40 weeks, 4 days

AhMahGah! I'm about to pull this baby out myself. My doctor said on Wednesday that I have no dilation and no fluid loss, so she didn't see a need to see me again until next week, when I'll be 41 weeks, 2 days. What?!?!?! Apparently it's really common for 1st pregnancies to be extra long.

All of this extra time has me nesting extra hard. I've been making freezer meals to have on hand.

I made pizza bagels, chicken and biscuit casserole, chicken and broccoli casserole, ham, apricot and goat cheese paninis, beef & bean burritos, swedish meatballs with mushrooms (for the crock pot) and stuffed french toast!

Here is my method for freezer pizza bagels. You'd think it would be very straight forward. It's not. There was a lot of trial and error involved in getting pizza bagels that don't come out of the oven mushy with sauce soaked into the bagel, or over bubbly with the sauce and cheese everywhere but the bagel! Follow all the steps, trust me!

Ingredients:
- 5 bagels from the bakery, unsliced
- 20 oz pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce or plain tomato sauce
- 1/2 bag of pepperonis, or about 3 oz, if getting it from a deli
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella

- take the bagels home and slice them yourself. Don't be tempted to buy presliced bagels, because they are too smooth and don't have the nooks and crannies to hold any sauce.
- lay the bagels on cookie sheets, cut sides up and freeze. If you put sauce on them right away, the sauce soaks into the bagel and makes it soggy when you bake them.
- place 4 paper towels on a microwave safe plate. Scatter pepperonis all over the paper towels, and microwave for about 30 seconds. When you pull the plate out, the paper towels will have turned orange from all the grease they soaked up. The pepperonis will feel dried out, but they will be OK
- make little stacks of pepperoni and cut them into tiny dices, about the size of a pea.
- place pepperonis into a bowl and stir in sauce.
- once bagels are frozen, pull them out of the freezer and top each one with a few tablespoons of pepperoni sauce mixture.
- top with shredded cheese. Press the cheese on top of them a little to get as much as possible to stick to the sauce
- place all of the bagels, still on cookie sheets, back in freezer and freeze until sauce and bagels are frozen together
- remove from freezer and wrap individually in Saran wrap. If some of the cheese falls off, carefully lay it on top of the bagel before wrapping. To prevent freezer burn even longer, store in a plastic freezer bag.

- to bake, preheat oven to 350. Unwrap however many bagels you want to cook and place on cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes, rotate baking sheet, and bake 10-14 more minutes.

32-39 weeks

OK, here we are after a 7 week hiatus. Blogging is like exercise. It's a habit, and once you miss a day...you're done. The track pad on my lap top is messed up and I didn't have a mouse that was compatible. One day without fixing it went by, then another day...I have an iPad, so I didn't feel disconnected.

And here we are. No apologies, but thanks to Danielle for reaching out. It was nice to know that I was missed. I've still been keeping up with everyone else, though, so I haven't missed anything. I also never missed a week of belly photos. We had to move most of them inside though because NYC weather is THE WORST! Something no one ever mentions about it is that it rains here about 3 times a week. I don't know why, but we were un-prepared for that when we moved here. I digress. Onto the good stuff.

32 weeks




33 weeks




34 weeks




35 weeks

check out this awesome hospital gown my mom made for me! Not only will I not have to wear a gown that someone died in yesterday, but I won't blend into the walls! FYI, I totally picked the fabric out myself. People made fun of it on facebook.

36 weeks




37 weeks




38 weeks




39 weeks




I can't believe it's only T-minus 3 days until our due date (Monday, March 4th). It feels like it's flown by in some ways, but when I think back to when I found out that I was pregnant, around the 4th of July, that feels like FOREVER ago! I mean, the next 4th of July isn't that far away!

She's starting to suck all the fat from everywhere else on my body. Ha! Including my face. Fine with me. I can't wait to get back to weight watchers, mostly because I miss everyone. I feel good about this pregnancy though. I feel tired, and the most mundane things wear me out (took an hour long nap after emptying the dishwasher yesterday. Seriously. I'd liken it to having Mononucleosis, if you've ever experienced that.) but otherwise, I'm still cheerful and not to the point where I scream, "get it out of me!!!" We had a doctor's appointment yesterday and the doctor doesn't think she'll come by Monday. She didn't check my dilation, and said that since I haven't lost my plug or had any contractions, she's pretty comfy in there. We'll see how I feel next week!

In my next post, I'm going to show off all of the beautiful homemade things people have made us. People have been so generous. I can't get over it.

Happy Friday to everyone!

28 & 29 weeks!

28 weeks.



