Bumpdate: 36 weeks

 

How Far Along: 36 weeks

Total Weight Gain: 26 lbs.

Size of Baby: Watermelon (19 to 22 in, 6.5 lbs) all according to WTE. At my doctor's appointment yesterday they estimated him at 5 lbs, 14 oz.

Maternity Clothes: My goal is to not buy anything else maternity for this pregnancy. I may be wearing the same thing every day. ha.

Gender: Baby boy!

Movement: Still moving and shaking.

Sleep: Much better than it has been the past two weeks. I'm only waking up for bathroom breaks.

What I miss: Doing simple things like shaving my legs and tweezing my eyebrows. It's hard to get close enough to the mirror to be able to see my eyebrows with this bump!

Cravings: Fruit--watermelon, peaches, pineapple. I have been devouring watermelon.

Other crazy symptoms: A combination of the medications I was given last week and with Jack not being quite as high I feel so much better. I feel normal pregnancy aches, but nothing painful. I'm okay with being uncomfortable. I couldn't handle how painful everything was, but luckily I'm doing much better. Although, I have been put on bed rest. I normally have a very low blood pressure, but the past two visits it has been high. Doctor said to be on the safe side he wanted me to take it easy until my next appointment, which due to the 4th of July isn't until July 6. I was pretty shocked, because I was feeling so much better. He had me get some blood work done and I'm doing a 24 hr urine test. Fingers crossed that my blood pressure goes back down. I have no idea what I'm going to do for the next week at home. I will be working from home as much as possible. I feel fine, so I know it will be hard to restrict myself.

Best Moment this week: Feeling better! My friend, Ashley, brought me the cutest care package and I just have to share how she packaged the fruit.

dinner parties

Ty's schedule has been great the past two months and we have had a couple of groups of people over for dinner. (He will start his second year of residency in July and the schedule for the rest of the year is not pretty. It will definitely take some adjusting, especially with the new addition of baby Jack.) I digress...
We have been in our new house since November and love having people come over to see it. We had two new, young couples over from church. It was nice getting to know them better. We also had the new surgery interns and their spouses over for dinner. 
These dinners were scheduled in advance, and I didn't know that I was going to be feeling quite so bad at this point in my pregnancy. Luckily, both evenings turned out perfectly and I felt mostly normal. It was kind of depressing to cook all that food and not be able to eat much of it, because there was literally no space in my stomach due to all the smashing from Jack. :)

Cooking during the summer can be tricky as we didn't want to heat up the house with the oven, so I thought I would share our menus. I'm always looking for easy, summer meals.

• Grilled Pork Chops; we love this recipe and it is soooo easy.
• Sweet Strawberry Salad
• Strawberry Basil Lemonade

• Corn on the Cob with chili lime butter; Chili Lime Butter: melt butter, add in lime juice and chili powder. brush on corn. I just guesstimate how much of each every time.
• Balsamic Vegetable Skewers
• 
  Source: whenharrymetsalad.com via Lindsey on Pinterest
•  
• S'mores bars (made the day before to avoid heating up the house when people arrive.)

Ty grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for the interns. I love grilled food during the summer. I'm sure part of that revolves around the fact that I'm not the one standing out there in the heat. :) 
I was feeling worse this week, so I kept things simple with Buffalo Chicken Dip, chocolate chip cookies, and brownie batter dip served with mini graham crackers. 

Source: crumbsandchaos.blogspot.com via Lindsey on Pinterest

I posted this last year about some of our favorite summer meals, and I'm making Chicken and Summer Vegetables Tostadas, another summer favorite, courtesy of Kate from Elefantitas Alegres for tonight's dinner.

camera giveaway on groopdealz

GroopDealz is hosting a giveaway for a Nikon D3100 DSLR camera! Go to their site to enter to win!

They also have some cute milk bottles on sale this week that I'm eyeing. They would be adorable for a milk and cookies party!

This is a sponsored post by Groopdealz to promote the camera giveaway.

Bumpdate: 35 weeks

This is the best picture I have this week. I had zero motivation to get ready. Most days I chose to either shower and blow dry my hair or put on make-up. I couldn't bring myself to do both.

 

How Far Along: 35 weeks

Total Weight Gain: 24 lbs; lost 2 lbs this week.

Size of Baby: Large cantaloupe (19 to 22 in, 5.5 lbs) all according to WTE.

Maternity Clothes: As I predicted I am living in the black maxi skirt from Gap that I wrote about in my 34 week post.

Gender: Baby boy!

Movement: He seems to be moving a lot and I think he is really running out of space.

Sleep: Eh. Some nights are great. Other nights I wake up in pain and can't go back to sleep.

What I miss: Feeling good. See crazy symptoms below.

Cravings: Not much of anything this week. I just don't have room for any food. I have basically been on a liquid diet of sorts.

Other crazy symptoms: Same as last week, but more extreme. Jack is sitting up high and smashing all my organs creating extreme pain between my chest and belly. This has caused back spasms, nausea, hot & cold flashes, and overall discomfort. My doctor was on vacation last week when I went to the doctor, so I saw someone else in the office. While she was really nice, she told me that what I was experiencing was normal. I knew that it couldn't be normal and was overwhelmed that this was my new normal for the remaining 6 weeks. It was a pretty daunting thought. I threw up from all the pain and pressure on my organs the next day. The first time I've thrown up during my pregnancy. I know that I have been very blessed by that. This week I saw my doctor and while he said pretty much the same things the doctor the week before said he made me feel much better. He also prescribed me some medications to help with everything. They are helping with the pain and making things more manageable. I have been pretty against taking a lot of medication during my pregnancy, but I can't continue on without it. I have been in and out of work, and hate that I am inconsistent there. I've been working from home a lot. Mainly I have been sleeping and taking baths. I have taken up to 3 baths a day to help manage some of the pain. I don't want to think about the water bill if this continues. :)

It has been a long two weeks, but I'm really hopeful for some relief.

