Menu Monday

It’s a short week of meals because we’re going home to Athens for a visit this weekend.

Monday night: Homemade chili. I use the Carroll Shelby seasoning kit and add onions to the ground beef and then a can of kidney beans and a can of diced tomatoes to the chili. I serve it over Fritos chips. We like it hot so we add the cayenne pepper.

Tuesday night: Baked tilapia with asparagus and roasted red potatoes. I will most likely cook the potatoes and fish similar to how I did it last week.

Wednesday night: Leftover chili with hot dogs. Because with just the two of us, we are sure to have leftovers tonight and I’m trying to make our grocery budget stretch.

Thursday night: Creole shrimp sauté with steamed broccoli. This is an Apron’s recipe from Publix. It’s really easy and super quick and tastes oh-so-buttery and indulgent. I make one small change to the recipe based on another time I made it and didn’t have the ingredient I needed. Instead of using bacon in it, which we found got kind-of gross and soggy (I know, who knew bacon could be gross?), I put little mini-pepperonis in it. It adds just the right amount of spice. If you want the recipe, go here.

Our little blessing at 15 weeks

How far along? 15 weeks

Baby’s size? The baby is the size of an orange (about four inches long and 2.5 ounces). Continuing the march towards normal proportions, the baby's legs now outmeasure the arms. And, finally, all four limbs have functional joints. The fetus is squirming and wiggling like crazy down in the womb, though I probably still won’t be able to feel the movements.

Maternity clothes? Pretty much only wearing maternity jeans and stretchy gym shorts or yoga pants. My regular shirts still fit fine, especially the longer ones.

Sleep? Sleep is okay most nights, but the last couple of nights I’ve had that whole restless leg syndrome feeling and it’s been almost impossible to get back to sleep.

Food cravings? Fruit and juice still. Salt and vinegar chips. (To which Tim says yuck!)

Food aversions? Nothing.

Symptoms? Restless legs. A weird sort-of sore, stretchy feeling inside my lower abdomen. Stuffy nose. Plus my hair seems to be falling out a lot more than usual. But nothing too bad. 

Best moment this week? Tim playing music against my belly for the baby.

Movement? Nope.

Any ideas about the gender? Tim had another dream about the baby this week and this time he dreamed it was a girl. Otherwise, still no idea, though we should find out in about five weeks or so.

What I miss about not being pregnant? I miss my real jeans. Especially right now when I don’t feel like I look pregnant, but I don’t fit into my regular pants.

What I’m looking forward to? Little kicks and punches.

Yum!

     What do you do when you have a bunch of freshly picked apples from the north Georgia mountains?     Scour the Internet for a yummy recipe, of course!
     I found this recipe for Whole Wheat Apple Muffins on a cooking blog called Smitten Kitchen. If you want to check out that blog, you can go here. I altered the recipe slightly and the muffins turned out great!
     Luckily, I had most of the ingredients already in my cupboards/fridge. 

Whole Wheat Apple Muffins

Yield: They said 12, I  got about 16

Ingredients:

1 cup (4 ounces) whole wheat flour
1 cup (4 1/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 large egg, lightly beaten
6 ounces yogurt plain yogurt, plus a splash or so of milk if the batter isn't moist enough
2 large apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Grease and flour 18 muffin cups and set aside.

Mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, and set aside. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and add the granulated sugar and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. Beat until fluffy. Add the egg and mix well; stop once to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.Mix in the yogurt and milk. Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the apple chunks.

   Here's the final result. If you have the ingredients on hand, make these muffins. Make them now.

Hump Day Bump Day

Camping last weekend in Blairsville was a lot of fun. We sat around the fire and talked, ate hobo meals and peach cobbler, roasted marshmallows, visited the Sorghum Festival, and did a small bit of hiking. And we actually ran into Tim's parents unexpectedly while they were in Young Harris. The temperature was pretty perfect and it was great getting to spend time with friends and family.
We took my 14 weeks "bump" photo while we were camping last Saturday. Forgive the camping hair and lack of make-up.

We got to use our tent for the second time together.

 Also, here is a picture of Tim and I as a bonus.

Menu Monday

Here is our menu for this week.

Monday night: Sausages with sautéed cabbage and apples. The sausages were given to us by family friends from south Georgia and the apples are from our camping trip in Blairsville last weekend. The side dish is a new recipe that I’ve never tried before. I found it in the October 2010 issue of Real Simple.
Tuesday night: Roasted tilapia, potatoes, and lemon. This is a recipe from the October 2010 issue of Real Simple. We’ll have it with sautéed green beans.

