Overdue Update

Life gets so busy! Every new post idea I come up with keeps getting pushed back further, then when the time comes so much has built up because so much time has passed!

Lets just dive in! We'll work backwards.

I'm pretty much 25 weeks pregnant. Last night I took a walk with a friend and realized how much harder 1.25 mi can be, especially when I'm going up hill and down. Up hill I have abdominal cramps and feel like my legs don't have as much strength, down hill I feel way too much momentum! I had to take things nice and slow, a tent Caterpillar crossing the path beside me out-paced me.

Wednesday morning I got to do Holy Pre-natal Yoga again with Emily. The meditation portion we selected before the practice centered on Romans 12:1 "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."
The point in the meditation is that as moms and wives our lives can feel pretty ordinary with laundry, cooking, caring for hubs and babies. However, everything we do in our daily lives can be dedicated to God. We can offer our ordinary, daily grind to Him as our living sacrifice. I found that encouraging!

Tuesday was our pre-natal appointment. All good news! We loved the midwife we met this time. She gave birth to her first baby in January as a patient of her colleagues. We were excited to hear that, and also that she has personally delivered 450 babies in 6 years! I hope she's on call when my son decides he's ready to come out and meet us!

After our appointment we had a blast meeting up with some of our friends for lunch!

It's great to hang out with a young mom who knows something about what's going on with me! Hearing about the ups and downs of motherhood, the joys and woes of pregnancy, its just fun to chat about shared and unique experiences!

Their cute little guy is 2 and has his own personality! Love that the whole family hangs out together as much as possible!

Little guy is so sweet, he wanted his pal "Lamby" to get in the picture too!

My hubs, getting some practice in hanging out with a little guy. David coaxes this little dude into trying a fist bump. Check out his wind up!

You can tell the little dude is taking this seriously!

OHHHH! And David psyches him out. What a meanie!

After we parted ways, hubby and I had some dessert :-) Hubby's ice cream in the first picture to the left is more adventurous... birthday cake with brownies, reeses pieces, and marshmallows! I kept mine simple. Sweet cream with chocolate jimmies! I love my sprinkles! I also had to have a chocolate duet with walnuts!!! Boy did our son go wild after all that sugar!

Sunday we took our latest bump photos. I've decided to do some weeks together since thebump.com usually does a range of sizes for at least 3 weeks. I know my little bud had blossomed to a beautiful 15 ounces by 21 weeks, so these may not be completely accurate for my guy, but it's fun to have a close visual approximation.

 *What I wore: dress/thrifted about 4 years ago; short-sleeve top/old navy; cami/don't remember
You can tell I'm getting bigger now! I'm wearing my wedding rings around my neck. I had too many close calls! No cutting the rings off this girl!

So for weeks 23-24 I decided to combine the cantaloupe picture. Here is what our son was up to:
For week 23 he was supposed to be about 10.5 to 11.8 inches long and about 12.7 to 20.8 ounces. As stated above, we know from our 21 week ultrasound he was already longer than this and already weighed 15 ounces. He grew nipples, has a fully formed face (which we saw in the 21 week ultrasound), supposedly he can pick up on loud outdoor noises and something as common as a dog barking.
Week 24 again, thebump.com gives the same measurements, which I know are not completely accurate for my baby. The cool thing his, he's getting closer to being able to survive in the world outside my womb. He's supposed to be gaining fat in his face which will help him with tasks such as nursing (Our Bodies, Ourselves: Pregnancy and Birth, chapter 5).  His skin is becoming more opaque and gaining a pink glow! (thank you newly formed capillaries) :-)

My symptoms... some braxton hicks, hips go out one at a time every other day, yoga helps though. I've gained 20lbs now and its apparent in my clothes. Last week I retired at least 6 skirts, two tops, a couple dresses. David was sympathetic and we found a skirt, dress, pants, and some summer-weight cardies at old navy. My boss also passed down some maternity skirts and dresses she got from her boss when she was expecting!

Whew still more... Friday night hubby was actually off work! He did lots of OT beforehand to be able to get off, but poor man really needed the downtime. Our new neighbor invited us to the ball game, so we had a night out with new friends!

 To top it off the home team won! Here are our boys celebrating their victory!

My handsome hubby! I love him :-)

Ok... finally... what I've been eating lately... aside from some desserts... I do try to eat healthy foods for baby and me :-)

This is a great, quick meal.

*Couscous - 1 cup couscous with one cup boiling water (boiling water in the microwave makes it super-fast!) pour water over couscous and cover about 5 min, fluff with fork.

I poached chicken in olive oil and butter and seasoned the meat with black pepper and garlic

Since couscous really holds the heat, after adding spices curry, crushed red pepper, and garlic, I put frozen stir-fry veggies directly in the bowl, fluffed the couscous around the veggies and re-covered.

Added the chicken then some shredded parm. Yum, yum!

For a quick lunch before work, I made a two-egg egg salad. It was supposed to be three, but one egg went down the garbage disposal :-( Some mayo, whole grain mustard, paprika

Spread egg salad over a bed of garden veggies and a side of watermelon and whole grain toast. Filling and effective.

Last night's dinner... SOOO yummy! I made my own alfredo sauce, whole grain spaghetti, and chicken, tossed with some oregano and parsley, with fresh cut tomatoes.

Sauce: 3 TBS butter melted in sauce pan on med-high heat, 3 TBS whole wheat flour, once the flour begins to bubble a bit (the rue), add slowly one cup of milk, stirring with whisk the whole time. I added another one half cup of milk, waited for mixture to warm all the way through, then I slowly added about one cup of shredded parm, stirring with whisk the whole time. As the mixture began to thicken, I added black pepper, crushed red pepper and some garlic.

Again, soooo YUMMY!

I call this my AWESOME cereal!!! I really needed something that would fill me up more and stay with me longer for breakfast. I got some whole grain, multi-grain flakes from the organic section, a bag of whole, raw almonds (chopped in food processor at home to make for better cereal size), a bag of dried blueberries, and made my own granola, put it all together, it's one jam-packed nutritious cereal that keeps me full for hours! That's not easy to do these days!

Granola, 1 batch - 2 C old fashioned rolled oats, 2-3 TBS ground flax seed, 1/2 C honey, 1/4 C canola oil, cinnamon to taste. Mix and spread evenly on cookie sheet covered with parchment paper, put in oven pre-heated to 400 degrees. After 10-15 min, stir granola and spread evenly, bake for another 5-10 min (depending on how dark you like your granola)

Let cool on baking sheet then crumble. Store in air tight container up to 10 days. Mix in all your favorites... dried fruits, nuts, chocolate chips, be creative!!!! David likes when the granola is still warm, for me to mix in peanut butter chips and chocolate chips. The chips melt all over and its like dessert granola!!! SOOO good plain or over ice cream :-)

Ok, that's enough out of me for one post... maybe a couple posts ;-)

Best,

M~