20 Week Pregnancy Survey

Wow. I can't believe we are half way there! Only 1 more day to put your vote in for a boy or a girl! It seems that team boy is going pretty strong. We have a poll up at work and it is also leaning that way (although they are prob. the same ones who have voted on the blog).

How Far Along: 20 weeks

Size of baby: Your baby weighs about 10 1/2 ounces now. He's also around 6 1/2 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 his torso and hard to measure, measurements are taken from the top of his head to his bottom — the "crown to rump" measurement. After 20 weeks, he's measured from head to toe.)He's swallowing more these days, which is good practice for his digestive system. He's also producing meconium, a black, sticky by-product of digestion. This gooey substance will accumulate in his bowels, and you'll see it in his first soiled diaper (some babies pass meconium in the womb or during delivery).

Total Weight Gain: 7 lbs so far.

What I miss: Nothing

Sleep: I am mastering the sleeping on my sides.

Symptoms: The end of last week I had a little stomach ache on my side that just felt like I had gas built up and it went away the more water I drank and walked around. It only lasted for a couple days.

Cravings: Chicken Parmesan. I stopped on the way home last night to this family owned place in the Kroger parking lot and it was amazing. Their chicken is so thin and there is lots of cheese and spaghetti. It comes with salad and 3 rolls! I was tempted to eat the whole gigantic meal, but saved some for lunch today. I can't wait to eat it.


Aversions: I think my chicken aversion is going away. I had some yummy chicken and dumplings my neighbor made me (thanks Megan!!) and that chicken parmesan.

Movement: I am confirming movement after feeling these constant flicks/popcorn. I feel like it's a bit lower than it should be (I am feeling them closer to my pant line (lower hip/underwear line) instead of higher up where my bump is) but they are constant. It's usually after I eat and I think BW liked the plane rides, shortly after takeoff I could feel a bunch of movement. He/she was like "where are we going?" David loves airports and planes so he thinks he/she takes after him.

Maternity Clothes: I purchased some maternity jeans from forever 21 in Chicago. They had a huge 2 story store with a small maternity section and you can't beat 20 something dollar jeans that have stretchy sides on them. They sit a bit lower and don't have that big stretchy band over the stomach, just on the sides. I pull them up a bit, but they are very comfortable. I wore them once this week. I also wore a maternity shirt Leah lent me yesterday and that was fun. I just need to do laundry, no real need to wear it. The jeans were a necessity, I can't wear any of mine any more.

Best Moments this week: Coming home from my trip! It was fun, but I love just being home unless it's to travel to see family and friends.

What I'm looking forward to: Our Doctor appointment friday for the big gender reveal!! I hope baby cooperates. We also have a fun carnival at work tomorrow afternoon that spouses and kids are invited to with taco food trucks, funnel cakes, jump houses and games galore (don't worry we'll take pics). Then on saturday we have the gender reveal party.

Notes: I really can't believe we are half way. I expected to be showing a whole lot more by now. I don't really feel pregnant besides the constant hunger, I just feel like I've gained a few pounds in the tummy region. I can't wait for the weeks ahead and to see little BW. Stay tuned on Monday for the big reveal! If you are fb friends, then you might get a sneak peak on saturday night after the party! BW also got the cutest gift from my friend, Jen. Check out these cute hipster pacifiers!

Sorry Ladies, He's Taken!

When I returned home on Monday night I went upstairs to find this! David had our bedroom painted while I was gone for a much better price than quoted the first time. That was so nice and sweet of him and I am very lucky to have such a thoughtful and caring husband.

I love the color, it turned out a bit more blue than gray, but with all the accents with table and curtains I'm going to do it'll blend nice with the bed. I love it! 

I'm Back!

Sorry I've been MIA for a few days. I am finally back from my work trip. We went to Chicago for a few days and to Louisville, KY to check out a trade show. I have never been to either, but really enjoyed Chicago. I will share a few photos with you so you can check it out.

One night after dinner, we decided to get dessert or as we like to call it 2nd dinner. We went to this pizza place famous for it's deep stuffed pizza. I have to tell ya, these girls can hang with a pregnant girl eating any day. I was never hungry, they always wanted to eat and hit up the bathroom so I was good to go.

