Up and Over

Here is a quick OOTD from last weekend.  I thought I could wear this skirt with the waist band down below my bump, but that turned out to be very uncomfortable.  I ended up pulling it up and over, hence the strange lines on my belly!  Oh well,  with my limited wardrobe at the moment, it will have to do.

It has been so cold, windy and rainy all weekend.  It makes for good napping weather and has me feeling very excited for fall/winter!  We took care of errands earlier today and picked up a free crib from craigslist. It is like new and came from a sweet grandmother who only used it when her grandson visited.  Score!  Now, I'm ready for a cozy evening.  Chicken pot pie is in the works and we are counting down the hours until we can watch the series finale of Breaking Bad.  Hope your weekend has been great:)  

Skirt:  Anthropologie Seamingly Maxi Skirt
Tank:  Gap maternity
Scarf:  Cabbages and Roses via Uniqlo
Shoes:  Chaco

Beach OOTD

Here is a quick OOTD from our beach trip.  Getting back into the swing of things this week has been tough.  I'm glad I had a few days after we got back to recover and relax, but Monday morning still came too soon.  Sunday was my birthday - it was nice and quiet:)  I stayed in my PJ's for most of the day, then Ben and I went out to dinner.  I consumed lots of birthday cake and ice cream and took a few naps.  It was perfect! Ben got me tickets to go see Chris Thile, so we will have a more proper celebration then.

Dress:  Anthropologie
Cardigan:  Jackie
Sandals:  Chacos
Necklace:  Betsy and Iya

Hope you are having a great week!

family beach trip

I just got home this morning from a family beach trip in NC.  Ben and I flew to NC last week, drove to the coast, rented a big beach house on Oak Island, and invited both of our families to join us.  We thought this would be easier than us trying to visit our families separately.  We usually spend our time back East driving around to different family members' houses.  We want to see everyone, but that usually means just spending half a day or 1 day at each location before we have to move on to the next place.  The great thing about this beach trip was that Ben and I could stay put and we had everyone together under one roof.  Executing the trip ended up being much more stressful and chaotic than I anticipated, but it was worth it.

The flight home was rough.  Our last flight was delayed by about 4 hours, so we had to hang out in the Houston airport for over 6 hours and didn't end up getting home until 4:00am this morning.  My ankles/feet got really swollen.  My midwife warned me that this would probably happen, but it still felt really weird.  My ankles are still swollen, even after sleeping/resting most of the day today.  

The week at the beach was filled with beauty, excitement, and of course a good bit of family drama.  I won't go into the latter, but here are some photographs to showcase the beauty and excitement:)  It's always best to focus on the positive, right?  

We spotted a shark on the very first day and ended up seeing it in the early morning a late evening on 3 different days.  It was very close in (in water that was less than knee-deep) eating bait fish.  I have never seen a shark like this and it definitely deterred me from swimming in the ocean (the jellyfish stings that happened to 4 family members didn't help either!).  

One of the most amazing things we experienced on this trip was getting to see 2 different sea turtle nests hatch.  My mother-in-law was very determined to see this and she called the local turtle watch volunteers to find out which nests may be hatching during our stay.  Thanks to her persistence, we got to see this twice during our stay.  It was so neat!  When the turtles first start coming out of the nest, they refer to it as a "boil".  That is exactly what it's like too - it seems like they are boiling up and over each other until they are all out.  They then quickly make their way down to the ocean.  A couple of days before the nest is ready to hatch, the volunteers put up this green barrier to help guide the turtles to the water.    

 

My sister threw me a small, family baby shower since this was likely the last time I will see my family until after baby gets here.  It was so much fun!  She went all out and made it so special:)

Day trip OOTD

Last weekend Ben and I took a day trip to Gorge, WA.  We started the day off with a huge breakfast, then hit the road.  We enjoyed the long car ride, stopped for blizzards, made it to The Gorge Amphitheater to hear some music, then made our way back home.  We ended up not making it home until 4:00am.  Yikes!  It was fun until that last couple of hours when we were both so tired.  We considered getting a hotel room, but opted to just keep going.  I was so happy to get home!

This was the first time I've been to The Gorge Amphitheater.  I've heard it's one of the best outdoor music venues in the US.  We had a blast and you can't beat the beautiful surroundings!

This is what I wore.  I've had this anthropologie top for a couple of years.  It has not gotten much love until now, I think because I never knew how to wear it.  It was a little big/boxy.  However, it's the perfect early maternity top.  One of my favorites right now!

