My Maternity Photos

Photos by Laura Davis

My Third Trimester of Pregnancy

I was recently going through my posts and realized that I never blogged about my third trimester. I honestly planned to but with the laziness of the last leg of pregnancy and the fact that our son came almost a month early, I never got around to it. So here it is . . .

So what was my third trimester like? Actually it wasn't that bad, but that's probably because I only made it three days shy of 37 weeks. My mom threw me a lovely baby shower, Alex & I made some wooden toys for the baby, and I had a dreamy maternity photo shoot literally less than two weeks before I gave birth.

Symptoms
My pelvic varicosities actually went away a month before our son arrived which meant that it didn't hurt to walk anymore. I was feeling more and more lethargic though and tried me best to take it as easy as I could.

I did a lot of nesting. Cleaning, organizing, prepping, you name it! I'm glad I started early too. My Mom actually came over on a Monday to help me deep clean our apartment. The next morning at 4 AM my water broke. Haha. I wonder if all that cleaning had anything to do with it . . .

Emotional Musings
I was so ready to meet our little one. I just remember talking to Alex about how I just wanted to actually hold him - I just wanted to meet him.

Meet Our Sweet Baby Boy!

Our sweet baby boy was born on a delightfully gloomy and rainy afternoon in February.

5lbs 10oz | 18.25 inches

Our little love has been here for a few weeks, but it feels as though he's been here forever.

The Baby Shower

This past Saturday my Mom threw the most perfect baby shower for me. It was so nice be surrounded by so much love for our baby boy. I feel so grateful for all of my friends and family who were in attendance and for those who couldn't make it, but were there in spirit. Our baby boy is already immensely loved and it just warms my heart!

Bump Update: Week 31

I'll be thirty-three weeks on Saturday so I'm a little late sharing this...

Lately, I've definitely felt pregnant. Not too long ago I started to feel my son's little feet flutter themselves on my rib cage as if I were his personal musical instrument. Aside from that awkward and uncomfortable feeling, I love feeling and seeing him roll around in my stomach. He does it everyday now and I don’t think I’ll ever forget the magic in that.

I've officially entered heartburn city. Every night it happens and I've taken to drinking carbonated water, which actually helps, for the most part. I'm still dealing with the pelvic varicosities but I've learned how to keep it at bay. I've found that using a yoga ball every night really helps. However, I still have to not stay on my feet for too long.

This weekend Alex & I will be celebrating our two year wedding anniversary and I'm SO excited. I can't believe we've already been married for two years! It feels like we were saying our vows just yesterday. Come July we will have been together for fours years. Mind blown. Everyday I take a moment to thank my lucky starts that the universe brought Alex back into my life. He really is my light in the dark.

Which makes bringing our son into this world at the end of March even more amazing. I can't wait to watch us become parents and grow even more. We're so excited to meet you little one!

My Second Trimester of Pregnancy

Ah, the second trimester. Or as most women call it, the honeymoon phase. I definitely had a lot of energy at the beginning of the second trimester. No pain, just a few sleepless nights - but that was easily remedied when I finally learned how to fall back asleep. Now that I'm a few days away from the dreaded third trimester, I'm hoping things don't get too awful! Here's what my second trimester of pregnancy has been like...

Symptoms
That pesky night-time nausea I had at the end of the first trimester went away and it's been glorious. What took its place? Well, towards the end of this trimester I started to experience pregnancy rhinitis. And oh my goodness, it has been incredibly annoying. Every evening when my head hit the pillow my nose would clog up, then I would spend the next day blowing my nose. Thankfully I invested in a humidifier and it's done wonders. Except when the weather gets rainy and the pressure makes my nose unresponsive to pretty much any solution.

Another annoying symptom was whenever I would sit on a couch or regular chair I would get a dull ache under my right shoulder blade. Thanks to baby boy getting bigger, he was throwing my posture all out of whack. I wanted to find a pair of maternity leggings that were supportive. I heard about Blanqi, ordered a pair of supportive maternity leggings and they're just lovely. I also got them for half price on Black Friday - which was awesome.

