Baby K: Week 19

It's week 19, and Baby K is the size of an heirloom tomato. I can't believe that something that big is inside of me...and only getting bigger by the minute!

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The move into the new house has been crazy busy; packing, moving and unpacking have been incredibly trying. Whenever I would pack anything, the baby would jump around like crazy. It was great hiring movers for the big day, but there was still a lot of running around, finding the right places for things, etc. It will be nice when we are finally settled in the space.

I did learn, however, that Thanksgiving is a pregnant woman's dream (second trimester, at least...definitely not first)! Getting to fill my plate up with food and then fill it up again a few hours later with leftovers? Yes please! What a perfect day to be eating for two.

This week was another big fail with the belly shot! With the move and getting settled into the new house, plus Thanksgiving, time slipped away. We've been so busy: unpacking boxes, buying a ton of new furniture (unplanned and last minute...more on that later), making a mad dash to IKEA to pick up some Swedish home essentials. Craziness!

However, the exciting thing is that for my next belly shot - which will happen - it will be 20 weeks and we'll be HALF WAY THERE!

Baby K: Week 18

I'm way belated with blogging as things have been crazy...Baby K is 18 weeks. At 18 weeks, he/she is the length of a bell pepper.

While baby is not this big, I certainly feel this big!

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The baby has been movin' and groovin' around in my belly lately, which has been really fun to feel! It's like little flip flops. I've also been STARVING lately...I can't get enough to eat. I eat a big meal, and 20 minute later, my stomach is growling. It's so much different from early in the pregnancy, where I'd think I was hungry, eat a little bit, and feel overly stuffed.

We have been crazy, crazy, crazy busy with the new house - hence the reason for no belly shot this week - but I'm fortunate all of this has been happening at this point in my pregnancy because I have enough energy to pack and get everything ready.

I am starting to be much more visibly pregnant, where people are starting to tell me I'm showing (i.e. Oh wow! You're really starting to show now!). I still haven't decided if I'm supposed to take that as a compliment or not. I assume someone wouldn't like it if I went up to them and said, "Oh wow! You're really starting to get fat now!"

But, in truth, my belly is getting bigger and bigger. I thought I shrunk my underwear in the dryer...and then I put on a shirt that I also thought I shrunk...and realized that I don't put that shirt in the dryer. So that theory was out and chances are, I didn't shrink my underwear either.

We're just a couple of weeks away from our ultrasound, and I can't wait to find out if we're having a boy or girl! And, I love the knowledge that we'll know the gender, but the rest of the world will have to wait until April to find out. Torture!

A Room for Baby

When we first started thinking about starting our family, we assumed we would spend 1-2 years in our 2-bedroom condo. So, I've always had our second bedroom in mind when thinking about the nursery. With hardwood floors and plenty of sun, in for me this was the perfect space.

As you can tell, the room is even devoid of clutter, just waiting for a baby!


The door in the upper right hand corner leads out to a wonderful porch! I imagined being able to sit out there with the new baby and enjoy the nice weather.


Now, we're about to move into our new house (in a few short days!!), which is such a blessing I can't even wrap my mind around it! While small (we could have gotten a much bigger condo for the same price, but it's a house, people!), we will have three levels and the opportunity to spread out a bit.

The three bedrooms are even spread out, one on each floor.

The top floor (essentially the attic) is going to be the master bedroom. I don't think there's ever been any debate between us about this, as it wouldn't make a suitable nursery or home office. We anticipate it will get incredibly hot during the summer because it is the attic. Not an ideal place for baby. Or a lot of computer equipment. It's also the largest of the three bedrooms.


When I first saw the bedroom on the main floor, I thought maybe this could work for a nursery. I liked that it had a similar look/feel as the second bedroom in our condo, and there's even a little porch, too!

Unfortunately, we decided this would probably make a better home office for Steve than a nursery. It's directly off of the front door of the house, which means it wouldn't be a very quiet place for baby. And, because Steve meets with clients in our home, it's most convenient for him to have his office on the main level, near where he'll be having meetings.


This, of course, leads us to room number 3. It's downstairs in the basement, and is probably the exact opposite of what I've been thinking when I think of a nursery. No hardwood floors. No big sunny windows. It is, at the end of the day, a basement room.

We worry about it being too cold - we'll see how it is this winter, which will give us plenty of time to figure out any heating/cooling issues with the room before baby arrives.

On the upside, it's right next to a bathroom and really close to the laundry room (rumor has it, babies make a lot of dirty laundry!). And, when Steve is meeting with clients upstairs, baby and I can be downstairs making noise and not disturbing anyone!


