WoW

2012 Was  A Year!

As my hubby laid in bed last night and relived our year, we decided that we did ALOT!

It was amazing and we are so lucky to have the opportunities we did.

Just a  quick photo recap....

 New Years 2011-2012 in London, UK with the our friends!

The Best New Years ever!

Followed by a trip St Augustine Florida mid January for some warmth.  

March started off rough with me being re-ended and ending up on muscle relaxes for a week.  

But then.....

 

Joe turned 30!!!!

Old man =0)

 April was a little sad with Joe's parents heading south to retire in Florida.  

However we partied it up-

 Celebrating both our 3rd Anniversary and my 30th Birthday in Hawaii in May and June!

 June/July was a summer of Friends- literally our house was full with visitors almost weekend!!!

Then I came down with a little bug.....

Hello Baby OH!

 Our annual Labor Day visit to Maine on Little Diamond Island. 

September Clemson Football Game with our friends!!!

 

Our big Europe Trip to Rome and Paris- booked Pre-Bug.  

An amazing trip.

 In October we found out that we would be having a little boy!

OH BOY!

 Smaller trips followed to St Augustine Florida for a much needed girls weekend and then Thanksgiving in Florida with Joe's family.

I am officially done with traveling!

 

Christmas we finished off the Year in NOVA with my family.  

We were fortunate to witness so many engagements, babies being born, friends graduating and people moving!!! 

2012 was amazing....

But with bug on the 2013 will be even more eventful. 

Here is to saying goodbye to 2012 and hello to 2013!

Maternity Clothes... 101

So the bump finally popped! 

It took 27 weeks but I now at 30+ weeks
I officially feel pregnant and I am starting to run out of wardrobe options. 

So I decided to email one of my friends with regards to her pregnancy wardrobe three weeks ago.

She made a couple of recommendations for me. 

-  Buy a couple basics

-  Shop at places that do not sell Maternity Stuff

-  Borrow if possible

-  Find outfits in our closet that can work pregnant and non pregnant.

I do not want to spend a lot of money on my pregnancy wardrobe because the reality was that I have only 3 more months to be pregnant and also I can wear scrubs at work everyday so I am very fortunate in the fact that I do not have to purchase "professional/work" clothes. 

So I started out last weekend by visiting one of my friends who was nice enough to let me borrow a couple of basics. 

-1 Long sleeve pregnancy black Shirt from Target Maternity

-1 Pregnancy Sweater from Motherhood Maternity

-1 Pregnancy Dress from Motherhood Maternity

-1 Pregnancy skirt

- 2 sets of pregnancy leggins

I then really looked thru my closet and found that I have 3-4 sweater dresses that would work perfect with Maternity leggins.  I also had 2-3 sweater that worked well with jeans and a couple of shirts. 

I also borrowed a Target Maternity Pregnancy Sweat Dress from another friend. 

So Saturday afternoon, I headed out to H&M on a recommendation. 

I will admit that I have never ever been into this store. 

I walked in with an open mind. 
I left with a sweater dress and a regular dress that I am hoping I can wear to my shower. 

Both cost me 40 dollars. 

Neither were pregnancy items but they way they were cut, they were perfect and have lots of wiggle room. 

Then on Sunday, I headed to Destination Maternity to shop for a really nice pair of Jeans. 

Since I do not have to spend a lot of money maternity clothes, I knew that I wanted to buy 1 nice pair of Maternity Jeans.  I felt a little guilty about spending this much money on jeans but when I reminded myself that I had not purchases a single piece of clothing since July so I did not feel bad because 4 months of not purchasing a single item justified it in my mind.
 I decided on a pair of 7 for All Mankind Maternity Jeans in Petite once my hubby pointed out how cute my butt looked.
DONE and DONE!!!

This was my splurge!!!

Any pregnancy pieces of clothing that you loved? 

28+ weeks

Late again but the holidays decided to get in the way.  

Over a week ago I had my 28+ week appointment.  

Life so far in the third trimester has been a piece of cake!

At my appointment I did my glucose test which to be honest I was dreading just because I had been craving so much fruit which has natural sugars in it that I thought for sure I was going to be diabetic.  So I got there at 1pm to drink my orange drink which to be honest was not bad at all.... 

