Thursday, November 24, 2011

Holy Hell! Let's Give Thanks.

Stats:

Lauren:
1 of 3 Sisters

Matt:
Has 2 Sisters

We:
Have 4 Nieces


Walking in to the OBGYN, 
we knew what we were having....






AND THEN WE WERE WRONG!!!



THE POULOS NAME LIVES ON! 

WATCH OUT WORLD....

THIS IS GOING TO BE AN INTERESTING RIDE!!!!




From Our Crazy Household to Yours!!! 
HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM THE LITTLE POULOS TURKEY!!!!


LOVE,
Matt and Lauren P.

Knock, Knock... Who's In There?


I have not blogged all week. Let me catch you up.    Of course, I was counting down the days until Matt arrived home from tour. Tuesday was the original arrival date for husband to reunite with wife. But... my husband, being the amazing man that he is, surprised me two days early! Then, as you know, today is the day we were suppose to find out if Baby P is a he or a she. Well, we did. Only, we hit a stroke of luck and were offered a chance to find out one day early! Man. I don't know what kind of things I have done to deserve everything going in the right direction.                                                                                                   You hear all of these horror stories about not being able to determine the gender due to baby's positioning or maybe its asleep and covering its goods. Then the waiting is another agonizing couple of weeks until the next appointment when baby has the second opportunity to cooperate. Both my sister-in-law and best friend offered up a piece of advice before strutting into the OB's office and walking out disappointed that baby had a different plan. "Drink some orange juice before you go, that way the baby will be awake from the sugar... hopefully." So upon arriving at the Dr.'s office, Matt and I stopped by the gas station and bought a single serving OJ, chocked full of sugar. I chugged the whole thing, nervously, while I silently prayed that bay would give us the amazing news we had been waiting for. 

Finally, they called us back. The nurses did the routine checkups and then we floated back to the Ultrasound Tech's office. Explaining to us that the boring stuff comes first and then we would get to the good stuff... the gender.

10 Fingers, 10 Toes... Check
Healthy Heart... Check
Healthy Kidneys... Check
Head Size... Normal
Belly Size... Normal
Spine... Normal

You sit there and listen to some professional woman tell you everything looks great, but somehow you still can not wrap your mind around the fact that there is a human... growing inside of you. Obviously thankful for everything moving in the normal direction, you sit there and stare at a screen of baby shadows and dark holes. "That right ventricle looks great," means absolutely nothing. Okay... okay, just get to the point, we both thought. Tell us. Is it a lad or a lassie? 

Of course, you didn't think I was going to tell you yet. Did you?
My family does not even know yet, so of course I can't go spilling the beans to the world. 

Matt and I are celebrating Thanksgiving in Plant City this year. 
We headed down south this afternoon and my mom and I went through some of my old baby stuff. Yay! I found all of my old Dr. Seuss books and some baby must haves, such as this old "I'm a Lil' Pedro..." plastic bib. I love going through old stuff of mine and finding treasures I had forgotten about. 
Apparently I liked this one. Cover dismantled.

Well. I hate to leave you hanging.
I promise to announce first thing tomorrow, after I catch up on hours of sleep. Baking pies and cakes for all of Tallahassee's Thanksgiving Day festivities has occupied my time since the beginning of this week. Baby and I need some R&R next to dad and the dogs. Accompanied by a large dose of family and a lot of baby chatter, we are really excited about everything that is going on. 

Hold tight. 
I'll tell you in the morning.


Until Next Time,
LP





Saturday, November 19, 2011

17 Weeks!

FUTURE NOLE!


Again, I'm late posting this. At the beginning of the week, I wanted it to be (today) Saturday and Sunday so badly. If you follow our family blog then you will know Matt gets home this Tuesday. When I get to the last two weeks of a tour, I count down every second until he is home. This is one thing that annoys both him and me about myself. I can not help it though. I thought this week was going to crawl by, when in fact it has done just the opposite. I am not sitting in my bed, 10:45 PM, trying desperately to keep my eyes open. 

