Sugar Free

I declared yesterday a sugar-free day for me. Lately I have been consuming so much more sugar than I should be. Between Christmas cookies, chocolate truffles, hot chocolate made nightly by my hubby, and various office goodies, I'm on sugar overload!

I know it's not good for the baby, and probably increases my chances of developing Gestational Diabetes. Also, I have my monthly checkup next week, and I am dreading stepping on the scale. What's strange is that I never used to have a big sweet tooth. Earlier in my pregnancy all I craved were salty/savory foods. But now I feel like I'm eating sugar just because it's in front of me. And because I'm been eating so much of it, my body has started to crave it.

So I decided to completely avoid sugar yesterday. Obviously I still ate sugar in the form of fruit and other natural foods. But I completely eliminated any desserts from my diet. How did I do? Here is exactly what I ate yesterday, as a 23-week pregnant woman. This might not be exciting to any of you, but I love to read about and see what other people eat. If I could, I would love to be a dietician or have some career involving food and nutrition.

7am - 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats, cooked with equal parts water and nonfat milk. I mixed in 1 small banana, some frozen raspberries, cinnamon, and one giant spoonful of natural peanut butter on top. (Don't knock it till you try it...banana, oats and peanut butter are the perfect combination.) I was feeling adventurous, so I added in the raspberries for a kick. I ate my oatmeal with a tall glass of nonfat milk.

8am - 1 cup hot Black Chai Tea. I only included this in order to be completely accurate and honest. No calories or sugar were involved in the making of this tea.

11am - I was really craving something sweet, so I ate an orange. Straight from my parents' orange tree! That makes it extra healthy, right? Oh, and about 10 minutes after I ate the orange, the baby started going crazy! I think he liked the orange. =)

20-minute walk
1 bottle of water consumed throughout the morning

12:30pm - 1 "Amy's Brand" Cheese Pizza Pocket Sandwich. I'd like to note that I adore this brand of food. Amy's soups and frozen meals are really tasty and completely organic and low in fat and calories. They can be pricey, but I found this on clearance for $1.50. Yea, I'm cheap.
With my Pizza Pocket I had a side salad of butter lettuce, red lettuce, black beans (for added protein) and balsamic dressing. I brought the salad from home but forgot dresing, so I went down to our cafeteria at work to get a little dressing from the salad bar. They charged me $1 for about 2 Tbsp of dressing....what a rip-off.

At this point I was still hungry and really wanted a cookie. Instead, I choked down my prenatal vitamin. Blech.
Lunch was consumed with a bottle of Tejava unsweetened iced tea. Best drink ever.

2pm - Started to get a slight headache. Maybe I really am addicted to sugar?

3:15pm - 1 slice sourdough bread with a little bit of light cream cheese. Also had 5 large baby carrots. I'd say they were more like child or pre-teen carrots.

1 bottle of water
20-minute walk with dog after work

6:15pm - 1 large bowl of fettuccine with homemade Bolognese sauce (made by my sister!) with a little ricotta cheese mixed in, and parmesan on top. With it I had a tall glass of nonfat milk.

8:30pm - I started getting hungry about 2 hours after dinner. As in, full on stomach growling. I resisted the urge to eat something sweet, and instead made myself a bowl of whole wheat Chex with nonfat milk. Definitely hit the spot. Ever since I got pregnant, milk has tasted SO good to me. It's like my body is craving the dairy or something.

There you have it.....congratulations if you are still reading this! I would like to point out that I easily ate this much pre-pregnancy. So it doesn't seem like a lot of food to me. What can I say, I love food! I commented to Adam the other day that I'm surprised I'm not really eating more than usual during my pregnancy. He just gave me a LOOK....as in, Stephanie that's a bunch of bologna.

Hmmm now bologna sounds good......

Adam Got Kicked!

That's right.....our little baby kicked his Daddy yesterday! For the past week I've been telling Adam whenever I feel the baby kicking, but every time he places his hand on my stomach, he stops. Or he will start out on the left side, but when Adam tries to feel him there, the baby somehow jumps over to the opposite side of my stomach. He's a quick one, that baby.

So on Sunday morning right after waking up, I was feeling a lot of movement, and this time Adam felt it too! He was able to feel 3 good kicks before the baby calmed down.

