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22 Weeks

How far along? 22 weeks

Weight Gain? 20.5lbs!  and loving every moment.  I have always been scared of seeing a higher number on the scale and now I get an almost free pass to gain what I would like.  Starting with a low BMI, I was told that around 40lbs will be just fine.

How big is Nugget?  He is the size of a spaghetti squash.

Maternity Clothes?  I finally had to go get a new black shirt for pictures.  It was also a sad day this week when I couldn't fit into most of my t-shirts.  I never could imagine being too big to fit into a regular t-shirt!

Stretch Marks?  Definitely getting bigger but my skin is doing good!

Best moment this week?  We put together Nugget's nursery.  Don't worry there will be a whole seperate post for this so you can see how freaking cute it is.

Miss Anything?  I have all this energy, but I can't do anything because my back hurts so bad.  I have the desire to clean my whole house and do the dishes and finish painting the nursery, but instead I have to lay in bed because I am in so much pain.  I miss being super active and never getting tired.

Food cravings?  The skin of the potato, not potatoe skins but the skin on a baked potato.  Yum!

Movement?  I saw Nugget  kick from the outside for the first time.  Dufda felt him again as well.  He is super active and doing somersaults in my belly all day long and I love it!

Anything make you queasy or sick?  Well since I just had to run to the bathroom to throw up while typing this I guess that would be the salad and raviolis I made for dinner. 

Gender?  If you didn't know we were having a boy and you saw the nursery there would be no question.  I got to choose the paint for the bedroom so I let Dufda pick the paint for the nursery.  My thought was that the baby isn't going to care if it is ugly.  I really wanted a pale neutral yellow, Dufda picked a baby blue.  We skipped the sample stage and just got the gallon.  I loved it when it went on the wall, I hated it when it dried, and now I loved it with everything set up.

Looking forward to?  My baby shower!  It isn't till February, but I am so excited to have my family and friends together because we do not see each other as much as we should.



21 Weeks

How far along? 21 weeks

Weight Gain? 20lbs

How big is Nugget?  Banana

Maternity Clothes?  I bought a new dress to go out for our one year anniversary that I love.  It's from Target and fits like a glove.  I need to find it in all colors.

Stretch marks?  No new ones, but my skin is so itchy so I assume they are coming.

Best moment this week?  We went and bought all of the baby's furniture and the furniture required to finish up our room.  We then had to assemble this which was definitely a low point of the week.  Ikea furniture requires two people to assemble it, but they only give you one tool.  If we had two it would have been a whole lot faster and less stressful.

Miss Anything?  Being able to stand up unassisted from our super low couches.  I didn't think this was suppose to happen so soon.  That brings me to my least favorite thing that people say to pregnant women.  Shouldn't that be over and Isn't this to soon for any said condition!  I get told that morning sickness should be over by now all the time.  Thanks! I wish it was too, but apparently I don't fall into that lucky category of normal.  I also am faced with people who some how think 21 weeks pregnant, isn't well, pregnant enough to be in pain.  Well I will tell you that I come home from work unable to walk and my hips feel like they are splitting.  Please cue everyone now to tell me how much worse it will get.  Why do people not just let you experience YOUR pregnancy and not try to relive theirs.  If you would like to do that I am sure you remember how to make that occur.  If not just listen and nod your head, and tell said pregnant woman that it is all worth it because you get the best prize ever!

Food Cravings?  I haven't had any wierd ones this week.

Movement?  He is moving around everywhere.  I feel him everyday now, but it is still hard to get Dufda to feel him.

Anything make you queasy or sick?  It was a vomit free week!  I still can't let go on the Zofran, which the midwife doesn't seem concerned about.

Gender?  Still a wittle boy!  He got clothes from his Aunt Tracy this week!

Looking forward to?  Setting up the nursery.  Everything is just in boxes right now.  We have our room set up with enough storage to compensate for what we are losing, but we still have to deconstruct the closet, fill in all the holes, and paint before any furniture can be assembled.

We had a midwife appointment this week.  She went over the anatomy scan results and said that everything looks great, every measurement was perfect.  I had to turn in my food tracker, which I was really nervous about because I thought she would have not approved.  I was substituting fruit for liquid because I could not drink water.  She actually said that this was a great plan.  She also suggested that I try to incorporate swimming into my routine to get some exercise.  I have struggled with this the whole pregnancy because 1.) I have been so sick and 2.) I feel like a failure, because I ran a marathon a couple of week prior to getting pregnant.  I need to find a bathing suit that fits my new bumplicious body then to the pool I go.

