30-week Appointment

We had an appointment with the doctor this week and everything is moving along smoothly! I am measuring right on track, my blood pressure is fine, and the doctor was pleased with how things are going. I only brought up a few small issues I've been having, to which the doctor replied, "Welcome to the third trimester!" :) We really like our doctor and have actually enjoyed having more frequent visits lately so we can get to know her a little better.

After our appointment we went to Lowe's to look at some plants for our patio. Of course that led to looking at patio furniture, outdoor lights, outdoor fans, and suddenly we were ready to redo the entire yard. Obviously we can't do that right now (time AND money are issues there!) but we enjoyed walking around and dreaming up plans for an awesome backyard. We got three plants, all known for repelling mosquitos, to start with. I haven't had great luck with plants in the past... so I'm starting with three smaller ones, and we'll hope to expand on that in the future.

Since we were looking at gardening things, I thought it was appropriate that I try on a gardening hat. Matt clearly didn't think it was a good decision. He just took my picture then walked away. I didn't think it was so bad!!

When we finished up there, we went to Freebirds! to enjoy a yummy dinner.



Matt pointed out that I had a cayenne pepper tortilla and added death sauce to my burrito... so we agreed that we should follow up burritos with malts from Marble Slab to "cool things off." So we did. I was miserably full by the time we headed home, but it was a delicious dinner!

We'll have another appointment in two weeks (8-months!), which should hopefully be about as uneventful as this one! At this point, uneventful is a good thing!

Musical Matt

Matt was recently invited to sing some songs at the Library in Canton for the little kids. He brought his guitar, ukulele, and strumstick and played a few songs for them. He even made the local newspaper! ;)

He's a pretty sweet guy.

Pregnancy Updates: 29 weeks

I'm in week 29! That's kind of hard to believe. The beginning of this pregnancy was so slow, probably due to morning sickness. Most of the second trimester kind of seemed to fly by. I know the bigger I get, the more time will start to drag near the end of the pregnancy.

Penny snuggled up next to my belly on Sunday and took an afternoon nap.

Overall, I'm still feeling pretty good. I got back on medicine for morning sickness and I immediately started feeling better. I've had some on and off back pain, but nothing unusual for pregnancy, I don't think.

I saw a chiropractor yesterday and am really excited about working with her in the future. I've seen a chiropractor once before, and noticed a difference in how I felt, but they have always wanted to set up a ridiculous schedule that isn't reasonable or affordable for us. This chiropractor was great and suggested a really reasonable plan for us. She loves what she does, has a special passion for working with pregnant women, was referred to me by the doctors at my office (they all had great things to say about one another), and we just got along really well. I'm hopeful that some time with her will help with my back pains.

Matt and I did some shopping in Tyler yesterday and made the mistake of going to a Carter's outlet store. People... some of those clothes are so stinkin cute. We resisted the urge and didn't buy anything, but it was tough. The "clothes bug" hit me a few weeks ago, but so far we haven't bought any clothes for her. But.... we look.... and oooh & aaahh a lot.

Things will start getting a little crazy soon. We are participating in LTC (Leadership Training for Christ) with the church, so that will keep us pretty busy over Easter weekend and the days leading up to it. We have a few other things scheduled for weekends in April and early May, all along with trying to get things set up in the nursery and preparing for the newest Ms. Porter! Buckle up!

Morning Sickness? Really?

Would you believe my morning sickness is still hanging around?

I could hardly believe it myself. I started taking medicine to manage the morning sickness at 8-weeks. Around 15-weeks I tried to cut back from two pills a day to just one, but my body quickly let me know it wasn't ready for that. At 25-weeks, I cut back again to just one pill, and my body finally seemed ok with that. I decided I would keep taking one pill a day until I ran out.

Well. I ran out. And guess what? Hello, again, morning sickness!

Now, it is not nearly as bad as before, but still enough to make me feel pretty queasy on and off throughout the day, and it makes eating some meals pretty difficult (even when they are delicious - I'll find myself jumping up to run to the bathroom between bites).

I know some people struggle with morning sickness (and much worse than what I've experienced) through their entire pregnancy. I'm at least thankful that mine is well-managed with medicine. Early on, I was concerned about taking medicine every day, but my doctor has assured me that the medicine is totally safe and that I could take through the whole pregnancy, if needed. It looks like I might be doing just that!

Some people have told me how much they loved being pregnant. I certainly recognize and appreciate the beauty of it all, and know it will be worth it in the end... but I don't think I'll be one of those women running around telling others how much I loved being pregnant!

The picture above cracks me up. The people who suggest these things are so well-meaning, and I understand that. I appreciate people trying to help (after all, most of them know what you're dealing with!). But I must admit that my smart-alecky self sometimes wanted to respond that way!

