Bump or Bloated?

I can't button my pants.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. One day I could button them no problem, the next I was jumping up and down and sweating trying to squeeze into my work pants. You see, late last year I bought a handful of new pants. I recently went down a couple of sizes and needed pants that didn't sag down to my knees. I then made the brilliant decision to donate all of my old pants because I didn't need them anymore.

Or so I thought.

A couple weeks later I found out the big news. I was pregnant. Which means I was going to be gaining weight/turning into a pretty balloon. I didn't think much of it, because the baby was the size of a raspberry so I kept rocking my size 4 jeans. Now let's fast forward to 12 weeks pregnant.

Yeah, you're not looking so great in those tiny jeans anymore, are you Miss Maxine? Didn't think so.

I'm not sure if this is THE bump though. I feel bloated. Like really bloated. Like don't talk to me, I can't breathe bloated. Like no!! I'm not being a diva just let me lay here in the middle of the living room bloated. It hurts and I'm blaming those dang bagel bites. But those bagel bites are so good.

Anyway, I've finally decided to share a couple pictures with you guys. You can be the judge on whether I look really bloated or just crazy. Or both. Warning: The first two pictures are what seem like a decade ago... but really it was last month. Ha!

4 and 5 weeks, I think

9 and 11 weeks

So what do you think?! Maybe this bloating thing will go away..... or maybe I just need to get new pants.... hmm.....

New Coupon Queen

We've always been good with our money, but when we found out that we're adding to the family it was time to make some life changes. Nothing dramatic, but we've heard that babies cost an arm and a leg to raise, so we sat down and made a budget and figured out what we can cut back on every month. Seeing the numbers and Nate's expert Excel spreadsheet really put into perspective how much money we're spending. Our grocery bill every week is a little over $200, which in my opinion is high since there's only two of us. In this moment, I found my inner TLC Extreme Couponer and decided that I was going to start clipping coupons.

I know, I know... am I really becoming one of THOSE women?! No. I don't have time nor the patience or math skills to sit down and coupon for 10 hours every day. I also don't want to buy more than one newspaper, who does that? I want to enjoy life and not think about money all of the time. The easiest way for me to start was to make a coupon organizer.

Vintage 2004 Binder

It's nothing serious, but it keeps all of my coupons in check. Typically you'll want to use baseball card holders but I don't have those and the whole point behind this thing is to save money. I pulled out some high school vintage dividers and clear page protectors. They're working just fine...

So how did we do on our first shopping trip? We saved $53.00! All from coupons and my store card. It may not seem like a lot, but hey, money is money and it'll all add up in the end. I spent mayyybe 20 minutes cutting coupons and going through Sunday's ads figuring out who has the best deals. Target, of course, had some awesome sales and so did our grocery store of choice (Kroger). Spending the time to cut and organize was worth it.

Hopefully I can keep this up and save more and more before the baby gets here. If you or someone you know coupons, send them my way! Any tips are greatly appreciated. Have you ever couponed?

CRAVINGS

Y'all they're real. Like I would sell some of my limbs for bagel bites, maybe a finger for french fries, and don't even get me started on those delicious chicken mini's from ChickHeavenFilA. I'm not kidding, and that's what makes it sick. But here's what's crazy, my cravings change every day minute and I'm never really sure what I want to eat which has caused some tension in our marriage. You KNOW how it is when you're both hungry and neither of you want what the other person wants....

It's awful.

So instead of hating each other, we're buying groceries individually. If you think our grocery bill is outrageous, do not be alarmed, my type of groceries expire in 2020 and are on sale every week. Nate likes the natural, organic, no fun food. But I obviously don't have time for that junk. I need grease, fat, carbs, RANCH DRESSING, lots of cheese, and anything that screams "you should only eat one of me" but we know that's not going to happen. My body loooves me right now, I can feel it.

Since I'm wanting to document this whole preggo thing, here's what I can't live without...

 beautiful.

I need two of these. Every day at the same time. 

Ok my mouth is watering. 

My heaven. GIVE ME ALL THE RANCH!!!

Lately, I've been loving pasta. Like, real love. Spaghetti is always my #1 pick. 

When I wake up in the middle of the night, yogurt is my go-to food. 'Pregnant me' would consider this healthy, but smart me knows very well that the yogurt I'm loving has 20g of sugar in each serving. Buuuut we're going to forget about that, and just eat the damn yogurt. 

