Mommy Musings

How far along - 20 weeks Maternity clothes - yup, along with lots of sweats and yoga pants Weight gain - 18 lbs I think Stretch marks - none Belly Button - still in but barely! Sleep - Good recently, you know other than getting up 3 and 4 times a night to use the bathroom. I am so much more tired this trimester than last...can't figure out why Best moment this week - Getting to the halfway mark!!  Let's hope this second half of the pregnancy goes by even quicker Movement - Every day now! Not really strong kicks yet, but definitely bumps. Can't feel it from the outside yet though Food I'm loving - Ice water, Mountain Dew, Mike and Ike's and Salt and Vinegar chips {which I hated before I was pregnant} Food I'm hating - Depends on the day really...not a huge fan of chicken, or anything too heavy or greasy Symptoms - Some swelling {awesome} face breaking out, back pain, NAUSEA!!! Seriously, I'm over it.  It is much better during the day, but getting worse at nig...

When I was pregnant with Little M, Skip and I both decided to wait until she was born to find out the sex of the baby.  We like to do things the old-fashioned way sometimes and we thought the surprise would be fun.  It was a little tough to wait, but really only the last few weeks or so.  We registered for all gender-neutral stuff {which is great if we have a boy next} and had names picked out for either a boy or a girl.  And there really was nothing better than that moment the doctor said, "It's a girl!"  We loved getting to annouce it to everyone that our little one was here and it was a girl!  So when we got pregnant with this New Baby we obviously decided to wait to find out again.  We're all set with enough gender-neutral stuff and we loved waiting with Little M, so why not.  But here's the problem.  I'm starting to get antsy.  Really antsy.  I want to know if I can leave all the pink accents up in the nursery. Will I get to re...

picture found at http://www.parksidepolice.com/pages/fallen.htm January 2011 has been a very rough month for those in the law enforcement community.  As of yesterday, here are the statistics of cops who have been shot. 53 police officers/agents have been shot at; 37 have been hit by gunfire; 14 were in a 36-hour time  frame; 10 died (by gunfire); 2 remain in critical condition *STATS compiled by ~Nessie~ for Law Enforcement Today* http://www.facebook.com/law.enforcement. today?v=wall However I have also heard reports that 14 have been killed in the line of duty this month alone.  News agencies are reporting that this is not just a coincidence, that cops are being targeted for murder.  And it is hard not to believe it.  Every day that police officers strap on their bullet proof vests, they know that there is a risk...a danger they might not make it home.  But it is terrifying to think that scumbags {for a lack of a better word} are targeting those who s...

You must excuse my lack of blogging the past week, but the sickies have taken over our whole house!  Little M's fever is all gone, but she is developing a cold.  And Skip and I are both sick now as well!  Between this and the 15 weeks of morning sickness I've been dealing with, I'm done!!  Seriously.  I'm quarantining us in our house until we are all better.  Or until spring comes.  Whichever comes first.  It's really a toss up these days.  Be back once I've crawled out from underneath this giant pile of tissues!

I'm pretty sure I never have been, nor ever will be, quite as cool as this little girl. She was just walking around like this recently...this is not posed at all!

Skip and I have been very lucky as parents for the past two years.  Besides the fact that Little M is totally awesome, she has been sick exactly twice in her life.  No really.  She had pink eye when she was about 3 months old, and back in November she had a slight 24 hour stomach bug.  Both weren't too much of a big deal.  However that all changed yesterday. I knew something was wrong when Little M slept until 11:00 yesterday morning!!!  I mean my girl likes to sleep and is rarely up before 8:30, but this was crazy.  We took her downstairs and she had some milk, but didn't want breakfast.  We figured it was because she slept so late so we held of until lunch.  But after only a few bites of one of her favorite meals, she wanted to get down.  She then proceeded to curl up on the couch like this Definitely strange.  She felt a little warm to me when I put her down for a nap, but no real fever registered.  However when I went to go...

How far along - 18 weeks Maternity clothes - yup, along with lots of sweats and yoga pants Weight gain - 16 lbs Stretch marks - none  Belly Button - still in but getting a little more shallow Sleep - Good recently, you know other than getting up 3 and 4 times a night to use the bathroom.  I really should learn to go to bed before midnight though Best moment this week - I'M BLOND AGAIN!! {I know I failed on the picture...I'll get one this week! Movement - Every day now!  Not really strong kicks yet, but definitely bumps.  Can't feel it from the outside yet though Food I'm loving - Not much appeals to me recently.  I have been eating healthier recently though which is good Food I'm hating - Depends on the day really Symptoms - Some swelling {awesome} face breaking out, NAUSEA!!!  It is getting better during the day though, most of the nausea is at night, so there's progress!  I did have to convince my doctor yesterday though that I am in fact still nause...

When I was pregnant with Little M, I searched a long time to find just the right crib.  I wanted it to be relatively inexpensive {I mean does anyone really pay $900 for a crib?!?!} cute, functional, and last a long time.  I focused specifically on convertible cribs because I wanted something I could use as a toddler bed, and that at least one of our kids could use as a full-size bed.  I also wanted a crib that I could use for all of my kids {wasn't sure how many we would have at the time}  I also wanted a drop-side crib. Okay, no before you judge, at the time, there were no recalls on drop-sides that I was aware of.  My sisters and I had all slept soundly in drop-sides and turned out just find.  And the ability to easily take the baby in and out of the crib without straining my back was really appealing. So a few months before Little M was born, we can home with this crib, the Graco Lauren 4 in 1 drop-side crib. photo from Walmart.com We have loved it since...

