Testing Out UberFlip

29 Weeks!!

Today, we're 29 weeks into this pregnancy. Apparently that means baby is about the size of a squash/small pumpkin. He's a pretty active pumpkin!

 29 Weeks!!

First of all, I don’t know how time is going by so quickly. It seems like we were just writing everyone to say that we were expecting and now we are in the third trimester. Yikes. It also means that it’s been 8 weeks since we found out what we are having. Yes, it’s a baby but it also happens to be a little BOY!! Finding out that it’s a boy means….

…We’re having an ongoing debate about what sports he can play (football=no; water polo=yes; lacrosse=yes; golf, running, tennis and other non-contact sports=definitely). Do you think he’ll want an opinion?

…I’ve been able to shop for clothes that aren’t yellow. We haven’t bought a ton, but what we have bought has been adorable things in green and blue and red and more blue. I did buy a super cute little polo shirt (he is Ben’s son after all).

…Ben got onboard with my nursery concept. He had been hesitant about a bright green wall but is now fully committed (which is good because my mom painted the wall bright green). Sneak peek in the photos below.

…Nerf guns, bugs and gross boy stuff is going to take over my world even more than it currently does. Maybe we should get a female cat?

So, we’re making progress on the nursery and I’ve been sewing the bedding. We’ll post a bunch more pictures and I’ll really try to write more frequently (you know, more than once every 8 weeks).

Here's a picture from this morning. 

Here's the baby's profile at 27 weeks.

How can I find a good pediatrician?

This post is for the other women on Mattel’s First Steps (I need a place to link to). It’s probably not a very interesting read if you’re not a first-time mom looking for a pediatrician.

Here is a list of information and questions to consider when interview pediatricians. I tried to pull from sites like the Bump as well as what my girlfriends suggested. Feel free to add comments for things I’m missing. I’ll try to come back and update.

How to Find a Pediatrician

• Ask friends and family
• Ask your OBGYN
• Ask your daycare provider

Basic Information about the Doctor and the Practice:

About the Doctor

•  How long have you been practicing? Any specialties?
• Do you have the ability to practice at any of the area hospitals? (important if kiddo needs to be hospitalized at some point)
• Do you have kids?
• What if my baby gets sick when the office is closed? Who covers in an emergency if you aren’t on call?
• Do you respond to questions by e-mail? Do you accept calls for routine and non-emergency questions? If I leave a message, how long does it usually take you to return the call?
•  Will your initial meeting with my baby be at the hospital or the first checkup?
• What tests and screenings do you normally do at that appointment?
• What is your schedule for well baby checkups?
•  Will you discuss my child’s general growth and issues like discipline and social development?
• What are your views on…
• Bottle feeding?
• Circumcision?
• Parenting techniques?
• Getting babies to sleep?
• Alternative medicine?
• Antibiotics?
• Immunizations? (ask about preservative-free options)
• Childhood obesity?

About the Practice

• How many doctors in the office? What about RNs and nurse practitioners? 
•  If it’s a solo practice, what happens when the doc is gone?
• If it’s a group, how often will we see you, and how often will we see other members?
• Who staffs the after-hours line?
• What are your hours? Do you offer evenings or weekends?
• Do you offer same-day sick appointments? How far in advance do well appointments need to be scheduled

Location

• Is it near home? work?
• Do they have other facilitates

Things to Ask Yourself

•  Was the office clean?
• Was the waiting room kid-friendly, with toys and books?
• How soon could the interview be scheduled? How long were you in the waiting room?
• Was the office staff helpful? Were the nurses friendly?
• Was the interview rushed? Did the doctor seem open to questions?
• Did the communication feel natural? Was the doctor easy to understand?

It's a baby!

 We're having a baby!

I know most of you aren't surprised. We've sort of been on this path for a while and buying a new house in December sort sealed the deal. But, now it's really happening (yay! and yikes!).

We're 14 weeks into this, which means there have been about 8 weeks of feeling like complete and total crap. I had now idea how tired I would be. Morning sickness wasn't a problem, it was the late-afternoon-into-the-night sickness that has been a problem. Fortunately, in the last few weeks, I'm getting some energy and my appetite back.

Ben has been amazing. He's taking such good care of me. Between cleaning and cooking and everything else, he's been really great. I know he would be but he really has gone above and beyond. I'm a lucky girl.

This week the baby is the size of a lemon. My clothes are getting tight. This worries me because what will happen when the baby is, well, the size of baby? I'm going be wearing nothing but tents.

The baby is scheduled to arrive on December 21. Yes, a Christmas baby. We wouldn't have picked that but  it will be an amazing Christmas present. Please think good thoughts that baby comes on time.

Here are the answers to the other questions everyone seems to ask:

• Yes, we will be finding out the gender, and yes, we will share the news.  
• Yes, we will be picking out a name, and  no, we will not be sharing it. 
• No, I'm not opposed to getting an epidural. Do you get a cavity filled without getting it numbed? 
• Yes, our families are excited (side note: why wouldn't they be? We aren't 16 and pregnant. By the time the baby gets here, we will have been together for 9 years. Most of our family said "about damn time").

Here's baby's first photo album:

Who's nose does this look like?

High-five! Look at those fingers!

I love this first one because baby is sucking its thumb. In the second she/he is looking at us. 

One more of baby looking comfy.

