28 Weeks

We are now in the third and final trimester!

How far along: 28 weeks

How big is baby: My weekly email said, “Your baby is 16 inches and 2.5 pounds. Go grab a random chihuahua off the street to get an idea of what you are dealing with.” (I don’t get the normal baby center emails..). Chihuahua baby. I like that. Much more squirmy than a cauliflower. Accurate depiction.

Weight Gain: 17 pounds. Woof. Thanks to the 5 pound gain the week I was in Destin. How is that possible? At least chihuahua baby can finally start claiming some of these pounds. 

Symptoms: 

·         I’ve been feeling the low iron. But that should be corrected shortly.

·         I have this cool symptom where it feels like the top half of my stomach is, not just sunburned, but … on fire. Apparently she can sit on a nerve that controls the feelings in the skin (and skin only) of the top half of your stomach. Who knew? It was all the time for a few weeks, but now it’s much more sporadic.

·         When I sit for a while – which is all the time: work, commuting to work, the couch – she moves to this position where feet, or a head, or something is under my right rib cage. It causes rib pain and this feeling like I can’t breathe very well. If she’s super comfy, she can stay. But, if there are a number of equally comfy positions, she should choose another one. Apparently this is likely to just keep getting worse.

·         Not sleeping as well. I flip from my right to my left a million times per night. This flip is now becoming more effort with the weight of her and “all her luggage,” as Dan puts it. I like to consider sleeping a workout these days. Exercise? Check.

·         All signs that she is growing big and strong! As long as she is healthy, bring on the symptoms!

Cravings:  Apples. Mmm. The fuji apples in Harris Teeter right now are so sweet and about the size of a softball. Cut up, the slices don’t all fit in a sandwich baggie. It’s my favorite part of the day.

Aversions:   I no longer want chocolate milk. I wouldn’t say it is an aversion, since I never liked it, but it was obviously something she liked for about a week – and then things went back to normal.

What I miss:  Nothing. Sure, I’ve got my list of things that I can’t wait to have post baby, but that’s only 2.5 months away! We are so incredibly lucky to be having a child (unfortunately, it is something that not everyone gets to experience), so you won’t find me complaining. Trying to just enjoy being pregnant – even though I also can’t wait for her to get here!

Looking forward to: My baby shower in Atlanta this weekend! Getting a bigger dent made the on nursery. And deciding on a name. Internet – will you name our child?

Best moment this month:  So many! Being on vacation for an entire week. Not having to suck in my stomach at the beach. Receiving the first present in the mail for our little chihuahua. Starting on the nursery. Passing my glucose test. Dan having mono and wanting to go to bed with me super early (this is my list, not his).

Worst moment this month: I’m choosing two this month. 1) Getting stuck between the grocery cart and the candy wall in the checkout line. I was in the checkout line and tried to move from the back of the cart around to the front to unload the items easier. I thought I was smaller than I was. And turns out, you can’t just ‘suck in’ baby. 2) Getting out of the pool in the deep end. I went by the wall, thinking I would be super cool and pull myself I up like I have done a million times. First, 17 pounds makes me heavier than I remember. Second, the belly gets in the way. I looked like an idiot and it took me a solid minute to wiggle my way up. I also did it right next to the ladder. In super crowded Destin. Once I started, though, I was committed. There was no turning back.

Koda is spoiled

Koda is so spoiled. I know what you are thinking. We know Koda is spoiled. We have seen you with her. The other day, I took it to a new level.

I roasted. Koda. An entire chicken.

Yes.

Now how crazy do you think I am?

It’s a good thing that Dan socializes me or I could become that lady who spends her days in the kitchen cooking for her 35 cats, bowls and cat hair everywhere. Except not cats. Dogs. I don’t like cats. I pretend I am allergic so I don’t have to touch them.

I mean. I am allergic.

I’m not that crazy. And technically it was Dan’s idea. Whether it was a joke or not, the thought didn’t cross my mind.

I thawed a whole chicken in the fridge to roast for dinner one night. Three days later, I went to put it in the oven and noticed that it was still frozen. Back in the fridge it went – and I improvised for dinner, with Dan and my combined body weight in chili. Fast forward a couple days and I had forgotten about the chicken.

I am sure it would have been fine, but I knew that I would think about it with each bite and not be able to eat it. As I was pouting and throwing the chicken away, Dan said “cook it for Koda?”

Brilliant.

A few hours later – a whole roasted chicken – fat and skin removed – and we had an entire tupperware of food for her dinners.

Spoiled. Rotten.

27 Weeks

Did you hear that Kate Middleton had her baby today? A boy! Whew! I was worried that if our baby came early, she might outshine the royal baby. Thank goodness that is no longer a concern. Media coverage: feel free to proceed.

