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22 Week Bumpdate and Pregnancy Letter Board

December 5, 2017

We are officially over the hump, people! 22 weeks means we have 18 weeks (or less) to go! I can’t even believe how fast this pregnancy is moving. Maybe because it’s not been as stressful as Addie’s? Who knows!

If you haven’t kept up with us online lately, at 20 weeks we had our ultrasound and amniocentesis with our Maternal Fetal Medicine doctor and had the cutest fall gender reveal ever to celebrate sweet baby Lawson. It was a complete surprise to us (as you can see in the video!) The 20 week ultrasound was so good and Addie got to meet the doctor that delivered her and checked up on her the entire time I was pregnant with her. We were overjoyed to hear that they couldn’t detect any physical abnormalities, and that it was completely up to us to do the amniocentesis or not. We opted to do it for genetic purposes to make sure our sweet boy didn’t have any complications like Addie, and the day before Thanksgiving we got a call that there were absolutely zero markers for any genetic abnormalities. Praise Jesus! It took such a load off our backs and now we can completely focus on the fact that our sweet boy is going to be healthy. We would have loved him regardless, just as we do Addie, but it’s nice to know that we won’t have the challenges that we had with her.

How far along: 22 weeks

Name: Lawson Avery

Size: Lawson is measuring about a week ahead so he’s the size of a grapefruit at 22 weeks! That’s 11.3 inches and 1.10 pounds.

How I’m feeling: Great! Starting to find that it’s getting a little harder to breathe (especially when I carry Addie) and I definitely can’t eat as much because there’s less room!

Sickness: None! I had 1 day where I couldn’t keep a meal down, but I think it was a fluke.

Cravings: I really haven’t had many cravings this pregnancy, although I will say I have been wanting more red meat the past couple weeks. So I guess I must be craving that!

Aversions: Chicken. It doesn’t gross me out or anything, I just haven’t been in the mood for it.

Weight gain: I think I’ve gained 7 pounds total. Not too bad but it’s definitely getting to where I’m actually starting to gain. Since I was so sick in the beginning I hadn’t gained anything, but 7 pounds isn’t bad!

Physical changes: Rounder tummy! I see a little chubbier face than at 16 weeks, but it happens.

Pregnancy purchases so far: I’ve made a few purchases so far that I wanted to share that have been helpful—

Floral Sweater (it’s not maternity)- When we went down to visit my family for my dad’s birthday the other week, we hit up Target for some Black Friday shopping. I fell in love with this sweater and had to have it. I’ll tell ya, it runs big. So if you like that oversized look, grab your normal size. If you like a more fitted look (or you’re short like me), size down. I’m wearing a medium and it fits perfectly. The large was like a dress on me!
Ningxia Red (and lots of it)- If you’ve been dragging lately, struggling to make healthy food choices, could use some help supporting your blood sugar, immune system or any other system of the body, then you need to learn about Ningxia Red. This powerful fruit puree is what we swear by for our family’s health! Young Living has exclusive distribution rights for the NingXia wolfberry, and just one ounce of NingXia Red is equivalent to each of the following in terms of antioxidant nutritional value: 4 pounds of carrots, 2 quarts of carrot juice, 8 oranges, 1 pint of orange juice, 2 pounds of beets, 2 cups of beet juice, 3 cups of raspberries, or 2 cups of blueberries! Wow! I drink 2-4 oz a day for antioxidant benefits to keep me staying healthy (which can be really hard this time of year with sugary snacks, unhealthy foods, and people spreading their germs like crazy.) I love that it keeps me energized because my blood sugar levels stay nice and balanced, and it’s just nice to drink with some LaCroix instead of a soda!
Tomorrow Sleep mattress– I’ll be blogging about this super soon, but this new mattress has been amazing for pregnancy. Our old mattress was like 13 years old (ew!) and I was waking up with aches and pains every morning. During pregnancy it’s advised to sleep on your side and I’m typically a tummy sleeper. So my hips, ribs, and knees would always be so painful and I’d toss and turn from the pain. Happy to report I’m no longer worrying about that! I can’t wait to tell y’all more soon.

As far as more purchases for Lawson, I haven’t done any. My mom and sister have bought Lawson a couple outfits, but that’s about it. We really only need a few things since he’s our second (like a crib, mattress, bedding, DockaTot, Milk Snob car seat cover- that kind of thing) but I started making a registry in case we have a shower later on in the new year. I’ve been focusing more on family birthdays, Thanksgiving and Christmas, and January birthdays and so baby stuff hasn’t been on the priority list. I figure once we get to January, I’ll start buying more stuff.

Thanks for joining me for another bumpdate! Make sure you’re following me on Instagram and Facebook for daily life updates and more on Addie and Lawson!

Filed Under: Lawson ·

The Cutest Fall Gender Reveal

December 4, 2017

This post on The Cutest Fall Gender Reveal is sponsored by Oriental Trading although all thoughts and opinions are my own.

