Yesterday was a momentous occasion for our sweet Hadley…it was her first NC State football game/tailgating experience! Those who know us well know that, as NC State alumni, our group of friends take tailgating very seriously. We love to go all out with the food/setup and we have a great time every.single.game. whether or not State wins the game (let’s be honest… many times we don’t). Anyway, I was a little nervous about how H would do being out there all day (we started tailgating at 1…the game wasn’t until 6) and how it would all work with nap time, food, etc., so we brought in reinforcements (Jon’s parents) for the first game JUST in case she didn’t do well. The plan was that if she decided she wasn’t going to cooperate, Jon’s mom and I would head home with H and his dad and him would go on to the game. Anyway, I am happy to report that Hadley is a Wolfpacker through and through—she did great! :) 

Tailgating was fun as usual. It was a beautiful day for tailgating and some NC State football!

H even has her own miniature NC State tailgating chair… ;)

H’s tailgating food of choice was carrots. :) 

Our tailgating food was this pig. YUM.

We enjoyed hanging out and tried our best to stay cool in the shade…it was HOT!

H had fun with her Papaw!

Around 3:30, Hadley was noticeably sleepy, so I decided to put her in her carseat in the back of the car, with all the air vents blowing directly on her. I rocked her for just a couple of minutes and she was O-U-T… she ended up taking about an hour and a half nap. Major success!

Jon’s winning streak at cornhole finally came to an end thank goodness because I was tired of hearing him brag. ;) 

The Harrington boys sure did make some excellent pork. I am serious, y’all. SO GOOD!

Finally, it was time to go into the game. We had to wake H up to go in, but she was in a great mood. By the way…real men (and the best daddies!) rock baby bjorns. Love.

We had to pause to take our first family pic outside Carter-Finley. Crazy that this was us last year at this time…my how things have changed!

Once we got to our seats…H was loving it. She was squealing at the top of her lungs, and clapping when the crowd cheered. She handled it all better than I could have ever hoped. 

Hadley hung out with Mamaw and snacked on her puffs while watching the Wolfpack dominate. ;)

Toward the end of the game, Jon’s cousin Meg came by to see us! So glad that we got to see her, that she was pulling for the BEST team… and Hadley LOVES her! 

Had to snap one more pic of our little family of wolfpackers. :)

Finally, someone was getting verrrrry sleepy, so it was time for us to head home. 

This was just the first of many NC State games to come for sweet H. I am so thankful and happy that she enjoyed it as much as we did!

-S

Blogging while doing a fantasy football draft…this is an exercise in multi-tasking. It’s preparing me for when the baby gets here I suppose! I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend… we did, it just wasn’t long enough, as usual! Since I’m still running behind on my weekly updates, I’m going to turn this post into a Labor Day weekend recap/23 week update.

Last week was pretty busy at work, so I don’t have a whole lot to update! Our glider came in, and when Jon went to pick it up, only the glider had shipped, not the ottoman. We Jon got the glider put together, but is going to go by and pick up the ottoman sometime this week…can’t wait to get it so I can test out the whole thing! So, so far, in the nursery, we have: the glider, the crib mattress, and a super cute butterfly mobile that Jon picked out from Pottery Barn Kids. I just cannot wait for our furniture to come in so we can start to see it all come together!

This past Friday night, I got off work early (woo hoo!) and headed to the grocery store to get our tailgating food/supplies. I have recently started clipping coupons (I’m just doing it to save a few bucks, I am not going to be one of those people on “Extreme Couponing” on TLC) and ended up saving over $30 on everything, so I call that a success! I spent Friday afternoon and evening prepping food and making sure I had all my ducks in a row. We went to bed semi-early to rest up for the first day of football season 2011! :)

We both got up early (8 a.m) on Saturday; Jon had to mow, and I had to finish getting all the food together. We met up with our tailgating crew around noon (ok, ok, 12:30…but I tried to be on time) and headed out to Carter Finley! It was a beautiful day, sunny, but HOT, so I tried to stay in the shade as much as possible. The food was delish (if I do say so myself), but I feel like I just ate, and drank water/gatorade all day! I literally drank 10 bottles of water during the tailgate…so as a result, I feel like I should have my own personal port-a-potty this season! ;) The boys (that is what I refer to our friends as—there were two other girls there on Saturday and about 20 boys) were all so sweet about the baby; they all asked me questions and told us how happy they were for us. Aaaaand of course they gave Jon and me both a hard time—several of them calculated how old they would be by the time Hadley is 18 (RUDE!)—since they will probably STILL be single then, hahahaha! We had a blast tailgating, hanging out and catching up with everyone…and I didn’t get annoyed with not being able to have a beer, not even once! I’ll post some pictures from the tailgate later this week once I get them uploaded. For now, here’s one that I took with my phone during the game…we were excited for football!

