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.