Like father, like daughter...

Mmmm after a large portion of manicotti for our first early Riccitelli Christmas Dinner while Dad and Karin were in town, Dad and I sit back for a little R & R....both of us showing our bumps! All of Ron's family came down the house and we had lots of Italian food and plenty of Momma R.'s famous chocolate chip cookies. And, no, I did not have any peanut butter fudge ; ) ! We had our last doctor appointment on Wednesday and got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time which was very, very cool. It was a healthy 156 bpm. Our next appointment is on Jan 9th (a day before my bday), where we'll get our next sonogram and finally know the sex. I'm going to finally put my own prediction out here. I think its a boy. I had dreams at first it was a girl until my first sonogram but after that my intuition is saying boy, boy, boy. Ronnie thinks its a boy too. I hear so many old wives tales on how you feel with a boy vs a girl and if any of that is true, every way I look and feel is saying boy. I could be completely wrong, of course. I would be happy with either or, so we are anxious to find out. Less than a month away and a great birthday present!

2nd Trimester

I've heard so much about this wonderful "pregnancy glow" that pregnant women get..we'll I've figured out that that's a bunch of BS. This pregnancy glow just means an extremely oily face...with a little acne on the side. That's the worst of my symptoms though so I have no room to complain. The pants you see I'm wearing in this picture are the only pants I can button at this point. They used to be my fat pants, but now they are the best things in the world. I bought the Bella Band which is something I can wear over my unbuttoned, unzipped work pants. Every now and again I'll find that the band has slipped upwards and my exposed underwear are out for my coworkers to see. I've also felt like a pervert while having phone conversations with my clients... I'm so short of breath nowadays I'm sure all they can hear is my heavy breath in their ear. I've suddenly gotten tired again and slept from 10-9:30 am last night...other than the two bathroom breaks because my bladder is getting crushed. Mom and Steve came in for Thanksgiving and they got the crib for us. We picked it up from JCPenny's and Ronnie and Steve set it up that night. Its so nice and a bed that the baby will use for years because its convertible. It even becomes a full-sized bed with head and foot boards, but I have a feeling it will stay a crib for many years.