thoughts on sleep

I've been reflecting on Gigi's sleep habits and wanted to share a little... we've been so blessed that she has been sleeping between 5-7 hours every night since she was 6 days old.
I have some friends who have had really rough times as far as babies/sleeping goes, so I don't at all mean to brag. I don't know why God chose to bless us this way, but He did. In this time, we've heard lots of comments like, "she's spoiling you! (my mom)", "don't get used to that!" (Gigi's doc), etc.
But through it all, we've been praying, and have been confident that the Lord is bigger than everything, I mean, he created Gianna, so He's definitely big enough to control her sleep habits! Thanks also to a friend, one of our pastors' wives, Heidi, for encouraging us to just keep praying and have faith that God could keep it up.
So I guess my motive behind sharing all this is simply to give God all the glory. Ultimately, it's not how well we stick to our Babywise philosophy, or how much we love our daughter, or even how much we pray, that is the reason behind this miracle of sleep-- it it is simply because of God's amazing grace and for that we are so thankful!

Go Angels!

Just a quick update from little ol' me...
Last night we went to my second Angels game and they won in the 11th inning! We had to stay until the end because it was Big Bang Friday! Too bad I just slept right through those fireworks; I heard they were awesome. And supposedly there was a really annoying lady behind us but I didn't notice that either. We went with my Unc A and his girlfriend, Angelina. I'm still looking forward to my first Dodgers game though! It's in July.
Love,
Gigi
P.S. A big thanks goes out to my Unc A for making my really cute birth announcements!!

I'm 6 Weeks Old!

Hi Everyone. I wanted to personally update you all on ME, now that I am six weeks old! I'm getting bigger every day, working on my double chin and my leg & arm rolls.In the last few days, I started smiling more at my mommy and daddy. It's cool, because it always makes them smile back at me. I also started "talking"-- saying things like "goo" and other cool words that mom likes to try and imitate.

We had a fun Father's Day yesterday. We went to ESPN Zone so Daddy could watch the Dodgers on the really big TV. I pretty much slept the whole time, which is what I usually do at loud restaurants.
Well, that pretty much sums it up for me, it's time for me to take a nap. I do have a new photo album for you to look at. Mommy just loves taking pictures of me, must be because I'm so cute!
Click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157600392699240/

Bennett Family Fun

Granny & Grandpa feeding Gigi at the game.

Well, this post is a little late, but I wanted to finally say that we had a great time with the Bennetts visiting! David's parents and his sister Carly (& her boyfriend Chase) all came to visit for a long weekend over the first weekend in June. We went to Gigi's first baseball game (to see the Angels because the Dodgers were out of town), and also saw David's aunt and uncle Jann & Bill there. Gigi went to her first Mullets baseball game too and saw her daddy pitch, and the Bennetts all got to take part in Alex's birthday party racing extravaganza. Also, 3 out of the 4 Bennett-side aunts came out from Riverside on Sunday to go to dinner. It was great to see the extended family that we don't see often.Bennetts & Pavones at Alex's birthday.

Also, last weekend we were down in SD for my friend Sarah's wedding-- I was her matron of honor. It was probably the most beautiful wedding I've been to, or at least way up at the top of the list. :) The ceremony site overlooked the beach in Carlsbad where Sarah & I learned to surf. :) And Gigi looked adorable in a dress that almost matched mine!











Here are the links to the latest albums:
Bennetts visiting: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157600316696737/
Alex's party: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157600320657063/
Sarah's wedding: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157600344682238/

What's in a name?

By now, most of you know the significance behind Gigi's name. But just in case you don't, I wanted to give a little explanation...The First Name: "Gianna" comes from Italian and it means "God is gracious." I found the name online, a while back, and wrote it down on a scrap of paper and put it into the desk drawer. Months later, after 2 miscarriages, we decided it was a fitting name, because we really felt the power of God's grace after finally being able to get (and stay) pregnant. We also liked it because it lent itself to the nickname "Gigi" (I've always loved nicknames). A good college friend of ours, Shannon Flett, has a friend (who we knew casually) named Gigi and I always loved the name (and she's a great surfer too!).

