Week 30 AND Week 31 (12/18-12/24; 12/25-12/31)

So these past two weeks have been super busy and as a result of my inability to get to a computer, I'm combining them. A lot has happened: Christmas, New Years, new closets ;)

First things first- about the baby. This week the baby was the size of a pineapple. He is getting much bigger and my awkwardness level is skyrocketing. I think I can feel hiccups, I think they are hiccups. If not they are small kicks in exactly the same spot spaced like 10 seconds apart for like a minute or so. I'm gonna go with hiccups. It sounds cuter that way anyway. The other morning I was big spoon and Hov said he could feel the baby kicking his back, that was a big jump. Before, he could only feel the baby kick with his hands, I guess baby is getting a lot stronger. The belly is starting to poke out more, it's more pointy than before. People ask me about the belly everywhere I go, it's usually harmless stuff like "do you know what you're having" or "have you picked out a name" things like that. Answers which are still no and no.

The big thing that had been stressing me out was passing my prospectus. This is basically the proposal for your thesis and the last thing I needed before I could start writing the stupid thesis to get out of my program. I passed it which is kind of a big deal and kind of not. I mean you should obviously pass it but they also didn't make me revise any of the work in it which was fantastic. They just wanted me to change the margins on the paper. Literally the margins, like make them 1/2 inch margins. Weirdos.

Since the midwife last time told me to cool it with the face-stuffing (I gained 7 lbs in 3 weeks=  no bueno) I've tried to be better. Of course that is difficult to do while traveling, and when you just want food NOW!! NOW NOW NOW NOW!!!! One thing that Hov and I are doing now that is hopefully going to help with this is we switched to an all-cash system. NO more credit cards (or debit cards if we can). We took out the allotted food, gas and miscellaneous money for the month and are ONLY using that. It's amazing how you think twice about things when handing over cash rather than just swiping away. We are hoping this gets our budget steady before baby comes but also it helps with the eating out part which was a problem. Last week we went to firehouse 3-4 times. Now, we'd rather wait the five minutes and eat at the house... Well we wouldn't RATHER do it, we just can say OK we have 15 bucks in food budget for the rest of the week, you suuuuuure you want Chinese food/pizza/whatever. It certainly helps that we came up from Miami with a cooler-full of pre-made meals that are in the freezer. It's almost impossible to leave my grandparents house without at least a weeks worth of food. I think we need to start doing this ourselves- pre-cooking stuff and that way we can just defrost or microwave it and have semi-instant satisfaction which is what usually causes us to go out.

So Christmas was fantastic. We drove down to Miami with Archie in tow and stayed at Hov's dad's place. Unfortunately we didn't get to see him since he left a few days earlier to California for the holidays. We did get the whole house to ourselves though which was nice. We drove down Christmas eve, it took us about 8 hours which we figured since we were stopping every 2 so I could pee. As soon as we got there we dropped the stuff off at his dads, took a quick shower and headed to my grandparents house for dinner. Dinner was great, we had fritanga (if you don't know what that is, tell me and I will take you). This is the second year in a row we did that and I think it's now a tradition. We all out-voted my grandmother who was NOT happy to have such food for Christmas dinner. Tres leches, a rum cake heather (little brother's girlfriend) brought and macarons we brought finished off the dinner and everyone was wishing they had maternity pants like me.

We switched to a gift game system years ago. We alternate between Chinese gift exchange or just traditional secret santa. This year we did the Chinese gift exchange and it was great. My mom also presented me with the invitations for the baby shower she is throwing me which is at the Rusty Pelican on the key, a restaurant we all love with amaaaaaaaazing views. If Hov and I can afford it, that's where we eventually want to have our wedding reception. The invites were very much in the style of my mother, yellow and happy with daisies on the front. She was very proud of them and I am happy she gets to feel like she's a part of this whole process. Christmas eve ended early-ish, we had Archie waiting at the house so we had to go take him out since he somehow figured out how to get himself stuck on the windowsill minutes after we would leave the house. Not the most brilliant of dogs.

