Gender Reveal Photo Shoot

As I mentioned in my 20 Weeks post we found out that we are having a BOY! We really wanted a boy so we were overjoyed when we found out!

The Friday after we had our ultrasound we met Mr. Jay, our wedding photographer, at Riverfront Park in downtown Spokane for a gender reveal photo shoot. Mr. Jay with Mr. Jay Photography takes the most amazing photos! He also took our photos for our pregnancy announcement that I mentioned in my “I’m Pregnant” post.

 Nick and I were on cloud 9 and had the best time taking all the photos! I know that we will treasure these photos for a lifetime! Here are a few of the highlights from our shoot with the awesome reveal at the end....

Mr. Jay also has a Facebook page with clips of his other amazing photo shoots. You can check it out here. A big thanks to Mr. Jay for helping us capture this special time in our lives!

20 Weeks

How Far Along? 20 Weeks. Halfway there! 

Total Weight Gain: Almost 4 pounds

Have You Started to Show? Yes! My belly seems to be growing quite a bit this week

Stretch Marks? No

Belly Button? In

Maternity Clothes? No new maternity clothes this week but I did buy a few Bobeau long skirts from Nordstrom that aren’t maternity, but are super comfortable.

Symptoms: I’m still dealing with the sprained SI joint but chiropractic and acupuncture really help. My chiropractor (and godmother) also said to make sure when I sit or bend that I lead with my hips and then follow with bending my knees. This has been a huge help so far!

Movement? Baby Morelli is a super active baby!! I love every little kick and punch!

Sleep? I have been using my pregnancy pillow and it really helps me get a decent night sleep. I am so glad I ordered my snoogle!

Exercise? Yoga and walking. I have been going to my normal yoga classes at Garden Street Yoga in CDA and I also went to my prenatal yoga instructor’s class at the Kroc Center. It was really great. Jessica (my yoga instructor) is a really great teacher and I just love her little funny side comments!

Food Cravings: Peaches! I bought two flats of organic peaches this week and only have a couple left. They are so juicy and so delicious!

Food Aversions: Chicken. I don’t see that changing any time soon.

Happy or Moody? So HAPPY! This week was way better for me emotionally! I feel like my hormones have leveled out or maybe I’m just figuring out how to deal with them better. I am also so thankful to have such a patient and loving husband!

Miss Anything? Iced coffee and wine. With the crazy heat wave we have been experiencing I am really missing grabbing an iced latte when I’m out and about.

Nursery Progress: I ordered lambskin for the nursery this week and I am super excited for it to arrive! I have been looking for a lambskin for the nursery for several weeks and just haven’t found exactly what I was looking for at Little Spruce Organics. The Natural Mimosa Tree Tanned Lambskin by Kaiser is made with a Mimosa tree-tanning compound. This is a tree bark vegetable tanning compound not a chemical tanning compound. I think this will be perfect to throw on our bed and on our hardwood floors. We also received our Romina Furniture wood samples in the mail. I think we have decided on the two tone color combo using a caramel wood color and a cream. I plan on ordering the furniture this next week. I also order a few adorable baby items from Kate Quinn Organics. They are having a warehouse-moving sale so I scored on some adorable clothes for only $10 and $15!

Best Moment This Week: Our ultrasound! We had our ultrasound on Wednesday August 6^th. I schedule our appointment for 8 am because I knew that I wouldn’t be able to sleep the night before! Of course, I woke up every hour after 3 AM, before I finally got up at 5:30. We were allowed to have one other person in the room with us so we picked my mom up on the way and arrived promptly at 7:30, a full 15 minutes early for check in. I was so excited that I walked right up to the lady at check in and was preparing to hand her my insurance card when my hubby said, “You have to wait to be called forward” and pointed to the sign he was standing next to. It was pretty hilarious considering we were the only people in the room. I quickly backed up and the lady just laughed at us and said come on over! My husband can be so funny! We were called back pretty quickly and ended up having the nicest guy named Randy do our ultrasound. He put the wand on my belly and the first thing he said was, “Well, no suspense here, you are definitely having a boy!” I was so happy and excited that I just burst into tears! Nick and my mom were both crying right along with me! It was just so amazing! We were trying to time it right to have a boy first and were just so excited!! I couldn’t stop crying throughout the whole ultrasound. Nick kept holding my hand while I kept on repeating, “I can’t believe we’re having a boy! I’m so happy!” We were all amazed at how clear the pictures were of our beautiful baby boy! He was moving his eyelids and opening and closing his mouth! He is a super active baby and everyone in the room got to see just how active he is! Randy took a really long time with us and explained everything he was looking for and pointed out every organ and bone! It was so nice that he took the time to answer all our questions! When we saw his adorable little face Nick said, “Wow, he has my cheeks!” We left our 1 hour and 45 minute ultrasound with 5 pictures of our beautiful baby BOY! I have been on cloud 9 ever since! We also did a really fun pregnancy reveal photo shoot with our amazing wedding photographer, Mr. Jay. As soon as I have the pictures I will do a separate post!

Looking Forward to: Filling the nursery with cloth diapers, clothes and furniture for our little man!

19 Weeks

How Far Along? 19 Weeks

Total Weight Gain: 2 pounds!

Have You Started to Show? Oh yes! Nick and I went to Costco today and he said I looked like a typical pregnant lady because I was walking around the store with one hand on my belly and one hand on my lower back. He said people were staring – unbeknownst to me!

