22 WEEKS

Well first and foremost let me introduce you to this guy! I shall call him Mr. Snoogle. He allowed me to get a pretty decent night of sleep last night!
While it is a bit cumbersome when you want to flip from one side to the other with Mr. Snoogle, he makes it so you are more comfortable in one position longer so you don't spend the night tossing and turning. I give him two thumbs up! Between him and the earplugs hopefully I will start getting more rest. Kenny will just have to get over the feeling of having a third person in the bed because that is how big Mr. Snoogle is. Thankfully we have a king!

Oh and I am listening to this right now. And like any good tween I am obsessed and loving all of it!
And I excited about this to! Will be popping this in this afternoon!


Alright onto the update...
22WEEKS

How far along? 22 weeks and 4 days. The baby is weights 1.2lbs and is the size of a papaya. Which seems smaller than a spaghetti squash but whatever.

Total weight gain/loss? This is an incredibly sensitive subject in the Lacey household right now. Let's just say when I went to my doctor's appointment this week I made up for some lost time. And....I cried in the exam room. I am hormonal people! The doctor reassured me I was still completely on track with the average weight gain of 25-35 lbs. but so much so fast scared me. So no more Halloween candy for me!

Maternity clothes? Still loving them!!

Stretch marks? Nope! Thankful for this.

Sleep? As I already mentioned I think Mr. Snoogle is going to help. Because sleep has not been great. I watched an hour and a half of Project Run the other night at 2:36 am.

Best moment last week? All of last week was pretty good! I got to see my best friend in town from Seattle. Kenny was home from market. We squeaked out a win in Starkville. It rained! And I had a doctors appointment on Tuesday where I got to hear Elle's strong heartbeat.

Movement? Lots and lots of movement. Last night I made Kenny feel and we were feeling something so hard. And then it went away. It could of been an elbow or a knee but then she moved. It was weird.

Food cravings? Orange flavored drinks which I am quenching with Crystal Light orange bottle packets. Other than than no strong cravings. Food is good...but bad I learned at the doctor. Boo.

Gender? It's a girl! Elle Caroline!

Labor signs? No. I wouldn't know if I was. Ha!

Belly button in/out? My belly button has a mind of its own! Yesterday I got home and it was partially out. Ewwww! And this morning its back in. I guess its all how she is moving around in there.

What I miss: Not really missing anything these days besides, well, you know.

What I am looking forward to: Getting some of my stuff back for the nursery in the next few weeks. And Kenny's parents are coming in town and haven't seen me since the first couple months that we were expecting. So we are planning a low key weekend of football watching and hanging out with them. And of course a little granddaughter shopping maybe.

Non-baby related notes:
-Headed to Starkville to spend some time with my girlfriends tailgating and watching State beat Kentucky! It is going to be so fun!
- Rocky Horror Show Glee episode was amazing! I love that show so much!

MOVIN ON UP!

In the BCS standings that it is!! And we are now bowl eligible! So it was another fun weekend in Starkville!

Friday night Kenny and I just relaxed at home and went to bed early. We planned on taking our time in leaving Starkville and did not end up leaving to go out of town until 11:30 that morning since the game wasn't until 6. It was nice to spend some time at home. Once we got to Starkville we just hopped around to some different tailgates. We even went by Kenny's old fraternity house for a bit. I got to see my good friend Rebekah who I haven't seen in forever. So she took the one and only picture that I am in from this weekend. Looking forward to seeing her again this weekend!

Then it was time for the game! Thank goodness we pulled out a W on this one. Like I told Kenny, this game was pretty boring in the beginning because of all the TV timeouts but then it got so stressful. We were so close to losing to UAB! Thankfully our defense showed up there at the end and we got some lucky plays/turnovers! Hoping my Dan talks some sense into our team after that game and we show up ready to beat Kentucky!

On Sunday, Kenny and I got up early, got some City Bagel (of course) to go and hit the road. We were back in Memphis by 11:00 AM. In which I ate and then conked out on the couch for three hours. All these weekends out of town and game days really take it out of me. But its so worth it! Once I woke up from my nap we found that we had stayed the same in the AP and coaches poll but moved on up in the BCS standings. So anxious to find out what bowl game we will get! Hope I can go!

