Happy V Day!

This past week I mentally celebrated V-Day!  What is V-Day, you ask?  Well, medically speaking, making it to 24 weeks is definitely something to celebrate.  24 weeks = viability.  Basically, once you are at least 24 weeks pregnant, doctors will fight tooth and nail to save a baby because it’s considered viable at this point.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I realize that if something were to happen this early, we are in no way close to being out of the woods.  But still, I’m celebrating every milestone there is. J

We also had our 24-week checkup this week and it was great!  Hearing that sweet heartbeat NEVER gets old, and I kicked the scale’s butt, or rather let it know I could care less about what number it wanted to spit back at me. J  Now it’s a long, 4 week wait until we go back.  Soon, though, we’ll only have two weeks between appointments, which will be much better!

In other exciting news, I had my last day of work this week until August 10^th!  And while I’d like to think that I can kick my feet up and relax until then, I still have quite a few grad school projects to tackle over the next month.  I’ve made an end-of-grad-school checklist (you know I love my check-off boxes!), and it’s motivating me to get things done quickly so I can be FINISHED as a student for the rest of my life!

In even MORE exciting news, my awesome hub set up the crib this week!  I’m not sure who enjoyed it more, because he seemed pretty content to be setting up his son’s/daughter’s room… which I will never forget. J

Hard at work!

Isn't he cute?!

The finished product!

We still have a long way to go in terms of home improvement, and we’d like to get it all finished by the time we go to the beach, which is only a month away!  Yikes!

After finishing work on Wednesday, I gave myself a 4 day hiatus from all things productive and we headed to Charleston on Friday.  One of my friends from high school was getting married (Congrats Brooke!), so we took the opportunity to go stay with my brother and sister-in-law and hang out with my parents, stepbrother, and little sister.  We had a blast!  I unveiled the baby bump in a bikini at the pool (yikes!), got my fill of boiled peanuts (thanks Mom and Big D!), and enjoyed seeing Brooke tie the knot.

Ok people - I'm being brave, and baring it all for you!  (Somebody needs a TAN.)

What a beautiful bride!

Me & my hub :)

My wonderful parents!

Some old, dear friends!  (Please excuse the scary picture of me - It was VERY hot and VERY windy, hence the "I got hit by the ugly truck" look.)

I must say that the weekend kicked my butt – driving riding home today, I was EXHAUSTED.  So hub and I decided to have a relaxing night in – we took Bailey for a walk, then ordered a pizza from this place that makes it for you, then you cook it at home.  Well, hub asked if I wanted to try the stuffed crust pizza.  Sure!  (I’m never one to turn down extra bread and cheese.)  Well, he picks it up, comes home to cook it, and this is what I find in the oven.

It’s a STUFFED PIZZA… as in, the entire pizza is stuffed – like two pizzas in one.  Like cheese, bread, stuffings, bread.  Needless to say, it was delicious.  And yes, there are leftovers, thank-you-very-much.

Our little bug appears to be doing well in my ever-expanding tummy.  This morning he/she was actually moving so much, it woke me up!  And I’m pretty sure I could tell the kicks from the punches.  I’m feeling a little more hormonal these days and like I’m housing a little shorter of a fuse (love you honey!) – but I really, really try to not let it get the best of me.  We decided to discuss baby names again, and things are back to being sort of up in the air.  Naming a human being is so hard!  But when we decide on our names, we’ll know they’re right. J

By the way, I am LOVING green beans right now.

Happy V Day bug!!

24 Weeks!

24 Weeks Covered Up!

Three

That’s how many people asked me today about my baby!!  Why am I so excited?!  Because I think I’ve officially made the turn from pudgy, to pudgier, to baby bump.  Obviously the people who know I’m pregnant can see a definite bump.  But these were complete strangers, out in public, asking me about when I was due!!  It may be because I finally crawled out of my grad school hole long enough to take the baby bump out in public, but I have to admit that being visibly pregnant is very exciting. J

Beyond the excitement, my most recent moments of neurosis have to do with me analyzing and overanalyzing the size of my belly.  Looking at it in the mirror from every angle, in every light, trying to figure out if it’s getting smaller.  Yep, that’s my new worry of the moment – that my belly is in fact not growing, but shrinking.  Is there ever a dull moment in my brain?!  Yeesh.  If only my brain would give my blood pressure a break.  The funny thing is that at my 20 week appointment, my belly was measuring 23cm.  (For those of you unaware of the pregnant-lady belly measurements, the doc measures your belly at each appointment.  In theory, the measurement should correspond to the number of weeks you are pregnant.)  So now that I’ve explained it all so clearly, you can see that my belly was measuring 3cm or 3 weeks big.  The doctor wasn’t concerned at all, said there’s quite a range it can fall between.  Plus I’ve always had a pretty short, square torso, which I think explains why I started showing so early.

