Two Weeks Already?

Gianna 2 weeks

The time is already flying by!  Today Gianna is 2 weeks old and seems to be growing by the second!  We had a doctor visit yesterday to check her weight and make sure she still is healthy.  Everything looked good!  Gianna is now weighing 6 pounds 14 oz and is 20 1/4 inches long!!  She gained an ounce a day in 1 week!  It is really crazy how different siblings can be.  Isabella was and still is on the other side of the spectrum, as far as weight/growth is concerned.  Gianna is definitely going to pass her up sooner rather than later.  Everyone tells us that you can't compare the two.  We are trying not to, but what a difference an "average" sized baby can make.  Gianna has really been a great baby so far.  She loves to eat...as you can tell from the weight gain....and she is sleeping very well at night.  Last night she went with a 5 hour stretch in between feedings!  Since I love my sleep, Mommy was very happy!  Isabella is still enjoying her baby sister.  I hope that continues.  She really does try to be a little helper and it is cute to watch. 

Gianna Christine Martini

We would like to annouce the arrival of the newest addtion to our family.  On Tuesday, August 17th, at 10:06am, Gianna Christine Martini joined the world.  She weighed 6lb 9oz and is 18 3/4inches long.  She has been doing very well, although, a little jaundiced.  So far she has been a good eater and sleeper.  We should be able to go home with her tomorrow morning.  Sister Isabella is always very excited to see the baby.....she doesn't care much about Mom and Dad right now.  It is very cute how she likes to look at Gianna.  We just hope that she continues to love on her once we are all at home.  In the meantime, Isabella is having a GREAT time with Gammy and Gampy, getting very spoiled!    I don't think she will want to come home!  Anthony and I are doing well too.  I am very ready to go home and ready to meet the challenges that will be coming.  We are just so thankful for our healthy little girl and that my c-section went well, without any complications.  Thank you everything for your thoughts and prayers!  I will do my best to keep this blog updated with the newest milestones of Gianna and Isabella!  And, of course, more pictures.

I should also include some things Isabella is up to these days.  She continues to make us laugh and is always learning something new.  It is amazing how fast children grow up and learn things.  I have to brag a little and say that Isabella can now say her vowels.  She also likes to sing along to the ABC song.  She has started to repeat things everyone says.  So, we need to be careful the things we say.  We have had a fun summer and are sad that it is coming to an end.  We spent a lot of it at the neighborhood pool and just playing outside. 

Enjoy the pictures below!

Gianna just seconds old with Mommy & Daddy

Isabella and Gianna

Gianna Day #2

Happy Birthday to Isabella!

Today is Isabella's 2nd birthday!!! Wow has the time gone by fast! This past Saturday, we had an Elmo themed birthday party for her with family and some little neighborhood friends. It was really cute how excited she got when her friends started arriving! She also thought she was pretty special when everyone started singing "Happy Birthday" to her and was excited to blow out the candle on her cupcake. We are very thankful for our family and friends that helped make her day special!

This cupcake is YUMMY!! Can I have some more?

Singing "Happy Birthday"!

Eating lunch with the girlfriends......and cousin Jackson. :)

Opening presents with Maddie and Ellie!

The Joys Of A Child

Most days, don't you wish you could go back in time to when you were a child? They get so much joy out of the most simple things in life. This video I posted shows just a bit of the joy Isabella had on this day after buying her this little slide. She has probably gone up and down the thing 1000 times! We all need to remember to find joy in our everyday lives....even from the simplest things.

July 4th Weekend

Our 4th of July weekend was a nice weekend. We enjoyed have a very relaxing weekend together. On Sunday, we participated in our neighborhood's annual "bike" parade. So, Isabella got an early birthday present, a wagon, so that we could decorate it and then she could ride in that for the parade! She loved it!! As you can see in the picture, she rode in style. Complete with her snacks and drinks in the cup holders! We thought the day was going to be rainy and cold, but it ended up warming up and the sun came out for awhile. So, we went to our neighborhood pool with Gammy, Gampy, U. Nicholas, A. Amy, and some family friends. There we BBQ'd and had lots of yummy things to eat! Isabella also got some pool time in with Daddy!

Unfortunately, we didn't see any fireworks. The rest of the afternoon and evening ended up being a very, very rainy one. We even had some pea sized hail to start it off! The rain caused some places to cancel their firework shows for the evening! We had a great day in spite of the weather spending time with good friends and family!

Starting the day doing a little coloring.

She's ready to go to the parade! With her breakfast in hand.

Isabella loved going around to all of the dogs before the parade started. This dog got a good taste of her!! That was probably the highlight of her day!

Hot Fun in the Summertime

We have been having a pretty busy summer so far. It has been a pretty hot one to! Last week we went to a park nearby that has a little farm where you can pet the animals and it also had a little train you could ride. It is a huge park and there was many more things to do there, but we went just to play and see the animals and take a ride on the train. We went with Aunt Jill, Jackson and Gammy. It was a HOT but fun morning! We will definitely make a trip back there, because Isabella and Jackson loved riding on the train so much, they cried when we had to get off. They just didn't understand that you only get to go around once.

The very last picture I posted is Isabella laying in the baby bassinet. Yes, she can still fit into it! She loved playing in it and was even acting like she was sleeping. It was pretty funny


At the end of the train ride....the kids were still upset they had to get off.

Getting ready to go!

The train

Isabella petting the sheep.

Isabella touching the pigs nose!

Jackson and Isabella petting the cow.

Getting ready to go down the curly slide!

I love the baby bassinet....not sure if I'm going to share it or not!

2 1/2 Months and Counting

Here are some pictures from one of the first day's at the pool for the summer! Yeah! It is finally summer!! Isabella loves the pool, but this year she wants to be in the big pool as well as the baby pool. They also have little slides to play on too. She loves the slides! We have our work cut out for us this year. :)

As I write this blog today I am about 30 weeks along in this pregnancy. I am counting down the weeks too!! Last week we had another follow-up doctors appointment. This time I had to drink the very sweet orange drink to test for gestational diabetes again. Thankfully I tested negative. We also had another ultrasound just to check the growth of "baby sister". It was in the 3rd trimester when the doctors started noticing that Isabella was not growing as she should. This baby seems to be at "normal" size at this time. She is already about 10% bigger than Isabella was at this time. So, that was somewhat a relief. I'm kind of anxious to know what it will be like to have a "normal" sized baby to hold and haul around. It will be quite different I am sure. Isabella is still just a little peanut, but can sure get around ok. As I've said many times, she is small but mighty!! She also is saying so many more words and picks up on everything. She likes to count the stairs as she goes down them. Today, she wanted to be a big girl and didn't want help getting into the car and carseat. That is good for me, because I will need her help once "baby sister" is born. We have decided and already scheduled another c-section for August 17th. So that will be the day, unless "baby sister" decides to join the world before that.