Welcome, third trimester!

7 month belly
Originally uploaded by Jaimemjfan.

The husband is now home and the belly has certainly grown over the 10 days that he's been gone. If I acutally wore clothes that fit rather than "snowsuits" (as my husband calls my outfits), I would actually look pregnant. I'm definitely starting to feel pregnant.
I had my 28 week appointment on Wednesday. The good news is I found out what the excruciating pain (formerly referred to as a bruise caused by the seam under my ginormous chest) is. It is a "Firing Nerve". Apparently, the dislocating rib (I've also been having chest pain on my right side - which is a treat compared to the other pain) is causing a nerve to "fire off" shooting pains. (Which is exacerbated by the weight of my ginormous chest). The bad news: there is nothing I can do (short of deivering this baby) to fix either problem. Damn! 3+ more months of this HORRIBLE pain that is causing me to not be able to wear a bra! Great...

Some of you might be wondering if I'm harboring any resentment towards Shawn that he is virtually pain free while I feel like I've taken a bullet to the chest?... nope. Any jealousy that he has lost 5 pounds over the last 7 months while I've packed on 13?...nada. Any bitterness over the fact that he sleeps like a baby while I haven't slept more than 15 minutes in a row in over a month?...none whatsooooever. (If you are sensing some sarcasm in my words, you should be, cuz I'm layin' it on pretty thick!)

7 month belly
Originally uploaded by Jaimemjfan.

Last night I made whoopie pies to surprise Shawn (who doesn't really like sweets but LOVES these) when he got home. It is so typical Jaime to say to him (on his way home) "I have to go to Darcy's tomorrow night to drop off whoopie pies". I was SOOOO mad at myself. Clearly I am incapable of keeping surprises/ secrets. The whoopie pies took 3.5 hrs and came out very yummy. I HATE making them because they are so much work - but they are always worth it in the end. It is my mother-in-law's recipe and they are TO-DIE-FOR.

MANNY HAS FLEAS! :( I was so devastated and embarassed. This pet thing is all so new to me. Off I went to Petco to spend $65 to get rid of them. I hope they're gone. Ugh. The poor guy has an appointment to get fixed in 2 weeks! I already have anxiety about him staying overnight at the vet. The pup is used to sleeping on a nice warm down comforter in bed with us. That night he's going to wake up scared and alone - not to mention hurting - in a cage. :( Shawn is DEFINITELY going to be the one to drop him off at the vet. I can barely look at that sad crying face when I get out of the car at the store - FORGET leaving him with the butcher for the night. No thank-you. All set with that.

Happy 40th Birthday, Scott

Today my brother-in-law and turns FORTY YEARS OLD! (As always, I'm using caps for dramatic effect to show how OLD he is). :) This picture was taken yesterday and caused my jaw to drop. Mr. Manny TORMENTS Miss Sophie and Sophie therefore HATES Manny. This is not the usual scene around their house. Normally Sophie (who is almost as big as Manny) is hiding under a bed hissing and growling and Manny is barking like crazy at her. I asked my sister if she cut and pasted Manny into this picture.


Okay, so this isn't a picture of Scott, but it is a picture of his kids. How cool is that?!? This was taken a couple of weeks ago at Sea World. Shamu came along to say hello. Just a piece of glass between them and him.

Gifts, gifts and more gifts

Yesterday Kate reminded me that I have yet to post pictures from my shower! So here they are... a few snapshots from some of my favorite things. There were tons of other things I loved as well but I thought I'd just show you mostly clothes. :)
Last night I had this horrible nightmare. Now keep in mind that I had originally wanted a boy so it's not as if I'm anti-any-specific-gender. It's just that her room is so girly and cute, I have a BAZILLION adorable girly girl outfits (with no receipts, mind you) and I now have about 30 scrapbook's worth of baby girl stuff. Not to mention the fact that I already know her as my little girl. That being said...
I was somewhere (I think my old neighbor's house, maybe?) and Shawn showed up saying that "the baby was ready so he picked it up on his way there". (This was normal in my dream - apparently that's how babies came to be - you just picked them up once they "were ready"). So anyway, he says to me "I think it might be a boy, though". So I panic and ask why and he says "well they put a blue blanket on it". So... I ran outside and was devastated to discover that under that boy blanket were also boy parts. I was so upset by this that I was sobbing and didn't even want to hold the baby. I was overwhelmed by the thought that I would have to return all of her (his) clothes, change her (his) nursery and change her (his) name.
I don't suppose if I told them about my dream Wednesday at my 28 week appointment they would give me a quick ultrasound? Seriously, Rylee, please don't come out with boy parts...I'm begging you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SONYA!

Sonya
Originally uploaded by Jaimemjfan.

