Baby Bump @ 24 Weeks

I know this one is way late and my body looks weird, but it was the best I could manage over the weekend, so it will have to do.

I'm noticeably pregnant now pretty much regardless of what I wear, so that's nice. People treat you differently when you have a big round belly. What's not so nice is all the back pain I've been having. I try not to complain though - especially since I brought a lot of it on myself by moving furniture on Sunday. I've also noticed that when I sit at my desk for too long, I get stiff. I could probably remedy this (and get some exercise) by walking around a little every hour or so, but I'm lazy.

We had family pictures taken last weekend and ended up with a few really nice shots. Once my order comes in, I'll share them. Our photographer is kind of weird about "stealing" pics for facebook or blogs, so you'll have to wait.

If you can't tell, I'm pretty burnt out from 3 days of accounting training this week. Oh, and I'm starving. Some assholes down the hall ordered about 86 pizzas (ok, maybe it was really only 4 or 5) and marched them right past my office without offering me any. (Seriously, it should be illegal to have food in the general vicinity of a pregnant woman without sharing.) Now I have to sit here and smell their damn pizza while I wait for my boss to get back from her lunch so I can go. On the bright side, our local Amish place is open today so I'm fantasizing about the absurd amount of food I'm about to eat. I'll either start with a baby-sized slice of pizza or a bbq pulled beef sandwich, followed by a soft pretzel with cheese dip AND a piece of chocolate chip cheesecake, and all washed down with a refreshing mint green tea. I swear, it's not often that I let myself eat like that (or I'd have gained way more than 5 lbs by now), but every few months I give in to those crazy Amish and all their delicious goodies and I can't help myself. Keep me in your prayers this afternoon because it's very possible that I may rupture my stomach.

Have a great weekend my loves!!!

Take a peek into our nursery!

Vivienne's brand new crib (thanks Mom, Nina, Rick, and Cindy) and antique dresser (that I found for $45 at a consignment shop)!

This is the rocking chair that my Gram bought my Mom when I was born. She has a matching one still in her bedroom. I'm so happy to have it in our nursery!

A close-up of Vivienne's crib bumper.

This is the dresser that still needs to be refinished. I love the shape of it and I think it will clean up really nicely, but it's ugly as sin right now.

These are all of the picture frames I painted plus some other little knick-knacks. The shoes were my first pair that my Mom had bronzed. The mushroom is a little tap lamp that will be perfect for nighttime feedings.

Coolest. Piggy Bank. Ever.

This "V" was cut from a finger painting Logan did in the room's accent colors. I haven't actually mounted it yet, so it will look better when it's finished. Right now it's just stuck in the frame.

I found this in our garage. Originally, I planned to use the frame and trash the picture until I realized that it matched the room perfectly and looked great with all the other vintage stuff.

There is still SOOOOO much to do, but I'm really happy with the progress I've made in there over the last few days. I found the dresser yesterday while helping my enormously pregnant friend Karen try to find a bookshelf for her nursery. I couldn't believe my luck! It's beautiful, the stain is right, the price was right, and I just knew it would be perfect in her room! Then I found out that the crib came in yesterday too! It was a good day. Of course, I couldn't wait to get it all set up, so I cleared out some space in the room and put it all together immediately. Now, as for all the empty picture frames, a few will end up with pictures in them and the rest will be filled with silk scarves and other pieces of fabric that belonged to my Grandmother. Our plan for the room is to include at least one item of significance to each member of our family. So far we have Logan's painting, my bronzed booties, Mom's rocker, and Gram's fabric. We're still working on representations for Kyle and his family members and my Mom's partner, Nina. We're thinking about using vintage rhinestone brooches from his Grandmother to secure the tie-backs for her curtains. Otherwise, we're at a loss. Hell, we still need to buy curtains! I'm thinking yellow. Opinions? While you're at it, what do you think of the room in general? Be honest but gentle. I'm pregnant and super sensitive!  :)

Still to do:

Refinish ugly dresser

Buy curtains

Fill picture frames

Hang frames on wall

Hang tissue pompoms over crib

Clear out remaining miscellaneous furniture

Buy crib skirt

Me and V coming to you from Accounting class

In case you're wondering, I'm not taking a break or anything. I've just been in accounting training the last 2 days, so that's pretty much dominating my time. Seriously, this sucks. Anyway, I'll be back tomorrow, but then it's back to accounting training on Thursday.

In the meantime, V and I are doing well. She's kicking and punching away...all day long. I have some nursery updates that I'll hopefully share with you tomorrow if I have a chance to take some pictures tonight. And that's pretty much it, for now. I hope you're all having a good week so far. See you tomorrow!

Pregnancy Confession

Yesterday I seriously contemplated eating a day old piece of pizza out of the trash (still in the box). I swear it was the baby's idea!

Baby Bump @ 23 Weeks

This was the last pair of non-maternity jeans that I was still holding on to, but after spending the entire day feeling the baby kick at the waistband, I'm pretty sure I won't be wearing them again until Fall.

