Crave

It's gooey.  It's salty.  It's so smooth.  And pressed between two Wheat Thin crackers it is the most superb, delicious, culinary masterpiece...and it is terrible for me.  What can I say?  The crave wants what the crave wants, and right now that happens to be easy, breezy, beautiful Easy Cheese.  It first hit me on Tuesday on my way to work and on my break I just had to run to Safeway to get a bottle and a box of Wheat Thins. Don't worry, the box isn't totally gone yet!

People have been asking about my cravings and aversions since Baby Ramm's existence became known.  Since I am now in a place where I can talk about food without taking a deep breath and fighting back the wave of nausea, I decided to share the cravings/aversions greatest hits.

We'll start with the worst: Foods I would not touch, let in my home, and tried my darndest not to smell.  (Note- these have all passed so I feel safe talking about them now.)

1. Any dish that was a mixture of tomato sauce with mozzarella.  Lasagna was the worst offender.  At the height of this particularly nasty aversion I had to go to a birthday lunch for a colleague...at the Olive Garden!  I had to breath through my mouth the whole time and try to pretend I was enjoying my soup, salad and breadsticks.

2. Fried food older than 10 seconds.  This one was tricky because it smelled amazing to me as it was cooking (french fries, egg rolls, etc.) but after it had been sitting out for any period of time I wanted nothing to do with it.

3.  Coffee.  This both surprised and delighted me.  I had a pretty serious coffee addiction before I got pregnant and was worried it would be hard to kick the habbit.  Not the case.  I couldn't even stand the smell.  Unfortunately, the crave is coming back.  I indulged in a latte this week (decaf people!) and it was sooo, sooo good.  Like the loving embrace of good friend.

4.  Yakisoba Noodles.  Again, one of my favorite treats in pre-prego days.  I had a bad experience during the dark days (aka, first trimester), and I am still struggling a little with this one.

5.  Beer and wine.  Not that I was attempting to drink either of these, but the smell was awful.  I could not even take the smell of communion at church!  So imagine how awful it was to smell it seeping out of my clients' pores in my little office...the worst.

Now, onto a more fun topic!  The cravings!  These are my puppy love cravings...they burned hot and fast and then I was on to my next relationship:

1.  Cheetos.  Crunchy, not puffed.  Also, not good for me.  Are we detecting a trend here?  I ate these for a mid-morning snack (yes, morning) for a solid two weeks and have not wanted any since.

2.  Crystal Light.  I was particularly fond of Fruit Punch, but I definitely would not have kicked either Raspberry Ice or Raspberry Lemonade out of bed.

3. Blue cheese dressing.  So amazing to my taste buds!  In fact, I started thinking of it as some kind of snooty, gourmet, ingredient that only "us foodies" know about, even though my Grandma has been eating it for years!  I am still quite fond of it, but when I was at the height of the crave I definitely looked down my nose at ranch people.  Ranch is so second class.

4.  Grape juice.  I have never been a huge grape juice person, but one morning I woke up and told Erik, "I HAVE to have some grape juice stat."  So I stopped at the gas station and got a little individual bottle. Not enough.  For the next 3 weeks my day would not start out right unless I was sipping on my grape juice on ice with a straw.

Well that about sums up the hot and dirty history of my craves.  The current ones are Easy Cheese (see above), dark chocolate almond milk (amazing!), apples (yay, a healthy one!), homemade macaroni and cheese (we've had it twice in the past week and a half) and mustard (so good on really anything).  I usually justify the ones that are bad for me by telling myself Baby Girl must need them or I wouldn't want them so much.

All this talk of food has made me hungry.  Excuse me while I waddle to the fridge and grab a nice cold glass of chocolate almond milk with a side of Easy Cheese :).

Sugar and spice and everything nice

Here she is, Baby Girl Rammelsberg!

We had our 20-week ultrasound yesterday and the doctor is 95% sure it's a girl!

Daddy was quite pleased.  Mommy was too :).

I had hoped we would be able to come away with some awesome 3D pics of Baby Girl's face so we would have an idea of what she looks like.  Unfortunately, she had her face pushed up against the placenta, which does not do well with 3D imaging.  On a related note, I now know what my placenta looks like (yuck!).

We are so, so excited to be having a daughter.  We would have been excited either way, but it is just nice knowing.  It makes it more real somehow.  The Grandparents and Aunties are very excited as well.  Have I mentioned this is the first grandbaby on both sides?  Baby Girl doesn't have enough fingers for all the people she has to wrap around them.  What a spoiled girl.

That's all I have for now.  Let the shopping commence!

What's in a name?

