First Trimester

We are officially out of the first trimester. I was really blessed with how easy it was.

A lot of women experience terrible morning sickness that actually lasts all day long. I probably had three or less days where I felt nauseous all day. Other days I would have moments of nausea and all I would have to do was eat and I was fine. I carried a bag of pretzels in my purse at all times because I noticed that when I let my stomach get empty, that is when I felt nauseous. I never once vomited, and I am so thankful for that!

Another symptom women report in the first trimester is exhaustion. This one hit me pretty hard. I was sleeping at least 12 hours a day. It would be 8:30 and I was falling asleep on the couch. This is supposed to lessen during the second trimester, and I think it is. I am still sleeping more than usual, but not as much as I was.

The weight gain. I have been pretty anxious about this and really want to keep it under control. I know the more you gain, the longer it will take to loose. I'm also am trying not to care to much, because I know it's good for the baby for me to eat! Since I was a healthy weight to start, I should gain somewhere between 25 and 37 pounds. During the first trimester, a healthy weight person should gain between 3 and 5 pounds. I gained 6. Oops. Not too bad though. I told one of my co workers that my goal was to not weigh more than Charles by the end. She said "He is really skinny. Good luck with that". =) It is probably an unrealistic goal because that only gives me 20 pounds to gain during the second and third trimester. Hopefully blogging about my weight gain will keep me accountable!

*weight estimates found here.

How we told the family

Charles and I decided Christmas was the best time to tell our families were were pregnant. We spent Christmas Eve with his family and Christmas night with mine.

We bought his parents a picture frame that said something about grandchildren being a blessing. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of this.

We bought Charles' sister Janice a onesie. It says "My aunt is kind of a big deal".

For my family, we bought my nephew a shirt that says "Cousins Rock". 

Of course everyone was really excited! We just made them all promise not to say anything until we were out of the first trimester.

Snow Days!

I love snow days. At least the first one. And usually the second one. But by today, the third one, I am so over it! Did you know that right now in Oklahoma City it is -1 degrees. Ridiculous!

Here are some pictures of our 12 inches of snow and a little video of Holly playing in it. I think she might be the only one who is still happy about the snow.

Bahamas

Last week I went to the Bahamas for a girls weekend with friends Nicholete and Gina. We went to celebrate Nicholete's birthday and to enjoy some fun in the sun. It was so nice to be in the 78 degree weather. Especially since Oklahoma City had a little ice storm while I was away =)

We stayed at the Riu Paradise Island. This is mainly going to be a review of the resort.

We checked in and were given a room with two beds, which would have been great if the beds had been full size, but they weren't. They were a little bigger than a twin, but not much. Needless to say, two people could not sleep comfortably in one. The room was also teeny tiny, with no room to move around. Not an ideal set up for 3 women. After a lot of thought, we decided to see about changing rooms. We were told all rooms would be the same unless we wanted to pay to upgrade. I found this annoying because they knew the room was for three people, so I feel like they should have recommended a different room when we booked. We decided the upgrade was worth it and we moved to a substantially larger room with a king bed and a pull out. It also had a balcony with an amazing view.

Our nice big room

Our nice big bed. Gina said act natural, so that's what I did!

Gina's bed

The resort has one large pool which is actually shaded until about 10 am. There is also easy access to the beach. The beach is where we spent all of our time. It gets more sun than the pool and you can spread your chairs out so you don't feel like you are laying next to a stranger. The negatives for the beach is that there is no wait service, so if you want a drink you have to go back up to the pool. You also get harassed a little by the locals wanting to sell you bracelets, flutes, braid your hair, have you rent a jet ski, etc. Definitely could have done with out this.

The weather was beautiful, but the ocean was freezing. I only got in once which is pretty rare for me. I love the water and love to swim, but I guess I am getting to old to enjoy it in cold water =)

The food at the resort was actually pretty good. Breakfast and lunch were both buffet with lots of options. You can be healthy if you want with a large salad and fruit bar, or you can not be with pizza, burgers, and fries. For dinner, the resort has 4 specialty restaurants that you have to make reservations for and then a buffet.

We ate the buffet the first night since we didn't arrive in time for reservations. They have a themed section, which was Greek that night, and then all sorts of other choices. That night there were crab cakes and lobster on the buffet. The crab cakes were yummy.

Dressed up for dinner

Something I did not like about making reservations is that they only take them from 8am to 9am for that evening. So we had to get up each morning to go make our dinner reservations. The first specialty restaurant we tried was the Japanese one. It was pretty good. I had shrimp wanton soup, vegetable teriyaki noodles, and a ginger caramel sorbet with dark chocolate sauce. The desert was obviously my favorite. The other specialty restaurant we tried was Sir Alexander, one of the gourmet restaurants. I had the crab bisque, the fillet of sole, and creme brule. The crab bisque had caviar in it, so it was a little on the salty side. The sole was excellent as was the creme brule. There were two other specialty restaurants, but we didn't get the chance to try them. The menus looked great, so I am sure they would have been equally good.

The resort put on a show every night. We saw the native show, the magic show, and the tropical show. We never made it longer than 30 minutes. The shows were terrible. There is just no other way to say it.

This was either tropical or native. There wasn't much of a difference.

Compared to how much other resorts on Paradise Island cost and the fact that it was all inclusive, the Riu is actually a pretty good deal. I would definitely go back to the Bahamas. I would love to be able to stay at the Atlantis next time, but if I can't the Riu would be fine!

Never thought I would

post a picture of something I peed on!

Just in case you don't know, 2 lines is positive

And here is our first picture of Baby Te, set to arrive around July 30th.

Vegetarian Meatloaf

I decided to make a meatloaf with my soy crumbles. I used a couple of eggs, an onion, some breadcrumbs, bbq sauce, and ketchup.

All mixed up

Shaped like a loaf

 Topped with ketchup pre-oven

Post oven (doesn't look very different)

It turned out pretty well. It did not cut well though. Definitely not very loaf like. It was pretty crumbly. Charles thought it was really tasty and didn't care what shape it was in! I think I will try to pack the loaf a little tighter next time. Overall, it was  a success. 

Christmas Night

Christmas Night with the Williams/Udouj clan:

I still fit!

My Mom still does stockings for all of us. Love it! 

Cutie Pie

All the loot my parents got

Learning to be a doctor? 

Dancing a jig in his new cowboy boots.