Yesterday Sonya turned 28 years old. She has been one of my best friends for over ten years. She is incredibly sweet, sincere, thoughtful and considerate. She lives over 2 hours away but still manages to make it to every single important event in my life. Our friendship is one that will endure all the days of our lives and I will love her as much when we are 80 as I do today. I hope you had the very bestest birthday a girl can have, Pinky, and I can't wait to see you again!
I tried loading this picture (taken 3 years ago at Amy's wedding) with Picasa but I can't seem to figure out how to log in. I found 30 different ways to download the program all over again - but couldn't find anywhere to just log in with the existing account that I already have.
On a more serious note, I know I'm asking for a lot lately, but Shawn's bumpa, a man I love very much, is in need of your warm thoughts & prayers! He NEEDS to pull through this so that he can meet my little Rylee Carmella. He NEEDS to pull through this so my baby girl can come to know this wonderful man - the husband of the woman who gives Rylee her middle name. If we had gotten pregnant when we started trying, Rylee would be almost 2 years old right now. He NEEDS to pull through this so that I dont' spend the rest of my days bitter that we didn't.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KAYLA

Kayla birthday
Originally uploaded by Jaimemjfan.

On Sunday, my niece Kayla turned 10 years old. Shortly after she was born, I moved in with my sister and became her nanny while I took evening college classes. I can't believe 10 years have passed already. After years and years of loving other people's kids, I finally get my own. ;)

I have been a major blogging slacker. I haven't had time to post or read other people's blogs... I feel so behind! So after this entry (which has been on my "things to do" list since Monday) I am finally off to read up on everyone's lives. I'm sure I've missed so much!
Thank you all for the sweet birthday wishes! I had a wonderful birthday and somewhere along the way from childhood to here, I became spoiled! As a kid, I was the farthest thing from spoiled you could get. I (we) never got ANYTHING we wanted (although we did get things we needed - like school supplies) unless it was a birthday or Christmas. Once I was finally on my own and had "learned financial responsibility", my parents (encouraged mostly by my father) has made up for some of those "do you want a toy or basketball sneakers for your birthday this year" years. In addition, I have Shawn's family and great friends who spoil me rotten! I am one lucky duck. (Or, hippo, these days).

So does anyone out there know of free software that will let me edit pictures? Right now they all go under "My Documents My Pictures" and from there I can't edit. I can edit from my Kodak Easyshare software but the program SUCKS! It slows my computer and can never seem to "locate" my pictures, even though it's showing me a thumbnail of them.

Shawn left for Florida yesterday for 10 days on business. Eternity, much? Luckily I work 9 out of 10 of those days so I shouldn't die of boredom. (Yeah, that's really not lucky, is it?) Plus, my other husband, Wally, is staying with me so I don't have to be alone. The puppy is missing him dearly. I SWEAR he could sense that he was leaving. It was bizarre. Usually Shawn leaves in the morning and Manny couldn't care less - he continues to snooze away in bed with me. Not yesterday morning! He was ADAMENT that Shawn was not leaving without him and cried nonstop after he left. I was suddenly emotional and sad (very unlike me) when he left and actually couldn't fight back the tears (I chaulk this up to pregnancy hormones.) Well anyway, the puppy begged to get up on the bed and when he did, he licked all of my tears and nuzzled his way under the covers to cuddle with my neck. This was one of those "I want to keep you" moments.

Shawn's best friend's wife just had her baby 8 weeks early. She was due almost 5 weeks before me. She flew off to Minnesota (who does that while 8 months pregnant?) to visit a friend and went into labor delivering a healthy baby boy named Ashton. How bizarre that he will be 3 months old when Rylee arrives and yet Rylee will be bigger than him on the day she is born. Wierd.

Okay, I'm off to catch up...

I'm 28 today!

Happy birthday to me
Happy birthday to me
Happy birthday dear m-eeeeeeeeee
Happy birthday to me!

Today I turn 28 years old. It's the first year that I haven't been surrounded by co-workers to shower me with birthday love. I wanted to thank everyone who has emailed me with birthday wishes and tell you that I'm not ignoring you - I'm just SOOOOOOOO busy today!! Also, a very happy birthday to Tonya as well!!

I hope 28 is a good year. I think it's a good age to have a baby. I have a lot of great friends & family and my husband (who left a very sweet "mom" birthday card for me on the counter this morning) makes me very happy. Life is good. (Now that it's not raining). ;)

Easy to fool... but not easy

So noone has ever accused me of making anything easy. Yesterday morning I was very frusterated because the dog refuses to go potty outside in the rain and therefore will only use the hardwood floor as his own personal bathroom. I was wondering how much my parents would freak when he used their rug as a bathroom. So it dawned on me that my parents and sister could just come to my house for the birthday party, instead. Afterall, everyone who was celebrating a birthday this month live in the town where I live, anyway. I offered to make a cake and all but stomped my feet when my mother said it was too late to change the location. Little did I know!