These are always about half a week late. But, really, I’m going for consistency here.

I passed my glucose test! For those who don’t know – you drink this awful drink (where you get to pick a flavor, and your doctor tells you ‘whatever you do, only get the orange’ and then you go to the guy and he says ‘we only have fruit punch left!’ But you knew this would happen because fruit punch is your least favorite drink in the entire world, and it’s a Tuesday). Then you wait an hour and start shaking, and they take your blood. Then if you fail – which many people do – you have wait a week to do the big test, that is much more accurate, requiring 4 blood draws and 3 hours of shaking. But if you pass, you immediately head to the cheesecake factory. It’s all routine, really.

At the same appointment, they do a routine CBC and mine came back as “indeed, anemic.” I am not sure why the adjective “indeed” was thrown in there, but on the anemia scale, I guess I am not close to “borderline.” I was immediately called in a prescription for iron. Not shocking, honestly, I have had low iron levels in the past, and it is pretty common with pregnancy.

I felt like I got all my energy back at 20 weeks, and then at 24 weeks hit a wall and told Dan ‘either I have mono, or low iron, this can’t be normal.’ I know that energy levels go down in the third trimester, especially as you get bigger, but I couldn’t believe that I only got about 4 weeks of feeling human. We hadn’t even started on the nursery yet! I am glad that is solved and in the next week or so I should start feeling much better.

You’ll get the full run down in the 28 week post. Right now, there’s ice cream in the freezer that hasn’t been eaten.

Dan's Birthday

As I mentioned one post back, Dan has mono - and had it over his birthday. While our plans originally consisted of going to dinner, then out to bars with friends - it quickly changed to "stay up past 9 o'clock." 

A feat which I can say we successfully accomplished.

It started on Saturday with Chick-fil-a breakfast just before Buy Buy Baby to finalize the great stroller hunt. Have you ever looked for strollers? I have been very decisive in all of this registering - but the stroller has thrown me for a loop. So many options. None of them all in one stroller.

I would go into stores and say "I have narrowed it down to two!" and they would reply "butttt...have you looked at this one?!" At one point I told the lady at Buy Buy Baby to just stop. I said, "If you show me any other options, I am going to be even more difficult to deal with. Proceed with caution."

I digress.

Stroller decided on.

Sort of.

I still go back and forth. 

Oh well. 

Next we went to get Dan his birthday present. He doesn't want me to tell you about it on the blog. But it's kind of a funny story. So feel free to text me if you want to know what his birthday present was!

After that - since things like shopping wears us out these days - we came back to get ready for dinner. 

Yup. I wore these leggings out in public.

The Palm does a lobster "special." It is a good deal for The Palm - but I wouldn't quite call it a steal, definitely a special occasion dinner. The Palm has really good food, but I personally find it a little over priced. For steaks, we are big Ruth's Chris fans (it was our favorite meal on our honeymoon - haha), and The Palm is a tad more expensive than Ruth's Chris. But the food is great, and the lobster was definitely worth it. 

We stayed up past nine. Barely. And then headed to bed.

On Sunday, we went to Starbucks to get his free drink, and then Dunkin Donuts. 

His choice. 

I did not oppose. 

Although, I might have had a slight panic attack when I realized that there were three children in front of us and only two chocolate sprinkle donuts left. Fortunately the children don't know delicious and chose different flavors.

Next we played musical closets to get all of the stuff that we haven't worn in two years, crap, stuff we juuust might need one day, out of what will be the baby's room. Successful start to the nursery. And a pretty good effort by this elderly couple here. 

Dan grilled a steak for himself. 

Are you drooling? I am. He grilled me a mushroom. 

Not the same.

Then we had key lime pie for dessert. I didn't even bother cutting a pretty slice to take a nice picture of it. We just dug right in and destroyed the pie. It is a little time intensive but seriously the best key lime pie. I'll share the recipe here shortly.

Then Dan opened presents. I made sure everything was wrapped well. Martha Stewart style.

Between baby shopping and the early bed time, it wasn't exactly what Dan had in mind for his 27th birthday, but we found it to be quite a perfect weekend. A relaxing one that we both needed.

Happy birthday Dan!!

26 Weeks

I am going to scare you with a full on bikini bump shot at 26 weeks. Not hiding the girth under clothes this time. If anyone feels like photoshopping on a spray tan ... some toned arms and legs .. maybe the full Kardashian photoshop treatment, I will replace this photo with your beautiful rendition. Until then, this is what you get:

I love Destin. I could stay there forever. 

'Dan's Birthday' turned 'Dan Has Mono' because I hadn't told yall about the mono and will post the birthday one later

First of all, Dan has mono. Have we discussed this? I don't think we have.

