Counting Sheep and Bio Breaks

I just wanted to post a quick lil something.  Yesterday marked 31 weeks of pregnancy.  It's amazing how quickly time is flying by!  It seems like just yesterday I was looking at a pee stick with a + sign on it!

Husband and I met with our perinatal specialist and everything is progressing nicely.  As usual we have no new ultrasound pics to share because Miss Sofie G decided to flip into her birthing position with her head facing in.  So...it looks like we may not have any pictures from this point forward.  Sofia is 3 lbs. 14 oz. and is right on track for her growth.  The specialist also noted that she was very wiggly...my response, "story of my life, this I know."

All that said her flipping into birth position has done two things.  First, I am pretty much living on an average of 3-5 hours of sleep a night.  Sofia has decided that it is the perfect time to wake up as soon as I lay my head down to rest.  Second, her position shift has also put more pressure on my bladder so I am averaging four bio breaks (pee breaks) a night which also interrupts my sleep.  Some nights I try my best to slither (the best way a lady with a watermelon can) out of bed so as not to wake up sleeping beauty.  Sometimes I am successful and can get back into bed without disturbing her...some nights it's a no go.  The other thing about her new position is that she likes to push on my lungs with her lil legs so most of the night I feel like I can't breathe.  So most nights I just lay in bed, read Facebook, People, Us Weekly, Perez Hilton, click through Pinterest and just count sheep.  Lately I have been waking up around 3 and fall back asleep around 6, super fun! It's all a pain but I can't help but find some humor in it.  In my mind I think this is only prep for her arrival when we will likely have zero sleep.  She must know her momma's a planner so I will just chalk it up to her prepping me.

I think Husband's sleep might be slightly affected as well although I am not 100% sure.  It's hard to tell if he's sleeping well or not; mostly because our lil pup Chloe and him are typically snuggled up so tight I can't tell.  Ahh Chloe, the current baby of the family.  How her life shall change.  Somehow our 18 lb. pup has managed to monopolize one half of our king size bed while we share the other (note, 1/4 of the bed is strictly for my pillows that I use to surround me---AKA my "barrier").  I always laugh because I tell Husband to just shove Chloe out of the way.  His response, "Babe, I can't, she's just a baby and needs her space."  Wow, if that's how he treats our furry monster I cannot imagine what will happen with Sofie! 

Anyhow, here are some sweet spy pics of Husband Daddy and his Chloe Bear.  One this particular day she wanted to snuggle on his pillow and head, note how he lets her.  Sweet Husband.  :)  I'm not gonna lie; it's pretty cute!

"Dad lets me do whatever I want."

"Oh thanks dad for giving up your half of the bed...appreciate it!"

Two Steppin'

Hi everyone…I have a quick lil update that I forgot to post.  I am officially 30 weeks pregnant and had my 30 week visit last week.  This was also the same appointment as my glucose screening test.  I have been so nervous about this test.  I don’t typically like sweets but the last month I have been craving sweets like crazy!  I am talking about chocolate chip cookies, brownies, mini Three Musketeers bars and more.  I have been trying to limit my intake but anyone who has been pregnant knows that sometimes the crazy Craving Beast Monster comes out and you just “HAVE” to have it!  Anyhow, for the most part I have been pretty good about my diet, buying sugar free or low sugar items but like I said the last few weeks have been rough.  I confess, I have been eating more sweets. 

The day did not start off well for me because for some reason I thought my appointment was at 9:30.  I didn’t realize that my appointment was actually at 9 until I was almost there.  After arriving late and breathless I was sent to the lab.  I was to have a total of three blood draws and I was not allowed to eat or drink.  Sounds simple except my last meal was at 8 PM the night before and I have hypoglycemia (the opposite of diabetes) which means I knew my blood sugars would crash during the process.  Just as I suspected right after the first draw I started feeling exceptionally woozy, dizzy and shaky.  Thank goodness for the glucose liquid they told me to drink (BTW, this stuff has come a long way, it now tastes like flat sprite as opposed to sugar water back in the day).  The liquid helped and I made it through my other two draws followed by a smooshed PB&J sandwich that I had packed. 

Next up was my ultrasound.  As always as soon as the tech started pushing on my belly Sofie G wasn’t interested and she kicked back and flipped over.  Needless to say we have yet to have a good photo of her since before 19 weeks.  What is it with this kid?!  Even the tech was commenting on how wiggly she was.  I told her she's just dancing...two steppin' her way through the pregnancy.  We also found out that she decided to flip back into breach position.  Typical, I helped make a child who likes to do things her own way and obviously doesn’t like to be told what to do.  Let’s hope some of her daddy’s sweet demeanor is bred into her too or we are in for a treat!  Husband Daddy says she is going to come out with my sassy personality and he can't wait to see how well we get along when she's a teenager.  God help me!

