Bump Update - Week 32

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had an amazing New Year's Eve and is feeling refreshed and ready for the new year. I think I am. I finished my GoodReads challenge of 70 books for 2013. I feel a liiiiiittle guilty because a couple of them (5 I think) were guides or how to books. I did read them, but somehow it feels a little less fulfilling than if they were novels. I've got a couple things I'd really like to do this year...

- Sewing by hand and with a machine (I'm thinking burp cloths are a good first project for a novice)
- Write a few complete stories
- Return to regular physical activity (swimming, running, etc)
- Learn and speak more German (for counting pancakes with das Baby)
- Respond with greater care to emails and Facebook messages (and in a more timely manner)
- Keep up with my reading, whether it's audiobooks or physical copies (GoodReads goal of 60 - 2 down already!)
- Birth and start raising a kind, healthy human

Mostly, I just want to continue a lot of the good work I did this past year with my running and keeping my health in order. I know it'll be challenging with a baby but that doesn't mean I shouldn't try! 2013 had a lot of highs and lows and I won't be forgetting any of it.

Things have been nice and calm here. Ed is ready to head back to work and is just waiting on some paperwork to be filed, still doing treatments at home. Tonight is our first birth prep class. The house is pretty much baby ready. Just plodding along with life, all good things.

I returned to the Whole Body Salon for another pedicure because I'm finally conceding that while I can still touch my toes (thank you very much) it is not comfortable or sustainable for the time required to care for my feets. I'll take any time for spoiling myself while I can...

Also, I just have to add I can't stop listening to the recordings of Home Free from the Sing-Off. If you missed the condensed airing of it in December, you should really try to find it online or on demand. I could care less what genre they sing - the lead and the bass? They could sing to me all day, everyday and I would never get my fill. And tenors don't usually do anything for me! These two performances were hands down my favorites, but none were bad.

"I Want Crazy"

"Ring of Fire"

I am desperate to see these guys and to see Pentatonix perform live. That would just be incredible. Can seeing more a cappella be on my resolution list? In the meantime I'll just listen on repeat with my headphones on!


Bump Update! 

Post shower bump

A refresher pic of the last bump picture I took in this shirt (Oct 14th, 2013)

How far along? 32 Weeks

How Big Is Baby? 16.7 large jicama - large is certainly right, I'm feeling every wiggle in there

Sleep: The same - tossing and turning, bathroom breaks. Thank god the room is cool during these winter months! Also, I'm having weird dreams again. The other night involved a nightmare - I was caught in a house similar to the Winchester House mixed with a little of the hotel from The Shining but it was located in Texas.

Winchester House pre 1906 earthquake

Best moment this week: Organizing the nursery! Still have to wash everything aside from the diapers, but the clothes are all tucked away and the room is cleared for use.

Movement: Still abundant. All over the place and varied... still nothing painful, which I'm very grateful for, but, there have been some really bizarrely intense jolts that are just so big my whole belly shakes. Ed had his hand on me for the first one I'd ever felt and it was pretty weird. I think I can feel baby's back a lot. Both midwives think the baby is head down now.

Symptoms: 'It's just emotions taking me over'. The other day, my cat Rosie made me laugh so hard I started to cry. Not as in, I was laughing and tears were coming out, we're talking full on transition to crying and no more laughing. For absolutely no reason. Hormones are so. weird.

Food cravings/aversions: Less. No specific cravings anymore, just less hungry. With the baby getting so big, I'm starting to feel pretty crowded when I eat so I just try to eat much smaller meals.

Gender: I tied myself up in KNOTS trying to find baby caps that were not blue or pink. Is it really too much to ask to just have white hats? I love yellow too but I feel like that's all that I have now. It's amazing how that's the only 'gender neutral' option. I had to look this up to express to Ed how I felt about the lack of white hats:

Belly Button in or out? Strangely, no new developments here! Maybe we'll see some change after baby's growth spurt.

What I miss: Eating without worrying about the space. I miss my hearty dinners and big bowls of ice cream :) 

What I am looking forward to: Enjoying these last few weeks of routine. Reading, TV shows, cleaning house casually. Reveling in the feeling of being in control and on top of things!

Funny moment of the week: Making it to midnight on New Years Eve, and promptly hitting the hay 10 minutes later. :)

Labor Signs: Still very infrequent braxton hicks. Not much else. Baby is baking away in there!

Weekly Wisdom: Try to enjoy being a beginner. I'm reading Daring Greatly and trying to use it as a jumping off point for how I will approach things this year. I know we're in for some hard and often frustrating times ahead, and I'm hoping to practice the mindset of allowing myself to not know what I'm doing. I get so frustrated so quickly - I hope a little meditation on being otherwise will temper that reaction.

Milestones: Bought all of our diapers to start off - disposable and cloth. Felt pretty weird stocking up our hall closet with baby wipes and diapers. Pretty much everything is checked off on our prep list, including sheets and other supplies for labor. Along with hearing the baby is head down makes everything feel shockingly around the corner.

"WeeeEEEeee are never ever ever..."

