Pregosaurus Attacks

I know its been weeks since I've posted.  I really want to get better at consistent blogging but I honestly sometimes just feel boring.  I feel sometimes like nothing I am writing or thinking of writing is new or original.  It probably has already been written before and more eloquently than I can say it.  I guess this is my blog though and I can only write about what I know so here we go....

I'm 24 weeks pregnant today!  This is a huge milestone for me - one I honestly wasn't sure that I would make back when I was only in my first trimester.  At this point in my pregnancy, my baby is medically viable and if anything bad were to happen, they would try and save this little boy or girl.  The lines are a little blurred here and some hospitals have saved babies as early as 21/22 weeks but I'm just happy that I've made it to the well known 24 week mark.  Don't get me wrong baby - you stay in there and grow (my early first trimester mantra was "grow baby grow")- but this does bring some kind of relief.  After having two miscarriages, I can finally recognize that this pregnancy is different.  This is one strong little guy or girl and I believe in the baby and my body.  So far, the best feeling in the world has been feeling the little one kick.  There is nothing quite so reassuring and wonderful as feeling those little kicks, pokes and turns.  I'm sure I'll be singing a different song towards the end of pregnancy when the baby is rearranging my insides and its uncomfortable.  But for now, I'm blissfully happy when I feel those movements.  It makes me feel like we have a little secret together and are already sharing moments together.

So clearly I am pretty damn happy and grateful for this pregnancy.  But oh my god my hormones are insane.  I am a mercurial monster and honestly frequently feel like I could laugh, cry and scream with rage all at the same time.  Tonight for example, I lost  my shit on my husband who brought home a not ripe avocado.  Seriously just lost it and basically threw a tantrum.  It was sort of integral to our dinner but really did not deserve my reaction. Pregnant bitches be crazy.  The funny thing is that at the time I totally recognize that I am being insane but I just cannot get a grip. I call  myself pregosaurus because of my hormones and because I eat food with gusto these days.

Plus I feel like a fat monster.  I know I'm pregnant and I'm supposed to gain weight blah blah.  It is just hard to feel attractive these days.  Feeling ugly and laziness have stopped me from taking prego pictures.  I really wanted to be one of those cute women that takes weekly pictures and has everything documented.  I just can't get it together in the morning since I am perpetually late.  And at night the last thing I want to do is take a picture of myself.  I did it though at 22 weeks on my iphone so one of my fellow prego friends could see what the bump looked like. Excuse the crappy quality - my husband was on call and I'm not good at taking my own picture.

Sorry for the long boring post.  I will try my hardest to keep writing and hopefully it won't all be prego related.

Pregosaurus Attacks

Cravings!

So this isn't really a post so much as a ode to donuts and churros. Holy crap doesn't this look incredible?

Source: thesetingstaketime.com via Michelle on Pinterest

I don't honestly know if its pregnancy cravings or just that I have a crazy sweet tooth but I could eat all of those churros for breakfast. Daily.

And just to make this more of a pregnancy post and not just a picture of churros here is a picture of me at 15 weeks, 6 days. Excuse the horrible picture and the lack of makeup. I didn't take any belly pics weeks 1-12 out of fear that things wouldn't go well. Now I don't take any because I'm lazy and have been feeling pretty large and in charge these days.

More real and substantive posts to come soon.

Cravings!

Been a little busy...

Growing this little one!

Baby at 12 weeks, 2 days

I am 15 weeks today and feeling pretty great except for being tired and having allergies. I was blessed with no morning sickness and only some slight nausea. I waited for a long time to announce anything first because we were nervous given our previous miscarriages and then because we had to wait to tell all our family and friends.

Aside from baby growing, we recently moved and I've been working like a mad woman so the blog has definitely fallen to the wayside. I haven't even taken any pictures of my already showing little belly bump. Its starting to look a little less like I've eaten too many donuts so I'm happy about that.

I can't wait to start getting back into blogging more and documenting the my pregnancy. :) Hopefully some of you are still reading and will be here for the journey!

Been a little busy...

and then she dies...

Two months ago my husband got me hooked on a TV show on FX called Louie which is a show about the comedian Louie C.K.'s life mixed with his standup routines. He is the funniest comedian I have seen in a long time. His comedy is so so so inappropriate and hilarious and there is nothing safe or "pc" about his comedy. So if you are easily offended don't watch it. I've only seen the first season but I can't wait to catch up and watch the second season. We are going to see him in Newport, RI this summer and I'm already overexcited.

Louie CK standup on Cinnabon

So the title of the post comes from one of my favorite scenes when Louie is talking to his therapist about sex:

THERAPIST: Sex isn't complicated, it's simple. A man gets aroused. He puts his penis inside a woman's vagina. He ejaculates. And then she dies.