And then I can't wrap up this blog post with a little birthday shout out to Kenny. Happy Birthday!! Yesterday was his birthday and we celebrated with a little sushi dinner date and an ice cream cake that was delicious! For his gift from me I am sending him to see his favorite band with some of his friends. I will miss him but know that it is one of his most favorite things to do in the entire world!

21 WEEKS

21 WEEKS
How far along? 21 weeks and 4 days. The baby is officially 1lb and is the size of a spaghetti squash. That is crazy. I do not feel like I have a spaghetti squash in my belly.

My back however feels like maybe I am carrying around a Cinderella sized pumpkin. Every day this week my back pain has been getting worse. It starts to hurt in the afternoons but already this morning it is killing me! So I am taking all of my What To Expect book's tips to heart. Brought in a heating pad to work. Not crossing my legs and have my feet on a box. I look like such a nerd.

Total weight gain/loss? Here we go with weight! It is just steadily coming. This week I am up to 8-9 lbs gained total. This is in the completely normal range and really in the lower part of the norm. But still :(

Maternity clothes? Still loving them!!

Stretch marks? Was checking for them this morning and still haven't found any.

Sleep? Sleeping hard with crazy crazy crazy dreams.

Best moment last week? All of last week was pretty good!

Movement? Lots and lots of movement. She even kicked for Kenny when he came home on Monday!

Food cravings? Orange flavored drinks still. And other than that....all food is just great. Haven't really had any strong cravings. I have learned to not go grocery shopping hungry though. I end up spending way to much because everything sounds good.

Gender? It's a girl! But one of my constant worries is that the ultrasound tech was wrong and it is really a boy. I have even gone back to watch my DVD from the ultrasound to reassure myself. Is this normal?? Probably not!

Labor signs? No. I wouldn't know if I was. Ha!

Belly button in/out? In. But like I said...shallow??

What I miss: Okay, okay, I will finally change this one so it doesn't say alcohol. But can we just make that one a given. What I am missing this week is being able to have my back popped and stretching. Kenny does this thing where I cross my arms and he picks me up and kind of shakes and it pops all the bones in my back. It feels soooo good. And with all this back pain I just want my back popped!! But we have both decided that this method of back popping is not a good idea. And stretching is hard because I lean backwards and it pulls on my upper belly and it is so uncomfortable and kind of hurts!

What I am looking forward to: My fabric gets delivered today so the seamstress can get started on making my pillows! And my mom went to this huge baby gear/children's clothing sale last night and got a ton of stuff for me! I can't wait to see all the cute outfits that she got with little Elle in mind. My friend has given me some cute little girl clothes also. I am finally going to putting some things in Elle's closet because it is empty right now. Sad.

And I have a doctors appointment and we will get to hear the heartbeat again!

Non-baby related notes:
-Can't wait to see my Bulldogs play this weekend and spend another fun weekend in Starkville!!!

-We have been watching the new show Boardwalk Empire on HBO and really liking it. I have to say I am enjoying it far more than I have been enjoying True Blood lately.

- Can't wait for Glee next week!

- Kenny's birthday is in a few days and I am looking forward to celebrating with him!

THERE'S NO CRYING IN FOOTBALL!

Reasons Why It's 8:00 AM and This Is Already A Great Monday Morning

1. Huge huge huge! Mississippi State's Football team is a nationally ranked team on ALL of the polls.

2. We beat Florida this weekend!

3. Kenny comes home from being out of town for a week today.

4. My best friend who just moved to Seattle is coming to visit and stay with me this week and we have a girls dinner planned tomorrow night!

