august 28.

Two posts in one day? Retirement is good for this blog! (if you missed it, keep scrolling for the week 30 baby update).

One year ago, on August 28th, Scott and I said "I do". Our first year of marriage has been nothing short of eventful! Not only are we constantly on the go, but we are also expecting our first baby (duh) and bought a house. I'd say we knocked out two pretty major life events in our first year of marital bliss. It is hard to imagine that future years are going to be able to rival the first one, but I think Baby R's arrival just might trump everything that has come before.

But, back to this year. While we did check off some major life milestones it really has been all of the in between that has made this year complete and kept me as in love with Scott as the day we walked down the aisle. I truly love coming home to Scott (or having him come home to me) each and every day and keeping up with our crazy life together. Whether it is cooking dinner at home and listening to the same playlist we have heard 100 times on my iPod, finding new spots to dine out, or calling up Amici's for some delivery, each and every night (and day) is as special as the one before. There is no one I would rather take this journey with than my handsome, caring, thoughtful, fun and loving husband. And let's be honest, he let me retire...I'll keep him forever (I guess I have to, don't I?!). 

All kidding aside, we had a wonderful anniversary weekend to top off our first year. Let me tell you, one thing, among a zillion, Scott does well is anniversaries. He goes the extra step and is always beyond thoughtful and romantic. While the days were filled with lots of fun details, the one worth sharing with my blog readers is our dinner out in the city (and the fact I squished myself into a non-maternity dress from Jcrew for the event). We went to one of our favorites, A16. This is also the first restaurant Scott took me to when we began dating and I was just a visitor from Boulder. The night was perfect. We spent two hours eating, talking, and eating some more. I even had a glass of wine to celebrate.

Driving into the SF fog (which we both noted we don't miss at all). The lights on the left hand side of this picture are Candlestick Park. Brrrrrrrrr.

My wonderful husband.

My wine. I mean, me.

One year past, a lifetime to look forward to! (those specs are the fog "raining" on us)

This is a really long post and I am not even sure what I have written. Apparently I need more human interaction! The poms are cute but they aren't great conversationalists.

Ok, back to my house projects...they are going to be spectacular, just you wait!

week 30. 10 to go.

How Far Along: 30 weeks!!!

Size of Baby: 3 lbs and 15.7 inches.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: 16 lbs. I went to the doctor on Friday and I am also measuring right on track. All good things in baby land.

Maternity Clothes: Yep, although I did buy a new dress from Jcrew that is non maternity this weekend. It probably won't fit by the end of this week but it was super cute for our anniversary and will still be in the rotation post baby. 

Movement: It's been an active week. Baby R has been showing off some new movements including cross belly kicks and punches to my bladder. He does most of his moving below my belly button which, of course, had me nervous but the doctor said it is 100% normal and to enjoy the fact he hasn't begun assaulting my ribs yet.

Symptoms:  Still nesting like a crazy person. I have projects galore and I am loving working on each and every one.

What I Miss: Nothing new. Overall I am a pretty happy pregnant person!

Girl or Boy: Boy!

Baby name hint: Week 26: Scott and I don't know anyone who has this name. 

Belly button In or Out: Still holding at flat.

Stretch Marks: Nope. 

Cravings: No cravings but I am definitely dealing with some food related issues once again. I have not identified the culprit but after dinner I usually feel really sick to my stomach (although yesterday it was after brunch so the whole thing is anyone's guess).

Best Moment This Week: Non baby related this week...our 1 year anniversary. Scott and I spent the weekend celebrating our first year of marriage. I might have even had a glass of red wine at our celebratory dinner (don't worry, it was doctor approved) and it was DIVINE!!!!!

While I don't actually despise this picture of myself, the 7 o'clock lighting is less than fabulous for watching the bump grow. But this is what you get after a day of bar method, errands, house projects, work (for scott), and getting ready to hit to road for a pomeranian walk.

Week 29. 11 to go.

How Far Along: 29 weeks.

