23 weeks

I totally missed blogging last week! Somehow, the blog fell through the cracks--it was pretty busy at work and in life but somehow I don't have much to report--here is my picture from last week, though! In general, I need to start updating more often with interesting things--I'm afraid this blog has gotten a little bit boring, to say the least. I'm hoping I will find some time this weekend to blog about our trip to Fredericksburg or the millions of articles of clothing this child already has or perhaps the great saga that has been our journey through decorating the nursery.
Total Weight Loss/Gain: According to my scale at home, I'm up 6 or 7 pounds total. I'm interested to see what the scale says when I go to the doctor tomorrow.

Size of Baby: Baby girl is now the size of a large mango according to the interwebs. The average baby is a little over 1 lb at this point! Pretty amazing!

Maternity Clothes: I haven't attempted to put on my regular jeans in over a week. They might still fit, but I'm pretty sure they would be rather uncomfortable to wear throughout the whole day. I do wear lots of my regular pajama/sweat pants at home. Does that count? Oh, okay...probably not. On shirts, I can definitely go either way, but I usually prefer maternity tops because I think they make it more clear that there is a baby in there and not just a few too many big lunches in a row.

Sleep: Is much better. Part of my inability to get anything done for the last few weeks is that I felt so terrible. Allergies were hitting me pretty hard for about 2 1/2 weeks there, but (knock on wood) both Corey and I have felt better for about 3 or 4 days now, so I'm hoping the worst of that is over for the timebeing. So I've been able to sleep pretty soundly, minus a few interruptions for trips to the bathroom over the last few days. It's wonderful!

Movement: Is so lovely. A little distracting at times, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. She definitely has a pattern of when she moves - usually early in the morning for about 30 minutes (usually between 6 and 8--talk about a great wake up call!), then again in the afternoon at work for about 20-30 minutes. Yesterday it made it a little bit difficult to finish up a call when she was doing the salsa on my organs, but like I said, I love it. She also likes to move a lot in the hours from 6-7 and at night when I'm going to bed. I don't see a direct connection to my eating patterns or anything, I think that is just when she isn't sleeping. Corey feels it more and more from the outside, and it's pretty cute to see his face!

Cravings/Aversions: Cravings: Powdered sugar is still the loveliest thing ever according to my pregnant stomach. I'm hungry for a lot of other very unhealthy things, and I'm looking forward to dressing and the pies that come with Thanksgiving which is now just two days away!

Aversions: I can think of any right now. Food is my friend.
Symptoms: I've had some pretty bad round ligament pain over the last week. I'm not surprised, as I feel like my stomach is expanding rapidly. I'm also experiencing some nasty heartburn, which is putting a damper on my love of eating. Tums help, though!

What I miss: I'm trying to think of the best way to word this, but I'm not sure I know how. I've always been pretty emotional. I'm a little annoyed that people are now blaming my pregnancy hormones for my getting annoyed/mad at them when they do insensitive things. Newsflash --don't be rude or do stupid things and I won't get annoyed with you.

Exception to this rule - Corey and my immediate family. Sometimes I get upset with them over stupid stuff that isn't there fault. This is mainly referring to some really annoying people that I work with that have always been pains to deal with for everyone else in the work place.

Gender: Baby Girl Granstrand

Anything else you'd like to share or vent about? Corey and my Dad got the guest room and the nursery painted over the last week. I love the color in the guest room! It turned out a beautiful pale blue. The nursery, which was supposed to be a beautiful shade of light gray? Turned out to be a beautiful different shade of light blue. I feel a little bit guilty, but some more work is needed it to get it looking right. Corey is going to see if adding another coat in one area makes a difference, and if so, they will just add another coat. Otherwise, we will go back to the store and see what we need to buy to get it looking gray. We just want it to look perfect when Baby Girl gets here!

