31 Weeks!

Wow, I was going through my pictures and realized it had been so long since I had just done a regular bump date to my blog! I love writing more in-depth pieces about how I’m feeling or things that are on my heart, but I love doing bump dates too to look back on! Here’s what Thumper and I have been up to the past few weeks.

p.s. I don’t link every post to my Facebook, so be sure to check out my instagram, or head to katielovelyy.tumblr.com and subscribe to not miss anything!

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Baby is the size of a: Pineapple!

Craving: ICE (still), strawberries, green grapes, anything with cinnamon

Symptoms: Heart burn, restless legs, trouble sleeping, back pain, braxton hicks, frequent urination, and so so much more

I can’t believe I passed the 30 week mark! Baby could be here in 6-9 weeks. That’s single digits! He weighs anywhere from 3-4 lbs and all 5 of his senses are in working order. 

I’m still craving ice like crazy, but I did talk to my doctor about it at my last appointment. They tested me for an iron deficiency and I don’t have the results yet. She said if I am deficient in iron, I would just need to take supplements and other than that it’s not a huge issue and I can keep munching away! 

I’ve been really busy with a lot of things! I got really really sick last week with some sort of throat infection. I rested as much as I could while still keeping up with work and the house. When things get crazy, I need to remember to slow down and take time for myself to rest. Bubble baths and bath bombs from Lush have become my best friend! I also went on a Women’s retreat with my church and had so much fun. It was nice to get away and relax for a weekend, I met lots of great people, and had lots of prayer over baby. 

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We also took a tour of the hospital and finished painting the nursery. The hospital was very very nice, but the tour made me very very nervous. I’m a huge baby when it comes to pain and get really bad anxiety with any type of sickness of physical discomfort (epidural for one, over here!). But as we were walking through the halls we passed a nurse pushing a newborn baby boy. He was so adorable, calm, and wrapped up in a blanket with a little hat on his head. Kurtis and gushed over him for a little bit, and I didn’t feel so nervous anymore. I knew that the next time we were at the hospital (hopefully), we would be meeting our son, and it will all be worth it. 

After that, I started looking into natural ways to keep myself calm during labor. I’ve ultimately decided I want to take a few pre-natal yoga classes during the next few weeks, diffuse oils during labor, and have my dad and Kurtis pray over me every few hours at the hospital. My mom bought us a cute little diffuser and we have been experimenting with different oils. We both actually really like it! We are only diffusing right now, but I do hope to get more into using essential oils topically and ingesting them for other things in the future.

Now that the nursery is painted we just need to move in all the furniture and decorate the walls. We already have almost everything, we just need to get it all set up! We put it off for a while, and now we’re scrambling to get it together to have it checked off our list. It’s coming together really nicely and I can’t wait to show everyone the finished product!

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I’ve had the pleasure of being pregnant at the same time as my dear friend Lucy. Our families have been friends our whole lives, we were engaged and getting married around the same time, and now our kids will be the same age as well! She gave birth just last week to a beautiful little girl named Talitha, Kurtis and I went to visit and she is perfect. It really made us excited for our little guy to arrive. 

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I was able to get my hair done for the first time since I got married, which was amazing! I got some balayage highlights, bangs, and about an inch taken off. It’s amazing what some pampering will do for you. And with my sisters wedding coming up, I really needed it! I know the next few weeks are going to fly by with the wedding and the baby coming so soon, so it was really nice to do something for myself. 

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I can’t believe we’re almost there! This stage of our lives has been something completely new to us, and I’m so glad we had each other and the support of our friends and families through it all. Next comes the truly exciting part.

xoxo.

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Pura Vida Bracelets

Today I’m talking about a product I’ve fallen in love with! 

Pura Vida bracelets are amazing! If you’ve never heard of Pura Vida, they are a bracelet company based in San Diego, CA. They sell bracelets made by local artisans in Costa Rica, so every purchase helps provide full time jobs for the artisans. They support a lot of other great causes as well, and you can buy bracelets where the proceeds go to each specific cause. 

They are really unique. You can wear them solo, stack them, or even buy a pack! I currently have 3 and love to stack mine, and a pack is next on my list. I’m obsessed!

Check out Pura Vida bracelets and accessories at http://puravidabracelets.com and be sure to use KATIEB10 at checkout for an additional 10% off your purchase!

