Nursery Baby Buys

Here is a video I made showing off all the stuff my grandparents bought little man for his bedroom!

I love what we picked out so much! I am definitely not a cartoon character or animal lover as far as nursery themes go, so this was just perfect! And I absolutely love the light blue, lime green and chocolate brown color combination. Here's a picture of the set.

My Free Massage and a Vlog

Monday afternoon I did something I've never done before, I got a massage! I know, I know, I was totally missing out! I did once get a scalp massage along with a facial which was wonderful, but never a full body massage. As I mentioned this past weekend, I signed up for a free 30-minute massage at a local chiropractor's office.

The office is literally a two minute drive from our condo, so it really couldn't be more convenient. I had a short consultation with the doctor I spoke with on Friday night who just asked me some basic questions like how far along I was and the type of pain I've been experiencing. Then it was on to the massage room!

The massage therapist was very professional and totally knew what she was doing! OHEMGEE. The massage was wonderful! She had me lay on my side and did a great job focusing on my lower back, legs and feet. Apparently she is the "foot specialist" at the clinic and explained to me how reflexology can cause premature labor so she couldn't do as through of a job as she would usually.

I decided to have the clinic run my insurance to see how much would be covered if I continued to get treatment. We're lucky enough to have great insurance through Ant's work so minus a $30 copay at each appointment, my treatment is covered 100%! And I can go up to 30 times before the end of the year. They recommended physical therapy, ultrasound therapy and massage.

My first "real" appointment is tomorrow! I think I'll start out going once a week and then drop down to every two weeks until about a month before my due date. Then I'll probably start going at least once a week again, if not twice. I'm sure they'll want to start me out at least twice a week, but since I don't work $30 a week is all I'm willing so spend at the moment since we've still got quite a few larger items to buy for baby. 

And here is my 23 week vlog!

Power Hour Time

Remember in my last post how I said that Ant and I were going to play a game? We went old school with our game choice and decided to play one of Ant's power hours he made a few years back. If you're unfamiliar, power hours are a mash up of 60 song clips each a minute long. Every time a new song starts you're supposed to take a shot of beer. You can easily go through three beers in an hour playing the game. Seeing as how I can't drink alcohol these days and the fact that we don't have any beer at our house made altering the game a must.

Oh, and I must preface this photo by saying this was taken before we started the power hour.

He decided it would be fun to try and fit in a cardboard box. Ya, clearly that didn't work! Weirdo. Side note: I can not wait to get the nursery furniture set up! It's been in the same spot for months now but we literally don't have anywhere else to put it at the moment! Same goes for our travel system.

Anyways, back to the game. I decided to play the power hour by just taking sips of Coke. Ant is a big Jack Daniels fan and started off taking a shot of the stuff followed by shots of Coke, with a few more Jacks thrown in throughout the hour.

We did the last power hour Ant ever made (aww.... tear!) and included a lot of songs I'd never heard, but we still had a fun time.

Okay, time to stop procrastinating, time for my weekly Sunday afternoon date with cleaning our condo!

Ulta Haul

Today I met my grandparents for lunch. They live in Florida and stopped in Chicago for a quick visit on their way home from Oregon. It had been a few years since I'd seen them so it was nice to visit! After lunch we went to Buy Buy Baby where they were kind enough get us a bunch of stuff for our nursery. I'll share everything they got us in an upcoming video. But I will say, our little man will be sleeping in style!

After dropping them back off at their hotel I stopped by Ulta to pick up a few things before heading home.

From left:
1. Nail polish remover
2. Nicole by OPI Silver Texture polish (basically Shatter)
3. Frizz Straight Styling Cream
4. CND Air Dry top coat (CND is "3 Free," so safe to use during pregnancy!)
5. OPI Black Shatter polish
6. Revlon eye lash curler

I used the Frizz line a couple years ago when it was exclusive to Sephora. I saw it at Ulta today and decided to try it again, I remember really liking it. However, it's rather pricey, that little bottle of styling cream cost me $26!

Alright, Ant and I are off to play a game we enjoyed many-a-time in college, well, a modified version since I can no longer hit da sauce these days :).

The Taste of Roselle

As I mentioned in my last post, Ant and I went to the Taste of Roselle for dinner last night. I wasn't expecting much, especially after the dinky carnival that was the Rose Festival. However, it was pretty fun! There were a ton of people at the event, which made me a little uneasy, but since the festival was spread out over three or four blocks there was plenty of room for everyone.

We were surprised at how many different food vendors there were to choose from! After taking a look around Ant decided on a chicken gyro and I opted for a huge slice of cheese pizza (I told you guys I'm boring when it comes to food!).

