So, I’ve officially set a record for how long I can go between posts. You proud of me? I know this isn’t homework and I’m not getting graded, but I do feel compelled to finish what I’ve started and post as much as I can until our daughter arrives. So here I am posting super late, but posting just the same. Last time we “talked” it was Mother’s Day and my baby showers were just around the corner. Well, I had my showers two weeks ago and they were amazing!

The first one was thrown by my husband’s family, and–believe me when I tell you–they are something like out of a Tyler Perry movie. (The good kind, not the “everybody’s on crack and in jail” scenario.) It was really impacting to see a family take over a task in a way that was so loving and extraordinary. I’m a child of divorce and both of my parents left my home town when I was pretty young, so I haven’t had too many family gatherings since then with either side of my family.

One of the things I longed for when thinking about a husband and raising kids together was being able to have backyard barbecues, family reunions, group vacations, massive holiday get-togethers and so-on. I didn’t know I’d be so fortunate to marry into a family that already does that and have a husband who wants to continue the tradition, as well as welcome my side of the family into the mix. Needless to say, we were definitely showered with gifts, love, and blessings as you can see in the precious moments my cousin captured for us. (Not to mention, the food was AMAZING!)

The day after our family babyshower, I had another shower hosted by my mom and two of my wonderful girlfriends. It seems like forever ago that I saw this blog post and shared it in this update. Would you believe that I basically got to recreate my inspiration babyshower and even book the exact same venue as the one they had? How great is God?! I originally was just looking for cute ideas of how I wanted my event to look, and it wasn’t until after meeting with my hostesses that I saw a picture of an invitation on the inspiration blog post and noticed it was actually here in Southern California, only 30 mins from me. Needless to say, we booked the room and the rest is history.

This shower was hosted for our friends since we didn’t want to deal with a massive guest list and try to fit family and friends in one place and accommodate a ton of people. We could have done it, but it would have been much more stressful. There were very creative games, amazing seafood, and the decor was spot on for our nautical theme. I have to shoutout the folks that had a large hand in making this happen. This event wouldn’t be possible without my Mom and Step-Dad, Caroline of Oh, Lovestruck Event Design and Styling, and Melissa of MLoveizm Magazine and MLove Studio. The amazing moments captured in this album are courtesy of John and Tweedy of John Cudal Photography. When you see the cake that was custom made for us, you’re gonna flip out. It was an original design by Marisela of Confectionery Mary.

 

 

Now, let’s talk about Father’s Day. In my last post I mentioned how last year I was basically a pile of tears for Mother’s Day. Father’s Day wasn’t as bad, but it wasn’t much fun. My husband went out to dinner with his dad and mom, but I stayed home the whole day because I didn’t want a repeat of breaking down in public. Of course I was still grieving over our loss, but I was also really bothered by the fact that no one really acknowledged my husband as a father–it’s obviously awkward to the outside world to do that not knowing if it’s appropriate–and it upset me that I couldn’t really be there for him to make the day special. Mother’s Day was actually the day I told the world about our miscarriage and I received a lot of loving comments from people still wishing me a Happy Mother’s Day, but it wasn’t like that for him at all.

I believe that the moment you conceive and child, you become a parent. Not everyone sees an embryo as a child, but God still breathed life into that person, gave him/her a purpose and a heart beat, and we can’t just forget that because their life is ended far too soon. This year, it was really awesome to see so many people loving up on my beau, giving him cards, and congratulating him on his first Father’s Day…even though we know it was his second. We were able to have a really sweet dinner at his parent’s house and his brother and family even came into town. It’s been a while since there’s been a full house of children and grandkids in my husband’s parent’s house, and you could tell their hearts were full as well. The day after Father’s Day, I took him out to a nice dinner at a fondue restaurant and it was a great evening getting to experience something new–thank you, Groupon!–and delicious.

So, onto more pregnancy news. I am officially full term which means this little lady can come any day now and be perfectly healthy. I’d like her to take her time. I’m in no rush, and I still have a lot to do before she gets here. I feel her every once in a while knocking on the exit door–and it’s a little painful–but we keep reminding her that she needs to come when Jesus tells her to. I thought being this close to the end, I’d feel really nervous and overwhelmed. These past few weeks have been great, and I’m just so excited that she’s going to be here! They say that as a baby gets bigger and bigger, you’ll start to feel more distinctive body parts and that is absolutely true. I like to think that she’s playing hide and seek with us because I’ll feel a hand or foot swipe across my abdomen, but when I go to feel it, she’ll quickly slink away and then repeat the process. If I do happen to grab her foot in time, I’ll say “I got you, little foot!”, so we call her Little Foot sometimes. I know it’s corny, but it’s so darn cute.

As far as how I feel physically, it’s getting really uncomfortable to do much of anything, but I’m just so glad I’m not feeling sick like I used to. I’ll take an achy back or shallow breathing over repeat puke visits to the bathroom or being light-headed all day. My doctor says that her size is really good and heartbeat is very strong. She’s supposedly already over 7lbs and I have a feeling she’s gonna be really long too. I’m trying to get my last moments of pregnancy in and enjoy it because everyone is saying that I’m going to miss being pregnant. I don’t think so, but this is my first time around. I’m not sure I’ll miss having my body being taken over. Even though carrying life inside of you is precious and not every woman even gets to experience this, I don’t think I’ll necessarily miss it.  I am very grateful for it though.

