Week 10 check-in, little boobs have feelings too

We finally made it to week 10 where we can see the baby and hear the heartbeat.  This momentous day seemed to take FOREVER to get here!  I know it sounds depressing but miscarriage is always in the back of your mind until you actually get to hear the heartbeat.  Now our chance of a miscarriage is less than 2%, thank goodness, and we can breathe a little easier now.

Pregnancy up until this point has really thrown me for a loop.  Never in my life did I think I could be so tired, be so hungry but not be able to eat, and not want to cook because the site and smell of food would make me want to vomit!  And let me just tell you, the boobie fairy strikes early, even for those of us who are less than endowed to begin with.  It's the feeling of menstrual breast tenderness times 100!  My favorite part of the day used to be coming home from work and immediately slipping off my bra and getting into comfortable clothes.  Well, let's just say that THAT is a distant memory.  Being a lifetime member of the "itty bitty titty club" had me assuming that I wouldn't have to worry about the sore and bulging breasts until MUCH later in my pregnancy.  I have never been so wrong.  It got to the point where I considered wearing a bra at night!  Speaking of which I definitely woke myself out of a dead sleep once because I accidentally flicked my own nipple while readjusting in my sleep, which seriously felt like I had cut it with a knife.  And a little warning, no matter how sore you are, your husband won't care and will still want to play with his new gifts.  

The good news is that the above mentioned ailments do tend to lessen as you near the second trimester, which I'm welcoming with open arms.  I'm slowly gaining some energy back and food it looking better and better, even in my dreams.  Recently I dreamt about apple crisp with vanilla ice cream and a skittles rainbow. Needless to say, that night while my apple crisp baked in the oven, I munched on a huge bag of those lovely little gems they call skittles...and they never tasted so good.

Weekly Check-In

Weight Gain: zero

Showing: not yet, just bloating...another lovely pregnancy side-effect which my husband keeps                  mistaking for a baby bump.

Favorite Moment This Week: Meeting my ObGyn and seeing Bob (if you don't get this name reference, read blog post 1-8-11) twirl around on the ultrasound. Hearing the heartbeat was incredible too.  Not gonna lie, I had tears streaming down my face...

Most Looking Forward To: Having a baby bump :)

Easy Stir-Fry w/edits

I make this quick and easy stir-fry at least once a week.  The great thing about it is that you can change it up for whatever you're in the mood for by switching out the meat, veggies, and sauces.  I usually use boneless skinless chicken breast but it's great with beef or pork too.  You could also make it vegetarian with tofu.  For the vegetables I buy frozen bags of stir-fry vegetables in different varieties and change it up depending on my mood. Greg and I also love water chestnuts so we always add an extra can of those for some more crunch.  You can modify the sauce by using a combination of sweet chili sauce, soy sauce, terriyaki sauce, or peanut sauce, to name a few.  My favorite is sweet chili sauce and soy so that's how I'll show it in the recipe.

A great tip to make this recipe even faster is buying your boneless skinless chicken breasts in bulk and then cutting them up into thin 1 1/2 inch strips and freezing them individually, two breasts per package, so all you have to do is pull out a pack of meat cut up the night before to thaw.  It's a lot less messy that way too.  I usually do this task on Sunday.

Ingredients
1 pound of boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 2 breasts)
1-2 T oil (sesame adds great flavor but any oil will work)
dash of S&P
1 bag of frozen stir-fry vegetables
1 can of sliced water  chestnuts
1-2 T soy sauce
2-3 T sweet chili sauce (depending on how spicy you like it)
1 T flour
1/2-1 Cup water or chicken broth (depending on how saucy you like it)

Serve with 6 servings of brown rice (I like minute rice because if you start it when you start the recipe they finish almost simultaneously)

Directions
Stir fry the chicken in oil until juices run clear. Add S&P.  Add the whole bag of frozen veggies and water chestnuts and cook 5-7 minutes until veggies are tender.  Add the soy sauce and sweet chili sauce and stir to coat.  Sprinkle flour over top, stir to coat.  Add water and saute until sauce begins to thicken, about 2 minutes more.  Serve over rice.

Progress?

As the days count down toward the beginning of motherhood, I have become keenly aware of how I handle day to day situations, especially with my pets.  Recently our lovely yellow lab Maggie has decided that she should start sleeping on my love seat every night.  I knew that this would be one of my first tests as a newly pregnant mommy to show Greg how I can take care of business!

Now, until I came into the picture she was not even allowed into the house, so she is knowingly taking full advantage of my suckerish, for lack of a better term, personality.  When I first met Greg I was extremely impressed with how well he had trained Maggie.  She stayed home when we had to leave, she never jumped on people or misbehaved, and would listen to Greg's every command.  I took note of this and thought, well I know he'll be a great disciplinarian, which was a relief because I wasn't so sure about myself in that department.  So now, as I wake up every morning finding her on the love seat, I feel that I have eyes watching me and how I react and "discipline" Maggie.  I certainly don't want to be the pushover mom who doesn't support my husband when he lays down the law, so I'm trying to work on it with our pets.