We also celebrated our one year anniversary this week.  The weekend was perfect.  Saturday we spent shopping for Nugget.  Then we spent Sunday assembling some furniture and went to Nakama for dinner.  This is my favorite place to eat, but Dufda insist that it is a rip off.  He made an exception to this to allow me to get whatever I wanted to eat for my anniversary.  We had our year old cake, it wasn't very good.  Now that it is no longer in our freezer we are able to finally fill it with more important things!

Belli Facial Wash Review

I got my Belli Facial wash in the mail yesterday and it couldn't have come at a better time.  I have developed awful and painful neck acne.  Really?! Who gets acne all over their neck? This problem has been going on for quite sometime when I got a referral to Belli from a soon to be mom in my birth month group.  Belli products are made specifically for pregnant women. Instead of salycic acid, latic acid is used to clear your acne.  Belli is the only line in the world that is screened to help you guard against chemicals that cause birth defects.  Check them out here!

I put this in my shower as soon as it arrived in the mail, so I wouldn't forget to use it in the morning.  When I opened it up and squeezed some out, delightfulness came out of that tube.  It smelled like fresh squeeze lemons.  After the first use, my skin felt good.  At $22/ bottle let's hope it works!

So I have used this for a couple of weeks and I have mixed reviews on the product.  Yes, it smells wonderful.  Yes, my skin feels good.  My acne isn't gone yet though and I still get new pimples even though I use this every day.  Will I continue to use it?  Yes.  Will I buy another tube? Probably, I like that it is for pregnant women and I think my acne is hormonal and just untreatable.  Who knows, maybe if I didn't use this, I would look like a pizza face.   Interested?  Check it out below.

Wedding - 30 day style

Today is my one year anniversary with my husband!  I couldn't be more excited about how the last year has turned out.  We are just over the moon about our new little addition that will joining us in March!  I thought I would do a blog post on how I planned my wedding, a year ago, in just over 30 days.  That is right.  30 days! And no, I wasn't pregnant.

I had a couple things going for me:

• I am a pretty good bargainer - a skill handed down from my dad who will try to negotiate with the Lowe's sales people.
• My mother can make anything out of anything - We DIYed the whole event which kept cost low and still gave me the look I wanted.
• I had my wedding in December, we were already married but I didn't want to miss out on the experience, why this is important is because December is not a popular month for weddings.
• I make decisions fast, like real fast, like Jimmy John's fast.

 So how did we manage to pull this off?

The Venue

I didn't have time to look around at venues or be picky.  My parents had been to a birthday party at a restaurant that did large events and they really liked it.  We went and had dinner there and I was a fan of this place too.  It did not look banquety and fit my vintage, rustic theme that I was shooting for.  We had it at The Boston Waterfront in Boston, Pa.

I was so surprised that people were there and it looked like a wedding!

This venue is family owned so they were willing to work with us on the pricing.  My dad gave them a number and they created a package that would fit.  This was the only place that was booked for my original choice of November 26th, so that is why the wedding ended up being December 3rd.

Photography

This was very important to me.  This was one area that I did a lot of research to pick the right person.  We ended up using a guy that also did two of my cousin's weddings.  I knew his work and I knew he was reliable.  We went with Fisher Foto, his website doesn't do him justice, but he was outstanding.  He gave us a free engagement shoot and got the images back to us within 3 days!  He was also super personable.  We loved our pictures and the fact that we got the rights to all of them.

Fisher Foto had matched another photographer's price that we were going to use, so we canceled that photographer and went with this one because we were more familiar with him.

DJ

I knew it was important to have a good DJ at your wedding, but what I found when looking was way out of our price range.  I needed someone awesome and who was willing to give a little on their original price.  DJ Tooth ended up being our guy.  He was the only one we met with and we really liked him.  I wouldn't know until the actual wedding day how much he really helped out.  Like most brides, this was my first wedding.  I had no clue on how to organize a wedding or what the order of events was.  Our DJ took care of all of that.  He made sure the bridal party was happy and fed and took all of my stupid song requests.

He's a big softie to0, there he is in the background trying not to cry while my dad and I surprised everyone with our dance.  Both him and the photographer said they were emotional and I should have given them a heads up...hehe.

The Cake

I actually didn't want a wedding cake.  I thought we should serve another salad after everyone was done eating.  I wasn't kidding and am now still in this battle over the cake for my baby shower.  I lost and we had to get a cake.  This was very last minute because once again I didn't want one.  We called up the woman who we had known for years, who had also made my graduation cake.  I basically told her I didn't care what it looked like, or what was in it.  This is what she came up with:

We did sheet cakes to actually feed everyone, which is more budget friendly then using the actual wedding cake.  The cake toppers are from Wedding Star.  We sort of forgot to decorate the cake table, but it did have the pictures of my grandparents getting married.  I thought these were neat photos and wanted to include them.

