33 Weeks

How far along? 33 weeks

Total weight gain: 28.2 lbs.

Maternity clothes? The tank top above is from Old Navy.  The white linen pants are from Motherhood Maternity
Stretch marks? Still don't have any on my belly
Sleep: I've still been getting about 8 hours of sleep per night, but this morning, I woke up at 4:15am and couldn't fall back to sleep. Ryan was away at a bachelor party so I cleaned out his dresser and refolded all of his tshirts and then cleaned the house for 3 hours!

Best moment this week: Discovering that there is a soft serve ice cream shop within 2 miles from our house! I also got a pedicure which was great too!

Miss Anything? Being comfortable in my work scrubs. I think I might have to break down and buy a few larger pairs to get me through the next 7 weeks!
Movement: Lots of movement this past week. At my OB appointment, the midwife said that the baby still feels like she is breech. Maybe she's trying to spin around in there? 
Food cravings: Vanilla soft serve ice cream and tootsie rolls
Anything making you queasy or sick: Nothing really, but I've realized that I can't eat a large volume of food at once because the baby is taking up so much room in there now!
Gender: Girl
Belly Button in or out? I think it's still half in/half out, but Ry said this week that I don't have a belly button anymore
Wedding rings on or off? Both are on . Since we returned from vacation, the swelling in my fingers has greatly improved
Happy or Moody most of the time: Mostly happy and really, really excited!
Looking forward to: The arrival of our Vegas friends who will be staying with us Wednesday to Friday, and then this weekend is Mark and Meg's wedding!

Atlantic City Babymoon

Ryan and I spent the last weekend in Atlantic City for our Babymoon, and it’s good to finally be home.  Some of you might remember that I initially booked a hotel in Bar Harbor, Maine, but then when I realized that the drive time was almost equal to both places, I changed the plans for our trip to Atlantic City. 

I wanted to stay in the middle of the boardwalk at the Trump Plaza, but it was booked.   We ended up staying at the Atantic Club Casino, which is at one end of the boardwalk.  The hotel is on the beach, and our request for an ocean view was granted. Our room was on the 9^th floor.  While it was nice to have an ocean view, the beach wasn’t exactly nice.  We walked out onto the sand only once (on Sunday), and the wind on that day felt like a hurricane.  Ryan made me keep my sandals on, because there were some bottles and other gross stuff in the sand. 

This was our view from room 938:

Our room was really big, but the king bed was very uncomfortable, and the television was ancient!  Thank goodness I packed my snoogle or I never would have gotten any sleep!

We left our house on Friday, May 18, a little later than we had planned.  It also took us almost 8 hours to get there (with New York traffic and a few bathroom stops and stretch breaks).  Leaving the dogs was the saddest part; they ran to the fence to peek at us between the cracks as we were leaving.

I love any quality time I get to spend with Ryan, and so naturally, we had a great time eating, gambling, and walking down the boardwalk.  We checked out several of the casinos both on and off of the boardwalk, and we spent a couple hours on Saturday afternoon shopping around The Walk/Tanger Outlets.  We ate at a buffet 2 nights, and tried several restaurants for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the other meals.  The food was good, but it was somewhat of a disappointment.  The outlets were a bit of a disappointment too, as the stores were scattered up and down several different busy streets.  The only items I ended up buying were a couple pair of Old Navy flip flops.  I couldn’t convince Ryan to let me buy a Tiffany silver ball bracelet at the Tiffanys in The Pier Shops at Ceasar’sPalace.  I bet if I begged enough, he would have let me.

On our drive home, Ryan was determined to find a White Castle. Neither of us have ever tried their sliders.  Thanks to our Garmin, we were able to stop at one for lunch without really going out of our way.  The sliders were good, but I was already tired of eating junk on the trip!

We are so lucky that my mother in law stayed at our house with our dogs and cat for the 3 nights that we are away.  The trip was not really what I expected, but I’m glad we experienced Atlantic City. I always have fun with Ryan no matter where we are. I can say for sure that we can cross Atlanic City off the list of places to visit, and I’m pretty sure I’ll never return! 

Being reunited with the pets was the best part about getting home!

