37+ Week Update

I'm late doing my 37 Week Update.  I didn't feel like blogging this weekend.  Silas got a flu shot and he seemed a little under the weather all weekend.  I was sure I was getting the stomach flu on Saturday, but thankfully nothing ever came from that!  Silas is almost all back to normal today so I think it was just his shot. 

Today the weather was crazy!  It was raining when we woke up and by about 10 am it was snowing like crazy and cold enough to stick.  I decided that after our naps I was going to bundle us up and go outside.  Silas has never played in the snow.  He loved it!  I need to get him some boots and I'm thinking a snow suit would be good.  As it was I put 3 pairs of pants on him and his sneakers, a few long sleeved tops and his puffy coat.  My mom bought him these little mitten-like things (they had no finger or thumb dividers, but I don't think a 17 month old needs them anyway) and he seemed to keep pretty warm.  He didn't want to come inside. 

I'm hoping to keep getting him outside this winter.  He needs to get out and play.  It took a long time for us to get ready to go, and I know it will only get worse once there's 2 of them to dress for the cold.  I'm thinking that by the time our second son arrives and I feel like venturing out again, I will be able to put him in a carrier under my coat and I will know he is safe and warm and Silas will be able to run around.  Plus, I'm sure we will be able to streamline our "getting ready routine" if we do it more often.  Today I bundled us up and by the time we were ready I was hungry and Silas needed a diaper change.  So we had to take a break.  Haha.  But we made it and it was great.

OK!  The Update!

 How far along?  37 weeks.

Size of Baby:  One website says the size of a swiss chard, the other says a honeydew melon.  I swear we already did a honeydew melon.  In any case, just over 19 inches and 6 1/3 pounds.  When Silas was born he was 19 inches and 7 pounds even, so this baby is almost there! 

Weight Gain:  I'm still packing it on.  Hooray. 

Nursery:  No news here, I'm hoping to get up there this week and work on it.  My friend texted me today that she was working on her new baby's room while her son slept and I was... sleeping.  Of course. 

Movement:  He's still moving!  When I was pregnant with Silas I didn't know the difference between the Braxton Hicks contractions and the baby moving.  Maybe that sounds silly, but I just thought he was really stretching in there and that's what I was feeling.  Now, I'm still a little confused, but I know a bit better.  I remember getting a stress test and I was strapped up to a machine and I had a contraction and the doctor said "You can't feel that?" and I said "I feel that, I thought that was the baby!"  I hope I'm not the only one.   

Symptoms:  The never ending heart burn.  Tonight I'm going to finish one of my 2 bottles of Tums that I bought the last time I was at Walgreens.  I decided I eat a lot of acidic foods and that's not helping, but there's nothing to do about it now.  If I ever get pregnant again I'm going to buy stock in antacids. 

Cravings:  I want a grilled cheese to dip in some tomato soup.     

Looking forward to:  Thanksgiving.  We switch families every year because it's just too far to drive to both.  This year is Aaron's family and I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone.  And eating.  I'm planning to make a big pan of my macaroni and cheese.  It's so good.   

So how do you feel about getting out in the cold?  Any tricks for toddlers and little babies in the cold?  What about Thanksgiving food?  What's your favorite and what are you bringing?       

36 Week Update

I feel like I was just saying "I can't do this for another 10 weeks!"  Now there's only 4.  The last time I saw my midwife I was already 1 centimeter dilated.  I understand you can walk around a centimeter dilated for weeks, but I was still excited.  Baby is head down, and bald!  But I could have told you that.  We make bald babies. 

Things have been so sweet here.  This might be the calm before the storm.  I've decorated the house, my husband thinks it's too early, but I absolutely love it.  It's so beautiful and soothing.  Plus, I don't think I'll be wanting to do it in a couple weeks after Thanksgiving.  I want it now!

I bought a 3 foot tree.  I wasn't going to do a tree this year, I was afraid Silas wouldn't leave it alone, but I peeked in a bin of Christmas ornaments and spotted some of the cute "Baby's First Christmas" ornaments and got really sad that they might be packed away indefinitely if I couldn't come up with a solution.  So I bought a small tree, picked a few special, plastic ornaments, and decorated.  It's an awful picture, but it's a great tree and it makes me happy.

