Sharp Dressed Man

A few weeks ago the Mr. told our OB that if we were having a girl he knew I'd single-handedly keep the baby girl apparel industry afloat. An exaggeration? Sure, but only a slight one. I just love all those tiny girl clothes! So, I think he's slightly relieved that Baby S is a boy. But will that keep me from shopping for tiny adorable things?! Ithinknot. Substitute flowers for argyle, lace for little embroidered animals, and plaid for...well, plaid can stay. Totally unisex, right?

I've had my eye on a few too cute for words items I spotted online since finding out we're having a boy. This weekend, I succumbed to cuteness that is Ralph Lauren Baby. I think resisting for a full week might be a new record for me, but now Baby S has his first dress up outfit, hanging in my closest.


Could you die? The checkers, the chinos, the belt. I mean, it has a belt! THERE ARE LITTLE GOLFERS ON THE BELT. ::swoon:: Even the Mr couldn't deny the cuteness and loves the outfit, too (I didn't point out to him that he pretty much has the same shirt in 2 variations). So, looks like we better bring Baby S somewhere special in his first couple months of life, or he'll be the best dressed newborn out for a walk.

Weekly Survey: 21 Weeks

How far along? 21 weeks, 5 days
How big is baby? over a pound now, ahead of the average
Total Weight Gain/Loss: No movement since last week
Next Appointment: Not for 3 more weeks.
Maternity Clothes: I need more. It's physically painful for someone like me to wear the same thing over and over again.
Sleep: I don't even remember what it's like to sleep at night anymore. I'm getting through each day on willpower somehow.
Best Moment This Week: Painting his nursery! Well, not me, but you know, coming home and seeing it done.
Movement: Lots more kicking!
Food Cravings: Fruit this week
Planning/Preparation: All of our registries are finished, and that alone was a huge undertaking.
Belly Button In/Out: In, but kinda shallow.
Gender: BOY!
What I Miss: Nothing this week. I'm too busy working to think about anything else.
What I'm Looking Forward To: My crazy new side effects going away- add insomnia and daily nose bleeds to the spider angioma / heart beat in the ear list.
Contractions: Nope
Milestones? Daddy felt the baby kick, too!

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Probably not. Ya know why? Because I can hear my heart beating. IN MY EAR.

I've managed (thus far) to escape the well known pregnancy ickies: morning sickness, acne, constipation, hemorrhoids, and more. Somehow I've ended up with an issue that's pretty rare and had me convinced for days that I'd really and truly lost my mind.

I can hear my heart beating in my left ear, pretty much all the time. It's more like the "whoosh, whoosh" you hear on Doppler, and it's quiet enough to ignore most of the time. In fact, I did try to ignore it for a week before telling the Mr, who, thankfully, did not think I was nuts. It just keeps getting worse. I walk up a couple flights of stairs, carry heavy things, walk briskly, or even stand up too quickly and WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH. So loud I can't think about anything else until it slows down and quiets a few minutes later.

According to my Dr, this is very uncommon but it happens. It will get worse before it gets better [fantastic!], and she had one patient who still experienced this for 6 months after delivering her child. Whaaa?!

Oh, and I have spider angioma on my face and my chest/collar. It's really hot. Think patches of broken blood vessels. Rawr! I'm so getting a spray tan soon.

Busy Weekend!

Finally finding out that we're having a little boy officially sent my obsessive planning into overdrive! I'd been procrastinating on my To Do list, but it was time to get moving.

For months I'd been asking friends about products they'd recommend, reading books like Baby Bargains, researching products in Consumer Reports, and compiling all the info into a spreadsheet. I know, go ahead, laugh. However, I'm the worst kind of Type A, and this is the stuff that helps me sleep at night and fills my days with happiness. (I wish I were kidding.) Armed with my spreadsheet, we headed out to register. Over the course of the weekend, we made our way through a few stores and I'm all tapped out. I'm going to have to finish the registries online this week.

Some big decisions were made, especially regarding his new bedroom :) We choose our bedding, ordered furniture, bought paint, cleared out most of the room, and even started taping it off for painting round 1 (primer) this week. Phew.