This pregnancy is just flying by! I can’t believe I’m already over halfway through it and our sweet baby will be here in 18 weeks or less! A few weekends ago we had about 30 of our closest friends and family over to our home and had the cutest fall gender reveal you’ve ever seen. It was so wonderful and I’m still replaying our amazing time in my mind. We had family and friends travel from 3, 4, and 6 hours away- even friends that happened to have flown into town the night before come to our little fall gender reveal. Ah, it was great!

Because we had our little fall pregnancy announcement at the Dallas Arboretum with tons of pumpkins in the pictures, we thought it would be fun to continue on with our pumpkin theme for our fall gender reveal. I wasn’t sure where to even begin, except that I wanted pumpkins in it. I remembered that Oriental Trading had awesome decorations at affordable prices so I set out to work on our fall decor for the party. Immediately I noticed ideas for trunk or treats on their website and one stuck out to me that was orange and teal. I knew we wouldn’t be going the traditional route like our big gender reveal party during my pregnancy with Addie, and this was perfect!

Lucky for me, all the products used in the photo were actually listed at the bottom of the page so it made it incredibly easy for me to get everything I needed. I ordered tassel garland, a plastic table cloth, pom pom decorations, paper plates, napkins, cups, forks, straws, honeycomb tissue balls, mini hanging lanterns, the cutest chevron table runner, and a semi fanburst garland, all from Oriental Trading and it arrived super fast. I don’t know why I expected it to take a while to arrive to me, but everything I ordered was at my house in a matter of days. Not only that, all the decorations for our entire party cost less than $100! Talk about staying within budget! Woo!

Everything was incredibly easy to set it up. I actually set up most of the party a couple days before because usually it can be so tedious. However, I was mostly done within 20 minutes except for the things that needed to be hung at the top of the curtain rod and of course outside where the actual reveal would be held. Since we have a square table, I folded the tablecloth in half and I loved how it made it more opaque. I also cut the chevron table runner and both the turquoise and silver tassel garlands in half so one half was on the table and the other was at the drink station. It worked out perfectly and was twice the decorations for half the price! Winning!

I will say, I had visions of putting the fruit and veggie dips into hollowed out pumpkins filled with bowls, but since it’s almost Thanksgiving, all the pumpkins are gone from the stores. I had some from my porch, but I didn’t want to take the chance of cutting one open and it being yucky. I kept them for outside and was ok with that. Still, I kept the food simple for budget purposes and so people could have a snack before going and grabbing lunch after the party. We had fruit with a cream cheese and whipped cream dip (with 2 drops of Orange Vitality essential oil- so delish!), a veggie tray with homemade ranch dip, the cutest little pumpkin deviled eggs (made by my awesome mother-in-law), and yummy puff pastry filled with sausage, cream cheese, and jalapenos (also made by my mother-in-law). Of course, no party is complete without cake, so we got assorted cupcakes and had a delicious punch to go along with it all.

We had our entry way set up with a fun chalkboard and our small end table, and I had a foam pumpkin for people to sign with paint pens with well-wishes for the baby, along with stickers I’d made with the pumpkins from the invitations and our name choices for each gender. We chose Amelia if our baby was a girl, and Lawson if our baby was a boy. I mimicked the chalkboard I’d made for Addie’s big gender reveal party and it was fun to see the differences between the two pregnancies so far!

I also bought some gorgeous flowers at H-E-B (shout out to the ladies in Floral who always do an incredible job) and they were beautiful on our coffee table. When I was getting groceries for the party, I got stopped so many times with people loving the flowers. Made me happy!

After everyone had their fill of snacks, the anticipation was so thick, so we went outside for our gender reveal. A sweet friend lent me a couple bales of hay, and I ended up using the semi fanburst garland, pom pom decorations, and our leftover Halloween pumpkins for the reveal spot! It was pretty windy but Mathew was smart enough to staple gun the decorations to the fence and it was perfect!

With Addie in tow (and without her vent, might I add!), we gathered everyone outside for the big fall gender reveal! I can not even begin to tell you the bundle of nerves that swept over me once we started walking outside. With Addie’s big gender reveal party we knew she was a girl before the party. We wanted to know during our anatomy scan so we could have the moment with just the two of us, and then we surprised everyone else at the gender reveal. This time, we had no idea.

All pregnancy long I “knew” it was a boy. Things were just SO different this time around and it was so easy for us to choose a boy name. The girl name? Not so easy. Once we’d picked a girl name we struggled (even until gender reveal day) to pick a middle name. When I was pregnant with Addie, I “knew” it was a girl and we easily picked a girl name. We struggled so hard until the day of the ultrasound to choose a boy name. Interestingly enough though, I thought our baby was a boy up until 18 weeks. I had an appointment with our doctor and we did a quick sonogram to ease my mind. Since we’d found Addie’s SCT at 18 weeks, I was a bit worried. The doctor and I looked at the baby together and he initially called the baby a “he”. But then, I mentioned how the ankles were crossed and I remarked that I slept that way and Addie does too so maybe it was a girl. Then, the doctor called it a “she”. It was likely by accident just because I was talking about girls, but I took it as a slip up and “swore” the baby was a girl.

