BUMP to BLIMP

33 week progress pic...

My "cute little" bump has grown into a blimp and I am starting my Goodyear days!!!  She's a little mover and shaker in there but maybe more a ballerina than soccer player.  She has recently started to push out on my sides and for about 20 seconds at a time and my skin will be HARD in that area.  All I can think is she isn't comfortable in there?? I also worry she is claustrophobic (heck I would be!!)

So far I have steered clear of belly stretch marks and my belly button is still an innie, woohoo!!  I am knocking on wood as I type...6.5 weeks to go and I am going to continue my daily oil and lotion lubing to help avoid the stretch marks.  However, I do think that the extra belly skin I had pre-pregnancy has helped out as well (I knew having that little pooch would be beneficial one day) ;)

I have certainly reached the uncomfortable stage and although I have thoughts of "I am ready for her to come", I also know I need to enjoy the calm before the storm, because once she is here I will be tired, uncomfortable AND have to care for an infant.  I'll take the uncomfortable for now!!

I could scream!!!

UGHHHHHHHH!!!!! Remember that lovely project I worked so many hours on to put the frames with Raya's name on the wall???? Well yeaterday morning I walked past the room and noticed that two had fallen from the wall, one just the ribbon had become un-glued from the frame no biggie easy fix....and well the other one BROKE in two different areas, WAAAAaaaaahhhhhhHHHHH!!!! I spent the morning and covered a total of 4 different Marshall's, and a Home Goods and TJ Maxx and of COURSE they don't carry that frame anymore. Either I find 4 totally new frames OR some damn good heavy duty glue :(

Tim says do you realize you are going to spend a day looking for a frame?? I said uhhh yeah!! He doesn't get it!

Little Big Foot

At 28 weeks we had another and final ultrasound, due to all the testing and checking in we had a total of 7 ultrasounds - I'm totally not complaining though that is 7 times we were able to check in and get sneak peaks of our little girl!  They wanted to check to make sure my placenta had lifted from my cervix because at my 20 week ultrasound they noticed it was lying a little close which can be a symptom of placenta praevia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placenta_praevia.  Thankfully at this 28 week ultrasound it had lifted and everything checked out "normal", PHEW!  After all I went through in the first and second tri-mesters which diagnosed me as high-risk, I have now turned into a low-risk pregnancy, what a relief!!

Our little sweet pea is running out of room inside so they weren't able to get great images but we got a few and a good one of her little big foot!

Sleeping and eating...not so much!

This is exactly what has been going on for the past week and this is an excerpt from What to Expect;

With midnight bathroom runs, leg cramps, heartburn, and your basketball-sized belly, it's no wonder sleep is elusive. Third-trimester insomnia strikes about three-quarters of pregnant women (who may also be coping with a mind that races all night long thinking about your to-do-before-the-baby-comes list).

To my recollection I have never experienced heartburn so a few nights ago when I was woken by a shooting pain through my upper ribcage I was confused...after some googling (of course) I realized that I had made my famous turkey meatballs for dinner which was accompanied by tomato sauce = acidic, and discovered yuck this is heartburn!!!! It was hard to breath, I couldn't lay down or sit down, so I made tea, and did some laps around the downstairs area. A fly on the wall must have been amused by that, front door to kitchen then lap around the kitchen island into living room and circle back to front door, I did this about 6 times, haha. I could finally breath again.

The next night I hardly ate anything and I had dozed off on the couch for about a half hour then came upstairs to go to bed, well that didn't go as planned. As soon as I laid down I felt like whatever food I had eaten hours ago was still sitting halfway between my chest and throat...ughhhh not this again?!? I dug deep into our medicine drawer and found Tums I had bought a long time ago (honestly I think I had bought them for our honeymoon but never used them), thankfully my forgetfulness was not in action at the time bcs. I found them, they happened to not be expired, YAY, and took two of them. We'll disregard the fact that I just brushed my teeth before I had to chew them, at least it was better than drinking OJ after brushing your teeth. After about 30 minutes and some iPad reading I felt a little better and was able to lay down and sleep, until I was woken by having to go to the bathroom - such a vicious cycle.

