Pregnancy: Week 23

My Stats
 * I have officially hit the 10 pounds-gained mark
 * Waistline is about 36.5 inches

Little G Stats
 *He likes to kick-- a lot.  He does not like it when I am hunched over, so you will always find me reclined like a gangsta rollin through.
 *Houston, we  have eyebrows and eyelids.  He is facial features are starting to look more like an infant and his pancreas is developing.  He can also hear noises and voices, so I'm trying not to cuss... as much.
 *He is about 1 pound (so where the hell are these other 9 coming from?!)
 *From crown to rump his length is about 8 inches
 *According to the Fruit-O-Meter on TheBump, the lil dude is the size of a papaya (which was the same size last week)

Pregnancy fun facts:
  Let's talk about gas.  When you are pregnant, you fart.  A LOT.  And it STINKS.  JEGs and I have a code now:  whenever I say "Dammit baby!" he needs to leave the room or suffer the consequences.    If I am not farting, I get the most horrible gas bubbles in my ribs.  These suckers are painful!  So painful that I had to bail on my friend's birthday party over the weekend because I could not physically stand up straight.  Or walk.  Or find a comfortable place to sit/lie down. 

Energy Levels/ Sleep:
   This past week has been unseasonably hot, and I am really feeling the effects of it.  Every activity is followed by having to lie down for a couple minutes.  Sleep, however, has not been a problem yet.

Cravings: 
   Nothing completely unusual.  Because of the heat I have to really force myself to eat, so I snack a lot on light stuff like grapes and walnuts.  My biggest craving throughout the whole pregnancy has been pizza, and that still holds true.  JEGs and I actually found microwavable pizzas at the supermarket for $1 each.  Consider the freezer stocked.

Mood Swings:
  God Bless JEGs for the bullshit I put this man through.  I don't know how he deals with me, because I would have left my ass on the side of the road somewhere.

Other Stuff:
  I get asked a lot if we have started to pick out names.  We have a middle name set, but we are still knocking around some first names.  I'm not sure if we are going to share it before the birth or not--  we still haven't decided.

This past week I caved and let Mommacita purchase me some maternity clothes.  I am in this strange clothing-related-purgatory where I am LOST on a magical island  not quite big enough for the maternity clothes, but my regular clothes aren't gonna cut it much longer-- not even with the help of  the belly band.

  This past Saturday we took a trip to Babies R Us to register;  talk about EPIC FAIL.  We were there for about 30 minutes before we gave up and I nearly left in tears.  Lesson for all future Moms-to-be: don't even think you are going to get it done in one trip.  Go in, find a stroller, pat yourself on the back, and do the rest on-line at your leisure.  And don't go ANYWHERE near the 'Infant Care' section.  Your head will explode.

Always & Forever,
  ME

Fabulous May

Another month has come and gone, so it's time to look back on what made it really awesome:

Knocked Up
.. and I don't mean the movie. Not matter how surprising and unplanned it was, it was pretty fabulous to find out that I was avec enfant.

Belly Bands

Holy mother-- how did pregnant women survive before the belly band?   They are tubes of fabric that  you wear it over your belly to hide unbuttoned pants that don't quite snap or zip up.  I can't get my regular jeans zipped anymore, but maternity pants are hanging off of me.  Instead of buying all new pants in just a larger size, I can rock this amazing invention with comfort.  Basically-- BellyBand FTW.


Wawa Smoothies

I know Wawa is a regional thing, and this might get lost on you folks out West (or down South) but I just discovered that Wawa has Smoothies, or as I like to call them- "24 oz of AWESOME".  You have to order them at the deli counter (which I wish someone would have told me before I spent 25 minutes hanging around the milkshake area like an idiot), and there are about 17 or so flavors.  I started with the Banana Fosters, and the next day I moved on to the Mango Creme.  The Chocolate Banana has been tempting me, but I think next I will give the Strawberry Lemonade a whirl.   For those attending the Always Bloggy in Philadelphia, I'll make sure we have a Wawa trip in the schedule.  They probably won't have smoothies anymore, but it's worth the trip for their coffee.  Or milkshakes.  Or hoagies.  Or anything.

Boston Rob finally wins Survivor

I make no bones about it that I love Survivor.  I think in 20some seasons I have missed two.  This season hosted the return of Russell (a personal favorite of JEGs and mine) and the infamous Boston Rob.   After four attempts at this game, Boston Rob was finally able to grab that brass ring and take home the million dollar prize.  I would like to tip my imaginary hat to him for pulling off a flawless game.  Also, I cannot talk about this season without mentioning the hot mess that was Phil the Federal Agent.  Dear Mark Burnett,  can we please have him back again?  Love, Lizzie.


30,000 views + blogiversary
  Amongst the craziness that was Babygate 2011, I quietly passed the two year mark on my little blogging adventure.   It's funny when I look back at that first post and how excited I was to finally be moving in with JEGs after so long.  It took us 8 years to live together, and then two years later we have been engaged, married, bought a house and now pregnant-- did someone hit the fast forward button ;)

Also, in the past month I finally hit 30,000 views. 