Christmas day there was another lunch at my grandparents house which was in honor of Hovik's birthday. He was a little confused since it was 10 days post birthday but my mom quickly reminded him that she had to wait 3 months for her birthday meal. It was all delicious and he was cracking up at everyone singing him happy birthday with an upside down chocolate bundt cake adorned with ten candles in front of him. The randomness didn't even phase me but I forget that normal people think my family is crazy. This day ended early too, we promised to come back Friday and went back to the house and relaxed for the rest of the day.

Normally, we don't do day-after shopping things but it just so happened that Hov needed dress shirts for work and sawgrass mall isn't too far away so we went early-ish (around 10) and braved the parking disaster to see what they had to offer. They didn't disappoint- 50% off plus 20% off. Long story short, he has new shirts for work and he doesn't get to do any more shopping for dress clothes for the rest of the year. We just relaxed for the rest of this day too, it seems like it doesn't take much time on my feet before I need to be laying down.

Friday came and we were back at my grandparent's house for lunch, it was all delicious and low key. They had also been hoarding samples they got at the office (my grandfather is a pediatrician) for the baby so they gave me a back with approximately 8,000,000 Desitin samples and another with Aveno baby eczema cream. Also in this weekend, my mom had collected some baby things from a friend who no longer needed them (mostly crib bedding) and heather who used to work for Carter's gifted us the most adorable baby clothes. We were coming back with significantly more things than we came down with which I guess is not an uncommon thing.

Saturday we came back. 7.5 hours this time, I guess we got more efficient with our stops. As soon as we got home we just laid down. So tired. We had started the nursery closet before we left but it needed a few modifications and also the guest room closet needed some work. On Sunday (after our weekly grocery shop and unpacking and settling in) we got to work on the guest room closet. We couldn't do much after removing the horrible wire shelves and patching the holes. We let it dry over night before really getting into it on Monday. We had bought the paint color we wanted and had that ready so by the time we woke up on Monday we jumped right in with painting. It was painted by 10am. Hov and I have gotten very very efficient with closet things, after these two are done I think the last project will be the laundry room. Hov keeps telling me we need to stop dumping money into this house and it's not that I disagree but if we are stuck here another four years, I want to be as comfortable as possible.

Home depot must love us. We show up covered in paint (at least I was I think), my drawings and measurements in hand. I know exactly how much of each board and where to cut and bla bla bla. In and out. All the shelves are now in. The only thing missing (which will get done TODAY) is putting in the curtain rods in both closets. This is the biggest pain in the entire process because the pole we buy is a metal one that is 72 inches long and from that we have to use a hacksaw to cut it which takes forever and then your hands are all cramped and it's too wide in diameter to use any other tool. Anyway, once those are in, the clothes go back into the closets and all is restored in the house. Well almost, Hovik decided that he wanted a monstrosity of a TV in the bedroom and brought one up from Miami and it has been sitting in the living room ever since. I think he figured out the mount situation but bottom line is the house is an absolute wreck. This needs to all be done and solved before we go to work, I can only handle disaster for so long.


Today is also New Years Eve. We had decided we were staying in and just celebrating in PJs but yesterday we learned that a friend is having a casual thing at his house so we'll probably go for a bit and then come home and sleep. There is a 2% chance I make it to midnight and that's pretty generous. It's more likely that we come home around 10:30 and celebrate in our dreams. That's if we even make it out, yesterday Hov woke up with the infamous "itchy throat" by the evening it was hurting and this morning he sounds like a frog. Fingers cross that this just passes.

Until next time, I will try to not eat so much crap, shove Hov full of tea and soup and continue my new found obsession with jello. Yes, jello. Hope everyone has a great (and safe) New Years.

This is me sitting on my kitchen floor with a pyrex bowl that once was filled with jello. Take that all in.

Week 29 (12/11-12/17)

First week in month #8. Officially three months to go. Well about 3 months to go. We'll see how long it actually takes. Hopefully not as long. I'm already ready for this little monkey to come out!!!

My belly button has started to invert. It was just flat for a long time as the belly got bigger and the skin stretched which was really weird. The skin in the belly button feels so strange, it's crazy soft/squishy- probably because it has experienced no friction in it's life compared to my belly that is always touching clothes. Anyway, the top of the belly button is starting to poke out. I don't appreciate it. Also, my belly is getting itchy- books say it's normal and is just a result of my skin stretching more and more. I'm moisturizing to try and help but I can't stop eating. I'm literally eating between 2000-3000 calories every day. If I keep up this pace I'll gain more than 5 pounds per month and that will be bad. I guess I should stop eating Hagen Daaz rum raisin ice cream but I really don't want to.

