Coming Soon! Gianna Lucia: Big Sister

Well, friends, it's official! Gianna will be a BIG SISTER this February. I am due on February 22, 2015 and we could not be more excited!

We found out on June 12th, the day before we left for London. It was two days before my missed period and I was only three weeks, four days along so it was super early. Here is the back story:

One of the "side effects" of nursing Gianna was that my period didn't come back after I had her. This is normal and it makes its appearance at different times and everyone is different. For me, it took 27 months (Jan 2012 - April 2014) for it to return. We wanted to start trying for another baby but without a period that can be challenging for obvious reasons. I tried a combination of things to get it to return. It started in February with night weaning Gianna and that took about 2-3 weeks. Still nothing. I tried reflexology, massage and eventually acupuncture and supplements. It returned in April and I started tracking everything. (Hooray for apps that do this!) I got one more period in May and a positive test in June. I know what a blessing this is and am so thankful for the opportunity to be a mommy again. 

I had planned to test on Saturday, but that was the day we were supposed to land in London and also the day I was supposed to get my period. It was Thursday and Gianna was at school, Marco was at work, and I was home getting us packed and ready to go. I was sitting on the couch watching the funeral of Las Vegas Metro Police Officer Igor Soldo and I was balling. Balling. It was so sad. Then I was on Facebook and looking at posts and videos of random things. Balling again. I was an emotional mess. I literally cried on and off for like two hours that morning. When I stopped to think about it, I realized that I had also been up multiple nights that week to pee during the night...not a normal occurrence for me. I decided to test and use the Dollar Store test I picked up a few days before. 

Now, I was prepared with a "real" test and had a Clearblue Easy digital test with a weeks indicator ready to go. I figured I'd try the Dollar Store test first so I didn't waste the good test. So silly (and I clearly did not learn anything from the first time around). I did the Dollar Store test and could not tell if there was a line or not. OMG, seriously?! I swear there was a super faint line but I couldn't tell if I was psyching myself out. I took a pic of the test and posted it to the November 2012 Mommy Group I am part of on FB. Some ladies there can invert the pic to a negative (I don't know how to do this) and it's easier to see if there is a line. So I posted the pic and someone commented immediately that she saw a line without the fancy negative thing and encouraged me to do the Clearblue Easy test. Luckily, I still had pee in the cup (I panicked for a sec till I realized this) and I put the stick in and waited. Longest. Three. Minutes. Ever. Stupid hourglass... Then all of a sudden it popped up....PREGNANT 1-2 (weeks). I just started crying and sat on the floor. I was so overwhelmed and excited and overjoyed, really. But I was home alone....so now to figure out what to do next.

We were trying to get pregnant and I thought it would be really cute for Gianna to have a Big Sister t-shirt. I had ordered one for her on Amazon and, funny enough, it was actually delivered the day before. I did not tell anyone I bought it- not even Marco. I had to go to Marco's work that afternoon to pick something up from him so I decided to pick up G from school first and bring her with me. I dressed her in the shirt and we drove to his office. I called Marco and asked him to come down "because there was a weird light on in my car all of a sudden". When he came out of the elevator Gianna and I were waiting for him. He saw the shirt right away and was so surprised! He was so excited and picked me up and spun me around. It was super cute. 

The day we found out Gianna was going to be a big sister!

That evening, I had dinner with my mom and brother and had G wear her shirt. When we arrived, I asked my mom to put the dogs outside because Gianna was sleeping. Then, instead, I sent her walking in with her new shirt on. Here is what happened next:

We shared the news with both our families and then boarded a plane for our European adventure...which was now a dry event for me. Another trip abroad with no beer or wine. Sigh....but for the best reason ever! It's a good thing gelato doesn't have any alcohol in it! :)

We made it "Facebook official" at 11 weeks and had some fun sharing the news. Gianna wore her pink Big Sister shirt to school and we gave her class some Dunkin Donuts Munchkins to help celebrate our new little "munchkin". I also brought some to my office an wrote something similar on the boxes. Here is the picture we used to make the announcement on Facebook:

And so, the next adventure begins!!!