It's getting too cold to take pictures outside, and it's been raining the past 2 Sundays in a row. Boo.



29 weeks



Wow. It's really getting close. I have my gestational diabetes test tomorrow and I'll be sure to let you all know how that goes. I'm really not looking forward to it because everyone says that the glucose drink they make you chug is awful. I picked the bottle up at my last appointment, and I drink an hour before my appointment tomorrow. I'm crossing my fingers really tightly that I don't find out that I have something as terrible as diabetes the week before Christmas. I'm looking forward to gorging on holiday food exactly 6 days from today. I also don't want a 12 pound baby. 9 is maybe the maximum I could deal with. No one else in my family (that I know of) had gestational diabetes, but my Mom has regular Type 2 diabetes. I'm not sure if that puts me at risk, but I'm happy knowing that only 4-7% of pregnancies develop diabetes, and it goes away immediately after the cord is cut. I have 3 pints of Graeter's in the freezer and I'm going to be really depressed if I have to wait until March 4th to eat it!

As far as Princess Flannery's growth is concerned, I feel her somersaulting A LOT these days. I barely got any sleep last night. I knew that was coming because I barely felt her move at all yesterday during the day, I don't think even once, and then the second I tried to fall asleep, she thought that was a really dumb idea. I was 15 minutes late to work because I just couldn't drag myself out this morning. Luckily, I have a very understanding boss :)

I haven't been craving much lately. The only thing I wrote down that I really wanted was a Mango Lassi from an Indian restaurant, but that's it.

27 weeks!

Craving? Tater Tots. Seriously. That's all! The cravings have seriously subsided. Also subsiding? Getting up in the middle of the night to pee! Which is awesome, but also a little scary. At first, I thought I might be dehydrated, so I started drinking an extra glass of water in the evening, but I still slept through the night. I have a feeling that it may be because I quit eating bread, pasta, rice and sugar during the day at work. I identified those foods as ones that make me drowsy and sluggish while trying to get things done, and if I save all the carbs for the evening, I feel fuller and fall asleep faster. Weird, but it's working!

Also this week, I graduated to wearing Ryan's clothing. I have a few maternity clothes, but Ryan's work shirts with a cute skinny belt to give them some shape look so cute and are the perfect size! He wears a tall, so I'll be able to wear them for a while!

25-26 weeks!

These are week 25. We forgot to take photos outside before it got too dark. It gets dark so early now!



Godel the cat helped with that last one.





And thus, my need for maternity clothes grows. I thought I'd be able to get away longer with wearing my own clothes, but this week, I started wearing Ryan's shirts. I'm not going to lie, I kinda dig Ryan's plaid, cotton work shirts. It means twice as much dry cleaning, taking 10 shirts to the dry cleaners to be washed and pressed every Friday instead of 5, but maybe I'll just buy Ryan a few more so that he has a better selection. When my parent's were here over the weekend, my Mom really wanted to buy me some maternity clothes, but it's a minimum 2 1/2 hour trip to Target (what with the subway and all) and most of the maternity stores are in Manhattan. I didn't want to have to drag Dad there on his vacation. I did drag them to my ob appointment though, and for as apologetic as I tried to be, they insisted that they enjoyed themselves. They say that ultrasounds are a lot more technologically advanced than they were in 1982, and they were fascinated with little Flannery's tiny bones and heart.

As far as cravings go, I haven't had anything specific the past 2 weeks. I'm just hungry all the time. In fact, the OB is concerned over how much weight I've gained. Oops. They referred me to a nutritionist that I swear I'm going to call. One of these days. I am nervous about the gestational diabetes test I have to take at the next appointment. I plan on eating paleo foods ( I said eating them, not actually following the paleo diet) and walking a lot between now and then.

I can't believe it's already been 26 weeks. That means there are only 14 left. I remember being 14 weeks pregnant and thinking there was so much time left.

24 weeks!

I cannot believe I am 6 months pregnant. The funny thing that no one tells you about being pregnant, you're actually pregnant for 10 months. Only 9 calendar months, but 10, 4-week months. So I still have 4 months to go from today. Good thing, because we haven't done a single thing to get ready for the baby except register, clean like crazy people and read about pregnancy and childbirth. Registering for a baby wasn't as much like registering for our wedding like we thought it would be. For our wedding, we were able to imagine what we wanted and needed and how we'd use it. Our wedding registry is still active and we buy ourselves things from it for birthdays and anniversaries. We can even still edit it to add new things, like when new colors and pieces of fiesta ware come out so that we can add them to our collection!

