Boston & New England

I'm back! Our trip was amazing! Not only did we do a lot of fun things, everything went smoothly. There wasn't any stress or getting lost or wondering what to do next. That's my kind of vacation! I love it when we fit a lot in but still have time to relax.

Friday afternoon after going to our hotel and resting, we started down the Freedom Trail, a 2 and a half mile walking trail through downtown Boston that goes by all of the major historical sites. It's marked by a line of red bricks along the sidewalks and in some places by a thick line of red paint so you don't lose your way. We went halfway down the trail and stopped at Faneuil Hall for dinner and to do some shopping (we bought Evan a cute hoodie!). The most interesting site that day was Granary Burial Ground. It's filled with graves of some very important people, including victims of the Boston Massacre, Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock. It rained a little that afternoon, but not too much. The temperature was fine, especially with all of the walking we did.


On Saturday we started up on the trail at Faneuil Hall again. The second part of the trail isn't as "action packed," the only things to see are Paul Revere's house, the Old North Church, and Copp's Hill Burying Ground. It was still worth the walk though because we discovered some beautiful gardens (the flowers and trees there are just now in full bloom there). We ended up at the USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned naval vessel afloat in the world (launched in 1797). They are doing renovations on it, so it wasn't as neat as it was the last time I went (in 2002), but it's still an amazing thing to see and visit. The navy gives free tours of the ship, I definitely recommend going to see it if you're ever in Boston!

(Matt standing by the Paul Revere statue in front of the Old North Church)

After the Constitution, we went to the Public Garden, mainly to visit the "Make Way for Ducklings" sculpture. We bought Evan the book earlier that day and wanted to get some pictures with the sculpture to show him when he's older. The garden was beautiful! The trees and flowers were blooming, there were so many beautiful tulips planted everywhere. The weather was perfect at that point, in the mid-70s. The sun shone more that day than any of the others we were there. We found the statue and even though there was always a crowd around it, we were able to get a few pictures next to it.

On Sunday we slept in and spent the rest of the morning at Harvard, which is an amazing place! We just walked around and snapped pictures, we didn't really have a plan, but everywhere we went was beautiful. There was a festival going on in Harvard Square so we had fun crowd watching and listening to interesting music. Then we met up with Nity!!! I can't describe how fun it was to meet her in person. We had lunch with her and then met up with her husband, who is also a lot of fun. We walked around Concord, which has a lot of very old (and beautiful) houses. One of my favorite things to do on vacation is walk around and look at architecture, so Concord was a treat. We also walked on a trail that went past where the Revolutionary War started and some beautiful fields and woods.

(Harvard)

After Concord we stopped by their cute urban house and I got to meet their dog, who turned out to be really cute and fun. :-) I vote that Nity should post a picture of her on her blog! We went to a great pizza place and even had fun standing in line waiting to get in. It was definitely worth the wait! We took some leftovers to our hotel that night and as soon as we got in I ate more. lol They were so nice and drove us to the car rental place near the airport after dinner. I can't believe that we forgot to take pictures!!! I didn't even realize it until the next day. We had a camera, but I was so busy blabbing my mouth off that I forgot to take pictures, even though Nity and I had already talked about getting belly shots. She's 2 weeks ahead of me and our bellies are about the same size. She looks good!! She's tall and slender so I guess there's a little more room in there for her little boy or girl. As soon as we got to the car rental place and Nity and her husband drove away Matt said, "That was so much fun! I had a great time with them!" And I had to agree. :-) Matt had been a little nervous about spending a day with strangers, but we all got along great. I only wish we lived closer so we could see each other more often.

