My Worst Enemy

"The face of the enemy frightens me only when I see how much it resembles me" – Anonymous


It’s the cliché – and I am living it. Something I am not pleased about:

I AM my own worst enemy.

Weight is something I’ve struggled with for the better part of 12 years now. If you need a quick lesson in nutrition or metabolism as it relates to you then go off to college, quit all athletic activity and subsist off of Hot Pockets, Coca-Cola and Snickers bars. Then you’ll see where things take you…roughly, 20 lbs heavier than high school.

Now the real challenge? Pregnancy.

How many times did I say pre-pregnancy that when I find out I am going to put myself on a strict diet – Salads, fruit, veggies, the works. Did I say it to you? Or you? Probably. I spouted how I would take care of my blood pressure and only gain the recommended 25 lbs – I would succeed.

Turns out I’m eating (no pun intended) those words. At 27 weeks, I have already exceeded the 25lb mark, by how much, I’ll keep to myself thank you very much. My blood pressure over the past 6 weeks has fluctuated but finally stabilized courtesy of an increase in medication. Not something I’m thrilled with either. And now, for the latest…

My glucose levels are a bit elevated. Fantastic. That’s all I need. But who’s to blame? Myself of course. There is no one else. I control everything that goes into this body and I have essentially failed myself.

And the best part about? I’m now going to have to exercise extreme will power during the holidays. Oh Joy!

Next week I am supposed to go take my 3-hour glucose test to determine if I have gestational diabetes (what a horrible word and one I NEVER associated with myself). Regardless of what the results are, the answer is very clear: Get your diet under control! No more baking, no more dessert every day (yes, every day), no more excuses not to exercise (you still have two feet and the ability to walk).

It’s time to get inside of my own head. I’m not trying to lose weight at this point – I merely want to sustain this current weight is possible and/or prevent an extreme gain.

The reasons are clear:

• Obviously, for K.T. and her health, the number one reason!
• I don’t want a huge baby. Diabetic babies can easily come out 10lbs or more – no thank you!
• For my own health – and helping shed the pounds post pregnancy

Looks like I’ll be browsing through Diabetic/Healthy Living Cookbooks over my Thanksgiving holiday. Joy….

Rockin' and Reclinin'

Well, we debated for awhile whether we were going to get a glider or a rocker or what for the nursery. I have heard all kinds of stories from people who love gliders, from people who prefer recliners, from people who didn't use either. So, we went with our own instinct and decided to go the recliner route.

I know of several people who have included a twin-size bed in their kids nursery, but we don't have the bed, nor the space to tell you the truth. While I don't anticipate sleeping in the nursery, I hear it's not that uncommon, so I wanted their to be an alternative if we need to have an all-nighter (please, I hope not).

I searched Big Lots and a lot of the budget stores, but wasn't finding one that really fit. So we finally went to our default furniture store, Lacks, and found a nice one! Plenty of room for Jeff and myself, though not together :D, and a place to hold cup (or bottle) and store some burp cloths. In an ideal world of course.

But we like it so far, and funny enough, Jeff went in there yesterday while I was out in the living room and he came back 10 minutes later, looking sleepy and replied "I won't have trouble sleeping in that at all" - too funny!

And if all else fails and K.T. doesn't take to the recliner, then it's going out in the living room which would be fine with Jeff as he's wanted one for quite some time.

This is what Motherhood Looks Like

My mother sent this to me in an email today with the subject line "This is what motherhood looks like" - I thought it was hilarious and also super cute - look at that kitten! :)

Belly Buddies

Here's a pic of me and Jeff belly to belly (hint: I'm in the gray) :)

Also, here's one I took last week at 23 weeks, 2 days before we left for the Notre Dame game. Pardon the mess on the walls - paint samples for the bathroom (and fyi, that's my concentration face! :D )

Weekend Recap

I forgot to put a post on Friday for my MOTHER who celebrated her 59th birthday - it's okay, I'm her daughter, I can rat her out on the age thing. Plus, next year means we're going to PAR-TAY for her 60th - can't wait! :) We celebrated with a nice dinner and then over to my place for a homemade carrot cake (thank you very much) and some gifts (of course).

Jeff's Mom and sister, Jenny, and her new baby Taylor were also in town for a weekend visit. I wanted to spend the weekend looking for a few things we needed for K.T.'s room, so we decided to make a day out of it on Saturday. And boy did we.

First a stop at Babies R Us - Debbie bought us the much needed mattress for her crib that we set up last weekend and Jenny needed a few things for Taylor since it was their first 'road trip.' Then we went to Home Goods to look for a floor lamp and chair for the nursery, but no luck. Next we headed over to La Cantera. I had been wanting to go to Anthropologie to check out their hardware to replace the knobs on the top drawers of K.T.'s dresser. I'll admit, this was a splurge, but something I wanted. I'll have to skimp somewhere else in the nursery, but I thought these were so cute. Originally, I was going to mix and match designs, but I saw these knobs and fell in love (can you blame me?).

a little blurry, but you get the idea

We then visited Gymboree and The Children's Place and Baby Gap to look for clothes for Taylor, and I have to say, I can see how people get carried away. The clothes are adorable and the sales are crazy. Clearance items for $4.99. Sure sounds great, but when you get up to the registry with 10 items in your hand you've all of a sudden spent $50! I'll have to make a mental note to avoid that trap :) haha.

Taylor was so good on our outings. But that night, poor baby wasn't feeling well. She screamed her little head off for about 3 hours straight. She had gotten her 2 month shots the day before and I think that with a mixture of traveling and a *ahem* backlogged system, she was just not feeling it. I felt bad for Jenny, it's hard to see your baby scream and not know how to help her. I was little use, as I wasn't really sure what to do - so I pretty much stayed out of the way and tried to send good vibes to K.T. to please, please, please do her best to tell me what she needs when she comes into this world. For some reason, I think I'll have some all-nighters ahead of me, though.

This morning Taylor was feeling a bit better but I think she started getting upset that she had to leave Uncle Jeff and Aunt Colleen's place, cause she started fussing again. One useful tip learned though? Jenny ended up putting her in her car seat and stroller and walked her around in the house and she ended up dozing right off. They ended up pulling out this morning in a torrential down pour (the odds in S.A.? Slim to none) to head back to Houston.

To say the least, it was an EVENTFUL weekend! I'm exhausted. I'm trying to get the hubs to relax this evening on the couch with a good movie (let's see if it works).

Here are a few more pics of K.T.'s room with furniture (but not all):

KT's Room Update: 95% finished!

We are ALMOST there :) and it is looking JUST like I imagined (don't you love it when that happens?). After a long week for the both of us, we did sporadic painting on the wainscoting. Jeff painted in phases all week and today he finally put on the finishing coat.

So we caulked this evening and touched up the teal paint and I just HAD to get my hot pink shag rug in the room to see how things looked! What do you think?


Now the only thing left is just a little bit of trim INSIDE the closet and painting that baseboard and we are THROUGH! I'm so lucky to have such a talented husband!