So, our challenge is ahead of us: transforming this square, boring basement room into an adorable, inviting and fun space for our little one!

Baby K: Week 17

This week, Baby K hit week 17! To celebrate, say hello to Mr. Turnip:

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Baby K is as heavy as a turnip! Don't let this photo fool you, it's only about 5 ounces.

Week had our second appointment with our midwife this week, and all is well with the baby. His/her heartbeat was strong and we even heard some hiccups! I'm excited that I only gained 3 pounds between appointments, for a total of about 13 pounds so far.

On that note, I am absolutely STARVING these days. Every time I think I'm full, my stomach starts growling again. I'm a bottomless pit. Unfortunately, I am also hitting points of being hungry but not being able to find anything that is appetizing. Frustrating. Oh and I may or may not be finding enjoyment in bread covered with vegan mayonnaise. Don't judge me.

We are in the midst of packing right now because we will (finally!) be moving soon into our new house. So excited!

Belly is growing, growing, growing!

Nursery: All Starts With a Dresser

Two years ago when I had an extreme case of baby fever, I was reading ohdeedoh like crazy and told myself I would easily know how to design and pull together a gorgeous, modern, bright and cheerful nursery.

So it's not a surprise that in my second month of pregnancy, before we had uttered a word of the baby to anyone but our midwife's office, I had purchased a dresser for the nursery. I happened across an Etsy store called Mint Home, who refinish furniture with a bright, modern aesthetic. Oh, and did I mention they are located in Chicago? Meant to be.

I fell in love with their work. And with a dresser on their site. Knowing that with one-of-a-kind pieces you snooze, you lose, I contacted them about dimensions on the piece. Unfortunately, it just wouldn't work well as a changing table. But, they let me know, they love to do custom pieces. Just give them desired dimensions and a budget, and they would see what they'd find.

So I did just that. I mean, it could take months, right? Wrong. Within two days, they sent me a picture of a dresser they found that they thought would be perfect. It was less than inspiring - a drab old dresser. But I trusted their eye, and the piece would be within our budget and the dimensions were great. I gave the ok, and shared my goal of a mustard yellow dresser as a focal point for the nursery.

A couple of weeks later, the lovely ladies of Mint Home delivered this beautiful piece of furniture to our condo:

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Love! It's perfect in every way and ended up being cheaper than any dresser we might buy in a store (with the exception of a basic IKEA dresser).

But, after the fun of finding a dresser, I haven't been quite as sure of myself that I could create an amazing nursery...what I thought would be an easy task has easily become overwhelming.

The next project has been fabric! Who knew fabric could be so intimidating? We've been trying to do a grey, yellow and blue (turquoise? aqua?) color scheme. I've looked at three million different fabrics trying to figure out what shade of blue would work. I finally found an amazing Canadian fabric web site: Tonic Living. There are probably many similar sites in the U.S., but once I found this one I knew I was in a good place. All of the fabric is modern and fun, and there isn't too much on the site to make it overwhelming.

I ordered a bunch of samples and quickly settled on Jessica Jones' Frond. The yellow in real life isn't as gold as pictured, and background is a nice charcoal grey. But where's the blue, you ask? It was next to impossible for me to find a pattern that included a shade of blue that I loved. But...

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...I found this fabulous Robert Kaufman cotton in Glacier. While I'd thought I wanted more of an aqua or lighter blue, this fabric is a nice, rich color and works perfectly with the pattern. I like the idea of just pulling in little accents of this blue.

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Whew! Seeing it all start to come together (at least in my mind) has become a great relief. I wanted to get the big picture items figured out before I start deciding what little details we'll include in the room and what sewing projects I'll try and tackle.

Baby K: Week 16

Baby K is now 16 weeks and the size of an avocado! Whenever I think of avocados, I think of my blogger friend from Weddingbee Mrs. Avocado, aka Jenna of That Wife. Check out her blog for all kinds of lifestyle goodness.

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This week has brought a lot of wonderful things: I'm not walking around like a zombie anymore, which is fabulous. I had been yawning to make it through the day and then barely staying awake in the evening, so it's exciting to have a little bit of my life and energy back. The belly has started filling out even more, and I have noticed that my belly button is not as deep as it used to be. Is that a weird observation? Moving on...

We're still working through a million and one hurdles in finalizing the details for buying our house, so we have no clue when exactly we'll be closing on it. And, umm, we really need to start packing. ASAP. We will need to move before Thanksgiving so we can be out before the renters move into our condo, so time is ticking away and the stress is mounting!

Anyway, please don't be scared of this week's belly shot as I didn't have a bit of makeup on!