Baby is the length of an onion (5.1 inches long and 5.9 oz)

Oh, just a note, each post is written about the previous week. I wanted to be able to recap my actual experiences with each week! So we’re at 18 weeks now, yippee!!!

How I’m Feeling

Still doing great! Belly is growing, but most of my clothes still fit, which is pretty nice! We have a checkup at the end of week 18, and we get to schedule THE ultrasound where we’ll find out if little baby Cooper is a she or a he!

A perk of being in the second trimester- I only have to go to the bathroom 1 or 2 times per night (instead of 6 like in the first trimester). Yippee!

Workouts have been great- lots of walking,  a good weights session at the gym, and mowing the yard! I’m so thankful that my body is still feeling so good!

7 weeks vs 17 weeks
(I still kind of think it looks like I’ve just been eating lots of donuts! But I promise, there’s a baby in there!)

Favorite Pregnancy Websites

I have some “favorites” as far as pregnancy websites go. I like to use TheBump and Baby Center for weekly updates (that’s where all of the “baby is as big as a…” come from)! There’s also a great website called babble where moms-to-be and mommies write hilarious posts on everything from pregnancy expectations to hilarious (and inappropriate) things their 2 year olds say in public.

I also really like re-reading pregnancy recaps from some of the regular blogs that I visit: Emily from Daily Garnish, Caitlin from Healthy Tipping Point, my friend Ashley, and my friend Melissa (who just put up an AWESOME post about why she chose a midwife).

With all of that being said, I don’t really like reading too much about EVERYTHING that is going on with our little one. I mean, women all over the world get pregnant and have babies, so I’m pretty sure my body knows what it’s doing. I could get super stressed and worried about every little thing, but it’s not worth it! I’m enjoying the ride so far, and I think it’s probably good for expecting mothers to sit back and let their body do whatever it wants to!

Check out the Mini-Coop tab up top! That’s where all of the pregnancy posts are being collected!

See you next week for our 18 week recap!!!

Baby is as long as an avocado!

Thanks for all of the support with the news about our upcoming MOVE! We’re so excited and blessed to be where we are right now!

How I’m Feeling

Great! Again, nothing to complain about! I started wearing a BeBand from Target to keep some pants up. It’s this awesome elastic tube that well, keeps your pants up (even when they’re unbuttoned). I’m definitely starting to “feel” pregnant, meaning that my belly just feels different than it ever has!

My bellybutton is changing shapes already, even though there’s not THAT much pushing it out.

Workouts

Man, working out feels SO GOOD! I did “overdo” it on one day though. On Saturday, I did a weights routine in the morning, and then I went walking with my friend Ashley, and we went to church that evening. Just that much activity had me begging to lay down around 8pm. Granted, I haven’t done that much activity in one day in a while, so I’m sure my body would probably be ok if I did weights and a 20-30min walk!

I’ve also been doing lots of planks. It feels so good to engage my core (without doing actual ab exercises, here’s why I’m staying away from crunches).

Foods

Still loving to cook over here! Tuesdays have been deemed enchilada days! I used this recipe for Turkey & Black Bean Enchiladas from Skinnytaste (but I subbed in pinto beans for the turkey and corn tortillas for the flour).

Another winning recipe was a Sweet Curried Tuna Salad from Cooking Light and a Apple-Broccoli Slaw salad from the same book, but I can’t find the recipe online. It was bascially a package of broccoli slaw, 1.5 c. chopped apple (I used a green apple), and a dressing of lite mayo (3TBSP), apple cider vinegar, a bit of sugar and salt. I had to double up on the sugar and the vinegar, because as the slaw sat overnight, the flavors were barely detectable. I don’t know if I’d make the slaw this way again, but, we really liked the apples mixed in there! I think we’ll just tweak the dressing a bit to make it have some more PUNCH!

Week 6 vs Week 16- what a difference 10 weeks makes!

Well, there went week 16 without a hitch! Excited to see what week 17 brings!

Sorry for the delay in a post! We’ve been living it up this weekend! First up, the Life News (and then baby-talk)

WE’RE MOVING TO CINCINNATI!!!

Daniel graduates in May, and he’s been applying for jobs, graduate programs and the like for a while now. He has some great interviews, and he was offered a position at one of the companies he applied to! We really weren’t thinking that we would be moving, but Daniel loved the company so much (and got a TON of positive feedback from employees at the company during his interview), so after his interviews, we were really hoping that he would be offered a position, and he was!

God has some mysterious ways of working. If you had asked us 6 months ago where we would be this summer, we definitely would not have said “pregnant and moving”. BUT- God has coordinated and orchestrated these big events in our life so perfectly, that we can only give our thanks and praise to Him! We’ll be moving up at the end of the summer (I’ve got a few summer classes to knock out, I’d love to get as many classes out of the way before mini-coop arrives!)

We’re pretty excited to have “normal” lives (aka not both of us in school, working 1 or more part-time jobs), and although our time here in Lexington has been great, we’re ready to start our “adult” lives!

Ok…. now on to baby talk

Baby is as long as a navel orange!

