Miami Weekend Getaway & Our Must-Do List

Yes, the only good photo from a three shot camera timer is with his hand on my boob. This is his favorite pose when being in a photo. This is from the Wynwood neighborhood.

Miami has become our weekend destination... to relax! Our first weekend spent in Miami was Labor Day weekend in 2012 and we stayed at The Standard; it was the most relaxing weekend ever! We spent our time laying by the pool under an umbrella (well, my pale skin requires a full-time umbrella) and only left the hotel for dinner and a bike ride. This past weekend we pretty much did the same except we stayed at a different hotel since I wouldn't be able to enjoy the Lido Spa massage floor, which is amazing if you're not pregnant!

LIST OF MUST-DOS FOR A QUICK RELAXING MIAMI GETAWAY

STAY

W HOTEL

THE STANDARD

SEE

WYNWOOD

EAT

PUBBELLY

PRIDE & JOY

YARDBIRD

The morning of my birthday we woke up early, dropped the dogs off at daycare and made it to Miami in four hours. Once we checked in we spent some time on the beach to do my birthday suit compare photo and ordered a bite to eat to hold us over until dinner. I was so happy to find watermelon on almost every menu in Miami! Baby S was craving it too, you can see her foot about to kick me in the ribs!

On a mini vaca like this, our main goal is to relax but also eat well at places we can't get in Tampa. We did our usual google searches for "farm to table" and "foodie" and then ultimately asked our friends of our favorite restaurant in Tampa, The Refinery where we should go. The one place they mentioned was Pubbelly, we looked it up and realized that's where we went in 2012; we're not big 'repeaters' because we like to try new places but we loved it so we decided to go there again and end our search so we could get back to doing nothing. 

Pork belly must be 'in season' because it was all over the menu so of course we ordered plenty, their dumplings were amazing and the noodles and rice dish was spicy and filling. I decided to skip dessert because I was really in the mood for a big cup of ice cream around the corner. Their menu changes. and may change by the time you click, but this was the menu on my birthday. We had the McBelly, Short Rib & Corn dumplings, Kimchee Fried Rice and Green Beans. 

The next day we ate at The Dutch, the restaurant in the W, and as imagined it was over priced and mediocre but convenient since we had to stake out chairs by the pool before there was a wait list. 

Although we enjoyed ourselves by the pool for a couple hours it was a cloudy day so we decided to head to our favorite part of town, no, not South Beach but the Wynwood art district. There's basically a ton of art galleries, an awesome coffee shop, a few food spots (we had a bite to eat at The Butcher Shop) and one brewery. What makes this area so unique and artsy is the artwork displayed outside of all the buildings. 

These photos are from our last trip in 2012 

(the only one we took this year is the one above)

Within one of the Wynwood buildings is a fresh juice bar, JugoFresh. Since our next stop was the Wynwood Brewery, I grabbed a fresh juice and Nate had a juice made into a vegan milkshake. These were so good, they're made fresh every morning in-house. 

I had the P.A.M.pered Ginger (Pineapple, Apple, Ginger, Mint and Maca Extract). 

Of course, we had to visit their brewery, Wynwood Brewing Company. Luckily, for me, they had games :) The beers weren't rated very high by Nate but it was refreshing to find craft beers. 

As usual, I won :)

For dinner we were looking for something a little more casual and in the neighborhood so we ate at a BBQ spot called, Pride & Joy. It wasn't the best, but it was still good and just what we needed. 

Nate let me sleep in before checking out of the hotel while making his arm fall asleep. I have a confession I never thought I'd have to tell. For the first time ever, on the night of my birthday, I woke Nate and myself up from snoring! I woke myself up multiple times during the night...

And the most important place we went the entire trip was to YardBird for brunch, all thanks to our foodie friend Matt! We HIGHLY recommend this spot too. This was a perfect end to a very relaxing birthday trip and what some might call a baby moon... our real baby moon will happen after she's born :)

37 Weeks! [This milestone deserves an exclamation point]

Due date: April 8, 2014

How far along? 37 Weeks

What fruit are you? Bunch of Swiss Chard

Total weight gain/loss: 41 lbs
Maternity clothes? The only clothes I can wear; my staples are tanks and Ts from Gap Maternity, J.Crew maternity jeans and my regular maxi dresses. 

