Come Away with Me

Last Thursday, Daniel and I boarded a train (Daniel's very first train ride ever, my first train ride in-country). We took a little vaca to a city just a few hours away. We didn't have any huge plans other than eating and relaxing. I believe we were successful.

I missed doing my 17 week recap, but i'll post the 17/18 weeks together this Friday. I did weigh myself before we left and realized I had lost a pound, but don't worry after these past few days, I should definitely be back on track for putting a few pounds on!

Our whole goal for this trip was to just relax. Not to try to see everything in the city, but to really just take some down time. It helped, that it rained Thurs-Saturday. And by rain, i mean torrential downpour almost the entire day. Which was lovely for us. We had a gorgeous hotel room with a great view, and english movie channels. The hotel had an indoor pool that was heated, which we went to a few times. I was pretty excited that my bathing suit fit!

We slept in, ate out, watched movies, ate ice cream, read, and went to Starbucks almost every day. It was SO nice not to have a plan or anything to do. We did splurge one night and had a steak dinner. It was the best steak I have EVER eaten! 

On Saturday we did decided to walk to a "nearby" restaurant. The city is laid out with lots of hills, it reminds me of what I imagine San Francisco would be like. Anyways.....we walked for a few hours and finally found what we were looking for. I woke up the next day and my calves were so sore....lame I know. 

When we got lost, we found the river. 

 Our last day we were walking and we saw a guy with a GAP bag. Be still my heart!!!! We asked the guy where the store was and found out it was kind of far away. I could not believe there was a GAP in the city the whole time and I didn't even know it! We raced to the GAP, which was only about 10 minutes by taxi. 

The GAP was 2 levels.....i was so excited. It didn't disappoint like the one in Malaysia did.

I asked if they had maternity clothes, and they didn't, but insisted on helping me find something. They showed me all of the weird long loose shirts that I would never wear, and then their stretch pants. I wasn't too disappointed that they didn't have anything for me, it was a long shot. BUT Daniel did find some jeans on sale, and after arguing persuading him to buy them, we all left pretty happy. 

Daniel let me hold his bag. 

We had an amazing time and it was hard to come back. It was a wonderful low key vacation and i'm so thankful we did it!

We've already hit the ground running, and started back to class today. 

love

laura

Weekly Rewind

This past week was pretty eventful and fun, I feel like a lot of great things happened.

First, Tuesday I had my appointment for the DS risk blood test (get the results in a week). My dr's office is pretty far away, but there's a McDonald's next to it. So i got up early (my dr always wants me there by 8), ate a delicious breakfast then headed to the appointment.

I honestly thought I would just have the blood test and go, but the dr let me hear the heartbeat first-150! It was a great surprise to hear the heartbeat again. So then he asked me to step on the scale. And I made the comment I had just eaten a big breakfast. He looked at me and said "oh you ate?" I was like "mmmhmmmm yeah why?" 

Apparently in the EA no matter what kind of blood test it is, they want you to fast. Probably would've been good to know. So i got to get up early the next day and head back. They also don't give band-aids here when they draw blood. Luckily Daniel is always prepared and had one with him. So we went to McDonald's after my appointment, but I only ate a breakfast sandwich, not the whole meal. You know, everything in moderation right?

I also found out recently, that a Toys R Us just opened in our city, and they carry Babies R Us items too! So we made the trek out to the new mall to see what they had.

I was pretty impressed to be honest. It wasn't anything like going to a real Babies R Us, but they did have a large selection of Tommee Tippee, and a few good options of Fisher Price play mats.

The mall also had an import store that I wanted to check out. They had a lot of great options, but they were WAY overpriced, even for imports. But we did find caffeine free Coke-so I splurged and bought a couple. 

I've been craving doughnuts lately. I must have been out of mind this day, because I walked right past these and didn't even buy one! Ugh.....regret.

And in other big news (to me at least), I ran this past Friday. It was my first time to run in over 12 weeks. Sadly, i forgot to charge my shuffle, so it was also the first time running without music in about 2 years. 

