April 2014 Update

Brynlee is, 90 percent of the time, a happy baby. Occasionally she gets a little fussy, but for the most part, we got lucky.

Look at this photo I got of her yesterday, while she was playing with a toy. With how often I am taking pictures of her, we know that she won't be afraid of cameras when she is older.

She gets so excited. Especially when she is pulling on your hooded sweatshirt's strings. She just loves that.

I think I am enjoying this stage of her life a little more than when she was first born. She has a personality now, and she recognizes me. She is more fun to interact with. I can play with her and she will respond with sounds, or smiles, or laughs. Kind of like a puppy, but a human version.

She eats puree'd foods now. She really likes mangos. Rice cereal works to fill her up, too. Still loves her bottles though. She knows when it's time, and she will start kicking with joy when she notices the bottle in your hand.

Her Grandma, and her Great Aunt help us babysit when we are at work. Sometimes I think that she is more excited to see them, than she is to see us. She really enjoys her time with them. It's safe to say by the look on her face when she makes eye contact with them both. We are very grateful.

Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood is her very favorite television show. We try to limit her time in front of the TV, because studies show that it isn't great for children under 2. But, how can you keep her completely away? You never will. When the Daniel Tiger theme song comes on, she knows it. She will freeze whatever she is doing, and turn to watch. It's pretty amazing. Her memory is fantastic.

Image from PBS.org

Two Months Old Photos

Well, Bryn is a little over two months old now. If you haven't noticed, the blog hasn't been update for a while. That goes to show you how much work it is to have an infant. She is a lot of fun, though! Here's some pictures from around two months. 

Her favorite burping position - 

Mommy's new "mommy-mobile" - 

And of course, her two-month picture - 

Week 26 Day 5 - Passed Test & State Farm

12:10pm

Lots to do at work as usual. Not much time to write today. But I did want to say that she passed her gestational diabetes test. Meaning that she isn't required to go back for the 3 hour, more-extensive test. So that's good news. 

Gestational Diabetes:

Gestational diabetes is high blood sugar (diabetes) that starts or is first diagnosed during pregnancy.

Also learned that because of our address change, our insurance went up 60 dollars per month. That is a lot! And we moved to more rural area. I would have thought it would go down. Insurance is such a scam. Thanks a lot State Farm! Looks like the bike is really going to have to get sold. Darn!

9:17pm


Wife and I just got back from Chipotle. It's so good, but it always makes me sick. Probably because I like the hottest salsa that they have. Ever hear the expression - "Hurts so good"? That's how my relationship with Chipotle is.

We are going to spend some time going through the baby name book. I thought we had it narrowed down, but going to do another run-through just in case. This is harder than I thought it would be.

Week 21 Day 5

9:41am


Well, we still are undecided on a name. Tonight would be a good night to sit down, come up with a serious list, narrow it down, and decide on a name. I know, that once she comes out, the name will pop into our heads and it might change. I just have a feeling. She is going to be one of those babies that just looks like her name.


If you notice, I have added a few more pages to the blog.

-There is now a Resources page where I have compiled some of my favorite websites. There is also printable coupons! Who doesn't like coupons?

-The Subscribe page is for your RSS feed. You can subscribe via Feedburner and get all of my blog and anybody else's blog's update all in one convenient place. I use iGoogle for the other blogs that I follow.

-You can now Contact Me with any questions or inquiries. I will try to respond to all emails within 24 hours.

Because this blog is gaining popularity quickly, I am considering moving from Blogger, to my own separate server. My wife and I will have to make that decision in the near future. Blogger is free, but very limited to what I can do and personalize. We'll see. I would love some feedback about our blog! Anything you would like to see? More information you want? Something you don't like? Let me know!

Belly Pic, Straight on this morning. Getting bigger!

Starting the morning right again! Made a 5-egg omelette for myself with some Cholula Chipotle hot sauce.

HEALTHY. DELICIOUS. PROTEIN. PROTEIN. PROTEIN.

Now THAT is good!

I have to work at 1pm today. No fun, but hey, it's an income. Can't really complain. Not sure if I will be cutting today or not, but most likely not. I'm usually the gofer when I work nights. At least I will have another coworker there with me, for a while we were by ourselves at night. BORING

I am excited because I am off next Monday. My wife has another ultrasound Monday afternoon and since I have missed the last couple, I can finally make it to this one! I wasn't able to be at the last ultrasound where she found out it was a girl. I would have really liked to be a part of that but I couldn't due to work. She has a DVD of the ultrasound so that helps recreate the experience somewhat.

Ok, that is enough writing for one morning! Make sure to check out the new pages, and send me some feedback! Thanks!

7:31pm

Only an hour and a half left of work. Pretty much everything is already done so now it's time to play the "watch the clock and wait" game. It's one of the worst games that I have ever played. 

My wife says I spend too much time on the computer. Which is pretty true. I get caught up in what I am interested in at the moment. So tonight when I get home I am spending time with her. No computer, no iPhone, no iPad. Just her. 

Before I go I wanted to show these new Quinoa burgers I found at the grocery store. I am not sure if they are as beneficial to your health as real regular Quinoa. But I thought it was interesting. And new. A little pricey though. But so is Quinoa in general. I really like it. My wife doesn't care for it. Loaded with protein. 

Oh and a cool picture I found. It makes my day at work not seem so bad...