After we ate we walked around a bit more. A bunch of local businesses had booths set up across the way from the food vendors. One of the businesses was a chiropractor's office that was offering free 15 minute mini massages! Ummm, SIGN.ME.UP. They had these little chairs set up so they were just doing simple back massages, and I wanted one so bad. I asked if they would massage a pregnant lady and I ended up talking to the chiropractor who wasn't comfortable massaging me at the festival. But he said that I could go to their office for a complimentary 30 minute prenatal massage! You better believe I jumped on that deal and set up an appointment for Monday afternoon.

After I signed up for my massage we walked over to the craft show. We didn't quite understand how this booth fit in with all the other handmade jewelry, custom t-shirt and henna tattoo booths.

It was a pretty hoppin' booth so they must be doing something right! After the craft show we made a beeline for the bingo tent where we each got three bingo cards.

Twice I came so close to winning!

No such luck though. After three rounds we decided we'd had enough and wanted some dessert.

Dippin' Dots to the rescue! Gosh, I can't remember the last time I had those little spherical balls of ice cream. I ordered a mint chocolate chip and Ant got a banana split. All in all it was a fun night!

In case you were wondering, we took all the photos with the new camera I got Ant for his birthday. We used one of the built-in filters to get a fun vintage look on all the photos.

22 Week Bump

Here's what the baby bump looks like this week!

22 weeks 6 days

I like the way this dress fits me this week! I bought it at Target a few years ago, so definitely not maternity. For dinner tonight Ant and I headed out to the Taste of Roselle festival. Surprisingly, we had a lot of fun, the Taste was 100 times better than the Rose Festival we went to at the beginning of the summer.

I'll recap our evening in my next post!

Get Ready, Cuz Here He Comes!

Well, we still have four months until my due date, but he'll be here before you know it! Here's a video with all my recent baby buys.

Sorry the sound is off! You don't see my face so it isn't super annoying, but it is a little off putting. Here's the list I mention at the end of the video with all the major stuff we still need to get for little man (minus some more clothes and diapers).

Spelling isn't my strong suit when I don't have spell check

Since we haven't put our furniture together yet I'm not sure if the changing table came with a pad or not. The description of the set online says that it does, so we'll see. And I want the lingerie bags (or lingere as I so articulately put it) to wash all his little socks in so they don't get lost.

One thing I deliberately left off the list for now was a breast pump. I'm paranoid that I won't be able to breast feed and think putting off buying the breast pump until after he's here is a good idea. If all goes according to plan I don't even want to give him bottles for the first two to three weeks to prevent nipple confusion.

Next on my list is doing a serious overhaul of the craft room to make room for baby. I'm hoping my dad is still planning on having a garage sale this month because we need to get rid of the desk and bookshelf in there, plus a few other random things. If he doesn't I'll just put the stuff up on Craigslist.

If you can think of anything else I might have missed on my list, let me know!

Dinner and a Movie

Hello everyone! Lucky you, you get a little date night right in this blog post! First up, we have a delish homemade meal. Well, the Sandra Lee type of homemade, anyways.

Our main course this evening was crunchy onion chicken. Here's the super easy recipe!

Ingredients
-2 chicken breasts (we always use the Tyson All-Natural chicken breasts)
-1 cup French's French Fried Onions (the same ones you use for green bean casseroles)
-1 tablespoon flour
-Garlic powder (add as much or as little as you like for flavor)
-1 egg

To Prepare
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine French Fried Onions, flour and garlic powder in a bowl. Cover with a paper towel and crush with your hand. In a separate bowl crack an egg and dip chicken in the bowl, covering the entire breast. Then coat breasts with French Fried Onion mixture. Place in a pan and bake for 19-21 minutes. Enjoy!

While the chicken was very easy to prepare, the side dish was even easier!

I just microwaved a Green Giant Steamers for six minutes. We tried the Potatoes and Green Beans in Rosemary Butter Sauce. Meh. It was okay. I don't think I'd get it again, but it wasn't terrible.

And now for the entertainment portion of this blog post!

My 22 week pregnancy vlog, I get a little more candid than usual so be prepared (it's really not that bad). Plus, I say "funk" about eight times, so you could even turn this video in to a mini drinking game!

To Move Or Not To Move

Happy Sunday!

On Friday I went to the Goodwill and Salvation Army stores along with a couple different dollar stores to see what kind of baby stuff I could find.

I was on a mission to find a gently used Boppy pillow. No such luck on the pillow, but I was able to find some good stuff for freaking cheap!

As I mentioned in the video, the Salvation Army was a gold mine, so I'll probably head back there periodically before little man arrives. And didn't you love Ant's first cameo appearance in a video? And to continue preparing for baby, I just ordered this bad boy:



The Diaper Genie II Elite! I bought it from Amazon so I could extend my Amazon Prime membership (free 2-day shipping!). Since we're not cloth diapering a good diaper disposal system is a must for us. The Baby Bargains book rated the Diaper Genie II Elite as the best diaper pail on the market, so it was a no brainer on which one to go with.

