Jenn Maternity

My good friend (and VBAC buddy) Jenn is having #3! I was lucky enough to take some pictures of her and her sweet family last weekend. Here are a couple that I love from our session. :)

 

 

16 weeks 3 days

Pregnancy: 16 weeks 3 days

Baby's Size: He/She is the size of an avacado. This is what the baby looks like this week.

Weight Gain: +4 pounds (as of 12 weeks). I missed my appointment with my midwife last week because of the "snow storm." Notice the "quotes." My appointment was re-scheduled for Wednesday ... so we'll see how much I've gained then! I'm guessing I'm up a total of 12-15 pounds. Yeah.

Maternity Clothes: Not yet! I'm rockin' my pre-pregnancy clothes as long as I can! 

Sleep: I'm sleeping really well! If I roll onto my stomach in the night my body usually ends up waking me up after a while to flip back over to my back or side.

Gender:  I'm thinking girl. Addison definitely thinks it's a girl. So does the chinese gender calendar.

Name: My favorite girl name right now is Avery. Philip doesn't hate it, which means he likes it.

Feeling: I can't complain! The past few days I've had a nauseous, bloated, heartburn funky thing going on. It's definitely manageable though.

Health: So far so good. Good blood pressure at last appointment and still trying to chug the H2O.

Heartbeat: 138. Which did worry me... but apparently it's in the normal range.

Movement: I've been feeling more movement and flutters this week! I can definitely recognize when it's the baby.

Baby Center Update: Get ready for a growth spurt. In the next few weeks, your baby will double his weight and add inches to his length. Right now, he's about the size of an avocado: 4 1/2 inches long (head to rump) and 3 1/2 ounces. His legs are much more developed, his head is more erect than it has been, and his eyes have moved closer to the front of his head. His ears are close to their final position, too. The patterning of his scalp has begun, though his locks aren't recognizable yet. He's even started growing toenails. And there's a lot happening inside as well. For example, his heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day, and this amount will continue to increase as your baby continues to develop.



 

When I woke up this morning to snow, I knew it would be a great day to get some outside snow pictures with CD. It wasn't unbearably cold and the snow was coming straight down in big flakes. I realized my camera was in my car (which was with H) so I left CD with my mom to brave the roads to go get the camera. When I got to my mom's, CD was NOT cooperating. He did not want to put his snow boots on and was throwing a hissy fit. I was basically forcing him to... because I really wanted to get some pictures. Mom of the year, eh? I knew he'd have fun once he got out in the snow. After about 30 minutes of whining, time outs, crying, ripping socks and boots on and off, we got him ready to go out into the snow. I was so excited because he was finally enjoying the snow and big juicy flakes were falling from the sky.... perfect for pictures. I clicked my camera on, and ....


the battery was dead. And I had no spare battery :( Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.


I did have my handy-dandy iPhone though... so at least I was able to capture the fun, even if it wasn't like I was hoping.

Finally happy after the series of meltdowns before coming outside.

Chillin' with his little snowman we made. The snowman was his little buddy. He squatted there by him for quite a while and they chatted it up. I looked down and CD held up 2 fingers to the snowman and said - "Two." I said, "Did he ask how old you are?" CD said, "Yeah!" lol.

"Two" is his automatic response to any question from a stranger.

What's your name? Two.

How are you? Two.

How old are you? Two.

Two outta three.

And a close up of the little ugly snowman. We were limited on resources for his mouth. He looks skeptical.








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First pregnancy update

Well bloggers - this mama is pregnant with #2!


Pregnancy: 15 weeks 2 days

Weight Gain: +4lbs as of 12 weeks. I have my 16 week appointment next Wednesday and I'm a little afraid to step on the scale, not gunna lie.

Sleep: I've been sleeping wonderfully. It's not as comfortable to sleep on my belly anymore

Gender: Don't know and won't find out! At first I was thinking boy... but now I'm thinking girl. I'm sticking with girl for a while.

Name: I like a lot of names, but we haven't been able to agree on too many yet.

Feeling: Great! No more nausea, still somewhat energetic.

Health: I could be exercising more.... but I'm in overall good health and so is baby. It's been my goal to drink at least 64 ounces of water a day, which has been attainable so far.

