beautiful bellies

 

one. two. three. four. five. six. seven. eight. nine.

my sister the photographer, (taurahorn.com) came to our house yesterday to take some maternity photos. it was really fun and i can’t wait to see them! she used film, so it will take a couple weeks to get it developed. i will be on pins and needles until then. i gathered some pics of some of our inspiration for the shoot. aren’t these photos beautiful!? the pregnant belly always looked strange to me until now. i find a full belly so beautiful and inspiring. what a miracle! my yoga teacher always says, as a pregnant woman, you are the strongest you have ever been. i didn’t get it at first, but now i know what she means. last week in class we went around and said when we feel the most beautiful. i said when i ‘really’ look in the mirror at my bare pregnant belly. sure, i don’t like the way my thighs have grown, or my arms…but when i look at my belly and think about what lies under my skin, i feel so beautiful and strong. i hope you enjoy these lovely pics, and i can’t wait to share with you some of mine!

one piece love

one. two. three. four. five. six.

i know we are all itching for spring to actually kick in, but with spring brings summer closer…and that means swimsuits. i have never really totally dreaded swimsuit season in the past, but this year will be a different story. i am not expecting myself to be in a bikini this summer, and i am totally ok with that. i have always loved one piece suits and with them becoming more popular there are tons of super cute styles out there to chose from. my main thing i look for in a one piece is support for my bust. there is nothing more irritating than a bandeau top that wants to flop right off your girls. this year with having a baby right before summer starts, i will want some support in the mid section too. i think the suits with ruching help a lot to hide and conceal your tummy area. there are also a lot of one pieces out there with ruching that comes down over your bum, almost like fifties style. i am kind of on the short side, so i don’t want to cut off my legs and make them look even shorter, so i stick to the suits that have a higher cut leg hole.

whether you feel like you need to wear a one piece or just want to rock one because they are cute, be confident in it and make sure it’s comfortable!

week by week: 35 weeks

less than 5 weeks left til my due date! time is going so fast i can’t believe it! i still feel pretty good this week. i am still having some back pain, but i moved from a normal office chair at work to an exercise ball which has helped. getting used to sitting on your bum like that all day though is kind of like getting your bum used to riding  horse all day…sore. i am still sleeping really good too. little guy is still moving around like crazy. it’s like he is doing yoga in there or something. our little alien is what we call him because he is moving so much and scaring people who aren’t used to little aliens in people’s bellies haha. i don’t really feel like my belly has grown too much over the past couple weeks. maybe i am delusional?

we met with our doula yesterday and i feel so ready for this baby. she helped us with our birth plan and really took the time to go through all the details. she wasn’t pushy with any of the decisions we made, instead she took the time to help us figure out what was most important to us. she gave me a homework assignment; she wants the 36 week pregnant me to write a letter to the over 40 week pregnant me. the point is to tell myself to be patient, kind, and just remind myself how important it is to wait for baby to come when he is ready. i think it’s a really cool exercise. i don’t think my thoughts on everything will change from now until then…but you never know.

 

the coolest part about this process is that i feel more and more confident as the weeks go by. you would think the closer the due date gets the more nervous i would get, but i am ready. i am confident and ready. stay positive pregnant ladies out there!

happy weekend

 

someone is little confused…or someone is staking their claim.

hope everyone has a happy weekend! and maybe if we all have happy thoughts of spring it will eventually come!

guest post: writing a birth plan

i wrote another guest post for parentsavvy.com. go here to check it out!

mini kitchen makeover

this weekend i changed up the kitchen just a bit. brian painted this wall a dark grey (can you tell i like this color because i use it all over my house) and i think it is a good accent color to the beige color that the walls were already. i bought some accessories from hobby lobby to hang and then made the cork board from a cheap frame i bought and some sheets of cork. the little white cubes hanging on the far wall were something i found at the goodwill a long time ago and have never found a place to put them. i am thinking i will paint them a different color (maybe black?) to tie them into the kitchen a little more. this project is so small but it does give our kitchen a bit of a much needed spruce. i think i am going to paint the chair in the pics that lime/sage green color too. i feel like i have one thousand and one home projects that i want to get done before the baby comes. why now? nesting maybe? the guest bedroom is my next thing i will tackle.