Wednesday night: Chicken lo mein. This is a really easy short-cut recipe I got off the Real Simple website. It uses ramen noodles and Tim really likes it. 

Thursday night: Chicken, spinach, and cannellini soup. This is a recipe from Paula Deen magazine. With the weather finally getting cooler, it’s the perfect time for soup!

Friday night: Pork chops, sweet potato fries, and homemade applesauce. The original recipe was from Cooking Light magazine.

Saturday night: Southwestern quiche. I’m going to try to replicate the quiche at The Big Easy in Watkinsville. We’ll see if I can pull it off…

Sunday night: Not sure what we’ll have this night. I may just scrounge around the kitchen to see what I can throw together. 

Our little blessing at 14 weeks

I'm posting this a day early because we're going out of town on a camping trip this weekend. And I already missed last week's update because we were out of town for my great-grandmother's funeral. 

How far along? 14 weeks

Baby’s size? The baby is the size of a lemon. The fetus is busy with thumb sucking, toe wiggling, and (not so cute but equally amazing) making urine and breathing amniotic fluid as the liver, kidneys and spleen continue to develop. Lanugo (thin, downy hair) is growing all over the body for warmth.

Maternity clothes? I’m occasionally wearing my maternity jeans. I have a few maternity shirts, but I won’t wear those until I get a bigger baby bump.

Sleep? Sleep is pretty great. I do wake up a few times in the night, but I fall asleep again pretty quickly.

Food cravings? Grape juice! I drank a whole bottle in two days. I also demolished a pineapple in about the same amount of time.

Food aversions? Nothing really.

Symptoms? Nothing really.

Best moment this week? According to the books, the baby should be able to hear by next week. Because Tim thinks our baby is an overachiever, he’s already started talking to my stomach. It’s really cute.

Movement? Nope.

Any ideas about the gender? Tim dreamed that it was a boy last weekend, but we still won’t know for sure for another month or so. According to one of the old wives tales I read online, if you dream that the baby is a boy, it’s really a girl and vice versa. Can’t wait to find out! Check out our guesses in the previous post and cast your vote in the poll on the side of the page!

What I miss about not being pregnant? Compared to the excitement of having a baby, I don’t miss anything.

What I’m looking forward to? Feeling the baby move around. And getting a more obvious baby bump.

No picture for now, but we'll try to take one this weekend while we're on our camping trip. 

Boy or Girl?

We have a little while still until we can find out the baby’s gender. So I thought it would be fun to see what the old wives’ tales have to say about predicting the baby’s gender.

Highs and Lows

This one you can do just by looking south: if you're carrying high, break out the pink. If your bump is low, you're carrying a boy. 

It’s too early to tell, but I wanted to put this up on the blog a little while before we were able to find out the baby’s gender, so we’ll see about this one later.

Be Still My Beating Heart

Next time your OB pulls out the Doppler to listen to baby's heartbeat, ask her to tell you what the heart rate is. According to legend, 140+ beats per minute indicates a girl, and below 140 a boy.

The last time I went to the doctor, the baby’s heartbeat was at 156 beats per minute. According to the old wives, that means a girl.

Sweet and Sour

Craving ice cream every single day? Some people believe this means it's a girl. If you have to have salty or sour stuff, then it's a boy.

I’ve mainly been craving fruit and sweet stuff, so that indicates a girl.

Chinese Birth Chart

This ancient method uses your age at conception and the month you did the deed to determine gender.

According to this, it should be a girl.

Potty Time

This one's a little out there. Pee in a cup (you've been doing it at all your prenatal appointments anyway, haven't you?), mix a tablespoon of Drano in, and watch to see if it changes color. Green = girl, and blue = boy.

We actually tried this one because we thought it was weird and funny. Unfortunately, we are cheap and use the off-brand of Drano, so my urine stayed a normal color. So no official results from this one.

Even and Odd

Legend has it that the Mayans determined a baby's sex by looking at the mother's age at conception and the year of conception. If both are even or odd, it's a girl. If one's even and one's odd, it's a boy.

I’m 25 and we conceived in 2010, so one is even and one is odd. That means it’s a boy.

Unlocking the Mystery

This is one for a friend to try. Place a key in front of your friend and ask her to pick it up. If she grabs it by the narrow part, she's in for sugar and spice and all that. If she picks it up by the round part, it's snips and snails.

Without knowing which one meant what, I picked up the fatter part of the key, which means a boy.

Spot On

If you're breaking out like crazy, blame it on your girl babe. The belief goes that girls steal their mother's beauty, hence, those annoying zits.

I haven’t had a complexion like this since high school. Chalk another one up to a girl.

