20 Weeks

Week: 20

Baby Size: About 6.5 inches or the size of a banana.

Movement: She gave me a few hard kicks this week. I could even see my belly move from the outside. One especially hard one was when I was standing in the checkout line at Target - I couldn't believe how hard she kicked me!

Gender: It's a little lady!

Food Cravings: Spicy parmesan shrimp pasta. It's so good.

Food Aversions: None really, but I probably won't be eating salad or uncooked vegetables for a while after a recall scare this weekend.

What I Miss: Not being able to eat things freely without worrying if it's going to harm the baby.

Looking Forward To: Adam being able to finally feel the baby kicks. I've tried, but he just says he can't tell the difference between the kicks and his hand twitching or my belly moving from breathing.

Best Moment of the Week: My parents came out to visit and we went out for Adam's birthday to one of his favorite restaurants and then we came home and had paczki for dessert.

19 Weeks

Week: 19

Baby Size: About 6 inches or the size of a mango.

Movement: This week I can definitely tell that the baby is moving. She seems to be most active in the morning and later on in the day. I get a bunch of kicks all in a row!

Gender: It's a little lady!

Food Cravings: Reese's peanut butter eggs and pizza again. UGH.

Food Aversions: There are things that just don't sound appealing, but I steer clear of whatever it is that doesn't sound good to me at the moment.

What I Miss: Sushi and alcohol. Still.

Looking Forward To: Feeling some real baby kicks, not just soft pokes, and having Adam feel them too.

Best Moment of the Week: Getting to see our active little girl on the ultrasound!

18 Weeks

Week: 18

Baby Size: About 5.6 inches or the size of a sweet potato.

Movement: Same as before. It's tough to tell what is baby and what isn't.

Gender: Don't know yet! Our appointment is this week!

Food Cravings: Reese's peanut butter eggs! Easter is coming.

Food Aversions: Nothing really.

What I Miss: Sushi and alcohol. Two things I couldn't have on my vacation this past weekend. :'(

Looking Forward To: Finding out the gender!

Best Moment of the Week: Being able to take a vacation to Florida and just relax. We had a great time walking around the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival.

17 Weeks

Week: 17

Baby Size: About 5.1 inches or the size of an onion.

Movement: Sometimes I think I can feel a kick, but I honestly don't even know what they feel like.

Gender: Don't know yet! We just scheduled the appointment for March 19th. Hopefully the baby cooperates.

Food Cravings: Skittles and Chinese food (terrible, I know).

Food Aversions: Nothing really.

What I Miss: Not having sore hips/back in the morning when I get up.

Looking Forward To: My upcoming trips. I'm really looking forward to warm weather.

Best Moment of the Week: Finally packing up and moving the stuff out of our condo. It's been a long time coming and hopefully that means we'll find a place here soon.

16 Weeks

Week: 16

Baby Size: About 4.5 inches or the size of an avocado.

Movement: None that I can feel still.

Gender: Don't know yet! We just scheduled the appointment for March 19th. Hopefully the baby cooperates.

Food Cravings: Jeni's Mango Lassi Frozen Yogurt and Chick-fil-a chicken sandwiches.

Food Aversions: Nothing really.

What I Miss: Not sitting/lying down and immediately having to get up to use the bathroom.

Looking Forward To: My upcoming trips. I'm really looking forward to warm weather.

Best Moment of the Week: Spending Saturday in the Strip District with Adam. We had brunch at a new place, which was delicious and we bought beet pasta from the Farmer's Market. We're trying to spend some time together before the baby gets here.

15 Weeks

Week: 15

Baby Size: About 4 inches or the size of a pear.

Movement: Didn't feel the popcorn this week. I'm not worried though, I've read that it will probably be around 18 weeks when I start feeling any real kicks.

Gender: Don't know yet!

Food Cravings: Zapp's Voodoo flavored chips. We had these when we were down in Mississippi and I've never been able to find a place that sells them up here, since they're a local brand. My mom and I went to World Market this past weekend and they had a whole stack of them! I've also been craving sweet things lately.

Food Aversions: Still Raisin Bran and other bland, cardboard flavored cereals.

What I Miss: Same as last week plus eating things without worrying that I could possibly get sick from it. I also miss snuggling with my parents cats when we visit them.