Let's play a little game called "What's wrong with this picture?" No it's not that my bedroom is ridiculously messy. {though that is true..not all the time though, I swear!} If it's that I still sleep with a stuffed bunny, you'd be wrong too. {though that is also true...he makes a great pillow!} Yes I know I look much further along than 17 weeks pregnant, but that's not it either. Give up?  Check out my hair.  It's brown.  As in opposite of blond, brown.  Now I know most of you will be utterly shocked when I tell you this, but I am not a natural blond.  I was as a kid, but once puberty hit my strands began to darker.  But I revolted.  I have a slight obsession with love being blond.  And I have been {with help obviously} for the last 10 years or so, with the exception of my pregnancy with Little M. I didn't color my hair at all with my first pregnancy.  I had a slight concern about the chemicals, and thought it would be good to give my hair ...

Last year, I wrote down all the resolutions I was hoping to accomplish by the end of 2010.  And I have to admit, I did pretty well with them. 1. I definitely worked out more last year than I had the previous year.  I ran a decent amount, took walks, and did a variety of workout DVDs.  It did however all fall by the wayside once I got pregnant with the New Baby and was hugging the toilet most of the time, but that's to be expected. 2. Not sure if I was a better blogger or not.  I have gained a lot of friends through blogging, so I think it's a success! 3. We did not really beef up our savings as much as I wanted to, but we actually made that choice not to.  Instead we put all extra money towards paying off Skip's car.  We have about 2 or 3 more payments left and we'll be done!  We will have paid it off over a year earlier than it was due, and our only debt will be our mortgage then, so I'm pretty happy. 4. We are always in the process of organize and ...

I know, I know.  We are about to begin the second week of January and I'm only just blogging about Christmas.  Obviously being prompt is not one of my new year's resolutions.  I have to admit, I was more excited for Christmas to be over this year than I was for it to begin.  With my being sick we toned down Christmas DRAMATICALLY this year.  Minimal decorations, no annual Christmas party, no cookie baking, no hosting family at our house, and all shopping and wrapping left till the last minute.  Throw in the fact that Skip had to work every day of the four-day weekend {including two 16 hour shifts} and I was more of a scrooge than an elf.  But as always, my main focus is Little M, so we rallied and made it as nice as possible for her. Even with the minimalistic approach, Little M seemed to really enjoy the season.  She loved helping us put the ornaments on the tree and kissed a few of them each night before bed.  She discovered a love of Polar...

Thank you so much to everyone who entered the $50 CSN giftcard giveaway!  According to random.org the winner is True Random Number Generator Min:   Max:   Result: 9 Powered by  RANDOM.ORG Number 9 is Ashley  said... I plan on working out at least 3 times a week. Congratulations Ashley!!  You will be getting an email from me in a few days!

Yesterday someone very special had a birthday. photo taken by my dad  My husband, Little M's dad turned 29.  We try and spoil him every year, but I really wanted to go above and beyond yesterday.  Because every day, Skip goes above and beyond for us.  Seriously, our house would have come to a crashing halt when I got pregnant if not for Skip.  As you know, my morning sickness has been lingering around for more than is appreciating and it's pretty debilitating most of the time.  But everything around me has been able to keep on moving pretty smoothly because of my family, but mainly my husband.  Every morning he is home, Skip gets up with Little M and lets me sleep in until 10.  He then brings me breakfast in bed since I seem to throw up if I don't eat before getting up out of bed.  He has taken over all the laundry, garbage, and loading and unloading the dishwasher.  When he is home at night he gives Little M her bath and feeds the dogs....

Why am I always a day behind on posting this? How far along - 16 weeks Maternity clothes - I wear maternity jeans or yoga pants / sweats...all my shirts are non-maternity.  I have a very limited 'pregnant in the winter' wardrobe since I had Little M in November, so I was happy to receive some gift cards for Christmas and bought 11 new shirts yesterday that actually fit.  Happy to not have to wear sweatshirts all the time now! Weight gain - 15 lbs Stretch marks - none  Belly Button - still in but getting a little more shallow Sleep - Good recently, you know other than getting up 3 and 4 times a night to use the bathroom Best moment this week - Getting more clothes that fit...I'm tired of looking so frumpy Movement - Every day now!  Not really strong kicks yet, but definitely bumps.  Can't feel it from the outside yet though Food I'm loving - I have to eat constantly to help keep the nausea away {hence the 15 lbs weight gain} I mainly want to eat pizza, bagels, an...

As you all know, I have raved about my love of CSN stores several times before.  They have a huge selection of products and are constantly adding new stores to their website.  My family definitely headed over there to do some of our Christmas shopping, and I was just perusing their selection of flat panel TV stands.      It's one thing, however, for me to tell you how great CSN is.  But it's another for you to experience it yourself.  That is why I am so excited to be sponsoring a $50 gift certificate giveaway to CSN to one of my readers!!!  It's the perfect opportunity to order yourself something you didn't receive for Christmas, or check out their fitness equipment to help with your new year's resolution! Entering is simple...just leave a comment telling me what your new year's resolution is {you can also just say you aren't making any this year if that's the case!}  The giveaway will be open until January 7th 10:00 pm est.