19 weeks

Hi! I don't have a whole lot of updates since my last post. I did want to share my exciting finds from the outlet mall in Jeffersonville this weekend. They had a Pottery Barn Kids outlet which I was SUPER excited about, but I was kind of disappointed by the "sales" they had {isn't an outlet mall supposed to be a lot cheaper?!}. They did have the sheet set I've been eyeing for a while now and some cute curtains to match!

They don't look as cute packaged... so this is what they will look like on the crib {sans bumper} and on the wall!

All in all I saved about $45 as compared to the regular Pottery Barn store, so the trip was worth it. Especially because I also got this SUPER cute outfit from Carter's outlet for only $2!!, among a few other things.

Santa on the butt!! :)

Saturday night we watched the Louisville/Wichita St. game. Matt and I were a bundle of nerves because both of our brackets depended on Louisville winning... even Callie was stressed!

Thankfully Louisville pulled through and won... and in turn, both Matt and I won our brackets! Thank goodness, because I was worried Matt was going to have a conniption if they lost!

My cravings kicked in after the game and I was really wanting some hush puppies... so we headed to one of my favorite restaurants, City BBQ, for some yummy barbecue.

It was bee-yoo-tee-ful outside today and I felt guilty that Milo was stuck inside while Callie was in the backyard playing fetch... so we let him sunbathe on the deck for a moment. :)

In pregnancy news, I think I've started feeling baby boy kick! I'm not 100% sure, but it sure feels like what they describe as the fluttering feeling in your belly, similar to gas bubbles. Last night we were trying to decide between watching 'Lincoln' or 'This is 40', and I swear baby boy kicked during the preview for 'This is 40' so that's what we decided to watch. :)

Overall I've still been feeling pretty good. My back has been starting to hurt after lying down for a while and I started feeling round ligament pain when I get up fast or laugh or sneeze. Not fun! I guess I've been pretty lucky so I don't have much to complain about.

I'm excited to keep working on the nursery. We are going to refurbish my old dresser for baby's room and make it look something like this....

I like the ombre-ness of the second one but feel like it'd be a lot of work. We will see! I'll be back next week with 20 week updates {Holy COW did I just say 20 weeks, meaning halfway through?!? Let's not go there}.

Have a great week! :)

18 weeks and gender reveal

Hi! The time has finally come to find out if we are having a boy or girl!! :) I have been a bundle of nerves pretty much the last week (thank you Baby Center message boards for your horror pregnancy stories that led to said nerves!!). We started the morning off by touring a daycare nearby. We were not impressed... so the search will continue. I have a feeling this will be a stressful/frustrating search.

Our doctors appointment was at 1:00 today. We told the doctor up front we didn't want to know the gender and for him to write it down when the appointment was over (and put it inside an envelope). The doctor said all of the quad screen results (from my last appt.) were negative and our risk was very, very low for any birth defects. That was good news to start off with! I was so relieved {once again} to hear baby's heartbeat. Phew. The doctor was able to show us baby's head, legs, arms... and the little one was super wiggly! It was still hard for me to distinguish what was what, but much easier to tell it is a baby and not a blob, compared to the first ultrasound. At one point he said "ok, look away" and it felt like 2 minutes passed while he was looking at the baby... he finally said "Ok! We're good" and moved on with the ultrasound. We set our next appointment for 4 weeks out and left the doctor.

We headed straight for Babies R Us (the closest baby clothing store to the doctor!) to pick out a girl outfit and boy outfit. The trick was to find outfits with the same price... and cute ones of course too :). When we had the outfits picked out we handed both to the cashier along with the envelope from the doctor. I explained to her that we were doing our gender reveal and wanted her to open the envelope and wrap up the outfit that corresponds. She had never done it before and was very excited to be revealing our big news! We waited outside for about 5 minutes then went back in to ring out and take our package. We couldn't wait another minute so opened the package as soon as we got in the car! Drumroll please....

It's a boy!! :) We were both so surprised. We were almost POSITIVE it was a girl! No disappointment, though... we are soo happy! It proves that the old wive's tales are not always true, though! I had a sweet tooth, acne, high heart rate {baby}, seemed to be carrying high and my boobs grew!

(Clockwise) BRU visit, outfit!, doctor's gender note, Matt pondering gender

After work I was anxious to finally start looking at boy clothes (I only bought one unisex outfit up until this point!) so stopped at baby Gap and H&M... a few outfits later....