As soon as I unpacked my bag, Fergie jumped inside and made me laugh.  I think she wanted to make sure we weren't leaving her behind again.

I’ll write a short review of all of the places we visited in an upcoming post, but for now, here are some more pictures from the weekend.

From inside Ceasar's:

 I was craving soft serve vanilla every night! (Don't mind the mess around my large mound of ice cream!)

 Ryan took this picture in front of the window in our hotel room:

32 Weeks

How far along? 32 weeks

Total weight gain: 24.2 lbs. (But I weighed myself 2 days early, and before vacation)

Maternity clothes? The shirt above is from Abercrombie. I think I got it 2 years ago. The leggings are from Target, and my polo hat was a gift from my husband.  We spent 8 hours in the car today, travelling home from Atlantic City! 
Stretch marks? Still don't have any on my belly
Sleep: We stayed in Atlantic City for 3 nights, and the bed was so uncomfortable! Hopefully, sleep will be better this week.

Best moment this week: When Ryan asked me what he is supposed to do when Baby R is bigger and he takes her to the mall and she has to poop.

Miss Anything? This week, I missed eating a bunch of seafood while we were on vacation!
Movement: I have been feeling movement all over my belly! I really want to know what position she is in!!
Food cravings: This week, it has been salad and vanilla soft serve ice cream
Anything making you queasy or sick: No, but we ate more junk than I should have on vacation. I'm looking forward to a healthier week!
Gender: Girl
Belly Button in or out? When I lay down, it's in.  When I stand up, it's 1/2 way out.
Wedding rings on or off? Both are on, but my fingers are getting more and more swollen. As soon as the water retention from vacation is gone, I will probably take off my engagement ring and just wear my wedding band. 
Happy or Moody most of the time: So excited that it's almost time to meet our baby!
Looking forward to: Our repeat 3D/4D ultrasound on Sunday. It was actually rescheduled from last Thursday. I am so curious to see if the baby is still breech!  And I want to see her face!!

31 Weeks

How far along? 31 weeks

Total weight gain: 22.2 lbs. (No weight gain since last week)

Maternity clothes? The shirt above is from Hollister. I bought it 2 years ago.  The pants are Old Navy maternity jeggings.
Stretch marks? Still don't have any on my belly
Sleep:  I've been alternating sleeping 8-10 hours a night with waking up at 3am and not being able to fall back to sleep.

Best moment this week: Watching my belly move as the baby was dancing around inside.  Ryan actually saw it too!

Miss Anything? This week, it's been tougher to tie my sneakers before the gym every morning!
Movement:  It seems that the baby gets the hiccups every time I drink lemonade. And I've noticed her movements during all times of the day instead of just in the morning and at night.
Food cravings: I've been wanting chocholate. One of the hospice reps brought a bag of reeses and rolos to work and I pretty much ate the entire bag.  This is funny to me because in my first trimester, I found the thought of anything chocolate to be disgusting. 
Anything making you queasy or sick: The soap at the hospital made me nauseous this week at a birthing class.  I worked at the hospital during my first trimester, and I would get sick in the bathroom several times per shift. Being back in the hospital and smelling the soap almost made me throw up! I'm going to have to pack my own hand soap in my hospital bag!
Gender: Girl
Belly Button in or out? Half in/half out. The look of it is creeping Ryan out
Wedding rings on or off? Both are on
Happy or Moody most of the time: Mostly happy but finding myself more moody lately
Looking forward to: Our repeat 3D/4D ultrasound on Thursday!

How (not) to photograph a maternity silhouette

Tonight after dinner, I asked Ryan if we could drive to the beach to try to get a silhouette maternity picture as the sun was setting.  It was a last minute plan so I changed out of my pajamas and threw on some clothes that I didn't think would end up showing up in the pictures if we did them correctly.

My inspiration for a silhouette maternity picture came from Pinterest.  I googled how to photograph silhouettes, and it seemed easy enough.

The problem this evening, however, was that I was standing in a dark background, and so it made it difficult to actually see my belly.  The good news is that this was a quick, trial and error trip, and now we know what to do.

Had I been standing on top something, then the effect that we were trying to get would have worked. 