week by week: 34 weeks

34 weeks, can you believe it? this little boy is going to be here soon and change our lives forever. not too much has changed since last week. i am still sleeping really really well. i guess i have never really had a problem with sleep. i just love it dearly, and will be very sad when i don’t get it anymore haha. so i will cherish these last weeks of blissful sleep. when i do wake up in the middle of the night to pee i always think about our baby. he is the first thing that pops into my head (well i guess second after damn, i have to get up and pee). i think about how i will be waking up with him, having our little bonding moments in the wee hours of the morning while everyone is asleep. it’s all worth it, the no sleep. i think all you can do is stay positive about the newborn phase. you won’t get it back, and soon they will be big boys that don’t need the constant caring and feeding from their mommy. i know so many people that feel like the newborn/no sleep phase will last forever, and then when their little one starts to sleep through the night, they have the realization that time flies and their little baby is growing up. so even though i will have moments where i want to pull my hair out because i can’t get any sleep, i have to remind myself that this little newborn will not be a newborn forever, so soak it all up.

this past weekend, instead of going out for drinks for saint patricks day, we spent time with my family. my parents and my sister came over for some reuben sandwiches. my dad got a kick out of this little guy’s kicks. he kept joking that this little one is going to need lots of spankings haha and i don’t doubt that he will be a bit ornery…but how could i spank that cute little butt? i can’t wait for my parents to be grandparents. this will be their first grandchild and my grandma’s first great grandchild. so you can only assume that there will be a lot of spoiling going on…

my big sister the photographer

my sister took some really great pictures of brian and i the other week in our home. she really makes our house look cooler than it is, haha oh the power of a great photographer. i love these photos and want to thank her for her talent that will soon be going on my walls. she is going to take some maternity photos of me in a couple of weeks that i know will be awesome! there are some great perks of having two photographers in your family (my sister and my mom), as you can all imagine. we actually trade services quite a bit. i also can’t wait until she can take pictures of our sweet little boy, a way better subject matter than his mom and dad 🙂 check out her site and blog, she is very talented! and you can see the photos of brian and i here.

life lately

 

life is good, i can’t complain. well i mean i can complain that my back and hips hurt…but i mean of course they do…look at that MASSIVE belly. we are trying to do some fun stuff before baby gets here. playing with our cats and taking naps are fun ok…but so is having your best friends to hang out with and going to hockey games.

the nursery: antlers + art

this past weekend i finished hanging some art in the nursery. the adorable cat illustration was given to us from some of our good friends, who knows how much we love cats…and of course so will the baby 🙂 the amazing feather print by this talented artist was given to us by another dear friend ! i have been kind of obsessed with antlers lately and had purchased a set of three from etsy a while back. i painted one antler to display in our living room, and wanted to use the remaining two in the baby’s room. they aren’t actual matches (like they didn’t come from the same poor little deer’s head…) but i didn’t really care. i really loved the wrapped yarn antlers that i have been seeing and decided to give it a try. i just glued the two antlers together after they were wrapped and then mounted them directly to the wall. the wooden cube piece was something i picked up at the goodwill long long ago and have been searching for a place to put it. i need to find some more little knick-knacks to put in it, but i think it’s pretty neat. i just wonder how long it will take for some little boy to reach and try to snatch all that stuff off the wall? oh and did you notice the blanket hanging over the crib? i just got that in the mail from one of my besties! i found it on ferm living i think it goes great in the room. i still need the bedding (the polka-dot thing is just a blanket), a changing pad and cover and then i want to redue an old toy chest…then i think i am about done…but you never know what my mind will conjure up next.