Hormones are no joke!

Sorry for being M.I.A. yesterday.  I was super slammed at work and am still exhausted from my quick weekend trip to Chicago last weekend.  I still fully plan on updating you all about my weekend, it's just going to take me time to write it all out and get the photos off of the DSLR!

My post title is so accurate though, hormones are seriously no joke!  In fact, I hate you hormones.  Well I like the fact the hormones are helping in the growth of this pregnancy, but the other side of hormones are super annoying!

Lately I've been feeling pretty down and kinda alone and to be honest and it's not even Andy's fault! We respect each other enough to just ask, "Hey, what did you have planned for this day or tonight, etc."  If we don't have anything planned, then we normally don't care what the other does.  Last night though, I said I didn't care and then an hour later while watching TV I got lonely and sad.  I had little tears in my eyes too.....  What is the deal with me!?!

This second trimester "energy" they say you will get....I am still waiting for it.  I am not a bump on a log all day long either.  Yes at work I have to sit a majority of the time, but when I am home I feel like I need to do a lot of things.  The weekends I am non stop and then Sunday night hits and I am so sore and tired and feel like I can't move.  

This morning, with the help of my best friend Ali, I come to realize that everyone feels this way during pregnancy.  Thank goodness I am normal because I was really starting to wonder if I wasn't normal....

I apologize for my rambling and hope that if anyone reading is pregnant and feels the same way as me but has no idea why they feel the way that they do, that they are not alone!  

First Trimester Essentials

Since I am taking the day off work today, I thought I'd go ahead and pre-schedule this post for today!  I am currently 20 weeks pregnant, but wanted to get something out there of what helped me through my first trimester. 

1. Jolly Ranchers  - sucking on hard candy really helped with the nausea.  Every time I felt like I was going to get sick, I would pop a Jolly Rancher in my mouth and the nausea would instantly go away.

2. Camelbak water bottle - another thing that helped with the nausea, WATER!!!  Lots and lots of water!  If I didn't have a Jolly Rancher on hand, I would take a sip of water and most times than not, it would help me.

3. Body Pillow  - I started sleeping with a body pillow once I found out I was pregnant.  Why? Because I am a stomach sleeper and in order for me to get use to not sleeping on my stomach, I got a body pillow to help me from sleeping on my stomach so much.

4. Snoogle  - I have one of these and have tried it many times, but I love the body pillow so much more which is such a shame.  My problem with it is that you also use it as a head pillow and it really hurts my neck at night.  I have heard lots of mom's rave about the Snoogle, but it just wasn't for me in the beginning.  Now that I am getting bigger, I plan on trying the Snoogle once more to see if it works better for me.

5. Prenatal vitamins or Gummy Vitamins - obviously these are a MUST, but I LOVE Target and their selection of prenatal vitamins.  I have been lucky with not getting sick with the vitamins and highly suggest these!  The gummy vitamins are so good and they kind of make you want to eat more than the recommend 2 a day...LOL!  My tip for taking the vitamins, is to take them at night before you go to bed.  Taking them on an empty stomach in the morning was not an option for me.

6. Fiber Supplements - These I also suggest.  They say constipation is common in pregnancy and these help things keep flowing.  Haha!  I talked to my doctor about it and he suggested them also.

7. Cheese and Peanut Butter Crackers  - I didn't have many cravings in the first trimester, but these helped keep me full at night.  Andy would get me a package to eat before I went to bed and it would help me out since I couldn't eat much.  These have been a favorite of mine since I was a kid and ONLY this brand, Austin Crackers.  No one else makes the crackers the way Austin makes their crackers.

8. Golden Grahams -  I kept a tupper wear bowl of Golden Grahams cereal in my nightstand that I would munch on while getting ready in the morning to help keep the nausea down. Sometimes it worked, other times it didn't.  I was just trying to keep the nausea at bay as best as possible....

9. Carrots and Celery - this sounds so weird, however; I craved fresh veggie sticks with ranch to dip in.  It was one of the few things that sounded and tasted good so I went with it!  When you're always sick and not feeling well, all you want to eat is something that sounds good and this was it for me.  Many a lunches included carrots and celery sticks.

What helped get you through your first trimester?

20 Weeks - Bump Date!

How far along: 20 Weeks!!!!  (HALF WAY THERE!)

Baby Size: The size of a small cantaloupe or the length of a banana, 10 1/2 oz. and is 10 inches long from head to heel!
Weight gain:  +2 pounds
Maternity clothes: all maternity pants and some maternity shirts, just depends on the shirt.  I tried a pair of my regular jeans which fit perfectly fine until I sit down and they dig in my stomach really bad, so those are out until baby comes.