I took it slow and ran 1.4 miles. I thought i would feel really different running pregnant, but other than just feeling way out of shape, it felt about the same. I was so excited that it went well and I felt SO good afterwards. I've been walking and going to spin, but nothing really compares to a good run. 

I will have to slow it down a little bit more though. I took my heart rate and it was 150, and word on the street is that I need to keep it below 140 while preggo. So that just gives me another excuse to run slow and not feel bad about it. I'm hoping to get another run in this week. 

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

love

laura

16 Week Recap

I just finished my 16th week! I haven't been good about blogging this week, but I have several things I want to post, so hopefully I can get some up this weekend.

How Far along: 16 Weeks

Size of Baby: Avocado

Weight Gain: 4 lbs

Gender: We'll find out September 21st, but I'm thinking girl?

Movement: None yet

Sleep: Not much! I've started using 2 more pillows, but nothing is very comfortable right now.

Maternity Clothes: Nope

Symptoms: Back pain, acne (yuck!), hunger, headaches

Aversions: Not really anything....

Cravings: Fruit, sweets, fried food, Wendy's frostee (sad day!)

What I miss: Lunch meat/sandwiches

Best moment of the Week: Hearing the heartbeat again at the dr's

What I'm looking forward to: Wearing maternity clothes- I feel like I have a closet full of new clothes and I can't wear any of them yet!

love

laura

15 Week Recap

I finished 15 weeks yesterday. I don't think my bump is huge (yet!), but compared to last weeks picture, I can tell a huge difference!

How far along: 15 Weeks

Size of Baby: Orange

Weight gain: 2 lbs

Gender: We'll find out about September 21st!

Movement: not yet

Sleep: It's starting to get hard to get comfortable, I think I need to start using another pillow. It's also getting pretty uncomfortable to sleep on my stomach.

Maternity Clothes: not yet

Symptoms: Some back pain, feeling a little tired, but overall I'm feeling pretty good.

Aversions: Hamburgers, but not too much

Cravings: Smoothies, these cookies, Swiss cake rolls-basically anything rich and chocolatey that I can't get here, ha!

What I miss: lunch meat, hotdogs, and being able to button my pants!

Best Moment this week: Picking out the baby bedding! (Mom is coming to visit right after we find out the gender, so thanks to Amazon Wish Lists, I was able to pick out what I want so she can be ready)

What I'm looking forward to: Having a defined baby bump and not just feeling like a fat panda :)

love

laura

Monkeys and elevators

I haven't run in over 10 weeks. I know there's a lot of debate about if running is safe in pregnancy or not, and I always thought I would run while pregnant because I'm pretty convinced it's okay. However....because of all the travelling and just not feeling great the first trimester, I chose to walk instead.

I was pretty good about walking, trying to get in an hour of walking a few days a week. However......the heat index has been hanging around 106 and I mostly have time to walk in the afternoons.....which is why I haven't.

I have been feeling pretty sluggish because I haven't intentionally been exercising. I've been trying to walk at least 30 minutes a day, but that doesn't always happen, and have I mentioned the cookies I've been eating?

Anyways..... I had stopped my gym membership for the month of June since I was going to the States, and then July was so crazy with us travelling and being gone, and then throw in that I get evening sickness and not morning-before you know it, it's been 12 weeks since I've been to the gym.

So I made up my mind that tonight was the night....I was going back to spin class no matter what! 

So after dinner tonight I filled up my water bottle, squished myself into my workout clothes, and headed out. 

As I was approaching the gym, I saw several people impatiently waiting for the elevator. As i got closer, I saw them decide to take the stairs. The elevator arrived right as I was walking up, so I got in. But not before I saw THE MONKEY that was sitting on the stairwell that leads to the gym.

A monkey....really?! I hate monkeys.....they're sneaky and dirty and who knows where they've been.

So after spin class, (which went quite well), I took the elevator down. However, once it reached ground level the doors didn't open. It just stayed there with me locked inside listening to the voices on the outside. Then I started to panic. It was really hot in that elevator. Every button I pushed, nothing happened and nothing lit up.

