That time we lied on the radio

I've gotten SO MANY nice supportive comments in various social media forms, so I bet all you wonderful people are here to check for a gender announcement. Well, joke's on you, we still don't know!

Funny story, we got subs for the end of the day (as in, people to do our jobs, not sandwiches), went to the lab, got called back, and then were informed that we couldn't get the ultrasound. My doctor's office doesn't do them (it's a really small practice), so they refer out.

I spent some time considering how to find a way to make the reason why they wouldn't see us interesting enough to share, but honestly, it's really not. It's no one's fault, just a miscommunication and an overall major fail.

I'd like to say I took it all in stride and laughed it off as we headed out the door, but that's not really my style. I felt like a big giant dummy for telling literally everyone I know (um, we were on the radio this morning announcing it, no joke) and then having to be like "hey, just kidding about that!".

4/29 Whole show part 2 - our radio début - it's at the 50 second mark

Also this happened:

I tried really hard not to, but I ended up wallowing in disappointment and guilt for like 45 minutes before I was able to get my big girl pants on and get over it. Disappointment because I am the most impatient person EVER and I WANT TO KNOW RIGHT NOW. Guilt because logically, I knew this was no big deal and it was ridiculous for me to be upset about, but I couldn't seem to stop.

I blame my reaction entirely on boasting. Just last night, I was bragging to Kara how I stayed completely dry-eyed during a really sad Buffy episode (Prom). I believe my exact words were something like "I'm normally so emotional and prone to crying but not at all during pregnancy!". You win, universe. I ate my words on that one.

Eventually though, logic prevailed and I was able to act like an "adult" again and get over myself.

What I should have done with the extra time: work on my grad project, due in six days.

What I actually did: watch two episodes of House of Cards with Eric (we're still in season 1 - no spoilers!).

One really cool discovery I've made this week is that asking people about birth advice brings tons of lurkers out of the woodwork to comment, which I absolutely love. I really enjoyed hearing about everyone's birth stories! Full disclosure - natural childbirth sounds awesome, and I'd like you all to read that in a non-sarcastic tone of voice. I think I'm still going with the epidural if at all possible.

We have another appointment next week, and if all goes according to plan, I'll still share whatever adorable little blue or pink outfit follows!

Are you a crier? I generally shed tears for the most pathetic reasons you could imagine, happy or sad.

 

A baking first

This is the last post I'll ever have to write referring to "the baby" or "it" (unless for some reason blogging is still popular when it's time for #2, but that seems unlikely). 18ish hours till we found out. Totally not counting and definitely haven't been all day.

This weekend I did something I'm not sure I've ever done before. I baked, and no chocolate was involved (and it was for me).

Raspberry bars

II swear, I shared with friends, I didn't just eat the entire pan alone.

 

It wasn't a health thing, those bars are the good stuff, packed with butter and sugar. I was just craving a fruity dessert. Possibly a first.

I think it's safe to say coffee is back in my life, sort of. I can only handle super dark roasts (that's not new), unflavored, and made in the French press. The weird part is I've had my coffee plain since high school, and now I need half and half. I can't seem to go black, although some have argued that's how I got into this situation to begin with.

I poured milk on my cereal after the picture, I'm not a weirdo.

 

My capstone project for grad school is due in one week, and there's nothing that makes me more productive in every other area of my life than a major deadline like that. Saturday, instead of working on it, I cleaned, grocery shopped, prepped dinners and lunches for the week, baked, ran 5 outdoor miles that were shockingly enjoyable, and even started my baby book reading.

 

Like a good American, I am extremely adverse to any sort of pain, discomfort, irritation, or basically anything remotely unpleasant. On that note, I'm not really interested in earning any sort of #BAMF badges refusing pain medication - anywhere really, but childbirth seems to be the most popular place. I'm lucky enough to be born into a time and place with excellent medicine that my health insurance covers, so I would like to take advantage.

 

BUT I actually know people in real life who are intelligent and normal who went/plan to go the natural way. It makes me wonder why, and if there's anything I'm missing. So I wanted to hear the other side. I dived into this book, recommended from someone or somewhere that I've already forgotten.

 

Right off the bat, they made it really tricky to take things seriously.

Maybe I'm immature, but maybe he could have just gone by "Dr. Read".

Directly following that was a chapter called "Orgasmic birth". With pictures. That's all I have to say about that.

If Eric could have the baby, this book would be perfect because he's really open minded and non-judgmental. He totally accepts that all sorts of hippie dippie, crunchy BS might be legitimate. For unclear reasons he married someone really cynical, suspicious, and dismissive, and I have to have the baby, so this book is going straight back to the library. I was looking for something that was based on, you know, science, to give me the other point of view. I originally wanted a non-biased book to just give me both sides neutrally, but apparently this is a pretty polarizing issue, so that may not exist.

