Our Weekend at Canton!

Goodness, I’ve been SO busy at work with month-end close stuff, that I didn’t realize that it’s been a few days since I’ve posted anything. That and I’ve been recovering from my weekend! Shopping is hard work, girls, let me tell you…especially when you’re doing it at almost 7 months pregnant and it’s not an indoor mall.

For those of you that might be familiar with it…this is where I went last weekend.

That’s right First Monday Trade Days in Canton, TX. The best little shopping place on earth, in my opinion. (Although I might not think that in July or August!) It’s an open-air market where you can find almost anything…most of it being related to home décor and clothing items. But there were a few vendors selling custom baby bedding options (which I wanted to check out) and lots and lots of monogrammed and personalized blankets, tutus, clothes and assorted goods for babies/kids. It was a pregnant woman’s dream shopping place!

I saw lots of cute things…but unfortunately most of it ran more towards girlie items than things for boys. Oh well…I did find two vendors who did custom crib bedding, but the expense was just too much to justify in my mind. It was all VERY cute (once again, more geared towards girls than boys) and there was one place that I really, really liked. They had material swatches and you could pretty much mix and match and design your own bedding…but I couldn’t justify the expense. If you are interested, here’s their website.

But even if I didn’t find any custom bedding or clothes for little baby boy… As you can see, we did plenty of damage none-the-less. I took MOH along with me and we met up with Maid Britney and all spent the weekend at my Mom’s house – thanks Mom! We had SO much fun…even though J complained a bit about the amount of walking that we had to do while shopping. Yes, she was ready to leave around lunchtime…but perked right up after lunch when she got into the mood of things by looking for Grammy to buy her a “special present” while we were there!

We had a blast…even if I was exhausted and sore the next day. It was a long drive, but we’re determined to make this an annual or maybe even a semi-annual trip.

Here’s some of the other stuff that we got…MOH’s cross… Mom’s wreath for her front door…

From Canton Weekend

And just to show that Ziggy didn’t come home empty-handed (even if I didn’t get the bedding!), my Mom “Grammy” got him his first blankie… And J’s lollipop (this sums up our food consumption for the weekend!)… We ate SO much junk food that I know Ziggy was enjoying things down there – I mean, what pregnant lady can turn down a funnel cake at 10:30 in the morning? Not this one! Little J liked it too! Between the funnel cake, donuts for breakfast, chocolate milk shake later, and ice cream sandwich pie for dessert that night…I think that my turkey sandwich for dinner that night was the most healthy thing that I ate all weekend! We topped off the weekend with pizza rolls from my favorite hometown pizzeria…yummy!

Now I just have to “be good” for the rest of this week as that dreaded glucose test is hanging over my head on Friday! Plus, with all that junk, and the expansion that my stomach has undergone in the last two weeks…I can’t wait to see how much weight I’ve put on since last month. Really, I can wait…I’m being sarcastic! As long as Ziggy’s still healthy and happy – that’s the most important thing.

It was great spending time with my favorite women…eating junk food…shopping…gossiping…and looking at all kinds of baby things! We even made some headway on planning the baby shower that these girls are throwing me in June so it was a productive weekend all around.

Now if I could just recover!

I’ll leave you with a picture of a flower that I’ve never seen before, but they were growing on the fence along my Mom’s driveway – MOH called them passion flowers. Check these out… Aren’t they beautiful? You pick it and float it in a shallow bowl of water…but enjoy it while you can, since the bloom is only good for 24 hours after being plucked. They are so unique, and they smell SO good! I didn’t try to bring any home with me, but I wanted to!

Twenty Seven Weeks

Man, oh man. This week has been SO different from the last few weeks, that it’s almost like it’s a completely different pregnancy altogether. I’ll try to sum it up as short as possible:

My back – is not 100% back to normal, but close. There are still some evenings when I crawl into bed that it hurts deep down in my hips...but the knot that was settled into its own little homey zip code right in the middle of my back is much better. I can’t say for sure what did the trick...I was getting back-rubs, using patches and taking it easy. I also did a bit of swimming over the weekend, so maybe that little work-out did wonders to “work out” the knots in my back? I don’t know, and don’t really care, just so long as it’s gone and not coming back anytime soon!

Heartburn/Allergies – yes, they’re still here. It’s like the visiting relatives that JUST. WON’T. LEAVE. Seriously. There are days that are better than others, but for the most part, they’re constant companions. I know that I wrote earlier about how I was experiencing some vertigo pretty badly yesterday, so the update on that is that although I hated doing it, I took the other half of my Benadryl pill while at work yesterday and felt better. I was WAY sleepier...but not quite as drunk-looking. I actually warned my boss about what was going on so that he didn’t get suspicious and send me off to ProMed for a random based on suspicion. I mean, just because I’m almost 7 months pregnant does NOT mean you can’t get drunk, right? Maybe shouldn’t is a better word, but we all know that it can happen...

