Update

I'm not even going to try to explain a 14 week lapse. Things happened. Here are some pictures.

December 9th



January 9th





There are still 11-13 days till my due date (the 22nd or 24th depending on which doctor I listen to)so that means my belly is going to continue to grow. I'm not sure how the hell I'm going to continue walking if this baby gets any bigger!

29 weeks and 4 days

Almost at week 30, scary!

We went for our hospital tour today and got to see where baby will be entering the world. Tripp is totally more comfortable now that he's seen the labor and delivery room and met some of the staff. I however am not so thrilled. I want to do a water birth and the hospital is having lots of work done and was supposed to have three birthing tubs in place by now. Well they don't have any! They have one portable tub and it's available on a first come, first served basis. So, if someone happens to be using it when I go into labor, I'm out of luck. Unless they get one or two more in place by the end of January. Otherwise the new maternity wing at the hospital is great.

Here's the belly as of today. Baby should weigh about 2 1/2 pounds now! I have two and a half months till the big day and baby makes his/her debut. Can't wait!




Well...sort of...I can probably wait for the whole delivery thing. If baby could just be shipped to our apartment then I'd be REALLY excited about baby's arrival.

Baby party!

Okay, I say that posting about an event one week from when it happened isn't bad at all (unless of course you're a journalist, then you're out of a job). So last Saturday we had our first "shower" but I prefer to call it a baby party.


We decided to throw a little party to celebrate the coming baby and get everyone together for one last time before the baby gets here. It was fantastic! For me, anyway. All of the Longman crew, plus the Brooklyn crew made their way from the city all the way to the Jersey 'burbs in Montclair. I know it's pretty lame to have to go to Port Authority on a Saturday and take a bus to Jersey, so Tripp and I were really thrilled that everyone came! It meant a lot to me and I'm planning to repay the favor once baby gets here. He or she will be gracing these folks with his/her presence at some parties/showers/BBQs for sure.


There was yummy food to be had, though definitely more pumpkin than is ever really necessary. In the end though, I think all the pumpkin was a good thing since it's chock full of vitamin A and that's good for everyone! So here are some of the recipes we used:

Turkey Pumpkin Chili
1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves minced garlic
1 lb. ground turkey
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
1 can kidney beans
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 1/2 tbsps chili powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

(Optional)
1 cup chopped bell peppers
Shredded cheddar Cheese
Sour cream

Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4-6 hours.


Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp milk
1 tbspn vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl stir together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in to dry ingredients. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.

2. Add vanilla and chocolate chips.

3. Drop by the spoonful on greased cookie sheets and bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes or until light brown and firm.



































At the end of the night, the last of us still standing played Scrabble to the death. And then there was some daddy and baby bonding.

Time to get learned real quick

Tripp, my wonderful, media savvy husband found this website that is absolutely fantastic. It's called Glassbooth Election 2008. It's designed to tell you what candidates you most closely align with based on your views and opinions on certain political hot topics.

It takes about five minutes, you respond to a few questions about political issues and how you feel about them, the site then compares all of your responses to those of all the candidates running, and I mean all the candidates, not just Clinton, Obama, and Giuliani. The site will list the three candidates your views most closely align with and then gives you a brief description of the candidates. It even explains how your view points differ from the candidates you align with! It does all the research for you! The greatest thing since chocolate and cappuccinos. Really.

For fun Tripp answered the questions a second time but chose the most conservative, redneck, right wing answers he could and got his top three candidates, Mitt Romney being one of them. I thought that guy was Mormon, not evil? Take the quiz see who you line up with, get yourself edumacated, and post a comment with your top 3 candidates! I won't hold it against you if Mitt Romney is one of them.

Babies and Free Rice

Update - I am a bad, bad blogger. No updates for all this time! It's not that I don't have things to say, those of you who know me in the real world know that I'm full of opinions and have no qualms spouting them at unwilling listeners.

It's just, I get busy, and lazy.

So here's a baby update: I had my latest appointment on Monday, gained 3 more pounds, for a total of 14lbs. so far. Not too bad. Belly is measuring right on target and baby's heart sounds good. Baby happens to be laying across my tummy from left to right and when he or she kicks it now feels like the baby is pretty much in my back. I would very much like for baby to rotate and stop kicking me in the ribs, but I, for once, don't get to be the boss. A rare situation indeed. Also, I didn't quite fail my glucose test, but I didn't pass with flying colors either. Any score over 130 means you fail the test, and I got a 130 exactly. Soooo, I'm supposed to avoid simple sugars, no white bread, white rice, or fruit juice. I have a feeling I may have scored so high because of my new found love of grapefruit juice.

