23 Weeks

*How far along?: 23 weeks 4 days

*Weight gain: I'm not sure...I go back to the dr. in one week. My guess is 7-10lbs. up from pre-pregnancy weight. I only gained 17lbs. total with Brogan so this weight gain is a little unnerving. Darn pizza at 9pm!!!

*Maternity clothes: VENT: It's impossible to find maternity sweatshirts that are not zip-up hoodies. With Brogan, I didn't need cold-weather maternity clothes and plus, I worked so I couldn't dress like a bum during the day. But now that I stay home, can I please just find a stinkin' sweatshirt that is made for pregnant women?? VENT OVER.

*Sleep: I can't get enough. I get about 9 hours each night and it seems like nothing.

*Stretch marks: None

*Best moment of this week: My friend Shanda gave me a pack of hair barrettes for our baby girl! I have no experience with them, but they are soooo cute and tiny!

*Movement: Yes, especially when I drink orange juice and eat chocolate right before bed :)

*Food cravings: nothing too weird- pizza always works! And pink lemonade crystal light (that does count as water, right???) :)

*What I miss most: having a waist

*What I'm looking forward to: still working on that perfect name!!!

*Words of wisdom: Hot dogs are so tasty. :) I didn't eat a single one with Brogan b/c of them being unhealthy. Pssshhh! I've already eaten 3 this pregnancy and enjoyed them tremendously! Don't you feel wiser for knowing that? haha

*Milestones: as of today, baby has developed a hand grip reflex and startle reflex (justmommies.com)

22 Weeks

*How far along?: 22 weeks

*Weight gain: 5 lbs. up from pre-pregnancy weight

*Maternity clothes: Yes please. I could live in sweatpants my entire pregnancy and be perfectly happy.

*Sleep: Despite getting up countless times because of my insane bladder, I sleep pretty well. This could be due to my slight benadryl addiction. Maybe.

*Stretch marks: None so far. I was blessed that I didn't get any with Brogan. Keeping my fingers crossed for none again!

*Best moment of this week: Going to the Carter's outlet with my mom and browsing the girls clothes. My daughter will definitely be dressed in pink---pink sweatpants heehee :)

*Movement: Lots and lots! I love it. When I switch sides at night, I can feel her switching positions too. It's just adorable :)

*Food cravings: Peanut butter pie for sure (like 2 pies in one week!) and ham sandwiches with tons of shredded lettuce. And orange juice.

*What I miss most: When I was pregnant with Brogan, I could come home from work and put my feet up and watch tv the rest of the night if I wanted. That definitely doesn't happen now.

*What I'm looking forward to: Getting through Christmas and then starting on her nursery

*Milestones: According to babycenter.com, our baby girl is approximately one pound. So little!

Thanksgiving

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving has come and gone and it's now December. We had a great time celebrating Thanksgiving this year. Brogan was old enough to enjoy all the yummy food and since I'm pregnant, I didn't feel bad for all the food that I ate :)We had lunch with all of my family at my Nana's house in Durham. Then we traveled to Stokesdale to visit with all of Tadd's family. We have so much to be thankful for this year! Here are a few pictures from our day.


Brogan enjoying his Thanksgiving dessert :)

Brogan and his Uncle Bryan

What a difference a year makes! Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving 2009

20 Weeks

*How far along?: 20 weeks 3 days

*Total weight gain: I'm up 5lbs. from my pre-pregnancy weight

*Sleep: still awful...thank goodness I can take benadryl!

*Best moment of this week: Finding out the baby is a GIRL! COMPLETE SHOCK!

*Movement: Loving it :) It's the best feeling ever!

*Gender: girl girl girl girl... when will it finally hit me? Maybe I need to go shopping and buy something pink!

*Food cravings: Still nothing specific. Last night at 9:15, I enjoyed some instant mashed potatoes haha :)

*Belly Button in or out: Out and it's not going back in. I need a new question.

*Maternity clothes: I finally wore some maternity tops this week and my belly is thanking me. I still prefer wearing sweat pants to maternity jeans- but that's nothing new. I hate wearing jeans- period.

*What I miss most: hmmm, I'm gonna say nothing. Besides the lack of sleep, being pregnant is just wonderful!

*What I'm looking forward to: thinking of a girl's name. I hadn't even LOOKED at the girl lists- just the boys. Oh, and looking at pink bedding.

*Milestones: the 20 week u/s showed that our baby girl is HEALTHY and everything looked great.

The Results are In!!!

Tiny fingers, tiny toes,
Little itty bitty clothes.
Dresses, ribbons & hair to curl,
We're tickled PINK we're having a GIRL!

and YES! We are in shock! :)

19 weeks

The biggest difference between this pregnancy and my first- I don't have any time to THINK about this one. I cannot believe that I am almost halfway to meeting the newest member of our family! With Brogan, each week creeped by and I just longed to get to another week "milestone" so I could be more pregnant. With this baby, I'm wishing time would slow down and that I could actually enjoy being pregnant. I thought I'd give the little one in my tummy some much-deserved attention and talk about him/her.

*How far along?: 19 weeks 2 days

*Total weight gain: as of my appt. 2 weeks ago, I was up 2lbs. from my pre-pregnancy weight. I lost 3lbs. in the first trimester from horrible food aversions. So, I guess I've actually gained 5lbs.

*Sleep: horrible! Of course Brogan is sleeping through the night, but this baby is sitting so low already that my bladder can't go more than 1-2 hours without waking me up. And I so miss sleeping on my stomach.

*Best moment of this week: I was sitting down and Brogan came up to me and pointed to my tummy. He didn't say anything, but I like to think he's noticing something different. I keep telling him "baby" and pointing to my stomach.

*Movement: all the time! I started feeling little flutters around 17 weeks. It lasted about 2 days and then it went into full-fledged bumps and kicks. It's unreal. Tadd can already see and feel the baby move. I don't know if it means my stomach muscles are just lousy from having Brogan and I feel more movement OR that this pregnancy is further along than we all think. Hmmmm...

*Gender: we find out in ONE week! I'm still 90% sure it's a BOY!! :)

*Food cravings: Last week it was cooked squash (thank you Momma!) Nothing too specific this week...seems like I only want "real" food and not snacks. No hot wing craving this time :)

*Belly Button in or out: Out! ALREADY! It didn't pop out with Brogan until the 3rd trimester. It popped out this time in the 1st trimester. What the heck?

*Maternity clothes: I'm horribly in-between these and regular clothes. I got some cute new maternity tops for my birthday and I'm so ready to wear them!

*What I miss most: Enjoying being pregnant...and sleeping on my stomach

*What I'm looking forward to: Finding the perfect name. Nothing is sounding just right. Boy or girl.

*Milestones: Feeling the baby move- I just LOVE when I lay down at night and the baby goes wild!! He/She must think that nighttime equals party time! :)

Well that was a lot of fun! I will have to try to do this more often so Baby Grandstaff #2 gets some more attention! :)

Chef Brogan

Since it's so yucky and wet outside, Brogan and I decided to whip something up in the kitchen. We were going to make sugar cookies but our eggs were expired. Plan B= vanilla puddin'! This was Brogan's first time really helping me "bake" (I can hardly use that word for pudding) and he seemed really into it.
I let him practice with the bowl and whisk while I got the ingredients ready (all 2 of them).

"YES! I have the whisk!"

"Seriously mommy, I can do this with my eyes closed"

Then Brogan put his mastered whisking skills to use and stirred the mix into the milk.

Really getting into it now

The best thing about pudding is we only had to wait about 5 minutes before it was ready to eat!

Yummm!