19 Weeks (03/28/2012)

I thought I would give Jen a break from the weekly recaps and provide everyone with my two cents on the pregnancy and any new news in our lives, since this may be the last blog post before we find out the sex of our little angel. I’m tentative to say that we will know for sure because I have been to two of the ultrasound appointments and we’ve got a mover and a shaker on our hands. But I talk to Jen’s belly most nights and baby has been told that when it’s show time, it has to try and swim still. My 19 weeks have been a little bit different than Jen’s. I get to enjoy the progress and beauty of pregnancy, without all of those annoying side effects. Thus far, Jen has been a trooper and I can’t thank her enough for everything she is doing to take care of herself and baby.


Our lives are getting more exciting (and more complicated) as the due date approaches. My father has been working very hard writing, editing, and publishing his book, The Ultimate Mouth Manual, which I had the honor of writing a chapter for. It’s a great read for anyone interested in taking care of your mouth, body and mind. He sent me a few copies last week and I brought them into my residency, and the faculty and assistants absolutely loved it! They are asking for autographed copies. In other dental related news, I’m in the middle of weighing all of my options for employment as the moving date quickly approaches. It’s incredible how fast the year has gone but we are moving back to Satellite Beach in 11 weeks! I anticipate making a decision soon in regards to where I will be practicing. I am excited to take that next step and finally go out and make a living off of the years of hard work I have put into my education.


Jen’s last blog post talked about her love of Mexican food and how much we ate it last week. My week was no different. Last Tuesday, the residents, assistants and I went to Taco Bell (yes, I’m classifying it as Mexican) for lunch to try the new Doritos locos Taco, I wasn’t terribly impressed with it but others seemed to enjoy it. But from Tuesday-Saturday, we had Mexican every day. Saturday, we got to see our friends from Melbourne, Danny and Meg. Danny is a great golfer so I wanted to take him to Top Golf. Top Golf is like bowling at a driving range. There are trackers in each ball that mark where your ball lands and you get points corresponding to how good your shot is. It’s a very popular weekend spot so Danny gets there around 6 PM and they tell him it will be a 2-2.5 hour wait. Naturally, we go to a Mexican restaurant next door while we wait. Tom, a friend from Melbourne who now lives in Dallas, came with as well. I wasn’t hungry so I got a margarita because the owner of the restaurant made the first frozen margarita machine (it’s in the Smithsonian), and it was delicious. Danny crushed us all in Top Golf, the girls hit a few balls, played Scrabble and ate ice cream sundaes. Sunday rolls around and I am looking forward to a nice home-cooked meal.


My residency director, Dr. Wakefield, invited Geoff (co-resident) and myself over to his house for lunch and to take us around the Texas Motor Speedway in a NASCAR car. I made sure Dr. Wakefield remembered to have a non red-meat option for me so he said Mrs. Wakefield would make her famous vegetarian lasagna. Plans changed and I got to experience her famous enchiladas ☺. Although Mexican was getting kind of tired this week, I couldn’t complain because they were awesome! She makes everything from scratch and she made me a special dish of spinach enchiladas while everyone else got chicken. The weather was beautiful so we ate outside on his patio. One of the Wakefields’ sons, Brian (A general dentist), and his friend Bryson were also over with each of their 4 year-old sons. These boys were full of energy and all afternoon they were go, go, go!!! When we got to the racetrack, they loved the noise of the cars and the fact that grandpa was speeding around the racetrack. I captured a video of Dr. Wakefield and Geoff going around the track and besides the noise of the cars, all you can hear is Wakefield’s grandson yelling, “There goes grandpa!!!” It was very cute and had me looking forward to our baby being so close in proximity to most of his/her grandparents. Being a passenger while Dr. Wakefield was driving at speeds around 160 mph was a little different from last month when I was the driver. I was a lot more relaxed this time around because Dr. Wakefield lives for driving around in circles. He estimates he’s done about 2500 laps around that racetrack. It was also Geoff’s first experience in a racecar. The whole time we were going to the track he said he was more nervous about trying to fit in the car (he’s about 6’3”) than actually being a passenger while a 65-year-old man speeds around a 1.5-mile track. Everyone had a great time and it’s leading me to slowly becoming a bigger NASCAR fan.


Matt’s Pregnancy highlights:
How far along: 19 Weeks

Size of baby: 8.5 oz and 6.5 inches (larger heirloom tomato)

Total weight gain/loss: Matt- 0 lbs

Symptoms: Empathy

What I miss: friends/family

Cravings: not Mexican food!