I finally made it back to the gym after weeks of insomnia. A lot of the movements are getting more and more uncomfortable but at least I moved around a bit... So I guess those previous sentences were a little premature. I ended up at the gym ONCE this week and the rest of the week stayed sleeping instead of gymming it. I'm not proud, just tired. I don't have a good excuse as to why I'm not exercising regularly, my self-motivation is just not there anymore.

This past weekend was Hov's birthday! He took his GMAT that morning and we had a Minute-To-Win-It themed BBQ which was a lot of fun. We made a TON of food and then that day it was miserableeeeee, raining all day and cold! Anyway, only half the people we were expecting showed up but I think it was better that way for the games. It was hilarious. Normally we play Catch Phrase which is a good time in itself but this time we decided to switch it up and it was fun. We did boys vs girls and unfortunately the boys won by 2 points. Next time we'll get them! For those of you who don't know what Minute-to-win-it is, YouTube. So this series of pictures on the right is for  a game called "Bucket Head" where you have a bucket attached to your head and you have to throw pingpong balls at a wall 5 feet away and catch it in the bucket on your head. Sounds straight forward but the ball can't bounce out of the bucket and basically it's hilarious. I made this bucket using a plastic water gallon that I cut in half and then secured it to people's heads using ribbon they would tie under their chin. I wasn't participating in most of the games for obvious reasons but there was one game where Hov and I got to go head to head. This was a game where you started off with a cookie (we used crackers since I wasn't about to sacrifice my delicious cookie stash and have them potentially fall on the ground) on your forehead and you have to move it into your mouth using only your facial muscles. No hands and it must stay on your face the whole time. Much harder than it looks. This was especially difficult since we were using saltines and I was getting salt in my eye. Anyway, that's what the video is.

Final score has the boys winning. They picked their name as Divas only after Brooke suggested girls go by Queens of the Universe. I wish I could say I was surprised by their name choice but really, it would have been weirder if they had suggested a normal name.

I got Hov a set of dumbbells that you can adjust the weight. He has been slowly building up his garage gym so he can do a workout at home and I thought this would be a great addition. I didn't think through the part of moving them inside from my trunk... I almost gave birth in the hallway trying to bring them in, each dumbbell is 50 pounds and then the stand has to be at least the same. He wasn't too happy with me for that but I think he liked the gift which is good since he is so hard to buy for. That and the older we get, the less we want. I guess that is part of the good ol transition into severe adulthood. Well, want in terms of little things, we talk about how we want a new house in a specific neighborhood that has all these features that our house doesn't but that's more like wishful thinking than birthday/christmas list.

 So the belly is huge. I know I thought/said it was big before... Nope. Belly has overtaken my life. From last week at the baby shower to this week at Hov's party almost all my friends commented on how it was so much bigger and they are right. Even Hov noticed and he sees me every day. Can't see my legs, can't see my feet. It's a good thing it's not bathing suit season because that would be scary for anyone who encountered me since I can't see where I shave. I also can't bend over so it's starting to get to where I have to ask Hov to help me with things that I didn't think would be an issue, like soaping up my shins, helping with shoes if they aren't slip-ins, or anything related to me bending over to pick something up. I also am not as flexible so if I have a bra that's sort of annoying to take off, I can't keep my arms back there long enough to get it off. To make things more embarrassing, another fantastic pregnancy symptom that has come up is the inability to control gas. So I knew that pregnancy would increase gas which is not great but at least I knew it was coming. What I didn't know is that the baby puts so much pressure down there that no matter how tight you think you are contracting those sphincters, those little toots are coming out regardless of how hard you pray for them not to. Not an issue if I'm at home but yes an issue when I'm at work or just out anywhere. Not amused. Not to mention that I discovered this past week that I had not dodged the snoring bullet. I literally woke myself out of a REM cycle because I was snoring so loud. Not hard breathing, not a little bit of maybe noise, legit 500 pound man snores rumbling out of my open mouth. I don't even know what to say about that.

