I must admit - I made a mistake

Yes, it's hard to believe but I made a mistake. In my sleepy, cold induced haze I said that no one had guessed the correct name in the hint #2 thread. Well looking back through the guesses last night (I'm writing this on Thursday afternoon. It will be posted Friday evening) I caught the proper guess. I scanned right by it twice!! So I apologize for missing it. Congrats to Jennifer on the proper guess. I have a slight feeling that a "little monkey" may have told you of a few ideas we were tossing around but that's what I get for sharing ideas. LOL!

We have a plan on how to inform our families of the name so that is why I am delaying the posting of this entry. I'm actually adding a picture of myself so you can see for yourself how the announcement is being made. What do you think?





Brielle Marie. We talked and talked and talked about her name for a long time. We have known for a little over a month (or two) that this would be her name (her middle name was decided on well before she was even conceived). We wanted to use it ourselves and make sure we were OK with it. At this point we are. Will things change in the future? I sure hope not but I do know plenty of people who have changed their minds at the last minute. I truly hope this doesn't happen to us.


So thank you all for your guesses. There were a few beautiful names thrown out there that I really liked as well. I was impressed on how many of you probably looked at a map to get name ideas! Happy Halloween!!

Job update

I received news today that I did not get the position that I've been interviewing for. It's been over 6 weeks since I started the interview process so it's been a long road. While it sucks not getting this job, I'm sure it is for the best. There is obviously something else out there for me. I've also been contemplating making a career change for some time. Maybe this is the kick in the butt I need to make the change.

So I'm going to keep looking and thinking about what to do. Like I said before Ben and I have made some great decisions in the past. I'm sure we'll receive clarity on what to do from here on out soon.

Thank you to everyone for your support and well wishes. Without them I'm sure this bump in the road would be horrible!

6 months! (and name hint #2)

Wow! Wow! Wow!! On Thursday we entered week 24 of the pregnancy. Holy cow! That's 6 months! I've been growing a little person for 6 months! That means I have as much as 16 weeks or as little as 12 weeks left. Wow!

Thankfully the little person I'm growing has been good to her mom for the most part. She did assert her hold on me with wicked heartburn not too long ago. It was the most horrible heartburn I have ever had in my life! Thankfully a late night trip to the store and 2 Rolaids Soft Chews later I was alright. I'm not never far from those Soft Chews. (Yes this is the same story from a week or so ago. Can you tell how much it affected me?! LOL) I've also learned not to leave my house without snacks. You never know when an uncontrollable hunger is going to hit!

With these new "accessories" I had to upgrade my purse to a slightly larger one. I now always have the aforementioned items along with my glucometer and a bottle of water. It's hard to think in a year from now my purse will more then likely be filled with toys and baby snacks!

We've had some great guesses of the little girl's name. So far none of them have been correct. It's been a lot of fun to read the name ideas. Some have been very beautiful, some have been pretty common and others have been, uh, unique. Since we don't have a correct answer it is with great pleasure I give you baby name hint #2!!

Her name is the same as an east coast city.

Happy guessing!

P.S. No new news on the job front.

Staying Healthy While Gestating

I've been doing my best to be a healthy gestator. I would say so far I'm doing good. I have lost about 20 pounds since getting pregnant (I was down a little more but in the last few weeks I've gained a little). I wasn't trying to loose weight but when you change your diet to stave off gestational diabetes that's what happens. Also I've kept active all through my pregnancy. I've done a variety of activities including kickboxing (no contact of course), zumba, water aerobics, walking and working with my trainer Erin.

Out of all of these activities I have to say that the biggest help to keeping me healthy is working with Erin. I know if I don't keep up with my exercises and diet my workout will not be easy at Erin's! Not that Erin will "come down" on me but in order to keep up with what she wants me to do I need to be healthy (or at least well on my way to being healthy). As my pregnancy progresses my workouts with Erin have evolved. I no longer do much on the floor and we are concentrating on balance a lot right now. We have fun talking about being pregnant, babies and future goals. I always look forward to heading over to see her.

Today Erin and I updated my measurements. While it may seem silly to take measurements while pregnant it actually makes sense. After all when you gain weight while pregnant you should gain a little fat and all the other weight should be due to the baby. This means your arms and legs should still be fit even though your abs give away. I am happy to report that since I've been working with Erin I have lost a total of 12 inches (6.5 of those in the last 10 weeks)! Yes people that's right. I've lost 12 inches while pregnant (we got our positive test back shortly after I started working with Erin).

The most amazing measurement to me was my hips. My last set of measurements I definitely didn't have a baby belly. I'm starting to get one now. That posed a challenge for measuring my hips this time around. There really is no way to measure my hips right now without the baby getting in the way. I was completely ready for that measurement to go up. Well my hip measurement did not go up. It actually went down 2 inches!! That's with the baby in the way! WOW!

Needless to say I'm very excited! I'm a busy girl on the health front. I'm growing a little girl for us to love and I'm becoming a healthier person! How awesome is it going to be when I finally have my little girl to hold and I'll be a healthy mom!! It's an exciting time for me and I couldn't be happier!

Ben and I were talking tonight about how we are going to stay healthy to be a good role model for our daughter. I always tell him stories about Erin's son Grady and how he knows that exercise is good for you. Grady has great role models in his parents. I want us to be great role models for our daughter. So Ben and I are making plans to start running together when I can run. Admittedly I hate running. I don't think many people really like running when they start. It's something that grows on them. We're talking of adding a running stroller to our registry. The best way to show our daughter how to be healthy is to have her involved from the get go.