I ate an entire carton of strawberries before bed last night. I couldn't stop. Thank goodness I bought 4 cartons (they were 2 for $5).

CHICKFILA FRIES. My world y'all. With some ketchup, I mean YES. Perfection. Let's take Christmas pictures together and live happily ever after. 

I'm probably paying Panera's electricity bill every month. I crave their bread probably once every hour and I always swear that I'm going there straight after work. I stopped doing that once Nate put together a budget and realized half of our life savings were towards keeping Panera in business. Whatever.

I do, however, have to turn down Panera when they ask me if I want a treat. The thought of anything sweet makes me sick. Chocolate, cakes, brownies... GROSS!! Oh and Peanut Butter. I can't even think about it. It literally makes me gag. 

I think that covers everything that I'm loving and hating right now. I'm sure it'll change within the next 10 minutes so I'll need to post this soon before I go back and rewrite it. Also, I have bagel bites in the oven and I need to go make sure that they're ok....

talk soon, 

hungry max

New Beginnings

So far 2014 has been a year filled with life changing events. Which is strange considering I vowed to make this year less stressful than last year. To give you a bit of a recap of 2013, we'll start from the beginning. 

Deploymentpuppyengagementhalfmarathonfuneralquitmyjobweddingmovefromtexastolittlerockunpackinjuriesnateleavesagainannnnndgetpregnant. 

Did you catch all that? I probably forgot some of it, but you catch my drift. I wanted this year to be calm and dare I say, less eventful. But in true Maxine fashion, things don't usually go as planned and it ends up even better than I could have imagined. I'm hoping that fashion continues this year. 

And so far, it has. I'm excited to write that I've joined the KARK/Fox16 as a morning reporter! 

I'll be the one standing in the freezing cold on solid ice telling you to stay inside for the day or the one tasting the biggest chocolate chip cookie in the world. I'll be doing a lot of things on television that I'm sure all of you can't wait to hear about. It's been a blast so far and I seriously love the people I work with. I'm not just saying that because it's now on the www but honestly, they're super talented and intelligent. 

This job isn't all rainbows and butterflies either. That would be boring, wouldn't it? The schedule is sometimes brutal and you wish that nap time from kindergarten would return. I'm not using this pregnancy as an excuse, but man, I am TIRED. Waking up at 3:00 am, getting to work at 4:00, going live from 5:00-9:00 and then reporting on the story for the next day is tough. Side note: reporting isn't easy regardless of what schedule you're on. By the end of my day (around noon -1:00) I'm just thankful I survived. But something about this business keeps me wanting more, I can honestly say I love my job and not many folks can say that nowadays. 

On that note, I need a nap! This 3:00 wake up call comes fast!! Goodnight

Also, thank you for all the preggo love! We're so happy to share the news with you :-) 

The Secret is OUT...

Whether she likes it or not, Emily's big sister duties begin in August! Nate and I are EXPECTING. Which if we're being totally honest, it still doesn't feel real. I mean, it feels real when I'm throwing up water in the morning but other than that I still can't believe I'm going to be a mom. A MOM. It's crazy. I'm still trying to wrap my head around it, but I can't. I wanted to blog about it so bad it hurt, but I didn't want anything to happen and then I'd be explaining a tragedy.

Actually, I'm still pretty early. I'm 10 weeks+ and it's recommended that you don't tell friends until 13-14 weeks. But HELLO, I'm a blogger. I can't wait that long. The reason I've been so quiet is because this is all I've been thinking about. I knew that if I sat down to write a post, I would spill the beans and ruin it. So I waited. And waited. Finally I'm comfortable enough to actually talk about it. I also thought if something were to happen (a m/c) then I'd want to write about it and share my story.

Alrighty, let's get to the good stuff shall we? When you tell someone you're pregnant they typically ask you the same questions, so below I've answered the most common ones I've gotten so far...

Did you know you were pregnant before you took a test? 
-True story, I knew before I missed my monthly present. I woke up in the middle of the night and felt EXTREMELY hungry. Hungry like I hadn't eaten in days maybe months. It didn't matter how much food I ate at dinner, I would wake up and have to eat something in order to go back to sleep. I was also using the bathroom frequently even if I wasn't drinking a lot of fluids. I knew something was up with my body I just didn't know what.