Heartbeat: 145-150bpm (from 171bpm at 10 weeks)

Movement: I've been feeling little flutters for the past couple of weeks. Sometimes I'm not sure if it's baby moving or just gas... but there have been a handful of times I know for certain it's baby. :)


I think, since we're not finding out the sex, this baby needs a nickname so I don't have to keep calling it "it" and "baby." Any ideas?

We've been telling Cooper there is a baby in mommy's belly. At night when he prays with daddy he prays for baby too. It's so sweet. When I use the doppler to listen to the baby's heartbeat he always points to my belly and says, "Baby! Baby!" We'll see if he's still so excited once he/she actually gets here :)


Here is my most recent "belly bump" or lack thereof. I didn't start showing with Cooper until around 25 weeks... so we'll see if it takes that long with #2.

Here is a short video of the baby's heartbeat. I first found the HB with my doppler at home at 9w2d. It used to take 15-20 minutes to find it because it was so small. It's crazy how big the baby has gotten since then! It took me all of 5 seconds to find the baby's HB this time around.

And of course there is some of Cooper in the video too. :) He was dancing to the sound of the HB like it was music.

New recipes!

For lunch yesterday I decided to make my own version of Johnnies new Strawberry Spinach Salad. It was just me for lunch, no way I could get the little guy to eat a salad!

Strawberry Spinach Salad
Spinach
1 cup-ish Strawberries
1T Feta Cheese
1T Pecans
10 sprays of salad spritzer raspberry balsamic dressing

WW PointsPlus = 5 points (check me on this, I'm still not 100% how this new program stuff works)

This was VERY easy to throw together and it was DELISH! I will definitely be making this again. 

For dinner I decided to try out WW's Vegetable Lasagna recipe. It was a little more complicated. (Well, not actually complicated, but chopping and roasting vegetables = complicated to this girl)

Vegetable Lasagna 

1 medium, raw eggplant (peeled and sliced 1/4-inch thick)

1 medium zucchini (sliced 1/4-inch thick)

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

1 clove garlic

28 oz canned tomatoes, whole, chopped, in their own juice

10 oz mushrooms (bleh, we hate mushrooms so we omitted this)

1 large green pepper, chopped

1/2 cup parsley, flat leaf, chopped

5 pieces no cook lasagna noodles 

2 oz Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Spray 2 baking sheets and an 8-inch-square baking dish with nonstick spray. Arrange the eggplant and zucchini slices on the baking sheets, overlapping a few slices, if necessary. Spray the tops with nonstick spray, sprinkle with the salt and pepper, and bake until tender, 15 minutes. Set aside (leave the oven on).

Heat a large nonstick skillet. Swirl in the oil, then add the garlic. Sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes, mushrooms, frying peppers, parsley, and another grinding of the pepper; cook over medium-low heat until the sauce is bubbling but not yet thickened. Remove from the heat. (The sauce can be made up to 3 days ahead at this point; just transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate.)

I've never purchased lasagna noodles in my adult life..... so this is what the kind I bought looked like :) You're supposed to get the "no bake" kind. 

Spread 1⁄2 cup of the sauce evenly over the bottom of the baking dish. Cover with 1 or 2 lasagna noodles (depending on the size you are using); top with one-fourth of the eggplant and zucchini slices, then top with another 1⁄2 cup of the sauce. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of the Parmesan cheese. Repeat the procedure to make 4 more layers, ending with a layer of noodles topped with sauce. If any sauce remains, pour it on the top and around the edges of the lasagna. Be sure to use all the sauce (it’s needed to cook the noodles). Press down gently on the lasagna with a spatula to help the noodles absorb the sauce; the lasagna will compact as it cooks.

Ok, 1/2 cup of sauce was NOTHING. I think next time I'll use an 8x8 pan instead of 9x13.

I used more noodles than it said because of the size of my pan

I will also likely make more eggplant and zucchini than it said for next time. There was almost nothing left and I only did 3 layers, not 4.

All done before going into the oven!

Cooked and ready to eat!

Even the little guy liked it! (Although it was messy, so we had to lose the shirt :-) )

This afternoon for lunch I decided carbs sounded good. Potatoes aren't the healthiest of all choices, but it was simple to make and very filling! 

Broccoli Cheddar Potatoes 

Pretty self explanatory.... 

Bake 2 potatoes at 400 degrees for an hour, slice open and put in cheddar cheese and steamed broccoli (I added a little garlic). Cook for another 5-10 minutes and serve! 

Me and the little guy CHOWED on these today for lunch. Very, very good!