Since we were already at the beach, Ryan took a few other pictures.  Hopefully, we'll get back to the beach before the arrival of the baby to take a couple more pictures.  Here's a few of the pictures Ryan took.  I edited some in Picasa.  I really need to buy a photoshop program!

3D/4D Ultrasound

After the anatomy scan at 20 weeks, my doctor doesn't order any more routine ultrasounds.  We've really been wanting to see our baby again, so Ryan and I scheduled another elective ultrasound at A New Conception.  This is the same place where we had our elective ultrasound at 16 weeks for our baby's gender reveal.  We were so happy with our experience the first time that we were very excited to go back to see our baby in 3D and 4D. There's a shortened video of the ultrasound at the end of this entry!

We started our day messing with the dogs and taking some pictures outside:

Next, we headed north to the Hanover Mall to buy a couple things before heading over to the Verizon store so I could get a quick lesson on my new cell phone.  I've finally joined the rest of world by getting a touch screen phone!

Finally, we met up with my mother in law over at A New Conception in Hanover to get another peek at our baby girl.  Since the session would be recorded, we were able to make a CD of music advance.  I thought that we were only supposed to choose 1 song, so I picked Yellow, by Coldplay, but it turns out, we should have put several songs on the CD, because the session is anywhere from 15-30 minutes.  The good news is that if you don't bring music, the owner/technician, Kim, can add lullaby music to the video. So our ultrasound video has Coldplay followed by lullaby music.

I hopped up onto the comfy bed and our session began!

We learned right away that our baby wasn't going cooperate and allow for her face to be seen in 3D.  First of all, she is breech (this is news to me)!  And second, she had both of her feet and hands in front of her face!  Kim is always so patient and persistent with trying to get the baby to move, but today, our baby was very stubborn!  Because we didn't get a good view of the baby's face, Kim had us make a complimentary appointment to try again.  She was also kind enough to share a few stretches/exercises that might make the baby flip. Hopefully, when we return in a week and a half, the baby will no longer be breech.  Or at least, hopefully, she'll move her feet away from her face so we can get a better peek at her!

From what we were able to see, I think she looks like Ryan!  We left with a CD that contains 22 images as well as a CD of the whole sesssion in video.  And because we were repeat customers, we got 10% off the package that we chose.  We also get to return for free for another chance to get a peek at the baby's face, because she covered her face the whole time today! 

Here are a handful of the images we got today:

This is the closest we came to see her face! 

Here is a foot and a hand in front of her face

Check out her shoulder and bicep as she holds onto to both feet!

Here she is giving us the middle finger as she continues to hold her foot in front of her face

We also got a bunch of free samples.

Finally, here's 6 minutes of the 30 minutes that were recorded. I couldn't upload more because the file was too large! My favorite part is close to the end, between 5:30 and 6:09 when our baby opens here eyes several times!!

OUR BABY ON VIDEO!

If you want to see some really cool 3D/4D videos from A New Conception, check these out! My favorites are dancing baby and baby hands! Hopefully, our baby is much more cooperative during the next session!

30 Weeks

How far along? 30 weeks

Total weight gain: 22.2 lbs.

Maternity clothes? The dress above is from Target. It was on clearance, and I thought it was cute. But now that I see it in the picture above, I don't really like how it looks.
Stretch marks? Still don't have any on my belly
Sleep: This week was interesting for sleep. I've been waking up and finding it hard to fall back to sleep.

Best moment this week: I'm sure it will be the 3D/4D Ultrasound we are having later today!  Pictures to follow!

Miss Anything? Sunless tanning lotion.  I'm soo pastey white, but I refuse to use sunless tanner during pregnancy because according to my doctor, the long term effects on a fetus are unknown
Movement: She seems to be moving alot this week.
Food cravings: This past week, I wanted a cheeseburger so Ryan and I went to Friendly's instead of attending a breastfeeding class at the hospital.  I'm still eating a ton of salad, subway veggie subs, and I love milk!!
Anything making you queasy or sick: Not really, but I think I'm starting to experience heartburn.
Gender: Girl
Belly Button in or out? Half in
Wedding rings on or off? Both are on
Happy or Moody most of the time: Very happy, but feeling more stressed and tired which makes me want to cry some days!
Looking forward to: Atlantic City in 2 weeks!!