I think this kind of thing makes it more real for the Dad-to-be. Because for the most part, it's the woman who experiences all the symptoms, both good and bad. Sure, the husband experiences some of the effects of these symptoms (listening to his wife cry, going out for ice cream at 10pm on a cold winter night). But he doesn't really experience pregnancy like a woman does. And no, I have not made Adam get me ice cream at 10pm yet. I was thisclose to asking him the other night, but instead satisfied my ice cream craving with a mug of cocoa.

So I guess my point is that feeling the baby kick was a cool experience for Adam. I just can't wait until we both get to meet our little guy in person! I can't wait to see what he looks like. So far we know this: he will be white, and he will have blue eyes. Doesn't he sound adorable?? =)

I just made homemade macaroni and cheese using this recipe from Ina Garten. I was craving some warm comfort food for dinner, and had a block of Gruyere in the fridge. Now I just have to wait 20 more minutes for it to be ready......so hard!

Interesting Facts About Stephanie

I have created a short list of interesting facts about myself for your entertainment. While I can't guarantee that any of them are actually interesting, I tried to think of things that most people wouldn't know about me. Here we go......

1) I was told by my college choir professor and childhood piano teacher that I have perfect pitch, which is apparently not very common.

2) I often confuse the colors orange and green. No, I'm not colorblind. But for some reason when I hear the word "orange" I have to think really hard about it, because the color green immediately comes to mind, and vice versa.

3) I do not know how to write any capital letters in cursive, other than the essential ones, like S, L, P and N. I think I was sick when we learned that skill in gradeschool.

4) I got my very first cavity of my life last year. (And I think I may have my second one right now.) It's all downhill from here!

5) I have never seen a single episode/movie of Star Wars or Star Trek, and have absolutely no desire to do so.

6) I have never said a curse word, other than once as a child. And that was an accident. Promise.

7) You know those little pies you can buy at the grocery store? Adam says they're called homerun pies? Anyways, as a child I was very mad that I wasn't allowed to eat them. So everytime I went to the store with my mom I would squish them when she wasn't looking. Quite rebellious, I know.

8) I LOVE worcestershire sauce.

OK, that's all. Obviously I'm not as interesting as I thought, since I can't even come up with 10 things! What's interesting about you?

**Edited to Add**
I have NEVER had cramps. As in menstrual cramps. I guess that's unique. I'm assuming this means I won't have any pain during labor. Right?

We Registered!

Adam and I went to Babies R Us 2 weeks ago to register for baby items. How was the experience, you ask? In a word, OVERWHELMING! Don't get me wrong, it was fun to pick out things for the baby and envision using them in just a few short months. But the whole experience was definitely confusing and overwhelming.

Adam was in charge of the zapper gun, while I was in charge of the list. Babies R Us gives you a list of the "essentials". Oh my goodness. Who knew a baby needed so much stuff? We didn't strictly go by the list, though, because it is obviously much more than any baby needs.

Things started out well. After carefully examining the selections and comparing prices, we'd pick out an item, let's say a package of bottles, for example. Then we would turn the corner and find an entire other aisle full of bottles! (I am exaggerating here, but you get the point). How do we know that the bottles we already picked out and zapped are the best? Do they contain BPA? Are they slow-flow, or will the milk come out so fast that it will upset the baby's tummy? Is there another brand that is just as good, but $5 cheaper? Ahhhhh!

After doing this for over 2 hours, we had only zapped a total of about 20 items. I had a headache and was getting frustrated, so we decided to call it a day and make the rest of our selections online. I was really surprised by how well Adam did. He was really into the whole process and even wanted to make another trip around the store.

So our registry is still a work in progress. We still need to add a few more items. But I think we got the "essentials" taken care of. Any experienced moms out there, feel free to take a look and tell me what you think. Because I obviously have no clue what I'm doing.

Clever Title

Adam bought our son his first gift and it came today!

Awwww so cute, right? My friend Lisa made a comment this weekend about how our baby will come out of me holding a wrench in his hand. If he's anything like his Daddy he just might!

This weekend I was busy making Christmas cookies. I give them out to many many people, so I make a TON of cookies. Evidence below: (This isn't all of them!)

The trainer from Barkbusters came over on Saturday and talked to us for about 1 hour. Riley was of course on his best behavior the entire time. He even fell asleep in my lap while she was there. Totally cute and innocent. But then when she got up to leave Riley lunged at her ankles and tried to bite!