This blog isn't a juggernaut of the Internet, so 30K is a big deal to me.  I want to thank everyone for meandering back to my little corner of the interwebs to read my babbling.  You give me the warm and fuzzies inside-- and I swear it's not heartburn.

June is up next.. and that means I turn 30!!  Bring.  It.  ON!

Always & Forever,

  ME

Pregnancy FAQs

I figured the best way to tackle this topic was to address some of the most frequently asked questions we have gotten when we broke the news.

But first, the story of how I found out.  Let's go on a journey together... a journey of discovery.

The Story:
The date is May 10, 2011.  JEGs and I plan on spending the week finishing up a couple projects around the house in preparation for our housewarming party that Saturday.  All weekend I hadn't been feeling well and I felt like I had a bladder infection coming on, so I made an appointment with my doctor.  The entire time I am thinking to myself  "Awesome.  I'm going to be taking antibiotics so that means I won't be able to have some of my yummy Sangria.  Dag nabbit."  

At the doctor's office I piddle in a cup and they test for a bladder infection-- everything is clean.  The doc asks a couple more questions about where my discomfort is, and then says "Could you be pregnant?"   and I was all "Nooooooooooo".   She decides to test the urine they already had anyway.  She comes back into the room with a little white stick that has two bold lines and says "You're pregnant".

My stomach DROPPED. 

When JEGs came home from work he asked how my appointment went.  I collapsed in his arms sobbing and told him the news.  I could feel his heart start to race and his body shake.  We stared at each other with disbelief and fear in our eyes.

You guys, it's not that we didn't want a family-- we just hadn't planned to start it NOW.   We just bought the house, and we still haven't gone on a honeymoon.  Hell, two weeks before hand we talked about getting a cat, but decided against it because it was more responsibility than we wanted.

I made an appointment for an ultrasound on Thursday and we went together.  We thought we were a month, maybe two into the pregnancy.  However, as soon as the wand hit my stomach we saw it.

BABY. 

I was actually about 20 weeks pregnant. 

Question 1: Didn't you notice you didn't get your period for five months?
  Without getting into too much detail, when I was 16 I was diagnosed with a condition that causes me not to menstruate every month.  It is completely normal for me to five or six months without.  Because of said condition, I was also told that it was going to be very, very hard for me to get pregnant-- if I even could at all.

Question 2: No morning sickness?  Any other signs of being pregnant?
   I never had any morning sickness. I've had some wicked heartburn, but I just figured it was my body saying "hey, you are turning 30 soon.  I can't handle food like I used to.  Cool it."  I was tired a lot and gaining weight, but I just figured it was from the stress of moving and buying the house.   About a week before the discovery I was actually starting to feel the baby move but at the time and I thought it was just gas.  I was able to fit into all of my normal clothes too.  The first day I had any problems was Thursday-- the day of the ultrasound. 

Question 3:  How did you tell your family?  Where they excited?
   Coincidently the week we found out was also the week we were planning a housewarming party, so we just happened to have the family gathered at our house.  At first we struggled a little with how we wanted to tell them, or if we wanted to say anything at all that early.  However, when JEGs and I woke up on Saturday morning, we just knew it was the right thing to do.
  Our parents arrived first and we gathered them in the kitchen and told them.  My mother literally jumped up and down.  Justin's MumMum shed a few tears.   As my siblings and spouses arrived, we told them as a group too.  I wish I had a camera to capture my brother Tim's reaction-- his jaw DROPPED.  It was kind of awesome. 

Question 4:  How are you guys handling this?
  I won't lie to you, those first couple of days we were terrified.  Like I said, it's not that we didn't want children, we just expected it to be a couple years down the road.  Now that the dust has settled, we are getting excited-- still scared out of our minds, but excited none-the-less.  We are due September 27 so we only have a few months to get ourselves in order! 

Question 5:  Any cravings?
   Basically anything I smell, I want to eat.  I can go from wanting donuts to steak in a split second;  I'm pretty sure mall food courts will be the death of me.  Mostly I crave anything with marinara sauce-- particularly frozen pizza.  I am trying eat as healthy as possible-- lowering my caffeine intake, staying away from hot dogs and lunch meat, obviously no booze (tear drop)-- but satisfying a pregnancy craving has become the most euphoric thing EVAR.

Although this is a pretty big deal and life altering, my promise to you:  I won't let this become a "mommy blog".  I'm not going to post all the latest trends about pregnancy and baby-birthin'-- that just ain't me sista.  Truth be told, there are lots of people out there who were better at being pregnant then I.   I am just trying to get both of us out alive.

So yeah..  Lizzie + JEGs=  baby.  Here goes nothing...

Always & Forever,
  ME

Oh boy...

I am going to let you guys in on a little secret about my blogging habits:  When I disappear for a couple weeks, it usually means something big is going on in my life.  Just for future reference ;)

Do you guys remember that Geico commercial from years ago-- Bob Weottababyitsaboy?



Consider this my collect call to you guys.

"First name 'Lizzie'.  Last name 'Wereavingababyitsaboy'."