5. The garage sale was a lot of work but successful.

6. I am making this amazing chicken spaghetti recipe that I love for dinner tonight.

7. These next two weekends in Starkville are going to be so much fun!

8. My house is clean and 100% organized right now. It is so nice to come home and just relax.

So as you can tell I had a great weekend. I am still exhausted but it was a good weekend. Friday night we all just went over to Mollie's to set things up for the garage sale. We had sooooo much stuff! Then it was up at em at 5:00 am for the actual sale. We had our first customers with flashlights (crazy!) at 6:20. From then on we had a steady turnout and I made a chunk of change. Money for things you were going to get rid of is always a good thing! Plus it was a gorgeous day spent with friends.

So Saturday after cleaning up I get home at 5 completely exhausted. I had pulled my back the night before and my whole body ached. All I wanted was a shower and to snuggle down on the couch and watch my Bulldogs. So shower-check, pajamas-check, Mississippi State vs. Florida game on TV-no check!!!!

We just switched our cable to DirectTV and up until this point had pretty much loved it. Well not Saturday night! The one channel that was searching for signal, the only one was ESPNU. Every other channel worked except for that one! I was livid. The game had started and I get on the phone with the customer service people who were very nice and doing their best to be helpful. They had me unscrewing wires and resetting the box. Nothing would work! Still no signal on that one channel. And then I am tracking the game on ESPN and I see we are beating Florida!

So I cried. And I mean I cried hard. Kenny was out of town and I just wanted to relax and watch the game and I was exhausted and I am pregnant. It was just a snow ball effect. I might have totally vented to Kenny through text while he was at a sports bar with friends 500 miles away, so he was on the phone with DirectTV from where he was too. I was trying to watch the game on the Internet and that wasn't working either. And I was so tired I did not want to budge off the couch. So I finally threw in the towel. It just wasn't going to happen for me. We were beating Florida and I was going to miss it. So I started to watch The Lovely Bones. Horrible movie by the way.

So about an hour later I switch back to the channel just torture myself some more and what do my eyes see! The halftime show! The channel was working! So I just prayed that it would continue to work once the game started again. Thank goodness it did! So I got to watch my Bulldogs march into victory at The Swamp. It was an amazing moment and I am even more in love with Dan Mullen. Ha!

So yes,we SEC girls love our football and are even reduced to tears over it sometimes. But at least my little breakdown wasn't caught on national television!

20 WEEKS- HALFWAY THERE!

I seriously can't believe I just posted those pictures. And yes my friend and I stealthily took these pictures in our department's kitchen at work. I would have been so embarrassed if we had gotten caught. So enjoy this little pic while you can because I am not sure if there will be any more anytime soon.

How far along? 20 weeks and 4 days. I love my phone app because it counts down the days and as of Monday I technically have less days to go that I have already done. (umm does that make sense?) Anyway the baby is supposedly the size of a banana and almost a full pound.

Total weight gain/loss? I am in between 6-7 lbs gained. If my weight gain stays this steady(i.e. slow) I hope to be right on target for the 25lb goal that my doctor said I should gain. We will see. I mean the holidays are tricky for everyone and I could eat an elephant every hour pretty much.

Maternity clothes? Still loving my maternity clothes. Having the itch to buy some more already. I plan on doing a post about some of the websites I found that have cute but affordable maternity stuff you can buy.

Stretch marks? None. But a friend suggested some bio oil this week for the tightness my belly is having.

Sleep? Still waking up a bunch to go to the bathroom. Some nights I sleep like a rock and then last night I was up at 4 watching my tivoed Glee episode again because I couldn't sleep. Oh well. Right now I have so much of the second trimester energy that I feel fine.

Best moment last week? Kenny got to feel the baby kick!! It was so exciting. She was just kicking away and he felt it a lot! Other best moments were getting the crib put together and getting so much of the nursery layed out. Can't wait to get movin on some of the other stuff!

Movement? Lots and lots and lots of movement. I have even seen the kicks outside of my belly. She is still sitting on my bladder 90% of the time but she must be right in the front to. Because now that I know what she feels like I am pretty positive I have been feeling movement since around week 15.

Food cravings? Umm, all food sounds good to me right now. Talk about it and I want it. But really my only cravings are Orange drinks like Powerade and Gatorade and today I am craving citrus fruit too. Think I am going to go get some clementines at lunch.