We spent Sunday night in Peabody, near Salem. Monday we went to Salem and were very disappointed in the main downtown area. It's mainly occupied by new age and witch stuff, which I knew about ahead of time, but I was still planning on parking downtown and then walking around the town to see the historical sites. However, after getting out of the car and seeing all of the not very nice looking people loitering around in the middle of the day, we rushed back to the car and left Salem without seeing anything. We had lunch at a nearby mall and then worked up enough courage to drive around the outskirts of Salem so that we could at least see some of the historical sites from the car. After getting over to the Maritime Site and the House of the Seven Gables (I haven't read the book, but Matt and I watched a film adaptation of it) we realized that area is fine so we parked the car and got out to walk around. I loved getting to see the places Nathaniel Hawthorne had been. We also saw the graveyard in Salem and the memorial to the witch trial victims.

(Salem Maritime Historical Site)

(House of the Seven Gables)

(Salem Burying Ground)

After Salem we drove to Manchester-by-the-Sea to walk around and have a snack. We didn't go out on the beach, but we drove by it and we did get out and walk around the harbor. We also went up to Crane Beach, which is beautiful! It's farther out in the country and we went walking along the beach. Then on to Newburyport where we ate a yummy seafood dinner at a restaurant that overlooked the water and boats.

(Crane Beach)

Monday night we discovered how close we were to Maine and decided to go up there on Tuesday. It was going to be cold and rainy, so we knew we didn't want to walk around much. We drove up and down the coast of Maine and drove through a bunch of cute little towns. We saw the Nubble Lighthouse, which was beautiful. It was actually neat that it was windy and rainy because the ocean was rough and the waves broke over the rocks.

Later that day we headed back to Boston and then on back home to Charlotte!

(22 weeks)

21 Weeks

Evan is the size of a banana or carrot. So long! He weighs almost a pound now. Speaking of pounds, I've been gaining a lot I'm sure! I've gotten quite a bit bigger the past couple of weeks. I think it's obvious to other people just by looking at me, but I'm not sure. I haven't had anyone say anything about me being pregnant unless they already know. Probably people just think I have a beer belly and they don't want to assume I'm pregnant. ;-) I have a rule about never asking when someone is due or how far along they are unless I'm 100% sure they are pregnant. Which usually means they are about 8 months along! Before that I can never be completely sure...

I'm sure I'm feeling him kick now. Last night it felt very strong, that's the only explanation for it. It's amazing!! He'll kick several times in the same place, but as soon as I put my hand there and press a little he stops. Then he will start up someplace else. It doesn't last too long, maybe for a couple of minutes at a time. I've started noticing it in the middle of the day and then again later in the evening. It's always when I'm sitting or laying down. :-)

This will be my last post before we go to Boston! I probably won't post again until my 22 week update next week since we won't be getting back until late Tuesday night.

I leave you without a picture. :-( The only bump picture we took this week was a bare belly picture. I'm not into letting people see me with just a sports bra on even when I'm not pregnant, having a baby in me doesn't change that! I don't know why we didn't take a normal one too... oh well. This week we'll have the camera and I'll definitely get one. :-)

Vacation

On Friday we're going to Boston! I'm going to get to meet Nity in person! Yay! Matt and I leave Charlotte on Friday morning and will spend a couple of days in Boston, then travel up the coast just over the border into New Hampshire, then back down to Boston where we'll leave for Charlotte Tuesday night. I'm so excited!!!

I just realized yesterday that although I have all of the destinations planned out, I don't know exactly what we'll be doing at each place. I know what we'll do in downtown Boston the first two days, but I need to research the other places and see what we should do in each town. I like to have things planned, the trip will go much smoother that way. Otherwise I always get stressed and upset and Matt and I usually end up arguing. ;-)

I've been to Boston before, but it's been 7 years and I was with my family. I can't remember everything we did, I just remember that we went to Boston, Concord, and Salem. We also went up to Vermont and NH for day trips. It is beautiful up there and I'm hoping this trip will be as fun. I'm not sure about the weather, the forecast says it will drop in temperature to the lower 60s over the weekend up there. I was happy to see that the precipitation forecast has decreased. There's still a 50% chance of rain on Saturday though, we'll bring our umbrellas!! I can't remember what low 60s feels like since we've had all of this 85 degree weather the past couple of weeks...I'm thinking I'll wear jeans and t-shirts and bring a light jacket or cardigan in case I get chilly.