That got a little more serious than I intended. Anyway, for the second weekend in a row, I reconnected with a fellow Starbucks barista friend. We went and visited our friends Eileen and Mark, and their two adorable kids. 

Eric works Sunday nights, which I may have mentioned means I need to wait a whole extra day each week to watch Game of Thrones. One on hand, this sucks because I'm horribly impatient. On the other hand, it's nice to have something to look forward to on Mondays.

How AMAZING was this week's episode??? Let's all talk about it. Someone got sick of hearing "it wasn't like that in the book!"

No joke, we were mid conversation after the show, and then he didn't answer a question, so I looked
over - this. It's not unusual.

All the votes have been noted, and whoever guessed correctly will win the exclusive prize of bragging rights forever.

Do you keep in touch with people from former jobs? It's always easier said than done but I've made some of my closest friends through work - one was even in our wedding! I think customer service jobs are the best for getting tight with your coworkers. Especially when you have an evil boss (Heatmiser).

 

 

Random thoughts Thursday

1. Something that's really hard is getting back to waking up at 5am and spending the day at work. Over spring break, I got really used to sleeping until 9 and then reading in bed for two hours, before making the shift to the couch.

2. I haven't sucked at working out this week. Running has been my mortal enemy lately, so I decided to try an every other day approach (5 outdoor miles and 3.6 treadmill). Now it's more like that annoying acquaintance that's somehow infiltrated your group of friends. In between running days, I've done Jillian Michael's DVDs, with hand weights and everything. I also made one of her soup recipes for lunch this week. I like when I go into full on fangirl mode.

3. Apparently this movie is coming out this weekend.



Aside from finding Cameron Diaz incredible annoying, I won't be seeing it. The premise appears to be women fighting over Jaime Lannister, which is really stupid because he's made it abundantly clear he only has eyes for his sister. None of the women are even crazy giant amazons, so they don't stand a chance.

He also got his hand back, evidently.

There we go.

4. I will be seeing this movie, from the much preferred location of my couch. With my BFF and Indian takeout. I read the book years ago, but I remember nothing about it (other than I liked it), so it will be a surprise.

This girl is adopted? Holocaust? Something like that.

5. People are asking my preference on boy or girl. I know everyone thinks it's a cop out, but I swear I don't care, as long as I have a healthy baby.

It wasn't always this way. I desperately wanted a baby girl in my life, from the time my mom was pregnant with my sister, when I was 6, up until recently.

 

#tbt

I don't have any recollection of who those other kids are so I blurred out their faces because I feel wrong posting pictures of kids I don't know even though they are both clearly adults now and incredibly unlikely to read my blog.

Anyway, I got my wish and had a sister, but I still wanted a girl of my own, up until this happened.

In case you're new, my nephew was born in August 2012.

Then I realized boys are pretty awesome too. I also got a little older, and a (very) little wiser, and really just want everything to be healthy and on track. I am pretty excited to have this feel a little more real once we know the sex though (for the record, I still feel boy).

Eric said it felt like enough time had passed and we should start buying stuff. I told him no, because so far friends have been really generous with hand me downs, and the two things I've bought I've since been gifted. He said he was concerned that he should be doing something and wanted to know what he could do to help prepare. I'm not sure why he thought that was a good idea to say to me. Once I was finally done with the long list of things he could get started on, he probably regretted his actions too, but it was too late.

It should have been included on this hilarious list that Carolyn sent me.

Do you prefer to see movies in the theater or at home? Home is far superior in terms of comfort, food, bathroom opportunities, and most importantly, lack of people (I checked like almost every box on that buzzfeed quiz about hating people). I also really only like seeing movies that I've already seen, or have read the book. I don't like "new experiences".

 

My best diet tips

I've donned my labcoat and crunched the numbers. It seems that most people hope I'm wrong, which is hardly a surprise.



In news that shocked me (in a happy way), people other than our immediate family apparently want to know! I feel so special.

I basically can't even think about our sonogram on Tuesday because the anticipation is so out of control that I'll then become even more useless than I already am.

I had a really exciting and crazy day, but unfortunately I can't share any of that on the internet. But I did try a buffalo burger for the first time (Eric's dinner choice).

Trying to show the burger - it looks like every burger I've ever seen.

See that broccoli? It's part of this new thing I'm doing, called "let's try not to give birth at 200 lbs". So far, I haven't really been following that plan. I usually eat fairly healthy meals (not the ones shown on here, because they're boring) but also lots of dessert. Like, take what you think is a lot, then double it. Now double that.

