30 Week Peek!

First of all, thanks so much for the imput on the car seats - you don't know how helpful that is!! And even those of you who called to give me your input who didn't know how to "comment" on the blog (I'll give you a little bloggie tutorial, haha) - THANKS!!

I was going to post the pictures from the guest room to nursery transformation tonight, but then I realized mom sent me all of the pictures except the very first one of what the room looked like before...so I want to wait to do a true "start to finish" view!  However, you can get a little glimpse from the 30 week picture below as to what it looks like - I promise to post that on Monday (I know, I know, I have been saying that for a while now, but that bad boy took just a few more coats of paint than we thought it would need to cover up the green paint and raw wooden beadboard - like FOUR)!

So I meant to do this on Tuesday, when I was officially 30 weeks on the dot, but life got busy this week, whew!  Tuesday was slam packed, Wednesday I spent 4 hours touching up the paint in the nursery, then went and spent 3 hours painting a picture of Tillman Hall for Mills' room! It's really funky and fun and I like the way it turned out (pictures to come of that too, on another post!). Last night, Leah and Matt had a Howl-O-Ween party at their house for all of the dogs on the block, so I took Harley on over to celebrate - more details to come on that tomorrow, but it was super cute!  So, I digress... here is my 30 week picture and some fun little questions that I found on a few other blogs to document "this week in history" ha!

Holy moley, BIG GIRL!!

How far along? 30 WEEKS!!! Only 10 more to go, can you believe it?!?!?

Total weight gain/loss? (Loss? Is that seriously a real question???) I've gained 16 LBS!
Maternity clothes? A few maternity items from Tar-jay, but luckily with the the way the current styles are I've been getting by on loose dresses from Old Navy and Target and other tops I already had with my jeans and bella band. There's only one pair of my jeans I can still do that with (on the others the zipper cuts in tooooo tight, ouchie!)  I must confess, for work, since I see different people every day, I've been consistently switching out about 3 different dresses with different accessories/shoes...haha, only my husband knows (and laughs at me).  AND, Leah hooked me up with two big containers of maternity clothes, too, so I'm sure I'll be needing to wear more and more of those great clothes as I get more massive in the weeks to come!
Stretch marks? Not yet...and I hope not at all! :(
Sleep? Still sleeping really well (probably because I NEVER go to bed before midnight - seriously, never - so I'm usually so exhausted that I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow), but just this week I've started to notice that it's a little harder to get comfortable, mainly b/c my lower back hurts, but no big complaints yet.
Best moment this week? Getting the nursery painted, finally!!! I'm excited to see how it will look as we add each little touch to the mix!
Movement? Yes! Moving around A TON, and it's great! Especially late at night...I'm hoping that this will somehow transcend into his sleep patterns as a little guy in the world - I can totally handle the staying up late as long as it's coupled with sleeping in LATE! ;)
Food cravings? Not really anything in particular.
Labor Signs? Not yet, thank goodness!
What I'm looking forward to? Our first baby shower tomorrow (Saturday!), by our sweet Charleston friends and in costume, nonetheless! :)  I cannot WAIT!!
Weekly Wisdom? Haha, ummmmmmm... I guess that hot bubble baths are a lifesaver. I'm glad my OB said they're completely fine, because I now take one about every 2 or 3 days and they are the only thing that makes my back feel better! ahhh, sweet relief!!!
Milestones? Hitting the 30 week mark!!! When I think about only having around 10 weeks left it sounds soooo soon, and that's EXCITING!!!

Well there's the weekly recap!  I also have to give a quick shoutout to my dear friend Kelly - not only was her birthday this week, but she also found out she PASSED THE BAR!!! WoooHoooooo!

So proud of and happy for you! Love you, Miss Greenville!!! :)
Goodnight, Ya'll!

Car seat decisions...

So Nicholas was just too tired to put the last coat of paint on tonight, and since I have strict orders not to do it alone (of course), we decided to wait until tomorrow, so I promise to get those pictures up asap!