Looking Forward To: My upcoming trip to visit my sister although I won't be able to go on many rides in the park or enjoy the delicious mixed drinks at the Flower and Garden Festival. :(

Best Moment of the Week: Spending Friday night family time bonding with Adam building a LEGO set. It was a ton of fun and we put the whole thing together in 4.5 hours while watching the Monk marathon (our favorite).

It's been a long time...

Where to begin... since I left off last, we've had a lot of things happen. We traveled back and forth to Massachusetts twice (Thanksgiving and Christmas). We visited Cleveland for the New Year. We've bid on and lost out on about 3 houses now in the span of a few weeks (whomp whomp). We found out we're pregnant.

Yeah, so that last thing. It's so exciting and scary at the same time. I've been trying to document my weeks by taking photos to show my (lack of a) growing belly. I also thought it might be a fun time to start documenting how I'm feeling week by week.

Before I get started on this past week, here's me at week 5 for reference.

Now on to Week 14!

Week: 14

Baby Size: About 3.4 inches or the size of a lemon.

Movement: Sometimes I think I feel like popcorn is popping in my belly. Who knows what that is though.

Gender: Don't know yet!

Food Cravings: New York style pizza all day, every day.

Food Aversions: Raisin bran. I ate it almost every morning in the first trimester, so I think I'm just sick of it now.

What I Miss: Going out to dinner and enjoying a glass of beer or wine. Valentine's day made me realize that one.

Looking Forward To: Week 20 and finding out the sex. It seems like it can't come soon enough!

Best Moment of the Week: Hearing the baby's heartbeat (154 bpm) at our Dr's appointment at 14 weeks exactly. I didn't even realize it was the baby's at first. I was joking and I told the baby to be good so we could hear the heartbeat and then the Dr. joked that the baby is going to be a kid that listens to it's mom, because he picked up the heartbeat right away!

The Gulf Coast - Louisiana

Saturday morning we were surprised with the most delicious donuts ever, TatoNut donuts. I had joked about the fact that they have Krispy Kreme donut shops down there and Diana and Jason insisted we try these donuts instead. They weren't wrong. So much better.

After donuts, we hopped in the car and headed to Abita Springs to tour the Abita Brewing Company. Diana said her friends had gone before and said it was fun, so we figured we'd stop on our way to New Orleans. I love their Strawberry Harvest beer, which I had for the first time in Pittsburgh. We waited outside on the patio for a few minutes before being called inside for the tour.

This is how we spent most of our weekend. Kids these days. :P

Inside, the tour guide told us to grab a cup and start filling. Basically, we grabbed a cup and got in line behind the bar. It was a fill your own glass tour, which was pretty rad (PS. The tour is free). I hadn't been on one like this yet - all you can or want to drink, basically.  Diana is showing the different ingredients that go into the brews.

Behind the bar, they had suggestions of how to mix the beer on tap to get some different flavors. There were about 7-8 different beers on tap (including the Christmas Ale, we were ahead of the seasonals, since I had a glass of Fall Fest the day after I got back to le 'Burgh), plus their Oak Aged Pecan Harvest ale (it was delicious), and the very last tap was Abita's own root beer (perfect for the non-drinkers in the group).

After we grabbed a glass (I got Purple Haze for my first go-round), we hung out and took some photos. The red bottle cap in the Louisiana cap map shows the location of Abita.

About 2 minutes after this, someone comes inside and says to the tour guide, "There's a group of 80 bikers making their way inside now" and then the place was packed. Diana and I ran up quickly before the group came and got more beer. I went with the Christmas Ale and then grabbed a taste of the Turbodog. We hung out and waited for the tour to begin, they showed us a short video, we ran up and grabbed more beer after we saw the line dwindling and before we knew it we were on our way into the brewery.

Yup, that's us.

After the brew tour, we drove over Lake Pontchartrain to New Orleans. We parked in the French Quarter and walked over to Ralph & Kacoos for some lunch. We shared blackened alligator for an appetizer. So if you're counting, I've both eaten and held an alligator on this trip. After lunch, we walked over to Jackson Square and just wandered around the French Quarter a bit.

We made our way down to Bourbon St. and had a hurricane from Pat O'Briens and then attempted to walk over to Cafe du Monde for some beignets. Took us a little while to get there, but we made it and the beignets were delicious. 

