20-week Ultrasound

We're having a GIRL!

I would post the picture that proves it, but I want to save her from future embarrassment.  :)

Halfway There

20 Weeks!  I can't believe I'm here already.  A couple of months ago it seemed so far away.

Not much is new here, except my tummy has been growing a lot in the last couple of weeks.  I finally broke down and bought some maternity jeans at Old Navy and they are so comfortable it feels like wearing PJs.

I've been getting over my dependence on cream cheese and Kraft macaroni and cheese (did I mention that one?) and trying to eat healthier.  I read somewhere that the baby will be able to taste foods that I eat soon so it's for the best.  We have been having lots and lots of fruit lately.  John loves fruit so much and has been buying tons of it now that a lot of fruits are coming into season.  I have really been enjoying oranges and grapes.  I've also gotten over my aversion to vegetables (even broccoli!) so we've been having more of those as well.  Especially zucchini and green beans.  I really want to eat more beans and lentils... but I need some recipes.  Does anyone have any ideas? I really like my recipe for lentil soup but that's about it.

It seems like I haven't felt any baby movements yet, but I'm sure they're happening and I just don't recognize them yet.  I do at times feel a lot of gas bubbles down there, but I'm pretty sure it's actually gas!  (Sorry... TMI.)

Well, they say that colds are more common during pregnancy and boy do I have one now.  I had to cancel all of my babysitting last week after Monday and today I woke up with an ear infection in both ears.  I'm doing my best to stay healthy but I guess there's only so much you can do!  John told me the other day (while I was in the process of vomiting) that being pregnant is like having HIV--your immune system is weak and you get sick all the time.  I just have to remember how lucky I am that I don't have HIV... just a baby and that is WAY better!!!

Anyway, we are going to find out TOMORROW if our baby is a boy or a girl!!!!!!  I am so excited.  I have been looking forward to this day like it is Christmas.  Most people have guessed that it is a boy but on Thursday the midwife listened to the heartbeat and said that it sounds like a girl.  So we'll see!  What do you think???

This was at about 19 weeks

18 weeks

I am 18 weeks now.  The time is going by fast but slow.  I am so excited to have a baby but there are so many things to do before it comes!

My Capn' Crunch cravings have died down quite a bit, and now I have moved on to cream cheese.  Mmm it is so good.  After spending too much on bagels and cream cheese at the bakery, I finally broke down and bought a container of it and a bag of bagels.  I don't know if I have ever bought a container of cream cheese before, aside from the few times I used it for baking.  It is weird that I have been enjoying food that I never was into before being pregnant!

Which reminds me... I ate some fish!!!  And it actually tasted good.  It was Sole, which I had never heard of before.  I had it at the home of some kids I babysit.  Their mother made it and offered me some, telling me it was safe to eat during pregnancy.  So I just closed my eyes and stuffed it in my mouth before I could change my mind and YUM!  What a surprise.  I squeezed some lemon on my next bite and it was even better.  Anyway, I am excited to try some more.  It will be hard to talk John into this because he is against eating seafood of any kind.  Mostly because he almost died of dysentery after eating some bad seafood once.  And also because most of the food poisoning cases that get reported to his office at the health department are from fish.  I'll just have to be really careful!

Anyway, enough about food.  I have really been enjoying the second trimester so far.  I have had so much energy compared to the first.  With all that extra energy I've been filling up my schedule with as much babysitting as possible to earn some extra money.  I have really enjoyed doing this for two reasons.  First because people in our neighborhood pay me $15 an hour to babysit and we really need the money, and second because I have been getting some really good experience taking care of kids.  I like to mix things up, so I usually try to babysit kids and babies of all different ages during the week.  So far, my favorite age group is from 6 months to about 18 months.  Up until the time when they start having tantrums.  It has been interesting to observe the different parenting styles.  I'm not a child psychologist, but I am starting to see the effects of different styles in the behavior of the children.  I've got to figure out how to deal with temper tantrums before my child starts having them!

John ad I have been trying to get out as much as possible lately.  We're still trying to do some fun New York touristy types of things.  For those of you coming to visit soon... we have lots of fun and free (or cheap) things for you to do!

Well, that's about it for my update.  Three more weeks until we find out the gender of our baby!!!!!!  I can't wait.  I still think it's a boy but it will be great to know for sure.

18 Weeks!

Bonus Pic: John in the Subway reading the Primary manual

Cap'n Crunch and Other Things

I am 16 weeks already!

Time seems to be going much faster now that I'm not sick all the time. 

