Insta-moments

Another installment of life through Instagram.

I finally bought a sewing machine, and I got to work on curtains for the nursery.

It doesn't look like much, but my fav icecream. A black and white. Vanilla ice cream, chocolate ice cream, hot fudge, topped with marshmallow and almonds. Delish!

Jack enjoying his coffee ice cream. His fav.

We headed to a local lake on Sunday for a couple of hours to let the pup swim. See her off in the distance? That little black speck in the water. She just can't get enough fetch.

She's having a good time.

And proof I was there even though I didn't Instagram the photo.

Weeks 26 & 27

I missed last weeks bump photo because we went out of town for the weekend, so I only have my 27 weeks photo. I cannot believe I'm about to head into my third trimester now. Time is really starting to fly by, and I want it to slow down. It's funny how I wanted the beginning to hurry up and go by, and now I want the end to be slow. My to do list is a mile long and I'm freaking out that there is still so much to do to prepare for this little guy's arrival.

Things were going really great until I got sick this week. You can see the evidence in my weekly photo with a nasty cold sore I got below my nose. I'm feeling much better. Just congested, which sucks. I did take two days off of work and I was able to tackle my first sewing project of making curtains for the nursery. I'll have to do a nursery update soon.

The big new thing is that I started leaking colostrum! This is something I didn't expect before I had the baby. I first noticed it last weekend when we were at the beach. I was laying on my side cuddling Jack. When I rolled over, I had a big wet spot on my shirt. Squeezed my boob a little, and sure enough! Colostrum started coming out! Craziness. Jack thought it was the coolest thing. lol Not a lot comes out. It's not like I need to wear pads or anything. It's just another reminder that my body is going through some major changes.

Gender: Boy!
Total weight gain: about 20 lbs I'm really hoping to keep weight gain under 35 lbs, but we'll see.
Maternity clothes: Almost all maternity. I have discovered that my husbands old, stretched out boxers are super comfy to sleep in. I'm trying to avoid maternity PJ's at this point.
Sleep: It's been pretty good except right now while I'm sick. I get up about 1-2 times a night to pee and sometimes my back is aching in the morning. Definitely nothing to really complain about though.
Miss anything? I do miss being able to do things with out my back starting to hurt and getting tired. I seem to get tired out easily and have to sit and rest.
Cravings: The usual sweet tooth. I've been eating a lot of chocolate. I thought pregnancy was supposed to bring on stronger cravings. I haven't really experienced any up to this point.
Symptoms: Occasional braxton hicks contractions. I've been getting heartburn right before bed, which is super annoying. I feel like I always have to pee. Sometimes I'll go and then like 5 minutes later I feel the urge again. It's probably just the baby's position. Oh and leaking colostrum.
Movement: I've noticed that the movement has changed. It's no longer flutters or little kicks, but full on rolling motions. The kicks are much stronger now and I can feel little body parts rolling around in there. I'm not sure what it is I'm exactly feeling, but it feels like a butt or head rubbing on my tummy. And he sure likes to kick my right rib.
The bump: Out front and center! Is it just me, or do people no longer look at your face when you're pregnant? I see someone, we make eye contact, and then their eyes always go to my belly next. It's kind of funny. I think I do that to pregnant women too.
Belly button in or out? still in. I'm wondering if it'll pop out or not. It seems like it still has a ways to go.
Mood: Happy most of the time. I get frustrated and stressed at times.
Best moment of this week? Last weekend at the beach was awesome.
What are you looking forward to? Going to Ikea next weekend to shop some more for the nursery.


Here's a look back at the second trimester:

Our Babymoon Weekend Getaway

This past weekend, Jack and I headed to the coast to experience one last trip, just the two of us, before baby arrives. We headed to Avila Beach on Thursday afternoon to spend a long weekend at the beach. We love the Central Coast of California. I went to school at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Jack spent many weekends visiting me there, so the area holds a special place in both our hearts.

On our way to Avila, we stopped in SLO to enjoy the Thursday night farmers market. LOVE the farmers market! Tons of local booths set up selling produce, flowers and lots and lots of food.

Jack enjoying some BBQ

Ate at this BBQ booth. So yummy! 

I stopped in the Cal Poly store to pick up some goods.

I couldn't resist this onesie! Baby has to represent his mamma's Alma Mater!

Then we headed on over to Avila to check into our hotel.

We stayed at Joe Mamma's Beachstay in Avila. This is the view standing right outside our room. It's a nice little place to stay. The units are like little apartments. You also get free breakfast and coffee from their Joe Mamma's coffee shop.

We enjoyed a stroll along the beach. The lighting was just beautiful for photos when we got there.

I didn't take too many photos from this point on. We spent Friday and Saturday relaxing on the beach all day.

