Food Cravings

 

You've been eating what?  Ya know, being pregnant and trying to be a clean eater is quite difficult.  Luckily, the 1st trimester I threw up all meat, so I didn't really have that craving.  But I have been craving my usuals...with a few new ones.  

Pickles, Pinto Beans.

Both pregnancies have left me ravenous for PB&J.  Not any PB&J.  It has to be on white bread with apricot jam and skippy smooth peanut butter.  

Sauerkraut (specifically on Reuben Sandwiches and after the first trimester) After eating a bunch of Reuben's I realized I had a jar of Sauerkraut never opened from before being pregnant with Aiko.  Luckily, it's Bubbi's brand and they use all natural artisan well water. It basically melts in my mouth it's so good.  I'm not kidding either, it's quite mild and Aiko and I enjoy eating a bowl together.  The husband has yet to try it.

I honestly can't remember any more what else I craved, oh Curry, which is a new favorite in the last couple years.  We even got some Japanese Curry (weird I know, but Curry is the number one food over there we discovered on our trip a couples years ago.)  I love it. 

 

Luckily, the husband and Aiko like most foods I do and eat whatever.  I think they secretly enjoy it more because then we eat out because I've been too lazy to cook.  Plus, then I'm not making "weird" new foods that don't always work out.  But we've also been having a ton of family dinners due to the holidays...so it works out. Except for now..I'm a wee bit larger than last time...I mean a WEE bit larger. 

Big news.

I always told the husband that if we ever had kids the would all be girls.  I was absolutely convinced.  

Yet, here we have a little man along the way.  When the technician told us, you could see this slight beaming coming from the husband.  There was even a glint in his eye.  

Aiko is also thrilled.  

The Mama?  I am very excited, still surprised but very excited.  I actually love boy clothing over little girl clothing!  Good time coming. 

Food cravings

As someone who advocates clean healthy eating, I'm slightly ashamed of my diet as of late.  Apparently, when one gets pregnant, all thoughts of health are thrown out the window and you purchase everything you can put your mouth on.  Once you've eaten said divine foods, you pray you don't puke your guts out.  This makes for an expensive diet. Usually though, you puke out divine foods along with the dollars you paid for it.

Nonetheless, if this second baby comes out nearly as dang cute as the previous one, all will be worth it. 

Already?

Yes, already.  Call me crazy, but it took so long to get Aiko, I decided come what may, let's get this fatness done and over with. Plus, I think it will be super fun to have them close together.  Aiko will be 1 next month. This fact seems to surprise a lot of people.  She's pretty tiny.  In fact, Hannah decided to check her stats online and Aiko doesn't even register for 9 month babies. She's been 15 lbs since she was 3 months and has only grown 3 inches since she was born.  Oh, well, technically, she does have some super short genes, Asian and not. 

It was a slight surprise when I found out we were pregnant.  I'd just gotten home from girl's camp and found out our friends the Jones' were pregnant, so I promptly texted Heather.

me: No, Way.
Her: What, are you pregnant too?
me: No, I don't think so.

But it had me seriously thinking about it a day later. When I took my first test it came back invalid...this the story of my life when it comes to these puppies. I was a little bummed.  Tried again later that day and it came back positive.  Friends, this is how it should go right?  A little surprised, worried, happy, blown away.  I immediately texted The Husband and from their it's history.

I've found that this whole pregnancy thing seems to be a little harder when you don't go to work everyday.  I was nauseous all through with Aiko, but only puked twice.  This time though....it's crazy.  Not only have I looked chubby from day one, I'm just trying to sleep as much as possible so I don't feel sick.  Luckily, I have another friend who is also pregnant and due about the exact same time!  So we text back and forth what we shouldn't have eaten that day and what we puked up.  It actually makes for good fun.

Does anyone else think that the second pregnancy is also much more exciting that the first?  See, now that I have #ohniceandchubbybaby, I actually know what fun comes from having a baby now.  Does that make sense?  I'm twice as excited because it's another little human (that will probably look just like her dad, never like her mom...just like #ohniceandchubbybaby) but nonetheless, I'm oh, so excited.

Good Times are coming people. Good Times.

I was going to create some clever saying for Aiko's shirt...something that included her #ohniceandchubbybaby line...but my brain wasn't into it.  We just took a sharpie and went at it.