Upon meeting with the doctor I was told that baby and I are in great health.  She weighed in at 3.04 lbs which was right on track.  He also gave me some exercises to start doing to help this lil stubborn angel of the morning flip into get ready position.  Let’s hope she cooperates.

Below are some pics (note, none of her face) from our visit.  Oh and my glucose test came back normal.  Yay!

She's been two steppin' in my tummy which explains all the wiggling I feel.  She's definitely a proper Texas Southern girl!

Here is her arm...this is the one she used to punch the ultrasound tech when the tech was pushing on my belly trying to get a closer look at SG.

A leg...that's all we get...a leg shot.  Nice!





Showered with Love!

OMG, I cannot believe I forgot to post about my baby shower.  Well, actually yes I can beleive it because lately I forget a lot. 

I just wanted to write a quick post to talk about my baby shower.  I am so blessed to have such amazing women in my life and three of these lovelies threw me the perfect shower.  I want to especially thank Kylee Bug (Kylee), Manders (Amanda) and Sinity (Sinit) for working so hard to put together such a wonderful event.  These girls know me so well.  The noms were DELISH and I think I ate about 20 of the homemade biegnet balls Kylee made (thank goodness for Cajun friends)!  The girls made all my favorite snacks, everything from mini strawberry shortcakes, piggies in blankets, veggies and hummus, lots of fresh fruit and much more AND I partook in all of them!  They even made a special mocktini for me. 

We didn't play any games or open gifts in front of people (I always feel so awkward opening gifts in front of people, am I the only that feels that way?), it was just all my favorite ladies gathered together catching up.  Again, I am so blessed to have such amazing ladies in my life.  Sofia Grace has a lot of aunties eagerly anticipating her arrival.  Here are some pics from my shower.  Thank you ladies, I love you more than you know.



 

Some of the delish nommies...piggies in cornbread, mini meatballs, veggies and hummus.

Another view of the spread, these girls made all my favorite foods!

I cannot get enough strawberries throughout this pregnancy and one of my favorite desserts is strawberry shortcakes.

Mocktail for momma.

Me and my sweet Papar...she has a bun in the oven too!!!!

My sweet Roosicle dressed in my favory color....organge!  Beautiful!

My Persian Princess FareBear (Fara).  All my friends have nicknames. 

Kristie, me, Manders and KK (Kathy).  I love these girls!

Another photo with my leggy friends.  I look like a nectarine next to them.  :)

Manders and Kylee are going into the diaper sculpting biz...they made this diaper cake.



My beautiful hostesses!



Everyone wanted to touch the belly so I said yes, as long as it was all at once.  Belly violating can be a bit uncomfortable unless asked first.

Another shot with my fabulous hostesses!



Roosicle had this pillow made for Sofia Grace!



Vroom....riding the diaper tricycle.

Holding a diaper baby.

  

Husband always manages to find the sweets.  Here he is partaking in a cupcake while wearing the bib Aunt Fara bought.

Soon to be parents!  Only 10 more weeks!

A Baby on the Moon....

Update this week....I am getting HUGE!  It's funny because just the other day I was telling my mom that I don't feel like I have grown very much in the last couple of weeks.  Then kapow....out came by ginormous belly!  At least by my standards I am getting huge.  

Anyhow, I digress, back to the real subject of this blog.  Husband I decided to take a mini "Babymoon" since we weren't able to fly up to the East coast this summer.  We decided on where else...Austin.  It's kind of our second home.  We booked a weekend at the Lakeway Resort by Lake Travis.  Now the reason I say I am huge is because the ride up and back was less than comfortable and for the first time I felt a bit limited in what I could do, leisure wise.  Sitting in the car for over two hours for me not pregnant is a feat...I hate sitting and waiting.  However, sitting in the car seven months pregnant is quite another.  You just can't get get the right angle down.  The seat is too low, to forward, to upright, not upright enough, doesn't support my lower back, too high, too hard, not hard enough and so on.  Luckily I had to drive up because Husband had to wrap up some business on the phone.  Interestingly enough driving is sometimes more comfortable than being the passenger.  On our way we made our usual stop at Buccee's....however, let me warn you that the Buccee's off 290 BLOWS!!!  They shouldn't even be allowed to carry the name.  Yes the restrooms were clean which I was VERY thankful for but where oh where were the endless aisles of delectable treats?  Where were the kolaches, donuts, pastries?!  We don't typically stop at this one so I guess I never noticed but I was so hungry that I could literally taste kolaches in my mouth or a delish egg salad sandwich.  To my dismay there was a pitiful excuse of a deli selling nothing but beef jerky, some prepackaged sad ham and cheese sandwiches on soggy bread and Lunchables.  I get grumpy when I don't get to eat when needed (note: this was even before pregnancy).  In fact I am like an infant and have to be fed every few hours or I am a very unhappy girl so you can imagine my fury when there was nothing "appetizing" jumping out at me.  I picked up a stupid pizza Luncheable and headed to the register where there was a long line.  I finally get up to pay and am met with, "Oh sorry ma'am, cash only, our system is down."  Insert cartoon of pregnant woman with fire and smoke emanating from her head..."WTH?!"  I put my hands up and said, "no cash, keep your food."  Now I realize it wasn't the attendants fault that their system was down but at this point I was already annoyed that nothing appetizing existed in this so called Buccee's not to mention I had to cash.  Needless to say, since I am stubborn and refused to eat fast food on the way I up I just starved (minus the fresh baked chocolate chip cookies I made for Husband for the trip...I did indulge in one of those and the calories were worth it).  

