34 weeks, pnut has 6 weeks to go, and the Pats are in the Superbowl!!

As you can see from the title, there is much excitement around the Astion/Parizale household - both for pnut and for Rich's other love, the Patriots.  This past weekend Pnut got to experience his first AFC East championship - and as daddy screamed at the TV, Pnut bounced around to show his support.  The three of us are VERY excited to see the Patriots/Giants Superbowl rematch next weekend!! GO PATS!

This past weekend a friend and fellow co-worker was also nice enough to take some maternity photos for Rich and I.  A budding photographer, Christina is building a portfolio of her fabulous photos, and we were lucky enough to be part of that experience.  When Christina asked if we had a special place in mind (of course Rich's first suggestion was Gillette Stadium... i kid you not) I instantly thought of the deCordova museum and sculpture park.  While Rich and I are generally not a huge fans of museums, we both love the sculpture park at the deCordova.  I love that you can touch, feel, and explore each sculpture and that it is not only accepted but encouraged.  I knew this is where I would want to have photos taken.  Christina was a champ - trudging through snow and cold to get to some of our favorite sculptures and taking photo after photo (after photo) to catch us doing any manner of posing and expressions (which, if you know me, you know there are PLENTY of both!).  There are quite a few photos, most of which we have not seen yet, but Christina was nice enough to give us a taste - I've posted some of those for you to see.

This coming weekend is our baby shower and what I'm most excited for is to have many of our friends and family in one room together (many of whom haven't met each other!!).  There aren't many occasions where this is possible - and I am so grateful to be able to share this experience with such a wonderful group of women.  I will have many pictures to post after this fabulous event.  A big pre-party thank you to Julia for hosting this shin-dig.  She has truly worked her butt off!!!

In quick Pnut news - we had our 34 week check-up this week.  Strong heartbeat, head-down, measuring right on the dot.  The doctor was reluctant to give me an estimate of size at this point - which is fine, I suppose, but I sure would like to know how much bigger this pnut is going to get!!! :)

Until next time!!

32 weeks, Happy New Year, 8 weeks to go!!!

Apologies for only one picture for this week, but I promise there will be more for the next post. 

It's been a crazy couple of weeks for pnut, Rich, and me. No worries, everyone is healthy and doing well, just a bunch of activity - some good, some bad, but all is working out in the end.  Pnut is now supposed to be more than 16 inches long and weigh about 3.75lbs this week (according to the baby website).  It's getting harder and harder to imagine that he's going to continue to grow in here - we're seriously running out of space! Common life situations are becoming more difficult.  Last night I realized I had to hunch over the sink in order to wash dishes and this morning Rich had a good laugh at me trying to put my socks.  I can only imagine what the next 8 weeks will bring (my friends who have had children assure me that the truly "fun" pregnancy times lie ahead)!!

As always, New Year's Eve was a good time (although one of the group wasn't feeling well - and we all worried about him)! We stuck with our tradition of hanging out in Stoneham with the Reiss-Hulings and the Hanleys - playing games, watching tv, and just generally chatting and hanging out.  Since New Years, we have taken down the Christmas tree and started the movement of packing up our "office"so it can become the guest bedroom, moving the guest bedroom furniture into the office, and creating a nursery.  It seems like a task that will take forever, but Rich assures me it can get done in time for Superbowl :) The good news is that we have all the major pieces to the nursery puzzle - crib, dresser/changing table, rug, curtains.  I'm heading to NY this weekend to pick up our stroller (thank you Donna!!) and miscellaneous goodies from other family members (thanks Tanta!).  Now it's just getting all that sorted, assembled, and set up!  We are moving right along!

Hard to believe that 8 months has flown by - and that in just 8 weeks pnut will be HERE.  I spent so much time (and still do, to be honest) worrying and hoping things would just go faster and now it feels like "wow!" maybe this should slow back down!! Too late for that, I suppose :)

Much love to everyone - we'll check back in soon!