Baby D will be well dressed

I could not help myself! Everything was on sale/super cheap and SUPER cute. The moose outfit from H&M with the moose ears on the hat?!? Umm hello, dying of cuteness. I had thought girl clothes were so much cuter...but I was wrong!

The funniest thing about today is that this morning we both put on blue shirts and did not even realize it until we got home from work!

Team blue!

I know you're probably thinking "oh right Dana, suuuure you both wore those shirts!" but I SWEAR! We must've had an instinct when we got dressed this morning. I took a bump photo at the end of the day... so please excuse my tired/makeup worn off/shiny face.

How far along? 18 weeks
Maternity clothes? Still just maternity jeans and wearing my belly band with work pants.  I feel like the belly band won't last much longer.
Stretch marks? No
Sleep: I LOVE the pregnancy pillow.
Best moment of the week: Finding out we are having a BOY! :)
Miss anything? I am really craving a turkey sandwich!
Movement: Maybe. It's so hard to tell if it's baby moving or gas bubbles!
Food cravings: Sweets
Anything making you queasy or sick: No!
Have you started to show yet: In tighter tops
Gender prediction: It's a boy!
Labor signs: None
Belly button in our out? In
Rings on or off? On 
Looking forward to: Starting to decorate baby's nursery!

That's all for now! See you soon :)

Quick update - freshening up the living room!

So I was getting really tired of our living room and decided to make a few updates....

First I got these curtains from Target (where else?!) to add to our bare patio door.

Before and after

I love them! I decided to try this Pinterest idea and make no-sew pillow covers. I had some pillows lying around that we weren't using, and headed to JoAnn Fabrics to get some fabric! Of course in true Pinterest fashion, they didn't turn out how they do in the tutorial. I wasn't able to get them to knot! So instead I just used fabric glue to leave them like this...

Before and after

They don't look the best but the fabric in total was only $10 so I essentially got two new pillows for $20. Not bad! I also got a new rug from Home Goods- I moved the old one to the dining room.

Before and after with new rug and pillows - Callie photobombing

Overall I'm happy with the results. I wish the pillows turned out better but the living room still looks much better. :)

17 weeks

Hi! I'm taking a break from this busy weekend to fill you in on our recent happenings!

At the beginning of the week I had to take my poor fur-baby to the vet. She's been itching her skin like crazy (vet thinks she has allergies) and tore open some skin which led to an infection. She has to take some meds and wear the cone of shame for the next 2 weeks. :(

Poor baby!

This weekend we went back to Avon Lake for my cousin Max's wedding. They had a private ceremony early in the day on Friday and the reception began at 6. It was a very fun wedding but was the first one I was attending as sober Sallie and I definitely felt left out. Ah well - better get used to it because we have 2 more in June!

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All the pictures turned out purple because of the lights!

My parents are in the process of moving from their current home to a smaller home in North Ridgeville. Since they are downsizing, they are getting rid of a ton of stuff (20+ years in a house leads to a lot of accumulation!). They gave us their wonderful china hutch, plus the china! This was a total score for me since I did not register for fine china for our wedding so I was able to inherit my mom's!

New furniture - Milo likes it!

Before we left Avon Lake we stopped at Lauren and Matt's to see Adalyn.... oh and Lauren and Matt too :) I friggin love that little girl and cannot get enough of her! She wasn't the biggest fan of me  (I'm blaming it on the fact that her mommy just woke her up from a nap) but loves my Matt! She's crawling like crazy now and is super smiley. I can only hope that our baby is as adorable as her!

Intrigued by Matt's beard

How could you not adore that face?!