Stretch marks? Not yet...

Sleep: Better than last week
Miss Anything? Talking without a lisp... these chubby cheeks need to go. 

Exercise: Bike rides, dog walks and yoga.
Movement: All the time like she doesn't fit in my belly any more, because she doesn't. A lot of rib kicking, she's at least helping my posture!

Food cravings: Watermelon and breaded sweets: muffins and donuts

Anything making you queasy or sick: Last weekend the smell of truffled oil on fries

Gender: Girl

Labor Signs: Braxton Hicks contractions, round ligament pains and light cramping when I'm doing too much

Belly Button in or out? the very, very inside is still inside but the rest is out

Happy or Moody: Tired and irritated

Looking forward to: My 28th Birthday on Friday and hopefully a weekend getaway, living in Florida and having a birthday during spring break season is not ideal for last minute plans! AND only two more days of work until my maternity leave starts :)
Best moments last week: The crash course of hypno-birthing and the arrival of the bookshelf and glider for the nursery! A nursery update coming soon :)

This was our St. Paddy's Day dinner outing: Fly Bar in downtown Tampa with a mocktail and Nate's favorite wine for their Monday special of 1/2 off wine night accompanied with jazz music. Nothing irish about this night except my green attire, heritage and Baby S' name :)

36 Weeks

It's been so long since we've been on a vacation that this music festival felt like one. It might of had something to do with the perfect weather we had but it was a much needed weekend of music and relaxation. This was also the most family friendly music festival we've ever seen, one of the bands even stopped playing to talk about it (positively); yay!

This entire weekend I was also reminded that I'm pregnant, huge and yes...I'm due soon. I suppose being around so many people the odds aren't in my favor.
My list of reminders:

1. Two people asked me personally: "Are you having twins?"

2. "Whoa!" (I noticed one guy say this to his friend as they walked by and I turned to my mom to ask if she saw it and she said, I've been seeing that all day except people were pointing at you)

3. "She's going to drop it right here" (my mom overheard this one too)

Due date: April 8, 2014

How far along? 36 Weeks (measuring 35 weeks)

What fruit are you? Head of lettuce

Total weight gain/loss: 40 lbs (yikes... and still one month left!)
Maternity clothes? The only clothes I can wear; my staples are clothes tanks and Ts from Gap Maternity, J.Crew jeans and my regular maxi dresses.

Stretch marks? Not yet...

Sleep: Not so much... tossing and turning.
Miss Anything? Sleep and energy

Exercise: Bike rides, dog walks and yoga.
Movement: All the time like she doesn't fit in my belly any more, because she doesn't. Her movements are actually uncomfortable in some spots. 

Food cravings: Girl Scout cookies and watermelon

Anything making you queasy or sick: Nope

Gender: Girl

Labor Signs: Braxton Hicks contractions, round ligament pains and light cramping when I'm doing too much

Belly Button in or out? the very, very inside is still inside but the rest is out

Happy or Moody: Tired and irritated

Looking forward to: Our crash course in hypnobirthing at our house tonight!
Best moments last week: We're certified in infant and child/adult CPR, a weekend full of music and perfect weather and another art piece for the nursery by one of our favorite local artists, Brandon McLean!

Nana Fran

Music partner

Snickers Ice Cream :)

Boring water...

Nana Fran and two of my lady friends!

New art piece for Baby S

I love how he includes all four edges of the canvas 

A Bottle of Wine and Dad's First Taste of Parenthood

The one thing I've learned (still attempting) to embrace from Nate is his spontaneity and never making a decision based on consequences; which is what all of my decision making is based upon. Anytime Nate makes a suggestion that will change our plans I always have a brief moment of panic and anxiety of what-ifs and then sometimes I let go and try to be in the moment with him. When I've let myself do this before it usually has positive results but the negative times are catastrophic day-ruiners.

