Salt and Vinegar

We have started calling this baby the lazy couch potato baby since its movements are so slow and gentle. It moves so softly that sometimes I get nervous that I haven't felt it move in awhile. I hear stories from pregnant friends that say their babies move all the time - that they feel kicks and punches constantly. This lazy baby just likes to turn and shift positions and I never really get any great forceful kicks.  Well, that all changed yesterday when I had a bag of salt and vinegar chips.  After 5 minutes of eating them the baby went crazy - I was getting kicks and punches on both my right and my left side and they were so strong they kind of hurt. So, I stopped eating them for about 15 minutes and the baby slowed down. I waited another 10 minutes and then ate a bunch more - within 5 minutes the crazy kicks started again. It was wild. I'm going to buy the biggest bag I can find and whenever i get nervous about kick counts I'm having some salt and vinegar to get this kid moving. 

Charleston, SC

We started our drive down to Charleston on Wednesday night through one of the worst storms ever. I simply closed my eyes while Craig sped through the storm. Yikes! We got about half way that night and found a Marriott to stay at. We should have just driven through since neither of us got any real sleep in the crappy highway hotel.
We finally get there on Thursday mid day and head out for some lunch. We ended up going to Nick and Jakes (or something like that) for some BBQ. OMG was it good. I had a pulled pork sandwich and Craig had half a rack of ribs - the warm cheesy cornbread muffins shown above were amazing!! We were thrilled to start off our tour of eating with some good BBQ. We spent the rest of Thursday just walking around and getting our barrings. 

 
On Friday we took a Historic Charleston Carriage tour through the city and learned some fun facts but mostly just smelled the horse's behind that was pulling our carriage - I wish I would have gotten a picture. Phew! 

The above picture is of us at the Middleton Place - an old Rice Plantation that we toured. It was pretty amazing but not much was left. After the Union troops stormed the place - they burnt it to the ground and then there was this big earthquake that leveled all the rubble.  But some parts of the plantation had been restored and it was pretty cool to see. 
On our last day we took a Civil War walking tour which was very informative and quite interesting. Since being born and raised in PA I never thought much about the history I had learned but it was definitely a "Northern Perspective". Our tour guide shed a whole new light on the war for me - I thought I would be bored to death but I actually really enjoyed it. Then as if we hadn't had  enough walking we got on a ferry and headed out to Fort Sumter. I took some picture but I just look like a cow in my shorts, tank top, and really cool trainers so they wont be posted. 

Here we are at the end of our long day enjoying the nice warm breeze off the river and getting eaten by mosquitoes! 

We had a really great time, ate some amazing southern comfort food, and learned a lot about Southern History. We loved it- but the next vacation better be on a beach!!!

7 Months!

So this is the first week of my 7th month! I seriously can't believe it. Craig and I had a really great weekend. We spent yesterday getting things done around the house and basically just laying low and taking it easy - it was really nice. Then today the Craig and Grey played golf while Stacey and I sat at the pool at their country club - it was such a great day - thanks Pfarr family!!!!  Oh - Stacey and I both wore bikini's to the pool and this young girl two chairs down from us kept staring at our bodies in horror. Stacey wanted to ask her if her mother had ever taught her that it was rude to stare at people - I was just thinking "this is probably the best birth control she could be getting right now"

27 Weeks Belly Pictures

Well, here is my belly at 27 weeks. I took these today while waiting to jump on a conference call from home. I purposefully left out pictures of my face since my skin has reverted back to my teen days and I seem to break out more and more every day.

I seriously can't believe I am starting my third trimester. I feel like i have been pregnant for forever - but at the same I can't believe this baby will be here in just a little over 3 months. 

Overall I have had such an easy pregnancy. My only complaint has been the sciatica pain (which can make walking just three steps bring tears to my eyes) but hopefully the bigger the baby gets - the better this will get. The theory being that right now the baby can snuggle right up against my sciatic nerve but will soon be too big to sit that low.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Otherwise, it's been pretty easy. My appetite has been strange - most of the time I don't feel like eating anything but I'm hungry all the time. It's such a struggle to come up with something to make for dinner. Oh - and I hate my teenage acne - thank god for Bare Essentials!

The baby is moving all the time now- well, it has it's lazy moments where i can't feel any movement; which scares the crap out of me. But it likes to do summersaults and likes to kick straight downward; which is no fun for me. As strange as it all is - it is so unbelievable. Sometimes I can just feel my belly and through my skin I can feel like hardness of the baby - it's so surreal and amazing. I can't wait to meet this baby!

Another Erie Weekend

We spent another weekend hanging in beautiful Erie. I spent some time with my sister and the girls on Friday. We ran errands and I got the starter pack of G-Diapers at the Wegmans. We're going to give them a try and see how they work for us once the baby gets above 8 pounds.
Oh - the above picture is of my niece, Sophia. I love when she has no idea I'm taking the picture.
On Saturday we went to a wedding shower for the lovely couple above. My beautiful sister in law and her fiance. The shower was Hawaiin themed and was very nice. It was so great to spend time with these two. They are so much fun and I love seeing them together. Amongst all the crazieness of wedding planning they remain calm and so much in love.
We took a quick picture of all the cousins that were at the shower - this is only about half of the actual cousins just on Craig's dad's side. It was so great to see them all and hear about all their children. They each have about 2 kids and all had gotten babysitters for the event.

My sister's new puppy

I guess my sister thought she wasn't quite busy enough with three children and she decided to get a puppy. Isn't she soo cute. I wouldn't have been able to resist either! She is a cockerspaniel/poodle mix which means I am not allergic to her - woohoo!

She's a super cuddly little puppy and wants to be as close to the kids as possible. I just love this picture. It'll be fun to pull out in a couple of months when they both have grown bigger.

What an amazing weekend

We had such an amazing weekend. We celebrated 4th of July with our families at my sister’s house. She had this huge block party with tons of food and even this gigantic bouncy gym for the kids. It was so much fun and all the kids were dressed up so cute.

The next day I went to the Katie Fun Run, which Stacey and I kind of wobbled through, while chatting with Stacey’s super kind friend Kate who was nice enough to hang back with us preggers. Then I went to Stacey’s lovely baby shower – which was so nice. Sorry I don’t have any pictures to post – I forgot my camera that day. Oh and that night we went to a couples wedding shower for our friend Stephanie. It was great to get together and celebrate.

And then my sister had a wonderful baby shower for me at our country club. It was such a nice shower and I am so thankful for everyone who traveled to be there and wow – you all were way too generous. Thank you especially to my sister for having the whole shower – Lyn, you’re amazing. She re-made the bassinet she used for all three of her girls and it is soo beautiful. I’ll be sure to post pictures when we get it all set up in our room. Love you Lyn!

Overall it was a crazy busy weekend but really, really nice.