Weeks 12-15

Dear Baby D2,

 

I had forgotten how long and horrible and nerve-racking the first trimester of pregnancy is.  Keeping one of the biggest secrets of your life for TWELVE WHOLE WEEKS!?!  Ugh - the waiting period is for the birds!  And do you know what makes it even harder?  Apparently your belly starts showing much sooner after your first pregnancy.  For example, perhaps while you're trying to conceal your precious secret, around week 10, a neighbor may ask you, while at a block party, "Is your belly bulging?" to which you will quickly need to reply, "Uh...maybe - I did eat A LOT."  (True story.)  But now the waiting period is over - and we can share our wonderful news with the world!

 

On April 29, I was shaking with excitement as I told your Daddy about you - We were ecstatic!  "We are having another baby!"  The first trimester craaaaawled by but luckily was just as easy on me as my first pregnancy.  Really no nausea and minimal tiredness.  Don't get me wrong - I did usually have to eat something right away in the morning or my tummy would feel icky, but as long as I ate a bagel a day :), I was ok!  There were a few days when I would catnap during your big brother's nap time, but overall, I would say I lucked out!  Around week 14, I gave up trying to squeeze into my regular clothes and put on a pair of maternity pants.  My tummy - and you - thanked me.  I had forgotten how glorious and comfy maternity clothes are.  A few times I may have felt you move.  They say after your first pregnancy, it's easier to distinguish between baby and gas, but I'm not sure I believe that.  My exercising - running - has kept to the same pace as before pregnancy - which is virtually non-existent.  I have a handful of excuses, all which boil down to me being lazy and not wanting to pull myself out of bed in the morning to run.  Every few weeks, I'll feel motivated and run a few days - I even ran three days during vacation - but for the most part, my exercise involves chasing your brother around.

 

Speaking of your brother, he just started recognizing that you are in my belly.  While we read stories at night on Mommy & Daddy's bed, I tell him that you are in my belly and he repeats, "baby" and points.  (Ok, sometimes he also says "belly button" and points to my belly button but for the most part, I think he might be starting to get it.)  Some nights he'll ask "where baby?" and lift up my shirt and kiss my belly!  Talk about heart melting moments.  But then there are the moments when I secretly wonder if he is going to scare you from coming out of my belly.  I promise, I'll keep teaching him that teeth are not for biting and hands are not for hitting.

 

Stay safe in there for now and keep on growing into a healthy baby!  We can't wait to welcome you into our crazy loving family!

 

Love,

Mommy

 

Week 12

Week 13

Week 14

Week 15

 

Frankie's Announcement

Over the past few months, Frankie's had a secret.  That he's been bursting at the seams to share...

He's going to be a big brother!  Folks, prepare yourselves...Baby D2 is expected to enter the world on January 2!

 

Confession:  Frankie may not have been as excited about this photo shoot as the pictures make it seem.  The first 10 minutes went something like this: "Frankie, look, it's a picture of a baby!"  Frankie:  Throws the frame on the ground and hunts for ants.  I finally smartened up..."Wow, Frankie - this picture is black and white just like a...ZEBRA!"  Frankie (with big smile on his face):  "Zeee-bra?"  So, Frankie may think he's going to get a zebra in 6 months, but it made for cute pictures!

Happy 4th!

Frank's godson just graduated high school, so we headed up to Long Island for his celebratory party on July 6th.  Wanting to avoid traffic as much as possible, we opted to leave at 4am on the 4th - and were pulling into my in-laws before 8:30am - even with one stop!  We spent the 4th at Uncle Mike's with the Garones & some of Frank's family, too!  It was a great, hot summer day so Frankie spent most of his time in the pool - or eating watermelon...

 

Lounging in the grass, eating watermelon, with Daddy at my side 

Uncle Mike's neighbor has amazing, I mean AH-MAZING fireworks - but they scared the you-know-what out of Frankie.  (Quite literally - there may have been a pool accident.  Thank goodness those swim diapers are snug!)  Frankie would cling for dear life to Frank or I when a firework went off - and somehow managed to fall asleep during the big show in my arms.  These things were 2-3 houses down from Uncle Mike and rival the National fireworks.  I'm talking big time.  And Frankie fell asleep. 

 

We rounded our trip out with a day at Danielle's and then the big party on Saturday.  We thought we were genius for leaving Saturday evening - but since it took us 2 hours to get off the island, it seems like we weren't the only ones with the idea of breaking out early.  Oh well - how does the saying go?  One out of two traffic-less legs of the trip isn't bad...Or something like that.