LOUIS: What?? And then she dies?

THERAPIST: No. I was thinking of something else.

The scene made me laugh cry hard. I know random post but I needed some cheer this Monday morning. Have a great week!

and then she dies...

Definitely on the Right

Image via Elements of Style Blog

One of my favorite blogs Elements of Style featured the most beautiful Mercedes ad and I couldn't resist re-posting some of the images. I am definitely a right brained girl and love creativity, feeling and art in any shape or form. I feel everything and agonize over everything. I am not practical, in control, or analytical so I don't know how I got into a job that forces me to be more left brained. I think in some ways the need to be more left brained has balanced my free spirited wishy washy ways and pushes me to see and understand different perspectives. But sometimes I can't help but wonder if I wouldn't be more successful and happy if I embraced my natural tendencies.


Visit Erin Gates' original post to see the left brained description. Which one are you? Does your career/life compliment your brain tendencies?

Definitely on the Right

Advice on our New Ride

So as I mentioned yesterday, we are going to buy a new car between now and May (when we get to move in to our new house!). I grew up with Toyota brand cars but my husband is a Honda person. Right now we have an old Honda Civic that has been good to us and after driving our current car for the past 3 years, I agree that Honda brand cars are solid and reliable. I would also maybe lean towards Honda given the recalls with Toyota as of late. Or should we venture out more from Honda and Toyota? I drive a crap ton of rental cars and have noticed that Hyundai's are really nice cars and a decent amount cheaper.

Our criteria right now is a small SUV that is good on miles like the Honda CRV or Toyota Rav4. Wifeylifey has me seriously considering the Rav4 but I guess consumer reports rates the Honda CRV much higher than any other small SUV.

Honda CRV (image source)

2011 Toyota Rav4 (image source)

Hyundai Tucson (image source)

Hyundai Santa Fe (image source)

So I'd love some car advice. Any brands and models you would suggest? Any car features you think are necessary? I really want in car navigation but husband thinks its a total waste of money....

Advice on our New Ride

Where did February go?

First things first, I suck at keeping up with my blog. Lots has happened in the past month though....

House
We found a house, made an offer and it was accepted!!! Yay. After a few hurdles, we have officially signed a purchase and sale and are on our way to being the owners of an actual home! It will be kind of a shock to have no one living above or below us, more than one bathroom, a garage and for the first time in 10 years not be living in the middle of a big city. Granted, we are only 7 miles from Boston but with the traffic and roads here, that's about a 20 minute drive. Our official move to suburbia won't really change that much because to be honest I drive everywhere and rarely take the train downtown. My husband however can't walk to work anymore which means we have to buy a new car too. This is the most money I've ever spent in my entire life and the first time I will be owning a car (I never needed on in Boston or NYC and the one I drive now is officially my husbands) and property (current condo was my husbands before we got married).

Baby
So now that we've got a 4 bedroom house, its time to fill it with a baby or two. The trying to conceive game continues and I was loving Carly's post on the dreaded two week wait. The husband is in DC for the month so who knows how long this annoying little dance will be. I'm not going to lie, its been tough watching everyone around me get preggers in no time at all. The jealous, frustrated and angry part of me came out for a while and was just bitter about everything. I am getting over it though and realize that things happen for people at different times. You can't rush something as good as a baby and when we do have a baby it'll be extra special for us. Plus I still get to do things like indulge in wine, drink coffee, eat sushi and have some turkey sandwiches while I am at it. I know I'd give up all those things in a heartbeat for a baby but I am trying to stay positive after some very comforting advice from Shortie. Although Our Little Haus is no longer, Shortie recently started a new blog about trying to conceive, how to get pregnant and pregnancy after loss that is already one of my favorite blogs to read.

House, baby and work have been taking over life. Oh and the travel for work is getting OLD. I spent a week in San Diego last month which I know is annoying to complain about. But don't worry, it was rapidly followed up by a week long trip to rural Minnesota. Yup Minnesota in February is just no bueno. Can't switch jobs until we move to the new house though so to try and keep myself more calm and take charge of my health (the scale at the doctors office was a slap in the face!), I took a hot yoga class with my friends last night. It was hot and sweaty but very relaxing. Hey, if my friend's husband can do it and be all flexible then so can I.

Anyway, that's whats been going on with me lately. I've gotta think of a new name for a blog soon and I think make the transition over to wordpress. Any suggestions of names would be great since I don't think I want to start a blog called Life on (new street name).

Where did February go?

First There's Sour, Then There's Sweet

I'd rather just take the sweet I've decided. Its been a crazy week of highs and lows and though I can't get into the details just yet I had a great reminder this week of the things that are actually important in life. Family, friends, and love.