Well. Talk about an epic fail of follow through. I know, I know, I said I would get pictures up... I'm just the worst at follow through in case you haven't noticed. It will happen.. but probably not for awhile. But! But! Don't leave me dear reader, because the next time I post it will be about our new apartment. And after that, (even more thrilling) I will be posting about my wedding! And then the honeymoon in the Grenadines. And I honestly could not show my face on this blog if I posted about any of those three events without pictures. That would be truly shameful.

The townhouse is currently in a state I would call warehouse chic. Boxes everything, shelving dismantled, Spackle on the walls, barren bookcases, everything in a state of disarray. I know it has to be this way, but man do I hate it. I'm not the cleanest, or most orderly person in the world, but I like for my home to have a lived in look. A well-loved look. Worn in rugs and furniture, flowers, lots of light, library books, sleeping cats, and produce on the counter. Chaos and cardboard do not evoke this feeling. I'm ready to get on with the move. I'm currently reading the book I won, Happier At Home by Gretchen Rubin, and I'm reminded of her statement that "the days are long but the years are short." I feel as if it was just yesterday we were packing up our things to make our cross country trip, saying goodbye to everyone for a bit. But these handful of days before the weekend feel interminable. Just have to keep it all in perspective...

I've started exploring the possibility of doing my own happiness project. The idea intrigued me when I read the book, but for whatever reason I didn't feel ready. Reading the second book I feel more prepared to take on a little life change. Particularly one that isn't revolving around my weight. I'm fed up with that battle - maybe that's just my recent success talking though. Who just bought her first pair of skinny jeans in a size 14? This gal! That may sound big to some, but that's a size smaller than I've been wearing for the past two, gosh, maybe even 3 years.

My first task is to come up with some resolutions... I've got a couple ideas so far to share with you guys:
-Have greater faith in my abilities and dreams
-Be a better friend
-Be a better daughter & granddaughter
-Be more adventurous
-Be more playful, less dire and critical
-Be more energetic
-Be more productive, waste less time
-Be more loving with Ed
-Be more fastidious with our home

Those are some of the big ones. Now I have to work on assigning tasks that fall under each resolution so I can make a chart and check off my progress. Rubin points out that it's much easier to track your progress when you have specific tasks instead of the general "be more playful." For instance, that could be broken up into:
1. Dance for 5 minutes
2. Play with the cats for 5 minutes every day
3. Tell Ed a cheesy joke every day
4. Do a somersault once a day. <--(Learn something new everyday, had no idea that's how you spell somersault. Always thought it was summersault...)

Any suggestions for tasks? I'm all ears. I'll share more of my happiness project as it develops.

In the meantime I'll be reading Happier At Home, and Feast for Crows (fiiiiiinally!) and putting the final touches on my warehouse chic home theme.


P.S.  I don't know what is wrong with me but I cannot stop listening to Taylor Swift's new song. It makes me feel like I'm 13 again! :)

"Home is wherever I'm with you"

Does anyone else hate new years resolutions? I truly hate them. I think they are the lamest excuse for people to brag about doing great for a month and then they are forgotten or mutilated beyond recognition. Why can't you eat better and lose weight in December? Or August? What made you fat in May will still be making you fat in January. Same with whatever made you procrastinate, or flake out, or just be damn lazy. You are not suddenly full of more willpower and energy in January. I don't hate resolutions, or comments like, 'I've decided I'm going to be better about eating or working out or writing more' ad naseum. But when it's chalked up to new year's resolutions, it makes me angry. I can't fully explain why but... I just wanted to put it out there. I'm a new year's resolution scrooge. :)

Anywho, I've obviously been doing poorly with writing about what we're up to out here, but I've been doing great with my reading. Powering through books of all different genres. It's been... really refreshing. And I've also been doing great with studying my German. I need more practice putting thoughts together, but I'm retaining a lot and actually feeling able to speak clearly. Watching some of these travel shows, namely The Layover, it astounds me how crippled the US is by the lack of bilingualism (or more). Ed wants to learn Korean and I'm interested in Swedish and Italian. How exciting would that be?

I wish I had more to write about on here. I had wanted to keep everyone updated on our lives out here, but we've been keeping a low profile. I don't mean that in a bad way, it's very calm and simple, I cook a lot (which I love and it's fun) and have my routines. I just wanted to check in this time and write something to let everyone know that much like all the other people returning thanks to new year's resolutions, I had not forgotten about this blog... just haven't had much to write about.

This is all about to change! Well, at least change a little in the next month or two. We've signed up for a survival class. Yes, I know this will be hilarious but if I don't get a good blog post out of that then clearly somethings not clicking. We also signed up for a beekeeping class :) Ed is quite excited about that and it definitely plays into out future plans of a farm life. Also I'm going home for a visit! Jan 18th thru the 25th I'll be on a whirlwind visit to MD to get a new license, plan this damn wedding and run many other errands along with visiting with friends and family. Ed will only be there for the weekend, so it'll be quite a madhouse of a visit. I'm just so excited to go visit. So excited to see people and get things done. I even get to pick up my wedding dress :) There's tons to talk about in the coming weeks and even a couple days. Joe said he'll have my save the dates ready to preview in the next few days and sent out this month. I'm pretty psyched. Yay Joe!!

So. All in all. I'm not dead. Things are good and are going to get even more amazing and I cannot wait to tell everyone about it. Thanks for sticking with me :)