The first half of the game was rough for NC State—we were all just thinking, “grrrreaaat, here we go again.” Such is the life of a NC State fan, though, I suppose! Mike Glennon looked decent, but our offensive line left a LOT to be desired. Luckily we pulled it together somewhat in the 2nd half and we beat Liberty 43-21. I think that Hadley enjoyed her first (of many!) NC State game, as she pretty much kicked from the time I sat down in the stadium until the game was over! Jon also gave her a high five every time we scored, which was cute. :)

As much fun as we had all day Saturday, my feet unfortunately did NOT! That’s right, I guess I experienced my first “real” pregnancy symptom other than barfing every day for 3 months on Saturday evening. When we were walking back to the truck after the game was over, I told Jon that I was getting terrible blisters on my feet, which was so odd because I was wearing shoes that I wear all the time and they had NEVER given me blisters! When I got home, I realized why. My feet were sooo swollen! Proof:

Ouch. I thought it was WAY too early for that, at only 5 months! But, my googling told me otherwise, I read that a lot of women start noticing it around 5 months, especially in the hot summer months and when they are on their feet for a long time (check, and check!). I WAS on my feet most of the evening Friday night and pretty much ALL day on Saturday, in the heat, so I’m sure that is what did it. Next time I will have to remember to sit down every once in a while to keep that from happening.

Sunday morning, we got up, packed a bag, and headed to the lake to spend the rest of our Labor Day weekend with my family. Zack and his family and Miki and hers were all there, so we had a full house! We played on the lake Sunday afternoon, then had a yummy dinner on the grill with everyone plus my sweet Granny and Paw Paw. Sunday night, while I was laying on the couch and Hadley started doing her nightly routine of kicks/flips, Bekah got to feel her kick! It was cute, she squealed when she felt it. Miki had hoped to feel it, too, but unfortunately the baby did not want to cooperate before she went to bed.

Unfortunately, Monday was cloudy/rainy, but the boys finally got some brush burned that my Dad had been trying to do all summer but couldn’t because the water was too high—and the girls stayed inside and relaxed (Bekah, Miki and Kelley worked on a puzzle…and even I got sucked in toward the end even though puzzles are NOT my idea of fun). It was a very low-key day and I got some much-needed lounge time as well as time with my precious nephews and nieces (who are so excited about Miss Hadley, it is so cute!).

I think that catches up on the weekend’s events. Here are the more interesting? 23 week stats:

Size of Baby A: A large mango. She is almost a foot long and weighs in at a little over a pound!

Developments this week: She is becoming more and more active (no kidding, I feel her all the time), and my pregnancy apps all say that I should be able to see the movements on the surface of my skin soon…but I have been seeing that for a couple of weeks now! Also, blood vessels in her lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and her hearing is becoming moore keen. She can hear what I hear, but not at the same level (sounds and voices are muffled by the muscles and tissues around my belly, the placenta, and the amniotic fluid). That means she can hear me singing and talking to her! :)

Weight Gain So Far: Per my scale at home, 7 lbs. Not sure I trust it, though, because the whole time it has read less than the doctor’s office scale. We’ll see the official count at our appointment next Monday! I have a feeling it may be more than that, but we’ll see.

Cravings: Right now, Utz cheese balls. I could seriously eat a whole bag of these things at a time, but I try to limit myself.

Aversions: None.

Symptoms: Frequent bathroom trips. Face breakouts, teenager style. And feet swelling this week! So glamorous.

Movement: So much movement, and I love it. I am feeling like I have someone else with me all the time now, and it’s the coolest thing. I am so glad Bekah got to feel an actual kick, you could see her hand pop up when Hadley kicked!