Something I definitely KNOW I’m not going to miss are contractions. If you haven’t heard of Braxton Hicks, they are practice contractions that get your uterus ready for the real contractions. It feels kind of like your abs are flexing on their own, but you can tell it’s the uterus muscle. (It’s still really weird to me that the uterus is a muscle.) Also, you can see my belly change when the contractions are happening. For the longest time I didn’t even know I was having them until my doctor said “Oh, you’re having a contraction right now.” when she was examining me. I had always thought it was the baby stretching out or balling up because you can see her form a lot more–yes, it’s weird sometimes–when it’s happening. Imagine a turkey in a balloon. Now imagine the air is shrink-wrapped out of the balloon and you just see the form of the turkey. It’s kind of like that.

A lot of people have asked me about my birth plan and how I intend things to go after birth. I guess I’ll tell you. My plan is to not have any unnecessary medical intervention, but I’m not going to promise anything if it gets really real up in the hospital. I do not like pain, but I know my body is capable of doing amazing things. I just want to be safe in the process, and labor isn’t a convenient process so I’m not treating it like one. When I asked my doctor “So, when do we go over the birth plan?” she replied “The birth plan is whatever you want to do. I’ll facilitate as much you want, but everything is up to you.” So, we’re on the same page and that’s a relief. I definitely do have certain things that I’m adamant about, but it’s only a handful of details.

As far as visitors go, I don’t plan on having any besides our parents in the hospital. I also don’t want to be in the hospital for very long after giving birth. Once we get home, and family has had the time to come and see our baby, that’s when we’ll open our doors to more guests. I’m guessing this will take a few weeks to a month in time to get adjusted. My friend offered to organize a meal train for me, and I’m still debating it because I don’t know how I’ll feel, and if we’ll be up to having visitors right away…even if they are bringing food. I’m sure it would be rude to ask people to ring the doorbell, leave the food at the door, and walk away because I don’t feel like looking human at the moment. Lol. Right now, I’m playing a lot by ear, and that’s way less stressful to me than trying to plan everything out. This coming from a Type A personality that usually wants everything written out in specific order with every detail imaginable thought of.

An off topic decision my husband and I have made is to be very limited with how much exposure our child will have on social media. I’m not going to be a hoarder of photos and never let anyone see her, but you definitely won’t be seeing several posts a day. Most photos will probably be sent directly to family and close friends, with a few sprinkled online. We’re doing this for a few reasons. One of them being that this is a person, a human being with an identity all her own. Even though we are her parents, I’d like to give her some privacy until she’s old enough to decide that she wants her images shared with the world. And also, to get really real on you, I’ve already had people steal my images and pretend to be me, I’m not okay with someone collecting photos of my child and pretending it’s theirs, or heaven forbid it ends up on a website for pedophiles. Let’s just be honest, it’s happening all the time. So, just remember this when we politely ask you not to post your own photos of our daughter or share our photos on your social media pages.

Whew, long post! Let’s get to those stats:

Age and size of baby:

37 weeks old, 19-22 inches long, 6.5 lbs in weight.

Cravings:

You don’t even wanna know. I’ve had more than my fair share of french fries, and I’ve been loving that summer is a good excuse to have ice cream. Hot dogs are another story. Why are they so good?!?!?! (Please spare me the lecture though.) Other than that, I’m just hungry all…the…time. (Also, I’ve been craving sushi since day one of pregnancy and that hasn’t gone away. No, I’m not craving it just because I can’t have it. I’m craving it because I LOVE it.)

Morning sickness:

Morning sickness is not my monster to deal with anymore. Hooray! However, I do have to be sure to eat as soon as I feel hungry or else I’ll get light-headed and nauseous until I do.

Stretch marks:

I thought I was getting some around my belly button, but it turns out I just scratched myself. My skin is feeling more tight and itchy though, and my belly button is really sensitive to the touch. Also, swelling is happening. I don’t know how I can retain water AND being peeing so much at the same time, but my wedding ring is definitely harder to put on and take off, so I’ve been wearing a fake one when I go out.

Crazy hormones:

I still feel like crying for no reason sometimes, but it’s not too often. I mostly just feel pumped to do home improvement things. I guess I’m in my nesting phase, but my husband keeps reminding me that I need to act like a pregnant woman and stop moving furniture and standing on chairs. I know, I know. It’s bad.

Sleeping habits:

Ever since we got our Sleep Number Bed from the Ellen Show, sleep has been really great. However, getting up to pee in the middle of the night is getting way more difficult. I seem to have found a tuck-and-roll strategy that works to get out of bed. I’m also surrounded by pillows and I miss my husband since he’s on the other side of the fort.

So, that’s that for now.  Be blessed and take time to make your dreams into your reality.

-Kytia L’amour