In other news, I need your help on a car seat decision.  I've decided to go with the BOB stroller (and the infant car seat adapter) instead of an entire travel system, because I really think I'll get more use out of it as it goes up to 70 pounds and will be great for walks and runs (more sturdily built, great reviews, etc).  And with the adapter I'll still have the ease of taking the baby straight from the car to the stroller. So there are only a few options for car seats that are compatible with this system. The Britax one has been discontinued and so I'm down to the Graco Snugride or Safeseat. The snugride is the more basic car seat, has more color options, and is about 7.5 lbs (2 lbs lighter than the safeseat) but takes the baby up to 22 lbs (as where the safeseat takes baby up to 30 lbs). The safeseat has much better reviews, and again accommodates 97% of babies to over 1 yr old, but does weigh a little more (9.5 lbs). There are two color/fabric options that may work for the snugride, and only 1 that works for the safeseat (but i really like it, just want to make sure it's gender neutral and not overly feminine) - which brings me to another point, I DO want something that is gender neutral and doesn't clash with the colors of the BOB stroller. Decisions, decisions...
I should mention that I want the BOB in the light blue/chocolate color combo, as shown here:

So here are the pictures of the fabrics they come in, and you've read the info above... let me know which one you think would coordinate better and be the best choice!

Two Graco Snugride options:

 

Graco SafeSeat option:

Thoughts??? :)

Love and War...aka a little friendly family football rivalry :)

So this was a weekend of love and war in the Wallace household, as the Clemson Tigers played the Miami Hurricanes yesterday!!!  I actually prepared myself for Clemson to lose, being that Miami was ranked #10 and Clemson was clearly not in the top 25 (after numerous last-minute losses this season), but after an intense 4th quarter, and even OVERTIME, the Tigers came out on top and Baby Mills and Mommy were sooo thrilled...Daddy Wallace, on the other hand, not so much. Good thing he was a good sport anyway. :)

Either way, Mills will be pulling for the ORANGE team! :)  Since most of the football rivalry here in SC is in-state anyway, we luckily won't have this family rivalry too often - at least we can all agree to hate the gamecocks each and every year.  And Nicholas wants us to go to all of the home Clemson games once residency is over (which is a good thing, considering we will actually get our money's worth on all the IPTAY dues we pay to Clemson, haha), and of course once Mills is a little older, we'll have to take an annual football trip to Miami, too!  But this year, nonetheless, it was fun to come out victorious!!!

In all honesty though, I have to admit I only saw bits and pieces of the game until the 4th quarter. Why, you may ask...well, we were working a project that was much more worthy - the nursery!  Mom, her best friend Gracie, and her husband, Johnny all came down for the weekend to put up beadboard in the nursery... holy cow, this is no easy DIY project!!  Luckily we had Johnny, the expert, who worked ALL day Saturday (we're talking 7am to 10pm) and plenty of the day today, too.  Nicholas helped him in putting up the actual boards after they were measured, cut, angled, etc... and mom, Gracie, and I layered on the primer, numerous white coats on the beadboard, and got one coat of the baby blue on the walls. We just have one more coat of the blue to go tomorrow, and then comes my FAVORITE part of pulling down the tape and viewing the masterpiece! :)  It already looks so sweet, calming, and serene in there. But there was definitely no rest for the weary this weekend. Other than football and a few quick meals, it was all work! We're SO thankful for all of the time and help we received - we literally could NOT have done it by ourselves! Can't wait for you to see the pics tomorrow!!!

Halloween shower fun!

I can't believe our first baby shower is less than 2 weeks away...on Halloween! :)  And how much fun is it that everyone is dressing up like nursery rhyme/children's story/fairy tale couples (what can I say - I have sweet and creative friends)!?!?  So here lies my dilemma...
My sister-in-law, Kelley, gave us the idea of Goldilocks and the Bear (the "just right" one, of course). Nicholas said he could go for that, so I began my online search for what to wear as Goldilocks...and here are the options I found:

Now this is one classy costume for a pregnant gal, huh?  Or maybe this one:

Really, people???  This one was looking better, except the biggest size is 4T - unfortunately not gonna work out:

Then I found THIS one, which I thought would be PERFECT!!! But of course it had been on clearance and was sold out, completely (and conveniently discontinued).  I did put my email on a list in case they get any more in, but it's not lookin' good!

So I'm still on the search for my "just right" Goldilocks costume! Anyone have any crafty ideas of how to make this costume?? Surely I can come up with something! Ha, if not I did see an easy way to do chef costumes and we could be the bakers from "Patty cake patty cake, baker's man!"  I can't wait to see how cute (and hilarious) everyone is gonna be!  I will be sure to post pics afterwards!

In other news, today is 29 weeks - woohoo!!!  I can't wait to hit the 3-0 mark next week (and to clarify, of course that means 30 weeks, NOT 30 years old - I've still got close to 4 years, thank ya very much).

