How big is baby?

34 Weeks - The size of a Cantaloupe!
18 inches long and almost 5 pounds!

How far along: 34 weeks

Maternity Clothes: My "airport outfit" today is a pair of maternity sweats, a tee shirt and a sweatshirt - it's all about being comfy!

Stretch Marks: yep...

Sleep: Sleep? What's that?

Best Moment this Week: Sitting in First Class having just eaten a salad with steak medallions, when the flight attendant asked me if I'd like a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie and a glass of milk. My response? Why of course!

I lied. That was the best moment today. The best moment this week was getting presents from my husband. :) I got some cute comfy socks for me to wear at the hospital (when I told jen I had asked for "labor socks" she said, "Yeah because when you go into labor, I'm sure your first thought will be, 'Wait, do my feet look good?!' "), a big hot coco mug, a fleece blanket, some peppermint foot cream, and a spa gift basket from Bath and Body Works. I'm feeling quite pampered :)

Movement: At the size of a cantaloupe, she doesn't have much room these days, but she's certainly making do with the room she's got. Unfortunately this means she's decided that under my ribs is the best place for her little feet :)

Food Cravings: Cookies.... but when has that not been a craving of mine?

Gender: Sugar and spice, and everything nice!

Labor Signs: No "free flights for life" for this little girl! She's being good and staying in there.

Belly Button: Still in the in-between stage... not quite in, but not all the way out.

What I Miss: Being able to sit without my feet swelling, and being able to walk around without my hands swelling - at this point, I just can't win!

What I'm Looking Forward to this Week: Seeing the in-laws tonight, and then my family next week!

Weekly Wisdom: Fly First Class. You won't be sorry.

Ready or not,

Here we come!

Bran and I are headed to North Carolina to hang with the Antkowiaks, and then up to Maryland to see my family!

We leave tonight for Spokane, where we'll be staying in a hotel by the airport. Our flight takes off at 6am tomorrow, and Bran wants to make this trip as easy on me as possible, so rather than get up at 2am to be at the airport by 4 or so, we'll leave tonight and take a shuttle over in the morning.

My amazing Mother-In-Law bought us first class tickets for the flight out, which I couldn't be more excited about, especially in my watermelon-under-the-shirt state. I'm most excited about having lots of room, and Bran is most excited about the complimentary alcohol!

It will still be a long day of travel, even with staying in Spokane tonight. Once we get to Norfolk (the closest airport to the Outer Banks), we'll have a 2 1/2 hour drive down to Corolla, where the beach house is (at least, I think it's in Corolla). Please pray that everything goes as planned, especially with me being so pregnant! I'm not worried about going into labor on the plane or anything (no signs of labor before now, and flying shouldn't change that). Mostly I'm hoping that I can be comfortable, and that my heartburn will let up while we travel!

See you soon!

Holy Heartburn, Batman!

So I've never had heartburn, really. There was the occasional minute of uneasiness after eating a particularly satisfying meal from Taco Bell, but other than that nothing to write home about. My mom and brother always had it BAD, but I guess I got lucky. Little did I know how lucky I was.

The heartburn saga started a few weeks ago, when I realized that it was time to buy Tyler a new bottle of Tums since I had eaten all of his. The first time I knew the heartburn thing was going to be bad was when I got heartburn from cinnamon Pop Tarts. If you know me well, you know that I've been pretty much living on Pop Tarts since I was born. Never have I EVER gotten heartburn from Pop Tarts. But that one fateful day a few weeks ago those Pop Tarts gave me heartburn that just wouldn't go away.

After the Pop Tart incident, I started getting heartburn from anything, everything, and nothing. It doesn't matter what I eat, or if I eat nothing at all, I'm destined to feel like a dragon with indigestion.


Some days are better than others, and all days have been better than the past two. Not only do I feel like the Pepto Bismol poster child: Nausea! Heartburn! Indigestion! Upset Stomach! (thank goodness for no diarrhea) but I'm also pretty convinced that I'm going to need a new esophagus after this baby comes to replace the destroyed one I've got now. It was so bad last night that I actually slept sitting up. I'm hoping to high heaven that it doesn't get worse before it gets better.