I was going to do a post about his birthday, but let's talk about Dan.

Who gets mono at 27? 

Who gets mono at 27 when their pregnant wife doesn't have it? 

He played beer pong with some guys a few weeks prior to getting it. And by some guys, I mean about 30 guys. And there's no telling if the solo cups were even new that day. Many games of beer pong have been played in that house. And my germ-o-phobe husband drank out of each cup, instead of having his own cup like he neurotically did all throughout college

However. 

My doctor tested me for mono, just to see if I had had it in the past or was about to start feeling awful. Apparently I have had mono in the past (never had any symptoms) and am now immune. 

Dan read that if you have had mono, and your immune system is down (pregnancy) you can shed some of the virus to other people. (If it's on the internet it must be true, right?) So he is blaming me. Catching it from beer pong just couldn't be logical. 

Some people take 2-4 weeks off of work or school. But Dan just pressed on. Looking absolutely awful by the end of the work day (love you!). He had a fever for the first 10 days straight, and since then just had the exhaustion that comes with it. He had barely been eating. Bed sounded much better than any food. And lost a little weight. Luckily he had this week off of work, he is finishing week three of this virus, and feeling MUCH better.

Trust me, he has been given lots of sympathy and been tended to. Yadda, yadda. But for now, let's make fun of him.

Things not to say to your 6 months pregnant wife:

"Omg, Kelley. I just lost 7 pounds this week, not even trying. I hope I gain it back." 

...

"Ugh, I can't do ab ripper for at least another month. Do you know how much that sucks?"

...

"I can't drink alcohol for an entire month!?!"

...

and my personal favorite...

"This has been miserable. I'm exhausted. I could sleep all day. I'm nauseous. I have no energy and can't work out like I used to. And its supposed to last 4-6 weeks!"

...

I am not going to lie, I have kind of enjoyed him having mono. Besides the question of who is going to do the heavy lifting in the house, of course. I have had someone ready to go to bed around 9. Someone actually more tired than myself. And I have hardly had to cook dinner. Don't tell Dan, but I'm okay with this lasting awhile. But it better correct itself by October!

25 Weeks

24 Weeks

How far along: 24 weeks
How big is baby: a foot long (maybe a Subway sub would have been more appropriate than the squash?) - and 1.5 pounds.
Weight Gain: 12 pounds. I'm not going to lie to yall. I gained 4 pounds in the one week after my 20 week post. Baby growth spurt? Insatiable love of ice cream and cheesecake? We may never know...
Symptoms: 

• This is the first full month of no nausea and having all of my energy back. It has been wonderful. Unfortunately, I have started getting much more tired these past few days. Hoping it is a growth spurt and not an early version of the third trimester fatigue. We have too much to do for me to be tired! 
• I am noticing the weight of the belly when rolling over in bed (which I do about 48930282 times a night). Maybe it counts as an ab workout?
• Still not warm, yet. I was so cold at work today that my finger nails were blue. My whole life I have been promised 'just wait until you are pregnant, you wont be cold then.' I still think it'll happen - just not yet. 

Cravings: I really thought this section would be much more interesting. There hasn't been anything that I have just needed. We even ran out of ice cream. Dan was ready. "Want me to run to the store?" "Nah, I'll be fine." "You sure?? I'm ready." I did buy chocolate milk the other day, something that I have never liked. Even when I was little, chocolate milk never appealed to me. And today, I don't drink milk. I'll eat it in cereal, coffee, etc. but never drink it plain. For some reason, it looked pretty good - has calcium - and a good sub for a bowl of ice cream, so I bought it. We can blame this one on the baby girl. She must get her chocolate milk affinity from her dad. 
Aversions:  Not a thing! We met Kylie and Justin for lunch the other day and Kylie told me to pick a place that I was craving. I told her that I was craving everything: "Doesn't matter what it is, if you are eating it, I want it!" 
What I miss: On Dan's birthday he grilled himself the perfect medium rare steak. I got to eat a mushroom. Bummer. 
Looking Forward to: Mostly our vacation to Destin! Then picking a name, and getting started on the nursery. Our crib came in - but it hasn't made it out of the box yet. 
Best moment this month: In no particular order: being able to say that I am 6 months pregnant, finding Tony Horton's 10 minute abs and realizing I can do 90% of the moves. (No sub for ab ripper, but it is still taught by my main man, and will work in the mean time). AND hearing Dan say "my daughter" when talking to a friend of his.
Worst moment this month: Going to Waffle House and downing almost an entire All Star Special. I tried to get Dan to split one with me. He wanted his own. I told him all I wanted was a waffle. One thing lead to another. It was definitely a low point. ...Still no clue why I am gaining weight.