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xoxo.

26 Weeks

26 weeks!

Baby is the size of: A head of lettuce

Craving: ICE, fruit, grilled cheese

Symptoms: Heartburn, frequent urination, trouble sleeping, achy back

Only one more week left in the second trimester! We are almost in the home stretch and I am getting so excited. For so long it felt like I was always going to be in early pregnancy and that this time would never come. I can’t believe I’m ¾ done and he will be here sooner rather than later! 

We’ve hit kind of a standstill with his nursery. I know what I want but we’re both so busy and I’m so tired! We still have to finish clearing all our “office” furniture out, paint, and then move his furniture in! 

The next two months are going to fly by! We’ve got so much going on! This past weekend I co-hosted a bridal shower for my sister with the other bridesmaids which was so fun, but very exhausting! I’ve got another shower coming up for her that I’m throwing, a possible women’s retreat, my sister’s bachelorette party, rehearsal dinner, WEDDING itself, friend’s baby showers, doctors appointments, hospital tours, continuing to work 40 hours a week, getting the nursery ready, family visiting, and LOTS of new and exciting things happening with my writing and my blog that I am so excited to share with you.

With all of that going on, before I know it, it will be July and he could arrive at any time after that! Ah! Here are some things we’ve been up to since it’s been so long since my last bumpdate:

25 weeks

Mollie’s Bridal Shower

Some of the baby things we’ve accumulated!

I’m pretty uncomfortable now. I don’t sleep very well and get up multiple times every night to pee. So great. Luckily, the doctor okay’d the use of Zofran for heartburn so I have that mostly under control now!

I had my 25 week appointment last week and had to take the dreaded glucose test. I had to drink the glucose first, and then go back for my check up. Kurtis and I had just gone out to lunch and I was very full before I drank it and it made me feel awful. During my appointment my doctor went to measure my uterus and pushed on my stomach which did NOT go well. I couldn’t keep the glucose drink down, and therefore messed up my results 🙁 I think it would’ve been a lot more embarrassing if I had been anywhere else! Doctors aren’t really phased by that kinda thing and Kurtis is stuck with me regardless, ha! Anyways, we finished up my appointment and she told me I had to come back and retest which I did today. I had a very light breakfast, took an anti-nausea pill, and was able to keep it down the full hour! I haven’t gotten my results yet, but fingers crossed that I passed! 

Baby still looks good. He moves around a ton, which Kurtis is able to feel now. So fun! I love that he’s active, it makes the whole thing seem more real. I had to actually step on a scale at my last appointment and the number I saw was not pleasing, but I had to remind myself this is only temporary and it’s all for him. The payoff will be worth it! 

Here’s to the third trimester!

xoxo.

I don’t know if I can share you.

I’m spoiled.

Rotten. 

I married my high school sweetheart 468 days ago and it’s been me and him against the world ever since. He’s been the most important person in my life and I have been his. Every morning when I wake up, he is my first concern. We text while we’re apart and I spend all day excited to come home and see him. 

I love him more than I ever knew I was capable of. 

I’m a princess and I often get treated as such. He makes my safety his number one priority and I fall asleep every night knowing I am loved.

What am I going to do when that changes?

When I wake up and someone else is my first concern? When he loves and protects someone else just as much as he loves and protects me? When I don’t have him all to myself anymore?

What if there’s not enough love to go around?

These are the things that race through my mind as I’m laying in bed at night. How will we handle all this? One day poof everything changes. Suddenly, there’s another person added to our little team. A little person who is now in this with us till the end. 

14 weeks or less from now, it won’t be just you and I anymore. And while I feel excited, joyus even, there’s a deeper part of me that is so, so scared. We’re willingly giving up everything for our little guy. I would do it 100 times over because the love I feel for him when I feel him move in my tummy is stronger than anything I’ve ever known. I don’t even recognize it, it’s so new and intense and overwhelming. I’m sure those feelings are the first of many. As I sort through my feelings and worries about everything, I know two things for certain. 

#1 We can do this

#2 We may be expanding our little team, and that may be scary, but we are only going to be a stronger team because of it. 

My love for my husband can only grow as I watch him become a father. And while it seems sad to share his attention with someone else, he’ll be sharing my attention too. And we’ll have something new that we didn’t have before. 

Our own little family.

And that can’t possibly be that scary, right? 

