Pregnancy Diary 36 weeks and counting

I've never been MRS preppy vanity-girly-girl. I'm your regular tennis shoes, jeans, and a t-shirt tomboy with minimal make up if any at all. With that said, I never imagined the changes that my body would go through throughout pregnancy (I did think about it before I actually got pregnant the possibilities that my body would morph into...but just to get myself psychologically ready) would affect me so much now that I'm going through them. Like swollen feet...

That's not a biggy. I mean, I expected that. Chubby legs, I can handle chubby legs. I have chubby legs anyways so not much of a difference there. However, once I put on my shoes I can feel the difference. It's tighter and more uncomfortable fit. And believe it or not unconsciously after fitting into tight shoes day after day takes a toll emotionally. BTW, that black blob you see on the upper, left corner it's of Reina, one of the dogs who insisted on being in the picture after I had pushed her away more than a couple of times. She won.

Now, the next picture may need a "BEWARE" sign. It's not a pretty picture and you may end up traumatized and never want to have children. And if you do have children, then have sympathy for me. Stretch Marks...

When I thought of taking a picture of my belly I thought it would be cute in a "priceless" sort of way picture that could go into the baby's book. Once I saw this picture, the not so cute and priceless expression came from me. "Holy cow!! (no pun intended), that's like a white, full of wigglely lines,..... watermelon!" Of course, it doesn't help that my immediate family like my brother, mom, and cousin, and other relatives like SIL, MIL and friends have muttered the expression " WOW that's big!" after taking a mere glance at this picture. Emotionally it doesn't help. But I know that it will be worth it.

I'm 36 weeks now. Feeling extremely tired and my legs hurt but I'm glad that we are gonna see our wookie pretty soon.

Not Gain more than 25 pounds...haha too late

It's quite frustrating when the the doctor tells you not to gain any more weight but you can't really help it because you have a human being growing inside you who constantly demands food even when you are supposed to be sleeping. Not to gain more than 25 pounds.... Errr sorry doc I'm reaching the 50 mark.

Trust me, I'm feeling them. With my scoliosis, my back has become very painful and along with it I have constant headaches, continuous numbness of my left leg, and episodes of feeling like crap because I'm in constant pain. I've learned my lesson for the next baby....If there's a next baby. Although, I'm sure I will eventually forget the pain and have a second baby...and my mom will be right once again...Darn it! I still hate it when I know she'll be right.

The closer the due date gets. The more I think of how I will raise my child. The values that my parents installed in me and the things that I will do differently. This is the point in my life where my mortality is becoming a little bit more clear.

Some Maternity visuals

Maternity has been interesting to say the least. I've been chronically tired (I guess that goes with how much weight I've gained), hence the lack of post...And that's why I come with some "maternity" pictures...sort of.

Parents in law were so kind in throwing a baby shower for us. I honestly didn't expect so much in details and to be honest it was a little bit overwhelming since never in my life did I expect something from them. But all was welcomed.

Some ideas for you: Here you can see the table set up. It was a combination of green table covers and the flowers and the ribbons in the pots were pink. The little favors were round tin cans with mints inside and with a ribon that said it's a girl. The cake was made to match the table cloth colors. Plus, it was really yummy.

And that's about the whole post...

Moving and pregnancy

The thing about moving and being pregnant it's that there isn't much I can do and whenever I do something not even 5 minutes later I'm exhausted.

On the baby front:
Little wookie seems to be a big baby. I'm not even 6 months yet and I've gained 31 lbs. The doctor wasn't very happy but...hey lady, this baby demands food!! Anyhoo, I have a sonogram on Thursday to check on the baby's size. I've bought lots of clothes, mainly on cleareance and or sale since times are tough.

Going back to the moving topic:
I'm getting rid of a lot of little things such as cards friends gave me back in 6th grade...ehem, about 20 yrs ago...I know. It has taken a long time for me to change my "pack rat" way of thinking and i've come a long way. I've gotten rid of alot of books too, actually donated them to goodwill since most of them I got them from there too. I guess they served their purpose for me so now they hopefully will serve someone's "reading" purpose. Have lots of more books to go through and lots of more books i haven't read but I've had for years, what a shame to admit that...eek.