This afternoon Matt's parents are coming over to spend some time with us. We don't get to see them enough so I'm excited to spend some QT with them! :)

In pregnancy news... I am SO anxious about my next doctors appointment. It will be our next ultrasound and the doctor will {hopefully!!} be able to tell us the gender. I have been having vivid dreams about it and am just so excited to know what this little being inside my belly is! So in anticipation of the gender reveal I'm sharing the old wive's tales to see if you can guess what it will be! :)

1) No morning sickness = boy

2) MAJOR acne on my face = girl

3) Belly seems to be high = girl

4) Boobs grew = girl

5) Chinese gender predictor #1 (from the Bump) based on age at conception and month of conception = boy
Chinese gender predictor #2 (from babycenter) based conception/due date and mom's birth date = girl

6) Baby's heart rate was high (166) = girl

7) Craving sweets = girl

Sooo as you can see most of these are pointing to girl! My initial "maternal instinct" was pointing to girl but at this point I'm really just not sure. My most recent dream was that it's a boy... so who really knows! Just 9 short days and as long as baby is cooperating we should know! We have an idea for gender reveal that we will send out to everyone once we find out :) Stay tuned, my next blog post won't be until after the appointment. Have a wonderful week!

16 weeks

Hii!! I hope everyone had a great weekend. I for one feel like this weekend lasted 4 hours as opposed to 48... there is never enough time to catch up on sleep! :)

This week I went to Charlotte and Greensboro for conferences with our Nationwide insurance agents. I had to give a presentation (which I hate, hate, HATE) but both meetings actually went well! As I was sitting on the plane halfway between Columbus and Charlotte, I had a realization: this was baby's first flight! Up until then the flight had gone really well but unfortunately there was quite a bit of turbulence during the landing and I was feeling really nauseous. After we landed and I was able to get off the plane I felt fine! Baby's first flight was, in the end, a success. :)

I was so excited to be in Charlotte since 2 of my besties live there (Mindy and Kathryn) so we met up for dinner. We went to Cantina 1511 which is a Mexican restaurant I fell in love with during Mindy's wedding rehearsal dinner. They have the YUMMIEST chopped salad (Stolen picture below) which I got with chicken, not shrimp!

It was so fun catching up with Mindy and Kathryn! I really miss them and don't see them enough since they live so far away... but who can blame them?! Charlotte has better weather than Ohio about 75% of the year!

The Cantina employee CLEARLY doesn't know how to take a picture with an iPhone!

On Friday I had a checkup with the doctor. He listened to baby's heartbeat again (which I can't remember exactly, but heart rate was in the 150's) and he found it in about 2.5 seconds! I told him I was relieved as it took a lot longer the last time and he said as the baby gets bigger it gets easier to find the heartbeat. I then had my blood drawn for what they call the quad screen which tests for increased risk for spina bifida, down syndrome, and other birth defects. I should have the results this week (if anything is to be of concern) otherwise the doctor will go over them in detail during our next appointment.

My belly continues to grow this week and it's becoming more and more noticeable in tight tops. Baby will double in size over the next few weeks and is starting to grow toenails! Baby also starts hearing loud noises and I've read some will startle the baby but also get them used to such noises; for instance, fetuses who regularly hear a dog barking will become babies who sleep right through a dog's outbursts! I guess that's good news for us because no matter what we try, Callie always barks at anyone who walks by the house!

How far along? 16 weeks
Maternity clothes? Just maternity jeans and rocking my belly band with work pants. OH and I love me some maternity leggings!
Stretch marks? No
Sleep: Getting uncomfortable. Lauren is letting me borrow her pregnancy pillow so I'm looking forward to using that!
Best moment of the week: Hearing baby's heartbeat again :)
Miss anything? Beer, especially with today being St. Patrick's Day - I would LOVE a green beer!
Movement: Not yet
Food cravings: Nothing crazy, just wanting sweets all the time
Anything making you queasy or sick: No! I've been lucky
Have you started to show yet: In tighter tops
Gender prediction: Girl... everyone has been saying girl!
Labor signs: None
Belly button in our out? In
Rings on or off? On (off in the picture because I have to get it repaired - a few stones were loose during my bi-yearly inspection!)
Looking forward to: Finding out gender in just over 2 weeks!!!

That's all I've got for now! We are so excited for our next appointment on April 2nd (gender ultrasound!).  Have a wonderful week! :)

15 weeks

Hi! I wanted to share the gifts baby Dregallo has received so far. We haven't bought anything yet besides one onesie because we really just want to wait until we find out the gender. We have gotten a few nice gifts from friends and family in the meantime, though. :)

Gifts, yay!

The Bobcat onesie is the one we bought from my favorite local t-shirt store, Homage. They have THEEE comfiest shirts and I know baby Dregallo will be very comfy in this onesie.