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“Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord is my strength and my song; He also has become my salvation.” Isaiah 12:2

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Easter Weekend/Babymoon Recap

Everyone should take a babymoon. (By the way, that’s babymoon, like honeymoon. Time alone with your significant other before the baby comes.My Instagram posts with #babymoon surprisingly confused a lot of people.)

Kurtis and I were getting overwhelmed with work. We haven’t had any real time off together since our honeymoon 1 year and 3 months ago! We planned to take a cruise for our 1 year anniversary and saved up all year for it. But then we found out we were pregnant and used that money as a down payment on a more reliable car instead, ha.

We had all these Southwest points saved up from our credit card and decided one day we needed to just get away together. We got permission from both of our bosses to have time off last minute, and booked a
flight less than 2 weeks away.

We didn’t have any plans and that’s how we wanted it. We didn’t want to be on a schedule, driving around trying to fit in a million things when we were only there 4 short days. We slept in every morning, hung out by the pool, drove down to the beach, ate yummy food, took long afternoon walks, and cuddled in bed eating candy and watching Jimmy Fallon every night. It was short, but it was exactly what we needed.

I highly suggest everyone take a babymoon! Not everyone has a bunch of southwest points, or can afford a trip, but just take a weekend and have a staycation with your significant other. It’s so important to make time for each other, and especially to enjoy your last time alone together before your little one
arrives. Just because you’re having a baby doesn’t mean your marriage should take a backseat!

Here are some snapshots from our weekend!

xoxo.

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Feeling Good While Becoming a Whale

It’s hard to keep your confidence up when your body is going through so many changes. It’s tough to remember how beautiful you are. Trust me, I know. It’s worth it to take the time for yourself, you deserve it after all!

Eat right and engage in moderate exercise.

It sounds crazy, but when you’re pregnant is when you should actually be eating better!

What? I’m sorry but, this was the most disappointing thing I had ever heard. You mean I’m supposed to gain 35 lbs and I can’t even eat what I want?

This is half true and half not. Like everything, this has to be a delicate balance. Lord knows that your cravings are out of hand and the last thing you want is a kale salad (yuck). I was able to find a system that worked for me. Before getting pregnant, I was a very clean eater and I exercised 3-4 times per week, sometimes more. My pregnancy personally hasn’t been the easiest so I had to adjust this a lot after I found out I was expecting! When I started getting sick, working out was almost out of the question and I could only keep down dry carbs, and that was just the way it was!

As things progressed and got better, I was able to better get into the groove of things! I like to think that I eat mostly the same as I did before, but when I have a craving. I don’t deprive myself of it! If I’m supposed to gain 35 lbs anyways, shouldn’t I at least be able to eat mashed potatoes and gravy when I want to?

Luckily, my biggest craving has been fruit, so my binges are more on smoothies and virgin margaritas than anything! I love anything that’s fruity, icy, and cold. Most nights I just throw margarita mix and a cupful of ice into the blender and enjoy (I can balance the glass on my tummy now so that’s pretty cool too)!

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It’s important to get the right amount of fruits, veggies, carbs, proteins, etc. for baby. You’ll feel better and have more energy if you’re not only eating the junk you’re craving. Mix it up! Get out and be active. I had to give up working out at Orangetheory 3-4 times a week because I just couldn’t keep up! I still do it 1-2 times per week and walk my dog every day and try to do yoga when I can. I always feel better and more energized after. There’s another member at the Orangetheory I work at who is 30+ weeks pregnant and she still works out there 5 times per week! That is great for her! But I can’t compare myself to her. Every woman is different and every pregnancy is different. Do what you can and what you feel comfortable with.

Here’s a sample of a basic half and half grocery list to keep you balanced, and still let you indulge! 

Frozen meats (chicken/steak/pork)

Frozen/fresh veggies

Fruit!

Bagged Salad

Greek yogurt

Granola

Couscous/quiona/rice

Pasta (Specifically mac and cheese!)

Frozen whole grain waffles

Mother’s Best Cereals

Granola Bars

Orange Juice

Eggs

Regular or turkey bacon/Sausage

Almond milk

Regular/chocolate milk (for heartburn)

Bread

Whole Wheat English Muffins/Bagels

Ben and Jerry’s

One bag of your favorite candy (I have skittle stashed at work)

Crackers

Anything else you may be craving right now

Seriously. Do not beat yourself up over what you chose to eat. You are putting your body through a lot right now so trust me when I say you deserve the donut. If there was ever a time to have one guilt-free, it’s now! Just make sure to have some veggies with your dinner. Keep it balanced! If you want mac and cheese for dinner, then you have it. You’re only pregnant for 9 months after all!

