Baby Showers

What a fun day at the Long Island baby shower with my friends hosted by Alerie, Gina, Marisa and John. We had a great time! We played games and mingled, it was great to see everyone. Kate came from NYC and Amy from MASS and everyone else from the Stony Brook area. All the love is so nice. We announced today to everyone that Elijah Henry Bennett will be the name for the baby boy. Eli for short if you like :) We also even got sent gifts from afar; my friends from SU. Allison sent bath goodies and a hand made beautiful blue blankie. Dan sent cute outfits and several great baby books. And Lisa sent the sheep blanket along with little outfits and some breast milk storage bags (which are sure to get great use, lol). To match Lisa's bag Amy brought me her breast pump along with some needed storage materials etc. and the exer-saucer!

After Christmas I also had a great shower hosted by my friend Heather Moldenhauer. We had fun with an intimate group of women at the 7 Owls Tea House in Lancaster, NY. It was really nice to see everyone and get some great words of wisdom! It will be great to get back to EA and show off little Elijah. I love this picture of my mom and I too so I uploaded it :)

Our house is getting very ready for the little one as am I as I continue to get bigger and Jai prepares the items in the house - like the changing table/ dresser! And then just to boot I felt the need to organize ALL my photos and get them separated in to four scrap books and started my life of scrapbooking - literally, lol. So now, when folks come to visit, if they get really bored they can take some time to look through the photo history of my life ;) I love all my friends and family and have been amazed at the outpouring of gifts of love from everyone for little Elijah!

Christmas in EA

What a nice Christmas. My last Christmas child free - wow - that's crazy to think of! I am 33 weeks along. I am needing to get last minute stuff together like wipes etc. that you don't think about til the last minute. Plus we are still organizing the room! I had a nice holiday with the fam though. I had a nice day after Christmas with my cousins Alex and Rachel where we made pottery , as their Christmas gift (it's hard to find something fun and exciting for an 18 and 16 year old!). So, I have attached pictures of the fun time we had (that's the Happy Birthday plate I made for the baby pre-firing). And just for kicks a picture of the snow I drove in to when I arrived in East Aurora! By today it had melted due to the excessive warm weather (it was 63 this morning - and 58 yesterday). So, the 18 + inches had melted by today causing much flooding and distruction. Plus then the wind picked up (75 mph at the airport qualifying as hurricane forces) and caused some more craziness today at the bills game. But, alas no snow is left and I am heading back to LI tomorrow where there is guaranteed to be no snow!

In the 8th Month

Today I am 32 weeks along (which means I have completed 7 mos. of pregnancy and am on the 8 week countdown). This is a picture of the baby belly yesterday at the Cafe. We had quite an eventful weekend. Friday night we got a photosmart copier/printer/scanner all in one and a mino flip video camcorder (both in prep for the bambino). I finally gave in and ordered maternity clothing from Old Navy. It was actually better than I thought. As you can see by the picture the belly was becoming too big to hold in any longer!

Saturday Morning we put the crib together that the Moldenhauer's are loaning us and went through the two boxes of clothing from the boys. Then we organized the room. Saturday I had lunch with Alerie, Jon, Marisa and Moises in Huntington, our once a month SBU lunches. We ate at a nice Mexican place and went to Cocofe across the street for some lovely desserts. The whole time the little bambino was moving around quite a bit! Also, we sold our tredmill on craigslist. Thank God for craigslist, now I am hoping to also get rid of the papasan chair!

To boot on Saturday evening, our friend Lisa sent us a Holiday Package with lots of goodies. First we got the wonderful homemade candies and goodies from Lisa and Tresa. Then Lisa also included a lovely handmade embroidered blanket (which goes back many years) and several baby goodies for the little bambino.

Then came Sunday...I had some last minute things to get together including finishing my goddaughter's 1st year scrap book before I left. I went to CVS to develop the pics - and no such luck - their entire photo area was down. At this I headed out to Walmart (thinking this may be a bad idea on the Sunday before Christmas). Walmart was a disaster as predicted. It took me 2 1/2 hours to get 1 hour film developed. Their machine kept printing my pictures with big red spots all over them (which would not have been pretty in the scrap book). So finally, at 8pm we are packing to go home to EA for the next week with a stop in Syracuse along the way. We will get to visit with Dan and Brian and have a lunch with Tanya and see the boys!

It should be a great Christmas week with a lovely shower to end it all before I head back to LI!

Looking pregnant!