Jeans:  Gap maternity
Cami:  Anthropologie
Top:  Anthropologie
Shoes:  Chacos
Necklace:  Betsy and Iya

Pregnancy update - half way there!

How far along: 20 weeks 5 days!

Development: According to The Bump, baby is the size of a large banana. He is learning how to swallow/digest by drinking amniotic fluid every day. What I eat affects how the amniotic fluid tastes, and studies show that when babies taste certain foods/flavors in utero, they are more likely to eat those foods as toddlers. Knowing this inspires me to be sure to eat my fruits/vegetables every day!

Symptoms: Current symptoms include exhaustion, headaches, and constipation. Symptoms-wise, this is the best I have felt yet. My first trimester was rough (lots of nausea, food aversions, headaches, body aches, fatigue, spotting, etc. etc. etc. Basically, I felt like I had the flu for 2 months straight.). I had a lot of very intense headaches during the first part of the second trimester. My midwife gave me something to take to help prevent these headaches and I've only had 1 in the past 3 weeks. Phew! Some days I feel okay in terms of energy and other days I wake up feeling tired and have to lay down for a bit after work.

Maternity clothes: I'm still wearing a lot of my regular dresses, but no regular skirts/pants. It seems like my options are dwindling every day. I'm thinking that I will most likely have to transition to all maternity within the next 2-3 weeks. Shopping for maternity clothes has been challenging. It's tough to find cute maternity clothes in the first place and I really don't want to spend a lot of money since I will only be wearing these items for a relatively short time.

Stretch marks: Not yet.

Sleep: Overall, not the best. I started having trouble sleeping very early on. It kind of comes and goes, but I'm waking up during the night a lot more than normal and I'm waking up earlier in the morning.

Best moment of this week: Feeling my little guy move around:)

Miss anything: The thing I miss the most is cookie dough. A few weeks ago, Ben made homemade chocolate chip cookies. They were delicious, but I really missed eating the dough - that's the best part!

Movement: I just started feeling him move about a week ago (at 19w3d to be exact!). For a couple of weeks prior to that, I occasionally felt a tiny little flutters that I thought may be him, but I wasn't sure (looking back, I'm pretty sure it was him). Now that the movements are more distinct, I'm noticing them more and more. Sometimes it's a slithering/rolling feeling and other times it feels more like a jab/kick. I can feel the kicks from the outside now and Ben felt it for the first time last night. Now that I can feel him, this whole thing feels more real.

Food cravings: No crazy cravings yet. During the first trimester I craved carbs like nobody's business. Now, I'm mostly back to eating my regular diet (with maybe a little more ice cream than usual).

Anything making you queasy or sick: Not anymore! First tri was rough - a lot of things made me queasy, including: meat, some vegetables, and the smell of coffee.

Have you started to show yet: Yup, see above:)

Gender: Boy!!

Labor signs: No, too early. I have had a few braxton hicks contractions, which my midwife said was normal at this point.

Belly button in or out: In, but I can tell it's on its way out (it feels more shallow).

Wedding rings on or off: On

Happy or moody most of the time: Mostly happy at this point. I get tired a lot, so sometimes I get irritable if I'm overly exhausted. Otherwise, my mood is pretty good. My first trimester symptoms included pretty intense mood swings, but things seem to have stabilized.

Looking forward to: Everything! Working on the nursery, experiencing the 2nd half of my pregnancy, taking our childbirth class (starts next Monday), and of course meeting this baby in about 20 more weeks:)

Isn't he cute? This is from the anatomy scan done at 19 weeks 1 day.

This is probably TMI, but here are a couple of my pregnancy tests.  I took a lot of them.  I'm embarrassed to say how many:) I just couldn't believe it was finally happening!  I wanted to re-confirm it every morning and watch the line get darker.  I know it sounds crazy, but after trying for so long, I just needed that extra reassurance.  The top one is one of the first ones I took and the bottom one was taken 5 days later.  I can't believe I'm posting my 'pee sticks' on the internet.

Here is a comparison from our 3 ultrasounds.  We heard the heartbeat for the first time at that early ultrasound (at 6w5d).  We even got to see his heart beating on the screen.  

(note: We ended up having more ultrasounds than normal due to a couple of different reasons. The first one was done because I was under the care of a fertility specialist and it was their standard practice to do an early ultrasound to confirm viability. They scheduled another one for a couple of weeks later, but I opted out of that one. The second one was done because I was having some spotting and my midwife recommended it. The third one was the standard anatomy scan done at the half way point. I just wanted to clarify that having numerous ultrasounds is not typical. Pretty early on, I decided that I would opt out of any "optional" scans and only do the ones that were deemed medically necessary.)