Weekend in Chicago

We spent this past weekend in Chicago visiting Desiree, Lou, Nico, and my parents. We had a fun weekend! We spent Saturday at the Air & Water Show downtown Chicago. Everyone piles onto the beach and watches the planes, sky divers, and other stunts. It was pretty impressive!

Cute Chiappetta family picture!

And I had to post this one because you can see Nico's red ear plugs. He was totally unfazed by them.

I have been reading in some of my pregnancy updates that many expectant fathers gain weight along with their wives during pregnancy. Well I had my 24 week appointment today and we figured out that Andy has lost exactly the same amount that I have gained so far...hmmm. I guess that's what happens when he's triathlon man and I'm a preggo mama! Do you like the comparison in these two pics?

It's a good thing summer is almost over. I'm not sure everyone will want to see my bare belly before long! We also brought back furniture that my parents got us for the nursery. I will have to save that for a post in itself.

Tomorrow we head to Colorado for a week of hiking and relaxing in the mountains.

We're really looking forward to it!

Pregnancy Notes

I have kept a post-it in my purse and have tried to write down little pregnancy notes here and there. I know I will want to compare in the future. So here they are...

• Found out I was pregnant on Friday, April 3rd. I was exactly 4 weeks along.
• The first symptom that I had which made me think I might be expecting: Thirst! I'm usually never thirsty and hardly drink any fluids. Not now!
• First person I told: Andy, of course. I gave him a small frame that said "It's about time we start calling you DAD!" (Side note, he used to ask me if I was going to call him dad when we had kids. I think this is because his dad usually calls his mom 'mom'.)
• We told our family the news around 8 weeks and then our other friends shortly after.
• I felt really good until 6 weeks.
• I only got sick twice, both in the evening, once at 7.5 weeks and once at 10 weeks. There was a lot of nausea up until about week 13 though.
• From week 6 - week 15 I was more exhausted than I ever knew imaginable. Thankfully that is over with!
• We first heard the heartbeat at 11 weeks. So neat!
• We had our first ultrasound at 12 weeks. After seeing the baby's profile, I thought he looked just like Andy!
• My stomach really popped overnight at 14 weeks.
• We found out we were having a little boy on Thursday, July 23rd. We were both so excited!
• I first felt the baby move at 14 weeks while at Desiree and Lou's. It felt like my stomach was dropping.
• Andy first felt the baby move about 17 weeks. At 21 weeks you can see my stomach moving from the outside.
• Foods I'm liking: Lucky Charms cereal (not a usual fav), TONS of fruit, sweet gherkin pickles, green olives. Bakery type sweets aren't appealing at all. I'm also drinking lots of water, milk, and juice. Coffee was easy to give up until recently. I usually have an iced coffee each morning in the summer so I am missing those. Andy has made me up a few decaf ones to substitute.

I'm sure I'll have more to add to the list, but that's all I've got for now! Let me know if I'm missing anything.

The story of Jack's Blankie

As many of your know, I have inherited my mother's appreciation for fine textiles (like 1,ooo thread count sheets). This appreciation for nice fabrics started long ago. Well one night in college I ran into this cute boy who was out with his friends. We kind of knew each other and he came up and gave me a hug. Well he was wearing the softest shirt I have ever felt. I still remember that night. We started dating just a few weeks later, thanks to a few accounting study dates:). Fast forward about 5 years as we were going through our closets getting stuff ready to sell at our garage sale. He had that shirt in his pile to sell. I told him that I was going to keep that shirt and if our baby was a little boy, I was going to make him a blankie out of it.

I kind of forgot about it until this morning. I decided it was about time that I sew something for our little baby Jack. The blanket measures about 25"x25" inches. The main blue panel is the from the back of the shirt. Because the arm holes were cut into this, I added the small triangles of the fun fabric to keep it square. I picked up some great fluffy, soft fabric for the backing and then lined it in brown satin. I hope he likes it.

And for those of you that like to keep up on the expanding tummy, here's a shot from today (about 21.5 weeks). And the coolest thing...you can see my stomach move from the outside now when he's moving!

Turnover

We own a 3 bedroom townhouse that we rent out. This past week was turnover, the time inbetween tenants. Our previous renters were in there about 6 years, had two-three dogs, and certainly aren't getting any of their deposit back. It was a lot of work especially for Andy and his parents who helped a ton. I certianly helped, but being pregnant got me out of a few things. Here are a few before and after pictures...

BEFORE...

AFTER...

Andy stressed to his new tenants that this is what he expects the place to look like when they move out!

Ultrasound pictures

Here is little Jack's profile.

And a tiny foot.
And his legs crossed. I was SO worried that we wouldn't be able to find out what he was. Thankfully, he gave us three perfectly good shots a little later on. Such a good baby!

Here he was putting his fingers in and out of his mouth.

And one last profile shot.

And here are the proud parents! Andy wore blue to the ultrasound. I chose to wear yellow to be neutral. I did change into blue before I went back to work though:).

My mom, Desiree and Nico came in to spend a few days with us so it was fun to celebrate with them. After the ultrasound we all met up with Andy's mom for a nice breakfast at Blue Bird Cafe.

We plan to name him John after Andy's grandfather. We will call him Jack for a nickname. We have been calling the baby Jack since I found out I was pregnant so maybe we did have a little bit of intuition...I guess we had a 50% chance of being correct!

What a fun day!!

Ultrasound Video

Here is a little clip from our ultrasound this morning. Of course he practically stopped moving right when Andy started filming. During the rest of the ultrasound he was sucking on his fingers, kicking his feet, and playing with his umbilical cord. We can't wait until he is ready to come out and play with us!

It's a...

BOY!!!

I am headed back to work right now, but I just wanted to update everyone quick. We have a little movie and lots of ultrasound pics so I will post those tonight. Trust me, he's a cutie!!

And they showed us three times to confirm, so we are about as close as can be to 100% sure.

We love him!