Hello Sunkist- It was almost like a treat!

I then waited for an hour and had my blood drawn and rhogam given because my blood type is negative.  A shot in the butt- nothing says Happy Holidays more!

My 28 week appointment itself was uneventful.

Blood pressure is good.

Up 6 pounds from pre-pregnancy weight so now Joe can get off my back.

Measuring 27 weeks via fundal height- a little small but as my midwife pointed out- 

"You are small!"  Thanks for the obvious statement there.

Fetal heart Rate 150s

I did find it funny when she was listen to your heartbeat bug that she commented on how strong my abdominal muscles where and why that is probably why I am not showing more.  I came back with "Well that is what happens when you throw up for 4 months straight!"  Which got both a chuckle out of her and the nurse.  

The rest of the visit was pretty normal.  

Their discussion points I had already pretty much figured out.

At a 28 week visit they discuss

1) Peditricians- Check already done!

2) Circumcision- Check already discussed

3) Probiotics to help decrease chance of GBS- Check already purchases and have been taking daily

4) Cord blood banking- no thank you- I am not a believer in this! 

Now that we are in the third trimester they want us to come in every 2 weeks- this is craziness.  

So fortunately I asked the midwife if she would be ok if I made it ever 3-4 since I live in Fairfax with the knowledge that I would call if I had any problems.  They were very agreeable to this which made me very happy! So our next appointment will be in three weeks from our last or two weeks from now.  

I got a call a couple days later from my midwife letting me know that I passed my glucose test with flying color- WAHOO!!!

Some notes about the third trimester so far:

For the most part I really have no complaints.  

I find that I am still having a hard time eating full meals and have accepted that from now on I am just going to snack when I am hungry and not eat when I am not.  (Again poor Joe who will be eating dinners by himself.)  The meat aversion still continues as well as my cravings for fruits.  

I am becoming a master sleeper.  

I can sleep anywhere- the car, the couch, and I can sleep 12+ hours a day if I have the time.  The nap has become my favorite thing to do.  

Pregnancy clothes- well it happed.  

At 27 1/2 weeks I broke out the Maternity Jeans and the other maternity clothes that I have.  I have only purchased a couple things which I am hoping will get me thru the pregnancy.  Maternity clothes shopping can be very frustrating- I went into find a long white t-shirt that I could wear as an undershirt or with my sweaters and basically nothing fit because I am so short!   Fortunately I think I am going to try Target after the holiday craziness has stopped.  

Bug- Clemson I think offically knows that you are coming.  

I went looking for all of his toys two weeks ago and found it funny that he had brought them all up stairs to your room.  So I moved his dog bed in there and his toy bin.  

Your room is now his favorite place to sit.

So cute!!!

 

Joe has started talking to you at night and whenever he goes to feel you move, of course you stop moving.  This totally makes me laugh!

 

We are slowly getting your nursery put together - more to come on that later.

Trial Run

The last two weeks have not been my week....

I caught a really really bad head cold that started on Monday.  

I tried to fight it all week but no luck.  

Thursday after multiple nurses and doctors in L/D telling me I looked like death- I came home early and took a sick day for Friday.  

Friday consisted of bed, couch, and more bed. 

Chicken noodle soup and Orange juice were pretty much what i lived off of from Thursday till Saturday.   

Saturday I was feeling a little better but still not great so I decided to just take it easy and take Clemson for a walk just because I needed to get out of the house. 

Clemson came running down the stairs and took me out while I was on the stairs.  

Yes- he took me out- legs when flying and I went tumbling down the stairs.  

It hurt like crap and of course I screamed out.  

Normally I would just take it easy but of course be pregnant- I know the risk of falls.

Placenta abruption, fetal death, bleeding, etc-  

So Joe helped me up and I went and sat on the couch for a while, 

while I thought Joe was going to kill Clemson.  

This was actually kind of humorous because Clemson had no idea what he did and as soon as I fell he wanted nothing but to give me kisses and sit next to me.  

So I laid down and just could not feel him move at all- which is weird because he is a mover.  

I started having a little cramping which was nothing compared to the back pain.  

Being a midwife, I knew that I should call my practice and they were going to tell me to come in.  

