wordless wednesday: maternity pics

While we were visiting my mom's hometown last week, I somehow convinced a cousin to take maternity pictures for us by the lake! Here are some faves.  I was 31 weeks along--the pictures were taken on Thanksgiving morning.

The due date in Rummikub tiles!

That last one needs some explanation, I know.  No, we're not naming our baby girl George, but my Aunt Georganne would love us to!  Since we're keeping the names* a secret, we took a few with the actual names, and then took this one to pacify everyone and so I could show you the cool picture now!  My aunt referred to her as "Baby George" the entire week, so it made sense.

*We actually have 2 different names picked out and are letter her "tell" us her name at birth! (And my cousin/photographer is sworn to secrecy.)

I would like to thank Pinterest for helping me get all of these pose ideas easily accessible in one place!

waving the green and gold

I love my little 101 list, and a lot of the things on there I really have to work for (a post about my adventures in learning to crochet coming soon). But sometimes one of them just falls into my lap. Last week while B and I visited family in central Florida for the holiday, we were invited to go to the University of South Florida football game, thus fulfilling:

✔ 83. Attend a college football game again

B likes to make fun of me for having stuff on my list that I've already done before, but I put them on there for a reason!  I haven't been to a college football game since I was in college myself, so it's been 6 years.  I've been to a few NFL games since then and was not impressed.  Luckily for me, college football games are just as awesome as I remember, even though I wasn't watching my beloved Dawgs play between the hedges.

I have a lot of USF alumni on my mom's side of the family (including my mother); however, the school didn't have a football team until most of them were well past graduated. My cousin is a more recent grad, and they live about 45 minutes away so they go to a lot of the games.  B and I went with my aunt and my cousin, who have gone to most of the games this season and have their own little game-day rituals.

The game against Louisville was on Friday at 11am, which was . . . odd.  But they got it televised on ESPN2, so that's something.  USF doesn't actually have their own stadium, so they just use the one where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play.  Parking was super-close to the stadium, but we still got to walk by some fun tailgates.  My aunt and I even got free gigantic t-shirts.  (I normally wouldn't care for an XL, but I had recently seen this tutorial for yoga pants made from a big t-shirt, so I went for it.  Can't wait to make my pants!)

It was a nice stadium, but definitely too big for a team like USF.  I know it was a holiday and all, but there was no one there!  They weren't even selling the upper decks.  B and my cousin bought the tickets at the window and said they were only selling three sections.  The student section was really really empty.  We sorta ended up sitting in the visitors' section, but there weren't that many of them, so it was fine.  And we were in the shade the whole time and the seats were actually cushy!  (I'd never actually sat down during a college game before--at the GA games, we would stand on top of the bleachers--so that was also new, but my swollen pregnant feet were very happy.)  I actually got a bit cold in the shade and ended up wearing my free XL t-shirt, so that was a good call on my part!

The game itself was actually pretty good.  It was back and forth on the score with some fun touchdowns and frustrating fumbles.  In the end, our USF Bulls lost 34-24, pretty much because of their fumbles.  Hey, at least it wasn't a blowout.

My camera battery died before we ever made it in the stadium, so here are some pics from watching the marching band play before we went in.

Yeah, I didn't need the sun hat in the shade, but it's better to be prepared!

 

pregnancy vs. the little things

Woohoo, I'm 30 weeks today! (And yes, I had to look at the ticker in my sidebar to figure that out.)  75% done, right?  Well, unless baby comes late, which is quite possible.  This pregnancy has been going rather well, with only one minor hiccup (I came this close to having gestational diabetes and now have to limit my sugar intake).  The rest of the issues are just standard pregnancy fare, but I thought I might let you know some of the fun problems I've had to solve.

• Shoes.  I was wearing flip flops and sandals, which were easy, but the weather is turning colder.  I don't like my feet being cold and needed something to wear with socks.  I was just using my regular sneakers, but it is so hard to tie my shoes!  I actually had to call my sister and ask her how to do it.  So, here is my $10 well-spent at Payless in the past month:

Yep, lace-less sneakers are my new best friend!