Size of Baby: 2.5 lbs, and slightly over 15 inches long.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I'll know next week.

Maternity Clothes: Yep. From here until the end!

Movement: We have a night owl on our hands. He is relatively quiet during the day but he throws parties every night, all night. The guest list: him and my bladder. It's a real blast for mom.

Symptoms:  A pretty good week overall. Baby is getting bigger which means there seems to be less room for everything else in there. Smaller meals are going to be a must and the bathroom trips are going to get even more frequent if that is possible!

Does nesting count as a symptom? I all of a sudden have an overwhelming need to prepare everything for when this baby is here. I even started putting together our hospital bag. Ok, I call it nesting, some might call it OCD. You decide.

What I Miss: Let's go back to wine. Especially with our anniversary coming up this weekend. I would LOVE to pop a bottle of Italian wine (or 2) and relive our honeymoon. Sparkling water will have to do...

Girl or Boy: Boy!

Baby name hint: Week 26: Here is a good one for you...his name is two syllables. Don't count on any more great hints for a few more weeks!

Belly button In or Out: Still holding at flat.

Stretch Marks: Nope. 

Cravings: Nothing. It seems my body has evened out a bit and is pretty happy with a normal diet.

Best Moment This Week: Putting together Baby R's room. We finished painting and put everything we have so far in its rightful place. Just a few more items to be delivered and we will be finished!!

Full body shot this week.

What we've been up to (version 314.1)

Yet another post recapping some events of the past few busy weeks.

The Retchless B&B was back up and running after our return from St. Louis. Well, actually we had one weekend "off". But what kind of busy bodies would we be if we let a perfectly good weekend go by without jamming something in so we decided to tackle painting Baby R's room. 

The cutest painter I know!

You'll notice a little bump peeking through the ladder ;-)

After four days we finally finished (we did the major work in 2 days but needed the additional two for touch ups, hanging, putting everything back together, etc...).  I have decided that you don't get pictures of the final project until the entire room is complete. Don't worry, we're close...just waiting on a few more items from St. Louis. 

The following weekend Scott's mom came down for a visit and a Retchless Family Get Together ensued. So we put two crock pots to work and I pulled about 17 pounds of pork to feed the group! It was another fun filled day of visiting and catching up. Unfortunately, I was elbow deep in pork so I only have one picture to share from the day :-(. 

Our little family.

My retirement is going just swimmingly. I still have a handful of projects to finish start but I have been staying nice and busy!! Yesterday I headed up to the city to visit the Strand Fam. Crick took me to a new spot, Cronkite Beach. It was an awesome beach and see I many return visits in my future. 

Tanner working hard in the black sand.

Miss K working on her sand castle masterpiece.

Airplanes on the beach!

All in all, days/weeks are flying by. We have some jam packed weeks ahead and I have a feeling November will be here before we know it. More on the latest Baby R developments in our weekly update coming later today...

Week 28. 12 to go.

How Far Along: 28 weeks.

Size of Baby: almost 15" and 2.25 lbs.  

Total Weight Gain/Loss: ?? I think I have another dr appt next week. I am supposed to have gained between 17 and 24 lbs. I think I am probably close to the 17 mark if I was guessing.

Maternity Clothes:  Yep. I guess the good news is that I haven't had to buy bigger maternity clothes. The ones I bought back around 15 weeks are still sliding right on.

Movement: Yes and this week he had the hiccups! It felt similar to kicks but was very rhythmical and quick. I am ready for more!

Symptoms:  The usual with some SI joint & IT band pain. I used to have a lot of trouble with my IT bands when I was doing triathlons and apparently pregnancy is a lot like training for a race as far as taxing the body...time to get out the foam roller. 

What I Miss: I don't want this to come off the wrong way, but I miss not thinking about pregnancy every moment of every day. Every movement I make, food I eat, decision I make is somehow related back to "what will this do to the baby?". I am sure motherhood brings plenty of this as well, but at least I'll be able to jump for the attic stairs without wondering if it will hurt the baby!

