Week 36

Where: The Ballard Condominiums with my lovely shower hosts!



Week Recap ~

• Total weight gain/loss : +35.5 lbs
• Sleep : Meh. Not happening like I would like it too, a bad nights rest is beginning to be the norm.
• Best moments : Definitely our shower! It was great to have a laid back afternoon and celebrate our little girl. Pictures below!
• Movement : There isn't a whole lot of room in there for her to do any big movements, but she is still finding a way to move about.
• Symptoms : My skin has started to be very dry. I am lathering up in lotion every night, but no lotion seems to be good enough at this point.
• Maternity clothes? : Yes
• Food cravings or aversion's? : nothing stands out this week
• What I am eating : pasta, steak, jalapeno poppers, Mexican - lots of quesadillas lately, lamb burgers, chicken sandwiches, fries, yogurt
• Exercise : Not much this week. Walked to dinner once.
• Gender : Girl still
• Labor signs : She's for sure head down!
• What I miss : Wearing my wedding rings. I haven't had my engagement ring on for a few weeks, but I had still been wearing my band. As of this Tuesday though it is no longer being worn. :(
• What I am looking forward to : Hopefully the pool this weekend :) Also, I now have all the prints I purchased for the nursery and we will be hanging them this weekend. I am excited to see how they all pull together on the wall. Fingers crossed they look good! Oh and being full term starting Saturday!
  
  
  Seattle Shower Pics:
  
  Condo ladies and great friends! Mandi, me, Aly and Shannon
  
  
  
  Items marked so I knew if I could consume them :) 
  
  
  
  Gummy bears soaked over days in vodka! Highly recommend trying this out
  
  
  
   Grill masters Brian and Eric (below)
  
  
  
  
  
  
   Opening gifts together.
  
  
  
   The guess the celebrity baby game was a big hit.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I just really loved this picture of us :)
  
  
  Thanks so much to Mandi and Aly for putting on a great shower for us! We really have found great friends here in Seattle. :)

Week 32

Where: Atop the Space Needle, Seattle, WA (Olympic Mountains in the background)



Week Recap ~

1. Total weight gain/loss : +27.5 lbs (I must have jinxed myself a few weeks back saying I wanted to just go barely over 30lbs. Since then I've been gaining 2-3 lbs every week. At that rate I'll be lucky to stay under 45lbs.)
2. Sleep : Better this week than the past few. Still waking up a lot to pee, but I have been falling back asleep each time better.
3. Best moments : My sister moved to Seattle yesterday! :) I also got a good amount of baby laundry done. Diapers are finished and put away. Last night I folded some clean receiving blankets while my new helper figured out what to do with baby socks. ha. It's good to have my sister around :)
4. Movement : Yes. We also confirmed this week that she likes music with horns in it. We played her some tunes a few nights and she really got going for a few songs that are very horn centric.
5. Symptoms : Just feeling like I'm getting bigger. I even got a "my gosh your huge" at work this week. The guy was lucky I was in a good mood and thought he was funny. :)
6. Maternity clothes? : Same as always. I did pick up two dresses at Old Navy that are not maternity but will work. The one in this weeks picture is one of them.
7. Food cravings or aversion's? : Spaghetti - I just had to have it one night. It turned out great cause we found a place in our neighborhood we really like that has an extensive gluten free menu. I also realized this week that I randomly want orange Gatorade a lot of times. It is on sale this week at one store for $0.69! I'm stocked up now.
8. What I am eating : I made philly cheesesteaks from scratch, cheese sauce and all, one night. They were super good. Also, had some chicken and fingerling potatoes one night. Sliders and crepe food trucks. Ice cream. Chicken sandwiches, pizza rolls and bites for lunches. I had a few salads. Bananas, greek yogurt, granola...my usual breakfast.
9. Exercise : I didn't get in as many walks this week as the past few, but I did get out and move a little.
10. Gender : Girl. She's got more pink clothes than I prefer, guess its unavoidable though huh?
11. Labor signs : None
12. What I miss : Hmm this continues to be a hard one for me each week. I am starting to have a hard time getting comfortable on the couch and sometimes at the start of bed. So maybe doing those things with ease? I think some of it can be attributed to a long day though, then combined with getting larger it just all gets harder at the end of the day.
13. What I am looking forward to : A fun weekend with my sister! Also, we go this weekend to tour the birth center. So we will find out where we will need to park and what the room will look like where we will meet our little girl. One other non baby related thing I am looking forward to is, Monday Stephen and I are going to a Nat Geo lecture on ancient Maya. We really enjoy the few lectures we have been to and I am sure this one will be no different.
    
