26 Weeks - Prego Update

STATS:

How far along: 26 weeks and 5 days

How big is Baby-A: Still about the size of a cauliflower and a little over 2 lbs.

Total weight gain: 145lbs.  That is +3 lbs over the past 4 weeks for a total prego weight gain of 8 lbs.  Since I started at pregnancy at 137 and dropped down to 119 from first trimester morning sickness...I'm really happy with the consistent progress now.

Sleep: Some nights are awesome and some nights really suck.

Best moment of the week: When we received a baby gift and one of my new maternity bras in the mail! Just last week I ordered the Lamaze Cotton Spandex Sleep Bra for Nursing and Maternity (highly recommended by fellow blogger Elena) and I absolutely love it and ordered a few more. 

Food cravings: Peanut butter.

Symptoms:

Nausea - Only after I eat a big meal. 

Hunger - Nothing to extreem.  Eating in little bits throughout the day helps.    

Heartburn - I have TUMS near me all the time.

Nosebleeds - Frequent, but usually resolve in about five minutes. 

Braxton Hicks - Happen a lot but no more than three an hour 

Exercise: I've taken a break from any real exercise routine.  I still do small weights for my arms once in a while...and LOTS and LOTS of kegels...but whenever any activity starts to aggravate the oh-so-wonderful PHN, I stop.  Still love and use the pink exercise ball from hubby to replace a regular chair whenever I can.  It helps me reduce back and hip pain! 

Movement: A lot of movement by Baby-A.  The other night I equated her movements to Winnie the Pooh, when his tummy would rumble for honey.  

Belly Button: The "turkey timer" has popped.

All I wish for is...

...an outdoor pool that is open and I can walk to!

Is that to much to ask for?  Apparently it is.  The outdoor pool that I can see from our balcony is filled and the Italian pamphlets SAY they are open...but alas that is not the case.

When I called the phone numbers listed, of course no one spoke English.  You'd think that since this area is heavily populated with us military peeps, they'd have someone there that can understand and speak at least a little English...but NO.

Everything here is messed up and backwards.

All I want is to chill by a pool!!!

Germany Vacation

Eagles Nest in Berchtesgaden, Germany

Hubby and I went back to Garmisch, Germany to celebrate our wedding anniversary a little early.  It was wonderful and we were able to pack in a ton of activities and a little R&R all four days.

We left for Garmisch right after work on Thursday evening and made it up to our hotel (Edelweiss Lodge Resort) just in time before one of the restaurants there on site closed.  Hubby had a steak and I had a salad and cheesecake.  They offer the original Cheesecake Factory cheesecake there!  I couldn't pass it up...sooooo delicious.

Friday morning we drove to Bavaria, Germany and visited the Neuschwanstein Castle, the inspiration for Disneyland's Sleep Beauty Castle.


Note to others: don't go there if you can't walk up and down four flights of stairs...and we advice you not to travel here in August.  There is no air conditioning in the castle and a lot of the other tourists didn't know what deodorant was. Whew! 


Despite the intense amount of stair climbing and stinky tourists, we had a great time touring the castle.  The outside is just amazing.  The inside was a little disappointing.  No one is allowed to take pictures of the interior, and they only let you tour the finished portions which constitutes one-third of the castle.  I really wished we could have seen the entire thing.

Friday evening we went on a scheduled tour by Edelweiss, and visited the Griesbrau Brewery in Murnau, Germany.  It was a different type of tour in comparison to another we've been on.  The "brewery" consisted of one large room and most of the tour was in the restaurant/bar itself with the brewmaster talking.  We were given about five different types of beer to taste...and the samples were about 11 oz. each!   We also had a test at the end of the tour and were given Barvarian Brewmaster certificates.

Saturday morning we went on our second scheduled tour by Edelweiss, and visited the Eagles Nest in Berchtesgaden, Germany.  There isn't much to do up there besides take pictures and enjoy standing on a little bit of history, unless you eat at the restaurant which we didn't.  But the fact that this site was a part of the TV miniseries, Band of Brothers, made it even more memorable to me because then I was able to associate the history better.

Late Saturday evening Edelweiss put on a firework show that was pretty cool.  We were able to sit on the porch outside our room and watch from there.

Sunday consisted of us lounging in/by the jacuzzi.  I had my first virgin margarita and it was AMAZING. The weather was a sunny 65 degrees and we got sunburnt.  Who'd ever think one could get a suntan in Germany in May!

