Week 33

Well, we did get a blizzard last weekend which was kind of fun. We didn't have to go anywhere so we just got to watch the snow fall from inside our cozy house. Greg helped our basement neighbor shovel out the walks and the cars the next day. Of course my photo shoot got canceled. It looks like this will be the first time in 9 years that I will not be getting a Christmas card out. Perhaps a New Year's card will find its way into the mail but Christmas cards are out at this point. That's OK. It is just one of those years where keeping things simple is key.

Well due to the snow my regular photo spot is a huge pile of powdery white stuff. Greg got out OK and into position for taking the photo but when I tried to step out onto the snow pile my foot sank in and snow went right up my pantleg. Brrrrrrrrrr! Greg managed to get this shot after I climbed back onto the top step: He thought it was hilarious. I tried to brush the snow out of my pants as fast as possible. Needless to say I had to change my sock before leaving for work! We did manage to get a semi normal shot. The distance is off from the other photos so I'm not sure how much of a comparison can be drawn. I sure feel much bigger than last week. Little Koobie is pretty much out of room to really move around so she stays in one place and just practices stretching her arms and legs so I get lots of belly distortion which is funny to look at. We find her pretty entertaining these days. I have been starting to panic a little as I realize I have 3 weeks until I am "full term" and could have her at any point. I have so much to do to get ready, especially ready to leave my job for 3 months. Plus we have to have a pediatrician picked out before 36 weeks and we still can't decide if we want an office in Queens or in Manhattan. So many choices!

My university is closed from Dec. 24th through January 1st so I am really looking forward to almost a week and a half of vacation to finish up some baby details (like a nursery to put together and a registry to finish). I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

With love,
The Cruikshanks

Week 32

So sorry this post is so late. I have been drowning in Final Exam preparation for the last 5 or 6 days. I actually had to bite the bullet and take 2 days off of work in order to study for the test properly. I just couldn't master my procrastination tendencies this time around. Of course it didn't help that the course was really hard and there was so much material that it was fairly daunting. I took the exam last night (40 questions in 3 hours) and I think it went well. I am hoping for a solid B in the class. I am just so glad to be done with it. It was my worst course so far at Stern. No more homework, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks..... Actually my teacher was very nice and had an adorable Australian accent. Unfortunately he used it to talk about finance which was soooooo boring. Anyway, I slept like a baby last night and am now trying to catch up on work stuff. Looking forward to a weekend with no school work to ruin it. Last Tuesday was Greg's 33rd birthday and we didn't do anything because I was so busy with school so this weekend we will try to properly honor his special day. We were going to try and go out tonight for vegetarian Dim Sum but last night he requested a quiet night at home with take out instead. I guess he has been a little too busy these days too. I have Julie and Julia on DVD at home and I have been dying to watch it so that may be on the agenda as well.

We snapped this photo this morning. You can kind of see my neighbor's bumper in the shot. I hate it when he parks in my photo area. Anyway, you can't tell but it was COLD out. These photos are getting harder and harder to take outside. We are actually on Blizzard watch this weekend which I think will be fun except that I need to take our Christmas photo so snow may throw a wrench in that plan. I had my 32 week check up this week and little Koobie is right on track for size and had a nice strong heart beat. She remains head down like a good girl. I can tell she is growing larger because her movements are increasing in frequency and intensity as she runs out of space. Other than a little heartburn now and again I have been feeling really well and have no major complaints.

Now for one bonus photo. Me in my giant maternity winter coat. Greg says I look like the stay puff marshmellow man, I say it is more like a toasted marshmallow! At least I am so big now that even with the coat on people can tell I am pregnant and offer me their seats on the train. That is always really nice.

