bright autumn sun

If you love food and enjoy looking at pictures of food, then Tastespotting is absolutely the website for you.

I found the site due to an accidental click on my Stumbleupon toolbar, which only proves that I need to use my Stumbleupon toolbar much more often than I do now.

Anyway, the site has lots and lots of gorgeous photos that link to even more awesome blog entries, many which have incredible recipes for concoctions I could have only dreamed of. Actually, I couldn’t have dreamed of most of them, they are just too amazing.

Check out this amazing autumn-themed recipe for penne pasta that I found. It looks absolutely delightful, and thankfully for me, absolutely easy to create!

Adrian and I are trying to do a lot more cooking, so I can tell I’ll be visiting this site often to see if there are any recipes I ought to check out!

I hate election years because while I respect the fact that my liberal friends can vote for whoever they want to vote for, and I respect their right as an American to make that vote, my liberal friends can’t seem to accept that I also have that same right to make my own choice, and keep sending me emails in hopes that I will suddenly change my mind or my party affiliation.

I am a little late writing this, as I’ll be 31 weeks at the end of the week, but we had our 30 week appointment yesterday at the doctor’s office. It was a good appointment because we got to hear the baby hiccuping on the doppler!! I thought I had just been missing out on the hiccups, but it turns out I just didn’t know what they felt like, so that was pretty neat! He was giving us some good hiccups and you could actually see my belly moving with each little hiccup. So cute!!!!

Overall I have been feeling more tired lately, and over the weekend I started feeling some Braxton-Hicks contractions, which are a bit uncomfortable, but not too bad.

Here’s the info about what the baby is up to from babycenter.com:

Your baby’s about 15.7 inches long now, and he weighs almost 3 pounds (like a head of cabbage). A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds him, but that volume will decrease as he gets bigger and takes up more room in your uterus. His eyesight continues to develop, though it’s not very keen; even after he’s born, he’ll keep his eyes closed for a good part of the day. When he does open them, he’ll respond to changes in light but will have 20/400 vision — which means he can only make out objects a few inches from his face. (Normal adult vision is 20/20.)

This week is exciting because on Friday, Adrian and I are meeting with the Pediatrician (the same group I went to as a kid, so that will be neat)…. Saturday is my baby shower, which I am sooo looking forward to! It will be fun to spend some time with my friends and family… and I have the BEST cake on order from Susie’s Scrumptious Sweets.

My good friend Tracey Ahrendt (who happens to be a great photographer) was sweet enough to invite me over to her house to do some maternity photos.  She even let me do some editing myself, which was SO cool of her!! Here are a few of my favorite images, didn’t they turn out great?

This one just might be my favorite so far:

Thank you so much, Tracey, for taking such great images!!!

This morning, I went to the doctor for my 28 week appointment and glucose test, both which went great. A little later on, Adrian and I had our 4D Ultrasound!

It was way too much fun to see our baby move around, laugh, smile, and sleep. We could even see him drink amniotic fluid and we also saw the four chambers of his heart and his chest rising and falling with each breath. His heartbeat was strong and healthy. We were given a DVD with the video of the ultrasound as well as a number of photos.

Adrian already saved the contents of the DVD to his computer and took some screen shots of some of our favorite expressions. Here they are!

This one, where he is sleeping, is my favorite. I think he looks SO cute in this picture, I can just imagine how he will look when he comes out! Notice his little hand curled up at his head… he kept doing that throughout the entire ultrasound. Wonder if he will be like that after he is born, too.

Here is another cute sleeping baby photo. What a cutie!!

In this picture, he is smiling! He smiled a LOT throughout the whole ultrasound, after he woke up. The ultrasound tech actually said she had never seen a baby smile so much during the ultrasound, and he must know that his parents are photographers because he was really hamming it up!

So those are our baby photos!

It looks like we may also get to meet the baby a bit sooner than anticipated - I got the tech to do measurements before we left because I was very curious. Based on her measurements, the estimated weight is 4lb, 2oz (give or take), and I am measuring at 32 weeks! That’s a full month ahead of schedule. Guess the baby is taking after Adrian’s side of the family and will be tall (unlike me).

The ultrasound tech did say that the very first ultrasound is still the most accurate regardless of what the machine says, so don’t go by the machine’s “guess-timate” as the last word. So who knows, maybe he will come earlier. I have no problem with that, as long as he is healthy and ready when the time comes. We can’t wait to meet him!!!

I can’t believe I’m now in my third trimester. The past few months have gone by SO quickly and now I am in the home stretch. As for how I’m feeling… it’s been pretty uncomfortable lately. My feet have been REALLY swollen (but my blood pressure is holding just fine), and the swollen feet are very uncomfortable and even hurt a bit. I’ll be getting a comfy new pair of black Reef “Sandy” sandals to keep me covered for the next 12 weeks. My back has also been bothering me, and the heartburn/acid reflux never ends. I take lots of TUMS… our kid is going to have a skeleton of steel when he is born thanks to all the extra calcium!

As long as my Monday doctor appointment isn’t canceled due to Hurricane Ike, I’ll be going in for my glucose test, 28 week appointment…. and our 3D/4D ultrasound! Something to be excited about! I am really looking forward to the ultrasound and seeing the 3D imaging of our baby’s face, hands, feet, etc. I am not looking forward to the glucose test though, but it should be pretty simple.

Here’s the latest from babycenter.com:

By this week, your baby weighs two and a quarter pounds (like a Chinese cabbage) and measures 14.8 inches from the top of his head to his heels. He can blink his eyes, which now sport lashes. With his eyesight developing, he may be able to see the light that filters in through your womb. He’s also developing billions of neurons in his brain and adding more body fat in preparation for life in the outside world.

Happy 5th birthday to the best dog in the world!

Here’s another page from my Maternity scrapbook:

And two other pages that will go in my non-maternity scrapbook:

I got this link from my friend Jett - a photo story about some tough-looking, tattooed bikers who volunteer at animal shelters and the ASPCA, helping puppies & kitties in the New York area. Too cute!!

Click here to view the photographs.

Here’s the latest from babycenter.com:

This week, your baby weighs almost 2 pounds (like a head of cauliflower) and is about 14 1/2 inches long with his legs extended. He’s sleeping and waking at regular intervals, opening and closing his eyes, and perhaps even sucking his fingers. With more brain tissue developing, your baby’s brain is very active now. While his lungs are still immature, they would be capable of functioning — with a lot of medical help — if he were to be born now. Chalk up any tiny rhythmic movements you may be feeling to a case of baby hiccups, which may be common from now on. Each episode usually lasts only a few moments, and they don’t bother him, so just relax and enjoy the tickle.

My thoughts:

The baby has been moving around SO much! It’s amazing to feel his little kicks, turns, and movements. I’m not sure if I’ve felt the hiccups yet, but now that I’m thinking about it, I’m sure I’ll notice if it happens.

A few days ago Adrian had his hand on my belly as I was falling asleep and he swears he could feel a little head passing by… kind of like a small tennis ball. And just a few moments ago as I was sitting here, I felt a bump, and sure enough, it was like a tennis ball passing by! Absolutely awesome!!!

I can’t believe I’m at 27 weeks already, and next week will officially be in my third trimester. The weeks are passing by so quickly…. Baby Z is going to be here before we know it!!!