31 Weeks

31 weeks today! 63 days, just slightly more than two full months, left until my due date, and 42 days until Eleanor is full term.

Time is moving very slowly, but I keep reminding myself that every day that passes brings us one day closer to meeting our baby.

I don't have much to say this week, so I'll just stick to the pictures. All is well, we're healthy, happy, and growing.


I've been really enjoying doing prenatal yoga workouts lately.

Namaste!

30 Weeks

30 weeks today! 70 more days until my due date and 49 until Eleanor is full term.

You might notice that in the picture above I'm wearing a different wedding ring. My fingers have started to swell, and while it might sound silly, having to abandon my wedding rings has been one of my biggest pregnancy related fears. The swelling has been getting worse and worse, and the only thing more depressing than the thought of abandoning my wedding rings was the thought of them being cut off of my puffy fingers if I left them on too long. So on Saturday I begrudgingly walked into a little jewelry store and picked out a plain silver band to replace my pretty little diamonds. I was really bummed at first, but this simple ring is starting to grow on me. If nothing else, it will always be a symbol of this unique time in our lives.

On Monday my baby shower invitation arrived in the mail. It is so cute and just perfect! I love it! I put it in the baby's scrapbook right away. I'm so grateful to my cousins and aunt for throwing this shower for me and I cannot wait until the 25th, which, since we're keeping track of the days, is only 16 away!

29 Weeks

29 weeks today! 77 days still to go.

March is here, which means Spring is upon us! I don’t know why, but March has taken me by surprise. I found out I was pregnant in early Fall and I knew I would have to get through the rest of that season, plus a long winter, until Spring when my baby would be born. I guess a part of me assumed that winter would last forever, and now here I am, right at the very end of it saying, “What? Winter is over? How could that be?” Just to give one example of how warped my thinking has been, I haven’t bothered to buy any short sleeved maternity items. I figured I would need the warmth of long sleeves to get me through the never-ending winter, but never thought once about what I would wear when March finally rolled around even though I still have two and a half months to go. I bet that March will fly by, and soon I’ll be confronted with April, which will be filled with intense preparations — childbirth classes, doula meetings, hospital tours, finishing the nursery…and then….MAY!

Two very exciting things have happened since my last post. First, my sister Bethany had her baby, Atlas Alexander, on Friday morning. He is absolutely beautiful and I can't wait to see him when I head back to Phoenix for my last pre-baby trip in three weeks.

Second, Andrew got a promotion and a raise on Monday. It couldn't come at a better time. I'm so proud of him for all of his hard work and achievements. We are incredibly lucky that he has such a great job that allows us to live in this amazing but very expensive place and provides enough for me to be able to say home with Eleanor for as long as I want. He is going to be the greatest daddy and is already taking such amazing care of us.

28 Weeks

28 weeks and 1 day, as of today! 83 more to go, and we still have so much to do.

We are officially into the third trimester. Eleanor is approximately 15 inches long and weighs 2.25 lbs. As of this week she is able to open her eyes and perceive light. She is a busy little mover during the day and seems to like to hang out low in my belly, as she has throughout the entire pregnancy.

I had a lovely time back in Phoenix, even though my nephew Atlas did not make an appearance. I really enjoyed spending time with my family and seeing everyone at Bethany's shower. I'll be back soon for my own!

27 Weeks

27 weeks today! 91 days to go.

I'm sitting at the airport waiting for a flight to Phoenix. I'll be back for a week long Phoenix visit to attend my friend's wedding and sister's baby shower. It's looking like my little nephew might be born in the next week. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll get to meet him.

This is the last week of my second trimester. I'm lucky that I've had such an easy time of it so far. Although I'm still sleeping well and able to keep up my exercise routine, I'm starting to feel very pregnant and I have a feeling the next three months will be long and tiring.

I spend several hours this weekend browsing children's books on Amazon and creating a list of ones to add to Eleanor's library. I tried to make sure all of the classics are there, like Winnie the Pooh, Madeline, Eloise, Corduroy, Paddington Bear, Good Dog Carl, a selection of Dr. Seuss, Beatrix Potter, Goodnight Moon, Pat the Bunny, etc. I also stumbled across some titles that I liked when I was a kid but had forgotten about, like Harry the Dirty Dog. I just can’t wait until Eleanor is here and I can I hold her in our rocking chair and read to her.

26 Weeks & First Family Portrait

26 weeks today! 98 days to go - I’m so excited to be into the double digits. It feels like such a big accomplishment.