Today's chalk board "Week Drawing" and progress picture are a little awkward, as I had to rig my Mac Book on top of a laundry basket, on top of kitchen bar stools to get the shot. Normally Krysta patiently takes about 30 pictures on my iPhone and they look relatively normal. 

Well, it is true. I am 17 weeks. One week away from knowing whether sweet little fatty is a boy or a girl. I CAN NOT WAIT TO FIND OUT!!!! Keep us in your thoughts and prayers, as it would be my luck that the little nugget would be asleep or covering his/her private parts so we can't find out until later! Whaaa. Please baby, don't do that to us. 

New This Week:

My Pregnancy This Week


Hello from BabyCenter!
Your baby's skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone, and the umbilical cord — her lifeline to the placenta — is growing stronger and thicker. Your baby weighs 5 ounces now (about as much as a turnip), and she's around 5 inches long from head to bottom. She can move her joints, and her sweat glands are starting to develop.>> Read more about this week

Quick Clicks
• Can music make your baby smarter?
• Why an ultrasound may not reveal your baby's sex
• Delicious pregnancy recipes

Overheard in your birth club
"I get tired of everyone saying pregnant women are beautiful. I've never felt less attractive! I hear about women who love being pregnant, and I'm just puzzled by them."
— Laura

Your baby at 17 weeks
Picture of your developing baby
Your baby's bones are hardening.
>> See the big picture: 17 weeks

VIDEO
Watch a natural birth



    Week 17


14


by Amalah
pregnancy calendar
Your Baby:
  • Is about five inches long from head to rump, which is the EXACT height of the jar of salsa I am currently quadruple dipping into. Bowls are for suckers.
  • Has begun to develop the all-importantadipose tissue — more affectionately known as baby fat.
  • Is hard at working transforming its skeleton from soft cartilage into solid bone. Get this baby a part on Heroes.
You:
  • Possibly feel immensely huge and very pregnant, but your bump probably isn’t as noticeable as you think it is. People may hesitate to comment or miss it completely, like the woman last night who came up and handed me an alcoholic cocktail and seemed genuinely shocked when I politely refused it, despite the fact that I feel like my belly eclipses my shoes at this point.
  • “Normal” weight gain at this point can be anything between five and 13 pounds, although y’all know how I feel about the word “normal.” One book I read this week advised any woman who has gained more than 13 pounds to see a nutritionist and “be more careful”, while my doctor COMPLIMENTED me last Wednesday on not managing to gain a single blessed pound yet. I want to stab the world in the eyeballs with a fork right now, a little bit.
How far along?: 17 Weeks; 5 Days
Total weight gain/loss: +6 Lbs.
Maternity clothes?: NOPE! YAY! Pullin' the 'ol hairband 
on the jeans trick and stillsporting my stretchy pants. 
Laughing a lot now, regular shirts are getting tight! 
Stretch marks?: No
Sleep: Awesome! Thank you snoogle and husband! 
Best moment this week: I THINK I felt baby... Can not 
be positive. But, I did play babysome Lucero's 
"Sweet Little Thing."
Miss Anything?: My Husband!! x 100,000,000; COLD BEER
Movement: Possibly! It's so hard to tell!!
Food cravings: Lo Mein and Hot Chocolate. 
Still LOTS of grapefruit juice.
Anything making you queasy or sick: Nope :)
Have you started to show yet: Ha!
Gender: 4 DAYS UNTIL WE FIND OUT!
Labor Signs: No
Belly Button in or out?: In... but stretching ;)
Wedding rings on or off?: On
Happy or Moody most of the time: Anxious... want to be 
with Hub and find out the sex.
Looking forward to: Finding out if baby is a 
"he" or a "she"!

Sweet Little Thing by Lucero on Grooveshark


Until Next Time,
LP


Friday, November 18, 2011

What's in a Name?