7 Months Pregnant!

Today marks 7 months pregnant! Hello, third trimester.

Who wants to compare the baby's size to a fruit or vegetable when you could compare it to a.... Chihuahua? I signed up for some "serious" weekly baby updates, but also subscribe to one called Pregnant Chicken. The language is usually pretty foul, but it is also usually pretty entertaining. This was the picture that greeted me when I opened up today's update.

Overall, things are still going pretty well. I have trouble sleeping on and off, but it hasn't been too bad at this point. I'm definitely noticing that I'm having trouble getting around as easily as before. It isn't uncommon for me to need to ask for a little bit of help getting up or picking something up off the floor. I could still manage it, but if someone else is around, I'll take the help! Stretch marks made their debut this weekend despite my faithful application of a DIY Pinterest miracle cream. I'm not crazy about them, but I don't think I'll lose too much sleep over it.

I've said this before, and I know I don't have anything to compare her to, but I think this little girl is super-girl in there! She doesn't stop moving and her kicks are so strong. Sometimes her kicks will shift my entire upper body. She is a wild child already! It has gotten to where we can tell when we're feeling a hand or foot versus a head or a butt. It is pretty neat!

We have an appointment this week and I have to take the glucose test. Yuck! The nurse gave me the flavor options of orange or fruit punch. I asked if one was better than the other and her response was, "Uh, no. They're both disgusting." So as you can imagine, I'm really looking forward to it. Matt and I have been trying to watch our sugar intake for a little while now (HUSH to those of you who saw me inhale that sopapilla yesterday), and I'll be even more aware of it this week, so hopefully we won't have any issues with the test. We are hopefully done with ultrasounds now (assuming we can avoid any future issues), so there likely won't be any more pictures of the baby until she arrives.

The nursery is no longer a mostly-empty room in our house. We are thankful for this baby's aunts, uncles, and grandparents for helping us stock up on things. We now have a crib, toys, books, diapers, clothes, and lots of other things! I guess the craziness starts now, as we start going through things and trying to get organized.

As we went through clothes that sweet Evie (and her parents, of course) were nice enough to share with us, Matt picked out a few that he gave a big "NO" to. I may not fight him too much on the ruffles, but I'll keep working on the Texas A&M dress... I think that one is pretty cute! ;)

Speaking of Matt, I sure do like that guy. I can't imagine doing any of this without him! He has been so helpful in taking care of me, taking care of housework when I'm too tired, working on beautiful projects for the nursery, and just loving our little family! And of course he keeps me laughing (I mean, just look at that picture above one more time). I got so tickled at him this weekend when he was feeling the baby kick. She was a busy girl in there and Matt kept saying, "What in the world is she doing in there? Is she doing cart-wheels? Good grief!" She gave him another show last night with lots of kicks, punches, and flips. He's a good man!

I don't have any 7-month pictures of myself. I am about 2 months past-due for a haircut, and just recently attempted (unsuccessfully) to shave my legs for the first time in weeks. I'm not exactly feeling glamorous lately. Maybe I'll try to pull myself together this week and share a 7 months + 1 week picture soon. Maybe.

French Toast Roll-ups

Matt loves stuffed french toast. The other day I decided to look up how to make some for him. I found a recipe that isn't exactly the same, but I knew the taste would be similar. We made them earlier in the week and they are delicious! This is not a healthy recipe, though you could make some adjustments to the recipe to make it not-so-bad.

For starters, I found the recipe HERE. That is also where I found this lovely picture of the finished product (hers, not ours):

There are a few things I'd like to note about what we did differently.

1. We didn't have fresh fruit on hand, so we used some whipped cream cheese and strawberry preserves as the filling and it was fantastic. You can use ANYTHING you want in these. That's part of the fun!

2. Also, I read in the comments someone who said, "SAVE THE CRUSTS" and I'm glad we did! Once we finished with the stuffed rolls, I threw all of the crusts into the remaining egg mixture, tossed it around, then dumped the whole thing in the skillet. We had some leftover filling, too, so we just put a spoonful or two on top of the cooked crusts and it was delicious.

3. Even though the directions say this, after reading through the comments, it seems some people didn't flatten their bread before stuffing and rolling it, and that led to soggy rolls. So flatten the bread!

4. Mine did not roll up beautifully like in the pictures. I ended up just folding the edge over and pressing the bread together to create a bit of a seal. Some of the filling oozed out of the ends, but it was fine.

Give it a try! I read in the comments that you could make a bunch ahead of time, leave them in a casserole dish overnight, then bake them in the morning. I may have to try that sometime!