17 Weeks

Seventeen weeks is here! It is flying by! I can't believe we are 11 days away from our gender sonogram. Ben and I are constantly looking at each other and saying "We are going to have a baby here before we know it!" It is killing me that I don't know the gender. I really don't know why - I guess maybe so we can pick out a name and some bedding? I am trying to pick out gender neutral items such as car seats, (btw Target is having their baby sale and all of their Britax car seats are major on sale if any moms need one!) but I am looking forward to being able to buy some pink or blue. 

I know I say this every week too, but I still feel wonderful. 

Baby Freeman is the size of a turnip, about 5 oz and 5 inches from top to bottom

Total Weight Gain: 6 lb

Cravings: Kiwi, Smoothies -the Jamba ones at Walmart in the frozen section are hitting the spot!, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese (My students can not stand it that I am not craving weird things. They told me today they knew someone who was dipping cookies in mayo. Yuck!)

Maternity Clothes: Incredibly hard to find, but I am just in maternity pants right now. 

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Quality TV

No, I'm not talking about the latest season of The Bachelor. I am a little embarrassed to admit that I watch all that drama. I'm talking about the OWN channel and my new favorite TV show.

It is a behind the scenes (in case you couldn't tell that from the title) look at the Oprah show and I think it is fabulous. I usually DVR it because it comes on Friday nights, but I think it is so interesting. It gives you a whole new perspective of what is going on at the Oprah show and what it takes to produce six to seven shows a week. You get to see how everything works and Oprah tells you what she really thinks about all the stuff they have her doing.  I have been watching Oprah since my babysitter introduced her to me in my single digit years and hate it is going off the air because I think the behind the scenes is almost more interesting than the actual show! You should check it out tonight!

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One Happy Pregnant Girl

I am teaching a Food and Nutrition class this semester and during my searching for recipes today, I stumbled upon a precious website called Annie's Eats. As I was drooling over all of her gorgeous pictures, I found the holy grail of recipe websites- The 2nd Annual 30 Days 30 Ways Mac and Cheese. Yum!! I love love love macaroni and cheese. 

I used to be biased and eat only the homemade version, but I was talking to my sister several nights ago whose daughter is a mac and cheese lover and I all could think about was Kraft macaroni and cheese. I proceeded to stop by the grocery store on the way home, purchase not one, but two boxes of the blue box blues and I have loved every single bite. (Ben did help and I have only opened one box so far!) However, since finding the 30 Days of Mac and Cheese website I now am craving this

 

and this

and this

They are only on day 8 right now, so I am sure there are many more excellent recipes to come for the mac and cheese lover! I know what's on my menu next week!

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16 Weeks

I can't believe I am 16 weeks today! It has been such an easy pregnancy so far I sometimes forget that I am actually pregnant - minus the quite noticeable bump I am forming! I was cooking dinner last night and Ben looked over at me and said "Oh my gosh, your stomach is really poking out!" I am growing quite fond of my bump and can't wait to fall in love with what's inside. 

 Since I didn't post last week, here I am at 15 weeks:

 

And here I am today! 

Definitely poking out!

I feel wonderful! Our little one is that size of an avocado, about 4 1/2 inches long, and weighs 3 1/2 ounces.

Total weight gain: 5 lb

Cravings: Fruit (especially kiwi)

Hardest thing so far: Getting used to not sleeping on my stomach. Oh, how I am going to miss it!

Still counting down the days until our sonogram on February 10!

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Big Chicks

I have been a slacker about posting pictures of my now quite large chickens. They have come a long way from the incubator! As of right now, I have 18 chicks in the chicken house. The roosters have found their voices and they like them!

These are my Rooster boys. There are five - which is causing some problems - more on that later!

Here is one of my sweet girls. They are a good bit small than their male counterpart....

Here is a comparison of the two.

Here is my one Welsummer hen. I call her Little Girl. I don't know why - maybe it's because out of the ten Welsummer babies I bought, nine of them were roosters!

And the most exciting news of all is that they are now laying eggs!!! 

