Baby Bump - 16 & 17 Weeks

Well there seems to be another big jump in size this past week.

At 17 weeks I am…

- Wearing belly bands with all my pants (except in the picture...didn't bother with it).

- Thankful that my morning (all day) sickness has mostly gone away. Although the past couple nights my stomach has felt pretty uneasy at night. Sometimes it will feel like that during the day too. However, overall it is so much better.

- Not having any particular cravings. Although I have been wanting some Cake Batter Ice Cream. Too bad there are no Cold Stones near me!

- Still tired. I think this is just probably here to stay.

- Not able to decide on a girl name! Greg and I have a boy name picked out, but we don’t have a girl name. I read through the whole girl section of the name book Jill let me borrow. That is about 50,000 names! Um, what is wrong with me that out of 50,000 names I could not find one I like?? Well there are lots that I like, but I didn’t want to choose a name that is too popular. But I guess any name you choose could end up being one of the top names in the next few years so you never know. I have given us a deadline of our next ultrasound (when we find out the gender) to decide on a name. That is only 2 weeks away!! Although Greg is ignoring my deadline and refers to it only as a goal.

- Anxious to feel the baby kick! I can’t wait until I can feel it move. Sometimes I poke it to try to provoke it to kick back. So far, no results.

- Feeling overwhelmed by all the options for baby gear. What kind of stroller to get - Snap-n-go, travel system, umbrella, jogging? I remember Greg and I having a hard time registering for wedding gifts. We would research things like Calphalon pots and pans and knife sets. Baby stuff seems even harder.

Maternity Clothes Shopping

I went maternity shopping for the first time this past weekend. It was pretty fun :). That may be the only time I have fun maternity shopping, but since it was the first time it was exciting.

First I went to 2 consignment shops that my friend Joan told me about – Second Childhood and Children’s Collections. They have mostly children’s clothes and only a small selection of maternity clothes, but I thought I would give it a shot in hopes of maybe snagging a good deal. No such luck. Second Childhood did have 2 pairs of cute maternity jeans though – one Gap and one Citizens, but they weren't long enough. Maybe I could have bought them as capris :)

Then I went to maternity Gap. It didn't have as much selection as I was expecting. They were having a nice additional discount on sale items though, so I bought 2 tees and 1 tunic/dress thing to wear with leggings. I did not find any pants my size that came in long. What is with that??

Then I went to Old Navy which had an even smaller selection of clothes. All I bought there were maternity leggings (just super low rise to go under the belly). I also looked at Target which I have browsed before, but didn't find anything.

Also this weekend we made a little bit of progress on the future nursery. I am waiting until we know the gender before doing any decorating but there were a few things we needed to do first. Since it is an empty room, it tends to collect junk. Dirty laundry piles get formed in that room, items waiting to go to goodwill or sold on Craigslist get stacked in that room, and random I-don’t-know-what-to-do-with-this stuff gets stored in that room.

We cleared out almost all of the junk, and moved a small bookcase into the closet to hold toys/books. We also bought a dresser on Craigslist this weekend that will be used as the changing table. I am pretty excited about it. It is really old (made in the 1800’s we are told) and needs to be refinished, but I love the look of it. I am planning on having the top remain wood colored, and the rest of it painted cream with heavy distressing – just like how Lauren redid herdining room table. I loved how it turned out. Except I am not going to attempt to do it myself. I already attempted redoing an end table and I didn't do a very good job. Maybe because it wasn't real wood, or maybe because I am impatient and have no time for things like primer or sealer or sanding or doing things “properly”. Anyway, the only bad part about the dresser is that the drawers are pretty wonky – there are no drawer guides. But I think we can deal with that. The picture makes it look in better shape than it really is. Anyway, I can’t wait to find out the gender so I can start on the decorating!!

Man Weekend

A few weekends ago we had a "man weekend" to celebrate Greg's birthday, Cody's birthday, and Fathers Day which all fell on the same week. My mom put together a backyard pool party and it was so much fun. She had everything decorated so cute and festive.

We enjoyed swimming in the pool, and Kyler was living it up relaxing on the float.