Any of you that know me know I have a very good appetite. Could be why I never seem to lose that "extra 10 pounds". I know I'm pregnant I'm not supposed to talk about dieting, regardless I love to eat, I love food and there is very rarely anything left on my plate when I eat, ok now I sound like a food hoarder, ha!! Well times have unfortunately changed :( Anytime I eat I am full for hours after, I am supposed to be eating several small meals to try to avoid heartburn but I just don't have much of an appetite because I am nervous it will all lead back to that one dreadful (lap around the kitchen) night of heartburn. My portion sizes are way down and I am headed back to the world of bland foods. Sigh...

Oh yeah and I do get the leg cramps too, I keep visualizing that it's cellulite growing, LOL! I don't know how they compare my uterus to the size of a honeydew melon at this stage when from the outside it looks like I swallowed...well quite frankly a baby!

Less than 60 days to go!

I have approximately 52 days until "d-day" (delivery day) and thought it would be a good time to reflect on how the first two tri-mesters have gone. My mom said the other day and I agree, it feels like just yesterday I announced that I was pregnant and at the same time it seems like I've been pregnant forever. Thank god I am not an elephant, those poor animals are pregnant for two years!!

First Tri-mester
-Excitement
-Nervous
-Sore boobs
-Headaches
-Exhaustion, I don't take naps and I napped often (Zaras favorite time of the pregnancy!)
-Heigtened sense of smell, unfortunately for Tim I didn't cook much if at all during the first few months...didn't want to go near Asain food!
-CARBS! Bagels, pasta, toast, PB, Mac and cheese!
-The first ultrasound and hearing the heartbeat for the first time, so exciting!!
-The family reveal
-Discussions about finding out the sex ahead of time or not and starting to think of names
-Forgetfulness, which is why I can't remember what else happened in first tri-mester

Second Tri-mester
-Revealing pregnancy to friends
-APPENDICITIS:(
-Started buying maternity clothes
-Belly started to show
-Boobs seemed larger
-Veins more pronounced in chest and stomach area, as I referred to it a road map across my chest
-Flutters and tiny kicks in the belly
-Gender reveal on Thanksgiving, so special!!!
-Energy back to normal (post appendicitis)
-Started registering which lead to super nesting phase
-Painted nursery and put crib together over Christmas weekend
-Belly got even bigger
-Name reveal at Christmas
-NY visit/shower
-Babymoon
-More nesting
-Went from high risk pregnancy to low risk!! Yay!

Start of Third Tri-mester
-Have gained 26 pounds already, yikes!!
-Bought more maternity clothes
-Nursery is 90% done
-Lots of movement in the belly, I may be give birth to a jr. Cirque du Soliel performer ;)
-Nasal congestion
-Belly growing more and stomach feels tight
-Parenting classes start
-Appetite has returned but stomach has shrunk :(
-Dizzy spells = no fun!
-Exhaustion and headaches return
-Nervousness returns thinking about how life is going to change in two short months!!

I am excited for the adventures of the next two months and should take advantage of just Tim and me time while we still have it!!

The Happiest Place on Earth

February 4th was our nephew Marty's 2nd birthday and in lieu of a party we did a family day at Disney yesterday!!  The day started off a little chilly and drizzly but the clouds parted and it was a beautiful and fun day.  We got to see so many characters, Pluto, Goofy, Daffy Duck and a day at Disney wouldn't be the same without seeing MICKEY!!  Marty had so much fun playing with Uncle Tim and we had a great time...how could you not at the "Happiest Place on Earth"??

Marty and Uncle Tim meet Pluto

 Marty takes a ride in Toontown

 Chris, Elena and Marty meet Mickey!

We are adding this day to the list of lucky places Raya has had the chance to visit before she even knew it ;)  I think she had fun she was wiggling around most of the day.  She got to ride on the Pirates of The Carrabean, It's a Small World, and the Buzz Lightyear ride, she even got her picture with Mickey...next time we go to Disney probably means we will have to visit the "Princess land" and say "no" to all the items she will want us to buy! I will look back and think it was alot easier going to Disney last time!!

