Thursday Reads

Hi guys! Just popping in quickly because I wanted to share two link two great articles that were shared with me this week.

 

You may have seen them as they have been making their way through social media, but if not, please take a look!

 

Here is a link to the first one, titled "before you were a mommy". I seriously got teary eyed reading this one. I know that having a baby is going to completely change our lives, and our marriage, as we adjust to caring for another little person, and the words she writes just really hit home.

 

The second one is about raising kind daughters. We live in a kind of mean society. Anyone else notice this? There is so much anger, and frustration and stress and don't even get me started on the bullying. Bullying that is seen in young kids, at school and online. This article really struck home with me as I am getting ready to have a daughter. It got me thinking about what kind of person I want her to be, and how I want her to act and treat people. And that forced me to take a look at myself ... what kind of example am I setting for her? The bottom line is ... kindness starts at home. How different would our world be if everyone tried to be a little kinder?

 

Let me know what you guys think!!

House Update

 

Well, it is now day ten since we listed our house and guess how much interest we have had?

 

Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada.

 

Blah. It's hard not to be discouraged. Our house is move-in ready and in a great school district. There are only twelve other houses on the market in our town, and ours is the only one at our price point. We really thought that by the end of the first week, we would have at least one offer.

 

We had a good turnout at our first open house, but there were a couple of negative remarks.

 

One, being my dressing room. This one kind of surprised me, but people were commenting that it showed the lack of closet space in our master bedroom. While this isn't true, I can see why they may have thought that.

 

The second remark was the lack of a dining area. Ahh, I knew this would get us. It was one of my biggest gripes with the house as well.

 

So after some thinking, and talking with our agent, we decided to make some changes. Here's the photos of what our house looks like now!

The upstairs second bedroom, staged as baby girl's nursery instead of a random room with a futon.

Our bedroom, with my dresser moved upstairs to fill some empty space.

Our focal point wall, we just swapped out the lamp on the table.

A little bar area in our new "dining room".

And our dining table brought back in and placed in the open space next to the kitchen.

A MUCH better flow and use of space!

My old dressing room, now re-purposed as a family room/den/playroom. I love how cozy this room is!

This room was empty when we listed it, so we moved the futon down and added a desk and two bookshelves. It now feels more like a guest room.



 

The rest of the house stayed the same and we have scheduled another open house this weekend. We are hopeful that these changes will sell our house!

Will you keep your fingers crossed for us please? And tell me, what do you think of our new layout?

 

Pregnancy Favorites

I have been working on this post since month three of this pregnancy ... I'm almost into my third trimester now, but hey, better late then never!

I have been reading pregnancy blogs since way before I was pregnant. I love reading what other mamas have tried and used, and then going from there. Everyone is different and has different pregnancies, so some things are just good ol' trial and error.

So wihtout wasting any more time, here is my list of absolute must-have-would-not-have-survived-this-pregnancy-without list!



1. A huge, take-anywhere-with-you, insulated water bottle: this one is a no-brainer. My personal favorite is the large Bubba. I am never, ever without this thing! It keeps my water nice and cold, and I probably drink 8-10 of these a day! During pregnancy it is recommended that you drink more than a non-pregnant person, around 80 ounces a day. I probably drink between 100-120 ounces. Staying hydrated is SO important!

You can find these at Target, Walmart or Bed, Bath & Beyond

2. Sleeping Aids: Unisom Quickmelts -- these are seriously my lifesaver. I have been taking them every night since week 8, and I swear they are the only things that help me get a solid nights sleep. I notice a huge difference if I don't take one! (Disclaimer: my midwife suggested these to me, but you might still want to double check with your midwife or OB first)

You can find these at any local drugstore or Target!

3. Healthy snacks: I always keep snacks with me in my purse because I never know when I'm going to suddenly get hungry and not be near a place to get something quick and healthy! During my first trimester, if I didn't eat every hour to hour-and-a-half, I would get very sick, so I learned my lesson early on. These are some of my favorites: Zone and Kind bars, dried fruit (apricots), apples, applesauce and trailmix. At my office I would keep cereal and milk, and bread with peanut butter and jelly :)

4. Anti-Stretch Mark Cream: Starting as soon as I found out I was pregnant, I was religious about using this product. I understand that stretch marks are likely hereditary, but I still wanted to do something to help! And *knock on wood* I'm 26 weeks and not a stretch mark in sight! My belly gets really itchy somtimes from my skin stretching and this is so nice and soothing on my skin. This product is sold pretty much everywhere, but I lucked out before Christmas and found the large bottle at TJ Maxx for $14.99, when it normally retails for around $25. I'm thinking it will last me through the rest of my pregnancy!

