35 Weeks and No Ice Cream

No ice cream today? WTF?!?!

First things first - 35 week picture:




The lack of ice cream is directly related to the fact that my Cincinnati baby shower was this weekend and for once I think I've had too much sugar. Not that I'm complaining or anything! Angi, Sara, Susie, and Merin (four of the oft mentioned Toledo Nesties) drove down for the party and Angi made a spectacular cake. In addition to that, she also brought me some OREO truffles and grasshopper cupcakes. There is a brand new pint in there waiting for me, so hopefully I'll recover this evening and try it out tomorrow. I had a great time celebrating with my family and friends. I'm waiting on a few people to send me digital pictures from the shower so I only have a few to share right now. It's hard to get them taken with your own camera! Click here to see the pictures that I do have. Most of them are just of me, so they might not be that interesting. I'll make sure to post about it when I get more uploaded.

We received a ton of very thoughtful gifts from everyone and I'll have a more detailed story later this week. Here's the one picture on my camera that includes anyone other than me - not surprisingly, it includes the Nesties :)



I'm so glad they were able to come down - I took them to Dewey's Pizza and told them it felt like a bachelorette party for pregnancy! We stayed out past 11 and I didn't get to bed until 1! Haven't seen that hour since New Year's Eve. Even then, heartburn kept me up pretty much all night and I was up at 6 anyway. Almost makes me wish I lived in Toledo. Loveliest bunch of ladies you'll ever meet! Wish they all could have made it to the party :)

More pictures and details to come later this week.

It's 6 o'clock on a Saturday

The regular crowd shuffles in...

Actually, it's 6:00 in the morning, and Einstein and I are the only ones up. I'm glad there's no crowd shuffling in yet, but within the next 2 hours my house will begin to fill up for the day and evening. I'm taking the opportunity to start season 4 of SATC. (I also had 2 tablespoons of ice cream for breakfast since no one was awake to see anything, but that's neither here nor there)

Yesterday was a great day, the massage was fantastic, I have a pretty pedicure, and the salon I went to was running a special for a free manicure when you got your toes done. My feet feel pretty again, and even though I'm blah and boring with my fingernails and only got clear polish on my hands at least they're shiny and well-trimmed. Anyway. Today is my Cincinnati baby shower and I'm excited to see everyone and have a great time celebrating with my family and friends. Until then, I'm off to hope Miranda and Steve and Carrie and Big get back together.

Plans for Summer Day #3

Today is my Friday, I have yet another three day weekend stretched out ahead of me :)

Tomorrow I'm giving myself until 10:30 to be unproductive, time that I'm pretty sure will be filled with more Sex and the City watching. I have an appointment for a massage at 11, then I'm going to get a pedicure and hit up Target again to try to get the rest of the stuff I need for my hospital bag that Charlie is intent on having ready ASAP (that's a whole other post).

Are you jealous?

Mixed Feelings

I've been getting progressively more uncomfortable as the days go by. It used to be that my back would start hurting in the afternoon, and the discomfort of sitting in my office chair would be limited to a few hours. These days it hurts when I get in the car to drive to work. I brought my ugly cat pillow (circa 1989) for extra support at work. The HR lady took pity on me and gave me her chair, since mine has been missing a wheel for the last 18 months. Still the same crappy chair, but I feel more balanced. We're getting new office chairs but they won't be here until I'm gone.

Anyway, back to the point. So I still have 5 weeks to go, at least 37 days assuming he comes on time, which is a huge assumption to begin with. Part of me wants time to go by really fast, so I can have some relief. I know that I won't be getting any more sleep than I am now (which is next to none), but at least I won't be carrying this extra weight out front. I'm hot, tired, and irritable. We're also very excited to meet the baby, see what he looks like, and get to know his personality. The other part of me doesn't want it to go so fast, because there are definitely things about pregnancy that I enjoy. I like not having to share Baby C with anyone else - right now it's just the three of us (four, if you count Einstein) that share these awesome moments, hanging out on the couch watching him move around in there. It's a happy place. Of course, it will be an even happier place with an Outside Baby, but I'll miss the private bonding time, the portability, the "specialness," the cute belly, and the ice cream. Oh well. Either way, it's not up to me. Too bad you can't predict and exact date and time.

JuJuBe has Arrived!

