New dresses and Free lunch (24 weeks)

Sitting on Henri's Awesome ToyChest (floor model w/ coupon purchase from BuyBuyBaby)

Hugging Baby Lumpia (7.27 at 24 weeks,  5 days)

How far long: 24 weeks (7/22-7/29)

Weight gain: (since pre-preggers) 18 lbs gain. Seriously, on Monday (19^th), I swore everything grew over lunch. My boobs, my belly, everything. And I know it wasn’t just the heat that helped me retain water. I actually felt like it all grew. If I didn’t know any better, I would say this is where I would have gained the extra pound this week. I have officially given up on wearing my size 4 engagement ring. Just my simple plain but comfortable contoured white gold band. I think the belly is pretty much a calling card for taken/unavailable.

Sleep: Well, since sleep has been the last thing on my mind, (though it’s something my body really needs), I think I have done ok. Mainly because I have been extra busy recently. I have had to go to work by 8:15 every day from the July 18^th-22^nd due to the Oracle University training I have had for work. Yup, folks from Arlington arranged this and a Santa Clause look-a-like Oracle instructor came and taught us some things from the hours of 8:30-5:30/6pm. I also knew I had a short work week coming up on the July 25^th-29^th because I was bound for Columbus, Ohio for our annual National convention for Delta Xi Phi. So between a tight and long work week and a short work week, I must have slept REALLY good the times I was asleep. I really miss naps though. Those have to be saved for the weekend, or I tend to nap between 9pm-10:30pm when I put little man down for his nighttime sleep. After he is sound asleep in his crib, I wake up from my nap and try and finish whatever I can before I get my nighttime sleep. It’s a hard knock life.

Feelings/Movement: Oh yeah. Rumbling, tumbling and cute kicks right now. Yes, cute kicks. From what I learned last time, they do turn into hard jabs, which at times aren’t so cute. But right now they are cute, little gentle, bongo-type like beats on the inside of hotel womb.

Food: Well I have been lucky because one of the perks of a week worth of training at work is that you never have to pack a lunch since company pays for it. And unlike the other times where group lunches at work consist of a platter of sandwiches or a buffet of taco meat and toppings, the coordinator for this training let us pick our own individual meals from every menu we ordered from. So throughout the week, I had stuff ranging from a spud au broc from Jason’s Deli, Ray’s Pizza, a beef and lamb gyro and baklava from Paupolis, lobster enchiladas from Tarahumata, etc. The Jason’s deli on Monday made my little eggroll OVERLY active. Guess baby loved the yummy potato.  Unfortunately the last day we had chin chin. Now last time I was pregnant Chin Chin was the first food that gave me morning sickness which turned into a food aversion. This is one food aversion I never went back too. Maybe it’s just the Chin Chin on Windward but I swear there is always a gallon of cooking oil with every meal. WOOF! But I forced myself to just order small apps like wonton dumplings. Since lunch was taken care of that week, I felt like I had room to splurge on a breakfast every morning. And I did. I got a tall ½ caff mocha w/ light whip and mocha drizzle EVERY morning that week. Let’s just say I was about 3 drinks from gold status on my starbucks card because of this. I also got my perfect oatmeal cups a few times that week. I first fell in love with this meal while I was breastfeeding with Zay to boost up my milk supply (which it did). However, my new favorite craving this week, almost every morning: the morning bun. Sweet cinnamon soft chewy goodness. Mmmm.. Starbucks has saved me this week in cinnamon cravings and staying awake for training (yes a tall ½ caff is plenty when you hardly drink ANY caffeine anymore).

What I miss: I haven’t really missed too much of anything this week. I was actually pretty content. I did have a lot o missed phone calls this week :) Generally, I do miss more time. But I have a feeling that will never change. Time management they say. I have made notes for my blog entries so that I don’t forget things, but until I properly set aside a time to write each week, I end up playing catch up, which is basically copying and pasting my notes and editing  it to make complete sentences. At least I am attempting at it.

Looking forward to: Wearing my new maternity clothes more often while the weather is warm! That is right. Over the weekend I went off to Destination Maternity and I bought myself a few more outfits to work into the rotation especially with the training I had. Even though no one really dresses up for work, I wanted to have a few more “professional” and easy thrown-on outfits that actually flatter my belly and figure versus just trying to use my A-line cut blouses and other forgiving clothes.

I also bought a pair of khaki sorts with the under-belly support (which is my favorite kind of support) and a black pencil-type skirt that was more than ½ off. Yeah, this has been a bit much more than I wanted to spend all together, but seeing as how I haven’t bought any clothes this time, I thought it was ok.

Random thought: I do think that the situation that Matt and I are in is sometimes bizarre in terms of looking at it from the aspect of working together. This week highlighted how far we have come along as co-workers that became romantic. Matt started his career at E*trade in Arlington and at his second position there, he started working w/ a team that had these guys named Dan, Tom and Hari as his peers and boss. Eventually he moved to California still working for these guys remotely and then eventually transferred to Georgia where he joined the team I was working for. We’ll have a whole separate set of blogs on this soon J Needless to say, this is how we met. Well, this training week was arranged on by these guys Dan, Tom and Hari. At some point after Matt has transitioned in Georgia, still partially working for these guys, I developed a long history of arguing with this guy Dan. Well this week, one of the funniest stories takes place during our Jason’s Del lunch and that Dan mentioned out loud that he wanted to meet up w/ “Matt and Lois” while he was here in Georgia. He said this while I sat in front of him, pregnant and all, and the other folks around our table, exchanged confused looks. Finally one of the other guys said, “Dude, She’s right here in front of you”. I don’t remember his exact words, but the surprised look on his face with the dropped jaw, he said” You’re Pregnant??!?!” Why, yes, Dan, I am. And that guy you used to work with a lot knocked me up.

Say What?

“Make room for the pregnant lady” Stephen Bordeleau, coworker at every lunch we had during training. I really should just have a wide load sign on my back. The crazy thing is I AM ONLY 5 MONTHS PREGNANT!

Compared to Henri: At this point in my pregnancy with Henri I started to become obsessive about saving up for my maternity leave. The holidays and the spending that came with that was over and truly was trying to set new years goals for myself that included maternity leave pay. Every penny that Matt had overtime I used to swear it will be towards funding my time for maternity leave. But right now I am not so concerned. I guess because my stepson is here and I want him to enjoy his summer and not worry too much about the future. That, and I am partially in denial that I am over the halfway mark to due date. So maybe that is why I am not as concerned. What is the same about this time compared to Henri is that I start sitting in rooms of my house and daydreaming and planning somne nesting projects and things I like to start changing and/or buying to make living more comfortable while in this place. I have a few ideas in my head, maybe I should write them down. I can just see my nesting issues come into play again. Isn’t that crazy? You would think I finished nesting the first time around.

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