    
    
    
    Other Happenings:
    
    Mother's day brunch a top the Space Needle!
     
    

It wasn't a sunny day, but we still had great views. The Olympics were out and looking fantastic as always.

 

After brunch we went to see Iron Man 3 and walked around downtown a little. It was a really nice day Stephen planned.

 

Monday we finished our 6 week child & labor class. I'm pretty good at swaddling haha

 

 



I also won a contest this week from Cotton Babies (great cloth diaper store that is St Louis based). I never win anything so it was a complete surprise. Pretty excited to use my $10 gift card.

Week 28 - Hello 3rd Trimester!

Where: Pike's Market, Seattle, WA

Week Recap ~

• Total weight gain/loss : +21 lbs (no change)
• Sleep : Ugg sleep this week was terrible. I got up one night 6 times to pee, 6! After that I started to make sure I cut myself off from liquids by 8pm, but some nights I was still up 4 times. To date I haven't had any big issues with falling back asleep, but a few nights this week after being woken up I was up for a good hour or more. Looking forward to some sleeping in and naps this weekend. (wrote this on Friday, extra sleep didn't happen this weekend. boo!)
• Best moments : More nursery progress, purchased a glider and ottoman and started on a lampshade diy project (still tbd if it will work out). We also started to get more out of our baby class than we did the first week, so that felt good. Sunday was a really nice day out and we spent the morning downtown, something we hadn't done in a while. Walked around Pike's Market, bought some good looking fruit & fresh flowers and then we had a lovely brunch. It was some nice "us" time.
• Movement : She's a movin! Before this week she really only moved on my right side, I never felt her on the left. A few times this week I have felt her all over, she must be practicing summersaults some days. I'm good with it, as long as her room starts to shrink she finds herself in a proper position for easy execution. hehe She also has been spending some time jamming herself into my right side. It is pretty uncomfortable and happens at night. Sometimes we can get her to move when Stephen talks to her, right where she's giving me pain. It is sweet.
• Symptoms : Pretty crabby this week at the end of the day. I'm not crabby all day, but definitely at night. I am going to attribute this to my lack of sleep and being worn out from work. :)
• Maternity clothes? : Yup, still in them.
• Food cravings or aversion's? : Mostly the same, pizza & Mexican, but this week I also ate quite a few frozen breakfast sandwiches. Not something we keep around our house ever, but when we were at the store one night I just had to get some and have been eating them for meals (dinner even).
• What I am eating : Lots of fruit, some Mexican, some Chinese, pasta, breakfast sandwiches, pork tenderloin. I need to work on veggies next week. I think I get twice the recommended fruit and maybe half the recommended veggies.
• Exercise : Took two walks with Stephen and the dogs around the neighborhood. It was nice to have a break from some of the rain we have been having. They also helped my mood.
• Gender : Girl
• Labor signs : None. We know a lot more about what to be on the look out for now from our weekly class.
• What I miss : Not waking up to have to pee all night! ha
• What I am looking forward to : Non-baby related, but going to the Tulip Festival this weekend! I have missed it the last few years and I am really excited about getting to go this year.

Week 20 - Half Way!

