Welcome to the 3rd Trimester!

This is my first week of my 3rd trimester! On the home stretch! It feels like I have been pregnant forever! I'm still feeling pretty good. This last week I ran a few times and really felt like I had somewhat routine exercise. I have, however, had horrible sciatica. Basically this is sciatic nerve pain that occurs due to the baby's position. Oh man it hurts! So Saturday and today instead of running I decided to go swimming. It felt amazing! I definitely need to make that more of my week. Lately I have been feeling like I am just ready to be done with pregnancy and I'm anxious to meet and care for my baby girl! I told my midwife this at our appointment on Friday and she told me it was kind of early for that, so ofcourse that made me start balling. Oh the hormones! I feel like I have been even more emotional lately than during any other stage of pregnancy. Poor Colin. People keep telling me to enjoy the pregnancy, but honestly I just don't think I am someone that Loves to be pregnant. I am grateful though, that I have had a very smooth pregnancy, absolutely no complications up to this point. I thank God for this and remind myself that I have nothing to complain about! Here is a picture of baby girl at 27 weeks! She has definitely grown from when we saw her just 7 weeks ago :)

Yummness!!

These totally deserved their very own post. I found a recipe for homemade snickers bars on pinterest and made them one day and had to share. I actually like these better than store bought (and I LOVE Snickers bars!). These have a little peanut butter in them which I think is what really makes them delish. There are several layers and it is a little time consuming to wait for each layer to cool, but if you are home and doing other things in between each layer it really isn't that bad. And it is SO worth it :) makes one 9×13 pan bottom chocolate layer 1 1/4 cups milk chocolate chips 1/4 cup peanut butter Thoroughly grease you baking pan. Melt ingredients together in a saucepan or microwave, then pour into the baking dish and spread until even. Let cool and harden completely. nougat layer 1/4 cup unsalted butter 1 cup granulated sugar 1/4 cup evaporated milk 1 1/2 cups marshmallow fluff 1/4 cup peanut butter 1 1/2 cup salted peanuts chopped, roughly chopped 1 tsp vanilla extract Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add in sugar and milk, stirring until dissolved and bring to a boil. Let cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add in fluff, peanut butter and vanilla, stirring until smooth. Turn off heat and fold in peanuts, then pour over bottom chocolate layer. Let cool completely. caramel layer 1 14-ounce bag of caramels 1/4 cup whipping cream Combine ingredients in a saucepan over low heat. Let melt, stirring occasionally, until smooth – this took about 10 minutes for me. Pour over nougat layer and let cool completely. Top chocolate layer 1 1/4 cups milk chocolate chips 1/4 cup peanut butter Melt ingredients together in a saucepan or microwave, then pour over caramel and spread until even. Let cool and harden completely. Refrigerate for at least one hour before serving, then cut as desired. These can stay at room temperature, but they do get gooey. I like them refrigerated best! Note: for best results, buy one of the half-sheet aluminum cake pans at the grocery store. That way, you can pop the entire square out and cut from there!

East Coast Trip!