Next week is the big week. 
The week where we find out if Sweet P is a he or a she! 
I have been asked, "have you thought about names?"
The answer is yes, and this is how the conversations have gone...
Pretty much exactly like this.


But, YAY! Next week is going to be awesome.

11.22 Matt Home!
11.23 Baby Gender Day! (Provided baby is not hiding its parts)
11.24 Thanksgiving with Family!


Thursday, November 17, 2011

Lo Mein Monster.

Most people are eating holiday foods right about now; I am eating Lo Mein. 
For about a week, it's all I could dream of. 
For every meal, I wanted Lo Mein. Mind you, I am was a health conscious eater (for the most part). So as you can imagine, I have a hard time walking in to a Wok-n-Roll and ordering a calorically hefty, MSG loaded bowl of high blood pressure. Instead, I wanted to make my own, veggie overloaded, shrimp adorned pot of glorified Lo Mein.
Get the recipe here.

I modified the recipe... a lot. 
Vegetables? Added MORE.
Soy Sauce - swapped for Low Sodium.
Started by sautéing veggies in Sesame Oil.
Added fresh garlic and ginger.
Splenda < Natural Cane Sugar!
Chicken < Shrimp
This was the perfect pregnancy dinner... two nights in a row. 
Matt can not believe I am eating Chinese food by choice. Normally, he is the one begging me to eat at Chinese buffets where you leave wanting to die right there in the parking lot. No way Jose. 
I guess this is what "Karma" feels like. 

Pregnant with Matt's baby?... Chinese food it is.
All I have to say is, he'd better come home before this craving ends. 
God knows, by next week... I'll have moved on to German food or something.









"Mallory" a Beagle + 7 Year Old Matt

Sweet little Matt and Mallory.

I once asked Matt what his first cuss word was?
I don't really remember mine, I think I called my friend, Gretchen, a "bitch" when I was about 8 or 9.
Who Knows?

Matt's story is hilarious. And I make him tell it to me over and over again.

First, you should know:
Matt is the youngest of 3. He has two older sisters.
Matt was the golden child, his sisters will tell you. 
He really didn't misbehave (from what I understand) and he was a sweet boy who feared trouble. Matt's dad is a retired Air Force Colonel. If you know anything about being a Air Force (or any branch of the Armed Forces) kid you can understand, Matt stayed out of trouble.

So it goes.
It was a rainy day and the Poulos' had their pesky beagle, Mallory, out in the back yard. Like any mother, Cindy (Matt's mom) was probably doing a million things and frantically told Matt to get Mallory inside before she turned in to a hot mess... like any dog would, out in the rain and the dirt (Which then becomes a mother's nightmare because not only is she trying to control everyone and everything in the house she now has to wash a muddy dog. I can imagine my life, in the future, now).

Any how, Matt opens the sliding glass door and at the top of his seven year old lungs yells, 
"Mallory!! Get inside you f*cking noodle!"

Typing this story makes me even laugh out loud, alone in my bedroom. 
What would posses a seven year old to a) Use that word - who knows that word at seven?
and b) follow it up with "noodle?"

Of course, Tom (Matt's dad) whipped him right around and scolded, "where did you hear that word?"
In tears, Matt confessed that a buddy at school said it and he did not know it was bad. Poor sweet Matt - in tears sulked to his bedroom and never called Mallory that again. 
His parents, of course understanding that kids are little shits and some kids teach your children bad things, forgave him and told him it was "okay." 

I can not wait for moments like this in our life. 
The moments when you want to die laughing because a kid uses a bad word in perfect context, 
but you can't because you must teach them right from wrong. 
I can't wait to burst out laughing in our bedroom, behind closed doors, with my husband because of how hilarious and colorful our kid's personalities will be.  

Parenthood. Yay and Yikes. 
I am bracing myself.


Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Jumping the Gun.


I really want to start baby's book collection! 
I am having a hard time containing myself.


What are some of your favorite kids books?