Showing posts with label List of Gratitude. Show all posts
Showing posts with label List of Gratitude. Show all posts

11.07.2012

29 Weeks

Dress down day at work. Woot!

Bebs: Bebs now weighs about 2 1/2 pounds (like a butternut squash) and is a tad over 15 inches long from head to heel. Her muscles and lungs are continuing to mature, and her head is growing bigger to make room for her developing brain. To meet her increasing nutritional demands, I'll need plenty of protein, vitamins C, folic acid, and iron. This trimester, about 250 milligrams of calcium are deposited in Bebs' hardening skeleton each day.


Weight-to-date: 128.4 lbs--gained 4.8 lbs in two weeks!
Sleep: Sleep...what's that? If any of you are insomniacs or working overnight, text me at 2, 3, 4 a.m....we'll talk.
Best moment of the week: Getting some maternity photos taken! I had a great time and have been obsessing over the fabulous photos ever since. Can't wait to get some prints made!
Miss anything?: Sleeping on my stomach, sleeping through the night, putting on socks and shoes like a normal person
Movement: Miss Bebs is quite the mover and shaker! My friend Brie got to feel some baby kicks this past week! Also, if I lift up my shirt, you can definitely see movement underneath the skin. SO weird! And awesome. :)
Food cravings: Banana bread. Good thing I made some earlier in the week!
Anything making you queasy or sick: Acid Reflux/Heartburn
Symptoms: Acid Reflux/Heartburn, which decided to rear its ugly head on Sunday.
Belly button in or out?: It is out and all about it!
Wedding rings on or off?: On
Happy or moody most of the time?: Happy!
Looking forward to (aside from the obvious!): My BABY SHOWER!!!! My mom (GiGi) is having a shower for me this Saturday, and my mother-in-law (MiMi) is having a shower for me the following Sunday! I'm so excited to see my girlfriends and family...and also to see how mom, Aunt Debbie and Nana decorated everything! Also we are buying our baby furniture next weekend, too! November is quite the busy month. :)


Butternut Squash!


Hubs and I had a regular ol' ob/gyn appointment earlier this week. We met a new doctor, Dr. S, who listened to the heartbeat and said everything was great! I brought up the new symptom I had--acid reflux/heartburn--and he laughed and said "welcome to your third trimester!" I can limit my intake on fatty, greasy, spicey foods and take Tums and liquid Maalox to help with the constant lump I feel in my throat. I've also been attempting to sleep propped up with 4 pillows behind my head (plus the body pillow, Daddy boppit, Jason's 3 pillows and Jason all in the bed). My friend Schlupp actually deals with acid reflux quite a bit and has been helping me figure out what to eat.

I'm not sure if this is an old wives' tale or not...but I have heard that women with heartburn have babies with full heads of hair. :) I hope that is the case!

List of Gratitude
1. My handsome hubby for cleaning the house and doing laundry so I didn't have to; for rubbing my legs when RLS kicks in; for taking Dexter out all the time; and for telling me I am beautiful when I feel like a whale. :)
2. Blueberry tea and bagels with cream cheese
3. My parents for opening their home to us last week during the hurricane, and for also coming over to help clean up our yard after the hurricane.
4. Our family and girlfriends who I know are doing things "behind the scenes" for a fantastic baby shower for us on Saturday!
5. My friend Brie who helped me touch up the green paint in the nursery this past week. :)

9.26.2012

23 Weeks

23 weeks! Only 17 weeks to go!

Bebs: Time to turn on the radio and sway to the music! With her sense of movement well developed by now, Bebs can apparently feel me dance. And now that she's more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound (about as much as a large mango), we may be able to see her squirm underneath my clothes. (No luck with that yet!) Blood vessels in her lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that baby's ears are picking up on are preparing her for entry into the outside world. Loud noises that become familiar now — such as Dexter barking or the roar of the vacuum cleaner — probably won't faze her when she hears them outside the womb!

What's going on in there?