Eating/Weight Gain – I won’t get the official number unitl my doctor’s appt towards the end of next week (Yuck – the dreaded glucose test!) but I can tell you that my appetite this week has been UNREAL. And the really funny part about it is that since my tummy’s getting bigger, I’m totally out of room to put food. I can be like starving hungry 4 or 5 times during the day, but then once I eat half of what I put on my plate...I’m done. Just no more room to stuff anything anywhere!

And I think that it is totally amazing how my body knows what it needs, and sends me cravings to consume a food with that in it. Remember the red wine comment? Yeah, still haven’t given in to that one, but the cravings for eggs and milk this week have been unreal. I’ve consumed so many pancakes, waffles, bowls of cereal and glasses of chocolate milk that I should be a walking advertisement for breakfast! But I’m trying to just follow my body’s lead and listen to what it’s telling me...even if I occasionally fall “off the wagon” and convince my body that ice cream counts as a dairy...LOL!

Sleeping – I’m not quite to that “what’s that?” stage...but I have to tell you that I’m circling the neighborhood and looking at lots to buy so that I can set up permanent residence! I’ve done the strangest thing several nights this past week – I wake up at 4am (almost on the dot) with the pressing need to use the bathroom. Then, when I get back in bed, all snuggled in warm and cozy...yep, you guessed it. I can’t go back to sleep. Last night it happened earlier in the night (around 2:30am) and although I know that I must have slept between then and when my alarm went off at 6:00am, I don’t know for sure that I did. If I did, I had some strange dreams and thoughts in my head...

Babycenter.com let me know that this was going on this week. This week, baby Ziggy weighs almost 2 pounds (like the head of a cauliflower) and is about 14.5 inches long with his legs extended (which might explain how I can get kicked in two places at once!). He's sleeping and waking at regular intervals, opening and closing his eyes and maybe even sucking on his fingers. With more brain tissue developing, his brain is VERY active now. While his lungs are still immature, they would be capable of functioning - with lots of help - if he was to be born now. Chalk up any tiny rhythmic movements you might be feeling to a case of him having the hiccups, which may become common from now on. Each episode usually only lasts a few minutes, and they don't bother him, so just sit back, relax and enjoy the tickle!

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I feel good about everything, and here’s some belly shots to prove it!

If you’re wondering (which you may or may not be) nothing that I have on in those shots is maternity clothes. Once again, loose waisted (no buttons or zippers) loose pants pushed below my belly and a regular medium-sized top that has a high waistline. I’m loving getting more wear out of my regular clothes!

Oh, and B thinks that I have a new trick...when I'm laying down in bed (on my back - reading or watching TV) and he makes me laugh, my belly button sort of "pops" out. He gets SO tickled over it and just laughs and laughs and tells me to "Do it again!" Like I'm controlling it. Or doing it on purpose. Truthfully, I get a little embarassed and immediately cover my belly button so he can't see it...since I'm still laughing!

I’m really excited about this weekend...some of my good friends and I are converging on my Mom’s house and invading her territory for the weekend. It’s First Monday in Canton, and we’re going shopping. Just us girls. Little J gets to go along like the big girl that she’s becoming...and the only boy around us will be the one that goes everywhere with me! Then again, with the full moon out this weekend, who KNOWS what might happen...

I hope that you have a great weekend! I’ll try to remember to take some pictures of our fun times this weekend and share them with you next week...but I make NO promises! Pregnancy has made me SO forgetful!

Lessons I've Learned...

...or maybe I should say SHOULD have learned!

These are things that I'm slightly embarrassed to share, but they're pretty funny so...you get to laugh along WITH me! I've mentioned before that I'm 33 years old (almost 34) and I would think that at some point along my journey of life that I would have learned these things:

1. Never attempt to cook bacon while wearing a sleeveless shirt...or a lowcut shirt...or flip flops. Yes, bacon can pop and splatter down to the floor and burn your toe. It happened just the other night!

2. Walk AROUND cars/trucks that are parked in parking lots. They don't move for you...even when they're big duley trucks with tow wenches on the front...you still need to go around them and not attempt to walk through them. Yes, I saw it there...but still walked right into the front bumper/tow hitch thingy...

3. Never expect to attend a family function and not hear just one negative comment about you from some well-meaing soul also in attendance. Your hair, your weight, your clothes, your choice of lifestyle, the fact that you do/don't discipline your children. Pick one.

4. People can be generous. With most people though, it comes with strings or provisions. Read all fine print.

5. You're never too old to giggle at the jokes that are printed on the backs of Laffy Taffy...I know that they're corny - but they're so stupid that it makes them all that much funnier. Besides, each and every day you need something to laugh at, right?

6. And lastly, this is pregnancy related - listen to your body. If it's telling you that you're doing too much, take a break. If it tells you that you're being a fat, lazy bum - then get up and take a walk. If you're craving cereal, then maybe you need more milk (even if you're like me and HATE the taste of milk!). I'm trying to do better and listen to my body...but what happens when you're craving a glass of red wine? I mean, like seriously can't stop thinking about just one glass of wine...can you still get away with the logical argument that there's something in red wine that my body needs right now? I'm just asking...