Oh, Baby!

 

We have announced to friends and family, and we thought it was about time to announce the good news to the rest of the world: We’re having a baby! Project Baby has begun: The Yellow Rosebud is getting a new content creator, and our family is growing by two tiny feet!

On Easter, we gave each of our families a card with a picture of the ultrasound inside of it. Each of our family members reacted in the way we expected – My mom cried, and John’s mom literally jumped for joy, but my dad had the best reaction of all: “What kind of gift card is that?”

Baby is due in the middle of November, according to doctor’s projections! So we should be celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas with a tiny human this year!

Gender Reveal:

We’re 20 weeks along with a little…..

BOY!

Over Memorial Day weekend, we had a gender reveal party with our friends and family. John and I were able to find out that baby was a boy about three or four weeks beforehand – we couldn’t wait until the party to find out, and I’m so glad we knew going in!

As much as I love the idea of surprises, I really don’t enjoy being surprised. We got a lot of unwanted opinions for being the only ones at the party to know the gender, but in the end, my anxiety was lessened by having an intimate gender reveal with John ahead of time.

Last week, we had an ultrasound done, and we were able to see our little guy in action! (And yep, he’s still a boy!) During the ultrasound, he was yawning, hiccuping, and moving his hands all over. It’s a really strange feeling to know that there is a little person growing in there!

How I’m Feeling:

I haven’t had much morning sickness, and the morning sickness that I had during the first trimester was easily kept at bay by eating smaller, more frequent meals. John has dutifully brought me sliced apples or crackers at 4 a.m., refilled my water upon request, and has seriously bent over backwards to meet or beat every weird and sudden craving I might experience. I am really lucky to have an easy pregnancy so far.

One unexpected benefit of pregnancy has been my skin! As a teenager, I was lucky to have avoided a lot of the teen-acne flareups that a lot of my friends faced. However, that seems to have bitten me in the butt as an adult, because I was hit with some pretty severe adult acne over the past few years. Since becoming pregnant, my skin is about as nice as it was in high school (a minor blemish every once in a while). I’ve switched my skincare routine a lot, and have been more consistent with it as well, so I think this is probably a combination of both hormones and routine. Either way, it’s a small victory!

I’ve been able to maintain a fairly steady workout routine throughout the pregnancy so far, which has helped me stay within a healthier range of weight gain. My husband is great at keeping me active: going on walks together before work, going to the gym when it’s too hot outside, and going to my parents house to swim. As it’s gotten hotter in Texas, we’ve had to move our workouts indoors more frequently, so we’re currently gym-shopping to find somewhere with a pool so I can swim laps during the daytime.

I have definitely had “Baby Brain.” I leave my phone, the remote, and anything else in strange places. I tried to put the ice cream into the pantry, I found my phone in the refrigerator (only after I called it), and I’ve walked into the bathroom with the laundry instead of into the laundry room.

John and I have both been having strange dreams, but I think he has been having even more vivid dreams than I have. Typically, I am a fairly vivid dreamer anyway, but lately I  have been having stress dreams about baby’s room not being ready when he gets here.

Cravings

My taste buds have been really off, and foods that I normally love (curry, sushi, mushrooms, beans), all made me feel ill. I’ve had to listen to my body, and in order to insure that I’m getting the proper amounts of protein for baby’s development, I’ve added chicken, turkey, and some fish back into my diet.

During the first trimester, I was craving all of the saltiest sour foods. Pickles, sauerkraut, pickled carrots, – seriously, give me pickled anything and I would eat it. I went on a pickle-bender about two weeks ago, and I think I’ve had my fill for a while. Now, I’ve been craving sweet things. (I literally pulled brownies out of the oven about an hour ago and am eating one while I type). I’m trying to find healthy alternatives, or take a small portion so I don’t overindulge. Chips and salsa have also been a big craving for me, especially if I’m outside.

I’ve also been drinking a ton of water. Being pregnant in the summer is HOT, and not in the Paris Hilton way. We went to look at cars last week, and I probably drank at least a gallon of water while we were walking around the lots.

Upcoming Projects:

The news about Project Baby has kicked off several other major projects in our house, the first being a major DIY flooring overhaul in our three bedrooms. When we bought our house, the previous owners had just installed beautiful, pristine white carpet in all three bedrooms. Unfortunately, we have two black dogs who shed constantly, and one of our dogs hasn’t quite figured out the “going to the bathroom outside” concept in its entirety. Two years later, these white carpets aren’t quite so white, and they’re definitely not pristine. So, we will be replacing them this summer.

We’re putting wood laminate down in all three rooms. By “we,” I really mean my husband and my father-in-law. They started the project about a month ago, and they finished one room this week! It’s great to have handy people who can help us save money to put towards baby, and I can’t wait to share pictures when it’s all finished.

Another major project is the stuff-overhaul. We keep accumulating “stuff” both from other people and from our inability to part with things we might need at some point in the future. I’m jumping on the Konmari trend, reading the book, and feeling really inspired to tackle the excess in our house (starting with my closet and the mountain of paperwork sitting on the floor in my office!).

I’m really excited to get the house organized and put together before the fall. I love being able to move things around in our house and redecorate, and this is a really exciting opportunity to tackle the challenge of fitting a new member into our current lifestyle with a really solid deadline. Baby’s still going to come whether the house is ready for him or not!

I’m currently searching for inspirational blogs for small living with young children. If anyone has any recommendations, please send me a link!

I’m looking forward to posting more updates soon!

Taylor

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