All Things Lovely

March 17, 2015

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.

March 2, 2015

Blessed with Blue

Baby Brown is a boy!

And I’m 19 weeks today.

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.

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.

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.

2 Comments

February 17, 2015

17 Week Update

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!

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.

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.

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.

January 27, 2015

14 Week Update

Baby is the size of: A lemon! 3.4 inches long and 1.5 ounces

Craving: Raspberries, Oranges, and mashed potatoes

Symptoms: Minimal heartburn, fatigue, hunger, aches and pains, frequent urination.

I’ve been feeling a lot better and am crazy excited to be done with the first trimester! Since I’m not as sick, I’ve been crazy hungry, luckily my biggest craving is fruit! One of the hardest balances in pregnancy is eating right. You’re craving all these greasy foods but you also need to make sure the baby is getting the right nutrients! Luckily for me, I haven’t had that problem too much, I’ve been scarfing down oranges like it’s my job. I’m trying to eat pretty much the same as I was before, but if I have a craving, I don’t ignore it. It is pregnancy after all! I’m also eating a lot more easy to prepare foods since I’m still so tired and don’t want to spend an hour in the kitchen making chicken, brown rice, and veggies. It’s a difficult balance, but I’m trying to do my best for the baby. I’m also ready to start working out again since I’m not throwing up all the time! I’ve been doing some yoga and walking Bennett every day but that’s been pretty much it thus far. I tried doing my normal Orangetheory workouts at the beginning and I just couldn’t keep up! But now I’m ready to try again!

My biggest complaint right now would be all the random aches and pains. I’ve been having a lot of discomfort in my ribs, I’ve read some articles that a lot of your organs move around and that’s the pain your feeling. It could also be the baby moving around up there, but it’s not quite big enough yet. Also, I honestly think I peed 30 or 40 times yesterday.

Oh, and I’m at that super awesome stage where none of my clothes fit, but maternity clothes are still too big. So I have nothing to wear!

The baby is moving around a lot! I’ve had a couple instances where I think I might’ve felt it, but I can’t convince myself I’m 100% sure. The doctor says I could start feeling it any time now, but not to worry if I don’t for a few more weeks, everyone is different!

I’ve started doing major baby research (turns out I don’t know much, and Kurtis definitely doesn’t). Sorry for flooding your pinterest feeds!

Here’s to the second trimester!

xoxo.

January 13, 2015April 27, 2018

Pregnancy Announcement: Baby Brown

We have news!!

(As you all already know) We’re Pregnant!

Pregnancy Announcement: Baby Brown featured by popular lifestyle blogger, All Things Lovely

OUR PREGNANCY ANNOUNCEMENT

Trust me, no one is more surprised than us!

I’m sure everyone is wondering, so I’ll address the elephant in the room…why did we get pregnant after we told everyone we wanted to wait a few years?

Simple. It wasn’t planned.

We weren’t planning this at all. As some of you know, I had to go off of birth control because of my migraines. After that we were simply as careful as we could be. One night, our usual “carefulness” failed us. We figured it was one time and nothing would come of it. After all, I know plenty of couples who try for months and months before they get pregnant!

Fast forward a few weeks to when my “time of the month” is supposed to start. I’m only one day late but I tell Kurtis we should just take a test because “it will be negative and we can move on with our lives!”

It wasn’t negative.

I came out of the bathroom with tears streaming down my face and showed him. The plus sign was very faint so he didn’t buy it. I called my sister in tears and asked her to please go pick up some more pregnancy tests. She was at our door within 10 minutes with another box. I took two more and they were both positive as well. Each plus sign less faint than the last. I was freaking out and couldn’t stop crying.

How could this happen?

We don’t want this.

We can’t afford this.

We just adopted Bennett.

I just started a new job.

Kurtis hasn’t finished school yet.

We don’t want this.

How could this happen to us? I struggled for a while with how to feel. I felt guilty. I know people who want a baby so so badly and are unable to conceive. Or they struggle to get pregnant for months and months before finally being blessed with a baby. And we, who didn’t want kids yet, get pregnant after one night? I felt ungrateful, and my guilt was all I could think about.

The next day we went to the doctor to take a test there, just to be 100% sure. Of course it was positive and so we had to decide what to do. There was never a question of whether or not we would keep it. We just knew we had to talk and decide how to approach it. We decided first and foremost to change our attitudes. We started praying together that The Lord would change our hearts toward it, and help prepare us. And you know what? After just a few days, he really did.

