In the home stretch...

Again, sorry it has been a while since I have been here... keep reading, it's been a crazy couple of months!

According to babycenter.com, Lil Miss Alessandra Victoria Smith (aka - Alex or Hollywood) is 46 days away from gracing us with her presence. WHOA. We have reached the point where mommy-to-be has prenatal appointments every two weeks. Fun. The nursery is almost done. After many back and forth conversations about should we paint the room, shouldn't we... we have decided to. And since Baby Daddy Cory has been traveling so much, I am beyond thankful that he is working a short week, is taking Thursday and Friday off to help me finish the nursery (ie - paint), and of course, to spend some quality time with me.

I know that it has been a couple of months since I've been here, so lemme catch you up...

Ever since my last post (the visit to the ER), I've since become a Stay-at-Home-Mommy. Without getting into too much detail, although, most of you who know me already know, work was becoming more of a stressful nightmare than a fulfilling career. It came to the point where, after certain incidences and many many tears, baby Alessandra decided to let me know how she felt about my work-related stress, and decided to send me contractions in the middle of a work day. I immediately went to Cory's office to let him know, and we had made the decision right then and there that our daughter means a helluva lot more to us than anything... the next week, I put in my resignation. I'm not gonna lie. It has been bitter sweet. More sweet, of course. But having worked in this industry almost my entire career, it was a bit of transition for me, mentally. I wasn't ready to put my career on hold just yet, so I was concerned about how the lack of interaction and a sense of every day purpose was going to affect me. Luckily, I've been able to stay busy with getting the house organized, setting up the nursery, getting little Miss Winnie trained so that she's not an unruly puppy when the baby arrives. And also, taking some ME time to just relax and "let go" of all the unhappiness that was consuming me at my job. I'm still adjusting, I miss the girls at work and my actual job... just not the other stuff.

So, here I am... it's been almost 2 months since my last day at work. I am told that I am looking very relaxed and that I do have that pregnancy glow - WHICH I hope to bottle up and save after delivery... Can I? Alessandra is doing well. We had a glucose test about a month and a half ago. I do not have gestational diabetes, which is great. But, I was on the high side. So, my obgyn advised me to lay off the sugars and starches... WHAT??? Only like my two FAVORITE things ever, especially in this third trimester. At our last appt, the baby measured about 2 1/2 lbs, and if I stay on track, she will be about a 7lb bundle of joy... please no bigger! :)

We just had the last of the two baby showers in honor of this lucky little girl. The first one was on March 5th. It was a gorgeous shower! My mom and Jenn did a WONDERFUL job. THANK YOU THANK YOU. And of course, Mama Eckert, Rachel and Danielle helped and were FABULOUS as usual! The food was incredible, the desserts were to DIE for... wish I had more. I will have to post pics here later. The second shower was just this past weekend at Cat's house. Again, fabulous food, wonderful people! THANK YOU CAT for hosting an amazing shower! AND THANK YOU TO EVERYBODY! The showers, the gifts, the love and support mean so much to Cory and I!

As we hit the home stretch, I've definitely been experiencing some of those wonderful third trimester pregnancy symptoms that nobody likes to talk about. Let's just say that the hormones relax certain muscles that allow me to clear a room faster than the speeding bullet...sleepless nights make for a pleasant wife in the morning. Which, I guess, makes me extremely lucky that I am not working at this time since I can sleep in once Cory leaves for work... all of these websites and books tell you about crazy dreams, but wow, crazy is not the word I would use. More like psychotic, make me not want to fall asleep every type dreams...and of course, physically, my belly is getting bigger, so I run into everything. And let's just say that, although I have been lucky enough to be "all-belly" and not swell everywhere else, like my feet, ankles, face, etc., I have managed to get puffy in other areas. I'll leave it at that. But the ones I have cried too - you're probably laughing your asses off right now. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, as this IS the miracle of life. I'm just not understanding those women who say "I LOVED being pregnant." Seriously? There's this huge belly in front of you that doesn't allow you to do mundane tasks, such as, putting on your socks and shoes or sometimes even putting on your pants, so your poor husband has to dress you. I guess that's good practice for the baby, right? Should I kick and cry in the process? :)

Anyhoo, I just keep counting down the days until we get to meet this beautiful baby girl. It is super exciting, but also just as nerve wrecking. Those of you who know me know that I am a control freak. And here we are, about to embark on this journey where I get absolutely NO control. How am I supposed to comprehend that? Still, I'm here to be humbled and fall in love with this little creation. It's endearing to see how excited Cory gets... btw, he has already predicted that #2 is going to be a girl. Anyone wanna take that bet? He is ecstatic at the fact that he will not only be a DADDY soon, but that he will have this little girl that will melt his heart, which in turn will allow her to break every rule he attempts to set out. (Some rules have ALREADY been broken) To all my dads out there, am I right or am I right? He looks at her closet and is overwhelmed with the amount of pink that has taken over, and is over the moon when he sees purple or yellow or green. Haha! He talks to her every night before going to bed. He even sings his crazy songs to her. She kicks back. Although it's difficult to tell if she is kicking in excitement or just trying to get her dad to pipe down.

Ok, so that's all for now. We have our first of the prenatal classes tonight. Infant Safety and CPR. Makes me nervous to hear about all the possibilities of things that can happen, nevertheless, it has to be done. We have the tour and childbirthing class next month. We are taking it with BJ and Davis so that should be fun!

Until next time...