Baby Shower!

Last month my wonderful mom and mother-in-law threw the most incredible baby shower for me! They went absolutely overboard on every last detail from the food to the decorations and games and I was completely spoiled. I felt so special the whole time. I am overwhelmed with love and gratitude for our friends and family that are as excited as we are to welcome our son to the world in just a few short months. I am not sure why we are so lucky but I am so thankful for each and every one of you. 

We had friends and family travel from as far north as Vermont and upstate New York to attend the shower. Christopher deserves a gold medal for joining in on the fun the entire time to take pictures and assist with gift opening. He played a great Vanna White. I might even say he had a good time!

The baby shower was held at a cute little historic train station in downtown Silver Spring. It just so happened that it took place on the same day as the Thanksgiving Parade, but that didn't stop everyone from showing up and having a great time! Our son's nursery theme is all about space, so the baby shower was based on that, and I absolutely loved all of the little touches!

My talented cousin Julia made this
adorable & delicious cake!

Cute star favor boxes with chocolates

One of my bffs Ryan contributed
 to the decor & favors!

My mom made a special recipe in a
blue variation for this favor.  When she was
 pregnant with me she craved this sugar popcorn
from the White House Cookbook.

There was an abundance of food and drinks and so much to do with all of the games and chatting with everybody that came to celebrate! It was such a great time and it was over way too fast!

Ruthie had everyone write us or the baby a message on this
pretty star stationery and then she put them all in a
scrapbook for us. When I read them the day after
the party I just cried and cried. They were all so sweet.

"Guess Baby's Stats" 

Baby Word Scramble- I thought I was good at these
but apparently not because I didn't win!

Lots of prizes for the winners of all the fun games

The food spread

Announcing a game!

Baby shower at the B & O Railroad Museum

Upstate NY fam

My amazing friends

Christopher's "Funny Oma"

More amazing friends & the hubster

Thank you so much to everyone that came! And for those that couldn't make it, please know that I felt you were there in spirit :) I love you all and our son is so excited to meet each and every one of you beautiful people.

Over halfway there

Somehow I am suddenly over 5 months pregnant (23 weeks and 5 days if you want to get specific)! Not sure how that happened.

Yesterday at my midwife appointment I asked to be shown where the top of my uterus was because I had felt punching or kicking higher than I expected to. She did as I asked and we found out that my measurements were averaging four weeks ahead of where I should be at this time. This freaked me out a bit. But I was told not to worry because baby is going through a growth spurt right now so he will likely level off by my next appointment. I am starting to think that he will come slightly early for a few reasons, one being that I felt movement at 16 weeks, which is atypical for first time mothers. When I told Christopher my suspicion he said it was "Awesome!" I asked him why and he said "because we might get to meet him sooner!" I love my husband.

We liked the pediatrician that we visited a few weeks ago very much. They have fire truck exam tables in the patient rooms! Silver Spring Pediatrics would be incredibly convenient because it is just a stone's throw from my husband's office. We were surprised to hear that the practice does ear piercings of newborn baby girls. Is this a thing? Christopher and I gave each other curious glances at this announcement. We haven't made a decision on a pediatrician yet because we have more practices to look into.

On average I still feel great! I have been walking a lot (ask me how we got lost in Wheaton Regional Park last week??) and doing an awesome Pilates DVD that Missy loaned me. I do have a few complaints that I will try to discuss briefly. The afternoon commute home on metro is my most dreaded part of the weekday. The fishy-rubber-tire smell. The jolty stop and go movement. People and their perfume! Ugh. Sometimes I feel like I am eight weeks pregnant again and about to hurl. The other day I even brought a plastic bag just in case. I have been having severe headaches for about a month and a half now because of these crazy hormones. And it is only during the week when i'm at work! At first they would usually come around 10:30-11am and last until I get home around 4:30pm, just awful. I know I can take Tylenol but I am worried about overdoing it. I tried drinking even more water, which is difficult when you're already chugging 72 ounces a day. My boss was kind enough to undo several of the lights in my office and I turned down my monitor brightness. I eat every 2-3 hours. Nothing really helps except acetamenaphen sometimes, but at least their duration has lessened.

This is actually from week 20

The nursery is in progress. We have paint samples up on the wall and have agreed on colors but haven't yet purchased the paint. We have a dresser and chest in there and the crib and mattress were delivered yesterday. I don't know why I was so surprised by the size! I expected it to be smaller even though I have seen Megan's crib a hundred times. That thing is going to feel cavernous to our teeny-tiny little baby!

I have to schedule my one hour glucose tolerance test to screen for gestational diabetes in the next few weeks and I am really not looking forward to that at all.

I leave you with this sonogram photo, which I swore I would never post, but just look at that *lil' nose!

Baby S, 19 weeks

*It is a requirement that pregnant women use the term "lil'" at every possible opportunity.

A Girl's Weekend

Yesterday afternoon I returned from a relaxing trip with a good friend, I call her my "pen pal" because we are always texting and emailing but don't see each other often. We met at a work training class several years ago in Tampa. Last winter she was in the DC area and we made it a point to get together to attend a fancy food event.

Well it was high time that I trekked to her turf. On Friday I flew to Fort Meyer's Airport for our long weekend in Sanibel Island in the Gulf of Mexico. With a four hour drive behind her, Ashley picked me up at the airport and we were off... to eat lunch... because I am pregnant and usually starving. We grabbed sandwiches and spent several hours at the outlets. I had my first of three (!) mango smoothies of the weekend. At The Gap I used a gift card to score the cutest little jean jacket and two newborn onesies. Ashley got some really sweet clothes for her two boys. Loft is where we both took advantage of the prices and stocked up on some cute clothes and jewelry for ourselves.