As far as keeping my back and shoulder blade from hurting, I've had to learn how to properly sit as a pregnant lady: with my butt on the edge of the seat and my legs wide with feet flat on the floor. A yoga ball helps too. As well as regularly doing prenatal yoga and going on walks.

Emotional Musings 
I'm not normally one to cry, but since the second trimester rolled around I noticed that whenever I read anything sad about pet rabbits I would break into tears. What made things even weirder was the fact that sometimes I'd be petting Olive and just start crying because I'd think about how one day she won't be with me. And that just broke my heart. This happened more than once too...

Other than that, it's been pretty smooth sailing. Alex and I actually had a conversation about how I really thought being pregnant would turn me into a complete terror. And so far, fingers crossed, it hasn't. I've actually been better than my typical PMS days.

A Few Unexpected Things

• I really didn't think I'd be able to wake up several times a night to pee and actually be able to fall back asleep. Thankfully I've become a pro at it.
• My memory kind of sucks. Seriously. Half the time my brain feels like it's broken.
• I really thought I'd have a lot more cravings, but so far nothing intense or out of the ordinary.
• Most of the time I don't really feel as though I look as pregnant as I should. I always thought I'd be a lot bigger than what I currently am. Thankfully my weight gain has been right on track - not over or under.
• I thought I'd talk to my belly more... but I don't. And sometimes I forget he is even in there until he starts kicking. I also feel him roll around it there, which is a pretty weird/wonderful feeling.
• I also didn't think I'd need a pregnancy pillow, but it turns out that I need some sort of extra support while sleeping. I've found that propping up my regular pillows and using a pregnancy body pillow does wonders. I originally used a body pillow but found it to be a pain in the ass when I had to switch sides in the middle of the night.
• I really wanted to work out a lot more but naps win every single time.

Bump Update: Week 25

Well, this pregnancy is ramping up and it's starting to hit me that at some point this baby is going to have to come out of me. As of yesterday, I'm officially 5 1/2 months and baby boy is now the size of a head of cauliflower. At our last ultrasound, two weeks ago, he was weighing just as much as he should be at this point - which was about a pound. But as of now, the apps say he weighs around 1.5 pounds and I can attest to that... 

I'm just now starting to feel those pregnancy pains everyone talks about getting once the near the end of the second trimester. My back is just now starting to hurt whenever I sleep. It hasn't helped that I haven't been sleeping without a body pillow for support. So earlier today Alex took me to Target to get me a body pillow. I'm happy to report that it worked like a charm during my afternoon nap. Yup, naps are back again. In fact, the other day I fell asleep for almost two hours. But I am still doing prenatal yoga and using the treadmill at the gym.

Needless to say, Alex & I are getting even more excited about meeting our little boy this coming March. There are just a few more months left! It's been crazy to watch my stomach grow, little by little and to actually know where baby is in there. The other day he was curled up on my left side and when I placed Alex's hands on where he was nestled, Alex looked at me and said, "He's so tiny!". And he's only partially right - because yes, he is tiny - but every day he is getting bigger and bigger. Hence the reality that sometime in the next three months I'm going to have to push this baby out! It's wild & crazy, but we can't wait.

Our Baby's Gender Reveal Party

We did our own take on a gender reveal party for our little boy. Instead of Alex & I being surprised, we surprised our family and we loved every minute of it. I made the cakes (yes, there were two - one cake for the reveal and one for eating because blue dye, blech!).

There were two games. First I had everyone select a paint sample in the color of what they thought the baby was - blue for a boy and pink for a girl. The next game was partially me trying to throw my family off a bit. I had them pick first names and middle names from bowls and piece together 10 different names that they liked for a girl.

The suspense was definitely killing them... that name game took about 10 minutes for everyone to complete and it was totally worth it for me. Everyone was getting so impatient with excitement and demanding that we cut the cake already.

Since I thought it would be the most fun, I pitted my Mom and Alex's Mom against each other when it came to the cake cutting. I gave them each a knife and had them cut into the cake to see what gender our little baby was. There was A LOT of excitement at that moment. Well, here - go ahead and take a look for yourself...