As of last week, the comments from random strangers have really started rolling in. I’m getting a lot of “How far along? Only 6 months?! You’re huge! Are you having twins?” types of remarks. I know I’m not small for 26 weeks, but I don’t think I’m that huge either. I might have to grunt a little bit when I bend down to pick something up off of the floor, but my belly is still small enough that I forget that it is there from time to time, especially when I’m sitting down. I think that most people who make such comments either have no idea what they are talking about, don’t realize that all pregnant women carry differently, or forget exactly how big they were when they were pregnant themselves. Either way, they don’t really bother me, but it just makes me wonder. Why say anything at all, if it isn’t something positive and encouraging?

Also in the last few weeks Eleanor’s movements have started to really change. Instead of swift kicks and twitches, I’m feel a lot more gentle movements, pressure from where her body is laying, stretching, and pushing. My placenta is right on the back, so I’m able to feel pretty much everything. I’m able to see pretty much everything too. Andrew got a huge kick out of laying in bed and watching my tummy bulge up and down the other night. These new sorts of movements are a lot more frequent than the previous kind and I’m really enjoying them. Constant little reminders that my baby girl in there and doing well.

On Sunday Andrew and I finally found the perfect chair for the nursery. It is modern looking and glides as well as swivels. It is made by the same store, EQ3, that we purchased our couch and armchair from. One of the reasons we love EQ3 is because of their fun upholstery options. We picked out a fabric for the chair that will compliment our living room set and will also look good in our bedroom, so it will definitely have a long life outside of the nursery. The fabric that we liked best, however, did not look good with the lavender palette I had been planning on, so I decided to completely redo everything.

The crib bedding that I love previously only came in two colors, purple and pink, but just in the last month Land of Nod started offering it in two additional colors, light blue and light green. I LOVE the light green, which is sort of a mixture between sage and chartreuse. It will look really cool with the upholstery we picked for the chair, which is a shade called "sour apple." For accent colors we are going to use bright blues, oranges, and reds. Here is my idea sheet for Nursery 2.0:

Also on Sunday we took our first family portrait. I had been wanting to do this since we got our new camera, but we never took the time. Since we were going out I decided to wear a new dress that I bought to wear to my friend Brianna's wedding in a few weeks. Andrew decided that since I looked nice, he would look nice too. I seized the opportunity and snapped this:

25 Weeks

25 weeks today! 15 weeks or 105 days to go.

On Sunday we had our first official meeting with our doula. Maybe it’s my past as a very dedicated student or maybe it’s just my personality, but I’m a planner and a studier. Eleanor’s birth might be 15 weeks away, but I’ve already begun serious preparation, including reading, practicing breathing methods, and doing exercises to strengthen the muscles I will use to deliver her. I finished reading Pregnancy, Childbirth & the Newborn (Penny Simkin) a few weeks ago (I would highly recommend this book, by the way, especially for someone who would plans on reading only one childbirth preparation book) and it has a very detailed birth plan worksheet that is a sort of checklist to help you make sure you’ve thought about everything and have some clear preferences lined up. I spent an afternoon typing up the entire list and providing my answers with some helpful input from Andrew. The entire worksheet ended up being six pages long! Don’t worry, the six page worksheet won’t be what we take with us to the hospital; we will refine it down to one clear page. Along with the worksheet, I made a short bullet list of the most important things that we would like to convey to the hospital staff.

So I had all of this stuff printed out and ready to hand over to the doula. I figured I would either come off as really committed and prepared, or totally anal, opinionated, and maybe a tiny bit crazy. She went over everything, all seven pages, very carefully and provided a lot of useful feedback about the hospital’s policies and her experiences attending other births there. Luckily she didn’t think I’m anal or crazy and she praised us for seeming so calm and well studied. We won’t meet with her again until after our childbirth classes in late April, then we will practice some labor positions and coping strategies together. Until then I’m going to keep up my reading and mental preparations. I'm currently working on Birthing From Within (Pam England) and will move on to The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth (Henci Goer). Trust me, you don't want to see how long my Amazon Wish List is right now.

On Monday Andrew turned 29. We celebrated over the weekend with a little dinner and some frostingless cake (he just doesn't like it that sweet). He always told me that he wanted to have children before the age of 30, so I'm happy to report that the goal has been met.

Aside from Andrew's birthday and the leftover cake, the highlight of my week so far has been the purchase of this little dress:

I found out about this brand, Right Bank Babies, a few days ago. I gushed to my friend Morgan about how cute these clothes are (we share an affinity for children's clothes with an Anthropologie aesthetic) and fell absolutely in love with this reversible dress, but it was pretty expensive. This morning the brand was featured on one of the sale sites that I subscribe to, The Mini Social, and there was the dress at half price. I snagged it in a 12m. It will be perfect for next summer. Isn't it lovely when things work out like that?