Sunday we got home from a 10 day trip to the East Coast! We had so much fun. We got to spend time with family and friends. The first weekend was full of wedding festivites for Colin's cousin Kim, in Pennsylvania. We helped decorate, we got to partake in the fancy rehearsal dinner, had fun at the wedding and a post-wedding brunch! It was all so wonderful. It was great to visit with Colin's family. Most of them I had only ever met at our wedding and it's hard to really get to know people at your own wedding :) Isn't this gorgeous! The wedding ceremony was outside and then the reception was in this old barn (good thing too, because it was about 90 degrees and POURING!) Sunday evening we went home with Colin's cousin Laura to New York!! That night we decided to hit up some of the must-see tourist attractions, like Timesquare, Rockefeller Center and Magnolias cupcakes :) Colin and I have both been to these place (minus the cupcake place, which really is a must!) but it's always fun to go again. It was Memorial Day weekend and Timesquare was packed!! The next morning we all met up with my good friend Lauren and had brunch at a place called the Spotted Pig. It was delish! The we headed up to the Highline which is a park that was made out of old rail road tracks, it's set above the city and is a good place to see everything! Then we walked to Central Park! We came across the Boat House and decided to go for a row. It was fun, but HOT! The weather said 93 degrees/feels like 104. Yes, yes, it felt like 104 degrees and it was humid! For dinner we met up with our friend Ashley and her boyfriend. While eating Alec Baldwin and his girlfriend came to the resturant and looked at the menu! We probably scared them away since we were all staring and looking incredibly look tourists :) They did not have dinner there, but it was still fun to see a celeb! The next day we walked by the Hudson River through Battery Park to Ground Zero. We weren't able to go into the monument since you have to purchase tickets way ahead of time but it was cool to see the new Freedom Tower that is being built. We continued walking and went over the Brooklyn Bridge! We did so much walking during this trip, probably around 10 miles a day. I wasn't sure how my prego body would handle all this but I did just fine. In fact the mornings after the days we walked a ton I did not have any back pain whatsoever! After New York we headed to Philladelphia to spend a few days with Colin's other cousin Michael and his wife Christina. We had a fun day full of American history. We went to Independence Hall, the Consistution Center and the Liberty Bell. After Philly we headed to Colin's cousin Tara's house (he has plenty of cousins!). It was fun spending time with Rich & Tara and their four kids! We played lot's of games and got some time to rest after all the walking we did earlier in the week. Overall we had a great trip! It's crazy to think that this was probably the last trip without a baby!!

I see PINK!

Yep, pink is in our future, we are having a GIRL! I am thrilled :) The ultrasound was amazing! It was the first one we've had and it really makes things real...like there is actually a little child growing in me!! Crazy! People had been asking me if I can feel the baby move and I really wasn't sure. But during the ultrasound she was lying back and kicking her little feet up on my belly and I could feel it, for some reason I just hadn't made the connection. Now I feel her all the time. So fun! On Saturday our church had a clothing swap, so I scooped up some cute little girl outfits. Then yesterday a good friend of mine who has 2 little girls had me come over and raid the girls' closet. So much fun! This little girl is going to be spoiled! I have been feeling pretty good lately, totally done with morning sickness, thank the Lord! But I have been extra tired and it's been hard to continue working out. Well, the hardest part with trying to keep up on running is that I have to use the restroom every 10 minutes, not so fun. I have been taking a prenatal yoga class during the week (I just LOVE being able to do that in the middle of the day, I love my job!). I love this class, the instructor is also a midwife, so we do a lot of poses to prepare for labor and also stretches to relieve the tension from our changing bodies. It has been much needed!

This was my first full week of no morning sickness!!! YAY! I didn't even feel nauseous! But I did have a terrible head cold. Colin was sick last week and I have been deperately trying to not get sick, but my efforts did not work. I had a stuffed up nose, achey ears, dry scratchy throat and a horrible headache, that lasted about 4 days. The worst part is that you can't take much of anything while you are pregnant! I am feeling better now and trying to get back into excercising and eating better. Colin and I are doing a one week free trial at the Nike sports centers....they are SO NICE! And motivating. I'm thinking I will definitely join, it does cost more than our current gym, but it's so convenient and Nike employees are encouraged to work out during the work day!! Tomorrow I am trying out a prenatal yoga class that they offer. Really excited for it. Probably too excited :)

This is my third week at my new job. So far so good, but I am absolutely exhausted by the end of the week! Learning a new job is so tiring!! Maybe that had something to do with getting sick..?