This Friday I have my next Dr appointment, it should just be a standard check-up. Friday morning I defend my prospectus (thesis proposal) which is going to suck. That has been a giant source of stress, to the point that it has crept into my dreams, which I don't appreciate. I am practicing for the next few days and then I give my presentation to my committee on Friday and we see what they have to say. Regardless of how it goes, I am going to get a mani/pedi after. It will either be celebratory or stressed-out mani/pedi depending how it goes but either way I think it will be needed. After that I'll go to my appointment. Fingers crossed everyone. I don't want to have to do it again and my committee lives for making my life miserable.

Week 28 (12/4-12/10)

Baby shower week!!! Yeah yeah yeah!!! Well this is a little baby shower that two of my girlfriends in Tallahassee are throwing. It's also only ladies so it's going to be a small event, maybe 10 people. That's perfectly fine with me, I'm very happy to have an intimate friends-only event up here. While I am super excited that is happening, I am not so excited that my good 'ol friend insomnia is back in town. I can't sleep. No matter how tired I am, no matter how early or late I go to bed, I am awake four hours later. I'm not sure if it's the baby that wakes me up or the being up that wakes up the baby but the baby loves having her dance parties in the middle of the night. That means that around 1:30-2:30am I am wide awake and praying for sleep so by the time normal wake-up comes at 6, I am a zombie.

It's getting harder to get comfortable too. I try putting a pillow under my belly and that helps sometimes but I just want to be able to take the belly off and be comfortable. I also am no longer able to bend down... well not like bend down like you would with a dead-lift but more of a squat down. The belly is too big and squishes on my organs and I feel like my world is ending. I also can't bend over the counter in the bathroom anymore to pick at my face or pluck my eyebrows. My belly squishes against the counter and the baby gets very angry.  I am routinely getting out of breath just by adjusting myself on the couch or bed. That's right people, adjusting from one laying down position to another leaves me needing to catch my breath. Weak sauce. I can't complain as much as our poor little Archie, he had his balls removed this week so he wins the uncomfortable card.
Also, I recently discovered a new little vericose vein (spider vein). Now I would normally just be a little annoyed, I mean I knew it was coming, genetics do play a little part in it... The problem here is WHERE it appeared. This picture isn't explicit but you can imagine by surprise when I am drying off after a shower and find this little vein ON MY BOOB. On the bottom part of my right lady, there the vein is. I thought it was a pen mark or something. Nope. My body is basically flipping me the bird. THE JOYS OF PREGNANCY!!!

                                         We got the first baby shower gift in the mail, it was a glider/swing from Cley and Mailin. I was so excited. I demanded we put it together immediately. I think Hov still doesn't fully appreciate the severity of my OCD/do it NOW mentality. He played nice though and we assembled it without too much grief. It has a little giraffe pattern which is really cute. It's in the "nursery" and is really the first official baby furniture type thing in there. We need to get it together and start getting it ready.

I think this weekend (if I can swing it) I'm going to get Hov to Home Depot so we can re-do the closet really quickly and that'll let us know how much storage furniture we really need. We were originally going to put an armoire in there but I don't think it's necessary, it's kind of bulky too. I may just try to sell it or give it away since it's taking up space in the garage. Either way, we have a little dresser that needs to be moved into that room and the room itself needs to be deep cleaned and the rug needs to be shampooed.

Update: We did not make it to home depot. I think I am going to have to just do it next Sunday. I'll draw the closet sketch this week and plan out the measurements so we can cut the stuff at Home Depot and do it quickly one of these days. I just can't stand wire shelving and that's what's in there.

The baby shower was a super success. It was small and perfect. I can't go on enough about how amazing Brooke and Maddie did. They planned everything and executed it flawlessly. For those of you who aren't familiar with my friends- Imagine two people who are polar opposites. One girly, monogram everything, pink and rhinestones and pearls. The other is a crossfit psycho doesn't care about girly stuff, very practical etc. Now put those together to plan a babyshower. I wish I could have been there to witness it. Hilarity I'm sure. This picture has Brooke on the left and Maddie on the right. They are finally toasting to hard work well done!