On to other news, my friend T-Funk sent me the link to the FreeRice website which I had never heard of but absolutely love! I'm now officially an addict. I'm a vocabulary learning machine, and my addiction happens to send rice to impoverished nations. It's better than my caffeine habit, that just sends money to a bunch of Starbucks CEOs. And they are so not starving. Go forth and improve your vocabulary and help alleviate hunger!

Italia Vacanza!

We put our deposit down on the villa we'll be staying in when we go to Venice/Florence/Tuscany! I'm so excited but I'm gonna need to calm down seeing as the trip isn't for another year (December 08) it could seriously ware a sister out to be perpetually excited for a year. We'll be going with 8 other people that we don't know very well which means things could get exciting. I'm mostly looking forward to the food and drink, and I don't think any potentially weird folks can really ruin a true Italian meal. Yum!

Depending on the temperament on the of the little monkey baby he or she may be visiting Italy too. If baby takes after mother and is a cranky whiny brat baby will probably stay with one of his/her many, many grandmas. If, however, baby is more content and peaceful like the old man, the little monkey will be coming with us. A world traveler before he/she is even one! My baby is going to be the coolest. Seriously.

The only issue, is that if baby does come with us I'll have to get the baby vaccinated before we go. Our plan has been to wait till baby is about two to start getting the vaccines done to avoid any potential links between vaccines and autism. I know it hasn't been 100% proven that vaccines cause autism, but I figured it can't hurt to wait till baby is a little bigger. Buuuuut, if we go to Europe it will be safer for baby to get shots, so, it's a compromise we'll have to consider. We shall see!

Here is the awesome
villa we'll be staying in.



Mmmmmm, Italy.

Wheeeeew...

We've been pretty busy lately, hence the lack of posts. It turns out there are lots and lots of things that have to be taken care of when you're having a baby. And they have to be done months before baby even gets here! Who'dve thunk?

So, we sort of figured out what we're going to do after baby gets here. I'm going to go back to work and work from home two days a week, baby will stay with Granny Cathy the other three days a week (since she gets to work from home as often as she'd like). This is a huge relief because I wasn't having a lot of luck finding nanny/sitter options that are affordable and I don't like the idea of dropping off a teeny tiny infant at a daycare center. Having Granny Cathy is a huuuuge relief. We were debating having me stay home during the day and just freelance and maybe work two evenings a week or so to cover my school loan payments (damn them to hell) and supplement Tripp's income. Then I got kind of bummed about us having to be pretty poor for the duration of my stay-at-home-mom stint. Now I'll get to keep working, spend some time with baby while I work from home and have a family member watch baby the rest of the week. Totally a great situation for us! We're super fortunate that Granny Cathy can and wants to do this for us.

Then we decided that it would probably be a good idea to get a car but we haven't come to terms on how to buy a car. Tripp wants to lease a new car. I'm completely anti-leasing, I want to buy a used car outright. I'm leaning toward buying a reliable (oh my god, boring word that parental type people use!!!!!!!) car, like a Honda or something for a few grand and then not having to make monthly payments. But we are really unsure of what the best option is. We need a car to use in the evening for grocery shopping/visits to the pediatrician and then for the weekends. During the week we're at work all day and won't need to use a car much. Anybody have any opinions on this? Two of my friends have leased cars, one bought a car new and paid it off after a few years, and others have bought used cars. I still think I'm right (big surprise) about buying a used car outright considering how we plan to use the car. Tripp doesn't want to have to worry about buying a total lemon and getting screwed with tons of expensive visits to the mechanic. I would very much welcome any opinions, advice, real life stories that might shed some light on this for us...

Oh yeah, and we ordered baby furniture and got some paint samples! We've got a few more weeks till the furniture gets here, but once it does I think it will actually dawn on us that we are going to bring a real live human being home with us from the hospital. Holy crap. I mean, we sort of know it because we can watch my belly for a half hour and see baby trying to punch and kick his/her way out of my tummy, so we know it's a real living thing, but once the room is all set up I think we're going to freak out, just a little bit. Or a lot.