Anywho, why the heck am I overanalyzing the size of my belly when last time I checked it was measuring big?  Who knows.  If it’s not one thing, it’s another.  I’m trying to understand that our bodies go through spurts during pregnancy – gain 1 pound here, gain 10 pounds there, grow 4 cm here, grow 1 cm there.  But thank goodness I go for my monthly check up this week, so I can get some peace of mind.  (Which will probably only last for the hour or so following the appointment. J)

As I’ve written about over and over, I simply cannot get enough of feeling the little one move.  On Saturday morning I woke up, sat up, and half of my belly was gone.  No, this is not me overanalyzing again – literally, my baby bump was completely lopsided.  I woke my hub up, and we realized that the baby was laying all the way toward the left of my stomach.  You could literally feel the little body pressed up against that side of my belly!  It was so cool!  My hub kept poking at the bug, trying to get him/her to move, and he/she definitely started wiggling around.  Though I think he/she was quite annoyed, because he's/she’s since flipped around with his/her back facing out and is only kicking me from the outside in - toward my pelvic bone and toward my back.

In other EXCITING news, I got the invitation to my baby shower!!!  My sisters have been planning their little hearts out, and the theme was a secret until the invitation came in the mail.

It’s going to be Baby Peele’s Sweet Shop!  I can’t wait!!

This weekend, we also got to celebrate the hub’s first Father’s Day, or Father-to-be Day.  I wanted to do a little something for him, so I got up early Sunday morning and made him some homemade donuts to serve him breakfast in bed.  YES, they were for him, despite my post about mashed potatoes and donuts a few weeks ago. J  I must say, they were DELICIOUS!

Some were cinnamon sugar, some were powdered sugar

Bailey trying to sneak a donut... She ended up with a head full of powdered sugar!

Busted.

I also got him the baby a little apron that says, “Dad’s Little Helper” with the Wake Forest logo.  Unfortunately, it won’t be here until tomorrow, so I just wrapped up a picture of it.

Other than my neurotic brain, a lopsided stomach, homemade donuts, and a kid’s apron, we’ve just been truckin’ along in the Peele house.  I have THREE more days of work before summer break starts, and I’ll be done with grad school in a little over a month.  We’re still running full speed ahead with the home improvement projects – Hub installed lights in my closet and in the nursery closet.  Next up we hope to clear out the nursery so we can start putting the furniture together!

By the way, I’m finally getting my homemade, grilled out burger tonight via Fresh Market and the hub/grill master.  Based on the homemade donuts and bacon cheeseburger, I’m obviously not too concerned about tomorrow’s inevitable weigh-in. J

P.S.  Have you heard about McDonald’s new Rolo McFlurry?!  DIVINE!!!

P.P.S.  In case you're wondering about the progress of my belly button, it still hasn't popped yet.  But it's getting more and more shallow!

23 Weeks!

23 Weeks in horizontal stripes!  (Hub says this shirt does make my belly look smaller... that REALLY helped my neurosis!)

Bailey trying to sneak in the bump picture... (I know, nice slippers, huh?)

I think someone is already jealous!!

Guerilla Warfare

As I got dressed today my hub walked in while I was strapping on my over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder.  I understand that term is cheesy, and outdated, but I’m only referring to it as that because these days, that’s exactly what it looks like.  His words were, “Geez, you look like you’re getting strapped in for guerilla warfare.”  Oh, the joys of pregnancy clothes, especially undergarments. J

I’ve got to make this one short because the day has gotten away from me and I still have tons to do before dinner.  A dinner I am SO looking forward to by the way.  You see, last week at school one of the secretaries was eating the most delicious-looking cheeseburger I have ever seen… and I’ve been dreaming about it since then.  So I asked my hub yesterday if we he could grill out burgers tonight, which he quickly agreed to do; however, we’ve both been running around like crazy today between grad school work and home improvement tasks, so we just decided to scrap the whole making dinner ourselves bit and we’re headed to 5 Guys very shortly.  Thank goodness I went on a 4-mile walk today and almost died in the heat.

I’ve had a heck of a week, and I am counting down the days until life slows down a bit.  Two more days of school with kids, six more days of work after that, and a month and a half left of grad school.  The end of July cannot come soon enough!  The worst part of this week was that I had my School Administrators Licensure exam on Saturday.  It was a doozie.  Though I’m not sure what was worse – the exam itself or not being able to eat or drink for five hours straight.  The website said we’d get a ten minute break between the 100 multiple choice and 7 essays – but I’m guessing our test administrator missed that memo.  So my water bottle and granola bar (and crackers and raisins and Sweettarts) sat lonely in my purse.  It was pure misery.  I won’t find out my results for a month, so in the meantime I’m attempting to stop overanalyzing whether I overanalyzed the questions and if I bubbled in everything correctly.