It was on my doorstep when I got home last night. So exciting! It's everything I hoped it would be - pretty and practical, plenty of room. Forgive me for being a little over-excited, it's my first "real" bag that I've ever owned. I ended up buying it at a small internet shop called ItsAGirlThingBoutique.com. they had the best price of anyone else on the web and great customer service.



I'll probably end up buying a second one in a backpack style, but it probably won't be a "real" bag. One is enough for me right now, I'd hate to start a trend :)

34 Week Appointment

Nothing new and exciting, gained another pound since 32 weeks, "fun stuff" starts at my next appointment in 2 weeks. Can't wait.

34 Weeks and Coffee Heath Bar Crunch

34 Week Picture:



It was a busy weekend of cleaning in our house, full of excitement. OK, not really any excitement, just a lot of cleaning. Probably our last "big cleaning" before the Minion gets here. I finally cleaned the fridge! We didn't make it to vacuuming the steps or cleaning the kitchen floor, but we'll get to that sometime this week. I also got a decent amount of organizing done on Friday, which makes me feel good because progress is progress (although, progress for the sake of progress must be discouraged). Just in time, too, as I experienced my first real stop-you-in-your-tracks painful BH contraction at Fresh Market earlier this morning. They've been painless until now, but Holy Hell. That's all I'm going to say. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow so I'll make another update then.

On to the ice cream!



Coffee Ice Cream with Chunks of HEATH® Bar Crunch (made with Fair Trade Certified™ coffee). The best news about this flavor used to be the bigger-the-better chunks. These days, along with hefty HEATH® Bar chunks, we use deliciously Fair Trade Certified™ coffee extract. Fair Trade Certified™ guarantees a fair price to coffee growers that helps them provide for the future of their families & farmlands. It supports community development & business benefits for growers from direct trade & farming practices that respect the environment. Being a Coffee HEATH® Bar Crunch fan means you're a fast friend to coffee farmers too. And that's good news that should perk you right up!

I know I say this often, but I'm totally in love with this company. I've enjoyed Vanilla Heath Bar Crunch in the past and this one, to borrow the words of the hated Emeril, really kicks it up a notch. Ben & Jerry's coffee ice cream is fantastic. It's not bitter, like so many other brands are, and doesn't leave you with that odd aftertaste like you can tell they couldn't really perfect the recipe for coffee ice cream so they just threw some ingredients together to come up with the closest approximation and slapped some coffee beans on the front of the carton. Anyway, it's creamy and actually tastes like you would expect coffee to taste. More on the order of a latte from Dunkin than the burnt bottom of the communal coffee pot in the office. The Heath bar chunks were massive and not in short supply. It was a great little sweet treat, but I can't help but miss Coffee Coffee Buzz Buzz Buzz even more now. A local Nestie told me that there's a Scoop Shop up in Dayton. I'm going to talk Charlie into driving up there to get some. It's only a little over an hour, is that too much to ask?

Summer Day #2

I finally got to use my second summer day. I've been up since 6 and I've done a load of baby laundry, watched Mike & Mike and 4 episodes of Sex and the City, and had couscous and sprite for breakfast. I haven't had soda in forever so I'll probably be bouncing off the walls. I've given myself permission to do nothing until noon. I'm going to watch 2 more SATC episodes and maybe take a nap since I was up all night last night. After that I'm going to the post office and Target. Fun and exciting, isn't it? I'm really hoping that my diaper bag gets here today - I've been eagerly awaiting the delivery!

Jersey Baby Shower

Finally, a blog about my New Jersey shower, thrown for me by the lovely Poggioli women that I'm lucky to have as family. Both of my aunts, especially, are fantastic party planners, and this party was no exception.

We'll begin at the beginning with the invitation



The food is always the central part to any family gathering, and my only regret is that I wasn't able to eat more of it! Here we have, from left to right, baked ziti, pasta salad hiding begind the basket of rolls, gramma's cavatelli and broccoli that she always makes for me (my all-time favorite!), potato salad for uncle Ray, sausage and peppers, and a variety of tasty sandwiches, including eggplant and mozzerella, turkey, ham, mozzerella and roasted red peppers, and roast beef. There may have been other types in there, who knows? I decided on a mozzerella and red pepper sandwich and it was awesome. All of the food was great.



Here we have the cake, which was ordered from "The Boys," a bakery that we've used for as long as I can possibly remember. Chocolate cake with cannoli cream filling, surrounded by chocolate covered strawberries. Yum!



Against my better judgement I'm going to post some pictures of the actual festivities, even though I think I look like a cow and I can't believe how fat my face looks.

