10 Things I Can't Do When I'm Pregnant

As I was pacing up and down the halls at work today, all of a sudden it hit me. I HAD to pee. Like now. And then once I made it to the bathroom, I thought, gosh, I can't wait until I can pee on my own schedule again. Which got me to thinking, what else will I be able to do again once the baby is born? Of course holding my baby and snuggling with my baby is on the list, but that's so cliche. Let's be serious now. So, in no particular order, I've come up with list of things I can't wait to do again once this little munchkin is born.

1. Go to the bathroom. 

How about going when it's convenient for me, not when the baby jabs me in the bladder a few times? I still remember how good it felt to empty my bladder *completely* after having JP...amazing. And how about they start making the stalls a little bigger to accommodate my large belly? I have to "suck it in" just to open the door to get out!

2. Sleeping on my belly. 

I've been a stomach sleeper for a long while, and even now, with a belly as big as mine, I still manage to wake up laying on my stomach...eek! Its so much more comfortable than putting a damn pillow between my legs. You try to roll over with that between your legs.

3. Putting on my socks.

I'm sure there is probably a lot of comedy involved in watching a pregnant lady put her socks on, but still...I actually sucked it up and sat down on my bed for the first time to put my pants on the other day. Even that was a struggle. 

4. Standing up. 

I know a lot of you probably take this for granted as you just jump up off the couch to grab your phone. But seriously, if I miss your call, it probably because I either gave up trying to get up, or didn't even bother because I knew it'd be too hard. Needless to say there's a lot of grunting and groaning going on here... And don't even get me started when I lay on the floor. I feel like a turtle upside down on its shell. I actually had to have my husband help me out of the tub once because I couldn't sit up...that was after I had to call him to come home to help...

5. Get rid of my maternity pants. 

I don't know if hate really describes them. They just don't stay up and I feel like a baggy mess wearing them. I don't know if I just bought the wrong size, but seriously. 2 more months...

6. Have a glass of wine. 

Okay yes, I will be breastfeeding but still. After a long day (which I'm sure there will be many), a nice little glass of wine sure would be nice...Those bottles on top of my fridge are calling my name, I just know it.

7. Have a conversation. 

Okay I can have one, but since baby is all up in my business, I have to limit my chat time because if I talk too much all at once, I become short of breath. And then I'm panting like I just got done running, when all I did was tell a short story. Pretty lame. I've had to tell my co-workers quite a few times, "Hold on, let me catch my breath" before explaining the rest of their task...Pretty awesome.

8. Have an innie. 

My belly button popped out right around 20 weeks. And since then you can see it sticking out from under my shirt. I hate it. But more or less those "Looks like your timer popped!" comments. 

9. Shave my legs...and stuff. 

Do I really have to get into this one? Bending over is a struggle as is - should I really have a razor in my hand while I balance on one foot to do it? Yay for a Spring baby! Mommy doesn't have to worry about hairy legs for swimsuit season!

10. Painting my toenails. 

Again with the bending thing. Not worth the energy I have to exert just to have pretty toes. 

And there you have it. What I am looking forward to doing....again...2 more months!

29 Weeks

Here's more belly pictures from the last 2 weeks!

 This is the start of my 3rd trimester. 28 weeks. I went home to visit my parents and to work on a crib skirt. While there, Hunter attempted to cut a crayon and missed. He instead snipped his finger pretty good, and got blood all over me, as you can see on my shirt. We ended up super gluing his wound shut. Poor guy.

29 weeks. Clothes are getting a little tight....

How far along? 29 weeks

Baby is the size of? A butternut squash - 15inches long

Maternity clothes? They are becoming more of a necessity, though I still wear some of my normal clothes.

Sleep? I wake up every night at 1:30a and can't go back to sleep. No matter what time I go to bed. And then I'm wide awake. Kind of frustrating. 

Movement? Lots of jabs going on

Symptoms? Back pain galore!

Food cravings? None lately

Anything make you queasy or sick? Still just dog poop. Perry stepped in some the other day and I almost hurled.
SCH News? No news is good news. My next ultrasound on the 8th will be to check up on it.

Moment of the week? Working on finishing up the baby's mobile.

Looking forward to? Feeling 100% again. I am recovering from my head cold...that I caught nearly a month ago. I didn't know my nose could have so many boogers! 

Elephant Cake

Over this weekend, despite still feeling a bit out of it from the cold I *still* have, I created a cake for a little girl turning 1 today. I'm not sure why I stressed out about this cake as much as I did - after all I think it turned out pretty good!

 This was the first tiered cake that I've done, and I had a lot of fun with it. Her mom said she wanted it elephant themed and I couldn't have thought of a better idea!

 For the top tier, I used buttercream frosting. I knew that fondant might be a little tricky for a 1 year to dive into! Plus, this gave me the perfect opportunity to practice my frosting skills, since I normally rely on fondant.

 The bottom tier was made of fondant. I used candy sticks as dowels to support the top tier, since I didn't have any wooden ones. I probably should have cut them a little bit shorter, but I figured this way they could take the top tier off fairly easily without wrecking it. 