I keep seeing these sour patch kids commercials (hence the title of this post) and this one is my favorite so far .Enjoy and hope you all have great weekends!

First There's Sour, Then There's Sweet

Weird Dreams and Random Thoughts

I'm all in a funk today because I had some weirdo dreams last night. I think most women who are TTC (trying to conceive) feel that the two weeks of wait for your period are agonizing. I start to freak out and think every little thing I feel could be a pregnancy symptom. Clearly pregnancyis on the brain (among other things) because last night I had a dream that I was pregnant and also that Anthony Bourdain and some woman were pregnant too. Oh and we were all hanging out at one of my nieces birthday parties. I think its because I was watching an episode of No Reservations where he goes to Syria that was particularly weird. Either way I need to get a life and get distracted fast because I'm driving myself bananas.

Image

On another note - did you see Clemence Poesy in Marie Claire? Its featured on Who What Wear's Blog and I love the styling and her hair is incredible.

Above three images via Who What Wear

Also, I wish I could make a fishtail braid like Minka Kelly and actually rock it without feeling like I was back in 5th grade. What? Didn't your mom do a fishtail braid that went all the way across your head too? Awesome.

Image via people.com

Weird Dreams and Random Thoughts

Women, Leadership and Success

I just found this video (see below) of Facebook's Chief Operating Office, Sheryl Sandburg, giving a talk on why we have too few women leaders. The statistics she provides on women in leadership positions is disappointing. As a woman in a challenging business environment who is also thinking about having kids soon, this video really hit home and made me feel inspired.

The key thoughts of her speech are:

1. Sit at the Table - She makes the point that women often underestimate themselves, attribute their success to outside factors and aren't as confident and self assured as men. She provides examples such as 57% of men negotiate their first salary out of college, while only 7% of women do the same. I know that I didn't negotiate my salary much with my first job and didn't at all with my second job. After discussions with my male coworkers (I happen to work with mostly men), they all said they really negotiated and weren't afraid to be rejected. A potentially costly lesson learned for myself. She also talks about how women who are driven can often be viewed in a negative light when compared to male counterparts. She references an Harvard Business School case study on a successful venture capitalist who happened be a woman (Heide Roizen) and how when the name was changed from Heide to Howard, the students at HBS perceived the success very differently. While I don't think that women are always perceived in a negative light when they push to be successful and are competitive, I do think it happens fairly often. It may be subconscious on some level, but I've been in many situations over the years where I've seen this type of behavior. Where men and women behave in similar manners and the woman's actions and speech are considered "bitchy" and "pushy" while men are considered "authoritative" and "no nonsense". I put those in quotes because my coworker once actually said those things after a meeting and he's generally a very open and intelligent person. I don't think this is just the male perception either, I think women feel that way towards other women a lot of times.

2. Make Your Partner a Partner - Sandberg speaks of the common theme of women taking on "twice the amount of housework", and "three times the amount of childcare" compared to the man. She doesn't simplify the cause and doesn't deep dive into it but does talk about how as a society we put more pressure on boys to succeed than our girls. Also when men do decide to work from home, Mom's often don't know how to interact with them and tend to shun them. She encourages us to "make it as important a job to work inside the home for both genders if we are going to even things out and have women stay in workforce". I couldn't agree more with that sentiment. We don't even have kids now and I tend to feel pressure (self imposed) to do more of the household duties, to "take care" of my husband and the people around me and to keep a beautiful home. To clarify my husband helps out a lot around the house and I actually came home from work yesterday to find him cooking me a homemade Indian dinner AND he even did the dishes (we usually rotate - if you cook, the other cleans up)! Its honestly all in my head and I have to say that I do take pride and put pressure on myself to be a great cook and to maintain a clean and stylish home. Plus if stress relief weren't enough, Sandberg mentions that people with equal responsibilities and equal earning tend to have half the divorce rate and a better sex life.

3. Don't Leave Before You Leave - This final point emphasizes that women often tend to "lean back" and stop looking for a promotion and ways to get ahead when they think about/have a child. They start to wonder how they can fit taking care of a child into everything else they are doing and so they stop trying to get ahead in their career. I can honestly say that I have thought about that a lot lately. How could I possibly continue with my career when I travel so frequently and work such long hours? How can I scale back instead of how can I get ahead. Sandberg points out that the problem with this is that when you do have children, your job should be rewarding, challenging and make a difference. Otherwise you are less likely to come back or want to leave your kid(s) at home. Essentially the message is to just keep swimming or keep your foot on the gas pedal.

Watch the video below - I promise the 15 minutes is well worth your time...

Women, Leadership and Success