Nate had his first realization of the selfless acts he'll have to encounter in the future. After a bottle of wine, someone has to finish it since I can't help, and late night music listening while I had already gone to bed, Nate had a brilliant idea. We've been wanting (dying) to see this band Real Estate and they're currently on tour. The closest they're coming to Florida is Atlanta, Georgia.

When I wake up in the morning and check my phone with one eye open I see an email from Nate, the subject line reads "Real Estate". At this point I already know they're on tour because we've casually spoken about it but then in the body of the email my eyes jump all over because I see a confirmation of flights booked and then I read "Hope you can fly. If not we can drive up that Monday?". Both eyes are open now. My anxiety is kicking in and I'm trying to scroll all over the email on my iPhone screen to see what dates the flights are booked. March 31st - April 1. My due date is April 8. I turned to Nate and he's still groggy from the wine and lack of sleep and I honestly don't remember what I said, if anything. I think I was still swallowing his 'surprise' (ironically he hates surprises but knows I love them) and just uttered sounds, not words until he asks if I saw his email and I think I just said, "You're crazy."  After waking up a little I reminded him that it's a week before my due date and I'm pretty sure I can't fly along with the big what if, I go into labor...

His response: "That's why I thought we could just drive up that Monday if you can't fly" Haha, what!? Driving from Tampa to Atlanta is like 6 1/2 hours with no traffic; how does a total of 13 hours in a car sound like a better alternative than a quick flight (that I can't be on)?

I don't know if I was turning a new leaf, my prego brain kicked in, I just wanted to be spontaneous because I really want to go see this show too or if I'm going through travel withdrawals but I agreed, "We'll ask the midwives about flying and maybe make the decision on March 30th". My thoughts of agreeing to this came down to thinking it would be good to be on my feet and moving around to help things progress so I'm not going too far past my due date. I'm already planning to leave work a couple weeks early so I can be on feet more, exercise, stretch my birthing positions, relax, get acupuncture, do yoga... anything natural to help labor come on time.

Side note... I was worrying about taking a trip to Miami for my birthday, the weekend of March 21, two weeks before my due date. When I saw my midwife I mentioned flying that weekend and as soon as I stuttered out 'flying' she just shook her head, no. That answers my other question! Whelp, a two hour driving radius it is for this almost 28 year old/official late 20's birthday trip!

Nate's response to everything, "Well I can fly, can I still go see Real Estate?"

Funny man. I love him.

Moms for Moms: End the Mommy Wars

(33 & 35 weeks)

There's a campaign traveling the inter-webs about ending the "Mommy Wars"; it's basically mommies being mean girls except there's more serious topics than only wearing pink on Wednesdays. The wars stem from post-baby bodies, feeding methods, choice of diapers and many more that make each of us judge one another's parenting style in a negative stance.

I still want this though...

The first article we read about these mommy wars was from this site and then I came upon The Bump's post about March 4th being an official event to support each other and end the mommy wars. So, we're participating by showing our #moms4moms photo and posting throughout social media! Since my best friend is pregnant too, as you all know (if not, see this original post), we made our own End the Mommy Wars pregnancy choices. Although we only made one, we have quite a few judging wars that could be had because it feels like every choice we make for our new little families seem to be opposite; birthing choice, baby products, religion, politics, neighborhood, beer, hair color... the list can go on. I'm still not sure how we've managed to remain friends all these years seeing as how opposite we are, I must attract those types :) But, we learn from each other and realize the petty choices in life are useless stresses as long as you have a trusted confidant that's there for you when you're happy or sad. 

Another one of our 'wars' is finding out the sex of our mini's; I needed to know and Megan chose to wait. Since she's waiting she started a baby pool so people can bet and win half the pot on guessing the date, time and gender of her little arrival. How fun! You can even suggest baby names since they haven't chosen one yet. Slackers. We did. Just kidding :) See... our war list could go on forever!

Here are the fun photos to see how different we look during the same week. My last post that showed our comparative weeks ended on week 19 so here's 20 - 32!