Week 21 Day 4

7:13am

There are a few Facebook pages that I follow. They have some good information and entertainment for expecting mothers/fathers. You might want to check them out if you are interested. 

http://www.facebook.com/beingdaddies

http://www.facebook.com/proudparentsyay

And of course my fan page - http://www.facebook.com/pregoformen

I get a few laughs out of watching her try to fit into her old jeans(she doesn't think it's very funny, but she jokes around back with me). She knows she's pregnant, it's going to happen. Luckily for her, she is only getting bigger in her belly, she doesn't seem to be gaining much anywhere else.


We need to figure out what hospital she would like to deliver at. We have two close options. One is a 
"Level 3", meaning that they have a little bit better equipment and staff for if something were to go wrong. 
The other is a little bit closer, and has maternity suites. More comfortable for her and I, and has great reviews, 
however is only considered a "Level 2". Her doctor told her that he recommends that she does
 the maternity suites because it is less like a hospital and more like a home, and because she is healthy 
and has no complications. Now if something were to come up later on, and he thought that she was
 going to be premature or have problems, he would have her go to the "Level 3". Monday nights they
 give tours of the maternity suites in "Level 2" so I think we are going to go check them out soon. 

1:53pm

I have been messing with my blog for the last couple hours. Sometimes I want to change the layout and sometimes I don't. Does anybody have opinions on what they would like to see?

Our daughter has been kicking like crazy the past week or so. And of course my wife always says, "Wow, your daughter is hungry again!" I'm not sure if I buy that statement or not, but she sure eats a lot! Must be our daughter, because my wife still looks great. I am more attracted to her now than I ever was before. Weird... They say that's normal though.

She made me a root-beer float last night, and it was delicious, but this morning I decided, that was enough. I have to start eating healthier, and so should she. For the most part, she eats better than I do. For the second half of last year, I got really into working out and eating healthy. I lost around 20 lbs in just a couple months. I use my FitBit step tracker, combined with the iPhone app MyFitnessPal. Both of those work in harmony with each other and make your goals more achievable.

So this morning I made myself a nice healthy, protein-packed breakfast. Four scrambled eggs, a cup of old-fashioned oatmeal(sweetened with cinnamon and Agave Nectar which is much better for you than regular sugar), Fage 2% Plain Greek Yogurt(LOVE this stuff, 0% is really good too if you want NO fat), and a hefty scoop of plain old peanut butter. I LOVE hot sauce, but I especially love Cholula on eggs(and just about anything else, too). Hot sauce gives you a complex flavor boost to just about anything, without the sugar and fat of other condiments (like ketchup or BBQ sauce! Terrible!). Unless you are worried about your sodium intake, hot sauce is much better for you.

7:05pm

My wife is making me some tuna salad concoction for dinner. I'm not too sure what she is putting in it but it looks good so far. She is eating leftover pasta from yesterday. She is afraid to eat tuna because she was told to limit high-mercury fish to only once a month. I think that's crap, but she follows the rules better than I do. Oh wow, she just put the plate down in front of me. Impressive...

7:50pm

We are both cuddled up on the couch getting ready to watch the Blackhawks game. I have some Tostitos Scoops and Herdez Taquera Salsa for a snack. This salsa is the BEST! It is pretty hot, but man, is it good. It reminds me of the hot salsa from Chipotle. The red one, made with chile de arbol. Yum!

Here is my wife's prego belly pic. As you can see she still isn't very big. For 21 weeks pregnant. 

Week 20 Day 6

12:37pm

Heading out to get some groceries and look at some dining room sets. We already love our new couches. I actually fell asleep on it last night and my wife had to come get me sometime in the middle of the night. Oops.

Our landlord came over this morning and fixed the closet door in the baby's room. It's made of cheap particle board so a piece got loose and it wasn't holding up. Because of that, it was somewhat unstable and actually FELL out of the track the other day. He came and secured it and got it all fixed up. We are lucky to have good, helpful landlords. But at the same time, they see that we take care of their place. And we can tell that they really appreciate it.


10:28pm


We went out to a few stores and looked at some dining room sets. We did NOT go to Ashley again! There is a few local places that had some good sales going on so we wanted to check them out. The first store we went to didn't have anything that we liked, at least not in the size we need. We can't fit a huge table in our dining room area, it's just not big enough. The second place had a few that we liked, but a little pricey, and we didn't LOVE them, just liked them. The last place we went to we met up with my mom. We really LOVED this one set that the lady showed us last. It was like it was meant to be. It was a perfect size but has a fold-away middle insert that makes it bigger, for in the future, in a bigger home or something. So we ordered it and it will be delivered on Wednesday! (Wait, not a month and a half later???) We are very excited about it, and have to thank my mom for the help!

There was a little store next door called Cutie Poops, or something like that. It is all organic baby stuff and cloth diapers. They do demonstrations and have workshops weekly, were very helpful, and might have changed our outlook on the whole cloth diaper idea. It seems to be a larger up front cost, but much cheaper in the long room. My wife was thinking we can do cloth at home, and maybe disposable diapers when we are out, or for babysitting. Anyways, something else we have to think about. They also had a lot of cute clothing, and accessories.

Grabbed some groceries from Aldi, our favorite store. You get so much for your money. Picked up a few necessities from Target as well. I love Target, but it is so easy to get carried away, and spend more than you intend. With Aldi, you feel like you are spending way too much, then you check out and it's nowhere near as expensive as you expected! I love that.

So my wife got some hair dye at Target, and that's pretty much how I've spent my night. She made me a nice strong Rum and Coke, and I helped her dye her hair. I'm pretty sure we don't have a normal relationship. Who's husband helps them dye their hair? She's lucky that's all I know.

Some organic baby toys

A typical Saturday night, no more going out to bars!

Our new dining room set! With the insert tucked away.