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When I read this blog post, I thought it was such a great idea to take a picture every week for a year. I want this blog to be more about documenting Charlotte's first year, and I think this is a great way to start. So, here goes.

15 weeks

This is Charlotte's new favorite thing, chewing on her hands and drooling everywhere. She now lives in bibs and soaks through multiple a day. She also loves to kick socks and blankets off, I think she's going to be a soccer star. 

Lexi

Charlotte Jade

Wow it's been a while. It sure is true what they say, the days go slow and the weeks fly by (or whatever the saying is). Sometimes I can't believe that Charlotte is already 3 months old, a quarter of a year! Other times, I feel like she's been around for much longer. 

She arrived in the most dramatic fashion on Sept 27, 2014. I haven't decided if I'm going to document her birth story or not. I had originally planned on it, but thinking about the whole thing gives me the shivers. It's the way my daughter came into the world though, so I may get around to writing it down. 

I would say the first month was the hardest and most stressful, not because of the lack of sleep or healing from surgery (yup, I labored naturally for 32 hours and then had a c section), but because Charlotte lost so much weight and had trouble putting it back on. When she was born she was 8lb 15oz (big baby), and she was 8lb 4oz when we left the hospital. This wasn't bad in itself, but it took her 3 weeks to get back to 8 15 and that took a lot of work. She just didn't want to eat more than every 4 or 5 hours, and that's about half as often as her doctors wanted. There is nothing worse than hearing that she wasn't thriving like she should be. After lots of weight checks and appointments with midwives and lactation consultants we finally got the hang of things and she got back on track.

Now that her weight is where it should be things are much better. Sure it is difficult and I have no idea what I'm doing, but as long as she's a happy, healthy baby I'm a happy mama.

Anyway, I can foresee this blog changing directions, less outfits and more posts about my life with a mini me. I'm looking forward to documenting Charlotte's journey here, she's already changed so much!

Lexi

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