Week 31

Today is my Department's holiday party so I ordered this little black dress on Sunday to wear during the holiday season. It actually is a size too big but I didn't have the energy or time to deal with an exchange so I am just living with it. At least it is comfortable and cheap. Last weekend we had a fun time bowling with our small group on Saturday. My center of gravity must be really off because I did terribly and Greg beat me both games. That must be it right?!?! He can't possibly be getting better at bowling in his wacky hurl the ball down the lane with tons of spin style right?! Then on Sunday I baked a double batch of my Grandmother's sugar cookies because we were hosting a cookie decorating party on Tuesday with our home group. Once a month we skip the bible study and just have fellowship time and this week we thought we would decorate cookies. I was a little nervous that there wouldn't be space for everyone to work (and I didn't want people decorating cookies on the couch!) but it worked out perfectly. The 7 girls all ended up at the table and the 5 guys gravitated over to the Wii and competed in archery. We had a really nice time and everyone made adorable cookies (and ate lots of them too!!!). Grace provided us with naked gingerbread to decorate along with my sugar cookies so there were plenty to go around. I should have taken a before picture to show the set up but after 2 hours of decorating this is what it looked like. And the whole group packing up their cookies to take home. So much fun and really pretty easy to throw together. We decided not to have our annual Christmas party this year for the communion team just because we are so short on time and I am so short on energy these days so this was an easy way to share the season with people on a smaller scale.

Week 30

Week 30! It feels like the home stretch with just 10 weeks to go. We had a very nice 4 day weekend. Our Thanksgiving was quiet consisting of calls home to the family, a cheesy teen movie, a yummy vegan dinner, and decorating the house for Christmas. We watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy over the course of the weekend while we worked which was fun. Those movies remind me of Christmas because they were always released around the holidays. We had friends over for dinner on Friday which was really nice. We used the weekend to get a jump start on Christmas so I can focus on my class final over the next two weeks. The gifts are purchased, wrapped and in some cases packed for shipping. That feels really good. We have some general ideas for a Christmas card (Greg is helping me this year which is fun) and need to plan a photo shoot for that. We made a few additions to the home decor this year which I will have to share later because it looks like Greg took them off the camera.

We ate lots of yummy food over the weekend. We are both so busy during the week that it seems we don't get a chance to cook much so when we have a little time we really enjoy getting into the kitchen together and whipping up great meals. We of course had waffles one day for breakfast (our favorite Chelsea/Plain waffles) and then leftovers over the weekend. I made a crustless Pumpkin pie that was delicious. Couldn't pass up the pie just because we didn't cook our own Thanksgiving dinner! I found some really nice brioche rolls at the grocery store on Friday so we enjoyed "chicken" burgers a couple days for lunch which were really good. And then on Sunday night I made "beef" stroganoff. Lots of delicious comfort food. I hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend.

Week 29

TGITuesday! Because it is actually Thursday! We were a little late with our photo this week mainly because it gets dark so darn early. Usually we would snap the photo on the way to church on Sunday evenings at about 5:30pm but wouldn't you know, now it is dark by then and I forget to do it earlier (plus I am usually not so cute earlier in the day when lounging around on a Sunday). This week it worked out though because I stopped in at Macy's yesterday to buy a Christmas gift and found this outfit on sale at Pea in the Pod. I even had an old gift certificate in my wallet so it was FREE! Gotta love that. Feeling really cute in my new pants and top which is a nice change from yesterday where my pants were way too tight and I felt like a house. Greg was teasing me this morning because I kept saying "I love my new pants!" at weird moments.

Thanks for your prayers last week about my blood test. As expected everything is fine and I got my shot with no adverse effects. Koobie is getting to that size where I feel her every move and she loves to shift around all through the day to remind me that she is there and has an opinion about what I should be doing, sitting, wearing, etc. I thought when I got married that my life was not really my own anymore since I was now "one flesh" with my husband but truly now that concept it even more true. There is a little person growing in there and even when she comes out every decision I make will take on new meaning. I am already scolding Greg for things and saying, "you shouldn't do that, you are a father now. Think of your daughter!". Scary!!

I have some startling news. Last weekend we did not make waffles! I know what you are thinking "have you abandoned waffle winter already?". No way. I got a new recipe for quick and easy biscuits so we decided to make biscuits and gravy on Sunday instead of waffles. Greg threw together the vegetarian sausage gravy while I made the biscuits. His gravy turned out very good but unfortunately the biscuits were a disappointment. The recipe called for instant yeast but I only had rapid rise and now I think maybe those are not the same thing because my biscuits did not rise big and fluffy like they were supposed to. They tasted OK but were much too dense. We will be back to waffles this weekend for sure!