My Attire

I chose to shop for my dress at David's Bridal.  I knew I was unable to order anything so I would have to buy off the rack.  I wasn't too picky and just let the consultant take over and show me what she thought I may want.  The dress I chose was the last one I put on.  It was perfect.  I would have liked to have worn my mother's gown or some other vintage style dress, but this one had all those elements.

They still sell this if you want to check it out.  David's Bridal was able to alter this dress very quickly.  I picked it up about week before my wedding.  The headpiece was my favorite part.  You can find a similar one here.  My shoes are also from David's Bridal.  

My jewelry was custom made by Denise Jewelry Designs.  She was quick and it's came out perfect.  Even though I was having a quick wedding I still wanted everything that most brides get.  I sprung for the getting ready outfit and the custom hanger.

The hanger was made by another Etsy shop, The Original Bridal hanger.  She was also super quick because I think I ordered this one week before my wedding.

Just Jen is where I had my "getting ready" outfit made.  Took about a week to have made and shipped.  I received this the Friday before my wedding.

Dufda's Attire

This was an argument from the start with Dufda.  We didn't want to rent a tuxedo because he needed one anyway.  We were just out shopping and happened to be in Macy's during a sale.  We found a slim fit Tommy Hilfiger tuxedo that looked like it was made for Dufda.

I am really glad we bought instead of renting, because I think Dufda looks super hot in this suit.  He went with a white shirt and black tie also from Macy's.  I wanted him to be in off-white because my dress wasn't white, but in the end it looked good.

Our Bridal Party

We had a very small bridal party: Maid of Honor, Junior Bridesmaid and a Best Man.  They of course all needed clothes.  The Best Man just wore a black suit that was similar to Dufda's.  The girl's dresses also came from David's Bridal.  We didn't really have time for alterations so we went with what ever color they had available.  MOH in brown and Junior Bridesmaid in green.

The Bouquets

I chose to not use flowers: 1. Because they are super expensive and 2. Because I cannot justify using flowers for one day and letting them all die.  This led to me making the bouquets for me and the two other members of my bridal party.

 These were made by wiring brooches with floral wire.  They were then grouped together in a domed arrangement.  The bottom was bound with duct tape first, then finished off with ribbon and floral pins.  I collected these brooches over a couple of weeks by bidding on them on ebay.  I found this to be cheaper then going to thrift stores and purchasing them separately.  In my bouquet, which is at the top, I also have my great grandmother's brooches mixed in.  I pick ones that were meaning full, I had an "R" for my new last name, a frog because that is what Dufda means, and a butterfly because that is what Dufda calls me.  I then separated them buy color.  I wanted all cream, gold and silver, my MOH got all greens, and the Junior bridesmaid was yellows and browns.  I made my junior bridesmaid's much smaller than mine, because these end up being very heavy.  I then let them both keep theirs as part of their bridesmaid gift.  After it was all said and done, 3 bouquets cost about $200.  This was still way cheaper then it would have been for flowers and was much more unique.

Decor

We made it all.  On the tables we used thrift store picture frame that were laid on the table, filled with pebbles, then arranged different size candles in the rocks.  This was placed on top of a burlap runner that we cut ourselves.  The kid tables had lighted trees instead of candles, for safety. 

The numbers were wood burned, by yours truly, onto random wooden plaques from the craft store.  They were propped up by picture holders.

For the bridal table, my cousins braided together green, brown and burlap tulle with Christmas lights.  The candles just were random ones we found around the house that I wrapped to make them match the theme.  They were set on top of a wooden slab.

We did basic place cards with rock place card holders.  I had to have these the second I saw them, they were my favorite.  For the cards, we found a large bird cage at Gabriel Brothers for $60!

I loved it!  Don't know what to do with it now, but it was great then.

All in all from my experience, you do not need to spend a ton of money to have a great wedding.  In the end, it is about the memory that is made, not what kind of platter your food was served on.  With each of my vendors I never took the first price that was given, every thing is negotiable in the wedding world.  We also did not go for the most popular people out there, just because they may be small doesn't mean that they aren't awesome.  Planning your wedding so quickly probably actually saves you a ton of money.  You have a pretty set budget, because most likely you won't have a year to save up for this event.  You also have the bargaining power that most vendors will take cheaper work over no work, and if they aren't booked up 30 days out, most likely they aren't going to be.  You have to cut corners, there will be things that are forgotten or half-assed, in the end it won't matter and no one will remember.