Girl or Boy: Boy!

Baby name hint: Week 26: His initials don't spell anything no matter how you arrange them (this is still true with both middle name options we are considering). His monogram doesn't either. I don't even think either are acronyms for anything...if they are, it is well beyond my field of knowledge.

Belly button In or Out: Flat but Scott declared that it is on the verge of being an outie. 

Stretch Marks: Nope. 

Cravings: One week with minimal chocolate and I have felt great. I might try to introduce my nightly Hershey Kiss snack back in and see if that really was the problem or if it was just the travel.

Best Moment This Week: Pre natal massage. For Mother's Day Scott got me a massage. I opted to hold on to this gift until I got bigger and more uncomfortable. After a day of wincing in pain from my hips/SI joint pain I decided it was time. Oh what a glorious 75 minutes it was. I found a masseuse that actually had a table with a belly cut out so I could lay on my stomach. It was pure bliss and I am happy to report that it helped my pain immensely. Maybe I can somehow earn one more before this little guy arrives! ;-)


A side note: I would like to give kudos to all those who are pregnant in Missouri in the summer. I swear I swelled up while I was there from the humidity and don't think I deflated until 3 days post returning to CA. This could all be in my head but I still give HUGE props to women carrying around their baby bump in the muggy Missouri summer.


I would also like to note that pregnancy is such a crazy phenomenon from a physical standpoint. The day we went sightseeing I felt good each step of the way, didn't mind walking or trekking around. But then, all of a sudden I hit a major wall and was officially spent. It is amazing how the body can go and go, seemingly normal, but then all of a sudden it is very apparent that it is working very hard on growing a baby while these other actions are happening. This was true of the overall toll the trip took on me as well. It took me a good 48 hours to feel like I could motivate to do anything upon returning to CA. I was officially worn out from the trip and Baby R and I needed some serious rest and relaxation when we got home. 


Ok, all for now...

And just for fun...

Week 6...skiing in Tahoe. This was before the purple shirt came on the scene.

Week 13. Purple shirt has been located.

Week 21. Starting to pop.

Week 28. If that's not a baby bump, I don't know what is!

aaaaaand it's august.

Holy time warp. I seriously don't know where the time is going. Just when I think things are going to slow down, they seem to go hyper speed. 

Some August highlights:

• My advertising retirement. As of July 29th I was officially finished with work. While I enjoyed my work (most of the time) and cherish the friends I met at the agency, it was time for me to move on. While I am enjoying my freedom/time off I am not retired from work forever. This is why it has been deemed my "advertising retirement". I am pretty sure it also makes Scott's skin prickle whenever I say retired :-).  We have always intended for me to stay home with Baby R and one of these days I will return to the working world...just hopefully as a teacher. That's the 5 (or something like that) year plan, folks, teaching. I haven't determined what age fully but I am leaning towards elementary ed. Time will tell...
• Visitors. I am pretty sure that we are running a Bed and Breakfast here in Menlo Park! Not really, but we did have back to back visitors before we headed out on a vacation of our own. First, the Berrys came to visit and then Derek & Sarah stayed a couple of nights during their NorCal getaway. It was fun to play host to both and I also got to become a tourist in SF again which is always enjoyable.

Derek and I on the bridge. This was the only foggy moment we had. Derek & Sarah lucked out and we had blue skies their entire visit!!

Sarah and Derek at Twin Peaks. See, gorgeous day!

View of the city from Alcatraz. I love playing tourist!!

• Visit Home (aka St. Louis). Is it weird that I still call it home even though I haven't lived there in almost 10 years? I guess it will always be home. This trip was a very nice one as we didn't have every moment of each day scheduled. Usually when we get back we have a packed agenda but this time we managed to squeeze in a day of touring around the city and some much needed down time at the house. Of course, we had our fair share of visiting but it was much more low key than usual. 

Our welcome home table setting. Can't imagine who all the blue is for ;-).

