22 Weeks

Happy Mother's day to all the extraordinary women out there who have taken on the privilege and difficult job to care for another life besides their own!  Cheers to you for making sacrifice after sacrifice for your kids!  It is an honor to be joining you in this crazy emotional journey come September.  You all are amazing women and I look forward to learning so much from all you beautiful ladies .  There are laundry lists of fun, creative, wonderful, and not so glamorous things you do from day to day to ultimately make sure your family is happy and healthy which is completely commendable!  It is a 24/7 JOB!  Being a mom has always been a HUGE deal to me... that might be why I knew I was not ready for the longest time...I saw my mom do it, and I knew I could not put myself to the wayside and put a child first in my life.  The responsibility is absolutely overwhelming if I think about it too much!!  I was selfish, but I was enjoying my youth and alone time with my TyTy.   Now after 8 years of alone time with him I am ready to share!  In fact, I am excited to share him!  I am thrilled to do something bigger and better with my life!  And I can't think of anything bigger and better to do with my life than becoming a mommy.  Congrats to all of you and your accomplishments as a mom and keep up the good work.  Life is a roller coaster, so just ENJOY the ride!

On this note, I want to especially honor my mom (a.k.a. The Saint) on this day.  Her journey with motherhood has it's ups and downs just like many of you have had or will have.  By the time I was four years old and she had just had my brother, her life took a BIG turn.  My dad was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.  Not only did she have to fully support two young kids, she was emotionally and later physically supporting her sick husband as well.  She never batted an eye, never complained to us, but always made sure my bother and I got to our friend's birthday parties, made sure we were always involved in sports/extra curricular activities, bought us nice clothes and shoes, financially sacrificed for us to attend private school, pushed us to do well in school and on top of that made sure my dads health care was in tip-top shape including a purchase of a huge safari handicapped accessible van to get him here and there and taking a chunk of money out of her 401K to remodel the bathroom for better accessibility for him.  She had a HUGE calendar that took up the whole side of the fridge and highlighted each of our activities with a different color highlighter.  It was like a freaking rainbow puked on our fridge!  She was ALWAYS ON THE RUN... ALWAYS making sure her family was taken care of, often forgetting to do something special for herself.  

By the time my brother and I were older, my fathers health was getting worse.  Although she had the joy of seeing my brother and I grow up and become independent, she was still the care giver for my father, right down to cutting his food up for him to eat and sometimes having to feed him if he was too tired to hold his fork.  As a mother it was probably great to see the up hill climb with her kids but heartbreaking to see the decline in her husband's health.  As a wife she always did what was right for her husband, and even more as a mother, she made the ultimate sacrifices to make sure that her and her husband's children grew up in a safe and "normal" home life despite the extreme abnormalities we all faced as a family with a disability.  

It never really hit me till I was in high school and my friends would always hang out at our house witnessing the many struggles my mom dealt with.  For example, calling/planning EVERYWHERE we went to make sure it was handicapped accessible... (school gyms for sports, restaurants, homes)  That is when she earned her title as "The Saint" ...  Ya, the title came from a whole bunch of high schoolers.  If young adolescent, foolish high-school boys and girls can recognize that my mother was extraordinary, then I knew she had to be something pretty amazing.  And from there our relationship has grown since.  She is not only my mom but my best friend and I don't know what I would do with out her in my life.  So today I want to thank her for all her hard work and endless sacrifices over the last 26 years because there is NO WAY I can repay her.  All I can say is if I can do half as good of a job as she did, I see a couple "World's Best Mom" coffee mugs in my future.        


Exercising?  You betcha baby!  Walking!  And back to Yoga starting this coming week!!  I am doing prenatal yoga at Destination Maternity in Brookfield with my girlfriend Danielle!  

Maternity clothes?   I am getting a little tired of wearing the same stuff over and over, but next week we move into the master bedroom and most importantly(hehe) we get to organize the big walk in closet.  I am sure it will help to switch things up again, considering Tyler and I are living in a small room and we have enough clothes between the both of us to fill 2 regular closets, 2 huge dressers, a long hanging rack (which takes up a lot of room), and a couple of piles of sweatshirts.   The room is just full of clothes - it looks like a walk in closet!  So as you can imagine, it makes it hard to navigate through and I can never figure out what to wear over this belly!  

Sleeping?  I had some pretty rough nights of sleep... I usually feel like I wake up every time I move in the bed now.  It just makes me crabby in the morning when my alarm goes off and I felt like I was up 10 times in the night.... but hey, I guess that's what we signed up for like the next 18 years...

Missing Anything?   This week, maybe because of the poor sleep, I was really thinking about a strong cup of joe.  I was dreaming of those days when I would drink coffee allll day looong.  I mean I don't need to go back to that, but I am looking forward to brewing my coffee when I wake up and enjoying that nice strong flavor to start my day.  Not to mention the great energy boost!  I am choosing to not drink coffee right now because I am not willing to go back to the acid reflux issues I had in the past.  I do not want it to come down to taking medications while I am pregnant.  I will enjoy a couple cups of decaf here and there, but it is just not the same.  Once I have the baby I do plan on allowing myself that one or two cups (with caffeine) in the early morning to start my day.  I know... I hear mixed reviews on the caffeine intake and breast-feeding, but any early cups of coffee should not be affecting the baby's sleep at 9 o'clock at night, if you ask me....