33 Weeks - As heavy as the one thing I don't want to imagine giving birth to:

A Pineapple!

How far along: 33 weeks

Maternity Clothes: One pair of my maternity jeans are getting a little tight, but I've got two more pairs to hold me over till she comes! And then there are my two pairs of sweatpants for when those don't fit anymore :)

Stretch Marks: yep...

Sleep: Has been pretty random. Some nights I sleep better than I have in ages, and then nights like last night I hardly sleep a wink.

Best Moment this Week: Giving Ty and Rachel their Christmas presents at Applebees the other night. Rach got candles that made her laugh so hard she cried, and I've never seen anyone as excited as Ty was about the hand mixer we bought him! When he opened his present and saw the mixer box, his first response was: "Is it really a mixer?! Cause that would be awesome."

Movement: She's moving more regularly throughout the day now, and I can get her to move by simply laying down and putting pressure on different parts of my stomach. Bran got to see her do one of her across-the-belly somersaults yesterday and couldn't believe how much it makes my belly move!

Food Cravings: We've moved from fruits to veggies: I'm loving salads these days!

Gender: Sugar and spice, and everything nice!

Labor Signs: Praying the labor dust holds off for another month!

Belly Button: No longer an innie - we're officially in the innnie-outie stage.

What I Miss: My sister! But I get to see her in about 2 weeks.

What I'm Looking Forward to this Week: Leaving for North Carolina and then Maryland next Sunday!

Weekly Wisdom: Not feeling very "wise" this week thanks to some raging hormones - maybe next week will be better!

Just when I thought we had it figured out...

Bran reminded me that the striped nursery idea, while a great one, would be incredibly hard to do in our nursery. Our whole house has pesky plastered walls that have a texture to them, so that even if we were incredibly careful in our taping and measuring, the stripes would still come out looking messy. Arg!

But I didn't let this get me down. I'm realizing more and more that I don't like the idea of doing green (mostly I just liked it because it meant we didn't have to do pink!). And while I still love the Penelope bedding I had picked out from Pottery Barn, my sister helped me come up with another idea that would use a bright coral wall color and a simple white or light colored bedding. Here's our new inspiration:


I love the bright walls with white accents, and I think Bran will like that it's definitely girly and feminine. So there you go - any thoughts??

Another Nursery Update

Thanks so much to everyone who chimed in about the nursery color conundrum (Blue? Pink? Seasick Green?). My favorite idea so far came from Valerie, who suggested - and even made a drawing to demonstrate! - that we do one wall in a cream or off-white, and on those pesky slanted ceiling walls paint vertical green stripes.

Here's the picture she sent me:


It's a little bit light, but you get the idea. I LOVE the thought of doing a small pink stripe between green and cream/white ones, too! And leaving the far wall plain will help balance out the room without letting it feel overrun with stripes.

Thanks, Valerie!


Our friend Austin owns his own construction company and is going to do a bunch of the work for us installing the bathroom that will be adjacent to the nursery upstairs. He's stopping by today to give us a timetable for when we can get things rolling, and then hopefully when we get back from our trip to the East Coast in the beginning of January, we'll have all the plumbing installed and then finish the rest of the construction so we can start (and finish) Emmaline's room before she gets here! Crossing my fingers! It's so nice knowing that we won't need a nursery right away, since she'll be sleeping in our room for the first few months anyway, but it would be nice to be done with the construction before she comes. You guys can pray that God will make things go quickly and that he would give me patience (and a strong bladder!) this next month.

How big is baby?

32 Weeks - She's as heavy as a Jicama!

How far along: 32 weeks

Maternity Clothes: I wore one of my old Rockbridge PE tee shirts to bed last night, which fit me just fine pre-pregnancy. Now, my belly sticks out of the bottom!

Stretch Marks: yep...

Sleep: Doing alright as far as this goes. She's started to kick and bump harder, which makes sleeping on my side a bit less comfortable than it has been in the past. I'm not sure if its a knee or an elbow, but she loves to move it up and down the side laying against the bed. The way it feels on my stomach muscles is so weird!

