How Big is Baby?

She's as big as an Eggplant!

How far along: 26 weeks - Less than 100 days to go! How crazy is that?

Maternity Clothes: I've been loving the long sleeved shirts my Mother-in-law sent me - they're so comfy!

Stretch Marks: Still no belly ones - no complaints here!

Sleep: Sleep? What's that?

Best Moment this Week: Yesterday, when Bran brought me a donut from work. It made me cry... lol

Movement: I'm telling ya, this girl is a mover and a shaker! Right now she's exploring WAY above my belly button, almost under my rib cage - it feels pretty weird!

Food Cravings: Chicken Lombardi! I made it two nights in a row this week, and it was so good! Thanks, Mom!

Gender: Baby girl all the way!

Labor Signs: Thankfully, no.

Belly Button: Bran thinks it's funny..

What I Miss: Sleeping comfortably. I really want to get a maternity pillow, but they're so expensive!

What I'm Looking Forward to this Week: Jeff and Karen fly in on Thursday!

Weekly Wisdom: Sometimes we can learn a lot from little ones - Evie, the baby I watch every day, has been so sick with everything from a fever to a HUGE swollen gland (like, golf ball size!). Even though she must be so miserable, she has had the best attitude about it! I was so thankful for her longsuffering nature this week, as it made things more bearable for both of us. It made me realize that I need to be more like this with my little pregnancy discomforts!

My wife is preggers

I stumbled across this blog just a few weeks after finding out that I was pregnant, and have been reading it's archives ever since. I came across this jewel today about pregnancy colds:

Through some inspired detective work I discovered that the ingredient Guaifenesin (which my computer just red-squiggled) is safe for preggies with coughs. Other ingredients found in over-the-counter medicines are bad and can result in neighborhood pets disappearing once your child is born and learns to walk.

But Guaifenesin, Guai-frickin-fenesin, is so benign and ineffective that even a woman suffering from acute bodily fetus invasion can safely take a half-dosage every four hours for no more than 24 hours.

It's an expectorant, which is the medical term for when you expect your cough to go away but it doesn't. Actually, to expectorate is to spit, as we know from Beauty and the Beast ("In a spitting match nobody spits like Gaston/I'm especially good at ex-pec-tor-ating..."). So Julie will stop coughing and start spitting. Awesome.

I don't see a need to tell her that the only cough syrup at Walgreens that contained Guaifenesin and not 15 added baby-marring ingredients was the highly respected, sought-after Wal-Tussin brand. I will instead lie and tell her that the pharmacist described it as the cough syrup of the stars.

Seriously, check out mywifeispreggers - you won't be sorry.

Just another crazy day in our lives....

Bran spent all day yesterday (his "sunday" since his days off are monday and tuesday) working on his truck, which is what you can find him doing any time he finds some spare time. At some point yesterday, though, he must have gotten something in his eye or on his eyelash that decided to show up at 2am last night. He woke up in extreme pain that came and went, and after trying multiple times to flush his eye out with saline, I made the official decision that it was time to go to the ER.

One of the nicest things about living in such a small town is that not only is the hospital literally just down the road from us, but also that there is no one in the ER at 2am on a tuesday. We were checked in quickly and they looked him over for at least an hour (during which he managed to throw up and almost pass out... evidently some people respond to eye pain in that way!). The doctor couldn't find anything in his eye, but did detect some flash burn (no surprise there, since he had been welding). She gave him some medicine and sent us home with a note to see a local eye doctor this morning just to make sure things were looking better. We got home around 4am and he was asleep by 4:05... I was up for another hour, though, since Emmaline decided that it must be morning and was doing her morning gymnastics routine in my belly.

We both got a decent amount of sleep, and I was able to get him an 11am appointment with the eye doctor. He naturally woke up feeling worlds better, but we both thought it would still be a good idea to get things checked out in case he was just feeling good from the medicine. The doc looked him over and said everything looks ok, so now we're just going to hope that it stays that way!

And that was our little adventure for the day... I told Bran that the next time he needs attention he should just tell me and we'll figure something out instead of all the ER shenanigans ;)

25 Weeks - A Rutabaga.
These things are getting ridiculous.

How far along: 25 weeks

Maternity Clothes: I've been getting a lot of wear out of a pair of maternity yoga capris my mom gave me - they're super comfy to wear around the house!

Stretch Marks: Looking pretty good!

Sleep: Ugh this is my least favorite topic right now. I'm fighting a nasty head cold, and breathing through my mouth at night is drying out my lungs, which is making it even harder to sleep. Next item on our "to buy" list is a humidifier.

Best Moment this Week: Laying on the couch with Bran on Friday watching my belly bounce whenever she kicked.

Movement: She's been doing gymnastics in there! I'll feel a kick super low, and then a nudge way up high.. she's all over the place!

Food Cravings: Chocolate chip cookies - i made some yesterday that were yummy!

Gender: As far as we know, she's still a girl.

Labor Signs: Nope

Belly Button: Fun to play with. It looks all kinds of weird.

What I Miss: Nothing right now - i totally love being pregnant.

What I'm Looking Forward to this Week: Getting to spend tomorrow and Tuesday with Hubby.

Weekly Wisdom: If the mood to clean hits you, take advantage of it. Chances are it will fade pretty quick anyway!

Dinner Time

I made this for House Dinner last night and everyone loved it! I had it for the first time on Monday at a friend's Pampered Chef party. I was totally blown away by the dish because I really don't like jalapeno pepper, spinach, or tomato, and these are the key ingredients. For some reason those three combined and topped with cheese just work!