When we went in at 19.5 weeks for our big anatomy scan, I had the tech tell my sister in secret the sex of the baby. She ordered confetti poppers for me and had them shipped straight to the house. Once we walked outside for the reveal, they were handed to us and I was shaking. Here’s how it all went down:

I can’t even believe it- can you? Our sweet baby is a BOY! We can’t wait to bring sweet Lawson Avery into the world in April 2018. I never would have imagined that I would be a boy mom, but I’m excited for this whole new world. Since Addie’s newborn stage was so atypical, I’m interested to see how we handle parenting a newborn AND Addie together. It should be a fun ride! Mathew and I were in SHOCK that the confetti was blue, and I won’t lie- I shed some tears. The good tears, of course! I can’t wait to see how this journey of ours unfolds!

Did you guess correctly? What was your favorite part of the gender reveal?

Filed Under: DIY, Lawson, Mathew ·

18 Week Bumpdate and Pregnancy Letter Board

November 7, 2017

Well, time is continuing to fly and I’m just about halfway through with my pregnancy already! Next week we have an appointment with our Maternal Fetal Medicine doctor to get a good look at the baby and finally find out if we’re having a boy or girl!

Although we are super excited to hear what we’re having so we can start buying what we need, we mostly are ready to see our baby and just get even more confirmation that baby is healthy and has no chromosomal abnormalities. I did have an appointment last week and we got a really good look at the baby with just a quick ultrasound and saw no signs of a SCT like Addie had around this time of gestation, so I am very relieved. Still, it’ll be nice to get a thorough look at the baby next week to make sure everything is good. Hopefully, we will only need to see this doctor once and then I can keep continuing with my OB like normal!

I really love our MFM doctor and am happy we’ll be seeing him. He did ultrasounds on Addie every other week for my pregnancy with Addie and he delivered her as well. I remember my first appointment with him and how nervous I was. I cried the whole appointment because we just had no idea what we were dealing with and if Addie would be ok, and I had an amnio and was terrified. It seems so long ago yet is also so fresh in my mind. I can’t say I’m not nervous for this appointment, but I do know that this doctor is pretty fantastic and IF there is anything to worry about, then he will be the guy to help lead the way and help us feel more at ease.

How far along: 18 weeks

Name: We officially have our boy AND girl names! We won’t be disclosing the name of the baby until after our gender reveal though!

Size: Baby is the size of an artichoke at 18 weeks! That’s 5.59 inches and 6.70 ounces.

How I’m feeling: Really good! I was really emotional about a lot of things last week but things have mellowed out.

Sickness: None! Migraines are GONE and I’m feeling so good!

Cravings: More vegetables! Especially green beans from a can. Weird I know. I got a hankoring for green bean casserole so that’s on our menu for this week with some chicken. I will say, that’s not a pregnancy thing, that’s just a me-excited-for-Thanksgiving thing, because I totally did this last year and the year before a couple weeks before Thanksgiving. I just love Thanksgiving food!

Aversions: Nothing at the moment. I’m glad about that!

Weight gain: I maybe have gained 1-2 lbs. Doctor isn’t concerned one bit and baby is growing and just taking all my food!

Physical changes: Rounder tummy! My face has thinned out too. It’s all going to my stomach for sure!

Pregnancy purchases so far: I’ve made a few purchases so far that I wanted to share that have been helpful—

Mineral Essence– I wanted to update you guys on it since I promised last bumpdate. I have been religiously taking my Mineral Essence for 2 weeks now and feel INCREDIBLE. It’s amazing how good you can feel when your body is in balance! If you’re not getting 5-6 cups of vegetables a day, you’re definitely not getting enough minerals in your diet, especially if you’re pregnant because baby is taking all those nutrients for him/herself. I have felt WORLDS different.
Gender Reveal Decorations– I have all the decorations for our gender reveal courtesy of Oriental Trading! I am SO ready to get decorating next week for our big reveal party.
New clothes- I recently got this Winter Wine long sleeved tee from Old Navy from today’s bumpdate and this Emerald sweater tee from my 16 week bumpdate. Neither are maternity and I love how they hug my bump! I love them and I’m so ready for it to be consistently cold so I can wear them all the time. I also got this awesome Llama maternity sweater and I find it hilarious and cute all at the same time.

Thanks for joining me for another bumpdate! Comment below with your OFFICIAL GUESS as to what you think we’ll be having! You guys will find out next week so make sure you’re following me on Instagram and Facebook for updates!

Filed Under: Lawson ·