I intended to start yesterday. But then, I had a panic attack at the realization that I wouldn't eat another Reese's egg, Cadbury egg, or peep for an entire YEAR. I was also starving. I woke up around 9 (it was the last day of spring break). Then I couldn't eat because literally everything except for cottage cheese and hardboiled eggs sounded repulsive, but I was too lazy to go to the store to get them. So it was like 2pm by the time I bought them and then the hunger was affecting my decision making so I went to Target and bought all the discount candy I could carry (some of it was for Eric, in my defense) and binged on it, but waaaaay later that night after I had my cottage cheese and eggs.

Cool story, bro.

My BFF Carolyn is a fellow pregger and she suggested this radical idea of eating fruit after dinner (I will not call it dessert). I tried it.

It wasn't the worst thing ever. I could theoretically stick with it a few days a week, especially if the internet holds me accountable.

Also, the universe wanted me to stop being a fatty.

My twitter name is as creative as my instagram name

It all started when I got on the scale on Friday. This is always, always a bad decision unless you've just recovered from stomach flu.

Even worse, I looked at a stupid babycenter message board titled "how much weight did you gain at 18 weeks?". I learned long before I was pregnant that babycenter is THE WORST, but sometimes it still sucks me in. I should know better, especially since most posts have like a 30% chance of referring to the "babby".

I'd really like to hop off the Jessica Simpson train, although I did have a burger on a huge, gluten filled white bun (and did you see all that salt on top? amazing), so I'm not going to extreme measures.

Now let's all admire a bump selfie and shower me with compliments. Kidding. Seriously, don't.

I'm not arching my back, my whootie just gives that illusion

Trust me, this guy compliments me more than all the blog readers in the world ever could.

Here's an unrelated question: what's the protocol on responding to blog comments on blogger? If I respond, the person doesn't get a notification that I responded. But I don't want to look like a jerk and ignore them either. I got a comment yesterday from anonymous that made my day, it was about how I'm approaching pregnancy in a non - Pinterest way, the highest compliment I could ever receive. So ....thoughts? Should I respond in the comments, in a post, not at all?

 

Most ridiculous diet tip you've ever heard: and go. I was once told not to drink cold water if I wanted to lose weight (which, incidentally, I didn't at the time).

 

 

 

Log your official prediction now

Thank you so much for all the awesome "help babies stay alive" reading suggestions! I can't believe how many people reached out to give suggestions, both in comments and on Facebook. It's SLIGHTLY less terrifying now that I know there's tons of people willing to help.

Sometimes I get really tired and unmotivated. This is far from a new development in my life, but now I have something to blame it on, and no one can argue with me.



On Saturday (edited to add: and Sunday), I originally intended to do things like move, or be a human, but that didn't work out. I just laid down and read various things: blogs, birth stories, my book, Facebook statuses, etc. My diet consisted of toast with jelly, cheese, and some chocolate. #fitpregnancy #eatingfortwo But Sunday I ate actual veggies, and almost no desserts. The sad part was I was too tired to carry out my genius plan of going to the store during Easter dinner time and get all sorts of discount Easter candy.

But one of the kinds of cheeses was havarti with dill, which is basically a vegetable. Plus, jelly = fruit.

This happened. A while ago. It was awkward. I hated it.



You know what else is a bad idea? Telling me I don't really need to eat for two. You don't really need to open your big fat mouth. I'm also not interested in how little weight you gained during your pregnancy. #rant

We toured some daycares over spring break. I would love to take care of my baby myself, at least for like the first year or so. But I'd also love a butler and a boat and a pretty outdoor tulip garden and chocolate not to have calories, but we don't always get what we want. It was a big relief to actually meet some people who might watch our kid, and see that they seem pretty cool with safe, clean centers. It was also weird being on the opposite end of things, after having other people entrusting me with their kid for the past 9 years.

ONE WEEK until we find out the sex. Here's what won't be happening:

• Making a blue or pink cake
• Releasing balloons
• Pinatas with blue or pink confetti
• Making blue or pink handprints on my belly (seriously, this was on pinterest under "gender reveal")

Actually, if you think gender reveal parties are dumb (no judgement, we just prefer to do things like Hunger Games parties or everyone comes dressed as a different holiday parties), look up "gender reveal" on pinterest so you can laugh.


Here's what will be happening:

• You should ring in your guess now (I've felt 100% positive on boy since our 8 week ultrasound)
• I'll chug water then try not to pee myself on the way to the ultrasound (the first part per instructions, the second part is my own preference)
• We'll ask the tech to tell us and rejoice with "OMG A BOY" or "OMG A GIRL" if I'm wrong (unlikely)
• We'll tell our families using outdated, pre-pinterest technology - calling or texting
• We'll go to Target and each get to choose ONE cute gender specific outfit (we've been dying to buy clothes but are getting tons of hand-me-downs either way so we are enforcing this strict limit)
• I'll probably post a picture of the final outfit choices on instagram, where if you really want to you can follow me under my incredible creative, unique username: http://instagram.com/alyssalindsey

Some old wives tales to consider when making your prediction (those in blue indicate boy, pink for girl):

• No morning sickness
• Hair/nails growing super fast
• Acne 
• Baby's heart rate above 140 bpm
• Chinese lunar calendar prediction 
• Ring test (dangling your wedding ring over your belly)

Here's something weird - I keep waking up starving but don't eat until mid-afternoon because everything I can think of to eat sounds repulsive. I was told that symptom, along with wanting to sleep for 23 hours a day, happened in the first trimester. But I was also told (promised, really, by multiple people) that pregnancy would clear up my skin, so obviously you can't believe everything you hear.