To Move Or Not To Move

And last night Ant and I pretty much decided we won't be moving once our lease is up in October. YAYAYAYAYAYAY! I was not looking forward to moving while nearly nine months pregnant. While our place isn't the greatest, for what we're paying in rent we have a nice spacious two bedroom/two bathroom condo with lots of storage and parking is never a problem. Plus, we're only a short drive from a 24-hour pharmacy, an important thing to consider as a soon-to-be mom. Sure, our neighbors can be loud at times, but in general that's my only complaint about the place (and they're really only loud a couple times a month when they have parties). Oh, and I do wish we had our own washer and dryer. But, the laundry room is right next door to our unit, so it's not that big of an inconvenience (if we had in-unit laundry I'd probably consider cloth diapering).

The main reason Ant wants to move is to be closer to work. Right now it takes him about 45 minutes on the Metra to get to work. He wants to move to Chicago so that his commute would be cut in half. Now, if we weren't having a baby, I would be all for moving to the city. I'm just a little nervous doing it with a newborn. I don't like driving in the city and am scared that something would happen while Ant was gone and I'd have to drive baby to the emergency room by myself.

And like I said, a large space is important to me. Even if we found a place for $200 more than what we're paying now (which is what we would be willing to spend), I doubt in the city we'd be able to get the square footage we have now. Soooo, as of now we won't be moving. Ant said he is still going to look for other places online, and if we find something ahhh-mazing then we'll probably jump on it, but most likely we're staying put in Roselle.

Our spacious living room

So, now I kind of want to see if our landlord will let us paint the place. All the walls in our condo are a gross hospital white color. I'd like to paint at least at least a room or two a nice warm tan color, so still keeping it neutral.

Alright, well, seeing as how I basically just wrote a novel, I think it's time to say TTFN!

Now That's a Baby Bump!

I think some might say I officially popped this week!

21  weeks 6 days

To compare, here is me five weeks ago wearing the same shirt.

16 weeks 6 days

 Here is a little weekly pregnancy questionnaire I've seen lots of ladies fill out. It's kind of fun, right?

This week, Baby is the size of a: Papaya

How far along? Since it's after midnight, I'm 22 weeks exactly!

Due date: December 3, 2011

Total weight gain/loss: As of my doctor's appointment nearly two weeks ago I still was down two pounds to my first appointment back in April

Maternity clothes? Some, but not exclusively

Sleep: I'm not getting nearly enough and my sleep schedule is all kinds of messed up, so I sleep when I can

Best moment this week: Getting my Papa John's pizza that I was craving

Movement: Oh yes, little man is very active in there

Food cravings: Along with the PJ's pizza, it's been all about the M&Ms 

Symptoms: Some back pain and I'm unable to stand for more than about 20 minutes without my feet hurting, even in my most comfortable shoes

Gender: Hopefully he's still all boy!

Labor Signs: Braxton Hicks contractions, but that's it

Belly Button in or out? I haven't noticed much of a change in my belly button, so still an innie

Feeling toward Pregnancy: A little overwhelmed with everything we still have to get

What I miss: Being able to have a glass of wine or mixed drink

What I am looking forward to: Hmmm... I don't really know this week

Milestones: As of 22 weeks I no longer switch fruits every week, I think it's every 3 weeks now

Once Upon A Child Baby Buys

Yesterday Ant and I drove out to Oak Brook to the new Once Upon A Child store for their grand opening. Holy cow that place was crowded! I loathe crowds, so I felt a bit uncomfortable in the store and wasn't able to focus like I needed to.

We ended up spending $42 on everything, and walked away with some great finds! I filmed a little video with everything we got.

I also took a short trip to Wal-Mart last night for a jar of pasta sauce. As soon as I got to the store I seemed to have forgotten why I was there and ended up in the baby department, and I left sans pasta sauce. You'll see the Wal-Mart baby buys in the video, too.

I put away everything we got before I could take a picture (damn, pregnancy brain is hitting me hard lately!), so here is a picture of most of the clothes we have accrued thus far for little man.

Baby/craft closet

Gosh, when looking at them all together it doesn't seem like we have that much, especially when you consider how many different sizes he'll go through in the first year alone. Maybe this weekend I'll go to the Salvation Army or Goodwill to see what I can find there.

And I better get some Papa John's pizza this weekend! PJ's is my favorite pizza delivery place and I don't think we've had it since we moved to Roselle. Soooo, for the sake of my husband, it'll be best that my craving be satisfied this weekend :).

Pantry Organization

Tonight I was on a cleaning rampage! I started out doing a deep clean of our second bathroom (you can see what it looks like here). After I was done with the bathroom I moved on to our little hallway pantry. That thing was a hot mess. No.freaking.joke.