Hubby has posted all our pictures from the weekend on FB...so if you want to see more, go take a look!

25 Weeks - Prego Update

STATS:
How far along: 25 weeks and 4 days

How big is Baby-A: Cauliflower (some websites said rutabaga...but what in the world is that?!?!)

Total weight gain: I haven't checked lately, but at my last OB appt, I had gained 1 pound.  So I was somewhere around 142.  Yeah!  I started this whole thing at 137.  My next appt is June 1st.  We'll see if I've blown up since then.

Sleep: Pretty much non-existent between the hours of 9-12pm.  Once in a blissful moment, I fall into a DEEP sleep and almost nothing bothers me...including people calling my hubby's cell which he has to keep turned on due to Army rules.

Best moment of the week: This week I've been able to talk/or email about coming home WITHOUT breaking down into a fit of tears...three times!  Up till this week...I couldn't even think about it without crying.

Food cravings: SWEETS!

Symptoms:
Nausea - Gone, except for rare moments at night or in the morning when I try and get out of bed to fast.

Hunger - It seems like I'm hungry all the time.  Trying to do better so I don't have junk-food weight gain.  Easier said than done.

Heartburn - Oh boy!  No matter what I do or eat, it's always there.

Skin - Blemish-free skin disappeared in what seems to have been a long...long...long time ago (start of pregnancy).  I've tried all kinds of different cleansers and lotions and nothing keeps the breakout buggers away from my face.  I also have the "prego-scar" on both my cheeks that looks like mascara running down my face after a good cry.

Exercise: I'm trying to exercise three times a week.  My joints have been killing me, but I keep plugging on.


Movement: Baby-A has been very athletic.  She'll start kicking and punching and this can last up to 4 hours.  I've tried all kinds of things to calm her down, but the calm only lasts for a few minutes before Baby-A starts up again.

Stretch-marks: (Knock on wood) so far I only have them on one boob.  Weird, I know.  It was a very tearful moment when I noticed the marks, but hubby keeps reassuring me that they'll go away in time.  I've been drinking a TON of water and applying lotion as if my life depends on it.

Belly Button: The "turkey timer" is close to popping out.  I keep pushing my belly button back in, but I'm not sure that does any good.

When the Day is Gray

Woke up early thanks to Baby-A kicking my insides like crazy.  I am really looking forward to when this active little girl isn't in my belly anymore and my organs are MINE again!

Outside is cold, gray and rainy.  So I decided that this was the perfect day to do a little blogging and reading.  Prior to sitting my butt down in front of the computer with the awesome hot pink yoga ball that hubby bought me - as my chair...I cut up about 5 nectarines (ate 2) so I have something quick and easy to snack on later when I get the munchies, threw in a load of laundry that will take exactly 1 hr and 55 mins to complete (that is just for the wash portion), and poured myself a VERY large glass of ice cold water.

One of my recently favorite blogs is "The Art of Making a Baby."  This first time little momma is truly an inspiration to me on so many levels, but I will admit she does seem (to me) to go a bit overboard when it comes to preparation.  Maybe this blog will help me find a happy medium, seeing that I've done little to no preparation for Baby-A's coming.

Got the Itch

I've got the itch to go back to work BAD.  And it's not for lack of trying either.  Finding a decent job that doesn't include bagging groceries at the Commissary (base grocery store), is VERY difficult here.  First off, about 80% of all jobs go to the Italians.  Secondly, this place has a wonderful habit of bringing in outside contractors that already hold similiar government jobs in other parts of the country.  It's frustrating. 

Another thing about this place, it can take up to seven months between when someone is offered a job to when they actually start.  If I find a job in the next few months, I could have Baby-A and get back to Italy after this stretch of deployment, with plenty of time to spare before actually starting.  

So I keep on trudging forward, always looking, always asking, always putting my resume out there, always taking every interview that comes through.  

23 weeks - Prego Update

Mango - Baby's Approximate Size

Baby-A's development:

• Can sense gravitational changes and my movements
• 11 inches long and weighs a little over one pound
• Blood vessels in her lungs are developing
• All nerve cells are in place
• Moving around ALOT
• Common loud noises (horns, vaccums, etc.) are becoming familiar

How my life is changing:

• Clumsy (or should I say clumsier!)
• Crazy mood swings
• Braxton-Hicks contractions
• Heartburn
• Acne breakouts (I look like a 15 y/o teenager)
• Backpain
• Increasingly WILD dreams

As "fun" as pregnancy is (just a hint of sarcasm there), I am getting more excited about Baby-A as each day passes.  While her 4+ hour midnight karate escapades are not pleasant, I do enjoy feeling her kick and move. 