HOW I’M FEELING

Still feeling great! I did take one pregnancy-emergency nap this week (I had to skip a class, oops!). But I’ve felt really good! I still kind of hit a “wall” around 8 or 8:30pm, and I’ve just got to lay down. But, I don’t really mind, it’s been really nice to kind of unwind earlier in the evening anyways! There’s been an obvious change in belly size this week, so that’s pretty exciting

I’m also very thankful that my appetite is normal. I still get pretty hungry every 2-3 hours, but as long as I have snacks with me, all is well with the world! I’ve been devouring veggies this week too, it feels SO GOOD to put greens, beans, and TOMATOES into my body!

WORKOUTS

Workouts have been so much more satisfying! I think it’s really cool for me to know that whatever exercise I’m doing is definitely benefiting TWO people! How cool is that?

Total miles walked this week: 17 (with some running)

I got to take a lovely brisk walk with Ashley and baby Lydia on Saturday! It was so great to have a friend to talk with, and Lydia fell asleep right away

I also put together this weight lifting routine for myself, my muscles have been asking to be challenged, and this workout was great. I used weights that were challenging at the last few reps, but I made sure that I could keep good form throughout the set.

10 rep x 3 sets of each:
Leg Extension
Leg Press (2 set double leg press, 1 set single leg press)
Hamstring Curls
Bicep Curl
Tricep Extension
Bent-Over Row
3x45sec planks (elbows)

Have a great week!

Baby is as long as a lemon!

We’re officially in the second trimester! I cannot believe 1/3 of this pregnancy is already over! (Well, I can believe it since we didn’t know for 6 weeks that I was pregnant.) This week (much like the last) wasn’t really characterized by any particular symptoms! Whoo! I had a few restless nights, but it wasn’t anything a few early nights couldn’t help!

How I’m Feeling

Aside from those few restless nights, great! I’ve enjoyed taking some long walks this week and I’m glad that spring has sprung! I also did this awesome upper body workout that my pal Kate at A Healthy Passion posted!
I grew out of my first piece of clothing. I had purchased this dress back in October/November and I was hoping that it would be my “summer wedding” dress, but… I can only zip it up about halfway. My pants are starting to feel a little tight around the rear, but they still fit!

Food Likes this Week

I am so glad that my normal appetite is back!!! We made a boatload of homemade pico de gallo last weekend and I couldn’t get enough of that tomato-ey/oniony/limey goodness! That salsa went on eggs, on rice cakes, on rice and on salads. Delish. I am also LOVING lemons/limes right now! My favorite accompaniment to lunch has been a spinach salad dressed with some olive oil, lemon juice and salt. It’s hard to believe that nary a vegetable passed my lips for almost 2 weeks in the beginning!

Other Updates

We visited the doctor this week, baby’s heart sounds great at 147 beats per minute (it was 163bpm 4 weeks ago).

Total weight gain at 14 weeks=0 lbs.
I’m back at my “pre-pregnancy” weight! I lost a few pounds when I was first pregnant (week 6-12), but I’m back up to where I was!

I have like 4 pregnant friends right now! We’re all pretty close together in due dates (I think we start in Mid September and go through Mid October). It’s so exciting to know other ladies and their husbands who are going through the same things!

We had a sushi date night on Friday! Instead of going out and spending loads of money at a restaurant, we opted to make our own sushi at home!

There are a couple of things we LOVE about Sushi:

• Good sushi rice
• Pickled ginger
• The almost-drinkable dressing on the salads at the Japanese restaurants

Our favorite sushi rice recipe comes from The Rice Bible by Christian Teubner.  Alton Brown also has an awesome looking recipe: Sushi Rice.

We took a shortcut and used quick-cooking brown rice. We let the rice cool, and then added our rice wine, honey and salt in the correct proportions. We actually stuck the rice in the fridge to cool down faster as we prepped the veggies to fill our sushi rolls.

And because pickled ginger is one of our favorite condiments for sushi, we used the Quick Pickled Ginger recipe from My New Roots (and there’s an awesome tutorial for making quinoa sushi in that post as well!)

My New Roots has a great photo on the Quick Pickled Ginger post of how much space to leave when spreading your sushi rice on top of your nori (seaweed).

We added cucumber, carrots, avocado and thawed salad shrimp (drained VERY well) to our rolls.

Because our little Mini-Cooper needs loads of nutrients, we had a simple spinach salad alongside our sushi with an AWESOME Japanese Miso Dressing (which looks invisible according to the picture below. Invisible or not, we guarantee that it is DELICIOUS!)

Japanese Miso Dressing

Serves 2-4

Ingredients

1 TBSP Mayonnaise (we used Hellman’s Olive Oil Mayonnaise)
1 TBSP Orange Juice
2 tsp. Rice Wine
1 tsp. Miso paste
1/2 tsp. Honey
1/2 tsp. Soy Sauce (or gluten-free Tamari)
1/4 tsp. toasted Sesame Oil
1/4 tsp. Chili Garlic Paste

Mix all ingredients together. Add an additional 1 TBSP of Water if you want a thinner dressing. Chill and serve over your favorite greens.

There you have it! A homemade sushi date night! We hope that if you like sushi, you’ll take the time to whip some up at home (and at the very least, try making the salad dressing!)