Sweet tooth much?

I have never been big into desserts, ask my friends. I love cheese! Salty stuff like chips, cheetoes, rice cakes are more my style. Claire has had other ideas for me. Now I eat whole packages of:

Josh has made a few trips to the gas station to buy those little gems. And last night, I was like, let's go ALL out and went to Kroger and got these:

Half the box is gone, but luckily I'm full right now from lunch and not craving them at the moment. But I did get some brownie mix for tonight since we're having people over. They need dessert too, RIGHT?

So in conclusion, I'm a huge, fat, non-stop eating cow who has no self-control. The END. Maybe I should go get on the treadmill for ONCE in this pregnancy. I have started PreNatal yoga on Saturdays, that'll help right? Meh. My gestational diabetes test is in 2 weeks...this should be interesting!

Happy Viability Day, Claire!

What is fetal viability? "The point at which a fetus becomes potentially able to live outside the mother's womb, albeit with artificial aid..."

Pregnancy is lined with landmarks...and since I won't have an ultrasound or my gestational diabetes test for a while, this is the closest milestone I got!

24 WEEKS!

I've also found that by hitting this mark, strangers are VERY comfortable asking you your Due Date or about your pregnancy. Before, it was touchy on is she just chubby or...pregnant? And no one wants to ask a NON-pregnant person something about their baby if, in fact, they are not pregnant.

Now that I'm obviously pregnant to the general public, my friend Kendra pointed out all the perks I have been getting.

One: Clutch parking at the grocery store and CVS.

Two: At Collina's, there was a long wait and people standing everywhere, Kendra and I signed in and I instinctively rubbed my belly and said "Man! I'm starving." Let me tell you how fast that hostess found a chair for me to sit in and put a fresh bread basket in my lap. SCORE.

Three: Jason's Deli last night, picking up my To Go order, the manager hands me a coupon to get a free cookie if I filled out a survey, I naturally reponded, "MAN! Wish I could get that cookie up front!" Of course, he glanced at belly, then ran and got me a cookie and said "Pre-emptive cookie for you Miss!". Yum. (yes, I went home and filled out survey anyways with very high marks).

So, it's not all stretch marks, missing bachelorette parties and scale tipping...some good things come out of actually being pregnant (besides your baby, DUH). Though, honestly, if I had a magic fairy wand and could skip the 9 months and just snuggle my little Claire, I'd happily do that! This is by far the weirdest, coolest, most roller-coaster ride of a time I've ever had.

Six months preg and counting...

It's been very crazy in my belly lately. Claire moves around all the time and I can see her do it from the outside now too. I SWEAR everytime I call Josh over to look and feel she stops. She does it on purpose! It's a lot of position flipping and rolling around.

I still don't know what part is what, I'm not big on pushing around to find out. The more she moves, the more my digestive tract gets unhappy. The IBS issues have been bad lately. I have been trying to cut out cheese again (which is so hard), but I turned down pizza and lasagna this weekend, so proud. But turns out, if I don't get my cheese, I want WORSE things, like McDonalds french fries, FunYuns and HoneyBuns!

23 WEEK PICTURE!So, I went to the Dr last week and told them about some pain I was having. It was a terrible burning right at the pelvic bone and I couldn't really stand up straight. I got really freaked out and thought the placenta disconnected or something! He said that my pelvic ligaments were really inflamed and I needed to get a maternity support belt to wear as often as I could. I'm up 14 lbs as of this morning, so...it's just going to get worse!

How awesome are these?? (insert thumbs down here!)PreNatal Cradle! Haha!Cutest little socks EVER. I had to get them. I went to Pickles and Ice Cream and they called my name!

Also, we came across a Nanny that may work out for us! Our neighbor is moving to Fulshear and they aren't keeping their nanny, LaTonia, when they go. The couple can't say enough good things about her. She's great with their little Cole and cleans the house while he naps! Awesome! Ironically, LaTonia is pregnant and due on Thanksgiving, not to far ahead of me! She wants to go back to work, but part time, which is exactly what we were looking for! I can't wait for Josh to meet her and hopefully everything works out!

I'm taking Josh to the airport today, he's off to his big fly fishing trip up by Jackson Hole or Grand Teton or something. He planned this before we were pregnant and I was suppposed to be gone to New Orleans this weekend on Jill's bachelorette party. Well, I decided it was best for me to stay home, walking around with these painful ligaments and my cankles in 100+ degree weather probably wouldn't be best. I'm sad to miss out though!

CANKLES =(

Murphy's Law....

"Anything that can go wrong WILL go wrong."

That's been our life the past couple weeks. One big Murphy's Law.... our bad luck started, of course with losing Ganny. We decided to still go on vacation....nice right? Well, got sick in the Bahamas, sinus infection, had to call in a Zpack and I wasn't happy about taking it.