My goal this week is to complete all my Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving. I know you are wondering why I don't want to wait and take advantage of all the post Thanksgiving sales. Well 1.) I hate crowds 2.) the things on my list are not included in all those door buster deals 3.) I don't want to spend my precious days off dealing with #1 4.) I want to wrap all my gifts and prep them to ship over the weekend so I can cross that off my list. I did about 50% of my shopping in late October early November via the internet and now am just picking up a few odds and ends around town which so far I have been able to do after work on my way home each night. Yesterday it was Macy's and today Grand Central. Yesterday I even found myself humming Silver Bells so I think I am getting into the holiday spirit already.

But before jumping ahead to Christmas it is Thanksgiving week and there is so much to be thankful for (besides new pants!). I am so thankful for Greg who is such an amazing support to me and a gem of a husband. I am so thankful for a healthy happy growing baby, an immediate family in good health, and a plethora of caring and wonderful friends. My challenging job and home are also huge blessings at this point in the economy. I am blessed in so many ways and am trying to take extra time this week to reflect and give thanks to God for them all. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

Week 28

These photos are getting tough as the temp drops! We tend to shoot and run back inside where it is warm and then hope we got a good shot. I really wish we had better lighting in the house (and a better backdrop outside the house!). Here we are finishing our 28th week. 7 months! Can't believe that. I have almost 3 to go and can't imagine getting bigger and more cumbersome but I know I will. I am actually starting to grow out of some of my clothes already and will have to do a little more shopping soon. The thought of shopping used to excite me but when you know that you will only wear something for a couple months and that you will have to pay full price because there are never sales on maternity clothes it steals some of the shopping joy. Oh well.

Baby Koobie is doing well. She is moving around all the time and kicking me regularly. I talked with our birth instructor about when she should turn around since I have been paranoid about this and learned that it is a little early to begin worrying or doing exercises to encourage her so I have stopped my obsessing. I am having some blood work done this week in relation to my having an rh- blood type so please be praying that there has been no sensitivity to my baby (if she is rh +). There is not a lot of danger to her but if I develop a sensitivity then it would make a subsequent pregnancy more dangerous and it would prevent me from using the birth center at Roosevelt which is where we would like to go this time around. I am not really worried about it since the possibility is really rare but a little prayer is never a bad thing.

We are looking forward to the Thanksgiving holiday next week. Both Greg and I get a 4 day weekend and have lots of fun planned. We are doing a movie and dinner for the holiday, sort of a tradition over the past few years and our last chance probably once Koobie comes. The restaurant we like doesn't usually have kids in it for dinner! Then we will be decorating the house for Christmas which I always love as well as some researching of baby stuff that we have been putting off. I would also like to do some baking. So much fun stuff on the horizon. I hope you all have a great week!

Oops! Almost forgot my waffle update. As I have mentioned before we have settled on a favorite plain waffle recipe. One of the ingredients called for in the recipe is Barley Malt Syrup for the sugar. I didn't have any before so we substituted agave nectar (you can use maple syrup too but I think that has too distinct of a flavor). Anyway, I picked up some barley malt syrup during my last trip to the grocery store and we decided to give it a try. WOW! What a difference. They are EVEN BETTER than before. I was a little skeptical becuase I didn't like the way the batter smelled so much like the syrup but once cooked up the waffles have a subtle malted flavor. They were so good. Soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. I was going to take a photo of them coming hot off the grill Saturday morning but my battery died so this photo is from Sunday morning when we reheated the 2.5 frozen waffles in the toaster oven and enjoyed them as a quick breakfast. I love how well waffles reheat in the toaster oven. I wish we had made more of these but the recipe only made 7. Greg likes his with a little melted Earth Balance and Maple Syrup (bottom plate) and I of course prefer the melted "butter" with powdered sugar and a little fat-free whip (top plate). We are still loving Waffle Winter!

Week 27

Today we start our third trimester which is pretty exciting. Baby Koobie (that has been our nickname for her since we found out she was on the way) is moving and kicking me a lot. I can tell she is still breech at this point since almost all movement is way down in my low pelvis. Lately I have been doing some pelvic tilts to encourage her to flip around but so far she is happy as she is. She is a very good baby letting me work all day with no problems so I can't complain. Greg is finally able to feel her easily from the outside which he likes. Soon he should be able hear her heartbeat if he puts his ear up to my belly but not yet. We finished furnishing her nursery last weekend and have started organizing all the stuff people have been passing on to us. My sister recently sent a box of stuff from my nephew. So many cute things full of sentimental memories. Koobie is a lucky girl to have a cousin already. I hope they end up being good friends.