We also decided to try and push Silas's bedtime back to 7 pm.  He had been waking up before 6 am and that's too early.  Despite all the experts saying that we should put him to bed even earlier to see if that would help him sleep in, we decided to keep him up a bit longer since their way wasn't working.  Normally we would start bedtime at 6:30-6:45, but now we are starting at 7 and I'm typically out of the room by 7:20.  He's usually asleep before 7:45.  And now he's sleeping until 6:30-7 am.  It's great.  We're still transitioning in the nap department, I thought we had that down, but 2 good days does not mean you have it all figured out, unfortunately.  The best part of this has been that Silas is in a good mood by the time Aaron gets home and we have been enjoying this time as a family.  We're all sitting on the floor, rolling a ball or playing with blocks or reading books and it's been my favorite part of the day.  I feel so blessed.

One more picture before I get on to the update.  This is my dear friend Meghan.  We celebrated her with a baby sprinkle this weekend.  She is expecting her first baby girl early next year.  Her son is a month younger than mine and her daughter will be a month younger than my new baby.  So funny how that worked out.  I love this picture of us!

Have I mentioned how HOT I've been this pregnancy?  It's 30 degrees outside and snowing and here I am in a sleeveless dress.  OK!  To the update! 

 How far along?  36 weeks.

Size of Baby:  A papaya!  18.5 inches and 6 pounds. 

Weight Gain:  Last time I calculated it was about 20 pounds.  Math is fun. 

Nursery:  Aaron and my dad moved the crib and the dresser into his room.  They disassembled one table and I will need to move that downstairs this week.  After that I want to organize the drawers with all the clothes and such.  Then it's pretty much done! 

Movement:  I think he's running out of womb.  Har har har. 

Symptoms:  I bought 2 bottles of Tums the last time I was at Walgreens.  I'm hoping they will be my last, but I'm not sure.

Cravings:  My appetite isn't there anymore.  It's like the first trimester all over again.  I want a really good grapefruit but I keep buying duds.  I gotta find a good grapefruit.   

Looking forward to:  Finishing up the last minute things?  I froze my "Kid's Klub" account at the gym, I don't think I'll be going for a while, or taking Silas if I do go and they don't watch babies under 3 months of age so #2 won't be able to go for a while anyway.  Finishing the nursery.  Lastly, I want to organize our basement a little because I think we will be spending some time down there this winter.  Lots of room for an 18 month old boy to run around!     

Pregnancy Pillows and the 35 Week Update

35 weeks today!  Before I do the update, I want to talk really quickly about the two pregnancy pillows I've tried this pregnancy.  My friend got me this awesome pregnancy pillow.  It's called a Belly Rest Pillow.  I love it because it's so small and it can be positioned to support your belly and your back.  I think this one is great if you have a smaller bed, or haven't sent your partner to sleep on the couch yet.  It's awesome.  My other friend had given me her Leacho Inc Preggle Pillow and that pillow has been great too.  It's bigger, and shaped like a candy cane.  Once you throw your partner out of bed, you have this nice big pillow to snuggle.  Every time I go lay down I think "This thing is amazing."  I didn't feel the need for a special pillow when I was pregnant with Silas, but this time having the extra support in bed has been nice.  I've been using both these pillows together.  Double the back support, and having a cushion to support my big belly has been really nice.  Here's links to both pillows on amazon, if you need one or just want the bed to yourself.

The Leacho Pillow 

The Belly Rest Pillow

Grendel prefers the Belly Rest

On to the whiny update!  I've been walking around all week thinking I was already 36 weeks, so when I opened my pregnancy tracking app and saw I was only 35 weeks, I groaned, really loudly, at Target.  By myself.  Good thing I was there for Ben & Jerry's.  On the one hand, I'm scared of having a newborn again and how much that's going to change our lives.  On the other hand, I'm so uncomfortable, I want to be done.  I think I need to work on my attitude.  Christmas decorations may help.  I don't care how early it is. There may be a LOT of whining in this post, so feel free to skip the reading and come back in a couple weeks or 8 months or so. 