Pictures of the move coming soon. Once I remember where did i put the camara in this mess.....

And this is a MESSY subject.

Today we went to the house that we are renting(outside of navy housing) to clean it out. It's a must do that we do every time that we move into a new place. We thought it needed a cleaning but didn't think this much would come out.

That was just the dinning room, first pile. We took a couple of more piles after that... We got dooped.

When we first went to see the house they had nice furniture decorating the rooms and the appliances seem pretty modern, the house seemed decent and cozy enough for us to want to move in. I didn't want to seem like I was checking out the "stuff" rather than the interior of the house itself in front of the very "southern realtor". I didn't wanna be seem nosey but being from Miami and from previous experiences have taught us (my husband and I ) that in order for you not to get screwed when you move out with cleaning fees and such, you need to take evidence photos...and that's what I did....It's not that this is the most horrible in the horrible spectrum chart but honestly this is the first time I've moved to a place where the owners of the place don't even clean (out of being nice) for the renters. Photos speak louder than words...

(left)All that white stuff is grease mix with I don't know what... (right)That's the bottom drawer of the stove with spots of old grease.

You can barely see it in this picture because I had to make it smaller, but that black diagonal smudge on top of the curtain rail was a huge spider web.....Seriously? in the dinning room where you eat everyday you didn't notice the huge spider web growing above your head? Like you didn't feel the spider sucking up the oxygen out of your brain as you sat down to eat cereal every morning, or drink coffee or god knows what?

It ain't like they couldn't afford 50 bucks, at least, to pay someone who I'm sure would've been happy to clean up the most obvious places in order to fool us. And that I know for sure (thanks to the woman's big mouth at the management office and because we saw picture...although that doesn't sound as very substantial evidence...) , 'cause the man is a chief in the navy and trust me they get paid a lot better than what my husband is getting paid and for what they are asking they could've at least clean on the surface or at least lower 25 bucks from the first month rent.

I'm not judging I'm just pointing out that "if you wanna us to leave the house in the condition we found it, then you know what?... that ain't gonna be a problem!"

But the reality is that my husband and I, are messy people but we're clean. Specially me, specially now that I'm pregnant I get the "clean nest"syndrome. In which I have to make sure things are clean. Like sweeping twice a day.

Oh well...enough of the bitching, at least it was enough material to write a post about :-)

Tulips are not that dog friendly...

I found little miss crazy dog here, very entertained chewing away at something. I looked and found that she was chewing at a tulip petal, which is dying. It probably fell off from the pot and she picked it up, because she's a chewer. She chews on anything that she finds on the floor... and socks, and underwear...and bugs.

I didn't think anything about it until it dawned on me if tulips are dangerous chewing "toys" for dogs. This is what I found...

Tulips – The toxic portion of this plant is the actual bulb, which can cause drooling, central nervous system depression, gastrointestinal irritation, cardiac issues and convulsions.

As per this site
http://www.earthclinic.com/Pets/poisonous_plants.html

No wonder she was acting a little weird...

Not so much of a cook, but a baker...Perhaps.

Many times have I mentioned that I'm not a cook. Actually, if the kitchen would have legs and feet it would probably run away from me. I do survival cooking. That's when I manage to gather "eatable" stuff and put it on a plate, warm it up and voila that's food. No, I'm not ashamed of my lack of skills because I admit that cooking it's one of my weakenesses and quite a weakness it is. Of course, I would like to learn how to cook, but honestly the interest hasn't kicked in enough to start messing around kitchen stuff that seriously.

However, since now I'm a stay-at-home-future-mom I've taking to baking pretty fondly. I've baked cookies(not from scratch), pasta with cheese on top (not from scratch), and my most latest attempt at baking....my version of....Soy Corn Bread.

The recipe on the box calls for: 1 egg, 1/3 regular milk, and the mix. Mix it all very well and put in oven for 15-20 mins and then you have regular corn bread.

