Elevensies

Ever since the vomiting stopped and my appetite returned, things have been going swimmingly in the eating department (as my rapid weight gain will attest).  And although I haven't had the absolute ravenous hunger I had with some of my other pregnancies, it is turning my meal schedule upside down.  because I'm not hungry at the normal times, or, I am, but I'm also hungry at other times too.  For example, I still eat lunch at about my usual time, and I will get super full from my normal amount of food, but there is no way I can wait until dinner to eat again.  I usually am starving around 4:30pm or so, so I end up having second lunch or early dinner at that time.  Which then of course means I'm not hungry at dinner time, but have to eat second dinner later that night - around 10pm.

Now, normally I really try not to eat too late at night, but lately I've just been too hungry to ignore it, plus I tend to wake up feeling sick I'm so hungry, so I've been going with it and eating really late at night.  Which doesn't really help with my desire to go to bed earlier each night, and certainly isn't helping my bottom line, if you know what I mean (see aforementioned weight gain).  But whatever.  After this baby I will have no possible excuse for pigging out again in my lifetime. I can't fail justify not losing all the weight and say, oh I might have another baby, or I just had a baby, or any of the other million baby related excuses I might come up with - I'll have to admit that I'm just fat.  Which means I'm going to have to make an actual effort to really eat healthy and get into the type of shape I want to be.

So for now I'm eating when and what I want.  And loving every minute.

Gender Neutral

I had THE BIG ultrasound today:  All measurements and development is normal and good - and I did NOT find out the baby's gender.  Which wasn't hard at all, except that now I feel totally weird because everyone in the doctor's office knows, but I don't.  I kept wanting to say "you know, don't you?" to all the nurses and doctor and technician.  It was totally easy to keep myself in the dark when no one knew, but it is much harder now that it has gone from a simple unknown to a "secret" that some people know and others don't.  There's some psychology, right there.

But regardless of the business downstairs, everything on the baby looks really great - we saw a lovely profile, and little hands and feet and all that good stuff.  So there really is a baby in there - or so they tell me.

Pack Rat

One week from today I will be in Hawaii.  For the first of six days, on the first vacation I've been on in seven years (ten if you don't count the trip we took to a hurricane, which you probably shouldn't).  To say I'm excited would be an understatement - although I'm only excited if I think about Hawaii, and the beach, and the pool, and relaxing.  If I think about being away from my kids for that long I just start to cry. Three days is my personal records for being away from them (and only with my husband watching them, they have never been left overnight with anyone but a parent), and the thought of eight days is almost inconceivable to me.

*sniffle*

But moving on to the point of this post: you know how you get stupid when you are pregnant? Or at least, how I get stupid?  Well, apparently the effects are cumulative, so you can imagine the state of my brain by this fourth pregnancy - I'm impressed I remember to put pants on everyday (yes, leggings are pants!).  Plus, I've got this lingering, mild but still annoying head cold right now which has sapped my concentration further.  Plus, I've been in panicked planning mode ever since we found out we were going, but because it would have been stupid to pack three weeks ago it just remained this impotent list of to-dos and to-brings rattling around in my brain.  I'm pretty sure by now half of the items on my lists have been forgotten and lost in my mental cobwebs.  And finally, add in the fact that I have to be packed TODAY, despite not leaving until Wednesday because Brett leaves tomorrow morning and he gets two bags free as a platinum VIP member and I am cheap and don't want to pay for a bag.

Yeah, I pretty much have no idea what is in my suitcase.

I sorted through a bunch of clothes last week and laid them out all ready to pack - thank goodness for my maxi dress obsession because I'll not be needing any maternity summer clothes!  But I'm not actually sure if I really got out EVERY article of clothing I planned to bring.  And I'm sure not going back through it all, pbfffflt.  Last night I spent over an hour organizing toiletries and decanting them into tiny travel containers so I had everything I might need in my carry on, as well as everything else in my suitcase, as still have access to certain things I need to use over the next week before I leave.  I loaded all my clothes and shoes and lotions and potions into my suitcase, and just barely got it zipped up.  And then I realized I had forgotten pajamas, a purse (NOT toting my gigantic carry on to the beach!) and about ten other things.  So some shoes came out, and the forgotten items (sunglasses!) went in, and hopefully I'm ready now.  Thank goodness for e-readers because I normally bring a huge stack of books with me but there is no room this time.  I sure hope I remember my camera and my ipod and all my attendant cords and chargers and whatnot. I sure hope I don't think of ten extra things that won't fit into my carry on after Brett leaves. 

Whatever.  I'm going to HAWAII!!!!!!!!!


ps: OMG I'm leaving my children for over a week.  Deep breaths.

Friends Photo Challenge

I know, you're probably thinking "Oh God, not another photo challenge," but when my friend( and kindred spirit shoe lover) Undomestic Diva posted a Friends themed challenge, how could I say no?  I promise I won't clutter up my entire blog with daily postings this time - I'm doing this challenge solely with my cell phone (which is NOT an iphone so forgive the low res pics) so I'll just try and do a weekly wrap up.  To kick it off:

#1 - the one with all the coffee

I found some premixed iced coffee in the dairy section at the grocery store that for some reason I just had to try, and I am completely in love. Of course, it totally has caffeine in it so I can't have very much and I'm up til all hours of the night (not that I wasn't anyway), but it is so delicious that I just don't care. I am such a rebel.

ps: follow along with the photo challenge (or join in!) on Twitter - hashtag #FRIENDSpc

pps: I'm also keeping up with my daily photo blog - I have monthly cues all ready to keep me busy.  Check it out here

Back In The Zone

So, I have decided that my 'new habit' goal for February will be to get back into exercising regularly.  I've basically spent the past three years going to the gym 3-5 times a week, but since I got pregnant I have been... twice.  So I really need to change that.  However, I've also noticed that since I stopped going to the gym I haven't woken up with scorching back pain even once. So..... clearly continuing to hit the elliptical is not the best option (although, hello movie room - I'm not giving that up altogether!).

Anyway, part of the reason I joined this gym (aside from the movie room, the super price we got and the fact that it is right by my house) was that it had morning yoga classes three times a week.  Yoga is my favorite, and I would happily trade in my gym membership for a pass to a yoga studio - except that yoga studios don't have childcare.  So last year when I started my membership I was hitting the yoga hard - I made at least two classes a week, and more often all three, and I felt great.  I was calmer, my practice really improved, it was wonderful.  Then they cut the Thursday class.  And then I got a deal on some training sessions, but I could only go during the Tuesday class.  And Saturdays, well, I just couldn't be motivated to go to the gym on Saturdays, or the kids refused to go with me and I couldn't muster the energy to force the into it and it all fell by the wayside.  Basically I stopped going all together - I haven't been to yoga in months.  But a few days ago I was checking the gym class schedule online and I noticed that they have added the Thursday class back in, and as I was deciding February was the perfect time to refocus on my physical fitness, it seemed like a sign.

So today I returned to yoga class.  I was a little shaky, and there were some interesting 'I'm bent over and my breakfast wants to heed gravity's call' moments, but in general it was great.  I lucked in to a fairly easy class - we were focusing on back bends and hip stretching which plays nicely in to my natural flexibility, rather than a million chaturangas which would have sorely taxed my atrophied arm muscles, and at the end I felt good without being exhausted.

Ican't wait to go back on Thursday.