We got the furniture for the nursery and it looks beautiful! Uncle Cam was awesome and helped Corey with picking it up at the store and carrying the heavy boxes into the garage where they are going to stay for now. Once we get the paint color figured out and on the walls, the other furniture in the nursery moved into the guest room, and the carpet cleaned in all of our bedrooms, we will move the furniture inside and get the crib put together. I'm looking forward to that!
We also got the bedding for her, and it is beautiful! It includes some personalized pieces, and I just can't wait to see how everything looks once it's put together!
I find myself worrying that I will never find the right paint color, that I will pick the wrong glider and it will look bad in our nursery, etc. I'm second guessing myself on those things, but I'm glad I like all of the big things we have purchased so far. Paint is a pretty easy fix (even though I feel bad because I'm not allowed to help with fixing it).

What I look forward to: I'm looking forward to my appt w/ Dr. O tomorrow. My mom is coming with me! I'm also looking forward to getting off of work tomorrow at Noon and then plan to enjoy Thanksgiving with my family and all of the wonderful food!

I'm hoping to get some shopping done this weekend. We've got a good start on Christmas shopping, but still have a lot more to do. I really hope to get all of my shopping done by December 5, so I can really just enjoy the Christmas season and not feel the need to run around like a chicken with my head cut off right before Christmas.

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Elizabeth

21 Weeks - It's Bananas!

Total Weight Loss/Gain: I'm still somewhere around 5 pounds up.

Size of Baby: A Banana. Really? Cantaloupe to Banana? I'm not sure how that works. The average baby at 21 weeks is 10.5 inches long and 12.7 ounces. So big!

Maternity Clothes: I can still go either way. I'm currently in regular jeans and a maternity top. I got some new maternity shirts from my parents (thank you!) that are really pretty! Love them!

Sleep: Is pretty good, other than my allergies which are getting in the way of very restful sleep. However, I'm absolutely positive that I fall into REM sleep even when I'm asleep for a 30 minute nap. This is DEEP sleep.

Movement: More and more. It's still difficult for Corey to feel, but I have a feeling pretty soon we will be able to feel it from the outside.

Cravings/Aversions: Cravings: Powdered sugar. Chips and salsa.

Aversions: Tomato soup. Gross.

Symptoms: I've noticed some pain in my hips as baby girl moves up and out.
What I miss: Not worrying all the time about everything. I think the worry is here to stay, though. I've never met a Mom that didn't worry LOL.

Moods: Are pretty up and down. Bless Corey's heart. I'm trying to mellow out, but I tend to get pretty upset about little things. I also cried the other day at the end of Mrs. Doubtfire.

Gender: Baby Girl Granstrand!

a picture of me at 21 weeks pregnant.

Anything else you'd like to share or vent about? Basically, I want to talk about all of the reasons why my husband Corey is already the best Daddy ever.

We've made a lot of progress on the nursery. Corey has taken care of getting rid of lots of our furniture and other stuff that we are no longer needed--some of it is being sold at a consignment shop, some of it has been donated to Goodwill, and our old couch is going to a dump :(
This couch is the one Corey was sitting on the first time I met him. It has been through a lot, and since we were literally unable to get it out of the room without doing it, a circular saw was taken to it. I'm trying to focus on the fact that we are making room for baby, but it does make me sad.
But, because of all of Corey's hard work, we are now able to pick out paint colors for the new guestroom and the nursery. After buying about 5 samples, we finally found our paint colors! Woohoo! There will be more updates to come on all of that.
I had a little mini-meltdown on Sunday night, in part because a) I didn't want to go back to work, b) I had to figure out and commit to my insurance plan once and for all and c) I noticed that the crib we had picked out was no longer available to order online and said you couldn't pick it up at any of the stores in the area. Corey, realizing that I would be useless if I tried to go in and talk to someone in the store about it, went in on Monday morning and got ALL of our nursery furniture ordered. It should be ready for us to pick it up at the store in the next 1-2 weeks. I am SO excited about the furniture and grateful for an awesome husband.
Finally, I've had this beautiful nursery bedding/decor that I've looked to as inspiration. I felt like it was just out of our reach financially, so I didn't want to buy it. Until a lady who works at that store (Restoration Hardware) came into Corey's store yesterday with coupons that we could use online (their baby department is only available there) and get a substantial discount. Isn't it funny when stuff like that happens?
The coupon made it a possibility for us to get the bedding --if we bought it there, it would be the same price as the bedding we had picked out elsewhere (Pottery Barn Kids). We have already fallen in love with a bedskirt that I bought last weekend there at Pottery Barn, so we are probably going to stick with that, but we have ordered the rest of the beautiful bedding item from Restoration Hardware. We also bought a little something special for our baby girl to play with, but we are keeping that under our hat for now :)
What I look forward to: So many things! I can't wait for Thanksgiving and Christmas! I'm so excited for our Babymoon--which is THIS weekend! Woohoo!
And I'm so excited to get our rooms painted and all of our orders delivered over the next few weeks and see her nursery come together. It's a wonderful feeling to get to carefully pick out all of the things that will be there and part of her life and her room. I know we will like them, and I hope she will, too!
Elizabeth

