End of a Chapter

My baby shower was a success last Saturday! We were showered with so many gifts and love. I can’t thank everyone who was involved enough. I have so many amazing friends and family in my life and am so BLESSED!

A question a lot of people asked me at the shower was, “so what have you been craving?” The more I think about it, the more I don’t really have an answer. At the beginning of this pregnancy I was craving cereal, turkey sandwiches, fruit, and airheads. But since then I haven’t had any major cravings. I barely have an appetite these days. I can maybe eat 2 normal meals a day without feeling extremely full and wanting to throw up. If I have a huge lunch, I’ll be full and miserable until I go to bed at night. A “huge lunch” would probably be what I used to call a normal lunch. For instance, for lunch yesterday I had a burrito in a bowl (without the shell) from Moe’s and about 2 handfuls of Tostitos chips with queso. Those made me feel sick-to-my-stomach-can’t-move full. No way I could have eaten dinner last night. Weird I know.

Today was my last day of work!!! I’ve been working at a medical weight loss clinic for the past 1 ½ years. The whole clinic is in the middle of a major transition right now with the staff so I believe it was a PERFECT time to move on. It was a great job and I had the best manager and coworkers in the world. We had some really good times at the office and became really good friends. I’ll definitely miss them, but we will keep in touch! I’ll pop in the office every now and then to say Hi to them and the doc. There were originally 6 of us and only 2 out of the 6 are still employees there. Sad but exciting times for everyone! Now it's time to organize and have a baby!!! The next step is to get back in school and find out what I really want to be when I grow up! haha
These are my "Officially a Housewife" flowers

Weekly Report

How far along? 33 Weeks

Total weight gain/loss:? Probably gained back the 3 lbs I lost last week.? We will find out Wednesday at the doc office.

Maternity clothes? I wore a maternity dress at my shower, but that’s about it.

Stretch marks? No change

Sleep: It’s on and off. One day I won’t be able to sleep then the next I’ll sleep great.

Best moment this week: Last day of work was today! I’m officially a “housewife” and soon to be “stay at home mom” J

Movement: Yep, not as many kicks and jabs but lots of movement. I think she likes to tuck her feet underneath my ribs..so uncomfortable!

Food cravings: This week’s cravings consisted of oranges and candy, specifically Blowpops and sour gummy worms.

Gender: A little princess

Labor Signs: Nope

Belly Button in or out? Flat like a pancake. The top part of my belly button is starting to poke out a little bit.

What I miss: My coworker gave me a bottle of Strawberry Riesling that she made herself. Yea….. I can’t wait to pop that bottle open in August! It sounds so refreshing!

What I am looking forward to: Going through all our gifts from the shower and organizing everything! I think I’ll start that on Monday.

Weekly Wisdom: What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.

Milestones: Ending a chapter of my life working at the weight loss clinic. Lots of experience and friendships were made.

Sophia is now the size of a honeydew!
Things are heating up inside as well: Baby may grow up to a full inch this week alone, and her brain is developing like crazy. Pretty soon, she'll be able to coordinate breathing with sucking and swallowing. Also, her bones are hardening, and she started to keep her eyes open when she's awake

Showered with Love

Today is my Baby Shower!! I am filled with love today and the support there is for my beautiful baby girl Sophia and I is huge! Today makes me even more excited to meet our little angel!

This is a picture from my maternity shoot I had last week.

Weekly Report

How far along? 32 Weeks

Total weight gain/loss:? Due to being sick, I lost about 3 lbs this week. I'll gain that back in no time :)

Maternity clothes? I'm wearing my first maternity dress today at my shower!

Stretch marks? No change

Sleep: Horrible this week! The stomach aches and then head cold I have going on didn't help.

Best moment this week: We felt Sophia's head at our Dr. appt on Wednesday. She's head down already! Maybe she'll make an appearance earlier than August 11th! :)

Movement: Yep, dance parties on the regular.

Food cravings: Pizza crust...yea, just the crust! lol

Gender: A little princess

Labor Signs: Nope

Belly Button in or out? Flat like a pancake.

What I miss: This week had it's ups and downs. I have felt more pregnant this week than I have this entire pregnancy but I've loved every minute of it. I truly haven't "missed" anything this wk.

What I am looking forward to: Baby Shower today, Father's day tomorrow

Weekly Wisdom: “Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget.” I am so blessed to have a group of friends who are more like SISTERS to me. So many people change friends more than they change their underwear. I have had the same close group of friends since middle school. The history we have together is priceless and the future we are walking in together is going to be magical. We may change as individuals but nothing has changed about our friendship, except maybe our maturity level. (Sometimes it's like we're still in middle school, giggling like little girls)

Milestones: We've hit the 8 Months mark!

"Don't smile but look happy"

Hope you had a great week and are having a fabulous weekend so far! This week we had maternity pictures done at the house. I was nervous about getting them done, but now that they are over, I’m so excited to see how they turned out! We, of course, had to do some cheesy photos with some props.

The letters spelt "Shopia" for some of the pictures until Angelo noticed the misspelling. haha I don't get the whole "don't smile but look happy" look and I'm interested to see what my face looks like in some of those pictures. Angelo was a trooper and took some pictures with me and the belly. I promised him he didn't have to be that creepy guy in the background staring at my stomach. Have you seen some of the maternity pictures out there?! I'm sorry but some are just ridiculously creeeepy! Our photographer should have them to us by the beginning of next week.

