36-Week Bumpdate

36-Week Bumpdate

Here we are! A month away from our son's due date - SAY WHAT?!!? We are now on a weekly countdown instead of a monthly - and let me tell you, A LOT has changed since last week. I'm feeling even huge-er (because I am) and more waddle-y (because I am). These are the precious moments of pregnancy.

The Progress.

How Far Along: 36 weeks

Gender: MALE.

Name: Everett Lee Hale

Sleeping? Ha. I was up EVERY HOUR last night. My nocturnal naps are punctuated by pee breaks.

Eats: I had some GOOD pulled barbeque sandwiches this week. Yes, multiple times. Don't judge it. Also - the ice cream craving has returned. And I really want it in a waffle cone. Oooh yeah.

Wearing: Guys, it's getting hard to dress myself. As in, I wore the same outfit three times this week because it was the only one that I felt good in. Stevie found me some of his most gigantic Puma pajama pants and, thankfully, that has made evening lounge time MUCH more comfy (and also, I have been deemed the family thug.) We are past the "this feels snug"-point, and we have entered the "everything is cutting off my stomach's circulation!"-point. It's a really special time.

Exercise: I am still swimming! And walking, although I've had a weird sensation down low in my belly when I walk in the evenings. Stevie and I try to take a walk post-dinner, but I almost feel like my belly "drops" throughout the day, so my evening walks have turned into sloooooww waddles. The other night Stevie put on flip flops instead of tennis shoes, and that made me realize... this really isn't exercise for him anymore. And it really is for me. How far we've come from our days logging miles around the reservoir in Central Park. I'll try to stop weeping and keep writing.

Emotional Check: I'm feeling good! My friend Jordan just had her baby this week, and it was a big "whoa!" moment for me. Like, the baby inside of me HAS A FACE. And little, distinct features. It's just blowing my mind. But as much as I am excited to meet him, I am not ready for him to come. Stay in there, man! Keep doing what you're doing! I just want as much time to prepare for him as possible.

Movement: It's like. A mountain. In my belly. That moves. It is the craziest sensation, I wish I had a better description for it. Also, two days ago a pain arrived in the small of my back. It won't leave. I'm assuming this has to do with my body prepping for labor, as well. Have I said it enough yet? PRECIOUS MOMENTS IN THE MAKING HERE.

Looking Forward to: Finishing our birthing class! This weekend we are in all-day Saturday Hypnobirthing sessions, finishing up our learning of the tools and techniques this method encourages. Also, I'm looking forward to finishing up all our purchases for him. And getting everything set up. We are almost there, but not quite.

Feeling Accomplished: Because, 1. I ordered the Medela breast pump through my insurance company, and it finally arrived this week! 2. The car seat we ordered arrived yesterday, and I'm hoping that the stroller/crib mattress/etc. items are heading our way soon! 3. We've been meeting with different pediatricians, and we are hoping to land on a practice that we feel awesome about. 4. Finishing up my water birthing class today! 5. Working on the birth plan.

Prayer Requests: An on-time (not early!) labor/delivery. And perhaps a few awesome nights of rest before this little guy makes his appearance. Also - this is a big one - our Canon SLR camera decided to stop working THIS WEEK. We are praying it magically turns back on, because I really want good pictures of my newborn! Ah! So prayers that our camera starts working again would be AWESOME.

Thank you!

Thanks for following along our pregnancy journey! Feel free to check check out the 6-month Bumpdate, 7-month Bumpdate, & 8-month Bumpdate :)

21/50 NYC Adventures: Basking in Bryant Park

Basking in Bryant Park.

Bryant Park is just glorious. Located in Midtown, tucked squarely between the busy-ness of Times Square, the Rockefeller Center & Grand Central Station, this park is a standout NYC spot. Bring a blanket to lounge on, or not. There are tables and chairs aplenty, ready to serve your every park-loving whim. Substantially smaller than Central Park, this is an excellent spot to meet a friend for lunch and bask in the citylicious fun of Midtown. With lots of greenery and foliage to bathe your scurried mind in a peaceful calm. Ahhhh, breathe in that oxygen.

There is just something about Bryant Park that is old-school, inviting some kind of connection to the past generations of corporate New Yorkers. Their leather-bound briefcases and smart, tailored suits. Gazing upward at the impressive structures that represent industry, success, power. But here? Put business time aside and just relax. It's the perfect place to meet a pal for lunch. To ice skate in the winter. To read in the summer. Come visit the free Art Cart! Yes, there are free arts and crafts, where you can just draw and paint for hours, lounging by Le Carrousel. What is that? Oh, just the most charming, fanciful merry-go-round in the city. Or if that's not your thing, you can always head over to the Putting Green or Potanque Court for a friendly game. And did I mention the summer long Film Festival? Oh, how I loathe that I cannot be present for this summer's lineup of classic films. This park seriously has it going on, hosting every kind of community activity from yoga to book club to juggling, modern dance and fencing. Yes, fencing.