Best Moment this Week: Getting to sleep in until 12:30 this morning after working at the Pantry 3 nights in a row!

Movement: She's getting so strong. I keep having to remind myself that she's just a baby and doesn't know what she's doing to her mama. My tendency is to picture her in there going "take that, mom!"

Food Cravings: Craving fruit for the first time this week. I'm glad I stocked up on canned pears a while ago!

Gender: Sugar and spice, and everything nice!

Labor Signs: Still nothing, and hoping it stays that way at least until we get back from Maryland in a few weeks.

Belly Button: She's started kicking it which feels really funny.

What I Miss: Having a completely uninterrupted night of sleep.

What I'm Looking Forward to this Week: Our last Dr.'s appointment until January is tomorrow! We would be having one on the 28th of December as well, but we'll be in North Carolina, so she had us schedule one for as soon as we get back on January 6th.

Weekly Wisdom: There's no such thing as too much sleep.

Nursery Update

When it comes to projects around the house, Bran and I take one of two approaches: bust our backs to get a whole bunch done in a short amount of time (ala painting the whole house in a month), or do something to start a project that demands we finish it, like completely demolishing the upstairs closet that will become a bathroom in the next month, or the huge, closet-sized hole in our new bedroom's wall where a closet will be sometime in the future. I'm a fan of the approach that doesn't leave holes in walls and rooms without ceilings or floors, but hey you've gotta do what you've gotta do!

Since our due date (February 7th!) is fast approaching, we decided it's time to paint the nursery. This took much deliberating, as my ideas for an adorable little girl's nursery looked like this:


And from what I can tell, Bran was thinking more like this:



Ok, so maybe that's an exaggeration, since I just typed in "frilly girl nursery" in google and that's what came up.

Either way, I'm of the mind that certain shades of blue can be quite feminine and even "girly" while Bran firmly believes that baby girls are made up of "sugar and spice, and everything pink."


Our nursery has two walls with slanted ceilings about 3/4 of the way up, and then the other two are flat. I love chair rails, but knew one wouldn't work with the funky walls. When I saw this, though, I thought maybe hanging trim just below the ceiling slants and carrying it all the way around the room would be a good way to make use of those funky slants.

We also decided that we like the idea of doing green on the walls, like they did in the pic above, and doing pink above the trim, but carrying it all the way up onto the ceiling. The more that I look at it, though, the more I want to do colors other than green and pink. It's just not doing it for me!

Since my last nursery post, I've also had second thoughts about my bedding choice..

I originally decided on this bedding from pottery barn kids:


But after looking at it more, I realized that even though they call it a "girl's nursery bedding" it's just too boyish/neutral for me. Instead, I've got my heart set on this one, also from PBK:


So the green/pink theme would totally work with the bedding, I just don't know if I love it.

Any thoughts or suggestions??

How big is baby?

31 Weeks - She's as heavy as 4 oranges!

How far along: 31 weeks - only 9 to go!

Maternity Clothes: My Gap winter coat came yesterday - I LOVE it!

Stretch Marks: dun dun dun... here they come!

Sleep: Kind of unpredictable.

Best Moment this Week: Spending time with Bran the past few nights.

Movement: She's still a mover!

Food Cravings: Chocolate milk, again!

Gender: Sugar and spice, and everything nice!

Labor Signs: Nope! But my birthing class has me all prepared for when we do have labor signs!

Belly Button: Still disappearing..

What I Miss: My parents!

What I'm Looking Forward to this Week: Last birthing class tomorrow!

Weekly Wisdom: I'll have to think about it...

Check it out!

Lots of people have started to ask what I want for Christmas, so I decided to start an Amazon Wishlist. You can check it out by following the link to the right!

I recommend that everyone have one of these things - it's such a fun way to remember things that you would either like as a gift or want to buy later!

How big is baby?

30 Weeks - the size of a(n American) Cabbage!

How far along: 30 weeks - only 10 to go!

Maternity Clothes: LOVE them. Mom got me a new sweater at gap, and I bought myself a new maternity coat that should be getting here next week.