The past couple of days I've had really bad round ligament pain. I'm so glad that it's better now! It still hurts sometimes when I move, but it's more the textbook definition of ligament pain, "a brief, sharp pain." Sunday and yesterday it lasted all day and was almost constant. Very painful... I would get halfway through a movement and stop and not want to continue because I knew how much it was going to hurt. Thankfully it felt a lot better when I sat or laid down, but even then it was still uncomfortable. I called the midwife on call Sunday night just to make sure it was okay since I didn't expect round ligament pain to be so constant and painful.

I think I've been feeling Evan move the past couple of days, but I'm not positive. It isn't a fluttering, it feels more like a poking or thumping from inside. I've had similar sensations before, usually when I have an upset stomach, but it's more frequent, stronger, and I don't have an upset stomach now. So it just might be him playing soccer in there... ;-)

New symptom *UPDATE

Swollen fingers. :-( I had to take off my rings... I'm very upset about it. I don't even want to go out in public without them. I'm going to see if my mom will go to the mall with me later so that I can buy a fake engagement ring and wedding band. That's what my SIL did because she didn't like going out without hers on too. I look too young to be doing that and people around here can be very rude to young women who are pregnant, even with the wedding rings! I like to have the security of being able to hold my hand up with my glittering ring when I get rude stares. I've worn my rings non-stop since getting married. Some women take theirs off at night or when they cook or clean, but I never do. I went about a week without my engagement ring when I was in Indonesia because I didn't know what Jakarta was like, if it had as much pickpocketing as Mexico City, etc. Then I once took off both rings when I went rock climbing last summer. So that was half a day without them.

This morning hasn't been good. Not having my rings on for one thing. Matt left early to go to Florida for business, I have really bad allergies, my abs are really sore and sneezing doesn't help them at all, one of the smoke alarms randomly started going off so I had to climb up on the table to take out the battery, then my sister called at the last minute saying she won't be able to come to church with me and it was too late to make it to the church's other location to go with my friend, then I called my mom to see if she was coming and she answered the phone and then hung up without speaking and I could hear her pastor's voice so I know I called in the middle of her church's sermon and it must have been embarrassing for her to search around in her purse for her phone (she can never find it). Blah.

Okay, complaining over. I know it could be much, much worse. I'm just lonely and wishing Matt was here.

*UPDATE - whew! The swelling has gone down in the past hour! My rings are back on. They are still fitting a little snugger than normal, but at least they fit. I only wish they would stay that way, but now I'm afraid that this will happen again. I'm feeling much better now that they're back on!

20 Weeks - halfway there! *UPDATE*

Wow! I'm halfway through pregnancy!!! I'm still amazed at how far I've come and how fast it's flown by. I can only hope that the last half will go by as quickly as the first, but I know it doesn't work that way for most women. I am hopeful though because I know that May/June will go by pretty quickly because of all the traveling we'll be doing. In May we're going to Boston the first week, then to my brother's graduation, then to the beach. In June my grandparents are coming for about a week and staying for my sister's graduation. I'd also like to go to Charleston for a weekend sometime that month.

Evan is the size of a cantaloupe. I still haven't felt him move since 17 weeks. I'm getting anxious to feel him. It was great seeing the ultrasound a couple of weeks ago and knowing that he is indeed in there and moving around. Now that reassurance is wearing off and I want to be able to feel him move, a reminder that he's there and okay. I've been feeling pretty good lately. Many days I can go without a nap in the afternoon and still feel fine in the evening. Moving around is starting to get a little harder, my ab muscles hurt when I use them to sit or stand up or even roll over in bed. I don't really know what's up with that, but I guess they are stretched and strained now.

