Bravery and the two piece

At 24+ weeks my body is bulging from all corners. As much as it was a blessing to have no morning sickness, it comes with the curse of more weight gain. For the most part I have embraced my baby body, although the heavy price tag that comes with replacing my entire wardrobe has not been easy.
This past weekend, J and I took a mini-vacation to Maine. In the interest of saving money, we used J's family's trailer instead of splurging on a 4-star hotel. The weather was simply wonderful and called out for a beach day like no other. The one thing I haven't yet replaced are my hoard of bathing suits as I've been hoping to squeeze into what I already have. No such luck. Even with my largest of suits, I was definitely a wardrobe malfunction ready to happen.
Somehow though, I rocked it. I strutted my stuff, 20+lbs heavier, all day long. Screw maternity bathing suits, this belly was made to be seen. I scored myself my first tan of the season and somehow managed not to give the beach-goers more of a show than anticipated.
Upon coming home, I caved and spent another $90 on bathing suits from Victoria's Secret in a size larger than I'm used to. I am now poised and ready to rock this belly all summer long!

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

• We go back into the Dr. Thursday for a routine checkup. I'm nervous. Big surprise.
• Baby Weeks has been kicking me on a regular basis for the last couple of weeks, this makes me crazy happy.
• Sunday night, Jesse took a quick break from studying for finals to spend some QT with me. We decided to indulge in Magnum bars (thanks to rec's from my mom, my friend Amie, and a whole lot of advertising). I was initially annoyed at the $5/box of 3, but after seeing that one bar has 70% of your daily allotment of Saturated Fat, I was pumped there were only three. Anyway, I indulged, and then WHAM! Super baby kick of awesomeness. I called Jesse out of his office and he came running just in time to feel the baby for the first time. :)
• I had a great Mother's Day with my mom and became even more excited that next year, I'll be a mom, too!
• My boobs are officially out of control. I've been falling out of my new bras for a week so got re-measured and picked up some cheap-o ones at Marshalls. 36C. Holy crap.
  
• I've been on a maternity clothes shopping spree lately. I feel pretty good about everything I've bought to this point and I think after a couple tanks and shorts and one nice dress I'll be all set.
• Jesse and I have been good at saving money lately. We're determined to get as much time off as possible to be good parents once Baby Weeks is born. That means sacrifices. I'm totally fine with no vacations and cooking in more if that means another week or two with my little one :)
• I've survived year three of four of Jesse in law school. Next year will be even harder taking care of everything, and I mean everything and having a child. But I know I can do it ;)
  

Registry Madness...

Another band-aid ripped off. After a fantastic day in Boston with Jesse Saturday, we stopped in Natick on the way home and hit up the Babies-R-Us. I honestly have never been so overwhelmed in my entire life. While everything looked cute - well more than cute - we had no idea what was actually well-made or well-suited for a small child.

We had made it our mission to get all of the "big" stuff out of the way. Our parents have been not so subtly hinting that they wanted to get an idea of what we were looking at for weeks now, so it was definitely time. Luckily as soon as we dived in, Jesse and I agreed on almost every front. We both favored a light-wood colored crib, both wanted a separate changing table, and furniture that our child will be able to use beyond infant hood.

After picking out furniture, we wandered into the world of strollers, high chairs, bouncy seats and swings. Again, completely overwhelmed. After comparing features, reviews via our iphones, and overall cuteness factors we were able to decide on these fronts as well. Wisely we picked out gender-neutral items as we want our children to come to be able to use all of these items as well.

Dizzy with baby items dancing in our heads, we decided to head out, feeling more than accomplished. Little did we know how far from our goal we actually were. The very nice lady at the registry counter literally scoffed at our goods - in her words "We were one-tenth of one chapter done". Sigh.

I returned to a more local store on Sunday and continued registering for everything that didn't have to be pink or blue and now feel like I've made much more of a dent. Speaking of all of this insanity - many thanks in advance to everyone who bestows their generosity upon us during this time. I mean, baby stuff is SO expensive. I had and idea that some things like the stroller and crib would cost a fortune, but $300 for a breast pump?!

Good thing baby Weeks will be worth every darn penny! :) In the meantime, feel free to check out what we picked out - BabiesRUs.com search either mine or Jesse's name!