I have been busy at work with a large faculty recruitment project which has taken up a lot of my free time. Greg too has been busy at work with PR for his research center. Consequently we haven't done much else that is worth blogging. We do however make time for WAFFLE WINTER. We have found an awesome recipe. It is our favorite so far. Here is a photo from Halloween when we made Pumpkin Waffles for the first time.They are killer good and reheat so beautifully that I made a full batch last Saturday, about 12 waffles and we have been eating them as leftovers ever since. Yummmmmmmmmmmm. They are especially good with melted butter a little powdered sugar and whipped cream. They taste just like pumpkin pie but with a waffle texture. I noticed there is a recipe on the PPK website for pumpkin waffles so check it out. My recipe is fr Check it out!

Week 25

This was a very quiet weekend of chores, studying for my midterm on Thursday, a repeat of Chelsea Waffles (our first recipe which is so far our favorite), and other regular activities. Baby girl is growing more and more and weighs almost 2 pounds now and I am definitely feeling the difference! I notice that some days I am feeling really big and tight and cumbersome and others smaller, looser, and more mobile. The day of the photos was one of those big days and today is one of those small days. So strange how that can happen. We also manage to get a little family shot this week which I love. Wish it could have been outdoors but the spot where we shoot our outdoor photos had a giant suburban parked in the way and 2 people couldn't fit with the tripod so inside it was.

We also managed to put together the new baby dresser so the nursery is beginning to take shape which is really exciting. I have lots of ideas moving through my mind for colors and decorations and whatnot. Now I just need time to work on some of those ideas.

Week 24

This was a busy weekend for us. Saturday our friend Jin came over to fix us a Korean feast. She had offered a long time ago to come and cook us dinner and said we could invite a few people if we wanted. She said 6-8 would be a good number. We decided to invite our communion team over for the dinner thinking that only a handful would respond (as they have to other social things we have planned). Well we had 13 people! Poor Jin. She was such a good sport. Greg picked her up on Saturday and they cooked for 4 hours straight with Greg as the sous chef (I was not allowed to help and instead they just fed me throughout the prep time). She made SO much food. We used every dish in my kitchen to either prep or serve the food. I love when I forget I have certain pans and things until we need a container. Everyone had a great time and the food was excellent. We sent everyone home with food and still have a refrigerator full of leftovers. Jin and I managed to wash and dry all the dishes and clean the whole kitchen by midnight. Such a great day. On Sunday we used the leftover ingredients and Jin's instructions to make more Korean fried rice and a noodle dish to eat with the other leftovers. Really really yummy the second day too. Jin HATES the camera and we never get photos of her but I managed to sneak this one of her explaining how to assemble a rice bowl using the different ingredients on the table. She also explained the Korean names for everything and some of the traditional aspects of the food. And here is the full spread. Great job Jin!

On Sunday we ran a ton of errands. First up though were WAFFLES!!! I had intended to make yeast risen waffles but they had to be prepped the night before and after the feast and the clean-up I just didn't have the energy so we made plain waffles using the recipe that came with the waffle iron. I will share it here since they post it on their website for the public.

Basic Waffles
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-3/4 cups reduced fat milk
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large eggs

The batter was very nice to work with and the waffles were good, however I think I like the vegan plain waffles from our Brunch cookbook better than these. We ended up with 2 extra which we froze and reheated this morning in the toaster oven for breakfast. They reheated really nicely.

After breakfast we went over to Babies R Us to start a registry. People have been asking us if we are registered so we figured we should take the plunge. It needs a lot of work though. We would get to a section and realize we wanted to research something so we would leave it off the registry. For instance I have a breast pump that was given to me by a friend but I hadn't written down any of the specs so I didn't know which accessories to register for. Need to look into that a little and that is just one example. We also ran to target where I got a couple pairs of maternity pants and some much needed maternity tights. So much more comfortable! Since we were sort of on a baby kick we worked a little on planning the nursery by measuring the walls and the items we already have and then headed out to IKEA in Brooklyn to look at some options and ended up finding a dresser that would work for the room and has a large enough top to double as a changing station for the upstairs. It feels good to have some concrete plans for the room and to soon have a place for all those cute little clothes that are currently sitting in bags. I will post some photos as we get the furniture put together and installed in the room. So far we have a bed, a rocking chair, a dresser, and a side table. We are planning to get some storage unit for the room as well and then we are done.