On Thursdays we usually have our childbirth classes but class was cancelled this week due to some renovations being done at the office where they take place. We have 2 out of the 6 classes left. So, our last class should be June 23^rd. I believe one of the ladies in our class gave birth already. She was due June17th but hasn’t been back to class since the beginning of June.

I haven’t really “stepped up” my fitness this week like I said I was going to in the last post. I went for a jog/walk 3 times this week on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. I spent all evening on Wednesday vacuuming, dusting, and cleaning the house. At 9pm Wednesday night I couldn’t move. My hips and back felt like they were on fire. Not fun!

"Pregnant Fitness" Feel the burn (in your hips)

Weekly Report

How far along? 31 weeks. 61 days left until d-day

Total weight gain/loss:? No gain/loss this week.

Maternity clothes? I’m going today to buy some plan tshirts and tanks, the ones I have are officially too short now.

Stretch marks? 1 is a lonely #. I bought some new “skin oil” from Sephora which is supposed to be like GOLD so hopefully I’ll end up with just that 1 by the end of this adventure!

Sleep: I have maybe 1 or 2 nights out of the week when I can’t get comfortable and stay up until 2am watching TV.

Best moment this week: Maternity pics were pretty neat! I really can’t wait to see them.

Movement: Yep

Food cravings: This week I reeeeaaallly wanted to eat ice cream everyday but I only ate it once so far this week.

Gender: A little princess

Labor Signs: I felt a cramp the other day in my stomach; I guess these are called Braxton Hicks contractions. It only lasted a minute or so and then went away. The doctor warned me about them when I entered the 3^rd trimester. They are thought to be an aid to the body in its preparation for birth.

Belly Button in or out? Flat like a pancake.

What I miss: It may sound strange but I miss being able to do random things. For instance, this week the dogs REALLY need a bath but it kills my back and I can’t get through it anymore. Did I just say I miss being able to give my dogs a bath? Haha It’s the little things

What I am looking forward to: My work farewell dinner is on Tuesday. Bitter sweet

Weekly Wisdom: LOVE is all you need J

Milestones: Had my first Braxton-hicks contraction. LOL That officially made me feel like it’s the beginning of the end!

Sophia's development this week: Her irises now react to light, and all five senses are in working order. (She won't pick up anything from his nose until after birth, though -- smell is transferred through air, not amniotic fluid.)

Where'd my ankles go?

Hey! Hope everyone (all 2 of my readers) has been good these past couple of weeks! I can't complain, I ate cake every day last weekend. It was bad. My sister-in-law got married in Orlando and cake was served Friday, Saturday, and Sunday! Ow. That didn't do me any wonders when I had to step on the scale today at my 30 week (!!!!) check-up today. I have to hit up the doc office every 2 weeks now for a check-up, then it'll go to every single week my last 4 weeks or something like that.

Since I ate so badly over the weekend and had to stare at a number I've been seen before on the scale, I'm going to try and stay away from salty foods. My ankles were the size of my calves this weekend! No ankles, not pretty. My body is starting to retain water...blah. I just got back from the grocery store where I loaded up with blackberries and blueberries. haha I don't know why those looked so good but I already ate half the thing of blueberries. That's healthy...right? :) The doc said some exercise and lots of water will help with the swelling. I already jog/walk 4x a week so I guess I have to start taking the dogs on more walks. I'm sure they won't mind. Speaking of walks, I plugged in my cool Nike+ watch today and turns out I've ran/jog/walked about 150 miles since I found out I was pregnant. That's only an avergae of about 6 miles a week! No bueno! Although, I did stop running once I found out I was pregnant for about a month just because I felt weird and thought this tiny little baby was being bounced around inside my belly. But since that was just mental (pregnancy brain), I need to get those numbers a little higher, get these swollen legs movin'!

Weekly Report

How far along? 30 weeks! 71 days until my due date! O.M.G.

Total weight gain/loss:? +24 lbs. That's kinda incredible to me...everyone just pretend you didn't see that number.

Maternity clothes? UGH, went to buy a maternity dress for the wedding. Ended up finding a dress at Forever21. Maternity clothing is not my thing.

Stretch marks? No more than that 1

Sleep: It's been really good. It felt so good to be home in my own bed after sleeping in a hotel all weekend.

Best moment this week: Spending Memorial weekend with family

Movement: Oh yea, dance parties galore. She must be practicing for her big debut

Food cravings: At this moment, blueberries and watermelon

Gender: Girl

Labor Signs: No

Belly Button in or out? Flat like a pancake.

What I miss: Who wants to go to a wedding and not drink? Yea I definitely was missing me some cocktails this weekend.

What I am looking forward to: Maternity pictures being taken next week!

Weekly Wisdom:

Milestones: I think making it to 30 weeks is a pretty big milestone ;)

Sophia is not the size of a squash! As baby's skin smoothes out, her brain just keeps getting more wrinkled. All those grooves and indentations increase surface area, meaning more room for that oh-so-essential brain tissue. She's also adding some brawn -- her grip is now strong enough to grasp a finger.