My Top 5 Pregnancy Must-Haves

#5 - Mama Bee's Belly Butter - This is #5 because I think I like the idea of this Belly Butter more than it being an actual necessity... It smells so good and I love rubbing it on my growing belly at night!

#4 - Comfy Slippers - I never knew it was possible to have feet that hurt so much until I got pregnant. Since I make a conscious choice to inflict further pain on myself by periodically wearing flats that provide no support for my swollen feet, slippers are a must. After a long day of standing nothing feels better than putting on comfy socks and fluffy slippers. I actually hate being bare foot around the house while I've been pregnant so these are a lifesaver!

#3 - Cereal of All Kinds - I have always been a cereal girl, but even more so during pregnancy! I consistently have a bowl of cereal a few hours after dinner every night. Favorites? Special K, Frosted Mini-Wheats, and Cheerios.. I also have a huge weakness for sugar cereal like Cocoa Dyno-Bites, Oh's, and Captain Crunch.. I have to avoid buying these kinds of cereal because if they are in my house its a guarantee I'll eat the whole box within 2 days..

#2 - Husband's Tee Shirts - I have always aspired to be, yet never been someone who wears cute matching lounge clothes or pajamas around the house. It's always been sweat pants (yes I still wear some from high school sports) and tee shirts from various swim meets and 5Ks for me... A few weeks ago even the largest of my tee shirts stopped fitting. Luckily Nate has a full collection of shirts that are now the perfect size...

#1 - LEGGINGS! - Leggings and strectchy pants are totally my #1 pregnancy item. I love them. It's like wearing pajamas all day while still being socially acceptable. In my opinion the realm of what's socially acceptable greatly expands when you're pregnant. (Ex. wearing UGGs to work, never doing my hair, etc.) Or I'd like to think it does... I may or my not have even bought a pair of jeggings...

Ingredients for a Perfect December

A "Babymoon" trip to LA...

A Gingerbread Chalet class with tons of old ladies at the local community college...

Seeing best friends and going to Caroline's wedding...

Making traditional Christmas Candy...

Hanging out with Nate's family in San Diego...

Making delicious food...

Playing with our cute niece and nephews...

Holiday Light Walk...

Cute baby shower thrown by my sister and mother-law...

New Year's Eve Party and minute to win it games with friends...

Welcome 2011! Good luck beating 2010 :)

34 Weeks

Wow! I am so behind on blogging. We've been non-stop busy since we got back from Thanksgiving with moving, working, a wedding, getting sick, Nate's family in town, Christmas, baby showers, childbirth prep classes, getting ready for the baby and more!

But I have the feeling my blogging audience is interested in the most important thing developing in our life!

Here I am with my bump before a New Year's Eve party! I was very happy to find a sparkly New Year's shirt in my closet that still (barely) fit.

How am I feeling? Throughout the pregnancy my response to this FAQ has been great! Overall I really have had an easy pregnancy. However, the past couple weeks I have started to feel like I am indeed very pregnant.

It seems like my stomach is HUGE and I am increasingly immobile. Nate has to help me get up from the couch because I get stuck and I have to roll to the edge of my bed to get out. I have a really short torso, so I carry the baby really high. My OBG-YN actually makes a comment about how high up he is every time I go in. As I've gotten further along, carrying high has meant a lot of uncomfortable things -  like heartburn, acid reflux, and generally feeling like I can't breath because everything is so smooshed up there. Most nights I sleep propped up by a least 4 pillows. I'm looking forward to when the baby "drops" closer to my due date.

He still moves a ton which I love! One of his favorite things to do is wedge his little feet under my ribs. I now have new perspective on how annoying it must be when I try and wedge my feet under Nate's legs at night.

He is a very healthy baby and I'm blessed to have no complications. I am slightly nervous about the actual delivery part of this all and keep skipping over it in my mind. I only really think about being pregnant and then having the baby at home. I guess it's good not to dwell on it and freak myself out though. We are currently gathering all the final things needed for the baby and finishing up the nursery! Nate and I are also enjoying our last few weeks as just us two. We're sure that in a good way, life will never been the same after our little papoose arrives...

Thanksgiving at the Beach

This year for Thanksgiving Nate and I met up with my family at a beach house in Topsail, North Carolina. Growing up we used to go to a beach house in North Carolina every summer for a week with my cousins. My Dad thought it would be fun to have a change of pace for the holidays this year, and have everyone meet at the beach for Thanksgiving instead of in August. I know I currently reside 10 minutes away from the beach on the other side of the country, but we've recently turned into those lame people who live next to something awesome and never go. So we were excited about a week at the beach, and even more so a week with family!

Being OCD, I always book flights months in advance for the holidays to make sure we get a good price. It is not cheap having to make a transcontinental trek at the peak of the travel season every year. We booked a red-eye flight for the Saturday before Thanksgiving back in May (before we were aware of the fact I would be 7 months pregnant for the trip). I had visions of having to go to the bathroom or needing to get up and stretch out my puffy feet while being trapped in the window seat by a sleeping fellow passenger. Luckily it turned out ok and I passed out the whole flight out of exhaustion from packing up our apartment that day.

We arrived in Raleigh the next day, rented a car, and drove 2 hours to the beach!

The first part of the trip was great because just my Mom, Dad, and brother Wade were there with us, and we all got to hang out and catch up before the crowd arrived on Wednesday. The beach house was amazing! Nate and I got one of the first picks of 10 bedrooms and it even had an elevator. My favorite part was the kitchen.

