The problem with nesting

Maternity photo taken at 33 weeks

This photo summarizes my life lately, just patiently waiting for CJ to arrive. I'm now 38 weeks and am officially done with pregnancy. CJ has 'dropped', meaning she is preparing for her debut by jamming her head on my pelvis. She also seems to be playing the drums on my bladder. 

As soon as I reached the third trimester my energy started slowly decreasing, getting less and less every day. By now, I feel like I'm operating at about 15% (I'm sure Jim would agree with this statement). Emptying the dishwasher and doing the dishes is now a two part event that requires a 30 minute break with my feet up. Speaking of my feet, has anyone's foot gotten so swollen in pregnancy that it just blew up? If not, I might be the first person to experience this because my poor feet are so swollen it's insane. 

As my to-do list grows, my stamina shrinks and each day that goes by is one less day I'll have to get everything done. I try to keep reminding myself that even if I don't dust all the blinds in the house before CJ is here, it won't be the end of the world and the blinds will eventually get cleaned. It's easy to feel that my life as I know it is about to end though, because it actually is. I'm sure once she's here the condition of the blinds in our house will be the last thing on my mind, but right now it's all I can think about while I'm stuck in bed staring at my blimp sized feet.

I'd love to continue complaining but I'm tired from typing, so it's break time. CJ, please hurry up and get here. 

Lexi

Life lately: pregnancy edition

32 weeks

I'm so glad to finally be in my third trimester! I've felt like the first two trimesters really drug on and on, this probably means that the third trimester will feel the same. Actually, it already does feel like it's taking forever. The last 8 months have just been really slow and Jim is so cute when he says that he wishes he could blink and CJ (her nickname)  would be here. Believe me, I wish I could blink and skip labor and delivery too. 

Speaking of labor, we've decided to have CJ at a free standing birthing center near our house. It's a decision we made before CJ even existed, and my trip to the ER in my first trimester just reinforced that this was the right decision for us. I'm just not a hospital person (I guess no one is), but it was a pretty traumatic experience and I knew I just wouldn't be comfortable giving birth in a hospital setting. Now with that being said, there is still a small chance that I will have to deliver in a hospital if my labor becomes complicated in any way (ex. she is breech, or her heart rate is too low). I'm really looking forward to this experience no matter where she is born, as long as the outcome is me holding her! 

I've spent most of the last two months getting the nursery ready, which meant I had to completely clean out our guest bedroom. Since we live in an older home, the closets and bathrooms are tiny. Because of this I've always kept all of my clothes in our guest bedroom, which hasn't been ideal but it worked. To prepare for the big 'merging of the clothing', we bought two new dressers for our bedroom and added more hanging space in the closet. It took a little creativity, but all of my clothes are happily stored in our bedroom and the guest bedroom slowly but surely got cleaned out until it was just an empty room waiting to be painted.

The nursery is about 90% finished now, it just needs some artwork and a few smaller things that I'm registered for. I'm sure I'll post a bunch of pictures of it when it's done because I absolutely love it already. 

That's what I've been up to lately, so ready for this little girl to get here!

Lexi

My splurge list: maternity shorts

So when I hit my second trimester I realized pretty quickly that I needed a cute pair of shorts that I can throw on for running around town. My workout shorts with a super stretchy waist band weren't cutting it anymore, and I'm sure Jim would agree with this statement. 

I've always had a hard time finding jeans/shorts that flattered my bottom half, and gaining a belly didn't change that. I tried on every pair of maternity shorts I could find, and none of them did anything for me. After getting a little discouraged, I decided to make a save/splurge list and put maternity shorts on my splurge list. 

A Pea in a Pod has quickly become my favorite store for cute maternity clothes, the only problem is that most of their items are pricey. They do have reasonably priced tops, but their jeans and shorts cost a pretty penny. After I had justified spending a little more for a good pair of shorts, I hit up my favorite store and scored these cuties.