Check out this pizza. It had like 5lbs of cheese just in our pizza. (sorry camera didn't focus)

We walked from Dinner to the park and took photos along the way.

It was very cold, if you couldn't tell by me bundled up. The lows were in the 50's, but it was very windy (the city def. lives up to it's name) and it did rain a lot of the trip.

We made it to Millennium Park and saw the bean! It was hard to get a good picture at night, but you get the idea. It is like a mirrored lima bean looking structure.

It's very cool to see and I really do like the city a lot. It is worth a visit if you haven't been. I also wanted to make a note of this fantastic dinner place we went to, but didn't' take photos of. You need to go to Quartino. It has great italian food at a great price. Make sure you make a reservation though, it's hard to get in. We stayed at Hotel Felix and also loved that.

This is the only picture we took from Louisville, KY. Our hotel looked like it was right out of the movie, the shining so we reenacted it. Holly and I look a like so we pretended to be the scary twins. I know it doesn't look like we worked much, but we did.... a little.

19 Week Pregnancy Survey

How Far Along: 19 weeks

Size of baby: Your baby's sensory development is exploding! Her brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. Some research suggests that she may be able to hear your voice now, so don't be shy about reading aloud, talking to her, or singing a happy tune if the mood strikes you.
Your baby weighs about 8 1/2 ounces and measures 6 inches, head to bottom — about the size of a large heirloom tomato.

I had to post this picture. Look at what baby is doing in there!

Total Weight Gain: Still 5ish lbs so far.I promise I am eating, I do wish I had a catered buffet every where I went so I could graze throughout the day.

What I miss: A nice cold cut sandwich with all the fixings.

Sleep: I am mastering the sleeping on my sides. Pillows are your friend.

Symptoms: Feeling pretty good all around.

Cravings: Salad buffets and pizza


Aversions: Still not eating much chicken

Movement: I am still feeling some little popcorn flickers that may or may not be BW in there moving around.

Maternity Clothes: This may need to happen sooner than later. My belly def. decided to sprout this week. Of course on the day that I am trying on clothes to go on a work trip for. I literally went to at least 10 diff. stores and bought 2 things total. My belly is more noticeable in regular clothes (see picture below). I am rotating like 2-3 pairs of pants and no jeans are going on this body until I get maternity ones (which I'm not sure if I can keep them up yet).

Best Moments this week: Hearing BW on Ashley's heart monitor. That was really fun for both David and me.

What I'm looking forward to: Our Doctor appointment next friday for the big gender reveal!! Make sure you vote, only 8 more days! I still have a bunch to do for this gender reveal party, but it's going to be fun. Can't wait to share more details next week.

Notes: I am heading to Chicago and Louisville, KY for a work trip this weekend and I hope to see and eat lots of fun things! Any recommendations?

Sorry about the faucet, I should really crop that out.

David Builds a Bunkie Board

This weekend David also built the bunkie board for our bed. In case you have never heard of one (I haven't either till I started googling) It provides support where a box spring or foundation cannot be used due to height limitations, it is useful for bunk beds. We wanted our mattress to sit a little bit higher, but not too high.

The bottom layer of wood slats is what the bed came with. David added the 4 horizontal boards with the mdf on top. He then nailed them together to make a nice platform.

My only issue now is that our mattress does not fully cover this square area so we might lower it a little so it sinks below the bed frame area. The duvet fits and covers most of this, but I'm just obsessing over it all. It was an easy fix that saved us a bunch of money. I love having a handy husband. Sorry he's not pictured at all, he kept walking away so I snapped pictures.

Busy Weekend Update

This weekend was jam packed for us. We went and saw a new baby on Friday night. Congrats to Courtney and David! Saturday morning was a bit brisk so David and I put our hoodies on and hit up some garage sale. David's parents huge subdivision was having their bi-annual garage sale so we remember seeing lots of baby and kids items so we wanted to check it out. It turned up not to be a good sale for that (the spring one is better) but we heard about some consignment sales going on at a local park. We checked it out, but I was too overwhelmed to buy anything. We then headed to the paint store next to get me some paint for the master bedroom. 