Reality

my friends, pregnancy is a beautiful thing. 

except for sometimes, like real life

i look at these pregnancy photos we took and realize reality is very different. 

i just thought i should share these beauties...in case you were having a bad day.  yes, i wore the same sweatpants from the husband's high school years...for a couple days.  along with my husband's sweatshirt and some awesome cowboy boots. the darker sweater was my grandpa's. now just imagine me walking about the neighborhood, skipping, trying to induce labor "naturally."

comfort was the key element in outfits.

i think these were taken 2 days before Aiko was born...

what 39 weeks and 5 days looks like.

yup.

and today is 39 weeks and 6 days.

she's still in there.

into the husband's mind we go

this is rare people.  

we get asked all the time..."are you excited?"

well, of course we are, but we both aren't really the kind of people who shout it out loud to every person we meet, especially the husband.  

i rarely even know how he really feels.  

he's just so easy going, that unless he voices his opinion then i know he'll just go with the flow.

i generally go by the thought that if the husband talks about or even mentions a subject, then he really is super excited and is just unable to express it in the usual ways people do.  

like raising their voice,

talking faster,

not talking in a monotone voice

raising their eyebrows

just general things. 

i do love him though, him and his quiet self.

but back to the previous question

"are we excited?"

let's go into the husband's mind.

the other day, we were painting the casing around the windows and all of sudden the husband starts talking about  Christmas.  "remember how when you were little and you got toys?  and then you had to go to church and you couldn't wait for church to end so you could play with your new toys?"

i'm struggling to understand what brought on this random conversation, but then i realize, he is talking about the baby. 

he goes on "well, it's going to be like that for me at work, i'll be so excited at work to come home that it will be hard to work."

precious.  

there you have it.  he's that excited.  

christmas is only in 4 days for him.  

please make sure to call us when she comes

so, there is this general concern going around

the husband's parents said "please make sure to call us when she comes."  

while my dad says "you're going to call me right?"  

as i'm explaining this to the mama she says "i kind of thought the same thing, i thought for sure you'd call me friday morning and say...she's here!"

sheesh family.

apparently, the husband and i are the worst communicators in the world.

we've been married for seven years...

this isn't like when we got engaged and bought a house in a week and derek didn't tell his parents for a while (they were on a cruise in his defense)

i feel this is more a one sided comment...mainly for the husband to make sure he communicates it to the world, since i may be a litttle busy during it all.  

either way.  it's just funny.  

don't worry family, we will let you know, or rather, i will make sure the husband lets you know.

also, i think i am now 39 weeks.  she's due on the 14th

let's all hope that date doesn't just roll by without her being birthed

as of late

we, meaning the fetus and i, spend a lot of time in the bubble baths

eucalyptus and rosehip flavors to be exact

little time in truckee california

 

a couple pictures of the cabin in truckee.  i love the colors!  the mama says she totally remembers the same bed covers from 30 plus years ago.  i love the vintage feel. 

random note, i vaguely remember visiting the cabin when i was 8 or so.  they had a curtain of beads hanging in the doorway.  good story huh?

so apparently this little stove is all that heats the home.  

the stove heats the wall which keeps the cabin all toasty!

 

my little photo shot at 34 weeks or so.  the deck has a lovely view! 

a little too close for comfort

37 weeks

"you don't look very big...how many weeks are you again?"

perhaps this is true, but every time i get in the truck i think...really?

this has been happening for a few weeks now. 

i realize that i have extremely short legs, but belly rubbing seems to constitute as "large" in my mind. 

 

lovely food, ladies and company

 

here's some photos from the ward baby shower. 

the husband and i have loved this ward...obviously, i have loved it forever, since i grew up with them as well.  but they are always so generous!  look at these glorious dips, hazelnut breads (divine), salads and the desserts were awesome!

 

the gifts seemed to keep rolling in! it was great.

truly, we are blessed to have such awesome friends!

the house

photo taken after sanding the wood floors.

i kind of want to do this big dramatic blog about the before and after and all the cool stuff with the house, but let's face it, it probably will not happen, at least for a while.  

baby will probably take priority blog wise about the house.  

the husband has been working diligently on the house and i try to help where i can.  let me tell you though, it's hard for me to stand by and watch and be useless. plus everyone tells you what you should and shouldn't do while be pregnant. so, i probably do a lot of shouldn't-do-while-pregnant things, but mother's intuition right?  it can trump all as far as i'm concerned, plus things have just got to get done!  baby's got to live somewhere!

(meanwhile, days later after above words were written)

you are in luck!  i actually took some before pictures. . . i'll admit, it doesn't look too bad, if we had taken up close photos, you'd all be thinking a different story. see if you can spy all the missing items in the house.  like cabinet doors, closet doors, casing, trim or anything else you can't find.  well that's because, they are gone.  i'm not sure who the lucky sole is with them, but it sure wasn't us. 

master bedroom. 

i probably should have taken photos after we patched hole after hole after hole x inifinity holes and that doesn't even count the boogers on the walls

you can't really tell, but the windows used to have casing, which had been ripped out at some point before we bought it.  we've since added to it. i'll need to take some more photos of the finished product!  the husband is quite the carpenter and the kona is forever in the way.

so in the master bedroom we have painted all the walls, completely refinished the wood flooring, painted the closets, windows and trim...or we will be finishing that all up soon.  we found out that the closet drawers on the right containt a giant hole in the floor, which apparently is the hvac return air. (that side will become the husband's closet.)  

baby room.