Okay, so I have been looking preggo for a while however, yesterday apparently I looked especially pregnant to Jai. So, he wanted to take some pictures before I left for work. The baby has been moving a lot the last few days. I have been getting a little pain/ pressure in my groin, hips and pelvis. Heather assures me this means the baby has dropped in to position - hmmm. And yesterday I felt a shooting pain down my left side from my hip in to my back - not fun. Hopefully today, that will subside. The name situation has not cleared itself up yet. We are working on it still and have narrowed, but not enough. And our list seems to still be changing - even in it's narrowed state, lol. We are off this weekend to spend time in Baltimore with the Moldenhauers. It is my goddaughters 1st birthday! I can't believe how much this year has flown!

December....WHAT?

Wow, time has really flown. Today I am 30 weeks along, leaving only 10 weeks - which seems like an extremely short period of time! The baby is moving all around, especially when I eat one of my favorite fruits of the winter - clementines! He moves throughout the day but, mostly from after dinner until breakfast time - he sleeps most of the day. One day I even saw my stomach bump up from his foot - it was weird.

We had a great shower in East Aurora with the family. It was really nice to see everyone and catch up with the women in the family, and hear hilarious stories from my cousins! Now we are back and working on where everything is going to go in the apartment. We have moved the bedroom around to make room for his own little corner of the room. This weekend we purchased the rocking chair and ottomon and will set that up this week along with the swing.

With only a short period of time left I think that I am starting to get anxious about the labor. This week I had a dream the baby was born on the 12th of February (my grandmother's birthday) and a colleague of mine had a dream that it was the 19th of February the very next day - which I thought was pretty funny.

Effie is also obviously catching on to the fact that we are having a new arrival as twice on Friday night she climbed up on my stomach while I was sleeping and laid down for a long time on my stomach. For Effie this is strange behavior since she won't even sleep on your lap. After telling Jai this, this morning he says to me after getting out of the shower - I've been thinking. You can't let Effie do that anymore she might think she can do that to the baby. So, we'll see if it happens again - I doubt it but maybe. I think it will be interesting to see how she reacts to the baby - if she even notices his presence :)

Thanksgiving Thanks!

So, here I am in the winterized East Aurora, Toy Town USA. My babies first taste of Thanksgiving dinner cooked by the best, my Mother of course, will be tomorrow! I am giving thanks today that the baby has decided to move off the nerve or organ or whatever he was leaning on near my right hip, that was the first not fun feeling of my pregnancy. Not that it was painful (not like the heartburn) but, more like pressure - and something I just couldn't get rid of at all. I slept the whole night on my left side hoping when I woke up he would have been pulled by gravity off of whatever he was leaning on, well today after two nights that theory finally worked :)

I am happy that I am getting to spend time with the women of my family on Friday for my first baby shower, that I got to visit with my friends from the EA area and that there is 5 inches of snow on the ground to mark the fact that I am actually back in the Buffalo area!

One thing that I am thankful for is that my love Jai is as excited and involved with the choice of the baby's name as I am. We are still working on a name, although Hunter is in the running along with Elijah still and my long shot hope of Jackson (which is as likely as Jai's long shot hope of Cameron or Christian). I really am leaning toward Elijah but, I think that Jai is more excited about Hunter. The middle name will definitley be Henry (that we have agreed on!).

So, this Thanksgiving I am happy to be in good ol' EA, Toy Town USA, enjoying the simplicity of a small town with no job worries to think about, with my parents, awaiting the arrival of Jai and enjoying the alleviation of the pressure from Baby Boy Bennett!

I hope my baby enjoys the dinner as much as I know I will because we have so much to be thanksful for! And I am looking forward to next Thanksgiving and my boy's first enjoyment of the Macy's Day Parade on TV followed by the Dog Show and then Football! What could be better than family, good food and fun!

Back, belly and nesting!

So, this weekend started off with my Jai bringing home a back/ belly support system and me going to the chiropractor. My back was hurting this week but, nothing awful. Enough though that Jai was worried. He had seen this back support at Toys R Us a while back and went to several stores to find one. I put it on and it really is great! It actually works. So, I have attached the picture of the stylish new back/belly support I am wearing (really who wants to admit that). Secondly then my belly popped out. Due to the urging of my friend Lisa I have attached self portrait of the belly. It is big. And I realized it was big when yesterday I was out in Huntington with Alerie, Theresa and Jon and the woman leaving next to us ( who had a small baby with her) points at my belly and says "Good Luck". I did enjoy this weekend though and feel as though the bigger belly may be leading to me nesting more. I have figured out how I want my rooms rearranged in anticipation of the baby and this morning I baked banana bread, ginger snap cookies and chicken teriyaki (from Real Simple) which was so good and so simple! Who doesn't love a great fall weekend!