Today, I was going through my list of “to try” recipes when it occurred to me.
I’ve asked you for vacation advice. I’ve asked you for book recommendations. I’ve asked you for your thoughts on everything from politics to TV shows to nursery decor.
I’ve shared dozens of recipes with you, but I’ve never taken the opportunity to let you share with me.
According to my pregnancy books and BabyCenter e-mails, our baby is going through a growth spurt over the next couple of weeks. This makes perfect sense to me, as I am constantly starving these days. Seriously. My appetite is ridiculous. No sooner am I done eating than my stomach starts growling again. What. the. hell. I continue to try to eat reasonably because I am trying to prevent myself from getting HUGE, and they say you really only need an extra 300 calories a day. But needless to say, food is on my mind a lot lately.
I still have a list of new recipes to try, but frankly, I’m bored with it. I need new ideas. I need “fresh meat”! Unfortunately, I don’t have time to add new food blogs to my reader, since I am barely keeping up with the ones I already follow.
Soooo… I know there are many of you out there who like to cook and try new recipes, which is part of the reason you like coming here, right? I’d like to know YOUR favorite recipes (aside from the ones which you’ve come across here, haha!). Inspire me!
Note: I’m not really looking for dessert recipes, since I have PLENTY of those lined up in my “to try” list. I’m more interested in dinners, preferably on the healthy side. Chicken is our favorite protein, and I’m pretty picky with other meat, but I could be persuaded to try something new.
Hook me up with links to your favorite go-to recipes!
Lately, it has been my Saturday morning ritual to check in on our babe the only way that I can–with our home fetal doppler.
I like to listen in for a few minutes, lying there in awe of its heartbeat, chug-chug-chugging along, growing louder with each passing week. This is baby’s heartbeat from this morning, at 16 weeks:
Prior to getting pregnant, and even early on, I didn’t think I would ever be one to buy a fetal doppler. But late in first trimester, the worry and suspense of wondering if everything would be OK started to build up, and I mentioned the doppler to Michael. We figured what the hell, it’s $60, we’ll be able to use it throughout this pregnancy and for any subsequent ones in the future. (For those who are curious, I ordered the Sonotrax B off of Amazon. Through my Google searching, I found it was highly recommended by expectant mothers all over the internet.)
When the doppler first arrived (I was about 10 weeks pregnant), I admit to being a little obsessed with trying to find the heartbeat. But once I did, it was like instant relief. I used it quite often over the following two weeks, because it made me feel better that things were going as they should. Then we had our ultrasound at 12 weeks and my fear pretty much left me completely. Now, I don’t feel the need to check in all the time, but since I can’t feel any movement and haven’t seen much growth in the belly region, it is nice to have the doppler to use to “connect” to the baby in some way. I have started the routine of checking in with baby once a week, on Saturday mornings. It’s been fun.
This morning, I woke up from sleeping on my right side. It was so beautiful in our bedroom with the sun coming in, the fresh air, the breeze… I just relaxed in bed for a few minutes, taking my time waking up. After a little bit, I got up to go get the doppler, and came back to bed to lie down and listen. When I lifted my shirt up, I was shocked to see that my belly was completely lop-sided!
First of all, I really don’t have much of a belly to speak of (yet), so I didn’t think my bump was really the baby at this point–but clearly, it is. Baby must’ve shifted completely over to my right side, because my stomach on the left was pretty flat, while there was this round, firm mass settled over on my right. Hilarious! But I do have to admit I was a bit alarmed at first, because I just didn’t think this could happen this early in pregnancy. However, my mom assures me it is perfectly normal. Plus, after getting up and eating breakfast, I was happy to see that baby had settled back into a normal position. Phew!
With the doppler, I have always found the heartbeat on the left side, pretty much in the same spot every time. But this morning, with the lump on the right, I knew there was no need to look on the left. Sure enough, I found him/her on the right. Too funny. Baby’s playing games with mom already! :)
That was our high temperature today. On April 2. With the same expected for tomorrow.
We slept with the windows open last night, so I woke up to fresh air and birds chirping and sunshine coming through the blinds. I honestly can’t think of a better way to begin a Friday.
When I dressed for work, I chose a skirt and a sleeveless top. I had to paint my toes (that haven’t been painted all winter). I slipped on flip-flops and walked out of the house without a jacket. There is nothing I love more than not having to wear real shoes or a coat. Ahhhh. Freedom.
Sporting sunglasses, I opened my sunroof and rolled down my window, enjoying every second of my five-minute commute.
During the lunch hour, Michael and I took a two-mile walk, and there was no doubt about it: it was actually HOT out. Whoa.
When I returned to my desk, it was only a few minutes until I received a mass e-mail from one of the big bosses, telling us all that the company would be closing two hours early (at 3:00). It was already 2:00. I was granted an early start to a fabulous weekend.
Yes. This day? Pretty close to perfection.
When the clock strikes midnight tonight, it will be official: I’ll have made it through winter.
:::huge sigh::: Oh, thank GOD.
These winter months have felt exceptionally long this year. In fact, I even bitched about it a few times on here! But I was also in the early stages of pregnancy and experiencing the exhaustion that comes with that, so it’s hard to say what was really to blame for my funk. I still think the weather is a major culprit, though. I just really do not like winter.
After the holidays were over, I set my sights on April. To get there, I had to take each month at a time–sometimes one day at a time. It was daunting. It seemed endless.
But now? Now, April is here. :::happy dance:::
We’ll likely still experience some cold, dreary days, but the nice days will be more abundant, so I can handle it. In fact, we’re welcoming April with a bang–80 degree weather is forecasted for Friday and Saturday! The weather report has been making me giddy every night this week.
See you next year, March. I’m through with you.
Here comes the sun.
You know what’s hard? Trying to design a unisex nursery.
Traditionally, if you’re not going to find out if it’s a boy or a girl in advance, your choices are green, and yellow. Or…
Nope. Just green and yellow.
At first, I thought I’d like to stick with that tradition, since I like the combination of green and brown. But when it came down to actually looking at nurseries in this color scheme… eh, I don’t know. And when I asked Michael, he specifically said he really didn’t want to do green or yellow, either.
So now I’m thinking I want to do something more modern. The biggest problem is really with bedding. Seems like every design screams boy, or screams girl. We have such clearly defined “gender specific” themes in our culture, and it really does make things difficult.
Actually, we’re thinking about painting the nursery walls a bright aqua blue. I love blue. But it seems like most aqua blue nurseries you find online are designed for little boys. Booooo, I say. Boo!
But I like the walls in these rooms:
I feel like if I can find the right bedding, everything will come together and the aqua walls will work for a boy OR a girl. The other problem with the bedding is that we don’t really want bedding. The baby can’t sleep with half of that fluffy crap anyway (increases the SIDS risk), so all we’re really looking for is a fun patterned sheet (hard to come by, seems most are solids or boring patterns), and a cute crib skirt. I’m not even looking for matchy-matchy. The design could be made up of other bright colors that are nice with the aqua.
Something like this cute multi-colored bumper that caught my eye. But it’s a bumper. :( Too bad the set’s sheet doesn’t come like this!
We’re most likely going with a dark, espresso colored crib. And now that I’m looking at it, we probably don’t even really need a fancy skirt with it, since it barely shows.
And so the challenge begins. I scour the internet looking for inspiration photos, but haven’t found anything I’m absolutely in love with yet.
So the search continues…
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