Then I went to the grocery store for my weekly shopping. I was standing in the cracker isle loading my cart with cheese crackers (because that's what I craved at night) when a mom and her crying baby rolled passed me. When I say crying, I mean screaming. She wanted a toy and her mom wouldn't give it to her. So I stood there for a second and my stomach flew to my throat. I walked down to the tampon isle and grabbed a store brand pregnancy test. I was literally sweating through my clothes as I did the rest of my shopping. When I got home, I took the test... and it DIDN'T WORK! Nothing showed up. So I let out a big "Whew!!!!" and went on with my day.

A couple days later, something was telling me to take another test. I went back to the store and bought a different brand that came with 3 tests in a box. I got home and ran to the toilet and peed on all three tests. I sat there and watched the first dark pink line appear (it appears whether you're preggo or not) and I was like, "cool! maybe I'm just crazy" ... seconds later, another pink line appeared. A very light pink line. I rubbed my eyes, slapped my cheeks with cold water, and sat on the ground breathing heavily. ARE YOU SURE THAT'S A PINK LINE?!

Yeah. That's a pink line.

I did what any girl would do, and went back to the store and bought another one...

and that was it. I called Nate who was in Alabama finishing up some training. I knew he was in class so I thought maybe I could leave a message asking him to call me back. To my surprise, he answered and I didn't know what to say. It went a little something like this..

Me: Hey... soo.. I've been feeling really weird so I took a pregnancy test, and I know you know you what it says since I'm calling you about it...
Nate: ......
Me: I can't breathe. I'm sitting down on the bathroom floor.
Nate:......
Me: Hello?
Nate: alright, well, here we go!

Did you guys plan this pregnancy?
We absolutely 100% DID NOT plan this. We just got married! This wasn't supposed to happen until two years from now!! HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN!?! Well... we know how it happened... but really? Right now? Are we ready for this? Will we be good parents? Will this ruin our marriage? Is this really happening? We were scared. Like, really scared. To tell you the truth, we're still scared. Every day we're getting better and more OK with it all. After calling Nate and telling him I was pregnant, I called a doctor and set up an appointment.

How was your appointment?
We were nervous, knowing that this would confirm the pregnancy. We got an ultrasound and heard the heartbeat and that's when our attitudes changed. We were extremely happy and for once, excited. It was crazy to see a baby inside of me. I kept asking the nurse if she was sure that there was a baby in there. Ha! I laugh at it now, but I was serious.

Did you tell your parents?
We told our parents on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. We gave my mom and grandma a present with a countdown clock inside.

My mom wasn't too excited and neither was my grandma. I think that's because we just got married and they weren't expecting this. I'm also the baby of my siblings so I'm still a little girl to them. I understand. Now that we've been to our first appointment they're excited! We told Nate's parents on Christmas day over the phone and they were shocked but thrilled!! I think everyone is looking forward to having a little grandbaby running around.

How are you feeling?
I started feeling sick around 8 weeks. 9 weeks was probably the worst. I switched prenatal vitamins and that's helped significantly. I'm still VERY hungry and if I don't eat, I'll get sick. Speaking of eating, the only craving I have is yogurt and Chickfila. Gawwwd I love Chickfila. I want NOTHING healthy, except cucumbers and carrots. Peanut butter, chocolate, or anything sweet makes me gag. I don't like to cook because the smell is so strong so Nate has done a great job of filling the cook role. The food part is probably the hardest part on him because he wants to eat healthy and I don't. I want pizza, he wants a salad. I want doughnuts, he wants eggs and so on. I'm lucky enough to say I haven't gotten severely sick, I just feel queasy a majority of the day.

Do you want a girl or a boy?
I don't care as long as it's healthy. Nate on the other hand is praying every night for a boy. He wants a camping/football buddy. I've been told that most guys are like this. I don't care, as long as he gets over it when we find out this baby is a girl. ;-)

When are you due?
We're due August 22nd (I know that picture says 14, but I meant for it to come across as 2014. FAIL on my part)

I'm so happy to finally share the news! We've been anxiously waiting to shout it to the world since our first appointment. Hopefully everything goes just as smoothly at our next. I'll be sure to keep you all updated as the pregnancy continues since I'm back to blogging regularly again.

See you Monday!