Here I am in my natural habitat

After checking into The Seaside Inn on the island of Sanibel, the rest of our day included iced coffee and cupcakes at Dolce Tesoro, an abundant dinner at Cip's Place, and some lounging around and reading. Ashley had so kindly brought me her copy of The Happiest Baby on the Block and I finished it by the end of the weekend. 

Natural wonders of Sanibel: Parrot, seashells, blue heron, clamshell, biking trail, coconut

On Saturday morning we made use of the free bikes available at the inn and rode them to Dolce Tesoro. We were interested in iced coffees again but didn't take the owner up on the cupcakes this time. He insisted on complimentary chocolate covered graham crackers though! Delicious. After we made it back we figured we should head to the beach where we shelled and read. We weren't there for more than an hour though because we had massage appointments to get to! I had found a massage school in the area and, always up for a great deal, Ashley and I decided to book appointments for hour long massages for $55(!). Now in a complete state of relaxation, we both got pedicures while I sipped on a mango smoothie. For dinner it was the Sanibel Fish House where we ordered conch fritters. It had started raining pretty hard but we didn't let it get in our way, on a recommendation from my massage therapist we headed for The Bubble Room in Captiva for dessert. It sounded like either a strip club or gay bar to me, and the decor was completely bonkers, but it's true that the dessert is incredible. All i'm going to say is "orange crunch cake." Back at our room we spent the evening browsing the mansions of Captiva on Zillow.com.

Sunday was a full beach day. We worked on our tans and our books. I grilled Ashley on all things pregnancy and parenting her two little boys. More shelling was done, and we found a starfish in the water! It didn't enjoy being removed from its habitat though, as it sensed a threat and separated one of its appendages in protest, so back in the ocean it went. 

After we decided we had enough sun we walked to the end of the coast to the lighthouse and then out onto the street. The sky was looking very dark at this point so we speed-walked back to our hotel, but not before stopping for much deserved coffee and a mango smoothie.

The Green Flash was super fancy, though empty, but our dinner was wonderful. We overheard other diners gossiping about how the effects of draining the Lake Okeechobee watershed into the Gulf could take up to a year to dissipate. Ashley had mentioned on the first day that the water is normally bluer and clearer, but it didn't bother me much since I didn't know any different. Sometimes you would get a whiff of something awful through the beach air though.

In protest of our weekend coming to a close we rebelled and went to a "late night" movie where we laughed through "We are the Miller's" and then made a pit stop at Walgreen's for nail polish and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. 

What a wonderful weekend! The island was so quiet and peaceful, though perhaps because it was their slow season. There are lots of nature preserves that I didn't get a chance to check out, so I plan to go back with Christopher sometime, he would like it a lot.

Second Trimester Glee!

I am finally in the second trimester! Although I didn't do much I feel as if i've accomplished something. I also feel very very fortunate. Apparently my baby is having a raucous party inside of me even though I cannot feel it, he or she is probably even sucking its thumb, that crazy kid!

Adorable baby things!!

In other news I have not felt sick for about two and a half weeks now. My energy has come back as well and therefore I don't feel as if I need a nap after lunch… or after work.

Already we've checked a lot of items off of our to do list. 

This weekend Chris disassembled the guest bed that has served as a wonderful laundry sorting surface and junk accumulator in the guest room aka future nursery. It has been shipped off to my brother's house where it will live in one of his 3 (4?) empty bedrooms. I plan to have that whole room cleared out within the next month or so (hahaha?). Is anyone in need of a writing surface? I have a perfectly acceptable white ikea desk that we no longer need. Otherwise it will go up on Craigslist.

Progress!

We also made a lot of progress on retiling our basement. The original flooring is 10% asbestos tile, and science states that this is bad for your health. It has been on our list for an embarrassingly long time, I will not tell you when we started this project because you won't be my friend anymore. Having a baby in our future has given us the kick in the pants we needed to make it a priority; ahead of watching the entire series of White Collar. If you're having a hard time staying motivated with your home improvement projects, get knocked up and you won't have that problem anymore, I highly recommend it. We are approximately 92% finished with the tile installation! Theory proven.

The last few months (and even before we were expecting- because I am insane) I have been doing lots of research on daycares. I am trying to counteract this crazy wait-list phenomena that is giving me nightmares. I have found a few accredited centers that look very promising! We are scheduled to visit two on September 10th. I will be armed with Gavin de Becker recommended questions. I am not happy that I had to take the day off work, but I am determined to make it worth it so I will also be going to the post office to renew my passport.

That same evening (haha my husband doesn't yet know this!) we will also be going to a Prenatal Conference at Silver Spring Pediatrics to learn about their practice. I am very excited about this because it is very close to Chris's work, our house, they will come in to see your child on the weekends in an emergency, and last but not least, they are rated on the 2012 Top Doctor's in the Washingtonian.

You will hear from me again soon. I'm going to go back in time as I unintentionally skipped over documenting our wonderful trip to upstate New York!

Guess What?!

The secret's out! Christopher and I are so so excited to be parents soonish and meet the little thing in just 6 short months! So far the pregnancy is going really well. Of course I've had some nausea and i'm always exhausted but it hasn't been too bad. As long as I eat frequent small meals I don't feel sick. Christopher is enjoying the additional snack supply in the house.

I crave salty crunchy things and I can't stand eggs anymore, which is funny because I used to love them. My first craving was ketchup!

I am seeing the midwives at Midwifery Care in White Flint and I absolutely love them so far. I will be delivering at Shady Grove Hospital in Bethesda.

Christopher has completed his first baby gear research project, we bought a new family car with great safety ratings. Now who wants to bet on how often she gets washed?

Have a mentioned that my husband is amazing?