18 Weeks (3/21/2012)

I want to start off by saying how happy I am to be in the second trimester. It is so nice to be feeling better and actually having energy to do things. With that being said, we have had a much busier week than we have in the past few months. Saturday morning we checked out the St. Patrick's Day parade in Dallas. After living in South Boston for the past 4 years our expectations were pretty high. We loved living on the parade route and always had a lot of fun. Dallas' parade was a lot of fun and the floats were awesome! The best float, of course, was the SEC Alumni Group's float.

After the parade we made a little shopping trip to get some maternity clothes. The weather is getting warmer so it was time for some shorts and tank tops. It was actually a little harder than I expected to find stuff I liked. Primarily I try to make my current wardrobe work as much as possible. However, after moving to Texas I realized that I no longer own a lot of warm weather clothes. My wardrobe used to consist of tank tops, shorts and flip flops. Now, I have more long sleeved shirts, pants and boots! Due to the fact that I will spend the majority of my pregnancy in hot weather, I knew it was important to get a few staple items. Matt loves shopping- no he really does. It gives him time to catch up on espn.com, Angry Birds, and Word Feud. I tried not to torture him too much though. Afterwards we headed to a Mexican restaurant called Mi Cocina which has a gluten-free menu. Let me tell you, it was fantastic! Thus began our week of Mexican food. There is no shortage of Mexican restaurants here in Dallas and I couldn't be happier about that. I would eat it for every single meal, every day, if it was possible. I just love it!

Wednesday I finally got an appointment with my dentist (Matt) and was long overdue. It's always fun to visit Matt at work because he comes home everyday with great stories about his co-workers and patients. They are an awesome group of people and I know Matt is having a lot of fun there. After an excellent cleaning we headed to one of my favorite restaurants, Iron Cactus. I discovered this place when my friend Juliet came to town to visit. It's right downtown and is so yummy! Afterwards we me up with two of Matt's co-residents, Geoff and Simeon, at Dave and Busters. It was nice to get out of the house and have some fun. The picture is Geoff and me racing motorcycles.

Thursday we got together with the AEGD residents, assistants and families for dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Mesquite (noticing a theme here). However, upon our arrival everyone (except me) was a little disappointed to discover that the restaurant did not serve alcohol. No margaritas?!?!? It was still a lot of fun and I got to meet Matt's co-resident Matt A.'s wife and 2 of his 6 kids. This included their littlest one who is only 4 months old. So cute! Every time we see a baby it just makes us more excited. They also gave us lots of good advice about babies and parenting.

All in all it's been a fun week and we topped it off with more Mexican food (see weight gain total below) and gluten-free apple pie from Whole Foods. We also have an exciting weekend ahead. Tomorrow we are going to see the Hunger Games. This is the only book that Matt and I have both read. It took some convincing to get him to read it but in the end he loved it. After that we are going to watch the Gators in the Elite 8 against Louisville. Following that our wonderful friends Megan and Danny are in town visiting so we are going to meet up with them for a little Top Golf. Finally, we will cap the weekend off with the return of Mad Men!! It's been 17 long months since the last season and I am so excited!!!

Pregnancy Highlights

How far along: 18 Weeks

Size of baby: Sweet potato or large mango

Total weight gain/loss: 6 lbs (I should probably take it easy on the Mexican food)

Symptoms: Round ligament pain (basically things are expanding and it's a little uncomfortable)

What I miss: Margaritas with my Mexican food

Cravings: Mexican food!

17 Weeks (3/14/2012)

Last weekend we had a family game night with all the aunts, uncles, a couple of cousins and of course Bubbeh. We played an awesome game that was introduced to us by our wonderful friends Ben and Kendall. The game is called Awkward Family Photos. It is a hilarious game that is based on a hilarious website. If you haven't seen the website you must! We had a great time and actually got a picture of us together with the Baby Bump.













Also, this week I came down with an awful stomach bug. For some reason I tend to catch one every year and being pregnant only made it even more miserable. So I spent a day and a half at home resting up and catching up on some TV. This also caused me to drop about 2 pounds and despite that I feel huge this week (see picture below). I'm back to work now, but my appetite isn't quite the same yet. Hence today's lunch:
I really think this is a lunch only a pregnant woman would enjoy. I'm trying to put the weight back on through the recent discovery of gluten-free donuts. I have been trying to eat as healthy as possible but sometimes you need a baby ruth or a donut.