Ok, that's fine, I'm a little sick...we're finally home from all the travel and Josh decides to run to the convienent store in our neighborhood...and BAM!Yes, weird picture but Josh rolled through a stop sign and was rammed by a Tahoe! This was shocking and awful enough, but to make it MORE of a Murphy's Law, he was in my work car. Add to that, we never signed a waiver + paid extra to have him as a driver of that vehicle. So not only was it his fault, my work's insurance won't cover a thing, since he wasn't supposed to drive that car. Did I mention I'm pregnant and stressing BIG TIME at this point.

We find out the bad news only after my company had the car TOWED and got me a rental. We quickly returned the rental after 2 days since we're paying for all and borrowed my sister's car for Josh to go to work.

Murphy strikes again... the estimated cost of my work car is $7500. Wow, devastating...so we start the process of filing with our personal car insurance, surely they will be able to help us out.....

MURPHY: The collision place files paperwork with my company suggesting that the car is actually TOTALLED. Yes, that picture you see up there is TOTALLED. Makes NO sense. They said that the battery flipped over in the time they've had it and acid burned all the cables and transmission and suspension...etc... Totalled. A total Murphy is what it is.

Next up on Murphy's list: Our insurance company is citing a clause in our coverage that says it'd cover any borrowed car BUT my work one. Josh could have wrecked YOUR car...anyone reading this, anyone in the world, BUT my work car....so it's not looking good for help from them. It's a ridiculous and unbelievable situation.

Nothing but bad news for 2 weeks... but here's some things that help me through: Our baby is doing great. I wasn't in the car when he got hit. Josh wasn't hurt. We can save the money up or do some sort of payment plan. I'm not fired. It's only money. Josh is a great provider and husband and is doing his best to alleviate stress from me and take care of this mess. It's only money. We can get through this!!!

21 week picture... you can see our lavender stripes... I calm down when I just sit in the nursery and rock in the chair. This too shall pass! Praying for good news from our insurance company...Josh will fight this stupid clause til the end!

Hodgepodge Post

Our memorial for Ganny was very touching and the place was filled with people. Even my mom was shocked at all the well wishers and beautiful plants and flowers that filled the room from friends, former nieghbors and distant relatives. Even Ganny's housekeeper came with her whole family and a breathtaking flower arrangement. Ganny was one popular lady!

This is Ganny and Pom's whole family! None of us would be around without them... the 7 great-grand kids are on the couch with Pom. Standing are their 3 daughters, including my mom and their husbands, and the 5 grandkids and spouses.My best friend Lisa and her husband Clifton surprised us and I was so happy they came to honor Ganny. After the ceremony, everyone went to the reception at Paesanos in the quarry. It was great to be distracted with so many people and catching up conversations, it helped ease the pain. I'm so thankful that we have Pom and will hold onto him as long as we can!

My family, and I really think it's funny that we're all the same height. Daddy always told me to marry tall, I think I did pretty good.

In other news, with all the baby talk, I have hardly said a word about my favorite little "fuzz rat." Shelby was such a good girl travelling back and forth to San Antonio, twice. She was also good about taking her meds when she got an infected foot. And she hasn't torn up any of the new baby stuff in the nursery, extra YAY Shelby!! I love her so much!! She's laying right by me as I type this and I just wanna snuggle up in her fur and take a pup nap. One thing she does not enjoy is when I use the at-home Doppler to listen to Claire...Shelby thinks that's a weird sound and leaves the bed.

I had a 20 week check up yesterday and everything was great! I was so happy that they put my in the ultra-sound room because it was just supposed to be a heartbeat check and whatnot, which I do at home anyways, so that's BORESVILLE! Lucky for me...she's still a girl!

He took some measurements and plugged it into the old computer and the Due Date said Dec 7th. We've been going by Dec. 11th, so it's right on track. It's be nice to come a week or few days earlier, I wouldn't mind!

^^ that's a picture we got of her yawing! It's so funny looking! I love it! I was so sad Josh wasn't there to see her in action since we thought it was just a check up. Here are some stats so far...

Weeks: 20

Weight: +6

Cravings: Changes daily, right now it's cheese (not a shocker) and grapes, and fruit snacks. I NEVER eat fried shrimp and I had to have that in the Bahamas. Cold food mostly

Aversions: Meat and meat smells, especially red meat. Soup sounds gross to me right now too. Hot food....bleh.

Quickening: As of 19/20 weeks I have really felt her move, she is extremely low too, it's really in the pelvic area where she kicks and squirms. She likes Zac Brown Band and "dances" around when I play that Pandora station. She's not so strong to where I can't sleep or Josh can feel, but anytime I'm still I can usually feel her wiggle.

Planning: We are going to book our Labor Class/Hospital Tour soon and also the Breastfeeding class. Both are at Texas Women's hospital, so that's exciting! We also are thinking about hiring a part time nanny for when I return to work, so if you have any leads, we're looking!

