17 Weeks!

How far along? 17 weeks and three days today! On Christmas night while talking to my mom on the phone, I came to the realization that we're now over FOUR months along... WOW!
 
Total weight gain/loss: At my appointment last week I had gained one pound. ONE pound!? My pants say otherwise. And so did the scale at the Y last week and today (which told me I'd gained three pounds). Regardless, apparently it's been just one -- but that will likely change soon. They tell me it's a pound a week from here on out apparently! So baby better get growin', or I better get eatin'... or both.

Maternity clothes? Not wearing any yet. I have a pair of dress pants, two pair of jeans and a pair of colored jeans all from GAP that have not yet been utilized. I do, however, believe everyone should wear maternity pants all the time. If you haven't tried them, please do. It's like wearing sweatpants while you're actually wearing dress pants. The ultimate facade!

Anyway, baby girl isn't quite yet making me pop out enough to warrant maternity gear. She is, however, making me appear as though I've eaten a few too many Christmas cookies by giving me a bit of a muffin top in a few of my jeans and dress pants. Lucky for me, the GAP apparently foresees this issue and therefore makes some pants (that I luckily happen to own) with two buttons running vertical. Lucky me, I just undo the top button, and, viola! The perfect solution for a few too many cookies growing baby bump.

Stretch marks? None yet. In all honesty, I haven't spent any time thinking or worrying about stretch marks yet. Should I be? Now that this silly question is on this little survey, I just might start. I did buy a cocoa butter lotion today at Target in order to be prepared if my tummy gets dry an itchy (an apparently common issue in pregnancy). No one likes an itchy belly!

Symptoms:  Nothing! Not a thing. Which is the same as my entire pregnancy for the most part. I guess the one thing that is different is that I have extremely vivid dreams every. Single. Night -- sometimes five or six different dreams a night. It's pretty wild.

Sleep: Perfect. No complaints here, except for the night before Christmas. I was too excited for baby girl to open her gifts!

... yes, we got baby girl gifts this year. But mama needed a good enough reason to buy a cute little dress from babyGAP and a pretty butterfly mobile for her room. So the gifts were probably more for me than for her :)

Best moment this week: Where to start?! I had my Quad Screen done this week and baby girl passed that with flying colors, for one thing. And we saw family we hadn't seen since announcing our news and got to share our excitement in person with them, which was incredibly fun. And we weren't the only ones silly enough to get baby girl some Christmas gifts... she got an outfit from Great Grandma and Grandpa O'Brien, a pack of onesies that I've been loving for months from Grandma Kathy and Papa Wayne, and a handmade leopard-print headband (to match a leopard print infinity scarf for me) from Auntie Jenny! 

But if I'd have to choose, maybe my favorite part was when I opened my stocking at my parents' house and found four lottery tickets (everyone else had gotten three) -- three for me, and one for "EKB" -- the initials of our future little lady (yes, we've already picked out a name. No, I'm not sharing with the world wide web just yet). My dad had put a gift tag on the lottery ticket that read "To EKB... From Santa". My heart melted. Anyway, baby girl did not win any money to put into her college fund from that lottery ticket -- too bad for her, that'll be her last chance until she's 18 to do so. Mama, on the other hand, walked away with $25 on her ticket!

Have you told family and friends: Yes! It became Facebook official this last week. All of the sweet words were so special.

Miss Anything? Nope. I'm naughty and I sleep on my back and on my tummy still, but do try to make a point to sleep on my left side as much as I can. I do miss Cherry Coke Zero, but I gave that up last March for fertility reasons, so that's nothing new.

Movement: I think I'm feeling baby girl, but can't be sure. However, whatever I keep thinking I feel continues to get more frequent... so I have a feeling I must be right. Just little "pop" sensations -- usually when I'm sitting down. I think I felt them the first time at 15 weeks while correcting math journals in my classroom :)

Food cravings: None! Most of the time my problem is that I don't know what I want -- as in, nothing sounds all that appealing. It's not that anything makes me sick -- I just don't really know and I'm super indecisive. I do know this: I used to be a pizza and ice cream lover, and I could care less about either of them now and would rather eat something other than either of them. Earlier in my pregnancy, I craved waffles, cinnamon rolls, macaroni and cheese and donuts -- I couldn't get enough donuts in my system in the first trimester.