Take some time for yourself.

This is so important to me. Especially with how crazy things get in my life with working full time, keeping up with housework and my dog all while being pregnant in general, I have to make sure I stay sane! It’s so great to take some time to relax or pamper yourself or both! It’s amazing how good having your nails done can really make you feel if you’re feeling icky about yourself that day.

Take a bubble bath! But make sure the water isn’t too hot. I do this about once a week and not only is it relaxing but it’s great for my aching back and feet. A few weeks ago I actually got out of bed at 2am and got in the bath because I was so uncomfortable, and after that I was finally able to sleep.

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Get a pedicure. Your feet are swollen and your belly is too big to reach your feet and do it yourself. 

Buy some cute maternity clothes! I know a lot of women choose to avoid maternity clothes as long as possible, but they really are so much more flattering than trying to stretch your regular clothes over your growing tummy. Maternity clothes really highlight your bump, and they are so much more comfortable. 

Do whatever makes you feel good about yourself. Get your hair done, get a spray tan, a new pair of shoes, a manicure, whatever you want! Pregnancy is such a feminine time of life, relish in it! You should feel beautiful. And I know personally that it can be really hard when you have an unwanted double chin in pictures, and swollen ankles, but do what you can to help yourself feel better. You are creating life, and there is nothing more beautiful that that!

xoxo.

Your body is amazing.

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you, I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” -Jeremiah 1:5

It’s hard, I know. Gaining weight and not being able to see your toes anymore is not the easiest thing.  

It was hard for me at first. I worked really hard and was in very good shape before I got pregnant. Watching my body change in the way it has was depressing to me. I had eaten so clean and worked out 4+ days a week for months and now it was all going to go away in a matter of weeks? How long would it take me to lose the weight after? Would my tummy ever look the same again? Would I have stretch marks? I work for a fitness company and chose to publicly announce my pregnancy to our members. I was insecure about my weight gain and wanted everyone to know there was a reason behind it. That I wasn’t just being lazy and getting chubby.  My body changed quickly. I was visibly showing around 12 weeks and I had even started noticing a few weeks before. I noticed my lower stomach below my belly button start rounding out at only 8 weeks, and the top caught up about 6 weeks later. Before I knew it, none of my clothes fit and complete strangers  had started stopping me and asking when I was due. No denying it now! I look very pregnant.

It’s hard to ignore the comments. The “How many babies do you have in there?” and “You’re not due until JULY?” Let’s get one things straight people, yes, I’m POSITIVE there is only one baby in there, he’s just a big one! He’s not scheduled to be here until July unless something goes horribly wrong. 

I’ve learned to take them with a grain of salt. I know people don’t mean any harm by them. I’m not sure why or how I got so big, so quickly, but I did! I know it’s uncommon for first pregnancies to show early, I guess little man just wanted to make his presence known!

Lately,  I’ve been having more fun with it. This bump is seriously the greatest accessory and I have so much fun dressing it up! It took some time, but I’m realizing more and more how amazing a woman’s body is. This is why we were created. Why we were designed the way that we were. God did an amazing thing when he designed women.

Think about what you are doing. You are growing a human being. You are creating life. You will give birth and even after that your body will continue to provide nutrients for your child. And your body has to go through some turmoils in order to do this. You will be sick and tired, you will throw up, you will gain weight, you will get stretch marks, your hands and feet will swell, you won’t be able to tie your own shoes, but you know what? You will have done something absolutely incredible. I know that women get pregnant and give birth and breastfeed every day, but if you take the time to really really think about it, it’s absolutely amazing what we are capable of.

I know I can complain a lot, I’m sure we all do at some point. But this is the one thing that I can be sure will be worth it in the end.

I’ve come to realize that I’ve never felt more feminine than I do right now. I have a purpose to have this baby, and this baby has a purpose in this world. I’m more than willing to do my time. 9 months seems so little in comparison to what’s to come. My little man is such a precious gift from God and I would do this all over again if it means giving him life.