 I, of course, try the nice approach first, telling her to get down, pointing to the floor and saying "stay down!"  The next morning, more of the same.  After a couple days of that I barricade the love seat with a table thinking that would do it, and of course I then found her on the couch...  I got her down from there and got a text later that morning from my husband saying that my nice mom approach hadn't worked because when he got up, she was back on the love seat, never minding my barricade.  Well that did it.  When I got home from work I called Maggie over, put her paw on the love seat and said "NO, you stay DOWN."  Then I walked her over the the couch and did the same thing.  Following that I laid down a rug and told her to lay down on it and stay.  This morning I discovered a lovely thing, Maggie was STILL on the RUG!  I was so proud of her, and trying not to give her to much credit, scritched her and praised her for being a good girl and staying on the rug, then, in a moment of weekness, I gave her a treat.  UGH! I can't teach my kids that every time they do something right they get TREATS!  What kind of mother would I be!?  So, as I reflect on this whole learning to discipline effectively process, I feel that I am at least making some progress....right?

suffocation by eggroll

I'm not sure when it happened but my sense of smell has recently become extremely keen.  I'm talking, a little different scent in the air and I'm all over it.  This sensitive sense of smell was one of the things mentioned as possible to happen while pregnant, however, I figured I would not be bothered by it.  Why I thought I was going to be lucky enough to avoid some of these weird pregnancy symptoms is beyond me.  My husband believes me when I say I can't handle some smells, however he enjoys getting a good laugh at my misfortune at the same time.  Just to give you an example as to how bad this is really affecting me, I'll give you the "eggroll incident."  It was about 10:30 at night and I had fallen asleep on our love seat.  Greg decided that he was "craving" an eggroll and proceeded to microwave and then fry a frozen one in a pan.  (and may I diverge by saying that I'm ready for MY cravings to start any day)  This woke me up from my slumber and I swore I couldn't breathe, the smell was so strong.  I immediately start dry-heaving and run to the bathroom to get ready for bed as fast as possible.  I then close off both bedroom doors to try to block the smell, which was next to impossible.  That night, all night, I had to sleep with my head under the covers in order to be able to breathe without gagging.  Now, c'mon, you may say, it couldn't have been THAT bad.  Well, at risk of sounding like a whiner and absolute nutcase, I'm telling you, it was!  I'm still trying to figure out what role a keen sense of smell has on a pregnancy, because at the moment, I think it's completely just to irritate my ability to eat and function normally even further.  Hopefully I will not have another episode like this one, and I'll be able to enjoy the smell of eggrolls once again

Huh?, well I've never seen that before

Well folks, we did it!  Finally got those two lines we've been waiting for on the pregnancy tests!  And, of course, one test was NOT good enough, we had to take two subsequent tests just to be sure that it wasn't a fluke.  Sure enough, all three came back positive!  Now, since these were the dollar store tests, we then headed to good ole' Wal-Mart for yet another digital test, because we weren't quite convinced until we saw "pregnant" spelled out.  The best part about finding out we were pregnant was that Greg was home and right there, ready and watching, to see what the results would be.  I had taken so many tests by this point that as soon as the whole thing turned pink and I saw the first line coming up I was like, "oh it always does that," and went back to doing laundry.  Greg then called me back in asking, "is this normal?", as he's thumbing through the directions, to which I replied, "huh?, well I've never seen that before."  Greg then jumped around the house singing, "I'm gonna be a daddy" over and over again, while I lowered myself down onto our bed to let it really sink in.

The following weeks have been quite interesting, I must say.  I thought I knew what tired was before I got pregnant but I was so wrong.  I feel like I could have nap time at any moment of the day, and over Christmas Break while in MI, my mom actually sent me to bed for a nap on a couple of occasions because I looked that tired.  I didn't feel any queasiness all through the holidays, THANK GOD, because I would've been so disappointed if I couldn't enjoy the holiday feasts, but it is starting to finally set in.  The other day I was so excited to get some new recipes with pictures in the mail...until I saw the pictures.  Instant urge to vomit.  I had to throw them into my passenger seat and slink into my house and onto the couch, all the while letting Greg know that the lasagna I had planned on cooking may not happen.  Luckily by the next afternoon I was able to eat again because poor Bob, and MOM, was being starved.  Oh yeah, we call our unborn baby Bob...  It all started with our "code" language we were using while texting or talking back and forth.  Greg mentioned "don't forget about BOB" in a text and, it took me a bit, but I finally got it, Baby On Board.  Now, my sister called her baby "Bobbles", after my large and in-charge cat, so she thinks I then have an obligation to name my unborn child after one of her's, however neither Linus or Phyllis is working for me.  It might take me a while to warm up to that idea...or never.

I'll keep ya'll posted as Bob progresses...which just got me thinking if it's a girl, we may have to call her Bobette...hmmmm...