Stretch marks: None so far! I've been using my belly balm after my bath's at night.  Don't worry my bath's are not hot and I take one to help with the aching feet.   Sleep: Not too bad at all!  The body pillow is being used a lot now and stomach sleeping is getting pretty tough.  Sometimes I wake up on my stomach, but I know I am not there long.  Also, I am dreaming like CRAZY lately!  Such weird, weird dreams and they cause me to not have a really restful nights sleep.   Gender: It's a BOY!

Movement: Still nothing consistent, just trying to be patient....
Best moment this week: Easter at our house this year with all of our family!  We had a great time and all I could think about is how next year we will have baby Boy with us celebrating Easter and I am so excited!  :)    Looking forward to: Friday specifically since Andy and I both took the day off work!  We really needed a day off to get us mentally back.  We are so exhausted and needed an extra day off.  I am also looking forward to the weekend and you all will find out why on Monday!

Food cravings: still loving those Cola slushies....I don't think that this craving is going to go away!  Andy and my mom know how much I love them that if they run to the gas station, they will surprise me with one!  I try to limit 2 slushies a week though which I think is really good!     Anything making you queasy or sick: Tried ham again this weekend and it's still a no-go for this girl.  I am just not a fan of ham.   Labor Signs: None, let's keep it this way for another 18+ weeks.   What I miss: getting up from the couch or bed without being in pain.  The minute I lie down is the minute my sciatic nerve starts to hurt.  I have been doing lots of stretching and trying to keep the pain at bay.  I've also starting a prenatal yoga series on YouTube to help with the aches and pains!  I will blog more about this next week.   Symptoms: still that sciatic nerve pain, sometimes hard to breathe, exhausted from hosting Easter, some swelling in the feet from being on them all weekend long
Nursery: We should be starting on the furniture any day now!!
Belly Button in or out? In
Wedding rings on or off? On!

Mood: Pretty good actually!  The hormones decided to take the week off, which I am sure Andy is glad about!  I can also cry at a drop of a hat....

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

It's been quite sometime since I've posted a recipe up for What I Ate Wednesday!  Since last weekend was Easter, I made a delicious recipe that I just HAD to share with you all!  :) 



You read that title correctly, however; you're probably thinking that this is a salad (green) with strawberries and pretzel's in it.  If you are thinking that, then you are wrong.  But I will say, what I am about to post about, is something so delicious and amazing.  It sweet and salty and is the perfect amount of both!  To find the original recipe, click here.

Ingredients

• 1 (8 ounce) container of frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 2 (3 ounce) packages of strawberry flavored Jell-O
• 2 cups of boiling water
• 2 (10 ounce) packages of frozen strawberries
• 2 cups of crushed pretels
• 3/4 cup of butter, melted
• 3 tablespoons of white sugar
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup of white sugar

Directions

1. Get out a 9x13 baking dish.
2. Preheat over to 400 degrees F
3. Crush pretzels into crumbs (like you would with graham crackers), I like to leave the pretzels a little in tact, but mostly crushed.
4. Mix together crushed pretzels, butter and 3 tbsp of sugar.  Press this mixture into the bottom of your pan.
5. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until set.  Set aside to cool.
6. In a large mixing bowl cream together cream cheese and 1 cup of sugar.  Then mix by hand with spatula the whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture.  Spread this mixture onto the cooled crust.
7. Dissolve Jell-O in boiling water (2 cups water).  Stir in still frozen strawberries and all to sit for a couple minutes.  When the mixture is the consistency of egg whites, pour and spread over the cream cheese mixture.
8. Place in refrigerator to set the Jell-O (takes about an hour)
9. Eat and enjoy the deliciousness of the salty and sweet mixture!

Layer 1, pretzel mixture

Layer 2, cream cheese mixture

Layer 3, strawberries and Jell-O mixture

Final product:

DELICIOUS!!

Easter 2014!

Why talk about Easter when I can just show you?

Warning: Picture OVERLOAD!!

Claire and Jackson getting ready for the egg hunt!  They had so much fun with it!

Notice my step-dad all relaxed in the background....HAHA!

Claire found an egg!  She was so excited but didn't understand to put the egg in the basket and find more!  :) 

Jackson found another one!  Too bad that tree that the egg was in is more than likely dead.  :(  So not trilled right now with that tree for obvious reasons.

Look at that smile!  LOVE!!!

My brother Jack and Father-in-law Tim trying to find the missing egg that we thought was missing but ended up not being missing.

Claire and her Easter basket.  She was so proud of her finding those eggs!

Don't you also just love her fruit punch mustache.  :)  Hehe!!

Mommy (O'Hara, my sister-in-law) helping count out the eggs!

Chocolate!!!

My Keeley being such a good girl!

Can you tell in this photo that she is so tired?!?!

My dad Randy and his wife (my step-mother) Deb

Relaxing!

My sister-in-law Kelly

My siblings, Joe, Jack, Jena and Jeff playing catch with my nephew Jackson.

Like father, like son playing catch. 