It's true!  JEGs and I are pregnant and expecting a little boy around September 27th-- which means I'm about 22 weeks in.  I have been a little quiet on the blog lately because this came as a complete surprise to us, so we have been dealing with it for the past two weeks. 

I promise I'll share much more-- how we found out, how I went 5 months without knowing I was knocked up and our parents reaction. 

Till then, I will leave you with my first bump picture:

I promise in the weeks to follow, I get a little better at documenting.

Oh, and you don't have to accept the charges.  I'm totally cool with that.

Always & Forever,
  ME (+1)

Lighter and Brighter Makes Lizzie Happy

I have been told time and time again "it's amazing how a coat of paint can change the room".  I never really believed it until we tackled the living room.

In our case, it took two coats of primer AND a coat of paint, but you get the idea.  Shall we revisit the heinousness that was my living room?

Two walls of Chianti and and two of Alpeca Brown.  The only reason I know the names of the colors is because the previous owners left us a couple gallons of paint in case we wanted to "touch things up"  (snort snort).

When it came time to choose paint colors, I knew I wanted to go with a more neutral palette on the walls and bold accessories.  As much as I looooved my bold walls in the apartment, I was ready to grow up.

I was completely inspired by Adam and Kristina Braverman's house in Parenthood. 

I was obsessed with this wall color so I went a-googling.  I found this article that said it was Benjamin Moore's Saybrooke Sage.  I picked up a sample and after a mad love affair with this tiny scrap of color, I finally decided it was took dark for our tiny room-- and at $60 a can, a little too pricey for our wallets.

I returned to my old faithful, Valspar, and found Jekyll Grand Dining Sea Mist (seriously.. who's job is it to name these colors?  I want that job)

*Random Side Note:  Jekyll Grand Dining Sea blah blah blah was right below Carolina Inn Club Aqua-- the color the Youngsters used in their bedroom.  There was a tab above it said "Hot New Color!!" and they were completely out of samples.  How does that even happen?  Impressive Sherry and John, impressive.

Anyway, after a weekend of priming and painting, we are so happy with the outcome of our lighter and brighter room:


Still need to replace the carpeting.  We are getting to that.  Swears.

 It's like a completely different room, isn't it?  I said to JEGs that I don't feel angry when I sit in this room like I did when it had red walls.

For the wall along the stairwell we originally had Sparkling Sage picked out as an accent color.  However, as I started the cutting in, we realized the color was practically the same shade .  After a quick trip to Lowes, we came home with a gallon of Luna, and are much happier with the outcome.  This color will eventually be in the hallway upstairs as well.

Clearly we need new pillows.  Which brings me to my next topic....

What color should I accent with? I had originally planned to do a burnt red to really play off the fireplace.  However, I was in Joann's the other day and saw this fabric that I had been loving for a while that made me want to play with orange tones:

..and when I say for a while, I mean that I took this picture in September of last year.  Yeah. 

The fabric would really work nicely with our wedding invite that we have framed above the chair (hopefully to one day be incoprated into a collage) buuuuuutttttt, at the same time I don't want to clash with the fireplace-- cleary it's not going anywhere.

Shhhh... don't anyone mention painting the brick white-- you'll make JEGs' head spin.

So what do we think of the room?  I mean, obviously it's amazing, but please continue to swoon.  What do you think I should accent with??  Team Red or Team Orange.  Gosh, I wonder if this could be as polarizing as Team Jacob or Team Edward...

Always & Forever,
  ME

P&S.. the solo cup on the window is not my inablity to clean up after a kegger.  We are trying to grow an avacado plant and that is the ONLY window in the house that gets direct sunlight.  I felt like I needed to point it out.

Pina Colada Cupcakes

I think I have an obsession with cupcakes.  Every time I bake something, it's a cupcake.  It's funny because I'm not a fan of cake, per say, but I love cupcakes.  Maybe it's the miniatureness.

As soon as I saw this recipe from Skinny Taste, I knew I had to try it.  Haven't heard of Skinny Taste before?  CHECK. IT. OUT.  It has quickly become my new favorite baking blog.

Let's meet the players in this game:

• 18.25 oz box yellow cake mix
• 20 oz can crushed pineapple in juice (x2)
• 8 oz Philadelphia 1/3 less fat cream cheese
• 1 cup sweetened coconut flakes
• 1/4 cup sugar

...disappointingly, no rum.  Whomp whomp.

Combine the cake mix and 1 can of the crush pineapples in a large bowl.  Do not drain the pineapples.  Mix on medium with an electric hand mixer.

Pour into lined cupcake tins about 2/3 full. Bake in accordance with cake mix directions or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Set aside to cool. 

*Fun note: the box I had said to bake cupcakes on 350 for 19-23 minutes.  Thirty-two minutes later I pulled them out because honestly, I had stuff to do.  Silly me thought gas cooked everything faster.  Apparently not.

Combine cream cheese, the other can of crushed pineapple (drained), sugar and coconut flakes in a medium bowl and mix with a hand mixer until combined well.

Spread on cooled cupcakes and refrigerate until ready to eat

Sit back, and enjoy a little taste of summer.

Always & Forever,

  ME