Scott and Derry on their first visit to Ted Drewes.

I have been trying to get Scott here for YEARS. It was perfect!

Baby R is a fan too!

Sightseeing downtown! Scott's first visit to the Landing.

Lewis and Clark have had better days. The Mighty Mississippi is running quite high.

Gateway to the West.

View of the stadium from the new 360 bar. If you are in St. Louis you must pay a visit...it really is a spectacular way to see the city.

There were MANY other sites on our tour but we didn't capture them all on camera. Let's just say Scott has now officially seen all of St. Louis. Well, not Crown Candy. We'll have to go there with Baby R next visit :-).

Baby shower! It was wonderful to see all my family and friends and celebrate the little man's pending arrival.

Baby's first Cardinals outfit! It must be noted that this beat any Giants gear into the house ;-).

Things got crazy at Toni's post baby shower. While the crazy is standard, the impromptu floor auction and "fashion" show by Tiny were new to the mix!

Traveling is fun but it is always good to get back home to this little face (and of course AP too). Lola is also a big fan of my Snoogle!

Still much more to come this month and coming soon to a blog near you...Baby R's room painting extravaganza! As a teaser, I will tell you that we are officially embarking on day 3 of this craziness.

Week 27. 13 to go.

3rd trimester...WOO HOO!

How Far Along: 27 weeks. 

Size of Baby: 14.5" and 2 lbs.  

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I don't know, a million. This is the first week that I feel like a giant, swollen, pregnant disaster. Puffy is my new middle name.

Maternity Clothes:  Yep. Same old, same old. 

Movement: Moving and a groving.

Symptoms:  This field strikes me as funny this week. "Symptoms", like I have a cold. I am pretty sure at this point I have every pregnancy out there ;-).

What I Miss: Get ready, this is a crazy one...running. GASP!!! Scott hit the pavement this week and I was actually envious that he got to go out for a run. I think it might have something to do with the puffiness I am feeling as running is usually my go to "get the body I want quick" solution. December, watch out, these legs are going to get back in shape!

Girl or Boy: Boy!

Baby name hint: Week 26: His first name is not a family name (middle name might be, but we haven't fully landed on a middle name).

Belly button In or Out: Flat.

Stretch Marks: Nope. 

Cravings: No cravings but I think chocolate is officially not agreeing with me any more. Tonight is the first night I am going to try and eliminate it so we shall see.

Best Moment This Week: Baby Shower #1!!! I got to see lots of family and friends back in St. Louis and packed a 45 lb. bag of baby goods back to San Francisco. It was so fun unwrapping and then re-unpacking all the little goodies!

Yikes. I need a makeover.

Coming up next...a recap of our whirlwind week!

Week 26. 14 to go.

VERY belated (well, a week). Week 26 was a bit of a whirlwind with guests, travel, and general un-connectedness. Worry not, we are back with lots to catch up on. First, I will go back to week 26...

How Far Along: 26 weeks. 

Size of Baby: About 13.5" and 1.5 lbs.  

Total Weight Gain/Loss: 12 lbs. Doctor says we are right on track.

Maternity Clothes:  Yep. Same old, same old. 

Movement: The little kicks are still there but we have added some major rocking and rolling to the mix!

Symptoms:  Swollen extremities if I am on my feet too long (as in all day).

What I Miss: Nothing really new here. Everything is a-ok.

Girl or Boy: Boy!

Baby name hint: Week 26: His name does not start with an "S".

Belly button In or Out: Flat.

Stretch Marks: Nope. 

Cravings: All true cravings have completely subsided. Still averse to certain meats but it is improving slightly.

Best Moment This Week: Discovering compression socks. These things are a LIFE SAVER. They make some not so sexy full leg versions but I opted for the knee high, endurance athlete variety. They seriously make my legs feel brand new and take the swelling out.

L.O.V.E.

I loathe these pictures now. Coming up next week (aka, in 5 minutes)...scariest one yet!