35 Week Update

How far along?  35 weeks.

Size of Baby:  Honeydew melon, over 18 inches long and over 5 pounds! 

Gender:  Boy!

Weight Gain:  I ain't even.  I feel like my skeleton doesn't want to support my body anymore, my tailbone doesn't want me to sit on it.

Nursery:  I'm happy to say I have gotten a lot done up there.  I put all my jewelry tools and odds and ends into bins and moved them downstairs to storage.  It was a little sad.  I don't know when I'm going to get them out again.  I moved most of the furniture that isn't staying in there to the basement and all the bins of baby boy clothes up to the closet in his room.  I have emptied the dresser that is going in his room and as soon as we get a couple more things out of there, I'm moving that up and I'll start organizing the drawers.  Then I think all that's left after that is moving the crib in.  It's already upstairs and I tried to push it down the hallway, but it got stuck.  My mom has been a huge help in this process.  I can't do this kind of thing with Silas running around and I nap when he does, so she's been coming over to hang with him so I can get some work done.  I know a more motivated person might skip the napping, but I am not that woman.

Movement:  Still kicking like crazy. 

Symptoms:  Heartburn as always, I'm waking up a few times at night to eat some Tums.  I knew I should have bought more than one bottle last time I was at Walgreens.  As I grabbed just one I thought to myself "This is the last bottle I'm going to need for this pregnancy!"  Yeah, right.  My back is also hurting by the end of the day.  I'm leaning on a heating pad in the evenings. 

Cravings:  Grapefruit.  Salad.  Ice.  Ice cream.  Pulled pork sammiches. 

Looking forward to:  I guess the last few little things before winter sets in. My dear friend is having a little girl in January and we are throwing her a sprinkle next weekend.  My dad's birthday is coming up and we're doing a joint "party" with my husband since he just had a birthday.  Thanksgiving is around the corner.  I love turkey. 

Did you use a pregnancy pillow?  More importantly, is it too early for Christmas decorations?  Let's talk about it in the comments. 

Halloween and a Soup Recipe!

I know I'm a few days late now, but I want to recap our Halloween.  We had so much fun!  On the 24th we went to a party at our very dear friend's house.  All the kids were dressed up, but I was the only mom in costume!  I don't know why this keeps surprising me.  I get really into Halloween and dressing up is my favorite part.  I decided early on that I wasn't spending any money on our costumes.  Silas is still little and we have so much fabric and costume accessories I wanted to work with what we've got.  I went as a witch and Silas went as an "imp."  I didn't get any good pictures though!  The actual day of Halloween we woke up to a little snow!  It was snowing big, fluffy flakes and was cold!  It didn't stick though and quickly warmed up, but not much!  When trick or treating started it was so windy and cold I kept waffling about whether or not to take Silas out and what kind of "costume" to put on him.  His imp costume was just a cut up old tee shirt, but it was too cold for that.  I ended up taking him in his regular clothes and coat with his bear hat on his head.  We went to 5 houses.  He's 17 months old, so he doesn't really care, you know?  I just knew the neighbors would miss him if they didn't see him so I have to do right thing and give people their dose of adorable.  My husband hates when I say things like that.  Says I sound conceited. 

Pretty and festive!  

I whipped up this soup on Halloween morning on a whim.  We grew butternut squash in our garden this year and I'm trying to use it up.  Sometimes I just slice it, bake it and feed it to the gentlemen, but I thought a nice warm soup would be good for us to eat on a chilly Friday.  I had already baked off a squash so this came together fast!  If you want to make this you will have to cut your squash in half, lay cut side down on a baking sheet, and bake until soft.  Depending on the size of your squash it may take a half hour to an hour.  I made a really small batch because I wasn't sure if we would like it.  Well, I have made it 3 times since, so needless to say, we like it a lot! 

Butternut Squash Soup

• 1 precooked butternut squash, skin peeled off.

• 2 tablespoons butter or olive or coconut oil, you can use less if you want, but I wanted our soup to be rich so I used butter.