Before

Pretty much we just threw all our cleaning supplies, grocery bags, Tupperware, napkins and random crap inside and let the pantry just kind of organize itself. As you can see, that wasn't really working. It took me about an hour to get everything reorganized (I took a couple M&Ms breaks in between cleaning), and here's how it turned out!

After #1

After #2

Not too shabby, right? The grocery bag holder was always in there, but it was on the floor. I hope my neighbors didn't get too mad that I was hammering nails in to the wall at 10:30pm! Next I think I'll label everything in the pantry to keep it organized.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, that random Vitamin Water bottle on the bottom is what we use to put our old batteries in.

My Bathing Beauty

This evening I met a friend down in Wheaton for dinner at Panera. It was nice to catch up, I hadn't seen her since I was about 9 or 10 weeks pregnant. We were at the restaurant for over three hours!

My Bathing Beauty

After I got home from dinner I decided little Pearl needed a bath. I try to give her a bath about once a month. Even though that equals about 48 baths since we've been together, to say she hates bath time is quite the understatement.

I have always bathed Pearl in the kitchen sink. At our old house it was pretty easy to do because our sink was nice and deep and the faucet actually doubled as a pull out sprayer. Since moving to our condo, bath time for Pearl has proven a little more difficult. It took me a while to even figure out how to bathe her because our sink doesn't have a pull out sprayer. Per usual, I turned to Google to solve my bathing dilemma, where I ended up finding this handy product.

 

The Rinse Ace Three-Way Pet Faucet! I was able to pick it up at my local pet store. I was a little hesitant to purchase it based on some of the reviews I read online, but it has worked great for us! The Rinse Ace attaches securely to our faucet and basically acts like a sprayer. The water pressure isn't quite the same, but it's not terrible and gets the job done.

As far as shampoo goes, I just use Johnson & Johnson's baby shampoo! It was recommended by the breeder I got Pearl (and my other cat, Dawny) from. I use the lavender scented one, which makes Pearl smell great!

Tonight Pearl was a little more anxious than usual to hop in the bath. She usually tries to jump out of the sink but I'm always able to control her. Tonight, however, was a different story! After initially getting her wet she managed to weasel her way out of my grip and made a beeline for our bedroom, where she always hides out after a bath. Fortunately I was able to catch her quickly and the rest of the bath was uneventful.

Pearl after a bath

Alright, off to paint my nails (I'm thinking OPI's My Private Jet this time) and to watch the latest episode of Teen Mom!

21 Week Vlog

Here ya go!

Booky Wooks

Friday night after dinner (and before the cupcakes) we ventured up to the Borders in Schaumburg. In case you haven't heard, the retailer is closing all of its stores and currently have some pretty great deals going on. We didn't get there until about an hour before they closed, and the place was still packed! We definitely weren't the only ones looking to score a deal.

After browsing around for a half hour Ant and I had picked out nine books between the two of us. Here are the books I got.

All books that will help us raise our little guy. I'm especially excited to read the Baby Sign Language and Games Babies Play books. Ant went in a different direction when picking out his books, and just picked books that "looked good." See, I really am the practical one!

Homemade Sprinkles

I'm sure quite a few of you have heard of Sprinkles Cupcakes. The cupcakery started out in Beverly Hills, CA and was quite a hit with the rich and famous. Last year they opened a bakery in Chicago, which Ant and I visited on my birthday back in January.

While we were at the cupcakery we picked up a red velvet mix so we could make the cupcakes at home. The mix sat on our counter until yesterday when we decided to make them.

We followed the directions exactly... why mess with perfection? I'll be honest, I got quite frustrated with the recipe and was just about to throw in the towel when Ant stepped up and took over (I know, I'm such a bitch for making my hubs make his own birthday treats!). The recipe called for 1 1/2 sticks of butter instead of oil. I'm sure that butter is the key ingredient to making the Sprinkles taste oh-so-delish, but it's a freaking nightmare to work with!

Along with the recipe for the actual cupcakes, there was a recipe for the cream cheese frosting.Which we made completely from scratch by the way, no mix to get us started! And like the cupcakes, the frosting required another stick of butter (damn you, butter!). Here's the finished cupcakes!

We decided against adding the little fondant circles to the tops of the cupcakes because, well, those things taste like shit.

The cupcakes on the other hand, tasted AHHH-MAZING! I was very surprised at how close our cupcakes tasted like the ones fresh from Sprinkles. It's that damn butter! I don't know if I would recommend anyone using this particular cupcake mix, just because the butter was so hard to work with and created quite the mess on our counters, but they sure do taste good! If you're interested, you can order the mix here.

Okay, the baby is requesting another cupcake. Must give my growing boy what he wants!!

Birthday Dinner

Roselle doesn't have a whole lot to offer. Basically, if you need something you have to go to one of the surrounding towns. Which isn't that big of a deal considering Bloomingdale and Schaumburg are both just 10-15 minutes away. However, we have found one little gem in our teeny tiny town. We tried Impecca back in February and just loved it (click here to see my original review), so Ant decided he wanted to go back for his birthday dinner.

