New Years Resolutions with a Baby?

I like the idea of New Year's Resolutions. New year, make a fresh start, set some goals. But it's hard to imagine resolving to do one thing or another when I have no idea what this year will look like. Baby Caleb will be here any day to turn our world upside. Our lives run on the academic year, so I never know if we're going to be moving in the summertime. This is to make the point that I'm not sure I can resolve to decorate the apartment or cook through a certain cookbook. But there are a couple things I think I can take on:

2014 New Years Resolutions

1: I want to be an active, fit mom for Caleb and more importantly, for myself. I'm so over being huge and pregnant, I miss the feeling of being fit and being able to jog up a flight of stairs without getting winded. I resolve to go to the gym, the pool or get out for a walk with my family at least 3 times a week. And yes, that includes when it's disgustingly cold out. It does not include immediately after having the baby. I'm not that crazy. 

2: I know I've mentioned (bragged) about this before, but Brian and I have a fantastic marriage. We're crazy in love and I don't want to lose that when our family dynamic changes. My resolution is for one date night a month. 

3: I don't want to completely lose my time in the kitchen. I resolve to try one new baked good recipe once a month. 

Looking at this list, I realize that resolution number one and resolution number three counteract each other, but what would life be without its challenges?

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes for New Year's Eve

Merry & Bright

Winter solstice lights

To church on a snowy morning

Favorite shirt at 38 weeks pregnant

Sunset from the nursery window on Christmas Eve

Cranberry-orange sweet rolls

Baby's first UNC shirt. One of many to come.

Christmas at my parents' house

Lights in the snow

Nesting...

Brian in total Dad mode, putting together our new stroller

With the toddler seat in...

And with just the infant carrier in! He calls this stroller "Transformers for adults."

37 weeks

When I got pregnant in the spring, I had the thought "I can't wait for snow, because that means Caleb will be here soon!" Well, it's been snowing like crazy this year. I don't remember the last time we had a White Thanksgiving as well as a White Christmas. It feels like we're getting fresh snow every other day and the extreme cold (0's and teens) has set in earlier than usual. I've taken to calling my knee-length down coat "The Christmas Miracle Coat" because it still zips up over the bump. When I bought my cute maternity pea coat, I assumed I'd wear that through the rest of the pregnant, because I usually don't need the big coat until January. Well, it was -1 when I woke up this morning and a wool pea coat just doesn't cut it in this weather. Long story short: It's snowing and Caleb will be here soon. I'm officially full term, although a couple more weeks for him to fatten up and get ready, like a little Christmas goose, wouldn't be bad. I'd like to hear a nice healthy wail from his little lungs when he arrives. Then I'd like him to never wail again! How's that for contradictions?

37 weeks is fairly uncomfortable. I don't know if he has "officially" dropped, but he is sitting rather low in my pelvis, which makes rolling over, getting up, getting in and out of cars and walking somewhat uncomfortable. One of my best friends is a runner, and due to the fact that she ran daily for years and years before being pregnant, she ran throughout her entire pregnancy, including the day she went into labor. I guess if I were a natural runner I would be ok, but the idea of walking a couple miles right now, much less running, makes me want to cry. For me, I'm happy sitting on the couch, watching Carolina pummel Kentucky, Chicago trounce Cleveland and making fun of the old Christmas cartoons from the late 1960's.  

36 weeks

Last week I was freaking out and Brian was calm. This week, it's the opposite. We've got our carseat. It's not installed yet, but we've got it! I still need to do laundry, but it'll happen. Eventually. I started my weekly appointments with Dr. K yesterday and the baby is making good process toward delivery in the next few weeks (head down, sitting pretty low). We met with our doula and I'm so happy she's going to be helping us through the birth process. Sure, I still need to deal with Christmas presents and at all, but at 9 months pregnant, you pretty much get a pass on everything. So this is 36 weeks, relaxed and excited, trying to enjoy the last few weeks of pregnancy: feeling Caleb's every movement, cute bump...and that's about it!

