Odd Food Cravings

OK - it's official, I now understand what they say about crazy midnight cravings. I woke up at 2am last night with a STRONG desire for French Bread and cheese. And not just any cheese, brie! All I could think about was soft/chewy bread slathered in cheese. The craving was so strong I could taste it! Needless to say, I sadly went back to bed with no snack.

Our Little Health Nut

Week 15 - Things are Looking Up

I am finally starting to have some days where I am feeling pretty great. However, I have concluded that our little Cashew really doesn't like the unhealthy food. Things the baby does not like:

• French Fries
• Onion Rings
• Tater Tots

Any of these are items guaranteed to set me back a few steps in the progress of feeling better.

We took our first serious trips to the baby stores this past weekend to register. I thought building a wedding registry was hard, but I was mistaken. That was nothing, at least I knew what all of those things do! Thankfully, we had Amy (a mother of three kids herself) with us to help us know what items you really need vs the things the baby stores think you need. I'm sure this was great entertainment for her. The bright spot of the day was that we somehow managed to pick out a nursery theme faster than we were able to pick out china when we got married. I'm not entirely sure exactly what this says about us.

I learned, however, at the end of the day, Babies R Us is not as evil as I once thought. While I think the light inside is designed to give you a headache, we found that they had most things we had been looking for, and were even cheaper than Target for many things. Not that I'm anxious to head back, but I no longer consider them the work of the devil. I think the key is short visits with a limited shopping list.

The Little Cashew

The baby's in utero name has officially changed. A few weeks ago, when we read in the book that the baby was the size of a cashew, Robert was hooked. Ever since then, it's been all about our little cashew. This is highly ironic since cashews are about the only nut that I don't like! Even more so since the baby was the size of a cashew for less than a week. At the last ultrasound, we determined that the baby was about the size of a lime.

Which leads me to a very sad Cinco De Mayo. Since there was plenty of rain here in DC, Robert didn't have to play softball, which meant we could go out for some Mexican food (if you can call it that). I thought it wouldn't be all that bad without a Margarita, I mean, I could get a virgin Daquiri, right? NOOOOOO. Apparently, in preparation for their busiest night ever, the restaurant had chosen to only offer premixed daquiris. However, a Virgin Pina Colada did save the day! But, it wasn't quite as refreshing as strawberry would have been. Meanwhile, the guys both had beers with limes. Sadly, beer has never smelled or sounded so good, and I don't even LIKE beer that much.

We had another dr. appointment yesterday. I am still tracking at no net weight gain, even with my baby bump and all. I am tracking my weight on our Wii Fit, and instead of having weight LOSS goals, I have put in my monthly weight GAIN goals. The Wii must be so confused. Too bad it doesn't have a "pregnant" setting, then maybe in the future I'd get the cheery sound, rather than the groan that I predict I will start getting eventually.

For everyone curious, we are scheduled to have our OB appointment where we can learn the gender on June 19th - so 7 more weeks! Let's just hope the Cashew cooperates.

My friend Amy is taking us to Babies R Us to do the scary baby registry. I'm sure we will be rapidly overwhelmed with the amount of stuff that goes along with babies, but we are relying on her to tell us what we really need, and what we can do without.

New things I have learned:

• Vitamin B6 is a great energy boost. It keeps you up at night.
• The Boppy maternity pillow is the best TRAVEL pillow ever made.
• I still don't like pecan pie
• Crab Cakes are still fabulous
• Eating on a deck overlooking the beach increases the appetite (thanks Kelly and Billy for getting married in South Carolina)

On my way to being wider than I am tall...

For everyone who has been waiting to see how quickly I would pop out - the answer was quickly, very quickly. So, as promised, here are pictures of me and the baby at the end of the first trimester.

I made the mistake of shopping for maternity clothes before the morning sickness really kicked in and I lost weight. These jeans fit great around the belly, but are falling off everywhere else. I imagine someday once I start gaining baby weight, I'll grow into them. But, I wanted to find an outfit that would grow with me so I could have the same clothes on for each picture. After 3 oddly blob-like ultrasounds, we finally arrived at week 12, which is apparently when the baby acutally starts looking like a baby. Here is our little cashew. At the visit where this was taken, we got to hear the heartbeat for the first time and see the baby move about. The little one reacted to my belly laughs by dancing about (ok, so maybe it was more like flailing the arms about, but I'm going with dancing), so hopefully that is a sign we have a future dancer.

Flailing my arms about

Still waiting for the elusive glory of the 2nd trimester

I am beginning to wonder if what they say about the end of the first trimester is true - that it ends! We are nearing the end of week 12, and I can't say that I'm feeling much better most of the time. I get an occassional good few hours, but definitely have not woken up feeling the best I've ever felt. ha.

Things I've learned while pregnant:

• My hair is actually more gray than brown
• My hair grows about an inch per month
• If you take a benedryl each night, it becomes a less effective sleep aid
• If vitamins made you sick before you were pregnant, they will make you sick while pregnant
• The desire to cook is greatly diminished when you have no sense of smell

For those wondering, no, we still haven't started thinking about names.

However, next week, we'll be finishing up the first trimester and I will be able to do fantastic things like get a massage, color my hair, and really return to my exercise regimen (such that it is). So, we'll try and take some pictures of the bump soon, and post them up here.

Superstitious

As is the same I'm sure for many exptectant moms, I've started to ponder what name we may call the alien beast inside. And, while I am on board with waiting till the little tyke comes (lest we have an oops with the ultrasound), I am ok hypothesizing about possible names.

Robert - not so much.

He won't even utter the words of names he LIKES, as it is TOO soon to be thinking about names. Although, we did have a funny moment at the bookstore the other day. We stood in the baby section, pondering the difference between the 10,000 Baby Names and the 100,000 Baby Names books. Do all of you know the difference between these two books? The difference is that one has 90,000 more names that we will NOT name our child. Since, if we have to look it up because we've never heard of it - it's too weird a name for us.

I'm a firm believer in two syllable names when you have a last name that is a single syllable. So, I'm quietly taking notes of names I like - storing them up for the day when Robert decides that we can start thinking about names. If you have name suggestions (no Roberta, Sparky or Noah), feel free to post them for our consideration.

Everything is Hot

Well, I've heard my friends say that you fall into two pregnancy categories:
"Can't get enough spicy food" or "Suddenly spicy food is much hotter than it used to be"

I figured I might end up in the former category with my love for hot food - but am sad to realize that I actually landed in the latter. Don't get me wrong, spiciness has not yet affected my DESIRE for spicy food (when I want to eat, that is), just my tolerance. It's just odd how everything seems so spicy to me now.

We went to the ob yesterday for another ultrasound. Here are the stats:
2.17 cm (.85 inches)
bloblike with start of umbilical cord

For those who are curiuos:

• Yes we're going to find out if it's a boy or girl
• Nina is convinced it is a girl
• Robert is 50% sure it's a girl
• For now, we're calling it Frankie