Gender: It's a girl! And everyone has started using her name when referring to her. That part is kind of weird.

Labor signs? No. I wouldn't know if I was. Ha!

Belly button in/out? In but its getting pretty shallow. A little worried about this??

What I miss: Still with the alcohol. While moving this weekend my mom and I had a little problem with the guy at the U-Haul place. And I eventually cried from frustration and I really really wanted some wine and I crave tequila. Oh well! Margarita's will still be there after the baby arrives.

What I am looking forward to: I have lots to look forward to. All the custom fabric I ordered ships in the next couple days and then the seamstress can start working on creating the stuff for the nursery. And I have a cart full at stuff for the nursery at Amazon that I am just itching to purchase. And then of course I just look forward to Elle getting bigger and healthier!

Non-Baby Related News: I am having my first ever garage sale this Saturday with some friends. It is their first ever garage sale too. I am hoping to sell a lot of furniture that we moved out this past weekend along with other knick knacks and clothes. It is going to be a lot of work for all of us but I am hoping it goes well!

TUBE TALK

So, Teen Mom, who is going to miss it? Last night was the season finale and I am sad. Why I am sad I do not know, but I am. Why are these girls so enthralling to me? Someone I know works at MTV and told me that their top 3 rated shows are: Jersey Shore, Teen Mom, and then a re-run of Jersey Shore. That at least makes me feel better that I am not the only one tuning in every single week for a little Gary and Amber drama and cute little Bentley.

Last nights finale even made me CRY! Catelynn and Tyler went for their one year visit to see the little girl they gave up for an adoption. First off can I just say how remarkably everyone in this situation is handling the whole thing. Though I have never been an adoptive parent, I don't know how I would feel about seeing the birth parents all the time and being in the media spotlight. They signed up for an open adoption but still. And that little girl was just so precious and you could totally see the bond she had with Catelynn her birth mom. So I cried.

And poor Maci. I cried when she cried at the mediation because she was losing another night with Bentley knowing that Ryan truly doesn't care either way. It should of been his parents at the mediation. So frustrating.

And don't even get me started on Amber and Gary. I am undecided on whether either of these people should have that child in their custody but know for sure that Gary is absolutely correct in that Amber should have nothing to do with her. That guy she met at Walmart is skeeving me out in major ways and I would never let him close to my children.

So long Teen Mom, I can only hope they bring you back another season so I can keep up with little Sofia, Bentley and Carly.

And onto my other favorite show that is back to their roots!

GLEE!!! Some of the episodes at the end of last season sort of strayed. But this season I think that the writing is back on point and staying clever and smart. Which besides the amazing spontaneous musical numbers is the reason I fell in HUGE love with the show. The last week's and last nights episodes were so good.

I have officially decided that Kurt is my favorite character. I love that he is kind of the the theatre and Broadway anchor of the show. He is always pulling out the big numbers and his voice is amazing. I buy all the music and when I listen to the entire recording of his songs I am just wowed by how talented he is. And while I love everyone I have to say my next favorite character is Quinn. I love her wispy voice and I love the budding romance with her and lippy boy (don't know his name??)

Glee makes me insanely happy every Tuesday night. And that is all.

Tune in tomorrow. Due to some persistence, I might ( key word might) have a picture of my little belly. I know I said I wouldn't but my friend keeps saying that any pictures of me have been totally absent from this blog in months. Ha! We will see.

CHECKING OFF MY TO-DO LIST

As I mentioned before my mom came back into town to continue to get A LOT of stuff done on our house. She is a saint and painted my nursery on Friday while I was at work. Yes I know there are not to many moms around who would do this!

I decided how I wanted to decorate the nursery by finding other people's nurseries online and then pulling the images and putting them in a folder for inspiration. One nursery in particular that I loved and have used a lot of the same resources that she used (another blog post) had painted her nursery gray. I loved the color and decided to do the same thing. It is Benjamin Moore color called Gray Horse and I am so pleased with it.

