Hellobee Boards

Note, I guess I shouldn't be surprised by how many people my mom is inviting, my parents are the reason why we invited *600* people to our wedding. My dad had us invite his entire Sunday school class, none of whom I had met, and some of them actually came! It's a 4 hour drive!

I've been eating insane amounts of food the last two days, not sure what's going on but I just can't stop stuffing myself. Tonight I've had a pre-dinner snack, dinner, post dinner snack and now I'm eating chocolate! I'll definitely be the size of a small whale by EDD if I go on this way...

@Torchwood: I would try H&M, Target, and Motherhood maternity. I got one of my dresses from Old Navy - haven't gotten something for my other shower yet. Maybe try ordering from them? My shipment came super fast... you could try ordering something in two sizes that way one will fit and you could return the other. I'm having two showers...I'm thinking there'll probably be around 30 at one, and closer to 50 at the other o.O Kind of crazy! My mom keeps inviting people I don't know too. Oh well!

The dress I got:

@Pancakes: Oooh which dress did you get from Loft?

@Torchwood: I got my shower dress yesterday! I found a cute non maternity dress that stretched over my bump and decided I needed a reason to get it. So shower it is!
I've been shopping for stretchy and flowy non maternity dresses lately (on my way to TJ Maxx now!), but I also have a pretty small bump for 24 weeks!

http://m.saks.com/pd.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374306418059&productCode=0478976435704&R=478976435810&P_name=Clover+Canyon&sid=127F38CAD8BC&N=306418059+4294909452&bmUID=kpydwWy

I've also been loving Gap and Loft Maternity! They both almost always have sales online and Gap usually has even more on sale racks in store!

@boogs: I got this one: http://www.loft.com/maternity-loft-beach-mixed-stripe-maxi-dress/342777?colorExplode=true&skuId=15976871&catid=catl000046&productPageType=fullPriceProducts&defaultColor=8618

I got it when they had like 40 or 50% off and I desperately need another sale like that again. The dress is so comfortable and it washes well and it's great for me since I have to wear thigh high compression stockings for my varicose veins (sexy!).

@Torchwood: I failed my one hour too. I go at 6:45am for my three hour test!

My baby shower had about 75 people, but it was all family and friends.

MIL has been sweating me for a baby registry list for weeks, so I finally sent her my link to Amazon and within 4 hours I got texts from her saying that the crib, the crib mattress, a mattress pad, and sheets are on their way! MIL looooves to shop.

My mama has committed to our stroller and car seat, so that's another set of big ticket things out of the way. I've decided on a whale theme for the baby nook in our bedroom (we aren't doing a nursery), so I'm thinking of ordering a custom whale decal to go over the crib. I found a super cute one on Etsy:

https://img1.etsystatic.com/000/0/5502191/il_570xN.303409293.jpg

Until our stuff gets here, I've been on a baby meal cooking jag. DH has a lot of dietary restrictions, so meal trains might work for me but it probably wont work for him. So I'm batch cooking or crockpotting a bunch of meals and freezing individual portions in containers and stashing them away. So far, I have 6 portions of 4 different meals (24 meals total) in the freezer and I hope to have 100 meals by the time the baby gets here. We have a chest freezer so we should have plenty of space!

@gingerbebe: wowzers! I wish my mil would like to shop for my kids! Haha. That whale is soooo adorable! And cooking? You are sooo prepared! Wow. I'm amazed!

@SweetiePie: I wish cooking didn't have to cross my mind. That's one of my biggest daily stresses.

@SweetiePie: @tequiero21: I admittedly do enjoy cooking, but part of the issue is that DH has 2-3 sets of dietary restrictions (chronic reflux, gout, and some kind of selective dairy intolerance), so it rules out a lot of foods. No cheese, cream cheese, sour cream, nothing too acidic or too spicy, not too much tomato, onion, or peppers, no broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, dark greens, or asparagus. It goes on and on. DH never complains if I don't cook - we just ate out a lot when I had morning sickness - but we wont be able to do it that much after the baby gets here (both in terms of time and money) and DH doesn't feel well when he eats out too much. So I'm really mostly cooking all these meals so that he doesn't starve to death or OD on Burger King.

My mom will probably keep making/bringing a LOT of Korean food, but I feel like DH and I will get sick of eating Korean every night for weeks, so I feel like having some American food stashed away would be helpful.

Seriously, none of the meals I'm cooking are fancy. Like the beef stew I made was just stew meat, a packet of beef stew seasoning, some veggies and water. It cooked all night in the crockpot while I slept. The chicken and dumplings used the same veggies I used in the stew plus rotisserie chicken meat, a box of broth, peas and corn. I just threw all of it into a pot, sauteed it up, thickened everything with flour and dropped some Bisquick dough on top. Done in 30 minutes. The pasta I made was a jar of sauce, a chopped zucchini, some peas, and the rest of the rotisserie chicken meat heated up and spooned over some al dente pasta. Done in 15 minutes?

This weekend's project is going to be making a lot of breakfast burritos and breakfast sandwiches. They are always the most popular things I make for when other people have babies, so I figure it might me out when I'm up nursing in the middle of the night!