This is me with my grandmothers - Gramma Julie in the first picture and Gramma Karen in the second





Here I am showing off the cutest book ever, given to me by my awesome sister - New York Yankees 101. Aunt Jeanne is on the right.




Oh NO she didn't! This is the look on my face when I opened the red sux world series bib that my aunt Jeanne gave us. Hope it doesn't accidentally get mistaken for a diaper! (that's her on the right, and she redeemed herself by including Yankee stuff to match)



Cousin Caroline, Sister Katie, and Sister's Awesome Boyfriend Collin



Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture with my Auntie Ann or my mom. There were plenty of other family members and friends there as well, all of whom are somehow missing from my digital camera :(

In a nutshell, it was a gorgeous baby shower and I'm so thankful to have such a generous and caring family. Even though we drive each other crazy at times, I'm so glad they're mine. Everyone came to celebrate, even the teenage boy cousins who I know had a million other things they would have rather been doing and Aunt Carol from down the shore. We got some incredibly thoughtful gifts, including a baby book that my cousin Caroline picked out for us and an awesome book collection from Katie and Collin, featuring the Yankees 101 book, Corduroy, the Pippi Longstocking Treasury, Yoga for Elephants with Babar, the Red Balloon, Avocado Baby, and Where the Wild Things Are. We also got a ton of Yankees clothes, both strollers, the high chair, pack-n-play, and tons of other random baby clothing and "things" that we'll certainly get plenty of use out of. Gramma Karen even managed to find some turtle towels and baskets that I don't already have :)

I'll raid my sister's Picasa for more pictures at some point.

Progress on Baby Charlie's Room

Dresser & Changing Table Side:


Closeup of Where The Wild Things Are poster:


Crib (with mattress!) and Closet - need to hang curtain hooks so they can be tied back and get rid of that table


Chair and Bookshelf:


So there's lots of "stuff" all over the place, I know. We need to get organized. That's the plan for next weekend. I swear this kid already has more clothes than I do!

33 Weeks and Peach Cobbler

33 week picture:



We had our hospital tour yesterday, which was much more interesting and informative than the god awful class we sat through last week. It went fine until I dropped my hard plastic water bottle, still halfway full, on my foot and an expletive slipped out of my mouth. That certainly got some looks from our tour mates. We spent most of this morning at the pool, having discovered that it's pretty much empty on Sunday mornings while everyone else is in church :)

I paid dearly for my heathen-ness though, I'm burnt to a crisp. Things are getting more and more uncomfortable, Baby Charlie has discovered that it's lots of fun hanging out in my rib cage and I've had heartburn like I've never experienced before. Given all of that, I think we'll be spending lots more time at the pool. I have new pictures of the Baby C's room, I'll post them tomorrow. There's still a ton of clutter but it's coming together.

On to the ice cream - this week I decided to get Peach Cobbler. It's hot and summery, and I've been thinking about how much I can't wait for Graeter's Peach ice cream month. Unfortunately I'm not too patient these days, so I decided to take matters into my own hands.



Peach Ice Cream with Cinnamon-Sugar Shortbread Pieces. A partnership with Willie Nelson. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Farm Aid.

Willie Nelson isn't as exciting as DMB, but the ice cream is just as good. I don't really taste the cinnamon but the peach ice cream and shortbread go together nicely. It's not too sickeningly sweet and has just the right amount of peachy chunkiness. I would recommend this to everyone and I would buy it again myself. Definitely good for the hot days of summer, since I can't have a Blue Moon or a vodka sour to cool me down. 48 days and counting!

Ordered the Bag!

After thoughtful comments from everyone here and my trusted Nesties I placed an order for the JuJuBe BeAll yesterday! I can't wait for it to get here!

Weekly picture and ice cream review to come later on today.

Two More Bag Options

I'm ordering one of the four this weekend, so at least there's an end in sight!

OiOi Diaper Bag-Chocolate with Blue Trim



Fanci-Free Kim's Convertible Midnight Black Diaper Bag

Diaper Bag Assistance Needed

Those of you know me know me are probably more than aware of my complete hatred for shopping. I've never been into fashion or purses or bags of any kind, and I don't enjoy shopping for any of the above. So in trying to get things done I've been looking for a diaper bag. None of the styles carried at BRU interest me and Target had a whole 3 bags on their shelf, so I turned to the interwebs. I searched a diaper bag clearinghouse for "messenger bag" style and it came back with over 300 products. HTF am I supposed to sort through 300 freaking bags? I don't have the patience for that. There is also no search criteria for "not ugly," so it's also a matter of weeding through the vera bradley knockoffs and winnie-the-pooh and other characters (no offense to those of you who like vera bradley and WTP, just not my style). Why is it so hard to find a not ugly bag?