Wouldn't you just love to stare at the ocean while doing the dishes everyday?

Hello Ocean

Topsail island is usually pretty remote, but there was hardly a soul at the beach the first part of the week.

Sometimes I think I look obese... Then I remember I'm pregnant.

The weather was awesome the whole week. We had a great time flying kites, playing
Frisbee, going to Wilmington, going to the movies, playing games, and walking on the beach.

My Dad insisted that he take his "California Son-Law" to experience some real Carolina BBQ. We usually stop at this hole-in-the-wall called Wilbur's BBQ on the drive down from Virginia. But since we were already at the beach we looked up some places on yelp and found one with a bunch of good reviews. After driving to the middle of nowhere near Jacksonville, NC we pulled into what literally was somone's house.

They turned the side of their house into a BBQ restaurant? My Dad fairly anti-chain restaurant and always says there's no way to eat but local on trips. This was a new extreme.

I'm sure it would have been awesome according the yelp reviews, but unfortunately they are only open Thursday-Sunday... So with a change of plans we decided to go to "Thigs" down the road.

How could we go wrong with a restaurant with dancing pigs on the sign?

Sadly, Thigs wasn't that good. The hush puppies and fried okra were great, but the usual tangy shredded Carolina barbecue was more like a pile of mush.

Note the slightly pained expressions on everyone's faces.

On Wednesday everyone else arrived! It was fun to have a full house and visit with everyone...

Crazy boys swimming in the cold ocean.

My new best friend Hallee! Cutest little girl ever...

My husband rolls with the 16 year-olds...

Thanksgiving dinner was delicious granted my family is full of awesome chefs like my Dad and Aunt Tracy! Everyone was jealous of my stretchy pants after dinner...

Assembling the pies...

Overall it was a great trip! We loved the big group games of Catch Phrase and Balderdash, delicious food, gorgeous beach, and time with family. That was the last time I'll see everyone before our little mister arrives.

But only 2 more months till that happens!

Goodbye Ocean! See you on the other side...

Observations

• I look a lot like a plump stuffed turkey in my maternity shirts these days.

• My baby loves jamba juice - it sends him on a dancing/kicking spree for several hours.

• I love stretchy pants and maternity pants. How am I ever going to go back to wearing regular pants? All pants should be maternity pants.

• A few months ago Nate and I decided to commit to him starting his own company. We feel great about that decision and like the Lord has really been guiding him. Nate is always a hard worker (much of our dating life was spent in the library), but he has been working especially hard these past few weeks. We're talking up till 1am programming, sleeping for 5 hours, then up again at 6am. Him and his friend Lee are both computer programmers and have been designing a client management system for life insurance. After over a year of hardcore working on this project, they are weeks away from finishing it, which is exciting.

• Does it bother me he has to work a lot? Not at all! Because I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that I come first. And he is doing all of this for the future of our family and our baby. He always cares most if I'm happy and sets aside time just for us each day. I think it is important to be a supportive wife rather than a complainer about him having to work. I am so proud of him and grateful for his efforts!

• I am excited to see all my family next week at Thanksgiving. And I have been drooling over Thanksgiving food on blogs and the Food Network. I can't wait for pumpkin pie, turkey, sweet potatoes, and cranberry sauce.

• I am extra excited about the Christmas season this year. Not that my baby is coming anytime around Christmas (let's hope not..). I just think it's really enchanted to be 8 months pregnant around Christmas. Like I have the greatest present of all inside of me.

• It really bothers me that it never gets cold in San Diego. People always talk about that like it's a positive thing, but I love seasons! As excited as I am for Christmas, it is just not as festive without the cold.

• Nate looks handsome in his new glasses. I like it when he wears them.

• I am excited and nervous about being a new Mom. There is nothing else I would rather do with my life right now, but I can't help feeling a little nervous sometimes. I used to feel kind of bad for being nervous. But then I thought about how my old cross country couch used to tell us that if we weren't nervous before a race, it meant we weren't taking it seriously enough. At the same time he would say it isn't good to be overwrought with nervousness to the point of not functioning - but a little nervous energy can be a good thing.

• It's definitely just moments I feel nervous. Not constantly. I don't think you have to be nervous to be taking it seriously, but I personally feel nervous sometimes because of what an important responsibility it is to be a Mom.

• I am in love with our baby. I can't wait to meet him. I keep his ultrasound pictures by my bed and look at them before I go to sleep a lot. I already think he is the cutest baby in the world. Probably because I think he has similar facial features as his Dad!

Moving and Nesting Mode

Many of you probably already know - but Nate and I decided to move to a bigger apartment before we have the baby! We love where we live now and there were many pros and cons (beyond the obvious need for more space) that came with deciding to move. But overall we think it is the best decision for our family! We searched and searched for about a month for 2 bedroom apartments in San Diego. Everything is so expensive! But we actually ended up finding a great deal at a fairly new apartment complex in the La Jolla/UTC area. Its in a great area, has lots of places to walk, is next to a new park/library, and much closer to the beach than where we're at now! We are moving November 29th and I can't wait to get everything set up for the baby.

Now that we're moving I keep having to control my urge to redecorate. I have all my projects in order for the nursery and have been making progress on those. But I keep dreaming of redecorating our living room. Probably another product of being in nesting mode. I love blog stalking design blogs like high street market and stephmodo and these pictures have totally inspired me!

I have been doing lots of craigslist hunting and thrift store browsing to bring in some of these ideas at our new place. It's fun to see what you can do on a budget and what deals you can find! More to come later!