Check out his cute little bedding from Pottery Barn Kids:


We choose Benjamin Moore Bradstreet Beige for our paint with some accents in red and blue in the room, too. Our original plan to go with white furniture no longer seemed to be our best bet with this color scheme, so we decided on a pine set in espresso finish:


We still need to find a rug, a chair, and a handful of accessories, but we've chosen most of what we want in the room, and I can't wait to see it all come together!

Weekly Survey: 20 Weeks

Bad blogger. Completely got behind this week. I do work, ya know.

How far along? 20 weeks, 3 days
How big is baby? 1 pound and measuring at the 58th percentile
Total Weight Gain/Loss: I plead the 5th.
Next Appointment: Not for 4 more weeks.
Maternity Clothes: Love em. I used to come home from work, and try to get out of my too tight jeans as quickly as possible. You know how when you crack open a tube of Pillsbury rolls on the counter, the white puffy stuff just starts oozing out everywhere, until you peel back the shell and then it breaks free and blows up? Yeah, that was me getting undressed every night. Maternity clothes are SO much better.
Sleep: The dog and the Mr. need to stop snoring for me to discuss sleep.
Best Moment This Week: Finding out that I'm going to have a son! Bring on the tiny argyle sweater vests, little Cubs caps, and eternal devotion to yours truly!
Movement: Pretty consistently before falling asleep, just after waking up, and between 4-5pm. Baby hates working late.
Food Cravings: If I see it and want it, I MUST have it.
Planning/Preparation: According to my OB, I'm way ahead of the game with all my planning. According to the Mr, I'm neurotic and way too organized (but he's thankful for it, at least).
Belly Button In/Out: In, but kinda shallow.
Gender: BOY! (na-na-na-na-na-naaaa...I was right.)
What I Miss: Nothing this week. Too happy to miss anything.
What I'm Looking Forward To: My crazy new side effects going away. More on this later.
Contractions: Nope
Milestones? I'm going to be a mother in law! (this might be premature, but I'm assuming my son will be so adorable, intelligent, and charming he'll be snatched up early by some little vixen I'll have to learn to love because she'll give me grandchildren one day. I'm setting my sights low on that as to not be disappointed- how's that for long term planning?!)

Baby S is Half Baked!

Today is the official halfway mark- exactly 20 weeks! While the weeks seemed to pass so slowly at the start, they seem to be flying by the last couple of months, and with all we have left to do in the next 20 weeks, I'm guessing they will fly by, too.

As uber organized as I am, somehow I feel "behind" on the planning and preparation. Even things we decided on weeks ago (such as what furniture to order), I still haven't finalized. Maybe it's the subconscious fear of something going wrong in the coming weeks or denial that this is actually happening sooner than later? I'm not sure what it is, but I do know we need to get our butts in gear. We're going to be parents in less than 5 months!

I guess that will make week 20 a big one with this TO DO list:
*ultraound/find out gender
*order furniture
*choose bedding
*register
*sign up for Prenatal Yoga
*sign up for remaining Prenatal classes at the hospital

Lots to do, but all fun and exciting! I can't wait to find out if we're having a little boy (my prediction) or a little girl (the Mr.'s prediction)- either way, we're incredibly lucky.

Weekly Survey: 19 weeks

Supposedly that's what Baby S looks like right now. Yeah, that. Up there. Creeptastic, right? I mean, am I growing a contortionist or what?! Since I saw him/her a few days ago, I can tell you with total confidence that I've created a home for Baby S that currently allows for a lot more lounging and stretching than what you see there. You're welcome, Baby S.

How far along? 19 weeks, 2 days
How big is baby? 6" long
Total Weight Gain/Loss: More. More than I want to tell you.
Next Appointment: One week from today!! It's the big day :)
Maternity Clothes: I'm officially on a buying freeze after things got a tad out of control since my last post.
Sleep: Better the last few days!
Best Moment This Week: My surprise ultrasound! They didn't have a Doppler available at my last appt, so I got a free ultrasound and saw all kinds of rolling and kicking. Amazing.
Movement: Finally! I've felt the baby moving a few times and kicking once.
Food Cravings: Still potatoes, still sweets, still corned beef.
Planning/Preparation: Shower planning has started, names have been narrowed, and we've started looking at our local parishes for Baptism/CCD/preschool, etc.
Belly Button In/Out: In, but kinda shallow.
Gender: The Dr knows already (she saw last Thurs), and we'll find out on Tuesday.
What I Miss: Some of my cute clothes.
What I'm Looking Forward To: Finding out if we'll have a son or a daughter (I still say son)
Contractions: Nope
Milestones? First real kick!

