Give Thanks!

With so much to be thankful for, it's hard not to look forward to and enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday. I am truly blessed beyond measure. I have my health, strength, peace of mind, loving family and friends, and a healthy little girl developing inside of me. Happy doesn't begin to describe my Thanksgiving!

This year, we will be spending it with G's family again. It was so much fun last year and I know it will be a good time again this year. I love that his family is all here in Atlanta and all really close. My family is all concentrated in Birmingham, so they aren't thrilled that I won't be home for Thanksgiving, but I believe they've finally accepted that they will have to share "us" for the holidays. As the song goes, "I'll be home for Christmas"

Today I'm feeling good. I'm at work today, the day before Thanksgiving (blah), but I'm thankful for a great management team who are supportive and very excited about my pregnancy and impending motherhood. I do realize that it could certainly be the opposite b/c not everyone has that in an employer. I'm also hoping their benevolence will allow me to skip out of here around say....2pm so that I can go and get a manicure/pedicure. Its the little things that count the most :)

Can I just say how thrilled I am to have 4 whole days off from work. We get Thanksgiving and the day after, and of course the weekend off. It's going to be great! Sleeping in, watching movies and being boo'd up with my man is a perfect way to enjoy this time off. I didn't think I would want to engage in the Black Friday shopping until I saw the Best Buy ad and noticed that they have a HP laptop for $197 and my Dell laptop of 5 yrs died about a month ago, so there is definitely a need. Although we do have a desktop in the house, there is nothing I'd rather do less than sit in front of a computer for 8 hrs at work and then go home and have to sit in front of another desktop to take care of social needs. Nope! Give me my laptop that I can use sitting on the sofa while watching a movie, or in bed late at night when I can't sleep, or when I wake up for the 3rd time to go pee..LOL. I pray that I secure one of those laptops....

Wednesday, Dec. 2nd is my anatomy scan and another opportunity to see my little girl! This will be my first and only "official" ultrasound at my doctor's office b/c they only give you one if you're having problems or didn't' know when your last cycle was. Since she was a planned pregnancy, I knew exactly when I had my last cycle. We had an "elective" ultrasound around 17wks3d to determine sex b/c at the time Dec. 2nd seemed like eons away! I'm glad we did it b/c I've been stockpiling for her every since! She has clothes in the closet, we purchased her crib about 2 weeks ago, and I bought her bedding this past weekend. Dec. 5th her nursery will be painted to coordinate w/her bedding by my oh so fab designer friend. I'm so excited!! However, most importantly, I'm looking forward to seeing my that my baby's development is just where it should be. Oh how I pray for this little girl. I love her so much already! I invited my BFF to come to the anatomy scan w/us. She's thrilled to come. Since she's an NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) nurse I know she'll know all the questions to ask when I get caught up in the thrill of it all.

These are exciting times for us right now. I've been so consumed with pregnancy that I've almost completely neglected the fact that my birthday is in exactly 2 weeks. Dec. 9th!!! The only thing I'm sure I'll be doing is working a half day and spending the rest of my bday doing something fun. Not sure what just yet, I guess I'll see if G has anything planned since he's going to be off too. Did I mention that I love the holidays? Yep, I'm a holiday kid so naturally this time of year excites me. Our Christmas tree and decor went up last weekend. I was tired of waiting and think that waiting until after Thanksgiving is silly. My tree is a beauty to behold and after all that work I deserve to enjoy it a little longer than most people will. While most folks will be scurrying trying to get their trees purchased and up this weekend. I will be home sitting in my living room, enjoying my beautiful decorations, on my new laptop!! Score!

Happy Holidays to all!

20w2d

Today I had my 20 week appt and all was well. Baby girl gave us a really strong heartbeat of 158 bpm and she's been moving a whole lot more now, which I love. There is nothing like the peace of knowing that your baby is alive and thriving inside of you. I always wondered what it feels like to have someone inside you moving around. Well, the best way I can describe it as this stage is that it tickles mostly and honestly feels like someone is popping you from the inside. Today, she was moving so much while I was in the most boring, valueless conference today and I started to giggle a little bit. It was so cute and so on time. It's like she senses when I need to feel her. She's already reassuring me! Love it!

My cousin is coming to visit this weekend b/c like me, she's ready to shop for Miss Olivia. Shopping is fun in and of itself, but shopping for my first child and a little girl to boot, it's going to be soooo much fun and tiring. It's wonderful to have such an awesome support team. All of my family, friends, sorors, coworkers are soo happy for me. It's exciting!

Now I just need to complete her nursery before the year ends and all will be right in the world, or at least my world. I'm totally confident that this can be done. My friend Simone is doing the painting/design and all I have to do is supply the goods. I can't wait to see her little domain start to take shape. Who am I kidding, the entire house will be her domain :)

I love this little girl so much and I've yet to lay eyes on her. The fact that she's my baby, my daughter, my Olivia makes me the happiest mama-2-be ever! What a privilege and honor! Wow....God never ceases to amaze me!

19 weeks!

Today I'm amazed that I'm nearly half-way through my pregnancy. It's truly been a great pregnancy. If this is how pregnancy is going to be for me then I want to have at least 4 children. So I'm certainly expecting labor to be just a easy breezy. Now for the good news, on October 29, 2009 we had an "elective" ultrasound done at Stork Vision here in Atlanta. She was able to determine that we're having a little.....wait for it.....GIRL, it's a GIRL!!! We are soo excited! The good thing is that although we were both thoroughly convinced that we were having a son, we did pick both a girl and boy name, so now that we know we're having a girl, her name is Olivia Gabrielle! Isn't that a beautiful name! I didn't want my child to be tagged with anything fadish, but to have a name with a real meaning:

Olivia means "truthfulness, peace, dignity, beauty"
Gabrielle means "God is my strength"

A good wholesome name that we can certainly live with and I'm sure our little girl will certainly live up to. I'd be remissed if I didn't mention that I have been shopping and stocking my little girl's closet. It's so much fun! Her closet is the only thing in her room that's taking place right now. I think we've decided on furniture but we're trying to wait it out to see if we'll get a better price around the holidays. The room hasn't yet been painted b/c I haven't decided on bedding just yet. I hope to have that done by the end of the month. My friend, an interior designer, will be designing the room and I trust her to fully manifest my vision. She's good like that. My goal is to have the nursery complete by the end of the year. My own personal goal. I'm a planner by nature so I won't be waiting to the last minute to get things done. I'll start my registries around Thanksgiving so if people decide they want to get things early, they can. My friends asked me when I would like to have my shower and I told them late January. That will give is 2 full months to get whatever else we didn't get during the shower. Although we will be purchasing big ticket items ourselves, (i.e crib, changer/dresser, rocker, etc.) I know our parents will want to make a big contribution towards their first grandchild. My mom has volunteered to purchase the travel system which is easily $200in most places. Either way, our little girl will have everything she needs, plus!

Next Wednesday is my 20wk appt, which is normally when most women have their diagnostic ultrasound. During the diagnostic ultrasound the doctor will be looking at and measuring her heart, lungs, head/brain, length, arms, legs etc. This ultrasound is less about finding out the sex and more about making sure that everything is developing as it should be. That's why we elected to have one done on our own to determine the sex of our child. Besides, mine isn't scheduled until Dec. 2nd, which now doesn't seem so far away but it did especially going through Thanksgiving not knowing whether we were having a girl or boy just wasn't going to happen. Yep, We're impatient like that. Why would I want to miss out on all the holiday deals that will be rolling out? No way, Jose'!! :P

Ok, that's all I have for now. Until the next time...