Food cravings?   Nothing this week.... I have not even touched a fruit snack since last weeks outburst.

Acid Reflux?  HEARTBURN!  Soooo annoying... and sooo unbelievably uncomfortable!  It is amazing the difference in pain from acid reflux and heartburn.  I am so thankful still to this day I have not had one trace of reflux issues, but damn this heartburn.  Sometimes I feel like it fills the whole cavity under my ribs with burning sensations and I just want to rip my rips apart and give my tummy room to do its thing!  

Anything making you queasy or sick?   NOT REALLY... just trying to avoid brushing my teeth before breakfast now...  it just seems that every once in a while I wake up feeling "morning sickness" again.  Not sure how to avoid that, but on the mornings I wake up feeling good, I am very thankful!

This Weeks Symptoms?  Nothing overbearing... I guess sensitivity would be a big one this week.  I had a pimple on my face, for the first time since I have been pregnant, and it was painful...More painful than I remember a pimple being!  My skin seems sensitive to the touch especially my chest area... which if you don't mind me ranting about this for a second I would like to tell you a little something.  I feel FAR from goddess and glowing during this pregnancy, in fact I would classify myself as frumpy and exhausted looking.  But I am FULLY enjoying the fact that I have a RACK!  I have never felt so excited about putting on my bra in the morning!  I have always been petite and small with an athletic built.  I know women sometimes curse their growing chest during pregnancy, but despite the sensitivity I am welcoming it and enjoying the feeling of actually looking like a woman!  Now if they could only stay like that forever.......    

Any Movement?   Oh ya! Sal makes it clear when he is awake!  Sometimes I feel these ripples, and I have no clue what they really are, but I picture this little baby playing in this pool of liquid and the liquid just banging up against the sides of my tummy like ocean tides.  And then there is the occasional kick or punch right to the wall letting me know he is doing his exercises and getting his muscles and reflexes working.  It was a little sad because Tyler has not yet been able to feel him move by putting his hand on my tummy, but Thursday morning when he left at 4:30 am to catch his plane to Rhode Island I was woken up and pretty much stayed up... so I went to the bathroom and I also noticed that someone else was up too!  Yup, Salvatore was moving around in there... in fact shortly after I heard the door shut and Tyler was out of the house Sal was really moving so I put my hand on the outside of my tummy.... I was pretty positive that I not only felt the movement from the inside but also from the outside!  I am very much looking forward to Tyler's return so we can make this happen again soon!  

Labor Signs?  nope

Belly Button: in or out?  more out(ish) .. haha... i don't know what to expect from here!

Wedding rings on or off?   On

Overall Mood this week?   I was in go-go-go mode this week.  We were very busy and we are still packing/unpacking...  I feel like I have so much energy compared to any other time since I have been pregnant.  I mean, I get tired, but when I have the energy it is just bigger and stronger bursts than in the past several months!

Looking forward to?  May 19th - my first wedding as a pregnant lady and I am still trying to figure out how I am going to dress this growing bump!  Kinda frustrating... but I have some ideas up my sleeve!  AND also looking forward to May 21st.  Painters will be ramping up the house with our own touch-- a little bit of paint goes a long way... PLUS once the base is down in Sal's room,  I get to get my creativity on!!  So looking forward to getting my hands on that room!  Hehe.  

Pit of the week?  Tyler was traveling for work in Rhode Island from Thursday to Sunday.  Work is doing well for him and  I am so thankful for that.  I would never take that away from him, but I just get sad when I don't get to come home and cuddle with him.  He makes me so unbelievably proud though and that always outweighs my sadness while he is away.  I am so lucky to be his wife and soon-to-be mother to his baby boy.

Peak of the week?  I FORGOT TO MENTION THIS LAST TIME!!  We are all done registering for baby Salvatore!  What a relief!  We are registered at Amazon.com and Babies R Us.  The nice thing about Amazon is the discounts and some items are eligible for super saver shipping meaning over $25 purchase can get free shipping!  If you want to check it out go to Amazon.com and on the right side by the cart icon there is an area for a "wish list" and when you hover over that with the mouse, a drop down happens that includes the baby registry option.  The only bummer with Babies R Us is that sometimes the prices online are cheaper than the in store prices and they do not honor the online prices in the store.  For instance a baby monitor might be $20 more expensive in the store than online. (you can tell Daddy got to hold the scanner and enjoyed the many toy options for Sweet Sal)  As always, this is our first time with this whole baby thing, so we accept any advice or ideas if you have anything in mind!



Make it a great week everyone and all you Mothers out there, hope you ENJOYED your beautiful day even though I think everyday should be Mother's Day!!
Much Love,
Jax