They are pretty small in comparison to a large store bought egg. They are pretty lost in the carton, but I have high hopes that they will grow with time.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to taste my wonderful eggs. Being the wonderful chicken parents that we are, Ben and I continued to feed our sweet chicks their starter food that, unbeknownst to me, has antibiotics in it. Ben was so thrilled to tell our friend at the feed store that we had our first egg and that we needed more feed for our hungry chickens. When he learned we were still doing starter food I got a frantic phone call from Ben saying "DON'T EAT THE EGG!!!!!" Apparently it is not a good idea for pregnant women to consume the eggs with antibiotics, so I have them as my little trophy's right now. Only my Domineckers are laying right now - my Welsummers will lay a dark brown egg and the Ameraucaunas will lay a blue egg. I can't wait for both of those!

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Snowmageddon

That is what my local newspaper called the snow storm we had this week. I thought it was hilarious when I first read it, but after being out of school for five days, I am beginning to believe them. I have gotten close to nothing accomplished this week except researching the latest and greatest baby products. I have quite enjoyed it! 

The snow was just beautiful the first day when no one had driven on it. Everything was so peaceful, pristine, and quiet. When the snow first arrived it was very powdery, but after the first day it turned into a hard layer on top that doesn't make for successful snow playing - just successful crunching!

 Ben took out warm water for Remy and the chicks. The chicks do not like this cold snow and they have elected to stay in their house this week. They have been productive! More on that in the next post!

 I think we had about six inches total. It was beautiful!

Remy loves playing in the snow. She was pooped out after about 5 minutes of running around like a crazy dog and sacked out in the back of the Rhino while we rode around. 

 We have some vewwy cold cows....

My in-law's driveway is a pretty steep hill that was conveniently covered in ice. Of course this kids wanted to go sledding and they had the best time. I personally was freezing to death - I think clicking pictures was not the warmest of activities. I had to give up when I could not press the shutter anymore!

 This is the sled they went down on. It is equipped with steering wheel, brakes, and speedy sled/skis!

 As you can see from the following pictures, they had the time of their lives.

 

 

 This is how deep the snow was that they hit :)

 Even my brave mother-in-law took a spin!

 

 

We rarely see snow in the South and we love it when it comes, but I think this Alabama girl is ready for some sunshine! 

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14 Weeks

I am in my second trimester! It has been a pretty uneventful week in that nothing has changed much. I am still feeling great and loving pregnancy! 

 

 

Still holding at 3 pounds.

Craving: kiwi, cheese toast, sweet tea. (I've got one out of three healthy!)

I wore regular pants to work last week and was miserable! I love my maternity pants :)

I told my students last week and they were so excited. Several of them said "I knew it!".

I have been out of school all week with the snow storm we had. Pictures to come!

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13 Weeks

As of this past Monday, I am officially 13 weeks pregnant! So far I have felt wonderful and have not gotten sick at all. Sometimes I don't feel like eating much at night, but other than that I have felt fine. I was not sleeping well at the beginning of my pregnancy, but I think it was a large part due to nerves. I am usually not a worrier, but at the beginning, I was nervous about everything! I was warned that I may have some complications due to my surgery that I had almost a year ago, however, I relaxed a good bit after we had two healthy sonograms with a (just one!) healthy heartbeat and I was assured that everything looked great and was where it should be! 

I have been spoiled rotten with sonograms having them at my first appointment at 6 weeks and then again just two weeks later. Here is the first picture of our little one. 

This is at 6 weeks, so it doesn't look like much. Just a little heartbeat jumping around at 121 bpm! (I have an 8 week pic too, but my scanner isn't working so maybe I can get it up later)

I went to the doctor today for a pretty uneventful appointment. No sonogram, just checking to make sure everything is progressing normally. I heard the heartbeat and it was in the 150's, which according to my doctor is normal. My doctor found the heartbeat right away and it was just thumping along until there was this static noise that sounded kind of like a screech - I got kind of nervous but my doctor told me that was the sound of the baby moving. We have a mover and a shaker! He/She did not want to be pressed on and moved around several times during the heartbeat scan. I can't feel it yet, but it was exciting to know he/she is active.

The most exciting thing was scheduling the next appointment where we will learn the gender!!!!!! Yay!!! Come on, February 10!

My stats:

Total Weight Gain: 3 lb

Wearing some maternity pants and normal shirts. (With normal pants, I am unbuttoning at the end of the day!)

Ben says I have not been moody :)

Not craving anything weird, just sweet tea and fruit. I have no desire to eat ANY veggies.

CANNOT WAIT to find out the gender!!

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