Week 23

OK, couldn't resist posting again this weekend. I had a great work week last week. My boss and my sub-boss were both out of the country which meant I got a TON of stuff done in a nice quiet office. So nice! Then this weekend I had a lovely brunch with some of my old co-workers, 2 of which have moved away from NYU and 1 I don't get to see as much since I moved up to the Biology office. We had a great time at Hundred Acres in SOHO. It was a cute place for brunch and the biscuits were to die for. However I would say skip this place, the non-biscuit brunch items were only so-so. In the afternoon I picked up clothes in Brooklyn from a friend of friend who recently had twins. She got baby clothes from my friend Karen in Kansas and is now passing them on to me. There was a ton of stuff in there. I think at this point we are set for 0-3 month old clothes for our little girl thanks to the generosity of friends!

On Sunday it was study day. I am pretty far behind on my homework for my classes so I spent some time trying to catch up. Of course first I had to make waffles! As promised Greg and I threw together Peanut Butter waffles from our new brunch cookbook. We substituted cashew butter for peanut butter which gave the waffles a more subtle nutty flavor. They were pretty good. I of course preferred the plain waffles but Greg favors anything with nut butter. Next week I am going to make yeasted waffles and I can't wait. I am loving waffle winter! Seriously, such a quick and easy but fancy breakfast, even when starting from scratch.

On the baby front I had an exciting development on Sunday. I was sitting on the couch when all of a sudden I felt a very strong concentrated kick. It was startling. Greg looked over and saw this shocked look on my face and asked me what was wrong just as the baby kicked me again and made me gasp. Greg came over and put his hand over the spot and she graced him with a wallop too and he felt her from the outside. It was amazing! I have felt her squirreling around in there for a couple weeks but that is more general movement while this was a very strong sensation in just one place. I got 4 kicks and then she was apparently in a more comfortable position and has been quiet since. It was pretty cool especially for Greg who doesn't get to feel any of the other stuff. She kicked me right here! I am sure in a few months I will be begging her to stop kicking me but right now it was a very special experience.

22 Weeks and Waffle Crazy

OK, back on schedule with my photo shoots. This week has been kind of uncomfortable which I think means our little girl is growing faster though you can't really tell from the photos which look a lot like last weeks. I have had a hard time getting comfortable in the evening and at night have been tossing and turning a lot more. I never realized this would start before the third trimester but here we are. In our birth classes which we started a few weeks ago we learned about how to best massage the mommy and Greg has been nice enough to practice on me at home on those nights when I am really restless. We also blew up or old balance ball and I lean on that while he rubs my back. Such a great guy. I also started back to school last week and have the 2 most boring classes of my graduate career to date. I have a really hard time focusing on the work because I really don't care for the material (Finance and Economics). Hopefully things will improve.

On a side note, we recently got a new cookbook in the mail from Amazon. I love cookbooks and this one looked especially tasty and is all about brunch. Greg and I eat breakfast together every morning ever since I got my promotion and we have 2 or 3 standard quick breakfasts but on the weekend we like to go the extra mile and make pancakes, cinnamon rolls or something else more involved. That is where this book comes in. We have been trying some of the tasty recipes and they have been good but I have been drooling over the waffle recipes. We had a waffle iron years ago but it was a really old one I had picked up at a garage sale. It was old, heavy and really hard to clean so we eventually got rid of it during one of our NYC moves. I suggested to Greg we get a new waffle iron and he of course said no. He has a deeply ingrained hatred of all appliances and thinks they are all a waste of space. I kept looking at those recipes and finally decided that this was going to be "waffle winter" and we were going to make waffles every weekend! So last Saturday I had to run errands and stopped at Bed, Bath, and Beyond to pick up a new shower curtain liner and shower caddy and looked at the waffle irons. Sure enough they have a very nice and compact iron that was very reasonable priced. Sure it didn't make waffles in pretty patterns like the $70 machine I saw near work but round waffles are just fine and perhaps Greg wouldn't balk so much if it was pretty cheap and small. We put the iron to work on Sunday and made the first waffle recipe in the book (plain waffles) and darn it......THEY WERE SO GOOD!!! We were MMMMMMMMMing the entire meal and Greg admitted they were really tasty and better yet quick. No standing at the stove making batches of pancakes and taking turns eating so that no cakes get cold. We could whip up 4 waffles in no time and sit down and enjoy them together. And I love that you can control how crispy you make them. So, that was a really long way to say we are waffle crazy now! Next weekend, Peanut Butter Waffles!!! Greg says the waffle iron can stay but one appliance in and one out so now I am trying to decide who gets the boot. I am thinking it will be the soy milk maker. Hmmmm.......

