's who)



I even "nested" Chance.  Our dog-child has more fur than I could ever shed off of him.  Funny if you look closely you can almost see his outline where he was laying down while I shedded him. 

We had our 37 week check up today and still looking good.  I have dilated 1 cm, am 50% effaced, lost 1 lb and baby girl's heart rate has started to slow down from her usual 150-160 down to 125.  All signs that delivery is in fact on it's way and baby girl is starting to relax and rest in preparation for her grand entrance!  Now I can apparently stay in this "state" for 2-3 weeks or more with little to no further progression so it's not like I'm delivering tonight or anything (at least I hope not).  I'd REALLY appreciate it if this little bun could stay put until we AT LEAST hit 39 weeks.  The March of Dimes states that at 35 weeks the size of the baby's brain is only 2/3's of what it will be at 39-40 weeks...so we've still got lots of brain growing to do over these next couple of weeks.  The Italian tried to hide it but I could tell he was a little nervous when I called to tell him that I had dilated 1cm.  He quietly asked if my delivery date was being moved up.  I told him no that we still have a ways to go, but we are starting to make SOME progress so it's just proof that this pregnancy will not last forever despite my recent fears about it.  I've just felt so "normal" that I couldn't believe that she could actually be born in the next few weeks.   

I've said it before but I really am going to TRY to slow down and chill out on the nesting over the next couple of weeks.  I know it's important to get some rest because we'll be expending a LOT of energy come labor day. 

Saying lots of prayers for HEALTHY development for little Nicolette - we're really excited about meeting you sweet girl!!!!     

Project Nursery - The Baby Suite

This week was a long one - my last 6 day work week before the princess arrives!  So with only one day off this week I really wanted to make the best use of my one day off to get as much done in the nursery as possible!  While we're not "finished" - we're getting there!

 Viola!  Things are starting to come together

She's got one of the best views in the house!

 We love the monogrammed Bow Holder from Auntie Tara!  Such a special gift!

 Fit for a Princess - I've opted to go bumper-less due to all the controversy and possible suffocation hazards associated with crib bumpers.  

 Changing Table/Dresser - I need some shelves on the other side of the room for the ballerina that's currently residing on this table. 

 Photo collage and Mirror above the Princess's bed.

 Photo collage above the Changing Table - a couple of maternity photos as well as my favorite photo from our Gender Reveal by Kristin Vining along with some frames just waiting for pics of our pretty princess!

Now there's a whole other side of the room with absolutely NOTHING on it, no pictures, no furniture, NADA!  We ordered the glider and ottoman this weekend so that will go over there and I need to find some shelves to display all of her amazing books that she received at our last shower (along with mommy's porcelain ballerina that is currently living on the changing table).

In other news, today is Father's Day.  I gave the Italian a priceless gift...an entire day with no nagging, not even asking for help with anything around the house or in the nursery.  He was master of his own domain and free to do whatever he wanted without any comments (or facial expressions) from me!  :)  I made him breakfast this morning and gave him his real present...a bag full of "Daddy" books for him to read with Nicolette when she gets here.  It also included the "New Father's Survival Guide" which he started reading right away and decided that he needs to do a will and update his life insurance pronto :)  Then he went out to play some golf while I stayed home and continued to "nest".

I finally finished shampooing the carpets in our house.  Today was spent shampooing the formal living room and dining room and I managed to do the first 5 steps on our staircase but I didn't think it was safe to go any higher.  Then I cleaned and organized Nicolette's bathroom and put away all of her clothes that we have so far.  I also made a few more freezer meals so that we have a "stash" to grab after she arrives.  So far I've made 2 chicken casseroles, a lasagna and a huge batch of chili that I've divided up into 3 separate meals.  If anyone has any other good (and semi-healthy) make ahead freezer recipes to share please do so!!!

Next weekend I have our last baby shower thrown by my "roomie" Laura...it's been almost 10 years since we lived together, but she'll always be known as roomie.  Looking forward to some girlie time and feeling so blessed to be surrounded by so many generous and wonderful friends and family!

It's back to the grind tomorrow...Cheers to all!  Just a few more weeks!

HDBD - 36 weeks!