Much to our surprise, downtown Roselle was hoppin' tonight! We had to park a couple blocks away from the restaurant because there was a car show going on.

This picture doesn't do a good job of showing the crowds, but there really were a ton of people downtown. The car show reminded me of the one in Wheaton, my hometown. The Roselle car show seemed a bit bigger than the Wheaton one and there was even a Neil Diamond cover band playing.

When we got to the restaurant Ant ordered an Impecca Signature Martini and we munched on some fresh bread with olive oil and parmesan cheese.

After the bread Ant enjoyed a cup of broccoli cheese soup and I had a house salad.

For our main courses Ant selected Roasted Chicken pizza, and I ordered the same thing as last time, the Lemon Basil Marinated Chicken, which was just as good as I remembered.

When we got home Ant and I made some homemade Sprinkles cupcakes, which I'll spotlight in another post. But believe me, they were delish!

My Half Baked Belly

Here's this week's belly shot!

20 weeks 6 days

Today was my first day wearing only maternity clothes, and boy are they comfortable! I still just feel fat these days, but my baby bump is becoming more pronounced. I'm thinking in the next two or three weeks it will look like a real bump!

I've got a few other blog posts lined up for this weekend, so it will be a busy one on TAW!

Click here to check out my crafty blog, La Georgia Paperie.

Happy Birthday, Boo!

This morning Ant and I went to Old Navy. I had a 25% off coupon that expired today and wanted to get some maternity pants. Most Old Navys don't have maternity sections in-store, but the one closest to us actually has a small section, so we lucked out! I was in desperate need of some maternity pants. The past month I've just been schlepping around in yoga pants. Yoga pants are all well and good, however, I was honestly getting a little depressed wearing them every day. I have some jeans that I can still wear, but they are super uncomfortable after like an hour.

So, maternity pants were a much needed item. I ended up getting two pairs. One pair of flare jeans that were $25 with the coupon and another pair of skinny jeans that were on clearance for $21. I'm wearing the flare jeans right now and OH.EM.GEE. They're incredible! I just might have to retire zippers and buttons from my wardrobe from now on and always get maternity pants, haha!

We also picked up a cute little Batman onesie that was on clearance (surprise, surprise!). I usually don't like character-themed clothing, but this one is kind of distressed for a vintage look, so I like it. 

This evening I met my dad and (future) step-mom at Costco to price out their diapers. I have heard good things about the Costco brand and wanted to compare them to the prices on Amazon Mom and Diapers.com. I was really surprised to find out that some of the Huggies diapers and wipes were actually cheaper per item than the Costco brand! I haven't checked out the online prices yet, but when I do I'll let you guys know what the best deals are!

We were only at Costco for about 45 minutes but let me tell you, my feet were KAH-ILLING me when I got home. And I wore my most comfy shoes, too! Uggh. But I was able to pick up my favorite turkey roll-ups for dinner, yum!

Happy Birthday, Boo!

Tomorrow is Ant's 27th birthday! Like I mentioned, all of our baby buys from yesterday counted towards his present. But, of course I got him something else to go along with all the practical baby stuff.

I got him the Kodak Easyshare m52 point and shoot camera. I ordered it from Target.com during their Black Friday sale last week. I realize the camera looks a little more magenta than Ant would probably like, but I swear it looked red on the internet! It came in this morning, so I let Ant open it early. I've never had a Kodak before (I'm a Canon girl), but it seems like a decent camera for the price and really easy to use.

The coolest thing about the camera is that it has some really neat filters built right in. You can get a vintage looking photo with the camera, no PhotoShop needed! There are also a ton of different modes to take the best pictures in any situation (portrait, sport, panorama, sunset, fireworks, sunlight, etc.). Another neat feature is the capability to share photos and HD video to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube with just the touch of one button! But, probably the best part is the size of the camera. It's smaller than Ant's cell phone, so it'll fit perfectly in his pocket!

This camera is perfect for an amateur photographer. I was half tempted to get Ant a DSLR camera, but they're a little out of my price range and I doubt Ant would want to take the time to learn how to use it. So, this little point and shoot is perfect to record anything and everything our little guy does when he's born.

It's hard to believe this will be the 6th birthday Ant and I are celebrating together! He even still uses the first birthday present I ever got him.

Sorry if the wallet is offensive to anyone, but it's a nod to Ant's favorite movie, Pulp Fiction. I think I paid $40 for it off some random website, and it's held up quite well after all these years.

Not sure exactly what we're going to do tomorrow night, dinner somewhere nice probably. Along with homemade Sprinkles cupcakes :).

Happy Friday, everyone!

Baby Buys Video

This morning Ant and I did some baby shopping! We hit up both Buy Buy Baby and Babies R Us and got some good stuff. Here's a video I filmed showing everything I got, followed by some pictures.

