St. Patrick!

This year I cooked a St. Patrick's Day dinner. It turned out perfectly!

Menu
Corned Beef
Cabbage
Mashed potatoes
Carrots

Confession: Due to a series of events, I was unable to cook this meal on March 17th. Preston's brother came over to enjoy the meal with us and I didn't want to freak him out with green mashed potatoes and milk so I left the food in it's original color. Next year I will be sure to go all out on the festive colors!

Week: 28

Cravings of The Week: Strawberry's and lemonade

What a month!

So, I guess I failed at updating my picture within a day or two of my last post... oops.

This last month has been extremely busy for Preston and I. Don't ask me what we have been busy with because I have no idea but some exciting things have happened. First off, I've made it to week 26!!! WOW!! What an accomplishment! And I now I'm counting down the days on one hand for the THIRD TRIMESTER to begin!!! Next Monday (4 days away) marks the beginning of my third trimester. I cannot believe how quickly time flies yet, June 13th still seems so far away.

(This picture was taken at 25 weeks and 5 days... 10 mins after I woke up. Excuse the tired face)

We went in to see a specialist last Monday (start of week 25) because our Peanut has some big kidneys for his age and my OB wanted to double check to make sure it wasn't anything serious. The specialist gave us a bunch of statistics on what large kidneys could mean but both her and my OB think there is nothing to worry about. Peanut is doing just fine :D At my specialist appointment they weighed baby Peanut and he came in at a whopping 1lb 14oz which is apparently the average weight of a baby at 27 weeks. Our boy is huge!! (I'm scared for delivery. Eek!). Peanut moves a TON! I know everyone says that about the baby inside of them but seriously, this guy is active. Sometimes it creeps me out to watch my belly doing the wave in directions it shouldn't. The specialist even mentioned it and jumped the first time she saw my belly move with her eyes. Maybe I'm eating too many treats??

As for me, I'm still doing great! I'm not running any more due to my little scare on Valentines Day but I am walking and lifting light weights. If I feel comfortable, I may start running a little bit here in the next week or two. I don't have much pain. Sometimes my lower back hurts but that happened before I was pregnant so I don't think it's because of the pregnancy. It's our dang couch and love sac. Uncomfortable! I can't sleep on my belly any more which really sucks. I think that is the biggest down fall of my pregnancy but I have gotten quite used to it. When I first started sleeping only on my sides, my right leg would always fall asleep no matter which side I laid on but I have now started putting a small pillow between my legs and that has helped a lot. I've gained 14 pounds which scares the crap out of me but apparently it's just below average so I guess I'm doing alright. I know most women get excited to ware maternity clothes because they make pregnant belly's look so darn cute but I actually like the look of my naked belly more than my clothed. Too much info? Probably.

Preston is doing great! He is so stinking cute with my pregnancy these days. He falls asleep with his hand on my belly and I love it. Preston always talks to baby Peanut and calls him by name. I can tell Preston is getting anxious to meet his boy and I'm getting anxious to see him in Daddy mode. He always talks about the fun things he wants to do with his son. First on the list is build a tree fort. We've got some awesome pine trees in the back yard that are dieing to have a fort built on them. Preston is going to be such a great Dad!

Aside from our expecting real human baby, we welcomed another sort of baby into our home this last week. Right now we don't have a name for her and unfortunately I cannot upload her first picture to my computer because I took it with my point and shoot camera that I've lost the USB cord to but here are some internet shots of her. She brought a few friends along as well... :)

I love our new addition!! I started booking a bunch of weddings so I decided to throw down on the Nikon D700 FX-format, a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens and an SB-900 speedlight. I'm looking forward to all the fun I'm going to have with this new camera. I'm also looking forward to buying more lenses for her :D

Last week, with all of that warm weather we had, we put our hands to good use and started to prepare our garden area for it's first official season of production. Here is our progress so far...

Before

During

And After will have to come soon....

It's difficult to tell in these pictures but I worked on trimming and cleaning up our grapes as well. They had grown threw and up to the top of our apricot tree. It was such a mess! I'm looking forward to getting our garden tilled and planted in the next few months :D

Week: 26 and three days
Cravings of the Week: Lemonade and treats

Shot by Cupids Arrow?

Not unless Cupid is a doctor and his arrow is a needle.

We had a bit of a scare yesterday, on Valentines day of all days. To make a long story short, at around 11:30am I started cramping and at around 6pm I started bleeding. Not a good sign if you're over 20 weeks pregnant. It wasn't horrible bleeding but definitely obvious, bright red. I was terrified, or course, that something was wrong with my baby. So terrified that I was shaking and due to rush hour it took us 20 minutes to get to the hospital. On top of that we had to register when we first got to the hospital which is something that is usually done a few weeks before your due date so that you don't have to wait and do it on the day you are rushing into the hospital with a baby's head poking out of you. The good news is, apparently Valentines day is a great day to have an emergency. There was no one there so we didn't have to wait in any lines and we were seen immediately.

As soon as we got up to Labor and Delivery the nurses hooked me up to a machine that monitored the babies heart rate and any contractions I might have had. It took the nurse a minute to find the heart rate which scared me to death but was relieved when she found it and I was having contractions about every two and half minuets. I now know what contractions feel like which I am excited about but of course they weren't nearly as intense as they will be when I go into labor. After hooking me up to that machine and asking a whole bunch of questions, the nurse then poked me with a needle to draw my blood but missed the vein and had to re-poke me. To her surprise she got the vein but went right through it. She felt horrible and said she had never done that before so to put me at ease she brought in her friend to poke me and thankfully she got it on her first try. Did I mention I hate needles? No? Well I do. I hated it but luckily it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

They gave me another ultrasound which was the highlight of our day because we got to see our baby boy again. He's doing great! The doctors don't know why I was bleeding but they have put me on strict bed rest for the next two days with bathroom privileges every two hours and I can't work out for the next two weeks. Before we left the hospital the doctor gave me a shot which made me shake violently and my heart race for a few hours in hopes that it would stop my contractions and cramping. It did.