I am getting baby fever!! This last weekend we spent some time with my good friend Molly and her 4 month old Emma, talk about cuteness!! Then on Saturday we went over to visit some good friends from church who just had a little boy named Winston, he's only a week old!! Yes, seeing these babies definitely got me excited! I really haven't been buying anything yet...I am holding off until I find out what the gender is! I have been pinning nursery ideas like crazy on Pinterest though....but I will hold off to buy anything. Our ultrasound to find out the gender is scheduled for April 27th!!

I promise I will post a recent baby bump photo soon. I have been trying to take one every week. Oh boy do I love the unsolicited advice us pregnant ladies get. geez! I'm not too far along and I'm already getting a ton. My favorite has been "Wow, you look really big for only 15 weeks...pretty much as big as so and so who is 7 months along." Um...Ok...thanks. Like what am I suppose to say?? And it always seems to be said as if I should have an explanation... I don't know maybe I'll be the next octomom...we shall see!

BABY!!

So the word is out! We are having a baby :) I've been editing this blog post for the last few months, just because I was so excited, but I always wanted to wait until I got through my first trimester.

So far this pregnancy has been rough...well, the mornings have been rough! I puke my guts out in the morning, feeling nauseous only for it to be relieved by cheese pizza, salty french fries and peanut butter m&m's. My emotions are all over the place, crying at almost any movie, commercial, book...I actually found out way before I had any of these obvious symptoms. In fact my first few weeks were spent in somewhat of a denial phase...not that I wasn't excited about it, (because Colin and I are both SO EXCITED!!) but it just didn't feel real. I didn't have any symptoms, I just didn't feel pregnant. I wasn't feeling sick and I was still able to run a few miles every night. But then at week 7 it hit. I had horrible morning sickness that truly just lasted the morning, which I am grateful it didn't last 24/7. I really couldn't stomach a thing until about 11am when I would start craving strange things, especially for having thrown up several times that morning, things like greasy cheese pizza, salty french fries or potato chips, chinese orange chicken....oh my! No wonder I've already gained 15 pounds! I am just over 14 weeks now and the symptoms have not eased up yet...hoping soon.

I finally told my work last week. I was SO nervous, mostly because I had just gotten a new job!! Yes, that is right. I got a new job and I am so excited about it, it's pretty much doing the same type of work I am doing now (project management) but I will be working within the Running Apparel category, SO excited! So it was kind of awkward timing, but it was starting to get more and more obvious and I just had to spill the beans. It was my first week of my second trimester and that is when I had decided to do it regardless of where things were at with the job. My manager was SO excited for me and she definitely relieved some of the worries I had. I also had to tell my new managers, which was a little awkward but for the most part people get pretty excited about babies!

Besides the morning sickness I have been feeling pretty good in the evenings, not overly tired and I've been able to mostly keep up my normal exercise routine. I even joined a few Nike+ running challenges to keep me going.

A few weeks ago we had our first appointment and got to listen to the baby's heart beat! That was pretty much amazing. It was beating so fast, it was crazy! In a few more weeks we'll be having our ultrasound and find out what we are having! We definitely want to find out so we can prepare, not that we care either way! At this point I don't even have a hunch of what we're having. So far all the online tests have been 50/50 boy/girl! So we'll just have to wait and see.

Well, I think that is about all for now. I will keep you all posted :)

Yesterday we got a little spring teaser! It was 58 degrees and sunny, it might as well have been 80 it felt so nice and warm!! Colin and I enjoyed a nice long walk around the neighborhoods surrounding our apartments. We have some fancy houses close by so it's always fun to walk by those and dream!!!

I also was able to log some miles with my Nike+ on our walk. I've joined 2 Nike+ challenges at work to keep me going. One is just within my department, every couple months they launch a new challenge to get people moving. Basically the team with the most miles at the end of the challenge time frame wins! Speed doesn't matter, which is great for me! The second challenge is company-wide and supports Nike's Girl Effect foundation. This foundation supports young girls in Africa to learn a trade and become a vital part of their community. For every mile I log $.50 will be donated to the cause!! And the miles I run will fo towards both challenges. Pretty neat!