The Second Name: Last September I lost one of my best friends, Brianne Nicole Shelton. She died in a plane crash while heading to Mexico to do a medical missions trip. The day I found out that she died, was, oddly enough, the same day I received the call from my doctor's office telling me that after a series of blood tests monitoring my hormone levels, I was indeed pregnant. It was a day of roller-coaster-like emotions, to say the least. We found out Gigi's due date was May 12 and we realized that it was Nurse's Day; Brianne was a nurse, and a darn good one, from what I hear. From the beginning, I felt strongly that Gigi was a girl-- and the middle name was perfectly fitting. We hope that when she's older, Gianna realizes how special her middle name is and that she becomes a young women who makes as much of an impact on her sphere of the world as her namesake did.
The Third Name: In keeping with the double "N" pattern, we chose a last name for her that had the same double letters, and reflected my love of Jane Austen. Just kidding! Now let's just wait and see if she lives up to this name, and ends up with a "Bennett Butt."

Here are pictures of Gianna with Debbie and Kelsi Shelton (Brianne's mom & sister), and a tummy time photo with her special blanket from the Sheltons that was made with the fabric from one of Brianne's scrubs (top of post).

3 Weeks and then some...

Our little one is just over three weeks old! This week's big news is that she is getting chubby! Well, relatively speaking, that is. :) In two weeks she has gone from 6 lbs, 7 oz. to 7 lbs, 12 oz.!! That's over an ounce a day! We've definitely noticed that her legs and arms have thickened a little and she even has a little bit of a double chin! And she is almost fitting in her "newborn" size clothes now. Way to eat, Gigi!
We had a nice Memorial Day weekend with my parents camping up here at the beach and we can't wait for David's parents & sis to come visit later this week.
Your most recent installment of pictures is just 2 clicks away- 2 new photosets; we hope you enjoy looking at Gianna's cute face as much as we do!
Memorial Day Wknd photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157600287699045/
More pics from Gigi's 3rd week:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157600288541310/

Two weeks old!

It's hard to believe that Gigi is already 2 weeks old! The last few weeks of my pregnancy went by so slow as we waited for her, and now that she's here, time is really going by quickly. Maybe that's partly because most of our days have been pretty monotonous- sleep, feed her, wait a couple of hours, feed her again, repeat. David said it's been a little "Groundhog Day-ish." But the last few days we've starting doing a little more, and it's been really fun. We've gone on walks and visited with some friends, and it's been good to get out of the house a little.
Gigi had her first doctor's appointment this past week and she had already gained back her birth weight, plus 1 oz (she also peed and projectile pooped while naked on the scale!). She's a good eater! She's also a good sleeper! We are soooo thankful that she has been sleeping for longish chunks of time at night, and we are praying that with God's help, she keeps it up!
Here are some more cute pictures for your viewing pleasure... we still can't get over how cute she is.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157600241756228/

Thanks, Yaya!

My mommy & daddy and I just wanted to give a big shout-out to my Yaya, and thank her for staying with us for my first week. She helped us all out so much and held me and loved me a lot. She even sewed me a couple of blankets and a cute caddy for my room! I had a fun time with her, and I can't wait to see her again soon!
By the way, "Yaya" means "grandma" in Greek for those of you who didn't know! My mommy had a Yaya too, and now I do!
~Gigi

Week One in the Books

So it was one week ago this morning that we met Gianna for the first time. I will consider the fact that she is still doing well to be the first major parental milestone for me and Nicole. It is still amazing to Nicole that just over a week ago she was very great with child and now we have this sweet baby in our house.

