Post date: Aug 12, 2011 5:54:50 PM
The third trimester made it's official start a day before our baby shower so it was fun to be able to tell everyone that I am now 7 months along! Our baby shower was awesome. For those of us who were there, there's no mistaken it was a very hot and humid day; however, we all survived the 'melt' we may have experienced. Other than that factor, it was certainly a perfect day.
Dad & Mom invested so much heartfelt time, thought, creativity, and energy into every single smallest detail being perfect and it really was just that; perfect. Jim and I felt so loved from Dad & Mom as well as all of the family and friends who shared our day with us. Cousin Mary Jo and her daughter, Jennifer drove all the way in from Buffalo, New York to be with us and surprise my parents. Just having our family and friends there would have been enough, but we (Briella) also got so many wonderful and awesome gifts. Some too expensive and some with so much handmade and heartfelt time put into them. We loved everything so much! We got to finally find out that we are having a girl recently so we were so excited that we could announce it to everyone at the shower. We hand selected Aunt Mary to do the honors of sharing our news to the crowd by having the underneath of her cake plate say it was a girl. She actually squealed when she read the plate so, just as we thought, she was perfect for executing our plan.
Now we can actually call our baby by her name, Briella, and not keep calling her 'baby'. The name Briella means, "God is my Strength" and the meaning of her name alone is very special. I know God has kept her very strong and thriving during this pregnancy; especially after Jim and I were told that having a baby could be a slim chance for us because of my surgeries and issues. God has truly been her strength. Briella's middle name, Katharine, also holds a special place in our hearts because she gets to take on a double namesake in that my Mom's name is Kathleen and my Grandma's name was Catherine. Funny enough, I remember growing up and hearing my mom say that she always liked and wished her name was Catherine so we blended Kathleen and Catherine and came up with Katharine for Briella's middle name. I think Briella will appreciate the very special women she was named after with her middle name. If Briella's relationship with my mom is anything like the relationship that I had with my Grandma Catherine (which I know it will be) then I KNOW she will love being named after her "Nanni".
Aside from our baby shower being the biggest highlight for us recently, it has been a good week of pregnancy. Jim and I had Briella's car seat installed by the health department so that we knew it was done right and we could be taught how to do it. Jim accompanied me to a breastfeeding class even though he was the ONLY man in the room. He always makes me proud that he is so supportive and willing to do anything for me (and Briella). He joined right in as I asked questions of the instructor. I really appreciated having him there with me and being able to tell Briella how invested her Daddy was in her life even before she was born. I was able to join Jim for a business dinner with his boss and colleague; they were both very kind and complimentary to me and very excited for the both of us. I had my very first pregnancy acknowledgement by a stranger who stopped me in the grocery store this past week. Luckily, she was a very sweet and complimentary woman who basically oooohed and aahhhhed over my "Briella Belly" and kept telling me "how cute" and "tiny" I was. I've heard some not so pleasant stories of things that strangers say to pregnant women and happily, I did not have that experience. Jim and I also went to my 28 week check up. Briella was doing well; heartbeat was great, she measured normal, and the doctor answered our multitude of questions as well as comforting our concerns. Everything is going very well and we couldn't feel more blessed and excited than we do right now.