The best part about having the licensure exam was that my hub played Top Chef on Friday night.  Crab stuffed sirloin, bread, mashed potatoes (!!), and homemade Caesar salad – omigosh.  It was awesome and definitely made me smarter for the exam.

Back to the wardrobe front – I have been agonizing over finding a bathing suit for this summer.  You see, I bought a tankini, which my hub quickly let me know he was not a fan of – apparently he wants me to show off my belly with pride this summer!  Anywho, I finally ordered a bikini online in a few sizes larger than my normal clothes… and that was a disaster.  And a riot.  I quickly returned it and convinced my hub to help me find a bathing suit on Saturday night – and we found two!!  Hopefully they will last throughout the summer, especially for our family’s weeklong beach extravaganza in August.  I must admit that I am relieved to have found at least something to wear to cover up my bits.

I think the little one (now the size of a papaya, I might add!) liked the bathing suits, too… After we got home, he/she was putting on quite a little show and the hub got to SEE the baby move AND feel the little bug quite a few times!

Ok, off to my cheeseburger in paradise.  For the record, I found a healthy, delicious recipe for Greek chicken salad sandwiches that I made for my lunches this week, and I plan on having a salad for dinner tomorrow night… but in the meantime, I will certainly be enjoying my juicy cheeseburger and oh-so-greasy French fries. J

Smile Baby Peele!

22 Weeks!!

Mashed Potatoes and Donuts

So, this past week I had an undeniable craving for mashed potatoes with gravy and donuts.  Now, sometimes I’ll get a craving that will eventually subside; however, this one was here to stay.  I emailed my hub in the middle of the day on Friday telling him about my craving secretly hoping he’d show up with mashed potatoes and donuts, and his response was, “You are too much.”  And I have to agree.  Mashed potatoes and donuts?!  Really?!  Why can’t I crave like an apple, or carrots?!

Anywho, I still haven’t had a donut.  But on Friday night we decided to take the baby bump to the movies, and you’d better believe we stopped at KFC on the way so I could sneak in a side of mashed potatoes and gravy in my purse.  The good news?  It was delicious.  That bad news?  I still want more.

On to what’s important:  week one of the second half of pregnancy – Yahoo!  It’s all downhill from here (hopefully!), so the countdown begins… 19 weeks to go (IF I last all 40 weeks!).  The little one and I talk every morning while I drive to work, and I keep telling him/her to please stay in there for all 19 weeks because the hub and I have a LOT to do around the house to get ready to become a family of three. J

And boy are we in home improvement mode.  As most of you know, I could live and die by a checklist.  I LOVE making checklists.  With boxes beside each to-do.  There’s just something about checking off those boxes that is so gratifying.  So last week my hub says, “Hey, do you mind making a summer checklist for us?”  Um, do I MIND?!  I would be GLAD to.  And obviously I am rubbing off on him.  So far we’ve painted the den (and by we I mean he), purchased new living room furniture, mounted the television above the fireplace, and purchased a crib and dresser for the nursery.  We still have a LONG way to go, but doing things around the house is just so exciting!

On the pregnancy front, our little one was quite an active little thing on Saturday!  The hub has felt him/her quite a few times, and I’ve seen my stomach bulging from the outside on many, many occasions.  Let me just tell you, this is the coolest.thing.ever.  Feeling the punches and kicks and rolls just makes my day.  And the movements are only supposed to get stronger and more distinct from here on out – I can’t wait!  Today the movement has been a little different – I think the baby may have turned, because I’ve definitely felt movement, but it’s been more like kicks into my pelvic bone… very weird.

What hasn’t been so fun is the continuous, intense hip pain.  YEESH.  The giant spread must be on the go again, because for the past week or so it has been rough.  The pain literally wakes me up throughout the night every hour, on the hour.  But the good part of it is that when I wake up, I can usually feel the little bug moving around in there, so I just lie awake and revel in each little poke.  It’s like our little secret. J

I am also beginning to realize that running is probably pretty much over until after the little one arrives.  But let’s be real for a second, because you can’t really call what I’ve been doing running – it’s more like trotting.  Anyway, semantics aside, doing anything other than walking is starting to kill my back and give me sharp cramps.  I plan on asking the doc about the cramps, but they go away once I stop running.  As my hub says, it’s probably time to stick to walking.  I have to say, my sister-in-law pretty much ran up until she delivered and I have NO clue how she did it.  I always said I would be on a run when my water broke because I planned to keep it up the whole way through – riiiiiiight.

Well, I’m off to hit the books – I have my school administrator’s licensure exam next weekend, and the studying has got to continue. L  I’m trying to stay calm during this stressful time… 7 more days of school with kids, 6 more days of work after that, two months left of grad school – then it’s all about our soon-to-be family of three! J

Baby Peele... 21 Weeks!

Hub's friend asked me if I was sure I wasn't due in August... Yeesh!