20 weeks - halfway there!

Total Weight Loss/Gain: I'm going to stop differentiating between the weight I lost at the beginning and then gained back and all of that. All I end up doing is confusing myself and possibly others. From now on, all I'm going talk about is how many pounds I've gained net in pregnancy--it's not important how much I lost at the beginning and gained back. (at least I don't think). Going by that rule of thumb, I'm up 5 pounds.

Size of Baby: a Canteloupe (I'm guessing a small one). An average baby at this point is 10.6 ounces and 6.5 inches. Last week our little baby girl measured at 9 ounces and 8 inches, but that number is including her legs, while these measurements only account for head to rump length. When we get to next week, they start using the measurement that includes the legs as well. It's pretty funny, because it looks like your baby grows 4 inches in one week.

Maternity Clothes: Are great! I'm still happily wearing my normal clothes, too. But I got to admit, by the end of the day wearing my regular jeans, I'm feeling ready for my pajamas.

Sleep: Is good. And my dreams are still torturing me. I had a dream a couple of nights ago that I went into labor in the next few weeks. Ever since I've been running around in a panic trying to get everything in order.

Movement: Baby is a dancing machine! She was moving around like crazy yesterday--I think the amount of sugar I consumed got us both pretty hyper. I think she likes sugar as much as her Mama.

Cravings/Aversions: Cravings: Um, I think I've finally satiated my hunger for sugar for the time being LOL. Right now, I'm feeling hungry for steak and salad. Aversions: None that I can think of right now.

Symptoms: I'm a cleaning and organizing machine! My nesting instinct is going crazy. I'm really obsessed with getting the nursery and guest room in order, getting all of our stuff arranged in the closets that we are keeping, etc. I'm also obsessed with picking out the right bedding and paint color for the nursery. I've rearranged and cleaned my whole desk at work. I also have made about 6 calls today related to scheduling doctor's appointments I've been putting off (not related to baby) and my insurance changing. That's right, it's changing next year just in time for me to have tons of questions and worries related to having a baby with a new plan. This after 4 1/2 years on the same plan. Sigh. Anyway, I think it's clear that I'm hitting that point where I'm really into getting things ready for baby.

What I miss: Nothing! I'm loving pregnancy right now. It really is a sweet spot. Several times over the last week I've told Corey that this is the happiest I've ever been. I feel so lucky to have our little girl on the way!

What I look forward to: There are so many things to look forward to. Right now I'm looking forward to our hospital tour which is probably something we will do a few weeks down the line. I'm also really excited about decorating the nursery. We are having a lot of fun with it!

Moods: Pretty good. I'm in a honeymoon period of pregnancy.

Although...there are definitely moments of hormone-induced rage/bluntness. And for that I apologize to all the people who have been on the receiving end. Especially you, extremely slow and distracted driver who cut me off and pretended not to see me yesterday while we were in traffic. I apologize for honking at you twice. And those hand gestures? I promise it was nothing personal. I was trying to use traffic hand signals, I swear. All of this while driving a car at 65 miles an hour in my kitty-cat get up for work.

Milestones: Corey felt little feather-like movement when baby was kicking me really hard the other day. Or at least he says so. I'm looking forward to when he can really feel her move.

Medical Concerns: I've noticed a few dizzy spells, which the books all say are compeletely normal.