Also signed up for pre-natal yoga to get my my pelvis in shape. Gotta work that bad boy out for the big event this winter. It's a really good class and I get to meet lots of other pregnant women, which is nice since I'm pretty much a pioneer among my friends. None of my lady friends will be bringing forth life for at least a good 5 years or so they say. The only problem is that most of the women in my yoga class are a good 5 years older than me! I think I've tricked a few of the women into thinking I'm mature though, so they talk to me. And found a "holistic" hippy-dippy birthing class to take this winter to prep for the main event too - yoga to prepare the pelivs, class to prepare the brain. Hopefully between the yoga and the class I'll be able to make it through labor without an epidural and without saying anything too evil to Tripp.

Finally, been thinking about the upcoming holiday season, I know it's a few months away, but we've got every weekend till December booked so we have to start planning now before it just creeps up on us. Our plan this year is to make the holidays more enjoyable for us and our loved ones and less about spending a million dollars on enough presents to show our friends and family how much we love them. We're going to try to follow much of what is included in the Simplify the Holidays guide fromNew American Dream . We haven't figured out exactly what we're going to do yet, but I'll definitely post once we have a plan. I do know that we're planning to email this guide to our closest friends and family so that they hopefully understand why we will do whatever we choose to do for the holidays, even if they don't necessarily agree with our beliefs. Check out the guide, they have lots of great tips and ideas about how to spend a more economically and environmentally friendly holiday season with your loved ones.

Oh and here are the latest pictures of the belly at 25 weeks:




And here is Charlie, our fat fur baby, just cause she's so cute I could eat her face.

Mmmmmeat loaf...

dweebgirl (4:11:02 PM): you gonna have to work late today?
tripp23 (4:11:06 PM): hell no
dweebgirl (4:11:13 PM): really?!
tripp23 (4:11:14 PM): (i hope)
dweebgirl (4:11:34 PM): don't work late
dweebgirl (4:11:38 PM): come home to me and my meat loaf
dweebgirl (4:11:45 PM): and stuff that goes with meat loaf
tripp23 (4:12:29 PM): ok - but you have to promise to never say "come home to me and my meatloaf" again. OK?
tripp23 (4:12:37 PM): ever.

Cup O' Baby

Sooo, we've been kind of busy. Really busy, actually. I have about 5 unreturned phone calls (plus the unreturned work phone calls!), and a dishwasher full of dishes to be unloaded and a list of grownup type things I'm supposed to do but haven't had the time (or will) to do. But I need to post the darn pictures from our ultrasound. 'Specially since this was the big one, though we're still on the yellow team.

Here's a close up of baby's face.



And here's a close up of baby's face as well as baby's brain. The ultrasound tech. has this little switch that can add or remove baby's skin layer so you can see the organs underneath, for medical purposes, not just to be weird. So the upper right side of baby's head really is missing, and that really is his/her brain showing. It's a big one! Baby takes after mommy.



And lastly, here's a picture of baby's foot. Baby was in the standing position when we went to the ultrasound, so he or she is literally standing on my bladder and using his or her head to push on my stomach, causing me much heartburn. That's love.



At the time of the ultrasound, about a week and a half ago, baby was about 7 inches tall (standing up!) and 8 ounces. That's a cup of baby. But by the middle of this week baby will be almost double that size, 14-16 ounces! Which makes me feel better about always wanting to eat, you can't double in size without plenty of carbs! Geez. I really do need to eat the bagels, you see?

And, for the first time, I am wearing official maternity pants. They're actually too big and keep falling down, but my regular pants are too small, so I opted for feeling skinny rather than like a sausage. Which reminds me! I'd only gained 1 pound at my ultrasound appointment! That's 5 in total, so I'm not freaking out quite so much anymore. Supposedly I'm going to gain about a pound a week now, we'll see.

Last update, last weekend I finally felt the baby kick (or somersault?) for the first time! And I've been feeling baby shake and shimmy ever since. Especially if I lay down. For some reason laying down makes baby want to mosh? Last night baby kicked so hard Tripp thought I was having a contraction - it was awesome. I'll have a rant on maternity clothes shortly. Maybe tomorrow? There are many aspects to rant about.

Elise and other people

Sunday we had my dad, step-mom Liz, and lil' sister Elise over for brunch. They hadn't seen our apartment so this was their first time visiting us while we live in a real apartment, not a little hobbit hole.

