Baby Girl!

Big news, friends.  I'm pregnant!  We held onto announcing this one for a while. I am 18 weeks along and we found out this week that we are having a baby girl.  Pearl knew it was a girl from the start and wouldn't even acknowledge the idea that the baby could be a boy.  We would have been very happy either way, but I'm so glad it worked out for Pearl.

I was extremely tired during the first trimester.  On my days at home with the kids, I couldn't resist also taking a nap during their nap time.  I'm glad that fatigue is finally behind me because napping at that time of day was really cutting into my productivity.

I know a lot of people think we are crazy to have three kids under 3.5 years old.  We probably are crazy, but we want our kids to be close in age.  It has been fun to watch Pearl and Axel build their friendship and we decided it was time to add another playmate to the mix.

We are so happy to have another fun little person join our family in March.  

-Kira

Feeling Exhausted

Tomorrow is exactly one month from my due date.  I'm at a point in my pregnancy where I am extremely uncomfortable.  It is nearly impossible for me to get up from a sitting position and walk around like a normal person.  I feel stiff and sometimes it's pretty painful, but I try my hardest not to waddle.  I want to at least hold onto my dignity.

Sleep has turned into a big joke lately. I have to prop all kinds of things under myself to get comfortable and wake up about every hour to pee.  It has been especially bad this week because Pearl has a cold and has been wanting to sleep right next to me on my pillow instead of in her bed.

a cell phone photo of my pillow buddy this morning

Tomorrow is the last day of my current freelance job though and we have a little vacation planned this weekend.  I'm looking forward to having at least a couple of weeks work-free to hopefully rest a bit and get ready for this baby to come.  I have a few more thoughtful posts planned for the blog that I will finally have time to put together.  I promise to be posting here more regularly again starting next week.

-Kira

Baby #2!

Baby #2 will be here at the end of May!

I figured it was time to share because even though I am just 15.5 weeks along, the bump is clearly visible.  I heard from many mothers that you show earlier with your second child and for me that is definitely true.

We are super excited and since I'm sure people will ask...
yes, this was planned :)

-Kira

The Baby's Room - Inspiration

We haven't started on the baby's room yet.  The first thing scheduled to be done is to replace the window.  Then we can really get started.  I have been gathering inspiration images, but we haven't settled on anything yet.  I still like my weird theme idea, but I think it will end up being just some framed photos on the wall.  I'm not very good at sticking to themes.

Let the inspiration begin -

I love the branch hanger rod

yarn covered letters

bookshelves full of colorful vintage books

embroidery hoops and fabric, so pretty and simple

I had a lot of fun decorating my super girly studio and I'm sure this is going to be equally fun and colorful.
-Kira

**Oh, and I have gotten really bad lately at scheduling guest bloggers for the Mama Knows Best series on Wednesdays.  If you are interested in participating please send me an e-mail!

Pregnancy Update and Hospital Things

When you are pregnant it is completely acceptable to make microwave rice krispie treats, and eat them out of a bowl with a wooden spoon while watching Jon Stewart.  This is one of the perks of pregnancy and it also happens to be what I am doing right now.

I wanted to share my experiences with the hospital facility tour we took on Sunday.  We planned our tour of the labor and delivery ward of the nearest hospital covered by our insurance a little early so we would be able to explore other options if it didn't feel right.  I hadn't done any research prior to the tour and to be honest, I wasn't expecting anything spectacular.  What I found was more than a pleasant surprise, it was kind of exciting.

The tour was extremely informative.  The tour leader took us all over the facility and explained the processes and procedures.  The first thing I noticed was that the rooms are huge and you don't have to share a room with anyone for recovery.  I was afraid that we might have to do that.  I found out that my hospital is the only facility following the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative in my area.  They have one of the best breastfeeding success rates in the Northwest, are very conscious of giving you the birth experience you want, and all deliveries (except for high risk surgeries) are done by midwives.  The facility was also recently renovated and is really beautiful.

I'm so impressed by the facility and I feel much calmer about labor and delivery now because I absolutely feel like I am in the competent hands of people who are going to listen to me and follow practices that I planned to ask for anyway.

Only 10 more weeks to go!
-Kira

Victory

I passed my glucose test which means I can still eat this:

This recipe is amazing.

And this:

Found here.

