Cheesy Potatoes

I have been slacking on my 30 before 30 list. But now that we're in 2nd tri and my energy is slowly creeping back, I'm going to get back into it full force. I didn't plan for this to be a pregnancy/baby blog, but that's sort of what it feels like lately... Let's return to the originally scheduled programming... with a recipe! Even if it is stolen!

CHEESY POTATOES

Stolen from i'mthisbabysmom from theBump (my satisfied belly and was a great thing to bring to Lindseys Halloween Party. Thank you!)

INGREDIENTS:
1 Bag of Orieda Southern Style Hash Browns (small cubed potato) or slice fresh potatoes but that takes a lot longer. (I used the fresh potatoes and used about 8 or 9 smallish/medium potatoes)

3 cups of Mild Shredded Cheddar Cheese.

1 small box of Velveeta Cheese (dice it).

1 pack of Cubed Ham (or bacon or whatever meat you like, or no meat). (I did not use the meat this time around, but Hubby told me he thought it should have some bacon.)

1 can of Cream of Chicken Soup.

1/2 cup of Mayo or Miracle Whip.

1/2 cup of Sour Cream.

3/4 cup of Heavy Whipping Cream.

INSTRUCTIONS:
Thaw the potatoes in a large mixing bowl. All add the ingredients EXCEPT half of the heavy whipping cream. Stir to mix. Pour into a buttered baking dish (I used the large pyrex type of dish). Pour the rest of the heavy whipping cream on top and pat in. Bake at 350 for 1 hour to 1 1/2 hour until the top is slightly golden brown.

Then stuff your face!!!

Enjoy!

15 weeks

How far along: 15 weeks (sorry, no picture this week.)

Maternity clothes: Officially full time. I can still wear my clothes but not without the assistance of a BeeBand

Stretch marks: none. I've started a morning and night routine of lotioning my belly. I've gotten mixed reviews if that's going to work or not.

Sleep: I've begun waking up in the middle of the night again. Sometimes to pee, other times to wonder about the random dream I just had. Seriously crazy dreams. Our friend who is a graphic designer/waiter is the zookeeper in my dreams. He is not a fan of animals either. Anyway, sometimes I can get back to sleep, other times I'm on Facebook trying to pass the time.

Best moment this week: Actually has nothing to do with baby... But, mommy is doing really good in work! I had possibly the best day yesterday! I'm excited to finally be productive again.

Movement: I'm about 90% sure I feel ohBaby moving every couple of days. Usually pretty low on my left side, and it's only for like 2 seconds. It's ok if people don't believe me. It's my pregnancy, not yours. I'm waiting for some more consistent feelings to confirm my suspicion.

Food cravings: Chicken noodle soup.

Food aversions: Chicken, unless it's in chicken noodle soup.

Gender: For the record, I did have two dreams that it was a boy this week. Once it was during our anatomy scan and the second time, I just dreamed about baby blue blankets. I guess we'll know soon enough!

Labor pains: Nope.

Belly Button in or out? In. Still pierced.

What I miss: clothes that fit and look cute.

What I am looking forward to: Adorable little baby clothes. I did some shopping for a baby shower, and there are just too many cute options!!

Weekly Wisdom: "I didn't give you the gift of life; Life gave me the gift of you." <3unknown

Milestones: ohBaby is making nails and teeth buds and eye lashes this week. Look how much like a little baby he/she looks like now! The model officially has a bump going on... which is pretty similar to what I have too. It looks more like chub than a baby bump still though. :(

14 weeks

How far along: 14 weeks. I have to say, when I looked at this picture after hubby took it my first thought was, "omg... here it comes." So clearly I see some bumpage going on.

Total weight gain/loss: yea, I'm not so sure I'm going to share this anymore...

Maternity clothes: Half and half, but definitely going full time in the near future. I need to stock up on some more stuff.

Stretch marks: Nope, but where the heck did these veins come from? I swear you can see every single vein I have in my body.

