Weeks 15+16

 

15 Weeks

16 weeks

How far along: 16 weeks, 6 days
Total Weight Gain: At my last appointment, I'm still a pound away from where I started. Catching up at least though!
Stretchmarks: Nothing new. Starting to get itchy though.
Sleep: Not as good. A lot of back pain.

Best Moment This Week: Best moment last week was getting to hear the heartbeat again at my OB appointment. It took the doctor a few minutes to find it, because the baby was moving around so much. You could hear the baby moving, even. So cute.
Cravings: Everything. I'm so hungry all the time!!
Movement: Possibly felt a little baby somersault while grocery shopping this past Thursday. Nothing definite yet, still.
Gender: My appointment is made for April 6!! I'll be almost 21 weeks. I was hoping for sooner. :(
Labor Signs: Still too early.
Belly Button: In.
What I Miss: Not being in pain all the time. Either my hips, ribs, or back hurts at all times lately!!
What I am Looking Forward to: Finding out the gender!!
Milestones:  Ultrasound scheduled!

Week 14

14 weeks

 

 

How far along: 14 weeks, 6 days
Total Weight Gain: I'll find out tomorrow.
Stretchmarks: One that I had before on my hip is getting red... maybe means its getting worse?
Sleep: Still good. Need my body pillow though.

Best Moment This Week: My also pregnant coworker finding out the sex of her baby. Not significant for me, exactly, but that jut means its that much closer to when I find out mine! (We're 3 weeks apart)
Cravings: Bugles. You know, those chips that are shaped like a horn? Haven't gotten my hands on any yet though. And coffee.. had a decaf Starbucks latte earlier. SO YUMMY. 
Movement: Maybe.
Gender: Don't know yet.
Labor Signs: Still too early.
Belly Button: In.
What I Miss: My fat pants being fat pants... now they're regular pants.
What I am Looking Forward to: Finding out the gender. Feeling some baby kicks. My appointment tomorrow!
Milestones:  Baby has doubled its weight from last week.

Week 13

 Starting to grow a baby bump!! 13 weeks, 2 days.

 

 

How far along: 13 weeks, 6 days
Total Weight Gain: Yeah, I still don't know. No scales in this house!
Stretchmarks: None that I didn't have before.
Sleep: Good. Sleeping really soundly lately, which means back and hip pain in the morning. :(

Best Moment This Week: Ehhh... this one is difficult. It's been a ROUGH week. Though, throwing up in my own hand will definitely be a memorable moment of the week.
Movement: Nothing definite. :(
Gender: Don't know yet!
Labor Signs: Still too early.
Belly Button: In. I have a really deep belly button (I think, anyways). Interesting to see when and if it pops out.
What I Miss: Being able to eat without wondering if I'll vomit it all up later.
What I am Looking Forward to: Finding out the gender. Feeling some baby kicks.
Milestones:  First trimester - COMPLETE!!

Mommy Blogger?

It's been a long time since I've blogged... and since the last time I was here, something MAJOR has happened.

I'm having a baby!

See?

Little raspberry growing in my uterus! (at 9 weeks, 2 days)

I'm currently 12 weeks, 5 days at the moment. I wish I had decided to start blogging much sooner so I could document this pregnancy more fully. There's already been so many things I don't want to forget. I'm sure I won't, but I know that life is about to get crazy crazy! 

Hoping I can remember at least to do this pregnancy survey week...

How far along: 12 weeks, 5 days
Total Weight Gain: I'm not sure. At my last appointment I was 5 lbs down. I've probably at least gained that back.
Stretchmarks: None yet! Bought some cocoa butter cream to start combating the inevitable. (My sister and my mom both got tons of them)
Sleep: Pretty good. I wake up once between 1am and 4am to go to the bathroom, and I'm able to go right back to sleep.

Best Moment This Week: Putting up a poll in the bathroom at work to see if people think my pregnant coworker and I are having boys or girls. Most people think mine is a girl. I hope so!!
Movement: Not sure... I think I might be starting to feel something in there, but everyone is telling me it's too early and it's just gas. I think I know my body though, and I think it's the baby! I won't say I'm officially feeling movement until I'm sure though.
Gender: Unknown. I have an appointment on the 27th, when I'll be 15 weeks, and I'm sure they'll put the order in for my anatomy ultrasound then.
Labor Signs: Way too early for that!
Belly Button: Still in.
What I Miss: Being able to eat anything I want. I did have some sushi last night... fully cooked shrimp sushi, so no one jump all over me!!
What I am Looking Forward to: Actually looking pregnant. Right now I mostly just look a little chubby.
Milestones:  Most of the critical body systems are full formed.

Bump Photo

I Get Really Domestic on the Weekends

This weekend has been QUITE the success.

Here's the run down.


Friday
CRAZY insane day at work. Especially the last half hour. We had all of the really tough kids left, my room wasn't cleaned yet - none of the rooms were clean yet. I go to clean my room I hear the other two teachers screaming to me from down the hallway... toilet is overflowing EVERYWHERE. Apparently I was the only one who knew how to shut the toilet off. Plus the plunger was in my room. So I took care of that, cleaned my room, and THEN had to clean up the massive flood in the other room. But before we could do that we had to remove a MASSIVE spider. Ugh. Half an hour after closing, we finally got out of there. Quick trip to the store for yarn supplies and finally home.
We made a trip to Trader Joe's the night before, so I was really craving the Chicken Shu Mai that we sampled and then bought. I decided that fried rice would be just the thing to go with it. Having never made fried rice before, it was going to be quite an adventure. But it was SO FREAKING GOOD. And I will share my recipe.