you might have noticed that all the baseboard, casing and trim is different. practically in every room.  we were going to redo it all, but you see, some smarty pants GLUED and nailed them in.  we'll just leave them in for now.  

here's her wee closet. after closer inspection, we noticed that the ceiling in the closet was peeling...come to find out they put some awesome 70s vintage contact paper and THEN painted over it.  so we had to pull that down...again, should have taken more pictures of it.  we've also repainted all the walls, windows, closet, patched bizllions of holes and redone the wood flooring.  

living room

i really like the fireplace, i'm not sure exactly what i am going to do here, but i am thinking i'd like to do some pallets in the back of the shelves, but it's kind of on my last thing to do.  we're trying to get our room and the baby room finished so we can at least set up some place to sleep.  oh, you saw our closet in the hallways. . .yeah, we need to figure out a door situation there.

again, we painted the walls, trim, and refinished the floors.

so, the stairs are kind of really, badly, terribly, placed.  but we'll make due.  I feel like they ruined this room with them, but i think on the far side i'm going to place a dining room area...or when i get my baby grand piano i'll place it there.  but my absolute favorite thing about the house is on the left.  16 foot of glorious windows with a great view and no one can see in!

here's the back porch, which has some scary stairs that were included.  but i love this porch...there will be some mad, mad parties here.  i plan on spending some quality time sun tanning here.  also...think pallets with cushions and christmas lights on the railing.  

it will be so magical.  

just you wait.

  

here we have the main seller!  the tree houses!  they even have electricity...oh, just ignore my creepy shed down there.  i think that's where they hid their dead. 

just saying.

here's our lovely view i was talking about.  

sigh.

lovely, i know.  the squirrels think so too.

i somehow have forgotten to take pictures of the basement, kitchen, FRONT OF THE HOUSE, laundry shoot, stairs leading to nowhere, cold storage with an air conditioning unit (?), garage, our super steep driveway, the stink hole and the bottom porch area, oh, and the other place where they hide the naughty children under the house...but alas, that will be for another day. 

  

i'm excited to show you the after pictures...

cedar shower

baby showers are coming down!  

(look how lovely the food and decorations look)

had one down in good old cedar city 

had one this weekend with the ward and we still have 2 more to come!

this baby is getting so spoiled. . . 

say hello to my little friend

 

she just wanted to say hola!

also, went to the doc yesterday...totally had a wake up call. 

it's time to get serious.

hypnobirthing classes are done, pre-registration is finished (thanks to the husband)

i should probably pack our hospital bag.

house isn't quite finished.  

still have some floors to sand and stain.

painting needs to finish up, plus a lot of other miscellaneous things in the house.

should probably put the nursery together at some point. . .

because doc says, after next week, the baby could come any time! 

it's kind of weird, i kind of forgot pregnancy does end

35 weeks

the husband said last night . . ."this kid is going to be crazy"

it's true.  

i sit at my desk and i can feel her punching, kicking, and sometimes it seems like her twirling on her head. (if she's a dancer or a cheerleader so help me)

i like to think of her as a soccer player...or maybe a gymnast? 

at 34 weeks, in meetings, i have to wonder if people notice my constant twitching.  like, when all of a sudden my entire boob gets pushed up and drops (which considering the size, is impressive).  or she's constantly seeing how far she can punch her little fist out into the sky.  or her jutting our her feet into my ribs.  my favorite is when she does a jumping jack, you know, feet and hands push out simultaneously. 

the darling little morsel.

storms a brewin

it's coming.

all the new and crazy changes are close upon us!

house closes today (or so help me)

then starts the cleaning, remodeling and arguing.

next will come the baby.

hopefully AFTER all the cleaning, remodeling and arguing.

just this weekend i find myself wanting to prepare everything i can before the changes.  we canned two batches of the husband's mom's salsa, made some good old spaghetti sauce that simmered for 24 hours.  (included straight from the garden: zucchini, yellow squash, onions, fresh herbs, and mushrooms) then we seemed to hit every single store possible, buying basics...like a broom, cleaner, paint for house and anything else we could think of.  by the time 5 rolled around i was dead...i told derek to go on without me. 

here goes nothing!

i love your eyes...its like you can see straight through my heart.

 

yeah, that's what the waitress said the other day to me...i guess it's a compliment?

so, the fetus is still determining a lot of what i eat.  like cheesy things.  

people, i am lactose intolerant through and through

 i have avoided dairy items for over 10 years now, and pretty consistently too.   it's amazing how this kid is turning my world upside down. 

camping continued

more tips and thoughts

getting lost on the mountain is okay when you end at a private lake

even better when the private lake has a salamander/newt colony (still to be determined)

kill all the mosquitos, Jurassic park is fake

dead trees are still pretty

sometimes, dogs ruin everything, but yet we still like her

overalls still work at 30 weeks pregnant

gps' are not as good as paper maps, but make do if no paper map.

2.5 miles of rocky roads is not always worth looking at a pond.  research people, is key