Where: University of Washington Library, Seattle, WA



Week Recap ~

• Total weight gain/loss : +10 lbs
• Sleep : Off and on good and bad sleep. I slept hard a lot of nights, but still get up 3 or 4 times a night to go to the bathroom.
• Best moments : Having an ultrasound this week and finding out the sex of our little one! We also had a good time at our cloth diapering class. It was very informative and Steve is now fully on board with it (not that he wasn't before, it is just better with him fully educated on it)
• Movement : Pretty sure I am feeling something now. Everyone describes it as butterflies or gas bubbles and I haven't felt either of those, but I feel like the baby is moving around especially when I am too full.
• Symptoms : Nothing new this week
• Maternity clothes? : Yup! I also ordered two dresses I hope work out cause they are really cute. 
• Food cravings or aversion's? : Nothing new here either. 
• What I am eating : Oh boy I can't even remember. I have been trying to eat smaller portions and we have a lot of healthy snacks around, carrots, celery, hummus. On Saturday we went out for Chicago style pizza in celebration of the half way mark. It fed us for a couple meals and was delicious. 





• Exercise : A few good walks this week. We walked around the University on Saturday after our cloth diaper class. We also took the dogs on a great walk one weekday. They were very appreciative and even slept in the next day. 
• Gender : We are having a baby GIRL!
  
  We celebrated with pink balloons and used them to tell many people our news. We texted the above picture to our sisters to let them know and used it to announce the news to the world.
  
  
  
  We had two smaller balloons we showed Chewie and Yuri. Yuri was scarred of them, but Chewie jumped up at them. We also took these balloons out to a bar and let them out of a bag to show some of our Seattle friends that we were having a girl. It was a fun evening.
  
  
  
  We topped the night off with picking my parents up at the airport with a car filled of pink balloons. They were very surprised and excited!
• Labor signs : None
• What I miss : I can't think of anything this week. 
• What I am looking forward to : Hanging out with my parents, who are here for my 30th birthday. :) Also, we are going to register for the little baby girl this weekend.

More happenings:

We are starting to get our move out of Ballard underway. 

I spent some of Sunday playing pitch/keep with my closet. Getting rid of two large shopping bags of clothes.

While I was in the bedroom working on my closet, Stephen packed up all our camping and outdoor gear. Yes it takes up 3 large boxes. 

Yuri helped me pack up the baby's belongings. He is VERY interested in the cloth diapers, but only the ones that have been used by Lou. He has no interest in the new ones. He sniffs and looks at them with a lot of curiosity.

After all that packing Chewie and Stephen took a break on the couch with the snoogle. Chewie loves that thing. 

Week 14

Where: View of the Space Needle, Capital Hill

 



Week Recap ~

• Total weight gain/loss : +3.5 lbs
• Sleep : Not as good as I would like it to be. I seem to trade off nights from sleeping great and really hard to sleeping terrible, waking up every couple of hours.
• Best moments : Starting to talk baby names with Steve. We thought we would wait to know what we were having, but I mentioned it one night before bed and we had a small conversation about some names. Since then Steve has messaged me during the day when he thinks of names. We aren't ruling anything out yet, just getting together a list of prospective names. :)
• Movement : None yet. When we had our last ultrasound the tech told us the placenta is in the front, so it is likely that I will not feel the baby as soon as some people do. It will act as a cushion between the baby and I.
• Symptoms : Most of my first tri symptoms are going away. I have been a little tired this week, but nothing like I have been. I had some throwing up too, but I have been coming out of a cold and all the extra flem has been causing that.
• Maternity clothes? : I do not need to be wearing them yet, but I am really loving a few shirts I have gotten that don't bunch on the sides. They just look like they are slightly big in my stomach area. I am also loving maternity leggings. Again, I do not need to be wearing them but they are just so comfy!
• Food cravings or aversion's? : Mexican! All I want is mexican, but midwest overly creamy & cheesy mexican. I haven't found what I am wanting here in Seattle just yet. Most chains look kinda gross and nicer places are either authentic Mexican or have a gourmet twist to them. While I can find cheesy at these places, it doesn't fulfill the creaminess I am looking for. I thought I hit the jackpot Sunday with a place I know people like and had a promising menu online. We get there and its brunch all day! Dang it Seattle, what Mexican place in the midwest would have brunch? haha. We split tacos and they were really good. We will be going back when it is not a Sunday.
• What I am eating : I haven't been as healthy as I would like to be this week. Breakfast is almost always fruit and greek yogurt. I have had a lot of soup and salads for lunches, but I did have a burger and fish and chips too. Dinner is where I am loosing the healthiness battle. I only cooked one night this week, pork and asparagus. Otherwise we had bbq, fried pickles, greek, pizza and burgers.
• Exercise : None :( I really need to step it up here. I am getting really stiff hips. I need to start doing some stretching and/or yoga. I think I will look into getting a prenatal yoga dvd to do at home.
• Gender : Still don't know! I have a feeling it is a girl though. No reason why, I just feel like it is.
• Labor signs : None
• What I miss : Regular cold medicine! I had to fight a cold after getting back from Christmas and being able to only take a few, not powerful meds killed me and it sure didn't make my cold go away with any amount of speed!
• What I am looking forward to : The sun is forecasted to be out this weekend. Should allow us to be outside, get some fresh air, walking and hopefully a bump picture with the mountains.
• Milestones : Getting one week in the second trimester done!