Cherry Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies with Coconut

Gluten Free - Cherry Chocolate
Oatmeal Cookies

I'm continually on a quest for great gluten free cookies. Real Simple has a great peanut butter cookie recipe (they are even better if you add chopped Skor bar). I made Carmelitas a couple weeks ago with GF-flour and those were good too.

This weekend, I was craving a chewy oatmeal cookie so I made up a recipe that turned out to be pretty damn good. In fact, I took them to a Super Bowl party and didn't tell anyone that they were gluten free. I think it's a good sign when the cookies disappear.

1 cup melted butter
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
1 tablespoon black tea (coffee would work too)
2 eggs

1 1/2 cups gluten-free flour mix
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2  teaspoon salt (next time I'm going to use kosher)
1/2  teaspoon cinnamon

Cherry Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies -
Amazing when they are warm!

1 1/2 cup oats (I used gluten free, but you could use regular. I would stick to something like Coach's Oats where it's a little more finely ground.)
1 cup coconut
1 cup dried cherries
1 cup chocolate chips

Mix the butter, brown sugar and tea. Add the eggs and mix it for a minute or two. Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Mix well. Add the oats, coconut, cherries and chocolate chips. Mix. I used a regular table spoon to "drop" them on the cookie sheet. I was in a rush and made the last tray a little big. With the big tray, I still got 48 cookies out of it so I'm sure I could have gotten 60 out of the batch normally.

Bake 12 minutes at 350.

A note about the coconut: I think it really helped the consistency of the cookie. It made them nice and chewy. But, I didn't get a lot of coconut flavor, which I was hoping for. Next time, I might use additional coconut and  roll the dough in it before baking. Hubby also suggested trying coconut oil instead of butter; I think a 1/2 cup of butter and 1/2 cup of coconut oil would be ok. So, if you're looking for a big coconut flavor try that.

Flour Power

In my last post, Pinterest Tested, Husband Approved, I mentioned that I modified a couple of recipes by using gluten-free flour. Well, I figured I should share my flour "recipe" if I was going to keep referring to it. I've modified a recipe from, Gluten-Free Baking Classics. This book is a must-have for anyone that is trying to bake in a gluten-free world.

Most of Roberts' recipes us a brown rice flour mix:
2 cups brown rice flour
2/3 cup potato starch
1/3 cup tapioca flour

I mix up a big batch and store it in an air-tight container. Then I don't have to pull all three ingredients out every time I need "flour."

I noticed that in a lot of her recipes and other gluten-free recipes, they also call for xanthan gum. It helps keep everything together. I've started just mixing some into my flour mix. For the batch described above, I add about 2 1/2 teaspoons of xanthan to the mix. You should know, I'm not a precision baker so this method works out ok for me. If you like to be precise, you should probably follow the recipe.

Pinterest Inspired Husband Tested

I'm addicted to Pintrest.

The first step in recovery is admitting you have a problem. I'm just not sure I want to recover from this problem.

For the last three or four months, I've spent a few hours a week combing through Pinterest to find ideas for new recipes, 101 ways to use shutters, 50,000 ideas for a photo wall and some great fashion concepts. Two weeks ago, I realized that it's pretty stupid to spend all of that time 'pinning' if I'm not actually going to do any of it. So, I started cooking and the results are below. I should also note that some of these came from my favorite blogs but I had pinned the recipes so that I could find them later.

Pear Cranberry Gingersnap Crumble: I had such high hope for this recipe. Unfortunately, I wasn't very impressed. It was very tart and not one I'd make again.

Granola Bars:  These turned out to be a crumbly mess. There was no way these were going to form into a bar and stay that way. I mixed in coconut, cherries and chocolate chips. I makes great topping for yogurt.

Crock-pot Chicken Enchilada Soup: This dish is AMAZING. I've made it twice. If I could get away with it, I would make it weekly, but we aren't that type of household. I used extra chipotle because we like heat. For toppings we included sour cream, cheese, cilantro, green onion and avocado. We made it for company both times; the people who don't like spice just added extra sour cream and cheese. It was delish. 

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Muffins: These were a disaster. I baked them twice as long as recommended and yet they were wet, sticky and mushy. I threw out the entire batch. Skip this one.

Chicken Stew with Butternut Squash and Quinoa: I love butternut squash and I love quinoa, so this was an easy choice. Again, we made it for company (kind of risky for the first time). It was amazing and everyone had seconds. I doubled the batch and froze some. Hopefully, it's as good on round two as it was on round one. 

Lettuce Wraps: I made this with ground turkey instead of beef and added bean sprouts to give it a little more texture and sneak in a little more veggies. It was amazing. I used a little more turkey than it called for, which was great on a salad the next day. I served a Thai cucumber salad with it (it's super easy to make too). It only took me about 30 minutes to make the entire meal and it was all stuff that I already had. Great weekday dinner.

Pad Thai: I'm not really sure if I should count this one. I used the recipe as a guide but sort of went off on my own. It's ok though - it turned out awesome. I combined carrots, celery, bok choy, cilantro, bean sprouts, tofu and shrimp. It was fab. 

Carmelitas: Amazing. I used gluten-free flour mix and it turned out great. Next time I'm going to add pecans and coconut. Warning: you'll want to eat the whole pan.

Follow my Pintrest Food Board for recipe ideas.