Boy or girl - what do you think?

Or

What do people say to you that really irritates you and makes you want to slap them?

I'm king of the world!

Ringing in 2014, my one main running goal was a 100 mile race. I spent the final few days of December reading everything the internet had to offer on the subject. I figured - I've run a few marathons, I've coached a 5k group, I have access to the internet - I'm clearly qualified to create a 100 mile training plan.

It seems maybe I should stick to my day job. Kara and I both started following it New Year's Day, and after only a few weeks, we both had to stop training. Neither one of us will be running the race. Of course, we each had different reasons. She had to stop training due to an injury.

I stopped training due to pregnancy.

 

How I get rid of money

As always, spring break flew by way too fast, and tomorrow we go back to work. But I don't tend to be terribly productive or motivated when I'm left to my own devices, so maybe it's a good thing. Also, now every day is one step closer to finding out the sex of our baby and my due date, so I'm not too mad about time off flying by.

I did accomplish some goals. They are all different, yet all related to making sure that the money we have (spoiler alert: two teachers, not much) goes to other people so we don't have it bothering us in our bank account any more.

Some ways we plan to get rid of it:

• Daycare
• Other baby stuff (turns out they need like....a lot)
• Maternity leave
• Grad school
• Other graduate courses - a really fun thing about teaching is that even though we don't make very much, we have to get a master's degree to keep our jobs (did you think I was doing it for the love of learning? HA) but then even beyond that, I have to take, and pay for, OTHER graduate level courses to stay employed. Fun, right? Good thing my kids are cute and sweet and our baby will be too (biracial - it's a given).

I dealt with this annoyance in my usual way: baking. We had a girl's dinner Wednesday night, so I made slutty brownies.

3 layers: Blondie, Oreos, brownie

You can't really see just how tall and gooey they are in the pictures

 

Here, you can see that you had to stretch your hand to its maximum capacity just to hold it.

Friday, Carolyn and I did a little day trip to DC to see the Cherry Blossoms. Despite the fact that numerous DC residents warned us that they were all gone, we were undeterred.

It's still fun to ask strangers to take really touristy pictures.

Logan recommended The Good Stuff eatery, so naturally we started there. A line out the door seemed to be a pretty good sign. Not only did they have delicious burgers, I ordered the small fry and they gave me a large by mistake. I wasn't mad.

That's a turkey burger on a wheat bun, so, healthy.

They also had a dipping bar, and one thing I really, really love is condiments. Most people don't realize this since I hate the most popular ones (ketchup, mayo, sour cream, ranch) but I'm devoted to ones that actually taste good.

DC is only an hour or so from Baltimore, but for some reason most people almost never travel from one city to the other. My friend Cheryl has lived there for 3+ years, but we hadn't seen each other since we were both back home in upstate NY. We were Starbucks baristas together for back in the good old college days.

Here we are in 2005, when she came to visit just after we moved to Baltimore.

2014 - looking just as youthful!

 

 

My new life goal is to return to his exact spot with our babies in 2015 and recreate this picture.

 

After our little trip, Eric and I hung out at home and watched What to Expect When You're Expecting. I highly recommend it, it's hilarious (although warning, it's also kind of terrifying if you're pregnant).

I brushed my teeth when the movie was over and came out to find this - apparently someone was inspired.

What you can't see is a spaghetti squash under the champagne bottle.

We had a pretty amazing Easter celebration. Eric went to work, and I defied the first rule of being alive and ate leftover pizza that some drunk customer at the bar had given Eric the previous night (he's a bartender). I also binge watched The Office, and I don't appreciate Netflix judging me and constantly asking "Are you still watching, you lazy fatty?" Screw you Netflix, I'll do as I please.

Running: I had great 5 mile outdoor runs Wednesday and Thursday, which turned out to be a huge tease. Friday I had the worst ever 3.5 mile treadmill run, and Saturday and Sunday got progressively worse and I BARELY made it through a two mile "run" Sunday. Probably my body just got too used to being excessively lazy and going back to work will help. Hopefully.

What's the number one way you hate to spend your money (outside of obvious answers like mortgage, car payment, taxes and other typical bills)?