20 WEEKS

23 WEEKS

26 WEEKS

28 WEEKS

29 & 31 WEEKS

Megan's Babyshower

31 WEEKS

31 & 33 WEEKS

My Baby Shower

32 WEEKS

35 Weeks & Nesting

Now that the shower is over, I'm on to the next planning adventure or what some may call nesting; crafting for the newborn photos. What is Baby S going to wear? I'm not a huge fan of the usual flower headbands but I still may need something on her head. I pulled out my sewing machine I haven't used in years and made my first headband! Yes, that's the one in the photo. It was pretty simple so I plan to make more for myself and mini. 

The fabric I used was one of Nate's J.Crew shirts that was stained (someone left a pink sticky in their pocket and it bled in the washer) so this shirt was dunzo. I've read tutorials about making them with jersey fabric so it naturally stretches but i had a woven shirt to work with so I used elastic at the base to allow the stretch.

Due date: April 8, 2014

How far along? 35 Weeks; two more weeks and we're in the safe zone for the birthing center! 

What fruit are you? Honeydew Melon...which I've always thought tasted like the smell of hand sanitizer. 

Total weight gain/loss: I'm guessing I'm close to 40 now. I'm one of those weight gainers I thought I'd never be :) Since I still haven't changed the battery in the scale I'll find out at my Midwife appt. this evening...
Maternity clothes? The only clothes I can wear. I ordered more tanks and Ts that I'll be able to wear afterwards too and one more pair of Jcrew jeans because i'll definitely wear these after too.

Stretch marks? Not yet...

Sleep: Not so much... tossing and turning.
Miss Anything? Sleep and energy

Exercise: Bike rides, dog walks and yoga.

This is our ritual when we walk the dogs by the river; the dogs now look forward to jumping over the chain. Carli was soo scared the first time we taught her jump!

Movement: All the time like she doesn't fit in my belly any more, because she doesn't. Her movements are actually uncomfortable in some spots. 

Food cravings: Girl Scout cookies, watermelon and chipotle

Anything making you queasy or sick: Nope

Gender: Girl

Labor Signs: Braxton Hicks contractions and round ligament pains

Belly Button in or out? it's almost out

Happy or Moody: Exhausted and Tired...I'm taking my iron supplements in the mornings now to help my fatigue but I'm crashing at night.

Looking forward to: I would be looking forward to Tampa Bay Beer Week going on right now... but instead we scheduled things like a newborn CPR class :)
Best moments last week: My work teams threw a surprise baby shower and I was able to have a quieter weekend organizing the nursery and house a little bit to prepare for Baby S.

33 Weeks

This picture is technically 31 1/2 weeks but I was awfully busy during my 4 day weekend, plus we got ALL the photos from my boudoir and our maternity shoots so I lucked out! 

Due date: April 8, 2014

How far along? 33 Weeks

What fruit are you? Pineapple; the ultrasound we had to have with the physician since my iron was low said she's 4 lbs 11 oz... but that's not always accurate. My belly is measuring 33 cm so she's right on schedule there.

Total weight gain/loss: 35lbs - No gain!! I'm thanking our bike rides :)
Maternity clothes? Same: Only maternity clothes, Nate's t-shirts and I can finally wear my maxi dresses with the weather warming up! 

Stretch marks? No... might be getting to that yes mark the bigger I get!?

Sleep: As best I can with bathroom trips and kicking. My pillow cave is amazing though.
Miss Anything? Same: Sleep. Beer. Traveling.

Exercise: Bike rides! and dog walks

Movement: I think Mini gets her spastic movements from Nathan. She'll be a hyper wild child if she takes his genes!

Food cravings: Chocolate never fails... 

Anything making you queasy or sick: Nope

Gender: Girl

Labor Signs: No

Belly Button in or out? The Inny is trying to come out

Happy or Moody: So moody lately. My iron is still low but it shouldn't be a huge deal in the end so I'm still working on trying to get it up.

Looking forward to: The Baby Shower and Black Megan coming in town!!! I have two Megan's and ever since college this is how they chose to differentiate themselves :)

circa 2007 

Best moments last week: My awesome 4 day weekend with Nathan...

We went on a few bike rides (one stop being a new coffee shop in the neighborhood!)

got a lot of stuff done for the baby shower on Saturday 

and had our photo reveal with Ashlee! Here's some sneak peaks of a few of our favs!