• Pants.  I've had a ton of people tell me that maternity pants are the "most comfortable thing in the world."  Yeah, not really.  I got two pairs from thrift stores, one from Target.  The problem is that I started wearing maternity jeans in September, and here in FL, it is still darn hot then.  The very last thing I wanted was something on my belly, so I just fold the full panel down.  Whenever I bend over or squat to pick something up (this is quite often, as I'm a total klutz!), the pants start falling down and then fall down every time I sit down or stand up.  So basically, every time I wear jeans, I am constantly readjusting all day long.  I will say that the gray slacks I "splurged" on from Motherhood stay up quite nicely, but it might be because I wear them infrequently and haven't stretched the panel out to high heaven yet.  One of the thrift store jeans doesn't have a full panel, but the elastic is really thick and too tight (oh well, they were $1).  I just got some black maternity slacks from a consignment sale ($2!) that just have an adjustable waist and no panel, so we'll see how those do.
• The weather.  I hate being cold; I hate having to change my clothes when it's cold (we keep our heat setting pretty low to keep the bills down, so it's only kicked on like twice lately).  I just want to cuddle up in my UGA Snuggie and not do anything or go anywhere when I'm cold.  On colder days, I have to do some crafty planning and layering since my coat won't button (and it's not worth it to buy a maternity coat when the cold weather season lasts 3 months at most).  But the good thing is that this is Florida, and some days, like yesterday, are just nice and in the 70's.  I own some cute elastic-waist skirts that have worked great for pregnancy!  I was able to wear one of those with some sandals to church yesterday, and it felt awesome.  
I will say that I've had a lot of comments about how I was "smart" not to be super-preggers in the heat of summer.  I honestly don't think it would've mattered.  I was actually miserable in the heat of summer this year even though I wasn't huge yet.  The first trimester is mean to everyone.  And the place I volunteer is on the second floor of an old building with no elevator.  I'm winded every time I show up!



Yeah, you're jealous now, but I could hardly breathe on those humid August days.



• My abs and sleep.  I feel like I have no core muscles any more, even though I can still hold a plank for 30 seconds.  At night, when I need to roll over to the other side, it takes a big orchestrated effort.  I currently sleep with four pillows--one for my head, one that kinda wedges under my chest (I had been waking up with a burning sensation there and this definitely helps), one between my legs, and a big body pillow that I really only use to push against when on my left side.  It's my little fortress, but it seems to be working.  The good news here is that I have rarely had to get up in the middle of the night for the bathroom since the first trimester.  I doubt this will last much longer, but I'm enjoying it while I can!
  Also, in regards to sleep, I have occasionally woken up with a "charlie horse" in my calf, and yowch! those things hurt.  I pretty much go from completely asleep to sitting up in 2 seconds flat with those (I guess my abs do still work).  I read the best tip about these recently, and it said if this happens, just to get out of bed and stand up.  Well, I can vouch for this now!  It totally worked and I wasn't sore the rest of the day like I had been the other times.

So, really, this pregnancy has been good to me!  I'm still working out on the elliptical a few times a week and walking a lot as well.  I'm super-duper excited about our Thanksgiving trip to my aunt's place in Lakeland, FL (a 9-hour drive to be in the same state but a different time zone).  My immediate family is coming down from GA to join in the fun as well--they're taking my nephew to the newly-opened LegoLand there.  

We'll be some taking maternity pictures with my camera while we're there--gotta put something on the Christmas card!--so I've been gathering up pose ideas for the shoot (I hate exposed bellies, and I have a pretty gnarly linea nigra so no thanks).  We're not telling anyone the name, but I'm totally doing some takes with Scrabble tiles to spell it out that will remain in top-secret custody until she is born!

And here's a photo I took on Saturday.  What I see when I look down:

Where did my feet go??