Anyway, I think I've narrowed it down to these two bags. Which one do you like? Do you have any other suggestions? If you find me a diaper bag that I love you can be my BFF.

Bag 1 - Ju-Ju-Be BeAll in Black and Silver




Bag 2 - Skip Hop Dash in Ocean Stripe




This was all that appealed to me after scrolling through the first 10 pages of images. Help, please.

32 Week Appointment

I'm up 22 pounds total and they're really happy with that, so I guess I am, too. Baby C is head down with his butt under my left rib cage and his feet what feels like in my right rib cage. Let's hope he decided to stay that way. I've been getting those lovely BH contractions that aren't generally productive but still pretty annoying, but my ankles aren't nearly as swollen as they were on Friday. It's still really hot here though, but supposedly it's getting better tomorrow. I asked my doctor how far they'd have me wait it out after my EDD and she said they wouldn't do anything for the first week and then it's up to me. They would not let me go two full weeks past, but anything after 6-7 days is my call. It's still a ways off so I'm sure we'll revisit the discussion at some point.

32 Weeks and Magic Brownies!

32 Week Picture:



Even though I'm still not getting much in the way of sleep, at least I look happy and alert in this week's picture! We had our one and only childbirth class yesterday and it was the longest 7 hours EVER. The first instructor, who focused on pregnancy and birth, was a total nut job, and the second, who is a registered dietician and was supposed to be talking about breastfeeding and infant nutrition had such an agenda that it was hard to get any useful information out of her. Then there was the carseat video from 1984. It was pretty bad. We have our hospital tour next weekend but thankfully that one's only an hour :)

It's been over 90 since Thursday and I had my first real good case of ankle swelling all day Friday. My feet were seriously overflowing from my shoes. It was awful. Luckily we spent yesterday inside at the class, so it was definitely minimized, then we went to the pool for a bit today after we did our grocery shopping.

Speaking of grocery shopping, I happened to glance over at the ice cream freezer while we were in Fresh Market and just about passed out when I saw that they had begun carrying Dave Matthew's Magic Brownies!!



Black Raspberry Ice Cream Swirled with Sweet Cream Ice Cream & Fudgy Brownies

When Ben & Jerry's asked us to partner with them on this harmonic blend of raspberries & brownies, we were excited. The real magic, however, is our shared partnership with the nation's most influential environmental groups to help stop global warming. Join us in these efforts by taking action at www.lickglobalwarming.org. Cheers! Carter, Stefan, Dave, Leroi & Boyd/Dave Matthews Band

I am SO excited that this is now a locally available flavor! It almost makes up for the fact that both area Scoop Shops have closed. Today was a long and hot day so I'm really savoring tonight's treat. If there's anything better than chocolate it's fruit and chocolate, and my two favorite fruits to mix with chocolate are strawberries and raspberries. This flavor has a beautiful purple hue with streaks of white, making it look like a tye-dyed pint of heaven. The brownies are the standard Ben & Jerry's fare, meaning that they're plentiful and substantial. I loooove this ice cream!

Now that Fresh Market has rotated their flavors I have renewed hope of finding a new and interesting flavor each week for the remainder of my pregnancy. Can you believe there are only 56 days until my due date? Holy hell! We still haven't made much of a dent in the list, but I did order the Where the Wild Things Are poster today and we picked up the crib mattress.

Hit a Psychological Milestone

It's weight related, and I'm now consistently at a certain three digit number that ends in a zero. I'm surprisingly ok with it, even though it's 95 degrees here and my legs were ungodly swollen by the time I got home from teaching last night. It was the last class of the quarter, and that makes me happy.

History Made in Two Arenas

Don't worry, I won't let this turn into a baseball or a political blog, but I can't let these symbolic events pass by without adding my own comments. That shouldn't really surprise any of you by now :)

First of all, Joba started last night and it was a total disaster. That's all I'm going to say about that. Due to the overwhelming awfulness of what transpired against the blue jays last night I almost couldn't bring myself to listen to Mike & Mike this morning, but I tuned in for a few anyway and they must be reading my blog because they said exactly what I said yesterday, pretty much word for word. What am I doing in market research? I should be a sports analyst. Or a GM.

