24 Week Recap

I just finished week 24, which is CRAZY!! How is this pregnancy flying by so fast??? Daniel left yesterday for a week in the mountains, so we snapped this picture before he left. So it's just me and the baby! I generally always lose weight when Daniel travels, because I don't cook as much. I have a feeling it might be different this time!

I'm still feeling really good overall and loving pregnancy. Sometimes I forget I'm pregnant, and then walk by a mirror, and I'm like WHOA! I also think I might've started waddling. I was walking down our hallway a few times today and caught myself thinking "oh am I waddling??" And then I try to make myself walk like a normal person and not a duck, ha, as if I have any control over it!

How Far Along: 24 weeks!

Size of Baby: Cantaloupe-12 inches long and almost 1 1/2 lbs. By the way, I read my uterus is the size of a soccer ball now...which kind of freaks me out to think about having a soccer ball in my tummy, but after looking at pics of myself, it's hard to deny, ha!

Weight Gain: 12 lbs

Gender: Girl

Movement: All the time! Every morning at 7:30, it's like clockwork, then throughout the day too. I've also felt her in the middle of the night when I'm rolling over too.

Sleep: It's okay. I feel like I'm sleeping, but waking up more tired than usual. I actually had to lay down 3 days in a row cos I was tired. Maybe what I didn't feel the first trimester is catching up?

Maternity Clothes: Yep! All pants, and most shirts, except around the house I'll still wear my old T-shirts...my belly just shows a little bit :)

Symptoms: Heartburn for the first time in my life! So far, just a few times, but I was not a fan of it. And feeling more tired. And I'm still going the bathroom about every 5 minutes.

Aversions: Hamburgers still.

Cravings: Chocolate. Sweets, fried foods.

What I miss: Daniel right now, but not too much else

Best Moment this week: Last Saturday, I was sitting on the couch feeling baby move. Then all of a sudden I thought I saw my belly move. It was the first time I could see and feel her move from the outside. Later that afternoon Daniel felt her move for the first time. It was amazing, and I'm so glad he felt her move! I love feeling her move and watching my belly move too, love.it.

What I'm looking forward to: Next Thursday we go for the 4D ultrasound (and to confirm she really is a girl, ha!), and I have my glucose test. I'm obviously looking forward to the ultrasound part. I cannot wait to see her little face!!!!!!

This past Sunday I was dressed up a little so we took a few pics outside. This ones my favorite.

We're 99% sure on her first name, but still deciding on her middle name. We call her by her first name all the time. If we can make up our mind soon, I'll post her name!

love

laura

23 Week Recap

I just finished week 23 and I feel GREAT! I really am enjoying this stage of pregnancy...I look pregnant and nothing is really uncomfortable or hurting. I'm so thankful this pregnancy has been as smooth as it has. I'm just hoping the next one isn't payback for how easy this one has been, ha!

How far Along: 23 Weeks

Size of Baby: Large Mango, about a foot long and a little over a pound

Weight Gain: 11 pounds

Gender: Girl

Movement: Every day, mostly after I've eaten

Sleep: Pretty good!

Maternity Clothes: All my pants are maternity and most my shirts. I'm wearing mostly maternity shirts because I like to wear my shirts long and my regular ones are too short.

Symptoms: I've been having to go the bathroom a lot more lately, I feel like i'm back in the first trimester. I feel like I'm about to burst, and then will hardly go anything. It's weird.

Aversions: Hamburgers

Cravings: Chocolate, warm/hot water, food in general

What I miss: Sleeping on my back

Best Moment of the week: Using Facetime to talk with my sister this morning and showing each other our belly bumps. Also, this week is the first time a local person told me that I didn't look pregnant. So far most locals comment (continuously) on how big my stomach is.

What I'm looking forward to: Eating!

love

laura

Best Recipe EVER and other news

I have a friend who has a recipe blog that I steal borrow several recipes from. She has a recipe for Easy French Bread that I've been wanting to try for a while. But any bread recipe that includes waiting time for something to rise, I tend to shy away from. I generally prefer to go straight from start to finish when I'm baking, so I don't usually go for recipes that include waiting time.

(dough rising the second time)

However.....

Another friend of mine just had a baby and I was planning on bringing them lasagna for dinner. I thought this would be a great time to try to my friends recipe. Because who doesn't love homemade bread I always say??

(do you see the perfection???)

I have to say, this is the EASIEST bread recipe I have ever made!  I would like to say it's foolproof.