@gingerbebe: must be so tough w the dietary restrictions! I think mostly, what I hate is looking for recipes, and hoping the food actually tastes good. And shopping for ingredients. I detest shopping.

@gingerbebe: I'm impressed, even if they're simple! I hadn't thought of freezing portions instead of whole dishes. That's actually a much better idea. We rarely finish a whole casserole as it is! We're getting a freezer soon, but I may push for that to be sooner, since we only have a couple months left!

The invites for my shower next weekend have gone out, so I'm trying not to look at the registries. I know most people like to stalk them, but I feel like it takes the fun out of the shower for me. But I'm so curious what people will get, and from which registry!

@Littlebit: Let us know how the return goes. I'm still concerned mine may not work since my rib cage seems a little small for the larger size, but no way I'll fit in the small one. I'm so hopeful!

Survived my 3 hour test! It really wasn't bad. I love the lab people there. My arms aren't sore at all, even though that made for 5 blood draws in 4 days. Not sure when I'll get results, but I'm expecting it to be pretty quick since they called me the next day on the 1 hour. I *might* have chosen to go in today instead of yesterday partially so that they probably wouldn't get back to me before the weekend. If I fail, I'd like one more weekend of not worrying about what I eat before I have to deal with it. Fingers crossed all is well though!

Oh, one question about showers. My mom is getting gifts for the hosts of the one here. What's the etiquette on that? Should I be the one doing that (though since they're all her friends I'd probably just pay her back for whatever she thought they'd like)? If not, and it is normal for it to be the mom, should I check with my stepmom and see if she's handling that for the shower on that side? (Everyone gets along fine, they just live in a different city.) Is it even standard to get gifts? I don't want to screw up and come across as ungrateful, but I also know DH is going to be irritated by the cost. Which yes, is ridiculous since they're spending time and money on the shower and gifts, but I need to have some sort of reasoning and explanation before telling DH that I'll be spending the money.

@Torchwood: glad your three hour went well! Mine wasn't as bad as I thought itd be. I almost passed out! The drink was better this time whih was nice, and the woman who did my bw was a total rock star. She used my left arm four times because it was te only one she could find a vein in, so I'm a little sore and bruised.

Same as you-- I wanted the weekend to snack

@gingerbebe: How nice! I wish my MIL just stuck to lists!

@Torchwood: @Mrs. Jump Rope: Really hope hope you both pass the 3 hour! I have an appt on Tuesday so I'm side mine is around the corner.

For those of you who registry stalk, you have so much willpower!

Also for those with 2+ kids will you be getting a double stroller? If so, have you decided on which one?

@Weagle: I recently heard about the duet and it sounds great, other than the price. I haven't had much luck finding somewhere to play with it in person either.

@Mrs. Jump Rope: Love our video monitor, but we need to get a second camera. As for doubles we are definitely hoping we will luck out with something used maybe from CL.

@Torchwood: really??? Maybe I'm the weirdo, but I am so disappointed in my coobies! They give me no support at all. I feel like they make me look saggy and when I walked around our apartment they were jiggling everywhere. And I actually have pretty, ummm, perky boobs (all things considered).
Back to the drawing board. I got some larger sports bras this weekend to hold me over. They are a kind that don't smoosh my boobs flat, so they work well. I just know I'll have to buy more again once I grow more. That's what I was looking forward to with the coobies since they are supposedly 1 size fits all. Maybe I'll still keep them to sleep in or something.

@Mrs. Jump Rope: I am currently a 34DDD and I thought that they were not great for me. But I'm pretty sure that @littlebit and @torchwood are big-chested too and they like them. So I think it's really a preference thing.
They definitely are more comfortable than a regular bra, but to me that's because it feels like it's not there. Haha. I'm just too self conscious to wear something that is unlined. These are really thin, and to @torchwood's point the removable pads are tiny. Like maybe covered my nipple area. I prefer for everything to have more lining.
My sister is a pre-preg 34A and now she's probably a large B (she's 37 weeks pregnant) so I think I'll just send them to her if I don't wear them to bed).

@SweetiePie: no, this review is really helpful. I didn't like the nursing bras last time because they were thin and didn't have underwire, which I realize is great for nursing but I feel like I had floppy boobs down to my knees. I'm a DD too, and I need the lining and the support.

@Mrs. Jump Rope: Ok this isn't it exactly, but similar:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00AYSGFWK/ref=mp_s_a_1_3/181-5753247-4654201?qid=1402235133&sr=1-3&pi=SY200_QL40

Of course I paid like $15 instead of $38 because of TJ. Maybe check out a store, I feel like they have them every time I go! I'll try to take a pic of the one I have.
But the description here on amazon is spot on:
1) It has thin adjustable straps so I can still get away with wearing it under most racerback shirts and dresses (not like the thick usual sports bra straps)
2) It doesn't smoosh my boobs to pancakes (which is super uncomfortable right now). It's a sports bra but it's still "sculpted" and lined so you keep your shape.

I wear a size large right now, but I do wonder if an XL would be better. I can never find one at TJ. It's tough for me because I am small framed so the band might be too big but the cups would be right.