We started feeling less terrified and more excited. The more we prayed about it, the clearer everything became.

We don’t get to decide.

And how completely ridiculous of us to think that we could! We don’t get to decide when we have kids. God has had that planned for a long time now. It is out of our control. We can take as many precautions as we want, but if God wants us to have a baby, then we’re going to have a baby. Children are a blessing no matter what the circumstances and the more we talked and prayed, the better we understood that.

Maybe we didn’t have everything figured out, and maybe it was bad timing, but everything is going to be fine. We have our families and friends here to help us, and The Lord is going to provide. All 3 of us are going to be fine.

Now that some times has passed (3 months already!) we really are getting more and more excited. The first few months of my pregnancy were very hard. I was extremely sick (typical nausea and vomiting), and fatigued. I’ve had really bad anxiety when it comes to vomiting ever since I was a kid, and that was really hard to overcome with my pregnancy. I remember once texting my mom from the bathroom floor at work after getting sick, telling her I didn’t know how people do this, or why they do it on purpose. She was in Nashville visiting my uncle and texted me back a picture of my baby cousin Jett, telling me that’s how people get through it. The payoff is so wonderful.

I told Kurtis I didn’t know if I could do this again and that if we wanted more children we would need to adopt. I was miserable. Walking up a long flight of stairs winded me and I could only keep down certain dry carbs. I lived on saltine crackers and bagels. I fell asleep every night dreading waking up the next morning, because I knew I would just feel sick. I find it funny how the first trimester is when you’re not supposed to tell anybody, and that’s when you’re the sickest. It became impossible to hide it from my coworkers, (what with me spending so much time every shift in the bathroom) and so a handful of them knew pretty early. I was having a textbook pregnancy. Every symptom in the book I had. Mood swings, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, headaches, bloating, gas pains, etc. Literally everything. You name it, I got it. I keep hearing from other pregnant girls about how they “haven’t thrown up once” and “my pregnancy is so easy” and it makes me want to punch someone! Every pregnancy is so different and I feel like I got the short end of this stick!

At my 9 week appointment I was prescribed a miracle. An anti-nausea pill that I could take when I wasn’t feeling well that would provide relief for 4 hours. It’s amazing. It changed everything and now I think having more kids might not be too bad. Now I’m even starting to feel better and don’t need to take it every day. Although my nausea has been getting better, it’s been replaced by headaches and dizziness. But that’s a trade I’ll make any day.

I’m definitely starting to show a little bit. If you don’t know I’m pregnant you might just think I’ve eaten a little much, but Kurtis and I definitely see a baby bump! We’re anxious to find out the gender (still 8 weeks to go!) and we’re starting to throw around names.

Today we had our 12 week appointment and the baby has gotten so big! Everything looks great, 10 fingers and 10 toes with a steady heartbeat. It was moving a lot and it looked much more like a little human than last time!

Pregnancy Announcement: Baby Brown featured by popular lifestyle blogger, All Things Lovely

It’s crazy how much our outlooks have changed in just 2 months. I know it’s not going to be easy but I’m excited for this next adventure we have been blessed with.

Everything is going to be just fine.

xoxo.

3 Comments

January 4, 2015

365 days.

365 days ago I became yours and you became mine.

This year has gone nothing like we planned but I have loved harder, laughed louder, and learned more than I ever knew was possible.

People thought we were crazy, and maybe we were, but 365 days ago was the best day of my life.

If I could go back and tell 21-year old bride me anything it would be this:

Stop worrying about the flowers, and your make-up, and the snowstorm. When you see him everything will stop, and everything will be okay. Your marriage won’t be easy, but it will be blissful, and the adventure you are about to embark on is the most exciting thing you have yet to do. This man will fiercely love even the worst parts of you, and protect you by whatever means necessary. He will stand by you when your migraines get out of hand. He will come to every doctor’s appointment. He will watch Friends and eat pizza with you on Friday nights. He will support your goals and the next steps you take towards a career. He will hold you and reassure you as you sit on the bathroom floor, terrified, holding the positive pregnancy test you were not planning on. You will watch him grow into a spiritual leader, wonderful husband, and incredible father to the growing jelly bean inside of you. He will be there for you as the jelly bean inside you makes you sick over, and over again. He will still come to every doctor’s appointment.

