My belly--19 weeks

Today D and I went for our 2nd ultrasound. This time it was a Level II ultrasound which means that they take much more time and really study each of the baby's parts including the heart, kidneys, hands, feet, legs, arms, and brain. They also take measurements of the head circumference, femur, and cerebellum. Based on all of this, they confirmed what they thought based on my first ultrasound--I am actually 19 weeks pregnant when we thought I was 17 weeks. So, instead of having a due date around October 2, 2008, it will be more like September 20, 2008. So, I'm just about halfway through my pregnancy! Also, the baby looks perfectly healthy and has a nice strong heartbeat of 150 beats per minute.

As of my OB visit last Thursday, I had only gained 1lb overall, but I gained 5lbs between my March appointment and my April appointment due to the end of my morning sickness. D and I measured my waist circumference this weekend and it's 39 1/4 inches. I wonder what it will be right before I deliver!!! (Keep in mind when looking at the picture at the top of this post that I have a 40DDD chest, which is why my belly doesn't look very big).

Speaking of delivery, this past weekend we went to visit our newest nephew who made his arrival on April 11th. LAV (his initials) acted like a perfect baby and slept almost the entire day when we were there. Of course, he kept his mother up most of the previous night, and while we were visiting he had someone holding him the entire time (I didn't want to let him go). His older brother BZV (initials again) is 2 and was very funny. He loves his new brother, but wishes that he knew how to talk already!

Since LAV's parents are moving at the end of June (my brother-in-law has a 2 year surgical fellowship in Virginia), they dug up some plants from their garden for us. So, on Sunday I planted some of their lily of the valley around a little dogwood that came from my parents yard. I also planted one of their peonies (originally from D's grandparent's house), and 2 daylillies. An orange California poppy and a purple coneflower from my sister/brother-in law's garden will get planted as soon as we remove a stump from the perennial garden. I love plants with history! I still have the descendants of a spider plant that I propagated from my friend Wendy's plant 10 years ago, kalanchoes made from cuttings of a plant my friend Clare brought to my apartment 6 years ago, and I rooted some ivy that was in my bridesmaid bouquet from my friend Darci's wedding. My plan is to give Darci some of the ivy for her 1st anniversary.

March Showers Bring April Flowers

I know it's supposed to be "April Showers Bring May Flowers," but it's been so warm here that the flowers are all blooming! The weather is predictably unpredictable and while it was in the 20s overnight last week, today was about 80.

In the past week all of the flowers I planted last fall have started blooming! The tulips were the first to poke through the ground (a full 2 weeks before the daffodils), but the daffodils bloomed earlier (as they should). Now we have daffodils, tulips, vinca, forsythia, and azalea all blooming at once. This is the azalea in front of the house:

And, I am very pleased that it looks like all of the daffodils and tulips I planted last fall have come up and are blooming or ready to bloom. I'll get out my garden journal and check exactly how many of the ones I planted came up, but it really appears to be all of them. This is great! I now can highly endorse the Naturalizing Daffodil Mix from Park Seed and the Perrenial Tulip Mix Super Sak from Breck's.

So, to review the Naturalizing Daffodil Mix from Park Seed I would give it an A. The bulbs were large with probably 25% of them having 3 sprouts. I think in the 2 bags of 50 I purchased there were maybe 2 bad bulbs (and there may have actually been more than 50 in the bag). There is definitely a mix of colors, shapes and sizes. Some are large all yellow singles, some are white and yellow singles, some all yellow frilly ones, some light yellow and white frilly ones, and some small yellow with orange centers. I'll complete my review next spring when I see how many come back and to what extent they multiply in one year.


For the Perrenial Tulip Mix Super Sak I would also give a grade A. I planted 59 bulbs last fall and I thought I counted 61 tulips sprouting in the flower beds (but I must have miscounted). These bulbs were also very large and if I planted 59 that means there was only one bad bulb in the bag. I was happily surprised that the deer didn't eat any of the tulips because they seem to have eaten just about everything else (see this post). The tulips that have bloomed so far are yellow/orange, red, and orange/yellow. There are about 40 that haven't bloomed yet so there may be other colors as well.

Random Thoughts (Again)

At lunch time today I headed to Whole Foods to pick up a dessert for a BBQ we are attending tonight. On the way there traffic was blocked by a turkey crossing the road. up where I live this wouldn't strike me as odd, but down where I work it was really funny to see. There it was, crossing the street in front of the courthouse and it made me laugh hysterically!

I still have an aversion to sweets, especially chocolate. I walked to Starbucks after lunch today and picked up a grande decaf iced mocha. I started sipping it and thought, "man this is sweet" and almost went back into Starbucks to buy a milk to dilute it. I didn't buy the milk, just took the drink back to the office. It's 2 1/2 hours later and I still have 1/2 of the mocha left (unheard of in the pre-pregnancy days). I guess I didn't have to be concerned that having chocolate today would bring my sweet tooth back.

On the way out the door this morning I took a walk around the yard to see if anything was blooming. Three daffodils looked about to open, and some of the vinca (which the deer chewed to bits) has started to grow back and bloom. It's supposed to have gotten into the 70s today so I'll bet that I have more daffs blooming tomorrow--and I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of the tulips bloomed too.