Sleep: Still getting 9ish hours each night. Bedtime is usually 930 and I'm dead to the world until around 630. Sometimes I'll wake up in the middle of the night, but really no complaints. Sidenote: Pregnancy dreams are really REALLY strange.

Best moment this week: Feeling semi better. Everyone has shared their milestone for when they started feeling better and I can't remember who it was that said they woke up literally on the first day of 2nd trimester and felt worlds better, but that's exactly what happened. I'm so happy to not feel like a complete pile of doo-doo now. :)

Movement: I would swear that I felt some flutters this week. I mentioned it to hubby and he said "Yeah, I'm sure. How big is that baby now?" So yea, maybe still has lol but I'm waiting anxiously to feel you little one!!

Food cravings: Still very much into milk. Sushi almost every other day is on my mind. And steak maybe? I don't know if I'm really craving that but I've wanted to eat a little more and when I want to eat well, steak is usually involved.

Food aversions: Chicken. Not happening.

Gender: TBD 11/21 :) only about a month away! My feeling is still strongly towards girl, however, looking at how my bump is taking shape, it makes me think boy. Aren't boys held higher? Or am I completely wrong?

Labor pains: Absolutely not.

Belly Button in or out? In

What I miss: Being free to make good food/drink choices. Drinking water was never an issue for me. Now, I struggle trying to make sure I have enough to drink.


What I am looking forward to: Decorating the nursery and getting my house ready for baby. That's been a hot discussion in our house this week. Where is this baby going?

Weekly Wisdom: It's nice to be nice. So please share your pickles with me. :)


Milestones: OhBabys head is no longer bigger than his/her entire body. You're starting to make facial expressions and will be moving around more and more! Oh baby, you're growing so fast! :)

The Registry Adventure... (part 1)

I've been antsy to start creating ohBaby's nursery since I found out he/her was in the making. I'm not sure how many pins I've bogged people down with on Pinterest or how many google searches I've done to try to find the *perfect* home sweet home for my little one. So I've decided to put the nursery planning on hold because I'm sure that will have to be all matchy matchy with the things we register for right?

Although, I'm also excited about starting a registry, I made the assumption that registering for baby would be just like registering for our wedding (which I had a ball with!). It's not. You can just pick a store and pick the prettiest patterns that fit your lifestyle. There's a whole lot of safety measurements involved... Very important safety stuff. Anyway, I've decided the best way to approach this is to start with one item, do all the research I can and then start a registry.

So, we picked a car seat. We're going with the Chicco Keyfit 30. It gets great ratings in Baby Bargains, is mentioned again on Lucie's List which is a pretty funny and condensed registering guide for new mommies. It's pretty popular. Let's face it, I had brunch this morning with two mommies sporting this accessory. We're still up in the air if we want to do the entire Chicco Travel System (car seat, base and stroller) or if we want to do another stroller attachment and this car seat (mainly for size... the Chicco travel system is pretty big). Here's a picture, but we're not 100% sold on color either. So, now we're we have to decide where to register for said item.

The big players are Babies R Us (does anyone not register here?), Target (because who doesn't love wasting time in Target? for real), and Buy Buy Baby (pretty new, but a spin-off of the other BBB - Bed, Bath and Beyond). Tell me why each of those locations has the same item for 3 different prices?
BabiesRUs - $169
Target - $152.99
BuyBuyBaby - $179

I really wanted to register at BBBaby because of the great experience we had the BBBeyond... but they are consistently higher priced... I just don't get it. They do the coupon thing the same as BBBeyond; 20% off one single item every few weeks. I'm going to assume they'll take the expired coupons too (but don't quote me, I have not tried this.) Not to mention, it would be a little out of the way for my family to travel to the BBB in their area. So, yeah. I picked an item and I can't decide where to register for it.

13 weeks

Sorry, no picture this week. :( You can blame it on my pregnancy brain, or the fact that I didn't get off the couch the entire weekend. Meh. I'm doing something a little different this week and will continue to do so every 4 weeks just to change it up a bit.