1 year later, when everything is different, and nothing turns out how you’re currently planning, you will be even happier than you are today. Because the best is yet to come.

And the snowstorm is actually going to make your pictures amazing!

365 days.

xoxo.

1 Comment

December 27, 2014

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I love decorating my house for holidays! I’m sad there’s no more holidays to decorate for after this!

Things have been crazy with our little family (more on that later), but I still managed to have fun putting up holiday decorations! We had a great first Christmas and now I can’t wait to see what 2015 will bring us!

November 4, 2014

It’s the Great Pumpkin (Katie) Brown!

Happy November!

We didn’t do much for Halloween, Kurtis had to close at work and I had to be up at 5:00am the next morning, but I still love being festive no matter what the occasion and I wanted to share a few pictures from the day!

Kurtis and I celebrated by having some drinks and watching the Nightmare Before Christmas the night before. (Is it a Halloween movie or a Christmas movie? Can I just watch it from now until New Years?)

The day of we slept in a little bit and then sent Kurtis off to work (dressed as superman!). A few hours later Bennett and I drove down to visit him for his lunch break where we went to Chipotle for $3 burritos! If you can dressed in costume, you got the discount!

Only to find they weren’t running the special until after 5pm. Boo. So there we were looking ridiculous in our costumes, paying full price for burritos. LAME.

Afterwards I took Bennett trick-or-treating at the outlet mall (everyone loved him), where I picked up the last detail for my costume. Then I headed to stop by the church carnival! Bennett was freaking out at all the kids ringing our doorbell so I took him with me. But the carnival proved to be too much excitement for him, so we only stayed for a little bit. I figured we would go home, stay in costume, and pass out candy to kids!

….Only to not have a single trick or treater past 7pm. Oh well. I took some Zzquil and got some much needed sleep before my early shift the next morning! Here are some snapshots from our day:

xoxo.

October 19, 2014

I’m so glad Iive in a world where there are Octobers.

Fall is here at the Brown house!

Brace yourselves everybody…I actually got crafty and made a wreath for the front door! And I had so much fun and I loved it so much, I think I’ll do one for Christmas too!

I spent three years in a sorority, and yet, I’m so not a crafty person. It’s shameful really. But I had a lot of fun with this! I also decorated the inside of the house as well. Very subtly, and just in the living room, but I had so much fun walking around Michael’s and picking out candles and flowers and candy corn!

Being a wife sure has domesticated me. I’m already planning my Christmas decor now, and I can’t wait!

(Unrelated, Bennett with a fall-themed pupcake! I’m going to be whipping up my own, all-natural ones, and sharing the recipe soon!)

xoxo

October 19, 2014

A home workspace.

We were blessed with a 2 bedroom townhome. So much more space than we actually needed. Since we don’t plan on having kids for a couple of years, we had to decide what to do with our extra room.

For 7 months it served as storage space for all the misc. junk we brought from out parents houses that didn’t really have a place here (which has since been moved to the basement).

We honestly didn’t have much use for it. Any family coming into town could stay with my parents (who are now practically empty nesters with like..3 extra bedrooms), or his parents, so we knew we wouldn’t have many guests.

But then when I started working for Orangetheory, I had to work many of my hours from home since the studio space was under construction. I have to do a lot of lesson planning and paperwork from home for my dance teaching job as well. And Kurtis decided to start taking online classes so he would still be free to work full time and do his internship. So we decided on home office. We have one nice, big desk, and one smaller desk. At the time these pictures were taken, I had the bigger desk since I was working 12+ hours a week from home. But since the studio opened we have switched because Kurtis has started school and I don’t work from home nearly as much. We will probably continually swap desks depending on who is using the office more and needs the bigger space. At least until we can get 2 big desks!

Since we moved in here, Kurtis has been complaining that he didn’t have much of a say in decorating the house and all of his stuff is in the basement. (The transformers poster and multiple snowboards don’t really match my decor), so I told him he could decorate his side of the office however he wanted!

And, of course, he didn’t touch it. Typical.

So, my side is all decorated and cute, and Kurtis’ is, well…lame. There’s still a few more things I want to do with it, to tie it all together more. Get a new comforter, pillows, and rug that all match, etc, which will have to wait until I have more time to focus on it.

But here it is! Our home office/guest room!

xoxo.