How to Make Fried Rice - Ashes Style

Ingredients
- White rice
- Green onions
- Bean sprouts
- Oil
- 2 eggs
- Soy sauce
- Marmite or Vegemite




* Cook or have six cups of rice. I made it up because I didn't have any on hand, but apparently leftover rice is also good.
* Chop up some green onions. Set aside.
* Lightly beat 2 eggs with some salt and pepper. Set aside.
* Heat up a frying pan with 2 tablespoons of oil. Once it's hot, add the eggs. Scramble 'em up. Don't overcook. Take them out and set them aside.
* Clean out your pan, and then put 2 tablespoons of oil in again. Add the rice. Stir fry it for a bit.
* Add a couple tablespoons of soy sauce. I didn't measure it. I just splashed it in until it was a color I liked.
* Add a little yeast extract, such as Vegemite or Marmite. (I used Marmite. We ran out of Vegemite and can only buy Marmite locally.) Again, I didn't measure. I was stirring with chop sticks, so I just dipped my sticks in and grabbed a little blob. Stir stir stir.
* Add the eggs back in. Add the green onions. Add some bean sprouts.
* EAT


Saturday

Oh yeah, baby. I found some Tim Tams! FINALLY. FINALLY!!!!
Danny and I had crazy plans to walk the rail trail from Easthampton to Northampton (about 7 miles) in 40 degree weather. I decided that I was going to do this, I needed a fleece vest. So we went to Old Navy, and since I'm a glutton for punishment, decided to make yet another stop to Target to hunt for the elusive Tim Tams. I wasn't getting my hopes up. Even though Target's website said they were in stock - they day I checked online, I also checked in stores and it said they were in stock and they definitely were not. So I checked the dollar racks for stickers for my preschoolers and Danny went to look for himself. Moments later he returned with two packs of TIM TAMS!!!! I literally squealed out loud. And then ran back for two more packs. Like just two would be enough. PAH. I would have bought ten if my budget had allowed for it.
Even though I had loads of Tim Tams, I still went for my walk. And it was lovely. But the Tim Tam Slams to be had when I got home were even lovelier.


Sunday
Domestic goddess day. I had the whole freaking apartment scrubbed and shining before noon. NOON. Floors, dusting, organizing. The works. Still kind of smells like Lysol in here.
After that I rewarded myself with hours upon hours of Sims 3, while knitting an amazingly long scarf made of lovely lovely lovely baby alpaca yarn. And then I baked like a billion pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for my preschoolers, while chatting on the phone with my Nana about affordable, tasty recipes. Check these babies out.

 

I'm going to have some happy kiddos on Tuesday. Let's just hope they actually last that long! They are yummmmmmy. No canned pumpkin up in here. This is still from the pumpkin we carved. So far I've made a double batch of pumpkin pie pudding, a loaf of pumpkin bread, a dozen pumpkin muffins (or was it two?) and then these cookies. And I still have another bag of it frozen. I don't know why I haven't been doing this for years. Fresh pumpkin is more fun and FAR more cost effective than canned pumpkin. And while I was skeptical at first, I do think it tastes better. 

How did you spend your weekend?

World Food Market

I think I like international food better than American food. My favorite cookie, by far, is a Tim Tam. (I'm still on the look out for them... It's October. Where are my Tim Tams?!) My regular grocery store carries Jammie Dodgers, which make their way into my cart fairly often. I'm even starting to learn how to cook some Asian meals. (Plus I make Indian food from a packet on a regular basis too)

Yesterday, I looked for Tim Tams at a different grocery store (I only KNOW that Target carries them... gotta keep looking at other places too though!) and they didn't have them. Big surprise. So I decided because we were kind of on the way towards Hadley (still way out of the way) we should go to this World Food Market I've driven past a few times.

Definitely a great idea!!! There's an Asian Food Market beside my work, but this place was like 10 times bigger. And so much awesome, fun stuff. Here is everything we bought.

Strawberry Wafers from Thailand (I think?)

These are actually your basic artificial strawberry flavored (but a nice, sweet flavor!) wafers. Nothing too special. Still tasty though.

Red Bean Cake

Danny's choice, but I had a taste of it. Very... interesting. It's definitely straight up beans inside of that thing. For me, the more savory taste of beans doesn't go so well with the sweet bun flavor. Also, the texture of the bun and thick, slippery, and well, kind of reminiscent of flesh. Then look at the shape of the bun... Well??? I'm not the only pervert out here, right???

Taro... things.

So these remind me of those Pirouette sticks, but I'm not sure what you would actually call them. Wafer tubes? Cookie straws? I don't have a clue. These are another Danny pick. He loves taro. I haven't actually tried these... I'm not a huge taro fan.

Mochi Ice Cream

OH. MY. GOD.

SO GOOD.

I don't really have anything other than that to say about mochi ice cream. Just go buy some, right now. I hear you can get this at Trader Joe's. DO IT NOW.

Hawaiian Coffee

Another Danny choice. I should have gotten some more things for just myself. Danny thought this tasted just like iced coffee we make at home, but I thought it was delightful. :)

Do you have a World Food Market nearby? What's your favorite thing to buy there?

What I've Been Up To

I miss blogging. I really do. I miss writing, and I miss talking about my life.

So what have I been up to lately? Let me shoooow you!!

I moved into my new apartment.

 

And I've been enjoying it to the fullest. I basically spend all of my free time at home doing this...

 

and this...

And really just enjoying life. I'm so much happier in my new job and my new apartment. I'm making sales in my Etsy store left and right, which makes me feel so fulfilled and proud of myself. It's always been a hobby I've been really into, and being able to share that with other people (for a profit!! That I put right back into crafting :-D) just makes me happy.

I have some photos and stories about road trips and shopping trips to share... probably tomorrow. :)