Let's start with when you walk in. The babyshower was held at Maddie's house and apparently Brooke came in and started moving furniture and removing all things from the walls and just took over. The tables (they rented tables, chairs and linens) were in the living room. The tables were covered in white linen and then had this silver mesh table runner, votive candles, a purple flower arrangement with silver swirly things in the arrangement. Also the plates they got were clear but had silver glitter specks in them and purple eating utensils. So it's clear the colors were silver and purple!

The dessert table was so cute. Brooke made a cake (vanilla with coconut filling) and cupcakes. The cake was frosted with a lavender colored frosting and she made a banner that went on top that said "baby". The cupcakes also had the lavender colored frosting on them. On the dessert table was also a donut tower which is so appropriate since I'm obsessed with donuts. Imagine a cupcake stand but instead of cupcakes, there is an assortment of donuts. Finally, on the dessert table were the favors. The favors were little gift bags with donut holes in them and the tag said "thanks a hole bunch". Couldn't be any cuter.
 


After you walk through the living room, you walk into the dining room. The first thing you see are blown up pictures of me and Hov, a picture of the last ultrasound and a picture of the pregnancy announcement on the wall. Also decorating the entire house are these tissue paper pom poms that if I had to guess I'd say were Brooke's doing. I actually took all the pom poms and if it's a girl I'll use them to help decorate the nursery. I think they'd be a little too frilly for a boy.

In the dining room (where the furniture used to be) we see an appetizer table set up with finger food- croissants, quiches, cheeses, dips etc. In another corner we see a waffle station with a pitcher of pre-made batter for the guests and toppings including blueberries, bananas, nutella and maple syrup. In another corner was the drink table which had a mimosa station (sparkling grape juice for me) and water bottles that had custom labels made for the baby shower.

Basically it was adorable. We played two games. The first game was measure the belly. That was fun. Everyone measured out a piece of ribbon and then measured it around my belly. Whoever guessed the closest won and that was Katrina. You can see everyone comparing ribbon sizes and also using themselves as measurements. The only rule was they couldn't come touch me while they were trying to figure out how big to cut the ribbon.

The second game was one where everyone received a piece of paper that had the alphabet on it and you had to come up with a baby related word that started with each letter. If anyone had a word that someone else had, it didn't count. Whoever had the most unique words at the end won.

We also did a prediction card since we don't know what the baby is. Everyone filled out a card with her name, a guess if it was a girl/boy, the birth date and how much the baby would weigh. I guess we won't find out who won that one until the baby comes!!

I did open the gifts at the end of the shower. It was really sweet to see all the adorable onesies, blankets and as crazy as it sounds even the diapers I got as super practical gifts (thanks ladies) smelled like baby. They were so tiny. My girlfriend Brittany made a diaper cake which was displayed on the gift table. it was adorable!!!!


I had an amazing time. Everything was so pretty and sweet and brunch was delicious. I'll put the rest of the pictures here on the bottom, there are a lot!

This first table (from left to right) has Joanna, Maddie, Katrina, Leisa and Mailin.

 Here is a view into the dining room where all the food is from the living room where the tables are. You can see part of the dessert table and some of the pom poms hanging from the ceiling.

 These pictures were taken in series. So the first one is the one on the right and then of course I shoved a quiche in my mouth and then the picture on the left was taken hence my weird closed mouth smile. Also, notice the blueberries in my "mimosa" yumM!

 You can see Katrina (in black) measuring herself as a reference for the ribbon game. That must be the winning ticket because she won! In the picture below you can see Mailin (blonde hair) and Cley measuring each other's ribbons while Brittany and Brooke look on. Not sure why the hands on the hips but oh well!

 Lauren's turn to measure the belly in the left hand picture!

Mailin (on the left pic) and Brittany (on the right pic) measuring the belly.

 Now it's Cley (on the left pic) and Tanya (on the right)

 Another picture of the beautiful tables on the right. Below is a picture of Lauren and Maddie. Lauren was so impressed with the decor and planning, she should hook up with Brooke to take her wedding day coordination business to the next level!

 This table (from left to right) has Lauren, Brooke, Brittany, Tanya and Cley. I was sitting between Lauren and Cley

 On the left posing with Lauren and on the right with Joanna.

Took a picture with Mailin and Cley and then they said they couldn't see the belly so Mailin turned me to the side (on the left)

Leisa measuring the belly, she had the funniest answers for the alphabet game. V- Vomit! C-Colic!!