“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit” – 1 Corinthians 6:19

xoxo

The Nitty Gritty

21 weeks!

Baby is the size of: A Pomegrante

Craving: Mexican food, sugary fruit juices and smoothies

Symptoms: Headaches, heartburn, aches and pains, frequent urination, trouble sleeping

Well I’ve officially been pregnant longer than I have to go! Time is going by so slowly. I feel like I’ve been pregnant forever! And I feel like I still have so much longer. It’s just now starting to feel like Spring, and I have to wait until mid summer!

It was a long and emotionally draining week. My family had to put our dog Baxter down and nobody handled it well. I loved him so much. We all did. He was so very loved and a part of our family for 12 years. I know he’s so much happier now and no longer in pain but it still hurts to think that he’s not there anymore. It really feels like my childhood ending. Although I know that really happened years ago, everything is different now. I’m married and expecting my first baby, my little sister Mollie is engaged and getting married this summer, my younger sister and brother are entering their last years of high school, they both have jobs, Josh is driving, and now Baxter is gone. He lived the best life. We always took him camping, hiking, and to cut down Christmas trees. We could let him off the leash to run around and he wouldn’t leave our side. He was diagnosed with Lupus when he was young and the vet told us he wouldn’t live past 6. Then he got cancer a few years later and beat that! He even jumped out of a two story window and fell to the ground, only breaking his toe. In the end, the only thing that took him from us was old age. He was such a fighter and we’ll love him forever. 

It feels kind of weird now that we know the gender of the baby. I almost feel like maybe with the next one I could wait and be surprised but I don’t think Kurtis would go for it. There’s a part to it that’s really nice. I have a good friend who’s getting married just a few weeks after he’s born and I’ve been having such fun looking at little baby boy formal wear! And planning the nursery, picking out names, gender specific toys, etc. That’s all been really fun! So I see the benefit to doing it either way!

Kurtis and I started our registry today. I was really looking forward to it, but once we got there it was actually really overwhelming and stressful. Babies R Us is a giant, confusing, maze meant to crush your hopes and dreams. They lure you in with the cute baby clothes and then make you question everything you’ve ever known by offering 465 different bottles and 137 different strollers (a rough estimate). And we thought we were prepared! We had already gone in a few weeks ago to look at everything they had and I had been researching different products and brands like crazy online.

We have two different car seats that were gifted to us (one for each car), they’re different brands and we have a stroller that fits one but not the other. Do we need another stroller for the other car seat?  Which type of swaddle blankets do we need? Do we also need sleeper sacks? Sleeper sacks are so ugly! Should we get gender neutral stuff so we can use it all again for the next baby? Or gender specific stuff because it’s cuter? Does his really need a bath thermometer? A hairbrush? What if he’s bald? WHY DON’T ALL STROLLERS WORK THE SAME? WHERE ARE THE BRAKES ON THIS ONE? HOW DOES THIS ONE FOLD UP? Why are the tops of bottles actually called nipples and why do we find that so funny?

OH MY GOSH BABIES NEED SO MUCH STUFF.

A few hours later we drug ourselves out of Babies R Us worn out and cranky. So we drove across the street to Krispy Kreme and that cheered us right up! 

Then when we got home I started on our amazon registry. So much easier! The only downside is we couldn’t touch and see everything and test it out to make sure it was what we wanted. So all of the big ticket items (stroller, bath, high chair, etc.) are on the Babies R Us registry, and the smaller stuff is on Amazon. Everyone told us to start early because we would keep going back to add new things we find. Boy were they right! I’ve already logged on a couple of times tonight!

Then we started cleaning out the guest room/office to start nursery prep! We got the whole closet cleaned out, boxed up, and taken to the basement, then decided to call it a day and collapsed on the couch to finally relax. Hopefully we’ll get the rest done over the next few weeks and then we can start decorating.

It feels so odd to be getting some of this stuff done! We found out I was pregnant very early on (I was 3 weeks, 5 days along), so for a long time it was “too early” to plan anything. Now we’re actually registering for gear and planning the nursery! I’ve even bought him some clothes and they’re hanging in his closet! Still 19 more weeks before we get to use any of it though.