I feel like I have pretty much recovered my appetite and I have started cooking real meals again!  And I am very proud to say that I made it back to my pre-pregnancy weight!  I lost about 7 pounds while being sick and it has taken me a long time to get it back but I am finally there.  

I have been craving Cap'n Crunch every single day.  I bought a small box a couple of weeks ago and it lasted for quite a while, until John took it out one day and poured himself a HUGE bowl, and then there was no more for me.  After about three days of not having any, I became so desperate that I rode the subway all the way to Target in the Bronx and bought two BIG boxes.  One Cap'n Crunch, and one Cap'n Crunch with Crunchberries, because I couldn't decide which one I wanted more.  And because I'm pregnant.  

John likes to talk to my tummy and tell the baby about his day.  It is so precious... I wish you could see it.  :)

So anyway, here are our first ultrasound pics!  They are from February 3, when I was 12 weeks.

Sadly, John was unable to make it that day (my ultrasound appointments are separate from the regular visits) but I had a good time anyway watching the little baby jumping and moving around inside of me!  I can't believe it moves so much and I can't even feel anything down there yet!

And here are some pictures of my profile:

11 weeks

15 1/2 weeks

I made sure to wear as tight a shirt as possible to show off as much bump as possible.  (...and I may have waited until after eating a big dinner too...)  So I look kind of big, right?  

An Important Update

I'm sure everyone's already heard, but just in case you haven't... we're having a BABY!

14 weeks today!

It's taken me a while to get it up here... I am so lazy about blogging these days.  :)  Reading other blogs of pregnant first-timers has really helped me get through the nausea.  And lots and lots of baby pictures.  Doesn't matter whose baby it is.

Anyhoo, so maybe I'll write about my experience.  Or maybe you want to be spared the details?  Here's one funny thing.  Before getting pregnant, my whole life--I never had a sweet tooth.  Never cared much for candy.  Now, every time I see someone eating candy, or see it on the shelf at the store, or in an ad, I want it.  Candy that I would never, never eat before--like swedish fish--I have been eating in handfuls.  Last night I even dreamed about candy.

I've also been eating lots of potatoes.  French fries, mashed, baked, you name it.  Mmm... maybe I'll make potato salad today.  That sounds good.

I did have a bad case of nausea for about 6 weeks.  Some days I wanted to die.  (Not really.)  But then one morning, about two weeks ago, I woke up and it was gone.  Completely.  I am SO LUCKY!  I haven't totally gotten my appetite back though.  For example, I can't eat broccoli, dark chocolate, mint-chocolate, pizza, and especially avocado and ESPECIALLY guacamole.  Thinking about it makes me sick.

For those of you concerned about my veg diet, I have been eating chicken noodle soup.  And I have tried, with all my might, to eat some actual chicken.  I haven't been able to yet.  ANY IDEAS???  I think it will be good for my baby to have some meat.  Maybe someone can grind it up and hide it in something else and I'll eat it without knowing... that might work.  Anyway, everyone says that it's ok to have a vegetarian pregnancy if you eat right.  So we'll see.  I'm ok with eating meat though.  If only I could do it.

So here are the books I'm reading... I am very interested to know which book YOU would suggest, or if you are against reading any of these:

HypnoBirthing
Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way
Fit Pregnancy for Dummies
What to Expect When You're Expecting

John and I are super excited.  Our due date is August 18.  I don't know if I can wait that long!

Some Pics from the Holidays

Another great blessing of living in New York is that we are so close to John's brother and his wife, Josh and Mattie.  We got to spend Thanksgiving at their apartment in New Haven!  We had the most delicious dinner and such a great time.

Check out their beautiful Thanksgiving dishes.  

The day after Thanksgiving we took the bus up to Boston to spend the weekend with my very good friend Laura and her family.  It was my first time visiting Boston and I was so excited to finally see the place where Laura grew up!  While we were there we got to go on a wonderful historical tour of the area lead by Laura's mother.  We also got to hang out with John's old professor Kirk Dearden (and his family) who now teaches public health at Boston University.  

This is a replica of Henry David Thoreau's cabin at Walden Pond.  It has been a dream of mine to visit Walden Pond for a long time it was so exciting!

Holding hands with Mr. Thoreau (and trying not to freeze to death).

Walden Pond

 We also got to visit the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord and the graves of some famous writers.