I had a scary day last Friday b/c I didn't feel the baby moving nearly as much as usual ALL DAY LONG. I started the kick counting my OB office told me about at 28 weeks, and I was able to get 10 kicks in an hour, but it was on the longer end of an hour and they were super faint, no big movements at all, which is really unusual these days. Friday night I called my dr's office but couldn't make myself press the '0' which was for medical emergencies or labor! I felt really silly even calling, but Nicholas couldn't remember what was "normal" (he hasn't had any OBGYN training since back in medical school, which believe me, he is very thankful for), and urged me to, saying "that's what they're there for." Anywho, I called Leah and she assured me that it was normal not to feel the baby move as much on some days - she said she definitely noticed that with Callahan - just if it continued over a few days I may want to call. Whew, so that made me feel better. (ps, thanks, Leah, for listening to my overly hormonal self break down on the phone with you like a crazy, psycho lady)  He stayed pretty calm on Saturday, too, but luckily Sunday he hopped, flipped, and jumped around for about 6 hours straight, haha, and didn't stop until well after midnight. Ahh, what a relief (this doesn't mean I'll be in for years of worrying after he's born, does it mom???)!!  ;) Anywho, long vent and not very exciting reading here, but I just felt like documenting my little silly woes!  I have a dr. appt in the morning, so I'll add a little update manana!

Happy Tuesday, Friends! :)

See ya later, second trimester!!!

And hello THIRD!!! Wowsers, can you believe it???
I promised a pic for this week, so here it is - today, 28 weeks, 1 day, and beginning trimester tres!

Big belly! And getting bigger! Nicholas's crazy schedule is keeping mine close to as crazy this week, and I've been dealing w/ a little bit of an ear/pressure/infection type of deal (no big deal, just annoying), so that's all I have for today! (I owe a few of you a callback - promise it'll be coming by the weekend!)
Have a good night!

Fall is in the air...well, for today at least!

So I know it's been about 95 degrees for the past few days (i even pulled weeds in the yard in a swimsuit on Saturday afternoon, haha!), but TODAY it was a nice change of close to 70, cloudy in the am, and a little drizzly in the afternoon. Now usually I'm not one to love rainy, cool days (well mainly the rain part), but it was nice to feel a little fall in the air, especially THIS YEAR, b/c that means January is right around the corner! :) But I've been looking forward to enjoying a caramel apple spice cider from Starbucks - yum, yum - and it was the perfect day for one of those tasty treats! (My usual right now is a chai tea latte, which does have a little caffeine, but nothing overboard...)

Being all in the fall spirit as I was today, I took a long gaze at the pumpkin bread at Starbucks, too! Of course I knew I didn't need that and the yummy drink (at the same time), but it inspired me to come home and make a homemade version of my own!  Healthier AND it probably cost me all of $4 to make two loaves, which is what one piece would have cost at Starbucks (I know, look at me, so very thrifty...haha, it's all about priorities, people, you know, cutting back a little here and a little there...how else can you spend practically a morgage payment at a baby store in one day if you don't save that $4 on a starbucks pumpkin loaf!!??!!)  ;) hehe.

So, I thought that I'd post the yummy recipe (and the changes I made) in case you are feeling like a fall domestic diva yourself and want to give it a try! By the way, it turned out AMAZING!!! I just had a loaf slice with a tall glass of milk and it was oh-so-delicious! Nicholas took some to the hospital tonight, too!  So, here goes (Pumpkin Gingerbread from allrecipes.com):

Ingredients:

3 cups sugar 1 cup vegetable oil 4 eggs 2/3 cup water 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree 2 teaspoons ground ginger 1 teaspoon ground allspice

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground cloves 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking soda 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans.
2.	In a large mixing, combine sugar, oil and eggs; beat until smooth. Add water and beat until well blended. Stir in pumpkin, ginger, allspice and cinnamon.
3.	In medium bowl, combine flour, soda, salt, and baking powder. Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture and blend just until all ingredients are mixed. Divide batter between prepared pans.
4.	Bake in preheated oven until toothpick comes out clean, about 1 hour.