Bio-Oil

5. Pregnancy pillow -- honestly, don't mess around or wait to get one of these. Keith calls it my "dinosaur" and Gunner loves to snuggle up in it too, this thing is amazing. It's so helpful to keep me sleeping on my side since I'm normally a back sleeper. I love love this, and will probably use it long after the baby is here!

Snoogle

6. Comfy clothes: I do have to dress up for work, and I plan on doing a separate post on my favorite maternity clothes, but I honestly live in two things when I'm home being lazy .

I LIVE in these

The Liz Lange for Target maternity tanks are my favorite. They are SO comfy and soft, and stretchy but not too much so. I layer these under everything, especially my non-maternity cardigans :) And they are a great price!

Definitely get yourself a good pair of leggings! I wear mine all the time. The nice thing about maternity tops is that they are longer and nicely cover your bum :) I wear leggings to work, to bed, out and about. I have pairs from Old Navy, Loft, Motherhood Maternity and Target, but my all-time favorites are the ones from Gap. They hold up really well even though I've washed and worn them a zillion times, and they don't shrink.

So there it is ... pretty simple stuff but things that have made my pregnancy so much more comfortable :) Do you have anything to add? What were your pregnancy "must-haves"?

25 Week Bumpdate!

See how tired I look now? :)

How far along: 25 Weeks

Gender: Girl

Weight gain: 12-15ish pounds?

Maternity clothes: Yes

Stretch marks: Nope!

Belly button in or out: Out

Sleep: ugh what is that? this is how my nights go ... I get home, make dinner, do house stuff and watch some TV and then crawl into bed utterly exhausted by 9:30 or 10pm. At 2:30am, I am wide awake. Still utterly exhausted, and now extremely uncomfortable, I toss and turn for 2 hours. Then I get up and go lay on the couch or the futon in the guest room where usually by 5am I can fall back asleep. Getting up at 6am when my alarm goes off, is pure torture. Oh and did I mention the restless leg syndrome that also keeps me from falling back asleep? ughhh.

Best moment this week: We set up her crib and started working on painting her dresser! Even though our living plans are in limbo right now, I still want to move ahead with getting ready for baby girl. If we sell and move, we can just pack it all up as is and move it!

Worst moment this week: Friday night I started having bad stomach pains. It took a few hours for me to figure out that they were actually contractions of some sort. I took a hot bath, went to bed and slept (amazingly) fairly well. Saturday I woke up and my stomach still felt really tight and I was still contracting, but there were too many to really count. It felt like they all just rolled one into the next! Not fun. Around 2:30 our midwife told us to come in to Labor & Delivery and get checked out. They ran a few tests, and monitored me for a couple of hours.Turns out everything looked really great! Baby was doing well and my cervix was still closed so they knew I wasn't headed to pre-term labor. THANK GOD. I think the stress of the week and maybe over-doing it physically just took a toll on me, so I was sent home with strict instructions to lay low and rest the rest of the weekend. Keith took that advice very seriously, and wouldn't even let me go get a pedicure because it involved me driving. If he heard me get up from the couch, he would run in yelling "are you doing something??" LOL It was very cute and sweet how much he pampered me this weekend. Thankfully I am feeling a lot better now, I think a day of resting was just what I needed!

Miss anything: Sleep lol

Movement: She is SO active. While at the hospital and hooked up to the monitor, my midwife was amazed at how much she was moving around! She pretty much never stops :)

Cravings: Nothing too specific this week!

Queasy or sick: Neither :)

Looking forward to: having a nice, quiet, low key week! (I hope ....)

 

Little Baby M: Nursery Planning

 

When we first got pregnant, we weren't planning on finding out if baby M was a boy or girl. That got old pretty quickly and we changed our minds around ten weeks. But even from the get-go, whether it was a boy or girl, I was pretty set on what I wanted for a nursery.

I am not a fan of themes. I don't knock anyone who loves them, but to me, I just don't like them. I knew I wanted more focus on colors, textures and patterns.

Our original color scheme was grey, aqua and orange. Something that could go well if the baby was a boy or a girl. You may remember that I had purchased these last August:

Antique map prints purchased at a flea market in Boston

My goal was to hang these in the nursery with a few more prints with quotes like "oh the places you'll go" and "the world is your oyster".

Then, we found out we were having a girl. And all of a sudden, I wanted her room to feel more "girlie". I still wanted the same general color scheme but now I was headed toward mint and coral, with soft peach and gold accents.