We brought her home from the hospital last Wednesday. Nicole's mother, Karen, stayed with us all last week and she just headed home this afternoon. She was a great help with cooking, cleaning, laundry, baby care, and much more. We took her out for the first time today when we took Karen out to Rubio's for lunch. Gigi ordered the fish tacos combo and savored every bite of it (at least that's what she was dreaming about while she slept through lunch).
Our second parental milestone consisted of getting our little baby wet while she protested at the top of her lungs. She will thank us later for the great foundation we're setting for her personal hygiene. I get the feeling that she'll enjoy the real bath better than the sponge bath. By the way, she is almost ready for the real bath since her umbilical cord fell off this morning.

We had a pleasant Mother's Day yesterday with Nicole's family. Nicole's dad was here in the morning - he left around lunch time because he was coming down with a cold. Our good friends David L. and Beth E. Dear came over for an early dinner and we BBQed some steak. It was really special for Nicole that Gianna came just in time for Mother's Day. I did not get to see my mother but I had a nice conversation with her on the phone. Gigi can't wait to meet her Granny and Grandpa (my parents) when they come out from Chicago in a few weeks.
I have uploaded some more pictures to flickr that include but are not limited to the events detailed in this account. For your viewing pleasure: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157600215659795/

Stay tuned for some more updates...

Gianna Brianne

I am proud to introduce you to Gianna Brianne Bennett. She arrived very early on Monday, May 7 at 1:34 a.m. Nicole and I showed up at the hospital around 7 p.m. on Sunday night after we had walked over 10 miles in the previous three days. Nicole was dilated to 4 cm when we checked in so the nurse had us walk around for an hour in the hospital (we were very familiar with the maternity ward after that hour). While we were walking, the nurse spoke with Nicole's doctor and they decided to admit her.

She continued having contractions for the next few hours and her water suddenly broke around 11:45 p.m while I was on the phone with Nicole's mom. The contractions progressed rapidly after that and at 1:34 a.m. on Monday morning we got to meet our precious Gigi. Nicole was amazing as she went through all the pushing and contractions without any medication! As a result of that, all the nurses have said that she is pretty alert and is breastfeeding well for a baby as new as she is.
She has beautiful eyes and huge feet and hands. She is pretty much the most beautiful baby ever. God's miracle of child birth is amazing - for those of you who have witnesses it yourself I'm sure you understand. I am so proud of Nicole for being so strong and I am so blessed to have a precious, healthy baby. And for those of who are dying to know...I am doing well :) In the photo below, Gigi is doing her best pirate impression (one eye is closed and the other is open).
I have created a photo set on flickr for you all to enjoy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157600193794512/

We will continue to update the blog and photos as Gigi grows!

-New Dad

Let's get it started..

I went to the doc this afternoon and I'm now 3 cm. dialated! She said that it shouldn't take more than 4-5 days now, so hopefully she's right! We're going to keep up with the walking, and see what happens. Contractions are still pretty irregular, but are occasionally a little stronger.
Please pray for a safe and easy delivery! Thankfully, my doctor is on-call this weekend; she only is on-call every 5th weekend, so it's nice to know that if I have the baby in the next few days we get to have our doctor deliver her.

Waiting (im)patiently

I'm about 38 1/2 weeks now... I've been having stronger contractions the last couple of days, but they are still very irregular- sometimes close together, sometimes very spaced out. I go to the doc tomorrow afternoon, so hopefully I will have made some progress in the dialation category.
We're still trying to do a lot of walking-- went to the beach on Monday, and last night we had a nice dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (we had to bring dessert home because dinner was so good!), and then walked around the mall a little and around our housing complex too.

I also wanted to post some pictures from this season's first baseball games! We've been to 2 Dodger games (one with my brother & cousins), and an Angel game with one of David's old co-workers, Wes & his fiancee, Daphnie, and we met Dodger Andre Ethier and got his autograph at a furniture store (after waiting in line for 2 hours!)-- he was really nice.

Oh, and for those of you tracking David's spectacular radio-prize-winning skills, you can add one more to the list, and this one might top them all (even the $400/ea Dodger Dugout Club seats). Yesterday morning David won 2 tickets to ANY regular-season sporting event in the contintental U.S. and 2 round-trip plane tickets to go with it! We're contemplating going to a Red Sox/Yankees games at Fenway Park in September, but haven't decided yet for sure.

