Baby Bear - Week 25

Well, it's definitely been a while since my last update... and now I'm past halfway (yay!) and only have 3.5 months left!

the cutest little baby feet

I'm so very obviously showing now. I grew out of my non-stretch pants and moved into the luxurious (seriously!) life of maternity pants around week 18. It was annoying, since I was still in the "is she chubs or pregnant" stage, so I felt much like the chubs state. And now, 6 weeks later, I'm thinking I'll have to move to the full-paneled maternity pants since the demi/short paneled pants are starting to fold over under my growing belly.

And it's going to grow so-much-bigger. Everything is going to get so much bigger.

I finally started to feel baby bear kick and move around week 19. It happens about every other day, not all the time, and at first I was convinced they weren't kicks. They feel like little bubbles of pressure - pretty cool. I'm excited for when Ben will be able to feel her move.

Her nursery is starting to fill in too! We finally put up crown molding a week or two ago, bought a crib we love, and moved the dresser up to the room. We still need to get a rocker, hang the art, and finish the mobile.


I also wanted to touch on something I was panicking about at my week 16 update - getting the every other week invasive ultrasound.  I talked to my midwife before my week 19 ultrasound and asked why this would be necessary, and she explained, that while it's probably not necessary, it's a precaution because up until 24 weeks if my cervix were to start shortening (getting ready for labor), they could put a stitch in there to help prevent pre-term labor. Easy as that. I was so peeved the doctor never explained something so simple like that to me. The next day, at the ultrasound, I confirmed this with the doctor and made sure that if everything looked great and long that I could stop with the additional ultrasound requirement - to which she agreed. And I'm happy to confirm that indeed, everything is looking perfect!

Finally, I am still working out about 3x a week, but am officially not jumping or doing any deep squats or lunges anymore. I talked to my trainer and worked out a plan to add some more variety into the workout for me, since everything was turning into either do a plank option or full body extensions. My legs have been fatiguing pretty fast lately (all this extra weight! swelling!) so I wanted to do more upper body/arm work outs. It was a great talk, and now when I get to class I go through each circuit exercise and figure out the modification or do a completely different exercise (tricep extension, bicep curl, dumbbell lateral raises, pushups, etc.). So far I feel like i'm getting so much more out of my workout! I'm going to continue going to the gym class until the beginning of May (about week 27) before transitioning to prenatal Pilates (at home) and prenatal yoga in a studio (1-2x a week). I think this will work out great and still keep me in shape for labor and delivery. The yoga studio I found also does a mommy and me yoga for new mothers (nursing baby and any baby that isn't crawling yet are welcome!) - what a great environment to reconnect with your body and not have to make arrangements for baby.


Also, pregnancy hair isn't a joke - I've never had fuller, more luscious hair!

Feel good friday

All I see is where our days repeat
And our love goes on
As our hair grows long

Spring cleaning (& ThredUp Review)

Now that I'm not 20... 23... or even 25 anymore, I have learned so much about about the value of money vs. the value of material items. 

my new favorite artist - found here

When I got my first engineering job, as a co-op student, I all of a sudden had this huge income of money (going from $0 to $30/hr as a 20 y/o). In return, I saved about half and spent the rest on clothes. Unfortunately this is before I really valued material and make over quantity. So while I should have invested in a suit to wear for interviews, I bought party dresses and tons of jeans and shirts - because I could... and I was 20.  Oh, and was totally dedicated to the idea of "I have to buy this, it's on sale!"

When I was 23, I hit my next wave of "ooo income, must spend!" - I got hired full time, and moved to Seattle. This is the phase where I decided to buy every dress imaginable. And join every members-only site out there. 

Then, by 25, Ben had moved in - but my habits were hard to die. This is about when I tore my ACL too, and was on bed rest while I recovered. I gained a ton of weight, but still had access to shop online in my old "I'll get there again" sizes. (we all have those clothes in our closet, amiright!). 

When I got married, Ben and I decided to really start taking finances seriously. And more so when we were considering getting pregnant. I looked in my closet and found that I had pants that still had tags, and were 4 sizes too small. I had half my dresses still with tags, and equally not in my size.

The first step was to follow the moto "if I don't love it, don't buy it." and "only buy items that fit now."  These steps helped to refine how I was shopping. 

The next, huge step was to clean out my closet, and start new. I hated having so many unused and totally new clothes in my closet. I just never found an outlet for these items. There was a lot of equity in them, many were designer or quality name brand items. Then I stumbled on this post - and because I don't have an instagram following, I decided to go use ThredUp.

The first Bag, in which you order from them and is free, I filled up to the brim with about 20% gently used clothes and 80% still has tags. They go through the bag and list what they kept and my profit of it. The rest of the unused items go to a charity or a textile recycling factory - or you can pay like $13 to have them send your items back to you. They ended up using a lot of my items, which gave me an awesome, almost $100 payout. Of course I realize this is a FRACTION of what I actually spent on my items, but I wasn't using these items and was not earning interest by having them in my closet. They also send you an email after you items are sold. Here's a small snapshot of how my items are doing.