Let me just start out by giving some advice to other mothers-to-be:
#1. Got cute maternity clothes? Wear them. Even if it's raining. Even if you're tired. Even if it's cold out. Don't opt for the "is that a Hefty bag that you're wearing" all black sweatsuit that would fit a pregnant elephant. ALWAYS WEAR THE MATERNITY CLOTHES WHEN LEAVING THE HOUSE!
#2. Always wear a bra. Even if your ginormous breasts no longer fit into your sister's double D hand-me-downs and the seams are causing a ginormous bruise underneath the 14 pound weight that is your right breast. Just do it. Just put it on and endure the pain. And when you arrive at the "family birthday party" and you know with absolute certainty that you will not be greeted by 30 of your friends, then take it off.
#3. If you're having a baby girl, DON'T SHOP FOR CLOTHES BEFORE YOUR SHOWER. Buy diapers instead. I didn't get any diapers - although I did get about 4,000 of the cutest baby girl outfits i've ever seen.
#4. Bring a big car. My sister's new 1800 sq. foot Yukon and my husband's tiny Ion could barely do the trick. When I asked my husband if there was room in the car for me, I was told that there was certainly room for Manny, me he wasn't sure (he was probably looking at my Hefty bag outfit and assuming I'd actually take up much more room than I actually did).
#5. Don't just assume that since your due date is light years away and noone has shopped off your registry that you can't be having a shower anytime soon. You can.

Wow. Everyone insisted that I must've known. Wha? Did you SEE what I was wearing? Trust me... I didn't know. Shock was the understatement of the century. It was so exciting... and I loved everything (even though the first hour that I was there was a total fog!). So many of the people I love were able to make it which made it even better. Everyone was SOOOO generous. I'll have to take pictures of some of my favorites (how will I choose?!) to post later. Some thank-yous: (even though only like 2 people that I actually know in real life read this anyway) :)

• Thanks to everyone who helped put it all together! Darcy bought all of the adorable decorations, tons of people helped out to making food, Michelle bought the huge yummy cake, my mom and sister decorated mom's house that morning and tons of people helped keep it a secret (esp. my mother in law who had to spend the evening before with me without spilling!).
• Thanks to all of you who drove far-far-away (in the rain) to make my day extra special.
• Thanks for everyone's generosity and all of the sweet, adorable things that will welcome Rylee home after the holidays. Even those who couldn't make it were very generous and thoughtful!
  

Altered wedding vows

So my husband is very anti-gift giving. Had we written our own vows, he would've insisted that mine go something like this:
...I Jaime, take you, Shawn to be my husband. I will promise to love, comfort and honor you, in sickness and in health, for richer and for poorer, through giftless birthdays, Christmas and Valentine's days, for better and for worse, in sadness and in joy, as long as we both shall live...
But THIS birthday - this birthday is different. Yesterday I was baking apple pies and he comes in the kitchen and says "so you want your stupid birthday gift, or what?". I was totally caught off guard because A. my birthday isn't until the 12th and B. he never wants to do gifts and C. if his gift was stupid why would he be so anxious to give it to me? After pointing out A, B and C to him he takes me in the bedroom and pulls a small stack of papers out of his bag. IT WAS BARENAKED LADIES (my favoritest band in the whole wide world!) TICKETS! I was ECSTATIC!

On another note, there has been so much hype about the new movie, Flight Plan. Apparently all of the flight attendants have their panties in a ruffle and are trying to ban the movie. Honestly... the whole thing is ridiculous. It's a movie! Were the cops trying to sue the movie "Snake eyes" because it meant that all cops were crooked? Were teachers trying to sue the movie "School of Rock" because it meant that all teachers were goofball rock-star-wannabes? Were the cable companies trying to sue the movie "Cable guy" because it meant that all cable guys were fruitloop stalkers? Someone needs to point this out to these people!

So according to BabyCenter, my baby is now just over a pound and almost a foot long (or probably 3 feet long knowing her parents). But even at this tiny size, she has already developed a personality. How is that possible? Yesterday she was active all day. Every time she would be moving "a lot" for more than 5 minutes, I would have Shawn feel my belly. Apparently she was just itching to get out there and join the Patriots. Every single time that Shawn would get down by my belly and talk to her and say her name, she would stop kicking! Then a minute or two would pass after he stopped talking to her and she would start right in again. The first couple of times that it happened, I thought it was entirely a coincidence. But by the 3rd of 4th time, it was obvious that she was getting completely still to hear her daddy talk to her. It was just the cutest thing. Already Rylee is learning to completely wrap her father around her tiny little finger.