You can find the recipe here. I made 4 loaves, and I think next time I'll do 5. I still had to squish my bread into my pan because the dough was too long. And 5 is always better than 4 :)

I did put the egg wash on 3 of the loaves, and I think I preferred it that way. The bread smelled SOOO good while it was rising and baking, I can't even tell you. We've already eaten one loaf, and it was perfect! Seriously, please try this recipe!

In other news.......I ordered a Boppy from a local website here. Because it was so cheap, I had my doubts on if it would be real or if I was would end up just receiving the Boppy cover, but look what came!!!

It's a CUPCAKE Boppy, oh my goodness, how cute is it?!?!?!?!?!?

And it's double sided!!!

(you can't really see it, but there are little hearts on this side)

I'm SO excited that it worked out, and to add to our little cupcake collection!!

Also.....I went out yesterday to run some errands and saw this......

The leaves were changing! I have never seen this before in our city. We have 'seasons,' but we don't ever get below freezing, so things don't really die. They just stay the same color all year round. 

It's like seeing a rainbow for the very time, just slightly less dramatic.

Tomorrow is week 23 recap!

love

laura

Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins

It's fall. Which means it's PUMPKIN TIME!!

Until last year, I had never tasted pumpkin and had convinced myself I didn't like it. Then a friend made a few recipes with pumpkin and I loved every one of them!

We buy our pumpkins in the market here....they look like long squash. I cut the pumpkin in half, deseed, cook for about an hour or so, then scoop out the pumpkin and puree it with a little bit of water. One pumpkin can get me about 10 cups of pumpkin puree. I still had pumpkin in the freezer from last winter, so i decided to get my fall baking on this past weekend.

I've been wanting to make a pumpkin muffin, instead of just regular pumpkin bread. But I wanted to make the recipe a little healthier. All of the healthy recipes online included ingredients I can't get here and/or sounded too healthy to even taste good.

So I took my regular pumpkin bread recipe and tweaked it a little. I have to get my splenda from the states, so I never cook with it. I always use it just for my coffee. But I decided to splurge and use it in this recipe, and it worked really well!

Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins:

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup oats

3/4 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

2 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1/3 tsp baking powder

1 Tbs ground flax seed

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup Splenda sugar blends (mine was a little closer to 1/3)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup oil (plus 1 Tbs)

2 eggs

1 cup pumpkin puree

Preheat oven to 350 (175 C)

In large mixing bowl, combine all of your dry ingredients. Mix well.

Add pumpkin, oil, and eggs to dry mixture. Mix well.

Grease muffin pans. I used a 1/4 measuring cup to pour the batter into the muffin tins. They were about 2/3 full. I baked these for about 22 minutes....you might want to check these at 20 minutes. When a toothpick comes out clean, remove from oven.

Cool in muffin pans for about 5 minutes. Then use a knife to go around the edges to loosen the muffin. Then remove the muffins and allow to cool on a baking rack for about 10 minutes.

Makes about 15 muffins. You could also make this into bread if you wanted. 

These were REALLY good! Daniel said he couldn't taste the difference between this and the regular pumpkin bread recipe. The main change was decreasing the flour and adding in the oats. Also adding ground flax and Splenda. These are super moist, and taste really sweet! 

I was worried that the oatmeal would give it a strange texture, but you couldn't even tell it was in there. These may not be the healthiest pumpkin muffins, but they are really good tasting ones!

I also experimented a little when I made my granola bars. I like adding in nuts like cashews, almonds, and peanuts, but the nuts don't seem to mix that well with the granola mixture. So yesterday I decided to blend the nuts first, then just add them in. They weren't as chewy as normal, so next time I need to add a little bit more honey. But I like how they came out. One change I have made to the original recipe, is I also add almost 1/2 cup of peanut butter. And when I half the recipe, I use a 7X11 pan, because an 8X8 is too small. 

When you take the granola bars out of the oven, you can either freeze them first for about 45 minutes, or cool in the fridge for about an hour. Then take them out and cut them. Because it's cooler here now,  I leave these out, but during the summer, they always stay in the fridge. I think they're chewier that way. 

love

laura

22 Week Recap

I finished week 22 on Friday. Sorry I didn't get this post up, I didn't shower on Friday and Saturday I was in my pj's the whole day. But I was showered and dressed this morning, so here ya go :)
And yes, I realize the stripes are not really helping me look slimmer, but have you noticed that striped shirts are always horizontal, and not vertical, even maternity. weird. And as I read in my pregnancy book this week, I'm not fat, I'm just pregnant :)

How far Along: 22 weeks

Size of Baby: Papaya-10-12 inches long, weighs about a pound

(disclaimer: last week I said the baby was 11 inches-I have no idea where that came from, she was actually about 8 or 9)

Weight Gain: 10 lbs..another reason I was avoiding this post. Apparently I gained 4 pounds last week. I am pretty sure it is a fluke, because how is that even possible???