Several of the nursery accessories have come in and our crib should arrive any day now. I'm ready to set the nursery up! I'm not sure about painting. Right now the room is a light tan color. I'm thinking about just leaving it like that. The big pain is that right now there's a large entertainment center in the nursery. We want to keep it and eventually put it in our office and buy a small TV to put in there. Then it can be the gaming room and when Matt has friends over they can stay in there to play! However, there's not room in our office right now because there's a loveseat in there that we're keeping for my brother. So we need to get rid of that before moving the entertainment system, making room for all of the nursery furniture. I'm thinking about having my brother take it up to his apartment sometime this summer, but I feel bad because he'll be moving out in August. Our original plan was to keep it until then and then when he moves somewhere more permanent then he'll take it. But I really want to set up the nursery before then! I guess we'll see how it goes...

I bought my first maternity shirts yesterday. Two plain t-shirts and one tank top. I haven't worn them yet, but I'm already starting to stretch some of my regular t-shirts. They ride up over my bump and I have to keep tugging them down. So it looks like I'll be making the transition to maternity shirts soon. :-)


UPDATE: I keep forgetting to mention that Matt has started a blog! Go HERE to read it.

Crib and Stroller!

It's been a crazy weekend here! The weather was beautiful, and we spent Saturday working in the yard, cleaning the house, running errands, and then having some friends over for dinner. While we were running errands we went to the consignment shop nearby so that I could buy some more maternity clothes. As soon as we walked in we saw it - our stroller! It's a Gra.co Metro.lite, exactly what we've been planning to buy...and it was only $35! That's roughly $100 less than buying it new! It's in great condition, Matt thoroughly inspected it before we bought it. It's actually an older model, it was manufactured in 2006, but we like it better than the brand new ones in the stores now. It has a small support bar behind the seat to adjust the recline instead of a small cloth strap. It makes the seat much sturdier and I was happy that it didn't make the stroller noticably heavier, I can still fold and lift it easily! It had just come in that day and we snatched it up! Yay!
Yesterday after church it started raining so we couldn't do anything in the yard. Instead we ordered our crib. We found out the model we wanted has been discontinued. We called the store to confirm and to ask if they had any in stock and when they didn't we also called the Concord location. They didn't have any either and they couldn't order one for us since it's discontinued. So we had to order it off the website which meant paying shipping. :-P Thankfully I found a 15% off coupon which helped, plus it was already on sale for $30 off, probably because they are discontinuing it. I did all of the research on the Baby Bar.gains to make sure the company hasn't had any recalls and everything looks great! So that's on its way over and should be here this week!
We also started cleaning out the nursery last night. It has been filled with boxes and stuff. We threw away so much stuff, mostly stuff that was kept because of my pack rat habits. :-( We also went through my cedar hope chest where I keep sentimental things. It was so fun looking over all of the memories in there. It makes me realize how blessed I am. All of the friends and family I had/have that cared enough to write me notes and cards or send me gifts. There were a lot of things in there from my relationship with Matt like old love letters and emails, programs from all of the musicals and plays we've been to together, etc. I added more things to the chest and was happy that I didn't have to throw away all that much stuff that was in there!

The most touching things I found were cards from my great-grandmother and my aunt, uncle, and cousins. I picked up a card thinking, I can probably throw away some of these cards that are simply from my birthday. There was nothing special about it. But I opened it up and it was from my aunt, uncle, and cousins, one of which passed away almost 3 years ago. There's no way I will ever throw that away. I then opened another card addressed to a "very special niece" and discovered it was from the same aunt and uncle and my cousin signed it himself. He must have been about 3 or 4 years old, a lot of it was just scribbles. So precious!

One of the best parts of the night was opening up an unmarked envelope. I fully expected to find pictures from my ex-best friend in there. She used to give me packs of pictures in envelopes and I had already gone through 3 of them. Lo and behold, it was our passports, marriage license, and my SS card, all of which I thought were lost forever!! Last year I searched high and low for those and was so upset that I lost them. It's been on my mind all year. I was worried that they were found by someone who will steal our identities, I was mad that I was stupid enough to lose them. lol! And there they were! I picked that envelope up multiple times while moving from the apartment and after moving here, but I just assumed there were pictures in there because the passports made a bulky shape about that size. It was organized of me to put our important documents together (we didn't used to have a place for stuff like that) but too bad I didn't label it. Now we have a filing system so they will have a place to stay safe and sound!!