• 1-2 tablespoons minced garlic, we're scared of vampires so we use lots of garlic.

• Spice, I used about 3 teaspoons of Trader Joe's Everyday Seasoning.  This comes in a grinder bottle and contains salt, mustard seeds, black pepper, coriander, onion, garlic, paprika and chili pepper.  If you don't have this blend you could simply use salt, pepper, onion, maybe a little nutmeg or cinnamon?  Nutmeg would be tasty. 

• Water or milk to thin the soup.

Melt the butter in a large pot.  Add the garlic and saute on medium until fragrant and lightly browned.  Add in your spices and stir.  Add the squash, and milk or water.  You may want to turn the heat up a little if you're in a rush.  I used my immersion blender to blend everything together into a really smooth soup.  The first time I used only water, but today when I made it I used whole milk and my goodness, it was so rich.  Perhaps a little too rich.  Butternut squash bisque, if you will. 

How was your Halloween?  Do you like butternut squash soup?  Do you have other ideas for using it up?  

 

Sad, sad cookies.

Today was the most beautiful fall day.  I took Silas on two walks in the neighborhood.  The leaves are falling and crunchy, the colors are beautiful, there was a little breeze, absolutely perfect.  I had every intention of going to the gym today, but it didn't happen.  I'm getting tired, I feel huge and I'm not motivated.  Haha.  So we took naps and cooked.  I wanted cookies so I pulled out a favorite cook book and got baking.

 

I am a little upset. 

I followed the recipe, I even measured pretty exactly because I wanted GOOD cookies.  I have a tendency to change things and sometimes that doesn't work out but this time, I followed the recipe, dang it!  I'm guessing the author didn't test out her claim of "or coconut oil."  They do still taste good, so at least there's that.  You know I've been scraping them off the pan with a big spatula and eating it. 

I made soup too, and that turned out pretty good.  Thank goodness.  I can't deal with two failures in the kitchen in one day.  I even made mental notes of what I was doing so I could share it here.  

This is like a chicken chili or chicken tortilla inspired soup.   I'll call it Spicy Chicken Soup.  

For the chicken 

8 chicken tenderloin pieces or 4 boneless skinless breasts (I used Trader Joe's frozen tenderloins.) 

Fiesta Lime Mrs Dash 

Preheat oven to 350* and place the chicken on an oiled baking sheet.  Sprinkle liberally with the Mrs. Dash.  Bake until the chicken is no longer pink.  Mine took about 20 minutes.  Chop or shred, you're going to add this right to the soup at the end.  

For the Soup 

1 bag of Trader Joe's Fire Roasted Veggies or 1 medium onion and 2 bell peppers

1 cup Trader Joe's Fire Roasted Corn or whatever corn you have 

1 14 oz can tomatoes, I used "Southwestern with green chiles" 

1 14 oz can kidney beans

1/4 cup chili powder

2 tablespoons cumin

1 tablespoon garlic powder

pinch of cinnamon

pinch of cayenne

pinch of chipotle powder

Chicken stock or water and bouillon 

I started by cooking the bag of veggies on medium heat, these come frozen and cook down very quickly, then I added the corn and spices.  I try to keep things on the mild side so Silas can eat what we do, but I didn't do a very good job of that this time.  He ate a few beans, but I could tell it was too spicy for him.  Poor kid. Once that is cooked down, add the can of tomatoes and the beans.  At this point I added about 2 cups of water and a tablespoon of chicken bouillon.  Heat through.  When the chicken is done and chopped add that to the pot and stir.  Simmer on low for a while or until you remember you've got the stove on.  

You can serve this with tortilla chips, sour cream, cheese, fresh limes or whatever you like.  I shredded a little cheese on the top of mine.  

I love Trader Joe's.  These are a staple in our house.

The veggies, corn, tomatoes, beans and spices.

With the water and bouillon added.

Chicken fresh from the oven. 

 My bowl.

With cheese.  You can see Silas's little plate in the background.  He didn't love it. 

What have you messed up in your kitchen lately? 