Stretch Marks: dun dun dun... here they come!

Sleep: Much better this week - my belly has grown so much in the past 2 weeks and I think that's helping with my sleeping on the side comfort.

Best Moment this Week: Getting to spend so much time with my family - the visit was wonderful and made me so excited about going home for christmas!

Movement: She's still a mover, but much more confined now. She likes the right side of my belly most, and spends most of her time bumping over there. I felt hiccups for the first time last week!

Food Cravings: PB&J is my new favorite sandwich.

Gender: Sugar and spice, and everything nice!

Labor Signs: Nope! But my birthing class has me all prepared for when we do have labor signs!

Belly Button: So tiny! I think it's going to disappear altogether.

What I Miss: My parents!

What I'm Looking Forward to this Week: Dr. Appt. tomorrow, and birthing class.

Weekly Wisdom: I had a really good one, but now I can't remember it!

How big is baby (a little bit early)?

29 weeks - She's as heavy as a butternut Squash, and about 15 inches long!

How far along: 29 weeks

Maternity Clothes: Still my favorite.

Stretch Marks: Definitely starting to make a more pronounced appearance on my hips.

Sleep: I finally got comfortable at night thanks to a maternity wedge from my friend Michelle. Still not sleeping great, but more because of housemates and less because of baby.

Best Moment this Week: Will be seeing my parents in Seattle tomorrow!

Movement: She definitely slowed down this week. When the Antkowiaks were here, she was kicking and bouncing like crazy, but thanks to her constant packing on the pounds (she weighs almost 3 now!) things are getting a little tight. She rarely kicks anymore, but still does her big moves from one side of my belly to the other. She's also doing much more "pushing" than actual kicking.

Food Cravings: None this week... looking forward to some Seattle Seafood, though!

Gender: Sugar and spice, and everything nice!

Labor Signs: Nope! But my birthing class has me all prepared for when we do have labor signs!

Belly Button: It looks like it's going to just fold in half - to weird!

What I Miss: Being able to comfortably shave my legs, or do anything really without becoming exhausted. Tonight while I was packing and cleaning I thought to myself for the first time "Gosh I wish someone could hold this baby for me while I do all this!"

What I'm Looking Forward to this Week: Parents in SEATTLE!!!

Weekly Wisdom: A house that's not perfectly clean and an energetic pregger is much better than a spotless house and a pregnant lady too exhausted to go to Seattle!

Tentative Thanksgiving Menu

It's almost that time! I love Thanksgiving Dinner, and we're so excited to be sharing it with my parents and brother this year. They fly in to Seattle on Sunday, and we're driving over to hang out with them there until Tuesday, when we'll all meet back in Moscow to get ready for Thanksgiving. I can't wait!


Last year, it was just myself, Bran, Jen, and Rachel at our Thanksgiving table, but this year there will be 7 of us with the addition of Mom, Dad, and Gregg. Our plan is to buy the same sized turkey as the one my husband bought last year (yes, he bought a 12/14 pound turkey for the four of us!) since after dinner from a certain angle you couldn't tell we had eaten any of it!

Here's the menu so far:

Appetizers:
Brie Cherry pastry cups (Ash)
Sausage Pinwheels (Ash)
Velveeta Dip (Bran)

Main Course:
Turkey (Bran)
Gravy (Dad)

Sides:
Mashed Potatoes (Bran)
Pretzel Stuffing (Ash, requested by Bran)
Green Beans (Rachel)
Sauerkraut (Ash)
*Baby Carrots (Ash)
*Corn Casserole (Ash)
Homemade Rolls (Mom)

Dessert:
Pumpkin Pie (Mom and Jen)


*Not sure if I'm doing to make these yet, but we'll see. My husband's idea of Thanksgiving is that it's only a success if everyone is miserable by 4 o'clock, and I think that will definitely be so with all this food!

So Anemia, eh?

I had my 1 hour glucose test on Monday and the result came back negative for gestational diabetes - yay! But my doctor said that the blood test did show that I'm becoming anemic, which explains my recent bouts with dizziness, exhaustion, etc. So I'm adding an iron supplement to my prenatal vitamin.