My mom bought water guns for the birthday boys and they put them to use attacking unsuspecting party attendees and wasps.

We relaxed outside and enjoyed some guacamole, queso, shrimp, potato salad, and beans. We had lots of sweet friend come over which made it so fun. Unfortunately I don't have many pictures of everyone. I was too busy eating guacamole.

My mom made this cute man cake.

Aren't Kyler's eyelashes the most beautiful, longest eyelashes ever? He is so cute.

We had a great time celebrating out men that weekend!

Smoothie Kick

Greg and I have been on a smoothie kick recently. I am not sure if this is a pregnancy craving, but if so then Greg has been having cravings too cause we have both really been enjoying making smoothies lately. Probably in part due to it being summertime which makes cold drinks sound all the more appealing, all the delicious fruit in stores right now, and the relatively cheap fruit prices (at least on strawberries). I also am proud to say that I worked at 2 different smoothie establishments in high school and college, so I guess I just have a love of smoothies. And it makes me feel like I am being super healthy when I drink a smoothie for “dessert”. Now, don’t think we get all crazy with our smoothies – I mean they don’t contain things like flax seed or spinach, but I still consider them healthy.

They are nothing fancy, but we usually blend up the following.

4-5 fresh strawberries

Blueberries (1/4 cup maybe?)

½ of a Banana

1 single cup of light vanilla yogurt

Crushed Ice

It usually makes enough for 2 large glasses. We change up the fruit combinations – maybe use kiwis, peaches, grapes, etc. Greg sometimes puts protein powder in his, but I don't like the taste of it.

By the way, that is not a picture of our homemade smoothies above. We are not that fancy.

Baby Bump - 15 Weeks

I am a little late in posting this, so I better get it up before I hit 16 weeks! I am not sure if you can fully tell in the picture, but I felt like my belly grew a lot in the past week.

At 15 weeks I am…

- Still feeling nauseous, but it is not as bad as it used to be.

- Getting majorly lightheaded in the mornings. I have to sit down a lot while getting ready for work.

- Tired. Forget everything I said before about having a bit more energy. I do not have more energy. I still take naps sometimes during lunch, and I still try to go to bed before 9.

- Starting to wear belly bands.

- Not having any big cravings yet. I have slowed down on the Cheetos. Oh but wait, I have been drinking a lot of milk. Mmm milk. Overall, I haven’t really noticed an increased appetite yet. Although last night I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and I was starving. I almost got up to eat a bowl of cereal at 4 AM, but was too tired to do that, ha!

- Not eating desserts as much as I used to. Greg got me a chocolate bar a while back and I have barely eaten any of it. Who am I???

In other, non pregnancy related news – Greg’s brother Jameson got married to Michelle the other weekend! We enjoyed all of the wedding festivities in Waco, celebrating with them and adding to the family. The wedding was beautiful, and the reception was a lot of fun. The band they had was amazing – so fun an energetic. Too bad I was not feeling my normal self, I did only minimal dancing. Although Hollyn did enough for everyone! She was the cutest flower girl ever. Even when she ran through the reception with just panties on- ha! Now all the siblings are married. Even though Michelle is at all of the family functions anyway, it is good to have her officially a Mattern now. And she will be Aunt Mel Mel to baby Mattern (at least that’s what Hollyn calls her).

This past weekend we had man-celebration weekend since Greg and Cody's birthday as well as Father's day all fall on the same week. Pictures to come!

Baby Bump - 13 Weeks

This is for you, Lauren.

The bump looks bigger or smaller depending on what I wear. I feel like you can barely see it in my work clothes because my work pants come up higher and hide it. But my jeans are lower and allow the little bump to show more freely :)

Currently I am...

Still experiencing morning sickness (aka all-day-but-worse-at-night-sickness)

Tired, but improving

Eating a lot of cheetos suddenly

Struggling to drink fluids - water grosses me out right now

Taking 2 gummy-vites a day instead of my prenatal vitamin. I can't even look at that big nasty pill.

Not having strong cravings yet, but I am really liking watermelon right now. And cucumbers. And chips and salsa.

Thankful for all Greg does for me! He cooks, cleans, does laundry, etc, while I lay on the couch.