Favorite maternity outfit for the week?: Tara's maroon cowl-neck sweater with Christi's khaki pants that I wore to work on Tuesday
Stretch marks?: nope! (knock on wood!)
Sleep: Sleeping between the body pillow and my husband pillow. Somehow I've been ending up on my belly, though, which isn't good!
Best moment of the week: Spending the day with my parents and getting some amazing deals at a Mother's Market on Saturday!
Miss anything?: My girlfriends and actually seeing them. I haven't hung out with my girlfriends in what feels like forever. Ok, in reality it's been over a month. But still. I miss them, Rachael's brownies, sharing our hilarious stories, and just really "being there" for each other. I hope I can see them soon.
Movement: Hubs, Schlupp and my mom got to feel some baby kicks this past week!
Food cravings: I'm not really a huge beer drinker or anything...but for some reason I could really go for a Blue Moon with an orange slice!
Anything making you queasy or sick: The thought of eating meat off a bone. I don't think I'll be having wings any time soon.
Labor signs: Tuesday morning at about 1:30 a.m. I had the most intense pain in my belly. It felt like the baby had a knife and was slicing her way out. I actually woke up screaming "ow! ow!", scared the crap out of Jason, and thought I was going into labor. Braxton Hicks contractions, maybe?
Symptoms: Falling asleep on the couch by 9 p.m., cramping, and irritability. Fun!
Belly button in or out?: In-between! lol
Wedding rings on or off?: On
Happy or moody most of the time?: Unfortunately, moody. :( There are times when I'm happy; overjoyed actually. But mostly I am just so irritable I'm getting to the point where I am annoying myself.
Looking forward to (aside from the obvious!): Finishing up the painting project in the guest room!

My BFF Jess texted me that she missed seeing me and the bump.
So I texted her this picture so she could see us!
Her response: "Shit just got real!!!!" LOL

List of Gratitude
1. My awesome parents for giving up their Saturday morning/afternoon to take me to the Mother's Market. We got some GREAT deals that I am super excited about! A Snap N Go stroller, lots of little outfits, seat cover for under the carseat, books and a heartbeat listener were some of our finds! If only we had seen the brand new Vera Bradley diaper bag that some lucky lady got for $8, we would have been ecstatic! hehe. On the look-out for a glider at our next Mother's Market!

Baby ballerina socks!

2. A shared sense of humor with Hubs. I have a feeling that everything--relationships, marriage, pregnancy, parenting--is roughly about a million times better if you and your partner have the ability to laugh at yourselves. Our guest room painting project is taking MUCH longer than anticipated. All Jason and I can do is laugh it off...and re-paint the ceiling for a third time.

3. Fall premieres of our favorite TV shows. We were going through some major TV withdrawl, and thankfully a few of our favorites--Parks and Recreation, New Girl, The Office--are back! The TiVo will always be full of stuff to watch in the evenings and this makes me happy!

4. Indulging. Mmmm cheesecake. Thanks for telling me I didn't have to share, Hubs! :)

I'm pretty sure I could feel the fat go straight to my butt after eating this!
Totally worth it.

9.05.2012

20 Weeks

Ohhhh oh! We're halfway there...
Bebs: Baby weighs about 10 1/2 ounces now. S/he's also around 6.5 inches long from head to bottom and about 10 inches from head to heel — the length of a banana. (For the first 20 weeks, when a baby's legs are curled up against the torso and hard to measure, measurements are taken from the top of the head to his/her bottom — the "crown to rump" measurement. After 20 weeks, s/he's measured from head to toe.) Bebs is swallowing more these days, which is good practice for the digestive system. S/he's also producing meconium, a black, sticky by-product of digestion. This gooey substance will accumulate in the bowels, and we'll see it in his/her first soiled diaper (some babies pass meconium in the womb or during delivery).

What's going on in there?

Hebs and Hubs: We went out shopping this past weekend to take advantage of some Labor Day sales. We were on a mission for a new couch for our upstairs awkward living room (not the room the TV is in). We found an awesome red couch at Ashley Furniture! Hopefully we are able to pick the couch up this weekend and can bid adieu to the flowered couch, AKA "the pee couch." Unfortunately Dex has marked his territory one too many times on that poor couch. He won't be allowed anywhere NEAR our new red couch!

Hubs on the couch! (No, those pillows will not be coming home with us!)

After our couch find, Jason and I headed to Ikea. OMG! Have you ever been to an Ikea? It was an airport! There was even a cafe and a child care center! We could not believe how huge it was. We looked at some of the living room furniture before making our way to the baby furniture. Adorable, functional, affordable...we were in love! We found a crib, changing table, and two dressers that we'd like to get for the nursery!

Crib and changing table we liked!