After a few times of baking the regular corn bread, I tried going the "healthy route" and experiment with soy milk which, I very often drink but now that I'm preggos I'm not very fond of. And this is my take on it:

I kept the 1 egg, but instead added 2/6 of soy milk (vanilla flavor), 1 teaspoon of butter, 1 teaspoon of brown sugar, and the mix. I added the butter, because unlike regular milk ,soy milk lacks the fat. I also added the sugar because since I put more soy milk than the recipe calls for, it delutes the sweetness that the mix brings. You mix everything very well making sure it's not grainy, pour in baking pan, put it in the oven for 40 mins on 350 and voila! you should have a Soy Corn Bread like the picture above. Yes, it takes a little bit longer to bake, but in my opinion it's worth it.

I should say that It actually came out pretty decent that even my husband, who's a picky eater, ate from my creation. Of course, he didn't know there was soy milk involved until after which, he acted surprised as if finally had accepted defeat coming from a Non-cooking person....I pick my battles wisely I tell you :-)

And the name is Wookie...

Say cheese....

Husband and I have come to a decision in naming our child; Wookie(most probably will change in the future). Wookies are cute and cuddle-able, so in no way we are being mean. But besides that they're cute, they're also a bit on the hairy side and I just gotta say that she will be a winner from both sides.

So, what I thought it was gas it turns out that it was Wookie moving. This being the first pregnancy that has come this far I had no idea that what seemed to feel like gas could be and probably is the baby moving. Wookie likes to wake me up at 5 in the morning for cereal, and doesn't like it when I toss over from left to right when I sleep, which it seems to be the time that she seems to be the most active which, leaves me sleepless. But I make it up by sleeping late in the morning...Sometimes too late.

We didn't know what Wookie was until we went to the sonogram appointment yesterday, Thursday. Of course we were praying that Wookie would show itself and it did...It it's a she. Since now I can feel her move it has sunk in more this whole deal of pregnancy. The first 4 1/2 months were, honestly, miserable with the whole throwing up and pain but now I'm starting to enjoy being pregnant.

The glowing pregnant me that I envision and prayed for when I was younger....Ain't me...of course with my luck. I have more than a couple of pimples everywhere and my rosecea has gotten worst. Some days I have a red face. I guess on the positive side on my good days I look rosey-pinkish. You know, like a really bad sunburn that you obviously forgot to put sunblock before you fell asleep when the sun was at its crispy-est and brightest...? Yup. But all and all, all kidding aside about my bad luck I'm happy and excited, and I can't wait for Wookie to be here with us.

Fabric Success!!

We found a great fabric that works perfectly for covers for the futon and sofa and it was 50% off!! I love it when I get things cheaper than retail price. I feel like I'm cheating the retailers when we know it's all the way around... It's sort of retail reverse psychology on reverse psychology...I think...? Anyhow, we went for a neutral color not too dark or too light so the dog hair won't be that obvious and also a thick fabric so it would last a while and.... voila!



The fit it's not perfect but we basically made it from scratch, without any pattern, and honestly for all intent and purpose I think it came out pretty darn good, don't ya think? here you can also see the pillow covers which were made with the left over from the curtains, which you can see below...



Also, see the lamp that started the whole color palette, which is a pretty dark-red-burgundy color . Oh and the Tulips that have opened up gorgeously. We are planning to do something about the wood color furniture and desk but we still haven't decided if to paint or just varnish it for a finished glow....hmmm decisions decisions.

So now one down and 2 more sofas to go...Let's see how this decor home improvement goes....

Small Georgia Living...

Little by little I'm getting used to the life of a small town. It's not easy, I tell you. I think it was hard at first due to my hormones being pregnant and all. Economy is bad so I barely go out, which is fine I've learnt to keep busy, plus the nearest mall is about 40-45 mins away. We make that more of a weekend outing. We are managing...I'm managing.

I gotta say I'm really loving the sunshine and the cool breeze. And also, looking forward to move into that house. I wanna reclaim my old possessions that have been in boxes for over a year. We got a new sofa from Ikea and so this weekend when we go to the mall we're planning to get some fabric to make a cover for it and for the other two sofas in order to make the living room more coherent. Actually, we got fabric from Joann fabric store in clearance price and we made curtains and pillow covers for the sofa for less than if we would've bought curtains even at walmart, which I'm not so fond of. Crossing fingers, we will find fabric that will go with the curtain fabric. This will be sort of a home improvement project.

Oh yeah...I found my cam so pictures to come, I'm sure.