36 Weeks

October 24, 2014February 26, 2015 nk3305 Comments

Baby Kiel is weighing in at roughly 6 lbs now! Weight gain will begin to slow down now as our little guy or girl gets ready to enter the world. Most of our baby’s systems are ready to go now, although the digestive system won’t be fully mature until after birth.

How far along: 36 weeks
Gender: Nobody knows! 🙂 You only have a few weeks left to go vote here if you’d like! There will be a prize! 😉
Weight gain: 19 lbs
Symptoms: Bedtime heartburn, backaches when I don’t take breaks often enough while being productive, sore nipples, and hemorrhoids (TMI?).
Maternity clothes: Definitely
Stretch marks: Not yet, and I’m hoping it stays that way
Belly button in or out: Still in! My sister is shocked. 🙂
Sleep: It really depends on the night. It’s hard to fall asleep on nights when I’m having heartburn. And then the one night I didn’t have heartburn? I woke up when Andrew came to bed at 3:30am and then just laid there not being able to sleep for about an hour. Annoying.
Best moment this week: Andrew being proactive. 🙂 While he still hasn’t gotten anywhere with this whole baby name thing, he HAS installed the car seat and perfected his getting-the-Moby-wrap-on-quickly move. And he wants to pack his own hospital bag. Funny enough, when Andrew is motivated to get things done, I finally get motivated to get things done. I finally got baby clothes washed and put away, and look what I built:

I realize these things are pretty idiot-proof, but I was still pretty proud of myself for putting it all together on my own. Baby Kiel officially has a “nook” in the guest room/storage room. 🙂

More organizing has to be done there, but I just wanted to put some stuff on the shelves right away. I also emptied two drawers in our guest room dresser for baby clothes and cleared the top for the changing pad. It’s definitely not a nursery, but at least we have “baby stations” set up now, haha.
Miss anything: Not really… just sleeping well, I guess. But I have a feeling that’s something I just need to get used to now.
Movement: Very much
Cravings: Water? Can you crave water? I mean, not in a dehydration way, I just always feel like drinking water.
Looking forward to: Meeting our baby 🙂

Baby Update

35 Weeks

October 17, 2014 nk3302 Comments

Do I look really tired in that picture, or is it just me? I really can’t believe we only have about 5 weeks to go! Baby Kiel is now weighing in at about 5.5 lbs, and from now until birth, weight gain will be mostly baby fat. His/her brain is growing rapidly, making the head heavier… and putting more pressure on my bladder!

How far along: 35 weeks
Gender: Still a mystery! 🙂 You only have a few weeks left to go vote here if you’d like!
Weight gain: 18 lbs
Symptoms: Minor back pain — one night I had some bad back pain, which made me appreciate my minor back pain. I’ve had more fatigue, but I’m wondering if that’s more from this cold that WILL NOT GO AWAY. I’m seriously mad at this cold virus, because I have things to do that do not include coughing while laying on the couch.
Maternity clothes: Definitely. And they’re even cuter with a big belly to fill them out. 🙂
Stretch marks: Not yet
Belly button in or out: Still in!
Sleep: Not so great lately. I have a hard time turning off my brain and getting to sleep, for one. Having a cold doesn’t help either with the coughing and congestion. And then throw in a couple of trips to the bathroom and the baby moving all over? It’s not a good combo for sleep.
Best moment(s) this week: Our Village Friends appointment. Everything is still looking good and right on track. My blood pressure is good, my weight gain is good, and my fundal height is right on target (35 cm). Baby Kiel is head down (so it’s the butt shoving into my ribs all the time), and his/her heartbeat is in the 140s (146-147). I’m so glad everything is going how it should! We had our consent class too — Andrew asked LOTS of questions, of course. I love him. 🙂 He’s going to be a good daddy.

My other best moment (much less exciting) was getting my hair cut! My hair has been driving me nuts, but I can’t explain why. It feels so much better now though. It’s the little things, isn’t it?
Miss anything: Just good sleep
Movement: You seriously need to ask? 🙂 Yes, all the time. And we love it!
Cravings: Not really
Looking forward to: Getting things set up for Baby! As you can see from the white board, I think the nesting phase has begun (finally). I was starting to think there was something wrong with me.

Recipes

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

October 15, 2014 nk330Leave a comment

Andrew and I went apple-picking with some friends a couple of weeks ago and came home with a lot of apples! So I started looking for some yummy-looking apple recipes. I’m not brave enough to try apple pie, because I hear crusts are tricky. Plus Andrew isn’t a big pie guy. Something about the cooked fruit…

Anyway, I was most excited to try out the caramel apple cupcakes recipe that I found at fort & field. And yes, they are delicious! The recipe makes a dozen cupcakes, which is about 11 more than we needed. So I brought 11 cupcakes to the childcare center that I used to work at. 🙂

Ingredients:
1-1/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2-3 Granny Smith or Rome apples (about 1 pound), peeled and shredded
1-1/2 cups chewy caramel candies
1 Tablespoon heavy cream

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a cupcake pan with baking liners.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Grate your apples to ensure you’ll get apple with every bite of caramel.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, brown sugar and granulated sugars until smooth. Whisk in the oil and vanilla. Stir into the flour mixture until just combined; stir in the apples.
4. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan until almost full. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.
5. In a small, microwavable bowl, combine the caramels and cream. Microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring between each one until caramel is melted and smooth. Dip cupcakes upside down into caramel and let cool. (I chose to just spoon the caramel on top and spread it with a spoon… seemed easier to me!)

That’s the cupcake that I barely shared with Andrew, because it was so delicious! 🙂 Oh, don’t put plastic wrap on them or you’ll be scraping caramel off and re-applying it to cupcakes. Probably should have seen that coming…