28 Weeks

Sorry, Tom failed to inform me that my shirt was blending in with the background making it hard to see my bump.

I'm wearing my new PinkBlush maternity skirt that I got with the gift card I won from Katie!

How far along?: 28 weeks 

Maternity clothes: Still just maternity jeans and leggings but everything else are my regular clothes. I am very excited that I can start to wear stretchy skirts and dresses!

Best moment this week: I cleaned up the nursery and put away all the clothes our little man already has. I wasn't feeling great so the weekend was kind of a bummer since I had to forego a bachelorette weekend for one of my bets friends in NY.  

Symptoms: Nothing really. The round-ligament pains weren't present but now I'm back to being tired again and just generally drained throughout the day. 

Miss anything?: Again, just some good wine during this beautiful weather. 

Movement: Oh yes, he's very active and moving a lot!

Food cravings: Eh, nothing really still.

Have you started to show yet?: Oh yes! 

Gender prediction: It's a boy!

Mood: Happy but starting to get anxious that we don't have everything we need yet and everything isn't set up. I know this is crazy since we still have around 3 months left but I'm a planner by nature and with us being so busy the next few months it makes me a little anxious.

Looking forward to: My shower this weekend that my mom is throwing me! I can't wait to be home and to see all of my friends and family :)

Oh, and do you want a chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card? Check out the giveaway!

BabyClip $50 Amazon Giveaway!

BabyClip has just launched and we are celebrating by giving away a $50 Amazon Gift Card!

BabyClip is a brand new virtual clipboard where users can discover, collect, and share baby kid products and ideas. Moms can get overwhelmed with the never ending search for the best baby products. The BabyClip founder decided to make it easier for Moms to get recommendations from other experienced Moms by creating a website where they can collaborate, discuss, discover and share products.

The website is similar to Pinterest which makes it easy for most users to navigate. Simply install the BabyClip button to your bookmarks and start clipping! 

There are several ways to organize your clips. You can organize them by age groups: 0-8 years old. You can create as many boards as you want and invite others to clip on your board too!
A few board ideas: Recommended Products, Gift Ideas, Nursery Decor, and Wish List.  

Moms to Be can even create a Registry board. Products they want or are trying to decide on. They can then ask for advice on the products to get expert advice from the experienced Moms.

To enter the giveaway, all you have to do is sign up at BabyClip and become one of the newest members. There are several extra giveaway entries to take advantage of and increase your chances of winning $50 to Amazon. All entries will be verified so make sure you complete each entry.

Keep in touch with BabyClip on Facebook and Twitter to stay tuned for the MANY Giveaways coming
soon!

Giveaway Ends May 11th. Good Luck!

Enter on the Rafflecopter below or Click HERE to enter directly.
a Rafflecopter giveaway


Disclosure: I received no compensation for this publication. My opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.The hosting blog, Irish Italian Blessings is responsible for prize fulfillment.

27 Weeks

Too busy for a chalkboard picture so we took this last night before Tom's birthday dinner and apparently my left eye was not prepared for this picture!

How far along?: 27 weeks 

Maternity clothes: Still just maternity jeans and leggings but everything else are my regular clothes. I am so excited that the weather is finally starting to get nice so I can wear stretchy sundresses and skirts!

Best moment this week: Tom's mom had a couples baby shower for us and it was so much fun getting to see his family and  of course we were blessed with a bunch of gifts for our little man.  

Symptoms: Oh, hello round ligament pain. I've only felt it twice but it comes at 5am when all I want to do is sleep but I can't because I'm in pain and nothing makes it better except waiting it out. 

Miss anything?: It would be nice to have a nice glass of sauvignon blanc on the front porch in our adirondack chairs on these beautiful days. 

Movement: Oh yes, he's very active and I found out at my midwife's that he is head down now thank goodness!

Food cravings: Eh, nothing really still.

Have you started to show yet?: Oh yes! And I feel like I look waaay bigger in this picture than I actually am which means I am probably arching my back making my belly stick out more than normal.

Gender prediction: It's a boy!

Mood: Happy but not feeling too good right now. My allergies have started up which is wicked early for me and its leading to a cold which is not good so my midwife told me to take it easy so it doesn't tun into bronchitis which I get really easily.