Yum.

I recently met my sweetheart friend Jenna in Bryant Park for a quick (and delicious!) sandwich at 'Wichcraft, a delicious food cart of sorts. We met each other in Boston when we worked for an ad agency (she hired me!) and we somehow both found ourselves in NYC not too shortly after. I have loved getting time to explore the city with her. On this particularly perfect sunny afternoon, we basked in the breezy warmth and discussed the craziness of living in this city, and the craziness of leaving the city. And she gave me a most beautiful, poignant gift: this book, Good Bye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York. It is a meaningful collection of essays, an homage highlighting all the glorious and gritty that New York offers its proud citizens. Such a sweet gift. I sat in the park for the afternoon, after she scurried back to her office, and read and read and read. And found a thankful peace in the midst of such a strange, exciting transition.

Basking. And thankful.

Thank you, sweet Jenna, for celebrating our departure from New York as a positive thing. For making me feel that this bittersweet decision is really just a progression from one season to the next, leaving a delicious taste in my mouth for this wonderful place I was proud to call home, even if only for a short time. And thanks to Bryant Park, I will always remember that feeling :)

What's Coming Up.

// Hydrangeas from my mom's yard. Ahhh. //

It's July!

Happy Monday, dear friends. I hope you had a blast celebrating the 4th of July with friends and family and my personal lover, watermelon.

I thought I would give you an update on what's coming up on the blog in the next few weeks.

I'm about to have a baby, in case you haven't heard.

Or noticed my gradual growth.

You are so kind to pretend you haven't noticed. I love you for that. You liar.

I have about 4 weeks until my due date, which means that soon (and very soon!) this little guy will be making his way into our lives. We are excited, thrilled, a little freaked (just of the unknown factor), and busily preparing ourselves, our birth plan, our home, our car, and our brains. But I'll save all those juicy details for this week's Bumpdate.

The past 6 weeks have been chock-full of transition in our world. We just moved out of our 1-bedroom apartment in New York City... into the upstairs of my parents' suburban Georgia home. Talk about a transition! We are all still adjusting. They have been gracious. They have bitten their tongues on several occasions. We will gladly accept your prayers.

Even though we're in Georgia now, I still have SO MUCH about NYC that I want to share. We experienced life in 3-D during our time living in Manhattan, and I wish that part of me could go on living there forever. While also living here. Does that make any sense? Anyway, I want to go ahead and share a lot of NYC-themed posts over the course of this next week, and then we will close the chapter to the 50 NYC Adventures for a season. So far, I've only shared 20 with you. I have so much more that I would like to share about NYC, but in preparation for the baby invasion, I'm going to hit pause on that series and come back to it again after the baby arrives (and after another NYC trip, which we are hoping we can make happen in late-fall :)Yes, we like to dream.

So coming up on the blog over the next month? Finishing up some NYC Adventures, more baby prep/pregnancy-related stuff, some new (WONDERFUL) Georgian tales, and a not-so-surprising lack of recipes (I loathe cooking these days). Once our little man arrives, I'll take about a month off (give or take) from blogging and be updating everyone via Instagram.

Just wanted to give you a sense of where everything is headed, rather rapidly - to babyland! Thanks for being part of our journey :)

8-Month Bumpdate

// Left: About 34.5 weeks, at the friendly local Kroger, Middle: A midnight snack of PJ&J & this hilarious book, Right: We prom-posed for this one, celebrating our 7-year wedding anniversary! We did dinner. And then had a foot-rubbing session. //

The Progress.

How Far Along: 8.5 months (35 weeks)

Gender: Boy oh boy oh BOY (if you missed it, you can check out our Gender Reveal!)

Name: Everett Lee Hale.

Sleeping? Oh sweet Everett. I fear you are nocturnal like your paternal grandparents. This kiddo comes ALIVE at 3am and wants to play soccer or dance or something in my belly - what am I going to do with you once you're outside of my body?? Play with you, I guess. I will just have to play with you. I am already completely baby whipped, people.

Also, sleeping isn't really a thing anymore as much as napping is. The naps I take throughout the night are interrupted by the incredible urge to pee almost every hour. That's not even the saddest part though. The most pathetic (and I'll admit - funny) part is how hard it is to get out of bed every time nature calls. It's like, really really hard. I am really really big.