As for me, I’m pretty uncomfortable at this point. I’ve had some braxton hicks contractions, they don’t really hurt so much as they are uncomfortable. My tummy is getting big enough so that my back hurts when I’m at work all day, but it’s bearable. Luckily, I’m really not feeling sick at all anymore, even my heartburn and headaches have calmed way down, I’m mostly just uncomfortable! I have random aches and pains everywhere, it’s starting to get hard to sit down, bend over, etc. Oh, they joys of human growing. I shouldn’t complain too much though, because our little one is healthy so far and that’s all that matters.

Due to my anterior placenta, I only feel the baby move a few times a day, here and there. I feel him kick sometimes too but it’s very light. It makes it hard not to worry about him when I go a few hours without feeling anything, but I have to reassure myself that it’s normal and just wait it out. Hopefully soon I’ll be begging him to stop kicking me!

Here’s to the nitty gritty and actually prepping for babe to arrive! Over halfway there!

xoxo.

Blessed with Blue

Baby Brown is a boy!

And I’m 19 weeks today.

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We’re so excited! As most of you know, Kurtis was really nervous about the idea of having a girl. Something about when she becomes a teenager, and having to clean his guns all the time. I don’t know 😉 I didn’t have much a preference either way, but for his sake, I was hoping boy. 

When we went to our ultrasound this morning, I think I had underestimated how badly I really wanted a boy, because the more I thought about it, the more nervous a girl made me. And then I felt guilty because I knew I shouldn’t prefer one over the other. But I knew if I had a daughter later I really wanted her to have a big brother! So I got more and more nervous as the ultrasound went on, but when she finally got to the gender, I could tell right away it was a boy before she said anything! The ultrasound tech said there was no denying it haha. And we were so happy! 

And while I can’t wait to have a little princess later in life, I’m glad we’re getting a little guy first. 

The 20 week ultrasound is wild. We haven’t had an ultrasound since 12 weeks (almost two months ago) and the amount it has grown is incredible. He was moving like crazy (per usual), and the ultrasound tech was even getting frustrated because she couldn’t get a clear picture of everything she needed to see without him moving! We eventually got to see his heart, bladder, kidneys, spine, etc. It was really cool and so clear! He is definitely a big little guy, I even winced when she started measuring his head. It already looks so big. The doctor just called with our results and said everything looks normal but I’m measuring about a week ahead. They’re not going to change my due date yet since it’s only a few days but we’ll see how he keeps growing.

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As we watched the baby squirm and squirm Kurtis turned to me, appalled, and says, “you really can’t feel that?!” I told him I definitely couldn’t feel all of it, I was maybe feeling 1/3 of his movements. Then the tech them told me that my placenta is on top of the baby, making it harder to feel. Which makes so much sense as to why I’ve been having such a hard time differentiating between baby movements and just stomach bubbles. She said that’s why I only feel him sometimes even though he’s moving like crazy. She said to enjoy the comfort now because after a few weeks, the placenta will either move, or the baby will get so big and strong that it wont even matter and I’ll be feeling his kicks all the time!

I still get headaches every few days, and my heartburn is darn near out of control by now. Sleeping is getting more and more uncomfortable as well! Kurtis bought me a new body pillow last night (Bennett destroyed my last two) and that helped a lot. Pregnancy as whole has continued to be really rough but I’m almost halfway done now!

After our doctor’s appointment, we went straight to Target to buy bubble gum. I have known forever what kind of gender reveal I wanted to do! Then we went to Tokyo Joe’s for lunch and stopped outside first to take the pictures with our new selfie stick (Oh, yes. You should get one too). And it was incredibly difficult. Who knew blowing decent bubbles at the same time would be so hard! It took us a good 20 minutes.

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It was rough. But we finally got a decent one and sent it to our families and friends and then posted our happy news!

Now that we know it’s a boy it’s time to narrow down names and get started on the nursery! I’m in awe The Lord has entrusted this little guy to us, we feel so blessed!

xoxo.

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17 Week Update

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17 weeks!

Baby is the size of: An Onion! (Yuck. My least favorite food in the whole world)

Craving: Strawberries, orange juice, mexican food, and donuts

Symptoms: A lot of heartburn, headaches, frequent urniation, pregnancy brain

I feel like every morning when I wake up I’m bigger than the day before. I definitely look pregnant now, rather that just chubby which is such a relief. I was really insecure about that for a while! I’m officially in maternity clothes. Luckily I was able to get hand-me-downs from a few wonderful women so I didn’t have to buy much!

