A Pregnancy Update | 25 Weeks

When I was pregnant with Marin, I barely took any photos of my ever growing belly. It really wasn't until she was out in the world that I started documenting her life with weekly posts. This new pregnancy has been much of the same. I will be honest and open with you and say that being pregnant isn't one of my most favorite things in the world. I'm not one of those women that just love to be pregnant and I'm alright with that. I'm also not one of those women that have cute little basketball bellies and hardly look pregnant elsewhere. I show my pregnancy EVERYWHERE. Don't get me wrong, the miracle of life is a crazy journey and being able to experience it all for a second time is a huge blessing. But, my ever growing waistline and weird pregnancies dreams and pains are all part of the process. I also can't tie my own shoes very well and Ryan has to help me with my converse sneakers.

This pregnancy has been pretty different from my first. This time around I was way more sick in my first trimester. I puked a lot this time around and felt pretty horrible for a while. I feel like I'm finally out of that now and I'm thankful to want to eat something other than saltines and drink ginger tea. I also have had so much heartburn!

I have crazy dreams pretty much every night. They are super vivid and I normally remember most of them. Sometimes I wake up and wonder what in the heck I was thinking about before I fell asleep. Super weird stuff. I've been trying to write them down in my morning pages just because I like going back and laughing at myself and my craziness.

I feel like some of my cravings have been the same. I want to eat a lot of cereal, specifically Special K or Honey Bunches of Oats.  I've been dreaming about sushi for a few weeks now. I finally can eat chicken without totally being grossed out. I have wanted more healthier options this time around, which has been helpful. I crave big salads with lots of veggies. I love anything involving Mexican food and green chili and hot sauce.  I would gladly eat a salad from Cafe Rio every single day, with extra guac. Oddly enough, the turkey bacon breakfast sandwich from Starbucks is something I look forward to and I usually have one on Sundays for work. I'm making myself hungry just thinking about it. I've also wanted to drink lots of La Croix Seltzer and unsweetened iced tea.

We only have 15 weeks or so left and I cannot believe it. Time is flying. I want to get into full nesting mode. I have the sudden desire to paint every room in our house, replace all of our crappy closet doors, and organize cupboards. I'll embrace it all while it's here. Having a newborn and a toddler terrifies me but I'm also looking very forward to meeting the newest addition to our family.

I'm trying to soak it all in. Unless something majorly changes, I believe this will probably be our last child. This will be my last pregnancy. I do want to soak it all in even when I'm feeling crappy and huge. I'm super thankful to be able to experience all of it.

Currently Clicking #19

Each and every week, I gather links of all of the places I have been perusing in the great, grand internet. There are plenty of people out there doing big things and small things. Some of these are practical, some are inspiring. This week I realize that I always need to eat more salads and figure out how to eat healthy on a budget. I am also drooling over a house tour, wondering how you know a trend is truly over, dreaming of a peach dish to make, thinking about what it means to separate work from motherhood and whether or not is possible, and reminding myself about the reasons we all have to let go of our past. 

1.  I always need to eat more salad. Here are 5 Tips for Making a Week's Worth of Salads on a Sunday. 
2. Trends come and go. My ever changing hair over the years should probably be a sign of that. How do you know if a trend is done and over with? How do you know if a trend is officially over? 
3. I am completely in love with this house tour. They make living with two children in a 1100 square foot house actually seem doable. I love the back yard space and the flooring throughout the house. I am becoming more and more ready to get our house on the market and find a new place to call home. 
4. We always need tips on healthy eating on a budget. This post has some great tips to keep in mind, especially when aiming for a whole food, plant based diet. Also, might I add her grilled peaches and sweet cream with crunchy bits looks so darn delicious. 
5. Now that I am a mother, even more of this post rings true: 10 Things Women Like To Do Alone. 
6. One of my goals someday, hopefully, is to have the ability to work from home or something that looks somewhat like that, in a job that is creative and challenging. Here is a great post about working from home for entrepreneurs.  But on the flip side, here is another point of view of being a work at home mom. Both of these links were seen at Shutterbean and I love her list posts so very much. As a mom and a person in the work world, can we every truly find balance between the two? Are we meant to? 
7. And lastly, a good reminder: 10 Reasons to Let Go of Your Past. 

Sane Mama: 10 Ideas for Keeping Mom Healthy

Over my maternity leave, I wanted to make a point to really take good care of myself. Becoming a parent causes you to shift your focus completely to caring for child, which is how it needs to be. But, if we aren't careful, we can become completely frazzled and not healthy. I think keeping a mama sane is important. My family is still my number one focus all day, everyday, but making sure I'm not going to come apart at the seams due to lack of sleep and lack of showers, is still important. It's the little things that help too. One day at a time. One workout at a time. One relaxing bath at a time. When I feel good about myself and I feel healthy, I am at the top of my game and can better support my family. 

