home salz: 28 weeks

Pregnancy Highlights

How Far Along: As I write this? 28 weeks, 2 days - YAY 3RD TRIMESTER!!!

Total Weight Gain: 14 lbs. Can NOT even tell you how thrilling it was to learn I had only gained 3 lbs. last month! THA-RIL-LING!

Maternity Clothes: If I am not sporting my yoga pants and some kind of zip up - probably from Target - I am wearing a fly-away and a tank. Nordstrom Rack's thicker strap long tanks and Buckle's long and lean camis are the ONLY things that cover my big belly these days. I honestly have no idea what I am going to do come December...the way this belly is growing....Nick's CLOTHES won't even fit me.

Stretch Marks: No!

Best Moment this Week: NOT getting a call about my glucose test meannninggggggg...I passed! The last thing my PAML lab bestie - she has done every blood draw since Baby Salz #1 including the 3 hour glucose test with Cruz - said to me before I left her "office" was, "Okay Ashley, I will see you back here next week for the three hour!". WELL HAAAAAAAAAAAA! IN YO FACE PAML LAB BESTIE!

**PS: Dr. Brown, the best baby doc around, told me how to pass three days before the starting gun went off so if you need some tips, you let me know. That is the advantage of being a serious question asker...sometimes all you have to do is ask.

Miss Anything: I miss being able to sleep well. I miss being able to easily pick up and hold my Cruzie babe. I miss being able to lovvveeee Nick the way I used to. I miss ENERGY. I miss being able to drive in the car comfortably - I could barely get through Argo last night...sitting up in general literally lasts 2.5 seconds before my inner organs start to BURNnnnnnnnnnnnnn. I miss being able to have some rum in my happy hour huckleberry mojito.

***Yes, those are all of the things I miss but I feel strangely sad for writing it all down. There are so many women who are forced to stare straight into the eyes of infertility every day. Praying, wishing, hoping for one day of morning sickness. Heartburn. Rib pain. Sore breasts. And a chance to one day experience the flutters that mean a strong and alive baby is growing thanks to you....

It is heartbreaking.

So please know that while I complain so that my baby girl can one day read about what it was like for her mama to carry her, I am thanking God every second for the incredible gift I know in my heart I am so blessed to have received. He is the reason I am a mama period.

Movement: She is a little night owl. 11 pm and 4 am must be when some Backstreet Boys from earlier in the afternoon replays in her sweet brain. Dance par-tayy!

Cravings: Darn you, puppy chow! I have gone through two family size boxes of chex mix the last two weeks. Even worse, I don't quite follow the receipe...I use 4 cups of chex mix (as opposed to the 9 the recipe calls for) AND double the topping. Oooo the chocolatey-peanut buttery-buttery-vanillaey-powder sugary chunks. Heaven in a bowl, I tell you.

Gender: Girl!

Name: Sadly, we are back to the drawing board.

Okay, ready for this?! Here are some options off the short list. I mean, I can't just stop talking baby names cold turkey but I am not ready to tell you ALL my secrets! :) Clementine, Sunny, Daisy (oh it's back, folks), Teddy (big new fave), Francesca (Frankie), Lula and Clove.

Tulip, Plum and Emerald are serious middle name contenders!

If baby girl was baby boy we officially decided on Dashel Saint. Cruz and Dash would have been so perfect....dang it!

Other serious contenders: Beckham, London, Crimson, Nico, Cedar, Maple, Oliver (all Nick). Middle name with those options was Ash. When we decided on Dash, after meeting the most gorgggeeeousssss little boy with the same name on vacation, that clearly eliminated Ash as our middle name. So a few weeks later, right before our gender reveal, I asked Nick for a middle name. Because you all know it is his MOST FAVORITE thing to do ;);), I tried to help by throwing out names and people who I figured might be sentimental. Dutch names? No. Family names? No. Landmark names? No. Georges Saint Pierre (his HBK Shawn Michaels)?

A: "Too bad Georges (pronounced George) isn't more fab."

N: "What about Saint?"

A: "OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGgggg seriously? Seriously, Saint?? You love it? OMG. I LOVE IT! Done and Done and DONEEEE (as I roll on top of him so we can make-out)!"

N: Laughing. "Okay done."

And our boy name was born. Dashel Saint Salzwedel.

Ohhh how I still love thee.

Labor Signs: No.

Symptoms: Heartburn and acid reflux like a mother! Oh and I am full-on producing AND LEAKING bright yellow colostrum! Did you know that you can sell your colostrum for like 80 bucks an ounce on the black market?? Maybe if I squeeze my large melons hard and long enough I can make some extra Christmas cash.

Happy or Moody: Happy!

Wedding Rings - on or off: On.

Looking Forward to: Family pictures are next weekend. Maternity pics are the 13th! Better do them now before I start to look like an Oompa Loompa. Glad I will have Thanksgiving and Christmas to really indulge cause the second she is out, I am Isagenix-ing like its 1999.