Tripp was the chef. He whipped up his world-famous grits (famous in our world at least) along with some yummy sausage and some of my left over sweet potato cornbread and bosc pears. Tripp's grits include sauteed onion and garlic and I don't know what else. We have this unspoke rule that whenever one of us is cooking, the other must remain far, far away from the kitchen. We both think we're right about everything and that our way of doing things is better. This can become problematic, so I'm not exactly sure what all he does to his grits, but he makes them awesome. Plus you sprinkle on some Monterrey jack cheese......the memory is so good, I shiver when I think about it.

Safe to say Elise, being 3, was very entertaining and way cooler than the rest of us.



Here Elise shows us just how awesome our floors are - you can easily glide across the floor by holding onto the pant leg of any unsuspecting adult.



After stuffing our faces we made our way to our local playground so we could work off some of the extra grits we ate.













The reason Elise is so f'ing cute is because she took after me, her big sister. I mean, it's obvious. We even have the same eyeballs!!






Here's one more just cause her face makes me want to eat her up with frosting on her!

Don't mess with pregnant women, they will kill you.

Okay, so my ultrasound was scheduled for Tuesday (yesterday) morning at 8:15. Monday morning the receptionist from the doctor's office left me a voicemail saying that they had to cancel my appointment because the doctor wouldn't be in.

Umm, hello? I scheduled this appointment over a month ago! What the F do you mean the doctor won't be in?! Now, some of you may not realize why it is sooooo wrong, and fairly dangerous, to cancel this appointment on a pregnant woman: the ultrasound in the second trimester is the "BIG" ultrasound, the most important one of all 9 months, the one everyone waits for! For most people this is when they find out the sex of the baby. Despite not wanting to know the sex of the baby, I still want to see the baby (everyone minute of every hour of every...) so these mother fer's must be out of their mother f'ing minds to cancel the day before. Seriously. I almost committed acts of violence.

This is not my regular midwife, I go to another doctor in the city for my ultrasounds so Tripp can be there. This is some fancy pants doctor uptown. AND at my last ultrasound there was no doctor! There was just a technician, so who the hell cares if my doctor wants to go play golf somewhere, give me a god damned technician and show me the baby! Hormones people, don't forget about the hormones. Steam was coming out of every orifice on my head for about 45 minutes. Then I was finally able to reach the evil hag receptionist and reschedule for this Friday at 10. After the phone call my hormones made a left turn somewhere and I had to go to the bathroom three times because I was on the verge of hysterical crying.

By 3pm I was so emotionally drained and tired I could barely keep my head up straight. I'll have baby pictures to post on Friday - lucky for that receptionist I didn't take matters into my own hands and pay her a special visit on Monday that would not have ended well. There would have been yelling, and crying, and probably breaking of things.

Dinner party!

Claudia finally ended months of boyfriend secrecy and brought Jude around for dinner at our new place. She was really afraid that Jude would be so utterly terrified of Tripp and I (we are rather frightening, aren't we?) that he would run away and never call her again. Finally I told her that if she didn't bring him around I would stalk him at work and introduce myself, which would be scarier. So I, along with my lovely assistant Claudia, whipped up some Southern style Man Food, and...um...Tiramisu. Not really manly but good.



Le Menu:

Sweet Potato Corn Bread
A lot of servings (recipe works well if you half the ingredients, too)









2 cups flour
2 cups cornmeal
1/2 cup sugar (add a bit more if you like sweeter corn bread)
7 tsp. baking powder (I use 6 because I can sometimes taste the baking powder when I use 7)
2 tsp. salt
4 eggs, beaten
1/3 vegetable oil
3/4 cup milk
2 1/2 cups of cooked, mashed sweet potato

Preheat oven to 425. In a large bowl combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In separate bowl combine eggs, milk, oil, and sweet potato. Pour wet mixture into the flour mixture. Combine until moist. Pour into a greased pan (13x9). Bake for 30-35 minutes.

Broccoli with Lemon Butter Sauce
4 servings

16 oz. package frozen broccoli
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup water
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste
Grated Parmesan (optional)

Bring frozen broccoli to a quick boil then let simmer until tender. Heat butter/margarine, water, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper and let simmer. When broccoli is finished pour sauce over broccoli, sprinkle with Parmesan over broccoli before serving.