After our beignets we decided to call it a day. Jason and Diana drove us around the city for a little tour before we left.

The last place we stopped was the entrance of the old Six Flags New Orleans. It was abandoned before Hurricane Katrina hit and never reopened. Diana said they've been using the location to film a few movies. Must be pretty cool.

I'd love to be able to visit New Orleans again someday. There are so many more things to see and do, it was definitely not possible to do them all in just a few hours. Plus, how can we resist going back for more beignets? Not possible.

The Gulf Coast - Mississippi

This past weekend we took a trip down to Biloxi, Mississippi (I learned that it's Bull-ucksi, not Bill-oxi, a Northerner mistake) to visit with my friend Diana and her husband. She came up last October to visit me for a long weekend when Adam was in Pittsburgh and I was still in MA. I had a great time showing her around the Pioneer Valley and Boston and was excited to plan a trip to visit her. This trip was a long time in the making - we finally found a time that worked for all of us and it couldn't have been a better weekend!

We arrived Friday morning and immediately went on a driving tour of Biloxi. I was so excited that we were spending the weekend by the beach. It's definitely a treat for us Northerners, especially now that we're even further inland.

On our way home we stopped at the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum. George Ohr was a potter from Biloxi, back in the 1800's who was way ahead of his time. He was creating vibrant, enameled works and was actually criticized for this, because it was much flashier than what the Victorian era was used to. He also made some pretty interesting puzzle mugs and had a very distinctive crinkled look to his pottery. The museum was destroyed during Hurricane Katrina, when a casino barge was thrown up onto land.

The museum was designed by Frank Gehry and it has a really distinctive look to it - a work of art in itself.

We walked around a bit, there are only 3 different exhibits - it's a really small museum - and went for a little tour through the pottery studio where they offer classes.

We also stopped to see the Hurricane Katrina monument in a park on the main drag in Biloxi. There we found this amazing old tree that was carved into a fish statue. There were a ton of different fish and animal statues around the city carved from trees that were victims of the hurricane. It was a neat way to memorialize the destruction that happened.

Back at Diana and Jason's house, Adam found a new friend, Sophie, who loved giving him kisses.

We took a walk around the town common and saw a 2,000 year old tree named Patriarch and how high the water line was when Hurricane Katrina hit (in case you can't tell, that's about 12' high).

For dinner we drove over to Ocean Springs and had BBQ at The Shed. They have their own show on Food Network now apparently.

On Saturday, we drove out to Louisiana and visited the Abita Brewery and New Orleans (I'll talk about that day in a separate post).

This past weekend was the Peter Anderson Festival, a huge arts festival in Ocean Springs. We spent a few hours on Sunday walking around petting animals, buying arts and crafts, and eating delicious food (snowball = most delicious shaved ice ever). Adam was totally trying to figure out a way to bring that puppy home with us, I however did not want to find a way to bring the alligator home.

This was a little rescued flying squirrel - sooooo cute!

Some Walter Anderson murals inside the community center.

After the festival, Diana and I headed to the beach to try our hand at double exposure photography. I think our first attempts came out pretty rad. I loved the old oak trees that were all over Biloxi.

We also got a few photos in of the pelicans and sandpipers, saw an awesome bottle with barnacles all over it, and spotted a lone jellyfish on the shore.

Then, we went across the street and Diana humored me and took some glamour shots. I've never had any taken and I wanted some just for the heck of it. She did a pretty awesome job (you can see more of her pics here).

I also took a photo of her against the same wall, because it was so freaking cool.

After dinner, we walked over to the Hard Rock Casino. We found out that this place was supposed to have its grand opening 2 days after Hurricane Katrina hit, but the casino was basically demolished and almost all of the memorabilia was washed away. Fortunately, people started finding things washed up on the beaches and brought them back, things like John Lennon's velvet coat and Madonna's bustier. It took them 2 years to rebuild!

Next door is the Beau Rivage Casino, which had some very pretty fall decorations in the lobby and a fabulous fountain outside. It was also damaged during the hurricane and the casino, which used to be a barge was destroyed.

We had an awesome trip and we're so glad that we were able to visit them before they move to their new city (closer to us, yay)! Who knew Mississippi was so much fun and so pretty? :)

Stay tuned for my recap of our New Orleans leg of the trip!