Buy Buy Baby stuff:

Babies R Us stuff:

This stuff basically counts for Ant's birthday present, which is on Friday. I'm a practical person and I like to give/receive practical gifts. Last year for Sweetest Day I gave him drinking glasses and pots and pans because it was right around the time we were looking at condos. However, I did get him a fun present along with all the baby buys, well, I think it's fun anyways! I think he'll like it too, especially since he'll be able to use it with the baby, but he can also use it alone.

Speaking of birthdays, I need to make two birthday cards this week, better get started!

Clearance Chic

This morning we had to make a quick trip to Target, we needed some TP. And of course we stopped by the baby department to see if we couldn't find anything good for our little guy. We were able to pick up a few things, all on clearance!

Clockwise, from left:
1. Circo long-sleeved body suits (3 pack) 3 months- $5.58 (was $7.99)
2. Circo shorts 9 months- $1.35!! (was $4.50)
3. Oshkosh onesie 6 months- $2.38 (was $7.99)

So, pretax we paid $9.31 for stuff that originally cost $20.48! I just love the orange, tan and blue onesie, it's one of my favorite baby buys so far. And next week I am so excited that a new Once Upon A Child is opening up not too far from us. If you've never heard of it, OUAC is a consignment shop, similar to Plato's Closet, that specializes in children's clothing, gear and furniture. Can't wait to check it out!

20 Weeks- Half Baked!

Here's my 20 week vlog.

It's A...

BOY!

Yep, we're having a boy! I was sososososo wrong! But, am sosososososososososososo excited! I can't wait to meet our SON! 

Thank you to everyone who commented either way on Facebook, it was fun keeping you all in suspense! It was very obvious today at our anatomy scan that we are having a son. Even if we didn't want to find out, we would have! As soon as the doctor put the probe thing on my belly there were the goods! He isn't shy in the least ;). 

After our doctor's appointment we went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things and ended up buying a couple of boy outfits, which I'll show in my next vlog, which should post later tonight or tomorrow. 

 

And everyone loved the cake over at my dad's house. My dad was the one to cut in to the cake and yelled "it's a boy!" as soon as he saw the blue cake. 

Oh, and if you're interested, I just used a Betty Crocker white cake mix, 1 1/4 cups of water, 3 egg whites, 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce and about 10 drops of blue food coloring. So, relatively healthy, right?

 

Ahhhh, I'm just so excited!

Anatomy Scan

Today was quite an exciting day! We had our 20 week anatomy scan, which involved a pretty detailed ultrasound. And yes.... we did find out the baby's sex, but I won't be posting that until at least tonight!

Baby Z is looking good! It's heartbeat was 152bpm and he or she weighed in at a healthy 13 ounces, nearly one whole pound! As of today I am 20 weeks and 2 days pregnant, but Baby Z is measuring 20 weeks and 5 days, which would give us a new due date of November 30th. However, since the change was just a few days, we're keeping our original due date of December 3rd.

Our doctor also looked at the umbilical cord, which does in fact have three vessels (some only have two, which can be some cause for concern) and my placenta really isn't posterior or anterior (back or front), it's basically on the top of my uterus! I knew I didn't have an anterior placenta since I've been feeling the baby move around so much for so long, but hearing that it was up so high was interesting.

Unfortunately we didn't get the greatest ultrasound pictures. Baby Z was hiding it's face so we didn't get a good profile shot, which I was really looking forward to. Oh well. One thing is for sure though, this baby can move! Aside from finding out the sex my favorite part was seeing our little one move around so much. I drank some orange juice right before the scan to ensure maximum movement, and oh goodness did it work!

Tonight Ant and I are going over to my dad's house for a mini gender reveal party. I can't wait to let everyone know! Here is how we are revealing the sex.

Lopsided cakes are the best kind of cake :)

I dyed the inside of the cake either blue or pink to signify if it's a boy or a girl! It's kind of cool, right? I made the letters using my Cricut and the font from the Birthday Cakes cartridge. And yes, I realize there's supposed to be an apostrophe in the "its," but I thought it would look silly on a stick of it's own, so I went for a grammatically incorrect cake. 

I think that's all I have to update on right now, but like I said, I will be revealing the sex probably later tonight or tomorrow, so stay tuned!

And, if you're a mom or mom-to-be check out the free samples section of Target.com today, free Huggies diapers! I don't know how many you get, but thought I'd pass along the info if anyone is interested.

The Name Game

Seeing as how our anatomy scan is TOMORROW, we need to get serious about naming this cantaloupe-sized baby in my tummy. Since I've convinced myself we're having a daughter, I've really only researched girls names. But, we do have some boy options on our short list as well.

I am proud to admit that I am a name snob. I give the side eye to almost every baby name I've heard this side of 2001. To get a Lindsey-approved baby name, I've compiled a list of things to avoid when choosing a name for your child.