Jason and I went out for dinner with my grandparents, Nana and Pop-Pop, this past week, too. They spoiled us and gave us gifts: a changing table, boxes of diapers, and even a breast pump for me! I think we may keep this changing table downstairs (to make it easier on us), and then have another changing table in the baby's nursery. I've been reading on my birth board that a lot of moms don't feel the need for one, but a changing table was one thing I was weirdly looking forward to! So I plan on having two. :)

I also hung out with my parents this past weekend, too, while Jason was at his fantasy football draft. We went to Olive Garden for lunch (yum!) and then looked around Babies R Us for awhile. After wrestling with it and reading the instructions, we figured out how to collapse and re-position the stroller I wanted to register for. I also found the carseat I liked. Bonus: the carseat will fit into the stroller! Once we knew what we were doing, it was very easy to manuever. :) Then of course, we had to check out the adorable little outfits! Thank you for an awesome afternoon, Mom and Dad!

Pug keychain for the diaper bag and beanie baby pug for Bebs!

Hebs: I cannot believe that I am already 20 weeks! I feel like the first 20 weeks just flew by, which makes me hopeful that the next 20 weeks will fly by! Well, they can start flying on by AFTER the nursery is painted and decorated. ;)

The morning sickness and headaches seem to have stopped--knock on wood! Feeling my skin stretch around my belly has been weird, but usually lotion helps. I'm still having skin issues, which is incredibly annoying. I'd like to know when the glowing phase starts? I thought pregnant ladies were supposed to glow?! My face is breaking out worse than when I was a teenager, my already thick hair is basically now a bush growing on top of my head, and I already feel like I am waddling a bit! Ah, pregnancy. :)

Exciting News: Hubs and I are able to find out this Friday what the gender of Bebs is!!! We cannot wait! Ever since I took the pregnancy test, and it was positive!, I've been so sure that Bebs is a boy. If it is a boy, we already have a name picked, nursery theme idea, etc. We are totally set. If Bebs is a girl, we will still be ecstatic, but will need to get moving on nursery ideas and a name!

While I've been picturing Bebs as a boy this entire time, the many times I've dreamed about the baby, it's always been a girl. I have a very vivid recurring dream of Jason, Dexter, and a toddler girl (wearing a teal jacket, pink hat, and pink pants!) playing in the leaves in our backyard. (The backyard is also fenced in, which ours isn't now, but we'd like to do it in the future). I'm watching them play from the deck and then I yell "Jason! *girl name!* Time for dinner!" and they come running in. The girl has blue eyes like Jason and thick, wavy hair like me. Weird? Cool? Foreshadowing what is to come? I don't know. I definitely like having that dream, though. :) Oh, and it is totally true what they say about your dreams being incredibly more vivid during pregnancy!

Gender Reveal: Hubs and I decided to have a small get together Friday night for our parents, siblings (that are in the area!), and a handful of friends to tell them Bebs' gender! We asked everyone to wear pink or blue to show their guess, and I made a few props as well. I will definitely post the news and pictures after we're able to call the rest of our family to tell them the news! :)

Introducing a new segment....
At our yoga class, the instructor told us about keeping a "gratitude journal," where we just jot down things at the end of each day that we were thankful for. They can be little things, silly things, big things, important things...it doesn't matter. I think it is a good exercise in helping me keep in mind that pregnancy and the little banana inside of me is a miracle and that each day I have so many things to be thankful for that sometimes are taken for granted.

List of Gratitude

1. My parents and grand-parents. They have been a huge support emotionally and even financially, by purchasing some baby things for us. They do it out of the goodness of their heart and I wish I could express just how much I love my family and what they mean to me.

2. Jason. I know I've been super irritable lately, especially about my appearance, but I appreciate that you still tell me I'm beautiful and that you love me. I appreciate that you also have been helping me a great deal with housework and taking care of Dexter when I just don't have the energy.

3. My home. I'm beyond thankful that I am able to live in a beautiful home and have people willing to help us make it even better by moving furniture, painting, doing yardwork, etc. It's just a huge weight off of my shoulders that we have wonderful friends and family who are willing to help us.

***A big CONGRATULATIONS to our friend Jeff on becoming an uncle! His sister Lisa and brother-in-law Steve welcomed their daughter, Lily, into the world this morning! Happy Birthday, Lily!***