We went with Benjamin Moore's Iced Slate Paint (Natura Zero-VOC Interior Paint). We had a great sales guy at Ace Hardware coaching me on paint and technique. He even gave us 10% off as a gift for our new baby to come.

 Here are some before pictures of the room color.

 The After! Tada. Oh, wait it doesn't look like I got anywhere. Well, here's the story with that. David helped me tape 2 walls and then got frustrated about painting (even though he wasn't doing it). Need I remind you about what happened when he was doing touch up painting in the master bathroom. I said that's fine go, I'm good here. So I finished up taping. I couldn't tape the top by the crown molding because the people who painted before got the gold paint up on the crown molding so I had to cover it up, which I will eventually have to paint that white. The color you see up is actually the tinted primer that we have. The guy tinted it to a similar color to make things easier.

 So 3ish hours after we started prepping the room I was ready to start. Well I had to use a ladder because I am too shot (don't worry, I only went 2 steps up) and the motion of my arm being over my head and getting up and down for whatever reason I got hungry and lightheaded and had to stop. I really wanted to make some progress after all that, but that didn't happen. David got mad at me for pushing it and banned me from the painting. We ordered yummy pizza and watched movies the rest of the night. We did look into hiring someone to paint this room and the baby's room (once we figure out what we're doing in there) and they wanted $500.... umm no thanks. I def. regret taking the tape down after hearing that. I decided I was just going to take my time and work on it wall by wall. I was trying to rush and get it done in 1.5 days and that's not going to happen.

 I wanted to see what the color was really going to look like and was hoping it wasn't as blue as the primer. I painted a few little spots just to see. I like how its a more light blue/icy gray color. I think it will work really well.

So that is my painting story. Some other fun tidbits from the weekend are that we borrowed our niece, Ashley's heartbeat monitor for the baby (she just announced shes pregnant, congrats you guys!!) and we got to play around and hear BW's heartbeat. It was very fun, I think I had it on there for 30 mins. David even hooked it up to the stereo so we could listen. And we've sold some items on craigslist. We finally sold most all the tile that we got at the auction, including what we had leftover from our kitchen and bathroom remodel and the lights. We've also sold my beloved armoire!! David is so glad to see it go. He even went the extra mile (well like 30 miles) and delivered it to these people's house and helped them get it up a few steps inside their house. I ended up selling it for $325 (I wanted $400), but I am happy about that. David wanted to let it go for like $100-200. I am glad I stuck to my guns on that one. David also pulled cable (wish I had taken a picture, I have never seen so many cables in my life) for the new tv. Hope you all had a good weekend.

18 Week Pregnancy Survey

How Far Along: 18 weeks

Size of baby: Your baby is as big as a bell pepper and weighs almost 7 ounces. (Length: 5 1/2 inches, head to bottom.) He's busy flexing his arms and legs — movements that you'll start noticing more and more in the weeks ahead.

Total Weight Gain: Still 5ish lbs so far. I'm eating a drumstick every night almost. I just love the fudge they have in the cone and they started making them with extra fudge/carmel inside the ice cream.

What I miss: Nothing really, but I do love David's Caffeinated tea. I know I can have some in moderation, I'm just trying to get used to non-caffeinated beverages. The decaf tea I bought is NOT good, you can def. taste a difference. 

Sleep: I am sleeping pretty good still with just our long pillows and on my side. It's def. been hard to get used to only sleeping on my side. I like to put a pillow by my stomach so when I do flip to more of a stomach side sleep that its cushiony. I get up to pee at 10pm (usually when I go to bed), then again at 12am, 2ish, 5am and 7ish (when I get up). I think if I was a more sound sleeper that I would be able to skip a few more of those.

Symptoms: Feeling pretty good all around.

Cravings: I was craving japanese hibachi with salad and ginger dressing (I would still love Nikkos in Statesboro), but I went to dinner with Dana to japanese and I have satisfied my cravings! I was able to get some avocado rolls, which were very tasty.