Anything making you queasy or sick: Sometimes the thought of pizza (especially Papa Murphy's, strangely enough) just really, really turns me off. Not really sick, but just a little bit of a stomach churn.
 
Have you started to show yet:  I have, but I think only to those who know me. But we've been taking pictures since ten weeks, and I've definitely changed since then.

Gender prediction: No need for a prediction; we already know! I'll share about that adventure another time :)

Belly Button in or out? In, and showing no signs of "outieness" anytime soon. But my belly button is kind of a never ending pit, so we'll see how long it takes.

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy!

Looking forward to: Three things: Baby's kicks getting stronger, being twenty weeks along in mid-January and also our 3-D ultrasound on the 7th of January! We are SO excited to see our little peanut again!

... and for your viewing pleasure, here's a comparison from where we've been to where we are now. Aside from my growing tummy, you'll notice a definite difference in both hair color and style... I think I prefer the earlier. Regardless, that's for my hairdresser to tend to next week. Anyway, disclaimer: if you scroll down further, you'll see pictures of my uncovered belly. Don't say you haven't been warned! Just try not to have nightmares from the naked belly shots:

 

Pinterest Fail

A little over a year ago, a time suck lovely little website came into my life: pinterest! Since that day, I've had the privilege of testing the waters and some pretty incredible things. Since that day, I've mostly had good luck with those things.

Until last night.

Epic fail for a pin I've seen pinned and repinned and pinned yet again.

Have you seen it?




I know you have. And some of you probably have it pinned, even!

Well, I've long been a skeptic of it. In fact, I'd vowed never to do it.

Until last night.

Dang.

It was about nine, and I asked my husband what he wanted for lunch (that's what we call our 9:30 p.m. dessert. Well, actually, it's what we call any dessert at any time of the day. Because, see, lunch is actually dinner and dinner is actually supper, which leaves ample room for "lunch" to be called, well, lunch. Follow me?). I offered him two choices: warm brownies with ice cream or cinnamon roll pancakes.

He opted for the brownies and ice cream.

So being the nice wifey that I am, I headed to the kitchen to throw together some Betty Crocker. See, I don't do the whole "from scratch" brownies. I have yet to have Betty let me down. She's always so fudgey and delicious... mmmmm.

Anyway, I was feeling the pressure to get these puppies in the oven and done by a decent time of night (it was, after all, already 9:00!). So I decided, what the heck -- why not try this one-ingredient trick. Not to mention, the added bonus of it all was that it would mean we could some pretty huge brownies with our ice cream if I used this recipe.

Out of the pantry came Betty, and out of the fridge came my crack Diet Coke.

I wish I would've taken pictures of this for you all.

Trust me, it started out weird.

The batter was runny like water. That was my first inkling that something was very wrong. SO weird. But according to the blog I was reading, that was very normal.

So away I went, and after plenty of  mixing, dumped the brownie water into my 9 x 13 pan and tossed it in the oven. Being the batter lover that I am, I eagerly dove into the blue bowl I'd mixed the brownies in and started licking it up.

That was my second hint that I'd made a grave error in making these imposter brownies.

Anyone want a drink of some chocolate Diet Coke?

Yeah, didn't think so.

Anyway, I tried to believe that these would get better with baking and the Coke taste would go away. And I almost did believe it, because when I went to the oven 25 minutes later, that glorious brownie aroma filled the air.

So I nestled my hand into my trusty red oven mitt and pulled them out of the oven and onto the counter. And what I saw wasn't pretty. The brownies were not nice and raised, with a crusty, shiny top, like they normally are. Instead, they were low, matte and pulling away from the sides.

This image definitely didn't match the blog I'd read, which said "even the edges were fudgey!"

However, I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt. So in I dove, with my red handled steak knife (yes, everything in my kitchen is red. And yes, I use my steak knife for everything. Don't judge.) and what I got out was indescribable.

Think of it this way: have you ever chewed on a piece of rubber that has the flavor of chocolate Diet Coke?

Oh, you haven't?

Then you should probably make these brownies. Because that's what they taste like.

But in that moment, I couldn't believe that I'd been duped so horribly. So, naturally, I cut a larger chunk (this time, away from the edge) to see if there was some type of mistake. After all, there had to be. I mean, the blogger said "even the edges were fudgey!".

LIAR!