 I am in love with the elephant I made to go on the top. She took all of...10 minutes to make and maybe 10 minutes to decorate. Not bad at all! I think she turned out so cute! 

AND I created a Facebook page for my cake too! So find me on Facebook and "like" my page: Simply Delightful Cakes : )

Strawberry Soup for Colds

Over the last month, I've had headache after headache. Last Thursday I suffered through a day long headache and woke up in the morning with a head cold that lasted through my birthday weekend, and hit its peak on my birthday. Reason #27 I don't celebrate my birthday: I'm usually sick on it. It normally takes a healthy person 5-7 days to get completely over a head cold, but since I'm pregnant, it'll take about 2 weeks. Who's excited about that? Not me...

I've been extra careful about not kissing my boys or sharing my glass or silverware with them but the inevitable happened. Hunter caught my cold. But worse. He seemed a little out of it on Wednesday but was nothing but snuggles yesterday. I don't think he even attempted to play with a single toy yesterday. He willingly took a nap too- very un-Hunter-like! 

When it comes to my kids being sick, Perry and I have been pretty fortunate. I think I remember one other time Hunter was sick, and maybe two times for JP, but this is the first time a fever has been involved so I feel a little inexperienced. For lunch yesterday we had chicken noodle soup, but Hunter didn't want to eat it because there was chicken in it...heaven forbid. I managed to get a bowl of soup into his tummy regardless and then he laid on the couch and snacked on crackers and water for the rest of the day. Although he didn't have a temperature until the evening, I had given him some ibuprofen throughout the day, as well as some drug-free cough suppressant for his horrible sounding cough.

Even with his 3 hour nap, he was still ready for bed at his normal time, which is a rarity. By the middle of the night, his daytime fever of 101 peaked to 103.2. Poor little guy was roasting and didn't wanted anything but mommy. I grabbed my pillow and traded my snoring husband for a stuffy-nose and hot little boy and we spent the rest of the night in the guest room. Needless to say, I hardly slept at all. By this morning, his fever dropped to 102.8. Not a lot, but better than nothing, so we went to work on getting it down....fast.

The one thing I knew Hunter would eat is strawberries. Bonus! They're good for you and are an awesome source of vitamin C, which helps boosts your immunity. So our game plan was Strawberry Soup for lunch. Here's what I used:

1 small tub of frozen strawberries

1 cup of water

1 1/2 tsp of Cinnamon

A little bit of Ginger

I used the stove to thaw the frozen strawberries. Once the water and strawberries were boiling, I turned the stove off and added the cinnamon and ginger. Cinnamon has a nice track record of relieving cold and flu symptoms, so I've heard, and my doctor has always suggested taking ginger to relieve morning sickness. (I also added 2 packets of sweetener for taste.) 

Right before I served it to Hunter, I grabbed the hand blender I received for Christmas (I LOVE it!) and gave the soup a few pulses. I left a few big chunks in there so that *someone* would believe me when I said there are strawberries in it.

 And what do you know? He gobbled it right up! 

And loved it! And JP was a little upset he had already picked out his lunch and had to forgo this option :) I, of course, ate the left overs. After all, I'm sick too! Was it the medicine I gave him or the soup that did the trick? I don't know, but I'm one happy momma because his temperature is down to 99.6. That I can handle!

I'll Be a Cloth Diapering Momma

It seems as though nearly ever time I say I will be doing cloth diapers with baby #3, people are shocked and think I'm crazy! Okay, well I'm a little shocked I chose this route too, but I don't think I'm crazy. Over the last several years, I've been *trying* to do what I can to "go green". Baby steps I suppose - things like actually using the reusable grocery bags (which I love so much more than plastic!) and recycling pop cans to name a couple. But more so, I still find it quite alarming that we, a little family of four, can load up a giant trash can in week...only to be dumped in a landfill.

I am eagerly, patiently, nervously awaiting the day I have this baby, for numerous reasons. Foremost, I am literally counting down the days until I am done with work. I have been working at the hotel now for just over 6 years. It seems like forever, and a few of my co-workers feel like family. It'll be hard to say good-bye, but I know its for the better. Since I'll be leaving them, I'll be able to stay at home with my boys, and maybe girl?, and raise them myself. I've wanted to be a stay-at-home mom for quite a while, but we haven't been in the best place financially to do so. Although we aren't in the ideal place now, we're still going to be better off with me staying home. 

I have a few personal goals that'll I'll be working on as a stay-at-home mom, but I won't get into all of them now. When it comes down to it, I need to find a way and make it a habit to save money. So with that said, a couple things to help out with that are things that I alone will be able to do, without the help of Perry. Those are a) Cloth Diapering b) Breastfeeding c) Making our own baby food. Okay, Perry might actually have to help with making baby food, but more realistically it will be me. I breastfed both the boys, but not for too long. Hunter was breastfed for a solid 3 months, and then after a lot of convincing, I went downtown for my 21st birthday and had to "pump and dump" the next day. From then on it was hard to keep up and I eventually dried out. I didn't get a maternity leave with JP. I took 2 weeks of vacation and then brought him to work with me. Feeding at work was a challenge to say the least, and he cried a lot more than Hunter did. He was probably breastfed for a month and a half. I'm not sure how long I'll breastfeed baby #3, but I'm hoping for a good chunk of time - formula is expensive!