Southern Red Rice
6 servings

1 cup white rice
1 16 0z. can of crushed tomatoes
1/4 lb. Jimmy Dean spicy breakfast sausage (the kind in a tube)
1/2 small onion, diced
1 tbsp. butter
1 cup chicken stock
1 1/2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

Melt butter in 2 quart sauce pan, add onion and sausage, cook until onion is translucent. Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, stirring. Turn heat to low, simmer, covered until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender (about 25 minutes).

Herbal Chicken
4 servings

1 tbsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. parsley
1/4 tsp. thyme
1/4 tsp. dried rosemary
1/8 tsp. salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil to coat chicken
6 chicken cutlets

Combine all spices. Coat chicken cutlets with olive oil, rub with minced garlic and herb mixture. Let sit for about 20 minutes (longer if you can). Saute until lightly browned and no longer pink inside (5-7 minutes on each side).




Tiramisu
1lb Mascarpone cheese (if you are cooking for a pregnant lady Bellagioso makes pasteurised cheese)
6 eggs (pasteurised if you like your friends)
3 tbsp. sugar
20 lady fingers
8oz. espresso
3 oz. brandy
cocoa powder or grated semi-sweet chocolate - garnish

**Using pasteurised eggs reduce the risk of food poisoning because eggs are raw!

In a shallow dish combine espresso and two shots of brandy (you can add a tsp of sugar if you like)
Separate egg whites and yolks.
In a small bowl, beat egg whites to stiff peaks.
In a large bowl whip eggs, sugar until white and fluffy. Add mascarpone and shot of brandy. Mix until combined and fluffy.

Dip lady finger (carefully) in espresso. Lay a layer of lady finger at the bottom of dish. Cover with 1/2 mascarpone mixture. Lay another layer of lady finger (dipped in espresso) cover with remaining cheese mixture. Sprinkle powder chocolate or grated chocolate to cover entire surface. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. (Kept covered and refrigerated will be good for 5 to 7 days).










We are all fat and happy. The men folk are drinking beer and watching football, yeah, as if football is half as interesting as Claudia and I. I mean, really. And Claudia brought me my own special pregnant lady six, of orange and pineapple soda. Mmmmm.

18 1/2 weeks!!!

For all you baby-free people, that means 4 1/2 months pregnant. That's, like, half way done! Which is crazy, I can't believe that after this point it's nearly over. I don't even look pregnant yet!

Here's the latest visual:





There isn't a huge difference between week 14 and week 18, but there's definitely a little somethin'. My mom said she popped at 5 months, so I'm hoping that in the next two weeks there will be definite baby stomach visibility. This is definitely the only time in my life that I've been hoping and looking for a bigger belly. But I mean, geez, who wants to be pregnant without the belly? The only way anyone knows I'm pregnant is if I point it out! That's no fun. I want "Oohs" and "Aahs" and smiles from old ladies. Is that too much to ask?

There has also been a noticeable rounding of other areas that I'm not very pleased about, see exhibit C:



I'm pretty sure the baby is nowhere near this part of my anatomy, so why the rounding? It's probably the ramen noodles. Lots of them. Just sitting there on my legs. Damn it.

We go for the big ultrasound on Tuesday morning at 8:15. Hopefully the technician will make sure we don't see the little wee parts between the baby's legs, cause that would totally piss me off! I need to not know the sex of the baby, it's going to be the thing that spurs me on through labor - I'm impatient so I know I'll get that kid out fast to find out what we're having. If we know the sex of the baby, well then all I'll think about is how scary it is to push 6-8lbs of human through such a small space and I'll just try to avoid labor. It's just best for all parties if we don't know. Which is totally driving my mother insane.

First she thought it was a boy because the heartbeat was sort of calm at our first visit. Then at the next visit the baby's heartbeat was really fast and frantic sounding, so she was sure it was a girl. So I might be having both...oy.

I'll have new ultrasound pics either way on Tuesday, yay baby!

Tan boobies

We came home from St. Martin yesterday evening. I have to say, it suited me just fine to have no access to a cell phone or computer for an entire week. Though when I checked my email last night it took me an hour and a half to sort through everything. That's the bad part about vacations.

This vacation was the first and last of its kind - Tripp and I, plus my mom, Cathy, Phyliss, and two family friends. Spending 8 days with your family members, even if it's on a beautiful tropical island, is just not fun. By day 5 everyone was ready to go home. It wasn't all bad though. From now on we'll stick to a friends only policy.