And this:

Best ice cream flavor ever.

On occasion of course.  I was pretty nervous about this test as cutting out sugar and carbs seems pretty unbearable to me.  What a relief!
-Kira

A Little Lady

Photo via weheartit.

It's a girl!

And we are pretty excited about that!
I hope your weekend starts off as well as mine did.
-Kira

*Also, I forgot to note on Friday...the technician counted 10 fingers so she probably doesn't have my awesome birth defect.

Baby Bump and a New Series

A couple of people mentioned to me last week that they thought my belly got bigger overnight.  They were close, but not exactly correct.  I'm positive it was last Monday afternoon.  I looked down while sitting at my desk that day and thought, "what the heck happened?"  I swear it was twice as big as it was that morning.  Compare the 17 week photos to the 13 week photo.  It's crazy how big I have gotten in those four weeks!

 I plan to start a new series of guest blogger posts on Wednesdays  called "Mama Says."  I basically want moms to do guest posts on topics they didn't know very much about before their babies came.  I swear, I hardly know anything about babies.  If there is something you wish you had known about before having the baby I would love to see that post.  Any advice would be very much appreciated.  I also want you to list your top 5 baby products at the end of your post so I can get an idea of great items to register for or buy.  If you are interested in doing a guest post please shoot me an e-mail and I can give you more details...kiralynnpdx@gmail.com.

Thanks!
-Kira

Craving of the Day #3

We had our 16 week appointment yesterday.  Everything is going smoothly and we heard a healthy little heartbeat.

Some interesting news for me was that apparently I gained 7 pounds in the last 4 weeks.  This was surprising to me because my jeans still fit.  I am wearing skinny jeans as I type this.  Apparently my pants are stretchier than I realized.  Total for this pregnancy so far I have gained 10 pounds.  I know I am not supposed to be weirded out by weight gain while pregnant, but it's kind of hard to turn your brain around and think that gaining weight is a good thing.  I'm trying to not go overboard and just eat unhealthy things all of the time, but occasionally I crave something really deliciously over the top.  Like...

I went to get frozen yogurt with a couple of friends on Wednesday night.  It's one of those pay-by-the-weight places.  I watched my friend Larissa weigh hers and then did mine.  My frozen yogurt cost twice as much!  I have a hard time making decisions so I ended up with three different kinds of frozen yogurt, chocolate and white chocolate chips, strawberries, blackberries, hot fudge, and carmel sauce.  It was delicious.

Also, I ordered a pregnancy workout dvd from Amazon.  I am tired of being lazy.  I planned to walk the dogs more as a means of getting some exercise in, but the weather doesn't cooperate very often.  I'm sure it will be corny, but hopefully it will be beneficial.

Happy Good Friday!

& Earth Day

& weekend!

-Kira

Maternity Clothes

This weekend an awesome friend of mine gave me a bin full of maternity clothes to use during my pregnancy.  She is a lot smaller than me though so I think most of the pieces will just last for months 5 & 6 and I will have to buy larger sizes after that.  I'm not wearing maternity clothes yet, but I did try one of her shirts yesterday which was an XS.  It fit, but I'm pretty sure it will not fit for very long.

I have decided that once I do grow out of my jeans that I am not going to buy maternity jeans.  Leggings are so stinking comfortable so I'm going to wear dresses for literally the entire pregnancy.  It works out because most of my pregnancy, God willing, will be when the weather is nice.

I'm going to shop cheaply and only get things that I really need instead of just want since I will not be wearing the clothes for very long.  Most of my maternity shopping will be at Target and H&M.  I do plan to treat myself to just one dress from Shabby Apple though once I am feeling huge and unattractive.  They have the cutest dresses...

I can't wait to make that purchase! Hopefully it's a while though before I feel huge :)
-Kira

Craving of the Day

I'm starting a new series while I am pregnant.  It is called "craving of the day," and it's pretty straightforward.  If there is a day where I have a particularly strong craving for something I'm going to document what it was and how delicious it was once I got to eat it.

Ok, today I had a really strong craving for Burgerville food.  Not just any burger would do.  I wanted the Spicy Anasazi Bean Burger.  I also found it completely necessary to put their Rosemary Shoestring Fries in my mouth asap.

The fries...absolutely amazing.