Here is the mood/inspiration board that I came up with thanks to my best friend Pinterest :)

 

Top left // Top Right // Bottom Left // Bottom Right    

I am loving everything about these colors, textures and combinations. Her bedding was the first thing that I ordered. I had the privilege of working with Sally Jenson Interiors, and I was blown away by her work.

This bumper is the exact one that we ordered.

 

She also made me a matching crib sheet in a fun mint print and crib skirt in a mint and coral chevron fabric. The bedding was definitely a splurge, but after searching high and low and not being able to find exactly what I wanted, I knew custom was the way to go. And I'd do it all over again :)

The crib pictured in the above photo is the actual crib we ordered too, only I didn't realize it until last week, haha! It's a very popular style, probably because it's so affordable and great quality and I love the girliness of it. The crib and mattress were a gift from my wonderful mother-in-law!


Here is a sneak peek!!

And here she is!!! Isn't it so pretty?

Even though we are (hopefully) moving, once her crib came in, I couldn't resist setting it up and seeing how it looks finished. It makes me so happy to go into that room and just look at her crib, and get all emotional about it. Oh the joys of pregnancy hormones!!

We purchased her dresser last weekend from Craigslist, and I'm excited to give it a coat of coral paint and change out the hardware. I think it is going to go perfectly in her nursery :)

I am really looking forward to sharing the finished room with you all in just a few short months!

 

24 Weeks

Oh my lord what a busy week this has been, and I cannot believe that it's taken me this long to get this week's post up!

 

 

I'm obsessed with these Liz Lange for Target maternity tanks. So soft and stretchy!!

Gender: Girl

Weight gain: probably somewhere around 15 pounds at this point!

Maternity clothes: Yes, and I plan on posting my favorites very soon!

Stretch marks: Nope, thank goodness

Belly button in or out: Out

Sleep: Sleep is starting to not be so good, I wake up randomly and have a really hard time getting comfy again :/

Best moment this week: Not really baby related, but we put our house on the market AND ordered her crib!

Worst moment this week: Having to do all the work that comes with listing your house lol ... the packing, moving, reorganizing and staging

Miss anything: Being able to cross my legs! yes that has become almost impossible

Movement: This child moves ALL the time, all day and all night. The other night it literally felt like she was tap dancing under my belly button!

Cravings: pretty much the same as always, ANYTHING sweet

Queasy or sick: Neither! Feeling pretty good in that respect

Looking forward to: Warmer weather (whenever that might be!) and *hopefully* selling our house soon!!!

 

 

So in other news ... yes we listed our house! Hoping for some bites or interest here soon :)

 

We ordered her crib and mattress and I can't wait to share that soon, along with our nursery inspiration!

 

Anyone else sick of winter already? I am soooo looking forward to spring! And warm weather! And meeting baby girl :)

 

 

Our family is on the move!

I honestly cannot believe that I am writing this post. I never expected to write it so soon. But life is crazy and oftentimes unpredictable.

Today, we put our house on the market. Yes, the very house that we just moved into nine months ago.

 

Taken almost ten months ago, the day of our house inspection

 

The day we closed, and moved in

When we bought this house, I think we both fully expected this to be our "long-term" home. It has four bedrooms, a huge yard, a great finished basement and was in one of the top school districts in the state. On paper, this house should have been perfect for us.

 

 

Our Living Room today

Our kitchen

My favorite wall in the whole house!

Looking back to when we were purchasing this house, all the signs were there that we shouldn't have bought it. It wasn't "our" house. But at the time, we were under a time crunch having sold our condo, and there was very little else on the market. So we continued to bulldoze through and we did everything in our power to make this house happen. Isn't it funny how sometimes you look back and think "how did we not see the signs?"

Now, I'm not saying that there is anything physically wrong with this house. We had alot of issues in the beginning with shoddy work the previous owner had done. We were fortunate that they were able to rectify all of the issues, at no cost to us, thus allowing us to in good faith sell the house to someone else.

It just wasn't for us. I can't put my finger on what that means exactly, but I know that this is not the home or the community that God intended for us to live in. Obviously I have no clue what His plan is for our life, but after fighting this situation for so long we know we made a mistake moving here. And so now I am doing something I failed to do a year ago -- trust in Him that He will open up a path and lead us to the right place.

So today, three months before the birth of our first child, we listed our house and put it all in God's hands. We have plans to rent for a year, and take some time to do some thinking about where we ultimately should live. Our life is clearly in transition right now, and there are alot of factors that will affect this decision. To us, the best way to sort it out was to go back to square one. We hope to live in a rental, save even more money for our next home, focus on becoming parents and letting go of everything else. I know that our path will become clear once we quiet everything else down.