What I Miss: My normal bras. I have officially gone up a size so far, and I hate spending money on them because they are so expensive! Jon is not complaining, though, haha. (Sorry Dad).

Things I am Thankful For: Our tailgating crew, some of the best friends we could ask for! Jon and I were the first (and really only!) of the group to get married, and are the first (and probably also the only for a long while…we hope, lol) to get pregnant, but they are all so excited for us and were so sweet to me, telling me that I looked cute even though I felt big, hot and uncomfortable. I really love those boys!

What I’m looking forward to: (Added this one this week because we have so much to look forward to!) Our doctor appointment on Monday. Also our 3D/4D ultrasound on September 24 and our first shower, thrown by the fabulous Kirby women, on September 25!

Bump Progress: My sister, Miki, told me thanks for wearing my 2-piece bathing suit to the lake on Sunday because it made her feel a lot better about herself. Rude. And last night, while I was lying in the couch, I heard my mom say to Bekah while giggling, “Look at Steph’s belly”. When I asked her what that was supposed to mean, she said “Well, you said you wanted to LOOK pregnant, and you officially do!” I would say this means I have officially “popped”. ;) I hope this means the maternity clothes I bought a couple of weeks ago will be fitting soon!

Next Doctor Appointment: September 12, a week from yesterday!

Hope everyone has a great short week. Just finished my fantasy draft, and Team Victorious Secret (the defending champs, I might add) is ready to dominate, even though Jon just reminded me that the playoffs will likely be right around the time that I’ll be giving birth. Hope WakeMed Cary has good wireless internet! ;)

-S

Just looking at that picture gives me chills! As I said in yesterday’s post, college football officially starts this weekend.  T-minus 5 days until the first NC State home game… we have been counting down now for months! Jon and I have season tickets (and lifetime rights) to the State games…we, along with several of our friends, went in and got 14 seats total (all together) in the “new” (ok, not so new anymore) end zone when they closed in that side of the stadium. This will be our sixth season with these seats, and we love it!

We take tailgating VERY seriously in our group. With Jeff as the grill master, and with me handling the sides… we eat WELL. Here are a few pics from last season, which we will of course be trying to top this year:

Beer can chickens

Buffalo chicken dip, the boys’ favorite

Loaded potato skins

Chicken breast, veggies, and corn on the cob

YUM. Looking at those pictures makes me even more starving than normal. I am currently brainstorming ideas of food to make this season… so if anyone has any good tailgating-friendly recipes, please send them my way! :)

It is so hard for me to believe that this is our last childless football season! Jon is excited to have a DD for the entire season (I seriously should have planned this better), and I hope I’ll be able to refrain from being annoyed be patient with everyone this year even though I’ll just be drinking good ol’ H20…the good news is, I can’t get iced!

Next year, we will have another member of our wolfpack (yep, Hangover reference there), as we will have Hadley in tow! Both sets of grandparents have offered to come up for the games to help with her; I’m sure for her first season we will just be bringing her out to tailgate for a little while, but she won’t actually go into the games (don’t want her to overheat or for it to be too loud, she will only be 8 months old!). It will be fun to see how all our friends are with her, and I’m already excited for all the photo ops. As you can probably already imagine, she actually already has several NC State outfits already, and I’m sure this is just the beginning:

Aaaand she has several more. :) It is hard for me not to buy every NC State baby-related item I run across, but people keep telling me to be patient and to remember that I am having baby showers here in a couple of months! I’m already envisioning Hadley meeting Mr. & Mrs. Wuf for the first time and growing up as big of a Wolfpack fan as her Mama & Daddy! Jon has said a few times “Well by the time Hadley is at State…”, and I have to ask him, “What makes you so sure she’s going to go to State?”. He says she has no choice! (I would be ok with anywhere except for UNC, haha.) ;)

I’m looking so forward to seeing all of our tailgating crew this weekend…some of them, it has been a while! I think the menu for this weekend is looking like either pork chops or chicken, veggies, mac & cheese, & grilled corn on the cob… with plenty of appetizers (don’t worry boys, there will be buffalo chicken dip) since we’re meeting up at noon and the game doesn’t start until 6.  Absolutely cannot wait! 

-S