There isn't a Burgerville near my work and I was already hungry when I left so I drove to the most practically located one (near the Target I needed to visit).  I went through the drive thru, got my food, and parked in the lot.  I devoured my dinner while sitting in a parking lot listening to sports talk radio as it rained outside.  I'm not sure I have ever had a more satisfying meal. 

-Kira

Exhaustion

 Photo via weheartit

 I have heard a lot of the symptoms that come up in early pregnancy.  Somehow I missed the part about being completely fatigued 24/7.  There are a lot of pregnant women in my office right now and they all seem to hold it together well.  I wonder what their houses look like.  Mine looks like a disaster.

I seem to have about 8 good hours in me a day.  Those hours have basically been reserved for work and I can hardly function for the rest of the day.  I rarely have the energy to get up and put clothes in the washing machine.  I finally did that tonight, mostly because I ran out of clean wearable clothes.  The dirty dishes are piling up in the kitchen and I just don't have the energy to care.  It's a good thing my husband has been completely caught up in the bathroom remodel.  I don't think he has noticed.

I can't even stay up to watch an entire Blazers game on TV.  Jeremy is at the game tonight.  Usually I complain on the few occasions he goes without me because I want to be there too, but now going to a game this late in the evening sounds terrible.

It's 6:30.  I'm hoping to make it until 8 before going to bed.  Wish me luck.
-Kira

*Side note...my sister and her friend Nicole have a business making hair accessories and tutus for little girls.  They are doing a giveaway right now through their Facebook page.  You just have to "like" their page to be entered.  They will make a customized gift basket with $30 worth of merchandise for the winner.  It's open until Monday.

A Surprise Story and the Bathrom

My mother-in-law, Amy is pretty notorious for spilling secret beans.

We told our family about the baby a couple of weeks before we told anyone else.  Amy was kind of the wildcard on our list, but it turns out others were not so perfect at keeping the secret, either.  She wanted to tell someone so badly, but really wanted to keep our secret so she told her doctor.

We all thought it was pretty funny that she went out of her way to tell someone who wouldn't know us at all so the word wouldn't spread.  She just had to tell someone!

Amy and I were talking about doctors this weekend and I mentioned I had Kaiser Permanente which means the doctor I regularly see will not be the doctor that delivers our baby.  I also happened to mention that my doctor is actually a nurse practitioner.

She started acting very curious and asked what clinic I go to so I told her.  Then she asked my doctor's name.

Turns out we have the same doctor!  Even though she went out of her way to tell someone who she was sure would know nothing about the situation, she ended up telling one of the few other people who already knew!

This was just really hilarious to me.

Completely unrelated to that story, I am enjoying playing the pregnancy card on the master bathroom remodel.  Jeremy usually asks me to help with his house projects and generally I don't really want to, but I feel obligated.  This time around he hasn't even asked.  Here are some before photos of the room:

 Clearly, it's a starting from scratch kind of job.  Notice the hole in the floor.  Jeremy's plan is to have the room finished in two weeks just working evenings and weekends.  Looking at these photos I have no idea how that is possible, but the man is a genius.  A handy husband is truly a blessing!
-Kira

Joining the Prego Club

 Little Kira and Kara

I have some pretty giant news.

The husband just talked me into spilling the beans on Facebook.  I was a little bummed because I kind of wanted to do it here first, but the man is impatient...

We are going to have a baby!  I'm 11 weeks pregnant.  We had an ultrasound a couple of weeks ago and everything is going great so far.  Since I am from a long line of twins (and one myself) we made sure the doctor checked really well.  I'm happy to report, there is only one.

This is part of the reason I have been so tired lately and kind of stopped with the daily blogging.  I have been going to bed really early.  I nearly fell asleep at my desk today while at work.  Other than the constant fatigue, my symptoms are pretty minor.  Jeremy would tell you that I "eat everything." The good news is that I don't crave sweets at all anymore for some reason so even though I am eating a ton, it is much healthier food than my pre-pregnancy diet.  I have also not had any nausea, and thank the Lord for that because I don't know how I would manage my work if I was sick all of the time.

Now that the cat is out of the bag I will certainly post more regularly about this and I am thinking of starting a series on the blog with guest bloggers giving me advice on pregnancy and motherhood because I know nothing about these things.  If you would like to write a guest post please contact me!

We are so excited!
-Kira