So thank you Erin, Geoff and Grady! Ben and I hope to one day have the healthy family that you have. Who knows maybe in a couple years we'll run one of those marathons with you!

Hello new friends!

I've noticed that I have some new followers. How fun! I never thought anything in my life would be interesting enough to actually blog about. Then when something did happen I never imagined I would have so many hits on my blog. It's fun to share this journey with new friends and old. I hope you're enjoying this trip with us. It's hard to believe there's approximately 17 weeks left! Where has the time gone?

Tomorrow is the start of week 23 of my pregnancy. Wow. Just....wow! Every day I'm so happy to feel our daughter "have a party" inside of me. She's so predictable that it makes me laugh. It also gives me hope that she will adjust to a schedule when she arrives. I may have just jinxed myself!

Since my last blog entry a few things have happened. I went to a second interview at the company I really want to work for. It was very promising and I left there with confidence that I would be working soon. Here I am a week later and I'm not working. I'm not sure if I'm putting too much hope into this job prospect or what. I called to follow up on the interview and it sounds like they are close to deciding but it may be another week yet. Lovely. I just want to jump into this job and get as much done as I possibly can before I have to take leave. And how the heck do you tell someone "Thanks for the job offer! I need an extended amount of time off in 17 weeks or less."? Everything I read says I should inform them before I accept any offer they give me. That makes me worry that the offer would be rescinded. Legally they could say that I require special arrangements and they can't accommodate me. I know that if they did that I wouldn't want to work for them but deep down I can't blame them. And if they don't rescind the offer I'm in no way covered by FMLA. That means they can replace me when I go on leave. So much to worry about.

If I don't get this job I have to give serious consideration to how hard I should search for a job. I need a job but is it worth it? Should I just wait? Should I work part-time? Can we survive if I don't work? All things I have to think about. All things Ben and I are tossing around. I guess when the time comes we'll know what to do. We've some how been lucky enough to make sound decisions up to this point. Hopefully our streak continues.

On to baby news - Her room is coming along. It's completely down to the studs! We've been taking pictures along the way. I'll try to share some with everyone soon. Right now it looks like a tornado went through there! It's exciting to think about how it's going to look when it's done. I was just saying to Ben last night that I wished we had some more money. The ceiling could be a lovely tall ceiling that slopes towards the windows. I could add some beautiful pendent lighting that would hang so nicely from the slope. While those thoughts are nice her room will still be absolutely wonderful! Her closet will be widened by a whole foot!! What a lucky girl! It's already a huge closet. Needless to say mom is slightly jealous!

Last night was my first experience with baby induced heartburn. Let me just say this is the worst heartburn EVER! Seriously I could not stand it! Since I didn't have anything in the house that is ok for me to take I had to head out to the store.....it was almost midnight! Of course being so late there was no way Ben was letting me go alone so he took me up there. I bought some Rolaids soft chews. Two of them and a bath later I was able to sleep comfortably. I was thinking that maybe it was the food I had for dinner but I had the same thing for lunch today with no problems. Apparently she was just letting me know who is in charge. LOL!

I'm taking an idea from my friend Amy. We have decided on a name for our little girl. We have not shared it with anyone yet. While it may be a while before we share the name I thought I would give hints to what it could be. I know there are some people who read our blog that are super sleuths so this could be fun! If the name is guessed I'll have to get permission from Ben to confirm the name as we haven't decided when we'll share the name. In the mean time everyone can have fun trying to figure it out!

Baby Name Hint #1: She will be the only member of our house (that's between myself, Ben and the furkids) that won't have the letter "a" in her first name. (LOL! Yep! I even did the same hint as Amy!) Happy guessing!

Registery DONE!

Over the weekend Ben and I finally had some time to go and register for the baby. We had a TON of fun doing it! At times it was a little overwhelming but we took our time and talked our choices over....mostly. I can't tell you how many times I heard the scanner go off while I was looking at something. I think I asked Ben "what did you just add?" about 100 times! LOL! The best add has to be the bib that reads "My mom is hotter then your mom". I about died laughing! If you know me I'm NOT hot. It's nice to know that my husband thinks so though.

We do have one or two more items to add but we'll do that soon enough. For now we can check this task off our list!

Oh! This weekend we also had the new windows installed in the baby's room. Oh my goodness! They are soo much better then the old windows. Ben said when they removed the trim from the outside the only thing holding the old windows in was two small finishing nails! He could actually spin the whole window! So it sounds like the new windows are safer, more quiet and more energy efficient! YAY!

A job hunt update

This job hunt it like a new relationship: All of the good signs are there but no commitment!

I didn't update after the assessment because there wasn't much to update. I took the test on Monday. I didn't hear anything. I called on Friday and they said they needed to have a meeting and would get back to me.

On Tuesday of this week (yesterday) I received a message that they were sending out an application. They said to fill it out and send it back in. I called back and left a message offering to go down and fill out the application. I didn't hear back from them.

This afternoon I receive a call and it's the HR guy. He wants to set up a second interview with me. So now I go in on Thursday October 9 for an interview with 4 people. From the sounds of it I'll be meeting with each person separately.

So that's where I'm at. Still waiting for that commitment