Looking forward to: My shower next weekend that my mom is throwing me! I can't wait to be home with my parents and see all of our friends and family! 

A Happy Birthday!

Doing the Chandler Bing picture face on our honeymoon - this is why I love him :)

Happy Birthday to my best friend and the best husband a girl could ask for! 

Back in high school when we were young, Tom was super blonde and I actually tanned!

At one of my best friends weddings being silly!

First Things First

Linking up with Kaitlyn for First Things First!

Today's First Things First questions and answers:

1. First thing you would do/buy if you won the lottery?
Oh, this is easy, I would pay of our massive amount of student loans [ Tom has his doctorate so that's a lot of loans ]. And then I would pay off our house, buy a car and then move us to our dream city - Ithaca! And I may have a shopping spree in there too and of course save enough for all of our future children to go to college and not have to worry about loans like us :)

2. First person you call when you get amazing news?
Definitely my mom. She's my best friend and I always want to tell her good things since she's the reason I am who I am - that is if I can get ahold of her since she never seems to answer her cell phone! Usually all of the good things that happen to me include Tom which is why I don't call him first plus he's even worse at answering his phone and he can't answer it when he's at work.

3. First thing you do when you've had a bad day?
Call my mom or Tom and complain, then go home and eat ice cream while watching reality tv. Oh and I would probably cry sometime during all of this too - usually in the car on my way home from work.

BabyClip Announcement!

$50 Amazon Giveaway Hosted by: Irish Italian Blessings and BabyClip.net

BabyClip.net is launching their incredible new website -  a social discovery website just for babies and kids products. The interface is similar to another large virtual pinboard we all know and love. BabyClip highlights items just for babies and kids. It is the perfect community for moms to discover what the must have items are, what items are recommended, to save items to add to their wish list,  and so much more. Mom's can even communicate with each other about their experience with an item.It's simple to install the BabyClip button to your toolbar and start clipping all your favorite baby items!

 To Celebrate the Launch of BabyClip.net, they are graciously offering TWO $50 Gift Cards to Amazon!

Details:

• There will be TWO separate Giveaways and each blogger will be assigned a spot for either Giveaway 1 or Giveaway 2.
• Total of 30 Bloggers can Participate. 15 Bloggers Per Giveaway so sign up right away to secure your spot.
• Bloggers will get 1 Free Link - Facebook or Twitter with announcement post.
• Let's Celebrate! Go Sign Up for BabyClip and get started!

Sign Up Here

Blogging and why I suck at it

When I started this blog I thought I would post at least 4 times a day, join in link-ups, meet new friends, be witty [ I need to face the fact that I'm not an I never will be ], and that I would take way more pictures and post tons of them. Well that didn't really happen. It did for a little while and I have at least kept up with weekly bump updates but thats about it. I know I have a tendency to take on a lot at once [ I blame that on you mom :) ] and end up very overwhelmed but on the other hand I hate not being busy so it's hard for me to find that happy medium - and I'm pretty sure I have yet to find it, not sure I ever will either!

Life has just gotten in the way with Tom and I being gone almost every weekend and working full time plus having freelance work on top of that its all a bit much. So maybe I should aim for two or three posts a week and make them more interesting than just a link-up. 

I've tried to make blog friends, but again, I'm busy and I always have the intention to comment and just seem to forget because I get side tracked with other things on my agenda. 

Tom and I have gotten better at taking pictures - he even takes some and says "You can put these on your blog!" [ so the exclamation point may be an exaggeration ]. But then I forget to post/don't have time and then it just seems out of date to post something about our weekend that took place three weeks again [ i.e. our Ithaca weekend where we actually took a lot of pictures ]. And I had all intentions of posting about our weekend in Maine this past weekend but with the Boston bombings it just didn't seem right and I didn't want to write a post on Boston since everything makes me cry right now and that surely would too. 

So I promise to write more in-depth posts that are actually meaningful and I promise [ maybe ] to post more than once a week [ most of the time ]. Maybe I'll even begin to post design things although I'm not sure how interesting that will be to anyone. 

And I'll just add one of those Ithaca pictures for good measure!

My hot husband at breakfast at the one and only CTB of course!

*And FYI my inspiration for this post was Amber - thanks! [ and yes I mean to comment on your post and forgot :) ] 

26 Weeks

How far along?: 26 weeks 

Maternity clothes: Still just maternity jeans and leggings but everything else are my regular clothes. 