This week marks the beginning of March Madness in college basketball. Matt and I always complete a bracket (Matt usually does about 10 in 10 different pools). In addition to competing in our pool we like to make a personal wager. Every year Matt tells me I can't pick the Gators to win the tournament just because they are my favorite team. The reason he says this is due to the fact that in our junior year of college I picked the Gators to win the whole thing and won our pool. He said I got lucky, but really I'm just a believer in the Gators. So most years I just pick them to win and hope for the best. Anyways, we are still trying to decide what to wager this year. I have already come up with two great ideas. First, if I win Matt has to switch from the android to an iPhone. Second, if I win, Matt has to change all the poopy diapers during the first month of Baby Sheldon's life. He has yet to come up with anything comparable for me. We will see what happens and I will keep you posted.


Someone posted this picture on Facebook a couple of weeks ago. When I first saw it I thought the person in the red sweater was me. Then I saw the small red headed child in the corner and realized that was Josh. Thus, who I thought was me was actually my mom. (I'm the extremely focused child in the right hand corner). Sometimes it just amazes me how much children look like their parents and it makes me wonder what this baby will look like. Two things we do know, it will most likely have dark hair and a lot of it. I'll try to post some baby pictures of Matt and me at some point.




Pregnancy Highlights

How far along: 17 Weeks

Size of baby: Onion

Total weight gain/loss: 3.5 lbs

Symptoms: I'm still pretty tired. I've started taking naps in my office with my airplane pillow.

What I miss: Sleeping like a normal person (I know I better get used to it)

Cravings: Edamame!

16 Weeks (3/7/2012)

We had our 16 week check up today and I got to hear Baby Sheldon's heartbeat. It was a strong 150 BPM! Otherwise it was a pretty uneventful visit. However, in 4 weeks we go back for our anatomy scan and get to find out if we are having a boy or girl. This has been probably the largest topic of discussion in our house since finding out I am pregnant. Whenever I have dreams about the baby it is always a baby girl.

In order to pass the time we have had to resort to other means to determine the sex. What could be a more reliable method than old wives tales. So below are a list of old wives tales and our outcomes:

1. Position of the baby: If you carry high and round it is a girl. If you carry low and sideways it's a boy. According to Matt I am pretty rotund these days. 1 point for baby girl.

2. Activity of the baby: An active baby means girl and less active boy. Considering our difficulty in getting a a clear sonogram photo or heartbeat, this little baby is quite active. He or she is a squirmer! 1 point baby girl.

3. Hand position of the baby: Hands up girl, hands down boy. At our last ultrasound Baby Sheldon was waving his or her arms for us. 1 point baby girl.

4. Baby kicks: Kicks on the left side mean girl, on the right boy. Up until the last week or so I haven't really felt anything. Now I am beginning to feel some flutter and soft thumps all on the left side. 1 point baby girl.

5. Heartbeat: Greater than 130 means girl, less is boy. Baby's heartbeat has been over 130 at every visit. 1 point baby girl.

6. Sweet vs. sour: Crave sour foods and you are having a girl, sweet and you are having a boy. Well I went through a phase where all I wanted to eat was watermelon flavored sour patch kids. In addition, my biggest food aversion is cupcakes (weird I know). 1 point baby girl.

7. Spicy cravings: Crave spicy foods and you are having a boy. I hate spicy food, always have and probably always will. 1 point baby girl.

8. Dangling a wedding ring: If you tie your wedding ring to a string and dangle it over your stomach it will rotate either clockwise (girl) or counter clockwise (boy). After completing this test we got clockwise. 1 point baby girl.

9. Chinese lunar calendar: Using an online calculator you put in a bunch of information about your age, month you conceived etc. and they predict your baby's gender. After doing this we got girl! 1 point baby girl.

So, as you can see from these tests (source snopes.com) we are having a girl. I guess after our ultrasound we will be able to determine the validity of these highly scientific tests.


Pregnancy Highlights

How far along: 16 Weeks

Size of baby: Avacado

Total weight gain/loss: 4 lbs

Symptoms: A little bit of nausea and fatigue.