1. I don't want to have to question the sex of your baby based on their name
     ex. Avery, Taylor, Riley, Hayden, Peyton
2. Replacing i's with y's in perfectly acceptable names
     ex. Abygail, Sophya, Ayden, Olyver
3. Misspelling a name so it "fits better" with the nickname you plan to use
     ex. Jaxson= Jax, Maddyson=Maddy
4. Using a name that is historically a surname
     ex. Cooper, Carter, Madison
5. Trendy -aden names
     ex. Jayden, Brayden, Caden
6. Made-up names
     ex. Brynlee, Nevaeh 
7. Names with horrible meanings
     ex. Grayson=son of the gray haired man, Mallory=unlucky


Keep in mind that the examples I gave are not an all inclusive list, there are many more baby names that could fit in to each of the categories (and many names can actually fit in to multiple categories). See? Name snob.

Don't think that I hate you or your baby if you give one of the aforementioned names to your child. I know many of them are quite popular and will probably have to face the reality that my daughter might very well date a Brayden or Jaxson (Lord, help me if she does!) one day. Naming your child is a very personal decision that shouldn't be taken lightly, and one that you should make with your spouse or partner. Don't let others (including me!) influence the name of your child, if you like it, go for it!

So, I bet some of you are wondering which names are on our list? 

Whoa now... not so fast! Our first major decision after finding out about our pregnancy was that we wouldn't be sharing the baby's name until he or she is born. Why, you ask? Well, there are a couple reasons. The first one is, admittedly, silly. I'm sure some of you remember the Friends episode where Rachel gives birth but can't think of a name for her daughter. Well, Monica reluctantly tells Rachel her favorite baby name, and yep, you guessed it, Rachel "steals" that name for her daughter (it's Emma, btw). Now, I know that no one really "owns" a name, but if I heard the name I picked out for my child on someone else's child, I'd be pissed. To make it even sillier, I don't even know anyone that close to me that is pregnant.

Any who... now to the real reason. As I mentioned above, I think naming a child is a very personal decision that only needs to be discussed between mom and dad. It's inevitable that not everyone will love our baby name choice. I don't want to hear from other people that it's "the worst name ever" or "how could you do that to a child." Obviously, if we've chosen it, we don't feel that way, and don't want to second guess our choice. My hope is that once the baby is here people will be too busy doting on our newborn to say much about the name we've chosen.

Now, since we're not divulging the actual name of our future child, I will shed some light on the style we are going for. Fortunately, Ant and I haven't bickered too much on names yet, as we seem to be on the same page most of the time. One thing I am kind of regretting now... naming my cat Pearl. I love the name Pearl and think it would make a great name for our potential daughter, but it would be too confusing having two Pearls in one house. So, Pearl is off the table. Without saying much more, Pearl is in the same vein of the other names we've been looking at.

We still have over five months to make our decision, and who knows, we might pick something completely different from the names we're currently considering. Two things are for sure though, the baby will have an easy to pronounce name with only one spelling and won't be one of the trendy names (no Addisons or Graysons here!).

Name stealer and Snoogle stealer!

So, stay tuned for our big name reveal, which won't come until at least November (hopefully!).

If you've read this entire post, congrats, you won! I reward you with this, a funny blog post about some terrible baby names (read the comments too, they have some more winners!). I must say, I echo her sentiments.

Old Wives Tales

In honor of our anatomy scan tomorrow (SQUEEEEE!) Ant and I thought it would be fun to do a blog post on some of the gender predicting Old Wives Tales. We didn't do all of them of course, but here is a selective list and our results.

1. Chinese Gender Chart
     The ancient Chinese came up with a chart that has been estimated to be 90% accurate in predicting the sex of your unborn child. For the most accurate results, you are supposed to use your lunar age (mine is 28 even though I'm only 26) along with the month of conception (March). Check out the chart here.
Results: BOY (my results are actually the same with my actual age and lunar age)

2. Heartbeat
     The OWT says that if your baby's heartbeat is over 140 beats per minute it  is a girl, and if it's under 140 bpm it's a boy. Since we decided against purchasing a home Doppler, we only have our doctor appointments to go off of, but both times we've checked the heartbeat has been 160+.
Results: GIRL

3. Shape of Belly
     This OWT claims that if you're carrying the baby high with a big belly you're having a girl, and if you're carrying lower with a smaller belly you've got a boy in there. I feel for being half way done my belly is relatively small. I have put on inches all over my midsection, but I still feel like I'm in that "too many donuts" phase. 
Results: BOY 

4. Acne
     If you've noticed more acne on your face and body while pregnant, you're having a girl, and if you've noticed less, you're having a boy. I've definitely noticed a significant decrease in acne since around 8 weeks (initially I did notice more). My dermatologist even commented on how clear my skin looked at my appointment back in June!
Results: BOY 

