Wow, I just don't know how much time I can devote to a blog anymore, being a new mommy and all. Matteo takes a lot of time and effort and is worth every bit of it.
I was tentative about staying at home with him without Mark to help, but our first two weeks went pretty well. Mark is home again now, off for the holidays, and I'm sure when he goes back again I'll have some issues, but we'll get back into the swing of things pretty quickly, I'm sure.
One of my main goals now is to loose some of the baby weight and then some. It's been really cold outside, which has thus far squashed my goal of getting out and walking everyday w/ baby and dog. I hate dieting, so I'm going to go the exercise route this time. We'll be getting an elliptical w/ our christmas funds and I hope that I will use it on a regular basis and it doesn't just become a giant clothes hanger like all exercise machines before it.
Anywho, here are some more recent pics of our little man

He's here. Matteo Laurence graced us with his presence on November 20th at 1:44pm. He weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. He is wonderful! He is every positive adjective out there. I love him more than anything and am still in awe that we are parents.
We have been home now for a few days and are adjusting to the demands of parenthood. He is a good baby, overall, but becomes cranky during a diaper change.

Here are some pics:


Mom and Matteo right after delivery



Matteo right after delivery


Breastfeeding at the hospital



Cutest baby ever (Click for more pics)

Well, tomorrow we get to meet our baby boy. We have a scheduled c-section, as it turns out he is a big boy and a narrow pelvis. He is not moving down, I stalled at one centimeter and so it is. All the planning and preparation for a vaginal birth sans pain meds is out the window. I'm ok with this, as I'd rather have a planned, calm c-section than be in labor for hours on end trying to push a out a baby that just won't come out and end up with an emergency c-section. I'm still deathly afraid of the epidural, but will get through that.
As Mark says, it's a bit surreal to know that by tomorrow at this time we will be parents. As if this whole nine months hasn't done enough to convince us, it will only be real once he is here.
So, deep breath in, relaxing breath out!

Here's a progression of my belly. We didn't start taking belly shots until I was 11 weeks. I just wanted to wait until it seemed we were in the clear for the pregnancy. Obviously I paid no attention to where we took the pics or how we took them





These were taken the night before Matteo was born






39 weeks





36 weeks




Halloween 35 weeks




34 weeks




33 weeks




31'ish weeks




30 weeks




29 weeks




28 weeks





27 weeks





26 weeks




25 weeks




24 weeks





23 weeks



22 weeks


21 weeks


20 weeks


19 weeks


18 weeks


17 weeks


16 weeks


15 weeks


14 weeks


13 weeks


12 Weeks


11 weeks

We've got a boy!

We had our "big ultrasound" on Thursday and found out the good news. We were afraid that the baby wouldn't cooperate and we wouldn't be able to tell the sex, however our son is not ashamed to show off what God gave him. The tech put the paddle to my belly and bam, there was the penis. He measured a bit big, at 10 ounces. I could see on the screen that some of the measurements put me at 20 weeks, even though I'm only 18'ish. They still wouldn't change my due date and are just going to say that he is big. Ok. Above all, we are just so thankful that he appears healthy and normal w/ no genetic abnormalities. Because of this, we have chosen not do to the amnio. Too much risk for us.

Here are the pics of our little guy:

This is the pic that confirms he's a boy. Those are his two legs and his little member.


Here's a head shot


Cute foot


Another head shot

One giant leap for Toffoli-kind. Another successful appointment today!! And a great pic of baby Toffoli to boot! Today was the first trimester screening, to test for the possible chances of Down Syndrome.

In other words: "The scan is carried out at 11-13 weeks pregnancy and assesses the amount of fluid behind the neck of the fetus - also known as 'the nuchal translucency'. Babies at risk of Down tend to have a higher amount of fluid around the neck. The scan may also help confirm both the accuracy of the pregnancy dates and the fetal viability. Its high definition imaging may also detect other less common chromosomal abnormalities."

The doctor we met with was great! I think we intrigued him with our situation and it felt like he was going to take us under his wing. He seems very well informed of genetic/chromosome abnormalities, so we feel like we're in safe and knowledgeable hands. From the ultrasound he said things look good so far. They also took some blood work and we will get the results of our risk back in about a week.

We got to see our little one moving around, he was doing summersaults, turning around and such. The heart rate was 164 bpm, which is right on track and awesome. And now we have a pic that looks like a baby instead of a blob :D We'll go back in six weeks for the "big" ultrasound, to find out the sex and continue to make sure baby is doing well.