What a travesty. The entire pan went instantly in the trash.

I guess that's why you don't bake brownies with diet coke and try to be all stealthy about it.

The worst part about it all was that by that time, it was too late to make cinnamon roll pancakes... dang you, Diet Coke brownies! Double foiled.

I will add one disclaimer: I did not use "low fat" brownie mix from Betty -- it was normal (though I don't think that should impact the outcome). I also used caffeine free Diet Coke (infertile ladies like me best be stayin' away from that caffeine soda pop), but again, don't think that should impact the outcome.

Anyway, learn from my mistakes. Trust Betty. Eat the brownies the way she intended.

While I Was Away...

I've been asked by a number of people why I left my blog and if I'm ever planning to come back. My response to them is always honest and forward: this little blog that I'd so planned to be about the excitements and lessons learned while becoming a real, live adult, had turned into nothing more than my dumping grounds for how horrible I felt about my infertility. I didn't think people wanted to read all about that, but yet it was all I could think to write about. So rather than putting anyone through another "poor me" post, I opted to cease all posting (on this blog) until I could post happier things.

The best part for me about telling this truth to those who asked, was that they all responded the same way: that they never minded reading it. That they were disappointed when I'd quit.

So here I am again. Ready to pick it up and get back on it.

I can't promise it will always be happy.

Because, let's face it: I have some happy days. But I also have some sad days.

And [warning!] if it's a sad kind of a day, and I feel like writing, it's going to be a sad post.

So (this is your disclaimer) if you don't like it, don't read.

And if you don't mind, any prayers or hugs would be appreciated.

What I can promise is that it will be honest. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

So here we go; here's what you've missed out on since I posted last (just before Halloween! Crazy)...

• Discovered that beavers have taken up shop just behind my parents' house in central Minnesota. More exciting, however, was the discovery that beavers really DO chew on and chop down trees in real life exactly like they do in cartoons!

• Tricked the hubs into helping me make oodles of Christmas candies!

 

• Went to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter for the second time! Unfortunately, we decided to go just after Christmas and before New Year's. Unfortunately, this is when everyone else in the entire world opts to go apparently. Unfortunately, this lead to a two hour wait in line just to get IN to the HP section of the park. Regardless, we got Butterbeer. Obviously this made the entire, insane day worth it!

• Took a Caribbean cruise with my grandparents, parents, sister and husband. Highlight of the trip? Winning a trivia game show on New Year's Eve and bringing home a trophy as a result! (All those childhood years spent obsessing over movies like Back to the Future, Star Wars, Beauty and the Beast and the Wizard of Oz completely came in handy!)
  

• Learned that hubby was offered a REAL job for when he graduated in May (yes, he was offered it five months prior to graduating)! Unfortunately, aforementioned job was located 100 miles away in our hometown (the hometown part was not unfortunate... just the fact that it was 100 miles away!). Operation: Decide Whether or Not to Leave a School and Staff Megan Loves ensues.

• Learned we were pregnant five days prior to my 25th birthday!


• Had my first non-Megan centered visit from the Easter Bunny! (Don't worry, I was totally okay with sharing my basket with my apple-seed sized baby :)).

• Learned we were miscarrying.
  
  
• Decided to give official notice that I would be leaving my teaching job full of students and staff that I came to love so dearly.
  
  
• Was a proud wifey as I watched my husband cross the stage and accept his diploma after an undergraduate education full of hard work!

• Interviewed and accepted a third grade teaching position back in our hometown at the Catholic school. A dream come true! I've wanted to teach there for pretty much all of my college-and-on years.
   
• Graduated from apartment living after being in some form of one (dorm, apartment -- po-tay-toe, po-tah-toe) for the past SEVEN years! Moved into our first (owned by someone else who we rent from) house!
   
• Explored NYC with my mom, dad and baby sister! 

As one can easily see, it's been a time of ups and downs. We've had some times filled with belly laughs that make you feel so great to be alive, while we've also had a few times when things looked quite bleak and like there was no light at the end of any tunnel we were in.

However, life goes on. Time passes. The sun rises each day. And we keep on keepin' on, thanking God for all the blessings we have (which, quite apparently, are abundant).

So what's next?

Maybe a puppy.

Certainly a new classroom, a new staff, a new set of third graders, a new school year.

And we believe, new life.

Told you I'd be honest.