Anything else you'd like to share or vent about? I've added a few pictures to the last couple of posts I've made.

And here is another picture of my beautiful daughter. I love her so much already!

It's a...

Girl!

We are absolutely thrilled!

I'll start at the beginning. This morning I had a dream. In my dream, the ultrasound tech told us that the baby is a girl. Then she moved the little wand around again and said it's a little boy--the image on the screen was a cat, and somehow I knew it was Strut. Then she moved it again and showed us another cat, this time exclaiming that it was a girl (Ally). This doesn't make any sense, but that's my dreams for you.

When my alarm went off, I got up and dressed and Corey and I left the house a minute before we had said we would (which is a feat for us, since I'm constantly running late). We got to the Doctor's office, and when I signed in the lady at the front desk told us that my sister was already in the waiting room. My mom arrived shortly after. I feel so lucky that all of them were there for the experience.

The ultrasound tech came out to get us and bring us back, and it was my favorite tech - the one we had for our first scan at 10 weeks. I took that to be a good omen. She is great because she talks about everything she is seeing. She also gave us lots of pictures and a DVD.

This time, she did the same thing - except it felt like there was so much more to see!The tech rolled over the baby's "goods" initially and said "The legs are crossed, so we will go back for that." I thought that would bother me, but it didn't. I was amazed by everything I saw. She is beautiful and healthy. We saw her 10 fingers and we saw her 10 toes. She has two kidneys and a four-chambered heart. They ruled out spina bifida and cleft palate. She also said that baby's brain looked great and she looked very smart.

I think my heart grew to about 4 times it's previous size when we saw her and found out that she is indeed a she! We were commenting about something to do with the baby - I think how much it was moving - and the tech said, yes it is....yes, she is. I was shocked and amazed. Somehow, once I found out she was a girl, I thought "of course she is."

the "money shot"

My mom has always said that would be the case and she was right. We have a perfect adorable baby girl.

And I can't wait to meet her!

19 weeks!

Total Weight Loss/Gain: I have no idea. I haven't weighed myself in a few days. I think it's safe to say I have gained a few pounds - my appetite is ridiculous right now.

Size of Baby: A mango! The average baby is 6.0 inches long and weighs 8.5 ounces at this point. The last time we saw baby, at 12 weeks the baby was the size of a plum (2.1 inches, .49 ounces). So I can't wait to go in for our ultrasound tomorrow and see how much baby has grown!

Maternity Clothes: I can wear my normal shirts and pants but they are getting more snug. I prefer pregnancy pants but I can go either way on the shirts.

Sleep: I can feel myself getting a little bit more uncomfortable during the night. I feel too hot most of the time and it's not as comfy to be on my back.

Movement: Baby is moving and I'm feeling it more and more. It is such an awesome feeling! I can't wait until Corey can feel it from the outside, too!
Cravings/Aversions: Cravings: Mini-Cupcakes - Yellow w/ homemade chocolate icing. Powdered sugar donuts. Onion dip. Hot dogs. Pickles. Salad.

Aversions: The only thing I can think of that grossed me out lately was the thought of taco bell. But I think that is pretty normal.

Symptoms: Nothing new to speak of.
What I miss: Nothing right now, I'm too excited!

What I look forward to: Tomorrow! Our big appointment. Finally find out what we are having and then I get to start decorating! I can't wait!

Moods: Good. I have to admit I'm a little nervous. I'm just hoping Baby Granstrand is healthy and happy.

Milestones: umm....I had my meeting at work to talk about my maternity leave time? I don't know if that is a milestone, but it was on my checklist on the Bump. I also think if all goes well this week, Corey and I might get to go do a hospital tour in the next couple of Saturdays! I'm wondering if it might be better to wait until I'm a little bit further along, but we feel a bit like we've been waiting forever for everything, so we are pretty excited to do things like that!

Medical concerns: Nothing at this point.

Have a great day! I will be updating soon to let you know what we find out tomorrow!

Elizabeth

At long last...funnel cake!

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you might have noticed that I've been craving funnel cake for months now. I talk about it in almost every post. And for that I apologize.