Raya meets M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!

31 weeks and growing

WOW I just looked back at my previous belly posts :O  In just 10 weeks I went from THIS, http://www.babyaltbaum.blogspot.com/2011/12/halfway-there.html to THIS (above!).  Two month countdown begins, crazy how fast the time is going now!!

Labor of Love Letters

Months ago I got an email from some children's online company and while browsing through I saw Dr. Seuss letters in frames that you can hang on the wall and I thought it was a really cute way to place a kids name on the wall, however I knew that the nursery was not going to have a Dr. Seuss theme...the search BEGAN...

The nursery has developed into a soft, feminine, French-esque look and feel... damask patterns and colors of ivory, grey and pale pink.  The bedding that inspired it all I found on Carousel Designs, http://www.babybedding.com/paris-script-crib-bedding. 

So I was at Marshall's one day pretty much after we knew it was a girl and the name was decided and I came across four frames that had a cool damask scroll engraved pattern on them but the issue was two were ivory and two were grey, not a HUGE deal but I like coordination.  I couldn't pass the frames up so I bought them!

After a few weeks of looking around a little more (which to me means checking every Marshall's,  Ross, and Home Goods etc in the vicinity of 25 miles around me) I hadn't found four that all matched or a style that I liked any better.  As I thought and thought I figured a little spray paint might do the trick, since I DID want to incorporate pink accents on the walls and in the decor anyways.  Off to Home Depot I went, pick up a can of pale pink spray paint and home I went to start this project. 

I sprayed the frames to all coordinate, they are not 100% matching since they were different base colors to begin with but it was definitely going to work.

Next project was getting the letters inside the frame...I toted over to Michael's and picked up the wood block letters in 4x6 size.  After raiding the paper section I found the perfect grey damask pattern to use for the letters.  I got home traced the letters on the paper and cut away. I glued them to an ivory backing and that step was done!

The project was coming together BUT how was I going to hang them.  Did I mention yet there was not hooks on the back??  Nope, these frames were only the stand up ones...what to do!!

I did some research online and came across the creative and cute way to hang them by ribbon BUT what kind of "hook" would I use to attach the ribbon to the wall without it being a boring nail or screw.  Back to the Internet research I went and found this brilliant resolution of hanging them from decorative drawer knobs in the wall.  Here is the site in case you want to attempt sometime, http://www.simplymodernmom.com/2010/01/diy-mounting-knobs-on-walls/, it actually wasn't that hard to do, PHEW!

Ok so now we were 75% there, I glue gunned the ribbon to the back of the frames and that is some strong glue to hold that ribbon to the heavy frames.  Where was I going to find cute knobs that worked with the theme of the room??? Checked Home Depot, blech-boring, Lowes-even worse, online-some cute stuff but I didn't have patience to wait for something to come in the mail.  I went to Urban Outfitters and BAM there was four clear glass flower-ish knobs that would TOTALLY work and only $4 each (even better price than the ones I saw at other places that weren't as nice).  I have learned my lesson to buy something when I see it bcs. it might not be there when  I go back.  Later that day I happened to be by Anthropologie and checked in there and found THE MOST PERFECT ONES....BUT they were $16 each :O  They were rhinestone flower pattern (not going to dwell, they were beautiful but as Tim reminded me I wouldn't spend $64 on so many things was I really going to spend it on something to hang $8 frames from??).  I left them there and went home to my ones I had bought already and the measuring began for the hanging.

Everything was going flawless until we realized that the knob placement for the "R" was going into a wood beam and as timing would have it the electric drill battery died, UGHHHHHH, we were almost there, my like 3 month project was finally coming to life and came to a screeching halt.  I couldn't resist I hung the A, Y and A, while we waited for the drill to charge.  It actually wasn't until the next day that we FINALLY got the R hung and I couldn't be happier with the result. Who knows how much my $7.99 frames ended up costing at the end of this project, but I love them and think they are a perfect addition above the changing table!