First Trimester in Review

Well we made it through our first trimester! I think overall I had it pretty easy, it was probably harder on Steve than it was on me. I had minimal morning sickness, my main "symptom" was fatigure. I would come home from work, take the dogs out, then lay on the couch and never leave until it was time to move to the bed. The weekends were not much different. I could go out for a few hours of activity then I needed to go home and nap. While I have not had many food adversions (a few seafood items I suddenly think taste fishy and buffalo wings no longer agree with me) I mainly do not think any food sounds good, ever. It is not that food makes me sick, I just never want anything. Big adjustment in our house, where I always want something very specific 90% of the time. The other 10% of the time I like Steve to choose but I shoot down most of his choices. :) All of this left Steve to take care of the house, the dogs, meals and whatever else I asked for (which can be a lot). He has been really great all 13 weeks and I have no doubt he will continue to be amazing and supportive.

 

During the few hours on the weekends I was up for going on an outing Steve and I have been going around the city taking bump pictures. Yeah there isn't much there right now, but it has been a really fun activity for us and we plan to continue throughout the whole 9 months. You might eventually see some places pop up more than once, as we have taken a few at favorite spots early.

 

Week 5:

 

Where: Downtown Ballard(our neighborhood)

 

Week 6:

Where: Gasworks Park, overlooking South Lake Union - Yuri wanted in this one

 

Week 7:

Where: Pike Market, downtown Seattle

 

Week 7.5:

Where: Kansas City, MO - WWI muesem overlooking the city

 

Week 8: 

 Where: Sunday Farmers Market, Ballard

 

Week 9:

 Where: Skee Ball at Kings Hardware, Ballard

 

Week 10:

 Where: Pinball at Full Tilt, Ballard

 

Week 11:

 Where: Outside our Condo (not my fav picture, but we were busy this week)

 

Week 12:

 Where: Piper Palm House, Tower Grove Park, St. Louis, MO (where we got married!)

 

Week 13:

Where: Fremont Troll, Fremont

Stay tuned to see where we go each week and how we are all doing.

Bike Trips

We love to bike. If you talk to my husband you will know that. He bikes to work, he likes to bike to the grocery store, bars - even ones that are only a few blocks away. He loves biking more than I do. We both do like bike adventures. Over the summer we had quite a few. I don't have pictures for all of them unfortunately.

At the start of the summer Stephen made a purchase he was SO excited about. Baskets to attach to our bikes that will hold the dogs! Hahaha. They are HILARIOUS. We first took them for a test drive in the Goodyear parking lot next to our building.

Yuri was not very into it, but was a good sport. In the below picture I think he's looking at Stephen like "really dad? you thought I would like this?" Haha

 

Chewie LOVED it. He was living it up in that basket. The wind in his hair, the possibility of being taken everywhere with us. He was very happy about Stephen's purchase.

We took them another day on a longer bike ride, about 5 miles total. We biked to Norm's Eatery and Alehouse in Fremont, a dog bar. On the bike there we made it one block before one of the dog's tried to get out of the basket, surprisingly it was Chewie too! I should also note for you all that the dogs aren't just sitting willingly in these baskets. They are securely fastened in. All they can get out is about 1/3 of their little bodies. We got Chewie situated again and we on our way. We got a lot of looks, honks and laughs. I was laughing right along with everyone. We were quite the site I am sure. Yuri spent most of the trip crying and looking around. Him and I had to bike in the back so he could see Steve, Chewie and me whenever he wanted to. When I was in the front with him he cried the most and would stretch his neck out trying to see around me to his dad and brother. They might not have been as pumped about the bike baskets as we were, but they sure loved getting to go to the bar with us!