Baby Caleb is the size of a honeydew melon, according to my email, and feels like it too!

Dinner Wins this Week

This week was a winning streak as far as dinner is concerned. I made three meals that ended up being the perfect size to take us through the week for dinners and lunches. Here's the rundown:

A large pot of veggie soup, made up on the spot. Sauteed carrots and onions, a large can of diced tomatoes with their juices, a small can of chickpeas, a couple cups chicken stock and a bag of frozen vegetables. I seasoned with salt and pepper, a little ketchup (a trick I learned from my mother-in-law!) and Worcestershire sauce. This is definitely a "season to taste" recipe. For individual servings, I made up some some small shell pasta. It was almost minestrone-like, but certainly bastardized.

A large pot of chili. My favorite, super-easy, comes together so fast you won't believe it, is Martha Stewart's "Lighter Beef Chili." It's a knockout for an after work dinner, especially when your husband offers to make cornbread! I didn't have tomato paste in the house, but didn't find too much lacking in the taste department. If anything, without the extra tomato flavor, the meat really stands out. Topped with cheese and sour cream, this is a winner. On Martha's site, this recipe has a publication date of 2008, from Everyday Food. I can actually remember the tiny Everyday Food I used to pick up at the grocery store, so this means this is one of the first recipes I learned when I started to teach myself to cook after college. That's pretty awesome.

Finally, I tried a new recipe, one for Skillet Chicken Fajitas from Serious Eats. I followed this recipe pretty closely, leaving out the jalapenos and green onions. I did add a bag of the new Frontera "skillet sauce" - not my usual cooking style but I'll admit they are attractively packaged, which is what made me pick it off the shelf. It was a Chipotle sauce, labeled "medium" hot, which translated into = not hot. If I tasted it still on the stove, I would have added some of my dried chipotle pepper, but either way the fajitas were delicious. We ate them with plenty of avocado and they might be making a repeat appearance this week.

Thankfully I made these meals early in the week, before a head cold knocked me on my butt for a couple days. I was grateful to have meals in the fridge for both Brian and I as we continue with our busy, busy pre-baby schedule. I'm sure I'll look back at this and laugh, but honestly, I can't wait for Caleb to come and make me leave work, clear my calendar and just focus on him for a few weeks.

35 Weeks, 35 Days

Yesterday my update email from TheBump kindly let me know that I'm 35 weeks pregnant, Caleb is probably over 5lbs now, as long as he's going to get in utero (and somehow the size of a coconut??) and that 35 weeks = 35 days left. 35 DAYS LEFT?? I don't know how that's possible and it feels like the to-do list tripled over the weekend. I need to get on Christmas gifts and more prepping for Caleb and bringing meals to people and baking for the church party and remembering to ENJOY this last holiday season of just me and my husband. Oh, and work is insane. So there's that.

35 weeks along

In our defense, we did get a lot done over the weekend. We ordered our car seat and more cloth diapers, put up more decorations in Caleb's room, decorated for Christmas, and generally cleaned the apartment. It looks incredibly livable again. I've taken to a stricter dishes policy, telling myself that as the Mom, I really need to have a clean kitchen at the end of the night (seeing as how Brian does most of the dishes, this isn't that hard). We'll see how long it lasts.

The new decorations. The cute animal hooks are from Pikes Place Market in Seattle. The changing station is just about ready! 

I don't mean to complain, but that 35 day timeline till my due date sufficiently freaked me out. I know that everything will get done and I'm incredibly grateful that I'm feeling great- I have energy in the evenings after work and I'm still sleeping in 4-5 hour stretches. Let's hope that lasts as long as possible.

The baby blanket is a gift from my Aunt J, and the Carolina Panthers onesies are a gift from Baby Caleb's Aunt Maria and Uncle Joe. We love them!