These are just a few of things I've done over the past few weeks to keep me sane. They are simple. They don't take a ton of time but have great returns in the end. A lot of these are probably predictable, but when they aren't in my life, I am a mess. 

1. Drinking tea. This tea has been a favorite since I am nursing. I tend to want to drink buckets of coffee and this keeps me grounded and far less caffeinated. 

2. Exercise. I try to squeeze in any workout I can get, whether it be a DVD (which I seem to collect far too many of), a workout off Hulu, or putting my sneakers on and taking the baby for a walk. I need to work my muscles. I need to get out into the fresh air and out of my pajama pants. Sometimes I am only able to fit in 15 minutes, but the fact that I did anything is an accomplishment. Some of my current workout DVD faves are: this, this, and this.

3. Healthy eating. Nourishing my body. I try to make one salad a day. I've been loosely following Weight Watchers again, which has a calculation for breast feeding mamas, which is nice. I can tell when I'm not eating enough or if I'm eating too much crap. I need energy. I feed our little baby a lot. Same with water. I always have a water bottle somewhere near me because hydration is super important. I currently add some Doterra oils to my water too, like Grapefruit, Wild Orange, or Lemon. I seem to drink a lot more water that way.

My favorite salad currently has 50/50 Spinach and Arugula, 1/2 of an avocado, feta cheese, strawberries, cucumbers, lemon pepper chicken, and a little bit of red wine vinaigrette. So good!

4. Relaxing at night. I usually try to cram so much into my day and my day usually starts pretty dang early nowadays. Once the husband gets home, we usually feed the little one and put her to bed for the night. We've been watching Game of Thrones lately and I love to have a glass of wine when we do. (Don't worry, I don't breastfeed for a good amount of time after drinking alcohol.) It's nice to just slow down even for an hour before bed. 

5. Detox Baths. I am a bath person. Lately, I'm lucky if I shower before 2 pm, but sometimes in the evenings, the husband watches the baby monitor and I get to take a bath. Recently, I've been doing detox baths when I can. This includes some epsom salt and my lovely Doterra oils. I feel so wonderful afterwards and I feel like I just soak out all of the crap from my body. I love detox baths so much. I also seem to sleep much better after taking one.

6. Coconut Oil. I'm kind of shocked that it took me so long to embrace this amazing stuff. It has so many uses and so many benefits. To name a few....

• Make-up Remover
• Body lotion 
• Helps lessen the appearance of stretch marks
• Cooking (I cook eggs, veggies, chicken, you name it with this stuff!)
• Cradle Cap

I could go on and on. Here's a pretty good list of coconut oil uses.

7. Diffusing Oils. I know you're probably reading this saying, "Oh no, here we go again. She's talking about essential oils." Sorry, but I love them. I like diffusing citrusy scents during the day when I'm working. Sometimes I add peppermint to the mix. It lifts my moods and increases my focus on the task at hand.

8. Dry Shampoo. My hair secret. Let's be honest here, I do shower everyday but I don't always have the time to wash my hair, blow-dry it, straighten or curl it, etc, etc, etc.... So, this is where dry shampoo comes in. This stuff has been a saving grace over maternity leave. My baby needs me a lot. My hair doesn't get washed everyday. Truth. This allows me to go 2 days between washing. Total life saver. I've used a lot of different brands, but this one is my current choice.

9. Reading a good book. This is the other way I wind down at the end of my day. I sleep way better if I read before bed instead of watching too many episodes of something on Netflix. 

My current reads (I always have too many books going at one time and clearly I need to add a novel or two to this list.)

• Bread & Wine, A Love Letter to Life Around the Table with Recipes
• Daring Greatly
• Operation Instructions, A Journal of My Son's First Year 
• The Happiness Project
• Bringing up Bebe

10. And finally sleep. I know, you moms out there are probably laughing at this one. Sleep? What is this sleep you speak of? When you have baby, everyone tells you to sleep when the baby sleeps. I feel this isn't the most realistic of goals, but I do make a point to try and go to bed at a decent time. I could spend hours on the computer, pinning stuff on Pinterest, but instead I try to get a decent amount of sleep. I know that I will be waking up at some point to feed the baby, so I take what I can get. Naps are also moments in time sent from heaven. I probably nap maybe once a week but sometimes that's all I need to hit the refresh button.