Second of all, I tuned in to John McCain's "kickoff" speech last night and watched as the 9:00 EST hour approached and Obama was declared the presumptive nominee for the democratic party. Whee! (yes, I'm an Obama supporter, but I still watch the speeches given by both sides. Just because my mind is made up doesn't give me a reason to be ignorant!) I think it really is a sign of just how far our country has come, whether he wins or loses in November. I'm not going to get all sociological on you, I'll spare you the academic gibberish! I'm also not going to turn this into a site for political debate, so don't bother trying. I've become very irritable and stubborn lately - trust me, you don't want to piss me off :)

Now I just need to get my hands on one of those "My Mama's for Obama" t-shirts....

Going on the Record (Baseball Related)

Joba will make his first appearance in the starting rotation tonight. I think this is the worst idea that has ever been forced into action by a Steinbrenner. Yes, the rotation is questionable. Yes, Joba has a myriad of pitches at his disposal and is quite capable of hurling over 100 MPH. So why not throw him into the starting mix? Two words: Nuke Farnsworth.

With Joba in the rotation his stuff will be seen about every 5 days, assuming all goes well. He gives the Yankees a "better chance" to win every 5 games. That's all fine and good, but what about the already struggling bullpen? What about the fact that Andy and Moose just aren't eating up the innings the way they used to and Rasner and Hughes are nothing but two major question marks? Add to that the fact that the Yankee brass will certainly be limiting the number of innings that Joba pitches, and you get a future outlook that will surely include the following scenario played out over and over again:

"Kyle Farnsworth gave the Twins their first lead of the game by surrendering doubles to two of the first three hitters he faced. Joe Nathan came on in the ninth to protect that last-minute lead and handed the Yankees a 6-5 loss."

"Farnsworth was the losing pitcher in Minnesota on Wednesday, when he walked the speedy Luis Castillo on four pitches in a tie game. Then he gave up four one-out hits that led to four runs. In five games, Farnsworth’s earned run average is 10.38."

"Though the Yankees fought back for three runs in the bottom half, regaining the lead, Kyle Farnsworth handily helped give it right back. Farnsworth, who was not expected to be available due to tightness in his right shoulder, faced five hitters and retired just one of them -- a hot Matt Stairs drive that looked as though it were headed for right field before first baseman Wilson Betemit snared it with a terrific diving catch. "

Lord help the Bronx Bombers.

In interesting pregnancy news, I peed 14 times on Sunday. That's got to be a new record.

31 Weeks and Mint Chocolate Cookie

31 Week Picture (I'm posting it even though I look like a complete disaster and have no makeup on to help things):




Oh my god I'm so tired! I haven't slept well all week and it's really starting to show, I guess. Charlie looked over at me the other night and asked me what was wrong with my eyes. I told him nothing was wrong with my eyes, and he started poking at them and telling me how puffy/baggy they look. Thanks dear, way to make me feel better!

I was able to cross one thing off our list this week - I registered with the pediatrician. I also found Charlie a very early birthday present. Yes, it's still more than 2 months away, but the deal was too good to pass up.

This is now in our basement:



He's wanted one for as long as I've known him, and a used Tornado table kind of fell into our laps this week so we jumped at the chance to get a good deal. I tried playing earlier but I'm really really horrible at it.

Anyway, on to the ice cream. After somewhat of a disappointment last week and an unexplainable craving for Oreos that hit me yesterday I decided to go with an old favorite for this week - Mint Chocolate Cookie.



Peppermint Ice Cream with Oxford Creme Cookies

The carton has changed recently and I found this nifty explanation on the B&J website.

Hey, our pint has changed, but don't worry - the ice cream hasn't! It's still the same incredibly euphoric Mint Chocolate Cookie we all know & love. The difference is in the unbleached paperboard "eco-pint" container. The process of bleaching paper with chlorine releases different dioxins, one of which the EPA identifies as the most toxic ever created. This eco-pint is part of our effort to use environmentally sound packaging. Enjoy!

I love this company, wish I could go work for them! As always, this ice cream completely satisfied me. The mint was definitely the right way to go, very cooling on an 85 degree, humid Cincinnati day. The cookies are huge, whole Oreo type chunks that you get in pretty much every bite. I think this one might not last the week. Never disappointing. Off to get my Foosball learn on!