5. Clumsiness 
     If you've noticed that you've become more graceful with pregnancy, you're going to have a girl, and if you've suddenly become more clumsy, it's a boy. I had to consult with Ant on this one. His response was "Well, I've definitely heard you say 'oww' more these days." Haha, I guess I have been a little less coordinated as of late, I keep running in to doors and walls :). 
Results: BOY 

6. Morning Sickness
     A pregnancy with no morning sickness signifies you're carrying a boy, and one laden with morning sickness indicates a girl. Now, I definitely did suffer from morning sickness. Once or twice a day for three or four weeks. Is it weird that I don't think I suffered too terribly? But, I did have morning sickness. 
Results: GIRL 

7. Meat and Cheese Cravings
     If the mother-to-be craves meat and cheese during her pregnancy, count on a little boy. One of the first major cravings I had was for red meat. Even though I had given it up for a year, I gave in to my cravings and have indulged in beef on a few occasions since becoming pregnant (I fully intend to eliminate red meat from my diet again once I give birth). And during the height of my morning sickness one of the only foods that sounded good to me was Kraft Dinner, I went through boxes and boxes and boxes of the stuff! 
Results: BOY

8. Color of Urine
     Moms-to-be  with dull yellow urine will be Team Pink and bright yellow will be Team Blue. This might be TMI, but my urine really has been super bright yellow! Like, unnaturally neon-colored! I've heard it could also be from your prenatal vitamins, but even on the days I forget to take them I have neon pee. 
Results: BOY   

9. Ring Test

 
     Put a string through your wedding ring and hold it over your baby bump. If the ring swings side to side you're carrying a girl, and if it goes around in a circle, you're carrying a boy. We tried this OWT twice just to make sure, and both times it was clearly moving around in a circle.
Results: BOY

Final results: BOY: 7/GIRL: 2

So, all signs point to Team Blue! However, my mother's instinct still says Team Pink, so we'll just have to wait until tomorrow to know for sure. I don't know when I'll post the results here on my blog because we do want to tell our families first (I'm not sure how many family members read this, but just in case!).

If you're interested in trying any of the OWTs for yourself, His Boys Can Swim (nice name, huh?) has a pretty comprehensive list.

Holy Belly, Batman!

Well, I wouldn't say that I've "popped" per se, but I'm definitely getting bigger! Here is this weeks belly shot.

19 weeks 6 days

I can not believe that tomorrow I will be HALF WAY DONE with my pregnancy! And our big anatomy scan is on Monday! The main purpose of the anatomy scan is to measure all the limbs and organs to ensure they are developing properly, and a bonus of getting the scan done is being able to find out the sex of the baby! I am still rather confident that we will officially be joining Team Pink on Monday!

Tonight we just went to Qdoba for dinner. We had a BOGO free coupon, so for the two of us to eat we only had to pay $10, what a steal! After dinner we went to the Carters store for the first time to look around. OMG, I am in love with Carters! They have the most adorable baby clothes! I can't wait to go back and buy some nice things for our little guy or gal. While there I did manage to pick up a couple small things because I just couldn't resist.

We got the little mittens for $6 and the booties were on clearance for $5.59. We also went to Wal-Mart and saw that the Huggies wipes were on sale for about $2.50 for a 72 count box.

We're currently watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 on Blu-Ray; tomorrow night we're going to see Part 2. I can tell you now, I will be an absolute wreck after it's over! And how amazing is Fleur Delacour's wedding dress in Part 1?

I love the black phoenix details, just beautiful! 

In honor of our anatomy scan on Monday, I plan on doing some of the Old Wives Tales this weekend, so watch for a post on that, should be a fun one!

Try Some Thai

It's no secret I'm kind of a wimp when it comes to trying new foods. I don't like "weird" foods and prefer blander tastes. I like really good food, but at a fancy restaurant I usually order the simplest thing on the menu. While Ant isn't the most adventurous foodie I know, he's always willing to try new things.

Tonight Ant had a taste for Thai food. I'm sure it's no surprise that I've never tried Thai food. I was a little reluctant, but after looking over The Happy Elephant's menu, I decided to try the Garlic Lover with chicken. It was basically just chicken, broccoli and carrots in soy sauce (or something similar), but unfortunately I didn't taste much garlic. My meal also came with some white rice, so I ate it like stir fry (which you guys know I love!).

My chicken Garlic Lover with rice

Ant got an order of Pad Thai and chicken pot stickers. He liked the Pad Thai and loved the pot stickers.

Ant's chicken pot stickers and Pad Thai

While I don't think I would have ever ordered Thai food on my own, it was pretty good! And definitely not "weird." If I'm ever in the mood for stir fry I would definitely order from them again, a much better alternative to the Stouffer's meal we tried last week.

What foods were you hesitant to try and ended up loving?