Monday, March 21, 2011

Ten on Tuesday & 24 Weeks

I've enjoyed reading the ToT entries that I've been seeing on blogs and wanted to participate, so I finally am today. Yay! Go me :)

You can find the questions over at the lovely Roots & Rings blog.

1. What condiments are always, always in your fridge?

Easy. Diana's Sauce. I could drink this stuff. For those who don't know who it is (you're missing out) it's barbecue sauce. The best ever. Right now I eat a grilled cheese a day, and I'm one of those people who like barbecue sauce with it. Mmm. I think I'm going to have to make one soon...

2. How do you like your steak cooked? Your burgers?

I haven't had steak in well over a year, and burgers very rarely right now. I just started eating meat again during this pregnancy, but these two things are still a bit hard for me to eat. But I always like them cooked so that I can't see any pink, or only a scant amount of it.

3. What's your favorite use of fresh tomatoes?

The only kind of tomato that I like are roma or plum tomatoes. And I love cutting them up and making a simple bruschetta with them :) Especially in the summer! Delicious.

4. What is your go-to dinner when you haven't planned anything in advance and you don't feel like going out?

I would say meat from the freezer, the kind that's in boxes. Like frozen chicken breasts, breaded fish. And rice, either minute, jasmine, or basmati, and frozen or fresh veg tables. Quick and easy!

5. What's your favorite snack food lately?

Right now I really like apples, cheese and crackers, or chocolate :) Do those count as snack foods?

6. What's your favorite weekend breakfast to make at home?

I usually don't do anything different on the weekend than during the week. Right now my usual is a bowl of cereal. If we want bacon and eggs sort of breakfast we go out because I can't stand the house, my clothes, and my hair smelling like bacon.

7. What's your favorite thing to grill? How do you do it?

I don't grill anything. I'm kind of afraid of the barbeque so that's one of my husbands jobs. I use the oven.

8. What's your favorite wine for under $10? If your not a wine person, what brand of beer is your favorite?

I really like Fuzion wine, I don't know if it's only available in Ontario. I think its $7.35. It's a shiraz/Malbec mix and for the price I think its a really nice wine. Bottle looks nice too, plus it has a twist off lid!

9. Give us your most delicious cocktail recipe.

I don't have a single cocktail recipe. I haven't had a drink in almost a year and when I do I drink wine or Jamaican Rum and diet coke.

10. How do you like your eggs?

Either hard boiled and eaten on their own, in potato salad, or an egg salad sandwich. Or a fried egg sandwich on toast or English muffin.

As for me, we will be 25 weeks tomorrow! Hurrah :) This feels like a milestone to us! So excited that we've gotten to this point and the baby seems to be growing well and is healthy. Feeling lots and lots of movements and thumps and taps. Seems to always move when I'm blow drying and straightening my hair, folding warm clothes out of the dryer and when I'm standing in front of the stove - I think it must like to feel the heat or something! Although, it doesn't move when I'm in the bathtub, which is when everyone told me it would go crazy. I felt the biggest kick yet this morning when I was doing my hair, caught me by surprise! Must be getting stronger :)

This photo was taken when I was 24weeks 1day.

Monday, March 7, 2011

First Pregnancy Update...Only took me 23weeks!

I thought that I should start writing some pregnancy updates because I think it will be nice to look back on after I'm holding our sweet baby in my arms :)

So first I'll catch up!

Right off the bat I knew I was pregnant because I had the worst cramping of my life, twice as bad as any period cramp I'd ever experienced. We were SO very lucky to be blessed with a baby our first try. We still can't believe it happened so fast! 25days after my LMP we got our BFP! I already was so bloated I could barely do up my pants. I was starving all the time and I happily ate lots (little did I know that I think my body was storing up because it knew it wouldn't be eating for the next two months)!

I started having nausea & vomiting at week 6, 24 hours per day. Around week 13 I started feeling better :) That time was the WORST ever, I kept trying to remind myself that it supposedly means a healthy baby. I also kept saying 'oh this baby better be cute'! During this time my husband was so helpful to me, doing what he could for me and just supporting me through it, because really there is nothing that makes you feel better. There are lots of things that make you feel worse though! For me they were smells, I couldn't even open the cupboards or fridge until wk13 so I had to keep the only snacks I could eat on the counter. Showering, I don't understand why but it would make me feel so sick, so I only showered every 3 days or so during that time. Being up too late, guaranteed to make me throw up.

During the time that I was sick unfortunately my work was completely unsupportive. They more than doubled the amount of hours I was working and gave me only 12hr night shifts, without talking with me about it first. And despite repeated requests to cut back, they wouldn't. This was such a stressful time for me, I hate not being able to do my best at a job, especially in nursing, and I was so frustrated that work would say oh yes no trouble reducing your hours we can even get rid of some, then wouldn't follow through. When I started getting harassing phone calls at home from other coworkers, Mike and I decided that it was time to leave my position.

I've been so happy to be at home and Mike has enjoyed it too. It was a difficult time for us to go to a one-income household since we just paid for our wedding and Mike being in school right now, since we did not prepare for my being off so early. But we've stuck together amazingly through this and we're very supportive of each other. And we keep saying how good it is for us to be mindful of the money we spend without even thinking, which has made us actually kind of thankful for our situation because it will only help us in the future.

At week 15 I started experiencing bleeding and cramping and basically had to be on bed rest otherwise it would get worse. This was the scariest thing we've ever gone through in our lives, but again we stuck together and put our faith in God that everything would be okay because there was nothing we could do to change it. I'm happy to report that I'm feeling much better, I can carry on in the house without much trouble, still need to take it a bit easy and no lifting or I'll start to spot again and driving any distance further than about 10minutes in the car is really uncomfortable for my belly and I get crampy. But still doing great!

These days I feel so good! Getting bigger and bigger :)

This photos is me at 22w2days. I cleaned the bathroom that day and forgot to clean the mirror, until I saw this picture ;)  Tell me one day I'll get my mind back, right??

I'll do another post with all the pictures along that I've taken so far, they're just on another computer and this update is long enough already!