 

Another Saturday we biked downtown and took the water taxi over to West Seattle. We left the dogs at home for this trip.

Here I am waiting with my bike to get on the water taxi on the Seattle side of the water.

 

Stephen posing for me in front of our great city. :) West Seattle has a nice board walk area that leads to a beach. On a nice day in West Seattle you might think you are in Southern California, not Washington.

When we were biking along the boardwalk we saw a crowd of people looking out at something on the water. It was a bald eagle chilling on the beach! We were really close to it. It was a pretty amazing site to see.

 

Us taking a stroll on the beach after having a seafood lunch at a local spot.

There was a lot of happenings that day at the beach, there was some sort of SeaFair Pirate event happening and a pole volt championship occurring.

 

Not pictured is that we got new bikes! I was in the market for a road bike and when I was shopping around Steve decided he wanted one too. He found a great bike before I did and made a purchase that has changed his life. He bikes more than ever. We have taken these new bikes on many test runs and then one bike bike trip, totaling 45 miles round trip!

 

We biked from our condo building to Red Hook Brewery in Woodinville, WA. The trip was primarily along a combination of fitness paths that will take you around Lake Washington.

 

 

We met a few different friends along the way, near where they lived or parked. In total 6 of us road out to the brewery(one of those 6 is 2, so she really just chilled in the back while her dad pulled her). We arrived around 11:30am, just in time to beat the rush. Had lunch, a few beers, checked out what they call a tour and then biked home. Biking home was a lot slower after beer and food, but it still was a great time. It was the first long ride I had on my bike and I was happy to say that I was very glad with my purchase.

 

Steve and I are both hoping to do at least one big bike race next year. There are quite a few to choose from, MS 150, STP (Seattle to Portland, RSVP (Seattle to Vancouver). 



Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from Steve and I (Chewie & Yuri too!)

2011 was a pretty big year for us, who knows what 2012 will have in store. We do know a few things: we are going on a 18 day trip to Ecuador in April, we will be getting back into shape, we will be experiencing more of what this wonderful city has to offer. We hope: to have more visitors so we can show off this place we love so much, to get to spend some short trips to see friends and family members and to not have to go to any funerals this year.

While 2011 had a few sad moments, we lost too many loved ones this year, it had a ton of awesome moments. Steve and I were so busy this summer that I stopped documenting everything we were doing on this blog. So here is a short recap of a few things we did this year...

We made a huge life decision and Steve took a job that moved us to Seattle, WA.

We rented our house in Olathe, KS sold over half our possessions and made a huge move accross the country.

The move allowed us both to take amazing road trips(separately) with our best friends.

I quit my job and then found one quicker than I was expecting.

We visited West Virginia for Rebecca and Randy's wedding. We had a great time getting to spend time with family members we don't see very often. It also was Steve's first time in WV so we did some hiking and saw the bridge and gorge.I got to go and visit with some of my girlfriends in Omaha, NE for Molly & Ben's wedding reception. It was a good time, as it always is with my friends.

Yuri went swimming and loved it. Chewie hated it so there are no pics of him.
We did a good number of hikes. This one is from a 4 mile hike to a mountain lake. Steve got in and said it was so cold he felt his heart stop! It was so beautiful. Too bad I broke one of my toes hiking the 4 miles back to our car.

We took up some water sports. There is so much water here it is hard not to do something on the water each weekend. We did stand up paddle boarding in the sound and once in a lake.

We kayaked a lot also. This is us kayaking through the arboretum, which is really cool with all the lilly pads and secret passages. You even go under highways to get to it.

We had visitors this summer too. Steve's parents and Jessica came out to visit, as did Ellen and my mom and dad.

We celebrated our 2nd anniversary with dinner at one of the nicest restaurants in town.

We got to experience the Cardinals World Series Game 6 win from downtown St. Louis, with two of our best friends.

Goodbye 2011 we had a great time!