 But I think cloth diapering is really going to be the key to saving us money. They are a little pricey upfront, but will end up paying for themselves over time. It'll be nice to know that I won't have that ridiculous diaper bill hanging over my head. An extra $40-$60 a month can really add up for disposables! I don't know how we managed in the past! If we spent $60 a month on diapers and were done with diapers at 2 1/2 years, we'd have spent $3600 in that amount of time. That's basically an extra mortgage payment per year (which if we did would save us even a bunch more money!) 

The first step on this new journey of mine was to actually buy some diapers. I did just that. I bought 11 used ones. A couple are blue, and the rest are green and yellow. After picking them up (I found them on craigslist), I let the boys boys check them out. JP exclaimed, "OH! These are cool! When I'm a baby, I'm going to wear these!" At least someone else in the family approves! If only he understood the concept of aging! When we arrived home, I demonstrated how they worked. He loved it!

Right now I have 11 cloth diapers, of one kind. I didn't want to buy too many of one kind, only to find out I didn't like them. But these ones are the All-in-One kind. For you generations above me, they have the liner sewn into the cover. There is also a pocket in them, should I want to add an extra liner for more absorbency, like over night. Not quite what you were thinking when I said cloth diapers, huh?

Here's what it looks like up a little closer. They are the most similar to disposable diapers too. Unlike pins and such, these have velcro and are very daddy friendly. The down side to these is the velcro tends to wear out faster than the rest of the diaper. But since these were only used for a few months, they are still in good condition. I won't have to worry about saving them for baby #4, because, there simply won't be one....unless something completely unplanned happens! After this baby, I don't know if I'll be able to handle another pregnancy anyways! : ) Anyways... there are a bunch of different styles of cloth diapers that all have different price ranges. I thinking I'm probably going to like this All-in-One kind the best. The ones I have have are size small, but they do come in a one-size, that has snaps on it, instead of velcro, so you can adjust the height and waist. I will probably be purchasing some of these as well. 

In the little chat I had with the lady I bought these cloth diapers from, she explained that she was used these for about 7 months. The first two months she used disposables because her baby was super small. I will also use disposables when the baby is first born, mostly because of the the umbilical cord that will need to fall off, and the icky meconium poop they have when they are first born. We've have to get through that stuff first! 

In the meantime, I've also been preparing the boys for another baby in the house. They helped me sort through clothes the other week too!

The Green House & The Play Dough Thing

My little JP cracks me up. All. The. Time. The other night after he finished his dinner, he began talking about his green house. His imagination is enormous when it comes to his green house. Randomly he'll say things like "Oh I left that at my green house" or "You can't come to my green house" etc. Over New Years, his story was that he had actually painted his house brown. A week later, it repainted it green again. Most recently, his green house caught on fire. He discussed this in detail before I got the camera out. Keep in mind this video is about 8 minutes long. Perry and I bust up laughing every time we watch it. Especially around 3:30-4:15 minutes in. 

26 Weeks

I haven't done a baby update for a while. Mostly because I've been procrastinating getting a new mirror to paint with chalkboard paint. Little JP knocked the other one down on accident and it shattered. That was around week 20...and a month and a half later, I keep forgetting every time I'm at the store! Ah well...

Here's a few photos from the past few weeks!

 23 Weeks

I'm 24 Weeks and Kile is right behind me at 22 Weeks.

Not exactly the best tummy picture, but this is at 25 weeks.

How far along? 26 weeks

Baby is the size of? An English cucumber - 14 inches long!

Baby's heart rate? 

Maternity clothes? I finally gave in around 23 weeks and bought some maternity clothes.

Stretch marks? No new ones

Sleep? I tend to toss and turn a lot. My back aches when I sleep on my side, but I don't have any other option!

Movement? Some here and there, a lot stronger now. I can see my tummy move now.

Symptoms? Morning sickness...again!

Food cravings? None lately

Anything make you queasy or sick? Dog poop
SCH News? I had a bunch of bleeding in January, most likely from the hemorrhage. Other than that, no news is good!

Moment of the week? Taking the boys to the Carousal with Aunt Kim

Looking forward to? Feeling better! I've had a headache now for over 24 hours. And I woke up with a head cold. Since I've been battling headaches off and on for a few weeks, and since my blood pressure was elevated at my last appointment end of January, I called my nurse to see if I was okay to take medicine, which I don't normally do. In chatting with her, I mentioned that my eyes were a bit sore today as well, so she suggested checking my blood pressure regularly. If it's over 140/90, I'm to head to Labor and Delivery. Let's hope I don't have to! Go away headaches!