37.5-week update

We went to the doctor yesterday and everything is looking good. I'm not dialated at all yet, but my cervixed has softened some and the baby has dropped all the way down so the doc said that I should be dialating soon now.
Monday we walked 2 miles! It was really hard for me after not doing a whole lot of walking in the last month or 2. We're going to keep that up though, and we also bought a pineapple to cut up and enjoy because our childbirth class teacher said that was a natural labor inducer too. Does anyone have any other ideas they've heard to naturally induce labor? (And yes, we know about sex being one!)

Belly Photos!

Rena took some awesome pictures of us at the beach in Newport. If you'd like to see the rest of them, click here: Pregnancy Photo Shoot

Week 35 update

Well, I have been sick for almost a week now, but I'm on antibiotics, and today I finally feel a little bit better. Gigi seems to be doing fine though, she's still shifting her butt from side to side and sticking her feet out to my right side often. At our last doc's appt I was still measuring a little small, but I had grown consistently from my previous appt, so my midwife/NP thought that I probably just have a lot of baby inside me all curled up.
This past Saturday, I hosted a bridal shower for my friend Rena at my house. Here is a picture of Rena, Myste and me. That morning Rena took some fun maternity pictures of David, Me and The Belly in Newport. As soon as I get them back I will post some.

Ultrasound pics!

We had another ultrasound on 3.27.07 to check the size of our baby. Size-wise, things looked good. And for those of you who have been thinking, "with all that pink stuff they've been getting, what if it's a boy?", we got more confirmation that it's a girl. :)
The first one is a nice face shot (although she does look a little alien-like) and the second one shows her body (spine/ribs) and her head (brain matter!).

First Baby Shower!

I had a great time at our first baby shower this past weekend down at my mom's house. I got to see lots of family friends and they blessed us abundantly with some fun stuff! It was extra special because my good friends Emily and Kristina and their moms came all the way down from Northern California and stayed for the weekend.
If you'd like to see a few pics, click here: shower pics!
I didn't take too many of the actual shower unfortunately, but there are a few to look at!

Nesting & Baseball

So I experienced a bit of the "nesting" bug yesterday; this is how it manifested itself: I spontaneously went to Babies-r-us to get a crib sheet so that we could see how cute it looks all put together with the adorable bumpers my mom made, I made cookies, I finished making peanut butter balls that had been waiting in the freezer since Christmas, and then I made dinner. I was feeling a little crazy to say the least. I have been having Braxton-hicks contractions like crazy lately, and I'm happy to have a doctor's appointment this afternoon, to make sure everything is going well.
Also, I wanted to post a couple of pictures from our spontaneous trip to Arizona for a couple of Spring training games-- Gigi's first baseball games in the womb! We saw the Angels beat the Padres and the Royals beat the Cubs. The weather was beautiful (it felt great to be out in the sun), and it was a fun little "baby-moon" for David & I.

Father's Day Gift Idea

So I guess it's about time that I chimed in here. Please do not mistake my absence for a lack of interest in this pregnancy. I am uncontrollably excited and I cannot wait to meet my sweet Gigi.
As most of you know, I am an avid Dodgers fan so this is a wonderful time of year with the new season just around the corner. It is doubly wonderful since a new season in my life is also fast approaching. Ever since we learned of Gianna's existence, I have been preparing myself to be neglected because I know that everyone will not be looking at my ugly mug when they see that cute little baby.
Since everyone will be looking at her, it is appropriate that she be decked out in an officially licensed product from Major League Baseball. So to get to my point, this photo is an example of the exquisite attire offered in the Los Angeles Dodgers spring collection. Is there really anything cuter than a precious baby in an amazing pink Dodgers outfit?

Getting Ready

David has had the fun priviledge of building our little Gigi's crib and finishing our changing table in a nice antique white finish. He did a great job! And we ended up getting 20% off the crib because we got a cracked leg and they had to reorder part of it. The discount was worth the wait!