Eats: Ha, not much has changed throughout this pregnancy. Give me protein! Depart from me, kale! Although I had a weird bought of calf spasms that spooked me in the middle of the night (I woke myself up howling, which woke Stevie up, and he started freaking out and I had to scream at him, "I'M NOT IN LABOR, it's just my CALF HURRRRRTS!!!" No drama in this family.) Apparently calf spasms are a 3rd trimester thing, and no one knows why. They hurt like a mother though! My fabulous doula recommended I get more potassium, so I've been chugging coconut water with lemon and putting banana slices on everything. As in, I have a side of banana with my nutella :) Priorities.

Wearing: While the bathing suit-and-tennis shoes combo has been winning the comfort award the past few weeks (though perhaps not the style award), I have actually found myself putting real clothes on because it makes me feel the most normal. I am actually enjoying the empowered feeling of the third trimester, because any/all sense of body shame has just vanished. I am big. I am a woman. I am ripening a child's life inside of me. Like, who can top that?? So... yeah. Feeling better about myself these days. Although putting on some fun jewelry really helps, too.

Exercise: I have been walking and swimming, mostly. I have yet to unpack my Tracey Anderson DVDs from the move... but during the interim, I am so thankful for my parents' saline pool! I am able to swim laps and then do some squats, lunges and stretches out in the yard. Its like being 12 again, except with a gigantically swollen stomach.

Emotional Check: It's finally happened. The incredible urge to nest. I personally loathe the term "nesting", because I am not a bird and it just sounds so DUMB. But I have a strong conviction that the concept is completely important and natural to the process of readying myself for Everett's arrival. I've been working on his nursery, moving boxes into storage, framing pictures, finding places for his diapers, washing onesies and blankets, etc. I can't wait until it's all finished!

Movement: He is moving more than ever. He is so strong that he actually moves my entire torso with his squirms. More than once, I have been in the middle of a conversation with someone, and all the sudden (when he starts to move), I am completely distracted because he just punched me in the ribs and IT STUCK OUT. It's pretty crazy to watch your own stomach convulsions.

Looking Forward to:  Our birthing class! We've had one session and are prepping for an all-day session next Saturday. Yes, we are a bit late to the game in terms of when we are actually doing this class, but in the midst of moving, we weren't left with much of a choice. We have chosen the Hypnobirthing Method as the way we want to prepare for labor and delivery, and all the classes I tried to get us into, post-move, weren't available. So we are going with a semi-private class with a couple of friends and, fingers crossed, we will absorb the material and feel much more confident once we are on the other side of the course.

Prayer Requests: I will take all the encouragement, positive advice and prayers you are offering! We are praying for a peaceful, healthy, normal labor & delivery, and most of all, a healthy baby boy!

Thanks for following along our pregnancy journey! Feel free to check check out the 6-month Bumpdate & 7-month Bumpdate :)

20/50 NYC Adventures: Black Seed Bagel

Black Seed Bagel.

Word on the street is that this is THE PLACE for bagels in NYC. Forget those monstrous, slathered-in-cream-cheese, bloated New York bagels... Black Seed Bagel boasts the latest and greatest recipe in the bageling world. It's the only place in Manhattan serving this style... and it hails from Canada. That's right. You read me correctly. CANADA. Much like the cronuts at Dominique Ansel's, people line up at the crack of dawn to score their beloved breakfast bread. And sometimes? Well, Black Seed runs out. So you better hurry.

The Hype.

Why all the fuss? Apparently Montreal-style breakfast bagels are the jam these days. How do I know this? Weeeeeeeeeeell, I went to this uber-posh dinner party for a dear friend, and let me tell you, the guests at this gig were SO CHIC. A real New York moment, honestly. I don't know how I got invited. One guy was a fashion designer, another guy was an artist (like, a REAL one), another dude and his wife started this super cool blog that was taking Manhattan's restaurant realm by storm. It was like everywhere I turned, there was another awesomely accomplished, interesting-souled person to talk to. And one of those delightful humans shed some light on the "best bagel in the world" that I "absolutely HAD to try" before moving out of NYC. So I mean, what do you do when a stranger so strongly recommends something? Usually nothing. But people, he was talking about BREAKFAST FOOD. So, an obvious exception.

Taste the Gluten. DO IT.

Thank God we listened to him. Black Seed Bagel blew my mind. And our mystery friend was right - it was the best bagel I had ever tasted. Stevie and & seriously considered getting back in line for seconds. Why are they so great? These bagels are significantly smaller than NYC bagels, with a honeyed hint of sweetness and an almost almond-esque finish. It could be the fact that they bake them in a brick-fire oven. Or the way they hand-roll the dough and then poach the bagel in its final moment before serving. Could it be the butter-glazed outside, the tenderly crisped inside? Stevie opted for the Everything Bagel with cold-smoked salmon, avocado, tomato & cream cheese, while I omitted the salmon and had everything else. It was truly, truly SO GRAND. Ah, I'm salivating just at the memory.

Just Sayin'.

You lucky Manhattan-ites - go and get it. NOW.