Exciting new blog name change

We are excited to announce that we are now 2 1/3 Stooks, as we'll be welcoming Baby Stooks in early August.  We are thrilled to have made it out of the first trimester and I'm now just over 15 weeks along.  We "came out" on Facebook two weeks ago and it's exciting for us to finally be able to share the news with our friends and family.

Pregnancy so far has been pretty symptom free.  What symptoms I think I had were primarly in early Dec. (around 6-7 wks.) and seemed fairly minor to me - night sweats, difficulty sleeping and lightheadedness when standing.  A stomach bug took out most of Kevin's family over Christmas and with my head in the toilet I thought "maybe this is morning sickness starting?" but alas, just a 24 hr. bug.  Friends who have been through symptom-heavy pregnancies have been telling me how easy I have it, how lucky I am... but it's a very disconcerting feeling not "feeling" pregnant like the stereotypes on TV and in the movies.  I would like some reminder that something is really going on in there, but my doctor told me once "you don't have to be sick to be pregnant" so I just keep hanging on to that.

I've also been getting asked about what I will do with Weight Watchers now that I'm pregnant.  The official Weight Watchers position on pregnancy is pretty strict - your membership has to go on hold while you're pregnant because clearly losing weight is not the most condusive to a healthy pregnancy.  I am sticking to the plan as much as I can while adding in the recommended ~300 additional calories daily.  I've been cleared to keep working out 60-90 minutes daily and have kept that up pretty much since day 1, just with reduced intensity.  I've also eliminated my weights routine for the time being.  Before getting pregnant I was still about 40 lbs. from goal weight, so my weight gain recommendation is lower than the average weight woman.  I'm just trying to eat as healthy as I can and certainly some days are better than others, but I've come to far to tread too far backwards!

I am adjusting to the pregnancy "diet" of things you can and can't eat.  There are a few things like sushi and smoked salmon that are pregnancy no-nos that I truly miss.  There are other things like lunchmeat that you can only eat when served steaming (to kill listeria) and things like hot dogs / certain other lunchmeats that you should avoid due to nitrates.  I don't normally eat a ton of lunchmeat, but we found out we were pregnant in November which meant a Christmas of attempting (poorly) to avoid honey hams.  I'm also missing out on soft cheeses (pasteurization/listeria issues) like brie, goat, feta and blue.  Normally not a big deal for me but I've been to a few restaurants lately with awesome looking cheese plates.  I've also chosen to given up soda (my beloved 7up Free), not for caffeine reasons but for artificial sweetener reasons.  For these same reasons I'm abstaining from iced tea with my Equal/Sweet & Low combo.  It is a sad, lonely world drinking primarily water.  Thankfully because of Weight Watchers I enjoy water a lot more now, but it is just so darn plain.  I've also taken to drinking 100% fruit juices but they generally seem like empty calories so I limit those to just a cup every other day or so (because have I mentioned how plain water is?).

We find out the sex (which we want to know!) in mid-March, so stay tuned!