Best moment this week: Traveling to Maine for our best friends' [ Tom is the best man in the wedding and I am a bridesmaid ] bridal shower and bachelorette party and Tom hung out with the boys! 

Symptoms: My stomach is definitely starting to stretch and gets kinda painful by the end of the day.

Miss anything?: Oh, ya know, bachelorette parties are just not as much fun when you can't drink!

Movement: Oh yes, he just keeps getting more and more active!

Food cravings: Eh, nothing really except I really wanted something greasy yesterday but I was good and didn't give in as much as I wanted pizza and garlic knots.

Have you started to show yet?: Oh yes! 

Gender prediction: It's a boy!

Mood: Happy but saddened by the events at the Boston Marathon. Tom and I are both runners and I've run one marathon and Tom has run two and he is actually running the Marine Corps marathon in October so this has all really hit home with us. We also love Boston, it is our favorite city by far and we just stayed at the Weston right around the corner form the bombings. It's scary to think that something so awful could happen at such a joyous event - I just feel so bad and so helpless.

Looking forward to: Our shower this weekend that Tom's mom is giving us. Tom is very close with his family so his mom thought a couples shower would be best since we don't get to see them all that often being in VT. So we're both pretty excited to see everyone! 

25 Weeks

Sorry for the lack of posts this last week - we have been insanely busy and I'm exhausted! And so sorry for the tired look of exhaustion above, Tom took it at 10:30 last night which is waaay past my bedtime but we were getting ready for the weekend [ we're off to Maine for our best friends bridal shower ] and we actually didn't go to bed until 11:30 - craaazy!

How far along?: 25 weeks 

Maternity clothes: Still just maternity jeans and leggings but everything else are my regular clothes. 

Best moment this week: Tom and I went to Ithaca over the weekend and had sooo much fun. We love Ithaca and would move there in a heartbeat if we could both find jobs there. If I find time I will post some pictures from our adventure since we actually remembered to take some! 

Symptoms: My stomach is definitely starting to stretch and gets kinda painful by the end of the day.

Miss anything?: I love NY State wines so it was a bummer not being able to drink any when Ithaca is one of the best winery spots.

Movement: Yes! He is kicking a lot and much harder! Tom can now feel him on a regular basis and I love seeing him get so excited when he feels a jab. He is so much more active now and it just makes me more and more excited to hold him in 15 or so weeks!

Food cravings: Eh, nothing really.

Have you started to show yet?: Oh yes! 

Gender prediction: It's a boy!

Mood: Happy but a little overwhelmed with how much we have to do the next 3 months. 

Looking forward to: Seeing our friends this weekend in Maine! Tom is the best man in the wedding and I am a bridesmaid and we also love Maine so we're a little excited! 

Preparing for a Little One: Registering [ Link-up ]

Linking up with Kaitlyn for an awesome series "Preparing For A Little One" and this week's topic is registering.

My showers are a little earlier than normal [ 27 weeks and 29 weeks ] since Tom and I live in VT and our families live in Upstate NY and we also happen to have 3 weddings in June, I shoot a wedding in May and we are just plain busy! So my registry is all done and we actually used babyli.st which means we could pick from any website we wanted to and put it all on one registry.

The reason we decided to do this "all-in-one" registry is because we're kinda crunchy hippies who really only use organic products! I took a lot of environmental studies courses in college and even went to Denmark for the Climate Control Conference my senior year and I went to grad school for environmental studies for a semester before we moved to VT so it is something I am very passionate about [ as well as Tom ].

Because of our beliefs, our registry looks a little different than most as it included glass bottles, organic crib sheets, an organic mattress, organic bath products, organic cloth diapers and even some organic clothes [ although I learned that 90% of chemicals can be washed out of 100% cotton clothing so I'm not too pushy about organic clothing ]. We even included a little note in the shower invitations explaining how we wanted to raise our baby in  a non-toxic environment and we have an extensive registry in case people aren't sure what to buy. I was really afraid to do this as I didn't want people to think we were being controlling or would be ungrateful for other gifts, but my mom said that most of our friends and family know I'm pretty crunchy [ as is my mom ] so it would not be a surprise and plus people want to give gifts they know that we will use.