This pretty much sums up our whole trip. Relaxing on the beach! Enjoying the nice cool temps. We each did get a massage on Friday. It was amazing! Prenatal for me of course. Jack actually came in for the last 20 minute so the massage therapist could show him techniques to use on me at home. Can't wait to be getting some massages from him!

Avila has a little farmer's market on Friday night. I thought these mangoes cut to look like flowers were pretty.

On Sunday, we took one last stroll down the beach then headed on home. We did stop at the Avila Valley Barn to check out the goods they had.

We didn't end up buying anything, but these guys were cute.

So sad we had to come home. Jack turned off the AC while we were gone and it was 88 degrees in the house when we got home! Not a nice welcome home after spending 3 days in 70 degree weather. Can't wait until we can make it back to the coast again!

Biggest baby purchase

A few weeks ago, Jack and I made the biggest baby preparation purchase we'll ever make.

We bought a new car! Well, new to us at least. It's a 2011 Chevy Traverse LT. Isn't she purdy? Jack's Ford Ranger and my tiny Yaris just wasn't going to cut it once the baby arrived. I commute 70 miles round trip a day, so we're keeping my Yaris as a commuter car. We're ditching the Ranger and Jack will drive the Traverse to work.

This baby rides nice and smooth and it seats 8! It's got tons of cargo room. Plenty of space for a baby and a dog and luggage. I actually don't mind driving, if I get to drive this. We love that it has remote start, so we can get the AC going before we even get in the car. It's got nice dark tinted windows to block the sun off the baby. There's just so much to love.

The best part of this car is we have no car payment! Yep, we paid for this baby in full, one of the advantages for us buying used. It's only got 19,000 miles on it, and we saved approximately $6-8k by buying used. We went back and forth for awhile on buying new with 0% financing or paying in full on a used, and ultimately decided that saving $6,000 was worth putting a dent in our savings. I admit, it was hard seeing that chunk of change come out of our bank, but it was worth it. This purchase has been a long time coming. We've been looking at cars for a year now, and we finally took the plunge. We had to drive to L.A. to get the best deal, but we saved about $2-3k by doing so. So worth the 2 hour drive.

We can't wait to take home our baby in this thing in about 3 months!

Insta-Moments

I've had Instagram on my phone for awhile and used it occasionally, but I'm starting to get addicted to it over the last few days. I thought I'd share some of my Instragram photos on here.

My almost 25 week bump! I love this shirt that I got at Target.  

 Another bump shot. 

Jack BBQ'd some corn. I love BBQ'd corn especially when it's got some charred bits on it. 

 Taking Sadie on a morning walk and to play fetch. She loooooves fetch! 

Sadie ♥

Aaaaand another bump shot because I can't help myself. I can still see my feet though!

Jack doing what he does best.... playing Diablo! I have such a nerdy hubby. :)

Week 25

It feels like the weeks are just flying by now. I can't believe I'm almost in the third trimester! I've been feeling a little overwhelmed this week. I feel like there is so much to do, and I haven't really got anything accomplished yet. What's mostly stressing me out is I don't know the situation with my maternity leave yet. I've been putting it off talking to my work about it and now is probably a good time to get that worked out. I guess I'm just nervous they're not going to approve the amount of time I want off. What helped me though is I made a checklist of the things we need to get done before his arrival. Seeing it all written down, made it feel not so overwhelming.

I also started our registry this week. My mom and I set a date for the baby shower for September 8th. I can't wait! Am I the only one that found making a registry NOT fun?! I find it overwhelming with all the baby gear options and all the crap that they tell you a baby needs. I barely started researching gear this past week. And I hate to register for useless stuff, but I felt like I needed to put affordable options on the registry. Most of what we really need is the big stuff like a car seat. But I will most certainly be grateful for whatever gifts our friends and family give us.

I decided to register at Babies R Us and also on Amazon. Jack and I went to BRU yesterday to start the registry. I figured it would be easier to get it started in the store and then make changes online later. Phew! It was exhausting though. There is so much baby crap in that store, but I think we got a good foundation to work with.

Gender: Boy!
Total weight gain: about 17 lbs
Maternity clothes: Mostly wearing maternity clothing. I have a few tops that I can wear that are not maternity. The maternity clothes just flatter the bump so much better.
Sleep: It's been good mostly. Still have to get up and go 2-3 times a night. I've been having some backaches in the morning. I might need a pillow between my legs and I should work on strengthening my back.
Miss anything? Being able to bend over with out it being uncomfortable.
Cravings: This last week I've been wanting sandwiches and pasta salad. Particularly a pasta salad from Brinks that has these nice yummy chunks of cheese in it. 
Symptoms: I started getting Braxton Hicks contractions this week. My doc said they're usually caused by dehydration. So if I feel them, I know I need to drink more water. I've also had a little heartburn. Oh and I have a slight UTI. Never had one before in my life! I guess it's common during pregnancy because your urinary tract slows down.  
Movement:All the time! I never get tired of it. 
The bump: Out front and center! I'm not sure it's grown much since last week though.
Belly button in or out? still in
Mood: Super happy! 
Best moment of this week? I would have to say listening to the little guy's heartbeat at my checkup. He got the hiccups while the doc was listening! It was so cute.  
What are you looking forward to? Our babymoon coming up this weekend! We are headed to the beach for 3 nights. I can't wait to get out of this heat for a little while and relax.