Being the good pregnant lady that I am, I decided to google what foods are high in iron so I can make sure I'm getting lots of it from food, too. This is what my first search came up with:

Iron rich food	Iron Content	RDA % *	Calories
Cockles boiled	28mg	155%	50
Black Pudding	20mg	111%	300
Liver	9mg	50%	190
Fish Paste	9mg	50%	170
Faggots	8.3mg	46%	270
Kidney	8mg	44%	170
Venison	7.8mg	43%	200
Heart	7.7mg	43%	180
Mussels boiled	7mg	39%	90
Liver Pate	7mg	39%	190
Liver Sausage	6.4mg	36%	312
Goose	5mg	28%	320
Pheasant	5mg	28%	220
Shrimps canned	5mg	28%	95
Haggis	4.8mg	27%	310
Sardines canned	4.5mg	27%	180
Anchovies canned	4mg	22%	285
Whitebait	4mg	22%	310
Tongue Ox	3mg	17%	300
Pilchards canned	2.7mg	16%	130
Beef lean	2.5mg	16%	240

Seriously? Maybe I should have typed in "Food high in iron that I'll actually want to eat." Because when it comes down to it, the fact that boiled cockles and black pudding have lots of iron does not make me any more inclined to a) find out what those actually are or b) even attempt to eat them.

You'll be happy to hear that my second result was much more pleasing to my taste buds, and didn't make me want to go throw up:

Iron Rich Foods containing Heme Iron

	Excellent Sources		Good Sources
	Clams Pork Liver Oysters Chicken Liver Mussels Beef Liver		Beef Shrimp Sardines Turkey

Iron Rich Foods containing Non-Heme Iron

	Excellent Sources		Good Sources
	Enriched breakfast cereals Cooked beans and lentils Pumpkin seeds Blackstrap Molasses		Canned beans Baked potato with skin Enriched pasta Canned asparagus

Now, I have to tell you that the "excellent sources of iron" in the first chart made me a little nervous, since I'm definitely not a fan of liver. The second list sounds right up my alley, especially since my current diet is made up mostly of cereal, pasta, beans, and potatoes. I was very relieved to find this little warning at the bottom of the page:

Warning: Pregnant women should not eat liver because of its very high Vitamin A content. Large amounts of Vitamin A can be harmful to the baby.

Hah! Second google result blows the first one out of the water because not only did they give me a list of stuff I not only don't mind eating, but actually prefer, but also because they gave me reason to not feel bad for not liking liver. Awesome.

How big is baby?

We're 28 weeks. That means baby is the size of a............ Chinese Cabbage!
If you're going "What's a chinese cabbage?" you aren't alone. My guess is that it's a slanty-eyed version
of a regular cabbage. But keep in mind that a chinese cabbage is slightly smaller than it's American equivalent (that makes me laugh... everything is bigger in America!). So don't be alarmed when baby is the size of a regular cabbage in a few weeks.

How far along: 28 weeks

Maternity Clothes: So comfy! I'm loving all my sweaters and long sleeved shirts with this cold weather!

Stretch Marks: Starting to sprout a bit, but I just consider them an honorable battle scar.

Sleep: 11pm-3am-6am. That's my current sleep schedule. <--- ditto from last week...

Best Moment this Week: Getting the package in the mail that I'll tell you about when we talk about my current cravings....!!

Movement: She's currently curled up on the right side of my belly, and every once in a while she'll roll around and stretch out. It feels so funny! She's not letting her bigger size slow her down yet!

Food Cravings: You'll remember my Dunkin Donuts conundrum from a few weeks ago, when all I wanted was a boston creme donut from Dunkin and the closest store is about 300 miles away. Well, my in-laws overheard that I was having an insatiable craving for them, so when they got back to Maryland they overnighted a tin with a dozen dunkin donuts boston cremes in it! I called Bran as soon as I opened the box to tell him how excited I was, and when he came home for lunch to find me covered in chocolate and filling, he said I was "Glowing"! That was most definitely the best moment of this week.

Gender: Sugar and spice, and everything nice!