A Little Grossed Out

I've been eating a ton of cut up fruit and raw veggies lately. These are my new cravings and I'm pretty happy that I have healthy cravings now. Yesterday D and I had a big platter of veggies and fruit (cucumbers, carrots, red peppers, strawberries, pineapple) for lunch and I was wishing I had something to dip my veggies in, but there was nothing in the fridge. So, today at lunchtime I went to the supermarket to get something to dip my veggies in at work. Being that I was taking it to work, I had to go with something pre-packaged rather than something I would make myself. I checked out some different ranch dip options, but was blown away by the fat and calories (shouldn't have been surprised). So I settled on some Fat Free Ranch Veggie Dip by T. Marzetti.

I just opened the dip now to have with my late afternoon snack of veggies. The way the dip looked was a little disconcerting. The only word I can use to describe it is gelatinous. I dipped a cucumber in it and it tasted good enough, but I was curious as to what was in it. The first 2 ingredients are water and maltodextrin. Sounds appetizing, doesn't it? I had to look up maltodextrin and it turns out that it's an easily digestible carbohydrate classified as a sweet polysaccharide that is typically made from corn, rice, or potato starch. It's typically used to add texture to foods or to thicken, and is also used in artificial sweetners. Ick.

In addition to the maltodextrin, the dip contains all sorts of ingredients with chemical rather than "natural" names. I'm sure that there are plenty of things I eat that contain as many additives and preservatives as this stuff, but I don't think I've knowingly eaten something with this much "stuff" on the label in a long time. The thing is, the stuff tastes good, but not nearly as good as if I had made a dip with sour cream and spices. I'm thinking of making a dip with a mix of full fat yummy sour cream mixed with tofu (I generally dislike tofu, but it works with the sour cream for me). In the meantime, I'll keep on with the maltodextrin stuff.

Ironically, I spent quite a while at the grocery store today looking for lemonade that was made with sugar rather than corn syrup...and come to find out, the dip has corn syrup in it too!

Random Thoughts

I just noticed that the maternity pants I'm wearing today have belt loops. I guess it's because belts hold up your pants (duh), but I was thinking of a belt more as a fashion accessory and wondering who the heck would tuck a shirt into maternity pants and put on a belt. Another question that begs asking is what woman would actually have a belt that would fit around her expanding pregnant belly? I'm beyond being able to ransack my husband's closet (I was nearly beyond it before pregnancy).

Last night I thought I got poison ivy. I was sitting at the dinner table when all of the sudden my ankles started to itch like mad. I has been walking around the yard with shoes but no socks, so I was worried I had walked though poison ivy. Turns out I have 4-5 mosquito bites on each ankle--better than having poison ivy, but still not good. Nothing's blooming yet, but already the man-eating mosquitoes have emerged from the swamp. It's going to be a long spring/summer! Of course being pregnant I'm not supposed to use DEET at all. Instead I'll be dousing myself with white vinegar (which actually works pretty well)--hope D doesn't mind that his wife smells like Easter Eggs!

My 6th nephew was born today. My brother-in-law sent some great pictures including one where the doctor is holding up the baby probably just after clamping the cord. He looks like such a big baby (my nephew, not the doctor). In some of the other pictures LAV (the baby's initials) is wearing the hat I knitted for him. I'd post, but they all show his face and I'm not sure his parents want their newborn out on the internet. I'll see if they can get a picture of the back of his head wearing the hat.

Yesterday afternoon the temperature was in the 70s but tomorrow afternoon it's only supposed to be in the low 40s. I just love the New England weather. Why couldn't it have been 70 on a Saturday or Sunday?

D fired up the grill last night for some of our favorite steak tips. Grilling season means my cholesterol will be going up since we'll start eating burgers, sausage, and steak again. I guess the good news is that grilling season coincides with fresh local produce season...maybe the amount of produce I eat will cancel out the amount of beef and pork? Maybe I'd better stock the freezer with grillable seafood (now if I remember to take it out to thaw it will be a miracle).

Next Tuesday I'm going to the Museum of Science with my nephews Tim and Matt. I'm excited to see the "How Your Life Began" exhibit about conception, pregnancy, and childbirth. May have to get a picture of my pregnant sister and me somewhere in the exhibit. I think my older nephew (5 1/2) will be really interested in the exhibit--he's very curious about how the baby is going to come out of his mommy. Of course, he'll be much more excited about the lizard exhibit!

Funny Cat

D is working from home today (in our very cold basement) and just sent me this email message:

"My typing started to fail - a sure sign my hands were cold - so I went upstairs for a few minutes to warm them up. With 'cold' on the mind I thought I'd look for the cat outside but didn't see her at the door. Then I remembered she was inside so I figured I'd take a look for her. Couldn't find her. She wasn't laying in the sun. Wasn't in the window in the bedroom. Where could she be? Then I saw a lump in the bed... How the hell did she do that? All on her own! We sure do have a strange cat. :)"

My Belly--15 weeks