Part of me is secretly glad he did that, so she could actually see firsthand what we're talking about. She said it is immediately apparent that Riley doesn't respect me as much as he does Adam. Not in the sense that he would try to hurt me, but that he thinks he can get away with more naughty business when Adam's not there. Hmmm I don't know where he got that idea, but I plan to do whatever I need to do to establish myself as his "pack leader". We're still deciding whether or not to sign up for the Barkbusters services.....

I will leave you with a family recipe for beef stew, since that is what I'm eating at the moment. It has been cooking in our crockpot all day, and now our house smells so good!

Mom's Beef Stew

1-2 lbs beef stew meat

1 can tiny peas (optional) (I don't like peas, so I usually leave them out)

1 large onion sliced

1 cup sliced carrots

2-3 large potatos, diced in large cubes

1 bay leaf, salt & pepper

1 can tomato soup

1/2 can milk

Place all ingredients in crockpot and cook on low heat for up to 10 hours.

I don't have a picture, but just trust me. It's GOOD.

Riley Saga - Part 1

I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday! I like the super cold weather we've been having since it means I get to wear cute scarves and hats. Thankfully those items still fit me!

So Riley has been feeling left out lately with all this baby talk, so I agreed to write a post about him tonight.

Unfortunately, I don't have many good things to say about him. Riley has had some "issues" lately. Over the past 6 months he has become more aggressive and has developed some bad habits. I used to feel comfortable taking him to the dog park and letting him interact with other animals and people. I liked taking him for walks and letting him say "hello" to other dogs. But now he gets really snarly with dogs, and pretty much flips out if another human being approaches me. We've even had friends over who he has tried to bite for no apparent reason.

With a new baby entering our household in just over 4 months (so soon!), this is obviously worrying me. How will Riley react to a new "brother"? Will he be jealous and get aggressive towards the baby? Obviously I do NOT want anything like that happen......Enter BARKBUSTERS!

I've done some research on dog obedience classes, and have concluded that Riley needs some one-on-one training. Barkbusters is a program you pay for up front, and then get their services for the life of the dog. Whenever you are having a problem with your dog, you simply call Barkbusters and your local trainer comes out to work on the dog's issues. I've heard really good reviews about their training methods, so we're going to try them out. This Saturday they are coming over for an intro meeting. I'm really hoping this works, because I don't want to have to get rid of Riley. But of course if he showed any sign of aggression towards our baby, we might have to. Wish us luck!

Riley is really a sweet dog when he's with just Adam and I. He has never had an "accident" inside, he knows how to sit, stay, lay down, and shake. Here's proof that he shakes my hand on command.

"See Mommy, I'm a good boy!"

20 Week Belly

I'm halfway there! I definitely grew a lot this past month, as you can see with this picture. (My scale also told me so). Oh, and the nurse also told me. Seriously, why do they weigh you and tell you how many thousands of pounds you have gained, and then immediately afterwards take your blood pressure? It's guaranteed to cause temporary hypertension!

At my Dr. appointment last week I was told to start walking every day for 30 minutes. I have been successful most days, however it is COLD here! By the end of my walk today during my lunch break my entire face was numb.

Oh, and I may be feeling my little guy kick! For the past few days I have been feeling muscle twitches in my lower stomach. That's the best way I can describe it....not little flutters, like everyone else says it feels like. But very distinct twitches. I'm almost positive this is the baby moving around, as I've never felt this before. It's so exciting!!

Ultrasound Results!

Baby Nullmeyer is 100% a BOY! Just in case we had any doubts, the ultrasound technician provided us with not 1, not 2, but 3 pictures of his "boy parts". But let me back up....

The ultrasound scan lasted 1 full hour because our baby was so squirmy! Seriously, he would not stay still for more than a couple seconds at a time. The technician was getting frustrated, and she kept calling him our "busy baby". I guess that's a good thing! (As long as he calms down by the time he's born. Baby, are you reading this?)

After she confirmed that he has all the necessary parts and he's developing properly, she brought Adam in and showed both of us our squirmy baby on the screen. It's absolutely baffling to me that he moves sooo much, and yet I can't feel a thing! Not even a flutter. =( He kept flipping over on his tummy and covering his face with his arm. I really wanted to see his face and time was running out! Finally, he posed for one profile picture before doing a somersault away from the screen.

I'm in love. =)

A few people have asked if I am going to get a 3D/4D ultrasound done. I'm still undecided, although I think it would be totally fun. I'm just afraid he would look a little weird and dare I say, creepy? I was told to wait until I'm at least 24 weeks, because then the baby has a little more fat on him, and therefore looks more like a real baby. What do you all think?