My Changes:
-For the 3 cups of sugar, I used 1 1/2 of white splenda blend sugar and 1 1/2 of brown splenda blend sugar.
-Instead of 1 cup of vegetable oil (holy cow!), I used 1/4 cup of vegetable oil and 3/4 cup of apple sauce.
-I couldn't find (or either they were out of) the pumpkin puree, so I used the Libby canned pumpkin pie mix and it worked perfectly.
-Note: I already had all of the spices except for ground ginger, and that was on the spice aisle, too, just had to get a different brand than usual.
-For the 3 1/2 cups of flour, I used 2 cups of all purpose flour like the recipe said, and then the other 1 1/2 of wheat flour (why not throw in a little nutrition!)
-I also stirred in 1/2 cup of walnuts and 1/3 cup of pecans (just b/c that's how much I happened to have in my pantry!) and it was the perfect addition.
-Oh, and I almost forgot, I added just a tiny bit of streusel topping before popping it in the oven. Basically I just melted 1/3 of light butter in the microwave, then eyeballed a little bit of flour, splenda sugar (like a tablespoon of each white and brown), took a handful of pecans and crunched them up, AND I was out of oats (oatmeal didn't sound as good to me as it usually does in the first trimester), but I needed something else to make the mixture less runny - b/c you want it to be crumbly/sticky - so I used a packet of plain instant oatmeal, ha, and it was perfect!!!!  I just sprinkled/plopped drops of this mixture on top of the two loaves and put them in the oven! You don't have to do this but it just added a little something extra!
It did take a little more than an hour to bake, but it was WELL worth it!!!  I'll definitely be making this again!
Happy Fall, Ya'll! :)

Baby product reviews!

So last Friday at Kelly's Korner blog, she did a fun little review of baby items that she used, didn't use, couldn't live without, etc., and other moms (or dads, if they happen to be bloggers) linked up their reviews to hers - and since she has a HUGE following, there is tons of great advice attached to this post - which is super handy dandy for me since we need to do a little registering soon (hopefully I'll get some time to go through these over the weekend)!  You can find that link HERE in case you want to peruse a little for yourself!
The Preppy Baby also has a good review HERE!

In the meantime, although these are necessities, I was thinking Mills would look pretty cute sleeping in this:

And of course with one of these two bedding options - the first one is on SALE (amazing I picked it, right? haha), and the second one would coordinate w/ the crib bedding (which we picked out, along with the actual crib and the rocker/glider - all on order, more info to come on that later!)

 

And I also think this little guy would look pretty cute in his nursery when it's finished! :)

 

{all compliments of Restoration Hardware Baby & Child}

I had my first prenatal yoga class today - I went to the same place Leah went when she was pregnant and it would have been great (well let's not exaggerate, it would have been just fine), except I couldn't find my old yoga mat from college so I had to grab a new one at Target today during lunch...Well evidently the new ones are REALLY slippery, and combined with the fact that they keep it 80 degrees in the yoga rooms and you're sweating, I was sliding ALL OVER THE PLACE! My downward facing dogs were turning into push-up positions and my warrior poses were practically splits...SO, I will be wiping that bad boy down and testing it out again before next week!  But overall it did feel really good to stretch out and move around in ways you don't normally do - and it was neat to see lots of other pregnant women - ranging from way behind me to way ahead of me in the belly department!

I have to leave the house at 6am for work tomorrow, but hoping to finish up a little early and looking forward to a relaxing weekend - hope you have the same!

Oh what a day it has been!

...or maybe I should say oh what an evening it has been...the whole day part wasn't so bad. So... I decided to be a good mommy to this sweet one,

and take her for a little walk. Of course she used the bathroom before we left our own yard, but as she always does, she got the urge again towards the end of our walk. In an effort not to have to run back to the house to get a grocery bag then have to go pick up her "surprise" in someone else's yard, I strategically walked her into one of the middle round-abouts in our neighborhood (b/c it's all pine straw and bushes and you don't have to pick it up there!)...well it seemed like a good idea, and it has worked before...but not this time. She took care of her business, but decided to take a different route coming back to me, around a bush. I tried and tried to talk her into going back around the way she came (b/c there were a few bushes all together and I couldn't get between them), but no, instead my sweet little lamb ran around the bush AGAIN! And to make matters worse it was some kind of prickly bush! I let go of my side of the leash, and tried pulling as hard as possible from her side....long story short, after about 10 minutes of grueling effort in the dark, I unhooked her, left the leash, and held onto her collar and walked hunched-over back to our house. Awesome. My sweet husband was still at work, but I'm sure he won't mind going to fetch the leash tomorrow morning! :)
So I made a quick trip to the grocery store, then came back and cleaned out the refridgerator. I had some homemade red pepper tomato basil soup still in there that I made two weeks ago (yuck, i know), and there was still one serving of lasagna left that needed to go. Nicholas came right in from work and said, "oh, i'll take care of that stuff," and popped it right into the garbage disposal...which didn't turn on. He hit the reset button...no luck, only a dull hum...then he had to stuff his hand back down the drain to pull out everything he had put in...gross. The whole kitchen smelled like the ghost of dinners' past, so I had to light every candle in the house.  This is what it looked like (note: if you have a weak stomach do not scroll down):