The Pampered Chef Zesty Ravioli Skillet

(from The Pampered Chef, Season's Best Recipe Collection, Fall/Winter 2009)

1/3 cup (75 mL) heavy whipping cream

4 cups (1 L) loosely packed fresh baby spinach leaves

6 oz (175 g) provolone cheese, grated

1 tbsp (15 mL) olive oil
1 small jalapeño pepper, seeded
3 garlic cloves, pressed
2 cans (14.5 oz/398 mL each) diced tomatoes with onions, undrained
1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt
1/2 tsp (2 mL) coarsely ground black pepper
1 pkg (24 oz/700 g) small frozen cheese ravioli (about 65)*
Halved grape tomatoes (optional)

Measure cream using Easy Read Measuring Cup. Wash spinach in large Stainless Mesh Colander; drain. Grate cheese using Ultimate Mandoline fitted with grating blade. Set aside cream, spinach and cheese.

Add oil to (12-in./30-cm) Skillet; heat over medium-high heat 1-3 minutes or until shimmering. Finely chop jalapeño with Food Chopper. Add jalapeño to Skillet; cook and stir 1 minute or until crisp-tender. Press garlic into Skillet with Garlic Press; cook and stir 15-20 seconds or until fragrant.

Add tomatoes, salt and black pepper to Skillet; cook and stir with Bamboo Spatula 1-2 minutes or until simmering. Add ravioli; stir to coat. Cook, uncovered, 4-5 minutes or until tender. Stir cream into Skillet. Cook, uncovered, 1-2 minutes or until simmering. Sprinkle spinach over ravioli; cook, covered, 1 minute or until spinach starts to wilt.

Remove Skillet from heat. Top with cheese; cover Skillet and let stand 1-2 minutes or until cheese is melted. Garnish with grape tomatoes, if desired.

Yield: 8 servings

* I substituted meat ravioli for my husband, who doesn't believe in vegetarian dishes. It worked great, and the only thing we'll do different next time is add a little bit of tomato sauce to thicken things up a bit.

You should definitely check this out

Her name is Emiliana Torrini, and I'm loving her music right now.

Another new look

The pink was getting to be a bit much for me, and when I was looking through page layouts on hotbliggityblog, I fell in love with this one! It's rocking the vintage feel, and I'm into that right now.

Nursery Bedding Inspiration

I've been doing some window shopping to figure out what crib bedding theme I want for Emmaline, and I've found that my favorite ones all have a garden/nature theme going on. I think I like it so much because it captures that whole "feminine without being frilly" thing that I'm so into. Here are a few of my favorites so far:

Pottery Barn's "Brooke" bedding

I love the soft look of this bedding, though it's pricier than something I'd feel comfortable asking for!

Land of Nod's "Oh what a beautiful morning"

I think this one is really sweet, and if we were going to wait to find out what we're having (which, obviously, we didn't) I would totally go with it. As it is, it's a bit too gender neutral for my little girl.


Target's Circo Mix and Match Brown Flowers

I think this one is really sweet, and I love the polka dots on the bumper. Love the flowers, too!


Target MiGi Blossom

I've always been a fan of cherry blossoms, and I love how this bedding looks. It's a lot of pink, but I like it.

How big is baby?

24 Weeks - An ear of corn! Baby is over a foot long and
weighs more than a pound!

How far along: 24 weeks

Maternity Clothes: Jen and I went shopping in Spokane and I got some adorable fall clothes! I LOVE maternity clothes!

Stretch Marks: Still nothing on my belly - hoping it stays that way!

Sleep: Still not great... maybe it's God's way of preparing me for lack of sleep when she's a newborn?

Best Moment this Week: Picking up Jen from the airport.

Movement: Bran and I both saw her bumping around last night - so amazing.

Food Cravings: Wingers Hamburger... not sure why since I'm not a huge burger fan, but I'm loving their's.

Gender: Woohoo for cute little girl cloths, like the adorable hat mom and Jen got for her!

Labor Signs: Thankfully, no.

Belly Button: Getting shallower.

What I Miss: Being able to bend over easily - but it's so worth it!

What I'm Looking Forward to this Week: Not having to work until Friaday!

Weekly Wisdom: Don't post things your sister says that you thought were funny but other people thought were mean. I really did think it was funny! promise.



Ps. I'm going to try really hard to do some regular posts this week!!

How big is baby?

Baby is the size of a Mango and weighs a little over a pound!

How far along: 23 weeks - only 17 to go!!

Maternity Clothes: I squeezed into last year's winter coat one last time today, and could barely button it over my big belly! My maternity coat is just a bit too big still, but I'm sure I'll fill it out soon.

Stretch Marks: Are only on my legs so far - weird!

Sleep: Has been a little better... I think working a 7 hour shift two nights in a row helped with that...

Best Moment this Week: Going to the Ballet with my friend Jamie and her mom! It was such a nice way to get out of the house while everyone is gone.

Movement: I actually saw her kick from the OUTSIDE this morning! Craziest thing ever!

Food Cravings: Hot chocolate... how appropriate for this fall weather!

Gender: Baby girl! All the cute little girls dressed up for the ballet today got me all excited about dressing Emmaline up when she's here :)

Labor Signs: Thankfully, no.

Belly Button: Getting shallower.

What I Miss: Walking normally! My balance is all out of whack, so I have to lean back to keep my center of balance right, which makes me waddle a little - Bran thinks it's funny :)

What I'm Looking Forward to this Week: Having the house to myself.

Weekly Wisdom: If your sister offers to finish up the dishes for you, say "Oh thanks for the offer, but I'm doing just fine!" because she doesn't actually want to do them, she just feels like she has to ask because you're pregnant. :-p