So now I am sitting in bed. Bored. Feeling lazy and writing a blog post about our Valentines day which includes no pictures. Lame. But our baby is doing just fine and I've stopped bleeding and cramping. I plan on writing up another post in the next day or two with a picture of my ever growing belly. Hurray for 23 weeks!

Week: 23 and one day
Cravings of the Week: Everything!
I am so hungry I could eat my kitchen cabinets!

It's Just a Bee Sting ...

... A very, very large bee sting!!

So three days ago Preston took a picture for a belly update but it was right after I had worked out, I had no makeup on and I didn't realize how bad my hair looked. I didn't feel comfortable letting the whole world see that photo so today I asked Preston to take another one. Okay, so you see the photo a couple of posts down at 19 weeks? Well, my belly looked exactly like that in the picture that was taken three days ago. Not exaggerating one bit. And today I look like this....

I'm pretty sure I have officially "popped"!

Week: 22
Cravings of the Week: Raspberry Lemonade
(I think I officially have a real pregnancy craving!)

Peanut's Debut

We got our official 20 week (even though I'm almost 22 weeks) ultrasound done today. It was so awesome! The technician gave us a 15 min video on DVD of our session plus a bunch of pictures. She even gave us a few 3D pictures for free! She said she liked us so much and thought we were so cute that she wanted to throw them in. Hurray for us! We're cute! haha. I guess any doctors office you go to will charge for 3D pictures. At least that's what I've heard. The pictures are pretty cool.

I'm only going to post a few of my most favorite pictures because there are just way too many photos to post.

Our little Peanut is healthy and strong. I guess for his age he is two days ahead of schedule which would move, for the time being, my due date to June 11th. About a month ago I had a dream that my baby was born two days early, on June 11th. Crazy! I guess we'll see if my dream comes true.

During the ultrasound, Peanut yawned for us and we got it on video. It was so adorable!! Our little guy is so stinking cute and I can't WAIT to meet him!!

I've been meaning to take another picture of my belly so I could show all of you how I'm progressing but I keep putting it off. Maybe tomorrow I'll have Preston snap one and I'll post again. I'm really seeing a difference and I really show when I wear my baby doll dresses. I had someone ask me at church on Sunday if I was pregnant. Yay! I'm so glad she noticed but she is a brave women to ask that sort of question. Thank goodness she was right.

Peanuts Big Debut!!





I love his little feet and long legs!
I think he's going to have Preston's sexy long legs :D

Week: 21 and four days
Cravings of the Week: Raspberry Lemonade
(especially the Raspberry Lemonade Freeze at Olive Garden)

OOOOhhh We're Half Way There ooooOOOO...

Yes, I'm singing Bon jovi! Today marks the half way point of my pregnancy. 20 weeks along and I can see my baby belly growing more and more everyday.

I can't believe Preston and I just found out 4 short months ago that we were expecting. Time has flown since then but it hasn't flown fast enough. We are both so anxious to hold our little guy. We have a lot to do to prepare for him so I guess it's a good thing we have more time.

I'm so lucky to have so many people in my life to prepare me for becoming a mother. A special shout out to Amanda Nilsson (my cousin-in-law) who is an amazing Douala and has studied and knows so much about parenting. She is an incredible mother and I'm so lucky to have her by my side to guide me during this exciting time in my life. My own mother and sister-in-laws have also been giving me wonderful, helpful advice that I can't wait to put into action. Preston and I are so blessed to have our family and friends. I couldn't ask for more loving and inspiring people in my life.

This week Peanut is supposed to be six and a half inches long from head to toe. That's the size of a cantaloupe! It doesn't look like something the size of a cantaloupe is in me. He's kicking ALL the time. I love not just feeling my tummy but watching it too. It looks so weird when he kicks! Peanut is also tasting the things I eat now which means I'm forcing myself, whenever I have the chance, to eat tomatoes. I HATE tomatoes but I really want my baby to like them.I haven't been experiencing any pain which is wonderful and I attribute that to my daily work out. Since I've drastically reduced the distance of running I do down to one mile, I've decided to run five days a week instead of just three. Okay, okay so I usually end up going only four days a week but I need to tell myself that I go five that way, hopefully one day, I might get up the stamina to actually do five. Preston has helped me with a little weight lifting as well. Doctors suggest not to start weightlifting during pregnancy but I've got to build a little muscle in these weak arms before my baby arrives. It's mild lifting and I don't feel like it's strenuous but I also feel like I'm getting a descent workout in my arms. It's great! I want to encourage all of those who are pregnant to do some form of exercise. From my own experience I don't think I would be feeling as great as I am without it. Hurray for staying healthy!

Week: 20!!
Cravings of the Week: Raspberry Lemonade

How Well Do You See Color?

Did you know that 1 out of 255 women and 1 out of 12 men have some form of color vision deficiency? Does this prove that women see color more accurately then men do? I think so! ;)

X-Right recently put out a test online that you can take to check how well you see color. If you're a photographer, designer or just curious as to how well you see color, take this test! All you do is arrange tiles in hue order. Here is the link to the X-Right Online Color Challenge.


I quickly arranged the tiles and only missed 4. Not bad for being legally blind in one eye. I may try it later with my larger monitor which has more accurate coloring and take my time with it.