Pregnant In Heels

Last night, John and I gathered with our families and close friends to celebrate his 30th birthday. I knew I wanted John's 30th to be extra-special so I threw a cocktail party at the Chart House.

What I'm Wearing

Dress by BCBG

Shoes by Michael Kors

Necklace from Target

I bought this dress several months ago, thinking I could wear it for a special date night. I'm starting to get to that point where my clothes just aren't fitting me quite right anymore so I figured John's 30th birthday party would be the perfect occasion to wear this dress - before I can no longer fit into it! Everyone kept asking, "You're wearing heels?!" It actually wasn't so bad, but then again, I was sitting a lot. It's important to me to maintain my sense of style even while pregnant so I wore the heels!

Me and the birthday boy

And because I'm some sort of sadist, I pulled up last year's birthday picture to compare my pre-pregnant self with my pregnant self. Ah, to be skinny again...

My family

John and the guys

Me and the girls

We were SO excited that our friends Scott and Kelsey were able to make it into town for John's party.

Me and my two pregnant friends, Katherine and Kelsey. It's fun to watch the progression of our growing bellies. Katherine is due in August, Kelsey in September, and then me in October - so one right after another!

I know I look like an irresponsible mother in these pictures, but don't worry - they were nonalcoholic pina coladas!

Coincidence

The Walking Dead season 3 trailer just came out and guess when the new season premieres? The baby's due date - October 14! Check it out below:

I'm kinda hoping that the baby will be born Sunday morning. That way, we can all watch The Walking Dead together as a family :)

Baby Bump and Birthdays: Week 26

26 Weeks

I wanted to write a special post today to wish my wonderful husband a happy 30th birthday! This is the first birthday we get to celebrate with a Lil Bit and we are so excited for his arrival so we can celebrate more birthdays together as a family.

While we were taking this picture, the baby kicked as soon as John put his hand on my belly :)

I actually wore the very same outfit above two years ago for my Mom's 50th birthday party. I pulled up the picture below to compare how I looked pre-pregnant, and boy, did I get sad. I asked John if I would ever be skinny again and he always reassures me that I look beautiful and that I'm carrying a wonderful boy inside. So of course, that makes me feel better.

At 26 weeks pregnant, I'm definitely starting to get to that point where my clothes are starting to feel, well, really tight. Shopping and trying on clothes is always a bad idea, but for some reason, I do it anyway (I really need to stop that!) Weight gain, of course, is one of those things that's inevitable with pregnancy. You want your baby to grow strong and healthy, but that means you have to grow (a lot) as well. There are times when I get bummed about it, but I just remember a piece of advice my sister-in-law Julie shared with me that's really helped me a lot: "You have the rest of your life after you have the baby to get back in shape, but only 9 months to dedicate your body to growing your baby." And this is so true - my body is changing for a reason - to grow a wonderful, happy, strong, healthy baby boy. And just like that, my selfish vain feelings subside to make way for more positive happy thoughts of my little bundle of joy.

Baby Bump and Baby Kicks: Week 25

25 Weeks

I'm at the point in my pregnancy now where I'm positive I know exactly what baby kicks feel like. At first, I wasn't sure, probably because everyone kept telling me it would feel like a little flutter, like butterflies in your stomach.

It didn't feel anything like this to me.

I felt my first baby kicks during week 21. In fact, I remember the exact day - June 7. John and I were sitting on the couch watching TV, when all of a sudden, I felt this tiny kick. It startled me so much that I jumped, which startled John. I told him the baby kicked me and he excitedly put his hands on my belly. He swears that he felt it too, but I'm not sure. I'm thinking it was too early for him to feel the kicks, but I guess it's quite possible. It didn't feel like a flutter at all, but I've heard that it can feel somewhat similar to gas bubbles and that's probably the closest way I can describe it. Honestly, it feels exactly how it sounds - a baby inside your stomach kicking you. Just light, tiny taps. It's not painful, which is what I feared at first, but it does feel weird. In a good way though. It's the best, reassuring feeling that your baby is ok. It's crazy that you go for weeks in between appointments, without hearing the heartbeat or seeing him on an ultrasound. So baby kicks are the next best thing. I like to think that's his way of saying, "Hey, ma!" Last night we were sitting on the couch and I had John place his hand on my belly. I was talking to the baby, telling him that John and I love him very much and that Daddy would love to feel him. And then he kicked! It's always so much fun to see the look on John's face when he feels the baby kick. Sometimes, I think guys get the short end of the stick because mommies get to feel all the little kicks all the time, and the dads...well, they just have to take our word for it.

Cravings

You've heard of them before - pickles with ice cream, Cheez Wiz with, well, anything. These are the crazy pregnancy cravings that you always hear about. So far, I haven't had any cravings that you would call crazy, but I've had a few. And honestly, I'm not even sure if these were actual cravings or me subconsciously using pregnancy as an excuse to indulge myself in the things I've always wanted to eat but felt too guilty about. You ever notice how pregnant women always crave bad food? Seriously, they're never good. I've never once heard a pregnant woman say, "Man, I'm really craving some broccoli right now." If only life were that simple.