Nice Ring to It

Pop off your wedding ring-if you still can!-and tie it to a string. Hang it over your belly. If it swings in a circle, a little guy's in your future. If it goes back and forth, you've got a girl.

The ring went back and forth, but it wasn’t swinging a whole lot. So another one for girl.

Queasy Does It

Sick as a dog during the first trimester-or still? Signs indicate you're having a girl. Little or no morning sickness points to a boy.

Absolutely no morning sickness at all, so signs point to a boy.

So according to this (at least the ones that work so far):

Boy: 3

Girl: 5

Not that the results have anything to do with it, but my gut feeling is that it's a girl.

I read that the mother is right about the gender 71 percent of the time. If it’s a boy though, we’ll both be really happy anyway. We really don’t have a preference either way. It’s fun to guess.

So, we'd love to know what you think our little blessing is.

We’ve added a poll on the sidebar so you can cast your vote!

Our little blessing at 12 weeks

I will try to do weekly updates on Saturdays because that is the start of a new week of pregnancy for us.  I found these prompt questions on another blogger’s pregnancy site. I may add or take away some in the future. I have been keeping these entries on my computer since I was six weeks pregnant, so I may post those as well, so you can see how I’ve progressed.

How far along? 12 weeks

Baby’s size? The baby is the size of a plum. As I move into the second trimester, baby shifts into the growth and maturation stage. After weeks in the critical development stage, almost all of baby's systems are fully formed. This week the baby's fingers will soon begin to open and close, toes will curl, eye muscles will clench, and the mouth will make sucking movements.

Maternity clothes? Still wearing my regular clothes, though I unbutton my jeans sometimes after I’ve eaten dinner when they feel a little snug.

Sleep? I was sleeping really deeply at night until the last few days. Now I wake up a ton more and have trouble falling back to sleep. I guess it can be attributed to my first trimester exhaustion waning.

Food cravings? Still juice. I go through about a bottle a week. And this week at the grocery store I really wanted some raspberries.

Food aversions? Nothing really. Still not a big fan of salads, but I eat them anyway.

Symptoms? Not much of anything especially since my first trimester exhaustion seems to be going away. I do have to use the bathroom pretty frequently, but that could also be because I’m trying to drink a ton of water after the doctor told me I was a little dehydrated on Wednesday.

Best moment this week? Going to the doctor and hearing the baby’s heartbeat. Irrationally, because I don’t have a lot of symptoms, it’s easy for me to worry whether the baby is okay or not, so it was nice to be able to hear that quick little thump-thump-thump to reassure me. The heartbeat was measured at 156 beats per minute.

Movement?  No movement, though most of my baby books say I may be able to feel something at about 16 weeks, which is only four weeks away. I can’t wait!

Any ideas about the gender? We have a feeling that it might be a girl. But we’d be happy with either a boy or a girl. A friend of mine said she dreamed it was a girl this week. Another dreamed it was twins. (Wrong!)

What I miss about not being pregnant? Nothing really since I don’t feel pregnant, though sometimes I miss coffee and other caffeinated beverages because I’m trying not to drink caffeine.

What I’m looking forward to? Feeling the baby move sometime in the next month or so! And learning whether it is a boy or a girl so I can start shopping!

And here is a belly picture. I look pretty much the same except for a little pooch under my belly button. We will try to take a belly picture each week to update you on my preggo belly progress.

April

I have never been a big fan of the month of April. April is just one of those months that managed to somehow sneak into the year. I mean, we have September and October when the leaves are turning and you get to drink apple cider and go to fall festivals. Not to mention college football. In November, December and January we get holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas and days off school and work. February has Valentine’s Day and March has typically brought us snow in Georgia in the past few years. May brings spring weather and the end of school. June, July, and August are full sunshine and summer vacations and in our family, lots of birthdays. But what about April? It's just stuck in between March and May.  Although it does have Easter as a holiday, (April Fool’s Day doesn’t count), mostly the month centers on taxes and rain.

A couple of months ago, though, April took on new life for us. April is about six months away and April will be the month in which our first child is born.

We’re both beyond excited. I’ve already bought at least six pregnancy books (one of which was for Tim from the viewpoint of the dad…and he’s actually reading it!). I'm pretending that my belly fat is already the baby showing. I take naps whenever I want and chalk it up to growing a person. I eat everything that the baby wants (which may sometimes just be what I want) and I thankfully have had no morning sickness. So far the lack of symptoms has made it difficult to really accept that I’m pregnant (is there really something in there?), but in the next few months as I start to show, I think it will become more real.

Anyway, needless to say, we now have a reason to look forward to April!