Yolande

Nineteen Weeks: 2.11.14



Photo thoughts: Belly is getting round, my hair is getting long, and I really need some sun.

Size of baby: A mango, 6 inches long and 8.5 ounces. Oh really, baby? You gained 2 ounces last week? Me, too. Hahahahahaha.

Cravings/Aversions: Tell me more about this concept of an 'aversion.' What is that? All food is amazing and dangerous. Sometimes I'm a never-ending pit of an appetite that needs physical restraint from consuming 1000s of calories in a sitting.

What I'm loving: Baby kicks. Our new mini-van. The kids sharing a room SO well. Being pregnant. Sunshine even on ridiculously cold days, and the sun setting later and later each day. (Searching for positivity when it comes to this winter but the sun is a big one for me).

What I'm anticipating the most: One week from today we will know if baby is healthy and if it's a he or a she!! Cannot wait. Nate is off the entire day with me and after the US we will get the kids and go to Andrea's studio for a little photo sesh. Nothing huge or anything, as I don't think we can top the excitement of the balloons but still---it's going to be cute, I think.

Miss anything?  Duh, wine. Pretty sure I may have my first teeny glass on Friday for Valentines Day. Nothing says 'I love you' more than having his third baby and therefore I deserve a small drink. It's hard work and a lot of sacrifice. Wine and pregnancy and love...it's all related, right?

Worries: Under control this week, except when I get a little demanding about wanting to feel the baby right this instant and it doesn't happen until a few hours later. Always very reassuring to feel this babe using my bladder as a punching bag though! Haven't used my doppler in some time and even lent it out to a friend;)

Differences between pregnancies: Apparently I wasn't eating like a horse with Cecelia, and this was the week when a stranger commented on my belly. AND Nate got to feel her kick. What the heck?? Come on baby #3! Not like I've really had Nate try too much, but still.

I hate myself in Truman's 19 week pregnancy. Seriously, I thought that was a bump? And I painted the nursery in one day all by myself because ME TIME was that unlimited? Different lifetime, for sure.

How I'm feeling: We stayed up until midnight one time over the weekend and although we got 7 hours of sleep after that, I was cashed out. Dead tired. Had to nap for almost 2 hours the next day and that did not even mess up my next night's sleep. So I guess I'm feeling a little more tired lately. And I can't sit up from laying down all that gracefully anymore and I'm a little crankier than my usual. I blame that last part on the winter from hell and not so much this pregnancy but no matter what, I'm feeling it a little more lately. I did manage to exercise four times this week which helps with my energy level, but mostly I want Spring to be here already.

Sleep: Good. Tired a lot. Feeling like the early morning hours are not very restful anymore, as if I'm partially awake and aware of the world from about 3 am on. Still not waking up to pee or anything---that has always been a claim to fame of mine during pregnancy, as I very rarely wake to pee until maybe the very end. I really can't wrap my head around the broken sleep we tolerated for so many YEARS with these kids and the fact that we are going to do it all over again starting in a few more months. Hold me.

Movement: This baby is a mover and a shaker and seems to kick me super low. As in, I'm going to ask at my ultrasound whether the baby is really crunched up down in my pelvis or something. Maybe I just don't remember kicks at 19 weeks being this much in the crotch region, assuming they were already around my belly button. But no, definitely really low (i.e. bladder and ovary punches). Is that weird? Kicks multiple times every day now and definitely most active at night when I lay down. Uh-oh. Looks like we might have another night owl on our hands.

Boy or Girl: I'm wishy-washy and for all of the weeks I was sure this was a girl, now I really feel more boy vibes coming from the ute. Who knows, basically. Well, we ALL will know soon enough!

The Bump: I like it. Feeling huge somedays and shocking small others. Still no comments from strangers but as Nate says, 'Maybe they think you just had a rough holiday season'. Ha. I definitely think this is an undeniable baby bump but I appreciate the lack of inappropriate comments for now.

Time for a bare belly comparison of weeks. Definitely bigger, lower, and rounder now! Goodbye, ab muscles. Never mind the maternity pants with a full panel rolled down--my lower back isn't actually housing a random fat pad at this point.



Milestones: Does being almost half baked count?

Best moment of the week: My buddy Dizzy had her third baby this weekend, one week early and it's a boy! Holding that tiny bundle of newborn goodness made me even more excited and thankful for my own number three nestled inside me at the moment. Dizzy is the first of our group of friends to have the third baby and it definitely feels surreal to think about me going next. Babies. Love them. And I always forget how tiny they are at first. Is there anything sweeter? No.

I have a serious obsession with decorating our walls, usually relying on printed photographs and frames for my go-to standard but sometimes getting wild and using non-children pictures, too. I haven't done a post about about our wall hangings since August of 2013 with this post. It's high time I show our new additions!

Above the computer, these three images of Nate and I holding each newborn baby make me smile. I printed off the name tags with their birthdays because my frames were abnormally long and skinny (11x17 or something) and like how it turned out. I also made the state prints in Photoshop after seeing this idea on Pinterest and Etsy. These four states are where we have our immediate family: Nate's brother is in Oregon, my brother and parents are in Colorado, Memaw and Papaw are in Missouri, and the rest of the crew is here in Wisconsin.  But the main reason I'm showing you these now is because I just painted all of those frames white, but all seven were originally black. I can sleep easier at night with white frames, as black isn't my thing but brown wood is totally fine. I don't get my issues with frame color either, it's okay.


Then one of my favorite new prints is our 'family wheel' from Etsy seller mycirclefamily. Literally obsessed with this one and it was fun to have both Tony and Lois and my parents dig through their papers to search back five generations. (Really just want to show you our last name here since it really takes away from the print with the name blurred, but oh well. I am starting to not care as much about keeping it a secret anyway)


Reading some of the names of our ancestors is highly entertaining. Appalonia Greenbaum might be my favorite. Or Sam Blizzard. So many Marys and Johns and even two Caspers! Family trees are awesome and I love how modern this one feels. I printed it in 11x14" and it's a good topic of conversation when we have guests in our home.


In the sunroom, I did a few more canvases with Kid Memory Preservation stuff (aka handprints and footprints). The three footprints make it seem like I'm slamming that door on a fourth child, right? ;)


I've shown our black and white gallery wall in the dining room before, but I did add a few new prints post-Porter. These are all 11x14" and I get the urge to switch out photos quite often. I think once a year will be plenty *if* that often.


And finally, my favorite new area on our walls: silhouettes! I sent iPhone pictures of my precious offspring and their little profiles to Etsy seller iillume.  She was amazing to work with and the charcoal gray background with white foreground feels classy enough but also a little different. The prints are 5x7 and I had to trim them to fit in the oval frames I (finally) found online at Hobby Lobby. Oval frames are hard to find, but I like the silver color--matches the curtain rod perfectly;)


Little corner with the silhouettes = my fave. Also note the actual baby in the jumperoo. Also, this was within the 2 second time frame when my house was actually clean, so of course I had to snap pictures that very morning before the kid tornados hit.


I think silhouettes would be a great gift for the grandparents---stuff like this makes me kind of weepy and nostalgic for these days even has they are currently happening. But those sweet little noses and CC's pony tail give me all of the feelings.

I think that's it for wall updates.