21 Weeks and News

In an attempt to make up for last week's missed photo I decided not to stick to my photo every 2 weeks schedule and instead have Greg snap a photo today. Here I am out back in a new maternity outfit right before we headed off to church. My wardrobe is seriously limited these days but new clothes always make you feel good. My belly doesn't look very big from this angle which is probably why my mom was clamoring for a profile shot this week in the comments. I think I usually turn a little more to the side but Greg can never remember what he does from week to week and he isn't much for shooting multiple shots. Here you go Mom! I made sure to post a profile picture this week just for you. Turned out to be a pretty big difference actually. I always take one of these profile shots each time but we do them inside and the lighting is so bad that I usually don't like to post them. We just don't have very good lighting in this house compared to our awesome lighting in the Bronx. Anyway, I think it is pretty obvious that I am pregnant but when I mention it to professors at work they act so very surprised. I can't image what they thought was growing in my midsection. A giant tumor perhaps?

So on to the big news. Last Wednesday Greg and I decided to go ahead with the routine 20 week anatomy scan that is offered to pregnant woman AND we decided that if the baby wanted to cooperate we would find out the sex. Well........here she is! It was very cool to see her again on screen jumping around inside of me. From what they can tell she is developing normally and everything is looking good. Praise God for that. This photo was Greg's favorite that they sent us home with. Those are 2 little feet. She also had her little hands balled up in cute little fists. So amazing. We can't wait to meet her face to face. Now that we know the sex we are gearing up to start planning again. When we made the decision to find out several weeks ago we pretty much stopped planning stuff like names and the nursery because it seemed like too much effort to pick two options for everything. Now we have to revisit those topics.

One thing we did this weekend was sort clothes. We live near a Goodwill Outlet store. They sell clothes in huge bins by the pound. So when Greg goes to look at records I have been tagging along to look for baby clothes. I have found so many nice things that are in terrific shape, many of which have obviously never been used but up till now I have been buying boy and girl stuff. They clothes are only 1.69 a pound and you can get a lot of tiny baby clothes in one pound. I figured even if I had to toss half of them I would only be out a few dollars. Well today we went through the bags of clothes I had purchased, washed and stored. We sorted them by boy or girl and then by size. Turns out most of what I had found was girl stuff anyway so there was only a small pile of distinctly "boy" stuff. From that pile I am going to put my crafting skills to the test to modify some things and make them more girly and then a few items I will redonate. Overall we have a nice amount of clothes to get us started.

20 weeks

In week 20 I did not get my regular photo because we were in Montreal for the weekend. We drove up to meet Greg's parents who were vacationing for a few days in the Canadian City. Greg's dad has been very ill over the last month or two so their making it on this trip was a very big deal. We had a nice low key visit which was perfect for me. Lots of tasty food, slow walks around town, a little shopping and a daily nap. Can't complain about that. This was our second visit to Montreal so we felt no pressure to get out and see everything. Here we took a buggy ride around Old Montreal and the waterfront. You can see we had beautiful weather. Lots of sun and blue sky with just a slight fall chill in the air.A visit to Mount Royal for panoramic views of the city. This is a self portrait. I need to get one of those self portrait sticks that lets you hold the camera a ways away. And a little belly shot after nap time. The baby is always hanging out on wedged up on my right side when I wake up but a gentle massage usually coaxes a more even position and a lot less pressure on my belly. At this point I can't feel any distinct kicks or punches, just general sensations. Greg can't wait for movement to start that he can feel from the outside.