Aversions: I have an aversion to chicken. Just thinking about eating it grosses me out. I have switched to ground beef burritos (which I've never had before) and am loving ground beef and hamburgers. I even got vegetable hibachi instead of the chicken. I just don't want it to be too big and chunky. I can still eat chickfila grilled chicken sandwiches with EXTRA pickles. FYI, they don't charge you for extra pickles so do it up!

Movement: I really am not sure if I have felt BW. Sometimes I feel little popcorn flickers at night, but I just think its my stomach digesting or gas bubbles so I am not positive.


Maternity Clothes: I haven't purchased anything maternity besides my belly band. I don't like wearing my jeans, they are too tight everywhere (they were prob. borderline too tight before I got pregnant) so its uncomfortable. I def. can't button them so I am trying to get used to the belly band. Its been too warm still to want to put another layer on (the belly band) so I try to just pull my tank tops down to hold my pants up. I am mostly wearing skirts/dresses until I get big enough to purchase some maternity jeans and such. Leah gave me a few pieces to borrow which I am keeping until I can fill them out. Thanks!

Best Moments this week: Getting our new duvet cover in!

What I'm looking forward to: Getting ready for our gender reveal party and maybe painting our bedroom this weekend!

Here are a few pics for you that I took this morning on my phone.

You can't really tell yet over my clothes still. I have this knotted belt on which is making a weird bulge under my stomach.

 

It's starting to grow. I can tell, but still not as big as I thought I would be, which I am fine with as long as BW is doing well in there. P.S. Happy Birthday today to my Dad!!

A Duvet Cover Decision Has Been Made

With the overwhelming response about my duvet choices, I had to order duvet #1 from Pottery Barn. I am happy to say that it has arrived and I LOVE IT. It is super soft, a great pattern and color.

 Here is a before picture of the old duvet cover on the bed. Sorry about the mismatch pillowcases, it bothers me a lot. I caught molly mid tongue lick.

 The after with the new duvet. I just put it out over the old one, so its not washed or anything. The lighting in the room wouldn't make the pictures bright enough, but you can get the idea.

I am loving the colors of the duvet, I am just not sure now of the wall color. It is currently a gold color which is doing something not so great with the bed headboard and bedding color. I need your suggestions. Paint the wall? If so, what color? Molly decided not to move when I started putting the bedding out so that is why there is a big lump in the bed.

Here she is! Such a sweet girl.

I am also not sure on curtain colors and that lamp is still going away. Man I am so indecisive and could use your advice. We have also discovered that using our box springs makes the bed too high up, you have to kinda jump up to get on, but taking them off makes it way too low. Doing some research online, it seems we need a bunkie board, which is used for bunk beds and just adds support and a little height to the bed. David will be making that at some point.

Tuesday Randoms

My mom sent us gals in the family a reusable Halloween bag from Wegmans. How awesome is this?! It would be great for groceries, but also trick or treating! Can't beat the .99 price tag. Gotta love Wegmans!

Have you tried the new blogger app. It's pretty great, especially for uploading photos from your phone directly into a blog post. Love it

I uploaded the pumpkin bag photo from my phone and typed the beginning of this post from there last night. 

My brother and I decided that it would be fun to start a fantasy football league with our family. He is in one at work and posted a blog about it and I thought it looked fun. The draft part was a bit fast paced as I had really no idea what I was doing. Week 1 is over and here are the standings. No one did that bad and I am ready to read up on some players and see how I can do better week 2. You can guess which one I am. My sister is in the lead week 1. Go Michelle!

Bolognese Sauce

This weekend we had dinner with some friends and David's parents, but other than that David had class and I hung around the house and went on errands. I got some cute decorations for the gender reveal party, went to Pet Smart for molly food, went to home goods (didn't buy anything) and I grocery shopped! I was craving some pasta with meat sauce all weekend so I decided to make some yesterday.