Gender: GIRL!

Movement: Everyday...some days she moves all time, and sometimes I just feel her a few times throughout the day.

Sleep: Pretty good.

Maternity Clothes: Yes-all pants and a combo of regular and maternity shirts

Symptoms: Nothing really.....other than hunger

Aversions: Daniel wants to make homemade hamburgers and I keep putting it off. It's the one thing that just hasn't sounded good at all.  And the last time I ate one was in the first trimester, and it didn't go so well.

Cravings: Chocolate. Oh my gosh the hunger I've had this past week!!!! I have had to have so much self control it isn't even funny. I can just eat one bite of chocolate and all I can think about is wanting to finish off the entire cake or bag of candy. Seriously, it's the strangest thing ever. I'm a little scared at how intense my cravings are for chocolate.

What I miss: not much of anything

Best Moment of the Week: Having my mom here. It was so nice to just talk about babies, and ask her my questions, and have her right here to answer them. I'm so glad she was able to come visit.

What I'm looking forward to: Eating??? And getting back into a good exercise schedule. With travelling and having my mom in town, I haven't been running or walking as much as I normally do. Hopefully I can slow down this weight gain a little bit.

One thing I've really enjoyed is having dry hair. I know that's weird, but I have ALWAYS had really oily skin and hair. And pregnancy has made my skin and hair really dry. I've been washing my hair every 4 days. It's so wonderful!!

love

laura

21 Week Recap

Hello Big Mama!!!! Again, I would like to say that I do feel a lot smaller than I look, ha! I can't believe how fast my belly is growing. It's so surreal.......
I know that my belly has to get bigger, but seriously I can't even imagine it! The good thing is that most of my maternity shirts are all too big, so at least I have something to grow into it. I'm all about having goals.

How Far Along: 21 Weeks

Size of Baby: 11 inches long, about a pound....about the size of a pomegranate

Weight Gain: 6 pounds!

Gender: GIRL!

Movement: Everyday, she's been moving a lot today! I love it!

Sleep: So much better! I love my body pillow, and have been sleeping really good!

Maternity Clothes: Mostly maternity pants, with normal shirts

Symptoms: Dry skin, crazy dreams

Aversions: none

Cravings: Food. Chocolate, desserts, anything unhealthy really.

What I miss: This week I really missed living close to my sister. This morning I called Sarah and told her that her niece was moving around all over, and she said "your niece is too!" It's fun that we are both pregnant with little girls, but I do wish we were closer to go thru it more together.

Best moment of the Week: My mom bringing us the cutest clothes!!!

What I'm looking forward to: Not sure?? Just continuing to feel our little girl move around and eating I guess, ha!

Since my mom has been here this week, I have never felt MORE in the baby bubble. She insists I hold on to someone when we're walking outside, and said when I get further along she doesn't want me to leave the house alone...she's afraid I'll get run over. I think the traffic here has scared my mom a little. But seriously, I'm lucky if she lets me carry anything heavier than a piece of paper. It's nice to be pampered, but I have to keep reminding her that when she's not here, I do carry my own groceries home :)

love

laura

Around Here

Here's a little of what we've been up to around here....

I did want to post about me and Daniel's date night a few weeks ago. We walked to this cute little area a few miles from our house and enjoyed yummy pasta and pool!

We didn't even finish the pool game because I struggle making the pool stick connect with the balls, so it was more of a one person game. But it was fun!

Mom's first full day here we took her to eat at our local noodle shop. They make the noodles right there.

Mom enjoyed the noodles, and we'll probably go back again soon!

We also took Mom to my favorite place to get breakfast...it's a Texas themed Western restaurant in our city that has the best french toast!! It is also the same place I would always go to skype my parents when I lived here before. It's full of memories...

In my mom's free time, she has been cleaning our kitchen tile and bathroom floor with a toothbrush. I wish I could say I was joking.

Outside our apartment building:

This morning we went to a walking street touristy area near our house. 

UMMMM...where did that belly come from???? Can I just say I feel a lot smaller than I look, ha! I looked at the pictures we took today and was shocked! Maybe I'm finally passing that 5 lb mark, ha!

Tomorrow is the 21 Week Recap!!

love

laura