Our camera is not working so ALL of these pictures were taken on my iPhone. So they are kind of dark. The color is lighter in person I think it will really help some of the other things that I am doing pop.

So after getting the nursery painted it was time to do some moving. We had rented a U-Haul for the day which we all had lots of fun driving. We cleared out the furniture for the guest room and took it storage along with some other things we were not going to be using in the den. Then we took the rest all of our old den furniture to a friends house because I am having a garage sale with some friends this weekend. (I know I can't believe this either) We also picked up our new sectional for our den which I love. So comfortable and gives us so much more room for a baby in there.

On Sunday after Kenny watched some football because he definitely deserved some downtime after Saturday we decided to put the crib together. Of course I took lots of pictures since this is kind of a right of passage. First off, the very important task of reading the instructions.....
Then it was time to get to work.
You always hear from our parents about how hard it was to put the crib together but I think cribs have come a long way since then. It wasn't to bad at all. And it is kind of funny and totally sappy but the baby was kicking soooo much while we put it together.

And I was very pleased with the finished product! The overhead lighting in the picture is killing me! But love the crib!So after this weekend its time to make the room sweet for a baby. We put the daybed up, and I have the rocking chair I bought and the crib put together. Plus we have an armoire from my childhood coming up in a few weeks. Looking forward to keeping all my loyal blog readers updated with the progress!!

COOKIN IN THE KITCHEN

So while I haven't been posting my normal Menu Mondays I have been trying out new recipes and cooking week night dinners. We kind of have to work around some of my aversions that are hanging around that have mostly to do with chicken and other meats. But in some cases I have been able to make it work. Here are some of the recipes that have been a hit!

Chicken and White Bean Stuffed Bell Peppers courtesy of an amazing website Gina's Skinny Taste These were so good. Its almost like a chicken chili stuffed in a pepper more so than your standard rice and tomato mixture. The boys I was feeding loved them!

Pizza Calzones using Crescent dough.I am not sure where I found this recipe. I know it was on some one's blog. So I am so sorry that I cannot give credit where credit is due. But I made these last night and Kenny and I both liked them and felt like next time we would get even more creative with the stuffing ingredients.

My mom is headed into town tomorrow night so I am throwing this Spinach Baked Ziti together tonight for dinner tomorrow. Another great recipe provided by Gina over at Skinny Taste

As soon as it got a smidge cooler I had to make a big pot of taco soup. I love making this on Sunday's because it is fun to eat it in my cute pottery chili bowls and watch football. Then I divide the leftovers into freezable containers for more Sundays to come. This is my go to tacos soup recipe that is extremely simple. I always double all the canned ingredients though. It makes more and I prefer my soups and chili's to have more beans than meat.

WEEK 18 & 19

So I totally realize that this little blog might have gotten a little boring since I am not updating all to often and when I do it is all about baby. I'm sorry. One of the problem's is that our camera is broken so the weekends where we go to Starkville for games or doing fun things I do not have any pics.

This past weekend my mom came in town (Kenny was out of town on a guys camping white water rafting trip) and we got a ton of work done on my house. Kenny and I had been planning on completely redoing our den in early summer but the furniture got delayed and now we are stuck trying to redo the den AND decorate the nursery all the same time. So I have had a lot going on. We got the den and a bathroom repainted (thanks to my mom) and this weekend we are painting the nursery and moving all the guest bedroom and den furniture that we are not getting rid into storage. So we have another working weekend ahead! But I am excited because after this weekend we can get the main components of the nursery set up.

I am one of those people that once I decide how I want things (i.e. the nursery) I am ready to go! I want it done now! This would definitely be possible if money grew on trees. Ha!

So here is the preggers update for the last couple weeks!

Weeks 18 & 19

How far along? Today I am 19 weeks and 3 days. The baby is a size of a mango. But the doctor did tell me that she was about to hit a growth spurt so she and I would be putting on some weight soon so get ready.

Total weight gain/loss? I have gained about 5 lbs. total. Feeling pretty good about this.