It was also the first time that I used my dutch oven skillet pan. The Pioneer Woman uses hers ALL the time and I happened to be using her recipe so I thought I'd do as she does. This is her Bolognese Sauce.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Olive Oil
• 1-1/2 cup Grated Carrots
• 1 whole Large Red Onion, Diced
• 2 pounds Ground Beef
• 2 Tablespoons Dried Oregano
• 2 Tablespoons Dried Basil Flakes
• 1 can (6 Ounce) Tomato Paste
• 5 cloves Garlic, Minced
• 1 cup (to 2 Cups) Red Wine
• 2 Tablespoons Worcestershire
• 2 cans (28 Ounce) Whole Tomatoes
• 1 cup Milk
• Salt And Pepper, to taste
• Fresh Parmesan Cheese

Start by grating your carrots (I only needed 2 whole carrots) and dicing your red onion. 

Heat oil in a large Dutch oven or skillet over medium heat. Add grated carrots and onions and cook for a few minutes. Make a well in the center of the mixture, and then add in the ground beef.

Cook for a few minutes until brown, gradually stirring it into the carrot mixture.

Throw in oregano and basil. Use fresh if you have it; if you don’t, it’s fine. When the meat is browned and combined with other ingredients, make another well. Add tomato paste and let it heat. Add garlic and stir to combine.

Make a well in the center of the mixture and add red wine. Stir together.

Add Worcestershire and stir. Add canned tomatoes. Finally, pour in milk, stir, and let simmer for 30 minutes to 2 hours—however long you need.

I interrupt your recipe viewing for some funny doggie pictures. Molly loves when we pour new dog food into her container, I've posted on this before.

She always eats it mid air and tries to catch it.

Then she sticks her mouth right in the container and munches on some more.

 Serve over noodles. I chose linguine. It makes enough for 2 lbs of pasta or 8 hefty servings.

Serve with a nice garden salad.

Voila! I loved it. Tips and notes: the sauce was a little runny (I added some cornstarch) and I might add another can of tomato paste to make it more red. The color was a bit brown so not typical pasta sauce. David devoured it and said he missed my cooking, isn't that sweet. Hope you all had a great weekend.

17 Week Pregnancy Survey

Before I begin the weekly survey I want to point your attention to the right hand column of the blog. I have put the official voting poll for Baby W's gender on the side. You can vote (hopefully only once) until our appointment on September 30th!

How Far Along: 17 weeks

Size of baby: Your baby's skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone, and the umbilical cord — her lifeline to the placenta — is growing stronger and thicker. Your baby weighs 5 ounces now (about as much as a turnip), and she's around 5 inches long from head to bottom. She can move her joints, and her sweat glands are starting to develop.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: 5 lbs so far. The doctor told me to try to have 2 milkshakes per week for extra calories and calcium (don't hate me).

What I miss: Coke (the soda obviously). I know that I can have caffeine, but I just want to limit it so it was a nice treat to have a couple sips the other day. I'm going to get some caffeine free since it was so good.

Sleep: I love my new bed furniture so I am sleeping pretty well still getting up for the potty 2-4 times per night.

Symptoms: Slowly, but surely I am starting to feel normal again just hungry a lot more often. Everything else I am feeling pretty normal

Cravings: I would like some apple cider from Herman's farm market (in hometown) since the weather has gotten a little cooler I could really go for some.


Movement: I am reading that this is coming soon and I can't wait! They say it is little flutters and possibly could be feeling them already just may not be sure of what I am feeling.

Best Moments this week: Hearing BW's heart beat and spending lots of time around our house this weekend.

What I'm looking forward to: Growing a tummy and feeling BW for the first time.
No picture this week, nothing new there yet.

Duvet Cover Dilema

I seriously am having the hardest time picking a new duvet set for the master bedroom. I thought I liked the one at home goods, but it turned out not to be the colors that were pictured and there was just no other choices. I went to a bunch of department stores and came to the conclusion that I am going to probably have to find it online. I have a few choices I found online, but need your opinions or suggestions on where else to look.

 I like this pottery barn one. I like the paisley designs and the colors, I'm just afraid its a little too pastel.

 I like how the colors pop in this one from overstock.com but just not sure they are my type of colors.

I like this one overall, just not sold on it. Do you have a favorite? Given these ideas, Any suggestions?