What I miss: Caffeine

Cravings: Tater tots, apples and apple juice

15 Weeks (2/29/12)

This past weekend Matt and I had quite the adventure. For Hanukkah I got Matt a "NASCAR Experience" which meant that he could go to Texas Motor Speedway and drive a real, live NASCAR car. We have had this scheduled since December and of course this week Matt got sick. Fever, chills, sore throat you name it. Saturday night rolls around and he is still not feeling well. Unfortunately, you can not reschedule. So on Sunday morning he takes some dayquil and decides he will just suck it up. Thus follows a series of bizarre events. First, Matt decided that he would pick up Taco Bell on the way to eat. I thought this must be a good sign because no one wants to eat TB when you are really sick. We go through the drive thru and pick up a $5 box. Now, I must point out that TB is one of my favorite restaurants (I know some people do not consider it a restaurant but it is the only fast food restaurant I like). Unfortunately, they do not have any gluten free options beyond their rice and beans. Now, for anyone who has been pregnant you may have experienced a symptom I like to call "I must eat it now or I will die." This basically means that when I crave something specific to eat I have to get it and it usually involves some sort of outing for Matt. Well when that $5 box passed from the window in to my car I had a visceral reaction. I don't think I have ever wanted a food item more in my entire life. I obviously couldn't eat it and would have to content myself with the smell :(


As we are driving along Matt says he is feeling nauseous and we might need to pull over. I am certainly not letting him vomit in my new car. So we debated back and forth as to whether or not we should just turn around (the whole time my eyes were really on the crunch wrap supreme and wondering if he was just going to let it go to waste). In the end we kept on driving.





Now, since Matt opened this present we joked around that wouldn't it be funny if you had to know how to drive stick in order to participate in this experience. It was never a serious conversation and we never actually looked in to it. As we drove closer to the track (I'm not sure that's what it is called), we realized that this was in fact probably the case. Matt does not know how to drive stick, he has attempted to learn in the past but to no avail. So as we drove I tried to explain it to him. It is really hard to explain this to someone who looks like they are going to be sick in your car, while you drive, and there is a fully intact crunch wrap on the dashboard. I digress, we went over it a couple of times, but the conversation ended in Matt declaring that I would just have to do the experience because he was sick and he wouldn't be able to learn stick. As enticing as the idea sounded, I noted that they most likely to do not allow pregnant women to drive NASCAR cars. It may be somewhat of a liability for them. I assured him that he either wouldn't need to know or the instructions would be thorough enough before they even let people in the car that he could do it. They would also never let him get in the car by himself without an instructor.

We finally make it to the speedway and Matt checks in. They give him an awesome racing suit and tell him to wait for his driving class to start. Now, when we arrived there were A LOT more people there then I expected. Probably around 100 plus family members. I expected the "driving class" to be a one on one sort of deal (these experiences cost upwards of $300- don't worry I had a groupon). Well it turns out "driving class" is about 50 people in a room watching a DVD. At the end of the class the "instructor" Bob asks anyone if they don't know how to drive stick. One guy raises his hand, and it's not Matt. I panic because Bob then goes on to say that if you stall out twice you are off the track. He asks one more time and two more people raise their hands (Matt included). So Bob says he will meet them after the class to teach them. Well Bob's teaching was about as thorough as mine. I can tell Matt is nervous but he sucks it up and waits his turn. All he has to do is get it in to 4th gear and he's fine. I should note that there will be no one else in the car with him. If you have a driver's license and pay the exorbitant price they will let anyone drive a NASCAR car. Dear lord help us all.

Matt's turn is finally up and he climbs in to the car. They start the engine and he stalls. My heart sinks because I want him to be able to experience this so badly! On the second try a guy standing on the track talks him through it. He gets off to a slow start but finally gets it going. He makes it on to the track and starts zooming around. He has 8 minutes in the car and managed to get up to 152 MPH. Afterwards, he said it was quite the adrenaline rush and his legs were shaking but he did it! He had the biggest smile on his face.


On to Baby Sheldon, who is growing by leaps and bounds this week. He or she is about the size of an orange this week, her ears have migrated to the sides of her head, and her eyes are moving to the front of her face. Plus, Baby Sheldon can now wiggle her fingers and toes and make breathing movements in preparation for life outside the womb. My baby bump is getting much more pronounced and I'm starting to feel better. I also told work this week and am happy that I don't have to wear so many baggy clothes. I happily wore a much more fitted dress to show off the bump today. Here is this week's picture:

Pregnancy Highlights

How far along: 15 Weeks

Size of baby: Orange

Total weight gain/loss: 4 lbs

Symptoms: A little bit of nausea and a raging appetite!

What I miss: Taco Bell

Cravings: Taco Bell