How your baby's growing:

Turn on the radio and sway to the music. With her sense of movement well developed by now, your baby can feel you dance. And now that she's more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound (about as much as a large mango), you may be able to see her squirm underneath your clothes. Blood vessels in her lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that your baby's increasingly keen ears pick up are preparing her for entry into the outside world. Loud noises that become familiar now — such as your dog barking or the roar of the vacuum cleaner — probably won't faze her when she hears them outside the womb.

How Far Along? 23 weeks

Total Weight Gained/Loss?  I don't weigh myself at home so until the next appointment, I'm sticking with 5 lbs!

Maternity Clothes? I actually bought a top yesterday that isn't maternity but I suspect that it should last most if not all of the rest of my pregnancy. Maternity tops are still optional since my belly is still pretty small, but maternity bottoms are a must....except my pre-baby yoga pants. I still wear them.

Sleep?  I'm starting to feel guilty about sexing up different strangers every night in my dreams. Obviously I have no control over it, but I wish the Hubs would make more regular appearances so I don't feel like such a dream slut. Also last night (after the sex dream), I dreamt that there were dinosaurs hunting us and we had to hide out. I grabbed my family and we hid in a nasty drainage pipe with our pillows and blankets. Really bizarre.

Best Moment of the Week?  Finally getting started on the nursery. We haven't made much progress yet but we did get it cleaned out a little and I got started on a few projects, so I'm feeling good about that.

Movement?  Constant. She seems to sleep when I sleep, which is good, but I wake up to her nudges every morning. I think it's her way of dragging me out of bed to pee so she can have more wiggle room.

Food Cravings? Chick-fil-a nuggets with bbq sauce and a cherry coke. I must have all three. (I ate this twice yesterday. Don't judge me.)

Food aversions?  Red meat smells like cows and not at all like food. My stomach seems to be turning on shrimp now as well.

Morning sickness? Nope!

Gender?  Vivienne Jane my Million Dollar Baby

Belly Button? Still in....but barely.

What I miss: Comfortably bending at the waist and being able to hug my husband without my belly getting in the way.

What I'm looking forward to: Having family pictures taken this weekend.

Milestones?  Nothing much to speak of this week, except that Logan has learned the baby's full name and tells everyone he is going to have a sister and her name is Baby Vivienne Jane. Adorable.

Goodbye Florida!

Our last real daytrip was to Silver Springs in Ocala. They have a ton of alligators, a petting zoo where you can feed a giraffe (the highlight of the day), glass bottom boats, and a few little kiddie rides. We had a great time when we went last year, but found ourselves somewhat underwhelmed this time around. Maybe it was because we'd already seen all that there was to see, I'm not sure. Regardless, I doubt we'll be going back next year, but if you've never been, it's definitely worth checking out.

Obviously we have difficulty following rules.

I will NOT "say cheese"!

We spent our last day in Florida wandering around Downtown Disney. We had a ridiculously overpriced lunch at Rainforest Cafe, spent 45 minutes waiting in line to pay for Legos that we could have bought at Walmart, and took advantage of every photo op - much to the dismay of my poor camera-shy husband.

Forcing a smile, after spending $50 on 3 cheeseburgers.

It's a shame we can't actually use this for our Christmas cards.

Heathens...except for mine, of course. He's an angel. Just look at that sweet face.

Kaden, Koby, Logan, and Khloe.

Logan's hero!

Lego-tron?

And that's it folks. In some ways the trip went by way too fast, but honestly, I was ready to come home. I have difficulty dealing with other people's children, so having my niece and nephews around was stressful for me. I'm admittedly a pretty strict mom and I expect a lot from Logan. Most importanly, I expect him to be polite and to do as he's told. He knows that there are consequences should he fail to follow our rules, but it's really hard for a 3 yr old to be good when the other children around him aren't made to behave as well. It's also really hard for a mother to not step in when her child is being bullied (both physically and emotionally) and the other parent isn't doing anything about it. Aaargh. It's a difficult situation to handle without stepping on anyone's toes and pissing off the inlaws. What I really wanted to do was dish out some spankings to the rest of the kids, because they are all in pretty desperate need of a good ass-whooping in my opinion. Needless to say, that part of my vacation was extremely frustrating, but the rest of it was fantastic!

Enjoy your weekend ladies! I'll be back on Monday with baby updates!

Seeeeriously counting the minutes until the weekend starts.

I'm having a rough day folks. I've spent the last 2 days feeling grumpy as hell for no good reason, well, no good reason until this morning, but more about that in a minute. On top of being grumpy, I've been ravenously hungry. I'm starting to think the two are related and I'm not too happy with this development. I can't spend the next few months feeling like I'm starving to death and biting people's heads off if they so much as look at me the wrong way. Someone please tell me that this will pass. I never had mood swings like this when I was pergnant with me son. Could it be a girl thing?