But a baby? what the hell does a baby need? I always thought I would just register for a boatload of onesies, diapers and wipes. Does a baby really need a mobile that stimulates her eyeballs and helps her focus? Does she really need a bottle warmer if I'm going to exclusively breast feed? She doesn't need a bassinet, I'll just empty out a dresser drawer for her. But now, I find myself over thinking a lot. I want her to be the smartest baby on the planet. Will a toy that turns her into a Mensa member at age 3 be worth it? Absolutely. What if my boobs run dry and I'm not lucky enough to breast feed? I better make sure that I get some bottles and formula that someone else is willing to buy for us. Sleeping in a drawer? That's funny to think about, and I'm sure wouldn't make a difference in the long run if it had a real mattress in it, but the American Pediatric Association says that sleeping in a crib from the get go is the way to go. Well, if they say so.

Also, this week, I graduated to real maternity clothes. Long shirts and the belly band weren't cutting it anymore. Maternity pants might be the greatest thing ever. I don't understand why all other pants aren't just made this way to begin with! One of the maternity dresses I bought doubles as a nursing outfit, so I'll be able to wear it even longer.

The past 2 weeks I've been craving:
- hot chocolate
- pecan pie
- stir fried bok choy with general tso's sauce
- tom kha gai
- almond joy
- sweet tarts (gross, I don't even like sweet tarts)
- fried pickles
- cheese straws
- reese's cups

Today, I'm off for Veteran's Day, but Ryan is not :( so I'm going to redeem my birthday gift, a prenatal massage! I've never had a professional massage at a spa, so I'm really excited, and a little nervous! I requested a woman masseuse, because males always remind me of this guy that used to live upstairs from my friends who carried around lotion in a holster on his belt. Ha.

22 weeks

Oops. Oh, well.

And, she decided to pop out! Big time! People no longer think I'm just fat, they actually offer me seats on the train (except the 7 train, those people were raised by wolves. Seriously.)

We've had a busy 3 weeks. I had a second anatomy scan, which wasn't necessary, but since my insurance covered it, I decided to go for it. Plus, any opportunity to see the little potato is a good one. She's perfectly healthy, but a little small. I'm making an appointment with a nutritionist to see if we can bulk her up without tipping me over the scales, which I'm dangerously close to. Since I'm not puking on a daily basis, I'm just having a little pregnant party with myself. This is not good for someone like me who is addicted to food.

In the past 3 weeks, I've been craving:
- vanilla ice cream (which is weird because I think vanilla is boring)
- Tabasco sauce
- taco salad
- chili con corne wafel from Wafels & Dinges
- corn on the cob
- baked potato
- lasagna

The only other thing out of the ordinary that I've been experiencing is really bizarre dreams. I had one where a co worker's twin sister was dating the man who is the voice of Skooter from the Muppet Babies. They met at Applebee's and went camping. Also, he was a dwarf. In another dream, a little boy taught his pet hamster to speak. It said beautifully poetic things and met the president. The 4 of us went para sailing around the world together.

I'll stop eating pecan pie before I go to bed.

19 weeks

Really, it's just the shirt that's making me look like there's a belly there. Still no real, discernible bump.

This week was a real headache. Literally. I had two killer ones and took Tylenol to quell them. Tylenol is the only painkiller you can take during pregnancy, because everything else threatens to constrict blood vessels to the baby. I never take Tylenol though because it tears up your liver. I feel badly taking it because it might also be shredding little Flannery O'Conor Flannery's* biggest organ as well. It's a hard pill to swallow - pun intended. I've tried all of the other remedies; walking, napping, water, scalp massage, etc. Nothing but the Tylenol works, and even then, only the pain goes away. I can still feel the pulsating sensation in my skull. I called the Dr. today, but had to leave her a message because she was delivering a baby. I asked her how often it was safe to take Tylenol. Some other googling offered that a half a cup of caffeinated coffee is safe for relieving a headache, so I tried that today, but it didn't work either. Any Mamas out there have any answers?

You may also notice my lovely Belly Band. It's a garment that you wear at the top of your pants, like a pull-on belt, that allows you to wear your pants un-zipped without them falling to your ankles. It's the best thing ever. I throughly plan on wearing after pregnancy, especially at Thanksgiving, and Ryan asked for one.

This week in cravings:
- strawberry soft serve ice cream from Ameri-stop. I have no idea why, but what I do know is that they only serve it on Sunday
- crab rangoon
- Tom Kha Gai (acquired!)
- creamy fish chowder (?!?!)
- almond joy
- stuffed shells
- cheez-its
- nutty bars (scored! a lovely co-worker came to the rescue!)

next week, week 20! Half way!

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!