As we created our registry we actually learned that it's not that hard to find organic baby products as most websites have an "eco-friendly" section now since it has grown in popularity over the past few years. So if anyone needs advice on organic baby products I am now a know-it-all with how much research I have done!

Here are a few items from our list:

Wooden Play Gym

BabyBjorn BabySitter Balance Organic

FuzziBunz one size elite diaper

Burt's Bees Rugby Shortall [ they have the cheapest organic clothes that are ADORABLE ] 

California Baby Shampoo & Body Wash

Lullaby Earth Super Lightweight Crib Mattress

Throwback Thursday: 8 week old Ubu

Linking up for Throwback Thursday!

Who doesn't love to see pictures of puppies? As I was looking through my pictures I found some of Ubu [ our one year od golden retriever ] when we had just gotten him a little over a year ago. 

He is now a very hyper, 70 pound god but he is still totally a puppy and thinks that anyone who walks past him wants to pet and play with him. He really is a good dog even if he whines at 5am every morning because the cat goes downstairs and taunts him [ he is locked in the kitchen ]. 

Curled up on dad's Patagonia.

Our first "walk" haha!

But you can't get mad at me for eating your socks, look how cute my puppy eyes are!

Running While Pregnant

Yep, that's me in the orange tank there finishing up the Boilermaker 15k a few years back!

I haven't always been a runner. In high school I was on the track team beginning in 7th grade and ran the 400 hurdles and since I was a dancer the hurdles were really easy for me but I hated running more than 400 meters. That was until my senior year of high school when Tom was in college so I decided to start to go to the gym. I began running a little and actually started to skip out on track practice early so I could go to the gym to workout and run (I was a treadmill runner and was too embarrassed to run outside just yet). I had always been a size 6 but once I started running I really noticed a change in my body and dropped to a size 0/2 even though this was never my intention. I ran throughout the summer (still on the treadmill of course) and when I went to college that fall joined the crew team where we had to run to practice everyday and so began my obsession with running. I actually quit the crew team after my freshman year since I would run 7 or 8 miles before practice because thats what I really wanted to be doing. I loved to run and loved to run in Ithaca along the lake and on the trails. I ran a marathon 2 years ago and loved training for it (the run itself was the worst run of my life but I still did pretty well). And I am by no means a fast distance runner - pre-pregnancy I ran between an 8:30 to 9 minute mile depending on the distance.

Me and Tom with his sister Jess (on the right in case you can't see the resemblance!) and a friend after the Boilermaker and before the many beers we consumed courtesy of Saranac Brewery.

So naturally I wanted to continue running through my pregnancy. In the first trimester I was so tired but managed to get myself to the gym to run at least a few miles and at least two days a week. I could barely run five minutes though because I was soooo congested. Once I was in my second trimester and I wasn't as congested I could run much longer and usually run about 3 times a week and total around 10-12 miles in a week. However, it was like the second I was pregnant I couldn't run nearly as fast, like my body just wouldn't let me no matter how badly I wanted to go faster. The body just knows you can't go as fast and shouldn't go as fast so it doesn't.

Tom and I after the many beers post race under the finish line!

My runs have been great this trimester up until about two weeks ago. I went for my first run outside (I live in VT and hate running in the cold so I am stuck inside for at least 4 or 5 months) and within the first half mile I was getting pretty terrible shin splints. The only time in my life I have ever had them before was once when I was training for my marathon and was running outside on rough snow. I stopped four times throughout my short three mile run to stretch them but no matter what they came back. I thought maybe it was from running outside and my shins weren't used to it. I ran inside the next two days and was fine but then last week I had shin splints when running inside all three days - some days worse than others but I had them nontheless. I ran this morning on the treadmill and again had shin splints. It is making my runs MISERABLE and runs are usually stress relievers for me but this is more stressful.

Tom and I after the Disney Marathon except he was crazy and ran the Goofy marathon which means he ran the 1/2 marathon on Saturday and marathon on Sunday!

Is it time for me to hang up my sneakers already? I thought I could at least make it to 30 weeks running and then run/walk the rest of the weeks, I never imagined giving it up so early on. Has anyone dealt with this too or know what I can do? I'll be so sad if I can't run for at least a few more weeks. Oh, and I already stretch my calves and shins daily to help but it hasn't so far. Any advice is helpful!!!