A few hours and some major Austin traffic later we arrived to the resort.  I had booked massages for us which were scheduled as soon as we got there.  I have to say, I love massages but maternity massages are a bit different.  First off, you cannot rest on your stomach which means you are left with being on your side or your back (but not for too long).  Second, if the person is not well versed in giving a maternity massage it can sometimes be less than thrilling.  My masseuse placed pillows all over for me to rest on my side.  We laughed that the draping didn't always cover all of me.  Normally I would not care, I am not shy but when you are lugging around a giant unit on you and have poundage you didn't have before in places you didn't think you would it can be a bit intimidating.  Alas, I was relaxed and Husband was happily snoring next to me.  We then had dinner on the patio of the hotel restaurant and watched the sunset.  I love to see Husband relax, he doesn't do it often and it reminds me of when we first started dating.  The next day we were up and headed to Target.  Yes Target.  Husband and I have an ongoing joke that whenever we travel he forgets something so we always end up at Target.  Only this time I forgot to pack his swimsuit.  So we headed to Target where we were sucked into the Target Black Hole of "oooohhhh ooooohhhh I NEED this neon toilet plunger" or "I MUST get this iced coffee maker."  What is it about Target that you cannot leave without spending at least $100 on a bunch of non-essential necessities?  We then got Husband a haircut and headed back to the hotel for a workout followed by pool time.  We had not sat down for 10 minutes when we were told the pool was closing, "thunder and lightening in the distance, we have to close the pool down."  Kind of a bummer but then we headed up to the patio restaurant, ate lunch and read our books.  

Confession:  I have fallen victim to my own curiosity and started reading Fifty Shades of Grey.

We finally got some pool time in before our reservations at Rocco's Italian restaurant, which by the way was DELISH

All in all it was a nice relaxing weekend.  More than anyone Husband needed some R&R and it was nice having time together with just the two of us.  We keep hearing how important it is for us to keep our marriage strong even once Sofia Grace arrives and how we must make time for each other.  I hope we can always remember that.  Here are some pics from the weekend.

The resort pool and our view from dinner on the first night.

Husband...taking FOREVER to decide what he wants to eat.  ;)

Lucky #7...7 months pregnant during the 7th month of the year...and I feel HUGE!

Captain Handsome Husband.

Here we are right before we take off....doesn't Husband have the prettiest teeth?  It's one of the reasons I decided to go on date with him...no lie!

I never leave home without my camera but I forgot it this weekend which I was super upset about.  I had to make due with my IPhone.

Mr. & Mrs. Captain Jenkins, all aboard!

I feel so blessed that God has given us so much beauty in the world!

Stowaway Mrs. Jenkins

Another attempt at an artsy photo with my iPhone.

Little bits of Heaven.

Welcome to the Third!!!

Well I officially crossed the next threshold and made it to the third trimester this week!  Wow!!  I still cannot believe how quickly time is flying by.  There aren't too many updates since my last post.  The biggest changes I have noticed are that I am officially uncomfortable more than I am comfortable and nesting has most definitely set in.  Below is a link to a video that shows Sofia Grace's progress the next few weeks (copy and paste into your web browser).