19 wks, 3 days. Just for you, Andrea!

Babymoon Booked!

Pretty fabulous, right?

Now I have no idea who came up with the term "Babymoon", nor do I need a cute new name for vacations or a baby in my belly as a reason to take one. But, an opportunity to take a few days off work, relax on the beach, and soak up the sun? Don't mind if I do.

We booked our trip tonight and will be spending a full week in Aruba, lounging on Palm Beach. Cannot. Wait. The plan is to sleep in, eat well, read a bunch of books, do a little snorkeling, probably get crazy one afternoon with some Travel Scrabble poolside... yeah, we know how to live.

Things I Miss...

As we're closing in on the midway point of this pregnancy, I've been thinking more and more about the ways my life has changed and what I miss. Now, there are little things I miss here and there (like a flat stomach), but overall I'm not that bothered by most of it. There are two exceptions, things I miss pretty consistently and that I'm already getting anxious to have back in my life.

Working up a good sweat.
For the last decade I've been pretty dedicated to working out- sometimes to the extreme with long, daily workouts, but at the bare minimum a few good, sweaty sessions a week. I ran because it was good for me, but no so much because I loved it. I never got that "high" people claim they get when they run. Still, I miss it. I can't wait to get out there, post-baby, iPod on, "Where the Streets Have No Name" blasting in my ears, sweat rolling down my face. That thought in my mind is pure heaven right now. I can't wait.

For now, I'm allowed to workout, but I have to limit my running to keep my heartrate low. My advised heartrate only allows me to run at a pace that's kind of embarrassing. I want to hang a sign from my treadmill that says "My Dr. makes me run this slowly" so people stop staring at me wondering why I'm not just walking.


This was after I finished my first triathlon, and seeing it reminds me of how good I felt. I'm committing now to signing up for a June 2011 Tri. 10 months post-baby...I think it's a good goal.

Beer.Wine.
I knew I'd miss wine. Terribly. I expected this. What I didn't expect was that I'd miss beer. I mean, I like beer, but I can't remember ever really craving beer pre-pregnancy. Now? Yeah, I want one all the time. I have a feeling when summer rolls around it will get worse...streetfests, Cubs games, sitting on the deck. Yep, I'll be daydreaming about Summer Shandy.

I did find Kaliber recently- this non alcoholic, 78 calorie beer is made by Guinness, and it's actually not half bad!

I'm actually cooking less and dining out less. For me, a huge part of enjoying both is having a glass of wine in the process. Without the wine, I'm not nearly as excited for a nice dinner out...I suppose this could mean that I'm either a huge lush or that I have a great appreciation for good wine. I'd prefer to think it's the latter.

Weekly Survey: 18 weeks

How far along? 18 weeks, 1 day
How big is baby? More than 5.5" long...crazy!
Total Weight Gain/Loss: Up another 1/2 pound for 9 total
Next Appointment: This Thursday
Maternity Clothes: They're growing on me. (Rather, I'm growing in them.

Stretch Marks: Not any new ones.

Sleep: Yeah, sleep would be nice....
Best Moment This Week: Exchanging name lists with the Mr. so we could start narrowing them down and finding out that we had a ton of overlap already...what are the chances?!
Movement: Still waiting. Booo :(

Food Cravings: Still potatoes, and I was on a big sweets kick the past week with ice cream cake roll, mint chip ice cream, cookies, tons of fruit.

Planning/Preparation: Narrowing down names this week as we get ready for the big u/s appt, finally ordering furniture (nursery post to come soon).

Belly Button In/Out: In
Gender: We'll know in 2 wks

What I Miss: Sleep
What I'm Looking Forward To: Feeling the baby move
Contractions: Nope
Milestones? I haven't had a headache in a week!