Throwing the ball

Jena making sure the ball doesn't go in the street

Cheese!

Claire wants to play catch too!

Jackson, O'Hara, Jeff and Claire

I love how Jackson always smiles for the camera for me!

Claire was having too much fun and didnt want to go home.

Jena, Dad, Joe, Jack and Mom

Andy and me, rocking that baby bump

(my face looks HUGE here....not a fan of this photo)

I hate how I think I like a photo and then a day later i look back at it and go, "Oh geez, that is not a good photo!"

Tim, Lynn and Kelly

Where's the Easter photos?

What an amazing and tiring weekend we had!  I plan on posting about Easter tomorrow because I was exhausted after hosting Easter at my house and had no energy to transfer my photos from my new DSLR camera to the computer and then to the blog to write about.  My apologies.  I thought about bringing the laptop and camera to bed with me so that I could transfer them over, but then didn't want to take the electronics back down stairs, so you all will have to wait until tomorrow for the Easter recap.  But we will get to a semi-weekend recap....

Friday night - Hold on to your chairs people because let me tell you, we live an exciting life....NOT!  We got home from work and immediately went into yard work.  Andy started weed eating and edging while I started to mow the lawn.  Some of the women in our neighborhood (not all, but some) refuse to do the lawn work, which absolutely boggles my mind.  Why wouldn't you help your significant other with lawn work?!?!!  I want help with the inside stuff, so I help with outside stuff.  Plus it really helps with you relationship and working together (at least it does for us).  Dinner was at the ever exciting Burger King....why?  Because I was craving it for some unknown reason....sounds gross but it was quite tasty.  I was full but still wanted some FroYo, so Andy stopped for me.  This week was a new week for food with me.  I can finally eat more and food tastes AMAZING!!!  Way different from the past 18 weeks....

Brownie batter froyo and coffee froyo with the ever addicting chocolate caramel turtles and chocolate chips....and I ate the whole thing!

I spent the rest of the evening cleaning up the main floor of the house.  My desk is finally clean (should have gotten a before and after shot), vacuumed, dishes, and dusting.  I put the movie, "Tangled" on to clean...LOL!  I love that movie.  It was a choice of "Tangled" or "Frozen". "Tangled" won this time.  :) 

"Tangled" on the TV

Saturday - This day consisted of cleaning, laundry, and shopping and man was I pooped out at the end of the day.  In fact, I was so tired, that I had a headache and I couldn't fall asleep without some Tylenol to take away the throbbing.  I did manage to find a pair of black maternity shorts at the Goodwill for $3!!  Score for a deal!  I had them washed and ready to go and in fact wore them on Sunday for Easter.  Photo to come tomorrow.

Sunday - Easter day was filled with cleaning, food prepping/cooking, forgetting to take photos of all the food, hosting Easter at my house, and taking photos with my new camera!!  I posted only one photo yesterday on Instagram, a shot of the slushie that my husband surprised me with yesterday while I sent him to get some ice!  Awesome husband!!!  

Want to follow me on Instagram??  You can do so by clicking here.

How was your Easter?  

Do you have any fun Easter traditions?

Good Friday

Not only is today really Good Friday, it really is a Good Friday and I've only been up for 2 hours so far!  :)  If that isn't positive and optimism for you, I don't know what is!

{ONE}

My first trip to a veggie/fruit stand (farmer's market) on Sunday!!  I plan on writing a post more about this next week.  All I am going to say right now is that it is AWESOME!!

{TWO}

Hey hey!  Look who I got to see on Saturday!  Jackson and Claire!!! I get to see them again this weekend on Easter Sunday!

{THREE}

Stopped by the Goodwill on Sunday and found these cute onesies for Baby Boy.  The total for all 4 of these were $3.50!!  I'll take it!  The dinosaur onesies are in honor of my sister, because she has the odd nickname of T-Rex and I thought these were just too cute to pass up!

{FOUR}

19 weeks already!!  I am almost half way there to meeting Baby Boy and am SOOOO excited!

{FIVE}

Remember when I was telling you yesterday that I have that horrible sciatic pain in my right buttocks/back?  Yeah, well Andy taught me a way to stretch it out and it totally helps!!  Every time I lie down to get in the stretch Keeley stands right over my head and starts to kiss me.  That photo of her is making sure that I am OK!

{BONUS}

I can't forget to post a photo of my Smokey!  Here he is with his new best friend....lol!  I can imagine Smokey saying, "You are my best friend and I shall name you 'Squishy'"  Haha!!

This weekend's plans include cleaning up the house, cooking and getting ready for Sunday, and then enjoying Easter Sunday with all of our family!  I was worried about the weather there in the beginning of the week, but now I am happy with it.  High is suppose to be around 78 degrees and there is tiny chance of rain (only 10%)!  I hope you all have a great Easter Sunday!