19 Weeks

And it's off to a beautiful start! Last night Matt and I went to BRU and asked about the bedding we like - Lil Di.no by Lam.bs and I.vy. They called the store in Concord and it turns out they had their floor model display left. We had them hold it. Today I went to pick it up with my mom and sister and it turns out that they had found a brand new set - the last one left. So I didn't have to get the floor model, I was able to get it brand new and at a discounted price. Can't beat that!!! I'm so so so happy to have it because it's our favorite. And that's our first major baby purchase. :-)

After going to BRU my mom, sister, and I went to Conc.ord Mi.lls - a huge mall that has a lot of outlet stores. I bought myself some shoes for $15, a pair of khaki maternity capris for $20, and then discovered the Carter's outlet store. Woot!! They were having a major sale so my mom and I bought a few outfits. When we checked out we discovered the were half what we thought they were going to be on sale. I ended up spending $3 for 2 onesies. I wanted to go back and buy some more stuff, but Melissa was very impatient and so I left. But now I'm kicking myself, wishing I had bought some more clothes and other things. I bought a 9 month and 12 month outfit and my mom bought a newborn onesie. I know that I'll receive clothes at my shower, but I think it's good to buy in advance, especially the bigger sizes. Most of the showers I've been to the mother has received a lot of newborn and 3 mo clothes.

I also found out that the same co-worker of Matt's that is going to give us a swing is also going to give us a glider! He also offered to give us their changing table, but I don't think we'll need that since we're planning on buying a dresser that can double as a changing table. That will save room. At BRU I saw THIS crib that was my second choice...and it has become my first choice. It was beautiful in person and very well made. I'm thinking we'll pay the extra and get that, especially since we're saving on the glider and swing. We're also planning on buying a used stroller. I'm wondering what your opinion on getting a used pack n' play is. That's what we were planning on doing, we weren't even going to register for one. However, the Bab.y Bar.gains book recommends buying it new since there is a danger in used ones just like with cribs. We're planning on using the PnP as a bassinet in our bedroom for the first couple of months when I have to feed more often during the night. I started thinking...it's true my baby will be spending a lot of time in it...maybe I should buy a new one and feel assured he's safe.

Well, Evan is the size of a mango. I have a mango sitting on my counter...that I bought a week and a half ago...it's shriveled and probably rotten (I keep forgetting to toss it since it's sitting in the corner, lol). I hope he doesn't look like that one. ;-) I haven't felt any more movements. I wore my maternity jeans for the first time last week and have been wearing them every time I go out since! They are so comfortable. Technically my regular jeans can still fit with the belly band, but these are much more comfortable. I'm still using the belly band with a pair of my regular khaki pants that are baggier.

Tonight I'm going to Matt's soccer game. He is on a team with his best friend R and R's girlfriend is in town (she's from Louisiana so we don't see her all that much). She's going to watch so I'm going with to hang out with her. They are also coming over for dinner tomorrow night (ahh I have to clean the house!!) and then on Saturday night we're having friends over too. I really don't like hosting dinners and having people over (unless it's just the guys). I hate having to entertain, I'm always uncomfortable and wonder if they are having a good time or enjoying the meal, etc. However, it is worth it to keep in touch with people. I usually make Matt do a lot of the cooking when we have people over for meals. I don't like cooking in front of people. Isn't that weird? It shouldn't make a difference, but I don't like it when people watch how I do things. R's girlfriend will probably bring some food (she always makes amazing Cajun dishes) so that helps too. So anyway, looking forward to that at the same time I'm not looking forward to it. ;-) I promise, I'm going to stop blabbing now! I'm hyper...can you tell?