How far along: 13 weeks


Describe how you felt the moment you found out you were pregnant: Oh my. Really? No way. Wait, let me look at that again. Yup... it's there. Wait, is it?? Omg! YAY!! Hang on, maybe I should take another test to be sure. A line is a line right? Oh my.

Who was the first person you told that you were pregnant? My husband. I wish I would have made this announcement a little more creative. But my nerves were shot and the symptoms were starting to roll right in, so I did it a little old school... Honey, we're late.

Are you remembering to take your prenatal vitamins regularly? I've been getting better. I was taking a vitamin regularly before getting knocked up (sorry, I had to!), but my taste has been completely off and those chewy yummy ones are no longer as easy to swallow.

What is your favorite food this month? Cereal. Fruit Loops, Raisin Bran, Apple Jacks. Everyday I change it up. I think I'm more looking forward to the milk at the end though. Mmmm... Milk...

If you've experienced morning sickness, is it starting to subside? Still very much here... But on and off. I felt like total c.r.a.p. last weekend. Vomited for the very first time on Monday, and you would never have guessed that by Tuesday.

Who do you regularly talk to and share all your pregnancy details with? My mom.

What are you wearing this month?(i.e. maternity clothes, oversized clothes, etc.) Yes and no. Wearing some old clothes that are a size larger along with some maternity pants during the week. I need to invest in some better work clothes.

Sleep: Between my rolly polly bulldog sleeping in the middle of the bed and the recent middle of the night bathroom runs, not to mention the absolutely freakishly crazy pregnancy dreams, a full night of uninterrupted sleep is not happening this week.

Milestones: Hello 2nd Trimester!

12 weeks

How far along: 12 weeks. All I can say is... I'm sorry, I'll try to find a better place to take a picture next week. You can see some "friends" joined in for the photo :)

Total weight gain/loss: 7lbs yup.

Maternity clothes: Yes, I did wear Maternity pants twice this week. I don't actually need them just yet, but they are way more comfortable, especially in the afternoon when bloat hits like whoa.

Stretch marks: Nope. But, I am becoming a lot more frecklier... Did I just make up a word? I haven't been getting more sun so I can only attribute the new mini beauty marks to the beauty of pregnancy.

Sleep: I still LOVE my sleep. Knocked out by 9:30 most nights and do NOT want to get out of bed until 7. So thankful I don't have the pee every 3 hours thing going on. (knock on wood)

Best moment this week: NT Scan. Definitely seeing ohBaby in action. Everything was healthy and normal for our little tatertot. He/she was about 4-5 days ahead of schedule when it comes to growth. Our tech would have definitely taken a guess (which I was praying for all week!) but ohBaby decided to stay cross legged the entire time (which I guess I should have prayed for a willing baby, too!). His/her heart was beating away at 167 bpm. Such a beautiful sight and sound.

Movement: Nada yet. But there must be a lot going on in there because there was a ton of wiggling and waving happening on that screen!

Food cravings: Potatoes. Mashed mostly, but potato soup, too. And milk still. Preferably chocolate, but I think it would be genius if Hershey's made a vanilla milk syrup.

Food aversions: Still present. Actually, I know this isn't related, but morning sickness hit me hard for the first time on Monday morning and again on Wednesday. I really hope that's not a sign for the coming weeks. I thought it was supposed to get better, not worse. :(

Gender: Unfortunately we didn't get a guess... but, here's a view from the bottom up (remember, he/she was sitting cross legged, so you can see the feet crossed on the bottom right. There are no bits to be seen there... So, I'm thinking girl... but yes, it's probably too early to tell.

Labor pains: Nothing.

Belly Button in or out? In.

What I miss: My energy. (Although, I'm feeling strangely vibrant today...)

What I am looking forward to: Watching the bump grow. I actually feel like I've got a little something going on there now... which is why there's a picture this week :)

Weekly Wisdom: Mother knows best. And that's me :)

Milestones: ohBaby is officially a fetus! And before we know it, you'll be our little blessing in our arms <3