One week until we're full term - 4 weeks until the due date!  We had our 36 week check up and Strep Test today.  Baby Nicolette is being a good girl, head down just like she should be.  She hasn't dropped yet so there is a chance that she could flip around, but at every appointment and ultrasound so far she's been head down.  And I still feel that sweet little bootie of hers pushing up into my ribs every day so I'll look at that as a blessing and not the curse that it feels like :)  The doctor didn't say anything, but my gut is telling me that this little girl is going to take her sweet time getting here - I think she'll be late. 

Here's Hump Day Bump Day pic for week #36...weird - I almost think the bump looks smaller in this pic than it did last week - but promise it's bigger! 

While Nicolette tortured me for the first 16 weeks with chronic "morning sickness" - she's definitely making up for it by being a VERY good baby now.  So far I can still wear my wedding rings and my heels and my doctor called my ankles "tiny" at my appointment today (women who have been pregnant can totally understand how incredibly flattering that one little comment can be).  I'm still sleeping through the night...soundly and haven't had to ask hubby to turn the AC to a cooler temp.  And so far (knock on wood) I have no stretch marks (praying that we can make it through the next few weeks with that still being true)!!!!!  I figured by this point my ankles would be swollen the size of my thighs, my rings would be long gone, I'd be confined to (gasp) FLATS and that I'd be functioning on less than 2 hours of sleep a night.  So THANK YOU BABY for being so nice to me.  You have no idea how much mommy appreciates this!  

Week 35-36 has brought on a severe case of NESTING.  Hubby made the mistake of reminding me that we have a Carpet Shampooer machine thingy, so I started upstairs with the nursery (shampooed that 3 times), then the two rooms upstairs (shampooed those twice), then our loft/bonus room area (shampooed that 3 times).  I asked him to bring the machine downstairs yesterday so that I could start in our room and I shampooed the carpets in our master bath and closet 3 times (twice last night and got up SUPER early this morning to hit it one more time).  Plan to work on the Master Bedroom tonight and tomorrow night and then probably work on our living room and dining room Friday and Saturday after work.  The Italian thinks I'm insane...I kind of agree, but I just will not feel right unless it is DONE.

Hubby is nesting a little bit too...on the way home from a business trip last week he stopped at a rug store because he just felt that our family room rug was too old and dirty for our new little one, so he bought an enormous Jute rug to replace it.  We both loved it until the first night we realized that our cat-child Sasha may think that we just bought her the world's largest scratching mat!  She picked at it two or three times, but we gave her a couple of quick "NO's" and she walked right over to her scratching post and did her thing there instead...she hasn't picked at the rug once since then.  Such a good kitty-child.     

We also made some serious progress in the nursery this weekend.  I took pictures with my fancy camera and now can't find the stinking USB cord to download them.  Promise that I'll get the pictures up as soon as I can - we're REALLY happy with how it's turning out!!!!!  It is so sweet and soft and pretty :)  The Italian put together the crib and dresser and helped hang the drapes, valance and some of the wall hangings this weekend.  He calls it the "princess room".  There are no princess-y things in there, it just is really, really pretty...fit for OUR princess.

So this is my last 6 day work week at work this week - praise Jesus!  I do plan to keep working right up until we go to the hospital, but no more 6 day weeks after this.  Giving tours at work is getting more and more difficult.  I'm finding that walking brings on more Braxton Hicks contractions which are NOT painful AT ALL - however they do take my breath away and literally make me winded which is kind of awkward when you're walking around our enormous hotel with a bride and her fiance and/or parents.  Luckily my teammates have offered to step up and take some of my sites for me over this last month.  I have several scheduled for Saturday that I'll have to take myself but we'll get through it.  Walking around this place is pretty much all of the exercise that I'm getting these days...well that and the insane carpet shampooing marathon.  The carpet shampooing jump starts the BH contractions too, but at least that's at home and not with strangers.

I'm really excited about The Italian's first Father's Day this weekend - he'll be enjoying watching the US Open no doubt and he gets a special present from Nicolette and Mommy...will post pics next week.

Feeling blessed to be exactly where we are right now.  It's only a matter of time now!!!!!  6 days until we're considered FULL TERM and only 27 until the official "due date"!