Hubby is back home (YEAH!!!!) and his enthusiasm is really catchy.  I absolutely love how excited he is.  We've been working hard at getting this place more organized and uncluttered, and hubby even put together a bookcase and desk over the weekend. 

Made a friend's spicey spaghetti sauce over the weekend and I only put about one-eighth of the red pepper flakes that it called for...and thank goodness!  It was like fire!  Hubby struggled to get a few bites down.  I just mixed my plate with sourcream to cut the heat and ended up having second helpings.  Spicey foods are one of the things I never use to like, but I've been craving spicey during pregnancy.   

I'm pissing the doctor's off by stalling with their anatomy scan.  Since we already had the gender scan and also saw that everything anatomy-wise is perfect, we aren't worried about getting the "real" anatomy scan done right when the docs say.  Of course the docs don't know about the scan we already had, but this is what they get for their actions a month ago.  To all you momma's out there...don't worry.  We are still going to get it done.  I'm just enjoying a little "upper hand" at the moment.

Happy Monday!

Happiness Is...

Alex - a Tactical Explosive Detection Dog,
enjoys playing with tennis balls

...a bucket of tennis balls.

This photo made me smile and I couldn't help but want to share it with you.

Taken by Capt. Allie Scott and posted on the U.S. Army Facebook site with the XVIII Airborne Corp's:

A dog handler with the 82nd Airborne Division, and his dog Alex, take a moment to enjoy an abundance of tennis balls.  The Tactical Explosive Detection Dogs (TEDDs) are calm and collected until they see a tennis ball. Nearly 3,000 tennis balls were donated to the TEDDs team by a family member and donations. 

So what is happiness to you?

Mine is chocolate pudding.  =o)

Great Appt!

Today's appointment was great.  ALOT better than last time, but considering I played the perfect patient and didn't ask for anything or ask any questions....who wouldn't like that.

Baby-A and I passed everything with flying colors.  My weight was perfect, blood pressure was optimum, and Baby-A's growth and heart rate were spot on.

Love it when good things happen!

Hold Your Nose!

Cow Poo Flinging Machine - Compliments of Pinterest

Driving thru one of the small towns here on my way back from volunteering, I nearly had a car accident as a very strong cow smell came blasting up to my nose.  Thankfully it only lasted for a few minutes.  Whew!

If the wind is blowing in a certain direction, if the air is damp, or for some other odd reason, the farms around here really put out a stench and I feel like I should have my boots on and be wading through cow poo or something.

With the strong smells, stairs everywhere, small parking spaces, long don't eat list, and wine EVERYWHERE...it's not the easiest thing being pregnant here.  On one good note, thankfully I don't have to worry about allergies!  It's another thing that most preggo's really struggle with here because of all the white fluffy stuff floating in the air.

But enough of all that.  I'm going to have some chocolate ice-cream and sit outside blasting AMERICAN country music.  It sort of goes along with the cow poo smell - don't you think?!

1st Day of May

Do you ever have one of those days where you wake up and want to crawl right back into bed?  Well...today was that day for me.  And I did crawl back into bed.  But when I finally decided my laziness was enough and got up a little later, I was not in the best mood.  Thankfully hubby wasn't here to get hit by my scow-ness.

So I got up and opened up all the shutters, and there was sunshine!  My silly phone said it was raining and cloudy.  The nice weather was a pleasant surprise on the first day of May.

After looking at pinterest to try and figure out what to eat, I finally resorted to a semi-healthy breakfast/lunch of instant oatmeal and orange juice.  I'm craving donuts BAD, but since Italy doesn't have donuts (that should sum up this country for you right there!) I resorted to pretending that I was eating a cinnamon roll by having cinnamon roll instant oatmeal.  It was good.  Flavored instant oatmeal has been a staple of mine lately.

Now I'm trying to talk myself into folding laundry.  It helps that nothing good is on TV (including Slingbox).  After laundry and maybe cleaning the bathrooms, I'm thinking a little nap on the porch in the sun sounds like the perfect idea.