I just got done stuffing my next bag, which has about 30% new with tags items and more business-esque items - I even threw in a few pairs of barely used shoes. We'll see how I do, but it feels so good getting rid of BAGS of items.

If you sign up using my referral link, I win and you win!

Baby Bear - Week 16

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN ON FEBRUARY 27th, 2014

On Feb 24th, we went in for another 4 week ultrasound. We also figured that the tech would be able to find out the gender for us - and our excitement over this possible new information was all-consuming. It's so fun to reach these little milestones and each week is such a blessing. My heart swells with love when Ben talks about our baby and how awesome s/he is. 

I'm not a fan of getting ultrasounds, or going to the doctor really. I have an unusual anatomy that I don't plan on explaining to you yet, but it's why I need to get ultrasounds so often. Seeing our baby is a nice perk to the process, so it's not all terrible and annoying. 

My emotions have been really... emotional this week. I feel sort of bi-polar in the way that things affect me so much. The tipping point happened after the ultrasound appointment, and it really took 3 days to shake this feeling.

I mentioned before that I plan on delivering at a Birth Center, which is a few blocks from the hospital. I like the midwives and I'm sure the appointments will get more exciting as the weeks progress. Much to the dislike of my worried mind, there's just not much to tell a 16 week pregnant woman besides to take vitamins. One of the big perks of seeing a midwife, in my mind, is the hands-off approach - like when the midwife told me I didn't have to weigh myself if I didn't want to. I like that.

I've gone to the hospital twice for the ultrasounds and each time I've just gotten an off hand, sort of snarky comment about midwives. Example: I asked the doctor at the end of the ultrasound visit if there were any sort of exercise limitations I should be aware of (since I work out very reguarly). The doctor told me basically the same stuff the midwives did, with even less guidelines. She finished her thought with "I hope that's what your midwife is telling you too." Just kinda threw me, because up until that point I thought she was my doctor and I could ask her questions. It was a reminder that no, she's not my doctor and she has no vested interest in my prenatal care unless they start finding that the baby is going to come premature. 

And the final straw? As we were checking out and scheduling our next appt we were told that we would need to come back in two weeks (19 weeks) for a vaginal ultrasound to make sure the cervix is not shortening and then again in 4 weeks (21 weeks) for the usual baby ultrasound. My stomach dropped. I know I have a weird anatomy that will probably cause a shorter pregnancy, but really - at 19 weeks I have to start coming so frequently??  And why didn't the doctor mention this to us at our end of visit recap?? All of a sudden I just felt terrible and over committed. I lost trust in "my doctor" and wanted to just ignore her and the hospital.

Now that I'm a few days out I still don't like the increased visits, but I realize I can go see another doctor and hopefully have a better relationship with them. I also see my midwife the day before my next ultrasound at 19 weeks so I can get her opinion and comfort.

And besides, this week we found out we were having a baby girl!!

Cat update!

I don't get to talk much about our cats - and since coming back after Christmas break, they've been a little distant and hiding upstairs. It was frustrating to say the least. However, over the past two weeks they've finally come back around to giving and accepting love from us and sniffs from Yogi. It's great. They're so fun and curious, playful and cool.

 Last Friday we had our guest bedroom (which holds the bed they hide under, aka: their safe zone) skim coated by some painting professionals. It left a fine dust on the walls and after a day of giving them access to it, Marco's eye flared up (it does this every couple of months, for mostly no reason) and almost swelled shut. We decided to close off the room until we could wipe it down, clean it up, and paint it. So for a week they had to live without their safe zone. They did amazingly well! A big credit to Yogi for not going ape-shit-crazy finding the cats out of their normal hiding place - he held it together, casually sniffing and stepping back and no barking! And the cats thoroughly enjoyed their cat tree next to the window, bathing in all the pacific northwest sunshine.

We've found that when we act cool and non-reactive or overbearing, that Yogi and the kitties also act with some more calm and collected reactions. We used to excessively treat yogi for not eating them, and he probably had no idea why he was being rewarded and instead got super excited that he was getting treats and took that energy back to the cats, which were less enthusiastic about it. Now we acknowledge when he's being a "Good Dog" and ask him to "leave it" or "who's that?" when a cat comes up to him. He does a lot of waiting, like when we are scooping out the cat food behind the baby gate, and knows that he'll get a treat if he stays calm.... a treat that comes at the end of all this waiting.


My favorite cat things lately:

cats tote bag - $16

Oversized cat tote bag - $30

Cat cave - $80

toddler "right meow" tank top

I'm by no means a professional, licensed trainer - these are all my opinions from experience. When in doubt, find a positive reinforcement trainer in your area - they're usually amazing and can quickly solve any problem.