We also visited the Freedom Trail in Boston, including the North Church where the lantern was hung (remember the phrase "one if by land, two if by sea") the night of Paul Revere's famous "midnight ride."  We saw Faneuil Hall, the Minuteman museum in Concord, and the site of the battles of Lexington and Concord.  We went to the Old North Bridge, site of the "shot heard 'round the world," and the Wayside Inn (from Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn).  It was so awesome to be in a place with so much history.  I would definitely recommend going to visit.  I hope we can go back sometime soon.  

 Here is Laura's dad making his wonderful healthy pancakes for us.  Blueberries, cinnamon, coconut, whole wheat, and lots of other stuff.  He also has a cookie business, and we got to sample some of the rejects.  They were so delicious!!  I can't wait to taste the real cookies (hopefully sold at Whole Foods soon!)

We also got to try a Fluffernutter for the first time!  It's a sandwich made with peanut butter and marshmallow cream.  I guess kids in the Northeast grow up eating these but I had never heard of them!

This year we decided to spend Christmas in New York.  We were sad to be away from our families but we needed to save the money (and traveling during the holidays is the worst!!)

  John infront of the famous tree at the Rockefeller Center.  It was HUGE!

For lunch on Christmas Eve we invited some people from our ward over for crepes.  

Our cute friends June and Olive.

Here are some pics of the huge snow storm that came right after Christmas.  It was nice not having a car that we had to drive in the snow!

And that's it.  I always wish that I had taken more pictures... maybe next year!

1001 Reasons Why We Love New York

Just kidding, you probably wouldn't have time to read all that.  But here are a few!

1. There is always something to do.  Concerts, musicals, plays, community events, food, sight-seeing, museums, parks, shopping, etc.

(The view of Ground Zero from our friend's office building down town)

 (We won the Wicked lottery when John's family was visiting!)

 (Famous Jackson Pollock at either the Museum of Modern art or the Met-- I can't remember)

(The Brooklyn Bridge)

2. The FOOD.  I always heard that people in New York never cook and I thought that was so weird.  But now I understand why!  There is good food everywhere.  Anything you're in the mood for--from any country you can think of.  And it's pretty easy to find it for cheap.  We really like a Chinese place around the corner where we can both fill up (with left-overs) on $4 each.

3. People live in small apartments.  Can you imagine?  We know a family of 7 that lives in a two bedroom apartment (all 5 kids in the same room) and they ALL GET ALONG!  This is just one example.  Many families in New York live like this.  It appears to be good for the family.

4. Another result of small apartments--we spend a lot of time outside and less time sitting around inside.

 (The view from the Henry Hudson Park trail near our house.  George Washington Bridge above, going to New Jersey.)

(Central Park in the fall)

5. Doggies everywhere!!  It seems to us that having a dog is the thing to do in New York.  It is really fun for John and I because we love dogs and we get to pet them and play with them, even though we can't have any for ourselves because of allergies.

(The Halloween doggie parade in the Village!)

 (Can you believe this?)

 (So cute.)

5. NO CAR!!!!!!  Not having a car has been a luxury for us.  We have no car payments, no insurance, no parking, no driving in snow or ice, and no being stuck in traffic.  What a dream.  Everywhere we need to go, we can get there on the subway or the bus.  The public transportation in this city is amazing.  We are loving it.

6. Our neighborhood.  It is almost like living in a small town.  There is a library, post office, clothing/furniture/shoe stores, Goodwill, Staples, several groceries, cheap pizza, laundry, pet stores, bike stores, pharmacies, restaurants, and a movie theatre within walking distance of our apartment.  Quick and easy access to all the essentials.

7. Bike lanes all over the city.  New York has been getting serious about this over the past few years.  There are physically protected paths, bi-directional protected paths, buffered bike lanes, green painted bike lanes, and shared lanes all over the city.  Not to mention all the bike paths in the parks.  We love it!  John has access to special indoor, guarded bike parking area at his work.

 (Biking across the George Washington Bridge for cheaper groceries in New Jersey.)

8. Having a grocery around the corner, with cheap produce. This has been a huge convenience for me.  In Atlanta I drove 20 minutes to the grocery store and stocked up for the week.  Here I can just run over and get what I need for the day.

9. Our ward.  We are really enjoying our ward.  It is full of the most friendly and outgoing people we have ever met.  Before we even moved here we had friends.  We are always going places and hanging out with our friends from the ward.  There are also dozens of professional performing artists in the ward. And I mean the serious kind, that perform on Broadway and with the Met.  It is a little intimidating for me but really awesome.

Ok well, nine's enough for now.  Please come visit us.  We have plenty of floor space.  It will be so fun!