Labor Signs: Nope! But my birthing class has me all prepared for when we do have labor signs!

Belly Button: It's slowly but surely disappearing.

What I Miss: Being able to breathe after I do anything! Like sit, stand, climb the stairs, you name it! Baby's growing and my lungs aren't too happy about it.

What I'm Looking Forward to this Week: 28 week doctor's appointment tomorrow (I'll be taking my glucose tolerance test to check for gestational diabetes - pray that it goes well!) and then birth class tomorrow night!

Weekly Wisdom: Have a husband like mine. We went to Hastings to rent a movie last night, and when we pulled into the parking lot there was a car with the hood up and a very frustrated looking couple standing out in the cold. Bran asked them what was up, and they said that though the battery was fine (the had tried jump starting the car, but it wouldn't even try to turn over) they just couldn't get it to start. Bran immediately climbed under the hood, did some banging around, stood up and told the guy to try and start it again. It started right up! Evidently they need to replace their starter... they were incredibly thankful, and I was incredibly proud of my awesome manly husband and his mechanic skills ;)

How big is baby?

27 weeks - a head of Cauliflower!

How far along: 27 Weeks! Only about 90 days left.

Maternity Clothes: Mother-in-law did it again - Jeff and Karen visited for the weekend and she took me shopping for even more adorable clothes! I love it!

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

Sleep: 11pm-3am-6am. That's my current sleep schedule.

Best Moment this Week: Dinner at West of Paris with the Antkowiaks. It was lovely!

Movement: Bran and I read in our baby book this week that how much your baby moves has nothing to do with how healthy she is, and everything to do with her personality. Look out world, she's gonna be a wild one!

Food Cravings: Mmmm even if I had any, I don't think I would have bothered fulfilling them with all the yumminess we've gotten to enjoy with the Antkowiaks!

Gender: Baby girl all the way!

Labor Signs: Thankfully, no.

Belly Button: Jen thinks it's getting scary.

What I Miss: Being able to breathe after I eat!

What I'm Looking Forward to this Week: Birth Class tomorrow night!

Weekly Wisdom: When you're 27 weeks pregnant and your in-laws take you out to eat huge dinners twice in a row, be sure and leave "breathing room" when you eat. If you don't, you might have to lay down in the back of the car to make sure you don't pass out.

Dear Frankie

As many of you know, one of the "side effects" of pregnancy is raging hormones. As in, a normal woman's hormones make her behave like a... woman? Whereas a pregnant woman's hormones have the tendency to turn her from a perfectly normal woman into a fire breathing, bucket of tears crying, indecisive dragon.

Case in point? The movie Dear Frankie. I absolutely love this movie, and couldn't remember if I had seen it before when Jen recommended that we watch it as a "family" after house dinner. We all sat down in the living room, pulled out Tyler's uber cool mac monitor, and settled in for what we thought would be a normal evening spent watching a sweet Scottish film (thanks, Valerie!). Oh boy were the in for a surprise.

I've been known to tear up during really sad movies (as in, Life is Beautiful sad - not Old Yeller sad, sorry Bran.) And when I say "tear up" I mean my eyes will fill with tears and I might have a few make their way down my cheeks. This is not normal, though, as I'm pretty composed during movies*. Toward the heartwarming end of this movie, however, I began to sob. Not "tear up" or even cry - I was full on "I-can't-breathe-because-I'm-crying-so-hard sobbing. Bran, being the wonderful hormone-slaying husband that he is, knew that this was a perfectly normal way for me to respond to the movie in my state and just put his arm around me. Tyler didn't know what to do. Rachel was crying, too, but in the normal way. And the only reaction Jen came up with to my ridiculous emotional response was to full on laugh at me. She laughed so hard that she cried, too.

After that, they decided we'd stick to movies like I Love you, Man.






*The only exception to this rule is when Bran and I went to see Marley and Me shortly after I had my miscarriage last September. The way they described her miscarriage in the movie was almost exactly how mine happened (ultrasound to see if baby is ok reveals that the baby has been miscarried). I cried a lot during that part of the movie, but the funny thing is that I still cried harder during Dear Frankie.

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