Outfit details:
Fedora: Target (old)
Shirt: A Pea in a Pod (buy one get one free)
Shorts: A Pea in a Pod
Sandals: Birkenstocks 

Lexi

My save list: striped skirt

I found this skirt on sale at A Pea in the Pod, and I'm so glad I did because it's starting to get super hot here and maxi skirts/dresses are out for now. It keeps me cool while still being cute and I think I'll still be able to wear it after baby. As I get ready to enter my third trimester I've been trying to make any new clothing purchases work for after CJ (baby's nickname) comes, and this skirt seems like it will still get use next summer when I'm chasing after a crawling munchkin. 

Outfit breakdown:
Necklace: Etsy (old)
Tank top: A Pea in the Pod
Skirt: A Pea in the Pod
Sandals: Target

Photos taken at 24 weeks

Lexi

My splurge list: printed shorts

One of my favorite bloggers is pregnant right now and when I saw this post I immediately went to the Loft website in search of her printed shorts. I was crushed to see the $80 price tag. I decided to wait, I was willing to splurge on a good pair of shorts or two for the summer, but $80 is too much of a splurge for me. 

I also had mixed feelings about finding out that Loft had a maternity line. On one hand, Loft has a maternity line that is super cute! On the other, now I'm having a hard time not blowing a ton of money on all their cute stuff! 

I decided to get on the email list (which is a great way to get coupons), and 2 days later I got an email saying everything was 50% off....everything! Those shorts became mine that day. 

I am really happy with the purchase, they're the perfect length and are very cute. I never think about prints on shorts, so I'm glad I saw these on a fellow blogger because it opened a new door for me!

Outfit breakdown:

Fedora: Target (old)
Tank: A Pea in the Pod
Shorts: Loft
Sandals: Target (new)
Photobomb: Giada

Lexi

It's a girl!

At my 20 week midwife appointment we had an ultrasound and found out we are having a girl! We were both shocked, we were so convinced it was a boy in there all along. In my early pregnancy I had a few dreams about a baby boy with black hair. Now I should have seen this coming because I also had a dream that it was actually a cat so apparently my dreams aren't reliable. 

It took a day or two for the news to sink in, because I had been thinking it was a boy for the last 5 months. Once the news settled, we started talking about how exciting it's going to be to have a little girl. I can't wait for pigtails and headbands! Jim can't wait to spoil her, I'm going to have to keep the spoiling to a minimum though. I can't wait to see what she looks like, hopefully a little like each of us. 

Things are getting very real now that I'm in the second half of my pregnancy. Now we know she's a girl, and I can feel her kick every day. My bump is also growing and Jim says it looks like there's a basketball under my shirt. Pretty soon it'll look like there's a beach ball under there!

Lexi

Discovering maternity fashion

17 weeks

During my first trimester I didn't gain much weight, probably 5lbs at most. Because of this I could get away with wearing my normal clothes, and just leaving the button on my jeans undone. Right around week 14 my stomach turned into a balloon and I couldn't even zip my stretchiest jeans. I went out and got one of those belly bands, which covers your unzipped and unbuttoned jeans and looks like a tank top poking out the bottom of your shirt.  

In theory, this is a great solution and it means you don't have to buy maternity clothes until your belly is much bigger. My personal experience with the belly band was crap. It has to be so low to cover your zipper that it kind of looks like you're wearing a short mini skirt over your jeans, and every time I sat down it would ride up. Rearranging it every few minutes got old real quick.

I decided I would in fact need to invest in some maternity clothes sooner than I originally thought, and quickly discovered that most  maternity clothing falls in one of two categories: frumpy or expensive. At least on my body, the reasonably priced items weren't flattering. I went to almost every store in Austin that carries maternity clothing and tried on their maternity jeans and shorts. The result each time was a pancake butt, and that ain't happening. 

So I made a list of items I thought I should splurge on, and items I thought I should try to save on.