Recently, Beyonce and Jay-Z welcomed their new daughter into the world: Blue Ivy Carter.  The internet was in a flurry discussing whether this was a good or bad choice of name, what it means, and even had it wrong in some cases (some were reporting it as Ivy Blue rather than Blue Ivy...the horror!).  All this nonsense just confirmed what I already knew to be true about baby naming: you will be judged no matter what you do!  Luckily for us, unlike Bey and Z, the discussion of our choice in baby name will not be a worldwide trend.  However, no matter what we decide on we will be judged.  I freely admit I am the worst baby name judger of all, so this is probably where my paranoia stems from.  Just for the record, I do not hate the name Blue, but will there be a Blue Rammelsberg in the near future?  Definitely not.

Now that I am on the other end of the naming game (the giver rather than the judger), I have new respect for every person who has ever named a child.  Naming a baby is hard.  It will be a person's name for their whole life.  Do you use a popular name that everyone knows how to pronounce?  Do you go for one-of-a-kind names that will make your child stand out?  Do you stick with family names?  All good questions that I think all parents need to decide for themselves.

Popular names:
My initial thought was "nothing in the top 10."  My name is Jessica, which was apparently the number 1 name in 1985, the year I was born.  I didn't have any classmates with the same name until high school, but they were a dime a dozen in college.  Plus, for whatever reason, people confuse it with Jennifer ALL THE TIME!  I like my name, I just wish it were less common.

Here are the top 10 boys and girls names of 2011:

Girls

1. Sophia
2. Emma
3. Isabella
4. Olivia
5. Ava
6. Lily
7. Chloe
8. Madison
9. Emily
10. Abigail

Boys

1. Aiden
2. Jackson
3. Mason
4. Liam
5. Jacob
6. Jayden
7. Ethan
8. Noah
9. Lucas
10. Logan

Like I said, initially it was top ten, no way.  Since then I read some good information in one of my favorite prego books (The Christian Mama's Guide to Having a Baby by Erin MacPherson - it's great).  She made the point that in the past few years Jacob has been the number one boys name, with 5,500 out of every million babies born being given that name.  That is still less than 1%.  So I guess you could say I am no longer opposed to anything just because it is on the top 10 list.

Unique Names:

I think there is a sliding scale on what qualifies as "unique."  I can get behind different names as long as they are easy to pronounce.  Example: my cousin named her baby Aniiah, which I think is beautiful yet unique.  I do not care for names that make no sense.  Example: a friend of ours told a story of a girl whose name was Le-a (pronounced Ladasha because the "dash" is not silent).  Enough said about unique names.

Family Names:

This is a tricky area.  Initially we were thinking of incorporating a family name into Baby Ramm's middle name.  But then we got to thinking that it might hurt other family members' feelings if the baby were not named after them.  Or it would put pressure on naming the next baby after someone from the other side of the family.  Plus, when it comes to girl names we run into a bit of a problem.  Our grandmothers' names are/were Vera, Juanita, and Ardis.  Perfect for the lovely ladies they belong to, but not great baby names.  (There was also a Helen but we have been informed that name is already taken :).)

So where does that leave us?  Yes, we have picked Baby Ramm's name (we have one boy and one girl name all ready to go!).  So when will it be available for judgment by the court of public opinion?  I guess you'll find out on or around June 6, when the ink is dry on the birth certificate :).

All because two people fell in love...

Today is our 3rd anniversary.  It has been three years since we said "I do," danced to "For Me It's You" by Train in front of our family and friends, and since I became Mrs. Rammelsberg.  Time flies when you're having fun!  This year our celebration is accompanied by excitement as we await the coming of Baby Ramm.  There have been conversations with comments like "can you believe next year at this time we will have a baby?"  Waiting on Baby Ramm has made us grow even closer to each other.  I don't know how to describe it exactly, but we are more patient, more affectionate, and more "together" than before.

In honor of the day I am posting some pics showing the journey that led to us becoming the Fammelsbergs :).  There are some oldies but goodies.

The dating years:

Christmas 2007/New Year's 2008:

The engagement!

Mission trip to Guatemala:

Our first place together in Moscow, Idaho:

Various Halloweens:

The Wedding:

Honeymooning in Hawaii:

First Anniversary - Leavenworth, WA:

Law school graduation + post-graduation trip to Vancouver B.C.

Which brings us to the most recent: prego Jess and excited Erik

(Please try to ignore my crazy eyes in this one)

Last night as I was getting myself situated in bed with my big body pillow I turned around and found Erik carefully arranging my wedge pillow behind me and thought for the hundredth time that I have the best husband in the world.

Three years ago we celebrated a wedding; today we celebrate a marriage.

I think we have a professional hide-and-seeker here!

Just a quick update for Baby Ramm fans (or to keep all the family informed at once):

Yesterday we had a 17-week check-up appointment and everything looks good.  Baby Ramm was being naughty as usual and was hiding from the doctor and her dopplar.  However, in this case Mommy approves because that means they had to wheel in the ancient ultrasound machine to make sure everything is ok and we got an extra look at Baby R.  I can't believe how much she/he has grown!  And what a little mover and shaker!  She/he is taking full advantage of the recently acquired long limbs and was kicking around like crazy.  In three weeks we get to go in for our 20-week ultrasound and that means finding out gender :).  Hopefully...

