IT'S A...

It is a girl! We are really excited and shocked at the same time. It will take some time to move into "girly" mode. There is certainly plenty to shop for :) We are going to name her Isabella Lena De Lorenzo. We'll most likely always call her Bella...except for those times when you are angry and call her by her full name - lol. However, Joe is Joseph and a few people told us they like having their "formal" and "informal" names. Lena is my great-grandmother's name and although I never knew her, my grandfather always spoke of her with such warmth and love.

Bella certainly didn't make things easy at the ultrasound. We couldn't do the 3D/4D because the umbilical cord is currently in front and it was covering her face. Then she wasn't in a great position, so they had me walk around for a little while to get her to move. When we went back in she was positioned better but kept tucking her foot in front of her vagina...so they pushed and prodded until they got the perfect angle and told us "It is definitely a girl."

I am not sure if we are going to change the nursery. It is neutral...light beige. I may just change the bedding. It is currently that cute jungle theme. We are not big into the whole pink thing so I will have to see what they have out there that is feminine, but not too girly.

Welcome Month Five!

Some days it is hard to believe how fast this pregnancy is moving...and other days, well, I just want our baby to be here. I am still not showing or gaining any weight so I worry about that. However, the doctor doesn't seem concerned...so I guess I shouldn't worry. Eight more days until we find out if we are having a boy or a girl! We are really excited!

Wow...Week 15!

I can hardly believe that month four is almost over. Nothing much is new (at least from the outside ;) My weekly updates say our baby is now the size of a small orange!

I am really starting to think we are having a girl (which is what Joe and his mother think we are having too.) Mostly because of the things happening in my dreams. Since we have been so focused on having a boy for the last three years it takes a bit of adjusting mentally. As you know, we have a TON of baby boy clothes and items, but luckily it is easier for a baby girl to wear many of the boy clothes. The only real question with the baby girl name we have chosen (Isabella) is whether to use the full name or shorten it to Bella since that is what we'll end up calling her all the time anyway. So far, my favorite out of our boy names is Christian.

Three more weeks until our 3D ultrasound. Boy...some days time seems to be flying, and others it seems to be an interminable wait :)

Reunited & Reborn: A Nation with Renewed Hope

From Harlem to Harvard, from Maine to Hawaii—and even Alaska—from "the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire … [to] Stone Mountain of Georgia," as Dr. King put it, each of us will always remember this moment, as will our children, whom we woke up to watch history being made.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Last night was an emotional one for me and our nation as a whole. It is hard to find words with enough weight to express those emotions that run so deep they leave you speechless. Many Americans were aware that the movement led by Barack Obama was so much more than an election campaign; The magnitude and gravity of its results run deeper than what four or eight years in the White House can encompass. Gloria Steinem spoke on The Oprah Show today and her words reverberated what is in my heart.

"I feel as if I got my future back in a funny way, because I was in my 30s when I thought my country was moving toward democracy, and then two Kennedys were killed and then Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, and it's as if the future died. Now I feel as if our future has come back and in an even better form because the Kennedys and Clintons tried to be inclusive, but this isn't about being inclusive. It is the thing itself. It is actually happening."

I always felt a bit envious of the older generation; They seemed to stand for so much and have lived a history, albeit excruciating at times to endure, full of passion, hope, and triumph. They stood for something and revered their beloved heroes. Sadly, I feel, my generation lacked that intangible surge that unifies, ignites, and stimulates change. Perhaps this is why so many of us became obsessed with material possessions and fell prey to far too many of the distractions that have only served to kill our spirits and led us down a path of apathy and relativism.

It means so much to me that our child will be born at this historic time. A new child naturally brings about hope and dreams for a better life and future. What parent does not imagine a life for their child which is filled with unconditional love, success, little strife, and interminable hope for the future? It is natural for us to want our children to go through life unscathed by the heartaches we may have endured ~ both big and small. We pray we will be better parents than our own; Or we pray that we can live up to being the parents ours were if we were blessed to have such parents. We realize, however, that all the idealism in the world cannot protect our children from heartache and strife. In the end, our greatest prayer, is that they have learned something from our own mistakes and perhaps even learned something from our achievements. We pray that when heartache and strife inevitably knock on their door...they have faith, courage, and perhaps above all ~ hope. It feels only fitting to quote Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in saying "If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all."

November 4, 2008 was indeed an historic night. Our child will be born in an historic year and I pray with all of my heart that he or she lives out the dreams that God weaves in his or her heart and that despite heartache and strife...hope remains perched on his or her spirit.

Week 14

I saw my OB last week and she gave me an Rx for Zofran. That stuff is amazing! I can't believe I actually feel normal again :) I just wish they gave it to me sooner, but I am sooo happy to have it now!

I read this book that I think is great: The Mother-to-Be's Dream Book: Understanding the Dreams of Pregnancy by Raina M. Paris. There isn't a pregnant woman I know who has not said she had weird dreams while pregnant. I have always been a dreamer - very vivid details...I talk in my sleep, and even yell and scream which wakes my poor hubby up. However, my pregnancy dreams have been even more vivid. They almost seem more mystical - even the colors are different...like Disney Technicolor. It's quite interesting. So, this author writes that there are "typical" dreams that occur in each trimester. The first trimester dreams often include people from your past, more specifically, family, friends, and ex-lovers. She believes this is a resolution stage during which you make peace with the past. The second trimester dreams are typically more anxiety-related dreams. It is common to dream of misplacing or forgetting your baby, forgetting to feed your baby, etc... This is a time for mothers-to-be to work out feelings of fear or anxiety and develop a more primal mother instinct. The last trimester, according to Paris, encompasses dreams that are more psychic in nature and focus on bonding with your baby. You may dream of the sex of your baby and even be able to "take your baby out of the womb" during these dreams. If dreams intrigue you or you are pregnant and experiencing more vivid dream activity than ever before in your life and want to try and "interpret" your dreams, I highly recommend this book.