Here is my splurge list:

• 1 pair of flattering, well fitting maternity jeans
• 1-2 pairs of flattering, well fitting maternity shorts
• 1 nice dress for special occasions 
• 1 pair of super comfortable shoes

Here is my save list:

• maternity tank tops
• maternity shirts
• maternity skirts
• casual maternity dresses

My next two posts will look deeper into my splurge list and my save list so get ready!

Lexi

Life lately

13 weeks

Well hello there, it's been more than a while since I've updated the ole' blog. I feel so silly because I just got done saying how I wanted to update my blog more often, and then I fell off the face of the earth. I had a good reason though, I promise! 

Jim and I are expecting a sweet little baby in early October! We're so excited to bring our little one into the world and can't wait to see what he/she looks like. We find out the sex of the baby in mid May, and are counting the days for that as well! 

So here's what I've been up to for the last 4 months! I found out I was pregnant on January 19th, at 5AM. I knew going to bed the night before that I planned on taking a pregnancy test the next morning, and when I woke up at 5AM I decided there was no time like the present! When the test was positive I was a little shocked, we had just started trying and so many people had told me that it would take longer to get pregnant. Of course, I was beyond happy that it happened so so quickly for us. I decided to wait until Jim woke up to tell him the good news, so I layed in bed wide awake until he got up around 6:30. I thought about doing something cute like putting a bun in our oven, or cooking a meal with baby veggies, but I ended up just blurting it out.

I was 5 weeks along when I found out, and for about 2 weeks I felt great. I even told Jim how it would be nice to experience some morning sickness symptoms just so I knew things were progressing. I look back at that conversation and laugh because soon after that I was hit hard with constant morning sickness. At 7 weeks along Jim even had to take me to an ER in the middle of the night because I couldn't keep down any food or even water. 

I spent all of February and March being sicker than I had ever been before. Getting out of bed was a task and leaving the house to run even a quick errand was an accomplishment. I was in a constant state of gagginess. Everything made me gag, even thinking about food made me gag. The only thing that made me feel better was food, which was the hardest part because the last thing I wanted to do was eat anything. 

When I hit the 12 week mark my nausea started to subside and I slowly got my appetite back. As long as I kept food in my stomach, I felt semi normal. One thing that seemed to settle my stomach was soda. Before I got pregnant I swore that I was going to eat organic food throughout my pregnancy and swear off anything bad for me like soda. Ha! I soon figured out that if a soda a few times a week helps me feel better, I'm doing it without looking back.

As I sit here and type this I am now 18 weeks along, just 2 short weeks away from finding out if super baby (Jim's nickname for the baby) is a boy or girl. Baby is definitely growing in my belly, as my belly button is now just a shallow dip on my stomach, getting more shallow every day and I love it.

Lexi

Life changes

The new year sure has brought many new changes with it. I feel like I've gone through more changes in the last month than I did in most of last year (of course, getting married was a pretty big change!). I'm normally not someone who enjoys change, I like predictability and pattern and shy away from the unknown. 

This month so far has really challenged me with so much change and I have been pleasantly surprised with what that change has brought. I think 2014 is going to be my biggest and best year yet, and that is something I am truly excited about! So I guess predictability isn't all it's cracked up to be, and new things can be good. Here's to embracing new and wonderful things this year!

Lexi

Hello 2014

2013 has been such a huge year for Jim and I. We ended 2012 by visiting South Padre with Jim's family. It was such a relaxing vacation and a great way to start the year. 

In 2013 we had our dream wedding, honeymooned in Maui, visited Victoria, BC (never got around to posting about that amazing vacation, I'm a bad blogger), welcomed 2 new nieces, had a cousin move to Austin, added a new member to our family, visited New York City, and bought a new vehicle! Whew.

2013 has definitely been the best year of my life, and I'm sure 2014 will be even better. I'm not really big on making resolutions because they never seem to stick, but I do have some personal goals and ideas for change in mind for 2014. 

One thing that I know for certain I want to keep doing is blogging. Even though I don't have tons of readers, it is still fun to look back at all the events I've documented over the last year and know that I will want to do the same for this coming year.

Here's to 2014!
Lexi