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16 weeks along in one of the cute maternity shirts passed down by my Aunt!

My headaches have been getting pretty bad lately. One day I went over to my mom’s house and she made me a glass of iced tea and my headache went away soon after I drank it. That’s when I realized that, unfortunately, caffeine is the cure! I went cold turkey without it during the first trimester to be safe, and I was super bummed that it seemed to be the only thing that would cure my headaches. I asked my doctor about it at our last appointment, and she said one cup of tea or coffee per day is fine and won’t hurt the baby. I still like to play on the safe side though so I only have a small cup of tea when my headache is so bad I could cry. So maybe like 2-3 times per week. 

I’m finding cravings to be such an interesting thing. When I drink a cup of orange juice I breathe a sigh of relief because it is seriously so satisfying. Today, Kurtis and I got Krispy Kreme donuts (I know, I know), and I literally giggled out loud after my first bite because it just tasted that good. I always laugh at myself after I have these weird reactions to my food. I find pregnancy altogether to be somewhat hilarious. Like, really, this whole thing is weird if you take the time to really think about it. And I really want orange juice now. 

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If you go to La Sandiaa (best mexican food ever), you have to get the augua fresca (watermelon water), it’s to die for. Especially when you can’t have a cocktail!

The second trimester has been treating me well. I still have my off days where I don’t feel well, and I still get winded and out of breath easily but it’s very nice to have an (huge) appetite, and not be bedridden all the time. The hardest thing during the first trimester when I was really sick, was keeping up with life in general. When Kurtis and I first got married I was only working part time and I was a rockstar at keeping the house clean and cooking dinner every night. Not even just cooking dinner, but breakfast, and packing lunches for us both to take to work. And I did the laundry, and folded it all, every Tuesday night.

Then, I started working for Orangetheory, which was much more demanding of my time. Before the studio opened I had some more free time on my hands, so I still kept up rather well. Then, we got Bennett the same week the studio opened and I started working my full 40 hours. Throw together a puppy, and my new work schedule, and I started to let things slide. Then throw in pregnancy, and pretty much nothing got done, ever. 

To be honest, I would’ve been embarrassed for anyone to have seen my house in the state it was in during my first trimester. Not only was I still working full time, but I had a new dog, and I was extremely sick. I would get home from a long day at work and go straight to bed. I don’t think I did laundry or cooked a meal for a solid month. I cleaned here and there but it was still gross. I barely had the energy to walk up stairs, let alone mop the floor and do dishes.

Poor Kurtis. He tried to help where he could but he works full time as well and is kind of a lost cause when it comes to housework. And he can cook eggs and that’s about it.

Once I started feeling better I knew I had to start getting better about things because, if this is what it’s like just during pregnancy, I can’t imagine how bad things will get once the baby is actually here! I’ll be even more busy and overwhelmed, and tired. So, I had to get things in order! I made myself a new schedule and now I do one or two cleaning chores per day rather than trying to tackle it all on my day off. And I’m trying to cook dinner at least a few times per week, same with packing lunches. I really need to get some more crock pot recipes because I think that will make things even easier if I start using my crock pot more! 

As usual, I’m just trying to find the balance in things, but I’m sure I will figure it all out. Women do this all the time, right?

I’m starting to research more the type of baby products I want to invest in/register for, and what I want the nursery to look like. We have a few pieces of furniture, but we won’t officially start designing or registering until we know the gender. Three more weeks (ah)! I almost feel the nesting mode coming on. I know it’s kinda early for that but I’m such a planner I want to get everything settled as soon as I can! I’ve been researching all the different brands of things I want as far as baby gear. Today we actually went out to a few places so that we could see and touch everything to help us decide what we want. It was actually pretty fun and we made some progress as far as what we want for our registry and for the nursery decor.

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I was so excited to finally be able to park here!

As for the baby, everything looks good! The heartbeat was strong at our last appointment, and so far, there are no big concerns, Our big ultrasound is at our next appointment, so keep us in your prayers that everything looks normal! I’m definitely feeling the flutters, and loving it! Kurtis can’t feel them from the outside yet, which is normal. I told him it probably wouldn’t be for another month, but he still presses his hands against my belly and commands the baby to move, to no avail. It’s pretty funny!

What do you all think, boy or girl?

xoxo.