Babymoon!

Happy December! Can you believe it?!

We started off last weekend with a babymoon to Portland! It would've been amazing to go to some beautiful sunny beach (um, not that I have a beach bod anymore) but we did what we could comfortably afford, considering we're trying to also save for this baby. From all my work travel, I had some United miles and United (unlike Alaska) allows you to apply miles towards hotels or other things. So we were able to book a hotel room on Saturday night at the Hilton downtown for free!

Saturday morning, we leisurely got up and eventually got on the road for our three-hour drive over the mountains to Portland. Though it was the first of December, there was hardly a skiff of snow on the pass. We headed to Washington Square Mall for a little window shopping; Matt loves malls and is always complaining that Bend has no indoor malls where you can just stroll and look at stuff and enjoy a Hotdog On A Stick (or whatever other junk food). We'd actually bought most presents already so there was really nothing to shop for. We did buy ourselves a video baby monitor (that syncs with smartphones), although it ended up being crap and we have to figure out how to return it now. It felt like we just snacked all afternoon- split a little Panda Express, a little See's Candies, a little Orange Julius. Sniffed candles at Yankee Candles (Matt's fav, which I enjoy now being pregnant since I actually have a sense of smell). Played with some stuff at Brookstone. Then we headed to Matt's fav restaurant, Buster's BBQ, where our friends Spencer and Mary and their two adorable boys met us for dinner. Pulled pork... always right.

After dinner, we headed to our hotel in downtown, which (like the mall) was all beautifully lit up and decorated for Christmas. I joked that Matt should take me to where he proposed on the waterfront, but we saw it a few times from a distance while driving. At our hotel, there was some rocking company holiday party (seemed like a big engineering company) and I was tempted to try to crash it ;) So the first hotel room they gave us had two full beds (and a dirty glass bathroom door)... not that they knew we got the room for free (well, for air miles), they only knew we booked it through a third-party. So we had to go back to the front desk and get a room with a king. That room was fine enough except the shower floor was dirty (literally clumps of dirt) and we discovered that the shower drain didn't really drain (it did, but so slowly that after about 3 mins, I was standing in a pool of water). Nice. But they had a nice saline pool that we went and splashed around in for a few. Swimming while pregnant does feel really nice.

Having worked up a little appetite, we ventured down to the Bistro for some dessert. As we sat at our table, Matt noticed that he could see our dessert sitting on the counter waiting for our waitress to bring to us; it was an open kitchen, where you can see the cooks preparing the food. There were two cooks standing there talking with another waitress and Matt almost walked over to get our desserts himself; it was taking awhile considering there were hardly any other people in the bar and considering our desserts were already plated and just sitting there. I think Matt worried that the people just standing around our desserts were just breathing on them. Then, he saw one of the cooks reach over, then put something in his mouth. At first he thought maybe the cook had his own food near our desserts, but then he noticed the guy again picking at our desserts then putting his fingers in his mouth, scooping something up on the plate and eating it. Several times. I kept turning around but didn't see anything. I suggested that maybe when they cut our desserts, there was extra and the waitress gave it to the cooks. Nope! Our waitress finally went over there, picked up one of the plates and brought it to us. The tip of the pie was missing and in the caramel sauce on the plate, there were obvious swirl marks from his fingers. Matt began to tell her what he saw when we all looked over at the cook, and he did it again to the other dessert! I don't think the waitress could believe it. She took the dessert back over and talked to him, then came back to us and said he'd told her he was just taking a wilty looking raspberry off the plate. Ummm sure, and that's why he ate it?! And multiple times kept picking at the plate?! Needless to say, we didn't get dessert. I was super bummed. We complained but all they gave us was two free continental breakfasts (which were valued at $15 each but all it consisted of was coffee, juice, oatmeal and some dry looking muffins), gee thanks.

Look how cute Matt is

Well, we made the best of it anyhow. The next morning we took advantage of the free breakfasts and then some. Then we checked out, headed to Clackamas Towne Center for a little more browsing, had some yummy lunch at Panera Bread (man, I wish we had one in Bend), and went to visit my grandma before heading home. It had actually snowed overnight in the mountains so it was a pretty drive home. Though when we did get home, we noticed that our house was totally dark... and the garage door wouldn't open... and in fact the entire street was dark. Power outage. Fortunately it had just gone out a few minutes before we got home so the house was still warm. We lit some candles, ate some terrible fastfood since I couldn't cook dinner, and were more appreciative of the pleasure of power when it finally came back on. I wish we'd have taken more pictures... oh well.

So, at 26 weeks, I'm really showing. Strangers are now asking my due date. It keeps catching me off-guard because obviously I've known about this for 5 months but no one else I haven't told has. Now it's clear to the world. Which is also cool because it means now that I just don't look like I need to do situps.

The network of nerves in baby's ears is better developed and more sensitive than before. He may now be able to hear both Matt's and my voice as we chat with each other. He's inhaling and exhaling small amounts of amniotic fluid, which is essential for the development of his lungs. These so-called breathing movements are also good practice for when he's born and takes that first gulp of air. And he's continuing to put on baby fat. He now weighs about a pound and two-thirds and measures 14 inches (an English hothouse cucumber) from head to heel. His testicles are beginning to descend into his scrotum — a trip that will take about two to three days.

He's been kicking a lot, multiple times a day though I can't figure out any pattern. I've also started to notice his hiccups. It's very rhythmic and feels like when your heart is racing (like you can really feel your heartbeat) but in my abdomen. It's not painful but it's not exactly comfortable. Ugh one night this week, I got up at 2am to pee and when I got back into bed, he started kicking me in the rib and hiccuping for the next 20-30 minutes. Getting kicked in the ribs does not feel good. It feels like someone poking you in the ribs but from the inside (not jabbing, not necessarily painful, but uncomfortable). He's also gotten big enough to start kicking me in organs, like my bladder. So I'm both grateful to feel him moving, because sometimes it's cool and because I'm always glad to know he's in there healthy, but also not enjoying the ways in which it's unpredictable and uncomfortable.

Also this week, I tried to make Matt an ugly sweater to wear to work for their annual photo. I would think that Goodwill would have some but they hardly had any holiday clothes, and I didn't have time to go elsewhere so I bought this ugly Santa shirt and sewed on some hideous stuff from The Dollar Tree. I think it turned quite... ugly!

And I officially found out that I'm in the CMP directory now, so yes, I really passed my certification. I am now a Certified Meeting Professional, which I suppose means I should be able to plan a conference or event, though in my current job, it means very little except that it may seem impressive to clients being that I have a certification in our industry, even if the work I actually do is not planning work. My clients are the meeting planners, not me, but whatever. I studied quite a bit for it over the last 10 months, and ended up having to take the exam twice, so I'm proud to have passed.