http://www.babycenter.com/2_inside-pregnancy-weeks-28-to-37_3658874.bc

Being comfortable is totally underrated.  I mean I LOVE feeling like I can't breathe when I sit, hurting when I stand, having indigestion at night, being out of breathe and tired.  These things are so much fun I can hardly contain myself.  Here's the thing...I am a very active person so as I entered into this pregnancy I thought, I will just will myself to not feel tired or uncomfortable.  I will just will myself to fight through.  That was a woman who has never been pregnant speaking.  I have been incredibly humbled by pregnancy.  Here I thought, "please I will be able to do almost everything the same."  That thought was quickly removed from my mind the day I wasn't able to put my shoes on  with ease.  I still work out, although not as much as I would like to.  This is mostly due to a very sore round ligament on my left side which gets so sore and tight that at times I can't even get out of bed, a chair or the car.  Walking even hurts at times.  Then there is the unit (my belly) which seems to now be hindering me from certain mundane tasks.  For example, I never thought I wouldn't be able to put the dishes away because my belly bumps the counter and I can't reach (never mind the fact that I am only 5'1").  I also didn't think putting on shoes would be so exhausting.  It's a simple task really but trying to bend down and buckle my wedges (yes, I still have yet to give those up, again I am 5'1"...I need all the height I can get or I risk looking like a brown dumpling) is downright exhausting on some days.  Husband has had to come to my aid a few times when I just can't get my body to angle the right way to remove my shoes.  Another simple task...climbing stairs.  Now here's where I get really frustrated.  I have been working out throughout my pregnancy and right before I got pregnant I was in the best shape of my life having been training for a half marathon; so you can imagine my frustration when I find myself out of breathe and my legs aching from climbing the stairs in our home as if I have never worked out before!  In my mind that defies the laws of physical fitness!  I try to remind myself that I am carrying a heavier load and my heart is having to work even harder to pump my blood but I still get pretty frustrated none the less.  Another fun symptom that has reared its ugly head is the indigestion.  I already have acid reflux, which I manage with the God saving Prilosec everyday, but on some days not even that is enough.  It's strange, some of the foods I was able to happily indulge in during the first 2/3 or my pregnancy now make me feel like my stomach and esophagus are on fire.  Goodbye burrito bowls from Chipotle, or fried chicken from Popeye's (guess that one shouldn't have been on the list anyway).  Some nights the indigestion is so bad that I attempt to sleep virtually sitting up.  Which by the way makes your back and neck uncomfortable.  Over the weekend I think I got a total of 5 hours of sleep.  I try to follow the rules of eating small meals, not before going to bed, nothing spicy, etc....but some days it just doesn't work. I know, I know, I am complaining a lot but I would rather be honest than act like I feel peachy keen.  I want other mommies to know that I now understand their pain and you know what, it's ok to talk about the not so glamorous side of pregnancy.  In fact we SHOULD be allowed to complain if we want....we are after all growing a lil life inside of us and it's not an easy job.  Even for those of us who are strong willed and willing to tough things out...this new adventure is definitely giving me a run for my money.  

My saving grace has been Husband.  Some days I feel so terrible for him. As I neared the end of my second trimester and entered the third I noticed my energy levels and attitude change.  The poor man doesn't know what wife he will come home to each day.  Let's spin the wheel and see...."oh look today I get normal happy full of energy wife....oh shoot, it's gonna be along night because today I get uber cranky, still in pjs, hair a mess wife.  Yay!"  God really sent me the perfect man because he is so patient with me and has adjusted into the caretaker role beautifully.  

Nesting...ok for some reason I LOVE nesting.  It must be my Type A OCD personality.  I have struggled with OCD tendencies most of my life and for the most part have kept them under control; except for lately.  ORGANIZING is my new favorite past time.  It's amazing how deep you can dive into organizing!  Even more amazing than that is the pure joy I feel once a project is complete.  It started with the spice cabinet.  Oh that dirty lil spice cabinet that houses about 1,000 spices most of which are used once a year.  I had been wanting to organize it for some time but didn't have the motivation until recently when I decided Sofia Grace would need her own cabinet for her goodies.  So I did what all online shopping geeks do...I hopped online and started purchasing organizers.  Oh the elation I felt when choosing what type of spice holders to purchase or realizing that there are pot holders for your pots (because those things just get in the way and until recently I could never find a good way to organize them while still stacking my pots) and cookie sheet dividers, baskets for food and much more!!!! I was like a kid in a candy store buying everything in site to organize.  So I started on the spice cabinet which naturally led to the baking area, then the pots and pans, the glasses and dishware and finally the pantry--oh and Sofia's closet and bathroom.  Now the pantry was a challenge.  Pinterest has made me spoiled with all these pins of beautifully organized pantries.  I wanted mine to exude the same beauty as the ones I had seen so I had to take my time here.  For the record, yes I labeled almost everything!  This was mostly done so that when Sofia Grace arrives and mommy is too tired to shop or put groceries away Husband Daddy will know, without fail, where the items will go.  It's Husband Daddy proof (at least I hope so).  Just the other day I decided the laundry room needed to be organized...labels and all. And speaking of Pinterest...it is by far my new addiction.  Gone are the days of pinning things I hope to do....now I am finally pinning projects and doing them!  I made a roman shade for the laundry room, pillows for the new couch (I was so sad to get rid of our trusty ol' comfy couch), crib bumper, ottomans and more.  Actually, I think my next post will be devoted to Pinterest.  

So as you can see I have been quite busy.  Husband looks at me on some days and kind of chuckles and is probably afraid to ask what will be organized next (shhhh....don't tell him but the medicine cabinets and towel closet in our bathroom is next on the docket).  Here are some pics of the pantry.  I will post other pics on my next post.