In other news, we had a visit from this little monkey last night:

May I introduce our preparation for Baby Ramm?  This is Aniiah and she is my cousin's 5-month-old.  So...my first cousin once removed?  Let's just call her my niece.

She is the best baby!  Always smiling and being adorable.  Erik is absolutely in love with her :).

Toast, on the other hand, has some reservations.  It is also good practice for him to get used to a baby.  I think it will be ok- at one point they were actually cuddling together on the boppy pillow.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Lately, I have been a little emotional.  I occasionally burst into tears for no reason at all.  THANK GOD it has not happened while I have been in court.  With the emotion I have also found myself feeling sentimental.  Christmas is a big deal around our apartment.  I come from a long line of Christmas lovers, but nobody does Christmas like my husband.  He is pure holly jolly.  He blasts carols.  He makes Christmas candies.  He anticipates Christmas morning like any four-year-old.  And, God bless him, he really does try to wrap gifts.  In essence, he is a delight to be around, especially during the holidays.

Getting back to my new-found sentimental self, every morning when I wake up I take advantage of some alone time and eat my cereal to the light of the tree.  Every year, Erik and I purchase an ornament to commemorate the year.  It started when we were first dating and we are starting to get quite a collection, with only one casualty (A snow couple inside a snow globe from 2007.  Come on Macy's, thicker glass next time!).  With Baby Ramm on the way I find myself thinking about where we were in our relationship during each careful purchase and love the beautiful story the ornaments tell.  See, I told you...way too sentimental.  Maybe too sappy?  Well, that's who I am right now apparently.  So, I decided to share a few of them with y'all:

  2006- The first one.  We had just started dating that fall, but I think we both knew we would be spending all our Christmases together after that.

If you can't see, this is Minny eyeing an engagement ring through a window and Mickey is sweating.  This is from 2008, the year we got engaged :).

Here is last year's, 2010.  I include it to commemorate our last year as "just the two of us."

Finally, I present Christmas Ornament 2011.  Parents excitedly waiting for the arrival of Baby Ramm.

I would be remiss if I did not show another member of the family who doesn't know he is waiting for the arrival of Baby Ramm:

Toast also really likes Christmas!  Everyone keeps saying he is not going to know what hit him when baby comes.  There is probably some truth to that.  But I have a feeling they will be besties before long.

So...that's the end.  Thank you for indulging my emotions.  Merry Christmas everyone!

Shock and Awe

As it turns out, everyone I know and love is capable of lies and deceit!  Although, I think in this case we can forgive them.  Intrigued?  Read on.

So who were these perpetrators of my trust?  Enter perp 1, the Mastermind, my bff Lauren.  If that is even her real name.  She convinced me I needed to drop by her house on my way to watch Dexter at my Mom's.  Luckily for her, I'm used to her nonsense requests and agreed without suspicion.  Enter perp 2, the Accomplice, my own Mom!  She made up an extremely believable excuse that she could not have dinner with us before Dexter so we had to arrive there later than usual...pure lies.  Finally, enter perp 3, the most surprising on the list, the Baby Daddy, Erik.  He very inconspicuously delivered me right into the den of the lion.  Honey, I didn't know you had it in you and frankly, I'm a little concerned.  So what does all this deceit add up to?  A surprise baby shower!

(Side note:  If you let a prego believe her daily activities consist only of lounging on the couch watching Miracle on 34th Street during intermittent napping, then going to the grocery store, followed by going to her Mom's house to watch Dexter, she is not going to run her closet, pull out her Sunday best, fix her hair, or create any pretense that she is "such a cute little pregnant person" rather than the mess she feels like.  So let me paint the picture of my appearance as I arrived as the guest of honor: charcoal leggings I pulled out of the dirty clothes hamper, a bright red sweatshirt, fluffy brown boots I literally pulled out of the bag going to Goodwill because they looked warm, nap hair, and no make-up.  I'm just grateful I brushed my teeth at the last minute!)

Back to the shower: Once I got over the shock I had a great time.  Several family members and friends were there, and I was told even my sister was involved in the elaborate scheme.  We played some baby shower games, including name that baby food (umm...baby food beef and chicken are disgusting!  I think Baby Ramm might be a vegetarian until he/she can eat solid food.)  Baby Ramm got some really nice gifts and I was once again reminded of how lucky he/she is to be born into such a loving and supportive (if somewhat devious) family.  And the best part of being totally caught off guard: no camera, so we will pretend no photos exist to document my unfashionable entrance :).  Thanks to everyone for scheming and going along with the ruse, it was a lot of fun!