1. Pizza

During my first few weeks of pregnancy, I craved pepperoni pizza. Seriously, all the time. I think during one week, I made John take me to Al's Pizza, where I ate the leftovers for lunch for the next few days and I still demanded that we order Papa John's for dinner just a few nights later. On top of that, I let my students have a pizza party to celebrate Pi Day, resulting in the pleasant smell of Domino's in my classroom for several days.

www.fastfood.ocregister.com

2. Bean burritos*

This MUST have been a side effect of the pregnancy because I haven't thought about these horrible bean burritos since I was in elementary school, when my brother and I used to stockpile them in my Mom's freezer and eat them after school or during summer vacation.

Only a pregnant woman would want to eat this.

*As a side not, these cravings do pass. I only ate one bean burrito and it was enough to satisfy my temporary pregnancy cravings.

3. Orange juice

I've never not liked orange juice, but it's never been my drink of choice. Before I was pregnant, I pretty much only drank water and the occasional sweet tea, but during my first few weeks of pregnancy, water actually sounded disgusting to me (a drink aversion?) and only orange juice seemed to make me feel better. Now I buy it every single week.

www.canigivemybaby.com

4. Hot dogs

Before pregnancy, I hated hot dogs. I pretty much had to either be really in the mood for them or really starving in order to have one, and even then they would have to be disguised with chili or mustard. Now, my stomach growls every time I pass one of those hot dog carts conveniently parked at the Town Center or outside of Home Depot. 

www.mediabistro.com

The other night I made piggies in a blanket and John looked at me like I was crazy.

5. Panera Bread cookies

These flower lemon cookies from Panera Bread are pretty much the best thing I've ever eaten.

6. Pop tarts

I probably have not eaten a pop tart since I was in elementary school, so the fact that I've been buying them for the past few weeks leads me to believe that this is another result of pregnancy cravings. My favorite - strawberry.

www.wikipedia.org

I think I drool a little every time I pass these in the grocery store.

Did you ever have any pregnancy cravings? Were they crazy? Or, like me, did you just find the phrase "pregnancy cravings" as a great excuse to indulge yourself?

Percents

Ok, so this is not exactly a baby-related post, except maybe for the fact that I hope my son is not bad at math. Now, he doesn't have to be a math genius, but I'm at least hoping he doesn't make the following mistake.

I was out shopping at BCBG today for loose flowy tops that I could wear as maternity gear (see? Somewhat baby-related.) Anyway, BCBG was having a 60% off sale, with an additional 20% off. All these women were gathered around saying, "Ooh, that means it's 80% off!" Wrong! You can't add percentages like that because after you take the initial 60% off, you're taking the additional 20% off a new price. This is how I explain it to my students - say you want to purchase an item that's $100 with the sale described above. Now, it seems most people would make the mistake and think it's 80% off, making your total $20. Let me explain why this is incorrect. Go ahead and take 60% off $100. That's $40. Then take an additional 20% off the $40. That makes your final price $32. And $32 of $100 is 32%, meaning you only saved 68%, not 80%. See how that works? I was very compelled to correct all these women at BCBG, who at this point started getting out their calculators to perform incorrect calculations, but I didn't want to be that guy. Instead, I take to my blog to vent to you guys, since it seems most of my readers are family and friends and I know you all will love me regardless of my anal-retentive tendencies :)

And to appease those out there that probably visited this blog today in hopes of a Lil Bit update, I'll leave you with this - he's doing very well and weighs about a pound and a half now. He happily kicks me everyday :)

Happy Tuesday and thanks for stopping by!

Discipline

My family and I went out to dinner the other night where we saw this mother and her children - four girls ranging in age from about 3-years-old to 7-years-old and a little boy who looked to be about 4. The four girls were standing by very quietly and well-behaved, but their brother? Oh boy, he was such a brat. First, he started crying because he wanted to be carried by his mom. And what did the mom do? She quickly obliged. Then, he started crying and screaming at the top of his lungs because he didn't get his drink right then and there. And what does the mom do? Nothing. At this point, I turned to my own Mom and said, "If that were my child, John and I would take him out back and spank him." It seems that every time I make a comment like this to a veteran parent, they always give me this doubtful look as if to say, "Hmm, you say that now...but just wait..." You see, what I think people tend to forget about me and John is that we're teachers - a majority of our daily lives consists of disciplining children. True, we do teach high schoolers and I understand there is a significant difference between disciplining a 5-year-old versus a 15-year-old, but at least we see firsthand how a kid turns out if they're not disciplined as children. I've been in parent-teacher conferences where the child will actually yell at their parent (seriously, you're gonna let your kid talk to you like that?!) So as a result, John and I are all for spanking our children as a way of discipline. It seems, however, when I tell people this, some look completely appalled as if I'd just said I would abuse them. Mind you, there is a difference and John and I would never cross that line. We just believe that discipline should consist of a combination of spanking followed by a stern talking-to to explain said spanking. And I understand that this will all work in theory and I probably just sound like some naive mother-to-be, but quite frankly, I don't care. As teachers, John and I have formed very strong opinions on raising and disciplining children and we plan on putting those beliefs into action once our Lil Bit is born. 

Any parents out there have any advice on what worked for your children? Let us know!