Maternity clothes? Still loving me some maternity clothes. My favorite purchases I made so far have been the dresses. I am a dress girl anyway so when I wear a maternity dress I still feel pretty cute and insanely comfortable.

Stretch marks? None. Hoping it stays that way.

Sleep? Still waking up and not getting back to sleep some nights. TiVo comes in handy because I will watch a show at 3:30 in the morning and hope I fall asleep in the middle of it.

Best moment last week? or I guess the past couple weeks was of course seeing our little girl and finding out she is healthy. And starting to get stuff done on the nursery.

Movement? Now I know for sure that it is her I am feeling all the time. I can even feel her kicking on the outside too. Now I just need Kenny to be there at the right time and be patient and keep his hand on my belly so he can feel it to.

Food cravings? Ugg! I am starving all the time! I was talking to my friend the other day and said "are you ever so hungry that you can't get the food in your mouth fast enough?" That is me! These past few days I have seriously eaten a pre-breakfast, breakfast, and then a post-breakfast.

And as far as cravings go the thing about my cravings recently is that most of the time I don't have the food on hand so I never get to eat the craving. This most likely helps in the weight gain department. But here is a list......CORNDOGS! I do not think this one is going away and I need to get some soon. Orange drinks still, spicy food, pop tarts and chocolate (and I normally don't care for chocolate)

Gender? Girl. Still getting used to the idea but excited I get to incorporate a little bit of pink in the nursery.

Labor signs? No. I wouldn't know if I was. Ha!

Belly button in/out? In.

What I miss: I am pretty happy right now. There aren't to many things I am missing these days.

What I am looking forward to: Nursery Nursery Nursery. I am so antsy and can't wait to make some headway on it. I am having all these custom pillows made for it because we are having a daybed in the nursery since we are losing our guest room and the fabrics I have chosen are so cute. I'm going to have to do a post on it all because I have found some fantastic resources.

Non-baby related note......

GO DAWGS!!!!

IT'S A .......

That's right! I was wrong! It is not a boy. It is a precious healthy little girl.

Elting "Elle" Caroline Lacey

will be here at the very end of February. Kenny and I are thrilled.

We went in last Monday for our ultrasound. I was sooooooo nervous. The appointment was at 10:45 so I went to work a little while before hand and I was so antsy. Once we were in the ultrasound room the tech started the ultrasound and were seeing great things that meant she was healthy but she was facing my back so we were not getting any good face shots or any of the gender goods. I was surprised how much the tech was poking my belly trying to get the baby to move. So the tech sent us to see the doctor and go over the results and then we could come back for another ultrasound and hope the baby had turned.
The doctor said everything look perfect and at that point I was so happy. Of course I wanted to know what Baby Lacey was, but I was just so relieved to see the baby and know there was really a baby in there (ha!) and also know the baby was healthy. So after we visited with the doctor we went back for another ultrasound PRAYING that the baby had turned. She had!!

We got a great profile shot where I think I see some signs of her looking like her daddy already and then we started to look at the gender. I have seen other people's gender ultrasound scans so I kind knew what I was looking for. The tech was moving around in the vicinity and I said "Ummm, I am not seeing boy parts....and then it showed up clearly. GIRL! No boy parts on that baby. Kenny was just grinning ear from ear! He had wanted a little girl! And I was just in disbelief. So much that I called the baby "he" while saying bye to the tech.

We had so much fun telling our parents and other family. For Kenny's parents we had them be home Tuesday morning and had a florist drop off an arrangement with a big pink balloon and pink roses. I know they were excited when they saw the pink come out of the car. And for my sister I wrote a poem in card and then we told her in person. And for my mom I got cupcakes from Muddy's, one pink, one blue and made her guess as to what the baby was. And then of course there were all the excited phone calls and texts! It really was such a fun week!

These next two weekends we are going to be working hard on some things we are doing to the house that will include painting the nursery. That way we can go ahead and put up the crib and I can start shopping and decorating!

(I will do my combine 18-19 week questionnaire later this week)