Mmmmm, yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!!! Luckily after another call to Mom and Phil, Nicholas used a socket wrench to 'unstick' the disposal blades, and came to tell me the good news that he fixed it while I was taking a hot bath...my night got a lot better very quickly! :)  So now I'm all clean and refreshed, about to enjoy a new episode of Criminal Minds with the hubby!

Oh, and I hit the 27 week mark yesterday! I promise a belly pic update for week 28! And I don't know if you happened to notice that little ticker up there at the top, but the countdown is less than 100 days now - almost less than 90 now - that's crazy!! More to come later this week, I'm exhausted!!!  Night!

Updates galore!!!

So it's been a little while....whew, and I'm exhausted!!! Work, traveling, and trying to make baby decisions have all been keeping me busy! Actually, so much so that I'm updating this blog via I-26...haha, gotta love technology, right? (believe me, my company provides this handy dandy little wireless card, but it has its pros AND cons...aka, the mentality that not only can you blog from anywhere/anytime, but you can also WORK from anywhere/anytime!)
So this Tuesday marked 26 WEEKS! The little guy now measures about 14 inches and weighs about a pound and two-thirds - according to babycenter he's about the size of an 'English hothouse cucumber,' to be exact - hey, some of these fruits/veggies get a little out there as we go along!  I had my monthly dr. appt on Wednesday and in the past 5 weeks (week 21-week 26) I have gained 4 more pounds and she did the little fundal height measurement (where they measure your belly vertically) and said we were "right on" at 27 weeks (although I was 26 weeks, Nicholas said within a week is still considered on target).  Good news! 
In other good news, I drank the flat version of this:

(the oral glucose test solution), and I PASSED! :)  Woohoo for no gestational diabetes, that's for sure! So everything seems to be running smoothly at this point, thank you Lord!

Sorry for the boring post today, but I'll try to update later w/ some pics from Nicholas' 28th bday, Danielle and Sam's wedding in CT, beach weekend, and Wofford homecoming (which is where we're headed now)...I think it may feel a little different being pregnant at a frat house, ha, definitely a first for sure! This weekend will be Mills' first stop on college tour 2009 - Wofford this weekend and Clemson in a few weeks - he has two choices (well, in SC, that is! Out of state he can go wherever he wants)! :)  Ok, I'm getting carsick now and I'm gonna have my first pregnancy vomit if I'm not careful - no good! :P

Happy Weekend!

Corn Cobs and Soccer Balls!

So today marks the 24 week mark - woohoo! (I told Nicholas this morning that it was our anniversary baby birthday week, b/c we got married on the 24th, but it took me quite a bit of explaining before he got it, haha.) Anywho, so according to Babycenter.com, baby boy is now the size of this:

And another fun/freaky fact, my uterus is now the size of THIS:

REALLY?!?!?!? Now that's just scary!

Here's this week's development according to the babycenter:
"Your baby's growing steadily, having gained about 4 ounces since last week. That puts him at just over a pound. Since he's about a foot long (picture an ear of corn), he cuts a pretty lean figure at this point, but his body is filling out proportionally and he'll soon start to plump up. His brain is also growing quickly now, and his taste buds are continuing to develop. His lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree" as well as cells that produce surfactant, a substance that will help his air sacs inflate once he hits the outside world. His skin is still thin and translucent, but that will start to change soon."

So that's what our little buddy is up to this week! I took a fabulous bath tonight and noticed that for the first time I can actually see little movements popping out through my stomach!!! For now they're just tiny and I have to look for them when I feel him moving around, but I know that will change quickly! It's fun! And in other news, my SIL, Jennifer, finds out what she's having tomorrow morning!!! I'm SOOOOOOOOO excited!!! Even though everyone thinks it's a girl, and she took an over the counter gender predictor that said girl (AND she has an overwhelmingly girl feeling), I'm still pumped to know for sure and to see the pics of her cute little face! I just know Jennifer will be updating her blog as soon as she finds out (right?)! :) hehe!

Work is kicking my bootie with an upcoming meeting that we have to prepare for, so I better go get some sleep while I can! Hope to see you later this week! xoxo!