But I needed funnel cake bad. It was getting so intense this weekend that I woke up at 8 AM on Saturday morning with funnel cake on my mind. So after Corey left for work, I called my mom up and she was kind enough to head out to the Austin Flea Market with me, all for the love of funnel cake. I have a good Mama.

After getting a little bit lost in East Austin, we finally arrived at our destination. I spotted the funnel cake trailer right away. They had other yummy treats that they were selling, like fried oreos and fried twinkies, but my heart (and my stomach) belongs to funnel cake.

We felt like since we were out there, we might as well take a look at the flea market. Probably not the best idea. It was depressing -- all of the items on sale in that place looked like they had been used to smuggle drugs into the country. Luckily we realized quickly that this was not for us. We turned around and made a beeline to the funnel cake trailer. 5 minutes later, I was a happy pregnant lady enjoying fried powdered sugar-topped goodness. Finally my craving was met! It was totally worth the trip out to the flea market!

18 weeks

Total Weight Loss/Gain: +3 pounds (this number might be a little off as my scale doesn't usually match up with the doctor's scale and I've eaten a fair amount of food in the last couple of weeks).

Size of Baby: Baby is the size of a sweet potato. I love sweet potatoes! I will have to eat some in baby's honor this week. As you can see using the lovely visual above, that means the average baby is 5.6 inches and weighs 6.7 ounces at this point. That is SO crazy! It's a long way from a poppyseed to a sweet potato and I feel like it's going so fast!
Maternity Clothes: Are very comfy. Not necessary at this point, but I prefer to wear the ones I have - such cute stuff!
Sleep: Is pretty good. I have been waking up quite a bit during the night.
Movement: Baby is moving and I can feel it! It's not consistent yet (baby is too small for that) but it's a pretty amazing feeling. I drank orange juice the other morning and it felt like s/he was doing flips in there. So great!
Cravings/Aversions: Cravings: Salad. And the elusive funnel cake.
Aversions: Bacon.
Symptoms: Heartburn and dehyrdration. I'm drinking a lot of water at this point (was at 80 ounces, now I'm upping it to 100 ounces) but it doesn't seem to be enough for me and Baby G. I spend a lot of my time running to the bathroom.
My nesting instinct has definitely set in. I'm finding it very useful!
What I miss: Nothing! I'm in excited mode, so I'm trying to focus on all the things I have going on and less on what I can't do.
What I look forward to: Our ultrasound on 10/26. It's getting so close! I'm getting less crazy about it. I've been listening to baby with the doppler and feeling the baby move definitely helps. I'm trying not to worry myself so much, because based on all the information we have so far, baby seems very healthy.
Moods: Much better this week! Getting my mind off things with projects and fun stuff to do has helped.
Milestones: Feeling the baby move is a pretty big one! I'm enjoying that and looking forward to feeling the movement more and more!
Medical concerns: I'm a little concerned about the dehrydration, but I think the water seems to be doing the trick!
Anything else you'd like to share or vent about? Corey and I made a LOT of progress on cleaning out the closets. Our plan is to change our current guestroom into the baby's nursery, and the current man room into the guestroom (I promise Corey is 100% in favor of this, otherwise it wouldn't be happening!). So one of our goals is to consolidate our stuff in both closets to one half of the future guestroom closet (with some things stored in the garage). I also had to go through our entertainment center in the future nursery, which has a cabinet on the bottom that has stored my craft supplies since high school and my desk that we are moving into our master bedroom. We are getting rid of a ton of the crap that we've had for quite some time--some of it just got thrown away (old papers and powerpoints printed out from college that I don't care to keep, some old homecoming mum supplies that have turned brown, etc). Some of the stuff will be going to Goodwill. We have a lot of old magazines and books (mostly mine) that will be donated, probably to Half Price.
It feels so good to eliminate all of this stuff for such a great reason! I feel really great about all of the space that we are going to have and I've said several times to Corey how much fun this all is, which is very unlike me. My nesting instinct is kicking in! If cleaning out closets seems fun, then I can't wait to start decorating the baby's room! Have a great week!

Elizabeth