32 Week Update

I'm just going to make this a quick one.  I haven't felt like writing this week.  We had some play dates, some crazy diaper rash and Silas got his flu shot.  We even made it to the gym twice.  Woot!  

How far along:  32 weeks.
   
Size of Baby:   A large jicama, 3 3/4 pounds, and nearly 17 inches.   
 

Weight Gain:  About 15 pounds.  Ahem.   

Nursery:  Now I'm starting to freak out about this.  I have 8 or 9 weeks tops.   

Movement:  He's still moving a lot.  I'm looking forward to him running out of room, maybe then he'll keep his arms and legs to himself.   

Symptoms:  Nothing new.  The usual aches and pains, having even more trouble getting comfortable for sleep.   

Cravings:   This baby desires lots and lots of protein.  I baked some chicken legs today and there were no leftovers.  I will be doing that again tomorrow. 

What I Miss:  I keep seeing these really yummy looking cocktails for fall.  We used to gather around the fire in the yard with the neighbors and roast marshmallows and sip delicious cocktails.  The fires are still going but sometimes I'm so tired by the end of the day, I won't even go out for a little fire and a marshmallow. 

Looking Forward To:  I'm planning to go to Chicago to see my friend's band next weekend.  I haven't seen his band play in probably 5 years and I haven't seen him since I was pregnant with Silas.  I'm looking forward to a little fun in the city.  OH!  And all the fun Halloween festivities! 

Overnight Oats and 31 Week Update

I can't believe I'm 31 weeks today!  It's cooler here, but I know I'm in the home stretch because I've started crunching ice.  When I was pregnant with Silas I ate so much ice at the end.  It drove my supervisor crazy.  I made at least 2 trays of ice at work everyday and ate them.  A quick google search says this may be a sign of anemia.  I better thaw out some steaks to be on the safe side.  Anything for a steak.  

I wanted to share my overnight oats "recipe" with you guys.  I like to have this made and ready to go so I don't have to worry about breakfast in the morning.  The recipe is basic and very easy, with endless possibilities.  A quick google search will yield so many variations, you could try a new one everyday for a year probably.  I use old fashioned rolled oats, but any oats work, except maybe steel cut oats.  The special thing I've started doing is making these in mason jars.  I take about 6 jars, measure out the oats, maybe add some chia seeds, and then every couple nights add some fresh mix-ins, the milk and shake!  It makes our mornings that much easier. 

Basic Overnight Oats
1/2 cup Oats.
1/2 cup milk of your choice, any will work: almond, soy, rice, cow, goat, emu.  Sometimes I use water if I'm adding yogurt.  We don't drink juice, but I bet you could use it.  Apple juice and cinnamon?  Yummy.

That's the basic formula, stir or shake, cover and refrigerate.

Add Ins
Fruit, frozen or fresh.
Pumpkin!
Yogurt, we like Greek.
Protein powder, you'd have to experiment with the amount of liquid if you added protein powder.  I've tried chocolate protein with peanut butter.  That is a breakfast with staying power.
Chia seeds, about a tablespoon will do, be sure to add extra liquid, chia seeds can absorb 10 times their weight in water!
Nuts or nut butter.
Sweetener if you want.  I like maple syrup, but someone ate it all (it was me).

Here's some pictures of the two I threw together tonight for tomorrow.

 This is 1/2 cup oats with frozen mixed berries for the Mr. and about 1/2 cup pumpkin puree and a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice for Silas and I. 

 Adding the milk, soy milk for the Mr. and whole milk us.

 All shook up!  Ready to soak in all that goodness.  You can microwave these for a nice hot breakfast or eat them cold.

Let's make the 31 week update quick!  The list is getting redundant.  The baby is now approximately 16 inches long and 3.3 pounds, about the size of a romaine lettuce.  I have put on more weight than I care to mention, I'm still having a boy, the nursery has barely been worked on,  he's kicking the bejesus out of me, I have heart burn and I'm out of my preferred brand of antacid (Walgreens brand, Tums style, tropical fruit flavored; this is very important), craving ice, missing wine, and looking forward to Halloween!