As requested

Fireman Stephen
























Fireman William

Week 19

Christmas week was a whirlwind. We left Saturday morning early and drove all the way to Atlanta. We got to spend a couple of days with Nicholas's brother Geoffrey and his family before they had to return to Florida. It was a little sad having Christmas without them but we were happy to be able to visit at all.

The most interesting part of them leaving was we got to see our nephews separate from our little niece Elizabeth. It was hilarious to see how different the little boys played from the little girl. Stephen and William would come in and dump the entire bucket of legos on the floor and go straight for the bulldozers and "scoop-a-truck." Elizabeth took one lego out at a time and played with the dinosaur and "flowers" aka the palm trees.  However, no matter how differently they played, they were all completely adorable and really into giving hugs and kisses. I'm also proud to report that our Christmas gifts were a big hit, particularly the fireman costume I bought for Steven under the excellent advice of my friend Laura. 

Two downs:

1. My skin: Not. Getting. Better.

2. The rib thing is driving me freaking crazy. 

Two ups:

1. My new little silver bell Pamela gave me for Christmas. It should come in real handy as I get bigger and bigger. Nicholas is not a fan. ;)

2. All the fabulous baby gifts Nicholas's family gave us. They were all so adorable but Pamela wins the award for purchasing us the first baby gift actually on our registry. We are now the proud owner of our first big ole tube of Boudreaux's Butt Paste. 

Merry Christmas, One and All!

Christmas in New York
Originally uploaded by SarahorNicholas

I hope your day is filled with food, family, and LOTS of presents! ;)

Week 18

Almost halfway there!!! Who's excited?

We had a good week as everyone can see from the great heartbeat video below. We are now in Atlanta after a very long car trip - the entirety of which I felt like I had to pee.

Two ups:
1. I still feel great with lots of energy.
2. The baby moves more and more and it never stops being awesome.

Two downs:
1. I'm having more and more trouble getting comfortable at night. Recently I've felt like one of my ribs is asleep most of the night, which is superweird and annoying.
2. I just realized today that my belly button is starting to strain under the pressure :(

For those far away...

Baby Heartbeat from hollandnm on Vimeo.

I thought it might be fun for everyone to hear the baby's heartbeat and I know I might be biased but it sounds like the most awesome baby heartbeat in the history of the world.

New York, New York

We had a fantastic weekend in New York. Our dear friends Laura and Daniel put us up for the weekend and ushered us around to one great restaurant after the other. On Saturday, we went to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular featuring the Rockettes and it was all the spectacular it promised complete with 3D glasses, Santa, the Nutcracker AND the Nativity. They really covered all their bases.

Afterward we did some baby shopping around the city, then Laura and I met her sister Julia for Christmas Tea at the St. Regis. The best part was Julia works for a children's magazine and brought me some free swag from her work! It was so incredibly generous of her and I love few things more than free stuff.

On Sunday, we met my dear friend Dave for brunch and did some Christmas shopping at the market at Union Square. Then Nicholas and I made our way to all the classic New York at Christmas stop - FAO Schwartz, Rockefeller Plaza, Saks. It was really nice because we got to see it all lit up at night, where the last couple of years we've only walked around during the day.

Week 17

This week I've begun feeling the effects of the baby's current three week growth spurt. Little Bell Pepper (the current size equivalent) is supposed to double in size over the couple of weeks and I can sure feel it. I've been really, really hungry and I also feel like my belly looks noticeably bigger every day.

Two downs:
1. I had a very paranoid day or two where I felt like everything that possibly could go wrong would.
2. I've been getting tired really really easy lately.

Two ups:
1. I have felt the baby move several more times over the past couple of days. It's pretty awesome, except by the time I realize what it is it goes away!
2. While we were in New York, I bought the hippest baby toy I've been coveting at a discount!

Week 16

We had a great week, mainly because of our fantastic weekend. We had Nicholas's holiday party on Friday night, which was a swanky affair at Ritz. It's always fun to get all dressed up (even though my options were a bit limited) and see his coworkers.

On Saturday, we went to the White House to see all the Christmas decorations. The tour is very short and I can see how it would be less than impressive on a regular day. However, the decorations really made it exciting and interesting. They were beautifully done and it was fun to hear about all the Christmas traditions. More important than anything of the decorations was that I saw my favorite members of the Bush administration - Barney and Ms. Beasley!!! They were playing outside and I was ridiculously excited to see their adorable little faces. :) After the Tour, we went to see Milk, which was excellent, and went to a cocktail party thrown by my friend Amy to showcase her mother's art.

On Sunday, we had brunch with some friends and then went shopping. We drove out to Maryland so I could go to an Old Navy Maternity and Gap Maternity, mainly because I despise shopping online. Man, was it worth the trip! I bought a ton of stuff and no longer feel like I'm wearing the same things over and over.

Two Downs:
I've got nothing - it's been that good of a week :)

Two Ups:
1. I think I felt the baby move on earlier this week, but it was really light and I haven't felt anything since so I'm reserving the full level of excitement. :)
2. All my new maternity clothes!

Week 15

I spent the majority of this week home with family, which wonderful. It fun to see everyone and hear all the advice on pregnancy, baby names, labor, and childrearing. This baby is going to be so blessed to be born into such an amazing and loving family.

Two downs:
1. I had a crazy bad sinus headache for like 3 days in a row. It was apparently due to the dryness because once I got some nasal spray and a humidifer it went away.
2. I thought shopping for maternity clothes would be fun. It is not.

Two ups:
1. I've gotten almost all of my energy back and I feel amazing. I still get tired easy but overall I feel great.
2. I also don't food aversions anymore and I'm basically eating whatever I want (within reason of course).