Tripp and I visited 5 different beaches, Dawn Beach, Baie Rouge, Orient Baie, Friar's Bay, and Pinel Island. Orient Baie, Baie Rouge, and Pinel Island were amazing! Really good snorkeling at Baie Rouge, and the water is gorgeous. Well, all of the water on the island is gorgeous. . . Orient Baie is the ritzy frou frou beach, lots of naked boobies and extremely tan old French guys in very little bikinis. Pinel Island requires a ten minute ferry ride and it is definitely worth the $6 round trip. The beach on the island is somewhat small, you can rent chairs and umbrellas, there's a restaurant and a bar on the island, no other trappings of the land locked world though - not even electricity. The water on the beach is completely still, no waves, and doesn't get more than waist deep. The main recreation on the beach is to buy a large alcoholic beverage, sit in the shallow water, and get drunk and tan. Very nice.

When we first got to the island I gave Tripp a quota, he could only see 20 sets of boobies, penalty free. That number totally went out the window, especially once we got to Orient Baie. So to make it some what fair I got to go topless too, and give the ladies some time in the sun. They enjoyed it thoroughly. As did Tripp.

Though the island's motto is "The friendly island" the majority of people were not entirely friendly. The island's wildlife, however, is very cordial. While driving down any given road you are likely to be greeted by many friendly goats, lots of cows, some horses, several dogs, a few roosters, and of course, some pigs. They just roam about freely, greeting tourists and happily accepting any leftovers you might be willing to spare. My mom almost came home with a puppy she met in Phillipsburg. Tripp and I almost came home with a baby goat, they are way cute. We were going to name it Boris, but then found out there's a good deal of red tape when it comes to flying live stock on international airlines. Ugh.




Hurricane Dean almost scared us into coming home two days early (not that we minded by that point) but we found out the airlines wouldn't move our tickets forward anyway. So we stuck it out - Dean visited St. Martin on Friday with some showers, many dark, stormy clouds, and big ass frothy waves. We didn't go swimming that day. There was lots of detritus (new big word found on many beach signs on the island!)and yucky stuff washing up on shore. I don't like to swim with yucky stuff. A few crazy surfers did tempt fate and surfed with Dean. That's what happens when there's too much testosterone in your body.

Tripp and I ended up coming home only with a lovely set of tans and some kick ass guavaberry liqueur. If you go to St. Martin, get a guavaberry colada from the guavaberry emporium in Phillipsburg. It will rock your socks off. Seriously.

Weight issues - like, oh my god

So today I'm 15 weeks pregnant - that translates into 3 months and 3 weeks. I'll be four months a week from today, holy crap! It goes by surprisingly fast when you aren't nauseous and asleep by 7:30pm.

Okay recap - the first trimester I was nauseous, a lot, but no actual throwing up took place. There was mandatory napping if I didn't get at least 9-10 hours of sleep per night. Safe to say Tripp and I didn't see each other much, our days went like this:

7pmish: Tripp comes home, "Hey Nicole how was your day?"

Nicole - "Great honey. I'm going to bed in a half hour. As soon as I finish eating this entire gallon of rocky road."

And then I went to sleep. Repeat every night for nearly three months. Also, smells were bad. Most smells. Food of all kinds smelled bad. The gyro guy outside of my office, who I visited at least three times a week pre-baby, yeah, he and I had to end our relationship for the first trimester.

A note to any who may be expecting sometime in the future: ice cream is a wonderful way to deal with heart burn. All that creamy, cold deliciousness just turns that tummy acid right off.

Now I'm in my second trimester and it is waaaaaaaay better. The pregnancy glow doesn't occur in the first trimester, you're usually just green in the face. Now, now there is a glow. The glow is caused by the increased blood production. The increased blood production is also the cause of all of the extra urinating you'll be doing. (For instance, when you now wake up every single morning at 4:30 to use the bathroom - that's the extra blood you're making.) And in the second trimester I'm actually awake. And food smells good. In fact it smells great. Perhaps too good. I like to eat now. A lot.

- Edy's 1/2 Fat Ice Cream (Butter Pecan)
- Pickled Banana Peppers
- Tostitos and salsa.
- Everything Bagels (accounts for 3 out of the 4lbs. I've gained. I should really just tape two bagels to my butt instead of eating the bagels and then take them off once the baby is here.)

In my first trimester I lost a pound. I have since gained 5! So, altogether 4 pounds gained....and counting.