And truthfully, while this move is bittersweet and I'm a little nervous about what this means for our future, I am also so so excited to see what is in store for us next. I've never felt more confident that we are making the right decision for our family.

Twenty-Three Weeks!

Green shirt, Old Navy // Blazer, old Express

 

 

How far along: 23 Weeks

Gender: Girl

Weight gain: 12lbs ... I gained 6 in one month, so guess I making up for lost time :)

Maternity clothes: My goal is to be comfy 24/7 so yes, I'm living in maternity clothes

Stretch marks: Nope!

Belly button in or out: Out officially as of this week .... eek

Sleep: If I don't take a unisom at night, I don't sleep well at all. So now I know better and am sleeping like a baby :) but with the craziest dreams!!

Best moment this week: My birthday was amazing and so was our babymoon ... but getting my first prenatal massage was out of this world amazing

Worst moment this week: Realizing that I can't walk or move around as freely as I used to

Miss anything: Being able to walk standing straight up haha!

Movement: Lots of movement!! Holy crap this little girl is quite the gymnast

Cravings: Chocolate ... ice cream .. cookies ... anything sweet

Queasy or sick: Nope, neither!

Looking forward to: Big things coming up this week in our life and I'm anxious and excited about them! Look for a blog post on Friday with the details!

 

 

It was my BIRTHDAY!

My birthday wakeup surprise! The hubs knows how much I love orchids!

My Stella & Dot charm necklace that I'm obsessed with :)

Part two of my birthday gift, a prenatal massage!

FINALLY deciding on her crib .... I only changed my mind three times! Also loving this overall look/feel

Working on my list for her nursery, I cannot wait to put it all together!!

I can't believe how fast time is flying by .. before we know it she will be here! I can't wait <3

Checking in from Charleston!

Its currently 8:32am and the hubby is still sleeping. This mama can't seem to sleep past 7:30 anymore! 

We got here yesterday afternoon and made a last minute decision to rent a car. It was only $56 for four days! And the condo we rented had free parking, so it was really a no-brainer. 

We explored, walked, ate, drove around and did a little shopping before crashing early. Here are a few photos!

I wish I could remember the name of this restaurant (hello pregnancy brain) but it was the coolest building. It was an old church converted into a bar/restaurant. How beautiful is that window? And the chandelier! 

The yummiest fried pickles and delicious sweet tea. 

We walked into an open air market and this dress was the first thing I saw. I *had* to have it for baby girl!

We drove around, getting lost on these adorable side streets. I think I squealed every time we turned down a new one and saw the gorgeous amazing home. So much character! I think I said multiple times "can we please move here??" :)

We were also fortunate enough to catch a beautiful rainbow after a quick afternoon shower. 

We parked our car and walked up King Street looking for this place:

Y'all know me and my obsession with cupcakes. They did not disappoint and I plan to go back again today and tomorrow since they change their flavors daily!

Red velvet for me and black&white for Keith. 

We ended our day at a bar/restaurant called Prohibition. Man did I wish I could enjoy a yummy cocktail!!

Could this place be any cuter? I think not. 

And that was our first day! I'm about to wake the hubs up, and go find some French toast! Today's agenda is a prenatal massage for me, visiting a plantation and a trip to the beach :)

Happy Friday y'all!

The beginning of a new decade

I always thought 30 sounded so old. Now that my own 30th birthday is mere hours away, I feel like 20 is so young.

My twenties were a decade of soul searching, mistake making, chance taking, traveling and growing. I made friends and lost friends. I dabbled in different careers. I went back to school and got my BS degree. I had my heart broken, and did some heartbreaking of my own. I moved countless times. I got a dog. Had to give him up because I was too young and irresponsible to take care of him. I traveled. Stayed up late. Stayed out too late. I grew up. I learned the value of family and good true honest friends. Got another dog. Experience heartbreaking loss, the kind you think you'll never get over. At 25, I met my soulmate, fell in love and got married. Sold our first condo and bought our first house. The last few months of my 20s, I got pregnant and am now growing a life. A sweet baby girl. The most perfect way to end an amazing decade.

Truthfully, I am so looking forward to 30. And in a weird way, I am so grateful that the birth of our daughter didn't come in my 20s. I spent alot of my 20s being unsure of myself, of my place in this world or of the path I wanted to take. Now, I know. And I know that the very best way to start this next decade, is with the birth of the daughter that I have always wanted.

Every path, every decision, every mistake .... all of it was my meant to be. It put me right where I needed to be, in order for me to have this wonderful life.

And I wouldn't change a minute of it. So, here's to my 20s. And here is to a future that I look forward to with excitement and anticipation. It can only get better <3