18 weeks - it's a...

 GIRL!

This week was pretty exciting. We found out we are having a girl, and more importantly, that she couldn't be healthier. She has every organ that she's supposed to, and all of her bones are growing the right length. The appointment for the anatomy scan was not at all like everyone told me it would be. First of all, they asked me to pee before going in. I was surprised, but relieved (pun intended). Also, the ultrasound tech performing the scan was really difficult to understand through an incredibly thick accent. I barely understood anything she said other than, "all healthy," and "it's a girl."

3 days later I had a regular check up with the baby doc. Good news - she gave me the all clear to eat soft cheeses, including goat cheese and blue cheese as long as they're made with pasteurized milk. Yay! There are 3 schools of thought on the soft cheese front; that you can't eat any soft cheese, that you can eat it as long as it's made with pasteurized milk, or than you can eat any cheese as long as it's heated to boiling. I'm so glad that my lovely counselor went with the easiest of these 3 choices. Bad news - I've gained too much weight. 12 pounds total. She informed me (for the first time) that I should only gain 25 pounds during this pregnancy, and 12 pounds is a lot to have gained so far for not even being half way there. Her suggestion was to simply quit eating so many carbs and not to drink my calories. Easier said than done, lady.

Other than that, the weird food cravings haven't ceased. This week was brought to you by:
- Keebler sugar wafers
- Apple cinnamon cereal bars
- a tomato sandwich (white wonder bread, tomatoes, mayonnaise)
- fast food fish filet sandwich (say that 10x fast)
- orange hi-C
- corn in a cup*

Not as many as last week, but they're just getting weirder as time goes on.

You might be happy to know that Ryan and I resolved our differences in regards to the dishwasher situation. I've decided to just relax about it and let him load and unload when he gets the chance. Why was I fighting about doing the dishes?

This coming week looks like a lot of rain. I'll be staying indoors mostly, eat low-carb soup and watching the presidential debates. What about you?

*OMG, corn in a cup. There is a phenomenon you may or may not have heard of yet called "Mexican Street Corn," or sometimes, "Elote." This entails a grilled ear of corn on the cob, rubbed with mayonnaise, rolled in cotija or queso fresco crumbles, then drizzled with lime juice and sprinkled with cayenne. SO DELICIOUS. At our local weekly food gathering, Smorgasburg (get it? a smorgasbord in Williamsburg?) a genius family took it upon themselves to scrape the kernels off the corn, and mix all of the ingredients in a cup so that you can eat it with a spoon. Ryan still prefers his on the cob, but I enjoy the uninteruptted bites I can shovel in with the freed corn in my hand. If you don't have corn in a cup near you at any street festivals, I highly suggest you find the nearest Mexican neighborhood and get some Elote on the weekend. It will change your corn eating habits, I promise.

17 weeks! Tomorrow is the big day!

Well, not the big day, but the day we find out if it's a boy or a girl! At first, I didn't want to know, I wanted the surprise. I wanted the baby to be born and hear Ryan yell, "It's a...!!!" Also, if you don't know what you're having, people will give you gender-neutral baby items. If you have a second baby that's the opposite gender, your boy won't have to use a My Little Pony blanket or your girl won't have to wear a coat with trucks and hammers on it. EVERYONE else in the world has encouraged me to find out. The surprise just comes 5 months earlier. If I don't like the way I feel after I find out, we can keep it a secret for the second baby.

So tomorrow's appointment is called an Anatomy Scan. In addition to finding out if the baby wears bows or bow ties, the ultra sound technician will make sure the baby has 2 lungs, 2 kidneys, etc. I'm told I need to show up with a full bladder, as if my bladder wasn't full enough already ALL THE TIME. I never drink anything at work after 3 P.M., so that after I go to the bathroom at 5 P.M. when the workday ends, I can ride the 2 trains I take home without peeing all over the other poor riders. It's especially torturous if the trains are crowded and I have to stand. I can't wait to show enough that people offer me their seat. I digress. When we show up at the doctor tomorrow, and if I feel like I'm going to geyser right there in the office, I'm allowed to ask them to check all the parts that require a full bladder, pee, then come back for the rest. This is the longest ultrasound we'll have in our pregnancy. If I had my way, I'd get an ultrasound every day. I love watching the little potato kick and punch me from the inside. At the last ultrasound, 4 weeks ago, it looked like he or she was pumping it's legs like it was on an exercise bicycle. I still can't feel it yet.