Stretch Marks? No thank goodness! I lather on oil and lotion like it’s my second job!

Belly Button? In, but I have the sneaking suspicion that it may pop out. Nick loves to point out every pregnant lady he sees with a popped out belly button. He just thinks it is hilarious! He can be such a stinker sometimes!

Maternity Clothes? I found a few cute basic Be Maternity tanks at Target that are super comfortable and I FINALLY found some maternity yoga pants that are not see through when I bend over! Huge score for me! I also purchased a bra extender since by current bras are quite miserable. It seems to help a little. I just can’t justify buying new bras when I know my breasts will only grow in a couple months.

Symptoms: I have been experiencing a tightening in my stomach the past couple weeks and I didn’t know that it was Braxton Hicks contractions until I was explaining it to my god mom, Kathy. She said it’s not a big deal it’s just my body figuring things out. I also had some pains that radiated from my belly button to my pelvis. I think those are also Braxton Hicks, however, they were a lot more uncomfortable than the tightening. I am also still having pain from my sprained sacroiliac but my frequent trips to my chiropractor (Kathy) and my acupuncturist have really helped me manage the pain.

Movement? Boy oh boy (or should I say girl oh girl) Baby Morelli is one active baby! I feel movement all the time! Nick has been able to feel the baby kick a few more times this week too. My mom was also able to feel the baby moving around! It was an all around great week for movement.

Sleep? This section should be titled Lack of Sleep. I have been sleeping like crap this whole week! I constantly turn from one side to the other, which irritates my sacroiliac in the process, and I get up to pee a couple times a night. My hips have also been soar at night. It’s just really hard to get comfortable! I did finally break down and order a Snoogle pregnancy pillow from Amazon so I’m hoping that helps me sleep a little better.

Exercise? I have been going to my prenatal yoga and my normal yoga this week and it has been great! We also take the dogs for a 1-mile walk at night but with this crazy heat wave we haven’t walked them every night.

Food Cravings: Blueberries with Chobani Greek Yogurt and burgers. We had a late lunch at Crafted with our business partners and good friends, Joel and Michelle, and I think I had a “food-gasm” while I was eating my mushroom burger. I think I could eat a Crafted burger every day!

Food Aversions: Chicken! Surprise, surprise! Thank goodness for beef!

Happy or Moody? This has been one tough week for me emotionally. I can tell my hormones are all over the place. It seems like it doesn’t take much to make me cry. I have been a bit of a bear (or a monster if I’m being honest) to Nick. I go from being irritated with him one minute (then apologizing for it) to crying because I think he’s being inconsiderate the next minute. Then other times I have been in a great mood only to have something completely stupid make me angry again! I have put Nick through the full scale of my emotions this week. It’s so frustrating to feel like I can’t control my emotions. I can only thank God that I have a husband with the patience of a saint!

Miss Anything? Coffee and wine; I don’t think that will ever change. I am also missing iced tea and getting a decent nights rest.

Nursery Progress: My baby hangers arrived in the mail this week! They are so adorable! I was so excited that I couldn’t wait to hang them up. I put them all away and ran into the office to tell Nick to come check them out. I went from being super happy about the hangers to totally annoyed when he didn’t drop everything to look at the hangers, but instead took a minute or three to come into the office (see my emotions are making me act like a crazy woman!). I have been researching nursery furniture for months now and thought I had things somewhat figured out but I wasn’t completely satisfied. Originally I wanted the Caravan Crib from Kalon Studios but I didn’t like the small dresser that matched. I have known from the beginning that I wanted to try to be as eco friendly as possible with our nursery. However, this is not the easiest task. If I find one piece of furniture I love I tend to not like the rest of the collection or I find out that something in the collection in not solid wood. My mom spent 4 hours researching nursery furniture options with me this week and I still wasn’t completely happy. I found some furniture to pair with the Caravan Crib but I was worried that it wouldn’t look good when it was side by side. Finally after some late night web surfing I found a company that manufactures beautiful eco friendly furniture. Romina Furniture is made from 100% solid wood that is not chemically treated and they do not use particle board or MDF so all their furniture is free of formaldehyde. They also use water based paints and stains that are CPSC certified non-toxic and their finishes are free of VOCs, phthalates and lead. Any glue they use is organic tree sap based glue. Bonus!! I was so excited to find this rare gem! I have talked with a salesperson a few times this week about pricing and color options and he is sending me some wood samples tomorrow! Nick and I both like the modern look of the Ventianni collection. I also requested some color swatches from Monte Design so I can customize the Luca Glider I want to order. The only downside to all of this (besides the steep price tags) is that it is custom made to order so it will take 8-12 weeks for manufacturing and delivery. This makes me a little nervous, since I’m such a planner, but I just have to trust that everything will work out.

Best Moment This Week: Even though it was a rough week every time a felt a kick or a punch it seemed to make everything else melt away! My mom also surprised me with a baby sign language book! When I first found out that I was pregnant I mentioned that I wanted to try some of the baby sign language with baby Morelli and my mom remembered that conversation and bought me The Baby Signing Book by Sara Bingham. I feel so blessed to have such a thoughtful and loving mom. I pray that I will be an amazing mom like my mom. I certainly have some big britches to fill!

Looking Forward to: Finding out Baby Morelli’s gender! We have our very first ultrasound this week and we are so excited to see if we are having a boy or a girl!