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

In a year when so many are struggling, I am more thankful than ever before for all the blessings in my life.

I wish the same for all of you.

Me and a Gold Medal

Olympians
Originally uploaded by SarahorNicholas

Two New Jersey Olympians stopped by our office and we all got to meet them and see their medals. It was exceptionally cool. That's me in front with the gold!

Week 14

This was a big week. I had my second midwife appointment this week. I got to hear the heartbeat again which was exciting. Everything else looks really good and she told me I had a very "roomy pelvis" which was reassuring!

Also we bought our stroller! I've wanted a Bugaboo forever. I love the way you can switch the handle bar back and forth. I love that you have a pram and a regular stroller. I love its versitility and I love that it isn't one of those light green plaid and plastic monstrosities that I see on the street. Of course, what I love the most is I got a lightly used one off Craigslist for half the price! I am super-happy with our purchase and Nicholas and I spent several hours last night ohhing and ahhing over it.

Two downs:
1. My skin is NOT getting better and I'm so over it. This baby is going to owe me for acne scar removal.
2. I'm still not totally over my food aversions. I wish I could just go back to eating whatever I want.

Two ups:
1. Nicholas is getting really excited about the baby, which makes me very happy. I know it's not constantly at the forefront of his mind like it is mine (for obvious reasons). But I think it's getting more real by the day for him and it's fun to talk about all the baby stuff together.
2. I know this is technically next week but I'm super excited about going home and all my family seeing my baby bump! It's getting bigger and cuter by the day and I can't wait to show it off. :)

7 weeks v. 15 weeks

HA! How bout now!?!?!

Week 13

This week I've been obsessed with my belly - or absence there of. I definitely think my stomach has pooched out a little due to relaxed abdominal muscles but the baby is still down low in my pelvis. I won't really start to show until, in the immortal words of the Jeffersons, she start movin' on up! This should start happening any time.

Two downs:
1. I've been getting headaches the past couple of days. They're not too bad but I could do without them.
2. I recently learned I'm supposed to be getting 80 grams of protein, which seems all but impossible.

Two ups:
1. Overall, I'm still feeling much better - I even did prenatal yoga twice this week. :)
2. I got to see a former coworkers twin baby girls, which always lifts my spirits and reminds me of the light at the end of the tunnel.

Christmas Music Inventory

So, for those of you who still need help understanding my obsession with Christmas, I did a little inventory of my holiday music collection.

I have:
- 7 versions of Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
- 7 versions of O Holy Night
- 9 versions of The Christmas Song
- 9 versions of I'll Be Home for Christmas
- 9 versions of White Christmas
- 11 versions of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

I will not obey your arbitrary deadlines!

You know one of the best parts of being pregnant? You get to do what you want and no one can be mean to you because you're pregnant.

So you know what I'm doing today?

I'm downloading all of my several hundred holiday songs today and I'm going to start listening to them today. I've decided it is officially "the holidays," which means I can listen to holiday music.

If you don't like it...I don't care. Take it up with the baby. ;)

The Worms

So, I had a super weird dream last night about worms and I think it was the universe's way of telling me I can't put off the worm update any longer. I clearly shouldn't have put it off this long or I could have at least posted a successful update before things went down hill.

The worms died.

All of them.

In my defense, they were really thriving for several months. They seemed to suffer when we were away in Tunisia but I thought I'd got them back on track soon thereafter. However, once I got pregnant, I had bigger things on my mind like rolling around on the couch trying not to hurl and the worms took a back seat. I think the real problem was that since I only wanted to eat peanut butter and jelly and PopTars there wasn't much to feed them and they starved.

I feel really bad and if I ever get a yard I will definitely attempt outdoor composting. However, doing it indoors and making sure they ate enough but not too much or that things didn't get too acidic or mold didn't grow was a lot of work.

Nicholas was right. I was wrong. I don't want to talk about it.

Can you tell a difference?

Week 12

So, now that I'm out of the pregnancy closet and free to talk, I've had several requests for updates on how I'm doing. I want to clarify that I wasn't posting because the pregnancy was a secret. I wasn't posting because pregnancy made me feel like A BIG BALL OF CRAP! Seriously, I had about two weeks of feeling good and then I felt nauseous pretty much 24/7 for the next 11 weeks. After about three weeks of feeling like that, I began to refer to our future daughter/son as the baby dictator. I'm not quite ready to change the title yet. ;)

I have felt much better over the past several days. I've gotten more energy and feel more like eating, although I've realized that I still mainly crave my comfort foods. The weirdest symptom is I can't really read or have no desire to read. It's like I can't focus or something but my friend Annie said she had a similar reading aversion and it eventually went away.

So, that's basically it. Nothing too exciting. We've only had one appointment with our midwife where we got to hear the heartbeat, which was amazing. We don't go back again for a couple more weeks and we don't find out the gender until January. I'm going to try to post every week and I thought I'd start a little weekly tradition based on my favorite pregnancy podcast - Pregtastic - where every week each woman lists 2 Ups and 2 Downs of her pregnancy.

Two Downs:
1. The nausea isn't completely gone and I'm still afraid to drink orange juice, which is one of my favorite drinks but sets my stomach on fire.
2. I do feel good enough to exercise so I can no longer use feeling crummy as an excuse. ;)

Two Ups:
1. I bought two very cute pairs of maternity jeans at H&M that I can't wait to wear this week.
2. Now that I've completed my 13th week, I'm officially in the second trimester! Wohoo!

Holy Crap!!!

Me and Obama share a brain!!!!