I've been craving things like crazy. Nothing too weird yet, like pickles and ice cream together at the same time, but just really strong, hungry urges for certain things. You know when you're hungry and you get a taste for something? Like, when it's almost time for lunch, and you think about what you're going to have so you start counting down the seconds until you get to eat it? It's like that only times a thousand. When I was a Weight Watcher, which I had to quit because they don't allow pregos, it's unhealthy, I learned tricks to deal with cravings. When I wanted ice cream, I would eat yogurt. It's cold, smooth and sweet and when I'm finished eating it, I've forgotten about the ice cream. Now, that ice cream is down the hatch without giving yogurt a glance. Other times, when I craved a cheeseburger for lunch, I would eat a healthier sandwich. Now, if I manage to actually eat the healthy things first, I don't so easily forget the thing I really wanted. In no particular order, here is, shamelessly, the things that sounded really good this week:
- grits
- breakfast sausage
- shrimp scampi
- cafe latte
- nacho cheese sauce (the fake, neon orange kind, a la stadiums and movie theaters)
- pumpkin pie
- chili cheese dog from the roach coach
- sauteed mushrooms
- cherry danish
- fried mozzarella sticks
- peanut butter
- cheesy bread from papa johns
- cheeseburger
- zeppole (never had one, but it was described to me and it sounded great)
- olives
- Golden Grahams
- strawberry ice cream

I've noticed some bizarre mood swings, too. I got upset with Ryan because he puts dishes in the dishwasher incorrectly. It's not his fault. He didn't grow up with a dishwasher. I get weepy at sad commercials. Technically, I always have, but now I have real tears falling down my cheeks when I see ads for adopting puppies and children from 3rd world countries who don't have clean water. Friday night, we attended a lecture my Melissa Harris-Perry, my favorite TV journalist whose show we watch every weekend morning in our pajamas on our futon. Just seeing her so close to us made me swell with joy. Of all the celebrities I've seen in person in NYC since moving here, she's by far the best yet. I also had a dream that at birth, the baby weighed 13 pounds, and our OB "suggested" that we have a C-section. "Suggest?!?!?!?" Ugh, my poor va-jay-jay actually hurt when I woke up to the thought of a 13 lb. progeny.

I've also been tired. I scarf down my lunch on my 20 minute break, then sleep for an hour at lunch. It actually works out really well.

I'll be sure to let everyone know tomorrow what the verdict is!

Bun in the oven

Guess what? I am 15 weeks pregnant! Well, technically, tomorrow I will be 15 weeks pregnant. With this new journey ahead, I promise to blog more. Seriously. This time I mean it. I have a lot to say! 

 I want to take belly photos every week.

At 15 weeks, I find that the lie my OB told me about pregnancy nausea diminishing at 10 weeks is a lie. I frequently wake up feeling awful, and not wanting to do anything that day, so we don't plan anything. Then, later on, I feel OK, so I'll suggest we go out. The second we get there, I want to ralph again.

So far, the baby has told me, very excitedly, that it DOES NOT like pizza, baked ziti, coffee, captain crunch, cheeseburgers, macaroni and cheese, tater tots and hushpuppies.

It does, however, go through phases where it really loves avocados, plain rice, beans, mangoes, plain yogurt, plain potatoes, club soda.

Basically, it has a much better grip on nutrition than it's parents.

Huh, you think you're so smart baby?

Yeah, it's pretty smart.

Welp, I hope I still have at least one reader out there. I missed you guys, but I've been reading all of YOUR blogs in the mean time. Holler if you're still reading!

The best subway performance I've seen so far.

These guys made me feel a little homesick. I also really wanted to film the little kids dancing to their music off to the side...but it's weird to film kids, so I didn't. Regardless, these guys totally got a dollar from me, and that's definitely not something I do on a regular basis (I've only ever done it twice before - I'm hard to impress!) I hope you enjoy this super talented group as much as I did!!

The Devil

in sugar form

Reese's Cup Cookies

I've been baking a lot for my co-workers lately. I really love them and I really love baking, so the combination is perfect, or may haps a result of this phenomenon. But let's not dwell, let's eat.

I mentioned earlier in the week that I would make my famous Reese's cup cookies. Then, after discovering that a few people gave up chocolate for lent and a few others just plain don't like chocolate (communists) I mentioned that I would make lemon cookies instead. One particular co-worker was deeply saddened by this news, as he and reese's cups have a very intimate relationship.

While working in the middle of the stacks, 2 floors and about a football field away from the supply closet, I realized I'd settled down to work without a stack of papers I needed to flag certain books. Seeing that Chris was not yet settled in his chair, I decided to be lazy and ask him if he would run to the supplies and grab me a stack of papers.

I've never seen anyone run so fast in my life. You should also know that Chris is about 6'4" and 280 lbs. Another co-worker, Michael, looked up from his work as Chris bolted by and said "what the f**k was that?" He was so excited about the idea of Reese's Cup Cookies that he didn't realize that he had his own stack of papers on his desk that could have shared with me! That's the power of peanut butter & chocolate!

To be fair, I also made the lemon cookies ;)

Reese's Cup Cookies
- 2 sticks of softened butter (1 cup)
- 3/4 cup cornstarch
- 3/4 powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 25 Reese's Cup Miniatures (unwrapped)

- preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and then beat in cornstarch and powdered sugar until well blended.
- add flour & cocoa beat well.
- wrap a tablespoon of dough around a reese's cup and pinch closed all over. place on cookie sheet.
- bake 12 minutes.

Look at Sheryl!

Sheryl is the reason we moved to Greenpoint because she blogs about what an amazing place it is and I'm very lucky that I now get to call her my friend. When I ran into her today, she showed off her medal from yesterday's NYC half-marathon!