The "Baby Got Quack" is from baby's Aunt Ashley! Her favorite song has always been "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-A-Lot so of course she fell in love with this onesie - and who wouldn't?! I like that it's gender neutral too. :)

The OSU onesie is from my friend Morgan. It's also from Homage and she actually got it for me before I got the Bobcat one. I decided we had to be fair and although baby Dregallo will probably make the right choice and go to OSU... we had to be well-rounded and include dad's alma mater too!

"Guess how much I love you" is from baby's Aunt Lauren and Uncle Matt. Lauren loves to read and wanted to pass down the wonderful hobby!

"Pat the bunny" is from my parents. I always loved that book growing up and my Mom wanted to make sure our son or daughter gets to enjoy the book as well - bunny included!

In other news, I babysat with my friend Melissa all day yesterday. She babysits a family with 3 kids every Friday and they had family in town for a birthday so wanted some extra help since there would be 7 kids total. Wow... we were in over our heads! It actually went really well though, in the end. I started the day off with the 4 boys at the park. It was SO nice outside! There were twin 4 year old boys (Jack and Charlie) in the group that were SO stinking cute... I don't mind working when it's like this!

The rest of the day we played games inside, dyed Easter eggs, watched a few movies and ate pizza :) It's really funny because this whole pregnancy I've been convinced it's a girl and have wanted a girl more, but after spending more time with the boys yesterday I really love how laid back they are (the girls were a liiiitle dramatic at times) and how easily they get along. We won't find out what baby Dregallo is for another 3 weeks, but I think it's safe to say I'll definitely be happy with either gender. :)

Today Matt and I ran a few errands, and since I drug him to a maternity store and to Home Goods... I went to the new Cabela's with him. It was actually fun to look around the store but Matt was a bit disappointed as it wasn't nearly as big as the one in West Virginia that he's visited a few times.

We spent the rest of the day enjoying the weather ( 65 degrees in Ohio in March?! I'll take it!!) by taking Callie on a nice long walk.

In pregnancy news, I can tell my belly is starting to get bigger. I said something to Matt today and he asked if I was intentionally sticking my stomach out... guess that means he notices too. :) Baby is the size of an orange this week and becoming more and more active. I won't start feeling him/her for a few more weeks, though, since they're still so little. I have a doctor's appointment this Friday for checkups and some testing. Still feeling really great and counting down the days 'til April 2nd (when we find out gender)!

Have a great week!

14 weeks

Hi! I decided to take another bump photo but had a blonde moment when I took the picture with a white shirt in front of a white door! Oops. After I noticed, I was too lazy to change and re-take the photo... so here you go :)

 I'm starting to feel like I'm getting a tiny bump. I purchased some maternity jeans yesterday from Destination Maternity because my regular jeans don't really fit comfortably anymore... and let me tell you, maternity pants are THE BEST. I'm pretty sure I  might just wear these every day even after the pregnancy... I mean, who wouldn't want to wear pants with an elastic waist?!

Also, I decided to copy some other pregnancy blogs and start documenting things happening during the pregnancy... so, here goes!

How far along? 14 weeks
Maternity clothes? Just jeans at this point! Tops and work pants still fit
Stretch marks? No
Sleep: Okay... I try to sleep on my left side but end up on my stomach throughout the night
Best moment of the week: Sleeping in this weekend :) I love sleep!
Miss anything? Beer. Oh and wine. And beer. Did I say I miss alcohol?!
Movement: Not yet
Food cravings: Nothing crazy, just wanting sweets all the time
Anything making you queasy or sick: No! I've been lucky
Have you started to show yet: Kind of!
Gender prediction: Girl... everyone has been saying girl!
Labor signs: None
Belly button in our out? In
Rings on or off? On
Looking forward to: Seeing the doctor again next Friday

In other news, we went to our friend Eddie's surprise 30th birthday party last night. I can't believe we have friends turning 30! (And that Matt will be 30 in June!) We had a great time but had to be party poopers and leave around 12:30 because I was super tired and not feeling the best. I was able to capture at least one photo of the night:

Also, in fatty-fatty-two-by-four news, we checked out the new Smash Burger in Gahanna... we splurged, and each got a burger, fries and chocolate milkshake... $25 later (!!!) here's what we had:

It was good, but not as good as Five Guys and it was almost double the price! We'll not be going  back.

That's all for now. I'll be back next week with more updates!