Was this an emergency? Could I justify pushing the alarm button? And how much language do I know to be able to say "I'm stuck in an elevator, can you please help me." I technically knew every word but 'stuck,' the most important one.

Anyways, after praying for what felt like forever, the elevator started going back up. The doors finally opened back at the gym.

I high-tailed it out of there, and took the stairs. (you know see where this is going?)

As I was reaching the bottom of the stairs, I thought, there is no way that monkey is still there. 

HA.

I reached the bottom of the stairs and the scary monkey (with no owner might I add) was running back and forth on the handrail, making obscene noises that scared me to death.

I managed to make it out alive, but kept looking over my shoulder to see if the monkey was following me.

Now I'm faced with a big decision.......next time I go to the gym, do I risk being stuck in an elevator and sweating to death, or take my chances with the monkey??

I think I'll go learn how to say "stuck."

love

laura

Cookies and confessions

Last year, Daniel and I attended a marriage conference (which we LOVED!) Since attending, we get together with other participants about once a month for mutual encouragement and sharing of our marriages.

Last night we hosted. I knew a friend would be coming that eats gluten free. I hate not having anything for her to eat but fruit, so I googled "gluten free dessert." I was a little nervous all the recipes would call for crazy ingredients that I don't have. But I was pleasantly surprised when I found this recipe from Real Simple.

I loved that it had normal, simple ingredients and was still gluten free. And really, who doesn't love a peanut butter cookie?! 

The only change I made to the recipe is I ended up baking mine for close to 20 minutes. The edges just didn't set until then. But they still came out pretty soft. They were the perfect cookie-crumbly but yet somehow still soft on the inside. I have to say, theses are BY FAR the best peanut butter cookies I have EVER tasted!!!! And most importantly, my GF friend loved these too! I really am considering selling them....I must have the world now how delish these are!

They made about 3 dozen and there are only a handful left. I have had ZERO self control with these cookies, it's like they secretly have crack in them or something. I have already eaten over 3 today and the day isn't even over. And I know you're not supposed to eat raw cookie dough with eggs when you're pregnant, but I could not hold myself back.......

In other random news, I feel like i've been living under a rock for the past several years months. I had heard about Instagram but was really confused on what it was. I was hanging out with some friends in their 20's and they helped explain it to me. It's a little complicated bc I can't email any pictures from my phone, but I still like using it.

Also, I heard for the first time this week, the Call me Maybe song. I had seen a few things on twitter about it, but had been mostly just confused about it. I finally googled it to figure out what everyone was talking about. I did really like watching the Olympic teams video of them singing to it.

And just to end on a more random note....this is what we had for dinner last week: Tilapia, grilled tomatoes, zucchini, carrots, and an instant noodle mix I brought back from the States. This past week has been officially processed-food week. I won't go into all the gory details, but let's just say I should go eat some fruit.

love

laura

13/14 Week Recap

I'm finishing Week 14 today! I can't even believe it! I'm still in denial a little bit that I'm pregnant. I think because I'm not really showing yet, I haven't felt the baby move, and we don't know the gender, it just all seems surreal and strange that there is in fact a little person inside of me right now. It's so hard to grasp!

How far along: 14 weeks

Size of Baby: Peach

Weight gain: 1 lb

Gender: We'll find out around Sept 21st!!

Movement: Not yet, but he/she was moving all over the place on the ultrasound this week!

Sleep: I'm still getting up 3X a night to pee. Also, for some reason, if Daniel doesn't go to bed the same time as me, I cannot fall asleep. This is a completely new and weird development.

Maternity clothes: Nope

Symptoms: Some nausea in the afternoon and evening, just started feeling a little tired every so often

Aversions: Salads, hamburgers, jaozi (local dumplings)

Cravings: Fruit, fudge brownies, smoothies (what's hard is craving things I can't easily get here!!)

What I miss: Hot dogs, club sandwiches, having energy

Best Moment this week: Hearing the heartbeat for the first time! Seeing our little one move around on the ultrasound, and telling all of our friends!

What I'm looking forward to: Having a baby bump! I'm so ready to start showing!

love

laura