Best Moment this week: The car seat arrived, which was the last big thing we needed. It's good to know that if he does come early we will be able to leave the hospital with him. :)

White Chocolate and Raspberry Squares

Guest post from my friend Sophie at Ricardo Cuisine, a great food blog.

We’re really just getting into the heart of  BBQ season. We’ve really been taking advantage of it recently and coming up with some creative grilling meals too. Of course, we’ve had to figure out what to serve alongside the smoky delicacies the grill can fashion, and what to eat afterwards too. After searching up some interesting recipes I came up with this one from Ricardo Cuisine for pastry squares with white chocolate and raspberries. Turns out baking and grilling go together REALLY well.





Ingredients include 6 oz. of white chocolate in coarse chunks, ¾ of a cup of sugar (pastries, you tempt me so), a cup of unbleached flour, ½ a teaspoon of baking powder, 2 eggs, 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, 3 tablespoons of milk, and of course a cup of fresh raspberries. This is about enough for pan-full of squares which you can cut into 8 good sized decadent squares.

Now I’m sure some of you are plenty good at baking but I’ll go through the process step by step. So
here goes:

1.) First you’ll need to melt the chocolate in some kind of vessel (a double boiler works well), and
make sure to stir because chocolate is thick when melted and will denature if you let it stand in
a hot container.
2.) Set that aside when it’s melted to mix together the portions of flour and baking powder in a
bowl.
3.) Crack your eggs into another bowl and mix in sugar, then take an electric mixer and mix until the
mixture turns pale and creamy. While you’re at that, add the melted chocolate and vanilla. Then
add the mixed flour and baking powder bit by bit, alternating with milk as the batter thickens,
stirring with a wooden spoon. Once you’ve got a doughey substance, put in the raspberries and
gently fold those in.
4.) Put it all in a suitably sized buttered pan (about 8x8 inches works) and cook it! Bake it for about
40 minutes in a preheated oven at 350 F. A good metric here is to sink a toothpick into the
centre. When you pull it out, if it comes out clean, the pastries are done. Let everything cool
down and serve.

Bumpdate: 34 weeks

How Far Along: 34 weeks

Total Weight Gain: 26 lbs

Size of Baby: Large cantaloupe (19 to 22 in, 5.5 lbs) all according to WTE.


Maternity Clothes: I will be living in the outfit I'm wearing above. It's all from Gap and the maxi skirt is the most comfortable thing I have ever worn. If you are pregnant, then you need to buy this skirt! It is soooo soft.

Gender: Baby boy!

Movement: He has been moving a lot more this week and pushing out on me. It is crazy to see my stomach distort with his movements. 

Sleep: So thankful that I'm still sleeping well.

What I miss: Feeling normal and being able to bend over.

Cravings: Same as last week--Coke icees from Quik Trip, cereal, grapes and Chick-fil-a chocolate chip cookies and chicken sandwiches, strawberry lemonade. Unfortunately, I can't seem to get enough sweets.

Other crazy symptoms: I have had several episodes of feeling extremely uncomfortable and getting sick. I feel like all my organs are being smashed, my back starts cramping, and I get nauseous. I can't find a comfortable position and just wait for the hours to pass until I feel better again. I have been very lucky throughout this pregnancy and this is the worst that I've felt. Hopefully, I can handle 6 more weeks of this!

Best Moment this week: Moving another week closer to meeting baby Jack!

randoms

• I am SO excited that the Thunder are going to the NBA finals! With two major universities in our state everyone is usually pretty divided. The Thunder have brought everyone together and I just love that. Not to mention that I love the NBA in general. 

• We went home on Memorial Day weekend, and I never posted about it on here. We went to a fun area near the mountains and took a walk one morning before it got too hot with Mason and Ty's mom. 

A glimpse into our future, perhaps.

• The What To Expect app on my phone has the countdown to baby Jack at 6 weeks! Eeep!

• Broccoli is something that I have started liking since becoming pregnant. I roasted some the other day using a recipe I found on Pinterest. It was delish!

Source: amateurgourmet.com via Lindsey on Pinterest

• My SIL, Sarah, gave me some sprigs of rosemary to cook with and suggested threading the sprigs with shrimp and grilling them. We did that tonight and it was so good! I did exactly what she did and marinated the shrimp in Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, olive oil, and sprinkled with pepper and some salt. Then, I threaded them on the sprigs and Ty grilled them for about 5-6 minutes. It was so different from what we normally eat, which is one reason we liked it so much. 
 

Bumpdate: 33 weeks

How Far Along: 33 weeks

Total Weight Gain: 24 lbs

Size of Baby: Pineapple; I had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday and they estimated 4 lbs, 7 oz. That seems big to me! Doctor said he is in the 37th percentile on the growth chart, so Jack obviously isn't that big. It seems crazy to have 4 lbs, 7 oz of baby inside me though.


Maternity Clothes: I'm ready for regular clothes again.

Gender: BOY!

Movement: He still loves to push out on me and always does it on the right side. His movements aren't quite as sweet as they once were and can be quite uncomfortable at times. Poor guy doesn't have as much room as he once did.

Sleep: Sleeping through the night except for bathroom breaks.

What I miss: Bending over easily.

Cravings: Coke icees from Quik Trip, cereal, grapes and Chick-fil-a chocolate chip cookies and chicken sandwiches, strawberry and raspberry lemonade.

Other crazy symptoms: Swelling. General uncomfortableness.There are times when I feel like I have a huge rock in my stomach. Oily skin and hair.

Best Moment this week: Seeing Baby Jack move around during the u/s. Feeling loved at our church shower yesterday.