Now as for this morning, without getting too into it, I'll say that I received an email that got me thinking. I've spent my day wondering why women are so mean to each other. Why aren't we more supportive and kind and encouraging to each other instead of being so vindictive and hurtful? Why do we spend so much time knocking each other down? If someone hurts our feelings, instead of talking it out and moving on, we hold onto it. We let it fester and let the hurt sink in deeper. We dwell on it. We talk behind the person's back. We make mean comments so that they will feel the hurt that they caused us. Couldn't this all just be avoided at the very beginning with a simple conversation? Something like:

"Hey, that thing you said wasn't very nice."

"Oh shit, I'm sorry, I had no idea. I totally didn't mean it the way it sounded to you, but I can see how you could have taken it the wrong way. My bad."

"It's cool."

I mean, that's how guys handle things and they fight with each other a whole lot less than women do. In this one way, why can't we just be a little more like them? Today I'm reminded of why most of my friends growing up were guys.

Sanibel Island

We took our first trip down to Sanibel Island during our vacation last year and we were hooked. This has got to be in my Top 3 Most Gorgeous Places I've Ever Been. It's even worth the 4 hour drive from Orlando and the additional half hour spent finding a place to park because there are only about 30 parking spots on the entire island. But really, it's worth it. We spent the entire afternoon playing in the sand, diving for conch shells, and eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (no lie, I'm pretty sure I ate 4 of them).

Vivienne's 1st Trip to the Beach!

Letting it all hang out...

My plan to lay still long enough to get seashell tanlines lasted about 10 minutes before Vivienne started dancing and knocked them all off.

Logan and Daddy were out diving for shells.

You really cannot beat this view!

Baby Bump at 21/22 Weeks

Taken mid-way between weeks 21 and 22 while on vacay.

Watch what you say -- baby is now able to hear outside noise from down in the womb. Studies show that she finds gentle music and your own voice most soothing. Nipples are starting to sprout, and that little face is fully formed. And, baby's starting to settle into sleep cycles, snoozing about 12 to 14 hours a day. It shouldn't be hard to figure out when -- just pay attention to those kicks as they start and stop.

How Far Along?  22 weeks


Total Weight Gained/Loss?   5 POUNDS!!!

Maternity Clothes?  I can still wear quite a few of my non-maternity tops but maternity pants are a must. I had to buy new bras thanks to my now even more monstrously large boobies and I STILL need to get one of those extenders for the back so this underwire will stop digging into me.

Sleep?  Like a freaking baby. If she kicks at night, I don't feel it! I do dream though and it's always some sort of crazy shit. The night before last I had wild, freaky sex with Bruce Willis. Two weeks ago I dreamt that Kyle and I joined a charity walk to support legal immigration, where you started in Mexico and had to cross into the US just as if you were an illegal. You had to carry all your shit and try not to die. I swear, I couldn't make this shit up.

Best Moment of the Week?  Kyle finally saw Vivienne punch/kick. He's been feeling her for a few weeks now but he hadn't been able to see her in action until this week.

Movement?  It's constant with this one. I swear, all that crap up there about 12 hour sleep cycles does not apply to my child. She rocks and rolls all day long!

Food Cravings?  I was really wanting some baklava while we were on vacation, but then I picked up a piece at Coffee Beanery yesterday and it was terrible so I'm pretty sure it killed that craving. Otherwise, nothing in particular.
Food aversions?  None. I even had a few bites of asparagus last night. This is a huge deal for someone who doesn't eat anything green.

Morning sickness?  None at all, though brushing my teeth still makes me gag some mornings.

Gender? Pretty, pretty princess Vivienne!!!

Belly Button?  Getting shallower every day. The top part (I call it the "hood") is sticking out now and looks kind of weird.

What I miss:  Not having constant back pain, not waddling when I walk because of said back pain, and not feeling like someone hit me in the crotch with a baseball bat.

What I'm looking forward to:  Getting started on her room!

Milestones?   Baby's 1st Trip to the Beach! That counts, right?

Touching stingrays

Since we weren't planning on doing the theme park thing this year, we planned a few little daytrips and spent more time hanging around the resort than last year. Our first little trip was to the Tampa Aquarium. They had a few touch pools that Logan LOVED (once he stopped being such a wimp) and even a little water park outside for the kiddies.

Getting ready to touch the enormous sting ray.

Shooting Daddy with the water cannon.

The resort where we stay actually has quite a bit to do (including a gorgeous spa but I unfortunately couldn't convince Kyle that a $250 massage was a wise use of our hard-earned vacation savings). We spent an afternoon playing mini golf and doing some arts and crafts to take back to my parents because we're cheap and real souvenirs are expensive. For the record, the Grandmas loved the "psychadelic birdhouse" (their words, not mine) that Logan painted for them. Anywho, Logan has never played mini golf before so I wasn't too sure what to expect. He did pretty well though. He scored a 91 on a par 40, which I like to think is pretty exceptional for a 3 yr old. He's no golf prodigy but he IS a really good cheater. Watch out Tiger!