Fortuatnely the midwife I have been seeing for most of my visits was on and she wanted me to come in to be on the safe side.  

This part was a little commical because while I was totally being Zen Pregnant Laura.....

Joe was being Crazy Pregnant Joe. 

 If fact at one point- I asked him to stop stressing because he was stressing me out.  

Of course we get to triage in the hospital and he starts moving like crazy, so much that it took two nurses and me holding the monitor to keep him on.  After about 1 1/2 hours of monitoring, everything looked good and the midwife offerred for me to go home.  

Of course I jumped at the chance to go home.  

They advised that I will be sore for the next couple days because of the fall- which I am, and that I should still monitor for kick counts, preterm labor signs and symptoms and bleeding- which thankfully have all been normal.  

While this is not how either of us wanted to spend out Saturday afternoons,

it was good to have a trial run with the hospital for Joe's sake more than mine!

He now knows where to park, where to go, what to expect, etc....

All I want for Christmas...

It has been come a joke around our house...

All I want for Christmas is ....

A Crib!

After having such a hard time with the crib as previously blogged about,
I was starting to think that come March we would be bring bug home to a pack n play. 
Which would be fine but I just totally did not want to deal with a crib AND a new baby at the same time if could be avoided.  

So I was so excited when I got a call last Sunday to arrange dropping off the crib and dresser.
It only took 2 weeks to come in- Christmas Miracle!

It came this Friday....

So excited....

So thank you to my parents, Joe's parents and Joe for getting me the best Christmas gifts ever!

Now we can work on the rest of the room....

 

Adding some Lemon into Life.

All and all I can not complain about being pregnant, however lately I have been wanting more variety in my drink selection.  It hard when people are having a glass of wine or beer and I am just drinking boring water!  For a while I would buy sparkling Lemonade when I saw it at HomeGoods but I felt guilty because it was anywhere from 70-140 calories a serving. 

So I decided to look for another option.
When I was in Bed Bath and Beyond completely my Christmas shopping I spotted this County Time Lemonade for our Soda Stream- i.e Sparkling Lemonade. 

They make a Crystal Light Lemonade for Soda Stream but have not be able to find it in the store and only online at the SodaStream Website where I have to pay 7 dollars for shipping which is a little ridiculous!

 It was 35 calories a serving so a little less guilty.
 I decided to try it at $5.99 minus 20% coupon that I had.  I decided to put only a half of a cap full in thinking it would be
1) Less calories and
2) Less Sweet.  

I totally love it!.  

It is so good and nice to have something different and fun to drink.  

Maternity Tour

Joe and I signed up for our Maternity tour and went a couple of weekends ago.

Yes I was only 24 weeks but the two dates that they had in December did not work and the two dates in Janaury also did not work- and I was not waiting until February to do the tour because the Farmers Almanc is calling for some major winter storms, not to mention we had time to do it now.

So Saturday we headed over to drop off Clemson at my parents since we were going to have dinner with them later and then headed out to the tour.

The Birthing in at Loudoun Hospital is nice in the fact that it is a separate part of the hospital and it does have a very calming atmosphere.  It only has 9 labor rooms which is minor when compared to Fairfax which is why I picked it. 

So we showed up for the tour which was large.

Probably at least 15 couples or 30 people.

The tour was given by a hospital administrator- not a nurse which I thought was interesting. 

We were walked thru triage, Labor and Delivery room, Postpartum room, nursery, etc. 

It last approximately 30 minutes. 

While it was probably great for Joe, I thought it very very generic compared to the tour we give where I work.  This might be because ours is given by a nurse. 

Joe and I did find humor in the questions people asked. 

For example, one lady was fixated on the fact that you can have gatoraid during labor and wanted to know what flavors were provided.  Seriously, I do not think you are going to be worried about this when you are trying to push a watermelon out of your vagina. 

Joe felt good knowing where to go and what to expect. 

Me the only thing I learned that I did not think of was to bring my check book to fill out the social security info.  Considering this was free it was worth doing, however if baby number 2 ever comes I think this is definitely something I will bypass even if delivering at another hospital. 

Clemson on the other hand had a busy day at my parents and was exhausted by the time we got home.