My mom gained 65lbs. when she was pregnant with me(!) and I am determined not to follow in her footsteps. In fact, I'm thinking that 4lbs. is plenty. I mean the baby is only 3 1/2 ounces right now! Those pounds are all in my butt and boobs!!! Okay, having boobs is kind of a perk. But the extra butt weight, that I could do without.

Next appointment is this Monday - hopefully I will manage not to gain 5 more pounds in the mean time.

Baby Makin'

I'm now 14 1/2 weeks pregnant and officially in my second trimester! Tripp and I went to our first ultra sound about two weeks ago and got to see the little bean. We knew without a doubt that I'm pregnant, but boy does it change things to actually see a baby in your belly!

The technician squirted some belly jelly on my stomach and the instant she put the...ultra sound handle thing...on my stomach there was a baby on the screen! It was kind of surreal and I didn't realize that the ultra sound would be in 3-D so we saw a real live baby shaped baby on the screen. I started laughing and the baby started kicking its legs and waving its arms around. It's really strange to see that happening on a screen and to know that the movement is going on inside your stomach but you don't feel anything! Once I stopped laughing, I actually held my breath, and the baby calmed down. So here are the first pictures of our little bean (You can see more detail if you click on the pictures.)! He or she is about 3 1/2 inches from head to toe right now.



I'm a little disappointed that I don't look more pregnant yet, but everyone keeps telling me that I should be glad because once I have a big belly I'll just want the baby to get here so I can have a flat stomach again. My mom said her stomach "popped" at 5 months, so I might not really show for a whole 'nother month and a half! So lame. Here's all I've got to brag about so far:



And no, I don't ordinarily wear clashing green clothing, only for photos.

Pants: the good, the bad, and the camel toe

I make my grand re-writing not because of an end of the busyness and laziness, oh no. It's the state of pants in the tri-state area that has made it necessary for me to get back into the blogging habit.

The Good: The re-emergence of the wide leg pant and the demise of the skinny jean (praise Jesus)

Much to my glee I've noticed wide leg jeans and pants making appearances in store windows, on racks, and on a few of the more aware fashionistas. I was so excited by this realization that I immediately started researching the availability of wide legs online. Some chain stores aren't quite up to speed but many stores already have wide leg jeans and pants in stores.

I stopped by American Eagle Outfitters earlier this week (I know, I know, it's a store for 80 lb. teeny bopper waifs, but I've almost always found good jeans in this store!). American Eagle does indeed have several different styles of wide leg denim. The denim trousers are my favorite style, of course, because they're definitely tinged with 70s. There are also a few styles that are more casual and definitely worth a trip to the dressing room. The only negative, since it is a teeny bopper store all the jeans are low rise, no high waisted denim here.

There are wide leg pants at the Gap, but no wide leg denim. I haven't tried on the pants yet, but I plan to. Will update with my thoughts on the fit.

The Bad: Skinny pants and denim

Okay those pants are the bad. BUT - the good news is they're on their way out! I'm pretty sure that about only 1% of the population in the tri-state area could possibly look good in skinny pants and jeans. The other 99% of the population is either too skinny and suffers from complete flat ass and stick leg syndrome or they're too heavy so it becomes painfully obvious that their rear ends are the widest part of their bodies. And, hello!, your bums look like squashed donuts in those pants, large, wide squashed donuts. Attractive? No. Stylish? Decidedly not.

I would fall into the latter category, only I'm aware of that fact and therefore do not wear skinny jeans or pants. Unfortunately much of the population is either unaware that they are dressing themselves in a completely unflattering manner, or they think it is better to be "in style" than to actually accentuate the positive.

Well skinny jeans, at least you brought about the revival of wide leg bottoms. It was worth having you around, if only for the wide leg backlash.

The Camel Toe: I shudder

Dear young women of the tri-state area, this is a call to you. You may not realize this, but leggings...are not pants. They were never meant to be pants and they will never be. They are an accessory, to be worn under skirts, dresses, long tunics, etc. They are not meant to be worn with short tshirts and tank tops. No matter how cute your behind may be it was not meant to be seen in your leggings.

And have you ever thought about what's at the front of your rear end? Yeah. That. No one wants to see your camel toe. Seriously. Except for those really nasty, grimy perverts who can be found in abundance in the tri-state area. So, unless you really like attention from these camel toe loving perverts, you should probably switch to real pants, or wearing your leggings in an appropriate manner. And, your safety and comfort aside, I don't want to see that crap. It's worse than the thongs sticking out of your pants.