Writing to baby

Back at the beginning of my pregnancy, I was trying to figure out a way to document the whole experience. I knew keeping up with my weekly bump updates would help, but I wanted something more personal and concrete. My mom had given me a notebook that she had written in during my first year, and that's when it occurred to me! I could start my own journal to remember my pregnancy and to document baby's first year.

So I got myself a moleskin journal from Target and I've been writing letters to the baby periodically through out my pregnancy. If you're considering it, here are some points to get your journal writing juices flowing:

• Day your found out you were pregnant and how you told your husband
• Write about when you told friends & family and their reactions
• First time hearing his/her heartbeat and how it made you feel
• First time you felt him/her kicking 
• First time your significant other got to feel movement
• How you envision life will be like once your little bundle of joy has arrived
• Your hopes & dreams for your little one
• Names you're considering & how you decided on a name
• Who do you think he/she will look like
• Day to day life before he/she arrived
• And anything else you would like your little one to know

My goal is to try to write in it at least once a month before and after he's here. Once he's born, I hope to write about his milestones and all his firsts. Then one day, when he's all grown up, I hope to give the journal to him to read. I think his future wife might enjoy reading through it. 

Quick Nursery Update

Ok, a quick nursery update. This is where we last left off with the nursery. Jack was almost done painting, and we were getting ready to find some carpet.

Here is the room now. Please excuse the mess. That's what Jack is working on currently, painting my old dresser. We had carpet installed. And Jack put together the PAX wardrobe from Ikea that we ordered. It's starting to come together! I'm so excited to start decorating it soon. The guy at Buy Buy Baby totally teased me and called to let me know the crib was in but our glider was still a few weeks out. Bummer. We have to drive 2 hours to pick the stuff up, and I only want to make the trip once.

Now I'm working on picking out fabric for the curtains. The top one is Premier Prints Zig Zag Blue Twill, the middle one is Premier Prints Gotcha Twill Blue, and the bottom one is Premier Prints Twill Polka Dots Lucy in Yellow/White. Which one is your fav? I think I'm going to go with the chevron in blue. I think it'll be fun for the nursery.

Here is a nursery I found with the same fabric:

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Week 24

I totally slacked last week and missed my bumpdate. I was pretty busy though with my grandparents in town visiting. I was going over to my mom’s house every night to visit with them, so that left no time to take my 23 week photo.



Please excuse my greasy hair. 4th of July fireworks kept me up late and I didn’t sleep well last night, so that equals me being too tired to wash my hair in the morning. I’m so excited to be 24 weeks now! Baby boy can actually survive outside the womb now. Of course I want him to keep cooking for another 16 weeks, but I can breath a small sigh of relief.

Gender: Boy!
Total weight gain: about 15 lbs
Maternity clothes: Wearing a mixture of maternity and non-maternity. I have a few tops and dresses that are non-maternity that I fit into. But I love my maternity clothes. I can’t help but keep buying more! I’ve been looking forward to being pregnant and buying cute maternity clothes for a long time!
Sleep: Still good besides getting up to go pee a million times during the night. I can fall right back asleep though and I practically sleep through it. lol 
Miss anything? Sometimes I miss a glass of wine.
Cravings: Not really having any strong cravings. I’m mostly craving sweets which isn’t usual for me, even when I’m not pregnant.
Symptoms: Nothing. I’ve been feeling really great. Maybe the occasional heartburn, but that’s it!   
Movement: Getting stronger and stronger! I could just stare at my belly all day long and watch it move. It’s so amazing. My mom got to feel him last week which was really special. 
The bump: Definitely growing! It’s out front and center. 
Belly button in or out? still in
Mood: Super happy! 
Best moment of this week? Hmmmm I would have to say throwing my good friends a moving away party. I’m sad that they’re moving so far away, but it was great being able to send them off! Baby related: Nursery is all painted, carpet is installed and we have the PAX wardrobe all put together and up. I’ll have to post a nursery update later. Oh! And I can’t forget about making it to viability!  
What are you looking forward to? I’m always looking forward to the weekend! But I’m also looking forward to seeing my old dresser as a kid all freshly painted. Hubby is working hard!

I did a little DIY photo shoot yesterday for Independence Day. The tank is Old Navy and it’s not maternity. The skirt is from Liz Lange maternity for Target.