Showers: My aunt is throwing a San Antonio on on October 15th and my friends are planning the Houston on for October 23rd! I'm registering at Amazon.com so hopefully peeps be high tech!

BabyMoon

The Nowaks go on a BabyMoon! Nassau, Bahamas.... so pretty! Claire's first trip!...No, not naked but you get the point. Bump at the beach. The Bahamas was beautiful and relaxing. It was bittersweet after losing Ganny, but we went and made the best of our 4 days there...spending time with Josh and taking lots of pictures which I uploaded to Facebook. I really hate uploading to Blogger, it's a huge pain and takes forever. So I'll pick a few to share.......We tried to do some excursions like snorkling or sailing, but turns out when you're 5 months pregnant, people look at your funny when you say you wanna go on these adventures. Then, they mention things like "waiver" and "liability" and that just did it for Josh. There was no way we'd take the risk, so we just made our own adventures....... Our hotel was over 100 years old, the British Colonial - Hilton. It was really nice and had a private beach. We were located right next to the downtown market where I got to shop and swipe up some good fake purse action. Love my new yellow Tory Burch purse! Also got my sis a Coach purse and Josh got some sunglasses. It was your typical market with locals hassling you and little kids giving you "free" bracelets (tip please?). We were also located next to the harbor where the cruise ships come in. It really was facinating watching them come and go and turn and dock. They are huge, especially the Disney Cruise! And this is what the locals LIVE for. Literally. Without these ships porting, I think the Bahamas would be in big trouble. Even though we were tourists at the nice hotel...everything shuts down after the boats leave! If we didn't get food by 4:30/5pm... we were outta luck! Hence our lovely evening at McDonalds. Which, by the way, was DELICIOUS! .... Another adventure we took was the ferry over to Paradise Island where millionaires and famous people have private homes, like Nicholas Cage, Oprah, Tiger Woods, etc.... This is also where the Atlantis Resort is located, again...not too preggo friendly, but very beautiful! The smokey casinos and the water park rides weren't up our alley, but we did check out the huge Aquariums and of course...we found Nemo. ..... Josh did have some of the Bohemian beer and he said it was pretty good, I took a whiff and it smelled fine. Haha. I actually ordered a drink at the hotel bar from the Non-Alchoholic menu and it was called a "Fresh Fruit No-Jito." Hilarious! ........ Overall, the Bahamas has beautiful water like a swimming pool, fun shopping centers and GREAT fried shrimp at the famous Fish Fry that every local suggested. One draw back from our hotel...and maybe it's an issue all over the island. There are beach rats. Yes, RATS. They come out of hiding at night and run in front of you along the paths to the beach. And don't let Josh fool you...he was just as scared as me. We sat by the pool one sunset and saw them start to come out and thought...we'll just take this party inside.

I'm so glad we had this little getaway before the baby takes over our lives, I don't ever want to forget to have nice romantic times with my husband in the future, no matter how hectic our lives get.

Guardian Angels...

On Sunday, my wonderful, beautiful, selfless grandmother went to Heaven surrounded by her 3 daughters and her husband, Pom, of 70 years. Wow. I was doing fine until I typed that sentence.

We were all in Houston, even my mom to visit, and she got the call that Ganny was fading fast. We dropped everything and headed to San Antonio to see her in the hospital. I got to talk to her and see her twice. She knew we were there and was reponsive. Her mind was fine, her body was failing. Her other 2 daughters came and everyone surrounded Ganny, Dorothy Merlene Anderson, with love and hugs and she squeezed our hands.

There are no words to say, nothing makes it better, just time. I want to celebrate Ganny and remember her for my daughter. I'm so sad that Claire will never meet her, but I'm so happy to know that she has a guardian angel in Heaven looking out for her, like she looked out for us , and all of my 28 years. There's not a childhood memory that doesn't involve Ganny, and Pom for that matter. She was there through everything, 3-year old dance recitals, softball and soccer games, church plays, Churchill football games watching me cheer, graduations, even in College Station...she came to everything. She never missed a moment of our lives and I'm going to miss her dearly. I'm so thankful for all the time we had, sleeping in her bed before Christmas mornings, the many Thanksgivings and her mashed potatoes, finding Easter Eggs in her yard, eating HoneyBuns and milk in the mornings with all the cousins, summers where she stayed with us and we drove her crazy singing made up songs on Shell's old keyboard and even heading to the Quadrangle to pet bunnies and deer...

To me, Ganny was the ultimate selfless and understanding person. She never judged any of her family's choices, spoke badly about anyone, or pushed her opinions. She always listened and always made time to visit family, no matter the distance, because being there for everyone was what she did best. I will love and miss you, Ganny.
Her services are next Sun/Mon and the whole family is coming in from out of state. Ganny was very loved.