So now we are back to the daily grind. I should have an exciting update for you this weekend!

18 Weeks

My mother reminded me last night that I have been delinquent once again on my posting. Here is my 18th week picture. I had to break down and buy maternity pants that week which made life much more comfortable. Still not really filling out maternity shirts yet. I had my last class of the summer during this time so I was busy with studying and taking my final exam which took all day Labor Day to complete.

16 Weeks

Thanks to everyone for all the well wishes. We are happy to be "out of the closet" on this topic finally. We wanted to wait until we could tell our families in person which was done during our recent visit to the Northwest. Needless to say we are thrilled and a little freaked out by the news ourselves. I found out I was pregnant right in the middle of the transition to my new job and finals at school. At that moment it was very overwhelming news but life has settled down as it always does and we are getting used to the idea slowly but surely. The 2 main questions I get are:

1. How do you feel?
I feel good. I would say great because as far as all the possible difficulties that come with pregnancy go, I have had a pretty easy time of it but it has not been trouble free. I have not had any morning sickness which is great but do suffer from chronic constipation, a common side effect. It is MUCH better than during my early weeks so at this point I am confident to say I am managing it just fine and most of the pain I was having is now very minimal. My biggest problem with pregnancy is my migraines because I am choosing not to take any medications. There are no class A or B migraine meds and I would rather not risk taking class C drugs though some woman do. My migraines are not as severe as they are for many sufferers out there. That means that when one hits I can only take Tylenol and ride it out. That totally sucks and I have had quite a few since getting knocked up. Otherwise I am feeling good.

2. How did you do it?
Some of you are aware that Greg and I have been trying to get pregnant for almost 3 years now after a lost pregnancy in early 2007. We had gotten to the point where our next step was to decide if we wanted to go the drugs and procedures route. We are pretty big procrastinators so we never got around to making that decision. I got busy with school and we both had thrown ourselves into our jobs. Anyway, we conceived naturally. I should however give props to the iphone. Yes, an iphone can get you pregnant! I found a free app in the apps store that is a "lady" calendar where you can track FAM data (Fertility Awareness Method). Greg and I had used FAM to get pregnant the first time but had taken a break from using it after a while of unsuccessful trying (long story I am happy to share another time). I downloaded the App and thought maybe it was time to give it a try again and after 1 month of charting we had success! Ultimately we know that success came because the Good Lord decided to open my womb which was a great answer to prayer but it is fun to think that the iphone had a hand in there too!

3. Not really a question but I have actually had people comment that it is shame I went to all that trouble to lose weight only to put it back on again! Well, who cares I tell them! Who says something like that anyway? Geez people! I had to drop out of weight watchers when I got pregnant and I will admit I went a little post-diet crazy for a few weeks eating all the foods I had been denied, but actually WW taught me many great lessons about food and eating that have come in handy with my pregnancy. I pretty much eat all day long (low blood sugar triggers my migraines even more now) and that is the same thing I did while on the program, lots of small meals and snacks throughout the day plus I was in the habit of making good choices which also comes in handy. I was a little sad to have to quite right before reaching my goal weight but WW has a program for lactating moms so I will be happy to sign right back up after the baby comes.

So I am finishing my 16th week today and my belly has finally decided to pop out a little. Up until now I was definitely in that phase where people stare at your middle and ask themselves, is she pregnant or fat? I am in the in-between phase where I can no longer zip my pants but pregnancy clothes are really baggy on me so I am using Bella Bands and Pant extenders in the meantime. Greg snapped that photo yesterday and sadly it is the first one we have taken. I wanted to take photos every week from the beginning but never got around to it. I am such a bad scrapbooker and blogger these days!

This just in.....

Please excuse the shameless rip-off of Becky Higgins' baby announcement!f

Puerto Rico

Well, now July is almost over. Perhaps I am becoming a one time a month blogger! I wish I could say I have been living it up here in the big city and my active social life was keeping me from blogging but that is not the case. I just spend all my time working and when I am not working I am trying my best to enjoy my little 6 week break from school which usual translates to reading a novel for fun before bed or if I am really lucky, watching a television show in real time instead of from a recording. I did manage to take a week off for some R&R and accompanied my friends Suzan and Marcela on a trip to Puerto Rico. We had a pretty great time lounging on the beach, eating lots of great food, and seeing a few sights. Here are a few pictures:
We spent the first 3 days on the island of Vieques which is a few miles off the coast of Puerto Rico. It was beautiful. This is the guest house we stayed in called Bananas, it has a little restuarant/bar out front. Very rustic and fairly inexpensive but this.....was the view out the front. The little town we stayed in, Esperanza, was adorable and had a prominade build on the water. The whole island is overrun with wild ponies that roam around and there were all these random dogs roaming around too but they weren't strays since the shop owners could identify them and knew who they belonged to. The dogs would just roam in and out of the open air restaurants and no one really cared. Needless to say it was very laid back there. This is Belly Button, the only breakfast place in Esperanza but no worries because the food was amazing. We ate here both mornings we were in town. The best thing we had were these......banana pancakes. So so good. I tried to make them at home like this were you grill the bananas and pour batter over them, but mine were not nearly as good as theirs. Delicious! We also spent an entire day at the beach. We chose Sun Bay because it was nearby and we could walk along the coast to get to it. We were a little apprehensive about going there because it is a more developed and popular beach. No worries there. The beach was great, there were not a lot of people and they had planted palm trees all over the beach to provide shade for visitors.This was my view as I laid on a towl enjoying the sun and reading a book. The water was great too, so warm and blue and not too deep in Sun Bay. So relaxing. They also had bathrooms and a little cafe there where we had the best empinadas and tacos of our trip. It ended up being a fabulous day at the beach. That evening we took a Bioilluminscent Bay tour. Puerto Rico has 4 Bio Bays (there are only a handful in the world) and the brightest in the world is in Vieques. I don't have any photos because there was no way to keep a camera dry but it was pretty amazing. The water is full of little micro-organisms that emit light when they are disturbed (as a defense mechanism) so once it is dark the tour guide tosses everyone out of their kayaks into the water to swim around and as you swim the water glows blue green. It was pretty cool. The later is got, the darker it got, the brighter the water glowed. It was a fantastic experience that I would recommend to everyone.

After Vieques we returned to the main island and moved into a condo we rented in Condado. We were one block from the beach which we could see from our balcony.This is one end of our condo's pool where we spent a portion of almost every day we were in Condado. So nice! With the condo as our home base we adventured out to the grocery store (we had a kitchen so we ate a couple meals a day at home), out dancing at the Mariott across the street where they had Salsa night and a casino, to the beach just down a short side street, the girls took a jungle tour which I opted out of, and also a full day spent in Old San Juan.We caught a free bus to Old San Juan to look around a little bit. The city was built behind a large wall but they have built walking paths around it....And in a few places are these huge gates to get through the wall. We roamed the streets and peered into shops and looked at landmarks like this...Banco Popular, the first bank in Puerto Rico which is a great example of Art Deco architecture. Actually there was art all over this city, especially in the form of sculpture. We stumbled upon sculptures at almost every turn. We stopped in a plaza for some shaved ice from a street vendor then continued on our adventure.We ended up here on the top of a hill at the site of the old fort. The photo doesn't do it justice but on the massive lawn there were tons of people flying kites. There was also a craft fair going on to the left of this photo which we walked through. Unfortunately we didn't watch the clock close enough because the fort was closed by the time we go up to it. We didn't get a chance to look around inside but we had a great day in the city. We stayed for dinner before heading home. On our last day in Puerto Rico we decided to live the high life and buy day passes to the Ritz Carlton.With a day pass you get a room for the day and access to all the facilities. Big fluffy pool chairs, free towels and water, poolside food and drink service, and beach chairs and umbrellas set up for you by cabana boys. Here is a big iguana that just mosied out from under a bush and walked past all the guests. Cool! It was a fun day in the lap of luxery. We stayed for a very fancy smancy dinner at their upscale Italian restaurant. Unfortunately, though I had been really careful with my skin the entire trip I did manage to burn my ENTIRE backside that day at the beach. It was beet red and very painful. Good thing we went home the next morning becuase I was not a fan of the sun after that! It was a fun trip. Returning to lots and lots of work was less fun. The only thing I wish was different about the trip was that Greg would have come. He didn't really want to spend a week with 3 girls being girly but I missed him a lot.